Another testimony that glorifies Jesus

“But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children.” (Ps. 103:17).

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” (Matt. 24:14).

Here is another beautiful testimony. His is so similar to mine. But, this must be because we are all made in God’s image, we all basically think the same and we are all therefore affected by sin the same way, male or female, rich or poor, bond or free, black or white or green or blue. All who come to Jesus follow the same pattern laid out in Romans 7. In Paul and in John, in poor Peter and errin’ Aaron, we see the clearest examples of God’s redemption from sin.

The following testimony is perfect, his confession of his sinful self is honest, his theology in the way of the science of salvation is right on, his wisdom is beyond his years because Jesus has been his teacher. Maybe he is an Adventist, but I sense that he isn’t. But, by his experience with the convicting and comforting Spirit of truth, this young man has correct theology. He is learning more and more, and I’m sure Jesus will lead him to be an outspoken proponent of the soon 3rd and 4th angels’ messages when the final appeal to the world comes in the Latter Rain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WZK6cqgh8U

He says,

“I want to share about what God has done for my soul. And I’m thankful, the Lord, He didn’t let me go. I was very lost. In fact, I didn’t even have a clue that I was lost. That’s one of the worst parts about not knowing the Lord is you really are stumbling around in the dark. You are blind. You don’t realize that you need Him. And that was the truth for me.

I grew up basically going to church with my mom and hearing about some things of God but being totally ignorant and totally clueless. And I thought basically what it meant to be a Christian was, and to be right with God was, that you go to church and that you believe in Jesus Christ, both of which I did. But what I didn’t realize was that my life was full of sin. And I actually was in a totally different kingdom, a totally different world. And that realm that I was under kept me deceived for a long time

I thought that basically I was good. But as I began to get a little older, sin really started coming out. It really started coming to the forefront. And I was a hypocrite, totally. And I was really ashamed of the Lord. If you would get me around other Christians or if you would see me in mixed company, I didn’t want to talk about Christ. In fact, usually any Christians, any true Christians, really got on my nerves. I didn’t feel comfortable around them and I was kind of hiding from the Lord.

But, what God began to do was, He let sin manifest itself in me. And as things got deeper, things that I’m ashamed of now, even to talk about, things that are wrong, things that are perverted and sinful and evil. Those things I actually took delight in. And I never would have let anyone know that but if you could have followed me around which God, and God’s everywhere, He’s in every place and His eyes see everything. There is nothing hidden from His sigh. And if you could have seen me, you would have seen sin in my heart. But what the Lord began to do slowly was expose me. And He began to show me—really He was exposing me to myself, because up to that point I was blind.

And what God began to do was He put me…. When I was in high school I was going to church but really I didn’t want to be there. Even my Bible, I kept it in the back of my mom’s car, like just so I could pull it out and take it in church when I needed to go there. But He put me around true Christians [who] actually loved the Lord. And what that did was it really showed me the example of what a life for God is supposed to look like.

Some of these people, they were the most dorky, geeky people in the world. I was a sophomore in high school, and I can remember there was this one seventh grader in particular, and he was just about as geeky as they come. But I felt convicted when I was around him because he would share things in church about sharing Christ with his friends. He just had a love for God. He was totally unashamed and I was really ashamed. And that began to cut into me. And I realized there were problems in my life.

So what did I do? My thought was, basically to try and fix myself. I thought the solution lie within myself. I have the power to change this. That was really, you could say that that was my gospel. That was really the only gospel that I knew. [It] was, ‘Save yourself, change yourself.’

So I tried that. The sins that were in my life that God began to put His finger and show me, I tried to get rid of. I was 15 years old and but what happened was things actually started to get worse. And I didn’t know this Bible verse at the time, but in John 8 it says, ‘If any man commits sins he is the slave fo sin.’ You know, sin is not an accident. Sin isn’t something that is skin deep. It goes to the heart. [You choose to sin.] It’s coming out of your heart. And there’s a principle that is reigning inside of you. You’re under the power of sin.

I didn’t know that. But God began to teach that to me from experience. So that, as I tried to fight sin that was in my life, as I tried to rescue myself and change myself around, to commend myself to God, I actually went deeper and deeper into sin. And I felt the struggle, and I didn’t like it.

At this point, sin was not my friend. I was trying to get away from sin. I was trying to follow God. I was much like the man in Romans 7. You know, the commandment comes to him and he realizes what he’s doing is wrong and he tries to stop, but actually the Law stirs up sin. And that was exactly what was happening. I felt convicted; I knew God [and admitted], ‘You are right on this. I need to stop this. This is wrong. I can see this as clear as day.’ [He is starting to talk directly with Jesus. Faith in Jesus has been born.] And yet I was under the power of it. And I began to feel very guilty and very weighed down because I knew I was a hypocrite. And there was nothing I could do about it. I felt like, ‘Okay, I’m a hypocrite. Now what?’ And in the mercy of God, He didn’t leave there.

If God begins to reveal your sin to you, that’s a merciful thing. And He did that for me, and I’m thankful. He didn’t let me love sin and enjoy it. He began to cause me to flee from it and to hate it and to feel heavy, heavy laden.

And so what happened was there was a retreat at the church I was going to—and it was strange—it was like this was the first time. Before I was always kind of forced to go to church. But this was the first time after months of feeling guilty that there was just a new feeling about it. It was like there was some— God was doing something, and I didn’t understand what it was. But on Saturday night I got alone by myself and I just cried out to God. I wasn’t around anybody. There wasn’t anybody telling me what to do. I didn’t even know what to pray. But I needed help.

