Revelation NOW: Episode 1 "Revelation's Coming Rapture" with Doug Batchelor

hi friends would you like to hear an amazing fact experts estimate that in the last 40 years technology of humanity has accelerated more than in all of the history of mankind combined now you notice i said technology not wisdom unfortunately during the same period of time man's consumption of earth's natural resources has tripled from 22 billion tons to 77 billion tons that's the iron and the coal and the lumber and the fuel makes you wonder what the world will look like in about 10 more years stay with us and we'll find out on this presentation of revelation now [Music] good evening friends welcome to revelation now everything is about to change i'd like to welcome you to this live interactive international bible study where we are going to be looking at some of the most important and fascinating prophecies found in the bible my name is john ross and i'll be your host for this journey into bible prophecy now we do have some announcements that we'd like to bring to your attention first of all this is live right now so if you have a friend and you think they'll be blessed by this program go ahead and text them right now and tell them go to revelation now and they can participate in this live bible prophecy seminar we also have some supplemental material that we'd like to tell you about if you go to the revelation now website there is a lesson that goes along with our study for tonight it's called the return of the king and that is available for free you just download it at revelationnow.com we're also translating this presentation live into spanish and if you'd like to get the spanish translation you'll find that at revelation now spanish website also amazing facts latino facebook page and also amazing facts latino youtube channel we're also translating for the deaf we have sign language for this program and to get more information about that just go to revelation now and it'll give you instructions if you'd like to get that now as mentioned this is a live interactive bible study and so after the presentation this evening pastor doug is going to be taking some bible questions and we're wanting to hear from you so if you have a bible related question maybe dealing with the subject that we're going to be studying tonight or just maybe a bible question in general if you're watching on facebook you can just type your bible question in there and they'll send it to us and we'll try to answer as many of these questions as possible as we make our way through the program tonight's presentation is entitled revelations coming rapture and we have a free offer that goes along with our study and if you'd like to receive this all you need to do is uh text the word clouds to the number 40544 and you'll be able to get a digital download of the book and you'll be able to read it again just text the word clouds to five four four if you're outside of north america go to the revelation now website click on free offers and you'll be able to download the book anything but secret now our speaker for the series is pastor doug batchelor president of amazing facts and uh we're just so delighted to have pastor doug lead us in our bible study together pastor doug is known and loved by millions of people around the world for his engaging style spontaneous humor and clear presentations of bible truth pastor doug knows the power of the word of god it's changed his life and he has seen it change the lives of millions so we're just so excited to have past the doug lead us in our bible study so pass it out come on up and we'll get right to our study of tonight's presentation now um pastor doug as we prepared for this series the word revelation now the title of the series what inspired you to come up with that title and why do you think this presentation is so timely well it's really a rhetorical question pastor ross i think a lot of people are asking you know this uh this year 2020 there haven't been too many years like this where you have the uh the global pandemic and there's just you know political polarization and social unrest and natural disasters and everyone is wondering not to mention the economic gyrations everyone's wondering is this it and is this the end how much longer can the world last and they're searching the bible and we want to encourage people to look in the right place for the answers so hence the the name and this presentation now of course we understand the bible is god's inspired book and in order for us to correctly understand it we need the holy spirit to guide us so very appropriate to begin this program with the word of prayer and let's just pray dear father we are so grateful for your word we are grateful for the opportunity that we have to open up the bible and thank you for the freedoms that you've given us to study this precious word of truth so bless our time together this evening for we ask this in jesus name amen amen thank you pastor ross and you'll be seeing pastor ross again before too long because at the conclusion of this first segment of the presentation we're going to be taking your bible questions as you mentioned and so i just stay tuned for that you know this is such an important subject right now with everything we see happening in the world people are wondering what's coming and just to give people a little feel for the unrest and the in the broad spectrum of ideas that are going on out there regarding the last days bible subjects the coming of the lord we actually had our media crew go out on the street in a number of america's major cities and just stop random people and ask them some bible questions i think you're going to find this interesting do i believe the world will end i mean probably at some point but not any anytime soon the whole pandemic definitely shows that uh biological uh diseases could like somehow affect our world but at the same time i also believe the economic disasters that might happen from that might create like a turmoil in the world but i don't know man i'm kind of like into conspiracies too so i think we're close but no one knows uh i don't think the world is gonna end anytime soon so i prefer not to think about that how do i think the world will end is probably by the hands of humans uh we've had more wars kill people than any sort of natural cause i think it will more than likely be a cataclysmic event that is man-made like a meteorite like a meteorite that's what i think i think it will end because maybe like too much pollutants you know but i think it'll just turn like disgusting i think the world is going to end by everyone or like a vast majority of people turning against the word of god and uh just doing terrible things like kind of what's going on right now so some natural disaster either a comet hitting us or because the ozone layer has completely deteriorized and we got burned up by sun they say the world would be just like the time of noah when christ comes it's going to be all kind of ungodly things going on in the world at the second coming well i definitely know he's coming back and it says in revelation if you would read that about his second coming now i have to agree with that last citizen who said if you look in the book of revelation it talks about the second coming and that's going to be our presentation for tonight we want to dive right into the book of revelation our lesson again is going to be called revelations coming rapture and we're going to be exploring a couple of things one talking about the nearness of the lord's coming and then in the second half we'll be talking a little bit about the how of he's coming because we don't want to be deceived in that category either you know most of the people in north america about 52 percent when they were interviewed and i believe it was a barna uh poll they said that they believe that jesus is going to come within the next 50 years very likely was the the comment and so people are thinking that something is coming you know i believe it's interesting that a few years ago a national geographic had a program called doomsday preppers and uh people were very intrigued and it was between i think 2014 and 2011 and it was a lot of you know blue-collar people that were saying they thought that the apocalypse was going to happen or because of social unrest or a tsunami or something they just wanted to be prepared and they went to great lengths and i think some people sort of laughed at people that were involved in this fringe mentality but you know friends it's not the fringe anymore now it is the billionaires it is thinking people and educated people that are preparing for some catastrophe if you go out in the midwest south dakota there's one entrepreneur who has leased 575 ammunition bunkers from the government and then they're renting them out twenty five thousand dollars a piece plus a thousand dollars a year and you have to outfit yours yourself and a lot of people are doing it they take these concrete reinforced bunkers and they turn them into very comfortable condos that's basically like a submarine that's sealed off from civilization that's a pretty high price tag but something that was even more interesting i saw that in las vegas a realtor was advertising a subterranean bunker home fifteen thousand square feet eighteen million dollars and basically they had built a cavern down in the ground reinforced concrete and there was a five 000 square foot home in the middle of the cavern with an artificial outdoor experience around it with a pool and fountains and murals that were drawn showing the woods and the lighting on the woods would change for dawn to dusk from night to day to give you the feeling that you were really outside when you're not very far from downtown las vegas down in the ground and i guess somebody built it so someone has money because they think something catastrophic is coming you know during the recent pandemic there was um a lot of billionaires that fled to new zealand and i heard about one new yorker who went to his his doomsday bunker and he couldn't get the door open he had to call the manufacturer to find out how to get in a number of them flew their private planes to new zealand to their various properties and their shelters because they really wondered what the world was coming to another entrepreneur bought decommissioned missile silos from the government in kansas now you