Bibleline Radio Show – 2009-06-17

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So cherish me, O God, and God, Till my truth be sent as the leader. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Hank Lindstrom, a ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Declary to the Church. Declaring God’s love through radio and the internet. Providing real answers to an ever-searching world. To reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep Bibleline on the air in your community, dial toll-free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Thanks for joining us here today. This is Tom Perry for Bible-ign Ministries.

You are just in time to hear Dr. Hank Lindstrom’s teaching series on the book of Revelation. We pray that Bible-ign will be glorifying to God as well as edifying to you. Through Bible-ign’s combination of teachings from the Word of God and real-life questions with answers taken straight from the Bible. We are continuing Dr. Lindstrom’s ministry of spreading the good news of salvation throughout the world, salvation through simply trusting Jesus Christ alone as your Savior. If you have not yet trusted Jesus, we encourage you to do so.

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So here the hundred-forder of a thousand are going to sing and they’re going to sing a song unique just to that group. And it says, notice they were redeemed from the earth. Verse 4 says, these are they which were not defiled with women for their virgins. So we learn here that they are men and they are virgin men and they’re all Jewish. And it says here in verse 4, these are they which followed the Lamb with us, whoever you goeth, these were redeemed from among men.

And then the last phrase says, they were the first fruits of the God unto the Lamb. In other words, the first ones martyred when the Antichrist comes to power in the middle of the tribulation period the first ones he kills are the hundred forty one thousand and then he starts killing everybody else that’s either Jewish or a believer as he makes war against the saints, as he makes war against the woman which is Israel we saw in chapter 12 and so these are the first for it.

These are the first ones to be martyred and are there before the lamb on Mount Zion in heaven. Verse 5, In their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God. And of course, we as believers will be found without fault as our sins have been forgiven by the blood of Christ. Verse 6, I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel. Scofia has an interesting note here. We’re not going talk about it, but he talks about four different gospels.

He talks about the gospel of the kingdom, talks about the gospel of the grace of God, talks about the everlasting gospel, and then talks about the gospel of Israel. It’s a perversion of the true gospel of grace that Galatians talks about, and if you have time you ought to read the Schofield notes and distinguish between them. But this is the everlasting gospel. It’s preached the only one preached by an angel, And it says to them that dwell on the earth and every nation and kindred and tongue in people, saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment is come and worship Him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of water.

I believe this is one final announcement right at the end of the tribulation period just before Jesus appears. This is it. It’s over, folks. And an angel proclaims to the believer, worship God, to the lost. It’s too late for you. Verse 8. And there followed another angel saying, Babylon has fallen, has fallen that great city because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Babylon here is probably a reference to chapter 17, the religious system that is called Babylon, and we have the book out here on the table now, two Babylon’s that traces a lot of things that are in Christianity back to the Tower of Babel in Genesis chapter 10.

It will curl your fingernails when you read that book, but it’s a powerful, powerful book that is well documented in history that you ought to get. But here at the end of the tribulation, it is judged and is fallen. And it says in verse 9, the third angel followed them saying with a lot of voice, if any man worship the beast and his image, or and receive his mark and their forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.

So all those that are lost at the end of the tribulation period. If you were in the previous class, we talked about the terrors and this is who they are. These are the laws. They will receive the mark of the beast. They’ll worship the Antichrist. Christ will come back and what will happen? God’s wrath will be poured out without mixture. That means it’s not diluted. Some drinks are diluted and so they’re kind of watering. I had an ant that was so conservative we’d go over to her house and and if she had grape juice she’d give it to us like one part grape juice ten parts water or nine parts water and We children when we went to her house and you know we just kind of accommodate her But we really wanted to spit it out in the yard.

It was just a little bit colored water is what she gave us But she was always that way was orange juice or whatever what she diluted right down to nothing Well, God’s wrath is gonna not be diluted but it will be poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. And He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb. Doesn’t that match up with 2 Thessalonians that we covered last period, if you were with the Rapture class.

And so here we find that Christ will be present and in His presence. In the presence of the Lamb and in the presence of God’s angels, the lost will be cast in the help. find that Christ is the ruler over hell. Verse 11, the smoke of their torment, ascend it up for how long? Forever and ever. Is hell forever? Absolutely. The smoke of their torment will notice a send up forever and ever. Also notice there’s no rest, day nor night.

Can you imagine? In hell, there’s no time for break. Nobody in hell says, well guess what break is coming up? We’ll go into an air condition room for 15 minutes and then we’ll go back into the flames. There’s no break when you’re in hell. It’s 24 hours, seven days a week, and forever, that you’ll be in torment. These who worship the beast and, as I mentioned, who so ever received the mark of his name. Verse 12 says, here is the patience of the saints.

Here are they that keep the commandments of God in the faith of Christ, basically saying again that believers are patient and enduring because they know that they’re on the winning side. As you go through trials, isn’t it comforting to know that God knows exactly what’s going on in your life and that it’s no surprise to him? And that you ultimately are the winner. You’re on the winning side. You’re gonna get a brand new body. You’re gonna live with the Lord forever in heaven.

