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Revelation #21

Have you been at peace in the Lord for the past week? It’s time to study the Book of Revelation, which  the Apostle John said, ¶ Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. (Revelation 1:3 KJV)   Someone wrote an article in the newspaper a while ago, he seemed to be a Christian professor of sociology at a certain university.  It was titled: Are you a Christian or a Prosperity Christian? I was grateful after reading the column that I could understand what it meant just by looking at the title and why he said that. The point of the article is that the churches should hope that the Lord shed blood and died on the cross for us, and that He rose again on the third day, through which we will be saved and that He will come again. Far from this, it is wrong to see people fighting each other over certain material wealth in everyday society. So the article titled: Are you a Christian or a Prosperity Christian? sounded like a prophetic word to me. If Christianity truly becomes a religion of blessing, it is no different from Buddhism or other religions. (Titus 2:13 KJV) Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;  As the apostle Paul wrote to Titus, this must be our only blessed hope. The book of Revelation is the conclusion of the Bible. The Lord taught His disciples about how to pray: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:9-10 KJV)  Regarding this, the apostle Paul said That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: (Ephesians 1:10 KJV) Therefore, in the age of grace, God’s children are saved through faith through grace, are born again of the Holy Spirit, become the bride of coming Jesus Christ, and become members of the Lord’s body. He said, “I have come to spread the word.” We must do the will of the Lord unto all nations. He entrusted the church with the gospel that saves sinners, who can live forever whosoever believes in Him. Therefore, if there is no hope for the Lord’s return, Christianity can no longer be called Christianity. If you only pursue material wealth, you are inferior to other worldly religions. Rather, Buddhism teaches to throw away all worldly things along with greed.

            Revelation 19 shows us word of conclusion. Therefore, the Lord spoke through the Apostle John, ¶ Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. (Revelation 1:3 KJV) Currently we are studying about the seven characters in the book of Revelation. First, we learned that the woman is Israel. Second, the red dragon. learned last time. It is the devil, Satan. Lucifer. He rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven. So, we revealed the identity of the red dragon through the books of Job, Psalms, and Isaiah. Even in the world, there is a saying keep your friends close, your enemies closer. If we do not know the identity of Satan the Devil, we cannot win this spiritual battle. That is why we looked at the words of Job 41 last time. Satan appears as a seven-headed red dragon ruling over the world as king over all the children of pride. He has seven heads. The kingdoms of this world are his, and he has given them to whoever he pleases. He appears as an angel of light. The Bible tells us he was the anointed covering cherub. He too is Christ. Christ means the anointed one. However, Satan is the Antichrist. Jesus is the Christ. Satan masquerades as an angel of light. But Jesus is the light. Ezekiel 28:14 says, Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth… (Ezekiel 28:14 KJV) That is why Satan also has his own church. Christ Jesus also has his own church. The same is called the church on this earth. And since the devil is the god of the world, he wants to be worshiped as a god and is called a ruler. Jesus said in (John 14:30 KJV) that the prince of this world would come after He left. 2 Corinthians 11:14 (KJV) And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.  This is by no means strange. Satan also quotes the Bible. In Luke, when he tempted Jesus out in the wilderness, he quotes the Bible by saying, Luke 4:11 (KJV) And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. But he misquotes the Word and brings many to confusion. As mentioned earlier, Satan is also Christ, the anointed one, but as the antichrist, he too has his body, his church on this earth, copying Jesus Christ and his church. Also, the stage where Satan works is a very religious and holy place. Normally people think, Satan will be present in a bar or casinos, some sort of sinful establishments, but in reality Satan doesn’t have to go there. People who go there are who have already been taken over by Satan, so they drink and gamble to their heart’s content. In fact, Satan works through religious groups. Lots of works done there. In particular, Christians are persecuted through religious organizations such as the Vatican Council or the National Council of Christian Churches. Back in the day, Satan persecuted Jesus and his disciples through the religious Pharisees, Sadducees and the scribes, and just like that, history repeats itself. Through religious organizations which does not have thee Holy Spirit, through religious organizations disguised as an angel of light, true Christians are condemned as heretics, and they are doing exactly what the Sadducees and Pharisees did in the past. That’s why King Solomon said there is no new thing under the sun. The scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees, who existed in the past, still exist today. We can discern this only when our spiritual eyes are opened. You must be able to discern the spirit. So, those who read the Word of God can know what this area of Satan’s activity is like. You won’t know anything unless you read the Bible. People were not allowed to read the Bible in the Middle ages. These days, even if you are told to read the Bible to the hearts content, people hate to read it through the work of the devil. It’s the same either way. Satan does everything to prevent people from reading the Word of God. The Word of God is light. In him is God, in whom the Word became flesh. Therefore, when you read the Word of God, you will meet Christ. You can see that Satan darkens and confuses people’s hearts and make them busy so that they cannot read or hear the Bible. That’s why you can’t see the churches teaching the Bible these days. You see people dozing off during worship, those who have been born again by the Holy Spirit will wander in search of the Word, like a deer thirsting after stream water (Psalm 42:1 KJV).  According to Amos 8:11-13 (KJV) ¶ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst. Today is that such era. Those who are listening to the book of Revelation right now! After the rapture, you will no longer be able to hear this word. If you are not born again, you cannot be raptured, and if you are not raptured, you will no longer be able to hear the Word on earth. This is your final chance. Today is the day to receive salvation, the time to receive grace, and the time to hold on to the hope in God (2 Corinthians 6:2 KJV)

