What Did God Do For Millions Of Years, Before He
Made Earth & The Cherubim Angels? (2023 update)

(a deeper study by David Henry, feedback requested)

https://www.RestoreMBI.com/Heaven-and-Angels-2023.htm

https://www.RestoreMBI.com/Heaven-and-Angels-2023.pdf

Our God, the real God is eternal; God has always existed, forever. But God created His angel friends called "congregation angels" millions of years ago. Then, when it was the right time, God made 5 or 6 billion cherubim angels and the Earth 6,000 years ago. The assignment of the cherubim angels is to protect humans and guard the Earth. Does the Bible prove the cherubim angels and the Earth are just 6,000 years old? Don't you wish a Bible teacher would gather the Bible verses together describing Heaven, and put them in one Bible study? We found those answers, and those verses in God's Word.

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This Introduction Tells What Bible Topics God Gave Us To Be Included In This Bible Study.

- God is eternal, before congregation angels. Earth & cherubim angels are 6,000 yrs old

- When God created angels and humans, God had to decide between free-will or robots.

- God is smart enough to plan both types of angels & humans before He created anything

- Revelation describes 40 congregation angels much stronger than the devil & all demons.

- Why did God create older angels, newer angels, humans? God wants a large loving family.

- What is wrong with the religions who say God predestined them to sin? They blame God.

- Who invented righteousness & evil? If God didn't invent evil - then how did evil get here?

- We found a close look into cherubim angels & how many God made, & what do they do?

- Do cherubim and seraphim angels look alike, are they all the same?

- We also found 18 cherubim angels greater than the devil & more powerful than the devil

- Who are the congregation angels? Answer. We look closer at them all through Revelation.

- What happened to Lucifer? Why did he fall and take so many angels with him?

- Isaiah 14 tells the devil's 5 " I will" boasts, and gives a few details of congregation angels.

- Ezekiel 28 tells of Lucifer's beauty before he sinned & his scorched look after his fall.

- List 19 times the devil lost because of the Spiritual Law Of Unintended Consequences.

- We described 6 interesting places to see on God's Holy Mountain.

- Where did the Rome church get the ideas they used to invent purgatory?

- Why do some Christians die early, and what would have happened if they stayed longer?

- Jesus requires 20 different promises from Christians to complete their salvation covenant.

- What happens to a Christian who died before finishing their salvation covenant?

- There are 12 openly visible Bible Passages telling saints to finish their salvation covenant.

- We show Bible verses describing Christians finishing their salvation covenant after death.

- Did Jesus explain that place by those who died & came back to tell the Jews their story

- What's different for Church people who aren't ready before the rapture? Announcement

- Who wrote Hebrews, Paul or Silas? How Barnabas became Paul's friend again 1 Cor.9:3-6

- Did Jesus offer a billion worker demons a reduced sentence in Rev.9:1-11 & 9:12-19?

- Jesus' Parable of Soils shows the heart difference of those who are happy about Heaven but don't make a salvation covenant, and those who do make a salvation covenant. Can you discern which type they are by their attitude about repentance? Yes.

Those are important and interesting subjects. We hope you will look into this Bible study and see the Bible verses explaining those subjects. Maybe this can be your evening Bible study for a few days, or maybe this Bible study can be your morning devotions for a few days.

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King David talked about God's eternal existence in Psalms 90:2, “Before the Earth and the mountains were brought forth.... even from everlasting to everlasting You are God.” David said in Psalms 45:6-7 “Your throne O God is forever and forever.” In Hebrews 1:8 Silas quoted from David, “Your throne O God is forever and ever.” In Isaiah 9:7 Jesus is called “Everlasting Father”. In Daniel 7:9 “...the Ancient of Days was seated, His garment was white as snow... His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire, a thousand thousands ministered to Him.". Those “thousand thousands” or 1,000,000 angels are probably cherubim angels assigned to work with God's interaction on the Earth.

But how can someone find the Earth is almost 6,000 years old? The answer is found by adding up the ages in the genealogies in Genesis 5 &11, starting with “Adam was 130 years old when he fathered Seth”, and “Seth was 105 years old when....” Keep adding those numbers from Adam to Abraham to get a number of years. Then find a history time line that lists the approximate years when Abraham's lived. Some time charts say Abraham was in the 20th century BC. That proves the Earth and the cherubim angels are almost 6,000 years old.

Bible students know lots about the newer angels. The “cherubim” class of angels were created in Genesis 1:2-3, on the 1st day of creation. That is why Lucifer was called “O Lucifer, son of the first morning” in Isaiah 14:12. And that verse teaches us that all of the other cherubim angels were made on the first day of creation. Then Job 38:4-7, says "...the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy". Those words "sons of God shouted for joy", refers to the angels. That celebration started before Adam was made. Also, when God made Adam, he was the only male for several years, not "sons" plural. Abraham and Job were contemporaries in the second century after the flood. God gave directly to him in Job 38:4-7 the words "all the sons...", that teaches us that both classes of angels watched God create the galaxies, and they watched God develop the Earth, so they celebrated God's creation together. The word "all" is plural, that was the first hint God made about the other angels. On the subject of Lucifer's fall, I wonder if the celebration of creation when both classes of angels celebrated God's handiwork, I wonder if that celebration pumped up Lucifer's pride into believing he could some day advance high enough to dominate over the congregation angels too.

After God created the new angels, Earth and the galaxies called heavens 6,000 years ago, in Genesis 1:31, at the end of 6 days, "Then God saw everything that He had made and indeed it was very good." That "very good" proves God didn't make this Earth as a temporary place, knowing that Lucifer would rebel. But soon after creation, Lucifer was becoming jealous of God's glory, and he wanted to get some of that glory because he was beautiful. Lucifer became controlled by that greed, his greed changed his attitude; he was willing to steal God's glory for himself. When Lucifer made his final decision to rebel, as he finished planning his rebellion speech to God, it included his five “I will” boasts against God. Then his final decision was made almost 6,000 years ago. But Lucifer's thoughts, his final decisions were not revealed to humans until about 700BC - 600 BC, when our Father shared those parting thoughts of Lucifer through His prophets, in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28.

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The Bibles we have in English are God's Word, and we are accountable to God to obey His Word. But the translating process from Hebrew and Greek into English is not a perfect process, because there is not a perfect equivalent of an English word that exactly communicates the original Hebrew word or Greek word into English. There is a question that needs a good answer; why do the Bible translators over-simplify their translation? Maybe it's because they are trying to copy the shortened style of the KJV. The problem is many of the Greek and Hebrew words do not have one English word equivalent, but the translators pick the word they prefer anyway and keep on going translating. We believe that many times they should find two words that translate all of what God said in the original language.

Another obstacle for young Christians trying to understand God's Word: Americans are not Israelites from ancient times. Americans did not live in the Old Testament or in the early years of the New Testament. Modern Gentiles don't understand those cultures from those days long ago. The original audience understood what God said to them, back in their times. So we also believe American Bible translators should include a word or two to reveal the original context. So what if that better translation would be twice as long and twice as heavy, because at least the Bible students would more easily understand what God was communicating back then.

That better Bible would sell very well. Maybe the KJV and NKJV devotee’s will hold tight to their favorite version, but many Bible students would want the better version. We are sure God would be pleased with a more complete translation. As things are today, the new Christian must study each Passage trying to find the missing concepts, and missing historical context that were not translated, before they can look deeper and learn God's deeper messages. This Bible study worked to fill those missing pieces.

If you are a pure KJV person, or a pure NKJV person, then you might want to keep your Bible open. We are sure most of our readers will appreciate the words we add back into the text. They will be very happy to understand those verses better, like better than they understood before. I'm not a Bible translator, but I'm trying to be a very good Bible teacher.

One of my most helpful methods of Bible study is listening to NKJV on MP3 audio, for many hours at a time. That is a great way to learn many things about the New Testament. When you listen to Matthew through Revelation over and over, then your mind starts connecting common themes. It is like a panoramic picture in audio form. When you hear verses that catch your attention, write down a few words of that verse and search for it on your Bible study program. It will surprise you how much you can learn that way. Your mind will be able to identify what didn't get from the original into English. It will surprise you how smart your brain is. If you are trying to focus on a certain Book, then just keep listening to that Book many times.

My favorite dramatized audio Bible is Word of Promise in NKJV. When you research any of the voices doing their part of the reading, you will be sure none of the readers are Christians. But they got into acting because they are good at reading text and knowing what those words meant. Please try it. Let it play for hours and don't turn it off. If you need something in another room let it keep playing. The evil spirits will try to get you to turn it off many times. And maybe you will want to write down all of reasons they whisper into your ear for a year. If you are good at writing down all of the excuses they whisper to you, telling you why you should turn it off over a year’s time. Your notes will make you laugh. But your notes will teach you several things about evil spirits, and how they their work. You will notice that when you pay more attention to God's Word, you will pray better, and God will also hear more of your prayers.

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A Comparison Of Robot Angels And Robot Humans, or Free-Will angels And Humans.

There are dangers for holy God to create life, because if any beings God created sinned, (either angels or humans sinned) those sins become a liability to holy God. Holy God will be guilty of their sins, if He doesn't judge each and every sin committed by His created beings. That is why God has holy angels record each and every sin in “the books” in Rev.20:12-13.

Another option is God could have made angels and humans to be robots not able to form any personal opinions. That would have been the safest option, because a robot can't think about sinning or rebellion. Now we ask you a question: If modern science can make robots to look like a man or woman or a child, would you marry a robot? No. Would you want robot children, instead of flawed human children? No, no, no. Maybe they will do exactly what you tell them to do, but a robot cannot become your friend; a robot will never love you. Instead God will have a large family who loves His righteousness forever.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit wanted a bigger family to love and for fellowship forever; God wanted a bigger family, not robots. Here are some of the Bible verses telling us God's family plan, starting with Jesus' prayer in John 17:20 "...that they all may be one, as You Father are in Me", and in 1st Corinthians 1:9 "you were called into the fellowship of His Son", and in 1st John 1:3 "that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ”, and in Revelation 21:3-4 "God Himself will be with them and be their God", and Revelation 21:22-23 "I saw no temple in New Jerusalem, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” and Rev. 22:3-5 "they shall see His face, and God's name shall be on their forehead".

The proof of God's success for a larger family is visible among saints in Heaven. Look at them celebrating their salvation in Heaven: Rev. 4:11 & 5:9-14 & 7:10-14 & 11:15-18 & 14:2-5 &15:2-4 & 19:1-8. That is God's family, the holy angels and saints are God's family forever. That is also told by Isaiah 9:7 “...the increase of Jesus' government and peace will never end.” What will happen at the end of Earth's time? God will send each group to where they belong. The holy angels will have dwelling places in New Jerusalem. The saints from the Old Testament and Church Age will have dwelling places or mansions all through the New Jerusalem. The Church Age saints will live in the New Jerusalem in Rev.21:24. One of the assignments of the Church Age saints will be to sit on thrones working for Jesus to rule over the growing cities outside New Jerusalem. Who are those who live outside New Jerusalem? Those who stay faithful through the Millennium, who have decided they don’t want to be sinners. They hate sin. God will grant them a new heart that can’t sin anymore.

Those were the millennium saints; they stayed faithful to God through the Millennium. Then God will convert them into sinless perfect humans. They will live happily on the outside of New Jerusalem for a given time (and then they will be brought into the New Jerusalem). They will thrive in God's love, joy and peace while they build God's Kingdom outside the walls of New Jerusalem. And they will be learning into maturity like when God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They will maintain a family, with husbands and wives raising their children. God will restore to the original plan before Adam and Eve sinned. They will not know how to sin, and that door to sin will be officially closed forever by their choice of obedience. And the buildings and cities they build will be expanding forever on that new Earth, after this cursed Earth is burned up. The successes of people living outside of New Jerusalem will become regular announcements of exciting news from God's throne. That happy news will be a normal way of life forever in New Jerusalem.

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Is God Smart Enough To Plan Everything Before God Made Anything?

When you decide to make something in the kitchen or shop, do you plan ahead or just start mixing or cutting, cooking or gluing? Our God is extremely brilliant. God is smart enough to plan everything of His creation in advance. Before God made any angels or humans, God foreknew every angel and human, before He made anything. Isaiah 46:9-10 says, “I Am God, and there is no other; I Am God and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times declaring things that are not yet done.” God foreknew everyone and everything before He made anything in Romans 8:29.

There are some religious leaders that say God intentionally planned to send some to Heaven and some to Hell. They say God deliberately made some angels and some humans to be evil. They are flat wrong, and we can show you verses to correct their view. They wrongly try to use Romans 9:14-24 about the Potter and the clay to prove their point; but we point out that the pharaoh decided to be evil and God allowed it. Pharaoh chose to persecute the Jews for his greed of power. Pharaoh was murdering Jewish babies before God hardened his heart. All of the examples I know of in Scripture show the sinner wanted those sins and God allowed it. God said "Esau I have rejected", because God foresaw what Esau would be. We know God did not make Esau to be evil; that was Esau's choices, but God knew what Esau would choose to be. Same with Judas Iscariot, God didn't force Judas to steal from Jesus. God did not force Judas to tell cover-up lies to the other disciples, bragging about how great he was. Judas lied to them when he told them "he gave Jesus' money to the poor," Judas and his dad Simon were greedy thieves in Jerusalem. God knew what Judas would do. God let Judas do what he wanted. God did not make Judas to do evil, but God will judge each of them because they chose to do evil. They wanted to be evil; they did the evil deeds they wanted to do.

There are additional problems inside the thinking of people who believe that God forced some angels and humans to do evil. They do not believe they must obey self-control in Galatians 5:22-23, they must obey God to stop the sins that ruin them. When they fall into sins, they blame it on God. They say God predestined them to do everything that they do, including that God predestined them to do their own sins they wanted to do. That accuses God to say that God made them to do evil. They are trying to say that God made them do it. They accuse God as the author of sin, instead of the devil. They are not saying the devil persuaded them do evil, and they did it. They are saying God predestined them to do evil. So that is why they say they can sin like they do.

At their judgment God will prove they wanted to do evil. God will show each of them how the Holy Spirit tried to prevent them from doing those sins. God resisted them from doing evil as God explained in Romans 1:18-32. These notes prove their error. When they say or believe God made them do wrong things, they also don't take personal responsibility for wrong choices they make, daily. Instead they blame it on God. That will not go well when God judges them, because they will try to blame God instead of their self. Blaming God is the opposite of repentance of their sins, with no sorrow for their failures. They will lose badly because God will accuse and condemn them by their own words. When people sin, they also say words about their sins and sinful thoughts. God will prove them guilty by their words. God will prove they planned to do the sins they chose to do, and they did the sins they wanted to do. Holy God does not want them to sin, James 1:14 and 1 Cor.19:13. God is not tempted by sin, and God doesn't want any sins. But they wanted to be guilty of evil, and they got it. Jesus' gospel for salvation requires repentance; if they blame God for their sins, then they did not repent of their sins. Instead they blame God for their sins. That is the opposite of repentance.

When God chose the option of free-will for humans, God also had to accept both sides; those who will get saved, and those who refuse to get saved. That is part of the free-will package. Now we need to prove those false religious types as liars, and they also blaspheme God's holy character. Most people can see this easily: If God forced either angels or humans to become evil, then God would be the Author of evil. If that were true, then God would also be the Author of "confusion" in 1 Cor.14:33. And that would make God to be the Author of "lies" and "murder" in John 8:44. That accusation also violates Hebrews 12:2, that "God is the Author and Finisher of our faith". God can't be the Author of salvation, and also be the author of evil - those are opposites. Their accusation also violates Hebrews 5:9 that Holy God is the Author of "eternal life". Instead, there is an eternal standard of righteousness, and God is the perfect example of that eternal righteousness. Their accusations pretend God has violated righteousness. They are wrong. Instead God will prove He is the perfect example of righteousness.

But the free-will point of view means God had to accept that some angels would choose to be evil, and some humans will want to keep being evil, even when Jesus offers them salvation. Surprise: some people hate God's righteousness, and they willingly choose to keep being evil. They plan to live forever in Hell with people who like evil. We have preached the gospel to, and we have witnessed to many rebels who say that to us. They prefer to live in Hell, where they believe they will be allowed to keep being evil; and they believe they will have friends in Hell just like them. No, that will be very different. Here on Earth God is still showing them His love. I don't believe God will be sending His love to them in Hell. In fact they have made an eternal decision they don't want God's love. There will be no parties in Hell. Jesus tells us in Matt.8:12 "There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth". There are no weapons in Hell, but they will still have their teeth. They will use their teeth for fighting weapons. There will be no parties in Hell. But there will be weeping because they rejected God's love.

The free-will option instead of robots also made it necessary for God to accept those problems like Cain, Nimrod, Ham, Esau, Judas Iscariot and many more too. Maybe God could have prevented sins by forever nagging the new angels not to sin, and forever keep on warning humans not to sin at each temptation. Maybe that would have prevented sins, but in the end everyone would have a culture of curiosity, because sin can look so compelling. Now, because God allowed humans to try their curiosity, we have learned why we also hate sins; we will hate sins and evil forever. Everyone in Heaven will be vigilant to avoid sins. So eternal nagging was not God's plan either. Instead, when God created the angels, God warned those angels about sinning, but God didn't give us His words of warning to the angels. We do have God's warning to Adam in Gen. 2:17 “...of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.” Then after the sins happened, after Lucifer decided to become evil, and after he tricked the humans to sin, then God judged those sins.

The eternal knowledge of righteousness is self existing. All eternal beings can see both righteousness and evil. God can see both, the congregation angels can see both, and all of the new angels can see both righteousness and evil. Most humans can't see that deep. Some religions accuse our God of making His own standards of righteousness. They say God has the power, so God can make His own rules and God can break His own rules, so God can do anything He wants. They are still wrong. Instead our God is the perfect example of eternal righteousness.

Likewise our God didn't make evil, the concept of evil has always existed. Remember holy God placed the knowledge of good and evil in the "tree of knowledge of good and evil" in Gen.2:17. The potential of evil behavior has always self-existed, because it is the opposite of God. Lucifer and the evil angels knew something about evil. But Lucifer is the first being who chose to embody evil. God didn't have to explain evil to the devil, that knowledge self-existed and it was easy to find, because it was the opposite of God. But Lucifer chose to act out that evil knowledge. Jesus tells us the devil became the father of evil in John 8:44, “the devil became a murderer from the beginning... there is no truth in him... for he is a liar and the father of it." The knowledge of evil has always been known to God and the angels; most humans are blind. How did the devil find that knowledge of evil? We put forth a theory that the devil had to think backwards. Look at everything God does and do the opposite of what God does.

Revelation 20:11-15 tells us holy God will judge all sins. Jesus judged the evil people who wanted to kill Him in John 8:44 "you are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do". At the end, Holy God will judge everything by those eternal standards. At the judgment, when evil people learn there is an eternal standards of righteousness they will try to judge God back – Romans 3:4. They will try again to twist the truth. But Paul explains the Father will be justified in His judgments: “That the Father may be justified in His judgments, and overcome when God is judged back.” in Romans 3:4. At that point those sinners will have to admit they chose to keep sinning. God will show them when He offered them opportunities to repent, but they refused to repent. God will show them when He offered them repentance, and God will show them they understood the offer, and decided to reject repentance. That is exactly what Luke 7:30 says, “But the pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, refusing to repent and be baptized by John.”

This may surprise some Christians that the Father has some vulnerability to be judged because He went out to the edges of righteousness. How and why? Holy God allowed humans to see sins and taste sins, and feel the pleasures of sins, and feel the pains of sins. Then God helped us decide to hate sin and repent. Then God redeemed us through the blood of Jesus. The crooked Jewish leaders criticized Jesus, but Jesus' defense is in Matt.11:19 "But wisdom is justified by all her children". Jesus proved to those mockers that His ways are righteous, because so many sinners came to Jesus for salvation. That is why Luke 7:29 says “even the tax collectors justified God, having accepted the baptism of John.”

The Holy Spirit also verifies that the Father and Jesus are true and holy, because 1 Cor.2:10 tells us that "...the Holy Spirit searches all things, including the deep thoughts of the Father... Even so, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Holy Spirit of God". When the Holy Spirit performed miracles for Jesus - that was the Holy Spirit verifying that He knows and can prove that the Father and Jesus are holy. So do not worry about God being judged by evil people, because Romans 3:4 tell us “The Father will be justified in His judgments, the Father will overcome when He is judged.” So don't worry, God is safe, and God's Kingdom is safe forever.

Hebrews 12:24-29 says "Jesus is the Mediator of the new covenant... now He has promised saying, 'Yet once more I shake not only the Earth, but also Heaven.' Now this 'Yet once more' indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken... that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a Kingdom which cannot be shaken... let us serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire."

Revelation Describes About 40 Congregation Angels As Much Greater Than The devil

>> NOTE: We need to abbreviate Revelation with R. So Revelation 5:2 becomes R.5:2.

There are probably a billion congregation angels. Revelation gives us a description of 40 congregation angels. They are much greater and stronger than the devil. We feel safe in concluding that all billion of those congregation angels are more powerful than the devil. Revelation tells us what the 40 congregation angels will do, in the 7 year tribulation/Great Tribulation. The end of those 7 years in Revelation is also the end of human governments. The congregation angels will bring God's judgments to destroy the devil's rebellion. As we look at those Bible verses, we see the devil is powerless to stop them. The devil can't even slow down the congregation angels from ruining his rebellion, his final world government in Revelation. This Bible study describes 40 congregation angels and 18 cherubim angels that are greater and stronger than the devil. But we are sure all of the congregation angels are stronger than the devil. We believe there are a million or a billion more congregation angels greater than the devil ever was.

