Bible Study - July 15, 2020

Go ahead and begin the recording here. If there's nothing else, we'll get into the Bible study. I wanted to start today. We're going to talk about the Church in Pergose, but I wanted to go back to the Church in Smyrna because I was uneasy about a part of what we spoke about last week with Smyrna, and I wanted to go back and revisit that a little bit because there is one section in the Church in Smyrna that I don't think I know that we didn't discuss in the manner that it is written here. So let's start back in Revelation 2. And you remember the many things that we wrote about, read about, or talked about, about this Church in Smyrna. There is nowhere, you know, God is very complimentary, if you will. He commends the Church in Smyrna. They're a very strong Church. In fact, nowhere in the message of the Church of Smyrna does it even say the word repent.

So that tells us something about the quality and the strength and the commitment to God of this Church, that He doesn't say repent. Along that line, as I thought about that, we read in verse 9, it says, I know your works, your tribulation, and poverty, but you are rich. They were a poor group, but spiritually they were rich. And I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan. And we talked about how there may have been some in Smyrna who, you know, were misleading people and whatever. I don't think, in retrospect, that that's what that verse is talking about at all. I think if that was the case, God would have said, you know, repent. Repent to those people and turn to me, otherwise, you know, otherwise you'll lose your salvation. But there was something significant. Oops, let me get some people in the waiting room here. There was something significant that went on during the era, if you want to call it, of that in church history. When you look at the churches, you know, that church history that I sent out to you last week, you know, takes some of the history of the church. And it goes from like, you know, 500-year increments. And we talked, you can see some of the things that went on during the time of Ephesus. You can talk about some of the things that went on during this period of Smyrna that somewhere along the line, you know, the church attached some dates to. And I want to pull up, I want to pull up here a screen. And from that church history, I want to show you some of the things that happened during that time of Smyrna. You know, here we have, can you see that on your screen? Can you see what I've got out there? Kind of 170-500 AD, the Roman church?

Yes. Yep. Okay. Well, I just lost my screen now. Okay. If you look at that, well, I keep doing that.

You see it go through the history there. And then we talked about the 10 days of persecution with Diocletian in 303-313 AD. But then just 10 years after that intense persecution ends, you have the man, the emperor Constantine, you know, show up. And during that period of time, you have the Nicaean council. You know, we've all heard the Nicaean council as they challenged, pass over as they challenged everything that was going on in the church at that time. And they pretty much overthrew everything that the true church stood for and adopted all these other things. So let's just kind of read through what I have there. And I think this is what God's talking about. Here's a church. Here's people are saying, we're the true Christians, right? We're the true Christians. And you look at the blasphemy that came upon the people at that time.

Constantine said there's no distinction. No distinction between the realm of Caesar and the realm of God. After the Nicaean council closed, the emperor Constantine sent the following letter to all the churches. At this meeting, the question concerning Easter was discussed. First of all, it appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this space, we should follow the practice of the Jews. Let us then have nothing in common with the Jews. It's been determined by the cutting and judgment of all that the feast of Easter should be kept on one and the same day.

Thus it was decided that Easter must be observed in the Passover forbidden. So you can kind of say, here's people are saying, well, we're the true Christian church. And yet look at what they're deciding and enjoying on the people that are there during this time, not long after the persecution. During this time, that Smyrna would be there, this church, this synagogue of Satan that has, that's claiming to be the true church. But that is enacting all these things that has no semblance to the true church at all.

We go further down and, you know, as we are living in our day and age, and we see the end times approaching, and we can think about, you know, what might be. Only God knows how far in the future it is. But we're living in the same time, we're living the same time, when there's going to be a church come on the scene in the world that says, we're God, we're the ones who you need to follow.

You're the ones, and if you don't follow us, we're going to put you to death. This is the same thing that happened during the time of Smyrna, and as we look at these church eras and see what they went through, and see that the prophetic time of it as well, this can, this applies to us as well. Here's what Constantine wrote concerning people as far as much then as it is no longer possible to bear with your pernicious errors, he tells the true church, as they claim to be the true church, we give warning by this present statute that none of you henceforth presume to assemble yourselves together. We have directed accordingly that you be deprived of all the houses in which you are accustomed to hold your assemblies, and we forbid the holding of your superstitious and senseless meetings, not in public merely, but in any private house or place whatsoever, take the far better course of entering the Catholic Church.

We have commanded that you be positively deprived of every gathering point for your superstitious meetings, I mean all the houses of prayer, and that these be made over without delay to the Catholic Church, that any other places be confiscated to the public service, and no facility whatever be left for any future gathering, in order that from this day forward none of your unlawful assemblies may presume to appear in public or private place.

Let this edict be made public. And this is from a church historian, Eusebius, and you can kind of see, and as we look at the horizon, you can kind of see a similar edict being said or being given to the Church of God. That new church that's going to claim to be the true church, the kingdom of God on earth, it's going to have the same type of words to us. You know, the book of Amos that talks about there's a dearth of the hearing of the Word of God.

And, you know, today we kind of, because of this COVID crisis, you know, we can't meet together in full scale as we had been used to really all of our lives in the church. And we may look at this as a hardship, but there's times coming, you know, when we will just be forbidden to meet together under penalty of whatever. And so the law of the land claiming to be the true church, you know, claiming to be the true church, they outlawed Christianity. And so the people had to flee the Roman Empire, and they did. And, you know, you can read through that church history I sent out last time. You see that around that time, the church, once the persecution began, they fled.

And for 1260 years, as a result of the Council of Nicaea, the church was fled into the world, into the wilderness, and they were scattered. And as we begin with Pergamos then today, we see a scattered church no longer together because of the blasphemy, the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews, replace that with Christians, the blasphemy of those who say we're the true church, but they really were the synagogue of Satan. So when God is, you know, in verse 9 there, you know, that's what he's talking about. These people went through a lot, and we shouldn't ignore what they went through because some of the same thing, you know, we're going to go through as well, depending on exactly when God brings us all about. So any questions, comments, observations on that?

Okay, let me see if I can close my screen here and get you guys back. Oh, I'm still learning some of these things. Okay, so I wanted to set the record straight on that because I know we didn't handle that verse correctly last time, and that's, I think, apparently what it is. Again, notable to the church in Smyrna, God never told them to repent. So we can see the church there, you know, that kind of stayed true to God throughout the entire time, kind of what we can emulate in our time, that we remain loyal to God no matter what comes our way.

So, okay, well with that, then let's go on. If there's no comments or questions, let's go on and look at this church at Pergamos in verse... Pergamos, I guess verse 11, not verse 12. And to the angel of the church in Pergamos, write, These things to see who has the sharp two-edged sword. You know, as we go through these, you know, Jesus Christ, it always says to the angel, remember, the angel is kind of a messenger to the church.

