Participants: Ivor Myers (Host), James Rafferty (Host), Jason Bradley, Yvonne Lewis
Series Code: SISS
Program Code: SISS000038A
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00:29 We are still there,
00:30 we're still in the toughest section of Revelation, 00:33 you know that... I mean I said 8 but I meant 8-9. 00:36 Yvonne: Why do you feel like this is the toughest section? 00:40 James: Well, it's highly symbolic 00:42 so you've got intense symbolism all through these verses 00:45 and it's almost impossible to take it literally 00:48 because we tried to figure it out literally 00:51 it's just like... like we're getting into... 00:53 we're going to get into locusts and smoke and 00:55 scorpion tails and this is just... 00:57 you can't take that literally 00:58 and just like in these last verses, 01:00 blood and hail and fire mingled with smoke and bitterness 01:02 and it's... it's too much to take literally 01:05 so you have to go back to the Bible and see the symbolism 01:08 and then it kind of opens up. 01:09 Ivor: I'm going to say this, 01:11 I remember, before I became a Christian, 01:13 I think I accidentally may have read this chapter 01:17 and I closed the Book and I was like, 01:19 "No thank you, it's not for me. " 01:22 James: Exactly. 01:24 Ivor: Yeah, scorpions with what? 01:26 I mean, like, locusts with what? 01:27 James: Yeah... 01:29 Ivor: "Let's just hope this is not true. " 01:31 James: It's Sci-Fi and that's the thing about 01:34 Revelation that I think is really cool. 01:35 The Book of Revelation has a little bit of everything 01:38 that would draw the attention of every human on Planet Earth. 01:42 It has Sci-Fi... it has romance... 01:44 we talked about this, it has action, adventure, 01:46 hero, love story, all of those themes 01:49 are packed into this Book 01:50 and discovering what all that means is an adventure, 01:54 now, I'm not sure that everyone's up to that adventure 01:57 but I think at some point or another 01:59 we owe it to ourselves to take that adventure. 02:02 Every single person on Planet Earth owes it to themselves 02:04 to step into the Book of Revelation 02:06 and experience the adventure of discovery 02:10 of Bible prophecy... 02:12 and I'd love to see this program be part of... 02:15 of encouraging people to do that 02:17 so that's really exciting, well let's start 02:18 with a word of prayer... who would like to pray for us? 02:20 Yvonne: Yeah, I'll pray... All right, thank you Yvonne. 02:22 Yvonne: "Father, thank you so very much, once again, 02:24 for being with us and guiding us Lord 02:26 we just pray for wisdom, we pray for your guidance 02:30 and we thank you, Lord, that you've promised to be with us 02:33 so, please bless everyone at this table and everyone watching 02:37 help us all, Lord God, to continue to seek you 02:40 with all our hearts, in Jesus' name, amen. " 02:42 All: "Amen... " 02:43 James: All right Jason, you've got the verse 02:45 and we're going to start with Revelation chapter 9 and verse 1 02:50 we're just going to start with verse 1... 02:52 and just kind of open that up. 02:54 Jason: Okay, "And the fifth angel sounded, 02:56 and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: 02:59 and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. " 03:02 James: All right Ivor, 03:04 what have we got here, what's going on? 03:05 Ivor: So... this is a... again we said this chapter is like 03:10 super, super... like... difficult. 03:12 James: That's why I handed it to you. 03:13 Ivor: Thank you... and yet... 03:17 one of the things that we... that we have discussed 03:21 time and time again... is this... 03:24 the principle we've laid out in the Book of Revelation 03:27 that as we learn to look at patterns 03:29 and step back and say, "Okay, what are we looking for?" 03:32 We have a better idea of what we're looking for 03:35 because we're allowing prophecy to determine the history 03:38 that we're looking for, right, and so... 03:41 this fifth trumpet... actually I'm going to read 03:44 on a little bit... just a couple of verses randomly 03:48 so you can see what we have going on, verse 2, 03:50 "And he opened the bottomless pit; 03:52 and there arose a smoke out of the pit, 03:54 and the smoke of a... as the smoke of a great furnace; 03:56 and the sun and the air were darkened 03:58 by reason of the smoke of the pit. " 04:00 In verse 3 it talks about locusts coming upon the earth 04:04 in verse 5... "that they should not... " 04:09 it says, "And to them it was given 04:10 that they should not kill them, 04:12 but they should be tormented five months: 04:14 and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, 04:17 when he striketh a man. " 04:18 Okay, what in the world are we looking for? 04:22 Well, before we even go there, let's step back, 04:25 right, let's ask ourselves a question 04:28 all right, we learned that a trumpet 04:31 represents three things, 04:34 number one... God's people going forward, 04:36 number two... the enemies of God's people 04:39 being removed... 