Homer Kizer Ministries

April 30, 2009 ©Homer Kizer
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To review the previous two sections of this work, John the Revelator divides the narrative account of his vision into three parts, the Tribulation or Affliction, the Kingdom, and the Endurance (1:9). During the Tribulation, after the sixth seal has been removed from the Scroll, the 144,000 of Israel will be sealed (7:2, 4), with this 144,000 then passing through the split Mount of Olives (Zech 14:3–4) as ancient Israel passed through the Sea of Reeds (baptism by water — 1 Cor 10:1–2) and as Jesus passed from His tomb (resurrected to life — Rom 6:9); for once the 144,000 have been liberated from bondage to sin and begin to the follow the Lamb wherever He goes (Rev 14:4), the 144,000 will never die but will be changed in the twinkling of an eye from mortal to immortal.

The 144,000 will function as the chiral image of those saints, few in number (Isa chap 24), that enter physically into the Millennium.

After the 144,000 are sealed, a great multitude will be gathered as the harvest of the firstfruits of the earth: this great multitude is the third part (Zech 13:9) of the little ones (i.e., of humanity) that are born of spirit, and born filled with spirit when the world is baptized in spirit (Joel 2:28; Matt 3:11). They come out of the Endurance as spiritual virgins, and none of this great multitude was “Christian” before the Tribulation began.

Today’s Christian Church, composed of all who have been born of spirit and thus have an indwelling firstborn son of God residing in their tent of flesh, will divide itself into those disciples who cover themselves by drinking from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed, and those disciples who do not cover themselves but are as Egyptians were when the death angel passed over all the land. Sin, the third horseman, will not be able to harm those disciples who covered themselves by drinking from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed, with these disciples now being acceptable sacrifices to the Lord and hence killed as the 1^st-Century brothers were killed (Rev 6:9–11). Only a remnant (a remnant is the piece of cloth at the end of the bolt that is too small to be used for anything) of those saints that covered themselves will cross from the Tribulation into the Endurance, where they will be to the great multitude as the two witnesses were to Israel during the Tribulation.

Today’s Christians who did not cover themselves by drinking from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed will, following the second Passover liberation of Israel, have the indwelling firstborn son of God condemned to the second death; these Christians will rebel against God 220 days into the Tribulation by taking sin inside themselves when the man of perdition (the lawless one) is revealed. Their condemnation is inescapable. And many Sabbatarian disciples will be numbered among the rebels, but no Sabbatarian should be counted as a rebel for all really know better than to rely upon rabbinical Judaism for their salvation.

Thus, except for the remnant that has the spirit of prophecy, none of those Sabbatarian disciples who cover themselves by drinking from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed will live physically beyond the end of the Tribulation (the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years). Sometime well into the Tribulation, the 144,000 will be sealed in Jerusalem and will escape through the split Mount of Olives when Babylon falls. And from the third part of humankind, all spiritual virgins, the great multitude will “‘have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’” (Rev 7:14). This great multitude will account for the numerical majority of the harvest of firstfruits to Christendom’s shame.

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3.

John dates his vision: “I was in spirit in [en pneuma] the Lord’s day” (Rev 1:10). As John uses the identifying phrase, the Lord’s day isn’t a day of the week, but the day of the Lord; i.e., when the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man. And the kingdom is not given to the Lamb on many different days, but given only one time on one day.

About this one day, John records,

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying,

“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,

who is and who was,

for you have taken your great power

and begun to reign.

The nations raged,

but your wrath came,

and the time for the dead to be judged,

and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,

and those who fear your name,

both small and great,

and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. (Rev 11:15–19)

The Kingdom, John’s second narrative division of Revelation (from Rev 1:9), actually begins when the two witnesses are raised from death (Rev 11:11); for this scene was also witnessed by the Prophet Daniel and more fully described by him.

As I [Daniel] looked,

thrones were placed,

and the Ancient of Days took his seat;

his clothing was white as snow,

and the hair of his head like pure wool;

his throne was fiery flames;

its wheels were burning fire.

