Revelation Now: Episode 16 "The Woman of Truth" with Doug Batchelor

hi friends you want to hear amazing fact back in 1775 there was a ship that was sailing in the north atlantic off the west coast of greenland called the herald a whaling ship and it ran into a derelict ship that was floating among the icebergs called the octavius they had a boarding crew got on board and they found that there were 28 crew members frozen alive strange thing is they were all in position some were in their hammocks and some were in their bunks they even found the captain sitting at his desk making his final entry in the log when they looked at the log they realized that the octavius had left england in 1761 it had made a successful journey around south america up to the orient but instead of going back the same way the captain had the bright idea he was going to try and use the northwest passage which they really didn't know they got caught in the ice overwhelmed by a freezing wind everybody was frozen in position and for 13 years it drifted from alaska all the way over to greenland in other words the men did make the passage but they did it while they were dead frozen at their posts sort of a fitting description of a lot of churches these days people are all in position and they've got the illusion of progress and emotion but nobody's really alive stay with us friends we're going to talk about having a living church in this edition of revelation now good evening friends welcome again to revelation now this live interactive international bible study on some of the most important bible prophecies found anyway in scripture i'd like to welcome those joining us across the country and i know we have a number of folks joining us outside of north america participating in the series some live some are doing a rebroadcast of the program so we'd like to welcome all of you want to remind you once again that we are doing live spanish translation of each program just go to the amazing facts latino facebook page or youtube channel and you'll be able to get the spanish translation also we are signing for the deaf for the program to get more information about that go to revelation now we'd like to also greet some of the countries that we haven't greeted yet that have contacted us we have a group from latvia that are tuning in watching this program also ecuador and then also the islands of turk and kaikos and that is part of the archipelago of 40 small islands that you find in the atlantic close to the bahamas so i'd like to greet those who are watching from there and then just a couple of great testimonies that's come in who is like to receive testimonies rubina says from grand turk island we have been enjoying these messages on our little island of grand turk god bless you all and thank you florence from nigeria says i am one of many people who has been touched by your teachings thank you pastor doug and then shabbalah from zambia writes pastor i like your presentations and i'm learning so much thank you and then close to home bill from lincoln california he says thanks so much for these revelation series it has been a pleasure exploring the bible with you these many nights now if you've missed any previous programs you want to remind you they're all available at the revelation now website we have an archive link and you click on that you'll be able to download and view any of the previous presentations our study tonight is entitled the woman of truth and we have a lesson that goes along with the presentation you can download the lesson for free at revelationnow.com and once again we encourage you to read through the lesson look up the verses in your bible you can actually fill it in and you'll be able to finish the lessons through this series our free gift today is a book entitled the search for the true church and we'll be happy to send this to anyone all you have to do is text the word search to the number 40544 and you'll get a digital download of the book if you're outside of north america we'd like to remind you again go to the revelation now website and you'll be able to download the book called the search for the true church i'd like to invite pastor dave to come forward at this time and we'll prepare for our presentation following the presentation tonight as we always have we'll take your bible questions so if you're watching on facebook you can type your question in there and we'll try to answer as many as we can pastor you had an amazing fact that began the program i remember hearing that on our radio program a number of years ago where you mentioned that about a ship where you have the sailors frozen in position and uh it's quite an experience i'm sure you're gonna talk more about that this evening but let's start with the word of prayer dear father we thank you once again that we have this opportunity to open up your word and study a very important subject so we invite your presence to be with us in jesus name amen amen thank you pastor ross and friends remember at the conclusion of our program pastor ross and i are going to get together we will do our very best to answer any bible questions that you might have on this presentation and if you want to do a little homework you can take a look at revelation 12 because we're going to cover at least the first half of revelation 12 in our study tonight and of course as mentioned the study is called the woman of truth now if you look in the bible it tells us that a woman in prophecy often represents a church the bible says husbands love your wives as christ loves the church and the bible tells us in jeremiah god says i've likened the daughter of zion that's the daughter of god's people israel to a delicate and a lovely woman often in the book of hosea he compares the people of israel to his bride and you have two principal women in revelation one represents the true church and one represents a counterfeit now as our custom we're going to go to a story in the bible and you find this story in first kings chapter 3 and you can read verses 16-28 after solomon became king people were just amazed at his wisdom and one there's many many examples of his great wisdom but one that stands out in history and has really become proverbial is about these two women they were single women they stayed in the same one room house they had both just given birth to brand new babies at almost exactly the same time but unfortunately during the night one of the women she rolled over and she accidentally smothered her baby she woke up during the night and saw what had happened and she was so overwhelmed with guilt and grief she thought well my roommate's baby is about the same age and you know when they're little like that babies sort of look like wrinkled fruit anyway i'll just swap them out and she probably won't know the difference she'll think it's her baby that's dead well while her friend slept she took her living baby and she put her dead baby by her well during the night when she woke up to nurse her baby it was dead and she soon studied and saw this was not her baby she said that's my child she said no this is my child of course this is before the days when they would take a baby's footprint so pretty soon this case made its way up until it was at the supreme court which was solomon and the when women came in and solomon said all right well you say the living baby is yours and you say the living babies yours and the dead baby is hers and he said the only solution is to cut the baby in truth to cut the baby in half and so he says to one of his soldiers he says get your sword let's just divide the baby well see solomon he understood human nature and that a mother would rather sacrifice her child than to see it die and so the real mother said no don't do that give her the baby please don't let it die but the other woman said well that's the only fair thing to do just cut the baby in two solomon said to the soldier don't do anything that's the real mother and everybody marveled at his wisdom that he was able to find the truth by pulling out the sword you see in the bible the sword is a symbol for the word of god you can see that in hebrews chapter 4 it says the word of god is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword you read it also in ephesians chapter 6 the sword of the spirit which is the word of god and so we're going to divide the baby tonight or at least take the sword to find out where do you find the true church there are so many different churches and indeed religions in the world today how do you find the truth and so but before we go to our lesson we like to as our custom go out on the streets and ask people what's their opinion on is there a true church how can we know there really is no true quote-unquote religion what there is is um true faith which comes only through faith in jesus christ your truth is your truth and everybody else's truth could have their truth you know the one that makes you feel whole makes you feel comfortable living this life thing you know they obviously all believe in some sort of creator but there's no way to decide which one's for real i feel like if you just do good then you're fine i don't know that there's any way to know that any religion is real or true uh i don't think there's any real way to determine which religion is real because i think it's all a slice of the same pie it really depends on what you believe so let scripture once again speak speak for its own if the teachings go against what is stated in the bible and that's really the gist of it if it's if it's anything around that or exceeding that then it's not part of the bible then it is false teachings many of the denominations have so much in common with each other and personally i think that love is the most important commonality in all religions and relationships i have a denomination that i believe is correct but i don't know if everyone else in the world believes it's correct it should not be a matter of what church people belong to you know we all all believe in a higher power and i think that's what it's all about you know whatever your faith is that's your faith you know because we're all pointing the same direction very interesting uh whatever your truth is your truth all you need is love and this is some of the the typical things a lot of people think i've often wondered if you were flying on an airplane across the ocean and the pilot came on and