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ZECHARIAH 14:1-5! ET #37 DO 2156 3/85
1. WELL, LET'S GET DOWN TO THE HEAVENLY BOOK! PTL! Can anybody tell me what book we're studying? (Fam: Zechariah.)--And it's almost the last book in what book? (Fam: The Old Testament.) And we're studying which Chapter? (Fam: 14.)--The last Chapter of one of the last books of the Old Testament.
2. I WONDER IF YOU HAVE LABELLED OR CLASSIFIED OR TITLED EACH OF THESE CHAPTERS to give you a little idea of their contents? As I was looking them over again today I was wondering if maybe you should have some kind of a name for them like we did in the Book of Revelation.
3. WE STARTED THE LAST FIVE CHAPTERS OF ZECHARIAH, 10-14. You say, "Grandpa, that only sounds like four."--No, it's five!--10, 11, 12, 13 & 14. See? That's five!--Five Chapters. And we told you that we're studying in Bible Prophecy what particular event these Chapters revolve around? (Fam: The Battle of Armageddon.)--Very good!
4. THE 10TH CHAPTER IS SORT OF LIKE AN INTRODUCTION. It tells a little bit about everything, about the return of the Jews, the fact that some of them are going to be saved & the Battle of Armageddon. I just call it an Introduction to the subject of Armageddon. These last five Chapters relate & revolve around this central theme of the Battle of Armageddon, & in the 14th Chapter we're going to prove it's obviously the Battle of Armageddon. But the 10th Chapter introduces the subject.
5. WHAT WOULD YOU CHOOSE AS A TITLE FOR THE 11TH CHAPTER? (Fam: The first part is about Lebanon.)--Yes, & it again really is sort of introductory. He's giving a little prophetic pronouncement here, a little something about this & that. I think we went over this briefly & lightly with you because there are still some things in here I don't know or understand so I don't like to teach them. I'm sure some day we'll understand it, but I think we'll have to wait till the Millennium when somebody can explain it to us. "Dad, you mean you don't know everything?"--No! I can answer all your questions, but a lot of my answers will be "I don't know!" So I just tell you the things about these Chapters that I know & that are obvious!
6. SO CHAPTERS 10 & 11 ARE LARGELY INTRODUCTORY, see-sawing back & forth with different themes about different aspects of the coming great event & what's going to happen before it happens, the regathering of the Jews back to Israel, etc. They've gotta be there if they're going to fight a battle there!
7. THEN HE'S GETTING WARMED UP TO THE SUBJECT IN THE 12TH CHAPTER & says He's going to make what particular city the center of the scene? (Fam: Jerusalem.) "Make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people." (Zech.12:3) Well, Jerusalem is exactly that right now! It's one of the World's worst trouble spots & the Jews have made it so.--And here is going to center at least 4 or 5 or maybe 6 of the Antichrist wars, wars with the Jews in some way or another, or with their friends, or even with some of their enemies, like the Muslims.
8. HE'S ALREADY STARTING TO TALK ABOUT THE HORRORS OF THE WARS IN THAT 12TH CHAPTER, what He's going to do to the horses & all kinds of things, but then He's also giving you a quick foreflash of how He's going to finally save'm, some little encouragement, that in spite of all these terrible things that are going to happen, we're going to save'm! So even the 12th Chapter doesn't get too specific, except see-sawing back & forth giving a glimpse of this & a glimpse of that, a glimpse of the past, a glimpse of the future, & a lot of Bible Prophecy is that way.
9. DON'T WORRY ABOUT NOT UNDERSTANDING IT, the dear Prophets that He gave it to didn't understand it at all! They didn't have the faintest idea of what He was talking about! But they had to be faithful & just give it, that's all. We understand it better now than they did when they got it!
10. SO THE 13TH CHAPTER IS LARGELY ABOUT HOW HE'S GOING TO FINALLY SAVE ISRAEL & THE TERRIBLE TRIBULATION HE'S GOING TO TAKE THEM THROUGH, both the tribulation & salvation of some Jews at the very end. One of our expert perfectionists objected to the way I worded something & said, "Well here, Dad, you say that only a remnant is going to be saved in one breath, then in the next paragraph you say that Paul said, 'And so all Israel shall be saved.'" So I had to insert a parenthesis there, to show what I already told you in Class.
11. DIDN'T I EXPLAIN WHAT THAT MEANT WHEN PAUL SAID "ALL ISRAEL SHOULD BE SAVED"? (Ro.11:26) Does that mean all the Jews that ever lived are going to be saved? (Fam: No.) Does that mean all the Jews at the end there in the Battle of Armageddon are going to be saved? (Fam: No.) Does that mean all the Jews that are left are going to be saved? (Fam: Yes!) Well, that's pretty much what it means. It means all of those whom God permits to survive, all those still there after [EDITED: "Armageddon"] [DELETED] only about one-third of all of those.--And He's just talking about the Jews there in Israel, specifically about Jerusalem, so that doesn't necessarily mean very many Jews.
JERUSALEM, THE UNHOLY CITY!
12. OF COURSE, THE VERY MOST RELIGIOUS JEWS LOVE TO BE IN JERUSALEM, & probably the most religious Jews in Israel today are living in Jerusalem, because that's where they want to live. They want to be in the Holy City! They call that the Holy City, but it is about the most unholy City on Earth! In fact, God talks about it like it's Sodom & Gomorrah & says, "where also our Lord was crucified." You read it in Revelation! (Rev.11:8) The modern Jerusalem of the Jews, no matter how religious it is, the headquarters & most holy city of about three of the World's major religions, is about the most wicked, unholy city there is!
13. ONE REASON IT'S THE MOST UNHOLY IS BECAUSE IT IS A RELIGIOUS CITY, but it is self-righteous with religiosity & churchianity & temple-ism, & there's nothing God hates like that! God hates the Scribes & the Pharisees & the wicked, self-righteous hypocrites much worse than the publicans, sinners, drunks & harlots. Jesus told them right to their faces that the drunks & the harlots & the publicans & sinners were going to get to Heaven before them! (Mat.21:31) He named the people that they hated the most!
