We read in Revelation 9:1-5:
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power [or authority], as the scorpions of the earth have power [or authority]. 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. 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 a little further down, we read in Revelation 9:12-19:
One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels [or messengers] which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels [or messengers] were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: 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 [or authority] is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.
We see that God is talking about locusts that are coming out of the bottomless pit to bring torment for five months. We also find that four angels or messengers were bound in great river Euphrates and that they were loosed.
When we read about the locusts on one hand and then when we read about the 200 million horsemen on the other hand, we see a lot of similarities. This is because this is actually speaking of the same group of people. This is referring to those whom God saved during the great tribulation. These are coming out of tribulation, and Revelation 7 tells us that a great multitude came out of the great tribulation.
So in Revelation 9, God is giving us a description of what happened on May 21, which is this five-month period that we are in the midst of right now. This period is from May 21 through October 21, and both the locusts and the 200 million are really one and the same. They are pointing to the true believers.
For instance, in relation to the locusts, it says in Revelation 9:10:
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.
Then in relation to the 200 million, look at Revelation 9:19. This says:
For their power [or authority] is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.
The locusts have tails like scorpions, and the 200 million have tails like serpents. These are actually interchangeable.
Let us look at Luke 10 where we read about both scorpions and serpents. It says in Luke 10:18-19:
And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power…
This word for “power” is translated a lot of times as “power,” but it is also translated as “authority.” This just helps me to better understand this when I make this substitution.
It continues:
…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.
Serpents and scorpions have to do with the power of the enemy.
So the locusts have tails like scorpions, and the 200 million have tails like serpents. And these are interchangeable; they are synonymous.
If God had said that the locusts had tails like serpents and that the 200 million had tails like scorpions, this really would have been saying the same thing. This is because they are coming “like” or “as” these things.
This is not saying that the locusts, who are the true believers, are scorpions or that they are serpents. This is saying that they are coming like this during this five-month period.
This is because the power or authority of the enemy is Satan and his kingdom and all of the false gospels. And what all of these false gospels have in common is that they provide no salvation.
I am sorry that we have to keep saying this, but we do. We have to say this again and again, which is what we do with whatever we look at in the Bible.
If we were doing a study on the grace of God, we would have to say, if we were going to be completely honest, how gracious God is, how wonderful it is to have His grace bestowed on us, but that He is not doing this anymore. This is what we have to say today if we are going to talk about the grace of God or the love of God or the mercy of God. This is what we have to say in order to be honest with people.
We cannot just tell people about God’s mercy and just leave it there so as to have someone thinking that God today might have mercy on them. We cannot do this when this is not possible. This would not be honest. It would not be honest if we did not add this information, and this affects so many things.
What is the torment that the locusts who have tails like scorpions are bringing for five months? The torment that they bring is to sting or to hurt like a scorpion, which is like a false gospel. This is because, even though false gospels are varied and many, they all have one thing in common. Not a one of them can save someone.
If someone is in a church that thinks that they have a mouthpiece of God on earth, this could never save them. If someone is in a church where they are falling over backwards, this could never save them. If someone is in a church that thinks that all people have to do is to walk down an aisle and accept Christ, this could never save them.
All false gospels have this commonality. When we get right down to it, this is the essence of this. This is what they all have in common. No matter how they cover this up, no matter how they dress this, finally, their gospels are not going to save anyone. They can make all kinds of claims that they will, but they cannot.
This is why God’s people are coming like scorpions and serpents. This is because the message that we bring today, in many ways, is very sorrowful; and this word for “torment” here in Revelation 9 has to do with sorrow. This is the message that we have to bring because God has completed His salvation plan, as far as the number of people He intended to save.
But the great thing is and the hopeful thing is that, perhaps, He did save you if you are not sure of your salvation. Maybe He saved you if you were even a mocker or a scoffer and thought that May 21 was a big joke. God still, perhaps, could have saved you. There is still some hope, but really not that much for someone who had this mind frame; and yet God certainly could have saved someone through the very signs that they saw and that they might have been mocking.
