The Feast of Trumpets

Thank you to the Garden Grove Choir for that wonderful selection. So inspiring, and we're very honored to have such a wonderful choir as we do. Over 20 I counted, so quite a nice projection of the different voices. Very beautiful number. I do have one final announcement. I just noticed here this is from Charles Melere, who is the information officer for the Feast of Tabernacles. He says, taking personal hymnals to the feast. Most feast sites in the U.S. will be projecting the hymns onto a large screen. However, sometimes the view can be obstructed. It is recommended that members take their personal hymnals to the Feast of Tabernacles. Regardless, of whether you are going to your assigned site transferring within the U.S. or going to an international site. Nevertheless, some members want to pack as light as possible. If you're attending Escondido, Panama City Beach, or Bend Redmond, you need to take your personal hymnal.

As Escondido, Panama City Beach, or Bend Redmond will not be projecting the hymns.

All other U.S. sites will be projecting the hymns onto a large screen. So for Maui, those that are going, we will be projecting the hymns. So it won't be necessary to take hymnals along, but since many here go to Escondido, please take your green hymnal with you. That'll be a big help.

This morning, we heard how the Feast of Trumpets represents Christ's coming.

Now we want to focus on the events of that coming, not to be lulled into a sense of complacency.

One of the famous philosophers of the 20th century, George Santayana, once said, he who forgets the past is condemned to repeat it. And so we need to learn the lessons of the past so we don't repeat the same mistakes. And we do have wonderful truths about the Feast of Trumpets that all around the earth, as you've seen walking around, people are just going about their business.

And yet here's this small group who's being educated through God's Word on the meaning of this day, the importance it has, and also that this day opens certain understanding in the Bible that you would not otherwise have.

So let's go to Matthew 24, because I think most of you are familiar. We used to have a booklet called The Book of Revelation, revealed at last or unveiled at last. We have one now. The UCG Church has one which has to do with the Book of Revelation and also unveiled at last.

And in Matthew 24, we find the key to interpreting the Book of Revelation. This is something that many churches are not aware of. And so, basically, you can hear all kinds of talks about the Book of Revelation, and they're all over the map because they don't have a point of reference. They don't have something which is able to maintain everything in its proper order. One of the great truths that we discovered, and this was through the years, and Mr. Armstrong certainly was used by God, not to reveal new truths as such, but to be able to understand the truths and show them to us in the Bible itself.

Now, Mr. Armstrong did not come up with one new doctrine in the church. All he did was, through God, he showed us where these doctrines are in the Bible. And so, one of the things that Mr. Armstrong realized was that Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, which is called the Olivet Prophecy, because it was one of the last prophecies that Jesus Christ gave on the Mount of Olives. Now, Jesus Christ would, some 70 years later, reveal to John the Apostle on the island of Patmos what the Book of Revelation would eventually be written down.

But Jesus Christ, in that Mount of Olivet Prophecy, gave the framework for which the Book of Revelation is an elaboration and a filling in of the details of what he originally said. So, just to give you a fancy word, what scholars and historians, they have a word which is synchronicity, which means when you can synchronize two historical events. For instance, in the Bible, they have the invasion of the Pharaoh Sorek who came in during the time of Solomon, and he invaded that area of the earth.

Well, the Assyrians also talk about the same Pharaoh that invaded that area. So, we have around the year 860 two events. The Egyptians talk about it, the Bible talks about it, and the Assyrians talk about it. So, that is a point of reference they have there in history. So, then you can go up history or you can come down, but that is one where you have several reference points. Well, we have a reference point regarding the book of Revelation, and that is what Christ talked about in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21.

They're the same prophecy in three of the Gospels, and it produces synchronicity because you see the same events that Christ talks here in the book of Revelation. So, we don't have to be out here all over the map trying to interpret things because we have a point of reference. So, let's look at that point of reference real quickly in Matthew 24, verses 1. We already talked a little bit, but I want to go into detail.

Matthew 24 verse 1, Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. So, Jesus Christ departed, as we can see in verse 3, now He sat on the Mount of Olives. And so, the Mount of Olives overlooks the temple area. And so, He came out and He walked up, and His disciples looked at this beautiful temple area, which King Herod had actually enlarged.

And it took 40 years or so to construct what used to be the temple area. King Herod doubled the platform so He could build many more buildings. And they were made of marble. They were just exquisitely... They said that when the sun in the morning would shine upon that area of the temple mount, you could not look at it straight, because the gleam was so strong, hitting those white rocks, it would come back.

