"All consciousness is consciousness of something," as Jean Paul Sartre so aptly wrote. If this be indubiatably true, then it would seem that consciousness must objectify anything of which it is conscious. This can be the only way in which consciousness works. That of which consciousness is conscious must be separate from consciousness itself. Consciousness itself has to be the active agent; that is, consciousness operates to put its object in a state of awareness. The object has to be in a passive state; that is, that on which consciousness operates to bring it into a state of awareness. An object cannot be one with the consciousness of it for the same reason that a photograph cannot be one with the camera that takes it.
If brain activity is identical with consciousness, then it would seem that the one entity of which consciousness could never be conscious is brain activity. That which is one with itself cannot be separate from itself. In order for consciousness to be conscious of brain activity, then consciousness must objectify it. This requires that consciousness separate itself from brain activity in order to be conscious of it. Then again, in order for an awareness of brain activity to exist, there must be a consciousness of the consciousness of brain activity. But then again, this consciousness requires still another consciousness, and so forth toward infinity. This effect would seem to indicate that consciousness cannot be a material substance. Consciousness must be some immaterial substance connected to infinity.
The materialists might counter this argument by contending that this view of consciousness constitutes but an illusion. But this illusion begins with a consciousness of brain activity which is an absolute fact. This fact can only mean that the consciousness of brain activity must also be an absolute fact since it is quite impossible to say anything, or write anything, of which one is not conscious. If brain activity is working as it should, and the consciousness of it is also working as it should, then how can this fact be an illusion? Illusions are always about something that does not work as it should. Illusions always equal nothing. Since consciousness of brain activity, and its requisite connection to infinity, must be real since otherwise one could say nothing about it; then this condition cannot be an illusion since if it were, it would equal nothing and one could say nothing about it.
The materialists might counter with the argument that the illusion is circular and not linear. However, by saying this, the materialists must admit that they are conscious of this circularity. If so, they must also admit that their consciousness has departed on a tangent that requires a linear connection of their consciousness to infinity.
The simple truth behind all of this speculation is that human consciousness requires a transcendent connection to infinity in order to be self-conscious and intelligent. This also means that the infinite must be a Conscious Infinity.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Saturday, March 23, 2013
THE GOOD versus THE EVIL chapter 8
The Final Wars
Revelation 19:11-21 Revelation 16:13-16 Revelation 20:1-10 Joel 3:20 Joel 3:9-16 Joel 2:1 Zechariah chapter 14 Amos 9:11 II Thessalonians 2:4
Contrary to popular opinion, the battle of Armageddon will not be the end of the world or even the end of evil. The purpose of the battle will be that the Jewish Messiah, who is the Lord Jesus, will return to earth from heaven to rescue the nation of Israel from an invasion by an evil army led by the Anti-Christ. The Lord will bring His church with Him when He comes because He will have already Raptured them to heaven prior to the Great Tribulation that will precede His second coming.
Jesus will come to earth in the air and Rapture His church, and then the Tribulation period will begin and last seven years. In the middle of these seven years the Anti-Christ will enter the Jewish Temple that will have been rebuilt by Christ and declare himself to be the Jewish god. This act will start the second half of the seven years called the Great Tribulation. Incidentally, nowhere does the Bible teach that the Jews will rebuild the third temple, but it does teach, in several places, that Christ will rebuild His third temple.
Revelation 16:13-16 Revelation 14:9-12 Revelation 14:6-7 Revelation chapters 12 & 13 Revelation 11:3-12 Daniel 7:8 Daniel 7:15-28 Daniel 8:23-26 Daniel 11:36-45
Immediately following the Rapture of the church, the seven years period of time called The Tribulation begins. The Holy Spirit restrains the full powers of evil until God removes Him along with His church from the world. Then the powers of evil will be fully unleashed and horrible wars, including nuclear wars, will begin along with famine and all the terrible suffering that results from these horrors. At this time, ten evil leaders will control ten centers of power and these will be fighting each other to gain control of the wealth of the world for themselves and their cronies. These wars will continue for three and one half years with heavy casualties, but when the sixth seal is opened in heaven, God and His Son will reveal Themselves to the whole world and the wars will temporarily stop while men try desperately to hide themselves from the face of the Holy God. Read Revelation 6:12-17. Revelation 6:9-11 reveals that even during this horrible time, some people will realize that the Rapture was real and they will cling to faith in God's Word even without the aid of the Holy Spirit. These believers will be slaughtered by the evil forces, but their souls will be honored when they reach heaven.
At this time, all faith will be in danger of being completely extinguished from the earth, but when God reveals Himself to the world, He will establish special enclaves of safety that will provide special protections for His people. He will establish the first of these enclaves in the nation of Israel where Christ will convert 144 thousand Jews to His service. These believers will continue to preach the gospel to the world during the time that the evil men are trying to hide from the face of God, and all of the Jews and Gentiles who believe their gospel will receive a seal in their foreheads indicating that they belong to God. As Revelation 7:9-17 records, many of these saved and sealed Jews and Gentiles will be martyred during the Great Tribulation and their souls will be honored in heaven. Verse fourteen is especially significant because it reveals that these martyrs will not be washed in the blood of Jesus until they get to heaven which also shows that the Holy Spirit is not in the world to wash these believers in Jesus' blood when they believe, but the seal in their foreheads separate them as God's people.
Revelation 8:1 reveals that the silence in heaven that follows the opening of the seventh seal marks the end of the brief reprieve in the Tribulation in which God established enclaves for His people. The Great Tribulation then follows this reprieve.
Chapter nine of Revelation records the beginning of the wars of the Great Tribulation, but these wars will be quite different from the wars of the first three and one half years of the Tribulation period. These wars begin with the sound of the fifth trumpet in which a "star" that falls from heaven to earth opens a place called "the bottomless pit" and hordes of demons are released on the earth, not to kill, but to torment all people who have not received the seal of God in their foreheads. Apparently, the purpose of this torment is to force these people to accept the leadership of the "angel" of the bottomless pit who is none other than the beast, or Anti-Christ. The sound of the sixth trumpet announces that the released demons will succeed in forcing millions of humans to become demon possessed and these armies will then begin to attack God's enclaves and kill many of God's people.
