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A
DRAMATIC RESCUE BY JESUS CHRIST
Study 7
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World War III
The fifth trumpet marks
the appearing of the devil and his angels. God
permits the devil and his angels to occupy the
nations of Earth and torment people who have not
made a decision for God or the devil. For a five
month period, God will allow the devil to inflict
great suffering upon the remaining people who
have not accepted salvation, but have defied the
devils authority. In this way, god
continues to encourage them to repent and be
saved. (For awhile, there will be two types of
wicked people during the Great Tribulation: The
religious wicked and the
nonreligious wicked. The religious
wicked are those who believe the devil is
god and submit to his dominion. The nonreligious
wicked are those who refuse to submit to
the devil, God, or any authority.) When the five
months has expired, God permits the devil to do
something unbelievably horrible. Satan will be
allowed to kill one-third of mankind. This great
slaughter will remove most of the devils
adversaries, i.e., the nonreligious wicked and
many of the saints. With most of his enemies dead
(some will escape), the devil will have
undisputed dominion over the Earth. When this
occurs, the devil will divide Earth into ten
sectors and appoint ten puppet kings
to take care of day-to-day business. By doing
this, the devil will claim to be king of kings
and lord of lords. Survivors will have no option;
either submit to the commandments of the devil or
suffer death. How ironic, those who submit to the
commandments of Jesus many suffer temporary
death, but they will live again!
God permits Satan to kill
the nonreligious wicked at a very precise moment
in time. Notice what John says, The
sixth angel blew his trumpet
and the four
angels (bound at the great river Euphrates) who
had been kept ready for this very hour and day
and month and year were released to kill a third
of mankind. The number of mounted troops was two
hundred million. I heard their number
A
third of mankind was killed by the three plagues
of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their
months. The rest of mankind that were not killed
by these plagues still did not repent of their
work of their hands
nor of their murders,
their magic arts, their sexual immorality or
their thefts. (Revelation 9:13-21)
When Satan cannot achieve
through deceit, he accomplishes through force.
Force is always the last resort of false
religion. The six-trumpet war will decimate all
the nations of the world. This is why I call this
period of time World War III. Satan will send his
angels throughout the Earth and they will
slaughter hundreds of millions of people who
stand in opposition to Satans control of
Earth. This great slaughter will accomplish two
things. First, it will force everyone to take a
side. Every living person will be forced to
choose whom he or she will worship the
lamb-like beast on earth claiming to
be God, or the Lamb of God who will soon appear
in clouds of glory. Second, when the devil gains
control of Earth, he will be in a position to
force everyone to receive his mark. He
also forced everyone, small
and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to
receive a mark on his right hand or on his
forehead. (Revelation 13:16, italics
mine)
Worship at Last
The Bible predicts the
devil will lead a majority of the world to rebel
against Gods law. When the devil
establishes his kingdom and implements the mark
of the beast, he will require the world to
worship on a day of the week that stands in
direct opposition to the law of God. I am
convinced the devil will declare a day of the
week to be holy which opposes all religions of
the world. In other words, a holy day
of worship will level the playing field for all
religions of the world proving the devil shows no
favoritism. Masquerading as God, the devil will
be able to do anything he wants to do! No wonder
Paul calls him a man of lawlessness. (2
Thessalonians 2) The devil will pronounce
stringent laws requiring everyone to worship
according to his desires. (Revelation 13:15-17)
Of course, the devils deepest desire is to
have complete control and great adulation. He
wants the same authority as God and he wants to
be worshiped as God. The devil is very bold. He
even dared to tempt Jesus to worship him.
(Matthew 4:9,10) Satan may be incredibly
beautiful in appearance, but he will be grossly
vile in character. He is sin personified. The
devil is self-seeking and self-centered in the
extreme. The devil wants power, popularity,
respect, wealth, glory and honor. He will allow
nothing to stand in his way of gaining these. In
fact, he wants everything that rightfully belongs
to God! What an example of sins decadence.
Remember, sin corrupted Lucifers heart and
he assumed prerogatives belonging only to God.
