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and giving us a glimpse of what's coming in the future, dear God. And Father, I just pray that you would please just bless all of our ears as we hear what the Spirit sayeth under the churches. And Father, please just bless our understanding and open our eyes that we would see the wonderful truths in the Bible that you have for us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Now, I want to give you tonight just an overview of the entire book of Revelation. I want to teach to you the book of Revelation. Now, this is a book that many people are daunted by and they think it's totally not understandable. Some kind of scholar told them that it's just so complicated and it's so deep and it's not chronological and it's just so hard to understand. But I think that just tonight, I can't teach you the whole book of Revelation tonight. But what I'd like to do tonight is give you the tools and explain to you how it works in the book of Revelation to where you can go back and really understand this book extremely well. And I want to warn you up front, I want to say to you this, don't get all emotional about this, okay? I've seen people literally scream at each other. I've seen people almost get in fights about what they believe about prophecy. Now look, obviously some of this stuff is a little bit up to interpretation in the book of Revelation because it's the future. The rest of the Bible, you're looking back on the past, it's very clear. Some of the things in the book of Revelation, maybe, people could have different opinions about it and that's fine. Now, most of the time, you know me, I'm willing to fight, man. If somebody tries to tell me that salvation is not through the blood of Christ, man, put up your dukes, man. I'm not talking about physical fist fight, but I'm going to fight for that doctrine. I'm going to fight for that truth. I'm going to take a stand for what I believe. I'm not going to compromise at all. Somebody brings in a rock band here, I'm going to say, you're not going to bring that music into my church. We're going to have the things of God here. But something like this, okay, this is not something where I'm going to separate from somebody because they don't see it exactly the way I see it about the book of Revelation, about the beats and the false prophet and the seven seals and the seven trumpets and the seven vials. And so don't get emotional about things like this. I'm just going to teach you something that to me is as plain as the nose on my face about how to understand the book of Revelation. And if you don't agree with me, that's fine. But I'm telling you that what I'm showing you is the truth, though, because I've studied this for years and I studied this out when I was about 16, 17 years old. And ever since then, I've just seen how true it is. And so I want to start out by showing you a chronology in the book of Revelation. Now, most people will tell you this book is not chronological at all. They'll say it's not chronological order at all. They'll say, how can it be chronological when Jesus is being born in chapter 12? In chapter 12 of Revelation, we have a record of Jesus Christ being born in Revelation 12. And you'll say, well, wait a minute. You start out with John on Patmos, then you're talking about the end of the world, then Jesus is being born, then the Antichrist shows up and it's convoluted. But I'm going to show you something where God just made it very simple to understand and I'm going to put side by side for you five different passages of scripture that all say the exact same thing in the exact same order and you will see a very clear chronology of the book of Revelation. Now, here's the answer. Very clearly in the book of Revelation, if you read chapters 1 through 11, they are in perfect chronological sequence and I'll prove that to you. Revelation 1 through 11 gives perfect chronological sequence. You get to chapter 12, it starts over with Jesus being born and goes in perfect chronological sequence all the way to chapter 22. Now, that right there, I've never heard anybody say that. I've never heard anybody say that. I mean, I just learned it from the Bible. I learned it from the Holy Spirit. And I've seen people have all these goofy ideas of this that don't make sense, but I will prove this to you. I'll show you from the Bible how clearly God lays this out and how if you put Revelation 1 through 11 and 12 through 22 side by side, they are documenting the exact same events in the exact same order. Then we're going to compare three other passages of scripture and put them next to it side by side with Revelation 1 through 11, Revelation 12 through 22, Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse, Mark 13, the Olivet Discourse again, and Luke 21, the Olivet Discourse again. Now you say, why isn't the Olivet Discourse in the book of John? Why is it only in Matthew, Mark, and Luke? This great sermon that Jesus preaches about the end of the world. Well, it's not there because John wrote it in the book of Revelation. And so he doesn't write it in his gospel because he wrote a whole book about it. God used him to write a whole book, so we're still getting four angles of the same thing. We're getting the Revelation angle, Matthew, Mark, and Luke angle. So it's basically Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John's angles of Jesus Christ teaching on the Revelation. Of course, it's all written by God before Matthew, Mark, and John were ever even thought of. Now, as you'll see when I show you this, there's a series of events, and I'm going to use this just to show... Well, I'm not even sure if I'm going to use this because it might end up being more trouble than it's worth. We'll see how it goes. I thought about using it. But if you would, turn with me to Revelation 1, and I'm going to show you this. I think what I'll do is I'll write it down as we go, and then I'll just show you. You know, I'll put it up on the wall and show you once I'm done filling it out. But in Revelation chapter 1, we start out here with John on the Isle of Patmos. Look at verse number 9. I, John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation... Now, there's a word right there, the first time that that word's mentioned in this book, tribulation. Now, that's a very common word because you'll hear people talk about the tribulation constantly. So here, God shows us this word, tribulation. Now, what is the tribulation referring to? It's referring to the persecution that John is undergoing in chapter 1. He says, I, John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying, I am Alpha and Omega, and on and on. So here's what happens. John, when did John live? This is the first century. We don't know exactly when this is written. It's written sometime in the first century, the first hundred years after Christ. Obviously, because he, you know, I don't think he lived to be 300, so we're talking about in the first hundred years somewhere, probably toward the end of that, about 100 A.D. Here's a man who is a preacher of the gospel, who's being enormously persecuted, and he's suffering enormous tribulation to the point where he has been exiled to a desert island, he's been kicked out of society, he's been kicked out of the world at that time, and said, you will live on a desert island by yourself in the isle of Patmos. Then this man, John, Sunday rolls around and says, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. He's having church on Sunday just by himself. Here he is by himself. And all of a sudden he hears behind him a great voice as of a trumpet, so loud it's like a trumpet, and here's Jesus Christ himself speaking with him. So, what's the chronology of chapter one, the first century? You know, 100 A.D., just for grins, we'll call it that. Then, Jesus begins to give him a message for seven local churches. He names these churches the Church of Ephesus, the Church of Smyrna, the Church of Pergamos, the Church of Thyatira, the Church of Sardis, the Church of Philadelphia, and the Church of Laodicea. Those are the seven churches that he gives him in that order. And so, God says, I want you to send a message, I want you to send this book that I'm going to have you write, Revelation. I want you to send it to the seven churches, and I'm going to give you a special message for each church. Now, first of all, I want to point out, this is not seven church ages. Now, the biggest problem with our independent fundamental Baptist movement is that it has the Scofield Reference Bible. Ninety percent of churches I've been in, people have this church, this Bible, it's called the