14. SOMEONE THOUGHT PUBLICAN MEANT THE GENERAL PUBLIC OR THE COMMON PEOPLE & wanted me to change the word "publican" to something children would understand. Well, publicans were anything but common people. What is a publican? (David: A tax collector.) That was a publican, exactly right! The most hated people in Israel were the tax collectors. They were Jews whom the rest of the Jews looked upon as betrayers of their people--spies, betrayers, traitors--because they collected taxes from their Jewish brethren & gave it to the Romans, their hated enemies. Those were publicans.
15. IF YOU USED THE WORD "PUBLICAN" IN BRITAIN TODAY, WHAT DID I TELL YOU IT MEANS THERE? (Fam: A guy that runs a pub?)--Right, or an innkeeper. In other words, a bartender is a publican, that's the modern word. That word publican is still in use today amongst the British, meaning a barkeeper. But in the way it's used in the Bible, it means tax collectors.
16. SO WHEN JESUS WAS SAYING THAT, HE WAS SAYING THAT THE DRUNKS, HARLOTS & TAX COLLECTORS ARE GOING TO GET TO HEAVEN EVEN BEFORE THOSE RELIGIOUS CHURCH LEADERS! I must admit, that's stretching it a bit to include the tax collectors. We don't think much of them, do we? They're absolutely wrecking the World! If it weren't for the tax collectors, the U.S. government could not have so many billions to spend on wars & destroying the Earth! The collection of taxes makes wars possible, because most of the tax money is spent on armaments & wars & killing & destroying. That's why God hates tax collectors.--But He doesn't hate'm as much as He does the religious snobs like the church people & the synagogue people, & the Muslims aren't much better off.
17. SO JERUSALEM IS NOT A HOLY CITY, IT'S AN UNHOLY CITY, VERY UNHOLY! The very most religious Jews live there, the most Orthodox, & hundreds of them come there to pray against the side of the Wailing Wall. In newspaper articles & books & on the air you'll constantly be hearing people calling the Wailing Wall "the only remaining part of the ancient Temple." But it is not & never was a part of the Temple at all! It is only the retaining wall of the earth fill, far from which the Temple was built.
18. WHEN THEY BUILT THE TEMPLE, THEY LEVELLED OFF THE TOP OF MT. MORIAH, THE HIGHEST HILL IN JERUSALEM. They wanted more space for more buildings besides just one on top of a knob, so they cut the knob off & of course then there was a lot of space in-between the wall & the hill. They slashed off the top of the knob, scraped it off & filled in all around inside the wall so that the whole thing is perfectly flat. I don't know why they even still call it Mount Moriah, because it's no longer a mount! They took the top off & filled in all around to make more flat area for the Temple & its adjacent buildings. So that wailing wall is just the retaining wall that held the earth on which the Temple was built, something like 50 yards away, & the Temple building itself had absolutely nothing to do with that wall! Now since the Temple was destroyed and completely removed, every single block is gone just like Jesus said, but the Jews love to keep saying, "This is a part of the Temple wall" to try to contradict the prophecy & its fulfilment.
19. ANYHOW, WE WERE TALKING ABOUT CHAPTER 13 & HOW JERUSALEM IS NO LONGER A HOLY CITY. He's saying that they're idolaters and they've got false prophets and He's going to destroy their false shepherds, etc., and He's finally going to destroy most of them. How holy is that? Well, it wasn't very holy, but God is going to make it holy. [DELETED] [EDITED: "T"]he city is the most unholy city as far as God's concerned and He's got to get rid of all that. He tried to do it once, but maybe they are going to do it again, they're going to rebuild the Temple, start sacrificial worship and all that under the Antichrist. So it's going to become absolutely the most unholy city in the sight of God. It's going to stink as far as God's concerned, so He's got to wipe out most of them to purify it.
20. HE'S TELLING YOU A LITTLE BIT MORE, PUTTING THE PIECES OF THE PUZZLE TOGETHER LIKE A JIGSAW PUZZLE, a little bit more all the time. Until finally now we have come to the 14th Chapter, the subject of today's lesson! Do you think I could get through it in one day?
THE DAY OF THE LORD!
21. (VERSE 1:) "BEHOLD, THE DAY OF THE LORD COMETH!" Aha! There you have the subject right off the bat! Here is the day called "The Day of the Lord." And throughout the Bible & the Prophets what day is described usually & mostly as "The Day of the Lord"? It doesn't mean just one single day, you understand. When we talk about "In Abraham's day, in Moses' day, in Jesus' day" or something like that, we're not talking about one day, we're talking about in their time. So God is talking here about a specific time, a special time, a limited time, a day or a certain time or a certain period. What period is He talking about? What are we studying? (Fam: The Battle of Armageddon.)--Specifically the Battle of Armageddon & the period of time surrounding it, especially that leading up to it.
22. MORE GENERALLY SPEAKING, "THE DAY OF THE LORD" IS SPOKEN OF ALMOST ALWAYS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DAY OF GOD'S FINAL JUDGEMENTS, & this is the last event of what period? (Fam: The Wrath of God.) It's the last day of the Wrath of God. So if He's talking about the Day of Judgement, there are really quite a few days put together. Sometimes you use "day" for just one day, sometimes the Bible, & human English speech at least, uses that word "day" for a period of several days, meaning a time. It is the time of God's judgements, His final judgements on the wicked of those days, or that day, as it's said.
23. SO "BEHOLD, THE DAY OF THE LORD COMETH, & THY SPOIL SHALL BE DIVIDED IN THE MIDST OF THEE."--In the midst of whom? Who's the "thee" He's been talking about? (Fam: Jerusalem.) He's talking about how Jerusalem is going to be attacked & conquered & spoiled. That's what happens when Gog brings Magog's forces down there & invades Israel time & again.
THE WOMEN RAVISHED!--Age of Consent & Abortion!