It would just be emblazoned in sunlight. And they had a lot of gold as well. So, His disciples looked... They showed them this temple area. The buildings, they were very impressed.

You can imagine the shocked look when He said to them in verse 2, and Jesus said to them, do you not see all these things? Look at all these things that Herod had spent decades.

And actually, it was way beyond the time of King Herod. King Herod started expanding that temple mount like 20... It was no, like 10 BC. And they actually took all the way to the time of around the 60s, before they finally had the thing totally completed. Well, this was in the 30s AD.

They had built the great majority, and so they were impressed. It's just like you go to maybe Washington, DC, and you see all of these wonderful monuments. They were very proud of the Jerusalem sites. And then Jesus said to them, do you not see all these things?

Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down. Now, that is a prophecy that was fulfilled, because in the year 70 AD, the Romans stormed that area, the temple mount, and they set it afire. And of course, there's a lot of wood, because the interior of the buildings, and there was so much gold in that area that it said that when it started alighting, and the fires, and the flames, it got so hot that the gold melted off the buildings. They just, it just dripped over into the platform area. And what did the Roman soldiers do? They were so greedy that they actually pulled all the stones apart. So if you go to Jerusalem now, all you find is a temple mount, because everything on top of it was completely removed, one stone after another, which is not usually the case. You usually leave ruins. But where there was gold involved, they wanted to get the last bit of gold that had melted like a liquid river onto that whole area. And so it has been fulfilled. How did he know this? Well, he was God in the flesh, because nobody could imagine. And you can see the shocked look on these disciples saying all of this beautiful building, and the temple, God's holy temple, and everything that's inside, all of it is going to perish. Of course, they wanted to know more. And so they asked him in verse 3, Now as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? So they asked them three things. First of all, when is Jerusalem going to be destroyed this way?

And then, what will be the sign of your coming? How are we going to know when you come? What are going to be the signs? And finally, end of the end of the age. Now the end of the age means man's civilization. It doesn't mean that the earth is going to be destroyed. It's not.

But man's rule on this earth will. So the term here, Aeon, means basically the rule of man on earth. When is that going to come to an end? And so Jesus Christ revealed here the keys to the seven seals that are mentioned in Revelation. So he mentions here seven signs, which later on we see the same seven signs in the book of Revelation, which was written around 70 years later when the Apostle Paul was in the island of Patmos and received this revelation from Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ filled in the details. So let's just go real quickly because of course I don't want to belabor the point here in Matthew. I want to go to Revelation. But first, we need to have this skeleton, this framework of the book of Revelation that is shown here. So you can see it later on in the book of Revelation. So Jesus, verse 4, he answered and said to them, Take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many. So the first sign is that there are going to be many false Christianities that will arise, and they will deceive many, not few people, but many upon this earth. That is the first sign that Jesus Christ gives. And as you will see, it is the first seal of Revelation.

Now what are the seals of Revelation about? Well, they are the end time events, and God pictures this in Revelation as a large scroll that in those days, of course, the scrolls were all rolled up.

And in each section, as you finished it, you would have a seal, a wax seal, which would seal that section. So you have this roll with seven seals. This is typical. It was kind of a document where you could break one seal and you could only read the first section of that roll. And then you'd have to open up the second seal to be able to unwrap more of the roll. Today we have all kinds of documents where you might have, for instance, notebooks with sections in it. You know, section one, section two, section three. But in here we have the seals. So the first seal of Revelation corresponds to this first sign that Jesus Christ gives, which has to do with the false prophets and false religion. Notice the second one. He says, verse 6, And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. So he says here that there will be an intensification of wars prior to his coming. But just because these wars start heating up, he says, well, there are still more things that have to happen. So just because we have this magnification of wars doesn't mean it's the immediate coming of Christ. This corresponds to the second seal.

And then the third one, verse 7, it continues, For nations shall rise against nation, and kingdom against nation, and there will be famines. So this corresponds to the third seal in Revelation, which has to do with famine and hunger. And then it says, pestilences, which is the fourth seal in Revelation, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrow. So when we see these first four events, we know it is very close. And then the fifth seal of Revelation corresponds to verse 9, Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.

Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many, and because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. So that corresponds to the fifth seal, which is the great tribulation that breaks out. And there is going to be persecution against the church. In verse 15, it continues on, Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, whoever reads, let him understand. And so then it talks about the great tribulation at that time. Verse 21, this is still the fifth seal that later on we're going to see. It formalized in the book of Revelation.

