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Revelation chapter 6 begins the Tribulation Period, Daniel's 70th Week. We see Jesus as the Lamb loosing the seven seals to open the scroll He took from the Father's hand. As He loosens the individual seals, judgments come forth. The first seal brings the rider on the white horse, the antichrist who will deceive the world. The second seal brings the rider on the red horse and war is the result; peace is taken and people begin killing one another. The third seal brings the rider on the black horse and famine comes, the result of war. It will take a whole days wages just to buy one day's worth of food. The fourth seal brings the rider on the pale green horse and there is widespread death; one fourth of the world's population will die. The fifth seal brings the cry of the martyrs and God's response that they are to have patience until the remainder of their brethren join them. The sixth seal brings about cosmic disturbances to the sun and moon and a great earthquake such that the hills and mountains and islands are removed.The unbelieving people and leaders cry for the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the wrath of God and the wrath of the Lamb. These verses attest to the fact that the Tribulation is well underway during the seal judgments.

Hebrews chapter 12 is an encouragement and exhortation for us to finish strong. The chapter begins with comparing the Christian life to a long distance, endurance run. Just as runners set aside any hindrances to their running successfully, we are to lay aside anything that would hinder us from successfully serving the Lord. Like a running nearing the finish line who keeps his eyes and focus on the finish line, we are to keep our eyes upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our salvation. The writer tells us not to be disheartened by being chastised by the Lord, because the Bible says that God chastises His children--so being disciplined by God can even be an assurance that we are His children. We also are encouraged by being reminded that as we approach the end of our life or our age, we are coming to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable number of angels and believers who have gone on before us.

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Genesis chapter 6 deals with the Sons of God taking wives of the daughters of men that resulted in a hybrid race of men of renown, known as the Nephilim. There are two opposing views to who the "Sons of God" were: the more popular and more recent view is that the Sons of God were descendants of Seth who then married daughters of Cain. The view that it appears the early Church fathers and the Dead Sea Scrolls take is that the Sons of God are angelic beings, in this case, fallen angels who rebelled against God, left their first estate, as Jude put it, and cohabitated with human women which resulted in the Nephilim being born. My opinion is that based off Scriptures in Job and other places, the Sons of God were fallen angels and used by satan to attempt to corrupt the human genome in trying to thwart God's redemptive plan for mankind through the coming Messiah. This situation brought about the depraved, sinful condition of mankind on the earth at that time and resulted in God judging the world and all living things by the Flood of Noah. Noah walked with God and the Bible said he was "perfect in his generations", which I believe speaks to the fact that his family bloodline had not been corrupted. Since he found grace in God's eyes, God used him and his family to repopulate the earth after the Flood

Revelation 5 continues John's experience in the Throne Room of Heaven. He sees the seven sealed scroll in the Father's hand and weeps because no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth is worthy to loose the seals and open the scroll. Then one of the elders assured him that the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David, would prevail to open the scroll. But when John looked at Him, he described Him as a Lamb that had been slaughtered, standing with seven horns and seven eyes which were the seven Spirits of God. As Christ took the scroll, all in the throne room began to worship Him and bow before Him; the four living creatures, the elders, and the angels--and innumerable number. They sang, Worthy is the Lamb to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing! Even the number of things they sang He was worthy of were seven in number.

Hebrews 11 is often called the Hall of Faith. It starts with a very good definition of faith and then begins to list many names from Israel's past that are noted for the faith they had. Names listed include: Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. An important verse of chapter 11 is verse 6--"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him".

Today we look at Adam's descendants to the time of Noah. We are in Revelation chapter 5. We again see some basic fundamental Spiritual principles established in these early chapters of Genesis that are constant throughout the Bible; principles that the world today are trying to refute and disregard. Some of those principles we've looked at that show up again in chapter 5: - God's creation--God created everything, we're not here by evolution - God created man in His image--trinitarian; body, soul, and spirit - God's pattern for marriage--one man and one woman - God created 2 genders; male and female We also look at the late Dr. Chuck Missler's teaching of the meaning of the names of the men in the first ten generations when put together in a sentence gives the eternal redemptive plan of God for man.

Revelation 4 begins the third section of Revelation, the future. We saw the outline of the book back in chapter one, verse 19. There John was told to write the things which you have seen (past), the things which are (present), and the things which will take place after this (future). Meta tauta is the Greek wording for "after these things", which in context here means the things that will take place after the present church age, the Age of Grace. After the Church is removed from the earth at the Rapture, the time of Daniel's 70th Week will take place. We normally refer to those seven years as the Tribulation Period. That period begins in chapter 6 of Revelation. Chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation give John's attempt at describing the scene from the throne room in heaven. Because of the amount of information involved, we will only be looking at chapter 4 today and will be in chapter 5 next week.

