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THE RESURRECTIONS OF THE SAVED, THE LIVING & THE DEAD!--Daniel 12, 1Thessalonians 4 & Revelation 20. DO 1897 1/85
1. I LOVE YOU ALL, BUT I'M NOT GOING TO STOP TO KISS ANYBODY, I'M GOING TO DIVE RIGHT IN! I never dreamed we were late, I thought it was early! So PTL! TYL! Somebody start praying, quickly! (Peter prays.) Amen! PTL! TYJ! I'm sure you've been praying, & I have, & I guess the Lord let my clock stop so we'd be able to make some last-minute adjustments to the Endtime Newspaper. We wanted to make sure that Maria's corrections were in! She's pretty smart, you know, she caught several things in there that needed a little help, clarifications. (Maria: I learned from yesterday!) Not anything contradictory or changes, but just to make it a little clearer in some places about the A-ACs! That seems to be becoming a code designation for them & something easy to remember. What does A-AC mean, Davida? (Davida: The anti-Antichrists!)--Yes! That doesn't mean that they are doubly Antichrist, it means that they are against the Antichrist!
2. BY THE WAY, WHEN YOU SPELL HIS NAME, PLEASE REMEMBER TO SPELL IT FIRST OF ALL WITH A CAPITAL "A" & NO HYPHENATION WHATSOEVER. It's all one word with a little "c." However, as a designation, another code, we usually abbreviate his name by A.C., to make a little differentiation between the ACs, plural. You know who they are, don't you? Well, the Antichrist is A.C. in our lingo. In the Bible John actually speaks of "many antichrists" & he spells it with a little "a" & a little "c," one word. He says, "You've heard that Antichrist shall come, & even now there are many antichrists!" (1Jn.2:18)--Ha! There were plenty of them ... ! So technically we take a little liberty with some of those things, & in our particular literature, that's the way you'll find things.
3. SO WE'RE STUDYING PARTICULARLY ABOUT THE A-ACs, SOMETHING NEW HAS BEEN ADDED!--Not really, they were there all the time, we just kind of overlooked'm! For years I didn't know the difference, & the way the preachers taught it, you wouldn't have thought there was anybody but the worst kind of hellions left on Earth during the Wrath of God, & that after the Battle of Armageddon everybody was killed & nobody was left but the Saints & they were up in Heaven & that was it! Well, we've got lots to learn yet! I wouldn't be surprised if the Lord may reveal a few more things to us before we're through! Amen?
4. ALL RIGHT! REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT! So by way of review, this time I'm going to ask the questions & I want every one of you, like popcorn, to speak out the answer in chorus! Are you ready? This is just the way I would give you a test, & usually I gave one or two-word tests. We are now studying the ... (Fam: Endtime!) We are now living in the ... (Fam: Last Days!) Very good! Wow, you're terrific! And we know that by the ... (Fam: Signs of the Times!) Very good! These are the 16 points of the Endtime, by the way. I was going to say that you're welcome to look at your notes, but I don't want you to look at your notes, I want to see if you remember!
5. WHAT'S THE NEXT MAJOR SIGN WE EXPECT TO SEE? (FAM: ECONOMIC CRASH!) Very good! Just the Crash is all you need to remember. I'm testing myself now too. Are you thinking about the next one? What is the next major Sign of the End we expect to see? (Fam: The Rise of the Antichrist!) Right! (Maria: Are we going to count Famine as one or is that with the Crash?) No, that's part of the Crash. We call it the Crash, but it's called famine in old-fashioned ways & days. God calls it famine, Nostradamus called it famine, you'll probably call it famine too when it comes, we'll see! But I don't expect God to let you starve. PTL! Even when parts of the World were in famine during the days of Rome & the Early Church, God fed His Church. The churches that were rich & had no famine sent help to those that did have famine. So don't worry! Some people are just terrorised at the thought of the Tribulation, but it's going to be one of our greatest days of victory! PTL!
6. ALL RIGHT, WE EXPECT TO HEAR OR SEE SOMETHING ABOUT THE RISE OF THE ANTICHRIST, & we will definitely know that he has arisen when there is a signing of the...(Fam: Covenant!) Right! I'm not going to go into the details of the 3-1/2 years, I just want to hit these highpoints. And the next major milestone of the Endtime is the ... (Fam: Breaking of the Covenant!) Very good! Listen to these kids, would ya? They've really got it down pat! And just a few details here, we'll know that the Covenant is broken when he does what three major things? I didn't bring this out specifically before, maybe I should have just gone on with the 16 points, but you need to know these things.
7. WHAT THREE MAJOR THINGS DOES HE DO AT THE BREAKING OF THE COVENANT SO THAT WE KNOW IT'S BROKEN? Whether he announces publicly, officially or formally that he's broken the Covenant, we don't know, but he'll do three things. (David: He sets up the Abomination of Desolation.) What's that? (Fam: The Image of the Beast.) Where? (Fam: In the Temple.) In the holy place. Now don't just say Temple, because I have an idea it's going to be so big it might even be outside! The holiest place was in the Temple, in the Holy of Holies, that's true, so it could be inside or outside, but I think he'd want it outside for the whole World to see, don't you?--Not hidden away inside the building. But he himself is going to be inside claiming that he's God. He's going to put up his Image, claim he's God & he's going to stop what? (Fam: The daily sacrifice.)--All other religious worship, which is symbolised by the stopping of the Jewish daily sacrifice. Okay, now back to our 16 points & we're on number 6, the breaking of the Covenant. That's a good place for number 6!
8. WE'RE SKIPPING OVER THE WARS OF THE ANTICHRIST, BOTH THE FIRST HALF & LAST HALF, WE STUDIED THOSE YESTERDAY, & OUR NEXT MAJOR POINT IS NUMBER 7...(FAM: THE GREAT TRIBULATION!) Right!--In fact, those events inaugurate the Great Tribulation. Jesus Himself said, "When ye shall therefore see the Abomination of Desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet standing in the Holy Place, know ye that the End is near!" Amen? He says, "Then shall be Great Tribulation!" (Mat.24:15,21) So there you are, specific, no reason to doubt about it! I don't know why the church gets so mixed up on some of these points when it's just as plain as day!
9. AND SPECIFICALLY THEN RIGHT AFTER THAT COMES WHAT? (FAM: THE ATOMIC WAR!) At the end of the Great Tribulation is the Atomic War, right! That's number 8. Now number 9: (Fam: The Rapture!) The Rapture, praise God! Number 10: (Fam: The Marriage Supper!) Oh, I only have to call the numbers now like the jokes in that prison! You're getting so familiar with them, all I have to give you is the number! All right, & number 11, what's going on below during the Marriage Supper? (Fam: The Wrath of God!) 12! (Fam: The Battle of Armageddon!) Very good, at the end of the Wrath of God is the Battle of Armageddon! 13! (Fam: The Millennium!) 14! (Fam: Battle of Gog & Magog!) 15! (Fam: Great White Throne Judgement!) 16! (Fam: New Heaven & New Earth!) That's it, & from there on, Eternity! Praise the Lord! That's good! You're getting them down pat where you can really recite'm right off real well. Maybe tomorrow morning I'll ask somebody to stand up & recite'm: 1 so-&-so, 2 so-&-so, 3 so-&-so!--Or I'll say 1, 2, 3 & see if you can do'm all! (David: We did that today!) Good for you, that's great!