And then verse 29 corresponds to the sixth seal. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And so these are called heavenly signs that will appear, which correspond to the sixth seal in Revelation. And the seventh seal, the final one, is the coming of Jesus Christ, which is in verse 30. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, because there will be a bright light that will appear as Jesus Christ descends with his angels.

And he's going to be mounted on a white horse, and all the earth is going to be able to see this.

And all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and he will send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet.

That's why the Feast of Trumpets represents the coming of Christ. And they will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. So of course they will all rise up in the air, and they will come to meet Jesus Christ in the clouds, as it had already been mentioned in this morning that Jesus Christ will descend, because he's coming to rule the earth.

He already rules heaven, but he doesn't rule over the earth. He's coming as a conqueror, as a ruler, and to establish his rule for a thousand years. So Matthew is the reference point.

This is the way we can synchronize. We can put everything in its proper alignment in the book of Revelation, which is what we want to do now. So let's go to the book of Revelation, chapter 1. Revelation chapter 1 verse 10.

It says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, which is basically what is the Lord's day in the Bible. The Lord's day has to do with the day of the Lord. That great day when God intervenes in the events of mankind to establish his kingdom. The Lord's day is mentioned in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, and here is just another way of explaining it. That it can very well just be called the day of the Lord here. This is just in the possessive sense. And I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet. So here we begin. The book of Revelation has as its centerpiece what the Feast of Trumpets represents. So Revelation fits in almost entirely with the significance of the book or of the Feast of Trumpets. We begin in chapter 1 with the trumpets, and you're going to see the trumpet sounding throughout the book of Revelation, all the way through to chapter 19 when Jesus Christ comes back. So basically from the beginning here, and then you've got the church ages in chapters 2 and 3, which are talking about the past, all the way up to the day when Jesus Christ comes back. So the church is basically a description of the ages that will take place in the church until Jesus Christ comes back. But then from chapters 4 and Revelation, all the way to chapter 19, basically it's a description of the trumpets.

The seals that are open and the trumpets that announce the different events that God has carrying out here on the earth. So again, Matthew 24 unlocks the interpretation of the book of Revelation, which is what many churches don't see the synchronicity of both of these books, which is so important. In verse 19 of this first chapter, it says, write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this. So the book of Revelation has to do with the things that God is going to reveal to John, which have to do with future events. He's going to deal, yes, with the events in his day, where the churches were, where the churches will develop through history, and all the way up to the time of the coming of Christ. And then chapters 20 through 22 have to do with the millennium and the coming of God the Father and the New Jerusalem. But again, you can say very legitimately that the book, the bulk of the book of Revelation has to do with this day, the Feast of Trumpets. We're going to see that today. In Revelations 2 and 3, as I mentioned, successive church periods, all the way up to the coming of Christ. Notice Revelation 3, 29. This is the last church described, which is called the Laodicean period.

Notice in verse 3, verse 29. Let's see, I don't have that right. Let me get it here. It's verse 20. Revelation 3, 20. Jesus Christ said, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with me. And so he is right at the door. He's not 50 yards from the door. He's not distant from the door right before he comes. And he's telling the church, you better be prepared because time is no longer going to be delayed. I'm going to go through this door. And if you open, if you're ready for me, then you will dine with me in my kingdom. That's what he's talking about there. And then chapters 4 and 5, which a lot of people don't know what it's about. And basically it is just the opening scene of these end time events. It's a beautiful description. I certainly don't have the time to go over it. But what God revealed to John is he transported mentally so that John could look in the future at the time when the end time events are about to begin. And so you see here, let's just jump a couple of verses here. Verse 1, it says of chapter 4, after these things I looked, and behold the door standing open in heaven. And the first voice, which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this. And so he was transported in a vision to be able to look ahead over 2,000 years into the future to what is happening in heaven. Notice it says, immediately, verse 2, I was in the spirit because he was in a vision, and behold a throne set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. This is God the Father. And he who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance, and there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald. Just everything is shining. He can't see faces, but he sees a being just radiating brightness, just like a beautiful jewel. And then, after the description of all of this throne, chapter 5, verse 1, and I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back sealed with seven seals. So God the Father is here, and he has all these events that have been prepared, and it is time now to unlock them, to open these events that are going to happen. Verse 2, then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and to lose its seals? And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look at it. So all the angels felt unworthy.

Nobody dared to have that. And so, of course, he's all worried. He's weeping because nobody, and then verse 5, it says, Do not weep, behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to lose its seven seals. So this is Jesus Christ. He is going to be given the scroll, and he is going to open each one of the seals on it. Verse 8, now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures which were around the throne of God and 24 elders fell down before the lamb. So Jesus Christ is described as He who sacrificed Himself for mankind.

