Volume 2003/9

 

 

 

Rounded Rectangle: REVELATION 5:5Rounded Rectangle: Revelation series 
part-6
The Harvest Is Ripe!

 "He will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner”

                                             (Mat.3: 12)


 


 

 

 

(From radio broadcast of Bro. Julius Adewumi)

 

Revelation chapter 6

 

 

At the end of the age, knowledge shall increase.  The symbols in the book of Revelation is being revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, and it is full of apocalypse, doom for the world.  Except for those who are in Christ Jesus.  The whole book of Revelation, especially these symbols are describing the apocalyptic situations that will end the world.

As the Lord Jesus prophesied when he was on earth, he said “these are the beginning of sorrows”. 

The timetable of events that will transpire to end all things is what the revelation symbols indicate.

In Mat.24: 7-8:  “For nation shall rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places.

All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

But Christ said, “he that believeth in me shall not walk in darkness, but shall see the light of this life”.

When we study the book of revelation you will see how the devil will use deception to sway a lot of  people and to destroy a lot of people, to bring judgment of God upon a lot of people worldwide. 

     Rev. 6:1: “And I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals, and  I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.  And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him; and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.”

     What does this first symbol represent?   Remember this prophecy was given about 60 – 70AD after the Lord Jesus Christ had gone up to heaven and apostle John was reported to have been exiled on the isle of Patmos.  The Lord was revealing what will be transpiring from that time till the end of the world.  Do you think there will be something massive that would transpire that God would not have known?

Let me tell you one massive event that had a worldwide effect.  One such event was the rise of Islamic religion.  Do you think anything so massive will come into the world and God wouldn’t tell us about it in the bible?  This book of revelation has pointed it out.  The Lord Jesus Christ said, “there shall arise false Christs and false prophets that shall deceive many”.    Let me point it out to you that this particular white horse symbolized a religion.  “He that sat on it has a bow”.   Look at the Islamic religion, their symbol  is the crest of the moon, like a bow.  There is no arrow in this picture.  It is representing the rise of Islamic religion, it’s a deception – a bow without an arrow – it’s a false religion.  “He went conquering and to conquer”.   How did the Islamic religion spread itself?  By war!  They declared the holy Jihad, with sword, conquering the North African nations, the mediterranean world,  up to the Asian countries.  This was prophesied over 600 years before it happened.  The founder of Islam, was born about 672 A.D. 

See how they have swayed multitudes till this day, bowing to the ground facing the east, worshipping a stone in Mecca, or the sun towards the east.  This is where Islam was represented in the book of revelations, the white horse depicting a false religion symbolized with a bow (crest of the moon).

   Another question people have asked is “where is United States of America in the bible?”

Many believers couldn’t see where USA is represented in the bible, they thought USA was not represented in the bible.  Do you think there would be a whole big powerful nation like this that will come up at the end of the world and the Lord wouldn’t have told us about it in the bible?  Especially in the book of revelation when the Lord was telling what will transpire till the end of the world?   It is written here in the bible.   And when I get to that chapter, I will point it out.  All of them, the western bloc of nations, have their own place in the bible.   You see, the first seal represents the false religion that used sword: Either accept their religion or be killed, and it spread by conquering nations.  Is that the kind of religion that Christ brought? No!

      Christ brought peace.  He said, “come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”  Unlike the Islamic religion, our God brought peace.  He said again, “I have not come to destroy mankind, but to save them.”  At the end of the world, when the harvest is brought in, the world will destroy itself.  During this time of grace, God is saving mankind.   That is why the religion symbolized by the white horse having a bow, without an arrow, conquering nations, is a false religion.

v.3: “And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. 

  This is almost self-explanatory.  It symbolized wars, and military dictators and Tyrants that destroyed masses in trying to conquer other nations.  We can look back at history and see many dictators and Tyrants. Through the time of Musolinni, the French revolution, to Adolf Hitler who tried to conquer Europe.  First world war, Second world war are all represented in this seal in which the great sword was given to the spirit riding this red horse to take peace from the earth.

v.5: “When he had opened the third seal I heard the third beast say, Come and see.  And I beheld and lo, a black horse; and he that sat on it had a pair of balances in his hand.

