FEAST OF TRUMPETS - 2003

Fred Coulter - September 27, 2003

And greetings, brethren. Welcome to the Feast of Trumpets, 2003. And you know all the holy days of God, they picture the plan of God, they lay out what God has determined. And as we’ve covered already, God has revealed the secret to those who love Him, who serve Him, who obey Him, and who follow His Word. The Feast of Trumpets is going to be a tremendous event, which will always be the hallmark of the beginning of the kingdom of God’s reign on the earth.

Now as we always do with all the holy days, you might even already have turned there, Leviticus 23, because we always read this. And it’s very interesting that the Feast of Trumpets is mentioned here in this particular place. And it is not mentioned very much in all the rest of the scriptures. But nevertheless, this is something that God wants us to have, something that God wants us to do. And of course the Word of God that we have here with the Bible, every Word of God is inspired, it is God breathed, and it’s for our edification, for our teaching, for instruction in righteousness, for correction, and also to show us the plan of God. And of course we know all of the holy days are connected one with the other and lead in a time sequence. And so here we are for the Feast of Trumpets, 2003.

Don’t ask me how long we have yet to go because we don’t know. It seems like some events happen very rapid in order, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s speeding up the prophecies. It’s just putting in place the things which are going to lead to the climactic end of this age of which the day that ends it is the Feast of Trumpets. And that also begins the new era of the millennium, the kingdom of God. So like in everything that we are going to cover, as you will see during the Feast of Tabernacles, the theme is “The Beginning and the Ending.” Well, here we have an ending and also we have a beginning. And it’s a very paramount and important day with God.

Now let’s come to Leviticus 23:23, and here’s the instruction that God gave Moses. “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD” (Lev. 23:23-25). And of course we always take up an offering on the holy days. And by now you’ve been in the Church of God long enough you know about the holy day offerings. You know what you need to do. And it’s all a part of our relationship with God, and it’s all a part of our belief in God that if we believe that God is going to save us, if we believe that God is going to give us eternal life, if we believe that God is going to forgive our sins, if we believe that God is going to send Jesus Christ back from heaven to rule the earth, and then we come down to these things that God says He will bless us in our tithes and our offerings, well then we need to believe God in that as well. We cannot be selective in what we do and believing what God tells us or commands us. Anything that is changed, such as the rituals that we read of in the Old Testament, you can read the section in the Harmony of The Gospels – The Sermon on The Mount, and also we made a booklet out of that – “How Did Jesus Fulfill The Law and The Prophets?” And this will tell you exactly what it is that we are giving an outline of what we are to do of the Word of God we are to follow. You see, the world comes along and they say, “All of these holy days are rituals. And so, therefore since Jesus changed the rituals, we don’t need to do them.” And in doing that, that is wrong reasoning because they do not understand what Christ really did. They do no understand how Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets and so they miss the very important thing as to what God is doing. And too many people are out there trying to do something for God and they don’t have a clue as to what His plan is. So we’re going to go ahead and pause right here. And we’ll take up the offering for the Feast of Trumpets.

(Pause)

Now let’s continue on and see the meaning of the Feast of Trumpets and all that it has for us and the world. And we’re going to see that this is going to be a universe and a world shaking event. Now we’ve already covered the events from Pentecost and right after Pentecost, so we’re going to go back and pick up some things, and we’re going to also as you’ll see during the Feast of Trumpets we’ll be at the beginning and the ending. So let’s go to the beginning and let’s understand something very important that perhaps may fit into the picture because God does things according to His plan, and His plan at one end also refers back to the other end of it and projects forward to the future of it.

Now we know that in 1 Corinthians 15 it talks about the first Adam was made a living soul. He was made of the dust of the earth. The second Adam is the Lord from heaven. Now if we can apply that to the creation and also the return of Jesus Christ, then maybe we have a situation where Adam was created just before the Feast of Trumpets. You have six days of creation. The last thing that God created was Adam and Eve. And then you have the first Sabbath where they kept the Sabbath. Was that Sabbath a double Sabbath like we have this year, which is the most common occurrence with all of the factors concerning the calculated Hebrew Calendar. Now we don’t know for sure but we know from a type. So if Adam was created and then spent that first day, that first whole day with God on the Sabbath being taught, learning why he was created, given an understanding of what God wanted him to do. And of course that was all pictured in the symbolism of the two trees - the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And of course the lesson that we need to learn from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is this: not all good comes from God. A lot of good that we see in the society comes from the knowledge of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So we need to keep that in mind whenever we look at things in the world. And because of that the world is coming down to where it is.

