10-09-24 | Daily Devotions

The Hatred of the World

10/09/24^“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
(John 15:18,19) ESV

161 – Jesus—His Life and Message: John 15: If the World Hates You

Jesus—His Life and Message

Peter Amsterdam

2021-07-13

(You can read about the intent for and overview of this series in this introductory article.)

Earlier in John chapter 15, Jesus told His disciples that they were His friends. He reminded them that He had told them everything He had heard from His Father, that He had chosen and appointed them, and that they would bear abiding fruit. He also stated that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.¹ Throughout the rest of this chapter, as Jesus continued teaching, His focus turned toward the persecution His disciples would face in the not-too-distant future.

These things I command you, so that you will love one another.²

Bible commentators differ on whether this verse is connected to the preceding verses where Jesus spoke of His disciples as His friends rather than servants and said that He had chosen and appointed them to bear abiding fruit, or whether it is connected to the verses that follow. Here, it is being connected to the verses that follow. Jesus made a point to emphasize the importance of the disciples loving one another.

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.³

Jesus knew that the world would hate the disciples, just as He had known that the world would first hate Him. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus made a similar point. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.⁴

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.⁵

In saying “if” you were of the world, Jesus was stating that they were not of the world. Rather, He had chosen them to come out of the world and to no longer be part of it. Because of this, the world would hate them. The Gospel writer emphasized “the world” by repeating it five times in this one sentence. Because the world is what it is, and Christians are not to be of this world, it is inevitable that the world will act toward believers as they did against the Lord. A similar point is made in the book of 1 John: Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.⁶

“Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.”⁷

Jesus reminded them of something He had said earlier in this Gospel. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.⁸ The treatment given to a master determines the treatment given to the servant. As His servants, the disciples could expect no better treatment than what Jesus would receive. He was persecuted and killed, and so they could expect the same. Of course, many people also believed in Jesus and His Word and so too would many believe in the message the apostles would preach and teach.

But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.⁹

Here Jesus is speaking specifically about those who would persecute believers. They would do so because they do not know God. Jesus and His ministry made known the Father, the One who sent Jesus. Thus, when people rejected Jesus, they rejected the Father who sent Him. Such rejection leads to persecution of those who preach the gospel.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.¹⁰

Jesus pointed out the seriousness of rejecting Him. If He had not come and told them that He was the Messiah, they might have been able to claim that they were ignorant of who He was; but under the circumstances, there was no excuse for rejecting Him. They couldn’t say that if He had given evidence that He was the Messiah and that He was sent by the Father they would have believed Him; He did those things, yet they still didn’t believe. There was no excuse for their unbelief.

Whoever hates me hates my Father also.¹¹

Jesus then pointed out that He and His Father are so closely connected that in hating Him they are hating the Father as well. Elsewhere in the Gospel of John, we read of those who hate Jesus: The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.¹² This is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.¹³

If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.¹⁴

This is similar to what Jesus had said earlier, when He referred to the words He had spoken to them. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin. Now He refers to the works He had done. These works undoubtedly included the miracles He had performed, but wasn’t limited to them. He referred to them as works “no one else did.” An example of such a miracle was when Jesus healed a blind man. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.¹⁵

“But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’”¹⁶

Jesus pointed out that the Law, God’s words to them, would be fulfilled. He quoted from the Psalms, either from Psalm 35 or 69. Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, and let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause.¹⁷ More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause.¹⁸ These verses speak of hatred without any reasonable foundation or adequate cause. One author explains: It is this kind of hatred that the Jews had exercised toward Jesus. … The Jews saw themselves as the upholders of the Law, but in their zeal for the Law they incurred the condemnation of the Law by rejecting the Christ to whom the Law bore its witness.¹⁹

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.”²⁰

In the face of the world’s hatred, the disciples would need an advocate, a helper. Various translations use the terms Spirit, Counselor (CSB, NIV); Comforter (KJV); Advocate (NLT, TNIV); and Helper (ESV, NAS, NAU, NKJV).

Jesus had spoken earlier of the Helper, saying, I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever²¹; and The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.²² Now He states that the function of the Spirit of truth, whom He will send from the Father, and who proceeds from the Father, is to bear witness of Jesus. After Jesus’ ascension into heaven, the Spirit would continually bear witness of Him.

Along with the Holy Spirit, the apostles would also bear witness of Jesus. They were not to leave all of the work of bearing witness about Jesus to the Spirit; they were also sent to preach the gospel. The apostles were uniquely able to tell others about Jesus, as they were with Him from the beginning. As disciples of Christ, we too, like the apostles of old, are called to bear witness of Jesus, to be a conduit through which the Holy Spirit can speak to people’s hearts, so that they can receive Christ as their Savior.

(To read the next article in this series, click here.)

Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

¹ John 15:16.

² John 15:17.

³ John 15:18.

⁴ Matthew 10:25.

⁵ John 15:19.

⁶ 1 John 3:13.

⁷ John 15:20.

⁸ John 13:16.

⁹ John 15:21.

¹⁰ John 15:22.

¹¹ John 15:23.

¹² John 7:7.

¹³ John 3:19–20.

¹⁴ John 15:24.

¹⁵ John 9:32.

¹⁶ John 15:25.

¹⁷ Psalm 35:19.

¹⁸ Psalm 69:4.

¹⁹ Morris, The Gospel According to John, 605.

²⁰ John 15:26–27.

²¹ John 14:16.

²² John 14:26.

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit

10/08/24“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. ²⁶But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. ²⁷Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:25-27) ESV

159 – Jesus—His Life and Message: John 14: I Go to the Father

Jesus—His Life and Message

Peter Amsterdam

2021-06-29

(You can read about the intent for and overview of this series in this introductory article.)

In this last segment of John chapter 14, Jesus is still speaking with His disciples after Judas Iscariot has left the dinner. Having told His disciples that the words He had spoken to them were not His own, but were from His Father who sent Him, Jesus continued:

These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.¹

His time with His disciples was soon coming to an end, and He was speaking to them while He was still able to. His final teaching to His disciples continues on through the next three chapters in this Gospel.²

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.³

Jesus then began to speak to His disciples about the Holy Spirit, whom His Father was going to send to them. The Greek word paraklētos is translated here (ESV, as well as in NAU and NAS) as Helper, and in other Bible translations as Comforter (KJV), Counselor (NIV, CSB), or Advocate (NLT).

Earlier in this chapter, the Helper was called the Spirit of truth,⁴ but now is referred to as the Holy Spirit. Jesus points out that the Holy Spirit will be sent by the Father in the name of the Son, which shows that the Spirit is closely related to both the Father and the Son. The Spirit’s mission comes from both the Father and the Son. Like Jesus, the Holy Spirit is “sent” from the Father; however, the Spirit is sent in Jesus’ name, meaning in response to Jesus’ intercession.

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.⁵

The Spirit would be the guide and teacher of the church and would remind the disciples of the things that Jesus had taught them. While the disciples didn’t always understand the importance of what Jesus taught, and they probably forgot some of what He said during the time He was with them, Jesus told them the Holy Spirit would bring back to their memories and emphasize all that He had said to them.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.⁶

The peace which Jesus gives comes from the presence of the Holy Spirit within believers, which He has been speaking about. When speaking of peace here, Jesus is speaking about a special gift He is giving to His disciples.

In the Hebrew language, “peace” is often used as a greeting when someone is arriving or as a way of saying goodbye.⁷ However, here Jesus isn’t using this word in this manner. Having stated that He gives peace, He makes the point that the peace He gives is different from the peace the world gives. The peace He gives doesn’t depend on outward circumstances; it is an inner peace. Since He gives such inner peace, He can tell them not to be troubled in heart or afraid.

“You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”⁸

Earlier in this chapter (verse 3), Jesus stated that He was going to go away and then come back again. Here the focus is on His departure. If they really loved Him, they would rejoice that He was returning to the Father.

Jesus returning to His Father is a joyful matter; though for the disciples, the thought of it likely brought sorrow, as it would mean Jesus would no longer be with them. Jesus’ statement that the Father is greater than I can present some confusion, as the understanding of the Trinity is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all equally God. In this instance, however, when stating that the Father is greater than I, Jesus was not referring to His essential being but to His incarnate state as a human being at the time, which involved a certain subordination.

Now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.⁹

What Jesus had told them would have a greater impact on the disciples in their future, when these things would come to pass. They would remember what He predicted, and it would increase their faith. They would grow in their trust and belief in Him when they saw His words come true.

I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.¹⁰

Jesus said He would not speak much more with His disciples, because Satan was coming. Judas and the soldiers were on their way to arrest Jesus, and in them Jesus saw the coming of the evil one. Satan has no claim or hold on Jesus, however; as his hold on people is due to their sins, and Jesus was without sin.

He pointed out that He does exactly what the Father has commanded Him to do. While this was true throughout His life, in this context the focus is probably on the cross and Jesus’ soon-coming death. He was about to lay down His life in obedience to the command of His Father, and in doing so, He would demonstrate to the world that He loved the Father.

He then instructed His disciples to stand in preparation to leave. Some commentators feel that this seems out of place, as in the next three chapters Jesus is still speaking with and instructing His disciples, indicating that they probably remained in the room during that time. Other commentators propose that while Jesus and the disciples were walking toward the garden of Gethsemane, He continued to teach them. We can’t really know, neither does it matter. The Gospel writer most likely had a reason for putting things in the order that he did, and because he did, we are blessed with a beautiful account of Jesus’ last teaching before His death on the cross.

(To read the next article in this series, click here.)

Note

¹ John 14:25.

² John 15, 16, 17.

³ John 14:26.

⁴ John 14:17.

⁵ John 14:16–17.

⁶ John 14:27.

⁷ John 20:19, 21, 26.

⁸ John 14:28.

⁹ John 14:29.

¹⁰ John 14:30–31.

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit

10/07/24 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper,^[f] to be with you forever, ¹⁷even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be^[g] in you. (John 14:15-17) ESV

158 – Jesus—His Life and Message: John 14: The Helper

Jesus—His Life and Message

Peter Amsterdam

2021-06-15

(You can read about the intent for and overview of this series in this introductory article.)

John chapter 14, which we started going over in the previous article, continues with Jesus speaking to His disciples just prior to His arrest and trial. Earlier, He had spoken to them about believing in Him. He had also given the disciples a wonderful promise:

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.¹

While Jesus continued instructing His disciples, He changed the topic in verse 15 as He began to speak to them about the Holy Spirit.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.²

Jesus began this short segment with an “If” clause: If you love me, you will keep my commandments.³ He reminded His disciples that if they truly loved Him, their love would be shown by their keeping His commandments. He makes this point again in verse 21. His language echoes the language of the Old Testament, where God speaks of showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.⁴

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.…⁵

Soon, Jesus would no longer be physically with the disciples, but in His place, the Father was going to send another Helper who would remain with them permanently. In this translation (ESV, and also NAS and NAU), it says that the Father will send a Helper; other translations refer to a Comforter (KJV), Counselor (NIV, CSB), or Advocate (NLT, TNIV). The Helper will be with believers forever; the Holy Spirit will not be taken away.

…Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.⁶

The Advocate is now referred to as the “Spirit of truth.” This is interesting, as Jesus had just described Himself as “the truth,” and earlier in this Gospel we read that “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”⁷ Truth is connected to the Trinity.

Jesus then contrasted the attitude of the world with that of the disciples when it comes to their attitude toward the Spirit. The world neither sees, meaning that they do not perceive, nor can they accept the Spirit. They are unaware of the Spirit’s activities, presence, or existence, and therefore they don’t enter into relationship with the Holy Spirit. However, believers do know the Holy Spirit because the Spirit dwells within them.

Jesus went on to speak of the way He would manifest Himself to His disciples.

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.⁸

Three times in this Gospel Jesus has spoken about going away from His disciples.⁹ Earlier in this chapter, He stated that after going away He would return. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.¹⁰ In that instance, His coming again is understood to be referring to His second coming. However, in this instance, when Jesus says the world will see me no more, but you will see me, He is speaking about His resurrection, His rising from the dead. Though He would die, He would also rise from the dead and once again physically be with His disciples.

In saying yet a little while, Jesus indicated that He was not referring to events in the far future, but rather was speaking about what was to happen soon. After His soon-coming crucifixion, the world would see Him no more. However, in that day, after His resurrection, His disciples would see Him. In the book of Acts we are told that after Jesus rose from the dead, He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.¹¹

Jesus’ resurrection from the dead was the guarantee that His disciples (and all future believers) would not be overcome by death. Because I live, you also will live. Since Jesus rose from the dead, all believers will live forever—a point that Jesus made earlier in this Gospel. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.¹²

When saying, In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you, Jesus was referring to the literal day of His resurrection. Once the disciples saw the risen Jesus, and had spent 40 days with Him, they would understand more fully about Christ’s indwelling in the Father and the mutual indwelling of Christ and believers. Jesus was in His Father and the disciples were in Jesus as He was in them.

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.¹³

Those who make Jesus’ commands their own, who take them into their hearts and souls, are the ones who love Him. He speaks not only of “having” the commandments but also of “keeping” them. This points to the importance of obeying Jesus’ teachings and making them part of our daily lives. Those who do are those who love Him, and those who love Him are loved by the Father. It is to these that Jesus says He will manifest Himself. He doesn’t explain this further, but makes the point that in some way He will manifest Himself to those who love Him.

Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”¹⁴

According to two lists of the disciples (Luke 6:14–17 and Acts 1:13), this Judas is referred to as the son of James. Some commentators say that he may be the same person as Thaddeus, who is mentioned in other lists of the apostles.¹⁵ This Judas asked a question that was probably on the minds of the others. He wanted to know what it meant that Jesus would manifest Himself to the disciples but not to the world. Judas likely had standard Jewish thinking in that he expected the Messiah to show his glory in the eyes of all the people, and it was sounding like something had changed.

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”¹⁶

Earlier Jesus made the point that real love is expressed in deeds.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.¹⁷

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.¹⁸

Those who love Jesus will keep His word, meaning that they obey His word in their daily lives, rather than just having knowledge of His word. He also stated that those who love Him and keep His word will be loved by the Father, and that both the Father and the Son will make our home with him. Such a home is not a temporary place to lodge, but a permanent dwelling. Jesus was saying that believers will experience the presence of God in their lives.

Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.¹⁹

Jesus also pointed out the reverse or negative side. Those who don’t love Jesus will not keep His words, His teaching. This Gospel views love as something practical rather than as something emotional. Love involves obedience. Jesus stresses that His words, the things He teaches, are not His own but are the Father’s. He has said this several times throughout this Gospel.

My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.²⁰

I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.²¹

I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak.²²

The Son, who was sent by the Father, delivers the Father’s message.

(To be continued.)

Note

¹ John 14:13–14.

² John 14:15–17.

³ John 14:15.

⁴ Exodus 20:6.

⁵ John 14:16.

⁶ John 14:17.

⁷ John 4:23–24.

⁸ John 14:18–20.

⁹ John 13:33, 36; 14:2–4.

¹⁰ John 14:3.

¹¹ Acts 1:3.

¹² John 6:57.

¹³ John 14:21.

¹⁴ John 14:22.

¹⁵ Matthew 10:3, Mark 3:18.

¹⁶ John 14:23.

¹⁷ John 14:15.

¹⁸ John 14:21.

¹⁹ John 14:24.

²⁰ John 7:16.

²¹ John 8:28.

²² John 12:49.

Born Again to a Living Hope

10/06/24Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (I Peter 1:3-5) ESV

Here and Now for There and Then (part 2)

David Brandt Berg

1981-11-01

A second chance

I believe the Millennium is going to be another sifting time. Maybe there will be a way for people to be saved then if they’ll believe, having seen. The Lord commends those even now who, having not seen, yet they have believed. He chided Thomas, “Because you’ve seen Me, you’ve believed.” But He said, “Even more blessed are they who having not seen, yet have believed” (John 20:29).

Some will be raised to everlasting shame and contempt, and others shall shine as the stars, as the brightness of the firmament forever, who have turned many to righteousness (Daniel 12:2–3). So God’s got all kinds of classes even among the saved, and I believe there are going to be classes and degrees among the unsaved or the wicked who remain on this earth, or the unbelieving, whatever they are. And I believe that some are going to be, you might say, good people, and some really bad people, because He definitely indicates in the Scripture that He’s going to bless the countries that obey.

Why would they obey unless they believe and receive His authority and do what He tells them to do?—Or what God’s people tell them to do, really. If He blesses them that much, then He must have further blessings for them, and a better place for them in the next world—not in the Heavenly City, perhaps, but somewhere, maybe out ruling the world that’s outside. He says they’ll have kings and nations (Revelation 21:24).

I don’t think God’s going to lose anything. I don’t think anything’s going to be lost. Science says that no sound is ever lost, no material is ever lost; it only goes from one form to another. Nothing that God ever made is lost. Some people are lost already and already condemned, He says, but I don’t believe they’re going to be lost forever. I think He’s going to reclaim them and reconstitute them and regenerate them—if not now, then in the next life.

What about the people in the Millennium who do believe and do repent and do receive? Are they going to be saved like us? Maybe so, maybe some, but there are going to be a lot of others to bring a lot of hell back on earth again when the Devil’s released in the Battle of Gog and Magog (Revelation 20:7–9). But God’s first going to give them a chance without the opposition of the Enemy, and with the personal presence of their best friend—Jesus.

God’s going to give them a chance under the most ideal conditions to believe and to accept and receive and obey. I’m convinced that there was a chance for those spirits in prison, those folks in hell, when Jesus went down there and preached to them, for them to be released or get out or have a chance to receive or reject what He had to say or do, or why else would He have gone there? (See Matthew 12:40; 1 Peter 3:19.) If they had a chance, you might say, that’s a second chance.

A second chance, not for the same kind of salvation or the same kind of reward or the same kind of place in heaven, but a second chance to believe and receive and obey when they see it all by sight. We get special commendation for believing and receiving and obeying by faith. Then faith won’t even be necessary; they can see it. Of course they’re going to believe it. “No man shall say, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Him” (Jeremiah 31:34).

They say, “Show me and I’ll believe it!” The world’s motto is, “Seeing is believing.” God’s motto for us now is, “Believing is seeing.” If they are going to believe when they see, why wouldn’t the Lord bless them somehow? If not with our kind of salvation, with some kind of salvation, reclamation, reconciliation, and reward them accordingly in the next life, which for them will be the new earth and new heaven.

He’ll also judge and punish accordingly those who, even after they see Him, rebel and defy and go into open rebellion against the kingdom of God, under Satan when he’s released. Of how much sorer punishment should they be accounted worthy who, having had this seeing and feeling experience, still have rejected it—and rejected Him! The minute they get a chance under the Devil’s leadership to come out in open rebellion, they do it, so God has to wipe them all out.

I believe God is going to start reclaiming His creation even during the Millennium. A lot of people are going to be reconciled and saved in some way from what they might have otherwise been or what might have happened to them, by having some kind of choice then.

If Jesus was willing to go to the heart of the earth, to hell, and rescue some people—or try to rescue them by preaching to the spirits in prison—how much more so if we are left here on this earth with a lot of unsaved people, some good and some bad; why shouldn’t He have us preach to them in a way that they might repent and change and turn, and having seen, believe and receive and follow?

I don’t think all the witnessing we’re doing now is wasted, which sometimes seems hopeless and falls on deaf ears and unbelieving hearts. Who knows, maybe when they wake up in the next world, at least in the Millennium, they’ll remember and be instant believers.

I believe God’s going to give them a chance. Although it’s not always clear about it, I think Scripture indicates that He’s going to give them another chance—maybe not with the same reward or salvation, but in a sense, a second chance to at least better themselves and be better off than they would have been.

It’s obvious from this description of the Millennium that there are going to be many who receive it and obey and are blessed by the Lord, and others who will still rebel. He’s going to divide the sheep from the goats even then, and there’ll be another sifting of those who, even having seen, yet will not believe, “though one should come back from the dead” (Luke 16:31).

So if the Lord is giving people a chance here, He’s certainly going to give the deserving a chance there. Maybe the ones who never had a chance to hear the Gospel and never really got the news—whom we failed and actually their blood’s on our hands (Ezekiel 3:17–18)—maybe God’s going to give them their chance then.

Heaven on Earth

I believe everything we’re learning now and every experience we’re going through now and all of our talents and skills and everything that we are gaining now, He is going to use in the next world in some way.

The Lord had to make it natural enough, similar enough to this present world that people could relate and learn anything in the next thousand years. That thousand years has a purpose; it’s not just for floating around on clouds playing harps. It’s another grade, another step in both our and the world’s experience, a learning and educational process to prepare them for the next step and the next world.

We are not ready for the new heaven and new earth. We need another thousand years of experience in organizing and reconciling and teaching and helping others to learn. I think after a thousand years of Millennium we’ll be better prepared for it.

It’s quite definite and obvious and scriptural that our ministry, our talents for service to God and to others will continue into that life, because we will be picking leaves from the tree of life to go out and heal the nations (Revelation 22:2). If that’s not a literal tree or literal leaves, it certainly is a marvelous, figurative picture of the fact that we will be taking life from the city—some healing power or healing methods of bringing back life or more life—to those outside who apparently still need some kind of healing. Maybe it’s spiritual healing, maybe it’s mental healing. Maybe it’s just simply to get them better prepared to know God and worship Him and love Him and serve Him in the outside world.

It’s going to be quite a job ministering to all those people on the surface of the earth outside the Holy City.—Whole nations with kings, governments, peoples, lands, still outside. What are they there for? We know why they’re not inside; they’re not saved like we are, at least. But they must feel pretty good even being out on a heavenly planet like that!

We’re learning a lot, and it’s not going to be lost. And yet we still have a lot to learn and we’re going to use every bit of it in teaching and training others, showing others, preparing others to be able to adapt themselves to the kingdom of God on earth and even heaven on earth, and become integral parts of it, useful citizens of it, all for the glory of God.

What more could God do to show His almighty power and the fact that He never fails than to reclaim and regenerate and reconcile and reconstitute His whole creation, including everybody He ever created? What greater thing could God do to prove that He never fails and that love never fails, than to finally “save” everybody? It’s not the same, but if He wants to, in a sense, He can save everybody and change everybody and restore everybody and make everybody good, when here He let everybody be bad if they wanted to be, and most of them chose to be bad.

I think He still wants to teach and train them and show them His love and help them to receive it and get used to it and adapt themselves to it and His kingdom and His way of doing things, and restore His whole kingdom and His whole creation so that it will be one great, grand victory in the end. So that nothing was lost, nothing was destroyed that was good, and He salvaged everything He could.

Every one of our talents, skills, experiences, gifts, or knowledge is going to be used—not only here and now but there and then! Then and there, both in the Millennium and thereafter in the heaven on earth. Nothing’s going to be wasted, nothing’s going to be lost; everything’s going to be used and everything’s going to be saved that’s worth saving.

So all that to say, don’t get discouraged about your present job and what you’re now doing, learning, and experiencing! Don’t think for a minute that it’s a waste of time and you’re just going to cast it all aside when you leave this life. You’re going to take all that with you—all that learning, experience, knowledge, wisdom, and everything you learned from this life.—Just like Jesus did when He left this life and went back to heaven a better high priest, a better mediator, better able to understand us and plead with God for us and be sorry for us and comprehend our feelings and sufferings and have a greater sympathy for us. He is our advocate and defense lawyer before God. Read Hebrews 1 through 5.

If Jesus could learn obedience to the Father through things which He suffered here on earth in human form, how much more are we learning here? So nothing’s going to be lost, nothing’s going to be wasted—no time or talent or experience or knowledge or gift or training! It’s all going to be saved and used, just like all this information we’re putting into these computers, storing it away for the days when we’re going to need it. Some of it being used now, some of it being saved for later use when needed.

It’s all going to be used and it’s all going to be important, everything we fed into our little computers, into these minds and hearts of ours and our personal human experience. The Lord is going to use it in the future—both now and the future—in this life and the world to come, life eternal!

Are you getting ready here and now for there and then? It won’t be lost but used forever.

Mystery and Victory

10/05/24I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵²in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:50-52) ESV

Here and Now for There and Then (part 1)

David Brandt Berg

1981-11-01

It’s evident from the Bible records about angels that they have to go from place to place. They’re not omnipresent and they’re not even omniscient. They don’t know everything, and they have to learn. So we’re not perfect in the next world. We’ll still be in a sense partly human, and we’ll still be using a lot of the knowledge, experience, and skill that we have learned in this world. God’s going to put it to use in the next world.

Especially since we have to deal with normal human beings who remain, and they’ve got to carry on pretty much the same way they always have and live pretty much the same way they have. They’ll be living in a perfectly natural, physical, more or less normal realm that they’ve always been in, and they’ll have to work with what they’ve got. Our knowledge of that is going to come in very handy.

Just like Jesus’ knowledge of His visit to earth and His experience of being human and what humans have to go through, I think the Scripture makes that very clear, made Him a better high priest. “He was not untouched with the feeling of our infirmities” because He’d been through it Himself and He understood it and He knew it (Hebrews 4:15). This added to His knowledge and experience which He was able to carry over into the next world in our favor and on our behalf as our mediator and high priest.

I think we’re going to do the same from our knowledge of this mundane world that we now live in and our experience and our skills and our knowledge and the talents and things we have learned. We are going to be able to apply those things practically in the next world, in the kingdom of God on earth in the Millennium.

We’re not going to suddenly be like God and know everything any more than the angels do. Neither are the angels omniscient like God. They know only what God wants them to know and what they have to know, like some of those funny stories and movies you’ve probably seen about amateur angels making mistakes!

Just as Paul said, “We shall all be changed in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump” (1 Corinthians 15:51–52). We’re going to be different, and yet how different? All we know is that “we shall be like Him” (1 John 3:2). He could sit down and eat and drink and talk to people and show them His scars after His resurrection.

People tend to think things are going to be so different. If it’s so completely unrelated to their personal human earthly experience, they don’t think that what they have learned here is going to be useful or even be used. That sort of gives you the feeling, “Maybe the whole thing’s a waste of time. Who cares about what I learn or don’t learn here and my experience here? I’m going to die and go to heaven one of these days and forget the whole works.” No, you’re not. You’re going to die and go to earth, and probably use the whole works in the heaven-on-earth Millennium.

There will be a whole world full of people who aren’t saved and maybe never will be, from the looks of the way things turn out in the end in the Battle of Gog and Magog and the destruction of the whole earth and them. So I think we’re going to need a lot of this knowledge and experience that we’re getting now. Why do you think the Lord’s letting us get it all? Just to throw it away? I don’t believe it! All the stories I’ve read about near-death experiences convince me more and more that all of this is going to be put to use, not only here, but hereafter in the coming kingdom of Christ on earth, as well as who knows how far beyond that.

Even in the new heaven and the new earth we’ve still got people outside the city who are still learning and being fed and healed and changed and apparently taught. They are gradually indoctrinated and conditioned for this new world in which they’re going to be living, and trained to accept the things they didn’t accept, and how to live and glorify God and be restored, reconstituted, regenerated and reconciled. Universal reconciliation, they call it.

People say, “You believe that eventually everybody’s going to be saved.” No, I don’t, not the same way we’re saved. Today’s saved are a special elite class, the only ones that are going to be allowed in the Heavenly City. But we’re going to go out and minister to the people outside the city, and compared to what life was like previously on earth, they’re going to feel like they’ve been saved from that mess! They’re not going to be saved like us in the city, but things are going to be heaven on earth comparatively speaking.

I really believe we’re going to use the knowledge and experience we have already gained—talents, gifts, skills, everything.—Particularly in the Millennium when we still have carnal people to deal with and a carnal earthly situation, much like it is now, with the exception that the Curse is removed, and enmity between man and animals is removed.

A lot’s going to be different, but things are going to be enough the same in that we’ll still be able to use our knowledge, skills, talents, gifts, and experience that we have gained in this life, and it’s going to carry over and be useful. I don’t believe God’s wasted all these years of training and learning languages and all kinds of things.

