Lesson 30 - Revelation 13 & 14

[Music] [Music] now we've spent a lot of time in Revelation chapter 13 and we're gonna finally conclude it today and get into chapter 14 chapter 13 is so very full of dramatic events and mysterious symbols that dominate Christian thought about this coming apocalypse and as a result of that it's required a considerable amount of our time and there's probably little more dramatic than the matter of the Antichrist demanding and enforcing that everyone in the world take a mark on his hand or his forehead otherwise they can't buy or sell now so acquiring the basics of life then become impossible for those who refuse the so-called mark of the beast now let me say it's right up front because I have no doubt I'll get questions and emails about it that not every last living person and every last remote place on earth will find themselves in this predicament many places still exist that buying and selling as a matter of bartering they don't even have what we would call cash and the populations there are so small and so inconsequential to someone who wants world control that they will likely escape such a needing but for everybody else the 99.9 percent this mark is going to be needed for a survival in let me also mention that in the Bible terms like all and everyone in the world are not absolutes they are approximate those terms are used similarly to how we use them today that is we mean the vast majority just short of unanimous but not every last human being or thing without exception let's reread the last few verses of Revelation chapter 13 together start at verse 16 if you have a complete Jewish Bible that's page 15 45 so Revelation chapter 13 we're going to start reading at verse 16 also it forces everyone great and small rich and poor free and slave to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead preventing anyone from buying or selling unless he has the mark that is the name of the beast or the number of its name this is where wisdom is needed those who understand should count the number of the beast for it is the number of a person and it's number is 666 now last week we discussed that because this is Satan behind the antichrists edict then underlying his plan to retain power over the earth is deceit and mockery of God so the mark that he demands upon the world's population is a counterfeit of the mark of the seal that God would upon the foreheads of the 144,000 witnesses back in Revelation chapter 7 but it's also in making a mockery of God's commandment in Deuteronomy 6 to teach the Torah which revelation 13 refers to as the covenant to your children and to put God's laws in your heart and tie them it says upon your hand and upon your four God wants us to do these things either in actuality or symbolically because he wants to be the continual center of our lives naturally Satan wants to replace God as the center of our lives so he wants his mark upon us as a reminder of his diluted glory and greatness and his authority over us now while in our era the elite the ruling class and the wealthiest among us usually live by a different set of rules than the rest of us first see verse 16 tells us that even the great and the rich will be forced to wear this mark of the beast why because while on the surface the mark is a means of control over our finances and our livelihoods underlying at all is that it is a mark of spiritual allegiance to Satan and therefore a rejection of God Almighty so no one then can refuse the mark and live then verse 18 speaks up about perhaps one of the most debated passages in the entire New Testament the meaning of the number 666 so we're gonna dive into that question we're gonna see what we can conclude now to begin it's important that we get the overall picture that is called for with the first words of this verse that say this is where wisdom is needed wisdom is biblically speaking godly that is the source of true wisdom is always divine so we can conclude from this that only God worshipers are going to have the whiz to not be taken in by the lies and the awesome exhibition of power and knowledge that the Antichrist and his evil followers are going to put on worldwide display to all others it's gonna seem like a no-brainer to follow this messianic figure who has abilities and intelligence and leadership like no one in history ever has let me give you an illustration of this as a person whose corporate life involved the world of high tech I can appreciate the learnin s the intelligence the intelligence the the creative ideas that engineers and scientists and mathematicians have put forth that has dramatically changed the world we live in on the other hand we have since the era of the enlightenment of the 18th century put more and more of our trust into the brain power of our engineers and scientists and mathematicians today when something is said to be scientifically proven then all debate is to end if an expert where the PhD says something is so then we're to accept his or her word and take it as ironclad proof this has had the exact desired effect that the enlightenment-era academics and Floss philosophers intended the mysteries of God have been replaced by the assurances of human intellect no longer a science the discovery of what God has created as it once was it is the standard now to which the Bible must be measured up or be discarded as myth Legend and superstition all one has to do is research the persons who write modern critical Bible commentary that our various seminaries teach to future pastors and ministers and we find out that relatively few of them believe in God let alone Christ rather they approach their Bible research as a scientific study of ancient Jewish literature and history faith the belief in miracles the acknowledgment of the supernatural the concept of infallibility play no role in their lives or in their area of academic discipline I mean I could go on for hours about scientists in various fields of study who make bold statements of supposed fact about humanity biology and the cosmos that in reality don't even rise to the level of sound theories but their intellect and their academic credentials are so valued that to express skepticism to their ideas is