Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:55 — 20.5MB)

Revelation #24

 Have you been at peace in Christ this past week? It is a time when we truly need peace of mind. After Christ’s resurrection, He said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” The peace of the world is only temporary as it vanishes. But the peace the Lord gives is such that Gideon of old said, ‘I am dead. I have seen God face to face, I am now dead.’ And the LORD said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die. (Judges 6:23 KJV)  Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovah-shalom… (Judges 6:24 KJV) Shalom is peace that comes from being alive again in the midst of the pain of death. This is probably the peace enjoyed by a prisoner released just before execution. That is why those who receive Jesus Christ, are saved, and are born again of the Holy Spirit know this kind of peace. That is why we are able to preach the gospel of peace. Israelis say ‘shalom’ as a greeting. Their history has been full of death and persecution. Their prayer and cry to kill the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and pass his blood on to themselves and their descendants, was accepted, as the history of the past 2,000 years after our Lord died, resurrected, and ascended into heaven was a history of Jewish persecution.

            We are now learning the final part of the 12th chapter of Revelation. When the time of tribulation arrives, the devil in the air, the devil currently in the second heaven will now descend past the atmosphere and come down to this earth. It will be a time of chaos, war, death and great suffering for this planet. The devil, the god of the world will attack the Israelites who gave birth to Jesus Christ for the final time during the 7 year Tribulation. The 6,000 years of human history was Satan’s attempt to get rid of the Jews by persecuting and killing them. This is because the woman, the people of Israel, gave birth to Jesus Christ, the man child. Our Lord also said to the Jews Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. (Matthew 5:11 KJV)  So today, we continue to ask, ‘Historically, What sort of persecution did the Israelites experience?’ For starters; Everyone knows Hitler and his gang brutally killed more than 6 million Jews during World War II. It is also well known through the cinemas and documentaries of the Holocaust. However, the fact that 18+ million Jews worldwide are still miraculously alive today through the remnants, is God’s truly amazing power. The fact that Jews exist is proof that God exists. Whenever I get a chance to see Jews I tell them, ‘When I look at you, God truly lives’. So today, in order to foresee in chapter 12 the suffering they will suffer during the great tribulation, what harsh persecution they underwent historically, including under Hitler. When we recognize this today, we will know how miserable persecution they’ll be subjected to during the future tribulation. The book of Jeremiah calls it the time of Jacob’s trouble. Book of Daniel describes it as troublous times and time of tribulation and our Lord also clearly speaks about the great tribulation in Matthew 24. You may confirm the words spoken by the Lord Himself about the rapture, the tribulation, and the second coming are clearly shown when you read Matthew 24 in detail. First, let’s read the words of Revelation 12:17 and vividly look at the history of Israel’s persecution:

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (Revelation 12:17 KJV) Through today’s Word, we can see where the devil came down to this earth, entered the body of the antichrist, appeared as a man, raining down onslaught of final persecution to annihilate the Israelites. Therefore, today, as mentioned earlier, we look at historical examples of Israel’s supernatural hatred as a nation. Once again, although Israel is severely paying for its sins after killing the Messiah, we must never forget that when Jesus Christ returns to earth, all Israelites will repent and be restored whole as a nation.