We’ll have all kinds of supernatural help and power and knowledge and wisdom and direction and everything else, some of which we’ve already got. Paul says that the Spirit and His gifts are a taste of things to come. They’re “the earnest of our inheritance,” a sample (Ephesians l:13–14).

We’re going to be full grown and mature, and we’ll have all these gifts—and the wisdom how to use them.—In full power, not just partially, not just “seeing through a glass darkly,” as Paul says (1 Corinthians 13:12). He didn’t say that your sight’s going to be changed; he didn’t say that you’re not going to see some of the same things. He just said you’re going to see it clearer. You’re going to see things as they really are. We’re going to have a lot of helps and a lot of gifts of God’s Spirit and helpers to really make the job effective and easier, in a way.

It says we brought nothing into this world with us, and neither will we take anything out of it (1 Timothy 6:7). No things, no material possessions or wealth or anything like that. But it’s quite obvious we’re going to take our children and the souls we win and our knowledge and experience and all of that with us. We’ll still have that there.

So I think people need to remember that everything they’re learning now and doing now and decisions they’re making now and experiences they’re having now are a part of their schooling and training here and now to be used there and then. It would be foolish for God to throw away all this information and input that we’ve got up here in our little computers and erase the whole works and start over with a blank.

We’re not going to have a totally different personality. If this was all lost, we’d be a completely different personality altogether; we wouldn’t even be the same people. We’re even going to be recognizable physically. Well, why not mentally and culturally as well? I believe we’re going to carry with us everything beneficial that we have learned from this life into the next—to be used there for the benefit of others to help us run the world.
(to be continued)

1 Thessalonians 5

More on the Rapture

David Brandt Berg

1981-03-23

10/04/24 Jesus said, “When ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand” (Luke 21:31). The generation that sees all these signs coming to pass that we’ve been studying and have spoken of—this generation shall not pass away until all these things shall be fulfilled (Luke 21:32). They have begun to be fulfilled now in our day, in our generation, these endtime events.

The curtain has been drawn aside on the last scene of the earth’s great drama, and the act has begun and it cannot stop now. It will keep right on going, fulfilling these promises of the Word of God until all these things shall be fulfilled. The generation that sees all these signs shall not pass away until all these things shall be fulfilled.

“But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:1–2). He says, “You don’t have to be told the times and seasons; you already know these things. You know He’s going to come like a thief in the night—to others, but not to you, because you will know and recognize His coming when He comes.”

“For when they shall say, peace and safety: then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (v. 3). Every time I hear people preaching peace, that the world’s now going to have peace and peace has come, I’m reminded that they were preaching a lot of that peace after World War I, and then came World War II!

When the Antichrist takes over the world and establishes his worldwide kingdom, his anti-God government, he says, “Peace and safety! Everything’s going to be peaceful and safe now. No more wars. Everything’s going to be secure. Prosperity on earth. Everybody’s going to have plenty, and my kingdom’s going to be a kingdom of heaven on earth, peace and safety.” Watch out, for then will come sudden destruction! It’s going to begin right in the middle of his reign, at the end of the first three and a half years. The peace pact is going to be broken, and there will be nothing but trouble and war and rebellion and riot and revolution and tribulation from that time on.

“But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief” (v. 4). You should never be surprised at these sudden destructions or sudden judgments of God. “Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober” (v. 5–6). He says, “You’re not children of the night. You’re not supposed to be asleep when it happens. You’re children of day, children of light.” You’re supposed to be wide awake.

You’re supposed to know what’s happening and when it’s going to happen. You’re not children of darkness; you’re not in the dark about all these Bible prophecies and the things that are going to happen. You won’t be surprised when the Antichrist arises and reveals himself. You won’t be surprised when he proclaims a worldwide government of peace and signs a seven-year peace pact among the religions, a Covenant that he proclaims to be holy, inviolate. You won’t be surprised when it happens.

And neither will you be surprised when he breaks the peace pact right in the middle of it. From then on, there’s nothing but trouble and war. It won’t take you by surprise. You don’t have to be surprised and you don’t have to be mystified by it or in any way astonished. You’re expecting it!

It won’t catch His people by surprise like a thief in the night as it will the rest of the world. They won’t be expecting it. They’ll be surprised—especially when Jesus comes. They will really be shocked then when they see the graves open and the bodies of the dead rise in the Resurrection. And all His children who they’ve been persecuting and trying to kill and imprison and trying to make take their Mark of the Beast and worship his image, suddenly will rise right out of their hands and sail up into the sky!

Thank You, Lord, for Your wonderful Word about the marvelous events to come, which Your children will understand and recognize and know when these things happen, as they happen.

Are you ready? He said to be prepared! He says to watch! “Let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober.” Are you watching?

The Coming of the Son of Man

10/03/24 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ³⁰Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. ³¹And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:29-31) ESV

The Millennium: Thy Kingdom Come

David Brandt Berg

1983-12-01

When you pray the Lord’s Prayer, have you ever really thought about the part “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Luke 11:2)? We who know and love the Lord already have a foretaste of heaven in our hearts, but there is mostly confusion and selfishness and unhappiness and war and fighting and hell on this earth today!

One day, the Lord is going to wipe away all the hell on earth and He’s going to set up His own kingdom of peace and goodness and fairness and mercy and love. Then His kingdom won’t only be in our hearts; it will be all around us. God’s kingdom is going to come in all of its power and glory, right here on earth. Then it will be on earth as it is in heaven.

But before Jesus’ wonderful kingdom is set up on earth, there are some other things that have to happen: First, the evil Antichrist world leader and his kingdom of the Devil will come to power, and the last 3½ years of his kingdom will be a time of trouble called the Great Tribulation, when the Antichrist and his forces will be fighting against God’s children. But we will still keep preaching the Gospel and doing mighty miracles of power and protection.

Then Jesus will return “in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30), to rapture and resurrect all of His children, and we will all join Him for the wonderful Wedding Supper of the Lamb in heaven, while the wicked anti-Christ people back on earth will be getting the Wrath of God. They will finally gather together under their Devil-possessed Antichrist leader to try to fight against Jesus Christ Himself and His resurrected children, who will return to earth to win the biggest war that ever happened: the Battle of Armageddon.

In this gigantic Battle of Armageddon, the forces of God will win a glorious victory over the forces of the Devil and his Antichrist Devil-man and his whole wicked kingdom. It is then, after this big battle, that we, the saints of God, along with our King, Jesus Christ, will take over this world and set up the kingdom of God on earth, to rule it and run it the way it should have been run if man had obeyed God.

This amazing period of God’s kingdom on earth is called the “Millennium,” which is an old Latin word meaning 1,000 years.—Which is exactly how long it will last, for 1,000 years. The Bible says that during the Millennium, all those who were raised to meet Jesus at His Second Coming will be very blessed, because “they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years” (Revelation 20:6).

During the entire 1,000 years of the Millennium, the Devil will be tied up and thrown into God’s prison, the Bottomless Pit. We’ll be rid of him, thank God! For a thousand years he will no longer be able to bother anyone and no longer be able to lead the other evil spirits across the earth to bother the world and its people. (See Revelation 20:1–3.)

Jesus is then going to rule and reign in person, and we who are in Christ will help Him and rule and reign with Him. He will reign from shore to shore and we, His children, will number in the millions and the billions, and we are going to rule the earth with Jesus Christ.

Under the mighty and powerful rule and reign of Christ and God’s children, all wars will finally stop and the world will be ruled with true fairness, freedom, peace, and plenty for all. The Bible says, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4).

Just think, there will be no more war! No more weapons or horrible fighting or bombing or killing like there is in man’s world today. In that day, when Jesus is King and we are His policemen, there will be no more wars and they will beat their weapons of war into tools of peace.

During the Millennium all the saved children of God will have been resurrected in their new, powerful, supernatural bodies. But the rest of the world, those who were blessed enough to live through the Wrath of God and the Battle of Armageddon into the Millennium, are still going to be in their old natural bodies. Life is going to go on as usual in a lot of ways for them. A lot of them will live almost like they are living now. They’ll still have to grow food and make clothes and live in a normal, natural world, the same world they’re living in now.

But one big difference is that the curse which came upon man and on the earth because of man’s sins will be partly lifted, so that a lot of things will be a whole lot better. The earth will be almost like it was during the days of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before they sinned and God had to curse things to punish them and keep them busy and out of trouble.

We who love Jesus now will be like supermen then, like angels of God, with new miraculous bodies that will never get hurt or sick. Even the earthly people that we will be ruling over, who will still be in their natural fleshly bodies, will have much less disease and sickness. It says that anyone who dies at 100 years old will be thought of as just a child. (See Isaiah 65:20.) People will again live to be hundreds and hundreds of years old, just as they did before the Flood, when some lived to be nearly a thousand years of age!

The Bible says that not only man, but all of creation will be made free from most of the curse, and everything will be much better than today. It even says that “the wolf shall live with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the baby goat; and the calf and the young lion will lie together also; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed together; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat grass like the ox. The nursing child shall play on the hole of the poisonous snake, and the toddler shall put his hand on the viper’s den” (Isaiah 11:6–8).

You never hear about a wolf lying down with a lamb today, do you? Unless the lamb is inside the wolf! Or a leopard lying down with a little baby goat? They usually lie down with the goat inside of them too. And the calf and the lion together? Usually the lion is tearing them apart and eating them. Neither have you heard about a little child leading them all.

The day is coming again when there will be peace between man and the animals, and you’ll be able to call them by name and they’ll come playfully running to you like your pets, like a dog or a cat does now. All the animals will go back to eating only plants and vegetables and fruit again, and they won’t hurt each other or us. Isn’t that beautiful? And man won’t eat them for meat either. “For nothing shall hurt nor destroy in all My Holy kingdom” (Isaiah 11:9).

Earthly people will travel on horses, camels, donkeys, wagons, and things like that during the Millennium. All that will be left is what God has created and given man to use, God’s creations and man’s good inventions, which were good enough for the world for almost six thousand years before they ever heard of anything else.

Just think, there won’t be any more stinking cars or trucks spitting out smoke and fumes, or any big smoky stinky factories. The world is going to go back to animal transportation and carriages and wagons. They’ll sure be thankful for the animals then.

Why do you think the Lord is going to have this 1,000-year rule of His kingdom on earth over normal, natural men? It seems that one reason might be to give a chance to those who never really got to hear the Gospel or know the Lord during this life. During the Millennium, everyone will be reached. “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). How do the waters cover the seas? Completely!

It will be much easier for people to believe and receive Jesus during the Millennium, because they will be able to actually see Him and His mighty power and have proof that He is real. Instead of just believing in the Lord and accepting Him by faith as we do today, they will then be given the chance to believe by actually being able to see the kingdom of God and Christ on earth and His saints in power and ruling the world. But they will not be as blessed as we who are now believing and receiving and obeying by faith alone, without seeing. (See John 20:29.)

I think the Millennium will be the time when God gives a first chance to a lot of people who didn’t have a chance before. Everyone on earth will see the Lord’s glorious power and kingdom, and everyone will believe then. The Bible says, “No longer shall every man teach his neighbor and his brother, saying; Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them” (Jeremiah 31:34).

We won’t have to say “know the Lord” then, because everybody will be able to see Him and they’ll all know He’s there. Even though there won’t be any unbelievers then, sad to say, there will still be some unreceivers. Even though they will see the power of God and the people of God and the kingdom of God and the Son of God personally ruling the earth, there will still be some people who won’t like it.

In fact, at the end of the Millennium, God is going to test all of the earthly people by letting the Devil out of prison for just a short while. All of the rebels on earth will follow him again and try to fight against all of the good earthly people who have received Jesus and His kingdom. God will get so angry with them that He will just get rid of them all and burn up the whole surface of the earth in a great big explosion called “The Battle of Gog and Magog.” But don’t worry! All of the good people who received Jesus will be saved and God will even save the earth by creating a new earth.

Some of the people during the Millennium will still be so stubborn and so rebellious of heart and mind that even with the Devil gone, they’re still going to disobey. The Bible says that we will have to rule them with a rod of iron. It’s going to be a forced rule, a strong rule over the wicked. Thank the Lord, we’ll have great supernatural powers which will make our job of ruling them easier, powers like you may have seen in some of the science fiction movies. We’ll be able to just look at them or think or point our finger at them and they will be frozen, pushed back, stopped from doing evil! And they won’t be able to touch us or do a thing to hurt us.

We will be like the angels of God, which can appear or disappear whenever they want, and fly from one place to another as fast as they can think it. There will be no more crime, no more evil, no more riots and no more war. Just total peace under the iron-rule government of the Lord, in which you and I will be His supermen with superpowers!

Jesus said that “he that was faithful in just a few things would be made ruler over many things” (Luke 16:10). He even said, “Because you have been faithful in a very little, I will make you ruler over ten cities” (Luke 19:17). We’re going to rule real, down-to-earth, worldly cities, countries, nations and continents.

I’m sure the great prophets and apostles and heroes of the Bible and of history, who were so faithful to the Lord in their lives on earth, will be trusted with a lot of big jobs in the next life. Just where each of us is going to be and just how much each of us will be trusted with will depend a lot upon how faithful we are to Him and the job He’s given us to do here and now.

Right now we are in training for the days when we will rule the earth. But before we can do that, we must first learn to rule ourselves. So God is now having us sort of practice for what is going to be the real thing, and how well we do now is going to have a lot to do with how well we will do in the future.

Everything you’re being taught now and the decisions you’re making now and the lessons you’re learning now are all a part of your schooling and your training here and now so you can be used by the Lord there and then. If not, a lot of it would be a waste of time, except for what little we get done here, which isn’t very much compared to what we will do then. So let’s try to learn our lessons today and learn to be faithful and obedient servants of the Lord now so He can trust and bless us with a place of usefulness to Him and others tomorrow, in the beautiful kingdom of God on earth during the Millennium—when we will rule and reign with our King of kings, Jesus.

The Scroll and the Lamb

10/02/24 And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
¹⁰and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9,10) ESV

Bigger Jobs

David Brandt Berg

1978-08-01

Every day is a battle, let’s face it. Every day is a battle of some kind, and hard work. Most of us have hard work to do. We have struggles with all kinds of things: with our own personality and with other personalities, struggles with problems and struggles with besetting sins and struggles with this and struggles with that.

When you have won today’s battles and proved you are a good fighter and able to handle the little ones, tomorrow God will probably give you bigger ones. God is getting you prepared for the front lines—the real tough battles! Isn’t that encouraging?

In some ways, life gets easier. I don’t have to fight the same battles that I used to have to fight when I was young. I think most young people go through half their lives wondering, “What am I supposed to be? What am I supposed to do?” You’ll be whatever God wants you to be—if you’re willing. Don’t worry about it. And don’t think you’ve made the grade because you arrived at one place—you’re just getting started!

If you are faithful in a few things, the Lord says He will make you ruler over many things (Matthew 25:21). This is only the beginning of probably much greater things and greater responsibilities—depending on how faithful you are, how well you do your work, how willing-spirited you are. Because once you’ve found out a person is faithful, loyal, diligent, willing-spirited, hard-working, capable, and really loves the Lord, you can trust them with almost anything.

You may be thinking, “I don’t want any bigger job. I like my work, and I don’t want to have to work any harder or do any more.” I’m sorry, but that just happens to be the way the Lord often does things. If He finds you’re good at this, He’ll give you something more to do. If you’re good at little things, He’ll give you bigger things to do. If you’re good at easy jobs, He’ll give you harder jobs, and He keeps giving you greater victories all the time. If you win this battle, He’ll give you a bigger battle tomorrow.

He’s training you for much bigger jobs that you will have to do, until the time will come one of these days that you’ll rule and reign with Him over all the earth (Revelation 5:10). Your learning is not just going to be handed to you on a silver platter after you die or after the Resurrection.

What you are learning now is going to be of help to you in the future. God’s going to use the talent that He’s already given you, which you have developed and used and profited by. He’s going to use the knowledge you have already learned and the experiences you have already been through and the languages you know. Don’t think that this life is going to just be thrown away when you get to heaven. First of all, God’s going to use you to try to establish heaven on earth in the Millennium.

So don’t think that all this is going to be a waste of time and you’ve lived your whole life and learned all these things for nothing. God intends to use your talents, your experience, your abilities, your languages, your arts, your skill, and everything you know. If God’s people are as important as the Bible says we are, we’re pretty important!

We’re not talking about fairy tales or legends. It is not our imagination; I’m talking about reality: what’s in the Bible and what you know is the truth. God is training you now for the future. God will give you more to do as soon as He thinks you’re ready to do it, and if you’re willing to do it—because He’s got a lot of work to be done and a lot of big jobs to be done. It’s going to mean more work, more responsibility, more jobs, bigger victories, and bigger battles in the future, because if He learns that He can trust you this far, then He’s going to trust you further and with more. If you prove yourself here, He’s going to give you a chance at there.

This is no game we’re playing! We are in a war for the Lord and His world, and once you have done your job here and done a good job and learned how to serve the Lord faithfully and loyally and well, He is going to give you something more and bigger to do. There are so many jobs to be done, you’ll probably have an even better job to do one of these days—a bigger and greater job! You’d be amazed at your capacity.

Lord, it’s all for Your kingdom, and You’re preparing Your children to run it, so help us all to do a good job of whatever You ask us to do. For Thine is the power. Help us, Lord, to serve Your kingdom until Your kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. Help us to think about the marvel of Your trusting us with such an important work and each other and our children and such a big job. And help us to do it well so we’ll be ready for the next one, in Jesus’ name we ask for Your glory.

Judgment Before the Great White Throne

10/01/24 ¹¹Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. ¹²And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. (Revelation 20:11,12) ESV

David Brandt Berg

1977-06-01

The only place in the Bible where it speaks of “eternal” or “forever” punishment, or at least for an awful long time, is where it speaks of the Devil and the Antichrist and the False Prophet, that they’ll be cast into the Lake of Fire “and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10). However, even there the word in the Bible translated “forever” is not the same word used for “eternity.”

The word used for God as being eternal, existing always, is different from the one where it says that people will be punished with “everlasting” fire or they’ll be punished “forever.” The actual word used for such punishment is “aeon,” which means for an age, and where the Lord speaks of everlasting or forever punishment, it says aeon of the aeons, the age of ages. The Bible uses this same expression elsewhere when the Lord talks about the Millennium, and it talks about the ages of ages in the Greek. In other words, this is the age of all ages, the greatest of all ages, the greatest of all times—the Golden Age.

An age is like a certain period of time which has a beginning and an end. It can be a very long time. You might say right now we’re living in the age of man. The Millennium is spoken of as an aeon, an age, a thousand years, and the age of ages is a term used mostly for the period of time after the Millennium.

So apparently we’re going through eternity by stages and by ages, so that even that period is going to have some kind of end. We speak of it as “forever” and “eternal,” which to our way of thinking is true, but there will be a following age, something different. We are progressing, we’re learning, and we’ve got a long ways to go. Thank God we’ll have our supernatural bodies to be able to stand it.

We know there are many sins which can be forgiven in this world, but there are also going to be sins that will be forgiven in the next world. It says, “He that shall break one of the least of these commandments and shall teach men so”—false doctrine—shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.”—If he’s a believer who has Jesus, loves the Lord, but he’s just mistaken about something. This has always been a comfort to me, since I’m a teacher, that if I am wrong about anything, at least the Lord’s going to forgive me when I get there, but I would be the least in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:19).

There are all kinds of scriptures in the Bible which indicate that there will be another chance for people beyond this life—not necessarily a second chance, but maybe some people’s first chance.

Take for instance the people who never heard the Gospel, who never heard about Jesus. Are you going to put them in everlasting torment and fiery hell forever when they never had a chance? This answers some of the biggest theological questions that the unbelievers and the skeptics and the atheists have fired at theologians for years. They say, “How can a God of love cast innocent, ignorant people into everlasting fire and torment in hell for unbelief when they never had a chance to believe?” I don’t think He’s going to. I think they’re going to be outside the Heavenly City. It says as plain as day that people will be outside (Revelation 21:24).

Some will be in the Lake of Fire and some will get pretty rough treatment, at least for a while. But it wouldn’t be fair to have the same eternal fiery torment forever. It wouldn’t be fair or just punishment, because not everybody has sinned to the same degree. It wouldn’t be fair for some to be cast into the same hell with some of these monsters.

The last two chapters of the book of Revelation mention the people who are going to be outside the City, and it says that some of them will not be allowed to walk in the City at all. Only the saved will be allowed to walk in the City. “And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it,” but it says that “the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it” (Revelation 21:24). If there’s nobody outside, who’s that?

It talks about the people who were outside and even some of their sins: “For without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie” (Revelation 22:15). But at the same time it talks about the Tree of Life which shall grow on both sides of the river that flows through the City (Revelation 22:2). It says it bears twelve different kinds of fruits, a different fruit each month, and “the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

Certainly none of the resurrected saved in their supernatural bodies are going to need healing, so who’s the healing for? It’s got to be for the people outside. There are going to be people outside who didn’t get saved; they didn’t make it in when they should have. I’m sure by that time they will be believers, because it will be seeing, not just believing.

Nevertheless, God is not going to allow them into the City because they didn’t believe when they had a chance. And perhaps there will be others, according to Jesus’ going and speaking to the spirits in prison, who are going to get their first chance and be saved and maybe be among the saved who are in the City. In other words, the ignorant or the innocent who never got to hear the Gospel. Why should they be penalized?

God’s society is not a classless one. Quite definitely Christ and Paul and the apostles taught about degrees of reward, and the Bible says, “Don’t let any man steal your crown” (Revelation 3:11). Losing your crown does not mean losing your salvation. Your salvation is not your crown; salvation is your gift from God. You don’t work for it or earn it. Your crown is your reward. Somehow or another you could lose some kind of reward of some kind of glory. “They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars,” but some shall be raised to everlasting shame and contempt (Daniel 12:2–3).

I don’t think it would be nearly as hard to be ashamed in hell with all the rest of the sinners as it would be to be walking around in heaven among the other Christians who shine as the stars and have lovely crowns of life and all kinds of rewards to show that they were faithful, while you’re walking around with no glory, no crown, because you were a disobedient, unfaithful steward who didn’t do his job! What an everlasting shame and contempt that would be.

The day is coming when every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess Christ (Philippians 2:10–11). If so, then there’s going to be a day when everybody believes. Paul talks about how the whole creation now groans to be delivered (Romans 8:22), and it’s going to be delivered one of these days.—The whole creation, including man!

He also speaks of the “restitution of all things” (Acts 3:21), that all things are going to be restored. The whole creation, even the natural creation is suffering today from the curse, but it’s all going to be delivered. In the new heaven and the new earth, there will be no more curse, no more death. “Nothing,” He says, “shall hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain” (Isaiah 11:9).

One of the doctrines which the Protestants deplore is the Catholic doctrine of purgatory; that is, that you are not going to be in the Lake of Fire forever, but only until you’ve suffered for your sins. The Protestants have rejected that doctrine and they’ve refused to believe it. But before the days of the Protestant Church, the church came to agreement on that doctrine—that hell was not forever, that purgatory was temporary for some people.

This is where they got the Catholic doctrine of indulgences, that you could do good things and they’d give you so many days less in purgatory. John Tetzel, a Catholic cleric who Martin Luther opposed, went around selling indulgences for the forgiveness of sins. All you had to do was buy it. He was raising money to help finish St. Peter’s Basilica.

You were promised so many days less in purgatory for your good deeds and penance, and the general idea was that the saints—those recognized by the church as saints—were so good and so full of grace that they didn’t have to go to purgatory at all. Because they were so perfect and so pure, they would go straight to heaven. All the rest of us would have to go to hell a bit first before we finally deserved to go to heaven.

You were paying for your sins in purgatory, which made it a works religion, and you could work your way out of purgatory into heaven without the grace of God or the forgiveness of Jesus.

The unsaved will pay for their sins, all right, in purgatory, but not in the sense of paying for it entirely themselves. They will be punished for their sins, but when their punishment is over, they’ll be released. That’s the whole idea—released by the grace of God and the forgiveness of God.

We who are saved deserve hell, punishment, and the whole works, but we get to escape it because we believe in Christ and receive His forgiveness and His punishment on the cross in our place. But those who have not done that in this life, when they wake up in the next world and find out they were very wrong, are then going to believe. But they’re not going to be in the same class as us, because that’s believing by sight.

Unbelievers who really have a chance to believe and are given the Gospel and continually resist the Holy Ghost are without excuse.—Like the Scribes and the Pharisees, who practically memorized everything Jesus said because they were trying to find something wrong with Him to catch Him. Paul said, “They are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Absolutely without excuse! People can just look at the creation and see, because the greatest proof of the existence of God is His creation. All you have to do is look at the creation and you know there’s a God!

Many people who claim they don’t believe really do believe, but they’re in rebellion against God. It reminds me of the fellow who was the head of the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism, who got wonderfully saved. He published the biggest atheist magazine in America, The Society of Atheists. He told me one day, “David, all that time I was lecturing and preaching against God and going around writing against God and publishing a magazine against God, I knew there was a God; I just hated Him!”

Those who are in rebellion against God and hate Him will be the most responsible. The Bible says, “Only the fool hath said in his heart there is no God” (Psalm 14:1). A lot of fools will say with their mouth there is no God, but all the time in their hearts they know there’s a God.

The Lord loves faith. He loves you because you believe Him, just because He said so. Of course, once you believe, then he proves Himself in many ways. We no longer really believe purely by faith, because He’s proven Himself to us by answers to prayers and miracles, even the changes in our own lives and the lives of others.

They say, “I don’t believe in God. You can’t put God in a test tube.” Let me tell you, you can put God in a test tube and prove He exists, and you’re the tube. Put God in you and see what happens! A human being is the greatest test tube in the world; try Him and see.

The Lord really appreciates those of us who believe His Word and have faith just because He said so. So we are going to be the elite and we’re going to live in the City. Only those of us who are saved, the elite of the world, are going to walk in the City (Revelation 21:24).

Yet even among the elite there are going to be all kinds of differences in glory and rewards, just as there are in the world today. This world is a dandy bad example, but it’s kind of an example of what the world of tomorrow is going to be like. God’s society is anything but a classless society. The people who work hard and believe and who do the job and obey Him and please Him are going to be well rewarded. To them He says, “Sit thou upon My right hand. Well done, thou good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew 25:21). But others are going to enter into everlasting shame and contempt because they didn’t do it.

The Lord loves faith, because it’s a way of showing your love and your confidence in Him. Faith shows that you have love. “So now abideth faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). And love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8).

We’ve got so much to look forward to! It’s going to be such an interesting world, such an interesting life, that it’s a good thing we’re going to have supernatural bodies to be able to take it and enjoy it.

So whether you’re saved here or hereafter, it still takes faith believing and receiving Jesus. And unbelief, now or hereafter, will always be unpardonable, because “without faith, it’s impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). Have faith.

22: The Millennium—Old Testament Millennial Scriptures (part 3)

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9-30-24 Then “the stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.”—Of this new kingdom of God (Psalm 118:22). “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord” (Psalm 118:26).

“The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; He will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. If thy children will keep My covenant and My testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne for evermore. For the Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation. This is My rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it” (Psalm 132:11–14). Zion, His church. Or you can take the holy hill of Zion in Jerusalem if you wish, because it seems that’s going to be His capital during the Millennium, not after the Millennium. After the Millennium Jerusalem will be the new city come down from God out of heaven, the Heavenly City.—1500 miles high, 1500 miles wide, that gorgeous golden city encrusted with diamonds and pearls and jewels and pearly gates and all kinds of beauty!

“I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation: and her saints shall shout aloud for joy” (Psalm 132:15–16). What a beautiful picture! Isn’t that worth living for and dying for and living for Jesus for?