[“Our great need is itself an argument and pleads most eloquently in our behalf.” Steps to Christ, p. 95.]
   

And I began to cry out to God for Him to take me, to change me, to save me. And really all I could say at first was, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” I just repeated that over and over to the Lord. I was just broken. Just weeping before the Lord because I knew what made it so bad, what made the feeling so heavy was that God was so good. It was like, I had never known the presence of God before. But that night God came—it was unmistakable—God came. And it was like, His goodness was present. His love and His worth [were] present. And I was broken. I felt, I felt like humbled to the dust, clinging to the dust because I had sinned against a God that was good.

I had sinned against a God that was holy and lovely and pure, and a God even who had loved me. And I knew that. I don’t know how I knew that, but I knew that. And I was broken because of it. Just full of remorse and just telling the Lord, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’

But then, the tears of pain and of contrition out of nowhere turned into joy. And it was like my soul was flooded with assurance that God accepted me, God loved me. I belong[ed] to God and I didn’t even really know the right terminology about, ‘I’m saved’, or I didn’t know to say that. But I knew this: I was saying ‘Jesus is my Lord.’ That’s what I was saying. And I was telling the Lord, I just told Him, I said, ‘God’—I mean I can remember saying this, just telling the Lord, ‘You can have my life. Just take my life. I don’t want to keep it. I want it to be Yours.’ It was like, it was surrender, but it was a happy surrender. And that’s really what it means, like in the Bible when you see yourself as a sinner when you begin to feel heavy laden, Christ says, ‘Come to Me.’ And that’s what I did.

Like the Lord drew me to Himself. And when I came to Him, I found His yoke wasn’t heavy. You know His burden wasn’t this oppressive burden. It was light. And that’s the case when it comes to walking with the Lord. What is that? [The Lord’s burden was light] because I knew my sins were forgiven, because I knew that God had washed me. All of that guilt, all of that filth that I had been living in, all the hypocrisy, it was like, it was just washed away. It was like it was thrown away. And God wasn’t going to remember any of it.

And I felt so loved and caught up and near to God that my soul was just filled with joy and peace.

[I just have to add here that his exhilaration and peace from being caught up and near to God, was the exact experience of Paul and the apostolic church. “But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:4-7).]

And even in the Christian life, you say, ‘Well, is it easy to be a Christian?’ No, it’s not easy to be a Christian at all! In fact, the scriptures say, ‘Many are the afflictions of the righteous.’ And the world is gonna hate you if you love the Lord. You live in a sinful world, and you love the Lord, the world is gonna hate you. And I experienced that. I lost all my friends right off the bat in high school, you know. I couldn’t contain it [his experience from God]. I was wanting to share it with them, and they just said, ‘Get out of here.’ But I wasn’t sad about losing my friends. It wasn’t a burdensome thing to me because God’s peace had come into my life. His forgiveness was covering me.

And if you know what it means to be justified, if you know what it means to be spotless in His sight, it’s like your world is unshakable.

[“I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.” (Ps. 40:1,2).]

And that’s what it was for me.

[“And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.” (Ps. 40:3).]

Right away the Lord did that in my life, and I’m so grateful just to follow the Lord, and walk with the Lord. It doesn’t matter, you know, even as you go on in the Christian life. I’ve been telling people recently, because His word says this, ‘that the path of the righteous, it grows brighter and brighter until the full day.’ And that’s true, like even as God gives you more, more trials, more things to handle, more things to walk it, more sin to fight against, more battles, He gives grace. And like over the years God has shown me more and more. At first I didn’t really know anything. I knew that God loved me, I knew that He had forgiven me, I knew that Christ had died for me. But even as you go on in the Christian life, God begins to show you more of the depth of His love, more of the power of His salvation, the finality of it, the security of it.

I can remember when I was 18, I heard a man preaching. And he quoted a line from a hymn that I had never heard before. I didn’t grow up listening to hymns or singing hymns, which was a shame, because this one I think would have been really good. He said, the hymn writer said, ‘Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to Thy cross I cling.’ And that, when the Lord taught me that, I had been Christian for like three years. But, again it’s been like even more depth to the forgiveness that God has. The freedom of the gospel, that He invites you just to come and lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ. You don’t, you can’t, clean yourself up to come to Him. I tried that and failed miserably. That’s bondage. It’s death. It’ll lead you straight to hell if you do that. But if you come to the Lord with empty hands, what can you give to God to impress God? Nothing. What can you do to commend your soul to God? Nothing. But if you come with empty hands like a child, that verse says you can cling to the cross.

And when God showed me that, it was like new levels of joy that I’ve never known before. A new level of rest in the Lord. That’s why rest comes up in the Bible so much. Why is it saying so much in the Old Testament about Sabbath rest? And why was He always telling, He actually commanded His people to rest. ‘You will rest.’ And the Lord told me that when I was 18. It was like even more showing me the depth of salvation that Christ has won on the cross that he purchased for His people to rest in Him, to come empty-handed to Him. And it continues to be that way as I walk with the Lord. He continues to show me more things I never knew about His goodness and about His grace [in the context of the science of salvation, righteousness by faith].

And even the fact that God had grace for me, even before I ever turned to Him, while I was still His enemy, Christ had died for me. He demonstrated His love for me. His grace was set upon my life. It was like it was riding over me all the time, and I had no clue. But God’s love, as it says in Psalm 103:17, that His love is ‘from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear Him.’ And God began to teach that to me, too. I mean it’s like, where will it end? Where is God ever going to run out of grace? Well He doesn’t. All the riches [of God], all the fullness [of God] is hidden in Christ, every treasure. And you can’t, it’s unfathomable, you can’t sound the depths. So I just look forward to knowing more of who God is, and God is… What a Saviour we have! What a Lord, what a God we serve!”

