Rev 8-10

(60c) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> The second coming / End time revival -- This verse goes with verse 12. One third of the earth will be poisoned by a star that fell to the earth, suggesting that two thirds of the earth are unaffected. The Church will still be here during the Trumpet judgments, in disregard of the pre-tribulation Rapture delusion that teaches God will Rapture His Church before any judgments befall His people. However, in this case and throughout the Trumpets the saints can avoid God’s judgment until the Bowls that effect the entire globe; then God will Rapture His people at the last Trumpet, just as it says. This further suggests that God will call His people to migrate away from a certain side of the planet, the side that He intends to judge, nations have already heard the gospel of Christ and have since rejected it. We could draw an oval on a world-map representing a third of it that includes the United States and Europe, where most of God’s Trumpet judgments will fall. Consequently, Christ will call his people to migrate to third-world countries in wilderness places in preparation for His return. See also: Last days (Wilderness) Seek His calling; 1Pet 4,1-4; 8a

(112h) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Light >> Light exposes sin >> Light reveals hidden deeds – To the naked eye it appeared as a star for many weeks and possibly months, getting bigger and brighter with each passing evening until it lit up the sky like a torch. Back then people used the light of torches to see their way in the darkness. This comet lights up the entire sky and analogously exposes man’s sin. Fire flashes in the night sky and reveals the activities of men in their darkness, exposing the true condition of their hearts.

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Rev 8-12,13

(50i) Judgment >> Sequence of Revelations >> Second half of the tribulation >> The seventh seal - trumpets of God's judgment >> Forth trumpet - Smoke from the volcano and asteroid block out the sun – These trumpet judgments affected a third of the earth, meaning two-thirds of the earth were untouched, so the trick is to live where these plagues are not happening. Most likely, the places where these plagues hit are where the most sin occurred that corrupted the planet and brought the antichrist to power. One thing is sure, there will be some places on the earth that will not be touched by the trumpet judgments, and those places will be where God will call His people to move. God has a plan to help the Church get through the tribulation so His people won’t have to suffer any of the judgments that He intended for those who have persecuted and martyred their fellow saints. Paul said in 1Cor 11-31,32, “But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.” See also: Martyrdom; Rev 9,1-21; 26h

Rev 8-12

(60c) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> The second coming / End time revival -- This verse goes with verse 10. God will set up camps in certain places in the world, where gentiles, who believe in Jesus, can go and be saved from the antichrist and from God's judgments during the trumpets, since they will effect only 1/3 of the earth. God Himself will protect His people where His judgment will not fall. These camps of the saints will be located in third world countries, among people who were not involved in corrupting the earth, instead were victims of corruption, and there they will live out the rest of our natural lives, awaiting the First Resurrection/Rapture. See also: Prayer; Rev 8,1-6; 84a / Camp of the saints; Rev 8-13; 51a

(245m) Kingdom of God >> Spirit realm imposed on the natural realm >> Literal manifestations >> Manifestations of the devil >> Manifestation of darkness

Rev 8-13

(51a) Judgment >> World & church >> Warning of wrath >> Consequences of sin – This eagle-like creature was a Cherub preaching the gospel to the world, a colleague of Lucifer before he fell into sin, because the Church was no longer free to evangelize, lest they be discovered as followers of Jesus and killed. Most people in that day will not listen to the gospel, not even preached by angels, for their hearts will have turned to stone and have already made up their minds to serve Satan. The lines will have been drawn between the righteous and the wicked, whether they belong to Christ or to the antichrist. If we have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying, we will know that the Camp of the Saints is God’s plan of salvation, and we can choose to go there by faith, just as God called Abraham to leave his homeland and relatives and sojourn to a foreign people. See also: Camp of the saints; Rev 8,3-5; 31i

