Sunday, April 5, 2015

Introduction to Rev. Seven


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/5/2015 12:16 PM

My Worship Time                                                           Focus:  Introduction to Revelation Seven

Bible Reading & Meditation                                   Reference:  Revelation chapter Seven

            Message of the verses:  I would like to quote the last verse in Revelation chapter six at this time:  “17  for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"”  In this last verse of chapter six we see that there is a question that is asked and in that question John wants to know “who is able to stand?”  This question relates to who could possibly stand after all of the seal judgments had just taken place.  We will look at who will be able to stand as we study the 7th chapter of Revelation, for in that chapter we have a look at the famous 144,000 thousand Jewish Evangelists whom God will call to give out the gospel during the Tribulation Period.  So far we have only looked at the judgments that have occurred, but now we will look at the evangelism that will take place in this time period.  We will see this pattern of having a period of peace between the times when the next set of judgments will take place, and in this case the next set will be the trumpet judgments, and at the end of the trumpet judgments there will be a period of peace before God unleashes the bowl judgments. 

            There has been many things written about these 144,000 people that we find here and also in chapter fourteen, things that are not true.  The Jehovah Wittiness began their cult by saying that only 144,000 people would join it, but then after they surpassed that number they had to make up some new rules.  I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that there are many believers today who do not believe that the promises of God to the nation of Israel will ever be fulfilled and thus the promises were translated to the church by God.  This is a total lie that I believe is from Satan for all we have to do is look at the people who now live in the nation of Israel as it was founded in May of 1948 just as Ezekiel said that it would come back again.  Ezekiel even went so far as to say that this new nation would be one nation by talking about two sticks “15 The word of the LORD came again to me saying, 16 "And you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write on it, ’For Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions’; then take another stick and write on it, ’For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.’ 17 "Then join them for yourself one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand. 18 “When the sons of your people speak to you saying, ’Will you not declare to us what you mean by these?’ 19  say to them, ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand."’ 20 “The sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes. 21 “Say to them, ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; 22 and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms. 23 “They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God.”  The people who fought to make Israel a nation again wondered if there should be two nations or one and they were told about this passage in Ezekiel and so they named it Israel just as the Lord foretold that it would be through Ezekiel.  The nation of Israel was formed in one day as the President of the Untied States, Harry S. Truman agonized over whether or not to recognize it as a nation, but finally did because he believed in the Bible.  Isaiah wrote the following:  “Isa 66:8 “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons.”  Now with the question of who these 144,000 people are can be answered by saying that Israel is not back in their land, and we know that even though who belongs to what tribe is not really known by man, the truth is that God knows who belongs to what tribe and He will be the One who calls these men to serve Him as evangelists during the Tribulation Period.

            At this time I want to quote a paragraph from my blog dated May, 18, 2005 “In chapter seven there are two people groups described, one of them is the 144,000 Jews, and then we have an unnumbered group of Gentiles.  The judgments of the last chapter are over for a short time in order for God to begin the work of evangelizing, and this will be begin by these 144,000 Jews.”

Now as we have done in the past I will take more than on Spiritual Diary to introduce a chapter from the book of Revelation, so we will look at this introduction more fully in our next SD.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that the Bible tells us the truth, and that it also tells us what will become of the people on planet earth and what will eventually happen to planet earth along with the rest of the universe.  When we look at Genesis we see the beginning and then when we look at Revelation we will see that will happen in the end.

My prayer is that all who read this will have had a wonderful celebration of Resurrection Sunday.  Remember Christ is Risen, “He has risen Indeed.”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in and better know the love Christ has for me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:10).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Spirit’?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/5/2015 12:49 PM

 

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