Shalom, shalom. Welcome to the Ancient Scrolls program and this your host Crystal Sharpe.
Today we are going to continue talking about the two witnesses and the great earthquake in Revelation chapter 11. We won’t finish out the chapter.
Before we get started I just have to say something about Beto O’Rourke, who is a Texas Democrat running for the office of the president. It was posted on Google October 10th that he has a plan to punish those churches, and those affiliated with churches like hospitals, colleges, schools, and organizations, those charities funded by churches that help feed the homeless, those that give assistance to unwed mothers, and the poor, that if they, the churches, would continue to oppose abominations like homosexuality, same sex marriage, that he would dissolve their 501c status.
You can get a report of this from the Dallas Morning News.
He is a maverick, he wants to etch out his place in history to be recognized as the first to introduce steps of creating national persecution of its citizens by the government. Senator Cory Booker pushed ahead with him vowing “consequences” for people who refuse to conform, those who refuse to be programmed to embrace deviant behaviors.
So by now many in the church have read this on the internet. And they should be thinking: if we do not submit, convert, turn apostate, they are going to take our tax-exemption.
We should realize it isn’t all about the removal of the 501c tax exemption, that is not the real issue here. The real issue is forcing people to support homosexuality. Right now it appears there are many who refuse to be conditioned, or programmed by the government or society to accept abnormal, deviant behavior. And sometimes it is reported that some in the Catholic Church and other churches that are vocally resisting being forced to accept and support deviant behavior. I really appreciate Franklin Graham who right now is strongly opposed to the world’s system of tolerance.
My question, what is the next step after the removal of the tax exempt status of a non-compliant church? If a church or churches refuse to be programmed to be apostate and they do not convert; what is the next step? Because there will be a remnant that will not be conditioned to ride the 7-headed beast. There is a remnant who will not drink from the whore’s cup of abominations with Beto O’Rourke and Senator Cory Booker.
The first thing right now being discussed is the removal of the 501c tax exemption. The next step would be confiscation of equipment, properties, buildings, buses and vehicles used for ministry. The third step would be incarceration, and lastly, martyrdom. Now as despots and tyrants are, sometimes they won’t follow this procedure, so they will go straight to martyrdom.
The prince of the power of the air is growing more impatient because he knows his time is short on the earth. Revelation 12: And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
If a church does not keep, or perform, the commandments of God instead saying the teachings or commandments are dead, they will not have to be concerned with being persecuted.
Those who have understanding know where we are in this season. With O’Rourke he will have the support to take away the 501c from those institutions and organizations that will not convert, or submit to apostasy, and will do much more than that. He will dissolve the remnant’s health insurance, your credit score, your government check from where you were disabled in the military, your social security, your welfare, your children will be removed and placed in locations (internment camps) to be reprogrammed (China does this), and because you will not conform you will lose your job; he will have your bank accounts confiscated, credit cards, your house, you will not be able to rent, and your vehicles will be seized. This is history repeating itself, this is nothing new. This is not fear mongering, good grief. There were those who were accused of fear mongering when Adolf Hitler was coming into power. They had understanding that he would be a despot, a tyrant.
As a leader his first wave of persecution was against his own people, the most vulnerable in his nation; those with disabilities. In our nation, on a national level, the first wave of persecution was against the most vulnerable as well, the unborn. People just submitted, converted to thinking like the whore sitting on the 7-headed beast and drinking from the cup of abominations.
In the ancient past, in the time of Daniel when he, the southern kingdom of Judah was exiled to Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar had constructed an idol of gold and gave a royal government decree for all the appointed officials, counselors, administrators, governors, the treasurers, magistrates, judges, all of the officials of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which he, the king, had erected. Daniel 2.
So the herald cried out that whoever would not fall down and worship this idol at the sound of the music would be thrown in the fiery furnace. So, the music sounded and everyone fell down before the idol, before this gold statue, except Daniel and his three friends: Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. So they were defiant of the government decree, and the king being as good as his word, ordered them to the flames of the furnace. Out of the thousands of attendees there, only four refused to be programmed to be apostate.
Daniel 6, the government, this time under Darius the Mede, issued at the behest of other government officials that if anyone would petition any god or man for thirty days, except the king, would receive the penalty of being cast into the lion’s den. Daniel hearing about this order being signed went about his daily prayer life as if it didn’t even happen. Before the government order he prayed three times a day, after the order signed, he continued to pray three times a day. The government officials brought this to the king’s attention and Daniel was cast into the den of lions. With the help of God, he survived that too, and his enemies and their families were thrown into the den of lions.
This is a pattern we see often in the Word, where the enemies of God are destroyed. In Revelation 19 the beast and the false prophet are thrown in the lake of fire and the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him (Yeshua) who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.
