 Okay, good morning. Welcome everyone to BC213, the course on the end times. Thank you for connecting to the class today. We're going to pray. Then we're going to get started. Oops, sorry, just moved my computer. Let's pray. And then we'll start. May I request somebody to please pray with a class? And then we will start. Anybody, please unmute your mic and pray. Once you pray. Please go ahead. Precious Father, we thank you and praise you for this wonderful morning. We thank you, Father, for your divine grace and strength of Father God. Lord, we ask you wisdom, knowledge and understanding to receive your word and revelation so that it can edify our inner man of Father God and it can increase our knowledge and understanding, Father. We surrender everything into your mighty hand and we pray that Father, Lord, as your servant, is going to release your word of God. Strengthen him with your wisdom and knowledge and with filling with your revelation, Father. I thank you and praise you and prepare each one of our heart so that we can able to receive this word as a seed, as a Lord master, as a spiritual food. We should strengthen us, Father. Prepare us, Father. We humble ourselves before your presence. We give you all the glory on our end. Prayers in Jesus' name, we pray. Thank you, Pastor. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Sri Kumar and everyone. Good morning. Welcome once again to BC 213, the end times. So, we are looking or we have been looking at a panoramic view or a high level view on the sequence of events. And last week, we went through six reasons as to why we believe in a pre-tribulation rapture of the church. The rapture of the church has to take place first before the Antichrist, the man of sin, the son of perdition, is revealed to the earth. And then the seven years of tribulation will begin to unfold on the earth. So, we did that. I'm going to quickly review that part. And then we are going to proceed into looking at the sequence of events. And we will begin to do that. And so, if you have any questions, we will keep time towards the end of each lecture to take up our related questions. So, here we are. Let me get rid of this. Don't need this. We are looking at, you know, we went through this last week on why we say there's a pre-tribulation rapture of the church. We looked at Second Thessalonians chapter two where the apostle Paul says that though he who restrains has to be taken out of the way and we established that he has to be the church because the Holy Spirit is going to be continuing his work among those who become believers during the tribulation. Secondly, we talked about the promise to the church in Thessalonica or the believers at Thessalonica where the apostle Paul wrote. Thirdly, we looked at the promise of the church in Revelation. Fourth, we looked at the typology that's used in Matthew 24 and Jesus talked about he made reference to Noah and the days of Noah and the ark. And we saw that as a clear illustration of how things will unfold during the time of judgment and then the saints being released back on earth. Number five, we said about the chronology of the book of Revelation which is what we will be getting into today. And if you look at the book of Revelation in a very chronological way the way it is written for us we will see clearly that the church is taken out of the way before the seven years of tribulation. Number six, we mentioned that Daniel's 70th week was clearly stated to be concerning the people, the Jewish people and the city of Jerusalem. So the church is not there. The church is not the focus of that 70th week. The church is taken out of the way and God unfolds these things concerning Jerusalem and the people of Israel. So we went through the six main reasons. Of course, you could break things down further and list a number of reasons. Then we answered a few other questions. Who would be raised up at the time of the rapture? Will we meet Old Testament saints? Will we be able to... Who will be taken up in the rapture? And will we recognize each other in heaven? And so we went on up till that point. And Daniel's 70th week we have seen in previous times basically we're establishing that the 70th week that is a period of seven years as mentioned in the book of Daniel and also that the seven year period is referred to as the time of Jacob's trouble and so on. So what we're going to do now is we've come to this point. So the rapture of the church has taken place. And now we need to see what unfolds in the rest of the time that follows. And to do this we're just going to journey through the book of Revelation. And I just want to, you know, show you this piece and then share this slide with you. So this chart you've seen earlier which is in the same PDF. Now there are many approaches to the book of understanding the book of Revelation and in our third year next year we will go through Revelation, the book of Revelation, verse by verse. But what we're going to do now is just turn to an overview of the book of Revelation to understand the sequence of events. Now when the Lord Jesus begins to speak to the apostle John, he tells John, he says, I want you to write the things that you have seen, the things, this is in Revelation 1 and verse 19. So I would encourage all of us to please have our Bibles in front of us so that as we do this it will be useful. So if you turn with me to