04:40 and number three... the enemy's sword 04:43 being turned upon itself. 04:45 In other words, "What you did... 04:47 what you have done to my people... 04:48 I'm going to have that done unto you. " 04:50 It's a very interesting principle because 04:53 even when we get to the... to the "deadly wound" 04:55 we're going to see... a very... 04:57 it's a unique verse... it says, 04:59 "he that killeth with a sword, must be killed with a sword. " 05:02 in other words... "what you do, comes back to you" 05:05 and that's what we're going to see 05:06 one of the things happening in this 5th trumpet 05:08 but there is something else I want to look at 05:11 the first... the two trumpets before this... 05:14 what were they dealing with? 05:17 One was bitterness... right... 05:20 making the waters bitter 05:23 the other was darkness... turning the light to darkness. 05:28 So, let's pause right there, hold your place here, 05:31 we're going to go to the Book of Isaiah... 05:34 Isaiah chapter 5 and I want you to notice 05:37 verse 20 and 21... okay... 05:42 verse 20 and 21... would you read that for us, Yvonne? 05:47 Yvonne: "Woe unto them that call evil good, 05:49 and good evil; 05:51 that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; 05:54 that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" 05:57 Ivor: Just stop right there. Yvonne: Wow! 05:59 Ivor: Do you see that? Yvonne: Ah ha... 06:01 Ivor: We just combined two trumpets, right, 06:03 in this one verse, sweet for bitter... 06:05 the light for darkness 06:07 this is exactly what the Papacy does 06:09 okay, during the Dark Ages. 06:11 All right, so, this is a warning to those who do this, 06:15 what is the warning? 06:17 Because if you do this... I want you to listen... 06:19 go ahead and jump down to verse 26 06:21 and I'll read here, verse 26, 06:24 same chapter, "He will lift up an ensign 06:27 to the nations from far, 06:28 and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: 06:32 and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly... " 06:35 Okay, so, this is God now saying, 06:37 "because... " or a warning to them that do this 06:40 "and as a result of you doing this 06:41 here's what I'm going to do, 06:42 I'm going to bring a nation from far... " 06:45 that's what He's saying and look at verse 27... 06:47 "None shall be weary nor stumble among them; 06:50 none shall slumber nor sleep; 06:52 neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, 06:55 nor the latchet of their shoes be broken: 06:57 Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, 07:01 their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, 07:06 and their wheels like a whirlwind. 07:08 Their roaring shall be like a lion... " 07:11 okay, pause for a second... 07:13 what do we just see happen in the fifth trumpet? 07:17 There's this army of locusts and they are described 07:21 like... "roaring like lions... " 07:23 Yvonne: Hmmm... Ivor: Okay. 07:25 James: But we didn't read that, I don't think. 07:27 Ivor: Do you want to read it, I thought we had touched on it. 07:31 James: No, we didn't touch on it 07:32 because it's not until we get down to verse 8. 07:36 Ivor: So verse 8, okay, could you read verse 8 for me? 07:38 James: "And they had hair as the hair of women, 07:40 and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. " 07:42 Ivor: Okay, very good, so watch this, 07:44 under the third and fourth trumpet, 07:46 you have people putting bitter for sweet, 07:49 dark for light, darkness for light... 07:52 and then we go to Isaiah 5:20, 07:55 we hear God using this... this exact term 07:57 "Woe unto you that do this, because you do this, 08:00 guess what I'm going to do, 08:01 I'm going to send a nation upon you... " 08:03 and then he begins to describe a nation, 08:04 "They shall be like roaring lions... " 08:06 this nation that is just... that's coming as a vengeance 08:10 or as a judgment upon those that put bitter for sweet 08:13 and darkness for light. 