Rev 9,1-21

(26h) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death is the result of sin – The things that happen on earth during the tribulation will be unlike anything this world has ever seen or known, exceeding even the most imaginative horror/Sci-Fi movies. We will have already gone through the first six seals and seen the total collapse of the world economy, which brought poverty, rioting, anarchy, death, murder and war. Through starvation and disease a pandemic will ensue, and as these things run their course people will die by the millions, all this before the Trumpets. By the end of the seals one fourth of the world’s population will have died, and through this disorder the antichrist will set up his one-world government run by the Mark of the Beast, and he will be in the process of martyring undesirables, including and especially Christians. As a result, God will call His seven angels to blow their seven trumpets, and as we go through the trumpets we will see demonic creatures coming from the earth in an environment of "fire and smoke and brimstone," and they will sting those "who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads." This includes two groups: those who have received the Mark of the Beast and those who have received neither the devil's mark nor the Lord's seal (this goes for both the fifth and sixth trumpets). This suggests that there will be a large group who rejected both God's will and the devil's mark and have left themselves open to judgment. This means that in those days God will judge those who have rejected His salvation. These demonic locust creatures will mutate into horsemen and kill millions of people, so that those who were stung by locusts of the fifth trumpet and wished for death will receive their heart's desire at the sixth Trumpet. By the end of the trumpets one third of the earth’s population will have perished. Adding up the deaths from the seals 1/4 and from the trumpets 1/3 equal one half the worlds population. The same numbers are killed in both the seals and trumpets. If the world population is eight billion and 1/4 dies, it means two billion have died, leaving six billion; and those killed by the trumpets are 1/3 means 2 billion have died, leaving four billion, which is half the original world population. The world will have seen so many strange things by this time that everyone will know there is a God, but man will have hardened his heart against Him, taking repentance off the table for most of humanity, making them constituents of God's fierce wrath in the bowls. See also: Martyrdom; Rev 9,1-19; 15j / Mutation; Rev 9,1-12; 47f

(49c) Judgment >> Enemies of God’s righteousness are destroyed– Chapter nine is a very dark and foreboding depiction of satanic activity on the earth. Stars in the book of Revelation represent angels, and the star that fell to the earth is none other than Satan. This star is also an asteroid falling to the earth, similar to Lucifer being cast to the earth after he sinned, and he will be cast to the earth a second time, not by God but by the Church, who has become faithful to the Lord in a state of unity. It is stated in Rev 12-9, “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth.” It says that the key to the bottomless pit was given to him. In contrast Rev 1-18 says, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” Christ gave the key of hell to Satan, not to keep but to use for a short time, but he does not have authority to kill those who have God's seal on their foreheads. Satan's goal is to send as many people to hell as he can in the allotted time that he has been given. A definitive line has been drawn by the 144,000 witnesses, so that every person in the world is either for or against Christ, and there is no gray area. Essentially, the book of Revelation is a depiction of mankind siding with God and inheriting the Jewish seal on their foreheads, or siding with the devil and developing a reprobate mind, whom Satan has the authority to kill. See also: Asteroid; Rev 9,1-12; 64k

Rev 9,1-19

(15j) Servant >> Angels execute Judgment >> In regard to the world – Demonic angels have unleashed these monsters on the world, having received authority from God, and they have the appearance of horses. Later in this chapter it talks about horses again, saying that there is an army of them, 200 million. John called them horsemen, meaning they have riders. There were locusts that looked like horses, but act like scorpions; there were horses that had teeth like lions showing their predator nature but did not bite, instead had scorpion-like tails and used them to sting those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They have no personal dignity, but they had divine authority to torment rebellious people like themselves. God is using them to judge the world’s disobedience and unbelief for their rejection of all that is good and right, and for receiving the Mark of the Beast, which acted as their vote to martyr the saints. These horse-like locusts have things in common with the lion-like horses mentioned later in this chapter. It says on the heads of the locusts they had, “as it were, crowns like gold.” They were not crowns of gold, but crowns like gold, meaning their crowns represent a false authority. It says they had faces like men, suggesting these horrible creatures were not so unlike the people they tormented. People in the last days have stooped to such a level as to resemble the creatures that tormented them, but they were unwilling to relate to God in whose image they were created. It says, “They had hair like the hair of women,” so not only can men relate to them, but also women. Although they had authority from God to torment mankind for five months, they lived by their own authority, and this is how mankind can relate to them. Again, as the locusts had breastplates, so did the horsemen. The sound of their wings are like the sound of chariots, so they can fly. Many people interpreting the book of Revelation have attributed these locusts to helicopters, but this description of the locusts does not fit their helicopter theory. See also: Interpreting Revelation; Rev 9,1-12; 47f / Martyrdom; Rev 9,1-12; 50i

