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Revelation 7

th1b.taylor

th1b.taylor

Member
Alright, we are now at the point in The Revelation of Jesus, the Christ, that just about everyone, including many of the Lost, wish to discuss, the Rapture!


Revelation 7:1:
And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.


I, once more, will tell you that I refuse to be dogmatic in my teaching on the prophecy recorded in the book of The Revelation, except for that which has already happened. But, as I live out my last days I watch the world, the events that are taking pace, daily, and I am, on the personal level, marking this period to be the one noted here in 7:1. It is by faith that I have accepted the belief that these four Heavenly Servants are either in place, right now, or will be, very shortly.


Some will ask, in astonishment, ¨How in the world can you, dare to, walk out on that limb when it is already half cut through?¨ If, or when, we read the scriptures we see that God never brings calamity (punishment) on His children without waring them first! And then as we read the word from God through the prophets we find the markers for the time, just before The Day of the Lord and it is my earnest opinion that we are seeing the Birth Pains, right now and the Fig Tree, Israel, blossomed in May of nineteen and forty-four. The Season is now!


Revelation 7:2:
And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,


Revelation 7:3:
Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.


So, the Rapture, in the opinion of the Mid-Trib believers has just occurred and it is now time for twelve thousand, from each of the twelve tribes of Israel to be sealed as belonging to the LORD.


Revelation 7:4:
And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.


There is so much foolishness being taught today, concerning this and the next four verses of the scripture. I´ll guess that the best known is the position of that, Satanic lead cult, the Jehovah´s Witness¨ where it is their position that the 144,000 are already saved, residing in Heaven, right now, leaving the rest of us with no hope of ever ascending to Heaven. All the while verses 4-8 are crystal clear, leaving no need of interpretation, these are descendants of the children God promised, never to aandon or forget, the children of Jacob! (Duet. 7:9, Exo. 20:6 and Psa. 105:8)


Revelation 7:5:
Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.


Revelation 7:6:
Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand.


Revelation 7:7:
Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand.


Revelation 7:8:
Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.


Revelation 7:9:
After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;


Now, I have been taught the Preterist, Mid-Trib and Post-Trib positions and while I do agree with the Mid nor with the Post-Trib positions I do not teach against them because I can see how they arrive at their positions. On the other hand I cannot understand how the Preterist can believe as they do. The Church has been raptured, caught away, and now we see the throngs of converts at the Throne that were murdered for their conversion, during the Great Tribulation. It is my position that if the Preterist is correct that we are doomed... The government is not murdering people yet!


Revelation 7:10:
And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.


Revelation 7:11:
And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,


Revelation 7:12:
Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.


As I read these verses I recall the past examples of true Worship illustrated for us in this book. It is, one more time I say it, always important to pay attention to what we read in the Word of God and any time a thing is repeated, it gains important, for in this manor, emphasis is given. We must learn to not sit there and to sing during Worship Service, we need to learn to submit our very being to God and to worship prayerfully.


Revelation 7:13:
And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?


Revelation 7:14:
And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.


The Holy Spirit has left the Earth with the Church and, perhaps, is then present as He was in the Old Testament (only as He is needed) and still some, perhaps your neighbor that watched you every day, are losing their heads for the cause of Christ because they realize what has happened because we left the mark of the Christ on them.


Revelation 7:15:
Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.


Revelation 7:16:
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.


Revelation 7:17:
For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.


The Wedding of the LORD to His Bride, the Church has taken place and the Wedding Feast is on going and yet more are being saved. These, it appears, are serving the LORD forever in His presense because of their willingness to die for Him.
 
Rev 22:19 - And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this book.​

What happened to Chapter 6?:eyebrow
 
we should take a break and do a seperate thread on that 1948 thing as that puts a time frame on when jesus should return.

i'm think of harold camping, and also the other pre-tribbers that set dates.

in that context that fig tree isnt isreal. but if one is interested i can do the thread.
 
