BOOK 1- (REV 1 - 10)EDITED-2

the Angel of the Almighty God

Book 1- (Rev 1 - 10 Edited-2

Kwabena Aboagye

Audio by Paper2Audio.

“and now I make all things new!”

the Mighty Messenger with A small scroll

open in his hand

(the Powerful Angel with A small scroll,

unrolled, in his hand)

(the strong Angel with A little scroll

opened in his hand)

by

the Edition for the Clergy

(the Edition for the Leadership Realm

(the Heaven Edition)

of

John the Apostle

to

Explanation of the Book of Revelation

The Human Race

the word of God

to

(the Recreation plan)

the plan for making all things new

The Book of Revelation Explained is the Euclidean Proof of the Existence of the God Who Has Power Over Nature and Control Over Human Affairs!

Foreword

This edition of the explanation of the Book of Revelation is titled the Heaven Edition or the Edition for the Clergy or the Leadership Group and so provides the sources, bases and reasons for the peculiar and particular meanings assigned to the figurative language, words and expressions, utilized in presenting the message about the making of all things new by the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come. This explanation employs everyday English language as far as practicable in the main write-up outside quotations from other published sources in order to provide readers full and accurate understanding of the figurative language in plain and simple everyday English language.

It is intended that this Heaven Edition will serve as the source of reference for subsequent editions that will explain the Book of Revelation right away without including quoted sources in the main text of the explanation. Readers of the other editions will be faced with the explanation of the figurative language in plain and simple-to-understand modern language, but they will have to refer to the bibliography or the Heaven Edition, if they want to know the bases for the meanings assigned to the figurative words, expressions and language employed in presenting the message about the making of all things new given to Jesus Christ to give to his called, chosen and faithful servants only.

This present explanation is being published at this time in order to let the true servants of Jesus Christ of today come and take the message it contains, study it, understand it, adopt it as their own, sent to them at this time from Jesus Christ, their Grand Master, and once again preach and teach it to all nations, races, languages, and kings. This will be the fulfilment of the promise given them by Jesus Christ that they would be used as servants in the Government of God, as the Leadership Group, when all things are being made new, starting from this time when the Lord God Almighty is coming down to live among human beings. “He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. The old things have disappeared,” as he proclaims: “And now I make all things new!”

Dedication and Acknowledgement

The explanation of the Book of Revelation is dedicated to the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come. He is the Spirit Person who came down to live in the human body of Jesus on the Day that John the Baptist baptized him in the River Jordan in A.D. 26, counting 1,260 days to the Day of his death on the cross in A.D. 30. He made heaven, earth, the sea and everything in them. It is dedicated to him in acknowledgement of his authorship of the Book of Revelation and provision of the angel who had a small scroll open in his hand and the following other angels to assist in the work involved in the explanation of the Book of Revelation:

My Children; Akua Aboagyewaa, Kwadwo Apea Aboagye, and Yaa Sarpomaa Aboagye who assisted with the task of painstakingly proof-reading the entire script in type-written form.

Madam Adwoa Dansowaa, a.k.a., Victoria Boafo, of Kyebi, Akem Abuakwa, who provided the Oxford Junior Encyclopaedia, volumeV. Great Lives.

Kwame Ayirebi Danso of Kwahu Abetifi, who assisted with the provision of computer and some funds.

Kwame Ani-Okai of Dunkwa-on-Offin, Denkyira and Asantemma (Obosomase), Akuapen whose loyal and unflinching moral support, companionship, cooperation and understanding, helped in no small measure to bring this work to a successful completion.

Preface

The Heaven Edition, the Edition for the Clergy or the Edition for the Leadership-Rulership Realm, approaches the explanation of the Book of Revelation to John by providing the data and information on which the explanation is based and by involving you, the reader, in the application of the relevant scriptures to explain the prophetic visionary history-in-advance planned for the human race. The Book of Revelation is the record of the plan of the making of all things new revealed and told largely in advance in figurative language. It covers the history of the period of John the Baptist heralding the coming of Jesus, the prophet like Moses, to accomplish the implementation of the Plan of God for making of all things new.

The figurative language has employed three or four types of words and expressions to symbolize or represent humans and human-group activities in their daily lives and actions. First are the physical elements, such as sun, moon, stars, trees, mountains, etcetera, as inanimate objects; then, second are animals, such as lions, leopards, birds, etcetera; and third are humans and human groups, such as men, women, boys, kings, cities, etcetera Also employed are intangible objects, such as God, spirits, Satan, heaven and earth.

The Plan of God for Making All Things New is revealed to John in a form of a vision; and figures of speech are employed to narrate the sequences and the processes for the making of all things new which started with the birth and anointing of Jesus who was the prophet like Moses and the Michael (= He who is like God) sent to implement the Plan of God for Making All Things New. John the Baptist (a cousin of Jesus) was sent to herald his coming in order to prepare the lost sheep of the people of Israel to make them ready to receive him who had been promised them to come and make them a sovereign nation and a kingdom of priests (compare Deut. 18:16 to 19; Ex. 19:1 to 8; Acts 3:22 to 23, 25 to 26).

The Spirit of God invites John to come up to heaven and he shows him in a vision the structure and organization of the rulership of God the Almighty enshrined in the Plan of God for Making All Things New. At the head of the Organizational Structure is a throne with someone sitting on it. In a circle round the throne are twenty-four other thrones on which are seated twenty-four elders dressed in white and wearing crowns of gold. From the throne come flashes of lightning, rumblings of voices, and peals of thunder. In front of the throne seven lighted torches are burning which are explained as being and representing the seven spirits of God. Also in front of the throne is what looks like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

In the centre of the throne and surrounding it on each of its sides are four living creatures covered with eyes in front and behind. The first looks like a lion; the second looks like a bull; the third has a face like a man's face; and the fourth looks like an eagle in flight. Each one of the four living creatures has six wings, and they are covered with eyes, inside and out. Day and night they never stop singing: "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come".

The four living creatures sing songs of glory, and honour and thanks to the one who sits on the throne. When they do so, the twenty-four elders fall down before the one who sits on the throne, and worship him. They throw their crowns down in front of the throne and say: "Our Lord and God! You are worthy to receive glory, honour, and power. For you created all things and by your will they were given existence and life."

The one who sits on the throne has a scroll in his right hand; it is covered with writing on both sides and is sealed with seven seals. A mighty angel announces in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” John cries bitterly because there is no one who can be found worthy to open the scroll or look inside it. Then one of the elders says to John, “Don't cry, Look! The Lion from Judah's tribe, the great descendant of David, has won the victory, and he can break the seven seals and open the scroll.”

A Lamb is then seen standing in the centre of the throne, surrounded by the four living creatures and the 24 elders. The Lamb who appears to have been killed has seven horns and seven eyes, which are explained to be the seven spirits of God that have been sent throughout the whole earth. The Lamb goes and takes the scroll from the right hand of the one who sits on the throne and breaks open the seven seals.

The Lamb breaks open the first seal, and one of the four living creatures says in a loud voice that sounds like thunder, “Come!” A white horse comes. Its rider holds a bow, and he is given a crown. He rides out as a conqueror to conquer.

The Lamb breaks open the second seal, and the second living creature says, “Come!” Another horse comes out, a red one. Its rider is given power to bring war on the earth, so that people should kill each other. He is given a large sword.

The Lamb breaks open the third seal, and the third living creature says, “Come!” A black horse comes. Its rider holds a pair of scales in his hand. What sounds like a voice coming from among the four living creatures, says, “A litre of wheat for a day's wages, and three litres of barley for a day's wages. But do not damage the olive trees and the vineyards!”

The Lamb breaks open the fourth seal, and the fourth living creature says, “Come!” A pale-coloured horse comes. Its rider is named Death, and Hades follows close behind. They are given authority over a quarter of the earth, to kill by means of war, famine, disease, and wild animals.

The Lamb breaks open the fifth seal, underneath the altar are seen the souls of those who have been killed because they have proclaimed God's word and have been faithful in their witnessing. They shout in a loud voice, "Almighty Lord, holy and true! How long will it take until you judge the people on earth and punish them for killing us?" Each of them is given a white robe, and they are told to rest a little while longer until the complete number of their fellow-servants and their brothers have been killed, as they have been.

The Lamb breaks open the sixth seal. There is a violent earthquake, and the sun becomes black like coarse black cloth and the moon turns completely red like blood. The stars fall down to the earth, like unripe figs falling from the tree when a strong wind shakes it. The sky disappears like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island is moved from its place.

Then the kings of the earth, the rulers and the military chiefs, the rich and powerful, and all other people, slave and free, hide themselves in caves and under rocks on the mountains. They call out to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the eyes of the one who sits on the throne and from the anger of the Lamb! The terrible day of their anger is here, and who can stand against it.”

After this the marking of “the servants of our God” by the “we” is undertaken, 144,000 of them, 12,000 from each tribe of the twelve tribes of Israel as listed in the Book of Revelation. This is followed by the saving of the enormous crowd made up of people from every race, tribe, nation, and language by “our God who sits on the throne, and the Lamb.” They have come safely through the terrible persecution. They have washed their robes and made them white with the blood of the Lamb.

The Lamb breaks open the seventh seal; there is silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then the seven angels, who stand before God, are given seven trumpets.

Another angel, who has a gold incense burner, comes and stands at the altar. He is given a lot of incense to add to the prayers of all God's people and to offer it on the gold altar that stands before the throne. The smoke of the burning incense goes up with the prayers of God's people from the hands of the angel standing before God. Then the angel takes the incense burner, fills it with fire from the altar, and throws it on the earth. There are rumblings of voices, peals of thunder, flashes of lighting, and an earthquake.

Then the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepare to blow them.

The first angel blows his trumpet. Hail and fire, mixed with blood, come pouring down on the earth. A third of the earth is burnt up, a third of the trees, and every blade of green grass.

Then the second angel blows his trumpet. Something that looks like a huge mountain on fire is thrown into the sea. A third of the sea is turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea dies, and a third of the ships is destroyed.

Then the third angel blows his trumpet. A large star, burning like a torch, drops from the sky and falls on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. (The name of the star is “Bitterness”.) A third of the water turns bitter, and many people die from drinking the water, because it has turned bitter.

Then the fourth angel blows his trumpet. A third of the sun is struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that their light loses a third of its brightness; there is no light during a third of the day and a third of the night.

Then John looks and hears an eagle that is flying high in the air saying in a loud voice, “O horror! Horror! How horrible it will be for all who live on earth when the sound comes from the trumpets that the other three angels must blow!”

Then the fifth angel blows his trumpet. John sees a star which has fallen down to the earth, and it is given the key to the abyss. The star opens the abyss, and smoke pours out of it, like the smoke from a large furnace; the sunlight and the air are darkened by the smoke from the abyss.

Locusts come down out of the smoke upon the earth, and they are given the same kind of power that scorpions have. They are told not to harm the grass or the trees or any other plant; they can harm only the people who do not have the mark of God's seal on their foreheads. The locusts are not allowed to kill these people, but only to torture them for five months.

The pain caused by the torture is like the pain caused by a scorpion's sting. During these five months they will seek death, but will not find it; they will want to die, but death will flee from them.

The locusts look like horses ready for battle; on their heads they have what seem to be crowns of gold and their faces are like men's faces. Their hair is like women's hair; their teeth are like lions' teeth. Their chests are covered with what look like iron breastplates, and the sound made by their winds is like the noise of many horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle.

They have tails and stings like those of a scorpion, and it is with their tails that they have the power to hurt people for five months. They have a king ruling over them, who is the angel in charge of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon; in Greek the name is Apollyon (meaning “Destroyer”).

The first horror is declared over; after this there are still two more horrors to come.

Then the sixth angel blows his trumpet. John hears a voice coming from the four corners of the gold altar standing before God. The voice says to the sixth angel, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!” The four angels are released; for this very hour of this very day of this month and year they have been kept ready to kill a third of all humanity. John is told the number of the mounted troops; it is two hundred million.

And in John's vision he sees the horses and their riders: they have breastplates red as fire, blue as sapphire, and yellow as sulphur. The horses' heads are like lions' heads, and from their mouths come out fire, smoke, and sulphur. A third of humanity is killed by these three plagues: the fire, the smoke, and the sulphur coming out of the horses' mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and also in their tails. Their tails are like snakes with heads, and they use them to hurt people.

The rest of humanity, all those who have not been killed by these plagues do not turn away from what they themselves have made. They do not stop worshipping demons, nor the idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk. Nor do they repent of their murders, their magic, their sexual immorality, or their stealing.

Then John sees another mighty angel who has a small scroll open in his hand and who, with the Spirit of God, tells John, “Once again you must proclaim God's message about many nations, races, languages, and kings”. He, then, gives to John a stick that looks like a measuring rod, and tells him, to “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count those who are worshipping in the temple. But do not measure the outer courts, because they have been given to the nations, who will trample on the Holy City for forty-two months. I will send my two witnesses dressed in sackcloth, and they will proclaim God's message during those 1, 260 days.”

The outcome of the blowing of the sixth angel's trumpet, as the second horror, is said to be over, but the third horror will come soon, from the blowing by the seventh angel of his trumpet.

Then the seventh angel blows his trumpet, and there are loud voices in heaven, saying, “The power to rule over the world belongs now to our Lord and his Messiah, and he will rule for ever and ever!” Then the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones in front of God throw themselves face downwards and worship God, saying: “Lord God Almighty, the one who is and who was! We thank you that you have taken your great power and have begun to rule! The nations were filled will rage, because the time for your anger has come, the time for the dead to be judged. The time has come to destroy those who destroy the earth.”

God's temple in heaven is opened and the Covenant Box is seen there. Then there are flashes of lightning, rumblings of voices, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.

Then John sees in the sky another mysterious sight, great and amazing. There are seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last ones, because they are the final expression of God's anger.

Then John sees what looks like a sea of glass mixed with fire. He also sees those who have won the victory over the beast and its image and over the one whose name is represented by a number. They are standing by the sea of glass, holding harps that God has given them, and singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb,

After this he sees the temple in heaven open, with the Sacred Tent in it. The seven angels who have the seven plagues come out of the temple, dressed in clean shining linen and with gold belts tied around their chests. Then one of the four living creatures gives the seven angels seven gold bowls full of the anger of God, who lives for ever and ever. The temple is filled with smoke from the glory and power of God, and no one can go into the temple until the seven plagues brought by the seven angels have come to an end.

Then John hears a loud voice speaking from the temple to the seven angels: “Go and pour out the seven bowls of God's anger on the earth!”

The first angel goes and pours out his bowl on the earth. Terrible and painful sores appear on those who have the mark of the beast and on those who have worshipped its image.

Then the second angel pours out his bowl on the sea. The water becomes like the blood of a dead person, and every living creature in the sea dies.

Then the third angel pours out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water, and they turn into blood. John hears the angel in charge of the waters say, “The judgements you have made are just, O Holy One, you who are and who were! They poured out the blood of God's people and of the prophets, and so you have given them blood to drink. They are getting what they deserve!” Then John hears a voice from the altar saying. “Lord God Almighty! True and just indeed are your judgements!”

Then the fourth angel pours out his bowl on the sun, and it is allowed to burn people with its fiery heat. They are burnt by the fierce heat, and they curse the name of God, who has authority over these plagues. But they will not turn from their sins and praise his greatness.

Then the fifth angel pours out his bowl on the throne of the beast. Darkness falls over the beast's kingdom, and people bite their tongues because of their pain, and they curse the God of heaven for their pains and sores. But they do not turn from their evil ways.

Then the sixth angel pours out his bowl on the great river Euphrates. The river dries up, to provide a way for the kings who come from the east. Then John sees three unclean spirits that look like frogs. They are coming out of the mouth of the dragon, the mouth of the beast, and the mouth of the false prophet.

They are the spirits of demons that perform miracles. These three spirits go out to all the kings of the world, to bring them together for the battle on the great Day of Almighty God.

“Listen! I am coming like a thief! Happy is he who stays awake and guards his clothes, so that he will not walk around naked and be ashamed in public!”

Then the spirits bring the kings together in the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

Then the seventh angel pours out his bowl in the air. A loud voice comes from the throne in the temple, saying, “It is done!” There are flashes of lightning, rumblings of voices and peals of thunder, and a terrible earthquake. There has never been such an earthquake since the creation of the human race; this is the worst earthquake of all! The great city is split into three parts, and the cities of all countries are destroyed.

God remembers great Babylon and makes her drink from his cup – the wine of his furious anger. All the islands disappear, all the mountains vanish. Huge hailstones, each weighing as much as fifty kilograms, fall from the sky on people, who curse God on account of the plague of hail, because it is such a terrible plague.

This is The Plan of God for Making All Things New presented in a very hard-to-understand figurative language. It uses largely the inanimate elements such as sun, moon, stars, water, fire, etcetera, as images to obscure the message to both the wise and the foolish alike, with regard to the understanding of the message until the end when God will make the explanation possible. It is revealed to John in a vision to be sent to the servants of Jesus who were in the seven churches of Asia Minor. It is the record of the events that Jesus Christ revealed when he was sent from heaven to the lost sheep of the people of Israel of the first century in fulfilment of the message of God to them through Moses, saying, “I will send them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will tell him what to say, and he will tell the people everything I command. He will speak in my name, and I will punish anyone who refuses to obey him.” (Deut. 18:18 to 19)

The old plan for making all things new was being implemented solely through the descendants of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham to fulfil the promise of God to Abraham saying; “Through you I will bless all the nations.” (compare Gen. 12:3c; Acts 3:25b). From the time of this promise to Abraham God sent a set of prophets, wise men and teachers to lead and shepherd the Israelites until the time Jesus would come to establish the Kingdom of God in (the land of) Israel which was to spread to cover the whole earth after destroying the Roman Empire rulership over the then world. The prophets sent, such as Moses, David, Isaiah-Micah, Jeremiah, Joel, Daniel and Malachi, spelt out the processes of the old plan for making all things new in figurative language which required specialist explanation before the coming into being of the Kingdom of God in the first century. The one who was sent to explain all the prophecies to God's people in the first century was Michael (= He who is like God) or Jesus, the Anointed One, who spoke in the name of the Lord God Almighty.

The prophet Daniel recorded this message as follows: “At that time the great angel Michael, who guards your people, will appear. Then there will be a time of troubles, the worst since nations first came into existence. When that time comes, all the people of your nation whose names are written in God's book will be saved. Many of those who have already died will live again: some will enjoy eternal life, and some will suffer eternal disgrace.

The wise leaders will shine with all the brightness of the sky. And those who have taught many to do what is right will shine like the stars for ever.

“He said to me, 'And now, Daniel, close the book and put a seal on it until the time of the end. Meanwhile, many people will waste their effort trying to understand what is happening' …”

“I heard what he said, but I did not understand it. So I asked, 'But Sir, how will it all end?'

“He answered, 'You must go now, Daniel, because these words are to be kept secret and hidden until the end comes. Many people will be purified. Those who are wicked will not understand but will go on being wicked only those who are wise will understand!' (compare Dan. 12:1 to 3, 8 to 10).”

At the time of the end, Jesus came as Michael, he who is like God, or the Anointed One. He explained the meaning of the writings of the prophets to his twelve Galilean apostles and other disciples over a period of forty-two months, or 1,260 days. (compare Lk. 24:44 to 49). He thus purified them by his teaching. (compare John 15:3)

Then Jesus told his disciples and the Israelites that because the Israelites would not accept him as the one who came in the name of the Lord God Almighty, “The Kingdom of God will be taken away from you, Israelites, and given to a people who will produce the proper fruits.” (Matt. 21:43; compare 23:37 to 39) The old plan of God was thus abandoned to be replaced by a new plan of God for making all things new; this time not through the descendants of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, but through the “enormous crowd – no one could count all the people! They are from every race, tribe, nation, and language.” The Lamb has “made them a Kingdom of priests to serve our God, and they shall rule on earth” together with the 144,000 Spirit-sealed men “marked with a seal on their foreheads,” by the twelve Galilean apostles during the 1,260 days. Rev.7:1 to 17; 5:9 to 10)

The new Plan of God for making all things new revealed to John in a prophetic vision is, indeed, the repackaging of the old Plan of God for making all things new through Abraham and his descendants, the Israelites, by eliminating the Israelites and the roles and functions they were promised to play in the Kingdom of God, the Government of God, and filling those places, roles and functions, with “the people who will produce the proper fruits” who, by his sacrificial death the Lamb, “bought for God from every tribe, language, nation and race. (The Lamb has) made them a Kingdom of priests to serve our God, and they shall rule on earth.” As God created the descendants of Jacob, the nation of Israel, in about 2000 to 1850 B.C. (that is, the arrival of Abraham in Canaan, Genesis 12), to start the evolution of the old plan of making all things new through Abraham's descendants, so has God created the Church of Jesus of Nazareth in Jerusalem on Pentecost Day, A.D. 30, by pouring out the Holy Spirit on this Church as the new nation of God to replace the abandoned nation of Israel.

Abraham was given the promise that his descendants would be made a great nation of God to be used to bless the entire human race around 2000 to 1850 B.C. (compare Gen. 12:3) It took about 2,000 years before Jesus appeared at the threshold of the establishment of that Kingdom of God around A.D. 26 to 30. God promised Simon Peter that, like Abraham, he would establish the new Kingdom of God on him as the foundation stone. (compare Matt. 16:18) And, as the gestation period of the Abrahamic promise took about 2,000 years, so has the gestation period of the promise to establish the Church of Jesus of Nazareth on Simon Peter taken about 2,000 years from A.D. 30 to about the beginning of the twenty-first century or A.D. 2,030 for the appearance of the mighty angel who has a small scroll open in his hand, at the threshold of the rule of the resurrected Church of Jesus of Nazareth with the Anointed One for a thousand years.

Examination of the old and new plans of God for making all things new from the old Scriptures and the Book of Revelation leads to the finding that, like the old Plan, the new Plan has seven creative events or processes revealed upon the breaking open of the seven seals; and seven angels, as the seven spirits of God, that have been sent throughout the whole earth. They appear as the seven horns and seven eyes of the Lamb. These seven angels, prophets, or messengers are given seven trumpets to blow out seven messages to the whole world. They are also given seven gold bowls full of the anger of God, to “Go and pour out the seven bowls of God's anger on the earth”. The functions of these seven messengers start from A.D. 30 to the present day, the beginning of the twenty-first century, when the function of the seventh and the last of the seven angels is about ending.

The last one of the old prophets for the making of all things new was Malachi. He prophesied that, before the coming of the Kingdom of God, John the Baptist, as Elijah, would be sent to prepare the way for Jesus Christ. (Sc: Mal. 4:5; Is. 40:3 to 5; Lk. 3:4 to 6) Jesus was to explain the meaning of all the obscured Scriptures to his disciples and the Israelites who had returned from the 70-year exile in Babylon. In the same way, before the era of the seventh angel trumpeter and pourer of the seventh bowl of God's anger comes to its end, “the great angel Michael who guards your people,” now as “another mighty angel coming out of heaven” who “has a small scroll open in his hand,” will be sent to explain to the “returned” or the resurrected Church of Jesus, the hard-to-understand figurative language of the prophetic vision of the Book of Revelation to the John class of people. And when he has directed and assisted the John class of people to study the explanations given and they have come to understand them and have accepted them as a true message from Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, to them, he, with the Spirit of God, will then tell them, “Once again you must proclaim God's message about many nations, races, languages, and kings”, during this 21st century in the same way as they had done during the 1st century upon the command of the resurrected Jesus, saying, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples; … teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always (as the Holy Spirit in you), to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:18 to 20; compare Mk.16:15

The role played by the Anointed One or the Anointed Group of 12 Galilean Apostles in the first century is replicated in the twenty-first century in the following way:

Then John sees another mighty angel coming down out of heaven. He is wrapped in a cloud and has a rainbow round his head, his face is like the sun, and his legs are like pillars of fire. He has a small scroll open in his hand. He puts his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the earth and called out in a loud voice that sounds like the roar of lions. After he has called out, the seven thunders answer with a roar. As soon as they speak, John is about to write. But John hears a voice speak from heaven, “Keep secret what the seven thunders have said, do not write it down.”

Then the angel that John sees standing on the sea and on the earth raises his right hand to heaven and takes a vow in the name of God, who lives forever and ever, who created heaven, earth, and the sea, and everything in them; the angel says, “There will be no more delay! But when the seventh angel blows his trumpet, then God will accomplish his secret plan, as he announced to his servants the prophets.”

Then the voice that John has heard speaking from heaven speaks to him again, saying, “Go and take the open scroll which is in the hand of the angel standing on the sea and on the earth.”

John goes to the angel and asks him to give him the little scroll. He says to him, “Take it and eat it; it will turn sour in your stomach, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey".

John takes the little scroll from his hand and eats it, and it takes sweet as honey in his mouth. But after he swallows it, it turns sour in his stomach. Then he is told, “Once again you must proclaim God's message about many nations, races, languages, and kings.”

The angel who has a small scroll open in his hand is a messenger of God to be sent to explain the small book of revelation to the John class of people at this time, at the tail end of the era of the seventh angel trumpeter, that is, the era of Martin Luther. The resurrected Church of Jesus of Nazareth, the John class of people of today, will be directed from heaven, from the Spirit of God, to receive the Book of Revelation, as explained by him, as true and the message sent by Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, to them at this time.

The angel will tell them the effect it will have on them after receiving it, studying it, and understanding it with regard to whether or not it fulfils their expectations and aspirations. They will be somewhat disappointed for not fulfilling their Christian expectations and aspirations at this time; but, rather, requiring them to remain still as humans on this earth to do again what they had done in the first century. In spite of this initial disappointment, the angel who has explained the Book of Revelation, with the Spirit of God, will tell the John class of people, the resurrected Church of Jesus, “Once again you must proclaim God's message about many nations, races, languages, and kings.” But he will provide them with the means to assist them to review, appraise, and update what preaching and teaching of God's message they had undertaken in the first century in order to be able to do it again in the twenty-first century to suit the modern people of this highly advanced, technological, knowledgeable and information age.

The John class of people will be given a stick that looks like a measuring rod, and will be told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count those who are worshipping in the temple. But do not measure the outer courts, because they have been given to the nations, who will trample on the Holy City for forty-two months. I will send my two witnesses dressed in sackcloth, and they will proclaim God's message during those 1, 260 days.”

The two witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lamps that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and destroys their enemies; and in this way, whoever tries to harm them will be killed. They have authority to shut up the sky so that there will be no rain during the time they proclaim God's message. They have authority also over the springs of water, to turn them into blood; they have authority also to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish.

When they finish proclaiming their message, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will fight against them. He will defeat them and kill them, and their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, where their Lord was crucified. The symbolic name of the city is Sodom, or Egypt. People from all nations, tribes, languages, and races will look at their bodies for three and a half days and will not allow them to be buried. The people of the earth will be happy because of the death of these two.

They will celebrate and send presents to each other, because those two prophets brought much suffering upon the earth. After three and a half days a life-giving breath comes from God and enters them, and they stand up; and all who see them are terrified. Then the two prophets hear a loud voice say to them from heaven, “Come up here!” As their enemies watch, they go up into heaven in a cloud. At that very moment there is a violent earthquake; a tenth of the city is destroyed, and seven thousand people are killed.

The rest of the people are terrified and praise the greatness of the God of heaven.

The second horror is over, but the third horror will soon come!

The angel who has the small Book of Revelation explained by him will gather from the Scriptures – the Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, the Psalms, the Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles – information about what constituted the temple of God and the altar in real physical terms as presented by Moses to the Israelites and were built by King Solomon. The temple of God consisted of the inner court, in which were the altar and the Ark of the Covenant, and the outer courts. The inner court was reserved for the Israelites and the outer courts for the Gentiles including Samaritans. The angel will provide the spiritual equivalents of the inner court of the temple and the outer courts of the temple as represented by Jesus and his twelve apostles, the 144,000 Israelite men-disciples and the Gentile and Samaritan men-disciples as they preached God's message during those 1,260 days in the first century to the lost sheep of the people of Israel only. These pieces of information roughly gathered from the record of the preaching and teaching activities of Jesus and his disciples in the first century, is like “a stick that looks like a measuring rod”, that is, an improvised measuring rod, that the angel gives to the John class of people, the resurrected Church of Jesus of Nazareth of the twenty-first century, to compare the preaching and teaching of the first century with the figurative presentation of how the new Plan of God for making all things new programmed it to be, as it appears in Chapter 11:3 to 13 in the Book of Revelation.

The event-by-event comparison of the two activities by the resurrected Church of Jesus of Nazareth will help it review, appraise, and update what it did in the first century to suit the twenty-first century world audiences among whom it has to proclaim God's message almost in the same way. The exercise properly carried out under the direction and guidance of the angel who has explained the small Book of Revelation and the Spirit of God that will be poured out on the resurrected Church as it was done in the first century, will fully equip the resurrected Church of Jesus of Nazareth, as the new heaven, to rule with the Anointed One for a thousand years.

The ruling over the earth by the resurrected Church of Jesus of Nazareth with the Anointed Group of 12 Galilean Apostles for a thousand years will follow the third horror. The blowing of the seventh trumpet by the seventh angel will bring about the destruction of the beast and the false prophet, that is, the Roman Empire and the Church of Rome or the Holy Roman Empire. Their destruction will bring upon the world the horror of many nation-states and many denominational Christian churches, sects, lodges, plaguing the world with incessant feuds and wars that will take peace away from the world.

The Plan (and Programme) of God for making all things new appears in chapters 4 to 9, and 15 to 16 of the Book of Revelation. The language for it is a very hard-to-understand figurative language that employs largely inanimate elements as symbolisms for entirely human activities to take place over the period of the making of all things new from Pentecost Day, A.D. 30 to the present day and beyond.

The implementation of the Plan (and Programme) of God for making all things new is captured in Chapters 10 to 11, 12 to 13, and 17 to 22 of the Book of Revelation. The language used for the presentation is also a hard-to-understand, or obscure figurative language; but employs rather largely animate human (and animal) symbolisms for human institutional, group and individual activities that start to take place from Pentecost Day, A.D. 30 to the present day and beyond.

The language of the Book of Revelation also includes the use of plain language to present prophetic messages which are equally very hard to understand whether we are experts or ordinary persons, Christians and non-Christians or inspired and uninspired alike. Typical of this practice are chapters 18 to 22 of the Book of Revelation.

From the time Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist in A.D. 26 to when Jesus was crucified, and then he resurrected and ascended into heaven in A.D. 30, Jesus used the 1, 260 days spanning between these two days to lead his twelve apostles, and the 144,000 other men-disciples to preach the nearness of the establishment of the Kingdom of God. Chapters 4 and 5 of the Book of Revelation cover the activities undertaken by Jesus and his disciples among the lost sheep of the people of Israel. Chapter 12 fulfils the breaking open of the seven seals recorded in Chapters 6 to 8:1 to 5; and the activities of the first three of the seven angels given seven trumpets to blow – Chap. 8:6 to 11; they are the same three angels given the first three gold bowls full of the anger of God to pour out on the earth recorded at Chapter 16:1 to 7. The creation of the four living creatures, the occurrence of the war in heaven as the spiritual war between the Church of Jesus of Nazareth and the Sanhedrin backed by the Roman provincial authorities which started on Pentecost Day, A.D. 30 and ended at the time of Paul's departure to Tarsus, and the occurrence of the Judean War of A.D. 66 to 70 are all covered by these chapters.

Chapter 13 covers the coming up out of the abyss by the Roman Empire number 444, after the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus to become the Roman Empire number 666 and the first beast. (compare Rev. 13:18) It was the Roman Empire number 666 that was permitted to have authority for forty-two months over Jesus and his disciples during his preaching and teaching activities for 1,260 days and that was allowed to fight against God's people and the Church of Jesus of Nazareth and the nation of Israel and to defeat them in A.D. 30 and A.D. 70; and thereafter have power over every tribe, nation, language, and race. This Roman Empire number 666 came up out of the sea. The Church of Rome, as the second beast, came up out of the earth. "The earth" represents the Caesars, the rulers of the Roman Empire who created and made the Church of Rome the State Church (as the "vineyard of the earth" – Rev. 14:18) by the Edict of Milan in A.D. 314; Emperor Constantine had earlier declared his conversion to Christianity in 312. The Church of Rome mounted the Roman Empire from the time of its defeat in A.D. 410 by the Goths and fully directed the affairs of its governance till A.D. 800 when the Pope of the Church of Rome advised and created the Holy Roman Empire. (compare Rev. 13:14 to 17)

Chapter 14 highlights the four assignments given to the four angels to perform as special projects during the Christian era. They are: the Lamb, that is, Simon Peter with the other eleven apostles anointed with the Holy Spirit, who, from Pentecost Day, A.D. 30, harvested the 144,000 other men-disciples and the enormous crowd of Gentile men-disciples, as “reaping the ripe field of the earth” (compare Rev. 14:1 to 5); the “angel flying high in the air with an eternal message of Good News to announce to the peoples of the earth, to every race, tribe, and nation,” that is, Paul of Tarsus (c. A.D. 16-c. 64) who “cut the grapes from the vineyard of the earth, and threw them into the winepress of God's furious anger”, which “winepress” was the Church of Rome (compare Rev. 14:6 to 7; 17 to 20); the “second angel (who) followed the first one saying, 'She has fallen! Great Babylon has fallen,'” that is, Martin Luther, (A.D. 1483 to 1546) who “followed” Paul of Tarsus in teaching and in forming and leading the Protestant Reformation movement in Germany and in Europe as Paul of Tarsus formed and led the Christian Church at Antioch in Syria with Joseph Barnabas (Rev. 14:8); and the “third angel (who) followed the first two, saying in a loud voice, 'Whoever worships the beast and its image and receives the mark on their hand will themselves drink God's wine, the wine of his fury, which he has poured at full strength into the cup of his anger,'” that is, Aurelius Augustus or St. Augustine, (A.D. 354 to 430) who “followed” or was like Martin Luther and Paul of Tarsus as a teacher, a philosopher, a theologian and a teacher of irresistible grace and predestination and of Catholicism (Rev. 14:9 to 13).

Chapters 15 and 16 carry the fulfilment of the seven actions of the seven angels which amounted to the pouring out of seven bowls of God's furious anger on "the earth." The seven angels, namely; Simon Peter from Capernaum, Palestine; Joseph Barnabas of Cyprus; Paul of Tarsus, Asia Minor; Athanasius of Alexandria, Egypt, Africa; Aurelius Augustus of Numidia, Africa; Francis Bernardone of Assisi, Italy; and Martin Luther of Germany, Europe; said things and taught doctrines that brought consequential adverse effects on the rulers and their rulership of the world.

Chapters 17, 18 and 19 deal with the era of Martin Luther and the angel with a small scroll open in his hand. Martin Luther identifies great Babylon as the Church of Rome to the John class of people. The two wars – one between the beast (the Roman Empire) with the ten kings and the Lamb together with his called, chosen, and faithful followers, and the other between the beast with the ten horns or kings and the prostitute (or the Church of Rome) – are explained together with their implications in the writings of Martin Luther to the John class of people, the Protestants. The explained Book of Revelation is here used by “another angel coming down out of heaven. He had great authority, and his splendour brightened the whole earth”: that is, the messenger who has the explained Book of Revelation in his possession, being the one who has explained it, to tell the whole world that the Church of Rome or the Christian Church now consisting of all the denominational churches, sects, cults, lodges, seminaries, etcetera has fallen from being the Church of God the Almighty to become the Church of Satan the Devil, that is, the human rulerships ruling all the nation-states of the world. God's people are asked to come out of all the Christian Church denominations, denounce them and renounce any association with them. Those who come out of the fallen Christian Church are given the right teaching as “clean shining linen” to believe and teach, that is, “to wear.” This puts them in readiness to meet the resurrected Lamb. This explanation given them will make the resurrected Church fall down to regard the angel as if he were God; but he will refuse and tell them to rather worship God, for he is a human being like anyone of them.

Martin Luther, through his teaching and wide circulation of his writings, stands on or in the Church of Rome as an Augustinian canon, and calls on middle-level Church leaders and middle-level political revolutionaries to come and lead the Church of Rome and the Roman Empire number 666 which are going to be broken into many pieces following the defeat of the Roman Empire number 666 by the new Lamb together with his followers; and the defeat of the Church of Rome by the Roman Empire number 666 and the ten kings. (compare Rev. 19:11 to 21)

Chapter 20, deals with the seizing, chaining and imprisonment of Satan, the Devil – that ancient serpent – in the abyss, for a thousand years. The first raising of the dead which is the resurrected Church of the new Lamb, which has obediently come out of the fallen Christian Church, is seen to have taken place. The Anointed Group of 12 Galilean Apostles, now resurrected, weds the resurrected Church and this new heaven rules for a thousand years. After the thousand years are over, Satan, out of prison, will go out to deceive the nations and bring them to war against “the camp of God's people and the city that he loves,” but they will be defeated and the Devil, like the Roman Empire and the Church of Rome, will be thrown into warfare to destroy him for ever and ever.

The raising of all the rest of the dead will occur; all those judged worthy of living forever become the eternal subjects of the new heaven, they being the new earth. All those judged unworthy of living forever are made to live and die away as mortals with no prospect of being raised to life again.

Chapter 21:1 to 8 deals with the completion of the making of all things new. The new heaven and the new earth are now in place. God the Almighty comes to live permanently among the human race; death is no more; the mortal human race is now replaced by an immortal human race, so that God says, “And now I make all things new” in fulfilment of his promise given before the first creation of humanity began, saying, “And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us.” Here ends the implementation of the new Plan of God for the making of all things new started on Pentecost Day, A.D. 30!

Chapter 21:9 to 22:6, deals with the offer of the fifth angel who had the fifth bowl full of the fifth of the seven last plagues, that is, Aurelius Augustus or St. Augustine, to show the John class of people “the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” St. Augustine in the 4 superscript th and 5 superscript th centuries explained in his book The City of God and in other writings what the Bride symbolised as the New Jerusalem, the Holy City, the city of the Lord God Almighty and of the new Lamb. He also showed the John class of people the source of life as the throne of God and of the new Lamb. He refused attempts by the John class of people to worship him, and, rather, like the angel who explains the whole Book of Revelation to the John class of people at the close of the age of Martin Luther, directs them to “worship God”, he being a human being like them, but sent to “show (Jesus') servants what must happen very soon.”

At Chapter 22:18 to 21, John the Apostle warns and advises the entire human race, to whom and for whom God's new Plan for making all things new has been addressed, to take The Book Of Revelation as the current Word of God to which no one should add anything and from which no one should take away anything. He concludes the recording of the vision with his wish for the grace of the Lord Jesus to be with everyone.

Bibliography has been annexed at page 332. And references have been included in the body of the text to facilitate quick verifications. The Book of Revelation was addressed to “the seven churches in these seven cities: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.” But seven special messages were addressed to the seven angels of the seven churches requiring them to take seven specific actions within their churches including caution to listen to what the Spirit says to the churches which implies they leading their churches to study and understand the message of God, in figurative language, narrating the Plan of God for making all things new and holding onto it firmly and rejecting all other sources of so-called messages of God. The seven angels and the seven churches symbolised today's leadership and the resurrected Church of Jesus of Nazareth, that is, today's John class of people. So the bibliography and accompanying references are to be used by the leadership to explore further for the enhancement of their knowledge about the subjects being studied or under discussion so that they can better understand and be able to preach and teach the resurrected Church and the peoples of the world.

The one who really has explained this Book of Revelation, that is, the one who truly has opened this closed small scroll, “is what looked like a human being” who said to John, “Don't be afraid! I am the first and the last. I am the living one! I was dead, but now I am alive for ever and ever.

I have authority over death and the world of the dead.” The “mighty angel coming down out of heaven … had a small scroll open in his hand. He put his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the earth, and called out in a loud voice that sounded like the roar of lions.” The small scroll was already open in his hand. It was the new Lamb who broke open the seven seals on the small scroll; it only required somebody to look into the already open small scroll. “The Spirit” had ensured that the historical processes and events enshrined in the Plan were fulfilled and recorded in literature which has made it possible for them to be read, understood, and, subsequently, explained.

This shows that the part the “mighty angel” played in this presentation is his acquisition of modern scholarship, the secular education he has acquired, which has enabled him to “look into the open small scroll” and write the explanation already revealed by “the Spirit” in this form of modern book-making to be readable and understandable to the modern human race. Therefore all the flaws and inaccuracies encountered in this presentation, if any, are the making of the “mighty angel” coming down out of heaven” and not “the Spirit” who appeared to John and who “looked like a human being, wearing a robe that reached to his feet, and a gold belt round his chest.” For “the mighty angel” who “had a small scroll open in his hand” is only a human being sent by “the Spirit” as his messenger in the Plan of God for making all things new to perform this duty at this time. The Book of Revelation Explained, therefore, should be seen, received, and accepted as a discovery by and not a creation of “the mighty angel”.

Contents

Table summary: A detailed index of a publication centered on the Book of Revelation, organized by heading, chapter, paragraph, and page number. Preliminary material, including the Preface and Contents, spans pages i through xxi. The core content begins with an Introduction on pages 1 to 2 and proceeds through Revelation 1 to 5. Key sections include detailed messages to the seven churches found in Revelation 2 and 3, spanning pages 11 to 25, and visions of Heaven, the Scroll, and the Lamb in Revelation 4 and 5, covering pages 27 to 64.

Table summary: Index and page references for a commentary on Revelation chapters 6 through 12. The entries are organized by chapter and specific biblical events, providing corresponding verse ranges and page numbers. For example, Revelation 6 covers verses 1 to 17 on pages 453 to 530, detailed further by events like The First Seal in verses 1 to 2 on pages 453 to 458. Other major sections include the Seven Trumpets across Revelation 8 and 9, The Two Witnesses in Revelation 11, and The Woman and the Dragon in Revelation 12.

Table summary: A list of biblical themes and chapters with associated page or verse ranges. It includes topics such as Nazareth, the Ouster of Satan and his Angels from Heaven, and the Flight of the Woman to the desert, as well as detailed breakdowns of Revelation chapters 13, 14, 15, and 16. For example, Revelation 14 covers a range from 141 to 142 in the first numeric column and pages 240 to 243 in the second, with sub-topics like The Lamb and the 144,000 Israelite Men-Servants and The Harvest of the Ripe Earth.

Introduction

1 The claim has been made that the earth and everything in it are the creation of God the Almighty. The real identity of this God Almighty and when, how, and why he created the earth and everything in it are shrouded in unintelligible religious controversies. Man, who is claimed to have been made by the God Almighty to be like him and to resemble him, and to have power over the fish, the birds and all animals, domestic and wild, large and small, has found himself in a world in which everything has worked against this noble purpose for which God the Almighty made the earth and everything in it. There is also an unexplained silence about who rules and controls the human race that has power over the animal kingdom. The tacit explanation of all this disappointing development has been that a degeneration brought about by another God, an evil one, opposed to the God Almighty, a good god, has prevented the noble purpose of God the Almighty in creating the earth and everything in it from being achieved as originally planned. This unfortunate and worrying development has prompted the good god, the God Almighty, to produce and make public his new plan for making all things new, as a permanent solution to the horrible mess into which the old plan of creation has descended into.

2 The revelation to John was presented to the human race as the new plan of God the Almighty for making all things new. God the Almighty gave this new plan for making all things new to one Jesus in order to show his called, chosen, and faithful followers what God the Almighty had planned to do from the first century A.D. to the realization of the new creation. What follows is the explanation of this revelation to John by the mighty messenger with a small scroll open in his hand, to be given to John, who represents the called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus Christ of today, to inform, educate, and empower them to “Once again, as a must, proclaim God's message about many nations, races, languages, and kings.” (compare Rev. 10)

3 The called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus Christ who, now, find themselves enslaved among Christians, in Christian churches, and within Christendom are being called upon to come out of Christians, Christian churches, and Christendom, renounce their membership of and denounce Christians, the Christian churches, and Christendom as being heretics, the same as they have denounced these called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus Christ as heretics. They must, thereafter, “Go and take the open scroll which is in the hand of the mighty angel standing on the sea and on the earth.”

4 Obediently they will go to the mighty messenger and ask him to give them the open scroll. The mighty messenger will say to them, “take it and eat it; it will turn sour in your stomach, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.”

5 The called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus Christ will take the open scroll from the hand of the mighty messenger and “eat it; it will taste sweet as honey in their mouth. But after they swallow it, it will turn sour in their stomach.”

6 The message of God contained in the Revelation to John, which is the new plan of God for making all things new, when explained from its figurative language to plain language and given to those who have all along abided by only the truth revealed by Jesus and the word of God, who are today's church-condemned heretics — the called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus Christ — the effect on them will be mixed: it will be a welcome sweet message of God's new plan for making all things new to be spoken of to the world, but when they analyze it and come to realize and understand what sort of transformation of this old world will be under the new plan, the message will be somewhat disturbing to them, being unexpected to be like this, and requiring them to convey same to an audience who will be sceptical to the message, having been told lies and deceived to expect a Jesus who was to come to take them to heaven.

7 In spite of these mixed feelings, the mighty messenger and the Spirit of God will tell them, "Y ou are to prophesy again, this time, against many different nations and countries and languages and kings." (compare Rev. 10:11; J.B.)

8 Follow the explanation of all this given below and do as is expected of you and you will be happy if you do!

Revelation 1

1:1 to 3 What the Book of Revelation Contains

9 “This is the record of the events that Jesus Christ revealed. God gave him this revelation in order to show his servants what must happen very soon. Christ made these things known to his servant John by sending his angel to him, and John has told all that he has seen. This is his report concerning the message from God and the truth revealed by Jesus Christ. Happy is the one who reads this book, and happy are those who listen to the words of this prophetic message and obey what is written in this book! For the time is near when all these things will happen.” (Rev. 1:1 to 3)

10 A certain person from Galilee in Palestine in the Middle East, Yeshua (a contraction of the Hebrew Yehoshua, Joshua = Jesus), was born in Bethlehem in Judaea, a country south of Palestine, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar, who was born in 42 B.C. (period of reign A.D. 14 to 37). Yeshua or Jesus was born before the Roman appointed ruler of Judaea, King Herod (period of reign 37 - 4 B.C.) died in 4 B.C. Jesus' actual date of birth is therefore put at between 7 and 6 B.C. before King Herod's death in 4 B.C. The father of Jesus, one Joseph, was a carpenter at Nazareth in Galilee in northern Palestine and his mother was Mary. This Jesus is claimed to have been sent to the Jews in Palestine by the God Almighty with a message to the Jews, descendants of one Abraham (a Hebrew of the Amorite tribe from Ur in Iraq = Mesopotamia) and through them to the human race. This message of God the Almighty is the message of truth Jesus Christ revealed when he came to this earth in the first century, A.D.

11 The book of revelation is the record of the events that Jesus Christ revealed and the word of God. Jesus (c. 7/6 B.C. - A.D. 30), while on earth, spoke about the God Almighty using him and a new human being to transform the old world into a new world which would be the implementation of a new recreation plan to replace the old revealed recreation plan that was to involve this same Jesus using only the Jews, descendants of Abraham, to transform the old world into a new world — a new world that addresses the question of the rule and control of the affairs of the human race. This change became necessary, according to Jesus, because the Jews did not accept him as the promised King and Messiah, but openly rejected him in favour of the Roman Emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar, even though Jesus, for three and a half years, had patiently attempted to gather all the Jews of his day to be his obedient followers, but they did not allow him to do so. This bad behaviour of the Jews made Jesus tell them that God the Almighty had abandoned, forever, the promise of God Almighty to use the House of Israel as a Kingdom of Priests in his old plan of making all things new. Jesus backed up the certainty of this change revealed by him by saying, “Remember that all these things will happen before the people now living have all died. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matt. 24:34, 35)

12 By this statement Jesus claimed that it was only what he said about the world that was going to happen which superseded and cancelled any contrary prophecies of all the prophets of the God Almighty who came before or after him. This message of truth revealed by Jesus Christ was given him by the God Almighty in order to show to his called, chosen and faithful followers “what must happen very soon.” It means that the book of revelation contains everything about the sending of Jesus to the world of human beings in the first century A.D. and what he was to do and what he did among the Jews in Palestine and the new plan of God the Almighty for making all things new. Therefore the study of this book will not only help and guide the obedient, called, chosen, and faithful followers to know, ahead of time, all the things that were to happen in the world from the first century A.D. to the present age and beyond, but also reveal to them the true identity of this God Almighty and the relationship between him and the human race to whom he sent Jesus Christ.

13 John the brother of James, the two sons of Zebedee, was an apostle of Jesus, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus used to proclaim the message of the Good News to the Jews. His name John is the Hebrew yehohanan which means “Yahweh is gracious”. Jesus Christ made these things known to John by sending his messenger to show him in the form of a vision, all that was to happen very soon to the world of mankind. John represented the called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus who, at that time of the fulfilment of the prophetic vision, would have a contemporary human messenger to explain to them how the events occurring in their day fulfilled the prophetic vision. This provision was going to make these servants of Jesus expect and understand the meaning and reasons of any of the events that would be occurring no matter how horrifying, destructive, and worrying they would turn out to be. The seven torches burning in front of the throne are the seven spirits of God. These seven spirits of God become the seven horns and seven eyes of the Lamb which the Lamb uses to accomplish the implementation of the new plan of God for making all things new. These messengers act their parts of the recreation drama during their life time among God's people and the world who observe them in progress.

14 The fore-knowledge of such events will surely make the called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus happy when they see the prophetic vision happening very soon in their day. Their happiness will extend to all “those who listen to the words of this prophetic message and obey what is written in this book of revelation”. For the things in the book cover all that Jesus came to do from the beginning of his preaching work to the end of the promised new creation. So the called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus have in their hand a book containing what has already started to happen and is going to continue to happen in their time and beyond.

Knowing what is certainly happening in their life time and in the future ahead of time is O! What an unprecedented blessing! A source and a reason for exceeding happiness they can ill afford to belittle or miss!

15 This introduction to the Book of Revelation is the conclusion of the book that the messenger who brought the message to John gave and which the editor has used as the introduction. He has done this apparently to avoid committing the sin of adding anything to or subtracting anything from the prophetic visionary message from God to Jesus to be shown to his servants what must happen very soon.

16 The messenger said to John in conclusion, “These words are true and can be trusted. And the Lord God, who gives his Spirit to the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must happen very soon.” (Rev. 22:6)

1/ 1hen Jesus says, "Listen! I am coming soon! Happy are those who obey the prophetic words in this book!" (Rev. 22:7)

18 The apostle John warns “everyone who hears the prophetic words of this book: if anyone adds anything to them, God will add to his or her punishment the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes anything away from the prophetic words of this book, God will take away from them their share of the fruit of the tree of life and of the Holy City, which are described in this book." (Rev. 22: 18, 19)

19 It behaves us, therefore, to take a cue from the editor and John as we approach the explanation of this Book of Revelation by following and allowing ourselves to be guided by the clues, leads, and meanings assigned to the figurative words and expressions used in presenting the prophetic message to John. In so doing we shall arrive at the presentation of the true meaning of the entire message of God about his plan for making all things new and the truth that Jesus Christ revealed which can be trusted. It will, also and importantly, be free from any addition to or subtraction from the prophetic message given to John.

1:4 to 8 Greetings and Comments from John to the Seven Churches

20 “From John to the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace be yours from God, who is, who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits in front of his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first one to be raised from death and who is also the ruler of the kings of the world.

21 “He loves us, and by his sacrificial death he has freed us from our sins and made us a kingdom of priests to serve his God and Father. To Jesus Christ be the glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. 22 “Look, he is coming on the clouds! Everyone will see him, including those who pierced him. All people on earth will mourn over him. So shall it be!

23 “I am the first and the last”, says the Lord God Almighty, who is, who was, and who is to come.” (Rev.1:4 to 8)

24 These address and comments of John, which do not form part of the prophetic message, must be noted and treated as such. John makes the following personal comments which are largely influenced by the contents of the prophetic message he has just received and the Good News he has been preaching before he was given the prophetic message:

25 John writes the prophetic message of the Book of Revelation to the seven churches in the province of Asia. He gives the names of the seven churches later as Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. John received the message in about A.D. 96. At that time Judaea, Jerusalem, and its Temple and the surrounding towns and villages had been destroyed by the Roman armies during the Judean War of A.D. 66 to 70. The Romans killed about 1,100,000 people and captured and sent into exile in other nations about 97,000 Judeans. The obedient, called, chosen and faithful apostles and disciples of Jesus had run away to the Judean hills before the war started. The church of the twelve apostles of Jesus in Jerusalem was no more and all the remaining twelve apostles and the elders had left Judaea, dispersed to other churches outside Judaea. These events should explain why the prophetic message meant for Jesus' servants was sent to the seven churches in the province of Asia which must have had among their membership some of the dispersed apostles, elders and members of the church of the twelve apostles in Jerusalem. But conspicuously absent from the list is the church established by Joseph Barnabas and Paul of Tarsus at Antioch in Syria which was the headquarters of the Christian churches established by them throughout the Roman Empire and which did not suffer any destruction and so was still in existence at the time John was given the Revelation. The twelve apostles led by Simon Peter established the church in Jerusalem and all the disciples they made throughout the nation of Israel living in Palestine and the entire Roman Empire belonged to it. The twelve apostles did not establish autonomous or independent city, town, or village churches within the nation of Israel and the Roman Empire before the destruction of Judaea in A.D. 70, the way Joseph Barnabas and Paul of Tarsus did throughout the

Roman Empire where they visited, preached, and made converts. So John addresses the Book of Revelation to Jesus' servants of that time who logically and reasonably were only the seven churches in the province of Asia.

26 John sends the seven churches the grace and peace as the greetings from the main players in the processes of the making of all things new. They are: God the Father, the Spirit Person, who is, who was, and who is to come; he is the Spirit Person who has been living for ever; he lived in the past, he is living now, and he is going to continue to live on in the future; the seven spirits in front of God's throne, that have been sent throughout the whole earth; the seven spirits have been sent throughout the whole earth as human beings to carry out seven dual duties assigned to them by God the Father; they have come in human forms as Simon Peter, Joseph Barnabas, Paul of Tarsus, Athanasius of Alexandria, Aurelius Augustus of Hippo, Francis Bernardone of Assisi, and Martin Luther of Wittenberg; and “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first to be raised from death and who is also the ruler of the kings of the world”.

27 The Spirit of God the Almighty came to this earth, ahead of the seven spirits in front of his throne, and appeared in human form as Jesus Christ. God Almighty in human form as Jesus Christ or Jesus the Anointed One or Jesus in whom God lives by his Spirit, which three names or expressions mean the same thing, is obviously the faithful witness, the absolutely unfailing witness. Coming in human form, God Almighty became the first Spirit Person to transform himself into a new creation to begin his process of making all things new. God Almighty in human form as Jesus Christ was the first to die in the new human form and be raised from death back into Spirit form again. (compare 1 Pet. 3: 18b) Jesus Christ, given all authority in heaven and on earth after his raising from death to life, is, in this way, also the ruler of the kings of the world. The kings of the world are all those who hold leadership or rulership positions in the human race in all facets of human endeavour who must of necessity submit to the leadership or rulership and lordship of God Almighty that Jesus Christ is.

28 John says that Jesus Christ loves those he has freed from their sins by his sacrificial death and has made them into a kingdom of priests to serve his God and Father who is the Holy Spirit. John includes himself among them. But his personal comment is directly referring to the part of the main text of the book which reads: “They sang a new song: 'You are worthy to take the scroll and to break open its seals. For you were killed, and by your sacrificial death you bought for God people from every tribe, language, nation, and race.

You have made them a kingdom of priests to serve our God, and they shall rule on earth.'” (Rev. 5:9, 10; compare Ex.19:4 to 6) This kingdom of priests, made up of people bought for God by the Lamb and not by Jesus Christ, from every tribe, language, nation, and race, is larger than the nation of Israel which sinned against God and so was rejected by God and replaced by this “people from every tribe, language, nation, and race.” The Lamb gave up his life in exchange for them. They were bought for God. This is “a new song” (= a new message). They have never been accused of committing any sin against God. They are not the same as the 144,000 redeemed from the rejected lost sheep of the people of Israel. However, being formerly part of the nation of Israel accused of being sinners who had not kept their promise to have the Priesthood Covenant made between them and God, the redemption of the 144,000 from the rejected nation could be seen personally by John as an act of freeing them from continuing to be part of a sinful nation.

Yes, in this sense, then, Jesus Christ, by including the 144,000 redeemed men from the nation of Israel among the enormous crowd as first fruits from every tribe, nation, language, and race, has, in fact, freed them from their sins. For doing all this Jesus Christ, truly, is worthy of glory and power for ever and ever! Certainly!

29 John says that Jesus Christ is coming on the clouds, and that everyone will see him including those who pierced him and that all peoples on earth will mourn over him during his coming on the clouds. The coming of Jesus Christ to carry out his various activities constituting the new creation processes over the years from Pentecost Day, A.D. 30, was to be done invisibly, that is, while sitting on white clouds. (compare Rev. 14:14) Because Jesus Christ came in the Spirit, that is, invisibly, or “on the clouds” in A.D. 30 to start the implementation of the new plan of recreation, “Everyone of the people of A.D. 30 in Palestine and in the Roman Empire saw him, including those Jews and Romans who clamoured for his death and killed him, who were still alive to see things happening in the first century.” Those things happening in connection with the recreation activities would be such that their effect on them would make them mourn. The proof of this was seen in the activities of the seven spirits in front of the throne, and their effect on the people of the entire earth.

30 John produces in conclusion of his introductory remarks his realization of what Jesus Christ, in fact, was while he was here on earth among them and how he related to the Lord God Almighty. The statements, “I am the first and the last” and “the Lord God Almighty, who is, who was, and who is to come,” are both applied to Jesus Christ to show clearly that the Lord God Almighty was the first to transform himself from Spirit Person, living in the spirit realm, into a new human form as Jesus Christ to start or begin the new creation, and he will be the last to transform himself as Spirit Person, living in the spirit realm, into a new composite human form, living on earth among human beings, united to his Bride and the people from every tribe, language, nation, and race to rule on earth for ever and ever, to end the new creation processes.

1:9 to 11 John on the Island of Patmos

31 “I am John, your brother, and as a follower of Jesus Christ I am your partner in patiently enduring the suffering that comes to those who belong to his Kingdom. I was put on the island of Patmos because I had proclaimed God's word and the truth that Jesus revealed. On the Lord's Day the Spirit took control of me, and I heard a loud voice that sounded like a trumpet, speaking behind me. It said, 'Write down what you see, and send the book to the churches in these seven cities: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.'" (Rev. 1:9 to 11)

32 Writing to the seven churches John, representing the called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus Christ, introduces himself to the members of the seven churches as their brother, as one of them. As a follower of Jesus, John is a partner of them, as followers of Jesus, in patiently enduring the suffering that, Jesus had told his followers, would come to them who are those who belong to his Kingdom of priests. (cf John 16:1 to 4) He informs them that he was put on the island of Patmos, as a prisoner, because he had proclaimed God's word and the truth that Jesus revealed.

33 On the day that the Lord had decided to show him the prophetic vision, the Spirit of the Lord God Almighty took control of him, that is, he was filled with the (Holy) Spirit, and he heard a loud voice that sounded like a trumpet, speaking behind him. The voice told him to write down what he was being shown, and send the book he would write to the churches in the following seven cities in the province of Asia: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. God Almighty gave the Revelation to Jesus Christ to show his called, chosen, and faithful servants what must happen very soon. So the direction of John by Jesus Christ to send the Book of Revelation to the seven churches, logically and reasonably, shows that, as at that time, only those seven churches, out of the existing hundreds, if not thousands, of churches, all claiming to be Christian churches, were recognized and claimed by Jesus Christ to be or to contain his called, chosen, and faithful servants from his church in Jerusalem.

34 The island, Patmos, where the Book of Revelation was written and from where it was sent to the seven churches in the province of Asia, is a small island of the Sporades in the Aegean Sea off the west coast of Asia Minor, west of Samos and west and west–south–west of Ephesus. The Aegean Sea is the sea of the Balkans including Greece. The Aegean Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea which separates Africa from Europe.

35 Ephesus was a city at the mouth of the river Cayster in west Asia Minor. The Ionians occupied the site about 1100 B.C.; probably a city existed on the site before this period, but passed from the hands of the king of Pergamum into the Roman Empire in 133 B.C. It was the capital city of the province of Asia. It was a wealthy city, the chief port and market centre of Asia; its population is estimated at 250,000 at least in the New Period. The large amount of silt carried by the Cayster and the receding shoreline caused a displacement westward from its original site about two miles in the third century B.C., when the city was largely rebuilt by the Thracian king Lysimachus (287 B.C.). In modern times the distance from the site of Ephesus to the sea exceeds a mile.

36 The foundations of the Artemission, the famous temple of Artemis, were discovered in the city in 1869. The platform on which the Artemission stood was 240ft wide and 420ft long. The temple was about 160ft wide and 240ft long; its 100 columns were over 55ft high. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Other buildings included the gymnasium; the stadium or racecourse; the great theatre (the site of the assembly mentioned in Acts 19), seating 24,000, one of the largest Roman theatres yet discovered; the market-place (Greek: agora, Latin: forum); the temple of Serapis; the library of Celsus; a smaller theatre, the Odeon. The port and the theatre were connected by the Arcadian street, a magnificent colonnaded avenue 1735 feet long. Ephesus was renowned in antiquity not only for its temple and cult of Artemis, but also for its magicians (see Acts 19:19). Who first took the preaching of Jesus Christ to this capital of the province of Asia is not known, but like Rome where “the local Jewish leaders told Paul of Tarsus, 'We have not received any letters from Judea about you, nor have any of our people come from there with any news or anything bad to say about you.

But we would like to hear your ideas, because we know that everywhere people speak against this party to which you belong,'” the preaching of Jesus Christ or the Kingdom of God could have reached Ephesus from the twelve apostles and their disciples long before Joseph Barnabas and Paul of Tarsus founded Christianity in the Diaspora at Antioch in Syria. However records in the New Testament Bible show that Paul of Tarsus first preached at Ephesus on the second missionary journey on his way from Corinth to Jerusalem. He taught in the synagogue but remained in the city on a short time. After his departure Apollo taught Christianity in Ephesus, although he had not yet been fully instructed. Paul of Tarsus again reached Ephesus on his third missionary journey and remained there two years. He began teaching in the synagogue; but his reception was so hostile that he moved to the lecture hall of Tyrannus, where he taught daily. He found at Ephesus some of the disciples of John the Baptist. At Ephesus a riot occurred instigated by the silversmiths who made miniature shrines of Artemis. No further visit of Paul of Tarsus to Ephesus is mentioned. At the end of his third missionary journey he summoned the leaders of Ephesus to see him at Miletus, where he delivered his touching farewell address.

37 Smyrna was also a city of Asia Minor. The site is now occupied by the modern Izmir, the largest city of Asia Minor. It lies at the head of the gulf into which the river Hermus empties. Old Smyrna lay at the northeast corner of the gulf; the date of its foundation is unknown. The city was captured by Alyattes of Lydia in 627 B.C. and the next 300 years a village occupied the site. A new foundation was established after Alexander's conquest of Sardis at the present site of the city around the base of Mount Pagus. In Roman times the city was renowned for its wealth, its buildings, and as a centre of science and medicine. In commercial and political importance it yielded to Ephesus. The date and founder of its Christian community are unknown. (Ref. See Ephesus above.).

38 Pergamum was one of the largest and most illustrious cities of Asia. There is, however, no record of the foundations of the Christian church in Pergamum; it is possible, however, that the church was founded by Paul of Tarsus since he was active in this area of Asia Minor. It is also possible, like Rome and Smyrna, that, as one of the largest and most illustrious cities of Asia, the message about Jesus Christ had already been taken there by the twelve apostles and their disciples before Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas invaded that area of Asia with Christianity. Pergamum lay north of Smyrna about 15 miles from the sea, but ships could reach its port through the river Caicus. Attalus I founded the kingdom of Pergamum (241 B.C.) which preserved itself through close alliance with Rome; the kingdom passed to Rome by the legacy of Attalus 3 in 133 B.C. and it was substantially the territory of the kingdom which was erected by the Romans into the province of Asia. It was the residence of the Roman provincial governor. The city had a temple of Athene, its patron goddess, a temple of Dionysus, and a great altar of Zeus. It had a typical colonnaded marketplace, theatre, stadium and amphitheatre. It was a centre of the cult of Asklepios “the healer”. Its library was second only to the library of Ahasuerus. Artaxerxes I (465 to 425 B.C.) (apgamentum) is derived from the name of the city; it was an important centre of the manufacture of parchment, but the legend that parchment was invented there has no foundation. (Ref. See Ephesus above.)

39 Thyatira was a city of Asia Minor; it lay between Sardis and Pergamum on the river Lycus, on the frontier of Mysia and Lydia. The woman Lydia of Thyatira was the first of Paul of Tarsus' converts at Philippi; the purple industry of which she was a commercial representative was the great industry of Thyatira, and the guild of dyers appears in a number of inscriptions. Archaeological exploration has recovered some of the fine monumental buildings erected at Thyatira by the Attalid dynasty of Pergamum. The history of the foundation of the Christian church of Thyatira is not known. The city was the seat of a cult headed by a certain Jezebel, possibly a pseudonym, or a metaphor, which investigated “the deep things of Satan”. (Ref. See Ephesus above)

40 Sardis is the modern Sart; it was a city of Asia Minor, 50 miles east of Smyrna. The ancient city lay on the right bank of the Pactolus on the slopes of Mount Timolus. It was the capital of the kingdom of Lydia. It was taken by Cyrus in 546 B.C. and became the administrative capital of the satrapy of Asia Minor. It lay at the west terminus of the royal road from Susa. It passed from Persian domination to the Seleucid kingdom, then to the kingdom of Pergamum, then to Rome. Its importance under these powers was less than it had been in the Persian period, but it was still large and prosperous, famous for its handicrafts. It was badly damaged by an earthquake in A.D. 17. It was excavated by an American expedition in 1910 to 1914, and another expedition was begun by Harvard and Cornell in 1958. Ruins from Roman times include an odeum, a stadium, a theatre, a senate house, possibly a gymnasium, a bath, and a temple of Artemis, here identified with the Asian mother goddess Cybele. Its Christian church was established in the first century in the apostolic period. (Ref. See Ephesus above)

41 Philadelphia (Greek: Philadelphia, meaning “brotherly love”) was an important and prosperous city of Lydia. It lay on the slopes of Mount Timolus east of Sardis on the road between Sardis and Hierapolis, and was included in the administrative district of Sardis. The region was fertile but subject to earthquakes; the city was wrecked by an earthquake in A.D. 17. It is not known who first took the Christian message there or established its church. (Ref. See Ephesus above)

42 Laodicea (Greek; Laodikeia) was a city of Phrygia in Asia Minor, an early seat of Christianity, associated with Colossae (Col. 2:1; 4:15) and Hierapolis (Col. 4:13). It is not known who first took Christianity to Laodicea. Paul of Tarsus wrote a letter to Laodicea which is not preserved (Col. 4:16).

43 Laodicea was founded by Antiochus 2 (261 to 246 B.C.) and named after his queen, Laodice. It passed under the rule of Pergamum after the defeat of Antiochus 3 at Magnesia in 190 B.C. and with the rest of the kingdom of Pergamum was willed to Rome in 133 B.C. It was besieged and captured by Mithridates of Pontus in 88 B.C. and was repossessed by Rome in 84 B.C. After a severe earthquake in the first century A.D. Laodicea began to decline in importance. The ruins are situated at the modern Eski Hisar in the valley of the Lycus, near the ruins of Colossae and Hierapolis, about 160 miles east-south-east of Izmir. There are remains of a stadium built by Titus in A.D. 79, a building which was either a gymnasium or a bath and two theatres. (Ref. See Ephesus above)

44 Of the seven churches in the province of Asia to which Jesus Christ asked John to address the Book of Revelation none is conclusively established as having been founded by Paul of Tarsus or Joseph Barnabas or both or their follower-Christians. While there is evidence and basis for entertaining the possibility and probability that the message about Jesus Christ had long reached the seven cities through any of the twelve apostles, their disciples and or travellers who had had contact with the message of Jesus Christ in other cities and areas, there is no denying the obvious fact that the later preaching and teaching activities of Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas, meant to “carry away” the earlier disciples and their message, came in to have significant influence on the earlier believers, who remained as the seven churches similar to the churches established by Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas in the cities in which they made significant numbers of converts. But, as a practice, the twelve apostles and their disciples were not known to establish autonomous churches outside Jerusalem in the cities in which they made disciples. The believers in all cities and areas outside Jerusalem were taught to see and accept that they belonged to the one church in Jerusalem founded by the twelve apostles. And, as if in conformity with this tradition, none of the seven churches is addressed as being led and governed by a body of elders which would have classified them among the churches founded by Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas. In modern terms they would have been Sandemanians or Glassites. John Glas was deposed in A.D. 1730 from the ministry of the Church of Scotland for maintaining logically and correctly that a church or a congregation with its eldership is, in its discipline, subject to no jurisdiction but that of Jesus Christ.

1:12 to 20 What Looks Like a Human Being Talks to John

45 “I turned round to see who was talking to me, and I saw seven gold lampstands, and among them there was what looked like a human being, wearing a robe that reached to his feet, and a gold belt round his chest. His hair was white as wool, or as snow, and his eyes blazed like fire, his feet shone like brass that has been refined and polished, and his voice sounded like a roaring waterfall. He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came out of his mouth.

His face was as bright as the midday sun. When I saw him, I fell down at his feet like a dead man. He placed his right hand on me and said, 'Don't be afraid! I am the first and the last.

I am the living one! I was dead, but now I am alive for ever and ever. I have authority over death and the world of the dead.

Write, then, the things you see, both the things that are now and the things that will happen afterwards. This is the secret meaning of the seven stars that you see in my right hand, and the seven gold lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” (Rev. 1:12 to 20)

46 “I turned round to see who was talking to me, and I saw seven gold lampstands, and among them there was what looked like a human being, wearing a robe that reached to his feet, and a gold belt round his chest.”

47 John saw the one talking to him to be “what looked like a human being”. He was not a human being but only looked like one and behaved like one. He symbolized or represented the Spirit of God present among the seven gold lampstands. The seven gold lampstands represented the only seven noble churches, as at that time, which the Spirit of God was present in. The Spirit of God represented like a human being wore “a robe that reached to his feet”. The long robe represented the cleanness or holiness of the one like a human being who housed the Spirit of God in his body. The gold belt round his chest represented the noble duty that the one like a human being had to perform.

48 “His hair was white as wool, or as snow, and his eyes blazed like fire, his feet shone like brass that has been refined and polished, and his voice sounded like a roaring waterfall.”

49 His white hair was to depict and represent one who had lived for a very long time, an infinite number of years, his eyes blazing like fire depicted and represented the seriousness with which he went or was to go about the noble duty before him. His feet shining like refined and polished brass represented and showed his firm and conspicuous standing among the seven noble churches of the time. His voice sounding like a roaring waterfall represented a voice loud enough to reach all the seven churches equally audibly.

50 “He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came out of his mouth. His face was as bright as the midday sun.”

51 The seven stars held in his right hand represented what he chiefly relied on to achieve what the stars represented and what they were there to accomplish. The stars are suns; independent bodies emitting light. They teach the truth revealed by Jesus and the word of God as light to the seven churches. The sharp two-edged sword coming out of his mouth represented the unique truth revealed by the one like a human being, which truth, as a sharp sword, was to cut through with ease all obstacles, untruths, brought before or against it. His face being as bright as the midday sun depicted the primary source of the bright light for the seven stars in his right hand.

52 “When I saw him, I fell down at his feet like a dead man. He placed his right hand on me and said, 'Don't be afraid! I am the first and the last. I am the living one! I was dead, but now I am alive for ever and ever. I have authority over death and the world of the dead.'”

53 John fell down at his feet like a dead man when he saw the one like a human being. John did not die, but like a dead man the Spirit of God placed his right hand on him to invigorate him and also to signify that, like the seven stars in his right hand, John represented those he chiefly relied on to accomplish his duties and so should not be afraid. This assurance put life back into John to receive the instructions that he gave to him after the brief but pointed introduction, description and identification of himself. It demonstrates how the Spirit of God becomes the assured source of spiritual life and power to the disciples in preaching about Jesus Christ from Pentecost Day, A.D. 30. The one like a human being describes and identifies himself, and says, “I am the first and the last”. This sort of description and identification which has been applied to the Lord God Almighty is here also applied to the one like a human being among the seven lampstands to imply that the one like a human being represents or is the Spirit of the Lord God Almighty.

54 Then he adds, “I am the living one! I was dead but now I am alive for ever and ever”. The one like a human being among the seven lampstands now identifies himself with Jesus who died and resurrected after three days and ascended into heaven. He says that after his resurrection he is going to remain alive for ever and ever, of course, in the state or form and condition he showed himself to John. Jesus Christ will remain alive for ever and ever as the Spirit of the Lord God Almighty among his church providing it with life, power, knowledge, wealth and wisdom for ever and ever. Here is revealed clearly that the Lord God Almighty is the Spirit Person who came to live in the human body of Jesus at the time of Jesus' baptism. And so it is the Lord God Almighty who transformed himself into a new human being to be known and called Jesus Christ (= Jesus in whom God lives by his Spirit Person) to be the “first” of all things being made new, and it is the same one who will transform himself to live among human beings, among his people, the church, as shown here among the seven noble churches on this earth to become the “last” of all the things being made new. Jesus Christ, by his death and resurrection, has demonstrated not only that he has authority over death and the world of the dead, but also, that he must be the Lord God Almighty to possess such authority. Death, followed closely behind by Hades or the world of the dead, has been used to represent the rider or the leadership of the pale-coloured horse or the fallen Christian Church that will bring death to many people inhabiting a quarter of the earth, killing them by means of war, famine, disease, and wild animals. (compare Rev.6:8) Certainly, over this killer-church too, Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, has authority.