And obviously those kind of things give us endurance. And you know, Job had that kind of focus, didn’t he? He said that he knew who it was that was trying him. And he had full confidence that he would come forth better as a result of what he was going through. And so it’s that kind of confidence knowing that the Lord is there and that he’s yours and your his that keeps us going sometimes. Verse 13, I heard a voice from heaven saying, and to me, right, blessed are the dead or happy are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth.

Why, yes, says the spirit that they may what? rest from their labors and their works to follow them. What a great verse that is. When a person dies, they rest from the labors that they did here and the works that they did here will follow them and be rewarded in heaven. So whatever you do here for Christ, will last. Whatever you do for Christ here will be rewarded in heaven. Isn’t that a great verse? So one day whenever we die as believers, we can say that we will rest now from whatever labors we were doing here and the works that we did will follow us into heaven and will be rewarded for them there.

Verse 14, chapter 14. I looked and behold a white cloud and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man. That’s Christ. Having upon his head a golden crown in his hand a sharp sickle. You know what a sickle is? It’s a rounded sharp blade on the end of a stick and we don’t use them too much anymore. But I remember wielding one of those one time and you can swing it across the grass and just cuts it right off.

Usually today we look at it as a primitive way of farming, but here it talks about the sickle in the hand of Christ and it’s the end of the tribulation period and Christ will come back and harvest the earth. Another angel came out of the temple crying with a lot of voice to him that sat upon the cloud and said, thrust in thy sickle and reap. For the time has come for thee to reap for the harvest of the earth is what?

Right. Thank you for joining us. You were listening to Bibleline with your host, Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Bibleline is a teaching ministry that is dedicated to reaching out to people with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are many resources available at Bibleline, such as Dr. Lindstrom’s DVD Teachings on the topics of Save by Grace, Baptism, and the Righteous vs. the Unrighteous. addition to many others please contact our Resource Center at 1-800-576-3771. Now please join us for a segment featuring Dr.

Lynch from answering questions from callers. We’re going to go down to Linda and Hudson and we welcome you to the program today, Linda. Hi Dr. Haynes. I just came in and kind of caught the end of the gentlemen previous to it. was talking about people with a post-rapture. But, you know, I was thinking, if the Holy Spirit is completely removed, I mean, of course He’s removed, and He needs believer. But… The Holy Spirit will still be active in convicting men of their sin, of their need of a Savior, and obviously evangelism will take place.

And it’s so clear that Revelation 7-9 says that millions are going to get saved. So I saw a number, that no man could number, that of all nations, kinetans, and tongues, it gets saved, Revelation 7 and 9. So millions will get saved, and obviously the Holy Spirit’s involved in that evangelism. What’s happening here, and this is where they don’t rightly divide the word, is that the tribulation period, I believe, is clearly the last seven years of the Old Testament age.

So we have had a 2,000 year age slipped in between the two comings of Christ, where God has turned to the Gentiles and he’s given us in advance what he promised to Israel. It will happen during the millennium. You know, during the millennium, every believer will have the Holy Spirit dwelling as we have it now. And so, Peter at the day of Pentecost, this is what the prophets spoke about, he said. This is what Joel spoke about. But it’s happening in advance for the Gentiles in the church age.

But the Holy Spirit, as he was present in the Old Testament times in evangelism and bringing people to saving knowledge of the Savior, the Messiah, is going to be present in those last seven years, just like He was up until the day at Pentecost. Well, that’s exactly what I was going to ask, because I started thinking, well, even David cried, take not the Holy Spirit from me. And I was thinking, you couldn’t possibly be, you know, just only the witnesses in the tribulation period bringing people to Christ because it can’t be done without the Holy Spirit.

Absolutely. That’s what I caught at the end. I thought, did you mean that he was gone completely? You know, me the witnesses are going to, you know, evangelize? No, obviously the Holy Spirit will still be here and, you know, no doubt about it. And this is something they missed. By the way, we just are adding another book to our resources here. This one is called The Holy Spirit by Charles Ryrie, the author of the Ryrie Study Bible. This is excellent and really not only talks about the person of the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Godhead, but also deals with the dispensational aspects of the Holy Spirit’s dealing in this world.

He wrote a great book years ago called Dispensational Truth, basically what I said here earlier that the age of law was interrupted by Christ’s rejection and Christ turned to the Gentiles and we’re now in the dispensation of grace. I didn’t make that up. In Ephesians 3-2 it talks about the dispensation of grace and then it certainly talks about the dispensation of law and also in Ephesians 1-11 it talks about the dispensation of the fullness of times which is the millennium.

And so they’re clearly different ages or dispensations and the Holy Spirit’s dealing in those times is clearly outlined in this book but it’s excellent book called The Holy Spirit by Charles Ryrie, Dr. Charles Roy, excellent book we’re adding. I’m trying to… add as I can here books that I feel that I can recommend because I’ve got tons of books around me on every wall but I’ve wasted a lot of money because I can’t recommend them to other people. A lot of these books you have to be discerning when you read them but there’s some that are very very good in Charles Royery everything he writes I would pretty much endorse everything he says and again that goes back to the Scholfield Bible because that’ll teach dispensations.