A stream of fire issued

and came out from before him;

a thousand thousands served him,

and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him;

the court sat in judgment,

and the books were opened.

I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

I saw in the night visions,

and behold, with the clouds of heaven

there came one like a son of man,

and he came to the Ancient of Days

and was presented before him.

And to him was given dominion

and glory and a kingdom,

that all peoples, nations, and languages

should serve him;

his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

which shall not pass away,

and his kingdom one

that shall not be destroyed. (Dan 7:9–14)

The fourth beast is dealt a death wound when the two witnesses are raised from the dead; the timing for when the fourth king is dealt a death wound in Daniel’s vision and for when the two witnesses are resurrected is identical. Thus, the public resurrection of the two witnesses is the testimony needed to establish that Death and Hades shall not prevail over the Body of Christ as Death and Hades did not prevail over the Head of the Body two millennia ago.

A matter is established on the testimony of two or three witnesses; thus, the public resurrection of two or three witnesses establishes that Death no longer has dominion over human beings. And if Death no longer has dominion over the fleshly bodies of men and women, then Death has lost its sting and has been dealt a mortal wound from which it cannot recover; for resurrection from death can again occur at any time thereby negating the very existence of Death … in order for a person to be dead, the person must necessarily have lost his or her breath of life. If that breath can be returned to the person, then the person is not really “dead” but merely asleep. The contention of human beings has been that the breath of life cannot be returned once it is lost; whereas the essence of Christianity has been that death is no more final than is sleep.

Fleshing out the narrative account of the one-time transfer of dominion over the kingdom of this world from the presently reigning prince of this world to the soon to be reigning Son of Man requires that the characters involved be identified—and identification will take many paragraphs.

The beast that is dealt a mortal wound and has its body destroyed by fire is the fourth beast of Daniel chapter 7. The three other beasts or kings (Dan 7:17) that, along with the fourth king, previously had dominion over the kingdom of this world—the same kingdom that is given to the Son of Man—remain alive after having been taken, their lives spared for a season and a time, with a “season” representing a fruiting season that is two years or most of two years long (a flower bud is set on a fruiting spur in the first year, then blooms and bears fruit in the second year). Therefore, because all four kings/beasts are present when dominion is taken from them and this dominion given to the Son of Man, the kings cannot represent sequential kingdoms. Only the copy or shadow of these concurrently reigning kings can be represented by sequential reigns.

The four kings or beasts of Daniel chapter 7 are not the metal kingdoms of chapter 2; i.e., the gold, silver, bronze, and iron that are simultaneously present when broken by a stone cut from a mountain by no human hands. Even though the time-setting is the same [“‘And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people’” — Dan 2:44], the context is not the same. The metal kings, along with the miry clay, form one human-appearing image that reigns from (or before) Nebuchadnezzar’s day until the end of the age; whereas the four beasts that jointly reign do so for a time, times, and half a time (Dan 7:25) before dominion is taken from them. They do not reign sequentially, for dominion is not given to the first or second or fourth beast, but to the third beast (v. 6) … although the argument can be made that the dominion given to the third beast is the same authority to rule over the earth that is given to the bronze kingdom (2:39), the first beast (7:4) is not given the authority the head of gold is given to rule over men wherever they dwell (2:37–38). Plus, the four beasts collectively share the dominion that is given to the third beast (7:12).

The Apostle Paul wrote, “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all” (Rom 11:32), and “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to life” (Rom 6:16). Thus, dominion over all has been given by God to Sin (and by extension, to Death) so that He could have mercy on all, with this dominion given when Adam was driven from the Garden of God before he, Adam, could eat of the Tree of Life (Gen 3:22–24). Fire in the form of the flaming sword prevented Adam from returning to the Garden where Life hung as fruit to be picked and eaten.

Because God has given Sin dominion over humankind—that is what Paul writes—sin is not counted as sin where there is no law (Rom 5:13); therefore, before the Law comes, human beings are under “natural grace,” or the covering of being bondservants to the Adversary. Paul writes, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Eph 2:1–3). Paul does not exclude himself from the category of being a son of disobedience even though he was a Jew, brought up in Jerusalem, and “‘educated at the feet of Gameliel according to the strict manner of the law of [Israel’s] fathers, being zealous for God’” (Acts 22:3).