08:15 Yvonne: Hmmm... Ivor: Let's keep reading... 08:16 look at verse 29 of Isaiah 5, 08:17 "they shall roar like young lions: 08:19 yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, 08:22 and shall carry it away safely, and none shall deliver it. 08:26 And in that day they shall roar against them 08:28 like the roaring of the seas: and if one look unto the land, 08:32 behold darkness and sorrow, 08:34 and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof. " 08:38 So here He's talking about an army coming 08:42 that would, like, darken the lights... 08:45 darken the light of heaven, 08:46 He's saying, "This is the result of turning 08:49 darkness to light... bitter to sweet... " 08:51 so we go back to the Book of Revelation 08:54 and we simply ask ourselves the question, 08:56 Okay, we know the Papacy turned light to darkness, 09:03 we know they turned bitterness... to... 09:06 sweetness to bitterness so if the trumpet represents 09:11 an enemy... coming upon... or an outside force coming upon 09:16 and the sword being turned upon them, 09:18 if we notice... the trumpet represents 09:23 a punishment as a result of their turning 09:27 lightness to darkness... light to darkness... 09:29 can we look in history to see 09:32 was there ever any army that came against the Papacy 09:40 as a result of their idolatry? 09:42 And guess what the answer is? 09:43 The answer is obvious, absolutely... 09:46 history shows us that it was the Nation of Islam, if you will, 09:53 the rise of Islam as a power... 09:56 that actually when they came upon the scene, 09:59 one of their sole purposes was to war against 10:02 what they considered, "idolatry" 10:04 James: Idol worship... Ivor: Idol worship... 10:06 so what you have happening under this 5th trumpet 10:10 when the fifth angel sounded, 10:12 "And I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth... " 10:15 again, we have a fallen angel, 10:16 now, there's some question as to whether this fallen angel 10:20 is the same fallen angel back in the 10:23 3rd... 4th trumpet is it? 10:25 James: Third... Ivor: Third trumpet... 10:27 but nonetheless... it's a fallen angel, 10:29 when this fallen angel opens up the bottomless pit, 10:34 smoke arises out of the pit as well as this "army of locusts" 10:39 and this army of locusts is commanding... 10:42 look at verse 4 and we're kind of just... 10:45 again just... kind of looking at a big picture here, 10:47 "It was commanded them 10:49 that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, 10:51 neither any green thing, 10:53 neither any tree; but only those men 10:55 which have not the seal of God 10:57 in their foreheads. " James: Hmmm... 10:58 Ivor: Okay, so this is... this power is coming upon the scene 11:03 solely for the purpose 11:05 of attacking those that are not God's people. 11:11 Okay, and who would that represent? 11:13 Again, that would represent the Papal System 11:16 that was in place at that time. 11:18 Something very interesting about this as we look at the... 11:21 at this bottomless pit opening up... 11:23 and the smoke comes out of the pit, 11:26 it darkens the sun... verse 2... 11:28 "the sun and the air were darkened 11:31 by reason of the smoke of the pit. " 11:33 Now, James, you were sharing earlier that... 11:36 in the previous program that the sun represented... 11:39 James: Christ's righteousness... 11:41 "the Sun of righteousness... " Malachi 4:2 11:43 Ivor: The air... 11:44 James: The air? Ivor: Hmmm... 11:46 James: There are a couple of verses that make it very clear 11:48 that the air represents the Holy Spirit... 11:49 these verses are in Acts chapter 2 verses 2 and 4... 11:52 I'll just read them... "And suddenly there came a sound 11:56 from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, 11:58 and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 12:01 And they were filled with the Holy Spirit. " 12:02 So you have the wind... Holy Spirit. 12:05 Jason: We should also look at John chapter 3 verse 8 12:08 where it says, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, 12:12 and thou hearest the sound thereof, 12:14 but canst not tell whence it commeth, 12:16 and whither it goeth: 12:17 so is every one that is born of the Spirit. " 12:20 James: Yeah, so that's another verse... 12:22 good one Jason, that just kind of ties in the "wind" 12:25 or the "air" as a representation of the Holy Spirit. 