55 “Write, then, the things you see, both the things that are now and the things that will happen afterwards.”

56 John is instructed to write down the things that have already been shown to him and those to be shown to him later as the prophetic visionary story continued to unfold.

57 “This is the secret meaning of the seven stars that you see in my right hand, and of the seven gold lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”

58 Jesus, who was given this revelation by God the Father to show to his, Jesus' servants what must happen very soon, gives his representative servant, John, clues and leads to help Jesus' servants understand and explain correctly the prophetic vision which was being given largely or almost entirely in symbolic or figurative language. Jesus tells his servants that the seven stars are the seven angels of the seven churches. They are the seven messengers through whom or by whom the Spirit of God the Father among the seven churches sends the messages of the Lord God Almighty to the seven churches. The clue here is that the word "angel" in the entire revelation vision account, always, refers to a human being as a messenger of God. The Greek word "angelos" from which the English word "angel" is translated also means "messenger". A messenger is a person with a message to deliver to somebody or people. The seven gold lampstands are the only seven cherished-as-gold or noble or precious churches of Jesus existing at the time the Revelation was given. They were the only churches the true or genuine Spirit of God Almighty was present in and was doing the work Jesus assigned to his servants. This leads to the correct inference that all the so-called Christian churches outside these seven were for the rival God, Satan the Devil, who inspired them and used them to deceive the whole world. And, as she went along deceiving the whole world, the Christian Church was harnessed to merely make known the name of Jesus "to Gentiles and kings and to the people of Israel." (compare Acts 9:15) The seven gold lampstands, as seven noble churches, hoist the stars of the churches, the leadership, to transmit as light, the message of God, to the seven churches from the Spirit of God who inspires them and to whom alone the seven churches are instructed to listen. (compare Matt. 5:15)

1 to 7

Revelation 2

(1) The Message to Ephesus

59 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

60 “This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven lampstands. I know what you have done; I know how hard you have worked and how patient you have been. I know that you cannot tolerate evil people and that you have tested those who say they are apostles but are not, and have found out that they are liars. You are patient, you have suffered for my sake, and you have not given up. But this is what I have against you: you do not love me as you did at first. Think how far you have fallen! Turn from your sins and do what you did at first.

If you don't turn from your sins, I will come to you and take your lampstand from its place. But this is what you have in your favour: you hate what the Nicolaitans do, as much as I do.

61 "If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!

62 “To those who win the victory I will give the right to eat the fruit of the tree of life that grows in the Garden of God.” (Rev.2:1 to 7; compare 22:14)

63 “Tothe angel of the church in Ephesus write:”

64 John is instructed to address the whole Book of Revelation to the seven churches. But he is to address one of the seven messages specifically to each of the seven angels of the seven churches. The angel of the church is the leader of the church. He is the messenger through whom the Spirit speaks to the church. That is why he is represented in the right hand of the one looking like a human being as a star. He is the one the Spirit chiefly relies on in speaking to the church. A star of the church emits light to the church. The light representing the message comes from the Spirit that is represented by the one like a human being walking among the seven churches. The star represents the very one the Spirit represents, the Lord God Almighty, who chiefly relies on him in dealing with the church. He is thus the ambassador of the Lord God Almighty in the church.

65 “This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven gold lampstands.”

66 The message is from the Spirit of God represented as the one like a human being seen by John as holding the seven stars in his right hand and “who walks among the seven churches” represented as seven gold lampstands.

67 “I know what you have done; I know how hard you have worked and how patient you have been. I know that you cannot tolerate evil people and that you have tested those who say they are apostles but are not, and have found out that they are liars.”

68 Because the one like a human being walks among the seven churches he is able to state authoritatively and accurately that he knows, in the minutest detail, what the messenger of the church in Ephesus has been doing and how he has conducted himself in the face of challenges, trials, temptations, and provocations which required tact, vigilance, and patience to combat successfully. He has tested those who say they are apostles but are not, and has found out that they are liars. Once such evil people are found out he does not tolerate them. This may be alluding to the introduction of Paul of Tarsus and or Joseph Barnabas to the church of Ephesus as apostles. Paul of Tarsus is reported to have had a long association with this church. At one time he stayed with the church for two years. But Paul of Tarsus was not one of the twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ. Paul of Tarsus' claim to apostleship was not recognized and accepted by the twelve Galilean apostles to be equal to or the same as their own. The twelve Galilean apostles did not hide their suspicion and apprehension of the claims of Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas whom they advised to keep the work assigned them by the Lord they preached separate from their own. (compare Gal. 2:6 to 9)

69 Joseph Barnabas also was not one of the twelve Galilean apostles of the church in Jerusalem before the church in Jerusalem, according to Luke, sent him to Antioch in Syria. If, therefore, the angel of the church in Ephesus tested Paul of Tarsus and or Joseph Barnabas and found out that they were fake apostles and shunned them later, then, he did what was seen as a great feat patiently and astutely executed. It would, thus, be a hard work done seeing that “the two apostles” (“the self-styled Apostles”: Rev. 2:3; J.B; compare 1 Cor. 15:32; 16:8; 2 Cor. 11:21 to 29) successfully deceived all their many converts they formed into churches led by bodies of elders to accord them the title “Apostle”. They were enabled to do so by the miracles, signs, and wonders they were also allowed to perform. And yet they are represented as the two horns of a lamb that speaks like a dragon, whilst the twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ are represented as twelve stars of the crown on the head of the woman who represented the church of Jesus Christ of Nazareth founded in Jerusalem on Pentecost Day, A.D. 30 by the twelve Galilean apostles led by Simon Peter. (compare Rev. 12:1 to 3; 13:11) The way and manner Jesus Christ introduces and identifies himself to the church in Ephesus match the problem the church is commended to have handled successfully. He shows that he speaks the true message to the church through the angel of the church and not through the false apostles.

70 “You are patient, you have suffered for my sake, and you have not given up.”

71 The churches founded by Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas were led by bodies of elders and deacons. (compare 1 Tim. 3:1 to 13) The church in Ephesus at one time had (a body of) elders who were invited to Miletus where Paul of Tarsus delivered his touching farewell address. (compare Acts 20:1 to 38) But in A.D. 96 the church in Ephesus had only one angel to whom the Spirit addressed this message. If the church in Ephesus had worked hard and patiently from the time of Paul of Tarsus who died in A.D. 64 and Joseph Barnabas who also died before A.D. 61 and had been able to see through Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas' fake claim to apostleship and so had been able to go back to follow the twelve Galilean apostles and their method of church organization and management, then, it was quite right that the messenger of the church would suffer a great deal for so doing, because it would be like fighting against what was popular, acceptable, and being practised in and by hundreds of other Christian churches in the region of Asia established by Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas and their disciples. He would be the odd man out; but he did not give up. He followed only the truth revealed by Jesus and the word of God and suffered for it.

72 “But this is what I have against you: you do not love me now as you did at first. Think how far you have fallen! Turn from your sins and do what you did at first. If you don't turn from your sins, I will come to you and take your lampstand from its place.”

73 In spite of the hard work and patience exhibited to ward off the wrong teachings and influence of evil men, liars, and impersonators initially by the angel of the church of Ephesus, he had later failed to keep up the initial love he had for his Lord Jesus. He is therefore being advised to assess how far he has fallen and quickly make amends or else Jesus threatens to come to him and take his church, his support-base, from its place. The church is said to be his church. Jesus promised and assured his first-century apostles and disciples that they too would sit on thrones like him to rule the twelve tribes of Israel. So if Jesus takes away the church of the angel in Ephesus from its place, then, it means that the church will be taken from its place among the seven churches that the Spirit walks among, because its angel has made it unfit to be there. It has fallen, become corrupted and only worth to be abandoned by any faithful disciples still in it. It will then be placed among the Christian churches that belong to Satan.

74 “But this is what you have in your favour: you hate what the Nicolaitans do, as much as I do.”

75 The angel is commended for hating what the Nicolaitans do, as much as the Spirit does. The angel is noted for resisting corruption from any quarter. And the Nicolaitans were a sect obviously teaching things contrary to the truth revealed by Jesus and the word of God. The teaching of Judaism, Greek Philosophy, and rabbinical views on the Messiah, by Paul of Tarsus and other Jews had become a tempting and deceptive obstacle that faced the early church of Jesus. And the Nicolaitans teaching Greek philosophy posed the same danger as the teaching of Paul of Tarsus did, even though the reference does not tell us much about the sect. However, the designation “Nicolaitans” (Greek: nikolaites; singular) means “follower of Nicolaus”. “It was a sect found in the church in Ephesus and the church in Pergamum.” (compare Rev. 2:6, 15) In both cases the references do not tell us anything about the origin of the sect or its teaching and practices which the angel of the church in Ephesus and the

Spirit of God repudiated. But the fact that the angel of the church in Ephesus shunned the teaching and practices of the sect of Nicolaitans because he wanted to be faithful and loyal to the truth revealed by Jesus and the word of God, has earned him the praise and commendation of God that the Spirit is.

76 “If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!”

77 The messenger of the church in Ephesus is told, in fact, commanded to listen to what the Spirit says to the seven churches only which is, of course, recorded in the Book of Revelation. It is from this that John inferred his warning recorded at Revelation 22:18 to 19. So, if the messenger of the church in Ephesus has understood what the one like a human being is dragging at, and is prepared to do the right and acceptable thing by obeying them, then, he should teach his church only things coming from the Spirit to the seven churches and recorded only as the Book of Revelation to John.

78 “To those who win the victory I will give the right to eat the fruit of the tree of life that grows in the Garden of God.”

79 Those who win the victory, as understood from the foregoing, are those who succeed in listening to and teaching and practising only what the Spirit says to the seven churches as recorded in the Book of Revelation to John which is the truth revealed by Jesus and the word of God containing the only authentic plan of God for making all things new. Those who win such a victory will be given the undeniable right to eat the fruit of the tree of life that grows in the Garden of God. The Garden of God in the Book of Revelation is the City of God, the New City of Peace. In this city is the throne of God and of the Lamb. Coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb is the river of the water of life, and flowing down the middle of the city's street. “On each side of the river was the tree of life, which bears fruit twelve times a year, once each month; and its leaves are for the healing of the nations.”

80 The fruit of the tree of life is the authentic word of God, the true knowledge of God, on which life eternal depends. “The tree of life” representing the Bride of the Lamb, produces fruit “twelve times a year, once each month” at conventions for those winning the victory and so having access to the city to learn, so that, by applying the tenets, they are able to live for ever. A right is a legal or moral claim to (have) something. And once this right is given to anyone winning the victory by God, no one can deny him or her this right for ever and ever.

2:8 to 11

(2) The Message to Smyrna

81 “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

82 “This is the message from the one who is the first and the last, who died and lived again. I know your troubles; I know that you are poor – but you are rich! I know the evil things said against you by those who claim to be Jews but are not; they are a group that belongs to Satan! Don't be afraid of anything you are about to suffer. Listen! The Devil will put you to the test by having some of you thrown into prison, and your troubles will last for ten days. Be faithful to me, even if it means death, and I will give you life as your prize of victory.

83 "If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!

84 “Those who win the victory will not be hurt by the second death.” (Rev. 2: 8 to 11)

85 “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:”

86 The message is addressed to the messenger of the church in Smyrna who must convey same to the members of the church.

87 “This is the message from the one who is the first and the last, who died and lived again.”

88 The message is from the Lord God Almighty who is the one who first transformed himself into a new human being, as Jesus Christ, to begin the implementation of the plan for making all things new and who will be the last to transform himself, as the new Lamb, to live among human beings to end the implementation of the plan for making all things new. In the process Jesus Christ was put to death and so died, but he resurrected, went to heaven, came back as the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Day, A.D. 30 to live in the group of twelve Galilean apostles, as the new Lamb, and so lived again. This recounted factual experience tells John, representing the called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus Christ, that it is their Jesus Christ who is here sending them this message and so it is Jesus Christ who is the Lord God Almighty who is the Spirit Person represented as the one like a human being seen walking among the seven lampstands or seven churches.

89 “I know that you are poor—but really you are rich!”

90 Jesus Christ says that he knows that the messenger of the church in Smyrna is materially poor – but is really rich! He is rich in another way; in a way that matters most to Jesus Christ and that is, how he has handled and dealt with the danger of corruption of the truth revealed by Jesus Christ and the word of God coming from the messengers of Satan.

91 “I know the evil things said against you by those who claim to be Jews but are not; they are a group that belongs to Satan.”

92 The church in Smyrna in the province of Asia was a church of Gentiles and Jews. Being placed among the seven churches, she would be spoken against by those who taught Judaism who would be or claim to be Jews and would claim prominence in the church simply because they were Jews, but Jesus Christ who knew best assured him that their claim was false. Rather they were a group that belonged to Satan. In fact, as at A.D 96, the ethnic Jews who had rejected Jesus Christ and had publicly chosen the Roman Emperor or Satan as their king had been thrown to earth as the angels of Satan together with, “The huge dragon – that ancient serpent, called the Devil or Satan, that deceived the whole world. He was thrown down to earth, and all his angels with him.” (Rev. 12:9) And Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas who were not from the tribe of Judah but claimed to be so, as Jews, and who taught Judaism and their disciples and converts belong to this group that belongs to Satan.

93 “Don't be afraid of anything you are about to suffer. Listen! The Devil will put you to the test by having some of you thrown into prison, and your troubles will last ten days. Be faithful to me, even if it means death, and I will give you life as your prize of victory.”

94 Jesus Christ exhorts the messenger of the church in Smyrna not to be cowed into giving in to anything he was about to suffer which would be brought about by Satan to test him. The Roman State as Satan, using the group that belonged to him, was about to throw some of the members of the church in Smyrna, his church, into prison, the same as the Roman State as Satan used his Council of Jerusalem to throw Peter and John into prison. Jesus Christ assured him that such an action of Satan would make his troubles “last ten days”. Whether the period of “ten days” of troubles was to be ten literal days of twenty-four hours each or they represented a longer period, or the recorded “ten great persecutions, not counting the local and small ones”, carried out by the Roman authorities, Jesus urged him and his church to be faithful to him even if it meant death to those of them thrown into prison. The reason was that, like Jesus Christ who was put to death while in the form of a human being because he remained faithful, he too, together with all those who would suffer death, would live again by being resurrected. They would be included in the first raising of the dead; and that would be an award to them for being faithful to Jesus Christ. Those included in the first raising of the dead are given eternal life together with the rewards of being made judges, kings, and priests. (compare Ref. p. 353; History of Religion; op. cit.)

95 “If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!

96 “Those who win the victory will not be hurt by the second death.”

97 This message to the church in Smyrna is one of the seven messages from the Spirit to the seven churches to which the Book of Revelation is addressed. Those who listen to only what the Spirit says, and so win the victory of remaining faithful to the end, will not be hurt by the second death. “Happy and greatly blessed are those who are included in this first raising of the dead. The second death has no power over them; they (as angels of the churches) shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they will rule with him for a thousand years”. This will be their victory prize!

2:12 to 17

(3) The Message to Pergamum

98 “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:

99 “This is the message from the one who has the sharp two-edged sword. I know where you live, there where Satan has his throne. You are true to me, and you did not abandon your faith in me even during the time when Antipas, my faithful witness, was killed there where Satan lives. But there are a few things I have against you: there are some among you who follow the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak how to lead the people of Israel into sin by persuading them to eat food that had been offered to idols and to practise sexual immorality. In the same way you have people among you who follow the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Now turn from your sins! If you don't, I will come to you soon and fight against those people with the sword that comes out of my mouth.

100 "If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!

101 “To those who win the victory I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give each of them a white stone on which is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.” (Rev. 2:12 to 17)

102 “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:”

103 The message is addressed to the messenger and leaders of the church in Pergamum. He is the star of the church, who must convey the message from God to his church.

104 “This is the message from the one who has the sharp two-edged sword.”

105 The message is from Jesus Christ who has the sharp two-edged sword, representing the superpowerful truth he revealed and the word of God, which he proclaimed to the world like a sharp two-edged sword protruding from his mouth.

106 “I know where you live, there where Satan has his throne.”

107 Pergamum was one of the largest and most illustrious cities in Asia. It was the residence of the Roman provincial governor representing the Emperor as Satan. The city had a temple of Athene, its patron goddess, a temple of Dionysus, and a great altar of Zeus, tutelary goddess of Athens, identified by the Romans with Minerva. Dionysus (Bacchus) is the Greek (Roman) god of wine. Zeus is the supreme god of the classical Greek pantheon, the greatest of the national deities of Greece, son of Kronos (Saturn) and Rhea.

108 The Revelation account represents Rome or the Roman State as the physical embodiment of Satan the Devil and the Church of Rome, the Official Religion of the Roman Empire, as exercising the vast authority of Satan the Devil which was given to the Roman State by the dragon or Satan the Devil. (compare Rev. 13:2, 12) So the Emperors in Rome and their representatives in the provinces were together the body and limbs of Satan the Devil in physical human form. Where they lived in Rome and in the provinces were where Satan the Devil lived. Pergamum was the residence of the Roman provincial governor, and so Pergamum was where Satan the Devil lived, where he had his residence; and the religion of the Greeks and of the Romans was also visibly and heavily represented and practised in the city. It was the city where Satan the Devil had his throne truly!

109 “You are true to me, and you did not abandon your faith in me even during the time when Antipas, my faithful witness, was killed there where Satan lives.”

110 This messenger and leader of the church in Pergamum is commended for not abandoning his faith in Jesus Christ during the time when one Antipas, described as “my faithful witness, was killed there where Satan lives.” This was an indication of some sort of persecution on the church which could not result in the abandonment of the faith of the church; but not much is said about him and about the circumstances leading to his death as a victim of religious persecution. Antipas was killed in Pergamum where the Roman provincial governor, representing Satan, had his residence, had his throne. (compare Rev. 13:2)

111 “But there are a few things I have against you: there are some among you who follow the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak how to lead the people of Israel into sin by persuading them to eat food that had been offered to idols and to practise sexual immorality. In the same way you have people among you who follow the teaching of the Nicolaitians. Now turn from your sins!”

112 Jesus Christ uses a metaphor here to make the church in Pergamum become the people of Israel who were led into sin by Balak who followed the teaching of Balaam about the eating of food offered to idols and the practice of immorality and taught the people of Israel to sin against their God. (compare Num. 22:1 to 6; Deut. 23:4 to 6; Num. 25:1 to 9) In the same way Jesus Christ tells the messenger-leader of the church that, by tolerating people in the church who followed the teaching of the Nicolaitans, he, like Balak, was being taught by the Nicolaitans who taught Greek philosophy and religion, as Balaam, how to lead the members of the church he led into sin, into doing things contrary to the teaching and commands of Jesus Christ. So he was commanded to stop doing the wrong thing forthwith.

113 “If you don't, I will come to you soon and fight against those people with the sword that comes from my mouth.”

114 Jesus Christ warns them that if they do not stop the wrong practice he will, in a short while, come to oppose and destroy the false teaching and practices of the Nicolaitans with the powerful teaching that comes from him through the Spirit and that has been bequeathed to his called, chosen, and faithful twelve Galilean apostles and their disciples.

115 "If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!"

116 Jesus Christ repeats the refrain to him as “a word to the wise is enough.” The messenger-leader of the church and the members are to listen to Jesus Christ only who is represented as the Spirit and what he says to the seven churches only, if they have ears. They are not to entertain any other teachings coming to them from Greek, Roman, and Jewish or any other sources.

117 “To those who win the victory I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give each of them a white stone on which is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.”

118 Manna was the food given to the people of Israel for forty years to nourish, sustain, and maintain their mortal life while journeying from Egypt to the Promised Land, then a Paradise, “a country flowing with milk and honey.” (Ex. 3:8; compare 13:21 to 30; J.B) But the hidden manna, the hidden food, to nourish, sustain, and maintain them to live for ever, is what will be given to those who will heed the command from Jesus Christ. They will be included among the first to be raised from death over whom the second death has no power. He will also give them a new name written on a white stone. A name is that by which a person or a thing is known or called; it is a designation. Such a name or designation written on a white stone signifies its indeliability, purity, and permanence. The 144,000 Spirit-sealed men-disciples stand on Mount Zion with the new Lamb who represents the twelve Galilean apostles. They have the name of the new Lamb and his Father's name written on their foreheads. “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him.

They will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads." (Rev. 22:3b, 4) The new name given to each one of them which is written on a white stone which no one knows except the one who receives it, is this unique name, written, as it were, on their foreheads, as on a white stone, to signify a private revelation to each one receiving it, as receiving what makes each one of them a member of the group that represents God and rules as God and King for ever and ever over on earth. No one comes to this realization except the one who receives this special and unique decoration! (compare John 14:20)

2:18 to 29

(4) The Message to Thyatira

119 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

120 “This is the message from the Son of God, whose eyes blaze like fire, whose feet shine like polished brass. I know what you do. I know your love, your faithfulness, your service, and your patience. I know that you are doing more now than you did at first. But this is what I have against you: you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a messenger of God. By her teaching she misleads my servants into practising sexual immorality and eating food that has been offered to idols. I have given her time to repent of her sins, but she does not want to turn from her immorality. And so I will throw her on to a bed where she and those who committed adultery with her will suffer terribly. I will do this now unless they repent of the wicked things they did with her. I will also kill her followers, and then all the churches will know that I am the one who knows everyone's thoughts and wishes. I will repay each of you according to what you have done.

121 “But the rest of you in Thyatira have not followed this evil teaching; you have not learnt what the others call “the deep secrets of Satan”. I say to you that I will not put any other burden on you. But until I come, you must hold firmly to what you have. To those who win the victory, who continue to the end to do what I want, I will give the same authority that I received from my Father; I will give them authority over the nations, to rule them with an iron rod and to break them to pieces like clay pots. I will also give them the morning star.

122 “If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!” (Rev. 2:18 to 29)

123 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:”

124 The message is addressed to the messenger-leader of the church in Thyatira who must pass it on to the members of the church for compliance.

125 “This is the message from the Son of God, whose eyes blaze like fire, whose feet shine like polished brass.”

126 The message is from Jesus Christ, the only known special Son of God, a new human being with the Spirit of God the Almighty living in him. His eyes blaze like fire, to show his seriousness in observing whatever goes on in the churches in order to take appropriate and prompt action to rectify any breaches of his commands, directives, and teaching given to the churches of the called, chosen, and faithful followers. His feet shine like polished brass to also show his glowing and conspicuous presence in the churches to alert all members to watch and be concerned about their behaviour, because the Son of God is closely present watching the activities of each of them, in order to act immediately and appropriately to the demands of their actions.

127 “I know what you do. I know your love, your faithfulness, your service, and your patience. I know that you are doing more now than you did at first.”

128 Jesus Christ's comments, about his careful observation of what has gone on in the church, go to reinforce the fact that he has been constantly present with the church, in order to be able to give the correct assessment of the goings-on in the church, which is consistent with how he addresses himself to the church through its “star” leader-messenger. Assessing the love, faithfulness, service and patience of the church of Thyatira in the past as against what pertains now, the Son of God judges that the church is doing more now in the show of love, faithfulness, performance of service, and display of patience than it did at first.

129 “But this is what I have against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a messenger of God. By her teaching she misleads my servants into practising sexual immorality and eating of food that has been offered to idols.”

130 The historical woman Jezebel was the wife of King Ahab, whose sins and bad, immoral, and corrupting influence on the ten-tribe Israel earned her the violent death caused by Jehu's ordering her being thrown from a height to the ground and her corpse being eaten by dogs. (compare 1Kgs. 16:31; 2 Kgs. 9:22, 30) This woman being used here, in this imagery as being present in the church in Thyatira who calls herself a messenger of God, making herself as “an angel of a sect within the church”, and teaching a sort of doctrine that misled God's servants into practising what represented and amounted to sexual immorality, and eating of food that had been offered to idols, is representing happenings in the church in Thyatira that resembled in symbolic terms what the real woman Jezebel in the ten-tribe Israel did to the people then.

131 There was a sect in the church in Thyatira that taught a doctrine different from the truth revealed by Jesus Christ and the word of God. This teaching corrupted those in the church who accepted, followed, and practised it. It was just like, “By her teaching she misleads my servants into practising sexual immorality and eating food that has been offered to idols.” Teaching contrary and false teachings in the church of Jesus of Nazareth is like making the called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus Christ “practice sexual immorality and eating food offered to idols,” which was a practice the ten-tribe nation of Israel, which symbolized the disciples, was commanded to refrain from. The food offered to idols is the teaching that is given to worshippers of false gods. But the church in Thyatira tolerated this sect and its symbolic woman Jezebel, and that was a charge the master Jesus held against them.

132 “I have given her time to repent of her sins, but she does not want to turn from her immorality. And so I will throw her on to a bed where she and those who committed adultery with her will suffer terribly. I will do this now unless they repent of the wicked things they did with her. I will also kill her followers, and then all the churches will know that I am the one who knows everyone's thoughts and wishes. I will repay each of you according to what you have done.”

133 Not all in the church belonged to “the sect of the woman Jezebel”, which practised the abhorrent “deep things or secrets of Satan”, and so, to punish the members of the sect mixed with or scattered among the church in Thyatira required, “the one who knows everyone's (secret) thoughts and wishes” and so be able to single them out through specific discriminatory punishment in order for the rest to see those among them who, in secret thoughts and wishes, belonged to the sect. Jesus Christ said he gave them enough time to repent but they seemed not to want to. And so he was going to cause her to come into a situation like being on a “death bed” which would make her and those who belonged to the sect suffer terribly. Jesus Christ was going to do it immediately, but would not if they stopped what they were doing and returned to do what they had been doing from the beginning.

Or else Jesus Christ would single out the culprits and “kill” them, that is, make those individuals expel themselves from the church. The sect of the woman Jezebel that practised the “deep secrets of Satan” would die out of the church in Thyatira. But those who would not be contaminated by the sect would be spared suffering for the wicked things the others did. In that way Jesus Christ would be paying each of them according to what each had done.

The nature and degree of each one's sins would determine the nature and degree of punishment meted out to each one of them.

134 “But the rest of you in Thyatira have not followed this evil teaching; you have not learnt what the others call 'the deep secrets of Satan'. I say to you that I will not put any other burden on you. But until I come, you must hold firmly to what you have.”

135 Not all the church members had practised “the deep secrets of Satan”. To them Jesus Christ was not demanding that they did any other thing, but to continue firmly in doing the same good things they had being doing, and remain so until he came to mete out punishment to the recalcitrant ones. This was what would make them escape being punished like the others.

136 “To those who win the victory, who continue to the end to do what I want, I will give the same authority that I received from my Father: I will give them authority over the nations, to rule them with an iron rod and break them to pieces like clay pots. I will also give them the morning star.”

137 Tothose who do the right thing in upholding only the truth revealed by Jesus and the word of God, Jesus Christ will give them the powerful and authoritative truth which he received from the Father. With this truth as an iron rod, the disciples will cause the break-up of the nations constituting the Holy Roman Empire into various pieces of feuding nations and chuches like clay pots. They will feud over religious issues that will break them up. Jesus Christ is the bright morning star – the rising bright leader-messenger of God who was destined to rule over the whole earth. So by also giving them the morning star, Jesus Christ was metaphorically saying that they will be like him to rule the nations they will break into pieces and become the morning star – the source of truth from Jesus and God shining on the nations of the earth.

138 "If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!"

139 The wise advice is given to the called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus Christ to keep exclusively and firmly to the messages sent to the seven churches, which should constitute the summary of the teachings of Jesus Christ sent out to his church through the Holy Spirit as promised.

3:1 to 6

Revelation 3

(5) The Message to Sardis

140 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write:

141 “This is the message from the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know what you are doing; I know that you have the reputation of being alive, even though you are dead! So wake up, and strengthen what you still have before it dies completely. For I find that what you have done is not yet perfect in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you were taught and what you heard; obey it and turn from your sins. If you do not wake up, I will come upon you like a thief, and you will not even know the time when I will come. But a few of you there in Sardis have kept your clothes clean. You will walk with me, clothed in white, because you are worthy to do so. Those who win the victory will be clothed like this in white, and I will not remove their names from the book of the living. In the presence of my Father and of his angels I will declare openly that they belong to me. (compare Matt. 10:32 to 33)

142 “If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!” (Rev.3:1 to 6)

143 “Tothe angel of the church in Sardis write:”

144 The message is addressed to the messenger-leader of the church in Sardis, who, as the star of the church, must pass on the message to the members of the church.

145 “This is the message from the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.”

146 The seven spirits are the seven torches burning in front of the throne of God. They are the seven spirits sent throughout the whole earth. The Lamb has seven horns and seven eyes which are the same seven spirits of God which have been sent throughout the whole earth. The seven stars are the seven angels or the seven messenger-leaders of the seven churches then in Asia. The one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars is the one who sits on the throne who is the Spirit of God represented as one who looked like a human being who walked among the seven churches led by their seven stars who are the seven angels, the seven messenger-leaders. Jesus Christ has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars in his right hand as the chief personalities he relies on to implement his plan for making all things new.

147 The seven spirits in human forms, the seven chief divine personalities on whom Jesus Christ relies to implement his plan for making all things new, turned out to be Simon Peter, Joseph Barnabas, Paul of Tarsus, Athanasius of Alexandria, Aurelius Augustus of Hippo, Francis Bernardone of Assisi, and Martin Luther of Wittenberg, who have been sent throughout the whole earth, and the seven stars were the human leaders of the seven churches to whom John sent the Book of Revelation for their custodial possession and use. Jesus Christ has depended on all these fourteen servants of his to send various messages to his church of the twelve Galilean apostles led by Simon Peter, the churches and orders founded or led by Joseph Barnabas, Paul of Tarsus, Athanasius of Alexandria, Aurelius Augustus, Francis Bernardone, and Martin Luther, and to the whole human race over the years since A.D. 30.

148 “I know what you are doing; I know that you have the reputation of being alive, even though you are dead.”

149 The observation and assessment of the church in Sardis by Jesus Christ in the first century is that the church is “dead” with respect to the doing of the things consistent with the truth revealed by Jesus Christ and the word of God, even though outwardly the church is seen to be active and kicking which has contributed to make it become well known.

150 “So wake up, and strengthen what you still have before it dies completely. For I find that what you have done is not yet perfect in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you were taught and what you heard; obey it and turn from your sins. If you do not wake up, I will come upon you like a thief, and you will not even know the time when I will come.”

151 The remedy for the state the church has fallen into is to wake up and strengthen the little truth still remaining before she completely forgets that too. What state the church finds herself in falls far short of what she should have been if she had kept faithfully what she had been taught and had heard from the beginning from the true twelve Galilean apostles and other disciples of Jesus Christ. If she remembers what she had been taught and had heard from the beginning and obeys it, that will return her to the doing of what is perfect in the sight of God, and so turn her from her sins or from the things she has done wrong. If she fails to do this, then, she will be visited by Jesus Christ like a thief, and at a time that she will not even know. And that will spell disaster upon the surprise she will face, and that will not leave her any room to make amends, even where she will like to.

152 “But a few of you there in Sardis have kept your clothes clean. You will walk with me, clothed in white, because you are worthy to do so. Those who win the victory will be clothed like this in white, and I will not remove their names from the book of the living. In the presence of my Father and of his angels I will declare openly that they belong to me.”

153 Not all in the church in Sardis have gone wayward. Some have kept the truth revealed by Jesus and the word of God faithfully as they had been taught and had heard from the beginning from the twelve Galilean apostles. They will be classified by Jesus Christ as the righteous ones who will walk with him because their right deeds have made them worthy to do so. In the same way those found to have gone wayward who heed the advice of Jesus Christ and return to what they had been taught and had heard from the beginning from the twelve Galilean apostles and remain faithful to the end will be the ones who win the victory. They too will be treated in the same way; Jesus Christ will not remove their names from the book of the living where they have been because, from the beginning, they were doing the right things which put their names in the book of the living that belongs to the Lamb who represents the twelve Galilean apostles led by Simon Peter who, from A.D. 30, took the centre stage and made them disciples for Jesus Christ, whose names were thus written in the book of the living that belongs to the group of twelve Galilean apostles as the Lamb. They will be publicly proclaimed as part of the called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus Christ in the presence of God the Almighty and his human messengers as the angels of God constituting his obedient servants.

154 “If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.”

155 The members of the church in Sardis and their leader must listen to what the Spirit says to the seven churches only if they want to do what is right in the sight of God so as to win the victory and have their names retained in the book of the living, clothed in white, that is, proclaimed victorious, and walking with Jesus Christ.

3:7 to 13

(6) The Message to Philadelphia

156 “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

157 “This is the message from the one who is holy and true. He has the key that belonged to David and when he opens a door, no one can close it, and when he closes it, no one can open it. I know what you do. I know that you have a little power; you have followed my teaching and have been faithful to me. I have opened a door in front of you, which no one can close. Listen! As for that group that belongs to Satan, those liars who claim that they are Jews but are not.

I will make them come and bow down at your feet. They will all know that I love you. Because you have kept my command to endure, I will also keep you safe from the time of trouble which is coming upon the world to test all the people on earth. I am coming soon.

Keep safe what you have, so that no one will rob you of your victory prize. I will make those who are victorious pillars in the temple of my God, and they will never leave it. I will write on them the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which will come down out of heaven from my God. I will also write on them my new name.

158 “If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!” (Rev. 3:7 to 13

159 “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:”

160 The message is addressed to the messenger-leader of the church in Philadelphia who must pass it on to the members of the church.

161 “This is the message from the one who is holy and true. He has the key that belonged to David, and when he opens a door, no one can close it, and when he closes it, no one can open it.”

162 The message is from Jesus Christ, “the one who is holy and true”, who is the Lord God Almighty, who walks among the seven churches like someone looking like a human being. In the form of a human being, Jesus Christ is a product of his God and Father who has thus transformed himself. The angel Gabriel told Mary at the occasion when she was informed about her going to give birth to Jesus; “You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God (= the Product of his God and Father). The Lord God (Almighty) will make him a king, as his ancestor David was, and he will be the king of the descendants of Jacob for ever, his kingdom will never end!” (Lk. 1:31 to 33) So Jesus Christ has the key that belonged to David, the ancient King of the nation of Israel, to mean that he has been given all authority over heaven and earth as a king, the everlasting king over heaven and earth. (compare Matt. 28:18 to 20) This makes him the Lord God Almighty who, “when he opens a door, no one can close it, and when he closes it, no one can open it.” (compare Matt. 28:18 to 20)

163 “I know what you do; I know that you have a little power; you have followed my teaching and have been faithful to me. I have opened a door in front of you, which no one can close.”

164 The messenger-leader of the church in Philadelphia, which name means “brotherly love”, and the church are being commended by Jesus Christ who knows what they do, that is, they follow his teaching and are faithful to him, showing him brotherly love, which gives them some power, a little power though. (compare John 15:9 to 15) For this, Jesus says, he has opened a door of opportunity in front of them, which no one can deny them of. They must take advantage of this opportunity coming from the Most High God, and rest assured that they will succeed.

165 “Listen! As for that group that belongs to Satan, those liars who claim that they are Jews but are not, I will make them, come and bow down at your feet. They will all know that I love you. Because you kept my command to endure, I will also keep you safe from the time of trouble which is coming upon the world to test all the people on earth.”

166 There is a group of Jews in this church in the Diaspora which certainly has Gentile members also. The likelihood of these people, not being true ethnic Jews or faithful Jewish followers of Jesus Christ, who would be claiming falsely to be Jews not only to intimidate the Gentiles but also, as it usually happens, seek and gain advantage and superiority over the others simply because they are Jews – “through whom salvation comes” – would be tempting, great, and frequent. But this group belongs to Satan, which lies about its claim to be Jews. Moreover, salvation is no longer through the Jews, but through the enormous crowd from every nation, tribe, language, and race. Jesus will make these impostors come and bow down at the feet of the messenger-leader of the church in Philadelphia, submit to his leadership, to debunk any claim to or assumption of superiority over the non-Jewish messenger-leader of the church and his church of Gentile-Jewish members. Their submission in this way will show that ethnic Jews in themselves do not hold or are not to be accorded any special recognition in the church of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Jesus will make these lying impostors know that he, Jesus, loves him and his Church, and so, as they have kept his command to endure, he will keep them safe from the time of trouble which is coming upon the world to test all the people on earth. It was the trouble that the beast or the Roman Empire and the false prophet or the Church of Rome had been destined to bring upon the world to test all people on earth including the called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus Christ, of which the church in Philadelphia was a part. (compare Rev. 13:9 to 10)

167 “I am coming soon. Keep safe what you have, so that no one will rob you of your victory prize. I will make those who are victorious pillars in the temple of my God, and they will never leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which will come down out of heaven from God. I will also write on them my new name.”

168 Jesus tells them that what he is telling them is going to come true soon in their life time. They should continue doing the good things they are doing to the end, so that they are not robbed of their victory prize. The victory prize consists of being made “pillars in the temple of my God and they will never leave it”.

It means that the victorious ones will be made part of the House of God and very important part at that. They will be part of God's house for ever. A name is that by which a person or a thing is called or known. So when they get the name of his God written on them and the name of the city of his God, the New City of Peace, which will come down out of heaven from his God, they will become part of the composite God Almighty that the new Jerusalem, the New City of Peace, will become. This new Jerusalem will be the new rulership which will emerge out of the larger rulership realm, out of heaven, from God who will make it. Jesus will also write on them his new name to confirm the correctness of the deduction and understanding of what he is dragging at, in the elaboration of the sort and nature of the victory prize to be awarded to the victorious ones.

The new name of Jesus Christ is the Lord God Almighty (= the one who sits on the throne) and the old name, Jesus, means Yah or Yahweh delivers; while Jesus Christ means Jesus, the One who has the Spirit Person of the Lord God Almighty living in him for ever.. Therefore, those on whom the new name will be written will be known and called the Lord God Almighty (= the ones on the throne) collectively – they will be the Bride and the Spirit. (compare Rev.22:17)

169 “If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!”

170 Jesus Christ consistently stresses the need for and the dire importance of heeding only the messages the Spirit says to the seven churches. Doing anything more or less than this will spell disaster for them who will be excluded from the called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus Christ.

3:14 to 22

(7) The Message to Laodicea

171 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

172 “This is the message from the Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the origin (or ruler) of all that God has created. I know what you have done; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other!

But because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth! You say, “I am rich and well off; I have all I need”. But you do not know how miserable and pitiful you are! You are poor, naked, and blind. I advise you, then, to buy gold from me, pure gold, in order to be rich. Buy also white clothing to dress yourself and cover up your shameful nakedness.

Buy also some ointment to put on your eyes, so that you may see. I rebuke and punish all whom I love. Be in earnest, then, and turn from your sins. Listen! I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and they will eat with me. To those who win the victory I will give the right to sit beside me on my throne, just as I have been victorious and now sit by my Father on his throne.

173 “If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!” (Rev. 3:14 to 22)

174 “Tothe angel of the church in Laodicea write:”

175 The message is addressed to the messenger-leader of the church in Laodicea who is to deliver the message to the members of the church.

176 “This is the message from the Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the origin (or ruler) of all that God has created.”

177 The message is from Jesus Christ, “the Amen, the faithful and true witness”. He “is the origin (= the beginning or ruler) of all that God has created.” Jesus, in human form with the Spirit Person of the Lord God Almighty living in him, is the beginning of the new creation by God. God, the Lord Almighty, transformed himself from Spirit Person to live in his temple that the human body of Jesus was to begin (to originate) the process of the making of all things new; and he is the ruler of all the things he has recreated. The Amen is the one who is faithful and true to whatever he says; “the faithful and true witness” indeed. For the word “Amen” means “may it be so” or “truly”.

178 “I know what you have done; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other! But because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth!”

179 The messenger-leader whose conduct, behaviour and character reflect on his church has been observed by Jesus Christ to be lukewarm, neither cold nor hot. If he is hot or cold that will definitely determine where he stands, which will also determine definitely and appropriately how he is dealt with, he and his church. But because his position is indefinite, indeterminate, Jesus is going to spit him out of his mouth; which means that he is going to be regarded as a spent-force, a sputum, an excess or a surplus, disregarded in a spiteful way.

180 “You say, 'I am rich and well off; I have all I need'. But you do not know how miserable and pitiful you are! You are poor, naked, and blind. I advise you, then, to buy gold from me, pure gold, in order to be rich. Buy also white clothing to dress yourself and cover up your shameful nakedness. Buy also some ointment to put on your eyes, so that you may see."

181 The church in Laodicea led by its messenger is found to be complacent, thinking everything is well with them. But their doings show that they have missed the mark of doing things strictly in accordance with what Jesus Christ, as the Spirit Person, says to the churches. They are miserable, pitiful, poor, naked, and blind.

So they are advised to get from Jesus Christ pure gold, that is, genuine teaching from him in order to come to possess the truth of God which truly makes one rich. They should also buy white clothing, which represents good deeds, to cover up their shameful nakedness or exposure of obvious wrongdoing. They should also buy some ointment which represents true enlightening knowledge from Jesus Christ, to put on their eyes, so that they become well informed of themselves and of God, and so heal their blindness.

182 “I rebuke and punish all whom I love. Be in earnest, then, and turn from your sins. Listen! I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and they will eat with me.”

183 The church in Laodicea is told to take the strong rebuke and threatened punishment as a sign of Jesus Christ's love for the church which, if so understood, should spur them on to be serious and sincere to quickly turn from their sins to show that they are that serious. Jesus Christ says he is quite optimistic of such a quick turn-around, and so he is acting proactively in standing and knocking at their door for a favourable response. If they accept his rebuke as coming from their loving master, turn from their wrongdoing and open their door to him, he will come in and share the truth he revealed and the word of God with them.

184 “Tothose who win the victory I will give the right to sit beside me on my throne, just as I have been victorious and now sit by my Father on his throne.”

185 The members of the church in Laodicea, who take the necessary action and do the right things requested of them by Jesus Christ, are to become part of the rulership realm; they will be part of the Bride and the Spirit who, as the composite Lord God Almighty in human form, will sit on the one throne that belongs to the Father who is a Spirit Person.

186 “If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!”

187 The church in Laodicea is advised to listen to only what Jesus Christ, as the Spirit, says to the seven churches if they want to do the right thing as obedient servants.

Summary of the Seven Messages to the Seven Churches

188 The summary of the seven messages to the seven churches in Asia and Asia Minor could and should be seen as the totality of the teaching from the Spirit to the entire church of Jesus Christ necessary for the saving of the enormous crowd from every tribe, nation, language, and race. Their salvation followed and paralleled the redemption of the 144,000 Spirit-sealed redeemed men from the lost sheep of the twelve tribes of Israel in the Diaspora, 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes. (compare Rev.7:1 to 17) The period for the redemption of the 144,000 and the salvation of the enormous crowd began in A.D. 30 and ended at about the end of the 20th century. Therefore the message, relevant for their redemption and salvation, sent to the seven churches will cease to be applicable to the people of the 21st century who will be given the resurrected enormous crowd in whom the Spirit will live to rule with Christ (= the Anointed 12 Galilean Apostles = the Lamb resurrected) as kings, judges, and priests for a thousand years. Therefore, the summary of the seven messages is necessary and will be done for historical study purposes only!

189 The messages are presented under five sub-headings:

(1) Identification: The message sender, Jesus Christ, in seven different or various ways, addresses and identifies himself to the particular messenger-leaders and their churches in characteristic ways that harmonize the message sender's qualities and attributes with the duties assigned the recipients and the corresponding prizes and rewards.

(2) Assessment: Jesus Christ tells all the seven churches individually, through their messenger leaders, how he has come to know whatever goes on in the churches through his close observation of the churches among whom he walks and is always present. Then he grades and awards each leader and his church their deserved marks and certification.

(3) Requirements: Jesus Christ tells each and all the messenger-leaders and their seven churches what he wants them to do or not to do and instructs them accordingly, telling them of the consequences for failing to do as instructed.

(4) Awards and Rewards: Jesus Christ tells each and all the messenger-leaders and their seven churches the prizes and payments he will give all those who do as instructed and so win the victory prize.

(5) Admonition or Advice: Jesus Christ advises the seven messenger-leaders of the seven churches and the seven churches to listen to only what the Spirit, representing Jesus Christ himself, says to the seven churches through only the seven messenger-leaders of the seven churches. They are not to listen to the messages from the seven spirits in front of the throne and Satan's message which counter or differ from the message from the Spirit. Neither are they to resort to listening to or divining from messages or teachings from the writings of the prophets, the Psalms, and the Law of Moses.

Appraisal

190 The contents of the seven messages, the type and nature of awards and rewards mentioned, the description of the addressees and the date of the messages, that is, post A.D. 96, show that it is the enormous crowd who will join the Bride and together with the Spirit become the New Heaven who are the recipients of the seven messages and who, principally, form the seven churches. If so, then, the seven messages are for Gentile disciples made by the Lamb from the time Simon Peter preached to Gentile Cornelius in about A.D. 34 to the end of the era of Martin Luther, about now, the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, when the first raising of the dead is to begin for the resurrected enormous crowd to rule with the Anointed One (= the anointed group of 12 Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ led by anointed Simon Peter) for a thousand years.

191 The period from A.D. 30 to A.D. 34 saw the sealing with the (Holy) Spirit and redemption of the 144,000 Spirit-sealed men from the lost sheep of the twelve tribes of the people of Israel in the Diaspora. They constituted the first fruits, who together with the enormous crowd, as the other first fruits (= the other sheep of John 10:16), from every tribe, nation, language, and race, will form the New Rulership Group, the New Heaven, of the New World that will last for ever. The Spirit of God the Almighty will live in them and they will have the name of God the Almighty written on them so that they will be known and called God Almighty who will live among the human race. “He will live with them and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them, and he will be their God. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. The old things have disappeared.” (Rev. 21:3 to 4)

4 to 11

Revelation 4 The Vision of Heaven

192 “At this point I had another vision and saw an open door in heaven. And the voice that sounded like a trumpet, which I had heard speaking to me before, said, 'Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this.' At once the Spirit took control of me. There in heaven was a throne with someone sitting on it. His face gleamed like such precious stones as jasper and carnelian, and all round the throne there was a rainbow the colour of an emerald. In a circle round the throne were twenty-four other thrones, on which were seated twenty-four elders dressed in white and wearing crowns of gold. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder. In front of the throne seven lighted torches were burning, which are the seven spirits of God. Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

193 “Surrounding the throne on each of its sides, were four living creatures covered with eyes in front and behind. The first one looked like a lion; the second looked like a bull; the third had a face like a human face; and the fourth looked like an eagle in flight. Each one of the four living creatures had six wings, and they were covered with eyes, inside and out. Day and night they never stop singing: 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come.'

194 “The four living creatures sing songs of glory and honour and thanks to the one who sits on the throne, who lives for ever and ever. When they do so, the twenty-four elders fall down before the one who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They throw their crowns down in front of the throne and say: 'Our Lord and God! You are worthy to receive glory, honour, and power. For you created all things, and by your will they were given existence and life.'” (Rev. 4:1 to 11)

195 The coming of the son of the woman to destroy Satan and his rulership of the world and replace him as the eternal king has been revealed to the ancient prophets, who have recorded them on scrolls. The prophets have recorded that one Abraham from the town Ur in Iraq (= Mesopotamia), was promised by God that his descendant would be used as the eternal king, who would destroy Satan and his works for ever and ever. This descendant of Abraham was to descend from Jacob, a grandson of Abraham, whose descendants came to be called Israelites. God subsequently proposed to make a covenant with the Israelites as a nation, so as to use them to serve him as kings and priests or as a kingdom of priests, provided they would obey and keep his commandments enshrined in the covenant. It was to this nation of Israel that God revealed, in secret or figurative language, that he would come and live among them, in human form, in order to carry out by himself his promise of making a new world in which righteousness would be at home' (compare Ex. 19:1 to 8; Mal. 3:1 to 4; Isa. 2:1 to 5; 9:1 to 7; 11:1 to 9; Mic. 4:1 to 4)

196 The Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms have strewn among them all the details about what this Son of God and Abraham's descendant was coming to do on this earth, even though the information was given in a hard-to-understand figurative language, needing specialist explanation for both the clergy and the laity or the expert and ordinary person to understand. God purposely kept the messages secret and hidden or sealed, so that only those to whom the messages were sent and to whom they would be useful could understand, while the wicked were totally barred from ever understanding. (compare Dan.12:9 to 10; Isa.6:9 to 10; 70; Matt.13:11 to 17) But God also showed that it would take the same descendant of Abraham to come and break open the seals on all the prophecies about him, at the time of his coming, in order for God's people to understand plainly and clearly the plan of God for making all things new, which was presented to the ancient prophets in a language they could not understand, no matter how hard they tried. (compare Dan.12:1 to 4; Isa.6:9 to 10; 70)

197 What John, the apostle of Jesus Christ, representing the called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus Christ, is being shown at this point in a vision, is the work of Jesus Christ and his called, chosen, and faithful followers from the beginnings of the twelve tribes of Israel through A.D. 26, when he was baptized by John the Baptist in the river Jordan, and when he started preaching about the nearness of the Kingdom of heaven to the realization of the new creation. The setting has to do with Jesus Christ and his twelve Galilean apostles and other disciples working in the first century A.D. among the lost sheep of the people of Israel in the land of Palestine in fulfilment of the Abrahamic covenants. The scene is Jesus Christ, at the centre stage, surrounded by his twelve Galilean apostles, preaching to and teaching fellow Israelites surrounding him, who listen and react in response to what they hear from Jesus Christ, as he moved from place to place.

198 "At this point I had another vision and saw an open door in heaven. And the voice that sounded like a trumpet, which I had heard speaking to me before, said, 'Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this.'"

199 In the vision John saw an open door of opportunity in the leadership-rulership realm. And Jesus Christ, “the voice that sounded like a trumpet,” invited him, who represents first, the twelve Galilean apostles, to become part of the leadership-rulership realm. In the leadership-rulership realm and as one of the rulers and leaders, John would be shown what was to follow the choice of becoming part of the leadership-rulership group. What were the duties, rights, and privileges of the people who were called and chosen to rule with Jesus Christ in his Kingdom? By responding positively to the invitation, “Come up here,” and going up through the open door to “heaven” under the control of the Spirit, John or the disciples of Jesus Christ accepted to become his obedient and faithful followers, who recognized him as the Lord God Almighty, come in the flesh, and were ready to follow him, no matter where he went, in the course of preaching the nearness of the new Kingdom of God. They were also ready to worship him as their Lord and God which truly he was.

200 “At once the Spirit took control of me. There in heaven was a throne with someone sitting on it. His face gleamed like such precious stones as jasper and carnelian, and all round the throne there was a rainbow the colour of an emerald.”

201 The Spirit took control of John when the twelve Galilean apostles and disciples were anointed with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Day A.D. 30. And John, on becoming part of the leadership-rulership group with Jesus Christ at the helm of affairs under the control of the Spirit, began to see the structure of the leadership-rulership realm of God the Almighty. At the head of the Organization Structure was “a throne with someone sitting on it”. It was God Almighty, now, as Jesus Christ, at the helm of affairs. A throne is a special chair used by a king or a queen to sit on at ceremonies. The one who sits on the throne in heaven does not wear a crown to show that he is the original source of rulership, power, and authority. And a king is the male ruler of an independent (sovereign) state that has a royal family. Therefore a throne symbolizes or represents the source and resting place of rulership, power, authority, law and justice, while the one who sits on the throne symbolizes or represents a human being who is alive, conscious, intelligent, and wise, in whom repose and who exercises rulership, power, and authority, and administers law and justice over his subjects. In fact, the existence of a throne with someone sitting on it presupposes, by experience, the existence and life of the four institutions of kingship-rulership; the ruled or subjection; living, conscious, intelligent and wise human beings or humanity; and priesthood as a means of communication between the ruler and the ruled and vice versa. (compare Prov. 14:28) The diamond-like radiating light gleaming from the face and creating a circle of rainbow the colour of an emerald round the throne represents the exhaustive range of enlightenment (knowledge, information, education, etcetera) on all subjects that come from the one who sits on the throne to all within the leadership-rulership realm and beyond.

202 “In a circle round the throne were twenty-four other thrones, on which were seated twenty-four elders dressed in white and wearing crowns of gold.”

203 In the nation of Israel to which Jesus Christ was sent in the first century, there were twelve tribes who descended from the twelve sons of Jacob or Israel. The twelve sons of Israel led and ruled the twelve tribes of Israel. In the first century the Sanhedrin or Council of Jerusalem represented the twelve ruler-leaders of Israel. When Jesus Christ commenced his work of gathering all the twelve tribes of Israel under his leadership-rulership, he chose twelve Galilean apostles to lead and rule his other disciples. The twelve elders of the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve Galilean apostles or elders of the disciples or followers of Jesus Christ add up to make the twenty-four elders sitting on twenty-four thrones dressed in white and wearing crowns of gold, as appointed or crowned kings, who ruled the two groups of the lost sheep of the people of Israel in the first century and who surrounded Jesus Christ, the one who sat on the throne in their midst. At that time the Sanhedrin or Council representing the twelve sons of Jacob and the twelve Galilean apostles representing the Diasporan, Jewish-Gentile followers of Jesus Christ, both of these two groups, ruled a nation divided into two: the followers of Moses and the followers of Jesus Christ. (compare John 5:45 to 46; Rev.15:2 to 4) They wore crowns of gold to show and acknowledge that they had their kingly positions by virtue of the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ, who conferred them on them as a gift, and to whom and before his throne they submit their crowns as grateful beneficiaries.

204 The names of the twenty-four elders are: The twelve sons of Jacob or Israel, as listed in Genesis Chapter 49, Reuben (= Rev.7; Reuben); Simeon (= Rev.7; Simeon); Judah (= Rev.7; Judah); Zebulun (= Rev.7; Zebulun); Issachar (= Rev.7; Issachar); Dan (= Rev.7; Manasseh); Gad (= Rev.7; Gad); Asher (= Rev.7; Asher); Naphtali (= Rev.7; Naphtali); Joseph (= Rev.7; Joseph); Benjamin (= Rev.7; Benjamin); Levi (= Rev.7; Levi). (Manasseh replaces Dan in the Revelation's listing of the names of the sons of Jacob or Israel; the twelve tribes of Israel);

205 The twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, as listed in the Gospel of Mathew Chapter 10, Simon Peter (= Acts 1:13, 26; Simon Peter); Andrew (= Acts 1:13, 26; Andrew); John (= Acts 1:13, 26; John); James (= Acts 1:13, 26; James); Philip (= Acts 1:13, 26; Philip); Bartholomew (= Acts 1:13, 26; Bartholomew); Thomas the Twin (= Acts 1:13, 26; Thomas the Twin); Matthew (= Acts 1:13, 26; Matthew); James son of Alphaeus (= Acts 1:13, 26; James son of Alphaeus); Thaddaeus (= Acts 1:13, 26; Thaddaeus); Simon the Patriot (= Acts 1:13, 26; Simon the Patriot); and Judas Iscariot (= Acts 1:13, 26; Mathias). (Mathias replaces Judas Iscariot in the listing of the apostles of Jesus Christ in the Acts of the Apostles which deals with the era of post-crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ which covers the activities of the church of Jesus Christ of Nazareth from Pentecost Day in A.D. 30 and the activities of Paul of Tarsus from the time of his conversion through the founding of the Christian Church of Antioch in Syria by Joseph Barnabas who brought in Paul of Tarsus to assist him in doing so.).

206 These were the twenty-four elders dressed in white and wearing crowns of gold who were seated on twenty-four other thrones in a circle round the (mobile) throne on which Jesus Christ was sitting. They symbolized or represented the called, chosen, and faithful followers through whom the message rumbled as voices first to the Jews and then to the rest of the world. The crowns of gold they wore showed that they owed their kingship, rulership, leadership positions or roles to the Lord God Almighty, or Jesus Christ, the one sitting on the throne in heaven or in the leadership-rulership realm, who called them and chose them to also sit on thrones to rule the twelve tribes of Israel. The first group of twelve sons of Jacob or Israel ruled the ancient people of Israel up to the first century and the second group of twelve sons or apostles (= the Lamb) of Jesus Christ ruled the lost sheep of the people of Israel from A.D. 30 onwards. (compare Matt. 19:28; Lk. 22:28 to 30; 1:31 to 33)

207 “From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder.”

208 From the leadership-rulership realm came teachings or sermons from Jesus Christ who occupied the one throne representing the source and place of Almighty power, rulership or kingship, and authority. The setting for the preaching and teaching activities of Jesus Christ was like this: he stood or sat in the middle of the crowds of people to talk to them; his twelve Galilean apostles and disciples surrounded him in an inner sort of circle; and a larger crowd of Israelites including members of the Sanhedrin and Gentiles formed a larger circle that surrounded the inner circle of the twelve Galilean apostles and disciples and Jesus Christ, who stood or sat at the top of the throne of the crowds to deliver his messages. The crowds of people, including his twelve Galilean apostles and disciples, being taught and preached to, were made up of four living creatures, namely, rulers, priests, the ruled, and the mixed new humanity believing in Jesus Christ. The sermons to them from Jesus Christ were of three types, so designed and presented to achieve three distinct and meaningful purposes. They were flashes of lightning which stated, informed, and taught the people God's enlightening principles, virtues, and values required by and essential for the people of God and the disciples of Jesus Christ in order to belong to the Holy City; rumblings (of voices) coming from Jesus Christ through his twelve Galilean apostles and other disciples teaching on various and miscellaneous themes that were accompanied with beneficial miracles, wonders, and signs of healing as evidence and proof that it was God Almighty performing through them; and peals of thunder from Jesus Christ spewing out the “woe sermons or teachings” of controversial, condemnatory, and frightening warnings of impending disaster, calamity, and horrors for the people of Israel and the world who failed to heed his teachings.

209 Examples of the flashes of lightning, that is, sermons or teachings on Godly enlightening principles, virtues, and values are the following:

210 “From that time Jesus began to preach his message: 'Turn away from your sins, because the Kingdom of heaven is near.'” (Matt.4:17)

The Sermon on the Mount

211 “Jesus saw the crowds and went up a hill, where he sat down (in the centre of the crowds as his throne). His disciples gathered round him, and he began to teach them; (Jesus sat down on his throne; his disciples gathered round him; he led in teaching his disciples and the crowds made up of the four living creatures gathered round Jesus on the throne and his disciples gathered round him in the centre of the throne.):

True Happiness

212 “Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!

213 “Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them!

214 “Happy are those who are humble; they will receive what God has promised!

215 “Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires; God will satisfy them fully!

216 “Happy are those who are merciful to others; God will be merciful to them!

217 “Happy are those who are pure in heart; they will see God!

218 “Happy are those who work for peace; God will call them his children!

219 “Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!

220 “Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers. Be happy and glad, for a great reward is kept for you in heaven. This is how the prophets who lived before you were persecuted.

221 “You are the salt for the whole human race. But if salt loses its saltiness, there is no way to make it salty again. It has become worthless, so it is thrown out and people trample on it (cf. Rev. 12:9b; Lk. 21:24b).

222 “You are the light for the whole world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bowl; instead he puts it on the lampstand, where it gives light for everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine before people, so that they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven. (compare Matt.10:5 to 7, 16; Isa.42:6)

Teaching About the Law

223 “Do not think that I have come to do away with the Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets, I have not come to do away with them, but to make their teachings come true. Remember that as long as heaven and earth last, not the least point nor the smallest detail of the Law will be done away with – not until the end of all things (or not until all its teachings come true.) So then, whoever disobeys even the least important of the commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be least in the Kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, whoever obeys the Law and teaches others to do the same, will be great in the Kingdom of heaven. I tell you, then, that you will be able to enter the Kingdom of heaven only if you are more faithful than the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees in doing what God requires. (compare John 10:7 to 10)

Teaching About Anger

224 “You have heard that people were told in the past, “Do not commit murder; anyone who does will be brought to trial.” But now I tell you: whoever is angry with his brother will be brought to trial, whoever calls his brother “You good-for-nothing” will be brought before the Council (= the Sanhedrin), and whoever calls his brother a worthless fool will be in danger of going to the fire of hell. So if you are about to offer your gift to God at the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, go at once and make peace with your brother, and then come back and offer your gift to God.”

225 “If someone brings a lawsuit against you and takes you to court, settle the dispute with him while there is time, before you get to court. Once you are there, he will hand you over to the police, and you will be put in jail. There you will stay, I tell you, until you pay the last penny of your fine.

Teaching About Adultery

226 “You have heard that it was said, “Do not commit adultery.” But now I tell you: anyone who looks at a woman and wants to possess her is guilty of committing adultery with her in his heart. So if your eye causes you to sin, take it out and throw it away! It is much better for you to lose a part of your body than to have your whole body thrown into hell. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away! It is much better for you to lose one of your limbs than for your whole body to go to hell.

Teaching About Divorce

227 “It was also said, “Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a written notice of divorce.” But now I tell you: if a man divorces his wife, for any cause other than her unfaithfulness, then he is guilty of making her commit adultery if she marries again; and a man who marries her commits adultery also.

Teaching About Vows

228 “You have also heard that people were told in the past, “Do not break your promise, but do what you have vowed to the Lord to do.” But now I tell you: do not use any vow when you make a promise. Do not swear by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by earth, for it is the resting place for his feet; nor by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black. Just say “Yes” or “No”— anything else you say comes from the Evil One.

Teaching About Revenge

229 “You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” But now I tell you: do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, let him slap your left cheek too. And if someone takes you to court to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well. And if one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one kilometre, carry it two kilometres. When someone asks you for something, give it to him; when someone wants to borrow something, lend it to him.

Love for Enemies

230 “You have heard that it was said, “Love your friends, hate your enemies.” But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become the children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike and gives rain to those who do good and those who do evil. Why should God reward you if you love only the people who love you? Even the tax collectors do that! And if you speak only to your friends, have you done anything out of the ordinary? Even pagans do that! You must be perfect – just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matt. 5:1 to 48)

Teaching About Charity

231 “Make certain you do not perform your religious duties in public so that people will see what you do. If you do these things publicly, you will not have any reward from your Father in heaven.

232 “So when you give something to a needy person, do not make a big show of it, as the hypocrites do in the houses of worship and on the streets. They do it so that people will praise them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. But when you help a needy person, do it in such a way that even your closest friend will not know about it. Then it will be a private matter. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.

Teaching About Prayer

233 “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites! They love to stand up and pray in the houses of worship and on the street corners, so that everyone will see them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. But when you pray, go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.

234 “When you pray, do not use a lot of meaningless words, as the pagans do, who think that their gods will hear them because their prayers are long. Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need before you ask him. This, then, is how you should pray “Our Father in heaven May your holy name be honoured; may your Kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need. Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us. Do not bring us to hard testing, but keep us safe from the Evil One.”

235 “If you forgive others the wrongs they have done to you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then, your Father will not forgive the wrongs you have done.

Teaching About Fasting

236 “And when you fast, do not put on a sad face as the hypocrites do. They neglect their appearance so that everyone will see that they are fasting. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. When you go without food, wash your face and comb your hair, so that others cannot know that you are fasting – only your Father, who is unseen, will know. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.

Riches in Heaven

237 “Do not store up riches for yourselves here on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and robbers break in and steal. Instead, store up riches for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal. For your heart will always be where your riches are.

The Light of the Body

238 “The eyes are like a lamp for the body. If your eyes are sound, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eyes are no good, your body will be in darkness. So if the light in you is darkness how terribly dark it will be!

God and Possessions

239 “No one can be a slave of two masters; he will hate one and love the other; he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

240 “This is why I tell you not to be worried about the food and drink you need in order to stay alive, or about clothes for your body. After all, isn't life worth more than food? And isn't the body worth more than clothes?

Look at the birds: they do not sow seeds, gather a harvest and put it in barns, yet your Father in heaven takes care of them! Aren't you worth much more than birds? Can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it?

241 “And why worry about clothes? Look at how the wild flowers grow: they do not work or make clothes for themselves. But I tell you that not even King Solomon with all his wealth had clothes as beautiful as one of these followers.

It is God who clothes the wild grass – grass that is here today and gone tomorrow, burnt up in the oven. Won't he be all the more sure to clothe you? How little faith you have!

242 “So do not start worrying? “Where will my food come from? or my drink? or my clothes?” (These are the things the pagans are always concerned about.) Your Father in heaven knows that you need all these things. Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these things. So do not worry about tomorrow; it will have enough worries of its own. There is no need to add to the troubles each day brings.” (Matt. 6:1 to 34)

Judging Others

(The following teachings touch on a wide range of subjects: flashes or sparks of enlightenment on various truths or on various things you need to know.)

243 “Do not judge others, so that God will not judge you, for God will judge you in the same way as you judge others, and he will apply to you the same rules you apply to others. Why, then, do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, and pay no attention to the log in your own eye? How dare you say to your brother, “Please, let me take that speck out of your eye,” when you have a log in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

244 “Do not give what is holy to dogs – they will only turn and attack you. Do not throw your pearls in front of pigs – they will only trample them underfoot.

Ask, Seek, Knock

245 “Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks will receive, and everyone who seeks will find, and the door will be opened to those who knock. Would any of you who are fathers give your son a stone when he asks for bread? Or would you give him a snake when he asks for a fish? Bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

The Golden Rule

246 “Do for others what you want them to do for you: this is the meaning of the Law of Moses and of the teachings of the prophets.

The Narrow Gate

247 “Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate to hell is wide and the road that leads to it is easy, and there are many who travel it. But the gate to life is narrow and the way that leads to it is hard, and there are few people who find it.

A Tree and Its Fruit

248 “Be on your guard against false prophets; they come to you looking like sheep on the outside, but on the inside they are really like wild wolves. You will know them by what they do. Thorn bushes do not bear grapes, and briars do not bear figs. A healthy tree bears a good fruit, but a poor tree bears bad fruit.

A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a poor tree cannot bear good fruit. And any tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire. So then, you will know the false prophets by what they do.

I Never Knew You

249 “Not everyone who calls me “Lord, Lord,” will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who do what my Father in heaven wants them to do. When judgement Day comes, many will say to me, “Lord, Lord! In your name we spoke God's message, by your name we drove out many demons and performed many miracles!” Then I will say to them, “I never knew you. Get away from me, you wicked people!”

The Two House Builders

250 “So then, anyone who hears these words of mine and obeys them is like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain poured, the rivers overflowed, and the wind blew hard against that house. But it did not fall, because it was built on rock.

251 “But anyone who hears these words of mine and does not obey them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain poured down, the rivers overflowed, the wind blew hard against that house, and it fell. And what a terrible fall that was!”

The Authority of Jesus

252 “When Jesus finished saying these things, the crowd was amazed at the way he taught. He wasn't like the teachers of the Law, he taught with authority.”

253 These were some of the sparks of winsome words of enlightenment, heard and recorded by Matthew, with which Jesus began his preaching and teaching of the four institutional audiences in the middle of and surrounding the throne on which he, Jesus Christ, in the centre of the circular audience, sat. The twelve Galilean apostles and the other disciples of Jesus Christ forming part of the audience occupied the middle or the midst of the throne, and the larger crowds of audiences circled Jesus Christ and his twelve Galilean apostles and other disciples who gathered round him. The purpose of this kind of teaching was to positively affect the behaviour, conduct, attitude, and character of Jesus Christ's own twelve Galilean apostles and other disciples and of the crowds of Jewish and Gentile peoples, including members of the Council, who wanted to hear and obey the word of God and the truth being revealed by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ followed this famous Sermon on the Mount with whistle stops at various places healing all sorts of diseases, ailments, and disorders, while preaching, teaching, and answering all sorts of questions put to him. All this was represented as flashes of lightning coming from Jesus Christ who sat on the throne as the Lord God Almighty. (compare Matt. 8 to 9) The preaching and teaching on the many subjects as light shining round the throne was represented as "(Jesus') face gleamed like such precious stones as jasper and carnelian, and all round the throne there was a rainbow the colour of an emerald." Jesus Christ taught on a complete range of subjects, like "a rainbow of colours", making them come from him or gleam from his face like a very highly esteemed gem-stone, a velvety green variety of beryl that emerald is as a diamond.

254 Examples of rumblings (of voices) coming from the throne as sermons or teaching of Jesus Christ through the voices of his twelve Galilean apostles and other disciples echoing and extending the same Godly principles, virtues, and values and practices to the same audiences are the following:

The Twelve Galilean Apostles

255 “Jesus called his twelve disciples together and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Patriot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.

The Mission of the Twelve

256 “These twelve were sent out by Jesus with the following instructions: 'Do not go to any Gentile territory or any Samaritan towns. Instead, you are to go to the lost sheep of the people of Israel. Go and preach, 'The Kingdom of heaven is near!' Heal the sick, bring the dead back to life, heal those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases, and drive out demons. You have received without paying, so give without being paid. … Workers should be given what they need. (Matt.10:1 to 10)

257 “When you come to a town or village, go in and look for someone who is willing to welcome you, and stay with him until you leave that place. When you go into a house, say “Peace be with you.” If the people in that house welcome you, let your peace remain; but if they do not welcome you, then take back your greeting. And if some home or town will not welcome you or listen to you, then leave that place and shake the dust off your feet. I assure you that on Judgement Day God will show more mercy to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah than the people of that town!

Coming Persecutions

258 “Listen! I am sending you out just like sheep to a pack of wolves. You must be as cautious as snakes and as gentle as doves. Watch out, for there will be those who will arrest you and take you to court, and they will whip you in the synagogues. For my sake you will be brought to trial before rulers and kings, to tell the Good News to them and to the Gentiles. When they bring you to trial, do not worry about what you are going to say or how you will say it; when the time comes, you will be given what you will say. For the words you will speak will not be yours; they will come from the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

259 “Men will hand over their own brothers to be put to death, and fathers will do the same to their children; children will turn against parents and have them put to death. Everyone will hate you because of me. But whoever holds out to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, run away to another one. I assure you that you will not finish your work in all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

260 “No pupil is greater than his teacher; no slave is greater than his master. So a pupil should be satisfied to become like his teacher, and a slave like his master. If the head of the family is called Beelzebul, the members of the family will be called even worse names! (Matt.10:11 to 25)

261 “So do not be afraid of people. Whatever is now covered up will be uncovered, and every secret will be made known. What I am telling you in the dark you must repeat in broad daylight, and what you have heard in private you must announce from the housetops. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather be afraid of God, who can destroy both body and soul in hell. For only a penny you can buy two sparrows, yet not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father's consent. As for you, even the hairs of your head have all been counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth much more than many sparrows!

Confessing and Rejecting Christ

262 “For those who declare publicly that they belong to me, I will do the same before my Father in heaven. But if anyone rejects me publicly, I will reject him before my Father in heaven.

Not Peace, But a Sword

263 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the world. No, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. I came to set sons against their fathers, daughters against their mothers, daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law; your worst enemies will be the members of your own family.

264 “Those who love their father or mother more than me are not fit to be my disciples; those who love their son or daughter more than me are not fit to be my disciples. Those who do not take up their cross and follow in my steps are not fit to be my disciples. Those who try to gain their own life will lose it; but those who lose their life for my sake will gain it.

265 “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes God's messenger because he is God's messenger, will share in his reward. And whoever welcomes a good man because he is good, will share in his reward. You can be sure that whoever gives even a drink of cold water to one of the least of these my followers because he is my follower, will certainly receive a reward.' (Matt.10:1 to 42)

266 “When Jesus finished giving these instructions to his twelve disciples, he left that place and went off to teach and preach in the towns near there,” while the twelve apostles also went off to preach and teach on their own. (Matt. 10 to 11:1)

267 From the Gospel of Luke a similar account about the twelve is given, while seventy-two other disciples are said to have been sent out by Jesus with similar instructions being given them:

268 “Jesus called the twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority to drive out demons and to cure diseases. Then he sent them out to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick, after saying to them, 'Take nothing with you for the journey: no stick, no beggar's bag, no food, not even an extra shirt. Wherever you are welcomed, stay in the same house until you leave that town; wherever people don't welcome you, leave that town and shake the dust off your feet as warning to them.'”

269 “The disciples left and travelled through all the villages, preaching the Good News and healing people everywhere.” (Lk. 9:1 to 6)

270 “After this the Lord chose another 72 men and sent them out two by two, to go ahead of him to every town and place where he himself was about to go. He said to them, 'There is a large harvest, but few workers to gather it in. Pray to the owner of the harvest that he will send out workers to gather in his harvest. Go! I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Don't take a purse or a beggar's bag or shoes; don't stop to greet anyone on the road.

Whenever you go into a house, first say, 'Peace be with this house.'” If a peace-loving person lives there, let your greeting of peace remain on him; if not, take back your greeting of peace. Stay in that same house, eating and drinking whatever they offer you, for workers should be given their pay. Don't move round from one house to another. Whenever you go into a town and are made welcome, eat what is set before you, heal the sick in that town, and say to the people there, “The Kingdom of God has come near you.” But whenever you go into a town and are not welcomed, go out in the streets and say, “Even the dust from your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. But remember that the Kingdom of God has come near you!” I assure you that on Judgement Day God will show more mercy to Sodom than to that town!” (Lk. 10:1 to 12)

The Return of the Seventy-Two Men

271 “The 72 men came back in great joy. 'Lord', they said, 'even the demons obeyed us when we gave them a command in your name!'

