Paradigm Shift (Part 2)

Well, thank you very much to the choir. Appreciate the beautiful special music and beautiful offering of music to God today. It's an incredible time of which we're here to commemorate. It's an incredible event in history that we are here to commemorate today as we consider the return of Jesus Christ and ultimately the ushering in of the Millennial reign of the Lord. Brethren, we live in a world that is operating under a paradigm. For the last 6,000 years, the fundamental framework of thought and expression of human society has operated under the influence of Satan the Devil. Scripture describes Satan as the God of this age, the ruler of this world, the prince of the power of the air. And like static over the radio airwaves, his character, his nature goes out to mankind. And unfortunately, mankind has an antenna that picks up on those signals all too easily. He is described as the father of lies and from the very beginning one of his primary strategies. One of the primary strategies that Satan has used for the last 6,000 years has been that of deception.

Deception through outright lies, through manipulation and distortion of the truth, of that which is real, that which is factual, that which is verifiable.

Satan's modus operandi, M.O. Satan's M.O. is deception. Through the distortion that he has put forth into history, he has managed to create an illusion of sorts. He's managed to create a world in which a lie is truth and truth is seen as a lie.

That is the paradigm that Satan has created. When we look at a society around us, we see a world in which evil is called good and good is evil.

We see a world in which darkness is considered to be light and light is considered to be darkness. Bitter to be sweet and sweet, bitter. And we see the effects. It doesn't take much in looking at the world around us. We see the effects. We see a brokenness of human relationships. We see conflict. We see violence. We see oppression. We see injustice. And we see confusion. We see confusion running rampant in society around us. And that confusion, that brokenness, that conflict, violence, oppression, and injustice has largely defined human history.

That has been the default setting, so to speak, by which human society has operated for the last 6,000 years. Thomas Kuhn, who is the originator of this concept of a paradigm, and the idea of paradigm shift, was an American historian, and he was a philosopher of science. And he argued that a paradigm is a system of thought that is largely accepted among the populace and which becomes the model and the pattern by which then that populace and that society operates.

Again, it's like a default setting. In other words, when we view the world, we view it through the lens of that paradigm. And it will remain the accepted paradigm. It will remain the accepted model and the accepted pattern until enough anomalies, and that is his term, enough anomalies, things which deviate from the pattern, things which are an exception to the pattern, begin to accumulate.

The paradigm cannot and will not change until there are enough exceptions to the paradigm that become obvious to the world. And eventually enough evidence mounts against that paradigm, and a new paradigm emerges. The time of that change, the shift between the old and the new, is called paradigm shift. It's called paradigm shift. And in most, if not all, circumstances, that paradigm shift is not instantaneous.

It is not instantaneous. In fact, in most scenarios, a paradigm shift takes a period of time, and that shift itself is inherently messy. It's inherently messy. It's something that is transitional in nature, and as it takes place, there's conflicting world views, and those conflicting world views are butting up against each other. The messy middle of when the old paradigm is no longer sufficient, but the new paradigm has not yet fully taken hold. And these ideas and these concepts just butt heads against one another.

Often, paradigm shift is a period of upheaval. You have conflict between the established norms. You have conflict between the emerging ideas. It's a time when there is resistance, and there is a time in which it is a fundamental challenge of letting go of the ideas which are so entrenched, so ingrained within that society, as that new reality begins to take shape.

Now, while paradigm shift is not instantaneous, there is, however, an accumulation of anomalies and a buildup of ideas and concepts in opposition to the existing paradigm that eventually lead to a tipping point, when that fulcrum is eventually so loaded down that it tips in one direction.

It tips in the direction where the burdens of evidence forces that fulcrum to now tip in the direction of the new paradigm. And more often than not, that is a point of no return. There is no going back after that fulcrum tips. The cat's out of the bag, so to speak, if we want to use colloquialisms. The cat's out of the bag. The people realize the emperor has no clothes. The fundamental framework of thought and expression of that thought changes.