The signs, the billboards, and the tracts all warned of “May 21, 2011 – Judgment Day!” Maybe someone received one of these tracts and then read it quickly but threw it into the trash. Even still, this individual, possibly and potentially, could have become saved; and this would have had to have happened before May 21, not after. But this individual is now just living their life like they normally do, and yet God might have made a change in them that is just not evident perhaps.
However, if this is not evident for another several months later, this would look less and less likely; because God will make sure to draw this individual to Himself and to His Word. But if people still have no interest and no desire in reading the Bible, this would seem less and less likely and less and less hopeful from the perspective of a true believer. But maybe this is even someone in your family or one of your friends or someone in your neighborhood.
A friend recently made a very important comment, which is that a little hope, no matter how little, is pretty great in comparison to no hope, to absolutely zero hope. A little bit of hope is actually the difference between one group of people today and another group of people today. This is what we see.
But we have been forced by God Himself to have to talk about this because we saw that the locusts came out of the bottomless pit, which is called a prison in Revelation 20:7. And we saw that the 200 million or the four messengers are one and the same.
For instance, look at Revelation 9:14-15. This says:
…Loose the four angels [or messengers] which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels [or messengers] were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
Compare this with verse 18. In verse 18, He is now speaking of the 200 million. We read in Revelation 9:18:
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 they are both commissioned to do the exact same thing, which is to slay “the third part of men.”
These are four messengers, and the number four has to do with the furthest extent of whatever is in view or universality. All over the earth, God has these messengers – in the north, the south, the east, and the west.
These four messengers were bound in Euphrates, which is a synonym for Babylon. But when were God’s people loosed out of Babylon? They were set free after 70 years, which identifies with May 21. They were loosed and their task is to kill the third part of men.
Someone noticed something this week that I just noticed also, which is that this is a slightly different task than what the locusts have, because it says in Revelation 9:5, where it is speaking of the locusts:
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.
This word “kill” is the same word as “slay” that we find in Revelation 9:15 that is used of the 200 million.
To the locusts, God says to not kill. To the 200 million, He says to kill the third part. And this is not a minor difference. This is a pretty big difference, but these are the same groups of people; and we have been saying this for awhile now.
This is talking about God’s elect, but with the locusts God is focusing on one particular aspect of what He wants them to accomplish. With the 200 million, He is looking at them from another slightly different aspect as to what they are to accomplish. Yet this is speaking of the same thing. This is speaking of us, the elect, the children of God. We are the ones who are in view in both cases.
What is the third part referring to? Let us start with this. Turn to 2nd Samuel 8:2. This is speaking of David and it says:
And he smote Moab, and measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive…
So we see here that two lines were killed and that one line was saved or kept alive, and this is how God has really looked at the human race in some ways. But this is not literal. This is a figurative way of looking at the human race. One-third is delivered; they are spared. Two-thirds are put to death.
Turn to 2nd Kings 1. We find here an account of a king of Israel who is sick, and so he sent messengers to inquire of a god of another nation. Then Elijah the Tishbite comes into view. After these messengers are turned back from inquiring of another god, we read in 2nd Kings 1:6-10:
And they said unto him, There came a man up to meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith JEHOVAH, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that thou sendest to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And he said unto them, What manner of man was he which came up to meet you, and told you these words? And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite. Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down. And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
The king sends another group, and then a second captain and his fifty come. But he also is issuing Elijah the command, “Come down quickly.” This captain has the authority of the king of Israel on his side, and so he commanded Elijah to come down rather arrogantly; just like the first captain did. Then again through the prophet Elijah, God calls fire down that destroys this second captain and his fifty.
We can take a little lesson in this on how we are to approach God by how these two came in their arrogance. And yet how many people approach God in this way and say that God must save them because they did this or because they did that or just because of who they are? People can be rather proud and arrogant. Of course, we all have pride; and unless God had led us and drawn us to Him prior to May 21, we would all come in this kind of a way, demanding that God hear us and that He take action on our behalf. But all this does is bring the judgment of God.