R.5:2 An angel announcing the Father is holding the inheritance scroll to take the Earth back from the devil, “Then I John saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and loose its seals'?' And no one in Heaven or on the Earth or under the Earth's surface; no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.” That strong angel's announcement caused an urgent feeling among all the saints to see if they can help to end the devil's terrors on Earth. It will cause all saints in Heaven to examine themselves hoping anyone can help. So John wept much because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll. It will become apparent to each of us standing near each other that none of us are worthy to take the Earth from the devil. But one of the 24 elders said to John "do not weep, behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the descendant of David has prevailed to open the scroll and to open its seven seals” (1 congregation angel stronger than the devil)

Rewards For The Saints In Heaven - Gold, Silver, Precious Jewels Or Wood, Hay Or Straw

We believe the angel's question in Rev.5:2-5 starts the "Bema Seat of Christ" described in Ist Cor.3:9-15. Notice John wept and wept because no one was good enough or worthy to take the Earth back from the devil, until Jesus stands as worthy. That tells us all saints will weep because we too are not worthy. What I expect is God will refresh each of our minds to remember every detail of our lives on Earth, the times we grieved the Holy Spirit by doing wrong, and the times when we quenched the Holy Spirit's promptings, by not doing what the Holy Spirit tried to get us to do. I'm sure John will weep less than other saints who have more failures. Each of us will deeply wish we had done more for Jesus. Please do as much as you can for Jesus, and know that all of us will wish we had done more for Jesus.

The Bema Seat Judgment is when Jesus rewards His saints for their life's work on Earth. The rewards in Heaven will be "gold, silver, precious stones, or wood, hay, straw". The good works done to glorify self are rewarded with flammables like wood, hay and straw. A great human effort done with the self glory motive or a wrong reason will get a piece of wood, but a slight kindness to glorify self will get a piece of straw. Likewise all great projects we did on Earth for Jesus with a pure heart, our greater works that glorified Jesus will get gold, but a simple kindness done with a pure heart will get a small jewel stone. Then "each ones quality of work will be revealed with fire. If anyone's rewards ... endure, he will receive that reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss: but he himself will be saved, yet as someone who survived a devastating house fire." Why do you do what you do? That is a good reason for a Christian to meditate and look at their motives. Get away from other people for a few minutes to think. People should look deeply into their motives: Why do I do what I do? If they see self glory, they need to repent and change motives, or quit doing that good deed. Jesus is righteous; all humans are sinners – that means all humans are sinners. We must glorify God as righteous, and never glorify humans because they are sinners. Ask God to help you see your reasons. Those saints who wait until Revelation 5 to examine their motives, might suffer painful losses that they can correct now on Earth.

R.6:1-12, As Jesus opens the scroll judgments, the four living creatures call John over to look at each vision playing in Heaven, to watch the devil's government kill 25% of Gentile Christians on Earth.

Seal 1 in R.6:1-2, the lion angel calls John over to see the vision of Earth's population voting to accept the anti-Christ as their “god”, and accept him as head of the world government. The devil will call his global plan to murder "peace and safety" - 1 Thess.5:3. The announcements will include that the Rome church will regulate and control all of the world's religions. They will be more evil than the govt. regulations do now. Rome is probably the world's capital for 3 1/2 years. God gives us His view of Rome “church” in Rev.17.

Seal 2 in R.6:3-4, the calf angel calls John over to see the vision of new laws or regulations that will stop most food options. The unsaved people will panic, they will steal and kill to get their neighbor's food.

Seal 3 in R.6:5-6, the human-faced angel calls John over to see more people are desperate for help to save them from dying by starvation, and health problems from low quality foods.

Seal 4 in R.6:7-8, the flying eagle angel calls John over to see that the devil's govt. and the Rome “church” had killed 25% of world population - the tribulation saints - by violence and starvation. And they are planning for their next step of world domination.

Seal 5 in R.6:9-11 the dead saints, all of those people the devil murdered, each of them are greatly distressed, they will gather together at the tropical reception area and compare stories about what happened to each of them. Then they pray for God's revenge on the anti-Christ.

Seal 6 Rev.6:12-17 Revenge comes as God shakes everything in the sky causing a massive meteor shower on Earth. The meteors cause devastating earthquakes on the Earth. The great earthquakes destroy most islands where many sins are done. Those earthquakes destroy the tunnels to the underground military bases where those murderers “hid themselves in the caves“. The great earthquakes will also destroy bridges that will be used for military transportation. The destruction includes TV and radio broadcast antennas and cell phone antennas and power lines, because the devil will use those systems to spy and control population control and to communicate evil commands with false info to all the citizens on Earth. That meteor shower will also create powerful winds a little later. Those winds will continue to obstruct repairs of the devil's communication systems for a long time. (4 cherubim angels stronger than the devil)

That ends the first half of the 7 year treaty between the anti-Christ and Israel's rulers. The treaty allowed them to rebuild their temple, and they will have quality and honest Bible classes during that 3 1/2 years. They will return to the Feast and Festivals commanded by God in the Old Testament temple. And they will realize those ceremonies point to Jesus as the Christ.

In the first half of the 7 years, the devil had been telling people that he is the great “god”. But the devastating earthquakes in Rev.6:12-17 at the end of the first half are not from the devil. The people all around the world can see that the anti-Christ didn't want those disasters, but also the devil can't stop them. That will prove to the populations on Earth that there is a real God, and the real God is extremely greater than the devil. The only thing left for the devil to do to prove his greatness is for the devil to enter God's temple at the exact middle of the 7 years and pretend he is the real god. The devil will defile God's temple between Rev.6:17 & Rev.7:1. That defiling of God's temple will be intended by the devil to insult Jesus. That is why the Father gave the prophecy to Jesus in Matt.24:15 & Mark 13:14-15. But God the Father also gave parts of the prophecy that the devil will defile God's temple to Daniel 9:27 & 11:31 & 12:11, and to Paul in 2 Thess.2:4.

I want to give a brief summary of the anti-Christ during the 7 years, because it is so interesting. The anti-Christ and revived Roman empire will be a part of the seventh head of the devil's world governments (Tower of Babel, Chaldean, Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persian, Greek, Roman ending with the revived Roman empire as a fake church). Soon after the rapture in R.4:1-2 the revived Roman empire in R.6:4-8, they will get their thrills from murdering saints. R.17:6-8 "...drunk with the blood of the saints... and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus... when John saw it he was stunned ... you saw the anti-Christ was alive, then he is not alive, then he will ascend out of the bottomless Pit...". R.13:5-8, "mouth speaking evil things and blasphemies, and he was given permission to continue for forty-two months... blaspheme against God... His Name... His tabernacle, and those who dwell in Heaven." Again in R.13:3-8 "...his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast or anti-Christ, saying 'Who is powerful like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?' ... It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to murder them... All whom Jesus left on the Earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Lamb's Book of Life...". Those who get saved during the 7 years will hate the anti-Christ. We are told they will not worship him in R.20:4.

The 7 year world govt. will start organizing in Rome immediately after R.4:1-2, and the anti-Christ will promise to keep Rome as their headquarters. Their world govt. starts with Israel signing the peace treaty in Daniel 9:27 and the Jews start re-building their temple, while the Rome “church” and anti-Christ kill a 25% of the Gentiles during R.6:1-8. Just before the mid-point God will get revenge for the souls the devil murdered - R.6:9-11. That forces the devil/anti-Christ to prove he is great by moving to Jerusalem, and enter God's temple proclaiming himself as the great “god”. Then Jerusalem becomes his command center. The Rome “church” will kill him because he broke their agreement by moving his headquarters to Jerusalem. We believe the devil will present some type of argument that God accepts and decides to give the life and soul back into the anti-Christ. But God granted it with a worse consequence. The anti-Christ will blaspheme God, everything about God including the saints in Heaven. Lots of people will fall into believing the anti-Christ must be great. That will be a strong deception. At the end of the second 3 1/2 years the anti-Christ will be "thrown alive into Perdition" - R.17:8. The devil's agreement with God required the anti-Christ to be brought back to life at the mid-point, but at the end he will thrown alive into Perdition.

The people who love the world would not worship Jesus whose body died on the cross for our sins and then resurrected. No, they don't want the righteous Jesus. But when they rejected the real Jesus, they will fall for the devil's lies. They will worship the anti-Christ who murders so many people. Our advice to our friends, and the advice of billions of angels is this: give your life and soul to Jesus. Focus your life to live for Jesus only, nothing else. Do not miss the rapture in R.4:1-2, as described in 1 Thess.4:13-18 & 2 Thess. 2:5-12.

Bible prophecies are the greatest gifts the Father can give to His servants. When God gives one part of a prophecy to one of His prophets, the Father doesn't normally repeat that part of the prophecy to others. God gave all parts of the prophecies about the devil defiling God's temple to Daniel, to Jesus, and to Paul. That left nothing to give John between Rev.6:17 and Rev.7:1. Then God gave John the last piece, about the devil's blasphemy in Rev.13:6-7. The devil will blaspheme God in God's temple, speaking through the anti-Christ as described in Rev.13:6-7. There are many more examples of that rule about prophecies, but we need to continue on.

R.7:1,3 Immediately after those disasters at the mid-point, God sends four angels to temporarily hold back the devastating winds from the north, east, south, and west. The 4 angels prevent those wind disasters until the 144,000 are sealed. Then those winds will “harm the Earth”. The strong winds will make it hard for the devil teams to repair his systems of communication. (4 congregation angels stronger than the devil)

The devil will enter Heaven to accuse the saints before God - R.12:7. Michael and his army will remove the devil from Heaven forever. No more of the devil accusing the saints. (Michael and his army of cherubim angels are stronger than the devil.)

R.7:2 Another angel has God's seal, God's own personal seal marking a warning of protection for 144,000 Jewish male virgins, and many other saints. We believe there will be other saints who are sealed for the same protection. The 144,000 Jews will work directly with Jesus to evangelize the whole Earth. The devil is not allowed to kill the 144,000. They will complete the world evangelism with Jesus as described in R.14. There will be a large celebration in Heaven. (1 congregation angel stronger than the devil)

R.8 Seven angels who stand before God were given the 7 trumpet judgments to destroy the devil's world government. Another angel was handed the golden censer from the temple in Heaven, and he stood at the altar. He was given much incense that he should offer with the prayers of the saints. The 7 trumpet judgments damage the devil's world government offices and headquarters in Europe.

- Trumpet angel 1 sends hail & fire with blood burns I/3 of world’s trees, all grass.

- Trumpet angel 2 sends a burning mountain into ocean, I/3 oceans turned to blood

- Trumpet angel 3 sends sun burning hot & meteor poisons I/3 fresh water

- Trumpet angel 4 darkens sun, moon, stars I/3 painful cold air with blinding darkness

- angel announces woe, woe, woe = 3 woe judgments

( 1 congregation angel plus 4 of 7 congregation angels who sounded the trumpet judgments are stronger than the devil.)

R.9 - Trumpet angel 5, the devil gets the key to release his missing demons whom Jesus and the apostles captured. The devil doesn't know they will act a little different than he remembers them, because God commands those demon-possessed locust-scorpions: Do not eat grass, trees or anything green. Instead torture rebels for 5 months, but do not kill them. Those rebels will cry with great pains, and many of those evil people will get saved during that time. God's painful method will save people that you and I thought it was impossible for them to get saved, but God will do it.

- Trumpet angel 6 working with the angel in the golden altar commands the release 4 commander demons. Each of those 4 demon commanders were military leaders, one for the Babylonian govt, another for the Medo-Persian govt., another demon commander worked through Alexander the great for the Greek govt., and another commander demon worked with Roman govt. to conquer the world at their times. In Revelation 9 the 4 commanders will control 200,000,000 demon possessed horse-lions with vipers as a tail, they spit out fire and molten sulfur and acidic smoke from their mouth. They kill I/3 of the remaining rebels and seal them with sulfur because it will be many months before they get buried during the Millennium predicted in Ezekiel 39:11-16. ( 1+1+1 congregation angels stronger than the devil)

R.10 A mighty angel, his face is like the sun with a rainbow on his head and his legs are like pillars of fire with his voice like a lion. When he proclaimed God's victory over the devil's rebellion, the 7 thunder angels spoke. (1+7 congregation angels stronger than the devil)

R.11 Jesus assigned His favorite angel to reveal many parts of Revelation to John; he looks so much like Jesus that John will accidentally try to worship him in R.19:10 & R.22:8. That angel tells John to measure the tribulation temple. Chapter 11 comes at the right time in the Revelation time line. But the temple construction starts immediately after Israel's leaders sign the Daniel 9:27 treaty with the anti-Christ; that is also soon after R.6:1-2.

- Trumpet angel 7 reveals 7 bowl judgments to be poured out in R.16.

(Jesus' favorite angel + 1 congregation angel stronger than the devil)

R.12 God's assigned number #12 for Israel, but that is not on the actual time line for when Michael forces the devil out of Heaven forever. The devil gets kicked out of Heaven forever during Rev.7. But Rev.12:1-6 is where God gives us His summary of Israel's history in a fast-paced parable.

(Michael and his army of cherubim angels are stronger than the devil and his demons)

R.13 God's assigned number for the devil is #13, that is why God described the devil looking for his anti-Christ here in Rev.13. But the devil finds his anti-Christ immediately after the rapture in Rev.4:1-2. Then the devil will search over the populations, "the sand of the sea". That is when and where he finds his anti-Christ quickly after the rapture. The devil had to find his anti-Christ to make the phone calls to assemble his evil team of govt. leaders, maybe 7,000 evil business people. That must happen before he can start his world govt in R.6:1-2 and Daniel 9:27. I expect those meetings will happen in Rome. I also expect that Rome will be the world capital for the first 3 1/2 years.

( no holy angels)

R.14 All the saints celebrate the accomplishments of 144,000 Jewish male virgins because they completed world evangelism. That brings loud celebrations in Heaven. Then 3 angels fly across the Earth's sky (angel 1) proclaiming God's everlasting gospel as a final offer of salvation to the rebels who heard the 144,000 evangelists. Then (angel 2) another angel announces the fall of the devil's world govt. "Babylon is fallen". Then (angel 3) another angel announces God's severe judgment on those who worship the anti-Christ beast or get his 666 mark. (3 congregation angels stronger than the devil)

R.14:14-20 Then Jesus is sitting on a white cloud with a sharp sickle, an angel comes from Heaven's temple telling Jesus to go ahead and kill evil people. Then another angel also has a sickle. Then another angel from the altar has authority over fire on Earth. I don't know if this is the same as R.19:11-16 being told from another view.

(1+1+1 congregation angels stronger than the devil)

R.15 Now the 7 angels with the 7 golden bowls of God's wrath are getting ready.

R.16 Angel with bowl 1 poured it out, it poisoned all 666 marks, those with the devil's mark will see their mark become rotting human flesh like gangrene, with no clean water.

- angel with bowl 2 poured on all salt water to be stinky dead blood, all sea animals died

- angel with bowl 3 all rivers and springs became blood, the angel over the waters said OK

- angel with bowl 4 poured on sun to scorch men with fire, many blasphemed against God

- angel with bowl 5 poured out total darkness, also delivering severe pains not explained

- angel with bowl 6 dried up rivers for armies to walk across to fight Jesus at Armageddon

- angel with bowl 7 poured into the air, God proclaimed “It is done” while there were loud noises, thunderings, lightnings, an extremely great earthquake leveling all mountains, and very large hail stones killing many rebels. (7 +1+1 congregation angels stronger than the devil)

R.17, the devil's world govt. is totally destroyed (Jesus’ personal angel is still teaching John)

R. 18, another angel bright enough to light the whole sky, and with a loud voice announcing God's victory. (1 congregation angel stronger than the devil)

The end of all human governments happens before Rev.16:20, but Rev.17 and ch.18 gives us more details. God will shake this Earth in Rev.16:20 with the most devastating earthquake ever, "Then every island disappeared into the sea, and the mountains were not found. And great hail from the heavens fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent..." The final earthquake will ruin and flatten every building, mountain and island. That earthquake will make the evil people fighting mad at God. They will be so mad, even to the point of stupidity. They will want to war against Jesus as described in Rev.19:11-21. This might be a different battle than R.14:14-16. The war at Armageddon will be a slaughter of those people who are so evil that they become stupid. The saints following Jesus will not kill anyone, but Jesus will do all of those killings as a judgment against their lifestyle. That final event will be called the Battle of Armageddon. An angel calls all birds of prey to come eat the flesh of commanders, soldiers and their horses in Rev.19:17-21.

R.19, (1 congregation angel stronger than the devil)

R.20, another angel "having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand." That chain is different from the chains we know about, a different type of chain to lock up the devil, maybe a spiritual chain. (1 congregation angel stronger than the devil)

Next the elders will analyze the purity of life of each saint the devil killed during the 7 year tribulation-Great tribulation in Rev.20:4-6, "John saw thrones, and elders sat upon them, and judgment authority was committed to them. Then I saw the souls who had been beheaded for their witness for Jesus... who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his 666 mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years..." King David will be the king on the Earth, Ezekiel 37:24-25. God gave most of the Millennium prophecies to Isaiah, so God didn't repeat those details to John, except Rev.20:4 "And they lived and reigned with Christ for 1,000 years.”

During the Millennium Jesus will have a great temple on Earth, while the Father remains in Heaven. Isaiah 2:2 describes a change before God starts the millennium. That temple will be made in Heaven during the 7 years of tribulation/great tribulation. At the end of those 7 years God will send a terrible earthquake in R.16:17-21, that will level out every mountain and sink every island. While Jerusalem will become a larger elevated mountain with a large flat area on top for the temple. The Millennium temple is mentioned in Rev.14:15-17 & 15:5-8 & 16:17. What I expect is that Millennium temple will be finished in Heaven during the 7 year tribulation. Then after the 7 years God will move that temple down to Jerusalem during R.20:1-3.

Jesus will be the visible during the Millennium, and bring swift consequences predicted as "a rod of iron" - R.2:27, swift to punish all sins immediately on those persons or animals. Isaiah 11:1-5 describe the power of the 7-fold Holy Spirit through Jesus. Here are clips from Isaiah 11, "The wolf shall dwell with lambs, the leopard shall sleep beside the young goat, the calf and the young lion dwell around each other and a little child will lead them, the cow and the bear shall graze on grass, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, the nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the vipers den... for the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord..."

R.21 & R.22 describe the eternal city New Jerusalem. Jesus' personal angel continues to explain things to John. This angel has been teaching John. Please take time to read R.20-21, most of it is easy to understand. The only part that isn't clear is "the walls were adorned with twelve foundations, with all kinds of precious stones..." The New Jerusalem is a cube structure about 1,400 miles long, 1,400 miles wide, and 1,400 miles high. The original Greek measurements were called "twelve thousand furlongs". But the New Jerusalem is also a super-large 12 story structure of foundations going up the walls. And have a look at how thick those walls are. There are many beautiful surprises in those 2 chapters. Jesus promised each of us a home there in John 14:2, but the word is usually translated mansion. Jesus promised a home for each of His children. That home will be yours forever in Luke 16:11.

We get a valuable clue on where the place of torment will be in Rev.14:10. The subject of the passage is a warning that God will punish those who accept the devil as their god in the 7 years of tribulation. But we can learn "...they shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever..." We don't know where, but it must be visible to Jesus' throne and where holy angels will see. That place might be under God's court yard area. The unholy angels, the angels who sinned will be in that Lake of Fire.

We count about 40 congregation angels that will help God take back the Earth from the devil. All of them are stronger than the devil. We know that because the devil could not stop any of them from delivering God's judgments. The devil boasted that he wanted to rule over the congregation angels in Isaiah 14:13 "I will exalt my throne above the other stars of God. I will also sit on the Mount of the Congregation..." We can see the congregation angels would never allow the devil to be an authority over them as Lucifer boasted in Isaiah 14:13.

There Are Two Types Of Angels With Several Classes Of Angels Among Them?

The newest angels are the cherubim angels, the plural of cherub is cherubim. The cherubim class of angels are mentioned about 90 times in Scriptures. Their work is mostly or directly involved with the Earth, including the worship of God from people on the Earth. I took an educated guess at how many cherubim angels God made; based on both judgments in Rev.9, I approximate that God created about 5 or 6 billion cherubim angels at creation. That number isn't exactly right, but it gives everyone a working number to see God's hand. Revelation 12:4 tells us the devil and his commanders convinced or tricked or forced 1/3 of those angels to join their rebellion. We approximate those angels who fell to be less than 2 billion demons. Then Jesus locked up about half of them in the Gospels. We see less than a billion demons are released in both judgments in Rev.9.

The holy cherubim angels, and evil cherubim angels are both highly complex societies consisting “...of dominions... principalities...” powers, in Rom.8:38, Eph.3:10, 6:12, Col.1:16, 2:15. On the devil's side “we wrestle... against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age.” The cherubim class of angels are powerful and very diverse in appearances. Some evil people decided to insult those angels by making pictures of cherubs as babies. Those mockers will suffer the condemnation of Hell, because they bring God's judgment upon themselves, if they don't repent.

The top level of cherubim angels, the strongest and greatest cherubim angels are directly and only under God's authority, because they provide God's transportation in Ezekiel 1 & 10 & Isaiah 6. We believe they are among the cherubim angels because they are involved with God's transportation to Earth which is almost 6,000 years old. We can show proof there are 12 cherubim angels directly involved in God's transportation. But that is probably a total of 16 cherubim angels directly under God's care, when we include the 4 living creatures around God's throne in Rev.4:6-8.

The next cherubim leader: we started with the most powerful, going down the list to Michael “the archangel” in Jude 1:9 & 1 Thess.4:16. We approximate Michael to be the 17th or 18th most powerful angel among the cherubim. We know Michael the archangel is slightly more powerful than Lucifer, who is now called the devil. We see Michael struggles then wins against the devil in Jude 1:9 after Moses died. But also in Rev.12:7. What will happen is in the exact middle of the 7 year tribulation the devil will enter God's tribulation temple and proclaims himself as “god”. That is the final sin when the devil has completely violated every assignment he was given in Gen.1. Then the devil will enter Heaven to make more accusations against the saints, but Michael will cast the devil and his angels out of Heaven forever. Even though Michael is stronger, there seems be a little work for him to win against the devil in Rev.12:7. We just listed 17 cherubim angels that are more powerful than Lucifer/devil.

