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VICTORY PARTY IN HEAVEN! DO 2215 7/85--Revelation 19:1-10! ET# 65
1. WHAT BOOK ARE WE IN? (FAM: REVELATION!) What Chapter? (Fam: 19!) This is a heavy Chapter, a very heavy Chapter. Some of it's a little gory & gruesome, but it's necessary.
2. LORD, BLESS THIS THY WORD & GIVE US WISDOM! Help us to understand it. Help these to understand it, Lord, & open our minds & hearts to the lessons You want to teach us from it.--Especially the encouraging things that You're telling us about the future victories, that there's a happy ending to what's coming! PTL!--And how to recognise it & know what's happening, in Jesus' name, amen!
FALL OF BABYLON AT END OF TRIB!
3. (VERSE 1:) "AND AFTER THESE THINGS I HEARD A GREAT VOICE OF MUCH PEOPLE IN HEAVEN." After what things? What happened? (Fam: The destruction of Babylon.) What's that, the ancient city of Babylon? (Fam: No!) Ancient Babylon's been long-gone already for thousands of years. It's not talking about ancient Babylon, it's talking about modern Babylon, the modern confusion of the System & this Pit that we have to live in. Jesus said we are in the World, we can't help that, but we are not of the World. (Jn.15:19) We have to live in it but we don't have to belong to it, & one of these days it's going to belong to us when we get it a little better cleaned up! I wouldn't even want it the way it is, would you?
4. SO THIS CHAPTER TAKES PLACE AFTER THE FALL OF BABYLON. And where do we place the fall of Babylon? (Fam: At the end of the Tribulation.)--About the end of the Tribulation. And give me some Scriptures why we place it about there. (Fam: Because it's going to be destroyed in one hour, which will be the Atomic War.)--Yes, by the Antichrist & his kings. So apparently he's in power & therefore it must be the Tribulation.
5. ALSO THERE'S ANOTHER SCRIPTURE, QUITE CLEAR, THAT SHOWS IT OCCURS JUST BEFORE THE COMING OF THE LORD. Can anybody give me that one? What were you going to say, Honey? (Fam: I was just going to say before the Rapture.) That's right, you hit it right, & how do you know? What Chapter do we have here in this book which tells us when the Rapture occurs? (Fam: Chapter 14.) Exactly! If you want to, look back there at that to check it out. Here in Chapter 14 we've been through the Tribulation & all the Trumpets & everything & one of the first things you hear in the 8th verse is that Babylon is fallen.
6. THE GOSPEL IS PREACHED TO ALL NATIONS JUST LIKE JESUS SAID! He said, "And then shall the End come!" (Mat.24:14) So there we have it in Revelation 14, the 6th verse. Even if we fail, God's going to get an Angel to finish up the job! "To preach unto them that dwell on the Earth, to every nation, kindred, tongue & people!"--Try to get it out to everybody! Of course, that still doesn't mean that everybody that's ever lived will have heard the Gospel, but that at the very End there, God's going to give those people every possible chance to hear the Truth & hear of His Love & get saved, so they'll be without excuse when all these other horrors fall upon them!
7. AND THEN BABYLON IS FALLEN! It's amazing here, it talks about "she" etc., "the wine of the wrath of her fornication". (Rev.14:8) This is several Chapters before Babylon's even described, but it's obviously the same old gal! Then what comes after that? It keeps talking about Babylon, her fall, God's Wrath on her & the Mark of the Beast, it's all about the Tribulation in this 14th Chapter. It talks about the martyrs, those that die in the Lord, & then finally you get down to the 14th verse & you've got the Rapture. The 14th, 15th & 16th verses are all about the Rapture!
8. SO ACCORDING TO THE SPECIFIC SCRIPTURES HERE, BABYLON IS OBVIOUSLY DESTROYED BEFORE THE COMING OF THE LORD! So although God says He sent it & He in effect says that He's doing it, actually Babylon is destroyed by the Antichrist & his ten kings. And when? (Fam: At the end of the Tribulation.) Apparently that's going to be part of the final horrors of the Tribulation, & it sounds like Atomic War to me, what do you think?