Let’s skip over to Isaiah, the first chapter. “Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease Me of Mine adversaries, and avenge Me of Mine enemies. And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin. And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counselors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.” Whether you take that as literal Zion or Jerusalem or spiritual Zion, His church, it’s true. “And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed” (Isaiah 1:24–28).

Second chapter of Isaiah: Here is one of the most famous and beautiful passages regarding the coming thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ with His saints:

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains”—these mountains symbolizing governments, God’s government over all—“and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

“And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks.” Final disarmament. That will be the real genuine disarmament, beating their weapons into instruments of peace. “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:2–4). That’s a beautiful inscription also written on the wall of the garden of the United Nations in New York City. Yet all around it rages controversy and evil and war and crime.

“Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty.” God’s speaking of the unregenerate, when Jesus comes. “The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan.

“And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, and upon all the ships of Tarshish. And upon all pleasant pictures. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols He shall utterly abolish.”—Including the Image of the Beast.

“And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth” (Isaiah 2:10–21).

God’s kingdom has already begun upon earth today in Christians who love Jesus—in you if you have Christ in your heart. He said, “For the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). You’re a member of His kingdom that’s already begun upon earth.

“In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning” (Isaiah 4: 2–4). God is going to burn it out if it takes His judgments to drive the iniquity out.

“And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud of smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defense. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain” (Isaiah 4:5–6). The Lord Himself is going to be your tabernacle and protect you.

The eleventh chapter of Isaiah: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of His roots: and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make Him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears.

“But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth.” That’s going to be the rod of iron, the truth of God that’s going to rule the world then. “And with the breath of His lips shall he slay the wicked.” There is nothing that curbs the Devil and His crowd like the truth, the Word of God. Jesus is going to be here then. “And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins.

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:1–6). You have never heard of a wolf lying down with a lamb nowadays, have you?—Unless the lamb was inside of the wolf! Or a leopard lying down with a kid, a little baby goat. They usually lie down with the kid inside too. Neither have you heard about a little child leading them all nowadays.

There was a day before the Flood when men and the animals were at peace with each other. They didn’t fight and they didn’t kill and they didn’t eat each other as they do today. That day is coming again when there will be peace between man and the animals. Even your little child will be able to play with them.

“And the cow and the bear shall feed.” Feed together, think of that, cows and bears! “Their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox” (Isaiah 11:7). “Now you’ve gone too far, telling me lions are going to eat hay! I don’t believe that.”

I have such confidence in the Word of God and every chapter and every book—I have proven so many of them to be true and none of them to ever fail or be false—that I believe every word in it, and I believe it means exactly what it says and that’s what’s going to happen. If they’re not going to eat each other or eat us anymore, they’re going to have to graze like the ox and the calf. So the lion will eat straw like the ox.

“And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp.” A little baby that’s not even weaned yet can play right on top of the hole of this poisonous little serpent called an asp, and yet not get stung or bitten. “And the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den” (Isaiah 11:8). Children will be able to put their hand into a nest of scorpions and what are today poisonous insects. Or in another place it says adders’ den, meaning a poisonous snake. The child can put his hand right into a nest of adders and play with the snakes then, like toys.

What a wonderful place to be! All the curse removed, the viciousness gone, all the killing and hurting each other gone. “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). We won’t have to be worried about witnessing anymore. We won’t have to say, “Know the Lord,” for He says “all men everywhere shall know Me” (Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 8:11). But I do believe we’ll still be teaching people the ways of the Lord.

“And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people”—Jesus—“to it shall the Gentiles seek: and His rest shall be glorious” (Isaiah 11:10). This is a wonderful picture of the final glorious days of this earth.

The earth will blossom as a rose, curse removed, enmity between man and the animals and the insects and the vipers removed, so that all God’s creation is in perfect peace and harmony, and man at peace with man. No longer will there be man’s cruelty toward man, no longer man’s inhumanity to man, but all will be peace and beauty—heaven on earth once again as it was in the beginning, because we’ll have Jesus.

I think Adam and Eve had Jesus then too. Who else could walk with them in the Garden in the cool of the day like a man but Jesus, the Son of God (Genesis 3:8).

“Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously” (Isaiah 24:23). “And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things.” Here is that wonderful Marriage Supper of the Lamb. “A feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.” The vineyards and wineries aren’t going to go out of business.

“And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.”—The vail of misunderstanding, the vail of unbelief, the vail of non-comprehension of spiritual things. “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.

“And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest” (Isaiah 25:6–10).

22: The Millennium—Old Testament Millennial Scriptures (part 2)

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9-29-24 “Our God shall come and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people. Gather My saints together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare His righteousness: for God is Judge Himself” (Psalm 50:3–6). That’s the way it’ll be when Jesus comes.

“Through the greatness of Thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto Thee. All the earth shall worship Thee, and shall sing unto Thee; they shall sing to Thy name” (Psalm 66:3–4). “O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for Thou shalt judge the people righteously”—not all judges today judge righteously—“and govern the nations upon earth. Selah. Let the people praise Thee, O God; let all the people praise Thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase: and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him” (Psalm 67:4–7).

For “Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men”—the greatest being salvation—“yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them” (Psalm 68:18). God is even going to be good to the wicked who will—some of them—survive all the horrors of hell of the Antichrist and the Tribulation and the plagues of the wrath of God and the Battle of Armageddon to finally come into this millennial period through which we will rule and reign over them with Christ with a rod of iron for a thousand years.

“Give the king Thy judgments, O God.” This is Psalm 72, and almost the whole psalm is a prediction of the Millennium—“and Thy righteousness unto the king’s son.” Who is the king’s son? Jesus. “He shall judge Thy people with righteousness”—that means Jesus—“and Thy poor with judgment.” The world is going to see a righteous judge, a righteous king, a righteous ruler at last, who will have a righteous government. No corruption, no vice or crime or payola or bribery or crooked judges and crooked politicians, but a righteous government and righteous justice.

“The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness. He shall judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations” (Psalm 72:1–5).

Don’t think that something’s going to happen to destroy the sun or the moon or the earth! God didn’t make this creation to be destroyed. He’s going to have to destroy the surface of the earth and burn it up because of the pollution of mankind and its wickedness, but He’s not going to destroy the ball, the planet earth, or the sun or moon. They’re going to continue to shine upon the earth.

We won’t need them in the holy city that comes down from God to the earth. There’ll be no need of sun or moon or stars there. Jesus will be our sun. But outside on the earth where others are still learning and still being healed, they’ll still need sunlight and moonlight and the stars, and God will be merciful to them. But that is the new earth and new heaven, which comes after the Millennium.

“He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. In His days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” Here it’s speaking of the kingdom of Christ on earth, how it’s going to be over the whole world.

“They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him and His enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents.” The British. “The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.” The Saudi Arabians are going to become Christians.

“Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him.” There won’t be any religion then but Christianity; there won’t be any kingdom except that of Jesus Christ. “For He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and the needy and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in His sight.

“And He shall live, and to Him shall be given of the gold of Sheba. Prayer also shall be made for Him continually; and daily shall He be praised. There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon. And they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.” That is, of the great city of God.

“His name shall endure for ever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed” (Psalm 72:6–17). Isn’t that a wonderful story and a happy ending?

He says, “All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off.” Remember those ten horns on the beast in Daniel and the ten horns on the beast in Revelation? He’s going to cut off all the horns. “But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted” (Psalm 75:10).

“Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still. When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah” (Psalm 76:8–9). Do you know what selah means? It’s a kind of musical rest note. It means “pause and think about that.” “Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain” (Psalm 76:10).

“Arise, O God, judge the earth: for Thou shalt inherit all nations” (Psalm 82:8). “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good: and our land shall yield her increase” (Psalm 85:10–12). Men are still going to till the land and build houses and marry and be given in marriage. The earth is going to be much the same as it is today, only God’s people are going to be the rulers and the policemen—the supernatural resurrected saints who are going to run the world as it ought to be run.

“All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord; and shall glorify Thy name” (Psalm 86:9). “Also I will make Him My firstborn”—Jesus—“higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for Him for evermore, and My covenant shall stand fast with Him. His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and His throne as the days of heaven. His seed shall endure for ever, and His throne as the sun before Me” (Psalm 89:27–29,36).

“Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth. The world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: He shall judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof.” Let the unrighteous roar against Him, it doesn’t matter; God will reign over them. “Let the field be joyful, and all there is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord: for He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth” (Psalm 96:10–13).

“The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice. Let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about Him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne. A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled.” The wicked are going to tremble in His presence during that thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ and His saints upon this earth. “The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth” (Psalm 97:1–5).

“The Lord hath made known His salvation: His righteousness hath He openly showed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered His mercy and His truth toward the house of Israel”—the Christians, the new Israel of God, the chosen people of God. The former children of the kingdom, Jesus said, would be cast out and we would come in (Matthew 8:12). We will inherit the kingdom, all those who love Jesus: Jew or Gentile, bond or free, Greek or Roman or whatever, anybody who loves Jesus. You, if you love Jesus, are going to inherit the kingdom of God on earth. “The Lord hath made known His salvation: His righteousness hath He openly showed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered His mercy and His truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” (Psalm 98:2–3).

“Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together before the Lord; for He cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with equity.” Equality, with evenness, fairness, and justice (Psalm 98:7–9).

“So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory” (Psalm 102:15–16). He’s building up Zion today. His church is increasing, His worldwide spiritual Zion. His spiritual Israel is increasing day by day around the world! “When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.” That’s when it’s going to happen on a vast scale.

“Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish (the old atmospheric heavens and the old surface of the earth), but Thou shalt endure” (Psalm 102:22,25–26). He’s saying even when the old world perishes and He sets up the new heaven and new earth, He will still endure.

The atmospheric heavens are going to perish, but He’s going to create a new beautiful atmospheric heavens and heaven on earth in the new heaven and new earth which follow the Millennium.

“Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed” (Psalm 102:26). When you change your clothes, you don’t throw away your body too. You just take off the raiment, the surface clothing, and that’s what He’s going to do to the earth one of these days.

The earth today is clothed with its dirty surface and its polluted atmosphere, but He’s going to remove them both by fire and make a completely clean new earth and new heavens.—Clean air, no pollution, no contamination upon the earth, no poisonous gases and chemicals; it’ll all be washed clean with fire one of these days.

“But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end. The children of Thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before Thee” (Psalm 102:27–28). God’s going to keep you forever, praise God?

The 110th psalm is almost entirely a messianic psalm: “The Lord said to my Lord, sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” “The Lord said to My Lord.” Jesus brought that up to the Scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 22:44). What was He talking about? Was God talking to Himself? No, He was talking to Jesus, His Son.

“The Lord shall send the rod of Thy strength out of Zion: rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: Thou hast the dew of Thy youth. The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:2–4).

There’s a beautiful symbolism here about Christ, that He was a priest to God. Although He was not a Levite, He was not of the priesthood, yet God chose Him as a priest like He did Melchizedek. (See Hebrews 6:20.) “The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, He shall fill the places with the dead bodies; He shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall He lift up the head” (Psalm 110:5–7). What a wonderful day that’s going to be! A day of victory and glory, a day of great power of His salvation!
( to be continued)

22: The Millennium—Old Testament Millennial Scriptures (part 1)

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9-28-24 I’m going to read some verses which are my favorite passages in the Bible, some of the most beautiful scriptures in God’s holy Word.

The reason I am particularly fond of them is that they’re about the “happy ending” of the story. In much of the past chapters of this particular study of Bible prophecy in the book of Revelation, it seems as if it’s been a lot of bad news about the horrors about to come upon this world. The Bible admonishes us to be prepared for these days, and to be forewarned is to be forearmed. (See Matthew 24:33, 44.)

We’re just strangers passing through; this is not our home. We’re strangers and pilgrims, and this is why God says He’s proud to be our God. He’s not ashamed to be our God, for we confess that we are only strangers and pilgrims here. We seek a city whose builder and maker is God, which someday will come down out of heaven from God to this earth (Hebrews 11:13–16).

At the end of that mighty Battle of Armageddon, of the forces of God against the forces of Satan on earth, we, the saints of God, along with our King Jesus Christ, will take over this world as it is now—this present world—and we will organize it and rule it and run it the way it should have been run if man had yielded to God. But this time, yield or no, God’s going to run it with a rod of iron (Revelation 2:27).

Whether man likes it or not, God is going to be supreme and Jesus shall reign from shore to shore, and we shall rule and reign with Him with that rod of iron. Then the unsaved who remain will be forced to do what’s right and to obey for a thousand years. They will have the amazing blessing of being able to live at all during this millennial period in which the earth, though it is this same earth upon which we live today—not the new heaven and the new earth, but the present earth—it will be relieved from the curses that have beset it. The thorns and the thistles and the briar and all kinds of beasts and critters and creatures that are poisonous, even poisonous flowers and grasses, will be sanitized and made harmless.

Even the unsaved who have survived the Tribulation and the wrath of God and the Battle of Armageddon—and it’s quite a survival to manage to survive all three of those—will be allowed to live during this beautiful paradise-on-earth, millennial period.

The Devil will be bound in the heart of the earth in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, and we will rule and reign with Jesus on this present earth for one thousand years to try to teach the survivors righteousness, to try to show them where they failed, to try to point out what the mistakes were, to try to show them how much better it would have been if they had yielded to Jesus and let Him rule and reign in their hearts as we do today.

We already have the Garden of Eden in our hearts. We already have paradise restored in our hearts, those of us who have received Jesus Christ as our Savior and our Lover and our King and our God, who has forgiven us our sins and brought us peace and love and happiness such as we have never known before. We already have the Garden of Eden in our hearts, but then we will have the Garden of Eden worldwide—the curse removed, even a measure of death removed. People will live for a thousand years as they did before, and if you die at a hundred years of age, they’ll consider you just a child (Isaiah 65:20). Think of that.

This is a part of the beautiful happy ending. The Bible is full of descriptions of that beautiful millennial period. It says more about the second coming of Christ and His rule and reign on the earth as its King, its Messiah, than it does about the first coming.

This is the purpose of it all, the marvelous happy ending of it all! This is our reward for loving Him, receiving Him, believing in Him, and preaching Him, telling others about Him, spreading the Good News of His love everywhere.

Jesus was the one responsible for it all, who loved us enough to give His own life for us and take our punishment, the punishment of our sins on Himself on that cross, on that tree, so that we could be forgiven and restored and become citizens of His kingdom, the kingdom of God on earth of the King of kings in the heavenly kingdom.—First of all, the Millennium, and later the new heaven and new earth.

What are the two books that are the most messianic books in the Bible?—The ones that talk more about the Messiah and His kingdom, that marvelous millennial kingdom on earth and the kingdom that goes on forever after, than any other books? We have to go back to the Old Testament to find them: Psalms and Isaiah, by two great prophets. “Prophets?” you say, “I thought David was just a king.” David was a king, but he was also a priest of his people. Foremost and above all, he was a prophet of God who wrote the beautiful Psalms of David. In the Psalms, he describes time and again the marvelous coming kingdom of Jesus Christ.

First, he starts with the Antichrist kingdom and the Battle of Armageddon, the forces of good against evil. (This could also apply to the Battle of Gog and Magog at the end of the Millennium.)

Psalm 2: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” That’s what they will say during the Great Tribulation. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” God gets the last laugh! “Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.”

Despite all they can do, He has set His king upon the hill of Zion. Jesus will someday return to this earth and He shall stand first upon Mount Zion. God’s Word says it will cleave in two when He stands there, like a great earthquake, and cause a very great rift or very great valley (Zechariah 14:4). That great hill that the Jews and the Muslims are fighting over, guess who’s going to get it?—Jesus. And when He does land on it, it’s going to split wide open.

“I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me”—speaking now to Jesus—“Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” He’s going to give us the entire earth, all of it. “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

“Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.”—If you don’t want to be broken. “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.” Do you put your trust in Jesus? Then you’re going to be safe. Don’t worry, everything’s going to be all right with you.

“The Lord is king for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of His land” (Psalm 10:16). That’s what’s going to happen then. “Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion. When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad” (Psalm 14:7). The true Israel of God, those who have received Jesus the Messiah, the Christians.

“I have set the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.” There’s going to be a resurrection. “For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Psalm 16:8–10). There are many prophecies regarding the first coming of Jesus, but these are the ones about His second coming.

“I will declare Thy name unto my brethren: and in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee.” Before this, they were worshipping the Antichrist; now they’re going to have to worship Jesus, whether they like it or not. “They shall come and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done this” (Psalm 22:22,27,31).

The good news! We had to tell you the bad news first, all about the Antichrist and his reign of terror and the Tribulation and the judgment and Babylon and the horrors, and then Armageddon. But now comes the victory, the heaven on earth.

“Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O ye gates: even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah” (Psalm 24:7–10).

The Muslims have a prophecy that when Jesus returns, He will come through the gate called “Beautiful” and take over the city of Jerusalem and reign as the Messiah and King of kings. Therefore one Arab ruler many years ago didn’t want Jesus to come and take the kingdom away from him; he was afraid He might come during his day. So he walled up the gate “Beautiful” there in Jerusalem.

To this day it is still sealed, because God prophesied that no man should go through that gate again. A prophet prophesied this centuries ago when at that time it was one of the most popular gates of Jerusalem on a well-traveled highway that ran through that gate into the city. But God prophesied by His prophet Ezekiel many centuries earlier that it would be closed and never opened again until the Lord of hosts Himself, the King of kings, Jesus, would come and pass through that gate (Ezekiel 44:2; 43:1–4).

Praise God, the day is coming when “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:9–10).

“O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the Lord most high is terrible; He is a great King over all the earth.”—In the Millennium. “He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of His holiness” (Psalm 47:1–3,7–8). All of these marvelous predictions of the coming kingdom of Christ upon earth.

“I will make Thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise Thee for ever and ever” (Psalm 45:17). For “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the scepter of Thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows” (Psalm 45:6–7). What wonderful prophecies of the coming kingdom of Jesus! I turn the pages here in the Psalms and on almost every page I find another prophecy about this marvelous millennial kingdom of Christ. (to be continued)

21: The Millennium

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 20

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9/27/24 The twentieth chapter of Revelation is a very important chapter. It’s one of the shortest chapters and yet it covers one of the longest periods of over 1,000 years in Bible history of the future. The nineteenth chapter covered the invasion from outer space of Christ and His forces, and the destruction of the forces of the Enemy on earth, the kingdom of terror and terrorism of the Devil in the Antichrist, in the final great Battle of Armageddon in which Jesus and His children are the conquerors.

Who are the winners in the Battle of Armageddon? You’ve heard so much about the Battle of Armageddon, maybe you never heard about who’s going to be the winner. Some people say about sports that it’s not important who wins, it’s how you play the game. Let me tell you, we’re playing this game to win and it is important who wins! It is the forces of good and righteousness and Christ and God that will win this battle over the forces of the Devil and the Antichrist, and his forces of evil in the nineteenth chapter.

In the twentieth chapter the victory’s already won, and the reason we’re going back to that chapter here is that thousand years which is so important. It is mentioned six times in this one short chapter. First of all, we are told in the second verse that Satan is bound and cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years. Then there will be nobody left to take care of his business and he’ll go out of business for a while. I can imagine what the little boy said when somebody told him, “Oh, you don’t believe in the Devil, do you? It’s old-fashioned to believe in the Devil.” The little boy said, “Well, if there isn’t any Devil, who is taking care of all his business?” Because he’s still got a lot of business going on right now.

This amazing thousand-year period is known to theologians and Bible students as the Millennium. This millennial period is a very important period of the Endtime. It is the period during which Jesus Christ and His saints have won a victory over the Devil and his demons and the Antichrist kingdom of hell on earth. The Devil is bound or cast as a prisoner into the bottomless pit for a thousand years, with nobody left to run his business. We’re rid of him, thank God!

For a thousand years he no longer bothers us, no longer leads his legions and his demons across the face of the earth to plague the world and its citizens. Not only that, while he is in prison for a thousand years, it says that the saints who rejected the Mark of the Beast, who gave their lives rather than deny Christ, lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years (Revelation 5:9–14). The Devil is bound and imprisoned in the bottomless pit a thousand years, while the saints are living and reigning and ruling with Jesus Christ on the earth for a thousand years.

It says that the rest of the dead—meaning the unsaved dead, because the righteous dead have already been resurrected and raptured to be with the Lord—“lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” There is no resurrection of the unsaved until this thousand years is finished, until the end of the Millennium. The only ones who have been resurrected and raptured to be with the Lord are the saints of God, the Christians, those who love Jesus. This is the first resurrection. “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:5).

As dear St. John was writing this—perhaps in Greek the meaning was a little clearer—if he had turned that around a little bit, it would have been more understandable. When he says in the last part of the fifth verse, “This is the first resurrection,” he is talking about the first resurrection which has already taken place, of the Christians in the Rapture. “This is the first resurrection”—which shows that the resurrection which occurred at the time of Jesus Christ and the saints who rose from the dead shortly after His crucifixion was a part of this same first resurrection. It’s all called the first resurrection. “That they without us might not be completed” (Hebrews 11:40).

So the first resurrection has already taken place, and I think if he had put that statement first in the fifth verse, it would have been a little bit clearer and easier to understand. It would have read like this: “And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. This is the first resurrection.” That would have been clearer.—And then said, “But the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished.”

Some people have been misled and confused by this, thinking that he’s talking about the rest of the dead being the first resurrection. If you read the passage and if you followed the scriptural study, this resurrection of the rest of the dead, of the unsaved dead, obviously is not the first resurrection or he wouldn’t even state it like that. “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” Obviously some resurrection has already taken place, and as he says, the first resurrection has already taken place. But the rest of the dead, who come up in the second resurrection, will not be resurrected—the unsaved dead therefore—until the thousand-year millennial period is finished.

What’s going on during this thousand years? Satan is in hell. We saints are here upon the face of the earth, ruling and reigning with Christ over the kingdom of God on earth, heaven on earth, the Garden of Eden restored. For the rest of the dead, there’s no other resurrection until the thousand years is finished.

It says in the sixth verse that “We shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” The Devil’s in hell for a thousand years and he is not allowed to come out again till the thousand years is finished.

He therefore has a blessing to give to those who take part in the first resurrection, the Rapture of Jesus Christ to be with Him at the end of the horrible Tribulation, the end of the Antichrist rule, the end of the Devil’s reign. We have a glorious, wonderful resurrection either from the dead or are raptured from the very face of the earth from among the living, and we go to be with the Lord and have the Marriage Supper of the Lamb while God’s judgments are being poured out on the wicked upon the earth.

Then we come back in that mighty Battle of Armageddon and we conquer Satan and all his forces and cast them into hell. We take over the world and rule and reign over it and run it the way it should have been run to begin with and would have been if man had not believed the Devil’s lies and disobeyed God and gone his own way. At last the Lord is going to redeem the earth again, and He’s going to cause the beautiful Garden of Eden to blossom in righteousness as we rule and reign with Christ upon the earth for a thousand years. This is spoken of time and again in the Bible.

Then, in the seventh verse it says that “When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of prison,” and then we have the Battle of Gog and Magog. It’s a sort of a second Armageddon, only far worse than the first. All hell lets loose and in one mighty effort Satan for the last time tries to destroy this kingdom of God on earth, this Millennium of a thousand-year personal rule and reign of Jesus Christ and His saints upon the earth over the people remaining, those who have survived the holocaust of the antichrist reign of the Tribulation and the wrath of God and Battle of Armageddon.

There will be some who will survive. There will be some who will be left on the earth; otherwise we’d have no one to rule or reign over if all the people were killed. Many of them are still alive. It’s almost as though the Lord is giving them another chance, a last chance to repent all the way through the Millennium, through a thousand years of the perfect rule and reign of Jesus Christ and His saints and angels on the earth in the perfect world government, nothing wrong, everything righteous, no corruption, every judgment righteous in the government of God.

Yet, as Isaiah says, “Let mercy be shown to the wicked and yet he will not learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:10). Therefore even some of these people who remain upon the earth, over whom we rule with a rod of iron, rebel during the Millennium.

So Satan is briefly allowed out of his prison where he’s been for a thousand years, just long enough to deceive the nations again, the people of this world over whom we have been ruling to show them the kingdom of God and His Law of Love and what God expects of man and the way He expected man to run the world.

The minute the Devil is let out of the pit, many of these ignorant, willful, easily deluded people follow him, believe his lies, obey his orders, and as a result they begin to attack God’s people, of all the silly things. Trying to attack us then will be like trying to attack angels. They can’t touch us! We will have resurrected spiritual bodies which have enormous powers like the angels of God, like Jesus when He was resurrected.

He was able to walk through walls and locked doors and appear and disappear at will, but He was still also able to enjoy physical pleasures. He was able to eat and to drink and even cook a little meal out by the seaside for the hungry fishermen who had toiled all night (John 21:4–13). Wasn’t that sweet? Jesus was working for them, His children, even though He already had His resurrection body, this marvelous supernatural instrument and vehicle that the Enemy can never touch anymore.

It’s so foolish for the Devil to raise a rebellion against these forces of God in our supernatural bodies. So foolish for the Devil to think he can conquer the camp of the saints—but he tries. When Satan is loosed at the end of the thousand years, he’s able to go out and rally quite a crowd behind him, “the number of whom is as the sand of the sea” (Revelation 20:8).

“And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about” (Revelation 20:9). The Jews and the Arabs have a longstanding controversy over who Jerusalem belongs to and who should rule over it. The Antichrist is going to try to settle it by making it an international city where those of all religions can feel free to come and worship, whether they are Christian, Jew, or Muslim.

But Jesus is not going to make it an interfaith city. When Jesus takes over Jerusalem at the beginning of the Millennium He’s not even going to make it an international city, because there’s just going to be one-world government, and that’s the kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth, one great nation. He’s not going to make it an inter-faith city either, as the Antichrist has already tried to do, until he abolished all other religions and set himself up as god, as the false messiah and the false millennium and caused everyone to worship him.

In this case Jesus will set Himself up to be worshipped by all mankind as the Son of God, and it will be one-world government and one-world religion. The only religion in the world in that day will be the religion of Jesus Christ, of those who worship Jesus. It will be the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Jesus, the kingdom of love.

And yet, after a thousand years of that in our personal rule and reign with Jesus Christ on the earth over the whole world with the perfect government of love and fairness and justice and mercy and forgiveness, when the Devil is finally loosed, many run right after him, and he even tries to fight the kingdom of God. He again tries to rebel and fight against us, who by this time are the rulers of this earth by the power of God. So foolish for Satan to try to rebel against us, because he hasn’t got a chance!

This time God is so fed up with him that He sends down fire out of heaven to devour him completely and wipe him and all his anti-God, anti-Christ forces off the face of the earth. In fact, He causes such fire to come down from God out of heaven that it wipes out the entire earth completely. Not the ball itself, as we can prove from other scriptures, but the surface of the earth is completely burned and purified from all pollution, all the horrors of man, and God starts all over again with a new creation, as we’ll read in the next chapter—a new earth.

He re-creates the surface of the earth not like a paradise, but the paradise of God, and we will have a beautiful new earth under a new heaven! But notice that this thousand years comes before that. It comes at the end of the Battle of Armageddon, when Satan and his crowd are cast into hell and we rule and reign on the earth in the millennial kingdom of Jesus Christ over what’s left of unsaved man. We will rule over them for a thousand years. Then the Devil is allowed out for a little while to deceive the nations once again, and they try to come against God’s people and God wipes them all out with fire. In fact, He wipes the whole surface of the earth out with fire. Then occurs the great Judgment Seat of God when all the wicked are raised and are judged.

There’s this beautiful period of heaven on earth which occurs between that Battle of Armageddon and the Battle of Gog and Magog. A great battle begins it—Armageddon—and a great battle ends it—Gog and Magog. The participants and the belligerents and the main forces are the same, a conflict between the forces of heaven and the forces of hell: the forces of God and His son Jesus Christ, and the forces of Satan and his son the Antichrist. There is one beautiful thousand-year period between these two battles; a thousand years of peace and harmony and heaven on earth such as the world has never known.