A note to all humans: in 2 Chronicles 32:21 we see that even the cherubim angels are very powerful, and they can be deadly, such as when it was God's timing to kill the Assyrian military leaders. “The Lord sent an angel who cut down and killed every mighty man of valor, leader, and captain in the camp of the king of Assyria.” When the Father tells those cherubim angels to do something, they have the power to get it done.

We know many of the cherubim commanders ride horses. When the Father came and got Elijah “suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire”. Then another time in 2 Kings 6:17 “behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha”. Then another time in 2 Kings 7:6-7 the Syrian army was ready to attack Israel, until they heard God's cherubim with horses, but they did not see the angels. The Syrian military went into a panic and quit their attack on Israel. About 22 years ago, I myself saw four large white angels on angelic horses holding long spears pointing upward, and I saw a few more angels standing beside them. They looked like men with the glow of angels while standing there. So we know some or many of the cherubim angels do not have a horse or chariot, but they also get God's work done. Those horses are probably some type of angels too. We believe there are a few more designs of cherubim angels, but we need to move along.

Next we want to see the description of those 16 cherubim angels who are greater than the devil. They travel with God, Ezekiel 1:4-21 describes God sitting on His travel throne being carried by cherubim. “…a whirlwind was coming out of the north... and brightness was all around it... like the color of amber ...they had the likeness of a man. Each one had four faces and each one had four wings... each had the face of a man... the face of a lion... the face of an ox... the face of an eagle... they sparkled like the color of molten bronze, under their wings were the hands of a man... their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches back and forth... The fire was bright, and out of the fire went lightning... ran back and forth in appearance like a flash of lightning... I heard the noise of their wings.” Those cherubim angels are also called "living creatures" 9 times in Ezekiel 1.

A description of the other top cherubim angels, as described in Ezekiel 10:2-17, “Each one had four faces, the first face was the face of a cherub, the second face was the face of a man, the third was a face of a lion, and the fourth was a face of an eagle... the cherubim appeared to have the form of a man's hand under their wings... were full of eyes all around... the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even in the outer court of the temple... each one had four wings”. Those angels are called "living creatures in Ezekiel 10.

Then in Isaiah 6:2-6 we see angels called seraphim. We believe they are included in the cherubim class, among the 16 we talked about, "each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another saying 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole Earth is full of His glory! And the posts of the temple door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the temple was filled with smoke..." We believe they are among the cherubim angels, and maybe the greatest of cherubim.

Here are the similarities we see between those angels; (A) In Ez.1, these cherubim are also called living creatures 9 times, " four wings... four faces... face of a man... face of a lion... face of an ox... and face of an eagle." (B) Then Ez.10 cherubim also called living creatures 3 times, "four faces... face of a cherub... face of a man... face of a lion... face of an eagle". (C) Then Isaiah 6 angels are called seraphim, but not called living creatures, "six wings... saying holy, holy, holy" (D) Then in Rev.4:6-8, the angels are also called "living creatures" like the cherubim angels in Ezekiel 1 & 10. The seraphim worship of God in Isaiah 6, "Holy, holy, holy" is similar to the worship of God's glory as the 4 living creatures in Rev.4:4-6 "saying; Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who always existed, He exists as God now, and will exist forever as God." Those 16 angels are directly under God's personal authority, not under Michael the archangel. Those angels are similar to each other with slight variations; that is why we guess they are among the cherubim angels and probably included in the seraphim class. But they are different from the congregation angels described in Rev.5:2 to ch. 20.

Michael is the next authority in the cherubim class, he is assigned to watch over Israel in Daniel 10:13, 21 & 12:1. Those verses also prove Michael is slightly stronger than all of the fallen cherubim angels. Jude 1:9 tells us the devil wanted to dig up Moses’ body after he died at the end of Deuteronomy. The plan was to get Israel to worship Moses' body as a “god”, but Michael stopped the devil.

Gabriel is another famous cherub angel; God trusted him to deliver great prophecies in Daniel 8:15-27. And it was Gabriel again in Daniel 9:21-27. That prophecy Gabriel delivered to Daniel was a long-reaching prophecy reaching to the end of the 7 year tribulation-great tribulation. We believe Gabriel is not as strong as the devil because he needed Michael's help in Daniel 10:13, but he is stronger that most of the cherubim angels. In this Bible study, we have tried to be as accurate as we can be; but there is a chance I have some slight errors. I'm sure God will teach me more details in the years to come, and we will be excited to update this info at the right time.

The Fall Of Lucifer Into Pride And Sinning

Both passages - Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 - start with God judging the evil kings who decided to make the devil their “god”. Then both passages shift from God judging that evil king, to God telling the prophets Isaiah (I) and Ezekiel (E) about the fall of Lucifer. We skip the first few verses in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 because those evil kings are dead and gone. They are not a problem to humans anymore.

Bible Text (I) in Isaiah 14:12-16 “For you have said in your heart: "I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will also sit on the mount of the congregation, on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High God. Yet you shall be brought down to Hades, to the lowest depths of Hell.”

A Closer Look At Isaiah 14:12-15

(I-a) "For you have said in your heart". Lucifer made his final decision to rebel against God, but he didn't get a chance to say his five "I will" boasts to God, he firmly decided to rebel in his heart, that condemned him and God used fire to chase him/them out. That final decision happened in his dwelling place called sanctuaries. This is also where some of his high level angel commanders shared their secret ideas on how to win against God. Lucifer couldn't see up through the privacy "clouds" into Heaven; and they couldn't hear any sounds from Heaven, so they thought God couldn't see or hear down through those "clouds". Lucifer didn't know that God saw and heard everything when they planned their rebellion.

(I-b) "I will ascend into Heaven". All of the cherubim "sanctuaries" are below the cloud line; they were not in Heaven. They dwell below Heaven. Lucifer boasted he was going to "ascend" his throne up higher on God's Holy Mountain, up into Heaven, the north end of God's Holy Mountain. The devil was planning to demand the right to "ascend" his dwelling up into Heaven.

(I-c) "I will exalt my throne above the other stars of God." Those "other stars of God" are the old "congregation" angels. They live in the north, above the "clouds". That is another evidence that those "stars of God" are not cherubim class angels because they dwell above the privacy clouds. What did Lucifer want? Lucifer was already nearly the highest commander of the cherubim angels, but he wanted to exalt himself above "the stars of God". Those congregation angels are much older than Lucifer, they are much stronger, and they also have greater maturity after millions of years of spiritual growth. In Revelation, we see the congregation angels also have more of God’s glory on them than the cherubim class of angels. Lucifer/devil had no chance of ruling over the congregation angels. They remained righteous; he became evil.

(I-d) "I will also sit on the mount of the congregation". We need to realize God's Holy Mountain is a large mountain range of large mountains. God gave those "congregation" angels their own mount. It is built on God's Holy Mountain, but it also stands out of God's mountain slightly lower than God's dwelling place on top, and that mount is large enough to contain dwelling places for millions of congregation angels. Both (I-c) and (I-d) are similar, Lucifer planned to demand from God to be allowed to move above "the stars of God" and "sit" as ruler on the "congregation" mount. Lucifer wanted to move up there and "sit" as an authority over them. Lucifer didn't know much about the "congregation" angels because they dwell above those privacy clouds. Those congregation angels are much more powerful than cherubim angels, as we see in Revelation.

We need to notice that word "sit", because it means God has a throne among those congregation angels to "sit". That "sit" is more than an authority throne to God, because God can rule them from His throne on top. That throne to “sit” on is also a fellowship throne. That is what our God did for millions or billions of years. Their fellowship was such high quality that God didn't need any more friends. After their maturity was accomplished, then God made the Earth and new angels. Those congregation angels are so great that they are partners with God in Revelation to destroy the devil's rebellion. There is no evidence that any of those congregation angels ever sinned; they remained holy even while Lucifer was rebelling. Spoiler Alert - we will be friends with those congregation angels in the New Jerusalem forever - Revelation 21-22.

(I-e) "On the farthest sides of the north". The top half of God's Holy Mountain is called north. The placement of the “congregation” mount is on the "farthest sides of the north" of God's holy mountain. Some Bible teachers use that verse to tell us that God's throne room in Heaven as "north" of the Earth. This verse isn't talking about that. This verse is telling us that the mount of the congregation is on the top half of God's Holy Mountain, the north end of God's Holy mountain. But we can also find proof that God dwells north of the Earth in Ezekiel 1:4. God's chariot came like "a whirlwind was coming out of the north". And in Isaiah 40:22 "it is God who sits above the circle of the Earth." So we also know God dwells north of the Earth.

(I-f) "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds". Those clouds are thick for privacy, and they are about half way down God's Holy Mountain. The new angels were young and immature; they were not mature enough to see that much of God's glory. Those privacy clouds were a big irritation and humiliation to Lucifer; the clouds were a barrier to his pride. Those privacy clouds also provided innocence to the lower worker angels. So they hardly ever saw God with their eyes for themselves. We plan to see more about the lower level worker angels later. The final and most stupid boast from Lucifer came next.

(I-G) "I will be like the Most High God..." That is impossible; God is the Eternal God and All Powerful Creator. Those powers define God as Almighty God. God has always existed. God is self contained and self maintained by His holiness. Only God can give the breath of life; angels can't create life. Holy God doesn't need anything because He is perfect. Holy God has never sinned. But angels were created; all of their talents and strengths are limited. It is totally impossible for an angel to be like Almighty God. Angels can only be in one place at a time, and angels can't create atoms and molecules from nothing. Angels cannot hold atoms together, and the fallen angels will not be allowed to unmake their molecules when they are in the Lake of Fire forever.

(I-h) "Yet you shall be brought down to Hades, to the lowest depths of Hell.” God didn't create the place called Hades in the first six days of creation, because sin and death didn't exist. God planned Earth to endure forever. The other planets were for man to explore in the future, and some of those planets had conditions suitable to support life, but those helps were destroyed the day mankind fell into sin. That day the curse of sin ruined almost everything. No one was ever going to die, so eventually people would have needed to expand to those other planets. That changed with the curse of Lucifer's sin, and with Eve’s and Adam’s sins. But after Lucifer sinned and while he tricked the humans to sin, that is when God created Hades in the heart of the Earth with two parts - Paradise and Hell - Luke 16. Then God told the devil and his commander demons this judgment: "you shall be brought down to Hades, to the hottest part of Hell". I have just been told that this Bible study has encouraged some of the holy cherubim class angels who see spiritual storms coming. It encourages them to hold their positions in the spiritual storms ahead - 1 Peter 1:12 & 1 Cor.4:9.

God's Word gives us more info about their eternal torment in Rev.14:10-11: "...shall be tormented with fire and molten sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever..." And Rev.20:10 "The devil who deceived them, was cast into the Lake of Fire of molten sulfur, where the anti-Christ and his false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." But where is that Lake of Fire? The Lake of Fire is in the future after their judgment to decide how much punishment each demon gets - 1 Cor.6:3. It will be somewhere inside the New Jerusalem or inside the core of the new Earth, and that torment will be forever. All we really know is that it is in the presence of God and the holy angels. That will be in the future, not yet.

We have a description of Hell in the heart of the Earth. Right now the place called Hades – the place of the dead – is in the center of the Earth. Hell is the torment side of Hades. In 2 Peter 2:4, God describes that place as "Hell... chains of darkness, waiting for their final judgment". Back in Gen.6:2, God condemned the demons who violated God's laws about angels mating with demons. Those demons are being held in "chains of darkness". Yes the lower area is 'hot as Hell', but not like the Lake of Fire will be.

Bible text (E) in Ezekiel 28:12-18 "Thus says the Lord GOD: you were the seal of perfection, given great wisdom and perfect in beauty; you were in Eden, the Garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and emerald with gold. God's workmanship of your timbrels and pipes were prepared for you on the day you were created; you were the cherub anointed by God to protect the Earth. I established your authority; you were on the Holy Mountain of God, I protected you from fire as you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones; you were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of trading secrets against Me, you became controlled with violence within, and you sinned. Therefore I cast you out as a profane thing, out of the Mountain of God; and I destroyed you from the midst of the fiery stones; your heart was lifted up with pride because of your beauty; you used the wisdom I gave you, to exploit your splendor. I cast you down to the Earth, I humiliated you before kings, that they might gaze at you; you defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquities of your trading secrets against Me. Therefore I brought your angel fire from within you, it scorched your beauty, and I turned you to look scorched upon the Earth in the sight of all who you show yourself to."

Ezekiel 28:11-19 is loaded with life changing truths to explain the evil events we see on Earth. If you look at the NKJV text, it looks like the translators were playing grammar tricks to capitalize "you" as if to imply the devil is god. Both passages destroy the devil's glory. The devil and demons harassed the translators trying to trick or force poor word choices, while they translated this passage. The demons have tried several times in my life to demand that I capitalize devil, satan, or the word “god” when used in reference to idols and false gods. I refuse to give the devil any glory, and I have power from Holy God to protect me from those demons. Lucifer was perfect from God's creation, so we honor God's perfect work with a capital L in Lucifer.

(E-a) "Thus says the Father". The Father wanted you and me to know these truths.

(E-b) "you were the seal of perfection, given great wisdom and perfect in beauty". Lucifer was among the cherubim angels that were created on the first day, "son of the first morning" - Is.14:12. And God said "it was very good" in Gen.1:31. God gave him strong wisdom so he could be Earth's protecting cherub anointed by God. During the days of creation, Job 38:7 tells us "all the sons of God shouted for joy". They were all fascinated to watch God create everything from nothing. Those celebrations included the congregation angels and the new cherub angels; they all "shouted for joy".

(E-c) "Every precious stone was your covering". Those stones God gave to cover Lucifer's body are still used for jewelry today. Sardius stones are clear red, and topaz looks amber yellow, and diamond is clear white, and beryl looks like clear apple green, and onyx looks opaque white with other colors mixed in, and jasper can be clear or opaque white or another soft color. Sapphire is clear royal blue, and turquoise is an opaque green-blue, and emerald is a clear medium green or dark green.

(E-d) God used advanced metallurgy to hold those stones together with flexible gold, or gold with flexible joints. Why did Lucifer need a covering to hide his body? Move on - don't answer that question - but be warned the devil and demons are very sensual; they drive the porn industry and other perverted entertainments. The obelisk is a sexual boast from the devil. All sexual sins are inspired by evil spirits. All sexual sins are at war with holy God. That is a war which demons and humans will lose.

(E-e) "God's workmanship of his timbrels and pipes were prepared for you on the day you were created". God built musical instruments into Lucifer's body; that is more advanced than human vocal chords. And God also gave him musical wisdom to make worship music and lead the world in worship music to God. The devil led the angels to worship God, while watching God finished developing the Earth and the other galaxies. The devil still has those musical talents, but he uses them for evil. Have you noticed that sinful music can be so captivating? Have you noticed the devil knows how to draw a crowd to concerts listening to sinful music?

(E-f) "you were the cherub anointed by God to protect the Earth". Ouch! The devil was supposed to be our protection, and we were to be God's sheep on Earth forever. Our protector Lucifer became evil and deadly. Now each of us have to find God's protection. God has rewards for those who overcome evil. In the end, God will make all saints to be "...kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the Earth." Our reign with Jesus - 2 Tim.2:12 - will be for 1,000 years on Earth as described in Rev.5:10. Then forever in the eternal city New Jerusalem in Revelation 21-22, "the tabernacle of God is with man, and God will dwell with them, and they shall be God's people... God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain... The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it... there shall by no means enter anything that defiles... Blessed are those who obey His commandments, that they may have the right to eat from the tree of life..." Lucifer fell to become the devil, he sold his soul trying to become “god”, and in the end, he will lose every thing.

There will be nations outside New Jerusalem in Rev.22:2. I, myself, believe many Church Age saints will sit on thrones ruling the nations outside. It would be like it is now in that we go to work on Earth then go home - Rev.3:21. We will work with Jesus to rule those nations. Rev.3:21 - “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne.” That doesn't say Jesus will get a larger throne so we can all sit next to Him. Instead "sit with Me on My throne" means there are many other thrones with Jesus' authority. We will be assigned different thrones to rule those nations for Jesus. What Lucifer lost in authority and leadership, God promised to His saints in Matt.25:19-29 and Luke 19:12-27.

(E-g) "I established you; you were on the Holy Mountain of God". On the human level, when God allows someone to become a Christian leader, they feel God's power and blessing on them, and they can almost feel invincible. God needed to allow that grace so a pastor can try different ministry ideas to find what works and what doesn't work. God gave ministry power and authority to Lucifer. God intended for Lucifer to learn how to lead humans in spiritual growth. Lucifer felt God's blessings, so he also felt invincible with God's blessings. Lucifer also had a prominent and prestigious dwelling place in their sanctuaries; then Lucifer decided to use those blessings to do evil. Note: if God ever establishes you in the ministry, you will feel God's power and blessings; use those blessings to learn to do ministry. Do not abuse those privileges. Lucifer rejected God's authority by rebellion and lost every thing. That is the Law of Unintended Consequences, or the law of Unexpected Consequences.

(E-h) "you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones". Deuteronomy 4:24 says "For the Lord our God is a consuming fire..." Below the clouds half-way up God's Holy Mountain, the “sanctuaries” are made of fiery stones. We plan to look at more details of God's Holy Mountain later.

(E-i) "you were perfect in your ways ...until iniquity was found in you." God made him perfect, "the seal of perfection". There was no reason to fall, they had everything good, but Lucifer and those commander demons were greedy, and willing to cheat and steal.

(E-j) "By the abundance of trading secrets against Me, you became controlled with violence within". Lucifer and his top commanders were trading secrets in their sanctuaries. They were looking for any weaknesses in God's leadership. They could see God is "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control." Gal.5:22. They only saw God as nice because God had no reason to be tough. Jesus tells us in John 8:44 that "Lucifer was a murderer from the beginning." That implies they wanted to kill God, but it is impossible to kill God. The only part of Jesus that died at Passover was Jesus' human body. Lucifer and some of his top commanders did all their planning in secret, and they probably whispered to be extra safe, so God couldn't hear them as they planned their evil rebellion below the privacy clouds. There are many dwelling places for the cherubim angels.

There are many worker angels among them, the worker angels were not a part of those planning sessions. They didn't help plan the rebellion, but a third of them were coerced to join the rebellion. An important point is those angels/demons dwelt below the clouds; that means the worker demons had limited knowledge of God. They have some ignorance and innocence in their knowledge of God, ignorance that they didn't sin against.

(E-k) "and you sinned". Lucifer theorized about evil in his thoughts and decided to jump into what he knew was wrong, so Lucifer and his rebel buddies whispered ideas back and forth, then leaped in - "and you sinned". God teaches that being tempted to sin is not a sin. We see the devil was talking to Jesus tempting Jesus to sin, that was not a sin. Jesus answered no to the devil by quoting Scripture and commanding him - "Away with you satan" - and that was the end of it.

(E-l) "Therefore I cast you out as a profane thing, out of the Mountain of God". As soon as there was sin in Lucifer and those commanders, God removed His fire protection from them. God used the "fiery stones" in their sanctuaries to "cast" them out as "profane" like evil trash.

(E-m) "and I destroyed you from the midst of the fiery stones". The beautiful stones started looking scorched, and that heat forced them out of their sanctuaries. That beauty was visible evidence for all to recognize his authority, but now it's scorched forever. Those jewel stones lost their beauty. The devil worshipers who see the devil, paint their pictures of him as a goat looking scorched and damaged by fire.

(E-n) "your heart was lifted up because of your beauty". Jesus did the opposite - He came into the world that He co-created; but He came in looking not so pretty, a common baby. The proper reason the people should follow Jesus was His spiritual godliness as the promised Messiah. "There was no beauty that we should desire to boast about Him" - Isaiah 53:2. Jesus did that so people didn't follow a good-looking Man. Many popular leaders also think of themselves as handsome. Paul taught in 1 Cor.1:26 "...not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has used the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise...". Warning, we need to be humble in heart like Jesus' Be-attitudes explained.

(E-o) "I cast you to the Earth, I shamed you before kings, that they might see you as rejected" God's judging the devil destroyed the beauty he boasted about. There are devil worshipers who have seen the devil; they paint his picture as a scorched goat look.

(E-p) "you defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities". God's Holy Mountain originally felt totally pure to God, until the devil and his commanders sinned. We believe the holy cherubim angels still dwell in the sanctuaries, but not in the section where Lucifer and his evil commanders dwelt. That tells us why God will destroy His Holy Mountain at the end of time, probably as Peter talked about in 2 Peter 3:10-13 and as John prophesied that destruction in Rev.21:1, "the first Heaven and the first Earth had passed away."

(E-q) "the multitude of your iniquities, by the multitude of trading secrets against Me". The words "trading secrets” indicates that a group of commanders helped plan their rebellion; and there were several of those meetings.

(E-r) "therefore I brought fire from within you, it devoured you". Silas tells us in Hebrews 1:7 what God says about His angels: He "makes His angels spirits and His angel servants a flame of fire." God also used "the fire from within you" to scorch even more of the devil's beauty as he was cast down to the Earth. Jesus tells us in Luke 10:18 "I saw satan fall like lightning from Heaven." That fire from within them scorched the devil and his commanders all the more as they fled. The devil and his demon commander demons still fear the pains of Hell. Another interesting note: we learn from Revelation 12:10 that the devil can and does still go up to Heaven to present accusations against the saints. God made a temporary spot for the devil to keep doing some of his assignment, until his final sin of pretending he is “god” in the temple at the middle of the 7 year tribulation. Then that temporary spot in Heaven will end; "nor was a place found for them in Heaven any longer." That temporary spot in Heaven where he can stand will be removed.

