Episode Transcript
Are you ready to embark on a thought provoking journey of discovery? Curious to explore an alternative narrative that challenges the theory of evolution? What impact has the war in heaven had on our planet? And what are the implications for humanity? What can we learn from this epic battle that is unfolding between good and evil? Here is your opportunity to unlock a treasure trove of spiritual insights from the Bible that will answer these and many other pressing questions, illuminating the path to eternal life which lies just a choice away. Here is Bill Gates presenting from the mark of the beast to the second coming of Jesus. I will need to spend a period of time talking about the 144,000 special christians at the end of time, because these are the people who prove that God is right and that Satan was wrong.
And therefore, these are the special people that enable God to usher in a clean and sinless universe. Again, hard to imagine a universe without hospitals, prisons, sickness, suffering, pain or death. And the 144 thousands are the ones who vindicate God.
When the devil accused God of giving created beings a law that they did not need. This was one of the two reasons for the war in heaven before lucifer was thrown out of paradise. And so the final question I left with you at our last meeting was, who comprises the 144,000 and what is so special about them? Well, it is they who reflect most perfectly the character of their Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what is so special about them. And this gives them victory over the power of sin. For it says here on the screen, if you notice the yellow words, Christ's character in the life of the Christian gives us victory over the power of sin.
And we have this Bible reference here, one John four, verse 19, which says, we love him because he first loved us. Now that we understand this, I can reveal to you exactly when it is that Jesus Christ will come back. It is not a date.
Instead, it is an event, as the spirit of prophecy writings say in Christ object lessons, page 69. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in his people, then he will come to claim them as his own. And although no one knows the time when Jesus will return, we can see that it is Christ's character reflected in his saints that enables him to return.
And the Bible portrays a special group of people whose characters will indeed reflect the character of Christ. They have grown to love God and his holy law so much, for it gives them a stable, unchangeable moral compass. It gives them nonnegotiable boundaries, which in turn gives them inner peace, security and happiness.
And according to revelation 15, verse two, it says here and I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mingled with fire. And then that had gotten the victory over the beast and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And so they are up in the air with Christ on the sea of glass.
They're not on the planet. And you and I can be part of that group called the 144,000. And what a privilege to be able to vindicate God in this way and thus rebuke the devil and his lies.
So who are the 144,000 mentioned in revelation chapter seven? And is this number literal or symbolic? If you answer that the 144,000 are the representatives of the literal twelve tribes of Israel, then you will end up with a huge problem. God abandoned the nation of Israel back in 34 AD because the literal nation of Israel rejected God's promised and appointed messiah, Jesus Christ. As a result, the 144,000 cannot come from the literal nation of Israel.
If you answer that the 144,000 is a symbolic number, you will run into a different problem, for that poses a new question, and that is this. What are they symbolic of? Well meaning people will say that they are symbolic of all that will be saved. But if the 144,000 are symbolic of all who will be saved, then we cannot answer the next question.
Who then is the great multitude that cannot be numbered mentioned in verse nine of the same chapter seven of revelation? Here is what I believe the real answer is, and it's not one that I have heard before, but it makes sense to me. If you recognise that the 144,000 are both symbolic as to character and literal as to number, you will have no problems or contradictions. In other words, their identity is not just literal, it is not just symbolic, but it is both literal and symbolic.
And that idea will solve a lot of problems. The 144,000 are God's elite spiritual followers that God develops just before the opportunity for people to be saved closes forever. And you'll know when that day is, when the first of the seven plagues fall.
So here is the first of the six identifying marks to help us to see the difference between the 144,000 and the great multitude that cannot be numbered. The 144,000 can be numbered, the great multitude cannot. And that's a fundamental difference between the two groups.
And that's my first of six reasons to support the contention that the 144,000 are not the same as the great multitude, as some are teaching today. And the reason this great multitude cannot be numbered is because they are the dead saints who come up in the resurrection as such, they were not around to get victory over the beast, his image or his mark as the 144,000 do. Some will object as follows and say, are you saying that there will only be 144,000 living saints on the earth when probation closes for the human race? The answer is yes.
I am suggesting that, and my suggestions are based on five more evidences, which you will see very shortly. But please don't put words into my mouth by suggesting that. I am saying that only 144,000 are going to heaven.
I'm not saying that at all, for there will be millions and millions going there. I'm simply saying that only 144,000 will be translated without seeing death at the second coming. For we're told that after probation closes but before Jesus returns, there will be no more martyrs.