Brethren, we're gathered here today on the Feast of Trumpets to commemorate and celebrate this future time in which the greatest paradigm shift in human history takes place. It is the greatest paradigm shift this universe has ever seen. When the truth of the plan of God is revealed and Jesus Christ returns, the illusion that Satan has set up for the past 6,000 years is shattered. It is destroyed.

The title of the sermon this morning is paradigm shift, the tipping point. Paradigm shift, the tipping point. As we've already brought out, the shifting of a paradigm is inherently messy. And the events of the world scene leading up to this paradigm shift, this tipping point of human history, is no exception. Sadly, the paradigm itself has led to what must come.

You know, we often hear the term that the end justifies the means. In this case, the end requires the means. God has established a method by which this will happen, and this is the method by which he has chosen, and the method by which this paradigm that Satan has put in place has led to.

There are ways that must be overcome. There are concepts and ways of thought that must be replaced as we usher out this old paradigm into the new. Let's turn over to Revelation 6. We're going to spend a lot of time today in Revelation. We're going to spend quite a bit of time in this message in Revelation. We're going to jump back and forth to Matthew periodically into Ezekiel a little bit as well.

But by and large, we're going to be in the book of Revelation. If you want to turn to Revelation 6, what we see is the steps by which God begins to shift this paradigm. Through a series of prophetic events, he begins to punch holes in the illusion. Might argue that he puts glitches in the matrix. And in doing so, God gets the attention of the world. He gets the attention of the world. He gets the attention of those who are in it.

Revelation 6, we see the beginning part of this process, the opening of these seals, the four horsemen of the apocalypse who ride upon the world scene. As subsequent prophetic seals are opened in vision before the Apostle John. Now, one thing to keep in mind, John is taken in vision to see these things. John is viewing a vision of end time events with a first century viewpoint. And he's trying to describe the things that he sees in the terms that he has to work with.

And so as we'll see these things as he's describing them, you know, there are some aspects of maybe some speculation or theorism that we can do as we look at these things as well. Or perhaps you have your own thoughts on these things. But regardless, these are the processes by which God is going to bring this about. Revelation 6, and we'll pick it up in verse one to begin with the first of these four seals.

Revelation 6 and verse 1. Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, I heard the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, come and see. They beckoned John to come and look. He says, 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. When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, 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, that people should kill one another. And there was given to him a great sword. When he opened the third seal, I heard the living, the third living creature say, come and see. And so I looked and behold a black horse. 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 a denarius, three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and the wine.

When I opened the fourth seal, or when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, come and see. So I looked and behold a pale horse. The name of him who sat on it was death. And Hades, the grave, followed with him. Power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. As we look at these things, we see false religion. We see war. We see famine. We see pestilence. We see disease, all symbolized by colored horses and riders. A white horse bearing a false Christ.

A red horse bearing war. A black horse bearing famine, and a pale horse bringing pestilence. And as the first of these four seals are opened, God begins to pour out his judgment on the earth. Again, the end requires the means. The current population of this planet is estimated to be 8.14 billion people.

It's amazing. It feels like it's gone up a couple billion in just the last six years. It feels like it really has added on quite a bit in the last little bit. But this religious deception, this conflict, this scarcity and disease, these natural consequences, demands, choices, and the influence of Satan are taking place. And they have taken place. I mean, we'll go back and we look through human history. These things have taken place, but now it is happening on a scale and an intensity that has never been experienced before.

You can imagine the effect that this will have on mankind. Again, we are 8.14 billion people at this point. There's no real enumeration as to those who lose their lives in the first three seals. So there's no real enumerating of this in the first three. But you can imagine the conquering involved in that first seal, the war, the conflict in the second, scarcity and famine in the third are going to have significant effects. Matthew 24 verses 7 through 8, if you want to jot that in your notes, you can, indicates that in addition to all of this happening, that there will be earthquakes in various places throughout this period as well. And so it's possible that the death toll from the first three of these seals is included in this fourth seal. It's possible they're additive, and as we're including these things, we get the total in the fourth seal. But what we see in verses 8 and 9 of Revelation 6 is that the rider on the pale horse is given power of death and the grave over one-fourth of the earth, 25 percent. To kill with the sword, that's conflict either religious or otherwise, with hunger, scarcity, with disease in pestilence. In fact, Ezekiel 5 and verse 12 seems to imply that one-third of Israel is killed in the conflict and one-third of Israel is killed in the pestilence in Ezekiel 5 and verse 12.

