Unto the End of the Age

1.1Ignorance Never Provides Protection

• Some believers fear Revelation and avoid it, just as some avoid teaching on eternal security or obedience. Ignorance is not bliss. It leaves people open to danger.
• Matthew 28:18–20: Jesus commands disciples to teach “all” He commanded, and promises to be with them “to the end of the age.” A mock “demonic translation” shows how that promise gets watered down.
• Encouragements: John 16:33 (“I have overcome the world”), “not one hair of your head shall perish,” and 1 John 5:4 (faith overcomes the world).

1.2Topics the Series Will Touch On

• A special blessing is promised to those who teach, hear and keep the truth.
• Literal vs. symbolic: how to tell the difference.
• Rapture or no rapture, and its timing: pre-, mid- or post-tribulation.
• Total or partial rapture: the whole church, or only the overcomers.
• Visible or secret rapture.
• Whether the rapture is a side note or the vital conclusion of God’s plan.
• Preterism, full and partial (70 A.D.), and why it attracts a materialistic church.
• Amillennialism vs. a literal millennium, with a warning about “creating boxes.”

1.3Warnings

• Is Revelation valuable, or just a source of arguments? Start with Scripture, not current events.
• “Honey in your mouth, bitter in your belly”: look at the heart behind the events, not only the events.
• Keys to interpretation: time, events, pronouns, locations, symbols, and earthly vs. heavenly perspective.
• Common excuses: “no one knows,” “it will all pan out,” “every generation thought it was theirs,” “it’s arrogant to think you understand.”
• Revelation 2–3: literal first-century churches, or church ages? Revelation 4–5: the throne room, the Lamb, the Book, the living creatures and the 24 elders.

1.4Planned Study Map

• 70 Weeks of Daniel. Sources: the Old Testament (Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Isaiah, Joel), the Gospels (Matthew 24–25, Mark 13, Luke 17 and 21) and the New Testament (1 Thess. 4, 2 Thess. 2, 1 Cor. 15, Revelation). Birth pangs: the state of the world and the church in the final years.
• Dwellers vs. Tabernaclers. Are the Rapture and the Second Coming one event or two?
• Joy vs. Sorrow: the Parable of the 10 Virgins. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb: when, where, who attends, and who rules and reigns with Christ.
• Rapture terms: harpazo, parousia, apocalupsis, “that Day,” “one taken, one left,” “worthy to escape,” “keep you out of the hour of testing.”
• Key rapture verses: 1 Thess. 4:15–18; 1 Cor. 15:50–52; Rev. 3:10; 2 Thess. 2:1–12; Rev. 12:5–12; Luke 21:34–36; Matt. 24:36–44; Matt. 25:1–10; Isa. 26:16–21; Isa. 66:7–9. About 45 more are cited.
• Significant Greek words, and how some Bible translations help while others hinder.
• Tribulation vs. the Day of Yahweh. The Tribulation is the antichrist and false prophet. The Day of Yahweh is God’s plagues (trumpets and bowls). It is so harsh because the wheat has been gathered and only rebellious, demonized “chaff” is left.
• The Four Horses (Rev. 6:1–8): the antichrist’s rise with war, famine and death; the persecuted church and the souls under the altar; the sixth trumpet (Rev. 9:13–15).
• The Two Witnesses. The 7th world system vs. the 8th (the system vs. the individual man). The 3½ years (42 months, 1,260 days, “time, times and half a time”). 666: are the mark, name, number and image the same or different?

2.1“Atomos”: An Indivisible Moment

• Greek atomos (Strong’s 823) means “uncut” or “indivisible”: a moment too short to measure, a split second. This is the “moment” of 1 Cor. 15:52.

2.2Pastor Jamie’s Definition of the Rapture

• The rapture is the instant resurrection of overcoming Old and New Testament saints who have died, together with the instant snatching up of living believers.
• Both groups meet Jesus in the air, are taken to God’s throne, and receive glorified bodies like Christ’s.
• It happens before the Great Tribulation. It is instantaneous and invisible to everyone not caught up.
• Supporting verses: 1 Thess. 4:16–17; Rev. 12:5; 2:26–27; 1 John 3:2; Luke 21:36; Rev. 3:10; Heb. 9:28.

2.3Biblical Precedent

• Enoch was taken by God (Gen. 5:24).
• Elijah went up in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11).
• Jesus was taken up in a cloud (Acts 1:9–11).
• “We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51).