And just like a lamb, the Passover lamb, that's the way He is depicted. God describes things as they are. And so now it's no longer the word, but it's a picture of a lamb, and He's got cuts, just like He has been sacrificed. And that is what Jesus Christ is representing. Of course, no angel has ever done something like that. And so this is why Jesus Christ can do it. And they say, verse 9, The angel sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe. Now, the term us, it should be as many of the original manuscripts or the earliest manuscripts have revealed them to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, because angels aren't out of every people and tribe. So it's not talking about that. It's talking about people on earth that have been redeemed and have made, again, us talking about humans, kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth. Well, certainly the angels aren't, but sometimes these translators, they really didn't know what they were talking about.

And unfortunately, there are versions that have and have made them kings and priests, as it should be. And so Jesus Christ is worthy to open it. So that is the whole opening stage, the opening act that He has the scrolls. And so now we're going to go through, and basically, chapters 6 through 19 are the opening of these seven seals, the seven grand events before Jesus Christ comes back.

And of course, again, I'm going to abbreviate this because I don't want to belabor it, but I want to focus on very specific things. Chapter 6, verse 1, it says, Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures, saying with a voice like thunder, come and see. And I looked, and behold, a white horse, he who sat on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. Remember how Jesus Christ said the first one was going to be false Christ, and that they would deceive many? And this is what we're talking about. False religion. And God is now giving permission for false religion to conquer the earth. There are going to be more religious wars coming ahead. This is very interesting because maybe 20, 30 years ago, we didn't realize how many of these religious wars would be induced by the Muslim radical movement, which has affected now almost 10 years. The whole world is mired since September 9-11 of 2001 that is mired by this. The U.S. is involved in Iraq, in Afghanistan, you've got Pakistan, you've got Iran, you've got all of this area. It's just very effervescent.

It's just bubbling over with tension. If anybody has any relatives that have gone to Iraq or Afghanistan, they can tell you how effervescent that whole area is.

Now, this has to do also in Daniel 11, the prophecy tells us about the king of the south pushing at the king of the north. This is the same synchronicity that we have in that this religious system and the false teachers are all part of this movement of the king of the south.

This is a religiously induced group that comes and conquers the different parts, or at least tries to, on the earth. Now, I'd like to ask a question because I didn't know too much about this author until last week, but this is a prolific writer. He writes a bit like Tom Clancy, some of these more spy novels, but this man was actually an intelligence officer of the U.S. Army.

How many have heard of the name Ralph Peters? Can I see anybody? Well, there's a couple. There's a couple of people. Ralph Peters is a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel. He spent 10 years in Germany working in military intelligence and then became a foreign area officer specializing in the Soviet Union. He attended the command and general staff college.

His last assignment was to the office of the deputy chief of staff for intelligence, and so he has dealt with the Middle East, with Europe, and his latest book, which just came out, is called The War After Armageddon, 2009. And here he talks about the future consequences of the internal American and international relationships. He says America is struggling for her survival and the war between Islam is fanatics. Christians and politicians leads to a raging war resulting in Armageddon. The novel suggests complete chaos and destruction in a ruthless future war. Apart from America, the war suggests a chain of destructive events in Europe and the Middle East. The magazine Newsweek, which is pretty moderate in the sense, they're not out here with some of these novels that are all speculative and wild-eyed. Newsweek says about this book, Peter's battle scenes are masterpieces of perspective. It is hard to imagine a better portrayal of modern war. Publishers Weekly wrote, Military strategist Peter's applies the predictions of his non-fiction wars of blood and faith to this outstanding cautionary tale of a near-future war set in the Middle East. So, of course, there's speculation, but here we have an analyst of world events, and basically, without using any biblical definitions or references, he comes to about the same conclusion of where we are headed today. In the book Wars of Blood and Faith, which he wrote in the year 2007, he says the conflicts that will shape the 21st century.

And I think this is important because we're talking about the first seal, talking about, you know, these false messiahs and these false christs that are going to appear, and they're going to involve a lot of people, and they're going to provoke wars. He says, except in North America and northwestern Europe, the great religious wars of the last 2,000 years never really ended. They were only taking naps.

