Bible Study Seattle

“By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.  Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” Genesis 2:2-3

“Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their foreheads and on their hands; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” Revelation 20:4

The Messiah will have a Sabbath of a thousand years. His week is 7,000 years long. God’s Sabbath evidently is 7,000 years long. His week of creation is 49,000 years long. God’s normal work is creating, therefore he ceased creating for 7,000 years. Messiah is the bridge between God and man. His Sabbath is rest from sin. The rest from sin will not be step-wise, but gradual.

“One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.” Deuteronomy 19:15

“Jesus answered and said to them, “Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going.  You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.  And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.  It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.  I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me.” John 8:14-18

Jesus established his authority to the Pharisees by two witnesses – himself and God. Why didn’t Jesus cite the Holy Spirit as a third witness? Did Jesus consider the Holy Spirit a person? Or is the Holy Spirit merely the spirit of God? We are all made of flesh and spirit.

“ ‘He who touches the dead body of anyone shall be unclean seven days.  He shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean.  Whoever touches the body of anyone who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. That person shall be cut off from Israel. He shall be unclean, because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him; his uncleanness is still on him.” Numbers 19:11-13

The third and seventh days are equated here. They are the same prophetically. The seventh 1,000 years from Adam’s fall is the same time as the third 1,000 years from Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. This passage is telling us not to hold on to those who chose second death during the Millennial Reign of Christ. All die in Adam but only the willfully obstinate will die the second death. First death is inevitable but not second. We are not to mourn the wicked that chose this.

John 1-2 recounts a series of events starting with the Pharisees questioning John the Baptist. The next day John baptizes Jesus. The day after that John tells his disciples that Jesus is the Messiah. The next day Jesus desires to go to Galilee. Then,

“On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.” John 2:1-2

It’s not an accident that the wedding happened on the third day. If you look at all scripture references to ‘third day’ you see a pattern. There are dozens of scriptures.

On the third day – within 3,000 years from Jesus’ baptism the church will be complete and the marriage will have happened, the wicked will be destroyed in the second death, Jesus will come down in the sight of all the people, etc.

“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes.  And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.  You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.” Exodus 19:10-12

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Matthew 5:13

In the old days salt was used as a preservative, not for taste, as pastor Ryan Faust points out. Jesus is comparing Christians to salt – we preserve the world by our morality. If we become corrupt, our children will suffer and have less children. The bible is clear that moral people last generations upon generations but wicked people die out after a few generations.

“The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:6-7

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16

Is Jesus preaching works? Yes and no. Real faith inevitably generates good works, or as Jesus sometimes says, good fruit. We are saved by faith, but good works will create blessings in the next life.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7

It is clear that many Christians are not in a sound mind at current. No number of precautions are ever enough. Though they’ve taken three or four vaccines and wear N95 masks and keep distance and test all the time they are still afraid. Yet what do the numbers say? Are extraordinary numbers of people dying? No. It is clear that the God of this world is the TV for many. The TV tells them to be afraid. This has been the message 24/7 for two years. Clearly this God is NOT the God of the bible! So why are Christians bowing to this God? Why don’t they ask questions? Why do they only listen to one side?

PRIDE. They’ve been taught a set of beliefs for their entire lives and they’re not going to change now! These beliefs are lies. Withdrawal from drugs is hard. Especially drugs of the mind. And humility is hard for some. Yet the truth will not stop. Truth has infinite staying power. Corruption is everywhere. Especially in leadership. How do you think they got rich?

“I saw the woman [Mystery Babylon], drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” Revelation 17:6

“Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!  For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” Revelation 18:2-3

Amen! May Babylon fall and fall hard! (Though it may take centuries.)

Were are we in history? We are currently a mix of the Roman Empire and Christ’s Empire.