24. (VERSE 2:) "FOR I WILL GATHER ALL NATIONS AGAINST JERUSALEM TO BATTLE." Whew! Now we know this has got to be in the future because that's never happened yet! "And the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, the women ravished"--all those beautiful Jewish girls who walk all around Jerusalem carrying machine guns! What kind of women is that? That's the most shocking thing I think I saw in Israel, how they have women in their army & they walk the streets of the cities carrying submachine guns.--In fact, the soldiers always have their machine guns with them, they're never actually off-duty. Even if they go home for a day's leave, they always have a machine gun hanging around their necks or held under their arm.
25. THIS IS THE LAND OF PEACE?--THE LAND OF THE PEACEFUL JEWS? It's the most heavily-armed people & even civilian population I ever saw!--With girls walking downtown shopping with machine guns under their arms! How would you like to be in the Israeli army & have to carry a machine gun around all the time to shoot people with? That's what it's for! They have to have it in self-protection because they are robbers, criminals, who have stolen the goods of the Arabs, stolen their homes & stolen their whole country! So in order to keep it--because there are still lots of Arabs who live there--they have to carry submachine guns around all the time to protect themselves from the people they have robbed. Think of that!
26. WHEN YOU SEE THESE MOVIES ABOUT PEOPLE WHO COME IN & ROB PEOPLE IN HOUSES OR BANKS, ETC., & take the people's money & shoot the people, etc., aren't they always carrying guns? (Fam: Yes.) So what do they usually call those people? (Fam: Robbers.) And only robbers have to carry guns around all the time, except for policemen, of course. So the Israelis are robbers & they've got to carry guns around all the time to protect themselves from the people they have robbed. Even the women carry guns to protect themselves from the Arabs, the poor Palestinians, that they have robbed of everything.
27. "THE CITY SHALL BE TAKEN & THE HOUSES RIFLED, & THE WOMEN RAVISHED." [DELETED] Rape is fucking [DELETED]--Forced, without her permission. That means to grab a woman & fuck her without her permission, without her wanting to be fucked. That's rape, & it's against the law. In the United States they can put you in jail for 20 years. In the U.S. & Britain & some European countries, even if the girl consents & wants it & loves it & likes to, if she's under the age of consent, they'll still call it rape & put you in jail anyhow.
28. THE AGE OF CONSENT ACTUALLY IS NOT THE AGE OF CONSENT, IT MEANS THE AGE WHEN HER CONSENT IS LEGAL. When she's 21 & she wants to be fucked, even though she's not married, well, it's perfectly legal to fuck her, because they say that that's the age of consent, then it is legal for her to consent. But under that age they say it's not legal for her to consent & be fucked even if she wants to be! Therefore if you go ahead & fuck her even with her consent, they'll call it rape & put you in prison for 20 years! It's done all the time in the U.S. & Europe.
29. SOME OF THESE SO-CALLED "ENLIGHTENED", "CIVILISED", "DEVELOPED" NATIONS & "CHRISTIAN" CULTURES CAN THINK UP SOME OF THE MOST RIDICULOUS CRIMES YOU EVER HEARD OF! We found out when we were FFing in Tenerife that in some of the more strongly Catholic countries like Spain, Italy & some Latin American countries, the age of consent is as high as 23, 24 & 25! The girl's right to do as she pleases & fuck as she wants to doesn't come until as high as 25 years of age! Until then, if you fuck her you can be breaking the law & be put in prison, in some countries for life! Even in the U.S.A. it used to be a death sentence in some States to rape a woman. So if you fucked a teenager, even though she wanted it & loved it & consented, they could accuse you of rape & put you to death!
30. THE LAWS OF THE SYSTEM ARE CRAZY, & YET THEY THINK THEY'RE SANE! They try to keep the teens apart, they don't want them to fuck because they don't want them to have children, because the parents & grandparents don't want to have to take care of them! It's all selfishness, the whole thing. They don't want to have to train them in how to take care of children, they don't want to teach a girl how to cook, keep house, take care of a husband & have children.
31. WELL, THAT'S THE MAIN THING THAT OUR GIRLS LEARN IN THE FAMILY! Besides about Jesus, the main practical things they learn are the things they need to learn the most--how to keep house, how to cook, [DELETED] how to have children, how to take care of them, how to take care of a husband!--Right?--The practical, normal, useful, natural, best things a girl can possibly learn! And yet how many of you learned this in your System homes? Most modern American girls never even learned how to cook, hardly learned how to wash dishes or clean house, Mama did it all or had a maid.
32. AND THEY CERTAINLY DON'T WANT THEM TO LEARN HOW TO HAVE SEX! "Oh my goodness, they might have a baby & that would be horrible! Then we'd have to murder the baby!" That's what their parents say! They don't use that dirty word "murder," of course, they've dressed it up in a nice new terminology & they call it abortion, "We'll have to abort the baby." That means force her by an operation to have the baby before it's ready to be born, & therefore kill it. And America is averaging about a million-&-a-half abortions a year!--Murdering a million-&-a-half babies every year in the U.S.A.! Do you think God isn't going to hold them responsible for that?
33. BUT THAT IS LEGAL! IT IS LEGAL FOR TEENAGE GIRLS TO KILL THEIR BABIES!--But it's against the law for them to have sex! Think of that! In other words, in the final analysis, it's literally against the law for the teenage girls to have babies, but it's legal to kill'm! What a horrible, monstrous, devilish, fiendish country! And now most of the developed countries are like that, where abortion is legal, nearly all of Europe. In Britain they give abortions at will. You don't have to have any reason for it, except you want to kill the baby.
