Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #10 of Revelation, chapter 14, and we are going to be reading Revelation14:7:

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 waters.

As we have been discussing the earlier verses in Revelation 14, we saw that the first five verses concentrated on the “firstfruits,” the people God saved during the church era.  Then in verse 6, we saw another angel, or messenger, (the Lord Jesus) flying in the midst of heaven “having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.”  That preaching of the everlasting Gospel is the message that God sent forth into the world during the “little season” of the Great Tribulation.  We know from Revelation 7 that as the everlasting Gospel was preached to those that dwelt on the earth, a great multitude was saved from every nation, kindred, tongue and people – millions, upon millions, upon millions of people.  The world had grown to such an enormous size that God could save a great multitude, but they would still only be the typical remnant that the Bible describes; if you have a world of seven billion people, then a remnant can be tens of millions of people.  And that is what God accomplished through the proclamation of the everlasting Gospel, which is the Word of God, the Bible.

We may as well define the Gospel.  What is the Gospel?  The Gospel is whatever the Bible decrees or whatever the Bible says.  Throughout the church age, the Gospel was all that the Bible declared, including the directive to go to church and gather with fellow believers on the Lord’s Day, Sunday, and to place yourself under the authority of the elders, deacon and pastors.  That was part of the everlasting Gospel at that time.

Then God made a change in program.  He ended the church age and then the everlasting Gospel for the period of the Great Tribulation was that God’s people were to come out of the churches.  The Lord’s Spirit had departed out of the midst of the congregations and Satan had been loosed and set up as the “man of sin” in the congregations of the world.  This is what the Bible taught and, therefore, it is the Gospel.  The Gospel is what the Bible teaches and God has the prerogative, according to His program of times and seasons, to work within a people (like the nation of Israel) for a prolonged period of time and then end that relationship, which He did.  Then God had the prerogative to develop and work within the NT churches and congregations to establish a Gospel presence in all the nations of the world and to bring His Word to all the countries of the earth and then end that relationship, according to His timetable, which He did on May 21, 2011.  The church age ended at that time and God abandoned the churches and congregations of the world and brought judgment upon them, just as He had done to national Israel before them.  It is God’s prerogative to develop a “day of salvation” and have periods of time in which great numbers of people are saved, as it was for the firstfruits during the church age; or to allow for a period of virtually no salvation during the 2,300 evening mornings at the beginning of the Great Tribulation; then He saved the best until last and saved a great multitude out of the little season during the last 6,100 days of the Great Tribulation.  It is all according to the will of God as He predetermined to do these things in accord with His timetable of “times and seasons.” 

There is a time to “get” or to “seek.”  I recently learned this during our “Two Days in the Word” in Sacramento, California.  In Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, the Lord indicates that there are definite “times and seasons” for the Lord to perform certain things, as we learn in Ecclesiastes 3:1-6:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose…

I learned something regarding verse 6 from one of the teachers as he taught at the “Two Days in the Word” conference.  Verse 6 says, “A time to get,” and the word “get” is normally translated as “seek,” so it could be rendered “a time to seek.”  Remember it says in other places to “Seek the Lord while he may be found.”  So, there is a “time to seek,” the day of salvation, which lasted for centuries and centuries, in which God mercifully, graciously and long-sufferingly put up with the sins of men in order that the Gospel could go forth into all the world and find the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  God used that Word to save those people and to gather them unto Himself, until the last one was saved.  That was the time “to seek,” and the time “to seek” came to a close on May 21, 2011 at the conclusion of the Great Tribulation period and the conclusion of the “little season,” the time when the great multitude had been gathered.  That was the climax and the end of the millenniums of searching for the elect of God.  The last of the elect were found and restored and brought to the Lord Jesus Christ and the time “to seek” came to an end.

