A BIBLE BELIEVER'S COMMENTARY OF REVELATION Chapter 1

(Transcribed from tapes of a class taught by Dr. Peter S. Ruckman at Pensacola
Bible Institute, Pensacola, Florida)


     Revelation is the last Book in the Bible. Revelation is a controversial
Book. A lot of preachers never preach it, never teach it, because it is
controversial. But if you quit preaching and teaching everything that is
controversial, you'll just have to give up the whole Bible. Because eventually
it all gets controversial.

     The Book of Revelation is one of the greatest Books in the Bible. A lot
of people think it is the greatest. Because it's the last one, it's certainly
the most important. Because, without the Book of Revelation, you would never
know how the thing ended. You don't know anywhere in the Bible where the devil
winds up in the lake of fire, except in Revelation. Now, you know it says,
"Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and
his angels," but you don't read about him going there until Revelation chapter
20.

     You don't know what Heaven will look like until you get to Revelation
chapter 21 and 22. You heard Christ say, "In my Father's house are many
mansions," but you don't know what they look like until you get to Revelation.

     Without the Book of Revelation, you wouldn't know how the thing ended. If
you didn't have the Book of Revelation, it would be like "Gone with the Wind"
with the last chapter torn out--which wouldn't be too bad with "Gone with the
Wind"!

     But you take the novels that are written right, that have a happy ending,
you know. These modern novels try to be realistic without being Christian. And
so they always end on a hopeless note. "The Naked and the Dead" by Norman
Mailer ends with a lieutenant colonel figuring out a way to make an overlay
grid for mats for his troops by using the figure of a nude woman and putting
pins in it. And the last words he says at the end of book are, "Hot dog!"
Which is a strange way to end a book, after people have been killed and
slaughtered all over the place.

     The ending on "From Here to Eternity" by James Jones, which pretty well
covers anything that ever happened to anybody, winds up with a mother and a
little boy, and the little boy saying, "Do you think I'll be old enough for
the next war?"

     And the mother says, "Yes."

     "Do you really think so?"

     Question mark. End of the book.

     And when Rhett Butler goes out the door, he says, "Frankly, my dear, I
don't give a " (blankety-blank). That's the end of that book.

     And those are honest books. In fact, it's a pretty good picture of the
unsaved world. That's how they end.

     Now, our Book doesn't end that way! Our Book ends with, "They lived
happily ever after." That's how it ought to end. It ought to end that way. If
it doesn't end like that, there isn't any God in charge of things. If it can't
work out right in the end, atheism is the only religion worth following. If
there's any God up there, it's got to work out all right, and it will work out
all right.

     All right, Revelation has 22 chapters. It has 404 verses. It has 12,000
words. The Book is written somewhere around 90-96 a.d., and is probably the
last Book written of all the Bible books. Now, John is the last writer in the
canon, and John writes after Paul's all through, and Paul writes after
Matthew, Mark, Luke and the rest of them are through. And John writes here
somewhere between 90 and 96 a.d.

     And there are two dates for the Book given. One is the early date, and
one is the late. We take the late date. The early date says John is supposed
to have written the Book during the reign of Nero. We take the position that
he wrote the Book under the reign of a Roman emperor named Domitian. We do
this for a number of reasons. The main reason is, the people who say it was
written under Nero's reign get it back there before 70 a.d., and then try to
make you think that everything in the Book of Revelation took place at the
destruction of Jerusalem in 70 a.d. We don't believe that. There's a great
deal in the Book that has never taken place, and if it took place before the
destruction of Jerusalem, John would have said something about it coming up.
And the Book of Revelation, as it goes on, deals mainly, not with the Jews,
but deals with the Gentile world.

     So it's probably after the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the
reign of Domitian is about 90 to 95 a.d.

     Now, the Book is called "The Revelation of St. John the Divine." That's
the correct title. The word "divine" means a "diviner," a man who can see into
the future. The woman had a spirit of "divination" in the Book of Acts. That's
the ability to tell the future.

     Now, "The Revelation of St. John the Divine"--that first "of" is talking
about John as being the author of it. John there is the subject. Now, when you
get to Revelation 1:1, "The revelation of Jesus Christ," that's the object.
Now, I say that, because you'll find all the scholars saying, "You can't go by
that title in the King James Bible because it's not the revelation of John,
it's the revelation of Jesus Christ." And they say that very puffed up, and
smug, proud like they gave you a great nugget. And they're just full of
prunes!

     The truth of the matter is, the word "of" can take a subject or an
object. For example, I say, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
Am I talking about me fearing the Lord, or the Lord being afraid of something?
Well, you see, before you get to judging too quick, you take some others. "The
truth of God"--is that the truth about God, or the truth that God has? See how
that "of" will switch over on you. How about "the love of God"--is that God
loving you--God the subject--or you loving God? See?

     "You don't have the love of the Father in you," Christ says. Obviously
He's talking about them loving the Father--that's the object. Where He said,
"The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts"--is that our love for God, or
God's love for us? See that? That "of" will double up on you.

     That's how the Jehovah Witness gets in trouble. When he gets to that
verse that says, "Jesus Christ is the beginning of the creation of God." You
ever get that one there? He gets those "ofs" all messed up, and he doesn't
know where he's at. "The beginning of the creation of God"--God's not the
object in that sentence, He's the subject.

     Now, in this thing here, it's John's Revelation. He's the author of it.
But it's the Revelation about Jesus Christ. So, when you get to Revelation
1:1, the "revelation of Jesus Christ," that's Jesus Christ as the object of
the revelation. The Revelation is about Jesus Christ. So, both things are
true. It is the Revelation of John, and it is the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
That is, the King James is right, and the scholars are wrong, as usual.



1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his
servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified
[it] by his angel unto his servant John:

2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ,
and of all things that he saw.

3 Blessed [is] he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy,
and keep those things which are written therein: for the time [is] at hand.

4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace [be] unto you, and
peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the
seven Spirits which are before his throne;

5 And from Jesus Christ, [who is] the faithful witness, [and] the first
begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that
loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him [be]
glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they [also]
which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.
Even so, Amen.

8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which
is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

     All right, Revelation 1:1: "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." The word
"revelation" in Latin is "apocalypse." So, when you the scholarly works, they
keep talking about the "Apocalypse of John," "The Apocalypse," "The
Apocalypse." That's just a Latin word for "Revelation," that's all that is. It
means literally "an unveiling."

     "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto
his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified
[it] by his angel unto his servant John:  Who bare record of the word of God."
That's a small "w" again; it's what God said. "Who bare record of the word of
God," (comma), "and of the testimony of Jesus Christ." What is the testimony
of Jesus Christ? Turn to Revelation 19, verse 10. Defined. Revelation 19:10:
"And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See [thou do it]
not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of
Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." The
testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. If a man has the testimony of
Jesus Christ--that is, he knows about Christ and testifies of Christ--then he
can prophesy.

     How many of you people know where you're going when you die? Let me see
your hands. That's the testimony of Jesus Christ. That's your testimony. Your
testimony is, "I know I'm saved. I was saved. I have eternal life." You're a
witness. You testify of the facts that you know. "The testimony of Jesus
Christ is the spirit of prophecy."

     Now, we don't know everything about the future, but we sure know a mess
about it. For example, I know that men are not getting better, and are not
going to get better. That's the future. I know the world will head up into a
ten-federated kingdom. That's future. I know the Antichrist is coming back.
That's future. I know the Body of Christ is going to be raptured out. That's
future. I know Israel will be restored. That's future. I know they'll live in
the land without trouble and fear. That's future. I know Christ will land on
the ground. That's future. He'll land on the Mount of Olives. That's future.

     I got a pretty good start. And, if you believe the Bible, you know about
the future more than Jean Dixon ever will know. You can read Jean Dixon until
you're red, white and blue in the face, and get all through. She can't even
find the rapture. That dear sister couldn't find a bowling ball in a bathtub,
man! If you can't find the rapture, how could you call yourself a prophet,
man?

     All right, "the testimony of Jesus Christ"--that's the spirit of
prophecy. "The testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
Blessed [is] he that readeth." You see, you're getting ready for a blessing.
This is one Book in the Bible that has promised you you'll be blessed if you
read it, or if you hear it--if you read it or hear it--and believe it--keep
the words, "keep those things"--you're going to get a blessing. "And if you
understand it"--no, it didn't say that. It said, "if you read, or hear, and
keep these things," you'll get a blessing.