Good idea Jason might keep this on track and we will have some place to move the off track posts :p

I do not agree with Taylor i sure do respect his efforts and presentations. I do not want to see his threads lost in 1948 :yes
 
1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. 2 And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, 3 saying, "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads." Revelation 7:1-3 (NASB)

These passages need to be understood in Biblical context to understand what they mean. Verse 3 is the key for finding out what's really happening here: God is preparing the elect and the land for judgment, just as He did in Ezekiel 9:


{3} Then the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub on which it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed in linen at whose loins was the writing case. {4} The LORD said to him, "Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst." {5} But to the others He said in my hearing, "Go through the city after him and strike; do not let your eye have pity and do not spare. {6} "Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women, but do not touch any man on whom is the mark; and you shall start from My sanctuary." So they started with the elders who were before the temple. Ezekiel 9:3-6 (NASB)

The mark was put on the foreheads of the righteous and faithful to protect them from God's wrath. But why was this necessary?

Ezekiel 5 provides the answer:

{5} "Thus says the Lord GOD, 'This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her. {6} ~'But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes more than the lands which surround her; for they have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.' {7} "Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, 'Because you have more turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor observed My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you,' {8} therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, 'Behold, I, even I, am against you, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. {9} ~'And because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have not done, and the like of which I will never do again. {10} ~'Therefore, fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you and scatter all your remnant to every wind. {11} ~'So as I live,' declares the Lord GOD, 'surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also withdraw, and My eye will have no pity and I will not spare.

{14} ~'Moreover, I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations which surround you, in the sight of all who pass by. Ezekiel 5:5-11, 14 (NASB)

Not only would the people experience the wrath of God, expressed by their demise at the hands of the Babylonians, but so too would the land, as promised in both Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26:

{15} "But it shall come about, if you do not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: {16} "Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. {17} "Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. {18} "Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. {19} "Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. {20} "The LORD will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke, in all you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me. Deuteronomy 28:15-20 (NASB)

{23} "The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. Deuteronomy 28:23 (NASB)

{14} 'But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, {15} if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant, {16} I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a sudden terror, consumption and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the soul to pine away; also, you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it up. Leviticus 26:14-16 (NASB)

{19} ~'I will also break down your pride of power; I will also make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze. {20} ~'Your strength will be spent uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit. Leviticus 26:19-20 (NASB)

The same Spirit of prophecy that led Ezekiel to prophesy Jerusalem's destruction at the hands of the Babylonians is the same Holy Spirit that caused Jesus to prophesy against Jerusalem, signaling a time when that generation be judged by God for its disobedience:

{41} When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, {42} saying, "If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. {43} "For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, {44} and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation." Luke 19:41-44 (NASB)

The Romans fulfilled this in 70 AD.

That's what the first 3 verses of Revelation 7 mean.

As to those who came out of tribulation? These are the martyrs killed from the stoning of Stephen to the destruction of Jerusalem, a time when the church was experiencing intense persecution first at the hands of the Jews then under Nero. Thousands were being killed almost daily. And here's where the first 7 chapters of Revelation track perfectly with Matthew 24:

The last time the word "tribulation ("thlipsis") is used in the book of Revelation is in verse 7:14. That word or not one of its variants is ever used again despite the fact that most of the rest of the book describes the outpouring of God's wrath.

Now, compare what's happening in the first 7 and a half chapters of Revelation with Matthew 24:9, and the rest of the book with Matthew 24:21, and you'll see how this all breaks down.
 
Hi Stormcrow;

The Romans fulfilled this in 70 AD.

That's what the first 3 verses of Revelation 7 mean.

As to those who came out of tribulation? These are the martyrs killed from
the stoning of Stephen to the destruction of Jerusalem, a time when the church
was experiencing intense persecution first at the hands of the Jews then under
Nero. Thousands were being killed almost daily. And here's where the first 7
chapters of Revelation track perfectly with Matthew 24:

The last time the word "tribulation ("thlipsis") is used in the book of
Revelation is in verse 7:14. That word or not one of its variants is ever used
again despite the fact that most of the rest of the book describes the
outpouring of God's wrath.

Now, compare what's happening in the first 7 and a half chapters of
Revelation with Matthew 24:9, and the rest of the book with Matthew 24:21, and
you'll see how this all breaks down.
Click to expand...