Now, my second reason is this one. It comes to us from the Bible, and the Bible references. One corinthians ten, verse 13.
No temptation has overtaken you, except such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. So God can easily lay the true members of his flock to rest, to spare them from the future hardships and leave himself 144,000 soldiers who he knows he can use.
We have a biblical precedent of God culling his troops. God sent most of Gideon's army home, didn't he? Gideon had an army of 32,000 soldiers, and God cut that way down to 300, thus sparing the other 31 700 soldiers from duty. And within 24 hours, the enemies of Israel were routed, and they fled.
Gideon's army got the victory, but God got the glory. And God can do the same thing in the future. Lay the saints to rest that he chooses so that they are sped from hardships that he knows they cannot handle.
And then God simply brings those ones he laid to rest back to life again via the resurrection at the second coming. But God will still have the living soldiers, 144,000 in number that he can use, but done in such a way that God gets the glory and not man. Our next slide confirms that the 144,000 are the living saints and are a literal number, coming from the spirit of prophecy collection to the little remnants gathered abroad.
April 6, 1846. The living saints, 144,000 in number. Notice the two things.
They are living saints, and they are specifically numbered. As I said earlier in this presentation, the person who wrote this quote was given visions as promised by God and mentioned in Joel, chapter two, verse 28 and 29 of the Bible. They are designed by God to illuminate and increase our understanding of the prophecies already in the scriptures.
Therefore, when I share these quotations, it is solely to throw light on the Bible prophecies. For that is the role of the God given gift of prophecy to illuminate the dark passages of scripture. And as two chronicles 20, verse 20 says, believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established.
Believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. With 144,000 vindicating God here on earth, God can then eradicate sin and his enemies forever. And I say praise God for that.
The 144,000 have allowed God to mould their characters in such a way that the fruits of sin have disappeared from their lives as a result of God sanctifying them fully. And so, as this screenshot shows, they don't have any evil doubts or envy or lies, enmity, grudges, gossip or addictions. These will all be gone, as revelation 14, verse five says, and in their mouth was found no guile.
For they are without fault before the throne of God. And it is the 144,000 that have left the old, selfish ways of living behind them as they experience the joy that a spirit filled life produces. Instead, they've allowed God to give them the fruits of the spirit, which is quite different.
Let's notice Galatians five, verse 22, and to 23, they have love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control. Let us now make a contrast of following these two theories of living, the subjective laws of Satan, which his followers established to suit themselves, and the well defined objective laws of God, which he writes on the hearts of his true believers. We have here the end result of living a life without God in our lives produces chaos and anarchy.
But disguised as liberty, the end result of living a life with God in our lives produces peace, true liberty, and eternal life. And the only way for God to end up with a clean universe again is for God to allow the fruitage of sin to reach its ultimate depths of degradation. And what I just mentioned is what we're seeing today that we never used to see 40 years ago.
And so nobody will ever want to do that again. And nor will they ever dispute with God over his perfect law, as Lucifer did. To do it before the depths of sin have been revealed to all living is to risk having the problem of sin arise again in the future through some other person challenging God in the hereafter.
God's plan of salvation is foolproof and ensures that there will be no more challenges to his authority, his government, or his character, which, as I have said before, is the character of love, mercy and justice. Therefore, we can have absolute assurance that the problems of death, sickness, suffering or pain will never happen again to those who are saved by God. I personally believe that it's a great privilege to be seen by God as being worthy to be called a part of the 144,000.
And therefore, as this spirit of prophecy quotation says, let us strive with all the power that God has given us to be among the 144,000. Quotation from a viewer in Herald, March 1905. Now think, how can the dead saints strive to be a part of the 144,000 when they're dead? This proves that the 144,000 which can be numbered and the great multitude that cannot be numbered are separate groups.
This striving can only be done by the 144,000 living saints at the time when the mark of the beast will be formed. And we had a session on the mark of the beast a while back. For it is the 144,000 that get the victory over the beast, his image and his marks.
The dead saints cannot do that because these prophecies are still just a little bit ahead of us. My third piece of evidence confirms that the 144,000 and the great multitude are two distinctly different groups. Remember, we looked at revelation 15 two, and it talked about the sea of glass.
And notice how the saints are arranged on that sea of glass. Spirit of prophecy makes it crystal clear. Great controversy.
