Well, amen. I guess you guys were unfortunate to get you a pastor that kind of didn't know any better than to do things a little bit different. But thank the Lord that you put up with it. So I do appreciate. The last few weeks I've been kind of looking around and the way things are happening in our world, the governments, the flow and the ideologies and all of that sort of thing. I think Christians need to be engaged in that so that they know how to better minister to what's in the system that you've got. So that's been one of my major modus operandus, I guess you'd say. But I think it's helpful to kind of look at things a little different. I don't mean I come up with different truths, But just sometimes us engineers do things and think differently than them there fellows who train in the theology. So I used to tell the kids over at the university when I was there that they needed, I was always, I didn't like it that I saw students taking a lot of liberal arts. And I would say, you know, you're going to waste your money. There'd be people with doctors that couldn't get jobs. And us old engineers, there were people hanging around waiting for us to get our degree so they could hire me. It's a much better idea. So I would tell them, just get you whatever else you have in mind. Get you a degree in engineering. Because it's going to have a big effect on your capacity for analysis and ways of trying to solve problems. Anyhow, to a degree, that's pretty good advice. Because I saw, like I said, I saw men take in chemistry, for instance, who had their doctorate and they couldn't get a job back then. about 1950 in the 50s and it's good to be able to have a way of looking at things to our culture as it is now more so than When Christ was on the grounds here on the earth, he explained everything pretty much in rural perspective. And you need to be able to explain things in terms of the culture that we have now, which is very close to the coming of Christ, in my opinion. I feel pretty strongly about that. And I know that there's been a lot of wackos over in history saying, well, it's going to be on this day right here, and it's going to be in that spot over there, and we're going to go with our group, and we're going to be there, right there, where the Lord comes and takes us up. Hadn't worked, has it? It's not the correct way of perceiving things. There's a word in the Daniel, chapter nine, that's very interesting. And I'll flip over there real quick and pick up that word. It's the word consummation, chapter nine. And that verse, 27, he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. And he's speaking of weeks of years. I look up the word week to find out what we're talking about. And it's a word that just basically says sevens. But the content here is dealing with years. And so we come to a conclusion that it's probably years, weeks of years, or 490 years that God is going to have a plan, has a plan. It says, and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice, the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations, and that abominations mean blasphemies, a period of time he's going to focus on at this point. The world's full of blasphemies, isn't it? Isn't that what the culture always goes to? When they knew God, they glorified him not as God. And what happens? They degrade. That goes over and over and over throughout all history. Am I right? That's the route. And by the way, who takes the greatest benefit of that? He's got four names in the book of Revelation, and I think we'd most refer to him as Satan, the serpent. And that fella is taking advantage of the thrust of natural human behavior. And his objective, as I have expressed, is to, well, hide the truth. He doesn't want us to know the truth. He wants us to believe a lie. Because He's not interested in our well-being, He wants the worst for us. But Christ wants the best for us. That's the base thrust of the message of God, of the Word of God. He loves us. He wants the best for us. He's formed a plan to deal with that situation That is contrary to what is the best plan that Satan has, his best plan. The Lord has a plan to counter that. And that plan is, well, set forth in the scriptures. And he has a plan that has to do with things and places and persons, but with time, time, time, and certain times. And that's what is being dealt with here when we come to Daniel. And the angel had come to him and gave him, he says, hey, listen, we're gonna, the Israelites, The Jews, who are the God's chosen people, who are, at that time, the people certified by God to be the tellers and sustainers of the truth. That was our primary responsibility to do that. They were to maintain the truth. The institution, especially, chosen by God and empowered by God. Isn't that correct? Did you catch on to that? Have you caught on to that in your studies of the Bible? He has a plan. And he's dealing with abominations. He's dealing with abominations. He's working against that. What is your plan, Lord? How long is it going to be? And I guess I could put it as the top title of this whole series is, Lord, how long, how long, how long, how long have I got to put up with these abominations? The abominations bring about what? Kill them, kill them, kill them, right? Kill the Christian, kill the bearer of truth. And these people that are saying, how long, oh Lord, got the Lord's ear. Because they are the people of martyrdom, the people of martyrdom. You and I, we don't catch on to that too much. We don't experience that much. I'm glad my mother read us the issues of the martyrs when I was just a small child, eight, nine years old. And I realized it, and I had the emotions of hurt in realizing what those people went through. There were people that others, the Catholics, for example, don't be afraid to say, hey, listen, those people really come from a demonic purpose. They really are of Babel. of the Babylonian religions. They just put on the same garb that the Babylonians had and the priests and named their gods differently and put the list of saints that they basically worshiped. You see? But those are the people, and I have books in my of the records in my office in there, in the French mountains, just across from Italy, and they