The Revelation 14a:  

Reading #445  The power of the Son of God

We finished last week with this thought.  What’s stopping the Sunday-law advocates from completing their desire?  The four angels of Revelation 7:1. 

How are they doing this?  Through the activities of some humans who are led by the Spirit to legally oppose such legislation.  Why are they preventing it?  Because God’s people as a whole are not ready yet.  So what is needed? Real Christians who will listen to the Spirit, take the power of God and stop sinning and confessing, and thus allow the Son of God to begin to finish the work.  Then the national Sunday laws (note the plural) will come thick and fast.  This week we can learn something of what the power of God can do.

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Revelation 14:

1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him a hundred and forty-four thousand [individuals], having His Father's name written in their foreheads.

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Here we are re-introduced to the 144,000 from chapter seven and learn HOW they are “sealed”.  It is by having their Father’s name (His character) in their minds – they are one with Him in complete fulfilment of the Saviour’s prayer for His disciples. “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You.  Holy Father, keep through Your own name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one, as We are . . . I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.  I pray not that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil . . . Sanctify them through Your truth: Your word is truth . . .

“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that You have sent Me.  And the glory which You gave Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them, as You have loved Me”.  John 17:11-23.  (See also Philippians 2:1-5.)

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Revelation 14:

2 And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters [melodious], and as the voice of a great thunder [powerful]: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: 3 and they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts [the redeemed], and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty-four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.

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As John watched, the 144,000 sang the song of their experiences with the Son of God.  John did not write what they sang, but, if faithful, we can learn the words as we live through the momentous times which lie ahead.  Although we may only be in small groups (or even alone) we shall all go through the same experiences (in principle) and so will be able to sing the same song of the Son of God’s deliverances, with maybe giving some individual “choruses” in areas where we place the emphases.

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Revelation 14:

4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins.  These are they which follow the Lamb wheresoever He goes. 

These were redeemed from among men [not the grave], being the firstfruits to God and to the Lamb [for only now is the harvest ready]. 5 And in their mouth was found no guile [cunning]: for they are without fault [they are righteous] before the throne of God.

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In the Bible the symbol of a woman has been used to identify a church, both good and bad (dressed in white or scarlet, and both very attractive), and here we are being told that this group of Christians have NEVER been fooled by a system of religion.  They have followed only their Saviour since the day they recognised Him, sometimes through a religion or church while they have experienced His Sabbath rest, but never basing their faith on anything but their relationship with Him, and eventually ending up in His Sabbath-keeping church.  They have been true to Him and retained their “virginity” until they are united with Him both spiritually and physically by translation without seeing death. The church organisations they have been (or are) in were useful for training, but irrelevant for faith/love.   For more on this subject, see:

http://www.oocities.org/weprotest.geo/BibleReadings/revelation/translation_article_for_translation.html

They will be the ones who will see the second coming from start to finish, for they do not desire a resurrection caused by a separation.  They have fulfilled the Son of God’s longing and can be presented before the universe as the trophy of His ultimate triumph over sin.  See Note 1 for some thoughts on this.  What makes them different from all the other Christians who have lived and died?  Although tempted in all the ways other Christians have been, they alone will have lived through the “time of trouble such as never was” without sinning in the slightest, by action or thought.  They are “without fault” in God’s eyes, perfect Christians.

This does not mean that they have never sinned, for “all have sinned and come short of the glory [desire] of God” even after they have become Christians.  Romans 3:23.  Elijah, the Old Testament type of the 144,000, sinned grievously and caused the character of the LORD to be horribly defamed when he allowed the prophets of Baal to be killed.  1 Kings 18:40. (He repented of that action when he listened to the “small, still, Voice.”) In the same way, each one of the 144,000 will have repented of their individual sins since conversion, and been cleansed of them WHILE THEY WERE STILL LIVING, and then have stood fast after the close of human probation no matter what Satan and his followers have thrown at them.  What they have never done is dally with the other god!