And as we come back into that church history, you're going to see some men's names. I didn't mention Polycarp and Polycrates as living during that Smyrna period. They both were martyrs as a result of their beliefs. And as we look at the Pergamos era and some of the key figures who were preaching the truth during this next section of time after the church fled, you know, we see some names there. So, this is the angel of the church in Pergamos, write, These things to see who has the sharp two-edged sword.

So, Jesus Christ describes himself a little bit in each of these messages to the churches. And I think that's telling. I mean, the two-edged sword is the Word of God, right? It cuts close to us. And as we look at the church in Pergamos, we find there's some doctrinal issues coming into the church, right? There's some things. So, you know, Jesus Christ introduces the message to this church by saying, you know, pay attention to the Word of God.

And here we have some doctrinal issues that are going to show up. Verse 13, he says what he says to all the churches, I know your works. He's watching what we're doing. And where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Now, as the church fled, you know, Satan, you know, Satan is certainly the adversary of God, and Satan is the adversary of God's people. You know, his throne, we might say his throne is in Rome. We might say his throne is in, you know, here God says, I know where you dwell, because this is the church in Pergamos.

You know, but Satan's throne is wherever God's people are. He is always against his people, God's people. He will always be attacking us. And so, you know, if we, you know, go to Revelation 12 and just look at that for a minute, here at the end time, you know, most of God's church today is sitting in America, you know, the Israelite nations that we call them, certainly in Africa and around the world.

But there, but Satan has his eye on us. If we look at, you know, chapter 12, in verse 9, it tells us that Satan is cast down out of heaven. He is, you know, he's sent down to earth. And in verse 12, it says, Rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. Well, the heavens rejoice because the time of Christ's return is near. But it is time of problem for the people of God on earth. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you having great wrath, because he knows he has a short time. When the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman.

You know, he persecuted the woman. Woman, you know, we'll see here in some verses here in Revelation 2 and 3, where the woman is mentioned again, it's the church. He persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. So wherever God's church is, Satan is there. He is always the adversary of God's people. And so, you know, when it's said in Pergamos that that's where his throne is, well, certainly at that time that's where his throne was.

But then, you know, where his attention was on God's people, and it will be, you know, to the places that God moves them to as well. Let's go back. And again, feel free, feel free if you have any comments, questions, you know, don't wait to raise your hand, just hit your microphone and talk and feel free at any time to interrupt me.

Mr. Shady. Yes, why no? Satan being kicked out of heaven. You know, he's sinned, that was back there, I guess, before the Garden of Eden. Do we know exactly when he had no more access to heaven? Now, we knew he had access to heaven during the time of Job. Right. Okay, so do we know exactly when he was kicked out of heaven and had no more access to go back into heaven?

Nope, we don't know exactly when it is. I think when we look at world conditions, we might begin to see things speed up and become really, really not good, if I can put it that way. So we might have a clue of when Satan is down here on earth and he's been kicked out of heaven and things seem to speed up.

So I think we'll see that through the way the world goes and how quickly things speed toward prophecy, but we don't know the exact time, though. Also, on that comment, isn't Satan still allowed to go to God's throne, like about each one of us?

In other words, like he would go up when he went up and discuss Job? Yes. Does he not go up and discuss our shortcomings? As long as he has access to God's throne, yes, he does. It says Satan is the accuser of the brother. He accuses us night and day, but there is a time that God casts him out of heaven and no longer has access. We don't know if that's occurred or exactly when he occurs, so.

Okay. Okay. I know your works. I'm back in chapter 2 of Revelation verse 13. I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And you hold fast to my name and don't deny my faith, even in the days in which Antipas was my faithful martyr who was killed among you where Satan dwells.

So again, we have God repeating. Satan is among you. He is watching what you're doing. He is your adversary. He will do whatever it takes, you know, and whatever God allows him to, to take us away from there. But he says he commends the Pergamos Church because even though they had martyrs, I mean, whoever Antipas is, no one knows who Antipas is for sure. You lead through the commentaries.

But in this church, we find, we find people who had been martyred. And that could, that could shake some people's faith, right? And so, but he says, even though these people were martyred, you didn't lose your faith in me. You didn't deny my name. And we can go back in our recent history of, of the Church of God. And sometimes people thought a leader would live until the return of Jesus Christ. And when he didn't lead, people didn't live until that time, God allowed him to die. You know, people did lose faith. They did begin to deny his name. Many went back into the world. And so, we have this church that didn't have that happen, right? This church remained faithful. They knew it was of God. They, they had their eyes on God, not a man. And we remind people, you know, follow God, follow, follow people, follow your minister as he follows God. But if he departs, you know, depart and follow God first. Now, let me pull up my screen again and show you something in Pergamos.

Gotta get rid of this. Okay. In Pergamos, in Pergamos, okay. Again, you have this. You had this handout last week. Okay.

This, here's the history of the church. I wanted to kind of highlight a few things. This partially preserved record of God's people shows they preached the Gospel of the kingdom, they believed the church was founded on Jesus Christ, and also upon the apostles and prophets. They baptized by immersion, they laid on hands for the reception of the Spirit, they continued to keep the pass passover on the 14th of Nicin, and they observed the fast Sabbath and the festival of unleavened bread. So despite what the Catholic church, the church that was claiming to be the true church, did, these people clung to the truth of God. And in 650 AD here, Constantine of Manonale says, arises from the scattered remnants of the church in Cappadocia and Armenia. He proved the truth, and based on his preaching, God working through him, right? It wasn't him, it was God working through him, apparently tens of thousands of people converted to the truth. Now that's a telling thing. Here's a man that God's working to. Perhaps he's the messenger to that church that we read about in chapter, or in verse 12 to Pergamos. Well, we see 34 years later, he was stung to death. He was stung to death. So he's a martyr. He was preaching. God did a work through him, and apparently tens of thousands of people converted to the truth, but then God allowed him to be martyred. And then, you see the next thing down there, Simeon. Simeon was sent to destroy this Constantine of Manonale, but then he became converted. But he was burned at stake in 690.

So, you know, you see this pattern of martyrs here as people would rise up in Pergamos, and this time, you know, that they had to flee the Roman Empire and go out into another part here.

And then later we'll see, keep in mind here, Empress Theodora. You know, one of the things that this church did, we're going to see in a little bit, is they began to ally with the world. They began to get a little closer to it, thinking those in the world might protect them a little bit. And we say that when they put their faith in some of that, Empress Theodora betrayed them, and history says up to 100,000 people were slaughtered during that time. It tells us, don't put your faith in the governments of man. Don't put your faith in man. Put your faith in God. He's the one who protects, and he's the one who will see us through these things. So, um, okay, let me see what I've done here.

Okay, do I have you back? Do you see me, or do you still see the screen?

The screen. I mean, you don't see me? Okay, let me figure out how to do this here.

I thought, I had practiced this and thought I had it down the path, but apparently not, so...

But we can hear you. Okay.