Oh yeah. And there’s such an argument about Some of them. main points and then it’s left out and people don’t even get exposed to it. Absolutely. Last week I was going to call and I didn’t get a chance and this was regarding an anagram show and a caller I called in and he was saying well you know how can you accept you know when there was it it was like when people disagree on like eternal security or losing your salvation or and he went on to say that you know it’s our mean is I’m taking this all in my obliques no sure brains not gelled together well but but our mean is in versus Calvinism’s point and where they believe you can lose your salvation of course Calvinism as eternal security and he says, you know, you don’t split over stuff like that, but that’s that you have to split over because that’s the difference between when you’re

saved or not people who believe they can lose their salvation are not saved because they’re really trusting in their works because they’re saying that what they do in their future will ultimately determine whether they’re saved or not that makes them the Savior not Christ and they’re not really trusting Christ in reality they’re saying unless I live the Christian life successfully and die, I won’t make heaven. Which means if they don’t live the life the way they feel like they should according to scripture, they’ll go to hell.

Which means how they live their life will save them or not save them. And that works and it’s these people are not saved at all. Well I couldn’t even, I mean my mouth fell open. I couldn’t even believe what I was hearing that. He would say that’s not, you know, That’s major, absolutely major. And I thought, what else is there, whether you’re safe or not, Sandra, the two most important questions in man’s existence. And then he’s saying, that’s trivial.

You know, you’re not going to split over that. And there was something else too. That’s a major divide, right there. Yeah, a major, major divide. I’m trying to think what else. I should have read my notes. But, oh, and he was saying something about hell with an eternal quarantine, and he went on to say, well, God wouldn’t create us to give us a free will and then choose to annihilate us, we’re not choosing them. But hell is eternally absent from God, and it’s a horrible dark void place that you’re alone from God.

And I couldn’t believe that he was making a point that he wouldn’t go to hell because God wouldn’t create you and then punish you by going to hell for not choosing them. But that is a tremendous amount. They try to do a spin on that so it doesn’t make God look bad. But basically if you believe God has elected some with disregard to anything that they do, even in their faith, to be saved, then obviously he has chosen another group to go to hell with disregard to their faith or anything else.

And we are all just puppets on a string and we have no choices at all. And certainly that’s not true. The Bible certainly tells us that we have choices and we’re asked to make choices throughout the Bible. In fact, we’re to choose to live for Christ every day. I loved what Joshua said. He said, choose you this day who you’re going to serve. Are you going to serve the gods that you serve prior to coming into this Promised Land?

Are you going to serve the true and living God? How could he be just if he let all the rebels into heaven? Exactly and it didn’t make sense. I know Well here How does he come by this is that is Calvinism and when you take Calvinism all the way you don’t have a choice the Calvinist believes that God chooses you Saves you and then you believe as a consequence of doing already saved It just kills evangelism because people that are Calvin is sometimes evangelized, but they do it more because it’s one of those things that if you don’t do, then you’re not saved because basically they believe that you have to have these works to show that you have genuine faith.

It’s kind of like works in the back door where they still put works into salvation subtly, but although they believe that there are no works involved because God’s already just chosen you and saved you. and saved you. So it’s kind of a craziness, but when you believe according to the Calvinist, you’ve already been saved and that’s just a consequence of already being saved. But the Bible teaches who’s to ever believe it is saved. So eternal life and being saved is a consequence of believing according to John 3 16 and the rest of the Bible.

So I would disagree with that whole position. I don’t believe that at all. I believe God is absolutely sovereign. No doubt about that. But in His sovereignty He gave man a free will to accept and or reject salvation that He’s provided through Christ. But then isn’t there, I forget where it is, but isn’t there something where God will save whom He will save? Well, yeah. In Romans 9, but He saves the one who believes on Christ. In other words, God has already made that choice and you can’t argue with that.

I mean, we can’t change the plan of salvation. But if you read the chapter in the context there, it talks about he saves those that believe. He doesn’t save those that don’t believe. So he says, I’ll have mercy on those whom I’ll have mercy and I’ll have compassion upon those that I’ll have compassion on. Then you read a little bit further in the chapter here and it says, what about the Gentiles? They didn’t follow after righteousness, but they attained to righteousness, even the righteousness, which is of faith.

But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, didn’t attain to the law of righteousness, wherefore or why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith. So God chose to have mercy and compassion upon those that would have faith in Christ. But He would not have mercy or compassion upon those who reject Christ. And so clearly here, election is based upon faith. Well, I was going to say they’re elected because they chose to believe. Yeah, exactly. In other words, the elect are the believers.

Deal Moody said it this way. Whosoever wills are the elect and the whosoever won’ts are the non-elect He made things simple and that’s just exactly the way it is You know because otherwise when you read it sometimes you go well gosh it’s starting to sound like islamic or something Right, it’s like whatever all the wills. Yeah, whatever all the wills and you want you a mean I want you But you’ll never know so just keep doing your well That’s the tragedy of that whole position and oftentimes a buzzword phrase in those circles is do you really have saving faith?

And here we go with works now because then they bring in the works and saving faith is where you’re really active. And so the poor person in that system in order to kind of convince themselves that they’re one of the elect is raising around doing works to be saved. Well, even with James, I can’t help it, but when you go back and read in James. It just always sounds like work. Well, James, you know, is not talking about salvation there.