Let us continue with the words from Revelation 12:3 (KJV), blessings to those who read and hear these words. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. This is water above the solar system when we learned about it during Revelation chapter 4 study. And we learned that the water goes up to the throne of God and that the north is frozen. Sea of glass. A frozen sea. The top is solid. because it’s frozen So, in book of Job, we can see Satan is a sea monster by seeing him go above and below the water. In Job 41:31-32 (KJV) He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment. He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary. Satan goes above and below the waters of the heavens and rules the earth with a kingdom system designed with seven crowns or kings. So the red dragon has 10 horns, but it has seven crowns, one on each head.  Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 6:12 (KJV) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  The devil controls these four. What are principalities? It’s politics. People who gain power through political organizations, such as the IRS, CIA, and FBI in the United States. This is how the government oppresses people. And what are the rulers of the darkness of this world? Darkness comes upon people through the use of drugs, gambling, and commit adultery. And what is spiritual wickedness in high places? We see evil spirits enter into young children, making them disobedient to their parents and disobedience to the Word, desolate in their hearts, join gangs and become evil. We must know that Satan works like this in the last days. However, since Satan will be cast out to the earth during the time of tribulation, then this world will truly become like hell. Therefore, today is the day to be saved and to receive grace. When anyone accepts the Lord Jesus Christ, all sins are forgiven, and when the Holy Spirit enters, the dead spirit is revived, and the soul lives together with the spirit with the hope of kingdom of heaven. As a result, they become bodies used for the works of God. Also, the dragon appears in Isaiah 27:1 (KJV) ¶ In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. That dragon, Leviathan, is called a dragon. The devil in the Book of Revelation is called that old serpent, the red dragon, Satan, the devil, and he is the tempter of the world. God will slay the dragon. We can see In Isaiah 27:1 the Leviathan is the dragon. That’s why the dragon paintings we see are not correct. It’s covering up the real dragon. Therefore, if you do not have God’s word, you’ll be deceived by it. Another truth we know is that the Bible itself, in the form of seven heads and seven kings, covers all nations from the beginning of history to the end. This head created the human kingdom in the 6,000 years of human history, after humans sinned and left God. So, the seven kings are representative kings and heads during the 6,000 years of human history. A crown is worn by a king. These seven heads or the kings of the nations are all indicated in the Word of God.