272 “Jesus answered them, 'I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Listen! I have given you authority, so that you can walk on snakes and scorpions and overcome all the power of the Enemy, and nothing will hurt you. But don't be glad because the evil spirits obey you; rather be glad because your names are written in heaven.'

273 “At that time Jesus was filled with joy by the Holy Spirit and said, 'Father, Lord of heaven and earth! I thank you because you have shown to the unlearned what you have hidden from the wise and learned. Yes. Father, this was how you wanted it to happen.

274 “My Father has given me all things. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

275 “Then Jesus turned to the disciples and said to them privately, 'How fortunate you are to see the things you see! I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, but they could not, and hear what you hear, but they did not.'" (Lk.10:17 to 24)

Purse, Bag, and Sword

276 “Then Jesus asked his disciples, 'When I sent you out that time without purse, bag, or shoes, did you lack anything?'

277 "Not a thing', they answered.

278 “But now', Jesus said, 'whoever has a purse, or a bag must take it; and whoever has no sword must sell his coat and buy one. For I tell you that the scripture which says, 'He shared the fate of criminals', must come true about me, because what was written about me is coming true.'

279 “The disciples said, 'Look! Here are two swords, Lord!'”

280 “That is enough!” he replied.” (Lk. 22:35 to 38)

281 These were some of the rumblings of voices from Jesus Christ, the one who sat on the throne, through his apostles and disciples, touching on various and miscellaneous themes and issues that were accompanied with beneficial miracles, wonders and signs of healing. The households and crowds of people who listened to the teaching of the apostles and disciples about the Kingdom of God were those symbolized as the four living creatures which were in the middle of and surrounded the throne. They received light or enlightenment that they heard and learned from Jesus Christ whose “face gleamed like such precious stones as jasper and carnelian, and all round the throne, there was a rainbow (of teaching on the whole range of subjects in the spectrum, like) the colour of an emerald” and radiated it to the crowds and households who listened to them. (compare Rev. 4:3)

282 Examples of peals of thunder representing “woe sermons” or teaching and preaching of controversial, condemnatory, and frightening warnings of impending disaster, calamity, or horrors for the people of Israel and the Roman world in the first century who failed to heed the teachings of Jesus Christ are the following:

Jesus Warns Against the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees

283 “Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples (that is, Jesus in the centre of the throne spoke to the four living creatures 'in the middle of the throne and around it'). (compare Rev. 4:4) 'The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees are the authorized interpreters of Moses' Law. So you must obey and follow everything they tell you to do; do not, however, imitate their actions, because they don't practise what they preach. They tie on to people's backs loads that are heavy and hard to carry, yet they aren't willing even to lift a finger to help them carry those loads. They do everything so that people will see them.

Look at the straps with scripture verses on them which they wear on their foreheads and arms, and notice how large they are! Notice also how long are the tassels on their cloaks! They love the best places at feasts and the reserved seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the market places and to be called “Teacher”. You must not be called “Teacher”, because you are all members of one family and have only one Teacher. And you must not call anyone here on earth “Father”, because you have only the one Father in heaven. Nor should you be called “Leader”, because your one and only leader is the Messiah (the Anointed One). The greatest one among you must be your servant. Whoever makes himself great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be made great! (compare Lk. 22:24 to 30)

Jesus Condemns Their Hypocrisy

284 “How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You lock the door to the Kingdom of heaven (the Kingdom of God) in people's faces, and you yourselves don't go in, nor do you allow in those who are trying to enter.

285 “How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You sail the seas and cross whole countries to win one convert; and when you succeed, you make him twice as deserving of going to hell as you yourselves are!

286 “How terrible for you, blind guides! You teach, “If someone swears by the Temple, he isn't bound by his vow; but if he swears by the gold in the temple, he is bound”. Blind fools! Which is more important, the gold or the temple which makes the gold holy? You also teach, “If he swears by the altar, he isn't bound by his vow; but if he swears by the gift on the altar, he is bound.” How blind you are!

Which is the more important, the gift or the altar which makes the gift holy? So then, when a person swears by the altar, he is swearing by it and all the gift on it and when he swears by the temple, he is swearing by it and by God, who lives there; and when someone swears by heaven, he is swearing by God's throne and by him who sits on it.

287 “How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You give to God a tenth even of the seasoning herbs, such as mint, dill, and cumin, but you neglect to obey the really important teachings of the Law, such as justice and mercy and honesty. These you should practise, without neglecting the others. Blind guides! You strain a fly out of your drink, but swallow a camel!

288 “How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You clean the outside of your cup and plate, while the inside is full of what you have obtained by violence and selfishness. Blind Pharisees! Clean what is inside the cup first, and then the outside will be clean too!

289 “How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look fine on the outside but are full of bones and decaying corpses on the inside. In the same way, on the outside you appear good to everybody, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and sins.

Jesus Predicts Their Punishment

290 “How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You make fine tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of those who lived good lives; and you claim that if you had lived during the time of your ancestors, you would not have done what they did and killed the prophets. So you actually admit that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets! Go on, then, and finish what your ancestors started!

You snakes and children of snakes! How do you expect to escape from being condemned to hell? And so I tell you that I will send you prophets and wise men and teachers; you will kill some of them, crucify others; and whip others in the synagogues and chase them from town to town. As a result, the punishment for the murder of all innocent people will fall on you, from the murder of innocent Abel to the murder of Zachariah son of Berachiah, whom you murdered between the Temple and the altar. I tell you indeed: the punishment for all these murders will fall on the people of this day!

Abandonment of the Nation of Israel

291 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone the messengers God has sent you! How many times have I wanted to put my arms round all your people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not let me! And so your Temple will be abandoned and empty. From now on, I tell you, you will never see me again until you say, “God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord!”” (Matt. 23:1 to 39)

Jesus Speaks of the Destruction of the Temple, Jerusalem, and Judea.

292 “Jesus left and was going away from the Temple when his disciples came to him to call his attention to its buildings. 'Yes', he said, 'you may well look at all these. I tell you this: not a single stone here will be left in its place; every one of them will be thrown down!'" (Matt.24:1 to 2)

293 The foregoing are some of the examples of the peals of thunder from Jesus Christ spewing the "woe sermons" of controversial, condemnatory, and frightening warnings of impending disaster, calamity, or horrors for the people of Israel and the Roman world who failed to heed his teaching and preaching. From the throne occupied by Jesus Christ came flashes of lightning, rumblings of voices and peals of thunder that were going to end in the disaster of the destruction of Judea and Jerusalem and its Temple in the first century, so that "not a single stone here will be left in its place; every one of them will be thrown down." (compare Rev. 4:4 to 5) It was this disaster that was represented by the earthquake that was to follow and fulfil the essence of the woe sermons.

294 “In front of the throne seven lighted torches were burning, which are the seven spirits of God.” (Rev.4:5b)

295 The seven lighted torches represented seven messengers given seven messages as varied types of light or enlightenment to spread around; they are the seven spirits of God representing the seven varied types of spiritual powers completing the spectrum of the seven colours of the rainbow of the Almighty Power of God. These seven lighted torches, the seven spirits of God, were embodied in or came as Simon Peter, Joseph Barnabas, Paul of Tarsus, Athanasius of Alexandria, Aurelius Augustus of Hippo, Francis Bernardone of Assisi, and Martin Luther of Wittenberg. They have come and gone as prominent divine personalities all associated with the Church of Jesus of Nazareth, Christianity and the Christian Church living in Christendom, whose messages to the human race have made their distinctive influence and great impact on their following and on the whole world.

296 They were all positioned in front of the throne on which Jesus Christ sat to show how their activities would be performed within the close view of the one sitting on the throne who would dispatch them. And their position in front of the throne and being mentioned after the flashes of lightning, rumblings of voices, and peals of thunder, also showed how their activities would begin after the close of the preaching and teaching of Jesus Christ himself in A.D. 30.

297 “Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.” (Rev. 4:6a)

298 The sea of glass represented the mass of mortal humanity to whom the seven spirits of God were sent to deliver their enlightening messages from God who sent them. Fragile glass is used to show that their seven messages were for, not immortal humanity, but mortal humanity who, as the perfect creation of God, is seen as being clear as crystal, innocently and transparently pure. It means that the Lord God Almighty sees the mortal human race, in itself, before his holy and lofty throne as unblemished. This agrees with what assessment God gave to the humankind he made in the beginning. “Then God said, 'And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us… God looked at everything he had made, and he was very pleased.'” (Gen. 1:26 to 31)

299 “Surrounding the throne on each of its sides, were four living creatures covered with eyes in front and behind. The first one looked like a lion; the second looked like a bull; the third had a face like a human face; and the fourth looked like an eagle in flight." (Rev. 4:6b-7; G.N.B)

300 “In the middle of the throne and around it, were four living creatures all studded with eyes, in front and behind. The first living creature was like a lion, the second like a bull, the third living creature had a human face, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle.” (Rev. 4:6b-7; J.B)

301 “And in the midst of the throne and around the throne (there are) four living creatures that are full of eyes in front and behind. And the first living creature is like a lion, and the second living creature is like a young bull, and the third living creature has a face like a man's, and the fourth living creature is like a flying eagle.” (Rev. 4:6b-7; N.W)

302 Jesus Christ, the one who sits on the throne of the people who listened to him, taught and preached to his apostles and the crowds. The crowd of audience to his teaching and preaching about the Kingdom of God consisted of his apostles who, though, also being taught and preached to, were in the middle of the throne, and the other Israelites and Gentiles, who, also, formed a larger group or crowd around Jesus Christ and his apostles in the centre of the crowds. The twelve apostles formed a smaller crowd in the middle of the larger outer crowd. They were always nearer to and with Jesus Christ in the middle of the larger crowd which formed around them and listened to the preaching and teaching of Jesus Christ who, at such times, was the only one doing the preaching and teaching about the Kingdom of God as the one who sat on the throne, or occupied the pulpit and taught and preached to his disciples and the crowds about the Kingdom of God.

303 Both of the apostles and the people of Israel and Gentiles who crowded around Jesus Christ and listened to him could be put into four work or professional structures: they consisted of the rulers, leaders or kings of the people; of the ruled or subjects of the rulers; of normal human beings among whom the Spirit of God had come to live; and of priests whose duty is to teach the true knowledge about God. These four distinctive groups composing the crowds of apostles and other Israelites and Gentiles, belonged to the kingship or rulership institution, the ruled as an institution, the New Age humanity as an institution, and the priesthood institution. The living creature like a lion represents the institution of kingship; the living creature like a young bull represents the institution of subjection; the living creature having a face like a man's represents the institution of new humanity, that is, Jews and Gentiles, the new human race in whom the Spirit of God came to live; and the living creature looking like a flying eagle represents the priesthood institution. The four living creatures were covered with eyes in front and behind. The eyes in front and behind depict and represent the universal application and relevance of the four institutions in as much as eyes are able to see into the infinite distance if unblocked by opacity and the eyes cover all round the bodies of the four living creatures.

304 “Each one of the four living creatures has six wings, and they were covered with eyes, inside and out.” (Rev. 4:8a)

305 The four living creatures, in the middle of the throne and around it, have the one sitting on the throne which the four living creatures constitute, as the head or leader of the four institutions they represent. Jesus Christ is a king and a priest; he is the first new man or the second Adam who started the new creation or the new human race that he led from Pentecost Day, A.D. 30, when humans in whom the Holy Spirit lived like him came into being; and he is the King of kings or Ruler of the rulers of the nation-states of all the human race covering the whole earth. The six wings are the six functional departments, like modern governmental ministries that each of the four institutions is composed of. They are the six distinctive functions that Jesus Christ has to perform under the six ministries as a king, as a creator, as a life-giver, as a priest, as a judge, and as a destroyer. There will be the six ministries of kingship or rulership, of creation, of life-giving, of priesthood, of judging, and of destruction. The eyes that cover the six wings inside and out, mean that the six functional departments or ministries have universal and everlasting existence, relevance, and application.

306 “Day and night they never stop singing:'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come.

307 “The four living creatures sing songs of glory and honour and thanks to the one who sits on the throne, who lives for ever and ever. When they do so, the twenty-four elders fall down before the one who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They throw their crowns down in front of the throne and say: Our Lord and God! You are worthy to receive glory, honour and power. For you created all things, and by your will they were given existence and life.” (Rev. 4:8b-11)

308 The configuration of the four living creatures representing the four created functional institutions in the middle of the throne and around it, depicts and represents the entire church of the believers made by Jesus Christ together with the apostles and disciples during the three and a half years of preaching and teaching before his crucifixion. Day and night these believers, holding resolutely to their faith, never stop singing, that is, as a habitual practice, they never abandon their belief in and declaration that the God they have come to know, accept, and believe in, the Lord God Almighty, is infinitely holy and has lived in the past, is living today and will continue to live to time indefinite, even for ever and ever.

309 The configuration of the four created functional institutions, forming the church of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, “sing songs of glory and honour and thanks to the Lord God Almighty, the one who sits on the throne, who lives for ever and ever.” This means that the people they represent, the obedient nation of Israel in the Diaspora and the obedient and faithful disciples of Jesus Christ made and led by the twelve leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel in the Diaspora and the twelve apostolic leaders of the church of Jesus Christ, declare messages, during their preaching and teaching service, that give glory and honour and thanks to the Lord God Almighty. The Lord God Almighty who is Jesus Christ has, as a fact, brought into being or existence and life the configuration of the four living creatures through the preaching and teaching of the twenty-four elders. So when the four living creatures “sing songs”, that is, produce sayings or express or preach and teach messages of glory and honour and thanks to the Lord God Almighty, for their redemption and salvation, the twenty-four elders fall down before the one who sits on the throne who is Jesus Christ and worship him, who lives for ever and ever. They do so by acknowledging to the church that their existence and life are the result of what, as a fact, is the work of the Lord God Almighty or Jesus Christ, who appointed them as kings and crowned them to accomplish the feat of bringing about the new creation of God. They disclose that it is God who did all that creation through them. (compare Matt.8:10 to 12; 19:28 to 30; Lk.22:28 to 30; John 14:10 to 11) They make this admission in front of Jesus Christ on the throne which is before his church and say clearly and openly to all (the following, which is in plain language and so is easily understood without further explanation): “Our Lord and God! You are worthy to receive glory, honour, and power. For you created all things, and by your will they were given existence and life.” (Rev.4:11)

310 Truly, the group of believers who obediently and courageously came out of the lost sheep of the people of Israel in the Diaspora before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the handiwork of Jesus Christ for which he is worthy to receive glory, honour, and power. It is his glorious, honourable, and powerful achievement during the 1,260 days or 42 months or three and a half years or “half a week” of work on this earth, beginning in A.D. 26 and ending in A.D. 30. He did it through the believers represented as the four living creatures who, day and night, “sang songs,” that is, preached and taught messages about the Kingdom of God as lessons that glorified, honoured and gave thanks to the one who sat on the throne who was Jesus Christ. He brought everything in the new creation into being.

5:1 to 14

Revelation 5 The Scroll and the Lamb

311 “I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who sits on the throne; it was covered with writing on both sides and was sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel, who announced in a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?' But there was no one in heaven or on earth or in the world below (the world of the dead) who could open the scroll and look inside it. I cried bitterly because no one could be found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside it. Then one of the elders said to me, 'Don't cry. Look! The Lion from Judah's tribe, the great descendant of David, has won the victory, and he can break the seven seals and open the scroll.'

312 “Then I saw the Lamb standing in the centre of the throne, surrounded by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb appeared to have been killed. It had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God that have been sent throughout the whole earth.

The Lamb went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who sits on the throne. As he did so, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each had a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God's people. They sang a new song:

313 “You are worthy to take the scroll and to break open its seals. For you were killed, and by your sacrificial death you bought for God people from every tribe, language, nation, and race. You have made them a kingdom of priests to serve our God, and they shall rule on earth.”

314 “Again I looked, and I heard angels, thousands and millions of them! They stood round the throne, the four living creatures, and the elders, and sang in a loud voice:

315 'The Lamb who was killed is worthy to receive power, wealth, and praise!'

316 “And I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, in the world below, and in the sea – all living beings in the universe – and they were singing: 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be praise and honour, glory, and might, for ever and ever.'

317 “The four living creatures answered, 'Amen!' And the elders fell down and worshipped.” (Rev. 5:1 to 14)

318 A new era opened for believers in Jesus Christ and the whole human race after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ in A.D. 30. From that time the New Age began. (compare Matt. 19:28 to 30; 25:31 to 46; Lk. 22:28 to 30) What John was shown which he has recorded in Chapter five of the Book of Revelation is the vision of the beginning of the New Age, from which time Jesus Christ, as the Lord God Almighty, through the Lamb representing the group of twelve Galilean apostles, proceeds to make all things new as promised to the ancient prophets, who recorded those promises in the Law of Moses or the Torah, in the writings of the prophets, and in the Psalms, which, together, constitute the Scroll in the right hand of the one who sits on the throne, who is Jesus Christ.

319 “I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who sits on the throne; it was covered with writing on both sides and was sealed with seven seals.” (Rev. 5:1)

320 The Scroll is or contains the promises of God to the prophets about his plan of making all things new which were recorded in the Law of Moses by Moses, in the writings of the prophets by Isaiah-Micah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Joel, and Malachi, and in the Psalms by David, seen as appearing in a single scroll and sealed with seven seals by the seven prophets, Moses, David. Isaiah-Micah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Joel, and Malachi. The pieces of information given to them and recorded for the benefit of God's people were in such a language that what they really meant to convey became not easily intelligible. They have, as a result, remained partially or fully concealed or hidden from God's people and the whole human race. A sealed scroll with writing on both sides so that some of the writing can be seen and read depicts this phenomenon of the full meaning being hidden partially or fully. It is sealed with seven seals to show that the plan of God for making all things new will consist of seven creative processes, which have been revealed to the prophets but sealed by the seven prophets so that neither they nor the people could understand, until the time God had appointed for the meaning to be made known, by the one he would send to the world of mankind to reveal the meaning of the hidden prophecies. He was Michael (= He who is like God) or the Christ (= the one in whom God lives by his Spirit). (compare Rev. 12:7, 10; Dan. 12:1) The Scroll is in the right hand of the one who sits on the throne, to show that the Lord God Almighty was going to rely solely and or chiefly on the fulfilment of the plan, as already given to the prophets and recorded in the Scroll to accomplish the processes of the making of all things new. (compare Matt. 5:17 to 20)

321 When God gave the prophet Daniel the prophetic information about when the New Age would begin, and how it would take Michael to come in the future to make people understand the prophetic message, he was asked to close the book or scroll and put a seal on it. This is what happened: “The angel wearing linen clothes said, 'At that time the great angel Michael, who guards your people, will appear. Then there will be a time of troubles, the worst since nations first came into existence. When that time comes, all the people of your nation whose names are written in God's book will be saved. Many of those who have already died will live again: some will enjoy eternal life, and some will suffer eternal disgrace.

The wise leaders will shine with all the brightness of the sky. And those who have taught many people to do what is right will shine like the stars for ever.'

322 “He said to me, 'And now, Daniel, close the book and put a seal on it until the time of (the) end of (your nation). Meanwhile, people will waste their efforts trying to understand what is happening.'”

323 “Then I saw two men standing by a river, one on each bank. One of them asked the angel who was standing further upstream, 'How long will it be until the amazing events come to an end?

324 “The angel raised both hands toward the sky and made a solemn promise in the name of the Eternal God. I heard him say, 'It will be three and a half years. When the persecution of God's people ends, all these things will have happened.'

325 “I heard what he said, but I did not understand it. So I asked, 'But, Sir, how will it all end?'

326 “He answered, 'You must go now, Daniel, because these words are to be kept secret and hidden until the end comes. Many people will be purified. Those who are wicked will not understand but will go on being wicked; only those who are wise will understand.”

327 “From the time the daily sacrifices are stopped, that is, from the time of the Awful Horror, 1,290 days will pass. Happy are those who remain faithful until 1,335 days are over!”

328 “And you, Daniel be faithful to the end. Then you will die, but you will rise to receive your reward at the end of time!” (Dan. 12:1 to 13)

329 Here is an example of how prophetic messages, about God's plan of making all things new given to the prophets and recorded in a “scroll”, were kept secret and hidden with seals put on them, so that no one could understand until the time of the end when provision would be made for the seals to be broken and the scroll opened to clearly reveal its messages for the wise, “the purified” to read them and understand; but the wicked, who impliedly are unwise or foolish, will not understand.

330 “And I saw a mighty angel, who announced in a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?' But there was no one in heaven or on earth or in the world below who could open the scroll and look inside it. I cried bitterly because no one could be found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside it. Then one of the elders said to me, 'Don't cry. Look! The Lion from Judah's tribe, the great descendant of David, has won the victory, and he can break the seven seals and open the scroll'”

331 The mighty angel was John the Baptist who was sent to prepare the way of the Lord. The answer to the question he posed would put the people of Israel on the alert to look for the person, who was on hand at that time, to make the people understand the prophetic messages, about the Messiah, the Anointed One, which they were yearning for someone to come and make them understand. “People's hopes began to rise, and they began to wonder whether John perhaps might be the Messiah ...” (compare Lk. 3:15 to 17). About John the Baptist the angel Gabriel (= El or God is strong) said to Zechariah, “Don't be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son. You are to name him John. How glad and happy you will be, and how happy many others will be when he is born! He will be a great man in the Lord's sight. .... From his very birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, and he will bring back many people of Israel to the Lord their God. He will go ahead of the Lord, strong and mighty like the prophet Elijah. He will bring fathers and children together again; he will turn disobedient people back to the way of thinking of the righteous, he will get the Lord's people ready for him!” (Lk. 1:12 to 17)

332 About John the Baptist, Zechariah, his father, filled with the Holy Spirit said, "...You, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High God. You will go ahead of the Lord to prepare his road for him, to tell his people that they will be saved by having their sins forgiven. Our God is merciful and tender. He will cause the bright dawn of salvation to rise on us and to shine from heaven on all those who live in the dark shadow of death, to guide our steps into the path of peace."

333 “The child, John the Baptist, grew and developed in body and spirit. He lived in the desert until the day when he appeared publicly to the people of Israel.” (Lk. 1:76 to 80; compare3:3 to 6, 15 to 17, 21 to 22; John 1:23 to 31)

334 While Jesus Christ was here on earth he had occasion to comment on John the Baptist. “While John's disciples were leaving, Jesus spoke about him to the crowds: 'When you went out to John in the desert, what did you expect to see? A blade of grass bending in the wind? What did you go out to see? A man dressed up in fancy clothes? People who dress like that live in palaces! Tell me, what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yesindeed, but you saw much more than a prophet. For John is the one of whom the scripture says, “God said, I will send my messenger ahead of you to open the way for you.” I assure you that John the Baptist is greater than anyone who has ever lived.

But the one who is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than John. From the time John preached his message until this very day the Kingdom of heaven has suffered violent attacks, and violent men try to seize it. Until the time of John all the prophets and the Law of Moses spoke about the Kingdom; and if you are willing to believe their message, John is Elijah, whose coming was predicted. Listen, then, if you have ears!” (Matt. 11:7-15-26 compare John 1:21, 24; Mal. 4:4 to 6)

335 Such was this mighty angel, John the Baptist, that he could pose the question, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” in preparation of the road for the Lord as the one they should look for who could break the seals and open the scroll. But no one could be found which led to John the apostle to cry bitterly. The crying of John represents the many times the twelve Galilean apostles, whom he represented, wondered about the true identity of Jesus, as to whether he was the Christ or one of the prophets. But one of the elders who turned out to be Simon Peter ended their wondering, their crying, when he emphatically identified Jesus to them as “the Messiah, (the Anointed One), the Son of the living God.”

336 “Jesus went to the territory near the town of Caesarea Philippi, where he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of Man is?'”

337 “Some say John the Baptist', they answered. Others say Elijah, while others say Jeremiah or some other prophet.'

338 “What about you?' he asked them. 'Who do you say I am?'

339 “Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Messiah (the Anointed One), the Son of the living God.'

340 “Good for you, Simon son of John!” answered Jesus. 'For this truth did not come to you from any human being, but it was given to you directly by my Father (the Spirit Person) in heaven (the spirit realm). And so I tell you, Peter: you are a rock, and on this rock foundation I will build my church, and not even death will ever be able to overcome it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven (the Kingdom of God); what you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven, and what you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven!' (compare Acts 1:15 to 26)

341 “Then Jesus ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah, (the Anointed One).” (Matt. 16:13 to 20; Mk. 8:27 to 30; Lk. 9:18 to 21)

342 Simon Peter identified Jesus Christ as the one who would break the seven seals and open the Scroll for its contents to be read and understood because Jesus Christ would provide the explanation to his “purified” followers, the group of twelve Galilean apostles represented by John, who would, in turn, take the place of Jesus Christ as the Lamb, and explain it to the world. Jesus Christ descended from Judah and King David. “Judah is like a lion, killing his victims and returning to his den, stretching out and lying down. No one dares disturb him.

Judah will hold the royal sceptre, and his descendants will always rule. Nations will bring him tribute and bow in obedience before him.” (Gen. 49:9, 10) King David was the first king who descended from Judah. And the angel Gabriel told Mary, the mother of Jesus, “You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus … The Lord God will make him a king, as his ancestor David was, and he will be the king of the descendants of Jacob for ever; his kingdom will never end.” (Lk. 1:31 to 33)

343 The angel Gabriel told the prophet Daniel that it would take Michael or Jesus Christ to come in the New Age to break the seals on the prophecies, so that the wise and faithful “purified” followers of him would understand, while the wicked, unwise and foolish would not understand. Angel Gabriel or “The angel wearing linen clothes said, 'At that time the great angel Michael, who guards your people (the nation of Israel) will appear … The wise leaders (the twelve Galilean apostles) will shine with all the brightness of the sky. And those who have taught many people to do what is right (the preachers of the message of the Good News about the Kingdom of God) will shine like the stars for ever.'

344 “He said to me, 'And now, Daniel, close the book and put a seal on it until the end of the world (of your people). Meanwhile, many people will waste their efforts trying to understand what is happening …”

345 “He answered, 'You must go now, Daniel, because these words are to be kept secret and hidden until the end (of your people) comes. Many people will be purified. Those who are wicked will not understand but will go on being wicked; only those who are wise will understand.'” (Dan, 12:1 to 10)

346 At the time of the end of Daniel's people, the nation of the Jews, in the first century, that is "the time of (the) end of (your nation)," Jesus Christ appeared as Michael (= He who is like God) and for three and a half years preached and taught his twelve Galilean apostles whom he declared purified by his teachings and to whom he explained all the prophecies about him written in the Law of Moses, in the writings of the prophets, and in the Psalms, so that they understood all the prophecies which, hitherto, had remained secret and hidden from the people of Israel. (compare John 5:39, 40, 46, 47) To the eleven Galilean apostles Jesus said, "You have been made clean (that is, purified) by the teaching I have given you. Remain united to me, and I will remain united to you. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself; it can do so only if it remains in the vine. In the same way you cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me." (John 15:3, 4) Jesus made this statement after the Last Supper. Then after his resurrection he gathered the eleven Gaalilean apostles again, and "Then he said to them, 'These are the very things I told you about while I was still with you: everything written about me in the Law of Moses (by Moses), the writings of the prophets (by Isaiah-Micah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Joel and Malachi), and in the Psalms (by David) had to come true.'

347 “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, 'This is what is written: the Messiah (the Anointed One) must suffer and must rise from death three days later, and in his name the message about (the Kingdom of God, and not) repentance and forgiveness of sins (which Luke learnt from Paul and inadvertently put in his gospel) must be preached to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And I myself will send upon you what my Father has promised. But you must wait in the city (of Jerusalem) until the power from above (the Holy Spirit) comes upon you.'” (Lk. 24:44 to 49)

348 The fulfilment of these Scriptures about Jesus Christ from Pentecost Day, A.D. 30 in the first century is what follows in the Revelation account:

349 “Then I saw a Lamb standing in the centre of the throne, surrounded by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb appeared to have been killed. It had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God that have been sent throughout the whole earth.” (Rev. 5:6; compare Rev. 11:7 to 12; John 10:27)

350 The Lamb standing in the centre of the throne was the group of twelve Galilean apostles who were part of the four living creatures in the middle or centre of the throne and around it with Jesus Christ sitting on his throne. The group of twelve Galilean apostles had been lambed by Jesus Christ, the parent sheep, by his crucifixion and ascension to heaven. The twelve Galilean apostles, as an anointed group, had taken the place of Jesus Christ and occupied the centre of the throne where Jesus always occupied, sitting on his throne, while he was alive and with them. Jesus had already told them, “You will be where I am,” from Pentecost Day, in A.D. 30. (John 14:3) The parent sheep, the Father, had lambed them. A lamb is a young sheep or the young of a sheep. And Jesus Christ had told the twelve Galilean apostles that they would replace him, become as he was, and rule over the twelve tribes of Israel from the beginning of the New Age, in A.D. 30.

351 After the Last Supper, “Judas accepted the bread and went out at once. It was night.

352 “After Judas had left, Jesus said (to the eleven Galilean apostles only and not to the larger following), 'Now the Son of Man's glory is revealed; now God's glory is revealed through him. And if God's glory is revealed through him, then God will reveal the glory of the Son of Man in himself, and he will do so at once. (And God, at once, revealed that he was the Son of Man or Jesus Christ right there among them by saying,) My children or my lambs, I shall not be with you very long much longer. (compare John 15:15; 10:27) You will look for me; but I tell you now what I told the Jewish authorities, 'You cannot go to where I am going.' And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another (in your group), then, everyone will know that you are my disciples (my Lamb) …

353 “Do not be worried and upset”, Jesus said to them (= the eleven Galilean apostles). 'Believe in God and believe also in me. There are many rooms in my Father's house, and I am going to prepare a place for you (= eleven Galilean apostles). I would not tell you this if it were not so. And after I go and prepare a place (= only one leadership-rulership place) for you (= eleven Galilean apostles), I will come back and take you (= eleven Galilean apostles) to myself, so that you (= eleven Galilean apostles) will be where I am (= the place where I am now occupying among you as your leader and Lord). You know the way that leads to the place where I am going …'

354 “Philip said to him, 'Lord, show us the Father; that is all we need.'

355 “Jesus answered, 'For a long time I have been with you all; yet you do not know me (as the Father), Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father (because I am the Father). Why, then, do you say (again), 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe, Philip, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I have spoken to you,' Jesus said to his disciples (= eleven Galilean apostles), 'do not come from me. The Father (the Holy Spirit), who remains in me, does his own work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. If not, believe because of the things I do. I am telling you (= eleven Galilean apostles) the truth: those who believe in me will do what I do – yes, they will do even greater things, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you (= eleven Galilean apostles) ask for in my name, so that the Father's glory will be shown through the Son. If you (= eleven Galilean apostles) ask me for anything in my name, I will do it. …'

356 “When I go, you (= eleven Galilean apostles) will not be left all alone; I will come back to you. In a little while the world will see me no more, but you (= eleven Galilean apostles) will see me; and because I live, you (= eleven Galilean apostles) also will live. When that day comes, you (= eleven Galilean apostles) will know that I am in the Father and that you are in me, just as I am in you (= eleven Galilean apostles).” (John 13:31 to 14:1 to 20)

357 Jesus Christ gave Simon Peter the authority to make any necessary changes, modifications, and innovations in the leadership and membership of the church which would be duly recognized, respected, and adopted by Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, in heaven. Jesus had told Simon Peter, “Peter: you are a rock, and on this rock foundation I will build my church, and not even death will ever be able to overcome it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven; what you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven, and what you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.” (Matt. 16:18 to 19) With these keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, Simon Peter, in less than ten days after the ascension of Jesus, restored the number of the apostles to twelve, by organizing to have Mathias selected to replace Judas. He further utilized the keys to determine and admit the number and kind of the Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles into the leadership group to form the Government of God (= Kingdom of Heaven = Kingdom of God), and those to constitute the subjects of the Government of God, while he prohibited the converts of Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas, “Christians,” from ever being part of the Kingdom of God. He also issued the decisive No! to forbid and prohibit the practice of Judaism in the Church of Jesus of Nazareth in Jerusalem, while the error of practising Judaism was sent by James, a non-apostle, to the Christian converts of Joseph Barnabas and Paul of Tarsus at Antioch in Syria and elsewhere. (compare Acts 1:23 to 26; 2:14 to 47; 8:14 to 17; 10:1 to 48; 1 Pet. 2:4 to 10; Gal. 2:9, 11 to 14; Acts 9:26 to 30; 15:7 to 11)

358 Jesus Christ said and assured the restored twelve Galilean apostles that all this would come true about them. Jesus Christ impressed on them that he himself was the Father and that when he went away, the twelve Galileans, as an anointed group, bound by love for one another, would replace him, so that he would come back and live in them and with them as the Holy Spirit. In that form, the twelve Galilean apostles, as an anointed group, would have the Father living in them and with them just as the Father was living in Jesus and with his disciples, and that the twelve Galilean apostles, as an anointed group, would be in the Father who would be Jesus Christ, and so would be Jesus Christ living in the twelve Galilean apostles, as an anointed group and with the anointed group's church. The twelve Galilean apostles, as an anointed group, was the Lamb Jesus Christ left in the centre of the throne when he went away from them, from the earth, as a physical human being to the Father in heaven, in the spirit realm, in order to become the Father in the spirit himself. This is where Jesus was going so that he could tell the eleven Galilean apostles, “You cannot go to where I am going.” The eleven Galilean apostles could not be turned into spirit persons to live in the spirit realm, an impossibility.

359 “The Lamb appeared to have been killed.” (compare Rev. 11:7)

360 As a group, the twelve Galilean apostles, as the Lamb, was killed, figuratively, when the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the parent sheep, scattered them, so that they could not carry out their daily activities together, as a group, and, in this way, stopping “the daily sacrifices” of preaching and teaching together with Jesus Christ. This is how their killing was prophesied to be: “Then Jesus said to them, 'This very night all of you (= eleven Galilean apostles) will run away and leave me, for the scripture says, “God will kill the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered”. But after I am raised to life, I will go to Galilee ahead of you (= eleven Galilean apostles).” (Matt. 26:31 to 32; Sc. Zech. 13:7; Matt. 28:16 to 20; compare Rev. 11:8, 9)

361 In the prophetic vision of the Book of Revelation this is how the killing of the twelve Galilean apostles and the other disciples, represented as “the two witnesses” is shown: “When they finished proclaiming their message, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will fight against them. He will defeat them and kill them, and their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, where their Lord (= Jesus Christ) was crucified (that is, where the Awful Horror of crucifying Jesus was committed).” (Rev.11:7, 8; compare Scroll at Dan.12:11) So, in A.D. 30, after the ascension of Jesus Christ, “the children”, the Lamb, the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, appeared, among the Jewish and Gentile crowds without Jesus Christ, as orphaned, bereaved of their parent. They appeared to have been killed.

The constant feature of seeing Jesus Christ appearing with them, in the centre of the listening crowds, had changed. This time, it was a Lamb, the anointed group of twelve Galilean children that appeared to have been killed, figuratively, that stood in the centre of the circular crowd, led by, not Jesus, but one of the twelve Galilean apostles, Simon Peter with Mathias replacing Judas Iscariot who had died. And Jesus appointed Simon Peter to perform this role of replacing him, as a shepherd-leader, before he ascended to heaven.

362 “After they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Simon son of John, do you love me more than these others do?'

363 “Yes, Lord”, he answered, 'you know that I love you.'

364 “Jesus said to him, 'Take care of my lambs'. ('Feed my lambs.' N.W) A second time Jesus said to him, 'Simon son of John, do you love me?'

365 "Yes, Lord', he answered, 'you know that I love you'.

366 “Jesus said to him, 'Take care of my sheep'. ('Shepherd my little sheep.' N.W) A third time Jesus said, 'Simon son of John, do you love me?'

367 “Peter was sad because Jesus asked him the third time, 'Do you love me?' so he said to him, 'Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you!'

368 “Jesus said to him, 'Take care of my sheep.' ('Feed my little sheep.' N.W).” (John 21:15 to 17; compare Matt. 24:45 to 51)

369 Jesus Christ's principal followers to form the Government of God consisted of the twelve Galilean apostles, all men, the lambs to be fed by only Simon Peter; the 144,000 Spirit-sealed, redeemed men, of the lost sheep of the people of Israel in the Diaspora, and the enormous crowd of men from every tribe, nation, language, and race, the little sheep to be fed and shepherded by Simon Peter. Simon Peter, as the first among equals, was to “feed” the other eleven lambs of the apostolic group. He was not to “shepherd” them because Jesus Christ was still the shepherd or leader-ruler and Lord of their group. But of the 144,000 Spirit-sealed, redeemed, Diasporan Israelite men and the enormous crowd of men from every tribe, nation, language, and race, Simon Peter was to “shepherd” and “feed” them together with the other eleven Galilean apostles. All the twelve Galilean apostles were collective shepherds who occupied the one place of leadership prepared for them by Jesus, when he left them for heaven. (compare Acts 2:1 to 13) Anointed Simon Peter, together with the other anointed eleven Galilean apostles, was to lead, organize, manage, and teach the entire church of Jesus of Nazareth. And this was what Simon Peter started to do immediately Jesus Christ, as the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Lord God Almighty, came to live in them on Pentecost Day, A.D. 30, in Jerusalem. (compare Matt. 24:45 to 51) They started it with rumblings of voices, followed by peals of thunder, and flashes of lightning.

370 “When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place. Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there.

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak .... Then (Simon) Peter stood up with the other eleven apostles (= the Lamb now seen in the centre of the throne) and in a loud voice began to speak to the crowd: 'Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, listen to me and let me tell you what this means ... Listen to these words, fellow-Israelites! Jesus of Nazareth was a man whose divine authority was clearly proven to you by all the miracles and wonders which God performed through him. You yourselves know this, for it happened here among you.

In accordance with his own plan God had already decided that Jesus would be handed over to you; and you killed him by letting sinful men crucify him. But God raised him from death, setting him free from its power, because it was impossible that death should hold him prisoner.'

371 “My fellow-Israelites, I must speak to you plainly about our famous ancestor King David. He died and was buried, and his grave is here with us to this very day. He was a prophet, and he knew what God had promised him: God had made a vow that he would make one of David's descendants a king, just as David was. … God has raised this very Jesus from death, and we are all witnesses to this fact. He has been raised to the right-hand side of God, his Father, and has received from him the Holy Spirit, as he had promised. What you now see and hear is his gift that he has poured out on us. …' 372 “All the people of Israel, then, are to know for sure that this Jesus, whom you crucified, is the

372 “All the people of Israel, then, are to know for sure that this Jesus, whom you crucified, is the one that God has made Lord and Messiah!” (Act. 2:1 to 36)

373 From the Pentecost Day of A.D. 30 anointed Simon Peter together with the other anointed eleven Galilean apostles, as the Lamb, that looked like having been killed, took the centre stage, stood “in the middle of the throne”, hitherto occupied by Jesus Christ, sitting on his throne, surrounded by the twelve Galilean apostles and other disciples (= they took the place of the crucified Jesus), and preached to and taught the leaders of Israel and the leaders of the church of Jesus of Nazareth (= the twenty-four elders), and the crowds of people who were represented as the four living creatures. Anointed Simon Peter explained the meaning of the sealed prophecies of Joel, David, Moses, and other prophets to the disciples and to the people of Israel and Gentiles in Jerusalem. Clearly this scene is “the Lamb standing in the centre of the throne, surrounded by the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders”. As anointed Simon Peter with the other anointed eleven Galilean apostles began explaining the hitherto sealed prophecies to the twenty-four elders representing the “twelve” leaders of Israel and the twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus, and the other disciples and the crowds, they obediently listened to him as to their priests and kings; in this way, “the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb”; they submitted to the leadership-rulership of the Lamb, the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles led by anointed Simon Peter.

374 It was not in the same way and sense that John the Baptist saw the Son of God as the Lamb of God. “The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, 'There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." (John 1:29) The twelve Galilean apostles became the Lamb of Jesus Christ as he chose them, trained them in his calling, weaned them, and left them to carry out his work on their own. The title of lamb is applied twenty-eight times in the Book of Revelation in a way which has no parallel elsewhere in the New Testament Scriptures, a revealing indication that the reference of Jesus to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world by John the Baptist does not match or parallel the Revelation Lamb, who is described in ways unfit for such a New Testament Lamb. Hence the two lambs must apply to two different entities: the first is to a sacrificial Lamb, but the second Lamb symbolizes the composite Son of God, Peter with the other eleven Galilean apostles, as the new King to rule the New World for ever.

375 “It (the Lamb) had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God that have been sent throughout the whole earth.” (Rev. 5:6c)

376 The seven horns and seven eyes are the same seven torches burning in front of the throne which are the seven spirits of God that have been sent throughout the whole earth. They are parts of the leadership of the church of Jesus of Nazareth put in front of the throne, in the centre of which the new Lamb is, in order to lead the leaders, just as Simon Peter led the twelve Galilean apostles, to carry seven messages of God throughout the whole earth at their own times from the Pentecost Day of A.D. 30 to the end of the eras of the seven spirits, when the first raising of the dead begins. The seven dual messages they carry will hit and demonstrate to the whole world the Power of God and the Wisdom of God represented as “horns” and “eyes”.

The seven spirits are horns as special leaders, the first among equals, and eyes, as special teachers, the first among equals. The seven spirits of God who have already been sent to the whole earth to teach and preach their seven dual messages to the whole world are, Simon Peter of Capernaum, Joseph Barnabas of Cyprus, Paul of Tarsus, Athanasius of Alexandria, Aurelius Augustus of Hippo, Francis Bernardone of Assisi, and Martin Luther of Wittenberg. All these men came as members and or associates of the leadership of the church of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who were trained and left behind by Jesus Christ. All these men have established and left on earth churches, orders, sects, and religions that are distinctively recognized and associated with their faiths and teachings.

377 “The Lamb went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who sits on the throne. As he did so, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each had a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God's people.” (Rev. 5:7 to 8)

378 The Lamb is the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, the called, chosen, and faithful followers, of Jesus Christ. (compare John 6:66 to 71; Lk. 6:12 to 14) The one who sits on the throne is Jesus Christ. The scroll in the right hand is the scroll on which have been written the Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms which deal with the plan of God for making all things new, which Jesus Christ was sent to the earth, in the first century, to explain to mankind and also to implement. For three and a half years, from A.D. 26 to A.D. 30, the group of twelve Galilean apostles went to Jesus Christ “and took the scroll from the right hand”, that is, they learnt from him the messages from the scroll which he chiefly relied on throughout his preaching and teaching activities, which fulfilled all that the Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms had recorded about him. (compare Matt. 5:17 to 20; John 5:37 to 40, 45 to 47) By A.D. 30, on the Day of Pentecost, the twelve Galilean apostles lambed by the ascended Jesus Christ, had completed taking the scroll from the right hand of Jesus Christ. From Pentecost Day, A.D. 30, the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, as the new Lamb, began explaining the prophecies in the scroll to the people of Israel and Gentiles in Jerusalem. As he did so, from the centre of the throne, all the leaders of the church of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and all the leaders of the nation of Israel (= the Sanhedrin or the Council), and the crowds of the people of Israel and Gentiles submitted to what the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles led by Simon Peter had been empowered by the Holy Spirit to say to them; the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders, in this way, fell down before the Lamb.

379 The leaders of the church of Jesus Christ, and of the people of Israel, and the crowds of the people of Israel and Gentiles, having listened to the twelve Galilean apostles and having realized the import of their message from the Holy Spirit, had, as believers, to publicly tell appreciatively of the new message from God to the people of Israel in the Diaspora and to the whole world. What new message they had heard agreed with what, as a people in expectation of the Christ and the fulfilment of the Messianic promises, they themselves had all along been praying for to happen in their day.. (compare Lk. 2:22 to 38; Matt. 6:9 to 13) The harps and bowls of gold filled with incense represented they themselves, as precious human beings, God's people, endowed with the talents and abilities to sing or express their inner feelings publicly in appreciation of their expectations and hopes fulfilled. As believers in what the new Lamb represented they preached the following new message:

380 “They sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to break open its seals. For you were killed and by your sacrificial death you bought for God people from every tribe, language, nation, and race. You have made them a kingdom of priests to serve our God, and they shall rule on earth.” (Rev. 5:9 to 10)

381 When, from Pentecost Day, A.D. 30, the leaders and the people of Israel and the crowds saw how and why the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles had seized the leadership-rulership position and was playing the leadership-rulership role superbly and with authority from God, they expressed the candid realization that the twelve Galilean apostles were worth becoming the faithful followers who succeeded in taking the scroll, from Jesus Christ, breaking open its seals, understanding its contents, and explaining the hidden secrets to the people of Israel and the people of the world for the first time. (compare Acts 4:1 to 4) The anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles could do this great deed because, by accepting to become Jesus' apostles, they were killed figuratively, as explained above. By this sacrificial death, or by their preaching and teaching service, which is what resulted from their decision to suffer as Jesus' apostles, they made disciples for Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, consisting of the 144,000 Spirit-sealed, redeemed, Israelite men in the Diaspora and the enormous crowd of people from every tribe, nation, language, and race across the whole earth from A.D. 30 to today, the beginning of the third millennium. (compare Matt. 28:18 to 20; Acts 1:5, 8) Take note that the sealing of the 144,000 redeemed, Israelite men in the Diaspora with the Holy Spirit and the gathering of the enormous crowd from A.D. 30 and A.D. 34, respectively, were done by the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, the new Lamb, led by anointed Simon Peter, and the disciples they made together with the seven spirits of God. These people they made into a kingdom of priests who have served in the church of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, they have ruled as kings and priests over the earth at the times they lived, and they shall all experience the first raising of the dead to rule again over the earth. (compare John 10:16) They are the kings and priests represented as the first living creature like a lion and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. The new song they sang thus agreed with the prayers of all God's people which are: "May your Kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." The Kingdom of priests is the Government of God that all God's people yearn for to come to fulfil all the promises of God for making all things new!

382 “Again I looked and I heard angels, thousands and millions of them! They stood round the throne, the four living creatures, and the elders, and sang in a loud voice: 'The Lamb who was killed is worth to receive power. wealth. wisdom. and strength. honour. glory. and praise!'”

383 The anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles did the sealing of the 144,000 redeemed Israelite men-disciples in the Diaspora from Pentecost Day A.D. 30; and had long completed by A.D. 70, when the Judean war broke out. So those who sang the new song in praise of the lambed twelve Galilean apostles were the 144,000 from the lost sheep of the people of Israel in the Diaspora. From the time Gentile Cornelius was made a disciple by anointed Simon Peter, which was the end of the seven prophetic years and the completion of the sealing of the 144,000, to the demise of the Holy Roman Empire in the 19th century, (1806) thousands and millions of angels, or messengers of God as believers in Jesus Christ, made by the new Lamb and the 144,000 across the Roman world, stood round the throne, in the centre of which were the twelve Galilean apostles, the four living creatures, and the 24 elders, representing the earlier group of the mainly Jewish church or the people of Israel, and expressed publicly and loudly that the lambed group of twelve Galilean apostles led by anointed Simon Peter, was worthy to receive from Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, power, wealth, wisdom, and strength, honour, glory, and praise! They are the enormous crowd, the uncountable crowd, “to rule on earth”, to rule the whole world as kings and priests, with the 144,000 under one shepherd who is the new Lamb.

384 “And I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, in the world below, and in the sea – all living beings in the universe – and they were singing: 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be praise and honour, glory, and might, for ever and ever!' The four living creatures answered, 'Amen!' And the elders fell down and worshipped.”

385 Next, John sees the whole human race to be ruled by the enormous crowd of kings and priests, represented as the second and third living creatures, like a bull and a human face, appearing as uncountable thousands and millions of people, acknowledging and praising the accomplishments of Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, the one who sits on the throne, and of the anointed twelve Galilean apostles, the new Lamb, that he trained and left as sacrifice for the preaching and teaching service. The whole human race, as the new heaven and the new earth including all resurrected persons who will be living at the end of the realization of the making of all things new, says in appreciation of the making of all things new by Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, and his anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, the new Lamb, that the two deserve to be praised and given honour, glory, and might, for ever and ever, for their accomplishments.

386 To this exhortation, the four living creatures, representing the entire new creation of the ruled and the rulers, express their agreement saying, “Truly”, which is what “Amen” means. And the elders of the new human race fell down in submission and worshiped in compliance with praising and giving honour, glory, and might, for ever and ever to Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, the one sitting on the throne.

The Contents of the Scroll

387 In the Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms, God caused to be recorded all the seven processes he would implement in making all things new. The old creation had been put in the hands of “Adam and Eve” representing the allegorical beginning pair of the human race. They were told, “Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control.

I am putting you in charge of the fish, the birds, and all the wild animals. I have provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruit for you to eat; but for all the wild animals and for all the birds I have provided grass and leafy plants for food.” (Gen. 1:28 to 30) But he was not told clearly in plain language who and or how his many children to live all over the earth and he himself were to be governed. Who was to exercise power and control over the affairs of the human race and how? This question was, thus, left apparently unanswered. However, after the snake deceived man to eat the forbidden fruit and, as part of his punishment, he was sentenced to cultivate the soil which would produce weeds and thorns so that he would reap and eat wild plants. (compare Sc. Gen. 3:17 to 19; 1 Cor. 15:25 to 26) This was a veiled language sentencing him to rule himself, as soil, which would produce wicked, unruly people to give him troubles all his life. So troubles soon emerged, and an opposing God or Satan came on the scene, as the rulership of man in opposition to the rulership of God, that man had rejected, who had to be controlled or eliminated if the old creation was to forge ahead in peace and prosperity. Satan the Devil or the snake, as the armed forces institution created by man, (by Nimrod; compare Scroll at Gen. 10:8 to 12; Scroll at 1 Ch.1:10), appeared as the “unseen” spirit or force behind human rulership, the self-rule by man backed by the institution possessing the power of death and destruction unapproved by God, exercising power and control over the affairs of the human race in opposition to rulership over the human race appointed and approved by God, the maker and parent of man, which man, impliedly, had rejected by breaking the law forbidding the eating of the forbidden fruit. (compare 1 Scroll at Sam. 8:7; Scroll at Ps. 2:6; Matt. 3:16 to 17; 17:5)

388 It was revealed, but unexplained, that a descendant of the woman “Eve”, would be sent in the future to destroy this Satan the Devil, the armed forces institution-backed Government of man, and his evil works of death and destruction. (compare Scroll at Gen. 3:14, 15) This descendant was to be like Moses, the prophet who led the Israelites out of Egypt through the desert of Sinai to the threshold of the land of Canaan in Palestine. About him the people of Israel were told, “I will send them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will tell him what to say, and he will tell the people everything I command. He will speak in my name, and I will punish anyone who refuses to obey him.” (Scroll at Deut. 18:18 to 19) This prophet like Moses came as Jesus Christ. (c. 7/6 B.C.-A.D. 30; compare Acts 3:22 to 23) The prophet Moses, himself, was born more than eighty years before 1,500 B.C., which separates the two prophets by about sixteen centuries; while the exodus began in about 1,513 B.C.

389 In the scroll that the Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms represent, many prophecies with their meanings kept secret and hidden have been written, which show Jesus Christ as the principal character to be sent to the earth, to proceed to make all things new in fulfilment of all the promises of God to answer the prayers of mankind, who saw and experienced the failure of the old creation as being intolerable and unwelcome. It is in these prophecies that the four living creatures have been revealed, which we must trace in order to understand correctly the explanation that the Book of Revelation assigns to them.

The Four Living Creatures

390 The four living creatures are the four living beings, the four living covenants, the four living institutions God has made subsequent to the making of heaven and earth and all things in them, on which his throne, his kingship, his rulership, his lordship is mounted for all time. They, thus, surround his throne, being the pillars and wheels of the structure and organization of a new creation of God's eternal subjects without which kingship, royalty, rulership, lordship is ruined. (compare Scroll at Prov. 14:28; Scroll at Ps. 82:1) The making of the four living creatures or covenants sealed the eternal doom of the first heaven and earth, the era of Satan, his demons and Adam and Eve, as they eternally established the foundations of the new heaven and the new earth. This ensured that the first heaven and the first earth would soon be made to pass away to be replaced by a new heaven and a new earth. The old heaven and the old earth came with a mortal human race descended from the first “Adam and Eve”; but the new heaven and the new earth come with an immortal human race descended from the second “Adam and Eve” represented as the “Lamb and the Bride”, that is, the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles and the Spirit-sealed 144,000 Israelite men-disciples from the Diaspora.

391 The first of the four living creatures is the Covenant with the son to make Jesus rule as king over all creation for ever. “God created the whole universe through him and for him.” (Col. 1:16b; Sc. Ps. 45:6 to 7) Kingship as the first living creature to come into being in the future was revealed to King David and was recorded in the Scroll thus: “The Father said to my Lord, Jesus, the king, 'Sit here at my right until I put your enemies under your feet.' From Zion the Father will extend your royal power.' Rule over your enemies', he says.” (Scroll at Ps. 110:1, 2; compare Lk. 22:28 to 30; Scroll at Gen. 3:15) The living creature that looks like a lion is the promised Covenant with the son to make him a king for ever.

392 A living creature is something or anything created to live or remain for ever. For example, kingship, subjection, humanity, and priesthood are institutions created by God to live or remain for ever. And humanity is the visible image of the invisible God; humanity is the physical house of the invisible God who is a Spirit Person. The creature like a lion, therefore, is the symbol of kingship or rulership as a living creature! It symbolizes and confers power on the Son!

393 The second of the four living creatures is the Covenant for the preservation of all living beings, including man or humanity, as a permanent feature of the universe, and as subjects of the rulership of God or God's Son. God made a covenant with Noah, subsequent to the making of the first heaven and the first earth, including Adam, and the ending of the age of Adam, promising "that never again will all living beings be destroyed by a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth. As a sign of this everlasting Covenant which I am making with you and with all living beings, I am putting my bow in the clouds. It will be the sign of my Covenant with the world.

Whenever I cover the sky with the clouds and the rainbow appears, I will remember my promise to you and to all the animals that a flood will never again destroy all living beings. When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting Covenant between me and all living beings on earth. That is the sign of the promise which I am making to all living beings." (Scroll at Gen. 9:11 to 17) All plants and animals and man come under this everlasting Covenant. This was the restatement and confirmation of the Father's revealed original intention, decision, and purpose of making the earth and putting living beings on it as subjects of his (Son's) rulership for ever. (compare Scroll at Is. 45:18)

394 The second living creature is also the everlasting Covenant of the rainbow between God and all living beings on earth promising to preserve everlastingly all living beings. It is the covenant for the preservation of the bull and the herb. The creature like a bull, therefore, is the symbol of subjection, of the ruled as a living creature!

395 In the beginning when God made the heaven and the earth or the universe, he made man or humanity as part of them. When the time came for human beings to be made, God made his intentions, decisions, and the purpose of making man, put in the form of a plan, publicly known: "Then God said, 'And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us. They will have power over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild, large and small.' So God created human beings, making them to be like himself. He created them male and female, blessed them, and said, 'Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control. I am putting you in charge of the fish, the birds, and all the wild animals.

I have provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruit for you to eat; but for all the wild animals and for all the birds I have provided grass and leafy plants for food'—and it was done. God looked at everything he had made, and he was very pleased." (Gen. 1:26-31a) God separated the man from the bull and the herb and put the man in charge of the bull and the herb! But God put no one in charge of the man and his affairs! Therefore the creature like a lion is the symbol of man as the Son of God, made like God, to rule the bull, as the symbol of all other non-human living creatures. (compare Sc. Ps.8:3 to 8.

396 God made man in his image, to resemble him but, by then, did not make him in his immortal likeness, to live for ever; and he expressed his satisfaction of everything he had that far made. God settled the man in the Garden of Eden and told him how only he could become immortal like God and so, finally, become the creature bearing both the image and the likeness of his God, as decided and made public in the old creation plan of God. (compare 2 Cor.3:18)

397 “Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the East, and there he put the (mortal) man he had formed. He made all kinds of beautiful trees grow there and produce good fruit. In the middle of the garden stood the tree that gives life and the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad.” (Gen. 2:8, 9)

398 “Then the Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and guard it. He said to him, 'You may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden, except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do you will die the same day.'” (Gen. 2:15 to 17)

399 The human beings were allowed and directed to eat the fruit of the tree of life placed in the middle of the Garden of Eden in order to acquire immortality, be like God, and live for ever. After eating the fruit of the tree of life, nothing done or undone could deprive them of the acquired immortality, so that they would die and forfeit the right of living for ever. If they subsequently disobeyed God and also ate the fruit of the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad, they would be viewed as disobedient sons and daughters of God, but would not and could not die the same day as God said they would.

Their acquisition of immortality at that stage before getting knowledge of what is good and what is bad would make eternal life to man a normal part of the creation process, as planned by God, and not as a reward for doing anything good. It would be a right naturally acquired and the conclusion of the old creation plan of God to make man in his image and likeness.

400 But before they could eat the fruit of the tree that gives life, “The snake asked the woman, 'Did God really tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the Garden?'

401 “We may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden”, the woman answered, 'except the tree in the middle of it. God told us (my husband and 1) not to eat the fruit of that tree or even touch it; if we do, we will die.'

402 “The snake replied. 'That's not true; you will not die. God said that, because he knows that when you eat it you will be like God and know what is good and what is bad.”” (Scroll at Gen.3:1 to 4)

403 So God sequenced the acquisition of immortality ahead of the acquisition of the knowledge of what is good and what is bad, so that immortality would be seen and remain as a right acquired at birth rather than being subject to what one does as being good or bad to merit immortality as a reward or lose it as a punishment.

404 The woman, who conceived and nurtured her own thought about the implication of the rule permitting the eating of the fruit of the tree of life but not the fruit of the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad, believed the snake, believed her own thought of self-rule as liberation for knowing and determining what is good and what is bad and so be their own law makers and rulers like God, ate the fruit and gave some to her husband who also ate it, because he also believed what the snake said to the wife, that is, the thought conceived, nurtured and carried out by the wife, to be true. Both of them had been deceived by the Devil (the dream or desire of self-rule conceived and nurtured by the wife represented as the unseen spirit or force) hiding behind the snake, the symbol of the armed forces institution which alone forms the bedrock of human self-rule. (compare 1 Tim. 2:14; incorrect analysis and conclusion of Paul of Tarsus.) “Then the Lord said to the snake, 'You will be punished for this; you alone of all the animals must bear this curse: From now on you will crawl on your belly, and you will have to eat dust as long as you live. I will make you (human self-rulership) and the woman (the people or church of God to whom the whole earth belongs) hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite their heel.” (compare Rev. 12:1 to 18)

405 In the statement of punishment of the snake, God has implied a secret covenant with the seed or offspring (the Lamb) of the woman who will crush the head (the ruler) of the snake (of the evil empire based on the power of the armed forces institution). It is the covenant with the Son to make him rule as king over all creation. And the offspring of the woman turned out to be (the Lamb of) Jesus Christ. And the Devil (the evil empire created and ruled by man's military power) was sentenced to a life imprisonment on the prison island of the earth where he would feed on human beings and nations as food produced from dust, until his demise, crushed in the head by the Son. The Son (the Lamb) was, therefore, tasked to put sticks in the spokes of the rulership of Satan on this earth, until his rulership and he, himself, end up destroyed by the activities of the Son. (compare 1 John 3:8) This is the reason why Satan the Devil is physically represented on earth as the political and religious systems depending on the armed forces institution for power and authority to rule. Satan the Devil, the snake, of all animals, that is, of all human creatures, must bear the curse of crawling on its belly and have to eat dust as long as he lives.

406 Human self-rule as an evil world empire first started as the Babylonian Empire which was the great achievement of Nimrod, the son of Cush, “who became the world's first great conqueror.” (compare Scroll at Gen. 10:8 to 12; Scroll at 1 Ch.1:10) This evil empire engaged in many wars killing many human beings in the conquered nations and incorporated their nations and territories into the evil empire, until he was conquered by the Medes and Persians to become the Medo-Persian Empire. The Medo-Persian Empire was defeated in war and was replaced by the Grecian Empire. The Grecian Empire was defeated in war and was replaced by the Roman Empire which thereafter swung his huge tail to occupy Palestine and the Levant as his provinces. As the snake crawled on its belly from Babylon to Rome using infantry rather than navy or air forces he engaged in incessant wars and killed and ate as food human beings and nations who were made from dust and are here symbolized as “dust” as long as the successive empires, the crawling snake, lived. The dragon, then, symbolizes the evil spirit ruler behind the human self-rule of the world of “Adam and Eve” who has become the political and religious imperial superpower regime of today. This evil imperial superpower regime as the Holy Roman Empire was defeated in 1806 and fragmented into many nation-states and many denominational Christian churches. Through incessant wars culminating in two world wars the fragmented evil empire crawled from Europe to the colonies and settlements eating human beings and nations as food to create expanded Europe as the cursed, crawling snake, cursed with the fomenting and prosecution of wars as its life-long occupation and preoccupation to explain and fulfil the creation of a huge structure and organization of war-machine as the curse on super powerful Western World in tandem with dispersed Jews and the modern State of Israel. As long as expanded Europe, which includes dispersed Jews and the modern State of Israel, lives, he will have the fomenting and prosecution of wars as his main occupation and preoccupation in destroying human lives and nations as the food that sustains, nourishes, and maintains his cursed war-like and war-loving life and existence.

407 “And he said to the woman (the church of Jesus), 'I will increase your trouble in pregnancy and your pain in giving birth. (compare Rev. 12:2) In spite of this, you will still have desire for your husband, yet you will be subject to him (the Lamb of Jesus Christ).'

408 “And he said to the man (the Lamb), 'You listened to your wife and ate the fruit which I told you not to eat. Because of what you have done, the ground (the earth, the governance of the human race) will be under a curse. You will have to work hard all your life to make it produce enough food for you. It will produce weeds and thorns (produce wicked, unruly people; compare Scroll at Gen. 6:6 to 7), and you will have to eat wild plants (the Lamb will have to do or deal with barbarians, “wild animals”, as disciples). You will have to work hard and sweat to make the soil produce anything (work hard to make any disciples), until you go back to the soil from which you were formed (until you, the Lamb die being still mortal; compare Scroll at Ps. 82:6 to 7). You were formed from soil, and you will become soil again.” (Scroll at Gen. 3:14 to 19)

409 By this statement God revoked the prospect of Adam and his offspring becoming immortal under the conditions of the first heaven (= the rulership of Satan) and the first earth (= the subjection of mortal man). He also decreed that food for the nourishment, sustenance, and maintenance of mortal life would be scarce for all time, while other hardships resulting from wars, famine, and diseases would cause widespread deaths. (compare Rev. 6:5, 6)

410 “Then the Lord God said, 'Now the man has become like one of us and has knowledge of what is good and what is bad. He must not be allowed to take fruit from the tree that gives life, eat it and live for ever.' So the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden and made him cultivate the soil from which he had been formed. (So the Lord God sent him out of the rulership of God and made him rule himself, the mortal human race of which he had been part.) Then at the east side of the garden he put living creatures (also called winged creatures – four of them,) and a flaming sword (in the hand of the Son, the king-to-be) which turned in all directions. This was to keep anyone from coming near the tree that gives life!” (Scroll at Gen. 3:22 to 24)

411 This revelation and action of God sealed the denial of immortality or eternal life to anyone descended from “Adam and Eve” of the first heaven and the first earth. God immediately put there four living creatures and a flaming sword in the hand of the Son, to ensure that eternal life eluded all but those the Son would beget subsequently in the New Age. The tree of life, as a source and physical symbol of eternal life, and in the middle of the garden, represented the Father himself sitting on his throne in the centre of his creation to whom man was given free access. The subsequent sealing off of the tree of life explains the present remoteness of God so that God cannot be reached by man now, except through the Son who blocks him off from man by housing him in his human body. (compare John 14:5 to 6) The tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad is the physical symbol of the Son, the Lamb, also at the centre of the Garden of God (= Government of God = Kingdom of God); it images the priesthood of the Son, the source of knowledge of what is good and what is bad about God and nature. (compare John 1:18; 5:21; Rev. 7:16, 17; 22:1 to 3; Matt. 11:27; Scroll at Ps. 110:1 to 4)

412 By eating the fruit of the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad, the man became “like one of us”; like one of the spirit persons that God, the Son and the other spirit sons were, in the aspect of knowing what was good and what was bad, as the snake said they would. However, in spite of their becoming disobedient sinners, if they managed to get their hands on the fruit of the tree of life and ate it, that is, the knowledge on which life depends and acquired it, they would acquire immortality, become like God in the aspect of possessing everlasting life and so would live for ever, even though as disobedient sinners. To prevent such a calamity from happening, that is, having human devils living for ever in the universe, God had to seal off the man from the tree of life, by immediately putting there four living creatures, and so pre-ordaining the certainty of the new creation with a flaming sword in the hand of the kingly Son, the Lamb, who would rule the new city of peace for ever.

413 The human beings were given time to practise their freedom from the fatherly care of God, the rulership of God; and the result was so disappointing that God decided to bring the age of Adam to an end; and he immediately brought that decision into being. In that First World mortal man was allowed to live to time indefinite, as long as his strength and health could carry him; and the spirit sons of God worked to prove their worth as commissioned servants. (Scroll at Ps. 45:6, 7; Scroll at Gen. 6:8)

414 “When mankind spread all over the world, and girls were being born, some of the heavenly beings saw that these girls were beautiful, so they took the ones they liked. Then the Lord said, 'I will not allow people (descended from Adam and Eve) to live for ever; they are mortal. From now on they will live no longer than a hundred and twenty years.' In those days, and even later, there were giants on the earth who were descendants of human women and heavenly beings. They were the great heroes and famous men of long ago (compare the age of the dinosaurs and the mammoths).

415 “When the Lord saw how wicked everyone on earth was and how evil their thoughts were all the time (the cursed “earth or ground” had produced “weeds and thorns”), he was sorry that he had ever made them and put them on the earth, (that is, he was sorry that he had allowed man to rule himself to the point of ruination of himself and his world). He was so filled with regret that he said, 'I will wipe out these people I have created, and also the animals and the birds, because I am sorry that I made any of them.' But the Lord was pleased with Noah.” (Scroll at Gen. 6:1 to 8)

416 “God said to Noah, 'I have decided to put an end to all mankind. I will destroy them completely, because the world is full of their violent deeds. Build a boat for yourself out of good lumber ... Go into the boat with your whole family.

I have found that you are the only one in all the world who does what is right. (So I am going to save and preserve you and form a new human race out of your descendants.) ... Seven days from now I am going to send rain that will fall for forty days and nights, in order to destroy all living beings that I have made.' And Noah did everything that the Lord commanded.” (Scroll at Gen. 6:13-14a; 7:1, 4 to 5) Then, the flood came and subsided, and Noah and his extended family came out as a new creation miraculously saved out of the flood waters. Noah and his descendants began the Second World which would transform into the Third World, the New Creation or the New Age, after God had similarly destroyed all those destroying the Second World by their wicked and evil deeds. (compare Matt. 13:41 to 42; 24:1 to 14; Rev. 11:17 to 18)

417 “God said to Noah, 'Go out of the boat with your wife, your sons, and their wives. Take all the birds and animals out with you, so that they may reproduce and spread over all the earth.' So Noah went out of the boat with his wife, his sons and their wives. All the animals and birds went out of the boat with his wife, his sons and their wives.

All the animals and birds went out of the boat in groups of their own kind.” (Scroll at Gen. 8:15 to 19) Noah and his extended family were eight persons altogether. Their salvation from the killer flood affecting their region of habitation, which was seen and described as their world, and a microcosm of the entire world, came from God the Father and his Son in whose hand was the flaming sword. (compare Rev. 7:10)

418 Then God made an everlasting covenant as the second of the four living creatures with Noah: "God blessed Noah and his sons and said, 'Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth. All the animals, birds, and fish will live in fear of you. They are all placed under your power. Now you can eat them, as well as green plants; I give them all to you as food. The one thing you must not eat is meat with blood still in it; (that is, do not eat animals which are alive as lions do.) I forbid this because the life is in the blood; that is, it is alive when blood is still flowing in it, (and eating meat with blood still flowing in it causes needless abhorrent pain). If anyone takes human life, he will be punished. I will punish with death any animal (any creature or person rather?) that takes human life. Man was made like God, so whoever murders a man will himself be killed by his fellow-man. (Man was excluded from the animals that could be killed and eaten by any creature or man and animals or for any purpose whatsoever, including being killed in war or as punishment for infringing the law.)

419 “God said to Noah and his sons, 'I am now making my Covenant with you and your descendants, and with all living beings – all birds and all animals – everything that came out of the boat with you. (Fish and other marine animals and microbes are excluded from this covenant logically.) With these words I make my Covenant with you: I promise that never again will all living beings be destroyed by a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth. As a sign of this everlasting Covenant which I am making with you and with all living beings, I am putting my bow in the clouds. It will be the sign of my Covenant with the world.

Whenever I cover the sky with clouds and the rainbow appears, I will remember my promise to you and all living beings. When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting Covenant between me and all living beings on earth. That is the sign of the promise which I am making to all living beings.” (Scroll at Gen. 9:1 to 17)

420 This covenant ensures that the decision of God to bring the age of Adam to an end will not end the revealed intention and the decision of God to make man in his image and in his likeness, who will rule over all other creation of God for ever. But Adam and his offspring remained mortal up to the time of the end of his age. So it became necessary for God to put in place four living creatures, first, to prevent the first man and his offspring from living for ever, and, second, upon which his throne, kingship, rulership, lordship would be mounted for ever and ever.

The living creature which looked like a bull is this everlasting Covenant of the rainbow between God and all living beings on earth. The bull, representing the non-human animate creation of God, was now made both subject to and food for man. It became his wealth!

421 The third of the four living creatures is the Covenant with Abraham by which God promised to bless all families of the earth with everlasting life through Abraham's descendant who turned out to be Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is the everlasting Covenant with Abraham which gives immortality to the living creature which had a face like a Man's. The third living covenant blesses humanity with immortality out of all living beings preserved under the second covenant. The living creature having a face like A human face, therefore, is the symbol of immortalhumanity as a living creature!

422 “The Lord said to Abraham, 'Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's home, and go to a land that I am going to show you. (It is the land of Zion.) I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. But I will curse those who curse you.

And through you I will bless all the nations.” (Scroll at Gen. 12:1 to 3) In furtherance of the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham, God, through the prophet Isaiah, has had the following recorded in the Scroll in his right hand: “In the days to come the mountain where the Temple stands will be the highest one of all, towering above all the hills. Many nations will come streaming to it, and their people will say, 'Let us go up the hill of the Lord, to the Temple of Israel's God. He will teach us what he wants us to do; we will walk in the paths he has chosen. For the Lord'S teaching comes from Jerusalem; from Zion he speaks to his people.'” 423 “He will settle disputes among great nations. They will hammer their sword into ploughs and their spears into pruning knives. Nations will never again go to war, never prepare for battle again.” (Scroll at Is. 2:2 to 4)

424 “Here on Mount Zion the Lord Almighty will prepare a banquet for all the nations of the world – a banquet of the richest food and the finest wine. Here he will suddenly remove the cloud of sorrow that has been hanging over all the nations. The sovereign Lord will destroy death for ever!

He will wipe away the tears from everyone's eyes and take away the disgrace his people have suffered throughout the world. The Lord himself has spoken.

425 “When it happens, everyone will say, 'He is our God! We have put our trust in him, and he has rescued us. He is the Lord! We have put our trust in him, and now we are happy and joyful because he has saved us.' (Scroll at Is. 25:6 to 9)

426 Mount Zion was the place shown to Abraham from where his descendant, Jesus Christ, would extend salvation, the gift of and the right to everlasting life, to all families of the earth. It was in fulfilment of this promise of God that Jesus was sent to Zion in Palestine, from where he initiated the preaching of the message about the Government of God to all mankind. It was at Zion that Jesus was installed the King of the Government of God by the Father! (compare John 3:16; Matt. 24:14; 28:18 to 20; Scroll at Ps. 2:6; 110:1 to 4)

427 “Now, God made his promises to Abraham and to his descendant. The scripture does not use the plural, 'descendants', meaning many people, but the singular 'descendant', meaning one person only, namely, (Jesus) Christ. What I mean is that God made a covenant with Abraham and promised to keep it. The Law, which was given four hundred and thirty years later, cannot break the covenant and cancel God's promise. For if God's gift depends on the Law, then it no longer depends on his promise. However, it was because of his promise that God gave that gift to Abraham.” (Gal. 3:16 to 18) This is Paul's analysis of the fore-knowledge of the third living creature given to Abraham and the people of Israel, which was bound to be fulfilled by Jesus Christ, when he came in the first century to Zion in Palestine. (compare John 3:16, 36; Scroll at Deut. 18:16 to 19; Acts 3:22 to 23).

428 The living creature which had a face like a Man's is the Covenant with Abraham promising to bless mankind with everlasting life, in order to suddenly remove the cloud of sorrow that has been hanging over all the nations of the earth. The sovereign Lord will destroy death for ever to fulfil his promise to Abraham!