Regardless, in just the events of these first four seals, the human population is reduced by at least a little more than two billion people, a quarter of the human population. These events, this subsequent death toll, is going to get people's attention.

It is going to get people's attention. It is going to punch enough holes in the illusion for people to begin asking questions, to begin wondering what is going on. It's going to shake some from their stupor, and the world is going to begin to see the cracks in the reality. They're going to begin to see the cracks in the illusion over the past 6,000 years and wonder what is going on. Why is this happening? These things that have been normal for so long and have been a part of the fabric of society suddenly happening with such scope and such magnitude. It's during the events of these first four seals that the work of the Church of God continues. It's during the events of the first four seals the work of God continues here through His Church. It's during these world It's during these world-shaking events that we are given a task of crying aloud in the wilderness, that we're given a task to speak the truth in love, as Paul described in 2 Corinthians 4, that we as manifestations of the truth, that we make the truth appear, we make it visible, we make it clear as we preach the gospel message of Jesus Christ to a world that is in desperate need of the light that it contains. If you'd leave a bookmark here, go ahead and put a bookmark in Revelation 6. We're going to come back to Revelation. If you turn over to Matthew 24.

Matthew 24.

In Matthew 24, we see this next portion of the shift brings about a time of great tribulation, a time in which the abomination of desolation or the abomination that makes desolate brings to an end the sacrifices in the temple yet again. Matthew 24 will pick it up in verse 9. Christ here speaking to his disciples, speaking to those who are gathered for the signs and the times of the end of the age, Matthew 24 in verse 9 says, then they will deliver you up to tribulation.

They will kill you. 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. Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many, and because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.

Christ tells those gathered, but he who endures to the end, he who can endure these things, shall be saved. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. It goes on in verse 15. Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, whoever reads, let him understand. Then 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 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 great tribulation, such as not been since the beginning of the world until this time, nor nor shall ever be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved.

But it says, for the elect's sake, brethren, for you, for I, for those who have come before us, for the elect's sake, ultimately those days will be shortened. You know, this statement here in Matthew 24 encompasses a three and a half year period collectively understood to be the great tribulation. It's marked by the abomination of desolation at its start, kind of the fall of Jerusalem, in which you have a time in which foreign powers will then trample the city for three and a half years. And in some ways it's punctuated at the beginning by the cessation of the work of the Church of God. This is where our part of this story largely stops, because what we see is during this period the Church is either fleeing to the wilderness where they enter the place of safety, or they're experiencing the events of the great tribulation. The work that we experience today, the things that we're doing, the preaching of the Gospel that we're doing now, by and large, gets taken on by the two witnesses going forward from this point.

Sadly, we understand these events. Those that go through and experience the effects of the great tribulation may experience martyrdom for their belief in God. They may experience martyrdom for their standing for what is true, standing for the new paradigm in the face of the old. Let's pop back over to Revelation 6, because now it picks back up after this event takes place. Revelation 6 and the opening of the fifth seal. Revelation 6, we'll pick it up in 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. 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 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 this period is a period of Satan's wrath. Satan knows he has a short time. There will be increasing frequency, increasing intensity of these events. There will be increasing actions against the people of God, events that are targeted specifically against the people of God, because they are the ones who stand for truth. They're the ones who stand in the face of this old paradigm and declare it false.