Now let’s understand something that’s also important. God does things on time. And it says concerning Jesus in Galatians 4, that when He came in the flesh He was born at the due, or the set time. And that would have to be according to the time that God had in His plan. Now you can get the Harmony and go through it and you can find, as we went through there are some keys telling us in Luke 1 to give us an approximation as to when Jesus was born. And you can follow through because we’re able to get it to within a two week time frame according to the calculated Hebrew Calendar. And when we come on down to the time when Jesus was to be born after forty weeks pregnancy with Mary, the middle day was the Feast of Trumpets, a weekly Sabbath, an annual Sabbath just exactly like we have it today. So let’s review some of these things concerning the birth of Jesus. Let’s come here to Luke 1 and let’s see what the angel Gabriel told Mary. And when this happened this was a tremendous and marvelous event. And the angel told her exactly who the Son would be, what He would do. And so let’s look at some of these prophecies that were given here.

Let’s pick it up in Luke 1:30. “And the angel [now that’s the angel Gabriel]…” When you go through the scriptures and it talks about Gabriel, you will see that Gabriel has perhaps, it looks very clear this way because he spoke to John the Baptist’s father also, he is the one in charge of all of the events to take place leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ. So he’s the one who talked to Mary. And he said, “…Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour [that is, grace] with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS” ((Luke 1:30-31). Now it had to be this miraculous birth because it was going to be the Son of God, and no human impregnation can ever make a man the Son of God. So it has to be a supernatural impregnation. And of course the rest of the New Testament tells us that it was God manifest in the flesh.

Now continuing it says, “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest:…” Now in the Old Testament this is important because you have God, you have Elohiym, you have also Jehovah, but the Most High, the places that it refers to in the Old Testament refers to God the Father. So this is showing here that it is of God the Father. “… And the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father [that is, his forefather] David: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end” (vs. 32-33). Now then when we come down and look at some of the rest of the things that were told concerning the birth of Jesus, the things leading up to it, it’s really quite a tremendous event, and we’re very glad that Luke has all of these things preserved. Now in the coming New Testament you’ll be able to read commentary about how Luke had access to these documents up in Jerusalem when he wrote the Gospel of Luke.

Now let’s continue. Let’s come down here and let’s see what Mary said. Let’s see what Mary said when she went to visit her aunt Elisabeth. “And Mary said [verse 46], My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.” Now you think about that. Mary had an understanding of exactly what was going to happen because she said, “All generations shall call me blessed.” And here it is written right in the New Testament there and recorded so that we would know that. Now in order to understand that she said this Luke had to talk to Mary directly. So you can read that in the coming commentary. “For He that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is His name. And His mercy is upon them that fear Him from generation to generation. He hath shewed strength with His arm; He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts” (vs. 46-51). And of course the proud and the imagination of their hears have done all they can to attack the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. They have done all they can to attack the Bible and in particularly the New Testament, and to say that it is myth and fairy tale. But these are the very words of salvation and we need to understand that and we need to realize how fantastic that this really is, what an event this was. Now I’m bringing this out simply because if Jesus were born on the Feast of Trumpets, which is very likely that He was when you go through and examine all the material that we have in the Harmony of The Gospels, this was a tremendous event. Here was the Lord, the Saviour, the one Who was God, Who made Himself just a pinprick of life to be impregnated in the womb of the virgin Mary, now He is born as a baby. As a human being. And so that no one, no one would be able to say to God, “You do not know what it’s like to be human.” And He’s going to say, “Yes, I did. Yes, I know. I created you in the first place. Moreover I also experienced it Myself.”

Now when the baby was born, you know the events that took place. And how that the… Let’s come here to Luke 2 and let’s pick it up here in verse 8 after Jesus was born and was laid in the manger and so forth. “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field,…” Now we know for sure that they didn’t do this during December. As a matter of fact, in the Harmony of The Gospels you will see a picture of snow in Jerusalem in the early part of January. And remember that the climate back then during the days of Jesus was not like it is now. The climate back then was much more mild. It was not as hot and desert as it is today. There were a lot of trees and springs and brooks, and they did have the seasons, so when winter came the sheep were not out there in the field. They were in the sheepcotes and staying in there for the winter. “…Keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign…” So he told them, “Now we’re going to prove this to you.” Here’s a sign. “…Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:8-14). So that’s really quite a thing.