Being zealous for God wasn’t enough, and is not now enough to prevent a person from being a son of disobedience, consigned to sin, and the faithful bondservant to sin. Only receiving a second breath of life (i.e., being truly born of spirit) frees a person so that sin no longer has dominion over the person (Rom 6:14); frees the person so “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in [disciples], who walk not according to the flesh but according” to spirit (Rom 8:4) … walking according to the righteous requirements of the law is obeying the law, or the obedience that leads to life of which Paul speaks in Romans 6:16.

Because all human beings are consigned to disobedience or to sin, dominion over human beings has been given to Sin, with sin personified in the king that appears as the four-headed leopard to whom dominion over the kingdom of this world has been given. And the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), with Death personified in the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse. So Death follows Sin to break, trample, and devour all who sin, for death is exceedingly strong and not easily escaped. Until the resurrection of firstfruits at the Second Advent, with Christ Jesus being the First of the firstfruits, only Jesus Himself and the two witnesses will have escaped death … these three are the three ribs in the mouth and between the teeth of the second beast (Dan 7:5) that this king of the bottomless pit (Rev 11:7) is unable to kill and keep dead. And it is by the resurrection of the two witnesses that Death is dealt a mortal wound, with his body being given over to be burned being a declaration about the fate of the two witnesses once resurrected, an oblique means of saying that the two witnesses will be resurrected to life that can cross fire.

From the head of the fourth king emerges the little horn that comes before the throne of the Ancient of Days and speaks blasphemy …

No human being will come before the throne of the Ancient of days, for flesh and blood cannot enter the kingdom of God; i.e., cannot cross into the supra-dimensional heavenly realm where time does not exist, thereby prohibiting movement of matter due to its apparent solidity. Therefore, the little horn that emerges from the head of the King of the North after the first king or great king of the King of Greece is broken suddenly is not a man, is not the Pope, is not the Prophet in Salt Lake City, is not a Muslim holy man or a European statesman or an American president. The little horn is a powerful demon, and the claim will here be made that the little horn is Satan himself; for in this earthly realm, the little horn will manifest itself in the man of perdition, who comes by the working or activity of Satan (2 Thess 2:9).

So there is no misunderstanding, Nebuchadnezzar, the human king of Babylon, sees in vision a humanoid image that has a head of gold, arms and chest of silver, belly and loins or thighs of bronze, legs of iron and toes of mixed iron and miry or soft (unfired) clay (Dan chap 2). Daniel tells the king that he is the head of gold, and that the God of heaven has given into his hand the children of men wherever they dwell, as well as the beasts of the field and the birds of the air … how is a human king to rule over vultures and eagles? He cannot. And certainly Nebuchadnezzar never ruled over men in China or Chile; so either Daniel spoke hyperbole, or Nebuchadnezzar was merely a type of the spiritual king of Babylon (Isa 14:4), the fallen day star, Satan the devil. And it is this latter that’s true, for when the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man, even the predatory natures of lions, leopards, wolves, and bears will be changed (Isa 11:6–9) for today the spiritual king of Babylon rules over all living creatures here on earth—and rules through being the prince of the power of the air (i.e., rules the mental typography of living creatures).

The visions of Daniel were sealed and kept secret until the time of the end: they were sealed by human beings serving as the copy and shadow of heavenly or spiritual beings, with Nebuchadnezzar serving as a type of the spiritual king of Babylon. What Daniel told King Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t really true of the human king of Babylon, but is true of the spiritual king that has reigned continuously from before Daniel’s day to this present era. And what Daniel tells the king about each of the other metal kingdoms primarily pertains to spiritual beings (demons) that reign with the Adversary as part of his ruling hierarchy. Therefore, what Daniel tells the king about the silver kingdom arising after him (Dan 2:39) pertains to the shadow just as what Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar about himself being the head pertained to the shadow: the image that Nebuchadnezzar actually sees is not that of four consecutive kingdoms, but that of one human-like being that when toppled would have broken gold, silver, bronze, and iron pieces coexisting in one debris pile, this chaff-like debris pile then being blown away by the breath of God.

