 Welcome back everyone to our second lecture, we see 2-1-3 the other in Revelation chapter 6. Any questions before we move on? Yes first. Like the chapter 6 we see like it's literally the starting of the tribulation period right? Yes. And we have also discussed that rapture happens pre-tribulation and also we have said that the book of John is chronological. Revelation is chronological but if we see after 5th chapter it's starting with tribulation but there is no mention of rapture like between 5th chapter. As they say and they have to say in sequence. So rapture happens in between chapter 5 and chapter 6? You can imagine like this. Rapture has happened. Rapture has happened. So there is something happening in heaven, something happening on earth. First we will show you heaven chapter 5 and 6. Then we will come to earth chapter 6. But it's happening simultaneously but chapter I have to write 4 and 5 and then I have to write 6. Rapture has taken place before chapter 4. So only then all the saints are in heaven worshipping God. So that is 4 and 5. Yes. Chapter 4 is after rapture but chapter 4 and 5 is a picture of heaven. Chapter 6 is a picture of earth. So we will stay on earth for some time then suddenly we will also go up to heaven. Chapter 7. We will see little of heaven come back to earth. So we are trying to see what is happening there and here simultaneously. So in between we will go to heaven, we will see silence in heaven then we come back to earth. Then again we go to heaven like that we will see. We will see both sides. So basically from chapter 4 on is after the rapture. Chapter 6 is what's happening here on earth but 6 to 19. But in between 6 to 19 we are going to go up to heaven, come back here, go up. He is saying this is what's happening in heaven, this is what's happening on earth. Yes. So we will see both happening. First when we are taking this interpretation when you told this Mitya and all. So on what basis that we can interpret or translate like say if maybe after our generation maybe people will interpret or understand in a different way. Maybe because of this change in this climate and all. On what basis we can interpret and other thing is I heard people wrote some books on this. The relation by interpreting in a different ways. And they told like when we when we discussing also there is no basis for us. We just okay this is what I understood. Like on what basis we have to do and is it necessary that to do translation. Good question. So one is when something is literal when something can be literal then we will keep it as literal. And something cannot be literal then we take it as prophetic as a prophetic image representing something. But like we said there is something that is happening which is literal. But it has been communicated in the language that John has. So I give an example something that is literal which must be taken as literal. 24 elders seated around the throne that is literal. There are 24 elders as we read the book of Revelation we will see some of them are from the Old Testament and all that. So there are 24 elders literal they are seated around the throne. Something is prophetic the lamb like we saw the lamb coming. It's imaginary the lamb is image for Jesus. Lion of the tribe of Judah image for Jesus not like a literal lamb or literal lion. So there we say yeah he's seeing the lamb come to take the scroll but it's not one lamb walking there. It's Jesus coming to take the scroll that is prophetic. But then there is this in between what is the in between John is seeing things but he can only write in his language. I mean he can only describe it with what he knows. So like we talked about you know for example what we were discussing in verse 13 Revelation 6 13 and the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its lake. And then we will see again in in chapter 8 we will see chapter 8 or I'm just I'll just give one more example. In chapter 9 he sees things that are like smoke of locust that is Revelation 9 verse 3. There were locusts and they were killing people on the earth and the shape of the locusts were like horses prepared for battle. The crowns or something like gold. This is Revelation 9 7. They had faces like man they had hair like woman's hair that lion wings all those things right. So what is that? We don't know but he's only describing what it is. So what exactly is that? Could it be? I don't know but we can imagine something. What could it be? Because he's only saying I saw something. It had like woman's hair teeth like lion. This was 9. Revelation 9 9 breastplates of iron sound of wings were like the sound of chariots. Many horses running into battle and they were destroying the people. So what was this actually? Now it's left to imagination because we don't know what it is. And he's not telling us oh these are drones that were made by Russians. He doesn't know. We can imagine hey this sounds like something that's flying. It looks like drone could be I don't know but or it could be something else. We don't know. And John also doesn't have language from our day. God didn't say John right drones will be flying over the people. He's just describing what he's seeing and he's writing right. So this is where we don't have a clear definite statement of what this could be. So it is open to interpretation. But there are some things very clear taken literal some things prophetic very clear. And then there are some things which are open for interpretation. But we're not saying everything in the book of revelations like that. Only a few things. Most of the things are either literal or prophetic which can be explained. And the other thing when we are seeing this Antichrist time. So if I can ask like who is this Antichrist who really is is he is a satan or is he an other angel. And the next next continuation is if he is an if he is a spirit or some angel. Is there a possibility that for him to become as a human being and come here and stay and to rule like a human being. And then and then