Okay, we got someone in the waiting room. Stop share. Okay, okay, you should have me back. You probably like looking at the Microsoft Word document instead, but oh well, so... Okay, so, but I wanted to show you that. You know, as we go through that, as we go through the history, it is helpful if you, if you will take the time to read through some of those things as we go through these churches one a week, and you'll begin to see the fulfillment to those scriptures in history, but also think about how they're going to be fulfilled, and because these messages are to us today as well. So this might tell us that in times ahead, you know, God doesn't promise that there will be no more martyrs. In fact, when you read in Revelation, in Revelation 6 and 7, it says, are waiting, you know, they ask how long? Eternal. He goes, wait until the rest of your, until the rest of the people who are martyr are put to death. So there's no guarantee that there won't be more martyrs in the church between now and the time of Jesus Christ, and we shouldn't just assume that it's going to be 100%. You know, God takes us to a place of safety, and none of us are going to suffer, and there may be no one put to death. We don't know what God has planned, but as this church learned, you know, when that happens, don't lose faith in God.

Keep your eyes on Him. It's all part of His plan. So, verse 14, if we're back in chapter 2 of Revelation, it says, I have a few things against you. I mean, this church demonstrated faith. They had good works. They remained loyal to God, but there were some doctrinal things that crept into the church during that time. I have a few things against you because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things, sacrifice to aid idols, and to commit sexual immorality.

Thus, you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which God says He hates. Now, it's the second time that we've heard of the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. We learned of that back in Ephesians 2.

Already, some doctrinal departure from the true gospel was happening even back in the early church of Ephesus. But God says here in this Pergamos church, it's beginning to creep in again. It wasn't the total blasphemy of Constantine and the Roman Empire who took the church in a totally different direction, but it crept in. It crept in. I'm not going to take the time because I'm going to give a sermon on the doctrinal drift here that happened during the time of Pergamos and go back and talk about if God says He hates what the Nicolaitans have done, if He hates what the Nicolaitans have done, you know, we need to understand.

We need to understand, you know, what it is that they did to make sure it's not happening in our lives today. So we're going to, you know, rather than take the time that I can't do well in a shorter Bible study, you know, we'll talk about that in more detail, and I've been doing some research on these things and kind of bring it home today as well because it is something that plagues the churches.

It didn't happen, and, you know, it's certainly with us today when you kind of look and see. You can see that it was there when the apostles were still alive, and in some of the letters that they wrote, you see what they were talking about, when you see what Beelik did, and you see what the Nicolaitans did, we begin to get a picture of it, and as you see those things, you can see it in our church today. Now, we just need to kind of go back as John reminded us the Apostle John so many times, and, you know, I can give you the verses on it, but I'm not going to take the time to read it because we've read it many times, and he says, go back to what you were taught in the beginning.

Go back to what you were taught in the beginning. You know, don't have this thing that we have departed and kind of softened the word of God. Go back to what you were taught in the beginning and cling to that, and so, you know, what we need is a God's church today to do that as well. So we'll talk about that more and everything. So let's look at verse 16. Here we know what's happening in the church. You know, this is an outside of church because of this church in Pergamos, these people who have held to the doctrine of the Heilich and allowed that tendency to come into their way of life and their thinking, he says, repent.

Repent. Something he never says to the church in Barnum. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly. We'll fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Well, you know, again, the sword of God is the word of God, and that's what we use as our standard.

That's what we, that's, you know, Jesus Christ is our standard that we, you know, adhere to and that we are to emulate and build into our lives. And the word of God is what we live by. Every single word is Jesus Christ. Oh, yes, sir. Yeah, on that verse there, the last one we just read, when it says that Jesus Christ will fight against them, I guess he's referring to the people that hold the doctrine of the eculaetums, right?

Yes, that's the way it appears to be. Those are people in the church who are hearing to these things, in Christ's, I'll fight against you, you know, with the word of truth. You know, he will remember that everyone will come to repentance, everyone will have eternal life, but, you know, he's going to challenge them with the word of truth and have them examine what are they doing and what are they thinking, what are their attitudes versus what the Bible says. So, Mr. Shaby? Yes, yes, Mary Lee.

When you, in Smyrna, you said there was, there was no place to say to repent. That there was no, are you saying individuals or the church as a whole? I'm just saying that the church as a whole, God never uses the word repent to the church of Smyrna.

And that's an interesting thing to know. You know, to the other churches, he says, repent, which means that they have some of them, because, right, because Pergamos, not everyone was holding to the doctrine of the Nicolai. It's not everyone was, you know, doing the same thing that Baloch led ancient Israel to, but some were, and God says to those people, repent. But to Smyrna, he never says repent, which means they were a very solid and strong church, you know, and, you know, and then again, that's why, as I thought about that more, he said, you know, it's, yeah, a very strong church. That did not exclude the individuals that needed to repent. Yeah, I think that I would agree with that. It was to the church, you know, certainly, well, certainly all of us need to constantly be in a state of repentance as God leads us to see what happens. It seemed like from when Mr. Armstrong was teaching was that every era were people that needed to repent.

And that just seems to stick in my mind. And I'm going to look back because I know he went through with King James rather than the new King James. And I'm going to look further into that because I've always had the feeling that every era is represented today. And every era has somebody that is not perfect because Christ was the only perfect person.

I would agree with you, Marylee, and yes, I will. Anyone, please, if you, you know, I'm just reading what the words are here in chapter two, and I don't see the word repent show up for Smyrna. That's the only point I'm making. And to me, that was notable when it came to my mind after we did our Bible study last week, which means to me it's a strong church. But that doesn't mean, that doesn't mean that we all don't, you know, that we all don't need to repent, right? And remember what we talked about. For instance, in Smyrna, there's a little bit of each one of these churches in our churches today. Some of them would be of the attitude of Smyrna as we look at people today. Some of them would be of the attitude of Pergamos. Some of them will be of the attitude of Thyatira. It doesn't mean we're all things, but the seven churches, the messages here, apply to the church as a whole today, and that we all need to take note of it. But I think we can even, you know, as we, as we work with people, and we, we see people that there's a little bit, you know, we can, we can see, you know, the how someone might be more of Smyrna as opposed to Pergamos and whatever. I'm probably not saying that exactly the right way, but yes. But yeah, I challenge anyone. Please, if you go back and you see something I've missed, please, please, please bring it to our attention so we can talk about it. I think they were following the clause a lot more closer than the other churches were, and they weren't just doing, following the laws, but they were also doing the works. Yeah. And that's the way that I take that. Yeah. I remember that church, that church was challenged, right? I mean, here we had Constantine who, you know, we had, you know, them doing away with Passover, doing away with Unleavened Bread, outlawing assemblies on the Sabbath, preventing the people to go together. And sometimes, you know, when we have that attack from the outside, we cling closer to the Word of God. And I think that church, the people who really believe, and who were failing, you know, challenged, that made them even closer to God because they were going to cling with all their might to the truth that they had. Sometimes, you know, Paul had mentioned in August, in August, in Acts 20, you know, when he was leaving the Church of Ephesus, when people come from among us, that's sometimes where the problem comes in because we are, we can be led into a, into a different idea, or maybe soften our stance on something, or, or whatever. But when we're challenged from the outside, as Smyrna was, you know, maybe, maybe that helped their strength. And that's what God was saying, so. I have a question. Yeah, Jeannie?