So then the king sends a third group. We read of them in 2nd Kings 1:13:
And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty…
This captain now knows of what happened to the first two captains and their fifties. Then it goes on to say:
…And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.
This is a good way of going to God, which is very humbly. This captain recognizes that he might be struck down with fire from Heaven and come under the judgment of God like these other men. After all, there is no difference between him and them. He was a captain like the others. He had fifty men like the others. And so very delicately, he approaches; and it is easy to see that he is frightened. With fear and trembling, he is going to God and he is basically saying, “Spare me! Spare me, O Lord!” Then God tells Elijah, “Go down with him: be not afraid of him.”
So there are three captains and their fifty men, which equals 153 men. Except in this case, this number of 153 is teaching something different than the 153 fish that we read about in John 21. In John 21, we read of a great catch of fish where all 153 fish pointed to the great multitude that God was going to save. But here, this is concerning the one-third who are spared and the two-thirds who come under the judgment of God.
Here is how God sums this up. Turn to Zechariah 13. Zechariah is right before the book of Malachi, which is the last book of the Old Testament. We read 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.
So here God is saying very clearly that the third part represent His people. They are the ones who come through the fire. Again, this would leave two-thirds who are not His people.
If we were to write down the number two-thirds as a decimal, it would be .666, which is what we find in Revelation 13 where it says that this is the number “of a man,” but this should really read that this is the number “of man.” This is because God views the unsaved portion of the human race as being represented by the number 666 or two-thirds. And the one-third has to do with those whom He saves, but this is definitely not literal.
If we take the population of the earth today, we are approaching seven billion. If we take this as we were approaching May 21, it was six billion and several hundred million who were on the earth. In the churches, there are about two billion people who would say that they are “Christian” in the world. This is about one-third of the earth’s population, but this is not exact.
The problem in understanding this is that God began the process of judging the churches and congregations. Judgment began at the house of God, and so this identification with the third part remained with the churches. And once judgment began at the house of God, this number no longer applied to God’s elect people.
We see this in Revelation 8 where reference is made to “the third part” repeatedly. It says in Revelation 8:7-12:
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.
We read of “the third part” eleven times in these verses where God is emphasizing judgment on the third part. This is because this is looking at the great tribulation, which is when God brought judgment on the churches and congregations of the world.
So we find this eleven times in Revelation 8, and then we find this two times in Revelation 9, which brings us up to thirteen references to “the third part.” And it is probably not a coincidence that we find this reference thirteen times in these two chapters where God is looking at judgment on the third part.
But there is a difference when we get to Revelation 9 of what He means by this judgment on the third part. In Revelation 8, it is the 23-year great tribulation period or the whole 8400-days. During that time in the churches, the water was polluted, one-third part of the sun, moon, and stars were darkened, and they were smitten. But we know immediately after the tribulation that the sun is darkened, the moon does not gift its light, and the stars fall, and this now applies to the whole world.
The way to explain this is that this is what God had previously done in the churches. And what He previously did in the churches, He is doing now in the world. And so for 23 years, the churches had no light. They had no light of Christ, no light of the Gospel, and no salvation was taking place.
We really should have learned something by this. This is what God did in the churches, as He is emphasizing this in Revelation 8. We knew that this would transition to the whole world. And so what He has done is that He has taken the judgment that was on the church, which was completely spiritual, and applied this to the whole world; and, again, this is completely spiritual.
After all, we would have to say that most of the churches never even knew that they were under the judgment of God. They thought that God was with them, and they still think this. No matter what kind of church they are and no matter how far off their gospel is, they still think that God is with them; and yet He departed from them and left them.
I would like to look at this a little bit. If we look at the nature of this judgment on the churches, this will help us to see the nature of what is going on today. Let us go to Revelation 20 where we read of Jesus as the angel who comes down having the key of the bottomless pit. Then it says in Revelation 20:2-3:
And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled [or finished]: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
So Satan was bound, and we know that this took place at the cross. We can liken the bottomless pit to a prison, because God calls it a prison. It is a place of holding. Christ grabbed hold of the devil. He arrested him, bound him, and put him into a prison. But this tells us that he would be loosed for “a little season.” After these figurative thousand years, he would come up out of the bottomless pit and be loosed for this “little season.”
