January 12, 2019

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"Jesus immediately ascended to Heaven and presented himself before the throne of

God, showing the marks of shame and cruelty upon his brow, his hands and feet. But he

refused to receive the coronet of glory, and the royal robe, and he also refused the

adoration of the angels

"Jesus refused to receive the homage of his people until he knew that his sacrifice had

been accepted by the Father, and until he had received the assurance from God himself

that his atonement for the sins of his people had been full and ample, that through his

blood they might gain eternal life." -Spirit of Prophecy, Volume 3, p. 202

The Father embraces Jesus - Yes it is enough!

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There is John, one of Jesus closest friends, looking off into the sunset of

the Mediterranean. He feels the warm rays of the setting sun under the

azure blue sky. He’s remembering the past 50 or so years of life. He

watches the slowly crashing waves. He hears the birds down by the shore.

Jesus is in heaven. The church is on earth.

Jesus had promised he would send the Holy Spirit to help the believers

and boy did he! John hears the echo of the words of Jesus in his mind -

John 14:1-3 - “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God,

believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it

were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive

you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

The disciples, John’s friends, his brother James, they had all acted upon

Jesus last words - Matthew 28 and Mark 16 - Go into all the world, make

disciples, baptize and teach them all that I have taught you. I will be

with you and signs will follow you. (Matthew 28:19-20)(Mark 16:15-18)

The church as we read in the book of Acts starts off with gusto.

Thousands are baptized in a day. Even with the persecution of Saul, the

church kept spreading. Then Saul has an encounter with Jesus in a vision

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and becomes Paul. The gospel is now turning enemies into evangelists.

Finally as Jesus had foretold - Jerusalem once thought to be the eternal

city was destroyed by the Romans.

How long until He would return? John, on this island, is shown scenes all

the way to our day and something is strange. He sees two churches

represented by two women:- Scripture uses a woman to describe a

religious movement. Jeremiah 6:2 I have likened the daughter of Zion

To a lovely and delicate woman.

Revelation 19:7,8

Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the

Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” 8 And to her it

was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine

linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Revelation 14:4

Pure Woman- The Hero in our story - is described as dressed in white,

pure, faithful, ready to marry Christ and be with him forever.

Revelation 17:1-4 -

“Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on

many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed

fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the

wine of her fornication.”

3 So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a

woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of

blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was

arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious

stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of

abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.

Mystery - Babylon the Great - The Mother of Harlots

Revelation 18

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Babylon the Great is Fallen, is Fallen and has become a dwelling place

of demons…

1 Peter 5:13 - Peter calls Rome - Babylon

Ellicotts Commentary: St. Peter has just personified the church of the place from which he writes, which seems quite as unprosaic a use of language

as to call Rome “Babylon.” And it seems pretty clear that the name was quite intelligible to Jewish readers, for whom it was intended. The

Apocalypse (Revelation 17:18) is not the only place where Rome is found spoken of under this title. One of the first of living Hebraists (who will not

allow his name to be mentioned) told the present writer that no Hebrew of St. Peter’s day would have had need to think twice what city was meant

when “Babylon” was mentioned. And on the mention of the name, all the prophecies of the vengeance to be taken on the city which had desolated

the Holy Land would rush with consolation into the mind of the readers, and they would feel that St. Peter, though supporting St. Paul, was still in full

sympathy with themselves.

The Harlot - identified as dressed in purple and red with lots of gold.

Fornication or sleeping around outside of marriage is symbolism used to

describe being unfaithful to God and to the Law. The wine is used as a

symbol of teaching false doctrine.

John saw the most confusing thing - two women, representing truth and

error, light and darkness all the way to the end.

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Last week we read that for the sake of man the controversy was to be

continued…but for how long?

Daniel had foretold of a time that even he didn’t fully understand - 2,300

years into the future - ‘the time of the end’ (Daniel 8:14/17)

Daniel has dreams about the future in Daniel 7 all the way to chapter 12

and then…

In Daniel 12:4, we read that Daniel is told to seal the book…until the time

of the end.

That it wouldn’t make much sense until it was all unfolding around the

planet a long time into the future.

All of the disciples would eventually lose their lives for the message. They

went around the world to tell others this amazing story of love. John they

had tried to kill multiple times - but were unsuccessful. So they banished

him to the island of Patmos where he was given the scenes of the book of

the Revelation.

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Daniel and John wrote down a a clear prophetic picture of the gruesome

days ahead for the church.

There is John on Patmos - He sees Jesus reveal Himself and the future

unfolds before him…and he is told to write it down

Then John writes something that perhaps he at first like Daniel didn’t fully

understand. The church would become the greatest enemy on earth to -

the faithful of God? Huh? John had seen Jesus become the greatest

‘threat’ to organized religion. But one day, organized religion would

become the greatest threat to Jesus and his followers!