Ultimately, Lucifer will claim before the world
that he is God. He will receive the worship that
God alone deserves and he will gloat in his
deception. Paul says, He [Satan] opposes
and exalts himself over everything that is called
God or is worshiped, and even sets himself up in
Gods temple, proclaiming himself to be
God. (2 Thessalonians 2:4)
The Offer of Salvation
Ends
When the slaughter of
World War III ends, everyone will have made a
decision about worship. For the sake of survival,
millions will submit to the commandments of the
Antichrist even though they know the mark of the
beast is a curse. Remember, worship is defined as
submitting to a requirement commanded by God. It
is hard to believe that people would submit to
the mark of the beast rather than put faith in
God, but this will be the case. Consider the
wisdom behind this coming test of faith: If our
worship of God is not based on faith and love for
Jesus, it will be impossible to refuse the mark
of the beast. The saints will lose every form of
earthy support. It is easy to see how many people
who claim to be Christians will give up their
religious beliefs because their faith is not
grounded in God. They will voluntarily receive
the mark of the beast and justify their actions
because it is the only way to survive. I have he
heard people say many times that they cannot keep
Sabbath because they cannot give up their job! If
a person loves his life more than God he
does not love God most he loves himself!
Jesus said, Anyone who loves his father
or mother more than me is not worthy of me;
anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me
is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take
his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever
loses his life for my sake will find it.
(Matthew 10:37-39)
Everyone who chooses to
receive the mark of the beast will be a coward
and considered an enemy of God. (Revelation 21:8)
When the sixth trumpet war draws to a close,
everyone will have made their decision and
nothing more can be done to save a single human
being. Consequently, the door to salvation closes
in Heaven and Jesus concludes His intercession on
behalf of the people of Earth with this decree: 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.(Revelation
22:11) Then, The seventh angel sounded
his trumpet, and there were loud voices in
heaven, which said: The kingdom of the
world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of
his Christ, and he will reign for ever and
ever,Then Gods temple in heaven was
opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of
his covenant. And there came flashes of
lightening, rumblings, peals of thunder, and
earthquake and a great hailstorm. (Revelation
11:15,19)
The seventh trumpet marks
the end of Gods redemptive judgments. (Do
not confuse the seventh trumpet with the trumpet
call that sounds from the sky at the Second
Coming. 1 Corinthians 15:52) The seventh trumpet
also marks the beginning of Gods
destructive judgments (the seven bowls). Notice,
the same phenomena that marks the
beginning of the seven trumpets also marks the
end of the seven trumpets. (Revelation 8:5)
However, the phenomena at the end of the seven
trumpets will be greater in intensity and more
destructive than the beginning of the Great
Tribulation. In addition to these physical
phenomena, God will do something at the close of
salvation that is amazing. He will enable
everyone on earth to see the ark of His
covenant in Heavens temple! God shows
the Ark of the Covenant to the human race because
He wants everyone to see the lawful basis for His
wrath. He is about to destroy every wicked person
with one or more of the seven last plagues. God
wants the wicked to see that His wrath is legally
justified. This is a marvelous thing about God.
In Gods realm, faith always precedes
evidence. Paul wrote, When perfection
comes, the imperfect disappears. (1
Corinthians 13:10) In other words,
whenever God commands something that requires
faith, He eventually displaces that faith with
the evidence or reason faith was necessary.
Lastly, faith always makes sense when viewed in
reverse. Jesus said, I tell you the
truth, until Heaven and earth disappear, not the
smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen,
will by any means disappear from the Law until
everything is accomplished. (Matthew
5:18) This is why salvation comes only through
faith! God says, You just have to trust Me
until I can show you the reasons.
Only the Faith-full
Will Survive
Standing firm fir truth
and worshiping God as He commands regardless of
the cost will be the all-encompassing test for
the human race. Hundreds of millions of people
will die for their faith. Relatively speaking,
only a few saints will survive to see Jesus
appear in the clouds of glory. John is very clear
the devils forces will kill a large
number of Gods people. Mercifully, when the
seventh trumpet sounds, God ends the martyrdom of
the saints. (Daniel 12:1) Can we, like Job, say, Though
He slay me, yet will I hope in Him. (Job
13:15) A real testing time is just before us. The
coming test will reveal our true condition. Will
we stand firm even though everyone else may join
ranks of the enemy? I pray God will give us the
faith, resolve and strength to stand firm. Isaiah
said it well when he spoke to King Ahaz, If
you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not
stand at all. (Isaiah 7:9)
The Seven Bowls
The seven bowls will
begin shortly after God reveals the Ark of the
Covenant in the sky and last for about 75 days.