Look now at Revelation 11. This is referring to the two witnesses, and it says in Revelation 11:7:
And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
“The beast” is Satan’s name that God has given him primarily, if not exclusively, for the 23-year great tribulation period. He has many names – the devil, Satan, the serpent, the dragon, the beast, the man of sin, the abomination of desolation – but “the beast” is the name that God has given him particularly as he ruled over the churches and congregations for those 23 years.
Actually, this word for “beast” is found mostly in the book of Revelation, except for several cases. One case is in Acts 28 where we read of a shipwreck, and this ship that was destroyed by the waves is pointing to the church. God likens the church to a ship, and so this ship is destroyed. All of the men who were onboard, however, which were 276 men, make it safely to the island of Melita.
Melita is an island in the Mediterranean, which is the modern Malta, and this island still exists today. We were trying to organize a tract trip to Malta before May 21. This never happened, and yet I am sure that God got this message to them.
So they all escaped to this island called Melita, and then we read in Acts 28:2-3:
And the barbarous people showed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold. And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks…
Mr. Camping did a study on this years ago indicating how this gathering of a “bundle” indicated that a multitude was gathered. This was a multitude of sticks, which points to all of those who were saved during the great tribulation. They are put on the fire because they are now identified with Christ and with the payment that He made. God’s people are “baptized with the baptism” that He was baptized with. And so we can look at this multitude of sticks in the same way that we look at the 153 fish in John 21. This was when a great multitude of fish was brought in, and then God taught us something in John 21 concerning these last five months of feeding sheep.
Well, here, I think that He is teaching us something about this, too, because a multitude of sticks are gathered, and then it goes on to say:
And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.
Remember that Paul was a person whom God used at times to represent the believers. We read in 1st Timothy that he was “a pattern” of the believers. He was a type and a figure of the true believers.
So this viper fastens on Paul’s hand, and then we read in Acts 28:4-5:
And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.
This word “beast” that we find here is the same word for “beast” that we find in Revelation 11.
So this is exactly what is going on today, because “the beast” is the name that God has given Satan as he ruled in the churches; but this is past. This is over, because the multitude has been gathered in.
This actually happened before May 21 came. Once this happened, the great tribulation ended and Satan’s rule ended. Now when he comes against the people of God, there is no harm. We can just shake him off right into the fire. He has lost power, he has lost authority, and he cannot hurt the child of God or the people of God, because God has already done this. God has already saved all of His elect.
What can Satan do now? He was an expert at trying to hinder this process. He was very good at trying to make sure that an individual would not be saved and not be translated out of his kingdom and into the Kingdom of God. This is what the whole battle has been about all throughout history. It was about Satan trying to prevent God from accomplishing the purpose of saving everyone whom God had said He would save and had obligated Himself to save. But now this is done. This is done. He is an adversary, but he cannot prevent this because this has already been accomplished.
So this beast is thrown into the fire, and we have noticed something about this. We noticed that the fire and brimstone is now falling, that judgment is now falling. We read about this in Revelation 16 where it is talking about our present time. We read in Revelation 16:10:
And the fifth angel [or messenger] poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast…
Remember that 2nd Thessalonians 2 tells us of the “man of sin” who takes his seat “in the temple of God.” To be seated means that one is ruling. Where was the “seat of the beast”? Well, Satan was seated in the Baptist Church, in the Episcopalian Church, in the Catholic Church, in the Presbyterian Church, and in every church that we can name. He was seated there ruling in the congregations and “showing himself that he is God” in his pride and in his arrogancy.
And yet, now, in these seven last plagues, one of them very specifically, like one of those directional bombs, is pointed by God right at the “seat of the beast,” at the rule of Satan; and God brings him down with all of his pomp.