Page six, six, five. Here is my first point. The first group nearest to the throne are those who were once zealous in the cause of Satan, but who plucked his brains from the burning, have followed their saviour with deep, intense devotion.
And I suggest to you that Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, would be a classic example of one of these. The second group. Next are those who perfected christian characters in the midst of falsehood and infidelity, those who honoured the law of God when the christian world declared it void.
And this has to be the 144,000. And there's with them are the millions of all ages who were martyred for their faith. And then the third group and beyond is the great multitude, which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues, before the throne and before the lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands.
Based on revelation seven, verse nine. Notice that the 144,000 are very close to Jesus on the sea of glass, and the great multitude are further back in the square. So that makes them separate groups of saints.
And what a privilege. Notice what this Bible verse says about the 144,000. Revelation 14, verse one and I looked, and lo, a lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with him 144,000, having his father's name written in their foreheads.
What a privilege to have the father's name written in our foreheads. And these people, the 144,000, have a unique reward, as is recorded in another spirit of prophecy, writing called early writings, page 19. As we were about to enter the Holy Temple, Jesus raised his lovely voice and said, only the 144,000 enter this place.
Then Jesus left us and went to the city. Here is my fourth piece of evidence. The one favoured with a vision of the third heaven was shown that only the 144,000 live with God in the temple.
And part of their special reward is that they go with Jesus. Wherever he goes in the universe, they go with Jesus. By the way, we should notice that God's heavenly temple and New Jerusalem is outside the heavenly city, just as it was an earthly Jerusalem outside the old city of Jerusalem 2000 years ago.
No wonder John the Revelator said in revelation 21, verse two, and I, John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem. But then in verse 22 of the same chapter, he says, and I saw no temple therein. John is not saying that there's no temple in the third heaven.
He is simply saying it is not inside the holy city, it is outside of the holy city, which explains the words of Jesus we read a moment ago, which is showing here. Then Jesus left us. That means he left the temple and went to the city.
Let us take notice now of a fifth piece of evidence as we look at another special reward given to the 144,000. Their names are inscribed in gold on the pillars which hold up the heavenly temple. The great multitude that cannot be numbered also have their names engraved in heaven, but not on the pillars of the temple.
Thus the 144,000 and the great multitude that cannot be numbered are separate groups and therefore not one and the same as is being taught in some parts of Christianity today. Here is the 6th and final piece of evidence from early writings, page 16. Then Jesus silver trumpet sounded and the graves opened and the dead came up clothed with immortality.
The 144,000 shouted Alleluia as they recognised their friends who had been torn from them by death. How could the literal 144,000 living saints welcome the dead saints if they and the great multitude were one in the same group of people? Thank you, sir. You have answered my first question about the 144,000 being the only ones alive who will keep God's true sabbath.
But I have another objection. Are you saying that the 144,000 are sinless? No, I'm not saying that. I'm not saying they're sinless, but I am saying that they are holy, for their sins have all been forgiven, therefore they are holy and righteous.
As Christ's declaration in revelation 20 211 states, he that is unjust, let him be unjust still. And he which is filthy, let him be filthy still. He that is righteous, let him be righteous still.
And he that is holy, let him be holy still. You see, there's only ever been one person who was sinless, and that person was Jesus Christ. Even Pilate said, I find no fault with this man.
And Hebrews 415 confirms this. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathise with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. And the 144,000 are immovable as a rock when it comes to obeying the teachings of God and obeying God's law.
From the motive of love. And by making such a resolute decision, they have been sealed by God. They have become God's elite on earth, and they vindicate God fully by keeping men's side of the covenant with God.
Found originally in Exodus 19, verse five, and in New Testament times, found in Hebrews eight, verse ten. As a response to God's saving grace, they determined to love God and obey his commandments, as many of the great multitude did before their deaths. This slide here, Exodus 19, verse five.
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people. For all the earth is mine. And the renewal of the covenant with spiritual Israel, found in Hebrews 810, has the 144,000 succeeding, whereas the ancient Israelites and their gentile believers in Exodus 19 five failed.
Thank you for clarifying that for me. I see now that having a friendship and a relationship with Jesus Christ, who makes holiness and righteousness possible within his saints, is the key that enables that to happen. And having been strengthened by God, the 144,000 will vigorously oppose what the governments of the world are doing.