20: Satan in Hell—Heaven on Earth

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 20

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9/26/24 Revelation 20: “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and which had not worshipped the Beast, neither his Image, neither had received his Mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years (the Millennium). “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.”— The one that’s already taken place. “Blessed and 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 and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are”—are already—“and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”—An age and an age. “And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: 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. “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” This is one of the shortest chapters in this amazing book, and yet it is one of the most amazing of all. This chapter covers one of the longest periods of time covered by this book, because it follows the Battle of Armageddon in which Satan, the Antichrist, the false prophet, and the forces that have accepted the Mark of the Beast are defeated. In chapter 19 they are all defeated by the forces of heaven, by a triumphal charge upon white horses out of the sky. An invasion from outer space takes place. Jesus and those of us who love the Lord will come charging out of the sky upon white horses! You say, “What do you mean, white horses? If God is so supernatural and miraculous that we can be up in the sky and the heavenlies and in outer space in the first place, what in the world does He need with horses?” There is just something magnificent about a horse. God created horses. God sculptured the first horse out of the dust of the earth and made it a living creature, and He made it the way He made it and designed it perfectly for man to ride. A horse was made for man to ride. Look at the shape of the horse. Its back is perfectly shaped to take the body of a man astride, and then its neck rising just in front of him with its head before him so that its head is almost even with the head of man. The average man is just tall enough to see right over the head of the average horse. It is made perfectly to size, made to fit man. Man was not made to fit the horse, but the horse was made to fit man. Throughout the world even today horses are still used by some military forces, cavalry and police forces. It’s said that there is something about a policeman on a horse galloping through a city street or nudging a mob away from wherever they aren’t supposed to be, that gives a policeman a certain majesty, a certain authority that a policeman on foot cannot have. In some of the most modern cities in the world, they have a horse-borne police force, a segment of their police who are mounted police. We’re going to ride into this earth from the sky, from the great Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Then, in the twentieth chapter, the Devil is finally going to be shackled by a great angel, bound by a chain—if not a literal chain, something to bind him. He’s a great spirit, a great evil power, so a literal iron chain is probably not what this is, but some type or form of bondage. He’s going to be bound, cast into the bottomless pit for one thousand years. This period of a thousand years is mentioned six times in this chapter: once in the second verse, once in the third verse and once again in the fourth verse, and again in the fifth, sixth, and seventh verse. It is a very important thousand years, so important that theologians and Bible students have called it the Millennium, which is Latin for a thousand years. During that thousand years, according to the sixth verse, we who have had part in the first resurrection, the Rapture, are going to rule and reign with Jesus Christ for a thousand years, on whom the second death has no power at all. If you’re born twice, you only die once. If you’re born physically of the flesh and then born again of the Spirit, spiritually saved with Jesus in your heart, then you only die once physically. But if you’re only born once, just physically, you’re going to die twice. First of all, the natural physical death; second, the spiritual death, the second death. So, born only once, you die twice; born twice, born and born again, you die only once and then you go to be with the Lord forever. You don’t spend that first thousand years in heaven. If Christians die now before Jesus comes, they’ll go to heaven, and when Jesus comes, He’ll resurrect and rapture them up to heaven for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. This takes place during the horrible hell on earth of God’s judgments, and then we come charging back to win this Battle of Armageddon in the nineteenth chapter, and the False Prophet and the Beast are cast into the Lake of Fire. Then in the twentieth chapter, the Devil himself is cast into the Lake of Fire with them. What are we who love the Lord going to be doing during that time? We’ve already been resurrected, raptured, had the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, charged in and won the Battle of Armageddon, and now we’ve taken over the world. We’re going to rule and reign with Jesus Christ on the earth for one thousand years. That’s what the thousand years is going to mean to us. For the Devil and his crowd, it’s going to mean a thousand years in hell, the Lake of Fire. But one more little thing is going to happen before the final heaven. This is not the final heaven; this is the Millennium. This is the heaven on earth of the restoration of the earth in its pure, pristine original beauty and perfection without the curse and without Satan and without most of the wicked. This is going to be the Millennium, the thousand years of our reign with Jesus on earth. Then the Devil’s let out for a little while to show that “though mercy be extended to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:10). God lets Satan out and He lets him deceive the world to show that the people still left who survived the Tribulation and the wrath of God and lived through the Millennium under us deserve the judgments they’re going to get. Even after a thousand years of perfect government under Jesus Christ and His saints and angels here on the earth, these wicked people rebel and follow Satan to their final destruction. Fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours the satanic forces of the Devil and his whole crowd completely, and wipes out all the wicked on earth in a gigantic fire in which the entire surface of the earth is burned up and the atmospheric heavens explode and roll back like a scroll, until God sits upon His judgment seat to judge the wicked. This is not the Judgment Seat of Christ; that already occurred at the beginning of the Millennium, when the saints were judged and rewarded according to their works. That’s a different scene at the beginning of the kingdom of God on earth. (See 2 Corinthians 5:10.) This is the final great judgment, the judgment of the unsaved. This is their first resurrection, when they are resurrected to face God at His almighty throne of judgment for their sins. It is their first resurrection, but the second death for those who are cast into hell. And then after that, “Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire” (Revelation 20:15).

19: The Battle of Armageddon

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 19

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9/25/24 “And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God: For true and righteous are His judgments: for He hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.

“And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

“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. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God.

“And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

“And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

“And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both (Antichrist and false prophet) were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of His mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.” Amen.

So reads the nineteenth chapter of this final book of the Bible, the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ to St. John. A very remarkable passage, one of the longest in this book and one of the most fearsome, and yet not really one of the most complicated. The seventeenth chapter was one of the most symbolic and complicated and significant, which really requires interpretation. But this one, though long, is fairly simple; it’s obvious what’s happening.

In the eighteenth chapter we studied the witch and the monster: the great whore Babylon and the great seven-headed monster, the Beast with ten horns on the last head. We saw the destruction, the fall of the world system of the Great Whore, Babylon, materialism, wealth, riches, power, mammon, money. You name it—she’s it, the woman who all kings of the earth and all nations worship. But she’s finally completely destroyed in that eighteenth chapter.

We’re getting sort of little cameos now of the separate magnified events of the endtime. Actually we have already had the Rapture of the saints and the wrath of God, and even the Battle of Armageddon has already been predicted and we’ve had a little preview of it. But now after the Tribulation, the great world system is destroyed, Babylon the Great, the Great Whore that deceived the nations and caused the whole earth to worship her and desire her, because she is the great religion of the world—materialism.—Wealth, power, riches, that after which most men lust and covet.

The religion of this world is not Judaism or Christianity, or Islam, Buddhism, or animism. The greatest religion of the world is this harlot that rules over the kings of the earth. She is the goddess of things, the goddess of wealth, the goddess of possessions, the goddess of materialism—mammon.

In chapter 18 she was totally destroyed. Not by God, though it was ordained by God, but by her final great lover, the Antichrist himself.—The Devil-man, Satan incarnate who merely used her to gain power and to become the dictator of the world with a one-world government by uniting all the religions of the world behind him to promote him.

Having attained that power and having achieved that position at the pinnacle and peak of world power, the greatest world dictator the world has ever known, to rule the entire world in a one-world government of the Antichrist, the Devil has finally accomplished his purpose. He no longer needs the Whore, the world money system and its materialistic worship. Now he is going to demand not just the worship of things—which he has persuaded man to worship for millenniums. For thousands of years, he has persuaded mankind to worship things and idols and images and selfishness.

Many self-help speakers today promote worship of self—self-realization. “Get into yourself, discover yourself. Find self! You are your own god!” People begin to worship themselves and love themselves above God—“lovers of self rather than lovers of God,” as the apostle says (2 Timothy 3:2–4).

He’s going to set up his image in Jerusalem in the holiest of all holy places to the world’s three greatest religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. He is going to say, “Behold, I am thy God, O Israel. Behold, I am thy God, O Christians. Behold, I am thy God, O Islam. Worship me. I am the god of this world now. I’ve deceived you and led you astray all these years, but now you’re mine and I’m your god and you’ll worship me because I’ve destroyed all the rest of your gods and religions. Now you must worship me in person.”

Then he won’t need the Whore anymore. He destroys her and the great world economic system, the great world commercial and capitalistic system, the whole works, and he makes it a kingdom of hell on earth, a kingdom of the Devil himself in person, and declares that he is God—something he always wanted to be. He tried to steal the position of God in heaven. But, of course, he was nothing compared to God, and so God forced him out of power completely and he was cast out and down to the earth at the time of the Great Tribulation to tribulate and trouble the world for their sins.

Satan himself having destroyed the whore and the world system and having insisted that everyone worship his image, the image of this Beast, or be killed, and bear his name or number or mark in their foreheads or hands or starve, now rules supreme as the god of this world, demanding worship.

But something else is about to happen! Just at the hour when he thinks he has everything under control—at last he’s worshipped by the whole world as God and he sits in the temple of God, saying that he is God—suddenly, BOOM! Like a bolt from the blue, something happens. Jesus comes and snatches all His children out of this world, all believers, all those who love God and who refused the mark of the beast and refused to worship the Beast, preferred even to die than to worship him.—For which reason many will be killed and martyred because they will rebel against him and reject him and refuse him, those who really love Jesus.—Christ their Savior, and God their Father.

So the Resurrection takes place, and all the saved who were dead come to life and all those saved who are still alive are raised into the air to meet Jesus in the clouds. A wonderful miracle has taken place and God’s own have all been removed from this earth, and then horrible wrath is poured out upon those left behind.

In chapter 19 after the wonderful Resurrection and Rapture of the saints, they are in heaven with the Lord enjoying the great marriage feast of the Lamb, the great wedding of His Bride, the entire true church of God, believers in Christ, all of them counted as one great bride though they are composed of millions, marrying Jesus at this great celebration in heaven, this wedding feast that’s going to be one of the greatest parties ever held!

While that wonderful party is going on in heaven, described in the first part of this passage, hell on earth, the wrath of God, is going on below. Where the saved are, in the first part of the nineteenth chapter, there’s only beauty and saints and the power of God and the praise of the Lord at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, with everyone clothed in beautiful fine linen.

They’re all praising God, thanking God for the great victory over the Enemy. They have been released and rescued out of this hell on earth, and they’re in heaven with Jesus having a wonderful party, the Marriage Supper, and a wonderful time while God dumps His judgments upon their wicked enemies they left behind.

Finally, He says, “Now we are going to mount our great white horses in the sky and return to the earth like ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky.’” That old song always gave me a thrill, and reminded me of the Battle of Armageddon as the Ghost Riders come charging out of the sky on white horses to conquer the Devil and Antichrist, and his false prophet, his false propaganda system, and destroy his evil idol, the Image of the Beast, and the seat of his kingdom and all of his followers, all those who took the Mark of the Beast in their head or palm or hand.

We’re going to ride out of the sky with Jesus on white horses. It says he saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, the horse on which sits Jesus, the Faithful and the True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war.

We’re going to come riding out of the sky, ghost riders from the sky. An invasion from outer space, aliens now to this world! Man worries about an invasion of aliens from outer space, and that’s what’s going to happen. We are going to be the aliens. We’re going to come riding out of the sky on great white horses and destroy the satanic kingdom of hell on earth, and then we’re going to set up the kingdom of heaven on earth, the kingdom of God, and restore earth to the beauty of the Garden of Eden.

His followers are going to rule over whatever people may have been blessed to survive both the wrath of man and the Tribulation and the wrath of God Himself. Those who have survived will be privileged and blessed of God to have managed to live through all that into the kingdom of God. We will be the rulers of this earth with Jesus and we shall rule and reign with Him together upon the earth, God’s Word says, with a rod of iron—by force. They are going to be compelled to obey God and compelled to do that which is right, and “righteousness shall cover the earth as the waters cover the seas” (Isaiah 11:9).

There’s going to be a great millennium of righteousness, a thousand-year period of the restored Garden of Eden upon earth. But first of all we have to destroy the Antichrist kingdom. We’re going to have to destroy Satan and the Antichrist, the false prophet, his propaganda system, his great image of himself, and all those who followed the Beast.

Jesus invites the beasts and the fowls of the air, the vultures, to come and feast upon the bodies of these terrible people who rebelled against God and who tried to fight God to the very last. Even after all of His judgments, after He did so many mighty miracles and caught His people out of the grave and off the surface of the earth into the sky to be with Him in heaven! They hate Him all the more, fight Him all the more. So He finally comes back with His followers and destroys their whole kingdom.

18: The Fall of the World System

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 18

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9/24/24 Revelation 18: “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies” (verses 1–3).

This Babylon is not just the ancient Babylon of old—of which that Babylon was a type of the Babylon of all ages and the Babylon of today, the great commercial system of wealth, money, riches and materialism. The religion of the world is the worship of things and not God. That is the Babylon which He’s talking about. That is the Babylon which is used as the symbol of all other Babylons and world systems from the beginning to the end.

In fact, it dates from the very time that Cain disobeyed the Lord, and instead of sacrificing the blood sacrifice that he was told to, he decided he would sacrifice whatever he wanted to sacrifice, that he would set his own standards and decide on his own sacrifices, and that would be his religion. As a result, God was greatly displeased and refused to accept his sacrifice, but rather accepted the sacrifice of his dear brother Abel who sacrificed a blood offering, a lamb, symbolic of Jesus Christ, which was pleasing to the Lord. (See Genesis 4.)

And Cain was very angry with his brother Abel outside the Garden of Eden in the very beginning, because God accepted his younger brother Abel’s sacrifice and rejected his, the older brother’s. And the Lord asked him, “Why art thou wroth? Why is thy countenance fallen?” He said, “If thy sacrifice is not accepted, then sin lieth at the door” (Genesis 4:5–7). There are many people today who try to be religious and holy and have some form of religious worship, but it’s not God’s. It’s not what He has asked for. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can satisfy His commandments.

So Cain was so wroth—this first symbol of false religion and the worship of things and materialism and the gods of this world and disobedience unto the Lord—that he became very angry with his brother Abel, whose sacrifice was simpler and perhaps less abundant but was in obedience, a blood sacrifice of a lamb symbolizing Jesus. So Cain, the head of the world’s first false religion of disobedience to God and of substituting his own righteousness and his own way and his own sacrifice instead of that which was commanded by God, became angry with the true believer, Abel, there just outside the Garden of Eden.

Cain rose up in anger and tried to kill the true, loving worshipper of God, the one who had obeyed God and given the right sacrifice. He killed his own brother in a jealous rage because his brother’s sacrifice was accepted—so simple, so humble, but so obedient. And his own abundant sacrifice of his fruits of the field, his fruits of his own hands, his own labors, his own righteousness was rejected by God and displeased God, because sin lay at his door in disobedience to God.

This simple little picture of Cain and Abel and the murder of Abel by his older brother Cain in jealous rage is a picture of the false church and the true church from that time on through over 6,000 years of man’s history. The false self-dependent religion which rules over the kings of the earth has persecuted the poor minority of the true church of believers who love and obey God and believe His Word and trust Him and follow Jesus.

Here in this great book of Revelation we have two women pictured. One is this horrible whore who has deceived the nations of the earth and rules over the kings and the powers and the governments of the earth, always persecuting the church of Jesus Christ.

We see the two women of this book, one very good, beautiful, and pure like Mary herself, the bride of Christ; the other evil, wicked—though beautiful—a licentious fornicator, adulteress, mother of harlots, the false church.—The greatest religion of all, that of materialism, the worship of things, riches, wealth, power.

While the poor pitiful little true bride of Christ like Mary of old flees into the wilderness for protection by the Lord, she is persecuted by the Devil and hounded by his mistress, who at last gets her due. This Antichrist government, this great red beast turns upon her and devours her and destroys her with fire at the very end in the Tribulation; and his ten kings pitch into her, burn her with fire, and destroy her.

First of all, having come into power, the Antichrist, Satan in the flesh, the Devil-man, decides he no longer needs Babylon, the great commercial, city system of materialism, so he destroys it. Remember, this is a flashback; we’re going back again into the period of the Tribulation and Antichrist rule before the Coming of Christ and the wrath of God.

We’re going back to see what the Antichrist does to the great whore, he and his ten kings who turn upon her and devour her with fire and destroy her and eat her flesh.—She who made them rich and powerful, she who rode upon their backs as a queen, saying, “I shall see no sorrow.” She who was a king-maker, she who was an empire-ruler, the empress of the Antichrist, is finally destroyed by the Antichrist government itself as he demands that all men everywhere shall now worship him only as the world’s god.

In the eighteenth chapter of Revelation, the Antichrist destroys the world city system in what appears to be a final atomic war. God thinks it’s such a tremendous event that He devotes an entire chapter to it, describing how she is finally destroyed, how the world cities and their banks and office buildings and temples of worship are finally totally destroyed, along with a great deal of the world. Very suddenly, He says, in a day, in one hour!

Fourth verse: “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double.” The angel is saying to God, “Double to her the judgment and the cruelty and the punishment and the persecution that she gave the saints.”

“How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day”—one day! The experts say the atomic war will be over in a few hours, in one day, perhaps one hour. “In one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire. For strong is the Lord God who judgeth her” (Revelation 18:5–8).

“And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment”—lest they get caught in the fire—“saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city. For in one hour is thy judgment come. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more.” No more commercial system.

“The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner of vessels of ivory, and all manner of vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men” (Revelation 18:9–13). That just about covers everything that the great whore trades in—all of her products, goods, wealth, from virtually everything on earth, including the very souls of men, slaves of her religion.

“And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls. For in one hour so great riches is come to nought” (Revelation 18:14–17).

“And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off”—they didn’t dare come very close because of the horror of the atomic destruction and the fallout—“and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city.” It must have been something like that at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness. For in one hour is she made desolate. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her” (Revelation 18:17–20). The world city system, the Rome of modern days, tries to persecute and martyr the children and prophets of God because they’re thorns in their flesh and pricks in their eyes; they prick their conscience and make them feel guilty for their sins.

“And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all” (Revelation 18:21). With violence she destroyed many, with violence she destroyed nations, with violence she destroyed empires, countries, whole peoples with her hellish wars and bombs.

“And the voice of harpers and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee. And no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee.” No more engineers, no more manufacturers. “And the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee” (Revelation 18:22). No more production even of food and grain.

“And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee.” That’ll be the day, the night when all the lights go out, the night when there’s the great blackout, the greatest the world has ever known, and the world goes dark.

“And the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth” (Revelation 18:23–24). This witch who practiced her witchcraft and sorcery to deceive man, to deceive the entire world to follow the Beast and his Antichrist, is finally destroyed by her own lover—the Antichrist.

This Antichrist destroys her, along with his kings, who turn on her and burn her with fire and destroy her, and she is gone forever.—The harlot of the kings of this earth who have lived deliciously with her in luxury and wealth and have promoted her and carried her upon their backs to great power and glory.

At last she’s destroyed because she destroyed God’s servants and God’s children throughout time. She persecuted and harassed them, and finally killed and martyred many of them in these last days. Their message, their witness, their words of God needled her, tormented and annoyed her, so she tried to wipe them out to get rid of her guilty conscience and that convicting message, preaching against her sins and her abominations and her worship of this world, the god of this world, the Devil in the flesh and the things of this earth, having worshipped the creature and the creation more than the Creator (Romans 1:25).

So is destroyed her in whom was found the blood of the prophets and of the saints and of all that were ever slain upon the face of the earth. All the people of God in both Old and New Testaments were destroyed in her, this worldwide Babylon of sin and iniquity and mammon and materialism and the worship of the things of this earth instead of God. Then the Antichrist demands the worship of all men and claims he’s God.

That’s the beginning of the end. God is about to destroy Satan and his Antichrist kingdom and his beast and false prophet and all his Mark-takers throughout the earth. They have persecuted His children and have tormented them and killed them and harassed them from one end of the earth to the other.

Finally His children say, “Lord, how long? How long, O Lord, before You wreak revenge on these who have shed our blood?” (Revelation 6:10). And the Lord says, “Just a little bit, wait a little bit longer.” “For he which lives by the sword and kills by the sword must die by the sword; here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” For he that comes out of the pit, out of hell, must go into perdition (Revelation 13:10; 17:8).

In the nineteenth chapter we come to the end, the Battle of Armageddon, the return of Jesus Christ with His saints to take over the world and to set up the kingdom of God on earth, the great millennial kingdom of God! The curse is removed, man restored, and the beauty of God’s marvelous original creation restored here on earth for a thousand years. We’ll read about that beautiful millennial period after we read chapter 19 in which the final victory is won over the forces of the Antichrist and of Satan.

17: The Witch and the Monster

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 17

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9/23/24 Revelation 17: “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials”—these angels of judgment and wrath—“and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters.”—This old witch who has bewitched the world, the false religion of the world. “With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” All governments cooperate with their religious system, and the religious system helps them rule, and the major religious system of the world is materialism. Mammon. Babylon.

“So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast”—a great red monster—“full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication” (Revelation 17:3–4). She lives in luxury and fornication with the system. She represents that which most men worship, which is not a religious system or one particular religion, but mammon, wealth, riches, money, the commercial system.

“And upon her forehead was a name written, mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth” (Revelation 17:5). God here is using a term for this great, wealthy, materialistic commercial system of the modern world, taking a term from ancient history—Babylon, a great, idolatrous capital of the world at one time. But this is talking about the final Babylon, the final manifestation of mammon or wealth or riches or materialism.

“And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration” (Revelation 17:6). He doesn’t mean he admired her in the sense we do today, but with great astonishment, with great wonder. She was drunk with the blood of the saints—she had martyred the people of Jesus.

“And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition.” He comes out of hell and he goes back into hell. In other words, he is demonic, Devil-inspired. “And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

“And here is the mind which hath wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth” (Revelation 17:7–9). This literally means seven great kingdoms or world empires, world powers, the same as the seven heads of this great red monster or red dragon, this beast. Seven great world empires, most of whom have already passed across the stage of history by the time this occurs, and at this time there is one final world power of the Antichrist, the seventh.

“And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space” (Revelation 17:10). The angel says there are seven kings, seven world powers since the beginning of the first great world power of man, Egypt, and five are already fallen. The angel was speaking to John the apostle who was getting this revelation on the Isle of Patmos about the year 107 A.D. during the Roman Empire.

So the angel says five of these kings or these kingdoms or these world powers are already fallen. Is this true according to history? Egypt—gone; Assyria—fallen; Babylon—fallen; Medo-Persia—fallen; Greece—fallen. Five already fallen, and he said one is, which was Rome at the time of John, and the other is not yet come—that’s the Antichrist.

There’s not been a worldwide empire since the days of Rome. There’s been no world empire that has ruled nearly all the known civilized world since Rome. There have been great Chinese empires, and there have been the Arabian empire and the Ottoman empire and the Spanish empire and the Portuguese empire and the British empire and the American empire and the Russian empire, but not one of them has ruled the whole world like the former empires.

But he’s coming; he’s called the Antichrist, Satan incarnate, the son of the Devil, who is going to rule the whole world in a one-world government by a one-world dictatorship and proclaim himself to be God and insist that the whole world worship him. So he’s “not yet come.”

Tenth verse: “And when he cometh, he must continue a short space.” He only rules the world for a very short time, only seven years, the last half of which is the Great Tribulation.

“And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is one of the seven, and goeth into perdition” (Revelation 17:11). This is a very strange statement here, because you notice there’s only one beast, but there are seven heads of this beast. So these seven world powers or world governments or world empires are nothing more than simply seven manifestations of the same beast from which these heads sprout. In other words, the Devil, the Antichrist.

All the world’s empires have come out of this Beast. And he says the Beast himself, verse 11, “was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven”—he’s of the seven—“and goeth into perdition.” In other words, they’re all one and the same. Only under the seventh head, that last revival of the Roman Empire, the Antichrist kingdom, the Beast himself rules and reigns, therefore really making himself the eighth, both the seventh and the eighth beast, in a sense.

He was, and is not—he disappears—but then he revives again. It says that he has a wound unto death and that he’s healed. (See Revelation 13:3–7.) This is a very deep mystery. He is the seventh, and it looks like he gets killed, but then he seems to be resurrected or brought back to life. Therefore in that sense he’s the eighth, and he’s one of the seven, the seventh in fact, and he goeth into perdition—he goes to hell where he deserves to be, because he’s the son of the Devil, Satan himself.

Verse 12: “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.” The Antichrist kingdom is made up of these ten great world powers, ten kings or kingdoms—presidents, premiers, heads of parties, governments. They are the ten great leaders of the ten leading world powers in the last days of history in the time of the Antichrist, and he gets them to cooperate with him, to help put him in power. “They have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.”

In other words, these kings are not yet kings. Their kingdoms may already be in existence, but the world leaders who surrender to this antichrist Beast and make him the world emperor, the world dictator, and his one-world government the world government, are not yet come. They haven’t yet actually appeared upon the scene, but they will come on the scene for the last hour of world history along with the Antichrist.

Verse 13: “These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.” These ten great world powers or kings or kingdoms or world leaders will give their power to the Beast. They will surrender their power voluntarily to the Beast, or the Antichrist, to proclaim him the king of the world, the world dictator of the one-world government. He doesn’t have to fight or conquer them—they voluntarily surrender their power and their kingdoms to him and cooperate with him so that he might control the whole world and become its great world dictator, the Antichrist. So they have one mind and give their power and strength unto the Beast. (Three he overthrows. See Daniel 7:8, 24.)

“These shall make war with the Lamb.” This Lamb is capitalized, signifying Jesus. “And the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords and King of kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful” (Revelation 17:14). The Antichrist forces are deluded enough to try to make war with Jesus Himself and His forces, His followers. But that’s where they’re defeated, because He is the Lord of all lords and the King of all kings. Christians are with Him, the called, chosen and faithful. The forces of Christ finally confront the forces of the Antichrist in the Battle of Armageddon after the Tribulation and the wrath of God.

“And he saith unto me, the waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” (Revelation 17:15). This is one religion that rules the whole earth—materialism, the worship of things. She’s pictured as a beautiful woman adorned with precious jewels and gold and silver, living in luxury. So she, Babylon, bewitches the whole earth with her sorceries and her fornication to cause men to worship money and wealth and material things.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s just a little thatched hut and a wooden canoe; if you worship it, it’s a sin! If you worship it and love it and hold it above God Himself, with no love for God nor your fellow man or neighbor, but just for your little shack, it is a sin. Even if you don’t have a mansion, even if it’s just a little cardboard shanty or a grass shack, if it has become your idol, what you worship, what you’d rather have than anything in this world, it has become your religion.

In the capitalistic commercial system of Babylon, its temples are banks. Its temples are office buildings to which its devotees and worshippers resort to worship eight hours a day from nine to five, five or six days a week.

That is the religion of the world. That is the great whore, Babylon the Great, that the kings of this earth have made rich and who rides on their backs and controls them. It’s their lust for things and wealth and riches and power, and she rides on their necks and controls them. She rides on the back of the Beast.

They all seek and lust after the same things. They worship things and riches and power and money and wealth, and materialism is the god and the religion of the world. She, the great whore of Babylon, is the one they worship and to whom they give their power and who rules over them.

“And these shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them.” They’ve always made war with Christians and persecuted them and killed them and martyred them.—This false religion of the world, those who worship this world and the things that are therein.

God says to us, “Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world, for he that loveth the world is at enmity with God” (1 John 2:15; James 4:4). To those who love Jesus, He said, “If any man would come after Me, let him take up his cross and follow Me. For he that would save his life shall lose it, and he that would lose his life for My sake and the Gospel’s shall save it” (Matthew 16:24–25). So they make war on the church of Jesus Christ and His followers, but the Lamb will overcome them, for He is the Lord of all lords and the King of all kings. And they that are with Him—all saved Christians—are called, chosen, and faithful.