9. WHAT ELSE COULD WIPE OUT THE SYSTEM & AMERICA & MAYBE EUROPE TOO FOR ALL WE KNOW? It's all Babylon, the worst parts of Babylon. And it must be pretty specific as a place because it says "they stand afar off at sea & see the torment of her burning" etc. What else could wipe out a whole country or the wicked North & all its confusion & riches & wealth in one hour of one day? It sounds like Atomic War!
10. THAT'S WHERE WE'RE PUTTING THE ATOMIC WAR NOW, WHICH WILL COME! They've got these playtoys to play with & little boys must play! They're just dyin' to use'm, & that's what they're going to be doing when they do--dyin'! It's horrible! It's all, of course, inspired by the Devil, he helped them invent them & all the rest. So they will be part of God's judgements on man himself as he attempts to destroy himself. Therefore, the destruction of Babylon occurs toward the end of the Tribulation, & apparently just before the coming of the Lord.
REVELATION 19:1-3!
11. SO APPARENTLY THAT DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON OCCURS WHEN? (FAM: AT THE END OF THE TRIBULATION.) And by whom? (Fam: The Antichrist & his ten kings.) The Antichrist & his government. So we've just finished reading all about the destruction of Babylon, & now we're going to read about some things after that. "After these things", He said.
12. "I HEARD A GREAT VOICE OF MUCH PEOPLE IN HEAVEN, SAYING, ALLELUIA; SALVATION & GLORY & HONOUR & POWER UNTO THE LORD OUR GOD!" Now, although this Chapter doesn't mention anything about the Rapture, how do you know the Rapture has already occurred? Obviously the Rapture has occurred--why? (Fam: Because much people are in Heaven.)--There are oodles of people There, & also they're having the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. You couldn't have that without the Bride, could you?
13. SO HE HAS SAID ENOUGH ALREADY TIME & TIME AGAIN ABOUT THE RAPTURE, HE FIGURES HE DOESN'T HAVE TO REPEAT THAT AGAIN! It's obvious that now after that destruction of Babylon, the Rapture has occurred. He's already told you several other places where the Rapture occurred, He doesn't have to specifically describe the Rapture again. It's obvious that the Rapture has already occurred, all these people are up in Heaven saying, "Alleluia! Salvation & glory & honour & power unto the Lord our God!".
14. (VERSE 2:) "FOR TRUE & RIGHTEOUS ARE HIS JUDGEMENTS."--What judgements? "For He hath judged the great Whore." That's what He's talking about.--Wiped out millions of people in a big Atomic War, apparently. You say, "Well, that's horrible! Why would God allow such a thing to happen?--Millions of people to get slaughtered!" Well, I'll tell you why, most of them deserve it! He's cleaning up the World, & nothing does it like fire!
15. "HE HATH JUDGED THE GREAT WHORE WHICH DID CORRUPT THE EARTH WITH HER FORNICATION, & HATH AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS SERVANTS AT HER HAND." In other words, He's taken vengeance on all these Antichrist people that have been persecuting Christians & doing horrible things. And apparently the Whore is situated mostly in the North where all this is going to happen.
16. (VERSE 3:) "AND AGAIN THEY SAID, ALLELUIA!" Now what's the difference between "Hallelujah" & "Alleluia"? (Fam: The H!) You're a real smart boy, aren't you! The fact of the matter is, the "Hallelujah" comes from Hebrew & the "Alleluia" from Greek. It's the same word, meaning "glory to God".
17. "AND HER SMOKE ROSE UP FOR EVER & EVER!" Now literally, the actual Greek says "for an age & an age". But the Bible translators translated it "for ever & ever", probably on the instigation of some of those Catholic church clerics who wanted to make sure that you knew Hell was going to last for ever & you'd better come to church! But it ain't necessarily so in that case. This is a translation, their idea. Because the accurate translation--you can look it up for yourself if you want to--is "for an age & an age".
18. WHAT DO ALL AGES HAVE? (FAM: AN END!) It's a time period & all ages have an end. So even Hell has an end, believe it or not! So all these places where it says "for ever & ever" does not mean in our language what it was interpreted to be here, eternal, forever, like Eternity. It means for a long time, & that's bad enough! If you were in it, you'd think it was forever! But it's for a long time, for whatever God's justice requires that the punishment should be.