know what a skyscraper is skyscraper of course goes up in the air these are called earth scrapers because they go down in the ground 23 stories and they're building all these different floors with apartments that are selling for three million dollars a piece and they've got a dental clinic and they've got apartments and they've got a swimming pool and they've got underground gardens and everything you might think you'd need to survive in a situation like that but i don't know if you can afford that but some people must be believing that we are nearing the end of time or they wouldn't go to that that kind of length so what what is happening friends uh does the bible say that jesus is coming again well the central focus of this seminar is going to be dealing with the book of revelation and i'm just going to take you on a quick view through a number of verses in revelation to show you that we're going to be emphasizing something that jesus emphasizes for example and by the way in this seminar for my benefit as much as everyone else i sort of use the socratic method of i read it as a question and then i look in the bible for an answer it helps us learn and remember when you do it that way so the first question what is one of the central teachings in the book of revelation answer he says behold he is coming in the clouds and every eye will see him even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him even so amen that's revelation 1 verse 7. let's go to revelation 14 14. i looked and behold a white cloud and upon it sat one like unto the son of man having on his head a golden crown this is a picture of jesus coming in the clouds you go to revelation 22 last chapter in the bible behold i'm coming quickly blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book revelation is an interesting book in that it begins with a blessing on those who keep and read and hear the things that are written therein it ends with a curse upon anyone who dares to change anything in the book now look in revelation 22 12 and behold i am coming quickly my reward is with me to give to every man according to his work and then you go to the last verses in revelation revelation 22 verse 20 he who testifies to these things says surely i am coming quickly amen even so come lord jesus so how can we think that the coming of the lord is not a priority in the bible when you see this kind of emphasis and keep in mind if you look in the first chapter of revelation some of your bibles will say the revelation of saint john because john did have a revelation of vision but it's really not the revelation of john the first verse says the revelation of jesus this is a revelation from jesus and look at the emphasis that jesus is giving us i'm coming again i'm coming again i'm coming again now when he said he would come the first time as our sacrifice did he come it was later than some people would think but he did come and now he says i'm coming again why would we doubt that he's going to come again and so friends we want to know is he coming soon we don't know when he's coming for you everyone needs to be ready but we want to know something about how he's coming so we're not deceived and most importantly how we can be ready out of the 404 verses that you find in revelation 278 can be found almost word for word other places in the bible so i want you to know right now that in order to understand the last book in the bible this book of prophecy you need to know something about the other books in the bible so we're going to be looking at other companion books like the book of daniel in the old testament and ezekiel and zachariah a number of these apocalyptic prophecies and other places in the bible and that's really the key because revelation is a mosaic of different books of the bible and the whole plan of salvation and so i think you're going to be amazed as you participate in the seminar keep in mind this is the first in a series of presentations there will be another one tomorrow night and sequentially through the week so stay tuned you're going to enjoy this series very much second question what can we know about the time of jesus return now this is a sensitive question because as soon as you talk about the time of christ coming someone is always tempted to say oh are you going to set a date the bible warns us against doing that it says of that day and hour knows no man this is jesus speaking not even the angels of heaven but my father only and some have asked does that mean that jesus doesn't know when he's coming well he knows now but when he was on earth as a man he did not walk the earth with all the knowledge of the cosmos swimming in his head and he said that don't let anyone tell you i've calculated the date i know when it's happening a number of people have said they've figured out the day and the hour so far they've all been wrong you know one individual who got quite a little bit of press a few years ago harold camping one of the founders of family radio a nice radio station but he began setting a firm date of may 21 2011 for the second coming and um a lot of people got so excited about it they sold their property they began to give away material and warn everybody others were heading to the hills for their fallout shelters and then when it doesn't happen it creates a great doubt in the word of god so jesus warned us against setting a date for his coming he said we need to be ready all the time because as soon as our heart stops beating or we stop breathing your next conscious thought is a resurrection in the presence of the lord so you need to be ready jesus said all the time but he also wants us to know in the scope of history something about the nearness of his coming that's why jesus gives us a number of signs we don't know the day in the hour we can't set a date but he said when you see all these things know that it is near we can know when it is near and i believe the lord wants us to know that and by the way based on the signs i believe it is near let me get you to consider something there is in the bible uh several epochs of time you have about 2000 years biblically from the time of adam creation up to the time of abraham now this anyone can calculate this their ages are all given right there in the bible you just can add them up adam was born approximately 4000 bc that's approximate we don't know the exact date part of the confusion is because it says noah had shem ham and japheth and it doesn't tell us exactly when they're all born but this is about 2 000 years from adam to abraham then you've got 2 000 years from abraham to jesus first coming then you've got 2 000 years from jesus first coming to our day and then if you read in the book of revelation it says in chapter 20 verse 4 they live and reign with christ for a thousand years there's a seven thousand year period for a total of about seven thousand years now god through the bible seems to work in cycles of seven the world was created in six days then he added one for rest which is the sabbath day and a total of seven and then the bible says a day with the lord is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day that's second peter chapter three and so many have wondered about this great weak millennial week of time i did not invent this a number of historians and bible scholars have wondered about this where you've got roughly 2 000 years which is the age of the patriarchs then you have abraham comes he's the father of jews two thousand years from abraham to christ christ then becomes really the the his birth and sacrifices the birth of the church then you get two thousand years from the time of christ to our present day and jesus said except those days be shortened no flesh would be saved so we see how things are accelerating in time and many are wondering then we spend a thousand years living and reigning with christ during the millennium it's like a thousand year sabbath and so some are wondering if this is giving us a template for how close to the end we are third question what are some of the specific signs of the nearness of jesus return okay take a deep breath fasten your seatbelt because we're going to go through quite a few signs before we get to the next question and so stay with me here we're going to look at a number now probably it would be a good idea at this point to open our bible if you have one with you you're welcome to join me going to matthew chapter 24 and in matthew 24 the disciples come to jesus and they're asking lord tell us what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the world when will these things be and so he sort of co-mingles his answer and i'm just going to start with verse 4 and jesus answered and said to them take heed that no one deceives you for many will come in my name saying i am christ and will deceive many and you'll hear of wars and rumors of wars see that you be not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there will be famines pestilence earthquakes in various places all these are the beginning of sorrows then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake and then many will be offended and betray one another and hate one another and many false prophets will rise up and deceive many and because lawlessness will abound the love of many will grow cold but he that endures to the end will be saved and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come you know i've just got to pause right there and tell your friends i i don't remember pastor ross mentioned that right now we've got over 40 000 individuals and groups that are signed up for this seminar not to mention a thousand unique churches we want to thank our friends on three abn who are broadcasting this is going out on facebook and youtube af tv and all these different venues all around the world right now and we are one of thousands of ministries so i think we're living in the generation that can see the fulfillment of this the gospel being preached in all the world all right well jesus gave us a number of signs there he said there's going to be wars and rumors of wars there'll be political instability and even in the last 24 hours political leaders were debating north korea and missile tests in iran getting nuclear missiles and people are very concerned that they have not uh decommissioned all the nuclear missiles fact of history is man has never made a weapon that he did not use and so if time goes