“You, O king, were watching and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary radiance, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome.  The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its chest and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, and its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.  You continued watching until a stone was broken off without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them.  Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed to pieces all at the same time, and they were like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the entire earth.” Daniel 2:31-35

This is a sweeping view of history from about 586 BC to well past our day – probably 3,500 years or so! We are still in the time of the iron and clay, the Roman Empire. But there has begun a fifth universal empire which is growing in strength day by day. It will gradually crush the Roman Empire (also sometimes referred to as mystery Babylon – Babylon encompasses all of the first four empires – Babylon, Medo-Persian, Greece, Rome).

Right now (circa 2022 AD) people are losing faith in the major institutions of society. This is part of the crushing process. These institutions will not be fully eliminated in the next several years, but they will come down a major notch. Jesus may be opening people’s eyes, but the full end of evil must wait several more centuries.

“And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.  Just as you saw that a stone was broken off from the mountain without hands, and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is certain and its interpretation is trustworthy.” Daniel 2:44-45

Will current events lead to a revival? Probably. Evil is being exposed and it is shaking many. On the other hand, those ‘christians’ that like the current evil might take a different tack. Many truth seekers are taking a look at Christianity. Truth is funny. Others are trying to cling to lies. The wheat and the tares are becoming more apparent.

What a wonderful yet crazy time to be alive! Satan is having a fit. “But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” Revelation 12:12

Truth is rising. “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12

“The waters [of Truth?] flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.” Genesis 7:24

“Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.   From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three.  They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” Luke 12:51-53

“You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” Luke 12:40

The world and even many Christians will be caught surprised when Jesus comes. Most of us have wrong ideas about his second advent. We will all be surprised in some ways. If the apostles were surprised and confused about what happened at the first advent, will we not be surprised and confused at the second? This is how God keeps us humble.

God’s Plan is very big. VERY big. It’s hard for us mere humans to wrap our heads around what he’s doing. Genesis 1 says that God created for six days then rested the seventh. The word we have as ‘day’ is yom in the Hebrew (Strong’s 3117), which is not always translated ‘day’ depending on context. In Genesis 2:17 Eve tells the Serpent that in the day they eat the fruit they will surely die. Did Adam & Eve die the day they ate the fruit? No. Adam died 930 years later! So we have to be careful how yom is translated. Likewise for God: Is he not still resting? That tells us that the seventh ‘day’ is more than 6,000 years long so far! Chances are very good that the first six ‘days’ of creation were more than 24 hours apiece. Furthermore, we know that within God’s rest he will send his Son to reign for 1,000 years. “and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” Revelation 20:4

Moses tells us in Psalm 90 that a day is as a thousand years or as a watch in the night. A watch is 3 hours, so it must also be true that a day can be eight thousand years! God also has a preference for seven day cycles. (Or seven months, or seven years). The Messiah was to come 70 times 7 years after the decree to rebuild. “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the wrongdoing, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.  So you are to know and understand that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with streets and moat, even in times of distress.” Daniel 9:24-25

So it is not a stretch to speculate that the ‘days’ of creation were 7,000 years apiece. God’s rest day is 6,000 years followed by his Son’s reign for 1,000 years. Scripture tells us that the last enemy to be destroyed is death and then the Messiah will hand the kingdom back over to God the Father. “then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to our God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.  For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.  The last enemy that will be abolished is death.  For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is clear that this excludes the Father who put all things in subjection to Him.  When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.” 1 Corinthians 15:24-28

Is it possible that God’s rest day is 8,000 years? Christ will reign for the seventh ‘day’ of 1,000 years, but a 50th 1,000 year ‘day’ will follow – the Grand Jubilee. For if each ‘day’ of creation is 7,000 years, seven ‘days’ total 49,000 years. That would encompass 49 smaller 1,000 year ‘days’ followed by a 50th 1,000 year ‘day’. Time will tell. The Jubilee differs from the Sabbath in that all family property is put back where it originated. This hints that not all the work of redemption will be complete at the end of Christ’s 1,000 year reign. Again, time will tell. Of course Christ will also be ruling during the Jubilee so this may be a semantic difference.