And once those governments legislate Sunday for worldwide compulsory congregational worship, then the final events of Bible prophecy unfold. God actually intervenes in earth's affairs personally, and these events will be very dramatic. The Bible tells us he's going to intervene in psalm 119, verse 126, which says, it is time for thee to work, Lord, for they have made void thy law.
And what is one of the dramatic things God plans to do well, he's going to allow mankind to discover the Ten Commandment stone tablets, the ones given to Moses and hidden in the time of Hezekiah around 600 bc. From the spirit of prophecy, we get manuscript 120 219 o one talking about the law preserved in the ark. And he gave unto Moses two tables of stone written by the finger of God.
Nothing written on those tables could be blotted out. The precious record of the law was placed in the ark of the testament and is still there, safely hidden from the human family. But in God's appointed time, he will bring forth these tables of stone to be a testimony to all the world against the disregard of his commandments and against the idolatrous worship of a counterfeit Sabbath.
What a dramatic event. But there are even more dramatic events than that yet to unfold, as you will soon see. And then comes the final warning message to the world, found in Revelation 18, verse four, where God acknowledges that he has his people in the Sunday keeping churches.
But he says to them, I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues. This is a repeat of the second angel's message found in revelation 14, verses six to twelve. The difference this time being that spiritual Babylon is now succeeding in getting the whole world to embrace her false doctrines as a distinct from just the american Christians of the 1840s.
And so at the end of God's kingdom of grace, there will just be two groups of people. The unjust and filthy are one group, according to revelation 20 211, and they constitute the lost or the goats. The second group are the righteous and holy ones, and they constitute the saved or the sheep.
When that declaration is made, it's too late to change your mind. That is why salvation is such a serious matter and needs decisions for God to be made sooner rather than later. And when everyone has made their decision and the declaration is made in heaven, ending any opportunity for people to change sides, then the end events unfold.
God does what Isaiah 28 21 says he will do, and it says here, for the Lord shall rise up, that he may do his work, his strange work, and bring to pass his act. His strange act. This is when the seven angels arrive with the seven last plagues.
This is when the door of mercy for sinners to be saved is now closed forever. These seven plagues, recorded in revelation, Chapter 16, are poured out only on the rebellious sinners. God's people, however, are protected in this time just as they were when the original plagues were poured out on Egypt.
And what are these seven last plagues? Well, let's notice the first five recorded in chapter 16 of revelation. Verse two says that sores will afflict those who accept the mark of the beast. Verse three says, the sea turns to blood and all sea creatures die.
Verses four to seven, the rivers turn to blood. And verses eight to nine, mankind scorched by the sun, and they end up blaspheming God. And the fifth one, the beast, seed of government, is afflicted.
Verses ten and eleven, after the fifth plague has fallen, then another very startling event takes place. The original ten commandments from heaven are displayed by the real God across the tumultuous sky. Here is how the spirit of prophecy portrays the event, unfolding great controversy.
Page six, three, nine. There appears against the sky a hand holding two tables of stone folded together. And you know, the Bible said that the heavens would declare the glory of God.
And there it is in psalm 50, verse six, the heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God is judge himself. That holy law, God's righteousness, that amid thunder and flame, was proclaimed from Sinai as the guide of life, is now revealed to men as the rule of judgement. The hand opens the tables, and the words are so plain that all can read them.
Memory is aroused. The darkness of superstition and heresy is swept from every mind. And God's ten words, brief, comprehensive and authoritative, are presented to the view of all the inhabitants of the earth.
What a day that will be. Now we will look at the last two plagues that fall on the disobedient ones. We have here verses twelve to 26.
The Euphrates is dried up. The world armies gather together for the battle of Armageddon. And then finally we have the earth is to be utterly shaken with the most destructive earthquake one could ever have.
There is hail. There's lightning. There's thunder.
There will be very large hailstones falling as well. Each hailstone weighing about 56 pounds, or 22 kilogrammes. These hailstones destroy planet earth, as our next Bible slide reveals.
Says here, jeremiah four, verse 26, I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord. And by his fierce anger, then the real Christ appears in the sky and calls his family up to him. As we learned earlier, this is another very dramatic scene.
And for the saved, it is a grand time. They have waited patiently for this day. Now they can say, as recorded in two Timothy, chapter four, verses seven.
And eight. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course.
I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, but for the lost it is a terrible day. As Matthew 13, verse 49, says, the angel shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It was the unrepentant sinner's choice that brought this result, and they chose unwisely. It was not God's choice.