10. THIS IS LIKE WHAT THEY CALL A BIBLE SYNOPSIS, WE'RE NOT JUST GIVING EVERY SINGLE DETAIL. This was a part of the Bible Knowledge class--synopsis literally means what? (Fam: Bird's-eye view!) Very good, Honey! Just think, from so long ago in Malta she remembers that! It's amazing how some people did learn something from some of my classes! Bird's-eye view is what it literally means, the general picture from far above, that's what you just gave me. Now in our study we are circling around, like the eagle comes in for a closer look at the target, & we're going to catch some nice juicy little tidbits if we come close enough! Now this is a review of the last half of Daniel Chapter 11.
11. HOW LONG DOES THE ANTICHRIST'S REIGN LAST? (FAM: SEVEN YEARS!) Oooh, I almost caught somebody saying 3-1/2 years! In fact, we used to catch'm all the time! I've even had people say the Tribulation was going to last 7 years. Well, the first half may seem like tribulation to some people, it's not going to be all that pleasant, it's not going to be such a picture of beautiful peace as some of our teachers pictured, calling it the "plastic peace". There will be some peace, maybe more peace than at some times, but the main thing there isn't going to be is the Atomic War, & that will be considered a great peace to most people, peace of mind. They don't mind a few small wars or even some major wars as long as it's not the Atomic War! At least the conventional wars, as they're called, even though they be major wars, are usually confined to certain areas, such as the last two World Wars were confined almost entirely to Europe.--Although, believe it or not, there were little skirmishes fought here & there in Africa & a lot of other places. But the last two major World Wars were fought mostly in Europe.
12. THERE ARE GOING TO BE HOW MANY WARS OF THE ANTICHRIST BEFORE THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON? (FAM: FOUR.) Two when? (Fam: In the first 3-1/2 years.) In the first half of the Antichrist's reign, & the other two then, of course, during the Tribulation, after the breaking of the Covenant. Now let's see what you learned! The first three of these wars are fought primarily against whom? (Fam: The King of the South.) And this symbolises who? (Fam: Israel.) Israel & all of her friends, whoever they may be, & there are oodles of them, probably most of the West.
13. SEE, THEY DIDN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE WEST IN THOSE DAYS. They didn't even know much about Europe in those days. They knew nothing about the Western Hemisphere, North & South America, so the major thing that they were concerned about was their little land of Israel or the Mideast where these Bible Prophets were writing most of these prophecies. When you read Bible Prophecy you must remember when a Prophet says North, he means North of Israel. When he says South, he means either Israel or South of Israel. When he says West, he probably means Western North Africa or perhaps Europe. When he says East, he means largely the Arabs, & perhaps his imagination might stretch as far as India, but even across in Jordan is East. We know now it goes a lot further than that, including big major powers such as China, Japan, the ASEAN nations & even Australia.
14. SO THREE OF THESE FOUR WARS OF THE ANTICHRIST ARE FOUGHT WITH THE KING OF THE SOUTH, & THAT, AS WE DEFINE IT, IS SYMBOLIC OF ISRAEL & ALL OF HER FRIENDS, SOUTHERN, WESTERN, WHEREVER THEY MAY BE. She doesn't have very many friends in the East, which is mostly Arab, etc. And her biggest enemy comes from what direction? Who is this Antichrist? We call him the Antichrist, the Bible more often calls him the King of the North in Bible Prophecy. And this is throughout Bible Prophecy, all through Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel & Daniel you'll find time & time again he's called the King of the North. It says he comes from the North, "a great nation of the North". Well, you could hardly get any more North from Israel than Russia!
15. WE NEED A MAP UP HERE FOR OUR CLASSES, ONE OF THOSE WORLD MAPS! (Fam: We have one!) No, no, no, we don't have time now, it's too late for that now, not while the teacher's teaching! You can put your aids up some other time, & that would be a perfect place for a map right there where all can see it clearly. If somebody can find one of those World maps, then we can have somebody with a pointer sitting over there near to it & point to the things I'm talking about so you can get the picture! It's much easier to visualise.
16. BUT NORTH OF ISRAEL THERE ARE A FEW LITTLE MINOR, THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES, CAN ANYBODY NAME'M? Well, maybe we shouldn't go into so much detail, but quickly, anybody? (Fam: Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iraq.) And the biggest country & the most powerful & the one from whom the invasions are going to come, & of whom Gog is the King, is Russia. Magog was the old antique ancient name for that area, believe it or not, & Gog is simply a Bible word meaning the king, speaking of a specific king, & that word is symbolic of the Antichrist.--And later on in the last battle, symbolic of the Devil himself! So they're all the same forces as far as God's concerned. The Antichrist & the Devil are in essence almost one & the same thing to God, they're major Satanic, Satan-inspired enemies, or Satan himself.
17. SO YOU NEED TO KNOW THESE COMBATANTS, WHO THEY ARE & WHO'S FIGHTIN' WHO! The Antichrist is the King of the North. We don't know exactly who the King of the South is going to be, but as I have told you, the major power that supports Israel is the U.S.A. So you could almost say that what particular personage would really be the King of the South? (Fam: The President of the United States!) Of course, by that time there may even be some new alignment, who knows?--But the point is, it's the King of the North against the King of the South! It's the King of Russia, literally, & World Communism, against the little state of Israel & its Jews & all of their friends, who are symbolised here in the Bible by the words "King of the South". I'm giving you a review just to make sure you already know what we taught you yesterday. If you don't remember what we taught you yesterday, what's the use of teaching you any more today?
18. SO THE KING OF THE NORTH FIGHTS THE FIRST THREE WARS ALL AGAINST THE KING OF THE SOUTH, WHOEVER THAT MAY BE & WHATEVER GROUP OF NATIONS THAT MIGHT BE. But it gets downright specific in the second war, naming & using an ancient name which symbolises which one of those Western powers? (Fam: Britain.) And in another place it says, "And all the young lions thereof." (Eze.38:13)--The British, English-speaking, Commonwealth nations & her allies, the USA! Now remember, the only part of the World they knew then was Europe & vaguely the Orient, so they couldn't say, U.S., Canada & blah blah. They symbolised the Western nations & Europe with what was the greatest Western power at one time & even in recent days--England, the British Empire.
19. THE BRITISH EMPIRE WAS THE LAST GREAT WORLD EMPIRE REALLY. It's not listed as one of the seven, but in recent days since the days of Rome, the British Empire was the greatest empire of man, & it was pretty worldwide. So Great Britain is pretty important. So it's remarkable, or perhaps you might say it's not remarkable, that the Lord should use that term here to symbolise Britain!--And of course, including in this the U.S. & you might say almost the whole West cooperating with the Jews, of all things, against the Russians!
20. ISN'T THAT THE WAY THINGS ARE SHAPING UP RIGHT NOW? AREN'T THEY ALREADY LINING UP THAT WAY? ... Aren't they already lining up against the Russians, against the Communists? The major nations of the West are all working together & preparing to fight Russia. In our present language, the way today's political commentators commentate, it would be the King of the East against the King of the West.