The Congregation Angels Are More Powerful That Lucifer

In Revelation we saw that the congregation angels are much stronger and more glorious than Lucifer was before he decided to rebel. We already explained from Revelation that the congregation angels will deliver God's judgments to ruin the devil's world government, but the devil is powerless to stop them. The congregation angels will help Jesus take the Earth from the devil in Revelation. Those angels are so great and their friendship with God is so close to God, that in Rev.14:15-16, the Father uses one of the congregation angels to relay a message to Jesus”: “...to thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap...”. Their activities in Revelation confirm that God has a strong friendship with those older angels. There is no evidence that any of those congregation angels ever sinned. But many of the new angels took advantage of their God-given authority. Paul explained the danger about new Christians becoming pastors in 1 Tim.3:6 "...lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil."

The Law Of Unintended Consequences Ruined The devil's Rebellion - Everything Will Fail

Everything Lucifer and his commander angels planned to gain from becoming evil before they rebelled, has failed. That spiritual law is called the "Law of Unintended Consequences". Angels may option for sins, but holy God decides the consequences because God is the Creator and Judge.

(1) Lucifer and his commanders planned that they could role play as the “god” over creation. But fallen angels are still just angels with limited power, limited mobility, limited knowledge, and very limited eye-sight because they can only be in one place at a time. But the fallen angels now have even more restrictions. God won't allow them to use their angel powers, to prevent them from doing lying wonders. If a demon could give a sinful temptation, and then perform a magical trick, they could fool lots of people. Why? Jesus sent the gospel into the world with signs and wonders listed in the Gospels. If demons could do magic, they would do tricks to make their false teachers look miraculous. That is what they will do during the 7 year tribulation. There are normal physical limits on fallen angels such as limited eye-sight, because they are still only angels. That explains why the devil is forcing all governments to accept and cooperate with spy systems of microphones and cameras, and why the devil requires all spy systems to be able to send their information to any location in the world, when they are told to. It will be much worse after the Church Age is finished. The programs forcing all of those cameras and microphones to be hidden in electronics is being driven by the devil and demons. God allows you to pray against them.

(2) Before Lucifer and his commanders fell, they knew God was preventing them from knowing about evil. God resisted them from doing evil by giving them holy fear. But they thought their lack of knowledge of evil was keeping them in holy fear of God. No, wrong and wrong. So they believed as soon as they rejected God's leadership, they would be free from holy fear and become wise. That is also what the devil told Eve in Gen. 3:5 "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God knowing good and evil". The devil told Eve and Adam that he thought his rebellion gained him knowledge of evil, and that it got rid of holy fear. But he was in a temporary eclipse of holy fear while he ignored a holy fear of God. Then, while the devil was believing his lies and tempting Eve, at the same time God made the place called Hades – the place for the dead in the heart of the Earth with 1/2 of it featuring the "Pit" of fire. Then after the fall of Eve and Adam, then God announced to the devil his judgment. When it is time God will punish them, "Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit." - Isaiah 14:15. The devil and his commander demons already experienced the fires of “fiery stones” and the fires within them when they had to flee from their sanctuaries, as we already described. And they still feel the heat when they visit Heaven to accuse the saints. The devil and demons can't forget or get away from that message of terror, that is why James 2:19 says, "you believe there is One God. You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble." Soon after their rebellion started, God gave the devil more fear with the dread and terror of eternal fire. They know it is a guaranteed judgment. So God's holy fear came back on them, but not as fear; now it is absolute terror.

(3) Before Lucifer and those cherubim commanders fell, they calculated that the humans would sin if they were tempted. But they believed humans would automatically follow them and copy their same evil. Instead each human became their own self gratifying rebel, like a self-absorbed selfish maniac. Sinners are focused on their wants as the devil had expected. (4) Another big loss as it turns out: almost no one wants to worship an evil devil and his evil spirits, because those demons might kill the human worshipers unpredictably. Who would worship a murderer like the devil? (5) That human fear of demons gave unintended consequence about devil worship, it forced the devil to change the definition for devil worship. The devil expected large numbers of people worshiping them. Instead, devil worship became a collective group of rebels, each rebel doing their own favorite sins next to each other as a group; so many different sins are collectively considered devil worship, if they do their sins in a group. The devil and demons are very sensual and murderous, so devil worship often includes sexual sins and the murder of innocent animals or people.

(6) Lucifer and his commanders could not predict that holy God would love His creation so much that He, God, would care to redeem us. The devil and those commander demons could not predict or imagine holy God would humiliate Himself to become a human. (7) It was obvious to the devil before they started that holy God would not reduce Himself to live like a human. They never expected that holy God would live among us, and then holy God would take our condemnation on Himself to die in our place. 8) Lucifer boasted that he wanted to rule over the "congregation" angels - Isaiah 14:13. Instead those angels know him and them as rebels. The congregation angels will be glad to work with God to destroy the devil's rebellion during the 7 year tribulation - Rev.6-20.

(9) Lucifer sold his soul to become “god”; he will get what he sold his soul for; to pretend he is
“god” over the Earth. But holy God limited the devil's rule to seven years, not forever. That 7 years also becomes the end of all human governments. We think that will be great for humans, because the devil corrupts all human governments anyway. We will be glad when human governments are finished forever. Note: we have an obligation and duty to God to resist evil during the Church age. The Holy Spirit moves His children to oppose evil deeds in 2 Thess.2:7. So when you oppose evil, you partner with God and you become part of fulfilling prophecy, so God will reward you in Heaven. The Holy Spirit will continue opposing the devil until the Father tells the Holy Spirit to step aside as described in 2 Thess.2:7, and let them do their evil deeds.

(10) The devil and demons are spirits; that means humans can't see them. That problem continues into the 7 year tribulation. But starting at Rev.4:1-2, the devil will need a human body to talk directly to humans. The devil will need to talk to the evil people who help build the world government. Their solution is to find an evil human for the devil to dwell in. That would almost make the devil almost like a human and be almost visible to humans. (11) But another problem is the devil does not have the people skills to rule all the people in the world. Those killing urges are still a bad problem. So the “devil-is-god” approach would fail badly. Instead the devil needs help; he will not be in absolute control of the anti-Christ and the anti-Christ will rule the world for him. Obviously the devil will pick an evil and devious person, a person who is clever enough to pretend he is “the Christ”. Then the dragon will give to the anti-Christ “his power, his throne, and great glory..." in Rev.13:2. Before the rebellion started, the devil wanted to be “god”; now he already knows he doesn't have those skills.

(12) We can be sure the devil has already been preparing some evil people to be his anti-Christ. But at Rev.4:1-2, Jesus will kill some of the devil's choices to be the anti-Christ. That judgment is hinted by the words "then the lawless one will be revealed" in 2 Thess.2:7. At Rev.4:1-2, it will be time for the devil to pick his anti-Christ, so they can get ready to start their world govt. for 7 years, starting at Rev.6:1-2. Another verse that proves that Jesus will kill some of the devil's top picks to be the anti-Christ is in Rev.13:1, because the devil is having to search for someone among "the sands of the sea" to be his anti-Christ. We know the devil already has his favorite evil people, but the problem is that Jesus will kill them for their devil worship at the rapture in Rev.4:1-2. That is why the devil will have to quickly find someone to be his anti-Christ immediately after the rapture in Rev.4:1-2.

Another verse that explains that Jesus will kill those devil worshipers at Rev.4:1-2 is found in 2 Thess.2:6 saying that he is "to be revealed in his own time". God will not allow the devil to start his world govt. until "his own time". Their devil worship is the deciding factor that brings Jesus' judgment on them at Rev.4:1-2, because the devil is already trying to reveal those persons as his anti-Christ, "many false Christs". (13) During the 7 year tribulation, the devil possessed anti-Christ will partner with Rome to kill millions of saints during those 7 years. But those he kills wrongly will be brought back to life to reign with Christ for 1,000 years in Rev.20:4. True Christians from the Church Age will be like the angels working for God on the earth. But those who get saved in the 7 year tribulation will live as humans in the 1,000 year Millennium of Jesus on this Earth.

(14) The devil pretends that God gave the Earth to him, as he told Jesus in the Matt. 4 temptations: "for this has been delivered to me..." But the truth is that God didn't give His Earth to Lucifer. Instead Lucifer was assigned to protect the Earth. It is God's Earth, so God has the requirement to judge the sins on the Earth. (15) Another problem is this world is cursed from sins; because of the devil's sins and the human’s sins. Sins brought a curse on this Earth in Gen 3:17, “cursed is the ground for your sake”. This Earth that the devil claims as his, will be destroyed by God's judgment as we are told in 2 Peter 3:10, "the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with a fervent heat; both the Earth and the works that are in it will be burned up... the heavens will be dissolved being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat.” God will let the atoms and molecules fly apart. Silas tells us about atoms and molecules in Hebrews 11:3 "that the things which are seen were made of things not visible". Paul told us in Colossians 1:16-17, Jesus is eternal. “All things were created through Him and for Him... and in Him all things hold together.". Jesus made all atoms and molecules, Jesus holds all atoms and molecules together. At the end, 2 Peter 3:10 tells us Jesus will quit holding the atoms and molecules together. Every thing will burn like a nuclear melt-down.

Atheist scientists have searched the pieces of atoms and molecules looking for dark matter, looking for something inside between the nucleus and the flying electrons. They hoped the gravity of dark matter inside each atom could explain what holds atoms and molecules together. But their experiments with atom smashers has proved that dark matter doesn't exist. Now atheist scientists are afraid that a nuclear melt-down could happen at any time because nothing is holding atoms together. They are right that it can happen, but they are wrong because Jesus will hold every thing together, until it is time to quit holding every thing together as described in 2 Peter 3:10-12. When those scientists couldn't find 'dark matter' inside atoms and molecules they went into a panic. Some of those scientists realize there is an All-Powerful God holding everything together, “because God has shown it to them.” as Romans 1:19 explains. That freaks them even more to know God is All Powerful, and they are at war with Him.

But some of the dishonest scientists made up a fictional math formula to explain what dark matter could do for them, if it existed. They are making science-fiction. Would someone please tell those scientists they have calculated the power God spends holding each and every atom and molecule together in all of His creation. If they calculate their formula times how many molecules there are in each galaxy, they might be able to calculate the daily work load of Holy God, as one part of God's daily work.

(16) Rev.12:3-6 tells us about so many times the devil tried to ruin the Jews to stop the human body of Jesus, the devil was and still is trying to stop God's final judgment against him and them. The Old Testament tells of so many sins and personal ruin of many Jews, because the devil instigated many Jewish leaders to self-destruct by sinning. But nothing can stop God from completing his promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob-Israel; nor can they stop their final judgment.

(17) Another point about the atoms and molecules is this: after Rev.4:1-2, which many Bible teachers call the rapture, the devil will tell people that the rapture with Jesus was an alien invasion. The devil will tell them the missing people were captured by aliens. John was so excited about the rapture that he added a note in Rev.1:7"...every eye will see Jesus, even the Jews..." But we believe that after the rapture the devil will tell everyone through his TV and radio messages, that the rapture was an alien invasion. (18) I also believe that during the 7 years, the devil will be building many nuclear weapons to use against Jesus in Rev. 19:14. The devil will use the nuclear weapons from different armies around the world to launch his final war against Jesus. That will be his last desperate effort to kill Jesus, as if nuclear weapons might kill Jesus. No, the devil was wrong every time; those nuclear weapons will do no harm to Jesus or the saints who follow Jesus in the battle that ends the devil's rebellion. Jesus made the atoms and molecules, and Jesus holds them together in Colossians 1:16-17. So how could atomic weapons hurt Jesus? They can't.

(18) Lucifer and his commander demons thought; as soon as they forced lower level angels to leave God that those demons would automatically do evil things just like the devil and his commander demons planned to do. No, that rebellion against God was not their plan. I believe some worker angels in the cherub class were forced into that rebellion because they lacked the insight and wisdom to avoid the rebellion at all costs. Even now those commander demons are brutal in trying to force lower level demons to do more evil things. But many of those lower level demons are trying to avoid doing any more evil - Luke 8:27-33. That is why so many demons were hiding in people and getting nothing done of the devil’s demands, like those in Mark 5:9.

(19) In the end, the devil will lose every thing he sold his soul for. The devil has lost every step up until now, and the devil will lose that battle which is still to come. The devil gained nothing by his rebellion, but instead he lost everything he had. Why do humans think they can gain anything from doing sins? Evil and sins ruin everything they touch. Amen.

God's Holy Mountain - We Find some Details of God's Heaven From Lucifer's Five Boasts.

Here is a list of 6 interesting destinations on God's Holy Mountain. (A) God is at the top of His Holy Mountain. (B) There is a large court area at the top of God's Holy Mountain. (C) There is another mountain below God's dwelling area; it is called the “mount of the congregation”. All of that is called Heaven, the north side. (D) Then half-way down God's holy mountain is a thick cloud barrier to block the view of the new angels wishing to look up into Heaven and see God's close friendship with the older angels. (E) The “sanctuary” is still the dwelling place for the “cherubim” class angels. That is where satan and his demon commanders lived until they sinned. That is called “sanctuary” (F) Below, there is a lush tropical area at the bottom of God's Holy Mountain. That is the receiving place for many new arrivals going to Heaven. The tunnel of light ends there. We are sure many Christians want to know more about Heaven. These notes are the best I have found so far. I could be slightly wrong in minor parts of this description. But I don't think so, I believe these details are correct or very close, with enough info to be helpful to most Christians.

This is a general description of those destination on God's Holy Mountain. (A) We can get a picture of God our Father in Rev. 4:3-5 & 5:6, “behold a throne set in Heaven, and the Father sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald...” The most notable feature in Heaven; the Father Himself is sitting on His throne in Heaven. The Father looks like a jasper stone, maybe transparent with a slight coloring, and with the look of blood red like a sardius stone. Also “in the midst of the elders stood a Lamb as though He had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the Earth...” That is Jesus, the "seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of God" is another proof that our God is One God. There is another representation of the Holy Spirit showed through the “Seven lamps of fire burning before the Father's throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.”

(B) Our God has His court yard at the top of God's Holy Mountain in Rev.4:6, “Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal...”. In Rev.15:2 “I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire...” God's courtyard is like molten crystal mingled with fire. Exodus 24:17 says it this way, “The sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain...” And Silas said in Hebrews 12:29 “our God is a consuming fire.” What does God's court-yard look like? Have you ever seen molten glass? It is fascinating to see the soft red glow of melted glass. But God's courtyard is crystal also mingled with fire. And on that sea of crystal in Rev.14:2-3 “I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps...” Of course in Heaven we will be protected by God from the molten heat and infrared light. There are many more fascinating details happening at God's throne as described in Rev. 4 & 5; that is exciting to read. God's throne is the real grand central station in the universe. We personally are planning to spend quality time at God's throne in Heaven watching in awe. Maybe we should think of God's Holy Mountain as a large mountain range including a large volcano, because God's holy mountain is cool and pleasant at the bottom but fiery hot at the top. Another feature in God's courtyard is the temple in Heaven mentioned in Rev.14. My best theory up to now is this: During the 7 year tribulation, God will build the Millennium temple in Heaven, Rev. 14:15-17, 15:5-8, 16:1+17. You will get a more realistic picture of Heaven if you add lots of light and dazzle to your mind's picture of Heaven. Words can't explain Heaven as it truly is.

An Experiment Someone Might Like To Try at Home. Find a piece of clear glass, maybe the size of 2” or 3” take it outside and set it on some dry sand, then gradually heat the clear glass with a propane torch. Pick a shady area or evening time, so you can see the soft glow of melting glass. Make sure you heat the glass evenly or it could shatter and send pieces of glass flying in all directions. You might want to wear sun glasses as safety glasses to also protect your eyes from the infrared light. That will give you a hint of what God's courtyard floors look like. God has a very large court yard.

(C) The “mount of the congregation” is another mount standing on God's Holy Mountain, but also standing out from God's Holy Mountain. We should think of God's Holy Mountain as a large mountain range. That mount is a large area where the “congregation” angels dwell in Heaven. Maybe there is a million congregation angels, but it might be a billion congregation angels. We know this; there were enough congregation angels to keep holy God company for millions or billions of years. The devil also called those angels “the stars of God”. There is a throne there to “sit” on, the devil said “I will also sit on the mount of the congregation, on the farthest sides of the north.” The devil's words tell us God has a throne there to “sit” on when He visits the “congregation” angels. That "sit" is a fellowship throne, because God can rule them from His main throne. The word "sit" indicates the closeness we see between the Father and the “congregation” angels. When it is time, the congregation angels will be glad to help God destroy the devil's final world empire. They see the devil as an evil rebel.

(D) “the clouds”. Isaiah 14:14 quotes the devil saying “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds”. Those clouds are a thick privacy barrier to prevent the young immature cherubim angels from watching God's throne room and watching the mount of the congregation. We see more details about those clouds in Rev.4:1 “a door standing open in Heaven”. That “door” must be an open doorway through those clouds, that door was opened for John to go in and see Heaven. But that is prophetic for when the Church saints go up through that door in Rev.4:1-2. Then we see those clouds open and also the Earth's sky open again in Rev.6:14 “...the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up... ” Then those murderers in Rev.6:1-8 will see God's angry face in Rev.6:16-17 and say to the rocks "kill us to hide us from the face of the Father who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb”. The only way those rebels can see the Father's angry face, and the wrath of the Lamb, is it requires the Earth's "sky to recede...” but also the cloud barrier between Heaven and the sanctuary must get rolled away too.

(E) The sanctuary dwelling place for the cherubim is a very large region below those clouds; it is the dwelling place for the “cherubim” class of angels. It is immediately below the privacy clouds. There were probably about 5 or 6 billion cherubim angels created with creation. Jesus explained about the guardian angels for "these little ones... their angels always see the face of My Father...". Jesus explained that there is a guardian angel for each one whose name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The only way we can explain how those guardian angels can always see past those privacy clouds is they were given better eyesight than the other cherubim angels.

If all of the cherubim angels had a place to rest in the sanctuary – they would require a very large area. We expect all of the cherubim angels had their own place before Lucifer fell and took 1/3 of the cherubim angels with him. The "sanctuary” is described in Ezekiel 28:14, “...you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones”. The “sanctuary” is made with “fiery stones”. Lucifer and his commanders were safe and protected from the heat until they sinned. Then they had to flee as fast as possible.

(F) There is a lush tropical area on the Holy Mountain of God as described in Rev.6:3-11 and Rev.7:9-17. I believe it is at the bottom of God's Holy Mountain "under the altar". If you are an emergency room nurse and if you have had some patients die, then you resuscitated them back to life; you have probably heard some patients tell you they saw a 'tunnel of light' after they died. While they were dead, some of them went to this tropical reception area, until you brought them back. That tropical area is a prep area for those who are almost ready to enter Heaven, but they died without finishing their salvation covenant. That tropical reception area has been in use since Jesus' resurrection 2,000 years ago. If any of our friends have personal experience on this subject please give us a brief explanation that you learned.

Why Do Some Christians Die Earlier Than Normal?

Through several decades I have searched into why God decided to take the human life of various Christians, earlier than expected. I wanted to know how to prevent my end of game before it is my time. What I have found is every Christian that I had enough details to analyze, I found that they were starting to quit fighting evil. When a human quits fighting evil, they start drifting backwards and maybe sampling sins they knew were wrong. God preserved what rewards they did have. And God prevented them from ruining their life. Here on Earth, almost all humans can only see and think about their life on Earth. But God is looking at the eternal picture for each person. God wants to fill His Kingdom of Heaven with winners, not failures who came to the end of their life destroying their testimony. If wanna-be-Christians are willing to serve Jesus, they need to oppose God's enemies against their own soul, and in the evil world around them. If you have had a loved one die early, whether young or old, you need to trust that God knew when it was their time. Likewise for our own life; trust God for your life and death. We all need to know God loves us in truth, and God is wise beyond measure. God uses His wisdom for our good. Jesus trusted the Father for excellent reasons.

What Is Biblical Salvation?

First – salvation is a covenant between a sinner and Jesus. Near the end of Jesus' ministry on Earth, He started teaching New Testament Church doctrine. We can find the word "covenant" many times in the Old Testament, and we find “covenant” in the New Testament too. One key subject is given at the Last Supper in the upper room at the Mark family's home. In Matthew 26:27-28 Jesus "took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them saying 'Drink from it, all of you for this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins..." We find similar wording in Mark 14:24, "This My blood of the new covenant ..." And we find similar wording in Luke 22:20, " This cup is the new covenant in My blood..." And we should not forget the Last Supper was at the same time many Jewish families were celebrating their Passover Supper.

Salvation is so simple that a convicted Roman criminal hanging on a cross next to Jesus can get saved in a few hours, and he completed his salvation covenant with one prayer. But the important details are in the whole story; he was already convicted as a sinner in a Roman court, he was suffering deadly punishment knowing he was going to die that day, and then face God's judgment. That thief on the cross realized that Jesus was holy God and did not deserve any judgment. That thief on the cross already rejected the mocking from the other criminal on the other cross, and he rejected the crowd mocking Jesus below them. He had already decided to live the rest of his life for Jesus. Yes, he completed all of those essentials for salvation in a few hours, his short prayer to Jesus saved him.

But when a wanna-be-Christian in America prays the sinner’s prayer, their life situation is very different from the criminal on that cross. God can lead a wanna-be-Christian through all of the essentials of salvation, if they are serious about getting saved. The big difference is the wanna-be-Christian in America is going to keep living many more days and years. They will continue facing many more of life's decisions, and making decisions every day to live for God or live for themselves. Are they going to learn to live as crucified with Christ in Gal.2:20, or are they going to get off of God's altar and live for themselves?

