Segment V
page 2
The Year 1800
The year 1800 appears
to resolve the question of timing.
The first seal was broken in 1798.
Remember, the first rule of
apocalyptic prophecy requires that
the second seal must be broken after
the first seal. When the Holy Spirit
‘rode out” of Heaven’s
temple, He immediately began a
campaign to translate and distribute
the Bible (the sword of truth)
throughout the world. The Holy Spirit
motivated Protestants to form
numerous Bible Societies in Europe
and the United States. During the
early 1800’s, Protestants gave
sacrificially and generously toward
the translation and distribution of
the Bible because they knew their
victory over the Church of Rome came
through the exaltation of Bible
truth, specifically, the assurance of
salvation through faith in Jesus.
Because the Bible became increasingly
accessible, laymen began to study the
“Good Book,” and as they
investigated the Bible, they began to
understand for themselves Rome’s
deep apostasy.
Prior to the fall of
the papacy in 1798, few people owned
a Bible in Europe. This was either
due to the expense, or in some
countries, the Church forbade the
possession of a Bible through laws
enforced by the state. Today, this
text seems so foreign. Even the
Church of Rome now publishes Bibles,
albeit in the archaic Douay Version.
What produced this marvelous
translation from a few Bibles to the
sudden appearance of many Bibles
following 1800? I can find no better
reason than the opening of the second
seal. From 1800 to 1844, the Bible
(or portions of it) was translated
into approximately 112 translations.
By 1944, the number of translations
exceeds 1,500. As people began to
read the Bible, various ideas about
the teachings of Jesus occurred.
Because nineteenth century
Protestants were a diverse group of
people from many nations of Europe
and the United States, Protestantism
fractured into several distinctive
denominations after 1798 under the
leadership of various godly people.
The Holy Spirit was
sent on a campaign to translate and
distribute Bibles in the second seal,
because there is no other
authoritative source on the teachings
of Jesus. For 200 years, the
Bible has been progressing throughout
the world, one book at a time. The
Bible tells us what sin is and it
presents our true condition and
position before God. Soon, a time is
coming when Bible truth will cause
men to slay one another! Without
going into a lot of detail at this
point, it will happen in the
following manner: The opening of the
fourth seal will initiate the Great
Tribulation. God will send a series
of destructive judgments, and during
the first, thirty to sixty days of
the Great Tribulation, more than a
billion people will perish! The
nations and religions of the world
will respond to God’s horrific
judgments by immediately establishing
a crisis government. With a broad
range of powers. The purpose of the
crisis government will be to appease
God so that His judgments will cease.
This crisis government (called
Babylon in Revelation) will have no
choice but to mandate the worship of
God, by outlawing immoral behavior
and imposing laws that have religious
significance. The 144,000 will appear
in every nation including Moslem,
Hindu and atheist nations like India,
China and Russia, and they will begin
preaching from the book of
Revelation. In this context, the
purpose for translating and
distributing the Bible during the
past 200 years will suddenly mature.
Because the Bible is in every nation,
it will become the object of global
controversy. The Holy Spirit will
work mighty miracles through the
144,000 to confirm their testimony,
but unfortunately, many of the
teachings of Jesus are contrary to
the established religions of the
world. Thus, the testimony of Jesus
will inflame the passions of evil
people as it did when Jesus taught on
Earth, and if evildoers killed the
Master for His testimony, then they
will certainly kill His servants.
The horrific judgments
of Jesus are designed to open the
eyes and ears of all religions. By
shattering the religious paradigms
and prejudices of people everywhere,
the 144,000 will be able to present
the authority and demands of Jesus so
that people in every religious system
will be able to thoughtfully consider
what the Bible says. Because of
prejudice, this has not been
possible. Billions of people will
begin to look into the Bible to
verify the claims of the 144,000.
People will want to know what Jesus
is doing and why He sent the
judgments. The whole world will
examine and intensely study the books
of Daniel and Revelation. The result
will be an enormous controversy.
