The Curve of Forgetting

God is in those times when He's in our lives and we're dealing with challenges and other things. We do recognize God is there, so thank you so much for that. Appreciate, again, seeing all of you and being here despite the weather.

It is nice to be able to gather together on the Sabbath. It's nice to be able to be here and to worship our God together and to learn more about His way of life. So it's good to be here with all of you as well. Well, brethren, a number of years ago, I gave a sermon on the topic of New Year's celebrations.

And I came at the topic from the angle of that being something as a church that we used to teach more frequently and more strongly teach against. But over the past decades, it's become a topic that's not as frequently discussed. There's likely a variety of reasons for this, but as a result of it not being as frequently discussed or perhaps even as explicitly taught for a number of people, and particularly young people, there's begun to be more and more photos on social media of their New Year's celebrations. But as we began that message, I began to introduce the work of a German psychologist by the name of Herman Ebbinghaus.

He did his work in the late 1800s, and his big contribution to the world was his curve of forgetting. And basically, his research and his hypothesis, which was backed up by his work, is simple. After you introduce a topic of learning, as time progresses, the retention of that information is reduced through transience. In other words, as time goes on, you forget. You don't think about it. You lose it as time goes on.

It's kind of that natural forgetting of information that occurs with the passage of time. And what Ebbinghaus was able to show was that retained information halves approximately every day after it's been provided. So you learn something upfront. The next day, you'll remember about half of it. The next day, you'll remember about a quarter of what you originally remembered. And on it goes into what ultimately is an inverse exponential curve. Now, as part of the research, and what's interesting, he was also able to demonstrate that if that information was reviewed at regular intervals, then you would top that back up again.

And the curve of retention, or the curve of transience, so to speak, was slower. That the more you revisited it, the more you learned about it, the better you learned it upfront, the less you were going to lose over that length of time. And so if a person knew that topic really well initially, so for example, if they learned something inside and out initially, that they would have a lower rate of transience over time. But his research showed that regardless, there would be a loss of retention to some degree due to transience because of the passage of time.

Now, for the time, it was groundbreaking work. We kind of look at it and we go, duh! You know, of course you forget things as time goes on. It's just reality, right? We kind of look at that today, but in the late 1800s, people didn't understand as much as they understand today about memory.

They didn't understand as much as they do about how our brains operate. And so for a time, it was groundbreaking work and he did much of the testing on himself. And it formed really the foundation of educational learning and what we consider an education to be spiraling of curriculum. So the idea is you teach something, you go on to the next piece, you spiral back, you touch it again a couple of days later. You top off that information, you continue to teach something, you spiral back, you hit it again a couple of days later.

You just kind of keep topping it off until that stays, giving them new things to connect that understanding to. It's called spiraling of curriculum. You touch back onto those things and top up that retention. But the premise that I began that prior message with is where I want to pick up again with this one.

There are certain topics in the church that we used to teach a lot more frequently and a lot more strongly than we do today. Sometimes these topics have fallen by the wayside because as time has gone on, we've perhaps understood that concept a little more fully and we no longer address it in the same capacity as we once did.

But there are plenty of topics that we still believe that in a sense, in that way, are doctrines of the church that we simply don't discuss as often. As I mentioned before, the reasons for that are varied. Sometimes as a church we've evaluated those topics. We've determined we don't wish to continue teaching those things as doctrines. Sometimes we look over a landscape of a congregation and we determine that, well, we already know this. You know, people have been living this way of life for a really long time. We already know this and we don't necessarily address it in the same way that we did.

Sometimes we just prioritize certain topics over other topics because they're going to give you a greater bang for your buck, so to speak, in our Christianity.

Other times, maybe we don't address them as often because we're not as comfortable with them, right? There's a lot of reasons, but whatever the reason is, the net effect as the United Church of God celebrates 30 years as an organization on Pentecost this year is that if we haven't covered the topic regularly in the past 30 years locally, then many of the people in this room haven't heard it. Under the age of 30 have never heard it, if it's not been adequately covered in the past 30 years.

Ebbinghaus's work made it abundantly clear that those who have learned it, even for those who have, if it's not revisited at spaced intervals, begin to lose some of the finer points of the concept, and especially the details of that concept to transience.

When I gave that initial message, I had planned for it to be the first in a series of topics that I was going to go through on this concept. This idea of these things that we don't always discuss, things that have maybe fallen by the wayside a little bit, and to explore those topics more fully. And as often happens, other topics came up, other needs, other things, they needed to be addressed.

So I'd like to return to it today, and I'd like to give the second in that series. It's only been seven years since the last one, so if you want to dust off your notes, go ahead and flip back to what we... I'm kidding. Of course you don't have your notes. From seven years ago, we won't be picking right back up where we left off, but the reality is the concept of where we began with is the same.

The concept we're going to explore today, though, is the place of safety. And we're going to talk about some of the corresponding end-time events that are taking place in and around that time frame. We're going to address and we're going to explore some of the details that we know from Scripture regarding this particular prophesied event. And so the title of the message today is, The Curve of Forgetting the Place of Safety. Let's start today by turning over to Luke 21. We'll begin today by turning over to Luke 21.

