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It is time to ignore the cultural conventions and find the spiritual realities. The frantic millenium would have you both to work, when married, and ignore the underlying needs of the ‘kids’, to harry your bank account, adjust your tax requirements, go often abroad, push your barrow, put a few flowers in it from time to time, never have enough time for anything that matters, congratulate yourself as often as you can, for self-esteem’s sake, not look too carefully at why, for you might lose it, and then go on and on. This you are to do,  to wherever it is that you are going, like a little lemon-headed lemming, just doing it, with Nike, or anyone else who gives this advice.

But JUST DOING IT leaves unanswered the MORAL question. Just doing what! And what NOT!

This question remains as clearly as does the answer. Just doing the WILL OF GOD. Why and how and in the face of what, as the millenium advances to its destruction, is that which appears in this work.

God has always been. We all have started. God invented time. Before this, He had us all in mind who are His (Ephesians 1:4, Revelation 17:8) and the Cross in mind, and the sending of His eternal word in mind, incarnate and definitive of His Person, as Jesus the Christ.

As you look to the end, to which this quivering millenium so justly points, you may study Revelation 6-19. There you a scroll of great importance displayed. Then its seals are broken by  Christ, to whom the scroll is committed,  and these culminate in the 7th (Rev. 11:15), following the opening of the 6th, in which there is a titanic cataclysm of earth and sun and moon and stars, like a final vomit as death approaches. Then in Rev. 7, you see the sealed servants of Christ, without number, like personal documents whose seals are INTACT so that they are kept to the end (Revelation 7:15-17). Meanwhile,  while the seals of the document of HISTORY are broken, so that it flows to its end.

You then behold the feeling of rampaging ruin as there are sounded a series of 7 trumpets, which signify salient, martial events, leading to what appear mechanised but possibly biological or even bionic contrivances snaring the earth with sheer horror. It is at the 6th trumpet that we find one third of our human race is to be killed (currently meaning around 2 billion); then listen to the 7 thunders which are not even to be divulged in Ch.10, the time now being close to the terminus before the King comes.

In face of such things, you are apt to be filled with:

• a)  awe at the glory which comes to this long trial of history, with such power and provisions - for the provisions for deliverance are also there; or

 
• b)  hatred, if you are not His, because your world is not allowed to show how wonderful it is, as a creation of itself, and similar nonsense, while men take trips in the imagination to insult their Maker; or

 
• c)  simple unbelief, so that the events so clearly shown, as is customary in the Bible (as in Amos 3:7, Matthew 24) - as indeed was the case with the universal flood (as in Matthew 24:38), do not help you till it is too late; or

 
• d)  indifference, while you feed your mouth, fulfil your family responsibilities and ignore your Father, the Creator: with the normal peril this would be expected to bring in any orderly household.

When however you find that John is instructed (10:11) to prophesy further of many kings and nations, and then find (11) that

• the two witnesses
• which represent the church in its mission and organisation (as parallel to Zechariah 4, where the priestly and princely powers of the theocracy are linked to the two olive trees, or their branches through which the oil comes, which are called the "two anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth" cf. SMR pp. 959ff., News 87, pp. 257ff.),
• are called "COME UP HERE" and so go,
• after being seemingly smitten to death, but arising and returning to the Lord instead (11:7-12),

Evacuation of Christ's church thus at last follows His own ascension. The time of judgment speeds to the scene (Rev. 11:17-19), and the earth trembles as if in anticipation with earthquakes before the holy unveiling. So they are gone! his saints, at this time. It is like Dunkirk, with Normandy very soon to follow.

There is mercy in that the Church for all this period of over two millenia,  from Christ to the restoration of Israel  (Rev. 11:1-3, cf. SMR pp. 647ff., 833ff., 960ff., ) DOES so valiantly witness to the love and grace of God (cf. Rev. 12:11), BEFORE its eventual removal, the Gospel meanwhile having travelled throughout the entire earth (Matthew 24:9-14).

There is judgment in that EVEN THE MESSENGERS are slain, and although delivered, are called home en masse (as in Matthew 24:30-31; cf. Benevolent Brightness or Brothy Bane 87 on the total symphonic whole of history, and End-note 1 on Rev. 11). Even now many of the larger churches are coming close to leaving "their dead bodies" lying in the street (Rev. 11:8), as we read of these two witnesses at the ultimate moments. The peace accord of many professing Christian bodies in Jerusalem has seemed somewhat symptomatic of these developments (cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms 13); and these, on the international scale are both rife and rapid (cf. Chapter 1 in this volume, SMR pp. 684ff., 857ff., 864ff., 700ff. and 1032ff., 1056ff.). Many churches look more and more like a mirror of society, as one Anglican bishop said of his realm (cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms 5, cf. 1-4). Appearances in this ultimate time will no longer have much opportunity to mask reality.