They stand for what is right. They stand for what is just. Their lives are a witness against the paradigm that he has created. Verse 12, we see the sixth seal opened. Verse 12, we see the sixth seal opened. It says, I looked when he opened the sixth seal. Behold, there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. The stars of heaven fell to the earth, and as a fig tree drops its late figs when it's shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it's rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. Notice verse 15. The kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, so everybody, everybody hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. They said to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us, seal us in essentially, fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath has come and who is able to stand. When we reach the events of the sixth seal, when we reach the point of the sixth seal, the number of anomalies have stacked up, the number of evidences have stacked up, and the truth. The reality that Satan had so effectively hidden through his illusion has become readily apparent. God is real. The Lamb is real. Despite what the paradigm has held up for so many years, mankind will receive the consequences of their choices. Satan will receive the judgment of his responsibility. These cosmic disturbances, these massive earthquakes, heavenly signs, they catch the attention of man and they shine through the existing paradigm. The remaining six billion people on the planet hide themselves in caves and rocks to protect themselves from the wrath which is to come. But notice what they said in verse 15. Notice what they said in verse 15. The kings of the earth, they all said, fall on us, this is verse 16, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. They know. They know.

Possibly for the first time in their lives, they realize something's bigger than this illusion.

They recognize that God is real. They recognize that the Lamb is real. The events of the fifth and sixth seals encompass a time period of around two and a half years. From the point in time, the abomination of desolation is set up in the temple and the ending of those sacrifices. And so these events, the martyrdom of the saints, these cosmic disturbances of the fifth and sixth seals, take place and cover a period of about two and a half years. Okay, so to give you an idea of kind of the amount of time that this takes in this process as Satan throws his fit, which is essentially what he is doing here in this time of his wrath. But verse 17 marks the end of this period of time because the day of the Lord, the final year of the great tribulation, the time of God's wrath against Babylon is about to begin in earnest. It's during that three and a half years of the great tribulation, during that time of martyrdom and cosmic signs into the day of the Lord, that the two witnesses are at work in the city of Jerusalem. Two individuals selected by God for 1260 days for a period of roughly three and a half years, they will prophesy on behalf of God. What will they be doing as they prophesy on behalf of God? What will their role be? They serve as God's witnesses. They testify on his behalf. Revelation 11 and verse 4 describes these two individuals as the two olive trees and the two lampstands, full of oil, full of the Spirit of God, standing before the God of the earth. This time, though, not the God of this age, as Paul describes the second Corinthians, but the true God. That they stand in testifying and in testimony of the true God. Two and a half years into their work, two and a half years into their prophesying, the seventh seal is opened. And after all of these cosmic disturbances, after all of this chaos, suddenly silence. For 30 minutes, silence as the seventh seal is opened.

The heavens will be silent for 30 minutes. The remaining events that we see outlined here take place within one year's time. So in one year, the events of the following will take place, which each of these successive trumpets now sounding the warning, sounding the notice here of these judgments. If you'd like to follow along, you can follow along in Revelation 8 and verse 9.

Revelation 8 and verse 9. After that 30 minutes of silence in the heavens, suddenly, boom! Trumpet blast. Huge, reverberating trumpet blast. First trumpet sounds. Hail and fire, mingled with blood, falls upon the earth, and one third of the trees and the vegetation is burned up. Does this represent a meteor shower? Does it represent war on a large capacity? Missiles flying from place to place? We don't know. John's describing what he sees with the terms of his time, right? We don't know. We don't know. The second trumpet sounds. Boom! Another trumpet blast. Something like a great mountain burning with fire is thrown into the sea. A third of the sea becomes blood. One third of all living creatures in the sea die. One third of all the ships are destroyed. Is this an asteroid? Is this a large asteroid? Is it a weapon of war? Is it a nuclear blast? Again, we don't know. We have what John describes in his vision. The third trumpet sounds. Great star falls, burning like a torch. And now this time, not salt water, but fresh water is struck, and one third of the fresh water is made bitter. It says many of those who drink this water die. It's so bitter that those who drink of it die. It's so poisoned in that sense. Again, is it a meteor? Is it a weapon? Don't know. The fourth trumpet sounds. One third of the sun is struck. One third of the moon is struck. One third of the stars are struck. It says a third of the heavenly lights are darkened. It says that we will lose one third of daylight during this time. If we average the idea of daylight being a 12 hour period, it fluctuates, of course, you're losing roughly four hours of daylight in that process.