Due to the exhaustion of one party or both, the Suni, or Shia contest, is 12 centuries old. These two great Muslim religious groups, the Sunnis, which are the majority, they're about 85 percent, and then you have the Shiites, which are about 10 to 15 percent of the Muslim population in the world, and they've been fighting to dominate for the last 12 centuries. He says, it is as old but deeper than Islam's struggle with the West. Now, with bewildering speed, history has come back, insisting on its durability and casting the last 100 years as an aberration. Last 100 years, it was more European wars. Now, we're going back to the centuries-old conflict within Islam and Islam toward the West. He says, now we're coming back to more of a normal situation. The last century was the exception to the case, where it was more Europe involved in these world wars. He says, we have re-entered the long river of struggles over elemental issues, God and blood. We have to reset our calendars and recalibrate our mentalities.

This will be a century of contradictions. The age of super-technologies is also the new age of superstition, of great religions reduced to cults that worship bloodthirsty boogie men.

The defining struggle of our time, the source of conflicts great and small, will be between those who believe in a merciful God and those who worship a divine disciplinarian. The philosophical divide will kill many millions. So it's your perception of God. Is he a merciful God? Is he a loving God? Or is he one that just wants to crush the enemies, discipline the world, put them all in a straitjacket of thinking? Well, that's what Islam is about. It's a great deal of it.

So let's read the second seal in Revelation 6, verses 3 and 4.

So we see the religious wars being unleashed upon the earth.

False messiahs, false Christ. We're going to see eventually a very conservative European religion against a very conservative Islamic religion. And there's going to be a clash eventually.

Verse 3, and when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, Come and see. Another horse, fiery 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 this is an increase of the deadly wars. Because of the first rider here, the false messiahs and everything, they eventually provoked a war. Well, let me just read to you a little bit about what's going on in the news today. That has to do a lot with this future second seal being open. The second horseman, I'll just read from Expositor's Bible commentary, is war and bloodshed. So basically, everybody's on the same page that this one, the red horse, has to do with blood, bloodshed, war.

He rides on a fiery red steed whose color symbolizes slaughter. Again, from Ralph Peters in the book Wars of Blood and Faith, he says, the 21st century will see an unprecedented expansion in varieties of organized violence. And the fiercest challenges may come neither from the conventional nor irregular forces as we know them, but from governments and organizations willing to wage wars in the spheres now forbidden or still unimagined. So he says here, probably the greatest dangers are not going to come from little terrorist groups, but actually from organized governments that finally have nuclear capabilities and provoke another war.

This he wrote, Peters wrote this September 11th commemorating this 9-11 that we just passed.

It says eight years ago today, our homeland was attacked by fanatical Muslims.

3,000 American citizens and residents died. We can also say more than all that perished during Pearl Harbor. Instead, it said we resolved that we, the people, would never forget.

We've learned nothing. Instead of cracking down on Islamic extremism, we've excused it.

Instead of protecting law-abiding Americans, we reject profiling to avoid offending terrorists.

So we confiscate granny shampoo at the airport because the half-empty container could hold 3.5 ounces of liquid. Instead of taking a firm stand against Islamic fanaticism, we've made a cult of negotiations, as our enemies pursue nuclear weapons, sponsor terrorism, torture, imprison, rape, and murder their own citizens, and laugh at us. We've forgotten that we owe our dead and what we owe our children. We've even forgotten who attacked us. We have betrayed the memory of our dead, and so doing we betrayed ourselves and our country. Our troops continue to fight when they're allowed to do so, but our politicians have surrendered. Are we willing to let the terrorists win? Of course, that's just his point of view, but I just want to bring it up as a trend where things are getting much more heated as the world continues, much more polarizing.

Now, the most dangerous place on earth right now is Iran.

According to the newspaper clippings today and yesterday, it says here Iran will have made significant progress toward nuclear weapons by the end of this year. So we got about three months time before they basically will have a nuclear bomb. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran will soon have more than 7,000 centrifuges operating at Natanz, where it has already produced enough low-enriched uranium for one nuclear weapon if the uranium is converted to a highly enriched form. It appears that Iran is rapidly mastering uranium enrichment, as well as advancing its missile program, two of the three components of a successful nuclear weapons program. It is unclear how much progress Iran made on the third, which is weaponization.