on long enough people are really concerned that either through accident folly or madness there's going to be a nuclear incident i don't mean a reactor meltdown maybe a missile launching against another country and so there's that concern not to mention that uh there's a lot of problems with war here's a little amazing fact the world spends over a hundred million dollars an hour on soldiers ammunition and war machines now i'm hoping that during the last few months with everyone distracted by this pandemic that they've they've scaled back a little bit on the necessity to manufacture war machines but typically these are the numbers people invest so much in war and it seems like there's always a war going on somewhere last century between world war 1 and world war ii there's like 75 million people died and over 100 million if you include the sickness and the famines that followed the war natural disasters and jesus said we just read it there'll be earthquakes in diverse places and hurricanes we've seen it's people are saying it's global warming because everyone wonders what is causing this change in the environment where it seems like the storms are getting more frequent and more intense and then of course i mentioned the earthquakes as well national earthquake information center between 2004 and 2014 18 earthquakes with a magnitude of over 8.0 or more rattled subduction zones around the globe that's an increase of 265 over the average rate of the previous century now earthquake waves seem to go like this but they seem to be going up some argue well it's just because we've got better sensing equipment right now but i'll tell you the whole world knew about that earthquake in 2004 that took 235 000 lives these are major events the tsunami in japan the 7.0 earthquake in haiti and so we are seeing what i believe is an acceleration of the whole creation groaning and travailing in labor because of what's happening and here in california and on the west coast even now as we speak in colorado we've never seen a season like this for fire now you run out of expertise to talk about it our family was on the front uh lines of watching this unfold the 2020 fire season has already taken a disastrous toll combined over six million acres have burned in california oregon and washington so far thousands of buildings have been destroyed by some of the largest fires ever recorded we've broken almost every record there is to break and that's from the new york times and as i mentioned uh in august we were standing on our front yard overlooking the mountains of the mendocino forest we saw the lightning strike and it began those fires that grew into the largest fire in california's history indeed i think now it's the largest in the lower 48. over 1 million 30 1 million 30 000 acres were burned the fire line was 500 miles long you can understand why those poor firefighters were so exhausted mrs batchelor and i just drove through that forest after they got the fire out and the devastation is just absolutely amazing the planet cannot continue to experience these kinds of events without something cracking somewhere half of the world's wildlife has been lost in the past 40 years this is a report that was given in 2006 by national geographic and you think about that 52 percent of the world's not wildlife being wiped out in this period of time is absolutely stunning when you consider it and i remember when we first moved to the hills 40 years ago in northern california you'd sometimes see herds with 20 30 deer going off you see three or four you get excited things have changed i remember reading just uh one more point on that reading lewis and clark when they crossed the united states they said they had to wait a day and a half for a herd of buffalo to cross a river they had to wait a day and a half for one herd to cross the river millions of animals they said one day they watched the sky was darkened by flocks of birds for hours and so we're seeing that things are changing now notice this verse this is in revelation revelation 11 verse 18 the nations were angry and your wrath has come and the time of the dead that they should be judged notice and should destroy those who destroy the earth now this is unusual because when these words were written man did not have the technology to destroy the earth you can beat your sword against the ground and throw spears at a rock all for years it's not going to destroy the earth it's only in the last hundred years when we got beyond cannonballs to chemicals and nuclear weapons man now has the ability to destroy the earth and little by little uh it's happening and so that's why jesus said unless those days be shortened no flesh would be saved jesus has to come soon friends and then this year you know one of the things christ said and there'll be plagues well this year we've seen not the deadliest plague i mean you've got the bubonic plague and then you've got the spanish flu they were very deadly and the h1n1 but it is a very serious plague that the whole world is engaged in trying to prevent you know a very intense spread it's not even the spread now just the trying to what do they say flatten the curve so the hospitals aren't totally overwhelmed by it and find some cure for it but do we have to wonder was jesus right would there be plagues and pandemics in the last days we're seeing it fill the headlines every day now another sign we did not just specifically read this in matthew 24 but jesus when talking about the second coming he said as it was in the days of noah so will it be in the days of the coming of the son of man one of our men on the street interviews referred to that what was it like in the days of noah the bible tells us that violence filled the earth that the thoughts of men's hearts were only evil continually here's some report on violence the city of chicago has surpassed 500 homicides in 2020 this is in september i believe exceeding last year's total with one third of the year to go chicago police department not only is it a problem with violence and we've seen violence on the news and in the cities and it's just uh very disconcerting jesus also said there'd be a problem with immorality in the last days people losing natural affection and normal moral guidelines of what's appropriate the porno plague i i just regret even reading some of these statistics but according to some research it says 12 of all internet websites are pornographic 35 of all internet downloads are pornographic and content 25 of online search engine requests are related to sex resulting in 68 million requests a day 40 million americans consider themselves regular visitors to porn sites the average age of first exposure is 11 years old 90 percent of boys 60 of girls are exposed to the internet porn by the age of 18. 20 of mobile device searches are for porn 56 of divorces involve one usually the man of the spouse's being involved in porn uh friends this is an epidemic that is just plaguing our society and uh you know people don't want to talk about it because it's not pleasant but jesus said it would be one of the signs of the ends there'd be immorality and you know i want to be honest with the bible i don't want to be insensitive i think jesus loves everybody but the bible's pretty clear that god designed men to be men women to be women and his plan is one man for one woman but you look at what's happened in the culture these days jesus said you can't escape this in luke 17 28 and verse 30 likewise also as it was in the days of lot even thus shall it be in the day when the son of man is revealed i don't know if i need to go into detail about what the problems were in a lot with sodom and gomorrah but i think it was billy graham that said either god's going to apologize to simon and gomorrah or the world's in trouble and you can go on and yup there it goes there there's the verse jude 1 verse 7 sodom and gomorrah having given themselves over to sexual immorality and going after strange flesh are set forth as an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire right something else to consider when you're thinking about the age in which we're living is overpopulation now i think that this is uh an amazing fact it took approximately five thousand years for the world to get the first billion people then it only took 130 years to get the second billion people it only took 30 years to get the third billion 15 years to get the fourth billion now we are pushing towards eight billion people this graph i think says that shortly after 2025 we're gonna have nine billion people and at the same time farmable land is not being gained it's being lost i read that america is losing about five acres of farmable land a minute because of the sprawl of the cities and and other problems with pollution and so when you have that many more people being developed and food production possibilities going down you know you've got two trains on the same track that are heading towards each other something is going to give now this for me i think was a fascinating sign the increase in knowledge look here we're going to read this and then we'll back up and look at it point by point daniel chapter 12 verse 4. it's a companion book to revelation but you daniel shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end what is this dealing with time of the end many will run to and fro and knowledge will be increased and let's look at the first part of that many will run to and fro you've got to admit it friends this generation we're living in now is the jet-setting generation we are traveling more now than ever before in the history of man now i think this verse also means many will run to and fro through the word of god and they're going to come to a knowledge of the truth but just on the surface i mean it used to take months to get from the east coast of the u.s to the west coast they had to go around south america many didn't survive the voyage and now they're developing supersonic airplanes again to replace the concorde it's just it's absolutely amazing how frequently and how fast people are traveling here's the national geographic july 2006 people are traveling far from home more than ever before in human history if that was true then how much more true is it now i know one uh one old-timer that lived by us up in the hills in the mountains and uh he grew up on a farm he said he never went to town till he was 7 years