2.4The Rapture Is Hope, Not Gloom

• Luke 21:28: “look up,” your redemption is near.
• John 14:1–3: do not let your heart be troubled.
• Col. 3:4: you will appear with Him in glory.

3.1Remaining Topics

• Babylon the Great / the Great Whore (the Great City vs. Zion / New Jerusalem).
• The 144,000 (or 288,000?).
• Armageddon, the Millennium, the post-millennium rebellion, the New Heavens and New Earth, and eternity.

3.2Why Are You Studying This?

• Parable of the Sower: what kind of soil will we be? Also the wise and foolish builders.
• Contrasts to weigh: exciting vs. life-changing, diligent vs. casual, reward vs. loss.
• Accepting truth is not the same as loving truth.
• 2 Thess. 2:8–12: those who refuse to love the truth receive a “strong delusion” from God. This is a strong, inward energizing of deception, and it uses the same Greek word as the power Satan gives the antichrist (v. 9).

3.3Eighteen Questions to Consider

The notes list questions for personal reflection, most of which the series answers:

1. Is personal study of end-time prophecy valuable?
2. Has the church focused so much on events and controversy that it missed God’s heart behind them?
3. Is prophecy just endless argument and guessing?
4. Can Revelation be understood?
5. Is it arrogant to think you understand the main structure of prophecy?
6. What are the main events between now and the end of this age?
7. Is there one “coming” of Christ, or a rapture and then a Second Coming?
8. If there is a rapture, when: before the tribulation, after it, or after the Day of the Lord?
9. Is it visible to unbelievers, or invisible?
10. Do all believers go, or are some left?
11. If not all, who is taken and why?
12. What is the purpose of the rapture?
13. If it is pre-tribulation, who are the “saints” killed during the Great Tribulation? Gentiles, or only Jewish believers?
14. Are the Tribulation and God’s wrath one event or two?
15. Is partial preterism more accurate? Was everything fulfilled by 70 A.D.?
16. Why did Jesus warn so strongly about end-time deception, and how do we avoid it?
17. Why does God allow an antichrist government and send such severe plagues?
18. Is prophecy only for scholars, or for every believer?

4.1Prophecy Protects Us From Deception

• Jesus warns again and again about end-time deception: false Christs and false prophets who could deceive “even the elect” (Matt. 24:4–5, 11, 24).
• Paul warns that in the latter times some will depart from the faith through seducing spirits (1 Tim. 4:1). The notes say we are living in those times now.
• The spirit of antichrist must first turn hearts away from God’s Word. Truth sets us free (John 8:32).
• “Perilous times” (2 Tim. 3:1) uses the same Greek word as “exceeding fierce” for the Gadarene demoniacs. It mainly describes the antichrist’s seven-year reign.
• Arm your heart with truth so you may be “accounted worthy to escape” (Luke 21:36).

4.2Prophecy Prepares the Bride and Equips Witnesses

• It prepares the church for the greatest event in its history, the Marriage of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7).
• It makes us ready to give a reason for our hope (1 Pet. 3:15): meeting the Lord in the air.

4.3Jesus Warned Us: “Watch Therefore”

• Whenever Jesus spoke of His coming, He called people to shake off sleep, watch and pray.
• Key verses: Matt. 24:41–42; 25:13; Luke 12:36–37; 21:36; Phil. 3:20; 1 Thess. 5:4–6; Titus 2:13; Rev. 3:3; 16:15.
• We must watch because of perilous times, coming deception and the great apostasy.

4.4II. Why No Current-Events Speculation

• Speculation about the Middle East or who the antichrist is follows a pattern: excitement, then confusion, then disappointment, then skeptical sarcasm.
• That cycle has led many pastors to stop teaching on Revelation altogether.
• Eschatology can be “spiritual fast food” or “broccoli, meat and grains.” Let the Word interpret the Word, then watch and receive revelation.

5.1Revelation 12:9 – Satan Cast Out to Earth

• Satan, the great dragon, deceives the whole world and has been granted authority on earth (Rev. 13:2, 7).
• He is a serious foe. “Devil” (diabolos) means one who throws accusations.
• The irony: he began in heavenly glory and ends on dirt. Believers will sit on the very throne he wanted.