It's actually turning it into a weapon. This is from Ralph Peters again. He says, the rulers in Tehran, the capital of Iran, need us as an enemy, along with Israel, a demonized foe is essential to their grip of power, and all that rhetoric about impending end time and the return of the hidden imam, which is the Islamic messiah that Ahmadinejad and others are hoping will come. It says a key faction, which includes President Ahmadinejad, believes him. And this is a very dangerous person. He is a fanatic. He actually has written that he wants to provoke a war because he thinks that's when the Islamic messiah will appear. And so here we're like three months away from letting Iran develop its nuclear weapons. Now, just to put this in a proper perspective, in another week, President Ahmadinejad will go before the United Nations with a speech, which is very important because he's been talking even yesterday. He mentioned the Holocaust was a lie and that Israel still needs to be destroyed and that he will continue pursuing the nuclear program. Now, he insists it's peaceful, but the thing is these centrifuges are all there. They're not there to produce electricity because that could be very easily done. And so they're going to have negotiations in October between the United States, Russia, and other countries in Iran. And if the diplomatic measures fail, basically they will have a nuclear bomb by the beginning of this coming year, which under a guy like him, it's been one of the worst things that happened this year is when he was reelected because he is a complete fanatic. He was part of Khomeini's suicide warriors before, so he doesn't mind dying if it'll bring up this Islamic messiah along. Let's go to Revelation chapter 6 to read about the third seal.

Now, like we have talked about, this is something that Christ is going to open.

I am just talking about the stage that is being set. We don't know when all of this will happen, but we do have to keep our eyes open and our ears and see what's going on because this world could be precipitated and led very quickly into a confrontation. As you well know, and I'll read here in a moment, Israel is not going to stand and watch Iran have a nuclear weapon and missiles, and they're just a stone's throw away from them. Israel is warning the U.S. you take care of it or we'll take care of it. So you see, all of these things, if it's precipitated, see, we are all going to be victims and hostages of a world that is now catapulted into a scenario nobody wanted, but everybody was out there folding their hands while there was still time. Let's go to Revelation chapter 6 verse 5. It says, When he 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 in the midst of the four living creatures saying, A quart of wheat for adenarius, and three quarts of barley for adenarius, and do not harm the oil and the wine.

So here is the third consequence. First, you have religious wars that precipitate this large war, and then that leads to famine, hunger, and poverty. Let me read to you a little bit about what Expositor's commentary mentions about this. It says, The third horseman is poverty and famine.

He rides on a black horse and symbolizes the effects of war and bloodshed, sorrow, mourning, and desolation. The scales, this amount suggests food prices multiplying 12 times higher than the normal.

So for instance, a loaf of bread that are being $2.5 will be $25.

This is talking about $12, so it's actually be almost, it would be close to $30 for a loaf of bread. It's just going to be so much scarcity going on. And again, we don't know when all of this thing will begin. We hope that things can be solved, at least diplomatically. Iran will back down from this. But again, we have to be aware. We have to be alert. Let's go to Revelation 6 verses 7 through 8. It says, Again, it's good to do a cross-reference. We've always explained this. It has to do with sicknesses, pestilence. It's interesting that Expositor's commentary, which one is the most serious and well-documented and well-researched commentary, as you can find, says this.

The pale horse, the word pale comes from the Greek chloros, where we get chlorox, chlorine, something that whitens things. It says, This probably refers to the death brought by pestilence or plague, which often follows famine. And so Jesus Christ mentioned the same things.

False messiahs, false religions first, then wars. And then he mentions there's going to be famines, and then there's going to be pestilences. This is the fourth seal.

In Revelation 6 verses 9 through 10, we get to the fifth seal. When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God, for the testimony which they held. And 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, and 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 Jesus Christ talked about the Great Tribulation, the persecutions that would come after these first four seals, these four signs that he gave. So the fifth one has to do with Tribulation, the Great Tribulation starting. And, of course, many brethren will be slain at that time. Those that are not protected in the place of safety that we have here in Revelation that talks about it says that after those are all brought in and gathered to the place, Satan will then turn on those that are left on the earth and will be persecuted. And that corresponds to this fifth sign, which is the Great Tribulation. In verse 12, we begin with the sixth seal. It says, "...I looked when he opened the sixth seal, and behold there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. The stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb." So you see Jesus Christ here, he does have a wrath because he's coming to avenge those that have persecuted the church through the centuries and in particular at this end time, for the great day of his wrath has come and who is able to stand. So this corresponds to the sixth sign that Jesus Christ gave, which were these heavenly signs. Things are going to happen on earth and on the earth. It's going to be shaken. People are not even going to trust where they live. They want to go to a cave, someplace where it's safer inside of a mountain than it is inside of a building. And so this is the sixth sign, and it is the one that precedes the coming of Jesus Christ. And we have the seventh seal that is open in chapter 8, verse 1, when he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour because it's all done. Now it's just a matter Jesus Christ prepares to come back to the earth and I saw the seven angels who stand before God and to them were given seven trumpets.