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Rev 9,1-12

(47f) Judgment >> God Judges the world >> Hell is a place of torment – These monsters are described as locusts; they were not locusts but resembled scorpions. They were insects from hell, told not to hurt the grass or any green thing, only to hurt those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. Is it possible that these creatures actually exist in hell and sting people, making them long for death but cannot die because they are already dead? This is an illustration of hell anticipating a great influx of human souls, grows impatient to receive its occupants and reaches for them from the abyss and pulls them into their hellish lair. Unnatural, spiritual creatures will plague humanity as the end of the age approaches. 2Cor 11-14 says that demons are able to mutate their appearance, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light,” so the most fitting interpretation of these locusts are literally as John described them, demons that have mutated their appearance. Bill Wiese, the author of 23 Minutes in Hell (page 30) described creatures he saw in a vision of hell that God gave him, similar to what John described in this chapter. See also: Hell seeks its inhabitants; 50i / Interpreting Revelation; 239k / Mutation; 50i

(50i) Judgment >> Sequence of Revelations >> Second half of the tribulation >> The seventh seal - trumpets of God's judgment >> Fifth trumpet - Demonic insect-like creatures torment mankind – These will be hard times for Christians, but the fate of those who do not have God's seal on their foreheads is far worse; their end will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. The Trumpet judgments sound strikingly similar to the the environment of hell, as though it is rising up and snatching its inhabitants before the time, and the smoke of their torment rises up forever and ever (Rev 19-4; 20,10-15). Persecution of the saints will purify God's people like gold, melted in a hot furnace, the dross floating to the surface to be skimmed off the top. As for the persecution of the saints, God will bring a solution, starting with the First Trumpet. He will create a diversion for the saints, so they can run to a place that God has prepared for them in the wilderness. During the trumpets hellish creatures will torment the world of the ungodly for martyring the saints and for the backlog of sins that accumulated since our Lord was crucified. God will communicate to the ungodly that if they want to worship demons, they can suffer the consequences. Demonic entities will emerge from the abyss and attack people who do not have God's seal on their foreheads and torment them, and the next trumpet will signal these demonic creatures to mutate their form and kill 1/3 of mankind. Martyrdom of the saints during the seals of Satan's wrath was a difficult time, but the tables have turned and God has brought relief to His people and has punished the wicked, who are condemned to the eternal fires of hell. It may not be easy to be a Christian in a world of evil, but it is infinitely worse to be an unbeliever in hell. If we remain faithful, we will inherit eternal life and God will reward us as martyrs, and He will append the reward to our resurrected body for all to see. See also: Hell seeks its inhabitants; Rev 9-11; 158a / Martyrdom; Rev 9-20,21; 181b / Mutation; Rev 9,13-19; 245ll

(64k) Paradox >> Anomalies >> God helps Satan >> God’s judgments accomplish the devil’s will – An asteroid hit the earth, and look what proceeded from the plume of smoke it generated, insect-like monsters from hell! When it says they were not permitted to kill anyone, God gave them their orders. Through all the chaos, God is still in charge and calling the shots. He could end this whole endtime scenario; instead, He is the one behind it. He is using the devil to judge the world for choosing darkness over light, evil over good and Satan over Christ. See also: Asteroid; Rev 8-10,11; 50i

(216k) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> God Is Independent Of His Creation >> You cannot control God’s desire for you >> man is not in control of God’s gift – These were demonic entities that were given bodies and emerged from the earth and tormented mankind during the Trumpet judgments, yet this was not considered the activity of Satan, but divine judgment. God used Satan and the demons to judge mankind. God as though asked the world, ‘Do you want to worship demons? Then worship this!’ They stung men and made their victims wish they could die, and in the sixth trumpet they got their wish, only to awake in hell where these demonic, monstrous creatures originated!