were, the Catholics made the determination, kill them, kill them. And they went up into there and they killed them, but they not only killed them, they tortured them. Tortured, tortured, tortured them. We know very little of that in our experience. We're not merely on the classification that God hears the prayers. I'll tell you, when these people prayed in the book of Revelation, they got the ears of God right out there because they had gone through the torture, not just death, torture. characteristic of martyrdom. You see? You understand? It's not just killing them, it's torturing them in horrible ways. In the French Alps, they went up there, they captured people, and then they put them on a stake, a stake like this, sharpened on this end, and took their bodies and pulled it down over their privates and Let them sit up there and die. We've got to have a sense that we're not, even though we're at a place that's blessed by God. And there is a connection between America and Israel. Because Israel was formed and certified by God. And so was the United States of America. They were here due to the providence of God. And they were there because there's got to be a love and a connection here and an appreciation. You all see that? Oh how long, oh Lord. God has a plan. And that plan is, what is the consummation? Do you know what that means? Consummation? The end. What's your plan to end all this? Of satanic involvement and dominance. What's your plan, God? in terms of times and places. So it's very important for us to come to a place where we begin to be skilled in the word of God on times. That's why I brought your attention to what was happening in Ezekiel, that there was going to be Gog and Magog and so forth. named, named, and those people in just very small amount of efforts to discover who those people were in our day. And the information that gives us the clues is right sticking out like a nose on your face, like I'm sitting here looking at you and you're looking at me. It's easy to discover who those people were in our day, in Ezekiel's day, 6,000 years ago. In the Holy Word of God, the miraculous manifestation of the Word of God. It's clear that that's what it is. Because so many ways, but one of the ways is to look at historical things. Look at the people that put it down many years ago. And look and take a look at what's going on right now. Does that tell us something about timing? About the plan? that God has determined? We've talked about those things, that's for sure. But I wanted to take a moment today to develop a particular, by the means that I have used in the Word of God, to determine when is this resurrection likely to take place? When is it likely to take place? Because that's gonna be the rest. That's gonna be the rest of all, rest, R-E-S-T. And I don't, I mean, not, well, you sit down to rest. That's what we're talking about. The rest for Christians, particularly significant to those people who have been martyred. But even you and I are, in a battle, a very serious battle, to make sure that your children do not know the truth of the Bible and the principles of it, and to know the Christ of it, and to know the truth of Christ. There's a warfare, and if this wonderful country that was bought before us as a possibility by the providence of God. We especially need to know what's going on and maintain what our fathers knew about those things. And there are people who are taking charge of this country who are humanists, Satanists, All kinds of bow from the standpoint of the standards of God's love and righteousness. And they're taking away our rights to exercise that and to teach our children that. And it is so, well, prolific. Turn on your TV set. Turn on your gadgets that you can look and see things that are coming through that. What is the main thrust? Garbage. Lies. efforts of Satan to take you his way. And it's death, death, sorrow, hurt. But they make it look like candy. It looks like candy to our body, to our humanity that is flesh. Well, the issue then in utilizing our particular approach of when is the resurrection? I wanted to hit you with my thoughts about that. and my conclusions about that and how I reach those conclusions. When is the resurrection? Well, I know it's going to come. Because the Lord said he's going to have it. And he's given us lots of clues as to what time, what the times will be like whenever the resurrection occurs. And that's what I have looked at very thoroughly, or tried to. You're free and welcome to come to any conclusion. But there is more, I think, confusion about that in doctrines as they are taught than hardly anything else other than how to be saved and what kind of salvation we have. Those are the critical things, aren't they? That's how he attacks us. He's against the truth and those things. Well, how do I approach it? I approach it by looking at Israel as a bona fide, certified institution that God has empowered and certified to be the maintainers of the truth. They were people who had the availability of the truth concerning those things and the power to recognize it and sustain it. How many times have I used the example of saying I'm going to give a guy a word right here, and I'm going to ask him to put it to this young man, and he's going to put that young lady in. It goes around here in this room in the same language. We've done that lots of times, haven't we? OK, you've been properly. propagandized for me. Because we find that when you get over to here, the last one, and they come in and I ask them, what was it that I said to him? In English, we all speak English. We're all in the same culture, pretty much. And it's gonna be a different word. Keeping truth. is impossible, humanly speaking. And this is called the truth. The church is called the pillar and the ground of the church. Israel once was. They have that quality of special ability by divine operation to Hold to the truth till he comes again. Till he comes again. Till he comes back to the earth. Till he comes back and becomes the plan according to this plan. Comes to set things right. Set things right in the culture. set things right to all the persons if they will be willing to allow it to happen. And so Israel was that institution and they call it