And at that point we know from Hebrew 1 that God said to all the angels that they were to worship His firstborn. Now see, the firstborn is reckoned from Mary. And the only begotten is reckoned from the Father. And Jesus is called the firstborn. And we find there in verses 6 and 7 of Hebrews 1, that God commanded the angels to worship His firstborn Who was brought into the world. And so they did. That’s what this is all about here. So they went and they found it as it was.

Now verse 19, after the shepherds left and the shepherds told them the things that had happened, “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcision of the child, His name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before He was conceived in the womb” (vs. 19-21). Now circumcision was a very important time. Now also if Jesus were born on a Friday night leading into the Sabbath, which would be Trumpets, a double Sabbath, then He was also circumcised on the Sabbath. So when Jesus says that a man is to be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken, that also included Himself. So therefore having received circumcision then He was, what you would say a full-fledged physical Israelite, though He was the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father. So then by the time it comes down to the Feast of Tabernacles He’s dwelling with men as a full-fledged male baby, of course, Israelite of the lineage of David of the tribe of Judah, just as God had said.

Now let’s continue on here and let’s see some of the other prophecies that preceded Christ’s ministry that followed after the time He was born and circumcised. “And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought Him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord;…” And so they fulfilled the law “…Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;)…” (vs. 22-23). They offered the sacrificed. Now as they were doing that there was Simeon who was a just man, very devout. And he was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and it says that the Holy Spirit was upon him.

Now let’s pick it up here in verse 26. “And it was revealed unto him by the Holy [Spirit] Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for Him after the custom of the law, then took he Him up in his arms,…” Now just imagine this old man, probably in his late eighties, maybe early nineties – just picture him with probably a very long white beard, and God through the power of the Holy Spirit inspired him to come there. Then he walks up to Joseph and Mary and picks up the babe and hold Him in his arms and then he prophecies. “…And [he] blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation [though this was just the start of it, just the beginning], which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel” (vs. 26-32).

Now this kind of shocked Joseph and Mary because it says here in verse 33, “And Joseph and [Mary] His mother marveled at those things which were spoken of Him.” So Simeon then, he blessed them. “…And said unto Mary His mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;…” So from the very day that Jesus was brought publicly to the temple He was going to be a sign spoken against, and He’s a sign spoken against to this very day. And as we will see even the world is going to fight against Him when He comes. So that’s something. It says, “(Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy very own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (vs. 33-35). So this was quite an event. The birth of Jesus Christ and beginning of His ministry because you see it starts from Trumpets and then goes right on and all the way through His life and His ministry and everything that was accomplished and done then.

Now when we come to the end of His ministry, what do we have? Again, you can find all of this in the Harmony of The Gospel. We find that Jesus was crucified on the Passover day, and God uses all of His holy days, He was in the tomb three days and three nights, He was resurrected right at the end of the Sabbath. On the Wave Sheaf Offering day He ascended to God the Father to be accepted as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. And that is the first day in the count toward Pentecost. And then we come down to Pentecost. But you see He ascended into heaven after forty days from His resurrection and ten days later the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost. Now we’ve going through all the things concerning the day of Pentecost, so what we’re going to do here is we’re going to look at some other things and how the kingdom of God is going to come on this earth, and the prophecies concerning it. And this has been prophesied, as it says so many times over by all the prophets from the beginning of the world. Because you see, even beginning with the sin of Adam and Eve there was a prophecy that Christ would come for the forgiveness of sin and destroy and remove Satan the devil. And we’ll talk a little bit more about that in ten days on the Day of Atonement.