21. BUT MORE & MORE PEOPLE ARE BEGINNING TO TALK ABOUT THE NORTH/SOUTH CONTROVERSY, have you noticed that? Especially the Third World countries are saying it's not an East/West conflict, it's a North/South conflict! So there you are! So in the long run it's going to be the King of the North against the King of the South--the Kings of the North, in fact, when Europe finally joins the Antichrist in the last hour, more or less. It says "in one hour" & we'll study that perhaps today or soon, I don't know how soon. (Rev.17:12,13)
22. OKAY, WHO'S THE KING OF THE NORTH? (FAM: THE A.C.!) The Antichrist, right. In class where you can say it in one word you don't have to abbreviate it, but when you're writing, it helps to abbreviate it. But make it clear, the Antichrist, the King of the North. And who's the King of the South? (Fam: Israel.) Well, we don't really know who is going to be the main head of the group of nations that are symbolised in the Bible by the South, which today mostly we call the West, actually, because they didn't have any West then! There was no Western Hemisphere at all. But today we know that the West is a part of that. These Prophets were just little people like you & me & they lived in the little country of Israel or the Mideast, so everything they said & thought about was in relation to Israel & where they were.
23. SO THE FIRST THREE WARS ARE FOUGHT BY THE KING OF THE NORTH AGAINST THE KING OF THE SOUTH, & WHAT ABOUT THE LAST WAR OF THE ANTICHRIST? Well, apparently it's not his last war because he actually fights five wars. What's the final war of the Antichrist? (Fam: The Battle of Armageddon.) That's the fifth war. But since that's also our war, I'd almost prefer to call that our war, because he doesn't hardly figure, we just wipe him out, he hasn't got a chance! But in a way you could say the Battle of Armageddon is the fifth war of the Antichrist, five wars really that he fights. But what is the 4th war? (Maria: The Atomic War.)--And that one he wins! Why does he win? Maybe we had better study that now to make it specific so you know, because we didn't go into that specifically before.
24. SHALL WE STUDY THE 4TH WAR OF THE ANTICHRIST TODAY? (Maria: The 4th war that we looked at in the 11th Chapter of Daniel against the North & East, is that the Atomic War?) Yes. That's what we interpret as being the Atomic War. I don't want to be dogmatic, but as we just studied in Daniel yesterday & we're reviewing, it's very specific that he fights a 4th war.--Only that war is against the Kings of what? (Fam: The East & the North.) The Kings of the East. And it doesn't say there's another King in the North, because he's the King of the North! But he hears about trouble out of the North, he's having trouble at home.
25. MAYBE ALL THOSE RUSSIAN CHRISTIANS ARE GOING TO RISE UP & GIVE HIM TROUBLE! Maybe some of his own generals are going to start getting fed-up with him & say, "Well, everything's going wrong, we're having too much war" & decide maybe they want to try to work a coup if they can or something. But all we hear is that there's trouble in the North, & he hears trouble from the East. And we know by later passages you're going to study that the trouble that he gets from the East is the Kings of the East, because the Bible is specific about that in the Book of Revelation. (Rev.16:12)
26. SO THE FIRST THREE WARS OF THE KING OF THE NORTH ARE FOUGHT AGAINST WHOM? (FAM: THE KINGS OF THE SOUTH.) They called it South because they didn't have any West, but today in present terminology we would call it the Kings of the South & the West. But the 4th war, actual war now, mind you, is fought apparently against the Kings of the East.--And South, in a way, although it seems like he's pretty well subdued the King of the South, Israel, by this time & he doesn't have much trouble with him any more. And who do we assume, therefore, must be the Kings of the East? Since the Kings of the South, the Jews & all, are already subdued--one major religion is knocked out & all their Christian friends are pretty well subdued--what major religion is represented most likely by the East? (Fam: The Muslims.)--The Muslims & perhaps some of the Orientals too are going to give him trouble. I don't think the Oriental people are going to like him any more than the Muslims, because their religions don't jive with his & worshipping him.
27. MANY PEOPLE WILL RECEIVE THE MARK OF THE BEAST, BUT WE'RE TRYING TO EMPHASISE THAT MANY PEOPLE WON'T! There will be millions of people, whole nations of people who will refuse to follow the Antichrist! Just as there will be some people, even nations of people, God's Word says, during the Millennium--especially perhaps as the Millennium wears on & those rebellious hearts get more & more fed-up with us & God's Kingdom--there are even going to be as much as whole nations who are going to rebel against the Millennial Kingdom of Christ on Earth! We'll read it to you one of these days when we get around to it. That's in those chapters I told you to read in Zechariah, & if you read it already, then you probably already understand, at the end of the last chapters--10 through 14.
28. SO SINCE HE HAS BAD TIDINGS OUT OF THE EAST & TROUBLE AT HOME, THE 4TH WAR OF THE ANTICHRIST IS OBVIOUSLY AGAINST THE KINGS OF THE EAST, WHOEVER THEY MAY BE, & MOSTLY THEY WILL PROBABLY BE ARABS, MUSLIMS, CHINA, THE POWERS OF THE EAST! In fact, God's Word says that He even has the River Euphrates dried up so the Kings of the East can come & fight in the Battle of the Great Day of God Almighty, even in the Battle of Armageddon! Because it's going to be an outcropping of this war with the Kings of the East, the 4th war of the Antichrist, Armageddon is going to spring out of that. In fact, it may even be the last battle of that war & they may be one & the same war! Armageddon may be part or the end of that war!
29. HOWEVER, SINCE THAT 4TH WAR IS THE LAST WAR THAT HE APPARENTLY FIGHTS BEFORE THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON, & ARMAGEDDON MAY BE THE END OF IT, THIS 4TH WAR HAS GOT TO BE THE ATOMIC WAR, because it's got to be at the end of the Tribulation & not at the end of the Wrath of God! Where's the Battle of Armageddon? (Fam: At the end of the Wrath of God.) The 4th war of the Antichrist is at the end of what period? (Fam: The Tribulation.) Get that clear now, it's easy to get mixed up! I used to get mixed up myself! In fact, it was all a mystery to me at one time! It's just the Lord & a miracle of God that He clarified the whole thing & made it clear & simple, & we're going to read it to you right out of the Word & we have been, haven't we? Aren't you sure there are four wars of the Antichrist? You read'm yesterday, or I read'm, & you're supposed to have read'm in your homework. So the 4th war of the Antichrist is apparently toward the end of the Tribulation. The Battle of Armageddon is at the end of the Wrath of God.
30. WELL YOU SEE, EVEN THE ATOMIC WAR, IN A SENSE, CAN BE CONSTRUED AS PART OF THE WRATH OF GOD. It's God's Wrath on the Earth, that's for sure, or He wouldn't allow it. It's His judgement on the Whore, on America! There's even some Wrath of God going on today, right now, in different parts of the World. Not all of God's Wrath is confined to just that little tiny period of Wrath which we estimate to be about 75 days because of Daniel's days at the end of Chapter 12. His number of days extends beyond the Tribulation period, it's longer, & do you know how we know that? Are you familiar with that 12th Chapter of Daniel where we were figuring that? Do you know why he says blessed are they that live to be in these last days, who survive? Well, it looks like you're not too familiar with it, so maybe we'd better finish Daniel & get those things straight if you're not too clear on it. I was going to go into more of the details on the 4th war of the Antichrist, which we believe is at least going to end up in the Atomic War, & we'll make sure of that later. But while we're in Daniel, let's have the 12th Chapter!
31. WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE TIME TO READ THE WHOLE THING, BUT OBVIOUSLY IN THE FIRST PART OF THE CHAPTER, WHAT GREAT EVENT IS TAKING PLACE? (FAM: THE RAPTURE.) The Rapture! The Resurrection of the Righteous! Sometimes He lumps a lot of things together & sees the mountain tops & you can't always differentiate the events, but in the 12th Chapter He specifically mentions what terrible period of time? (Fam: The Tribulation.) "A time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation", that's the First Verse. Boy, he covers a lot of territory in that one verse, the whole Tribulation, & "at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the Book."--The Rapture! "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake." What's that?--The Resurrection is the word for it! Let's get our theological eschatological terms straight, shall we?
32. ALL OF THE SAVED ARE RAPTURED, DEAD OR ALIVE WE'RE ALL RAPTURED, BUT ONLY THE DEAD ARE RESURRECTED. Savvy? It says we who are alive & remain shall be changed in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump! (1Thes.4:16,17, 1Cor.15:52) When the trumpet is blown to call us up, we're changed immediately, instantly! So remember that we're not all resurrected, because most of us today will probably never be buried!--Maybe me & maybe a few martyrs, but as far as most of the millions of Christians on Earth, I expect them to live right on through to the Rapture! The Antichrist is not going to be able to get them all. He may kill a few thousand, he might even kill a few hundred thousand, who knows?--But there are millions of Christians! How many of them are really saved, born-again & will go up in the Rapture we don't know, but I think there are still millions of them, PTL?--Those who really with simple faith believe in Christ as their Saviour & have received Him into their hearts.--Many Catholics, Protestants & other denominations, & many without denominations.
33. SO THOSE WHO ARE ALIVE & REMAIN, GOD'S WORD SAYS, WILL BE CAUGHT UP TOGETHER WITH THEM IN THE CLOUDS TO MEET THE LORD IN THE AIR! Caught up together with them! Who goes first? You mean somebody goes first?--Yes! The resurrected dead go first! Why should they go first before us? (Techi: Because they've waited a long time?) That's a good point, but how do we know? What Scripture shows us that they go first? (Fam: "The dead in Christ shall rise first.") All right, & what Scripture is that? (Fam: 1Thes.4:16) "For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel," & the trump of God shall sound & what? (Fam: "The dead in Christ shall rise first!") There you are! There's the proof that they'll rise first even before we're caught up.
34. WE'RE GOING TO BE HERE STANDING ON THE EARTH WATCHING THE DEAD RISE FROM THE DEAD! God wants us to see that glorious sight, not flying through the sky. He wants us to see the resurrection of the dead along with the rest of the World. That's going to be a shocker! You talk about weekend thrillers, weekend shockers like all the crazy movies they have on American television for evil fascination, there's nothing ever going to shock the World as much as when they see the dead start poppin' out of the graves by the millions!--Millions & millions, billions maybe, all the people who've been saved since the previous resurrection.--When was that?
35. "YOU MEAN THERE WAS A RESURRECTION BEFORE THIS, GRANDPA?" Yes, there was a resurrection before this. When? (Fam: When Jesus died.) Not when He died! People think that because of the way that verse is written. It's in the description of His crucifixion, & because it's melted all together in one little verse, people get the idea that that's when the resurrection of whom occurs? Who rose at that time? (Fam: The bodies of the Saints which slept.) What Saints? (Fam: Those that believed that Jesus was coming.) Of what period? To classify it in a whole period, the Old Testament Saints!--All of those who were saved & died before Jesus' resurrection.
36. BY THE WAY THE VERSE WAS WRITTEN & WHERE IT'S PLACED, YOU'D HAVE THOUGHT IT WAS HAPPENING AT HIS CRUCIFIXION, but what does it say? Have you got it? (Fam: Yes, Matthew 27:52.) Matthew 27:52, get it down now, because it has to do with the same event, & the best notes are kept in your Bible. I'd put it right alongside of where it says "the dead in Christ shall rise first". Put it in the margin there or somewhere around that verse. Sometimes you can write it in between the lines or paragraphs: Matthew 27:52. Jot it down there under your 12th Chapter of Daniel so you'll have it, or you can put it alongside your 4th Chapter of I Thessalonians, both ways. But anyway, what does it say?
37. (FAM: "AND THE GRAVES WERE OPENED; & MANY OF THE BODIES OF THE SAINTS WHICH SLEPT AROSE, & CAME OUT OF THE GRAVES AFTER HIS RESURRECTION.)" It sounds like it's happening right there, "& the graves were opened". It sounds like a big event right there while He's being crucified, but when did they come out? (Fam: After His resurrection!) After His resurrection! The Lord calls Him the firstfruits, right? And after that, every man in his order. (1Cor.15:20,23) "Well, Dad, I thought it said in Revelation 20 that there were just two resurrections, the First Resurrection & the Second Resurrection?" The First Resurrection is the resurrection of whom? (Fam: The Old Testament Saints.) Well now wait a minute, let's just talk about what it says in Revelation, because everybody who takes part in the First Resurrection is saved & rules during the Millennium. Do you want to turn to Revelation 20? Well, this is a good study on the Resurrection that I never intended to get into, but apparently you need it!
38. ALL RIGHT, REVELATION 20, 4TH VERSE: "AND I SAW THE SOULS OF THEM THAT WERE BEHEADED FOR THE WITNESS OF JESUS & FOR THE WORD OF GOD & which had not worshipped the Beast, neither his Image, neither had received his Mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands." That doesn't mean they're all going to be killed, by the way, but it includes them. "And they lived & reigned with Christ a Thousand Years." We know who that is, that's all of us, all the Saved, right? "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the Thousand Years were finished." Now that statement really should have been in parentheses to set it off distinctly, & if I were you, I'd draw parentheses around that statement, because it's a parenthetical remark, almost bracketed. It's just inserted to let you know about the rest of the dead. Then when He says, "This is the First Resurrection", it's obvious it doesn't mean the rest of the dead, because it says they're not going to live again till after the Millennium.
39. SO WHAT RESURRECTION IS HE TALKING ABOUT IN THIS FIRST RESURRECTION? (Fam: The souls of them that were beheaded.) Yes, but not all beheaded, I tried to emphasise that fact. Let's get a more general term. (Fam: The Saved.)--All the Saved! All the Saved take part in this First Resurrection. Therefore in the mind of God He lumps both the Resurrection at the time of the Rapture of all the Christian Saints who died during the Christian era, right along with the resurrection of the Old Testament Saints who were raised at the time of Christ's resurrection! There was already another resurrection after the resurrection of Jesus, right in His day! Right after His resurrection the graves opened & the bodies of the Saints came forth & many people saw'm, right? Doesn't it say so? Therefore, what? You mean there was a resurrection before the First Resurrection? Well, actually these two resurrections, the first is a resurrection of the Old Testament Saints, & the next at the time of the Rapture is a resurrection of the New Testament Saints, but God counts it all as one great resurrection of all the Saints, both Old & New Testament!--The First Resurrection!