Oh, okay. Does that, does anybody have a quick, something that where I can help Lloyd get sound to his laptop?

He's not with me, and he just for some reason can't get sound.

Okay. What is he missing?

Um, I don't know. Does someone have a help here for Jeannie and Lloyd? Anybody? Just give me a quick...

And he's on his laptop? Yeah, I got him off his phone. He's over there, and he can't get a, get more volume on his phone.

All right, I don't want to spend a lot of time on it. I'll try to work with him.

Have him click on his microphone.

Okay. And then there's a pop-up that comes in there. Select the speaker, so maybe he just needs to turn the screen. Okay, that's what I'm going to do. Thank you.

Okay, so where were we here? Okay, verse 16, we read about repent.

As God says to this church in verse 17, you know, he says, he who has an ear, kind of the way he ends the message to each of these seven churches, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And that's something, you know, understand what I'm saying. You see, just read the words, kind of contemplate this. Think what I'm saying. Apply it to yourself. How are you living your life? And could any of these things have crept into the way we worship God? To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. Now, here's something that God hasn't said to Amecus, and isn't something that God has said to Smyrna, but to Pergamos, he says, I will give him some of the hidden manna to eat.

Now, what I, let me open it up. What do you think that God is talking about when he says, I'll give you some of the hidden manna to eat? What could he be talking about in that section there?

I think that the Bible calls manna the angel's food at one point. Those would go to all the Israelites. And then there's also, supposedly there's, the tabernacle here on earth is basically a replica of something that exists in heaven. And there was a particular vision when, I think it was John or someone, so actually the Ark of the Covenant in heaven. So there's, I guess that's the original one and the one that was built here was kind of a replica. So it is possible that just like as the one in earth contained manna, this one in heaven may contain, I guess, a heavenly type of manna, just speculation. Yeah, you know, I think anyone else, you know, here's a promise, you know, to that church that's interesting. I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And we know that he kept ancient Israel alive. He supernaturally provided for Israel all those years, right, in the desert. They didn't have to worry in a desolate place about their food. God just provided for them constantly. And to the church at Pergamos, now remember they've had to flee. They've had to flee the Roman Empire. So now they're here in in Asia Minor. They're a scattered church. You know, perhaps, just perhaps, God is talking about he will take care of us physically. But also, you know, the manna, Christ talks about it in John 6, you know, it says, they ate of that manna, but I'm the true bread. I'm the true bread, you know, that you should eat of to have eternal life. So something during this church era, you know, or this church time and and applied to us, God will give us, you know, whatever he means by that. I think I don't know that we'll know exactly what that means, but he'll give us some of the hidden manna to eat. You know, he leads us by, he leads us in the green pasture. He leaves us by still waters. We are continually, he's continually opening our minds to understand as we look into the Bible, you know, who we are, who he wants us to be, where we're going. And, you know, between now and the time of Jesus Christ, he'll open up more. And so perhaps that's what he's talking about. Perhaps he's even telling us, you know, don't worry about, don't worry about, you know, what happens in the future. I will take care of you just like he took care of Israel, just like he took care of Elijah. You know, no matter where we, where he takes us or what situation we find ourselves in.

Now, the next verse is just, just is another one. Because I will give him a white shell.

Go ahead, Bobby, did you have a question? No. Okay. He goes, I will give him a white stone. You know, I've looked through commentaries, I've looked through our literature, I've looked through other church of God literature, and no one knows what that white stone is. It's notable that it's white. And the only thing that I can think of when I think of a stone is, you know, Jesus Christ is the rock, and he told Peter, you're the small rock, right? You're Cephas. That perhaps that's an illusion or a reference back to that. That, you know, if Jesus Christ is the rock, and Peter was a rock, that he gives us a stone, a white stone, a pure stone, you know, as we're working with him, and he gives us, whether that means that or not, I don't know. That's the only thing that I could see any reference in. And then in verse 17, and then in verse 17, you know, he says, you know, for the first time about giving us a new name, and on the stone, a new name written, which no one knows, except him who receives it. So, you know, we have, you know, we have this, you know, we have this new name. And as, you know, as God, you know, resurrects us, and as we become spirit beings, there's this new name that that he he will give us. And so we have that for the first time here with the church in Pergamos. And with each succeeding, you know, message to the churches, we see more and more about what God's promises are, and we get we get a picture of what he's doing, and what he's what he's working, and the extent of what he intends to do with us.

So let me let me stop there with Pergamos. We'll talk about Thyatira next week. But are there any questions, observations, comments, anything you've heard over the years that you know that I may have forgotten? One of the benefits of these Bible studies is we have people who have been on the church in the church for 50, 60, and more years. You may have heard things that, you know, we we haven't heard. And please feel free to share those things. And, you know, we'll we'll always look into the Bible, our guy, but, you know, it helps us to understand and use the wisdom that's that's out there that God has developed over all the years that people have been in the church.

Mr. Shaby? Yes, sir. Some of my older notes, this is back from actually 1980, and they were talking about the Hidden Mana, and they were kind of going back to making make it sound like it was almost like a spiritual food that they're receiving at that time to give them more spiritual lessons to help them with what they needed to do. Yeah, I would tend to agree with that, you know. It's interesting he uses the word mana and not the unloving bread or the bread of life or whatever. So, yeah, I and it may reference, you know, that God will continue to feed us and reveal his truth to us more and more as time goes on. Mr. Shaby? Yes.

Hey, it's Debbie. Hey, Debbie. I have here, in reference to that part, physical and spiritual mana being referenced to the physical like the Israelites had, and the white stone being referenced as the spiritual. And that's always, you know, the physical, spiritual analogies that go together. So that's what I had here was physical and spiritual. Okay, that makes perfect sense. So that would go together. God will protect us or he'll provide for us physically as he does and also spiritually, certainly. So, okay. Okay, anyone else?

I was going to mention that, and Mr. Sexton's sermon, he mentioned that the white stone was referenced to the spiritual. He thought, if I remember it right, he said that it was accustomed back in that time to give people what stone is an invitation to a party. And he was referencing the marriage supper. Okay. Okay, well that makes sense too. I don't remember. I don't know what it's referencing to. The people who read John's epistle at that time or his revelation here would have known what that meant. So let me mark that down because I hadn't heard that before.

I can figure out where it is exactly. I'll send you a note. Okay, okay. Sounds good.