Eternal salvation is so simple that a child can get started on their journey to salvation. But there are many requirements that child will have learn, and then learn to agree with Jesus. I prayed the sinner’s prayer when I was nine years old, but I had many wrong ambitions in my life. Then I drifted away from God like a normal kid in America. I had no idea about how to reject my favorite sins. But God is faithful. When I was 17 and I was causing trouble at work, I saw trouble coming and I cried out to God for mercy; God heard my cry. I promised to live for Jesus if He would protect me from my troubles. God rescued me, and I learned to keep my promise to Jesus. I had already learned at 17 that I was ready to live or die for Jesus; that was included in many of my prayers.

But there were other missing parts in my salvation covenant that I didn't know, and I wasn't ready to obey yet. I wasn't secure and absolutely sure of my salvation for another 25 years. I learned from the good and bad sermons. During those years, I listened to radio preachers daily trying to learn the spiritual lessons I was missing. God showed me what parts to value in those sermons, and God helped me see what is wrong with the other parts of those sermons. I know for sure there are many Americans who go ask a pastor what are they missing, and they feel something is missing during those years. That must be a frequent question to pastors. Now remembering back, some of those hard years were to finish my prophet's training. Even so we should tell the wanna-be-Christian to buckle into your Christian life, keep learning to walk in newness of life, do not turn away, do not give up. Give your heart and life and soul to Jesus. We have found about 21 Biblical truths necessary to complete the salvation covenant.

Most Church people you and I know today are not focused on living for Jesus with all of their heart and life, and they have little knowledge or concern to finish their salvation covenant; so it doesn't look like they will finish their salvation covenant before Jesus comes back in Rev.4:1-2. Many theologians call that event the rapture. Jesus warned all wanna-be-Christians in Luke 21:36 “Watch therefore and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all of the tribulation that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” That warning is especially directed to the saints living near the end of the Church Age; if they do not finish their salvation covenant before the rapture, they will be left here at the rapture. But I'm sure Jesus will tell them what they are missing. Then they will wish they had escaped those disasters and a violent death by beheading - Rev.20:4. Jesus warned His disciples to be vigilant in their faith. Urge your friends to get serious about Jesus' teachings and avoid being left here after Rev.4:1-2.

Let us look at Luke 21:36 again in a different way; look at it as an 'IF–THEN PROMISE from Jesus. IF a wanna-be-Christian will pray always that Jesus will make them ready to escape all of those tribulation disasters. IF the wanna-be-Christian asks Jesus to get them ready to “stand before the Son of Man”, that is Jesus Himself, THEN Jesus will make them worthy to escape the disasters of the tribulation and Then Jesus will also make them ready to stand before Him. Then they are also ready to go up to Heaven in Rev.4:1-2. But I didn't know about that IF-THEN PROMISE many years ago. Instead I prayed Rev.3:18 many times. I asked Jesus to give me trials and troubles to sell me that “gold refined in the fire”. Yes, I knew that was bringing many hard times into my life. I prayed that prayer many times. And I also asked God to provide me “white garments” to make me pure and clean. I prayed many times for God to sell me “eye-salve” so I could see the evil things around me.

Please, please pray for your spiritual growth. Jesus is a Perfect Gentleman. Jesus will not force you to go through a hard training you will reject. You must ask for the tough lessons, or those lessons do not come, and you will not be ready for Rev.4:1-2. If the aggravation of those lessons makes you cry sometimes, find a safe place to cry and ask Jesus to help you, and keep on going. I know those lessons made me a great Christian. It might take a wanna-be-Christian 15 or 20 years to finish the training; but do it, go ahead and get started. Those saints who do finish their salvation covenant here also win the "crown of life" in James 1:12, and probably the "crown of righteousness" in 2 Tim. 4:8. SPOILER ALERT - There is nothing on Earth that is of any real value. If the wanna-be-Christian was honest when they asked Jesus to be their Lord and Savior, then they will not reject Jesus' teachings. I know that I have many treasures in Heaven including gold. That is funny because we don't care much about gold and silver down here. But we do love Jesus, and we do want rewards in Heaven. Say Amen.

How Does The Salvation Covenant Work? Can They Reject Some Truths And Still Be Saved?

Humans cannot save themselves; they must ask Jesus to save them. You and I already understand some covenant principals: if someone wants to buy a house, they must accept and complete all of the requirements, or they do not own that house. Most American's think the sinner's prayer saves their soul, because American Church members have very little knowledge of what Jesus requires to start and finish their salvation covenant. A sinner's prayer helps them get started by praying to Jesus, and they admit to Jesus they are sinners, and that sinner's prayer asks Jesus to forgive them, and that prayer helps them start claiming Jesus will be their Lord and Savior, or Master and Savior.

We have found about 18-21 parts or elements of the salvation, each piece is necessary to complete their salvation. Jesus is the perfect Gentleman; He does not reject them for what they don't know. Instead that sinner's prayer starts their conversation with Jesus. Over the next few years, Jesus will arrange real life teaching situations for them. Sometimes those teachings will come from a verse they heard or read; and while they try to think and understand that verse, then Jesus will press upon them that they must believe and obey that verse. They must not reject any of Jesus' truths. But some of the other teaching situations will come from an excited friend who is sharing their heart as they rejoice in a truth they just learned; then Jesus will impress upon the wanna-be-Christian they must believe that truth, and embrace that truth, and not ignore that truth. Some times the teaching situation will come when the wanna-be-Christian does something wrong; then Jesus will show them a Bible verse that explains the sin that brought them trouble.

When you and I study the 4 gospels, we discover Jesus' teaching emphasized many requirements for salvation, with a warning if they reject it. We found 18-21 requirements, but we separated some of them into two points for special emphasis, so our list has 21 requirements in this Bible study. As we look at these truths from Scripture, each of these truths prove to be essential. Each of these requirements have an exclusion statement; if the wanna-be-Christian resists or rejects any of those requirements, it temporarily blocks the completion of their salvation covenant. We need to save space on this list, so we simplify the wanna-be-Christian with the words - *They*, *their*, and *them*. It still means wanna-be-Christians, but shortened to save space.

(1) *They* must start their journey by faith only, “For by grace you have been saved through faith” - Eph.2:8-9. The salvation covenant between God and *them* is by faith only. Then 1 Cor.2:5 explains "...that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." The transaction of a salvation covenant is by faith. But that saving faith, "is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God to prevent any human from boasting." Saving faith requires a stronger faith than humans have. That quality and strength of faith is given to *them* by God. That spiritual law about saving faith exists because God will not allow any humans to boast about how strong their faith is, so by faith is how *they* got saved. The level of faith needed for saving faith is beyond any human's ability. Our sins make us completely incapable of the required level of saving faith. But what is impossible with men, is easily possible with God's help - Matt.19:26.

(2) *They* cannot add human good works to their salvation covenant: “for by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified...” Rom. 3 & 4. We need to warn *them* that trying to add their good works to save them, also rejects God's free gift. Instead *their* good works makes another sin that God must judge, and God must punish. As soon as a human tries to do a good work, while *they* do their good works, *their* sin nature puffs up to tell *them* how great *they* are. *Their* human pride also ruins their good work, so *their* good work becomes another sin against *them*.

(3) *They* must learn to have a heart like a child to trust Jesus, not following *their* clever ways. Jesus told His own disciples “...unless you are converted and become as little children, you will be no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven” Matt.18:3. A child knows they are helpless to save themselves from trouble in life. A child knows their dad or mom can protect them from disaster. *They* need to see that only Jesus can save *them*.

(4) *They* must repent to get started. Luke 13:3 says, "but unless you repent you will all likewise perish." Repent is when a person comes to a stop on their sinning spree; *they* realize how wrong *they* have been, then *they* confess their sins and ask Jesus to forgive them. Then *they* seriously try to quit doing the deeds *they* know are wrong. Peter preached in Acts 3:19, "Repent therefore and be converted to Jesus, that your sins may be blotted out..." But Jesus explained *they* must continue in repentance of sins. Jesus was ready to wash Peter's feet, but Peter tried to stop Jesus, so He told Peter, “If I do not cleanse you, you have no part with Me” - John 13:8. That explains the importance of 1 John 1:9. This world is evil, and we do step into things we should regret. Confession is admitting that we know we did something wrong, and we need Jesus to fix it.

(5) Before *they* get started, *they* need to realize that holy God must punish all sins in Hell, Rev.20:11-15, or on Jesus' cross. Paul explains in Romans 3:16 "God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ." And Jesus explained it another way in Matt.12:36, "I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgment." There is a spiritual law in Matt.12:34, that our mouth reports what our sin nature is planning or wanting. That is why we become guilty from what our mouth says. So when your mouth says something wrong, it allows you to hear what your sin nature in trying to do. God has scheduled a very detailed judgment on the unsaved in Rev.20:11-15.

(6) *They* must believe Jesus' blood paid for all of *their* sins on the cross. And *they* must receive forgiveness by faith. The contract of salvation doesn't get a signature, instead the heart's promise becomes our signature. When we admit that we can't save ourselves, but instead want Jesus to save us or we will be lost forever – that is the right faith. In Acts 20:28 - "...the Church of God which Jesus purchased with His own blood." In Romans 3:24-25 - "... being justified freely by Jesus' grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom the Father set forth as sin's payment by His blood through faith". Then Romans 5:8 "...while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the Father's wrath through Jesus." In Ephesians 1:7 "In Jesus we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins..." In Col.1:12-14, "Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Jesus has delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of the Son... in whom we have redemption through Jesus' blood, the forgiveness of sins." Our faith is like the handshake with Jesus, that seals the agreement. Our faith signs to make our agreement with Jesus.

(7) *They* must learn to forgive those who have done them harm as Jesus explained, “If you do not forgive men their trespasses against you, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matt.6:15. Again in Mark 11:26, "...but if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in Heaven forgive your trespasses." Explain to *them* that forgiveness does not put the offender back at the same level of trust. The victim must keep their eyes watching the offender. If the offender ever gets back to a level of trust, it must be earned by their honorable behavior, not forced. Tell them; do not confuse forgiveness with trust. Instead *they* must give up their right for revenge to God, not themselves.

(8) *They* must believe that God made the worlds in 6 days as God wrote with His own finger in the 10 Commandments, Ex.20:11 "for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the Earth." Then God explained more about the Sabbath in Ex.31:17, "for in six days the Lord made the heavens and Earth.” The god of evolution does not exist. So the “god” of evolution can't save anything. But belief in evolution insults the All Powerful God; evolution blasphemes the real God and calls the real God “a liar”. Evolution is a fairy tale for mockers. *They* must believe that God is All Powerful; but a fairy tale “god” can't do anything.

(9) *They* cannot love God and also love the world's sinful pleasures; "...for all that in the world, the lusts of the flesh, the wants of possessions their eyes see, and pride of their worldly success, is not of the Father but is of the world... the love of the Father is not in them” - 1 John 2:15-17. James, the half brother of Jesus said, "Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world's sins is enmity with God?" That is a tough lesson to learn. Before we got saved, sins and pleasures were the only thing we thought about. Instead *they* must learn to love Jesus, not the evil things of this world. The only thing *they* did was *they* loved the sins of this world. The Christian life is the opposite. *They* must unlearn what they learned as a Gentile pagan. If *they* truly started a salvation covenant with Jesus, *they* will be learning "do not love the sins of this world". 1st John 3:3 identifies a genuine disciple of Jesus, "everyone who received this eternal promise in Jesus purifies himself just as Jesus is pure."

(10) Salvation requires *them* to forsake the covetousness of money which is idolatry” - Col.3:5. Paul warned "For the love of money is a root for all kind of evil... some have strayed from the faith in their greediness for money, and have pierced their heart through with many sorrows" - 1 Tim.6:10. That command against covetousness of money requires spiritual growth, learning to obey. Yes, money is necessary to pay the bills. But *they* need to treat money as necessary to survive. *They* must not use their money to get sinful pleasures instead of as a necessary tool.

(11) Salvation cannot go any farther forward until *they* accept and obey 2 Cor. 6:17, “ ‘Come out from among the world's sins and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty”. That step of obedience, to live separate from the sinful pleasures of the world was a monument in my life. That obedience was the difference from night to day in my life. The trees looked greener, and the bird’s songs were sweeter. I told many wanna-be-Christians about my experience for many years. But even still, after I learned that lesson, my spirit inside me told me there were more essential lessons I needed to learn.

(12) *They* must trust their life and death to God's decision, not themselves. God protects the life of all birds until it is their time to die. Jesus explained, "sparrows... not one of them falls to the ground in death apart from the Father's will... the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” There is an essential element of faith and humility required to trust God with *their* life and death. Humans want to trust themselves, when humans trust their own tricks to protect them, they act their own “god”.

>> A side NOTE: That verse also teaches that our God has some type of special relationship with all animals too. There are many other Bible verses explaining God's relationship with animals. It would surprise Christians to see how many times God describes His relationship with animals. We cover that subject more in the Bible study called Silas Wrote Hebrews.

(13) The same lesson, but different: *They* must decide to be willing to die for their faith like Stephen in Acts 7:59-60. As Paul taught, “...if we deny Jesus, He will deny us.” - 2 Tim.2:12 And in Rev.12:11, “they did not love their lives even unto death”. We must hold to our faith, even if it will kill us. Do not deny your faith to save your life. Don't reject Jesus to save your human life. Accept God's time for our death, even if it comes sooner than we expected. That is an essential proof of saving faith. If we don't believe we have great blessing in Heaven, we will fight to stay on the Earth. Unbelievers fight death, because they believe they only have what they see on Earth. They have no faith in Jesus nor a home in Heaven, on the other side of life. But for a Christian, their death brings us into the loving presence of God forever. God's personality is, "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control." The unsaved persons do not believe or accept that teaching. They think death is the end of them, so they fight it with all of their strength, like a fish with a hook in its mouth.

(14) *They* must accept God's chastening for *their* sins. Heb.12:5-13, “But if you are without discipline... then you are illegitimate, and not sons.” I have watched a few wanna-be-Christians quit their faith, because of that chastening. They rejected God correcting them. They got afraid and refused to accept consequences for their sins. That rejection can and would make their faith illegitimate. God will correct all who are His children.

>> NOTE: there is a way to avoid the painful corrections, if we see when we did something wrong, if we see when we are wrong, and if we judge ourselves when we did something wrong. If *we admit to God right away when we see we were wrong, and if we firmly decide in our mind to never do that sin again, then no trouble comes to us as God promised in 1 Cor.11:31. "If we judge ourselves, we will not be judged". If we see we were wrong and decide to try to never do that again, our heart accomplished God's plan. The reason God chastens our sins is to teach us to never do that sin again, but if we do it again, God will allow us to suffer some trouble. So if you do something wrong, then realize it was wrong; and decide to try hard to never do that again. Then God's will was accomplished. No further trouble is necessary. Amen.

Most Christians will learn how to hear when the devil is requesting to kill them for that sin. But those Christians will also learn to sense that Jesus made some type of agreement to save their life, while teaching them a lesson. Another lesson I have learned is God really, really wants us to learn obedience in our human life. God allows the fear of pain or an early death to make us want to learn faster not slower. But God's love for us prevents Him from doing mean things to us. After the devil turned evil, then God turned the devil into a whip or paddle to teach us obedience. Did God know in advance that the devil would decide to become evil? Yes, so that teaches us that God knew if/when the devil turned evil that God could use that outcome for our spiritual growth. God gave Lucifer the authority to judge or accuse sins from the start. When that plan is completed, the devil will finally ruin himself by pretending he is “god” in the middle of the 7 years. Then Michael will fight against the devil and his demons to cast them out of Heaven forever. This is an advanced Bible study covering deeper teachings that explain the tough things in life.

(15) Some people are always looking for new truths and new beliefs, without rejecting the false teachings. The conflict comes from liking previous beliefs that allowed *them* a wrong pleasure. Then, when *they* hear God's painful truth, *they* hold on to both wrong and right teachings. When *they* hold on to conflicting theories, *they* become confused. That is what conflicting beliefs do. So don't hold on to conflicting teachings. Many times the problem is that *they* are still looking for an easier religion, not God's truth. Paul condemns false Christians who are "always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." - 2 Tim.3:7.

Note: if you find yourself confused about several Bible truths, then get a paper and pen. Write down all of the theories you think might be true on the related subjects. Write all of those ideas on that paper. Then think through your notes to figure what is true and false. Then line through the parts you can see are wrong. That decision will allow you to find other false facts you must reject too. Keep the truths that give you holy fear to avoid sins; they are probably God's truth. But the beliefs that allow you some freedom to sin are false truths. When you find the false truths, go through your thoughts to remove and cancel the things that go with the wrong truths. If you do that correctly, you will resolve the confusion. If you still feel some confusion, then repeat the process. The 2nd time is better, because you already got rid of some confusion by making your 1st list. You will always find that God is more holy than you originally thought, and that is a great rule to help analyze your thoughts.

(16) If *they* love false teachings, if they decide to keep false teachings, it might be evidence against their salvation that they don't have saving faith. *They* must learn to value God's painful truth, not happy and easy ideas. So instead *they* fall for “...heresies...” Gal.5:21. But Jesus explained for believers in John 16:13, the "Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth." Paul explained, "For the time will come when Church people will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have ears itching to be flattered, they will gather for themselves flattering teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth, searching for flattering stories." 2 Tim.4:3.

(17) *They* must receive that love of painful truth from God. God talks to everyone several different ways as explained in Romans 1:18-32, "revealed... manifest in them, for God has shown it to them ... they are without excuse... clearly seen..." God condemns those who reject painful truth as Paul explained in 2 Thess.2:10, “because they did not receive the love of painful truth, that they might be saved.” God's truth is painful, because we learn about our sinfulness, and we learn about God's righteous judgments against the unsaved, which brings eternal damnation. *They* must want to hear God's painful truths. *They* must receive that power from God to love painful truth's, instead of looking for happy lies that send people to Hell.

(18) *They* must learn not to spend God's grace on their pride. James 4:6, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Again in 1 Peter 5:5 "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." That pride has a siamese twin; pride and the pleasures of sin work together, and those sins must be rejected together. Most people can learn to feel God's grace, and *they* feel when God gives *them* more grace. It is an act of obedience to spend God's grace on obedience, instead of self and pride.

(19) “...ungodly men turn the grace of God into lewdness.” Jude 1:4. There is a group of people who said they wanna-be-Christians, but later changed their desire from Heaven to listening to demons tempting sexual sins and lewdness. Many, many pastors fall there too. Their fall started by listening to demons promoting greed for money. Another similar step is demons tempting them into sensuality. The next step is they bring sexual temptations into their sermons, "they speak great flattering words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the sin nature, through lewdness... while false teachers promise their audience liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption..." There is a more serious condemnation for those who heard the gospel, then later rejected the gospel. So that person who thought about becoming a Christian, would have been better off "having never known God's way of righteousness, than having heard the gospel and turned from God's Word". If you can refresh your mind in holy fear, do it right away. Think of your soul in an emergency room, and holy fear is the medicine. Peter gave a proverb about those who hear and think about following Jesus, but then later reject God's Word, "A dog returns to his own vomit, and a pig after being washed, returns to wallow in the mud." - 2 Peter 2:22.

>> NOTE: the part of the brain that can listen to God's spiritual sounds can also hear demonic voices and their temptations. *They* must choose between listening to Holy God talking to them, or listening to demons tempt them with greed and sensuality. It is the same part of the brain that hears spiritual voices. Their soul and that part of the brain will choose one or the other. Christians can also determine what type of person their pastor is by this: is their pastor secretly sensual? Then he surely isn't saved. The proof to your eyes is he has no power to reject the devil. The devil and demons are more powerful than humans. But those who give their life and soul to Jesus have God's Holy Spirit and His power in them. The Holy Spirit alerts them during evil temptations.

Note: God treats marriage as different. When a person gets married, their personal relationship with their marriage partner is included in their covenant with God, as Paul explained in Eph.5:22-31, and Silas said in Hebrews 13:4, "Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled..." Remember God created the body, and all of its parts. So when things are done in God's permissive will, it is considered righteous.

(20) *They* must believe everything they know about God's Word. They will never know everything about God's Word; none of us will ever know everything. Some of God's Word goes deeper than a common brain can see. But those deep truths are like hidden spiritual gold that give blessings to those who find their meanings. If *you* are seeking God, you will be trying to figure those deep secrets. Remember, the 1st soil in Matt.13:19 didn't understand God's ways, and he didn't want to understand - that evil attitude will condemn them. In a similar way, if a wanna-be-Christian decides to reject parts of God's Word, they are rejecting God Himself. They need to know 2 Tim.3:16 teaches "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness..." Therefore, if they reject any part of God's Word that they have heard and understand, they are rejecting God and blocking the finish of their salvation covenant. No one can separate God from His Word. Rejecting parts of God's Word is different from struggling to understand difficult passages and difficult concepts.

(21) “Those who love sons or daughters more than Me are not worthy of Me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.” A wanna-be-Christian must decide they really want to please Jesus more than making other people happy with them. When Jesus is first place, Jesus will press you to be a better marriage partner and a better parent. The other things in this life are less important, and things in this Earth are trinkets of this life; they are empty glitter. Jesus' judging words “not worthy of Me” are a condemnation of evil people, not a commentary about grace, like the common joke, 'God gives me more than I deserve.' No, instead those words “not worthy of Me” are a warning to wanna-be-Christians: God rejects half-hearted disciples, “I Am the Vine, you are the branches... If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” John 15:5-8.

We noticed some valuable words in the hymn "Love Divine, All Love's Excelling" because the 4th stanza is interesting for this topic, "Finish then Thy new creation, pure and spotless let us be..." Now I'm curious to know how many old hymns or new songs mention the completion of our salvation covenant? Maybe some day I can search for that subject in the old hymns. You might want to find that hymn and learn to sing it.