12:28 Ivor: Right... so... so... look at the principle here... 12:30 James: Spiritual darkness... Ivor: Spiritual darkness... 12:33 right... they're attacking... 12:34 the Papacy... remember... they were against the truth, 12:38 they were against the Sun of righteousness, 12:41 the very thing that... that they darkened 12:44 under this fifth trumpet... this power comes up 12:48 out of the abyss... this darkness happens... 12:51 the smoke darkens the sun and the air, 12:53 now, I don't know how much you know about Islam 12:56 but they believe that Jesus 12:57 who we just identified as the Sun of righteousness, 13:00 is a prophet but that He is not the Son of God. 13:03 Okay, they don't believe in the Holy Spirit 13:05 and what's interesting about this is that 13:07 the Papacy was a Church-State entity persecuting... right... 13:14 so what does God do? 13:15 Okay, because you are standing in the way of my people, 13:19 and, and, and trying to block them out, 13:22 I'm going to bring another power upon you... 13:24 that is just like you... 13:26 a church... because that's what Islam is... 13:29 it is a spiritual... it's a religio-political entity 13:32 that denies who Jesus is... denies the Holy Spirit 13:36 and so, just as we saw in the story of Gideon... 13:39 when the trumpet was blown, 13:40 these enemies turned their swords upon one another, 13:43 here you have dark forces, if you will, 13:46 turning their forces upon one another 13:49 in Islam... coming against the Papacy... 13:52 now, even though we just 13:54 said that Islam attacked the Papacy, 13:55 it was actually for a good reason, 13:57 because what we're going to see is that, 13:59 we're going to get into these... in fact... 14:01 let's go to the Book of Joel chapter 2, 14:02 I'm going to show you something here 14:04 and James, you can jump in on this... as we read, 14:06 I'm going to just pick up with the first two verses here, 14:09 James: Joel chapter what? Ivor: Joel chapter 2 14:12 Joel chapter 2 but... what we're going to find 14:15 is that Islam... the Ottoman Empire... 14:17 which is what we're talking about here 14:22 actually was a... was a "safe haven" 14:26 for Protestants... when they came on the scene 14:30 because, they had a special... they were like, 14:34 "Oh you guys are against the papacy? 14:36 Because they are idolaters... " that's what they thought of 14:39 the Catholic System... and so, whoever was against it, 14:42 they were actually... for... in other words, 14:46 they actually protected... 14:48 offered protection and a safe haven 14:50 when many of these people were being persecuted 14:52 under the Roman System... 14:54 they could actually... even though they were... 14:55 this was an Islamic entity... 15:01 they found religious liberty 15:03 under Islam... which is a very interesting revelation. 15:06 Yvonne: Wow... that is interesting. 15:08 Ivor: It's almost as though, again God brought them 15:10 on the scene to give breathing space to the Protestants. 15:12 Yvonne: Right... 15:13 Ivor: In fact, we're going to see 15:15 is that... the Papacy was trying to stamp out 15:17 the Protestant Reformation 15:19 and as a result of Islam coming up on the scene, 15:21 they had to direct their attention to Islam 15:24 which allowed the Protestant Reformation time to grow... 15:29 remember the blowing of the trumpet... advance... 15:31 their enemies turned their swords upon one another, 15:34 let's look at Joel chapter 2 and I want you to notice this, 15:37 Joel chapter 2 verse 1, 15:39 it says, "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, 15:42 sound an alarm in my holy mountain: 15:44 let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: 15:47 for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand... " 15:50 remember we talked about how 15:52 when Peter was speaking on the Day of Pentecost, 15:54 under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 15:56 he quotes Joel chapter 2, "Blow a trumpet in Zion... " 16:00 a warning... why? 16:02 "a day of darkness and gloominess... " 16:05 a day of... what? 16:07 "Clouds and thick darkness, 16:09 as the morning spread upon the mountains: 16:12 a great people and a strong; 16:14 there has not been ever the like, 16:17 neither shall there be any more even after it, 16:19 even to the years of many generations. 