Is the above a reliable reading of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision?

Daniel records that the very night when he “read” the handwriting on the wall, “Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom” (5:30–31) … Daniel reads the last character of the handwriting as “PERES,” meaning that the Chaldean “kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians” (v. 28). Thus, with Darius the Mede taking the kingdom, the Medes preceded the Persians to power.

In Daniel’s vision in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar (obviously occurring before the handwriting on the wall), Daniel sees a ram standing on the bank of the Ulai canal, and this ram had two horns, with both horns high, but the one was higher than the other and the higher horn came up second (Dan 8:1–3), so the higher horn was the Persians. The angel Gabriel tells Daniel “‘that the vision is for the time of the end’” (v. 17), not for the 4^th-Century BCE, and “‘As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia’” (v. 20). But—and here is where understanding emerges—in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, Daniel receives another vision. And about this vision in which the angel brings Daniel knowledge of what was written in the Book of Truth Daniel records,

Then I heard the sound of his words, and as I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to the ground.

And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.” And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.” (Dan 10:9–14 emphasis added)

In this passage, the prince [sar] of Persia and the kings of Persia are not human beings, but powerful demonic beings that require the intervention of the archangel Michael … no human king could stand before the angel any more than Daniel could stand; none could have withstood the angel for even a moment, let alone for 21 days. Thus, what’s recorded in the Book of Truth isn’t a story about human beings, but an accounting of what happens between angels that affects the course of human history.

Daniel’s vision of what would happen to the people of God in the latter days (10:14) was sealed and made secret (12:4, 9) until the time of the end, when understanding was given that the course of prophesied history seen in chapter 11, history that stretches from Alexander’s defeat of Darius to the defiling of the temple by the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes IV, forms the seal that has kept secret an ongoing war in the heavenly realm [i.e., in the inter-dimensional portion of the heavenly realm, the portion identified in Scripture as the bottomless pit], a war that occurs at the end of the age, a war that begins when the demonic king [sar] of Greece (10:20; 8:21) flies out of the west without touching the ground (8:5 — he doesn’t touch the ground for he is not in their world) to trample the demonic kings of Persia.

The demonic king of Greece is not one king, but a federation of kings. And it is this demonic king of Greece that forms the bronze belly and loins of the humanoid image Nebuchadnezzar saw; it is this demonic king of Greece that would rule over all the earth (Dan 2:39). And the answer to why he rules lies in where this king is placed in the humanoid image that represents the reigning hierarchy of the Adversary.

About the king of Greece, Daniel records, “And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. … Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven” (8:5, 8). Now, take this image of the king of Greece having one conspicuous horn coming from between his eyes back to the belly and loins of the humanoid image Nebuchadnezzar saw and what do you see: the single horn appears as an erect penis!

The king of Greece rules by controlling the appetites of the belly and loins; he rules through the passions of the flesh (Eph 2:3). And really, how is this world presently being ruled, especially considering that sex is used to sell hamburgers? Is this world not today being ruled by the appetites, the passions of the flesh? It is, isn’t it?

The single great horn is the first king of Greece (Dan 8:21). He is a demonic king, not Alexander, and as the first king, he is a spiritual firstborn of the king of Greece, and he will not and cannot cover himself by drinking from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed. Thus, he will be suddenly broken at the second Passover, the event that begins the 1260-day long Tribulation. And disciples have more that can be added to their timeline.