Revelation 10:1-7 reveals that a "mighty angel" descends from heaven and puts his right foot upon the sea and his left foot on the earth. This act symbolizes God's reassurance that even during the worst of the Great Tribulation, God still retains control over the history of the world, of the earth and of the sea. This angel also announces that when the seventh trumpet sounds, God will triumph over evil and time will be finished. No doubt, the visitation of this angel will greatly boost the morale of God's people defending the enclaves.
In the second part of this chapter, this same angel gives the Apostle John a "little book" and tells him to eat it up. This "little book" symbolizes the Word of God. It tastes sweet to John because it saves millions, but it becomes bitter in his stomach because it also judges and destroys millions. This angel then prophesies to John that in the future he will preach the Word of God in God's enclaves to convince people to receive the seal of God in their foreheads. This may also be the same prophecy that Jesus gave to Peter when He said of John: "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me." John 21:22.
The internecine wars of evil against evil that Revelation often relates, are caused by man's obsession with greed and power. God allows and even encourages these wars because they assist Him in destroying Satan's kingdom. When God uses false systems to destroy other false systems, then good systems result. These good systems effect the diminution of evil systems while at the same time sparing the lives of millions of God's people. God demonstrated His use of this tactic many times in His Word. In WWII, God caused the Nazis to war against the Communists in order to diminish both and also to spare the lives of millions of good people. Jesus prophesied about God's use of this tactic in Matthew 12:25-26.
In Revelation 11:1-2, the angel gives the Apostle John a reed and tells him to measure the temple with it. This instruction shows that the third temple exists in Jerusalem at this time. Nowhere does the Bible teach that the third temple will be built by the Jews. Everywhere that the Bible mentions the third temple, it always relates that it will be built by God Himself. Read Amos 9:11, Zechariah 6:12-13 and Acts 15:16.
Revelation 11:3-12 tells the story of God's two witnesses who will preach in Jerusalem throughout the first half of the Tribulation period. God will give these two witnesses special powers to protect them from the evil forces. But when the Great Tribulation starts the "beast" will attack and take Jerusalem and will kill these two witnesses. Their bodies will lie in the street for three and a half days while the evil forces rejoice over their deaths. But their joy will be turned to fear when God resurrects these two witnesses and they ascend to heaven in the sight of God's enemies.
Revelation 11:13-14 records that God will then send a great earthquake to Jerusalem that will kill seven thousand men. Even God's remnant whom He will be protecting within an enclave near Jerusalem will be frightened by this earthquake. Yet, this remnant will give glory to God for this encouragement and reminder that God is still fighting His enemies.
In Revelation 11:15-19, the Apostle John records a scene in heaven when God has His angel sound the seventh trumpet. All of heaven rejoices at this sound for with it God promises all of His people in heaven and in the enclaves on earth that at the end of the seven years of Tribulation, He will triumph over all evil and He will reign on the earth. All of God's people in heaven and on earth will hear this seventh trumpet and will know what it means.
Revelation chapter 12 reheares the spiritual history of Israel, symbolized by the "woman who brings forth the man child." The "woman" stands for the nation of Israel from the time it was but an idea in the mind of God, and the "man child" stands for Jesus, Israel's Messiah. The war began in heaven when Lucifer tried to destroy God who is also the Messiah. The war continued on earth where Satan has tried mightly throughtout history to prevent the Messiah from coming by attempting to destroy Israel, and by trying to destroy the Messiah when He did come. As this war continues, verse six prophesies that God will provide an enclave during the Great Tribulation for the remnant of Israel who have received His seal in their foreheads. Verse fourteen records that this enclave will be in the "wilderness" near Jerusalem and that God will provide everything His people will need for their protection and nourishment. Satan will attempt to destroy this enclave with a flood of water, perhaps by damming the Jordan river and then breaking this dam. But God will protect His people by opening the earth which will swallow the flood. Satan's failure will enrage him and he will return to launching military attacks against God's enclave, and succeed in causing heavy casualties, but he will not destroy God's enclave.
Revelation chapter thirteen records the prophecies of the "beast" that comes out of the "sea," and the "beast" that comes out of the "earth." When the fifth trumpet sounds, then the "bottomless pit" will be opened and huge armies of demons will be released to the earth. The king of these demons will have a name which can be interpreted as "The Destroyer." As Revelation 20:13 reveals, Hell has three compartments, namely "the sea," "death" and "hell." This means that the "bottomless pit" and "the sea" is the same place, and that "the Destroyer" and "the beast" is the same person. This beast who rises from the sea will have seven heads and ten horns. The seven heads symbolize the seven years of the Tribulation period, and the ten horns symbolize the fact that the Destroyer will use his hordes of demon armies to gain control over the ten powers that will rule the earth during the first half of the Tribulation period. The "Dragon," which is another name for Satan himself, will give his power to the beast. One of his seven heads will be wounded to death but then will be healed. This charade consists of nothing but a false death and resurrection. The beast presents this farce in order to pretend to the world that he is the Messiah of the Jews. The beast will know that many of the Jews have already turned to faith in the true Messiah, and that many in the world will know that these believers are living in God's enclaves. For these reasons, he must pretend to be the Messiah in order to get the world to put its faith in him. Revelation 13:6 records the same act by the beast as that revealed in II Thessalonians 2:4. He will enter into the temple of God and claim that he is Messiah and God, and will blaspheme the true God and Messiah. Verse seven relates that God will allow the beast "to make war against the saints, and to overcome them." This means that he will launch vicious attacks against God's enclaves which will cause a great number of casualties among the saints, but verse eight also records that all the world will worship the beast except those whose names are written in the book of life of the Lamb. This shows that the beast will not succeed in destroying God's enclaves. Verse eight records that the "patience and faith of the saints" will finally result in the total destruction of evil.