THE NORTH UNUSABLE IN THE MILLENNIUM!
19. ANYHOW, THAT SMOKE IS GOING TO BE RISING UP FOR A LONG TIME! I'm not sure we'll even be able to use North America & Europe during the Millennium. Think about that. It'll be so rife with radiation & poisonous fumes & everything else, it may be just completely wiped out! Unless God's got some way that He's going to clean it up & restore it, it doesn't hardly seem like it would be worth it, would it? After all, with all the people dead & all the buildings wrecked & cities wiped out & everything burned up, who needs it? Let's have the nice beautiful tropical paradise that they've already got in the South & the East! Who's going to need that stinking rest of the World there?
20. SOME OF YOU ARE SHOCKED! "Dad, I thought according to all your pictures & all these things about the Millennium that the whole World was going to be absolutely a Paradise like the Garden of Eden & everything was going to be perfect & beautiful & Heavenly!" I don't think I ever said everything. Maybe Apollos did. Well, it could be. The Lord could clean it all up. But boy, what a Hell of a mess!
21. THEY'RE ALREADY SAYING THAT SOME KINDS OF ATOMIC RADIATION & ATOMIC POLLUTANTS ARE GOING TO BE POISONOUS FOR 25,000 YEARS, & SOME OF THEM ARE SAYING MAYBE FOREVER! And they're dumping that kind of stuff in the ocean & they're burying it under ground. In several towns in the United States they thought they had it all buried & everything, but it started getting into the drinking water & everybody was getting sick! They've had horrors with that kind of stuff! Some of the poisons that man has made, they say they could never get rid of it! Well, we know that God's going to get rid of it, finally, one of these days!
22. DEFINITELY, WHEN IS IT ALL GOING TO BE WIPED OUT & RENEWED? (Fam: The New Heaven & New Earth.) That's the only way He's going to be able to purify the Earth, to absolutely burn up the entire surface & the atmosphere & all this junk that's floating around in space now. There's something like 14,000 pieces of junk flying around out there in space now. Man isn't satisfied with polluting the Earth, he's got to pollute the Heavens too! And he's not satisfied with fighting wars on Earth, now he's gotta fight wars out in space! Man is just absolutely messing up the whole works!
23. AND AFTER A WAR LIKE THIS WITH THE ATOMIC BOMBS BURNING UP NORTH AMERICA & MAYBE EUROPE, I DON'T SEE WHAT GOOD THEY'D BE! All the people there would be dead or dying or wish they were dead. If they're not killed, they'll die anyway! It sounds like that smoke's going to go up for quite awhile, at least an age. What's the Millennium? (Fam: An age.) PTL! Hallelujah! TYL!
REVELATION 19:4 & 5!
24. (VERSE 4:) "AND THE FOUR & TWENTY ELDERS & THE FOUR BEASTS FELL DOWN & WORSHIPPED GOD THAT SAT ON THE THRONE, SAYING, AMEN; ALLELUIA!" What are they doing? (Fam: Praising God!) For what? (Fam: For destroying Babylon.)--Exactly! They're praising God for His just judgements on the vile, filthy wicked World!
25. SOME PEOPLE ARE HORRIFIED & SAY, "WE HAVE A LOVING GOD, we have a namby-pamby God with a string for a backbone with milk & water in His veins! He would never do a terrible thing like this!" Oh yeah? Well, He's done it to plenty of cities already & plenty of countries & plenty of people, slaughtered them by the thousands, let'm be slaughtered by the millions because of their sins & their wickedness & their vileness & their filthiness & their evilness, their iniquities, especially their sins against God's people! So with North America & Europe blown off the map, who needs'm? Just a thought for you.
26. (VERSE 5:) "AND A VOICE CAME OUT OF THE THRONE, SAYING, PRAISE OUR GOD, ALL YE HIS SERVANTS, & YE THAT FEAR HIM, BOTH SMALL & GREAT!" Boy oh boy, it sounds like everybody's praising the Lord up in Heaven! With all this going on down on Earth I doubt if there are too many people praising the Lord, unless they're in the South or out in the East! I imagine there's a lot of groaning & weeping & wailing & gnashing of teeth, if they've still got any teeth left in the North!