Scofield Reference Bible. Who's heard of the Scofield Reference Bible? You've seen it, right? It has all kinds of notes in it. It has places in it where it says this verse is wrong. Put in the word not here, and change it to opposite, because the Greek says this, and correcting the King James Bible. It has the goofiest thing in the world. You open it up to Genesis chapter one, and it tells you that there was a pre-existing civilization, a race before Adam, and this goofy stuff. Look it up, Genesis one, verse two, in the Scofield Bible says, like, goofy stuff. And so, get a Bible that just has the Bible in it, amen? I mean, I'm talking about a Bible that's just the word of God, and doesn't have all man's commentary. You don't need, you just need the Holy Spirit to tell you what it means. And so, that's the biggest problem that we have, and we're going to see that all throughout the lesson, that people's minds have been corrupted by a man named Scofield who wrote this study Bible people use, and he was not even a Baptist. Not a Baptist at all. He did not believe in the local church. He believed in a universal church, and he corrected the Bible and so forth. He was right on salvation. I mean, he was saved, but he was wrong on a lot of things, so I don't want him to teach me the Bible. And so, Scofield says that these are church ages. Well, let me tell you some problems with that. Number one, he gives attributes of each of these churches. Look, any church could be any one of these in 2006. The church at Ephesus was a church that was straight doctrinally, but they didn't have their first love of, I think it's talking about winning souls, because you need to get back to the first works. Like Andrew, first finest of his own brother, bringing them to Jesus. And so, you know, you get on to the church of Smyrna. It's a church that was very persecuted. You get on to the church of Pergamos. It was a church that was worldly. The church of Thyatira was another church that was very worldly and into sin. The church of Philadelphia was a church that had great opportunity, and it was a fast-growing church. The church of Laodicea was a lukewarm church that was just, they weren't hot, they weren't cold, they were just dead, they thought they were great, but they were boring. And so, any church could be any of those today. There are boring churches, there are churches that are straight doctrinally, but they've forgotten the first love and the first works. There are churches that are undergoing great persecutions. I mean, any one of those could apply. And some churches could go through different stages. They might be a very persecuted church. Then they might go to being kind of dead, and then they might get fired up. And so, here's the problem. Dr. Schofield believed in the universal church, like everybody who's saved is part of the church, although the Bible teaches that a church is a congregation of people, an assembly of people. So, he says he's writing to the church of Ephesus. Now, the church of Ephesus, is that plural or singular? Singular. He's saying, I'm writing this to the church of Ephesus. So, if this is talking about a time period of all Christians, then basically you're saying universal church. The church of Laodicea. That's our church that we're in right now, right? The big universal church? We don't believe in that. We believe in local churches. He's writing to the church of Laodicea, in a town, in a location. And so, that's why Dr. Schofield is mixed up, because he didn't believe local church, he believed universal church. So, he says, we're in the Laodicean church age, or we're in the Philadelphian church age. Look, there's no such thing as a church age, because there's not a church, there's church-es. Right into the seven church-es, which are in Asia. So, one of the key verses here in Revelation was where at the beginning he said, write the things which thou hast seen, this is Jesus talking, and the things which are, and the things which shall be. So, we're reading about three things in the book of Revelation. Past, present, and future. Past, well, we're starting out with past. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. He's saying, I was exiled to past. That's the past. Then we have the present in chapters two and three. We're still in perfect chronological order, where Jesus is saying, this is what I have to say to these seven churches right now. They need to repent of their liberalism, they need to repent of their sins, and get right with God, these seven churches. Then we get into chapter four, okay? Look at chapter four, it says, after this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat upon the throne, and he that sat was to look upon like a jasper. And in chapter number four, we see a description of heaven. John is caught up to heaven, and he sees a description of what heaven is like. So we're still in the present. He's seeing this right now. Then in chapter five, you'll see there's a book that comes on the scene. He sees in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book, written within and on the back side, it had seven seals. They ask, and I'm blowing through this because there's so much material, and I want to show you the whole overview. He says, this book is going to be opened, but we can't find anybody to open it. The only person they can find that can open it is Jesus Christ, and boy, this is a great chapter, just praising and glorifying Jesus. If you read this in your own time, you will shout if you read these chapters four and five. You'll just be praising God when you read this. So we see that this book is going to be opened. Now in chapter six is when he begins to open the book. And if you want to take notes on any of this, it might not be a bad idea, but chapter one, first century A.D., John on Papus, chapters two and three, preaching to churches back then, seven individual churches, he gives the name of the church. He says, Ephesus Baptist Church needs to get right with God in this area. Laodicea Baptist Church, you're lukewarm, you need to change. Then in chapters four and five, he's just shown in heaven, and he's shown us this book that's going to be opened. In chapter six, the book begins to be opened. Now in chapter six, when the book begins to be opened, this is the start of what's known as the tribulation, the seven years when the book is opened. Now you'll see this. So far we're in perfect chronological order. We went from John in the first century, churches in the first century, what they were like, taught up to heaven, now he's being shown the end of the world. Everything from now on is future, because have we entered, is the tribulation going on right now? No. So this is future, right? This hasn't happened yet. So in chapter number six it says, And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the fields, I heard as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw him build 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. First thing we see is that somebody's doing some conquering, somebody's taken over. Then the second seal's opened, and it says that there was a red horse, and he takes peace from the earth. There's wars, there's killing, okay, you see that? Then there's a third horse, and I'm just going through this to give you the idea. It talks about basically food being extreme prices, because there's this war going on. Somebody took over, there's fighting, there's wars. The food is very expensive. Then the fourth beast says, Come and see, and the fourth seal's opened, and we see a pale horse, and he that sat on him was death, and hell followed with him. So here we have, you know, the devil. We have Satan showing up on the scene, and it says that he's there to kill the fourth part of the earth. Basically, the fourth part of the earth is going to be murdered, like 25% of the population is going to be killed. Then in the fifth seal is opened, we see these martyrs of Jesus Christ who are saying how much longer until the end's going to come. Then in the sixth seal is opened, it says, let me find this here. I lost my place. So when the sixth seal's opened, there's a great earthquake. It says the sun became a sacral of air, so the sun's turning to darkness. The moon became his blood. The stars of the heaven fell onto earth, even as a fig tree, cast into untimely figs. And then it says the heaven has departed, and the mountains are being moved. There's a huge earthquake up. The sun turns to darkness, and it says that the men of the earth are hiding themselves in the mountains. Look at verse 15 at the end of verse 15. hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, 