Wasn’t that another amazing testimony!

This was very much a treatise that thoroughly explains how Jesus works to save the whole world. He works the same way to save us all and deliver us all from our sins. The experience of this young person verifies scripture, and scripture verifies him, as his was identical to the apostle’s experience in Romans chapter 7.

“I thought that basically I was good.” “And I thought basically what it meant to be a Christian was, and to be right with God was, that you go to church and that you believe in Jesus Christ, both of which I did. But what I didn’t realize was that my life was full of sin…. But, what God began to do was, He let sin manifest itself in me.”

“For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.” (Rom. 7:9-13).

And the Evangelical world may believe that the Law is bondage, and of works only. But that isn’t what the apostolic church found to be the case. For contrary to the way the Pharisees saw the Law, the Christians, who had personally wrestled with the Spirit of truth, knew differently. “For we know that the law is spiritual.” They had learned by experience, just like this young man giving his testimony, “But I am carnal, sold under sin.” (Rom. 7:14). No one who hasn’t personally wrestled with Jesus, can say he is carnal, sold under sin. “I thought that basically I was good.”

“And I was broken. I felt, I felt, like humbled to the dust, clinging to the dust [like Peter in Gethsemane after Jesus looked at him from a bruised and bleeding face].”

This student in the school of Christ learned by experience the central biblical truth of justification by faith. He has experiential religion. Ellen White’s famous saying, “What is justification by faith? It is the work of God in laying the glory of man in the dust, and doing for man that which it is not in his power to do for himself.” Testimonies to Ministers, p. 456.

“And I was telling the Lord, I just told Him, I said, ‘God’—I mean I can remember saying this, just telling the Lord, ‘You can have my life. Just take my life. I don’t want to keep it. I want it to be Yours.’” This 15 year old hadn’t studied theology in college or had been to seminary. He didn’t have a doctorate in religion. He didn’t know what was to be expected when a person comes to Jesus. But, true to form, he naturally responded to the God who had verily turned his guilt and shame into joy and peace. His conversion was genuine. He was like the lepers that never got the training of the disciples because the lepers didn’t need it. They had more true education, more present truth, than the disciples had at that point. They had honorary degrees from God Himself. Jesus healed and so He sent them out to tell others what God had done for them. This young man’s depth of knowledge of salvation is powerful to articulate it as he does.

Drawing from a knowledge embedded solidly in his memory, he describes in detail the work of God in him. “It was like, it was surrender, but it was a happy surrender. And that’s really what it means, like in the Bible when you see yourself as a sinner when you begin to feel heavy laden, Christ says, ‘Come to Me.’ And that’s what I did. Like the Lord drew me to Himself, and when I came to Him I found His yoke wasn’t heavy.”

Wonderful love of Jesus!

In vain in high and holy lays
My soul her grateful voice would raise;
For who can sing the worthy praise
Of the wonderful love of Jesus!

Wonderful love! wonderful love!
Wonderful love of Jesus!
Wonderful love! wonderful love!
Wonderful love of Jesus!

A joy by day, a peace by night,
In storms a calm, in darkness light;
In pain a balm, in weakness might,
Is the wonderful love of Jesus! [Refrain]

Wonderful love! wonderful love!
Wonderful love of Jesus!
Wonderful love! wonderful love!
Wonderful love of Jesus!

My hope for pardon when I call,
My trust for lifting when I fall;
In life, in death, my all in all,
Is the wonderful love of Jesus! [Refrain]

Wonderful love! wonderful love!
Wonderful love of Jesus!
Wonderful love! wonderful love!
Wonderful love of Jesus!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D3deq5BzuI

Perfection is doable only if Christ is everything to us

We must never forget what Paul said about perfection. Though Paul strove for perfection, and was attaining it, it was illusive to the Jews who were also striving to attain it. 

“What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. 

But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. 

Wherefore [Why]? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that Stumblingstone; 

As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a Stumblingstone and Rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.

Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 

For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 

For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 

For Christ is the end [the goal] of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” (Rom. 9:30-10:4).

There is only one way to righteousness—Jesus said, “I am the way.” (John 14:6). Christ is the goal of the Law. His infinite example in 33 years of life, His infinite sacrifice on the cross, His infinite ministration as our High Priest before God, His infinite Spirit in us. Basically, for Christ to be the goal of the Law means for Him to be our focus and the cause of our righteousness. This was Paul’s disposition to the Law.

“Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. 

For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. 

Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more...

Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 

But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 

And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 

That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.” (Phil. 3:2-4, 6-10).

“For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” (Rom. 7:5,6).

“The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  (1Cor. 15:56,57).

If we are doing the science of salvation correctly, the Law will always be condemning us, and never vindicating us or exonerating us, “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” (Rom. 3:19). Even perfect and upright Job and Abraham could not stand before God without the constant mercy of Christ (Job 42:6; Rom. 4:1,2; Ps. 32:1-5). Our only hope is in the mercy of Christ. The condemning Law is God’s great representative. The Law worketh wrath for those who hate correction and instruction in righteousness. And it works repentance and redemption in those who can accept being corrected and being told what to do. (2 Sam. 12:5-13; Ps. 51:4).