I have tried to present this message in as clear a light as possibly can be done, so that we will not be confused, lost, unsure, unclear, perplexed, disoriented or bewildered. For there's a heaven to win and a hell to shun. Those who miss out on heaven miss out simply because they could have chosen to live with God forever, but they chose not to.
Some hope to hide behind their refusal to learn the facts, thinking that they might slide into heaven due to their ignorance. Sorry, it doesn't work like that. God will make up for our deficiencies, yes, but he will not make up for our neglect to learn the truth for ourselves when the opportunity was presented.
And a person's choice to be a disbeliever will not stop the destruction of all the people who chose to reject these final warning messages. For those who do not establish a relationship with a just and merciful God, reap what they sow, as our next slide reveals in revelation six, verse 15, and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb, which is a reference to Jesus Christ. But God's people also suffer, but in a different way, because knowing that the plagues are falling, they realise that salvation is no longer available to any who have unconfessed sins in the books of heaven.
This leads them to experience an unusual time of trouble, as it says here in Jeremiah 30, verse seven. Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it. It is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.
In the last days. The saint's time of trouble is slightly different to Jacob's time of trouble. Back in Old Testament times, he wrestled with God physically, whereas God's last day people wrestle with God spiritually, wondering if they have any unconfessed sins in the books of heaven.
The spirit of prophecy throws light on this matter for us in great controversy. Page 620. But while they have a deep sense of their unworthiness, they have no concealed wrongs to reveal.
Their sins have gone beforehand to judgement and have been blotted out, and they cannot bring them to remembrance. Then comes the fulfilment of another Bible prophecy, Ezekiel, chapter 37. It's a prophecy about the valley of dry bones.
These bones are the bones of the lost. However, the saints are in heaven for a thousand years, thoroughly enjoying their new life in perfect bodies, doing perfect and wonderful things, whilst the wicked are all dead here, back on this planet. Therefore, there's no one around to bury the wicked dead.
And so planet Earth will thus become the world's biggest cemetery. Only the bones lie on the surface of the earth, as our next Bible text states in Jeremiah 25, verse 33. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth, even unto the other end of the earth.
They shall not be lamented, neither gathered nor buried. They shall be dung upon the ground. But the saved will have a fabulous journey back to God's dwelling place in the third heaven and are living forever with holy and happy people.
And we will be doing glorious things like travelling with God throughout space and doing it forever. We'll also be building a new home in the country, which means we will have two homes, not one. One will be in the holy city.
And Jesus promised in John that he would do that. In John 410, he's building one in the city for us, and we end up building one in the country. So you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know what the right choice should be.
Heaven is a happy place where the thousand years of peace is enjoyed. And the thousand years of peace is not going to be on planet Earth, as some christians teach, although they may think it will be so when the false Christ appears. We spend a thousand years in heaven, occupying the houses that Jesus said he would prepare for those who loved him and kept his commandments.
But what happens after the thousand years? Well, revelation 20, verse five tells us, but the rest of the dead lived. Not again till the thousand years were finished. The rest of the dead can only refer to the wicked who were left behind on planet Earth a thousand years earlier.
They awoken up by God to see the arrival of God's holy city, plus all of the holy angels and the holy saints arriving back to this old, ruined planet Earth. This is at the third coming of Christ and when he returns, his intention is to remake planet Earth into its original and perfect edenic state. Our next slide gives us an artist's impression of what the scene might look like when Satan rallies the wicked into trying to capture God's holy city.
During the thousand years, Satan had no one to tempt, for the planet was empty of all living humans. That was the chain of circumstances that bound him on Earth. But now the valley of dry bones rattles as the wicked come back to life again.
Satan has his army back, and he persuades them that they can capture this holy city, which he claims is rightfully his. And it's not. But they fail.
It's at this time God receives the acknowledgement from these disobedient people that he was correct in leaving them out of heaven, for they would not have been happy there. Then these rejectors of God's mercy die the second death from which there is no resurrection. They are simply roasted and toasted until they cease to exist.
This is how God destroys the devil and his evil angels and all who refuse God's invitation to be adopted into his family and thereby be saved from the punishment for sin and the end of the world. As revelation 20, verse nine says, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. Then death and hades were cast into the fire.