People who are sincere and honest
will embrace the teachings of Jesus
and submit to the laws of our
Creator. People who are rebellious
and wicked will reject the teachings
of Jesus and rebel against Him. The
Bible will separate the sheep from
the goats in every religion and cause
men to kill one another! During
the fifth trumpet, the devil will
physically appear masquerading as
Almighty God. He will move quickly to
deceive the wicked and set up his
kingdom. His forces will kill
millions of saints who obey the Word
of God. This bloodshed is described
in the fifth seal. The Bible says, “When
he [the Lamb] opened the fifth
seal, I saw under the alter the souls
of those who had been slain because
of the word of God and
the testimony they had
maintained.” (Revelation
6:9, insertion and italics mine) Did
you notice why the saints were slain?
Two More Essential
Doctrines in Protestant America
Even though the
doctrine of salvation through faith
in Jesus was rediscovered by Luther
around 1515, Protestantism was not
set free to proclaim it until 1798.
After the Church of Rome fell,
Protestantism became a significant
Christian force in the world. When
the meaning of salvation through
faith in Jesus is separated from the
larger body of Jesus’ teachings,
the assurance of salvation becomes a
“theological fantasy,”
which may be wonderful to
believe, but practically worthless
for dealing with the temptations and
trails of the human experience. To
keep the first essential doctrine on
track, Jesus broke the second seal in
Europe and the Unites States. The
translation, printing and
distribution of the Bible were
necessary so that the teachings of
Jesus could be rediscovered. Because
the Bible is a treasure trove of 66
books, it takes considerable time and
effort to become familiar with its
gems of truth. Because the Holy
Spirit has been commissioned to guide
us into all truth (John 16:13), He
gives the Word of God a special
attraction. The Bible draws to itself
everyone who wants to know God.
When Protestant
settlers first came to America from
Europe, they brought the first of
five essential doctrines –
salvation through faith in Jesus.
During the nineteenth century, two
more of the five essential teachings
of Jesus took rook in America. These
two doctrines were “soul
sleep” and “the obligation
of the Ten Commandments.”
Although mainstream Protestantism in
Europe and the Unites States did not
embrace these two doctrines, many
people incorporated these doctrines
in their beliefs, and the teachings
of Jesus became a little brighter.
The rejection of soul sleep and the
obligatory nature of the Ten
Commandments by mainstream
Protestants brings up a point which I
have mentioned before: Truth is
always true, regardless of who
believes it or rejects it, and the
fulfillment of prophecy reveals who
had the truth!
Dr. Edward White
(1819-1898), a Congregationalist
minister in Britain, can be credited
with uncovering the doctrine of soul
sleep. His discovery began with the
rejection of John Calvin’s
(1509-1564) view of predestination.
Calvin taught that only a
predetermined number of people could
be saved and the rest were doomed to
suffer in eternal hell. Dr. White
argued that God alone is immortal (1
Timothy 6:15,16), and therefore, the
soul of man cannot be immortal. Since
the soul is subject to death, the
souls of sinners cannot be tormented
forever. A few Protestants accepted
White’s views, and the doctrine
of “soul sleep” was added
to the “fringe” of
Protestantism’s theological
fabric.
Note: The basic
idea behind soul sleep is that when a
person dies, he is not judged nor
does he go to his eternal reward.
Instead, when a person dies, his soul
“sleeps,” that is, there is
no awareness or intelligence. The
dead await the judgment bar of
Christ. (Hebrews 9:27) The dead will
rise in one of two resurrections.
When Jesus appears at the Second
Coming, the righteous dead will be
resurrected to meet the Lord in the
air (1 Thessalonians 4:16,17) and the
wicked that are living at that time
will be slain by the Lord.
(Revelation 19:19-21) At the end of
the thousand years of Revelation 20,
the wicked dead of all ages will be
resurrected to meet their Maker in a
great white throne judgment scene.
(Revelation 20:12) After the wicked
are sentenced for their cruelty to
man and rebellion against God, they
will be punished with fire and
eventually annihilated because the
soul is mortal. (Ezekiel 18:4)
Protestantism, in general, has
rejected this doctrine even though
this doctrine is one of the five
essential doctrines needed to
understand the book of Revelation.