Let’s come here to Daniel 2 and let’s see one of the most detailed prophecies that was given. And it was revealed in a dream to King Nebuchadnezzar. Now, King Nebuchadnezzar didn’t want to listen to any of his soothsayers or any of the prognosticators that he had there at Babylon because Daniel was the one that God revealed everything to concerning this vision. So he didn’t tell the dream to him, and he asked that whoever would do it would tell the dream and the meaning of the dream. And this is a very profound and most particular place in history because we have accurate historical records going back to this time in the 600’s BC. We do have accurate records going back a little before that. But from the time of Babylon to what is called the axial period, and the axial period began after the days of Hezekiah and on down to our day. Things as far as the universe and the heavens are concerned have pretty well remained the same since then. So here we have Daniel who’s coming in and he wanted the king to know and understand. Now this is a profound thing because we will see this leads from Nebuchadnezzar right on down to the establishing of the kingdom of God on earth, which this day Trumpets pictures.

Now notice what the king said to Daniel. Daniel 2:26, “The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof? Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king; but there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets,…” Brethren, these secrets are revealed and shown in the Word of God and are laid out according to the holy days. Now I don’t know exactly what day that this occurred, but it’s very profound that God did this, that Daniel recorded this for us. Now let’s notice what it says here. “…Revealeth secrets and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days” (Dan. 2:26-28). So not only does it start out with Nebuchadnezzar, as we will see, but it comes to the latter days. And I tell you what, if we’re not living in the latter days, you know, we don’t know what we’re living in.

Let’s continue here. “Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon they bed, are these; As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and He that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. But as for me [Daniel said to the king], this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living,…” (vs. 28-30). Now we ought to all take a clue from this: whatever God reveals to us God has revealed and all the glory and honor goes to God – not to any human being. That’s why whatever we do, brethren, we always need to look to God the Father and Jesus Christ. We always need to trust in Them and believe in Them, and don’t anybody begin believing in any man and making much over any man, or me, or any other man. Because whatever we have God has given and He’s given that not because we are anything so righteous of ourselves that God had to give it to us. No, that’s not the case. Those of us who are teachers and preachers we’re no different than any other men. We’re just men. We have to grow and overcome like everybody else. And also we’re going to receive the sterner judgment because we are teachers and elders. And so people need to be taught and they need to be taught the truth. And so that’s what we do. It’s not because we are anything great, nothing like that, we just happen to be living in the time and the age when we’re living and just doing the things that God wants us to do. And as God chooses to reveal things out of His Word that’s fine. I can’t say I’ve had any dream. I’ve had no revelation from God, but God has given us understanding out of His Word, and that’s what we need to live by. That’s His guarantee.

Now let’s continue here. Verse 30, “…But for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.” So then he told him what it was – told him what the dream was. We’ll bypass that because it’s repeated later on.

Now let’s come to verse 36. “This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.” And he conquered all the known world at that particular time. “And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath He given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold” (vs. 36-38).

 Now let’s understand the parallel as we come down. It begins with Babylon and it ends with Babylon the Great. So here again what do we have? A beginning and an ending. Now he says to him, “You are this head of gold.” And the reason that God started with Nebuchadnezzar is because the history is sure all the way down from that time until this. You can go into any history book, you can read it. This is nothing hidden from the world. This is here, this explains it, but the history is open, the world knows it and anybody can get the history and it’s not going back to some time before the flood.

Now he says then, “And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay” (vs. 39-41). And that’s what we have at the end-time. We have a Babylon the Great that is strong but weak. We have strong nations, we have weak nations. We have advanced nations, we have barbarian nations. And that’s just the way that it is.

Now notice verse 42. “And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken [or that is weak]. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings…” That is at the end. Now, the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly where these ten kings are. Well, we may see a little bit of that later when we get into the book of Revelation. But Satan’s system has always been seven and ten, seven and ten. And so here we have the ten. So at the end there are going to be ten kings. “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom,…”, which this day pictures. When that kingdom is set up, “…which shall never be destroyed [this ties in with the other prophecies that we’ve already covered]: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people [no, it’s going to be given to the saints of the Most High], but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever” (vs. 42-44).

And so as I’ve mentioned over and over again – God has called us to the greatest calling possible, to the greatest work that can be done. To help God bring many, many billions of sons and daughters into the kingdom of God. You know, this is a tremendous and wonderful thing that God has called us to. And just a shame that some people give up on it, and some people listen to the arguments of Satan the devil and believe the religious doctrines of this world, and so forth.