The Gospel of Luke provides an eyewitness account of the events surrounding Christ's ministry. However, it's an eyewitness account through interviews and eyewitnesses. Okay, so it's an account from the individuals who were there. It was written for an individual named Theophilus, that Luke, ultimately through interviews and through discussions with people who experienced these things, pieced the events together, and it provides a slightly different perspective at times than maybe some of the other synoptic Gospels, but while still harmonizing with the totality of the other Gospel accounts.

But in Luke 21, we see Luke's treatment of the Olivet Prophecy. Luke 21, we'll see Luke's treatment of the Olivet Prophecy, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 8 of Luke 21. So if you would turn to Luke 21 and verse 8, we'll go ahead and pick it up there. Sorry, 5. Let's do 5. I love it when you...

I know you love it when I do that. Give you the one passage and then decide to go to 5, and now you have to try to take a 5 or an 8 and make it look like a 5. I know you can do it. I feel good about it. I know you can do it. You're used to this. Luke 21, verse 5, says, Then he said to them, Then he said to them, Then he said to them, Then he said to them, There will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences, and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.

But before all of these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and the prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. Therefore, settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all of your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death.

In verse 18 it says, You will be hated by all for my name's sake. And then he goes on in verse 18, But not a hair of your head shall be lost by your patience, possess your souls. So Christ here describes a time of trouble, a time of great trouble, that is to come. A time that is prophesied to come, in which nation is rising against nation. There will be wars, there will be threats of war. Kingdoms will rise against kingdoms. We'll see natural disasters, earthquakes, that will happen in various places, along with wars and famines and pestilences, causing a significant death toll.

But he also tells them that before all of this, before all of these things, which we recognize as part of the things leading up to the return of Jesus Christ, people will lay hands on the believers. They will persecute and they will deliver them up to magistrates, to religious leaders, to prisons. That the people of God will be given opportunity in those moments for testimony. He goes as far as saying that family members will turn on one another.

They'll be sold out by their own blood and hated for his namesake. But in verse 18, he says, Not a hair of your head shall be lost, by your patience possess your soul, that through it all God will be with them. He encourages them to endure, he encourages them to be steadfast. Then he goes on in verse 20. Verse 20, he says, But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know then that its desolation is near.

Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe to those who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days, for there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.

Verse 24, they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captive away into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles, until the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled. So these statements by Christ are prophetic in nature, which means that they are events that were going to take place in the future with certainty. So that's the one thing we need to... We begin looking at these things, we need to recognize these are prophecies coming straight from Christ himself. These are things that are going to happen. They're going to happen. Now, exactly how they're going to happen, well that's when you have interpretation and other things, but we know that these things are going to take place with certainty.

Prophecy by nature... Prophecy by nature has dual fulfillment. There's often a short-term or near-term fulfillment that takes place in prophetic statements. Those typically are for the benefit of the one listening to it in that moment in time. But then there are also long-term and latter fulfillments of these prophecies. In this section, corresponding passages in Matthew 24, it is speaking to a fulfillment at the time of the end, leading up to and including Christ's return. But we also see a partial fulfillment of these prophecies take place in 66 AD. So in 66 AD, beginning in the spring of that year, a series of clashes in Judea escalated into what would become the first Jewish-Roman war. So 66 AD, you had violent clashes taking place between Jews and Greeks in the city of Caesarea. They had retaliatory massacres taking place from the Roman prefect, which ultimately led Jewish rebels to set fire to the house of the high priest, to burn palaces of Agrippa and burn the palaces of his relatives, and then also they burned the public archives, which is where the debt and taxation records were kept. So they set fire to the public archives building as well. That contained the taxation and debt records. And then the rebels went on in 66 AD to capture the fortress Antonia. Fortress Antonia is a fort that is attached to the Temple Mount, where a Roman garrison was housed. When they captured the fort, they killed the Roman garrison inside. And so they occupied, they took occupation of the fortress Antonia, and then the rebels went on to execute the high priest and his brother. So in 66 AD, all these things took place in the spring of the year in 66 AD. In response, Rome besieged the city. So they sent 30,000 troops plus a general to besiege the city. The general's name was Cestus Gallus, and he came and he besieged Jerusalem. They were unable to breach the Temple Mount and get to the fortress Antonia where the stronghold was. And for some unknown reason, which is no one's certain of, Cestus ordered a retreat. So he decided, we can't get to the wall. We're done sieging. We're going home. And so he turned around, and ultimately he left, and his soldiers were overtaken, and he suffered significant losses. So sometime after this, in 66 AD, and ultimately the siege in 69 and 70 AD when Jerusalem was raised and the Temple was burned, the Church of God left Jerusalem for Pella. Okay, so they, while they were in the midst of the city, as it discusses here in this particular passage, when they were in the midst of the city, those who were in the midst of the city departed. Those who were in the midst of the city departed.

Eusebius, one of the historians of the first century records, or second century, sorry, the members of the Church in Jerusalem, he writes, were instructed by a prophecy, revealed to the leaders to abandon the city before the war and to take up residence in one of the cities of Perea, which was named Pella.

From Jerusalem, the followers of Christ migrated to Pella. Okay, so they left the city at that time. Now, they didn't flee in the sense of the word in verse 21. If you look at verse 21, it talks about a fleeing. It talks about a fleeing that they would ultimately do. The word means to escape. It means to run. It means to take flight in that sense. In that word, there's a sense of impending urgency, a sense of impending emergency, so to speak.