This is the second death, and anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. You might be saying to yourself, I don't want to worship a God who would destroy disobedient rebels. Please remember that the final fires that clean up the planet and destroy God's enemies were originally designed for Satan and the evil angels who rebelled in heaven.
They were not originally designed for humans, but that is the destiny for all who choose wrongly after learning the facts. And also think about that for a moment. If we think like that, we are in effect saying that God should not destroy the disobedient people.
And therefore we are saying, by implication, we want to continue to live on planet earth, including living with sickness, suffering, pain and death. But it's God's plan to get rid of all these negative things brought into this world by God's enemy. And isn't that what some question is asked? If God is a God of love, why do we have sickness, suffering, pain and death? Yet when God tells us in his Bible that he plans to get rid of all these evils, some questioners still want to haggle.
But God is inviting us today to stop haggling. As Ezekiel 1832 says, for I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, says the Lord God. Wherefore turn yourselves and live.
But you might be thinking, what if sin arises again through some other person? Well, the Bible answers that for us in our next slide. And this is from Nahim one, verse nine. What do you imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end.
Affliction or sin shall not arise the second time. So God has promised that sin will not arise the second time. And that is wonderful news.
Loyalty to God is vitally important to our eternal destiny. And notice this, the great sin of the Jews was their rejection of Christ. The great sin of the christian world would be their rejection of the law of God, the foundation of his government in heaven and on earth.
That's a quote from great controversy, page 22, another book from the spirit of prophecy collection. Therefore, the only ones who will be going to heaven are the ones who don't repeat these mistakes. For there is no salvation for the willfully disobedient, only for the loving and obedient saints.
Well, we've had ten presentations and the time has flown. But it's time now for me to give you a quick review of the ten presentations. In the first of these ten presentations, we dealt with the two theories on the origins of life.
We discovered that macroevolution has firstly, no witnesses, lacks credible scientific evidence, cannot answer the question, why was I born? Why am I here and where am I going? And it offers no hope beyond the grave and is defended greatly by those wanting to establish their own subjective morality. The other theory, called divine instant creation by a supreme God, had thousands of witnesses to Christ's instant creative ability just 2000 years ago. And it did answer the question, why was I born? Why am I here and where am I going? It gave tremendous hope beyond the grave to those who choose to belong to Christ's family here on earth.
Plus, it gave wonderful hope to people feeling depressed or suicidal. The second presentation introduced the creator God and the fact that due to a war in heaven, a great controversy developed between God, the creator of the universe, and Lucifer, the leader of the angels. We learned the two reasons for this war in heaven.
Firstly, Satan wanted to be like God and receive worship. Secondly, that creator beings like angels and humans did not need God's objective laws called the ten Commandments, which has love as its basis. Instead, angels and humans could make up their own subjective laws.
And humans have been doing that big time since 1960 that this became a challenge to the authority of God, his government and the peace of the universe. Thus, Satan and a third of the angels in heaven were cast down to this planet where the war continues. Then we learned about God's plan of salvation through Jesus Christ, who would save God's government, his law and his character, and also save any humans who wanted to accept God's plans that would enable mankind to live eternally, but on God's terms.
The third presentation saw how Satan deceived Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. After that, they and their descendants fell into a life of sin, rebellion and violence with all its tragic consequences. The violence became so bad that God had to destroy planet earth with water from below, the earth coming up as strong geysers and water falling from above for 40 days and 40 nights.
And only one family was saved, Noah and his family. For they obeyed what God asked them to do. Then God had to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their depraved lifestyles.
The fruitage of following Satan's subjective ideas that created beings can decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong. But it costs them dearly. Had they obeyed God's objective laws, they would not have suffered that terrible consequence.
And after God had brought his people out of slavery in Egypt, then I showed you that the real Mount Sinai was in Saudi Arabia, not in the Sinai peninsula. I also showed you how God at a later date instituted the temple services in the wilderness where the levitical priest could offer the blood of an innocent slain lamb. Then we moved to part four where I showed how the temple services in the wilderness demonstrated through the various services the way in which Jesus Christ would play all of the important parts.
And as you'll see on the screen here, he was our perfect sacrifice, our perfect example for holy living, our perfect high priest in the heavenly sanctuary and our wise judge and our coming king. Then I mentioned the dangers of consulting evil spirits instead of consulting the supreme God of the universe for guidance. I also mentioned how God's people didn't like being different.