welcomed everybody and said we're on our destination and then he said you know folks i really believe that as long as a person's sincere and they believe something that makes it true today i happen to believe that this plane can also work like a submarine and so i'm going to try it out i want you to know that i sincerely believe it that he didn't have to follow the laws of aerodynamics would his faith make that plane work like a submarine no there is something called absolute truth you don't want a brain surgeon working on your brain and if he tells you well today i think your brain is about the same thing as a cauliflower no that's not going to work that makes you very nervous you know there are absolute laws that govern certain things and there is absolute truth in the word of god jesus said there he said i am the way the truth and the life the bible tells us the apostles say there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved jesus said i am the son of god. so you can't say well jesus is the son of god and someone else says well he just said that but he's really just a prophet that makes him a liar and so we've got to know what is the truth because it's only the truth that's going to save us and jesus said i am the truth well we're going to study a little bit about that and find out does the bible give us some guidance on how do you pick a religion how do you pick a church go with me in your bibles to the book of revelation and then we'll jump into our questions for the night revelation chapter 12 and i'm only going to read about the first six verses here revelation 12 starting with verse one and you've got the picture of a vision taking place it's the beginning of a new vision keep in mind revelation 12 comes just before you get to revelation 13 where you've got the mark of the beast now a great sign appeared in heaven a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and on her head a garland or a crown of twelve stars and being with child she cried out in labor and pain to give birth she's evidently great with child and another sign appeared in heaven behold a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads and his tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and he threw them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born she bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up to god in his throne then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by god that they should feed her there 1260 days now that's a time period that comes up several times in revelation in daniel and in prophecy so let's with that foundation in revelation let's begin to explore who is this woman so first question how does revelation picture god's true church it says here in revelation chapter 12 verse 1 i saw a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of 12 stars this woman she represents the true church because first of all she's clothed with light don't miss our next meeting tuesday night we're talking about the other woman revelation 17. but i'll tell you now that you can contrast the two you'll see there's a big difference in what they wear tells us something about who they serve and who they love one woman it's all earthly adornment this woman is clothed with sun moon and stars you read in genesis and god made the sun the moon and the stars god says you are the light of the world to the church he said let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven and so this woman clothed with the sun is the glory of jesus you would see in the new testament standing on the moon the new testament stands on the old testament it's the foundation for the new testament and 12 stars above her head above the head means authority the 12 stars represents the leadership like the 12 patriarchs in the old testament 12 apostles in the new testament this woman is a picture of god's church so we're going to find out what's going on here one reason we know she's god's church the dragon is trying to destroy her and who's the dragon satan so the very fact that it's making the devil mad that's a good sign that this is the true church she being with child cried travailing in birth and pain to be delivered so this woman it's kind of interesting she's a like a virgin conceiving or it's a miraculous birth that threatens the devil she's clothed with white it's almost like a wedding day but she's having a baby so what's going on here you know if you look in the bible there are seven examples seven stories of women who had miracle births let me see if i can do this from memory you've got in the very beginning you've got abraham isaac and jacob all three of their wives sarah rebecca rachel their primary wives could not have children they were barren but through prayer and a miracle they all did have children and each one of those children ends up being a type of christ okay abraham has isaac and you know abraham goes up the mountain with isaac to offer him isaac's got the wood on his back like the cross was on jesus back and and then they find a ram with a crown of thorns rams caught in a thorn bush by its horns and and isaac's a willing sacrifice so he's like a type of christ and then you find out that isaac had jacob and esau jacob he's the father of the 12 patriarchs just like jesus had 12 apostles and he wrestled as an intercessor for his people with god as jesus is our intercessor and then you have jacob has joseph and joseph he is that promised son he's sold by his own brothers for a price of a slave for silver jesus is sold by his own and you know joseph was sold by one of his own brothers for 30 pieces of silver he was betrayed jesus or actually joseph it was 20. jesus was 30 pieces of silver he forgives his brother the whole world comes to joseph for bread jesus says i am the bread of life and he's separated from the father in order to save the world from famine jesus left the father to bring us the bread of life so there's just a lot of parallels about joseph and jesus so then you go on and you've got samson samson's parents were barren they had a miracle birth samson's a type of christ it says that he stretched out his arms he laid down his life the temple of dagon came down and it says he killed more by his death than he did by his life jesus on the cross did more to set us free than anything and so even samson's a type of christ then you've got the shunammites child doesn't tell us her name it just says the shunamite woman she has a miracle baby and as a result that baby then dies in the field working with his father when he's a young boy but elisha resurrects him so here's a resurrected promised child that's just like jesus then you have hannah hannah um it's a miracle birth she prays and god gives her son samuel ends up becoming a prophet and a priest for god's people and a judge and jesus is our prophet he's our priest he's our judge then you've got john the baptist in the new testament and he of course is the forerunner for christ jesus calls him the greatest of the prophets so you've got all these miracle births interesting all of them have baby boys and all of those boys are like types of christ so then you get to of course jesus is the ultimate miracle birth a virgin conceives and has a son and then you uh you get to revelation that says a woman is laboring to bring forth all through the old testament god's church was laboring to bring forth finally in the new testament jesus comes and says she brings forth a man-child but the man-child is caught up to god's throne well we're getting ahead of herself now so it says then she brings forth a man child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron and that's talking about supreme authority now who is the great red dragon and what does he try to do and the great red dragon was cast out that serpent of old called who the devil and satan so we got it's really clear here serpent devil satan dragon if you take d off of devil what do you have evil he is consummate evil and the word satan means adversary and there was a serpent was the medium in the garden of eden through which the devil tempted the human race so he's always kind of had that moniker through history but it says that this dragon wants to devour the child wants to destroy him as soon as he's born all right the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered to devour her child as soon as it was born kind of reminds you there's three examples in the bible where the devil tried to destroy the promised child before he was born the devil knew a messiah was coming for a while he thought it was when they were slaves in egypt and he made a law that all the baby boys should be killed because he knew that the promised seed was going to come through the descendants of israel all the babies were thrown to the crocodiles the dragon wanted to devour the child then god promised the promised seed would also come through david and during the time of atholia she destroyed all the royal seed tried to kill all the babies but one was spared just like moses survived then later it says joash survived then you get to the new testament you remember that terrible story you know we're moving towards christmas season here but nobody likes to read this part of the christmas story where herod when the wise men came he was threatened that there would be another person vying for the throne he sent his soldiers into bethlehem to slaughter all of the baby boys two years old and under the dragon tried to devour the man-child as soon as he was born and he did this through the kingdom of rome so when it says dragon in revelation chapter 12 it is the devil operating through what kingdom rome right so keep that in mind because it comes up later what happens after satan fails to destroy jesus and her child was caught up unto god into his throne and you can read about this here in acts chapter 1 while the disciples were talking to him he ascended into heaven and they just kept staring up into the sky it's called the ascension and the angel said men of galilee why do you stand here staring up into the sky this same jesus that you've seen taken from you into heaven will come in like manner as you have seen him go they saw the ascension and the last words of jesus were go and teach all nations see the devil cannot reach jesus now if you have any questions or doubt about what the devil wanted to do to the man child he tried to destroy jesus as he was a baby all