James is talking to the believer about faith saving him from the consequences of the judgment seat of Christ. If you read verse 12 of James 2, it says, so speak ye and so do ye as those that are going to be judged by the law of liberty. That occurs at the judgment seat of Christ. And there were those that James was talking to that were not doing anything for Christ and he says that’s not going to save you from the loss of reward.

It’s not going to save you from the tears and the regret and the embarrassment and you’re being ashamed when you stand before God and he says what did you do for me? And you’ll have no rewards and you’re going to regret that in just the fact that you’re saved and you have faithful not to save you from those consequences. He’s not talking about well faith save you from hell of course it does. When you trust Christ you’re saved from hell to go to heaven.

But he’s talking in the context of what about the Christian life and are you going to have any rewards? What profit will you have? He says you’re not going to have any profit if you only have faith and have not works. Profit or rewards is based upon our deeds, our works and our performance. But salvation is based upon the finished work of Christ. Well, what I meant was if you’re just an average reader and you’re just coming to James has confused a lot of people.

It’s very difficult isn’t it? Yeah. And it almost sounds like he’s talking, because I think that’s what the… But that’s what they miss. They miss how the word save there is used in the context of not of salvation from hell, but of deliverance from the consequences of this judgment that all believers are going to one day stand at. It’s almost time for a break. It will have to pause right here and complete our time with this caller when we return.

If you’d like to hear today’s program again, then please visit our website at BibleLineMinistries.org. There you’ll be able to replay today’s program on our audio archives as well as access other resources including a Bible search tool and flashcards in addition to many other resources in our online store. Remember, we’ll hear the conclusion of this call as part of our next Question and Answer segment right after the break, and then we’ll hear more Bible teaching from Dr. Hank Lynch from.

Don’t go away. Bibleline will be back in a moment. To pledge your support for Bibleline, give us a call at 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Open our Bibles. We’re going to go to the book of Romans and we’ll go to chapter 10. One of the verses that is oftentimes misused is Romans 10-9, that if thou shall confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus. I want to stop right there because it really should read Jesus as Lord, but what happens so often is with many people, they have been taught wrong and they take it that that means master or Lord of your life and they say that to confess Him as your Lord would mean that you submit to the Lordship of Christ and are obedient in serving Christ all of your life.

That’s not really what this is saying. the context is clearly here talking about Jesus is God. And the quotes here are from the Old Testament where the word is God’s personal name, the tetragrammaton, the YHWH, which we often translate or pronounce as Jehovah or Yahweh. And it’s really talking about you must acknowledge the deity of Christ in order to be saved. You have your Bible there. Turn it to the book of Philippians. Let me take you to a little sidebar here.

In the book of Philippians it tells us about Jesus that Jesus is God. This is essential and a major doctrine in the Bible. To deny the deity of Christ means you’re not accepting the Jesus of the Bible and if you don’t then you will not be saved. We know it tells us over in 1 John 2, 23, whosoever denyeth the Son the same hath not the Father. the cults all deny the Jesus of the Bible and deny his deity, and therefore they do not have the Father.

Isn’t that amazing? I always think of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They are Jehovahless. You see, they deny the Son, and if they deny the Son, they don’t have the Father, so they don’t have Jehovah or Yahweh. Well, we find the wonderful book of Philippians tells us in chapter 2 that Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. So here we have a verse that tells us that Jesus was in the form of God and he thought it not robbery to be equal with God because he is God.

Jesus is God. But it says here as he took on flesh, he made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of Ben. This is Philippians 2 verse 7. So Jesus here took on the form of a servant, he was made in the likeness of man, and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Verse 9 tells us that, therefore, God also have highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name.

The name Jesus is above every name in the universe. It is really God’s name combined with another Hebrew word that means salvation, Yasha and Yahweh and Yasha together are Yeshua and Yeshua occurs over 130 times in the Old Testament and in English it’s pronounced Jesus. Jesus is the name which is above every name, the highest name in the universe and look at what it says in verse 10 of Philippians 2 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, things in the earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Now here is what you have as a clear explanation of what we have in Romans 10 and 9 and that is to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And it really means there He is Yahweh, or Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament. And guess what? This is a great passage because this very same passage is a quote from the Old Testament where we clearly have it being Jehovah. Turn if you will. We’ll come back to Flip Inse, but turn if you will to Isaiah 45.

And in this wonderful chapter of Isaiah 45, it talks about God, the Creator. Yahweh is the one that is speaking here in Isaiah 45, and he says in verse 22, Look unto Me. Look unto Me and be He saved. I’ve had people tell me salvation isn’t mentioned in the Old Testament. Are they reading the same Bible? It’s quite clear here. Look unto Me and be He saved. Who? Notice it says, all the ends of the earth. Everybody on the planet is affected by whether or not they would receive the Savior who is God Himself who took on you and flesh, Lord Jesus Christ.

I’m gonna go back and now join the stations that have been on break and do the second half hour Bible ends. Here we go. Would you like to help Bibleline continue in your area? You can! Just pick up your phone and dial 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. And now back to Bibleline. Welcome back from the break. We hope that you’re learning with us as you listen to Bibleline and hear real-life questions with scriptural answers from Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Please make plans to join us and open your Bible as we also present in-depth studies covering a variety of biblical topics.