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, “A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.”

The black horse symbolized famine, black plague.  There was a black plague, pestilence, all over Europe in the earlier century.  It also talked about a balance, shortage of food; it has to be measured out, and rationed.

Just think of the black African race, being plagued with famine in our generation, majorly by mismanagement of their resources, and by the forces of darkness behind it.  “A measure of wheat for a penny”.  It means a whole day’s wage for a loaf of bread.  That was famine.   Mathew chapter 24 was the summary the Lord gave to the apostles which is being revealed further here. 

“See thou hurt not the oil and the wine”. Some scholars have talked about the petroleum oil not being hurt which is some countries’ wealthy.  But what did they use the money for? Most of these countries that prosper through the oil money mismanaged it.  Physical wine also cause havoc and ungodliness for men on earth.  All these are represented in this seal.  These are all part of the beginning of sorrows for mankind.

v.7:  when he had opened the fourth seal,  I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.  And I looked and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.  And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death and with the beasts of the earth.”

Let’s compare these four horses.  For the first three horses, the name of the rider was not given, but in the fourth horse the name of the rider was given.   The same spirit was riding the horses! It is death Spirit.  Satanic spirit:  on the first horse, he uses false religion, and on the second horse he uses war and dictators; on the third horse, he uses famine and food shortages, whereas in the fourth beasts it’s true name was death.  It kills with anything he can use to kill, including germs and viruses – the beasts of the earth.  Satan is the thief. The thief cometh not but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy.  Christ said “but I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (Jn.10: 10).     God will always put his seal upon his own so that the angels of destruction will not hurt them.

     We can say chapter 6 summarizes what is going to be in the rest of the chapters, like a content page.

These events may not occur chronologically.  That is, one event does not have to terminate before the next event begins.  They can be in parallel or overlap.  

   v.9:  And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”

    The scene we see here, in the fifth seal, is the beginning of the end.  The saints who were killed for the name of God were asking for vengeance.  Note that they were under the altar.  Being under the altar shows that the souls of the dead saints are located in a separate place different from the ‘heaven’ where the throne was set.  I used this to point to the fact that where the souls of the dead saints are being kept is not the same heaven where the throne of God is.  To make this clear to us, the Lord Jesus Christ resurrected and went away with his body up into the sky.  He went up into heaven.  Which means the heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ went to is upward in the sky.  Whereas the souls of the dead saints were said to be under the altar.   They are being kept in Paradise, which is not the same geographical location where the Lord Jesus went up to.  White robes were given to them and that they should wait till the rest of the saints that would be killed be fulfilled.  Which means there will still be persecution, just as it was in the days when the emperors of Rome or the papacy in Rome was persecuting Protestant Christians all over Europe.  It is written that the Anti-Christ will wage war against the saints, which also is persecution believed to be at the end of the world.

v.12: “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, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.  And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

    You can see that in the sixth seal it reveals where the Lord God Almighty will begin to judge the world, just as the saints under the altar had called for vengeance.  The terrible things that had been happening before, was because the devil was upon the earth.  Those evil things are caused by the devil.  Now the Almighty God himself is beginning to judge both the devil and the world at the opening of the sixth seal.

The devil is the one doing all those evil things on earth so far: persecution, killing and destruction, wars and rumors of war, famine.  These are all caused by the devil, both to non-believers and to those who are following God.  The devil hated mankind from Adam and through trick or treat was causing evil to mankind.  Christ came and revealed the way to God.  Those that refuse Christ have willingly joined the devil.  Now, at the end the world God will judge both the devil and those who refuse to accept Jesus Christ, because they have to be cleaned out of the earth.  As the bible said, “the field God planted is the world, the good seeds are the children of the kingdom and the weeds are the children of the wicked one.”  At the end of the age, God will send the angels, as reapers, to sever the unjust from among the just.

    Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life.  No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

    Know that your false religion will not deliver you.  Anyone that accepts Jesus as Lord and savior, has a hope to live in the world to come.  Give your life to Jesus so that you might be saved.

 

I invite you right now to come and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and let him fill you with the Holy Ghost.  Christ in us the hope of Glory.  Amen.

