CLOSE OF PROBATION
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The promise of
salvation
We have studied
the Two Witnesses of Revelation 11.
They are identified as the Bible and
the Holy Spirit. These two powers
work together for the salvation of
man. The Bible is the testimony of
God. The Holy Spirit is the power of
God. Together, they testify of
salvation and its requirements.
Everyone on earth will hear their
message before the end comes. The
clarion message of salvation will
cause great controversy upon earth.
The preaching of the gospel truth
will cause great anger and resistance
from those who love evil, for
“those who love evil hate the
light.”
Every person on
earth will be reached during the
short time-period of the trumpets.
The powerful struggle against the
gospel will only give the gospel
greater attention! Like a great
forest fire, the gospel will first
spread through populated cities and
then to distant places of the world.
Persecution will force people to flee
for safety and as they flee, the
gospel will be carried with them.
This is how the gospel will go to
every nation, kindred, tongue and
people. The 144,000 expose
Babylon’s doctrine as lies and
in return, Babylon seeks to destroy
them and their followers.
There is a
historical parallel to the scenario
in the paragraph above. After Jesus
ascended to heaven, the apostles
preached the gospel of Jesus and the
promise of His return with great
power and 3,000 were baptized at
Pentecost! The religious leaders and
civil authorities could not tolerate
such interest in the truth.
Therefore, the fires of persecution
were kindled and as the saints
scattered to the four corners of
earth, they carried the gospel with
them!
Jesus warned his
disciples, “There
will be great earthquakes, famines
and pestilences in various places,
and fearful events and great signs in
heaven. But before all this, they
will lay hands on you and persecute
you. They will deliver you to
synagogues and prisons, and you will
be brought before kings and
governors, and all on account of my
name. This will result in you being
witnesses to them. But make up your
mind not to worry beforehand how you
will defend yourselves. For I will
give you words and wisdom that none
of your adversaries will be able to
resist or contradict. You will be
betrayed by parents, brothers,
relatives and friends, and they will
put some of you to death. All men
will hate you because of me. But not
a hair of your head will perish. By
standing firm you will save
yourselves.” (Luke
21:11-19) Two points should be
emphasized from these verses:
- Jesus
promised to give His
followers the words to say
when challenged for their
faith!
- Even
though the world will hate
you, Jesus says, “You
will save yourself by
standing firm.”
It must be
emphasized that Jesus has promised to
be with each one of His children
during this time of trial. He said, “…and
surely I will be with you always, to
the very end of the age.” (Matthew
28:20)
The Spirit of
Prophecy
We have seen
earlier that the remnant is
identified as keeping the
commandments of God and holding to
the testimony of Jesus. (Revelation
12:17, 14:12) We know what the
commandments are, but what is the
testimony of Jesus?
Toward the end of
John’s vision, he was so
grateful to his attending angel that
he bowed at his feet to worship him.
But the angel said, “…Do
not do it! I am a fellow servant with
you and your brothers who hold to the
testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For
the testimony of Jesus is the spirit
of prophecy.”
(Revelation 19:10)
The angel said the
testimony of Jesus is the spirit of
prophecy. What does this mean? It
means that the remnant have prophetic
understanding through the ministry of
the Holy Spirit. In other words, they
will understand what God is going to
do and why. The remnant will
anticipate the fulfillment of each
event and be prepared for it! Daniel
was told, “Many (of
the remnant) will be purified, made
spotless and refined, but the wicked
will continue to be wicked. None of
the wicked will understand, but those
who are wise will understand. (Daniel
12:10)
The remnant will
not be caught by surprise. They will
be prepared through careful Bible
study and prayer. Perhaps one of the
clearest evidences of this point is
found in Revelation 17:8. Notice, “The
beast, which you saw…will come
up out of the Abyss and go to his
destruction. The inhabitants of the
earth whose names have not been
written in the book of life from the
creation of the world will be
astonished when they see the
beast…” In
other words, John says the world will
be astonished when Satan appears,
while those studying the prophecies
will be prepared!