Life of the early Church

…They were teaching, baptizing, healing, worshipping together. Acts 17:2

"The primitive Christians did keep the Sabbath of the Jews;. therefore

the Christians for a long time together, did keep their conventions on

the Sabbath, (in which some portion of the Law were read: and this

continued till the time of the Laodicean council.)” The Whole Works of

Jeremey Taylor, Vol. IX, p416 (R. Heber's Edition, Vol.XII, p.416)

"The ancient Christians were very careful in the observation of

Saturday, or the seventh day..It is plain that all the Oriental churches,

and the greatest part of the world, observed the Sabbath as a

festival...Athanasius likewise tells us that they held religious

assemblies on the Sabbath, not because they were infected with

Judaism, but to worship God, the Lord of the Sabbath, Epiphanius says

the same." Antiquities of the Christian Church, Vol. II, Book XX, chap.

3, Sec. 1, 66.1137, 1138

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The Falling Away…

Paul warns the church though in - 2 Thessalonians 2:3- Let no man

deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there

come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of

perdition;

Daniel, writing nearly 1000 years earlier says in Daniel 7 that a power

would arise that would persecute the faithful, would attempt to change the

very law of god and would rule for 1260 years

Daniel 7:25

He shall speak pompous words against the Most High,

Shall persecute[a] the saints of the Most High,

And shall intend to change times and law.

Then the saints shall be given into his hand

For a time and times and half a time.

In Daniel 7, as Daniel writes of the future he says “I saw a Lion, a Bear, a

Leopard and then an awful 4th kingdom come on the earth. We further see

how that became Babylon, Persia, Greece, and the Iron Monarchy of

Rome which would last the longest.

John is given a similar vision of the future of the church.

In Revelation 13:1-5 John states:

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of

the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten

crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were

as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the

dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

John sees the same animals in vision but in reverse of how Daniel

describes them.

3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his

deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

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4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast:

and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast?

who is able to make war with him?

5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and

blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two

months.

And Just to be clear - the dragon is Lucifer/Satan the fallen angel. He has

set up a church on the earth - with the end goal to be worshipped by

impersonating Jesus with a false second coming…this is the grand almost

overmastering strong delusion that we have been warned about

Summary

They are both shown a power that would one day come on the world that

would:

1-would be guilty of making a change to the ten commandments

2-would persecute the saints - the true church, the real heroine - the

bride of Christ

3-would be guilty of blasphemy.

4-rule for 1260 years on the earth,

John’s definition of Blasphemy was based on two interactions Jesus had

with the Pharisees:

John 10:36 - Claiming to be god when you are not God

Mark 2:7 - “this fellow claims to forgive sins - who can forgive sins but

God? This is blasphemy!

Recap: The true church -

The one Jesus started was one built on love, not force. Love, not

selfishness. Built on the laws of the old testament because Jesus said “I

have not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it” Love is the fulfilling of the

law. I have not come to change one jot or one tittle from the law”. The

ceremonial sacrificial laws of course were done away with but not the

moral law.

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The Falling Away -

The Roman Empire has gone from the glory of the republic before the time

of Christ, to the mob ruled democracy for hundreds of years, to finally on

the brink of total chaos. Wars have exhausted the treasury, morality has

disappeared and finally the pagan emperor - Constantine - sees a vision -

and is converted to Christianity.

There are some changes that would begin to be implemented: Scripture

teaches too much independence of thought and action - therefore:

The circulation of the scriptures must be prohibited! So that the people

become ignorant.

#1 - An attempt to change the law of God - to get the pagan world into

the church - to allow for idol worship - of the gods of myth and legend -

the heathen gods. The statue of Jupiter would now be called Peter. The

images of a woman - the queen of heaven- would not be Juno or Isis but

Mary - Mother of god.

If you will remember from part 5 in our story - the heathen gods - were the

fallen angels of heaven!

You can’t just remove a commandment, so the 10th was split into two. The

4th commandment, the only one prefaced by the word “Remember” was

moved and now commemorated the first not the Seventh-day of the week.

The text of Constantine's Sunday Law of 321 A.D. is:

"On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people

residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country

however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully

continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for gainsowing

or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven

should be lost.”

At first the Sunday was a day of celebration and Sabbath was still

observed. But over time, Sabbath was made a day of mourning and finally

given up altogether. After all - the scriptures were hidden.

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#2 - Persecution

Then great persecution arose from the Papacy in Rome and true Christians

fled the cities and lived in the hills and mountains of the wilderness. The

Waldenses, The Albigenses, The Huguenots.

Revelation 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she

hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a

thousand two hundred and threescore days. - 1260 years according to

the day for a year principle found in bible prophecy.

This was the dark ages… because the Light - Jesus was hid from daily life,

and also were hidden the truths of scripture

#3 Blasphemy

Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome - Forgiveness of sin was now offered by

the church in Rome - what the disciples understood as blasphemy.

#4 - Would rule for 1260 years…More on that in a minute

Late 1400’s - Columbus is sailing looking for more land - the legend of a

new world. Gutenberg has discovered how to print bibles on new

technology - the printing press - The Bible is having a resurgence.