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? So follow me. Starts out, somebody takes over. Starts out, peace is being taken from the earth. There's a war going on. Twenty-five percent of the population's killed. Food prices are just insanity, and the devil's in charge of all this. He's behind it all. He was behind the murdering of all these people. And then we have God's wrath being poured out. He says, it's coming. The sun's black. The moon's turned into blood. We know the Bible says, in the book of Joel and elsewhere, that that's what's going to happen before the great and the glorious day of the Lord come when he's going to judge this earth. And they said they were so scared at facing the wrath of God that they wanted rocks to fall on them and just kill them and hide them from God. They could not face God. Now look. You're going to see a radical change here. Look at chapter seven. And after these things, I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds. Let me skip down a little bit. It says right here at the end of verse number two, look at this, and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth. And the seed sang, hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God, and therefore, So at the end of chapter six, we see God's wrath is coming. Oh man, the tide. Let's get out of the way. God's going to kill us all. God's going to judge us. We're scared. We don't want to face him. And then in chapter seven, hold it. Stop. Don't hurt the earth. Don't do anything. He's saying to these angels that are going to destroy the world, don't hurt the earth until we've sealed the servants of God and therefore, then what we have is these 144,000 Jews are listed here. 12,000 from each tribe, where God puts a special seal on them, these 12,000 from each tribe, and says these are the ones that we're going to seal that are not going to be hurt. But look at this. Then in verse number nine, it says, after this I beheld and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number. Now didn't we just finish counting 144,000 people? This is a pretty big number. Okay, this is not 144,000. We just counted 144,000 people, which in chapter number 14, we'll see that these 144,000 are all Jews, they're all male, and they're all virgins. Okay, we'll find that out about this very specific group of 144,000 people. Then we see a great multitude which no man could number. Of all nations, are these just Jews? No. Of all nations, and this is in heaven where he's saying this, and kindreds and peoples and tongues stood before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands. And they're praising God and so forth. And look at John's reaction in verse number 13 of chapter 7. And one of the elders answered unto me, What are these which are raised in white robes? And whence came they? He's like, Where did all these people come from? And John says, in verse number 14, and I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest, he's like, don't ask me, you're the one that's showing me all this stuff, what is it? And he said, These are they which came out of great tribulation. Second time we see that word tribulation. And have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat for the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them. Now these are saved, born again Christians. All of a sudden, they're in heaven. Heaven's just filled with them. It's like, what in the world are all these people? They're from every nation. There's so many people, I can't count them. And the Bible counts numbers as high of people as 10,000 times 10,000. Pretty big number. Or how about one million? He counted the army of the Ethiopians in Second Chronicles, counted an army that numbered one million men. Thousand thousand it says. So this is a pretty big group of people from every nation in the world that just appears in heaven all of a sudden. And here they are. Now look. Chapter 8. So we had that interlude in Chapter 7. Wait, stop everything. Let's seal these 144,000. We have this big crowd up in heaven. Chapter number 8 it says, and when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of a half hour. So he's just opening the final seventh seal, is what's going on here. And when he opens the seventh seal, this sets off a chain of seven angels which are going to blow seven trumpets. Okay. These seven trumpets are God's wrath being poured out on the earth. The first trumpet is found in verse number 7. It says, hail and fire is mingled with blood. You know, it's cast upon the earth. The third part of trees was burnt up and all green grass was burnt up. Now who's doing this? This is God. God is pouring out hellfire and damnation, hail and fire. Now who was doing the stuff when the seals were opened? That was the devil. That was the antichrist. You know, that was somebody taking over, conquering. That was somebody who was the devil murdering people. That was, you know, man, basically. It wasn't, it was the devil and it was man. Now God, when God's wrath started coming with the sun and the moon and everything, that's when the people got really scared. And that's what we're seeing here with these seven trumpets when the seventh seal's opened. Now look, the second angel founded says a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea and the third part of the sea became blood. Look at verse number nine. The third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died. Okay, then verse 10, the third angel's gonna blow the trumpet. A great star, 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 mountains and waters. The fourth angel sounded. Verse 12, the third part of the sun was smitten and it's basically just saying that the sun and the moon and the stars only shine for a third part of the day and the second part of the day is total darkness. Eight hours a day total darkness. The fifth angel sounds and the devil opens up hell it says and these locusts are coming out of hell. These fiery locusts and smoke covers the whole atmosphere to where it's so dark that the sun can't even shine and these locusts that actually have tails like scorpions are biting people and torturing people except for the 144,000. Then the sixth angel sounds the trumpet and the Bible says that the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates are loosed. That goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden when those four angels were put there to guard the Garden of Eden. Right now they're in the bottom of the river Euphrates according to the Bible here. They're loosed out of that. Then we go on down the line and talk some more about that. Chapter number 10 is kind of an interlude again just talking about some things that John saw in heaven. Not really important to the chronology. It's just talking about him. We saw some things about the Bible in chapter 10. But then in verse number 11 we see the seventh seal opened in verse number 15. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, the seventh angel blowed its trumpet. We already went through the seventh seals. We're in the trumpets. And the seventh angel sounded is verse 15 of chapter 11 and there were great voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever. So what's happening? The seventh trumpet is blown and they're saying Jesus Christ is now the king of this earth. He's going to reign forever and ever. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of the Lord Jesus Christ and he's going to reign forever and ever. So Jesus Christ is setting up his millennial kingdom in verse number 15. And then they're praising God and saying how wonderful he is through verse 18. And then in the last verse of chapter number 11 it says in the temple of God was opened in heaven and there were seen in his temple the ark of his testament and there were lightnings and voices and thunderings and an earthquake and great hail. Okay, stop. Now we're going to make a big jump. So we just saw all the events all the way from John from these churches that were around the time of John. We jumped forward to the beginning of the tribulation. We went through all the whole tribulation. Now we're to the end. Jesus Christ is setting up his kingdom. Glory to God. He is going to reign forever and ever. There's thunderings and lightnings and coming out of the temple and then boom. Chapter 12. We're going to jump all the way back to the beginning and see it all over again. Look at this. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And she being with child Clyde travailing in birth in pain to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven and behold a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his head. This is Satan. And his tail drew the third part of the stars in heaven and did cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born. Now we remember this. Let's talk about Jesus Christ being born. Remember how the devil wanted to devour Jesus Christ as soon as he was born? Remember when he was born in Bethlehem and King Herod sent forth and slew all the children which were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof from two years old and under according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise man? We learned about that just a couple weeks ago on Matthew chapter 2. And so here we have Jesus being born. The devil wants him dead right away. And he tries to kill him but of course he's taken to Egypt by his parents, by Joseph and by his stepfather and his mother. And they take him to Egypt and he's there for a few years and then comes back and he's safe. Now Jesus is born in chapter 12. We're pretty much back to the first century again in our chronology, aren't we? Now let's move forward. We see in verse number 17 and the dragon was wrought with the woman. Talking about the nation of Israel that gave birth to Jesus Christ. And went to make war with the remnant of her seed and keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. So he said, you know what? I couldn't defeat Jesus Christ so now I'm going to turn all my energies toward God's people. Toward born again Christians who have the testimony of Jesus Christ but you know what he says? And I love this. This is interesting. He doesn't just say I'm going to fight everybody who has the testimony of Jesus Christ. He says I'm going to fight them that keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. He says somebody who's saved, some Christian who doesn't keep God's commandments, some Christian who's not doing anything, I don't have time to mess with them. You know what I mean? He says I'm going to fight the guy who has the testimony of Jesus Christ and he's keeping God's commandments. That's who I want to fight. That's who I hate. Let me tell you something. You keep God's commandments, the devil's after you. You live for God, the devil, just expect the devil to be all over you and just be like this, okay? Because you've got to be ready to fight. And I'm telling you something. We just learned about this on Matthew chapter 4 on Wednesday night. The first thing that happened after Jesus got baptized and that great victory occurred, then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. He gets out, he obeys the Father. Jesus Christ obeys the Father by being baptized. First thing that happens, the devil says, I'm going to fight you now for 40 days. I mean, good night. As soon as you live for God, the devil is just going to come at you and fight you because he says, I couldn't stop you from getting saved. You're already saved. I blew that. I couldn't stop you from getting baptized. You're already baptized. But I'm going to do everything I can to make sure you don't live for God. I'm going to do everything I can to get you out of church. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure you're not a soul winner. That's what the devil says. And so he is mad. He is angry. He has nothing but hate. He has nothing but sin and wickedness. He says, I'm going to destroy you. I want to ruin your life. I'm going to devour you. That's what we see in chapter 12. Then chapter 13. So where were we all at, though? That's still back in the first century because he says, as soon as he fails with Jesus, then he turns and starts attacking Christians. And of course, you see all the persecutions where they, man, they were throwing Christians at the lion's den back then. And by the way, the Bible says, Ye and all, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. You say, I never suffer any kind of persecution. Well, then you don't live godly in Christ Jesus because if you live godly in Christ Jesus, you're going to suffer persecution, friend. And you may not be suffering right now, but it's coming if you stand for Jesus Christ. Now, if you go to the Joel Osteen's church, you're not going to suffer persecution, okay? Because there's 36,000 other people at that rock concert. But if you want to live for God, man, you want to be a soul winner, you're going to suffer persecution. Believe me, people are going to hate you and fight you, but that's all right because God causes us to rejoice like we saw this morning. Now, chapter 13. What do we have? The first thing is the antichrist is coming on the scene. Now, remember in our chronology before, what was when the first seal was opened? We had a guy coming to conquer. We had a guy who was bringing war. We had a guy who fought and took over. We had all kinds of people dying in a war. What do we have here? Somebody's coming to take over because, remember, it's the same exact chronology. Look at this. This is the antichrist. The beast is what the Bible calls him here. It doesn't use the word antichrist. It used the word antichrist in 1 John to talk about anybody who is teaching what the devil believes. Even now, it says there's many antichrists even right now. It says right here, it talks about the beast. I'm just going to give you the overview. It says that he has a deadly wound to his head. This is a man. This is the man of sin, the Bible says. We know he's a man. Daniel chapter 11 talks a lot about him. We know that he's a man. He's a human being. He's called the man of sin, the son of perdition. He receives a deadly head wound. He's healed of his deadly wound. People are worshiping him, and they think that he is Jesus Christ. They think that he is Jesus Christ. They think that he is Jesus Christ. They think that he is Jesus Christ. The word antichrist means in the place of Christ, a replacement for Christ. I'm going to show you from all of that discourse that this man, and also in the book of Daniel I could show you, that this man says that he is God. He says, I am Christ. I am God. Okay, you're going to see that. But this man stands up, the antichrist. It says that they're worshiping the beast, which is the antichrist, and in verse number 4, 13.4, it says, antichrist, the beast, and in verse number 4, 13.4, it says, antichrist, the beast, and in verse number 4, 13.4, it says, and they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast. That's Satan. The dragon is Satan. They're worshipping the beast, and they're worshipping Satan. And they're saying, who's like to the beast? And it says that for 42 months, his kingdom is going to continue. It says in verse number 5, that's three and a half years. So the first half of this seven year period, the antichrist is in power. It says, he opens his mouth and blasphemy against God. He blasphemes his name. It says, he makes war with the saints. He's making war with everybody who's saved. Saints are people that are saved. You know, saints have been sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ. He is making war with everybody who is saved. It says that he's causing everybody to worship him, except the people whose name is in the book of life. People that are saved, they will not worship him. And then it says that, let's see, verse 16, let's skip down to verse 16. It says, and he causes all both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell, save that he had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is the mind that has, here is wisdom. Let him that has understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred, three score, and six. So he says, he causes everybody small and great to receive this mark in their forehead or in their hand, and it's either his name or the number of his name, which is six, six, six, three, six hundred, three score, and six, which is six hundred and sixty-six. That's this number that people are going to be forced to have this mark in their forehead or in their hands. Okay, now look, verse number 14. How many years into this seven-year period are we? We're talking about the first three-and-a-half years, where the antichrist is in power, the first three-and-a-half years. Boom, chapter 14, another interlude. Exact same chronology. Now we're back to the 144,000. Isn't that interesting? Same order. I looked, and lo, a lamb stood in the Mount Zion with a hundred and forty and four thousand. So he's in physical Israel, the Mount Zion, 144,000, having his father's name written in their foreheads, and I heard a voice from heaven, and it goes on, and it talks about how they're men and they're Jews and they're virgins and they're godly men and they believe in Christ and so forth. Then, down at the bottom of chapter 14, you'll see in verse number 15, or