There was more of a migration. After Cestus Gallus left, after he ultimately retreated, what ended up happening was, Jerusalem was ruled by the Jews for a time. From 66 AD until about 68, 69, when Vespasian came back, they installed an institutional government. They kind of governed themselves. So these individuals that left between 66 and 70 and left for Pella, they migrated. They left. And it was the Church of God at that time.

It was the believers at that time, the primitive church that left, and that Eusebius records as leaving. In this, the Eclassia was to be protected from the destruction that was to come. They left before the big war that destroyed the city at that time, and they went out into the wilderness, into the area of Pella. Now, Pella is located kind of northeast of Jerusalem a little bit. It's on the other side of the Jordan, so it's actually in what is modern-day Jordan, just south of the Sea of Galilee.

So there's a city there called Pella, and it was that Pella, not the Grecian Pella that they went to. There's also a city in Greece called Pella, but the history seems to indicate they left and went to this Pella that was here in what is now Jordan. So in that process of leaving in the midst of these things, or in the midst of the city leaving after these things took place, they were protected from that destruction that was to come.

There's a second fulfillment of this prophecy that is fulfilled in a time leading up to the Great Tribulation. Go ahead and put a bookmark here. We're going to come back to this towards the end. Go to Matthew 24. Matthew 24. And we're going to pick it up in verse 15 of Matthew 24, because there's a second fulfillment of this that takes place in the time leading up to the Great Tribulation. Matthew 24 and verse 15, and we'll go ahead and read through verse 21.

Pardon me. Matthew 24 verse 15 says, Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, so again, this is another of these accounts that are parallel accounts, therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, and then it says, whoever reads, let him understand, then those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house.

Let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant, it says, and to those who are nursing babies in those days. Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath, for then there will be a Great Tribulation. Such has not been seen since the beginning of the world, until this time, nor ever shall be.

And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. The word that's used for flee here in Matthew 24 is the same Greek word in Luke 21. And the word translated flight later here, when it talks about prayer flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath, it's the same word. This particular one is not describing a migration. This is not describing a jaunt outward from Jerusalem into the surrounding areas. This is get out now. Don't look back. Don't go get anything.

Leave immediately. Now, had there been an abomination of desolations that had been set up before? Yes. But again, this is a prophetic statement. This is forward-looking. This is forward-looking. The example that we see here is a time shortly before Christ's return that is not describing a migration. It is not describing a time in which a group of individuals are leaving and heading to, for example, Pella. This is describing individuals who are truly fleeing. That when they are instructed, or they have been instructed, that when that abomination of desolation takes place, that those who are in Judea should flee to the surrounding mountains. They should leave everything. They shouldn't return home to gather their things.

They shouldn't go from the housetop to even pack their things. They should run. They should get out immediately. Now, this is speaking of those of God's people that are physically in the region of Judea. For those that are in that region, when these things take place, Christ says they need to get out. They need to head for the mountains. Now, it doesn't describe the mountains of Judea as their final destination. It doesn't say that. It does say, go to the mountains.

The reality is, in Judea, to get anywhere, you've got to go through the mountains. It's in that little bowl, sort of, as it's set up. There's mountains surrounding it. To get anywhere, you've got to go to the mountains.

So this may not be their final destination. They may be headed somewhere else, but they would need to go to those mountainous regions surrounding Judea first. Now, this is a true flight in the sense of the word. Notice the way the language is set up. He says, pray that it doesn't take place on the Sabbath.

Pray that it doesn't take place in the winter. Ultimately, it also says that a tribulation, like no other, is coming on the heels of the setting up of that abomination of desolation. They don't want to be anywhere near Jerusalem when that happens.

So this is speaking to something in the future. Now, there was a partial fulfillment of this prophecy in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 in the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. During that time, you had Roman soldiers trotting the temple grounds, slaying people on the temple grounds. You had all these horrible things happening at that time taking place.

So that is a partial fulfillment in a near-term, short-term of this. But Christ's words in the Olivet prophecy are pointing towards a time of great tribulation. And he goes as far as saying that it's a time such as never been seen before and will never be seen again. And Christ's own words say that unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. Humanity would cease to exist unless God were to shorten those days.

And he says, for the elect's sake, for you and I, for those whom God has called at this time, those days will be shortened. God will enable mankind to survive. And as horrible, as horrible as the events of 70 AD were, there is a future fulfillment in this passage. There is a time coming in which God's people dwelling in this region will need to flee as a result of what is taking place in Jerusalem in the years leading up to Christ's return and the time at the beginning of that great tribulation. There is a need for protection of God's people during this time of tribulation, regardless of where they are, whether they are regional to Judea, whether they are somewhere around the world, and that protection that God provides is outlined in the book of Revelation as well.

Turn to Revelation 12. Once we reach this particular point in God's plan, Satan's time is short. And Satan knows that his time is short. Revelation 12 goes on to describe Satan's great wrath with God, with the people of God, with the church, because he knows he only has a short time remaining. I don't know if you've ever cornered an angry animal before. Anybody ever done that?

You get something that's really mad into a corner, and they will fight with every ounce. I see Carol Griffith shaking her head. She grooms animals. She knows exactly what that is. She knows exactly what that looks like. But you get an animal that does not want you anywhere near it into a corner, and it feels threatened.