But if we are angry people, then we are trying to keep the Law without the correct science of salvation. We are keeping the Law by our flesh, from our own resources, and “[God’s] chastisement of our peace’” (Isa. 53:5) is still upon us, instead of “upon Him [Jesus]”. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36). And this verse, John 3:36, is the shortened version of Revelation 14:9-11. In other words, trying to be perfect without Jesus as our focus ends in the mark of the beast.

The real question is: Who is our focus? Are we seeing Jesus in the Law? If so, then He is the goal of the Law.

David

Resistance and Rebellion

 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people.” (Heb. 8:10).

When we look at the original context of Jeremiah’s promise from above, we get a clear view of God’s mercy and willingness to work with sinners.

“For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.

Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?

Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble.” (Jer. 30:5-7).

“Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.

Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten My word to perform it.

And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.

Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.

For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.

And I will utter My judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken Me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.” (Jer. 1:11-16).

“O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?

For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.

Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.

As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellious against Me, saith the LORD.

Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart.

My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.” (Jer. 4:14-20).

“How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

For My people is foolish, they have not known Me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.

I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.

I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by His fierce anger.

For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.

The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.

And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.

For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.” (Jer. 4:21-5:1).

This is the same messages from Joel.

“Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.

He hath laid My vine waste, and barked My fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD’s ministers, mourn.

The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.

The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,

Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.” (Joel 1:5-15).

“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.

The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.

Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.

They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:

Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.

They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.

The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:

And the LORD shall utter His voice before His army: for His camp is very great: for He is strong that executeth His word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?” (Joel 2:1-11).

“Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:

And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil.

Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?

Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:

Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.

Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?” (Joel 2:12-17).

But, the God be thanked for His mercy and justice, and precious promises. In spite of the dreadful news of Israel’s punishment upon Judah, “he shall be saved out of it.” (Jer. 30:7).

“For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him: but they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their King, whom I will raise up unto them.” (Jer. 30:8,9).

“For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. And these are the words that the LORD spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah.” (Jer. 30:3,4).

“At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.

Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.

The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” (Jer. 31:1-3).

Jesus’ everlasting love and His draw of sinners back to salvation in Him are not the grace characterized by the churches today. The true, biblical, divine love comes couched in pain and true repentance. We can overcome when He helps us see our wretchedness, misery, poverty, blindness, and nakedness in His sight. Only then can we repent deeply enough because then our repentance originates from His mighty hand of spanking! “Jeremiah, what seest thou?” “I see a rod.” “Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten My word to perform it.” (Jer. 1:12).

“Therefore fear thou not, O My servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished. For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.” (Jer. 30:10-12).

Resistance or rebellion. The Lord treated those two same, but judged them differently. There were those who resisted the Lord and His designated representative, and there were those who were beyond hope. There must be a cleansing, and separation between Jew and Jew, Israelite and Israelite. “And as for you, O My flock, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats.” (Eze. 34:17).

“Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” (Rom. 9:6-9).

There needed to be a shaking, a culling of the herd. And condemnation and punishment were the Lord’s chosen mediums of distinguishing the good children from the bad. Who among His chosen people had gone beyond stubborn resistance, and ended up in genuine rebellion? While most would be revealed as genuinely rebellious, some would stop short of total apostasy and come to repentance. They couldn’t bring themselves to slight the obvious threat of Jehovah’s eternal judgment; while most ignored His threats. In this context of the gospel, the goodness of God was the rod of God. It was the rod of God that was the goodness of God that “leadeth thee to repentance” (Rom. 2:4). And although this concept is very foreign to mainstream Evangelicalism today, this kind of goodness is the only biblical divine goodness, and the only true fatherly goodness that characterizes the God of Israel and the God of Protestantism/Adventism.

Therefore, we find the Bible’s definition of “all Israel” (Rom. 11:26), which was Paul’s rendition of Jeremiah’s “all the families of Israel” (Jer. 31:1). All who Jesus recognized in Israel, either Old or New Testament Israel, were those who would repent.

“And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.” (Rom. 11:26,27).

“At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people. Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” (Jer. 31:1-3).

“And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD. As for Me, this is My covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee….” (Isa. 59:20,21). His people was everyone who their flesh through His Spirit. Everyone else who didn’t turn from transgression because Jesus didn’t turn away their ungodliness He has this to say to them, “I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity.” (Luke 13:27).

That correct definition of “all Israel” is all who were survivors, who is left over after the culling of the herd, the left behind of the warfare from heaven. “The people which were left of the sword found grace” (Jer. 31:2). To them Jesus speaks the precious promise. They hear, “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” (Jer. 31:3).

But, it took a lot of power to get them to repent and be converted. Like a tall, cumulonimbus thunderhead, gathering with flashes of lightning, the Lord gathered together a mighty empire for Nebuchadnezzar the Great.

“For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.” (Jer. 1:15).

“Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.” (Jer. 25:32).

“Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to His foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow.

He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.

Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am He.” (Isa. 41:2-4).

“I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon My name: and he shall come upon princes as upon morter, and as the potter treadeth clay.” (Isa. 41:25).

“Know that thus saith the LORD of the King that sitteth upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwelleth in this city, and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity;

Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.

And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them.” (Jer. 29:16-18).

And that power from heaven was repeated three more times with Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar the Great. Each driven king led the way for the four waves of devouring locusts that Joel 1:4 spoke of, Babylon and the three following world empires, Persia, Greece, and Rome.

Each would make war against the pride of Israel, gradually, generation after generation, removing the stubborn resistance in the Israelite hearts, or encouraging the stubborn resistance and turning it into genuine rebellion. Then the Messiah could come and choose His humbled elect, and cut off the determinedly unwilling to be saved.

“The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” (Ex. 34:6,7).