(239k) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Pursuing the knowledge of the kingdom >> Teachers >> Let not many of you become teachers >> Dividing accurately the word of truth – The description of these locusts has discredited the book of Revelation in the eyes of many, which cast a shadow on the entirety of Scripture in the minds of critics, who have launched attacks on the things we believe. It is a difficult passage, but Jesus said some difficult things too that He fully expected His disciples to believe, such as Jn 6-53, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of God and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.” Who was able to understand this statement at the time? Yet, later we have hindsight with the apostle Paul and others who explained these things to us, so it is not a stumbling block anymore. We run across passages like this and can’t see the possibility of a rational explanation and are tempted to dismiss the entire Bible. We don’t have hindsight, since these verses have not yet been fulfilled, and we don’t have anyone to explain how much symbolism we should assign and how much we should take literally. These locust-like creatures, what are they? Are they actual locusts? We could assign layer upon layer of symbolism to relate to such a description, and there is symbolism in the book of Revelation, but we need to be careful. When does the figurative end and literal begin? The rule of thumb for interpreting Scripture is, less is more. Some say that John was trying to describe the visions he saw that may be commonplace in the last days with all our gadgets and flying machines in our technological age but was completely foreign to John. Some say these locusts are helicopters. That would account for verse 9, but what do we say about verses 1-12? Explaining one verse in a dozen is not good enough. The book of Revelation and the Bible as a whole gives us reason to view these things as they are described; they are monsters from hell! See also: Interpreting Revelation; Rev 9,1-19; 15j

Rev 9,1-6

(186j) Works of the devil >> The result of lawlessness >> The reprobate >> God’s role in forming a reprobate >> Marked out for destruction – The fate that befalls the world in the words of this chapter pertain to those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. In the last days there will be two kinds of people in the world: those who take part in the Great Endtime Revival and those who develop a reprobate mind and reject the purpose of God for themselves who will persecute the Church and seek to destroy it. God will impose all His judgments that He has stored for mankind since Jesus shed His blood on Calvary. For this reason His judgment will be extremely severe for worshipping the antichrist instead of receiving the Savior of the world. The most maniacal creatures imaginable will emerge from the bowels of the earth and torment mankind and kill the wicked, and after this, the bowls of God’s fierce wrath will begin, which will be so severe, there will be no place for God to hide His Church; hence the Rapture occurs before the Bowls. Only a remnant will see the second coming of Christ in the flesh; they are a much smaller third group who have not taken the Mark of the Beast, who were left behind at the advent of the Rapture. They will become the seed that God will use to replenish the earth during the Millennium.

Rev 9,1-3

(245m) Kingdom of God >> Spirit realm imposed on the natural realm >> Literal manifestations >> Manifestations of the devil >> Manifestation of darkness – Verses 1&2 is a reiteration of trumpets 3 and 4, and trumpets 5 and 6 emerge from them. In the last days the satanic kingdom of darkness will literally manifest to show: (1) mankind has been following demons, and (2) the leader of demons is a fallen angel. Trumpets five and six are plagues of demons being given bodies that torment for five months people who lack God's seal on their foreheads. That is, the book of Revelation depicts a literal manifestation of satanic alliance, after God has chosen His people from the world to be His worshipers, giving them His seal on their foreheads. The seal is a literal manifestation of their salvation, much more is the Rapture. So trumpets five and six depict a literal manifestation of demonic activity, suggesting that the book of Revelation is about literal manifestations, Satan’s kingdom of darkness pushed lower, while God's kingdom of light and righteousness exalted, until it blossoms into the natural realm and God’s millennial kingdom is established on the earth.