 

(Excerpts from Miguel de Molinos-1675A.D)

The Difference between the Outward and Inward Man.

1. THERE are two sorts of Spiritual Persons, Internal and External. The external: these seek God Without, by Discourse, by Imagination and Consideration: they endeavor mainly to get Virtues, many Abstinences, Maceration of Body, and Mortification of the Senses: they give themselves to rigorous Penance; they put on Sack-cloth, chastise the flesh by Discipline, endeavor silence, bear the presence of God, forming him present to themselves in their Idea of him, or their Imagination, sometimes as a Pastor, sometimes as a Physician, and sometimes as a Father and Lord: they delight to be continually speaking of God, very often making fervent Acts of Love; and all this is Art and Meditation: by this way they desire to be great, and by the power of voluntary and exterior Mortifications, they go in quest of sensible Affections and warm Sentiments, thinking that God resides only in them, when they have them. This is the External Way, and the Way of Beginners, and though it be good, yet there is no arriving at Perfection by it; nay, there is not so much as one step towards it, as Experience shows in many, that after fifty years of this external exercise, are void of God, and full of themselves, having nothing of spiritual Men, but just the name of such.

2. There are others truly Spiritual, which have passed by the beginnings of the Interior Way which leads to Perfection and Union with God; and to which the Lord called them by his infinite Mercy, from that outward Way, in which before they exercised themselves. These men retired in the inward part of their Souls, with true Resignation into the Hands of God, with a total putting off and forgetting even of themselves; do always go with a raised Spirit to the Presence of the Lord, by the means of pure Faith, without Image, Form or Figure, but with great assurance founded in tranquility and rest Internal: in whose infused meeting and entertainment, the spirit draws with so much force, that it makes the Soul contract inwardly, the Heart, the Body and all the Powers of it.

3. These Souls, as they are already passed by the interior Mortification, and have been cleansed by God with the Fire of Tribulation, with infinite and horrible Torments, all of them ordained by his hand, and after his way, are Masters of themselves, because they are entirely subdued and denied; which makes them live with great Repose and internal Peace: and although in many occasions they feel Resistance and Temptations, yet they become presently Victorious, because being already Souls of Proof, and endued with Divine Strength, the motions of Passions cannot last long upon them; and although vehement Temptations and troublesome Suggestions of the Enemy may persevere a long time about them, yet they are all conquered with infinite gain; God being he that Fights within them.

4. These Souls have already procured themselves a great Light, and a true Knowledge of Christ our Lord, both of his Divinity and his Humanity: They exercise this infused Knowledge with a quiet Silence in the inward entertainment, and the superior part of their Souls, with a Spirit free from Images and external Representations, with a love that is pure and stripped of all Creatures; they are raised also from outward Actions to the love of Humanity and Divinity; so much as they enjoy, they forget, and in all of it they find that they love their God with all their Heart and Spirit.

5. These blessed and sublimated Souls take no pleasure in any thing of the World, but contempt and in being alone, and in being forsaken and forgotten by every body: They live so disinterested and taken off, that though they continually receive many supernatural Graces, yet they are not changed, no not at those inclinations, being just as if they had not received them, keeping always in the in-most of their Hearts a great lowliness and contempt of themselves; always humbled in the depth of their own unworthiness and vileness: In the same manner they are always quiet, serene, and possessed with evenness of mind in Graces and Favors extraordinary, as also in the most rigorous and bitter Torments. There is no News that cheers them; no Success that makes them sad; Tribulation never disturbs them; nor does the interior, continual and divine Communication make them vain and conceited; they remain always full of holy and filial Fear, in a wonderful Peace, Constancy and Serenity.

 (end quote)

 

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again he can not see the kingdom of God”. (Jn. 3: 3).

 

Bro. Julius Adewumi

Gospel Distribution Ministry

 

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I want to thank those that have been sending offering to this ministry.  Your investment and mine send the literature to believers and send the word on radio.  That is one sure way we can send our money ahead of us to heaven.  The Lord said: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Mat. 6: 19-21).  "For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out."  (1Tim. 6: 7).