40. NOW WE KNOW THERE WAS A RESURRECTION AT THE TIME OF JESUS' RESURRECTION, IT SAYS SO, IT'S QUITE EVIDENT, & WE KNOW THERE'S GOING TO BE A RESURRECTION AT THE TIME OF THE RAPTURE, RIGHT? You mean the Lord's not even going to count those Old Testament Saints who were raised when Jesus was raised? You mean He's not even going to have them helping to rule the Millennium? You mean He's just going to confine it to this little group, or big group, raised at the time of the Rapture? Some people are noddin' their heads, some people are shakin' their heads, I don't think you know what to answer! Maybe I didn't ask the question right!
41. LITERALLY, TECHNICALLY, THERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT PARTS OF THIS FIRST RESURRECTION. You might want to call them two resurrections, but the Lord just calls them one resurrection, the First, do you understand? The First resurrection is all one resurrection, the resurrection of the Saints. Although the Old Testament Saints were raised at the time of Christ's Resurrection, & the New Testament Saints will not be raised until Christ's return, in the mind of God it's all one great resurrection of all the Saints!--The First!
42. REVELATION 20, 5TH VERSE: "THIS IS THE FIRST RESURRECTION. Blessed & holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God & of Christ & shall reign with Him a thousand years." He's already said that once before in the 4th verse, now He says it again in the 6th verse. Okay, there are your two actual parts of the same resurrection. Do you understand? All the Saints who were resurrected, both Old Testament & New, are all counted as one great resurrection in the mind of God, called the First Resurrection.
43. THEN THERE'S ANOTHER RESURRECTION--WHEN DOES THAT OCCUR? He tells you: "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the Thousand Years were finished." When is that? (Fam: At the end of the Millennium.) What's at the end of the Millennium? (Fam: The Great White Throne Judgement.) First of all is the Battle of Gog & Magog & the Earth is burned with fire, then the Great White Throne Judgement where the rest of the dead are judged, the unsaved dead, let's call them that. The preachers always used to call them the wicked dead & said, "See, they're all cast into Hell! There are just two classes of people!" Well, it doesn't say that, it says "the rest of the dead". He describes those dead at the Great White Throne Judgement beginning with the 11th verse, & the 12th verse describes the Second Resurrection. And in this resurrection, are there any saved people? (Fam: No.) None. They are all unsaved people. But are they all so wicked they're all going to be sent to Hell? (Fam: No.)--No indeed! Some are going to be found in the Book of Life! That's what the Judgement is about, otherwise there'd be no point in even having any Judgement! The White Throne Judgement is to divide the sheep from the goats, the tares from the wheat, that's the Great White Throne Judgement of God!
44. BY THIS TIME THE JUDGEMENT SEAT OF CHRIST HAS LONG GONE & PAST OR BEEN IN EXISTENCE FOR OVER A THOUSAND YEARS, & get these two judgements straight because that's very important! The Bible speaks of the Judgement Seat of Christ--when does that take place? "Oh, you mean that's not the same one?"--No! It says this is the Judgement Seat of God! When does the Judgement of Christ take place? (Fam: At the beginning of the Millennium at the Marriage Supper.)--Right! Probably at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb when He's passing out the rewards, etc. Some are going to shine as the stars, others are going to be ashamed & be dim & in contempt!--Christians! Saved! At the Marriage Supper! So that is going to be the Judgement Seat of Christ, when He rewards everyone according to their works & according to their words, & that has to begin very early if they're going to get their reward in time to enjoy it! Amen?
45. YOU'VE PROBABLY SEEN THEM PASSING OUT AWARDS & PRIZES & IMAGES, OSCARS & ALL KINDS OF STUFF ON TELEVISION IN THE PAST, WELL, THE LORD'S GOING TO HAVE HIS TOO, & HE'S GOT TWO OF THEM! I'm not going to take time now because this is not our major subject & we're getting into a lot of other details that I don't want to get astray on because I want to finish what I want to finish! But you'll find the Judgement Seat of Christ used especially in some of Paul's writings, & you can look it up later.--(Mat.25:31,32; Rom.14:10; 2Cor.5:10) But this is the Great White Throne Judgement when God is judging out of the Book of Life all the other people who weren't saved, but who were resurrected at this time.
46. SO THERE ARE ACTUALLY TWO PARTS TO THE FIRST RESURRECTION, TWO RESURRECTIONS REALLY, BUT THEY'RE ALL WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE? (FAM: SAVED!) When were the first resurrected? (Fam: When Jesus was resurrected.) Who were they? (Fam: Old Testament Saints.) When is the second part of the First Resurrection? (Fam: The Rapture.) At the time of the Rapture, in fact actually before the Rapture. They're going to be raised from the graves first, then we're going to go up with them. Has anybody still got their finger in 1 Thessalonians 4? "Then we which are alive & remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, & so shall we ever be with the Lord." All right, have you got all these resurrections straight?
47. ARE ALL THE UNSAVED DEAD PEOPLE RAISED IN THE SECOND RESURRECTION GOING TO BE GOING TO HELL? (FAM: NO!) How do you know? Well, just to make sure of that, do you want to read the rest of this Chapter? 12th Verse, 20th Chapter of Revelation: "And I saw the dead, small & great, stand before God; & the books were opened: & another book was opened, which is the Book of Life."--The books & the Book! How about that? I presume the Book of Life, though it may contain millions of names or even billions of names, is a little shorter than "the books". What do you think are in "the books"?--All the records!--Not of you Christians, but in this case it's the World, every word they ever uttered, every deed, every action, every work, it's all on record! That's going to take quite a few books!
48. IN FACT, ALTHOUGH THE LORD USED THE TERM "BOOK"--BECAUSE MAN DIDN'T KNOW ANYTHING BUT BOOKS IN THE WAY OF RECORDS IN THOSE DAYS--HE'S PROBABLY GOT SOMETHING EVEN SUPERIOR TO COMPUTERS! Most people who have had an after-death experience have said that their whole life just flashed through their mind in pictures in what may have been just a few seconds! Everything they ever did or ever said from the time they could first remember as children on up till their death, it all flashed through in just a few seconds. Well, man has now learned how to record on big long tapes--video tapes, audio tapes--& although it takes quite a long time to do all that recording as those events transpire & as those words occur, when you get done you can rewind it at high speed!--In fact, I'm going to try to get a rewinder to save me a lot of time that's a lot higher speed than your video machine that rewinds very slowly.
49. YOU CAN REWIND ALL THOSE EVENTS & MOVIES & YOU CAN PRESS THAT "FAST" BUTTON & IT GOES LICKETY-SPLIT! You can press the rewind or the fast-forward button & it even goes faster!--Or you can get a rewinder & it goes zip, zip, zip! Do you know how fast it goes? I've timed it & figured it out now. When you've got it on "play" & you press the "fast-search" either forward or backward, it goes 12 times as fast as the movie itself! You can see 12 minutes of movie in one minute! Maybe that'll help you remember it, when you're trying to find something, by keeping your finger on the "fast" button you can see a whole hour of movie in five minutes!