Verse 15: “And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, multitudes, tongues, nations.” The whole world. She rules over them all. “And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.” Eventually they will turn on her and destroy her; they will destroy the world materialistic system and turn the world over to the Antichrist.

The Antichrist will destroy the materialistic world system and demand worship of himself as God— the Devil incarnate! He will say, “Stop worshipping wealth and commercialism. Stop worshipping this harlot, this whore of materialism you’ve always worshipped. From now on, I’m God.” So he destroys her. He destroys commercialism, materialism, all of it, and demands that all nations and persons worship him.

“For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill His will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth” (Revelation 17:17–18).

Praise God for our true God, Jesus, King of kings. Are you ready to go with Jesus?

16: The Wrath of God (part 2)

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapters 15–16

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9/22/24 They took these vials of wrath from one of the four beasts around the throne of God here in Revelation. (See Revelation 4:6–9.) They appeared in several other places, one like a lion, one like an eagle, one like an ox, one like a man and so on. What are they? All kinds of theories have been given.

They seem to symbolize the great powers of God by which He runs the universe. They seem to symbolize the great power like an ox and like an eagle and like a lion and a man and so on. In fact, these very beasts used to be worshipped by the idolaters and the pagans of the ancient world. Here they’re all combined around the throne of God, giving glory to God, worshipping God, making great announcements to God, saying “Amen” to God, doing certain duties for God.

There are many mysteries that God has hidden for Himself and which He has reserved for us only to know sometime in the future or perhaps in heaven itself. So you can theorize about these four beasts who are so often pictured surrounding God like four great bodyguards, surrounding His throne in heaven or traveling through time and space, but I doubt if we’ll know until we get to heaven and see them for ourselves. Maybe we won’t even understand them then.

The prophets who saw them never explained them; maybe they didn’t understand them either. God’s ways are above our ways, as high as the heavens above the earth (Isaiah 55:9). So we’re not expected to understand everything God does and has and knows. We’re just finite men and we have pretty small minds, and we can’t possibly comprehend all of the wonders and the creations of God.

This is the great event of God’s judgments being poured out upon the earth and upon the wicked who remain on the earth after the righteous have been caught up in the Rapture. It’s so important that the Bible devotes an entire chapter just introducing these seven angels of wrath. Then it plunges on into their plagues, which they pour onto the earth in chapter 16. Notice what kind of plagues they are and what parts of the earth they affect.

The first plague is poured out on the earth, and the men who had followed the Beast, the followers of the Antichrist who accepted his mark and worshipped his image, develop sores, horrible sores. Maybe cancer is a forerunner of the sores that will fall upon the followers of the Beast, the unsaved, the wicked left behind for the judgments of God.

The second angel poured out his vial on the sea and it became blood. You notice that some of these plagues had already been brought by the judgments of God on the kingdom of the Antichrist during the Tribulation, during his rule and reign, but they were only partial at that time. A third was destroyed, a third of the waters became blood, a third of the trees were burned up, and so on. This time it seems to be almost total. It says the whole sea became blood, apparently all the sea, and everything that lived in the sea died. What a mess!

The third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains and they became blood. There’s no way to get a drink of water, nothing to drink but blood. The angel says they’re worthy of it because they shed the blood of God’s prophets and His children and people, so they deserve to drink blood. How the blood of the martyrs is avenged!—Those that cried from under the altar of God in heaven in chapter 6, “How long, O Lord, how long until You avenge our blood upon our enemies?” Here it is. First they develop sores all over their body and then they have to drink blood.

Then the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun and they were scorched with fire. I think the way some of these sunbathers bathe and get horrible sunburns that nearly kill them, and sometimes do, with red blisters all over the bodies, second and third degree burns, is a little sample of what God’s going to do in the last days of His judgment when He’s going to cause the intense heat of the sun to be multiplied, it says in another place, sevenfold (Isaiah 30:26). So man will be scorched with its fire. I can hardly imagine curses or sufferings any worse than these horrible curses and plagues that God pours out upon the wicked who have persecuted His children and killed His prophets.

Now the fifth angel, and there’s darkness. The wicked are left on the earth, deserted by God and by the righteous Christians who are caught up to heaven to be with Jesus, deserted to their sufferings and plagues, groping their way around in such thick darkness that they can’t even find their way around. How terrible!

Next, the sixth angel dries up the great river Euphrates to prepare the way for the kings of the East, the armies of the East. We saw in a previous chapter that 200 million horsemen are going to come from the East, summoned by the Devil himself for a last great battle on earth, still trying to rebel against God and against His angels and still trying to conquer the earth. They are still reviling God, cursing God, and creating even more destruction in a final horrible war called the battle of that great day of God Almighty—Armageddon. They are summoned together by the evil spirits of Satan himself and the Antichrist and his false prophet.

Then Jesus warns, “Watch out, I come as a thief in the night.” He’s speaking to John and to me and you today. “You’d better be ready! You’d better be ready for the Rapture, the Resurrection, when it comes, if you want to escape all this hell.” You’re to watch and keep your garments. What garments are these? That suit, coat and tie you’re wearing? That lovely dress you’re wearing, ladies? No, He’s talking about the robes of righteousness. He’s talking about the clothing of salvation, not natural clothing. He says, “lest ye be found naked.” Lest you be found without His salvation, without His robes of righteousness, without being saved.

Satan and his cohorts gather mankind together for one final destructive battle at a place referred to in verse 16 as Armageddon. This literally means the height of Megiddo. When Napoleon first saw the height of Megiddo he said, “What a place for a battle!” Some Bible students have speculated that this is where that final war, the Battle of Armageddon, is going to center and where it’s going to concentrate in this final battle between the forces of hell and the wicked on earth, and the forces of heaven coming out of heaven with Jesus to conquer and to annihilate them (Revelation 19).

You’ve heard of this Battle of Armageddon all your life, haven’t you? World wars and other great wars have been called Armageddon. But those have only been bare little previews of the final horror of this worst-of-all wars at the end of the age of man.

When He has gathered them together into this Valley of Megiddo surrounding the height of Megiddo, Armageddon, from all over the earth, the seventh angel will pour out his vial into the air.

“And there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, it is done.”—Meaning, this is the end. This is the very end, the last scene of this drama of all the damage that man can possibly do on earth. This is his last horrific battle, warfare being man’s greatest sport, creating the most possible destruction, man’s inhumanity to man.

This time man gathers together under the Devil himself to try to fight the forces of God. How foolish! How ridiculous! How presumptuous! You wonder how the Devil could be so dumb as to think he can fight God. Well, he’s been doing it for thousands of years, or trying to. He’s made himself king of the world, the god of man, and now he’s trying to fight the very forces of heaven coming down.

So what does God do as they gather here in the Valley of Megiddo? What’s the last sign of this war?

“And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great” (Revelation 16:18). Lightnings, thunders, a great earthquake, the greatest the earth has ever known, and the cities of this earth are divided and the cities of the nations fall! Not just one little quake here or there, a little isolated earthquake with just one or maybe a few cities to fall, but the cities of the entire earth are going to fall in this last shake-up of God. One last earthquake is going to destroy all the cities.

“And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath” (Revelation 16:19). God gives the fierceness of His wrath to Babylon—here again, speaking of the cities, the great world system, the world commercial system, banking system, its cities, its buildings, all tied together in the worship of mammon, the worship of wealth, the worship of materialism, the greatest religion of the world which nearly all men are members of except the followers of Jesus Christ.

“And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found” (Revelation 16:20). They’re all going to be leveled in that day and the islands are going to disappear. And a hail from heaven with each stone weighing over 100 pounds, over a talent’s weight, a horrible hail is going to come down from heaven (Revelation 16:21). Great hail from heaven flattens the cities of the earth and is going to crush the armies of the Antichrist!

So ends this wrath of God upon man at the end of the Tribulation at the final rebellion of man in this period of wrath following his great Tribulation period, after the saints are with the Lord in heaven. I don’t want to be here then, do you? It’s bad enough to have to go through the Tribulation of man and his horror and his anger and his wrath on earth and the wrath of God combined against him. Thank God His children will escape most of that, because that’s directed at Satan and his forces even during the Tribulation!

Most of the horrors of the Tribulation are not directed at God’s people; they’re directed as curses of God upon the forces of their enemies. You just can hardly even comprehend the horrors that are going to occur after the Lord takes the saved, Christians who love Jesus, out of this earth and out of their deadly grasp and their cruel hands. God’s going to rescue us and take us out in the Rapture before all this.

16: The Wrath of God (part 1)

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapters 15–16

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9/21/24 Revelation 15: “And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

“And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints. Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made manifest.

“And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the (ark of) testimony in heaven was opened: And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.”

Revelation 16: “And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

“And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man; and every living soul died in the sea.

“And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because Thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets and Thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgments.

“And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues; and they repented not to give Him glory.

“And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty (Armageddon).

“Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments (salvation), lest he walk naked and they see his shame (sins). And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

“And the great city (Babylon—the city system) was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: And great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the great plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.”

Here we begin to read about this final wrath of God. In the Tribulation period in the preceding seven chapters (chapters 8–14) and previewed in the first seven chapters of Revelation, we have the wrath of man manifest in the world, in the kingdom of the Antichrist, the Devil-man, Satan incarnate. Now he’s being brought to his end and to his doom.

Even at the end of the last chapter, Revelation 14, we were told that as this wrath of God began to be poured out upon the earth, that blood was going to run as deep as the horses’ bridles for the space of 200 miles! Have you the faintest idea how much blood that would take? With the old system of warfare and fighting with mere swords and staves and spears and even their worst guns and rifles and pistols, they couldn’t have begun to draw and shed that much blood.

Only when they began to drop the horror bombs on cities like Nagasaki and Hiroshima, slaughtering 100,000 people at a time and maiming 100,000 or more, only then could man begin to realize how much blood he could shed with his latest, hellish, most fiendish instrument of death and destruction, the atomic bomb.—These horrible nuclear weapons that can kill millions at a salvo. How could blood run for 200 miles, as deep as the horses’ bridles, four feet deep? How could there be that much bloodshed? It’s going to be shed in the days of the wrath of God.

In this fifteenth chapter He introduces these angels of wrath, and there are seven of them, having seven last plagues of the earth—plagues meted out upon sinful, unrepentant man who has refused the truth of God. Man who has insisted on going his own way instead of God’s way. Sinful man who was given a choice between believing God and believing the Devil in the Garden of Eden and ever since. Don’t blame it all on Adam and Eve! We have each been given the same choice.

What is the horrific end of it all? Some horrors, hell on earth, brought by the Devil incarnate, in the person of the Antichrist, man’s wrath upon man. The fulfillment of the worst wrath and horror that man can bring upon this earth, followed by the wrath of God upon these wicked men who have brought such hell to the earth and such suffering and such death and such rebellion against God, until this Devil-man commands that he be worshipped as God himself and tries to kill everyone who refuses to worship his idol, his image, and tries to starve everyone who will not take his mark.

The Devil has done his worst, man has had his day and he has done his damnedest, and he has made the biggest mess out of God’s creation that could possibly be made of anything that began so beautifully and so perfectly in that gorgeous Garden of Eden. Man has literally brought hell on earth with the help of the Devil himself.

So the angels of God begin to pour out the wrath of God upon the unregenerate who are left behind upon the earth, while the Christians, the righteous, the saved, those who love God throughout the world, millions of them have already been resurrected from the dead and raptured from among the living, caught up into the sky to meet Jesus to have a wonderful party in the air, a marvelous Wedding Supper of the Lamb that’s going to be going on up yonder. Heaven above while there’s hell below.

You’re getting a picture now in these two chapters of the hell that’s going to be happening on this earth after Jesus Christ has deserted it and taken out all His own, those who love Him and are saved by His blood and His sacrifice on Calvary. There won’t be anybody left behind except the living dead, the dying living, and the hell that both Satan and God are going to bring upon this earth. Hell has already been brought by Satan, now God’s going to give His judgments upon the kingdom of the Antichrist, this kingdom of the Devil, this kingdom of hell on earth.

Meanwhile the saved praise the Lord! Just before you are given a view and a rundown on this horror that God is going to bring on the earth by His judgments, you’re given a beautiful picture of the righteous, the saved, the Christians who love Jesus standing upon a sea of glass in heaven, so smooth and so beautiful and so polished, through which God can see all things that happen—past, present, and future.

There stand we who love Jesus and who have suffered through all of this hell on earth and the opposition and persecution of our enemies. There we stand with Christ at last, supreme, glorious, radiant, happy, singing the songs of Moses and of the Lord. And they will praise the Lord and say, “Who in the world could possibly not fear God after all of this?” In the preceding chapter you found the whole world wondering after the Beast, but this heaven above wonders after Jesus.

You notice in that fifteenth chapter, the fifth verse, that he looked, “and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.” Where was the tabernacle of the testimony, the Ark of the Covenant which symbolized the presence of God upon earth and once symbolized the presence of God in the old Jewish temple? It’s been a mystery for ages.

What ever happened to the Ark of the Covenant?—The ark of the testimony, the tabernacle of the testimony as it was called, that little box which contained those souvenirs of the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel and over which hovered two angels and the shekinah glory, the light of God Himself symbolizing the presence of God, but which at the death of Christ on the cross, the temple veil having been rent in twain by the hand of God, was suddenly discovered by its packed worshippers on that great Passover eve to be empty and gone.

The most sacred relic they had was gone, which only the high priest could even see, only the high priest could visit once a year, which symbolized the presence of God with His people. When the veil was rent in twain, the Ark was gone, and from then on Judaism was a hollow, empty, hard shell of religion with nothing left. Even the Ark of the Covenant was gone, and soon the temple was smashed and burned to the ground.

What happened to the Ark of the Covenant? What happened to the tabernacle of the testimony? Here you find it in heaven, standing right there in the temple of God. And the angels of judgment, these angels of God’s wrath come out of the temple with these seven vials of wrath. As the cup of man’s iniquity was full, God poured out His cup of wrath, seven cups of wrath upon the wicked earth and its unregenerate men, having rescued His own children in the Rapture just before this in chapter 14. (To be continued)

15: The Rapture

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 14

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9/20/24 Revelation 14: “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps. And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.

“These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God, and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God. And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

“And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

“And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them. And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.

“And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.”

Thus reads the fourteenth chapter of this thrilling but almost frightening book of the Revelation of God to Jesus Christ to John to us. This is the last of the second seven chapters of Revelation, divided so beautifully into these three sevens of chapters, plus one about heaven. The first seven chapters had to do with what is now past history, from John’s day through the very end, a sort of a preview and a summary of all history. The second seven chapters zero in on just the last period, the worst and most awful period of man’s history, the Tribulation period and its seven Tribulation trumpets, and it virtually ends with the seventh trumpet, the last trump announcing the Coming of Christ, and we zero in a little closer to all the endtime events which occur upon the blowing of that last trumpet.

Now, in this fourteenth chapter, the end of the second seven of chapters, we come to a summary of the grand finale of events accompanying the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the Rapture of His saints. First we have some announcements from heaven, some important, glorious announcements of what is about to happen. And then we have a description of the actual events, with a prediction and a quick glimpse of the beginning of the wrath of God and the doom to come.

First of all, he speaks of the hundred and forty-four thousand, and there is great fanfare for their appearance, like it’s a grand appearance of the stars of God’s great play. It’s almost as if they’re making a curtain call, because they’ve already appeared in the play before, but here they appear with Him in heaven.—This time not just on Mount Zion, Jerusalem, where they got their start as the first Christians of the early church, the pioneers of this great, great family of God, but after they have finally arrived and the play is almost over and they’re having their curtain call with the fanfare and the applause and plaudits of all the world, the voice of many waters, thunder, harpers. What a grand finale for any play!

And they sang a new song. They have a grand final number that they’re going to sing as this particular scene closes on this grand dramatic play of the Lord; only it’s not just a play, it really happens. Nobody else could sing that song except these who bore the earliest cross and the heat of the day and the pioneering of the church!

Nearly all of these first Christians were Jews, as they’re called here in the fourth verse, “the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb” (Revelation 14:4). And as they were named in a previous chapter even by tribes, 12,000 from each tribe of Israel, 144,000 all together, it sounds to me, if you want to take it literally, like all of these first Jewish Christians who pioneered the church of Jesus Christ, the early Christian church, are being honored here by the Lord for being pioneers and so many of them martyrs and pure in heart as far as God was concerned.

He makes it figuratively speaking, saying “not defiled with women” and so on, but it doesn’t mean that they were celibates. It doesn’t mean that they had never committed any sins; it simply means that in the sight of God they were pure and holy, sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ, greatly honored here in this last grand scene, this great climax of the play of this particular scene of the world’s greatest hour of Tribulation, which is about to close with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. They’re greatly honored and praised, there’s an orchestra, there are harps, songs, thunders—all kinds of tremendous celebrations—and God shows that they’re in heaven with Him. Praise God!

Now if you don’t want to believe that they were all the first Jewish Christians, you could interpret this more or less figuratively and symbolically as being the most outstanding Christians of the Christian era throughout Christian history. But it’s a bit hard to get around that list that is given back in chapter 7 where they’re not only named as 144,000, but they’re named from specific tribes of Israel. It’s a little bit difficult to say that that’s just symbolic and figurative and they weren’t necessarily literal Jews from those literal tribes.

I’m more inclined to believe that they were Jews, and that God is greatly honoring them here in this chapter because they were the pioneers, the earliest martyrs. They’re the ones who bore the burden of the heat of the day, the heat of persecution, the heat of martyrdom, the most horrible slaughter and torture and terrible things, to help get the church of God started. Once it was rolling, once the Roman Empire and the Roman emperor himself had accepted Christianity, the job was easy, in a sense. Although then, sad to say, in many cases the Romans had not become Christians but the Christians had become Romans and continued under the name of the new Roman church to persecute the true believers, the true Christians, the humble followers of the Word of God in His apostles, disciples, and prophets.

But these here sound to me like real genuine Jews who love Jesus and who were the first Christian disciples and followers of Christ in the early Christian martyrdom era, who suffered the ten persecutions of the Roman Empire. They’re praising God, glorifying God, and here we have several angelic announcements by angels of God, like heralds of the king coming out on the stage and announcing a new thing that’s about to happen or has just happened.

In the mind of God, as far as He was concerned, by this time Babylon had already fallen. She had fallen because she fell prey to the Antichrist government of the Tribulation, first of all during the first half of the Antichrist’s reign and rule. The first three and a half years of his seven-year reign he cooperates with Babylon, the false religion of the world. But then he turns on her and destroys her, his only remaining competition (Revelation 17:16). Now, the Protestants have called Babylon the Catholic Church, and some have called Babylon all churchianity, but if you’re going to picture this Babylon and you find out she was full of merchants and riches and great wealth and so on, you’re not just going to have to include a few religions.

You’re going to have to come face to face with the greatest religion in the whole world, which is neither Catholicism nor Protestantism nor Christianity nor Islam nor Judaism nor Buddhism nor any of the Oriental religions or any of the so-called religions of man, but you’re going to have to confess that the greatest religion of this world is the one religion that they don’t even call a religion. But all you have to know it is a religion is by what they worship. What do most people worship?

The god of most of the world is money, things, materialism! The things which they possess. Jesus said “a man’s (true) life consisteth not of the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15), but that’s what man thinks his life consists of, and so he worships these things, these idols. They may not be in the figures of statues and actual heathen gods and idols or Christian gods and idols, but they are the things that he worships and his idols, and that’s the god of this world: materialism, things, money. Mammon, as Jesus called it in general—the god of wealth, riches, possessions (Matthew 6:24).

By this time the Antichrist has declared himself as God and he has destroyed the great capitalistic commercial system of the world and all other religions as well, and set himself up as god, so Babylon is fallen. By this time he’s insisted that all mankind take the mark of his bestial image in their foreheads or hands, and everyone who does will be condemned. And of course the true Christians, the true believers in God, will not accept that mark because they already have the invisible mark of God in their foreheads—faith in Jesus Christ. And those people who have the mark of the beast and worship him will be condemned in torment, it says forever and ever. We’ll go into exactly how long that means in later studies, but it means for an age and for ages and so on.

“Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” What is their patience? “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.” Because here appears in the fourteenth verse of the fourteenth chapter the coming of Jesus Christ on a cloud.—The Son of man, having a sickle and a golden crown, and He reaps the earth.

What can this be other than the Rapture, after which another angel reaps the wicked and casts them into the winepress of the wrath of God. That is the end of this chapter. The next chapter begins the description of the wrath of God on the wicked who were left behind after Jesus has gleaned out of the earth His beautiful, great reaping of the harvest of the Christians and the true believers, His bride in the great Resurrection of the dead and Rapture of the saints.

14: The Beast of Hell

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 13

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9/19/24 Revelation 13: “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast”—or a monster—“rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon”—that great red dragon, Satan, that we saw in the last chapter (part 13 of this series)—“gave him his power and his seat and great authority.” The Devil himself possesses this monster, this beast, this Antichrist man.

“And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon”—the Devil—“which gave power unto the beast”—the Antichrist—“and they worshipped the beast”—the Antichrist—“saying, who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” (Revelation 13:1–4). Apparently he is very powerful at this time.

“And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies.” He’s a great propagandist; he uses the media. “ And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.” There again we have the three and a half years of Tribulation. “And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Only those who have his mark. “If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.” Meaning Satan and the Antichrist. “Here is the patience and the faith of the saints” (Revelation 13:5–10). Where? Knowing they’re going to be avenged against this enemy.

“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.” This is the false prophet, the false Christ, the false messiah. Not the Lamb of God but the wolf in sheep’s clothing. “And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast”—this monster “whose deadly wound was healed.” (The false prophet represents the Antichrist like the Holy Spirit represents Christ.)

“And he”—this false prophet, this false lamb—“doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.” This beast, this Antichrist is going to be like a resurrected man.

“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak”—in other words, it’s some kind of an automaton, a robot, operated by some kind of computer. “He had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six” (Revelation 13:11–18). His number is six hundred sixty-six, 666. So there you have it! Revelation 13, a very unlucky chapter.

Here we have the picture of this horrible monster, this devil-man called beast or monster here in the Scripture. He is inspired by the Devil, given power by the great red dragon, Satan himself, to take dominion over the whole earth. It says here that everybody is going to worship him except those who love the Lord. Everybody is going to receive his mark except those who have the mark of God already in their foreheads—and those in the book of life.

All the rest of the world is going to believe him and receive him and follow him and wonder after him because he is this great superman, this false messiah, the phony savior. Not the Son of God, but the son of the Devil. Not God incarnate, like Jesus Christ, but Satan incarnate—the Devil in the flesh.

“Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:9–11).

The Antichrist is sent to those who rejected the truth and God’s Word and Jesus Christ, since they rejected the truth and didn’t want the truth. So He sends them strong delusion that they might believe a lie, that they might be damned.

This is the same man referred to in 2 Thessalonians 2, who comes doing great signs and wonders and miracles and sits in the temple of God showing himself as God and that he is God and requiring everyone to worship him as God.

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3–4).

He has all the characteristics, you’ll notice, of all the former kingdoms and empires which have preceded him. He’s partly a leopard, like Greece; he’s partly a bear, like Medo-Persia; and he has the mouth of a lion, like Babylon. This shows you the territories he covers. And the dragon, the Devil himself, gives him his power, his seat, and his authority.

Now here’s a very strange thing; he has seven heads with ten horns and ten crowns. How could seven heads have ten horns? It looks like seven heads ought to have seven horns, or maybe 14 horns if they had two on each head. But no, the seventh head has ten horns, this last head. According to Daniel, three of the ten horns are overthrown and this eleventh one takes their place. So three horns are then gone or dominated by the little horn, who springs up in this last head, making him the eighth. “Even he is the eighth” (Revelation 17:11; Daniel 7:8,24).

Each of these heads of this beast represents one of the great world empires that has passed off the scene. This time the picture gives you all the world’s empires, all the way from Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome and finally the Antichrist, this last world government, the last great world dictatorship of the world dictator, the Antichrist, called here the beast.

There are ten horns, ten kings at the last who’ll cooperate with him, as we’ll find out a little later, and who work with him. He overthrows three of them, and he comes up in their place, and that’s why it says “even he is the eighth” in another chapter we’ll study later (Revelation 17:11). He continues forty and two months, exactly the same length of time we’ve been told of in every other passage we’ve read so far, which is the last three and a half years of world history called the Great Tribulation. In fact, it’s the last half of his seven-year reign.

He comes on the scene with a pact to reign seven years, but in the middle of it he breaks the pact, this holy covenant with the religions of the world, and he abolishes them all. He bans all other religions and says, “Now we’re not going to have any more religious arguments, religious bickering or religious wars; we’re not going to have any more problems over Jerusalem and who’s to take care of it, because I am going to take care of it. I’m going to set my palace up in Jerusalem, my headquarters for my world government, and who are you going to worship? I’m going to sit in the temple of God as god and I will make you worship me, for I am God.” Yes, their god: “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

He also has a false prophet, this other beast who looks like a lamb. You see, this devil-man, he pretends to be God, so he has to have a prophet of God, this false lamb who becomes his greatest promoter, his propaganda master, his false prophet who promotes him and his worship and insists that the world build him a great image, a great idol of this beast, this monster, and that all the world fall down and worship his image or be killed.

He insists that all the world take his number into their foreheads or their hands or they can’t buy or sell. They can’t live; they’ll starve to death. They can’t do business, they can’t sell their produce or their products, and they can’t buy their groceries or their needs. No one will be able to buy or sell or do any business without this number in their forehead or in their hand, and they will all be commanded to worship his image, this great, amazing, computerized robot that will be able to act like it’s alive and move and talk and command the worship of the world.

Because man has now made an idol, an image which is smarter than he is, man has made his own god and he will fall down and worship it and worship the works of his hands.—A new scientific idol that he will worship as god and call God and obey as his god and which the Devil, Satan himself, will be able to “bring to life.”

He will operate this image and cause it to command that everyone who refuses to worship it will be killed by the Antichrist forces of the devil-man, the beast, of whom he is an image, and that no one will be able to buy or sell or do any business of any kind unless he has his mark in his forehead or hand.

Are you ready for it? Will you receive that mark and that number and be condemned? Or do you have the number of God, God’s mark, already in your forehead by salvation in Jesus Christ to spare you from worshipping that monster and his kingdom of hell on earth? You just have to take Jesus into your heart and He’ll save you.

For when Jesus comes,
The earth will shake
And hearts will quake,
Be ready.

13: The Queen of Heaven and the Dragon (part 2)

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 12

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9/18/24 You’ve seen movies like this sometimes. You’ve seen a movie of some family or various characters on a boat or in a plane or a hotel, and it gives you flashbacks of their former life and where they came from and who they are and how they got there, then finally they all get together in this hotel or they’re all together in this plane crash, or they’re all together in this sinking boat.

You’ve followed the narration of each life story until they’re all headed on a crash course to this grand finale—and that’s like the book of Revelation. It gives you a picture of each segment of the history of man from these different angles and shows you how it’s going to end from a different standpoint and a different view with different characters and what’s happening to them.

In the preceding chapter we just had the death of the two famous witnesses and their resurrection and their rapture to be with the Lord. And yet, now the seventh angel has just blown and we haven’t heard the whole story.

Now all of a sudden we’re going back again to the birth of Christ and how He was caught up to heaven to be with the Lord. The church was left behind on the earth to be chased and persecuted by the dragon, who is now furious because he couldn’t get rid of Jesus. He came back to life and went where the Devil couldn’t touch Him anymore. Then it speaks of this church in a period of time, of 1260 days—that’s about 42 months or three and a half years. And what period of time is that that we’ve been studying over and over and over again all through the Old Testament and all through the New Testament? The Great Tribulation.