Then it says in Ecclesiastes 3:6:

…a time to get (seek), and a time to lose…

The word translated as “lose” is also translated as “perish,” so it is “a time to seek and a time to perish.”  So, I think we can see pretty clearly what God is saying here: there is a time He will save in which men could seek the Lord and cry out for mercy in the day of salvation, but then comes the “time to perish,” the Day of Judgment, which is also a prolonged period of time.  Of course, the Day of Judgment is not nearly as long as the day of salvation.  The Day of Judgment will, in all likelihood, last 1,600 days and then it will be the end.  So this period is now the “time to perish” and it is all according to God’s timetable and His program for doing things.  God does not do anything haphazardly or randomly, without a plan or design.  He does everything perfectly and we can see that everywhere in creation; things are designed in a very intricate way and in a very intelligent way. 

It is the same with His Gospel.  Would He design His creatures and creations so elaborately all according to “number,” as numbers are behind His creation and form the patterns that we see?  Would He work so precisely in the creative order of things and then just work randomly in His Gospel program?  After all, what is the most important and greater thing to the Lord?  Is it the world and the universe and the creation He made, or is it His Gospel?  What is He most concerned about?  He is concerned with the Lord Jesus Christ and those for whom He died.  He is concerned about bringing glory to Christ through His redemption program of salvation and through His program of judgment.  So the Lord gave us the Bible and within it, He gave us the Biblical timeline of history that unfolds according to a precise pattern.  Remember it says in Psalm 90:12:

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

The same Lord who has made mathematics (numbers) so important in the creation has also placed numbers in His salvation program, where things happen according to appointed “times” and set periods, as the Lord said to Abraham, “For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.” When we look at the historical events of the Bible like the birth dates of key individuals, we can see that from Jacob’s birth in 2007 BC, it is exactly one thousand years to 1007 BC when David ascended to the throne and another exact one thousand years to 7 BC when Christ, the King of kings, is born into the world.  That is just a small example of the intricate design and the pattern God forms in the things of His Word.  That pattern can be seen from creation to the flood to be exactly 6,023 years; then from the flood to May 21, 2011 is exactly 7,000 years.  From creation to 1988 is exactly 13,000 years and from 1988 to 2011 is exactly 23 years, so there are 13,023 years until Judgment Day began.  There are specific time relationships and that is why God can speak of “an appointed time.”  It is not just a random day, which is how the corporate church world operates:  “Well, on some day that is unknown to us and which nobody can know, then Christ will come.”  But God does not say, in the Bible, that “some” day will be Judgment Day; He says in Acts 17:30-31:

And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained…

There is an “appointed day.”  The Day of Judgment was ordained from the very beginning, as God knows the end from the beginning.  He has known all things that would ever occur throughout time and throughout the history of this world.  From the beginning He knew when Judgment Day would occur, and He placed it hidden in His Word and that day was May 21, 2011, which was Judgment Day.  It was appointed from before time.  When God wrote the Bible He placed the information in it about the flood and the statement to Noah, “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth,” and He told Noah to get into the ark and the statement in 2Peter, chapter 3, where it says, “one day is as a thousand years.”  God knew that one day He would open up the understanding of His people at the time of the end to reveal the appointed Day of Judgment.  That is how God works.  That is why He could say, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing that I do?”  This is why He could give the example of the flood in Luke 17, saying, “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.”  And how was it in the days of Noah?  Did Noah have foreknowledge and advance information concerning the date?  Yes, he knew precisely that it would be, “Yet seven days,” so he knew the very day that the flood would occur. 

We could go on and on with examples.  It is the reason that God says that He would reveal His secret unto His servants the prophets.  The Lord does nothing without revealing His secret because there is an appointed day and it was always God’s plan to uncover and reveal that appointed day as He did years ago in advance of May 21, 2011.  And He continues to do this, as the Bible continues to confirm that this was the date.  Some people are just “lost” and even though they previously believed these things, now they are saying we were in error, but it is all based upon what they did not see with their physical eyes.  When we look at the Bible with “eyes of faith” and we study the Scriptures, the Word of God confirms that May 21, 2011 was Judgment Day.  It does not dismiss it.  It does not show it to be in error.  It does not show any mistake in the timeline, but only confirms it. 