5.2Revelation 12:10 – “Now Is Come the Salvation”

• When the accuser is cast down, he brings his full fury to earth. His authority to war against the saints is granted by God.
• He is enraged because true, final, completed salvation has come. “For” and “Now” mark a pivotal point in history.
• “The salvation” is the hope of the ages, ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Pet. 1:3–16).
• Supporting verses: Heb. 9:28 (He appears “unto salvation”); Heb. 11:35 (“a better resurrection”); Rom. 13:11 (salvation is nearer now than when we believed); 1 Thess. 5:8; Rom. 8:24; Phil. 2:12 (work it out to the end).

5.3Death, the Last Enemy, and the Redemption of the Body

• The rapture can’t be understood without grasping how hideous and destructive death is. Otherwise it becomes “a fun little doctrine” to argue about.
• Adoption (“son-placing”) is tied to the redemption of the body. Adam mortgaged both soul and body.
• Death and the fear of death create bondage (Heb. 2:14–15). Death puts an expiration date on every joy and achievement. It is “the devil’s ace.”
• Christ had to be made fully human so He could taste death for everyone (Heb. 2:9). God’s grace also supports us in dying to self.
• 1 Cor. 15:49–55: vv. 49–50 state the problem; vv. 51–52 give God’s answer for the living and the dead. Death loses its victory at the rapture, which is why Satan is so furious.

5.4Each in His Own Order (1 Cor. 15:19–23)

• Christ is the firstfruits. Afterward come “those who are Christ’s at His coming,” or in the Greek, “in His presence.”
• Salvation required a man, the last Adam. “God didn’t die on the cross; God is immortal.”
• Matt. 27:52–53, the saints raised after Christ’s resurrection, foreshadows the rapture. The phrase “bodies of saints” points to redemption of the body.
• Death is the last enemy destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26). Our lowly body will be transformed like His (Phil. 3:21).

5.5Revelation 12:11–13 – The Overcomers and the Devil’s Wrath

• The raptured saints overcame by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and not loving their lives to the death.
• The devil then turns his wrath on the rest of the church that produced the “manchild.”

5.6Revelation 12:14 – The Woman in the Wilderness

• The remaining true church is protected as a group for 3½ years in the wilderness, though many are martyred. This is their chance to “buy” what they didn’t think they needed before the rapture.
• The wilderness is where God meets and reshapes His people: Moses, Elijah, Paul, Israel, John the Baptist, Jesus.
• Anyone God uses significantly is first called aside, tested and set apart.
• The war in heaven is over and has now come down to earth.

This is the last world government before Christ’s millennial rule. The antichrist is the opposite of everything Christ is. He is fully controlled by Satan and shows what Satan is really like.

6.1I. Revelation 13:1 – The Beast Rising From the Sea

• Revelation is like a series of “still shots” from a movie. It is not strictly chronological, and it shows the same events from earth, heaven, the saints’ view and the world’s view.
• Examples: chapters 13 and 17 overlap; chapters 8–9 come after 12–13; the plagues appear in chapters 8, 9 and 16; chapter 15 is a pause before the bowls.
• “Beast” means a wild, untamed animal. It is the system, the governing authority.

6.2The Seven Heads

• Six heads are historical world empires: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. The seventh is the antichrist’s end-time government.
• Rev. 17:10 views the same sequence from John’s day: five had fallen, one was ruling (Rome), and one was still to come.

6.3Ten Horns / Ten Crowns

• All ten crowns sit on the seventh head. Compare Rev. 12:3, where only seven are crowned.
• They are “kings who have received no kingdom as yet” (Rev. 17:12–13). They are not recognized nations, so not the European Union. They are more likely hidden financial and political power brokers. “Whoever controls the treasury controls the nation.”
• God puts it in their hearts to unite and give their power to the beast (Rev. 17:17).
• The beast’s crowns are diadems, crowns of ruling. The saints’ crowns (Rev. 4:10) are victors’ wreaths.

6.4The World System: The Harlot and the Mystery

• The harlot riding the scarlet beast (Rev. 17:3–8) is the seductive false religious system. The woman of Rev. 12 is the true church.
• Musterion means “to shut the mouth”: something hidden that must be sought out. Examples: the mystery of lawlessness (2 Thess. 2:7), the rapture (1 Cor. 15:51), Christ and the church (Eph. 5:32), and the mystery of God finished (Rev. 10:7).
• Mother of Harlots: the notes trace false religion to Nimrod’s wife Semiramis and a mother-and-child cult. It was scattered at Babel and reappeared as Ashtoreth/Asherah in Israel and Venus in Rome. The notes say it passed into the Roman Catholic Church’s focus on Mary.
• God reveals mysteries to humble, hungry lovers of truth.