Revelation chapter 1 and just follow, the things will be clear. In Revelation 1.19 the Lord speaks to John and he says, John, I want you to write about the things which you have seen, the things which are and the things which will take place after this. So the book of Revelation can be broken down into these three sections. Things which you have seen, that is Revelation chapter 1 where John has seen the risen Lord. Then he says, things which are, that is chapters 2 and 3 which refers to the seven churches that were there at that time. And then he says, things which will take place, that is chapter 4 onwards, which are things that will take place. So we break the book of Revelation down into these three portions. So if you will see here Revelation chapters 1, 2 and 3 deal with this part, meaning things that John has seen and things that happened at that time, the seven churches, then Revelation 4 onwards are things which must take place. And Revelation 4 and 5 talk about what happens in heaven right after the rapture of the church. And I will explain that. And then Revelation 5 through 19, chapter 19 verse 15 is the seven years of tribulation up until the coming of Christ. Revelation chapter 19 verses 16 to 21 talk about what happens right here at the battle of Armageddon. Revelation chapter 20 verses 1 to 10 talk about this 1,000 years, the millennium. Then Revelation 20, 11 to 15 talk about what happens here at the great white throne judgment. And then Revelation chapters 21 and 22 talk about the new heavens and the new earth. So basically our approach to the book of Revelation is to just look at it in a very chronological way, in a very sequential way. Now I'm just going to stop sharing and just pretend I am in the class. So there are different approaches in the study of the book of Revelation. There are many different approaches. And so if you look around, whether you read online or you read different scholars and others, people take different presentations. Some, for instance, may say that the book of Revelation was fulfilled right there from 8030 to 8070. Carl was fulfilled. And that's one of their positions. But then obviously John wrote the book of Revelation 8095, which actually happened, which was written later. So that's kind of an absurd position to take. Then there are others who may look at Revelation as more of a, like we said in the very introduction to this course. They look at it just very allegorically. It's not going to happen literally, but things have been happening or the fulfillment of Revelation has happened. We are now in the millennium and through the church, the reign of Jesus is taking place and all that. So there are different presentations. But we are taking, as I mentioned at the very beginning, the introduction of a very traditional presentation of the book of Revelation. That is just follow it literally the way Jesus gave it. Things that you have seen, things that are and things that will take place. So I'm going to go through the book of Revelation as an overview, not, you know, not worse by worse. But as you go to the book of Revelation, it's actually giving us a sequential chronological unfolding of events. And so it will help us understand how things are taking place. And like I said, in the third year, we'll read it worse by worse and go through it in a greater depth. Now just quick background to the book of Revelation. This was written. Okay, so I see David's question. Could you please explain the chronology of Revelation once again? All right, so this is based on Revelation chapter one verse 19. Okay, in Revelation chapter one verse 19. So Jesus tells John, write the things that you have seen. So what has he seen in Revelation one? He has seen the risen Lord. So write that down. And the things that are, what were the things existing? That is chapters two and three, the seven churches. And things which will take place. That is chapters four till the end. Partly speaking, the book of Revelation is divided into these three parts. Revelation chapter one, the things you have seen, chapters two and three, things that are chapters four to 22, things that will take place. Okay. And then as we get into the sequence of events from chapter four, I will explain to you. Chapter four and five are giving a picture of the rapture church in heaven. Chapter six to chapter 19 are things that are taking place on the earth during Revelation, during the tribulation. End of chapter 19 is the battle of Armageddon. Chapter 20, the first 10 verses are the millennial reign, the thousand year reign. End of chapter 20 is a great white throne judgment. Chapters 21 and 22 are the new heavens and the new earth. So that's, I will explain that once again as we go through the book of Revelation. So our approach is a very traditional approach. That means take the Bible literally the way it's given. Don't mix it, don't, you know, jumble it up. The way the Lord gave it, take it that way, sequentially chronologically. And actually it's a very simple way to understand the book of Revelation. Some people, you know, chop parts of it here and there and, you know, you'll find it. People doing all kinds of things, which make it very confusing. And I would say, I mean, it's up to you of course, but I would say avoid all of that. Just follow what Jesus said, Revelation 119. This is what he gave. This is the way we will read it. Okay, so