Prophecy
14
The Second
Coming –
Revelation 18:1 – 19:10
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The
Beginning of the Sixth Trumpet (1,039th day*)
Ending Point in Time: End
of Sixth Bowl (1,324th day*)
*
Note: The dates above
and asterisked on the following pages
are not absolute. They are derived
from a mathematical matrix that
involves several timing factors. For
example, when considering the 1,260
days allotted to the Two Witnesses,
the resurrection of the Two Witnesses
after 3.5 days,[1] the
1,290 and 1,335 days mentioned in
Daniel 12, and the forty-two months
in Revelation
13:5, there is very little
room for data manipulation. Even so,
let me say again, these dates are not
absolute. Ultimately, these messages
will be obvious to everyone on Earth
when they occur.
Summary:
This prophecy
contains a message which the 144,000
will deliver to the world during the
sixth trumpet. I calculate the
beginning of the sixth trumpet as
follows. If the fifth trumpet
sounds and the devil is released from
the Abyss on the 891st day
(two-thirds of the way through the
Great Tribulation) and the fifth
trumpet torment lasts for 148 days
(five lunar months), the sixth
trumpet would begin on the 1,039th day
of the Great Tribulation (891 + 148 =
1,039). Next, if 1,039 days are
subtracted from the 1,260 days
granted to the Two Witnesses, the
sixth trumpet will last 221 days
(1260 – 1039 = 221 days or a
little more than seven months).
During the sixth trumpet, the 144,000
will proclaim the message described
in this prophecy. When the
wicked people consider this message
in the environment of Lucifer’s
atrocities, a few of them will
reconsider their evil ways.
They will refuse to receive the mark
of the beast, repent of their sins,
come out of Babylon, and be
saved. I believe most, if not
all, of the 144,000 will die while
delivering this message because of
its inflammatory nature. When
properly understood, this prophecy
reveals a depth of divine love and
compassion that is incalculable.
Introduction:
The 144,000 will present four
distinct messages during the Great
Tribulation. Prophecy 12
contains the first three messages and
this prophecy contains the fourth and
final message. Lucifer
will set up a counterfeit theocracy
during the sixth trumpet and this
message will be Jesus’ final
call to a rebellious planet.
Remember, when the sixth
trumpet begins, Lucifer will abruptly
change character. Overnight, he
will terminate his benevolent and
gracious mask and become the cruel
dictator that he really is. His
forces will kill 1.75 billion people
(a third of mankind)[2] under
the pretense of divine authority,
eliminating those who oppose the
establishment of his one world church
state (theocracy). To
appreciate the fourth message, we
need to briefly review the first
three messages:
First
Message – Day
One: When the censer is cast
down and the Great Tribulation
begins, the first message (containing
the eternal gospel) will be given
throughout the world. The
144,000 will suddenly begin
proclaiming their first message to
the inhabitants of Earth and it will
be an outright demand. They
will say: “Fear
God and give him glory, because the
hour of his judgment [that
is, the time for judging the living] has
come. Worship him [the
Creator] who made the
Heavens, the Earth, the sea and the
springs of water.”[3]
Second
Message – Day
64*: The 144,000 will add a
second message when religious and
political leaders of the world
assemble to find a solution to
God’s wrath. When Babylon
forms and begins to function with
authority, world leaders will insist
that God’s retribution has
impacted Earth because “all have
sinned” and offended Almighty
God with decadent behavior. The
leaders of Babylon will assert that
everyone must worship God and live
righteously. “This
endeavor,” they reason,
“will show The Almighty our
corporate sorrow and His destructive
wrath will cease.”
The 144,000
will counter Babylon’s leaders
with this inflammatory declaration in
the second message: “Fallen!
Fallen [false] is
Babylon the Great, which made all the
nations drink the maddening
wine [logic] of
her adulteries.”[4] The
144,000 will maintain that
Babylon’s presupposition, that
God’s wrath can be appeased, is
false. Therefore, the 144,000
will declare that Babylon’s
demands, worship and repentance, are
blasphemous. Of course, worship
and repentance are not blasphemous
when a sinner is motivated by sorrow
for his sin, but the irony in all
this will be profound at this time in
Earth’s history. Babylon
will be demanding worship and
repentance and so will the 144,000,
but the underlying motives between
these two groups will be worlds
apart.