            Romans 11 calls this a mystery indeed: For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. (Romans 11:25 KJV) We must never forget the fact that some of Israel became hardened and as the true olive branch was cut, in their place we, the Gentiles were grafted onto the olive tree and were saved by grace during the past 2,000 years. This true olive tree will be restored in the future. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, the “me” here is Jesus isn’t it?  Only the King James Bible said ‘me’ while some translations say ‘him’. When Jews see this, they say ‘him’ is Jesus.  But in the Old Testament, ‘me’ here is Jehovah,  God, right? The Jews are shocked when you show them this during evangelism. They learn they killed God in flesh, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zechariah 12:10 KJV) Could you imagine their grief? The Messiah came, but they killed him unknowingly. They were deceived and blinded by the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, and the religious people, who were the generation of vipers unable to recognize their Messiah. Only fishermen, tax collectors, and prostitutes, these sinners recognized the Lord and received salvation. The Lord said to the religious leaders and hypocrites,…the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. (Matthew 21:31 KJV)  The same goes for today. Those who realize they are sinners receive salvation. However, many who have been just attending church for a long time, or ministers who have not been born again, obsessed with their position and material goods they receive from the church, ultimately we see them unable to receive salvation. Then in (Zechariah 13:1 KJV), ¶ In that day (This is the Second Coming of the Lord) there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. A fountain will open to wash away all their sins. All of our sins were wiped away the moment we Gentiles believed in and accepted Jesus Christ. It’s because the Lord has already dealt with it on the cross. When we believe, it becomes effective, and as the apostle Peter said, when we believe, our heart is purified. It is the power of the blood of Christ. Salvation is only through the blood of Christ. Back in the age of the law, only the sins of the flesh were cleansed for a short time by shedding the blood of animals. That was temporary covering of sins. So when the Jews died, they did not go to heaven, but went to Abraham’s bosom, also known as paradise in the Old Testament times. So the Lord said that beggar Lazarus died and went to Abraham’s bosom. In the Old Testament times, those who were protected under the law went to Abraham’s bosom. However, in 1 Peter 4 says that the Lord died and went down to the underworld to preach the gospel to the dead. He shed His blood and went to the dead in Old Testament times, and then preached the gospel to them. I shed my blood. Therefore, now you can go to heaven. So when the Lord resurrected in Matthew 27, many saints who had fallen asleep were also resurrected and seen in the holy city of Jerusalem. At that time, the centurion said, Truly this was the Son of God.

            Again, what sort of persecution did Israel receive throughout history? We can’t cover everything, but we’ll go over the few important events. First, in AD 135, the Roman emperor Hadrian massacred 580,000 Jews. Shocking kill count. During the siege of Jerusalem, General Titus crucified and killed 500 Jews outside the city. The people who crucified Jesus were crucified and killed just like Jesus. During this time, people were so hungry during the siege of Jerusalem that they even boiled and ate their own children. This event can be read in detail in the book of the historian Josephus. A similar incident occurred in the Old Testament. Second, in 1020 AD, English King Cnut the Great completely drove all Jews out of England. Imagine being exiled all at once. Where would you go if your entire population of immigrant nationals received deportation order? Third, in 1096, the Holy War, the First Crusades began in order to root out all who disobeyed the Roman Catholic baptism. In fact, the Roman Catholics performed infant baptism to make them into their church member. Anyone who disagreed in this matter were executed. Anabaptists did not obey this order and went into underground hiding to receive Jesus Christ and be baptized with water. Not only were the early Anabaptists given that name because they re-baptized persons who they felt had not been properly baptized, as they did not recognize infant baptism, they were also killed for it. The Jews, the true Christians, the Bible believing Christians, combined number of 60 million were killed in a thousand years. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that the history of Christianity is the trail of blood. As mentioned in our last study, ‘The Book of Martyrs’ by John Foxe, shows how much killing the Roman Catholic Church did upon Bible believing Christians, even just for having a Bible. Everyone needs to know this history. ‘The Book of Martyrs’ was once used as a textbook in American public schools not long ago, but it was abolished due to pressure from the Roman Catholic Church. They don’t even teach this in seminaries. Because they are teaching toward the pro-Roman Catholic church, you must know that they are graduating blind to these historical facts. Fourth, in 1271 Edward I, who was a Catholic, confiscated all Jewish property, and expelled 16500 Jews from England. England started off well. But that’s what happened when Catholics settled and influenced the British royals. That’s why the Puritans escaped to America on board the Mayflower. Fifth, 1306 AD in France 100,000 Jews were deprived of all their possessions and exiled. Sixth, in 1345, Jews were burned at the stake in Germany. They were falsely accused of killing Catholic children to eat them as Passover lambs. Just like Back when Nero set fire to Rome and as it became a problem, he lied and blamed the ‘Christians set fire,’ in order to crucify, burn and kill the Christians. Back to 1345, the Black Death circulated in Europe. However, the Jews who lived in Europe were not harmed because they kept the purification rites described in Leviticus. However people accused the Jews of causing the Black Death. So they were all expelled from Prague and Constantinople between 1560 and 1600. Hence, the suffering of the Jews was tremendous as they became a strong nation today. Seventh, in 1492, the Jews were driven out of Spain by the Order of Spanish Inquisition. There was no place to live anywhere. They really had nowhere to go. In 1683, under a devout Catholic Louis XIV, all Jews were expelled from the French colonies. The Jews were finally allowed to own real estate in France in 1723 during the reign of yet another Catholic Luis XV. In 1938, as we all know, Devout Catholics Hitler and Joseph Goebbels plotted against the Jews as Himmler was the warden of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Himmler captured Jews, burned them to death, confiscated their property, and even skinned them. He also also killed them by hanging them from a barbed wire fence. They were also starved to death in concentration camps. The Roman Catholic Church made a peace treaty with Hitler during all this work. There is a picture, where Hitler’s troops occupied a country and march into the city with Hitler’s troops leading the front, priests and nuns in the back. They have attempted to rid of all the evidence, but I saw the photos in a book titled ‘Smokescreens’.