In Revelation 13:11-18, the story changes from that of the first beast who came out of the sea to that of "another beast" who comes out of "the earth." This second beast will come from that compartment of Hell filled with fire and brimstone to replace the first beast. The Bible gives no exact reason why this happens. A speculative reason lies in verse fifteen where the second beast creates an image of the first beast which he causes the world to worship. This would seem to indicate that perhaps the first beast becomes disabled by his deadly wound and thus will not be able to continue as the evil leader. This condition will require the second beast to create a false image of the first beast in order to convince the world that he is still alive and well. This means that in a comical manner, the first beast will so bungle his own pretended death and resurrection that the Devil will have to send a second beast to create a farcical image of the first beast as being resurrected. But this charade only reveals to God's people the utter absurdity of the false resurrection. In verses 16-18, the second beast creates his own answer for the seal of God in the foreheads of His believers. The second beast forces all men under his control to receive a mark in their foreheads or right hands which will separate them forever from God's people. The second beast's order that no one will be allowed to buy or sell except those who have this mark will have the intent of forcing any of God's people who may be secretly living among them into the open so they can be killed. The Bible supplies the number of this mark as 666 so that God's future people will be able immediately to identify their enemies. God will not allow Satan to use any other number.
Revelation 14:1-5 relates that at the beginning of the Great Tribulation, Jesus will stand on Mount Zion and reveal Himself to the 144 thousand converted Jews residing in His protected enclave near Jerusalem. His revelation will result in a tremendous worship service with heaven and the enclave joining together to sing praises to God and His Messiah. The purpose of this great worship service will be to encourage God's remnant to endure the horrible attacks that will be coming at them from the beast's armies. Zechariah 14:1-7 prophesies about the beast's attack on Jerusalem, and how he will take it, and how the Messiah will visit His people and open a great valley for the protection of His remnant who will flee into it when He splits the Mount of Olives. Verses six and seven prophesy that perhaps Jesus will cover this valley with an impenetrable dome which will be lighted by some type of artificial light. After God has secured His people within this enclave, the great worship service will begin.
At this time, God's people will be pinned down in their enclaves and will be unable to spread the gospel. At the same time, the beast will be forcing the people of the world to receive his mark in order to separate them from God's salvation forever. Because of God's compassion for the world's people and His desire to give them a chance to refuse the beast's mark and be saved, He will devise a new method to get the gospel to the people of the world. Revelation 14:6-7 prophesies that God will simply send an angel to preach His gospel to the world and give all people an opportunity to accept it and be saved. Most of those who accept it will be martyred by the beast, but they will certainly escape becoming completely demonic and being lost forever because they received the mark.
Revelation 14:8 relates that God will send another angel to announce to the world that "Babylon is fallen, is fallen,...." Babylon here is the symbolic name for all of the evil systems throughout the history of the world. God will be warning the world that He will conquer evil at the end of these wars, and so all people should refuse the mark and accept the gospel preached by the first angel.
Revelation 14:9-11 records that those who receive the mark of the beast will become totally demonic, and therefore, will suffer the same punishment in the lake of fire as will the demons themselves. They will be tormented in a state of full consciousness forever in order to occupy their minds so completely that they will be unable to devise any more evil. Verses 12-13 relates that those who believed the angel and were killed, will rest and await their resurrections and rewards from Christ.
Revelation 14:14-20 probably does not refer to the battle of Armageddon. These verses relate nothing about the Second Coming of Christ. These verses simply report that during all of the horrible wars of the Tribulation period, the forces of evil will also suffer tremendous casualties and that the souls of these dead will be subject to the wrath of God.
The fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of Revelation recounts that God will use seven last plagues to wage direct war from heaven on the forces of evil in order to protect His enclaves of Jewish and Christian saints. Chapter 16:13-16 reveals that the Devil will send three evil spirits to call the kings of all the evil armies all over the world to abandon their wars against the Christian enclaves and concentrate all their forces against the enclave of the Jewish saints in Jerusalem. The Devil will reason that if he can crush the Jewish enclave, then he will prevent God's prophecy that Christ will become King of the Jews and Ruler of the world from ever coming true, and thus he will defeat God and become the ruler of the world himself. Verse sixteen reveals that the Devil will call these armies to gather at Armegeddon and not at Jerursalem. This may mean that the Anti-Christ will have lost Jerusalem to a counterattack by the Jewish enclave.
Revelation, chapter seventeen, relates the destruction of a harlot woman who symbolizes apostate Christendom. This harlot will be destroyed by the ten evil kings because they will so hate the name of Christ that they will desire no remembrance of His name even if nominally held by an apostate church. Verse eighteen does compare this church to the city of Rome, but this merely constitutes a prophecy that history will show that the church of Rome will contain the most apostates who will retain a certain amount of political power over the future kings of the earth. Yet, as Jesus prophesied in Revelation 2:13 and 19, even this apostate church will contain some true believers. But most of the members of this apostate church will be but nominal Christians because they will trust in the elaborate ceremonies of this church and not in Christ Himself. Even so, God has miraculously preserved the basic elements of His gospel within the Mass, so that true believers will be washed from their sins by the blood of Jesus, even as it is hidden within these ceremonies. Those who ignore the ceremony and the supposed power of the priest to turn wine into the blood of Jesus, and who directly believe that Jesus will spiritually wash away their sins with His shed blood; these will be born into the family of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. But the church of Rome will not be the only apostate church by any means. Many apostates will reside within the various Protestant churches and some even within the Evangelical churches.
Revelation , chapter eighteen, recounts the story of the fall of Satan's economic systems in the world; with Babylon being the symbolic name for these systems. This chapter does not refer to those who practiced free enterprise in a fair and equitable way. This chapter refers to all those who were willing to use any corrupt and even violent means available to themselves or their nations in order to gain wealth and power. This chapter relates the story of those who lie, cheat and steal, and even practice war, in order to obtain wealth and power. These evil powers will witness the total collapse of their cruel systems within the short space of one hour. At this time, close to the end of the Great Tribulation, no wealth of any kind will be left in the hands of the evil powers, but they will still retain the military strength of their armies.
Revelation 19:1-10 reveals that when God allows His saints in heaven to observe the fall of apostate Christendom and the fall of Satan's evil economic systems, then tremendous rejoicing and worship will erupt in heaven. God's people will become wild with overwhelming joy and worship of God. This great worship service will culminate with the marriage of Christ to His church.