old he lived 30 miles from the ocean finally some neighbors took him to see the ocean for the first time when he was 70 years of age i think he lived over 80 actually but he said wow that's a lot of water never seen the ocean hadn't gone 30 miles to see the ocean and knowledge will increase daniel said well friends has knowledge increased you know right now in the same way that john kennedy challenged america to see if we could get to the moon our current president is challenge america to see if we get to mars and you know what if they had enough time i believe it would happen we've already got several landers up there but look at all of the different inventions in the last century that have totally altered humanity automobile airplane radio television smartphone moon landing hearing aids pacemakers my favorite is the electric hairdryer but uh you know what can you imagine right now if you could take the apostle paul and pull out your smart phone and say i'm going to google whatever you want to know and all the knowledge of planet earth is there at your fingertips just think about that kids are growing up with it now you know i remember when you have to get a book out and search through the index to find the right encyclopedia to find a little bit of information and it could take you 20 minutes to find the resource knowledge has exploded and here's one of my favorite the gospel of the kingdom matthew 24 14 will be preached in all the world for a witness unto the nations and notice what jesus says then the end might come could come may come no he said it will come it shall come it is a definitive statement of jesus now i want to insert a little story here to tell you why this excites me amazing facts travels all over the world and doing the gospel and we've been to just about every continent i think except antarctica and a few years ago i think 2017 karen and i and our crew were in new guinea we were doing some public meetings and we said let's go out in the jungle and see if we can get some good footage of some of the just the native homes and so we drove by and we saw this uh this grass hut and a beautiful garden we said uh through our translator speaking in pigeon would the owner's mind if we jumped out and took a few pictures so he talked to him they said no fine so we hopped out of the car and we walked over and the lady who you see in the middle there her face dropped and her mouth dropped and her eyes got big and i thought there was a ghost behind me i didn't know what happened and then she started to jabber very excitedly to the translator and he said she has been watching your programs on tv for years and had no idea you would show up in her front yard and she was so excited uh we gave her a big hug and took a picture with her and had prayer with the family and then we went to our meetings and we were amazed we had a hundred and fifty thousand people that came to the main service during that weekend and they had been watching the programs i mean it's amazing as we travel around around the world we'll go to africa where people don't have a home to live in but they have a smartphone and they can not all smartphones but they get phones and they text and they're listening to uh what's whatsapp sermons and they're they're studying the bible with people and the gospel is going all over the world we've been in the middle east and people have they're living in tents and they've got antennas sticking up out of the tent and the goats are coming in and out of the tent they got satellite we've seen all across india people they're living under tarps and they got a satellite dish honest and so the gospel through modern technology like what's happening right now is going to the world what did jesus say then the end will come all right i told you it'd be a while before i get to question number five we're going to talk now not only about the nearness of jesus coming but how he's coming you know it there's a popular series of books called the left behind series written by tim lahaye a good man but i would have to respectfully disagree with his scenario of how he portrays the events connected with the second coming it's really a new teaching there's basically three different primary views regarding prophecy you've got what they call futurism preterism historicism all of the old reformers believe that the coming of the lord would be very literal and the tribulation would happen before the lord came and in the left behind scenario they've got the rapture takes place and then you've got the tribulation and then there's a smaller group that's called mid-trib they believe the tribute or the rapture takes place in the middle of the tribulation i believe they're good christians on all sides and so i want to make that clear but i'd like to share with you from the bible why we believe that the tribulation happens before the rapture now that's important to know if i'm wrong i get to heaven i'll apologize but if i'm right a lot of people are going to be surprised because they think that we're going to be raptured before things get difficult and they've not braced themselves to endure unto the end that they might be saved so let's look at some scriptures number four first of all we don't believe that rapture is a secret rapture you've probably heard that term where people are walking down the street and you're talking to somebody and they're saved and you're not in poof they disappear the clothes are on the ground and cars go careening off the road and planes fall out of the sky because the pilot was a christian and maybe pilot ankle pilot they disappear no one's in the lock cockpit of the plane and so i don't believe the bible tells us the second coming is quiet or secret notice will jesus come quietly first thessalonians 4 16 for the lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and the trump of god shout voice trump that sounds noisy jeremiah 25 30 the lord shall roar from on high and utter his voice from his holy habitation he shall mightily roar upon his habitation he will give a shout in psalm 50 verse 3 our god will come and shall not keep silent and it will be very tempestuous round about him he's talking about his coming with a tempest and some will say well that's that's after the secret rapture keep watching friends i think you'll see for jesus said speaking of his return for as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west so also will the coming of the son of man be well i've been in lightning storms before where especially if you're out on the plains where there's no mountains to block the horizon they have these massive lightning storms that just span the sky and you can close your eyes you can still see it flash you can cover your eyes you can see it flash i've had my head under the pillow and i could feel when the lightning flashed because then you hear the thunder four or five seconds later and the brightest light they had said it's going to be bright it's going to be loud the day of the lord will come as a thief in the night ah now someone is saying see that there you go pastor doug jesus is coming quietly like a thief read the whole verse and tell me if you think that he comes as a thief and leaves and it sounds quiet or that life goes on for another seven years after he comes like a thief notice ii peter 3 verse 10 the day of the lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great what great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up does it sound like life's going on here on earth when jesus comes like a thief no you need to be ready before jesus comes like a thief why does he use that term coming like a thief i don't like to say too much the first night but i've not always been a christian and one of my former occupations i was a thief i mean i broke into people's houses and i stole things i stole cars and uh when i came i never sent an announcement and said i'm coming the idea was to come secretly when they weren't expecting it and that's what jesus is saying it's going to be unexpected christ said in such an hour as you think not the son of man is coming i remember we did a seminar like this in new york city in 1999 just before the year 2000 everybody had millennial y2k fever and they said how jesus is coming soon i said i don't think so i said wow how can you say that i said because everybody thinks he's coming when he he said i'm coming in an hour you think not and that's at least one prediction i got right question five what other physical evidence will accompany jesus return and there was a great earthquake such as was not since men were upon the earth so mighty an earthquake and so great now this is an earthquake where it says mountains are moved out of their place this is not like you know six or seven on the richter scale it's like 25 on the richter scale so who will see jesus when he returns does he suddenly disappear and nobody sees it let's read it matthew 24 30 then shall appear the sign of the son of man in the heavens then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they will see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory you can also read in revelation 1 verse 7 behold he's coming with the clouds and every eye will see him and then again acts chapter 1 verse 9 he's going to leave the way he returned matter of fact i would like to turn there quickly if you've got your bibles i've got a lot of scriptures on the screen but some of them will read right here acts 1 and i'm going to go to verse 9. it says when he had spoken these words jesus gave the final last blessing and commission he ascends up to heaven while they watched he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight and while they looked steadfastly towards heaven as he went up behold two men stood by them in white apparel who said men of galilee why do you stand here gazing up into the heavens this same jesus who was taken from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven did they see him go yes could they hear him he spoke to him yes was he real yes he did he leave in the clouds yes he's going to come in the clouds we will hear him come he will be real when he comes back it's not going to be a phantom it's not going to be something you'll read about the next day in the paper when jesus comes the whole world is going to know about it so number seven who will be with jesus when he returns in the clouds you can read this in matthew 