Indeed, next to be seen after this homecoming to Himself of Christ's church (cf. John 14:1-3), in Revelation 12, is the short historical summary of the conflict of Satan against the Lord in Ch.12, his rebellion and his endeavour to slay the Saviour and exterminate Him in infancy, and his own sedition and removal from heaven to an angry posture on earth, till the time of the manifestation and judgment comes. It is thus that the earth has writhed with his unwelcome presence.

Then follows in Ch. 13, the  third vignette, that of the two dragons, the false State one and the false Church one, both impostors delinquent in the work of the Lord, and arrogating to themselves His power over the earth as though it were natural: and one realises that the conclusions are to be spiritually no less severe than they are already shown in Chs. 6-8 to be, physically.

The spiritual refrains as in Revelation 7:9, 7:14, 11:15, 5:9,12,13 constantly show the simplicity of the receiving of salvation for man, even at this time, the people who are God’s washing their clothes in the blood of the Lamb, while the fact is also stressed that salvation is of the LORD, not man, that the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, that to the Father and the Lamb for ever are to be honour and glory and praise, as the earth moves to its disembowelling indignities and devastations. Just as the costly provision of the blood of the Lamb secures His people, so  the blast of truth is shown destroying eventually (Revelation 19), what refuses this, His cover.

As Christ, the word incarnate, finally personally appears, so the lies of fraud and pretence fold as mere rubbish at His judgment. The matter is then irresistible, condign and mandatory.

• "His eyes were as a flame of fire",
• for they had known the fires of suffering at His crucifixion, to render such judgment unnecessary, through His blood sacrifice of Himself, once and for all (Hebrews 5:7ff.,. 9:12ff., 10:10,14). What is left when this blood is trodden underfoot is not deprivation, but justice! (cf. Hebrews 12:25-29, 10:27).

• "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death".

In Revelation Ch.15 we see that of God it is declared,  YOU ALONE are holy, and the bowls of distemper are prepared, while the word and system of salvation of the Lord are exposed in a flash to view. The 7 bowls as it were, which follow, after the declarations of the broken seals, the sounding trumpets, the rarefied thunders and these vignettes, pour out the wrath of God on an intemperate, inveterate, chronically decomposed world. It is now obvious that in this,  the spirit of rebellion is like the water of life, abundant and overflowing; only for the evil prince of this world, it  is sour, polluted, bitter and foul. Its condition is emphasised as waters turn to blood (as in Egypt before the Exodus), one saying,

• "For you have judged these things, for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink, for it is their just due" (Revelation 15:3-4).

In the midst of these terminal cancers which pollute the body of the recalcitrant world, we hear the warning:

• "Behold I am coming as thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame."

As these fundamental judgments proceed, we are whisked to Rome, where "Babylon the great, the mother of harlots" is to be seen in its final format. It is a mystery as has been shown earlier, because Babylon was an ancient city justly destroyed, and famous for its relativistic attitudes to lots of gods and religions, a city and an empire to which the Jews went in their disciplinary 70 years of exile. As Rome with its 7 hills, in the final phase (Rev. 17:8 cf. Biblical Blessings Ch.2, SMR pp. 946ff. ), it sums up and exemplifies, exhibits and even enhances the famous recipe of irreligion, religion of this world, deforming, defiling and defacing the things of the Lord with empty assurance, silly, sinuous synthesis and prodigious self-will. Hence Rome's ruin, depicted in Chapters 17-18 is immense, sudden, by fire, an exhibition that the patience of the Lord is not lack of memory, but rather the presence of plan.

When comes on white horse, the KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS, the WORD OF GOD, we see the end of the power lust of earth. Judgment follows in due course (Rev. 20:11ff.), and just as the lights of salvation have interspersed the judgments on the sins left bare by its neglect, so here the celestial condition following the judgment of those who prefer darkness is exhibited: now and here in heaven, the lovers of truth find it shining like light, the Lamb the Lord, the true temple of their worship, and the environment such that what makes impure and lies, is not even there (Revelation 21:8).

"There shall be no night there. They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever" (Revelation 22:5).

In this present volume, amidst these fast forwarded developments, which cannot be turned back, with increasing knowledge and decreasing morals (Matthew 24:10-13, II Timothy 3), increasingly fearless rebellion against God and increasingly international premises for the practice of these spiritual horrors, we look at the Peace which is available in the Lamb, encapsulating and insulating, preserving because it is paid for, eternal and fitting, since the God of love does not willingly afflict the children of men; and it is totally amazing how He bears for so long (II Peter 3:9).