50. NOW IF WE CAN DO THAT WITH OUR MACHINERY THAT HAS THE RECORD OF WORDS, SOUNDS, ACTIONS & PICTURES, something that was never heard of before & man never expected to do & never dreamed was possible, don't you think God's got some kind of machinery or some kind of method? Maybe the reels are all right in your head, all the little computer chips He's already got in there! All He has to do is press your button & it all flashes past in your mind! That's what I think. I think probably most of the books are already here in your little memory chips!--Your head-books!
51. THEY KNOW THAT YOUR BRAIN HAS MEMORY CHIPS!--Not like man-made computer memory chips, but your brain is just full of little cells which act as memory chips & store information. They say that nothing you've ever seen or heard or said or done is actually ever forgotten, it's all still there! Most of it, thank God, is in your subconscious & you don't have to think about it or remember it, or it doesn't bother you most of the time until maybe you're dreaming, or it comes to the surface when you try to remember it. But the brain is a far more amazing, marvellous, phenomenal, stupendous, gigantic--what Hollywood words can I use, anyhow?--Colossal, I missed that one!--Miracle of God, far superior to the biggest computer that man will ever build, even greater than the Antichrist & his Image, because it's so small & has got all that in it that's never forgotten! And God can just reel it off whenever He wants to, to make you remember all those things & know why you're getting judged & the way you're getting judged. All that in the books!--Your head-books!
52. "AND THE BOOKS WERE OPENED!"--THE MINDS OF ALL THOSE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE OPENED TO ALL THEIR SINS & ALL THEIR GOOD DEEDS & WHATEVER THEY DID IN THAT DAY. And the Book--that's the most important Book, right? What is the Book? (Fam: The Book of Life!) Yes! "And another Book was opened, which is the Book of Life: And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works."--In all the books, including the Book of Life! According to these verses here, apparently the Book of Life is mostly names.
53. HE'S PULLING OUT A BOOK CALLED THE BOOK OF LIFE, WHICH MOST PEOPLE USUALLY JUST THINK MEANS THE BOOK OF THE SAVED, BUT THE SAVED HAVE ALREADY GONE TO HEAVEN!--So that's not what this Book is, although there might be some relationship. Why are they pulling out this Book of Life at the Great White Throne Judgement before the people, none of whom were ever saved, if God was not going to give some of them some kind of life?--Not death! He speaks of Hell & that kind of judgement as death, in fact, He calls it the Second Death right here. Well, certainly people who are written in the Book of Life are not going to take part in the Second Death!
54. I'LL ADMIT IT'S NOT VERY CLEAR HERE, BUT THAT YOU HAVE TO GET BY LOGICAL DEDUCTION!--Just like you have to get by logical deduction that since we know there were two resurrections--one of the Old Testament Saints & one of the New Testament Saints--& yet He only says "First" Resurrection, we know by that, that both resurrections were a part of the First Resurrection, one & the same. But now this Second Resurrection is one great resurrection of all the rest of the dead who ever lived, all the rest of the dead. Okay! Well, I didn't intend to get off on this subject but apparently you weren't too clear on it so we've got to make it clear. After all, we're studying these events of the Endtime, & these are some of them!
55. VERSE 13: "AND THE SEA GAVE UP THE DEAD WHICH WERE IN IT; & DEATH & HELL DELIVERED UP THE DEAD WHICH WERE IN THEM." Hey, you mean some people & spirits & bodies are still going to be at the bottom of the ocean?--And you mean some have already gone to Hell? They're going to be in a lot of different places! Not everybody's in Hell. Some people have already gone to Hell & some people are already in the Lake of Fire suffering torment, some people are in other places! Remember those souls I saw under the sea in "Treasure Ship"? (ML #614) Some people, apparently--as part of their punishment or because they're on some mission or for some reason--are required to stay around where they died to haunt the house, to bring scares & judgements on the people who did it or whodunnit or whatever! You've seen a lot of ghost stories like that where the ghost of the person who was murdered stayed around & haunted their murderer, etc.
56. SPIRITS ARE GOING TO BE IN A LOT OF DIFFERENT PLACES, BOTH GOOD & BAD SPIRITS, EVERYWHERE! He's just trying to say the scope of it, everywhere, from the bottom of the sea & death & Hell, they all delivered up the dead! Here you have again Hades & Gehenna, etc., all these different places where the dead are, Hades apparently being a place that's somewhat paradisical even though not Heaven--kind of a waiting room or something, waiting for this day, this Judgement--& Hell, Gehenna, the Lake of Fire, being a place of torment.
57. SO GOD EVEN HAS DIFFERENCES IN THE PLACES WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE WAITING FOR THIS JUDGEMENT! Those that deserve to go to Hell & the Lake of Fire go to Hell right away, & they've been in Hell now, some of them, for thousands of years! Brother! Others who were better people, good people but unsaved, they're in some other kind of waiting places, either in Hades or perhaps in Purgatory, in this place called Paradise that Jesus went to when He spent three days & three nights in the heart of the Earth. (Mat.12:40; Eph.4:9; 1Pet.3:19; 4:6) You mean there's a Paradise down there somewhere?--Must be! Because He went straight to the heart of the Earth for three days & three nights, it says so, & yet He said to the dying thief, "This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise!" (Luk.23:43) So it's not all Hell down there, it's not all Lake of Fire like the preachers have been telling us. Even the Catholics had that straight! They've got Limbo, Gehenna, Lake of Fire, Purgatory, they've got this & that!
58. THANK GOD FOR SOME OF THOSE CATHOLIC THEOLOGIANS WHO DID FIGURE OUT SOME OF THESE DETAILS WHICH THE PROTESTANTS JUST OVER-SIMPLIFIED & tried to just completely abolish all of that hard work of centuries of these great Catholic scholars figuring out these different things! The Protestants just over-simplified the whole thing, saying there's either Heaven or Hell & that's it!--No such thing, it's not true! Even the Catholics were better about that. The Catholics are even straighter on the Tribulation, they teach that the Church is going through the Tribulation! They're even straight on the Antichrist, that he's going to be here running the Tribulation & the Saints are going to have to go through it! What the Hell happened to the Protestants? Well, they got led astray by a few false prophets. Thank God we're getting back to what is actually Orthodox, Christian, even Catholic doctrine on some of these issues! The Catholics got led astray on a few other things, but let's give them credit for the things they were right on, amen?
59. SO THERE ARE A LOT OF PLACES WHERE THE UNSAVED DEAD ARE TODAY!--THERE ARE EVEN A LOT OF PLACES WHERE THE SAVED DEAD ARE!--Some are up in Heaven with the Lord & some have been sent back to do jobs down here, maybe to haunt some of the people that need haunting or to help some of the people that need helping. I mean, we're all over the place, the Devil's got nothing on us! We have our forces too, praise the Lord? But the unsaved dead are all over the place too, & you've heard plenty of stories about them. Some of them have had to linger on at their gravesites for centuries as a part of their punishment, or have to live on in the house & watch other generations that they affected, their children & their children's children & great great grandchildren suffer for their sins! Their spirit has to live there & watch all that. Isn't that some kind of hell? Isn't that some kind of punishment? Others are allowed to come back & haunt their persecutors & murderers & the people that did them injustices & give them a tough time & scare'm to death to get some of their revenge! So there are all kinds of jobs for the spirits that have gone on & they're in all kinds of places. And here in the resurrection of the unsaved dead, we have them coming from death & Hell & the bottom of the sea & the graves & everywhere! Amen?