are you already with me to journey through the book of Revelation? Any questions before we start? Okay, you're ready. All right, so we're just going to go through the book of Revelation, you know, sequentially. So a little background to the book of Revelation. John, who was the, so the book of Revelation was written around 8095, 8095. So this means it is about 60 years after Christ. So the Lord Jesus Christ, if his ministry was from 8030 to 8033. This is 8095, 60 years approximately after Christ's ministry and the day of Pentecost. Right, so the church has now been in existence for about 60, 60 years, 65 years, 8095. The other thing that we must keep in mind is that by this time, all the other apostles are dead. Peter and, you know, and the apostle Paul, they were killed around 8068, 8068. They were killed in Rome and all the other apostles had, you know, were also subsequently or before or after they were all killed, martyred. But Paul, before he died, he had raised up the next generation of Christian leaders. You find it in Acts 18 where he trained many young men in the city of Ephesias. So the city of Ephesias is a port city. It was a port city on, on the more, if you look at modern day map, it was on the west coast of Turkey. So or Turkey as a nation, they're changing their name. So, but anyway, Turkey today is still called Turkey, but on the west coast of Turkey is the city of Ephesias. And Paul spent three or three years in the city of Ephesias on his third missionary journey. And he trained up the next generation of leaders, which included Timothy, Titus, and there are other names given in Acts 18 or Acts 19. He mentions the names of these people whom he had trained. So what happened after Paul? So, you know, this is an, let me just give you, oh yeah, sorry, in Acts 20 and verse four mentions the name of the other people, other young men whom Paul trained. Acts 20 verse four. So Paul had trained the next generation of Christian young men and is very likely that from Ephesias, there were these other churches very close by to each other. That were planted. So Smirna, Pagamos, and Thyatara, Sardis, Philadelphia, Odisha were all cities very close to Ephesias on the west coast of Turkey. And they were all likely planted by people whom Paul the Apostle had trained and so Ephesias was like the mother church to these six other churches in that area. Now, subsequently, what happened? Paul, you know, he went to Jerusalem that he was arrested. He spent two years in arrest in Caesarea, which is a port city on the west coast of the land of Israel. Then from there he appealed to Caesar. And so he was sent by ship from Caesarea all the way to Rome. And he spent two years in Rome on the house arrest. And then he was released for a little short time. And when he was released from Rome, he came to the island of Crete. And he appointed Titus to be in charge of the church or the churches in Crete. And then he took Timothy and he appointed Timothy to be in charge of the church in Ephesias. And then he made his way back to Rome. And on his way back to Rome, he wrote the epistle to Titus. He wrote for Timothy. And finally, when he was in Rome, he wrote Second Timothy, which was his last epistle. And right after that, he was killed. So Titus was in charge of the church or the churches in Crete, the island of Crete. Timothy was in charge of the church in Ephesias. And these were people who were trained by the Apostle Paul. So this was around AD 68. Paul, Peter, all dead by now. And so a new generation of leaders leading the church. But really sadly, in about 20 years from then, Timothy is no longer there. Titus no longer there. And these churches that were started by the Apostle Paul or by people whom he had trained were now in a state of spiritual decline. And the only Apostle left is John, who by this time is well into his 90s. She's a very elderly person. And the emperors had changed. So there was Emperor Nero, who was the emperor of Rome. He persecuted the Christians. He killed them. He burnt them alive. He threw them to the lions. And he's gone. There's a different emperor. This new emperor, his approach is different. He doesn't kill the people. He exiles them. He sends them over on exile. So that's what he did in order to get rid of John, the Apostle, the last apostle. He sent him over in exile to the island of Patmos. The island of Patmos is just off the coast of Turkey. Little into the agency, he sent them there. So let them not have any influence. So John is in the island of Patmos. This is 1895. John is very elderly. But while he's on the island of Patmos, he receives revelation. The Lord Jesus speaks to him. And really John is seeing. So John is, so, you know, Revelation 110, John says, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. So on a certain day, he's all by himself. He's caught up in the spirit. So his spirit is seeing all these things, hearing and seeing everything in the spiritual realm. His body is here on earth. And it is very likely that at the same time, he is writing down these things because the Lord said in Revelation 119, write the things that I'm showing you. So he can imagine, in his spirit, he's caught up into the heavens. And he's hearing and seeing all these things. But in the body, he's recording everything he's saying. So he's writing what is being revealed to him. Okay. So that's how the book of Revelation