16:21 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them... 16:24 and the land is as the garden of Eden... " 16:27 I'm sorry... "A fire devoureth before them; 16:30 behind them a flame burneth: 16:31 the land is as the garden of Eden before them, 16:34 and behind them a desolate wilderness; 16:37 and nothing shall escape them. " 16:39 "The appearance of them... " 16:40 and that term is interesting right there James, 16:42 because the appearance of them 16:44 is almost identical to the description of the locust 16:48 in Revelation... "the appearance of that... " 16:50 James: Yeah, but this army in chapter 1 16:53 is actually identified as an army of locusts. 16:55 Ivor: That's right... in chapter 1 verse 4... 16:57 in the Book of Joel, right? James: Yeah... why? 17:00 Ivor: Joel, same book but different chapter. 17:02 James: Yeah, verse 4, verse 16 17:04 and those verses identify this as the "locust army" 17:08 in the King James' it's, "the palmerworm" 17:11 and then the "palmerworm... the locust" 17:12 but in other verses in the Bible it's "the chewing locust" 17:15 "the swarming locust" "the crawling locust" 17:17 and "the consuming locust" they're all locusts... 17:21 and that locust terminology, that locust symbolism 17:24 is what is being borrowed in the Book of Revelation 17:27 so in the Book of Revelation, God is saying, 17:29 "Okay, here's an army of locusts go back to the Book of Joel 17:32 and look at the history, okay, here's the history. " 17:34 Isaiah 5... you already referenced and Joel 17:38 are both speaking prophetically of the army of Nebuchadnezzar. 17:42 The Nebuchadnezzar's army... the Chaldeans... 17:47 came against Israel because they were unfaithful 17:50 they compromised, they were worshipping idols, 17:53 they were obscuring the truth of the Bible and prophecy 17:56 they were persecuting God's "faithful people" 17:58 like Jeremiah and others... killed Isaiah, 18:01 put Jeremiah in a pit, the Babylonians come, 18:04 the Chaldeans come, Nebuchadnezzar comes 18:06 and they rescue Jeremiah, in a sense, from the pit, 18:08 and so, really what God is doing in Revelation chapter 9 18:12 is He's reminding us, 18:14 now here's what's something that's even more interesting... 18:16 the literal army of Nebuchadnezzar 18:18 and the Babylonians the Chaldeans... 18:21 came from the same location as the army of Islam. 18:25 The nations and tribes of Islam in the Middle East there, 18:28 same location... present-day Iran... 18:32 is the country from which... 18:34 or Iraq is the country from which we find 18:36 Nebuchadnezzar, et cetera, coming... way back in the day 18:40 so you have these... this same territory 18:43 and God is speaking... using the same symbols to describe 18:46 this same type of judgment that He's bringing 18:49 like He brought against His people, 18:50 He's bringing against the faithful... 18:52 I mean, against the... those who've been unfaithful 18:54 and when Nebuchadnezzar came, do you know what he did? 18:56 He protected God's faithful people like Jeremiah, 19:01 He protected... and just like you had noted 19:03 that Islam actually was a protection and a safe haven 19:06 for the Reformers... 19:08 that's what Nebuchadnezzar did, 19:10 he protected His faithful people. 19:11 Even Daniel and his friends were exalted to 19:15 prominent positions under the rulership of Nebuchadnezzar. 19:18 Ivor: Hmmm... hmmm... absolutely, so... I mean again, 19:21 as we look... I mean... if you were just... 19:24 if I were just to say, "This is Islam... " 19:26 without giving a reason why, you would need to... 19:31 you would say, "Well, how did you get Islam?" 19:32 Yvonne: Right. 19:33 Ivor: We're looking at locusts, we're looking at... 19:35 how do you get Islam out of this? 19:37 But when we look at the principles and say, 19:39 "Okay, we're looking for God's judgment" 19:41 because we know that trumpets represent judgment... 19:44 so, we're looking for God's judgment upon the Papacy 19:46 because we know the Papacy... 19:48 is that power reigning during the Dark Ages, this is... 19:50 this is clearly an army... it's an army of locusts... 19:53 let's go back to the Bible, 19:54 "Wow, the story of Nebuchadnezzar... " 19:56 Nebuchadnezzar used a... a Gentile nation 19:58 right, a nation that was not his own... 20:01 they were not his own people but he uses this Gentile nation 20:04 as a scorch upon those who are professing his name, 20:08 why? Because they're turning 20:10 sweetness to bitterness and light to darkness. 20:15 And as a result, He says, "I'm bringing a nation upon you" 20:18 so now, all they have to do is okay, say, "Hmmm... 20:20 let's see... was it the Chinese that came against the Papacy 20:26 around this time period of the Dark Ages?" 20:29 No... were they the Incans? 