Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: "Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come." That's the beginning of what our teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee calls the good news out of Revelation 14, here on Thru the Bible.

But you might be thinking, good news? How can Dr. McGee equate the hour of judgment with good news? Well, stay with us and you'll find out. I'm Steve Schwetz, welcome aboard the Bible Bus for our five-year journey through God's entire word. Now, before we jump into our study of Revelation, we've got some time to read some really good letters from Thru the Bible members of home groups all around the world. And our president, Greg Harris, is here too.

Greg Harris: Hey Steve, great to be here. Hi everybody. Thanks for having me today and we are going to talk about one of our favorite subjects, which is home groups. Simple concept but so powerful. People gather in homes—that's the home part—in groups, small groups, seven to 10 people. As opposed to a normal Bible study, they listen to Dr. McGee's teaching in one of, in the case of India, 150 different languages. The reason this is so helpful is we get Dr. McGee's teaching into these small language groups and the impact is incredible.

Steve Schwetz: Yeah, where there's both very little content and people that it really resonates with their heart language. I love hearing about all these because I've never even heard of these languages.

Greg Harris: Nor have I, Steve, and I'm supposed to be something of an expert. But that's how obscure many of these languages are. You might say, well Greg, if you don't know, why is that? It's because our partners know. They also know where the opportunities are. Let's jump into this first one. I'll let you pronounce it.

Steve Schwetz: This is a language group that's spoken only by 100,000 people in Myanmar, which is just nothing in terms of quantity of population size. But it's a lot in terms of eternal souls. Exactly. The Falam Chin language is what this is called. The Falam people are primarily Christian and they do have the Bible translated into Falam Chin, so there's a foundation there. Let's read this first testimony from one of these listeners in Tripura, India.

"One of my biggest challenges was sharing God's word with others. I was often afraid, worried that I might say something wrong or not represent God's word properly. But one day, one of your staff members reached out to me and gave me a media player filled with God's word and also filled with Thru the Bible. Listening to the teachings through this device helped me learn many new things and gave me the confidence I needed. Now I feel encouraged to attend church with my friends and family. Through the home group, I've continued to grow in knowledge and faith. I've also learned valuable lessons from our leaders and fellow members. These experiences have strengthened my understanding and walk with God."

Greg Harris: Wow, that is so powerful. And as you said, 100,000 people in the ocean of over 8 billion people on this planet seems like nothing, but 100,000 people is a lot. Now, this next one is going to be very interesting, Steve. You know how sometimes Dr. McGee asks a theological question and says, "Well, I don't know"?

I read this in preparation for our time. We're talking about the Fongbe language, which is an African language with between two and a half to five million speakers worldwide, mostly in Benin and then Southern Africa. Well, we're going to read this and then we'll discuss it for a minute.

"I am so grateful to God for your Fongbe programs. They've even won my pastor's heart. My view of the Bible has changed since I started listening. At my church, we always followed a set liturgy and routine. Even if we didn't understand much, we still went along with it. But spiritually, those rules didn't help us grow. The focus was on people, not the Bible. But recently, these programs have really opened my eyes and changed how I understand things. Now many of my pastor's sermons don't really speak to me anymore. Why? Because I compare what he says to what I've learned from you, and when they don't line up, I follow the TTB teaching and it works for me."

Steve Schwetz: "I wasn't trying to be rebellious, but I didn't just accept everything either. I used discernment. I had no idea that this attitude, one that I thought was just normal, was actually impacting my pastor. About a month ago, I decided to volunteer as a radio home group facilitator for the Fongbe programs in my area. When I told my pastor, he surprised me by saying he wanted to help. Not only does he now lead the group meetings, but he's also started including what he's learning from you in his messages. We can now clearly see traces of TTB content in his messages and our once very closed-off group is now opening up to these wonderful teachings. Even better, my pastor isn't afraid to ask questions about parts of the programs he doesn't understand. He's eager to learn and willing to change what he thought he knew."