is being given. Now, of course, the Lord said, I'm going to show you things which will take place. So the Lord is taking John literally thousands of years ahead into time. But John has only his context in which he's going to write these things. So, for example, if the Lord showed John a mobile phone. So John the Apostle, AD 95, he sees a mobile phone. How would he record it? He can only record it with the language and the context he has. So he will say, I see a black object. A voice comes out of it. It can sing. And, you know, it can show, you know, it has an eye that sees and takes, that shows the image of what it sees. It can speak, you know. So he won't call it a mobile phone. He won't call it, you know, an iPhone or an Android phone. No, he's only going to describe it with the language that he has. But what does he actually sing? What is God showing him? God may be showing this example. I'm not saying God showed him a mobile phone. I'm saying an example. So if God showed him a mobile phone, he's going to record it with language he has, with the context he has. Because God is showing him things which will take place, you know, literally thousands of years into the future. So keep that in mind that as we read, John was seeing things, but he was recording it with the language he had. One, that's one thing. Secondly, the Lord was intentionally using images or prophetic imagery to speak to John. So there are things that are, like we said, that will be taken literally the way it is. And then there are things that have to be interpreted as to what they mean. So how do we distinguish the two? Well, first of our first approach is that God shows him things literally. And if they can be understood literally and that the literal makes sense, then we stay with it. And of course the literal should be in harmony with the rest of scripture. But if the literal does not make sense or if the literal contradicts the rest of scripture, then we have to say it is prophetic imagery. That means it is a figure. It is representative. It is an image that means something. So then we need to interpret it. So for example, if you start in chapter one, John says this is verse four and five. He says, zone to the seven churches. So yeah, seven churches. That's literal. There are seven churches. And we will see the names of the seven churches, chapters two and three. So that's literal. And he says, Christian piece from him. So there are three froms in verses four and five. There is from him who is who was wish to come. Then in verse four, there is from the seven spirits, which are before the throne. And we're spying from Jesus Christ. Now, the first from we can understand. From him who is who was and who was to come. This is God the Father, the eternal God. The third from we can understand from Jesus Christ. But who's the second from? There's from the seven spirits, which are before his throne. Now seven spirits. What does that mean? Are there seven Holy spirits? No. And seven spirits is not literal. It is figurative representing the Holy Spirit because there's God the Father. There's Jesus Christ. So therefore the seven spirits have to speak about the Holy Spirit. There's only one spirit. Ephesians four verse four, one God, one spirit. So the seven spirits, which are before the throne is figurative of the Holy Spirit. Seven represents the number of perfection in the Bible. So number seven in this case is figurative symbolizing perfection, the perfect spirit. And the seven spirits, you will find in chapters two, three, four and five. He talks about, so the seven spirits, you will see that. Now if you look in chapter four, chapter three verse one, you have us to the seven spirits of God. Chapter three verse one, he has the seven spirits of God. Sorry. Now the seven spirits of God is figurative of the one Holy Spirit because there are no seven spirits. One Holy Spirit. And then again, chapter four verse five. He says the seven lamps of fire, which are the seven spirits of God. So seven lamps representing seven spirits of God. Chapter five verse six, seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God. So the Holy Spirit is represented by seven spirits of God. But here in verse revelation four, five, seven lamps, seven horns, seven eyes, seven lamps, seven horns, seven eyes. And they're all referring to the seven spirits of God, meaning the Holy Spirit. So this is figurative. It cannot be taken literally. Why? Because it will contradict the rest of scripture. And there are some preachers who in the past have preached this and said there are seven Holy Spirits. That's not what it says because it will contradict the rest of scripture. So you cannot interpret it literally. You have to say it's figurative. Seven lamps of fire. What does it mean? Light is pervasive. Talking about omnipresence. Seven horns. Horns in scripture represent power. So seven perfect power. That is omnipotence. Seven eyes represent what you see, knowledge. Seven eyes, perfect knowledge, omniscience. So therefore we interpret it that way. Seven lamps representing omnipresence. Seven horns representing omnipotence. Seven eyes representing omniscience. All of these are images of the seven spirits of God or the Holy Spirit or the perfect spirit of God. So in this case, number seven is used figuratively. Whereas when he talks about seven churches, there it is literal. There were seven