25 31 when the son of man shall come in his glory and all how many all of the holy angels with him by the way i want to welcome our studio audience we've got a smattering of dedicated people scattered safely here just so you know i just needed some visual support to have real bodies when i preach it says he's going to come with all the angels now how impactful will that be a couple of stories bible tells us that at one point when the army of judea and the city of jerusalem was surrounded hezekiah prayed and one angel went out to fight against the assyrian army and 185 000 soldiers enemy soldiers were killed one angel when jesus was resurrected there was a contingent of roman soldiers guarding the body and one angel came and the glory of that one angel they fell down as though they were dead from the glory of that angel so what will it be like when jesus comes with all the angels how many angels are there well if everybody's got a guardian angel and there's eight billion people almost in the world and maybe there's also a recording angel and jesus let's just say he has a few spares there's billions of angels can you imagine the glory of what it's going to be like when jesus comes with billions of angels and it says he's coming in the glory of the father on the right hand of power that's what he said to the high priest at his trial will someone need to elbow you and say did you get that well jesus just came everybody's going to know when jesus comes it's the most visual powerful event in the bible what will the brightness of jesus coming do to the living wicked you can read in 2 thessalonians 1 verse 7 then the lord jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not god and then that lawless one will be revealed whom the lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming so when he comes that brilliance is going to destroy the the wicked and of course the antichrist power as well what will happen to the righteous who are dead in jesus coming so we're going step by step this is i think a very powerful verse you read here in first thessalonians 4 16 the dead in christ will rise first it says the lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout the voice of the archangel the trump of god and the dead in christ will rise so there's a resurrection taking place that's not all the dead the dead in christ rise first and you can also read in question number 10. at this point what happens to the living resurrected saints when jesus comes it says the dead will be raised incorruptible and we will be changed so the dead in christ they rise they're caught up to meet the lord in the air by the way this is the rapture the word rapture means to be caught up with the glory and the power of the lord and it says they're raised and then we are caught up to meet them in the air it says and we're changed they're raised with glorified bodies we then are transformed in the blink of an eye we go from mortal to immortal from corruptable to incorruption this corruption corruptable must put on incorruption this mortal will put on immortality then we are alive and remain will be caught up together with them the resurrected saints in the clouds to meet the lord in the air now let's review what we just looked at about the second coming and let's decide was this secret it says it's literal it's personal it's visible it's audible it's physical it's vitalizing it's glorious it's climatic i think when jesus comes everybody's gonna know friends and it doesn't sound to me like life goes on for seven more years now in other studies i hope you keep coming we're going to give you more information on how the tribulation and this time of trouble and the beast power all falls into the scenario yes this series we're going to talk about 666 we're going to be talking about heaven we're going to talk about the other place we're going to talk about everything that's in revelation not everything but the majority of the points all right and you know i thought it was interesting that dr tim lahaye was very honest he admits in his book no fear of the storm page 188 there is no single verse that specifically states christ will come before the tribulation and i appreciate his honesty on that question 11 what solemn warning does jesus give us about his second coming we just read this there will come many in his name saying i am christ and deceive many and we know there's been some high profile dangerous people like jim jones and marshall applewhite and i understand that the russians recently arrested a gentleman who says that he is the reincarnation of jesus and he's got the whole commune of followers they've got another one in brazil i don't know his name but they keep popping up it's been happening for years that people come along this i am christ i'm not as worried uh as dangerous as it is i'm not as worried about some people who are unbalanced that say i'm jesus some people say i'm cleopatra napoleon but when satan seeks to impersonate christ that's going to be exceedingly an effective deception jesus said if it were possible even the very elect would be deceived that's why we've got to be rooted in the word there's going to be false christs and false prophets some are going to show great signs and wonders it is much that if it were possible the very elect would be deceived so what's going to prevent us from being deceived that's our question number 12. answer you read it in isaiah 8 20 to the law into the testimony if they speak not according to this word if what they say does not match up with the bible not just quoting a verse here or there but the theme of scripture there's no light in them would it be safe to maybe even go see a false christ well somebody says i ought to go check it out what is jesus he gives us very specific warning about this it's not safe therefore if they say he's in secret he's in the desert go not forth if they say he's in secret chambers believe it or not these people might have some hypnotic power and you'll be going on the devil's enchanted ground if you start to explore because jesus said when he comes back he's not touching the ground he says we are caught up to meet him in the air so any human that walks around on earth saying that he's jesus you need to be very careful you know friends i i met someone that claimed to be jesus um well a long time ago i when i came to the lord i lived up in the mountains in a cave for about a year and a half and i'll maybe share that with you another time but um i just read the bible and accepted the lord and i think the devil was trying to capture me at that time when i was a baby christian one day in the yard of my cave way back in these desert mountains i mean i was a hermit i live by myself somebody walked into my cave yard and i used to meet campers every now and then on the trail he talked to me a little bit and he said i'm jesus and at first i thought well i have some spanish friends and their name is jesus maybe he means his name is jesus like it's his name and he said no i am jesus and then i was really scared because i thought i'm up here in the mountains with a lunatic and the guy was about six feet tall he had uh hazel eyes brown hair a beard he looked like a lot of the paintings of jesus maybe he'd looked in the mirror and thought he could be jesus i don't know what happened and so i said you know i didn't want to make him mad i thought well what if it is jesus i mean that'd be terrible to insult him and so i thought well uh doesn't it say in the bible when you come you're coming in the clouds i knew that much he said well that's when i come for everybody but i'm coming for a few special people early and he had an answer for everything and he knew his bible and so he hung out with me for three days and i finally had to kick him out because he ate all my food and he didn't do any work and i had to evict jesus and then a few days later i saw him in town and he had found an apostle there was this tall hippie follow him and rain said this is jesus and then another week later i saw him and he was missing his front tooth he had gotten into an altercation with someone and they knocked out his front tooth and you know that made me feel so much better because i know jesus has all of his teeth and so but i mean i met somebody that said they were jesus and and they're out there don't believe it what will the angels do at jesus second coming it says his angels will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other since we're living just before jesus second coming how should we relate to this solemn and glorious event therefore be also ready for in such an hour as you think not the son of man comes that's matthew 24 44. don't say well let me see pastor doug sounds like we might have a couple years and now friends you don't know when jesus is coming for you we need to be ready all the time christ said there's no time but better than the present we should not gamble with eternity you want to be ready for his coming now what will the wicked say when jesus returns revelation 6 15 through 17 and the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bond man and every free man they said to the mountains and the rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne for the great day of his wrath is come and who will be able to stand the wicked are going to be overwhelmed all the tribes of the earth will mourn the bible says speaking of the lost you want to be part of jesus tribe when he comes not the tribes of the earth so next question what will the righteous say when jesus appears this is our god we have waited for him and he will save us we will rejoice and be glad in his salvation there's two kinds of people when jesus comes there's no third option there's no switzerland in this war between good and evil there's no neutral territory christ said if you are not with me you are against me you know on a sunny day if you turn over a rock under the dark rock you'll have all these bugs that scurry from the light kind of like cockroaches you know when you go into a house of these cockroaches turn on the light they all scatter from the light now if you're in the dark and you turn a light on in the woods up in the dark all the mauls are going to come to the light and it's that simple friends when jesus comes there's just going to be cockroaches and malls and you've got to decide what you want to be because there's only going to be two categories