This book is not supposed to be a history book. It’s supposed to be a revelation of the future, and particularly a revelation of the endtime, the very end of history, of man, of his kingdoms, the very end of his history on earth, and so naturally its main emphasis is the endtime.—Although it may give you a few flashbacks into the historical background, as it does in this chapter.

It flashes back to the old history of the church, in a sense, from the time of Eve, who brought forth a line which was to bring forth this man who was to crush the head of Satan. It says, “Her seed will crush your head, Satan. You’ll bruise His heel, but He’ll crush your head” (Genesis 3:15). So it is a flashback to give you the history, in a sense, of the church, only just a flashback enough to show what’s happening now in these last three and a half years of horrible Tribulation and persecution of the church.

“And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old Serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:7–9). Now we have the picture.

Who is this great red dragon? The ninth verse says specifically that he was that old serpent, the Devil, Satan, “which deceiveth the whole world.” At this time here, obviously at the beginning of this three and a half years, 1260 days, 42 months of Tribulation, he is cast out of heaven by Michael and his angels, the archangel of God who defends God’s people. He’s cast down to earth with a third of the rebellious angels that follow him for the last three and a half years of earth’s history—the Great Tribulation.

No wonder the Antichrist is so powerful and such a superman and wonder worker, because Satan at last is cast out of heaven. There’s a purge in heaven, and the rebels and the demons and the devils are cast out. You say, “What do you mean? I didn’t know there were demons and devils and rebels in heaven.” Well, you haven’t read your Bible very well.

Satan is even called one of the sons of God in the book of Job, and here as being one of God’s creations who is in rebellion against Him and yet appears before Him in the courts of heaven, accusing the saints day and night. Until in this last three and a half years he’s finally purged and cast out with his rebel demons, so that they have no more power in heaven, can no longer come into the presence of God and accuse His saints (Job 2:1; Isaiah 14:12–15; Revelation 12:9–10).

So the Devil in his fury, knowing that his time is short, possesses this Antichrist and makes him a superman, a devil-man, the Devil in the flesh, son of Satan, like Jesus was the Son of God in the flesh. He is the great counterfeiter! The Devil doesn’t know anything new, he can’t do anything different; he just watches what God does and he tries to imitate Him.

Since God had a Son who was God in the flesh, the Devil has this son, who is the Devil in the flesh, possessed by Satan himself. Then the Devil tries to set up on earth the false kingdom of God, the false millennium, only it’s the kingdom of the Devil and it’s the kingdom of hell on earth instead of the Millennium of heaven.

He even has his own trinity! The Devil is the father of his trinity, the Antichrist is his son, and then he has the false prophet, his unholy spirit. Here we have the false trinity, and he becomes the false messiah of the false millennium of the false kingdom of the people who take the Mark of the Beast. All an imitation of what God is about to do—a brief and pitiful imitation.

The Devil tries to imitate God because he always wanted to be God, so when he’s cast out of heaven and he can’t annoy God Himself and God’s angels, then he decides to lord it over the earth and to become the king of this earth. He has been the prince of the power of the air, but now he becomes the usurper king of this world (Ephesians 2:2).

That’s what Jesus even calls him. He says, “I saw him cast out” (Luke 10:18). You may wonder, then, whether he was cast out in Jesus’ day. No, Jesus was looking forward into the future, seeing the day when Satan would be cast out to the earth and possess this Devil-man, the Antichrist, the superman the world is waiting for to solve its problems and set up this false millennium, his kingdom of hell on earth, during which time he chases and persecutes the woman, obviously the church.

“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. Yet they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. But woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea. For the Devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time” (Revelation 12:10–12).

We’re being told that now that the Devil is cast out of heaven and heaven is purged, there’s good riddance of bad rubbish, and heaven is rejoicing! But the voice says to the inhabitants of the earth, we who dwell upon the earth and even the church of Jesus Christ still on earth, “Woe unto you people on earth, for the Devil is come down to you and he knows that his time is short and he has great wrath.”

So look out for his wrath during these last three and a half years, these 1260 days, these 42 months of Tribulation mentioned throughout Old and New Testament prophecies. Here’s another proof that the church is here throughout the Tribulation, because the Enemy chases her and she flees into the wilderness.

All these centuries, yea, millenniums, thousands of years, the Devil has been accusing the saints of God. He came before God and accused Noah, Job, and nearly every person of God who has ever lived. He has accused you day and night before the Lord, bringing up your sins and reminding God of the law and saying that you should be punished. He’s the prosecuting attorney who demands the execution of the law. And of the culprit—you!

But you have an advocate, a defense lawyer—Jesus Christ, God’s own Son. God is the judge, the Devil is the prosecuting attorney and executioner, but Jesus, God’s Son, is your defense attorney, your advocate, your lawyer defending you. When the Devil reminds God of all your sins and all your iniquities and your mistakes and your shortcomings and your failures and accuses you for every little flaw and fault he can find, all you have to do is look to your defense lawyer, Jesus.

Say, “Please, Lord, plead my case before the Father. Because You know I’m no good. You know I’ve failed. You know I can’t be good enough. You know I’m not righteous enough. I just have to plead Your blood on the cross, that You died for me and You took the rap. You took the punishment. You paid the price. You fulfilled the law and You died in my place, so therefore You said that God has pardoned me. Plead my case with Your Father.”

Jesus just looks to the Father and says, “This is another one of Mine, Father, who has received Me and believed on Me. He has received My sacrifice in his place and believes that I took his punishment for him. Therefore, Lord, You can hand him one of those pardons that You have stacked up there on Your desk for everyone who loves Me and believes in Me and has received that forgiveness from You because of Me.”

God hands down the pardon, and Jesus hands it to you, and the Devil slinks away with his tail between his legs, defeated again. “Foiled again. Curses!” There used to be an old comic strip in which the villain appeared, looking like the Devil, and every time he got defeated, he slunk off all angry with his tail between his legs, saying, “Curses, foiled again!”

So that’s what happens every time the Devil accuses you now or tries to accuse you. But in these last three and a half years he’s no longer even going to be able to go before the court of God in heaven; he’s going to be right here accusing God’s children and persecuting and trying to kill them.

“And when the dragon saw that he was cast out unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent” (Revelation 12:13–14). She is given wings like an eagle.

Beloved, don’t worry about the Tribulation. Don’t worry about the persecution of Satan. God’s people are going to be given wings to fly away out of his reach into the wilderness! “Given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly”—and for how long? Three and a half years again. A time, two times, and a half a time, three and a half years. So this frustrated, foiled, cursed villain finds out he’s been foiled again, and what does he do in the fifteenth verse?

“And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:15–17).

When he couldn’t touch her—God wouldn’t let him lay a claw on her or one fang—he cast a big flood of water out of his mouth. Obviously the Devil himself is not an actual dragon; this is all symbolic. What is this flood the Devil casts out of his mouth? What is the Devil’s major business from the beginning in the Garden of Eden to the end? What does the Devil, Satan, that old serpent, cast out of his mouth and flood the world with?

He tries to drown the world in all of this propaganda and lies. The world will swallow all his propaganda while the church escapes into the wilderness, hidden and protected by God as though she had two wings to live through that awful time to the very coming of her Husband, her Bridegroom, from the sky, to rescue her and take her out of this hell on earth the world will have become.

Are you ready? Are you one of the believers in Jesus? Are you a part of His great bride? Have you accepted Him as your Husband and your Bridegroom and your Savior? Then you don’t have to worry. He’ll take care of you right on through the Tribulation, if He has to give you wings. He’ll hide you in the wilderness if He has to make you disappear. He’ll feed you there and take care of you just as He says here, all the way through that 1260 days or three and a half years of Great Tribulation. And you will be saved and brought through and you will survive till Jesus’ coming.

13: The Queen of Heaven and the Dragon (part 1)

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 12

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9/17/24 We’re studying the twelfth chapter of this final book of the Bible, the Revelation of the endtime, the grand finale, and in this we have the exciting, dramatic story of the queen of heaven and the great red dragon.

“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another great wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

“And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne” (Revelation 12:1–5).

I think by the time you read this fifth verse you begin to catch on who this was and who this child was. That’s the key, the clue to who the woman is. “For she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.”

Scripture says this about Jesus several times, that He is going to come some day and rule the world, rule all nations, and even rule over the wicked who refused to love and obey Him voluntarily. Now He’s going to rule them with a rod of iron, by force! This is obviously talking about Jesus. “And her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne.” So after His ministry, Jesus was caught up to God and to His throne.

You say, “I know who his mother is. It was Mary.” But the passage says that she was a woman clothed with the sun, bright and shining like the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. Mary, as far as we know, never looked like the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars. And though she had a child, travailing in birth and pained to be delivered, Mary never had a great red dragon standing beside her waiting to devour the child.—A great red dragon whose tail drew the third part of the angels of heaven and cast them down to the earth.

So who is this woman and how come she looks like the sun and has the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars? This woman is far more than Mary. Mary in a way almost symbolizes this woman, and in a way this woman symbolizes Mary, but obviously her description goes far beyond the 16-year-old Jewish girl who had Jesus as an unmarried mother, to the surprise and chagrin of her husband Joseph, to whom God had an angel appear to explain what was happening so he wouldn’t feel bad and refuse to take her for his wife.

God Himself gave Mary a child—Jesus, unbeknownst to her own husband-to-be Joseph. God had to explain it to them by His angels.—To Joseph in a dream, to Mary by an actual presence, an appearance of God’s angel Gabriel. But this woman in Revelation was far greater than Mary. It isn’t very likely you’re going to see any woman sitting in the sun with her feet on the moon and stars in her crown. Also, it’s not too likely you’re going to see a great red dragon like this standing around waiting to devour her child, literally.

So therefore, if you cannot interpret the vision or the picture or the revelation or the dream literally throughout, it must have symbolic significance. That means each figure of the dream or revelation or vision must symbolize something, must illustrate something. Therefore who was this woman? If it was not literally Mary who brought forth Jesus, if it was greater and beyond Mary, then who was this woman who brought Jesus into the world and who was then attacked or chased by this great red dragon? Obviously this great red dragon is Satan himself, who leads a third of the angels out of heaven with him when he deserts the forces of God.

If the woman symbolizes some greater figure than just Mary herself, who could that be? If this woman is the queen of heaven, she must be the wife of the king. And who is the King of heaven?—Jesus Christ, the Son of God, her Bridegroom, her Husband, her King—and she is the queen. Then who is this woman, if she is the bride of Christ, the queen of heaven?

She can be no other than the complete church of Jesus Christ from the beginning to the end, from the Garden of Eden to the Revelation, from the beginning to the end of the world, all those who are true believers, who loved God, who received Christ the Messiah as their Savior, all those who love Jesus, all those who believe He is the Son of God, all those who are married to the Bridegroom, all those who are the bride of Jesus Christ.

She is the bride of Christ. No other woman could be so glorious, shining like the sun with the moon under her feet and twelve stars in her crown. This woman typifies the whole church of God from the days of Genesis to the final days of Revelation, God’s human bride.

We find this great red dragon, obviously Satan—in fact, he’s later called the old serpent, the Devil, and Satan in the ninth verse, so we know who he is—and he creates a rebellion in heaven, a revolution, a civil war, as we’ll find out a little bit later here, and he’s cast out of heaven with a third of the angels. He tries to destroy the church, he tries to destroy Jesus, and we then find that this woman has to flee into the wilderness.

We’re only getting a little preview here; in fact, we’re having a little flashback, first of all about the coming of Jesus into the world, who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron, becoming the King of kings and literally her Bridegroom, her Husband, she becoming a queen of heaven, as well as queen of earth. But in the sixth verse we find that after her child is caught up to heaven to God and His throne, out of reach of His enemies, she is left behind upon the earth—apparently almost at the mercy of this cruel dragon.

“And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days” (Revelation 12:6). Here we have the 1260 days once again, the three and a half years of the Tribulation period. One thing that gets a bit confusing about the book of Revelation is that it goes back again and rehashes the story from a different angle and a different perspective. We’ve had the coming of Christ already described in this book about three or four times, but then it goes back and it gives a new angle. (to be continued)

12: The Last Trump

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 11

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9/16/24 Revelation chapter 11, the last trump. We’ve had a glimpse in the first part of this chapter of the two witnesses who were witnessing and preaching the love of God and also the judgments of God all the way through the Tribulation period of three and a half years, all 42 months or 1260 days unto the very end, three and a half days before Jesus comes and they are killed. (See Revelation 11:1–12.) The Lord allows them to be killed, since their ministry is over, and they are thereby released to go up and be with the Lord when He comes. He gives us the whole picture of how they are resurrected to be with Jesus in the very end.

In the rest of the chapter, He goes back, backspacing just a bit to show you how it happened. At that moment when they suddenly came to life and jumped to their feet, that was the moment that the seventh trump was sounding. “The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly” (Revelation 11:14). And then comes the seventh trump of God. This trumpet is the last trump, and under this trumpet come a whole series of events.

It sounds like Jesus has come immediately and it’s all over, but no, this trumpet is another herald of God. He’s another trumpeter of the truth, the last Tribulation trumpet to usher in this very last period of the Tribulation period when Jesus comes.

There is no past, no present, no future to the Lord. So therefore, under this last trump He pictures all of the events which occur at the very end, from this very moment, and in the next chapter He goes in a flashback all the way back to the birth of Jesus and the church and right up to the end in her persecution. And then in the thirteenth chapter He goes back and He tells you about the Antichrist and what it’s going to going to be like under the Antichrist in the three and a half years of Tribulation. This last trump simply ushered in this final period of the Tribulation which ends with the coming of Jesus.

“And the seventh angel sounded”—the last trump—“and there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). When that last trump sounds, the endtime events begin to transpire, ending with the glorious coming of Jesus and His reign here on earth for ever and ever!

So we have this endtime trumpet blowing and here follow these tremendous events of this final period of the seven Tribulation trumpets.

“And the four and twenty elders”—these are the great leaders of God’s children and His church of all time, from the beginning of time until the end. These are probably the twelve greatest patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament period, and then the twelve greatest apostles and prophets of the New Testament period.

“And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God.” They said, “We give Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned” (Revelation 11:16–17).

In other words, it’s time for God to take over. It’s time for Jesus to come. In the mind of God and in their minds, it was already done as far as they were concerned. For He says, “The nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged.” The Resurrection was about to occur, which we already had a little preview of with those two witnesses.

“And that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth” (Revelation 11:18). The time is coming when the dead will be judged, and God’s servants and prophets and saints, all the saved, all of God’s children everywhere, the great family of Jesus, are going to get their reward.

I hope you were faithful so He can say to you, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew 25:21). For some of the people who are going to be raised are going to be raised to everlasting shame and contempt because they failed God (Daniel 12:2).

So the end is come, the time of judgments and the time of rewards. “Them that fear Thy name, small and great,” are going to be receiving their crowns, their reward, their prizes, all those wonderful things.

“And shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth.” He says He’s going to destroy those who are destroying the earth, those who pollute it and who bomb it and who contaminate it and who destroy its people. He abhors those who pollute His earth and who destroy it. So before they have a chance to do that, or do a complete job of it, He’s going to come back before they can destroy the rest of it, thank God. He’s going to destroy them.

“And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the Ark of His testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail” (Revelation 11:19). Here come some of those cataclysmic, climactic events of these very last days of the end of time, the end of the Tribulation, judgments of God on the sins of man and all his destruction. John the apostle, the prophet of God, is being shown all these events which were not to happen until over 2000 years later.

“The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the Ark of His testament.” That’s a very remarkable statement, because the Ark, even in John’s day, had long ago disappeared! But the people had not discovered this until Jesus died on the cross.

The moment the veil of His flesh was rent in twain by that spear and He was killed on the cross, the veil of the temple itself was rent in twain.—A huge veil, four inches thick, one of the thickest pieces of carpeting or woven ware the world has ever known. This thick, heavy veil that separated the holy place of the temple from the holy of holies, the sanctum from the sanctum sanctorum, was completely torn apart. (See Matthew 27:50–51; Mark 15:37–38; Luke 23:45–46.)

In the holy of holies had stood the Ark of the Covenant of God, that wooden box covered with gold over which two golden angels hovered, and between whose wings the Shekinah Glory of the presence of God shone like a brilliant light. This was a room into which only the high priest was allowed to go once a year to make atonement for the sins of the people. They had a rope tied to his foot so that if God struck him dead because He didn’t like the way the people were behaving, because the people were sinning too much and were not repentant, God could strike the high priest dead and they could drag him out with that rope, because no man was allowed to go therein but the high priest.

When the veil of the temple was rent in twain when Jesus died, what do you suppose the great congregation of Passover worshippers discovered at that moment, that awesome moment at the height of the Passover celebration, when the greatest Passover Lamb who ever lived, Jesus Christ, was being slain on the cross for their sins? What do you suppose the congregation discovered had happened to the Ark of the Covenant, which was supposed to be standing behind that four-inch thick curtain behind which only the high priest could go?

They discovered to their amazement, their astonishment, their horror, that the Ark was gone, symbolizing the presence of God! God was gone from their midst! He was gone from their temple. He had deserted them and their holy of holies and their Messiah-less religion. He had taken the Ark up to heaven with Him and placed it in His temple there.

Why do you suppose God rent the temple veil in twain? The high priest hadn’t told them the Ark was gone. He wasn’t going to tell them, of course, because that was the center of their religion, the Ark of the Covenant behind the veil in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Their whole religion would have collapsed had they discovered that the Ark was gone. God rent the veil in twain so they could see the Ark was gone. He had removed the Ark of the Covenant, which symbolized His presence in the Shekinah Glory of God which shone there between the angels when God was there.

Christians today are the modern Israel of this day of grace since Jesus came. Anyone can become a part of true Israel, the Israel of God, and a prince with God and with man, just by receiving God’s Son Jesus Christ, just by believing on the Messiah, the King of the Jews. He’s King of all of those children of God who believe on Him and receive Him as their Savior—the true spiritual Israel. As St. Paul says, today a Jew is one inwardly, in his heart, the crucifixion and the circumcision of the heart (Romans 2:28–29).

11: The Two Witnesses

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 11

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9/15/24 Revelation, chapter 11: “And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months” (Revelation 11:1–2). There’s that three and a half years again of the Tribulation period. The Gentiles will tread the holy city of Jerusalem under foot for forty and two months, three and a half years during the Tribulation period in which the Antichrist rules supreme.

During the preceding three and a half years—half of the last seven years—the Antichrist has made a deal or a holy Covenant, a pact with the religions of the world to make Jerusalem an open city, internationalized, at least the holy places internationalized, probably under the UN or his world government, so that they’re supposed to have equal access and equal representation of temples and so on. The Jews have rebuilt their temple, reinstituted sacrificial worship, and the pact seems to be going well, except it doesn’t solve all the problems.

The religionists still bicker and argue and fight amongst each other, until finally the Antichrist gets fed up with it all and decides to just have one world religion as well as one world government, and of course this is what he’s been waiting for an excuse to have all the time. So he abolishes all other religions and demands that the whole world worship him as God, sitting in the temple of God, claiming that he is God (2 Thessalonians 2:4).

This will go on for three and a half years or 1,260 days or forty and two months, as we see in this second verse of the eleventh chapter, when he will rule with an iron hand, cruelly demanding that all who refuse to worship him be put to death. All who refuse to take his Mark in their head or hand will not be able to buy or sell. In other words, they are to starve to death. But here comes some good news!

“I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days”—there you are again, three and a half years. They’re going to prophesy for the duration of the Tribulation period. “Clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth” (Revelation 11:3–4). This symbolizes the fact that they’re fruitful—like two olive trees—and they give light, like two candlesticks, symbolic of these final two great witnesses unto the Lord.

“And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies; and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed” (Revelation 11:5). No one will be able to touch them until their witness is finished. No one will be able to stop them until they have finished their witness for the last three and a half years of the seven-year reign of the Antichrist, that great Tribulation period in which God’s people will be witnessing right to the end.

These are going to be the two greatest witnesses, no doubt right there in the holy city, perhaps right on Mount Moriah between the three great temples—one already there, the Mosque of Omar, Dome of the Rock, the Muslim temple; one to be rebuilt, the Jewish temple, and sacrificial worship restored; and possibly also a Christian cathedral of some kind to be built upon the same holy mountain to represent the world’s three greatest faiths. So that could be where these two witnesses will be witnessing against the Antichrist, against his unholy image and against his claims to be God, his blasphemy against God.

Nobody will be able to stop them, not the Antichrist himself nor all his forces, until they’re finished. If anybody tries to even approach them to stop them, fire comes out of their mouth and devours their enemies—as it did in the days of Elijah when the king sent bands of fifty soldiers to take him. Elijah called down fire from God out of heaven and devoured each band of soldiers as they came to arrest him (2 Kings 1:9–15).

So will it be with those final great witnesses in those last days. These two will stand in the very presence of the Antichrist and all their enemies, and no one will be able to touch them. They’ll be able to keep right on giving a witness to the very end!

Sixth verse: “These have power to shut heaven that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.” They not only have power to bring fire down from God out of heaven and fire out of their mouths to devour their enemies, but also to turn the waters into blood and to smite the earth with all kinds of plagues. No one will be able to stop them during those days.

They will preach and witness the Word of God with such mighty power of God, and it will be the greatest witness the world has ever seen! Not only the Antichrist will see it, not only the Jews and the Christians and the Muslims will see it, but the whole world will be watching, no doubt by satellite.

Verse seven: “And when they shall have finished their testimony, the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit”—this Antichrist, this Satan in the flesh—“shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.” When they have finished their testimony, not a moment before! They will be able to testify and witness the full 1,260 days of the total Tribulation period, and nobody will be able to stop them; isn’t that wonderful? No matter what the Devil and all his henchmen and all his cohorts and conspirators and cruel, wicked followers try to do, they cannot touch them until they’ve finished their testimony.

Then the Lord allows the Devil to touch them, once they’ve finished their job. Jesus said, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14). So this is when the job is finished and the world is saturated with the doctrine, turned upside down, as they said: “Here come those that turn the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). Actually we’re not turning it upside down, we’re turning it right side up! On radio, television, literature, in person, the whole world will have heard the Gospel—every nation, kingdom, tongue, and tribe.

By that time, every tribe will have heard the Gospel; every one of them will have heard about Jesus. At the end of the Tribulation every single tongue, tribe, and nation throughout the earth will have heard the Gospel of Jesus, Jesus said, and then shall the end come. Then the Lord allows the Beast to ascend out of the bottomless pit and make war against them and overcome them and kill them.

Eighth verse: “And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt and where also our Lord was crucified.” Wasn’t Jesus crucified in Jerusalem, or just outside Jerusalem? So what is He talking about here that the bodies of these two witnesses shall lie in the street of this great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt and Jerusalem? He could have added one to that, and He does a little later on in the Scripture—Babylon.

You ask, “What are you talking about? John must have been a bit screwed up on his geography, because Sodom is way south of the Dead Sea, and Egypt is another couple of hundred miles south of that, and Jerusalem is a couple of hundred miles north of that, and Babylon was a thousand miles to the east. How could Jesus have been crucified in all four cities—Sodom, Egypt, Jerusalem, Babylon?”

Every one of these cities typified the world system. Every one of them typified the worldly, anti-God, anti-Christ, money-hungry, greedy commercial system of the world, which in a later chapter He calls Babylon. Here He calls it Sodom and Egypt and Jerusalem. So here we have them all grouped together in one great world system—all symbolic of the final great system that hates God and His witnesses, until the Devil’s own representative, the Devil-man in the flesh, Satan incarnate, at the end of their witness finally rises up and kills them. But he can’t do it until then.

Don’t worry, the Devil won’t be able to lay a finger on God’s children; he won’t be able to hurt you, he won’t be able to harm you until your job is done. God will not suffer you to be cut off before your time. The Lord will not allow His children to be stopped or killed until they have finished their job and work. And then, praise God, the quicker the better, the sooner you’re released from this body of flesh and dirt and disease and weariness and hunger and thirst and all of its problems, and set free in the realm of the spirit.

Your spirit, the real you is the one that lives inside of this house, the one that’s looking out these windows, the real you that lives inside. We look into each other’s eyes and hearts and spirits, and that’s the real you, inside of that body, inside of this house you live in. This is just the vehicle you run around in, and it’ll soon go back to dust again from whence it came. As soon as it does, you are released, your spirit’s set free, and you will be so happy and completely free for the first time in your existence. You’ll feel light as a feather when you die.

The Antichrist will claim to be the Messiah—God—the king of the world, and offer utopia, heaven on earth, the false Millennium under his rule. But soon he insists everybody worship him, and then everything goes wrong and the whole thing begins to fall apart, because it’s anti-God and anti-Christ and anti-peace and anti-everything that could possibly bring peace.

Until finally Jesus Himself has to come back and take over and run the world with His children, His people, for a thousand years to show them how it ought to be run. But just before He comes back, here’s what happens. These final two witnesses witness right up to the very end of this Tribulation period:

“And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city …” In other words, they may be killed in the very city of Jerusalem itself. But it doesn’t matter where, because anywhere in the world, people can see them on television. They’re witnessing to the whole world. Their dead bodies lie in the street.

“And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves” (Revelation 11:9). They are so fiercely angry at these two witnesses who faithfully preached the Word, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the judgments and warnings of God. They hated them so much that they didn’t even want to see them buried; they wanted to watch them rot in the streets and the flies to crawl over them and the worms to crawl in and out and smell the stink of their dead bodies, lying on the street.

But what a hollow victory!—Just lumps of clay, lumps of mud. Those two witnesses, their spirits have gone on to be with the Lord. Those were just the bodies, the houses they occupied; the vehicles they ran around in, now gone back to dust.

“And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth” (Revelation 11:10). They’re going to have a new day to celebrate—the death of the great final two witnesses of God.

They’re going to be so happy that they’re dead and no longer convicting them of their sins and preaching the Gospel at them all day long in the heart of the news, and on radio, on television and in newspapers, and their pictures plastered all over the world and beamed from satellites. These two miracle workers will be top headlines and top news and their message the top message to the world. Their opponents are going to be so happy they’re dead, they’re going to give presents to each other like they do on Christmas.

“And after three days and an half the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them” (Revelation 11:11). What’s happening? They’re being resurrected! Suddenly those bodies come to life before they’ve been buried.

Jesus is coming in the sky and all the dead in Christ are rising to meet Him in the air—including these two witnesses. Only three and a half days after they’re killed, Jesus comes to resurrect them and rapture them along with all those who are saved. Praise God! And fear fell upon their enemies.

“And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. The same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly” (Revelation 11:12–14).

Next we hear that seventh angel, the last trump sound. This is like a little story leading up to that last trump, because when it sounds, that’s when they were resurrected.

10: Proclamation of the End: Time Shall Be No More

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 10

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9/14/24 Revelation, chapter 10: “And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.

“And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: but I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be”—here comes the announcement, the great proclamation that this chapter is about—“that there should be time no more” (Revelation 10:1–6). *He said there’s going to come an end to time. Even Einstein said that was possible.

“But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel”—remember, we’ve been studying the seven trumpets of the Tribulation. He says—“when he shall begin to sound”—that seventh and last trump—“the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, go”—he’s talking now to John, the prophet of God, who’s seeing this vision—“and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.

“And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book, And he said unto me, Take, it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and I ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: but as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.” He got indigestion over that one! “And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings” (Revelation 10:7–11).

This little book is obviously the book of prophecy. There are many people interested in Bible prophecy and prophecies of the prophets and the soothsayers, clairvoyants, mediums and fortune-tellers—lots of people are interested in the future. Nearly everybody wants to know what’s going to happen. What is the future? What is the prophecy all about?

They have a great desire for prophecy, and in their mouth it tastes so sweet, all these juicy prophecies about the future. But when they get down to where they’re trying to digest it and understand it and interpret it, it gives them a real bellyache. They get a case of acute indigestion of prophecies, the words of God which can only be understood by the leading of God’s Holy Spirit.

