Word of Prophecy

Fellowship

September-October 2005

THE GOOD

NEWS - LETTER


THE WORLD CHURCH

PART 2 OF 2

Abridged by Bro. Ray Pringle, Jr.

The extravagantly dressed woman on the fierce7-headed beast is God's prophetic symbol of the rising world church or religious system subservient to the coming antichrist and false prophet. While the true church sleeps, the World Church is closing in upon us--ever nearer draws the savage persecution upon God's saints, as characterized by the 7 slashing heads of the beast upon which the woman of Revelation 17 rides.


ANTICHRIST WILL CHASTEN THE CHURCH

God sent the Assyrian (Isaiah 10:5-6, 24-27), a symbol of the antichrist against Israel (the church) to chasten and purify with purging fires. We had better quit believing all that "good stuff" we hear so much from speakeasy preachers: "Beloved, every sign has been fulfilled, and Jesus can come tonight!" Well, there is more to be fulfilled. We hear the scripture used as proof that the church won't get in the tribulation: "And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time (the antichrist). For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, (hinder) until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked (antichrist) be revealed." II Thessalonians 2:6-8. The key word is "revealed" in verse 3 and verses 6 and 8. The word means to be manifested or unveiled--that is, the antichrist is overtly discovered to be a deceiver, an incarnate of satan, a false messiah to Israel. You see, then, Israel has officially accepted him as Christ--their messiah; but suddenly a breach appears in his kingdom. When does this "unveiling" or "revealing" occur? In the midst of the 7 troubled years--halfway! Now, if the "he" of verse 7, II Thessalonians 2, is the church, or the Bride, or the Holy Ghost in the body of Christ, as most preachers preach, then "he" is not taken out of the way until half way through the 7-year tribulation period! It is a widely accepted doctrine that the antichrist cannot be revealed until the rapture of the church. Somebody had better take another and more discerning look at the belief of an "easy rapture." The Bible does not teach an easy rapture or catching away. A purging comes first.

The antichrist will persecute the church--not just Jews or Israel. A cold, powerless church as today's requires and deserves chastening and judgment and we are going to get it. "And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. (Flatteries means "informers" will infiltrate among God's tried saints and betray them to the authorities). And some of them of understanding shall fall (be executed), to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed. ("Time of the end" is the last 3 ½ years of the tribulation period). And the king shall do according to his will..." Daniel 11:33-36. The king is the antichrist. In verse 33, the prophet foretells that many shall be martyred by the antichrist, by sword (guillotine), by captivity (concentration camps), by spoil (slavery), by flame (burned on poles as torches at pagan festivals) as in the old Roman Empire.

The early rain of Pentecostal power ended in a blaze of fiery persecution and death for God's saints. When Constantine and his army invaded Rome in 312 A.D., Maxentius, the brutal god-emperor, was warring against Christians, exterminating them by every conceivable means of torture and death. Those pagans of Rome gathered in the Coliseum to burn Christians at the stake, or on poles, or fed them to hungry lions while 100,000 blood-thirsty spectators screamed with delight. Constantine stopped persecution and martyrdom of the true church; 1,200 years of dark ages, followed. God said He would receive an early and latter rain to gather the precious fruit of the earth. James 5:7-8.

Dear friend, the later rain will end in another deadly assault against God's people by a pagan form of religion, led by the false prophet, and carried out by mobs and bands of rebels subserviant to the antichrist. Jesus said these things will come upon the whole earth, not just Israel and Jerusalem. Luke 21:35.

The harvest of souls ends just before the Great Tribulation begins in the midst of the Seven Year Week of the end time. Revelation 14:14-16. "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the son of man...And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth: and the earth was reaped." The night then falls upon the earth so black, spiritually, that all labor for Christ ends. John 9:4; Revelation 14:17-20.

THE GREAT TRIBULATION

Jesus Christ, the world's greatest prophet, foretold of a period of great tribulation such as never has been on this earth. Matthew 24:21-22. Daniel the prophet foretold of "a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation."


Daniel 12:1. Jesus spoke somberly of those days as: "For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation...And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved." Mark 13: 19-20.