Please notice that each of those (21) points have an exclusion statement; that means that if a wanna-be-Christian rejects any of those truths, they can't complete their salvation covenant that way. They need to correct their wrong view. Our sin nature would prefer Jesus to be like the fictional Santa Clause. But santa doesn't exist even though his mythology is so popular. Most humans don't understand the difference between good and evil. Why are junk foods a billion-dollar industry? Please learn to reject that type of thinking, because it will hurt you, not help you. We need to tell ourselves that eternal righteousness is not able to change or alter those requirements. Many wanna-be-Christians have found Bible truths they didn't like; we all have to learn not to reject any Bible truths. If they have any truths they rejected, they need to ask God to help them fix it. If they ask Jesus to help, Jesus will help them. But the challenge is at the same time we must learn to reject false truths. They need to ask God to help them see if they believe any errors like that. If they ask Jesus to help them find any errors like that, Jesus will keep teaching them different views of their error, until they get it.

Some of those 21 promises take some learning to change attitudes. Salvation covenant requires lots of time and focus to complete. Some wanna-be-Christians died before they finish learning to obey all of these essential truths. So what happens to them? If they seriously want to be saved, if they were working on their salvation covenant, God will still help them finish their salvation covenant on the other side, after they die. THINK ABOUT IT, what are God's options? God can't accept a wanna-be-Christian into Heaven before they have a completed salvation covenant? No, but the love of God will not reject those who truly made a pledge to Jesus asking to be saved, and are trying to grow. God's Word teaches, "a bruised reed Jesus will not break" - Matt.12:20. Jesus will not destroy those who were learning to put all of their faith in Jesus. Instead their faith is precious to Jesus, and Jesus will help them complete their salvation covenant. We have found that answer in Rev.6:9-11 combined with Rev.7:9-17. God made a tropical reception area to solve that problem.

Jesus explained eternal salvation as a narrow way to a narrow gate. It takes a wanna-be-Christian a few years, maybe 15-20 years to accept those truths, with the intent to obey all that Jesus requires for a salvation covenant. But as long as that wanna-be-Christian wants to be listening to Jesus, Jesus will keep talking to them to teach them. Tell them, ‘don't give up’ and to instead ask Jesus to help them finish those requirements. If *they* ask Jesus to help them, Jesus will help them, as He promised in Luke 21:36.

The apostle John gives us many valuable reminders in 1st, 2nd and 3rd John. You will like 1st John 4:18, "There is no fear in love; but mature love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made mature in love." If you feel fear and stress in your heart, that indicates to you that God is still working on a few points in your salvation covenant. When you get to the right level of maturity on each of those points, you will feel at peace; you will be farther away from those fears. I find that I have plenty of peace. But the exception is when I'm working on a ministry project the devil hates. The devil will growl at you when you work on something he hates.

We know that each and every Christian must confess their sins if-and-when they do sin. That includes all older Christians, who must confess their sins; and they must continue confessing their sins until the end of their life. That was Jesus’ point in washing the disciples’ feet. When Peter wanted to stop Jesus saying, "You shall never wash my feet", Jesus' answer was an exclusion statement. Jesus' answer in John 13:8 is "If I do not wash your feet, you have no part with Me." The feet are symbolic to our walking and living in a messed up world. As you get more mature, there will be less sins to confess, but when it happens, the Christian must confess it to Jesus as sin, "For there is One Mediator between God the Father and man, the Man Christ Jesus." - 1st Timothy 2:5. Jesus is God, He is part of the Trinity and all 3 Persons are a team for our forgiveness and salvation.

Please don't make the confession of sins impossible for a young Christians to do. They must regret the sins they do remember. No one can remember all of the sins they did for the last 20 years. Question: Is that a disaster for their salvation, if they can't remember every thing? No. When a sinner is truly grieved over their sins – the sins they do remember – and when they are trying to confess their sins, God will help them remember any sins they must remember to confess. That confession proves they regret the other sins they can't remember. Jesus knows their heart. Here is God's promise in 1st John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all righteousness." Did you see it? God says, "and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." If we confess the sins we do know about, God will also cleanse us from the sins we don't know about, that includes the actions we haven't learned are wrong.

We know this subject is complicated for new Christians. Confessing sins is a 2 part agreement. If we obey part 1 to confess our sins to God, then God considers His part a righteous requirement for Him to forgive our sins, "God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." God is telling He will forgive us for the sins we confess, and also God will cleanse us from the other sins we can't remember. That is God's promise that He has taken them away and for gotten them. David explained in Psalms 103:11-12 "For as the heavens are high above the Earth, so great is God's mercy toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far God has removed our transgressions from us." Most mature Christians have learned that truth already, but we need to explain that to the young Christians. If they sincerely confessed their sins to God, they are gone forever. There is no right reason to confess those sins over and over again. But the devil tries to condemn Christians by reminding them of past sins, again and again. That is the devil trying to accuse the Christian again. The solution to that torment is knowing God has removed those sins forever. So believe God's promise to forgive you and stand on it. Get busy doing what you should do and ignore those evil spirits. Your faith allows you to ignore the devil and demon accusations.

Sometimes we hear a person trying to blame Adam and Eve for their sin problems. The best solution is to ask them if they ever did something they knew was wrong. Did *they* ever do something *they* knew was wrong, but they did it anyway. The answer is always yes. Then we explain to them that *they* did the same thing they blame Adam for. They need to quit blaming Adam and Eve; they need to blame themselves. Sin was very compelling for Adam and Eve, but they just admitted that sin was very compelling for them too. We should praise the wisdom of God to allow everyone to see sin, taste sin and learn to hate sin forever. We all need to learn that sin strikes the human conscience with guilt, and the eternal condemnation.

We all know Church members whom everyone thought were Christians, but they fell away later. At the bottom of this Bible study we go into details of Jesus' Parable of The Soils. We prove those look-like-Christians tried to start a salvation covenant with a wrong heart. Maybe they prayed a sinner's prayer, but their motive was happy for what they will get. The 2nd soil, the stony soil was happy, thinking they will become popular, and life will get easier. The 3rd soil, the thorns soil, was happy thinking that they will get more goodies in this life, and they imagined they can make a difference in social agendas. Their start was false; they didn't have holy fear for their sins and fear of God's judgment on them. Instead they were happy and hoping their religion would give them Earthly gains.

When they quit their faith, some Church members think they lost their salvation. No, that is wrong. They prayed the sinner’s prayer with a happy-to-get-something motive. No one can start a salvation covenant with wrong motives. That is a false start; their faith was dead from the start. When they die, where do they go? They go to the same place that all unbelievers go for the last 6,000 years. That is Hell in the center of this Earth, as Jesus described in Luke 16:19-31. Hades is called the place of the dead; every soul went there before Jesus died and rose again. At Jesus' resurrection, Jesus took the saints up to Heaven, but the souls in Hell are still there in Hell.

The Feast of Tabernacles was a prophecy in the O.T. in the form of a Jewish festival. Jesus was born during that annual Feast of Tabernacles, not during the winter solstice. John 1:14 explains that Jesus is God, that Jesus came to Earth, and that He tabernacled with humans. On Jesus' 33rd birthday, He went up on a mountain with Peter, James and John. Jesus revealed His true person, "His face shined bright like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light", because Jesus transfigured before them. Moses and Elijah visited with Jesus as His friends - Matt.17:1-8. They talked about His crucifixion that Jesus would accomplish in a few months. False teachers like to use that as an example of who will be the 2 great witnesses in Rev.11:3-13. False teachers don't understand that Moses was the greatest judge in the O.T. And Elijah was the greatest living saint. Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) and Enoch (Gen.5:24) are the 2 witnesses in Rev.11:3-13. They live in Paradise while they finish their training, because God will put them back on the earth during the 7 years while they preach for 42 months. Both of them are still alive as humans. No human flesh can survive in God's presence, so they can't go to Heaven until they preach for 3 1/2 years. That proves that Paradise has all of the essentials to sustain human life. When they finish their testimony, the anti-Christ will kill them. Then they will sit on their thrones among the 24 thrones on the left and right of Jesus as hinted at by Jesus in Matt.20:23.

Is Salvation A Covenant? Is It Essential To Complete It Before They Enter Heaven?

What did Jesus teach in the Gospels? Matthew 26:28 says, "For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many..." Mark 14:24 says, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many." Luke 22:20 says, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you." Jesus said salvation is a covenant, and the New Testament is built on His blood covenant. The Gospels record Jesus' sermons, which includes the truths Jesus described as essential for salvation. When Christians partake of the wine or grape juice, it is "the communion of the blood of Christ"; and the bread is "the communion of the body of Christ". When Christians do that with the right heart, they join their heart with born-again saints all around the world as one body in 1st Cor.10:16-17 - "we all partake of that". All the saints around the world are joined by the "remembrance", when they take of the Lord's Supper with the right heart.

If The Salvation Covenant Is Essential, Then God Must Have Explained That In The Bible.

--Paul taught about completing those essentials of the salvation covenant this way in 2nd Cor.13:9-11, "that you may be made complete... Finally my brethren, farewell, become complete". That “made complete" and "become complete” is teaching about their salvation covenant. It is miraculous how a wanna-be-Christian knows they are missing something until they complete their salvation covenant, they feel incomplete. That is the Holy Spirit telling their soul that they are missing something important. If they ask the pastor, he does not understand their concerns, because their pastor was not taught much about salvation; and he didn't study enough Bible on his own time to understand the essentials of salvation. I'm in my 60's, and I don't know one pastor who is a born-again Christian going to Heaven.

--Paul and his team were worried about the spiritual growth of the Philippian Christians, so Paul gave them a warning in Philippians 2:12 "as you have always obeyed... work out your salvation-sanctification with fear and trembling." That verse isn't about earning their salvation, because no one can earn their salvation. That verse requires them to grow in obedience in their sanctification with “fear and trembling”. Each wanna-be-Christian partners with God to learn their sanctification.

--This is the same thing Jesus warned in Luke 21:36 “...pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape the tribulation that will come... and to stand before the Son of Man” Jesus said it, and Paul repeated Jesus' warning.

--Then James 1:4 says "...that you may be mature and complete lacking nothing." The word "perfect" is the wrong word because the subject is their spiritual growth; it's about obedience. That is why we replaced their word "perfect" with mature. What is Christian maturity? It is advanced and successful spiritual growth. So what is "complete" talking about? It is about them finishing their salvation covenant. Then they will feel "complete".

--Paul explained that God allows the frustrating situations in life as teaching tools to make us grow, "God is ready to punish all disobedience that sinners do against Christians, when the Christian's obedience is complete" - 2 Cor.10:6. That teaches us that God allows sinners to do certain things that irritate us, because God is trying to teach us something. And God will not stop their irritations against the Christian, until the Christian learns the lesson attached to that irritation. Then the Christian can pray to God asking God to bring consequences on that troublemaker. Then God answers their prayer with yes.

--Silas taught in Heb. 12:1-2, "let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith." Why do we need a Finisher of our faith? Jesus helps the wanna-be-Christian finish their faith. Now we all know why the early Church leaders pressed their Church members to grow spiritually, to complete their salvation covenant.

--Then Silas explained it this way in Hebrews 13:21, "our Lord Jesus... that Great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will..." Make your salvation complete by growing obedience.

--Paul also taught in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification..." That sanctification includes and requires a spiritual growth that is about finishing the salvation covenant.

--Again Paul taught in 2 Cor.7:1 "Therefore, having these promises beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." That "perfecting holiness" is about spiritual growth, to finish their salvation covenant. The heart for that spiritual growth includes holy respect and holy fear of God. Remember Jesus taught in Luke 12:5, “I will teach you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed your body, He has the power to cast your soul into Hell. Yes, I tell you to fear Him.” That warning is from Jesus Himself.

--Paul teaches in 2 Cor.7:1 "...having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, maturing our obedience in the fear of God."

--God is our Father, our God, and our Judge, not our buddy. Jesus promoted His disciples after 3+ years of tough and painful training. Jesus told His disciples in John 15:14, “you are My friends if you do whatever I command you.” Our advice is make sure you are very good at obedience before you call yourself a friend of Jesus. I was serious about my spiritual growth and obedience for 49 years before Jesus granted me the status of being called Jesus' friend. I didn't call myself Jesus' friend, I waited for Jesus to call me His friend. There must be many years of spiritual growth before Jesus calls them His friend.

--Most wanna-be-Christians have never looked at those Bible verses long enough to see the common message. Those verses are about finishing their salvation covenant.

Jesus hinted at this teaching that some wanna-be-Christians finish their salvation covenant on the other side of death in Matt.12:31-32. We know the focal point of Matt.12:31-32 is the condemnation - judgment of the unpardonable sin from the pharisees against the Holy Spirit. They insulted and blaspheme the Holy Spirit. But there is another point in that verse too. Some things will be forgiven “in the age to come”. In that passage, Jesus told His disciples there will be some forgiveness on the other side of death, "in the age to come". We believe that refers to some Christians who will complete their salvation covenant on the other side of death. At that time when Jesus said it, the training happened in Paradise, until Jesus died and arose. Then Jesus carried that process to the tropical reception area near the bottom of God's Holy Mountain, as described in Rev.6:9-11 and Rev.7:9-17.

The Father told the Jews how to finish their salvation covenant in Deut. 22:37 & 6:5, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." That directive is repeated several times in the Old Testament. Jesus repeated the Father's advice in Matt.22:37. Look at your life: Do you love God more than anything else? Is it your primary goal to dedicate your soul to Jesus only? Are you sure that your mind is focused on Jesus first? Are you investing your strength into working for God instead of yourself? Those are powerful questions for a wanna-be-Christian to examine their heart and complete their salvation covenant. God is glad to help any saint who wants to examine their spiritual maturity.

A Grand Entrance Into Heaven Will Be Supplied To Them In 2 Peter 1:5-11.

Peter explained more details in 2 Peter 1:5-11 to their disciples about how a saint should finish their salvation covenant by spiritual growth on Earth. Peter and Silas had a great missionary journey for 12-14 years, from about 53/55AD to 67AD. Peter and Silas wrote 1 Peter before Nero captured Peter, and they wrote 2 Peter after Nero captured Peter and his wife. Peter called those writings in 2 Peter a “reminder” at 2 Peter 1:12, 1:15, 3:1, reminding them of what Peter and Silas taught their disciples in 1 Peter 1:1 in "Pontus, Galatia, Cappodicea, Asia, and Bithynia". In 2 Peter 1:5-11 Peter is reminding their disciples how to finish their salvation covenant while on Earth, so they can have "an entrance will supplied to" them into Heaven in 2 Peter 1:5-11. Those who complete Peter's teaching will go straight into Heaven without going to that tropical reception area.

"...for this very reason, giving all diligence, (A) add to your faith, virtuous behavior (B) to your virtuous behavior, add more Bible knowledge (C) to your more Bible knowledge, add more self control (D) keep doing more self control, with perseverance (E) keep on doing more self control with perseverance, and let God add godliness to your Christian life (F) keep going with more self control - perseverance - godliness, and add brotherly kindness (G) keep on doing more self control - perseverance - godliness - brotherly kindness - let God add His love through you.". Jesus' teaching in Matt.24:47 explains how Heaven accepts all mature Christians, "Assuredly, I say to you that He will make him ruler over all of His goods."

Peter explained the value of following his teaching, "If these obedient practices are yours and abound, your Christian life will not be barren nor unfruitful... so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom." The wanna-be-Christian has five (5) ways to finish his salvation covenant.

(1) Get serious about praying Jesus’ advise in Luke 21:36. IF YOU ask Jesus to help you get ready to see His face, "...pray always that you may be made worthy to escape the tribulation that will come to pass on Earth, and to stand before the Son of Man." THEN JESUS will keep helping you get ready. If you pray that every day, Jesus made a promise to get you ready to stand before Him.

(2) Follow Peter's description for maturity in 2 Peter 1:5-11 – practice higher-quality obedience. Learn more Bible knowledge. To that new Bible knowledge add more self control. Keep that additional self control and add enduring obedience. Keep that enduring obedience toward godliness. Keep that quality obedience like godliness and add brotherly kindness. Keep that high level of obedience and let God add agape love.

(3) Take Jesus' advice in Rev.3:18 – ask Jesus to sell you gold refined by trials, a white robe of holy fear to cleanse the daily life, and eye salve to open the eyes to see all of the evil around us in this world. My advice is to pick the one that makes you feel more stress. Do not pick the one you think is easiest. If it is easy in your eyes, then it will bring little or no change in your life, because you will ignore the lessons and miss the rapture.

(4) Another way to finish your salvation covenant is described in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me." This is a great teaching – we should examine ourselves every day and each thing we do, and judge ourselves as to if it was done for Jesus or for myself.

(5) Revelation 3:10 gives us another way to complete our salvation covenant, "Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who I left on the Earth." That means you need to examine yourself every day, to make sure you have a Bible devotion every day, and make sure you are obeying what you read, and persevering in your obedience.

Pick the method that looks like the most work to make your soul grow. But maybe switch off every week to one of the other methods on this list. You don't want to be left here when Jesus comes to gather His Church.

Something amazing happened to me a few years ago. I was studying the life of Paul when I looked closer at Romans 1:9-17. In those verses, Paul describes his heart as a friend of Jesus; "For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son... For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of salvation for everyone who believes..." Then it struck me that Paul abandoned everything of himself, and became a true-hearted partner of Jesus, to share the gospel in easy and tough places. I'm a baby compared to Paul, but I want to learn from his example.

All of us should give our attention to the Word of God, instead of the Sunday morning entertainers in big box Churches. They manipulate the truth to give their audience happy stories with warm feelings. That is their “covetous practices” in 2nd Peter 2:14. They get generous donations for telling happy stories instead of God's painful truth. They learned "covetous practices" at their semitary.

Look at a promise in Jesus' letter to the Philadelphian saints in Rev.3:10, "...because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which will come upon the whole world, to test those whom Jesus leaves on the Earth." Jesus teaches that those saints will go up in Rev.4:1-2 because they keep Jesus' command to "persevere". They will go up to Heaven in Rev.4:1-2, as commonly called the rapture.

We Found A Big Surprise In Rev.6:9-11 and Rev.7:9-17

We found a surprise teaching in Rev.6:9-11 and Rev.7:9-17. The saints we see in R.6:9-11 wearing white robes are Church people whom Jesus left here because they did not finish their salvation covenant before Rev.4:1-2. So Jesus left them here at the rapture, as He warned about in Luke 21:36. Jesus tells them why He must leave them on Earth during Rev.4:1-2. Then those church people will get serious about finishing their salvation covenant after the Church Age. But the devil will behead most of them in the next 3 1/2 years as we are told in Rev.20:4. The devil's world government will brutally kill millions of tribulation saints during the seal judgments 1,2,3,4 in Rev.6:1-8. After they are murdered, we see them in the tropical reception area at the lower area of God's Holy Mountain in Rev.6:9-11; they are mad at God in Rev.6:9-11, mad because God allowed them to be brutally murdered by the devil's govt. The words of their prayer to God shows their anger; "How long O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who destroy the Earth? Then a white robe was given to each of them..." Why white robes? The '"white robes" are a promise that they will be saved to live as humans in the Millennium as sinless perfect saints building the nations outside of New Jerusalem. In R.6:9-11 we find them in the tropical reception area "under the altar".

--I believe the criteria for giving them a white robe is similar to the Father giving the Holy Spirit to the elect during the Church Age, when the elect prayed the sinner’s prayer for salvation. If their sinner’s prayer has enough of the essentials to start a salvation covenant, they are qualified to be sealed by the Holy Spirit. Paul's missionary journey to Ephesus was about 53A.D. Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians eight years later, about 61AD, "having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" - Eph.1:13. Most or all of the Ephesian Christians were not mature enough to have completed their salvation covenant. So God gave the Ephesian Christians the seal of the Holy Spirit in Eph.1:13 because they had a salvation covenant, not because they had completed their salvation covenant. Because they started a genuine salvation covenant. I believe the white robes in R.6:9-11 are the same principal, they started a salvation covenant during the 7 years tribulation, but they were murdered before they completed their salvation covenant.

--The words "under the altar" tell us they are not in Heaven, but somewhere below Heaven. I believe the word "under" is telling about a lower place below Heaven, near the bottom. The tropical reception area is at the lower area of God's Holy Mountain. Why are they there, instead of already being in Heaven? Yes, they are saints, but their attitude is all wrong. So they will stay at the tropical reception area while they learn and correct their wrong attitudes. That learning will complete their salvation covenant.

What Will They Be Missing In Rev.6:9-11?

(1) They aren't taking responsibility that they ignored Jesus' warning to the Church Age. That means they ignored several ways Jesus gave them to finish their salvation covenant. That hints that they didn't study the Bible to understand the seriousness of lazy Christianity. (2) They failed to finish their salvation covenant before Rev.4:1-2. That is their fault, not God's fault. (3) They are mad at God for not protecting them from getting brutally murdered during the first 3 1/2 years by the anti-Christ, during seals 1,2,3,4. But Jesus warned us ahead of time in Rev.3:10 & 3:15-21, so that will be their fault. They ignored Jesus' warnings so they missed the rapture. (4) They are ignorant because they didn't study the Bible enough to understand Rev.6. where God clearly describes the devil murdering 25% of the populations. Jesus offers a special blessing for those who study in Revelation 1:3 during the Church Age. Revelation warns them in advance how the Gentile saints will be murdered during the 7 year tribulation. However, after they are dead, they did pray for God's revenge on those murderers on the Earth, scattered all over the Earth.