he have so many names. I mean in different different context. So like a beast. And if his beast means if he is human being under we won't I mean name him like a beast. That in different different context that different different names. And is there a possibility for such like a person to come here like a human being and rule over us. So from what we can see in scripture. He is a man. Human being human person. He's a man. But he's empowered by Satan. So when you read through Daniel, Daniel talks about this man who speaks blasphemous things against God. He's a man human. But he's speaking all this against God. He has authority. And Paul refers to him as a son of perdition which is like a title for a human person. He's not an angelic being a son of perdition. He sets himself up as God. So very clearly he's a human being. But he is empowered by the dragon. So we will see two people main actors. There is the Antichrist and there is a false prophet. Both are people. Both are empowered by the dragon. The Antichrist is also called the beast. The false prophet. So yeah, Revelation 13, let's see what's his title. He is referred to, no, so Antichrist was a first beast. And this false prophet is referred to as the second beast, another beast. But these are two people. And the dragon that is the devil is giving them power. Revelation 13 is giving them power to do the things they are doing. One way to understand it and not necessarily... There's a difference but to look at it Christ was Christ on the earth when he walked on the earth. He walked as a man. Now the difference is he was God who became man. The Antichrist is a man but empowered by the dragon. So it's not like some angel has become a man. No, he's a man empowered by the dragon. We'll carry out these things along with the false prophet. We'll carry out these things. We'll see in Revelation 13. Alright, chapter 6. Now we go to chapter 7. What happens in chapter 7? In chapter 7, very interesting. The Bible tells us, John is saying, God has marked 144,000 Jews. This is during the tribulation, 144,000 Jews. They are marked by God with the seal of God. So the seal of God is, again, we would say, we understand in the New Testament, the seal is the Holy Spirit. I also can refer to the name of Jesus, both. But one of the seal, meaning of seal of God is the Holy Spirit. 144,000 Jews are marked by God and they are servants of God. So that means during the tribulation, God is going to have 144,000 Jews. Doesn't mean they're all in Israel. They could be all over the world and they are preaching Jesus. They're serving God. 144,000 Jews. So it's on the first half of the tribulation. They start off in the first half of the tribulation. When they come to the middle of the tribulation, they are taken up into heaven. You will see, Revelation 14. But this is very interesting, 144,000 Jews. That means that the preaching of Jesus Christ is going to happen during the tribulation by many people. God has marked 144,000 Jews to do it. Now the question is why? Why God set this part up? Like why is He saying 144,000 Jews who are going to be serving Him in the tribulation? Again, the answer we can only think. Like it's not given here, but we can think that maybe it's a time when even the Jews, Jewish people are going to turn and recognizing that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. Now some Jews, not everybody, are recognized, few Jews. I say some, I don't know if few, but some Jews are recognizing. Some are not. But when all these things begin to happen, we can say that there will be lots of Jewish people who will recognize that Jesus is the Messiah. Everything that He said, everything Daniel wrote, all has come to pass. They will turn to Jesus. And Zachariah 12.10 says that there will be a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the house of David. That means on the Jewish people during the tribulation. And then they will see the one whom they have pierced when Jesus comes. That means during the tribulation, there will be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, especially on the Jews. And 144,000 Jewish people are going to serve God. And in the second half of the tribulation, again, now we're going to have a verse 9. So chapter 7 verse 1 to 8 on earth. Now he says, okay, let's go up to heaven. What is happening? He is seeing great multitude, again worshipping God. And then they are signing on the throne. And then verse 13, Revelation 7.13, where did they come from? So one of the elders are asking, John, John, where did they come from? John says, you know them? So verse 14 says, these are the ones who come out of the great tribulation. That means these people have been killed. So continue. He saw chapter 6, people are dying. There are again chapter 7, people are coming. But of course, when a person dies for Jesus, immediately his spirit and soul is in heaven. Right? So these people are in heaven. They've come out of the tribulation. They're worshipping God and the one who sits on the throne. And they will never have these tears anymore. So people see this. That throughout the tribulation, we'll see this again and again. People are being martyred. And they're coming to heaven. They're martyred? Coming to heaven. Martyred? Coming to heaven. So we can say that there will be lots of people who believe in Jesus, but they will lose their life. Okay? Then chapter 8. Now, the seals are over. Now we are moving into the next set of judgments. 