Greg Harris: That's a great story. But I thought when I read this, I don't know that we have home groups in Fongbe, in the language. So I wrote to one of our senior staff who handles Africa, and he said, "I don't know either." So folks, the good news about this is that God is doing things like spreading the home groups in ways that we don't even know. We tell that story all the time. It is such an encouragement.

Steve Schwetz: Greg, let me pray for us as we get to our study. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for what You're doing not only in the Fongbe language but around the world in so many different languages. We pray that You would continue to bring many people to Yourself and to Your word as a result, in part, of Thru the Bible. Bless the program as it goes out now, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now I want to come back today to verses four and five of this 14th chapter. We have just come through the Great Tribulation, that is, studying it here and especially looking at these seven tremendous personalities that were presented to us. Then after them, we have this hiatus, this parenthesis that fills in some more detail with other persons. Now, some of these we've looked at have been frightful and reveal how terrible the Great Tribulation is going to be.

May I say that there is abroad today a viewpoint that I think is rather new, but it is a viewpoint that the Christian and the church, of course, will go through the Great Tribulation period. I have an article here from a magazine of a man who actually is a layman. Yet he has the audacity to write like this:

"There is a shallow Christianity moving across our land. Those who do not have deep roots in Christ shrink from the idea that God would test His people with the tribulation or that He would use suffering to help the church make herself ready as a bride for Christ. Very clearly, though, suffering is the pathway to glory. We are called to it. Why? Because Christ also suffered, leaving us an example that we should follow in His steps. As a result of this thinking, I no longer teach Christians they will not have to go through the tribulation. Maybe they won't, but I can do more for them preparing them to face testing in His name than by teaching them that the Lord is going to rapture them out of the hour of trial."

He uses the verse there about the tremendous growth in that person who puts on the whole armor of God that he may be able to withstand in the evil day. Well, may I say to you that the Great Tribulation is not called the evil day. It's called the day of God's wrath, the great day of God's wrath. That's the way it's spoken of in the Bible. How anyone can read what we've been over and believe that this would purify the church to go through this, and to make a statement that the bride's got to make herself ready? What do you think Christ did when He died on the cross? He made us ready there. You and I, we'll never become worthy to enter His presence. We're going to enter in Christ, and my friend, you can't add anything to that.

The notion that's abroad today to attempt to equate that hour of trial with the great day of the wrath of God that's coming on this earth—the church has been delivered from that. Revelation has made that clear. This 144,000 here that we're looking at, they've already been identified for us as Israelites, and even the tribes are identified here. So there's no way in the world of saying that's the church. And that great company of Gentiles are Gentiles, not the church, the bride of Christ at all.

This 144,000 have come through, and we have seen that God was able to keep them in the Great Tribulation period. Now, it's not a question of whether God could keep the church in the Great Tribulation period. Of course, He can keep the church if that was His will and plan. But that is not His will and plan according to the word of God. The Lord Jesus said, "I'm going to keep you from that hour that is coming on this earth, that terrible time of testing that's coming."

I like to put it like this: the church is not going through the Great Tribulation, but we're going through the little tribulation. I think all of us have troubles and trials, and I don't know of a Christian that doesn't have problems and difficulties. It seems like the more wonderful the saint of God is, the more they suffer down here. But this is where God's developing us today as His children. We never become wonderful saints of God. We're just His little children, immature, undeveloped, and when we come into His presence, we'll not come there because we've been through the Great Tribulation.

Most of the church has missed the Great Tribulation. Millions for 1,900 years have died and already gone into the presence of Christ, and I hope you're not going to say He's going to bring them back to put them through the Great Tribulation. I don't think so. Most of the church has missed it. At best, there'll only be a very small percentage. Probably you want to adopt the opinion that that crowd needs it. I always felt these people that believe the church will go through the Great Tribulation, they always felt I should go through it, I deserve it. I grant that. But I also deserve hell, but I'm not going to get it because Christ bore it for me. I've trusted Him, and I'm not going through the Great Tribulation. Why? Because He died for me and He saves me by His grace.