429 The fourth of the four living creatures is the Mosaic Covenant as the proposed old Covenant. This Law Covenant was separate from and subsequent to the Abrahamic Covenant or promise, and so could not break or cancel God's promise to Abraham. "The Lord called to Moses from the mountain and told him to say to the Israelites, Jacob's descendants: 'You saw what I, the Lord, did to the Egyptians and how I carried you as an eagle carries her young on her wings, and brought you here to me. Now, if you will obey me and keep my Covenant, you will be my own people. The whole earth is mine, but you will be my chosen people, a people dedicated to me alone, and you will serve me as priests.' So Moses went down and called the leaders of the people together and told them everything that the Lord had commanded him. Then all the people answered together, 'We will do everything that the Lord has said,' and Moses reported this to the Lord." (Scroll at Ex. 19:3b-8) All the leaders of the people of Israel agreed to have God make a Covenant with them to serve God as priests. They would be required in the future to provide people to serve God as priests. But if they broke the terms and conditions of obedience they would not be his chosen people, a people dedicated to him alone, and they would not serve him as priests. (compare Scroll at Jer. 18:7 to 12) And God would be justified to reject and punish them and choose another people who would do as required of them. (compare Lk. 3:7 to 9; Matt. 21:43).

430 When God got them prepared for the making of the priesthood Covenant with them, the Israelites, halfway through the ceremony, refused to have the priesthood Covenant completed. “When the people heard the thunder and the trumpet blast and saw the lightning and the smoking mountain, they trembled with fear and stood a long way off. They said to Moses, 'If you speak to us, we will listen; but we are afraid that if God speaks to us, we will die.'”

431 “Moses replied, 'Don't be afraid; God has only come to test you and make you keep on obeying him, so that you will not sin.' But the people continued to stand a long way off, (and would not come near for the ceremony to continue), and only Moses went near the dark cloud where God was (to put the request of the people to him). (Scroll at Ex. 20:18 to 21; compare Scroll at Deut. 5:5)

432 “So the Lord said to Moses, They have made a wise request, (and so I am putting a stop to the making of the covenant with them. Rather, and in response to their wise request,) I will send them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will tell him what to say, and he will tell the people everything I command. He will speak in my name, and I will punish anyone (of you descendants of Jacob) who refuses to obey him” when he comes. (Scroll at Deut. 18:17 to 19). The prophet like Moses was coming from among the descendants of Jacob to make a new priesthood Covenant to replace the aborted priesthood Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant.

433 Moses, in spite of the people's open revolt against the ceremony, went ahead to seal the aborted covenant with burnt sacrifices to the Lord. He gave the people Ten Commandments as the laws God was speaking to them, while they were on the run for fear of dying from the commotion that erupted from the flight, which raised doubt as to whether they themselves could have heard anything allegedly spoken by God. The Ten Commandments have expectedly turned out to be what he borrowed from the existing laws of Hammurabi (who was the sixth king of the First Amorite Dynasty of Babylon – 1728 to 1686 B.C. according to the chronology of W. F. Albright). He did this, apparently, to assuage his own disappointment at the stubbornness of the people, and also to succeed in his deception of the people, that a covenant had been concluded with God despite their strange behaviour."Then Moses took the blood in the bowls and threw it on the people. He said,'This is the blood that seals the covenant which the Lord made with you when he gave you these commands.'" Moses, thereafter, went up Mount Sinai and showed the God of Israel to Nadab, Abihu, Aaron and seventy of the elders of the people of Israel. The God of Israel was seen as an idol of sapphire. They ate and drank together. The God of Israel did not harm any one of them..

434 The people of Israel did not keep this false covenant of Moses, and so God also did not keep his promise of making them his chosen people, a people dedicated to him alone, to serve him as priests. Instead, God promised to replace the false Mosaic Covenant, the so-called Old Covenant, with a new covenant, the proposed New Covenant. (compare Matt. 23:37 to 39)

435 “The Lord says, 'The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant. The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. None of them will have to teach his fellow-countryman to know the Lord, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest.

I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, have spoken.” (Scroll at Jer. 31:31 to 34; Heb. 8:7 to 13; compare Scroll at Jer. 18:5 to 17)

436 “By speaking of a new covenant, God has made the first one old; and anything that becomes old and worn out will soon disappear.” (Heb. 8:13; compare7-12)

437 The proposed New Covenant was to replace the false Mosaic Covenant, which, the people of Israel were told, the prophet like Moses was going to do away with when he came. (compare Scroll at Deut. 18:17 to 19). It is this proposed New Covenant (made not with the people of Israel and the people of Judah, but, with the Lamb, the 144,000 people and the enormous crowd) as the living creature that looked like an eagle in Flight, that has provided the Lamb of Jesus Christ and his called, chosen, and faithful followers, as a chosen people, a people dedicated to God alone, who are serving him as priests. (compare Scroll at Ps. 110:4; Scroll at Mal. 2:7; Scroll at Is. 8:18) "It is the duty of priests to teach the true knowledge of God. People should go to them to learn my will, because they are the messengers of the Lord Almighty." (Scroll at Mal. 2:7; compare Scroll at Is. 8:18; Scroll at Joel. 2:28 to 31) The living creature that looked like an eagle in Flight, therefore, is the symbol of everlasting priesthood entrusted to the Son as a living creature!

438 The New Covenant is the current covenant with God which makes the Lamb of Jesus Christ a priest for ever! (compare Scroll at Ps. 110:4). The Lamb of Jesus Christ, together with his children, the twelve Galilean apostles and the Bride (the 144,000 people), will ensure that all mankind get to know God from the least to the greatest. (compare Scroll at Jer.31:34). It is said of the new Lamb, the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, “by your sacrificial death (which established your church on earth) you bought for God people from every tribe, language, nation, and race. You have made them A Kingdom of priests to serve our God, and they shall rule on earth.” (Rev. 5:9 to 10) Salvation is, thus, through this people bought for God and no longer through the rejected and punished Jews given as a gift offering to God by Abraham their ancestor.

439 The scroll, in the right hand of the one who sits on the throne, which represents the prophecies, about God making all things new, recorded in the Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms, contains messages about the four living creatures, what they mean, what they stand for, and when and how they were to be brought into being. But the prophetic messages were made secret and hidden, sealed, so that the prophets themselves and those who read their prophecies could not understand their meaning and significance until today as planned by God.

The Creation of the Four Living Creatures When and How?

440 The first living creature is the Covenant of kingship made by God with Jesus Christ: “The Lord said to my lord the king, 'Sit here at my right until I put your enemies under your feet.'”

441 “From Zion the Lord will extend your royal power. 'Rule over your enemies', he says. On the day you fight your enemies, your people (as the white horse, the 144,000 redeemed Israelite men from the Diaspora) will volunteer. Like the dew of early morning your young men (the pale-coloured horse as the priestly class) will come to you on the sacred hill.” (“Here I am with the children the twelve Galilean apostles the Lord has given me. The Lord Almighty, whose throne is on Mount Zion, has sent us (Jesus and the twelve Galilean apostles) as living messages to the people of Israel.”

442 “The Lord made a solemn promise and will not take it back: 'You will be a priest for ever in the priestly order of Melchizedek.'" (Scroll at Ps. 110:1 to 4; 2:1 to 12; Matt. 28:18 to 20)

443 “The Kingdom that God has given you (Jesus Christ) will last for ever. You rule over your people with justice; you love what is right and hate what is evil. That is why God, your God, has chosen you and has poured out more happiness on you than on any other king.” (Scroll at Ps. 45:6 to 7; John 20:17; compare Rev. 1:5)

444 This living creature is the Covenant with the son for A Kingdom which looked like a lion. Jesus, the lion of Judah's tribe, the great descendant of king David, referred to it when he told the twelve Galilean apostles, “You have stayed with me all through my trials; and just as my Father has given me the right to rule (as a king), so I will give you the same right (to rule as kings). You will eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and will sit on thrones (as kings) to rule over the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Lk. 22:28 to 30) The twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ performed the leadership and rulership roles as kings and priests among the twelve tribes of the lost sheep of the people of Israel in and outside Palestine until the end of the Jewish nation and age in A.D. 70. The first living creature, thus, came into being in A.D. 30 on Pentecost Day.

445 These twelve apostolic leaders, the twelve priestly kings, and the twelve leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel form the twenty-four elders wearing crowns of gold who rule as kings with Jesus Christ in the Holy City, the twelve gates and the twelve foundations of the outer wall of which bear their names. While the twelve gates bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel show how salvation was planned to come to mankind through the “Jews” as the “descendant” of Abraham, the twelve foundations of the walls of the Holy City show how the body of Christ, which the Holy City is, will constitute the Government of God over the entire animate intelligent universe in which righteousness, peace and prosperity will for ever be at home. (compare Matt. 8:11 to 12; 19:28; Lk. 13:28 to 29; Rev. 21:12 to 14; 2 Pet. 3:13) The Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant both contribute twelve kingly priests each who form the twenty-four elders wearing crowns of gold who rule the New City of Peace with Jesus Christ for ever. In the first century, between A.D. 30 and A.D. 70, the Council of Jerusalem representing the twelve leaders of Israel and the twelve Galilean apostles wore twenty-four crowns of gold as kings and ruled the twelve tribes of the lost sheep of the people of Israel.

446 Jesus was to be both a king and a priest for ever. He is, therefore, the key player in both the first covenant of kingship and the fourth covenant of priesthood with Moses' Israel which was replaced by the New Covenant. He plays the role of a king by virtue of the first covenant and the role of a priest by virtue of the fourth covenant. He is the descendant of Abraham through whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed with everlasting life, and so is the key player of the third covenant also as the second Adam. Jesus is the first man of the new creation blessed to live for ever; he is also the creator, the saviour, and the preserver of all the living things that came out of the flood and were covenanted to remain alive for ever.

And so he is the key player of the covenant of the rainbow. “Jesus is the first-born Son, who was raised from death, in order that he alone might have the first place in all things. For it was by God's own decision that the Son has in himself the full nature of God. Through the Son, then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself. (That is, through Jesus, God is going to put the four living creatures in place to constitute the New World upon which his Godhood will rest for ever and ever.) God made peace through his sacrificial death on the cross and so brought to himself all things, both on earth and in heaven.” (Col. 1:18b-20; Scroll at Ps. 102:24b-27; Heb. 1:10 to 12) This Son of God became the Lamb of God, the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, who replaced Jesus by eating his body and drinking his blood, symbolically, in order to become the resurrected Jesus from Pentecost Day, A.D. 30 when Jesus Christ poured out the Holy Spirit on them as promised.

447 Revelation Chapter Four sets out the replacement plan of the (intended) original creation of which “Adam and Eve” appeared as the foundation of the human race to rule the physical creation of animals and plants within the earth's environment. This creation plan having been abandoned, Revelation chapters five to eleven contain the seven seals of the secret plan of God for replacing the old plan with the new plan for making all things new. This transformation is revealed in succession from Pentecost Day, A.D. 30, to the Present Day. The four living creatures, namely, Kingship, Subjection, Humanity, and Priesthood to last for ever will be made over the years, beginning from Pentecost Day A.D. 30, so that when they are complete, the new order will be in place.

448 This explanatory analysis is based on human wisdom and intelligence which are gifts of God acquired through sound education, profound knowledge, understanding, and vast experience as planned by God as part of his plan of making all things new. (compare Rev. 13:18; 17:9a) The lesson being put across from this is that the understanding and explanation of the Book of Revelation are not the preserve or prerogative of the prophets of God or the ones claiming the Holy Spirit's anointing, truly or falsely! It is done strictly in accordance with God's plan of making all things new!

449 Each one of the four living creatures had six wings, and they were covered with eyes, inside and out. The four living creatures, in the middle of, and surrounding the throne on each of its sides, were covered with eyes in front and behind. The six wings are the six functional departments (equivalent to modern governmental ministries charged with specific distinctive functions) each one of the four covenants or institutions has. They are the six distinctive departmental or ministerial functions that the Son of God, as the key player of the four covenants or as the one in charge of the four institutions, has to perform 1; as a king, 2; as a creator, 3; as a life-giver, 4; as a priest, 5; as a judge, and 6; as a destroyer (of Satan and the works of Satan) who is the first and the last, the beginning and the end; the Son of God wears many crowns! (Rev. 19:12) The Lamb of Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, is charged with many responsibilities!

450 The eyes that cover each one of the bodies of the four living creatures, in front and behind, and the eyes that cover the six wings, inside and out, mean that the covenants or institutions and their distinctive functional departments or ministries have universal and everlasting relevance and application. The Lamb of Jesus Christ is a king, a creator, a life-giver, a priest, a judge, and a destroyer for ever; and his kingship, creatorship, life-giving duties and powers, priesthood, and destructive duties and powers are universal, in as much as the eyes are positioned to see everywhere at the same time, and eyes have powers to see into the infinite distance if unblocked by opacity. The four institutions and their six distinctive functional departments or ministries or positions of responsibility have universal and everlasting application, relevance, and oversight!

451 The essence of the six-winged living creatures covered with eyes in front and behind and with eyes covering the wings, inside and out, had remained part of the secret plan of God, since the time of “Adam and Eve” when their existence in secrecy was revealed in the pronouncements following the dishing out of punishment to the snake, to Adam, and to the woman, for the roles they played in their disobedient acts, and the duty assigned the seed of the woman to undo the evil works of the Devil, which brought about the disobedience. It was therefore appropriate, and also to be expected, that what the creation of the four living creatures entailed would be revealed when the Lamb broke the seven seals and opened the scroll containing the secret plan of God, the plan containing the details of the processes of the making of all things new.

452 The four living creatures came into being to drive Adam and Eve out of the Garden of God, aborting their prospect of living for ever, and their essence was demonstrated from that time in the following way; (The breaking of the first four seals by the anointed group of twelve apostles reveals how God, as Jesus Christ, and the Lamb, as the anointed group of twelve children or apostles, created the four living creatures from A.D. 30, when Jesus Christ resurrected, returned as the Lamb, and was given all authority in heaven and on earth to rule as Lord and King.):

6:1 to 2

Revelation 6

The First Seal

453 John recorded what he saw as follows: “Then I saw the Lamb break open the first of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice that sounded like thunder, 'Come!' I looked, and there was a white horse. Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown. He rode out as a conqueror to conquer.” (Rev. 6:1, 2; compare Scroll at Ps. 110:1 to 3) It was the living creature that looked like a lion that said, “Come!” (The breaking open of a seal means making open to public knowledge what, hitherto, was a secret and hidden.)

454 What the creation of the life and existence of the first living creature, the Covenant for A Kingdom, the institution of kingship or rulership, entailed was the crowning of Jesus, the Son of God, as a king, who would be made to ride a white horse, that is, he would lead and direct a clean people, who are his called, chosen, and faithful followers, the priestly class as a kingdom of priests and given the right weapon of God's word to ride out as a conqueror to conquer Satan and his forces. Anointed with the Holy Spirit, they will teach the true knowledge of God to all mankind in order to overcome the falsehood taught by Satan through her many religions led by the Famous Prostitute who is the Christian Church of today. The first living creature is the white horse (the 144,000 people) and its rider (the Lamb) holding a bow without arrows to represent non-carnal warfare, and given a crown who rides out as a conqueror to conquer. It is the church of Jesus of Nazareth, the 144,000 people, led by the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, the new Lamb, and born on Pentecost Day, A.D. 30, which went out to conquer Satan and the Sanhedrin, seize and occupy the leadership-rulership position of God's people triumphantly as conquerors. Anointed Simon Peter with the other anointed eleven Galilean apostles announced it to the people of Israel that God had made Jesus "Lord and Messiah (Anointed One)", and his followers a kingdom of priests and that he would judge the living and the dead with them. (compare 1Pet. 2:9, 10; Act. 10:42)

455 This event was the fulfilment of the prophecy about the covenant for a kingdom recorded in the Scroll: “Why do the nations plan a rebellion? Why do people make useless plots? Their kings revolt, their rulers plot together against the Lord and against the king he chose. From his throne in heaven the Lord laughs and mocks their feeble plans. Then he warns them in anger and terrifies them with his fury.' On Zion, my sacred hill', he says, I have installed my king.'

456 “I will announce', says the king, 'what the Lord has declared. He said to me: “You(anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles) are my son; today (Pentecost Day, A.D. 30) I have become your father.Ask, and I will give you all the nations; the whole earth will be yours. You will break them with an iron rod; you will shatter them in pieces like a clay pot.””

457 “Now listen to this warning, you kings; learn this lesson, you rulers: Serve the Lord with fear; tremble and bow down to him; or else his anger will be quickly aroused, and you will suddenly die. Happy are all who go to him for protection.” (Scroll at Ps. 2:1 to 12; compare Acts 4:23 to 31; Sc. = Scroll; signifies that the quoted scripture forms part of the scroll in the right hand of the one who sits on the throne.)458 The covenant for a kingdom enthrones the Lamb of Jesus Christ to rule all the nations of the whole world as his subjects with a rod of iron, completely undo the wicked works of Satan, and create a new heaven and a new earth over which his kingship and priesthood will reign for ever and ever. (compare Rev. 1:5; 12:15; 19:11 to 16) This living creature looks like a kingly lion. “The Lamb who was killed is worthy to receive Power.” (Rev. 5:12) The Kingdom of God or the Government of God, therefore, refers to kingship or governance that is conferred on the new Lamb of Jesus Christ and his other disciples by God or Jesus Christ and from heaven as against kingship or governance conferred on people by man and from the earth through selection by kingmakers or election at the polls under the direction, authority and power of Satan the Devil. And the kingship of the new Lamb of Jesus Christ and his called, chosen, and faithful followers, the white horse and its rider, got its start in A.D. 30. This was the first living creature that was commanded to come into being in A.D. 30. That was the start of the New Age or the New World!(Matt. 19:28)

6:3 to 4

The Second Seal

459 “Then the Lamb broke open the second seal; and I heard the second living creature say, 'Come!' Another horse came out, a red one. Its rider was given the power to bring war on earth, so that men should kill each other. He was given a large sword.” (Rev.6:3, 4; compare Scroll at Ps. 2:7 to 9) It was the living creature that looked like a bull that said, “Come!”

460 The creation of the life and existence of the second living creature, the Covenant of the rainbow, the Covenant for the preservation of all living beings, the institution of subjection, entails the making of mortal life, all living things, to exist and exist for ever on earth and be affected exactly as mortal life is made to succumb to death and destruction. The rider of the red horse is the Lamb of Jesus Christ, and the red depicts mortal-life existence, the life and existence prone and subject to death and destruction. The red horse that he rides is the mortal human race consisting of the political nations and their rulers, as a separate entity from all other non-human living beings on earth, from A.D. 30 to the threshold of the new heaven and the new earth, over which he rules as the King of kings and the Lord of lords of the nations (= the nation-states), which he rules with an iron rod, which was given him in the form of a large sword, and so, inevitably, spilling blood, wreaking destruction and death, the red that covers this phase of his kingship and rulership over all the rulers of the earth and their sovereign nation-states which came into being since A.D. 30. There will be war on earth among the political nation-states created since A.D. 30 so that men should kill each other under this phase! (compare Matt. 24:6, 7; Lk. 21; 10, 11).

461 The second living creature is the red horse and its rider, who is given a large sword which is the symbol of the power to bring war on earth, so that men should kill each other. It is the group of independent sovereign nation-states that came up out of the Roman Empire after its defeat, which were made to go to war among themselves over controversial political, commercial, religious, and other issues instigated by the Lamb of Jesus Christ, the King of kings, resulting in men killing each other. (compare Matt. 10:34 to 39) The independent sovereign nation-states came into existence beginning with the ten kings that gave their power to the Roman Empire to prosecute wars against the Lamb and his followers; they later joined the Roman Empire to fight the Church of Rome in order to separate Church from State; and, thereafter, they fought among themselves culminating in the first and second world wars. This phase of the rulership of the new Lamb, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, together with the called, chosen, and faithful followers, became more conspicuous with the outbreak of the Judean War in A.D. 70.

462 “Grace and peace be yours from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the ruler of the kings of the world.” (Rev. 1:4b, 5) “Then she gave birth to a son (a boy = a male Lamb), who will rule over all nations (who will ride the red horse) with a rod of iron (with a large sword made of iron).” (Rev. 12:5a) “Out of his mouth came a sharp sword, with which he will defeat the nations. He will rule over them with a rod of iron, (he will ride the red horse with a large sword in his hand), and he will trample out the wine in the winepress of the furious anger of the Almighty God.” (Rev. 19:15) All these quotations from the Book of Revelation show how Jesus Christ's Son, the new Lamb, rules or rides the nations or the red horse with an iron rod or a large sword given him to bring war so that men should kill each other. (compare Matt. 10:34 to 39) This is the living creature that looks like an expendable bull! “The Lamb who was killed is worthy to receive Wealth!” (Rev. 5:12; compare Sc. Is. 61:6) The true knowledge about God in the hand of the Lamb of Jesus Christ as an iron rod or a large sword generates controversies among the nations which go to war so that men should kill each other over religious and other issues. In this way the new Lamb of Jesus Christ uses war as a weapon to destroy the works of Satan the Devil consisting of the enemy sovereign nation-states and the rival churches and religions warring among themselves to destroy themselves.

6:5 to 6

The Third Seal

463 “Then the Lamb broke open the third seal; and I heard the third living creature say, 'Come!' I looked, and there was a black horse. Its rider held a pair of scales in his hand. I heard what sounded like a voice coming from among the four living creatures, which said, 'A litre of wheat for a day's wages, and three litres of barley for a day's wages. But do not damage the olive-trees and the vine-yards.'" (Rev. 6:5, 6; compare Sc. Gen. 3:17 to 19) It was the living creature that had a face like a human face that said, “Come!”

464 The creation of the life and existence of the third living creature, the Covenant with Abraham to make man live for ever, entails the making of man, mortal man, among all living beings, to attain immortality to fulfil God's revealed original intention and decision to make man in the image of God and in his likeness. The blessing of all nations of mankind with eternal life is the essence of the covenant of God with Abraham. The black horse is or represents the mortal human race in the hue of black, which is the symbol of mortality, death and mourning, the disgrace of man which God will do away with throughout the world. (compare Sc. Is. 25:8) The black horse is the mortal human race or mortal humanity existing as one family rather than as separate or divided warring independent sovereign nation-states represented as the red horse. It is the mortal human race that came into being in A.D. 30, in which the Holy Spirit came to live in order to create and confirm the prospect of this human race living for ever. (compare Sc. Joel 2:28 to 32). Jesus, as a mortal human being, at the time of his baptism, was given God's Spirit and made the second Adam of this new human race! (compare Rev. 1:8)

465 The rider, ruler or leader of the new mortal human race with the prospect of living for ever is the new Lamb of Jesus Christ, who, himself, was made a mortal human being like ourselves to be the first man, the second Adam, of the new human creation. He held a pair of scales in his hand. The pair of scales was for weighing or measuring out food (and wine or drink) for the nourishment, sustenance, and maintenance of mortal and immortal life. The new Lamb of Jesus Christ is the source of both mortal and immortal life; and what is he told to do with this power of providing food (and wine or drink) for the nourishment, sustenance, and maintenance of mortal and immortal life? (compare John 5:26 to 29; 21:15 to 17; Rev. 7:10)

466 There was a voice from among the four living creatures. It was the voices in unison of all the four living creatures, which showed that all the four covenants have the one objective of making mortal man live for ever, by upgrading his mortality to immortality. For the two types of life, the four living creatures tell or implore the new Lamb of Jesus Christ that there would and should be scarcity of the type of foods that nourishes, sustains, and maintains mortal life, in line with what God told Adam to toil to have the earth produce anything to nourish, sustain, and maintain him until death. (compare Sc. Gen. 3:17 to 19) Food and drink will be so expensive, so scarce, that the black horse of mortality, death, and mourning will ride high among mortal humanity. But there would and should be no damage to the bearers, providers or producers of the food and drink for nourishing, sustaining, and maintaining eternal life, who are symbolized as the olive-trees and the vine-yards. The olive-trees and the vine-yards are the sources or springs of life-giving water. (compare Rev. 7:16, 17; 22:14, 17).

467 The third living creature is the black horse and its rider, the new Lamb of Jesus Christ, holding a pair of scales in his hand. It is the new human race led by the new Lamb of Jesus Christ, the second Adam, which is made to face shortage of food or resources on which mortal life depends, but given preachers of life-giving knowledge who are under the protection of Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, and so will not suffer any damage. The difference between the human race before Jesus and after Jesus is that, the one after Jesus has the new Lamb of Jesus Christ to lead it to life eternal; but the other before Jesus did not; it lived in the hope of meeting Jesus in the future and had the first Adam leading it. So the black horse and its rider were created in A.D. 30, they being the third living creature. It is the new human race being led by the new Lamb or the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ to acquire immortality.

468 The new Lamb of Jesus Christ, who has eternal life to give freely to the new human race, is the Faithful Witness and the Lord of the earth. The message of salvation, of eternal life, will be proclaimed by Jesus' two witnesses: “The two witnesses are the two olive-trees and the two lamps that stand before the Lord of the earth.” (Rev. 11:3 to 4) The anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles as the new Lamb and the 144,000 Spirit-sealed disciples as the Bride are represented as the two witnesses.

469 Jesus Christ is also the true vine, and his two witnesses are the branches, so that they together are the vine-yards. This is how Jesus described himself and his priestly followers as the vine-yard belonging to his Father, the gardener:

470 “I am the real vine, and my Father is the gardener. He breaks off every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will be clean and bear more fruit. You have been made clean already by the teaching I have given you. Remain united to me, and I will remain united to you. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself; it can do so only if it remains in the vine. In the same way you cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me.

471 “I am the vine, and you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me. Whoever does not remain in me is thrown out like a branch and dries up; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, where they are burnt. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, then you will ask for anything you wish, and you shall have it. My Father's glory is shown by your bearing much fruit; and in this way you become my disciples. I love you just as the Father loves me; remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.

472 “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life (in service) for them. And you are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name. This, then, is what I command you: love one another.” (John 15:5 to 17)

473 So, the command or instruction: “But do not damage the olive-trees and the vine-yards!”, is the blessing to Jesus' brothers and friends, the two witnesses, to be preserved and protected sufficiently in order to “bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures” – the kind of fruit or food that gives or nourishes, sustains, and maintains eternal life. (compare Matt. 4:4)

474 The witnesses are two; the olive-trees are two; and the lamps are two, who are the two apostolic and non-apostolic groups of adult male disciples of Jesus Christ who formed the two priestly groups used to preach and teach the true knowledge of God on which eternal life depends. The Spirit embodies the true knowledge of God. That is why it is the Spirit (= the new Lamb) and the Bride (= 144,000 Spirit-sealed people) that invite people to come for life's water free! (compare Rev. 22:17)

475 The third living creature had a face like a man's face. The everlasting covenant with Abraham to bless all nations of the earth with eternal life, through Jesus Christ, the offspring of the woman, gives the covenant a man's face to show how and why man, or humanity, the only creature endowed with wisdom, among all mortal living beings, is singled out for this blessing of immortality. It is an act of wisdom. So “The Lamb who was killed is worthy to receive Wisdom!” (Rev. 5:12)

6:7 to 8

The Fourth Seal

476 “Then the Lamb broke open the fourth seal; and I heard the fourth living creature say, 'Come!' I looked, and there was a pale-coloured horse. Its rider was named Death, and Hades (or the world of the dead) followed close behind. They were given authority over a quarter of the earth, to kill by means of war, famine, disease, and wild animals.” (Rev. 6:7 to 8) It was the living creature that looked like an eagle in flight that said, “Come!”

477 The creation of the life and existence of the fourth living creature, the priesthood Covenant or the Institution of Everlasting Priesthood, entails the covenanting by God with a people who will serve God as priests for ever. The Kingdom of priests was to come out of the Mosaic and the new covenants. The Mosaic covenant was to be replaced by the new covenant, which begot the Christian Church, Christians, and Christendom. (compare Sc. Ex. 19:5, 6; Sc. Jer. 31:31 to 34). The Christian Church, inhabiting Christendom, became corrupt, unchaste, as a pale-coloured horse, ridden, all the same, by the new Lamb of Jesus Christ, as the head of the Christian Church. Being pale means it is not ruddy, not fresh, not chaste, not virgin, but prostitute, “the Famous Prostitute”. (compare Rev. 17:1 to 6). The Pope, the self-styled Vicar of Jesus Christ, is the actual Destroyer. Death is followed close behind by Hades, (or the world of the dead) or the Destroyer. The Church of Jesus of Nazareth led by the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles or the new Lamb, which became corrupt later, is symbolized as being ridden by a rider named Death. Hades or the world of the dead, which symbolized the Christian Church of Antioch in Syria led by Joseph Barnabas and Paul of Tarsus, followed close behind, being formed a few or some years after Pentecost Day, A.D. 30, when the anointed Church of Jesus of Nazareth was founded in Jerusalem. The corrupt Church of Jesus of Nazareth ridden by Death or the new Lamb of Jesus Christ, followed close behind by Hades or the Christian Church of Antioch in Syria founded by Joseph Barnabas and Paul of Tarsus, now ridden by the Pope, brought war, famine, disease, and wild animals to kill people, to cause the death of people, in all the places Christianity was pushed by the popes, missionaries, crusaders, Christian merchants, discoverers, explorers, colonizers, and colonialists whose killing and destructive authority covered a quarter of the earth.

478 Jesus said that his church would be so fermented, so corrupted, that it would be abandoned while the faithful imprisoned in her would be called upon to come out of her. (compare Matt. 13:33; 13:24 to 30, 47 to 50; Rev. 18:1 to 3). From the people of Israel in the diaspora chosen to be members of the church of Jesus of Nazareth of the first century were picked 144,000 first-fruits by the new Lamb, who interfaced with “people from every tribe, language, nation, and race, which by the new Lamb's death he bought for God. (The new Lamb) made them a kingdom of priests and they shall rule on earth” as priests, kings, and judges. (Rev. 5:9 to 10)

479 Jesus Christ now as the Lamb, the rider of the pale-coloured horse, the unchaste Christian Church, the Famous Prostitute, whose membership of Christians live in Christendom, was named Death, and Hades (or the world of the dead, that is, the Catholic Church of Joseph Barnabas and Paul of Tarsus) followed close behind, because, during the tenor of the Lamb's rulership of Christendom, or of the unchaste Christian Church inhabiting Christendom, Death and Hades or the world of the dead, will be busied by horrific and horrendous deaths that will occur by means of war, famine, disease, and wild animals as barbarians among Christendom's nations and peoples who will cover a quarter of the surface and population of the earth. The chaotic conditions in Christendom will require that the priests being bought for God are carried on the wings of an eagle that Jesus Christ, replaced by the new Lamb, symbolizes. This pale-coloured horse, the fourth living creature, got its start or was founded or created in A.D. 30. In reference to such chaotic conditions developing while the new Lamb carried out the harvesting work, Jesus forewarned his disciples, saying, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the world. No, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword ..." (Matt. 10:34 to 39; 24:6 to 8)

480 The Lamb of Jesus Christ, himself, at the beginning of the tenor of Christendom, had to have authority over death and the world of the dead in order to become the rider of the pale-coloured horse. (compare Rev. 1:18) “Death”, the name given the rider Jesus as the Lamb, and “Hades (or the world of the dead or the Catholic Church of the Pope, the Destroyer)” were given authority over a quarter of the earth. It means that the Christian Church, Christians, and Christendom, will have influence and control over a quarter of the territory and population of the earth, which approximated the realm and population of the area ruled by the Emperor of the Holy) Roman Empire, which was Christendom. The fourth living creature is the pale-coloured horse and its rider named Death, and Hades following close behind. It is the Church of Jesus of Nazareth which became corrupt and was ridden by the Lamb of Jesus Christ named Death, and followed by the Christian Church of Barnabas and Paul close behind as Hades or the world of the dead, because all those who believed the false teaching of Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas died, that is, were excluded from the Church of Jesus of Nazareth. The corrupt Church of Jesus of Nazareth and the Christian Church of Barnabas and Paul were given authority over the realm of the Holy Roman Empire to kill by means of war, famine, disease, and wild animals as barbarians.

481 Death and Hades were given authority over the territory of the Holy Roman Empire to kill by means of war, famine, disease, and wild animals as barbarians. The history of the Christianized Roman Empire in which the Church of Jesus of Nazareth was founded in Jerusalem in A.D. 30 followed close behind by the founding of the Christian Church at Antioch in Syria by Barnabas and Paul some years later and after A.D. 34, is replete with enormous deaths caused by conventional wars, the crusades, famine, disease and Christian barbarian invasions of the Goths, Huns, Vandals, and Parthians described symbolically as “wild animals” or wild or uncivilized beings or creatures, who brought down the Roman Empire and plunged it into the Dark Ages. It is during the ride of the pale-coloured horse and its rider Death followed close behind by Hades which is the tenor of the Church of Jesus of Nazareth and the Christian Church of Barnabas and Paul from the first century (and especially from A.D. 325) to the fall of the Holy Roman Empire in the early nineteenth century, that the new Lamb through his slaughter and like an eagle in flight, buys for God, the 144,000 Spirit-sealed people and an enormous crowd of “people from every tribe, language, nation, and race. He makes them a kingdom of priests to serve our God, and they shall rule on earth.” This picking of people to serve God as priests occurred during the period that the called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus Christ suffered the great persecution at the hands of the crusaders, the inquisitors, Jesuit confessors and teachers, and the beast who symbolized the Roman Empire number 666. Those terrible conditions necessitated the rescuer, the new Lamb of Jesus Christ, to carry the priests as an eagle carries her young on her wings and brings them to safety, to himself. This is the eagle in flight that the fourth living creature depicts and represents. The two wars fought by the new Lamb to rescue the priests caused enormous deaths which earned him the name Death metaphorically, while the Church of the Pope earned the name Hades for being the Church of Paul and Barnabas whose members die from believing its false teachings and for the part it took in destroying God's people and those loyal to only Jesus, the so-called enemies of the Roman Catholic Church or the Church of Rome.

482 All the four living creatures involve Jesus, represented on earth by the new Lamb, as the main player in the execution of the statutes of the four covenants. All the four living creatures have eyes, in front and behind, which means that the four covenants or institutions will exist and apply universally and eternally. All the four living creatures have six wings covered with eyes, inside and out.

This also means that the six distinctive institutional functions to be performed by the new Lamb of Jesus Christ, as enshrined in the four covenants, are both universal and eternal: The new Lamb of Jesus Christ will be the universal king eternally over the new creation. He will be the life-giver and the source of both mortal and immortal life universally and eternally. He will be the universal and eternal Creator and Father of the new heaven and the new earth.

He will be the universal and eternal priest of God in the New City of Peace. God the Father has committed all judgements to the Son, the new Lamb, who will judge his people universally and eternally. Finally, Jesus Christ, represented on earth by the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles as the new Lamb, the composite Son, the new Lord God Almighty, will be the Destroyer of Satan the Devil and of all his evil works universally and eternally. The new Lamb is the resurrected Jesus Christ in Composite Human Form!

483 The four living creatures surround the throne of God and in the centre of it as the four principal means, avenues, or institutions by which God's kingly authority, governing authority, is exercised throughout the whole world. They are, namely, Kingship as an institution that will last for ever; Subjection as an institution that will last for ever; Anointed (Immortal) humanity as an institution that will last for ever; and Priesthood as an institution that will last for ever! They are represented pictorially as a white horse and its rider; a red horse and its rider; a black horse and its rider; and a pale-coloured horse and its rider!

They were all created or brought into being in A.D. 30, as the Church of Jesus of Nazareth in Jerusalem led by anointed Simon Peter with the other anointed eleven apostles as the new Lamb; the sovereign nation-states ruled by the new Lamb of Jesus Christ with a rod of iron. They are the warring nation-states that came into being as the Roman Empire fell and was broken into pieces with the rod of iron by the new Lamb of Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords; the prospective immortal human race that came into being starting with the new Lamb of Jesus Christ as the second Adam; the new Lamb of Jesus Christ is the leader of the new human race; and the fused two corrupt churches of Jesus of Nazareth and Barnabas and Paul of today which is the Christian Church living in Christendom today! The new Lamb took the place of Jesus Christ from Pentecost Day, A.D. 30 to bring the new creation into being. The anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles led by anointed Simon Peter, as the new Lamb, occupied the centre of the throne and brought into being all the four living creatures under the direction and influence of the Holy Spirit who was Jesus Christ living in them and among them! The breaking open of the fourth seal and the coming into being of the fourth living creature reveal the enormous strength required and utilized by the new Lamb to rescue the priests on the wings during the turbulent times. “The Lamb who was killed is worthy to receive … Strength!” (Rev. 5:12)

6:9 to 11

The Fifth Seal

484 “Then the Lamb broke open the fifth seal. I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed because they had proclaimed God's word and had been faithful in their witnessing. They shouted in a loud voice, 'Almighty Lord, holy and true! How long will it be until you judge the people on earth and punish them for killing us?' Each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to rest a little while longer, until the complete number of their fellow-servants and brothers had been killed, as they had been.” (Rev. 6:9 to 11)

485 People like Abel, Enoch, Noah, and others who lived before Abraham have been mentioned as God's messengers who proclaimed God's word and were faithful in their witnessing. Such messengers of God have been sent to all nations, tribes, languages, and races of the world before Jesus. (compare 2 Pet. 2:5; Heb. 11:5; Ju. 14: Sc. Gen. 5:24; Sc. 1 Ch.1:1 to 4) Many of them suffered death at the hands of the people on earth because they had proclaimed God's word and were faithful in their witnessing. At the time of Abraham the Lord said to him, "Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's home and go to a land that I am going to show you.

I will give you many descendants, and they will be a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, but I will curse those who curse you. And through you I will bless all the nations." (Sc. Gen. 12:1 to 3; compare Sc. Is. 25:6 to 9)

486 God promised to give eternal life to all human beings inhabiting all the nations through Abraham. This promise was given to show how God was going to complete his creation plan revealed in the beginning to make human beings immortal like God who is immortal. The descendants of Jacob who became the descendants of Abraham according to this promise were told by God that if they would obey and keep his covenant to be made with them, then, he would make them his special people to be used to serve him as priests, in furtherance of this promise to give eternal life to all human beings through Abraham whose descendants they were.

487 “The Lord called to (Moses) from the mountain and told him to say to the Israelites, Jacob's descendants: 'You saw what I, the Lord, did to the Egyptians and how I carried you as an eagle carries her young on her wings, and brought you here to me. Now, if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own people. The whole earth is mine, but you will be my chosen people, a people dedicated to me alone, and you will serve me as priests.' So Moses went down and called the leaders of the people together and told them everything that the Lord had commanded him. Then all the people answered together, 'We will do everything that the Lord has said,' and Moses reported this to the Lord.” (Sc. Ex. 19:3 to 8)

488 The next day when the Lord attempted to make the covenant with them they ran away for fear they would die from the fire, smoke, thunder, lightning, and the earthquake which occurred in the vicinity of Mount Sinai. They requested God to use Moses as a mediator. But God, though acknowledging their request as being wise, told them that he would not use Moses as a mediator. He said he would put the making of the covenant which they had broken on hold, and send them another prophet like Moses from among the descendants of Jacob, who would make a new covenant with the people of Israel and the people of Judah in the future. (compare Sc. Jer. 31:31 to 34)

489 “When the people heard the thunder and the trumpet blast and saw the lightning and the smoking mountain, they trembled with fear and stood a long way off. They said to Moses, 'If you speak to us, we will listen; but we are afraid that if God speaks to us, we will die.'” (Sc. Ex. 20:18 to 19).

490 Moses went and put the request of the people to the Lord. The Lord told Moses that the people had made a wise request, but he would not use him as a mediator. Rather he would send them another prophet like Moses in the future to make a new covenant with them. Moses did not tell the people this response from God, there and then. He hid it from them and disclosed it to them after about forty years when he was about to die; even though he had already sealed the covenant put on hold with the blood of animals which he threw on the people. (compare Ex. 24:1 to 11)

491 “Then Moses said …'On the day that you were gathered at Mount Sinai, you begged not to hear the Lord speak again or to see his fiery presence any more because you were afraid you would die. So the Lord said to me, “They have made a wise request. I will send them a prophet like you from among their own people: I will tell him what to say, and he will tell the people everything I command.

He will speak in my name, and I will punish anyone who refuses to obey him.””” (Sc. Deut. 18:14 to 19)

492 The prophet like Moses came as Jesus Christ. (compare Acts 3:22 to 23) The covenant he was to make with the people of Israel and the people of Judah is recorded in the Scroll by Jeremiah at Jer. 31:31 to 34. Jesus Christ told the Jews, the descendants of Jacob, that the promise to bless all human beings with eternal life through Abraham whose descendants they were, was going to be abandoned, because they failed to obey him who came as the prophet like Moses.

493 “Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and his disciples. 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone the messengers God has sent you! How many times have I wanted to put my arms round all your people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not let me! And so your Temple will be abandoned and empty. From now on, I tell you, you will never see me again until you say, 'God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord.'” (Matt. 23:1, 37 to 39).

494 God promised to make the Israelites his special people out of all peoples of the earth who belonged to him, provided they would obey him and keep his covenant. When God attempted to make the covenant with them they requested God not to do it face-to-face with them, but through Moses as a mediator. God would not make the covenant through Moses as a mediator and so told them that he was going to send them Jesus, a prophet like Moses, from among their own people to make a new covenant to replace the old covenant, which they broke by refusing to let God make it face-to-face with them.

495 During the time between when they refused to allow God to make the covenant with them and the coming of Jesus, God kept a husbandry relationship between the Israelites and himself by sending them prophets, wise men, and teachers who were to lead them to the prophet like Moses. But, instead of the Israelites receiving these prophets, wise men and teachers and receiving the blessings God sent along with them, they killed some of them, crucified others, and whipped others in their synagogues and chased them from town to town. As a result of this wicked behaviour Israel became wayward and got lost completely from meeting, recognizing, welcoming, and listening to Jesus Christ in everything when he came.

496 At the time of the prophet Malachi (Malachi means 'my messenger'), Israel was at the brink of getting lost completely, so God sent Malachi, his messenger, to try to win them back to himself and also encourage them to remain faithful by reminding them of the coming of Jesus to make the new covenant with them, which was to happen very soon.

497 “The Lord Almighty answers, 'I will send my messenger (who is John the Baptist) to prepare the way for me. Then the Lord (the Almighty, that is, I, myself, ) you are looking for will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger (who is the Jesus Christ) you long to see will come and proclaim my covenant.'" (Sc. Mal.3:1)

498 “The Lord you are looking for”, that is, God the Almighty himself, “will suddenly come to his temple.” The Temple of the Lord Almighty was the human body of Jesus. On the day of Jesus' baptism in the river Jordan by John the Baptist, “The Lord Almighty”, in the form of the Holy Spirit, came suddenly and occupied the human body of Jesus, which was his Temple. (compare John 2:19; 14:10 to 11; 1 Cor. 6:19) In this form, that is, with Jesus having become the Christ, having been anointed with the Holy Spirit, having the Father living in him and he living in the Father, Jesus Christ became the messenger they longed to see, the Lord God Almighty in human form, who came to proclaim God's covenant, the new covenant, to the lost sheep of the people of Israel only. (Matt. 10:5 to 6; 15:24; compare Sc. Deut. 5:2 to 3)

499 At the end of three and a half years of non-stop preaching and teaching of the Kingdom of God, that is, proclaiming the covenant to make the Israelites a kingdom of priests, Jesus Christ revealed that, like Moses, he too had failed to get the obedience and cooperation of the Israelites, and so, the promise of God to the effect that the Israelites would be made a special people of God, to be used to serve God as kings and priests was being abandoned. The Kingdom of God that was to start in Jerusalem (on Mount Zion) with Jesus Christ as the everlasting king and the Israelites as kings and priests to spread the blessing of this kingdom throughout the whole earth in the first century had been abandoned. It would not come on! So the Israelites as the Jews were, were Never made the Chosen People as promised! Something else was going to take their place to make the purpose of God to bring eternal life, immortality, to the entire human race come true eventually.

500 This action of Jesus Christ meant that he was giving away, sacrificing, his kingdom on earth among the Israelites for the Kingdom of heaven, which would be made up of “people” bought for God by the new Lamb, “from every tribe, language, nation, and race.” The new Lamb has “made them a kingdom of priests to serve our God and they shall rule on earth”, serving in a kingdom which God has come to establish on earth to replace the abandoned kingdom of the Jews, the people of Israel, of which David their ancestor was a king. (compare Sc. Is.2:1 to 4; Sc. Mi.4:1 to 4; Sc. Is.9:1 to 7; 25:6 to 9; Sc. Je. 31:31 to 34; and Sc. Is. 52:13 to 53:1 to 12; 65:17 to 25; Matt. 21:43)

501 The fifth seal deals with the promise of God to bless all human beings with immortal life through the Israelites which had to be abandoned for the reasons given and explained above, while the sixth seal deals with the replacement arrangement by God to bless all human beings with immortal life through, not the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, descendants of Abraham, but through the 144,000 Spirit-sealed, redeemed, Israelites in the diaspora bought for God (not the same as Israelites the gift of Abraham to God) and “an enormous crowd – no one could count all the people! They (are) from every race, tribe, nation, and people”. The 144,000 Spirit-sealed, redeemed Israelites in the diaspora were made, or bought for God by anointed Simon Peter with the other anointed eleven apostles, as the new Lamb, from A.D. 30 (to A.D. 34) when Jesus Christ, now, as the Holy Spirit, came to live in them in order to do his own work. The enormous crowd was made or saved by the new Lamb and the 144,000 Spirit-sealed people (= the Bride) from every race, tribe, nation, and people of the world ruled by the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. The twelve Galilean apostles, as “the souls of those who had been killed because they had proclaimed God's word and had been faithful in their witnessing,” were created or made by Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, when the new Lamb broke open the fifth seal in A.D. 30, when they were anointed with the Holy Spirit to replace Jesus Christ as his new Lamb. The composite Son of God, the new Lamb, to rule the New World for ever was, thus, born, begotten; while the breaking of the sixth seal brought into being the 144,000 Spirit-sealed people as the Bride of the new Lamb, and the enormous crowd as the other first fruits of all nations, tribes, languages, and races of the earth who will form the New Heaven of the New World. The New Heaven was thus born on Pentecost Day, A.D. 30.

502 So, at the time of the prophet Malachi, the Israelites had reached the brink of getting lost completely. (compare Sc. Mal. 3:6) And Malachi's efforts failing to make them turn back to God so that God too would turn back to them, God stopped sending any more prophets, wise men and teachers to them. (compare Sc. Mal. 3:7; Sc. Jer. 18:1 to 17) For about five hundred years from Malachi to John the Baptist, the Israelites were left on their own and that led to their getting lost completely by the time Jesus was born. This was why Jesus told, taught, and commanded his disciples to go to the lost sheep of the people of Israel only, whose God and Father, as at that time, was Satan the Devil, the Emperor of the Roman regime together with the Sanhedrin. (Matt. 10:5 to 6; 15:24; John 8:44).

503 What has been explained above explains what was revealed when the Lamb broke open the fifth seal.

504 “Then the Lamb broke open the fifth seal. I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed because they had proclaimed God's word and had been faithful in their witnessing.”

505 The altar (= the place of sacrifice) was on Mount Zion where Abraham symbolically was asked to sacrifice his son, Isaac, not himself, and which was the place promised him where his descendants were to be made a great nation. It symbolized the promise of God to him. All those prophets, wise men, and teachers who suffered death because they laboured to have this promise fulfilled, suffered, figuratively, underneath this Abrahamic promise or Abrahamic altar, hence their souls, reborn as the twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, being seen underneath this altar. (compare Is. 8:17 to 18) They had been killed because they had proclaimed God's word and had been faithful in their witnessing, concerning the future fulfilment of the promise to Abraham. The twelve Galilean apostles were "killed" when the arrest of Jesus scattered them. And proclamation of God's word is the altar underneath of which their souls were seen; that is, they suffered for their faithful witnessing and proclamation of God's word, which was the message of the Good News about the Kingdom of God. (compare Heb. 13:15) But in A.D. 30 when the new Lamb broke open the fifth seal, it was the disciples of Jesus Christ, figuratively killed, that is, scattered at the time of his arrest, who were seen shouldering the responsibility of proclaiming God's word and of being faithful in their witnessing, and so, figuratively, were the "souls" of those who, in the past, had been killed because they had proclaimed God's word and had been faithful in their witnessing. This suggests also of the twelve Galilean apostles being the reborn or resurrected old dead prophets of God. (compare Sc. Dan. 12:2 to 3, 13)

506 Soul is the spiritual part of a person believed to exist after death; it is also a person's character, containing their true thoughts and feelings. Thus, figuratively, those who now live and do the same work as done by their predecessors are the souls of their predecessors. Abraham, representing God, was asked to sacrifice his son, Isaac, not himself, and so, in the fulfilment, Jesus Christ, as the Lord God Almighty in human form, sacrificed his composite Son, the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, his children, his new Lamb, and not himself, who, as a spirit being, ascended to heaven where he was before coming to the earth.

On the cross the Holy Spirit, the Father Almighty, left the human body of Jesus Christ, his Temple, before Jesus, the mortal human being, could die immediately after. Thus, it was Jesus who died and not Jesus Christ. This is consistent with the reason why Jesus Christ shared his body and blood, symbolically, among only the twelve Galilean apostles to eat and drink so that they became his new Lamb from Pentecost Day, A.D. 30 when the Holy Spirit poured out on them.

507 The souls of the prophets, wise men, and teachers demanded to be told when God would judge and punish “the people on earth” for killing them, “because they had proclaimed God's word and had been faithful in their witnessing”. The “souls” seen were the twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, “sent with Jesus as living messages to the people of Israel”, charged with the proclamation of God's word.. (Isaiah. 8:18) “The people on earth” who committed the crime of killing them were the Israelites only to whom they were sent. But God would need to select and seal 144,000 fellow-servants and brothers of the twelve Galilean apostles from the lost sheep of the people of Israel in the diaspora, as revealed on the breaking open of the sixth seal, before any punishment could be administered to them; so they had to be told to rest a little while longer for this work to be done by Jesus and his disciples, the new Lamb, to be completed before the Israelites were punished for their past and present crimes. The souls as the twelve Galilean apostles asked Jesus Christ, as “Almighty Lord, holy and true”, “Tell us when all this will be, (that is, 'punishing the people on earth for killing us') and what will happen to show that it is time for your coming and the end of the (Jewish nation and) age for their destruction as punishment to them. (Matt. 24:3; 23:29 to 39; Lk. 21:20 to 24; compare Rev. 6:10)

508 To be told “to rest”, is to be told “to stop work” for a while. Their work of leading the Israelites to the prophet like Moses, so that the new covenant was made with them for the Abrahamic promise to be fulfilled with the Israelites as the channel of eternal life to all human beings, had to stop with Malachi as the last of their kind. “Each was given a white robe.” Each of them was given good deed to perform and so was declared purified by the teaching they had received from Jesus Christ and thus mentioned favourably by Jesus Christ as having performed their work faithfully which is what the white robe stood for. (compare John 15:3) Jesus spoke approvingly of the work which the twelve Galilean apostles were to shoulder in order to bring in the 144,000 Spirit-sealed people and the enormous crowd. (compare John 15:3 & Sc. Mal.3:2 to 3; Matt. 23:29 to 34; compare John 10:7 to 10). The “white robe” symbolized the purifying teaching that Jesus had given them. They were thus honoured for work done faithfully even though not necessarily done satisfactorily by their predecessors. (compare Lk. 22:28 to 30; Jn. 10:7 to 10) But they had to wait until Jesus Christ and his twelve Galilean apostles and the other disciples finished their work among the lost sheep of the people of Israel, which was the judging of “the people on earth” who had killed them and to hear from Jesus Christ, “The Almighty Lord, holy and true”, the sort of punishment to be meted out to them for killing them.

509 About Jesus Christ and his work of coming to judge the people of Israel, Malachi writes, “But who will be able to endure the day when he comes? Who will be able to survive when he appears? He will be like strong soap, like a fire that refines metal. He will come to judge like one who refines and purifies silver. As a metal worker refines silver and gold, so the Lord'S messenger will purify the priests, so that they will bring to the Lord the right kind of offerings. Then the offerings which the people of Judah and Jerusalem bring to the Lord will be pleasing to him, as they used to be in the past.

510 “The Lord Almighty says, 'I will appear among you to judge, and I will testify at once against those who practise magic, against adulterers, against those who give false testimony, those who cheat employees out of their wages, and those who take advantage of widows, orphans and foreigners – against all who do not respect me!'” (Sc. Mal.3:2 to 5; compare Lk.3:7 to 9, 15 to 17; Matt. 3:1 to 12)

511 Jesus Christ came as “the Lord Almighty, holy and true”, and failed to woo or win the stubborn Israelites to the Lord, that is, to himself. (compare Matt. 23:37 to 39) For three and a half years he judged the Israelites in “Judah and Jerusalem”. Then he recounted to the Israelites their history of persistent wrongdoing for which they were going to be punished for their disobedience and the killing of the prophets, wise men, and teachers sent to them.

512 “How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You make fine tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of those who lived good lives; and you claim that if you had lived during the time of your ancestors, you would not have killed the prophets. So you actually admit that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets! Go on, then, and finish what your ancestors started! (compare Rev. 6:11b) You snakes and sons of snakes! How do you expect to escape from being condemned to hell? And so I tell you that I (“the Lord Almighty, holy and true”) will send you prophets and wise men and teachers; you will kill some of them, crucify others, and whip others in the synagogues and chase them from town to town. As a result, the punishment for all the murders of all innocent men will fall on you, from the murder of innocent Abel to the murder of Zachariah son of Berachiah, whom you murdered between the Temple and the altar. I tell you indeed: the punishment for all these murders will fall on the people of this day!” (Matt. 23:29 to 36; compare Rev.6:10)

513 The punishment of the Israelites for the killing of the prophets, wise men, and teachers sent to them was to fall on the Jews who lived in “Judea and Jerusalem” in the generation that Jesus Christ and his disciples preached the Good News because they followed the wicked steps of their ancestors and continued to commit the murders in their own day. He said to them, “Remember that all these things will happen before the people now living have all died. Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away.” (Matt. 24:34 to 35)

514 True to this prophecy of Jesus Christ, Jerusalem, Judea and Palestine inhabited by returned Jews from Babylonian seventy-year exile, were devastated by Roman armies in A.D. 70. About 1,100,000 people were killed by the sword and 97,000 people were taken prisoner and sold into slavery away from Palestine into all countries. (compare Antiquities of the Jews, by Josephus Flavius; compare Matt. 24:1 to 35; Lk. 21:20 to 24). The occurrence of this punishment in A.D. 70, meant that Jesus Christ and his disciples, the purified priests, had completed the gathering of the 144,000 fellow-servants and brothers of those prophets, wise men, and teachers whose souls, represented by Jesus' disciples, were seen underneath the altar, as shouldering the responsibility of proclaiming God's word and being faithful to it, when the new Lamb broke open the fifth seal in A.D. 30. For the message of the Good News about the Kingdom of God was to be preached throughout the whole Roman world for a witness to all nations; and then the end of the Jews as a nation would come. (compare Matt. 24:14) The war of Judea and Jerusalem in A.D. 70 brought the Jewish nation and age to an end. The 144,000 people and the enormous crowd constituted "the right kind of offering" "pleasing to the Lord" that "the purified priests", the disciples of Jesus Christ, brought to or bought for the Lord. The Israelites or the Jews as the wrong kind of offering, offered by Abraham their ancestor, to the Lord which was not pleasing to him was replaced by "the people who will produce the proper fruits" bought by the new Lamb for the Lord.

515 The breaking open of the fifth seal by the new Lamb, revealed that those servants of God led by anointed Simon Peter with the other anointed eleven apostles who performed as prophets, wise men, and teachers among the people of Israel, had proclaimed God's word and had been faithful in their witnessing. “Each of them was given a white robe”, the purifying teaching or truth from Jesus Christ, as an honour each of them was worthy of. For “The Lamb who was killed is worthy to receive ... Honour ...!” (Rev. 5:12)

6:12 to 16

The Sixth Seal

516 “And I saw the Lamb break open the sixth seal. There was a violent earthquake, and the sun became black like coarse black cloth, and the moon turned completely red like blood. The stars fell down to the earth, like unripe figs falling from the tree when a strong wind shakes it. The sky disappeared like the scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island moved from its place.

Then the kings of the earth, the rulers and the military chiefs, the rich and the powerful, and all other people, slave and free, hid themselves in caves and under rocks on the mountains. They called out to the mountains and to the rocks. 'Fall on us and hide us from the eyes of the one who sits on the throne and from the anger of the Lamb. The terrible day of their anger is here and who can stand against it.'" (Rev.6:12 to 16)

517 The events revealed as occurring when the sixth seal is broken open are the events that happen during the period of the Roman Empire after the ascension of Jesus Christ and within the territories of the Roman Empire from the first century to the end of the twentieth century when the political and religious events occurring before the ending of the Holy Roman Empire ensure the gathering of the 144,000 Spirit-sealed, redeemed Israelite men in the diaspora and the enormous crowd of men both of whom are slated to be resurrected to rule with Christ, that is, the resurrected group of twelve Galilean apostles, the new Lamb, for a thousand years during the third millennium. (compare Rev. 1:10;

20:6) Jesus told his disciples of these developments occurring, starting from the first century with the Judean War of A.D. 70 as the “violent earthquake”, and the apostle Matthew recorded them in his Gospel at Matthew 24:15 to 22, 29 to 31. During the first two millennia, the 144,000 Spirit-sealed, redeemed Israelite men in the diaspora are gathered by the new Lamb, from the twelve tribes of the people of Israel scattered among all nations of the Roman Empire by A.D. 34, and the enormous crowd of men is gathered from every race, tribe, nation, and language across the length and breadth of the entire earth inhabited by all human beings, from the time Cornelius of Caesarea was made a disciple by anointed Simon Peter in about A.D. 34 to the demise of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 and beyond. The anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, as the new Lamb, thus, made public the hidden secret and explained the meaning by what their preaching and teaching service was planned to accomplish.

518 The demise of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 engendered the shifting or movement and changes in the positions, sizes, nature and character of the new empires and isolated powers and areas. The kings of the earth who were the rulers and the military chiefs, the rich and the powerful, and all other people, slave and free, came to find refuge in or to belong to the safe and powerful institutions, such as the United Nations Organization (uno) and other political, commercial and economic unions and religious and military unions and pacts, in the new empires that rose out of and after the demise of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. It is during the same time that Jesus Christ, as God the Almighty, who sits on the throne by his Spirit in the Lamb, and the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ led by anointed Simon Peter, as the new Lamb, in anger “fight” to redeem or salvage the 144,000 people from the rejected lost sheep of the people of Israel in the diaspora, and to save the enormous crowd from capture and bondage to the Holy Roman Empire, the marriage of the Roman Empire to the Church of Rome. These two actions of God and of the new Lamb caused such terrible havoc in the Holy Roman Empire that they led to the demise of the Jewish nation-state in 70, the Church of Rome in 1555 and the Roman Empire number 666 in 1806 necessitating the finding of new places of refuge and protection in new empires. The new empires or powers were essentially the Holy Roman Empire split into many parts, broken into many pieces with the rod of iron in the hand of the new Lamb, the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, and moved from its central place of Rome and Europe to the Americas, Asia, and Africa. The new Lamb broke them with an iron rod; he shattered them into pieces like a clay pot. (compare Sc. Ps. 2:9; Rev. 1:5; 12:5) The fleeing politicians and churchmen as pilgrims went to the Americas, Asia and Africa to found nations and churches that have coalesced as political and religious empires. The new empires made the isolated areas as “islands” also vanish.

519 “And I saw the Lamb break open the sixth seal. There was a violent earthquake, and the sun became black like coarse black cloth, and the moon turned completely red like blood. The stars fell down to the earth, like unripe figs falling from the tree when a strong wind shakes it.”

520 The violent earthquake took place as the Judean war in A.D. 70, when Roman armies invaded Judea, attacked and destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple to fulfil the following prophetic statement of Jesus Christ: “I tell you this: not a single stone here will be left in its place; every one of them will be thrown down.” (Matt. 24:2b; Lk. 21:20) This event was the answer to the question put to God by the souls of “those who had been killed because they had proclaimed God's word and had been faithful in their witnessing. They shouted in a loud voice, 'Almighty Lord, holy and true! How long will it be until you judge the people on earth and punish them for killing us.'” (Rev. 6:10) They were represented by the twelve Galilean apostles as their souls who asked the same question in fulfilment of this prophetic vision: “Tell us when all this will be, (that is, “when you will judge the people on earth and punish them for killing us”) and what will happen to show that it is time for your coming and the end of the (Jewish nation and) age.” (Matt. 24:3 compare 1 to 14)

521 Jesus Christ prophesied in answer to their question that the generation of the Jews that would include the year A.D. 70, would suffer the punishment for the killing of those people. He said, “You snakes and sons of snakes! How do you expect to escape from being condemned to hell? And so I tell you that I will send you prophets and wise men and teachers; you will kill some of them, crucify others, and whip others in the synagogues and chase them from town to town. As a result, the punishment for the murder of all innocent men will fall on you, from the murder of innocent Abel to the murder of Zachariah son of Berachiah, whom you murdered between the Temple and the altar. I tell you indeed: the punishment for all these murders will fall on the people of this day.” And “Remember that all these things will happen before the people now living have all died.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matt. 23:33 to 36; 24:34 to 35) “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by (Roman) armies, then you will know that she will soon be destroyed. Then those who are in Judaea must run away to the hills; those who are in the city must leave, and those who are out in the country must not go into the city. For those will be 'The Days of Punishment', to make all that the scriptures say come true. How terrible it will be in those days for mothers who are pregnant and for mothers with little babies!

Terrible distress will come upon this land, and God's punishment will fall on this people. Some will be killed by the sword (c. 1,100,000 of them), and others (c. 97,000) will be taken as prisoners to all countries; and the heathen (the nations) will trample over Jerusalem until their time is up (in 1806).” (Lk. 21:20 to 24) When the punishment was effected in 70 many of the twelve Galilean apostles and their seven spirits of God sent throughout the whole earth, such as James, Peter, Barnabas, Paul, and an unknown others had been killed.

522 The sun that became black like coarse black cloth, was the church of the twelve Galilean apostles in Jerusalem and Judea that the Roman invasion blotted out of existence and so rendered completely incapable of sending the twelve apostolic truth, the apostolic light or enlightenment to the satellite moon and stars that depended on it, at that time, for the twelve apostolic teachings. As a result of this, Judaism of the Jewish Council, as the moon, and the outlying churches, and synagogues outside Jerusalem and Judea, that hitherto drew their enlightenment from the church of the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles in Jerusalem, had their teachings turned completely red like blood. (compare Acts 5:1ff) Their teachings no longer served as the life-giving water from the twelve apostolic church, but turned bitter, sour or like deep-red blood, death-dealing, unable to bring life or to sustain life as pure water does in the body. The twelve apostle's church was exposed to corruption and swamping from the Christian church at Antioch in Syria. "Death", the twelve apostle's church exposed to corruption, "followed close behind by Hades (the world of the dead)", the Christian church at Antioch in Syria, thus became "the rider of the pale-coloured horse", the fused corrupt State Christian Church, the Church of Rome.

523 The stars that fell down to the earth, like unripe figs falling from the tree when a strong wind shakes it were the leaders, the angels, of the satellite churches, and members of the Jewish Council, as leaders and rulers of the Jews, like the moon that has no light of its own but reflects the light of the sun fell down from being religious leaders and rulers to become political leaders and rulers. Since these leaders and rulers depended on the church of the twelve Galilean apostles in Jerusalem for their enlightenment, they were still immature enough to operate as independent leaders and rulers of independent churches and synagogues. They were, thus, like unripe fruits, unripe figs, still stuck to the stem of the fruit-tree, the fig-tree, so that when a strong wind shakes the tree, these tender unripe figs fall down to “the earth” in their numbers to become political leaders and rulers. The Judean war of A.D. 70 was the strong wind that shook the fig-tree, the twelve Galilean apostle's church in Jerusalem, the sun, so that its dependent satellite churches, Judaism of the Jewish Council and their leaders of the synagogues suffered from contaminations in their teachings and loss by their leaders of the true teachings that used to come to them from the church of the twelve Galilean apostles in Jerusalem. These stars fell down to the earth, that is, they fell down from dealing with church or religious matters to involving themselves with political governance of the nations, “the earth”, to which they were scattered after the war in 70.

524 “The sky disappeared like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place.”

525 The sky that disappeared like a scroll being rolled up, was the Roman Empire number 666, the umbrella power that was gradually rolled up ahead and as a result of the growing and advancing power and influence of the Christian Church which grew gradually to overwhelm and cover the whole Empire. As a result, the constituent powers or identifiable sub-kingdoms or mountains of the ten kings of the Holy Roman Empire and the isolated powers as islands, outside the territory and influence of the Roman Empire number 666, changed in their positions, sizes, forms, nature, and character, “every mountain and island moved from its (former) place.”

526 It was during the time of the Holy Roman Empire that political, religious, economic, and social upheavals in Europe brought about the rush for colonization of the rest of the world by European powers forming various colonial empires that brought to an end the isolation of certain powers and areas of the world. China, Japan, and the United States of America were some of the isolated powers or “islands”, while Oceania, Australia, Asia, Africa south of the Sahara and South America were also some of the isolated areas as “islands” that the demise of the Holy Roman Empire followed by the colonial, commercial, and exploratory activities of the European powers “moved from their place”. Moved from their place in Europe and Rome, the frightened and shattered nations sought refuge and protection outside Europe and Rome in the League of Nations and the United Nations Organisation in the Americas where the centre of world superpower imperialism had moved to.

527 “Then the kings of the earth, the rulers and the military chiefs, the rich and powerful, and all other people, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and under rocks on the mountains. They called out to the mountains and to the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the eyes of the one who sits on the throne and from the anger of the Lamb! The terrible day of their anger is here, and who can stand against it.'”

528 As a result of the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, from which the various European empires as “mountains” emerged, the kings of the earth who were the rulers and the military chiefs, the rich and powerful, and the ruled or all other people, slave and free, who belonged to the demised Holy Roman Empire and outside it, had no choice but to become parts of the new European colonial empires that sought group refuge and protection in the League of Nations, the United Nations Organisation, the U.N.O. Specialized Agencies, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the Warsaw Pact, the Non-Aligned Movement, etcetera

529 “They hid in the caves and under rocks on the mountains.” They chose to belong to religious and military institutions and organisations within the empires such as North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (N.A.T.O.), Warsaw Pact, Non-Aligned Movement, South East Asia Nations Treaty Organisation (S.E.A.N.T.O.), the World Islamic Council, the World Council of Churches, the Catholic Conference, etcetera, with their chaplaincies which outwardly appeared to be Godly, Islamic, Christian or religious institutions and military organisations that would and could escape the scrutiny of the God Almighty, Jesus Christ, and the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, as the new Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God that had been sent throughout the whole earth, who were expected to look outside Christian and

religious institutions and organisations to exact punishment. Like the birds that took advantage of the Christian Church, these rulers and the ruled, hid themselves in the various denominational Christian churches and religious institutions and organisations in the new empires in search of refuge and protection “from the eyes of the one who sits on the throne, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and from the anger of the Lamb (that had seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God that have been sent throughout the whole earth).” (compare Matt. 13:31 to 32; Mk. 4:30 to 32; Lk. 13:18 to 19; Rev. 18:2)

530 They called out to the mountains and to the rocks, to fall on them and hide them from the anger of God and of the new Lamb who were Jesus Christ and his anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles led by their seven angels as Simon Peter, Joseph Barnabas, Paul of Tarsus, Athanasius of Alexandria, Aurelius Augustus of Hippo, Francis Bernardone of Assisi and Martin Luther of Wittenberg from the first century to the beginning of the 21st century. They gave themselves to the various Christianized European empires and Christianized and or religious armed forces' institutions and organisations, the crusades, the jihads, the Inquisition or the Holy Office, and the national and international churches, during the terrible day when they were angrily showing strength, might and power in redeeming the 144,000 people from the lost sheep of the people of Israel scattered across the length and breadth of the Roman Empire number 666 and saving the enormous crowd captured by the Roman Empire number 666 and thrown into the bondage of the Church of Rome. In the Judean War and the crusades, the Inquisition and the Counter-Reformation struggles, and the jihads, these rulers and the ruled found themselves fighting against God the Almighty, that is, Jesus Christ, and against the new Lamb, that is, the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ and their church. In the end they lost the wars to God the Almighty and to the new Lamb who succeeded in redeeming the 144,000 people from the rejected and lost sheep of the people of Israel in the diaspora, and succeeded in saving the enormous crowd from capture and bondage to the Holy Roman Empire, consisting of the Roman Empire number 666 and the Church of Rome, whose rule of the world was brought to an end together with the Islamic Ottoman Empire and the various colonial empires. No one could stand against God and against the new Lamb as they went about to redeem the 144,000 people and save the enormous crowd from the Roman World and the Islamic World to serve their future purpose of using them to rule the whole world in place of Europeans and Jews now being used by the enraged Satan the Devil, the shattered Judeo-European Holy Roman Empire, to rule and ruin the whole world. (compare Rev. 13:1 to 19)

7:1 to 8

Revelation 7

The 144,000 Spirit-Sealed People of Israel

531 “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds so that no wind should blow on the earth or the sea or against any tree. And I saw another angel coming up from the east with the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels to whom God had given the power to damage the earth and the sea. The angel said: 'Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, until we mark the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads'. And I was told the number of those who were marked with God's seal on their foreheads was 144,000. They were from the twelve tribes of Israel, twelve thousand from each tribe: Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin” Rev.7:1 to 8)

532 The four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds so that no wind should blow on the earth or the sea or against any tree, were the four Caesars heading the four Provinces into which the Roman Empire came to be divided to facilitate efficient management and administration of the huge Roman Empire, “the earth”. (see p. 104 pg. 2 Oxford Junior Ency. volume V. Great Lives) These four Caesars or Emperors had power to hold back any wind or force of war in the Roman Empire, and especially in Palestine, so that war would not disturb the earth (= the government), the sea (= the ruled masses of people), or against any tree (= or against any individual prominent persons or important institutions and organisations in the Empire). The other angel he saw coming from the east with the seal of the living God was the Lamb of Jesus Christ, the Galilean from the town of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem in King David's home-town, which was in the east of the Roman Empire. The angel, anointed Simon Peter with the other anointed eleven apostles, was the new Lamb.

533 The new Lamb of Jesus Christ led by anointed Simon Peter, from Pentecost Day, A.D. 30, called out in a loud voice to the four Caesars positioned over and constituting the four divisions of the Roman governing power, to whom God had given the power to damage, that is, the power to rule and or ruin, the earth and the sea. He said, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, until we mark the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads.” The new Lamb of Jesus Christ led by anointed Simon Peter, by the nature of his assignment had the requisite power to call implicitly on the rulers of the Roman world so that no wars, commotions or disturbances that could be caused by them did occur in the Empire or in Palestine to disturb or frustrate the work of the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, the “we”, among the lost sheep of the twelve tribes of Israel, who were in Palestine and also spread over the territories of the Roman Empire. (compare Matt. 28:18 to 20) This conditional peace in the Roman Empire was necessary in order that, and “until we (twelve Galilean apostles) mark the servants of our God with a seal (of the Spirit of God) on their foreheads”. From about A.D. 26 when Jesus was baptised in the Jordan River by John the Baptist and anointed with the Holy Spirit, the seal of the living God, until A.D. 70 when the Judean war occurred, there was to be reasonable peace ordered by the new Lamb of Jesus Christ within the entire realm of the Roman Empire, to ensure that the sealing work by the new Lamb went on unhindered by any wind of wars, commotions, upheavals or natural disasters. The sealing of the 144,000 servants of the new Lamb's God with the Holy Spirit started on Pentecost Day, A.D. 30, when Jesus Christ poured out the Holy Spirit on the twelve Galilean apostles led by Simon Peter and the other disciples; and was completed in A.D. 34, the end of the seven years of favour allotted to the Israelites. (compare Sc. Dan. 9:27)

534 Jesus Christ was sent to the lost sheep of the people of Israel only. (compare Matt. 10:5 to 6; 15:24; Sc. Deut. 18:18 to 19). He was to attempt to gather the lost sheep of the people of Israel together under his leadership, so that they could be used as a kingdom of priests to serve God as priests, in fulfilment of the Abrahamic promise which held that through Abraham's descendants, that they were, God would bless all nations with the grant of eternal life. (Sc. Gen. 12:1 to 3; Matt. 23:37 to 39) Jesus was sent from heaven together with twelve other angels of God, his twelve Galilean apostles as his “children”, to accomplish this assignment. (Lk. 6:12 to 16; Matt. 10:1 to 42; 28:16 to 20; John 17:18; Sc. Is.8:18) But he failed, because the lost sheep of the people of Israel would not gather around him to be used to serve God as priests, in spite of his three and a half years of untiring efforts preaching to and teaching them, that is, judging them. As a result, he told them the inevitable – their rejection by God so that they would no longer be used to serve God as priests as the Abrahamic promise or covenant envisaged. Now rejected and left as completely lost, the descendants of Jacob could be useful for any other purpose only if God redeemed or salvaged or “bought back” some of them. This was what Jesus Christ was left with doing when he sent his twelve Galilean apostles as his new Lamb, his “children” into the Roman World after his death and resurrection. (John 17:18; Matt. 28:16 to 20) 535 How many people the twelve Galilean apostles were to mark with the seal of the living God on their foreheads from the lost sheep of the twelve tribes of Israel in the diaspora, could not be observed by John the apostle. He had to be told the specific number by God who had decided on the exact number required for his recreation plan. John was told that the exact number of those who were marked with the seal of the living God was 144,000. They were all men-servants from the twelve tribes of Israel in the diaspora, twelve thousand from each tribe: Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin, who lived throughout the Roman Empire, including Palestine. (compare Rev. 14:1 to 5)

536 Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty sent the Holy Spirit, the seal of the living God, to the twelve Galilean apostles who together constituted the “we” to start marking the servants of their God Jesus Christ on their foreheads from Pentecost Day, A.D. 30. They completed the marking with the participation of all the twelve Galilean apostles in A.D. 34, long before the Judean war began and ended in A.D. 70. (compare Matt. 28:16 to 20; John 17:18; 14:16 to 17, 20 to 21,23; Acts 1:4 to 5,8; 2:1 to 12; 2 Cor. 1:21 to 22; Rev. 14:1) Jesus Christ had this task performed by the new Lamb after his resurrection and ascension to heaven, that is, while he was sitting on a white cloud as a spirit person in the spirit realm. (compare Rev. 14:14)

537 The sealing of the 144,000 Israelite men-servants with the Holy Spirit was long completed by the time the Judean war started in A.D. 70. This is because, by the order given to the four Caesars of the Roman Empire by the new Lamb in A.D. 30, such a war was not to commence until the selection and sealing of the 144,000 Israelite men-servants of God were completed. And so, the occurrence of the Judean war in A.D. 66 to 70, which destroyed Judeans, Jerusalem and its Temple, that is, the earth and the sea or the trees, as punishment, meant that God had separated the disobedient Israelites from the Redeemed 144,000 servants of God, and they were being destroyed for their disobedience, which was a sin against their covenant made with God. (compare Sc. Deut. 18:16 to 19; Acts 3:22 to 23) The 144,000 servants, all of them being Israelite men from the diaspora, were the only ones of all mankind who were redeemed from the lost sheep of the people of Israel who were destroyed in A.D. 70. (compare Rev. 14:1 to 5) The marking of the servants of God with the seal of the living God on their foreheads amounted to they having the new Lamb's name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. (compare John 14:20, 23) They were the only ones and the first from the Israelites in the diaspora who were marked with the Holy Spirit, and so constituted the first and only ones to be offered to God and to the new Lamb, that is, they were the only ones from the descendants of Abraham in the diaspora offered to Jesus Christ and to the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles who fished for them to serve in and be part of the new Kingdom of heaven, the new Government of God for the New World.