Rev 9-1,2

(47h) God Judges the world >> Prison of the bottomless pit 

Rev 9-1 

(112h) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Light >> Light exposes sin >> Light reveals hidden deeds

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Rev 9-4

(28h) Gift of God >> God is our advocate >> God protects His people

(132d) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holy Spirit is in God’s people >> God gives his spirit as a pledge >> His Spirit is a seal

Rev 9-6

(26c) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death is separation from God’s presence

Rev 9-11

(26g) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death is Satan’s nature – God will instruct Satan to kill his own followers, and he will do it from absolute hatred for his followers, because of his own self-loathing, but God loves His followers, because He loves Himself. We think Satan would go after believers because of his hatred of God; instead, he kills his own followers. He doesn't touch God's anointed because he did not receive authority to do so, but why would that stop him since he is rebellious? God and the devil have a very complicated relationship. Going back to the example of Job, Satan knocking on God's door is a quandary, and God answering the door is another, much more that He would grant Satan's request at the expense of Job, his bondservant. We would think Satan and the demons would rebel against God and kill the saints in disregard of the command they received not to touch them, but they were unable to harm them, as though they were robots, programmed what to do and could not transgress His command. Unbelieving mankind has sacrificed everything to serve their malevolent ruler. They sacrificed the love of God and their inheritance of everlasting life that Jesus bought for them with His own blood, and for what? The afterlife will prove unbelievers to be insane, while it will prove the saints had their head on straight for serving Christ. These malevolent creatures originating from the abyss and their ruler, are more hateful than the most evil human dictator the world has ever known. He makes Hitler look like a naive schoolgirl. Anybody alive at this time will wish for death, and then they will get their wish; and after that they will wish they were never born. See also: God allows suffering and evil to test us like He tested Job; Rev 12,9-11; 9a

(151i) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> Witnesses of the father >> Creation is evidence of God >> No other source but God can explain the creation – People question the existence of Satan, in that confirming his existence is to concede that God exists too, since Satan is a spirit and so is God (Jn 4-24). Therefore, the knowledge of Satan confirms the existence of God. However, the devil is a poor evidence of God, in that he is devoid of His attributes, and he is devoted to refuting his own existence as proof that God doesn't exist either. Yet, the more people refute the existence of God through the spirit of antichrist, the more they prove Satan exists.

(158a) Works of the devil >> Excerpts of the greatest verses of this chapter – This is one of the most relevant verses in the New Testament regarding the works of the devil. He is defined as the destroyer, named after the works of his hands. This king is coming, whom John described as the ruler of demons, reigns over locusts-like creatures that appear as horses prepared for battle. It says they have crowns, meaning they have received authority from the destroyer, who received authority from God. This malevolent angel reigns over creatures of his own kind, whose purpose is to destroy people who believe in them, instructed to kill those who do not have God's seal on their foreheads. Throughout the Trumpet judgments one third of mankind will die. It will literally be hell on earth for unbelievers in those days, because of these creatures that have ascended from the abyss, as though Hades lost its patience waiting for man to descend into it and reached up and snatched them before the time. If only they believed in Jesus, these creatures wouldn’t torture them, for the elect are off-limits. These monstrous creatures are like heat-seeking missiles that pursue unbelief to destroy it. They hate themselves, and they hate those who love them, but those who love God are above them and are thus untouchable. See also: Hell seeks its inhabitants; Rev 9,13-19; 245ll

Rev 9,13-21

(50i) Judgment >> Sequence of Revelations >> Second half of the tribulation >> The seventh seal - trumpets of God's judgment >> Sixth trumpet - Demons mutate from insects to horses