34. BEFORE THE BABY IS BORN THEY GIVE IT A NICE WORD, ABORTION, BUT FROM THE MOMENT THE BABY IS BORN, THEN IF A MOTHER SHOULD KILL THE BABY THEY CALL IT MURDER! Can you imagine? Talk about crazy, the System is crazy! It's insanity! As long as the baby's still inside the mother it's perfectly legal to kill it, but once it's born, they can kill you for killing it!--Although the sentences are getting milder all the time. They can put the mother in jail for killing the baby after it's born, but it's perfectly legal to kill it before it's born.--And they do it all the time & the parents & the doctors in the System encourage it: "Oh, this girl's too young, she doesn't know how to take care of children, she doesn't know how to take care of a husband or a house! She's too young to have children, she's too young to be a mother!" Well, if she's too young, how come God made her able to be a mother at that age?
35. WELL, GOD INTENDED FOR GIRLS LIKE OUR OLDER TEENAGERS TO GROW UP IN A FAMILY WHERE THEY'RE TAUGHT EVERYTHING & how to handle everything, so that by the time they can have babies they know how to take care of them!--Amen? Do you think taking care of a baby is going to be anything new to our teens? Good night, they take care of babies all the time now.--Right? Is this right, what I'm talking about? (Fam: Yes, Sir!)
36. I'M TRYING TO SHOW YOU HOW CRAZY THE SYSTEM IS, HOW INSANE IT IS! It's legal to kill babies before they're born, but not legal after they're born, then it's murder. It's crazy! It's legal for a girl to have sex & babies & whatever after she's 21, but if you do it with her before she's 21, to jail you go! Isn't that crazy? It's insane! Talk about abnormal psychology & abnormal behaviour, the System has got it worse than anybody!
37. WELL, WE'RE ON THE 14TH CHAPTER OF ZECHARIAH & IT'S TALKING ABOUT WOMEN BEING RAVISHED.--Does anybody know what "ravished" means?--It has both a good & a bad meaning. Every time you fuck a girl you're ravishing her.--But it's perfectly all right in the proper context & with the proper girl & under proper circumstances. Of course, the System would call it very improper the way we behave in our Homes & the freedom we have, the liberty God has given us like the natural normal creation & the way God originally intended things to be. This is normal, this is natural, this is proper! But if you'd ask any church people, they'd say we were very improper. So what is quite proper to the System is very improper to God, & what is quite proper to us & to the Lord, is very improper with the System. It's a World turned upside-down, completely perverted, reversed!
38. SO "RAVISHED" MEANS MAKING LOVE TO A GIRL, but it can also in some cases mean making illegal love or raping her or making love to her when she doesn't want it, & that is the way it's used here in this verse. Those supposedly very religious Jewish women there in Jerusalem are going to get ravished by the conquering hosts that are going to attack them--the hosts of whom? (Fam: The Antichrist.)--Gog & Magog, the Antichrist.
HOW THE PROPHET LOOKS AT PROPHECY!
39. "AND HALF OF THE CITY SHALL GO FORTH INTO CAPTIVITY, & THE RESIDUE OF THE PEOPLE SHALL NOT BE CUT OFF FROM THE CITY." "Dad, I thought you said two-thirds are going to be killed & only one-third is going to be saved." Well, this is something else. He's describing how half of them are going to be taken as slaves & the rest of them "shall not be cut off from the city," they'll be left there. Remember, God looks back at this period of these invasions, the days of the Antichrist, the Tribulation & all that as a certain day, but as a succession of events that covers years.
40. THE PROPHET LOOKS AT THESE THINGS LIKE LOOKING AT A ROW OF MOUNTAINTOPS. You can look at them all at once, like you look at a whole scene at once, but actually you travel along & you just get to one mountain after another, you don't get to them all at once. So these events are kind of mixed up sometimes, just the way the Prophet saw them. He probably saw them in pictures like a lot of the things I get.
41. I'M SORRY IT TAKES ME SO LONG TO TEACH YOU ANYTHING, BUT WE TEACH YOU A WHOLE LOT OF OTHER THINGS ON THE WAY! I have to stop & explain words. [DELETED] I figure if the children can understand it, then everybody can understand it! You may think I'm wasting a lot of time to have to stop & explain these words, but what good is it going to do them if they don't even know what I'm talking about or what the Bible's saying? Anyhow, it's going to be tough in Jerusalem in that day, do you get the picture? We just gave the bad news, now the good news!
REVELATION OF THE LORD--HIS THIRD COMING!
42. (VERSE 3:) "THEN SHALL THE LORD GO FORTH, & FIGHT AGAINST THOSE NATIONS"--all these nations in Verse 2 that have come against Jerusalem--"as when He fought in the day of battle."--As when the Lord has often fought before in days of battle. All through the Bible you read about battles where God fought for His People & helped them to win the battle! So this is another day of battle for the Lord. It's the World's next-to-the-last battle, because we know the last one is the Battle of Gog & Magog at the end of the Millennium. But this is the last battle of this dispensation, this time, the Endtime, the last battle of the Day of God's Wrath, the battle that ends it, & ends the battle of all battles. And how do we know? Again, here's one of the surest proofs that we know that this is the last.
43. IF YOU WANT TO GIVE THIS CHAPTER A TITLE, YOU MIGHT CALL IT "THE THIRD COMING OF THE LORD!" Do you know where He is going to come to & where His feet are going to stand when He comes this time?--Not when He comes at the end of the Tribulation for the Rapture, He's not going to leave the safety of the heavens & the clouds & touch the Earth then with all the wicked people down here, He's going to take us out of it up to be with Him.--When is that? (Fam: The Rapture.)--When? (Fam: At the end of the Tribulation.) I want to see if you can get these just like that! You ought to be like popcorn, be able to get'm just like that so that you don't even have to stop & think about it! You ought to be able to answer those questions immediately, instantly!
44. WHEN IS THE RAPTURE? (Fam: At the end of the Tribulation.) What coming of the Lord is that called? (Fam: Second Coming.) What was the first Coming of the Lord? (Fam: When He came as a little baby.) Christmas was the first coming of the Lord, & all the time He was here. Then He was crucified, buried, raised again & associated with the disciples for a great many days till finally He took them up on top of a mountain, & do you know what mount it was? (Fam: The Mount of Olives.) And there while He was talking to them, He told them goodbye, & what happened? ([EDITED: "Fam"]: He just floated up!)--Right! God's Word tells us He just was taken up into the clouds, & God's Word also tells us that He's going to come back in clouds! (Ac.1:11; Mt.24:30)--And guess where He's going to come back when He comes back in His Third coming?
