Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #18 of Revelation, chapter 11, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 11:10-11:

And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.

Over our last few studies we have been looking at “prophecy” and God’s people who were prophets in the Old Testament.  We have seen how true prophets speak very difficult things – things that are unpleasant, unpopular and not widely accepted.  As a matter of fact, a true prophet can often be viewed as a false prophet by the majority of people.  In the case of Israel of old, a prophet like Jeremiah was viewed in many instances as a false prophet or, at least, he was called that.  On the other hand, the false prophets were not of God and God had not sent them, but they were accepted by the people and there is no evidence that the people considered them to be false prophets.  In other words, the history of the Bible, as we look at Micaiah and Jeremiah and other examples, shows us that the true prophets are often considered as false and, therefore, they are persecuted, while false prophets are often considered true and are gladly received.

We are not going to spend too much more time on this, but in Jeremiah, chapter 28, we have two prophets that are going to prophecy: one is named Hananiah and the other is Jeremiah.  Hananiah will prophesy positive things; he is going to prophesy that Judah will again be victorious over Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar, but Jeremiah will continue to prophesy that this is not going to happen at all.  So Hananiah speaks in Jeremiah 28:2-3:

Thus speaketh JEHOVAH of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of JEHOVAH'S house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon: And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith JEHOVAH: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

Now that would have been very welcome news to the people of Judah.  They were suffering greatly and their king Jeconiah had been taken captive, as well as many of their people and the vessels of the house of God had been taken away to Babylon.  It had been a tremendous defeat to have the very vessels of the temple taken to Babylon.  But now comes Hananiah, the prophet, the son of Azur, and he is prophesying that the yoke of the king of Babylon will be broken and the tide of the battle will turn and God will, once again, be for His people.  You can see how patriotic this must have sounded to the people of Judah and what good news it would have been for this embattled people that were under the heel of Babylon, but, finally, God is now coming to their aid (or so said Hananiah the prophet).  Certainly he would have received some “slaps on the back” and a patriotic “amen.”  The people would love to hear what Hananiah was saying, but then along comes Jeremiah the prophet – the “kill joy,” the bearer of bad news and someone who just cannot let them enjoy the good news from Hananiah.  We read in Jeremiah 28:5-9:

Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of JEHOVAH, Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: JEHOVAH do so: JEHOVAH perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the JEHOVAH’S house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place. Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people; The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence. The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that JEHOVAH hath truly sent him.

This is a very important passage when trying to discern a true prophet from a false prophet.  Here, God is giving us information that will be helpful in making that distinction.  Notice that Jeremiah refers to “the prophets that have been before me and before thee of old.”  What did they prophesy about?  They “prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.”  This agrees perfectly with what Jeremiah was prophesying; he was prophesying against Judah; he was prophesying against the surrounding nations; he was prophesying things concerning war and evil and pestilence. 

Earlier when Jeremiah was prophesying, the false prophets were saying, “Oh, no, the Babylonians will not be coming against us.  Oh, no, the Babylonians will not be victorious over us because we are the people of God.”  Of course, all of that had now been shown to be wrong because the Babylonians did come against them and they even took their king and many people captive and the vessels of the house of God were now in Babylon, not in Jerusalem.  So, obviously, these false prophets cannot prophesy that the king of Babylon will not come, but now they have changed their prophecy.  Now they are saying that it will soon be at an end.  God will rise to their help and God will restore the captives and restore the vessels and He will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. 

By the way, it is very significant that he is talking about the “yoke of the king of Babylon” because, in the previous chapter of Jeremiah 27, God had commanded Jeremiah to make yokes.  We read in Jeremiah 27:2-4:

Thus saith JEHOVAH to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah; And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;

Then it goes on to say that all will be under the dominion of the king of Babylon.  That is what the “yoke” represented.  It meant that they must serve the king of Babylon, so Jeremiah was actually wearing a yoke around his neck.  After Jeremiah told them that a true prophet prophesies against nations and of wars and evils and pestilence; they do not prophesy of peace and they do not prophesy the way Hananiah prophesies: “Oh, God is going to wise up and He is going to help us.”  Jeremiah was showing that his prophecy was in accord with how the true prophets had conducted themselves as they were moved by God in times past, but Hananiah’s prophecy was going contrary to the pattern God had established. 

By the way, just think about our modern era and how the teachers or pastors or priests in the New Testament churches and congregations said (and are saying), “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” or they say, “You are in trouble with God, but here is how you can get right with Him right now.  Here is peace.”  Then they promise the listeners liberty and they promise them salvation and they promise them a whole lot of things that sound very good.  Of course, people want to be right with God and they are telling them just how to do it: Christ died for everyone and God loves you all and it all follows the pattern of the false prophets.  They prophesy of peace.  They prophesy good things.  They prophesy smooth things and “easy to hear” things.  On the other hand, the child of God has been given the task of being the messenger of the true Gospel.  He is tasked with the duty of being faithful to what the Bible truly says and he says, “First of all, we are all under the wrath of God.  We are subject to eternal destruction and salvation is out of our hands.  We cannot do a thing to get ourselves saved.  (Of course, this would have been our proclamation during the day of salvation when God was still saving sinners and the door of heaven was still open.)  The only hope is to cry out to God for mercy and to boldly go onto the throne of grace, if perhaps you might find mercy of the Lord in granting you His salvation.  Salvation is of the Lord and it is fully in His hands and He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. 