Three groups of
remnant people
The apostles were
a select group of men. They were
given a special opportunity to learn
about Jesus and the kingdom that
others did not have. For three and a
half years, they walked with Jesus
and learned from Him. He was
preparing them for the great work
they must do after He returned to the
Father.
After the
ascension of Jesus, the apostles
received the power of the Holy
Spirit. It was quite an experience.
It happened at the Feast of Pentecost
that was 50 days after the Passover.
Attendance at the feast was required
according to ceremonial law, so Jews
from all over Asia were in Jerusalem
at the time. To expedite the gospel,
the Holy Spirit created a great noise
– a sound like a violent wind
came from heaven and what appeared to
be tongues of fire appeared on the
heads of the apostles.
This interruption
of the Pentecost service gained
immediate attention, for those with
flames of fire upon them began to
speak in the native languages of the
Jews present.
The author of Acts
says, “Now there
were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing
Jews from every nation under heaven.
When they heard this sound, a crowd
came together in bewilderment,
because each one heard them speaking
in his own language. Utterly amazed,
they asked; ‘Are not these men
who are speaking Galileans? Then how
is it that each of us hears them in
his own language? Parthians, Medes
and Elamites; residents of
Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and
Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of
Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome
(both Jews and converts to Judaism);
Cretans and Arabs – we hear them
declaring the wonders of God in our
own tongues!’” (Acts
2:5-11) This demonstration by the
Holy Spirit caused three things to
happen:
- The gospel
immediately transcended the
language barrier, for
everyone heard the gospel in
his own tongue!
- The number
of Jews receiving Jesus
Christ and His gospel
increased thirty-fold that
day.
- Those
accepting the gospel carried
their newfound faith to
distant lands where the
apostles would never be able
to go.
Notice the
process: Jesus started His ministry
with only 12 disciples. When the Holy
Spirit was given to them at the
Pentecost ceremony, Jesus reached
3,000 more Jewish people! These new
Jewish converts went home and told
even more Jewish people about Jesus.
About three and a half years later,
Jesus sent the disciples to the
Gentiles to gather an even larger
harvest of believers! (Remember A.D.
34 – the commission of Peter and
the conversion of Saul?) This is how
the gospel went throughout the world
in ancient times and this is a sample
of how the gospel will go throughout
the world in our day.
In Revelation, we
have process almost identical to
Pentecost First; Jesus selects the
144,000 people as “spark
plugs.” These people know the
testimony of the Bible. They have
studied themselves full, thought
themselves straight and prayed for
power to give the message. Jesus then
grants the request of these people
for power by giving them the power of
the Holy Spirit’s “latter
rain.”
Note: The
term latter rain refers to the second
or large rain that fell in Palestine
in the autumn of each year just
before harvest time. The first rain
(a small or early rain) usually
occurred in the spring of the year
and winter crops were harvested and
presented before the Lord at the
Feast of Pentecost. The analogy is
that both rains brought crops to
maturity. The larger and more
bountiful harvest occurred at the
feast of Tabernacles in the autumn
because the “latter rain”
brought the summer crops to maturity.
See Deuteronomy 11:14, Jeremiah 3:3,
Joel 2:23 and Hosea 6:3.
God is unfolding
Revelation’s mysterious story
because the time of fulfillment has
come. Jesus is selecting and
preparing those who will constitute
the 144,000 from among those who
understand Revelation’s story.
These in turn, will explain to the
world the actions of Jesus when He
opens the fourth seal.
As people hear the
gospel message, many will immediately
see its harmony and through faith,
accept its truthfulness. Some will
join the Revelation movement and
become part of the first remnant. In
effect, the first remnant is a
support group for the 144,000. When
the trumpets begin to sound, the
combined army of the 144,000 and the
first remnant are prepared for their
work. They fearlessly march into
Babylon to gather the rest of
God’s people who have not heard
the everlasting gospel! Jesus calls
to those in Babylon, “…Come
out of her, (Babylon) my people, so
that you will not share in her sins,
so that you will not receive any of
her plagues; for her sins are piled
up to heaven, and God has remembered
her crimes.”