Now as promised, we’ll hear the conclusion of that call as part of this question and answer segment and then we’ll hear more Bible teaching from Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Well, what I meant was if you’re just an average reader and you’re just coming to… James has confused a lot of people. It’s very difficult, isn’t it? And it almost sounds like he’s talking because I think that’s what they miss. They miss how the word save there is used in the context of not of salvation from hell, but of deliverance from the consequences of this judgment that all believers are going to one day stand at, call the judgment seat of Christ.

And if you haven’t done anything for Christ after your salvation, you’re going to suffer the loss of reward. Corinthians 3 talks about suffering loss, chapter 3, verse 15 and verse Corinthians. And I don’t know what that word suffer entails except I believe there will be tears. It’s not until after the new heavens and new earth comes along that God comes over and comes to the believers and wipes away their tears. He wipes away tears because I think we’re all going to have regret.

I’m sure all of us are going to say, well I could have done more. I could have been more faithful. I I should have been more energized for Christ. I should have been more aggressive in trying to lead my family to Christ. I should have, and we can go on and on. I should have, I should have, I should have. And that’s why we need to encourage believers this side of that event, as James does. Hey, wake up. You’re not going to have any profit, and you’re not going to escape the consequences of not having lived for Christ if you stand at that judgment, and you didn’t do anything.

I’m going to read it again and see if I, I mean, I believe that way. It’s just that when I go back to James, it’s not like that. It’s difficult. James takes an illustration there in the life of Abraham, 40 years after Abraham is saved. In Romans chapter 4, we find Paul picks up on Abraham when he got saved and talks about how he’s saved by faith without works. It says, if Abraham were justified by works, he’d have where of the glory, but not before God.

far as being justified before God as far as salvation is concerned. Abraham, his works would not help him at all. And Paul appeals to Genesis 15, 6, and quotes it in Romans 4, 3, telling us that Abraham simply believed the promise of the coming Savior and was saved. And then we find James picks up when he offered up Isaac as an illustration of his Christian life and his works. And that was 40 years later Abraham was saved before he even had a son.

40 years later he offers up Isaac and then James says see how he showed by his works that he was a mature believer and that he was justified before men by his works. Abraham would be rewarded for that but he was saved. I guess there you kind of forget and you tap it up and then you’re not putting back in sequence that. I have a paper. He’s already saved and saved 40 years at the point when the illustration that James picks up on and uses.

I have a sheet where I’ve gone through verse by verse in James 2, if you’d like that. If you send me a self-addressed stamped envelope or anybody who’s listening does, I’ll be happy to send you my paper on James 2 because I’ve spent a lot of time on James 2. Even Martin Luther got confused, you know. He was understanding grace well, but James, he didn’t seem to understand what it was saying there. I’m sure that we have to forgive him for that, but he wanted to see the book of James thrown out of the Bible.

He said it was an epistle of straw. Well, he probably felt like it confused. Yeah, it did. And so he wanted to get rid of it. He wanted to get it thrown out of the Bible, but of course it belongs in the scripture. A lot of people have been confused and all the cults love to go to James too as a proof text for works for salvation. And I felt like James maybe comes from that type of writing because he was probably so entrenched in a jewish well you know i think he was passionate for the believers that they would not suffer the loss at the judge of christ in chapter five he gets really strongly says how old now and we now He says you’re going to weep at that judgment if you don’t live for Christ.

He’s not talking about loss of salvation, but he’s telling people that you might as well start crying now because you’re going to cry then. If you don’t live for Christ now as a believer, you’re going to be held accountable and there’s going to be the suffering of loss that you could have lived your life for Christ and gained great reward. But if you don’t, you’re going to regret it one day and James gets real tough on his readers and says, look, as we’ll start weeping and crying now and poor ashes on you and we’re sackcloth, you know, because he says you’re going to regret later that you didn’t.

And so he’s writing a tough letter here to believers. He’s telling the believers to get off their blessed assurance and do something. And a lot of believers are just sitting back saying I’m saved and okay. And that’s about all they do. Well, thank you. I don’t want to take up more. Well, Linda, thank you for calling. But I’ll send a self-addressed damn temple. There you go. Thank you. All right. And if you would like to send in self-addressed envelo, just ask for the article on James 2, and we’ll send it right back to you.

No charge. We’re going to go to Ed and Tampa. Ed, welcome to Bible End. Good morning, Pastor. I just want to question this. I’ve been talking with some of the people that are post-tribulationists, and one of their questions to me was in the end after the tribulation when God sends his angels off out to collect his elect from the earth. My question is what are the elect? Because I’m going to the opinion that the church has been resurrected and gone to heaven.

Absolutely. And the elect are believers, but there are elect to become elect after the Rapture, those who will trust Christ after the Rapture, and they are the elect of the Tribulation Period, and they’re the ones that will be rounded up at the end of the Tribulation Period. We on this side of the Rapture are the elect, but all of us of the elect of the age of the Church Age are going to be raptured up to be with the Lord.