some will come to jesus and say this is our lord they look upon his return as the blessed hope and others will run from his presence now the theme of the second coming is something we should talk about and be excited about look at these verses very quickly we're almost done first corinthians 1 7 so that you come short in no gift eagerly waiting for the revelation of our lord jesus christ titus 2 13 looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great god and savior jesus christ looking forward blessed hope glorious savior what is the prime purpose of jesus second coming is he coming so he can get even with the wicked listen to what he says i will come again and receive you unto myself that where i am there you might be also christ said i will come again it's he's coming because he loves us he wants us to be with us he wants to rescue us from this world that is imploding on itself and i think we're seeing that we're on the threshold we're on the cusp of some very uh tremendous events in what's happening in the world right now all of the people in the world it doesn't matter what your country is or what your political party is i can tell you the politicians don't have the right band-aids to fix what's going on in our planet now the problem is sin the only answer for sin is jesus the savior and you have to start by inviting him into your heart the central teaching of revelation is jesus it is a revelation of christ and that's going to be the central theme of our series we're going to be talking about the importance of having a personal relationship with jesus because if you know what the mark of the beast is and you know what 666 is and you understand armageddon and all these mysteries but you don't know jesus that's not going to help you it's going to happen through a personal love relationship with him how can i be certain to be ready when christ comes back well that's what i'm talking about jesus said to him that comes to me i will in no wise cast out how can you be safe you need to come to jesus and again he says as many as received him to them he gives power to become the sons of god and if you come to him if you receive him into your heart you'll have that power you know i was reading how dwight l moody that famous evangelist is a great man of god a very powerful evangelist he was holding a meeting in a packed hall in chicago in 1871 and at the conclusion of his meeting he was talking about jesus and the plan of salvation he said no i want you to go home this week i want you to think about what i've said and next week i'm going to talk to you about making a decision regarding this information well that night before he was even done with his closing prayer in the distance they heard the clinging of bells and they heard people shouting he dismissed the thousands from his auditorium and that was the outbreak that very night of the great chicago fire three square miles of the city was destroyed thousands of people died in that conflagration and other surrounding fires in the area moody said it was one of the big regrets of his life that he told people to wait a week to decide what to do about jesus it troubled him to his dying day from then on for the rest of his life whenever he preached he often said he would always say i want you to make a decision about jesus and i don't want to close this presentation without asking you to make a decision don't worry about how you're going to be a christian you come to the lord the way you are and then he empowers you to serve him don't say i don't know how i can live a holy life maybe i'll straighten myself out then i'll come to jesus you come to him when you hear the holy spirit speaking to you that would mean now because then you come to him then he changes your heart it's like you don't get cleaned up so you can get in the bath you get in the bath so you can get cleaned up you come to christ and then he begins to transform you with all your problems with all your doubts with all your weakness you just say all right lord i know the world's not gonna last you know your life's not gonna last he's offering you a life that lasts forever why would you say no why would you wait friends i'd like to appeal to you right now to come to someone that loved you so much they died to save you you can make that decision right now jesus is coming in the clouds very soon will you plan now to be ready to meet him and accept him as your personal savior you know as we close this presentation and we're not done we're coming back in a moment with bible questions so don't go very far but i just want to pray with those who are watching right now and if god is speaking to your heart just pray with me in your hearts and accept jesus and say lord i want to start day one with you as the lord of my life show me how to do it father in heaven we thank you for the message from your word that reminds us that jesus is coming soon soon the heavens will dissolve with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat we know this world is passing away as a garment and our only hope is to have a place in your kingdom lord is for you to be in our hearts and for us to hide our faith in you i pray for each of these people right now that they would just say lord i want to invite you to come into my life forgive my sins i am sorry for my sins tell me how to begin following you and give them that peace and joy lord that comes from knowing that you will accept them they can come whatever their past might be you will embrace them and you are desperate to save them i thank you and pray this in jesus name amen now don't go away friends in just a moment pastor ross and i will be back and you can email in and facebook in your questions did you know that noah was present at the birth of abraham okay maybe he wasn't in the room but he was alive and probably telling stories about his floating zoo from the creation of the world to the last day events of revelation biblehistory.com is a free resource where you can explore major bible events and characters enhance your knowledge of the bible and draw closer to god's word go deeper visit biblehistory.com [Music] you [Music] no more sickness no more death no more suffering and it is real friends this pain and misery in our world was never god's plan he's going to restore things to its original plan blessed are the meek they will inherit the earth for i was hungry and you gave me something to eat in as much as you do it to one of the least of these my brethren you did it to me [Music] did you know amazing facts has a free bible school that you can do from the comfort of your own home it includes 27 study lessons to aid in your study of god's word sign up today by calling 1-844-215-7000 that's 1-844-215-7000 [Music] hello friends we'd like to welcome you all back to a revelation now and we're going to take some time to answer your bible questions we want to thank many of those who have sent in bible question pastor doug this has been an exciting study talking about the second coming of christ a lot of questions relating to that topic and of course as we see things happening in the world today folks are wondering well how close are we to the second coming so we do have some great questions that's come in and again if you'd like to ask a bible question you can do so at the amazing facts facebook page or the doug batchelor facebook page and just type it in the comments and they'll actually be emailing the questions to us so we'll be able to get your questions well pastor doug i think we're ready to uh take our first question now we actually primed the pump with some questions that you sent in prior to this program to just get it going so that's why you're going to see them all typed in on the screen all right so first question this evening and they're going to put it up on the screen for us um there it is it says what and when is the battle of armageddon that's a great question armageddon is a word you only find one time in revelation chapter 16 and it's in connection with the sixth seal if i'm not mistaken and tells us that the sixth angel opened his vial and out of the mouth of the beast the dragon the false prophet came three unclean frogs and they go forth to the kings of the earth to gather them to the battle of the great day of god and then it interjects behold i come quickly it's one of the few places you're going to find red letter in the seven plagues jesus i'm coming it says he gathered them to together to a place called in the hebrew tongue armageddon or might be pronounced harmageddon or harma gideon it's only appeals one appears one time in greek literature and so it's something of a mystery but they believe it's relating to a valley outside of megiddo and it's not that there's going to be a literal battle in that valley but that valley was symbolic of great bible battles where god fought for his people so ultimately the battle of armageddon is going to be a battle between good and evil it's going to be that you read in revelation chapter 12 17 the dragon makes war with the woman and then jesus is coming in revelation 19 riding on a white horse to deliver his bride and so this is the final intense conflict at the end of time between those who have christ and the seal of god and those who have the mark of the beast you know pastor you just reminded me of a question that somebody did write in and they asked they said will jesus return riding on a white horse literally all right good question uh no i don't think so in revelation you're going to see a lot of symbols that picture and i think it's in revelation 19. pastor ross is really a pretty good scholar in revelation too uh revelation 19 he's got a sword coming out of his mouth and he's got a written on his thigh word of god and so all of these things are telling us that they're symbols that he is coming in power ancient warriors would come riding on a horse conquering and it was a symbol of the victory deliverance it says that the armies of heaven were also following on white horses yeah again symbolic of the angels that come with jesus and i think you spoke about that in our presentation jesus doesn't come alone he brings all the angels with him that brings me to the next question these are a little different than the ones we we typed up but we'll get to those uh on the same subject somebody is asking if there are so many angels how they're all going to fit in the sky when