            Ninth takes place after the Balfour Declaration of 1918. It was a public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. Matter of fact, Winston Churchill was against it at the time. So God intervened and German planes bombarded London and was completely set on fire. God said to Abraham: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee… (Genesis 12:3 KJV) Cursed were all who cursed Abraham’s physical descendants. We know this by the ruins of ancient Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. It is still the same today even after centuries. That’s why England once suffered a great disaster. There were two Jewish ships that left Britain after the Balfour Declaration. They left to return to Palestine. However, there was no place to accept this ship anywhere. They were unable to dock. Filled with people dying of starvation, after searching all over the world these ships finally landed in Shanghai. Tenth, around 1825, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia ordered the removal of 5 million Jews to a secluded place. It was the creation of the ghetto. How cruel. In 1215 Pope Innocent III ordered all Jews to wear a yellow badge. This yellow badge was also given to Jews by Hitler during World War II. We see Jews wearing yellow star badges throughout the movies pertaining historical antisemitism. Then in 1242, the Roman Catholics loaded 24 wagons with Jewish holy texts and incinerated them in France. Burning of 24 wagonloads including up to 10,000 volumes of Hebrew manuscripts. That’s a lot. In 1336, 120 Jewish communities were destroyed in a country of 5,000 Catholics. Also in 1684 AD, 800,000 Jews from Austria went missing, disappeared into thin air without a trace. They must have died. Between 1943 and 1945, 500,000 Jews were massacred in Ukraine or vanished in Hungary, Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. This statistic was told by a politician at the time of Hungarian independence. During World War II, 6 million Jews were cremated in the Auschwitz murder factory. It’s something we know well. And thus was the great price the Jews paid for asking Pilate to crucify Jesus and His blood be on us, and on our children. (Matthew 27:25 KJV) The persecution of the Jews continued endlessly, as they were killed, exiled, and chased on the earth for the past 2,000 years. This will continue until they return to the land of Palestine, which God spoke of in the final book of the Old Testament. After that, Jesus Christ will return to this earth. As we saw in Revelation 12:17, the dragon is the devil. The woman is Israel. The remnant of the woman’s descendants, the Israelites. The devil goes out to fight them. Satan is bound to attack Israel without a doubt. By killing the descendants of Israel, the Jews who gave birth to Jesus Christ, the devil, the god of this world, tried to occupy this land forever, but when the Lord comes, he captures the devil and chains him into the bottomless pit during His millennial reign. The Bible clearly says that Satan will ultimately be thrown into the lake of fire at the end of the millennium where the antichrist and the false prophet is are already there waiting for him to join them.