It will pull out every possible stop. It will do as much damage as humanly possible to protect itself. And in that sense, that is the position that Satan finds himself in when he is, at this time, in which his time is short. He is a cornered animal in that sense. And he will do everything in his power to do as much damage and as angry and wrathful and warring as humanly possible during that short period of time that he has.

Revelation 12 and verse 13 kind of brings this to bear. Revelation 12 and verse 13. Revelation 12 and verse 13 says, The woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for time, times, and a half a time from the presence of the serpent. And so the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.

But the earth helped the woman. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of its mouth. Verse 17, the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God, and who have the testimony of Jesus Christ. So Satan, enraged with the people of God, has been making war with them for millennia. Since the beginning, in the garden, there has been enmity between the woman and her descendants and the serpent.

We've been over this, the protoevangelium recently. Between the offspring of this woman and the serpent, we see the serpent would strike his heel, referring to Messiah, and the Messiah would ultimately crush his head. This is the enmity that has existed and has been going on since that time. And ever since that point, Satan has been at war with the people of God. He has been at war with the people of God.

And he has inspired and caused persecutions and difficult times for believers for many, many, many years. In Revelation 12, we see that there is protection that is provided to God's people in the wilderness.

We see protection that is provided to God's people in the wilderness. And this prophecy has dual fulfillment as well. Like most prophecies have dual fulfillment, this one does as well. Numbers 14 and verse 34, and you can jot that in your notes if you'd like, Numbers 14 and verse 34, as well as Ezekiel 4 and verse 5. Ezekiel 4 and verse 5 and Numbers 14 and verse 34 establish prophetic principles that we can use to interpret prophecy. It's something that we see God utilize in the Old Testament. In the case of these two passages, this is the year for a day principle.

This is the year for a day principle. And in Numbers, Israel was given a year of punishment for each day that they spied out the land of Canaan. So they spent 40 days spying out the land of Canaan. They came back, they rebelled against Moses, they rebelled against Caleb and Joshua. And God said, all right, one day for one year for every day that you spent spying out the land.

In Ezekiel 4 and verse 5, we see Ezekiel bearing 390 years of sin for Israel in the number of days that he was told to lay on his left side. Aspie rough, by the way, being laying on your left side for that length of time. And then again on his right side, 40 days for 40 years of sin.

And so we see this pretty regularly throughout the Old Testament. We also recognize the concept of time, times, and half a time, as described in Revelation 12 and verse 14, for the period of time that the woman would be nourished. That is recognized by virtually all biblical scholars.

That includes out there in the world around us today, virtually all biblical scholars as referencing a period of three and one half years. Time, one year, times two years for three, and a half a time for half. So three and a half years, which, as you will recognize, is the time of the Great Tribulation. It's the time of all these other aspects that we see happening at the time of the end.

The Jewish calendar contains 12 months with 30 days per month. So if you take a time, times, and a half a time and you add it all up, you get 1260 days. So with the day-for-a-year principle, you get 1260 years of persecution of the woman, which commonly is considered in Scripture to be the church, to be the ecclesia of God.

For much of their time in the early church, the brethren enjoyed relative peace. Throughout most of the end of the first century in particular, they enjoyed relative peace. That peace was punctuated by periodic persecution. It would come up for a few years, and then it would go away, and they'd have relative peace again.

Then it would come up, and it would go away, and they'd have relative peace again. The first one was during Claudius' reign in 44 AD, when James was killed. They seized James, they seized Peter, Peter got away, James got killed. Later, we see Paul and Peter killed by Nero during the persecutions that took place during the mid-60s AD. Then the last portion of that in the first century was John, and the Apostle John in his experience under Emperor Demetrian. Emperor Demetrian persecuted John, exiled him to Patmos, tried to have him killed. There was a whole drama that went on with that. John survived.

Ultimately, the believers were persecuted throughout that time period as well. These times of persecution would come and they would go. They would rise and they would fall. But in the 300s AD, that changed. That changed pretty significantly, actually. In the 300s AD, during the time of Emperor Diocletian, a series of edicts were issued that revoked the rights and freedoms of Christians. Complete and total. Revoking the rights and freedoms of Christians. He burned churches. He burned collections of scriptures. He tortured and executed believers. By 325, when the Council of Nicaea took place and Christianity was adopted by Rome as the official religion of Rome, so to speak, along with all the counterfeiting that took place going into that, what happened in 325 was the persecution of believers ran them out of city centers.

It ran them into the fringes, out into the wilderness, to be able to continue to do what they did and to worship God in the way that they did. And for an early part of this period, history records that the primitive church was found in the areas surrounding Eastern Turkey. So they left some of these major centers. They went out into the areas surrounding Eastern Turkey. And as time went on, subsequent persecutions and movements moved them to be scattered throughout Europe. Mostly in mountains and valleys away from centers of population.

For 1,260 years, again a day for a year, for 1,260 years following the Council of Nicaea, Catholicism reigned in Europe. Catholicism was the primary language on the European continent for 1,260 years.

But in 1585, 1,260 years later, that all changed. In 1585, we had the opening salvo of the Anglo-Spanish War. For those of you that are big on medieval history, in the mid-1580s we have Elizabeth I as the Queen of England. Her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, was her primary rival for the throne.