They wanted to have a king like the other nations around them had, and this was granted to them by God. But what an insult to God, for he was the king of kings. As a result of worshipping pagan gods, God used the prophet Elijah to confront king Ahab and the pagan prophets and priests who were leading God's people astray.
Thus there was a big showdown. The 850 pagan priests and prophets were slaughtered. And for a little while the ordinary people honoured the true God.
But after a time and once again, the Israelites began to worship pagan gods and idols. In the fifth presentation I showed how God allowed the babylonian army to capture his people, cart them off to Babylon for 70 years, where there were plenty of idols that they could worship. Early in the 70 years captivity, God gave the prophet Daniel a fabulous look into the future, spanning 2300 years, from 457 BC to 1844 AD, but broken into two parts, 490 years and 1810 years.
The 490 years was further broken into smaller units, and as you can see from the chart, it accurately foretold the very dates that Christ would begin his ministry and his death, and the date when God could no longer use the literal nation of Israel as his chosen messenger nation. We also learned that a day stands for a year in Bible prophecy, as shown on the screen. The 6th presentation saw the ministry, the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ, and the outpouring of pentecostal power that took the christian message to the then known world in quick time.
We should also have seen that between the ascension and 31 AD and 64 AD, every Christian was a 7th day Sabbath keeper, as was Jesus and the apostles. Then when Rome burned in 64 AD, the caesar by the name of Nero blamed the christians and severe persecution came. And with it came compromise.
And in 64 AD, for the first time, some 7th day Sabbath keepers left the sign of loyalty to the creator God, which is the keeping of the 7th day Sabbath, by becoming first day Sunday keepers to avoid being killed. Thus, the pure christian faith became compromised. We also learned about emperor Constantine marching his soldiers into the river Tyber to be baptised as christians.
But they were not christians, for they had not been taught Christianity. Instead, they were only wet pagans, and they brought in all of their pagan ideas into Christianity, including the pagans'day of worship, called Sunday, instead of the true Sabbath day. A little later, emperor constantine issued the edict of Milan, legalising the pagans day Sunday as the day for the christians to conduct congregational worship services.
Thus we had two streams of Christianity. It was politically expedient for him to do that, but it was a terrible mistake. And then the Roman Catholic Church ratified that change at the Council of Laodicea in 364 AD.
We also learnt from both the Old and New Testament that the rock of salvation is a name that refers to Jesus Christ. It does not refer to Peter. In the greek language, Peter's name meant a pebble, not a rock.
So God was building his church on Christ and not on Peter. For the gates of hell, meaning the grave, did prevail against Peter, whereas the gates of hell did not prevail against Christ, for he conquered death through his resurrection. And we made a big discovery that the jewish Sabbaths were annual holy dates that could land on a Monday or a Wednesday, et cetera, whereas God's sabbaths were weekly holy days and fixed between sunset Friday to sunset Saturday.
And when the jewish ceremonial annual sabbath dates landed on God's moral weekly Sabbath day, it became a high sabbath. We don't have high sabbaths anymore because the jewish ceremonial laws, including their ceremonial sabbaths, were nailed to the cross. But God's eternal moral law, called the ten Commandments, was never nailed to the cross.
For how could it be? We would not know what God defines as sin unless that law still existed on earth today. And in Hebrews chapter four, he still tells us to keep holy his sabbath day. The 7th presentation highlighted the problems of the dark ages.
And then we looked at the Council of Trent, where the roman catholic leaders discussed three major problems. Firstly, how to stop the vast numbers of Catholics joining the new protestant churches. Secondly, how to shift the identity of the popes being called the Antichrist because they claim to be God on earth.
And thirdly, which was to have the preeminence tradition or the scriptures. And we looked at the many protestant christian leaders that God used to counter the heresies of the dark ages. And here they are.
Here John Wycliffe, Johann Gutenberg, Holdred Swingley, Martin Luther, William Tyndale, John Calvin and John Knox. And we observed around the mid 1770s that God gave three major signs in the natural world. These were to inform christians that a major prophetic fulfilment was about to happen.
And that was to see the papacy suffer a deadly wound in 1798. Notice the three things that happened in 1798. The pope was taken prisoner, the papal states were confiscated a little later, and the papacy lost its political power.
And seeing this fulfilment led the protestant Christians to form the Bible societies. And they wanted to circulate as many bibles as they could. And then these christians of the early 18 hundreds discovered that there was still another time prophecy ending in 1844.