            Our Lord said: ¶ Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter (The Holy Spirit) will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. (John 16:7-11 KJV) Judgment has already been received. However, the death penalty has not yet been carried out, and this is at the end of the millennium. In fact, Satan is not angry with the Roman Catholic Church. He is however angry with the church built on the rock, Jesus Christ. So the targets of Satan’s attacks are Jews and Christians. They are also those who acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Jews don’t acknowledge Him now, but in Zechariah 12, they are to believe in Jesus Christ again. Satan is just as intent on destroying the true church as he is dealing with the nation that gave birth to the Bible. But neither one can be destroyed. The apostle Paul said: ‘The body can be bound, but the word of God is not bound.’ There is no way to stop the spreading of the word. In fact, both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible were written by Jews. We must set the records straight. The Word of God has been entrusted to them. This is their blessing. Therefore, we must never forget that even the New Testament was written by Jewish apostles. Jews are restored by God. In the past 100 years, this has been misrepresented, resulting in rise of self-proclaimed Jews. Heavily influenced and soaked by the ideology where: The Jews are now completely finished. So it’s okay to kill Jews. Shocking but true even today. That’s why we have clearly learned what in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 the self-proclaimed Jews are the synagogue of Satan. Ultimately, Satan’s wrath in the final stage is to persecute the seed of the woman as God said in Genesis 3:15. The words from Revelation 6 to 19 show how  the antichrist who is worse than Hitler persecute Israel. Tribulation for the remnant of the Jews.

            We have learned a lot. Let’s review what we have learned so far. Moses and Elijah will return again in the future tribulation. And after preaching the gospel for three and a half years, they are martyred and then resurrected and ascended to heaven. One is placed on the right hand of the Lord and the other is on His left. Moses and Elijah appeared on the left and right sides of the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration. This was a preview of the Second Coming of the Lord, and the Lord said: There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. (Matthew 16:28 KJV) meaning the disciples will see the even of the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter was so excited upon seeing that he wanted to build three tabernacles, one for the Lord, one for Moses and one for Elijah thinking the Second Coming had come but it was not to be until a distant future. The second time Moses and Elijah appear, the events of Exodus 1-20 will repeat. Just as Moses resisted Pharaoh and Elijah resisted Ahab in the past, Moses and Elijah appear and resist the Antichrist as they will strike him with various plagues. Thirdly, Antichrist is the incarnation of Satan descending from heaven. Satan wearing a human body. The Bible clearly says that Judas Iscariot, who went to his own place will return. Fourth, there is a rapture after the tribulation. There are three raptures. First, the Old Testament saints: when the Lord died on the cross and was resurrected, many OT saints who had fallen asleep were resurrected and ascended. Second, Those who have been born again by the Holy Spirit now in the age of grace, members of the church, the body of Christ, will be resurrected and ascend when the Lord comes for them. A living person changes and ascends. The third is gleaning. During the Tribulation, those who were beheaded are resurrected and raptured, plus the 144,000. Therefore, the first rapture is the first fruits who resurrected with Jesus, and the second rapture is the harvest, and the third rapture is the gleaning. It’s compared to farming. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power… (Revelation 20:6 KJV)  means you will never die. What a blessing indeed! Finally, Israel will experience persecution like never before. They will experience greater persecution during the Tribulation far greater than what Hitler did to them. Therefore, we must pray for them. For the sake of Israel’s peace, even one person must now accept Jesus Christ, be saved, and become the Church of God. We are witnessing many Jews accept Jesus Christ in Israel and the United States and become members of the Church of God through the evangelism of an organization called ‘Jews for Jesus’. Much glory unto God. Now is the time to raise your head. Let us rise from the dead and prepare to greet our Lord, the Bridegroom. This is our only hope.(Titus 2:13 KJV)   Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Such people are the true brides. Those who do not are not brides, but corrupt harlots. Therefore, those who are the body of Christ, that is, those who are born again, must prepare to meet the Lord as a chaste bride and a pure virgin. We are engaged to the Lord now. Now we must look forward to the day of meeting the Lord in the air and wed Him. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ that you will live with strength in this hope. Amen