Revelation 19:11-16 describes the glorious majesty of Christ as He gathers His righteous army to lead them to victory over Satan's evil armies at the battle of Armageddon. This Second Coming of Christ will be for the purpose of rescuing converted Israel from annihilation by Satan's huge armies. The Christian enclaves will not need a direct rescue because the pressure on them will have already been releaved by the withdrawal of the evil armies that were attacking them.
Revelation 19:17-21 describes the battle of Armageddon. The principal significance of this battle will be that Christ will win it all by Himself. His army will have no need to fight at all. This action will be true to the nature of God. Just as Christians can by no means save themselves but must trust in the completed work of Christ, so Christ alone must save the nation of Israel so that their gratitude will be directed solely to Him for all eternity. His victory will cause Israel to recognize Christ as their only King forever.
Before the battle even begins, Christ will single out and seize the false prophet and the beast, probably by pulling them into the air near Him. Christ will then open and reveal the lake of fire for the evil armies to see, and will throw the beast and false prophet into it. This act will completely demoralize the evil armies and they will begin to scatter. Christ will then begin to destroy these armies, and the weapon He will use will be the Word of God. The "sword that proceeded out of His mouth" is the Word of God. "God is Love" and He will save those who trust in His Son, but the absolute purity of His Word also destroys evil, for God will not allow any trace of nastiness to remain in His universe. In Zechariah 14:12, the prophet decribes this destruction as being a total reduction of the evil armies to nothingness. This action will be quite appropriate because sin is nothing more than false combinations of God's True Ideas intended to reduce the Truth to absolute nothingness. When exposed to the powers of the Holiness of God's Word, evil must disolve into absolute nothingness. God's Word constitutes a super weapon as well as a Savior.
God told Moses in Exodus 33:20 that no man can see His face and live. By saying this, God meant that the full power of His Holiness is so awesome that no man can live who sees it. The awesome power of such an observation would completely dissolve all falsity so that only the Truth could remain. Jesus deliberately subdued His Holiness when He walked the earth, for if He had ever revealed the full power of His Holiness, He would have destroyed anyone who looked at Him. Jesus used the full power of His Holiness as a weapon against the evil armies, thus causing their complete dissolution. But this dissolution means that only the false combinations which constitute their evil is that which will be destroyed. God will recover His True Ideas that comprise these false combinations so that they can be used in future true combinations. The statement "and all fowls were filled with their flesh" symbolizes the power of the Holy Spirit to recover God's misused Ideas for His future creative purposes.
Revelation 20:1-3 reveals the significant fact that Satan will not be captured until after the battle. This shows the true character of the Devil as a complete coward who abandoned his armies and tried to save himself by hiding from God. God will send an angel to dig him out of his hiding place, and chain him in the bottomless pit during the thousand year reign of Christ on the earth. After the thousand years, Satan must be loosed for a little while to raise another evil army to fight against God in the earth's final war. The Bible nowhere explains why the Devil must be so chained and then set loose, but it must have something to do with the fact that even during the thousand year reign of Christ, evil will not be completely destroyed. Evil will only be completely destroyed when God recreates the heaven and earth and thoroughly purges His recreation from all evil. This purgation and recreation will begin when God destroys the Devil and his army at the end of the last war.
Daniel 7:8 Daniel 7:15-28 Daniel 8:23-26 Daniel 11:36-45
The book of Daniel provides additional details of the story of the beast who is also the Anti-Christ of Revelation. Daniel 7:8 and Daniel 7:15-28 relate the story of how the beast will gain power over the whole earth during the first three and one half years of the Tribulation period. At the beginning of the Tribulation period, the earth will be ruled by ten centers of power symbolized by the ten horns of Daniel and Revelation. In the beginning, the beast will be but a minor political power among the ten powers. Daniel states that he will be but a "little horn," but by the middle of the Tribulation period he will have gained power over the whole earth.
After the Rapture, the forces of evil will no longer be restrained. Wars will break out between some of these ten kings as they battle for wealth and power. At the same time, some of them will wage war against Israel and those who convert to faith in Christ.
The beast, who will be a minor politician in Israel, will become the leader of Israel by assuring the Israeli people that he can completely defeat its enemies. But his secret motive for gaining this power will be for the purpose of eventually claiming to be the Messiah and God of Israel and thus destroying the faith of Israel in its true God. The beast will then lead Israel to victory over the king of the south and the king of the north who are at war with Israel. He will do this in order to enforce his future claim that he is Israel's Messiah. These will be the three kings that Daniel reveals that the beast will subdue: Israel itself, the king of the north and the king of the south. When the beast gains direct rule over these three kings, then the other seven kings will submit to him and he will become the ruler of the world.
The beast will completely solidify his power over the earth after three and one half years. At this time he will enter the temple of God in Jerusalem and proclaim that he is God and Israel's Messiah in his attempt to replace God as the ruler of the earth. He will then unleash horrendous military attacks against the enclave of Jewish believers near Jerusalem, and he will order the other seven kings to attack the Christian enclaves scattered around the world. This condition will mark the beginning of the Great Tribulation.
Revelation 19:11-21 Revelation 16:13-16 Revelation 20:1-10 Joel 3:20 Joel 3:9-16 Joel 2:1 Zechariah chapter 14 Amos 9:11 II Thessalonians 2:4
Contrary to popular opinion, the battle of Armageddon will not be the end of the world or even the end of evil. The purpose of the battle will be that the Jewish Messiah, who is the Lord Jesus, will return to earth from heaven to rescue the nation of Israel from an invasion by an evil army led by the Anti-Christ. The Lord will bring His church with Him when He comes because He will have already Raptured them to heaven prior to the Great Tribulation that will precede His second coming.
Jesus will come to earth in the air and Rapture His church, and then the Tribulation period will begin and last seven years. In the middle of these seven years the Anti-Christ will enter the Jewish Temple that will have been rebuilt by Christ and declare himself to be the Jewish god. This act will start the second half of the seven years called the Great Tribulation. Incidentally, nowhere does the Bible teach that the Jews will rebuild the third temple, but it does teach, in several places, that Christ will rebuild His third temple.