     "Blessed is he that readeth." So, we're reading. "And they that hear."
So, you're listening. "The words"--W-O-R-D-S--"of this prophecy, and keep
those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand." We better
make sure we have the Bible. Turn to Revelation 22, verse 19. If you have one
of the new bibles, they take away 30 to 50 words out of the Book of
Revelation. You read in Revelation 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."

     All right, back to Revelation 1:3: "Blessed [is] he that readeth, and
they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are
written therein: for the time [is] at hand." Now, the problem is to find
somebody who heard the words and kept them, and kept the things that are
written therein. Now, we know who did. Turn to chapter 3, and look at verse 8.
There is only one church mentioned anywhere in the Bible that kept the word of
God, and that church is complimented for doing it. Revelation 3:8: "I know thy
works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it:
for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word,..." small "w" "...and
hast not denied my name." There's the word above the name, right there.

     Now the church that kept the word of God is verse 7, the Philadelphia
church. That isn't said of any other church. There are seven churches
mentioned in Revelation, and the only church that kept His word is the church
in Philadelphia.

     And He said in Revelation chapter 1:3, "You need to hear the words, and
you better keep the things that are written therein, for the time is at hand."

     Now, we're going to look at these seven churches. They begin in verse 4.
"John to the seven churches which are in Asia." Now, when John says Asia, he
is referring to what we call "Asia Minor." We make a distinction between Asia
Minor and Asia Major. Back in those days, "Asia" was Turkey, Iraq and Iran,
and up around the Black Sea. Now, Asia is considered to be China and Japan.
Asia on a modern map, what he's talking about here, is what we call Asia
Minor, which is the Near East.

     Then, these seven churches have a writing written to them, and these
seven churches are named. Verse 11: "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the
last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send [it]" ...the book
"...unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna,
and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, unto Philadelphia, and
unto Laodicea." So, this book is to be written and sent to seven churches, and
these seven churches are in Asia Minor, and these seven churches are described
in chapter 2 and chapter 3. There are four of these churches in chapter 2, and
there are 3 of these churches in chapter 3.

     And, when God takes 7 and splits it up, He will always divide it into 6
and 1, or 4 and 3. And His reason for doing that is, there are 6,000 years
before the Second Advent of Christ. So, if you have a seventh period of 1,000
years, it's divided up into 6 and 1. And the Lord will always divide it up
into 6 and 1, or 4 and 3--never 5 and 2--because there are 4,000 years before
the first coming of Christ, and 3,000 years after the first coming of Christ.
Now, the Lord takes that 7 and busts that thing up into 6 and 1, or 4 and 3
every time you find it.

     One of the strangest places you'll find that is in Genesis chapter 1,
where the Lord says the first day was good, the second day was good, the third
day was good, the fourth day was good--BREAK. When the next day shows up, He
says, "Let the waters bring forth the moving creature that hath life." The
first time life shows up, it shows up after 4. Right on the money! That thing
runs 4, along there, there, then it goes 5, 6, and on the seventh day, He
rests. He'll run 4 and 3, 4 and 3, 4 and 3, and bust it up.

     You read Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple. There are
seven petitions. Each petition runs two or three verses, paragraph...two or
three verses, paragraph...two or three verses, two or three verses,
paragraphs. GAP. FIVE VERSES. Then the next three petitions start. He runs
into 4, and runs into 3.

     Now, that breakdown is found throughout to show you that there are 4,000
years before the First Coming, and three thousand between the First Coming and
the Second Coming. The Second Coming of Christ is dated. It's dated. The only
problem is the calendar. But it's dated. It's 3,000 years after the First
Advent.

     Now, that is, that's the wind-up. Four there, and three there, and then
the wind-up.

     All right, now these seven churches. Write this down. When a Bible has a
verse in it, it has three applications. It has an historical application.
History. That means the thing happened as God said it happened, where it
happened. That's history, historical. It has a spiritual application. A
spiritual application means that every verse in the Bible can be used to teach
somebody something about spiritual things. You might write after spiritual,
"devotional." That is, you can learn lessons from any verse in the Bible. Any
verse in the Bible has something for you personally, in your personal life.

     All right, thirdly, "doctrinal." And a doctrinal application means that
every verse in the Bible teaches something that is so, or that is not so. It
has a specific reference to something that God wants to have you get--that's
so or not true. And, after doctrinal, you might write in parentheses,
"prophetic." It isn't a hard and fast case. The doctrinal is often prophetic,
and the prophetic is often doctrinal. The spiritual is often devotional, and
the devotional is often spiritual.

     But there are three applications. Now, I'm going to give you an example.
When the children of Israel came out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, you had
history. They actually came out, they actually crossed, the waters actually
parted, they got to the other side, the waters folded up, they wandered in the
wilderness, they came into the Promised Land. That's history. That isn't
religious belief. That's history. All right, that's historical.

     Now, we talk about spiritual. All right, spiritually, Pharaoh's a type of
the devil. Spiritually, that's a picture of you getting saved, by the blood.
Spiritually, it's your wilderness journey to the Promised Land. Spiritually,
when you get to the Promised Land, you die to self and fight daily to conquer
for the Lord. That's spiritual.

     Now, doctrinal. Doctrinally, Moses is coming again--prophetic. He will
witness the Antichrist, typified by Pharaoh--doctrinal and prophetic. The
crossing of the Red Sea, going up through the Great Deeps, is a picture of the
Rapture. That's doctrinal, and that's prophetic.

     Now, every passage in the Bible comes out just like that. The feeding of
the 5,000 took place in the hillside. He did feed them; He fed them by a
miracle; and took up what was left and put it in a basket. That isn't
Christianity; that's history. Just like the birth of George Washington and the
assassination of Abraham Lincoln; that thing took place, just like He said it
did.

     All right, spiritually. You can't feed folks until the Lord takes you and
blesses you and breaks you, like the bread. And you shouldn't waste anything--
the Lord didn't, see? That's spiritual.

     Doctrinally, the Lord's going to feed Israel in the wilderness and
produce bread miraculously out of nothing when they flee to stay in Petra
south of the Dead Sea three-and-a-half years.

     So, every verse in that Bible has three applications. And, when we talk
about the seven churches in Asia Minor, first, historically. Historically,
we're talking about seven local churches in Asia Minor, to whom John wrote,
and that letter was sent to those churches. That's history.

     All right, now we talk about spiritual. Spiritually, the message of the
seven churches can apply to any church in America. You could take any message
out of Revelation 2 and 3 and use that to preach to a local church, and warn
them what to look out for in the local church. That's spiritual.

     Now, you get to the doctrinal and prophetic import of the passage, and
it's rough. And, I rather suspect--although I don't teach it for sure--I
rather suspect that doctrinally, Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3 will have
a direct application to local churches in the Tribulation. I don't know that,
but I suspect that, and I'll show you why when we get into it.

     But, prophetically, Revelation chapter 2 and 3 picture the Church Age
from the time of the Apostle John until the Rapture. Now, how do we know that?
Turn to Revelation 4. Revelation 4, verse 1. If you ever saw a picture of the
Rapture, there it is. Look at Revelation 4, verses 1 and 2. See that trumpet?
"Come up hither." Up he goes! You know who that is going up? That's John. You
know what John is a type of? He's a type of the bride of Christ. You get that
from the fact that he lay on the Lord's bosom, where Eve came from. He was the
disciple whom Jesus loved. Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.
More than that, you get it from John chapter 21, which we'll study later,
where the Lord says, "If he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" He's a
picture of a saint who's alive when Jesus Christ comes. Then he's raptured.

     Now, that isn't all. Another way we know this pictures the Church Age, is
the word "church" is through here every other paragraph, for two chapters--and
then suddenly disappears! Look at 2:12: "church." Look at 2:17: "churches."
Look at 2:18: "church." Look at 2:29: "churches." Look at 3:1: "church." 3:6:
"churches." 3:7: "church." 3:13: "churches." 3:14: "church." 3:22: "churches."
BAM! You don't find the word again.

     The last time "church" occurs in the Bible it's in the benediction in
Revelation chapter 22. There is no church or churches mentioned in Revelation
4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21.

     The church is gone!

     So, for that reason, you can be safe in teaching that Revelation chapter
2 and chapter 3 is a picture of the Church Age.