6.5Antichrist Worship

• “The beast” means both the system and the man. The man is cast alive into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:19–20). No earlier empire depended on one man this way. He will be a fuller embodiment of Satan, like Judas after “Satan entered him.”
• Worship is tied to the mark, name, number and image (Rev. 13:14–18; 14:9; 15:2). These four phrases seem too distinct to all mean the same thing.
• The notes refuse to speculate about 666. Some unfair laws are not “the mark” (compare carrying a soldier’s pack two miles). 666 may involve finance, religion and government. God will speak clearly when the time comes.
• 2 Thess. 2:4: a spiritual government built on worship. A rebuilt physical temple may not be required. The antichrist may take his seat in the “temple” of human hearts, and waiting for a physical temple could itself become a deception.
• Meditation: New Age / Eastern meditation empties the mind and opens contact with deceptive spirits. That conditions people to welcome the antichrist. Biblical meditation fills the mind with God’s Word. Recommended book: Many Shall Come in My Name by Ray Yungen.
• Music: Daniel 3 ties music to worshiping the image. The church often confuses entertainment with God’s presence (“too many I’s, not enough I AM’s”). The call is for a new wineskin of Spirit-led worship (John 4:23).

6.6Not a Political System

• The antichrist’s rule will be a dark, worship-driven, supernatural dominion, not a democracy or socialism. It feeds on a terrorized world’s desperation.
• The church errs when it looks to politics as its hope or protection (Isa. 30:1–3; 31:1, 3).
• The Sea: restless humanity, meaning peoples and nations (Rev. 17:1, 15). God’s throne has a calm sea of glass (Rev. 4:6; 15:2), and the new earth has “no more sea” (Rev. 21:1).
• Names of Blasphemy: every empire exalted false gods (Egypt’s sun god and pharaoh, Babylon’s Nebo and Bel, Greece’s Athena and Zeus, Rome’s Pantheon and Caesars). The antichrist takes this worldwide.

6.7III. Revelation 13:2 – Leopard, Bear, Lion

• The final system carries traits of earlier empires (Dan. 7:3–6). Leopard = Greece (swift conquest like Alexander). Bear = Medo-Persia (crushing power). Lion = Babylon (a roaring mouth).
• His mouth is heavily emphasized: eloquent, arrogant and blasphemous for 42 months (Rev. 13:5–6). It is the opposite of love in 1 Cor. 13:4–6.
• The dragon gives him power (dunamis) and authority (exousia), the same word used for Jesus’ authority. Christ’s government never ends, and in the end God will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:24–28).

6.8IV. Revelation 13:3 – The Wounded Head

• “Slaughtered into death.” He is “wounded by the sword and lived” (v. 14), which parallels “was, and is not, and yet is” (Rev. 17:8).
• The wound is likely spiritual, from the sword of the Word (Rev. 19:15). It could also be political, financial or physical, and it affects the system too.
• He is the man at the head: “the eighth, and is of the seven” (Rev. 17:11), the “son of perdition.”
• The wound may come from the manchild’s ministry, or from his failed persecution of the saints (Rev. 12:13–17). His career would look “dead,” like Churchill’s setbacks. The notes label this speculation.

6.9V. 2 Thessalonians 2:3–10 – Two Revealings of the Antichrist

• First revealing (v. 3): he acts as a powerful but normal man through ordinary channels.
• The restrainer (vv. 6–7) is taken to be the unified, overcoming saints, the “perfect man” of Eph. 4:13. When they are harpazo’d out of the way (the rapture), he is revealed a second time (v. 8).
• Second revealing: he rises “out of the bottomless pit,” meaning his origin is Satan. The dragon gives him power, throne and authority, and he becomes “Satan manifest in the flesh.” His dramatic recovery astonishes the world and unites the ten kings behind him.