45. SOME BIBLE TEACHERS CALL THIS "THE REVELATION," so to be in harmony with the rest of the Christian world & church world & those that know anything about Bible Prophecy at all, you can call it the Revelation too. It means revealing the mighty power of Christ, revealing Who He really is & how powerful He really is! This is why when the Antichrist finally declares he's God--when he's really the Devil--they call this the revelation of the Antichrist. And when does that happen? (Fam: In the midst of the week.) In the midst of what? (Fam: The seven years.) Let's try to get away from using such Biblical terms that people we're talking to won't understand us. If you say "in the midst of the week," they won't know what we're talking about. We know, you know, but they don't. You've got to use these things in witnessing & you've got to put it in simple language they'll understand.
46. IN THE MIDST OF THE SEVEN YEARS OF THE ANTICHRIST REIGN IS WHEN THIS WORLD DICTATOR IS REVEALED TO BE WHAT HE REALLY IS, the Devil in the flesh declaring himself to be God. That's what it is. The Antichrist at that time is possessed by the Devil & declares himself to be God, which means the Devil is declaring himself to be the god of the Earth, which he's always wanted to be!--The god of this World. He's the god of the World right now, the worldly World, the System World.--Right? (2Cor.4:4)
47. THEY THINK THEY'RE WORSHIPPING GOD IN THOSE CHURCH BUILDINGS TODAY, but I wouldn't say there's hardly maybe one in a hundred of them that really is worshipping God & really knows anything about God! Most of them are worshipping the building or the idols or thinking about business or the roast on the fire at home or the car or all kinds of things. They're not really thinking about God, they're worshipping idols & images--if not the images in the church, the images on the outside, the cars & all the rest!
48. SO WHEN HE DECLARES HIMSELF TO BE GOD, THAT IS REALLY WHAT'S CALLED THE REVELATION OF THE ANTICHRIST. When Jesus comes down from the heavens with a mighty army on horseback & declares Himself, that He is the true God & shows His power & proves He's God, that's also called the Revelation--the Revelation of Jesus Christ! The other is the revelation of the Antichrist.--Get the difference? Get the point? See, you guys have to start from scratch. You don't know anything about all these technical, theological terms that are used in eschatology, so I just have to teach you each time. I have to explain words to you, events to you & what terms are used for those events.--Because you've got to have a handle on things, something to get ahold of it, a name for it, so you don't get it confused with something else.
49. WHEN IS THE REVELATION OF THE ANTICHRIST? (Fam: In the middle of the last seven years.)--Right! Don't ever say in the middle of the Tribulation. There are some people who call the whole seven years the Tribulation, & you may think it is, but it doesn't really get bad until then, until the revelation of the Antichrist. I'm sure we will know & recognise it, it will be revealed to us because we will recognise all the signs of his Antichrist rule, but his true nature won't really be revealed to the whole World until he takes absolute power & demands worship as God. That reveals his true nature & is going to expose him for what he really is, & a lot of people then are going to wake up & turn away from him, if they weren't already.
50. SO WHEN JESUS COMES BACK--not as a little helpless Baby in the arms of a poor little Palestinian woman, knocked around & chased around & buffetted & finally killed by His enemies--but when He comes back as the great King of kings & Lord of the Earth & God of gods, that is going to be the Revelation of Jesus Christ! And that's what this Third Coming is called.--Amen? And that's the most wonderful thing about this Chapter.
OUR HEAVENLY WAR HORSES!
51. AND DO YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT SPOT HE IS GOING TO LAND ON?--RIGHT WHERE HE TOOK OFF! Right on top of the very same mountain. (Techi: The Mount of Olives.)--Right! That's where Jesus took off when He left this World & this life, on top of the Mount of Olives. Isn't that where the disciples were standing with Him when He was caught up into the clouds? He's going to come back in the clouds in the Rapture, but He's not going to come down to Earth. He goes in clouds, He comes back in clouds in the Second Coming, & He comes back in clouds in the Third Coming as well, believe it or not, clouds of horsemen! How about that?--Billions of Christian Saints coming back riding powerful horses!
52. THE LORD MUST LIKE HORSES! HE MADE A LOT OF'M, FOR ONE THING, & THEY'RE BEAUTIFUL CREATURES! We finally got some pictures & got the names of some of those famous draft horses. Those huge big heavy-built wagons that carry all those beer barrels stacked up are called drays. They had extremely heavy big wheels to carry all that weight. We saw a video of the Munich Beer Festival & it showed those draft horses, because in Munich, Germany, at Oktoberfest, all the breweries turn out their old-fashioned drays & their big, huge, monstrous draft horses, the biggest, heaviest, strongest horses there are!
53. I JUST STARTED SHOUTING HALLELUJAH & saying, "Maria, that's what I've been talking about & been trying to describe to the kids & everybody, there they are!"--And there they were!--Clydesdales, Percherons, etc.! And there were those huge big drays, those big wagons, stacked high with beer barrels, with actual beer in'm.--And the coachmen, or the draymen, wearing the fancy uniforms that they used to wear when they used to take the wagons around & deliver the beer barrels to all the inns & beer gardens as they call'm in Germany, & bars & pubs & whatever. You'll see what beautiful horses they were!
54. I JUST ALMOST GO INTO ECSTASIES OVER THOSE HORSES! I guess it's because when I saw them as a little child I just looked at them in wonder & amazement. Our kids now might look at elephants in wonder & amazement, but those huge big draft horses were the first big monsters I ever saw when I was a little kid Techi's age. They were like monsters to me, a little tiny kid, looking up at those gigantic horses! They're the biggest horses you ever saw with huge, big muscular legs, huge big strong backs & gorgeous big heads! They look like the kings of all horses!