Suddenly, the day is only eight hours long when the light itself shines. You know, what's interesting is you look at these first four trumpet blasts. Again, the day that we're here for, part of this day, is commemorating the blowing of trumpets, the warning, the attention that God is in the process of getting. Notice God's mercy. These first four, he doesn't strike mankind directly. Now, is mankind affected? Absolutely. 100 percent, yes, they are affected. But even in his wrath, you see a third of the vegetation, trees, grasses, fields, forests. A third of the ocean is damaged. A third of the ships, military, merchant, are destroyed. A third of the freshwater resources are made unusable. Those who drink it die. A third of the stars, a third of the moon, a third of the sun, a third of the day, then, is gone. Even in God's wrath, even in God's judgment, there is mercy. He doesn't hit mankind directly in this case. These signs, these plagues, were intended to judge Babylon, and they were intended to get mankind's attention, to help mankind see through the illusion, to help them begin to question the paradigm, to begin to wonder what exactly is going on here. Maybe something bigger is happening, to be able to repent of their sins, to be able to come out of that system. And while some do, the vast majority do not.

An angel warns the worst is yet to come as God escalates his wrath upon Babylon. The fifth trumpet sounds. That was kind of cool. Had like a little bit of reverberation there, too. And what we see John describe is locusts. Locusts, which come out of this bottomless pit with smoke. In this case, it seems to describe machinery. It talks about all the different characteristics of these particular things here in verse, sorry, chapter 9 and verse 1. It says, I saw a star falling from heaven to earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. He opened the bottomless pit, and 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. Oops, turned two pages there. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. 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. So before God's mercy was not directly on man. It was on vegetation. It was on creation. He says this time only harmed those men who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 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. In those days men will seek death and they will not find it. They will desire to die and death will flee from them. And then he goes on to describe these locusts. They were like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like women's hair, their teeth were like lion's teeth. Breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots. Is John trying to describe fighter planes, helicopters, you know, some sort of military machine here, or are these something entirely different? Again, we don't know. What we see, though, is that we have very specific timing on this particular event. This is five months of that one year's time. This is five months. Five months. After the trumpet that blasts to usher in the beginning of these five months, there will be no more trumpet blasts for a five-month period.

Can you imagine people's tension as they're going about life with all these things taking place, just waiting, just wondering when the next one's going to come? You know, sometimes the weight is the hardest part. Sometimes the uncertainty is the most challenging thing as these individuals are experiencing these things. But in this case, man is directly impacted. These individuals experience pain. They experience suffering. They experience torment. And then suddenly another trumpet. Four angels who are bound at the Euphrates are released. These four angels, it says, were prepared for this moment. They were released to kill one-third of mankind. A 200-million-man army begins to wage war from the fire, the smoke, and the brimstone that proceeds from them. Two billion people, one-third of the remaining six billion, are killed.

Over half of the human population will be gone by the point in time of the end of this seal.

Eight billion now will be down to four by the end of this seal.

Revelation 9 and verse 20, it says, the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, the four billion that remain, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should worship demons and idols of gold and silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. They did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. Those who remained doubled down on the old paradigm. They doubled down on the old paradigm, and the truth was right in front of their eyes. For the past three and a half years, the two witnesses had been declaring it. Signs and wonders had accompanied their testimony. They had seen sign and wonders in heaven and earth, fields, forests, waters were damaged, the sun ceased to shine for a period of time. They'd experienced torment for months on end, and they'd just seen the death of two billion people. They understood God was real. They understood that the lamb was real. But these folks are so entrenched, so enslaved, so ingrained to their sin, their minds blinded by the God of this age, that no evidence to the contrary would shift the paradigm in their mind. The abundance of anomalies is stacked up against the paradigm made no difference. This isn't ignorance. This is arrogance. This is pride. This is blindness.

Despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, these individuals would not repent of their worship of demons or idols, their murder, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their theft. They did not come to God and repentance. Again, brethren, the end requires the means. The end requires the means. Still others, we see an innumerable multitude as they are described in Scripture as a result of the work of the two witnesses during this Great Tribulation period. They come to repentance. They come to repentance. Their robes are made white in the blood of the lamb. When the testimony of the two witnesses is complete, and when the 1260 days have ended, when the three and a half year period of their time is done, Scripture records that the beast will make war against the two witnesses, that he will overcome and he will kill them, and that their bodies will lie in the streets of the city. And Scripture states that peoples and nations and tongues will see their dead bodies for three and a half days. Now it's likely that their death makes the rounds on television. It's possible that live video of the moments when they are killed or the aftermath of their death may be captured in real-time footage, perhaps, or captured on closed-circuit television, that those gathered capture and it circulates, maybe on social media, speculating, of course, we don't know exactly what methods of mass communication are still going to be around at that point. But there aren't many other methods, at least currently, in mass communication that would enable people and tongues and nations to see this happen in real time. As they lie in the streets, the people who dwell on earth rejoice.

As they lie dead in the streets, the people of earth celebrate. They send gifts to each other.

They send gifts. Not gifts, gifts. We're in a meme culture. It could be gifts too, but no, they send gifts to each other. Do they also create content? Do they record videos of themselves on TikTok, celebrating, or Instagram, or Twitter, where they express their happiness and their joy at what is transpired? Do they mock them, perhaps? Do they mock them? Where they express how thankful they are for their death and wish death on more of people like them? Do they take video of them parading their bodies through the streets? Potentially. What we do know is that people around the world, every tribe, every tongue, and every people, nation, will celebrate and rejoice while their bodies lie in the streets of Jerusalem. And then after three and a half days, God raises them back to life, right there in the same streets that these people celebrated. And it says, great fear fell upon those who saw them. The two witnesses ascend to heaven in a cloud in the sight of their enemies. And in that moment, when that happens, there is an earthquake, and one-tenth of the Jerusalem falls and 7,000 people are killed in that earthquake. The testimony to the truth, their testimony to the truth, shatters the illusion. There was no denying it now. These individuals who had prophesied for the last three and a half years, they were of God. And it is obvious at this point, and in fact, so much so that those who remained, Scripture records, in Revelation 11, those who remained gave glory to the God of heaven. They realized, they understood who these two individuals were and where they had come from. And then the seventh trumpet sounds. Revelation 11, verse 15. Then the seventh angel sounded. There were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. He shall reign forever and ever. The twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshipped God, saying, We give you thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the one who is and who was and who is to come, because you have taken your great power and reigned. The nations were angry and your wrath has come, the time of the dead that they should be judged, that you should reward your servants, the prophets and the saints, those who fear your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth. Verse 19, the temple of God was opened in heaven, the ark of the covenant was seen in His temple, and there were lightnings and noises and thunderings and earthquake and great hail. In that moment, all dominion, all authority, all rulership is transferred from those who temporarily hold it on this earth, who were granted it by Satan, and they transfer back to its rightful hands. Christ delivers the kingdoms of this world to the Father, and the Father grants Christ to rule as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. At the moment of the sounding of that last trumpet, the dead in Christ are resurrected to spirit. Those who are Christ at His coming are transformed to spirit, and they join Christ in the air. Brethren, this is the tipping point. This is the tipping point. This is the point in human history where nothing which comes after it will ever again be the same. The old paradigm is collapsing, and it's in the process of being fully replaced with this new paradigm, but as we can see, it's going to take a little more time for this to be fully dismantled, but that process is moving in a direction in which it cannot go the other way.