7:9 to 17

The Enormous Crowd

538 “After this I looked, and there was an enormous crowd – no one could count all the people! They were from every race, tribe, nation, and language, and they stood in front of the throne of God and of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They called out in a loud voice: 'Salvation comes from our God, who sits on the throne, and from the Lamb'! All the angels stood round the throne, the elders, and the four living creatures. Then they threw themselves face downwards in front of the throne and worshipped God, saying, 'Amen! Praise, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honour, power and might belong to our God for ever and ever!'

539 “One of the elders asked me, 'Who are these people dressed in white robes, and where do they come from?'”

540 “I don't know, Sir. You do', I answered.

541 “He said to me, 'These are the people who have come safely through the terrible persecution. They have washed their robes and made them white with the blood of the Lamb. That is why they stand before God's throne and serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will protect them with his presence.

Never again will they hunger or thirst; neither sun nor any scorching heat will burn them, because the Lamb, who is in the centre of the throne, will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes!” (Rev. 7:9 to 17)

542 After the marking of the 144,000 men-servants of God with the seal of the living God on their foreheads was completed in about A.D. 34, an enormous crowd also started forming following the making of Gentile Cornelius a disciple by anointed Simon Peter in about A.D. 34. No one could determine the exact number of all the people, because the number of the crowd was too large to count – the number not being predetermined by God like the 144,000. They were from every race, tribe, nation, and language of human beings on earth. The crowd formed and positioned itself in front of the throne of God and of the new Lamb. Jesus Christ and the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles played a full part in the formation and positioning of the enormous crowd safely in front of the throne of God and of the new Lamb. The full part they played in its salvation demonstrated that “Praise, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honour, power and might belong to God for ever and ever!” The enormous crowd constituted the other first fruits of every race, tribe, nation, and language as faithful followers of Jesus Christ, who had proclaimed God's word and had been faithful in their witnessing. They had been purified and made clean by the teaching of the truth revealed by Jesus Christ received from the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles as their shed blood. Anointed Simon Peter started their formation in about A.D. 34 with the Gentile Roman soldier, Cornelius, being made a disciple. Like the redeemed 144,000 servants of God they were saved by Jesus Christ and his new Lamb.

543 The white robes in which they were dressed depicted their righteous deeds as a purified people with the teachings of the twelve Galilean apostles received from Jesus Christ, while the palm branches held in their hands displayed their triumphant liberation from capture and bondage. They declared loudly in public that their “Salvation comes from our God, who sits on the throne, and from the Lamb.” They, thus, made public that they had been saved by Jesus Christ, the God and Father, who sits on the throne, and by the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, the new Lamb, and not by Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas, the two self-appointed apostles of the Christian Church at Antioch in Syria. But saved from what? You must know for sure!

544 That declaration publicly made was made by all the angels (= the messengers or the enormous crowd) standing round the throne (with the one sitting on it), the elders (the 24 elders), and the four living creatures (the 144,000 Spirit-sealed servants). The enormous crowd threw itself face downwards in front of the throne and worshipped God, saying, “Amen! Praise, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honour, power, and might belong to our God for ever and ever!” They recognised, acknowledged and so made public their realization that, “Truly!” (= “Amen!”), that saving act of Jesus Christ and of the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles was worthy of praise to God, glorified God, depicted and demonstrated the wisdom of God, for which they were giving him thanks. The saving act honoured God and demonstrated that the power and the might exercised to save them belonged to God for ever and ever. These facts about the saving act of God and of the Lamb they had to acknowledge publicly, that is, to say “Truly!” or “Amen!”

545 “One of the elders asked me, 'Who are these people dressed in white robes, and where do they come from?'” 546 “I don't know, Sir. You Do, I answered.”

547 The twenty-four elders are the sum of the twelve leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ and leaders of his church of the called, chosen and faithful followers established in Jerusalem on Pentecost Day, A.D. 30.. One of them quizzed and wanted to know from the Apostle John, who represented the John class of people, whether he knew or could identify the people dressed in white robes, and where they came from. John did not know and could not know, but he was damn sure that that particular elder knew. John, as an apostle of Jesus Christ in the first century, could not know the work of gathering the enormous crowd from every race, tribe, nation, and language subsequent to the gathering of the 144,000 servants of God from the lost sheep of the people of Israel in the diaspora, because Jesus Christ did not specifically address it to them. They were rather instructed to seal only the 144,000 servants of God spread throughout the Roman Empire and World during their generation before the onset of the Judean war in A.D. 70. Additionally, Jesus was very casual in addressing the bringing in of the other sheep by the twelve Galilean apostles. (compare John 10:16)

548 The need to save or gather the enormous crowd was revealed to anointed Simon Peter who was made to spear-head its gathering starting with the making of disciples of Cornelius, his household and his friends in Caesarea. (compare Acts 10:1 to 48) John, the apostle, uncharacteristically, was not with anointed Simon Peter his ever ready and loyal companion in the preaching work when Jesus sent him to Caesarea to begin the making of disciples from the Gentiles. Rather six Jews from Joppa accompanied him to Caesarea to bring the first Gentiles into the Kingdom of God. So this anointed apostle, Simon Peter, and as one of the twenty-four elders, surely would know the identity of the enormous crowd and where it came from. And so what did anointed Simon Peter tell the Apostle John, representing the John class of people, about the identity of the enormous crowd and where it came from? (compare 1 Pet. 2:4 to 10; Acts 10:1 to 48; 15:6 to 11)

549 “He said to me, 'These are the people who have come safely through the terrible persecution. They have washed their robes and made them white with the blood of the Lamb. That is why they stand before God's throne and serve him day and night in his Temple.'”

550 Anointed Simon Peter, after using the keys of the Kingdom of God in his possession to bring the enormous crowd into the new Kingdom of God, identified and wrote to some of them as “God's people who live as refugees scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia”, and to the John class of people, saying, “You were chosen according to the purpose of God the Father and were made a holy people by his Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be purified by his blood. You are the chosen race, the King's priests, the holy nation, God's own people, chosen to proclaim the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his own marvellous light. At one time you were not God's people, but now you are his people; at one time you did not know God's mercy, but now you have received his mercy.” (1 Pet. 1:1-2a; 2:9 10)

551 The enormous crowd of people was Gentile disciples made by the twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ who had come safely through the terrible persecution brought on them by the Roman Power and the Church of Rome which was formed from the Christian Church of Joseph Barnabas and Paul of Tarsus founded at Antioch in Syria. They were the worshippers of God and followers of the new Lamb who faced the terrible Inquisition, the crusades and the Counter-Reformation struggles waged against them by the combined armies of the Roman Empire number 666 and the Church of Rome and the Jesuits, Dominicans, and Franciscans. They had washed their robes and made them white with the symbolic blood of the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ; that is, they had conducted their life's practices in harmony with the simple fundamentalist teachings of the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, which was the sacrificial service of preaching and teaching, “the shed blood of the Lamb”, that conformed with the reason why he had to sacrifice the Abrahamic covenant which was to make Jesus rule as king at Mount Zion in Jerusalem on earth in the first century in favour of a future earthly kingdom, involving the enormous crowd which he would use to rule the whole earth. This endeavour achieved during the time they faced the terrible persecution, made their deeds the right deeds required by Jesus Christ as God and the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles as the new Lamb; it made them “right” or “white” in the shed blood, that is, the sacrificial service of the purifying preaching and teaching of the new Lamb. Simon Perter, Joseph Barnabas, Paul of Tarsus, Athanasius of Alexandria, Aurelius Augustus in Hippo, Francis Bernardone of Assisi and Martin Luther of Wittenberg are the seven spirits of God that had been sent throughout the whole earth. The “new song they sung” as the new message they preached, resonated throughout the Holy Roman Empire. This was the reason why they refused to be part of the Holy Roman Empire which was counterfeiting the new Kingdom of God in the hands of the new Lamb. And so they had to suffer for sticking to the commands they received from Jesus Christ only. (compare Rev. 5:9 to 10; Jn. 8:31 to 32; 14:14 to 20)

552 It was because their practices as claimants to their being followers of Jesus Christ and worshippers of God truly harmonized and conformed with the true fundamentalist teachings and practices taught and commanded by Jesus Christ, that they alone, separately, stood before the throne of God and worshipped him day and night in his Temple, which symbolizes the assembly or congregation or organisation of the entire animate, conscious and intelligent new creation of God in the universe, constituting the new heaven in which God lives. The new creation of God enthrones him, the Creator, as the God and King over his new creation. And the Temple of God is the animate, conscious and intelligent human creation of God within which God lives by his Spirit, on his throne, representing (him as) the source of rulership, power, and authority over nature and human affairs. That is why the enormous crowd stood before the throne of God which was surrounded by the twenty-four elders, the four living creatures and all the angels or messengers of the enormous crowd who together constitute the throne of God and the Temple of God where they worship him day and night. All of them constitute “heaven” which is the throne of God. (compare Sc. Is. 66:1; Matt. 5:34; Lk. 20:37 to 38)

553 “He who sits on the throne will protect them with his presence. Never again will they hunger or thirst; neither sun nor any scorching heat will burn them, because the Lamb, who is in the centre of the throne, will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to the springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

554 God will protect the enormous crowd of Gentile peoples who will be used to rule the new world together with the 144,000 Spirit-sealed servants by his Presence! This will happen when God, by his Holy Spirit, comes to live among these human beings, among these human rulers. When he does so, the presence of the Eternal God will ensure that they do not hunger or thirst any more. For, the God, who lives in them, will provide instant knowledge about God and nature to them, so that they do not lack anything when performing as the rulers of the new world.

Neither sun nor any scorching teachings will affect them. The reason for this is that the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, who is in the centre of the throne, will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of life-giving water.

555 The enormous crowd will be led by the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ as their brothers, who will guide those saved from capture and bondage to the Roman Power and the Church of Rome to the sources of life-giving water. The sources of life-giving water are God the Father, who sits on the throne, who is Jesus Christ, and the new Lamb, who is the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, who is in the centre of the throne. The life-giving water is the life-giving knowledge the Spirit of God gives. The Spirit of God reveals the truth about God and teaches and leads those guided to it into all things, into all the truth about God. It is when the enormous crowd, first is saved from capture and bondage to the beast and the false prophet, that is, the Roman Empire number 666 and the Church of Rome, and then later is guided to the springs or sources of life-giving water, where they are given the right to inherit eternal life, to become immortal like the one who sits on the throne, and like the new Lamb, who is in the centre of the throne, that God wipes away every tear from their eyes. This condition is what John sees and reports on when the new heaven and the new earth are in place, following the thousand-year rule of the resurrected church with Christ (= the new Lamb):

556 “I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne: 'Now God's home is with human beings! He will live with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them, and he will be their God. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. The old things have disappeared!'” (Rev.21:3 to 4)

557 The breaking open of the sixth seal, and the accomplishment of what it entails, confer Glory on the new Lamb, who redeems and leads the 144,000 Spirit-sealed men-servants of God, his Bride, and saves the enormous crowd, the other sheep of Gentile first fruits of every race, tribe, nation, and language to rule the new world for ever and ever. The Bride of the new Lamb and the enormous crowd were thus born in A.D. 30 and A.D. 34 respectively. Thus, “The Lamb who was killed is worthy to receive … Glory …!” (Rev. 5:12)

8:1 to 6

Revelation 8

The Seventh Seal

558 “When the Lamb broke open the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and they were given seven trumpets.

559 “Another angel, who had a gold incense-burner, came and stood at the altar. He was given a lot of incense to add to the prayers of all God's people and to offer it on the gold altar that stands before the throne. The smoke of the burning incense went up with the prayers of God's people from the hands of the angel standing before God. Then the angel took the incense-burner, filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth. There were rumblings and peals of thunder, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

560 “Then the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.” (Rev. 8:1 to 6)

561 The breaking open of the seventh seal reveals the implementation of the plan and programme of God in sending messengers from heaven to earth to deliver his messages to all human beings, in connection with his plan for making all things new. Under the old plan, God made man in his image, but not in his immortal likeness. The process of upgrading mortal human beings to immortal human beings was the segment of creation under the old plan which the implementation of the Abrahamic promise was to accomplish. God was going to establish on Mount Zion in Jerusalem an everlasting kingdom, an eternal Government of God, a kingdom of priests, in Israel in Palestine on this earth in the first century, with Jesus Christ as king to dispense eternal life to all human beings. (Sc. Is. 2:1 to 5; 25:6 to 9; 9:17 to 25; Sc. Dan. 2:44 to 45; 7:9 to 14, 23 to 27).

562 In pursuance of the implementation of this segment of the old plan, God sent prophets, wise men, and teachers to lead the descendants of Jacob, the Israelites, to the prophet like Moses or Jesus.

Christ who was to rule from Mount Zion and spread his rule to cover the entire world of human beings and bring eternal life to all human beings. But the Israelites rejected all those servants of God sent to them. They killed some of them, crucified others, and whipped others in their synagogues and chased them from town to town. As a result, God stopped sending any more prophets, wise men, and teachers to them, and the prophet Malachi proved to be the last one of them, and Israel got lost completely, so that the implementation of the Abrahamic covenant came to a complete halt, abandoned!

563 The start of the implementation of the new creation plan of God made it necessary to resume the sending of a new set of seven messengers of God from heaven (= the spirit realm) to earth (= the human realm) to carry out their assigned duties. The time gap between the sending of Malachi, as the last of the old set of prophets or messengers of God and John the Baptist, the herald of Jesus Christ and the first of the new set of prophets or messengers of God, was about five hundred years, or half a millennium, or half of a thousand years, which was symbolized as “about half an hour”. John the Baptist served as the interface between the old recreation plan and the new recreation plan of God.

564 “There was silence in heaven for about half an hour, when the Lamb broke open the seventh seal.”

565 There was silence, absence of the noise of activities coming from the messengers of God sent from heaven to earth, because they had been stopped from coming. Then the seven angels who stand before God were given seven trumpets and they prepared to blow them. The accomplishment of the blowing of the seven trumpets demonstrated that the Lamb who was killed was worthy of praise for successfully performing the seven duties the new Lamb was given to perform through the leadership of Simon Peter, Joseph Barnabas, Paul of Tarsus, Athanasius of Alexandria, Aurelius Augustus of Hippo, Francis Bernardone of Assisi, and Martin Luther of Wittenberg. “The Lamb who was killed is worthy to receive … Praise!” for the successful accomplishments of the seven angels who were parts of the new Lamb as his seven horns and seven eyes which were the seven spirits of God that had been sent throughout the whole earth. (Rev. 5:12)

566 Who and what are these seven angels who stand before God? They are the seven spirits of God, which are the seven lighted torches burning in front of the throne of God. (Rev. 4:5b) The Lamb, standing in the centre of the throne, had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the same seven spirits of God that have been sent throughout the whole earth. (Rev. 5:6) They are sent throughout the whole earth to perform as horns or the power of God in the leaders conferred on the new Lamb by God, and as eyes or vision of the new Lamb conferred on him by God. The twelve Galilean apostles became the new Lamb after Jesus Christ sacrificed the Abrahamic covenant which involved the twelve Galilean apostles as Israelites in the diaspora for performing the service needed for the new recreation plan of God. So the same seven spirits are given seven trumpets to perform the needed service as seven angels to deliver seven messages of God which start causing rumblings of voices, peals of thunder, flashes of lightning, a terrible earthquake and heavy hail in the end on earth. The anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, as the new Lamb, led by anointed Simon Peter, in A.D. 30, broke open the seventh seal, and with rumblings of voices of the twelve Galilean apostles preached and taught the crowds of the people of Israel, warning them of the impending disaster as peals of thunder, followed by teachings of enlightening Godly principles, virtues and values based on the sermon on the mount as flashes of lightning, for them to obey and practise in order to get saved from the disaster ahead for the nation of Israel in the first century. (compare Acts 2 to 10; 1 Pet.1 to 5; 1 John 1 to 5)

567 The seven angels are also given seven bowls of God's anger to pour out on the earth which start and end with flashes of lightning, rumblings of voices, and peals of thunder, a terrible earthquake and great hail. (compare Rev. 16:18) They served as horns and eyes in the service of the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, the new Lamb and the one in whom the Lord God Almighty who is Jesus Christ, lives by his Spirit. The preaching and teaching of the Protestant fundamentalists, namely: Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox, Albigenses, Waldenses, etcetera, started as flashes of lightning, based on the Sermon on the Mount, followed by their denominational teachings as rumblings of voices, and warnings and predictions of impending calamity for great Babylon, who was the Church of Rome, as peals of thunder.

568 “There were seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last ones, because they are the final expression of God's anger.

569 “After this I saw the temple in heaven open, with the Sacred Tent in it. The seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, dressed in clean shining linen and with gold belts tied round their chests. Then one of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven gold bowls full of the anger of God, who lives for ever and ever. The temple was filled with smoke from the glory and power of God, and no one could go into the temple until the seven plagues brought by the seven angels had come to an end. (The seven plagues were the hardships from the smoky teachings, messages, bitter controversies, that filled the Temple, the House of God, as a result of the varied, unclear, and conflicting messages of the seven angels, so that no true sons of God could clearly be identified to belong to the House of God, until the pouring out of the seven plagues had come to an end; until after the period of Martin Luther, bringing about the demise of the Church of Rome and the Holy Roman Empire, so that all things became clear and the first resurrection could begin to fill the Temple, the House of God, with the true sons of God.)

570 “Then I heard a loud voice speaking from the temple to the seven angels: 'Go and pour out the seven bowls of God's anger on the earth!'" (Rev. 15:1b, 5 to 16:1)

571 There are seven angels or messengers of God, who are the seven spirits of God standing in front of the throne, who are sent to earth to become human beings, who are given seven specific assignments to perform that concern the whole human race on earth. They are sent as parts of the new Lamb's body, employed in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ to convey and demonstrate the power of God in the leaders revealed in his actions against the beast and the false prophet, and the wisdom of God inherent in his messages, to the whole human race on earth. They perform as priests sent out of the Temple to proclaim the messages of God. The seven angels, coming out of the Temple in heaven, means and shows, that the seven trumpeters are all members of the leadership realm or group, and are inspired differently and variously by the seven different spirits living in them.

572 The seven angels given the seven trumpets were to perform as parts of the new plan of God for making all things new. But, before the start of the implementation of the new plan, there was the need to put the old recreation plan involving the Abrahamic covenant to a complete rest as abandoned! So while the seven angels held their trumpets and were preparing to blow them, “Another angel, who had a gold incense-burner came and stood at the altar (to sacrifice the old Abrahamic plan in order to pave the way for the new recreation plan). He was given a lot of incense to add to the prayers of all God's people and to offer it on the gold (incense) altar that stands before the throne. The smoke of the burning incense went up with the prayers of God's people from the hands of the angel standing before God. Then the angel took the incense-burner, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth. There were rumblings and peals of thunder, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake." (Rev. 8:3 to 5)

573 This angel who had a gold incense-burner and who came and stood at the gold incense altar was Jesus, for whom God had prepared an unblemished human body, a precious human body, as “a gold incense-burner”, a precious human preacher and teacher, to come and stand at the gold incense altar in Jerusalem to offer acceptable sacrifices to God. (compare Sc. Ps. 40:6 to 8; Heb. 10:5 to 7) Jesus was sent to Mount Zion in Judea to the lost sheep of the people of Israel only. The altar or the place of sacrifice was on Mount Zion in Jerusalem in Judea which is in Palestine. There in Palestine Jesus, for three and a half years, “was given a lot of incense to add to the prayers of all God's people and to offer it on the gold (incense) altar that stands before the throne”. Jesus, while in Palestine, was given a lot of evidence about the plight of suffering mortal mankind requiring that he prayed to God for quick remedy. (compare Matt. 9:35 to 37) These prayers recounting the dire needs of mankind were the “lot of incense” which was added to “the prayers of all God's people”, living throughout the whole earth, which he taught his disciples, and offered as part of the preaching and teaching work, the precious missionary service which the gold incense altar that stands before the throne symbolizes. (compare Matt. 6:25 to 34)

574 Jesus taught his disciples, “The Lord's Prayer”, which focused on and highlighted the need to pray for the coming of the new Kingdom of God to do the will of God on earth as the requisite prayer for all God's people, some of whom his disciples constituted. (compare Matt. 6:9 to 13) This prayer also highlighted the daily needs of mankind that required God's attention and provision. The prayers of all God's people have been that God fulfils quickly his promise of making all things new. The making of all things new was going to be the answer to the prayers of all God's people.

575 Paul of Tarsus also has written that the coming of the same new Kingdom of God, which will reveal in certainty the children of God, is what all human creation is praying for.

576 He writes; “I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. All of creation waits with eager longing for God to reveal his sons. For creation was condemned to lose its purpose, not of its own will, but because God willed it to be so. Yet there was the hope that creation itself would one day be set free from its slavery to decay and would share the glorious freedom of the children of God. For we know that up to the present time all of God's creation groans with pain, like the pain of childbirth. But it is not just creation which groans; we who have the Spirit as the first of God's gifts also groan within ourselves, as we wait for God to make us his sons and set our whole being free. For it was by hope that we were saved; but if we see what we hope for, then it is not really hope. For who hopes for something he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Rom. 8:18 to 25)

577 The prayer of all God's people is for God to accomplish his plan of making all things new and quickly, to make his sons immortal like himself, for them to be his true and perfect children. Made immortal, God's children are thus set free from death and decay.

578 To this, Jesus had occasion and reasons to additionally pray for his disciples to be protected, provisioned and blessed to know God intimately and accurately, so that they could perform their assigned duties with success. He said, “I pray not only for them, but for those who believe in me because of their message. I pray that they may all be one. Father! May they be in us, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they be one, so that the world will believe that you sent me.” (John 17:20 to 21; compare 17:1 to 18:1 compare Matt. 9:35 to 38)

579 The prayers were offered, as “acceptable sacrifices”, “on the gold (incense) altar that stands before the throne”. The throne of God is on Mount Zion. The prophet Isaiah depicts Jesus as saying, “Here I am with the children the Lord has given me. The Lord Almighty, whose throne is on Mount Zion, has sent us as living messages to the people of Israel.” (Sc. Is. 8:18; compare 66:1) The gold incense altar that stands before the throne, therefore, first symbolizes the place of sacrifice that Jerusalem is, where Mount Zion is, together with its Temple and earthly altar. It secondly symbolizes the all-important work of preaching and teaching the message of the Good News of peace about the new Kingdom of God on which Jesus offered the prayers of all God's people as acceptable sacrifices.

580 It was in Jerusalem in Palestine that Jesus Christ offered to God the acceptable sacrifices consisting of his own preaching and teaching prayerfully offered to God on behalf of his disciples together with the prayers of all God's people in place of animal sacrifices that God had voiced out he did not want neither had he ever made a demand for them. (compare Sc. Am. 5:25 to 29 Acts 7:42 to 43; Sc. Is. 1:11 to 14; Sc. Ex. 24:9 to 11)

581 “For this reason, when Christ was about to come into the world, he said to God: 'You do not want sacrifices and offerings, but you have prepared a body for me. (That is, you have given me a gold incense-burner. ) You are not pleased with animals burnt whole on the altar or with sacrifices to take away sins. (You, rather, want incense offered on the altar of incense. This I have discerned. ) Then I said, 'Here I am, to do your will, O God, just as it is written of me in the book of the Law'” (Heb. 10:5 to 7; compare 13:15; Sc. Deut. 18:16 to 20; Acts 3:22 to 23).” It is written about Jesus Christ in the book of the Law (in the Scroll) that, “I want your constant love, not animal sacrifices. I would rather have my people know me than burn offerings to me.” (Sc. Mic. 6:6) For knowledge is more than power; it is life itself! And this true knowledge about God is what Jesus came to reveal to mankind, and not the sacrifice of his life to save mankind from sin and death, as falsely preached and taught by Joseph Barnabas and Paul of Tarsus.

582 “The smoke of the burning incense went up with the prayers of God's people from the hands of the angel standing before God.”

583 The words composing and expressing the prayers offered by Jesus Christ on behalf of his disciples and of all God's people, were both communicated to God by Jesus Christ himself – they went up as the smoke of the burning incense “from the hands of the angel standing before God (compare John 20:17).” Thus, Jesus, himself, initiated the preaching and teaching service mixed with the appropriate prayers he taught his disciples and the crowds as God's people.

584 “Then the angel took the incense-burner, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth. There were rumblings and peals of thunder, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.”

585 When Jesus came to the place of sacrifice in Jerusalem in Judea south of Palestine, his human body, “the gold incense-burner” was filled with the Holy Spirit, “the fire from the altar”, that is, the fire or power from and for the preaching and teaching service. He told his disciples that they should not leave Jerusalem, the place of sacrifice, until they had been baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire. It is the Holy Spirit that gives power to preach and teach God's message. (compare Acts 1:8) It also gives life! (compare John 6:63) Jesus Christ had already told them, that he was the bread of life and that he would give them his flesh to eat and his blood to drink, in order for them to become his sons or himself slated to be raised to life and to live for ever.

He said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them to life on the last day. For my flesh is the real food; my blood is the real drink.” (John 6:54 to 55) He represented this to only the twelve Galilean apostles as the bread and wine at the Last Supper and promised them that it would be fulfilled on Pentecost Day, A.D. 30, when the reality of the distribution of his body “filled with fire from the altar”, that is, the distribution of the Holy Spirit, to them would happen. (compare Matt. 26:29; Mk. 14:25; Lk. 22:14 to 20; John 6:66 to 71)

586 On the Day of Pentecost, A.D. 30, “All the believers were gathered together in one place. Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there.

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak.” (Acts 2:1 to 4; 1:4 to 5, 8; Lk. 3:16, 21 to 22) In anticipation of this event, John the Baptist told the Jews, “He (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Lk. 3:16c) Jesus came back to them as the Holy Spirit, as the incense-burner filled with fire from the altar and thrown to the earth. (John 14:18 to 20) Jesus, thus, gave his flesh and blood to the twelve Galilean apostles only, as the special group, to eat and drink in order to live in him and he in them. (John 6:54 to 56; 14:20) Jesus Christ, thus, gave birth to the group of twelve Galilean apostles to become his new Lamb on Pentecost Day, A.D. 30. The new Lamb, thus, became the resurrected Jesus Christ in composite human form. This miraculous transformation of the resurrected human body of Jesus into a composite human form, as the new Lamb, explains satisfactorily why the resurrected human body of flesh and blood, which could not ascend into the spirit heavens, has not been seen since his ascension. These twelve Galilean apostles alone were urged to celebrate the communion in remembrance of Jesus. So the twelve Galilean apostles did not teach it, command it, or urge the other believers to observe or celebrate it. Never! It was Paul of Tarsus who claimed to have received it, not from the twelve Galilean apostles, but directly from the Lord he preached and Joseph Barnabas who taught and commanded their converts, Christians, to observe or celebrate it in order to desecrate it in disguise. (compare 1 Cor. 11:17 to 34; Gal. 1:1 to 2, 11 to 12; Matt. 26:26 to 29; Mk. 14:22 to 25; Lk. 22:14 to 20; John 13:1 to 35)

587 The giving of the seven spirits to the seven servants of God to proclaim the seven messages of God assigned to the seven angels with seven trumpets caused “rumblings and peals of thunder, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake” on earth. They were the preaching and teaching of the twelve Galilean apostles and the other disciples from Pentecost Day, A.D. 30 and the controversies they generated on earth in Judea and Jerusalem in Palestine, and in the Roman Empire which grew bitter and bitter until they resulted in the Judean war of A.D. 70, the demise of Judaism, and the demise of the Jewish nation and age. The Judean war did not experience or involve the hail of dropping bombs and missiles, because, by the first century, the world had not developed the missile and flying technology and explosive weaponry, in order to enable mankind to use missiles and the dropping of bombs in warfare that the earthquake represents. The Judean war was just a local event.

It was the end result of the preaching and teaching activities of the twelve Galilean apostles and the other disciples to the lost sheep of the people of Israel. From Pentecost Day, A.D. 30, the rumblings of voices of the twelve Galilean apostles led by anointed Simon Peter carried the message of Jesus being made “Lord and Messiah (Anointed One)” to the rulers of Israel and of the Roman Empire as “the earth”. The rumblings of voices of the disciples filled with the Holy Spirit carried the same message to the Israelites and beyond. Then followed the peals of thunder from the twelve Galilean apostles who urged the people to heed the warning message being preached to them, in order to save themselves, from the impending punitive disaster soon to befall them in their generation in the first century. To those who trooped in to join themselves to the believers, the twelve Galilean apostles taught them Godly principles, virtues, and values as flashes of lightning which preceded the Judean war, as the earthquake, which took the better part of A.D. 66 to 70. (compare Acts 2:1 to 47; 8:4; 2:40; 7:51 to 53; 1 Cor. 13:4 to 10; 1 John 1 to 5; 1 Pet.1 to 5)

588 But the seven angels perform their duties on this earth during the time Satan rules the whole earth through the Roman Military Power, the Roman Imperial Throne, and the Church of Rome in collaboration with the dispersed Jews. The seven angels perform their duties in such a way as to frustrate the rule of Satan represented in the Roman Empire and the Church of Rome and bring it to a catastrophic end, through warfare that involves heavy bombings from aircraft and missiles.

8:6 to 9:1 to 21; 11:15 to 19

The Seven Trumpets

589 “Then the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.” (Rev. 8:6)

590 The seven angels or messengers of God, with seven messages made ready to be delivered to the world of mankind, were Simon Peter, Joseph Barnabas, Paul of Tarsus, Athanasius of Alexandria, Aurelius Augustus of Hippo, Francis Bernardone of Assisi, and Martin Luther of Wittenberg. These seven messengers who delivered their foreboding and controversial messages, constituting “the wine from God's cup – the wine of his furious anger”, to great Babylon and so to the world of mankind from Pentecost Day, A.D. 30 to A.D. 1517 to 1546 and beyond were the seven spirits of God standing in front of the throne. The new Lamb, the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God that have been sent throughout the whole earth. The church of the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ in which these seven messengers performed as horns and eyes of the new Lamb, was the 144,000 Spirit-sealed Israelite men from the diaspora who were sealed and redeemed from the lost sheep of the people of Israel, and the enormous crowd of Gentile men, as first fruits of every nation, tribe, race, and language saved from capture and bondage to the Roman Empire and the Church of Rome.

8:7

The First Trumpet

591 “The first angel blew his trumpet. Hail and fire, mixed with blood, came pouring down on the earth. A third of the earth was burnt up, a third of the trees and every blade of green grass.” (Rev. 8:7)

592 On Pentecost Day, A.D. 30, immediately the Holy Spirit poured out on the believers meeting together in a private house in Jerusalem, Simon Peter, delivered his foreboding and controversial message from God, a message offensive to Jews and nonsensical to the Gentiles, to the rulers of Israel, the Caesars (“the earth”): “Then Peter stood up with the other eleven apostles (as the new Lamb) and in a loud voice began to speak to the crowd: Fellow-Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, listen to me and let me tell you what this means. Jesus of Nazareth was a man whose divine authority was clearly proven to you by all the miracles and wonders which God performed through him. You yourselves know this, for it happened here among you.

In accordance with his own plan God had already decided that Jesus would be handed over to you: and you killed him by letting sinful men (the Gentile Roman authorities) crucify him. But God raised him from death, setting him free from its power, because it was impossible that death should hold him prisoner.

593 “God has raised this very Jesus from death and we are all witnesses to this fact. He has been raised to the right-hand side of God, his Father, and has received from him the Holy Spirit, as he had promised. What you see and hear is his gift that he has poured out on us.

594 “All the people of Israel, then, are to know for sure that this Jesus, whom you crucified, is the one that God has made Lord and Messiah (Anointed One).” (Acts 2:14, 22b-24, 32 to 34, 36; compare John 19:12, 15)

595 “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has given divine glory to his servant Jesus. But you handed him over to the (Gentile Roman) authorities, and you rejected him in Pilate's presence, even after Pilate had decided to set him free.” (Acts 3:13)

596 “Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, answered. 'Leaders of the people and elders (“the earth'): Jesus is the one of whom the scripture says, “The stone that you the builders (of the nation of Israel) despised turned out to be the most important of all.” Salvation is to be found through him alone; in all the world there is no one else whom God has given who can save us '”, Jews. (Acts 4:11 to 12)

597 This message of anointed Simon Peter, occasioned by and consisting of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit mixed with his preaching and teaching onto the rulers of the then world, the Mediterranean world, was the sound that came out of the first trumpet which caused “hail and fire, mixed with blood, to pour down on the earth.” “The earth” was the ruling elite of the Roman Empire surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, and the “hail and fire mixed with blood” represented the falling of the Holy Spirit like fire from heaven, which phenomenon characterized the phase of the preaching and teaching period of anointed Simon Peter with the other anointed eleven apostles addressed to the rulers, “the earth”. The Holy Spirit and fire fell during the preaching and teaching of anointed Simon Peter with the other anointed eleven Galilean apostles as the blood that accompanied the fall of the Holy Spirit and fire on the believers they made for the Lord. The declaration by anointed Simon Peter that Jesus was the one that God had appointed the ruler of both heaven and earth, and the one in whom God lived by his Spirit, instead of Satan and his appointed Emperor and Caesars of the Roman Empire and the Jewish Council of Jerusalem, also caused civil wars (= the shedding of blood) in the Roman Empire among military generals, senators, and provincial rulers vying for power. (compare Matt. 28:16 to 20) It led to a rapid succession of Caesars, so that, from A.D. 30 to A.D. 96, there were five Emperors or Caesars who ruled the Roman Empire in pretty short succession. They were, after the rule of Emperor Tiberius Caesar (A.D. 14 to 37), 1; Emperor Caligula (A.D. 37 to 41), 2; Emperor Claudius (A.D. 41 to 54), 3; Emperor Nero (A.D. 54 to 68), 4; Emperor Vespasian (A.D. 69 to 79), and 5; Emperor Domitian (A.D. 81 to 96). There were wars, assassinations of emperors and prospective emperors, anarchy, economic hardships, and social upheavals which brought war, destruction and the shedding of blood to affect the ruling elite, the patricians, “the earth”, the social, political and religious institutions of State and of the Empire, “the trees”, and every flourishing commoner, “every blade of green grass”. As much as a third of the prospective Caesars perished, “a third of the earth was burnt up”, through the wars and assassinations, and a third of the religious, commercial, and social institutions suffered, “a third of the trees was burnt up”, while every common person – the plebeians, the declassed and the slaves – “every blade of green grass”, flourishing in the Empire, suffered in some way. The declaration of anointed Simon Peter, backed by the manifestation of the works of the Holy Spirit, that Jesus was the king chosen by God was seen by the Romans and the Jews as an imposition they could not accept, because, to them, “The only king they had was the Roman Emperor.” (compare John 19:15; Sc. Ps. 2:1 to 12)

598 Simon Peter of the town of Capernaum in Galilee (St. Peter, Apostle and Martyr, (−A.D. - 67)), “was the leader of the twelve original disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. When Jesus came into Galilee to prepare men to enter the kingdom of God, he needed helpers – men of tough and enduring fibre. One day, seeing Simon with his brother Andrew fishing, he called to them, 'Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.' The Fourth Gospel says that they had met Jesus before, which is not unlikely. They followed him for the same reason which led thousands of young Galileans to follow other leaders before and after the time of Jesus, because they hoped for some event which would free the Jews from Roman rule and make them the sovereign nation on earth. For this is what they understood by the 'kingdom of God'.

599 “Jesus gave Simon the name Cephas, a stone. 'Peter' comes from its Greek form petra. Although young, Peter was already married: 20 years later Paul mentions that his wife accompanied him on his missionary journeys. Peter's home was in Capernaum, probably a good-sized house, for Peter's mother-in-law lived there, and perhaps his own parents also.

Jesus seems to have used the house for a time as his headquarters. Peter and Andrew's family most likely owned their boats and employed assistant fishermen. We should call them middle-class folk; the men, though not highly educated, were intelligent and by no means illiterate.

600 “Peter, with the other disciples, James and John, often accompanied Jesus when the others did not. From the first Peter was the most active and vocal of the disciples, being nearly always their spokesman. When Jesus, at Caesarea Philippi, asked them who they thought he was, it was Peter who said, expressing the belief of them all, 'Thou art the Christ'. Jesus warned them that he would be arrested and killed at Jerusalem, and Peter at once declared that this should not happen.

He was severely rebuked, but not convinced. Later on he protested that he would stand by Jesus to the end, but was warned that he would deny Jesus; and in a moment of panic he denyed him three times. Peter was really brave and loyal, but he had not yet overcome the fears and impulsiveness of youth. After the crucifixion Jesus appeared to Peter before the other apostles and from this time he became a wiser and stronger man.

601 “In the formation and early growth of the Christian Church Peter was prominent. He proclaimed openly and fearlessly that the crucified Jesus was alive and would return to earth in glory. He was twice imprisoned, though he escaped each time, and went on boldly preaching. Peter, however, had the limited outlook of the Jews, and still thought of Jesus as the Messiah (in Greek, the Christ) sent to the Jews and not to the rest of the world.

It took the new disciple, Paul, to teach the early Church that its mission was world-wide. At the Council held in Jerusalem about A.D. 49 it was agreed that Peter should confine himself to work among the Jews, while Paul should go to the Gentiles.

602 “According to some accounts we are told that Peter visited and associated freely with Gentile Christians; according to others we learn that Peter, when he visited Antioch, kept himself apart from the Gentiles, refusing to join in the common meals, for which Paul blamed him. (Peter's “refusal” to associate with Paul's converted Gentile Christians, while he associated “freely” with his Gentile disciples from Caesarea including the soldier Cornelius, his family and friends, should be seen and understood to portray his very strong apprehension and suspicion of Paul's claim to apostleship from the same Jesus and of his converts as the same as the men-disciples he, Peter, had made for Jesus, in the light of what we have so far learnt from the Book of Revelation about how and why the mission of Peter is quite different from that of Paul. This fact also shows clearly, how and why, those who hold the view that “It took the new disciple, Paul, to teach the early Church that its mission was worldwide” are in fundamental error, unfortunately. Peter, throughout, was on focus with his mission to redeem and seal the 144,000 Israelite men-disciples from the diaspora and save the uncountable enormous crowd from Gentile nations, while Paul's mission was to harvest countless “Christian Churches”; and thereby merely make the name of Jesus known “to kings, and Gentiles, and to the people of Israel” as a camouflaged and polished way of making him suffer for his “sin” of persecuting Jesus. That was why Peter was not informed by Jesus, as he did in the case of Cornelius, to accept Paul as one of his disciples because he had converted him. Paul was a captured prisoner-of-war assigned to serve Jesus in a different way.)

603 “We know nothing for certain about Peter's life. There is a strong tradition, though no actual evidence, that Peter went to Rome and was martyred there, being crucified head-down as he did not think himself worthy of dying as Christ had died. This must have been after Paul was taken to Rome, and if both men died in the persecution by Nero in A.D. 64, the havoc wrought in the Church might have prevented any record from surviving.

604 “The Epistle entitled 2 Peter is generally admitted to be a 2nd-century work issued in Peter's name, a practice not uncommon in those days; but many scholars accept 1 Peter as Peter's own composition, though others doubt it. There is also a tradition that Mark wrote his Gospel from Peter's dictation; and certainly that Gospel does give more description than any of the others of Peter's personal contact with Jesus.” (Ref: Oxford Junior Encyclopaedia, Great Lives, volumeV.pp. 358 to 359)

605 “Simon, son of Jona' was born at Bethsaida on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. He married, settled down at Capernaum and, with his brother Andrew, earned his living by fishing until our Lord called him from being a disciple of St. John the Baptist to 'become a fisher of men'. Thenceforth he was called 'Kepha' an Aramaic word signifying 'rock' (in Latin 'Petrus'), and when he later declared his faith in Jesus as 'the Christ, the Son of the living God', our Lord stated that 'upon this rock I will build my Church, and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you shall bind on earth, shall also be bound in heaven'. To bind and loose were familiar Jewish juridical terms which clearly denoted St Peter's position of governing judge and arbiter.

606 “After the Resurrection he was among the first to whom our Lord appeared; it was he who presided at the election of Matthias, preached the first public sermon at Pentecost, addressed the Sanhedrin, received the first Jewish and later the first pagan converts into the Church; he performed the first public miracles, and spoke the decisive word at the first Church Council. (He publicly avoided association with the converts of Barnabas and Paul at Antioch in Syria, showed open disbelief in Paul's miraculous conversion claims, and entered into a solemn concordat to separate the activities of the Church of Jesus of Nazareth in Jerusalem under his leadership from the Church of Christ at Antioch in Syria under Barnabas and Paul's joint leadership. He, thus, exercised his powers of prohibiting and permitting inclusion and exclusion of persons from the Church of Jesus of Nazareth (= the Kingdom of heaven) which was concurred in heaven.)

607 “St Peter died a martyr's death in (A.D.) 67, being crucified head down in Nero's gardens on the Vatican Hill.” (Ref: Saint Companions, pp. 215, 216)

8:8 to 9

The Second Trumpet

608 “Then the second angel blew his trumpet. Something that looked like a huge mountain on fire was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea was turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.” (Rev. 8:8 to 9)

609 The second angel to blow his trumpet was Joseph Barnabas. He is believed to have been converted to the Church of Jesus of Nazareth, soon after Pentecost Day of A.D. 30. It was through his initiative and efforts that the Christian Church (= the Church of Christ) was founded and established at Antioch in Syria among the masses of Gentiles, while he brought in Paul of Tarsus to provide the unique doctrinal backing to his Christian Church. It was this Joseph Barnabas' Christian Church, popular with the masses of the common people of the Roman Empire, as “the sea”, which grew rapidly to overwhelm the Roman Empire by the 4th and 5th centuries, when various Christian barbarian invasions of the Roman Empire set it on the course of destruction. As it were, the huge Roman Empire on destruction course, “the huge mountain on fire”, fell or was thrown into “the sea” that the mass Christian Church of Joseph Barnabas or St. Barnabas' mass Church of Christ came to represent in this Revelation imagery. It was Emperor Constantine who threw the huge Roman Empire on destruction course into membership of the Christian Church.

610 “The Christian Church by the third century had become a firmly organized society growing in numbers and authority. Emperor Constantine (A.D. 274 to 337) realized that since it could not be crushed, it must be built as a cornerstone into his Empire.” “Like his Father, (Emperor Constantius), Constantine had always allowed a measure of toleration to Christians, in opposition to the persecutions of Diocletian and others, but now he gave the Christian Church support and wealth.” Constantine, at this time under “siege” by Christian barbarians and the growing numbers and authority of the Christian Church, plunged the “huge Empire on fire” into membership of the Christian Church – the Roman Empire was thrown into membership of the sea of the mass Christian Church by Emperor Constantine. The Christian Church was the religion of the plebeians, the ruled slave and oppressed class. By the Edict of Milan in A.D. 314 Emperor Constantine made the Christian Church the Official Church and Religion of the huge Roman Empire under siege of Christian barbarians' fire. He then worked hard to unite the Christian Church and eliminate heresies. (Ref: Oxford Junior Encyclopaedia, volumeV. Great Lives, p. 104)

611 The action of the Roman State, plunged now into the sea of Christianity, to exclude heresies from the Christian Church, plunged a third of the Christian Church into bloody warfare, resulting in the exclusion from membership of the Christian Church those groups of people and sects that were branded heretics, the Christian fundamentalists, being “the living creatures in the sea”, and therefore believed and practised what was the life-giving truth received from the twelve Galilean apostles led by Simon Peter, as against the orthodoxy of the Christian Church founded on the teachings of St. Barnabas and St. Paul, were either killed in the religious wars or excluded from the Christian Church by excommunication. The expunging of heresies from the Christian Church destroyed the sects, “the living creatures in the sea”, which were considered heretical. They were the “ships” plying the sea of Christianity which were destroyed. Ships are large boats that carry people and or goods by sea. They have captains (= leaders), crews (= bodies of elders), and complements (= following or lay-membership, the laity), like Christian religious sects.

612 Joseph Barnabas, the one credited with the founding of Christianity or the Christian Church at Antioch in Syria, in the Diaspora, first appears in the account of the Acts of the Apostles written by Luke the historian and a convert and disciple of Paul of Tarsus as follows: "And so it was that Joseph, a Levite born in Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means 'One who encourages), sold a field he owned, and handed it over to the apostles." (Acts 4:36) Thus Joseph Barnabas was well known to the apostles and the elders of the Church of Jesus of Nazareth founded and established in Jerusalem by the twelve Galilean apostles led by anointed Simon Peter. He was thus a horn and an eye of the new Lamb.

613 Joseph Barnabas, “a wealthy Jewish Levite, was born on the island of Cyprus (in the Mediterranean Sea) but settled in Jerusalem, and is thought to have studied in the school of Gamaliel at the same time as Saul. He became a convert to Christianity (rather, a disciple of the Church of Jesus of Nazareth in Jerusalem) soon after Pentecost, in the year 29 or 30, and sold all his possessions for the benefit of the Church. It was he who welcomed the converted Saul to Jerusalem and sponsored him before the apostles, when they at first found it difficult to believe that the fierce persecutor had now become an ardent propagator of the faith. However, from his previous acquaintance with Saul, Barnabas knew Saul to be utterly sincere in his convictions. To both of these great men, the Church, before long, accorded the title of 'Apostle'.

614 “We next hear of St Barnabas when he was dispatched to Antioch in Syria to investigate the remarkably successful conversions which had been effected among the Greeks there by some disciples from Cyrene and from his native Cyprus. Barnabas readily overcame his Jewish prejudices and rejoiced at this first manifestation of God's grace among the Gentiles, and together with St Paul, whom he brought from Tarsus, spent an entire year in preaching the gospel at Antioch. In the year A.D. 45, when Jerusalem was grievously afflicted by famine, the two apostles brought assistance from the Antioch Christians to the mother Church. After their return they set out on the first great missionary journey, taking with them John Mark, a cousin of Barnabas, and began with the evangelisation of the latter's native island Cyprus. Then followed the travels in Asia Minor, where they were vehemently resisted and persecuted by the Jews, but nevertheless made numerous converts and established churches with a native clergy.

615 “After the Council of Jerusalem, St Barnabas revisited his Cyprus missions with John Mark, but little is known of his later life and death. He is believed to have been stoned to death before the year A.D. 61, when John Mark was sent to Rome to assist St Paul during his imprisonment. Always gentle, conciliatory, and majestic in appearance, he was, next to St Paul, probably one of the most attractive and highly respected personalities among the first Christians. His remains were discovered near Salamis on Cyprus in A.D. 482, with a copy of St Matthew's Gospel in Hebrew enclosed in the tomb. The name Barnabas means 'son of consolation'." (Ref: St Companions, pp. 193 to 194)

616 The Church of Jesus of Nazareth in Jerusalem, led by the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles and the elders, had preached the Good News to the Jews in Palestine and in the Roman Empire only. But Simon Peter was later used to include the Gentiles in the Church of Jesus of Nazareth in Jerusalem. (compare Acts 10:1 to 11:1) This fact, Simon Peter later emphasised forcefully to the other eleven Galilean apostles and elders, saying, “Brothers, you know that a long time ago (about 15 years earlier), God chose me from among you to preach the Good News to the Gentiles, so that they could hear and believe. And God, who knows the thoughts of everyone, showed his approval of the Gentiles by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he had to us. He made no difference between us and them; he forgave their sins because they believed. So then, why do you now want to put God to the test by laying a load on the backs of the believers which neither our ancestors nor we ourselves were able to carry? No! We believe and are saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are.” (Acts 15:7 to 11; compare 10:1 to 48) Simon Peter made all the Gentile and Jewish believers he made outside Jerusalem see themselves as members of the one Church of Jesus of Nazareth in Jerusalem. He did not form them into independent churches led by local elders or clergy, a tradition introduced into Christian church organisational structure and management by Joseph Barnabas and Paul of Tarsus.

617 Joseph Barnabas was used by the Church in Jerusalem to perform certain assignments such as the following: “Some of the believers who were scattered by the persecutions which took place when Stephen was killed went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch (in Syria), telling the message to Jews only. But others, who were from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch (in Syria) and proclaimed the message to Gentiles also, telling them the Good News about the Lord Jesus. The Lord's power was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

618 “The news about this reached the church in Jerusalem, so they sent (Joseph) Barnabas (alone) to Antioch (in Syria). When he arrived and saw how God had blessed the people, he was glad and urged them all to be faithful and true to the Lord with all their hearts. (As gathered by the historian Luke and in his own view), (Joseph) Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and many people were brought to the Lord.

619 “Then (Joseph) Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul (without consulting the church or the twelve Galilean apostles in Jerusalem, if they sent him). When he found him, he took him to Antioch (in Syria), and for a whole year the two (Joseph Barnabas and Paul of Tarsus) met with the people of the church and taught a large group. It was at Antioch (in Syria) that the (large group of) believers (taught Neo-Judaism by Joseph Barnabas of Cyprus and Saul of Tarsus for a whole year) were first called Christians.” (Acts 11:19 to 26) Joseph Barnabas searched for Saul of Tarsus and used him as a helper to accomplish the assignment given him by the church or the apostles, but in his own way.

At Acts 15:4, Luke differentiates the church in Jerusalem from the twelve Galilean apostles and the elders to show that he used “the church” to mean the laity, and that it was the laity that likely sent Joseph Barnabas to Antioch in Syria rather than the twelve Galilean apostles and the elders. And that was why he felt no responsibility or courtesy to report to them about what he was doing there or to seek their advice or direction for what he was preaching and teaching and how he was organising the emerging church outside Jerusalem in the Gentile territories.

620 The kind of message about the Lord Jesus the two preached and taught the Gentiles was so significantly different from the message of the Good News of peace about the Lord Jesus the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, hitherto, had preached to and taught both Jews and Gentiles that it identified those converts of Joseph Barnabas and Saul of Tarsus, as believers in a Christ and followers of a Christ who was sent by God to die to save those who believed in him from sin and death. From Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas, they were taught this: “We want you to know, my fellow-Israelites, that it is through Jesus that the message about forgiveness of sins is preached to you; and that everyone who believes is set free from all the sins from which the Law of Moses could not set you free.” (Acts 13:38 to 39) But this teaching confuses and controverts the message of the Good News of peace about the Lord Jesus Christ sent to the Jews to redeem only 144,000 of them and to the Gentiles to save an enormous crowd from the Roman Empire, and make them a Kingdom of Priests to serve our God, and they are to rule on earth. (compare Rev. 5:9 to 10) This fact made the Christian Church founded and established by Joseph Barnabas with evangelical and doctrinal assistance and input from Paul of Tarsus, a Christian novice, another church very different from the one founded and established on Pentecost Day in Jerusalem in A.D. 30 by the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, under the leadership of anointed Simon Peter, which preached Jesus as having been made Lord and Messiah, and the one given authority by God to judge the living and the dead. He makes the redeemed and the saved men-followers of 144,000 Israelite men and countless enormous crowd of Gentile men a kingdom of priests, “the chosen race, the King's priests, the holy nation, God's own people, chosen to proclaim the wonderful acts of God, who called (them) out of darkness into his own marvellous light.” (compare Acts 10:36, 38, 42; 1 Pet 2:9 to 10)

621 Paul of Tarsus, in his letter to the Corinthians, revealed this assignment of his founding this Antioch Christian Church while assisting Joseph Barnabas with his unique doctrinal initiative, and warned of the dire and obvious consequences to those who would follow him and build on this church founded by them. He wrote, “You are also God's building. Using the gift that God gave me, I did the work of an expert builder and laid the foundation (of the Christian Church at Antioch in Syria while assisting Joseph Barnabas), and another man (by name Apollo) is building on it. But each one must be careful how he builds. For God has already placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation (of the church of the 144,000 people and the enormous crowd of people from the nations spearheaded by Simon Peter with the other eleven apostles), and no other foundation can be laid. Some will use gold or silver or precious stones in building on the foundation (laid by Jesus through Simon Peter with the other eleven apostles); others will use wood or grass or straw. And the quality of each person's work will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day (refining) fire (which is now in action) will reveal everyone's work; the (refining) fire will test it and show its real quality. If what was built on the foundation survives the (refining) fire, the builder will receive a reward. But if anyone's work is burnt up, then he will lose it, (he will lose the work which, if not burnt up, will be given him as his reward), but he himself will be saved, as if he had escaped through (the refining) fire.” (1 Cor. 3:9b-15) The leaders will be given their following, if they survive the refining fire, as their reward. (compare Rev. 21:24 to 26; Matt. 25:14 to 30; Lk. 19:11 to 27) But if they are burnt up, as the Christian Church is now being burnt up by this refining fire, Joseph Barnabas and Paul of Tarsus “will be saved, as if they had escaped through (this refining) fire”, according to the knowledge, belief and expectation of Paul of Tarsus.

622 So Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas were quite aware that the Christian Church they founded and established at Antioch in Syria and which through their itinerant evangelization spread to the rest of the Roman Empire, stood as a church different from that founded and established by Jesus Christ on Pentecost Day in A.D. 30 through anointed Simon Peter's leadership. And they were also quite aware that their Christian Church would have to stand the refining fire of judgement on the Day of the Lord, which has now begun. (compare Matt. 13:33) It was the founding, establishment, and development of this Christian Church that the second Spirit of God, who inspired or came as Joseph Barnabas, and the third Spirit of God, who inspired or came as Paul of Tarsus, sent the two “great men, the church, before long, accorded the title 'Apostle'" to accomplish in their life time.

623 “In the church in Antioch (in Syria) there were some prophets and teachers: (Joseph) Barnabas, Simeon (called the Black), Licius (from Cyrene), Manean (who had been brought up with Herod Antipas the governor), and Saul (of Tarsus). While they were serving the Lord and fasting (i.e. practising Neo-Judaism), the Holy Spirit said to them, 'Set apart for me (Joseph) Barnabas and Saul (of Tarsus), to do the work to which I have called them'. (compare Acts 9:15 to 16)

624 “They fasted and prayed (i.e. practised Neo-Judaism), placed their hands on them, and sent them off.”

625 “Having been sent by the Holy Spirit (and the Christian Church at Antioch in Syria, and not by the church of the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles as before), (Joseph) Barnabas and Saul (of Tarsus) went to Seleucia and from there to the island of Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues. They had John Mark with them to help in the work.

626 “They went all the way across the island to Paphos, where they met a certain magician named Bar-Jesus, a Jew who claimed to be a prophet … He was a friend of the governor of the island, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. The governor called (Joseph) Barnabas and Saul (of Tarsus) before him because he wanted to hear the word of God … When the governor saw what had happened, he believed; for he was greatly amazed at the teaching about the Lord.

627 “Paul (of Tarsus) and his companions sailed from Paphos and came to Perga, a city in Pamphylia, where John Mark left them and went back to Jerusalem. They went on from Perga and arrived at Antioch in Pisidia, and on the Sabbath they went into the synagogue and sat down. After the reading from the Law of Moses and from the writings of the prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent them a message: 'Brothers, we want you to speak to the people if you have a message of encouragement for them'. Paul (of Tarsus) stood up, motioned with his hand, and began to speak. (Take note that Luke switches the leadership of the preaching and teaching group from Joseph)

Barnabas to Paul of Tarsus. “Saul” of Tarsus also changes to “Paul” of Tarsus from this time after his encounter with Sergius Paulus, the governor of the island of Cyprus. He, as Paul of Tarsus, from now on, championed the mere spreading and making known the name of Jesus to Gentiles and kings and to the people of Israel.):

628 “Fellow-Israelites and all Gentiles here who worship God: hear me! … We want you to know, my fellow-Israelites, that it is through Jesus that the message about forgiveness of sins is preached to you; and that everyone who believes in him is set free from all the sins from which the Law of Moses could not set you free …” (Take note that the two preached on this same theme which coloured the teaching of the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles deep-red like the blood of a dead person.)

629 “As Paul (of Tarsus) and (Joseph) Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to come back the next Sabbath and tell them more about these things. After the people had left the meeting, Paul (of Tarsus) and (Joseph) Barnabas were followed by many Jews and by many Gentiles who had been converted to Judaism. The apostles spoke to them and encouraged them to keep on living in the grace of God.

630 “The next Sabbath nearly everyone in the town came to hear the word of the Lord. When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy; they disputed what Paul (of Tarsus) was saying and insulted him. But Paul (of Tarsus) and (Joseph) Barnabas spoke out even more boldly: 'It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. But since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we will leave you and go to the Gentiles. For this is the command that the Lord has given us: “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, so that all the world may be saved””.

631 “When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the Lord's message; and those who had been chosen for eternal life became believers.

632 “The word of God spread everywhere in the region … The believers in Antioch (in Pisidia) were full of joy and the Holy Spirit.”

633 “The same thing happened in Iconium: Paul (of Tarsus) and (Joseph) Barnabas went to the synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of the Jews and Gentiles became believers. The apostles stayed there for a long time, speaking boldly about the Lord, who proved that their message about his grace was true by giving them the power to perform miracles and wonders. The people of the city were divided: some were for the Jews, others for the apostles... (While Luke erroneously explains that the Lord gave the two apostles “power to perform miracles and wonders” as proof “that their message about his grace was true”, the Lord himself explains the purpose of the power he permitted them to use “to perform miracles and wonders”: “This second beast [it had two horns like a lamb's horns, and it spoke like a dragon.]” performed great miracles;... And it deceived all the people on earth by means of the miracles which it was allowed to perform in the presence of the first beast.” “The first beast was taken prisoner, together with the false prophet the second beast who performed miracles in his presence. [it was by those miracles that he had deceived those who had the mark of the beast and those who had worshipped the image of the beast {cf. Rev. 13:13 to 14; 19:20}].” Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas [the two horns of the second beast {the Christian Church} that spoke like a dragon] were, like the twelve Galilean apostles, also allowed to perform miracles and wonders, which were the means they possessed and used to deceive the rulers and the rule of the Roman Empire, “all the people on earth”, to believe their dragon-like message as also coming from the Lord.) first beast was taken prisoner, together with the false prophet the second beast who performed miracles in his presence. [it was by those miracles that he had deceived those who had the mark of the beast and those who had worshipped the image of the beast {cf. Rev. 13:13 to 14; 19:20}].” Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas [the two horns of the second beast {the Christian Church} that spoke like a dragon] were, like the twelve Galilean apostles, also allowed to perform miracles and wonders, which were the means they possessed and used to deceive the rulers and the rule of the Roman Empire, “all the people on earth”, to believe their dragon-like message as also coming from the Lord.)

634 “In Lystra there was a man who had been lame from birth and had never been able to walk. He sat there and listened to Paul's words. Paul (of Tarsus) saw that he believed and could be healed, (here is another error of Luke as to why the lame man could be healed), so he looked straight at him and said in a loud voice, 'Stand up straight on your feet!' The man jumped up and started walking around. When the crowds saw what Paul (of Tarsus) had done, they started shouting in their Lycaonian language, 'The gods have become like men and have come down to us'. They gave (Joseph) Barnabas the name Zeus, and Paul (of Tarsus) the name of Hermes, because he was the chief speaker ... The next day he and (Joseph) Barnabas went to Derbe.

635 “Paul (of Tarsus) and (Joseph) Barnabas preached the Good News in Derbe and won many disciples. Then they went back to Lystra, to Iconium, and on to Antioch in Pisidia. They strengthened the believers and encouraged them to remain true to the faith. We must pass through many troubles to enter the Kingdom of God', they taught. In each church they appointed elders and with prayers and fasting they commended them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. (Take note that they modelled their churches after Jewish synagogues and Judaism, something never associated with Peter with the other eleven apostles and the disciples made for Jesus.)

636 “After going through the territory of Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. There they preached the message in Perga and then went to Attalia, and from there they sailed back to Antioch (in Syria), the place where they had been commended to the care of God's grace for the work they had now completed. (Take note that they have made Antioch in Syria the headquarters of their Christian Church, as against Jerusalem, the headquarters of the church of Jesus of Nazareth founded and established by the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles led by anointed Simon Peter. The preaching and teaching work of the two called apostles by Luke was the flood of water from the mouth of the dragon poured out after the woman [= the church of the twelve Galilean apostles], so that it would carry her away. 'But the earth the Emperors of the Roman Empire helped the woman; it opened its mouth and swallowed the water that had come from the dragon's mouth; Emperor Constantine believed and accepted the teaching of the Christian Church and made it the Official Church and Religion of the Roman Empire'; [cf. Rev. 12:15 to 16]) the Emperors of the Roman Empire helped the woman; it opened its mouth and swallowed the water that had come from the dragon's mouth; Emperor Constantine believed and accepted the teaching of the Christian Church and made it the Official Church and Religion of the Roman Empire';).

637 “When they arrived in Antioch (in Syria), they gathered the people of the church together and told them about all that God had done with them and how he had opened the way for the Gentiles to believe. (Many Jews also believed and became Christians, but, strangely, Paul and Barnabas or Luke did not talk about them.) And they stayed a long time there with the believers.” (Acts 11:9 to 26; 13:1 to 14:1 to 28)

638 Under the instigation and leadership of Joseph Barnabas, backed by the powerful teaching support of Paul of Tarsus, the message of Christianity, of the Christian Church, first founded and established at Antioch in Syria, in the Diaspora, was spread among the masses of the common people, “the sea”, of the Roman Empire. Anointed Simon Peter, the first angelic trumpeter, addressed God's message to the rulers of Israel and of the Roman Empire, “the earth”, and Joseph Barnabas, the second angelic trumpeter, addressed God's message to the ruled masses of Gentiles, “the sea”, living throughout the Roman Empire.

639 “Some men came from Judaea to Antioch (in Syria) and started teaching the believers, 'You cannot be saved unless you are circumcised as the Law of Moses requires'. Paul (of Tarsus) and (Joseph) Barnabas got into fierce argument with them about this (because it conflicted with their Neo-Judaism), so it was decided that Paul (of Tarsus) and (Joseph) Barnabas and some of the others in Antioch (in Syria) should go to Jerusalem and see the apostles and elders about this matter. (This was the first major evidence of the existence of two quite doctrinally different and rival churches both claiming allegiance to Jesus.)

640 “They were sent on their way by the church (at Antioch in Syria); and as they went through Phoenicia and Samaria, they reported how the Gentiles had turned to God; this news brought great joy to all the believers. When they arrived in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church (or the laity), the apostles, and the elders (or the clergy), to whom they told all that God had done through them. But some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, 'The Gentiles must be circumcised and told to obey the Law of Moses'. (Take note that the report of the conversion of the Gentiles was made to the church, the apostles, and the elders of Jerusalem in the same way as it was made to the other believers in Phoenicia and Samaria; so it was not done because they recognized Jerusalem as the headquarters of their Christian Church.)

641 “The apostles and the elders met together to consider this question. After a long debate (Simon) Peter stood up and said, 'My brothers, you know that a long time ago (about 15 years ago) God chose me from among you to preach the Good News to the Gentiles so that they could hear and believe. And God, who knows the thoughts of everyone, showed his approval of the Gentiles by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he had to us (without putting the unbearable load of the practice of Judaism on them). He made no difference between us and them; he forgave their sins because they believed (N.B.: an erroneous teaching of Paul and Barnabas “that God forgave their sins because they believed” put into the mouth of Peter by Luke apparently unknowingly). So then, why do you now want to put God to the test by laying a load (a burdensome practice of Judaism) on the backs of the believers which neither our ancestors nor we ourselves were able to carry? No! We believe and are saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are'.

642 “The whole group was silent as they heard (Joseph) Barnabas and Paul (of Tarsus) report all the miracles and wonders that God had performed through them among the Gentiles. When they had finished speaking, James (a junior brother of Jesus, not one of the twelve Galilean apostles) spoke up: 'Listen to me, my brothers! Simon (Peter) has just explained how God (through him) first showed his care for the Gentiles by taking from among them a people to belong to him (to become members of the Church of Jesus of Nazareth without requiring them to obey the Law of Moses)... (long before the Christian Church was founded at Antioch in Syria by Barnabas and Paul.)....

643 “It is my opinion”, James went on, 'that we should not trouble the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead, we should write a letter telling them not to eat any food that is ritually unclean because it has been offered to idols; to keep themselves from sexual immorality; and not to eat any animal that has been strangled or any blood. For the Law of Moses has been read for a very long time in the synagogues every Sabbath, and his words are preached in every town'. (Do you see how James ironically seeks to put no burden on the Gentiles, but ends up doing so by asking them to practise this other equally burdensome aspect of Judaism? This teaching, command, rule or directive coming from St. James, the brother of Jesus, that was sent in contravention of Peter's ruling that no practice of Judaism should be put on the believers no matter how small or insignificant it seemed to James to be clearly contradicts the truth revealed by Jesus and the word of God, recorded by St. Mark at Mk. 7:14 to 23, and so should be ignored and rejected by the followers of Jesus, the twelve Galilean apostles and their followers, the “Christian” fundamentalists. It was an error that God allowed to go to the Christian Church at Antioch in Syria which deserved it.)

644 “Then the apostles and the elders, together with the whole church, decided to choose some men from the group and send them to Antioch (in Syria) with Paul (of Tarsus) and (Joseph) Barnabas. They chose two men who were highly respected by the believers, Judas, called Barsabbas, and Silas, and they sent the following letter by them: …

645 “The messengers were sent off and went to Antioch (in Syria), where they gathered the whole group of believers and gave them the letter. When the people read it, they were filled with joy by the message of encouragement. Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets (Jewish prophets of Judaism), spoke a long time with them, giving them courage and strength. After spending some time there, they were sent off in peace by the believers and went back to those who had sent them.

646 “Paul (of Tarsus) and (Joseph) Barnabas spent some time in Antioch (in Syria), and together with many others they taught and preached the word of the Lord.

647 “Some time later Paul (of Tarsus) said to (Joseph) Barnabas, 'Let us go back and visit our brothers in every town where we preached the word of the Lord, and let us find out how they are getting on.' (Joseph) Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with them, but Paul (of Tarsus) did not think it was right to take him, because he had not stayed with them to the end of their mission, but had turned back and left them in Pamphylia. There was a sharp argument, and they separated: (Joseph) Barnabas took (John) Mark and sailed off for Cyprus, while Paul (of Tarsus) chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the care of the Lord's grace. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.” (Acts 15:1 to 40)

648 Take note that it was the church at Antioch in Syria that sanctioned and sponsored the missionary journeys of Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas, who preached their Christianity, and not the church in Jerusalem and or the twelve Galilean apostles. Take further note that there were no reported disagreements, conflicts, arguments, etcetera, among the twelve Galilean apostles; on the other hand, all reported disagreements, arguments, conflicts, etcetera, were within the members of the Christian Church of Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas or between members of the two different churches; for instance, between Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas, between Paul of Tarsus and Simon Peter, and between the members and the teachings of the church in Jerusalem and the members and the teachings of the church at Antioch in Syria. (compare John 13:35; 15:7, 10 to 12)

649 The fact that Christianity and the Christian Church of today were founded, not by the literary Jesus Christ or his original twelve Galilean apostles, but by people, such as, Joseph Barnabas, Paul of Tarsus, Apollo, Philo of Alexandria, and many others like them, who built on their foundations and substructures, has been the subject of discussion by researchers, theologians, and scholars of the Bible, of Christianity and of the Christian Church. Findings, observations, and conclusions of these people distinguish between a Jesus who preached among the Jews only in Palestine in the first century, a message of salvation to those who believed him, and those believers, who, after his death, founded and established two, not clearly distinguishable, churches: one after the leadership of Simon Peter, centred in Jerusalem, and another after the leadership of Joseph Barnabas and Paul of Tarsus, centred at Antioch in Syria, in the Diaspora.

650 For example, about Jesus and his life, we have the following observation: “The writing of the life of Jesus has been the major problem of New Testament scholarship for more than a hundred years; after numerous shifts of opinion, the consensus of scholars is that the life of Jesus cannot be written. The reason is that the data for a historical biography do not exist. Refinements on this statement diverge all the way from the historical skepticism which asserts that the historical Jesus cannot be known to the conservative position which believes that we lack only an exact chronological scheme. Better is the statement of M. J. Lagrange that the life of Jesus cannot be written because it has already been written in the Gospels. In these sources … the purpose of the authors was not to write a life but to present the object of the Christian faith and preaching.

The object which they presented was the real historical person Jesus Christ, but they did not and were unable to present His historical biography. Even the personality of Jesus, it seems, was not the primary object of interest. The compelling personality which emerges from the Gospel is one and vividly real, but little effort is made to lineate him fully. We can believe that the atmosphere of mystery in which he appears reflects the atmosphere of His historic presence; those who knew Him and related the anecdotes from which the Gospels were written knew that there were depths in Him which they never comprehended. The modern historian will do well to respect their reserve.”

651 About his teaching, we have the following observation: "As with the life of Jesus, so it is impossible to write a synopsis (summary) of his teaching. There is an implicit fallacy in any attempt to synthesize (combine separate ideas, beliefs, styles of) 'the teaching of Jesus' as distinct from the teaching of the primitive Church. The primitive Church made no attempt in its earliest phases to isolate the teaching of Jesus; this can be seen in Mark Gospel which contains little formal teaching. The apostles conceived themselves as empowered by Jesus to carry on His teaching, and the principal element in His teaching and theirs was Jesus himself. The only object of investigation is the teaching of the primitive Church itself, which was derived from its memory of the life, person, and teaching of Jesus and the expansion and application of its teaching to the growth of the Church and to new questions which arose." (Dictionary of the Bible, by John L. McKenzie, S.J. pp. 432, 433)

652 About the teaching of Paul of Tarsus and the teaching of the Christian Church of today, we have the following finding: “The theology of Paul is treated at length in separate articles on the epistles and on theological topics. No one questions his position as the most creative thinker in the history of Christianity (that is, beating Jesus to a lower position), indeed some have gone too far, asserting that historic Christianity is more Pauline than Christian (that is, historic Christianity is based more on the teaching of Paul than on the teaching of Jesus Christ). It is not difficult to imagine Paul's response to this; his entire career was devoted to obliterating himself behind the Christ with whom he identified himself. The Damascus experience was central in determining the direction of his thinking … To this one must add an undetermined degree of mystical experience, concerning which Paul is reserved (2 Cor. 12:1ff). Scarcely less important in determining his theology was the controversy concerning Judaism. In the solution of this problem Paul arrived at almost all of the dominant ideas which we now regard as characteristic of him. Less explicit but highly important was the fact that he was a man of two worlds, Judaism and Hellenistic (Greek) urban civilization.

Paul never outgrew his rabbinical training nor the profound knowledge and acceptance of Judaism in which he had been reared. His handling of the Old Testament is rabbinical; ... The term 'Christian rabbi' (i.e. Christian teacher of Judaism) which some have applied to him does more than justice to his rabbinical schooling; like most epithets (adjectives), it fails to capture his extraordinarily rich and complex personality. His Greek, while not classic, is easy and good; it is obscure only because of the packed density of his thought and his habit of proceeding to his conclusions by intuitive leaps rather than by measured steps. The weight of his writing comes from his ability to muster all the resources of his learning and experience for the exposition of any question and the solution of any problem. His preference for statements which are extreme and absolute rather than qualified and tempered is characteristic of Semitic speech, not of Greek; and this habit has been responsible for the unfortunate fact that most heresies (beliefs or opinions contrary to Roman Catholic beliefs or opinions on religion) have based themselves upon the writings of Paul. One should notice also that none of the great movements of Christian thought have developed without a base in Paul. In him for the first time the Church and Jesus living in the Church encountered world civilization; and the Church has never learned a better language in which to address the world than the language of Paul." (Dictionary of the Bible, compare p. 651)

653 To this source of Christian Church information about the origin of Today's Christianity can be added the following secular source: “The second world religion (after Buddhism) was Christianity whose history was closely intertwined with the history of Europe primarily, and later many non-European countries.