So John took the little book of the prophecy of the future and it tasted like honey in his mouth, but when he wrote it down and tried to understand what this angel and these people were talking about, that was a little tougher to digest. You’re going to find that in a lot of these scriptures we read that it’s going to be a little bit difficult as we go along. It sounds fascinating, so interesting, and you hope to understand every word so you’ll know exactly what everything is about. And then sometimes afterwards you’re a little disappointed. We probably won’t know some of these details until we see them and when they begin to happen, because we don’t have to know now. But He’s told us many things in advance so that when we see those monsters or those things or whatever they are, we’ll recognize them and say, “This is what John was talking about in his book of Revelation. He described that to a tee, and now there it is; it really happened!”

A lot of these things you’re not supposed to understand now. A lot of these things you will not understand until they begin to happen, just like the book of Daniel. God told him, “Shut up the book until the time of the end. It’s not for you; it’s for the endtime.” (See Daniel 12:4,8,9.) In fact, it gave Daniel a bellyache too. He was sick certain days after he had those revelations. In fact, he fainted several times during the process and thought he was going to die (Daniel 8:27).

The Lord said to him, “Daniel, you don’t have to worry about understanding it; you can’t understand it. You couldn’t possibly understand it now, because it hasn’t happened yet. But one of these days in the endtime, I’m going to open the book again and the people who are there where those things are happening and when they’re happening, they’re going to understand.” Just like the prophecy in Nahum that says that “the chariots shall jostle one another upon the broad ways and they shall run like lightning with flaming torches” (Nahum 2:3–4).

Chariots certainly didn’t run like lightning in Nahum’s day, although they could gallop pretty fast, like Ben Hur’s chariots in the chariot race. They didn’t have any broad ways either, so there was no problem about chariots being so numerous in such big highways that they would have as many accidents as they do today. They certainly didn’t run like lightning. They might have carried torches sometimes, but they were not like the flaming headlight torches of the modern automobile. But that’s what Nahum was seeing, chariots jostling one another in the broad ways, running like lightning with flaming torches.

The Lord told Daniel, “Shut up the book because it won’t happen till the end, when many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be greatly increased” (Daniel 12:4). Never in the world’s history have so many people run to and fro, and never has there been people traveling so much and with so many ways to travel, and so much increase of knowledge. Do you know that more has been discovered and invented in the past 100 years than in all the previous thousands of years of man’s history? Think of that! Knowledge shall be increased in the last days. That’s another proof we’re living in the last days.

So you want to know about the future? Well, it tastes good in your mouth, but then when you try to start chewing it up, it can be pretty tough to chew on and really hard to digest. I’m trying to help you digest it, and I will offer you several different possibilities of interpretation that many men of God and Bible students have accepted. I generally say it could be this, that, or the other, but we won’t know until it happens.

But that’s what it was written for. Today Daniel’s prophecies are understood, because many of these prophecies are past history. The whole realm of human political history from the days of Babylon up until the very end, the final world government of the Antichrist, are described in the book of Daniel. They’re also described here in this book of Revelation.

* “And swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay” (Rev.10:6 ESV)

09: Fifth and Sixth Tribulation Trumps (part 2)

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 9

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

“One woe is past; and behold, there come two woes more thereafter. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates” (Revelation 9:12–14). Here comes another judgment of God upon the wicked: four angels, obviously four angels of judgment.

“And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them” (Revelation 9:15–16). Two hundred thousand thousand; that’s two hundred million.

When those four angels of judgment are loosed from the River Euphrates, we are told in another verse that the river is dried up so that the kings of the East might come (Revelation 16:12). And here come these two hundred million horsemen charging across the Euphrates to attack. That would be the biggest battle ever fought and the most soldiers ever put in the field.

The last time the greatest number of soldiers was ever put in the field was when Alexander the Great was fighting the Medes and the Persians, and the Medes and Persians put over a million men into the field. Alexander was heavily outnumbered, but he won the victory, because God was on his side. God wanted the Grecian Empire to conquer the world, to spread Greek language, culture, and beauty. God wanted their interest in philosophy and religion to spread throughout the world, as well as their knowledge and science and medicine, so that the world would be ready for the Gospel. It would have one language, the Greek language, in which the New Testament was written.—A language which everyone would speak, because it was spread throughout the entire civilized world at that time.

This is going to be the war of all wars, when this happens, and you’re going to hear more about it as we read on. At the end of this Great Tribulation occurs the Battle of Armageddon, in which these horsemen will undoubtedly take part.

“And I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone” (Revelation 9:17). Obviously horses don’t issue fire and brimstone out of their mouths, so if they’re not real horses, then maybe they’re tanks with guns issuing fire and brimstone, and maybe that’s the best way he could describe them.

They looked like some kind of vehicle coming. They had heads like lions. Have you ever seen the turret on the top of a tank revolving like a head? It looks like the head on a monster because it revolves and looks different directions and its gun revolves with it, and out of its mouth it belches fire and brimstone and smoke, and even worse. Or maybe it’s something we’ve never even seen before and that’s the best way he could describe it. Whatever it is, they were either war horses or engines of war.

“For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails.”—That big mouth, that big gun belches smoke and shells. And their tails, did you ever notice the little barrels of machine guns sticking out, firing bullets that sting? “For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them do they hurt” (Revelation 9:19).

“And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts” (Revelation 9:20–21). In spite of all this horrible period of Great Tribulation, particularly upon the wicked, they would not repent. God’s Word says, “Let mercy be shown unto the wicked, and yet he will not learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:10).

This Great Tribulation is going to affect the unregenerate, and these horrible plagues and monsters are not to attack His people but to attack the wicked! It is a time of their great tribulation.

Yet those that were not killed by these monsters and these plagues still refused to repent. Even though it later says they even gnawed their tongues for pain, yet would they not repent of their wickedness. That’s so true of the truly wicked who hate God and hate Christ.

He says here they’re going to pray for death and not be able to find it.—The horrors of hell let loose on the earth, Pandora’s box opened at last, and all of these horrible creatures and monsters of God or the Devil or both, to torment the wicked, those who have given His people so much trouble and tried to give them hell on earth. God is going to cut loose in this Tribulation period and give them hell.

Beloved, don’t fear the Tribulation if you love the Lord. Don’t worry about that three and a half years of Tribulation. It’s not going to be hell for you. I’ve heard some preachers make it sound like it was going to be such hell that no Christian would ever want to be here. The Antichrist is going to be after God’s children, and his anti-Christ followers are going to be on their tails trying to get them, but let me tell you, there’s going to be a lot more on their tails, not just trying, but getting them.

So you don’t have to worry about the forces of the Devil and the Antichrist. God’s a much greater enemy to them than they are to His people. “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). “When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of God will raise a standard against him” (Isaiah 59:19). And we will march on.

Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus, going on before.
We are not divided, all one body we,
One in hope, in doctrine, one in purity.
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus, marching on before.

God’s people are going to march triumphant, protected by God, right straight through the Tribulation from beginning to end, in the face of their enemies. While they’re being tormented by these monsters and plagues and fighting off these horrors of hell, God’s people are going to march right through unscathed. They may catch up with a few of us and kill a few of us, as they promised they will if people don’t worship their Beast and his Image and take the Mark; a few of us will die and suffer martyrdom even as some of His people do today, but we’re still marching.

They can’t stop our rain, and they won’t be able to stop it, because God is going to cut loose all the horrors of hell against them. They’re going to have their hands so full of those monsters and beasts and those wars and weapons of war that they’re not going to have very much time to spend on persecuting His people.

No matter where you are, or how you are, or what you are, or what’s against you, the Lord will keep you if you’re in the center of His will. It’s a charmed circle where you live a charmed life, and they won’t be able to lay a finger on you.

Chapter 10 will be next, where we hear a most marvelous announcement before the Last Trump is blown, because at the Last Trump, that’s when God’s people go up. As the apostle Paul said, “The trump of God shall sound; the dead in Christ shall rise, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with Him in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17). Paul says in another place, “We shall all be changed, in an instant at the Last Trump” (1 Corinthians 15:52).

When that seventh trumpet is blown, those who are alive and remain are going to be raptured out of this world. “Stop the world, I want to get off!” And that’s what’s going to happen, right in the face of God’s enemies. Just when they’re trying to obliterate and exterminate His people, they’re not going to be able to do it. Hallelujah!

Lord, help us to go marching on as Your Christian soldiers, never fearing, never worrying and not fretting what the Enemy or man can do unto us, for they can only kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But we’re rather to fear You, Lord, love You, believe in You and obey You (Matthew 10:28).

09: Fifth and Sixth Tribulation Trumps (part 1)

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 9

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

In chapter 8, we studied the first four trumpets of the Tribulation, and now we’re going to be dealing with the fifth and the sixth trumpets in chapter nine of the book of Revelation. This Revelation of the future was given to the apostle John on the Isle of Patmos about 107 A.D. during the days of the Roman Empire, as God predicted to him the future of the world.

When we reached the eighth chapter, the Lord began to zero in on the very last days of the world, the very end of the world and its last terrible time of Tribulation. Now we’re reading the ninth chapter, beginning with the first verse:

“And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit.” You notice it calls this star a “he.” In other words, it’s an angel. God often uses the words interchangeably. He calls angels stars and He calls stars angels. And this falling star opened the bottomless pit “and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

“And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of the scorpion when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them” (Revelation 9:2–6).

Notice that these monsters released from the bottomless pit out of hell by this angel are sent by God to torment the ungodly, the wicked, the unsaved, because He gives them a strict commandment not to hurt those who have the seal of God in their forehead. He says, “Hurt not any green thing neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” In other words, they were not to hurt the men who did have the seal of God in their foreheads—salvation in Jesus.

Anyone who loves Jesus will have God’s seal in his forehead. The people who are following the Antichrist—this Devil-man, Satan in the flesh, this horrible Beast—they will have the Mark of the Beast in their foreheads and in their hands as they follow and worship him. But those who love the Lord cannot accept that Mark of the Beast, and will not. If you love Jesus, you will refuse the Mark of the Beast, because you have God’s mark in your forehead and hand, a symbol of salvation.

Even though the Beast commands that no one can buy or sell without his Mark and that anyone who refuses to worship his image would be killed, God’s children will refuse. They will refuse both the Mark and the worship of the Image, and therefore the Antichrist government will try to kill them, and they will not be able to buy or sell food or clothing or shelter or the necessities of life, and will likely have to flee into the wilderness for survival. But God is going to take care of His own.

Notice that these plagues which are being released upon the earth don’t hurt God’s children! They don’t touch the people of God at all. They are sent to punish particularly the followers of the Beast, the Antichrist. They are sent to torment them, and no doubt even to defend His people. Think of that! God is going to send into this world, monsters such as the world has never known or seen before, to attack the wicked who are attacking the people of God.

During this Tribulation period when the Antichrist and his followers are attacking the followers of Jesus Christ, God is going to let loose pestilences and plagues and monsters to attack the kingdom of Satan. They’ll have so much on their hands defending themselves from these monsters and these plagues that they won’t have much time to persecute God’s people.

This is very similar to the days of Moses when he went in to rescue the children of Israel. When Pharaoh persecuted the Jewish slaves and wouldn’t let them go, Moses called on God and God sent terrible plagues upon the Egyptians. While the Egyptians were having these horrible plagues, over in the land of Goshen where the Israelites lived, all was well.

When great darkness fell upon all of the rest of Egypt, it was light in the land of Goshen. When the frogs were everywhere and even in their beds in Egypt, no frogs in Goshen. When the cattle were slaughtered by great hail from heaven, no hail in Goshen. When the horrible sores fell upon all the Egyptians, no sores on the Israelites. God was giving the Egyptians lots of trouble to make them stop causing so much trouble for God’s servants. (See Exodus 7–12.)

So that’s exactly what He’s going to do during the Tribulation—the last great hour of trouble and persecution for the saints of God. God is going to send great plagues upon the earth to protect His children, to make enemies take their hands off His people. These are terrible plagues. Listen to this description of the locusts:

“And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months” (Revelation 9:7–10).

Does that sound like anything you ever heard or saw before? Not likely. Because the prophet of God was seeing something in a vision that God was showing him, a revelation of the future of things which he had never seen before, so he had to describe them in a language that the people of his day could understand. He had to describe what he was seeing as well as he could by the things that he was already familiar with, because he had never seen such monsters before.

The prophet had never seen tanks or planes or guns, or heard their explosions and bombs, or the roar of their engines and motors. So if he was watching a terrible war, having never seen a tank or an airplane, how could he possibly describe such engines of destruction? He just did the best he could with what he was familiar with.

He said they look a little bit like locusts; they fly, so he may have been seeing an airplane. And yet they were like horses prepared to battle. Perhaps he was watching one of these steel chariots like a tank, and it rumbled along across the earth and it reminded him of the rumble of horses’ hoofs—war horses running rapidly in wartime.

He said, “On their heads were as it were crowns like as gold.” Tanks have turrets, and on the old bombers of World War II they had gun turrets which revolved sort of like crowns on the top. He said, “Their faces were as the faces of men.” Perhaps he saw them peering through the windows, or maybe when he looked at the front he saw those windows like eyes staring out.

“And they had hair as the hair of women.” Have you ever noticed a jet going by and the airstream following it like a long trail of hair? “Their teeth were as the teeth of lions.” Maybe he saw them firing guns? Or perhaps he saw the bombs or the missiles hanging down underneath and they looked like lions’ teeth. “And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron.” They were made of metal; they looked like iron shields.

“And the sound of their wings as they flew was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.” Doesn’t a jet roaring overhead sound like many horses running to battle? The prophet just described these things he was seeing, sights he’d never seen before, the best he could. I’m personally convinced that he was probably seeing airplanes and bombers flying. “And they had tails like unto scorpions, and stings in their tails.”

“And their power was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon” (Revelation 9:11). Obviously, if he’s out of the bottomless pit, you have an idea whose angel he is. Some say it’s the Devil himself; others say it’s one of the Devil’s archangels.

There’s such a horrible time of torment going on for men not sealed with God’s seal that these monsters, whatever they may be, whether you want to say that they were a modern jet bomber or they were actually some kind of a monster that looked just like he’s describing here, one way or the other, they’re not going to hurt the people of God.

God is going to protect His own from these planes and tanks and guns and bombs and bullets or even monsters, if it’s a new kind of monster that’s never been seen before. They’re not going to hurt His children, He said, just the unsaved who have the Mark of the Beast on them instead of the Mark of the Lord in their forehead. (to be continued)

08: The First Four Tribulation Trumps (part 2)

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 8

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9/11/24 We’re proceeding now with the eighth chapter of this marvelous revelation. We’ve been through seven chapters which predicted in advance what the history of the world was going to be from the day of John until this terrible Tribulation. Now the Tribulation begins, and these great angels of the seven trumpets of the Tribulation begin to blow their trumps. Chapter 8, verse 2:

“And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.” That is the throne of God in heaven.

“And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with the fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

“And the first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.” Sounds like atomic war, doesn’t it?

“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

“And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound” (Revelation 8:2–13).

There we have the first four trumpets of the Tribulation period. Actually this period is continued on into the ninth chapter, which we will deal with hereafter. But in case you didn’t understand exactly what we were reading, I wanted to read the whole chapter first, so that you could get the context of it.

First there is an awesome period of silence as all heaven and earth await in awed silence the most awful period in man’s history, and an angel—to emphasize this last time of terror and suffering—takes a censer [vessel for burning incense] from the throne of God and casts it down into the earth, and there are voices and thunderings and lightnings—symbolic of the judgments of God, symbolic of the terrible events to come.

The strange thing about this Tribulation period, unlike the period of God’s wrath which follows and the seven vials of His wrath which occur after the next seven chapters (the eighth through the fourteenth chapters), is that the Tribulation is like the wrath of Satan being poured out upon mankind and upon the earth. Nevertheless, God pictures it as actually all coming from Him, because these are some very supernatural things which occur. The last days of man’s history, a time to try men’s souls, and this censer being cast into the earth, showing that terrible things are about to come, gives an indication of what’s about to happen.

But at the same time, the prayers of the saints are ascending unto the Lord from His children; an encouragement that God is listening, a brief glimpse of the efficacy of our prayers. Though the believers are suffering through this period, the Lord hears their cries. He hears their prayers and He will not be deaf, but He will heed their cries for help and He will help them. This is a definite indication that the Lord is going to help His children through this terrible period of the last three and a half years of man’s history, the Great Tribulation.

The first angel sounds and hail and fire mingled with blood are cast upon the earth, and the third part of the trees are burnt up and all the green grass is burnt up. This sounds an awful lot like an atomic war, this hail and fire raining down from above, doesn’t it? Atomic bombs that destroy a third of all the trees and all the green grass, think of that. It’s possible it is an atomic war.

The second angel sounds and a great mountain burning with fire is cast into the sea, and a third part of the sea becomes blood. The third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life die, and a third part of the ships are destroyed. Mountains in God’s Word almost always typify or symbolize great kingdoms, world powers, or empires.

What great world power or empire will be destroyed under the beast himself, this final worldwide government, this final world dictator, Satan, in the form of a man called the Antichrist? What government will he destroy? All man’s governments that have preceded him.

What kind of government does he destroy? What kind of world power that has preceded him does he cast into the sea? What else than capitalism, a world power that has ruled the earth now for centuries. And in the destruction of capitalism and capitalistic powers of the Western world in this atomic war, a third part of the sea will become blood and a third part of the creatures in it will die and a third of its ships will be destroyed.

“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven.” Stars can be symbolic of angels, and the star falling here could indicate the fall of Satan himself, which we find later in another chapter when his fall is described at this particular time of the Tribulation. “Burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the water became wormwood and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter.”—The poison of the Serpent.

You can take these waters and rivers and so on as literal, and this is often interpreted as possibly representing the fall of a meteor to the earth (which would appear to be a great start falling from heaven). I’m inclined to believe that much of this is symbolic as well. When Satan is cast out of heaven (see Revelation 12:9), he poisons the sources of propaganda of the world, the rivers of information. He poisons the rivers which flow with feeding information to man through the media; Satan poisons them and makes them bitter. And many men die as a result of being poisoned with his bitter propaganda, his lies, his half-truths, his distortions, his deceits. “With lying wonders,” God’s Word says in another place (2 Thessalonians 2:9).

“And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.” What’s the result of all of this, whether you think it’s literal or symbolic, of this poisoning of the rivers and the waters, or the sources of information, the sources of propaganda, the media information of the world? Darkness.

As man is fed poison water, as he is fed poison information, as he is fed poison propaganda, poison news, his mind is darkened, his heart is darkened, even as the Lord said that if we stray away from Him, we become darkened in our understanding, alienated from the life of God, and past feeling (Ephesians 4:18–19). Even so will unregenerate man be in these last days of the Tribulation period; in spite of all of its terrors, most of the men of this earth will not turn to God.

They will believe the lies of this Devil-man, Satan incarnate, the Antichrist, and as he poisons the waters of information and propaganda, their hearts will become more darkened, their minds even more lacking in understanding as he darkens the world. Or if you want to take it literally, the very heavens are darkened, the skies are darkened, the sun and moon are darkened. Either way, it sounds pretty bad to me.

“I beheld and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe”—three woes—“to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels, which are yet to sound.” He says, “There are coming yet three more woes upon the earth.” Four have already occurred under the first four trumpets of the Tribulation, representing the first four periods of the Tribulation.

Each of these trumpets is like a herald; an angel sounds and heralds a new and more awful period of the Tribulation one by one. If you’re here and still alive, you’ll know exactly the progress of the Tribulation period by what’s happening, whether you’re under the first trumpet, the second, the third, the fourth, and so on.

He also tells us the exact amount of time this period of Great Tribulation will last, to where you can’t possibly misunderstand it, so that you will know exactly how much longer you have to wait for Jesus to come.

08: The First Four Tribulation Trumps (part 1)

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 8

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9/10/24 “And when He had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour” (Revelation 8:1).

We have at last come to the end of the seven seals of prophecy, with which the first seven chapters of Revelation were primarily concerned. As we told you in the introduction, the book of Revelation is very harmoniously, almost mathematically, designed.

The first seven chapters deal with the introduction, the letters to the churches and the first six seals of prophecy—history in advance. The next seven chapters have to do with the seven trumpets of the Tribulation, and then the last seven chapters have to do with the endtime events—the complete end of all these things, winding up in heaven itself.

The seventh chapter closes with the angels rejoicing and the saints in heaven rejoicing that the saints have been raptured to be with the Lord, and all the saved are now safely out of this world and in heaven. Then we sort of zero in on the last events of this prophetic period, on the very endtime, like a movie flashback.

It’s sort of like an inset on a map. Sometimes you see a map and then a certain particular part of that map or an island or a country comes zooming out at you in sort of an inset, or a zoom-out or zoom-in, to place the emphasis on a particular part of that map.

Now that the first seven chapters have concluded and you have seen a synopsis of world history from the time of John unto heaven itself, we’re going to zoom in. In this synopsis or bird’s-eye view of future events, the Lord very beautifully and chronologically is zooming in to give a closer view of some of these particular endtime events under the seventh seal. For when He opens the seventh seal, He begins to show what happens specifically at the very end just before the Rapture of the saints.

These are called the seven trumpets of the Tribulation—that last three-and-a-half-year period of man’s history, the last half of the Antichrist’s reign of terror against all religions, all faith, in which he tries to set himself up as God and abolish all other religions except the worship of himself and his idol, his own image. And he sits in the temple of God as though he were God, claiming that he is God (2 Thessalonians 2:4).

This is the last terrible Tribulation period of which the Scriptures have spoken for generations, for millenniums. For thousands of years God by His prophets has predicted this last terrible period of earth’s torment, Jacob’s trouble, the Gentiles’ trouble, tribulation, the worst in earth’s history (Jeremiah 30:7; Joel 2:11; Malachi 4:1). As Jesus Himself said, “There was not such a time of trouble until this time, no, nor indeed ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21). The end of man’s reign on the earth, the last of this demonic Devil-man’s reign, the last half of the Antichrist’s seven-year reign.

As we begin to read chapter eight on through the fourteenth, we find here a sort of an inset, almost a flashback, to zero in on the details of this last three and a half years, the period of these seven Tribulation trumpets.

Jesus Himself opens this seventh seal, and under this seal the book is opened to virtually the last chapter of man’s history on earth—that is, under his own government—to show what a mess he’s made of the world, what a holocaust he has made of man’s history on earth.

When Jesus opens this seventh seal to reveal what is going to happen in this last day of man’s history, this last three and a half years, it is so awesome, so awful, that there is a sudden stunning silence in heaven for half an hour before anything else happens, before anything else is shown. Before John hears anything else, there is a sudden half-hour of silence, as though all heaven is stunned, as though all earth is stunned by the horrors that are about to be revealed and occur. That’s the scene that’s being set.

We could be a bit frivolous and perhaps say as one preacher once told me—preachers love jokes—he said, “Dave, I can prove to you that there are no women in heaven.” I said, “What do you mean, no women in heaven? Of course there are women in heaven!” “No, Dave,” he says, “I don’t see how there can be any women in heaven, because right here in this eighth chapter, first verse, it says there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” He said, “How could there be any women in heaven if there was silence for half an hour?”

A bit of humor can provide some relief from the awfulness to come. That reminds me of the missionary who’d been in Tibet for 25 years. I was washing dishes with him elbow to elbow at the Soul Clinic in Los Angeles at one time, and he had been a missionary in Tibet even when the communists took over. He spent four years there under the communists, operating a hospital in the heart of the mountains of Tibet, the Forbidden Land, as it used to be called.

Because I knew he was a veteran missionary, a soldier who had been in many battles and on the field for many years, and I wanted to be a missionary and to know just what it took to be a missionary, I asked him, “Sir, what would you consider the most important qualification of a missionary? What does a missionary really need to serve God under such severe conditions as you did in those mountains with those strange people and that strange language for 25 years, operating a hospital, and then for four years after the communists took over, continuing to work even clandestinely preaching the Gospel under the communists?”

There we stood with our arms elbow-deep in dishwater, washing dirty dishes for over 100 people who were attending the Soul Clinic school in Los Angeles, and he looked at me and he smiled. I guess perhaps he was thinking of the humor of our situation.

Here he was a 25- or 30-year veteran, and I was just a young greenhorn, as green as the greenest grass, still wet behind the ears when it came to missionary work. I had been an evangelistic helper and a very short-lived pastor of a church that I’d built, my first and last pastorate, and now I wanted to be a missionary. But I had never been outside of my own country except to Mexico and Canada. I had never been on a far-off mission field.

He looked at me, both of our arms immersed in dirty dishwater, and I guess he was thinking about our present situation—him a veteran missionary, me a veteran evangelist and former pastor, and here we were washing dishes together. What were we doing here washing dishes for 100 people? He looked at me and he chuckled and said, “David, a sense of humor!” He said, “You know what a sense of humor is? It’s to know how things ought to be, and to see how funny it is when they aren’t like they ought to be.” And I often thought about that for a long time afterward—to see how things ought to be, and yet to see how funny it is when they’re not like they ought to be.

He said, “I’ll never forget when we were hiding in a bus trying to escape the communists. When the soldiers came on board to check the passengers, we were down on the floor hiding under the seats. My fellow missionary and I almost gave ourselves away, we got to chuckling and laughing so. We thought it was so funny, us crawling under the seats while the communist soldier was checking the passengers. Here we were staring at each other under two bus seats, and we just almost got to laughing until we gave ourselves away!”

He said, “A sense of humor is almost indispensable if you’re going to be a missionary”—and I’m sure that many of you who are missionaries in far-flung fields around the world have often found that in the most serious kind of situation, in the most sober, somber, almost terrifying situation, somehow God has suddenly come to your rescue and your relief with something funny to relieve the tension. In the teaching of public speaking they call it comic relief. You’re very serious on a very sober subject, but suddenly you tell a joke to ease the tension of your audience and they laugh and they can relax and they can stand the next heavy section. (To be continued)

07: God’s Seal On His Servants

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 7

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-05-01

9/09/24 Revelation chapter 7 is the last chapter in the first part of Revelation, which has to do with the introduction of this marvelous Revelation, and a preview of the immediate history of the world from the time of John, who was receiving the Revelation about 107 A.D. He was about 90 at the time, on the Isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Turkey, near the seven churches which he talks about and to whom he is writing and giving this Revelation which he had received from the Lord.

This seventh chapter is almost like a pause in the revelation and it is at the very end of this whole preview of the future that was to begin in John’s day.

He says, “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the winds should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree” (Revelation 7:1). These are the winds of God’s judgments upon man for refusing the love and laws of God and His Savior Jesus Christ. “And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea” (Revelation 7:2). There were four angels being prepared to execute the judgments of God upon sinful man and his wicked earth.

But this angel came first, who had the seal of God in his hand, and he said to the four angels of judgment, “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads” (Revelation 7:3). He said, “Wait! Don’t mete out the judgments of God on wicked men until we have sealed the good men—the servants of God—with the seal of God in their foreheads.”

“And I heard the number of them which were sealed, and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel” (Revelation 7:4). He said, “Before we mete out these judgments here upon wicked men and the Antichrist kingdom”—these are about things that are to happen in the very end—“we must seal the believers, the true children of God, the true Israel.”

Now you can interpret this passage one of two ways: You can say that this meant the early church, all of those early Christians who were Jews, who were saved, and therefore were sealed of God. He talks about how the number of them which were sealed were 144,000, and of each tribe 12,000. It’s possible that this 144,000 were the early Jewish Christians that Jesus is saying are sealed here.