6.10The False Prophet, the Overcome Church, and No “Escapism”

• The dragon’s flood (Rev. 12:15–16) may be false religious systems. The “earth” (stable religion) helps the woman, since larger religions sometimes shield the remnant. The false prophet rises from the earth; the antichrist rises from the sea.
• The church left behind is overcome and slaughtered (Rev. 13:7; 6:9–11; Dan. 7:21). Yet it is bold, prophesying and powerful, having repented of Laodicean lukewarmness (Rev. 3:15–19).
• Crucial point: the biblical rapture is not escapism for slothful, carnal Christians. The immature “little sister” (Song of Songs 8:8) and virgins without oil must mature during the tribulation.
• Those “counted worthy to escape” have already made a martyr’s commitment in their hearts. “God has not appointed us to wrath.”
• Closing reflection: maybe leaving Egypt was God’s greater glory. It may take more faith to go than to stay, so ask, seek and knock for a place in the rapture.

7.1Revelation 12 Recap

• John was a partner “in the tribulation” because of the testimony of Jesus (Rev. 1:9). The same testimony marks the remnant (12:17), the souls under the altar (6:9) and the beheaded saints (20:4).
• The woman flees to the wilderness (12:14). The serpent’s flood is swallowed by the earth (vv. 15–16). The dragon, in uncontrolled rage, makes war on her offspring (v. 17).

7.2The Text of Revelation 13:1–18

• The chapter is read in full: the First Beast (vv. 1–10) and the Second Beast (vv. 11–18).
• The image of the beast is given breath so it can (A) speak and (B) have those who refuse to worship killed. The mark is different from the image.
• 13:18, “Here is wisdom”: understanding belongs to Daniels and Josephs, not “silly authors, pastors, speakers, YouTubers.”

7.3I. The Dragon Gave Him (A) Power, (B) His Throne and (C) Great Authority – Daniel 7 Parallels

• Daniel 7:7–28 describes the same final government. The fourth beast is terrifying, has ten horns, and a “little horn” with a boastful mouth uproots three of them.
• Daniel wrote under Babylon, so the next four empires (Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, the antichrist) were future to him (Dan. 7:17).
• Parallels: Dan. 7:8 and 20 with Rev. 13:5–6 (the mouth); Dan. 7:21 with Rev. 13:7 (war on the saints); Dan. 7:24 with Rev. 17:12–13 (ten kings); “time, times and half a time” in Dan. 7:25 and Rev. 12:14.
• “BUT the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom” (Dan. 7:18, 22, 26–27), which points to the Millennium.
• Daniel was troubled by his vision (7:28). There is a price to pay for revelation.

7.4Crowns on Heads vs. Horns

• In Rev. 12:3 the crowns sit on the heads, which shows the final government being formed (compare Dan. 7:20, 24). In Rev. 13:1 they sit on the horns, which shows all ten kings in power.
• “Wound of the sword” (13:14): the sword is the Word of God, coming out of Jesus’ mouth.
• The rest of this session repeats the 2009 notes in Part 6 (seven heads, ten horns, the mystery, antichrist worship, the sea, the wound).

7.5How the Antichrist’s Recovery May Happen

• His “healed wound” may come as he explains where the raptured saints went: “They had to be removed … evil resisters of the new age.”
• Meditation and Eastern religion are merging worldwide and in the church, building a bridge to one umbrella under the antichrist.

7.6IV. Revelation 13:7 – War on the Saints and Overcoming Them

• Granted by God: his authority is permitted within God’s will, just as saints are granted authority to heal. This is compared to Jesus drinking the cup (Matt. 26:39–44). Suffering follows humanity’s choices: “we cannot sow the wind and reap a great calm.”
• Total war: focused, organized, “6,000 years of frustration” war.
• “Overcome” means overcome. This challenges the idea that the whole church goes through the tribulation, and the “Goshen principle” (Ex. 8:22; 12:13).
• The woman is protected only as a witness group for 3½ years while millions are killed. This happens after the manchild’s rapture (12:5). The souls under the altar wait for the full number of martyrs (6:9–11).
• Word study: the same Greek word is used in John 16:33, Rev. 3:21, 12:11, 2:7, 2:11, 2:17, 1 John 5:4 and Rev. 11:7. Inserting “sort of” shows it can’t mean something weaker here. “You cannot be kinda pregnant.”
• The tribulation is not “the church’s finest hour,” any more than David’s victory was Goliath’s finest hour.
• Categories of “all”: everyone who refuses to worship is killed (13:15), and everyone who worships is lost (14:11). Rev. 3:10 promises to be kept ek (out of) the hour of trial.
• Dan. 7:21, 25: he “prevails” and “wears out” the saints, and they are “given into his hand.”
• Luke 21:35–36: a snare comes on all who dwell on earth, so watch and pray to escape all these things. On earth you either worship the antichrist or die.
• Satan would fight hard to mock this truth, or to convince committed believers they won’t qualify.
• Rev. 12:17, “the remnant of her seed”: these are the manchild’s spiritual siblings, saints left on earth who did not overcome before the rapture. The second copy adds Gen. 1:11–12: everything brings forth after its kind.
• Satan has always made war: Cain, Haman, Antiochus Epiphanes, Herod, and today’s abortion.
• Authority over every nation: Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms for one act of worship (Luke 4:5–8). Jesus refused to be made king by force (John 6:15, in the second copy). The antichrist grabs what Jesus refused (Phil. 2:6; Isa. 14:14). Satan craves worship above all.