Around this time, a devout Catholic priest - Martin Luther - takes a journey

to Rome - he is about to enter the city and falls to the earth and says “Holy

Rome - I salute thee!” And exiting the city he writes “no one can imagine

what sins are committed in Rome….If there is a hell, Rome is built over it!”

Quite the change of heart. Luther began to study and could not reconcile

the sale of the forgiveness of sin with Scripture.

The date October 31, 1517 (which since then somehow paganism covered

up with a holiday)- Luther has 95 issues that he sees his beloved church

must address.

This ignites what would be known as The Protestant Reformation - Built on

the spirit of protest.

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Then a few decades into this ‘Revival’ - The Church of Rome christens -

The Society of Jesus - The book -The Great Controversy speaks on this -

“At this time the order of the Jesuits was created, the most cruel,

unscrupulous, and powerful of all the champions of popery…..To combat

these forces, Jesuitism inspired its followers with a fanaticism that enabled

them to endure like dangers, and to oppose to the power of truth all the

weapons of deception. There was no crime too great for them to commit,

no deception too base for them to practice, no disguise too difficult for

them to assume. Vowed to perpetual poverty and humility, it was their

studied aim to secure wealth and power, to be devoted to the overthrow of

Protestantism, and the re-establishment of the papal supremacy. GC 234

It was a fundamental principle of the order that the end justifies the means.

By this code, lying, theft, perjury, assassination, were not only pardonable

but commendable, when they served the interests of the church. Under

various disguises the Jesuits worked their way into offices of state,

climbing up to be the counselors of kings, and shaping the policy of

nations. They became servants to act as spies upon their masters. They

established colleges for the sons of princes and nobles, and schools for

the common people; and the children of Protestant parents were drawn

into an observance of popish rites. GC 235

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“We will never forget that our forefathers, the first inhabitants of the

American land, were compelled to leave their native country, to come to

bury themselves in unknown and far-distant wildernesses to escape Jesuit

tyranny and cruelty. ~Jesuitism Unvailed (Americans Warned About

Jesuitism) by Claude Pirat; 1851 AD

~Fifty Years in the Church of Rome by Charles Chiniquy - Abraham Lincoln

stated to his friend Chiniquy - “Man must not care where and when he

will die, provided he dies at the post of honour and duty.' But I may

add, today, that I have a presentiment that God will call me to Him

through the hand of an assassin.

“Unfortunately, I feel more and more, every day, that it is not against

the Americans of the South, alone, I am fighting, it is more against the

Pope of Rome, his perfidious Jesuits [and their blind and blood-thirsty

slaves,] than against the real American Protestants, that we have to

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defend ourselves. Here is the real danger of our position. So long as they will hope to conquer the North, they will

spare me; but the day we will rout their armies (and that day will surely come, with the help of God), take their cities, and force them

to submit, then, it is my impression that the Jesuits, who are the principal rulers of the South, will do what they have almost

invariably done in the past. The dagger, or the pistol of one of their adepts, will do what the strong hands of the warriors could not

achieve. This civil war seems to be nothing but a political affair to those who do not see, as I do, the secret springs of that terrible

drama. But it is more a religious than a civil war. It is Rome who wants to rule and degrade the North, as she has ruled and

degraded the South, from the very day of its discovery. There are only very few of the Southern leaders who are not more or less

under the influence of the Jesuits, through their wives, family relations, and their friends. Several members of the family of Jeff Davis

belong to the Church of Rome. Even the Protestant ministers are under the influence of the Jesuits without suspecting it. To

keep her ascendancy in the North, as she does in the South, Rome is doing here what she has done in Mexico,

and in all the South American Republics; she is paralyzing, by a civil war, the arms of the

soldiers of Liberty. She divides our nation, in order to weaken, subdue

and rule it.

So the war continued on earth that had started long ago in heaven - the

principle of love and kindness vs. the principle of force and selfishness.

———————

“The War against the Bible, carried forward for so many centuries in

France, culminated in the scenes of the French Revolution.” GC 265

The year is 1798 - 1260 years after the Roman Emperor Justinian, issued a

decree in 538 AD, proclaiming the Pope to be supreme in religious

matters. The moment foretold by Daniel, and John - 1260 years that the

Church of Rome would rule the world - had come. Napoleon’s army

marches upon Rome - led by General Berthier - , takes the pope captive.

This was the death knell to the old world - and everyone knew it.

Across the ocean for the last two hundred+ years a nation was springing

up, slowly growing in prominence. A place where men and women were

fleeing the old world in search of a place where there was no king and no

pope. A Protestant Republic… As France is falling, America is rising

• Declaration of Independence (1776)

• Constitution of the United States (1787)

• Bill of Rights (1791)

Virgin soil existed in the new world where liberty and freedom of

conscience could once again take root.

Why this matters now… Revelation 18:4 -