So you see, Jesus Christ is going to be coming back, but prior to his coming, there are going to be seven trumpet sounds. Each one is going to be a final event in a short period of time that prepares the coming of Jesus Christ. So this seventh seal corresponds to the coming of Christ and of seven trumpets, as it was already mentioned today, being sounded. And so we see what is the first trumpet about? Verse 7, the first angel sounded and hail and fire followed, mingled with blood and they were thrown to the earth and a third of the trees were burned up and all the green grass was burned up. So this is a mighty intervention. These are very similar to the plagues that fell on Egypt. Here it says that hail and fire. Again, we don't know whether these are humanly induced or heavenly and divinely induced. Are these things the consequences of atomic bombs going off and having that what they call the winter, you know, nuclear winter settling in and just killing trees and everything around it? Or is it just God's intervention that he will cast something down to this earth with hail and fire? It says a third of the trees were burned up.

So, you see, Jesus Christ is not fooling around. He is finishing with the world's governments for once and for all. All of these corrupt and wicked leaders who have been managing through Satan and been governing. Now, it doesn't mean all the leaders are bad, but they all have human nature and they exploit and they take advantage of people. And Jesus Christ is fed up, and the world doesn't want Jesus Christ to come back and rule. So, just like a loving father, he's going to have to spank this earth very strongly to wake them up, to make them submit to the will of Jesus Christ and of God the Father. Any parent knows that when you're rearing a child, sooner or later, that child is going to test your will. And they want to know, am I stronger than my parents or are my parents stronger than I? Sometimes you can have a thousand battles through your life, because you never solved it at the beginning. Who is in charge? Is it your child or you?

And if you resolve it early on and you let the child know, no, you are the child, I'm the parent, you're not going to tell me what to do, I'm in charge, and you better recognize it, and you better understand that's the way it's going to be. Well, once the child understands it, usually they're not going to be out there testing their parents very much. But if the parents give the kids the ruler ship, and through tantrums the kids control the parents, then you're going to have a horrible child-rearing experience in your life, because you never took the bull by the horn and dealt with that strong-willed child as you could. And of course, I don't mean with all kinds of, you know, physical punishment, there are all kinds of ways that you can't just have your child go to his room and be there and nothing, no TV, nothing else, but the thing is you have to be controlling that child's will. Well, God is going to do the same thing, because right now we have this sort of juvenile delinquent world, right? Everybody's running around doing what they want, nobody wants to be told what to do, and every lifestyle's the same, and it's comparable, and well, boy, there's going to be a spanking like this earth has never seen. And God's not doing it because, you know, he's bad or wicked, it's just like a parent is going to say, look, you're going to have to do it my way, and you're going to have to learn. So this is the first one. And then later on in verse eight, then the second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. So something happened here again, this could happen through nuclear weapons that would contaminate the sea because of all the radioactivity, or it can be a divine intervention. We don't know which way, we just see the consequences. A third of the oceans will be contaminated, and a third of the trees were burnt up. It's, well, I'm reading here the previous verse. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. So this has to do more with the oceans. The third trumpet, when it sounds, it says, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers, and on the springs of water. And so now it is not salt water, but it's the freshwater supplies. You know, God's going to get the world's attention. You know, we're not going to be able to solve this through irrigation, and let's build some canals, and we'll be fine. I mean, this is going to be such a huge scale that nothing will control it. Continuing on, verse 12, then the fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened, and a third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. Again, it can be this nuclear winter, where you're going to have so much pollution and everything floating up in the air that you're not going to have the warmth of the sun, or it can be through God's direct intervention. Certainly, he didn't use physical events from what we see when he intervened in Egypt. He just did miraculous things.

And then, in verse 13, it says, And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of the heavens, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound. So, the sounds of the fifth, the sixth, and the seventh trumpets are also called the three woes, because they are so strong. And so, these angels mentioned this in chapter 9. Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star falling from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit, and he opened the bottomless pit, and the smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace.

So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke, locusts came upon the earth, and to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who did not have the seal of God on their forehead. So again, God's people are protected, but the rest are going to suffer the consequences. And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. It is very similar to what a neutron bomb does, which it just fills you with radioactivity, where you are for five months just dying of a malignant cancer that is just leaving you weak, but it doesn't kill you right away. Continuing on, it says, in those days men will seek death and will not find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

And the shape of their locusts was like horses prepared for battle. So this is a key point, because now God is entering not the world of John the Apostle, but he's talking about the 21st century technology, where you have these flying insects, which are not the little locusts, little grasshoppers, you see, but actually these armored ships that fly in the air, and they have inside human beings which are controlling them. Notice the description.