I don’t know why they make such a big point on it. They don’t seem to understand that there are people going to be saved after the Rapture. Yes, and they’re very adamant and it’s hard to get to the point with them because they’re such strong believers and I can appreciate their embroiled. When you take things out of the Bible and out of contact, it makes the storage thing. Well, that’s exactly what happens. There’s a tremendous difference between the rapture and the Second Coming, and that the rapture Christ comes by Himself.

the second coming, he comes in all of his power and glory with all of his holy angels and with us coming back with him. There’s a clear distinction in the Bible that at the Rapture Christ comes for his saints, but at the second coming, seven years later, he comes back with his saints. And if you’re not paying attention, and that’s why we need to rightly divide the word of truth. We need to be careful students, set the truth of God’s word in right order and recognize that there’s a difference between those events and they’re separated by seven years.

There’s no doubt about it that we go out before the tribulation period but we come back with Christ at the end of the tribulation period. One of the arguments is that if the church is gone away, if the Holy Spirit is taken from the earth, then how can people be saved? Right. And here again they don’t understand what the Bible is saying. The Holy Spirit will still continue to operate as he did in Old Testament times, the difference will be that he doesn’t come to and dwell the believer as he does in this age.

So the Holy Spirit in us will, you know, when the Holy Spirit goes and that’s what 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 talks about, this one who restrains evil, the Holy Spirit, the he that is going to be taken out, is the one who dwells us as believers and when he goes we go and that’s at the rapture, then it says the tribulation period will begin and the Antichrist will be revealed. It’s It’s a great pre-tribulation rapture passage because it makes it very clear the order of events is that we go first and then the tribulation period begins and then the Antichrist is revealed and then Christ comes back and destroys the Antichrist at the end of the tribulation period.

So we’re out of here during that whole time. He will not be revealed until we’re gone. That’s the first Thessalonians. That’s second Thessalonians chapter 2. And it talks about the one who hinders there. Actually, in the King James, I believe it reads, let’s, L-E-T-S. The meaning changed over 400 years. It now means to allow, but at that time the word let meant to hinder. And so the Holy Spirit in us is the restrainer, the one who hinders evil in this world.

Can you imagine the Bible says when the rapture happens that the believers all take an out which had the Holy Spirit in them. The whole world will be just filled with lawlessness because we are like the salt of the earth and we’re restrainers of mystery of iniquity that he describes here that continues To push toward fulfillment in the antichrist in the tribulation period. But we’re restraining that once we’re taking out the tribulation period and everything’s going to go down the tubes.

The tribulation period will begin with no believers. And God is going to send back two witnesses in Revelation 11. They’re there described and through their witness it seems that the 144,000 Jewish men are going to be saved and through their evangelism Revelation 7 9 says millions. It says a number of all nations and kidders and tongues in numerable will be saved during the tribulation period. Okay. Listen, thank you very much. And listen, my only thought is come now, oh Jesus.

Amen. And you know, the post tribulation raptures are wrong and they’re going to go up with us and they just don’t know it. Well, I’m going to do it. I’m just going to go. I am too. And when we go up, I’m going to be telling them all the way up. I told you so. told you so you guys didn’t have it right all right we’ll see you later and let’s go out before you bless you you have fun with that you know that’s that’s not the major thing that we need to debate but it’s it it is a the blessed hope is what the bible calls it we’re not to wait for the blessed tribulation we’re to wait for the blessed hope which is christ who comes back and snatches us out amen all right thank you for you take care that was that in

Tampa and we’re going to Earl in Pensacola, Florida. Earl, welcome to Bibleline. Yes, good morning, sir. Yes, I’m with the S.U.N. Is there any descriptive reference to a seven-year tribulation? Absolutely. In fact, Daniel’s 70th week, it’s a week of years, and that is this seven-year period that the Bible talks about throughout. And there is a reference clearly to it. I just gave a Sunday message on that. In the book of Revelation, it divides it into two halves, 42 months and 42 months.

And 42 months is three and a half years, and 42 more months is three and a half more years, and that’s a total of seven years. And you’ll find that there are references everywhere to the total of seven years of tribulation that follow the rapture before Christ comes back at His Second Coming. But Daniel 9, 27, is talking about the 70th week week of years. What an incredible prophecy. The first 69 weeks took us right up to the crucifixion of Christ and it was a prophecy hundreds of years in advance.

In fact, if you multiply 69-M7, it’s 483 years from the giving of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem after it had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. And when that commandment was given and you count 483 years, boom, Jesus dies on the cross of Calvary. And then the clock stopped ticking Earl and the clock will pick up on its ticking again once the rapture happens. That’s 70th week of seven years of Daniel 9 will tick off the clock and that’s the tribulation period.

Hope that helps a little bit and if you get my CD you’ll really see it all just come to life for you. Alright. That wraps up today’s question and answer segment. As believers in Jesus there is no other topic that is more important to us than the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it was Dr. Hank Lindstrom’s mission to spread the gospel. Through your prayers and ongoing financial support for Bibleline, you too can help spread the gospel of Christ throughout the world and reach others with the message of salvation through Jesus.

Please, prayerfully consider supporting Bibleline by visiting our website at BibleLineMinistries.org and getting copies of any of our resources, such as Dr. Lindstrom’s audio CDs on the books of Matthew or Genesis, plus many others. Join us now as we continue today’s teaching series from Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Another angel came out of the temple crying with a lot of voice to him that sat upon the cloud and said, thrust in thy circle and reap. So the time has come for thee to reap for the harvest of the earth is one.”