Now let’s continue here. “Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands [that shows supernatural intervention of God], and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold;…” Even the best of what man has will not be kept over and retained by God. God is going to begin with a brand new slate. Now notice it’s going to consume them. “…The great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure” (vs. 45). It’s going to happen. Absolutely no way around it. You know, this is a tremendous and fantastic thing that God is doing.

Now then Nebuchadnezzar had his comeuppance and he had to admit after he had his seven years of insanity and was brought back by God, he had to admit that God sets up and over the kingdoms whomever He wills, and set’s up over it the basest men. So you know in the final analysis when it’s all over and done with, when it’s all said and finished – all elections for whoever the leader and whatever nation is, are worthless because God is going to put over it whom He will.

Now let’s see some more concerning this. Let’s come here to Daniel 5 because we’re going to see an end to the first Babylon. Because when we get into Revelation 12 we’re going to see it says “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.” There will be the two falls of Babylon. Now when Belshazzar, who was the son of Nebuchadnezzar, he had a feast to celebrate, and God let him know during that feast. Now here’s what he did. Let’s come down here to verse 22. Daniel 5:22, “And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this;…” Everything that Nebuchadnezzar went through and even wrote part of chapter 4 for us, didn’t he, where he praised God, where he said, “Yes, God is the one.” He says, “You knew all of these things but you didn’t humble yourself.” “…But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them;…” Took all the gold goblets that were in the temple, that Nebuchadnezzar had stored in his treasure house, he brought them out to ridicule God and to drink out of them and to have a feast against God. Well, God had a feast for him. And He says, “…have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:...” (Dan. 5:22-23).

“Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and his writing was written.” There was a hand on the wall. This is where we get the saying “the writing on the wall.” And there’s the writing on the wall, and in the book of Daniel, and in the book of Revelation. You know, don’t ever get discouraged, brethren. God is going to end it. God is going to take care of it. God is going to intervene and destroy this system, and He is going to put us in charge of this world. “And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.” And what’s very interesting, that very night right while they were having this feast, God motivated Cyrus the king of Persia to get his troops and come in under the gates. They had previously blocked off the river Euphrates and diverted the water enough so they could come down the banks of the river and come, because Babylon had arches and the river flowed through the city of Babylon and they had iron bars to keep people from getting in. And so when they lowered the river sufficiently, his troops were able to come. And on top of that the big brass gates which went down to the edge of the river inside Babylon, those were left open. So just picture this while this is happening. The soldiers of Cyrus are coming in and they are coming in and walking in those gates and walking up the stairs to take the city of Babylon. Now I don’t know if this fell on the Day of Trumpets or not, but it would be very interesting to find out because this is the end of the kingdom. “Your days are numbered. Your kingdom is finished.” “TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, an art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians” (vs. 24-28). At that night, that’s exactly when it took place. Quite a thing, isn’t it?

Now let’s come over here to Daniel 7, and again we have an expansion. Daniel 7 expands upon Daniel 2 and gives us more details and tells us more about it. Now I won’t get into all of the particulars of it but let’s look at the end, the conclusion of it. This is very important. Let’s pick it up here, Daniel 7:21. “I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints,…” Now we are going to face in the future, this is a future prophecy of what we are going to go through. There’s going to be persecution, there’s going to be war, there’s going to be a martyrdom of saints. That is prophesied. And let me tell you something. What’s very important is this. That’s why you’ve got to know, that’s why you’ve got to believe, that’s why you’ve got to understand because if you have doubt in your heart and if you don’t believe God, and if you don’t trust God when the time comes and the knife is put to your throat what are you going to do? Now you need to think about that. God says He will strengthen us at that time but we have to have the belief, the faith, the conviction that God is true, that God is right and that He has promised us eternal life, and fear not those are able to kill the body but cannot take the life. They cannot take eternal life from you. That’s in the hands of God. So we need to understand that.

“…Made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;…” Yes, God is going to make it look as though that this evil system is going to succeed at the end. One of the best ways to trap the wicked is to let them think they are successful. And that’s what God is going to do here. But in doing this everyone that is martyred is guaranteed to be in the kingdom of God. Now this is not a doctrine of Islam. Please understand that. They robbed it from the true God’s Word, see. And that has happened all down through history.

Verse 22, “Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.” Now let it sink deep in your ears – this Feast of Trumpets pictures when we will rule the world.