(5) God's revenge comes on those murderers just before the middle of the 7 years. God's revenge will be God's answer to their prayers in Rev.6:12-17. That part of God's revenge starts with a massive meteor shower causing devastating earthquakes, the dust blocks the sun light and also blocks the sun's warmth. Those powerful earthquakes destroy all utility services: broken water pipes, broken electrical power lines, and broken phone wires, and most or all satellites are destroyed. All communication is stopped. All bridges are destroyed, including cracked and split roads with large gaps. Those troubles bring darkness because the sun light is blocked by thick dust clouds causing respiratory problems. Also extreme cold temperatures everywhere. God's revenge continues with strong wind storms on Earth. Most homes are damaged allowing cold air into the house which will freeze the plumbing pipes. Recovery will be slow and painful.

(6) Some of those tribulation saints with white robes were murdered soon into the tribulation. So they will stay for many months at the tropical reception area while they learn the truths they are missing to finish their salvation covenant. They are not ready to be in God's presence.

(7) And these Gentile believers who were martyred (that is the 25% of the world’s population that the devil kills before the fifth seal) will remain there until the rest of their group (some number of Jewish Tribulation saints) is murdered like they were. And they must wait until the deaths of those Jewish saints who will be murdered immediately after the middle of the 7 years. Those Jews who get murdered by the devil are only those Jews who didn't obey Jesus' warning in Matt.24:16-17 to flee immediately when the devil defiles God's tribulation temple. (8) When they complete their salvation covenant they will have better attitudes. Then they will hear a graduation announcement. (9) In their excitement to go see God, they will cut palm branches and carry them to Heaven in their hands, to worship God in Heaven.

Finally We See Those Same Saints Up In Heaven In Rev.7:9-17 In God's Presence.

They still have their white robes in God's presence and; (1) They understand much more about their salvation. (2) And they understand God had to require what He must require. (3) We see them excited about their salvation. (4) And praising God for His goodness and very thankful for their salvation. (5) We like how John explains them, " I looked and behold, a great multitude which no one can number... of all nations... standing before God's throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, (6) Waving palm branches in their hands. (7) Those palm branches prove there was a graduation announcement and celebration while they were at the tropical reception area. (8) In God's presence they are crying out with loud excited voices saying 'Our salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb..." That is the same group of saints we saw complaining in the tropical reception area. But in R.7:9-17 they have the right heart. They are in God's presence because they are ready to be in God's presence.

What Changed Their Attitudes From Rev.6:12-17 To Rev.7:9-17.?

We can see the change happened while they were staying at the tropical reception area in Rev.6:9-11. We know that tropical reception has palm trees, with many other comforts like a pleasant temperature. "…the sun didn't scorch them. Jesus led them to fountains of living water. They shall neither hunger any more nor thirst anymore and the Lamb... leads them to living fountains of water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." But there are lessons they learned there too. Maybe they figure out some of those lessons from sharing their stories with each other. But also someone is teaching them Bible truths in the tropical reception area. One of those teachers is Jesus because Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our salvation. We have proved they learned heart changes at that tropical reception area. It is Biblically correct to say: they learned valuable lessons at that tropical reception area, and they finished their salvation covenant at that tropical reception area. Maybe we all have seen a hint of this in real life here on Earth: we have all watched some wanna-be-Christians die before they are ready. We could see before they died that they were learning to love God, but we could also see they were missing some important Bible truths. This Bible study shows you what happened to those friends, on the other side.

Yes, that sounds like new teaching to us, but the early Church knew these things because Jesus brought back to life many saints at His death and resurrection in Matt.27:52, "the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints... were raised; and coming out of their graves after His resurrection... and appeared to many." What did they see while living in Paradise? They saw the same thing we pointed out from Rev.6:9-11 & Rev.7:9-17. Note those stories are the same story as R.6:9-11 & R.7:9-17, but their stories were in Paradise in the heart of the Earth. God started their salvation covenant before they died. God was helping them to finish their salvation covenant in Paradise. Those types of reports are fascinating to all living believers.

Lazarus who was dead 4 days before Jesus brought him back to live is another testimony just like R.6:9-11 & R.7:9-11. Lazarus was talking about what he saw in Paradise for 4 days. Look at the crowds who went to hear Lazarus tell his stories in John 12:1-11. We can also be sure the testimonies of those saints who were brought back from death in Matt.27:52-53. Their testimonies were written and available in the Churches.

People are curious to know what is 'Beyond Death's Door'. That is the name of a book written by Maurice Rawlings. It is out of print but it is available as a used book. If this subject is fascinating to you, then you will like reading that book. Don't pay attention to any other books or movies by other authors on this topic, they are liars. It is amazing to see people are fascinated to read lies and fiction about life after death. I'm convinced that Maurice Rawlings was as accurate as he could be.

God let those testimonies be available in the early Church, then God let those stories be stolen and hidden under the Rome church. We know their written testimonies from Matt.21:52-53 were confiscated after 313AD, after the Rome church became evil. There are many Church History writers saying lots of early Church documents are being held in the catacombs below the Rome church.

Announcement

Announcement - So why did God show me these verses? Why did God explain to me R.6:9-11 & R.7:9-17? Because this Bible study is an announcement of a time-line change that God will make soon. Right now God will allow those who didn't finish their salvation covenant to finish it in the tropical reception area until the rapture in R.4:1-2, and they will go to Heaven. That offer stops at the rapture. Jesus will leave those who are not ready to go up in the rapture and I'm sure Jesus will tell each of them why He must leave them. Then they will get serious about their salvation covenant. There will be the greatest revival on Earth. They will get saved, and the devil will kill 25% of the population - the devil will kill most of them. Those who miss the rapture and then get saved will become part of the next phase. They will live for 1,000 years as humans in the Millennium. Those who stay faithful to God for 1,000 years will be converted to be sinless perfect humans at the end of the 1,000 years. Adam and Eve were sinless before the devil tempted them. They will be sinless perfect humans like Adam and Eve started. They will build the nations outside of New Jerusalem. This is an announcement - If You Want To Live In New Jerusalem Forever, Do Not Miss The Rapture. Announcement.

Summary for those who are not urgent to finish their salvation covenant now in the Church Age. Jesus will leave them here for the 7 year tribulation. They will not be eligible for the "crown of life " in James 1:12, and the "crown of righteousness" in 2 Tim. 4:8. We believe God is separating for Himself a class of believers who did complete their salvation covenant during the Church Age. They will be an elite class of believers and leaders that everyone will look up to because they were diligent to prepare themselves for Jesus’ reign on Earth. So the elect who did not prepare themselves before the rapture will die a brutal death in the tribulation, and live as humans during the Millennium. And if they remain faithful during the Millennium, they will be allowed to live as sinless humans outside the New Jerusalem for a while, and then they will be allowed to live in New Jerusalem forever.

How Did The Rome Church Become So Evil?

After Adam and Eve got old, the populations of the world became foolish idolaters. The demons mingled themselves with the human race. Their children were violent and evil, and salvation can't be available for them - Genesis 6. God locked up those demons forever as described in 2 Peter 2:4-5. After the Noah's Flood, the world population went back into paganism and devil worship. It looked like God was forced to destroy all humanity, except God found some faith in Abraham. God was able to grow Abraham's faith strong enough to become the world's spiritual leader. Then God placed all the Gentiles under the spiritual protection of Abraham in Genesis ch. 12, 15, 17. Abraham's family declined in their spiritual goodness over the next 1,800 years. When the Jews kept going into pagan idolatry, God let them get what they demanded. The glory of God left the temple in Ezekiel 10:18, about 4th century BC, and God allowed the Rome govt. to start controlling the world, including the land of Israel. God moved king Herod the Arab to improve the temple getting ready for the birth of The King of all kings, and he enjoyed pretending he was a Jew while corrupting the temple leaders. Then Jesus came and preached righteousness and died alone for our sins. Jesus appointed 12 apostles to start and lead the Church Age.

How did the Rome church become evil? Paul and Peter were captured and killed in Rome about 67AD to 68AD. At their death, they left many strong Christians in Rome, 1 Peter 5:13 & Hebrews 13:24. So the Churches in Rome stayed strong for many decades. The Rome Churches were doing so well that they were giving money to the widows. Then they made a bank to store the money safely. Then they formed an army to protect their bank. Money attracts scam artists pretending to be Christians. You have seen this, the best religious actors gather at the biggest churches for easy money. Wolves love money enough to fake their spiritual journey, to get easy money. That describes the USA pastors and it describes the fall of the Rome churches.

Nero started a war against God when he was burning the wood buildings in Rome and got caught, then falsely blamed the Christians and killed many Christians, about 64A.D. In Herod's war against God, he also destroyed many Church writings. Back in those days there were many writings trying to tell stories about what they saw Jesus do. The Nero persecution burned many early Church writings. Those writings were not word for word inspired by God. Then Domitian was murdering Christians. Eventually the Rome Churches were taken over by slick talking unbelievers. The Churches in Rome fell into failure and apostasy. Also there was a more evil church in Rome during those years. That other religion talked Christian but they also worshiped the Greek gods. There was some type of mixture between both Church groups.

Finally in 312AD and 313AD the Rome church became evil. The church leaders were not saved, and the unsaved leaders made compromises and deals with the Roman emperor Constantine. The Rome church was born in 312AD. That is how the remembrance of Jesus' birth turned into an idolatry tree which God condemned in Jeremiah 10:2-5. That is how Passover and the resurrection of Jesus gained fertility symbols like rabbits and eggs. But the real Christians were rejected and fled to north Italy. The Rome church captured the written testimonies of those who saw Paradise before Jesus brought them back. The Rome church altered those testimonies to invent purgatory. The story they tell is that if someone gives the Rome church extra money, the Rome church will pray for the soul of the dead family member or dead friend to get them out of their fictional purgatory, and that lets them go into Heaven. The Rome church stole those real testimonies. We don't have access to those old stories, but now we all have that teaching from Rev.6:12-17 and Rev.7:9-17.

This Bible study serves as an announcement that God will leave the wanna-be-Christians on Earth at Rev.4:1-2, because they have not finished their salvation covenant. I'm sure Jesus will tell each of them why He must leave them here, to finish their salvation covenant. Jesus will not take those wanna-be-Christians into Heaven in Rev.4:1-2, because they haven't finished their covenant. Instead Jesus will leave them here, and they will get more serious about living for Jesus. And they will die a brutal violent death.

I myself believe that Paradise in the heart of the Earth was used by God to help finish the faith of Jewish believers and the non-Jewish proselytes in the Old Testament too, exactly like we see in Rev.6:9-11 and Rev.7:9-17. There were many saints in the Old Testament that died before they were ready. That place is called Paradise in the heart of the Earth, it served the same purpose for those old time Jews, like we proved in Rev.6:12-17 and Rev.7:9-17 does for some Christians. I myself believe that God used the place called Paradise in the heart of the Earth to finish the salvation covenant of those Jews who had faith before they died in the Old Testament. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus. He was dead 4 days, so he had a 4 day visit to Paradise. When he came back to life he was telling everyone what he saw in Paradise.

But John 11 is very interesting because Jesus' friend Lazarus was dead for 4 days, and Jesus brought him back from the dead. While he was dead, Lazarus saw Paradise in the heart of the Earth for 4 days. When Jesus brought him back to life, Lazarus was telling about what he saw in Paradise in John 11:46. And again later at the table in John 12:9-11, Lazarus was telling what he saw, so that " a great many Jews... came... that they might also see Lazarus... because on account of the things he said many Jews went away and believed in Jesus." Jesus brought many people back from the dead - Matt.10:8, 11:5, Luke.7:22 - but the crowds didn't gather around them. The difference between the others and Lazarus is this: Lazarus was a believer before he died and he was telling fellow Jews what he saw in Paradise. So his stories were emphasizing what Jesus was teaching. Lazarus was a witness talking about the things he experienced in Paradise, similar to what we see at the tropical reception in Rev.6:12-17 and Rev.7:9-17. That is why "the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also". Those testimonies remained available at Churches for many years.

God allowed the Rome church to confiscate those stories after 313AD. The Rome church stole Lazarus' written testimony and other testimonies from "...many bodies of saints who had fallen asleep were raised...", all of them were telling what they saw in Paradise. The Rome Church hid those testimonies in their underground vaults in Rome. The Rome church also used those true testimonies to invent purgatory.

The Rome church is not very good at Bible study, so they cannot understand R.6:9-11 & R.7:9-17. So, where did they get their stories about purgatory? We see evidence that the Rome Church used those testimonies of Lazarus and the dead saints who came back to life at Jesus' resurrection to make up their stories about purgatory. The Roman Catholic stories about purgatory are another proof that the early Churches had real testimonies from the saints who came back from the dead and told what they saw. But the Rome church changed the truth, and twisted those true testimonies to invent their purgatory, their stories about purgatory are my proof. We have given strong and compelling evidence that Paradise, and then the tropical reception area on God's Holy Mountain have been used by God, to finish the salvation covenant for some saints. But God's use of the tropical reception area changes at the rapture. There will be several dramatic changes at the rapture. Those who do not finish their salvation covenant before the rapture will be left here with instructions from Jesus. Because Jesus will explain to them why they can't go, and what they are still missing. Then they will get saved. But millions of tribulation saints will be murdered during the 7 years tribulation. They will spend time at the tropical reception area as we already proved in Rev.6:9-11 and Rev.7:9-17.

This Bible Study Is God's Announcement Of Several Changes

This Bible study serves as an announcement that God will leave the wanna-be-Christians on Earth at Rev.4:1-2, because they have not finished their salvation covenant. I'm sure Jesus will tell each of them why He must leave them here, to finish their salvation covenant. Right now in the Church Age, we are used to seeing Church people die before they finished their salvation covenant. In our hearts we all knew they will be OK. That lower acceptance level will end at the rapture in Rev.4:1-2. Jesus will not take those wanna-be-Christians into Heaven in Rev.4:1-2, because they haven't finished their covenant. Instead Jesus will leave them here, and they will get more serious about living for Jesus in the threats of death, and they will die a brutal violent death. They will not be eligible for the "crown of life" in James 1:12, or the crown of righteousness in 2 Tim.4:8, or the crown of rejoicing in 1 Thess.2:19, or the crown of glory in 1 Peter 5:4.

Those crowns are limited to Church Age saints that complete their salvation covenant while they are alive during the Church Age. God will not be giving those Heavenly crowns to those who failed God's criteria, because they will live as humans forever. They will be humans in the Millennium. If they remain faithful, then after the 1,000 years God will make them glorified humans living outside New Jerusalem. They will be married and having babies, raising children and building the ever-expanding kingdoms. They will have God's "love, joy and peace..." But they will miss out on living like angels in New Jerusalem.

The Holy Spirit is advising me of something more for those living outside New Jerusalem. I had typed the word “forever”, describing their human state outside New Jerusalem, but the Holy Spirit had me remove the word “forever” and add this statement. They will graduate into New Jerusalem after many years, maybe after 1,000 years. This teaching fills in more details of Isaiah 9:7, "Of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end." I have often wondered what God was going to do to fill in the vacant space in New Jerusalem. New Jerusalem is 1,400 miles wide, 1,400 miles long, and 1,400 miles high with 12 floors called foundation stones. That is much larger than anything you and I have ever seen. All through eternity God will be adding to the population inside and outside New Jerusalem. If might take me a year or two to get all of the details, but God is allowing to include this partial explanation for now.

This Bible study is also God's announcement to all Church people. Those who finish their salvation covenant before the rapture, will be like the angels forever in the Millennium then New Jerusalem forever, then they will live about like the angels in the New Jerusalem forever, glorified to be like holy angels. But Rev.4:1-2 is the cut off for Heaven. Those who do not finish their salvation covenant before the rapture, will hopefully get saved during the tribulation. The devil will brutally kill most tribulation saints in the next 3 years.

But those whom the devil wrongly kills during the 7 years, God will allow them to be brought back to life after the tribulation and just before the start of the Millennium in Rev.20:4. The judges in Rev.20:4 will vote to restore the human life of them, to live as humans during the Millennium. Those who stay faithful to God through the Millennium, at the end of the Millennium God will then transform them as perfect humans. They will live as perfect humans outside New Jerusalem -maybe for 1,000 years- before God calls them into New Jerusalem. They will be the workers who build the nations outside of New Jerusalem. So those who are not ready to go up in the rapture will live as humans in the Millennium and then outside the New Jerusalem for many years. That is an announcement to all of our friends: Give your life to Jesus now, and don't care about earthly pleasures.

Who wrote Hebrews and why?

This Bible study quotes many things from Hebrews, so this is an explanation about Hebrews: Silas the prophet said he wasn't taught by Jesus in Heb.2:3, instead he heard the gospel from others including Peter. That verse also proves that neither the apostle Paul nor any other apostle wrote Hebrews. Many Bible teachers have tried to say Paul wrote Hebrews. But Paul is an apostle; he was taught miraculously by Jesus in special revelations as explained in Galatians 1:15-2:10. Silas was good friends with the apostles in Acts 15 and especially Peter; Silas learned from Peter and the other apostles.

A few years into the Church Age, Saul/Paul got saved. Several months later God chased Paul away from Jerusalem to hear teaching from Jesus, and for time to grow spiritually. But Paul was not totally sure he understood what he was learning from Jesus. For those who don't understand that – when Jesus tells you something, it usually comes in a few brief words. Then you have to reason it out to know what all you heard Jesus tell you. Paul was not totally sure he was figuring everything correctly, so Paul requested to go to Jerusalem 3 years into his training to visit Peter for 15 days, as mentioned in Gal.1:18. God allowed that visit to show Paul some problems among the apostles in Jerusalem. That taught Paul to keep learning from Jesus personally. While Paul was there in Jerusalem, Peter shared the theory that Jesus will come back before John would die as described in John 21:23a. Paul believed that for many years. We are not told directly about that conversation, but we see Peter's opinion affected Paul's teaching about marriage – that marriage is a distraction from ministry. Then 21 years later in 1 Cor.7:28-29, Paul wrote there was no need to get married and raise children because "the time is short" – that married couples "will have trouble in the flesh, but I would spare you from those troubles." And that also indicates Paul was not too pleased with the wife he had while he was on the Sanhedrin before he got saved.

Several years later, Paul and Barnabas went on the first missionary journey. After that, they came to Jerusalem to get the Jerusalem council's decision on requirements for Gentile Christians. Silas helped write that decision in Acts 15:22-29. But Barnabas got self confident and stumbled for a few years. Then Silas replaced Barnabas for Paul's second missionary journey, and they mostly preached to Hebrew-speaking Jews. God did not tell Paul that he already was the greatest of the apostles, and that he was training Silas to help Peter and that God was waiting for the time when Peter became humble. Silas traveled with Paul and they met Timothy. For 2 years, Silas was learning how to earn a living as a missionary in unfamiliar cities. They made tents for sleeping in, and to sleep in before anyone got saved in the city. Then they lodged with a Jewish family that had become a Christian family. They sold those tents in the city market place for an income. Selling tents in the market place allowed them to have evangelism conversations preaching the gospel in the market place.

Their team started in Philippi, where Paul and Silas got a severe beating, then "chains". Those "chains" in Acts 16:22-26 and the "chains" in Hebrews 10:34 are the same "chains". That is a strong connection to help Bible students know Silas is the writer of Hebrews, along with about 70 other Bible verses listed in our Silas Wrote Hebrews Bible study. God sent a strong earthquake to warn the city leaders, ‘do not persecute God's saints’, including the new saints. That made Philippi a safe place, so it also became their favorite safe place. Then they preached in Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, and then Corinth.

After 2 years, their team came to Corinth, that city was more sensual than Thessalonica and Athens. Also the Hebrew-speaking Jews were dangerous in Corinth. Silas left Paul in Corinth after Acts 18:6; and he went back to Jerusalem and stayed at Mary Mark's home. Silas got married and studied the Septuagint, for sermon ideas to reach Greek-speaking Jews. When Barnabas visited his cousin Mary's home, Silas and Peter criticized Paul. Barnabas asked Silas how to find Paul hiding in Corinth during that persecution. While there, Barnabas also told Paul what Silas and Peter said about Paul. That is why Paul defends himself in 1 Cor.9:3-6.

Those verses in 1 Cor.9:3-6 also tell us Barnabas did not care about the dangers in Corinth; he went to Corinth to restore his friendship with Paul. That is a great sermon for a real pastor. But Paul was still tough on Silas in 61AD in Phil.2:21, saying "all seek their own", because Paul thought Silas quit on him to get married. And Paul was critical because Silas studied the inferior Septuagint translation for sermons to reach Greek-speaking Jews. That criticism forced Silas to walk carefully and grow into a great prophet.

Many years after Peter shared his theory, about 63AD, Paul realized Jesus will come back at His own time - 1 Tim.6:15, not when Peter theorized. That is our only clue that Paul met with John after John fled Jerusalem. Maybe the visit between Paul and John happened in Judea about 57AD or at Paul's rented house outside Rome about 61AD. That visit with John helped Paul understand Jesus statement recorded in John 21:23b – that Jesus was only telling Peter that John is not Peter's responsibility. Paul understood the statement in John 21:23b before John wrote his gospel account 20 years later in the 80's AD. That visit with John also happened before Paul wrote Ephesians 5:22-33, comparing a Christian marriage as also a symbol or example of Jesus' love for the saints. So marriage was not a waste of time.

When Peter became humble about 52AD to 54AD, then Peter and Silas started a 12-14 year missionary journey with God's blessing to "Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.". Meanwhile, Paul went on a 3rd missionary journey, then a 4 1/2 year prison journey to Judea and Rome. Paul was released from Rome about 61AD and went on his 4th missionary journey for about 4 or 5 years. After Paul was released from Rome about 62AD, Nero burned the wood buildings in Rome in 64AD, but his soldiers got caught and the people were angry, so Nero blamed the fires on Christians. That became a world-wide persecution as far as Ephesus. Paul was brutally captured in Ephesus about 67AD. Nero held Paul in a secret dungeon in Rome - 2nd Tim.1:17, "when Onesiphorus arrived in Rome he searched zealously to find me, and found me". Nero was worried that the Christians in Rome would rescue Paul. So Paul was held in a well-guarded secret dungeon in Rome, about 67AD.