Elizabeth was an adherent to Protestant thinking, which the Reformation had taken place just 60 years earlier, early 1500s. And Mary was a staunch Catholic. Staunch Catholic. And so, the question now becomes, will the Queen of England bring Catholicism to England, or maintain this movement of Protestantism which had been taking place to that point? William Tyndale, for example, had translated the Bible into English at that point and was killed for it. There were a number of things taking place in those 1500s leading up to this. But Elizabeth I uncovered a plot in the mid-1580s for the throne by Mary. Actually, her spymaster uncovered that plot, and ultimately Mary was executed. Now, because of that, the Spanish Armada sailed for England to come and take over England. And ultimately, in 1588, that Armada was defeated by the English Navy, and all hopes for the Spanish and that Catholic faith to continue its hold on England was dashed. England became a center of Protestantism. Suddenly now, it's not just out in the wilds anymore. There's a whole country that is protected by a naval fleet, that is protected by an army, that is protected by other lands as that empire built more and more and more power. More and more power. But all of that began 1260 years after 325 AD in the Council of Nicaea. And when that took place, Protestantism and the ultimate understanding of the way of God through that process, led to what we have today. England became that center, and that was protected through that. They went on to become a significant empire after the defeat of the Spanish. They would possess the gates of their enemy as prophesied to Abraham. They would become a multitude of nations. They would become an empire upon which the sun would not set for centuries. Now that's changed. You know, Britain has given up many of those territories. Independence has been fought, and Britain is not near the empire that it once was. It is now his brother's turn to be on the scene.

But for 1260 years, the Church of God was relegated to the wilderness, until that stranglehold that Catholicism had on the European continent was broken. Revelation 12 and verse 13, we see that it's not just a near-term, short-term, you know, near-future fulfillment of this particular prophecy. There's also a future fulfillment to this prophecy that takes place. Again, Revelation 12 and verse 13, Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time, times, and a half a time, from the presence of the serpent. This timeline of this passage in Revelation 12 is right around the point of the fifth seal. It's right around the point of the fifth seal. It seems at least while the events of the first four seals cause death and destruction, as these four horsemen ride, as the war and famine and pestilence and all these things take place, it's not fully until, really, what we see in the fifth seal that it begins to significantly touch the people of God. You can jot Matthew 24, verses 4 through 8 in your notes, if you would like. We'll reference it. We won't turn there. Matthew 24, verses 4 through 8, it is in that place that Christ describes the events of these horsemen, the wars and the famines and the pestilence and the false christs, these things that would be going outward as part of the opening of these first four seals. And then, Revelation 6 and verse 9, in Matthew 24, verses 9 through 14, it shifts to a significantly larger impact on the people of God directly. Again, that's Matthew 24, verses 9 through 14, and then Revelation 6 and verse 9. We'll turn to Revelation 6 and verse 9 because it records this tribulation and it records the events of this fifth seal. Revelation 6 and verse 9 says, When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. These are the people of God.

They cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Then a white robe was given to each of them. It was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed, as they were, was completed.

So there's a number, it seems here, that ultimately there is a process that they are waiting for. But what we see in this passage, ultimately, and in this passage in Revelation 12, is that there is divine protection that is provided for a portion of the Eclassia during this three and a half year time period of the Great Tribulation. Revelation 12 and verse 14 will draw your attention back to there, says, The woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent.

Now, in this passage, we learn several things that we need to understand to understand this concept. Number one, the woman is described as flying. Okay, and you're kind of like, oh great, what does that mean? She's described as flying. And the Greek word in this passage literally means fly. Okay, it does not figuratively or metaphorically mean fly, it literally means fly. The word in Greek is pedamai, and it's what references birds, you know, flying, etc. The woman was given the wings, two great wings of an eagle, and some have theorized air travel, you know, flying from wherever they might be to other places in the world, you know, kind of theorize those things.

One thing to think about is that God talks about how he bore Israel on eagles wings out of Egypt. Well, they walked. They did not fly. So just keep that in mind as we're thinking about this. While, yes, pedamai literally means flight, God has bore his people on eagles wings before, and they hoofed it the whole entire way. So just FYI on that. But number one, we see the woman is described as flying.

Number two, the place that she is described as going to is described as wilderness. It is described as wilderness. This is not a city center. This is not an urban area. It is described as wilderness. This word indicates a place that is sparsely populated, that is isolated, and is away from population centers. Okay? So this is not, you know, all of a sudden the place of safety is going to happen somewhere in downtown Portland, and this, you know, bubble is going to take place.

It's kind of a wilderness in downtown Portland, to be honest. So maybe, no. This is speaking of isolated, sparsely populated areas, wilderness. Okay? So the place that she flies to is described as wilderness. Thirdly, the place that she is headed to is referred to as her place. There's a sense of ownership here. There's a sense of possession here. Now, additionally, and this is important, this term is singular. It is not plural. It is not saying places of safety. It is saying one singular place of safety. That's what it's saying here.

It's a singular term. It indicates a specific place, not a multitude of places. Some have said, well, God can protect somebody wherever they are, and so in that sense, everywhere is a place of safety. Yes, God can, but what we see is God say that He is going to protect a portion of His people in this way. That's what we see, and that's what we're looking at.