654 “Today's Christianity is the most widespread religion in the world (mainly in Europe and the Americas). However Christianity is divided into a number of faiths, churches, and sects that are often hostile to one another.

655 “The most difficult problem in the history of Christianity is the question of the origin of the religion. It has been the subject of continual discussion. Bourgeois literature on the origin of Christianity represents two main trends. One is that Christianity was founded by Jesus who supposedly lived in the land of the Jews during the rule of the Roman Emperors Augustus and Tiberius (early first century); he preached his doctrine which was later taught to the people by his disciples and apostles. This is a purely ecclesiastical opinion, but it has been put forth in milder scientific form in bourgeois literature. …

656 “The third and most reliable category of Christian source is the literature written by the apologists (the defenders of Christianity against its literary enemies) and the fathers of the Church. They are valuable because we know more or less who wrote them and when. They help us date canonical literature as well. These works include the writings of Justin the philosopher or St. Justin the Martyr (c. A.D. 150); St. Iranaeus (c. A.D. 180), who was the first to mention the four canonical gospels and even tried to prove why there were four, no less or no more; Tertullian of Carthage (late second and early third centuries); Origen (early third century) who wrote the Six Books Against Celsus (Celsus was a literary opponent and critic of Christianity); Clement of Alexandria (early fourth century); Eusebius of Caesarea (early fourth century), the first historian of the Christian Church.

657 “In recent decades several new important finds have been made. In Egypt, in 1946, archaeologists found Coptic language papyruses from the third and fourth centuries, mainly the writings of the Gnostics of an early Christian sect. Among these papyruses are The Gospel of St. Thomas, and The Gospel of Philip the Evangelist, similar in content to the canonical books. The manuscripts found in Khirbat Qumran (the shores of the Dead Sea) relate to the Essenes sect; they also shed additional light on early Christianity. More finds have also been made in Rome and near Jerusalem.

658 “Those are the Christian sources …

659 “The earliest pagan information relates to (A.D.) 64, but it was recorded in the much later annals of Tacitus (early second century). Tacitus describes Nero's brutal execution of the Christians, having accused them of setting fire to Rome. The text contains this sentence: 'Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontus Pilate, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.' …

660 “Another source of information is in the Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus Flavius; it describes the teaching, execution and resurrection of Jesus when Pilate was in Palestine: 'Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works; … He was (the) Christ …' This rather awkward insert apparently by some Christian editor does not at all match the style of Flavius, and has not deceived any researcher. Everyone agrees, and always has, that it is a forgery. At the same time some scholars believe that only separate words were added to Flavius's text, such as 'He was (the) Christ', because the authentic text mentions Jesus, although somewhat differently – as a preacher executed by the Roman authorities. This opinion was recently backed by the Arab translation of the text; in it the crucified Jesus is not at all described as a deity and a miracle worker.

661 “The correspondence of Pliny the Younger provides the first plausible information about the Christians in non-Christian source. An official in the province of Bithynia (Asia Minor), Pliny wrote in approximately (A.D.) 113 to Emperor Trajan, asking him what to do with the Christians who, he was told, were members of a criminal organization. He wanted to know whether to punish them for committing crimes or for just belonging to the sect. Trajan replied by instructing Pliny to exercise moderation and punish only those who persisted in their faith. Judging by Pliny's correspondence with Trajan there were already many Christians in Asia Minor in the early second century.

662 “The Talmud mentions the execution of a preacher named Jesus Ben-Pandira (son of Pandira), but it is not clear what relation that individual had to the biblical Jesus. (Take note that the almost complete absence of information on the life and teaching of Jesus Christ in Jewish literature of the first century is food for thought for anyone thinking of using and relying on Jewish literature, such as the Bible or the Talmud, to learn the history of the Jews and their dealings with other peoples. Their unanimity in conspiracy to hide and distort truths and facts against them, while concocting and exaggerating their achievements and special favours from the God of the Jews, is certainly obvious.)

663 “More pagan information about the Christians appeared in the latter half of the second century. It was written by Emperor Marcus Aurelius and in the East by Lucianus Samosatensis who wrote a story called Peregrinus, a satire on the daily life in the Christian communities of Asia Minor.

664 “It is clear from this review that evidence provided by pagan authors in the early years of Christianity is rare and unreliable. These authors essentially did not write anything about the founder of the religion, Jesus Christ. Neither Christian nor other sources contain indisputable information about him either. …

665 “Marxists do not feel it is essential to resolve whether Jesus was a historical figure. The roots of Christian teaching should not be sought in the activities of individuals, no matter who they are, but in the socio-political conditions of the times and in the struggle of ideas that developed in those conditions. The image of the biblical Jesus Christ (this is the only one in modern Christianity) is not the reflection of some historical figure, but a purely literary personage with extreme contradictory traits that were created collectively over a long ideological struggle. It is not so important to Marxist scholars whether a preacher named Jesus lived and died in the first century in Palestine.

666 “The first person to make a strictly scientific study of the historical conditions of the origin of Christianity was Fredrick Engel. He pointed out that the most important condition was the formation of the Roman Empire. The creation of a world monarchy paved the way for a levelling cult. Its despotic and violent regime, its oppression of the provinces, high taxes and general absence of civil rights led to apathy and demoralisation among the broad masses and not only among the slaves, but also free populations, especially in the provinces.

667 “The unsuccessful rebellions of the slaves and of the oppressed peoples of Rome increased and aggravated this apathy, demoralisation and confusion. The failure of attempts at armed resistance in individual countries and of the slave uprisings made the oppressed masses feel desperate and hopeless.

668 “Engel stressed that this mood was prevalent in different classes, all sections of society, because people equally felt there was no way out of the situation. …Any resistance of individual small tribes or cities to the gigantic Roman world power was few-tul. Where was the way out, where was salvation for the enslaved, oppressed and poverty-stricken, a way out, common to all these various groups of people with interests that were either alien to one another or even opposite?

669 “A way out was found”, wrote Engel, 'but not in this world'.

670 “Not seeing a way to salvation and freedom from oppression on earth, people inevitably seek salvation and freedom in heaven.

671 “But why was a new religion needed; why couldn't the people find consolation in the old religions?”

672 “The old religions were tribal and national. They could not go beyond their own national boundaries. Besides, the destruction of those states, where these religions had developed, undermined their foundation. (compare this fulfilment: 'The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of all countries were destroyed. God remembered great Babylon and made her drink the wine from his cup – the wine of his furious anger'; Rev. 16:19) A more flexible religion was needed that would not be connected with narrow national conditions and that could satisfy the needs of the multitribal masses of the oppressed population of the Roman Empire.

673 “The rulers of the Roman Empire made some attempts to create a world religion. For instance, they tried to introduce an official cult for the whole Empire. Besides the numerous local cults, the Roman government attempted to establish a cult obligatory for all provinces – the cult of the emperor's genius, the cult of the goddess Roma (guardian of the city of Rome) and the cult of Jupiter Capitolius. But such official cults could not in any way satisfy the need for consolation felt by the oppressed masses.

674 “Some religious doctrines could influence the masses with greater success. It was during the Roman Empire that certain eastern cults became widespread, being similar to world cults. The cult of

Isis was popular in the western half of the Empire. It also had many worshippers in Rome and in the provinces. The cult of the Iranian Mithra was practised widely, especially in the Roman army.

675 “Nevertheless, none of these cults became a world religion in the strict sense of the word.

676 “The only religion that could play that role was one that would not divide but unite the masses of the multi-tribal and multi-lingual population of the Roman Empire. The slaves and the oppressed were the ones who primarily felt the need for religious consolation, for a new religion. None of the religions of the Ancient World could give the slaves and the oppressed religious consolation, because all of them were government-sponsored and aristocratic in nature. True, there were folk cults, but they were not for the slaves, and each one of them was closely linked with local institutions. The slaves and the declassed groups of the population that were separated from their own tribal environment, from their own people, no longer had any need for the old national religions.

677 “The crisis of the slave-owning society gave rise to new trends in social consciousness. Already in the epoch of the early empire fundamentally new notions developed along with the aristocratic ideology that showed disdain for poverty, slavery and manual labour. These new ideas involved respect for the 'little man' with his modest requirements and interests, including the slave and his human dignity. This new view was reflected in epitaphs and other inscriptions, and literary works, the satires of Martialis and Juvenalis, and the philosophy of the Stoics.

678 “Thus early Christianity was the religion of the slaves and the oppressed” (that is, “Christianity was the religion of 'the sea'”; compare Rev. 8:8 to 9).

679 “The social and ethnic origin of Christianity can also be determined more precisely. The place where it first came into being was not Palestine, but the Diaspora (at Antioch in Syria – compare Acts 11:26). This is clear from Christian literature which was not written in Palestine and whose authors knew little about the situation in Palestine. In the Diaspora, among the Jews familiar with Greek philosophy and the cults of its pagan peoples, the conditions were ripe for over-coming the limited boundaries of the narrow-mindedness of the Jewish religion and for transforming into a world religion.”

680 “Citing the correct idea of Bruno Bauer, Engel pointed out that the 'father of Christianity' was the philosopher Philo of Alexandria who was deeply influenced by late Greek philosophy. He had a combination of Jewish national spirit and purely Greek classical education. Philo interpreted as allegories the biblical stories about the creation of man, the Fall, etcetera He adhered to the Judaean, strictly monotheistic teaching about God, but he also believed there was a holy mediator between God and the material world – the divine Logos (word). This was a common idea in Greek idealist philosophy. The divine Logos, son of God, became the central figure in Christianity – Jesus Christ.” (Ref: History of Religion, by Sergei Tokarev, Chapter Twenty Three. Christianity, pp. 322, 326 to 333)

681 The rather lengthy excerpts from both Christian and non-Christian sources give ample evidence of the fact that, from the fourth and fifth centuries, both the masses of the common people, the slaves and oppressed classes and the rulers of the mighty Roman Empire had been almost completely swamped by the Christian Church, so that, when the rulers of the Roman Empire opted for the faith and the church of the masses, “the sea”, the gigantic Empire on fire, fell into the sea of the masses of the people, to the level where the masses of the people religiously belonged. But this was the Christian Church founded and established by Joseph Barnabas and Paul of Tarsus, “the apostles to the nations", in the Diaspora, and not the Church of Jesus of Nazareth, founded and established in Jerusalem by the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ which became an inconspicuous heretical sect.

682 From this time when the Christian Church became the Official Church of the Roman Empire, efforts made by the emperors to eliminate heresies resulted in a third of the people of the Church being thrown into bloodshed. A third of the membership of the sects branded heretics, were alive with regard to the truth as taught and commanded by Jesus Christ and as they remained in the Church, but “died” with their elimination from the Official Church; and a third of the “ships” that represented the sects — the Gnostics, the Essenes, the Donatists, the Coptics, the Manichaeans, the Albigensians, the Waldenses, the Patripassians, Arians, etcetera, — consisting of their leaders, the bodies of elders and their following, were destroyed by their suppression.

683 It was in this way that the formation of the Christian Church at Antioch in Syria, which resulted from the teachings of Joseph Barnabas with the support of Paul of Tarsus, affected the mighty Roman Empire. The Christian Church became the popular and the uniting force for the masses, the oppressed and the slaves who needed and were assured comfort in Christian salvation. Its growing power rolled back the sky-like power and influence of the Roman regime over the conquered peoples. And, as the Roman regime realized that it could not contain it by military means, it found it wise to belong to it, in conformity with the saying, “If you cannot beat them, join them”, in order to achieve the same purpose, especially, when the Roman regime found itself being destroyed by the barbarians, who also constituted a major force of the masses of the people who belonged to the Christian Church. The bloodshed that followed the declaration of the Christian Church as the Official Church of the Roman Empire is well documented in the history books. The crusades and the Inquisition punished sects and individuals branded as heretics. This scenario is what the blowing of the second trumpet by Joseph Barnabas revealed to John the Apostle.

8:10 to 11

The Third Trumpet

684 “Then the third angel blew his trumpet. A large star, burning like a torch, dropped from the sky and fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. (The name of the star is 'Bitterness'.) A third of the water turned bitter, and many people died from drinking the water, because it had turned bitter.” (Rev. 8:10 to 11)

685 The third angel or messenger of God to blow his trumpet, to air his views to the nations of the Roman world, was Paul of Tarsus. As soon as he was converted, “He went straight to the synagogues and began to preach that Jesus was the Son of God.” (Acts 9:20) But, not instructed in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth (compare Gal. 1:1, 6 to 11, 15 to 2:2), he moved away from the teaching of the leadership twelve Galilean apostles of the church in Jerusalem, that is, as “A large star, burning like a torch, he dropped from heaven” and fell on a third of the channels and on the sources of the teachings of the Jewish religion, Judaism, and spread false and deceptive teachings about Jesus and his church. (compare Gal. 1:11 to 2:1 to 10) The result was that those who believed his false and deceptive teachings could not become part of the church of Jesus of Nazareth in reality; in this way, they “died from drinking the water, because it had turned bitter”. Paul's life-story is inseparable from the recorded history of the Christian Church. His letters to his churches convey both information and teachings to the churches and about himself. “In his letter to the Philippians St. Paul (c. A.D. 16–c. A.D. 64) says that he was an Israelite, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee, a strict keeper of the Law, and formerly an eager persecutor of the Christian Church. He was proud of his descent and status. Born at Tarsus, in Cilicia, he was named Saul after the first King of Israel, also a Benjaminite. (He took the name Paul after he became a Christian.) He learnt a trade, tent-making, a common occupation in Cilicia, where goats' wool was woven into canvas. But his ability marked him out to become a rabbi, or a teacher of the Law, and so he was sent to Jerusalem to learn from Gamaliel, a famous rabbi of the time. This was after Jesus' death, for Paul, speaking of himself as 'born out of due time', makes it clear that he never actually saw Jesus.

686 “We first hear of him at the stoning of Stephen. Stephen had been teaching that there was an authority greater than the temple and the Law, and that Moses, through whom the Law was given to the Hebrews, had foretold the coming of a prophet with authority greater than his own. This infuriated the strict Jews who dragged Stephen out of the city and stoned him to death. Saul, then a young man whose religious training had been very narrow, believed that he was witnessing the death of a blasphemer. Saul took a leading part in a cruel persecution of the Christians; but his real nature was gentle, not cruel, and this period of persecution was short.

687 “One day, when coming towards Damascus, he saw a light brighter than the noonday sun. Stunned and blinded he fell to the earth and heard a voice: 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?' He cried: 'Who art Thou, Lord?' The reply came: 'I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.' Then followed the command that he must extend, without limit of land or race, the faith he had tried so hard to destroy.

688 “Still blinded, Saul was led by the hand to the Christian community in Damascus, where he was initiated into its membership by baptism. After a period of retirement and meditation, he returned to Damascus; and 3 years later he paid a fortnight's visit to Peter in Jerusalem, where he also saw James, Jesus' brother. There followed a period of considerable expansion and development in the early Church. The flourishing Christian community of both Jews and Gentiles at Antioch grew eager to carry the faith farther afield – to Cyprus and perhaps Asia Minor. Barnabas and Saul were appointed as missioners, and Saul, who at this point took the name Paul, soon became the leader. On this first journey they travelled as far as what is now southern Turkey. Although the Jews were hostile, the Gentiles welcomed the new faith. Paul accepted gladly all who believed in Jesus; but this seemed a serious mistake to the original apostles, who still thought of Christianity as an exclusively Jewish religion. Paul, therefore, returned to Jerusalem to discuss this controversy, and at a meeting of the elders of the early Church Paul's principle, that Gentiles could become full Christians without accepting Jewish customs, was agreed to. It was decided that Peter was to be the leader in work among Jews, and Paul among Gentiles.

689 “But a large section of the Christians never accepted the idea of an equal and complete brotherhood with the Gentiles, and for many years they tried to undo Paul's work and, if possible, to kill him. Nothing could stop Paul's determined energy, and in two further journeys he visited every important city in the Roman provinces of Asia, Macedonia and Greece. His preaching made so great a stir that he was charged with 'turning the whole world upside down'. Yet he was also a careful organizer. In each city he left a brotherhood with officers called elders (in Greek, 'presbyters' later shortened to 'priests'). These were also called episcopoi or overseers, or as we now say, bishops. To each church Paul wrote letters of teaching, warning, and encouragement. His Epistles must be but a small surviving remnant of his correspondence. These scattered brotherhoods came to think of themselves as parts of one universal Church, which one day, strange as it might seem, would embrace all mankind.

690 “Paul still thought of Jerusalem as the centre of a united Church. (Take note that 'a united church' achieved out of unity between 'the church in Jerusalem' and 'the church of Antioch' would not be the same as 'the one universal church' grown out of 'the church in Jerusalem'.) His long-cherished desire was to visit Rome; but first he must return to Jerusalem. He took with him a number of Gentile friends, including Luke, whose records give us vivid pictures of incidents on this journey. More than once Paul was warned not to enter Jerusalem, but he would not change his purpose. His presence with his Gentile friends in the city led to a riot in the temple in which, but for the intervention of the Roman soldiery, he would have been killed. Being by birth a Roman citizen Paul could claim a trial by Roman law. He came before the Roman governor Felix, who kept him in prison at Caesarea for two years. When brought before his successor, Festus, Paul appealed to the Emperor. So he did go to Rome, though not in the way he had hoped.

691 “The events of this voyage, the shipwreck, the three months' stay at Malta, and other happenings are vividly described by Luke in The Acts. When they finally approached Rome in A.D. 50, the Roman Christians, who already knew him because of his great epistle to them, came out to meet him. The Acts ends by stating that Paul lived for 2 years as a prisoner in his own hired dwelling, during which time he apparently taught with complete freedom. But the book ends here, and what finally happened to Paul we do not know for certain.

692 “The concluding paragraphs of two Epistles, Titus and 2 Timothy, indicate that Paul was released and travelled again to Greece, Asia Minor, and Crete. Then he was arrested again, and this time was not released. The words, 'I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come', and, 'Only Luke is with me', have a final ring about them. Tradition says that he was martyred under Nero about A.D. 64.

693 “Paul believed that by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the old Jewish system of a religion depending on law, sacrifice, and national exclusiveness had been brought to an end. In its place had come a religion in which man could live by the power of the Spirit, an inward instead of an outward authority. Jesus could supply this power because he was still alive. This was, in Paul's view, a change from bondage to freedom, from being a servant to being a son of God. Such a religion made men equal, and was by its nature universal. Paul's character touched two extremes: he was brave, masterful, and capable of unlimited endurance; yet courteous, patient, and gentle – and he made many friends, by whom he was loved.” (Ref: Oxford Junior Encyclopaedia, volume V. Great Lives, pp. 351 to 353)

694 This is Paul of Tarsus, as the modern historian encapsulates him; he is the third messenger of God who preached and taught a religious doctrine that has had a profound contaminating, fermenting, sourcing, and bitter influence on the preaching, teaching, commands, and requirements of the Church of Jesus Christ of Nazareth founded in Jerusalem in A.D. 30, under the leadership of anointed Simon Peter with the other anointed eleven Galilean apostles. What followed the blowing of the third messenger's trumpet, that is, the preaching and teaching of Paul of Tarsus' brand of the message of salvation, the message, merely, "to make the name of Jesus known to Gentiles and kings and to the people of Israel", was the dropping of "a large star burning like a torch", from the sky (from heaven) and falling on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The large star was Paul of Tarsus himself, a prominent and important leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who separated himself early from the anointed twelve Galilean apostles, their church and their teachings.

— from the leadership realm or group of the Church of Jesus Christ of Nazareth in Jerusalem — thus dropping from heaven, and plunged himself into the rivers and the springs of water, that is, into the channels and the sources of the doctrine of the religion of the Jews, his own people, as he used to say about the Jews.

695 He created a Neo-Judaism, a type of a new teaching or new doctrine that confused, contradicted and so made “bitter” or hard to understand and believe, the earlier teaching or doctrine of the Old Testament prophets, and of Jesus Christ, of anointed Simon Peter, of the Church in Jerusalem and of the rest of the anointed apostles and elders in Jerusalem. Apparently, circumstances beyond his control made him separate himself, as the brothers in Damascus and in Jerusalem were apprehensive and suspicious of him and of his conversion and commission claims and experiences that, strangely and unconventionally, sidelined anointed Simon Peter with the other anointed eleven Galilean apostles and the Church in Jerusalem, and so would not associate with him. His early departure from Jerusalem and absence for 14 years also added to his being cut off from the anointed twelve Galilean apostles' teaching and association. (compare Gal. 1:18 to 19; 2:1 to 2) All this happened to him to facilitate his job of merely making known the name of Jesus to Gentiles and kings and to the people of Israel, which was not the same as the work assigned to the anointed twelve Galilean apostles, which was to make 144,000 Spirit-sealed men in the Diaspora and the enormous crowd of Gentile men Jesus' disciples, to be used to rule on earth in the New World which was the message of truth preached by the anointed twelve Galilean apostles but was unknown to Paul of Tarsus. Nevertheless, Paul of Tarsus began as a horn and an eye of the new Lamb, the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, before he separated himself inexorably from the anointed twelve Galilean apostles, their church and their teachings. In the end Paul and Barnabas' Christian Church completely swamped the Church of Jesus of Nazareth as “the flood of water” “poured out of the mouth of the dragon after the woman, so that it would carry her away.” (Rev. 12:15)

696 “The name of the star is 'Bitterness'.”

697 The name or reputation or the assumed character of Paul of Tarsus was “Bitterness”. Paul of Tarsus was prone to or used to sporting controversial teachings, contradictory teachings – teachings that confused and made the already known and accepted ones “bitter”. The introduction and inclusion of the teachings of Paul of Tarsus into the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and his anointed twelve Galilean apostles, turned a third of its teachings bitter and the many peoples who accepted and believed the teachings made bitter by Paul of Tarsus “died”, that is, they could neither be made part of the redeemed and sealed 144,000 Diasporan Israelite men nor part of the saved enormous crowd of Gentile men, because his bitter teachings which they accepted and believed did not fall in line with the teaching that supported and justified the redemption of the 144,000 people from the lost sheep of the people of Israel in the Diaspora and the saving of the enormous crowd of Gentile mendisciples from capture and bondage to the Roman Empire and the Church of Rome: they constituted those to be resurrected first to rule with Christ on earth for a thousand years, rather than going to heaven to be with the Lord, as falsely and deceptively preached and taught by Paul of Tarsus. Paul of Tarsus taught and commanded, not the fleeing and separation from, but the cooperation and submission of the believers to the Roman State Power and Rulership, “because they are God's servants working for your own good … and the existing authorities have been put there by God.” (compare Rom. 13:1 to 6; Tit. 2:9) He also taught that Christians would go to heaven after death, resurrection, and judgement. (compare Heb. 9:27 to 28; 1 Thes. 4:13 to 18) But this teaching contradicts that given Jesus by God, which says that it is God who will descend from heaven to live with the human race on earth. (compare Rev. 21:1 to 4)

698 Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, puts Joseph Barnabas in the lead in the formation and establishment of the Christian Church at Antioch in Syria, in the Diaspora, but switches positions and puts Paul of Tarsus in the lead, when it came to the preaching of the Good News about Jesus Christ during the first missionary journey to merely make the name of Jesus known to Gentiles and kings and to the people of Israel. Not only did Paul of Tarsus take the lead in preaching and teaching his own views in the Diaspora, but also taught Judaism and Greek philosophy mixed with Messianic expectations claimed to have been fulfilled by Jesus Christ, that is, Neo-Judaism. That behaviour of Paul of Tarsus was a colossal deviation from the teaching of the Church of Jesus of Nazareth and his anointed twelve Galilean apostles of which, before such a colossal deviation, he was a prominent and important teacher and leader. That behaviour made the large star that he was of the Church of Jesus of Nazareth, drop from that high leadership position (from heaven) to concern himself with being “a burning torch”, a shining source of teachings, who promoted and advanced his own teachings modelled after Judaism and Greek philosophy, Neo-Judaism which is the Christianity of today. (compare Matt. 13:33; 16:6, 12; Gal. 1:11 to 12)

699 At Antioch in Pisidia, Paul of Tarsus told his listeners, “We want you to know, my fellow-Israelites, that it is through Jesus that the message about forgiveness of sins is preached to you, and that everyone who believes is set free from all the sins from which the Law of Moses could not set you free.” (Acts 13:38 to 39; compare 26:16 to 18) This teaching of Paul of Tarsus (and Joseph Barnabas) confuses and contradicts the teaching or proclamation of Jesus to the Jews, his disciples and the crowds, saying, “Jerusalem! Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone the messengers God has sent you! How many times have I wanted to put my arms round all your people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not let me! And so your Temple will be abandoned and empty. From now on, I tell you, you will never see me again until you say, 'God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord.'” (Matt. 23:37 to 39)

700 At the time that Paul of Tarsus was preaching to the Jews and the Gentiles this false and deceptive message at Antioch in Pisidia, the old plan of God in using the Jews to bless all the nations of the world had been abandoned. God was already proceeding with the New Plan of blessing all nations of the world with eternal life free, through the 144,000 people being redeemed and sealed with the Holy Spirit by the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, from the lost sheep of the people of Israel in the Diaspora, and the enormous crowd of Gentiles being saved, by the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles and the 144,000 Spirit-sealed people, from bondage and capture to the Roman Empire and the Church of Rome. They constituted the people who would produce the proper fruits and who had been chosen to replace the Jews from whom the Kingdom of God had been taken away. (compare Matt. 21:43) And yet, Paul of Tarsus was making the incorrect claim that “It is through Jesus that the message about the forgiveness of sins is preached to the Jews (and Gentiles) and that everyone of the Jews and Gentiles who believed in Jesus is set free from all the sins from which the Law of Moses could not set the Jews free”. It is from this false and deceptive teaching of Paul of Tarsus that Christians claim and believe that Jesus was sent to this earth to die to save mankind from sin and death. But, as shown above, this teaching of Paul of Tarsus is patently false and deceptive!

701 He bolstered this false and deceptive teaching by explaining and applying wrongly the sacrifices the nation of Israel sacrificed to their gods or God. God has disclaimed ever asking the descendants of Abraham to sacrifice animals to him and, ironically, has questioned who asked them to practise that disgusting ritual of animal, food, and wealth sacrifices to him. (compare Sc. Is. 1:11 to 14) From the Scroll at Psalm 40:6, we read, “You do not want animal sacrifices and offerings; you do not ask for animals burnt whole on the altar or for sacrifices to take away sins.” So all the sacrifices and offerings of the nation of Israel were not to God, but to their idol and demon gods. (compare Sc. Am. 5:25 to 27; Acts 7:42 to 43; Sc. Ex. 24:9 to 11; 1 Cor.10:20) Therefore, Jesus' sacrifice that satisfied the will of God could not be a sacrifice to save mankind from sin and death. And yet this was the impossible falsehood and deception taught by Paul of Tarsus. Quoting the same scripture from the Scroll at Psalm 40:6, he writes, “You are not pleased with animals burnt whole on the altar or with sacrifices to take away sins. Then I said, 'Here I am, to do your will, O God, just as it is written of me in the book of the Law' … So God does away with all the old sacrifices and puts the sacrifice of Christ in their place. … With one sacrifice, then, he (Christ) has made perfect for ever those who are purified from sin.” (Heb. 10:5 to 10) What a faulty analysis, inference and conclusion! Jesus' sacrifice could not take the place of a practice that God had condemned as not requested by him or acceptable to him. He wants his people to know him, rather than sacrifice to him, their maker and provider. (compare Sc. Mi. 6:6 to 8; Sc. Ps. 50:7 to 15)

702 Long after the abandonment of the Jews and their religion, Judaism, by God and Jesus, Paul of Tarsus continued to claim and teach falsely and deceptively that, “They (the Jews) are God's people; he made his covenants with them and gave them the Law; they have the true worship.” (Rom. 9:4) Paul of Tarsus also laments to the Romans, saying, “My brothers and sisters, how I wish with all my heart that my own people (the Jews) might be saved! How I pray to God for them! I can assure you that they are deeply devoted to God, but their devotion is not based on true knowledge. They have not known the way in which God puts people right with himself, and instead, they have tried to set up their own way; and so they did not submit themselves to God's way of putting people right.

For Christ has brought the Law to an end, so that everyone who believes is put right with God.” (Rom. 10:1 to 4) Paul of Tarsus, clearly, did not take kindly to the rejection of the Jews by God and the carrying out by God of the following statement of Jesus: “The Kingdom of God will be taken away from you (Jews) and given to a people (the redeemed 144,000 Spirit-sealed people and the enormous crowd) who will produce the proper fruits.” (Matt. 21:43) So, the irony was that, Paul of Tarsus, himself, did not correctly know how God puts people right with himself, the same as his fellow-Jews; and his teaching them to believe Jesus to be saved from sin and death was false and deceptive! Furthermore, Jesus Christ did not bring any Law to an end, so that everyone who believes is put right with God! For we know that the Law Covenant God attempted to make with the Israelites at the time of Moses did not come on! What Jeremiah said Jesus Christ was to make as a new covenant with the people of Judah and the people of Israel also did not come on!

703 Paul of Tarsus could not bring himself into agreement and harmony with the principal fact that the promised king of the Kingdom of God sacrificed this Abrahamic covenant or promise of giving eternal life to all nations of the earth through the Jews and replaced the Jews with the 144,000 redeemed people and the enormous crowd who are those for whose redemption and salvation Jesus was crucified and his twelve Galilean apostles “killed”. (compare Sc. Is. 25:6 to 8; John 4:22) The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders sang a new song (that is, they proclaimed a new message): “You are worthy to take the scroll and break open its seals. For you were killed, and by your sacrificial death you bought for God people from every tribe, language, nation, and race. You have made them a kingdom of priests to serve our God, and they shall rule on earth;" they are the "people who will produce the proper fruits". (Rev. 5:9b-10) The one who was sacrificed was the group of twelve Galilean apostles as the children of Jesus Christ or the new Lamb of Jesus Christ, who redeemed the 144,000 people, and, with the 144,000 people, saved the enormous crowd through their sacrificial service of preaching and teaching.

704 As an affront to and a contradiction of the above, Paul of Tarsus writes, “I am speaking the truth, I belong to Christ and I do not lie. My conscience, ruled by the Holy Spirit, also assures me that I am not lying when I say how great is my sorrow, how endless the pain in my heart for my people, my own flesh and blood! For their sake I could wish that I myself were under God's curse and separated from Christ. They are God's people, he made them his children and revealed his glory to them; they have the true worship; they have received God's promises; they are descended from the famous Hebrew ancestors; and Christ, as a human being, belongs to their race.

May God, who rules over all, be praised for ever! Amen.” (Rom. 9:1 to 5) “I ask, then, did God reject his own people? Certainly not! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people, whom he chose from the beginning .... there is a small number left of those whom God has chosen because of his grace.

His choice is based on his grace, not on what they have done. For if God's grace were based on what people do, then his grace would not be real grace.

705 “I ask, then: when the Jews stumbled, did they fall to their ruin? By no means! Because they sinned, salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make the Jews jealous of them. The sin of the Jews brought rich blessings to the Gentiles. Then, how much greater the blessings will be when the complete number of the Jews is included!” (Rom. 11:1 to 12)

706 Salvation did not come to the Gentiles because the Jews sinned. Both Gentiles and Jews are in God's revealed Creation Plan as the human creation to be given eternal life on equal footing! What Paul of Tarsus is saying in these claims is just an example of how he worked to make bitter the teachings of God revealed by Jesus with his erroneous analysis and explanation of the teachings and prophecies of the ancient prophets.

707 The beliefs, opinions, teachings and practices of Paul of Tarsus gained him the reputation, yes, the name “Bitterness”. Paul of Tarsus was the epitome of “Controversy” among Jews and Christians; he was controversial among Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, and he was just inscrutable to all who dealt with him, Jews, Gentiles and Christians, kings, governors and commoners alike.

Fellow theologians, Christians, have found and described him as eccentric, differently inspired by the nature of the brand of his gospel. In the second letter of Peter, the writer writes: "Look on the Lord's patience as the opportunity he is giving you to be saved, just as our dear brother Paul wrote to you, using the wisdom that God gave him. This is what he says in all his letters when he writes on the subject. There are some difficult things in his letters which ignorant and unstable people explain falsely, as they do with other passages of the Scriptures. So they bring on their own destruction." (2 Pet. 3:15 to 16) That was why "A third of the water, that is, the Christian teaching, turned bitter, and many people died", that is, were destroyed, by drinking the water, "because it had turned bitter" by the influence of Paul of Tarsus' incorrect teaching on it. (Rev. 8:11b; compare Acts 26:24 to 25) Paul of Tarsus has stood out as the only controversial figure, the odd one out, of all who claimed to be followers of Jesus Christ in the first century Christian history.

708 The unique role of Paul of Tarsus in substantially and adversely influencing the nature, character, teaching and cause of Christianity has not escaped any serious and impartial researcher, theologian or historian of Christianity, of the Christian Church and of the Holy Roman Empire. “In his first preaching Paul of Tarsus encountered the hatred of the Jews which pursued him the rest of his life; he was then what he has been since, the great renegade”, that is, “the great heretic”. (p. 649, 3. Life. Dictionary of the Bible. op. cit.) “No one questions Paul's position as the most creative thinker in the history of Christianity; indeed some have gone too far, asserting that historic Christianity is more Pauline than Christian … Scarcely less important in determining his theology was the controversy concerning Judaism. In the solution of this problem Paul arrived at almost all of the dominant ideas which we now regard as characteristic of him. Less explicit but highly important was the fact that he was a man of two worlds, Judaism and Hellenistic (Greek) urban civilization. Paul never outgrew his rabbinical training nor the profound knowledge and acceptance of Judaism in which he had been reared. His handling of the Old Testament is rabbinical. The term 'Christian rabbi' (Christian teacher of Judaism) which some have applied to him does more than justice to his rabbinical schooling; like most epithets (adjectives), it fails to capture his extraordinarily rich and complex personality … The weight of his writing comes from his ability to muster all the resources of his learning and experience for the exposition of any question and the solution of any problem. His preference for statements which are extreme and absolute rather than qualified and tempered is characteristic of Semitic speech, not of Greek; and this has been responsible for the unfortunate fact that most heresies (beliefs or opinions contrary to Roman Catholic beliefs or opinions on religion) have based themselves upon the writings of Paul. One should notice also that none of the great movements of Christian thought have developed without a base in Paul. In him for the first time the Church and Jesus living in the Church encountered world civilization; and the Church has never learned a better language in which to address the world than the language of Paul.” (op. cit. p. 561, 5. Theology) “The truth revealed by Jesus and the word of God” were not known to and so not relied upon by Paul of Tarsus in his exposition on Christianity.

709 There you are! It is Paul of Tarsus that the entire Christian Church and Jesus, living in the Christian church, encountered world civilization; and the Christian Church has never learned a better language in which to address the world than the language of Paul of Tarsus, not the language of Jesus of Nazareth or Simon Peter, the leader of the twelve apostles! So “Christianity” is a misnomer! It should correctly and properly be called “Paulinity”, that is, the teaching of Paul of Tarsus, and the Church of Christ or the Christian Church called the Church of Paul of Tarsus or St. Paul's Church!

710 Without any shred of doubt and controversy, the “bitter” teachings of the Christian Church, of Christianity, about the origin of sin, the cause of death, going to heaven, etcetera, thrust on the world are those of Paul of Tarsus and his followers and not of Jesus of Nazareth. This is the consensus reached by the majority of trustworthy and unbiased Christian and non-Christian theologians, historians, and researchers. Paul of Tarsus could not teach his bitter teachings in isolation and so had to do it in the church founded and established by Joseph Barnabas at Antioch in Syria with his unique bitter doctrinal assistance. Paul of Tarsus was obviously ignorant of the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth bequeathed to his twelve Galilean apostles and other disciples who saw him, heard him, and associated with him. Paul of Tarsus was unaware of the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth that, because the Jews would not accept him as the Messiah, the Abrahamic covenant was being abandoned, and so, the prophecy of Jeremiah about the making of a new covenant with the people of Israel and the people of Judah could not and did not come on; and so, all related prophecies of all the prophets of the Old Testament, who came before Jesus of Nazareth, with respect to Israel and the blessing of mankind with eternal life through the Jews, could not and did not come on. (compare John 10:7 to 10; 4:22) Paul of Tarsus was also unaware, and could not believe, even if he were told, that Jesus swore that his statement to the effect that the Jews had been forever rejected and abandoned by God and that they had never been and would never be made the chosen people of God to be made a kingdom of priests to serve God as kings and priests, would definitely and certainly come to pass. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away”; Jesus swore to this! (Matt. 24:35).

711 Paul of Tarsus never concealed the ambivalence in his teachings which made him teach his own convictions when not under the Spirit's influence, but had to be compelled to also teach the truth consistent with the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth when under the Spirit's influence. (compare Rom. 9:1 to 5; 1 Cor. 7:25) He explained these contradictions in his teachings with the revelation and confession that he did preach as a slave of Jesus of Nazareth only under compulsion. “I have no right to boast just because I preach the gospel. After all, I am under orders to do so. And how terrible it would be for me if I did not preach the gospel! If I did my work as a matter of choice, then I could expect to be paid; but I do it as a matter of duty, because God has entrusted me with this task.

What pay do I get, then? It is the privilege of preaching the Good News without charging for it, without claiming my rights in my work for the gospel”, because he did it against his own free will. (1 Cor. 9:15 to 18; compare 19 to 27; 2 Tim.4:7 to 8) So has Paul of Tarsus revealed about his apostleship which differed from the apostleship of the twelve Galilean apostles and their faith and teachings which he held in disdain and so, also, often contradicted.

712 Paul of Tarsus held his sources of teaching – the Old Testament Bible, Greek philosophy, the Holy Spirit, and the invisible Jesus – as being special and equal or even superior to those of the twelve Galilean apostles and their disciples who saw, heard, and associated with Jesus of Nazareth, while he was alive and visible on this earth. “Am I not a free man? Am I not an apostle? Haven't I seen Jesus our Lord? And aren't you the result of my work for the Lord? Even if others do not accept me as an apostle, surely you do! Because of your life in union with the Lord you yourselves are proof of the fact that I am an apostle.” (1 Cor. 9:1 to 2) This is how Paul of Tarsus attempts to equate his somewhat differently sourced inspiration and self-testimony conversion to that of the twelve Galilean apostles. Then he asserts, “I do not think that I am least bit inferior to those very special so-called 'apostles' of yours! Perhaps I am an amateur in speaking, but certainly not in knowledge; we have made this clear to you at all times and in all conditions.” (2 Cor. 11:5 to 6). If, certainly, Paul of Tarsus' apostleship is equal to and, therefore, not “least bit inferior to those very special so-called 'apostles's” apostleship, but his apostleship was backed by superior learning or “knowledge”, while the apostleship of the twelve was backed by inferior learning or “no knowledge”, for they were “unlettered” or “uneducated”, then, obviously, his inference was that his apostleship backed by superior education was superior to their own backed by inferior education.

713 Speaking about his apostleship and that of the twelve, Paul of Tarsus further writes, “But those who seemed to be the leaders – I say this because it makes no difference to me what they were; God does not judge by outward appearance – those leaders, I say, made no new suggestions to me. On the contrary, they saw that God had given me the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as he had given Peter the task of preaching the gospel to the Jews. For by God's power I was made an apostle to the Gentiles, just as Peter was made an apostle to the Jews. James, Peter, and John, who seemed to be the leaders, recognized that God had given me this special task; so they shook hands with Barnabas and me, as a sign that we were all partners. We agreed that Barnabas and I would work among the Gentiles and they among the Jews. All they asked was that we should remember the needy in their group, which is the very thing I have been eager to do.” (Gal. 2:6 to 10) This is how Paul of Tarsus put things to denigrate the twelve Galilean apostles and their work; and yet, at no time, was his appointment as an apostle by Jesus or the Holy Spirit, and his miracles, wonders and signs, done in the presence of any of the twelve Galilean apostles to lend credence to his conclusion that they “were all partners”.

714 So, because those “who seemed to be the leaders” — James, Peter, and John – did not make any “new suggestions” to him and also “shook hands” with them, and so, by that gesture and default, he took it that they recognized his apostleship to the Gentiles as the same as and equal to “Peter's apostleship” to the Jews, there could be differences in the teachings and practices that suited those two peculiar groups of people, the Jews and the Gentiles. (compare 1 Cor. 7:19 to 27) Therefore, since the same God appointed the two for the two different assignments, it would be wrong, yes, an affront to his apostleship for his disciples, those believers he had won for the “Lord”, through his false and deceptive teachings, to tolerate any contrary teaching from, even, any of the other twelve Galilean apostles whom he had denigrated as being devils. With this sort of conviction, attitude, vanity, and tongue-lashing of the twelve Galilean apostles, their work and status, Paul of Tarsus was set on a relentless pollution course, for asserting falsely and deceptively that God had given him the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as he had given Peter the task of preaching the gospel to the Jews. The truth is that Jesus Christ had sent the twelve Galilean apostles to preach the Gospel to all peoples everywhere, to Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles; and anointed Simon Peter had led the other anointed eleven Galilean apostles in doing just that, long before Paul of Tarsus burst onto the scene with his fantastic, rival claims.

715 So he writes to his “dead” Christian converts with extreme emotion: “I wish you would tolerate me, even when I am a bit foolish. Please do! I am jealous for you, just as God is; you are like a pure virgin whom I have promised in marriage to one man only, Christ himself. I am afraid that your minds will be corrupted and that you will abandon your full and pure devotion to Christ – in the same way that Eve was deceived by the snake's clever lies. For you tolerate anyone who comes to you and preaches a different Jesus, not the one we preached; and you accept a spirit and a gospel completely different from the Spirit and the gospel you received from us!” (2 Cor. 11:1 to 4; compare Gal. 1:6 to 9, 11 to 12) This allusion which presented any contrary teaching, even from any of the twelve Galilean apostles to the disciples and converts of Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas, as “clever lies” coming from “devils”, set him on a successful course of setting off “rumblings, peals of thunder, flashes of lightning and an (eventual) earthquake” in the future church, charged with such highly explosive controversies.

716 This conviction, attitude, vanity or self-assurance of Paul of Tarsus set him on a pollution course, making “bitter” the teachings of the polluted Christian Church. “A large star, burning like a torch, dropped from the sky (from heaven) and fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. (The name of the star is 'Bitterness'.) A third of the water turned bitter, and many people died from drinking the water, because it had turned bitter.” (Rev. 8:10 to 11) The large star, Paul of Tarsus, “burning like a torch”, performing like a source of light, a source of Christian teaching or doctrine, fell from the high position (from the leadership realm) as a member of the collective leadership of the Church of Jesus of Nazareth, “dropped from the sky, (from heaven)” and fell on a third of the channels and sources of the teachings of God's people. He became a source of teaching and a teacher like Jesus himself, and violated Jesus' admonition and command: “You must not be called 'Teacher', because you are all members of one family and have only one Teacher.” (Matt. 23:8)

717 Paul of Tarsus did not teach what Jesus taught. Rather he turned a third of the teaching of the Church of Jesus of Nazareth “bitter”, controversial. The many people who accepted, believed, and followed the teachings made “bitter” by Paul of Tarsus and became Christians, “died”, that is, they came to belong to “the world of the dead” or Hades or they fell outside those 144,000 Spirit-sealed men being redeemed or salvaged and sealed from the lost sheep of the people of Israel in the Diaspora, and the enormous crowd of men from every tribe, nation, race, and language being saved from capture and bondage to the Roman Empire and the false Church of Rome by the twelve Galilean apostles and the other disciples under the leadership of anointed Simon Peter, charged with being “witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all Judaea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth”, when the Holy Spirit came upon them and they were filled with power from the Holy Spirit. (compare Acts 1:8; 10:1 to 48; 15:6 to 11) “The name of the star is 'Bitterness'.” The name or reputation or the assumed character of Paul of Tarsus is “Controversy”.

718 The sources of teaching of God's word that Paul of Tarsus employed almost entirely for his teachings were the Old Testament Bible, his training as a rabbi under Gamaliel and Greek philosophy that his secular education endowed him with. "The truth revealed by Jesus and the word of God" taught by the twelve Galilean apostles were alien to him. (compare Gal. 1:6 to 9, 10 to 11) As a result, he taught the greatest falsehood, the greatest lie ever told in the whole universe: that Jesus was sent into the world of human beings to die a sacrificial death to save human beings, who would believe this monstrous lie, from sin and death. "We want you to know, my Fellow-Israelites, that it is through Jesus that the message about the forgiveness of sins is preached to you; and that everyone who believes in him is set free from all the sins (which cause your death and) from which the Law of Moses could not set you free." Paul of Tarsus taught this falsehood and a gigantic lie to his hearers at Antioch in Pisidia. "This is a true saying, to be completely accepted and believed: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, I am the worst of them." (1 Tim. 1:15) Paul of Tarsus, again, told this falsehood to Timothy, who was also asked to teach it to the Christian churches he visited.

719 “With one sacrifice, then, he has made perfect for ever those who are purified from sin. And the Holy Spirit also gives us his witness. First he says: This is the covenant that I will make with them in the days to come, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts and write them on their minds'. And then he says, 'I will not remember their sins and evil deeds any longer'. So when these have been forgiven, an offering to take away sins is no longer needed." (Heb. 10:14 to 18; compare Acts 26:16 to 18) Paul of Tarsus applies this prophecy which Jesus said it had been abandoned and confuses the Christian Church about the true teaching of God regarding what Jesus' visit to the world of mankind accomplished.

720 Then he goes on further to confuse the Gentiles and contradict God and Jesus, saying, “Since you have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, live in union with him. Keep your roots in him, build your lives on him, and become stronger in your faith, as you were taught. And be filled with thanksgiving.

721 “In union with Christ you were circumcised, not with the circumcision that is made by human beings, but with the circumcision made by Christ, which consists of being freed from the power of this sinful self. For when you were baptized, you were buried with Christ, and in baptism you were also raised with Christ through your faith in the active power of God, who raised him from death. You were at one time spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were Gentiles without the Law. But God has now brought you to life with Christ. God forgave us all our sins; he cancelled the unfavourable record of our debts with its binding rules and did away with it completely by nailing it to the cross. And on the cross Christ freed himself from the power of the spiritual rulers and authorities; he made a public spectacle of them by leading them as captives in his victory procession.” (Col. 2:6 to 7, 11 to 15) All such falsehoods and deception Paul of Tarsus taught to confuse and contradict the teachings of the twelve Galilean apostles, causing ceaseless and needless controversies in the Christian Church. This behaviour stood him out as the source of all the controversial teachings and practices in the early and today's Christian Church. (compare Eph. 2:11 to 21) And that is why the rider of today's Christian Church which is a fusion of the churches of Jerusalem and Antioch corrupted by the teachings of Paul and Barnabas was named Death and Hades followed close behind. (compare Rev. 6:8) For belonging to the corrupted Church of Jesus of Nazareth spelt exclusion from the 144,000 and the enormous crowd selection, and belonging to the Christian Church of Antioch consigned members to Hades or the world of the dead.

722 The theology of Paul of Tarsus has been identified by all Church and secular historians of religions as the basis of most heresies: “His preference for statements which are extreme and absolute rather than qualified and tempered is characteristic of Semitic speech, not of Greek; and this habit has been responsible for the unfortunate fact that most heresies have based themselves upon the writings of Paul. One should notice also that none of the great movements of Christian thought have developed without a base in Paul. In him for the first time the Church and Jesus living in the Church has never learned a better language in which to address the world than the language of Paul.” (op. cit. p. 651)

723 All this earned Paul of Tarsus the reputation of being the cause and the source that made the teachings of the Christian Church confusing, offensive, nonsensical, and controversial, even being self-contradictory. It gained him the reputation of being controversial in his teachings, the name “Bitterness”. A name is that by which a person or a thing is known or called; it is a designation; reputation; fame; fictitiousness without reality; it is an assumed character of another. Paul of Tarsus gained the reputation or fame of being controversial. Thus, “The name of the star is 'Bitterness'.” Paul of Tarsus came to be known or called “Bitterness” or “Controversy” metaphorically. A metaphor is a figure of speech by which a thing is spoken of as being that which it resembles, as when a ferocious man is called a tiger.

724 The teaching of Paul of Tarsus and others that God sent Jesus to this earth to die to save mankind who believe in him from sin and death, differs completely from the teaching of God given to Jesus to show to his, Jesus', servants; it says, “They sang a new song (they preached a new message): 'You are worthy to take the scroll and break open its seals. For you were killed, and by your sacrificial death you bought for God people from every tribe, language, nation, and race. You have made them a kingdom of priests to serve our God, and they shall rule on earth.'” (Rev. 5:9 to 12; 1:1 to 2; compare John 1:29 to 35; 1 John 1:7)

725 The anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles was sacrificed by Jesus Christ to become his new Lamb, who bought for him, as the Lord God Almighty, the 144,000 Spirit-sealed people, and saved the enormous crowd from A.D. 30 to about A.D. 2017. This is the Church of the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles operating as the new Lamb's Church since A.D. 30. The seven spirits are the seven horns and seven eyes of the new Lamb: they served in the Church of the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, from A.D. 30 to about A.D. 2017, both as leaders (horns) and as teachers or sources of (new) teachings (eyes). The seven angels or messengers have appeared in their time as leaders of the Church of the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles who have ended up being associated with seven unique teachings and or practices of the Church.

726 With the implementation of the Abrahamic covenant abandoned, the new Lamb, as the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, was assigned to buy for God another people to replace the rejected Jews, who would be made a kingdom of priests to serve our God and who would rule on earth. (compare Rev. 14:14 to 16) These people were bought or chosen and saved from capture and bondage to the Roman Empire and the Church of Rome during their heydays. (compare Rom. 13:1 to 7; Rev. 13:9 to 10) They came from every tribe, language, nation, and race. Even though they were under the rule and tenor of the Roman Empire and of the Church of Rome, it happened that “They had not worshipped (submitted as servants to) the beast (who is the Roman Empire) or its image (who is the Holy Roman Empire), nor had they received the mark (which is the citizenship or stewardship) of the beast on their foreheads or their hands. They will come to life (they will be reborn) and rule with Christ (the reborn anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles) for a thousand years. This is (or will be) the first raising of the dead.” They were a people who did not submit to or involve themselves in the governance affairs of the Roman Empire and of the Holy Roman Empire in a way that did conform to the teaching and exhortation of Paul of Tarsus. (compare Rom. 13:1 to 7)

727 The teaching of Paul of Tarsus and those who followed him and built upon his church founded and established by Joseph Barnabas with his doctrinal assistance, has made the Christian Church a huge corruption of the Church of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. (compare Matt. 13:33; 16:6, 12) Jesus was sent to the Jews, the lost sheep of the people of Israel, only! He was to preach to them the nearness of the Kingdom of God, the Government of God, to be formed for the New World. If they listened to him and gathered around him as chicks gather round the hen who leads, feeds, and protects them, then, Jesus would be installed in Zion as the King of the Kingdom of God in Israel in Palestine, in the first century, from where the rulership of the God living in Jesus would spread to all nations of the earth. (compare Matt. 6:9 to 13, 31 to 33) If they did not listen to him they would be destroyed as a people and a nation, and their place taken by another people. (compare Sc. Deut. 18:16 to 19; Lk. 3:7 to 9; 21:43) That would require that Jesus sacrificed his new Lamb, the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, in the first century, connected with the new Kingdom of God, to buy the 144,000 and the enormous crowd with the blood (the sacrificial preaching and teaching service; the voluntary disciple-making work) of the new Lamb to replace the rejected Jews.

728 “In the days to come the mountain where the Temple stands (that is, Mount Zion) will be the highest one of all, towering above all the hills. Many nations will come streaming to it, and their people will say, 'Let us go up the hill of the Lord, to the temple of Israel's God. He will teach us what he wants us to do; we will walk in the paths he has chosen. For the Lord'S teaching comes from Jerusalem; from Zion he speaks to his people.

729 “He will settle disputes among great nations. They will hammer their swords into ploughs and their spears into pruning knives. Nations will never again go to war, never prepare for battle again.” (Sc. Is. 2:1 to 4; compare Sc. Mic. 4:1 to 5)

730 “Here on Mount Zion the Lord Almighty will prepare a banquet for all the nations of the world – a banquet of the richest food and finest wine. Here he will suddenly remove the cloud of sorrow that has been hanging over all the nations. The Sovereign Lord will destroy death for ever! He will wipe away the tears from everyone's eyes and take away the disgrace his people have suffered throughout the world. The Lord himself has spoken!” (Sc. Is. 25:6 to 8; compare Rev. 21:3 to 4)

731 This was the Abrahamic covenant which Jesus told the Jews that it would not come on, before he was crucified, even though Jesus, himself, had preached it optimistically for three and a half years. So, for Paul of Tarsus and his Christian Church to preach it, then and now, means that they have facilitated the use of the Christian Church by Satan the Devil, today's rulership of the world in opposition to the rulership of God, to successfully deceive the whole world with it. (compare Rev. 12:9; 13:11 to 17) This explains why the Christian Church of today, split into the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek or Eastern Orthodox Church and the Global Protestant Church together with the numerous sects, is fully in the service of Satan the Devil. All of them “worship demons, idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood which cannot see, hear, or walk. Neither have they repented of their murders, their magic, their sexual immorality, or stealing.” (compare Rev. 9:20 to 22) The Christian Church is, thus, more Pauline than Christian! (compare Matt. 13:33; 16:6, 12). So, “Paulinity” should replace “Christianity”; and the Church of Paul of Tarsus should replace the Church of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, for today's Christianity and Christian Church to be presented in their real and true form, character, and nature to the world!

732 It is Paul of Tarsus who is credited with the major controversial, incorrect, offensive and nonsensical teachings and practices of the Christian Church rather than Jesus of Nazareth. Paul of Tarsus claims and teaches that “Sin came into the world through one man, and his sin brought death with it. As a result, death has spread to the whole human race because everyone has sinned.” (Rom. 5:12) But, in the Scroll at Genesis we read that God created human beings mortal and so they could die at some stage in life. However, they were told and given the free choice to become immortal and live for ever by eating the fruit of the tree of life put in the middle of the Garden of Eden. (Sc. Gen. 2:7, 16:3:22) Jesus of Nazareth revealed that it was Satan the Devil, the Father of the Jews, the kith and kin of Paul of Tarsus, who was the first to sin against God, the Father of all human beings, and not Adam. (compare John 8:44) So, human beings are dying because they are mortals, created mortals, and not because they inherited sin from Adam and are dying from that inherited sin of Adam. The human race has not sinned against God, who made man to be like God and to resemble God; and so the claim by Paul of Tarsus that “everyone has sinned and is far away from God's saving presence” is a false teaching coming from the one who speaks like a dragon. (compare Rom. 3:23)

733 It is Paul of Tarsus who has confused Christians about eternal life and how it is received by human beings who are now all mortals. At one place he says that it is attained through preaching and teaching as an aspect of the works of faith. At another place he says that it is attained through hard competitive struggle, and still further he claims that it is a free gift of God requiring no work whatsoever, so that no one can boast about it. From the one charismatic preacher and teacher, Paul of Tarsus, we receive the Christian teaching that eternal life to any human being is a reward, a prize, or a gift; which one is correct? What about his fourth addition: “For it was by hope that we were saved”? (compare Rom. 8:24a.)

734 Paul of Tarsus writes at Roman 10:8 to 10, this: “What it says is this: 'God's message is near you, on your lips and in your heart' – that is, the message of faith that we preach. If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved. For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved.'” To Timothy, Paul of Tarsus writes, “… Give them these instructions and these teachings. Until I come, give your time and effort to the public reading of the Scriptures and to preaching and teaching. Do not neglect the spiritual gift that is in you, which was given to you when the prophets spoke and the elders laid their hands on you. Practise these things and devote yourself to them, in order that your progress may be seen by all. Watch yourself and watch your teaching. Keep on doing these things, because if you do, you will save yourself and those who hear you.” (1 Tim. 4:11, 13 to 16) So, without reading the Old Testament Scriptures publicly, preaching and teaching, without practising these things and devotion to them, if he does not do them, Timothy will not save himself and those who hear him. The gaining or receipt of eternal life by Timothy and those who hear him is based on these works fired by faith! Eternal life, then, is a reward, a payment for work well done!

735 Then Paul of Tarsus writes again to Timothy: “As for you my son, be strong through the grace that is ours in union with Christ Jesus. Take the teaching that you heard me proclaim in the presence of many witnesses, and entrust them to reliable people, who will be able to teach others also.

736 “Take your part in suffering as a loyal soldier of Christ Jesus. A soldier on active service wants to please his commanding officer and so does not get mixed up in the affairs of civilian life. An athlete who runs in a race cannot win the prize unless he obeys the rules. The farmer who has done the hard work should have the first share of the harvest. Think about what I am saying, because the Lord will enable you to understand it all.” “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and because he is coming to rule as King, I solemnly urge you to preach the message, to insist upon proclaiming it (whether the time is right or not), to convince, reproach, and encourage, as you teach with all patience … You must keep control of yourself in all circumstances; endure suffering, do the work of a preacher of the Good News, and perform your whole duty as a servant of God.

737 “As for me … I have done my best in the race (for eternal life), I have run the full distance, and I have kept the faith. And now there is waiting for me the victory prize of being put right with God, which the Lord, the righteous judge will give me on that Day – and not only to me, but to all those (like you, Timothy,) who wait with love for him to appear.” (2 Tim. 2:1 to 7; 4:1 to 3, 5 to 8; 1 Cor.9 :23 to 27)

To Paul of Tarsus and Timothy and those who hear them, to all those believers they make for the Lord, eternal life will be the victory prize they will receive for doing their best in successfully participating in the competitive race for life. And if the Lord is judging in the right way, then, he cannot deny him who has done his best, the victory prize of the grant of eternal life to him, righteous Paul of Tarsus.

738 A prize is an award that is given to a person who wins a competition, race, etcetera, or who does very good work; it is something that is difficult to achieve or obtain. To the converts of Paul of Tarsus, eternal life is something that is difficult to achieve or obtain through Christ Jesus to whom alone his Christian converts, the virgins, are promised in marriage. A prize, as an award given to a person who wins a competitive race, falls between a payment for work done and a free gift!

739 Then, the same Paul of Tarsus, writes, this time to the Ephesians at chapter 2:8 to 9; “For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, (as in a competitive race, or as in preaching, teaching, and public reading, etcetera), but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it.” If so, why is Paul of Tarsus boasting about, “I have done my best in the race (for eternal life), I have run the full distance, and I have kept the faith”, for which he must be congratulated and given the victory prize of eternal life? Strange! What a teaching! No wonder all those who drank the water made bitter by Paul of Tarsus died!

740 On the other hand, what is the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth on eternal life given to him by God to show his servants, among other things, the events that must happen very soon? Let us check with John, the servant of Jesus, what Jesus told him: “I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne: 'Now God's home is with human beings! He will live with them, and they shall be his people.

God himself will be with them, and he will be their God. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. The old things have disappeared.

741 “Then the one who sits on the throne said, 'And now I make all things new!' He also said to me, 'Write this, because these words are true and can be trusted'. And he said … To anyone who is thirsty I will give the right to drink from the spring of the water of life without paying for it. Those who win the victory (of keeping away from the contamination that the teaching of Judaism, paganism, and Christianity as found in the Bible brings on them and of keeping to the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth only, no matter what,) will receive this from me. I will be their God, and they will be my children. But cowards, traitors, perverts, murderers, the immoral, those who practise magic, those who worship idols, and all liars (as all Christians, Christian Church denominations, and all other religionists and religions are, and are practising) – the place for them is the lake burning with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.” (Rev. 21:3 to 4, 5 to 8) So the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth is that the grant of eternal life to every human being is a right that everyone is entitled to and not an act of God's grace. No! Neither is it a payment for work well done nor a victory prize won at a competitive race!

742 In the Plan of God for making all things new, Redemption or Salvaging applies only to the 144,000 Israelite men redeemed or salvaged from the people who would have been totally and completely lost, “the lost sheep of the people of Israel”, if God had not taken that action after declaring their abandonment. (compare Rev. 7:1 to 8) Salvation applies only to the enormous crowd from every race, tribe, nation, and language standing in front of the throne of God and of the new Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They are saved from capture and bondage to the Roman Empire and the Church of Rome. “They called out in a loud voice: 'Salvation comes from our God, who sits on the throne, and from the Lamb !" (Rev. 7:10) They say that it is our God Jesus Christ, who sits on the throne (the Spirit of God living in the new Lamb), and the new Lamb, the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, who have saved them from the persecutions they suffered while under capture and bondage to the Roman Empire (the beast) and the Church of Rome (the false prophet) through the successful performance of the sacrificial disciple-making work.

743 The enormous crowd is “the people who come safely through the terrible persecution (brought on the so-called heretics by the Inquisition and the crusades prosecuted by the Emperors of the Roman Empire and the Popes of the Church of Rome). They have washed their robes and made them white with the blood of the Lamb (with the purifying, sacrificial preaching and teaching service of the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ). That is why they stand before God's throne and serve him day and night in his Temple. He who sits on the throne (the Spirit of God living in the new Lamb) will protect them with his presence. (compare Rev. 21:3 to 4) Never again will they hunger or thirst; neither sun nor any scorching heat will burn them, because the Lamb, who is in the centre of the throne, will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes”; and the grant of eternal life is made to all human beings who want it free of charge, as a right! (Rev. 7:14 to 17)

744 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel or messenger to announce these things to the churches …

745 “The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come!'

746 “Everyone who hears this must also say, 'Come!

'747 “Come, whoever is thirsty; accept the water of life (the knowledge that gives life) as a gift whoever wants it.” (Rev. 22:16 to 17)

748 Every human being who wants to live for ever, to be immortal, and feels the need for it, can and must go to Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, or to the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, the new Lamb, for the teaching and knowledge that give life as a gift; the knowledge of life leads to the acquisition of eternal life which is more than a gift; it is a right! For a right to something or to do something is a moral or legal claim to have or get that thing or to behave in that particular way.

749 The “Spirit” is the new Lamb who represents the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, in whom Jesus Christ, as the Lord God Almighty, lives as the Holy Spirit poured out on him on Pentecost Day, A.D. 30. The “Bride” is the 144,000 redeemed Israelite men sealed with the Holy Spirit by the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, between A.D. 30 and A.D. 34, before the Judean War in A.D. 70. Both of the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles, “the Spirit” and the 144,000 people, “the Bride”, had to extend the message of God to the enormous crowd, who, in turn, had to extend the same invitation, “Come!”, to whoever was in need of living for ever to receive and accept the knowledge that gives life as a gift of God to whoever wants it. The knowledge that gives life eternal is a gift of and from God, while life eternal is a right to man revealed and promised in the creation plan of God. This recreation activity is what has been going on, on earth, since Pentecost Day, A.D. 30 with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church of Jesus of Nazareth.

750 But Jesus Christ also has his special rewards, payments, to give to those who have worked to deserve them.

751 “Listen!” says Jesus, 'I am coming soon! I will bring rewards with me, to give to each one according to what he has done.'”

752 All those who give themselves up and are used to serve God as judges, kings, and priests, whose work results in bringing into the Holy City the wealth of the nations, consisting of the peoples won for God and for the new Lamb, and over whom they preside as judges, officiate as priests, and rule as kings, will be rewarded with their positions as judges, priests, and kings as greatness and their subjects as their wealth. (compare Rev. 20:4 to 6; 22:24 to 26) “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. There shall be no more night (= period of ignorance), and they will not need lamps or sunlight, because the Lord God will be their light (= source of knowledge or enlightenment), and they will rule as kings for ever and ever.” (Rev. 22:3b-5) The “throne” is the symbol of God's kingship, rulership, lordship and royalty!

The new Lamb is in the centre of the throne. God the Almighty, in the new order, will be the 144,000 Spirit-sealed people together with the enormous crowd in whom the Spirit will dwell. And the new Lamb, in whom the Spirit lives, will be the principal one in the kingship, rulership, lordship and royalty of God, the one in the centre of the throne.

In this way, the servants of God, as the first fruits and as a group, will constitute the Almighty God in whom the Spirit has descended to this earth to live in order “to rule as kings for ever and ever”. In this way, they will have the name or the reputation or the assumed character of God written on their foreheads and they will be known and called collectively as God Almighty and or the One who sits on The Throne.

753 All human beings descended from “Adam and Eve”, including they themselves, “Adam and Eve” (“Adam and Eve” = The allegorical Adam and Eve, that is, any assumed beginning pair of the human race or the different races), the 144,000 redeemed, and the uncountable enormous crowd saved from capture and bondage, will be given the right to choose to live for ever. Eternal life to all human beings is more than a gift; it is a right from the Maker who revealed in his creation plan to make man to be exactly like God, himself, to rule all other creation. And God cannot and will not lie! For, if Jesus Christ is the Son of Man and the Son of God, then, God is Man, and Man is God! Is that not so? (compare Sc. Ps. 82:6; John 10:34 to 36; Matt. 8:20)

754 A gift is a thing you give to somebody especially on a special occasion or to say thank you; or a quality bestowed by nature. A right is a moral or legal claim to have or to get something or to behave in a particular way. Therefore, the right to eternal life, to becoming immortal, is not an act of God's grace, being bestowed on people who, otherwise, would not deserve or merit it, being sinners; it is also neither a reward for any work performed nor a prize for being successful in any competition. The truth is what the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles preaches and teaches, saying, (God) "You are worthy to receive glory, honour, and power. For you created all things, and by your will (not your grace) they were given existence and life." (Rev. 4:11)

755 It is Paul of Tarsus who teaches his converts, Christians, that they will go to heaven after death, resurrection, and judgement. He writes: “Listen to this secret truth: we shall not all die, but when the last trumpet sounds, we shall all be changed in an instant, as quickly as the blinking of an eye. For when the trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised, never to die again, and we shall all be changed. For what is mortal must be changed into what is immortal; what will die must be changed into what cannot die. So when this takes place, and the mortal has been changed into the immortal, then the scripture will come true: 'Death is destroyed; victory is complete!'" (1 Cor. 15:51 to 54)

756 “Our brothers and sisters, we want you to know the truth about those who have died, so that you will not be sad, as are those who have no hope. Webelieve that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will take back with Jesus those who have died belonging to him.

757 “What we (my companions and I, Paul,) are teaching now is the Lord's teaching: we (Christians) who are alive on the day the Lord comes will not go ahead of those who have died. There will be the shout of command, the archangel's voice, the sound of God's trumpet, and the Lord himself will come down from heaven. Those who have died believing in Christ will rise to life first; then we who are living at that time will be gathered up along with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. So, then, encourage one another with these words.” (1 Thes. 4:13 to 18)

758 “Everyone must die once, and after that be judged by God. In the same manner Christ also was offered in sacrifice once to take away the sins of many. He will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are waiting for him.” (Heb. 9:27 to 28; compare Acts 17:31; 2 Tim. 4:1, 8) All this falsehood conjured and taught by Paul of Tarsus is nowhere the same as the resurrection promised by God, through Jesus, which will be through the process of people being born again with the prospect of living for ever, for all those included in the first resurrection, and then, those included in the second resurrection, being judged so that those who opt for life, live for ever, and those who opt for death, die for ever – this latter prospect is for all the rest of the dead.

759 While Paul of Tarsus taught Christians to believe and put their hope in dying and being resurrected to face the judgement seat of God, after which they will go to heaven to live with God and Jesus for ever, Jesus of Nazareth has been given the following to show his servants: the first raising of the dead, involving the twelve Galilean apostles, the 144,000 people and the enormous crowd as the first fruits (Rev. 20:4 to 6); and the raising of the rest of the dead or the second raising of the dead (Rev. 20:11 to 15). Both of those raised in the first and the second raising of the dead come to life by being born again as human beings. These human beings, born again to live on this earth, during the first raising of the dead together with the twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, are not judged; rather, they teach the living to do what is right as they perform as kings, judges, and priests among them for one thousand years. When the rest of the dead are brought back to life, during the second raising of the dead, the anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles of Jesus Christ, the new Lamb, and his Bride, together with the enormous crowd, will, as before in dealing with the living, teach them to do what is right. This is the judgement they will receive, and all those who will respond favourably are granted eternal life and, then, the new heaven and the new earth, the New World, is born. During the first and second raising of the dead, Jesus Christ operates as the Spirit in them, who directs whatever they do, such as judging the living and the dead.

760 Placed in the ultra-bright light of the teaching of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the resurrection preached and taught and promised Christians by Paul of Tarsus becomes a farce, which will never happen! This will fulfil the shock without remedy that Paul of Tarsus expressed to his converts, should things turn out this way, when Jesus comes, as is happening now, to subject the teaching of Paul of Tarsus to his refining fire. If the resurrection of Paul of Tarsus will not come true, “then, those who have fallen asleep in Christ are utterly lost. If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we, Christians, are of all people the most pitiable.” (1 Cor. 15:18 to 19; J.B) What a regrettable but preventable lamentation!

761 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth disappeared and the sea vanished. And I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem (the New City of Peace), coming down out of heaven from God, prepared and ready, like a bride dressed to meet her husband. I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne: 'Now God's home is with human beings!

He will live with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them, and he will be their God. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. The old things have disappeared.'" (Rev. 21:1 to 4)

762 So, clearly, it is God the Almighty who comes down to live with human beings on this earth, when the Holy City is established here on this earth, in harmony with the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, and there will be no old heaven for Christian converts of Paul of Tarsus to be taken up to by the Christ he preached, to live for ever with the Lord he preached.

763 Paul of Tarsus brought bitter teachings into the message of eternal salvation preached and taught by anointed Simon Peter and the other anointed eleven Galilean apostles, which earned him the name “Bitterness”, so that all those Christians who believed his teaching “died” and found themselves outside the Holy City (= the Church of Jesus of Nazareth) among the cowards, traitors, perverts, murderers, the immoral, those who worship idols, and all liars pitched into the lake of fire and sulphur, which is the second death. Those pitched into the lake of fire and sulphur, which is the second death, are those who will be made to suffer death from carnal warfare from which there will be no resurrection. The lake of fire that burns with sulphur is the same as the fiery furnace; it is modern warfare that employs sulphur or explosive and inflammable substances and metals in its weaponry to kill and destroy by means of the use of fire.

764 When you examine all the teachings of Paul of Tarsus which were a bold attempt to originate, justify, and harmonize teachings based on the Old Testament Bible, his rabbinical training, and Greek philosophy with teachings he claimed came from the Holy Spirit and the invisible Jesus Christ, you certainly come to the only one sure conclusion that he has only made the teachings of whatever religion he preached unclear, confusing, controversial and so “bitter” that it has earned him the name “Bitterness”. All told, it becomes crystal clear that Paul of Tarsus, initially, succeeded somewhat to sell his conversion and commission claims to the twelve Galilean apostles and the Church in Jerusalem, who continued to carry their apprehension and suspicion of him and of his teachings until he “dropped from the sky”, enlisted in the service of the Devil and embarked upon the spreading of the false and erroneous teachings of the Christian Church under the two-pronged leadership of Joseph Barnabas and himself.

765 In spite of the obvious differences and contradictions in the teachings of St. Peter and St. Paul, the Vatican maintains that they are the “two firm pillars on which the Church of Rome (Great Babylon) was founded” so that the fouling of the teachings of the entire Christian Church, by St. Paul which has earned him the name “Bitterness”, has up to this very day not dawned on the Church of Rome. “One of the Church's most ancient traditions states that the holy Apostles Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom in Rome on the same day. June 29th is the day on which their bodies were secretly translated to the catacomb of St. Sebastian in A.D. 258, to escape desecration during the persecutions.

766 “St. Paul was, next to St. John the evangelist, probably the greatest religious genius that Christianity has ever known (not Jesus and not Peter on whom Jesus built his Church). Being equally familiar with Jewish and Greek culture, he was admirably fitted by nature and training for the great work God assigned to him: to free the young Christian Church from Jewish Sectarianism. His 14 apostolic writings to the churches he had founded have remained a wellspring of truth down to our day. But will-power and intellect alone would have produced a terrifying cold and hard character, had it not been for the glowing warmth of his personality which, fired with passionate love of Jesus Christ, let him see everything 'in Christ', and enthused him to form the churches with tenderness of a mother into 'the mystical Body of Christ'. God also granted him extraordinary mystical experiences.

767 “He was arrested during the persecution of Nero. He was beheaded outside the gates of the city of Rome in the year A.D. 67.” (Ref: St. Companions, pp. 216, 217)

768 St. Paul is the third angelic trumpeter. He is the large star, burning like a torch, which dropped from the leadership group of the Church of Jesus of Nazareth in Jerusalem, and got himself involved with producing “bitter” teachings for the Christian Church of Antioch in Syria founded by Joseph Barnabas. The “bitter” teachings of St. Paul had the better part of both of the two churches in Jerusalem and at Antioch polluting both of them. The resulting polluted Church was made the Official Religion of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine to become the Church of Rome; while St. Paul earned the reputation, yes, the name “Bitterness” figuratively, for his undisputed position in the Christian Church as the leading source of most of the controversial teachings of the Church of Rome.