“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” (Rom. 11:33).

To all who would not allow their stubborn resistance to cut them off from the sovereign God and His authority, to all who feared to receive His damnation, to all who truly believed in the God of heaven as superior to them, they would stop short of tumbling head-long into utter rebellion. They would submit their pride to God’s rebuke, and be humbled. They would repent and have peace with the loving God of war.

A new heart would He give them, and a new spirit would He put within them. Their new heart would cast away its former resistance and cling to the mercy of their loving King.

“Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.” (Isa. 40:1,2).

The humbled and converted ones would be His people, and receive righteousness from the God of their salvation.

“Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.” (Isa. 51:11).

“For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.

For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed.” (Isa. 61:7-9).

“To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.” (Isa. 61:3,4).

“For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.

And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.

Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.” (Isa. 60:2-5).

“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

Incline your ear, and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

Behold, I have given Him for a witness to the people, a Leader and Commander to the people.

Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for He hath glorified thee.” (Isa. 55:1-5).

“And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.” (Isa. 61:5,6).

From rebellion to repentance. From rags to riches. This is the inheritance of the 144,000 and great multitude, which no man can number.

An overview of my book

I have written a book. The title is, The Seven Trumpets and The Investigative Judgment. ISBN-13: 978-1-4796-0502. My book is in print and e-book form. So I want to give a brief overview in case anyone out there might want to read the book.

Introduction

Revelation chapters 4 through 11 form the core storyline of the book of Revelation. The chapters that follow chapter 11 are brought in to expand and to add more details. The seals and trumpets drama are not optional to understand Revelation, they form the vital center of the last book of the Bible.

Chapter 1: Revelation chapter 4

This scene shows the throne of God before sin began. Heaven was a happy place, a peaceful place, a holy place. The praises to God concern creation only, His pleasure, His power, His honor, in creating. And no praise mentions a Redeemer, because in those eons before the great controversy, there was no need of redemption.

Chapter 2: Revelation chapter 5

Sudden change comes over the angelic atmosphere of heaven. It’s the same picture with God upon His throne, except that God has a mysterious book (a scroll) sealed up so tightly that only the crucifixion of the Son of God could authorize its opening. This book is the great controversy, the accusations against God and the issues over God’s Law. God is on trial. Has He been the proper leader? Has His government offered the best for the greatest happiness of the kingdom? Has He overreached His own Law and become a dictator? These were accusations that Lucifer brought against the Creator of heaven and earth. Christ crucified is the only one able to clear God of His charges. Afterwards, the whole family of heaven and earth sing praises to Him who sat on the throne and to the Lamb. Those praises are now about redemption only.

Chapter 3: Revelation chapter 6

The Lamb takes the seals off of the book (the scroll), one at a time. The first seal represents the church during its apostolic period, ending at 100 AD when John dies. The second seal (100-321 AD) represents a church period of intense pagan persecution until Constantine stopped the persecution and allowed the church to become the official religion of the Roman Empire. The third seal (321-538) represents the dying church period when it, in order to please its government employer, conformed its standards to paganism in order to let the pagans join the state religion, Christianity. The fourth seal (538-1517) represents the dead papal church period as it continued its trajectory to kingly greatness and exalted itself higher than the kings of Europe. Satan possessed the Church that silenced anyone who cried out against the Church’s corruptions and wickedness and inbred spiritualism. Then Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation. The fifth seal (1517-1755) represented the aftermath of the Reformation. During the Counter-Reformation 900,000 Protestants were martyred. They are shown in the Revelation as sacrificial lambs laid on the altar. This period ends at the close of the sixth seal (1755-1844) represented the short period that begins in an end-times conscious Protestant America and the Second Advent message by William Miller. Just prior to the seventh seal is removed we see a scene of Christ’s second coming. This was not the actual return of Christ—it was the global Advent movement of the 1830s and early ‘40s. But, the people were not ready for His coming. Before He can return, His people must be sealed. The sealing will be the necessary preparation for the actual day that He visits His judgments on the Protestant nation and the world that it has protected from the papacy.

Chapter 4: Revelation chapter 7

This chapter introduces the sealing. That is such a major issue that it pauses unsealing the sealed book pageant to explain who will stand when the Lamb comes and who will run in abject fear. The answer is: Whoever gets the seal in the conscience will go with Jesus and leave this doomed world. And this chapter gives the first picture of how happily the great controversy will end.

Chapter 5: Revelation chapter 8

After the chapter 7 intermission, we need to come back to where we left off when the 6th seal closed. So, the Lamb removes the seventh seal. The sanctuary scene that follows is connected with the seventh seal. Since the 6th seal ended and the seal of God is shown ascending from the east in 1844, then, chapter 8 picks up after the foretaste of all the happy celebration throughout eternity. Silence divides the chapter 7 intermission from the chapter 8  sanctuary scene; it separates the previous rejoicing at the end of the controversy from the solemn events to follow in order to set up a new mindset in the reader. It is a reminder that our celebration is promised, but not yet ours to have. We are the church militant that must first endure the rigors of the trumpet dangers yet to come. Through a special dispensation of faith by an abundant gift of His Spirit, Jesus gives us a way of escape in the Latter Rain, so that we are able to endure the great time of trouble.

The Angel High Priest is in the Holy Place, ready to enter the Most Holy. But, first He casts His censer to the earth and the 1st trumpet blows. We can say that the 1st trumpet is connected with the previous sanctuary scene because the contents of the censer and His blood are what fall from the sky onto the earth during the 1st trumpet. The contents damage “the third part” of the trees and all the fields of grain. This signified God’s overthrowing the denominations and the worst of the Protestants who rejected the plain truth of the blessed hope of Jesus’ return. The Bible often compares people to trees and grain.