60. ALL RIGHT, NOW WHEN GOD'S FINALLY GOT ALL THESE PLACES CLEANED OUT & EVERYBODY IS JUDGED ACCORDING TO WHAT THEY DESERVE, (some of them have already gone to where they deserve) death & Hell are then cast into the Lake of Fire, Gehenna, & that is really the worst one! I think we went over these terms once before, the different original words used such as Hades & Sheol & Gehenna, etc., meaning different places, different forms of death or different locations where the unsaved dead are. Savvy?
61. CAN YOU STAND A LITTLE MORE? CAN WE FINISH THIS STUDY ON DEATH? I didn't intend to get into this at all, but I noticed some of you weren't clear on it. So if you're not even clear on the Resurrection, how can you get things straight about the Endtime? Maybe you're hearing some things you never heard of before!--Or maybe at least you're being reminded & getting them clarified. So this is the Second Death.--For all those not found in the Book of Life!
62. BACK AT THE 12TH VERSE: "THE BOOK OF LIFE WAS OPENED & THE DEAD WERE JUDGED OUT OF THOSE THINGS WHICH WERE WRITTEN IN THE BOOKS, ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS." And then the 15th verse says: "And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire." So here again is your logical deduction. It's just like two & two makes four, or two from four makes two, just like mathematics! If some people were not found written in the Book of Life of all things, then some people were found written in the Book of Life! And certainly people found written in the Book of Life were not going to be rewarded with death! Right? So that's the difference!
63. MAYBE WE COULD SOMEHOW CLARIFY THAT. We've got the A-ACs pegged now, but that's a specific group of people, some of whom survive the Tribulation, Wrath of God & over whom we rule in the Millennium, good people but not saved--not saved until maybe later. But what are we going to call these people found written in the Book of Life? You might say we the Saved are first class citizens, & the people that are really bad & wicked & go to Hell are third class citizens, but these people found written in the Book of Life are like second class citizens. They'll be found on the surface of the New Earth, which is almost like Heaven on Earth for sure! It'll be like Paradise compared to Hell!
64. SO YOU MIGHT WANT TO CALL THEM SECOND CLASS CITIZENS, BUT WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD WORD TO CALL THEM SYMBOLIC OF BEING FOUND IN THE BOOK OF LIFE? Come on, it's on the tip of your tongue! Don't be afraid to venture even if you're wrong! (Fam: Second Saved?) Well, they're not really saved like we are yet, they don't go into the Holy City, at least not yet. It comes from the words of the Book of Life. (Fam: The BOL people!)--Ha! We're always using initials! (Fam: The Living!) Good! People who have life, they're living!--Right? You wouldn't call Hell living, would you?--In fact, God calls it the Second Death, it's dying, dying in Hell! That's death, right?
65. BUT THESE PEOPLE FOUND WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE WHO ARE GOING TO BE ALLOWED TO LIVE ON THE SURFACE OF THE NEW EARTH, WOULDN'T YOU CALL THAT LIVING? Brother, when they get there they're going to say, "Boy, this is really livin'! We are really the Living! We may not be saved, we may not yet be allowed into the Heavenly City, but brother, this is really living!"--The Living! The living dead. They were dead, but they're found in the Book of Life, so God allows them to live.--Not die in Hell, not the Second Death, not go to Hell, but to live!
66. SO HOW CAN WE NOW CLASSIFY THESE THREE CLASSES OF PEOPLE IN THREE BIG GENERAL CLASSIFICATIONS? The top dogs, first class, upper class, upper crust are us Saved, we get to walk in the Holy City.--We get to live There, in fact! Then there's the second class citizens, the Living, who are allowed to live on the New Earth outside the City. And then there's what you just about might as well call the Dead, who are dying in the Second Death in Hell. Isn't that a pretty good way to classify them? I was trying to think of how to classify'm so you'd remember, because terminology is important, semantics, words, labels to pin on things & people to help you remember.
67. SO NOW WE'VE GOT ALL HUMANITY CLASSIFIED IN THREE MAJOR GROUPS: THE SAVED, THE LIVING & THE DEAD! How's that? Doesn't that make it pretty simple? That may not always jive with every single little Scripture or terminology used in an Epistle or something like that, because God also speaks of us as the living, we shall live & all that sort of thing. Of course! Obviously the Saved people in the City are living too! They're really living it up, up in the Holy City! Right? But brother, outside on the surface of the Earth they're really living too! They're also living. So is that getting a little clearer in your head? It helps to get some of these labels & terminology & names for people so we can designate who we're talking about!
68. I GET A LOT OF REVELATIONS RIGHT WHILE I'M TEACHING & THAT JUST CAME TO ME! I was trying to think of what to call those people all this time, & all I could think of was first, second & third class. Well, you wouldn't even call the third ones third class citizens, they're not even citizens of the New Heaven & New Earth at all! So you can't call them first, second & third class or middle class or poor class or anything. I wouldn't call Hell any kind of class at all! That's no kind of class. They ain't got no class at all! But the Saved, they're certainly living, & there are also the Living, even though unsaved, living outside on the New Earth. The Living!--Found written in the Book of Life! There's the word for it right there! Who's found written in the Book of Life? (Fam: The Living!)--The folks that God is good enough to give life to, because they were good enough to at least deserve life, they at least deserve to live & be given a chance on the surface of the New Earth! PTL?
69. EVEN THE MORMONS BELIEVE YOU CAN BE SAVED AFTER YOU'RE DEAD, PROVIDING ONE GOOD MORMON WILL GET BAPTISED FOR YOU IN THE TEMPLE! Well, I go further than the Mormons! I believe you can even get saved in Heaven! Well, not necessarily in the Holy City, but on the outside Earth where the Living are. PTL? God's still going to give them a chance! How about that?--Only by that time He will have sifted them so many times there are not going to be any more rebels! If anything, eventually everybody Up There is going to get saved too, because they're in the Book of Life, they're the Living, & if people aren't going to get saved by that time, they never would get saved! But they're apparently going to need Salvation, they're going to need healing, otherwise what are the Leaves of the Tree of Life for the healing of the nations for? There you are!
70. I'M TRYING TO GET YOU TO SEE, NOT JUST ME EXPLAIN TO YOU! I want you to see it & see it from the Scripture that there are a lot of things here that you can see for yourself that the preachers never explained to us!--In fact, they had no explanation! Those poor dumb idiots just out of Bible College & Cemetery, they were about as dead as the rest of them & they didn't know what they were talking about! Most of them don't even know anything about Salvation! Most of the preachers who graduate from Bible College & Cemetery aren't even saved, don't even know the Lord! I like to call it Cemetery because that's where they bury most of their faith! How can they tell us anything?--Preachers or priests, whatever they may be, Bishops, Cardinals, Monseigneurs. From what I've heard of a few Popes, I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't saved either!