Others believe that this means that there will be Jews in the very endtime, in the time of the Antichrist and the Tribulation, who had previously thought that he was not their savior, the Messiah, or the Son of God, and wake up to the fact that Jesus is the Christ. They will realize that they have ignored their true Messiah and will be saved then and God will seal them then. Because it speaks pretty specifically about these people being of the children of Israel in the fourth verse, and of the various tribes, naming the tribes one by one in the succeeding verses. (See Revelation 7:5–8.)

After having sealed these Jewish believers, apparently 144,000 Jewish Christian believers, 12,000 of each tribe of Israel, the ninth verse says: “After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”

This is the great mob, the great hosts of heaven and earth who believe in Jesus Christ—be they Jews or Gentiles—because there’s no longer any Jew or Gentile in Christ Jesus, no male nor female, no black or white, no rich or poor, no difference in the kingdom of Christ now. (See Galatians 3:27–29.) We’re all the same to Jesus, all brothers and sisters in the one family of God.

“And they cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen” (Revelation 7:10–12).

You notice the angels could only say “Amen.” Because as my mother used to sing: “For angels never knew the joy that our salvation brings.” They can only witness it. They were never lost, at least God’s angels were not, so they can’t know the joy of salvation. But they can say amen to it and witness it and help us and love us and comfort us and protect us, thank God.

“And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes and whence came they?” “One of the elders answered”—sounds more like he’s asking questions to me. “And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest” (Revelation 7:13–14). John says, “I don’t know. You’re the guy that’s supposed to know.” Notice that there were 24 elders; possibly the 12 outstanding leaders of the Jews before Christ that God considers the most important, such as Abraham, Moses, and the prophets of God down through the ages, the most important Jews and descendants of Abraham who truly loved God and really knew the score.

The other 12 are possibly the 12 apostles or leaders of the Christian church, pioneers of the Christian faith, or maybe the leaders down through the ages. Who knows? It could be that the 24 are going to be the 12 most important leaders of the Jewish church of the Old Testament and the 12 most important leaders of the Christian church of the New Testament. God’s going to honor the 24 most outstanding leaders of His people for the past 6000 years.

John said, “You know.” Yes, the elder knew. He was just asking a rhetorical question; he wanted to see if John knew. “And he said to me, these are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). Those who are saved. This is the mighty host, the multiplied millions and billions of the saved who are getting this mark of God in their foreheads to protect them from the Enemy and from the Beast and the forces of hell. “Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple.” This is the host of God in heaven.

“And He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them” (Revelation 7:15). He’ll sit on the throne and dwell among them. It doesn’t say we’re going to go up and dwell with God. It says that God’s going to come down and dwell with us. It says that all through the Bible, down to the very last chapter, that God is going to come down and dwell with us here on the earth eventually—in the New Earth.

Our heaven’s going to be here on earth. John saw the Holy City—that place called heaven—coming down from God out of heaven, unto the earth, unto man. And God, he said, will now make His dwelling with men below (Revelation 21:2–3). He’s come down to man’s level to love him and to live with him and to keep him forever.

This seventh chapter ends here with a beautiful vision of heaven—the raptured saints in heaven. “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat” (Revelation 7:16). They lived in a hot country where they didn’t appreciate sunshine; they liked the clouds better than the sunshine.

“For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 7:17). God’s going to wipe away all tears. We shall neither hunger nor thirst anymore, nor suffer pain or agony or death anymore.

God doesn’t say there aren’t going to be any tears in heaven. I think a lot of people when they get to heaven and face the Lord are going to cry over their sins and their failures and faults and be ashamed, some to live in everlasting contempt for their failures and disobediences and sins against God, but nevertheless forgiven and saved (Daniel 12:2).—But no crown, no reward, no “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” only tears and shame when they meet God.

But isn’t the Lord wonderful and loving and merciful? He says He’s going to wipe away all those tears, and He’s going to wipe away all that memory of those evil years, and there’ll be no more pain, no more death, no more sorrow, no more tears, only eternal happiness, joy, and paradise on earth forever and ever.

These first seven chapters cover the whole history of man from the days of John until the days of our final heaven on earth. It is a kind of a résumé, a preview of the history of man.

In these first seven chapters, we’ve covered what was future in John’s day, but is now mostly history except for these last few scenes of the saints in heavenly places. From here on, it’s all about the endtime that hasn’t happened yet, under the seventh seal with the seven trumpets of the Tribulation period, the last most horrible day in earth’s history and in man’s rule, and man’s inhumanity to man.

06: Warriors of the Faith

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 6:9–17

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-04-01

9/08/24 Revelation chapter 6, verse 9: “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: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

“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, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:9–17).

We’re reading from the sixth chapter of the book of Revelation, beginning with the ninth verse. We’ve already covered the first eight verses in the previous class on the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Do you remember what these horses were? The first one was Jesus on the white horse with a crown and a bow going forth to conquer. The second was the war horse. The third was the commercial system, buying and selling. And the last one was death by every means—hunger, famine, pestilence, plague.

You may wonder, “Were these separate times? Did Jesus first go forth and conquer, and then war came, and then after that the commercial system came, and then came death?” No, these horses, although they’re pictured one by one, began to ride almost immediately. God told John when He first started giving him this revelation that these are things which shortly must come to pass, for the time is now at hand. Therefore, these things began to come to pass in John’s day; in fact, they were already existent in John’s day. These horsemen were already riding in John’s day. God was just revealing them to him one by one to show him the difference.

The horse of Christ and Christianity, the great white horse with Him with a golden crown and a bow in His hand to go forth conquering and to conquer: Jesus had been riding that horse for many years already, and the church spread around the world—the whole Roman world of the day. There had been wars and rumors of wars, and there had been much commercialism and buying and selling, and plenty and poverty and famine, and finally all kinds of death. So these horses had been riding continuously. In fact, He’s just picturing here what has been going on for the last 2000 years.

These seven seals of the book of Revelation are the seals of history, you might say, history in advance. They cover the time from the days of John, about 100 A.D., down to the very end of the world. So these seals of this seven-sealed book are a picture of the future from the days of John to the very end. The first seal was the four horsemen of the Apocalypse—Christ and His kingdom, war, commercialism, and all forms of death—riding from John’s day till the end.

This whole first part of the book, almost the whole first seven chapters, has to do with history from John’s day until the end, particularly until the Tribulation period. But the first six seals here, as you can see, cover the entire period. It’s sort of a summary. As they say in the movies, it’s a flashback of what has happened since John’s day to the present. Under the first four seals were these four horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Under the fifth seal we have another picture of heaven, this time not exactly the throne scene, but an altar scene. We see the souls of the martyrs, their spirits, clothed in white robes, pictured under the altar of God, meaning they are waiting there, in a sense, where they were sacrificed as living sacrifices for the Lord. God’s Word says that we are to “yield our bodies a living sacrifice unto the Lord,” which is His perfect will, and your perfect sacrifice, “that ye may know what is that good and acceptable will of God” (Romans 12:1–2).

You want to know the will of God? Yield your body a living sacrifice, which is good and acceptable unto the Lord, which is His perfect will for you, and then you’ll know God’s will. But not until you’re willing to give yourself in His cause as a martyr for Christ—not necessarily to die but to die daily, to live and die daily for Him, in witnessing and serving Him in winning souls. That’s what He expects of you. In a sense, every one of us is a martyr. In a sense, every one of us dies daily for the Lord.

I remember a lady in one of our Bible school classes in Miami, Florida. She loved to sit in church and listen to beautiful sermons and organ music and lovely choirs, but she finally felt that really she needed a little more Bible study to know more about the Bible.

So she decided she wanted to go to Bible school. She picked our little Bible school because it was free. Not only free tuition, but free room and board, too. So she came to our school to take this Bible course and learn more about the Bible.

But then she found out that a part of our schedule, about half of it, was spent out in the field, not just studying theory and just studying the Bible—which is all very good and a necessary preparation, because it’s your tool, you’ve got to do it—but she had to spend half her time out with the other students in the field, with her teachers going door to door or on the street corner or in the park learning how to preach the Gospel, how to witness, how to win souls.

She came back after her first day out witnessing and said, “Oh my God! Do I have to do that again?” She said, “This just kills me! That business of going out and passing out tracts on the street corner—me a respectable, reputable, well-to-do woman, standing there like a beggar on the street corner begging people to take my literature. This just kills me. Do I have to do that again, brother?”

I said, “Yes, sister, you do, because that’s exactly what it does, and it’s good for you. It just kills your pride, and it kills your reputation, and it kills your vaunted idea of yourself, and it kills you in the eyes of man, when out there on the corner you get his contempt and his scorn and ridicule.”

It kills you, all right. It makes you a martyr every day. Every single day, you’re a martyr for Jesus and you die daily, as the apostle said (1 Corinthians 15:31). These are the martyrs for Jesus Christ. We’re all martyrs in that sense. You don’t have to die physically on a cross or be beheaded or whatever in the long run; you’re a martyr every day. Do you know what the word means? Martyr is a Greek word meaning “a witness.” And you’ll find out that witnessing is martyrdom to your pride and your self-respect and the opinions of men.

Witnessing is martyrdom, and if you are a faithful witness unto God, you will be a martyr for Jesus Christ. So these folks were martyrs. They had died daily and died the final death and were in heaven with the Lord, waiting to be avenged for the blood that they had shed. They’re waiting there for God to avenge them against their enemies who tormented them and persecuted them and ridiculed them and made it hard for them.

These saints wanted retribution. “How long, O Lord, are You going to not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”—Their persecutors their tormentors, their torturers. And the Lord said, “Just be patient, just rest a little while longer for all of your fellow servants who are dying daily right now for Me and will die for Me. Wait till the whole flock is in, and then I’m going to turn loose My judgments on them. When I’ve called out My sheep from among the goats, when I’ve reaped My good grain from among the tares, so that they don’t get hurt.”

God always has to call His people out and get them out from among the wicked and the sinners. He says, “Come out from among her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins,” so you won’t be punished for her sins (Revelation 18:4). He says, “Come out of Babylon, the world system. Get out of it! Start serving Jesus.”

That’s what these martyrs have done. They died daily for Jesus.

05: The First 4 Seals and 4 Horsemen

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 5 and 6:1–8

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-04-01

9/07/24 “And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

“And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne. And when He had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

“And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen, amen, amen and amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped Him that liveth for ever and ever” (Revelation 5).

Praise the Lord for this wonderful scripture, this marvelous revelation! It’s a very mysterious passage, but when you understand who the Lamb is, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, then it’s not difficult to understand. If you realize that this seven-sealed book—called a book, but actually a scroll—was the book of the future, the book of the Revelation that God had promised to give to John, and herein, in this marvelous throne scene, then we discover it is about Jesus.

When no other man could be found worthy to open the book of the future, the book of prophecy, Jesus, the Lamb of God, was found worthy to open the book.

When He took the book, then the four beasts and the 24 elders had to praise Him and say, “Amen, amen” and to praise God. They fell down and worshipped Him and so on. Every one of them had harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints. I’ve seen this in some of the dreams and visions that I’ve had, that prayers were like beautiful vases or golden vials full of perfume rising unto the Lord like beautiful flowers and angels and fragrances to God in heaven.

They sang as Jesus opened the book; they sang that He was worthy: “For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation.”

Thank God, some people from everywhere are going to be saved. We’re doing our best to reach the whole world with the Gospel. Our Family is doing its best to go into all the world and preach the Gospel unto every creature just as Jesus commanded (Mark 16:15). We’ve preached it on six continents to over 100 nations in 40 languages. For one little outfit of at most 8000 missionaries, I think that’s a pretty good record.

So they sang this song praising the Lord, for He had made Himself worthy by shedding His blood. “And Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” We are already kings and priests unto God as far as He’s concerned. We may not look like it to the world, but we are already kings of this earth, and priests of our people unto God, because we’re already in the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God that is within us in our hearts, the kingdom of God composed of His saints, His children everywhere throughout the world.—All those who love Jesus, all those who have received Him as their Savior, the Son of God, and His sacrifice on Calvary for their sins, and His forgiveness and His cleansing from sin.

John beheld and he heard the voice of many angels. First of all the beasts and the four and twenty elders and the saints, and then many angels are singing. This is a real praise service up in heaven—a great, victorious session in the great throne room of heaven! There before that crystal sea through which God can look upon the earth and see everything that’s going on. And the number—how many angels? How, many beasts? How many elders? How many saints?—Ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, from everywhere—billion and millions! Hallelujah!

We’re not going to be the poor persecuted minority; we are then going to number in the billions and the millions, and we are going to rule the earth with Jesus Christ!

Jesus comes. He stops the earth, the history of this world, and He lets us off right in full view of our enemies. We rise in immortal victory over the forces of the Devil and of the Antichrist and right before the eyes of our enemies, now out of their reach forever, to be with Jesus in the air. This hasn’t happened yet here, but John is being given a vision of this to see what was going to happen in the future. He’s shown that Jesus opens this book of the future, this book of prophecy, sealed with seven seals.

It’s such an amazing and marvelous occasion that all heaven is rejoicing! All the angels are rejoicing, the beasts, the four and twenty elders, and the millions of saints. Beloved, you are not alone. “Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us run the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1). What a cloud of witnesses! Never in the history of this world has there been such an audience for such a performance. You literally have billions upon millions of souls and saints and angels watching you from above in those heavenly galleries while you perform here on the stage of God’s history, His story, in this final act of His story, history. Isn’t that wonderful?

This will be the greatest show on earth, and all heaven will be watching.—All the saints of God that have gone on to be with the Lord, all the angels of God that have ever been created, including even Satan and all his angels, have to watch this grand and glorious performance and the final victory in the biggest hit that ever hit this world. That is going to involve millions of people, a cast not of half a dozen or a dozen or a score or two, not a cast of hundreds or even thousands, but a cast of millions upon billions acting out the last scene of God’s marvelous drama here on earth.

In John’s vision in this chapter, they’re all watching while Jesus begins to open the book of prophecy and future history begins to unfold. What a performance! What a cast! What an audience! No play or movie or television series on earth ever had such an audience as Jesus had as He began to open this book of the future—a history from John’s day down to our day, and on to the end. So Jesus is about to open the book now in chapter 6.

Let’s swing out into space and travel into the future, shall we? We are time travelers, space travelers. We even travel beyond the realm of space and time in this marvelous book.

Chapter six of the revelation of God to Jesus Christ and His angel unto John, first verse: “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold, a white horse: and He that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto Him: and He went forth conquering, and to conquer” (Revelation 6:1–2).

Now begins the marvelous revelation of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.—These four mysterious horsemen of the book of Revelation, or the Apocalypse, depending on whether you want to use the Latin name for the book, the Revelation, or the Greek name Apocalypse.

The first horseman is obviously Jesus, with a crown all in white, going forth conquering and to conquer. What was happening in John’s day? Jesus was going forth to conquer the world with the Gospel through His saints and His apostles and the early Christians in a mighty conquest of the Roman Empire—more powerful in its message of love than all the legions of Roman force, cruelty, and war. Jesus is this mighty conqueror on the white horse in verse 2.

“And when He had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword” (Revelation 6:3–4). This second horse of the Apocalypse was obviously the horse of war, and there have been nothing but wars ever since the time of Christ and the early church.

The red horse of the Apocalypse is the horse of war, and certainly nothing could have been predicted more truly of the two millenniums of history which followed from John’s day to ours. There has seldom been a day in the world’s history that there has not been a war going on somewhere, with slaughter and massacre and killing and wounding and maiming and the horrors of hell. What does it matter whether they kill with stones and clubs and bare hands or knives and swords and spears or planes and guns and tanks and atomic bombs? It’s all the same horror in the sight of God, the same horror of man brought on by the Devil’s inspiration to inspire man to kill one another and destroy each other.

“And when he had opened the third seal”—Jesus opened the third seal, another chapter in the book—“I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse, and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.”

Here comes the horrible horse of famine and the horse of commerce, the horse of money, the horse of commercialism, the horse of capitalism, and the horse of plenty, feast and famine both.

“And I beheld this black horse, and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine” (Revelation 6:5–6). Doesn’t that sound like your typical salesman, your typical merchant? Your typical high-pressure TV commercials, always hawking their wares? So this next horse was to become one of the curses of the earth: commercialism, moneymaking, capitalism, making precious every little bit of material and food and so on. That’s the third horse; we’ve now had three horses of the Apocalypse.

Seventh verse: “And when He had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold, a pale horse.” The actual meaning here is a pale yellowish-green horse. “And his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:8).

Here the final horse, the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse, was death itself in every form. Death not only in war, but death from beasts and death from plagues, death from famine and hunger, death in every conceivable form. Haven’t we had that kind of death ever since the days of John? Haven’t we had commercialism and trading and capitalism and greed since the time of this revelation?

But praise God, we’ve had Jesus.—Crowned with many crowns, the King of kings riding on His great white horse of victory! He’s been riding throughout the earth for the past 2000 years, conquering nation after nation and tribe after tribe and people after people with the wonderful message of the Gospel, until at least half the world has become Christian. Half the people of the world confess Christ and are at least nominally Christian.

So there you have the four horsemen of the Apocalypse: First Jesus, the Son of God conquering the earth with His Gospel of love. Second, war, the opposite of love—hate and killing and death. And then commercialism, capitalism, greed, trading, moneymaking, one of the curses of the earth that deprives the poor and makes the rich. And finally, the fourth horse, death in every form, from war and beasts and famine and plague.

Have we not had all four of these horses riding rampant for the past 2000 years since John? Have we not had Christianity spreading throughout the world? War throughout the world? Commercialism throughout the world, the commercial system, Babylon? And all forms of death and destruction? We’ve had them all, and they have ridden rampant for 2000 years since John until this very day.

They will continue to ride right until the end, when Jesus comes and takes His children out of the hell on earth this world becomes into the heavenlies, while He pours out His judgments upon the hell below.—Until we come again in the Battle of Armageddon and we conquer the forces of hell and death and satanic power, and wipe out the Antichrist and his mark-of-the-beast forces and destroy his Image and destroy the wicked who follow him, and we cleanse and purify the earth, and set up the kingdom of God upon this earth to be ruled by Jesus Christ with a rod of iron.

04: The Throne Scene

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 4

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-04-01

9/06/24 We’re starting the fourth chapter of Revelation, and you’ll find that the fourth and fifth chapters are what we call the throne scene. God uses scenery, too, and He’s got some lollapalooza of pieces of scenery that you’ve never seen the like of before! He caught John up into that place to see some of God’s scenery and He showed him into the throne room. These two whole chapters are about what happened in that throne room, and give you a good introduction to what is about to occur.

Actually, the throne scene is a very remarkable scene, and God is making quite a bit of it because it’s very important. It’s another two chapters of introduction to the future and what’s going to happen, and in a sense, it tells you why.

“After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me: which said, John, come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit” (Revelation 4:1–2). A voice like that’s enough to scare anybody into the spirit.—A voice like a P.A. system, a megaphone, sounding like a big trumpet out of heaven. He says, “Come up hither, John. I’m going to show you things which must be hereafter.”

“And behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.” The rest of this you can read. It’s quite clear; it’s a description of this scene, and what beautiful rocks were around, things made out of diamonds and pearls and emeralds and rainbows and crystal sea, all kinds of gorgeous things there.

“And out of the throne proceeded thunderings and voices and seven lamps of fire, seven Spirits of God” (Revelation 4:5).

Some people don’t like us talking about the spirits of God, but if you notice in that fifth verse of the King James Version, it even capitalized the word “spirits.” There are multitudes of spirits of God—spirits of the departed saints who have gone on to be with the Lord in heavenly places, spiritual spheres in that other world.

In fact, if you love Jesus, you’re a holy spirit—one of His holy spirits. And one of these days, when you die and go to be with the Lord, you’ll be a holy ghost. How about that? Any of you like ghosts? Any of you don’t like ghosts? Well, I like some ghosts, but some ghosts I don’t care for. I’ve seen a few ghosts, but thank God, most of the ghosts I’ve seen were holy ghosts, departed saints, men and women of God, my own mother in heaven and others that I love who have gone on before to be with the Lord. These are holy ghosts, now spirits in the spirit world—someday to come back and regain their bodies and have new beautiful, immortal, supernatural resurrection bodies, to live here on this earth forever as the angels of God ruling over His creation. His original intention for man was to dominate His creation and rule over it.

Sixth verse: “And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.” Then He describes these beasts, one like a lion, one like a calf, one with a face of a man and one like a flying eagle. “And each of them had six wings, full of eyes, and they rest not day and night, constantly saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come” (Revelation 4:8). This is to impress us with the majesty and the might and the power and the holiness and the importance of God, sitting upon His throne.

“And when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, The four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy. O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:9–11).

03: Revelation of the Future

A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 1

A Study of Revelation

David Brandt Berg

1981-04-01

9/05/24 The history of man began in the Garden of Eden, but it has taken God over 6000 years to unfold His whole plan of how to save man and redeem him and work out his salvation, to populate the world and get people saved and get them through the Tribulation and into the heaven on earth of the Millennium. That’s what we’re going to deal with here, the revelation of the future as told by God to Jesus and to His archangel, who delivered the message to John. John wrote it all down and now we’re about to read it.

You may wonder where this book—the Revelation—begins. When does it start talking about the future? According to the Bible, the “last days” really began with Jesus when He first came to earth. The author of Hebrews writes, “In these last days” (Hebrews 1:2). In these last days Jesus has come. So believe it or not, the last days of man’s history have lasted now about 2000 years. They range from Christ’s first coming to His second coming; that’s the last days. And in fact, right on through into His third coming, and right on through the Millennium for another thousand years. Those are really the last days for people on this earth who are unsaved and not redeemed.

John is getting these marvelous revelations from God about the future, his future right then, the future of the world for the next 2000 years, and that’s pretty well covered in these first few chapters. In the very first chapter, the first verse, it says, “Things which must shortly come to pass”—that means very soon.

Then at the end of the third verse, it says, “for the time is at hand.” That means it’s here. “What I’m going to show you is beginning now, John.” So this book began at John’s day and it’s foretelling the future, most of which is now history.

He says, “John to the seven churches which are in Asia,” fourth verse. He’s writing this revelation in seven letters to the seven churches. In those days they didn’t have any carbon copies, typewriters, or mimeo machines, so he either had to write seven separate letters, or—what they usually did—he wrote one long letter and then they took it around to the different churches and it was read in them. So he’s writing to the seven churches which are in Asia.

The Island of Patmos, where the dear old apostle John received this marvelous revelation of the future, is a little island in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey. These principal churches were in Asia Minor, on the coast of Turkey. Each one is named and listed in this first chapter, and then again in the second and third chapters. These were Ephesus, which was the principal church, the main port of that area, to whom Paul wrote his Epistles to the Ephesians; Smyrna; Thyatira; Pergamos; Sardis; Philadelphia, and the church of Laodicea.

John was living on a little island just off the coast of Turkey, not far from these churches. He was sort of like their bishop or their district superintendent, and he was naturally concerned and burdened about these very important churches.

The island was not far from Israel and Cyprus. There were boats to Ephesus, and then the Christians had people going around visiting the churches all the time. They’d probably travel a circuit to the different cities, and that’s probably why John named them the way he did in the order he did a little later in the same chapter, or the Lord did.

“Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come.” That can only be God, of course. “And from the seven Spirits which are before His throne”—God’s throne. We find out who those spirits are later; they’re the angels of God, the angels of these churches to whom he’s writing. “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness”—Jesus Himself was a faithful witness—“and the first begotten of the dead” (Revelation 1:4–5).

He was the first one to rise from the dead, and then immediately after He rose from the dead three days after His crucifixion, all the Old Testament saints also rose from the dead. It’s in the Bible. You can read it in the book of Matthew (Matthew 27:52–53). It says that when He rose from the dead, these other people rose from the dead too. But He was the first one that rose, “first begotten of the dead.” “And the prince of the kings of the earth.” He is the King of kings.

“Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.” Who did that? Jesus. He died on the cross for our sins. He took our punishment for us so we could be saved just by believing on Him, receiving Him as our Savior into our hearts, loving Him and His Father God, and the Holy Spirit, and loving others, our neighbors as ourselves, and preaching the Gospel in all the world to every creature.

“And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, amen” (Revelation 1:6). We’re already kings and priests unto God, think of that!

Seventh verse, “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him.” When Jesus comes back to rapture His saints, He’s going to come back in the clouds just the way He went away on the day of Ascension. Just like His disciples watched Him go up in the clouds, they’re going see Him come down in the clouds. “Every eye shall see Him”—no secret Rapture—“and they also which pierced Him”—who crucified Him. “And all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.” The whole earth is going to see Jesus come when He returns for you and me, to rescue us, His children, out of this wicked old world.

Jesus goes on to say then: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord” (Revelation 1:8).

This same dear apostle who wrote this great book of Revelation, do you know what he says in the first part of his Gospel of John? He said, “In the beginning was the Word”—that’s Jesus—“and the Word was with God and the Word was God,” because He was the Son of God. “All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.” Think of that! Jesus was there (John 1:1–3).

Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet: Alpha, our “a,” and Omega, something we don’t have in the English alphabet. So Jesus is here saying He is the “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” He’s been here a long time.

Ninth verse: “I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ”—did you know we’re already in the kingdom? If you have Jesus in your heart, you have the kingdom of God within you.

John says, “I was in the isle that is called Patmos for the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.” He was literally in exile; he was a kind of a prisoner. He’d been exiled to the island like Napoleon was exiled to the Isle of Elba, and later to some other island.

So he says here that he was on that isle of Patmos and he got the most amazing sermon and preached to more people than ever before, even though the Romans tried to get rid of him. “For the Word of God”—he was there because he was a good witness. Tenth verse: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega”—that’s the very thing Jesus had just said to him—“the first and the last: and what thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.”

Jesus himself commanded him that he was to write all this down in a book, and that’s what he did, and we’ve got the book to show for it today. Then John says: “And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man.” Notice that’s capitalized, “S” on the word Son, meaning Jesus. He was not only the Son of God but also the Son of man.

“Clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow: and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass”—golden—“as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength” (Revelation 1:13–16).

Here is a picture of Jesus Christ as the apostle John saw Him in the book of this marvelous revelation, Jesus standing before him as a supernatural figure with all of these amazing attributes, shining like the sun and like gold and like the rainbow, and a garment of shining, scintillating, sparkling light, from just above His breast down to His feet, and Jesus Himself having a human body of a man born of the Virgin Mary, clothed in such a garment of light.

It’d be almost beyond description, because it’s something very heavenly, very ethereal. There stands Jesus in all His glory, in all His beauty, ready to speak to the apostle John, standing in the midst of seven golden candlesticks, seven beautiful bright lights, with seven stars in His hand. What a beautiful picture!

In verse 16 he says: “Out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword.” This is, of course, symbolic of the Word of God, which He compares to a two-edged sword. “And His countenance was as the sun shineth in His strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last.” He’s already said this in verse 8: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, that which is and which was and which is yet to come,” the first and the last. Verse 18, “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore.” Jesus died, was crucified and rose again from the dead, and now He lives for evermore. “Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death,” so that He is able to unlock the gates of hell itself to release its prisoners from the very jaws of death.

So He says to John, “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.” He’s going to tell him the history of now and hereafter. “The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in My right hand and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches” (Revelation 1:19–20). Isn’t that a beautiful picture?

He sees the seven principal churches of Asia Minor, or what is now Turkey, as seven beautiful candlesticks. And then he sees their seven guardian angels as seven beautiful stars. The churches, seven beautiful candles standing before God, and above each one, a guiding star, its guardian angel. What a beautiful picture of the churches to whom John is writing this epistle of this revelation of the marvels that God is about to show to him of their future, the future that they are to face, so they’ll know what’s coming!

The Lord does not want us to be ignorant, brethren, but to know the things which must shortly come to pass (1 Thessalonians 4:13; Revelation 1:1). And this is what He was telling the apostle John in that day, nearly 2000 years ago now, about 107 AD on the Isle of Patmos, where he was exiled by the Romans.