literal churches to whom the letter is, the first part of the letter is addressed. Okay. Whereas in the case of the seven spirits of God, and I'm repeating as he hopes request that in the case of the seven spirits of God. It has to be figurative. Because there are no seven Holy Spirits. There's only one Holy Spirit. So seven spirits. That is Revelation chapter one verse four, Revelation chapter three verse one, Revelation chapter four verse five and Revelation chapter five or six and all of these cases. Right. So these, these have to represent the one Holy Spirit. Yeah. And I see Felix's comment there as 11 to there. That's, that's thanks for sharing that. So how can you understand this? Well, when you, the word, the number seven represents perfection. Now, when you think about a beam of light and I, and I use this illustration because it's very nice. Think about beam of light. It comes to a prism and there are seven colors. But it's a single beam of lights, but there are seven colors. So I say 11 to talks about the seven fold, seven facets of the Holy Spirit. And these are not everything, but yeah, so I'm explaining as 11 to right. So there are seven facets of the Holy Spirit. This is a spirit of, spirit of the Lord, spirit of ironing spirit of the Lord, spirit of wisdom, spirit of understanding, the spirit of counsel, the spirit of knowledge, spirit of might, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord, seven facets. So it's like that one beam of light that has seven colors. You know, while it's indigo blue, green, yellow, orange, red, but it's light, one beam of light. So one Holy Spirit, seven facets, seven expressions, but they're all combined in the one person of the Holy Spirit. So that's why seven spirits is used figuratively to talk about the one Holy Spirit. And I say 11 to gives us a seven facets of the Holy Spirit. But he's one Holy Spirit. The number seven, in some cases has to be taken literally, and he talks about to the seven churches. But in some cases, it has to be taken figuratively seven spirits. Okay. So, as John begins to have a revelation chapter one, he sees the Lord. And he sees the Lord walking in the midst of seven golden lampstands or he says here, it's Revelation one and verse 12. He sees seven golden lampstands. So the lampstand is, you know, what was used in the Old Tabernacle in the Old Testament. So each lampstand had seven limbs on which were the lamps. So it was really like a, it had seven limbs. So each lampstand. So there were seven lampstands. And he sees the Lord who walks in the midst of the seven lampstands. And in his right hand, he has seven stars. This is Revelation one verse 16. And he explains this in Revelation 120. He says the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. So here you have these images explained for us. He sees the Lord, the risen Lord. He has seven stars in his hands. Again, this is just a representation. The seven stars are the messengers of each of the seven churches he's going to speak to in his right hand. And he sees Jesus in the midst of the seven lampstands. Each lampstand represents one of those seven churches. And there's only representation, meaning keep in mind that at that time there were hundreds of churches. So there was a church in Jerusalem. There was a church in Antioch. And there are many hundreds of churches all around. So there's only a representation, meaning the Lord has the stars in his hand. And he is seated or he is walking amongst his churches. The lampstands are representing the churches. The stars are representing the messengers. Now who are the messengers? So the word messenger is the Greek word angelos. And the word angelos is used to refer to angelic beings. But it's also used to refer to human messengers. So in this case, he's referring to the human messenger, the person who is in charge of each of the seven churches, because he cannot be telling the angel or an angelic being. And he's not going to hold an angelic being responsible for what's happening in the local church. And the angelic being is not going to go and set things in order in the local church. So obviously, given the context, the messengers are referring to the spiritual leaders, leader in each of the seven churches. So each star is representing the leader of each one of the seven churches. But keep in mind it's only representation, because there are hundreds of churches already by that time. So it's telling us that the leaders of the churches are in the hands of the Lord. And the Lord is moving among the churches. He is observing, examining, and seeing what is happening in each of those churches. Are you all with me so far? I'm going to take Shri Komar's question. We will get into these details once again when we go next year. I'm giving you an overview. Next year, we will go slowly, read verse by verse, right? I'm just giving a quick overview for you too, you know, for us to get into chapters four onwards. Shri Komar, please ask your question. Thank you, Pastor. Pastor, in that case, I just want to know, this seven stars is referring to seven real pastors, or is the generic term is used like, as you said, because there are a lot of churches were there. When it is seven stars, is it a generic term, or is it actually for a special person? That's what you want to know. So each star represents an actual pastor or leader of that church. So what I was