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Rev 9,13-19

(245ll) Kingdom of God >> Spirit realm imposed on the natural realm >> Literal manifestations >> Manifestations of the devil >> Manifestation of the spirit of murder – John is essentially describing fire-breathing horses. The riders wore breastplates of bright colors symbolic of the horses’ power. According to the description, these riders were an appendage of the horses. The riders had no power to harm or kill but apparently directed the horse to its victims. A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues: by fire, smoke and brimstone, which proceed from the horses’ mouths. All three of these ingredients are found in active volcanoes. It seems that hell is lusting for its human inhabitants and ascends to the realm of the living and pulls both men and women into its grave darkness of eternal damnation. It says that the scorpion-like locusts came from the bottomless pit, but it doesn’t mention the origin of the horses and their riders. However, it did say in the beginning of this chapter that when the lord of the abyss (Satan) opened the lid to the bottomless pit, smoke as of a great furnace ascended, blocking out the sun, suggesting that these horses are intrinsically associated with the bottomless pit. They also have a lot in common with the locusts, both having the appearance of lions (a top predator). Also, the locusts looked and sounded like horses prepared for battle. It says about the fifth trumpet that these creatures had breastplates and had stinging tails designed to hurt people, but not to kill. Later in this chapter it quotes the number, two hundred million and implies that this number refers to these horsemen, suggesting that the locusts and the horsemen are one and the same creatures that underwent a transmutation, maintaining many attributes of its previous form. Their purpose also underwent a transformation from hurting people to killing them. The smoke that exuded from the horses’ mouths alludes to the smoke that came from the bottomless from which the locusts emerged. People are being choked out and killed by fire, smoke and brimstone that wipes out a third of mankind. There is no apparent reason John would describe a volcano in these terms, so the only logical conclusion is to assume these horses and their riders will one day pay mankind a visit. If this is the case, we can say with confidence that life as we know it will one day become a very spiritual place, and in fact the book of Revelation is about the disclosure of spiritual entities of realms both evil and good. See also: Hell seeks its inhabitants; Rev 8-10; 104c / Mutation; Rev 9,1-21; 26h

Rev 9,13-15

(8i) Responsibility >> Responsible to defend God's cause >> Preparing for Judgment

(220d) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> Predestination >> Divine appointments – There is a one-to-one correlation between the four horns of the golden altar (v13) and the four angels bound at the river Euphrates. Horns refer to power and the golden altar refers to the old covenant temple upon which they sacrificed animals, annually draining their blood into a golden basin for the propitiation of sin, prior to Christ shedding His own blood for the same purpose. The golden altar resided outside the tabernacle within the outer court. The voice that spoke from the four horns of the golden altar is about to use His power to offer the sacrifice of human flesh as a means of satiating God’s anger for sins committed outside of repentance and thus outside the forgiveness of Christ’s blood sacrifice, for all sinners not under the blood of Christ must pay the penalty of sin themselves. These four angels that were released are cherubim (Genesis 3-23,24), who themselves release horse-like creatures that are actually demons, assigned to kill a third of mankind. These four angels have been bound since the beginning of time along the headwaters of the Euphrates River, the approximate location of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2,10-14). It says, “After God drove the man out, He placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” These are probably the same angelic beings mentioned in Rev 9,13-15. It is ironic that the Garden of Eden was the origin of man and was once a habitat designed specifically for him, that they might be nurtured and protected from the outside world, but is now revealed to be the entrance of the underworld, suggesting that God placed the Garden of Eden over the mouth of hell. Therefore, in verse 2 when the angel (Satan) opened its portal, the Garden of Eden acted as its cover, and he was given authority to remove it. See also: Old covenant; Rev 7,15-17; 229c / Knowledge of evil; Lk 23,18-25; 168c

Rev 9-14

(119h) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Freedom >> Having freedom to minister

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Rev 9-20,21

(18i) Sin >> Twisted thinking >> Unable to distinguish between good and evil >> God’s purpose is evil

(25h) Sin >> Poverty (Forms of fear) >> Thief >> Stealing from some one

(74i) Thy kingdom come >> Heart of man is sinful >> It is deceitful and desperately wicked

(134k) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Sins of the body >> Immorality >> Sexual perversion >> Basic immorality – With the Israelites in the days of Moses an entire generation of unbelievers fell in the wilderness, and He used the next generation to accomplish His will. What happened after 400 years of enslavement to the Egyptians? They closed their hearts to God and gave up believing that He cared about them, giving up all hope of deliverance. God deliberately waited those 400 years to test His people, and they hardened their hearts against Him. This was to show the rest of mankind that no matter what happens, never give up hope on God, for doing so is to lose everything. When God finally revealed Himself to His people, they had already made up their minds and wanted nothing to do with Him, and they couldn't change, because their hearts had turned to stone. The same will happen in the last days; God will reveal Himself after man hardens his heart against Him. Many will come to Christ in the coming days, but most will not repent of their unbelief no matter what God does to prove Himself. See also: History of Israel (Passover); Jn 18-28; 176d

(162g) Works of the devil >> Being a slave to the devil (Addictions) >> Bondage >> Addicted to sin >> Being a slave to the sinful nature