I'm sorry, verse number 14, 14, 14. And I looked and behold, a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man. Who's this that we're talking about? Jesus. One like unto the Son of Man. He's coming in the clouds, okay? He sat on a cloud. Thrust in thy sickle and reap, for the time is come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud, thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. So here's what he's doing. He's, Jesus Christ comes and scoops up something. He reaps something, okay? And then, at the end of the chapter, it talks about, it gives a contrast here where it talks about another reaping that's going to occur later, where God's gonna take all the unsafe people, gather them together in a valley, and they're gonna be killed, and the blood is gonna run up to the horse's bridles, et cetera. But then in chapter 15, where we talked about the 144,000 and another reaping that takes place. Then, chapter 15, we're back into the chronology. We're back in heaven. We're seeing more sights of heaven in chapter 15, like we saw earlier on in the book. Chapter 16, this is gonna get you. You're gonna see this. It says, and I heard a great voice, this is chapter 16, verse one, and I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the Lord, go your ways and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. Boom, the wrath of God, again. See how consistent this is? Antichrist, 144,000, the wrath of God, okay, and then look. He's gonna list the seven vials of the wrath of God that have poured out. I looked at this, and the seven vials that have poured out are exactly the same as the seven trumpets that are blown. These are happening at the same time. At the same time, the other angel's pouring out the vial. It's just two aspects of what's happening. Now, the only one that's different is the first one. Two through seven are identical. I'll just blow through these because I wrote these all down. You can study this out later, but the first vial was poured out to a grievous sore, a sore physically on man and beast, everybody who worshiped the beast. The first trumpet was hail, fire, and blood, okay. The second vial, God turns the sea into blood. It's the same thing. We saw it a couple of seconds ago. The third vial, the fountains and the rivers. Basically, the fresh water is turned into blood. The third trumpet, the fountains and the rivers are poisoned, the vial says. The fourth vial, the sun is scorching people and hurting them. The fourth trumpet was when the sun was darkened for a quarter of the sun and blacked out. So there's obviously things going on with the sun. The fifth vial was poured out, darkness on the face of the earth. It was blown. Smoke came out of the bottom of the pit and the Bible says that the sky was darkened so that nobody could see. The sixth vial, the Euphrates river is dried up, the Bible says. And the sixth trumpet, it says that the four angels were loosed out of the river, Euphrates. It makes sense. I mean, the river's dried up and there we're loosed. It's just the same and you can put these side by side and you can see these are happening at the same time. So God showed us in Revelation 1 through 11, He showed us the wrath of God being evidenced in the seven trumpet judgments and then in 12 through 22, He shows the exact same judgments from the viewpoint of these 12 vials of the wrath of God that are being poured out. So, that's all taking place in chapter 16, all of the seven vials. Then we get into chapter 17 and 18. 17 and 18 is all about one subject, the mother whore being judged, the Roman Catholic Church. And I preached a whole sermon on this, just proving from the Bible, from Revelation 17, that the mother whore is the Roman Catholic Church. It talks about how it's a city that's on seven hills, which there are only two cities in the world that are on seven hills. One of them is Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. One of them is Rome, Italy. And obviously Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is not what it's talking about. But even if it were, that's a Roman Catholic city also. But it's talking about a city that rules the world from seven hills. It talks about how they use a scarlet color as their insignia. It talks about how they speak great names of blasphemy, like calling the Pope Father, like Saint Hail Mary, Mother of God, those kind of blasphemies. It talks about how they persecuted the saints and shed the blood of the martyrs, which of course, the Roman Catholic Church, the Spanish Inquisition, and many other persecutions that they've done on God's people. It talks about how, just on and on. And if you're honest, and you read Revelation 17, you'll know that it's talking about the Catholic Church in prophecy. Chapter 18 talks about the physical, political country of Babylon being destroyed, which I believe is talking about the United States. And that's a whole other sermon itself. Because it talks about a country that does commerce with the entire world, a country that's surrounded by water, a country that, and on and on, it goes on and on. It talks about this country in Revelation 18. Then in Revelation 19, we have the second coming of Jesus Christ. We're still right in line with the chronology. The Antichrist, the interlude there with the 144,000, the wrath of God, being poured out in seven different ways. And then we have, remember last time we went through the chronology, the next thing that happened, Jesus came and set up His kingdom on the earth. Well, in chapter number 19, we have the second coming of Jesus Christ. He comes riding on a horse. He's got the saints with Him. He's got saved Christians coming with Him, returning and setting up His kingdom on this earth. In chapter 20, He sets up the millennium. You'll see that in the first four verses. He sets up the millennial kingdom on this earth. Then, that's where the other one left off. Remember? The other one left off when He was just setting up His millennial kingdom, right? And then it stopped and jumped to a new chronology. Well, look, I can show you the exact point where it left off if I have it underlined like I thought I did. Let me see here. Let me see if I can find it. Man, I thought I underlined everything. I made a mistake. Let's see if I can find it here real quick. Oh, I know what it was. The seventh vial. The seventh trumpet is blown and they set up His kingdom. And the last few words of chapter 11, it says there were voices and lightnings and thunderings. And then, boom, we're into chapter 12. Well, if you look at when the seventh vial is poured out, you have the same thing, voices, thunderings, and lightnings. And so that's all I was showing you there. Then, okay, chapter 20 verses one through four, millennial kingdom of Christ. Chapter 20 verses eight through the end, I was talking about the final judgment of Satan. He's released out of the bottomless pit. He's been bound for a thousand years. He's judged. He's damned to hell. All the unsaved people come out of hell where they've been for the last thousands of years. God judges them according to their works and then banishes them to the lake of fire for all eternity. Chapter 21, we have a new heaven and a new earth. The former things are passed away, take place, and in chapters 21 and 22, we have the perfect heaven described. That's the end of the book. The end. Now, we saw a very clear chronology of what happened from the beginning to the end in Revelation 1 through 11, Revelation 12 through 22. Why do people not know this? I have no clue. It's very simple. It's just very clear. You can just lay it out. And if you look at it that way, you'll understand if you compare the two side by side. Now, I'm going to show you where it really gets interesting. If you look closely to Matthew 24, turn to Matthew 24, I'm going to show you the exact same chain of events. Now, I've made a list here of a chain of events that is exactly the same listed in Revelation 1 through 11, Revelation 12 through 22, Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, and also some of it in 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. Okay. I'm going to show you this. Look, if you would, in Matthew 24 at verse number 5. Oh, wait, actually, look at verse 3, chapter 24, verse 3, because I want you to see what we're talking about. And as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came and they imprivately saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the world? So we're learning about the coming of Jesus Christ, the end of the world, they say, Tell us about the coming of the world. Okay. First thing you see, verse number 