7.7V. Revelation 13:8 – All Who Dwell on the Earth Will Worship Him

• Satan has settled for “second-hand worship” through money, sex, entertainment, education, politics and, most commonly, self-worship. Under the antichrist the veil becomes nearly transparent.
• The second copy adds that rock and hip-hop concerts can be misdirected worship of Lucifer, who was originally given music.
• Everyone left alive on earth worships him (13:4). Only those in the Book of Life refuse.

7.8VI. Revelation 13:9 – “If Anyone Has an Ear”

• This is a sobering pause: taking the mark is eternally fatal (Rev. 14:9–11).
• Why judgment without mercy? These people saw the manchild’s revival ministry, the rapture and the two witnesses, and still rejected God knowingly. So God sends strong delusion (2 Thess. 2:9–12).
• They are “apithea” (un-persuadable), and refuse to repent even under the plagues (Rev. 9:20–21; 16:9–11). It is like Noah’s day: “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever” (Gen. 6:3, 7; 7:21–23).

7.9VII. Revelation 13:10 – Captivity and the Sword

• Those who arrest and kill the saints will receive the same from God. Knowing God’s justice gives the saints patience and keeps their faith safe.

7.10VIII. Cry Out to God

• God responds to anyone who cries out. He does not want His beloved to live through this time, which is why a pre-tribulation rapture matters so much to Him.
• Overcomers know they can’t overcome in themselves. They hold to the Word, the blood and their testimony.

8.1I. Revelation 13:11 – Another Beast From the Earth

• “Another” (allos): another of the same kind as the antichrist, “birds of a feather.” He is a powerful, miracle-working prophet.
• Out of the earth: the earth is stable, unlike the sea. Religion stabilizes society, so he likely rises from the religious world as a voice of spirituality.
• Two horns like a lamb: lamblike authority that hides destructive power. He shows a false gentleness and purity. The notes compare this to the Inquisition under a pious-seeming pope. Two horns mean double power.
• Spoke like a dragon: his words come from Satan (John 8:38–47). He is “a dragon in sheep’s clothing,” gentle until crossed.
• Satan is a long-range planner who may plan multi-year strategies against believers. Stay in close communication with the Father.

8.2II. Few Other Verses on the False Prophet

• He is cast alive into the lake of fire with the beast (Rev. 19:20).
• Frog-like spirits come from the mouths of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet (Rev. 16:13).
• They are tormented forever (Rev. 20:10).

8.3III. Revelation 13:12 – He Exercises All the First Beast’s Authority

• He uses that authority to make the whole world worship the antichrist, like an evil John the Baptist.
• He works “in the presence” and “in the sight” of the beast, which is mentioned three times (vv. 12, 14). This suggests extra “anointing” from being near the dragon’s power.

8.4IV. Revelation 13:13 – Fire From Heaven

• This is literal and miraculous, beyond anything the prophets of Baal could do (1 Kings 18:25–29). Compare Pharaoh’s magicians (Ex. 7:10–12).

8.5V. Revelation 13:14 – Deception by Signs

• The pattern is rejection, inspection, deception, as with Eve. She rejected God’s word, pondered the lie, and was caught. The same happens with condemnation, hurt, unforgiveness and fear.
• Refusing to love the truth brings strong delusion (2 Thess. 2:10–12).
• “Dark light” (Matt. 6:22–23): false illumination, such as meditation, feels elevating at first but ends in emptiness and mental fragmentation.
• Jesus’ warnings: Matt. 24:4–5, 10–12, 24; 1 Thess. 5:3–7; Rev. 18:23 (the nations deceived by sorcery).