the Old Testament. The Old Testament means what? What is the Testament? What is it legally? We need more lawyers in here. It means a contract between two parties on which they both agree with one another. The Old Testament says, you're gonna be the special institution empowered to be able to maintain the truth, and I'm gonna give you a special power to do so. That's gonna be my And I'm gonna give you the word, I'm gonna give you, and I'm gonna make sure that the word is sustained. Everybody's tried to burn this thing up, haven't they? Basically. Take it away, burn it up. Not just now, but throughout the world. Throughout history of human awareness. But not only keep the word around, but to provide them the ability to maintain it so that whenever what's told back yonder hundreds of years ago will still be with us. That's a miracle. Don't you know? And it comes as a result of agreement, a contract between Israel who said, yep, And God came when they had all of their temple made up and all of their worship garbage, not garbage, I didn't mean to say that, but stuff that weren't garbage. We got somebody as a helper here this morning trying to mess me up, right? He's always doing that. It was special stuff that doing what they were doing, the ritual, was maintaining truth. It represented the truth. When they killed an animal and shed the blood of it, they were giving us a picture of Jesus Christ and the truth that salvation comes by grace through faith. And that human beings really can do nothing without God's involvement for our salvation. In fact, He does it all. All we have to do is agree with the Lord that, okay, actually, what we're doing when we say, Lord, come into my life, Lord, save me, what are we doing? We're actually giving God permission to redeem us. We have the right to say no. And His nature requires that of Him that He gives us that right. We're created in the image of God. God wants us to know that. You don't go around and just kill millions and millions of little children. They're in the image of God. They're precious, they're valuable to God. You see? The butcher. I guess I could call Satan the butcher. You rascal. That's what the Lord called him. He said he's a murderer. He's a liar. And we're up against that. And God has a plan for us to fight back. And in the days of Jacob and Israel, there was a covenant made in the days of Moses that came out of that and from a family to a tribe to a nation. And God made a commitment with that nation that it would be the pillar and the ground of the truth. Empowered, especially. That's what God was going to do, and they were going to be faithful in doing what God would give them to do, to sustain the truth. Well, knowing that, an event that took place in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ when He came to give His life for our salvation. When he came into Jerusalem, at a time when that was going to take place, he was on a donkey. And guess where he went? He went to the temple in Jerusalem. Why? Because he was the truth. They were the pillar and the ground of the truth. They were so degraded in their responsibility and their perspective that they didn't recognize him. But he went into the temple. Well, he went wacko, so to speak. He started tossing people out of there, taking a stick and taken them out, because what were they doing? They were using the temple as a place to make big time money. Because they were selling the animals that they were required to die, to kill, in their rituals. And the Lord says, what is this place? What did he say? He said, this is God's place. It's God's place. It's God's center of worship. And you've made it a den of thieves, right? Something like that. The essence, that's the essence of it. He was always really concerned and hurt by that. And he got those people together to let them know. And I wanted to try to go through it. I'll give you the references and I'll let you study it. But if you'll go over to Matthew, Matthew. where he got hold of the leaders of the religious system, and he started giving them an example. Let�s see, it�s Matthew chapter 16. You know, at my age I know where everything is almost, but not exactly. But in the book of Matthew, Jesus came to these people, and he started talking to them. He gave them some examples. And the examples was that there was a feller that had a vineyard, and that vineyard had was turned over to some people. And what happened was the master sent someone to take the fruit of that vineyard. And their answer was to kill, ultimately, the one who was sent to take the harvest. And the Lord asked those people, he said, what should happen here? And they said, their answer was, well, you get rid of those people and get some new people in there, right? And the Lord's made it plain that that, and they finally realized, oh, hey, wait a minute, we just gave our own What we deserve. He's talking to us about our situation, right? And they despised him for it. They despised, but that was the first degree of making a change in what institution was going to be the pillar and the ground of truth. They were going to get it taken away from themselves because they did not receive Him and they crucified Him with torture. Right? And He warned them. He put them on warning. He put them warning on what He's going to do. He's going to take their Privilege away from them to be that institution. That was the warning. That was the warning. Then over in Matthew chapter 23, he said, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. He said, I'd be like a hen with the little chickens. I'd cover you up. I'd protect you. That's how much he loved them. He let them know that. And then he said, but you would not. Then he said, your house. Is that what he said? His what? Your house is... Everybody think about it. Yeah, your house, it's gone. It's gone. It's not yours anymore. That was a level of not just warning, but declaring. And when he got up to the cross, and he said to the Heavenly Father, oh, Father, where are you, where are you? And then he, you know what that is when you're separated from the Heavenly Father? That's death, that's spiritual death. He's letting us know, the scripture's letting us know that he had died up there. He had lost