The book of Revelation in this Preface gives a sound introduction to things to come. Unlike the limited case of the Battle of Britain, it is not mere blood and sweat and tears: for it is Christ’s blood, and His sweat and His tears which are effectual, and the sufferings of Christians have this overall perspective, meaning and place, while they attest the truth and love of God to the end. (Cf. Revelation 12:10-11, Ephesians 1:7, Luke 24:44).
 

• To ignore His provision ? What is it like ? It is like being in space without the suit, to be in history without the Lord. To take leave of earth for space without this is like taking leave of your life; and so it is in history, to project yourself into this world and be wilfully naked of Christ’s cover ... is like damage seeking damnation, against which there is then no indemnity. Again, it is to watch from the rim of a volcano, with idle interest, the forces which you neither understand nor can overthrow, when there is a way without this horror, available still.

• just as the everlasting glory of the Lamb, the first and the last (Isaiah 44:6, Revelation 2:8), is seen focussed before history unfolds, in Revelation 5;
• the vast number, the innumerable multitude of those receiving eternal mercy, expressed  in heaven,  in Revelation 7  is likewise disclosed;
• the eternal kingdom coming as in Revelation 11:15 is also triumphantly announced,
• soon followed by the depiction of the unfailing testimony of the saints throughout the maelstrom of the end (Revelation 12:11):

 
• so we see more mercy right till the end.

Thus in Revelation 22:17, the very last chapter of the Bible, we see the unarrested offer of the everlasting Gospel (14:6, cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms 17) that quenches the flames of unshriven conscience and unmet guilt, and undertakes in Christ's name, FREELY to extradite from doom, refresh with joy and restore to God (Revelation 22:2-6, 21:3).

It is Christ the High Priest

• whose blood sacrifice offered alone was His own (Revelation 7, I Peter 1:18-21),
• whose body of bullocks presented was His own,
• whose leave from heaven was to divest hell of its claims for all who received Him

(I John 4:9,14-15, Hebrews 2:14-18),
• who shrives the conscience, strikes out the record of sin (Colossians 2:13-14), and
• brings in His own personal power, the former nature of flesh,

to its appointed place as crucified WITH Him (Galatians 5:17,24, 2:20),
 
• that the resurrection power be shown before that of the physical body which is to come (Ephesians 1:19), in the renewal at once of the mind (Ephesians 1:18, 4:23) and
• the establishment of a new life now (Ephesians 4:24), which does not die (John 11:25-26),
• for the spirit of man, even every one who drinks of the water of life freely (cf. Isaiah 55).

NOW in their midst with joy (Zephaniah 3:12-13), He inspires a new Covenant people (cf. 3:5) whose lives on earth have the hallowing spirit of Him whose eternity lives in heaven (I John 1:1-4). His word is their bond (Revelation 22:18-19), His return personally is their expectation, His life is their source (Galatians 2:20) and His place prepared (John 14:1-3) is their destiny (Revelation 22:1-6). HE is their worship, by the Spirit, and the Father - He is their own.
 
 

CHAPTER ONE -

A new development in February 2000, in the Anglican Church in Australia, gives challenge to some, and warning to others!

CHAPTER TWO -

UNITY SO BEAUTIFUL ?

CHAPTER THREE -

WITH AND WITHOUT WHAT MATTERS MOST...
In Christ your Lord, be all your boast

CHAPTER FOUR -

HUMAN ROBOTS
 

CHAPTER FIVE
 

SCENE OF COMBAT, WITH THE LORD THE LEADER

"Who will contend with Me ?
Let us stand together; who is Mine adversary ?
let him come near to Me" (Isaiah 50:8).
(Prophecy concerning Christ, the exemplar, the criterion, the commander and the King...)

God is very willing, and you are not really a robot, but radically responsible

CHAPTER SIX

FRANTIC ERROR WANTS FORGIVENESS WITHOUT CHANGE

Papal Announcement Takes its Cue from a Curved Stick

(Advertiser p. 23, March 13, 2000)

CHAPTER SEVEN

COMMUNITY SAYS

Contracts, laws, journalism, appeals, they are in the foundry of a new idolatry...
 

CHAPTER EIGHT

TAIWAN IS A SYMPTON
 

CHAPTER NINE

THE CHIEF END AND FRIEND OF MAN

CHAPTER TEN

POPES, PALESTINIANS AND CHRIST
(multi-sourced news)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE PRINCELY TWIG AND THE BLESSED NECESSITY OF LOWLINESS IN HIM

A word from history for history, and those who participate in it, nations and individuals.