Revelation Revealed - Part 4"Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices." II Corinthians 2:11 As I've heard many preachers say, "We aren't looking and waiting for the Anti-Christ, but for the real Christ". And that is true. The Book of Revelation is ultimately about the revealing of Jesus the Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. However as we discussed in "Highway to Tribulation", the World will be exposed to the False Christ before the Real comes back to judge them. I hope that by shedding light on the above counterfeits, that some persons may ultimately come to know the True Christ. At the same time we are not to be ignorant of Satan's devices. And these counterfeits are truly dangerous snares. Speculation as to the identity of the Anti-Christ at this time is a troublesome pursuit. Throughout History, Satan has had to have a man ready and waiting to step into the shoes of the Anti-Christ. There have been many candidates down through the ages. Nero, Charlemagne, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Mao and even some have pointed fingers at our own Presidents in the 20th and 21st Centuries. There are several prime candidates as of this writing. All the pieces of the puzzle seem to be on the board, and merely have to be put into place. THE LAST 3 SEALS Chapter 6 is almost the entire Book of Revelation up to and including the 2nd Coming of Christ in synopsis form. It outlines the opening of 6 of the 7 Seals which precipitate the judgements of God upon Earth. The fact that Jesus also gives the same outline in Matthew 24, again gives even greater substance to this observation. The Fifth Seal: "and when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:" Revelation 6:9 I believe this describes a special class of Saints, those who come to Christ during the Tribulation and are slain for their Faith and for their refusal to worship the Anti-Christ or to take his Mark. Currently, all those believers in Christ, from both Old and New Testament economies who have passed away are sleeping under the sea of glass in Heaven. They are not playing harps or leaping about with abandon. They are truly Resting in Peace. There is ample evidence to support this. When Jesus told the mourners that Lazarus was sleeping, when the Witch of Endor called up Samuel and he was annoyed because he had been asleep are just two examples of the Saints of God being asleep. They are with God, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord", but they are getting a well-deserved rest. The Saints crying out here are Tribulations Saints. They are anxious for God to avenge their blood and the blood of those of His children suffering under the tyranny of the Anti-Christ who will be slain presently. These souls are not at rest; they are not asleep. In fact at that point they are told to rest. The only parallel to Matthew 24 is in that verse, that they should rest "yet for a little season"( Revelation 6:11), until God concludes His judgements. In Matthew 24:22, Jesus says, "but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." The Sixth Seal: "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the Earth.....and every mountain and island were moved....and every...man hid themselves....from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of His wrath has come;...." Revelation 6:12-17 Compare those verses to Jesus words in Matthew 24:29,30. "...the sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven,...then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clods of heaven with power and great glory." The similarities are staggering. The 144,000 At least one entire Religious "Quasi-Christian" Cult has been formed around this number. That is the danger of reading the Bible as allegory instead of literally as it was intended. When a thing is to be a symbol, the Scripture makes it clear, when it is an allegory or parable, the Scripture makes it clear. Jesus would teach and often say, "Behold, I tell you a parable...." These were shorthand methods of making deep Spiritual matters easier to comprehend. One of the main reasons that "Religious" people have scoffed at the study of Revelation is their objection to the difficulty of understanding it. That is because the allegorical approach was being applied. That method would confuse Einstein and in the end no real truth would emerge. There are 12 Tribes of Israel and during the Tribulation there will be 12,000 Israelites chosen from each tribe, making a total of 144,000. This group will be supernaturally sealed by God in their foreheads. In Revelation 7:3 an angel cries aloud to another group of angels charged with causing damage to the Earth to wait, "till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." |