connection to the Heavenly Father. That's what happens to us when we sin. He became sin for us. And then it next says something about his spirit leaving his body, his soul leaving his body. What kind of death is that? Physical death. So he died for our spiritual death and for our spiritual, to pay the price of all of our sins. You see? And that ensured our resurrection when he came up. But he said at that point that he didn't say this, but the Bible said it right after that verse that says he died physically. And that was this. The Bible said that the curtains in the temple were ripped out, top to bottom, supernatural. See, those things were so powerful that you could put auction behind it and could not have been able to tear that apart. That was the final determination, certification that you are no longer pillar and ground of truth. And then he went. That is, before that, while that period of time was going on, he pulled his disciples together and prepared them by giving them a new, well, contract. What did he do? He gave us a certain ritual, didn't He? What was that ritual? He said, this is the New Testament, didn't He? This is the New Testament, the new contract between who? The Lord and the church. The church. The Lord had cast away Israel as that pillar and ground. It was replaced by the church. And this very day we are the pillar and the ground of the truth which has replaced Israel's position in that. But God's plan long-term is not that the church will end up with that position. Israel will recover it. When? When? Have you ever read Revelations up to the third chapter of it? What�s the basic thrust of the first three chapters? It introduces Christ, doesn't it? And then it presents the letters to the churches. Then what happens? Well, all of a sudden, two little chapters in there, chapter four and chapter five. And it's giving praise and glory and shows a heavenly events going on. Praises, acknowledgements of Christ as the Savior, as the King of the Lords, as the Lord, the Lion, the Lamb. And then suddenly in chapter seven, We do not have another word about the church. Right? Right? Another word about the church until you get to the, well, the wedding of the bride. Who's the bride? Can you tell me, as a person, as a Christian, as a person that should know who the bride is? Who is the bride? It's the church. I came prepared to give you references to prove that and what's happening way down in chapter 14. I'm chapter 19, I'm sorry. And that was the wedding. And where was it taking place? In heaven. In heaven. Christ didn't come until after that event. Right? In heaven. That means The church wasn't there. It wasn't there anymore. What happened in chapter seven of the book of Revelation? You can check it out. We're introducing, we're coming into the great tribulation. Part of God's plan. to get rid of things, to get rid of things, to get a correction. What was the emphasis then? Well, before we get down to the place where we're gonna whack everything out and we're gonna correct everything. It's gonna be tough. It's gonna be the great tribulation, but I'm gonna tear everything down of this order. But before we do, we need to get these people sealed, sealed. That means there's a legal aspect of their duty. their position. Who were they? Who were they? They were the Jews, right? 12,000 per tribe and 12 tribes, 144,000 Jews. I was looking, last time I was here I was so tired and I was having a hard time just doing a little bit of calculating. It was 144,000 Jews. And they're going to be there during the time of the teardown. And so what's happening? God is giving us again, giving the Jews. The church is gone because you can't put both of them out to the same place, could you? What kind of confusion? What kind of disorder? If you wonder, well, no, they've got the truth. No, they've got the truth. No, they've got the truth. They've got, the Lord certifies it. One at a time, not a bunch. You understand? We'll go over, go over to the, some of these restaurants that have these places all over the United States. almost all over the world. They've got a certification, don't they? You can expect pretty much the same food, the same taste, the same everything, everywhere you go, right? Well, that's what God does. He says, that's the one. And he did that in chapter seven, chapter 7 is where the great tribulation began, the teardown. God re-certified Israel as the pillar and the ground of the truth. That tells me when the resurrection is, before that, before the Now, that's the basis of my conclusion. That means the church was nowhere around when the Great Tribulation begins. And then there's other verses of the scriptures, like in Well, Thessalonian, which I won't have time to deal with right now, because we got a young man that we're going to give the right hand of fellowship, I think. Yeah, make sure he gets up here. In fact, it's better to go get him. All right, that's a different way of approaching when the resurrection is going to be, isn't it? Isn't it? But that's because most people don't understand the principles of what the church is in the sense of a bona fide, certified pillar and ground of truth. God's trading one for another and then back again. That's his plan. That's his plan. And I don't care what kind of effort that you put out to try to get this straightened out. It's when it's going to be, whether it's pre or post or whatever. That's the best way of discovery as to when is the resurrection gonna be. We don't know what hour. We don't know what minute. But we, based upon scriptures that are dealing with, like Ezekiel, things that are happening and lined up right now, so that we can say, ooh, you know, It looks like we're right at this particular point, or very close to it, of God's plan. That's why I like to study the principles of time, factors Time factors, I call it, that the scripture reveals. And there's quite a bit in there about that sort of thing. And I'll give you some examples before we're over with of that. But you can come across things in the scriptures. that gives you a sense of timing and where you may be in the course of the plan, the plan that God has for the consummation, consummation to end this stuff that's so garbage. Well, let's stand.