Babylon, the reigning hierarchy of Satan, falls when the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man; dominion is taken from the four kings of Daniel chapter 7 when the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man. Dominion is taken from Sin through the world being baptized in spirit (Joel 2:28; Matt 3:11) and given the mind of Christ after Satan is cast into time. Thus, Babylon falls when dominion is taken from the four kings or beasts—but it wasn’t the head of gold that ruled over the earth, but the bronze belly and loins … and the question sure to be asked by Christian traditionalists: how can the head of gold rule over men wherever they dwell and the bronze belly and loins rule over the world if their rule is not sequential rather than simultaneous? The answer to traditionalists is that though Christians have assigned sequential reigns to these metal kingdoms, these kings/kingdoms are all together and are all broken to pieces, with their chards commingled, when God sets up His kingdom; hence, they really cannot be sequential kingdoms.

Remember there are now hard time markers in play:

1.      The single great horn that appears as an erect penis is broken at the second Passover liberation of Israel; he is broken because he is first, and because his lawlessness or sin is not covered or coverable by the blood of the Lamb of God. He is broken at the beginning of the Tribulation.

2.     The four kings or beasts have their dominion taken from them and given to the Son of Man 1260 days later when the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man. They have their dominion taken from them when Babylon falls and humankind is no longer consigned to disobedience.

In the 1260 day period between the beginning of the Tribulation and when the kingdom is given to the Son of Man, the four horns sprout from around the base of the broken great horn (Dan 8:8). In their shadow, Alexander is the type of the first horn, and his four generals are types of the hour horns that arise from the four compass points. Out of the north horn or said otherwise, out of king of the North comes the little horn that threw some of the host and some of the stars to the ground. And it is to this little horn after he has become great that “a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression” (v. 12).

There are not many little horns in Scripture: there is only one other (that is the same one) in Daniel chapter 7, and this little horn comes up on the fourth king, the king that is dealt a death wound; thus the following can be asserted:

·       The fourth king of Daniel chapter 7 is the King of the North of Daniel chapter 11 and is the fourth horseman of Revelation chapter 6;

·       The little horn is the power behind the lawless one (2 Thess 2:3–10), with the lawless one being the man of perdition. This power is Satan himself, and the lawless one is a human being possessed by Satan;

·       The third king of chapter 7 is the King of the South of chapter 11 and is the third horseman of Revelation chapter 6. This horseman, Sin, makes merchandize of both the firstfruits of God (the early barley harvest) and the later main crop wheat harvest, but cannot harm the oil and the wine, the processed fruits of the Promised Land.

·       Throughout the Tribulation, Sin will be separated from Death because of the second Passover liberation of Israel from indwelling sin while the flesh remains mortal; hence the separation of the King of the North from the King of the South seen in Daniel 11:5.

·       Because the first king of Greece is broken at the second Passover, and because disciples are liberated from Sin but remain mortal, with the first Passover forming the shadow and type of the second Passover, the short while between when the death angel passed over Egypt and when Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron (Ex 12:29–31) represents in type the period between when firstborns are again slain and when Sin is separated from Death (the period described in Dan 11:4–5).

·       The lawless one is revealed 220 days (2520 days minus 2300 days) after the second Passover liberation of Israel; for with liberation Israel covers itself with its obedience in lieu of the daily sacrifice, and when Israel’s obedience ends in its rebellion against God, the daily sacrifice ends.

·       Therefore the four kings of Greece emerge from around the stump of the first king before 220 days of the Tribulation pass and very likely by the 17^th day of Lyyar, the day when the foundations of the deep erupted (Gen 7:11), and two/three days after the second Passover.

Again, in John’s vision the four horsemen of the first four seals (Rev chap 6) emerge before the saints are martyred as their brothers were in the 1^st-Century. These four horsemen are the four kings that emerge from around the stump, and the fourth horseman or king, named Death, is the King of the North—and is seen in prophecy as Assyria. The King of the South represents sin and is represented in prophecy by Egypt. The wages for sin is death (Rom 6:23), thereby Sin and Death are today linked as if they are one entity, and they are until the first horn of the king of Greece is broken.

More of Revelation’s timeline can now be declared:

1.      The Tribulation begins at the second Passover, with the sacraments taken on the 14^th of Lyyar according to the model for the Passover taken on the 14^th of Abib.