saying was Jesus is saying, you know, I have seven stars, but literally you could say he has hundreds of stars, or maybe thousands, or today it'll be thousands of stars because he holds the leader of every local church in his hand, meaning he's holding them responsible. Yes, of course, he's protecting them, but he's also holding them responsible. So this is figurative, telling us, look, I've got, so each one of the stars represents the messenger of each one of those churches, because in chapter two, he says, to the angel of the church in Ephesians, right? That means I'm speaking to the leader of that church, and this is my message to him. And he is responsible for what's happening in that church. So each star represents the messenger of that church, the leader of that church. So in that case, the church is in Ephesians, and all the pastors of the Ephesians is responsible. He's speaking to all this. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Pastor. He's speaking to the leader, spiritual leader of each particular area, all the churches. Okay, thank you. Okay. So verse 20, Revelation 120, he explains, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches or the messenger of each one of those seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches, Revelation 120. And what I want you to keep in mind is there are actually, by that time, there were hundreds of churches. So you may ask the question, what about all the other churches? No, this is only a representation. This is the Lord showing us that the leader of every church is in his hand, is represented by the star, is holding them responsible. And every church is before him, and he's observing and seeing what's going on. So if you look at it in today's terms, that today there are hundreds of thousands of churches all over the world. Same thing is watching and observing all of them, and every spiritual leader is holding them accountable. So now when we get into chapter two and three, the Lord has a message for each one of the seven churches. Okay, I'm not going into the detail of every message, which we will study later on. But if you want to just summarize, out of these seven churches, to six of them, he tells them repent. There's only one church, he doesn't tell them repent. That's a church in Philadelphia, which is in Revelation chapter three verse seven. That's the only church that seems to have everything going well. And very interestingly, it is the only church, Revelation three verse seven, the church in Philadelphia, to whom he says that the opposing people will come and bow down. In Revelation three verse seven, he says, Revelation chapter three verse seven, verse nine, Revelation three nine, to the church in Philadelphia, he says, there is a synagogue of Satan, and I will make them come and worship at your feet. That's the only church to whom he does not have a message of repentance. And it's the only church to whom he says, your enemies will come and bow at your feet. To the other six churches, there is a message of repentance. And if you look at what he, you know, he tells them repent and repent, and we will actually be studying this, even in our course on holiness, when we talk about repentance. Very quickly, to the church in Ephesians, he says repent because they left their first love. To the next to the next to the church in Smyrna, he says repent because they are tolerating wrong doctrine. There is the, they were letting wrong doctrine go on in the church and the wrong doctrine, which they were talking about tolerating. This is Revelation. Sorry. Sorry, this is not the church in Smyrna, but this is the church in. Okay, I need to correct myself. Only to two churches that the church in Smyrna and the church in Philadelphia, he doesn't say repent. The church in Smyrna is being persecuted. He doesn't tell them repent, but to all the other churches, that is five out of seven churches, he says repent. To, to the church in Smyrna, he says, do not fear. Okay, do not fear to the church in Philadelphia to that church is only church, he says, your enemies will come and barge your feet. I was just going through the repentance messages. I'll just quickly go through it. So the church in Pergamos, he tells them they need to repent because they were tolerating wrong doctrine in the church. And this wrong doctrine was causing people just to go into sin. The same thing to the church in Thyatira. They were tolerating a false teacher and a false prophetess. And she was teaching people and, of course, it was wrong doctrine. And this again was causing people to go into sin. So both cases, wrong doctrine, wrong teaching, repent. To the church in Smyrna, this is chapter three verse one. He says their works were not perfect before God. And to the church in Lavodisya, they felt that everything is fine and okay and things were not okay. So he tells them you need to repent, right? So, you know, we will look at all of these things in detail next year. Today we're giving an overview. So chapter two and three are a message to each one of those seven churches. And these seven churches existed right then. And it is very likely that John the Apostle was overseeing or had some spiritual influence in all of these seven churches because all the other apostles had died. They're gone. And only John the Beloved Apostle was there. And so through him, the Lord is giving a message to these