Right. He that sat upon the cloud thrust in his sickle and on the earth and the earth was reaped. Another angel came out of the temple which is an ebony and he also had a sharp sickle. Another angel came out from the altar which had power over fire and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle saying, thrust in thy sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully.

Right. Turn in your hymnals to number 74. And here’s a hymn that talks about this, that most people don’t even realize what they’re singing when they sing it. Him number 74, if you have the hymnal in front of you, it’s called the Battle of the Republic, or the Mine Eyes of Seeing the Glory. It’s about the Second Coming of Christ. It says in verse 1, Mine Eyes of Seeing the Glory of the What. Coming of the Lord. The second line in the first hand says, he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.

These clusters of grapes are the lost. And they’re all going to be gathered and cast into this valley in Israel called the valley of Johnassophan. And their Christ will stomp on their bodies and crush the life and blood out of all the lost. And the result will be a river will flow of human blood 200 miles long as deep as the horse is bridal. Not a pretty picture, but that’s what this hymn is all about. People say, I love that hymn.

They don’t even know what they’re thinking about. A bloody, bloody picture. Let’s read it here in the book of Revelation, verse 19. The angel thrust in the his sickle into the earth, gathered the vine of the earth, cast it into the great wine press of the wrath of God. are all lost, being cast into this valley over there in Israel. Verse 20, the wine press was trodden without the city. Christ Himself trods this wine press. You know, the ancient wine press was simply a place where they throw all the grapes and people get in there with their beer feet and stomp around and they’d stomp the grapes and the juice would then be collected.

And I’m glad they don’t do it that way today. Unless they have really clean feet, I don’t think I’d want to have that happen. But Jesus will come back and stomp upon the lost and you’ll crush the blood out of their bodies. The wine press was trodden without the city verse 20. Blood came out of the wine press even under the horses bridled by the space of a thousand six hundred furloughs. That’s two hundred miles. I lost my calculations but one day I sat down and an average human has about six quarts of blood in their body.

I figured out the volume of a court. I figured out how many humans it would take to have a river 200 miles long, I knew two dimensions, I knew the length, I knew the height, I didn’t know the breath. So I calculated how many humans it would have taken to have a river, 200 miles long, as high as a horse is right, one foot wide, two foot wide, three foot wide, four foot wide, five foot wide. And I figured that billions have to be crushed by Christ when He comes back to form a river that large, and apparently that will be so.

It is my view that when it’s all over, the world’s population will be reduced to about 100 million. In other words, I believe by the time the tribulation period is over, 5,900 million people will probably die in all the judgments and in the battle of Armageddon and in those that are crushed that are lost at the end of the tribulation period. And that will bring the world’s population to about where it was when Christ was here the first time.

And then the millennium will begin. Isaiah 63, talking about the same event, prophetically talking about Jesus, and I’ll give you the page number as soon as I arrive. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, if you can find any of those, that’ll maybe help you. Isaiah 63 is prophetically talking about Jesus, page 767. There’s an airplane without number, 767. Chapter 63. 1. Who is this that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Basra? This that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength.

I that speak in righteousness mighty to save is talking about Christ. It says that the question is asked, wherefore art thou read in thine apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine fed? If you’re one of those that bounced around with your feet in the wine press, you would be stained by all the juice splashing up on your clothes. Look at what it says in verse 3, and this is Christ’s words prophetically. He says, I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people who was done with me, for I will tread them people in my anger and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain In all my arraignment, let’s talk about Christ.

Wow, he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He has loosed the faithful lightning in his terrible Swiss sword. The Battle of the Imperial Republic tells the very story that we’re reading about here, and Christ will be splashed and covered with blood as he comes back in vengeance and crushes all the unsaved, and a literal river of blood will flow into the Middle East 200 miles long as deep as the horses are. We sing about it, and don’t even know we’re singing about it.

We read about it, and don’t even realize what we’re reading about. But this is what’s going to happen. Chapter 15, I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous. Seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them is filled up the wrath of God. So these are the last seven plagues that are about to come up, and they are the worst. It says in verse 2, I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire. Remember in chapter 4, we saw the crystal sea, the sea of glass before the throne of God.

Now it is mingled with fire, speaking about the judgment coming at the end of the tribulation period upon those that are on the earth. And we find here there was those that had gotten the victory over the Antichrist, those that were believers, that were martyred, those that had victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name. And they stand on the sea of glass having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God.

Did you know that Moses was a songwriter? And right after they crossed the Red Sea and Egyptian army was destroyed, he wrote a song of victory. You can read about in Exodus chapter 15, the people saying that wonderful song of victory. By the way, that was a picture of what’s going to happen here in the tribulation period. Egypt was a picture of the world, the Pharaoh was a picture of the Antichrist, the defeat of that army and the Red Sea was a picture of the defeat of the nations by Christ, the Second Coming, and so they sang that song of victory.

But notice now they’re going to sing also another song, the Song of the Lamb, which I believe also is a song of victory. As we get to read the words here of the Song of the Lamb, it says here, here the Song of the Lamb saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are thy ways, Thou King of Saints. Who shall not fear the O Lord and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy, for all nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest.