20:31 no, no, no... then who? Let me go to my history... oh! 20:35 whoa... there was a nation that came against the Papacy... 20:40 and it was Islam... it was the Ottoman Empire 20:42 wow! they did... they were so numerous 20:45 they were like an army of locusts 20:48 and wow, did they just focus on those that did not have 20:52 the seal of God in their foreheads?" 20:54 James: Hmmm... 20:55 Ivor: "Yeah... " because we know that those 20:57 who had rejected Christ, rejected the Holy Spirit 21:01 were turning... bitter... 21:02 they're not going to have the seal of God, and guess what? 21:04 In the writings of the Ottoman Empire 21:07 you will find that they had... 21:09 they had actually written letters to Martin Luther 21:12 saying, "You have a safe haven... 21:14 we will help you and assist you" 21:17 and this is why Martin Luther believed... 21:20 Martin Luther, himself, believed 21:23 that Islam had been allowed by God 21:25 to give the Protestant Reformation time to flourish 21:29 because the Papacy... trying to destroy... 21:32 trying to destroy the Protestant Reformation 21:35 had to turn their attention on Islam 21:37 thus, allowing the Protestant Reformation time to advance 21:42 and not be stamped out. Yvonne: Wow! 21:43 James: You know, there's another thing here 21:45 that I think is really interesting 21:46 when you look at the smoke with the pit, 21:49 there's a verse in the Old Testament 21:51 that identifies smoke as image or idol worship 21:57 it's in Hosea 13:2 and 3 and it says, 22:00 "Now they sin more and more, and have made for themselves 22:03 molten images... idols of their silver, 22:08 according to their skill, all of it the work of the craftsmen: 22:11 they say of them, 22:12 Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves. 22:14 Therefore they shall be like smoke from a chimney. " 22:17 The smoke of a great furnace... smoke like a chimney... 22:20 those who are worshipping idols, the Bible says, 22:23 will be like the smoke of a chimney. 22:25 When the Muslims came out, they specifically... 22:27 as Ivor was saying, 22:29 they didn't harm those who had the seal of God 22:31 and specifically the command was, 22:34 "Those who do not worship idols... 22:36 those who do not worship idols... " 22:37 they believed that idol worship was wrong, 22:39 they still believe that idol worship is wrong, as we do, 22:42 it's a violation of the Commandments of God... 22:44 worshipping of images and idols... 22:46 and so they gave a specific command, 22:47 now those who were sealed with the seal of God, 22:49 you know what the Bible says how we receive the seal of God? 22:53 In Ephesians it says that we're sealed by the Holy Spirit, 22:56 we're sealed by the Holy Spirit, and it's a sealing in the gospel 23:00 and so, Ephesians 1 identifies us 23:02 as being sealed by the Holy Spirit 23:03 which is... which is the third person of the Godhead, 23:06 we believe that... and... and, therefore, 23:08 not worshipping idols 23:10 is synonymous with being sealed with the Holy Spirit 23:13 which we know is synonymous with darkening the air and the light 23:17 but when we don't worship idols, 23:18 we're sealed with the Holy Spirit 23:20 so these people here that were worshipping idols 23:23 were the target of the Muslims, in a sense, 23:26 and those who refused to worship idols were left alone. 23:29 Ivor: It is what the crusades were about, 23:33 conflict between the Papal System and Islam. 23:37 James: Now here's something else that's interesting, 23:38 Nebuchadnezzar... in Joel chapter 2 23:41 God said, "This is my army, 23:43 this is my scourge, this is my army" 23:45 but Nebuchadnezzar didn't have the light, 23:46 he didn't understand who God was 23:48 or prophecies or... he wasn't like Israel 23:51 who had all that light but God used him, 23:53 same with Islam... you have a power here, 23:55 that definitely is not in harmony 23:58 with what we understand concerning Christ, for example, 24:00 being the Son of God... concerning the gospel... 24:02 but yet God uses them to bring the scourge... 24:04 so... so... all we have to do is we go back to the Old Testament 24:07 and we look at the locust imagery 24:08 that was used for Nebuchadnezzar who didn't have all the light 24:11 but was used as a scourge against God's unfaithful people 24:14 and protected the faithful like Jeremiah 24:17 you go to the New Testament, the Book of Revelation, 24:19 ah ha... history is being repeated... 