through the ministry of christ he tried to have they wanted to stone him they tried to throw him off a cliff in nazareth and god continued to protect him until after the last supper god said i now must withdraw my angelic protection and jesus was in the hands of the devil suffering for the penalty of sin three days and three nights they spit on him they pulled out his beard he was whipped multiple times he was beaten he was mocked crown of thorns it was terrible suffering torture he was suffering for your sins so that you don't need to but it won't do you any good unless you accept him deliberately and say i want you to be my lord and lead my life and forgive my sins and then he'll do it but you need to accept got to cash the check you need to accept that transaction that he's made well now the devil can't reach jesus he's been caught up to god's throne he's up in heaven now in the dwelling place of god in that heavenly temple and so what does the devil do next and that gets us to our next question after jesus was caught up to heaven what did satan do to the church and the dragon saw that he was cast to the earth he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child now this is a very important point because you're going to meet people everywhere that say oh you're that woman in revelation 12. that's mary and all you have to do is google you know women 12 stars and you're going to see pictures everywhere of mary praying with a halo and 12 stars above her head and she's standing on the moon the halo is supposed to be clothed with the sun standing on the moon 12 stars above her head and a lot of very sincere people say oh that must be mary can't be merry because it's telling us that this woman goes into the wilderness and she's persecuted for three and a half years prophetic years and and the devil's venting all his fury this is the bride of christ now mary is a type of that but the woman is not talking about mary it's talking about the church the true church the light of the world that clothed with sun moon and stars when the dragon saw that he was cast to the earth he persecutes the woman and we know that shortly after jesus ascended to heaven you can read there in acts chapter eight i think it's verse one then there arose a great persecution against the church and those who believe were scattered everywhere preaching the gospel and from that time the christians were dogged and persecuted sometimes by the jews sometimes by the romans and now you go to you can even go to the northern africa and middle east and there's christians that are losing their lives for their faith and so from the time of jesus to the present real christians have been persecuted for their faith but it was especially intense right after jesus ascended to heaven the devil tried to stamp out the church and he thought well the best thing to do is just annihilate them so there's no witnesses and they would tell them in rome they say look if you've got to worship the emperor just give a little incense to the emperor to the gods and you remember they almost killed paul and silas there in philippi because they cast out a devil out of a woman and they wanted to worship them as a god and then they almost killed them again because they destroyed their sale of idols in ephesus and there was persecution paul says he was stoned three times and you know rather he was with three times he was stoned once and so he spent time in jail of the twelve apostles the only one who died a natural death was the apostle john all the others were martyred for their faith so there was great persecution but you know trying to get rid of christians with persecution is like trying to get rid of weeds with a weed whacker all you do is spread the seeds you got to pull them up so the more the devil tried to mow them down they just kept growing so he said look plan a is not working i'm going to go to plan b and i just got a few slides here you remember they were throwing the christians to lions in the coliseum i've been to the coliseum there in rome and they not just did it not only there they did it at several places during the time of diocletian he thought he was going to eradicate christianity they would smear them with pitch and set them on fire and i don't know if you've got the stomach for it but if you ever take a look at fox's book of martyrs you can read it for free online you see the history of the persecution of the church it's it's absolutely astounding what happened so then the devil went to plan b plan b has been so effective he's never gone to plan c plan b was if you can't destroy the christians from the outside you destroy them from the inside by infiltration through bringing in compromise and with the the uh pretended conversion of constantine christianity some quickly went from being illegal and outlawed to sort of being the popular state endorsed religion everybody wanted to become a christian in fact constantine told his army we're going to conquer now under the sign of the cross and he ordered his army to march through the tiber river and he says now you've all been baptized christians well they had not been taught and so they went down in the water dry pagans and they came up wet pagans and all of a sudden all this paganism began flowing into the church and you basically had baptized paganism and so after a few years the church in rome and then it began to spread throughout the roman empire experienced tremendous compromise with paganism and there were idols all over rome of the various greek and roman gods of apollo and mercury and zeus and jupiter and diana and venus and they said we've got all these beautiful idols surely god doesn't want us to destroy these works of art and the priests didn't want to lose all these pagans that were now flowing into the church and making nice big offerings and they said well give them christian names but don't pray to them well they did that but it wasn't very long before people superstitious used to pray into idols kept praying to their idols and all of these different teachings began to sort of become commingled with christianity and that's when the great fall that paul had prophesied took place he said after my departure grievous wolves will come in teaching doctrines of devils and the conversion of constantine was a real turning point and all of these pagan rites and things came into the church so where did the woman go during this terrifying period of persecution and how long did it last you see here in revelation 12 6 the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared of god that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three score days okay where did god bring his church after he saved them from egypt to the wilderness did he miraculously feed them there during the time when elijah and the prophets were being persecuted by jezebel and jezebel was that wicked woman kind of a type of the church where did elijah go into the wilderness live by a brook for a while he lived with a widow but the whole time was he miraculously fed by ravens brought him bread how long was that three and a half years which is 1260 days and then even during the time of jesus jesus taught for three and a half years and then from the time of christ's death until the death of stephen and this great persecution there's another 1260 days this same time period then you get into church history and now you use the prophetic symbols of a day equals a year there was a prophetic period we talked about it in our last study that during the time of the beast power when there's this great compromise from 538 when the church turned into a religious government entity and they got an army to enforce their beliefs from 5 38 when justinian made the bishop of rome the head of the church to 1798 when napoleon had his general arrest the pope and take him captive they had sort of unending sway over the monarchies in europe and the old roman empire those 10 divisions of the roman kingdom but where was the church during that time well i don't know if you've read in history about people like peter waldo then you had the waldensians the hussites the albigensians there are a lot of faithful christians that still copied the scriptures by hand and they said we need to go by the bible and they had to go up into the remote places of the mountains to continue their primitive faith but they were always there they were true christians in northern africa the ethiopians they were still keeping the seventh-day sabbath in ethiopia for a thousand years after christ the coptic church and and there are many others that were still faithful but they kind of had to go underground you probably heard of the catacombs in rome all the christians had to literally go underground where they used to hide from the romans now they had to hide from the church and but they kept their faith pure now part of the reason this happened is the bible is called a lamp a light and when you take away the light you've got darkness and during that 1000 you've heard of the dark ages during that 1260 years the bible was taken away from the people the services were in latin most people didn't that was not the vernacular of the people and you take away the light you've got the dark ages except the the waldensians and the other faithful christians that fled into the wilderness they were fed now what does god feed his church the bread of life just like he gave manna to the children of israel in the wilderness he gave the word of god to his people they kept it alive they copied it by hand they'd take sections of it they'd hide it in their clothes they'd go down among the civilizations and the cities and they tried to witness the people to get people to return to the faith of the fathers and they kept the primitive church alive and so the church quite literally went underground and the devil tried to destroy the woman during that time but god protected her so this took place again from 538 to 1798 it's three and a half you know that's a time period you find over and over in the bible again you've got the three and a half years in the time of elijah you've got the three and a half years that jesus taught three and a half years from the death of christ to the death of stephen there's another three and a half if you read in the book of esther it begins by saying in the third year of the reign of ahazuaris he had a feast lasting 180 days a jewish year has 360 