Most Protestants today believe, as
Catholics do, that at death, people
either go to Heaven (or paradise) for
eternity or they burn in Hell for
eternity.
Another essential
doctrine took root in the United
States during the nineteenth century.
The doctrine of the perpetuity of the
Ten Commandments also came from
England. This doctrine teaches that
God requires man to obey His Ten
Commandments, including the
observance of the seventh day Sabbath
(the fourth commandment, unlike the
other nine commandments, seems
contradictory to the doctrine of
salvation through faith in Jesus. In
1664, Stephen Mumford, a member of
the Bell Lane Seventh Day Baptist
Church in London, came to Rhode
Island. Because he could not find any
Seventh Day Baptists, he worshiped
with Sunday keeping Baptists for a
while. Eventually, five Baptist
families adopted Mumford’s view
that the Ten Commandments were
obligatory and the Seventh Day
Baptist church in the Unites States
began in 1671. By 1802, there were
twenty churches with two thousand
members in the United States.
Increasing numbers of immigrants were
arriving in America each month.
Because Bibles were available and
affordable and the Baptist name was a
respected Protestant denomination,
interest in the seventh day Sabbath
continued to grow. However, Sunday
keeping Baptists were strongly
opposed (and remain opposed) to the
idea that Jesus requires mankind to
observe His fourth commandment.
In the beginning of
this study, I have highlighted the
point that the teachings of Jesus
center around five essential Bible
doctrines because an understanding of
these doctrines is a prerequisite for
reaching the intended meaning of
Revelation. Currently, most
Protestants do not appreciate the
importance of these five doctrines.
Nevertheless, we will discover that
Revelation’s story mandates an
understanding of soul sleep, as well
as the perpetuity of the Ten
Commandments. Circumstances during
the Great Tribulation will force the
importance of the five essential
doctrines out of obscurity, and the
teachings of Jesus, which are plainly
stated in the Bible, will make a lot
of people very angry.
Summary
The second seal
appears to have been broken around
1800. The large sword carried to
Earth by the Holy Spirit represents
the Bible, which contains the
teachings of Jesus. The sudden
formation of Bible Societies in
Europe and the Unites States around
the year 1800 indicates the Holy
Spirit was sent on a campaign to
translate and distribute the Bible
throughout the world. The translation
and distribution of the Bible will
produce deadly consequences during
the Great Tribulation. We will
discover this in our study of the
fifth seal.
At the turn of the
nineteenth century, the Bible was
flushed out of obscurity. Since that
time, it has been translated into
1,500 languages and hundreds of
millions of copies have been
distributed all over the world. The
Bible has been the best seller
of all books every year since 1800.
The doctrines of “salvation
through faith in Jesus,”
“soul sleep” and man’s
obligation to observe the Ten
Commandments, including the seventh
day Sabbath of the fourth commandment
will play crucial role during the
Great Tribulation.
Seal #3 – Black
Horse – 1844 – The Judgment
Bar of Jesus
“When the Lamb
opened the third seal, I heard the
third living creature say,
‘Come!’ I looked, and there
before me was a black horse! Its
rider was holding a pair of scales in
his hand. Then I heard what sounded
like a voice among the four living
creatures, saying, ‘A quart of
wheat for a day’s wages, and
three quarts of barley for a
day’s wages, and do not damage
the oil and the wine!’” (Revelation
6:5,6)
I believe the third
seal was broken around 1844. At just
the right time, the Holy Spirit, in
the form of the third living
creature, was sent from the throne
room on a campaign to inform the
world that Jesus had begun to judge
the dead. The face of the third
living creature is like that of a
man. (Revelation 4:7) This face
indicates that the Holy Spirit has an
assignment requiring divine wisdom. “To
you, O men, I call out; I raise my
voice to all mankind. You who are
simple, gain prudence; you who are
foolish, gain understanding. Listen,
for I have worthy things to say; I
open my lips to speak what is
right.” (Proverbs 8:4-6)
The scales in the hand
of the rider indicate, “…the
court was seated and the books were
opened.” (Daniel 7:10)
The breaking of the third seal marks
the beginning of the judgment bar of
Christ! “For we must all
appear before the judgment seat of
Christ, that each one may receive
what is due for the things done while
in the body, whether good or
bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)
The third seal merges soul sleep, the
worthiness of Jesus, and pre-advent
judgment into a comprehensive
prophetic fulfillment. Of course, if
a person does not understand the
doctrine of souls sleep, God’s
use of parallel temples, or the four
rules of interpretation, the breaking
of the third seal in 1844 will make
very little sense.