The phrase,
“the maddening wine of her
adulteries” indicates two
ideas. First, the leaders of
Babylon will unknowingly
“drink” many religious lies
that will have a numbing
effect. The term, maddening
wine, is an ancient expression for
bad wine that causes otherwise fine
people to lose their minds and
“go mad.” Babylon
will produce some “bad
wine” and she will make all
nations go mad (become incoherent)
because they believe its lies.
The result will be universal adultery
between church and state. The
union of church and state is an
adulterous affair because Jesus is
the head of His church. Until
Jesus is the head of Earth’s
government, any union of church and
state is an adulterous union because
power corrupts. Man’s
fallen nature will not allow him to
love God and others as himself.
Leaders always abuse their power when
church and state are united.
History has clearly proven that the
church cannot be faithful to Jesus
and simultaneously exercise civil
authority.[5] When
the leaders of the world create
Babylon, they do not anticipate the
blasphemous behavior that Babylon
will display. Also, they will
not know that Jesus will soon destroy
Babylon (and its leaders).
Therefore, when the leaders of
Babylon hear the second message, they
will do their best to silence the
144,000.
Third
Message – Day
891*: The 144,000 will present
their third message when Lucifer and
his angels physically appear.
Speaking through His servants, Jesus
will send this ultimatum throughout
the world: “If
anyone worships the [lamblike] beast [who
masquerades as Almighty God] and [if
anyone participates in] his
image [theocracy] and
receives his mark [tattoo] on
the forehead or on the hand, he, too,
will drink of the wine of God’s
fury, which has been poured full
strength into the cup of his
wrath. He will be tormented
with burning sulfur in the presence
of the holy angels and of the
Lamb.”[6]
Fourth
Message – Day
1039*: The 144,000 will add a
fourth message to their presentation
when the sixth trumpet begins (day
1,039*). The fourth message
will come at a time when everyone on
Earth is afraid for his life.
Lucifer’s forces will be in the
process of killing a third of mankind
and people will be standing in line
to receive the mark of the beast on
their right hand. The fourth
message contains a tender invitation
as well as a solemn threat.
Jesus will speak through His servants
and say, “Come out
of her [the great
whore, Lucifer’s theocracy] my
people. . . . For her sins are piled
up to Heaven, and God has remembered
her crimes. [He will] Give
back to her as she has given; [He
will] pay her back
double for what she has done.”[7]>
When the
sixth trumpet begins, I believe Holy
Spirit power will rest upon the
144,000 in an unusual way.
God’s prophets will glow with a
radiant light just as Moses did when
he came down from Mt. Sinai.[8] This
illumination will be so glorious that
it will be difficult to look at the
144,000. This manifestation of
divine power will produce the highest
possible credibility.
God’s prophets will proclaim a
message of truth, grace, and
mercy. It seems incredible that
even with this dramatic display of
power, very few people will repent
and be saved, but God’s love for
sinners knows no bounds. If I
am correct and the 144,000 do shine
with supernatural glory during the
closing days of salvation’s
offer, this could explain how the
whole world is illumined by the
splendor of the fourth angel. I
cannot think of a more effective way
to announce to the world that where
sin abounds, grace much more abounds![9]
During the
sixth trumpet, Jesus will speak
through His glorified servants in the
clearest and tenderest of
terms, “
‘Fallen! [false
and blasphemous] Fallen
is [the
harlot-theocracy of Lucifer,] Babylon
the Great! She has become a
home for demons and a haunt for every
evil spirit, a haunt for every
unclean and detestable bird [this
language refers to the fact that
vultures feed on dead flesh without
any concern for whose flesh it might
have been]. For all the
nations have drunk the maddening wine
of her adulteries [the
whole world is intoxicated with the
lies and glorious plans promoted by
Lucifer]. The kings of the
earth committed adultery with
her [the kings of the
Earth have immorally united with
Lucifer’s whore, they have
allowed her religious power to usurp
their civil powers], and the
merchants of the earth grew rich from
her excessive luxuries [the
merchants are those people who went
along with the whore for financial
gain. They are like vultures
who feed on the poor and become fat
and rich through extortion].’