Mr. Janisic asked a question this morning. What are we waiting for? What are we waiting for? This is how it ends. There is no other option. This is how it ends. How long will we waver between two opinions? How long before we realize this is the solution? This is the only solution. Living this way of life now, being a part of the first resurrection, working alongside Jesus Christ in the millennium. This is why you are here. This is the purpose for which you have been called in this life. Revelation 16 lines out the remaining events of this seventh trumpet as there's bowls and vials and plagues that are poured out in rapid succession after this seventh trumpet is sounded. Their additive, many of these are plagues which took place in Egypt. They're plagues that were outlined in the book of Exodus, but one leads to the next without the prior one being removed. It looks like they just stack on each other as they go here. The first bowl loath some sores come on those that worship the beast. The sea becomes blood, all of it, not just a third now, the entirety of it. Every living creature in the sea is dead. It's gone. Every living creature in the sea is dead. The rivers and the springs, all of the freshwater resources, become blood.

The fourth bowl, men are scorched with the heat of the sun, and man, even after all of this, still do not repent. And instead, at this point, they dig their heels in and they blaspheme God's name. The beast kingdom became full of darkness after the angel pours his bowl on the throne. The Euphrates dries up in the sixth bowl, enabling the coming armies to cross on dry ground to surround Jerusalem. Lying spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of Satan and the beast and the false prophet, and they go forth to deceive the nations, to gather the nations to Megiddo for the final battle. A voice from heaven declares when the seventh bowl is poured out, a voice from heaven declares, it is done. It is complete. It's done. There's great noises, there's thunderings, there's lightnings, there's a great earthquake, and there is a hailstorm, the likes of which humanity has never seen. How many of you have seen really huge hail before? Hey, big hail, right? I mean, big hail. And there's hailstorms that happen. You know, you get a big old inch, inch and a half hail. You don't want to go outside, right? I mean, that hurts. You know, it busts windows, it breaks things. Go back into Egypt, there was a hailstorm that took place as part of the plagues that killed men and animals that were caught out in it.

But during that hailstorm, you could go inside, and you would be safe during the one in Egypt. You'd go inside and you'd be safe. That is not the case here. These hailstones are described as the size of a talent, which at that point was approximately 100 pounds. It's roughly 100 pounds. That is bigger than most catapult stones, which means even in a structure you are not safe.

They will bring the building down around you.

Those experiencing these things continued to hang on to the dead paradigm. They refused to accept the new. They blasphemed God. Babylon is judged. Babylon is declared fallen. And the world rejoices. No, the world mourns. The world mourns because Babylon has fallen.

It is really difficult to imagine, as you think about all of the things that the world had gone through in the prior three and a half years, that those who remain, that when they see all of these things transpire, when you have an angel that descends from heaven, the whole entire earth illuminated in this individual's glory. And he loudly proclaims Babylon has fallen and the destruction of that system is about to happen, that the earth's response is mourning, rather than recognize the damage this system has done in distancing themselves from it. Instead, they mourn its loss. The God of this age is effective. The paradigm that he has influenced has created an illusion, a strong illusion, and delusion, in which there are individuals who are blinded by pride and greed and lust, who are drunk on the wrath of Babylon's fornication. They are going to mourn the loss of this paradigm. They are going to mourn the loss of their power and their influence within this system that for 6,000 years stood in opposition to God. They're going to mourn its loss. Revelation 19 and verse 11. Revelation 19 and verse 11. We see Christ comes down to earth to strike those armies that are gathered in Megiddo. We see that his part of that process is he conquers Satan the beast and the false prophet. He removes the leadership who are still upholding that defeated paradigm, which is already gone. I mean, it's already defeated. It just doesn't know it's dead yet in that sense. It's still fighting back a little bit, but who are upholding that paradigm and its influence? Revelation 19 and verse 11 says, Now I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse. This time the true white horse. This time the true Jesus Christ. He who sat on him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and he makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God. The armies in heaven clothed in fine linen white and clean followed him on white horses.

Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it he should strike the nations, and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of almighty God. And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Zechariah 14 verses 3 through 9 records that his feet will stand upon the Mount of Olives. We sang it in our hymn earlier that his feet will stand upon the Mount of Olives and the Mount shall cleave into. No more will people ultimately experience the deception.