days half of that is 180. at the end of that three and a half there's always a cutting off that takes place at the end of elijah's three and a half prophets of baal are slain at the end of jesus three and a half years he is cut off he's slain at the end of that next three and a half years stephen is slain at the end of the three and a half in the book of esther vashti is dethroned and they begin a search for a new queen ends up being esther then you see that same time period coming up again in 1798 the pope receives a deadly wound of the sword is that cutting off again and it says one of the heads of the beast receives that deadly wound they lose their political power until it was restored again in 1929 with mussolini gave the vatican independent state status again and it's continued to grow and they're also healing the wound not just with the state but with the churches now pope francis that's high on his agenda so you got this church state union that lasts from 538 for 1260 years to 1798 and the church is up in the wilderness they're in the swiss alps and off in the mountains and they kind of go underground what are two other identifying marks of god's true church and the dragon who's a dragon that satan was roth roth's an old english word was infuriated with the woman who's the woman true church or false church of course the dragons mattered or it's got to be the true church right and he went to make war now we're getting now dear down near the end of time it's the end of this prophecy he goes to make war with the remnant the remainder of her seed her descendants her children have two outstanding characteristics which keep the commandments of god does that mean the 50 plan or the 100 plan they keep the command everybody keeps some of them some of the time god's looking for a church that will preach and believe all ten including the sabbath keeps the commandments of god and has the testimony of jesus christ what does that mean you know the last prophecy in the old testament malachite chapter 4 verse 4 and verse 5 says remember the law of moses behold i send you elijah moses is the great lawgiver elijah is the great prophet and then you go to the new testament and moses and elijah appear to jesus on this mount of transfiguration that's mark chapter 9. they represent the law and the prophets the commandments of god and the testimony of jesus the testimony and spirit of prophecy they're called the same thing in the old testament and even in revelation it says the testimony of jesus revelation 19 verse 10 the testimony of jesus is the spirit of prophecy so this church has the law and the prophets and they've got all the gifts of the spirit they believe in the whole bible now how do we find the true church how did solomon find the true mother he had a soldier pull out the sword we're going to look now at the word and we're going to say is there anything the word that would kind of guide us all these different churches now i want to preface my statements by saying all right i am a 7th adventist christian i don't say that often because i really want to preach whatever i preach from the word of god i i don't have a big thing about denominationalism i was not raised the seventh-day adventist i was pretty much an atheist i just studied the bible visited different churches i said lord i came from a jewish background i said if i'm going to be a christian i want to go for broke i want to be a bible christian and i could not find a church that was closer to the bible so that's how i made my decision and some of you are thinking well pastor doug we already know what you're going to say you're going to say we ought to join your church you're right and if i was a pastor and i said i don't think you ought to join my church you ought to join a different church i'd say well then why are you in that church of course i'm going to say i'd love you to join my church but i want to preface my statement by saying one reason i joined the seventh-day adventist church is because i got tired of studying with other churches that said unless you're part of our church you're lost and everywhere i went they said well we're the only ones going to be saved the seventh-day adventist said we believe the biggest part of christ's true followers are in the fellowship of other churches but we believe they are real christians of course every church has got true and false people but we believe the greater percentage majority of genuine christians are not in our church so we respect that god has his children in many different folds okay i want to just make clear i know there are people that love jesus they're going to be in heaven from different denominations so let's get that out of the way but now hopefully you'll agree with me it was never jesus plan his will for his people to be the most divided religion in the world there are more denominations in christianity than fragments of any other religion there are hundreds thousands of different denominations if you know some people now have their local neighborhood denomination the kind of ecumenical churches and and are evangelical churches but they're kind of community churches and so they're all as different as their pastor and their beliefs change from one neighborhood to the next that was not jesus desire christ said all men will know that you're my disciples by your love for one another he wants us to show there's a love and a unity and one reason that i think the devil has worked so hard to divide christians is because the world scoffs at christianity they say you can't even agree with each other what the truth is why should i believe you so i think before christ returns there's going to be a movement where his people everywhere are going to be coming back to the bible and that's why we do a seminar like this my desire is to get people read it for yourself in the bible we put the scriptures on the screen we hope you write them down we'll give you bible lessons if it's not the bible don't believe it we invite you to ask any questions you see after the program we're taking live we we basically take three questions that are pre-entered to get us started then all the other questions we don't know what's coming and we will answer any bible question if we don't know we'll tell you but we're not afraid of the truth some churches will tell their members don't look at any teachings of any other church that means that their beliefs are suspect if they're afraid for their beliefs to stand up against investigation there's something suspicious about that i am happy i remember one time i was talking to a friend who is a presbyterian minister and one of his members started coming to my church and he said brother doug you're stealing my sheep and i said brother i said they're not your sheep and they're not my sheep i said they're his sheep and the sheep go where the grass is he said well what would you think if i start studying the bible with some of your members i said help yourself and this is the the truth a few weeks later i ran into him again at the post office and i said i hear you're studying with sister so-and-so how's that going he said i'm not getting anywhere she knows her bible too well that's what he said and so i said you know we shouldn't be afraid we should know what the bible says and be able to defend our beliefs from the word of god so you study the word of god number seven how did jesus say that we should demonstrate our love for him he said if you love me keep my commandments so one criteria of god's church keeps the commandments of god and has the testimony of jesus and again it's not just six of them or eight of them it's all 10 of them should be proclaimed sin is the transgression of the law and the devil hates the law because if we look at the law we see we're sinners then we go to jesus for grace and for mercy but you take away the law you don't have the conviction for sin you don't need jesus and a savior see how that works we need it he said if you love me keep my commandments don't just read them be doers of the word for this is the love of god that we keep as commandments by the way i'm quoting the new testament i could read 50 verses from the old testament that says love god and keep his commandments what three angelic messages will god's end time church be preaching now i've got a few letters here to kind of go through this a fear god and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come we talked about the three angels messages a message that god's end time church is going to be proclaiming is we're living in the judgment hour christ is about to come he's even at the door we're living in the last age of the church called the church of laodicea it's the lukewarm church and that word laodicea means a judging of the people people need to get ready get ready christ is coming you know we should be giving that proclamation behold the bridegroom comes and even then the name adventist it means we're a people that believe in the imminent advent of jesus and we ought to be telling people jesus said behold i'm coming again he said i will come again. the bible says he's coming for those that joyfully look for his appearing a lot of churches aren't looking for it they're not eagerly and expectingly proclaiming the second coming it says and worship him that made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the fountains of waters again this is an excerpt from the sabbath commandment that was established in honor of the creation and in a world where even some churches we showed you a quote last night pope francis said nothing wrong with evolution bible says it's incompatible with the teachings of genesis god created the world in six literal days and he can do it again he could have done it in less time than that i believe the word of god i also believe it for scientific reasons you may want to send in some questions on that so we're called to worship the creator the adventists are fulfilling that criteria b it says there followed another angel saying babylon is fallen is fallen and that great city because she made all nations drink the wine of the wrath of her fornication jesus wine is the new gospel the new wine you put in the new vessels babylon this woman will study tuesday she is the counterfeit she's got fermented wine and the nations have been become drunk and confused with the false teachings and so the message of the church in the last days is