The 2nd trumpet blew and Mt. Sinai is quenched showing the churches abrogating the Law of God. Now most of the Protestants had no protection from Satan’s spells.

So, the 3rd trumpet blew and Satan is seen poisoning their hearts and minds, their whole way of viewing this world and the providences of God. Faith, true, genuine faith is gone from every American who remained in the new lawless Protestantism. Now that God is fictionalized by the new Protestants’ rejection of His Law, this world is all that most of them can live for.

The 4th trumpet blew and the Sunday churches went totally dark spiritually, as institutions. But, the door of heaven was still open to them individually. Scripture shows that the darkened heavenly lights symbolize that the Bible is no longer understood by Protestantism, and the Bible’s central importance is lost. Now that Protestant America has lost its only resource for a spiritual compass in God’s word, an angel flies over the earth, alarming the world of the three woes that come with the last three trumpets.

Chapter 6: Revelation chapter 9

The 5th trumpet blew. God looses Satan to ransack Protestantism and bring it, and the world it that has blessed, into subjection to the powers of hell. Every Protestant not being sealed, especially in Protestant America, is tormented with the same vexation of spirit that Solomon and King Saul experienced when they apostatized from the Lord. Moses forewarned of this for the whole nation in his curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, 29. Specifically, Deuteronomy 29:18-22 speaks to this 5th trumpet, as does Revelation 14:9-11. In fact, the 3rd angel’s message is all about the 5th and 6th trumpet plagues; the components of those two trumpets make up the message of the 3rd angel of Revelation 14—the torment and desolation of soul that comes from not fearing God as Judge and not getting to know Jesus, preparing for His judgment and His final return.

The ancient false religion that caused such havoc to Israel was Baal worship. But, Baal was simply one face of thousands of false religions around the ancient world as well as our modern world, all spawned from Babylon. It is a religion that dares to approach God with the worshipers’ own contrived repentance and holiness. The modern counterpart of Baal and Ashtoreth worship is Spiritual Formation.  Set aside by Spiritual Formation are the Law’s reproofs, which bring us to need a Savior from sin. Before Christ can be a Savior, He must be a Prince who wields His glittering sword. God will have it no other way. But, Satan, stepping in between God and His people, offers a more comfortable redemption, without the messy humbling which God requires. By peace and flattery he has destroyed many from the days of Cain; and now he is doing the same in the Protestant churches and in the Advent movement. We are repeating the history of Israel at Baal-peor, and many Adventists are falling for it, including many of our leaders. This is the message of the 3rd angel and it speaks of the 5th and 6th trumpet plagues.

The language of the 3rd angel’s message comes from the 5th and 6th trumpets—another reason to believe that the trumpets happen during the heaven-ordained Advent movement and investigative judgment that precede the antitypical Day of Atonement.

It only makes sense that all the seven trumpets should blow during the Advent movement that awaited the heavenly sanctuary cleansing, since the typical feast of trumpets was connected with the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary. There is a time period with the 5th trumpet—5 prophetic months, 150 years. I realize Ellen White seemed to say that there would be no more time prophecies after 1844. But, that is not what her statements say. She left no commentary on the seven trumpets. I believe she only communicated what Jesus wanted her to give us at the time. If we had known we would be here for 150 years we would have apostatized into pagan celebration a long time ago.

One thing is very clear, Revelation 9:4 (the 5th trumpet) and 7:3 (1844) are unarguably speaking of the same thing—the seal of God in the forehead. So, my conclusion is that Revelation 7:3 introduces the sealing, and 9:4 explains how it is received (and how the mark of the beast is avoided). Sr. White wrote volumes on every other subject, while she wrote essentially nothing about the seven trumpets, evidently because Jesus gave her no light on the trumpets. The time must wait until the prophecy was completed before its meaning would come to light. That time has arrived. I believe that the 5th trumpet time prophecy began as we were hammering out our fundamental beliefs in the Sabbath conferences. In 1849, the start of the 5th trumpet prophecy, the California Gold Rush altered the face of Protestant America. In 1999, 150 years later, another gold rush closed the 5th trumpet—the stock market gold rush of the late 1990s. These two gold rushes are the bookends for the 5th trumpet.

In between those years technology exponentially developed and drew the world-loving Protestant multitudes permanently away from God and His Law. And that separation from the Protestants’ God has tormented them like Jesus was tormented on the cross because His Father had left Him. During those 5 prophetic months, the Spirit of God had been leaving Protestant America and Satan had been moving in to fill the void. Largely through the earthly agencies of Rome and her Jesuit masters of deception temptations have stolen all the freedom and happiness that the original Protestant Reformers passed down to Protestants in America. The Jesuits and the Vatican are the locusts from the bottomless pit of the 5th trumpet (they are called “the beast” in Revelation 11). Satan, driving them across the earth, is the black smoke.

The 6th trumpet blew. Now that Protestant Americans have departed from God and lived on His promised land of refuge with total forgetfulness of the God of Protestantism, He allows for their complete possession by the god they love so much, the god of this world. As the 10 tribes of Israel lived for Baal for 200 years until the Lord vomited them out of His land, so is He doing to Protestant Americans today. Soon, and very soon, Protestantism’s old enemy of the Dark Ages will have conquered their empire by locusts filling the leading offices of their CIA, FBI, NSA, FDA, FEMA, AMA, the media, the Federal Reserve banking system, and the three branches of the U.S. Government. I won’t be surprised if the Vatican initiates the official desolation of free America when Protestantism is ended. By an official declaration and documentation, the union of church and state began at the healing of the Lutheran church and the Church of Rome on Protestantism’s 500th anniversary—Halloween 2017.