Number four. In this place, she is nourished. She is fed, and she is protected. The woman here. Nourishment here is both physical and spiritual, and for the three and one-half years of the Great Tribulation, God's people in this portion of the Church of God is cared for, is protected, and is provided for outside of Satan's reach. So it's outside of Satan's ability to get to them, due to the protection that God is providing.

Now, verse 17 of Revelation 12. Verse 17 of Revelation 12 indicates that there are others who, for whatever reason, are not a part of this group. Revelation 12 and verse 17 says, there are others who, for whatever reason, are not a part of this group. The language says as follows. Revelation 12 and verse 17. After talking about the woman flying away here to this place in the wilderness, it says, The dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

So these people, these individuals, are people of the Church, part of the Ekklesia. They are her offspring in that sense, the offspring of the woman. These individuals keep the commandments of God, and they have the testimony of Jesus Christ. So I think it's important that we recognize they are not being described as second-class citizens in this sense, or second-class Christians in this sense. These individuals keep the commandments.

It says they have the testimony. And the reason that they're not included in this group is not 100% clear. Now, some have theorized. So just there are theories out there as to why one would be in one group and not the other. I will throw these out to you. Some have said that these are individuals who perhaps did not appropriately sigh and cry over the sins of the world and did not receive the mark of God, as is described in Ezekiel 9, right? So he sent the angel out to go mark all those who sighed and cried over the abominations of the world. Some have said, well, these individuals who are going to the place of safety are those who have received that mark.

Those that are not are the ones who are not. So that's one explanation. Another or other explanations is that these are individuals who did not persevere and did not maintain the zeal of the Philadelphian church and therefore were ultimately not protected. And that's in Revelation 3 and verse 10, where he talks about the protection for those who persevere and to ultimately maintain that zeal. Another option is in Zephaniah 2 and verse 3, that these are individuals that didn't seek the Lord, didn't uphold his justice, seek righteousness, or humility. Now the challenge to those interpretations, the challenge to those interpretations, is that verse 17 clearly states that these individuals keep the commandments of God and they have the testimony of Christ.

In Hebrews 11, those who were martyred didn't have less faith than those who were miraculously delivered. In fact, I would argue that at times, it takes a far stronger faith to face the acts and lose your life over it, trusting in God and his promises, than it does to experience a miraculous deliverance. But, Luke 21, verses 34 to 35, we left a bookmark in Luke 21, go ahead and head back to Luke 21. 34 and 35 does contain a clue, as Christ concludes his words to his disciples, on the events that were to come, and it's a warning for all of us as disciples of Christ to ensure that we are doing our part.

Luke 21, it's in verses 34 and 35. Luke 21, verses 34 and 35. Luke 21, in verse 34, says, Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that day come on you unexpectedly, the day of Christ's return here, come on you unexpectedly, that day of the Lord.

For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth, it says. Verse 36, Watch therefore, and pray always, that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man. Okay, so Luke 21, verses 34 and 35. Based on Christ's words here, it appears that we need to take extreme care in our lives, not to allow the cares of this life, not to allow carousing and drunkenness or apathetic and laissez-faire attitudes of, you know, well, the time is still a long ways off, I got plenty of time to get it and get it in gear.

We can't allow those to take root in our lives, then the cares of this life, carousing and drunkenness end up coming into play. Instead, Luke indicates here, in Christ's words seem to indicate, that we need to recognize the urgency of these times, that we need to watch, that we need to be alert, we need to be awake, we need to be vigilant, on the lookout that word means, and living our lives accordingly, praying that we might be counted worthy to escape these things to come.

Now, it's really important to consider that in the context of this passage, none of us are worthy in and of ourselves. Okay, so we need to make that abundantly clear, too. Our worth comes through Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ who will declare us worthy, provided we are dwelling richly in Him, provided we are allowing His nature to dwell in our lives, and we're serving others, we're praying, we're studying, we're building that relationship with God, growing closer to Him and the Father, that we can have a strong relationship with Him both.

It is through that which our worth comes, through that relationship that we have with God and them declaring us worthy. But if we don't do these things, then these passages seem to indicate that even though we keep the commandments, even though we have the testimony of Christ, that we might not just experience persecution for our beliefs, but we might find ourselves on the forefront of the war with Satan during that three-and-a-half-year time period. Now, there's perhaps another reason that someone might not be there. There's an interesting account in Josephus' book, The War of the Jews.

The War of the Jews, it's in the fifth chapter of Book 6. And it speaks of the many signs that came before the final destruction of Jerusalem. And there were the destruction that took place in 70 AD. Sorry, not the final destruction, but the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

And the description that he has are signs in the heavens, and signs of this, and prophets that would come and say, whoa to Jerusalem, whoa to Jerusalem, and then they wouldn't listen. And then he records the final thing. He says, of those many signs, one described a sound that was heard by many during the evening hours of the day of Pentecost before the temple was raised.

And this is Josephus' words. He says, Moreover, at that feast, which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner court of the temple, as their custom was to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that in the first place they felt a quaking. They heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude saying, let us remove hence. Heard a voice saying, get out, basically. That's what Josephus records as being told to him by these individuals.