Revelation 16:10 goes on to say:
…and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
This is a sad way to look at this. But we are living in a natural world, and if we were to put on spiritual glasses and if God were to give us sight to see what He is saying in His Word, then we would see this and we would understand. Of course, if the sun has been darkened and if the moon is not giving its light and if the stars are falling, this means that there is spiritual darkness over the whole earth.
The kingdom of Satan is now full of darkness, because this is not only in the churches; this has now been expanded to the whole world. God does use Babylon to typify the churches at times, but also to typify the world. He was loosed and we can see how the world worshipped the beast because of how much sin has multiplied over the last 23 years in all the world.
Okay; so we see that Satan was loosed in Revelation 20. We then find in Revelation 11:7 that immediately upon his loosing he does something. What is the first thing that Satan did? Does he go and haunt a house? Is this where we find Satan and the demons? Are they in abandoned houses or abandoned farms rattling doors?
They might fool around with stuff like this, but Satan’s interest has always been the same. He wants to be like God. This is why he entered into the Garden of Eden. This is what that was all about. He wanted Eve and Adam to believe him over God, and then he would be the ruler.
This is what this has been about all throughout history. Satan has focused his attack on the churches and congregations until they would become synagogues of Satan. This is what this has been about throughout the great tribulation. When he was loosed, he went right to them as soon as he ascended out of the bottomless pit.
Some people might be thinking that the believers were killed on May 21, 2011. But, no. Did Satan ascend out of the bottomless pit on May 21, 2011? If Revelation 11:7 had said that he had ascended, past tense, then maybe we could look at it this way, but this was something that happened initially upon his loosing, which was back on May 21, 1988. And so he comes out of the bottomless pit, he makes war against them, he overcomes them, and he kills them.
Look at Revelation 13 where we read again of “the beast,” which was Satan’s name for that 23-year period. Revelation 13 describes this and says that he is also like a leopard, a bear, a lion, and so on. Then we read in Revelation 13:3:
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Satan received a death blow in 33 A.D. when Christ went to the cross. He was bound for “a thousand years,” which is another figurative statement that pointed to the entire duration of the church age that was an actual 1,955 years. But then he was loosed and it seemed that he came back with what looked like no restraint on his power or on his authority. It seemed like he could do anything that he wanted. All the evil that he had been behind and yet had been restrained to some degree was now unleashed.
We all know this. All that we have to do is to take a look at the world over the last 23 years in comparison to prior to this time. Even though the world was still sinful, it still, for example, had some recognition of the marriage relationship and it still had some recognition that Sunday was God’s day.
I remember growing up as a teenager in the late 1960’s and during the 1970’s when most of the stores were closed on Sundays. The “blue laws” were still in effect. These laws were designed to enforce religious standards, particularly the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath. And I am talking about 20th century America, but now Sunday is just like any other day. Back then, homosexuality was still “in the closet,” but look at this now. This is now legal in some states and we see the practice of this all over the place.
So in many, many ways, there has been a big change in the world compared to how things had been. Of course, it was never that good in the world, but God did keep a lid on things to a large degree. However, this lid has been off now since Satan was loosed.
Then it says in Revelation 13:4-5:
And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power [or authority] was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
We read of his time limitation here. “Forty and two months” is another way of saying that this would last for the length of the great tribulation. God uses different amounts of time in reference to this time period. He speaks of it as the 70 years when Babylon came against Judah. He refers to it as a 7-year period in the days of Jacob and Joseph. He refers to it as three and half days in Revelation 11. He also refers to it as 42 months in Revelation 11, where we read in Revelation 11:2:
But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
This is saying that for the length of the great tribulation, “the holy city,” or the churches, would be tread under foot for this figurative period of time, which works out to be 23 exact years from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011; and this is a period of an exact 8400 days.
This is just like those other types and figures that God uses. 7 years is 84 months. 70 years is 840 months. Three and a half days is 84 hours. And here we read of 42 months, which is half of 84. I do not understand fully as to why God did this, except that this is another way of saying “three and a half” because 42 months is three and a half years.