7 trumpets. Suddenly, there is silence in heaven. And then we see chapter 8 was 1 to 6. There is lot of prayer coming up into heaven. Prayer coming up into heaven. But where is the prayer coming from? It's coming from the earth. So that's why we are saying at that time, there will be a big prayer movement on the earth. People are going to pray, calling on the name of God. Right? So it says here, there's another angel having a golden sense. It was given much incentive. He should offer prayers of all the saints. And it throws this sense. The angel took the sense and filled it with fire and threw it to the earth. That means this is lighting up this, igniting this prayer movement because there's so much of prayer coming. It's igniting it. More prayer. So you can imagine, people everywhere, they're believing in Jesus. They're being martyred. But they are praying. I mean, people are praying. So there's prayer coming up into heaven from the earth. Then the trumpet stops. First trumpet, this is verse 7, chapter 8, verse 7. All the trees and the grass was burned up. One third, one third. So these days, we hear, we can read about, maybe the last couple of years, we read about big fires happening. That huge hectares and hectares of land is just burned up. Forest fires. But here, chapter 8, verse 7, one third of the trees were burned. I mean, this is like something they haven't even seen before. But nowadays, we read about fire here, fire, then the forest fires. But this one is one third. Then the sea is struck. One third of the sea creatures die. Then the third trumpet, waters are struck. Men start, one third of the waters become bad. People die. Fourth, this is verse 12. And once again, same thing. Moon is darkened. A third of the stars become dark. Sun is darkened. So the third of the day did not shine. And likewise, the night. So things have, chaotic things are happening in the sky, chaotic things. Stars are becoming dark. Sun is becoming dark. So you can imagine what's happening. Heavens are being affected. Then chapter 9, fifth trumpet. So here, something is happening. It's saying the bottomless pit was opened. And all kinds of demonic things were released upon the earth. So we understand scorpions, locusts representing demonic spirits. They're coming on the earth. But they will not touch those who have the seal of God. So they will not be able to harm these 144,000 Jews and possibly, you know, the others who believe in Jesus. But for five months, they are tormenting people. And notice in verse 6, it says, in those days, men will seek death and will not find it. They will desire to die and death will flee from them. That means it will be so bad. They want to die, but they don't know how to die. Like, you know, they can't, they want to die, but they're not able to bring themselves to that place of taking their own lives and so on. So meaning it's going to be such a torment, mental torment. You know, they want to die because all that's happening, they can't for five months. And then he's talking about verses 7 to 12. He's describing what these demonic beings are like. And so, like we said earlier, what kind of expression they take? We don't know. But he said they came out of the bottomless pit and they're tormenting men. Exactly this. We don't know. We're giving some description here. So this is left to imagination. Somebody may say this is the, you know, COVID-19 virus or somebody may say, whatever they may say. Okay, fine. That is your imagination. But really we don't know. We just know that these creatures have been released from the bottomless pit. They're tormenting people. People want to die. They cannot die. And there they have this strange thing. How, whether they are just spiritual or whether they actually are some, they have some physical expression. Again, we don't know. Right. So that's why I say somebody can say, oh, it looks like drones or it looks like that or whatever. Don't know. Okay. But this is happening. This is what the effect is. It is causing these creatures are causing so much of torment. That is the fifth trumpet. Sixth trumpet again is strange because there are angels that are released from the river Euphrates. And it's like an army. And these angels are tormenting people, killing people. They were released to kill. Sorry, they're killing one third of mankind. One third of human beings are killed. So previous people are being tormented. Next, people are dying. But it also says the army of this army was about, this is what 16, Revelation 916. This army was about 200 million. And he says, I saw the horses in the vision. Those who sat on them at breastplate of fiery red, highest in the blue and sulphur yellow. This is what I was talking about. You know, there's all strange colors you're seeing. Heads of the horses were like heads of lions. Out of their mouths came fire, smoke and brimstone. So he's saying fire, smoke and brimstone. So I'm just wondering, just using my imagination, what if God was showing John these nuclear bombs and things happening in the silence, causing fire, smoke and brimstone, which are killing people. One third of mankind was killed by the fire, verse 18, by the fire, smoke and brimstone, which came out of their mouths, for their powers in their mouth and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents having heads, and with them they do harm. So could it be some sort of missiles coming and he's thinking like some fire is coming from the back and some brimstone and all this. So we don't know, right? We don't know. It's again, this is what John is seeing and he's writing it in his words. If God was showing him some other things that were happening today, how would he write it? So again, this is left to imagination. He's written it now. What exactly are those things? We don't know. But one third of people are dying. So what could cause this kind of death? It could be these missiles are applying, armies firing, these kinds of things against each other. He mentions an army of 200 million in verse 16. So that's why again, people say, okay, where could there be an army of 200 million people coming like this? So is it literally soldiers like this or is it something else? But generally people say, okay, this could be the outstanding army of China. They are the only ones who have such big army and all of that. Okay, maybe. We don't know. But that's what he's saying. First, killing the believers or the people who were left? So in the fifth trumpet, it's clearly said that they cannot touch those who have the seal of God in verse 4. It