55. I THINK I'M GOING TO ASK THE LORD TO LET ME RIDE A DRAFT HORSE IN ARMAGEDDON! Hallelujah!--The biggest, toughest strongest horse, the kind of horses they used to use in battle, because they're so big & tough! There's another horse movie I'll show you where they used to teach them how to jump on people & kick people. The horses themselves fought in the battle right along with their riders. They kicked with their forelegs & they kicked with their hindlegs! They taught'm how to charge into forces & beat'm to death with their hooves.--Battle horses! Wow! I want to ride that kind of horse in the Battle of Armageddon! Amen? Hallelujah! Wow! You're going to see horses like that on this video & those huge drays stacked with all those beer barrels just like I told you they stack them, in sort of a pyramid. They're beautiful! I don't like beer, & I'll tell you, Munich was a mess during the Oktoberfest, I never saw such a bunch of drunks in my whole life, but those horses are beautiful!
56. SEE HOW I CAN GO INTO ONE SUBJECT JUST ON HORSES! WELL, THAT'S A PRETTY IMPORTANT SUBJECT HERE IN THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON because we're going to ride down on horses accompanying the Lord! And where is He going to land? (Fam: On the Mount of Olives!) I'll tell you, a man never looks so magnificent as sitting on a horse. God made horses for men to sit aloft above the crowd, above the heads of the pedestrians & all. In those days of my youth they had mounted policemen in New York City, but they've sort of gotten away from that. A policeman looks ridiculous now just walking around on foot, like he's descended amongst the common people.--Whereas riding on horses, they look like kings & they can take command of the situation!
57. I'VE READ ARTICLES ABOUT HOW THEY WANT TO BRING BACK THE HORSES, & I'VE NOTICED MOUNTED POLICEMEN IN SOME OF THESE RIOTS, ETC. Police can charge with all their helmets & weapons & shields & everything & the rioters stand firm, but if a bunch of those horses come charging in with cops on their backs swinging their batons & those big horses' hooves come charging at'm, brother, they scatter right quick! They don't want to tangle with a horse's hooves! If you've ever felt a horse's hoof, you know what I'm talking about. If you just let one accidentally step on your toe you're going to remember it for a couple of weeks! Here's a big horse that weighs a thousand pounds to a ton! Those Clydesdales weigh about a ton, giant horses that weigh as much as a big car!
58. I CAN TELL YOU SOMETHING ABOUT HORSES, BECAUSE I ALMOST HAD ONE FALL OVER ON ME ONE TIME when I was riding on the Ranch down the creek bed, we hit some mud & he slipped & fell. And boy, I was thankful I got my leg out just in time, & I almost never got that horse back on its feet! I had the toughest time trying to get that horse back up, because it was slippery & he couldn't get his footing. And I really risked my life because he was flailing away with his legs kicking & trying to get up, it was pitiful! I'll bet it took me an hour before I got that poor horse back on his feet!--And he got almost frantic, almost hysterical, because it scared him to be lying there helpless on his side & not be able to get up because of the slippery mud of the creek bed. Boy, I never took a horse in any territory like that again!
59. I'LL TELL YOU, YOU SEE THESE STEEPLECHASES & IT'S NOT FUNNY! IF THAT HORSE EVER LANDS ON YOU, THAT'S IT! YOU HAVE HAD IT! You've got a thousand pounds of flesh & bone landing on top of you like a car, & if he lands right on you, you've had it! That's why these guys get to be such experts at jumping clear & getting away from the horse so the horse doesn't fall on them. A horse is a mighty weapon of war! It can really be used to charge & scare people, a real war-horse! We are going to ride war-horses, great big mighty strong fighting horses! Isn't that thrilling?
60. DID YOU EVER HEAR A PREACHER PREACHING ABOUT THE WAR-HORSES OF ARMAGEDDON?--Why not? I don't think they believe it! That's why I don't think they preach much about Heaven, because I don't think they really believe it! What little sermons you've heard about Heaven didn't describe it, didn't really give you all the specifications, the colours, the materials or the measurements, because they didn't believe it, they just couldn't believe it.
61. BROTHER, I BELIEVE IT!--AND WE'RE SHOWING PICTURES OF IT THAT WE'RE DRAWING TO SCALE! I took a ruler & I drew some of those patterns & measurements & Pyramids, etc., to scale with the exact angle, height, width, depth, everything! So you're seeing the real thing, or at least a picture of it, the way it actually is & is going to be.--And I believe that just as much about this battle. When it says we're going to come charging out of the sky on horses, I believe it!--And I just thrill when I think about it!
62. I'VE ALWAYS LOVED TO RIDE HORSEBACK! How many of you have ever ridden horseback? There's something about it that when you get up on that horse you're just almost like a different person! You & the horse are like one & you are more majestic, you are more powerful, you can see above everything else! You have more power to ride & go places & go further & go faster than any other way--except in some of men's dangerous machines. Of course, horses can be dangerous too. But I can hardly wait for the Battle of Armageddon! I want to ride one of those horses & charge down on my enemies! Hallelujah? Praise God? It's going to be a tremendous battle!
LANDING ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES!
63. WELL, WE'D BETTER AT LEAST END ON A NOTE OF VICTORY HERE!--JESUS IS GOING TO LAND ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES! This mountain must be so sacred & precious to Him, because it was the last place that He fellowshipped with His disciples. He's going to get down off His horse, & what's going to happen?--Listen!
64. (VERSE 4:) "AND HIS FEET SHALL STAND IN THAT DAY UPON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES!" I've seen artists draw pictures of this & I've heard preachers preach about it, but they always show Him just standing there all by Himself with a few disciples gathered around or a few angelic Saints standing around. Usually they show Him hanging in the air coming down, never actually touching His feet. But how many pictures have you seen of Jesus & His Saints charging out of the sky & landing on the Earth on horses? Well, our kids have seen'm!--Right? We've got pictures of those events the way they're really going to happen! Our kids are getting to see the real events & the way they are going to be! Praise God!