It is a completely different message and the people of the world would naturally prefer the former message – the message that says God loves me and the message that says God has a wonderful plan for my life or the message that solves my problem by telling me some work I can do (like “accepting the Lord”) and I can quickly get it out of the way and I can then have instant peace.  This would be following the methodology and the historical pattern of false prophets, so this is actually a very helpful passage in Jeremiah 28, where Jeremiah warns of those that prophesy of peace in Jeremiah 28:9:

The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that JEHOVAH hath truly sent him.

So God’s people did prophesy of the end of the church age, for example, as God opened up that information from His Word.  Remember, the whole Bible is prophecy.  The true believers shared that information and they prophesied that the church age was over and God was judging the churches.  This is prophesy “against” a kingdom or “against” a nation and it is a prophecy of “war,” as God is fighting against the corporate body.  It is a prophecy of “evil,” as evil has come upon all the churches of the world.  It is a prophecy of “pestilence,” as God plagued the congregations, spiritually.  It follows the Biblical pattern, but you have those in the churches saying, “Oh, that is not so.  God is still here.  The Holy Spirit is still here.  Just look at our building and look at all the people in the pews.  Just look at our preacher.  He is so popular.  Everyone likes to listen to him and everyone speaks well of him.”  Of course, they do not understand and the majority of the people are still in churches and they support them and they continue on as if nothing was wrong. 

But the true prophecy was brought by the true prophets, the true children of God, who declared the end of the church age.  Now, as we have moved on to the conclusion of the judgment on the churches and we transitioned into the judgment on the entire world, what are the true believers now proclaiming from the Bible?  They are proclaiming that God shut the door of heaven and it is a prophecy against the nations of the world; it is a prophecy against the kingdom of Satan.  It is a prophecy that declares that God’s kingdom has won the battle in the Day of Judgment and the kingdom of Satan is being prophesied against.  It is a prophecy of the warfare of the final battle of Armageddon and it is a prophecy of “evil,” as it is an evil day – the Bible calls Judgment Day an “evil day.”  It is a prophecy of “pestilence,” as God is pouring out plagues upon the inhabiters of the earth.  Therefore, the true believers are proclaiming what the Bible says and they are prophesying in a manner that is fully in keeping with the prophets of old and the way that God moved them to prophesy. 

We are sharing information that Judgment Day is here and, again, there are people rising up to say, “It is not so.  It cannot be.  God is still saving.  There is still salvation.”  They are saying there is still peace.  They are saying there is still mercy and grace.  They are basically saying exactly what the individuals in the churches were saying: “God is still with us.  God is still here and saving in our churches.”  The people that are prophesying against the door being shut and prophesying that the door is still open are prophesying like the false prophets of old when God brought judgment against Judah or against Israel.  Men like Hananiah would rise up and say, “God will not do that to us.”  They prophesied of peace and they prophesied good things.

We must always, finally, be brought to the Bible and we have to listen to what is being said and compare Scripture with Scripture to determine what is true or false, but one thing can be stated and that is when true believers today say the door of heaven is shut and God is judging the world and He is giving the cup of wrath to the world like He did to the churches, it is following along perfectly with the things that true prophets of God have proclaimed in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.  It is in keeping with the prophecy that came forth from the Bible, and we know there is that difference between how believers prophesy today and how they did back then, and I explained that earlier; it has nothing to do with receiving any divine revelation when we prophesy and share truths from the Word of God and the things that we say are in keeping with the same example of God’s people sharing the end of the church age and the judgment God brought on the churches.  It can be said of the people that oppose this, and this is not conclusive, but the fact is that they are in a position that follows the pattern of false prophets of old that opposed people like Jeremiah; they are in the position of those in the churches that opposed the declaration of the end of the church age and that God was no longer working or saving in the congregations; and now they, themselves, are in that very position, standing against the things that are being proclaimed from the Word of God. 

It is not a good position to be in, especially when we do go to the Bible and when we do search the Scriptures and we see all God has said regarding this period of time.  He has opened up His Word to confirm that He is judging the world in a similar manner to when He judged the churches.  It is a frightening position to say, “Not so.  The door is still open and God is still saving.” 

People say to EBible all the time, “That is a dangerous stance when you proclaim that God has shut the door and that He is no longer saving.  It is presumptuous.”  Well, let me tell you, it is equally dangerous – if not more dangerous – to take the position that God is still saving when He is not and that the door of heaven is open, when it is shut, or to say that God is encouraging people to come to Him and cry out for mercy, when He has ended His salvation program.  It is not a light matter to stand in opposition to the Word of God and the things God has done.  It is extremely serious to say God is saving today, when He is not.  

This is why everything we are proclaiming deserves to be heard and each listener has the obligation and responsibility to check it out to see if it is so and not to just “write it off” and quickly say, “Well, I am just going to go along with how it has been for thousands of years.  God has always saved people so, of course, He is saving today.”  That is the position of the churches: “We have been around for 2,000 years.  God would not end the church age.”  That is the position of Israel of old: “We have been God’s holy people for hundreds and hundreds of years.  He would not divorce us.  He would not leave us.”

It is a dangerous position to take.  Each one of us is responsible before God to humble ourselves, even if it is something that is “new” to our ears or something we would never think could be.  We still must go to the Bible and examine it honestly to see if it is so.