71. I THINK IF ANY OF THE POPES WERE EVER SAVED, IT SOUNDS LIKE THIS MAN JOHN PAUL MIGHT BE SAVED! THIS SEEMS TO BE LIKE GOD'S LAST CHANCE FOR THE CATHOLICS! HE'S LIKE A TRUE SHEPHERD WHO IS REAPING THE LAST REAPING! I don't agree with him about everything, but I heartily agree with him on most things & I believe he's very sincere. I have the feeling that the man couldn't be so good & doing all he's doing & sacrificing his life & endangering his life trying to visit his whole flock in all the World if he weren't saved! It's like if I'd go around & try to visit everybody of our Family in every country of the World, wouldn't that be dangerous? I'd be risking my life for sure! I probably wouldn't live through it, & he may not live through it either! I think that guy is willing to really risk his life to love those people! And he's not just doing it for glory either, because a lot of his church & church leaders criticise him for it, they don't like it, they don't think he should do it! I'm just about convinced the man is saved & knows the Lord, even though he may be wrong about a few things.
72. WE'RE ALL SAVED, AREN'T WE?--BUT SINCE YOU'RE SAVED, HAVE YOU EVER BEEN WRONG ABOUT ANYTHING? Even I make a mistake once in awhile!--Ha! I've even had to change my theology once in awhile & my doctrine at some major turning points in our teaching. Of course, the biggest switcheroo was when I got off of the Jews! God had to give me a direct revelation & send me all the way to Israel to have to live with them to wake me up to get off of that kick! That was a big revelation!
73. WELL, ALL THE WAY ALONG THE LORD HAS BEEN REVEALING BIBLE PROPHECY & THE FUTURE & THESE DETAILS TO US, & HASN'T IT BEEN A GRADUAL GROWTH? Haven't we been learning something new all the time? Haven't we even had to change a few of our ideas once in awhile?--Nothing really major perhaps, nothing like changing our doctrine of the Post-Trib Rapture or doctrine of the Antichrist or anything else that's obvious & major in the Bible, but maybe a little misplaced war here or there or something like that, that's about all.--And those are minor details which are very difficult to figure out!
74. BUT AS WE GET CLOSER TO IT & WE NEED TO KNOW, THE LORD IS BEGINNING TO OPEN OUR MINDS & CLARIFY IT & SHOW US WHAT'S REALLY GOING TO HAPPEN! And since He knows that the economic Crash is going to happen next, I believe, He doesn't want us worrying about the Atomic War! Why should we be digging shelters & finding refuges out in the woods when that's not what's going to happen next? We need to prepare for the Crash, not the War! There'll be plenty of wars & you always need to be prepared for them, but the Crash is going to be the first & the worst thing that's going to affect us. So don't you think it was about time God showed us & got these things clarified & figured out & straightened out, the beads on the string in the right order?
75. ALL RIGHT! NOW HAVE YOU GOT THE RESURRECTION STRAIGHTENED OUT? HAVE YOU GOT THE THREE MAJOR CLASSES OF ALL HUMANITY STRAIGHTENED OUT? THE FIRST CLASS ARE THE SAVED, THE SECOND CLASS THE LIVING, & NO CLASS AT ALL, THE DEAD! Does that help you & simplify things?--It does for me too! I think that's a good term for those people--the Living! They're not dead, they're not in Hell, they don't suffer the Lake of Fire & that kind of torment, but apparently they were good enough people that God felt they did the best they knew how--righteous people, good people who did good works even though they knew not their Master's will. But they were sinners, because everybody's a sinner, therefore since they sinned, they must have done some things worthy of punishment. He said, "Those who knew not their Master's will shall be beaten with few stripes"--very little punishment. (Luk.12:47,48)
76. MAYBE SOME OF THOSE ARE GETTING THEIRS NOW!--Maybe in their confinement to some ghostly job or the bottom of the sea or someplace like that. Some of these good people are having to get their punishment now! Did you ever think about that? Certainly by this time over in the World of the Spirit they must know what the facts are & the Truth. But while they were alive here & now, they knew not their Master's will & they did things worthy of punishment, so they'll only be beaten with few stripes. And my theory is that those that have gone on are getting them now.
77. AND THOSE WHO MAY LIVE RIGHT CLEAR THROUGH TO THE VERY END, SUCH AS THE END OF THE MILLENNIUM, WELL, IT LOOKS TO ME LIKE SURELY EVERYBODY NOW ON EARTH THAT WAS EVER GOING TO GET SAVED WOULD GET SAVED THEN! Apparently some people are still going to get to Heaven--whether you want to call it the Holy City or the New Heaven, New Earth, it's all Heaven, it's all heavenly, Heaven-on-Earth! What about some of those people? Maybe they live right clear through to the very end of the Millennium. It seems like certainly everybody in the Millennium that's going to get saved would get saved by the end of the Millennium, doesn't it? Then why in Heaven are some people still going to require healing? Who are they?--The Living raised at the White Throne Judgement! Do you think it's just physical healing? They'll have some kind of supernatural, miraculous, eternal, immortal bodies by then or they wouldn't be there, right?--Not as powerful as ours, but they're the Living & they're going to live forever, that's a pretty good body! It's an eternal, immortal body & that's a pretty good body! So obviously their bodies aren't going to need healing.
78. WE SHOW A PICTURE OF A LEAF BEING APPLIED BY THE GIRL BECAUSE WE'VE GOT TO SYMBOLISE IT & PICTURE IT SOMEHOW, BUT HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SHOW SPIRITUAL HEALING, LEARNING MORE ABOUT THE LORD, LOVING GOD MORE, LEARNING REAL SALVATION? How are you going to show a picture of that? That's an abstract thing which you can't actually picture except by symbols. So for the sake of our children we show a Leaf of Life being applied to the man's body in the picture to show that they're getting healed somehow. Well, I've got it placed right over his heart, so it must be his heart that's getting healed!--In other words, what really amounts to his spirit. They're getting their spirits all straightened out & re-educated & brainwashed, & I believe it's spiritual healing! PTL? So apparently they haven't got it all yet, they haven't made it all, even by the time they make Heaven, the New Earth! They're the Living, they've been spared, they're going to live, but we still have a few things to teach'm, they have a few things to learn. PTL?--Including real Salvation!
79. WELL, OUR MAJOR SUBJECT TURNED OUT TO BE THE RESURRECTION & THE CLASSES OF THE DEAD & THE LIVING TODAY, & since we're at the end of the 20th Chapter we might as well quit there. I don't think we're going to be able to get back into Daniel 12. Well, we've got ten minutes--would you like to finish the 12th Chapter? All right! We got onto that through this 12th Chapter because we were talking about people who died & people who are going to live & people who are going to live through the Millennium, etc., etc. But you didn't even have it in your heads clearly who's resurrected & who's not & who's saved & who's not & who's the Living & who's not! Now I think you've got'm straightened out! Have you got those beads on the string? Well, we've got quite a few more beads to string so let's get with it, shall we?--And maybe this is one of'm right here in this last part.
(Continued in "When Is the End?" ML #1898.)
Copyright (c) 1997 by The Family