In the 6th trumpet, the locusts can do what they were forbidden to do during the 5th trumpet, that is, “kill” the soul. All of their torment until 1999 came from the work of separating the people from the one true God of their Reformation fathers. Now that the denominations are fully separated from the God of the Bible, they commit the unpardonable sin by returning to the spiritualistic, pagan Vatican; and they become a persecuting nation. This explains the unjust destruction of Muslims based on the false premise that Islamists caused 9/11. All the evidence of 9/11 points to specially placed and protected individuals within American government agencies—Jesuits—who choreographed the 9/11 black flag operation under the purview of Rome. (Dan. 8:12).

9/11 has set the stage for the coming tribulation of all nations. We are in the very end of time. God has just about finished His scattering of the power of the holy people (Dan. 12:7).

When the seventh trumpet will blow, the 3rd woe will mean total world domination by Satan and his filling every heart with his mean anger. Then, the few who in reverence took God, His Law, and His redemption seriously will stand out from the demon-controlled crowds. Everyone who played off the Spirit of Prophecy counsels as unneeded during the 5th and 6th trumpets God will require it of them in the seventh trumpet. This we see at the end of Revelation 11.

Chapter 7: Revelation chapter 10

This chapter begins to show glory at the end of a long, dark, distressing tunnel of woe. It opens during the unconscionable desolations by the conscienceless world of the Revelation chapter 9 6th trumpet. Christ is seen clothed with a cloud of incense and glory. The little sealed book (scroll) which He took from His Father in Revelation chapter 5 is now opened after the trumpets have done their work of scattering the power of faith in His Protestant people (which includes the SDAs, as will be seen in Revelation 11). Christ roars like a lion because His forbearing work as Lamb is finished and it is time to judge the world, and to end Satan’s controversy against God. With infinite thunder, God agrees with His Son.

So, Jesus swears by His Father that the delay of the 6th seal is all but complete—the sealing is almost finished—when He can finally come in power and glory. But, first He will give humanity one last opportunity to be saved, as He gave it the antediluvian world. He commands John to eat the book (the scroll) of the great controversy and to “prophesy again.” But, if we use scripture to interpret scripture, then this is not speaking of the Millerite Great Disappointment of 1844; it is speaking of an event within the final chapter of the seal/trumpet chronology.

When do we see any prophesying taking place since Revelation chapter 4? We don’t see any prophesying up to Revelation chapter 10. But, we do see it in the next chapter, almost immediately following the command of chapter 10 to prophesy again. We see it in Revelation chapter 11.

Chapter 8: Revelation chapter 11

This chapter concludes the seal/trumpet story that is the core of Revelation. The chapter introduces its intent to judge the church by John being given a measuring rod. The church is found guilty of apostasy, except for a very small remnant that defends the truth “in the days of their prophecy” (Rev. 11:6). The prophesy of that very small remnant sweeps through 2,000 years to include the apostolic church, the church in the wilderness, and the Reformation. The fire of truth shoots out of the mouths of God’s champions and devours the enemies of His gospel, like their Master (Isa. 11:4; 2 Thess. 2:8). This campaign against Satan continues successfully until 1849 when the hosts of darkness fly out of an opened bottomless pit (Rev. 11:7). Then, the Lord’s witnesses are warred against, later overcome, and eventually cease their prophesying. In the lengthy Revelation 11 prophecy, this victory over the prophesying witnesses by the beast from the bottomless pit is where the Revelation 10 scene occurs. It is giving the greater historical context of Revelation 9 when the locusts have desolated the mighty and holy people, and led them to repentance and the sealing. Thus, it is time for them to prophesy again.

Satan cannot immediately kill the Advent movement while Ellen White lives. But, he first makes war (also seen in Rev. 12:17), then he overcomes, and finally he kills the Advent movement. We lay dead in the aisles of the church for a period of time that figuratively expresses judgment on God’s people (Luke 4:25; Jas. 5:17). Then, when God has accomplished our total humbling and all of our self-sufficiency is gone, then He resurrects His two witnesses (a leaner Advent movement), gives them the Latter Rain, and the earth is reaped. This ends the 2nd woe, and the seventh trumpet blows. Total chaos rules the world and the last we see is an empty Most Holy Place in heaven because Christ has left there to come and get His people. The mystery of God’s character of love and fairness, as written in the little book (scroll), is finished. His judgment is finished, and He is exonerated by His character perfectly reflected in His sealed children.

This ends the core of Revelation. I hope it wasn’t too hard to follow. The rest of the book of Revelation expands upon the main storyline of chapters 4 through 11.

I’ve heard much about chiasms in Revelation, which describe it as a tiered literary structure, the first vision being similar to the last vision, the second vision similar the second-to-last vision, etc., a ABCD…DCBA pattern. Centuries ago, the subject of chiastic structures in the book of Revelation began small and gradually grew in acceptance. I’ve looked at charts that show the chiasms of Revelation, and it all seems good. But, I see that the primary view of Revelation must be a concise storyline for the first half of Revelation, and detailed visions given afterwards to be fitted into the basic story. I see Revelation chapters 4 to 22 simply as basically two halves of one book. In the first half, we have the core first 8 chapters that give a bird’s eye view of the book, such as this overview does for my book. Then, the next 11 chapters give details that must be brought in at the correct places of the core storyline of Revelation, chapters 4 through 11.