Hebrews 10 continues the comparison, showing Jesus to be superior to the Levitical Priesthood and the animal sacrifices that were under the Old Covenant. His death fulfilled God's will and plan for mankind's eternal salvation. His shed blood makes perfect those who trust in Him by completely removing the believers' sin. We are encouraged to hold fast our confession since we have a High Priest over the house of God who makes intercession for us. There is a warning not to willfully sin after we have trusted in Christ. Those who did so during the time of the writing of Hebrews, the transition period going from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant may have continued to take blood sacrifices to the temple. That would be a direct violation of the New Covenant that was consecrated by the blood of Christ once and for all, and anyone who did such could expect judgment. But the writer points out the the "just" shall live by faith, a quote from Habakkuk 2:4. This is the third time of a trilogy of that verse being quoted in the New Testament (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38).

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Genesis 4 deals with the murder of Abel, Cain's wife and descendants, and ends with the birth of Seth.

Chapters 2 & 3 of Revelation deal with the current Church Age and consists of 7 letters to 7 Churches that were in Asia Minor, a portion of modern day Turkey. Each of the letters follows the same pattern of a greeting to the messenger of the church, a description of the Resurrected, Glorified Christ, words of commendation, words of condemnation, instructions or warnings, a promise to the overcomer, and a statement, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches". There are several views of interpretation for the letters and the seven churches: - They were seven literal churches in operation at that time - They represent types of churches throughout the Church Age - There are people in many churches who have these characteristics - The order of the churches given and their situations and experiences picture a timeline through the New Testament Church Age from Pentecost till the Lord returns to set up His Kingdom The letters can be seen as report cards or progress reports for each of the churches. Since we are living in the Church Age today, these letters may be the most important section of the book of Revelation to us today. They instruct us in things to do or not to do and encourage us to have a close fellowship with the Lord.

Hebrews 8 deals with Moses building the earthly tabernacle according to the plans given him on Mount Sinai. It also has a recitation of the New Covenant from Jeremiah 31:31-34. Hebrews 9 deals with Jesus, our High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, being superior to the Levitical High Priests, Himself being a better sacrifice than the Old Testament animal sacrifices, and the heavenly, or true tabernacle, being superior to the earthly tabernacle. If one understands the teaching of Hebrews 9, he will understand the eternal redemptive plan of God for mankind, and the knowledge and belief in God's Son will bring eternal salvation.

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Genesis 3 gives us the Fall of man (Adam and Eve's sin), the first prophetic verse of a coming Messiah, and the expelling of man from the Garden of Eden. The result of the Fall of man was a seed war (as L.A. Marzulli likes to call it) between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. This is an important subject that not only goes thru the entire Bible, but the affects of it can be seen in our world today.

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We begin a study thru The Revelation of Jesus Christ. John the Apostle wrote the things he saw and heard when he was shown the risen, glorified Christ, the throne room and the events that will take place during Daniel's 70th Week, the Tribulation Period. Today we are in chapter 1, which is the first section of the book. Verse 19 of chapter 1 gives the outline of the book: things you have seen (past), things that are (present), and things that will be after these things (future). God gives the information to Jesus, who gives it to an angel, who then gives it to John.

Hebrews 7 deals with Melchizedek and Jesus being our High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. The first Biblical reference of Melchizedek from Genesis 14 is reviewed. The most popular view of Melchizedek in Genesis is that it was a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. Dr. Johnson has written a book, the Ancient Order of Melchizedek in which he presents the order of Melchizedek as being a list, or order, of human men from Adam to Jacob, after which the offices of Priest and King were separated into two different tribes of Israel. Then when Jesus came and is now our High Priest, seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven, He is now our final and eternal High Priest according to the Order of Melchizedek and will reunite the offices of Priest and King to Himself.

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Chapter 2 of Genesis covers the same things from chapter 1, but it gives more detail. We see about Eve's creation and her relationship with Adam. We also discuss the 7 days of Creation week and refer to the typology of the 7 days in a work week, the 7 Feasts of the LORD, and the teaching found in the Dead Sea Scrolls from the Patriarchs and early church fathers of 7000 years of mans history prior to the creation of the new heavens and earth.

We look at verses of encouragement from Psalms 1, 31, 61, 91, and 121

Jude is a one-chapter book right before the book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Jude was a brother of James and half brother of Jesus, but he introduces himself as a bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ, just like James did. Jude is often called the Acts of the Apostates because of Jude talking of judgment coming upon them for their actions. He compares the dreamers as he calls them and their actions to three groups of people; the unbelieving and disobedient Israelites going through the wilderness, the rebellious and fallen angels who cohabitated with women in Genesis chapter 6, and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Jude also is interesting because of its chiastic pattern as sometimes found in Hebrew writing. That pattern is a symmetrical form in which the first verse or verses of the chapter coincide with the last verse or verses and the others follow the pattern till there is one particular theme or subject in the middle of the chapter.

The first portion of Hebrews 6 deals with believers bearing fruit. The last portion of the chapter deals with God's promise and oath to Abraham as an object lesson and encouragement to us that we have an anchor of the soul also based upon God's promises and oaths that our salvation is eternal.

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