Then I heard another voice from
heaven say: ‘[Jesus
Himself will speak to the whole
world:] Come out of
her, my people [though
your sins are like scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow – if
you will repent now of your
rebellion. Please come now,
come out today], so that you
will not share in her sins, so that
you will not receive any of her
plagues.’ ”[10]
Obviously,
the 144,000 will remain alive until
the first four messages are
delivered. Everyone on Earth
will “see and hear” the
fourth message during the sixth
trumpet. However, the fourth
message will be so inflammatory that
most, if not all, of the 144,000 will
be killed for delivering it.
When this occurs, Jesus will end His
offer of grace and mercy for
sinners. At the end of 1,260
days, the ministry of the Two
Witnesses will be completed.
Most, if not all of the 144,000 will
be dead. Jesus will wave His
sickle over Earth[11] and the
people who have the mark of the beast
will be condemned to die the second
death. Six thousand years of
redemption will end on the 1,260th day
of the Great Tribulation. Each
person on Earth will have made an
informed and final choice and Jesus
will reward each person accordingly
when He appears.[12]
The
Sequence
Revelation
18:1
And
after these things I saw another
angel come down from heaven, having
great power; and the earth was
lightened with his glory.{1} I
saw a mighty angel come down from
Heaven. He spoke with great
authority and the whole world heard
his testimony. The angel
illuminated the Earth with his glory.
The fourth
message presented by the 144,000 is
represented as an angel messenger
sent directly from God’s
throne. This message contains
God’s final offer of
redemption. The fourth message
will join with the previous three
messages and together they will swell
into the clearest and strongest
statement of truth that God can
present to mortals. Jesus will
speak through the 144,000. He
will declare the truth because what
matters most to God is our response
to truth.
The honest in
heart always love truth. The
indwelling presence and peace of the
Holy Spirit is more desirable to the
honest in heart than any benefit
stemming from compromise with
evil. When a person stands firm
for the truth, the Holy Spirit
confirms God’s will and the
Bible assures him that he stands on
solid ground. When the Holy
Spirit and the Word of God are
allowed to do their divine work
within an individual, that person is
filled with peace. To impress
the wicked with the importance of
this final offer of salvation, the
144,000 will radiate with the glory
of God as did Moses when he came down
from Mt. Sinai.[13]
Jesus knew
that sinners could not provide an
atonement for sin. For no other
reason than unfailing love, Jesus
came to Earth and died a cruel death
so that every sinner could be
saved. His goal during
the Great Tribulation is to save as
many sinners as possible. He is
not willing that one soul should
perish.[14]
Conversely, Jesus offers no grace to
a defiant sinner. When a person
defies the Holy Spirit, he defies the
two laws of love. He rejects
the wisdom and authority of Almighty
God.[15] This
is why defying the Holy Spirit is
unpardonable. The Bible leaves
no question about God’s love for
sinners, but unfortunately, many
sinners do not want to love God or
their neighbor.
Jesus will
speak through the mouths of the
144,000.[16] To
make His words receptive, Jesus will
also pour the Holy Spirit out on all
flesh.[17] The
Holy Spirit will pound hard on the
door to each heart enticing each
person to surrender to God’s two
laws of love. God’s offer
of redemption is extremely
generous. He has paid the price
for our sins. He is willing to
remove our sinful nature[18] if we
are willing to worship Him according
to the demands of the eternal
gospel. Of course, obeying the
eternal gospel will require
faith. The price of worship
will be great. Satan will see
to it that Babylon’s decrees are
in direct conflict with God’s
laws. The contest between
competing laws will force everyone to
make a choice and take a stand for or
against the eternal gospel.
When the Two
Witnesses complete their work (on the
1,260th day of the Great
Tribulation), Jesus, our High Priest,
can do nothing more to save one more
soul. Everyone will have firmly
settled into their final
decision. Two distinct and
separate groups of people will exist:
Sheep and goats. The sheep
cannot change their ways for they
have been sealed. The goats
cannot change their ways for they
have committed the unpardonable
sin. The following benediction
indicates that Jesus has done
everything that can be done and now,
He will honor each person’s
choice: “Let him
who does wrong continue to do wrong;
let him who is vile continue to be
vile; let him who does right continue
to do right; and let him who is holy
continue to be holy.”[19]
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