For the very first time since he left from the slopes of Bethany, his feet will touch earthly soil again. They will come down and they will touch the Mount of Olives, where he ascended shortly before the day of Pentecost, ultimately from that roughly same location. The King has returned. Everything that we experienced, everything that we see in these last three and a half years of time and beyond with the first four seals, everything that we experience has led to this moment. This is the new paradigm. This is the new paradigm. Jesus Christ is King of Kings, King of all kings, Lord of all lords, his dominion, his authority. No more will people be influenced by deception and lies because Satan is bound and is put away for a thousand years and the new paradigm will be instituted completely.

Can you even imagine that? Based on what we have experienced in this life, the influence of Satan, the deception of Satan, can you imagine that at some point in the future we'll be under a paradigm, that when those things come back in it's going to feel weird? It will be so natural for us living under the new paradigm that when Satan is released at the end of the millennium, those are foreign ideas. Those are foreign concepts to the world at that time. Unfortunately, we realize that again, man, some, some will follow Satan yet again. But for the first time in the history of humanity since the events of Genesis 3, there will be no deception, manipulation, or distortion as a result of Satan's influence. There is no more illusion, just reality, just reality, and the truth of God will be proclaimed from the mountaintops. The whole entire earth will know what is right and what is true. And Mr. Armstrong used to theorize that it would take around three generations to work out the remaining vestiges of Satan's ways in mankind, that for those that survive through the millennium and that come from the tribulation into the millennium, the trauma, the memory of the world as it was, wouldn't work its way out immediately.

There would be some leftover attitudes, some leftover issues from Satan and that human population that had learned that way as they learn about God. Those things will subsequently improve generation to generation. For our final scripture today, if you turn over the book of Isaiah, turn over the book of Isaiah, there's a number of prophecies in the book of Isaiah that illustrate the period of the millennium, illustrate the reign of Jesus Christ. They're comforting. You know, they're comforting. We look at the world around us today and we see just how difficult the things are in the world around us today. It is so comforting to read through portions of Isaiah that promise what God is doing, that promise what those, what the ultimate paradigm is going to be. They help us to focus and hope kind of as we experience this current paradigm. Isaiah 11 and verse 9, Isaiah 11 and verse 9 says, they shall not hurt nor destroy in all of my holy mountain. Speaking here, millenially and ultimately into the kingdom as well. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. The old ways, the old paradigm, at that moment in time is done. It is gone. No one will hurt. No one will destroy in all of God's holy mountain because the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. The resurrected saints of God will be working alongside Jesus Christ to teach this new paradigm, to teach the objective and undeniable truth of God to those who remain.

And, brethren, no longer will they be moved into a corner. No longer will they be moved into a corner. They will teach the truth. When someone is trying to turn to the right or to the left, they will say, no, this is the way. Walk you in it. This is how. This is the way. Brethren, that's what we're here for. That is what we're preparing for today. It is why you're here. Not just on this day of trumpets, but why you've been called. It is the purpose for which God has brought you to the truth. And as we stand for the truth of God in this life, as we teach the truth, as we preach the gospel of the kingdom of God in this broken world, it is in this coming paradigm, the return of Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God in which we place our hope and we place our trust. There's been a number of tipping points in human history, times in which what came after was never the same again. The invention of the printing press, the discovery of electricity, the invention of the internet. After these things were done, the world would never be the same again. These were revolutionary paradigm shifts. But the return of Jesus Christ, the portion of the plan of God that this day that we are here to commemorate today points towards eclipses them all. With his return, the most important event in the history of the universe takes place. Over many billion years, the history of the universe, the kingdom of God will be established. The 1000-year millennial period is ushered in in which Satan's influence is removed and mankind can learn a new paradigm. They can become a part of the family of God. And you'll be there. You'll be helping with that process. You'll be involved in that process. What an incredible blessing. What an incredible responsibility. What an amazing calling which God has provided us. In the final sermon in this series, we'll explore the coming paradigm more fully. We'll see the specifics in Scripture of all of what that entails, and we're going to look at what does that mean for us now as we strive to live that paradigm today. I hope you all have a wonderful feast of trumpets and a very meaningful fall holy day season.