The doctrine of
parallel temples teaches that long
ago, God set a date, near the end of
the world, for our High Priest to
begin cleansing the temple in Heaven.
The temple in Heaven needs cleansing
because the record of our sins has
defiled it. We have discussed the
prophetic precision of 1798 and 1844
at length in this book. We have
closely examined the date of Jesus
was found worthy to receive the Book
of Life, and we have examined the
breaking of the first two seals. The
orderly progression of the historical
matrix is unmistakable.
The cleansing of
Heaven’s temple is accomplished
by transferring the guilt of each
person to its final destiny. After
investigating the record of each dead
person, Jesus decides if that person
is wicked or righteous. The guilt of
the sin remains on the head of the
wicked person, or in the case of a
righteous person, the guilt is
transferred onto the head of the
scapegoat. Keep in mind, the
Lord’s goat (representing Jesus)
provided atonement for the penalty
of sin (Leviticus 16:21), whereas
the scapegoat (representing Lucifer)
provided atonement for sin’s
presence. (Leviticus 16:22) Lucifer
is the father of sin and, as such, he
bears full responsibility for it.
(John 8:44) The doctrine of soul
sleep teaches that the dead are
neither judged, nor do they go to
Heaven or Hell at the time of death.
We also know that the righteous dead
will meet the Jesus in the air at the
Second Coming (1 Thessalonians
4:16,17) and the wicked dead will be
resurrected at the end of the
thousand years. (Revelation 20:5,6)
The unanswered question concerns
timing. When are the dead judged? The
answer to this question is resolved
by the alignment of two essential
teachings of Jesus (soul sleep and
parallel temples) and the prophecies
of Daniel and Revelation. Daniel 8:14
tells us the judgment bar of Christ
began in 1844 and the breaking of the
third seal in Revelation 6:5,6 aligns
with this date.
The Holy Spirit
departed the throne room around 1844
on a campaign to inform the world
that the judgment of the dead had
begun. The scales in the hand of the
rider on the horse indicate the
judgment of mankind has arrived. “For
God will bring every deed into
judgment, including every hidden
thing, whether it is good or
evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:14)
Do not confuse the judgment of
mankind with the full cup principle.
In a sense, God constantly manages
Earth. He passed judgment on the
antediluvians in Noah’s day.
He passed judgment on Sodom and
Gomorrah. He passed judgment on Egypt
and Pharaoh then drowned the Egyptian
army in the Red Sea. Jesus passed
judgment on Jerusalem in
Jeremiah’s day. He also passed
judgment on Israel just before His
death. (Matthew 23) Jesus manages the
kingdoms of Earth with the full cup
principle, but He began passing
eternal judgment on individuals in
1844.
Remember the
mysterious words written on the wall
at Belsahazzar’s feast? Daniel
told the Babylonian king, “…You
have been weighted on the scales and
found wanting.” (Daniel
5:27) God weighs the actions of
nations as well as individuals. Jesus
weighs our actions against our
knowledge. “Anyone, then, who
knows the good he ought to do and
does not do it, sins… If we
deliberately keep on sinning after we
have received the knowledge of the
truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,
but only a fearful expectation of
judgment and a raging fire that will
consume the enemies of God.” (James
4:17; Hebrews 10:26,27)
The scales in the hand
of the Holy Spirit indicate judgment
has begun. We know from the doctrine
of parallel temples and information
in Daniel, that this judgment is not
a judgment on nations, but on people.