ARRAYED IN FINE LINEN!
27. (VERSE 6:) "AND I HEARD AS IT WERE THE VOICE OF A GREAT MULTITUDE, & as the voice of many waters, & as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia!" Everybody's shouting Hallelujah, how about that! I'll tell you, if you're in Heaven when all this is going on, I'll bet you're going to be shouting Hallelujah, when you see what's happening on Earth. "For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!" Hallelujah! Who's taken over? Who's going to reign now? (Fam: God!) The Lord's taken over & He's going to reign! Here Babylon's destroyed & God's raining out His judgements on Earth while we're having a wing-ding of a party Upstairs!
28. (VERSE 7:) "LET US BE GLAD & REJOICE, & GIVE HONOUR TO HIM: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, & His wife hath made herself ready." Who's His wife? (Fam: We are!)--Right! Praise God! Hallelujah! TYL! They're really going to get it together now! It's going to even be better than fuckin'! TTL?
29. (VERSE 8:) "AND TO HER WAS GRANTED THAT SHE SHOULD BE ARRAYED IN FINE LINEN, CLEAN & WHITE: FOR THE FINE LINEN IS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF SAINTS." Now when it says fine linen it's all symbolic here. It's very symbolic in a lot of these things. I don't think they make linen up in Heaven, I doubt it. You've got to have those trees you get flax from. You guys don't even know anything about those things, you probably never even heard of linen! Really! I doubt if you know what linen is. Of course, you talk about "we've got to have clean linens for the bed" etc., but I doubt if there's a piece of linen in this whole house!
30. LINEN WAS A MATERIAL THAT THEY MADE OUT OF THE STEM OF FLAX PLANTS, MADE OUT OF FLAX. They peeled off the stem & they'd beat it to a pulp until then they could spin it into thread & they'd make cloth out of it. Linen was cloth. But it was a very heavy kind of thick stiff cloth, if any of you have ever had any experience with genuine linen. Frankly, I don't think I'd care to have any real linen! So I don't think they're really talking about real linen. It's symbolic! And He also says it's righteousness! It hasn't got anything to do with material cloth, actually. But He had to explain this in childlike terms so you'd understand it.--It's like robes of Light!
31. YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE SOME KIND OF CLOTHING, & we pictured it in all of our Heavenly pictures just as I saw it. It looked like they were wearing literally robes of light, kind of a sparkly light, it was beautiful, really pretty, & kind of see-through too! I wouldn't want to hide all these lovely charms with heavy linen! I don't think they make earthly material linen Up There! He's talking about the robes of righteousness!
32. THEY LOOKED LIKE LINEN TO HIM & HE HAD TO GO BY WHAT HE HAD EXPERIENCE WITH. He'd never seen any of the material we have nowadays, the see-through stuff & all that sort of thing. Goodness gracious, women didn't wear that sort of thing then! So he had to sort of go by what he was used to seeing. White cloth was usually made out of linen in those days, so he looked at it as it was. The Prophet Nahum saw chariots jostling one another in the broadways & running like lightning with torches! (Nah.2:4) Well, he was actually seeing all these automobiles & vehicles running on these big highways & all. Nobody in his day had ever seen an automobile so he had to compare it to what he was familiar with!
33. SO A LOT OF THESE DESCRIPTIONS IN REVELATION ETC. ARE MYSTERIES, we don't even know what he's talking about, because he just compares'm to what he's familiar with & the only thing he could possibly call them. They could have been tanks & guns & airplanes etc., but they'd never heard of those things in his day, so he has to just compare'm to what he's familiar with, what he knows about.
34. SO JOHN LOOKS AT ALL THESE PEOPLE CLOTHED IN WHITE & IT LOOKS LIKE LINEN TO HIM, SO HE CALLS IT LINEN!--Get it? But, thank God, the Spirit makes it very clear that it's righteousness! Anyhow, I'll guarantee you it's beautiful, what I saw. PTL! TYL! I wouldn't want to wear linen Up There anyhow, because then you'd have to have washing machines & do washing & they'd get dirty & whatnot. Robes of light you never have to wash! You can even wear'm in the fountain of light & never get wet. Praise God! It's the righteousness of the Saints!