It says, the shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle, which was the largest being at that time in the battlefield. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, so he saw kind of this bubble inside or something very shiny, which is very similar to the way the helicopter looked in the front, and their faces were like faces of men. So you could see something inside very shiny, and he could look and he saw faces of men inside these armored flying ships. And it says, and they had hair like women's hair. Well, you know, we used to think that used to be just like the trail of it, and certainly you see the helicopters, that white smoke out there, but today you could almost see that some of these armies have long-haired men as well manning. So we'll have to see what it is, but it's something that there's no other century that this could happen, but certainly in the 21st century nowadays hairstyles have gone to pieces.

You see guys in the armies, especially many in Europe and other parts, long hair, and nobody says much, and their teeth, it says, were like lions' teeth, and that's very similar to the decorations that they put the teeth in the front of these ships. Remember how they used to do it with the flying tigers and these airplanes? They put the shapes of teeth, you know, on the outside, and they had breastplates like breastplates of iron. So this is talking about an armor plated flying locust type of a vehicle. You know what helicopter means? It means flying insect.

Heli, flying, copter, comes from our word for insect. And so it's interesting, they look very much like flying grasshoppers going on. It says, and the sound of the wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. If you've ever been next to one of these helicopters, that's the way they sound. They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails, so they see all of these kind of stingers coming out of these vehicles, and they could see, you know, smoke and sulfur and fire coming out. Of course, he had no idea what it is. Today, we would look at that. We would identify it immediately. Continuing on, it says their power was to hurt men five months.

So is this some type of neutron missiles that they fire so that you don't have to worry about the earth being destroyed? It just radiates people? Whatever it is, it takes a very long time. It talks about five months that the person is suffering. And they had, as king over them, the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in the Greek he has the name Apollyon, which has to do with Satan. I'm going to summarize here, you know, that this is the first part of World War III. This is the first battle which will take place, which is an air battle and this has to do with Armageddon getting ready. And this is the first European strike against the Russian Asiatic forces. The second one here, the river Euphrates, is dried up miraculously. And then the Russian and Asian armies, they pour down and they cross the Euphrates toward Israel. And finally, with the seventh trumpet, is when they meet at Armageddon.

The good news is that at that time, Jesus Christ will intervene and stop man from destroying himself. In Revelation 19, we already read Jesus Christ coming back, stopping all of this warfare, all of this death. And so that is so important for all of us. We really have many danger spots on the earth today. Iran, certainly I would classify it as the number one danger upon this earth right now. We'll have to see in the next months if that finally just peters out and diminishes or if it actually becomes, in 2010, the most important news. How Israel, how the United States, and others deal with Iran. Another one, of course, North Korea, certainly Europe with the Treaty of Lisbon, which unifies and now it becomes a federal system over Europe. That is the next step. Now, it's not the separate parliaments that basically established the main policy, but now we have a European parliament that represents each one of these other states and they do have power, not only to tax, not only to establish policies, but also raising armies and controlling more of the economy.

That is the next step in Europe and, of course, we also probably see a more active pope establishing Catholicism and the strength there, making more alliances because of this Muslim threat in the Middle East. So let's finish in 1 John chapter 2 verse 28.

1 John chapter 2 verse 28. And, as you well know, I don't only try to give a sermon that you can just go back home and forget about it, but I want to leave things behind to instruct and to help you see things in the future. In other words, it's also teaching and not only inspiring or somehow giving a message for now. This should project into the future as well. 1 John chapter 2 verse 28.

This is a good verse to end. This wonderful feast of trumpets that says, And now little children abide in him, that when he appears, when Jesus Christ appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

You know, none of us want to be ashamed that we did not prepare that we turned our back on this wonderful coming kingdom, on Jesus Christ coming back and welcoming him as our Lord, as our King of Kings. But you know some people will have given up to faith, and when he comes, won't they feel ashamed? Won't it be embarrassing to say, well, you know, I didn't finish that final lap?

So let's, all of us, make sure we remain faithful. So the Feast of Trumpets is a warning sound to all of us. It is a time of joy. It is a wonderful experience, but also it is a time to give us a warning sound of coming events. So let's be alert and let's not be groggy. The Feast of Trumpets is also a time of hope because God protects his own, and the Feast of Trumpets prepares us now for the next step with atonement, and finally the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day. So this gives us our focus in his kingdom, not in what's happening in our lives momentarily, but it gives us that vision of where we want to be in that coming kingdom. So, wonderful Feast of Trumpets to all.

It's been a pleasure to be here with you.

Thank you.