Okay, anything else on Pergamos? Again, you know, go back and look at Pergamos in light of everything that we've talked about. Look at that section under the church history. And again, anything that you think during the week, you know, that's at the beginning. We can go back and revisit this so that we get a full understanding of these churches and how they apply to us. But an understanding of what, you know, because this is an important time for us to understand what God has done. And what are you doing? Yes, yes, why not? I've always wondered, and no seven in the Bible means complete.

Why just seven churches? I think that's the complete church era of God. That's a completion. His work in this New Testament time will be complete through the work of those seven churches. That would be the way I always write that. So, just like we have seven days a week, seven holy days a year, and seven churches complete his plan in this New Testament time.

That's pretty neat.

And again, remember, remember there, you know, there is a historical element to these churches that you see in that history. But the real value to us is the message to us today.

God-filled, and we can kind of see as the people from the past who put that church history together, you know, that was lifted from church literature. And Dan Dowd, who has done a lot of research into those eras that we call them, you know, it's good to see those. And they they they vote they they I guess are well aligned with what the birds are here. But the real value is what do we learn today? It's not just historical. It's what we learned today that applies to us.

So what church are we living in today? What period?

Well, remember, they all apply to us. But as we get to the end time churches, there's clearly the Philadelphia Church and the Laodicea Church that clearly are indicated as the end time churches by what God says to them. So that's where we're at.

So we'll talk about that in a couple weeks when we get there. We'll get through these seven churches fairly quickly. The weeks go by pretty quickly these days. So sure do.

Okay. Well, let's pause there. Let's go where let's pick it up in chapter five. I think we pretty much thoroughly covered chapter five last time. You know, we talked about the word worthy. And I think the things to remember about that is that no one in heaven, not the angels, not the 24 elders, not the four living creatures, no one in heaven, these sinless beings were considered worthy to open this scroll that that John saw. And you know, and only Jesus Christ out of all the beings in heaven and earth, you know, only only Jesus Christ. So that, you know, we pale in such comparison to Jesus Christ that that it's not even we're not even worth the mention, but we can just be very thankful to him, you know, that that he's even mindful of us that we would have the opportunities that he's he's brought, you know, to us. You know, we have John weeping in verse five we talked about. And we talked about, you know, when we went back to Isaiah six, and we saw Isaiah as he was in the presence, in the vision of God's throne too, he just kind of melted and realized what a sinner he was and how unworthy he was to be there. And he broke down. And God said, you know, I've forgiven you the same thing that that John, you know, perhaps as he wept so much that no one was worthy, it occurred to him how unworthy he is, you know, all these beings in heaven, this marvelous vision that God had given him the opportunity to see that, you know, that no one was worthy. Well, then how much less worthy was John who, you know, just like all of us are, you know, was a sinner, even though he had given his life, you know, his adult life to Christ. You know, we come down and and we see Jesus Christ in verse seven, they're taking the scroll out of the right hand. And then again, we see those four living creatures and the 24 elders, you know, falling down and that remember the things that we learned last week about the four elders, we have no idea really what their complete role is. We will learn that later. But we do find some things and some hints, you know, here's the 24 elders. They each have a harp. They each have golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. You know, we know their thrones are around or in front of God. Their thrones are are around his his throne. They are, they are and we see, you know, we see them, we see them speaking and they sing a new song saying, you're the one, you're the one who's worthy, Christ, you're worthy to take the scroll. You were slain, you've redeemed us to God by your blood. And we talked about how that word us, you know, is probably better translated them. And I know we have there's someone in the church who is researching that more now. And as he I don't think he's on today, but when he's done with his research, we'll come back, you know, to that translation there again, before right now it appears. And I sent him some information that looked very independent that all the man the manuscripts, including the majority manuscripts, really, it's them and not not us. So again, worthy, worthy, worthy, worthy, you know, and then verse 14, the four living creatures said, Amen, and the 24 elders fell down and worship him who lives forever and ever. Now, last week in the evening Bible study, it was it was noted, and I thought it was a good point that was made, that we can learn to worship God by watching what the creatures, what these living creatures, and the four 24 elders do in heaven.

We see them praising him, and we see, you know, we worship him and whatever, and we can take note of that. This is what happens in heaven, and we pray, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So as God gives us glimpses as to what is going on in heaven, now maybe we can look at the way we approach God's throne. The 24 elders are sitting there at God's throne. The four living creatures are sitting there at God's throne. And when Jesus Christ died, that veil was split in two, and we have access to God's throne. Do we recognize when we come before God in prayer each day that we're coming before his throne? Now, 24 elders hearing our prayers. Is God only the one who's hearing our prayers? We know Jesus Christ hears our prayers. We address him to God the Father. We pray him in the name of Jesus Christ. But we're coming before this throne, you know, and all the activity and all the majesty and all the, you know, all the glory that is in this throne that we've read about in chapter four, and all the heavenly beings that are there, that we're coming before the throne of God when we come before him in prayer. And we can have that vision. In fact, as we get into chapter six, you know, if we talked about having a vision of the kingdom, and it occurred to me this week, you know, God is giving us a vision of his kingdom as we read, you know, here in Revelation. Because we see the four living creatures, we see the 24 elders, we see the activity that's heaven, we see how everything is focused, and all the hosts of heaven are in full focus and accord on the plan that's in place right now. And that is the completion of God's plan for mankind, and Jesus Christ's return to earth, the advent of the seventh millennium, the, you know, the millennial reign, and then the completion of that as the, you know, as the old, as the physical heaven and earth are burned up, replaced with the new heaven and earth. But we get a vision, and it's not, you know, just, there's a lot of activity that's going on in heaven. As we think about it, you know, God's giving, and we don't know everything. We don't know everything the 24 elders do. We don't know what the, what the four living creatures do. We don't know everything, but we are getting a vision that this is a very active and exciting place, and everyone is focused on the same plan, exactly what God wants us to do, exactly the thing he wants us to be totally focused on his kingdom and the return of Jesus Christ. We go about our lives every day. We do, we go to work. We live in our neighborhoods, but we live the life that God called us to, all with you, always with their overriding thing that we're ambassadors for Christ and living his way of life. As we begin chapter six, then, we begin to see these seals open.

You know, Jesus Christ is the only one worthy to open the seals, and one by one, he begins opening those seals. So let me just read through, you know, I'm going to read through the, through the, the first eight verses here, because as he opens the seals. But notice who's speaking, you know, we had, we had last week, we talked about, you know, one of the elders responded. The strong angel says something, but then the elder, one of the 24 elders, responded. Here in chapter six, we see these four living creatures. One by one, each living creature says something about the four seals. It's like they're, each one of them are assigned to this seal. This is kind of their responsibility. Chapter six, verse one, when I saw the lamb, now I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, like with a voice like thunder, come and see. So we find out something about these four living creatures, what their, what their voice sounds like. Now keep your place there in chapter five, but let's go back to, to chapter one.