says they cannot touch those who have the seal of God on the foreheads. But it doesn't say that for the sixth trumpet, the seal of God, which we said represents the Holy Spirit, the name of God and the Holy Spirit, the seal of God. 144,000 Jews. So I think my thought is it represents both. It represents the 144,000 Jews whom God said specifically sealed. And I also think it represents all those who do believe in Jesus during the tribulation. Like we're seeing, people are being killed over and over again. People are being killed. So this fifth trumpet that causes the release of these locus-like, scorpion-like spirits from the bottomless spirit, which are affecting people, tormenting people for five months where they want to die but cannot die. It's saying it will not affect those who have the seal of God. So my thought is, well, it includes 144,000 Jews plus those who would believe in Jesus during that time. But it doesn't say that other judgments, you know, how it affects the believers. It's possible that believers directly or indirectly are being affected because we're all on the planet. We're all on this, I mean, not we, but people are on this planet at that time. So in some way or the other, they may be affected. So it doesn't say that. So the sixth trumpet is interesting because, you know, it's talking about an army of 200 million horsemen seeing an army. Again, people wonder, you know, what that army is and that, you know, you might read in some books that, oh, this is China, the army from China and so on. But what is interesting, Revelation 9, 20 years, that in spite of all of this, people do not repent. There are some people who do not repent. It says in Revelation 9, 20 and 21, the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands and they should not worship demons and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone and wood which can either seen or hear or walk, and they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. So it's like in the tribulation, well, all this is going on. There are some who will repent and turn to God, but there will also be some who don't repent who refuse to turn to God. So that's what he's saying here in Revelation 9, 20 and 21. Let's just do chapter 10 and then we'll pause. So in chapter 10, it's like a parenthetical chapter, meaning, okay, this is something that is happening to John while the Revelation has been given to him. So he sees one big angel with a little book and this angel comes to John says, John, time to eat. It's time. Eat this book. So John eats the book and it is sweet initially and then it becomes bitter in his stomach and then the angel says, John, this is Revelation 10 verse 11, you must prophesy again about many people, nation, tongues and kings. That means more prophecy is there, but it's bitter. I guess it's all about judgment. It's more. You have to prophesy more. So again here, it's symbolic. Like John at that moment, one angel comes and says, eat this book. He's eating. It's symbolic. And says, okay, you have to prophesy some more about nations, tongues and kings. So that's parenthetical, meaning that's not happening in the future, but it is happening to John while he's being given all these visions. Okay, so we'll pause here. You're with me so far? So now we have reached the middle of the tribulation. So first three and a half years over. John is given a book. John to speak some more, but it is going to be bitter. Second three and a half years. So chapter 11 verse one onwards. Second. So we'll pick that up next. We'll have great tribulation next week. This week only tribulation. Okay, any questions for those online? What is the symbols and the trumpet means? Seals and trumpet means. I think, again, they are representative. That means a seal is something that it's like you can imagine a letter that is stamped closed. That means still that time it's like a secret. Nobody knows it is sealed. Then it's open. This is what it is. It must happen on earth. So it's a secret that is unpacked or opened and it is shown. Trumpet is announcement. Like, okay, somebody blows the trumpet. Okay, now do this. Second announcement for something to happen. So we can see when Christ descending, there's a sound of a trumpet. Then there's a second trumpet. Bodies are caught up. So, you know, for that, for that event to happen, for Christ to descend, one trumpet is sounded. Another trumpet is sounded for the people to be caught up. So here, that is a good thing. Those are good things for us. Here, seven trumpets, but they are going to be judgment for each trumpet. Something is happening. So seals, trumpets, and then bowls, like something being poured out. So they are representing, all these are representing that a judge, something is happening, each one. People, they are using for worship trumpet. For Sunday service. Nothing done with the trumpet. Trumpet you can use. So far, people use all that. There's nothing wrong with that. But in this case, it is a moment in time saying, now this judgment must take place. So the trumpet itself is not wrong. It's only announcing something. In the Old Testament, you will see they use trumpet to call for war, to assemble the people. So they use for different things. Okay, so let's close for today. I will pick up from chapter 11 and go forward next week, just to get over here, right? So don't worry next year. In third year, we will read through Daniel verse by verse and revelation verse by verse. Now we're just giving us an idea, a sequence of events. We will read things in detail in the third year. Somebody can pray and then we will dismiss, please. Father, we thank you for this day. Lord, once again, we come to your presence and we pray as we have learned this. All things father, father, give us knowledge so we can understand deeply Father, your word, Lord Jesus, help us to understand, help us to learn more and more Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Thank you. Thank you to one. We'll get back next week. Thank you. Bye now.