seven churches. But there's a lot that we can take away from studying each one of these messages for us, you know, and lessons to learn. But I think the main point that we take away is the Lord is watching everything that is happening in each and every local church is watching. He is evaluating. He is assessing everything that's going on in each and every local church. And he holds the spiritual leadership in each local church responsible for what is going on in each one of those churches. Okay, so we can take those lessons. I see Hope's comment, the Church of Sardis. Yes. You know, their works were not perfect before God. So we can study what he said to the Church of Sardis and take that. In fact, we should take a message from each one of those seven churches, learn those lessons and make sure we don't fall into the same mistakes or, you know, try to learn from what he spoke to each one of the seven churches. Okay. So, Christopher, your question please. Yes, Pastor, this is, this is in relation to maybe something you had, you know, a little earlier, these two questions. So I just wanted to, I mean, the first question is really during the transfiguration of Jesus when he was in the earth. And when, you know, he was, Jesus was with Elijah and Moses. It seemed that they were recognized by the Apostles Peter, James and John. And so my question is, so had Elijah and Moses already attained glorified bodies. That is before the rapture that is to take place, you know, many years afterwards. And that is the first question. The second question is, I think you had mentioned that one of the signs of the coming of the rapture is when Jesus is coming back to a glorious and united church. And at present they seem to be looking at a lot of division, a lot of deceptions. I wanted to understand, would there be a need to have a great revival in order to take place to move the, you know, the current situation in churches to become glorious and united, which would then be a sure sign of the imminent second coming of Jesus. Okay. All right. So the first question, Matthew 17, in the transfiguration of Jesus, what we refer to as a transfiguration, what is actually happening is Jesus is giving a preview of what he would be like in the kingdom. Or he would be like when he entered his kingdom. So that's why he tells his disciples, some of you will see the Son of Man as he comes in his glory. So obviously, that doesn't mean, you know, Peter, James and John were going to live, you know, for 2000 years and wait till Christ comes. No. What was he referring to? He was referring to the Mount of Transfiguration where they would see him get a preview of what he would look like in his glorified state. So what happened in the Mount of Transfiguration was a preview. So Jesus and so also Moses and Elijah, at that time Moses and Elijah, you know, were dead, but the spirits were with God. Sorry, at that time they were dead and Christ had not yet resurrected. So they were, their spirits were held in paradise. But God brought them up and gave a preview to Peter, James and John of how they would, the Lord and Moses and Elijah would look in glory. Right. So, and I can just give, just to give you the specific reference that I'm mentioning. In Matthew 16, 28, it's 27 and 28, Matthew chapter 16, 27, 28, Jesus says, the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father. And he says in verse 28, there are some standing here. Matthew 16, 28, they won't die till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Now think about it, what Jesus is saying. He's saying, look, one of you, some of you, my apostles, you're not going to die until you see me coming in my kingdom. Now, obviously, they didn't understand what he was talking about. But this Matthew 17, the very next chapter is when Peter, James and John see him how, as he would be in his coming kingdom. Did you get it? Right. So it's like a preview. And Peter, James and John were the ones he was referring to in Matthew 16, 28. They were the three who got to see him as he would be. It is when he comes in the glory of his Father in the coming kingdom and that Moses and Elijah were there. So the answer to your question is it was a preview of things to come. The second part of your question, the second question is answer is yes. There will be a great work that God will do in the church to bring it into a glorious state. Now, we feel like, you know, how is that ever going to happen? But then we just have to look at church history. And we look back in time, you know, just as much as about 500 years before the church was in a very bad shape. What we refer to as a dark period of the church, but see what God has done. Right. He's brought us to where we are from being there without scripture to today where there's so much happening. And he's done it in just in a matter of few hundred years. So the rest of the work and things are accelerating. So the rest of the work that he needs to do to bring the church into glorious state, he will do it. There will be, of course, a great refining purifying and bringing out the glorious church. Okay. So let's go for a break. I hope everyone's following me. If you have any questions, please put it in the chat. We'll take a 10 minute break and we'll be back in 10 minutes. And I'm just kind of speeding things up so that we can pick up from chapter four. Okay. See you in 10 minutes. Thank you.