8:12

The Fourth Trumpet

769 “Then the fourth angel blew his trumpet. A third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that their light lost a third of its brightness; there was no light during a third of the day and a third of the night.” (Rev. 8:12)

770 Athanasius, a native of Alexandria in Egypt in Africa, was the fourth angel, the fourth messenger of God, who blew his trumpet, who aired his doctrinal views. His doctrinal views struck, attacked or affected a third of the sun, the Church as a source of light, as the source of Christian doctrines or teachings, and a third of the moon, the satellite churches outside Rome and Judaism as a source of reflective light, and a third of the stars, the leaders of the Church, the bishops, patriarchs, priests, popes, cardinals, rabbis, etcetera, so that their light lost a third of its brightness, so that the doctrines of the Church, hitherto, taught and were accepted as the truth, lost a third of their acceptance and support in the Church. The overall effect was that, during the day and night when the teaching of Athanasius held sway during his forty-six-year reign, the teaching of Arius, which was the popular teaching of the sun, of the Church and its deity, did not have influence a third of the time on the membership of the Church during the period of the life and existence of the Church of Rome.

771 “Athanasius (c. A.D. 296 to 373). The so-called Athanasius Creed was not written by Athanasius, but was written later and named in his honour. He is best remembered because of his struggle against the heresy of Arius, a priest of Alexandria, who preached that Christ was not God but a created Being, standing as it were between God and man. The idea of demi-gods was familiar in those days, and the view of Arius became popular.

Therefore Constantine The Great called a Council of Bishops to meet at Nicaea in A.D. 325 to settle the true doctrine. Athanasius, who accompanied his bishop to Nicaea, so impressed the Council that Arius' teaching was rejected and the Creed of Nicaea, with its statement that Christ was 'of one substance' with the Father, was adopted. Athanasius became Bishop of Alexandria, and fought long and hard against heresy.

He had many enemies and was exiled from his diocese four times – 16 years in all.” (Ref: Oxford Junior Encyclopaedia, Great Lives, volume 5.p. 22)

772 “St. Athanasius, Bishop Confessor, Father and Doctor of the Church of Rome (c. A.D. 295 to 373). Athanasius was a native of Alexandria (Egypt, Africa). The son of prominent Christians, he received a brilliant education in this city, a great commercial centre and most important emporium for ideas. Even as a young man he was conspicuous for his wisdom and acumen, as well as for his deep piety. When still only a deacon, the Patriarch of Alexandria chose him for his secretary and theological adviser, and in A.D. 325 took him to the great Council of Nicaea in Bithynia (Asia Minor), which condemned Arius as a heretic and reaffirmed Christ's divinity. There he became the sincere and courageous mouthpiece for his aged Archbishop, who had remained crippled from the tortures endured on the rack during the Galerian persecution. When the latter died in A.D. 328, St. Athanasius was unanimously elected his successor, although he was only about 31 years of age.

773 “During his forty-six-year reign, the Arian faction came to gain such political influence through its intrigues at the imperial court, that the saintly Patriarch had to spend a total of 17 years in banishment, being exiled from Alexandria on five occasions. Undismayed he remained through it all the ardent and fearless 'champion of Christ's divinity'. Far from seeking revenge, he tried rather to win his enemies through kindness, and always retained his spontaneous sense of humour, which could also, on occasion, be penetratingly sharp. 'Athanasius against the world' well sums up the position of this genius, this Father of Orthodox and scientific theology. Through 50 critical years in Christian history he was the chief defender of the Catholic Creed. Although he longed for martyrdom, his last years were peaceful, and he died at the age of 78.

774 “The most famous of his writings are 'On the Incarnation', which he composed in his early twenties while still a deacon, and the 'History of the Arians' written during his third exile among the Egyptian desert monks. His 'Life of St. Anthony', made an enormous appeal to men everywhere to lead the ascetical life.” (Ref: Saint Companions For Each Day, May 2. St. Athanasius. pp. 145 to 146. By A.J.M. Mansolfe and J.K. Mansolfe. St Paul)

775 The Athanasian Creed, also known as the Nicene Creed or the Catholic Creed or the Trinity Creed, is held to be the Central Doctrine of the Catholic Church, the “sun” as the source of Catholic teaching, in this Revelation imagery account. The Central Doctrine of the Catholic Church takes up a third of the entire body of doctrines of the Church and runs through from the Church of Rome to the satellite “moon” churches outside Rome and their leaders, the “stars”, who teach it to the churches they lead.

776 The expression of this view, at the Council of Bishops at Nicaea in A.D 325 under the chairmanship of Constantine The Great, the Emperor of the Roman Empire number 666, which was adopted by the Catholic Church, led to the declaration of Arius as a heretic, and his view that “Christ was not God but a created Being, standing as it were between God and man”, as also taught by Paul of Tarsus (“the great renegade” the same as “the great heretic”), as a heresy. Arius and those who held the same view were banished as heretics.

777 Paul of Tarsus taught the following: “This is good and it pleases God our Saviour, who wants everyone to be saved and come to know the truth. For there is one God, and there is one who brings God and human beings together, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself to redeem everyone.” (1 Tim. 2:3-6a) “Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. He is the first-born Son, superior to all created things. For through him God created everything in heaven and on earth.” (Col. 1:15 to 16) “He is the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation, for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth.” (Col. 1:15 to 16; J.B) “There is for us (= Christians) only one God, the Father, who is the Creator of all things and for whom we live; and there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created and through whom we live.” (1 Cor. 8:6) At John 20:17, the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ is recorded as telling Mary Magdalene: “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet gone back up to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am returning to him who is my Father and their Father, my God and their God.” In the Scroll at Proverbs 8:22 to 23, 29b-31, we read, “The Lord created me first of all, the first of his works, long ago. I was made in the very beginning, at the first, before the world began. I was there when he laid the earth's foundations. I was beside him like an architect, I was his daily source of joy, always happy in his presence – happy with the world and pleased with the human race.”

778 Clearly, this view or belief or teaching of Arius had a base in Paul of Tarsus and a base in the Scriptures. No wonder “the view of Arius became popular”. And “During Athanasius' forty-six-year reign, the Arian faction came to gain such political influence through its intrigues at the imperial court that the saintly Patriarch had to spend a total of 17 years in banishment, being exiled from Alexandria on five occasions.” The view of Arius was so popular that, in spite of the backing of the meeting of the Council of Bishops at Nicaea in A.D. 325, Athanasius' view could, at that time, affect only a third of the entire teaching and membership of the Church, a third of the satellite-moon churches outside Rome and a third of the leadership of bishops, priests, deacons, etcetera, the stars. The Church thus lost its enlightenment a third of the day and a third of the night of its life and existence. Thus, the correct assessment was: Athanasius against Arius was as “Athanasius against the world”.

8:13

The Flyingeagle

779 “Then I looked, and I heard an eagle flying in the air saying in a loud voice, 'O horror! horror! How horrible it will be for all who live on earth when the sound comes from the trumpets that the other three angels must blow!'” (Rev. 8:13)

780 The eagle flying in the air was the popular priest, Arius, whose popular views about Jesus “that Christ was not God but a created Being, standing as it were between God and man” was shared by the majority of the membership of the Church, because it had a base in Paul of Tarsus and a base in both the Old and New Testament Scriptures. The declaration and banishment of Arians as heretics caused such horror that, this priest of Alexandria, Arius, “the eagle flying in the air”, the priest whose views became highly popular and so, naturally, would be held in high esteem by the imperial court and the Christian public, would take the Arians' shocking experience to prophesy and warn the world to expect more and worse such-like horrors from actions and or controversial views such as that of Athanasius, thrown about by obscure and radical geniuses, that would gain the support and sponsorship of the Church and of the Roman Power.

781 The three trumpeters to follow were Aurelius Augustus, Francis Bernardone, and Martin Luther. The three horrors that came upon “all who live on earth when the sound comes from the three trumpets that the other three angels must blow”, were the Jesuit menace that bred the Inquisition and the crusaders' horror; the horror of Judeo-Christian European colonialism perpetrated against the human race; and the horror of the plague of dismembered Holy Roman Empire producing many warring nation-states and many feuding denominations of Christian churches and religions often hostile to one another. The wars and feuds culminated in the indiscriminate dropping of bombs, missiles, and artillery shells on people and property as a plague of huge hailstones falling on people and as the acme of the third horror.

9:1 to 11

Revelation 9 The Fifth Trumpet

782 “Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet. I saw a star which had fallen down to the earth, and it was given the key to the abyss. The star opened the abyss, and smoke poured out of it, like the smoke from a large furnace; the sunlight and the air were darkened by the smoke from the abyss.

Locusts came down out of the smoke upon the earth, and they were given the same kind of power that scorpions have. They were told not to harm the grass or the trees or any other plant; they could harm only the people who did not have the mark of God's seal on their foreheads. The locusts were not allowed to kill these people, but only to torture them for five months.

The pain caused by the torture is like the pain caused by a scorpion's sting. During those five months they will seek death, but will not find it; they will want to die, but death will flee from them.

783 “The locusts looked like horses ready for battle; on their heads they had what seemed to be crowns of gold, and their faces were like human (men's) faces. Their hair was like women's hair, their teeth were like lions' teeth. Their chests were covered with what looked like iron breastplates, and the sound made by their wings was like the noise of many horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle.

They have tails and stings like those of a scorpion, and it is with their tails that they have power to hurt people for five months. They have a king ruling over them, who is the angel in charge of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon; in Greek the name is Apollyon (meaning "The Destroyer").” (Rev. 9:1 to 11)

784 The fifth angel or messenger of God who blew his trumpet, who aired his views on Christianity, was Aurelius Augustus. The star which had fallen down to the earth was Ignatius de Loyola. The abyss was the Vatican; the locusts were the Jesuits; the king ruling over the Jesuits was the Pope, the one in charge of the Vatican, the abyss; he is “The Destroyer” of those loyal to the truth revealed by Jesus and the word of God. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon; in Greek the name is Apollyon, which means “The Destroyer”.

785 “Augustine St. (A.D. 354 to 430), the greatest Latin religious teacher, not to be confused with St. Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury (see Gregory the Great, c. A.D. 540 to 604), was born of a wealthy Roman family in Numidia, a Roman province in North Africa. The Church was then firmly established, and Christianity was slowly replacing, at least outwardly, the ancient paganism. Augustine's mother Monica was a devout and pious Christian, but his father Patricius accepted the faith only shortly before his death. Much of Augustine's early life is told in his Confessions, writings which give a vivid record of his spiritual development.

At the age of 16 he went to the University at Carthage, the second city of the Roman Empire, to study to be a lawyer. There, according to his Confessions, he lived a worldly and thoughtless life. He had a mistress who bore him a son, Adeodatus, a boy who grew up to be his close companion.

786 “Augustine was recalled from his wild ways by reading a passage from the Roman orator Cicero on the value of philosophy, which started him on the search for truth. He tried for a time to find truth in the teaching of an Eastern sect, the Manichees; but in A.D. 383 he went to Rome and on to Milan, where he obtained a post as Professor of Rhetoric. Here he met St. Ambrose, the bishop, whose eloquent sermons and saintliness deeply influenced him. He also read Plato with enthusiasm.

Augustine went through a period of struggle between his longing for Christianity and his moral weakness. One day, when he was 32 and had retired to his garden in agony of soul, he thought he heard a child's voice singing: 'Take and read'. Rushing back into the house he opened the New Testament Bible at Romans 13:13 to 14 and read the passage (written by Paul of Tarsus): 'Let us conduct ourselves properly, as people who live in the light of day – no orgies or drunkenness, no immorality or indecency, no fighting or jealousy. But take up the weapons of the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop paying attention to your sinful nature and satisfying its desires.' This decided him. (compare Rev. 14:6 to 11; Augustine followed Paul of Tarsus as a Christian Church leader and teacher.) He and his son became Christians and were baptised by Bishop Ambrose.

787 “Augustine resolved to return to North Africa, and before sailing he had a moving conversation with his saintly mother Monica, now on her death-bed. They talked to one another for eternal life, as Augustine records in his Confessions (Chap. 9). In Africa he was ordained and in A.D. 395 he became Bishop of Hippo, an office he held until his death (in 430) during a siege of Hippo by the Vandals.

788 “Augustine wrote many books, and has always been regarded as one of the four great Fathers of the Western Church, the others being Pope Gregory the Great, St. Ambrose, and St. Jerome. Much of his writing grew out of the controversies in which he became involved. One of these was with the followers of Pelagius, who asserted that any man could live a life without sin if he wished to – a statement which seemed to deny the need for God's grace. Augustine's sense of God's greatness was so profound that he ascribed all man's good works to Divine Grace – a statement which seemed to deny human free will. Pelagius's doctrine was condemned by the Church, but Augustine's doctrine also was later modified so as to allow man some responsibility for his own actions.

789 “In 410 the Goths captured Rome and sacked it. Europe was severely shocked by this catastrophe, for Rome was the centre to which all the civilized world looked for leadership. Augustine thereupon began to write The City of God in order to restore confidence to the Christian world. In this book he distinguishes two kingdoms, one belonging to earth, the other to heaven.

These, he says, have existed from the beginning of the world; but the heavenly city is now represented on earth by the Church, whereas the earthly city might be said to be represented by the State. Augustine taught that the Christian Church had brought a new order into the world to take the place of the Roman Empire which was crumbling away. This book strongly influenced the theory of medieval Catholicism, that the Church is above the State and has the right to make and depose kings. Augustine was followed by Luther and Calvin (compare Rev. 14:6 to 11; that is, both of them became Augustinians) in his teaching on grace and predestination. Protestantism therefore, as well as Roman Catholicism, owes much to Saint Augustine." (Oxford Junior Encyclopaedia, volume V. Great Lives, pp. 22 to 24) Saint Augustine, himself, also followed Saint Paul in his teaching on grace and predestination and as a teacher and leader of the Christian Church. (compare Eph. 2:8 to 9; Rom. 8:20 to 22)

790 St. Augustine's mother Monica had such an influence on his early life that the Bishop's later life cannot be better understood without this phase of his youth being told. "St. Monica, Widow (A.D. 331 to 387); at the age of 20 the Christian Monica was married to Patricius, a pagan official at Tagaste, in North Africa, considerably her elder, and bore him three children. Her husband's violent temper and dissolute pagan habits caused her much suffering, and made the Christian education of her children very difficult, but after 18 years of married life Patricius finally embraced the faith, and died soon after.

791 “Thenceforth Augustine, her eldest son, was Monica's sole preoccupation, for during his studies at Carthage he had become ensnared by the Manichaean heresy, and his passionate nature had led him into an illicit attachment with a woman who was to be his mistress for the next 15 years. St. Monica tried in vain to persuade a visiting Bishop, who had himself passed the Manichaean errors, to lead her son back to the truth; but he felt the time was not ripe, and she had to content herself with his assurance that 'it is impossible that the son of such tears should perish!'

792 “When Augustine decided to teach rhetoric in Rome, Monica wished to accompany him, but he deceived her by a ruse and sailed alone; and from Rome he moved on to Milan, where he obtained a professorship. Monica followed him there where she became the friend of the great bishop, St. Ambrose. Ambrose's eloquence and sanctity helped Augustine to come into the Church at Easter of the year 387.

793 “My son, I had but one object in life, and that was to see you a Catholic. God has done more than I had dared to hope for in that He has taught you to despise all that the world can offer in order to follow him. Bury my body where you will. All I ask is that you remember me always at the altar of God!”

794 “When St. Monica and her illustrious son reached Ostia, the port of Rome, to embark for Carthage, she died in his arms, being 56 years of age.

795 “Under St. Monica's Patronage, as one who well knew how to overcome evil with good, there was founded about a century ago in Paris an association of Christian mothers for mutual prayers on behalf of wayward sons and husbands.

796 “St. Augustine of Hippo, Bishop Confessor, Father and Doctor of the Church (A.D. 354 to 430). The story of St. Augustine's youth up to the time of his conversion at the age of 33 has been told on August 27th, St. Monica's day. Having at last realised that only through Jesus Christ could he find the way to truth and eternal salvation, he gained his peace of mind and soul, and lived henceforth the life of a Saint. His mother and his natural son having died soon after his baptism, Augustine returned to Tagaste, (North Africa), where he established a monastery for himself and his followers, and led a life of apostolic poverty, study, and active charity among the poor. After three years he was, through popular insistence, ordained to priesthood, and Bishop Valerius even asked him to preach to the people, although in Africa that was a privilege reserved solely for Bishops.

797 “St. Augustine was 42 when he was made Bishop of Hippo, and laboured for another 34 years, becoming the Patriarch of monasticism, the revitaliser of the entire African Church. He lived an austere community life with his Priests. By impressive teaching and enormous correspondence he refuted a host of powerful heresies, setting forth the Faith forcefully and accurately, always animated by a glowing love of God and a selfless, tender solitude for his neighbour's spiritual good. 'God usually deserts the negligent!' 'Kill the errors, yes; but love the erring!' He knew well that hatred and spite only harden the heart instead of winning it. The memory of his own youthful failing kept him always humble. 'Take my heart, O Lord, for I cannot give it to you! Keep my heart, for I cannot keep it for you! Send me any cross that will keep me subject to your cross, and save me in spite of myself!'

798 “St. Augustine was doubtless one of the world's greatest thinkers; as a theologian and philosopher he is outstanding among the Church Fathers for the influence he wielded. Particularly famous is his system of grace, which reconciles the absolute mastery of God with the free will of man. His 'Confessions', the world's most noted autobiography, is a memorial of his deep repentance; the 'City of God' explains the Creator's working in history; remarkable is also the conception of the creation of the world, by which God gave to matter once for all the power and life germs which would ensure the general unfolding and development of the cosmos.

799 “St. Augustine died of a fever on August 28, 430 while the Vandal invaders were besieging Hippo. He is honoured as the Patron of theologians, printers and brewers, and is invoked against sore eyes. Since the 8th century his relics repose in Pavia, having been bought from the Saracens for a large sum by the Lombard King Luitprand.” (Ref: Saint Companions, op. cit. pp. 285 to 287). “Honoured as the Patron of theologians”, Augustine also became the Patriarch of monasticism: “When Christianity became the dominant religion a special movement of monasticism developed. Christian congregations, having turned into powerful churches, ceased to serve as the refuge from the evils of the world.

Membership in the Church no longer saved one from sin. Then the most fanatic Christians began leaving the world of sin into the desert to live secluded lives devoted to God. There they followed an ascetic lifestyle. The first monks and the first monastic living quarters appeared in Egypt. Saint Anthony (A.D. 251 to 356) and Saint Pachomius are regarded the first monks. Later monasteries came into being in other Christian countries. In the early Middle Ages monasteries were used as places of refuge during various invasions. They became wealthy from donations and gradually became a major economic force." (Ref: History of Religion; p. 355. op. cit.) 800 "Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet.

I saw a star which had fallen down to the earth, and it was given the key to the abyss. The star opened the abyss, and smoke poured out of it ..."

801 The star, which had fallen down to the earth and was given the key to the abyss by the king who was in charge of the abyss, was Ignatius de Loyola. He was the Church leader who had fallen down to “the earth”, fallen to the level of a world ruler, a soldier, a captain in the army, a soldier-turned church-leader, and was given the key, the means to gain access to the source and store-house of the body of the teachings and practices of the Church of Rome at the Vatican, the abode of the Pope, the Papacy, which is the abyss, by the king of the Jesuits, the Pope, who is also the angel in charge of the Vatican, the abyss.

802 Ignatius de Loyola read Augustine and was profoundly influenced in his entire Christian life by St. Augustine's writings.

803 “Loyola, Ignatius de (1491 to 1556). Inigo Lopez de Recalde, the founder of the Jesuits, was a Basque, the son of a nobleman of Spain. He became a soldier and enthusiastically pursued a military life until in 1521, a serious wound rendered him unfit for further military service. During a long convalescence, shortage of other reading material led him to read the lives of Christ and the saints (including, of course, St. Augustine). He was intensely moved, and as soon as he recovered, he went to the monastery of Monserrat to leave his armour on the Virgin's altar and to dedicate himself henceforth as a Christian knight. He began to plan his book of Spiritual Exercises, a manual of training involving the most rigorous self-discipline and hardship, which he practised himself, and afterwards used for all who joined his society.

804 “After making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem he studied at a University, and then went to Paris to prepare for the priesthood, all the time keeping to the severe rule of life which he had himself drawn up. A company of enthusiastic young men gathered round him, many of whom afterwards became famous in the Church, in particular St. Francis Xavier, the great missionary to Japan and India. In 1537 Loyola was ordained priest.

805 “Loyola, now certain that he wanted to fight for the Church, went to Pope Paul 3 to secure his authority to form an order founded on the three chief monastic rules, poverty, chastity, and obedience, but which would work in the outer world rather than in monasteries. The order was called the Company, later the Society, of Jesus, and Loyola planned it on a military pattern. He thought of Jesus as a supreme Chief calling for volunteers to fight in a crusade against the devil to rescue the world. The head of the Society, which position Loyola held, was called the General, and was subject only to the Pope – but absolutely to him. Discipline was strict, and Loyola's men had to be ready to do any kind of work which promoted the greater glory of God.

806 “At that time two dangers faced the Roman Catholic Church: the low standard of morals in the Church itself, and the growth of the Protestant Reformation, began by Martin Luther and John Calvin. The Society of Jesus played a vigorous part in bringing about the Counter-Reformation. Its members were often sent as teachers and confessors to the houses of the ruling classes, thus gaining considerable political power. The Jesuits were so anxious to keep people within the Catholic Church that they acquired the reputation of defining sin and granting absolution too leniently, of having, in fact, a political rather than a religious motive and of using their power somewhat unscrupulously. This led to bitter controversy.

807 “The Society of Jesus increased rapidly, and by the end of the 17th century there were some 20,000 members of the Order, besides numerous pupils in their colleges training for membership. The Society has specialized in education, especially in the higher branches, and Jesuits have conducted many famous schools for boys, including English schools such as Stonyhurst. Its missionary work throughout the world, especially in South America, Canada, Japan, and Africa, has a story of enterprise and courage.

808 “But dislike and suspicion always followed the Jesuits, and in 1773 Pope Clement 14 suppressed the Society. It was, however, restored in 1814, and is still a notable monument to Loyola's inspiration and genius.” (Ref: Oxford Junior Encyclopaedia, volume V. Great Lives, pp. 284 to 285)

809 “St. Ignatius of Loyola, Confessor (1491 to 1556). Inigo was born in the family castle at Loyola in northern Spain. Following a military career, he was seriously wounded at the siege of Pamplona, and during a long convalescence read a life of Christ and a book of Saints' lives which made him realise the hollowness and futility of his own.'If the Saints could do this, why not I?'

810 “After his recovery he spent a year in solitude at Manresa, searching for God's will, then made pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He was already 33 when he took up the study of Latin among the schoolboys of Barcelona, and then devoted 11 years to philosophy and theology at various Universities. At Paris, where he took his degree in 1535, he was able to attract six young men to his life of mortification, poverty and spiritual exercises – among them were St. Peter Faber and St. Francis Xavier.

811 “Pope Paul 3, under whose direct obedience the seven placed themselves, looked upon these diligent, disciplined and devoted Priests as a nucleus of a new kind of religious society, whose well trained and educated members could fill the urgent need for overcoming worldliness and ignorance and counteracting the untruths being spread by the Church's enemies. After the approbation of the Society of Jesus' in 1540, St. Ignatius was elected general and composed its constitution which excluded the customary monastic habit, common devotional exercises, and the singing of the Office. Instead, its members were to devote all their time to preaching, hearing confessions, giving spiritual exercises, and educating boys in schools and colleges.

812 “The 'Jesuits', as they came to be popularly called, grew rapidly in numbers and were soon conspicuous in all the towns of Italy, caring for the poor and the sick, preaching in the streets to explain Catholic truths in simple, direct language, and insisting upon the frequent reception of the sacraments. The other countries of Europe felt their influence too, and in the foreign mission field they appeared in Africa, America, India, and even Japan. At St. Ignatius' death the 16-year-old Society already counted about 1,000 religious (schools) and over 100 houses.

813 “He died on July 31, 1556 and was canonized by Pope Gregory 15 in 1662. (Ref: Saint Companions, pp. 251 to 252)

814 The star, Ignatius de Loyola, was authorised by the Pope, Pope Paul 3, who gave him the key to the abyss, to open the abyss and smoke poured out of it, like the smoke from a large furnace; the sunlight and the air were darkened by the smoke from the abyss. The smoke is the Spiritual Exercises he wrote in this book, together with the constitution of the Society which he composed and which excluded the customary monastic habit, common devotional exercises, and the singing of the Office. This manual of training involving the most rigorous self-discipline and hardship for the Order “planned on a military pattern”, “darkened the sunlight and the air”, that is, made the teachings and practices of the Church, “the sunlight”, unclear, confusing and difficult to accept and practise; it made people unhappy about the new teachings and sacraments of the Church. And the opinions held and accepted by the Christian public, “the air”, were blurred, made difficult to understand; it sullied, spoilt, confused, and lowered the value and esteem of the teachings, practices and opinions of the Church, officially, and of its membership; it made them dirty by the addition and acceptance of the military discipline and combat tactics which conflicted with and dislodged the humble and mild Christ-like manners of the sheep commanded to be employed for the evangelization, missionary and conversion exploits. (compare Matt. 10:16) Further to the darkening of the sunlight and the air, “St. Ignatius of Loyola composed the constitution of the Jesuit order which excluded the customary monastic habit, common devotional exercises and the singing of the Office. Instead, the members of the Order were to devote all their time to preaching, hearing confessions, giving spiritual exercises, and educating boys in schools and colleges.” Such leverage and latitude from Pope Paul 3 was the key to the abyss which allowed Loyola to “darken”, to adversely affect, the teachings and practices of the Church and the beliefs and opinions of the Christian public with teachings and practices composed by he himself for the Order, which were planned on a military pattern.

815 “Locusts came down out of the smoke upon the earth, and they were given the same kind of power that scorpions have.”

816 The locusts are the Jesuit graduands who pass out of Jesuit schools, colleges, universities and other institutions as qualified Jesuits, trained in Spiritual Exercises, “the smoke”, and subjects prescribed in the Jesuit constitution. Jesuits are given the power and authority or employed to perform as confessors, inquisitors, teachers, and crusaders, the sort of work that brings vexatious mental and physical pain on its victims, the same as the sting of scorpions bring long vexatious pain on those stung. Jesuits, imaged as locusts, as pests, were a mere destructive nuisance released on the world to bring on mankind the first of the three horrors. Jesuits were “often sent as teachers and confessors to the houses of the ruling classes”, as “the earth” upon which “the locusts came down out of the smoke”.

817 “They were told not to harm the grass or the trees or any plant, they could harm only the people who did not have the mark of God's seal on their foreheads.”

818 The job of the Jesuits was not to harm the common people of the Church or of the Empire, “the grass”, or the institutions of state, “the trees”, or any prominent statesman or nobleman, “any plant”; they could harm, persecute, the heretics, renegades, the Protestants, all those who stepped out of line with regard to the teachings and practices of the Church, “the people who did not have the mark of God's seal on their foreheads”, “the enemies of the Roman Catholic Church”.

819 The 144,000 Spirit-sealed, redeemed Israelite men-disciples in the Diaspora, had God's seal on their foreheads. Their sealing was long completed before A.D. 70. But they could have lived on through the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The enormous crowd from every race, tribe, nation, and language was not sealed with God's seal on their foreheads, and this crowd of people which found itself declared heretics, renegades, reformers, Protestants, enemies of the Roman Catholic Church, etcetera, by the Roman Catholic Church, was harmed, persecuted by the Jesuit confessors, inquisitors, teachers, and crusaders. Thus the Jesuits came down out of the smoke upon “the earth”, upon the leaders and rulers of the heretical sects.

820 “At that time two dangers faced the Roman Catholic Church; the low standard of morals in the Church itself, and the growth of the Protestant Reformation, began by Luther and Calvin. The Society of Jesus played a vigorous part in bringing about the Counter-Reformation. Its members were often sent as teachers and confessors to the houses of the ruling classes (“the earth”), thus gaining considerable political power. The Jesuits were so anxious to keep people within the Catholic Church that they acquired the reputation of defining sin and granting absolution too leniently, of having, in fact, a political rather than a religious motive and using their power somewhat unscrupulously. This led to bitter controversy.” (op. cit. p. 285)

821 The Jesuits, following Loyola who had fallen to the level of political leadership of the world, “were sent as teachers and confessors to the houses of the ruling classes”, and this helped them gain considerable political power, which they used somewhat unscrupulously; and so contributed to the already-started progressing bitter controversies bedevilling the Church – “the flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder, and a terrible earthquake” that split the Church of Rome and devastated it for good. “In 1546, the year of Martin Luther's death, civil war broke out between German Protestant and Catholic princes, and peace and official acceptance of the Lutheran church were not reached until the Peace of Augsburg in 1555,” a year before Loyola's death in 1556.

822 “The locusts were not allowed to kill these people, but only to torture them for five months.”

823 The Jesuits were to be more anxious to keep the people, the heretics, the renegades, the reformers, the Protestants, etcetera, within the Roman Catholic Church than to achieve and effect their excommunication or martyrdom. They were thus not allowed to “kill these people, but only to torture them”. The torturing was to last for the five months' period which is the actual life expectancy of the natural desert locusts, which live during the five-month wet or growing season of these desert pests. Correspondingly, the Jesuits were to do their torturing during the 16 superscript th and 18 superscript th centuries when heresies were in vogue, and in 1773 Pope Clement 14 suppressed the Order which was out of season and beset with dislike, suspicion and bitter controversy. Like ravenous wolves the Jesuits tortured the flock of God, which was unlike what Jesus had told his true twelve Galilean apostles: “Listen! I am sending you like sheep to a pack of wolves. You must be as cautious as snakes and as gentle as doves.” (Matt.10:16)

824 The pain caused by the torture is like the pain caused by a scorpion's sting. During those five months they will seek death, but will not find it; they will want to die, but death will flee from them.

825 The Jesuits' efforts at keeping the people within the Roman Catholic Church through their torturous methods of teaching, crusading, conducting confessions, and inquisitions, the “stings”, caused long vexatious mental and physical pain, nausea and temporary paralysis, to the heretics who would have preferred being excommunicated or made martyrs and left alone, but this was denyed them “during those five months” imaging the period from 1540 to 1773.

826 “The locusts looked like horses ready for battle; on their heads they had what seemed to be crowns of gold, and their faces were like human faces (= men's faces). Their hair was like women's hair; their teeth were like lions' teeth. Their chests were covered with what looked like iron breastplates, and the sound made by their wings was like the noise of many horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle.”

827 The Jesuits were not actual companies of military men or soldiers, but formed a company of men with a captain trained in military discipline and combat tactics, carried over to them through the Spiritual Exercises and therefore looked like vehicles of war, horses ready for battle, horses saddled for war. The Jesuits had what seemed to be crowns of gold on their heads; they had a duty to perform which was noble in word (but not in deed), meretricious, “like crowns of gold”. The Jesuits, Loyola's men, “had to be ready to do any kind of work which promoted the greater glory of God.” Any kind of work promoting the greater glory of God seemed to be crowns of gold on their heads, that is, their objective or task, seemed to be noble, golden, entrusted to them. Their faces were like human faces, men's faces; the men's faces imaged the courage or bravery that they required to do their kind of work. For courage is the quality that enables men to meet danger without giving way to fear.

828 Their hair was like women's hair; Jesuits were frocked like women in monks' gowns or robes and exhibited feminine tendencies and qualities such as leniency acquired as reputation which, as "mothers", shepherds, teachers, and priests, they extended to their flock, the heretics, students in schools and colleges and their converts, and so further earned them the reputation of defining sin and granting absolution too leniently. Their teeth were like lions' teeth; their lion-like teeth imaging their strong and sharp methods and tactics as weapons, made them fierce and effectively devastating in disposing of their victims, that is, fast and thorough in performing as inquisitors, confessors, teachers, and crusaders. Typically, this is a Jesuit; and a Jesuit, opprobiously, is a crafty person, an intrigerer, a prevaricator!

829 Their chests were covered with what looked like iron breastplates. “The Jesuits' missionary work throughout the world ... has been a story of enterprise and courage.” The “enterprise and courage” demanded by their calling and exhibited in the performance of their duties around the world, demanded and portrayed, figuratively, “chests ... covered with what looked like iron breastplates”. Enterprise is an undertaking, a bold and dangerous undertaking, an adventure; it is readiness, initiative, and daring in undertaking. Courage is the quality that enables human beings to meet danger without giving way to fear; it is bravery, spirit. The Jesuits did not have literal iron breastplates, but there was something about them that “looked like iron breastplates”, and that was their “enterprise and courage”, which they exhibited and which were demanded by the task that was assigned to them.

830 “The sound made by their wings was like the noise of many horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle.”

831 The Jesuits moved in large numbers around the world and so conspicuously and audibly, that is, “noisily” influenced the world with their activities. “The Society of Jesus increased rapidly, and by the end of the 17th century there were some 20,000 members of the order, besides numerous pupils in their colleges training for membership.” By the end of the 17th century the population (P) of the world was far less than one thousand million (P less than 1,000,000,000). At the beginning of the 21st century the population of the world is well over six thousand million (P greater than 6,000,000,000). But the Society of the Divine Word (S.V.D) dedicated to the propagation of the gospel throughout the world has a membership of about six thousand (c. 6,000) today which is considered very large for the work. This comparison makes a Jesuit membership of more than 20,000, working in a world population of less than one thousand million, rattle noisily like many horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle, rushing into action.

832 The historical record confirms this feature of the Jesuit menace: “The 'Jesuits', as they came to be popularly called, grew rapidly in numbers and were soon conspicuous in all the towns of Italy, caring for the poor and the sick, preaching in the streets to explain Catholic truths in simple, direct language, and insisting upon the frequent reception of the sacraments. The other countries of Europe felt their influence too, and in the foreign mission field they appeared in Africa, America, India, and even Japan. At St. Ignatius' death the 16-year-old Society already counted about 1,000 religious (schools and colleges) and over 100 houses.”

833 “They have tails and stings like those of a scorpion, and it is with their tails that they have the power to hurt people for five months. They have a king ruling over them, who is the angel in charge of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon; in Greek the name is Apollyon (meaning 'The Destroyer').”

834 Locust swarm and devour vegetation during the growing wet season and die away at the onset of drought. In the desert region which is their habitat, their home, they live for the five months that the greens' period lasts and die away from lack of food during the drought. They seem, therefore, to have been given a life span of five months by their creator who makes them work together in swarms without a visible on-field leader or commander like Jesuits during the five-month growing period. Loyola with his six companions went to Pope Paul 3,"under whose direct obedience the seven placed themselves", to secure his authority to form or found the Society of Jesus after he was ordained priest in 1537. The Society was founded in 1540, three years after his ordination. In 1773 Pope Clement 14 suppressed the Society. Forty-one years passed before it was restored in 1814, when the Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church had both been thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulphur and destroyed in 1806. The creator of the Society of Jesus, the opprobator, the Pope, gave it a life span, a limited lease of life of"five months", that corresponded with the period which corresponded with the season when heresy was in vogue, was on the ascendancy, in the 16th and 18th centuries (1540 to 1773), and when bitter controversy and suspicion arose in the period of drought, Pope Clement 14, exercising his absolute powers as the king ruling over the Jesuits, as the one “under whose direct obedience the seven placed themselves”, suppressed the Society in 1773. The process was not to be repetitive. It was a once-and-no-more event. And so, when it was restored in 1814, the Society could not and did not carry out its bitterly controversial torturous activities as before because the world situation had changed drastically.

835 The locusts' tails and stings are the Jesuits' institutions and schemes that followed them and were established and left behind as they went ahead from country to country and continent to continent in the performance of their duties as crusaders, inquisitors, confessors, and teachers. It is these institutions, the tails, producing the Jesuits and their activities or tasks (= inquisition, confession, crusading, and teaching), as stings, that they use to hurt people for five months.

836 An inquisitor is a member of the Court of Inquisition. The Inquisition was a tribunal in the Roman Catholic Church, called also as “the Holy Office”, for the discovery of heresy, unbelief and other offences against the Roman Catholic religion. A crusader is a supporter or a soldier who took part in wars against heretics. A confessor is a priest who hears confessions and grants absolution (= a formal statement that a person is forgiven for what he or she has done wrong) or makes avowal, especially, of religious faith. A Jesuit teacher teaches boys in Jesuit schools and colleges, and, as a priest, carries out preaching, teaching and conducting of confessions often in the houses of the ruling classes.

837 “The Society of Jesus played a vigorous part in bringing about the Counter-Reformation. Its members were often sent out as teachers and confessors to the houses of the ruling classes, thus gaining considerable political power.” It was in this way that the locusts used their tails and stings to hurt people for five months.

838 “They have a king ruling over them, who is the angel in charge of the abyss.”

839 The king ruling over the Jesuits is the Pope, under whose direct obedience and authority Loyola and his six companions placed themselves. “The head of the Society, which position Loyola held, was called the General, and was subject only to the Pope – but absolutely to him.” The Pope is the messenger in charge of the abyss which is the Vatican, the city serving as the abode of the Pope and headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. “His name in Hebrew is Abaddon; in Greek the name is Apollyon (meaning 'The Destroyer')”. The Pope has gained the name or reputation throughout history as “The Destroyer” of God's people and those who are loyal to the truth that Jesus Christ revealed and the word of God, who are seen here as the so-called heretics, the enemies of the Roman Catholic Church. The Church of Rome is “Great Babylon, the mother of all the prostitutes and perverts in the world. And (John) saw that the woman (= the Church of Rome whose leader is the Pope) was drunk with the blood of God's people and the blood of those who were killed because they had been loyal to Jesus.” (Rev. 17:5 to 6)

840 The Pope is the messenger in charge of the abyss. The abyss or the Vatican City and State is “The place in the depths of the earth where demons (= evil spirits) are imprisoned until their final punishment.” Demons or evil spirits live in their human hosts and hostesses, the collaborators who are the political and religious rulers or leadership, “the earth”, in the depth of which they live. (compare Rev. 18:1 to 3)

9:12

The End of the First Horror

841 “The first horror is over; after this there are still two more horrors to come.” (Rev. 9:12)

842 The first horror is here shown to be the disastrous calamity that the formation and the activities of the Jesuits brought or have brought on the whole world, especially, during the 16 superscript th and 18 superscript th centuries, the five-months' period imaging the period between 1540 and 1773, 233 years in all.

9:13 to 21

The Sixth Trumpet

843 “Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet. I heard a voice coming from the four corners of the gold altar standing before God. The voice said to the sixth angel, 'Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!' The four angels were released; for this very hour of this very day of this very month and year they had been kept ready to kill a third of all humanity. I was told the number of the mounted troops: it was two hundred million. And in my vision I saw the horses and their riders: they had breastplates red as fire, blue as sapphire, and yellow as sulphur. The horses' heads were like lions' heads, and from their mouths came out fire, smoke, and sulphur.

A third of humanity was killed by those three plagues: the fire, the smoke, and the sulphur coming out of the horses' mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and also in their tails. Their tails are like snakes with heads, and they use them to hurt people.

844 “The rest of humanity, all those who had not been killed by these plagues, did not turn away from what they themselves had made. They did not stop worshipping demons, nor the idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood, which cannot see, hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic, their sexual immorality, or their stealing.” (Rev. 9:13 to 21)

845 The sixth angel or messenger of God to air his views was Francis Bernardone, St. Francis of Assisi (1182 to 1226), born at Assisi in central Italy. The voice coming from the four corners of the gold altar was the voice of the Pope sanctioning the lay preaching and teaching initiated by Francis Bernardone. The gold altar was the preaching and teaching work “standing before God”, that is, as a project being implemented by God. The four angels bound at the great river Euphrates released by Francis Bernardone to facilitate their embarkation on world conversion and colonialism were the rulers of Portugal, Spain, England, and France. The power they would use to achieve their conquest and domination of the world under European Culture was to be the Gun!

846 “Francis of uhsseezee, St. (1182 to 1226). Francis Bernardone was born at Assisi in central Italy, the son of a prosperous cloth merchant. He learned to read, and knew French and some Latin; but he was not highly educated, and indeed always wrote with difficulty. His early life was wild and pleasure-loving.

He had plenty of money and many gay companions. He intended to be a soldier, and when, as was frequently happening, Assisi was attacked by the neighbouring city of Perugia, Francis took part in the fighting and was taken prisoner. He remained a prisoner for a year until, when he was 22, the cities made peace.

847 “On returning home Francis became very ill; and during his illness he thought seriously about the way he was spending his life. When he recovered, his irrepressible spirit of adventure led him to dream that he might win glory by joining a military expedition; but he was ill again and had to abandon his intention. During this second illness he began to think he might seek adventure in quite a different way – by serving his fellow men.

He began to help the poor: for example, when a leper begged alms of him, he jumped from his horse and gave all the money he had, kissing the leper's hand. He took Christ's words, 'Follow me', as a personal call, and not only gave his own money but also his father's goods. Finally his exasperated father brought him before the Bishop to disinherit him.

Francis willingly agreed to give up everything, even the clothes he was wearing, with the words, 'Hitherto I have called Pietro Bernardone my father; but now I desire to serve God.'

848 “Francis retreated to the half-ruined chapel of St. Damian on the outskirts of Assisi, where he had often gone to pray. He lived on the food people gave him, and spent his time restoring the chapel, gathering stones how and where he could. When this task was finished, he turned to another decaying sanctuary, St. Mary of the angels, generally called the Portiuncula, and restored it also. This chapel afterwards became the cradle of the Franciscan movement.

849 “One day, as Francis was listening to the words of the Gospel which tell of the orders Christ gave to his disciples when he sent them out to preach, it seemed to him that these orders were being given directly and literally to him. 'Do not carry any gold, silver, or copper money in your pockets; do not carry a beggar's bag to the journey or an extra shirt or shoes or a stick. Workers should be given what they need', says the Gospel (St. Matt. 10:9 to 10; compare Lk 22:35 to 38). The next day Francis began to preach in simple, vivid words that found an immediate response among simple people, for they saw that he had indeed given up all out of love for God and men. Soon companions gathered round him, and formed a band who called themselves Joculatores Domini, which might be translated as 'God's merry men'. Francis declared that he was married to 'Lady Poverty', the most beautiful of all brides.

850 “Francis's followers soon grew so many that it seemed advisable to obtain the sanction of the Church for the work they were doing. In 1210, therefore, a group of twelve made their way to Rome to interview Pope Innocent 3. The Pope feared that they were adopting a way of life too severe to be the basis of a permanent rule, but he gave a provisional blessing to the brotherhood, stipulating that they should appoint a responsible superior; and Francis was chosen. Francis regretted that his work had to be so organized, and would have preferred to remain free. But it was inevitable that his movement should be caught up in the organized machinery of the Church.

851 “In 1212 a nobly born girl of Assisi named Clare, at her urgent request, was allowed to start a sisterhood which should obey the same rule as the brothers, except in regard to preaching and missionary work. Clare and her followers took up their abode at St. Damian, the brothers having made the Portiuncula their headquarters. She kept in close touch with the Franciscan brothers even after their great leader's death.

The lives of these men and women had a freshness and pure simplicity which had rarely if ever been matched in Christian history. Francis had sympathy with the whole of creation. He loved flowers and animals; he preached to the birds, he called the donkey his little brother, and he tamed a savage wolf which came to him with an injured foot. The records speak of many visions and miracles, which are described in the Fioretti, or Little Flowers, a collection of tales describing the spiritual experiences not only of Francis, but of Brother Juniper and Brother Giles and many others, including also St. Clare.

852 “The Franciscans were first known as the Penitents of Assisi, and later as the Minor or Lesser Brothers. They were also called Grey Friars from the colour of their dress. At the time of their foundation Dominic the Spaniard was also gathering his company of preaching friars. Hitherto monks had retired from the world to save their own souls: but Francis and Dominic sent their followers into the world to save others.

So eager was Francis to appeal to men solely by the example of a Christian life that he would not allow his brothers even to possess books; but this, and also the literal application of the rule of poverty, had to be modified. Indeed, in later times, the Franciscans came to own churches and friaries and communal wealth which was far from Francis's original intention. But the mass of his followers remained wandering preachers, travelling far and wide, and delivering their message in plain words that ordinary men could understand.

853 “Francis's own life was short. Yet he managed to visit North Africa, Spain, Syria, and even Egypt. He is said to have obtained an audience of the Sultan of the Saracens against whom the Crusaders were fighting, and to have preached the Christian message to him. His last few years were spent in quiet retreats in Italy and, when only 44, worn out by suffering and sickness, he died.

854 “So intense were his meditations on the sufferings of Christ that, according to legend, his hands became marked with scars resembling the marks of the nails on Christ's hands. One day, when staying with St. Clare, he became rapt in thought, and in that ecstatic state he composed the Canticle of the Sun, a hymn of praise to God for the beauty and joy of created things, for the sun and light, moon and stars, for water and fire, for good and merciful men, and finally for 'sister death'. The true spirit of Francis is better reflected in this poem of childlike simplicity than in the subsequent works of his order, useful and great though these are.

855 “The little walled town of Assisi, with its beautiful church of St. Francis, and the magnificent series of frescoes by jotto portraying the incidents of his life, remain as a vivid memorial to him.” (Ref: Oxford Junior Encyclopaedia, volumeV.Great Lives, pp. 168 to 169)

856 “St. Francis of Assisi, Confessor (1182 to 1226). The first twenty years of handsome Francesco's life were the happy, luxurious and carefree ones which might be expected of the son of a wealthy cloth merchant in the lovely Umbrian town of Assisi (Italy). However, in a war with the neighbouring Perugians, he was captured and spent a year in prison. While confined to his bed with a fever for several months upon his return, he came to realise the emptiness of the life he had been leading. Abandoning his former wasteful ways, he redoubled his charities among the poor, the sick (especially the lepers), and tried to find God's will in solitary prayer, meditation and penance.'He who serves the poor, serves Christ himself!' One day, in the dilapidated church of St. Damian the ancient crucifix commanded:'Repair my house which is falling into ruin', and Francis, taking the words literally, begged the necessary stones and repaired the church. His ambitious father, who had entertained great hopes for a brilliant career for his son, became thoroughly worked up over this new mode of life, and ended by publicly disinheriting him.

857 “St. Francis gladly surrendered all his worldly possessions and lived thenceforth like a hermit, the poorest of the poor. He was about 27, ardently in love with poverty, when he applied to himself the words in the Gospel by which Christ sent out his disciples to spread the kingdom of God. He now began to preach penance, brotherly love and peace in the neighbouring towns, and this with such sincere enthusiasm and artless simplicity, that people's initial scoffing changed into astonishment. 'God's servants are his minstrels. It is their task to fortify the hearts of men and to move towards spiritual joys!'

858 “Before long, similarly minded men began to join Francis, men of prominence in town affairs, a Canon of a cathedral, a cavalier, and Giles the ecstatic; each gave away all his belongings to the poor. When their number had reached 12, St. Francis went to Rome and obtained from Innocent 3 a verbal approval and permission to preach penance everywhere. He was made a Deacon, but never aspired to the dignity of the priesthood for which he had the greatest reverence.

859 “The Benedictines gave to the Friars Minor the 4 superscript th century church of our Lady of the angels, The Portiuncula' (Little Portion), and round about it the brethren built their little huts of wattle and mud. From there they started out in pairs on their preaching missions to rekindle the love of God in all the countries of western Europe. To gain their livelihood, they performed all manner of manual labour, and when this was not available, begged their food.

860 “The number of those who joined Francis grew with such amazing speed that by 1219 there were already 5,000 friars assembled for the first general Chapter at Assisi. Their influence on the people was tremendous, for their short, vivid, and affectionate moral preaching was all in the vernacular and exactly met the needs of the day. The ever cheerful and unassertive Francis particularly was able to effect many reconciliations on his journeys through Italy, southern France and Spain; and countless sinners were won over by his loving and winning personality and all-embracing sympathy. For those who lived in the world, St. Francis founded the Third Order in 1221, and these tertiaryes agreed, among other things, not to carry arms, take oaths, or engage in lawsuits.”

861 “Tendencies to relax the primitive austerities soon made their appearance. At the famous 'Chapter of Mats' in 1221 the 'Poverello' (God's Little Poor Man) relinquished his generalship of the young Order. Three years later he received the Stigmata, and in 1226, at the age of 44, succumbed to dropsy on October 4. He was canonized two years after his death, and is probably the world's best known and beloved Saint.” (Ref: Saint Companions, op. cit. pp. 327 to 329) A tertiary is a member of a third order of a monastic order, a layman who may continue to live an ordinary life in the world.

862 “Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet. I heard a voice coming from the four corners of the gold altar standing before God. The voice said to the sixth angel, 'Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates'.”

863 Francis Bernardone, as a layman, began to preach “penance, brotherly love and peace” in simple, vivid words, in the vernacular, that found immediate response in simple people. Francis' followers soon grew so many that it seemed advisable to obtain the sanction of the Church for the work they were doing. For only bishops and priests were permitted by the Church to preach in church and to the public in Europe. In 1210, therefore, a group of twelve made its way to Rome to interview Pope Innocent 3. They were there to obtain the Pope's approval and permission to preach penance everywhere in their own way as they had already started doing as laymen. The Pope feared that they were adopting a way of life too severe to be the basis of a permanent rule, but he gave a provisional blessing or a verbal approval and permission to the brotherhood, stipulating that they should appoint a responsible superior; and Francis was chosen.

Francis regretted that his work had to be so organized, and would have much preferred to remain free. But it was inevitable that his movement should be caught up in the organized machinery of the Church.

864 Francis Bernardone aired his own views, directly and literally, imitating Jesus and his disciples, and preached “penance, brotherly love and peace”, not the message of the Good News of peace about the Kingdom of God, as Jesus and Peter with the other eleven apostles did, to the people in simple and vivid words, in the vernacular rather than in Latin, the official language of the Roman Empire, of the Church, and of the educated elite. His moral preaching reached the people of the Church whose response was favourable and immediate. This was brought to the attention of the Pope, who speaks through the four corners of the gold altar of the Church, which originates and directs the invaluable missionary work and so, symbolises the gold altar standing before God. The Pope, speaking for the Church in response, told Francis what to do rather than what Francis would have wished and preferred to do. Francis would have much preferred to remain free, in the way he was already doing, to preach to the masses of the people, that is, to do the work reserved for the bishops and priests, the clergy, which would have lacked the requisite authority for the people to act upon the moral rectitude being preached to them. But, with the Pope's verbal approval or provisional sanction and permission and direction of the focus and purpose of Francis' affectionate moral preaching towards the eventual release of the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates, the four angels, so released, would be firmly and greatly relieved and resolved to do what they had been released to do, as laymen, because it had had the necessary and sufficient approval and permission of the Pope for them to do. Laymen, as explorers, discoverers, murderers, armed robbers, shameless thieves, prostitutes, etcetera, thus, could also undertake to Christianise the perceived heathen nations.

865 The four angels or messengers of God that Francis was to release from bondage to the strict membership rules of the Church of Rome, as a result of his approved and permitted simple and vivid moral preaching and teaching in the vernacular by laymen, were the leaderships and the people of the four nations of Portugal, Spain, Great Britain (or England), and France. These four nations and their leaderships were bound to the Church of Rome and to the Holy Roman Empire, as members of both of them to their strict membership rules and regulations, until they became nation-states gaining some autonomy to act independently of Rome and of the Church and to engage in activities that would have been considered forbidden and contrary to the tenets and practices of the Church and of the Empire. They were to be released to kill a third of the human race independently of the umbrella Empire and Church, and this disgusting horror could hardly have gained the sanction of the Church especially, and of the Empire, except that it was going to be done indirectly in a way that appeared to promote the cause of the preaching of Francis and his men throughout the whole world. The work of Franciscans and Dominicans was a departure from what hitherto pertained for monks and mendicant friars: “Hitherto monks had retired from the world to save their own souls; but Francis and Dominic sent their followers into the world to save others.”

866 “The four angels were released; for this very hour of this very day of this very month and year they had been kept ready to kill a third of all humanity.”

867 The leaderships of Portugal, Spain, England, and France were immediately released from any restrictions from Rome and, exactly, at the time Francis and Dominic spread throughout Europe and the outside world their Franciscan and Dominican teachings of penance for all human beings; for this very hour of colonialism planned for this very day of this very month and year, which corresponded with the period Franciscan and Dominican monks and friars in their numbers were produced to facilitate their sensitising the population of the Holy Roman Empire to embark on the conversion of the world by laymen alongside the killing of a third of all human beings through the activities which the four released angels were to embark upon, the killer-troops numbering two hundred million.

868 “I was told the number of the mounted troops: it was two hundred million.”

869 The number of the mounted troops to be used by the four angels to kill a third of all human beings worldwide was two hundred million, which was about equal to the estimated number of the population of the Holy Roman Empire at the time of the Saints Francis and Dominic. It meant that, through the leaderships and peoples of the nations of Portugal, Spain, England, and France, the entire population of the Holy Roman Empire, especially in Europe, and the ten kings' nations, would be involved in the spiritual and physical killing of a third of all human beings over a certain period, the period of colonialism, when the killing activities of the four angels would continue.

870 “And in my vision I saw the horses and their riders: they had breastplates red as fire, blue as sapphire, and yellow as sulphur. The horses' heads were like lions' heads, and from their mouths came out fire, smoke, and sulphur. A third of humanity was killed by those plagues: the fire, the smoke, and the sulphur coming out of the horses' mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and also in their tails. Their tails are like snakes with heads, and they use them to hurt people.”

871 The second horror that was to happen very soon to the world was the release of the four nations of Europe from the grips of the Roman Empire and of the Church of Rome to wreak havoc with the Gun on the world of mankind under the pretext of conversion of the world to Christianity together with the prospect of promoting rich European trade with the converted peoples. Europe embarked upon colonization and the conversion of the rest of the world through conquests, killings, robbery and stealing of the wealth and technologies, and destruction of the conquered peoples' culture, their civilization, and their technologies, and the imposition of a system of rule that kept the peoples impoverished and ignorant. What influenced, facilitated and occasioned this development was the initiation of the preaching of Francis Bernardone, a layman of Assisi in central Italy, who was the sixth messenger of God sent for this assignment. He initiated the preaching and teaching of Christianity in simple, vivid words, in the vernacular, to convert the world, which gained the verbal approval and permission of the Pope, who spoke for the Church through the four corners of the gold altar, as the precious preaching and teaching project being implemented by the new Lamb symbolized as standing before God. (compare Matt. 24:29 to 31)

872 The four messengers bound at the great river Euphrates represented the political, commercial, and religious leadership-rulerships of the Portuguese nation, the Spanish nation, the British nation, and the French nation: the four nations of Europe, hitherto, forming parts of the Holy Roman Empire, which were released and freed from strict bondage to and control of the Empire and of the Church, exactly at the time of Francis Bernardone when the loosening up, weakening and breaking up of the Roman Empire and of the Church of Rome, allowed these autonomous and or independent nation-states to assert themselves and engage in competitive and often hostile world exploration, conquests, conversion, colonization, and colonialism. They succeeded in establishing four vast colonial empires by the end of European world conversion and world colonialism in the 20th century. But as much as a third of all human beings had to be sacrificed, physically and spiritually, on the gold altar, that is, on the preaching and teaching service, standing before God by European attempts at Christianisation of the rest of the world, that the voice of the Pope coming from the four corners of the gold incense altar directed. A third of the human race was killed physically with the Gun and a third was killed spiritually with the Bible as Christians, who believed and practised the poisonous falsehood and deception preached and taught by Paul of Tarsus, alias St. Paul, and his likes, the Church Fathers.

873 The gold incense altar standing before God is the Christian evangelism or missionary work or service, the preaching and teaching of God's word and the truth that Jesus revealed and the word of God, as the acceptable and preferred incense sacrifices to animal sacrifices, which was viewed as a sacrificial work performed by these sacrificial lambs on the gold altar (= the noble and precious Christian preaching and teaching duty) standing before God, (positioned) before God, as an important objective, a project, to be implemented or performed at any cost, but by the clergy or the priesthood which belongs to the leadership of the Church, and so stands projected before God. At that particular time of Church history, the Church came to favour and teach that it was proper, golden, and Godly to spread Christianity, which had been equated to European culture and civilization, through the conquest of perceived pagan and heathen nations and the brutal suppression of heresies, in order to achieve a complete world conversion to European culture, civilizations and religions. Francis and Dominic approved and backed the crusades and the forcible conversions as a Godly way of Christian conversion. The one voice, which was the voice of the Pope, coming from the four corners of the gold altar standing before God, meant that the entire Church was in agreement, that is, the Church spoke with one voice in favour of the use of violence as a means of conversion and subjugation of conquered peoples by ordinary men, even non-priests, with the verbal approval and permission of the Pope. (compare Sc. Gen. 9:25) Thus, “The great trumpet will sound, and he will send out his angels to the four corners of the earth, and they will gather his chosen people from one end of the world to the other.” (Matt. 24:31)

874 The four angels were bound at the great river Euphrates. Euphrates, the great river, is where Great Babylon or the Church of Rome, the rider of the Roman Empire, is located in the Revelation imagery account. “The waters you saw, beside which the prostitute was sitting, are peoples, the populations, the nations and languages.” (Rev. 17:15; J.B) Euphrates is used here in this way to identify where the four angels, the four leadership-rulerships of the four nations, had been kept bound but ready to kill a third of all mankind. (compare Sc. Dan. 10:20 to 11:1; 12:1) It shows that the killers would come from Europe, the realm of the Roman Empire and of the Church of Rome, “the prostitute”, where “the peoples, the populations, the nations and languages” are bound, at an exact time: at “this very hour” of the tenor of the Empire and of the Church, when the state and condition of the Empire and of the Church would make it appropriate, favourable, and possible to release them from their bondage to the Empire and to the Church, having become sovereign nation-states, to carry out their assigned duty of killing a third of all human beings with the Gun.

875 Europe combined the work of monks and the work of merchants during the 11 ^{th} and 13 ^{th} centuries when efforts were being made to expand European culture, trade, and religions beyond the Mediterranean regions. This was exactly the period of Saints Francis and Dominic. The crusades and colonialism were, therefore, two compatible natural allies for monks and merchants bent on world conversion to European religions and European culture.

876 “The crusades may be considered as an earlier expansion movement which began at the end of the eleventh century and lasted long enough to be linked to the Portuguese and Spanish explorations. Though superficially religious in nature, the crusades had economic basis and results. They opened up trade with the Levant. They brought Europeans into contact with new peoples, new luxuries, new ways of life; but they focused attention on the Mediterranean world, known since antiquity. They made the Mediterranean more than ever the centre of European trade and played their part in the commercial rise of the Italian cities. Partly as a result of the crusades, European attention was turned eastward and a number of monks and merchants in the thirteenth century journeyed to the Orient and brought back stories of wealth, great cities, and strange folk. In the fourteenth century, the Mohammedans conquered western Asia and made it impossible for traders of other faiths to go to the East overland. Contact with the Orient was preserved only through the trade routes, over which Arab merchants brought spices, drugs, dyes, and perfumes by way of the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, or the Black Sea. Meanwhile the rise of the Turkish power expelling Christians from the Near East and by the fifteenth century was threatening Constantinople itself. The Turks did not shut off trade between Europe and the Orient in the fifteenth century, for they profited too much from the flow of commerce through their lands; but they did block off any large-scale expansion eastward from the Mediterranean world." (Ref: Economic History of Europe, by Shepherd Bancroft, Charles Woolsey, Third Edition, pp. 103 to 104)

877 The restriction of overland trade with the Orient prompted the search for alternative maritime route by the Portuguese and the Spaniards to reach the spice islands of the Philippines. As a result, the west coast of Africa was reached by the Portuguese in the 1440s. Christopher Columbus (1451 to 1506) touched the Americas in 1492, and Captain Cook (1729 to 1779) reached Australia in the 18th century, which the Dutch had touched in 1642 but had left unsettled. China, Indo-China, Central Asia, Mongolia, and the Indian Sub-continent were discovered, conquered and colonized about the same time.

878 The four angels used mounted troops: the horses and their riders were two hundred million. The horses as carriers, beasts of burden, draught animals and war vehicles, represented the many sailing ships and, later, steam ships that the officers and crews used to explore, discover, conquer, and deliver the ships' complement of exportable European populations and merchandise to the discovered, conquered, and settled lands. The captains and the crews were the riders who had to see to the execution of the duty of the four angels controlled, inspired and directed by, and so, represented the political, commercial, and religious interests and leadership-rulerships of Portugal, Spain, England, and France, which was to kill, as a sacrifice on the gold altar of the God of Christianity, that is, as a sacrifice on the pretext of converting the heathen to Christianity, a third of all human beings by the three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulphur, coming out of the horses' mouths.

879 Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal, King Ferdinand (and Queen Isabella) of Spain, King Henry 8 of England and Louis 11 (and his successors, especially Louis 14) of France approximated the original four angels of European colonization of the rest of the world. All the four nations and their leadership-rulerships were released from bondage to the strict rules and regulations of the Church and of the Empire in order to embark on separate and independent world exploration and conversion, and doing other things that defied Church rules and teachings, such as the ruling by the Church that the earth was, not round, but flat.

880 The ships used in those days by the Portuguese, the barcas, the caravel, nau or galleon, and carrack, whether they were exploration or discovery ships, merchant ships, passenger or war ships had Huge Guns, Cannons, mounted on them and pointing their muzzles forward. That arrangement gave the ships, heads that looked like lions' heads, with the mounted cannons looking like bits or teeth protruding from the mouths and giving them the fierce devouring look of heads of lions.

881 Guns are tubular weapons from which projectiles are discharged, usually by explosion. The explosion is produced by setting Gunpowder on fire. Gunpowder is an explosive mixture of sulphur, salt, petrol, and charcoal. Gunfire releases, Fire, Smoke, and Sulphur as it delivers its projectiles: pellets, bullets, cannon balls, and missiles to their targets. Sulphur, the main active explosive component of gunpowder, is Brimstone, a light-yellow non-metallic substance and mineral, very fusible and inflammable.

It burns with a bright flame and a sharp smell. Salt, petrol, is a potassium nitrate, nitrite: a salty, white powder used in making gunpowder, for processing food, and as medicine. Guns and Bombs are weapons built on the same principles and with the same materials to serve the same purposes.

882 “From the horses' mouths came out fire, smoke, and sulphur.” From the front or the bows of the ships were fired Guns that sent Fire, Smoke, and Sulphur, which, factually and literally, accompanied any shot of a Gun. The great God of the Book of Revelation did foretell, more than a thousand years in advance, the invention of Gunpowder and the Gun as a weapon that would be depended upon and used by Judeo-European Christians as “wild animals” or barbarians, as the military power base, for the conquest, control, and despoiling of the world by Europe, “the White Race”, to perpetrate the second horror on all human beings! (compare Rev. 13:1 to 4)

883 “And in my vision I saw the horses and their riders: they had breastplates red as fire, blue as sapphire, and yellow as sulphur.”

884 The captains and the crews of the ships were the riders. They relied on their gun-power as their protective breastplates. And as the guns fired and discharged red flares or flames of fire, and blue hue of smoke, blue as sapphire, from the basic yellowish explosive substance of sulphur, seen or sensed by its bright flame and sharp smell (mixed with salt, blue as sapphire, and yellow as sulphur), then, this visual shield or screen of “red as fire, blue as sapphire, and yellow as sulphur” phenomenon, formed at the bow or in front of the ships and at chest level of the riders, certainly and literally, in part, became the pictorial and figurative breastplates of the ships and the riders who were the sailing captains and the crews of the ships and who manned the ships as well as the guns.

The presence of salt, blue as sapphire, and yellow as sulphur, were not given by the ship's significant visual impact when ignited. Firearms are also usually fired at chest or breast level and so literally and figuratively provide “breastplates red as fire, blue as sapphire, and yellow as sulphur” when in use.

885 “A third of mankind was killed by those three plagues: the fire, the smoke, and the sulphur, coming out of the horses' mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and also in their tails. Their tails are like snakes with heads, and they use them to hurt people.”

886 A third of mankind was killed by those three plagues, symbolizing the Gun, as sacrifice on the gold altar standing before God in order to accomplish the duty of the four angels. European colonialism, aimed in part to spread Christianity, in line with the implementation of the secret plan of God, was to be achieved at the cost of a third of the lives of all human beings. This gold altar represented the assumed Christianization, the missionary work of the monks, friars, and lay-Christian merchants, as a noble and precious duty.

887 The European explorers, discoverers, conquerors, womanizers, colonizers, colonialists actually used and relied on their superior weaponry, which consisted mainly of their large and small guns, symbolized as “the fire, the smoke, and the sulphur coming out of the horses' mouths”, to conquer the indigenous peoples in all the lands they discovered, explored, colonized and or settled. By the end of the Judeo-European colonial adventurism, a third of all human beings had been sent to their early graves through the use of the Gun to kill them.

888 In the Americas, there were formed Christian British, Christian French, and Christian American frontier rangers, and Christian Portuguese, and Christian Spanish conquistadors whose noble and sacred duty was to clear the continent of their indigenous peoples, steal their treasure and technology and destroy their culture and civilizations through mass killings with the Gun, for the occupation and settlement by Judeo-European Christians, who were reliving and re-acting, in modern times, the drama of “God's people” or Spiritual Israelites, moving to the Promised Land, destroying the “evil inhabitants” and supplanting them. The British cleared Australia, Tasmania, and their islands of their indigenous peoples and of their culture and civilizations with the Gun, and settled ex-convicts there. This was followed by the policy of not allowing Chinese and other Asian immigrants to settle there. This White Australia Policy has been followed since 1901. It was repealed only in 1968. New Zealand and other islands of the Pacific Ocean were settled by Judeo-European Christians, and their indigenous peoples were killed with the Gun, their wealth and technologies stolen, and their numbers reduced to manageable levels.

889 Canada includes Quebec which was a French settlement and colony. Christian Britain and Christian France killed all the indigenous peoples of Canada with the Gun, stole their treasure and technologies, destroyed their civilizations and left only handfuls of some five tribes as United Nations Organization (U.N.O.) human heritage for preservation in reservation zoos, shielded from world civilization. In the United States of America the initial thirteen English colonies united with French and Spanish colonies and other conquered states to become a mighty nation of fifty-one states (including the semi-colony of Puerto Rico), after the 1776 War of Independence from Britain. Judeo-European Christian settlers form over seventy-five percent of the population of over 300 million. Descendants of African slaves form some twelve percent and Asians and Hispanics form a little over twelve percent. American Indians, the indigenous peoples met on the land, form less than 0.25 percent (4%) concentrated in the reservations, the zoos, where they have been incarcerated away from modern civilization, even though they covered the north American continent with populations numbering between a hundred and two hundred million before the arrival of the Judeo-European Christian conqueror and despoiler.

890 In Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay, the Guyanas, the Central Americas, the Caribbean, and all other countries, Judeo-European Christian settlers, including ex-convicts, have completely taken over the nations, depriving the indigenous peoples, saved from the mass killings with the Gun, any human dignity. In Brazil the nearly fifty million indigenous peoples that the Christian Portuguese met in the land have been reduced to some three hundred and fifty thousand outside the Amazon tropical forest region, and replaced by freed black African slaves, white Judeo-Europeans, half-whites or half-cast descendants of Christian Judeo-Europeans produced from the practice of the policy of committing sexual immorality with the natives and the slaves to produce half-whites who would continue to ensure Christian Judeo-European rule of the colonies and settlements, since Christian Portugal, with a small population of about two million, could not supply enough Portuguese from home to do it. There are now about seven hundred and fifty thousand indigenous peoples consisting of over three hundred ethnic groups speaking over a hundred languages living in the Amazon region cut off completely from modern world civilization. One indigenous tribe numbering about five million at the time of the Portuguese entry into Brazil is now reduced to about 350 individuals roaming about in the capital city of Brazil soon to be extinct if immediate measures are not taken to save them in order for them to continue to be part of a nation of a population of over 191 million.

891 In Africa the Christian Europeans settled in Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe), Malawi (formerly Nyasaland), South Africa, South West Africa (now Namibia), Kenya, Algeria, and other places. This was achieved largely by mass slaughtering with the Gun millions of Africans who resisted their brutal destructive intrusion by victoriously beating them off. The Asantes and Mosquitoes thwarted, aborted, and eventually sacked attempted Christian European settlements in West Africa. The Zulus trimmed Christian Boer and Christian British settlements in South Africa to a level far lower than was intended and desired. Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of independent Kenya, led the Mau Maus, during the independence struggles, to flush out the Christian British from Kenya, ending their brutalities against the simple but determined peoples of Kenya. The spectacular advanced culture of Baganda under the Kabakas successfully resisted and withstood the destructive moves of the Christian British colonialism operated in Uganda. In Algeria the Christian French were sacked after a long bloody war of independence led by Ben Bella of the F.L.N. (Front Liberation Nationale).

892 The failure of Judeo-Christian Europe to denude Africa of her peoples, her wealth, and her civilizations for Judeo-Christian European occupation and settlement did not stop Judeo-Christian Europe from killing millions of them through the inhuman and unchristian slave trade, a by-product of Judeo-Christian European colonialism. (compare Rev. 18:13) The Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent, Indo-China, China, Mongolia, Manchuria, Central Asia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Oceania were colonized and have similarly suffered the cruel indignities that have become the lot of all human beings and lands conquered, colonized, settled, and exploited by Judeo-Christian Europe and Judeo-Christian Europeans.

893 The great God who gave the Book of Revelation to Jesus to show Jesus' servants what was to happen, as the second horror, puts the number of human beings to be murdered by Judeo-European Christian explorers, conquerors, converters, thieves, robbers, sex prostitutes, disease broadcasters, colonizers, and colonialists, at a third of the population of all human beings that would be living during those times. The power they would use to achieve that ignoble feat was in the horses' mouths and in their tails. Gunpower was what came from the horses' mouths, but the Power in the Tails of the horses was the military garrisons, the standing armed forces, Judeo-European human settlements, the ex-convicts, the churches, Judeo-European languages, religions and civilizations, the direct and indirect rule, colonization and colonialism that followed and were left behind by the riders from their horses, which perpetrated and perpetuated the criminal, cruel, wicked, and brutish exploitation of the indigenous peoples to their hurt. The festering sores developed from the wounds of Judeo-European settlements inflicted on the lands and peoples of the conquered and colonized world continue to deepen and expand to hurt indigenous peoples.

894 “Their tails are like snakes with heads, and they use them to hurt people.”

895 The colonialists left direct and indirect colonial, political, and religious rule and administrations backed by standing armed forces, “like snakes with heads” behind that kept their links with the mother-countries like tails. But the colonial, political and religious administrations and governance, secured by standing armed forces, were created to be like poisonous snake-heads to hurt the indigenous peoples. The alien colonial management and administration styles and methods imposed on ill-trained, inexperienced indigenous peoples led to the enrichment of the Judeo-European countries and peoples, and the impoverishment, ignorance, and slavery of the indigenous peoples.

They established and left behind colonialism which was a system of Judeo-European settlements in the colonies which were treated as proprietary domains exploited for the benefit of the Judeo-European countries. The economies of the colonies were structured, organised, and managed in such a way as to benefit the Judeo-European countries and to hurt the indigenous peoples leading to their eventual impoverishment. The colonial economies were strategically structured and organised to produce raw materials as primary products or cash crops not needed at home and sold at starvation prices from which very little monies were realised and used to buy manufactured goods, foods and services from Europe at prohibitive prices that left the colonial peoples impoverished. The inimical feature of this sort of trade relations is the chronic adverse terms of trade that bedevil the post-colonial developing nations.

It was in this way that the tail of Judeo-European colonialism acted as powers, poisonous snake-heads, that maintained the colonial system and link to hurt the indigenous peoples.

896 Neo-colonialism which describes superbly the new socio-economic, political and religious system evolved by Judeo-Christian Europe and Judeo-Christian Europeans to continue to dominate and control the economies and peoples of the third-world countries, after the attainment of nominal political independence, is a new tail used to hurt third-world countries and peoples. For the independent states are nothing more than Judeo-European nation-states established outside Europe and, strategically and tactically, left in the hands of untrained or ill-trained and inexperienced former slaves to run to hurt themselves. The settlements still continue to exist, as evidence of unrepentant Judeo-Christian Europeans' indelible crime against humanity, and are deep roots extended by Judeo-Christian Europe into the economies and lands of other peoples which draw rich nutrients to nourish the Judeo-European continent and peoples of Judeo-European descent. Unfair trade is robbery; and Judeo-Christian Europe and the White Race use unfair and foul trade to steal from the weak and impoverished nations emerging from long years of debilitating colonialism. The result is what the Great God sees and classifies as the Horror! of a world divided into the Rich White Cheats and the Poor Black Cheated! Judeo-Christian Europe and peoples of Judeo-European descent in their settlements throughout the world live a life of “magnificence and ease” at the expense of the rest of the world. This is a heinous crime, “a white-colour crime”, against humanity for which Judeo-Christian Europe and peoples of Judeo-European descent will never go unpunished! (compare Rev. 18:14; J.B).

897 The 21st-century practice of neo-colonialism is the role of aristocratic oligarchy being played by the Group of Eight (G-8) richest countries in an enforced total trade liberalisation that puts into practice the theory of the Survival of the Fittest. This theory flies in the face of wisdom, fair play, and justice, in unevenly yoking the world's political economies: the Rich and strong verses the Poor and Weak, in ploughing the economic fields of this global village. Competitive international free trade is the practice of the Survival-of-the-Fittest game in its crudest and brutish form! Judeo-Christian Europe and Judeo-Christian Europeans together with all peoples concerned with human dignity, fair play, and justice need to contemplate the abatement of all colonial settlements, colonialism, neo-colonialism and economic, social and religious exploitation of other peoples as a policy the implementation of which should lead to a future of a world of permanent peace, security, prosperity, and longevity!