(Revelation 18:4,5) The gathering of
the final harvest consists of three
steps:
1.
The selection and sealing of the
144,000
2.
The gathering of the early remnant to
support the 144,000
3.
The gathering of the latter remnant
out of Babylon
The close of mercy
Jesus does not
sneak up on people and close the door
of mercy without warning. On the
other hand, the devil delights to
snuff out life and thus abruptly end
their opportunity to receive
salvation. The apostle Paul
understood this quite clearly. He
said, “…Today,
if you hear his voice, do not harden
your hearts!”
(Hebrews 4:7) Jesus is tenderly
calling. He is about to conclude His
work in the heavenly sanctuary. Are
you ready to live by faith? Are you
obedient to His call? If you are, you
can be one of the early remnants.
This opportunity comes as a result of
receiving the gospel!
The closing of
mercy during the time-period of the
trumpets consists of four steps. They
are:
1.
Each person on earth must hear the
everlasting gospel.
2.
Each person will be required to make
a decision about the gospel.
3.
Each person is tested on his
decision.
4.
Each person is sealed in his
decision.
Mercy ends for an
individual as the four steps occur.
Since people in different lands hear
the warning message of Revelation at
different times during the trumpets,
the sealing of some occurs before
others during the judgment of the
living. When all have heard the final
invitation, made their decision,
probation is ended. The Ancient of
Days then dismisses the court.
The proclamation
From our study on
the trumpets, we learned that
corporate probation ends with the
throwing down of the censer. The sins
of earth have reached the point of no
return. The judgment review of the
books in heaven is completed at this
time and the judgment of the living
is necessary. This means that each
person will now be judged. In other
words, the trumpet time period is the
“hour of God’s
judgment.” It is a time of
judgment for the living and the
seventh trumpet marks the end of the
judgment process. Notice how John
describes the close of mercy in
Revelation 14:14-20: “I
looked, and there before me was a
white cloud, and seated on the cloud
was one ‘like a son of man’
with a crown of gold on his head and
a sharp sickle in his hand. Then
another angel came out of the temple
and called in a loud voice to him who
was sitting on the cloud, ‘Take
your sickle and reap, because the
time to reap has come, for the
harvest of the earth is ripe.’
So he that was seated on the cloud
swung his sickle over the earth, and
the earth was harvested.
Another angel
came out of the temple in heaven, and
he too had a sharp sickle. Still
another angel, who had charge of the
fire, came from the alter and called
in a loud voice to him who had the
sharp sickle, ‘Take your sharp
sickle and gather the cluster’s
of grapes from the earth’s vine,
because its grapes are
ripe.’ The
angel swung his sickle on the earth,
gathered its grapes and threw them
into the great winepress of
God’s wrath. They were trampled
in the winepress outside the city,
and blood flowed out of the press,
rising as high as a horses’
bridle for a distance of 1,600 stadia
(180 miles).” Several
points need to be made from these
verses.
- There
are two gatherings.
Jesus, the Son of
Man, is seated on the white cloud and
is told by an angel coming from the
temple that the time of harvest has
come. The action of swinging the
sickle over the earth symbolizes the
gathering of God’s children into
safety. Everyone has made his
decision, so the harvest is
ripe, and mercy is
ended.
Later, another
angel comes from the temple with a
sharp sickle and he is told to gather
the wicked and put them into the
winepress of God’s wrath. This
action symbolizes the gathering or
bundling of the wicked to receive the
wrath of God-the seven last plagues. (Note:
John comments that the amount of
wicked people (grapes) thrown into
the winepress of God’s wrath is
incredible! Remember the third
angel’s message mentions the
winepress.)
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