The Spirit’s organization of the Revelation visions in a simple story format seems very wise. A simple storyline I can handle. But, chiasms are a little too complicated for me (which is not to say that they don’t exist in the Revelation).

Even children can understand the simple core storyline of Revelation. Of course, the symbology is a deeper subject, and that makes the Bible a challenge for adults. But, I’m thankful that Revelation is much more understandable than most people think because of the way it was laid out as a simple story by the Spirit of God.

L-Methylfolate, an email to my brother in Christ

From an email in 2016 you listed the supplements you take:

Acetyl L-Carnitine Arginate (ALCA):  I take 2.4 g/day.

Alpha-glycerophosphorylcholine (alpha-GPC):  I take 300 mg/day.

Citicoline:  I take 500 mg/day.

Methyl-B12:  No toxic dose possible; I take 15 mg/day.

Phosphatidylserine (PS):  I take 3 g/day.

Pyrroloquinoline Quinone (PQQ):  I take 40 mg/day.

L-Taurine:  I take 4 g/day.

Methylfolate:  I take 20 mg/day.

But, I have heard that the regular run-of-the-mill person should look at the ingredients of food, and if they can’t read it, they shouldn’t eat it. I know you are well versed in chemistry and its terminology, but let’s not discard the commoners as ignorant masses. The Lord has His wise virgins sprinkled all over the place. It was

“The common people heard Him gladly.” (Mark 12:37).

And,

“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in His presence.” (1Cor. 1:27-29).

But, the real issue I tried to explain last night.

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36).

The wrath of God is the curse of the Law. The wrath of God is the result of the separation that sin causes. It is the scourging that God levels against all who resist Him while He is trying to save them.

“For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” (Heb. 12:6).

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” (Rev. 3:19).

Who He loves He prunes.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” (John 15:1,2).

But, we resist, and suffer under the cursed chastisement.

“The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against His Anointed, saying,

Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” (Ps. 2:2-4).

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Gal. 5:17).

In our fight against God, He always wins.

“Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.” (Jer. 23:23,24).

“The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is His name.” (Ex. 15:3).

Will we submit? Will we be His subjects or His rejects? If we will not be subject to the will of God, then our fate will be a miserable one.

“Lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;

And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:

The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and His jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.

And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law:” (Deut. 29:18-21).

“The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (Rev. 14:10,11).

“And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living [instead of] to the dead?

To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.

And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.” (Isa. 8:19-22).

“And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in His anger, and in His wrath:

Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?

Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when He brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:

For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom He had not given unto them.” (Deut. 29:23-26).

“If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people; if My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2Chron. 7:13,14).

“And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.

If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto Me;

And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:

Then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.” (Lev. 26:39-42).

What is the context of “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray”? Isn’t it that they abandoned the laws and statutes of the covenant that the Lord gave them? And then He gave them diseases? Wasn’t the cause of all their physical ailments a spiritual cause? And wasn’t the remedy a spiritual remedy?

“Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known My ways.

So I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest.)

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.…

And to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not?

 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.…

For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, As I have sworn in My wrath, if they shall enter into My rest.” (Heb. 3:10-12,18-4:1,3).

Yet, the seared conscience and hardened hearts of most would never believe this. By the chastisement of their peace, Jesus was simply trying to lead them to repentance. It was His goodness, but they would not fall on Him broken. It was too hard to admit and confess that “they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; And that I also have walked contrary unto them.” (Lev. 26:40,41). It was too intolerable for “their uncircumcised hearts [to] be humbled” (Lev. 26:41) and to “accept of the punishment of their iniquity” (Lev. 26:41). It was too humiliating to be children suffering the discipline of a heavenly Father. It was too hard to repent. So they trusted in the princes of this world, in whom there is no help, whose breath goeth forth and they pass away like the grass that withereth and the flower that falleth away and the place thereof remembereth it no more.

“Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured.” (Jer. 46:11).

“Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? yet, because thou didst rely on the LORD, He delivered them into thine hand.

For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.

Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed some of the people the same time.

And, behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians.

And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign.” (2Chron. 16:8-13).

“Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of Mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.” (Isa. 50:11).

This has been the sad history of the lost human race.

“Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.… What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.” (Rom. 11:5-7).

Let that not happen to us. The world chases after its humanly devised cures for the wrath of God. The chastisement of our peace was upon His Son; their damnation was satisfied in Him. But because they would not admit to being chastised they could never need the propitiation that the Son accomplished for them. Therefore they must suffer that anxious, mind disturbing curse that Christ took for us. But He took it largely in vain because most chose not to take advantage of it. Today, the Protestants’ prophet could have brought them down to the baptism of repentance, but their prophet was ignored—Ellen G. White. They greatest of all proofs that she was the true prophet of the Lord is her powerful conviction of sins. Yet, Satan has succeeded in steering multitudes away from being convicted, humbled into the dust, reconciled with God, justified by Him, and blessed by His Spirit. Their uncircumcised heart could never be humbled to accept the punishment of their iniquities. Sin never could become exceeding sinful. They could never become guilty before God. The Law could never be their Schoolmaster to bring them to Christ to be justified by trusting in His mercy and propitiation for them. What He ever lives to do for them He is not able to do. Therefore the plagues will fall on them because they earned the mark of the beast.

Let that never once be said of us.

“That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:

But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.

But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” (1Cor. 2:5-10).

“Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward. Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.” (Isa. 58:8,9)

“To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified.

And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.

And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.

But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.

For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.” (Isa. 61:3-7).

“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matt. 5:3-5).