898 What the prospective Judeo-Christian European explorers sold to the Christian monarchs, rich merchants, businessmen and the Church in order to win their support and financing for their adventure were the prospect and objective of promoting Commerce and Christianity, among the peoples of the new and discovered lands. They won the support of these key players and interest groups and received the necessary funds and support for their adventure. The convoy of ships and the officers, crews and complement, were prepared and made ready for the purposes for which they were designed, crafted, and provisioned.

Merchants and Monks were the heroes of the adventure embarked upon by Judeo-Christian Europe to the Europeanize the rest of the world through colonialism. Las Casas, the Roman Catholic priest who advised the use of Africans as slaves on the Judeo-European sugar and tobacco farms in the Americas went to the Americas in 1502 in the ships of Christopher Columbus. And the Pope gave his blessings to the inhuman slave trade by quoting the scripture to back it. (compare Sc. Gen. 9:25) Thus, the voice of the Pope is the voice coming from the four corners of the gold altar standing before God which said, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." (compare Matt. 24:31)

899 The fleet of ships that took the lead in exploring and conquering the new lands were designed and built to perform as warships, merchant ships, and passenger carriers. They formed the heads of the horses which were like lions' heads, for those ships carried mounted guns, cannons, ready to discharge from their mouths, the bows of the ships, fire, smoke, and sulphur that sent cannon balls to kill a third of human beings who inhabited the discovered lands. Once the pioneers succeeded in establishing bridge-heads, followed by commerce and settlements, the tail of the convey of ships of Judeo-European Christianity consisting of languages, religions, populations, and civilizations followed to convert the peoples whose languages, religions, and civilizations had been downgraded and destroyed.

900 The fleet of ships that followed the war and commerce ships were those that carried fleeing persecuted pilgrims, hunger-pursuing settlers, ex-convicts, and missionaries, men and women, who were financed and sent by the various denominations of Judeo-European Christian churches to spread their brands of Christianity, the peculiar Judeo-European religions, what they themselves had made, the worship of demons and idols, among those natives who had not been killed by the power of the gun. For religion is man-made; it is not a demand of God! Puritans and Pilgrims from the British Isles, Huguenots from France, Presbyterians from Scotland and Holland, Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits, monks and nuns, from Spain, Portugal, and Italy, Mormons from Norway, Coptics, Maronites, and Orthodox Christians from Egypt, Greece, Romania, Russia, and Turkey, and Calvinists, Lutherans, Charismatics, Anabaptists, Quakers, and Adventists from Switzerland, Germany, and France and, in general, from the wider Europe went to settle and Christianize the perceived savages and barbarians in the colonies. Some established schools and hospitals to help achieve the cultural and religious conversion and transformation required to facilitate successful Judeo-Christian European colonization and colonialism.

These missionary, pilgrim, puritan, and church ships stealthily followed the war and commerce ships as tails, but “tails like snakes with heads, and they use them to hurt people”. Arabs with their Islam, Jews with their Judaism, and Europeans with their Christianities, all of them, perpetrated the ghastly crimes of colonization, colonialism, and slavery on the rest of the world in praise and honour of Allah, Adonai Elohim, and Jehovah, Yahweh or the Trinity, the various names by which their Almighty God, Satan the Devil, is known and called. This is the reason why religion and the practice of religion, which is the belief in and the practice of the madness of the submission to a god who exists only in the imagination, has brought pain, chaos, destruction, wickedness and irreparable loss to all practitioners.

And yet it was during and through these chaotic conditions that the sign of the Son of Man appeared in the sky, so that he sent out his angels to the four corners of the earth, and they gathered his chosen people, the enormous crowd, from one end of the world to the other. (compare Matt. 24:29 to 31)

901 The missionary groups, the pilgrims and the denominational churches, the demon and idol worshipping religions of Europe (including the angels sent out by the Son of Man) that followed the discoverers and the exploiting and the robber-conquerors to the colonies and settlements, had administrative and governing leadership backed by standing armed forces institutions, the snakeheads, that made them operate autonomous systems in the enclave communities where they lived. They were in link with, participated in and supported the conquests, robbery, slavery, murdering, sexual immorality, colonization, and colonialism as tails of the adventurism. There was initially the political governance in the hands of the chartered companies as in the British colonies that governed the peoples around the established trading posts and ports.

Later the British established colonial governments secured by standing armed forces in all the colonies, trusteeships, and protectorates. The French, the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the Spaniards operated their varied forms of direct and indirect rules in their respective colonies, trusteeships, and protectorates. What was universally enforced, as part of their direct-rule system, however, was the imposition of the Judeo-European colonizers' languages as the lingua franca for the colonies, trusteeships, and protectorates.

They eventually transplanted their languages, religions, populations, and civilizations to the rest of the world.

902 “The power of the horses is in their mouths and also in their tails.”

903 From the horses' mouths came the gun-power that established their political and military power through the mass killings from the guns they possessed and utilized. From the tails came the religious control the Judeo-European churches and the other religious leaderships manipulated to tranquilize, calm and cast a spell on the peoples so as to succumb, without whining, to the brutal conquests, colonization, thievery, and colonialism being operated for the benefit of the mother-colonial countries of Europe and for hurting the indigenous peoples of the colonies. The monks and priests successfully coaxed the people to store their riches in heaven where Judeo-European Christian robbers and thieves cannot break in to steal and leave their earthly things, treasure, wealth, and dignity to Judeo-Christian European abhorrors of spiritual things. (compare Matt. 6:19 to 21)

904 In this way, the political and military powers of Judeo-Christian Europe and the denominational Judeo-European demon-and-idol worshipping Christian churches worked in concert to kill and hurt the peoples of the rest of mankind who reeled under the diabolical colonial system, the poisonous snake-heads, established and operated by Judeo-Christian Europe. The Europeanization of the world, the Expansion of Judeo-Christian Europe, the imposition and enforcement of Judeo-Christian European culture, languages, and religions on the rest of the world, the conversion of the rest of the world to Judeo-European Christianity, character, and ways, sent a third of all human beings to their early graves and established a permanent system of colonialism, succeeded by neo-colonialism, which continues to hurt the rest of the world politically, socially, militarily, economically, and religiously. It has ordained the Rich White Master over the Poor Black Slave in a world that wholly lies in the power of the Wicked One – the one Lord God Almighty, Satan the Devil, worshipped by the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish world of today. All nations and peoples of today risk being condemned and destroyed by Judeo-Christian Europe and Judeo-Christian America for opposing Judeo-Euro-American Interests, their Gods.

905 The success at making the colonial peoples accept the languages, religions, and civilizations or cultures of Judeo-Europeans has raised the Judeo-European to the height of godhood. If you freely or are made to accept and worship the gods of other peoples, you become the slaves and servants of the peoples whose gods you accept and worship. It has become a common saying and advice that, if you are going to church to worship God and you meet a Judeo-European on the way, you should render your worshipful service to him or her, because you have met your God. This is quite true of non-Europeans, non-Jews and non-Arabs who have accepted European, Jewish, and Arab religions as Christians, Gentile converts to Judaism, and Muslims, and their Jehovah or the Trinity, Adonai Elohim, and Allah gods as their Gods. They are conspicuously seen as assimilated to European, Jewish and Arab characters and ways of life. They have turned their backs on their own ancestry, culture, religion, and God, and have been deceived by the unwise and hollow claims of others that, the God Almighty, All-wise and All-knowing, can and will create intelligent human beings in his image and likeness, and favour some, hate others, find fault with his own work and blame others, his creation, for the mess, if any, that his creation has fallen into. Sorry! They are unable to see through such false and deceptive impossibilities! For even a casual but serious look at the origins of all religions of the past and today leads to the ancestor worship of all the races, peoples, languages, and nations who invent the religions for themselves in praise, honour, and remembrance of their forebears and nothing else. (compare Lk. 3:23 to 38)

906 Similarly, the rest of the world which has accepted or copied Judeo-European civilizations and culture at the expense of their own, only play a second fiddle to Judeo-Europeans in the control and management of their political, religious, and socio-economic affairs. It is no wonder that the view is held by the Japanese, whose economy is the largest in the world after America (U.S.A.), that it is America that determines how Japan is managed economically. And the greener pastures sought after by all human beings are Europe and European colonies and settlements of U.S.A., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and so on. (compare 2 Thes. 2:3 to 4; Sc. Deut. 18:9 to 15; Sc. Mic. 4:5) But the admonition and expectation of the Jewish prophet Micah are that “Each nation worships and obeys its own God” faithfully in order to prosper and enjoy peace, prosperity and security necessary for happiness and longevity. (compare Sc. Mic. 4:5) For religion, in itself, is nothing more than the ancestor worship of the nations, peoples, tribes, languages, and races that invent and practise it! (compare Lk. 3:23 to 38)

907 Colonialism was created by a powerful body whose head was economic and tail religious. Merchants and Monks facilitated colonialism. Europe used her superior economic, political and military might and magical religious power to subjugate and enslave the rest of the world to her benefit.

She operated colonialism, and is now operating neo-colonialism to benefit Judeo-Europe and all those Judeo-Europeans spread across the globe. She has legislated and is enforcing crudely unfair competitive free-trade practices, which make the weaker economies weaker and weaker, until they crush impoverished under huge debt burdens. The result is that, now, “Europe and the Church” live in Glory and Luxury at the expense of the rest of the world. “And she keeps telling herself: 'Here I sit, a queen! I am no widow, I will never know grief!'" (Rev. 18:7)

908 Colonialism is the system by which Judeo-European colonies and settlements were treated as proprietary domains exploited for the benefit of Judeo-European countries and Judeo-Europeans. Neo-colonialism is the new way of operating the same colonialism, after the colonies and settlements gained nominal political independence, by a system that makes them socially, economically, militarily, culturally, and religiously subservient to and dependent on Judeo-Europe and Judeo-Europeans, so that the rest of the world is still treated as a proprietary domain of Judeo-Europe and of Judeo-Europeans exploited for the benefit of Judeo-Europeans and of peoples of Judeo-European descent. This is achieved largely through multi-national corporations, enforced worldwide free-trade policies, such as, total trade liberalization that only the rest of the world is forced to practise, trading blocks, common markets, commonwealth group-states and the network of the denominations of Judeo-European religions and churches whose activities, plaguing the world, are seen, assessed, and classified by the Great God of all mankind as horrors which hurt the peoples upon whom they have been sprung. It is the horror of colonialism that has put, especially, Africa in the pillory of backwardness, poverty, disease and ignorance — the work of Judeo-Europe and of Judeo-Europeans. This is why Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister, is right in admitting that “The state of Africa is a scar on the conscience of the world”; the Western World, of course!

909 Horror is something that causes a feeling of extreme fear or dislike. Colloquially, horror is anything which is mildly objectionable, ridiculous, grotesque or distasteful. Horror often has to do with or results from disaster. Disaster is an adverse or unfortunate event; it is a calamity. Colonialism is a great disaster and calamity perpetrated on the human race by Judeo-Europe and Judeo-Europeans who constitute Satan the Devil ruling the whole world in rage because he knows he has a little time left! A great and sudden misfortune, such as, the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 26, December, 2004, which killed over three hundred thousand people, indiscriminately, and destroyed billions of U.S. Dollars' worth of property also, indiscriminately, is no match to the great and sordid suffering and hardships brought on people by the destruction of life and property affecting the whole human race that has occurred and continues to occur under Judeo-European colonialism and neocolonialism.

While the horror of the Tsunami pales into insignificance in comparison with the horror of colonialism, its indiscriminate devastation of life and property threw into question the usefulness and relevance of all religions and their corresponding gods of today. Where were the living Almighty Gods, Jehovah, the Trinity, Allah, and Adonai Elohim, the loving, caring, and merciful Gods of Christians, of Muslims, and of Jews when the Tsunami was assailing and destroying their beloved children and their property indiscriminately? Their silence and impotence should teach their wise adherents of the uselessness of the religions that deify these creations of the fertile minds of the ancient peoples, our ancestors.

910 How does the world itself see and assess colonialism? Conservatives, especially, Judeo-Europeans and their churches, as is expected of suspects and culprits, see and assess colonialism as having brought benefits to those lands and peoples colonized and settled in spite of the obvious atrocities, conquests, destruction, slavery, sexual immorality and exploitation, they admit, often occurred under the system. They point to education, schools and hospitals as benefits which, without colonialism, the peoples could not have come by. They forget and/or conceal, however, the fact that the peoples had their own systems of education, schools, hospitals and system of governance that suffered prior destruction from the same colonialists before the Judeo-European despoiler-colonialists unfolded their ugly designs.

And they seem to want to ignore the fact that the first University in the history of mankind was established in Timbuktu in West Africa, while the Nile Valley in Africa is the acknowledged cradle of human civilization. The survival of the peoples until they were “discovered” by Judeo-Europeans tells the wise that their health delivery system was as good as that of the “discoverers” if not better. And the legendary pyramids sitting in the seas of sand in the Sahara Desert talk of incredibly advanced cultures and civilizations that have passed into eerie oblivion, likely, due to ancient destructive moves from pre-Roman and Roman Europe.

911 The radicals, especially, the educated elite and the academicians, assess colonialism as being brutism, exploitative, immoral, and unchristian, bringing no positive benefits to the colonized lands and peoples. Colonialism, to them, came to the peoples who used hoe and cutlass, and left the peoples still with their hoe and cutlass. They see education, schools, and hospitals as just incidentals and not intended products of colonialism. For those educated followed syllabuses that trained them solely to be useful for the operation of the colonial system, but of no use whatsoever for the emancipation, development, and advancement of the indigenous peoples.

912 In the middle way are the liberals who admit that colonialism was exploitative, but left the colonized peoples a basis for development, especially, during the second half of the 20 ^{th} century.

913 The European economic historian, however, sees and assesses European colonization and exploitation of the rest of the world in a rather more favourable light. “the Expansion of Europe which began in the fifteenth century was a two-way process. On the one hand, Europe exported to the other continents populations, ideas, languages, institutions, and ways of doing things; on the other hand, it imported from the overseas areas goods and ideas which profoundly modified its own civilization. Both phases of the process are important, though the former has been studied much more than the other.

The outward movement was more spectacular, with its voyages of discovery, its fights against native peoples, its missionary heroism, its foundation of permanent colonies. But the inward movement, though slower and so subtle that contemporaries often fail to perceive it, altered the course of European civilization for good or ill.” (Ref: Economic History of Europe, op. cit. p. 103)

914 However, the experience of Europe herself, as she went through her history of decolonization and development, paints a different picture that indicts and condemns her. For while the industrial revolution in Britain, for example, led the rest of Europe by as much as thirty years, the rest of Europe did not have to be colonized and exploited in order to share in what they could and did attain and achieve through trade and investments either way. The Marshall Plan, as another worthwhile example, brought massive investments and trade from white Judeo-Americans to rescue white Judeo-Europe and white Judeo-Europeans from catastrophic social and economic collapse, (because white Judeo-Americans knew and considered white Judeo-Europe and white Judeo-Europeans still as their kith and kin) and so preventing the disastrous calamity of white Judeo-Europeans moving en masse to the colonies in search of greener foreign pastures.

It shows that Judeo-Christian Europe, commanded by their literary Jesus Christ and so obliged to “Do for others what you want them to do for you”, could and should have extended the same practices of humane, non-exploitative free and fair trade and investments to the lands where other human beings, like they themselves, “their kith and kin”, lived, without conquests, robberies, murdering, sexual immorality, conversions, and colonialism. Judeo-Christian Europe and Judeo-Christian Europeans should have demonstrated to the rest of the world that they were the disciples of their literary Jesus Christ by obeying his “new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples.” “The commandments … — all these, and any others are summed up in the one command, 'Love your neighbour as you love yourself.' If you love someone, you will never do them wrong; to love, then, is to obey the whole Law.” (Rom. 13:9 to 10) Judeo-Christian Europe and Judeo-Christian Europeans could have easily avoided the blot of criminal colonialism on their history and conscience if they had seen and accepted the rest of the world as their neighbours on this very small globe and had applied the lessons in “The parable of the Good Samaritan” to all other human beings in their commercial, social, and religious dealings. (Matt. 7:12; John 13:34 to 35; Lk.10:25 to 37)

915 These lessons would have taught Judeo-Christian Europe and Judeo-Christian Europeans that Africa and the rest of the world did not need and deserve conquests, stealing, slavery, murdering, sexual immorality, conversions, the spread of diseases and pests, colonization, and colonialism in order to benefit from any types of education, schools, hospitals, foreign ideas, foreign ways of doing things, and the assorted foreign demon-and-idol-worshipping Judeo-Christian religions from Judeo-Europe and Judeo-Europeans if they had proved true to their claim to being disciples of Jesus Christ. But Judeo-Europe and Judeo-Europeans could not for long hide their true identity as the Kingdom and the People being used by Satan the Devil, their Father, who is in rage, to bring woe to both the rulers and the rule of the world, because he knows he has a little time left for his own destruction together with his evil regime that Christendom is. (compare Rev. 12:12)

916 What, however, colonialism clearly failed to achieve is what it set itself to achieve, Commerce and Christianity! Colonialist Judeo-Europe abandoned free and fair commerce in and with the colonies and their peoples and resorted to killings, robbery, slavery, sexual immorality, conversions, subjugation, the spread of diseases and pests, and exploitation of the colonial lands and peoples – the commission of heinous and awful crimes against humanity by Judeo-Christian Europe — for the benefit of Judeo-Europe and peoples of Judeo-European descent. Judeo-European demon-and-idol-worshipping Christianity rather backed the criminal and immoral practice of colonialism perpetrated on the colonial peoples and has woefully failed in making any righteous, holy, and saving impact on the very few peoples, ironically, less than a third of all human beings she has killed with the Gun, in all the colonies she has embroiled in the practice of Churchianity, which is the worship of demons and idols, the religion centring in the church rather than in Jesus Christ; it is the Christianity with Satan the Devil at the helm of affairs, for hurting the indigenous peoples. (compare John 8:42 to 44; 2 Cor. 11:12 to 15) While her guns killed a third of all human beings, her religions, faiths, lodges, and churches continue to exist and operate in the former colonies and settlements to hurt the indigenous peoples who have all “died” by becoming Christians like Judeo-Europeans.

917 There is no salvation for all peoples enslaved in all the denominations of Judeo-European Christianity and the Judeo-Christian Church. (compare Rev. 18:1 to 18) The Great Universal God of Mankind acknowledges the gaping failure of Judeo-European colonization and colonialism to bring the message of salvation to the world. The whole world continues to be gripped in demon and idol worship, what Judeo-Europe had and so could give to the rest of the world. Her Merchants and Monks have done exceedingly well in establishing and projecting, with the Gun and the Bible, the judeo-european as the God Almighty whose interests must be respected and held paramount by the rest of the world, or the rest of the world risks being branded uncivilized barbarians, savages, and terrorists fit only for destruction. (compare 2 Pet. 2:12; 2 Thes. 2:3 to 4)

Why Four Angels Out of Ten Released

918 Almost all European countries and peoples, about two hundred million of them, at the time of the founding and formation of the Franciscan, Dominican, and Jesuit orders, started and engaged in the exploration, conquests, stealing, slavery, murdering, sexual immorality, conversions, spread of diseases and pests, colonization, and settlements outside Europe with the declared objective of promoting commerce and Christianity in those lands that had had no contact with Judeo-European Christianity by then. But colonizing and colonialist Judeo-European Christianity was equipped to kill and destroy, not to save and bless, being the most effective weapon in the hands of Satan the Devil, the Western World, for the deception of the whole world. The Portuguese and the Spaniards took the lead. They quarrelled over discovered lands and peoples in both the east and the west. This led to the Papal Bull of Demarcation that put an imaginary longitudinal line in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean which gave the east of the line to the Portuguese and the west to the Spaniards. The Pope and the Church fully supported and blessed the colonialism and the slave trade that Judeo-Europeans operated and so got herself involved. “Bartolomé de Las Casas (1474 to 1566; ordained priest in Hispaniola or Little Spain, now Haiti) in his elaborate plan for a South American colony suggested that African Negroes should be imported to replace the Indian slaves, a suggestion which he afterwards bitterly regretted.” (compare Sc. Gen. 9:25) (Ref: Oxford Junior Encyclopaedia, volume V. Great Lives, p. 265) What the Roman Catholic priest Bartolomé de Las Casas bitterly regretted rather than opposing was not slavery in itself, or colonization and colonialism, but the mistreatment of the Negro slaves he could not prevent.

919 Great Britain followed and eventually established the British maritime empire which spanned across the entire globe, earning her the accolade and slogan: the sun never sets on the British Empire! The French established their own colonial empire that made the colonies and their peoples nominal French territories and French citizens of the one-world French community. The Russians expanded eastwards from the Euphrates to annex and colonize much of central Asia, the Far East, and Alaska in North America. The Danes, the Swedes, the Dutch, the Germans, the Belgians, the Italians, and other Europeans and peoples showed interest in the exploration, conquests, thievery, plundering, sexual immorality, conversions, spread of diseases and pests, colonization, and colonialism that followed, as they participated in the scramble for and partitioning of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. All the ten kings that exercised kingly power with the beast, the Roman Empire number 666, got involved in the operation of the worldwide colonialism. But subsequent developments led to only the four countries of Portugal, Spain, England, and France, out of the possible ten nations of the Holy Roman Empire, grouping significant portions of the colonies and settlements under their spheres of influence and control.

920 The Dutch and the Danes sold or abandoned or ceded some of their possessions and other interests to the British. The Italians were fought off their interests by Libya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia (then Italian Somaliland). German colonies were shared as war spoils among Britain, France, and South Africa after the Second World War. Belgian Congo together with Rwanda and Burundi was not only insignificant in comparison with the possessions of the major players but also the personal property of King Leopold of Belgium. This Belgian possession and French interests were both Francophone. Russia sold Alaska to the United States of America for less than two million United States' dollars, and has dissolved the Soviet Union. These factual developments have ordained only four cardinal European spheres of colonial interests eventually predominating - namely, Portuguese, Spanish, English, and French.

921 The four nations of Portugal, Spain, England, and France have made their languages the lingua franca for the peoples of their spheres of influence and control, and these four languages have become some sort of major international languages recognised by the United Nations Organisation together with only Russian, Chinese, Arabic, and a few others. The fore-knowledge of these factual developments, incontrovertibly, justified the release of only these four angels, bound at the great river Euphrates, who had been kept ready to take the lead and kill a third of all human beings with the Gun. In fact it was the four nations that massively carried out the killing and plundering of the colonial lands and peoples intensively and extensively to build, sustain, and maintain Judeo-Europe that now wades in fabulous riches and now lives in luxury and glory.

922 Judeo-Christian Europe and Judeo-Christian Europeans, led by these four nations, have succeeded in murdering a third of all human beings with the Gun and the Bible, and have left a socio-economic and religious system in the former colonies that hurts people, but have woefully failed to bring true and humane Christianity and eternal salvation to the lands and peoples who have been bruised, brutalised, and exploited to serve their political, economic, social, and religious interests. “The rest of mankind, all those who had not been killed by these plagues – the guns, bombs, and missiles – did not turn away from what they themselves had made (that is, the milliards of denominations of Judeo-European Christianities and religions). They did not stop worshipping demons, nor idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood which cannot see, hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic, their sexual immorality, or stealing." (Rev.9:20 to 21)

923 Judeo-Europe has totally failed in her bid to promote Commerce and Christianity in “the rest of mankind”, even though “in 1492 Christopher Columbus managed to fire Queen Isabella and her advisers (to support and finance his adventure) with the prospect of rich trade and of converting heathen peoples to Christianity.” (Ref: Oxford Junior Encyclopaedia, op. cit. p. 99) Christopher Columbus, as a layman, could use the prospect of “converting heathen peoples” to win the support of pious Queen Isabella, because of the Papal approval already given to Francis Bernardone for laymen also to take part in the preaching of penance since the 13th century.

924 The horror of Judeo-European colonialism followed by neo-colonialism has left all mankind living today with demon and idol worship. All the great and small religions of this whole wide world worship demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood. Judaism, Judeo-Christianity, and Islam worship demons or evil spirits which they represent in the forms of idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood. (compare Sc. Am. 5:25 to 27; Acts 7:42 to 43; Ex. 24:9 to 11) None worships the Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and all things in them, the Spirit who came from heaven to live in the human body of Jesus on the Day John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the River Jordan!

The Three Religions of One Origin and One God (*Judaism * Christianity * Islam *)

925 The God of Israel, who is the God of Judaism, is also claimed by Judeo-Christians to be their God. The same God of Israel is also claimed by Muslims to be their God. Jews represent this God introduced to them by Moses as an idol of sapphire, a precious stone, which they claim to have seen in the company of Moses on Mount Sinai. They call him Adonai Elohim and Yahweh. Muslims represent him as an idol of black stone, the Kaabah, a meteorite, sited at Mecca in a shrine claimed to have been built by Abraham and his first-born son, Ishmael, the two acclaimed originators of their idol worship which they call Islam. They too call him Allah.

Judeo-Christians also worship this God of Abraham and Ishmael, of Isaac, and of Jacob. They represent him as an idol of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood statues, statuettes and crucifixes. They call him variously as the Trinity, Jehovah, Yahweh, God Almighty, the Lord. “Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 of the leaders of Israel went up the mountain and they saw the God of Izrayel. Beneath his feet was what looked like a pavement of sapphire, as blue as the sky. God did not harm these leading men of Israel; they saw God, and then they ate and drank together.” (Sc. Ex. 24:9 to 11) This idol God of Israel told Moses to go and tell the Israelites that “I, the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, have sent you, Moses, to them.” (Sc. Ex. 3:15) So the God of Abraham and Ishmael, known to Arab Muslims as Allah, is the God of Abraham. Isaac, and Jacob known to Israelites as Adonai Elohim and

Yahweh. Judeo-Christians call this God of Israel Yahweh, Jehovah and the Trinity.

926 “From the point of view of religion, Arabia was idolatrous … The Meccans did possess the notion of the One God, but they also believed that idols had the power to intercede with him. Curiously enough, they did not believe in the Resurrection and Afterlife. They preserved the rite of pilgrimage to the House of the One God, the Ka'bah, an institution set up under divine inspiration by their ancestor Abraham, yet the two thousand years that separated them from Abraham had caused to degenerate this pilgrimage into the spectacle of a commercial fair and an occasion of senseless idolatry which far from producing any good, only served to ruin their individual behaviour, both social and spiritual … About the year 605 the draperies on the outer wall of the Ka'bah took fire. The building was affected and could not bear the brunt of the torrential rains that followed. The reconstruction of the Ka'bah was thereupon undertaken... To identify the place whence the ritual of circumambulation began, there had been set a black stone in the wall of the Ka'bah, dating probably from the time of Abraham himself. There was rivalry among the citizens for obtaining the honour of transposing this stone in its place... (Muhammad), was popularly known by the appellation of al-Amin (the honest), and everyone accepted his arbitration without hesitation. Muhammad placed a sheet of cloth on the ground, put the stone on it and asked the chiefs, of all the tribes, in the city to lift together the cloth. Then he himself placed the Stone in its proper place, in one of the angles of the building, and everybody was satisfied."

927 “Islam dogma is quite simple. A Muslim must firmly believe that there is only one god, Allah; that Muhammad was his prophet; that before him God sent other prophets – the biblical Adam, Noah, Abraham and the Christian Jesus, but Muhammad was superior to them; that there are angels and evil spirits, Jinns (the latter came to Islam out of ancient Arab beliefs, are not always evil, are also under god's power and follow his will); that on Doomsday the dead will be resurrected and will be rewarded or punished according to their deeds – the pious will be sent to Paradise, and the sinners and unfaithful will go to Gehenna; that divine predestination exists because Allah has decided each person's fate.

928 “Allah is depicted in the Koran as a being with purely human moral qualities, but to a superior degree. He is sometimes angry with people, sometimes forgiving; he loves some and hates others. Like the Judaean and Christian gods, Allah, without any rational reason, destined some people to a pious life and future bliss, and others to lawless acts and misery in the afterlife.

Nevertheless in the Koran, as in the gospel, Allah is often referred to as merciful and forgiving. Allah's most important quality is his infinite power and grandeur. Therefore the most important dogmatic and moral instruction in the Koran is the demand for complete and unequivocal submission to Allah.

929 “The practical and ritual commandments of Islam are as simple as its dogma. They amount to the following: praying five times a day at special times; ablution before saying prayers and in other instances, after becoming dirty; paying taxes (Zakat) for the poor but virtually for the clergy; fasting annually (Uraza, Ramadan in the tenth month) throughout a whole month; pilgrimage (Hajj) to the holy city Mecca, which a devout Muslim must do at least once in his life.

930 “All of these instructions, regardless of whether they are not too hard to carry out, can be modified in difficult circumstances. If water is not available for ablution it can be substituted by sand or dust; fasting is not necessary for the ill or traveller who can and should fast the same number of days later; incidentally, the Muslim fast, in contrast to that of the Christians, consists of total abstention from any food and drink from sunrise to sunset, but the rest of the time one can eat and drink whatever he wants and engage in any pleasures.

931 “The Muslims have a number of customs and prohibitions in common with the Jews: the circumcision of boys, however not in infancy like the Jews but between the ages of seven and ten; a taboo on eating pork; the strict prohibition of portrayals of God as well as any living creature, a person or animal, to prevent idol worshipping. Muslims are also forbidden to drink wine, but this ban is not observed everywhere.

932 “One element of Muslim religion is holy war for the faith (Jihad). It is quite understandable if we remember that the Muslim movement itself developed from the Arab's need to unite and seize land. This is stated clearly in the Koran: eight months out of the year it is necessary to fight against people who believe in many gods, infidels, to destroy them and capture their property. This is a vivid manifestation of fanaticism and intolerance of other religions, and is typical of Islam more than any other religion. However subsequently Muslim theologians and secular scholars have offered different interpretations of the commandment of Jihad. Instead, the Koran makes some distinction between the worshippers of various non-Muslim religions. The attitude is extremely hostile to those who worship several gods, the followers of tribal and polytheistic cults: 'O ye who believe! Fight the Unbelievers who gird you about, and let them find firmness in you: and know that God is with those who fear Him (9:123).' The Koran expresses respect for people who follow Judaism and Christianity: this is understandable since these religions were the basis for Islam which simply went the route of simplification. However the Koran says: 'Fight those who believe not in God nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by God and His Apostle', that is, Jews and Christians (9:29). In practice Islam makes no distinction between the followers of different religions. All of them are regarded as infidels, Giaours, and must either be destroyed or made to submit.

933 “The ethics of Islam are rather elementary. A good Muslim should be just, reward good with good, evil with evil, help the poor, etcetera Unlike Christianity, there are no moral principles that are impossible to follow.”

934 “Patriarchal-tribal attitudes influenced family ethics and relations between the sexes in Islam. A woman is a subordinate being created by Allah for man's pleasure. At the same time the Koran recognises women's human and civil rights. It condemns cruel conduct by a husband against his wife and specifies women's property rights – the right to her dowry and inheritance. The Koran elevated women's status somewhat higher than the ordinary patriarchal customs of the Arabs allowed.

935 “The social principles of early Islam were a reflection of those same patriarchal customs. All Muslims are equal before God, but the gap between the rich and the poor is recognised as a natural fact established by Allah himself. The mandatory tax for the poor was supposed to lessen the gap; however private property is protected by the Koran. Profits from commerce are legitimate but usury is not – 'God hath permitted trade and forbidden usury' (2:275) – which was apparently the result of a compromise between the interests of the merchant class and the farmers and nomads who were suffering from usury and servitude. The Koran forbids servitude for debts.

936 “A superficial examination of the dogma, rituals and ethics of early Islam shows that they are essentially based on Judeo-Christian principles, but adapted to a more primitive social structure, one that was emerging from the declining tribal customs. The ideology of Islam is simpler and clearer for the masses, especially for the nomads and farmers of Asia; the instructions are not complicated and are easy enough to execute.

937 “These distinctions of Islam, which were due to the conditions in which the religion arose, facilitated the spread of the religion among Arabs. Despite resistance put up by the tribal aristocracy which was inclined to separatism (the uprising of the Arabian tribes after Muhammad's death), Islam triumphed among the Arabs rather quickly. The new religion showed the militant Bedouins a simple and clear way to become rich and emerge from crisis – by seizing new lands.” (Ref: History of Religion, by Sergei Tokarev. Translated from the Russian by Paula Garb. 1986 Progress Publishers 1989. Printed in U.S.S.R. I.S.B.N 5-01-001097-6, pp. 371 to 373)

938 These historical, Biblical, and Quranic literary facts collaborate the claim of the Book of Revelation that the hundreds of thousands of the denominations of Judeo-Christianities and Judeo-Christian churches, the numerous divisions of Islam and their millions of mosques, and the various sects of Judaism and the thousands of synagogues spread throughout the whole world and are plaguing the whole human race, together with all other religions, great and small, international and national, worship demons and idols. All of them “did not repent of their murders, their magic, their sexual immorality, or their stealing”, in spite of the preaching and teaching of Judeo-Christian righteousness by the holier-than-thou Judeo-European religions spread and enforced throughout the world.

939 Judeo-European Christian churches did not and could not continue the disciple-making work started by the twelve Galilean apostles and other disciples of Jesus Christ to lead people to eternal salvation because, following the teachings of Paul of Tarsus and Joseph Barnabas, they were out to swamp the twelve Galilean apostles and their work which started from Pentecost Day A.D. 30. Their work suffered capture and the sword of destruction at the hands of the Roman Empire number 666 from 325 after the adoption in 314 by the Edict of Milan, of the Christian Church as the Official religion of the Roman Empire. (compare Rev. 13:9 to 10) When the rest of the world was opened up for their eternal salvation, it was Judeo-European Christian colonialism that moved in to hurt people. Judeo-Europe took, not Jesus Christ, but the Holy Bible, the Book of Divination, which they themselves had started making in the 4th century and had completed at the Council of Trent in 1546, to the peoples as the basis of the Judeo-European Christian religions which worshipped demons and idols. As a result, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit never manifested themselves in any of the Bible-based churches and religions that accompanied their explorations, conquests, plundering, thievery, murdering, sexual immorality, spread of diseases and pests, conversions, colonization, and colonialism, because all the activities they engaged in during their criminal adventurism were diametrically opposed to the principles, virtues, and values taught, commanded and demanded by and from the twelve Galilean apostles and all the other disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

940 Jesus Christ had differentiated the God who sent him, who is spirit and unseen, from the idol God of Israel, who sent Moses and who was an idol and so was seen on Mount Sinai. According to the Gospel of John the apostle, “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father's side, he has made him known.” “God is Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is.” (John 1:18; 4:24) This unseen great God of all mankind has neither been known to nor worshipped by Jews, Judeo-Christians, Muslims or any of the followers of all the other world, national and tribal religions. “Jesus said to them (= the Jews), 'If God really were your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and now I am here. I did not come on my own authority, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to listen to my message. You are the children of your father, the Devil, and you want to follow your father's desires. From the very beginning he was a murderer and has never been on the side of truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he is only doing what is natural to him, because he is a liar and the father of all lies … If I were to honour myself, that honour would be worth nothing. The one who honours me is my Father – the very one you say is your God. You have never known him, but I know him.

If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I know him, and I obey his word.” (John 8:42 to 44, 54 to 56; compare Matt. 11:27; Sc. Am. 5:25 to 27; Acts 7:42 to 43)

941 Jesus Christ did not only differentiate the God, who sent him, from the God of Israel, the God of Judaism whom he identified as Satan the Devil, but also showed that those whose father and God is Satan the Devil, as Jews, Judeo-Christians, and Muslims are here shown to be, have the natural inclination and tendency to spread lies and to love and carry out wanton murders. It is, therefore, no wonder that Jews, Judeo-Christians, and Muslims are all embroiled in incessant fratricidal wars.

The Methods and Results of the Exploiting and Converting Lay-Preachers of Christianity

942 The expansion of Europe, which aimed more at promoting European economic and religious interests, was bound to infest the colonies with the plagues of many religious denominations feuding among themselves and so putting less emphasis on the salvation of the natives than on their economic exploitation. This is exactly what happened, so that Christianization was never a consistent and worthwhile policy of the colonialists. "From the first there were two conflicting tendencies in Spanish (colonial) rule.

One was to treat the Indians kindly as souls to be saved and to work for their conversion and even their worldly welfare. The other was to use the Indians as means of wealth, to exploit them in any effective way so that individuals and the crown (in Spain and in Europe) might be enriched. Sometimes these tendencies fused. If natives resisted conversion, it seemed proper to enslave them so as to bring them forcibly into contact with Christianity and Christian teachers. The pious Queen Isabella insisted on the former policy ... After Isabella's death Ferdinand, in his orders, continued to mention conversion as desirable, but he insisted on an increase in the revenues – an insistence which led to the most barbarous treatment of the Indians. Thereafter Spanish policy seesawed. Usually the demand was for riches, but exploitation was sometimes tempered by the policy of conversion and by the protests of high-minded clerics like Las Casas who sought to protect the Indians. Whether they were exploiting or converting, the Spanish unconsciously were performing one of the outstanding feats of history – they were transplanting their languages, their religion, their civilization, to new continents.

943 “The early phase of breaking up native civilization and stealing their treasure produced two unparalleled epics of adventure. In 1519 Hernando Cortés sailed from Cuba with 400 Spaniards and eventually landed at the site of the present city of Vera Cruz. There he burnt his boats to prevent desertions and mutiny, and headed inland for Mexico City. Aided by native tribes who were suffering under the harsh yoke of the Aztecs, by the fear his horses and Guns aroused, and by native legend of the coming of a white god, Cortés finally took the great city in 1521, after bloody and hair-raising deeds of daring and treachery. From Vera Cruz and Mexico City the Spanish rapidly extended their sway over much of the country and of central America. In 1531 Francisco Pizarro, who could not read and write but made up for that deficiency by his fighting ability, landed in Peru with fewer than 200 men. Within less than two years he had captured the Inca, or ruler of the land, and defeated a native army of 40,000 men. For ransom the Indian king offered to fill a room twenty-two feet by seventeen till it was nine feet deep with gold implements. The offer was accepted and the treasure, worth (U.S) $5,000,000, was received and melted down, whereupon the Inca was strangled. By 1533 Pizarro had fought his way to Cuzco. The Inca Empire was quickly destroyed and Spanish rule established.” (Ref: Economic History of Europe, op. cit. pp. 116 to 117)

944 While Francisco Pizarro, Hernando Cortés and their types used trickery, treachery, deceit and conquest to seize and steal tons of gold, precious metals and precious stones from the natives who would not accept their Bible in place of their own gods, they, at the same time, succeeded in spreading their churches' false teachings and practices as Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Protestants, Coptics, Charismatics, Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, Huguenots, Puritans, Presbyterians, Anabaptists, Quakers, Maronites, Pentecostals, Apostolics, Adventists, Mormons, and miracle, healing, and anointed spiritualists and spiritists. They established churches they themselves had made and worshipped demons and made-in-Europe gods and idols, such as the Trinity, Jehovah, Yahweh, and the saints. What world we have now is one that teaches and practises the Arab demon-and-idol worshipping religion as Islam, Jewish Judaism that worships the one sapphire idol on Mount Sinai as Adonai Elohim or Yahweh; Indian magical religions as Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism; Persian religions as Bahaism and Zoroastrianism; Chinese religions as Confucianism and Daoism; Japanese ancestor-worship religions as Taoism and Shintaoism; European milliards of demon-and-idol-worshipping denominations of the Judeo-Christian religion as Christian churches practising churchianity with charismaticism, Pentecostalism, and false miracles, signs, signs, and wonders; and African and American indigenous religions as Africania, Voodooism and fetishism which are all geared toward the worship of demons and idols, the practice of magic, sex worship and immorality of carnal and spiritual nature. Truly, Judeo-European-Satan-sponsored force-rule of the world, better known as colonialism and neo-colonialism, has left all human beings in the full grips of the worship of Satan the Devil, the veritable God of Judeo-Europeans, his demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood which cannot see, hear or walk. All nations, tribes, languages, and races of mankind, like their religions and in their humanity, are the same; none is better or greater than the other!

945 The Great Universal God of all human beings sees, assesses and classifies the use of Europeans and Jews, the fallout of the demise of the rulership of the Roman Empire number 666 and the Holy Roman Empire, by Satan the Devil to rule in rage, the whole world with deception, through the system or regime known as Colonialism, as a Great Horror, the second of the three horrors to be visited on the world of mankind before the New City of Peace, the New World, under the rule of the Great Universal God replaces this World of Chaos for ever and ever. (compare Rev. 13:1 to 8) Christian colonial Europe has accomplished the ghastly feat of spreading with violence Christianity which is the worship of demons and idols, practised first in Europe by Judeo-Europeans, throughout the whole world!

946 In this third-millennial period of neo-colonialism, when countless denominations of Judeo-European and Judeo-American Christian churches compete and contest with Arab Islam for domination and pre-eminence over the other religions of all the various peoples of the world, the clear and complete absence of the pure message of everlasting life for all human beings preached by God's first-born Son, Jesus Christ, in the first century, is acknowledged by the Great Universal God who sees the whole world, during and after the period of Judeo-European world colonization and colonialism, as worshipping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood which cannot see, hear or walk. The failure of the human race to turn away from what they themselves have made, and their refusal to repent of their murders, their magic, their sexual immorality and their stealing, practised on the colonial peoples, have painted a picture of a world that is without and, hence, needs the first-born Son of God. The need for the Great Universal God to provide the world of mankind with the pure, and sweet message of everlasting life, as preached by Jesus Christ in the first century, has been underscored and justified. The sweet-as-honey message of everlasting life, in the open little scroll, meant for the John class of people of today, who are the reborn twelve Galilean apostles and their followers, is just the right kind of message that satisfies this need at this time. (compare Rev. 10:1 to 11; 11:1 to 18)

Revelation 10

11:1 to 11 The Mighty Angel and the Open Little Scroll

947 “Then I saw another mighty angel coming down out of heaven. He was wrapped in a cloud and had a rainbow round his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like pillars of fire. He had a small scroll open in his hand. He put his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land (the earth), and called out in a loud voice that sounded like the roar of lions. After he had called out, the seven thunders answered with a roar. As soon as they spoke, I was about to write. But I heard a voice speak from heaven, 'Keep secret what the seven thunders have said; do not write it down!'

948 “Then the angel that I saw standing on the sea and on the land (the earth) raised his right hand to heaven and took a vow in the name of God, who lives for ever and ever, who created heaven, earth, and the sea, and everything in them. The angel said, 'There will be no more delay! But when the seventh angel blows his trumpet, then God will accomplish his secret plan, as he announced to his servants, the prophets.'”

949 “Then the voice that I had heard speaking from heaven spoke to me again, saying, 'Go and take the open scroll which is in the hand of the angel standing on the sea and on the earth.'”

950 “I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, 'Take it and eat it; it will turn sour in your stomach, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.'”

951 “I took the little scroll from his hand and ate it, and it tasted sweet as honey in my mouth. But after I swallowed it, it turned sour in my stomach. Then I was told, 'Once again you must proclaim God's message about many nations, races, languages, and kings.'" (Rev. 10:1 to 11)

952 The mission of the mighty angel who had a small scroll open in his hand was very necessary, appropriate, and timely to explain the strange happenings to the troubled and confused peoples of the world. This was because it came at a time when the four angels released from bondage to the Christian Church and the Roman Empire combined or Christendom had used more than five hundred years to despoil the entire inhabited earth. The despoiling of the world by Judeo-Christian Europe and Judeo-Christian Europeans through colonization, colonialism, conquests, murders, stealing, the practice of magic, conversions, and sexual immorality has spread throughout the whole world, the religions of Judeo-Europe and of Judeo-Europeans, based on the Holy Bible and Judeo-European paganism. The Holy Bible is the book of divination which the Judeo-Christian Church holds in her hand as a gold cup full of obscene and filthy things, the result of her immorality, for the deception of the whole world. The cruel, wicked, merciless, and inhuman treatment of the peoples of the world by the Judeo-Christian Church, Judeo-Christians, and Christendom, under the banner of Judeo-Christianity and the Holy Bible, has left and turned the rest of the world into the worship of demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood which cannot see, hear or walk. These worshippers of false and worthless gods have been spared from being killed and destroyed by the plagues of gunfire and bombs rained indiscriminately and brutally on the colonial peoples existing and acting against Judeo-European interests. But they are left in situations and conditions worse than if they have been killed.

953 This situation has clearly shown the world that none of the religions of Europe and of Europeans and Jews has worked as part of the called, chosen and faithful followers of Jesus Christ tasked with spreading the message of the Good News of peace about the new Kingdom of God, to make disciples for Jesus Christ, who will be used to serve God as kings and priests to govern the whole world now and in the future for ever and ever. The situation, then, has called for action to be taken by Jesus Christ to bring the true message of eternal life to mankind once again, but in a way that clearly divorces it from the false claims of the Judeo-Christian Church, Judeo-Christians, and Christendom and their Holy Bible, the huge collection of small and large scrolls immorally collected from Jewish sources. (compare Rev. 22:18 to 19)

954 The Lord God Almighty, then, sends his messenger (Greek: angelos = a messenger), with a small scroll explained from its figurative language into plain language in his hand; and he instructs his people, the John class of people, the reborn or resurrected group of twelve Galilean apostles with its church, to go to his messenger, take from his hand, the small scroll explained, which is the small Book of Revelation to John; study it thoroughly and carefully, and use the sweet-as-honey message of eternal salvation it contains to harvest the world of the good people, who are the people who belong to the Holy City, the New City of Peace. (compare Rev. 14:17 to 20; 20:7 to 10; Matt. 25:31 to 46) This will be followed later by the harvesting of the bad people, who are the people who belong to the Devil and eternal destruction.

955 For the effective and successful accomplishment of this timely and very important final harvesting assignment, the Lord God Almighty sends a mighty messenger. He has greater power; he is strong, valiant, very important, and wonderful. He is wrapped in a cloud and has a rainbow round his head; which means that his background is obscure; he is shrouded in secrecy; little is known about him; he stays out of the limelight.

He is mysteriously inscrutable. He is an all-round genius, a consummate intellectual of the gamut of disciplines as the gamut of all the colour constituents into which white light can be decomposed, as seen in a rainbow. His genius is readily, easily and conspicuously seen like a rainbow aura or halo round the head of a person. The rainbow is the arc containing the colour of the spectrum, formed in the sky opposite the messenger's face which is like the sun. The mist or droplets of water in the cloud break the sunlight into the colour of the rainbow round his head.

This means that the mist of knowledge about everything exhibited by the messenger, about whom little is known, is transformed into a rainbow of geniuses round his head as an aura or halo by the face that emits enlightenment on a wide range of subjects freely and widely like the sun to the human race.

956 The messenger's face was like the sun. His face was emitting light, enlightenment, freely and widely, to the people as the sun does, being the leading and sole source of light in the sky that provides sunshine to humanity and plants and animals on earth. It means that he was the public-teacher type, a consultant, an adviser, prone and open to enlightening the people he comes across or into contact with on a wide range of subjects freely from the only source of God's word and the truth that Jesus revealed contained in the Book of Revelation. His legs were like pillars of fire. This also means that his standing in society in general glows in appearance. He has a glowing dual support base within the ruling and the ruled classes, symbolized as the right foot on the sea, and the left foot on the earth. This also means that he is, or is seen to be more progressive, actively innovative, or leftist among the ruling classes or in politics or among politicians; and he is, or is seen to be more reactionary, conservative, or rightist among the ruled classes, the masses. He does this dualism in human society with the “foot”, the lower or less dignified end, the base of the body, according it (that is, innovation in politics, development and advancement) less importance, as against the “head” ringed by a rainbow and a face like the sun, charged with giving mankind the more important message of eternal salvation, prosperity, and peace which is as sweet as honey. It means that he pays more attention to the preaching and teaching of the message of the Good News about the Government of God or “Religion” than to his involvement in the activities about the Government of Man or “Politics”.

957 He had a small scroll open in his hand. He had the small Book of Revelation to John explained by him in his possession. He put his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the earth.

He schooled and trained himself in a way as to fit and be useful to the human society in a well-balanced way, both the right and the left of the human society. Thus, he has a firm and glowing standing among the ruled classes with his right foot, that is, with his conservative stance; and a firm and glowing standing among the ruling classes with his left foot, that is, with his progressive or radical stance. He could pass equally well as one of the ruled classes of mankind easily and conspicuously; and he could pass equally well as one of the ruling classes of mankind easily and conspicuously.

That dualistic quality in him complimented his exceptional genius, brilliance, versatility and resourcefulness.

958 He called out in a loud voice that sounded like the roar of lions. (compare Rev. 18:1 to 3. He announced to the world the readiness of the small Book of Revelation to John explained by him in his possession, containing the sweet-as-honey message of eternal salvation, in such an effective way that it reached far and wide, in a loud, deep, continuous sound or voice, as the roar of lions does. He employed all the available agencies of the media to advertise the explained Book of Revelation in such a way that it reached all the corners of the world.

959 After he had called out, the seven thunders answered in a roar. The seven thunders are the seven mass communication means; the seven channels and agencies of communication, developed and being utilized by mankind to inform, educate, and entertain the masses of people at their places of work, abode, worship, and entertainment. They are: (1) the human voice alone or amplified by gongs or loudspeakers, used in preaching and teaching in public places, at locations, and by itinerant preachers and teachers, using the public address system in speaking, in speech production, etcetera; (2) writing or the press, used in producing books, magazines, news papers, tracts, letters, etcetera, to store, preserve, and spread information, etcetera; (3) mailing, used in sending messages in the form of letters, telegrams, by post, courier, voice mail, S.M.S text messages, facsimile, telex, etc; (4) the phone, as telephone and videophone; (5) the radio communication and broadcasting; (6) the television monitor, video and films for telecasting news, pictures, information, cinema, etcetera; and (7) the internet communication network or the world-wide web that facilitates communication by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp, etcetera

960 These seven thunders answered in a roar, that is, they all together took over the call of the mighty messenger of God and spread it across the globe by reacting to it very loudly with a roar. The seven means of mass and distance communication, that is, the media will spontaneously respond to the call of the mighty messenger of God; they will be used to call on the servants of Jesus Christ, the resurrected church of the twelve Galilean apostles, to come for the explained Book of Revelation, and in the possession of the mighty messenger, and deliver its message to the nations, races, languages, and kings. They will do so with their own editorial comments and reviews loudly, deeply, and continuously in sounds or voices as with a roar.

961 “As soon as they spoke, I was about to write. But I heard a voice speak from heaven, 'Keep secret what the seven thunders have said; do not write it down.'”

962 The John class of people was to ignore and exclude the editorial comments and the opinions expressed about the message of the prophetic vision; it was not to keep any record of them even in its preaching and teaching work. This was because, in the fulfilment, the Holy Spirit would inspire the John class of people to preach and teach the true message, if and when, and where necessary, as they were borne along by the Spirit of the Lord God Almighty and would not need a written down stereotyped message of editorial commentary or opinions of men on the messenger's call to be abused by false preachers and teachers, who would use them, as they use the Holy Bible, as a book of divination, to deceive the unwary. (compare Acts 1:4 to 5, 8; Matt. 10:19 to 20; Mk. 13:9 to 11; Lk. 12:11 to 12; 21:12 to 15)

963 “Then the angel that I saw standing on the sea and on the earth raised his right hand to heaven and took a vow in the name of God, who lives for ever and ever, who created heaven, earth, and the sea, and everything in them. The angel said, 'There will be no more delay! But when the seventh angel blows his trumpet, then God will accomplish his secret plan, as he announced to his servants, the prophets.'”

964 The messenger of God, who would have the small Book of Revelation explained by him in his hand for delivery to the John class of people, the resurrected servants of Jesus Christ, would also tell them, based on the timing of the fulfilment of the visionary prophecy given by God and delivered by the seventh angel trumpeter, that the preaching of the sweet-as-honey message of eternal salvation, was timed to commence after the seventh angel had blown his trumpet. This disclosure, as a serious promise to occur without fail, he would place at the doorstep of the God of heaven as his inspirer, as is symbolized by raising his right hand to heaven and taking a vow in the name of God. His raised right hand to heaven shows where he directs people to as his chief source of inspiration.

965 The seventh angel trumpeter is Martin Luther. It is after Martin Luther, as the seventh angel, has trumpeted his message, identifying Great Babylon as the Judeo-Christian Church or the Church of Rome living in Christendom, and her fall as the fall of the Judeo-Christian Church or the Church of Rome living in Christendom that it will become necessary to call on God's people, imprisoned in her, to come out from her, and, using the sweet-as-honey message of eternal salvation, as a sickle, to commence the harvesting work that will be due, and that will be done first in the field of the Son of Man, that is, in the Judeo-Christian Church or the Church of Rome, among Judeo-Christians, and in Christendom, and, then, progress into the rest of the world. It means that the fulfilment of the occurrence of the timing of the appearance of the mighty angel, who is Kwabena Aboagye (1942 — 21st Century), and the explanation of the open small scroll bearing the sweet-as-honey message, is timed to follow the blowing by the seventh angel of his trumpet. The mighty angel, Kwabena Aboagye, raised his right hand to heaven and took a vow in the name of God. It means that he will point to an incontrovertible evidence of this from the Book of Revelation, which is from our Lord God Almighty in heaven as the source he chiefly relies on in making the prediction that “God will accomplish his secret plan” right after Martin Luther (1483 to 1546) has trumpeted his message from God. So the accomplishment of the secret plan of God recorded at Revelation 20:4 to 6, immediately follows the era of Martin Luther (1517—c. 2017; Beginning of 21st Century).

966 “Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, 'The power to rule over the world belongs now to our Lord and his Messiah (Anointed One), and he will rule for ever and ever.'” The declaration of the loud voices in heaven, reveals that the action of Martin Luther in identifying the Judeo-Christian Church or the Church of Rome living in Christendom as Great Babylon, and her fall as the fall of the Judeo-Christian Church or the Church of Rome and of the Holy Roman Empire, and their consignment alive to the lake of fire that burns with sulphur, will be followed by the actual fall of the Judeo-Christian Church or the Church of Rome and of the Holy Roman Empire, ending their rule and stranglehold on the world, so that God and his Anointed One (= the 12 Galilean apostles), take their great power and begin to rule from the beginning of the era of Martin Luther. Martin Luther in 1517 blew his trumpet, and the fall of the Judeo-Christian Church or the Church of Rome and of the Holy Roman Empire became obvious some three hundred years later in the early part of the nineteenth century (1806). The birds of heaven ate their flesh as leaders of the many nations and many churches that formerly constituted the unitary bodies of the Roman Empire and of the Church of Rome.

967 In A.D. 30, God gave the resurrected Jesus “All authority in heaven and on earth”, and he began to rule both heaven and earth, together with his anointed group of twelve Galilean apostles and the other disciples, while he remained invisible in heaven, “sitting on a white cloud”. (compare Rev. 14:14 to 16; Matt. 28:20) That action of God sent the red beast, the Roman Empire, into the abyss, as the growing power of the Church of Jesus of Nazareth overwhelmed the Empire. But, soon, the Church of Jesus of Nazareth fell and was captured by the red beast, the Roman Empire, who, when he was wounded fatally by the Goths in 410, was mounted by the fallen Church of Rome, who breethd life into him. For about one thousand years, from 800 to 1806, the wounded red beast, the Roman Empire, who had had his wound healed, and the fallen Judeo-Christian Church or the Church of Rome, combined as the Holy Roman Empire, and jointly ruled the whole world; “they ruled as kings for one hour (for one thousand years), with the beast (with the Roman Empire).” (compare Rev. 17:12) The fall of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, which sent the Judeo-Christian Church or the Church of Rome and the Roman Empire number 666, both alive, into the lake of fire that burns with sulphur, meant that God and his Anointed One had taken their great power and had begun to rule again.

968 The loud voices in heaven, came from the enormous crowd in whom God and Christ or Anointed One would live to rule the world. The time was, then, set for the harvesting of the world, and the harvesters, who were angels, that is, human messengers of God, would be poised to receive their sickle, the word of God, that is, the sweet-as-honey message of eternal salvation, from the mighty angel, who is Kwabena Aboagye, with the small Book of Revelation explained by him in his possession. (compare Matt. 13:36 to 43; 25:31 to 46) This was to take some two hundred years from the throwing of the Judeo-Christian Church or the Church of Rome and the Holy Roman Empire into the lake of fire that burns with sulphur, that is, fratricidal gun-warfare, before the mighty angel delivered the Book of Revelation explained by him to the John class of people, the resurrected servants of Jesus Christ led by the resurrected or born-again twelve Galilean apostles.

969 “Then the voice that I had heard speaking from heaven spoke to me again, saying, 'Go and take the open scroll which is in the hand of the angel standing on the sea and on the earth.'”

970 “I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, 'Take it and eat it; it will turn sour in your stomach, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.'”

971 “I took the little scroll from his hand and ate it, and it tasted sweet as honey in my mouth. But after I swallowed it, it turned sour in my stomach. Then I was told, 'Once again you must proclaim God's message about many nations, races, languages, and kings!" (Rev. 10:8 to 11)

972 The voice from heaven, from the leadership realm, is the voice of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the fine shepherd, calling on and guiding his reborn servants, the John class of people, “to springs of life-giving water.” (Rev. 7:17) The springs or sources of life-giving water, or of the Holy Spirit or the life-giving knowledge, are the Father and the Son. Jesus Christ will send his Holy Spirit, the life-giving Spirit, to all his resurrected called, chosen, and faithful followers, who now find themselves in the exposed and shamed fallen Judeo-Christian Church or the Church of Rome to come out from her and go to the mighty human messenger of God, Kwabena Aboagye, who has in his possession the small Book of Revelation, which he has explained. He has explained it from its figurative language to plain language; he has explained its contents which he has related to past, present, and future events fulfilling them; they are to ask him for and take the explained little Book of Revelation from him.

973 The true, obedient, and dedicated resurrected servants of Jesus Christ will go to the lone mighty human messenger of God, take the explained little Book of Revelation from him; they will, then, be told to eat it, that is, to study it, and swallow it, that is, let it seep down and accept it as true and their own, sent to them from their master Jesus. The mighty human messenger of God will, then, tell them the effect it will have on them. When they study it, they will be convinced and realize that it is very sweet, that is, heart-soothing, mind-calming, a satisfactory explanation and a source of great happiness and joy, as sweet as honey to the palate, truly coming from a God of truth and love, all-wise, all-powerful, and just, devoid of retributive justice from a vengeful God, a message of eternal life offered free to his beloved sons and daughters, whom he does not accuse of having committed any sins against him. God takes full responsibility for all what has happened since creation, as he had put in his secret plan, and does not consider or reckon what has happened as sins chargeable against anyone, as the Jews and Christians and their Bible would want us to believe, accept, and repent so as to be forgiven by their God of Israel. (compare John 16:8 to 10) The Only True God has underlined this acceptance of full and unqualified responsibility for whatever has happened to his creation by the statement, “And now I make all things new!” and also adding, “Write this, because these words are true and can be trusted”. Even if any actions and inactions can be said to be sins, all these, he says, he has forgiven all of them and does not take account of them any more. Why? Because they have all happened according to how he had planned them and ordained them to happen; and so nobody can be blamed for they happening as planned and ordained to happen. He is not the vengeful, retributive God that Paul of Tarsus and the Jews project to the world as their God and the God of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims!

974 However, the mighty messenger of God will tell them that, though sweet as honey, the message will be quite disturbing to them after analysis and understanding of its true implications, considering their religious background as once being members of the fallen Judeo-Christian Church or the Church of Rome who had believed, preached, taught, and expected the opposite of the sweet-ash-honey message to happen, which is a contamination of the free offer of eternal life to all families of the nations of the earth. They will have to face the grim fact that they once preached to them what was false, which would demand of them real courage, yes, bravery, and an intense love of the truth to do, and this spectre will be sour or bitter to them, a great challenge to them!

975 In the fulfilment, it will also require the mighty messenger of God to perform as follows: “After this I saw another angel coming down out of heaven. He had great authority, and his splendour brightened the whole earth. He cried in a loud voice: 'She has fallen! Great Babylon has fallen!

She is now haunted by demons and unclean spirits; all kinds of filthy and hateful birds live in her. For all the nations have drunk her wine – the strong wine of her immoral lust. The kings of the earth practised sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the world grew rich from her unrestrained lust.'” (Rev. 18:2 to 3) The Holy Bible, as a wine-cup, contains “the strong wine of her immoral lust”, the obscene and filthy teachings of the Holy Bible which have facilitated her cosy relations with the rulers of the world and have facilitated the capitalist businessmen's exploitation of the world involving and employing cheating, stealing, and other dishonest practices, such as hidden and open subsidies, trusts, cartels and monopolistic practices constituting the “false magic” that have made them grow filthy rich from her unrestrained lust.

976 The mighty messenger of God, consequent upon his assigned duty of having the Book of Revelation explained, will be empowered with the requisite authority from God to announce to the whole world, that fearful message, that the exalted Judeo-Christian Church, all Judeo-Christians, and Christendom: the congregation of all the denominations of Judeo-European religions spread throughout the whole world, has fallen from grace to grass, which will require exceptional and enormous courage, bravery, to do. His splendour, his brilliance, endowed him by God to explain the divinely obscured Book of Revelation, and his teaching of mankind of other truths and facts about life, existence, God, and nature will spread to the whole earth, the rulers and kings of the whole world, brightening it up, enlightening the entire world of mankind. He will deliver and demonstrate to the entire world the Wisdom of God and the Power of God, symbolized by the seven horns and seven eyes of the new Lamb, which are the seven spirits of God that have been sent throughout the whole earth!

977 This mighty messenger of God will launch the Explained Little Book of Revelation, and echoed by the seven thunders, the seven agencies of the media, and tell the whole world that the Judeo-Christian Church or the Church of Rome, consisting of all Judeo-Christians, living in Christendom, is the little Book of Revelation's Famous Prostitute, "the woman found drunk with the blood of God's people and the blood of those who were killed because they had been loyal to Jesus". He will declare in a loud voice that the Judeo-Christian Church or the Church of Rome has fallen! That the Judeo-Christian Church or the Church of Rome is haunted by demons and unclean spirits; all kinds of filthy and hateful birds live in her! The filthy and hateful birds are the filthy and hateful statesmen and stateswomen, colonialists, colonizers, exploiting international merchants and businessmen and businesswomen, "the multi-nationals", politicians, military men and women, notorious criminals, occultists, monks and nuns, popes, the clergy inquisitors and confessors, bishops and cardinals, reverend ministers, etcetera, who proudly portray themselves to the world, and are held in high esteem, as Judeo-Christians or Roman Catholics and good-standing members of the Judeo-Christian Church and of Christendom. For all the nations of the Roman world, the sovereign independent political nation-states, have accepted the Holy Bible, compiled by the Bishops of the Church of Rome at the Council of Bishops at Trent in 1546, as the word of their God; they have adopted the strong wine of Judeo-European Christian principles, virtues, and values it contains and teaches; and they claim to rule their nation-states by these Judeo-European Christian principles, virtues, and values, which make their political nation-states Judeo-Christian nation-states and reputable members of Christendom – the civilized Roman world. They are, in this way, driven by "the strong wine of the Judeo-Christian Church's immoral lust". Thus, "The kings of the world practised sexual immorality with her, and the businessmen of the world grew rich from her unrestrained lust".

978 Well has it been said that the liberal views of Calvinism or Protestantism have supported, helped, and facilitated the rapid development and growth of the Western capitalism, which has given her the glory and luxury of which she boasts: “Here I sit, a queen! I am no widow, I will never know grief!” (Rev. 18:7) The kings of the political nation-states and their governments cultivated covert and overt relations with the Judeo-Christian Church, who thus involved themselves and the clergy in the governance of both of the nation-states and the Judeo-Christian Church. The businessmen of the world exploited the advantages in associating with the Judeo-Christian Church or the Church of Rome which blessed and supported slavery, the slave trade and the capitalist profit motive in business, by forming and belonging to Full Gospel Businessmen's Judeo-Christian Fellowships, and Judeo-Christian lodges, formed within the various denominations of the Judeo-Christian Church or the Church of Rome to clandestinely further the socio-economic interests of members in breach of the law and the competing interests of non-members. Christendom enjoys the spectacular glory and riches of the world as the first world by the way she has exploited and despoiled the rest of the peoples and lands of the world in pursuance of her permanent selfish socio-economic interests using Judeo-European Christian principles, virtues, and values.

979 When this great exposure and shaming in public of the Judeo-Christian Church is done by the mighty messenger of God with great authority, then, the Spirit of Jesus Christ will call from heaven (= the leadership of the John class of people in whom he would live by his Spirit) to his servants through the despatch of the Holy Spirit to them, as he did on Pentecost Day in the first century, saying. “Come out, my people! Come out from her! You must not take part in her sins; you must not share in her punishment. For her sins are piled up as high as heaven, and God remembers her wicked ways.” For the belief in and the practice of Judeo-European Christianity are sins and wickedness!

980 In this way, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, at the right time and appropriately, will be calling on his resurrected servants, the reborn John class of people of today, to desert Judeo-European Christianity, the Judeo-European Christian Church, and Christendom; move out of them, reject their Bibles, and go to the mighty messenger of God, Kwabena Aboagye, who has explained in his hand the small Book of Revelation to John, which “is the record of the events that Jesus Christ revealed. God gave him this revelation in order to show his servants what must happen very soon.” (Rev. 1:1) They should ask him for the explained little book and take it from him. And with the book accepted, studied and adopted as the true message from the Lord God Almighty, through Jesus Christ to guide them in seeing and pursuing all future assignments from the Lord God Almighty, the John class of people will embark on the harvesting of the ripe fields of the earth, starting from within the Judeo-European Christian Church, among Judeo-European Christians, and Christendom, in fulfilment of the start of the rule “of our Lord (Jesus Christ) and his Anointed One (= the resurrected twelve Galilean apostles) and he will rule for ever and ever.” (compare 1 Pet. 4:17 to 19; Matt. 13:40 to 43)

981 The harvesting is done in a world in which the message of the Good News of peace about the new Kingdom of God, the Government of the First-borns, brought by Jesus Christ, has long been planted, cultivated intensively and extensively, and has been allowed to grow together with the weeds, that is, Judeo-European Christianity, planted by the enemy, Satan the Devil, the agents of the Judeo-European Roman Empire, until the harvest time, when Jesus Christ is reported to have said the following would happen: “The harvest is the end of the age (= the Judeo-European Christian age), and the harvesters are angels (= human messengers of God). Just as the weeds are gathered up and burnt in the fire, so the same thing will happen at the end of the (Judeo-European Christian) age: The Son of Man will send out his angels (= the John class of people) to gather up out of his kingdom (that is, out of the Judeo-European Christian Church, Judeo-European Christians, and Christendom) all those who cause people to sin and all others who do evil things and they will throw them into the fiery furnace (= the lake of fire that burns with sulphur, modern gun-warfare), where they will cry and grind their teeth.” (Matt. 13:39b-42) The human messengers of God will expose “all those who cause people to sin and all others who do evil things” who are members of the Judeo-European Christian Church and live in Christendom and all other non-Judeo-European Christian evil-doers such as Muslims, orthodox Jews, murderers, thieves, liars, etcetera, and will throw them into the “fiery furnace” that the exposed, shamed, and condemned will become, as the arena of gun-warfare that will destroy those thrown into it.

982 This harvesting is what the instruction from the Spirit of Jesus Christ will assign them to. The John class of people, the true, obedient, and loyal resurrected servants of Jesus Christ, was told, “Once again you must proclaim God's message about many nations, races, languages, and kings.” The sweet-as-honey message of eternal salvation, designed to harvest the true and loyal servants of Jesus Christ resurrected from the fallen Judeo-European Christian Church, from nominal Judeo-European Christians, and from Christendom, will be preached to Judeo-European Christian nations, races, languages, and kings, for them to come out of the doomed Church of Rome and escape sharing in her punishment. This will extend to all other nations, races, languages, and kings of all other religious persuasions, to harvest all those who are well disposed for eternal salvation. But, before embarking on what they must preach “once again”, the reborn John class of people, the resurrected church of the twelve Galilean apostles, will have to appraise, review, and update what they must preach again today, which they had done some two thousand years earlier, in the first century. They must review carefully what the “two witnesses” did under the guidance of their Lord and the Holy Spirit, in order to repeat it faithfully in a way that will suit today's very well-informed and civilized audiences appropriately. (compare Rev. 11:1 to 13)

983 The gestation period for the Tree of Judeo-European Christianity, that is, the Judeo-European Christian Age, spans from A.D. 26, when Jesus Christ started preaching to the lost sheep of the people of Israel, only, saying. “Turn away from your sins, because the Kingdom of heaven is near!” to the early part of the twenty-first century, when another angel armed with great authority, and whose splendour brightens the whole earth, is expected to cry out in a loud voice, to the whole world of mankind, saying, “She has fallen! Great Babylon has fallen! She is now haunted by demons and unclean spirits: all kinds of filthy and hateful birds live in her. For all the nations have drunk her wine – the strong wine of her immoral lust. The kings of the earth practised sexual immorality with her, and the businessmen of the world grew rich from her unrestrained lust.” (Rev. 18:1 to 3) This gives about two thousand years for the growing of the Tree of Judeo-European Christianity to cover the whole earth, before the onset of the harvest by the John class of people, allotted one thousand years to do it, together with the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, as they perform as kings, priests, and judges.

984 “Then I saw thrones, and those (kings) who sat on them were given the power to judge. (Among them) I also saw the souls of those who had been executed because they had proclaimed the truth that Jesus revealed and the word of God. They had not worshipped the beast or its image, nor had they received the mark of the beast on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and ruled as kings with Christ for a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were over.) This is the first raising of the dead. Happy and greatly blessed are those who are included in this first raising of the dead.

The second death has no power over them; they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they will rule (as kings) with him for a thousand years.” (Rev. 20:4 to 7; compare Sc. Mal. 2:7) These kings, judges, and priests forming the leadership of the City of Peace, the Government of the First-fruits, are drawn from God's people before and during the time of the coming of Jesus, in the first century. Some died a natural death while others died by execution “because they had proclaimed the truth that Jesus revealed and the word of God”.

985 The proclamation of the fall of great Babylon has serious implications for the trinity of religions – the covert and overt confederation of Judaism, Judeo-European Christianity, and Islam – which claims common origin and ancestry, and have all accepted the Holy Bible or parts of it as holy and the word of God – the God, who ironically, sees the Holy Bible as a gold wine-cup, held in the hand of the Judeo-European Christian Church, which is full of obscene and filthy things, the result of her immorality. The long history of the sins, wickedness, murders, thievery, atrocities, and plundering committed by Jews, Israelites and Israelis in pursuance of Judaism and Zionism; by Judeo-European Christians, the Judeo-European Christian Church, and Christendom in pursuance of Judeo-European Christianity, and Western Judeo-European Christian principles, virtues, values and interests as capitalism; and by Muslims and Islamists in pursuance of Islam and Arab global aims, have piled up as high as heaven. These crimes committed against humanity in the name of religion are shockingly too many and atrocious enough to indict all of them to face the just judgement of the Lord God Almighty. It is from this fallen trinity of religions are God's people being called upon to come out in order not to take part in their sins so as not to share in their punishment. "For their sins are piled up as high as heaven, and God remembers their wicked ways." The sins and wicked ways of Orthodox Jews, Judeo-European Christians, and Muslims are too many and too conspicuously atrocious to escape the notice and punishment of the Lord God Almighty. The practice of the religions of the Orthodox Jews, Judeo-European Christians, and Muslims is synonymous with sin and wickedness!

986 The religion of the Arabs, Islam, is the offshoot of the Judeo-European Christian religion of the Orthodox Jews and Europeans, all of them well known for their Zionist wars, jihads, and crusades that have brought terrible horrors on all humanity. The common strand running through all the three religions is the deification of falsehood, deception, and lies – outright stupidity bordering on madness designed to instil fear, terror, and submission in people. But the message from the small open scroll will dispel all fear, terror, lies and morbid submission to these false religions and their false Gods. Its sweet-as-honey message of eternal salvation will help harvest the earth of the good sons and daughters of God who will enter the new heaven and the new earth following their harvesters, the great and wealthy kings of the new world!

11:1 to 13

Revelation 11

The Two Witnesses

987 “I was then given a stick that looked like a measuring rod, and was told, 'Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count those who are worshipping in the temple. But do not measure the outer courts, because they have been given to the heathen (to Gentiles or to the nations) who will trample on the Holy City for forty-two months. I will send my two witnesses dressed in sackcloth, and they will proclaim God's message during those 1,260 days.'”

988 “The two witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lamps that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and destroys their enemies; and in this way whoever tries to harm them will be killed. They have authority to shut up the sky so that there will be no rain during the time they proclaim God's message. They have authority also over the springs of water, to turn them into blood; they have authority also to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish.

989 “When they finish proclaiming their message, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will fight against them. He will defeat them and kill them, and their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, where their Lord was crucified. The symbolic name of the city is Sodom, or Egypt. People from all nations, tribes, languages, and races will look at their bodies for three and a half days and will not allow them to be buried. The people of the earth will be happy because of the death of the two. They will celebrate and send presents to each other, because those two prophets brought much suffering upon the earth.”

990 “After three and a half days a life-giving breath came from God and entered them, and they stood up; and all who saw them were terrified. Then the two prophets heard a loud voice say to them from heaven, 'Come up here!' As their enemies watched, they went up into heaven in a cloud. At that very moment there was a violent earthquake; a tenth of the city was destroyed, and seven thousand people were killed. The rest of the people were terrified and praised the greatness of the God of heaven.