The seven bowls will be progressively destructive
and end with Jesus appearing in the clouds of
glory. Jesus will kill the wicked by a command
that comes out of His mouth. Only the saints who
remain will survive that awesome day. The seven
last plagues will be a horrible payback
for the wicked. The seven last plagues
contain Gods wrath without mercy
Gods wrath full strength. God will repay
the wicked at the same level of cruelty they
demonstrated towards Gods people during the
Great Tribulation. Compare the seven trumpets
with seven bowls:
|
Trumpets |
|
|
|
Bowls |
1. |
Fiery hail |
|
|
1. |
Terrible sores |
2. |
Asteroid impact (Sea) |
|
|
2. |
Sea turns to blook |
3. |
Asteroid impact
(Continent) |
|
|
3. |
Springs of water turns to
blood |
4. |
Darkness (Volcanoes) |
|
|
4. |
Sun scorches people with
fire |
5. |
Devil appears |
|
|
5. |
Satan's kingdom plunged
into darkness |
6. |
Devil conquers world-WWIII |
|
|
6. |
Armadeddon |
7. |
Close of mercy |
|
|
7. |
Second Coming / Great
fiery hail |
Remember, these seven
plagues do not affect Gods people. A
thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at
your right hand, but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes the
punishment of the wicked. (Psalms
91:7,8)
Three points need to be
made:
1. Some
of the seven bowls are somewhat similar to the
destruction caused by the seven trumpets. For
example, a third of the seas turn to blood during
the second bowl. Perhaps God designed the
trumpets as harbingers of things to come. In
other words, even though the trumpets are sounded
with mercy, God uses the trumpets to warn the
human race with some physical evidence of what He
intends to do during the seven bowls, a time when
there is no mercy! Remember, God spares
two-thirds of Earth during the time period of the
seven trumpets, but He annihilates the entire
world with burning sulfur at the end of the seven
bowls.
2. Notice
this turn of events. The fifth trumpet
marks the physical appearing of Satan claiming to
be God and the fifth bowl marks the
exposure of the devil for who he really is. When
Jesus pours out the fifth plague upon the throne
of the devil, the world will see that this
creature, who claims to be God, is not really God
for God would not destroy His own throne!
(See Revelation 16:10,11) The light of truth will
shine brightly, and the deception of sin will be
removed. The religious and political of the world
will realize they have been worshiping the
ancient enemy of God. This realization starts a
domino-like collapse of Babylon. John says, The
beast [Babylon] and the ten horns you saw
will hate the prostitute [the image or the
one world church/state]. They will bring her
to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her
flesh and burn her with fire.
(Revelation 17:16)
3. In a
final attempt to control a collapsing kingdom,
Satan will rally the world one last time and send
powerful demons to encourage the ten kings he
chose to rule over Earth. These demons will lead
the kings of the Earth to do two things. First,
they will agree that a universal death decree is
needed to destroy the saints. Second, they will
unite to wage war on Jesus when He appears in the
clouds. Notice what John says of these demons, They
are spirits of demons performing miraculous
signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole
world, to gather them for the battle on the great
day of God Almighty
.Then they gathered the
kings together to the place that in Hebrew is
called Armageddon. (Revelation 16:14,
16)
Armageddon The
Final Battle
World War III occurs
during the sixth trumpet. The battle of
Armageddon occurs during the sixth bowl.
(Remember, there are similarities between
trumpets and bowls.) A large amount of
misinformation has been shared about Armageddon
The word, Armageddon, comes from two Greek words,
har megiddo and they are
transliterated in English as one word:
Armageddon. In addition, they are transliterated
in English as one word: Armageddon. The two words
mean the mountain of God, or
the exalted place of God. There
is no mountain in the Middle East called Meggido;
however, there is a small plain called Meggido
that is not far from Jerusalem. (Joshua 17:11)
Long ago, King Josiahs foolish actions led
to his death on the Plain of Meggido. He engaged
Pharaoh Neco in a battle that should not have
been fought. (2 Chronicles 35) The plain of
Megiddo is not very large, but many scholars are
convinced this is where Earths last battle
will be fought.
The battle of Armageddon
parallels the contest between Elijah and the 450
prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. (1 Kings 18) A
showdown is coming between the Lamb of God and
the lamb-like beast, which is the devil. This
great showdown will occur on the mountain
of God, hence the two words, har
megiddon. The worlds
leaders will see, just as the leaders of Israel
did in Elijahs day, which is Almighty God.
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