When I first read this, I accused you of cutting and pasting from my writing!!!!! :biglol
noble
 
noble said:
Hi Stormcrow;



When I first read this, I accused you of cutting and pasting from my writing!!!!! :biglol
noble
Click to expand...

Lol. Nope. I arrived at this conclusion just in the last couple of years. It became apparentr when I saw two tribulations mentioned in Matthew 24 and the first - in verse 9 - was a sign of the second, verse 21.

Most people see the word tribulation and think every time it's used it must be referring to the same thing. It's not. The tribulation of Matthew 24:9 is the same tribulation of John 16:33 and Revelation (5 references in the first seven chapters): the tribulation that comes on those simply for believing in Christ. That tribulation continues to this day.

The other tribulation is that which befell Jerusalem for its disbelief and disobedience. That tribulation lasted 3.5 years culminating in the destruction of "heaven and earth" (the land and the temple) in 70 AD at the hands of the Romans.

Neither of these have anything to do with Daniel's 70th week. which is where most people get this idea of a "GREAT TRIBULATION."
 
When the time comes for those four Angels to gather the Army of the Lord, both the dead and those who are alive, they will gather them all to meet Jesus in the Air, at which time Jesus would have been already descending on the city of Jerusalem. Which in turn means that we will be descending with him as well. No need for El Al, we will be flying angelic in transformed bodies. We will be there in Jerusalem with him for a period of ten days. On the first day, Feast of Trumpets or Day of the Horn, the world will not understand what is going on. World leaders will not have any idea of what to do, Satan will be bound for a day. The next day Satan will be loosed and World Leaders will be influenced by Satan to ochestrate the largest Army ever put together in History. They will amass for a period of eight days. The Euphrates will be dried and Tanks and other vehicles will be able to come right across the desert into Israel. Jesus and his Saints will most likely be branded "alien invaders" that must be eradicated. This war will end on the Day of Atonement or yom Kippur.
 
...we see the throngs of converts at the Throne that were murdered for their conversion, during the Great Tribulation.
Click to expand...
Which tribulation? There are two mentioned in Matthew 24. Here's the first:

{9} "Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. Matthew 24:9 (NASB)

This is the same tribulation (thlipsis) mentioned in John 16:

{1} "These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. {2} "They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. {3} "These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me. {4} "But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you. John 16:1-4 (NASB)

{33} "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." John 16:33 (NASB)

And it's the same tribulation mentioned here:

{9} I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Revelation 1:9 (NASB)

The martyrs seen under the altar in Revelation 6:9-11 are the same saints, prophets, and apostles killed for their righteousness and faithfulness to God and Christ. These are the same that appear standing before the throne in Revelation 7:13-14. It's out of this tribulation - the tribulation of believers - that these martyrs come.

But the other tribulation - the one found in Matthew 24:21 - is the wrath of God that falls on Jerusalem, expressed through His use of Rome to bring judgment on Israel's disbelief and their breaking of the covenant.

{15} "Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), {16} then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. {17} "Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. {18} "Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. {19} "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! {20} "But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.

(Luke writes the same thing this way: {20} "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. {21} "Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; {22} because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. Luke 21:20-22 (NASB) )

{21}"For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will .(This is the same language used to convey the judgment of God at the hands of the Babylonians in Ezekiel 5:9 and Rome in Daniel 12:1)

{22}"Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Matthew 24:15-22 (NASB)

And this verse brings us full circle: who are the elect again?

Revelation 7:3-8 tells us who they are: a remnant sealed by God to survive His wrath, just as those elect were sealed by the "man in linen" in Ezekiel 9:4-11 prior to Jerusalem's desolation by the Babylonians.

It's critically important to understand Revelation in the light of the Old Testament. Revelation is a VERY Jewish book.
 
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The Holy Spirit has left the Earth with the Church and, perhaps, is then present as He was in the Old Testament (only as He is needed)
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Taylor, with all due respect, if the Holy Spirit is present on earth "only as needed", then He hasn't left the earth with the church. As long as people need a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will be here on earth convicting, sealing, filling and sanctifying.

Neither you nor I nor any member of the universal Body of Christ has saved even one person on this planet. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. Regardless of where the church is (or isn't) the Holy Spirit remains working to save "to the uttermost."
 
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