They are the survivors of the Day of Atonement, pictured by the “fit man” who was able to lead the scapegoat away into the wilderness and release him.  Leviticus 16:21-22.  Want to know more?

http://www.oocities.org/weprotest.geo/day_of_atonement.html

How did they get like that?  By participating in the actions, warnings, and understandings of the messages given by the seven angels!  Yes, seven, not just the first three, for they (the saints of God on earth) are the actual creatures now described as “angels” flying in the midst of the kingdom of heaven. (Only humans preach the everlasting gospel.  Even when Christ had an opportunity, He sent Paul to a church member.  Acts 9:6. )

Angel #1

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Revelation 14:

6 And I saw another angel [the first of seven] fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, 7 saying with a loud voice, “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters”.

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These “angels” represent the people of God fulfilling their role on earth as messengers of the Son of God, first of all in this case, by different ones from the 1840’s to the present time, extending even to near the close of human probation, and then as a discrete group after that.  This “first angel” (messenger) takes with him the invitation of the everlasting gospel as all God’s people do, but his main thrust is that God is the Creator and Judge, and that men and women should worship Him with this in mind.  This was in answer to the theory of evolution which Satan began to impose on mankind during those days, and this message has not lost its significance today when many still want to accept the theory as fact!      

Angel #2

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Revelation 14:

8 And there followed another [second] “angel”, saying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication”.

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That first message was quickly followed by the realisation that those so-called Protestant churches which officially opposed the thought of a soon-coming Christ could not be real Christian organisations, which amounted to a “fall” in the eyes of those who longed for His coming.  Thus many of the Advent people answered God’s call in 1844 and came out from them.  Revelation 18:4.  We should note that the Spirit says “Babylon” and NOT “Israel” is “fallen”!  God has never called the Protestant churches anything but “daughters of Babylon”.  It is men who have thought and spoken of them as “Christian”.  For more on this see   

                http://www.oocities.org/weprotest.geo/daughters_babylon.html

Angel #3

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Revelation 14:

9 And the third “angel” followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his [the image’s] mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 10 the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11 and the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receives the mark of his name”.

12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

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Then came the awful and terrifying message that they had to give as the “third angel” of this series.  All three of these messages will be repeated as a part of the fulfilment of Revelation 10:11 when they are joined by the fourth “angel” from Revelation 18:1-5.  They (and so are we) were to warn their fellow humans that those who persisted in sticking with Satan’s way of religion (the use of force) would one day be unprotected, and will have to accept the full payment of their “wages”, the second death.  Romans 6:23.  For more on this see http://www.oocities.org/weprotest.geo/protest.html

What is this distinguishing “mark” that all the followers of the beast and the image bear?  As we have seen before, the only sign that BOTH believers and unbelievers (in their head or in their hand) can share, is the observance of Sunday as a day of obedience to Satan, the dragon beast.  Revelation 13:4.

The tormenting by fire and brimstone in the presence of God, the Son, and all the saints of God, will take place on this earth in what some call “The Lake of Fire”.  This is the conflagration caused by the rejecters rushing into the holy space around the throne of God, and which the Son of God will use to recreate the earth into the new world.  It will last (for ever and ever) until the last of the rejecters is completely consumed and the earth made new. 

To believe that this will soon happen will require more than ordinary faith and patience as we see the leading rejecters receiving great honour and riches from the people of the world as they all “wonder” after the “beast”. (We had a foretaste of such adoration at Pope John Paul’s funeral!)  Near the end, to all intents and purposes, the way of the LORD will have failed, and the temptation for God’s people will be to give up and die.  They will be tempted to succumb to Satan’s power, enter his dusty bed and cease to be virgins!  It is written; “ . . . him that had the power of death, that is, the devil”.  Hebrews 2:14. When this happened to Elijah he was fed twice by God and then found the strength to go on to Mt. Sinai to receive the revelation from God.  1 Kings 19:5-8.  We should be expecting that too!