            Genesis 10:9 tells us who the first head is. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. (Genesis 10:9 KJV) Nimrod is the son of Cush. Cush is an Ethiopian. Continuing with Genesis 10:10, And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. (Genesis 10:10 KJV) The first head is Nimrod, the king of Babylon who built the tower of Babel. This is Satan’s first head. Also, he is the first type of antichrist, who will appear in the future tribulation. He was a mixed race. He was black, Hamitic. We must remember this. Now the second head appears in Exodus 5:2 (KJV) And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go. When Moses and Aaron went and asked for the release of the Israelites, Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord? am i doing that? No way.” He was Satan incarnate. So, we can know that Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is the second head of Satan who ruled the world. So in Ezekiel 29:3, we get a confirmation about who the second head is: Ezekiel 29:3 (KJV) Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. God called pharaoh dragon. He was the second of seven heads. In this way, the Bible itself tells us who the head of the dragon is. So who is the third head? The Assyrian king Sennacherib. Assyria persecuted Israel and took all northern Israel into captivity, so that northern portion became Samaria. It was completely devastated. In particular, in the 14th year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria came to attack all the fortified cities of Judah. 2 Kings 18:13 (KJV) says: Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them. So the Israelites almost died of starvation in the city. But right before that, an angel appeared and annihilated the Assyrian army of 185,000 overnight. When the Lord returns in the future, 200 million armies of the nations of the world that oppose the Lord will be killed in a single day at Armageddon. This type of battle at Armageddon is shown here. That’s why you can see King Sennacherib of Assyria, a type of Antichrist, coming to invade Jerusalem to annihilate the Jews, just like the Antichrist does during the Tribulation. All the nations of the world will attack the Jews during the Tribulation. It is also mentioned in Zechariah 14. However, we can see the scenes of the Lord coming down and stopping them all and judging them in Zechariah and Revelation. It comes up a lot here and there in the prophetic books. Then what is the fourth head? It appears in Daniel chapter 3. It is Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Both Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar are called dragons. Jeremiah 51:34 (KJV) Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out. Then in Jeremiah 50:17 (KJV) Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and Sennacherib, king of Assyria, were both called dragons. The other three heads are also prophesied 50 to 400 years before their appearance in Daniel 2. In the vision of the great image, Daniel makes no mistake in prophesying the four coming kingdoms in the description of the great image. The kingdoms following Babylon are Medes and Persia as written in Daniel 5:28. The king of Babylon saw a great statue in a dream. The first head of gold is Babylon, then his chest and arms of silver, Medes and Persia. In fact, King Darius was friendly to the Jews. He took good care of the Jews and especially loved Daniel. Darius was a friend of Israel, and he typifies the friendly future antichrist who is friendly for the first 3 and a half years during the 7-year tribulation and then completely changes in the final 3 and a half years. The fifth head is the King of Persia. The sixth head is Alexander the Great of Greece in brass. Hundreds of years before Greece came to power under Alexander the Great, Daniel forewarned in Daniel 10:20 and 11:2, 8:20,21 that the next kingdom would be Greece. He prophesied the appearance of a kingdom called Hellas. Since the Holy Spirit is the spirit of prophecy, we know the word of God spoken through Daniel is the truth. The seventh head is Rome, who defeated Alexander the Great and ruled the world, that prepared for the first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, the seventh head is Caesar August of Rome, and right before the birth of Jesus Christ, Luke 2:1 (KJV) says:  ¶ And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. Just as Rome did at His first coming, they will take power again at Christ’s second coming. This will be the Roman Catholic church,  Babylon the Great stated in Revelation 17 and 18.

            We will continue to learn about them next time. Therefore, even then the whole world will be under the King of Rome and subordinate to the Holy Father, the spiritual Ruler, just as it was at the Lord’s First Coming. You will find the holy father over at the Vatican. There is only one Holy Father God. The Lord did say: Matthew 23:9 (KJV) And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Currently the highest person in the Roman Catholic church calls himself the Holy Father, the Pope. And the people under his rank are called fathers and priests. It’s nonsense. Just as Caesar Augustus made tax registration all over the world, we can see from here that the Antichrist will rule the whole world when he makes his appearance in the future. This will be called the Holy Roman Empire. Today it’s called the Holy Roman Catholic Church. In Catholicism, cat means mother. The word Catholic means the Holy mother Church. It is the Church that venerates virgin Mary. They are revealed in Revelation 17:5 (KJV) And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. We can see in Revelation that the Church of St. Mary continues to thrive under the reign of the Antichrist. You must never forget this fact. Therefore, when we read the Bible thoroughly, we can discern the spirit, and only through the Bible can understand the truth. Therefore, as the Lord said, Revelation 1:3 (KJV) ¶ Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. So, being a Christian is to live in this world just for a short period of time. Because this world has sinned since Adam, it has become the slave of sin, the slave of Satan, who brought sin, and all the people are living mindlessly just to fill their stomachs and carnal desires. However, Jesus Christ became the last Adam and overcame all Adam’s sins, as Satan tested the Lord three times. The Lord overcame the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Therefore, when you believe in Jesus Christ, all your sins caused by Adam will be forgiven, you will be born again by the Holy Spirit, and your conscience will be washed with the blood of Christ, so these born-again Christians will be lifted up into the air when the Lord makes and aerial descent. This is the blessed Hope. After all, we’re only living out our lives for a short time in this world, and soon it will end when the Lord comes. That is why we must receive Jesus Christ and be born again before the antichrist appears in this world before the tribulation starts. Christ must be in me and I must be in Christ. 2 Corinthians 13:5 (KJV) Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? Do you have the Spirit of Christ in you? Then, you are born again. Those who are born again see the kingdom of God. Seeing means knowing. And we know that the Lord is coming. No matter how harsh this world is, because of the faith that hopes for the coming of the Lord, for faith is the substance of things hoped for. By watching the coming of the Lord, those who believe can overcome the world now, and live on this earth without being deceived by the devil or being stained by the world. I hope you all have this kind of faith. And if there is anyone who has not yet been saved. May you receive Jesus Christ into your heart by calling Jesus Christ today, be saved, meet the Lord in the air when the Lord comes, and live in the hope of eternal life in heaven, where there are no tears, no sorrow, and no pain. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.