I guess it's chapter four, sorry. Chapter four.

That's not right. Yeah, chapter four. And verse five, from the throne. Now we know the four living creatures are around the war of throne, the 24 elders, and from the throne proceeded lightnings. We'll see lightnings later. Thunderings. When John is hearing these things, then he says one of the four elders, you know, this one speaking, he had a voice like thunder, and then voices, and we'll see voices show up here in a little bit as well. So as John is seeing all this activity and taking it all in, he hears all these things, he's giving it in human form. But here in chapter six, he sees one of the four living creatures saying with a voice, like thunder, come and see. And I looked, and behold a white horse. You know, we, we talked last week about the four living creatures. One had a face like an eagle, one had a face like a calf, one had a face like a man, one had a face like a lion. Now we see these animals on earth that are reflected, you know, in heaven there's those faces and God's placed them here. And here we have horses, you know, and through, you know, prominent in the book of Revelation are these horses. You know, we, we, horses are majestic figures on earth today. And here we have, you know, four horses that we're going to talk about, four horsemen that ride through the universe or through the world. And then we have Jesus Christ returning on a white horse. We have His people, His saints, and the hosts of the armies of heaven following Him on white horses. You know, so horses are there in heaven too. We begin to get a vision of just how creative or just what things are like in heaven, not at all just the clouds and just the clouds. You know, we got a picture of the throne, but look at what God is filling in for us as we, as we, you know, read these things. You know, I looked and behold a white horse.

He who sat on it had a bow and a crown was given to Him. And we, He went out conquering and to conquer. So we know that this white horse, you know, Jesus Christ returns on a white horse, but here's a white horse and it represents false religion. And they went out to conquer people, take people away from God, lead them into the falsehoods, and have them depart from them. You know, we'll look over to Zachariah here in a minute, but let's, let's go on to the second horse here. When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, come and see. And another horse, Firey Red, went out and it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth and that people should kill one another. And there was given to Him a great sword. And so we have this horseman of glory that goes out and many people die by it and people are killed as a result of wars that go on through the world. Verse 5, when he, Christ, opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, come and see. So I looked and behold a black horse and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice, voice not like thunder, but I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures. This isn't the four living creatures, rather than them speaking, this is the voice in the midst of them that speaks up and says, a quart of wheat for the nereus and three quarts of barley for the nereus. And don't harm the oil and the wine. What he's saying, there's a time of famine coming and food is going to become a very valuable commodity. People will give an entire day of wages and money won't mean anything when food is so scarce that people will literally do anything for food and be able to pay any amount of money because famine will stoke the earth. Verse 7, when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, come and see. And I looked and behold a pale horse and the name of him who said on it was death. Well, this is pestilence, right? Pale horse, you know, when you look it up in the in the Greek, it's kind of a greenish, hideous color that just would indicate this is not a healthy horse at all. It's a sickly color. It's a pale horse and the name of him on it was death. People were going to die as a result of this sickness. Pestilence that would come on them. And Hades followed with him and power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.

And so as these four horsemen, you know, who began their ride, you know, or begin their ride, but it intensifies as the time draws near for Jesus Christ to return. And it's mind-boggling, you know, that a fourth of the earth, I mean seven billion people on earth today, so what was that? 1.75 billion people. 1.75 billion people will die by sword, hunger, and pestilence, and by the beasts of the earth. Now I'll recall when I gave a sermon on the coronavirus and the pale horse back in February, you know, where it's translated beasts, the original Greek word there means dangerous animals. It doesn't take a lion, you know, or the biggest beast to be dangerous. We've learned here with the experience we've had in the last four months that little bats, little bats are very dangerous animals who can bring pestilence and disrupt life. And as these things, you know, come to fruition in our lives, and we see this, you know, beginning, beginning, and a warning of this is what happens in a world that thinks they've got it all made, right? And medical science, we know, you know, we've learned medical science doesn't have the answers very much. Watch what's going on here, you know, you know, we have our little tickers, and you can look on your internet, and as I watch the news, you know, they'll say there's 135,000 who have died here today, tonight it'll be 136,000 or 137,000. Imagine when it will be, when the ticker is up to 1.75 billion people that die by whatever comes on the earth between now and the return, you know, or the beginning of the Great Tribulation, I guess, because the Great Tribulation is the fifth seal. So that's going to happen, and that's going to certainly impact those of us in America. It's going to certainly impact the people of God, you know, and we're going to live through some of those things, and what we're going through now is going to seem like child's play, you know, at what we'll go through in the future, and as we see what God, you know, will bring upon the earth.

So those four horsemen, you know, we're very familiar with them. We've talked about them. I certainly will entertain any questions that anyone has on it. But let me just, let me go back to Matthew, and then we're going to go back to Zachariah, because I mentioned that, you know, Zachariah, you know, as we look at that book, we see many things in Zachariah that show up in the book of Revelation, and we can kind of, you know, spend some time looking at that what God prophesied way back there in the Old Testament and still in this time. But here in Matthew 24, as we look at Christ's Olivet prophecy, and I know we all know this, but it's good to remind ourselves, we see those four horsemen that we just read about in Revelation 6, 1 through 8, and in chapter 24, where the disciples say, tell us what will be the sign of your coming, what is going to happen between now and then. And verse 6, Christ, as He's answering the question, He says, you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. There's the red horse. See that you are not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. So He tells His people, don't get worried about it. This has to happen. Stand strong, look at God, have your faith in Him, and don't get all upset about it. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines. There's the black horse. There will be pestilences. There's the there's the green horse, the pale horse, and there will be earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. And I should have started with verse 5, because there is the white horse that we read about, you know, right at the beginning of chapter 6. Verse 5, for many will come in my name, saying, I'm Christ, and will deceive many. The false religion will rise, and they will they will lead people away from the truth of God. And of course, we see that in the world today. There's very few who adhere to what Jesus Christ said. Many take His name. Many say, Oh, I believe in Jesus Christ. Oh, many say I follow Him. But very, very, very few on earth, very, very, very few actually do what Jesus Christ said. So there in Christ's own words, you know, Matthew 24, we have these same things that we are explained in Revelation 6, the four forces that we see writing, you know, writing on the earth at that time. So okay, comments, questions? Let's go back to Zechariah then. Zechariah, because in Zechariah, we see horses as well. Now, we could spend a Bible study or two, you know, just on Zechariah, but I'm gonna... Hello, yes. Zechariah, you know, let's look at chapter one in Zechariah.