There is a 7-year period of prophetic fulfillment we are approaching, commonly referred to as "The Great Tribulation Period." This is not a scriptural term--it is an error--for the Great Tribulation is at the Time of the End, the final half of this prophetic week of 7 years. The prophetic week is fully explained in Daniel 9:24-27. Seventy weeks of prophetic fulfillment upon "his people" are explained by Gabriel to the prophet, sixty-nine weeks of years (a week is 7 years) were historically fulfilled from the decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild the temple and City of Jerusalem until Messiah was cut off (crucified)483 years. There remains one week (7 years) more of fulfillment, verse 27, in which he (the antichrist) shall make a covenant with Israel and break it in the midst or middle of the week of the 7-year period at the end-time. After the antichrist breaks his covenant with Israel--forbidding the daily sacrifice and setting his image in the temple for worship--there shall be yet 1,290 days until the end of the 7-year period of great trouble, Daniel 12:11. This great time of trouble or tribulation will last for 3 ½ years--the latter part of the 7-year week. "It shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished." Daniel 12:7.

THE RISING FURY OF THE STORM

The four horsemen of the Apocalypse are stirring up the conditions to bring one world government and world church, "And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see, And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer." Revelation 6:1-2. This horse and rider is a spirit--the spirit of antichrist--he is well at work now, conquering through religious confusion and deception. "And when he had opened the second seal I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth…" Revelation 6:3-4. This is the spirit of revolution and anarchy that causes the commotions and chaotic conditions Jesus said would abound. "And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand…" Revelation 6:5-6. This is the spirit of famine and rationing, " And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see, And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him: And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth." Revelation 6:7-8. The spirit of Death is riding through the earth, and Hell will soon join this horseman, the Grim Reaper. Revelation 9:1-8. Hell is being filled. Isaiah 5:14.

This same revelation was given to Zechariah the prophet which gives great light on the four horsemen, their identity, power, and area of operation. In the vision Zechariah asked the angel, Who are the four chariots of horses--red, black, white and bay? "What are these my lord? And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth." Zechariah 6:4-5. The black and the white horses go into the north country, the grisled or red go into the south country (Arabia, Egypt and Africa); the pale or bay walk to and fro through the earth. Zechariah 6:6-7. Then the angel cried, "these that go toward the north country have quieted my spirit in the north country." Verse 8. God's spirit has been quieted from doing any great work in Russia, Siberia, and the north countries of Asia and Europe.

The shadows are lengthening--spiritual darkness is falling upon us swiftly. What is lurking in the shadows and darkness into which we are entering? God showed His revelation to a prophet, Noah, before the storm and destruction of the Great Flood. His responsibility was to warn others. Noah was also a preacher of righteousness. II Peter 2:5. "When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." Isaiah 26:9. Thy judgments are made manifest." Revelation 15:4. When the 5th Seal of Revelation 6 was opened, "I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held." Verse 9.


GOD'S LAST MESSAGE

A Prophet will be sent from God with God's last message to a rebellious church and world--"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Typical of God's end-time messengers are the two prophets of Revelation 11 which will prophesy the first 3 ½ years of the Tribulation Period. "And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days clothed in sackcloth...If any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast (antichrist) that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and kill them..." Revelation 11:3-12; read the complete account in your Bible. Their message will be the gospel of the Kingdom: "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him: for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." Revelation 14:6-7. Here, the angel made the proclamation, but the preaching will be the responsibility of God's anointed prophet--snot smooth-talking and singing preachers. A church that rejects the fear of God, just think, will hear in her last message--"Fear God!" This end-time, rebellious society of libertines will shed the blood of saints and prophets before Jesus comes, and the World Church will be chief prosecutor and tormentor! Revelation 16:4-6; Revelation 17:6.

God has promised to separate the chaff from the wheat--the tares from the wheat, before the terrible Day of the Lord comes upon this age. Revelation 13:7-10. God's true lights will be manifested in the frightening darkness and deafening fury of the storm descending upon us. Isaiah 60:1-2. Rising persecution upon true Bible believers will expose the tares, phony Christians, and manifest the wheat or true saints of God. The World Church and the antichrist in their alliance will destroy the true Bibles. Daniel 8:12. True saints will hold resolutely to God's Word, reject the mark of the antichrist's kingdom, and refuse to join the World Church. This will bring severe persecution and even death to God's saints.

I close this message and warning of the Holy Ghost with the words of Jesus to the persecuted saints in the church of Smyrna: "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Revelation 2:10.

Word of Prophecy Newsletter

Published by: Word of Prophecy Fellowship,

PO Box 10200, Jacksonville, FL 32247

www.wordofprophecy.org

Editor Bro. Ray Pringle, Jr., an ordained minister of Calvary Chapel Church of God, Inc.

Associate Editor...June Carpenter

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