(181b) Works of the devil >> Practicing witchcraft >> Rebellion >> Rebelling against God >> Rebelling against the witness of God – In the last days God intends to reveal Himself in judgment, grace and mercy, and He will not tolerate insubordination anymore than He tolerated it in Israel's time when He rescued them from the hand of Pharaoh. Over thousands of years of man’s reign on earth people have worshipped anything but God, and God tolerated it, until the time of their judgment, and then He judged a single generation for centuries of sin (Mat 23,34-36). God does not reveal Himself to every generation, but occasionally He does, and judgment has always accompanied His visitations because of those who have rebelled in the past. God will judge the idolatry of the world because He revealed Himself in His people and the world responded by martyring them. See also: Martyrdom; 195i

(183a) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Spirit of Error (Anti-Christ / Anti-Semitism) >> Witchcraft >> Sin is the incubator of witchcraft >> Through rebellion

(186h) Works of the devil >> The result of lawlessness >> The reprobate >> Man’s role in becoming a reprobate >> Being unable to repent

(195i) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Idolatry >> Worshipping other gods >> Worshipping other gods as a god yourself – The world has refused to repent of its worship of demons, and they refused to repent of its immorality, thefts and murders. Worshipping gold, silver, and brass, common forms of idolatry today, has turned the world into reprobates. The world does not innocently worship demons with their greed, lust and pride; they turned into murderers in their vote to martyr the saints by taking the Mark of the Beast, and their sorcery is expressed in drug addiction. These trumpets have effectively stopped martyrdom in its tracks, in that all the energy of the world is now spent in survival mode. The world’s functionality has been reduced to the inability to accomplish the most basic tasks, much less continuing to murder undesirables, and truth is ever-increasingly thrown in their faces with each blast of the trumpet. They must make a choice to become worshipers of God or worshipers of the very demons that are tormenting them. Since worshipping demons that are torturing them is irrational, rejecting Christ has become that much more of an offense. Rejecting God under those conditions is to say they would rather bend the knee to something that has proven to hate them, than to bend their knee to God who has proven to love them and desires to forgive them while His offer of eternal life remains on the table. See also: Martyrdom; Rev 7-1; 250f

(196b) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Idolatry >> Worshipping the devil – This passage separates idolatry into two classes: worshipping idols and worshipping our own flesh. In modern times people buy gold and silver to protect against a falling value of the dollar; otherwise people invest in the stock market or choose to hold their money in a bank account, and they view their financial reserves as the thing that will save them. America is very materialistic. Although we don’t see people bowing to idols these days, people no less worship money and prosperity. In ancient times people worshipped the Baals by literally bowing to images and statures and prayed to them for favors, such as a good harvest or the spring rains. They envisioned a god behind the Baals they worshipped, hoping it was listening and would respond favorably to them, but the gods behind the Baals were demons. The other class of idolatry was described in behavioral terms as worshipping the flesh. If they felt mad, they would kill somebody, and if they felt horny they would have sex with somebody; if they felt covetous, they would steal from somebody, so their emotions were their god. They obediently worshipped their flesh by doing whatever it dictated to them, and of course demons are equally involved in this form of idolatry, antagonizing them into various emotions that lead them to sin. What God hates about idolatry is worshipping demons. There has always been a private contest between God and Satan ever since he fell into sin, and the contest only intensified when man fell into sin. Although the Bible says that our idolatry provokes God to jealousy, it is not because He misses our attention. Rather, the nature of God is to subject His creation to His authority, and our idolatry defies Him, inciting Him to destroy those in rebellion against Him. In the last days God will act much the same with the world as He did with Israel in the days of Moses. The Egyptians defied His authority after God revealed Himself by the power He exerted to deliver His people from pharaoh's hand, even as He intends to reveal Himself to the world in the last days when He delivers His true worshippers from the antichrist. God teeters between His grace to bless His creation and His sovereignty to subject all things to Himself.

(249i) Priorities >> God’ s preeminence >> Wealth >> World’s perception of wealth >> The world's wealth erodes good values >> Being a slave to wealth

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