2.     The death angels pass over all the earth at the midnight hour (when humankind can get no farther from God) of the 14^th of Lyyar, slaying firstborns not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God. The great horn of the king of Greece will be one of these uncovered firstborns.

3.     Following the slaying of uncovered firstborns, the saints are filled with spirit and thus liberated from bondage to previously indwelling sin and death and as such, born as righteous Abel was born and as Jacob was born … the model for the Passover in Abib suggests that this liberation of the saints occurs on the 15^th of Lyyar.

4.     Four demonic kings come to power from around the stump of the first king of the king of Greece, and from the north king comes a little horn that will go after the saints as Pharaoh went after Israel when the nation crossed the Sea of Reeds — the initial pursuit of the saints is seen in the opening of the fifth seal (Rev 6:9–11), with the martyrdom of saints peaking following the rebellion.

5.     The lawless one or man of perdition, an Arian Christian, will be revealed 220 days after the second Passover, and about Christmas of the calendar year in which the second Passover occurs.

6.     The coming of the lawless one marks Israel’s (Christendom’s) rebellion against God [i.e., the great falling away] and the birth of a spiritual Cain, with the reversed birth order subject to the first shall be last and the last first as the physical birth of Cain forms the chiral image of the birth of spiritual  Abel.

7.     Because Cain will “kill” righteous Abel, except for the remnant (Rev 12:17) the saints will be early-on sealed in death; thus, the saints are not seen when the sixth seal is removed from the Scroll and humankind hides itself in the caves and among the rocks from the heavenly signs of God (Rev 6:12–17) as the wrath of the Lamb is unleashed against those who would bodily kill His Bride.

The removal of the sixth seal begins what the kings of the earth on down to servants identify as the great day of “the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev 6:16–17) … why would great and small seek to hide from the face of God if they were not knowingly guilty of slaying the servants of God? Great and small know they have done wrong, but they will not repent. Rather, they will be as Cain was when he asked the Lord if he was his brother’s keeper (Gen 4:9), and as Cain was cursed from the ground that received his brother’s blood (v. 10), great and small will be cursed as they seek to hide themselves from God, by using the rocks of this earth as their cover. They are the living dead, entombed in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

After the second Passover, the saints are not seen in Scripture for without indwelling sin, they are “light” and light casts no shadow. It is what blocks the light that casts a shadow. Thus, when they are slain is not seen with precision and how many remaining saints constitute the remnant cannot be known. What can be asserted is that the majority of the saints are slain early into the Tribulation, beginning on day 220. It is unlikely that many are left alive to take the Passover that will begin the second of the seven endtime years.

Beginning on day 220, 1290 days are counted before the effectiveness of the Adversary’s deception runs its course. This will be approximately ten months after Satan and his angels are cast from heaven, and will occur in late July of the fifth year of the seven endtime years. Thus, when the Fall Feast occurs at the end of the first full year of the Endurance, those disciples who have not taken the mark of the beast (i.e., Χ ξ stigma or the tattoo of the cross) will be blessed. Although they must still endure for another two and a half years, they will by the end of the first year know that they can trust the Father and the Son to supply their needs. They only have to hang on to be individually saved as one of the firstfruits.

Therefore, more can now be said about the narrative period John identifies as the Kingdom, and the foremost thing that can be said is that the first year of the Endurance is the second year of the Kingdom, with the events seen in Revelation chapter 13 occurring when dominion is taken from the four kings (Dan 7:11–12) and when they, as Satan’s angels (Rev 12:7), are cast to the earth. The four kings or beasts, collectively identified by the angel Gabriel as the king of Greece (Dan 8:21–22), constitute the first beast of Revelation chapter 13. Their dominion has been taken from them; the fourth king has been dealt a mortal wound when the two witnesses were resurrected from death and his cross-shaped body has been burned; but the lives of the first three have been spared for a season and a time.

The second beast of Revelation chapter 13 is Satan himself, and his great (elevated) authority when cast from heaven lies entirely in him coming claiming to be the messiah … the dragon’s power and throne and great authority that he gives to the first beast is usurped power and authority. The dragon comes as the true Antichrist, of whom the man of perdition in the Tribulation was a copy and shadow.