Anyway, that is all I am going to say about it for now. I wish I were able to impart to every listener understanding, and understanding of where we are in the Word. We are definitely in Revelation. The world, the Middle East is waiting for the anti-christ. I am waiting for the Son of God.
Let’s get started on Revelation 11.
Hear O Yisrael, the Lord God the Lord is One.
Psalm 24
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein.
Father, We thank You for being God, the King of the universe, and over heaven and earth. We thank You that You give us understanding and we embrace it. Your Word is being fulfilled even as we speak. The mystery of God is being accomplished, which is the redemption of Israel, and Your kingdom arriving. Your name is holy the earth. We pray in Yeshua’s name. Amen.
We are still discussing earthquakes in Revelation and seeking to pinpoint which one could perhaps be related to the resurrection. We have been using a process of elimination as we move along.
So last program we looked at Revelation 11, concerning the two witnesses, this chapter is under the sixth trumpet, which is also referred to as the second woe. We know that in the Torah/Law there had to be at least two witnesses to accuse anyone of doing wrong. We are not given the identity of these two witnesses other than they are the two lampstands and two olive trees which are symbolic of this continual flow of anointing and light. Oil and light represent wisdom, knowledge, understanding, might, counsel and the fear of the Lord. These witnesses are in a dark and oppressive time in Israel and their anointing is warring against these dark forces. It is making them who love darkness totally miserable.
Revelation 11:7,
When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city (Jerusalem) which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put in graves.
So this is saying Jerusalem is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt. Sodom was guilty of many things: murder, cruelty, and homosexuality. Egypt was noted for murder (they drowned the Hebrew male babies in the waters), they forced the Hebrews into slavery and the Egyptians were idolaters.
Two witnesses are patterns that we find throughout the Word. I am going to give two examples as they reflect the passage I just read in Revelation 11.
Two angels were sent to Sodom to act as witnesses on the depravity there, and the firsthand account of these angels and even Lot was that the townsmen gathered to sodomize them. In Egypt were two men who would face off with Pharaoh: Moses and his brother Aaron. At the end of their journey there, YHVH humiliates Egypt and their idols. In Israel is the arrival of these two witnesses who accuse them of these same matters associated with Sodom and Egypt.
Verse 11, Now after three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them. In the same hourthere was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God in heaven.
Here we see a resurrection, an ascension along with a simultaneous earthquake. These were signs to them, the Jews. Matthew 16, the Pharisees and Sadducees came to Yeshua testing Him asking Him to show them a sign. He called them hypocrites because they knew how to discern the weather but could not discern the signs of the times. He went on to tell them that a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and no sign shall be given them except the sign of the prophet Jonah, whose being vomited up from the belly of the whale was a type of resurrection. In this scene in Revelation the Jews witness a resurrection of these two witnesses.
Paul in I Corinthians 1:22, admits the character of the Jews is to seek a sign and the character of the Greeks (nations/Gentiles) was to seek knowledge.
So, though there are 7000 dead, and destruction of the tenth of the city, those who remained began to give glory to God, so it is like they begin a process of repenting. That is what Jews do first, and this begins a revival.
Their calloused hearts, their hard hearts will no longer oppose the Gospel of Yeshua. Paul said the day would come when all of Israel would be according Romans 11:26
The deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for his is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.
Paul continues: Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God is irrevocable.
So, I see nothing here of replacement theology. The gifts and the calling of God is irrevocable. Numbers 23:19, God is not a man that He should lie nor the son of man that He should repent orchange His mind concerning Israel. This is the Word of the Lord given to Balak the Moabite from Balaam in this same passage in Numbers 23. Has He said and will He not do? Or has He spoken and will He not make good? Behold, I have received a command to bless (Israel); He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it. No one else can reverse it either, no matter how many times you say it, nor how many times it is taught wrong, it will not change God redeeming Israel. Revelation is the redeeming of Israel. He will keep His word to perform it, He will deliver Israel from the nations and Israel will be saved. That is truth from the Spirit of God. It will never be changed. God has always had a plan for Israel.
Here in Revelation 11, is the sixth trumpet, it is the second woe (the seventh trumpet has not sounded yet if we would think of it in the terms Paul was speaking of in I Corinthians 15:52 of it being the last trump that would awaken the dead, which would be the resurrection and those who remain are caught up together to meet Yeshua in the clouds.
These two witnesses are resurrected, they do ascend, there is a great earthquake, but this is not the resurrection spoken of as I mentioned in I Corinthians 15.
There is another trumpet, the seventh trumpet that is yet to sound and we will go over that next Sunday.
If it is God’s will I will be here next program. Remember to walk by faith and not by sight. Do two things this week: love and forgive. Ask God to cleanse you from all unrighteousness every day. Keep your spiritual garments clean from wrinkles, spots and blemishes. Love God, love your neighbor.
Rico Cortes will sing the Aaronic blessing.
the seventh trumpet blast initiates a process whereby the kingdom will be established.