Revelation 16:13-16 Revelation 14:9-12 Revelation 14:6-7 Revelation chapters 12 & 13 Revelation 11:3-12 Daniel 7:8 Daniel 7:15-28 Daniel 8:23-26 Daniel 11:36-45
Immediately following the Rapture of the church, the seven years period of time called The Tribulation begins. The Holy Spirit restrains the full powers of evil until God removes Him along with His church from the world. Then the powers of evil will be fully unleashed and horrible wars, including nuclear wars, will begin along with famine and all the terrible suffering that results from these horrors. At this time, ten evil leaders will control ten centers of power and these will be fighting each other to gain control of the wealth of the world for themselves and their cronies. These wars will continue for three and one half years with heavy casualties, but when the sixth seal is opened in heaven, God and His Son will reveal Themselves to the whole world and the wars will temporarily stop while men try desperately to hide themselves from the face of the Holy God. Read Revelation 6:12-17. Revelation 6:9-11 reveals that even during this horrible time, some people will realize that the Rapture was real and they will cling to faith in God's Word even without the aid of the Holy Spirit. These believers will be slaughtered by the evil forces, but their souls will be honored when they reach heaven.
At this time, all faith will be in danger of being completely extinguished from the earth, but when God reveals Himself to the world, He will establish special enclaves of safety that will provide special protections for His people. He will establish the first of these enclaves in the nation of Israel where Christ will convert 144 thousand Jews to His service. These believers will continue to preach the gospel to the world during the time that the evil men are trying to hide from the face of God, and all of the Jews and Gentiles who believe their gospel will receive a seal in their foreheads indicating that they belong to God. As Revelation 7:9-17 records, many of these saved and sealed Jews and Gentiles will be martyred during the Great Tribulation and their souls will be honored in heaven. Verse fourteen is especially significant because it reveals that these martyrs will not be washed in the blood of Jesus until they get to heaven which also shows that the Holy Spirit is not in the world to wash these believers in Jesus' blood when they believe, but the seal in their foreheads separate them as God's people.
Revelation 8:1 reveals that the silence in heaven that follows the opening of the seventh seal marks the end of the brief reprieve in the Tribulation in which God established enclaves for His people. The Great Tribulation then follows this reprieve.
Chapter nine of Revelation records the beginning of the wars of the Great Tribulation, but these wars will be quite different from the wars of the first three and one half years of the Tribulation period. These wars begin with the sound of the fifth trumpet in which a "star" that falls from heaven to earth opens a place called "the bottomless pit" and hordes of demons are released on the earth, not to kill, but to torment all people who have not received the seal of God in their foreheads. Apparently, the purpose of this torment is to force these people to accept the leadership of the "angel" of the bottomless pit who is none other than the beast, or Anti-Christ. The sound of the sixth trumpet announces that the released demons will succeed in forcing millions of humans to become demon possessed and these armies will then begin to attack God's enclaves and kill many of God's people.
Revelation 10:1-7 reveals that a "mighty angel" descends from heaven and puts his right foot upon the sea and his left foot on the earth. This act symbolizes God's reassurance that even during the worst of the Great Tribulation, God still retains control over the history of the world, of the earth and of the sea. This angel also announces that when the seventh trumpet sounds, God will triumph over evil and time will be finished. No doubt, the visitation of this angel will greatly boost the morale of God's people defending the enclaves.
In the second part of this chapter, this same angel gives the Apostle John a "little book" and tells him to eat it up. This "little book" symbolizes the Word of God. It tastes sweet to John because it saves millions, but it becomes bitter in his stomach because it also judges and destroys millions. This angel then prophesies to John that in the future he will preach the Word of God in God's enclaves to convince people to receive the seal of God in their foreheads. This may also be the same prophecy that Jesus gave to Peter when He said of John: "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me." John 21:22.
The internecine wars of evil against evil that Revelation often relates, are caused by man's obsession with greed and power. God allows and even encourages these wars because they assist Him in destroying Satan's kingdom. When God uses false systems to destroy other false systems, then good systems result. These good systems effect the diminution of evil systems while at the same time sparing the lives of millions of God's people. God demonstrated His use of this tactic many times in His Word. In WWII, God caused the Nazis to war against the Communists in order to diminish both and also to spare the lives of millions of good people. Jesus prophesied about God's use of this tactic in Matthew 12:25-26.
In Revelation 11:1-2, the angel gives the Apostle John a reed and tells him to measure the temple with it. This instruction shows that the third temple exists in Jerusalem at this time. Nowhere does the Bible teach that the third temple will be built by the Jews. Everywhere that the Bible mentions the third temple, it always relates that it will be built by God Himself. Read Amos 9:11, Zechariah 6:12-13 and Acts 15:16.
Revelation 11:3-12 tells the story of God's two witnesses who will preach in Jerusalem throughout the first half of the Tribulation period. God will give these two witnesses special powers to protect them from the evil forces. But when the Great Tribulation starts the "beast" will attack and take Jerusalem and will kill these two witnesses. Their bodies will lie in the street for three and a half days while the evil forces rejoice over their deaths. But their joy will be turned to fear when God resurrects these two witnesses and they ascend to heaven in the sight of God's enemies.
Revelation 11:13-14 records that God will then send a great earthquake to Jerusalem that will kill seven thousand men. Even God's remnant whom He will be protecting within an enclave near Jerusalem will be frightened by this earthquake. Yet, this remnant will give glory to God for this encouragement and reminder that God is still fighting His enemies.
In Revelation 11:15-19, the Apostle John records a scene in heaven when God has His angel sound the seventh trumpet. All of heaven rejoices at this sound for with it God promises all of His people in heaven and in the enclaves on earth that at the end of the seven years of Tribulation, He will triumph over all evil and He will reign on the earth. All of God's people in heaven and on earth will hear this seventh trumpet and will know what it means.