Let's begin in verse seven. We'll just read down through verse 15. So, so the 24th day of the 11th month, which is the month she bat in the second year of Darius, the word of the eternal came to Zechariah, the son of Barakiah, the son of Ido the prophet. I saw by night, and behold a man riding on a red horse. And it stood among the myrtle trees in the hollow, and behind him were horses. Red, sorrel, which is kind of a brownish color, and white. So we've got, we've got these, we've got horses here in Zechariah one. Now, I'm going to come back, you know, to these myrtle trees too, but I'm going to give you an assignment to look at, you know, the UCG Bible commentary on Zechariah, these set of verses, because it's a very good write-up on what these horses might portray. And we don't know exactly what those horses portray, but we'll look at another place in Zechariah that horses appear as well that do appear to mirror the horses that are in Revelation. But there's some interesting things as you read through that, and it can be, it's very detailed, take the time to just kind of look at that, look at the verses in Zechariah, compare it to what we talk about the four horses today, and as we go through it, let's look at the book of Zechariah, because it is very similar to what's going on in the book of Revelation. And many things in Zechariah, we see, you know, God opening John's mind in the vision in Revelation. Instead of that, in verse 9, he says, then I said, My Lord, what are these? What are these horses? So the angel who talked with me said, I'll show you what they are. And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are the ones whom the eternal has sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth. So they answered the angel, there's a capital A, probably Jesus Christ, so they answered the angel of the eternal who stood among the myrtle trees and said, We have walked to and fro throughout the earth and behold, all the earth is resting quietly. Now that's an interesting thing, too. You know, we've gone throughout the earth and here at this time, it's just kind of resting quietly.

I'm going to drop down to verse 15 here a little bit.

Now let me just read down through verse 15. Then the angel of the eternal answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you were angry these 70 years? So the setting is, you know, they're about to go back and they're going to go back and rebuild Jerusalem after the 70 years of exile. But this is a prophecy for the end times as well, right? Because God will move his headquarters, if you want to use that term, back to Jerusalem. You know, it's not in Jerusalem today. There's no churches of God in Jerusalem today, but God will bring that back when Jesus Christ returns. And the eternal answered, people who talked to me with good and comforting words, and he spoke with me saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, I'm zealous for Jerusalem. God was then and he still is. In fact, we're told, you know, pray for the peace of Jerusalem, because when peace comes to Jerusalem, it means Jesus Christ has returned, and that will be the place that people look to for the law. That's where they will flock to for the Feast of Tabernacles and to understand the way of God. I'm zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal. I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease, for I was a little angry, and they helped but with evil intent. Now that's an interesting thing that God says. I'm exceedingly angry with the nations at ease. And here in verse 11, as these horsemen go out through the earth, it says, we've walked through and behold, all the earth is resting quietly. Well, you can, you know, as you read through, as you read through the Bible commentary, you know, it'll say some things, but, you know, God has something to say about nations.

Right? I mean, we can read in Ezekiel 16 about Sodom, right, and Gomorrah. And we have like in Sodom and Gomorrah to those of us who live in America today, and we see us becoming more and more like Sodom and what? Well, let's turn back to Ezekiel 16. You're not just taking my word for it, but in Ezekiel 16, you know, we read about the iniquity of Sodom. And as we read about the iniquity of Sodom, you know, we can kind of see where we live in these verses. Ezekiel 16 verse 49 says, this was the iniquity of Sodom. Her daughter had pride, she and her daughter had fullness of food, and they had a life of ease. Now, who in the history of the earth has had more ease than you and me?

You know, who on earth has had more ease than us? We live in a time where life is just really comfortable. You know, we can push a button and get things done that took people hours, you know, to do in the past. They had fullness of food, they had abundance of idleness, and they didn't strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. Now, if we go forward to the book of Amos, you know, the prophecy of Amos, which we've talked about in church before, and it has—it's a history for ancient Israel, but it's a history for us as well. And Amos— Okay, I didn't write that, I just wrote down Amos, and let me see, I should be able to find it here in a second where I'm talking about.

Ah, Amos 6. Amos 6 verse 1. And woe to you who are at ease in Zion!

Woe to you who are at ease in Zion, and who trust in Mount Samaria, who trust in your government, who trust in the things of man rather than God, notable persons in the chief nation to whom the house of Israel comes. You know, so as God talks to the people of Israel, I mean, we see ourselves in chapter 6 here of 1, and we certainly are a people at ease. So when we read in Zechariah about God is looking at a people who are resting comfortably, there's nothing wrong with resting comfortably, but if we're at ease spiritually, if we've been lulled to sleep because if we're sleeping as Matthew 25 would indicate, you know, all the churches sleeping, half of them are more asleep than the others, solidly asleep, that can be reflective of a life of ease. When we get into the church at Laodicea, we'll see how a life of ease, having plenty and having a life that everything is kind of done for you and don't have to work for everything, it's just easy, kind of lull us to sleep. So when we look at Zechariah, you know, maybe, maybe, just maybe, you know, he's talking about his people and these horses, you know, whatever those horses mean, but you can, you can read the Bible commentary on that. But let me, another thing that I found interesting in that that you'll see there too is, is the myrtle trees, you know, over and over in these verses in Zechariah 1, we read about myrtle trees. And again, God doesn't put details in just because for no reason, there's things for us to look at. And among these myrtle trees, you know, we find other references in it. It's pointed out in the Bible commentary. If I wrote that down, or if I just made a note of it.

Oh, I know what I did. I've got something I can pull up. That's what I did. I've got a screen that I can pull up. Okay, so here's the, here's the commentary. Just copied it over from what you'll see as you go into it. And as you see there in Nehemiah 815, gotta get rid of some of the things that are blocking out me reading it. Did I print it off? Okay, Nehemiah 815.

Myrtle trees, which are evergreen, are associated with the Feast of Tabernacles for making booths.

And in Isaiah 41, 19, and 55, 13, they are included in the description of Messianic Kingdom blessing. So here, you know, you have God saying myrtle trees. I mean, they were important to Him. He talks about myrtle trees, and even in Isaiah, as you turn to those scriptures, you'll see He's talking about the time to come when Jesus Christ is back on earth, and myrtle trees are planted.

There's something that God is very interested in. They're, I guess, a symbol of peace or whatever they are. They're associated with the Feast of Tabernacles that we look forward to, and they're associated with the Messianic Kingdom blessing. So it's interesting as you read through this, and you see these little details. Just pause for a moment and say, why did God put that in there? What is He talking about? So when we read the book of Zechariah, we know, oh, it had a historic thing that people did come back, and they rebuilt the temple 70 years after their exile, but it is speaking clearly as you go through the book of the time of the return of Jesus Christ as well.

Well, let's go over to Zechariah 6.

Zechariah 6, and I'm going to leave this up on the screen here. Let's read through verses 1 and on through verse 6, I guess it is.