tantamount to heresy or worse stupidity I tell you all this which more to it most of you already recognize because when the image of the Beast speaks and the Antichrist brings about peace among nations that has perhaps never before been seen in history and he sets forth his team of scientific experts and philosophers to explain why things are now as they are very few people will be able to avoid being seduced by their intellect and their seeming irrefutable facts we are already well primed and conditioned for just such a scenario to occur now interestingly the identification in the meaning of the number 666 as it is associated with the beast the Antichrist is gonna be something that will be misunderstood by all the world's inhabitants except for those who have godly wisdom and who is that true believers when the Antichrist appears world experts will explain it as one thing true believers will see it as something else I want to be clear as of the year of our Lord 2019 we do not yet have enough information and history has not yet reached a milestone by which we can confidently decipher the intent and purpose of 666 other than to know that it has thoroughly evil anti-god attributes you know by far the most widespread belief about among Bible academics is that 666 comes from biblical gematria now gematria is the study of numbers that are assigned to letters of an alphabet and then the words that they form for instance most ancient languages did not have numbers separate from alphabets rather a letter represented both a sound and a number Hebrew operates like that an Aleph is a one a bet is a - a gimel is a three so on ancient Greek is the same so every word also had a number value arrived at by adding up the individual letter values and thus especially the religious mystics looked for hidden or secret meaning behind the words by delving into the numbers that those words represented so at the end of verse 17 we read the name of the beast or the number of his name and those who study and put credence into gematria say that the phrase the number of his name means that when you add up the number value of each letter in the beasts name it will total six six six easy enough right not really I have a question for you what language are we going to use to arrive at the number of his name is the spelling of his name to use the Hebrew alphabet since it's the New Testament will it be the Greek alphabet or maybe Aramaic which was very widespread in John's era how about Latin or will it be the language of the country from which the Antichrist emerges you know many translators today act as though it has to be English German translators of decades ago naturally figured it would be German now even though English and German and most of the Western languages use entirely different words most do use a common 26 letter alphabet so which of these are we to choose since it will of course change the number value of each word hope you see this problem you know certain forms of nero's name can arrive at the number 666 depending on the language you use other academics have shown how Napoleon's Hitler's names can be manipulated to add up to 666 again the language playing the key role now I'm sure most Hebrew roots fit folks say well of course it'll be the Hebrew alphabet that will be used to arrive at the correct name even if that's correct then which Hebrew alphabet because it has changed over the centuries therefore I have serious doubts that the number of his name porns points us towards gematria as we think of it today as the means to finding a solution I mean perhaps the number 666 is purely symbolic I mean the number seven is generally agreed to be a divine number that symbolizes God or godly activities and the number six is said to be the number of man of humans and human activity thus triple sixes represent the evil trio of Satan the Antichrist and the false prophet as opposed to triple sevens representing the divine trio of Father Son and Holy Spirit and indeed whether it is gematria symbolism or something else verse eighteen does say for it is the number of a person pretty confusing admit charles feinberg fine scholar makes this observation that for now probably probably represents about the best we can do he says it is almost impossible to list the number of suggestions for 666 all the way from Nero and ancient Rome two persons in this day probably the most that can be gleaned is that since 7 is the number of completeness six which falls short of it is man's failure at its worst man's worship of man is indeed spiritual insanity to the highest degree I realize that many intelligent and thoughtful revelation expert experts and book authors have come up with all kinds of innovative solutions to this I think this in itself says that we're still pretty short of the needed information in a historical perspective that is yet to arrive to come to any sort of concrete competent conclusion as to the identification of the Antichrist as it relates to the number six success could one of them be right well somebody eventually wins the lottery this search for the meaning and person of 666 has spawned quite a number of superstitions and taboos and not just within Christianity I mean I have to admit I probably wouldn't ever locate seed of Abraham Ministries anywhere where the address began with 666 probably wouldn't want a phone number like that either so the bottom line is that we just don't know and we just hate that and we need to have the humility to accept that even though we live in the so-called information age we can't always figure out the mysteries that God has set before us and this is almost always because it is not yet time for us to know for sure at some point in the end times we're going to be able to know likely it will only become apparent with the actual appearance of the Antichrist but it will be believers who discern it correctly it will not come from human intellect rather as verse 18 so plainly says it's going to come from wisdom godly wisdom let's move on to Revelation chapter 14 open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 14 and if you have a complete Jewish Bible that'll be on page 15 45 Revelation chapter 14 we'll read it all then I looked