These 42 months represent the complete length of time that the church was under judgment. Judgment began at the house of God and then it ended at the house of God, referring to the church, on May 21, 2011, and this was just a couple of months ago. And so we find in Revelation 13 that authority was given to Satan.
Let us look at Jeremiah 25 and we will see in what way God had given Satan authority. We read in Jeremiah 25:9-11:
Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith JEHOVAH, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon…
In the Bible, Nebuchadnezzar is a type of Satan.
Then look at what God says of him next. He calls him:
…my servant…
And then He says:
…and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
Satan was to be served. This is what God is saying. He was going to raise Satan up as an instrument of judgment. This is what He historically did with Nebuchadnezzar as He brought the Babylonians against His own people, the Jews or the nation of Judah. This 70-year period was historically a terrible time for Judah, and this is a figure of what God did with Satan to the churches for those 23 years.
Then look at verse 12. We read in Jeremiah 25:12:
And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished…
This is when these years are finished. It continues:
…that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith JEHOVAH, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.
So Satan was given this authority. And Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, was called His servant for a particular period of time. But then God turns this around. Even though God used Nebuchadnezzar, he still did all of these things because of his sins and his lusts and his pride and his arrogance. God just let Nebuchadnezzar do these things because this was how God could use him. And it is the same with Satan. Satan, completely and sinfully, entered into the churches and destroyed the churches, which accomplished the will of God in the process, and yet this was his sin.
So when this period is up, and it is up, then God turns right around and says that it is now Satan’s turn to come under judgment. He and his kingdom are now under judgment. And this is where we are right now. Satan has entered into judgment and God is now judging the whole world.
If we go back to Revelation 9, we are going to try to answer the question of why the locusts are commanded not to kill but that the 200 million are commanded to kill. It says again in Revelation 9:18-19:
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 [or authority]…
By the way, the locusts are given authority and the 200 million are given authority, and these cannot be relating to Satan and his kingdom, because this just cannot be. Satan is done. This is how we know that these locusts are the people of God and that these 200 million horsemen are the people of God. There is no way that these could be Satan or his emissaries in any sense. These have to be God’s people, because this is referring to the five months after the great tribulation, the time now when God is judging Satan and judging his kingdom. There has been this transition.
So the 200 million are now given authority, and it continues on to say in Revelation 9:19:
For their power [or authority] 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 really terribly sad, but God warned everyone. He warned the churches. He warned the congregations. He told them that the church age was over, that their testimony was finished, and that it was time for everyone to come out of the church. He warned them that if they did not come out, they were just going to wind up as a tare, that they would be bundled like a tare for the fire. God warned and warned and warned people to get out of the church. This was said again and again and again, and yet people disregarded this.
Actually, it was only by God’s grace that anyone could actually hearken to this command and obey this. If they did, they were most likely one of His elect whom He was drawing. Certainly, there were some, here and there and all over the world, whose eyes God opened and, for whatever reason, they did get out prior to May 21.
But for anyone who stayed and remained in the churches, they had been told that they were in a situation where Satan was reigning. They were told that he was ruling in the churches. They were told that the Spirit of God had left the churches and that, therefore, there could not be any salvation within the churches. All of these people were taking their families into a situation where they could not be blessed, but they were warned that they needed to get them out of the church.
These people just kept saying things like no man knows the day or hour or that their church was faithful or that their pastor preached the truth, and they were not listening. Their pastors could preach whatever they wanted to preach, but God removed His Spirit.
The Bible tells us that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” but it takes God to apply this to the heart of someone, to the listener. If God’s Spirit is not there, they could preach faithfully all the day long, but it takes God to apply this to the heart of someone to make them born again. And this was not happening in any church in the world. There was spiritual darkness in all churches.
The hope was that they would come out of the church, because God was working in the world. He was saving a great multitude; and so as soon as a person listened to God on this point and came out and decided never to go back to the church, they were in a position where God could potentially save them.
This is where the other two-thirds of the world are. They are involved in other religions or in no religion at all. They are just secular or they are agnostic or they are atheists. Maybe they do not believe anything. But these two-thirds were at least outside and in that place, leading up to May 21, where God was saving.