(See Daniel 7:9,10; 8:14; Hebrews 8
and 9) Perhaps in this judgment
process, Jesus began with Abel, the
first man to die. For the past 160
years, Jesus has been reviewing and
passing judgment on each person who
has died. Of course, Jesus does not
need 160 years to judge the records
of the dead, but the angels and the
24 elders need this time. The ongoing
judgment scene in Heaven is for their
benefit. In effect, the angels have
been getting a “college
education” on the dimensions of
God’s government. They are
observing and learning about
God’s constitution, branches of
government, grace, wisdom, mercy, and
most of all, how God’s love is a
perfect balance between mercy and
justice. Their lectures include
real-time applications of God’s
mercy and justice. Every life record
presented to Jesus is a unique story.
They are watching the close scrutiny
that Jesus applies to every record.
They have never seen anything like
this, and the Father predetermined
long ago that all of Heaven would
benefit from observing this
courtroom-classroom drama. This is
why the Bible states, ‘thrones
were arranged and the Ancient of Days
took His seat… and ten thousand
times ten thousand stood before
Him…” As billions of
heavenly beings silently observe,
Jesus decides who shall be saved and
who must be destroyed. Because the
angels understand the incalculable
value of eternal life, they watch
with the greatest interest. They also
watch closely for another reason.
People who are granted eternal life
will become their rulers. The
redeemed from Earth will be elevated
above the angels! (Revelation
1:6) Therefore, the angels are very
curious to see who will rule over
them. This is why they have to attend
this convocation. Once they
understand the full dimensions of
God’s government and salvation,
they know they have nothing to fear
from the exaltation of victorious
sinners from Earth. Each judicial
case reveals a unique expression of
God’s justice and mercy.
Will Work for Food
The commission given
to the Holy Spirit at the breaking of
the third seal consists of a campaign
to educate the world that Jesus began
to cleanse Heaven’s temple in
1844. As the Holy Spirit prepared to
leave the throne room, Jesus spoke
these words, “A quart of
wheat for a day’s wages, and
three quarts of barley for a
day’s wages. And do not damage
the oil and the wine!”
Wages! These words are a promise of
wages. Wages, in the form of
“good” food, is promised to
those who will enter God’s
service to promote this special
message, and I can testify that after
15 years of endeavor, the Lord’s
promise has proven faithful and true.
Rule Three of
apocalyptic prophecy encourages us to
look for parallel passages in the
Bible to determine the intended
meaning of apocalyptic prophecy, and
there is a good parallel in the Old
Testament concerning the use of
wheat, barley, oil and wine as ages!
King Solomon offered Hiram, king of
Tyre, an enormous quantity of food,
if his servants would gather up
materials for the construction of the
Lord’s temple in Jerusalem. “I
will give your servants, the woodsmen
who cut the timber, twenty thousand
cors of ground wheat [125,000
bushels], twenty thousand cors of
barley [125,000 bushels],
twenty thousand baths of wine [115,000
gallons] and twenty thousand baths
of oil [115,000 gallons].”
(2 chronicles 2:10 italics and
insertion mine) Solomon offered
Hiram food because food was of
greater value than silver or gold.
The building of the Lord’s
temple in Jerusalem would be an
enormous undertaking for which
Solomon did not have the building
materials, but he did have food. He
was willing to pay Hiram’s
workman with something more desirable
than gold if they would do his
bidding. At various times in human
history, food has been the currency
of choice between nations.
The parallel is that
since 1844, Jesus has been offering
wages to those who are willing to
build up the knowledge of His
heavenly temple. The Bible is a very
comprehensive book and God’s
ways are vast. Teachings of the Word
of God, if done well, are not a
simple or easy task. Again, I can
testify from personal experience,
that it is the most difficult
assignment I have ever had. An offer
of wages goes with the breaking of
the third seal because Jesus wants
the world to know that He is judging
the dead and the judgment of the
living is coming soon. Jesus wants
the news spread far and wide and He
is willing to pay wages “in
food” to anyone willing to carry
the news!