and there was the lamb standing on Mount Zion and with him were 144,000 who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads and I heard a sound from heaven like the sound of rushing waters and like the sound of pealing Thunder the sound I heard was also like that of harpists playing on their harps they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living beings and the elders no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been a ransom from the world these are the ones who have not defiled themselves with women for they are virgins they follow the lamb wherever he goes they have been a ransom from among humanity his firstfruits for God and the lamb on their lips no lie was found they are without defect now next I saw another angel flying in Midheaven with everlasting good news to proclaim to those living on the earth to every nation tribe language and people and an allowed voice he said fear God give him glory for the hour has come when he will pass judgment worship the one who made heaven and earth the sea the springs of water and another angel a second one followed saying she has fallen she has fallen Babel the great she made all the nations drink the wine of God's fury caused by her whoring another angel a third one followed them and said in a loud voice if anyone worships the Beast and its image and receives the mark on his forehead or on his hand he will indeed drink the wine of God's fury poured undiluted into the cup of his rage he will be tormented by fire and sulfur before the holy angels and before the lamb and the smoke from their tormenting goes up forever and ever they have no red day or night those who worship the Beast and His image and those who received the mark of its name this is when perseverance is needed on the part of God's people those who observe his commands and exercise issue as faithfulness next I heard a voice from heaven saying write how blessed are the dead who die United with the Lord from now on yes says the spirit now they may rest from their efforts for the things they have accomplished follow along with them then I looked and there before me was a white cloud and sitting on the cloud was someone like a son of man with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand and another angel came out of the temple and shouted to the one sitting on the cloud start using your sickle to reap because the time to reap has come the Earth's harvest is ripe and the one sitting on the clouds sung his swung his sickle over the earth and the earth was harvested and another angel came out of the temple in heaven and he too had a sharp sickle and then out from the altar went yet another angel who was in charge of the fire and he called an a loud voice to the one with the sharp sickle use your Sharp sickle gathered the clusters of grapes from the earth spine because they are ripe the angel swung his sickle down into the earth gathered the Earth's grapes and he threw them into the great winepress of God's fury and the winepress was trodden outside the city and the blood flowed from the winepress as high as the horses bridles for 200 miles here is an excellent example of the downside of dividing a Bible book into chapters we have concluded chapter 13 taking a deep breath and now we turn the page to chapter 14 with the expectation of starting a new subject however because of the break at the end of chapter 13 we can miss the connection between its last couple of verses and the first verse of chapter 14 let's go back and look at 13 let's go back and look at 13 prints a quick second this is where wisdom is needed those who understand should count the number of the beast for it is the number of a person and his number is 666 there should have been no pause no stop no chapter break and that wasn't the way it was originally we have been discussing the Beast Satan requiring a mark on the foreheads or hands of everyone in the world and the number of the beast name is 666 but immediately Stu start chapter 14 what do we read up we read of the Lamb standing with the 144,000 who God marked on their foreheads to set them apart for himself so we have this intended contrast of the Beast demanding worship or else death versus God setting apart 144,000 who would voluntarily devoted themselves to him by their love we also have God putting a mark on the foreheads of these 144,000 to protect them from evil verses Satan requiring a mark on the foreheads of those who must submit to his evil or they will be denied the basics of life now we have met all of the characters mentioned in this first verse before so their identification has already been established the lamb is Christ the 144,000 are believing Israelites 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel and the father is of course you hope a god but we also now encounter another important term Mount Zion Zion the term Zion is used many times in the Old Testament some count as many as one hundred and fifty five times and it is usually used to refer to the true ideal City of God and at other times to the people living there now the underlying nature of Zion is that it is the name for Jerusalem or a particular piece of geography within Jerusalem that God will rule over after it's been redeemed Psalm 2 which is agreed among Jews and Christians is a messianic Psalm uses the term Zion in a way that kind of helps us grasp its significance in Psalm 2 verses 6 through 8 we read I myself have installed my King on Zion my holy mountain I will proclaim the decree odd and I said to me you are my son today I became your father ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance the whole wide world will be your possession now further in the Old Testament we find the term Mount Zion used 19 times of which 9 directly connect to the surviving remnant of Israel being delivered and redeemed the term only appears seven times in the entire New Testament but five of those are merely quotes from Old Testament passages now interestingly here in chapter 14 is the only mention of Zion in the book of rebel in the New Testament Mount Zion is a place of rejoicing celebrating safety and security the best way for us to look at it is as reflecting the spiritual condition of Jerusalem and