Ok, I am new at this blog thing. Please be patient until I can get the hang of it. I realize that I had saved some but not published them?

There is so many things I would like to teach you that I have a hard time staying on track. I don't want this blog to be so directed that I don't address any questions that might come up in the future. If you have a question I will do my best to address it.

Today, I want to show you how Matthew 24 is like the table of contents for the book of Revelation. Jesus pretty much describes Revelation to the disciples and then 80-85 years later the vision of the last days was given to John to write down.

They say when you address an audience that you should "tell them what you are going to tell them", "tell them", and then "tell them what you told them". The Bible does a good job of that.

In Matthew 24, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?".

Jesus answered,

1) Matthew 24:4-5, See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, "I am the Christ", and will mislead many.

Revelation 6:1-2, "And I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, 'come', and I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him; and he went out conquering, and to conquer."

How can you conquer without a weapon. The rider on the white horse had a bow, but no arrows. The rider could conquer the earth because he used deception to distort the truth. He could conquer by hiding the truth of the gospel from the people. If you are not saved and die, he wins.

You can see very easily how deception is a great weapon. We have a constitutional right of seperation of church and state, right. Wrong, there is nothing in the constitution that says that.

We have heard it soo long that we think it is the truth. The truth is distorted to divert you from hearing the truth about how salvation is possible. Science is used to hide the truth. Less than a century ago, science always took the neutral position in an idea, the evidence on boths sides was presented, and the facts had to make the decision. Today, that is never done. There is lots of evidence of the Bible being true, such as noah's ark, the red sea crossing, sodom and gomorrah, and many more archological evidences, but most are never talked about. Deception, satan's number one weapon. Have you looked at the evidence on both sides or have you just trusted someone's ideas that they put in your head.

2) Matthew 24:6, "and you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end."

Revelation 6:3-4, "and when He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, 'come' and another , a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men should slay one another; and a great sword was given to him."

This one is easy to see the correlation.

3) Matthew 24: 7, "for nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes."

Revelation 6:5-6, "and when He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, 'come' and I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. and I heard as it were a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, "a quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius,"

I don't know if you know this or not, but a denarius is a days wage. This means that the people would have to work all day just to make enough to eat. That sounds like famine to me.

A majority of the world's population is going without enough food to eat. Much of it is due to political unrest.

Revelation 6:7-8, "and when He broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying 'come', and I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name of Death and Hades was following with him. And authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beast of the earth."

So, you can see that the four horsemen of Revelation are outlined by Jesus in Matthew 24. It is also in Luke 21 and Mark 13. Jesus says in Matthew 24:8, "these are merely the beginning of the birth pangs." Birth pangs will intensify and get closer together telling you of the coming birth. When the pangs get real close together, you know the birth is about to happen.

I believe that these signs help us to know that we are getting closer to the return of Christ. The problem is, you can say we have always had wars, earthquakes, etc. Revelation 5:1-5, tells us when the birth pangs began.

Revelation 5, 1-5, And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "who is worth to open the book and to break its seals?" An no one in heaven, or on the earth, on under the earth, was able to open the book, or to look into it. and I began to weep greatly, because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it, and one of the elders said to me, "stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals"

When did Jesus the Lamb of God,the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, open the seals? After He had overcome the sins of the world, then He broke the seals. You see, these birth pangs started just after Jesus died on the cross. He appeared in heaven, took the scroll and broke the seals. Since then, the power of the four horsemen has increased and conquered the world. Deception, wars, famine, and earthquakes all have continued to intensify and will continue to do so until the return of Christ.

Wait a minute, in Revelation 5:4, no one was found worthy to open the seals on the earth, in heaven, or under the earth. Where was Jesus? I thought He was eternal? Give up? Here is a new insight for you. The only person that did not have to respond to the question of "who is worthy?" is the one asking the question. So, Jesus has to be the strong Angel. No one else has every seen this that I know of. This is going to be important in the future of this study. This is new insight #3.

God bless, Dean