     All right, over here on this chart, the 4th and 5th chart, is a picture
of the Church Age. I've also got it laid out as watches in the night. The
Church Age is 2,000 years long, which divides into 4 watches. Each watch is
500 years. You're in the fourth watch--that's the morning watch. Those watches
are evening, 6-9; midnight, 9-12; cockcrowing, 12-3; morning, 3-6, according
to Mark chapter 13 and Matthew chapter 13. And those seven church periods are
laid out in that period of 2,000 years, and I've got written there seven
churches.

     Now down in the lefthand corner, where that little colored chart is, I've
taken the liberty to liken the seven churches to the seven groups of
Christianity that are recognized denominations. There happen to be just seven
of them. Every branch of professing Christianity comes from the Catholic
church, the Greek Orthodox church, or the Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterians,
Lutherans, or Episcopalians. There are no other groups. Those are the groups.

     Every charismatic in this town got his members from one of those
churches. Every Church of God and Pentecostal church in America got his
converts from Methodist and Baptist churches. There are seven denominations
that profess Christianity, and those are the denominations. If you're a dunker
or a Mennonite or a Brethren, you came out of the Lutheran church. If you're a
Wesleyan or a Nazarene, you came out of the Methodist church. If you are a
Reformed or a Congregational, you came out of the Presbyterian church. If
you're Apostolic, you came out of the Greek church or the Catholic church. And
if you are Baptist, you've been around for a long time.

     The Baptists supposedly came out of the Reformation, but you get to
studying history, and they don't come out of the Lutheran church. They're
there before the Lutherans. They don't come out of the Catholic church,
because they're there before the Catholics are there. That's one group. And
those groups are Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian,
Lutheran, and Episcopalian. All other groups--Church of God, Assembly of God,
Pentecostal, Christian and Missionary Alliance, Reformed Presbyterian, Bible
Presbyterian, Southern Baptist, Northern Baptist, Freewill Baptist, German
Baptist, Conservative Baptist, Bible Baptist, Baptist Baptist, Hardshell
Baptist, Two-Seat-in-One Baptist, Primitive Baptist, Seventh-day Adventist,
Jehovah Witness, Church of Christ, Unity, Unitarian, Christian Science, the
rest of them--come out of those groups.

     And those seven churches come along there through the periods of church
history, and I have an arrow down after each one of them. Those arrows
represent apostasy. And when those churches fall away from the truth, I have a
line showing when they start down, and when they hit the bottom. You notice I
have them all going down. I believe in the apostasy of every religious
organization on the face of this earth. I believe the only people who are
going to survive during the next ten to twenty years are Bible believers. I
call myself a Baptist, because Baptists still profess to believe in eternal
security and separation of church of state and the immersion of the believer,
and I believe that. But, boy, we've got some Baptists who are not Bible
believers, I'll guarantee you. And those lines all go down.

     Now, next time when we meet, we'll begin to study these seven churches,
and they're found in Revelation chapter 1, and they begin with a church that
has everything but its first love, and they end with a church that's lukewarm
and bragging about its property and is engaged in human rights. Jimmy Carter
is right on time. The last church is occupied by civil rights, Laodicea,
"laos" from the common people, "dicea" from "diceas," righteousness in Greek--
"civil rights" or "human rights."

     One of the ways you know you're getting near the Rapture is that the
Rapture occurs--if you'll take your Bible and turn to chapter 3--the Rapture
occurs after the Laodicean church--3:14--the church of the Laodiceans. And
that word means "human" or "civil" rights. And you'll find as the church
engages in ghetto and urban renewal and CFR and human rights and women's lib
and equal hiring opportunities--that is the last apostate church on this
earth, and you better fasten your seat belt, because you're gonna fly! You're
gonna fly!

     All right, we'll stop here for tonight, and give a little time for
questions about what we're covered so far.

     Question: Is it possible for the churches to overlap?

     Answer: Yes. I've drawn those lines there to delineate them, but
technically, but if you got down in history, there's an overlap in every one
of them. Laodicea, I judge, from 1900--it probably overlaps to 1880--and
Philadelphia probably overlaps to maybe 1910. You can't draw a hard and fast
line on it. There will be an overlap with all of them.

     QQuestion: What about Revelation 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."

     Answer: Well, you be careful, and notice that it didn't say "name." It
said "part." That's it. So, it's not a verse against eternal security, but
it's a statement that all rewards and all blessings promised in the Book of
Revelation will be taken even from a saved man who messes with the Book. So, I
don't mess with the Book.

     Question: If the Laodicean church started, like you say, around 1900,
where are we now?

     Answer: We're at the jumping off place! We're at the end of the Church
Age; we're at the time when the body of Christ is going into apostasy--not
just the denominations, but the body of people who are in Christ, baptized
with the Holy Ghost, are going into apostasy. So, we're at the jumping off
place.

     Question: Isn't it kind of hard to pray for this country sometimes?

     Answer: Yes, it's extremely hard. As a matter of fact, I don't pray for
it. When they get up to singing, "Get Bless America, Land that I love, Stand
beside her and guide her with the light from thine eye above," I will not
sing. I do not sing, when they sing, "O beautiful for spacious skies, Thine
alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human fears," I just feel like pukin'! It's
not because I'm not patriotic, it's just because I know from reading my Bible
that God cannot and will not bless a country that lives like we live! And
there isn't any point in asking for it.

     Now, I'll tell you what I will do. I'll pray for the leaders, and those
in authority. That's 1 Timothy. I'll pray that I can live a peaceable life
with the magistrates and the powers that be, and that's OK. I pray that God
will save souls. That's OK. I'll pray the saints will get right and get back
in the word. But I will not pray and ask God to spare America for judgment
until America cleans up, and I have no indication that America is about to
clean anything up.

     It's very difficult in these days to tell what people are trusting in.
Tell you what you fellows do while you're here, if you ever have any time--
which you probably don't--but if you have any time, just get a radio some time
in the day and night when you have time. Run across it, and pick up all the
religious broadcasts you can pick up. And then find out at the end of, say, a
month, how many of those people told you that a blood atonement for sin was
necessary to keep you from going to hell. And count the number. If you get one
out of fifty, I'll be shocked--if you get one out of fifty.

     I'll tell you what you'll get. You'll get: "In these days of tension,
what we read today in Rome...da de da dat de dah!...what we read in
Vietnam...da de da dat de dah!...and New York...da de da dat de dah!...and
these days of uncertainty, when man doesn't know where he's going, the only
firm anchor we can hold to is the Christ of the Lord. God's Christ, in the
redemptive history of man, sends to mankind someone who can supply his need,
and fill his deepest longing, and if you want your dynamic tensions adjusted,
so that you can amalgamate..." That's what you're going to get. You're going
to get that.

     "And let Christ come into your life, and make a total commitment. Get
involved!" You know, that kind of stuff.

     None of that stuff has anything to do with Biblical salvation. None at
all. Biblical salvation is, you're born no good, you're going to die no good,
you are no good, you never have been any good, you're never going to be any
good, you're going to be worse later than you are right now, and the only
thing that can help you is new birth, and you can't will it--God has to do it--
and when God does it, it still won't fix you up; the worms still get you; and
your only hope is for Jesus Christ to come back and save you out of this mess.

     Now, that's what it's all about.

     Question: Was John boiled in oil?

     Answer: That's what tradition says; it's not in the Bible.

     Question: When it says in the last days they will not endure sound
doctrine, does that include prophecy?

     Answer: Yep, sure does. Not only does not enduring sound doctrine include
prophecy, but it includes other things, too. "Speak the things that become
sound doctrine," he says in Timothy, and then lists a whole lot of real
practical things.

     Question: When it says they were beheaded because they keep the
commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, does that mean
they prophesied?

     Answer: I hadn't thought about that, but that makes sense. In the
Tribulation, the big message will be, "The King is coming." Now, they're
getting a little premature now. See, "the King isn't coming" now, our Head is
coming. Our Saviour is coming. The King is gonna come a little bit later. But,
in the Tribulation, that thing will be, "The King is going to come and take
over the government and run the king off the throne." The king's the
Antichrist. That'll be a revolutionary message. You'll lose your head for
preaching that.

     The Bible says "will not endure sound doctrine." They won't be able to
stand it.