to call god's children out of babylon now it's interesting abraham god called from mesopotamia that's where babylon is to the promised land he brought his wife out of babylon sarah when it came time for isaac to get married abraham said you're not marrying any of these local pagan girls he sent his servant eliezer back to mesopotamia to get a wife that believed in jehovah and bring her out of babylon to the promised land jacob when he got married his parents said don't marry these worldly girls here go back where they serve god he went back and he got rachel and leah brought his wives out of babylon into the promised land then the children of israel were carried away captive to babylon after 70 years they got too comfortable god says it's time to get out of babylon come back to the promised land because babylon is going to fall in judgment and it did and the faithful ezra nehemiah they came back but what's happening now is god's people are in spiritual babylon and it's interesting peter in his letter he said he's greeting the people in babylon the church in babylon they called rome babel and even back then not talking about literal babylon it was destroyed it's never rebuilt isaiah 13 19 babylon the glory of the kingdoms the beauty of the chaldean pride will be as when god overthrew sodom and gomorrah it will never be inhabited nor will it be settled from generation to generation nor will the arabian pitch his tent there the goats won't even play there it's telling and this is a picture of the ruins of babylon today it never was rebuilt as a great city the third angel followed still going through those three angel messages in revelation 14 the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice if any man worship the beast in his image and receive his mark on his forehead or his hand the same will drink the wine of the wrath of god that is poured out without mixture and so we're to be giving this message in the last days that the beast is alive and well and out doing spreading false teachings god's people need to know what the beast is what the antichrist is what the mark of the beast is and how to avoid receiving that mark can't wait to the last minute they need to know now and that's something that needs to be proclaimed we are doing that number nine to whom will god's church preach these messages having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth to every nation kindred tongue and people god's church in the last days is going to be a global movement it's going to go to the whole world what specifications has god given in his word to help us positively identify his end-time church well it tells us it will appear and it'll do its visible work after it emerges from the wilderness in 1798. so sometime after 1798 this new church is going to be born this new movement well you know it so happened that in the 1830s on the scope of prophecy that's not too far after 1798 a number of christians simultaneously around the world began to study the prophecies of daniel in revelation and they became convinced that they were nearing the end of the world in the second coming william miller actually set a date they looked at the prophecy in daniel 8 14 2 300 days then the sanctuary will be cleansed and they thought well the sanctuary must be the earth it's going to be cleansed with fire and that means jesus is coming and they studied the prophecy over and over and they kept coming up with the same date little trivia amazing fact i'll give you is even in the baha'i faith they study the prophecy of daniel chapter 8 14 and the date they come up with is 1844. so they had the date right they had the event wrong and when jesus didn't come it was a great disappointment they misunderstood the prophecy now hopefully this won't shake you because you realize the new testament church was born out of misunderstood prophecy what did the disciples think jesus was going to do they thought the prophecy said that he was going to pronounce himself the son of david he was going to overthrow the romans he was going to sit on the throne of david like david and solomon and they were going to rule the world again there'd be a world empire and even when jesus said i'm going to jerusalem and i'm going to be killed and i'll rise the third day peter said far be that from you and jesus said get behind me satan and even when jesus rose from the dead they said lord will you now set up the kingdom they misunderstood the prophecies and when jesus died on the cross the apostles were the most disappointed not just the apostles all of his disciples were exceedingly disappointed because they had misapplied the prophecies for the second coming with the first they thought he was coming like a lion when he came he was coming like a lamb next time he comes like a lion well god began a big movement in 1844 it was born out of a misunderstanding of prophecy instead of the sanctuary as being the earth being cleansed by fire they realize that jesus has a sanctuary in heaven where he's entered his final work of judgment for his people and he has a sanctuary on earth his temple the bible says you are the temple of god you and i are living stones peter tells us that we are a royal priesthood christ said destroy this temple made with hands in three days i will make one without hands but he spoke of his body what is the church called the body of christ the church had been defiled by the false teachings of babylon for 1260 years but in 1844 god rose up a movement when christ didn't come back christians from all different backgrounds began to come together and they said what does the bible say god doesn't want his people so divided and in studying the bible they rediscovered so many truths they understood baptism is by immersion they understood that we are saved by grace through faith you cannot work your way to heaven but they did rediscover the seventh-day sabbath is the sabbath of the ten commandments they found out that people don't die and go right to heaven or hell before the judgment they discovered that hell does not burn through endless ages torturing people that the wicked are annihilated ultimately in the lake of fire and they discovered our bodies of the temple of the holy spirit and christians should not be smoking and drinking and using drugs and all of these things they came together and they said how have we missed this for so long and from that humble beginning just a handful of faithful people just like christ with 120 in the upper room that movement has now grown to 20 million it is the fastest growing protestant church in the world and it is the one who is bringing you these messages so it appears at that time we meet that criteria pilgrims came we know to america looking for religious freedom the new movement was born in america we'll discuss a revelation where it says in chapter 13 two horns like a lamb country began like a lamb like jesus but then it changes near the end i think we're on that pivot right now b it'll teach the same truths that the apostles taught and of these teachings they'll agree all of these teachings will agree with the bible we've been showing you the teachings what the bible really says and how so many churches have drifted from that see it'll keep the ten commandments including the bible sabbath i think we've made that very clear god says i am the same yesterday today and forever he wrote the ten commandments with his finger he spoke it audibly for a whole nation with his own voice he says i am the lord i don't change this is my law heaven and earth will pass away but for one tittle of the law fails and heaven and earth is still there christ said think not that i have come to destroy the law i did not come to destroy but to fulfill which means fill it full he lived it in his life see it'll have keep the commandments of god and have the gift of prophecy the testimony of jesus same thing we believe in all the gifts of the spirit we believe that in this church we still have modern examples of the gift of prophecy and so maybe you want to ask a question about that answer e it'll proclaim god's three-time message with a loud voice you know our ministry amazing facts that's bringing you this program we are one of dozens of seventh-day adventist ministries that are sharing the gospel around the world and i don't know of any denomination that has more church and independent ministries that are proclaiming on the internet through publishing the three angels messages and the teachings of the bible it's a loud voice friends if it is a worldwide movement once again amazing facts is just we are one ministry among thousands but this is a worldwide work you know there are 100 and google says there's 197 countries in the world the seventh-day adventist church is now in all but 24. and keep in mind one of those 24 is the vatican and they haven't let us start a mission work there yet but you know things like yemen but we're in just about every other country of the world indeed the seventh-day adventist church has the largest educational system and hospital system of any church next to the catholics so all over the world trying to heal people publish the truth spread the gospel just mrs batchelor and i have been to this is a picture of us i think in korea i had an opportunity to preach in the largest church in a muslim country of indonesia a couple of years ago i had the opportunity to preach in the largest christian church in the world in india and here we are in new guinea there were over a hundred thousand people came to the meetings there and it's amazing they had been watching the programs online in china amazing facts there was a brief window when china opened the door to allow us to do public evangelism and we went to wuxi china and i did 15 meetings like this and it was recorded and translated and those cds are going all over the country and then they closed the door we were the first ministry to get in there in since 1959 but the message is going all over the world we see it firsthand and here we are this is i think actually in new guinea here it's a global work and again we're just one of many that are doing this god is calling people to come back to the word now keep in mind before jesus comes there's only going to be two groups one is going to have the mark of the beast one will have the seal of god the world's going to be shaken people are going to be called they're being polarized into one of