65. "HIS FEET SHALL STAND IN THAT DAY UPON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES, WHICH IS BEFORE JERUSALEM ON THE EAST"--that's exactly where the Mount of Olives is, it's still there. It's still covered with olive trees & gardens & parks & churches, believe it or not. And there's a church right on the top, supposed to be the exact spot from which Jesus ascended. I don't know how they knew that, but it's the highest point & there's a church right there called the Church of the Ascension. It has a tall steeple about five stories high pointing to the sky like a finger, showing that this is where Jesus went up!
66. GOD BLESS THE DEAR CHRISTIANS THAT BUILT THOSE CHURCHES! They were trying to commemorate these events the best they knew how, trying to show you where it happened. They've got a church right over the manger where Jesus was born with the exact spot marked in the floor. I don't know how they knew that either!--And they've got a church where Jesus did this & a church where Jesus did that, a church where He turned water into wine, a church where He did this miracle & that miracle. They've got churches all over Israel in all the places where Jesus did miracles & did anything or where He ever was, so that you can just follow the path of the works of the Lord & all His travels just following the churches. They're still there, believe it or not!
67. AND DO YOU KNOW WHO THOSE CHURCHES ARE FILLED WITH?--ARAB CHRISTIANS!--The poor Palestinians that the [EDITED: "Israelis"] have robbed. Due to the pressure from the Christian World the Jews have not yet been able to take away their churches, & their churches are packed! They really appreciate the Lord now that they're face-to-face with the anti-Christs, thankful for the little bit of religious worship & freedom that's left. They appreciate it even more. They're already living under conditions of the Antichrist & his people right now in Israel! So to have any opportunity of freedom of worship, they appreciate it so much they pack those churches out! They have beautiful services too, gorgeous masses, beautiful singing, I never saw anything more beautiful in all the churches I've ever been in!--People who really are sincere & really mean it & really do it with their hearts, beautiful! Of course, it was all in Arabic so I didn't understand it, but I could understand the Spirit & feel it & I was practically ready to shout hallelujah!--But they weren't quite used to that in that church!
68. SO JESUS IS GOING TO LAND & WE'RE GOING TO LAND! I hope to land along with Him somewhere around there! I'd like to see when He lands on the Mount of Olives, dismounts & touches His feet to the place where He took off before. It must have a very sweet memory for the Lord, so He wants to come back to the very place where He left! It sort of proves that it's the same Jesus, He remembers where He was when He left. It'll show the World that it's the same Jesus, because the whole World knows that's where He took off!
69. IN JESUS' DAY IN THE OLD ENGLISH THEY CALLED IT THE ASCENSION, NOWADAYS WE SAY TAKE-OFF! When a plane is going to run along the runway & take off, they call it the take-off. You didn't know that you made so many ascensions, did you? Every time you were in a plane on its take-off, that was its ascension, when it took off & it went up.--And He wants to come back & land on the same spot. And let me tell you, big things are going to happen when He lands! Shall we finish the verse?
"CLEAVING"--THE MOUNT OF OLIVES SPLITS!
70. "AND THE MOUNT OF OLIVES SHALL CLEAVE IN THE MIDST THEREOF." Does anybody know what "cleave" means? ([EDITED: "Fam"]: Hold on?) That is one meaning of cleave, the children are right, they're thinking about that verse where it says "a man shall cleave to his wife" or a woman shall cleave to her husband, meaning hold on to him, that's very good. It means in one sense to stick together. Isn't that funny how English is?--The same word can have just the opposite meaning.
71. BUT IN ALMOST EVERY GREAT KITCHEN WHERE THERE'S A GOOD CHEF & THEY CUT UP THEIR OWN MEAT THEY HAVE ONE VERY IMPORTANT TOOL--A CLEAVER! I don't know whether the chef in that hotel we were living in had a lot of enemies or he was prepared to defend his cooking, but whenever we saw him out for a walk he was carrying a cleaver! It's not just a knife, it's like a great big hatchet!--Except that it's almost all blade & has a very small handle. His looked more like a machete with a big long blade, but it was definitely not a machete, it was a cleaver, & he obviously was wearing cooks' clothes. Almost every restaurant has'm because they've got to chop up bones & meat. The blade is almost as wide as it is long with a little short handle just big enough to get your finger around. And it's big & thick & heavy because they've even got to chop bones & joints in two before they cook'm. Big restaurants have to buy meat in huge quantities like a whole side of beef, then they use a cleaver to cut it up & chop it up, & a meat saw to saw some of the bones.
72. SO A CLEAVER IS DESIGNED TO CLEAVE, & THE SAME WORD HAS THE EXACT OPPOSITE MEANING: THE ONE WAY IT MEANS TO STICK TOGETHER, THE OTHER MEANS TO CUT APART. So when Jesus comes down & lands on the top of the Mount of Olives, He's not going to stick it together, it's already stuck together.--Although there is a crack right across the top right now that they say is about six inches wide as though it's already cracking. And they say it also is on an earthquake fault. (Coughs) Lord, please don't let'm catch this cold just because they faithfully came to class & I'm faithfully trying to teach it.
73. WHEN JESUS LANDS THERE IT SHALL CLEAVE, THAT MEANS IT SHALL PART, THE MOUNT OF OLIVES SHALL BREAK IN TWO! The whole mountain is going to break in two, think of that, & it tells you exactly how it's going to break in two. This is exactly the location of the crack that's on top of the Mount of Olives right now.
74. "IT SHALL CLEAVE IN THE MIDST THEREOF"--RIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE--"TOWARD THE EAST & TOWARD THE WEST." The cleavage will be toward the East & the West. "And half of the mountain shall remove toward the North, & half of it toward the South." Think of what a stupendous event that will be! That's even greater than the time the young boy pulled Excaliber out of the rock to prove that he was going to be the next king! Remember that story? It may be a fairy tale to you, but wasn't it King Arthur who was supposed to become King? The prophecy said that the one who was able to pull this great sword out of this rock would be the next king. Everybody had tried it but nobody could pull it out until King Arthur came along. They didn't even know he was a king, he was like a servant at the time, a page or a squire that helped knights, but he came along & he just pulled it out with ease! See, that was a sign, that was proof that he was to be the next king!