     You fellows have been passing our tracts for years. Haven't you noticed
the difference in response. Now, I've been a preacher on the street for 28
years. When I first began to preach on the street, a colored fellow would
never turn down a tract--never. And a white man would very rarely turn down a
tract--very rare. Then, you get along there about, oh, about 15 years, you get
'em torn up and thrown in the streets, people cussin' you. Occasionally a
colored fellow would turn 'em down. Nowadays, colored people turn them down
regularly, and a lot of white people won't even take 'em out of your hand, let
alone throw 'em. They just walk right by and turn up their nose. Now, that's a
nation that's just about ready to get sunk. You see, they're proud. Pride. You
get out there and preach in the street, you see it, don't you? See that
struttin'? I mean, everybody's too good to go to hell, see. I mean, you get
that proud thing, you see, they'll not endure sound doctrine; they won't stand
for a preacher standing where I'm standing, there putting that finger on them
and saying, "You're a liar! You're a hypocrite! You're WRONG!" See? And that's
why most of you people here--young people--that's why. Because my generation
would not take it. Now, we've got some folks here tonight who have stuck with
it, thank God. They got through the wilderness like Caleb and Joshua, and
they're still with it. But I'll guarantee there's a mighty few of them. And
what the Lord does, if a generation won't go through, He raises up another
generation. And nowadays the younger generation, they'll take it. They'll take
the beatin', and take the blast, and take it in the right spirit. But a little
old child on the throne is better than an old and foolish king who will no
more be admonished, he says in the Book of Ecclesiastes. When people get up
50, and 60, and 70, and will not stand to have their hide taken off and nailed
to the wall by a preacher, God doesn't them any more, and that's the end of
them. Seriously.

     They won't take a rebuke. They won't stand somebody telling them off. And
I'll tell you, brethren, when you get to a place where somebody can't tell you
off once in a while, you're in the wrong pew, because there isn't any one of
us who doesn't need to be told off on occasion. Like I said, I miss it! I had
one of the biggest times in my life about a month ago, one of the greatest
revivals I ever had in my life was about a month ago when I was up in North
Carolina, and got back in Carl Lackey's church. I hadn't been up there for 22
years, didn't know he was the same guy I picked up. But, boy, I'm telling you,
when you get up there and hear that bird bend over that pulpit and wave that
hand and say, "You, back there! You bunch of rebels, you! You want to raise
hell? You go someplace else!" Hoo! BAM! boy! I sat back, and just steam, boy.
Just steam, man! I like that kind of preaching. I like getting into a place
where, when I go out, I just feel like I've just been exposed and caught in my
sins, and just trapped and hung and just need to go back in the back room
someplace, and just repent all over the place.

     That's right, brother! That's right! I enjoy that! It's sadistic, isn't
it? Masochistic, man! I hate to come, and when I get all through, going out
feeling like, "Well, you know, to-doo, to-doo doo!" You get that off root
beer!

     All right, Revelation chapter 1, where'd we get to? Verse 2 last time? We
got to verse 4. All right, verse 4: "John to the seven churches which are in
Asia: Grace [be] unto you, and peace, from him which is,..." present tense
"...and which was,..." past tense "...and which is to come." That's the Lord;
He lives forever. "And from the seven Spirits which are before his throne."
Which is a new thing. You don't find that mentioned, except the Holy Spirit is
manifested in seven different ways in Isaiah chapter 11, verses 1 and 2. But
the seven Spirits before His throne is a reference to the Holy Spirit, and yet
here the Holy Spirit is pictured as "Spirits."

     Look at chapter 4, verse 5: "And out of the throne proceeded lightnings
and thunderings and voices: and [there were] seven lamps of fire burning
before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God." Chapter 5, verse 6, at
the end of the verse: "...which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into
all the earth."

     Now, the Holy Spirit is never referred to as the Holy Spirit in this
Book. It's always "the Spirit of God" or "the Spirit of life from God," or
"the Spirit." Turn to Revelation chapter 22, and look at verse 17; Revelation
22:17: "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. In Revelation 2 and 3, He
keeps saying, "He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit
sayeth to the churches." The Spirit.

     Now, that's the Holy Spirit, but evidently the Holy Spirit has different
manifestations, just like Christ has different manifestations. And in the Book
of Revelation, plainly the Holy Spirit is not operating the way He operated in
the Church Age, because He's never called by those titles. Why, John, when
John wrote his Gospel, he'd say "the Holy Ghost," "the Holy Ghost," "the
Comforter," "the Holy Ghost," "the Spirit of truth," "the Comforter," "the
Holy Spirit," "the holy Ghost." When he gets to the Book of Revelation, he
says, "the Spirit of God," "the Spirit," "the Spirits of God," "the Spirit of
God," "the Spirit of life," "the Spirit." So the operation of the Holy Spirit
is different in the Tribulation than it is in the Church Age evidently.

     All right, Revelation chapter 1, verse 5: "And from Jesus Christ, [who
is] the faithful witness, [and] the first begotten of the dead." All right,
there are other people who came up from the dead, but nobody ever came up from
the dead, never to die again. "The first begotten of the dead," the first man
who ever came up from death like a "begatting," and then never died again, was
Jesus Christ. Lazarus came up from the dead, and went back to the dead.
Eutychus' son was resurrected, and died again. Jonah came up from the dead,
and died again. Moses came up from the dead, and will die again in the
Tribulation. The only man, and the first man, that ever came up from the dead,
to never die again, is Jesus Christ.

     Now, we're going to come up some day from the dead if we die, and we'll
never again. But Jesus is the first begotten of the dead; we're later. He's
the first in the series.

     "And the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us,..."
one "...and washed us from our sins in his own blood." And that's salvation.

     "And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him [be]
glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." All right, we're made kings and
priests unto God and his Father. And when John says that, you understand John
himself is in the body of Christ. John's in the body of Christ, and he has the
Pauline epistles on the table, and he says, "God has made us kings and
priests."

     Now, you're a priest right now, that offers up spiritual sacrifices, 1
Peter chapter 2. But you're not a king until Jesus Christ comes back. And one
of the troubles we have in this age is too many Christians trying to live as
kings. Like a fellow said, "Too many chiefs, and not enough Indians." And, in
this age, our ministry is the ministry of a suffering prophet. "If a man wants
to follow me, let him die himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."

     And we don't reign now. Now, our ministry now, is to work and serve and
suffer--and we'll reign later. Many of the brethren seem to think they're
reigning right now in the kingdom, by the way they act and the way they carry
on, like they're spreading the kingdom. And the Baptists even talk about
spreading the kingdom, like it was already here. It's some kingdom, brother!
When the kingdom comes, the lion eats straw like an ox, Isaiah 11. You see any
vegetarian lions walking around?

     "Hath made us kings and priests." All right, no crown, no cross. No
cross, no crown. If you don't carry your cross, you don't get a crown.

     "And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him [be]
glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, he cometh with clouds;..."
There's the Advent. "...and every eye shall see him." That can't be the
Rapture, because Paul said the Rapture was a "mystery." "Behold, I shew you a
mystery." That can't be the Rapture, because at the Rapture, every eye does
not see Him. He said He comes like a thief in the night, and those that are
ready He takes out, and the rest of them miss it.

     So, this is the Advent. And when I say "Advent," I mean this arrow right
over here, on this third chart from the end. The arrow comes down and says
"Advent." The arrow that goes up two charts before is "Rapture." You want to
make a distinction between the Rapture and the Advent. The Rapture is secret;
it's a mystery; it takes place suddenly; and nobody sees it but the redeemed.
The Advent is publicly; it's open; and "every eye shall see Him."

     Now, you stop to think about His first birth. When He came here the first
time, First Advent, Rome was in power. The next time He comes, Rome will be in
power. The first time He came, there was one universal language--Greek. The
next time He comes, there will be one universal language--English. The first
time He came, the Jews were in their homeland. The next time He comes, the
Jews will be in their homeland. The first time He came, His forerunner was
John the Baptist. The second time He comes, His forerunner is Elijah. The
first time He came, before John the Baptist showed up, He appeared secretly,
privately, at night, to believers only. The next time He comes, before Elijah
shows up, He'll appear secretly, privately, to believers only--as a thief in
the night.

     When He was crucified, He was crucified in Jerusalem. So God counts the
Jew just as guilty as the Romans. But the one who actually put the spear in
His side was not the Jew, it was a Roman. You don't want to forget that,
brother. Any time you get too much word about the Illuminati and the Masons,
and Russians, and the CFR, don't forget that it was Rome that whipped Him, and
Rome that nailed Him, and Rome that stabbed Him, and Rome that stole His
Bible. Don't ever forget that. That's worth knowing. The Masons weren't in on
that one.

     These folks giving the Masons 'Hail Columbia' all the time down the
country, I don't know much about it. I've got out in California; every time I
go out there, he's trying to get me to preach against the Masons. I go out
there, and he's given me that much stuff, piled that big, to read. I read it,
too--and then threw it away. And that fellow, he's just so hung on that thing;
he thinks the Masons are behind Jimmy Carter, and the Masons are behind Nixon,
and the Masons are behind Rockefeller, and they're behind the Near East
crisis, and the Far East crisis, and the oil crisis, and God knows what, you.
And every Mason is a murderer and a cutthroat, and they've all got phallic
symbols, sex symbols, and Washington, D.C. is laid out according to the sex
orgies of Satan, and the goat writing, and all this stuff--my land, man! If he
was, what could you do about it?

     And he piles that stuff up. The last time I was out there, Ray Batema
said, "This guy wants you out for dinner again. You going out with him?"

     I said, "No, I don't want to go out with him." I don't even talk to the
guy. All that stuff. I don't believe the Masons are responsible for that kind
of stuff. Somebody said, "Well, they've got a lot of false teaching." Well,
the Southern Baptists have got a lot, too! You know, if all this stuff that
people say is true, what could you do about it? Did you ever stop to think
about that? I mean, suppose you get a private chartered airplane, and get you
an atomic warhead on that thing, and take off from Tampa or Jacksonville, and
get to Jeckyll Island, when they're all there. And then dump it, man! You're
gonna miss half of them; half of them are over in Rome! You can't do nuthin'
with that thing! I mean, suppose you got to Rome and dumped the thing out--and
killed the Pope and the College of Cardinals. Don't you know they'd make
saints out of them, you know, and parade around and mourn and fast for them in
All Souls Week and All Halloween Week and all this stuff. And the first thing
you know, every guy you killed would be a martyr, and you'd be a dirty dog,
you know--and they'd all be replaced in less than a year. You can't win. The
best thing for you to do is win as many people to Christ as you can, then get
off the planet. That's the best way to do it.

     All right, Revelation chapter 1, verse 7: "Behold, he cometh with clouds;
and every eye shall see him, and they [also] which pierced him: and all
kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen." Now, it
changes. The next speaker is Jesus Christ. Paul wrote down there 1 and 2 and 3
and 4, and then Christ picks it up in 8.

     "I am Alpha." There, you gentlemen know what that is now. "And Omega."
You know what that is now. "The beginning and the ending, saith the Lord,
which is,..." present tense "...and which was,..." past tense "...and which is
to come,..." future "...the Almighty." The Lord Jesus Christ is God. There's
no two ways about that. There's no doubt about that. He's the Almighty.

9 I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the
kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos,
for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice,
as of a trumpet,

11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest,
write in a book, and send [it] unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto
Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto
Sardis, unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw
seven golden candlesticks;

13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks [one] like unto the Son of man,
clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden
girdle.

14 His head and [his] hairs [were] white like wool, as white as snow; and his
eyes [were] as a flame of fire;

15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his
voice as the sound of many waters.

16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp
twoedged sword: and his countenance [was] as the sun shineth in his strength.

     Now John writes again, after the insertion. Verse 9: "I John, who also am
your brother, and companion in tribulation." Now, he could have meant just
having trouble, but isn't it strange how that thing kind of fits into some
other places? "And in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ." That time he
didn't call it "the kingdom of God," he called it "the kingdom of Jesus
Christ." Now, it isn't a big change; but it's just kind of, you know, the
wording is not like the other epistles.

     "Was in the isle that is called Patmos." Now Patmos is a little island
out in the Aegian Sea, off the coast of Asia Minor, about 100 miles. And
Patmos is about like--any of you ever been on Johnson Island? Any of you ever
been on Johnson Island? There's one, two, three, four on Johnson Island. That
is the most God-forsaken place. That thing is a flat rock out in the Pacific,
just big enough for planes to land on, refuel, and get off of. How big is that
thing? I think it's about two miles by about a quarter of a mile--something
like that. And it just sits out there in the Pacific. The whole island is sea
level. You're just on sea level. If a typhoon came through there, you wouldn't
find a clam left. And Patmos is a little bigger than that, but not much bigger
than that. Patmos is a little island sticking out there about five miles by
ten miles, and tradition has John out there working in a salt mine. Now, I
don't know about all that, but the island is there. If you want to see where
the island is, take you a trip to the Holy Land, and take you on a tour, and
show you where it is.

     "In the isle that is called Patmos." Why? "For the word of God,..." he
was preaching the Bible, "...and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." He was
preaching the Second Coming of Christ--prophecy! Revelation 19:10, "The
testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy."

     "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." Now, we've got a problem. Every
Baptist preacher in the country, just about, says that "Lord's day" is Sunday.
Now, haven't you heard them use that thing? So, "I was in the Spirit on
Sunday, and heard a voice behind me, like a great trumpet." Now, that's an
awful loose, that's a flimsy exegesis, brother. I mean, I'll grant you the
Lord came up the first day of the week, and I'll grant you the Holy Spirit
came down the first day of the week, and I'll grant you they met the first day
of the week, and preached the first day of the week, and took up the
collection the first day of the week. But "the Lord's day" through the Old
Testament is "the day of the Lord." It isn't Sunday--it's the Second Advent.
And everything you've got here seems to indicate you're going that way.

     Now, if John is in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and that Lord's Day is
the Day of the Lord, then you've got something that not even Scofield picked
up. You've got a thing where John is on that island 'way back there where the
crosses are on that third chart, and if he's in the Spirit on the Lord's Day,
and that's "the day of the Lord," John is picked up and hauled clear through
both those charts, and set down right over here. And I believe that. I believe
that John is picked up and taken forward in time and shown those things. And I
think ol' John is picked up and hauled forward to the time of the Great
Tribulation.

     Now, "the Day of the Lord" is an overlap. And if you read your Old
Testament, you know "the day of the Lord" is never a reference to a 24-hour
period of time. "The day of the Lord" in the Old Testament sometimes includes
the White Throne Judgment--like it does in 2 Peter chapter 3. "The day of the
Lord" sometimes includes the Rapture of the church--like it does in 1
Thessalonians chapter 5. And "the day of the Lord" often refers to Tribulation-
-like it does in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.

     Now, the Bible says "one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a
thousand years is as one day." So, for all practical purposes, "the day of the
Lord" begins with the Second Coming of Christ, and ends with the White Throne
Judgment. Now, if you take that bracket, that thing will fix anywhere you find
"the day of the Lord." But, if you're going to make "the day of the Lord" an
overlap like that, it'll also overlap the Rapture--it'll overlap in there. And
end with the Second Coming.

     So, I figure that the Lord takes John up there and hauls him up into--I'm
just guessing now--1994, or 1990, and says, "Write."

     Which would be a weird experience!

     I mean, suppose you're out in the isle of Patmos with your own white
linen robes, and you're sitting down to write. And the Lord says, "Just a
minute, John"--BAM! Flips that switch, and here you are sitting outside the
Atlanta Airport at 9:30 at night!

     Now, don't you know he'd have a time writing!

     He says, "Write, John."

     Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr--down through there. Dust and birds flying all over the
place. The thing comes in for a landing--the door swings open, a bunch people
run down the thing. Don't you know that's something to watch?

     And when you find things in the Book of Revelation you don't understand,
you've got to remember that John is writing in your century. I mean, I'm
taking it for granted that the Lord is coming back in this century. Now, John
is writing in the 20th Century and describing in a language that anybody has
to understand in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th,
12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th Century. So, if he says, "Bows and arrows" and
"eagles and dragons," why, you'll understand he's doing the best he can with
what he's got!

     It'd be rattling, boy, I'll tell you, to be picked up off a fishing boat
in Galilee in the year 70 a.d. and slapped down on an interstate outside
Washington, D.C. Boy, you'd think you'd gone to hell, you know that? That's
right, brother!

     You know, I've been saved now for about 28 years, and before I was saved,
I had guts. I don't have nearly the guts I had before I was saved. And, like I
was telling you the other night, when you get saved, it makes you kind of, you
know, it takes your guts out. You never are quite as bold as you were before,
because you know more of what's out there, you see. And, before you're saved,
you're stupid. Now, after you get saved, you know, and you realize all things
that could happen, and what the devil would like to do to you, you get kind of
cautious.

     Now, I noticed two things about salvation which maybe are not true in
your life. But one of the main things I noticed about my own salvation is, I
got in the place where I hate nighttime of any kind. When the sun goes down,
my whole system begins to pick up and get on guard, and pull in and get
nervous and revved up, and I'm glad when the sun comes up in the morning. I
don't like night. I don't like it anywhere. I don't like it in my own
backyard, and I don't like it in my house. I wish the sun would come up in the
morning and just stay up, all day long, and all night long, and all day long.

     Somebody said, "Wouldn't it bother you when you sleep?" I sleep better in
the daytime than I do at nighttime. I lie down in the afternoon and look out
the place there where the sun is shining, and the birds are out there
whistling in the trees, boy, it just puts you right off. Lie there at night,
you know, and you look out the window, and it's black out there, and you're----
VRRRRM!  Now, you think you're hell, man!

     You take when you get on the highway at night. Did you ever stand on the
highway at night, and hear those things go by. I don't know whether you have
any spiritual discernment or not. Just go out there at night sometime about
10:00 on the interstate, and just stand there. And just look at that light,
way off, coming at you. ZZZZZZWHEEEEEJJJJHHHH! Like that. I'll tell, go home
and stick my head under a blanket!

     And ol' John is brought up and he's put forth in that time, and the Lord
tells him to write.

     All right, verse 10: "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." Now, if you
want to make it Sunday, OK. But the trouble you got is going to show up pretty
quick in verse 19, and here's the trouble you're going to have. "Write the
things which you have seen..." past tense "...and the things which are..."
present tense "...and the things which will be hereafter."

     Now, Scofield does this. He says the things that John saw are chapter 1,
and "the things which are" are chapter 2 and chapter 3, and "the things
that'll be hereafter" are chapter 4--which matches pretty good. Chapter 4,
verse 1. Look at verse 1: "Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which
must be hereafter." You see? So, Scofield has chapter 1, "the things you have
seen;" chapter 2 and 3, "the things that are;" and the rest of it, "the things
that'll be hereafter."

     Now, if you take that breakdown, I suppose you could make "the Lord's
day" just some Sunday--although I don't know particularly why that would be.
But, if you run John up into the Day of the Lord, and then say, "Write those
things which you have seen," then what he saw looking backward is chapter 1,
2, and 3. And "the things that are" would be 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13,
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19. And "the things that are after" are chapter 20,
21, and 22.

     Now, I'll tell you why I make that division. Because, in chapter 4,
somebody goes up. Look at chapter 4, verses 1 and 2. In chapter 4, somebody
goes up. And turn to chapter 19, and look at verse 10. In chapter 19, somebody
comes down. 19:11. Heaven only opens two times in the Book of Revelation--
chapter 4 and chapter 19. But in chapter 4, when it opens, somebody goes up.
And in chapter 19, when it opens, somebody comes down.

     Now, if that's true, that divides the Book of Revelation into three
parts. The first part is chapter 1, 2, 3; the second part is chapter 4 to 19;
the third part is chapter 20 to 22.

     Now, you don't have to take that division. Maybe that division isn't
right. I'm not too sure about some of these things.

     But I know one thing. If Revelation 2 and 3 picture the Church Age--and
they sure do!--then John has to be ahead of it, writing back, in chapter 2 and
chapter 3.

     So, I've got John picked up in Patmos, and hauled out to the Day of the
Lord, and the Lord says, "Write what you saw," and he turns back, and behind
him is the Church Age. He's out in front of it; he's at the Day of the Lord.

     All right, Revelation chapter 1, verse 10: "I was in the Spirit on the
Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet." Well that, in
type, it puts him ahead of the Rapture, and the trumpet's behind him. Now, you
have a picture of that Rapture in chapter 4, after the Church Age is over. But
when John is up in the Day of the Lord, the trumpet's behind him.

     "And heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,  Saying, I am Alpha
and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and
send [it] unto the seven churches which are in Asia." Now, put a dash after
there, and write "Minor." When the Bible speaks of Asia, it's nearly always
speaking of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, and around Greece. It's not referring to
China and Japan. We make a distinction between Asia Minor and Asia Major, but
in these days "Asia" is that area right in there. "Unto Ephesus,..." one
"...and unto Smyrna,..." two "...and unto Pergamos,..." three "...and unto
Thyatira,..." four "...and unto Sardis,..." five "...unto Philadelphia,..."
six "...and unto Laodicea..." seven.

     Now, the seven churches are seven local churches in Asia. They begin with
Ephesus; they end with Laodicea. Strangely enough, Paul writes to seven
churches. Paul's seven churches are Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians. He writes to seven. John writes to
seven.

     Now, the only place they match is, the first church John writes to is
Ephesus, and Paul has a letter to Ephesus. And the last church in this list is
Laodicea, Revelation 1:11. And Laodicea is mentioned in Paul's epistle to the
Colossians. That's the only place they match.

     All right, these words have different meanings. They mean different
things, and Scofield has a pretty good note in the margin there on the meaning
of these things, these churches. Each one of these churches represents a
certain period in church history, in spiritual application. Again, the dates
are not definite. Of these churches, laid out, seven in order like this, in a
chronological order, you can fix the dates on a couple of them pretty close.
But the rest of them are very variable.

     By chapter 2, verse 12, you can hardly make a mistake in writing 325 a.d.
after chapter 2, verse 12. Pergamos means what? "Much marriage." That's the
church wedding up with the world. That took place under Constantine and
Eusebius in 325 a.d. at the Council of Nicea. You get that from church
history.

     Now, there's one more date you can be pretty sure of. In chapter 3, verse
7, you can almost be certain that date there is 1500. And if it isn't 1500,
1500 won't be off it 20 years in either direction. That's the Reformation
church of Martin Luther.

     There's one other date that there won't be a whole lot of leeway on, and
that's chapter 3:14, that Laodicean church. Now, there might be a little
leeway, maybe 20 or 30 years. But you could put down 1900 by chapter 3:14, and
you wouldn't miss it very far. You might miss it maybe 20 years either way,
but not more than 20 years.

     Now, the rest of them are variable. The rest of the dates in church
history are not that fixed.

     What does "Philadelphia" mean? "Brotherly love." That's the church of the
open door, and that's the only church that has no rebuke. When the Lord
preaches to these churches in Revelation 2 and 3, He has a rebuke for every
church there--except Philadelphia. That's the only one that gets out without a
rebuke.

     "Laodicea" means "civil rights," or "the rights of the people"--or, as
the Peanut says, "human rights."

     All right, Revelation chapter 1, verse 12: "And I turned to see the voice
that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;  And in
the midst of the seven candlesticks [one] like unto the Son of man." There's
the Jewish designation. "clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt
about the paps." It's the word for breast. And from this comes "papa," and
"papal," a nursing father, and, hence, "Pope."

     So, when you call the Pope "holy papa" over here, some Catholics get very
outraged. But over in Italy it's the common term for him. It's what he's
called. He is the papa. And it's from the "paps" or "breasts."

     "Girt about the paps with a golden girdle.  His head and [his] hairs
[were] white like wool." Now, He didn't always look that way. You see Him and
you say, "Lord, you've aged! You've put on!" In the Song of Solomon, the Bible
says his hair is as bushy and black as a raven. So, as a Jew, He had a ruddy
complexion and dark hair, and up there in glory He has white hair.

     That's a beautiful picture. White hair is symbolic of trouble, brother.
You ever stop to think about that? There isn't a trouble you ever had He isn't
acquainted with. He's been bearing sin and bearing sorrows and troubles for so
long, His hair has turned white.

     "His head and [his] hairs [were] white like wool, as white as snow; and
his eyes [were] as a flame of fire." Boy, you don't hear that Christ preached
about much, do you? Why don't they make a movie on that Jesus of Nazareth.
Wouldn't that be a goody? I mean, white hair and eyes like the flame of fire.
Wouldn't that be something? Draw Him walking around here, looking at somebody,
and a flame thrower coming out of His eyes.

     "And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and
his voice as the sound of many waters." Like a waterfall! You don't hear much
about that Christ, do you? There isn't any liberal or modernist in the
National Council of Churches that preached on that Christ. And that's the One
that's risen in glory, and that's the One we're going to see.

     "And he had in his right hand seven stars." Somebody said, "Well, it's
figurative and symbolic." No, the stars are symbolic, but He's not symbolic,
and He's got them in His right hand.

     I'd like to draw the Book of Revelation. I'll probably never get around
to it. What I'd like to do is get sheets about as big as those, and make 200
color paintings of the Book of Revelation, and put those things on slides, and
then get some good stuff by Beethoven and Schubert and Tsaichowsky and
Rachmananoff and Wagner. Wagner would be good! And take that stuff and put
that behind those slides, and run that thing, just like an animated film. Boy,
if you could get that thing into a theater, you talk about a horror film, boy,
there'd be people having heart attacks all over that theater!

     I mean, did you ever stop to think what's in there? I mean, the Lord
comes down and steps on 200 million people, and the blood comes out and gets
all over His feet. How's that for a horror film? Talk about "The Exorcist,"
you know, and "Rosemary's Baby," and all that stuff--you ought to get that
thing there in color. Show that dragon, coming down through the universe,
floating down through the Milky Way, and as he comes down he gets smaller and
smaller and smaller. He starts out about the size of the solar system, and as
he comes down he shrinks down to about the size of the sun, and comes on down,
and he's about the size of the moon, and as he comes on down toward Rome,
where there's a dead Pope lying with his hand like this in the coffin, that
figure shrinks down to the size of man, goes inside that corpse, and that
corpse rises up off that coffin like that with two fingers. You put on
Masurtsche's "Night on Bald Mountain" behind that thing, man, it would give
you a heart attack!

     Now, someone needs to do that, man! Folks are always talking about
something new--that would be new! That'd be new!

     Verse 16: "And he had in his right hand seven stars." See, draw His hand
like this, and put seven stars in His fist. "and out of his mouth went a sharp
twoedged sword." That's a picture of the word. "The word of God is quick, and
powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword." "And his countenance [was] as
the..." S-U-N. Now, you know it's a reference to the Second Advent. Come to
Malachi. Wherever it's talking about these things, it's talking about Christ
coming up in the morning as the sun. Malachi chapter 4, verse 1: "Malachi 4:1
For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud,
yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall
burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root
nor branch.   But unto you that fear my name shall the..." S-U-N "..the Sun of
righteousness arise with healing in..." what? HIS. See that personal masculine
pronoun? "...His wings."

     Psalm 19. Psalm 19. So, "the sun...in his strength" is a picture of the
glorified Christ preparing to rise on this earth at the Second Advent with
burning heat, and burn the wicked up.

     Psalm 19, verse 4: "Psalms 19:4 Their line is gone out through all the
earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a
tabernacle..." watch it! "...for the sun,..." S-U-N "...which [is] as a
bridegroom..." there's Christ "...coming out of his chamber, [and] rejoiceth
as a strong man to run a race."

17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand
upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:

18 I [am] he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore,
Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the
things which shall be hereafter;

20 The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the
seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven
churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

     All right, Revelation chapter 1:17. Then everything we've hit so far in
Revelation is pointing to the Second Advent, Second Advent, Second Advent--
it's over in that direction. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.
And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not." That's Christ.
That's what He said to the disciples in the upper room. "Fear not; I am the
first and the last." I imagine that's how it'll be when we see Him. You think
about dying, you know. Think about being in the hospital bed, and all the kids
fighting over your property, and lying there in that linen monkey suit they
give you, and lying there while the room gets dim, you know, and fades out,
and you're gone. About that time you feel a sensation like you've taken off in
a rocket. And suddenly you find yourself in someplace where you feel the
presence of the Lord like you never did in any revival meeting you were ever
in. You're down flat on your face on the ground; about that time, a couple of
bare feet show up in front of you, you know: "like burnished brass, burning in
a furnace." And you hear a voice like a waterfall over your head someplace.
And says, "Fear not," you know.

     You look up there, boy, and if you didn't have a glorified body, you'd
sure fall to pieces. You'll have a soullish body, but if you had a physical
body, you'd burst at the seams someplace! Boy, when you see that thing, don't
you know you're going to fall at His feet as dead? You're going to think you
came into the wrong room without an invitation for a minute.

     "Fear not; I am the first and the last:  I [am] he that liveth, and was
dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore." "That liveth..." present tense;
"was dead..." past tense; "I am alive forevermore," future. "Amen; and have
the keys of hell and of death."

     Then, if He's got the keys of hell and death, then He's been through
someplace where some doors were opened and closed. And when they were opened
and closed, He done rock something behind Him and opened something when He
went down.

     Take your Bible and turn to Jonah chapter 2. Nothing like a King James
Bible to clear up a Greek commentary. Jonah chapter 2, and Matthew chapter 16.
Christ said He had the keys of death and of hell, amen. Jonah chapter 2,
Matthew chapter 16. All right, Matthew chapter 16, verse 18: "And I say also
unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and
the gates"--not "powers," like the new, corrupt bibles "...and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it." Gates.

     Jonah chapter 2. Jonah down in hell. Jonah chapter 2, verse 2: "And said,
I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of
the belly of hell cried I." Jonah 2, verse 6: "I went down to the bottoms of
the mountains; the earth"--watch it! "...with her bars..." like a jail
"...with her bars [was] about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life
from corruption."

     In Ephesians chapter 4, he said when Christ went up on high, He led
captivity captive--got 'em out of jail--and gave gifts to men.

     Let's turn to Luke chapter 4, and we'll try to get all of this together.
Luke chapter 4, verse 18. Now, you might spiritualize it, and say, "Well, the
keys of death couldn't be a literal place, so why would hell be a literal
place?" But you've got enough in the Bible to convince you that hell is a
literal place. And you ought not be too sure about "death." Death is a person
in the Tribulation that comes out of a pit on a horse, and death in Exodus is
an angel that goes around killing people. And Job speaks about Death talking
back to God when God asks him where's the wisdom to be found.

     Luke 4:18. You don't know what's under your feet. There ain't no tellin'
what's down there. And I ain't goin' down to find out, either! Luke chapter 4,
verse 18: "The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to
preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to
set at liberty them that are bruised." Isaiah 42:7 is what I think I'm looking
for. I want something about "set my prisoners loose." Isaiah 61:1? No, the one
I want is Isaiah 42:7; this is it. Now, Isaiah 61:1 was that quotation--from
Isaiah. But what I want is this thing about getting 'em out of jail. Isaiah
42, verse 6: "I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold
thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people,
for a light of the Gentiles;..." quoted in the New Testament "...To open the
blind eyes,..." watch it! "...to bring out the prisoners from the prison,
[and] them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." Now, I can't get all
that together, but it looks like this. It looks like, when Jesus Christ died
on Calvary's cross, that His spirit went back to the Father: "Father, into thy
hands I commend my spirit." His body went into the ground in Joseph's tomb,
Joseph of Arimathea, three days and three nights. His soul went down to the
heart of the earth, Matthew chapter 12, verse 40; Ephesians chapter 4, verses
6 to 9. And when it went down there, it went through hell and was not left in
hell, Acts chapter 2, verse 27, Acts chapter 2, verse 31. And when He went
down there and went through that place, He took the keys away from the keeper.
The keeper is called "Apollyon" or "Destroyer" and is personified as a king
and an angel in Revelation 9. And He took those keys, and locked that place,
and stepped over and unlocked the other section, Paradise, Abraham's bosom,
and took the captives out of prison, and took 'em up with Him. And then He
left that thing open, and took the keys up to Heaven, and shows up in
Revelation, and says, "I've got the keys of death and hell, right here around
my girdle."

     Now, if you go to Him, you've got the One who has the keys! You don't
have to join the church that Jesus gave the keys to. If you have Christ, you
have the door and the keys!

     All right, we'll take a little time out for questions.

     Question: In verse 7, where it says, "Behold, he cometh with clouds,"
what about that "clouds"? What are they?

     Answer: I believe it's clouds. Kenneth Wuest in "Nuggets from the Greek
Klinkers" says the clouds should be "myriads," and therefore is a reference to
the marriage of the saints--which isn't worth even considering. Acts chapter
1, "a cloud received him up out of their sight," and, "this same Jesus, which
you saw go, shall come in the same manner." So, He'll come with clouds.

     Question: Is there any relation to "in his right hand are the seven
stars, which are the seven angels," and, "he laid his right hand upon John"?

     Answer: I don't know what you could with that thing.

     Paul said when he saw Him, "surely a light around me a light brighter
than the sun."

     Question: In verse 4, where he's talking about the seven Spirits, you
mentioned a passage in Isaiah?