Isn't the one who says He's rich in grace, isn't He able to deliver me out of this? He says He's able to deliver me out of even the trials today. He's been wonderful to me, cured me of cancer, and He has put me through two operations, major operations, and I want to tell you, I feel like I've been through a little tribulation period. A preacher said to me, "You know, I can tell that there's a difference in your ministry after you've gone through all of this." Well, I trust there is. I think He did it for a purpose.

But to say I've been through the Great Tribulation and that I ought to go through it, I wonder if this brother's really ever suffered for Christ. These folk that talk that way, I wonder how much suffering they've endured. I sat with a preacher that believes that. He's a friend of mine, and he was eating a T-bone steak, and he talked about the church going through the Great Tribulation. This man was holding a meeting for me years ago when I was a pastor back East. He thought the church would go through the Great Tribulation period, talked about it as nonchalantly as if the church was probably going to wade through a river or go through a very hot summer or experience an energy shortage or something like that.

He never thought of it as being as terrible as it is depicted for us here. Is God misrepresenting here to us to want to scare you? I'll tell you how terrible the Great Tribulation is. But really, it's not. Well, my friends, there are places here where He's used symbols, and you know why He used symbols? Not because you can evaporate it and dismiss it, but because the reality that the symbol represents is lots worse than the symbol. Many of these things beggar description. There's not language, even God could not communicate to us—not because God's not able, but we are dull of hearing. He's told us that, and we don't always understand.

I'm afraid a great many folk just don't seem to get it, that the Great Tribulation is a terrible thing. This is miraculous. This 144,000 came through and He didn't lose one of them. Why? Because they're all big, strong, robust fellows? Oh no, friends. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. That's the way they did it.

Now we're told that in this fourth verse, they're firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. Now that has very definite reference to the nation Israel. Paul says in Romans 11:15-16, "For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches." So that these are the firstfruits, and Israel is described as that, and especially this 144,000.

I think they're going to occupy a unique place in the millennial kingdom. They will evidently be the vanguard with the Lamb when He returns to set up the kingdom, and we'll see that in the 19th chapter. Now we're told in their mouth was found no lie. Why? Well, that means they did not participate in the big lie of the beast when he used lying wonders. They didn't fall for it. Remember the Lord Jesus said that if it were possible to deceive the elect, why they'd be deceived, but they won't be deceived and they weren't.

Now they're without blemish. Now why are they without blemish? Because they've been through the Great Tribulation, been purified? No. They're clothed with the righteousness of Christ. That's the way I'm going to heaven, friends. I'm not going to heaven because I think I'm good, because I know I'm not. I say it again, if you knew me like I know myself, you'd shut that radio off. But wait a minute, don't turn that knob, because if I knew you like you know yourself, I wouldn't be talking to you. But since we both, you know, are like we are, sinners saved by the grace of God, let me continue and you continue listening.

Now I'm going down to verses six and seven, and we have here the proclamation of the everlasting gospel. We're reading from our own translation now: "And I saw another angel"—and here we go with another angel, there are a lot of another angels here—"and another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to proclaim unto them that dwell on the earth."

Notice it's confined to those that now dwell on the earth. "And unto every nation and tribe and tongue and people, and he saith with a great voice, 'Fear God and give Him glory, for the hour of His judgment has come, and worship Him that made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of water.'"

Now the question naturally arises, how is this the gospel? Gospel means good tidings or good news. Is this good news? If you're God's child, it's good news, friend. And it's an eternal gospel. Is it the same gospel we preach? Yes. I want to say that it is the same gospel that we preach, but there's something been added. Not to get saved, but now they can say that He's getting ready to come, that He's coming in judgment. And that's good news for God's people. It's bad news for the world.