jesus comes well they may not all fit on the earth but they'll probably be coming in layers or waves i'm not sure i have no doubt that the lord can do it but um yeah it's gonna fill the head well it's like clouds they're three-dimensional clouds are not single-dimensional they're just it's gonna be deep with angels it's gonna be a glorious event yeah we've got another question that um somebody wrote in we'll put that up on the screen it says what and when well we did that question what when is the battle of armageddon there's another one coming i'll give them just a second karen hand me my remote they're waiting on me i gotta advance turn it on you'd hit the next button [Laughter] all right while we get that going uh pass it out here's another question will blind people be able to see jesus when he comes well it says every i'll see them if they're saved i think their bodies are glorified and they're restored so i i think that a blind person that's saved it's they're going to get their eyes are transformed they get a glorified body i think they'll see it i don't think there's a promise that uh people that um i think everybody's going to see it yes i can't even imagine the glory being hidden from even a blind person right okay all right the next question we got them up here up there okay and the next question that we have is uh do you think the antichrist is alive in the world today yes i'm quite certain he is uh you might wonder why i'm so certain you got to keep coming we got a whole study there's some chapters in revelation that talk about the antichrist now keep in mind pastor ross how many times does the word antichrist appear in revelation it's not in revelation it talks about this and i think it's in first john yeah so the word antichrist is not even found in the book of revelation the person of the antichrist is in the book of revelation but the word is not there but even john said for even now there are many antichrists so when we get to the subject of the antichrist we'll study that a little deeper but you can be confident that yes he is alive and well and in the world today all right we've got another question that we can put on the screen it says since the lord is coming as a thief in the night how can anybody know anything about it well we don't know the day or the hour of his coming but jesus gives us a lot of details about the nature of his coming as we mentioned it's going to be glorious it's going to be visible in the clouds he's coming in power it's going to be like lightning it's going to be like a roar and the bible also tells us that the slain of the lord that day will be from one end of the earth to the other with nobody to mourn lament or bury them and so there's a lot of details about the second coming that you can read in the bible and of course when it talks about jesus coming as a thief in the night it's not talking about the manner of his coming but rather the timing of his coming and so yes it goes on he's coming as a thief in the night and then it says the earth shall pass away with the great noise yeah so nothing quiet about the coming of jesus christ that's right we've got another question it says when jesus is speaking of a secret rapture or was jesus rather speaking of a secret rapture when he said one will be taken and the other left in luke 17 36. yes good good question and we'll take a moment in answering this and feel free to chime in pastor ross but um jesus makes a statement in matthew 24 that his coming will be like two women grinding in the mill grinding bread one is taken one is left it'll be like two men working in the field one is taking one and left now when you read in luke and i see is it luke 17 or 21 it tells us that there's he adds the component two men sleeping in a bed so he gives three examples two women grinding at a mill two men sleeping in a bed two men working in a field there are symbols that are in the language that jesus is using you'll find that in the bible in revelation a woman is often a symbol of a church husbands love your wife even as christ loves the church and so you've got two women that are outwardly grinding the bread bread is the word of god they're outwardly doing the same thing one is true one is false you've got two men working in a field jesus told the parable the word of god is the seed the field is the world men are working in the harvest there's two kinds of missionaries out there in the world it's just the true and the false and then you get two people sleeping in a bed sleep jesus said our friend lazarus is asleep and then he said lazarus is dead two kinds of people asleep the saved and the lost so christ is emphasizing there not so much the technique of his coming is that outwardly people will be doing the same thing one is lost and one is saved and some have even wondered which one is taken and which one is left because in one place jesus when he shares that parable and he said one is taken and what is left the disciples said where as in like where are they taken and jesus said wherever the eagles he uses the word eagles it means the vultures wherever the vultures are or wherever the bodies that's where the vultures are gathered together it sounds like they're the ones taken away in judgment and remember the bible says that in the days of noah the wicked didn't know it until the flood came and took them away and in the jewish mind if you were good you got to stay in the promised land but when the nations misbehaved the assyrians or the babylons came and carried them away as a form of judgment so scholars aren't even agreed about which one stays and which one's carried off that's not the point in the story the point in the story is outwardly doing the same things one is ready one is not it's also interesting pastor you touched on that that after uh the one who is ready is taken or the wicked is taken to destruction life does not continue as normal yeah uh there is a sudden moment where every person's destiny is decided upon that's right eternal life or destruction and death so there's no secret rapture in that verse all right we have another question that we can put up on the screen it says will the wicked have an opportunity to repent during the tribulation i'm glad that question's there because this is one of the main reasons it's important to understand this subject is if a person thinks that the rapture is a secret and that it comes before the tribulation i've met people who've said well my wife she says that she's going to get raptured away and i'm going to get left behind so if she's raptured away i figure i've got seven years to get my act together and then i'll know it's true and then i'll believe and then i'll repent but they're waiting for their spouse or someone else to get raptured i think the devil wants people to wait thinking well i'll just wait and let's see what happens and if there's a major rapture and everyone disappears then i'll get ready the devil loves that because what if what i'm saying is right that when he comes that's it the tribulation is before his coming and so we need to be ready now and there's even a period of time following the tribulation where the door of mercy is closed and sometimes referred to as a close of probation jesus said as it was in the days of noah in noah's day god called noah and his family into the ark then he shut the door noah and all the animals and his family were in the ark the door was shut but life went on as normal for seven days outside of the ark their probation was sealed they were lost noah and his family were saved but a probationary time the probation to close but a period of time went by so we don't know when probation is going to close before christ comes we want to be ready now you can't say i'm going to wait until the very day my taxes are due to pay your taxes it's not a good idea it's human nature you want to get ready now for when it comes okay another question that folks have written in again thank you for all your questions some great ones uh here's the question it says how did the remnant of israel survive and i think yes it's referring to a remnant that's been spoken of there in revelation chapter 7 talks about 12 000 from each of the tribes right what does that all mean well you've got the tribe of israel are the twelve sons of jacob they had a civil war and they split ten of the tribes went to the north they were called ephraim or samaria israel the southern kingdom the tribe of judah the messiah came through judah who was also from the house of david or david was from judah they lived in the southern kingdom when the ten tribes were carried away by the assyrians during the time of king hezekiah they largely intermarried with the assyrians they were already engaged in idolatry they lost a lot of their identity as distinct people people around the world today that say i'm a jew they're usually from the tribe of judah that's where you get the word benjamin or levi paul said i'm from the tribe of benjamin matthew was from matthew levi the other 10 tribes were largely intermarried and dissolved and maybe scattered different parts of the world in the roman empire and some of you might have some jewish blood and so um when it says in revelation about the 144 well we got a lesson we'll talk about that i'm not going to get into that now okay i think we have another question that we can put up on the screen and then we'll go to some of the questions that folks have sent in do we have one more question oh that was it that was the end okay so the question oh yeah yep okay we do have one more it says will the wicked have an opportunity to repent during the tribulation oh no we just asked that we did that one i thought that sounded familiar you got short-term memory okay all right well let's go to this one here's one pastor doug i don't know if it's politically correct but i will ask it anyway all right the question is is the roman catholic church accepting same-sex marriage prophesied in the bible well i think that is a valid question because it was in the headlines in recent days the pope came out and said in a sort of a guarded way that he thought that same-sex unions should be acknowledged and i do think that the prophecy in the bible is christ said that it would be as it was in the days of lot where um it was evidently a pretty rampant in sodom and gomorrah and we've just seen look at how the attitudes about marriage between the traditional view of marriage between a man and a woman 20 years ago nobody would raise an eyebrow if i said marriage should be between one man and one woman but now you know they got tv programs about one guy married to four sisters and it won't be long before it's four guys married to one for brothers married to one girl and people now are saying well if if you love each other and that's the criteria for marriage what's wrong with three people getting married and i'm telling you that just the we're going over the slope morally when it comes to what's right and wrong because everybody is so intimidated and afraid to say this is what the bible says the bible is very clear that how god feels about that and what his attitude towards marriage is the fact that the leader of one of the largest religious movements if not the largest religious movement in the world would suddenly do an about face on what they traditionally have always said marriage is one man and one woman is really stunning and i just think it's one more of the signs jesus foretold another question that somebody's asking is what is the signal or the sign to know that it's time to move out of the big cities are you when you talk about moving into the country uh there's two things that we're dealing with here one is just as an intelligent decision where would you like to live where would you like to raise your family you know the bible talks about some of the practical advantages to living in the country i think it's in isaiah chapter five it says woe unto him that joins house to house and lays field to field till there's no place where a man might be alone in the earth and it kind of looks like a an aerial view of the typical american suburb all the houses are just smashed together like match boxes god intended i think for people to have a little more room now not everybody right now i think as of 2020 53 of the world's people live in suburban uh cities or urban areas um not everybody can do that choosing to live in the country i think is the ideal you shouldn't neglect doing evangelism for people in the city fleeing the the cities for the country is something jesus talked about as an event he said when you see certain things happen when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by daniel the prophet if you're on the house don't even go back and don't go into your house if you're in the field don't go back to your house he's saying that is going to be a very urgent matter of literally running for your life and so that's another thing and that i think is still future the fleeing for your life is still a future event okay another question that somebody sent in and uh they're asking um when does probation close for a person well you know of course when a person dies you know their probation is closed because it says it's appointed unto man wants to die believe in hebrews after that the judgment there are some people who their probation evidently closed and they lived a little longer judas after the last supper christ washed his feet and i believe that was his last opportunity when jesus was there tenderly washing his feet to humble himself to repent of his sins confess what he'd done i think he would have been forgiven and saved i'm sure he would have but when he hardened his heart and he didn't he saw jesus washing his feet and he thought if he was really in the messiah why would he humble himself like that he hardened his heart and jesus said to judas what you do do quickly and he said satan entered him he went out and it was night i think at that point he committed the unpardonable sin i think that when saul went to the witch of endor i think he had grieved away the holy spirit and he had committed the unpardonable sin he lived a little longer i think his probation closed at that point so if a person gets to the place where they commit that unpardonable sin and most people worry about that haven't committed the sin yet they think i've gone too far we've all had those feelings but don't let the devil discourage you most people who are thinking those thoughts are being impressed by the holy spirit to repent and so that's usually a good sign all right well this question has to do with the ark of the covenant and the person is asking do we know where the ark of the covenant is that's part one part two will it be made visible before jesus comes all right well we'll tell you what we're pretty sure of is uh the ark of the covenant i think it's still in the world somewhere it's most likely in the vicinity of jerusalem the reason for that is we know the ark was still in the temple in the days of jeremiah when the babylonians had surrounded jerusalem before it was destroyed we know that jeremiah who was connected to the priestly family uh he knew jerusalem was going to be destroyed and burnt and it's very likely that he along with some of the loyal priests hid it in a cave somewhere in and around jerusalem now jerusalem is riddled honeycombed with caves and tunnels and i don't think it's been found and the next question a part of that question will it be discovered or revealed before jesus comes you know there's i think that the exciting thing about the ark of the covenant is not the historic golden box the ark was the word arc means a container it's a golden box but the interesting thing is not the box it's the rocks in the box the ten commandments and you've got that in your bible and so i hope you discover that it's not very far as moses said that word is not very far from you so whether it'll be found and come to the forefront that'd be great if it was i think it might strengthen people's faith but there's no prophecy that specifically says that okay the other question that we have is related to the sanctuary and the question is will the sanctuary in jerusalem be rebuilt and if so what is the prophetic significance well that's another one of those questions where i want to i'm real tempted to dive into an answer but we have a whole we've got a whole study that's coming on the subject of the sanctuary you're going to find the study of the jewish sanctuary is going to be inspiring when i first heard about that i thought how can the study of a building be inspiring it's just you know cold materials three-dimensional but the incredible design and the services that are surrounding the hebrew tabernacle and the sanctuary the temple is all telling us something about jesus and we'll talk more about the construction of a new temple then when we get into that study okay another question that we have it says um are there any important chapters for a christian to memorize living in the last days very good question you want to memorize the promises of god that can give you some encouragement and we had our kids memorize of course psalm 23 you know the lord is my shepherd i shall not want i won't quote it all for you psalm 91 he that dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide unto the shadow of the almighty and that one psalm 91 neither shall any plague come nigh your dwelling that's a good one for coronavirus and so uh there's a lot of psalms that have promises of the lord's presence and the lord's protection can you think of some pastor ross what are some of your favorites just the problem with the second coming of christ you find in john 14 the promise of jesus says i'll come back again receive you unto myself of course revelation is filled with wonderful promises the ten commandments somebody said yeah it's if ever there's some passage to memorize ten commandments is good yeah that word i've hidden in my heart that i might not sin against it i think we have time for one more question pastor diagon it's an important one how can i prepare for the second coming of jesus oh praise the lord that is a good question well as i mentioned at the conclusion of our study a few minutes ago just come to the lord first of all the starting point is you just say lord i don't know what to do i am a sinner and you just trust him with your life you've got to know that he loves you desperately if you want to know how much he loves you then you've got john 3 16 for a starter god the father so loved the world that he sent god the son jesus and jesus came willingly that whosoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life that verse tells us there's two alternatives perish or everlasting life but if you come to him trust him that he is real that he is there and even i always you know i was an atheist even if you have doubts you can still come to the lord and say like that father prayed lord i believe help my unbelief come to the lord with your doubts and say you know i want to believe i want to be saved i'm struggling lord if you're there reveal yourself to me i prayed that prayer and he did he will strengthen your faith you can allow him to move into your heart he's got a plan for your life he's got a promise a good plan that good plan is to be with him through eternity he wants to wash away your sins and give you eternal life and so friends once again we'd like to encourage you to invite him in your hearts right now and to make that decision that's the whole reason we're doing these programs i think you're going to find it encouraging and inspiring there we've just begun friends we're just off out of the the gate right now but the best is yet to come so invite the lord into your heart and watch what happens here all right pasade just a reminder we'll be back tomorrow evening uh the topic is entitled earth's last empire and it's not too late for a person to invite a friend or send the link again everything that you need is at the revelation now website you'll be able to get more information i also want to remind you of our free offer the book anything but secret if you'd like to receive this just go to revelation now website or if you like you can text the word clouds to the number four four 40544 get a digital copy of the book anything but secret well pastor doug before we close out the program might be good if uh we just have a word of prayer and once again encourage folks to join us again tomorrow let's pray together dear father thank you for your word thank you that we can study together and lord we just commit ourselves in your keeping and we pray this in jesus name amen amen you

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Length: 88min 44sec (5324 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 26 2020