75. HERE WE HAVE A SIGN THAT PROVES WHO IS GOING TO BE THE EARTH'S NEXT KING! That's going to be a mighty proof when that big hill outside there cracks open! It's called a mount, but it's really just a big hill. There's probably going to be an earthquake & a roar & that mountain is going to crack wide open & there's going to be a very great valley in the middle, right where Jesus lands. He's not going to fall down in it, don't worry! But that is going to be proof, almost like the final proof of His Messiahship right there in front of all those [DELETED] Jews, whoever is left. He's going to come down & this miracle is going to occur to demonstrate His power & who He is & prove that He is the Messiah[DELETED]!
76. HE'S GOING TO PROVE TO THEM THAT HE'S THE MESSIAH as He comes down, not only riding out of the sky on a great white charger, a war-horse, but landing on the top of this mountain & the mountain is going to crack up! Maybe it's going to crack with a great & mighty laugh!--God laughs last! God's Word says, "He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh" over the fate of His enemies. (Psa.2:3) Well, maybe the mountain will open up its mouth in a great big laugh: "HA! You thought you killed Him, you thought you had gotten rid of Him, but He's here & He's my King & I'm going to split my sides wide open laughing at you[DELETED]!" Praise God?
77. I'LL BET YOU WON'T FORGET THAT STORY FOR AWHILE! YOU NEVER HEARD IT TOLD LIKE THAT! Well, that's enough for now! Maybe it's too much of a good thing, but I don't get to see you very often, we don't have very many classes. PTL! (To [EDITED: "Fam"]: I love you, Sweetheart! Grandpa was so full of stories! You had a lot of Grandpa stories this morning about horses & mountains cracking & all kinds of things!)
THE VALLEY OF THE MOUNTAINS--PETRA!
78. WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE AT LEAST ONE MORE VERSE OUT OF ZECHARIAH 14? (VERSE 5:) "AND YE SHALL FLEE TO THE VALLEY OF THE MOUNTAINS." Does that mean the valley in the middle of the Mount of Olives? It says mountains, plural, so it's not the Mount of Olives.--That would be just "the valley of the mountain." Why would anybody be fleeing then, when Jesus has come? Well, some of these prophecies are a little mixed up, some of them probably kind of an accumulation of different prophecies that were made, & the guy putting them together didn't even know exactly what order they were supposed to be in.--He just assembled them all, not necessarily in consecutive order. But you'll see pretty soon when this really meant. It's not fleeing from the Lord, not fleeing from what has happened & already been described.
79. HE'S FINISHED TELLING ABOUT HOW THE LORD RETURNED & the Mount of Olives splits in two, then He says, "And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah King of Judah: And the Lord my God shall come, & all the Saints with Thee."--He's talking to God there.
80. SEE, HE'S GOING BACK A LITTLE BIT BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF JESUS, & SAYING BEFORE JESUS COMES THEY'RE GOING TO FLEE TO THE MOUNTAINS. Isn't that what Jesus told them to do?--Flee to the mountains? (Mat.24:16) And He says something very specific about a certain place that is called the "valley of the mountains." The actual interpretation here that most Bible authorities make is that He is talking about a very amazing place that is alternately known as the Valley of the Mountains, a valley right in the middle of some surrounding mountains, like a fortress, a very good refuge.
81. A REFUGE IS A PLACE TO HIDE, A COVERING OR A COVER. This house is a refuge for us, a place where we can hide out & have our freedom & study the Bible & work for Jesus without having our enemies find us or the System interfere.--Isn't that wonderful? This is like our valley of the mountains. We've got the valley in here & the mountains are all around us.
82. BUT THERE WAS A SPECIAL PLACE IN SOUTHERN ISRAEL THAT WAS ALTERNATELY KNOWN AS THE VALLEY OF THE MOUNTAINS, IN EDOM. Can anybody tell me what they think it is? (Fam: Petra?)--Right! It's completely surrounded with tall cliffs a thousand feet high on both sides, & the only way to get in & out is through a small passageway not even as wide as this table, just a narrow tunnel!
83. IN PLACES LIKE THAT A WHOLE ARMY COULDN'T EVEN CAPTURE YOU, because only about three men abreast at a time could march in. So the guys from inside would get up on the tops of those cliffs & pour boiling hot water down on them, or they'd drop big rocks & stones on them, shoot bows & arrows on them, throw spears & all kinds of things, & they only had to kill the first three guys each time till the bodies stacked up & the rest of them couldn't get in over the stack of dead bodies! So it was a very easy place to defend, a small group of people could defend themselves there from a whole army, & it was called Petra.
ENDING PRAYER & PRAISE!
84. SHALL WE PRAY THE KING'S PRAYER OF THE GREAT KING OF KINGS THAT'S GOING TO SPLIT THE MOUNTAIN RIGHT OPEN WHEN HE CHARGES DOWN ON HIS GREAT WHITE HORSE? Hallelujah! Those horses are mighty, majestic, beautiful, royal beasts fit for a King! We're all going to be Kings then! We're all going to be Kings & Priests unto God & rule the Earth! (Rev.1:6) TYJ! Hallelujah! So let's pray the prayer of the great & mighty King of all horses & King of all horsemen! (Prays the Lord's Prayer.) Amen! Hallelujah!
85. THANK YOU FOR THIS WONDERFUL BIBLE & THIS WONDERFUL WORD, THIS WONDERFUL WORLD YOU'VE GIVEN US TO LIVE IN! It's going to be even more wonderful when You get back, in Jesus' name! All right, hallelujah! Let's giddy-up! Do you know what giddy-up means?--That means get going, horse, get going, & ride away! PTL! GBY! I love you all!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