And so what happened then to the one-third who were left in the churches, to those who remained in the churches and would not listen to God, to those who refused to listen and obey? Who knows if these people even had any thoughts at all about this. Maybe they just decided that they were going to trust their pastor and their church. Maybe they decided to trust the whole congregation since nobody else was leaving, and so they remained.
But then May 20th turned over to May 21st and Judgment Day came. On that day, God shut the door to Heaven after He saved all of His elect. And so we now have one-third of the world’s population who remained in the churches where there was no salvation possible who have now transitioned into Judgment Day itself of 153 days where there is no salvation possible anywhere. What happened to this one-third of the world’s population? They were killed. As God views them, they are dead spiritually.
As we just look at this from the perspective that they were in a situation that they refused to come out of where God was not saving, then we transition immediately to the next day of May 21 and to the 153 days thereafter where God is not saving anywhere in the world, we have to ask where their hope is. Where is the hope?
This is why the locusts and the 200 million are one and the same. They are bringing the same message, but this is the very same message that kills the third part. It slays them. This really is tragic because this is like they have been bundled and are now cast into the fire. And we know that this fire and brimstone is not literal. This is not literal, but this is what identifies with the 200 million. And these are now under the judgment of God.
This helps us understand something. We were a little confused. We pretty much had things worked out if there had been a great physical earthquake. If it had been the day of the rapture and the day of the resurrection, we thought that we had a lot of verses worked out. But when this did not physically happen like we thought that it would, we then wondered how those in the churches would be receiving more stripes than those who were not in the churches. Since everybody seems fine as we are going along, how will they receive more stripes?
Let us look at Luke 12:45-48. It says:
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. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
So there will be more stripes for those who knew their Lord’s will; and for those who did not know their Lord’s will, they will receive few stripes.
Turn back now to Revelation 9. We read that the 200 million are commissioned to slay the third part. Then it says in Revelation 9:20:
And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands…
So “the rest of the men” means those who are left. This is a word that is translated as “remnant.” They were not killed by “these plagues” because these plagues were specifically focused on the third part.
The Greek word translated “plagues” is plege (pronounced play-gay'), and most of us are familiar with Revelation 22:18 which warns, “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.” This word “plagues” in Revelation 9:20 is the same word.
This means like it sounds. This is the judgment of God or the wrath of God. But this is also the word that is translated as “stripes” that we just read in Luke 12, which is saying that those will receive more plagues or more stripes.
It sometimes helps us when we see that God wrote the Bible this way. He will use one Greek word that has been translated into several English words. We then move these words around to see if the different words can help us to understand a verse.
So it says again in Revelation 9:20:
And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues [or stripes]…
We know that there are more stripes for the third part, because these men were not killed by them. These plagues were designed to kill the third part.
The “rest of the men” are not going to receive that particular stripe. That stripe is not for them, because they were not in the churches; they were out in the world. They are tormented, however, because it is awful to hear that God is not saving today; but at least anyone who had nothing to do with any church can have hope.
As long as someone was not a member of a church and had nothing to do with any church, they can have hope. Even an atheist can have the hope that maybe God did something to him in his heart and that maybe God saved him. Even he can have this slight little bit of hope.
On the other hand, if someone was in the church, what hope is there? They were in a situation where God was not saving, which was bad, but now they are in a situation where God is not saving anywhere in the world, and this is worse. And so where could the third part find salvation when they are going from that position into this position?
We are going to stop here and close with a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You for Your salvation. We thank You that You are guiding us each step of the way. And, Father, we just pray for mercy on our families. We have always known that You had to elect a people from the foundation of the world, and so we had always looked back and prayed, “Oh, could our children be one of Your elect.” Now, we find that we have to look back also to see if You applied this salvation to them. And so we pray that You might have had mercy. Maybe they just do not know this yet. But may You have mercy. Help us to keep praying for them. We do ask for grace to help us in everything that we do at this time. We pray these things in Christ’s Name. Amen.