then by extension the spiritual condition of the people living there in the latter part of the end times at about the time of the return of Messiah Yeshua an important question to ask here is this are the lamb and the 144,000 standing on Mount Zion in spirit or in physical bodily form now many academics say it has to be in spirit because in their view the 144,000 do not actually represent what chapter 7 says they do 12 named tribes of Israel but rather they represent the Worldwide Church and of course those many hundreds of millions of Gentile believers could never fit into Jerusalem but I take the identification of the 144,000 as believing Israelites literally and there is no reason to think that they're not standing in Jerusalem literally and physically along with a physical Christ and this verse now while I don't want to get into it here and right now clearly Christ the Lamb and the 144,000 were in spirit form and in heaven back in chapter 7 but now they had been returned to Earth to Mount Zion we're told in sickle form and I assume without being dogmatic about it that the physical form that they come in will be superior to the physical form they had at their deaths some Christian commentators refer to this superior physical form as a glorified body term as far as I'm concerned is as good as any to describe what we certainly cannot describe beyond speculation if the lamb and the 144,000 were not actually standing on Mount Zion in some physical form then what we read and the remainder of the chapter makes little sense and so we all are left to interpret its meaning allegorically and that means we can make in nearly anything out of it that our imaginations can produce now while verse one is a scene taking place on planet Earth verse 2 is taking places in heaven because John says the sounds he hears are coming from heaven so there are three sets of sounds that John speaks about first is the sound of rushing water second is the sound appeals of thunder third is the sound of harpists playing their harps in the first chapter of Revelation the son was said to have a voice like rushing waters and later the father was said to have a voice like peals of thunder the 24 Levite elders played harps so we have a concert of joyful noise coming down from heaven celebrating and perhaps announcing the return of Christ in the 144,000 to a redeemed Jerusalem called Zion however let's not jump to conclusions as to who exactly in heaven was singing and playing for one reason the term like is placed before the description of each sound first three says that the song that was being sung was a new song now when we hear of a new song in the Bible these are victory songs concerning momentous events along the timeline of redemption we heard a new song when Moses led the fleeing Israelites across the Red Sea back in Exodus 15 new songs are sung in several Psalms including 33 4096 and others in Revelation chapter 5 there was a new song for the Lamb who was worthy to open the scroll with seven seals and another new song for the overcomers and conquerors in Revelation chapter 7 now with this new song of Revelation chapter 14 and the reappearance of Christ on earth yet another critical milestone of redemption has arrived whomever is making those sounds were making them from before the throne of God and before the four living beings and before the elders so none of these were making those sounds but rather other spiritual beings were the source even more notice that although we're told that this that there was a new song unlike the other new songs in the Bible where were given their content of that song in this case we're not the song itself has left a mystery and verse 3 says that only that 144,000 are able to discern it interesting now verses 3 through 5 give give us a partial description perhaps maybe a better list of attributes of this group of 144 first it says they've been ransomed from the world second they have not defiled themselves with women third they are virgins fourth they follow the lamb Christ wherever he goes fifth they have been ransomed from among humankind as firstfruits for God sixth no lie was found on their lips seventh they are without defect now of course the first thing to notice is exactly seven attributes are listed and seven is the ideal number and the number of wholeness and completion so these 144,000 even though they're human are now whole and perfected in the father's eyes now while we believers who are alive are to strive for perfection and if we allow it we will go through a process of being perfected we'll never achieve wholeness or perfection on this earth because we still wear these corruptible bodies of flesh but these 144,000 left those corruptible bodies behind when they died and went to heaven but have now returned to Zion in incorruptible bodies now the first attribute of the hundred and forty-four thousand which is being ransomed from the world says simply that these are believers they trusted they acted in faith believing that the blood shed by Yeshua redeemed them the second attribute is a more difficult one to discern what does it mean they were not defiled by women in no way does contact with a woman defile a male unless it is illicit contact and besides in that case both male and female because defiled I'm not gonna go through the list of possibilities that a number of scholars offer but rather I'm gonna offer you the explanation that I feel confident in for those who followed Torah class and seed of Abraham fellowship you know that I've spoken on many occasions about holy war and that the coming war of Armageddon is but the continuation of the holy war that was initiated by God when he fought Pharaoh for the possession of God's chosen people the Israelites so when Israel went into the land of Canaan it would involve a holy war for the land and so a number of holy war rules were set down by the Lord one of the most interesting of those rules was the law of her em in English the law of the ban whereby the spoils of holy war belong to God not to the Israelites themselves the spoils were often turned over to God by destroying those confiscated objects even including people but a second fascinating holy war rule involved the