This another angel denotes another radical change in the protocol of God's communication with the earth. This angel is the first in a parade of six angels, and I'll be calling attention to them as we go along. This is the first one of six that will appear. During this age, the gospel has been committed to men and they alone are the messengers. Angels would like to give it, but they'll not be permitted to.

But at the beginning of the Great Tribulation, men are the messengers of God, as the 144,000 reveal. And even the two witnesses with supernatural power could not stand up against Satan, but were removed from the satanic scene of earth. Angels as well as men were the messengers of the Old Testament. In other words, the word spoken by angels was steadfast, Hebrews 2:2 records. The times are so intense in this period that only angels can get the messages of God through to the world. Angels are indestructible.

Now he's flying in midheaven. Now that was a ridiculous statement a few years ago and some of the critics of the Bible ridiculed it. It's not a ridiculous statement because right now out yonder in space, there is a satellite—I think it's called Telstar, isn't it?—and they have several of them up there. They are making worldwide television a practical reality so that whatever happens in Israel or England or China—well, we don't get it from China very well, but Japan—you can not only get it that evening on your news, but you can get it just as it was happening. The picture brings it over here.

This is not so ridiculous. Again, may I say this eternal gospel: "Fear God" is the message. Why? Well, the writer to the Proverbs says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." In other words, he's saying to God's people, "Get wise, get smart, because you need to fear God. God saved you by His grace, but He's going to judge this earth."

Now we have here in verse eight the pronouncement of judgment on Babylon. Here in this chapter, He's bringing these before us that are going to appear again in the book, but He is giving us, as it were, a program that God is going to follow. Now let me read: "And another angel, a second"—here's another angel now, and this is a second one; we're going to have six of them—"followed saying, 'Fell, fell is Babylon the great, that made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.'"

Now there is a book—I think it's out of print, but if you can put your hand on one of them, you ought to read it—and it's Hislop's book on *The Two Babylons*. It reveals that Babylon has been Satan's headquarters from the very beginning. This is the place where idolatry began. It's the fountainhead of idolatry. Semiramis was the wife of Nimrod—some think his mother—and she married her own son. But be that as it may, she was queen of Babel, which later became Babylon. She devised a nice little story that began a whole system of idolatry, and it was that she actually came out of an egg that came up out of the Euphrates River and she cracked the shell and stepped out full-grown.

That's what she said, and she's been worshipped. It introduced the female principle into deity. That reveals that Babylon began all of the false religion. Now this second angel runs ahead and announces that which is yet to come as if it had already taken place. "Fell, fell is Babylon." And if I may be technical for just a moment, this is in what is known as the prophetic aorist. In other words, God's prophetic word is so sure at this point that He speaks as though the event had already taken place, and it's just that sure. It's as if it were history already.

But He's looking ahead. Babylon will evidently be rebuilt during the Great Tribulation period. If you have my book on Isaiah, you ought to turn to chapter 13 and you will see that it is to be rebuilt. Not in the same place that the judgment on it which is predicted in Isaiah is yet to come. Now the idolatry of Babylon is a divine intoxication which will fascinate the entire world. That's the reason we have all this experimenting today with Satan worship, with exorcism, and all that type of thing—these cults that arise today that are definitely satanic.

Now I read Jeremiah 51:7. It says, "Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad." If you could get off far enough and look at this earth today, I'm of the opinion you'd be a little disappointed in mankind and the nations of the world. Isaiah 13:11 says, "And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible." And again in Jeremiah 25, there we have the bringing down of the wrath of God upon the world. In Isaiah 13:19, "And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah." That's a judgment on Babylon that we're going to see: a religious Babylon in the 17th chapter and the commercial Babylon in the 18th chapter. But we'll have to leave off right there today. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: Well, there's still a lot of ground to cover in this amazing book of Revelation, so keep getting aboard the Bible Bus every day. To stay current or go deeper in your own study, get our app or visit TTB.org. Or you can always call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE. Again, that's 1-800-652-4253. I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'll meet you back here next time as together we make our way through the Bible.

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