I would like to go over and do a recap of some of the things that we have been looking at. Then we will go back to Revelation 9.
The first thing is that we were looking at a great earthquake, because the Bible speaks of a great earthquake and it ties it in to May 21st in Revelation 6. Let us just look at this. We read in Revelation 6:12-13:
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth…
So we read here of a great earthquake and then suddenly things are happening with the sun, moon, and stars.
This is just like what we read in Matthew 24:29:
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
This tells us when this is going to happen and it is “immediately after the tribulation,” and the great tribulation ended on May 21st.
So the great earthquake, according to Revelation 6:12, takes place, and then there is the sun becoming black, the moon turning to blood, and the falling of the stars. This identifies with May 21st and the period after, which is this 153-day period.
We also know that Revelation 16 speaks of a great earthquake, “so mighty an earthquake, and so great.” It says in Revelation 16:18-20:
And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
This last phrase of the islands fleeing and the mountains not being found, we find in Revelation 6 also.
So here in Revelation 16, we read of a great earthquake that is connected to Babylon coming into remembrance or the fall of Babylon. This identifies with the seventy-year period, which was a historical type of the great tribulation; and the end of the seventy years identifies with the end of our great tribulation after 23 years, which occurred on May 21, 2011.
There is another reference to a great earthquake in Revelation 11. We read in Revelation 11:13:
And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand…
I think that we might be able to understand by the end of today’s studies who these seven thousand are and why they were slain. But, again, we read of a great earthquake and of the slaying of men, which is significant because this points to May 21.
So we find a great earthquake referred to in these three places. The two Greek words for this are megas seismos and they are not used all that often. Then we read in Acts 16 of a great earthquake in the city of Philippi. This is a great earthquake that shakes the foundations of the prison. All it accomplishes is the opening of the prison doors and the opening of all locks. These were manual locks that only used keys. They did not have an electronic system where maybe a circuit or a wire was shaken to allow electronic doors to open. This was something that was miraculous.
This was God’s doing through a great earthquake to accomplish His purpose of freeing prisoners. This was the only thing that this earthquake had in mind. Most of these prisoners deserved to be there. Paul and Silas did not deserve to be there, even though most of the others did; and, historically, we do not read that these prisoners actually came out. They probably stayed within the prison.
But the spiritual picture is one in which a great earthquake opens the prison gates, which ties in with numerous verses in the Bible where the Bible indicates that God will set the prisoners free, like in Psalm 146:7-8. This is speaking of the Lord and it says:
Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. JEHOVAH looseth the prisoners: JEHOVAH openeth the eyes of the blind…
These are synonymous statements, because they have to do with salvation. Salvation deals with loosing the spiritual prisoners who are held captive to sin and to Satan. This is like opening up a blind man’s eyes. In God’s sight, this is the same picture, which is that of salvation; and there are many references in the Bible to this.
So there was a great earthquake in Acts 16 that opened up the prison, and it happened towards midnight. We can relate this to Judgment Day, because the other references to this great earthquake have to do with May 21.
Then we came to Revelation 9 and we saw that the locusts came out of the smoke of the bottomless pit. The bottomless pit is a prison. This is God’s definition for this in Revelation 20:7. Satan the devil was bound and cast into the bottomless pit. Then it says in Revelation 20:3:
…he must be loosed a little season.
Then Revelation 20:7 tells us:
…Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Here God defines the bottomless pit as a prison; and in Revelation 9, locusts are loosed. We know that this is referring to May 21 because they are loosed for five months, which is what we have from May 21 through October 21.
So something happened on May 21 that unleashed what was being held back. The bottomless pit was like a holding place where Satan was arrested, a great chain was wrapped about him, and he was bound for a thousand years. He was in prison. And on May 21, these locusts were unleashed. They were let loose into the world.
We know this, because the Bible says that it was a prison. Christ comes with the key. He was the star who fell. He opens up the bottomless pit and He lets them loose. This, again, is language that the Bible is using to connect to Acts 16 where a great earthquake opens the prison.
We were expecting physically a great earthquake. This did not happen. It was spiritual, and we would have to say, at least, that this opened the bottomless pit, which is a prison. Then all of these locusts came out onto the earth.
These locusts are the true believers. We learned this because we also looked at the seventy-year period in which Israel was in captivity to Babylon. At the end of seventy years, the Jews were set free. The king of Babylon was also slain at this time and the empire of Babylon was overcome. It was taken by the Medes and the Persians.
So God had given Satan the rule over the churches for 23 years. Then at the end of the great tribulation, that was it. God put him down. This is the way that God looks at this. The whole kingdom of Babylon falls and God takes away Satan’s authority. Satan no longer has authority.
In Revelation 9, the locusts are given authority. They are given authority as the scorpions have authority. This is not referring to Satan, because he has no authority at this time in any way. This is why we know that the locusts are not Satan or his emissaries in any way and that they are the true believers.
Then we looked a little bit further in Revelation 9 and we saw in Revelation 9:14:
Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels [or messengers] which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
Again, we see this same language of being bound and loosed.
We also looked at several verses to show how God uses this word “bound.” This has to do with spiritual binding. Just to quickly look at this again, we read of the woman who was bowed over in Luke 13. Jesus heals her on the Sabbath, and then He corrects a ruler of the synagogue because this ruler was upset over this. Then we read in Luke 13:16:
And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?
She was bound in her infirmity. God is just using this as an example of people who are bound to sin and to Satan, as all of Christ’s healings were pictures of salvation.
So this woman was bound and Christ loosed her. He freed her. This is what Jesus does for all of His elect. On or just prior to May 21, which was Judgment Day, Christ set all of His elect people or all of the elect captives free.
We do not have time right now to get into all of the other things that point to May 21 as a great day of release, such as the Jubilee or the exodus from Egypt, but we see here in Revelation 9 that the four angels were bound and then loosed.
Then it says in Revelation 9:15:
And the four angels [messengers]…
And we have looked at all of the times that the Greek and the Hebrew words that are translated as “angels” are also translated as “messengers”; and so we can properly do this.
Revelation 9:15-16 continues:
And the four angels [messengers] were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay [or kill] the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand [or 200 million]: and I heard the number of them.
I was happy to see in Mr. Camping’s book To God be the Glory! that he also recognized that these four angels are the 200 million, that they are one and the same. We can tell by this language that this is talking about four angels or four messengers, and then it just transitions to 200 million horsemen without an introduction as to who these horsemen are. This is because they are the four messengers. Mr. Camping also pointed out that the number four has to do with the furthest extent of whatever is in view or universality, something occurring all over the world.
So these four messengers are the people of God or those whom Christ saved who are all over the earth. These are the 200 million. They are one and the same.
A good picture of the four messengers are Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These are four Hebrew children who were in Babylon. They were bound in Babylon, just like these four angels were bound in the great river Euphrates, which is a synonym for the great city Babylon.
When we read the book of Daniel, we do not read of five children or ten children and we do not find any other names. This book speaks of four children, four Hebrew children, and God uses them to represent all of the Jews, which represents all of His people who are in the world at the time when Satan rules in the churches.
So these four Hebrew children had to live and endure living in Babylon under the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar. This was not easy. They were constantly tried, but they were also constantly faithful and successful.
These four were messengers. They were messengers when they refused to eat the king’s meat in chapter one of Daniel. They definitely witnessed to the prince of the eunuchs and to anyone else who knew about this. They were messengers when Nebuchadnezzar was going to slay all of the wise men of Babylon. Then Daniel and his friends prayed for wisdom to first know the king’s dream and then to interpret it.
Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were also witnesses to all of the people in Babylon in chapter three of Daniel when they would not bow down to the king’s golden image that he had set up. This relates to what we read in Revelation 13 when Satan makes an image to the beast, which happened just recently. But God’s people did not bow down to the image of the best.
So we can see that these four Hebrew children were bound in Babylon. We see that Daniel is there at the end of the seventy years, but we do not read what happened to the other three. We do not read that they died. But at the end of the seventy years, there was Daniel and he “understood by books” the seventy years that Jeremiah had referred to. This is just like God’s people understanding many things today.
How many times did God tell Gabriel to say to Daniel, “Make this man to understand the vision”? This is exactly what God has done today with all of His people as He has opened up the Scriptures. Daniel is the one whom the Lord used to record, “Seal the book, even to the time of the end.” And in the book of Daniel, we only read of four individuals who were God’s people, and yet they represent all of God’s people who were bound in Babylon.
So these four angels or four messengers are bound and then they are loosed and “prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.” And we have been saying that these 200 million are the same as the locusts.
Now we have a problem. Does anybody see what the problem is? We read of men being killed. The locusts are to hurt. It says in Revelation 9:4:
And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
This is referring to the unsaved people. Then it goes on to say in Revelation 9:5:
And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
Then in Revelation 9:10 where it is still speaking about the locusts, it says:
And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power [or authority] was to hurt men five months.
So they do hurt men, but they are commanded not to kill.
I remember saying that the locusts and the 200 million horsemen were one. This is just like Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dream is one.” One dream had to do with skinny stalks of corn and fat stalks of corn. The other dream had to do with cows. But God used Joseph to say that the dreams were one because they were pointing to one thing; and so are the locusts and the 200 million one. They were both released on May 21. They were both bound or in prison in some way. They were both loosed.
Look at Revelation 9:19, which is speaking of the 200 million or the four messengers:
For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.
This is almost identical to the locusts who had tails like scorpions. They also had power or authority to hurt. This is because it is an identical teaching. They are speaking of one and the same thing. They are speaking of God’s people, from May 21 through October 21, for these five months.
Look also at Luke 10:17-19:
And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power [or authority] to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Here God brings the scorpions and the serpents together. They represent the power of the enemy or Satan. Keep in mind what we said before. God’s people, the locusts, are like scorpions or as scorpions or can be likened to serpents, because we are bringing the message that there is no more salvation.
Every false gospel in the world does not tell people this, but this is what they all have in common. Every false gospel has no salvation. With all the scorpions, with all of the emissaries of Satan, no matter how they dress it up, finally, the end result is that no one becomes saved. There is no salvation in any of the false teachings of the world. There is no salvation, except through the one true teaching. There is only one way and this is the way that God outlines in the Bible.
We would not teach falsehood, and so we cannot come like a scorpion in this way. We come like a scorpion or like a serpent to hurt men, because the message that we are bringing has no salvation. This means that our message is very much like that of a scorpion or a serpent.
God brings the two together in Luke 10:19:
Behold, I give unto you power [or authority] to tread on serpents and scorpions…
He is saying that they are one in the same.
So the locusts have tails like scorpions and the 200 million have tails like serpents. We could turn this around and say that the locusts have tails like serpents and that the 200 million have tails like scorpions, because these are saying the same thing. This is saying that they are coming with a message in which the message will be that there will be no salvation.
Let us put it this way. If you are a true believer, God is viewing you as a locust who has a tail like a scorpion; of if you are a true believer, God is viewing you as one of the 200 million and the horses that they ride upon. You are also identified completely with fire, smoke, and brimstone, and you have a tail like a serpent that does hurt. It is saying the same thing, but there is a difference. The difference is that the 200 million kill, but the locusts do not kill; and so we wonder how this can be. How is this possible?
Let us go to Zechariah 13. Keep in mind that the 200 million “slay the third part of men.” It says in Zechariah 13:8-9:
And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith JEHOVAH, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, JEHOVAH is my God.
God has normally used the third part to typify His people, His elect. Here in Zechariah 13, we see this.
We can also see this in 2 Kings 1 when the captain and his fifty go to Elijah who was on the mountain. Elijah calls down fire from Heaven and burns up the captain and his fifty. Then another captain and his fifty came and they were also burned up. Then a third captain and his fifty come, but they were not burned up. This is because the third captain came very humbly and brokenly, beseeching that he and his fifty not be burned like the previous captains.
Here again, we see one-third spared and delivered while two-thirds were destroyed. This is how God in some places typifies the human race. One third typifies His people, and the two-thirds typify the people of the world.
But when we get to the end of the church age and when God brings judgment on the churches, because this is where His people were and this is where individuals are who closely identify with the truth of the Gospel, the Gospel that saves a third part, we find language of judgment on the third part.
In Revelation 8:7-12, it says:
The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
This is speaking of judgment on the third part again and again and again, because this is referring to the churches and congregations of the world who were under judgment from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011. God did not judge the whole world at that time. But it was judgment, which began at the house of God, on the third part.
In Revelation 9, the four messengers are loosed “to slay the third part of men.” In Revelation 9:18, this is repeated:
By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
So the 200 million are to kill “the third part,” but the locusts are not to kill. The locusts are to bring hurt for five months, which will be torment, but they are not to kill.
How can we understand this? This is not happy news. This is really very sad and tragic, but look at it this way. For 23 years, from 1988 to 2011, God was judging the churches. How many people did He save in the churches during that time? Zero.
This is because the judgment on the church meant, first of all, that God left them. The Holy Spirit came out of the midst. Then Satan was loosed from the bottomless pit, from his holding cell. He entered into the churches and took his seat. He did this officially, because this was by God’s allowance and by God-given authority. Officially, for 23 years, he took his seat as the “man of sin” in the temple, ruling and reigning over all of the congregations of the world. During that time, since there was no Holy Spirit present, no one became saved.
So the warning went to them constantly over the last few years as they were told to get out of the church, “Go ye out of the midst.” They were told to flee and to get out of there; because if they stayed, they were going to be bundled or bound for the burning, as a tare, and they were going to be thrown into the fire and that would be it for them.
But they had hope for those 23 years if they came out of that church prior to May 21, 2011 and placed themselves in an area where God was still saving, because He was saving greatly in the world. During the “latter rain” or the second Jubilee, a “great multitude” was becoming saved. We see these 200 million, and the 200 million identify with the very last day, because these are those who came out of that great tribulation.
God gives us the number there. He could have said, as He said elsewhere, that there were myriads of saints or ten thousand, just to give us the idea that a great number of people had become saved and use the number 10 to indicate completeness. But the number is 200 million who were bound in “the great river Euphrates” or in Babylon. He wants us to know this number, because this is how many were loosed: 200 million. But not one of them was saved through the evangelism of the churches, through the work of the churches, or in the churches at all, for all of those 23 years.
But if anyone – and I am sure that, here and there, God did this – if there was a person in whatever church or wherever in the world and if that person came out on May 20th a few minutes before midnight, they were then in an area where God could save. God could have saved them.
But if that person stayed in the church, if they hardened their heart and they did not listen to God’s warning that Judgment Day was May 21 and, instead, just basically argued that we could not know the day or hour and were given false security by their pastor and their elders and their church, if they remained, remember that they were in an area where no one could possibly be saved, and if they stayed there and May 21 came and then the five months have come, now what is the situation for them? Now what?
Could they not come out of the church now? Could they not come out on May 22nd? Sure, they can come out of the church, but this is not going to do them any good now. This is because the transition went from judgment on the house of God to judgment on the whole world.
What had been true of the churches for 23 years, where God’s Spirit was no longer working and saving, is now true for five months. In other words, they are dead. They are killed. They are slain. This is the obvious conclusion.
If someone is in an area where God cannot save and where He insisted that He was not saving, which is in the churches, and now they enter into five months of Judgment Day where God is not saving, this tells us the answer. This tells us the answer. We do not even have to get very specific about this. These people are dead spiritually.
I do not know what to day. What is the difference between individuals who were in the church or, let us say, an atheist or a Buddhist or a Muslim or a Hindu or an agnostic, whomever? Maybe this person was also mocking and did not care anything about this warning of May 21. Let us say that this person is an atheist, someone who even denies that there is a God and denies that the Bible is His Word. This is how he enters May 20th and May 21st and how he is continuing during this period of time.
Is this person killed like the third part? No. In all likelihood, yes, he definitely was unsaved prior to May 21. But the thing is that we have hope, the slightest bit of hope, that perhaps God saved him before Judgment Day took place on May 21 and that now, at some point over these five months, maybe God will work out in this person’s new soul where they will begin to come to Him. But in all likelihood, this person would stay unsaved and be destroyed on October 21st.
But there is hope for anyone who was not in the church, and from our perspective of even praying for them, there is hope that God could have done something that they themselves are not even aware of. Maybe even a scoffer has received a new born-again heart. This is unlikely, but this is possible.
So the five months for them is torment and sorrow, but they are not slain in the way that the third part is. There is no salvation for people in the churches and there is no salvation now for five months. But there is a difference here and God, in telling us that one of the tasks of the 200 million is to slay the third part, is putting His finger on this and just emphasizing that people are to remember that He warned them. He warned them and He warned them again, and He had His watchmen blow the trumpet and warn the people, but they did not listen. Now, it is too late.
We can also see how God is going to give more stripes to those who are in the churches and congregations rather than to those who are in the world. Remember what it says in Luke 12. We read in Luke 12:45-47:
But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
This is speaking of the professed Christian, to the one who says that they are a child of God, “I am a Christian.” God opened His Word and revealed many truths and each one was rejected. Each one was rejected by the professed Christians, because the churches did not support this. This revealed that they had more trust and faith in their church than in the Word of God, the Bible; and yet they were given all kinds of information. They were told that Judgment Day was coming, and yet they despised the Word of God.
In the New Testament, the English words “reject” and “despise” are translated from the same Greek word. They mean the same thing; because if someone rejects the Word of God, they are despising it.
This is what was done by those in the churches, even though they heard about this again and again and again. Now, we are there. Now, we are in Judgment Day. Fire and brimstone is falling presently and has been falling since May 21. Those who did not hearken to the Word of God are going to receive more stripes because there is no salvation today.
So let us say that someone becomes concerned, maybe an individual in a Catholic or a Protestant Church. It does not matter who. But he starts getting concerned, so he comes to you. He comes to a believer and he says, “I want to do it God’s way now. I think that you are right about the end of the church age, so I want to come out.” Okay, they can do this. But then he tells you that he was in the church all the way up to May 21st.
All we can say is that we are sorry. We are sorry, because this person remained in an environment where God was not saving. Now, the whole world is in the environment where God is not saving.
So this person is going to receive stripes in this sense, more stripes than say someone like an atheist who may come up to you and say the same thing. Maybe an atheist comes up to you and says, “I am more interested now in the Bible and in God. Is it possible that I was saved?”
This is possible; yes. It is possible that God did do a work in their heart and save them, and they might not even have known about this. They still may not know about this, even throughout this whole five month period. But there is a little bit of hope that can be given to someone who was outside of the church.
They might still be under the judgment of God; but because there is that little tiny crack of an opening that perhaps God saved them, their stripes are going to be less than those who are in the churches and congregations.
Let us go back to Revelation 9. Revelation 9:16-21 says:
And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand [or 200 million]: and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
So “the rest of the men” are not killed by these plagues. This word for “plagues” is the same word that we find in Luke 12:48 translated as “stripes”; and they are not killed by these stripes. There are more stripes to those who are in the churches and congregations.
“The rest of the men” work out to be the other two-thirds. This works out this way because in the world, there are over 2 billion professing Christians, which is about one-third of the earth’s population. “The rest,” or the two-thirds, they are not impacted by the information of being in the church prior to May 21.
Those in the churches are bundled. Who bundled them? The messengers of God bundled them. They were bundled for the burning. Now fire and brimstone is falling, and this is like they are cast into the fire. But “the rest of the men,” the two-thirds of the earth’s population, this does not directly affect them because they were not in the church.
So this particular plague or stripe does not come to them. However, they are still unsaved, it is still Judgment Day for them, and they are not repenting. God expects sinners to repent even under His wrath, even during the Day of Judgment. Someone who thinks that they are not saved should not say, “Well, I am not saved. I am not one of the elect, and so I am just going to do what I want.” But God still holds them responsible. He still holds them accountable to His Law.
This is the big reason why there could never be a place called “hell” where men would be cast into it forevermore. This is because under the judgment of God, one cannot then say that there is no more sin. There is still sin. There is still the sinning of fresh sin and new sin, and God would expect repentance.
Remember that Jesus was under the wrath of God and was “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” What if Jesus had decided that since He was under God’s wrath, He could just do whatever He wanted? What if He decided to curse God like Satan inferred that Job would do when he said to God, “He will curse thee to thy face”?
No; Jesus was perfectly obedient. He knew even while experiencing the wrath and judgment of God that He could not sin. He could not sin at that time or He would have never lived out that tableau if He had sinned. He would have been Himself under the wrath of God for His own sin.
So God requires repentance from those under His wrath. This means that if there was a place called “hell” where all of the unsaved were cast into it and that this was the judgment of God, their blasphemies and their gnashing of teeth would all be sin. The traditional view of hell does not put out the rebellion. It does not quench it. It does not stop it.
Mankind, in a place called “hell,” would continue to rebel forever and ever and ever, and the amount of sins that they could heap up into eternity would dwarf anything that this world has ever seen. It makes no sense for God the King, who wants to put down this rebellion, to house criminals in order that they can continue their rebellious nature against Him and blaspheme Him forever.
Rather, He puts them down. He destroys them. He wipes them out at the end of this five-month period, and then that will be it. Then there will be no more rebellion. This is what an earthly king would do – he would just put them to death – and this is what God is going to do.
So the 200 million, which we are hopefully all a part of, are coming with fire, smoke, and brimstone.
Let us look at a passage in relation to this. Let us go to Psalm 11:5-6:
JEHOVAH trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.
I do not want to get into this right now. Maybe during the next study, we will get into this. But this is speaking of the wicked and their cup. “Cup” in the Bible has to do with judgment, “the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.” Spiritually speaking, Jesus drank of this cup in the garden. Remember that He prayed, “Let this cup pass from me.” There are many other verses that highlight this that we will take a look at next time. But this has to do with the cup of judgment and this comes to the wicked.
So, too, we recognize the language of “fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest.” This fits in with everything that we were thinking. But why does it say, “He shall rain snares, fire and brimstone”? Why the word “snares”? Is this literal?
Actually, we were not even thinking that literal fire and brimstone would fall during the five months. We just realized that this was language that was expressing God’s wrath. We thought that the earth would be a huge mess, but I do not think that any of us were thinking that literal fire and brimstone would fall from the sky like it did upon Sodom. We were not thinking this at all.
So, here, God is helping us to get away from the idea of literal fire and brimstone, because it rained “snares, fire and brimstone.” “Snares” is also a word that we will look at a little later, but “snares” are just as it sounds. It is a trap; and it is not just one trap, it is plural. “Snares, fire and brimstone” will fall.
Let us close with Deuteronomy 29:20-23:
JEHOVAH will not spare him, but then the anger of JEHOVAH and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him…
This is speaking of the unsaved individual in the church or out of the church; it all applies.
It continues:
…and JEHOVAH shall blot out his name from under heaven. And JEHOVAH shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law: So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which JEHOVAH hath laid upon it; And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which JEHOVAH overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
This is referring to individuals who are unsaved. They broke the law of God, and it does not matter which law. If someone breaks the law, they are a transgressor. In the book of James, we read, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
So they broke the law. They never had a Saviour, and so they are cursed. God then speaks of the curse that comes, the judgment of fire and brimstone. But notice that when a land is experiencing fire and brimstone, that land is not sown. That land is not sown. The sowing of seed is not done.
We find in the Gospel accounts the parable of the sower where God repeatedly makes reference to the fact that He is referring to His Word. But now, this sowing of the Gospel seed is not done.
As Abraham pleaded for Lot, but really for the righteous in Sodom, he would ask, “Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” The Lord would not destroy the righteous with the wicked, whether there be 50, 40, 30, 20, all the way down. And the Lord made a point concerning this of Lot in 2 Peter 2 when He said, “For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.”
So God tells us that Abraham was interceding for the righteous. Then He tells us that Lot was righteous. Then He also tells us that He told Lot, “I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither,” and then Lot enters into Zoar; because, as Abraham said, “That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked.”
Likewise, God held back judgment for centuries, for thousands of years. He did this because He had a plan to save His people, His elect, His righteous ones, those whom He would make righteous.
He could not rain down fire and brimstone on the world, spiritually, until the last of His elect, like Lot, made it to the spiritual Zoar, which is Christ. Once the last of God’s people became saved, then it began. It was then that it began.
There is fire and brimstone from Heaven falling now. This explains why Family Radio, the most evangelistic – and this just means the sending forth of the Gospel – the most evangelistic organization that the world has ever seen, has now stopped. It has stopped sending out the Gospel. It is not sending out tract teams to other countries. The caravans are not running. It is not mailing out tracts to individuals. And its teaching is no longer warning people that they only have a month or ten days or a day left.
We are not telling people this about October 21. I do not think that we should have a countdown clock. We are not sending the Gospel to the world in order that they can respond and repent, by God’s grace and by His doing, because this is no longer possible.
This is as we read in Revelation 22:10-12:
And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me…
So this is where we stand. Whatever you are in God’s sight, you are either spiritually righteous or filthy. We can have someone who is a Mr. Clean, and yet he is spiritually filthy in God’s sight due to his sins.
Whatever God did or did not do in your life prior to May 21, there is now where you are. If He saved you, you are righteous and holy. If He did not save you, you are unclean, you are filthy in His sight, and everyone in this condition will remain this way. There is now no possibility of change from one spiritual condition to another, as far as what is going on in someone’s heart, for these five months.
But, again, we do not know. We do not know who is saved or who is not saved. God could have made a change in someone, and yet they do not even know this. This is why we keep praying for our friends and our family and our neighbors. We need to continue to do this even for ourselves. If we are unsure of our salvation, it could still be that God did make a change and that this is just not evident in your life as yet.
Let us close here.