5, For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ. Sounds like the Antichrist. He's coming and saying, I am Christ. In Daniel, it talks about He's going to set Himself up as God and come and have people to worship Him and say that He is God. Now, number 1, we see the Antichrist in verse number 5. What do we see in number 6? War. Remember, isn't that what we saw? Wars, people fighting, conquering. And then look at this. I mean, isn't it fascinating how the Bible is so consistent? Look at verse number 7. Famines. See that halfway down? Famine. Wasn't that what happened when the third seal was opened? Famines. Okay. Nation shall rise up against nation. Earthquakes. They shall deliver you. Okay, so that, verse number 7, corresponds with the fourth seal being opened and so forth. Then, it says all these things at the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. See, now you're seeing a persecution of who? Christians. God's people being persecuted by the Antichrist. And in this whole situation it says and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. Look at verse number 13. But he that shall endure unto the end the same shall be saved. Now look, this is a verse that people who don't believe the Bible, people who do not have the Holy Ghost inside them because they're not saved because they don't believe in salvation by grace through faith, will say, see, you've got to endure to the end in order to be saved. And they'll just take this verse totally out of context of what we're talking about and just say, yep, yeah, wait, wait, wait, in order for you to be saved you can't just believe on Jesus, you also have to like endure to the end, whatever that means. All I'm saying here is because God's going to save them out of the mess that they're in. And look, if they don't get killed then they're going to be saved by the time they get to the end of it. Very simple to understand. Anyway, you go, Don, and it talks about from verses 14 through 28, it's talking about persecution of the believers. It's talking about God's people being persecuted. Then in verse number 29, look at this and just read what it says. 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 and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn. Remember that's when they said fall on us? That's when they said hide us from the face of the land. Remember they were all mourning? And then the Son of Man came in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather from the four winds from one end of the heaven to the other. That's the reaping when he sends his angel to reap the earth and they reap it from one end of heaven to the other. Okay, there's a perfect chronology. Now let's look at the chronology. Let's compare Matthew 24 with Revelation 1-11 with Revelation 12-22. We all saw the same common denominators. I wish I could show you each verse to prove this to you, but I think you saw it. But you'll see, number one, we had the first century. Number two, we have persecution of the believers, the tribulation and the antichrist, where the antichrist is persecuting God's people, he's taking over the world, people are being killed, people are being murdered. Then all five accounts say that there's an earthquake. Next thing that happens, it mentions an earthquake in this exact order. All of them in the exact order say the sun and the moon is darkened. Next. All of them say that then the stars fall like figs out of a fig tree. Then the rapture every time you read it. Okay. All five of them have either whether it's a great multitude appearing in heaven, or whether you have it recorded as the earth being reaped, or whether you have it as here, that the Son of Man is going to gather from all four winds, the elect, a multitude, the nomadic in number from every nation unto heaven. Then you have the wrath of God being poured out every time, either whether it's by seven vials or seven trumpets. Then you have the second coming, the millennium, the white throne, and the new heaven and the new earth. Now look, I have just slaughtered the sacred cow of fundamentalism. I have just taken the sacred cow and I have butchered it upon the altar of the King James Bible. Blood is everywhere. Because I have now become a heretic because I don't believe in the pre-tribulation rapture. Okay. Now I'm not in the Tim LaHaye crowd anymore. I can't watch Left Behind videos anymore. I can't. You know, the list goes on and on. Now, this is so ridiculous because it's not found anywhere in the Bible. This pre-tribulational rapture where all of a sudden we're just going along living our lives. We're driving down the road in our SUV. We're living in our three-story house. We've got our 401k and then all of a sudden boom, we're all gone and then all hell breaks loose. No, friend. No, friend. The Bible says here that the tribulation, whenever the Bible talks about tribulation it's God's people suffering. Now, who is the anti-Christ persecuting if everybody got raptured? That's all I want to know. Who is he causing to receive the mark of the beast? Who is he cutting off the heads of? Look, he's persecuting God's people. And he says, if you endure this persecution you're going to be saved. I'm going to rapture you and save you out of it because the Bible says God has not appointed us unto wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. And so God's not going to pull out his wrath on his own people. That's why he says stop. I'm not going to pull out my wrath until I've sealed up these 144,000 Jews and until I've removed God's people before I damn this earth to hell and destroy it. Now, if you look at Mark chapter 13 you're going to see the exact same thing. And the interesting thing is the detail where he says persecution and tribulation via the antichrist against God's people who ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. An earthquake, sun and moon darkened, stars falling like figs out of a fig tree, some reference to the rapture, the wrath of God, the second coming, the millennium, the white throne judgment in the new heaven and the new earth. Simple as, you say, you know why it's so complicated? Because you've been listening to Tim LaHaye. You know why it's so complicated? God's agenda is a pre-tribulation rapture because they said, there are no signs to his coming. He can come any minute now. Send us your check now. Put the check in the mail right now because the world's coming to an end and he might come right now. Put your hand on the screen and put your other hand in your checkbook and send me a check. And that's where this whole thing came from. The charismatic movement in the 1800s brought about this teaching that the rapture is the next thing on God's agenda. Now let me prove it to you even further from the Bible. Mark chapter 13. This is another account of all of that discourse. Now listen, Mr. Schofield. Take your Bible and get out of here. I'm trying to talk to people who have a King James Bible and they don't need you. They have the Holy Spirit, okay? Chapter number 13. You'll see the same things. Almost exactly the same. I'm not going to belabor you. Verse 13, And you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake, but he that shall endure unto the end shall be saved. Talked about the abomination of desolation, the antichrist, it goes on and on. But let me show you some things that are a little different, okay? It says right here, but in those days, after that tribulation, wow, isn't that interesting? Now after the whole seven years, no, God never called the whole seven years the tribulation in the entire Bible. That's mankind has said that there's a seven year tribulation. The Bible says after that tribulation, which is only, what, three and a half years long approximately in the antichrist in power? After that tribulation, it says the sun shall be darkened, the moon shall be turned to blood, same exact things were mentioned, the stars of heaven shall fall, the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken, and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels and shall gather together his elect from the poor winds from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. Look at verse number 29. So you and like manner, when you see these come to pass, these things come to pass, know ye that it's nigh, even at the door. You can look around, see the antichrist, see what's going on and say, man, it's any time now, it's coming, the rapture, good night, we want to get out of this place. I can't wait until Jesus comes back. Now look, verse 32. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man. Nobody knows exactly when it's going to happen. Nobody's going to know by day or hour. He says, not even the angels in heaven, neither the son, but the father. Jesus said, I don't even know when it's going to happen. Because while Jesus was on this earth, he didn't know everything because he was born as a baby. He didn't come out of the womb and say, hi mom and dad, how you doing today? He became a human being. And so over the course of his life, he grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. And he studied the Bible and he learned the Bible and obviously God revealed it to him and he knew that he was God. All along he knew that he was God and that he was Jesus Christ and he knew the word of God because he was the word of God and so forth. And can we comprehend all that? No. But we know that Jesus is saying, only the father knows when this exact day and hour is coming. Nobody can predict it. It's not like, you know, June 6th, 2006. 666. It's coming. Just three weeks away. Put your check on the offering plate tonight. Hey, what are you going to spend it on after June 6th? Huh? Give it to me. I'll use it for God. Anyway. Or I'll have fun. But anyway, the point is, it says here, nobody knows when it's going to happen exactly. And then look at the last verse. 37, he says, and this is for all the dispensationalists out there. And I'm not one of these hyper-dispensationalists. I'm not any kind of dispensationalist because I believe every word of God is profitable for doctrine. And look at this. This is what the common pre-trib people who don't use the Bible to prove their point, but they just use their tradition and what they've been taught and they intimidate other people into believing what they believe about this. But they say, well, that's talking to the Jews. The Olivet Discord is only talking to the Jews. It's not talking to Christians. Well, okay, let's see if it's just talking to the Jews when he says that he's going to come and rapture you halfway through the tribulation, or not halfway through, after the tribulation, after the three and a half years, halfway through the seven years. Let's see if he's just talking to the Jews or not. Verse 37. And when I say unto you, I say unto all, watch. He's saying, I'm telling everybody to watch. He said, I'm not just talking to you twelve disciples. I'm talking to all. Everybody, watch, because when you see these things happen, be ready for it, because it's coming. Now, look at the last one, Luke 21. Luke, chapter 21. Last account of the Olivet Discourse. Again, verse number eight of Luke 21. The first thing he mentions is the Antichrist. See that phrase? I am Christ. It's going to be people come and say, I am Christ. Okay? It's going to be Antichrist, the false prophet. Those are the people that are saying, I am Christ. You're going to hear of wars and commotions. Nations shall rise up against nations. Same thing. Earthquake. Same thing we saw. Famine. Same thing. See how this is perfectly chronological? Then it says, in verse number 12, but before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, before the earthquake, you know, because this is at the beginning of the three and a half years, they're going to lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, being bought before kings and rulers for my name's sake, and it shall turn to you for a testimony, and on and on and on. It goes on about you being persecuted. Verse 17, you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. Goes on and on and on. Then it says, let's see, let me go down, I'm just trying to skip through this. Okay, verse 25, here's the familiar chromology again. The sun and in the moon and in the stars are the signs, that's them being turned into blood, men's hearts failing them for fear, that's the rocks fall on us, kill us, we don't want to face the lamb. So we got men's hearts failing them for fear. It says, in verse 28, the powers of heaven shall be shaken, there's your earthquake, and then shall they see the Son of Man, that's Jesus Christ, coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now look at this, this is this verse, and when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh. When you see the sun turn dark, and when you see the moon turn into blood, and when you see the stars falling out of the sky, then look up, because you're about to see Jesus Christ, you're about to be in the clouds with Jesus. That's what it's saying. But isn't the Bible so consistent? Now let's, I know we've already slaughtered the cow, and now we're like just kicking it, like kicking it dead horse. Okay, now, we're going to just like give her another good kick. And so we're going to turn to first and second Thessalonians. And nobody taught me any of this, I just, I read this in the Bible. I read this as a child. And I sat there listening to these preachers, my whole life, and playing me little videos of, if you're listening to this tape, I've been raptured, and you need to get saved. And I just thought, this is dumb. It's not true, this is not what I read in the Bible. But anyway, look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse number 13. And I'm getting close to being done, I told you it was going to be a little bit lengthy sermon, but it has to be a little long, it's a complicated subject. But I think this is helping you, if you read the book of Revelation now, you're going to really understand a lot. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 13, But I would not have you be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord, if we live through to the rapture, he's saying, shall not prevent them which are asleep. Prevent means go before, it's an old word. Shall not prevent them which are asleep, for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. That's the rapture. Amen, rock, praise the Lord, man. The rapture, we're going to be caught up together, the dead, the saved dead people are going to be risen first, and we're going to meet them in the clouds. I heard somebody say they're going to rise first because they're six feet lower than the rest of us, so they got to come up and we'll all meet at the same time. And so we're going to be caught up together with Jesus Christ. Look at this, verse number one of chapter five. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as the season night. Now what is the day of the Lord? It just said it was the rapture, we just finished reading that it was Jesus coming in the clouds and this and that. Now look, see the day of the Lord is two things. Schofield, you don't believe this, but just shut up for a minute and let me talk. Okay. Now, the day of the Lord is two things. It's number one, the day when God begins to pour out His wrath on this earth. The Bible says, who are you that wait and look for the day of the Lord? He says, for as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. And so you have to read the book of Joel to get that. You have to read the book of Habakkuk to get that. You have to read the Minor Prophets. And a lot of these people just read Revelation and they think they know it all. But you have to read the whole Bible a lot of times to understand these things. And so it's saying in the Old Testament, the day of the Lord is a destruction from the Almighty. So it's two things. It's number one, the day that the rapture occurs. And it's number two, the day that He starts pouring out His wrath on this earth. Pretty simple to understand. Now look, your cells know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Now here's where the Charismatic stops reading. Here's where the Independent Fundamental Baptist stops reading and says, thief, the day of the Lord's coming is a thief in the night. You don't know when it's going to happen. It could happen anytime. Be ready. It's a thief in the night. Look at this. For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travel upon a woman with child and they shall not escape. But ye brethren, this is where they didn't read, but ye brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. You are all the children of light and the children of day. We're not of the night nor of darkness. They're going to come on us as a thief in the night. That's the unsaved. We know what's going on. We have the Bible. Hello, does anybody have the Bible? Are you reading this? All right. Baptists, hello. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch. See the consistency? How many times he told us to watch. Watch what, man? Thought it was going to happen in the twinkling of an eye any moment. No, I'm supposed to watch for these things to happen and then I'll know it's at hand even at the door, as the Bible says. Then it goes on and talks about God has not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if that's not bad enough, let's look at 2 Thessalonians because they didn't, the Thessalonians didn't get it the first time. So he's like, look, let me write to you again. Okay, you didn't get it. Let me write 2 Thessalonians and explain it to you again. Okay, look at this. It says in verse, chapter number two, verse one. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto Him. What are we talking about? The rapture. Jesus Christ is coming in the clouds, we're going to be gathered together to Him. Pretty obvious, right? That you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as much as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means. He's saying, don't let anybody tell you that the day of Christ is at hand. Don't let anybody tell you this is about to happen. Look what he's saying. I mean, he just said it right there. He says, let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first. That's everybody falling away from the things of God, going liberal, turning away from Jesus Christ, worshiping the beast, okay. That there shall come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition. That's the antichrist. So before this coming of the Lord and our gathering together unto Him, the antichrist is going to come on the scene who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. There's your I am Christ. I am Christ. I am Christ. He shows himself that he's God, saying the same thing. Hey, remember ye not that when I was yet with you I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in this time, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. And then shall the wicked be revealed, and the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth. And so the story with the brightness of his coming, even him who's coming, is after the working of Satan, with all powers and signs and lying wonders. Now that's talking about the antichrist. Of course, you remember he had the wonders where he got the wound and the seal. And with all the seamfulness of unrighteousness and then the parish, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. God loved them. He wanted them to be saved. They wouldn't receive it. They wouldn't receive the love of the truth to be saved. It says, and for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion, everybody looking at your Bible, 2 Thessalonians 2.11. And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they shall believe a lie, that they all might be damned. Man, I love the King James Bible. That they all might be damned that don't live a good life. Is that what it says? No. That they all might be damned who don't go to my church. Is that what it says? No. That they all might be damned who aren't baptized. Is that what it says? No. That they all might be damned who believe not the truth. That's who's damned. And why didn't they believe the truth? But had pleasure in unrighteousness. See, part of the reason why people don't get saved is because they enjoy sin. And so, they don't want to believe that this book is true because then they have to believe that sin is wrong. Because as soon as they believe that this book is true, then they believe sin is wrong. Look at... I want to show you so much. It's so late. I can't even... John 14. Jesus... Philip said, why did you manifest yourself to us? Why don't you show yourself to the world? And he says, listen. If somebody... He says... And I'm all mixed up. It's a great point. Believe me. But it's something about... It says that like, whosoever is... It says a person who does right, they want to get saved more. Because a person who lives right says they want to get saved so that the light will make manifest their good works. But it says, people who live a really ungodly life, they don't want to come to the light because they don't want their deeds to be reproved. You know what I mean? Like, think about this. Somebody who's a really ungodly person, try and bring them to church. They don't want to come to this kind of church because their deeds are going to be reproved. We're going to take out the flashlight of the King James Bible and shine it all over their sin and it's going to make them feel like trash. What they should respond is say, oh man, oh wretched man that I am, and say, Jesus Christ, would you save me? I'm trusting you alone. I believe on you to save me. But see, what happens is, a lot of people, he says, they're going to be damned. They will not believe on Jesus Christ because they love their sin. And they just love their sin and they say, I'm not ready to go to church and do all that and give up this and give up that. And see, that's why we need to tell these people, hey, you don't have to give up that. Get saved and then we'll worry about it. Get saved and then we'll worry about it. But then sometimes still it's just no. No. No, no. If I walked into church, then the whole building would collapse on me. You know, you've heard people say things like that. But anyway, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth. That's why they're damned as we went through like 50 verses this morning. But had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to thanks God always, I'm sorry, but we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit. And what? The leaf of the truth. Whereunto he calleth you by our gospel, he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by word or by epistle. And on and on and on and on and on. Bottom line, we've been confused, we've been hornswoggled, we've been bamboozled by people who did not read this book. They read Scofield, they read Darby and other commentators, and they were intimidated by fundamental Baptists getting up and saying, you know, if you don't believe the preacher of rapture, you're a heretic. Well, you know what? Then I'm a heretic because I don't believe it because it's not in the Bible. And so call me whatever you want, but I believe the Bible. And I just prove to you from the Bible beyond a shadow of doubt a perfect chronology of, let me just go through it one more time, just get it in your mind. Persecution and tribulation via the rapture, earthquake, sun and moon darkened, stars fall like figs out of a fig tree, the rapture occurs, God pours out his wrath, the second coming, the millennial reign of Christ, the great white throne judgment, and the new heaven and the earth. Remember, Revelation 1 through 11, Revelation 12 through 22, I mean, he cut it in half, he couldn't have made it much simpler. It's pretty obvious. And then three accounts in the three other Gospels besides John, and then first and second Thessalonians goes through it in detail. Study more on your own time because I couldn't do it justice in an hour of preaching or however long it's been. I can't do it justice in that amount of time. I'm just trying to give you a framework of the chronology. Now you can fill in all the pieces and learn about it so that you can watch. But number one, don't be one of these people that studies prophecy all day, gets all hung up about all this stuff. Hey, listen, man, the prophecy that I'm worried about is the people that are going to be damned because they believe not the truth. So I'm going to be a soul winner. That's what I'm going to do. I'm not going to spend my time with my nose in some book all day except if it's the King James Bible. I'll bury my nose in this book all day long and then I'll go out and preach it to the lost and dying world and get people saved. These are the prophecies you need to worry about. There's a heaven and there's a hell. Let's get people to heaven. Let's get people out of hell and let's not have this idea, oh, let America go to hell, like Brother McCoy was saying yesterday. We're all going to be raptured out of here anyway. Let's let it all go to hell. No, no, let's fight it, man, because I want to have an America for my kids. We don't know when it's going to happen. It could happen in a couple of years. It could happen in a hundred years. It could happen in a thousand years. But either way, I want to fight to keep this country alive and kicking. And God said if my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and see God's face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. It's God's people's responsibility to save this nation, and we can do it. If we will turn from our wicked days, humble ourselves and say, we're going to live for God. We're going to fight. We're going to be a sole winner. We're going to get in the battle. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for the word of God. I'm so glad that I don't have to rely on some pope or some priest to tell me what I believe.