Zechariah 6, I turned and raised my eyes, and looked, and behold, four chariots were coming from between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of bronze. Now, as you go, as you go and you look at that Ucg Bible commentary, you will hear, you will read something about bronze and what it can signify in the Bible, right? So you get a vision of what God is talking about here as He puts these things in for us to dig out and get a vision of what He's talking about. With the first chariot were red horses, horses of war. With the second chariot, black horses. Now, in Revelation, those black horses are horses of famine. With the third chariot, white horses. So the order is a little bit different here in Zechariah, but here's these white horses that signify, you know, false religion in the first four seals, price later, with the third chariot, white horses, and with the fourth chariot, dappled horses, the pale horses, right? The pestilence. So, you know, as we look at those horses, they mirror pretty well what we just read in Revelation 6. So, as Zechariah was getting, you know, his vision from God of what to write, you know, he uses horses and he answers in verse 4 and says to the angel who talked with me, what are these? And the angel answered and said to me, these are four spirits of heaven who go out from their station before the Lord of all the earth. Then he gives some specifics. The one with the black horses goes to the north country, the white go after them, and the dappled go toward the south country. And so, you know, in that Bible commentary, it'll talk about, you know, what nations lie north of Jerusalem, what nations lie south of Jerusalem. You know, in the revelation it talks about these horses go out to the entire earth, not just certain sections, but these are horses that ride throughout the earth. But here, at this time, they have perhaps the same meaning, but they're, you know, they're assigned to various regions, if you will. I think that, um, let me go down here to Zechariah 6 and pull that up for you. Okay, yeah, you see that there at the bottom. It says, let's consider down under Zechariah 6, 1-8. Let's consider the horse-drawn chariots. The picture of red, black, white, and dappled horses in Zechariah 6 recalls the red, white, and brown horses of chapter 1 of Zechariah. Though similar, though, the images are not the same. The different colors in chapter 1 may have represented the different areas of oversight of some of God's angels and their reconnaissance of the nations, but the colors in chapter 6 seem to most closely resemble the colors of the horses in Revelation 6, white, red, black, and pale. And you can read through the the rest of it, but one thing I did want to point out, because, you know, we have white horses going out, or white horse going out, you know, in Revelation 6, and it represents false religion, yet Jesus Christ comes back on a white horse, and the armies in heaven accompany him on white horses. So what, you know, what is the meaning of that? Certainly the white horse that the false religion goes out under would indicate it's a counterfeit of the true religion, you know, making themselves appear that this is the truth, yet it is not the truth. And then Jesus Christ, you know, in the pure comes to, to, you know, to turn the earth. But, but I thought they made a very good point in the Bible commentary here, down on this paragraph that says, yet the angels of God, I'm sorry, I did not, actually, it's in the different colors in chapter 1. I didn't highlight that as I should have.

In the, this paragraph that says the different colors in chapter 1 down, the second sentence from the end of that paragraph, you know, he goes through and he talks about, you know, this, that white horse in Revelation, it goes out to conquer. It has a bow, and it goes out to conquer people. And, you know, and Jesus Christ, when he comes back, he comes out, he comes back to conquer people. There's a conquest, and the world, you know, falls prey to him, if you will. He conquers the earth and makes the kingdoms of the earth his. And there, the second fact, in the second sentence from the end of that paragraph is, in fact, white horse simply signifies conquest, as Christ himself arrives on a white horse in Revelation 19. In Revelation 6, it's false religion doing the conquering, and he went out conquering and to conquer, and yet in Revelation 19, Jesus Christ who's doing the conquering. So, you know, I think we can see the similarity there, and it bears, you know, some time for us, you know, to kind of look at Zechariah 1, look at Zechariah 6, and as we go through Revelation, we'll see other places in Zechariah where there's the same symbols that are there, and it would bear, do us well to spend some time on our own, or, you know, maybe if everyone wants, we spend a time in Zechariah here a few weeks down the road and just go through those things and talk about them, but I think with the help of the Bible commentary that we have on Zechariah, you know, you can kind of piece through some of those things, and it would be a very interesting Bible study, and what you learn or what you see, you know, we can come back and talk about next time as well.

Okay, any questions on that? Comments on that or anything?

Okay, what time do we have here? 2, 2 21. Let's go back to Revelation 6.

Well, you know what? I don't want to get into it. I don't want to do any more in Revelation 7. That's where I wanted to stop today. So actually, for a change, we're done a little bit early. So let me, let me, you've given me plenty of extra minutes here in the past. I'll give you a few extra minutes here today, and we'll begin with verse 9 and chapter 6 next time it talks about the the fifth seal and what all that means. But any discussion, comments about these first four seals that ride, you know, ride through the earth before the return of Jesus Christ? Any, anything at all? Any questions that we can answer or anything you've heard in the past? Anything I may have forgotten to say that, you know, that would lend some more, you know, understanding your insight into this? Mr. Shaby? Yes, Elaine? Yes, I would like to hear more about the tying in with the Zechariah, with Revelation. You know, I never really noticed that. I kind of, when you're reading it, but you're going in there for another reason. But the way you tied it in today was interesting. I'm going to go back over that again. But it would be interesting, I think, an interesting Bible study to just spend time on just that part alone. I would think others would be interested too. We may know that. Zechariah, you know, we have, we don't turn to Zechariah very much, but we do for certain, but it is very much aligned with Revelation. To not spend some time, even, you know, personally at least, looking at that and looking at the similarities, you know, it would do us good to do that. So, okay, I'll keep a note of that. And if more people would like that, maybe a few weeks down the road, we can dedicate some time, you know, to Zechariah. So Rick, Noreen here. Can you hear me? Yes, Noreen, how are you? Good. Yeah, I was just, I know you didn't want to spend time on Revelation 6.6, but when you finish that, since there's a famine and it talks about do not harm the oil and the wine, I was thinking maybe oil is used in different ways, but it's also food, wine also. I wonder if that could be something that wouldn't be harmed. It's already pre-existing that people have stored, and it could be used for trade or bartering or something like that.

It could be, you know. I didn't spend any time on that, but that would be, that would bear some, why does God say that? We know that oil, you know, yeah, you're right. Oil and wine, they're certainly symbols of things that we use those through the year, right? For oil, and we use the wine and Passover, and maybe there's some significance to that. They have a long shelf life also for food when you have that. Okay, good. That could well be. Anyone ever hear what that might be talking about there when it says don't harm the oil or wine? What the significance of that might be? That's a good thing to follow up on, I think so. Mr. Shavey? Yes. I was looking at some references for a white stone. One of the commentaries says that it can mean it probably has to do with an ancient customs of awarding white stone to the victors of athletic games, and the winner of the contest was awarded a white stone with his name inscribed on it, and this served as his ticket to a special award banquet. According to this, the Jesus promised the overcommerce entrance to the eternal victory celebration in heaven. Oh, there you go. The new name most likely refers to a Holy Spirit working on them. Well, that you know what? That's very good. That's very good. That would have been a common thing probably back then that people realized, yeah, that would be a good insight. That would be what, you know, that might be exactly what God was referring to because people understood exactly what that meant. When they had the victory, then they get the white stone with a new name on it. Very good. I didn't have any questions. I just wanted to say sorry if my microphone was unmuted.