Revelation chapter 12 reheares the spiritual history of Israel, symbolized by the "woman who brings forth the man child." The "woman" stands for the nation of Israel from the time it was but an idea in the mind of God, and the "man child" stands for Jesus, Israel's Messiah. The war began in heaven when Lucifer tried to destroy God who is also the Messiah. The war continued on earth where Satan has tried mightly throughtout history to prevent the Messiah from coming by attempting to destroy Israel, and by trying to destroy the Messiah when He did come. As this war continues, verse six prophesies that God will provide an enclave during the Great Tribulation for the remnant of Israel who have received His seal in their foreheads. Verse fourteen records that this enclave will be in the "wilderness" near Jerusalem and that God will provide everything His people will need for their protection and nourishment. Satan will attempt to destroy this enclave with a flood of water, perhaps by damming the Jordan river and then breaking this dam. But God will protect His people by opening the earth which will swallow the flood. Satan's failure will enrage him and he will return to launching military attacks against God's enclave, and succeed in causing heavy casualties, but he will not destroy God's enclave.
Revelation chapter thirteen records the prophecies of the "beast" that comes out of the "sea," and the "beast" that comes out of the "earth." When the fifth trumpet sounds, then the "bottomless pit" will be opened and huge armies of demons will be released to the earth. The king of these demons will have a name which can be interpreted as "The Destroyer." As Revelation 20:13 reveals, Hell has three compartments, namely "the sea," "death" and "hell." This means that the "bottomless pit" and "the sea" is the same place, and that "the Destroyer" and "the beast" is the same person. This beast who rises from the sea will have seven heads and ten horns. The seven heads symbolize the seven years of the Tribulation period, and the ten horns symbolize the fact that the Destroyer will use his hordes of demon armies to gain control over the ten powers that will rule the earth during the first half of the Tribulation period. The "Dragon," which is another name for Satan himself, will give his power to the beast. One of his seven heads will be wounded to death but then will be healed. This charade consists of nothing but a false death and resurrection. The beast presents this farce in order to pretend to the world that he is the Messiah of the Jews. The beast will know that many of the Jews have already turned to faith in the true Messiah, and that many in the world will know that these believers are living in God's enclaves. For these reasons, he must pretend to be the Messiah in order to get the world to put its faith in him. Revelation 13:6 records the same act by the beast as that revealed in II Thessalonians 2:4. He will enter into the temple of God and claim that he is Messiah and God, and will blaspheme the true God and Messiah. Verse seven relates that God will allow the beast "to make war against the saints, and to overcome them." This means that he will launch vicious attacks against God's enclaves which will cause a great number of casualties among the saints, but verse eight also records that all the world will worship the beast except those whose names are written in the book of life of the Lamb. This shows that the beast will not succeed in destroying God's enclaves. Verse eight records that the "patience and faith of the saints" will finally result in the total destruction of evil.
In Revelation 13:11-18, the story changes from that of the first beast who came out of the sea to that of "another beast" who comes out of "the earth." This second beast will come from that compartment of Hell filled with fire and brimstone to replace the first beast. The Bible gives no exact reason why this happens. A speculative reason lies in verse fifteen where the second beast creates an image of the first beast which he causes the world to worship. This would seem to indicate that perhaps the first beast becomes disabled by his deadly wound and thus will not be able to continue as the evil leader. This condition will require the second beast to create a false image of the first beast in order to convince the world that he is still alive and well. This means that in a comical manner, the first beast will so bungle his own pretended death and resurrection that the Devil will have to send a second beast to create a farcical image of the first beast as being resurrected. But this charade only reveals to God's people the utter absurdity of the false resurrection. In verses 16-18, the second beast creates his own answer for the seal of God in the foreheads of His believers. The second beast forces all men under his control to receive a mark in their foreheads or right hands which will separate them forever from God's people. The second beast's order that no one will be allowed to buy or sell except those who have this mark will have the intent of forcing any of God's people who may be secretly living among them into the open so they can be killed. The Bible supplies the number of this mark as 666 so that God's future people will be able immediately to identify their enemies. God will not allow Satan to use any other number.
Revelation 14:1-5 relates that at the beginning of the Great Tribulation, Jesus will stand on Mount Zion and reveal Himself to the 144 thousand converted Jews residing in His protected enclave near Jerusalem. His revelation will result in a tremendous worship service with heaven and the enclave joining together to sing praises to God and His Messiah. The purpose of this great worship service will be to encourage God's remnant to endure the horrible attacks that will be coming at them from the beast's armies. Zechariah 14:1-7 prophesies about the beast's attack on Jerusalem, and how he will take it, and how the Messiah will visit His people and open a great valley for the protection of His remnant who will flee into it when He splits the Mount of Olives. Verses six and seven prophesy that perhaps Jesus will cover this valley with an impenetrable dome which will be lighted by some type of artificial light. After God has secured His people within this enclave, the great worship service will begin.
At this time, God's people will be pinned down in their enclaves and will be unable to spread the gospel. At the same time, the beast will be forcing the people of the world to receive his mark in order to separate them from God's salvation forever. Because of God's compassion for the world's people and His desire to give them a chance to refuse the beast's mark and be saved, He will devise a new method to get the gospel to the people of the world. Revelation 14:6-7 prophesies that God will simply send an angel to preach His gospel to the world and give all people an opportunity to accept it and be saved. Most of those who accept it will be martyred by the beast, but they will certainly escape becoming completely demonic and being lost forever because they received the mark.
Revelation 14:8 relates that God will send another angel to announce to the world that "Babylon is fallen, is fallen,...." Babylon here is the symbolic name for all of the evil systems throughout the history of the world. God will be warning the world that He will conquer evil at the end of these wars, and so all people should refuse the mark and accept the gospel preached by the first angel.
Revelation 14:9-11 records that those who receive the mark of the beast will become totally demonic, and therefore, will suffer the same punishment in the lake of fire as will the demons themselves. They will be tormented in a state of full consciousness forever in order to occupy their minds so completely that they will be unable to devise any more evil. Verses 12-13 relates that those who believed the angel and were killed, will rest and await their resurrections and rewards from Christ.
Revelation 14:14-20 probably does not refer to the battle of Armageddon. These verses relate nothing about the Second Coming of Christ. These verses simply report that during all of the horrible wars of the Tribulation period, the forces of evil will also suffer tremendous casualties and that the souls of these dead will be subject to the wrath of God.
The fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of Revelation recounts that God will use seven last plagues to wage direct war from heaven on the forces of evil in order to protect His enclaves of Jewish and Christian saints. Chapter 16:13-16 reveals that the Devil will send three evil spirits to call the kings of all the evil armies all over the world to abandon their wars against the Christian enclaves and concentrate all their forces against the enclave of the Jewish saints in Jerusalem. The Devil will reason that if he can crush the Jewish enclave, then he will prevent God's prophecy that Christ will become King of the Jews and Ruler of the world from ever coming true, and thus he will defeat God and become the ruler of the world himself. Verse sixteen reveals that the Devil will call these armies to gather at Armegeddon and not at Jerursalem. This may mean that the Anti-Christ will have lost Jerusalem to a counterattack by the Jewish enclave.
Revelation, chapter seventeen, relates the destruction of a harlot woman who symbolizes apostate Christendom. This harlot will be destroyed by the ten evil kings because they will so hate the name of Christ that they will desire no remembrance of His name even if nominally held by an apostate church. Verse eighteen does compare this church to the city of Rome, but this merely constitutes a prophecy that history will show that the church of Rome will contain the most apostates who will retain a certain amount of political power over the future kings of the earth. Yet, as Jesus prophesied in Revelation 2:13 and 19, even this apostate church will contain some true believers. But most of the members of this apostate church will be but nominal Christians because they will trust in the elaborate ceremonies of this church and not in Christ Himself. Even so, God has miraculously preserved the basic elements of His gospel within the Mass, so that true believers will be washed from their sins by the blood of Jesus, even as it is hidden within these ceremonies. Those who ignore the ceremony and the supposed power of the priest to turn wine into the blood of Jesus, and who directly believe that Jesus will spiritually wash away their sins with His shed blood; these will be born into the family of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. But the church of Rome will not be the only apostate church by any means. Many apostates will reside within the various Protestant churches and some even within the Evangelical churches.
Revelation , chapter eighteen, recounts the story of the fall of Satan's economic systems in the world; with Babylon being the symbolic name for these systems. This chapter does not refer to those who practiced free enterprise in a fair and equitable way. This chapter refers to all those who were willing to use any corrupt and even violent means available to themselves or their nations in order to gain wealth and power. This chapter relates the story of those who lie, cheat and steal, and even practice war, in order to obtain wealth and power. These evil powers will witness the total collapse of their cruel systems within the short space of one hour. At this time, close to the end of the Great Tribulation, no wealth of any kind will be left in the hands of the evil powers, but they will still retain the military strength of their armies.
Revelation 19:1-10 reveals that when God allows His saints in heaven to observe the fall of apostate Christendom and the fall of Satan's evil economic systems, then tremendous rejoicing and worship will erupt in heaven. God's people will become wild with overwhelming joy and worship of God. This great worship service will culminate with the marriage of Christ to His church.
Revelation 19:11-16 describes the glorious majesty of Christ as He gathers His righteous army to lead them to victory over Satan's evil armies at the battle of Armageddon. This Second Coming of Christ will be for the purpose of rescuing converted Israel from annihilation by Satan's huge armies. The Christian enclaves will not need a direct rescue because the pressure on them will have already been releaved by the withdrawal of the evil armies that were attacking them.
Revelation 19:17-21 describes the battle of Armageddon. The principal significance of this battle will be that Christ will win it all by Himself. His army will have no need to fight at all. This action will be true to the nature of God. Just as Christians can by no means save themselves but must trust in the completed work of Christ, so Christ alone must save the nation of Israel so that their gratitude will be directed solely to Him for all eternity. His victory will cause Israel to recognize Christ as their only King forever.
Before the battle even begins, Christ will single out and seize the false prophet and the beast, probably by pulling them into the air near Him. Christ will then open and reveal the lake of fire for the evil armies to see, and will throw the beast and false prophet into it. This act will completely demoralize the evil armies and they will begin to scatter. Christ will then begin to destroy these armies, and the weapon He will use will be the Word of God. The "sword that proceeded out of His mouth" is the Word of God. "God is Love" and He will save those who trust in His Son, but the absolute purity of His Word also destroys evil, for God will not allow any trace of nastiness to remain in His universe. In Zechariah 14:12, the prophet decribes this destruction as being a total reduction of the evil armies to nothingness. This action will be quite appropriate because sin is nothing more than false combinations of God's True Ideas intended to reduce the Truth to absolute nothingness. When exposed to the powers of the Holiness of God's Word, evil must disolve into absolute nothingness. God's Word constitutes a super weapon as well as a Savior.
God told Moses in Exodus 33:20 that no man can see His face and live. By saying this, God meant that the full power of His Holiness is so awesome that no man can live who sees it. The awesome power of such an observation would completely dissolve all falsity so that only the Truth could remain. Jesus deliberately subdued His Holiness when He walked the earth, for if He had ever revealed the full power of His Holiness, He would have destroyed anyone who looked at Him. Jesus used the full power of His Holiness as a weapon against the evil armies, thus causing their complete dissolution. But this dissolution means that only the false combinations which constitute their evil is that which will be destroyed. God will recover His True Ideas that comprise these false combinations so that they can be used in future true combinations. The statement "and all fowls were filled with their flesh" symbolizes the power of the Holy Spirit to recover God's misused Ideas for His future creative purposes.
Revelation 20:1-3 reveals the significant fact that Satan will not be captured until after the battle. This shows the true character of the Devil as a complete coward who abandoned his armies and tried to save himself by hiding from God. God will send an angel to dig him out of his hiding place, and chain him in the bottomless pit during the thousand year reign of Christ on the earth. After the thousand years, Satan must be loosed for a little while to raise another evil army to fight against God in the earth's final war. The Bible nowhere explains why the Devil must be so chained and then set loose, but it must have something to do with the fact that even during the thousand year reign of Christ, evil will not be completely destroyed. Evil will only be completely destroyed when God recreates the heaven and earth and thoroughly purges His recreation from all evil. This purgation and recreation will begin when God destroys the Devil and his army at the end of the last war.