35. (VERSE 9:) "AND HE SAITH UNTO ME, WRITE, BLESSED ARE THEY WHICH ARE CALLED UNTO THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God." This is the Marriage Supper, this is the big Party! The wedding is usually first & then they have the Marriage Supper afterwards, like the reception party when they have all the cake & ice cream & wine & all that sort of thing. So this is talking about the celebration, the good time, the party, as Apollos so aptly puts it time & again, the biggest Party you ever went to! PTL! Amen? Is all this true? It says so!
SPIRITS! CHURCHES MISSING ALL THE FUN!
36. (VERSE 10:) "AND I FELL AT HIS FEET TO WORSHIP HIM, & HE SAID UNTO ME, SEE THOU DO IT NOT: I am thy fellowservant, & of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus; worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Who's this guy he fell down at his feet to worship that was telling him all about these things? Was he an Angel? (Fam: No.) He was another Christian, & it sounds like maybe he was a Prophet, one of the Prophets like John. And John thought it was so wonderful & he was so wonderful telling him all these things, he fell down to worship him & thought it was some kind of an Angel. But he said, "Don't worship me, I'm just a guy like you!"--Which goes again to show you there are lots of people like that Up There, all the good spirits.
37. IT'S AMAZING HOW THE CHURCH SQUELCHED ALL THAT ABOUT GOOD SPIRITS. All you ever hear about is evil spirits, demons & devils, you hardly ever hear about the good spirits except in the Bible! The churches don't preach it, the preachers don't preach it, you don't hear about it! They're so scared that you're going to get involved in spiritism & be a spiritualist & get involved in something mystical & supernatural, they want to get you all away from that sort of thing. You might get friendly with some kind of a good familiar spirit, & oh my, they've outlawed all that completely! Well, here's dear John having a conversation with one, describing all these things he's seeing etc.
38. TOO BAD THE CHURCHES MISSED OUT ON SO MUCH! It seems to me from what I can see of the churches & the church people, they've missed out on all the fun, all the fun things, all the best things! You know?--Communing with Angels & spirits & the supernatural & dreams & visions & revelations about the future & sex & freedom & nudity & all the best things in life! They've missed the whole works! There they are sitting on their pill boxes popping their platitude pills & trying to be as miserable as they can be & figure the more they suffer that religion & endure that agony, it's going to earn'm some righteousness & a little credit & they might get to Heaven. Isn't that horrible?
39. THEY SIT THERE IN AGONY IN THEIR AGONISING SUFFERING RELIGION THINKING IT MAKES THEM RELIGIOUS & it might earn'm some merit to get to Heaven, & they're missing all the fun! We've got all this & Heaven too! Praise God! We've got a little bit of Heaven right here & now! We're enjoying all this right now! We've got a little bit of Heaven right here & now on Earth with each other & our Love & our happiness & our good work for the Lord, & we've learned that God meant for us to enjoy life! PTL! Aren't you happy? Aren't you thankful you're in our nice Family freedom? Look at all these beautiful sights we'd be missing, boys! Look at all those beautiful men you'd be missing, girls! If you had that kind of religion you'd be looking like stuffed shirts & you'd be almost as uncomfortable as if you were wearing starched linen!
40. WHEN I WAS A LITTLE BOY THEY HAD LOTS OF LINEN AROUND! You could almost stand a tablecloth on end, the stuff was so thick & stiff when it was starched! Thank God it's not that kind of linen. The kind of linen we're going to be wearing, righteousness, you can see right through it, TTL!--Nothing hidden! Everything's going to be revealed! (Mat.10:26) Ah, see, there's another verse to prove it!
THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY!
41. WHAT'S THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY? You say, "Well, I'm not a prophet, I can't prophesy." (Fam: The testimony of Jesus.) Your very witness, talking about Jesus is the spirit of prophecy! See, the trouble is that most people think of prophecy as predicting the future, but the word prophecy here is taken from a Greek word called "prophetes" which actually means forthtelling. Not foretelling, but forthtelling, preaching the Gospel to all the World, to every creature!