     Answer: Isaiah 11, verse 1 to 2, is talking about the Spirit of God. Yet
the Spirit of God is said to be the Spirit of wisdom, might, counsel, fear of
the Lord, understanding--and there's seven of them given in Isaiah verses 1 to
2.

     Question: Is Enoch going to come back?

     Answer: If Enoch came back and died, it would destroy all the typology in
the Bible, because he's the only man in the Bible who never died and never
will die; therefore, he's a picture of the Christian who never dies and never
will die. When we get to Revelation chapter 11, we'll find that the witness
cannot possibly be Enoch.

     Question: When you live, you have your body, your soul, and your spirit.
When you die, and they have your funeral, are all three of them still together
in that coffin, and do they put them under the earth?

     Answer: When you die, according to the New Testament, all the undertaker
gets of you is your body. And when you die, your soul steps out of your body--
it's called "departure" from Genesis 35, "when Rachel died, her soul was in
departing," Paul said, "the time of my departure is at hand;" "I have a desire
to depart and to be with the Lord, which is far better"--and the soul steps
out. And, when that soul steps out, that soul is in Jesus Christ, because the
spirit inside that body has been born again. And when the spirit was born
again, the spirit cut that soul loose from that body and placed that soul in
Jesus.

     The indication is, when you get caught up, you'll be in a soulish body in
Heaven until the Rapture, and then you'll come with Christ and get your new
body.

     Revelation chapter 1, verse 18. Christ speaking, the resurrected Christ
talking to John: "I [am] he that liveth,..." present tense "...and was
dead;..." past tense "...and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen." Now,
last time, I took you to some references in Jonah and in Matthew that showed
that hell had gates and bar, and evidently there's a key to the gates, and
showed you in there that there are people who couldn't get out, and people in
the compartment next to it, in the "hades" compartment, which included
Abraham's bosom, which got in and got out when Christ went in and went out,
and He has the keys. I don't understand all that, but I know that years ago--
and I should have kept these clippings, but probably didn't, or else they're
in my vast filing system someplace--and somewhere in those clippings are two
miners who survived a mine disaster up in Kentucky or Virginia someplace, and
they swear they're down there in the bottom of this place, with no light, all
caved in, and the place begins to luminate up, and light up. And they swear--
and they're both sane men; I mean, nothing's wrong with them mentally--that
they see some fellows coming along there that look like they're in divers'
outfits, and one fellow said they look like equipment that an electrical
worker would wear. And they come walking through there, and they come up to a
big gate. And they mess around with that gate, and that gate opens. And they
said it opens, and after awhile, they say, along comes Pope John, who had just
died before that. And they said he goes in there; they saw him walk in. And
they saw this gate close. And then the blue light goes out, and they're back
in darkness again. And about two days later, they got rescued.

     Well, somebody said they're having hallucinations down there, and the gas
is getting 'em, and they're passing out in the mine. Yeah, maybe. Maybe.

     Verse 19: "Revelation 1:19 Write the things which thou hast seen,..."
past tense "...and the things which are,..." present tense; I commented on
this before "...and the things which shall be hereafter." Now, I take for
granted that John is up at the Day of the Lord, looking back. So the things
which he had seen, I take to be Revelation 2 and 3. That may not be exactly
right. If it doesn't, we can still make application, whether it is or whether
it isn't, either way.

     Verse 20: "The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right
hand, and the seven golden candlesticks." Definition: "The seven stars are..."
You don't have to guess what they are, he tells you: ..."the angels of the
seven churches." Then "stars" in the Bible don't always refer to planets and
things sitting up there. And when you read about, for example, in Revelation
chapter 6, verse 13, about the stars of heaven falling to the earth, then
don't let the scientists kid you and tell you that the sun is a star, and the
stars are like suns. How could they fall to the earth, without the earth
burning up? The stars that are falling in Revelation chapter 6:13 are not like
the sun; they're angels. And they're said to be stars. And that's why they
call the city of the stars out in California "Los Angeles"--the angels. That's
what they call it. And out there, their favorite place is a place called
"Holly-wood." Which is interesting. That has overtones. You know, if they
still taught Greek and Latin in school, a lot of this stuff would be a lot
more clear to you. But what does "holly" remind you of? "HOLY." That's what it
is. That's your word for "hallowed" and "heil" and "healthy" and "hail" and
that kind of business, and "hello" and "holy" and "whole" and "complete" and
"health" and "heal". And that thing is "holy wood"--that place out there.
That's where the angels are.

     "The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven
candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches." Remember that when you
get into the next couple chapters.

     All right, seven churches are local churches in Asia Minor. Historically,
John is writing to these churches and giving them a message. Doctrinally, they
are probably some reference to local churches in the Tribulation. Devotionally
speaking and spiritually speaking, we have in these not only admonitions to
local churches in any age, but we have also laid out very typically the entire
Church Age pictured by seven periods. And this is apparent in the names of
these churches.

     Now, "Ephesus" in chapter 2, verse 1, means "full purposed." "Full
purposed." That's the early church; that's the first church. And it's starting
out right. And He only has one thing against them. Verse 4, they left their
first love. The danger in that church is verse 6, the Nicolaitans. Now,
"Nicolaitans" is from "nicao"--I think it's an alpha contract verb in Greek,
and it means "to conquer". And "laitan" is from "laos" or "laity"--the common
people. And the danger in the first church is, there's a bunch of people
coming up who call themselves "clergy" that are trying to run "the laity."
They are trying to conquer the ordinary, common Christian. That's the danger.

     Look at the second one, chapter 2, verse 8. That word "Smyrna" means
"myrrh." It pictures suffering. And the danger in that church there is,
they're being persecuted, verse 10; they're being thrown in prison. And
there's somebody around who profess to be Jews who are not Jews; they are the
synagogue of Satan. You can find in church history where somebody claimed all
the promises of the Jews belonged to their church, you'd have that bunch. You
find somebody who claimed to be spiritual Jews, and therefore God is all
through with Israel, and the church was the Jew the promises were given to,
you'd have that bunch. They're the "synagogue of Satan."

     All right, the next one. Chapter 2, verse 12; the word "Pergamos" means
"much marriage." And that outfit there is the church marrying the world and
settling down with the world, and where they are is where the devil's seat is:
verse 13--look out for the 13! The devil's got a "chair" on this earth that he
sits in. Hmmmm! And it sure isn't Peking or Moscow! This church here is in
danger of fornication with their worship, verse 14. And, 15, they've got that
clergy-laity set-up.

     Now, the next one is Thyatira, verse 18, and my papyrus fragment has
deleted the original handwriting from the copyists, and I can't tell what it
means. It means "odor of affliction." All right, there's a church where people
are getting killed right and left. And it's the church that is represented by
an adulterous woman, verse 20. And that woman has had a good bit of time to
get right, and she ain't right! That'll put you right in the Dark Ages. And,
verse 24, at that time some people are plumbing the depths of Satan.

     All right, the fourth church period is Sardis. This means "the red ones,"
3:1. Now, they're bloody. They're getting persecuted. They're getting killed.
They're called "the red ones." They're soaking in blood. And that thing is a
dead church, but it still has a few names that are right; it still has a few
things about it that are right, according to verse 4. Now, I'm going to go
through all this in detail in a minute. I'm just giving you a general, overall
picture.

     Then, when you get to 3:7, that is the church with the open door. And
"Philadelphia" means "brotherly love." "Fileo", "fileas," a lover or friend of
somebody; "delphia," of the brethren. "Brotherly love." And that is the only
church in this whole section that is not rebuked. And that church has the open
door, and it is the only church in the Bible that ever kept the word of God.
So, if you want to get the word of God, you better find out where that church
is.

     Verse 8, the end of the verse, "hath kept my word." And the Apostolic
church did not keep it. The Philadelphia church kept it.

     And then finally, verse 14, Laodicea. "Laodicea" is "laos," again, the
laity, the common people, and then "dicea," "diceas," righteousness,
righteousnesses, "the rights of the people"--called "civil rights" in the 50s
and 60s, and now called "human rights"--the people, the people.

     As in, "We the people, in order to establish a more perfect union," or,
"the government of the people, and by the people, and for the people, shall
not perish from the earth." Those are statements by two great Communist
organizations--the Founding Fathers and Abraham Lincoln!

     There is no government in the Bible that is "of the people, by the
people, for the people" that is the right government. The only government in
the Bible is "of God, by God, and for God, and through God, to whom are all
things."

     