Daniel 7:8 Daniel 7:15-28 Daniel 8:23-26 Daniel 11:36-45
The book of Daniel provides additional details of the story of the beast who is also the Anti-Christ of Revelation. Daniel 7:8 and Daniel 7:15-28 relate the story of how the beast will gain power over the whole earth during the first three and one half years of the Tribulation period. At the beginning of the Tribulation period, the earth will be ruled by ten centers of power symbolized by the ten horns of Daniel and Revelation. In the beginning, the beast will be but a minor political power among the ten powers. Daniel states that he will be but a "little horn," but by the middle of the Tribulation period he will have gained power over the whole earth.
After the Rapture, the forces of evil will no longer be restrained. Wars will break out between some of these ten kings as they battle for wealth and power. At the same time, some of them will wage war against Israel and those who convert to faith in Christ.
The beast, who will be a minor politician in Israel, will become the leader of Israel by assuring the Israeli people that he can completely defeat its enemies. But his secret motive for gaining this power will be for the purpose of eventually claiming to be the Messiah and God of Israel and thus destroying the faith of Israel in its true God. The beast will then lead Israel to victory over the king of the south and the king of the north who are at war with Israel. He will do this in order to enforce his future claim that he is Israel's Messiah. These will be the three kings that Daniel reveals that the beast will subdue: Israel itself, the king of the north and the king of the south. When the beast gains direct rule over these three kings, then the other seven kings will submit to him and he will become the ruler of the world.
The beast will completely solidify his power over the earth after three and one half years. At this time he will enter the temple of God in Jerusalem and proclaim that he is God and Israel's Messiah in his attempt to replace God as the ruler of the earth. He will then unleash horrendous military attacks against the enclave of Jewish believers near Jerusalem, and he will order the other seven kings to attack the Christian enclaves scattered around the world. This condition will mark the beginning of the Great Tribulation.
Friday, March 22, 2013
A Counter Argument Against Materialism
One of the arguments that materialist philosophers use to try to prove that material objects do not need the subjective in order to be real is that consciousness can imagine a consciousless universe in which its objects pass through time and space just the same as they would in a conscious universe.
However, such an endeavor is actually thoroughly and absolutely impossible. To begin, when one imagines a consciousless universe, one must ask oneself where the consciousless universe appears. The obvious answer is that it appears in the mind of the person imagining it. The imaginer thus immediately overcomes the absence of consciousness which he thinks he imagines, and supplies the consciouness necessary to mentally observe the movements of its objects through time and space.
One can only truly imagine a consciousless universe if one uses no imagination or observation. This endeavor is obviously self-contradictory and impossible. However, if one should exert oneself to the utmost to attempt to imagine a consciousless universe without using imagination, what would one observe? The obvious answer is that one would observe nothing. This nothingness would so completely hide all objects and movements, and even time and space; so that all one could know about the consciousless universe is absolutely nothing. This condition reveals the truth about all consciousless universes. They always equal absolute nothingness, and one can only imagine them by using an idea of nothing.
Then again, all of this speculation raises another question. If our universe was consciousless prior to the evolutionary emergence of consciousness, then how could life ever have evolved since the consciousless universe had to equal absolute nothingness? The obvious answer is that our universe has never been a consciousless one. An Infinite Consciousness must exist to supply our universe with constant creativity and reality.
However, such an endeavor is actually thoroughly and absolutely impossible. To begin, when one imagines a consciousless universe, one must ask oneself where the consciousless universe appears. The obvious answer is that it appears in the mind of the person imagining it. The imaginer thus immediately overcomes the absence of consciousness which he thinks he imagines, and supplies the consciouness necessary to mentally observe the movements of its objects through time and space.
One can only truly imagine a consciousless universe if one uses no imagination or observation. This endeavor is obviously self-contradictory and impossible. However, if one should exert oneself to the utmost to attempt to imagine a consciousless universe without using imagination, what would one observe? The obvious answer is that one would observe nothing. This nothingness would so completely hide all objects and movements, and even time and space; so that all one could know about the consciousless universe is absolutely nothing. This condition reveals the truth about all consciousless universes. They always equal absolute nothingness, and one can only imagine them by using an idea of nothing.
Then again, all of this speculation raises another question. If our universe was consciousless prior to the evolutionary emergence of consciousness, then how could life ever have evolved since the consciousless universe had to equal absolute nothingness? The obvious answer is that our universe has never been a consciousless one. An Infinite Consciousness must exist to supply our universe with constant creativity and reality.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Consciousness in the Mirror
A mirror reflects a picture of some of the objects in a room, but the mirror cannot be aware of the picture. This shows that the material can never be aware of the material. The recognition of the picture requires a consciousness.
Yet, the materialists claim that consciousness consists of merely some material action in a material brain. They contend that consciousness has to be a special kind of material that can be aware of the picture. But if consciousness is a special material, then by what means are the materialists aware of this special material? Some deeper special material perhaps? Indeed, this has to be some special material because an awareness of it requires an ever deeper material. In addition, this awareness seems to continuously escape from the material so that it can look back on it in order to be conscious of it.
One begins to suspect from all this that the material can never be conscious of the material under any circumstances, just as the mirror cannot be conscious of its picture. Only consciousness can recognize the picture, and this consciousness must be something different from the material since it seems to continuously escape from it. But what is this consciousness, and what do we know about it? Precious little actually. About all we know is that it produces a recognized picture and that it seems to possess some connection to infinity. Why this connection? Because consciousness extends ever deeper when we realize that our awareness of the picture requires an awareness of our awareness of the picture, which in turn, requires another awareness until.......well, we get the picture. If only we had the strength, we could extend this awareness into infinity.
All of this speculation raises another question: Can there be an Infinite Consciousness? Since we have already shown that the material can never be aware of the material, and that consciousness has to be something quite different from the material; then we find it impossible to believe that consciousness could ever have been created by a nonconscious material process. Therefore, our finite consciousness must have been created by an Infinite Consciousness.
The materialists may counter all of this speculation by claiming that it all constitutes a mere illusion. Consciousness only seems to be connected to infinity, not actually. But consciousness recognizes this illusion which proves that it is working as it should, and whatever works as it should has to be real. In addition, the materialist cannot explain how he can recognize that consciousness is but a material process but by means of another consciousness that seems continuously to escape from the material. It would seem that even the materialist needs an infinite material in order to be conscious.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)