24:20 you have another "Locust Power" that doesn't have all the light 24:23 but they're used as a scourge against God's unfaithful people 24:26 and they protect... seal of God... 24:27 those who have the seal of God. 24:29 Ivor: And here is something important to remember as well 24:31 because you're sitting at home and reading this yourself, 24:33 you're going... 24:34 "All right... hair like the hair of women, 24:36 locust... what could that be?" 24:38 Well, remember, in the Book of Joel 24:41 and in the Book of Isaiah, 24:43 the description that's given this... 24:45 that they're an army of locusts, you thrust them through... 24:48 nothing's going to happen to them, 24:49 it wasn't literally saying that they're not going to die, 24:52 it was simply God saying, 24:54 "Look, this army is going to be scary, 24:57 okay, you're not going to defeat them" 24:59 and so He's using... just symbolic language 25:02 to describe, "Oh, the army of Nebuchadnezzar" 25:05 right, so, when we read Revelation... 25:07 a lot of people are reading it, 25:08 "Okay, what could that be?" Because at the end of time 25:10 there's going to be some really crazy things... so... 25:12 "Yeah, there will be locusts 25:13 that look like women... have women's... " 25:15 no... it's God, simply describing... 25:19 and that's why... we were kind of talking about it, 25:20 we want to get into all the... 25:22 "Well, what does this mean? What does...?" 25:24 No, the big picture is... this is Islam... 25:27 Islam is being... is the army being described 25:29 that is going to attack the Papacy 25:31 and thus give God's people time and space to advance. 25:35 James: But I think it is interesting don't you, Ivor, 25:38 that there were some certain characteristics 25:41 like the long hair... okay, the turbans... 25:44 and then you have... you have the... 25:47 the breastplates that were breastplates of iron 25:51 with the sound of their wings... 25:52 the sound of many chariots as of the horsemen running the battle, 25:54 the horses were the thing that they used, 25:55 they used horses 25:57 and there are certain characteristics here, I think, 26:01 that are significant to help us to identify these... 26:05 the specifics of who this was, 26:08 not just the history... that's good too, 26:10 not just the fact that it's repeated, 26:12 that's good too, all of that is important 26:15 but then you... God is so merciful 26:17 because He actually comes down to the very... 26:19 some of the very characteristics 26:21 that will help us to identify this army. 26:23 Ivor: Yes... Yvonne: Hmmm... 26:24 James: I agree with you Ivor, 26:26 we don't want to get into... to... all of the details 26:28 we can't bog down on that so we've got this basic outline, 26:33 oh, and I like this other one, in verse 10 it says, 26:35 "and their tails were like scorpions 26:37 and there were stings in their tails 26:40 and their powers to hurt men five months... " 26:42 where's the other one that I wanted to look at? 26:45 Let's see... because I remember 26:50 as I read the history of this, it was talking about 26:54 how that the Muslims were the first ones... 26:57 I don't know if you're aware of this, 26:59 to use gunpowder in the battle... 27:02 when they took down Constantinople... 27:03 that was one of the things that they did 27:05 so there's another aspect here about... 27:07 about the description that I really think that's... 27:09 we'll pick up on this... we're out of time right now 27:11 but we'll pick up on this, we haven't... 27:13 we've just begun to actually get into this, 27:15 we're the basic overall description 27:17 and then we're going to get into a time prophecy 27:20 and some of the details that fit that Muslim Empire 27:22 that I think are really profound and prophetic. 27:25 So, what are people going to do if they want to get ahold of us? 27:29 Jason: They should send us an e- mail at sss@3abn. org 27:33 James: sss@3abn. org and we want to roll their 27:37 video submissions... so they can actually be on 3abn 27:41 without even leaving their home... pretty much. 27:45 Yvonne: That's right... that's great. 27:49 James: So we're going to close it up right here, 27:51 we'll pick it up again... kind of summarize this first part 27:54 and then we'll ride into the second one when we get back. 27:57 Jason: Sounds good... James: Sounds good. 27:59 Yvonne: Yeah... |
Revised 2016-11-29