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Revelation 14:

13 And I heard a Voice from heaven saying to me, “Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the LORD from henceforth: Yea, said the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them”.

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It is at this point that we are told that those true-hearted members of the Laodicean branch of the church who have been active in giving these messages of warning will receive the reward of their work, and will either be called from their dusty beds in the special resurrection which takes place JUST BEFORE the second coming (Daniel 12:1-2), or will be translated without seeing death, at that time. 

Angel #5

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Revelation 14:

14 And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud One sat like to the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle.

15 And another “angel” [the fifth] came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle, and reap: for the time is come for You to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe”.

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John was shown the picture of the second advent with the Son of man in full kingly regalia coming as the Judge of all the earth.  However, this is NOT the GREAT judgment day, but only the judgment of the generation who are alive at the second advent, for the GREAT judgment of all the nations takes place at the third advent.  See Matthew 25:31.

The “sickle” in His hand at the second advent indicates that He is now ABLE to “harvest” the earth, or resurrect His sanctified ones.  He has not done this before because He has been waiting for His people to recognise HOW and WHY He should do this.  You’ve probably read about this already but it’s worth while doing it again.   Click

http://www.oocities.org/weprotest.geo/BibleReadings/revelation/translation_article_for_translation.html

Once His living saints have understood the “way of the LORD” (“Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary” Psalm 77:13) they will earnestly ask Him to show them how to help Him in His work of resurrecting those who have been waiting “asleep in their graves” since the beginning of the controversy on this earth.  The saints of God have learnt the ‘way” of the LORD by studying the plans of the building He gave as an instruction book, and experiencing its lessons.  Ezekiel 43:10-11.  Hezekiah, the man of God, knew the spiritual meaning, but not the depths, of the words he spoke to his people. “Now be you not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD, and enter into His sanctuary, which He has sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from you”. 2 Chronicles 30:8.

Here’s a few word pictures of some of the scenes at the second advent when the voice of God will be heard from heaven:

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1 Samuel 2:10

The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall He thunder [speak] upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and He shall give strength to His King, and exalt the horn of His Anointed.  

Psalm 50:4-6

He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people. “Gather My saints together to Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice”. And the heavens shall declare His righteousness [the Ten Commandments]: for God is judge Himself.  Selah.

Isaiah 11:4  

But with righteousness shall He judge the poor [and needy], and reprove with equity [fairness] for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. [They will desire to die when they hear the truth from Him.]  

2 Timothy 4:1  

I charge you therefore before God, and the LORD Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick [the living Christians] and the [spiritually] dead at His appearing and [reception of] His kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering [forgiveness] and doctrine.

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The word pictures of the second coming and the third advent are often interwoven, so we may apply them to either situation.

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Revelation 14:

16 And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.

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This is the time of the general resurrection of all who have died trusting Him as their Saviour.  It marks the beginning of the 1,000-year period as described below, and the second investigative judgment which occurs then. 

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Revelation 20:

4 And I saw thrones, and they [the redeemed] sat upon them [as kings], and judgment [investigation] was given to them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God [martyrs], and [those] which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.  5 But the rest of the dead [the rejecters] lived not again until the thousand years were finished. 

This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.  

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Bye for now, Ron

Some of the comments in these readings are adapted from books in my library.      No recognition is given because they are not intended as authorities, but are used because they express my understanding clearly.     All the ideas expressed in these readings, right or wrong, are my own. Some of these readings are available at  http://www.oocities.org/weprotest.geo/BibleReadings/books_index.html

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Note 1. 

 From my library:    

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“The power of Christ, the crucified Saviour, to give eternal life, should be presented to the people. We should show them that the Old Testament is as verily the gospel in types and shadows as the New Testament is in its unfolding power.

“Abel was a believer in Christ, and was as verily saved by His power as was Peter or Paul.  Enoch was a representative of Christ as surely as was the beloved disciple John.  Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.  To him was committed the message of the second coming of Christ.  “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all.” Jude 14, 15.

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