From that dungeon Paul sent the letter of 2 Timothy (2 Tim.4:11) to Ephesus requesting for Timothy and Mark who was ministering in Asia to come to Rome and say goodbye and get final instructions. They told Peter and Silas too. So they all traveled to Rome on the same trade ship from Asia to Rome. On that trade ship, they shared missionary stories with each other. When they got to Rome, Peter and Silas wrote the powerful Book called 1st Peter, with a comment in 1st Peter 5:12 saying that Peter respected Silas, but implying someone did not. Paul had previously thought Peter's and Silas' ministry was shallow, but Mark and Timothy reported good things to Paul about Peter and Silas. Then it was probably Alexander that spotted pastor Timothy from Ephesus, so Timothy was captured for a short time. Silas tells us Timothy was released before Silas wrote Heb.13:23.

About then Paul realized he trained Silas to train Peter, and that he helped Peter become the great apostle Peter. Maybe Peter and his wife, and Silas and his wife went to see Paul and that visit helped Paul change his opinions about Peter and Silas. That visit is also a reasonable explanation of how Peter and his wife got captured. Several things changed Paul's opinion to understand that Peter and Silas had great success on their missionary journey. Something motivated Paul to tell Silas to write Hebrews, to restore Silas' leadership over their favorite Church, the Philippians. Silas wrote Hebrews in Rome about 67AD. Silas reminded them of those "chains" in Hebrews 10:34. Silas had Paul's blessings and Peter's blessings to write Hebrews. That explains how a New Testament prophet could write such a powerful Scripture. Silas included all of his best sermons to Jews with personal rebukes to the Philippians. After Nero captured Peter and his wife, Silas found a safe way to visit Peter, they wrote 2nd Peter and they added a compliment to Paul in 2 Peter 3:15, "our beloved brother Paul... wisdom... has written... some things are hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction.". Peter and Silas' made a public complement to Paul. The friendship of Paul and Silas was restored, along with Timothy, Mark and Luke.

Nero brutally murdered many thousands of Christians, and he was searching for Christian writings to burn them. Silas was protecting his wife and himself; that is why he didn't include his name in Hebrews or 2nd Peter. This explains why Hebrews sounds like Paul's style of logic, and similar to 1st and 2nd Peter. We have found about 160 Bible verses to explain the relationships of Paul, Silas, Timothy Mark, Peter and Luke, with about 70 or 80 verses that prove Silas is the writer of Hebrews.

The words “reminder” in 2 Peter 1:15 & 3:1 tell us Silas promised to take Peter's "reminder" to their Churches. We are sure Silas and his wife, Timothy, Mark and Luke went to Philippi to cry after the deaths of Paul and Peter, and to strengthen the Philippian Christians. Then we are sure Silas and his team delivered 1 & 2 Peter to those Churches that only Silas could find. Please find our Bible study called Silas Wrote Hebrews. There are 4 passages of Scripture God gave to Silas: The Jerusalem Council’s decision in Acts 15:22-29, 1st Peter & 2nd Peter & Hebrews.

Paul Became The Greatest Apostle Because He Worked Harder Than the Other Apostles

Please do not pattern your ministry to be like the pastors you have seen. Try to get your ministry practices from Paul and Peter. Paul worked with his hands making tents to earn the money needed to eat. In 1 Thess. 2:9, "you remember brethren, our labor and toil; laboring day and night, that we might not be a burden to any of you." In 2 Thess. 3:8, "nor did we eat anyone's bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you". And in I Cor. 4:12, "to the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten..." Then 2 Cor. 11 gives a clear picture how Paul worked harder than any of the other apostles. We encourage ministries to work a job to make their income, to provide for their ministry.

A Controversial View About demons - Is There Is A Lesser Punishment For Some demons?

Earlier we pointed out that it was Lucifer and his commander angels who were trading secrets against God in their sanctuaries. Lucifer and his commander angels saw Heaven many times themselves. The devil and his commander demons know God personally. But the lower levels of cherubim angels who fell into sins – those we now called demons – they know much less about God, and maybe never saw Heaven. We know they could not have looked up to see into Heaven. The worker angels didn't know about the secret plans of the rebellion. So the lower levels of cherubim angels we now call demons didn't help make those plans against God. The worker demons were not with those leaders trading secrets against God. They have some innocence compared to the commander demons.

Back almost 6,000 years ago when the rebellion was announced and explained to the lower angels, about 2/3 of the angels were street wise enough to flee - they refused to be a part of the rebellion. But we also know almost 2 billion of the lower cherubim angels didn't flee; they became demons. Almost a billion of those demons liked the idea of rebellion; they gladly joined the rebellion. But in Revelation 9, we see almost a billion of the lower demons do not like the rebellion, but they were too simple-minded to see the disaster as it was forming. They didn't understand the rebellion fast enough to run away. The evidence of their capture by Jesus and His apostles, and the evidence of their cooperation in Rev.9 indicates that almost a billion demons were forced or coerced into following the rebellion.

The devil's rebellion is focused on the humans living on Earth. We also know the devil & his commander demons are brutal leaders, inflicting pain to lower demons, trying to force the lower level demons to do more evil deeds. The devil and his commanders still hope to win their rebellion, rather than go into the Pit forever. That is why they are trying to force the worker demons to help make the rebellion as large as possible. But the rebellion against God wasn't the desire of the worker angels. For several thousand years, some of those demons wished and wanted to find a way out of that terrible trap; that is why many of them hid inside non-productive humans. Jesus and His apostles gave them the opportunity to get locked away. In the gospels, we see many demons were not trying to do more demon work; instead, they seem to be trying to avoid being forced into doing any more evil.

Soon after the fall, God made the "Pit" of Hell, and promised that at the end of time, God will punish all fallen angels - Isaiah 14:15. All demons know that judgment is coming as James 2:19 explains, "the demons believe and tremble". But Jesus did something unexpected when He visited Earth; He was locking away demons 2,000 years before their time. I believe there was some type of memo announcing that Jesus was locking away almost a billion demons for a future assignment. We might have a part of that memo in Hebrews 1, but we don't have the part explaining that Jesus locking away almost a billion demons before the time. We can see that special assignment is revealed in two parts: Rev.9:1-11 and Rev.9:12-21. We have Bible verses describing the captures of demons in Matt.9:33, 10:1, 10:8, 12:22, 15:22, 17:18, Mark 1:26, 3:11, 6:7, 7:30, 9:25-26, 16:17, Luke 4:33-35, 4:41, 6:18, 8:28:29, 9:42, 11:14, 13:32. We notice that many demons accepted Jesus' plan to lock them away without a complaint. Also some demons made their complaints, but they did also accept those commands to be locked away. Jesus can use their innocence and ignorance to offer an opportunity for a lesser punishment, but they must obey God's commands in Rev.9. Each demon's obedience in Rev.9 will prove if they have any innocence or not.

We didn't learn much from the demons who accepted getting captured "before the time". Instead, we learn what was happening from the demons who rejected Jesus' offer in Matt.8:29, "Suddenly they cried out saying, 'What have we to do with You Jesus... Have You come to torment us before the time'? " And we see the same type of refusal in Luke 8:28, "... with a loud voice said, 'What have I to do with You Jesus... I beg You, do not torment me... And they begged Jesus that He would not command them to go out and into the Abyss." Those demons did not believe Jesus would do anything to help them, so they didn't accept the escape. They are deceiving spirits who deceived themselves too; they believed Jesus was playing a trick against them. They are the deceiving spirits, Jesus is not a deceiver.

We see those almost a billion demons again 2,000 years later when they are released in the second half of the tribulation to obey Jesus' assignment in Rev.9:1-11 and Rev.9:12-21. God will give them an assignment to inflict harm on rebels on the Earth. The first group is in Rev.9:1-11. They will be large locusts, larger than any existing locusts; and their tail will be like a scorpion. “The sting from their tail will hurt people for 5 months. As a locust, they will naturally want to eat green plants. But God commands them "not to eat the grass of the Earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only torment those who do not have the seal of God. Do not kill them but torment them for 5 months." I believe that the demons who will obey Jesus' command, will get a lesser punishment than the demons who are still doing evil today, while they roam the Earth tempting people to sin against God. We can be sure those demons who got locked up will not be allowed the privileges of Heaven. We know they will never live in Heaven like the holy angels will; but they might get an assignment to maintain the top half of Hell, the more tolerable half of Hell. And their fire protection might be restored, so they can work their assignment to maintain Hell. Some people think God might only give them a less punishment in Hell.

There is another group of demons; they are a meaner group of demons that Jesus captured. We see them in Rev.9:12-21. We are told how many are in their group; it's about 200,000,000 demons. Their assignment will be to kill 1/3 of humans on Earth with molten sulfur. The dead bodies are preserved with sulfur, because it will be a while before they can get buried during the Millennium. Those demon-possessed horses will be assigned to kill people who do not have God's mark of protection. That is not a hard assignment for demons, because they want to kill people anyway. So this assignment is not as hard to obey, but they will obey. I believe we get a clue they will maintain those who are sent into Hell; that clue is in that they will need fire protection to breathe out molten sulfur. So I believe that fire protection is also a clue about their final assignment; maybe the demons in Rev.9:12-21 will be assigned to maintain the lower levels of Hell. Those demons will already have fire protection because they will to be able to spit out molten sulfur; and they will also have sulfur protection. Both of those protections give us a clue that they will be assigned to maintain the bottom half of Hell, the hotter half.

Obviously those demons who disobey God's commands in Rev.9 have destroyed their last chance for a reduced sentence. But those demons who obey God's command; can expect that God will give them some type of reduced punishment. God will do something for them.

Some Brethren Want To Understand More About The Salvation Covenant.

Jesus Called The Parable Of The Soils As The Key To Understand All of Jesus’ Parables In Mark 4:13

Matthew 13:3---”Behold a farmer went out to sow seed. And as he sowed, (1) some seed fell along the gravel road; the birds came and devoured those seeds. Some (2) seed fell on rocky soil, where they did not have much soil, and immediately sprang up among rocks. But when the sun came up, their roots were scorched because they had few roots in the soil, so they withered away. And (3) some seeds fell among thorn seeds, then the weeds with thorns grew large enough to choke the seeds. But other seeds fell on good ground and yielded a crop: (4) some up to a hundred times, (5) some up to sixty times, (6) some up to thirty times; he who has spiritual ears, let him hear.”Jesus commanded the demons to let those who want to hear, “let them hear.” Then Jesus explained that parable to his disciples.

"Therefore hear the meaning of parable of the Sower: When (1) anyone hears the message of the Kingdom, and does not care to understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away the truths they heard. This is he who hears the gospel seed by the gravel road. But he who (2) hears the gospel seed on rocky soil; this is he who hears the word of God's Kingdom and immediately hears it with happiness; yet God's Word has no root in him, he endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of God's Word, immediately he stumbles. Now he (3) who hears the gospel seed with happiness among the thorns, this is he who hears, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke out God's Word, and his fruit fails as unfruitful. But those who received the gospel seed on the good ground is he who receives the Word wanting to understand it; they indeed bears fruit; (4) some up to a hundred fold, (5) some up to sixty fold, and (6) some up to thirty fold.”

Listener or seed (1) types didn't care, and they communicate they do not care, so they do not try to understand. Then God allows demons to take that knowledge because knowledge has physical properties. In normal life, when someone preaches the gospel to those who don't want to hear it, instead they want to get away from a preacher. Their rejection allows demons to send distractions. Those distractions come from a friend, or cell phone call, or some popular entertainment they plan to go to, demons are allowed to use a distraction to hide God's truth from those who do not value God's truth. We picture their condition to be like the gravel roads the Roman govt. made for their soldiers to travel.

Listener or seed (2) types, or rocky soil hear the gospel with happy thoughts about going to Heaven some day. Hearing with happy thoughts is not the same as receiving the gospel message with holy fear and brokenness. Maybe they prayed the sinner’s prayer, or prayed something similar; but they say that prayer with the wrong heart. They think the gospel will make them successful or wealthy. There is not a promise to live for Jesus or die for Jesus. So no salvation covenant was started in them. Another proof is if he says the sinner’s prayer, he doesn't dig his soul deep into reading God's Word and letting the painful truths change his heart. Worse yet, he likes popularity with people, and wants an easier life. Then demons send some of his friends to tempt him with sins, or question his faith, he quits his faith, he rejects the faith, he quits pretending he has the faith. That guy didn't lose his salvation; he started his spiritual adventure with a wrong heart wanting popularity and the happy life. The idea of going to Heaven was not that important, because he can find other things to do with his time. Maybe he keeps going to Church for a while as a social club, but Jesus means nothing to him, and his faith is dead. We picture that soil to be like the rocks a farmer dragged out of the field over to the edges of the field.

Listener or seed (3) types, or thorn infested soil. They might pray the sinner’s prayer or does something equivalent; he is similar to example 2, because he also has happy thoughts when he hears about going to Heaven some day. But happy thoughts about Heaven is not receiving the gospel with holy fear of a convicted heart. That becomes like a fun spiritual adventure; they value Jesus for the wrong reasons. That soil has bad thorns like "the cares of this world” and he is deceived into wanting riches, and his religious adventure might be the best way to become rich. So he did not start a salvation covenant with Jesus. Maybe a Church leader guilts him into reading a few Bible verses, and they learn to fake a few behaviors to look Christian, but they never started a salvation covenant, because they can't start a salvation covenant with the wrong heart. But along the way he leaves his spiritual adventure as "been there and done that". Instead this guy likes the cares of this world: money, rigged pro sports, or entertainment, or maybe he gets involved in saving the planet, or trying to solve the nation’s political problems. Those types go to Church for many years, because that is a good thing to do. A few years later the world's sins “choke out the Word”. In the end he doesn't care about God. That person didn't lose his salvation; instead, he never started his salvation covenant. His salvation was dead from the start. We picture that soil to be like soil that has many fast growing weed seeds, as sinful wants already in their soil.

Now that we understand holy fear comes as an essential part of establishing a salvation covenant, and a salvation covenant can't be established without holy fear, that knowledge should help us to better preach the gospel. We need to make sure the soil understands God's righteous judgments. This also applies to those who tell us they already got saved. We should listen for evidence they honestly repented of their past sins, because they hate what they have done in the past. When we are trying to analyze the spiritual condition of a Christian we meet, we should also listen for evidence they have a holy fear and respect toward God and His Word. If they don't exhibit those evidences, then their salvation experience is just a spiritual adventure. No one can start a salvation covenant without holy fear and repentance. Make sure you understand these essentials, so false brethren can't fool you and cause you problems later. Look for evidence of holy fear of sins. And look for a starting time when they became aware of the seriousness of their sins which moved them to beg Jesus to forgive their sins. That info will help you know how to help sinners you meet.

We have found that all big box pastors have signed a 501c3 covenant with the devil. They fall into that exact failure as the 2nd and 3rd soils. They started their spiritual adventure in their youth, and they were so happy talking about Heaven. Then they went to a semitary to get a pastoral degree.

Definition of semitary: a religious school that kills their faith with lies and causing rejection against God's Word. The semitary planted seeds of doubt leading to more apostasy. Instead, those pastors become entertainers making soft easy sermons for a weekly paycheck. Their heart is into the pleasures of money, or movies, or golf, or various types of music, or being a 'foodie' as a food worshiper. They are just like Hollywood actors that learned their script as actors. They became false teachers because they reject the power of God. So they have no power from the Holy Spirit to reject demonic suggestions like porn. Paul predicted these last days in 2 Tim 3:1-9 in the last days... pastors “will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters... having an appearance of godliness but rejecting God and His power to regenerate hearts, turn away from them led away by various lusts... these also resist God's truth, men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith." God gave Peter an exact description of false teachers in 2nd Peter 2, and Jude the half brother of Jesus has a similar message. We hope you will read 2 Peter 2, and Jude 1. Those Passages explain most of the popular religious leaders we all see here in America.

When a pastor rejects God by listening to demons tempting him with porn. That will surely be his spiritual doom. We doubt there is any hope for him because he has violated his pledge to God as a pastor. If you want to try to reach a pastor like that, find Bible verses about sexual sins and verses about demons. Do your best to describe Hell to him as extremely painful. You need to know that conversation will be his last chance to get saved. We believe there is some hope for a young Christian who is deciding between God or porn. The sensual types can learn to be good at listening to spiritual sounds. The porn is strong evidence they do not have a salvation covenant with Jesus. Maybe they tried to, but missed. They are not saved yet. Do your best to alarm them, that they might get saved. If you can reach them. But porn proves they are listening to demons. If they will give their life to Jesus, they have some potential for ministry.

Soils (4), (5) and (6) are different; they receive the painful teachings about God judging their sins in Hell. They realize God must judge all sins. They are concerned that they deserve to be punished in eternal Hell. They hold on to the gospel with holy fear. They learn to hate their sins. They value God's painful truths and want to learn more. They want to learn to obey Jesus. They have the right heart for spiritual growth. They dig deep into their souls tearing out the wants for sins, and planting God's Word deep into their thoughts as Luke 6:46-49 teaches. They build their life's foundation on Jesus their Rock, and they keep finding God's truths described in this Bible study. From the outside they might look like they are learning slower because they are digging deep to learn heart changes. That is different from the soil with thorns; their faith is an act. Learning to act like a Christian is faster, but it's empty. Actors can learn their script in a few days. But true heart changes take weeks of months to learn to feel dead to the wants of sins, one at a time.

Paul's friend Demas is a lesson to all of us. We find Demas in Colossians 4:14 with Paul in Rome about 61AD in Paul's rented house in Acts 28:30-31. Demas is someone who started a spiritual adventure hearing Paul's preaching. But Demas did not start a salvation covenant; he traveled with Paul, and he was there when Paul wrote Romans, but he refused to learn. Demas was secretly telling God 'no' about obedience. When Paul was on his fourth missionary journey, Paul was captured by Nero's troops in Ephesus. It was a brutal event - 2 Tim 1:4. Then Demas made his final decision to quit his spiritual adventure - 2 Tim.4:10, “for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica.” Paul said Demas loved the sensual sins of this world; Demas didn't love Jesus' teachings and holy fear. Demas didn't lose his salvation; he never started a salvation covenant. Demas preferred the sensuality of Thessalonica. Do we blame Paul because he preached the gospel, or do we blame Demas as the soil? We know Paul explained salvation correctly, but Demas decided that he didn't want to live for Jesus. We know Rome was very dangerous in 67AD; so Demas gave up on his spiritual adventure and ran for safety to extend his life a few more months or a few more years. Note: we all know he still died somehow in the next few years; that describes every human.

Judas Iscariot did the same thing. We know Jesus taught holy truth, but the soil rejected Jesus' teachings. Instead Judas loved to steal money and tell fiction stories about giving Jesus' money to the poor. Judas was good at deception; look at Mark 14:5. The disciples should have pointed to Judas immediately in Matt.22:22-25. Judas always was of the devil, he loved filthy money instead of eternal truths. BUT THERE IS ONE LESSON WE SHOULD LEARN FROM ABOUT JUDAS; his final message is recorded in Matt.27:3-5. Judas wanted more money, but after he betrayed Jesus, then he could see how evil he was. Suddenly, the money had no value, and he ruined his soul for the glitter of money: “...Judas... was remorseful and brought back the 30 pieces of silver... he threw down the pieces of silver... went and hanged himself.”

Judas sold his soul for money. The last thing Judas did before he killed himself when he saw money is meaningless and useless, he threw it down as garbage; but it was too late. Acts 1:18 adds, “... and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all of his internal organs gushed out.”. Paul explained greed in 1 Tim.6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” Money on Earth is temporary; everyone will leave the Earth with nothing in our hands - 1st Timothy 6:7. Do not live your life for money.

Jesus warned the Church saints in Rev.2:18, “...be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life... he who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death in Hell.”

The pastoral seminaries teach wanna-be-pastors how to make fancy Churches, and how to entertain their donors with comforting stories, so they can get better donations. Those wanna-be-pastors are told; remember to include a few Bible verses because it makes it you look like a Christian. That explains why wanna-be-pastors do not learn many Bible verses about salvation in seminary. That is also why we call those schools, semitaries. Another problem comes after a wanna-be-pastor gets his degree to become a pastor. With their profession they should study lots of Bible every week, to keep learning and preparing heart-changing sermons. Their personal failure comes when they read Bible verses that they should teach, but they remember their seminary training that tough Bible verses lower Sunday donations. So they tell God that they will not teach those verses. It is important that you remember this: Never tell God "no". Never tell God, "I will not obey You". Never tell God, "I will not teach that". God interprets their answer "no" as a rejection, declaring that God is not their Lord and Savior. Those pastors reject God many times, but God is patient for a long time. Finally God accepts their answer "No".

When they were pastoral students they took classes on Soteriology, the doctrines of salvation. But those classes only teach shallow subjects. Those pastors never learned about the essentials of a salvation covenant. Their professors skipped over every thing important for going to Heaven. Try an experiment – ask your pastor to explain every thing you need to know to finish your salvation covenant. You will find you know more than they do. The Holy Spirit is urging me to give more warning about that: Your pastor will sound very convincing about his ways. Listen to him, but guard your heart and do not follow him. We gave you those teachings from Jesus and His apostles explaining the essentials for salvation. Your pastor isn't smarter than Jesus. Prepare yourself beforehand that you will walk out of his office spinning from his smart answers, and trying to figure if Jesus is correct or your pastor is correct. Don't let that professional entertainer destroy your faith. Take a strong friend with you, but if God warns you that your faith is not strong enough, do not go talk about salvation with your pastor. Wait a year or two until you are much stronger.

We would be glad to hear from you. We know some of these topics are new, and maybe some people consider parts of this as controversial. Please include Bible verses with your comments, so I can follow your Biblical thinking.

Sincerely,

a servant of Christ, David.