The book of Revelation is addressed only to God’s Church. Many of His own people rebelled against this message. But God always has at least a small remnant which keeps His lamp burning.
ANYBODY WHO WANTS TO UNDERSTAND THE BIBLE AND WORLD EVENTS MUST COME TO GOD’S FAITHFUL REMNANT! There is understanding no place else on this planet! It is the only way you can really comprehend the fate of your own nation, or even your own life.
This is a difficult truth to accept, but God works through His very elect and nobody else. Everybody else is blind. It is that way now, it has been in the past, and shall be in the future!
“John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, fromhim which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne” (Rev. 1:4). We must come to deeply know the Being who WASand who then came to this Earth, was crucified and was then resurrected from the dead. We must also know the God who “is to come.” The book of Revelation is about His Second Coming. Our lives must revolve around that great cause—to the extent that we would die for it if necessary.
We also must know that the glorified, royal God “IS”—He is alive today! (vv. 12-16).
Christ is at this very moment the High Priest of God’s Church! We must know what He is doing right NOW.
If we fully grasp His love and power, then we have nothing to fear. We must conquer our fears. We win in the end—regardless of what happens to us today!
“And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood” (v. 5). Christ was “the faithful witness.” The wordwitness is from the Greek word martus—from which we get our word martyr.
A martyr is one who dies for a cause. Christ “washed us from our sins in his own blood.” He died for our sins.
Christ is the “Prince of kings,” or “King of kings.” He is higher than any human royalty ever could be. But He is “THE faithful witness” to the most supreme royalty—His Father. He is “the Son of the Highest.” “And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the THRONE of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:30-33). Christ has a royal throne. His Father has a more exalted royal throne.
Imagine what it was like when the royal Father allowed His beloved Son to become a martyr for sinning men. And consider how the royal Son gave His life for you.
That is the kind of sacrificial love our royal God family has for their creation!
All of the first-century apostles except John were martyred for following Christ’s example. And John was imprisoned. What is more amazing, these martyrs were usually killed by deceived religious people!
So when you decide to be a “witness” for Jesus Christ, you need to know what that means.
“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held” (Rev. 6:9). The word testimony is from the Greek word marturia, which comes from martus. (The same is true for the word testimony in Rev. 1:9.) These servants of God were loyal unto death.
Thayer’s Lexicon defines marturia, “to hold the testimony, to persevere steadfastly in bearing it.” It says those who held this testimony “after [Christ’s] example have proved the strength and genuineness of their faith in Christ by undergoing a violent death.”
These saints were not to be denied their reward. But that happened in the past. It will happen again in the future to God’s lukewarm church. “And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled” (Rev. 6:10-11). They must die to qualify for God’s Kingdom.
All of these martyrs were “under the altar.” That refers to the altar of burnt offering where the animals were sacrificed in the temple. Today the temple is God’s Church, and those sacrificing their lives are God’s lukewarm saints—not animals!
It isn’t easy qualifying for entry into God’s Kingdom. But God repeatedly shows us the eternal glory we shall receive for doing so.
Christ was the “first begotten of the dead” (Rev. 1:5). The word begotten is incorrectly translated. It should be BORN. Christ was the first BORN, and later there will be a second and third born from the dead. If we should die serving God in a natural death, or as a martyr, we will be born into the royal God family!
Satan wants to confuse people with the word begotten. Who would die just to be begotten? But if you know you are going to become a member of God’s family, looking like the glorified, majestic God in Revelation 1:12-16—a person can die for that cause!
We must not compromise one iota. That is how we become perfect in character—as God is.
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