Without here connecting all of the dots, it will be asserted that the Endurance forms the chiral image of the Tribulation. As saints are marked with the sign of God (Sabbath observance — from Ex 31:13) in the Tribulation for they are aliens in the wobbling and soon to fall kingdom of Babylon, in the Endurance the seed of Satan are marked for death with the tattoo (in the mind and on the hand) of the cross for they are aliens in the kingdom of the Son of Man. As the sons of God are sealed so that they do not suffer the fifth Trumpet Plague (Rev 9:4) which occurs in the Tribulation, the seed of Satan (Rev 16:2) is sealed in destruction (i.e., they cannot escape) so that they suffer the wrath of God (Rev chap 16) that occurs in the Endurance. Thus, as the first year of the Endurance is also part of the narrative division of Revelation known as the Kingdom, the last year of the Tribulation will also be part of the Kingdom, thereby having the three woes occur during the first year of the Kingdom and the messages of the three angels delivered in the second year of the Kingdom (again, this second year also being the first year of the Endurance).

Approximately a third of humankind will be uncovered firstborns when the death angels pass over all the land at the midnight hour of the second Passover, with the death of these firstborns plunging the world into chaos and immediate concern to “get right” with God. And the death of these uncovered firstborns immediately (by one, two, or three days) precedes the liberation of Israel from indwelling sin through disciples being filled with spirit … the mirror image of the death of a third of humankind at the second Passover is the death of a third of humankind in the sixth Trumpet Plague, for all of remaining humanity will be firstborn sons of God when the world is baptized in spirit. Therefore, the sixth Trumpet Plague does not occur a long while before the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man, but within a period analogous to the days between the 14^th of Lyyar and the 17^th of Lyyar, with these three days typologically representing the three week period between the 1^st of the seventh month and the 21^st-day of the seventh month of the fourth year of the seven endtime years. In the pattern of the high Sabbaths of God, the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man on the 15^th-day of the seventh month (the high Sabbath of Sukkoth), but Christ Jesus will not return for another three and a half years, these years forming the Endurance. This high day (the first day of Sukkoth) would fall midweek as the seven endtime years are represented by the seven days of Unleavened Bread; the high day symbolically occurs at the time and on the day when Jesus ascended to the Father to be accepted as Israel’s Wave Sheaf Offering.

The chirality between the Tribulation and the Endurance is now more evident than before:

1.      As the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering (the first ripe sheaf of barley in the Promised Land, the sheaf waved by the priest on the morrow after the weekly Sabbath in Unleavened Bread — see Lev 23:9–11; 15–16), Christ Jesus ascended to the Father on the mid-week day of Unleavened Bread. The harvest of the firstfruits of God could not begin until He was waved and accepted.

2.     The harvest of firstfruits began when Jesus breathed on 10 of His disciples on the same day that He had ascended to the Father (John 20:19–24), and directly transfered to them a second breath of life.

3.     The Church as the Body of Christ was crucified with Christ and died as Jesus’ physical body died, and was resurrected from death after the example of Christ in the form of the two witnesses. In between Jesus and the two witnesses are the deaths of many disciples born of spirit and slain by the prince of this world. It is only the remnant of these “many disciples” that bodily enter into the Endurance.

4.     But the giving of the kingdom of this world to the Son of Man mid-week in the seven endtime years is analogous to Jesus ascending to the Father mid-week of Unleavened Bread in the Hebrew year 3791.

5.     Thus, the harvest of firstfruits could not truly begin until the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man … the Christianity of the Adversary (that has been a curse to this world) has seen some but few saints harvested in the past two millennia—the saints harvested are the harvesters for the harvest of firstfruits.

As many have been called but few chosen (Matt 22:14) over the past two millennia, many will be chosen from the third part of humanity that is born of spirit when the world is baptized into spirit after Babylon falls; for all who endure to the end shall be saved (Matt 24:13).

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A summary of the above will begin the fourth section of this piece.

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"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

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