two groups one will be founded on the rock of christ's teaching the other will be on the shifting sands of man's opinions gee it will teach the everlasting gospel of salvation through jesus christ alone that's what we believe we are not saved by works we're saved by faith and grace so jesus gives you these seven prophetic identification points and then he says go and find my church what does he promise regarding your search is it going to fall on you just out of the sky what does he say seek and you'll find ask knock jesus wants you to find it but he says you need to seek where do we seek in the wa in the word in the bible 12 how many church organizations in the world will fit these seven points well i've looked friends i've been all over the world and i've only found one and by the way if i find a church closer to the bible than the seventh-day adventist church that's where i'm going i don't want to offend anybody but nobody else in my family growing up was a seventh-day adventist i have no allegiance to a denomination i have an allegiance to jesus and the bible and so if i find someplace closer that's where i'm going but right now i can't find a place it doesn't mean we're perfect you know any church that says i think the pope says they're infallible we don't say that so any church that says we can't learn anything new or we know everything i'd avoid that that's suspicious but and by the way did god have a people in the old testament has god always had like a remnant that he spoke through god called abraham for i mean he called noah then he called abraham he had called adam he called enoch he's had people who were the guardians of the truth they held the oracles of god then abraham through him it was israel and then the new testament church and then through the dark ages he had the walden seas and others in the wilderness that kept the faith alive and then after freedom developed in america this whole new movement bloomed he's always had people that were like his spiritual israel but even israel in the bible did they have problems yeah so you know wherever you go you're going to see problems and every church has got its interesting characters and we've got ours too but the thing is what are the foundational teachings that's the main thing how many church organizations in the world will fit these seven points one lord what's it say one faith one baptism can be one jesus wants the church to be one he prayed in john 17 he said father that they may be one as we are one many denominations call themselves christian does that make them god's true church no there's a prophecy in isaiah 4 1 and in that day seven women what's a woman represent seven women will take hold of one man that man is christ the only name whereby we must be saved but they say we'll eat our own bread they get their own bread of life we'll wear our own apparel their own concept of righteousness but we want to be called by your name to take away our reproach that's what you've got going on in the world today all these different people who call themselves christians and in many cases they've got radically different beliefs and you might say well it doesn't matter as long as we love we do need to love but it does matter what you believe every element of truth is liberating the truth sets you free every lie you believe will enslave you to some degree we want to be liberated from lies and know what the truth is once a person discovers god's true end-time church is it necessary to become a member acts 2 47 jesus tells us and the lord added to the church daily such as should be saved yes you must be part of his body he says that his body is the church and that we are stones in this living temple of his church and we must be attached with our different gifts to that body we need each other how many ways of escape were there in noah's day by faith noah prepared an ark to the saving of his house how many arks did he prepare there was one ark friends and in the last days god is calling his people to unity there'll be a movement since there are many faithful christians in other churches and since god only has one true remnant what will happen to these sincere christians in other churches other sheep i have that are not of this fold them also i must call and there will be one fold and one shepherd right it says they'll hear my voice how do they hear his voice through a preacher through the word they hear jesus calling and saying you must be part of my people i'm calling you and i trust that he may be calling some of you that are listening right now you know it's interesting how people pick churches some people pick a church they say well it's a church my family went to or it's a church it's close to my house why do you go there it's nearby what do they believe not sure well what do you believe i believe what the pastor believes what does he believe he believes what the church teaches well what do you and the pastor in the church believe same thing people have no idea what they believe i picked that church because wow the music is great and i like to sing in the choir and if they kick me out of the choir i'm going to a different church doesn't matter what the nomination is i just want to sing in the choir i joined the church because they've got a good children's program and i get to sit through the service and that's a good thing i go to that church because the people are so friendly there i go to that church because the minister is charismatic and handsome and i know that's why you're all here right mrs bachelor said yes you know these are some of the reasons that people pick a church and they're all good things i like to have a church where it's close to the house and they got a nice building a church where the important people go good music good children's program loving people but you realize that if you have a church that has all of those things and they don't have the truth you're in the wrong church the most important thing is when i go to the store and i buy cereal i do not look at the picture on the box i don't look to see if there's an athlete or a free prize i read the ingredients i want to know what do they stand for and when you join a church you are underwriting you are subsidizing by your witness in your example what their teachings are do you know what your church teaches are they teaching the word of god that's where you want to be a bible practicing teaching church tonight i'm going to make an appeal that you be part of that movement that god is calling people into now if you're part of a group you may see that there's a card that was distributed in your group you might be part of a facebook group or a zoom group and they can put it up on the screen online during our break you're going to be able to go to the revelation now website i hope you will fill out the card for pastor ross and i to look at we want to pray for you and do our best to follow up and and help you find a church family that teaches the truth here's the questions you're going to see on the card first of all we're living in the last days the beast is alive and well i do not want to receive the mark of the beast you can mark that on your card there and say i know i don't want that second question i want to surrender to the holy spirit and commit my life to jesus 100 above family friends church or anything put jesus first in your life if that's your desire please mark that again i hope you'll do this online during the break third question i choose to worship jesus in spirit and truth and i want to become part of the day adventist movement that is sweeping the world if you're interested in that check that box and the fourth question maybe you need special prayer you still got questions you might answer all of them all four boxes i have some questions i'd like to discuss or you have special prayer go ahead and mark that and then fill out your your information so that you can contact us we will send you more information we can pray for you and help you make that decision friends there's going to be one ark when jesus comes back there was one door in the ark and jesus said i am the door i want to pray for you that you'll make that decision to be part of his body in the last days father in heaven i know that we've been sharing the truth with people tonight and we're living on the borders the threshold of eternity you're calling your people that believe your word back together on bible truth and i pray they'll hear your voice and they'll respond and that we can be part of that one fold under the one shepherd when jesus returns bless each person who's weighing the consequences of this decision and i ask they'll have the courage to put jesus first and to make that decision please bless them now continue to be with these revelation now programs we thank you and pray this in the name of your son jesus christ amen don't go away friends we're going to be back answering your bible questions in about two and a half minutes paul and jesus both predict that the church of god becomes a force against god the radical faith that jesus taught had become the official religion of the empire that murdered him [Music] the speed with which the early church tobogganed into apostasy will take your breath away life's a curious thing i mean just when things seem under control wham you're hit with something new your marriage is good suddenly it's on the brink of divorce that job's great and then it's gone and so is your life savings you feel healthy then your doctor gives the bad news what's coming next you could look to the stars but they don't have the answers but this does the prophecy study bible by amazing facts this bible special its 27 personal study guides lead you on a life-changing journey through god's word to discover real answers to life's questions from health and relationships to family and future the hopes in here get your amazing facts prophecy study bible today by calling 800-538-7275 or visit afbookstore.com hello friends we'd like to welcome you back to our bible question and answer time here on this program revelation now and again we want to thank you for the many great questions that are coming and if you have a bible question you can type it on the facebook amazing facts facebook page just type it in the comment section and they're actually emailing me the questions so these are hall of the press as they say well pastor doug we do have some questions