Is it possible that God will utilize a similar notification for his people? Is it possible that some won't listen, won't believe, won't hear it, won't see it, won't see the signs or won't believe the things they see? Because those individuals who heard that, they didn't leave. And the temple was attacked, and the temple was raised, and the temple was burned just like they said it was going to happen.

Is it possible that some simply won't be able to make the journey? Physically, won't be able to make the journey? It's possible that could result in some of the ecclesia remaining behind and experiencing a persecution and martyrdom that is to come. This concept of a place of safety, this doctrine of a place of safety, a place of protection for the people of God during the time of the tribulation, has been a teaching of the Church of God going back many decades.

Those of you that have been around a long time, you've heard this before. The first mention of this doctrine in writing comes from an article in the Plain Truth magazine in 1942 entitled, A Heart-to-Heart Talk with the Editor. In that article, Mr. Armstrong stated the following. He said, He says, He says, He says, Some of us believe that we are beginning to receive rays of light on this vital subject, light on the place that we shall go, how we shall get there, as revealed in these marvelous prophecies.

When God removes those accounted worthy to escape, there shall come a time of famine, not of bread, but of hearing the words of the Eternal. It was in the March-April 1942 Plain Truth on page 4. So as early as 1942, this topic and this doctrine was being fleshed out. It was on the mind of Mr. Armstrong and others in the Church at that time. It was not yet fully fleshed out. You notice he says, we're beginning to receive rays of light on this topic. It wasn't fully fleshed out, but it was something that they were exploring and learning about, but was beginning to be studied further.

He gave a sermon on the topic at the Feast of Tabernacles in 1955, and based on a handful of passages and historical references, there were a number who believed and taught that the location of the place of safety would be Petra. And you've been around the Church for any length of time, you have heard that, right? You've heard that the location would be Petra. Interestingly, there's a gentleman named William E. Blackstone, who wrote a book titled Jesus is Coming Soon back in 1908, and he believed the same.

He actually believed that Petra was the location of a place of safety, and he undertook an interesting endeavor. Before his death, he claimed that he had a revelation that the fleeing Jewish people at the time of the end would find refuge in the dens and caves of the mountains around Petra. So in 1935, at his own expense, he raided a $5 million trust fund. He bought a pile of Hebrew Bibles and encased them in boxes of copper.

Of those Hebrew Bibles, he went through and marked out passages— he and a group of people marked out passages, because the Bible's in Hebrew—marked out areas that went through and showed the lineage of Christ, showed the work and the deception of the Antichrist, and how they were deceived from seeing the true Messiah, put them in these copper boxes, and sealed them into cliffs that were carved out in the area of Petra. Kind of interesting. Just kind of an aside. William Blackstone did that. Mr. Armstrong, his wife Loma, and his son Richard traveled to Petra in 1956.

They took a trip to Petra. He wrote the following in a co-worker and donor letter in May of 1956. He said, and that's that classic picture of Petra that you've seen, these cliff pieces and the wavy rock as you go into Petra. Mrs. Armstrong, Loma, had a difficult time while she was in Petra. The first night that they were there, she refused to eat the food for fear of becoming ill. She ate an orange that had been given to her earlier, and because of the extreme cold, she went to bed early in one of the caves.

She wrote in her diary, which was published in November of 1956, in the Plain Truth, she wrote, with hunger and cold, I began to see that Petra was no bed of roses, but a place to really rough it. Dr. Herman Hay was really the one who developed the prophesied place of escape as being Petra. It was really his development of this.

He had took a trip, along with Mr. Meredith, to Petra in July of 1957, and in an article in the Good News magazine of January of 1958, he wrote the following. We do not yet know absolutely where the prophesied place of escape may be, but the recent trips to Petra have led to uncovering important new Biblical evidence, strongly indicating Petra to be the probable place of safety.

He would go on to write a number of articles that advocated for Petra as the place of safety throughout the late 1950s, 60s, and 70s, such that, growing up in the church, what I heard over and over was Petra is the place of safety. That's what I heard as a child growing up in the church.

It needs to be made clear. The Bible does not indicate, with 100% clarity, where the place of safety is. What we can see from Scripture is that during the time of the Great Tribulation, a portion of the church will be protected in a location in the wilderness.

They will be nourished by God. They will be protected by Satan for a period of three and a half years, while their brethren, their brothers and sisters, experience martyrdom and persecution at the hands of Satan and his forces. This is not a metaphorical location. It appears scripturally to be referring to a physical location where these things are taking place. In no place, outside of a few passages in Isaiah, which provide some hints, maybe, and some possibilities, does the Bible explicitly name Petra as the location of the place of safety? Could it be? Certainly. Certainly could be. Sure, could be. And an argument from those passages in Isaiah can be made and has been made. But it could just as easily be any isolated location where God chooses to nourish and protect his people for that time. In fact, Mr. Armstrong stated the following in the pastor's report in June of 1978. Speaking of a place of safety, he wrote the following. Now, where is this place? That's been a great contention. I used to preach the possibility that it would be at Petra. Well, I don't know that it will be at Petra. And I never said that I knew that it would be. But others say, well, that's something that we can get back at Herbert Armstrong. Let's just say he was wrong about that. And some very high in the church were saying, that is a lot of rubbish and hodgepodge. He says, I do not know whether it is in Petra. He says, I say to you now, I don't know whether it's in Petra. I don't know where it is or where it will be, but I do know that God knows. I do know this much. There are indications that it is Petra. And if it isn't Petra, then the Bible gives us absolutely no indication of where it will be. Now, I'll stand my ground with that, and any of you who want to can come and face me with it. In any case, he says, I've been to Petra, and it's not a very pleasant place to be. So, if it were to be Petra, if it were to be Petra, it will take God making that area habitable for his people. Ample water and provisions, protection from the elements, all would be necessary, which we know God is perfectly capable of doing. Perhaps he will feed his people with manna again for a time. Perhaps water will come from the rock again for a time. We don't know. There's a lot of ways he could go about this. But something for all of us to consider, and this is important, just because this is a place of safety, it is not yet the kingdom of God. It is not yet the kingdom of God. The place of safety will be a place of protection. It will be a place of safety. It will be a place of nourishment of God's people. But those who will be gathered there have not yet endured to the end. They will need to continue to endure to the end for another three and one half years. And while that protection of God will stay Satan's hand, we are unfortunately still painfully human.