Regarding the people that are now doubting and saying, “It was an error and nothing happened,” just take a look at their lives and take a look at the direction they have gone in since they went back on believing May 21, 2011 was Judgment Day.  Are they improving, spiritually?  Are they learning greater and greater truth as they insist it is still the day of salvation?  Have they been doing in depth Bible studies and learning all sorts of things regarding correction of past mistakes?   There is no progress.  They are showing no correction from the Bible.  They are just returning to former doctrines like, “No man knows the day or hour,” just like the churches maintain, or they are returning to the churches themselves, even though there is no (Biblical) indicator that this is the correct direction to go.    Anybody that starts going back in that way is losing sight of what truth they previously held and that God had graciously given to them.  That should be a big warning sign to them and they should watch out.  Watch out, because not only are they going backwards, but God is now limiting their outreach. 

Now I do not like to talk about Family Radio, but many of us were listeners and supporters of Family Radio for many years.  During the Latter Rain period, it was stressed and pointed out by Mr. Camping during conferences and on the radio what great doors God was opening to them.  I remember listening and agreeing with him and thinking, “Wow, this is tremendous.”  God had opened up doors to China.  God had opened up doors to Africa and India.  The tract trips were an incredible blessing.  The radio station transmittals were widespread and the purchase of airtime and there was the shortwave facility in Okeechobee, Florida was a tremendous blessing to many stations in the United States.  It was truly a worldwide ministry that was getting the Gospel out.  Why?  It is because it was the proper time; it was the second part of the Great Tribulation and the Latter Rain period and God utilized the electronic medium whereby a few (especially under Family Radio and the faithful leadership of Mr. Camping and his teaching) would send forth the Word of God in an incredible way.  Everything was in place and God continued to open door, after door, after door.

But then came Judgment Day and for a while, we were confused and, yet, it was all according to the plan of God to stop that process and to end the sending forth of the Gospel into the world.  God, as it were, stopped the printing presses; they stopped printing tracts; the messages stopped evangelizing.  For a few months it was taught on Family Radio that salvation had come to an end.  But then on October 21, 2011, it was the second stage of God’s testing program and when they did not see anything happen, it was not long after that when Family Radio began making decisions.  By that time, Mr. Camping was no longer the same (after his stroke) and no longer returned to his nightly Open Forum and the daily Bible studies (and he was not in the health to do that), so decisions were made by Family Radio that God was still saving and they had to go in that direction.  Since then, has Family Radio been blessed like before?  No, they have lost stations in the United States and they have lost their international outreach – a big part of that outreach is gone.  It is gone from them.

At the same time EBible has continued to maintain many of the teachings that Family Radio had previously held.  By God’s grace, the Lord has opened up some additional information, but I would say about 90% of what we are teaching maintains the teachings Mr. Camping and Family Radio used to teach.  God has been blessing EBible more and more, opening up great opportunities to reach people, especially internationally.  I do not know the numbers, but we are reaching many more people today than we did before and God has been bringing very helpful people to assist us.  The Lord has been opening more opportunity.  Why is this?  Well, it is very simple.  It is because we are going in the proper direction, the direction that the Word of God, the Bible, has established and we have not turned back from it, which means that God is with us and He is helping us.  He is the one that has commanded that His sheep be fed and He will see to it that this task is accomplished.

This is all a part of God’s program for this period of time.  It is not like any other period of time.  This is not the time to “seek” any longer.  This is the time when the unsaved people of the world “perish.”  But even in the Day of Judgment, God has great concern for His people and He has tremendous compassion for His people.  He desires that His people be spiritually nourished, as we are being tested severely, as we go through a tableau of to demonstrate that we have already stood before the judgment seat of Christ.  This is all being worked out in these days after the Tribulation, as God’s people live on the earth in the Day of Judgment.