8.6VI. 2 Thessalonians 2:8–12 (Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible)

• The lawless one is destroyed by the breath of Christ’s mouth and the brightness of His presence (compare Isa. 11:4).
• “Inworking”: an inward energizing by Satan.
• Signs and “wonders of falsehood”: these are life-altering, not stage-magic level. Even God’s people will have to resist with all their will. Illustrations: a seductress in a prisoner’s cell, or a plate of food before a starving man.
• Teras (“wonders”) is the same word used for God’s true wonders throughout Acts (2:19, 22, 43; 4:30; 5:12; 6:8; 7:36; 14:3; 15:12).
• Dark futuristic Hollywood films (UFOs, aliens) are said to preview Satan’s vision and condition people for it.
• Loving the truth: Israel chose “no king but Caesar” to be rid of the Truth. Giving in to truth is different from loving it.
• Supporting verses: 3 John 4; Ps. 51:6; Isa. 59:14–15 (“truth is fallen in the street,” so the righteous become targets); Jer. 7:28; Lam. 3:40; 2 Pet. 1:12; 2 Cor. 13:5.
• Self-examination: do I love truth at any cost, in worship, marriage, money, politics and gender? Buy eye salve to see correctly (Rev. 3:18), and watch for “bent oars.”
• “Strong delusion” (energia planē): energized error. God “will choose their delusions” (Isa. 66:4). The church struggles with this side of God because of a “Papa Grace” attitude.
• “The lie”: possibly the self-god lie told to Eve, evolution, or the antichrist as the “completed Christ” and “god-man prototype.” “His rallies will make Nuremberg look like a PTA meeting.”
• “Well pleased with unrighteousness”: delighting in evil, which is the opposite of everything the saints love. That sets up the war.

8.7VII. 1 Kings 18:21 – Halting Between Two Opinions

• Hesitation and double-mindedness are among the greatest killers of revival, faith and miracles. They keep many out of the overcomers’ ranks.
• Double-mindedness brings instability, and the notes link it to depression. The fear of man and the “god of balance and safety” are false gods. Without faith it is impossible to please God.
• God empowers the will (Phil. 3:14–15). Confront Goliath, don’t negotiate. David took five stones (grace), not six (man).

8.8VIII. Revelation 13:15–18 – The Image, the Mark and 666

• This is real. A day will come when no one can buy or sell outside the system. You are either in, or out and treated as dangerous.
• It is spiritual, not merely political. Satan gives the kingdoms to whomever he chooses (Luke 4:5–6). “Man mortgaged the earth to Satan.”
• Three apparent allegiances: (1) the mark, (2) the name, and (3) the number of his name. Calculating it takes understanding.
• 666 could mean control of money, politics and religion, a “bar code,” or a man-god culture. Wait for more light before demanding loyalty to one view.
• Far more important: be gone before the snare comes. “Even so, Lord Jesus, come.”

9.1Opening and Purpose

• Opening illustration: a surrounded fort like the Alamo, with a few soldiers and their families facing horrific death.
• Goal: to show a clear contrast between the rapture and the Second Coming. Many voices online and in churches say there is only one event. The session builds on the earlier “57-verse rapture marathon.”

9.2What Precedes the Second Coming: The Day of Yahweh

• Jer. 25:29–33: Yahweh roars from on high, has a controversy with the nations, and the slain lie from one end of the earth to the other.

9.3Second Coming Passages and the Contrast in Attitude

• Passages: Zech. 12:10–12 (they mourn for the one they pierced); Matt. 16:27; Matt. 24:29–30; Luke 21:26–27; 2 Thess. 1:7–9 (in flaming fire, taking vengeance); Jude 14–15 (He comes with tens of thousands of saints).
• Rev. 1:7: every eye sees Him and all nations wail. That is the opposite of the saints’ joy at the rapture.
• Rev. 6:16–17: people hide from “the wrath of the Lamb” and know who He is.
• Rev. 19:11–15: the rider on the white horse, the armies of heaven, the sword from His mouth.
• Rev. 19:7–8: the bride “made herself ready” by receiving fine linen, the righteous acts produced by living in Christ’s righteousness.

9.4Contrast in the Time Element

• The rapture comes before the tribulation: Luke 21:28, 36 (escape all these things); Rev. 3:10 (kept ek, out of, not dia, through, the hour of trial).
• Rev. 12:5–6, 13: the manchild is caught up to God’s throne first. Then the woman is persecuted for 1,260 days. The dragon can’t reach the manchild, so he blasphemes “those who dwell in heaven” (13:6).
• The rapture and the Second Coming are seven years apart.
• Second Coming: all nations gather against Jerusalem, and the Lord’s feet stand on the Mount of Olives, which splits (Zech. 12:9–10; 14:1–5). He comes to judge the living, not the dead.

9.5The Order of Judgment

1. Judgment begins at God’s house: the Bride is separated from the lukewarm at the rapture.
2. Judgment continues through the antichrist’s seven-year reign.
3. National Israel is judged up to the Second Coming.

• Supporting passages: Joel 3:2–16 (the valley of Jehoshaphat, “multitudes in the valley of decision”); Zeph. 1:15–18 (silver and gold can’t deliver them); Rev. 16:14–16 (gathering to Armageddon); Rev. 19:11–21 (the beast and false prophet cast into the lake of fire).
• Ezekiel 38–39 describes the great war in Palestine, which is unrelated to the rapture.

9.6Contrast in Location

• The rapture is worldwide and instantaneous: some are in bed at night while others are working in the field by day (Luke 17:34–36).
• The Second Coming is local: the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:4; Acts 1:9–11, “in like manner”), tied to Armageddon in Palestine (Zech. 14:2; Rev. 16:16).

9.7Contrast Between Rapture Texts and Second Coming Texts

• 1 Thess. 4:15: “coming” is better read as “presence.” “In the clouds” means the literal sky.
• Matt. 24:36–41: life goes on as in Noah’s day, then some are suddenly taken. The rest are judged afterward.
• 1 Cor. 15:23–24: each is raised “in his own rank.” Exanastasis (Phil. 3:11) means an “out-resurrection from among the dead.”

9.8What the Second Coming Scriptures Teach

• A literal Second Coming brings divine judgment on those living on the earth (not the dead) and establishes a literal kingdom for national Israel.

The notes abbreviate partial preterism as PP. Historically it was held mainly in Lutheran, Presbyterian, Reformed, Episcopal and Catholic churches.

10.1Origins and Related Movements

• The notes say PP was developed in 1614 by Jesuit priest Luis de Alcasar. He wrote it as a defense against Reformers who taught that the pope was the antichrist and Rome was “Babylon the Great.”
• Related ideas: “Kingdom Now,” Dominion Theology, and the “7 Mountains” teaching that the church will take over culture’s seven spheres.
• C. Peter Wagner is quoted: dominion comes by placing “kingdom-minded people” in Religion, Family, Education, Government, Media, Arts & Entertainment and Business.

10.2Core Claims of PP

• All Old Testament prophecy and Jesus’ prophecies were fulfilled in Israel’s history, finally in Rome’s attack on Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
• God is finished with physical Israel. Israel’s promises have been transferred to the church.
• There is no literal millennium and no earthly reign of Christ with the saints.
• Revelation is mostly allegory: no future rapture, antichrist, world government or global plagues. Most adherents do accept the last two or three chapters: the Second Coming and the white throne judgment.

10.3Its Spread Into Charismatic Churches

• Over the last 30–40 years PP has “leaped the fence” into Pentecostal and charismatic churches, including the New Apostolic Reformation and Bethel.
• It is tied to “heaven on earth now” (“Thy kingdom come”). This has energized people to pray for the sick and prophesy renewal, and God honors their faith. But the notes say hidden in that “basket of good fruit” is the toxic deception of PP.
• Leaders are responsible to search the Scriptures and see if it matches both Testaments.

10.4Good Fruit Does Not Prove a Doctrine

• Analogy: someone in an adulterous affair may show new energy and look better. Short-term “fruit” does not validate the cause, and benefits don’t prove a doctrine true.

10.5Wide Variation and Extremes

• Turning literal texts into allegory produces many versions, which the notes call “fairy tales.”
• The extreme view says we already live in the new heavens and new earth, and Christ’s “return” was His judgment on Israel in 70 A.D. “If this is as good as it gets, well…”

10.6Why It Attracts, and the Call to Truth

• Love every born-again believer, but “buy the truth and sell it not.”
• “Good false news really sells”: a church that only grows stronger and faces no future judgments is an attractive alternative “truth.”
• God’s truth never goes on sale. A partial truth eventually causes harm (ask Adam and Eve). Truth brings life and peace, along with testing. “Buy God’s truth, and you will win.”