Right now, in our converted state, we struggle to get along with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Right now, in our converted state, we struggle at times to abide in peace with a converted spouse. We struggle with our own desires. We struggle with our own wants and needs. And when you inject the potential for discomfort and challenge and trial and difficulty, that is a recipe for carnality.

Even in the place of safety, a person could lose out on salvation as a result of their choices. Just making it to the place of safety doesn't mean you've made it. That needs to be made abundantly clear, which is one of the reasons, brethren, why I don't speak as often and as frequently on prophetic topics. I tend to focus more on Christian living. Prophecy is important to understand. It is. It's important to review. It's important to know what's going on. But, brethren, at times in the church, we conflate our understanding of prophecy with righteousness. We determine that because we know and because we have that truth, because we understand prophetic events, we are therefore the people of God and we have it in the bag. And, brethren, that is simply not true. It's simply not true. Knowledge is important. 100% knowledge is important. But Paul wrote, knowledge puffs up. Understanding these things is necessary, but if that understanding isn't translated to action, and it's not translated to living more fully like God and his Son, loving others, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13, then none of it matters. Prophecy is nothing if we have not love, Paul wrote, right? Paul writes in Romans 8, verses 12 to 14, that if by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body you will live, and he goes on to say that those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Allowing the Spirit of God to lead us, allowing the expression of the fruits of that Spirit in our lives is critical. The expression of those fruits, the expression of Christ dwelling richly in us, the very nature of God within us, is righteousness. It is the truest expression of our faith.

I'd like to turn to Isaiah 57 for one final passage here today. Any discussion on the place of safety would be bereft without mentioning this passage. Isaiah 57, we're going to read verses 1 and 2. We read this passage at the funerals and the memorials of our brothers and our sisters. Isaiah 57, verses 1 and 2. Isaiah 57 and verse 1 says, The righteous perishes, and no man takes it to heart. Merciful men are taken away while no one considers that the righteous is taken away from evil. He shall enter into peace. They shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness. Death is a merciful sheltering of God's people. Those who have died, they will no longer experience the challenges of this life. They'll no longer experience evil and decline of a wicked world that is continuing to decline in morality. Death is not the place of safety. However, in a way, it is a place of safety. There are so many of our brethren who have come before us, who are now gone, who are resting, sleeping in their beds, walking in their uprightness, so to speak, as the passage says, awaiting the resurrection of the dead.

Sheltered at this time, and not having to experience any of what is to come. Herman Ebbinghaus' research in the late 1800s illustrated that individuals will forget the details of a specific topic at a very specific fixed rate of transience. That only through repetition can you lengthen that curve and can you keep that retained information for a longer period of time. The doctrine of the place of safety is a teaching that we used to discuss. We used to teach a lot more frequently. It's one that is worth taking time periodically to review, to reteach, so that the next generation can learn about that, and that prior generations can refresh the specifics and the details. What we see in Scripture is that God will protect what appears to be a portion of His people in a place in the wilderness. He's done this before. He has done this before. He's done it when the people of Israel left Egypt into the wilderness. The people of Jerusalem left during the mid-60s and migrated to Pella. The people of Judea will flee to the mountains when the abomination of desolation is set up in Jerusalem. The Church of God was protected in the wilderness for 1260 years from persecution from the Catholic Church before the British Empire eventually overtook the Spanish and became a world power. He will do it again around the events of this fifth seal. He will protect a group of believers from the rage and the war of Satan. Those individuals will fly, or potentially walk, on wings of eagles to a place that is prepared for them. They will be nourished. They will be protected in that place for three and a half years during the events of the Great Tribulation. Luke records that we, as brethren, as believers, should pray that we be counted worthy to escape these things. That we need to be building, at this time, a strong relationship with God, a relationship that is based on obedience and submission to Him. These things, they cannot just be things that we understand and that we know, they must extend from us to action. They must become not just what we know, but what we do, knowing and doing what God requires of each and every one of us. There is a place of safety. And while it is possible that this place is Petra, that is not 100% certain from Scripture. God knows the location, and when the time comes, He will provide the place. He will call His people to it to be protected and nourished for the time, times, and a half a time. As His people, let us watch. Let us remain vigilant. Let us remain alert and awake. Let us continue to grow in godly character, preaching the Gospel of the coming Kingdom to the world as a witness.