42. EVERY TIME YOU WITNESS, EVERY TIME YOU PREACH THE GOSPEL, EVERY TIME YOU TELL SOMEBODY ABOUT JESUS YOU'RE PROPHESYING! You didn't know you had the gift of prophecy? Well, you may not have that particular gift called prophecy, which is a divine inspiration that just flows in your own native language, that's what prophecy is. Tongues with interpretation is equal in its miraculousness & supernaturalness, you're talking in another language instead & then you have to get the interpretation, which is another gift. But in prophecy you're talking in your own language, in your native tongue, your mother tongue, & you're saying divinely inspired words that come pouring through straight from the Lord or His Angels or good spirits, whoever. It's so easy you don't have to work for it, it's just a gift, you just give it!
43. --LIKE A LOT OF THAT POETRY I GOT! I never wrote poetry in my life before, never, but it just flowed! I didn't even hardly have to think about it, did I, Mama? It just flowed! Somebody else was doing the talking, not me! I couldn't have done that. I think the reason I got so much poetry was because I was in England. There must have been a lot of spirits there! You know, the British are great poets & writers & a lot of the old greatest poets that ever lived lived in England. Marvellous poets! Well, there are some in a few other places like Germany, Goethe & some of them. Some of his stuff was pretty weird. I used to call him the old goat. He did write some pretty weird stuff, let's face it. That poem about the guy selling his soul to the Devil so he could get some woman he wanted was a good sermon, in a way, but my goodness, I didn't have to sell my soul to the Devil to get women, look at all my women! Thank God! I sold my soul to the Lord & I've got more women now than I ever had! Hallelujah! See what a lie of the Devil it is, their idea of sex?--That you've got to sell your soul to the Devil to get some woman. Isn't that ridiculous?
44. ANYHOW, I DIDN'T MEAN TO GET OFF ON POETS, but at least most of those poets, the great poets of Britain, were Christians & they wrote beautiful Christian poetry all about Christian things, Heaven & things like that.
45. THE GIFT OF PROPHECY IS A SPECIAL THING, but in the sense of your actual prophesying, every single one of you is prophesying when you witness & give out the testimony of Jesus! When you're talking about the Lord, when you're witnessing, when you're telling other people how to get saved, you're prophesying! When you're preaching the Gospel you're prophesying!--Because it is the testimony of Jesus!
46. THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS IS THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY! This equals this, so therefore the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus! You didn't know you could prophesy? I'm doing it right this minute, I'm talking to you about Jesus! And all of our witnesses, our litnessers, our people that go door-to-door & store-to-store & talk about Jesus, they're prophesying all the time! They have the spirit of prophecy because they have the testimony of Jesus! Isn't that wonderful? PTL! And I think that might be a good place to quit until next time.
WE'VE GOT ALL THE GOOD!
47. ALL RIGHT, ALL YOU GORGEOUS GOOD SPIRITS--ARE YOU IN A GOOD SPIRIT? (Fam: Yes Sir!) I'll tell you, we've got so much to be thankful for right here & now! We're living in Heaven on Earth compared to the rest of the World already! We've got a good sample of what Heaven is like right now! We've even got a beautiful home & you're all here living with me! That's just like Heaven! What more can we have?--Except we're going to be delivered from some of these sicknesses & weariness & evils of this World & pests & enemies, that's going to be quite a difference! But we've got it all along with all that! I don't see how we can have much more than we've already got, except we're going to be without all that junk!--Right? It's going to be you & me & the Lord & all these pleasures & all these wonderful things we enjoy already but without the bad things. We've already got the good! We've got the goods! I've got the goods on you, boy, & it's really great!
48. THE MAIN DIFFERENCE IS THAT WE'RE GOING TO BE WITHOUT THE EVIL! We're already enjoying all the good & the good things & heavenly things & wonderful people & beautiful love & all the rest, we've already got the good things!--All the knowledge of good & the experience of good & the enjoyment of good! But thank God, then we're going to be without the evil! PTL! TYJ! Hallelujah! Amen, amen! So shall we pray the Kingdom Prayer of our King? (Prays the Lord's Prayer) PTL!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