This was the 2300 year time prophecy that had been sealed up until 1798 at the command of the archangel to the prophet Daniel, and which had as its ending date of 22 October 1844. So from 1798 onwards, with the arrival of the time of the end, which is not the same as the end of time, christians began to understand the Book of Daniel, which led them to understand about 1844, marking the start date of the judgement process in the courts of heaven. Currently it is the deceased christians that are being judged.
No one knows when it will move to the living christians. This judgement event determines the rewards to be given to the saints. For as it says here on the screen, revelation 20 212, behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me to render to every man according to what he has done.
The rewards are commensurate to what we have done for him whilst alive here on earth. Then we learned about the papacy receiving back its political power in 1929, and that eventually all the world shall wonder after the beast. The 8th presentation of the big picture revealed that although Israel will be saved, it is spiritual Israel that will be saved, not literal Israel.
Thus the arrival of the literal nation of Israel again in 1948 is irrelevant in God's plans, for he had no choice but to abandon them back in 34 ad, after they had abandoned him by rejecting God's chosen Messiah, Jesus Christ and Galatians 329 told us, who is spiritual Israel? Then we discovered that the ecumenical movement was set up to ultimately unite all of the religions of the world into a one world religion, with the pope as the universal leader over all. But to do this, the ecumenical movement encourages people to abandon Bible doctrine and just come together in the name of love. But Bible doctrine is vital, for it teaches us about God, our destiny, and highlights the great controversy between God and the devil, and between good and evil.
And this is what this series has tried to convey in a visual way. Thus, the ecumenical movement promises peace and safety, but ultimately ends up being a disaster, for they will have abandoned the law of God, the very issue that started the war in heaven. There is only one way to get to heaven, as this Bible slide teaches, and that is through Jesus Christ.
And we learned about the international standards organisation changing our dates and calendars, thus causing terrible confusion in the religious world over which is the 7th day of the week being God's Sabbath day for congregating for worship, and which is the first day of the week, which is the pagans day for congregational worship, but which many sincere christians seek to worship God on. Despite the fact that it is not the day God made holy, that God has a day the 7th day, and Satan has a day the first day, and in the judgement God measures our loyalty to him, by which day we keep holy for congregational worship purposes. It's all about the right way to show our love to God, as Jesus said in this Bible slide John 14, verse 15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And those who do that, blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city. So it's those who keep the commandments that are going into the holy city, not those who follow the teachings of men who have corrupted the teachings of God by being unable to distinguish between the jewish Sabbaths, which were nailed to the cross, and God's Sabbath, which is eternal. Then we talked about an upcoming worldwide law making it compulsory for everyone to obey man's Sunday law, forcing people to abandon God sunset Friday to sunset Saturday if they want to buy and sell.
How important it is to know how to distinguish the counterfeit coming of Christ, which is Satan, disguised as Christ. And the way to know that he is the counterfeit is he makes two big mistakes. He walks on the planet earth, contrary to first, Thessalonians 416 to 18, and he claims to have changed the 7th day Sabbath to the first day Sunday.
This brings on the wrath of God, the seven last plagues, and the end of the world for all people. So I guess by now you can see that the issues are terribly important. Those who escape the end of the world are the ones who have united with Christ and God here on earth, but on a platform of truth and not a platform of error, as the ecumenical movement wants.
Our destiny is in our own hands. God will end up with a clean universe, with no more sin, suffering, pain or death, and no one will ever challenge God again. So whose side will we be on? I've made my decision.
I want to be on God's side, and that's where I am today. Let us never forget, there's only two positions that humans can take. To be among the saved or to be among the lost.
So there's no virtue in sitting on the fence, is there? After all, the saddest words you could ever hear would be from Jesus, depart from me. I never knew you. In summary, God says, fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
Ecclesiastes twelve, verse 13. And it will be worth it for heaven and the new planet. Earth will be a beautiful place.
There will be no weeds, no hospitals, no sickness, no suffering, no pain or death ever again in these new places. That is because all evil will have been destroyed, including the devil, his evil angels, and all unrepentant sinners. So why not consider acting on this chinese proverb mentioned by President Kennedy, which says, according to the ancient chinese proverb, a journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
That first step might be to decide today to study the Bible with someone you have confidence in. Well, it's time for me to sign off now. Until we meet again.
When I bring out the Bill Gates spiritual treasure chest series two.
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