that we're going to put up on the screen these are common questions that people have dealing with the subject so we'll take a look at that it says is it really important to join a particular church why not just worship on my own well you know it's like a a baby lamb if it's not in a fold it's an easy target for the wolves and a newborn christian needs to be in a church family and i found out that when christians try to go it on their own and just sort of be maverick christians they end up becoming eccentric if you don't bounce your ideas and your teachings off other people that will kind of keep the rough edges off and and guide you you know the lord says we need christian counsel we need each other even jesus when he sent out the disciples he sent them two by two so they could keep some balance and in a church being surrounded by other like-minded people it keeps us spiritually healthy we've got that protection we've got accountability sometimes people when they don't have a church they kind of make up private interpretations and they get a little goofy and sometimes reckless in their in their holiness in their life so a lot of good reasons okay very good we have another question we'll put on the screen it says how can the lord say i never knew you in matthew 7 i thought god knew everybody and everything another reason you need to be part of a church is because a bee doesn't make any honey if it's by itself that's right all right it says jesus will declare to the lost i never knew you but he doesn't know everyone god not only knows everyone he knows all things he's using the word to know a person there and it's talking about an intimate love relationship you know the bible tells us that adam knew his wife and they had a baby and so in the hebrew vernacular god to knowing god jesus says this is eternal life that they might know thee that's john chapter 17. and hosea says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge it's talking about a love relationship so when christ said i never knew you it means we were not friends you didn't really listen to me you weren't my my disciples of course he knows about everybody but knowing him in a loving relationship is what he wants with us okay very good another question we have what is blasphemy against the holy spirit yeah that you know uh we do have a free book we can offer on that because a lot of people worry about it but very simply blasphemy against the holy spirit is where you grieve away the holy spirit and the bible says grieve not the holy spirit i think this is ephesians chapter 2 wherewith we are sealed for the day of redemption we grieve the holy spirit by continually resisting the voice of the holy spirit now it doesn't mean you don't make the same mistake over and over many christians are repeat offenders most of us are we have to often ask god to forgive us and sometimes for the same thing it's not talking about that it's talking about people who harden their hearts to the truth and if we continue to turn down the volume every time god speaks a convicting word to us we can get to the point where we just don't hear the holy spirit that usually happens over a process of years you know in the bible god's very patient but you see people like ahipha fell and saul and judas and balaam they they grieved away the spirit they were mature in life and they just refused to listen okay the verse you're referring to is ephesians chapter 1 verse 13. thank you talking about being sealed with the holy spirit all right well we're going to go to some of the bible questions that have come in and here is our first question hello pastor doug i'm 12 years of age my question is were there bananas in the garden of eden well there you know i understand yeah you cannot plant a banana seed if you've opened a banana you realize those things you look in there they're not seeds or what they call vestigial remnants through hybrid the banana is a hybrid of a couple of asian fruits and the only way they plant bananas now is by taking shoots of living bananas they've got to plant the shoots so the banana the way we know it now is a hybrid and i'm sure glad that they developed it but it's two different asian fruits this isn't really a bible question but it's it's it is i guess garden of eden question um just so happens we did an amazing fact on bananas one day so i happen to know that but and you know it's amazing as you travel you get outside of north america you go down to the philippines and mexico south america you find out there's like 50 different kinds of bananas they get bananas they eat like potatoes down there they fry them they don't ever think of eating them sweet and all different things they do with bananas but i'm thankful okay very good uh here's the question we have what does it mean in revelation where it says he that kills by the sword must be killed by the sword yeah well of course jesus said to peter he that takes up the sword will perish with the sword in the garden but that verse specifically is saying that the leader of the roman church that had been responsible for persecuting a lot of people when napoleon came he actually then took him captive but even more than that uh the sword is what word of god word of god about 1500 with the conversion i should say of martin luther to his protestant views and that of calvin and you look at whitfield and huss and the great reformers they tried to turn the church back to the bible they began to translate the bible in the language of the people and the church the beast received a deadly wound by the sword the word of god and the protestant movement was born out of putting the bible in the hands of the people so there's a spiritual side of that too as well as the pope was actually carried off into captivity and i think that's revelation chapter 13 verse 10 yes one of the identifying marks of the papal power yeah we find that reference there all right pastor doug the next question that we have is um i've heard that there are two uh accounts in genesis with reference to creation and i think they're referring to genesis 1 and then genesis chapter 2 and they confused were they two different creations or how do we understand those two chapters it's one there's only one in hebrew when they write they do it like newspaper writers where you start out with your headlines then you back up and give detail so in chapter one it tells about the account of creation tells about adam naming the animals tell us about the creation of eve then it goes and it backs up and gives more detail in creation in chapter 2. and also because in the king james it says god told adam and eve to be fruitful and replenish the earth i think re re anything means to do it over again no in the original it just means to fill the earth they there was no two eaves i think in one jewish tradition they said that adam had a first wife that didn't work out her name was lilith or something and it's nowhere in the bible it's it's just a fable uh there's only one adam and eve there's one a creation account but you'll often see in the bible god starts out with the headline in the beginning he creates the heavenly earth that's the headline then he backs up and he says how he created tells about the six days then after chapter he says now i'm going to back up and tell you more about that sixth day i'm giving you more detail about the creation of eve so that often then it tells about the fall of cain and abel or yeah then it backs up a chapter five and then it gives the genealogies so often through the hebrew writings headlines more detail revelation does that often backs up and each each prophecy gives more detail related to the first one okay very good uh next question also creation question do you think that when god created the earth all of the continents were connected you know there i think there's some truth to that um you know i i believe in science that if it doesn't conflict with reason in the bible there was i believe a continental tectonic plate shift and it may be i think they call it pangaea that there may have been one continent the earth was certainly different it says all these rivers flowed out of the garden of eden so there must have been some massive spring coming out of the garden of eden that was irrigating the whole planet i think the ocean of the world then was fresh water but after the fountains of the deep were broken up there was extremely some great turmoil and the plates of the earth they were sliding like ice slides on water and they began to slide in very short time in a matter of years through a tremendous turmoil of the flood and so there may be some truth to that that there was some connection and all the volcanic activity lessened a little bit as men began to repopulate the earth okay very good another question that we have how can i explain the plan of salvation in an easy way to a friend well you can be as simple as saying that the lord loves us the penalty for sin is death he doesn't want us to die he said i will send my own son god came to the earth in the form of a man he says i will take your penalty so that i can be just and still forgive you and i'll give you a new heart because i want you to live with me but i won't force you to love me i won't force you to trust and obey and accept me and um but he's god is desperate to save us that's about as simple as i can state it the bible tells us we need to repent yeah repentance yes peter what do we do to be saved and he said repent be baptized and yeah you'll be forgiven i think amazing facts has a uh a little a little web video it's called five steps to eternity we go through the steps of salvation i think it's like six or nine minutes i forget but it sums it up we also have a little book that's available at the amazing facts website it's called three steps to heaven yes so for any of you wanting to learn more about that we'd encourage you go to the amazing facts website i believe you can read it online it's called three steps to heaven okay another question that we have relating to revelation chapter 12 i understand the woman represents the church but what does the moon and the stars represent i know i was talking pretty fast in this presentation because i had a lot of material but i did mention that the sun would represent the light of the new testament the bible says in malachi is it chapter 4 the son of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings and the light of christ he was shining brighter than the sun on the mount of transfiguration the light of the new testament is the reality of the promised messiah finally coming and the the fulfillment of everything the church was waiting for was with jesus coming the manifestation of god he said if you've seen me you've seen the father the moon is the teaching of the old testament it's the foundation the whole new testament stands on the old testament i pity churches that take away the old testament and just supply new testaments for people because you can't understand the new testament without the old testament it's the foundation the moon the moon has no light of its own it's reflecting the light of the sun and the old testament's light is all coming from the sun that is going to rise when jesus comes and the stars represent the leadership of the church again it's in the old testament there were 12 patriarchs and they were even 12 judges and then you've got the 12 apostles it's the leadership of the church and then also a little further in the same chapter talks about the devil with his tail drawing a third of the stars of heaven yeah and we understand those stars representing at least one third of the angels of heaven that joined his rebellion against god that's right of course revelation chapter 1 talks about the star representing the angels of the seven churches so the verse you're referring to the passage of malachi chapter 4 and verse 2 talks about the son issue and of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings yes another question on that same chapter revelation chapter 12 they're asking about the rod of iron can you say something about how that is connected with christ or his rulership yeah kings carry a scepter and jesus and also shepherds carry a rod you know when you read psalm 23 it says thy rod and thy staff they come for me the rod was used for protection of the sheep but the king would use it the shepherd would use it to club the jackals and the bears and you know the bible tells us that david smote the bear and he smote the line he didn't kill it with a sling uh and one place it says he took it by the beard but i think he clubbed it with their rod and i remember reading about a man in canada that killed a bear with a stick i never will forget that so um the king smashing all of these other kingdoms with a rod of iron iron was the strongest metal they had back then and it was just telling us that he is ruling with absolute authority and that he's going to crush all the opposers yeah i'm also teaching to note that you know jesus comes as king of king and lord of lords to execute judgment upon the wicked who according to revelation 13 have passed a death decree against god's people so the good shepherd comes to the defense of his sheep and he got that parallel there with the rod of iron it's also you think about what it says the rock smites the image and it grinds it to powder it shatters it and he says i'm going to shatter these kingdoms like a potter's vessel yeah very good all right question was mary of bethany and mary magdalene the same person good question i think the answer is yes i wrote a book on this called at jesus feet and i did a study about mary of bethany and mary magdalene here's the reasons they never appear together they often appear at jesus feet you see them both anointing jesus feet and it seems that mary of bethany her sister and brother were martha and lazarus but she was called mary magdalene because she had been living in magdala as a town like las vegas had a bad reputation they're both named mary they both seem to have money when you read about it they had substance because they gave this very expensive gift to jesus so a lot of scholars think it's talking about the same mary it's not unusual jesus is called you know the carpenter's son jesus of nazareth and so sometimes people went by more than one name peter is called peter he's called simon okay talking about peter here's a question matthew chapter 15 verse 18 is peter really the foundation of the church matthew 15 verse 18. i think that's the verse with jesus let's hope not rock i will build my church yeah matthew 15 verse 18 uh is what they yeah i think you mean matthew 6 it might be 16 yes yeah matthew 16 verse 18 that sounds more familiar and he said i say unto you you're peter and upon this rock i will build my church and the gates of hell or hades will not prevail against it people say well there you have it he built the church on peter now you got to go back and read it in context if you look in matthew chapter 16 jesus says in verse 13 when he came into the coast of caesarea philippi he asked his disciples saying whom do men say that i the son of man am they said well some say you're john the baptist meaning coming back from the dead some say elias others jeremiah or one of the prophets and jesus said but who do you say that i am and simon peter answered thou art the christ the son of the living god and jesus said blessed are you simon barjona for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you but my father in heaven and i say that you're peter the word peter means petros it means a rock you can pick up and throw it rolls around in the wave you're peter you're a stone but upon this rock this petra that's a rock like gibraltar i will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it so it's not that jesus built the church on peter says i'm going to build my church on the truth that peter just spoke this is the rock of truth that i am the messiah the son of the living god and they were to build the church on that truth that jesus was the true messiah the reason we know that peter is not the rock the church was built on is you read down in just a few verses it says peter began to rebuke jesus and say far be it from you lord to die jesus turned and said to peter get behind me satan so let's hope that jesus isn't building the church on peter because in one minute peter's proclaiming truth the next minute the devil's speaking through him it wasn't talking about peter it was the declaration of peter okay very good another question that we have pastor doug since the jews are still waiting for the messiah why have they stopped sacrifices yeah another good question really because since the time the temple was destroyed and they wanted to god said you know you're not to sacrifice your lambs anywhere but you bring them before me to the place i've chosen and when they lost possession of that holy spot um they said well someday we'll go back to jerusalem and they're hoping someday to rebuild the temple but you know jewish custom has changed so much that they they kind of adjusted the theology where they say you can have redemption without sacrificing lambs which is unfortunate because jesus did provide a lamb form in himself paul a jew said christ is our passover which is sacrifice for us so for jews to go back to sacrificing lambs is really backwards they need to look ahead and embrace jesus as the lamb of god okay very good here's a good question how do i listen to god's voice you know sometimes we need to pray and uh meditate quietly he speaks to us through his word and you know it takes practice actually uh sometimes the more time you spend communion with the lord and listening to you know your conscience you realize that's really god speaking to me uh sometimes the devil tries to just keep guilt on you you've got to know how do you what's the difference between the devil trying to make me feel guilty and god gently trying to convict me but the more you walk with the lord the more you recognize his voice and i used to wonder how in the world did abraham know when god said take your son and kill him burn him as a burn you know kill him and then burn him as a burnt offering i mean you think well god didn't you say don't murder he must have really known the voice of the lord to do something that normally would have seemed you know repugnant and abraham had walked with god so long that he knew what the voice of the lord was and so he wasn't at all confused by that so i'd say spend time in meditation in the word uh the spirit's impressions will never speak to you differently from the word of god okay another question that we have how do you know what is symbolic or literal when reading revelation oh good well they'll be keys that are given other places in the bible and the angels usually tell us angel will say the water which he saw multitudes of people the heads are mountains uh jesus is the lamb there's other places in the bible that tell us what the symbols are so we just got to allow the bible to interpret itself by the way i think we have a prophetic symbol key it's at our prophecy code website they can download yeah it tells you what the symbol is and then gives you the bible verse so that's kind of neat again friends we want to remind you about our free offer today a book entitled the search for the true church if you'd like to receive this again you can just text the word search to the number 40544 and you'll get a digital download of this book and i think you'll find it very helpful in your study of god's word also if you're outside of north america you can just go to revelationnow.com you can download the book the search for the true church and read it share it with your friends i think you'll find it encouraging bible-based goes through different identifying points of what god's church is today and folks will be encouraged and we want to encourage everybody when's our next program not tomorrow tuesday so we give you a day off but we hope you don't forget about us we'll be back and we hope you invite your friends to tune in a lot of turmoil in the country right now people wonder what in the world is going on we're going to be talking about america in prophecy this week so make sure and tune in tuesday night wednesday night then the last two presentations will be friday night and then saturday morning or sabbath morning we're gonna have sort of a big celebration program you want to be part of and so uh make sure and tune in to the revelation now program and it's not too late to tell your friends again tuesday evening 7 p.m pacific time we're going to be looking at the us in bible prophecy so text your friends tell them to tune in look forward to seeing you then [Music] you

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Published: Thu Jul 15 2021