soldiers Deuteronomy chapter 20 in chapter 23 gives us these rules and regulations the prophet Samuel adds a few more in first samuel 21 and in second samuel 11 a couple of these rules that directly impact this statement about the 144,000 having not been defiled by women were spoken by samuel now in this first example david is on the run from king Saul and he arrives at the tabernacle he needs food for his men so he gets into this conversation with the priest that's on duty there it's done first samuel 21 verses five and six so the : the priest answered David I don't have any regular bread however there is consecrated bread bread but only if the guards have abstained from women and David answered the priest of course women have been kept away from us as on previous campaigns whenever I go out on campaign the men's gears clean even if it's an ordinary trip how much more than today when they will be putting something consecrated in their packs the second statement in Samuel has to do with King David's adulterous affair with Bathsheba married at the time by the way to Oriya who was perhaps David's greatest most loyal general we find this in 2nd Samuel 11 verses 9 through 11 but aurilla slept at the door of the king's palace with all the servants of his lord and did not go down to his house and when they told David Oread didn't go down to his house David said to Oriya haven't you just arrived from a journey why don't you go down to your house and Oriya answer David the ark Israel and Judah stay in tents and my lord yo ah've and the servants of my lord are campaigning in the countryside so should I go into my house to eat and drink and go to bed with my wife as surely as you live I would not do such a thing so a Hebrew soldier anticipating battle was not to have intimate relations with his wife the night before the battle and depending on the situation may be up to several days before the battle see it's not that women were ritually unclean rather it is that since there's a divine commandment against having sexual relations with a woman before battle than to disobey it means that that soldier has defiled himself with a woman but for a few notable exceptions all the wars that Israel fought were holy wars so this rule was in play so now now this explains the third attribute of the 144,000 that they are called virgins the first thing we think of when we hear the term virgin is of course of a female who's not had intimate relations with a man although the term applies just as well to a man who has never had indifferent relations with a woman however the term has other uses first and foremost it is used in the Bible to mean ritually pure so these 144,000 are ritually pure soldiers virgins for Christ the fourth attribute of following Christ wherever he goes reminds us of the four living beings in heaven that follow God wherever he goes so these 144,000 are soldiers who are meant not only to fight but to protect the fifth attribute of being the firstfruits among humanity for God has to be taken in a similar sense as Paul meant it when in Romans 16 in 1st Corinthians 16 he uses the term to mean the first to join the Assembly of Christ followers the law of Moses requires that the first fruits of all produced must be given to God Jeremiah 2 says that Israel is the first fruits for God and Jeremiah 2:1 begins the word of autumn I came to me go on shout in the ears of yerushalaim that this is what ad and I says I remember your devotion when you were young how as a bride you loved me how you followed me through the desert through a land not sown Israel is set side pradhan i the firstfruits of his harvest all who do who devour him incur guilt evil will befall them says that and I so Israel as first fruits fits perfectly with the 144,000 who are said to be from where the twelve tribes of Israel now the sixth attribute is they do not lie or better considering the context they express no deceit no falsehood this needs to be taken as connected to the seventh attribute which is that they're without defect or better their unblemished that's a better word to use unblemished and isaiah 53 one of the most astounding prophecies the speaks of the Messiah and his arrest and his death in verse 9 of Isaiah 53 we read this beginning of verse 8 after forcible arrest and sentencing he was taken away and none of his generation protested his being cut off from the land of the living for the crimes of my people who deserved the punishment themselves he was given a grave among the wicked in his death he was a rich man although he had done no violence and he had said nothing deceptive see when this passage speaks of Christ not being deceptive it is highly likely that it means it is in terms of not giving people false prophecies or false teachings because we find this same notion spoken of among the prophets Isaiah Jeremiah and Zechariah so there is this close relationship between uttering no false prophecy no false teaching and being unblemished now being unblemished is a term directly related to the Levitical laws concern ritual sacrifice neither could a blimp priest offer a sacrifice nor could a blemished offering be used so the relationship between the sixth and the seventh attributes of the hundred and forty-four thousand most likely is that because they spoke no false prophecies they did not become ritually blemished by acting Wibbly against the covenant is explained back in Daniel chapter 11 so this information adds to the great length that this passage here in Revelation goes to in order to depict this 144,000 that have just arrived back to Planet Earth at Mount Zion with their leader the lamb as being all of them whole complete and ritually pure according to the law we're gonna pick up with first six of Revelation chapter 14 next week [Music] yes [Music] you you

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Keywords: New Jerusalem, Son, Holy Spirit, Father, New Testament, John, Armageddon, Coming quickly, Millennium Reign, Seven Churches, Second Death, Tom Bradford, Jerusalem, Bible Study, Streets of Gold, Torah Class, Revelation

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Length: 50min 15sec (3015 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 29 2019