Now we’re not privy to the tune, so I couldn’t sing it for you. But that is the song of the Lamb, and it’s a song like the song of Moses, both a victory over Satan And here in this case over the Antichrist as back then it was a victory over Pharaoh, a type of the Antichrist. Thanks for listening to Bibleline with Dr. Hanclinstram. That wraps up another edition for today. Please be sure to tune in next time as we continue this teaching series.

We’ve enjoyed being with you today and hope that you’re following along with us in your Bible. There is nothing more foundational to the development and strengthening of your Christian life than reading your Bible. Please make an effort to spend time with God through reading your Bible each day and learning and growing in the knowledge of God’s Word through listening to Bibleline. If you missed any part of today’s program or if you’d like to hear Dr. Lindstrom’s entire series on today’s teaching, please call us at 1-800-576-3771 to get a copy for your personal library Or if you prefer, you can write us at Bibleline ministries 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida 33634.

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Our time is up for today, but we look forward to you being with us again for another edition of Bibleline. Until next time, this has been Tom Perry for Bibleline Ministries, and as Dr. Hank Lynchton would like to say, and we know it to be true, keep looking up. Jesus is coming. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a presentation of Bibleline Ministries of Tampa, Florida. Your regular monthly donations to Bibleline make it possible for this ministry to continue in your area and on the Internet.

Please contact us today and lend your prayerful and financial support. The Bible Lines address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Or visit Bibleline Online and BibleLineMinistries.org. Be sure to tune in to another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Everybody on the planet is affected by whether or not they would receive the Savior who is God Himself who took on human flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. And look at what He says here, I am God and there is none else.

We just read in verse 18 of Isaiah 45, did He created the heavens? He created the universe. This is the God we’re talking about. He created the sun, the moon, and the stars. Guess what? Not every religion worships the same God. The Muslims, for example, worship Allah, and he’s the moon god. That was one of the tribal gods in the deserts out there in Saudi Arabia, and and Mohammed simply picked one of those tribal gods and made him their god.

And guess what? Every time you see a prayer tower, a minaret, all over the Middle East, and we have them here in Tampa, at the University of Tampa, we have these prayer towers, these minarets. Guess what’s at the top of each one of them? A crescent moon, that’s right. Because the prayers go up to the moon. They pray to the moon God. Oh, by goodness. You know, on our ambulances we have a Red Cross. Because why? We believe in Jesus and the death of the Cross and that He’s the God who can save and redeem and He can hear our prayers and He can heal us and so on.

But if you look at the ambulances and the whole Muslim world, they have a crescent moon. They pray to the moon. In case they’re injured or wounded or hurt and need help, they pray to the moon to get help. Look at what God says here. I am God and there is none else. Verse 22 of Isaiah 45, look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. He says that in verse 23, I have sworn by myself the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return.”

What does that mean? God is never going to take His word back. He’s not going to change His mind. I don’t you ever remember, I used to remember as a child, kids would make promises and then they would say, well, I take my promise back, or that promise doesn’t count because my fingers were crossed, all this crazy nonsense. And you know, that was irritating and of course upsetting when somebody would take back a promise that they had made. But God will never do that.

He says, My word has gone forth in righteousness and shall not return. That means God has never got to take His word back. What you find here in the Bible is permanent. Peter tells us in the New Testament, the word of God liveth in abideth forever and ever. Now get ready here in Isaiah 45 verse 23. He says here that unto me, this is what He swore. This is what is gone forth out of his mouth. This is what shall not return.

That unto me every knee shall bow, in every tongue shall swear. Wow, that’s what we just read in Philippians. And we find that it tells us there in Philippians that Jesus is God and that He is the one that this is talking about in Isaiah. That unto me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is God. He is Jehovah or Yahweh. You cannot be saved any other way. And then it says that the one who believes on Christ, you’ll not be ashamed.

He’ll be righteous in God’s sight because of Christ’s substitutionary death in his place. Let me go back to Philippians 2 because it says that Jesus has been highly exalted and given a name above every name and in Philippians 2 verse 10 it says that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things into the earth and that every tongue she can test that Jesus Christ is Yahweh or Jehovah, that he is the God of creation, the God of the Bible, the God that created the sun, moon and the stars and told us not to worship any one of them.

Well, that’s what the Bible is talking about in Romans 10 and 9. It’s not talking about submitting to the Lordship and being obedient, which is works for salvation, is talking about recognizing who Christ is and that he is the Savior and that he is the who only died and paid our sin debt before. When you trust Him, God’s sake, I’m not paying attention to this Bible. I’m God bless all of you. And I hope that you’re twinest in again tomorrow.

We’ll be back. First thing tomorrow, 10 o’clock. You’ve been listening to Bible. And I hope you’ll be listening to Bible. I’m the light minister of Tampa, Florida. Say goodbye, but we’ll be right here tomorrow. Be right here, Mar. You’re going to monthly donations to Bible. Make it possible for this ministry to continue in your area and on the internet. Please contact us today and lend your prayerful and financial support. The Bibleline’s address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634.

Or visit Bibleline online and BibleLineMinistries.org. Be sure to tune in to another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida.