We were talking about a great earthquake last Sunday. We went to Acts 16. I would like to go back to this to talk about this some more to see how this relates to God’s salvation plan. I also want to do this to honestly answer the question that some have as to whether or not this is an excuse to say that May 21 was spiritually Judgment Day, that on May 21 there was spiritually a great earthquake. Let us honestly take a look at this and see. Is this an excuse or is this what the Bible is teaching?
First, in Acts 16:25-26, it says:
And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.
What we are interested in is that this was at midnight, because this is a significant time in the Bible. We are also interested in this being “a great earthquake.” These are the two Greek words megas seismos. We hear of mega-deals everywhere; everybody has a mega-deal, a great deal. We still use this word. It comes from the Greek and it represents something that is great, huge, big, as in the great tribulation, which is megas thlipsis. The word “great” is the word megas, then we read of a seismos. How do they measure earthquakes today? The instrument that is used to measure earthquakes is called a seismograph. This measures the shaking of the earth. This comes from the Greek word seismos for “earthquake.”
So there was a great earthquake and this earthquake must have destroyed the whole city of Philippi. Is this true? No; it does not say that it did this. What did this great earthquake do? It must have destroyed the whole prison, because we read that it shook the foundations of the prison. Certainly, the whole building came collapsing down. Is this true? No; it did not do this either. It only opened all of the prison doors and all of the shackles or bands of the prisoners who were shackled.
Paul and Silas were shackled. They were in the inner prison. The prison keeper had been given the charge to make sure that these prisoners were secured, and so he did shackle them. This is much like Joseph whom the Bible says, “Whose feet they hurt with fetters”; because when he was in prison, he also had his feet in shackles.
So this earthquake was isolated to the prison’s foundations. It did not destroy the prison at all. It only opened up the prison doors and the shackles. This is all that it did, and it was “a great earthquake.”
This “great earthquake” relates to Revelation 6, which is related to May 21. These are the same two words. We read in Revelation 6:12-13:
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake [megas seismos]; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth…
Then it goes on to talk about the fear of mankind and how they are crying for the rocks and the mountains to cover them. We thought that all of this language would be literal, and we identified this great earthquake with May 21 because God does. This is when the “sun became black,” the “moon became as blood,” and the “stars of heaven fell.”
Look at Matthew 24:29:
Immediately after the tribulation of those days…
When did the tribulation end? After 23 years or 8400 days on May 21, the tribulation ended. What happened? It continues:
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
Revelation 6:14 says:
And the heaven departed as a scroll…
So this affected the sun, moon, and stars and it mentions “the heaven,” just like Matthew 24:29 says that “immediately after the tribulation,” there is darkness.
We understood that this was spiritual. We understood prior to May 21 that what was happening to the heavens was not going to be literal, because there had to be five months of time. This was just God using language explaining the removal of the Gospel lights.
I hope that you remember this. What we were saying was that the great earthquake would be physical, and they are actually linked together in Revelation 6. We were saying that one portion of this, the earthquake, would be physical but we understood the rest spiritually.
Of course, we were wrong. In hindsight, we should have just realized, since this was all in the same verse, that the great earthquake was going to be spiritual, too.
Does anybody feel bad about this? I do not feel bad about this. Really; I said this before. I do not have a twinge of guilt about saying that there would be a great earthquake. Why not? This is just like how I do not feel bad about teaching eternal damnation for many years, which I did.
I remember one guy said something to me that, at the time, I took as a compliment. He said, “You know, I like your preaching. You talk about hell all of the time.” This was because I used to think that if I was to be faithful, I had to talk about hell. But then I learned that in the Bible, God does not teach that there is an eternal place of hell.
Once I learned this and if I then would have taught this, I would have had a bad conscience about this. But I do not have a bad conscience about any of the teachings that I taught before, because I taught them in all good conscience.
This is just like the Apostle Paul felt. Look up the word “conscience.” We will just go to a couple verses, like Acts 23:1:
And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.
They did not like this, because we read next in Acts 23:2:
And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth.
How dare Paul say this! It would have been fine if Paul had been talking about his days as a zealot, like when he stood by as Stephen was being stoned, or when he went to hail men and women to prison. If he had been referring to having a good conscience in any of this, they would have been fine; but they knew that he was also talking about his transformation, which was God’s transformation of taking him from being a Pharisee to being like those whom Paul had been persecuting, into a Christian. This is why Ananias commanded to smite him. Then Paul said to him, “God shall smite thee, thou whited wall.” But then Paul realized that Ananias was the high priest and Paul knew that he should not “speak evil of the ruler of thy people.”
Yet Paul says that he lived “in all good conscience,” and Paul is talking about his days as a Pharisee as well as his life as a Christian. This is because, for all that he knew, he was serving God honestly, which he did. Remember that it was God who had to open up his eyes. Paul was on the road to Damascus. He was going to gather Christians and to bring them back to Jerusalem to compel them to blaspheme and to throw them into prison. But God came and, in a great way, shined a light from Heaven, a brilliant light. Paul was then blinded for a period of time, and then God opened his eyes. It was then that Paul understood that he had been persecuting Christ in going after the people of God, in going after the Christians.
So I do not have any type of bad conscience about telling the world that May 21 was Judgment Day or anything that we said about this. This is because, number one, it was Judgment Day. Number two, I do not have a bad conscience about telling people that there would be a great earthquake, because there was. The only thing that we were off on was the physical part of one aspect of this. I do not have a bad conscience about this. None of us should, and I am sure that the true believers do not, because God was in control of this. He was in complete control, 100% control.
Think about what people want from a child of God, “You should have known.” How should we have known? We will get into this a little bit later.
In Matthew 16, Jesus mentions leaven. Then all of the disciples, who were true believers, started wondering, “Why is He telling us about leaven? He is warning us, ‘Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.’” Then they say, “It is because we have taken no bread.”
They were thinking on the natural and physical level, and these were true believers. Then Jesus asked them, “Do ye not yet understand?” Then He chided and rebuked them, “Neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?” Then it goes on to say that the disciples understood, “Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.”
Actually, Jesus never told them that He was referring to doctrine. He asked them, “Do ye not yet understand?” This made them think a little bit more about other things that He had done; in other words, other Scripture. It was then that they understood. He never actually corrected them and said, “Look; leaven equals doctrine.” They had to figure this out.
This is exactly what God has done with the Bible. Again, we will look at this, hopefully, a little later. For now, we are looking at a prison. What does the Bible say about prison/prisoners?
We read in Isaiah 42:6:
I JEHOVAH have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
This is speaking of Christ. It continues in Isaiah 42:7:
To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
God is saying that He is going to bring out the prisoners from the prison. He is not saying when, but He is saying that He is going to bring them out.
Look at Isaiah 61. We read in Isaiah 61:1-2:
The spirit of the Lord JEHOVAH is upon me; because JEHOVAH hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of JEHOVAH, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
This is what God is really looking towards, which is the coming Messiah or when Christ would come. Christ is the One who is actually speaking here. We know this because in Luke 4, Jesus quotes this passage from Isaiah. We read in Luke 4:16-21:
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
“This day,” which was in 33 A.D., Christ read this verse that talked about preaching “deliverance to the captives” and “the acceptable year of the Lord.”
How are we to understand this? We understand this when we remember the Jubilee. The Jubilee was a year. The “acceptable year” was really another way or a synonym for expressing the Jubilee year.
What did this have to do with Christ? Christ was born in 7 B.C., which was a Jubilee year. In His coming, and especially later in His ministry, He was to fulfill the promise of the Jubilee, which would be to set the captives free. This is exactly what God did.
So the Gospel went out into all the world starting from the birth of Christ in 7 B.C. in the Jubilee year, then through the work that He did during his three a half years of ministry, then throughout the New Testament Era, until May 21, 1988. This was basically the first Jubilee period. Then God ended the church age and He ended this Jubilee. Maybe we will look at this a little later, because there are some similarities with this prison house in Acts 16 and the Jubilee.
So here Jesus is quoting Isaiah 61 and saying:
This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
This is because He came to set the captives free.
Look at 2 Timothy 2. I will start in verse 24 because these are good verses for all of us. We all need reminders of this; I know that I do. We read in 2 Timothy 2:24-25:
And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
This is talking about mankind. God is telling us that when we bring the Gospel, we are to make sure that we do so without fighting, without arguing, and that we gently bring this to people. It is then that He will maybe grant them repentance. It is then that He will maybe give them the gift of repentance so that they will be able to turn from sin. This is because these things are all gifts of God. If anybody becomes saved, it is because repentance is a gift. Faith is a gift. Salvation is a complete gift of God. He does all of the work in the matter of saving someone.
Of course, this is all past now. This is all past. This is done. God is not going to give the gift of repentance to salvation anymore; that is, repenting from a dead heart. This is because everyone whom He intended to save has already been given a new heart, even though they may not know this. They may start repenting in their life, but they are not turning from there heart because God has already turned them, like it says in Jeremiah 31, “Turn thou me, and I shall be turned.” God has already done the inward turning of every one of His elect.
So it goes on to say in 2 Timothy 2:26:
And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
These have been prisoners. This is mankind. When Satan entered into the Garden of Eden and deceived Eve, Adam and Even both ate of the fruit and they become servants to sin and to Satan. They became prisoners, captives.
Man thinks that this is a wonderful prison. They actually do not even think that they are in prison. Look at America. We are known as the land of the free, and we are. We just had our Fourth of July and we thank God that this is a free nation. It is free politically, physically, and so forth; but spiritually, the truth is that Americans are just as bound and in bondage as those in China or Africa or India or anywhere else. Men are in bondage to sin and to Satan. We are in a dungeon, spiritually speaking. We are in a dark place.
We might have looked at the last couple of verses of Proverbs 5 last time, but we read in Proverbs 5:22-23:
His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
This is talking about a sinner who is bound. But who is doing this binding? We, ourselves, are doing this binding. We are bound with our own sins. What is it that keeps us fast in the stocks? It is our own sin that we enjoy and have pleasure in. It is this that really holds us fast.
So when we are reading in Acts 16 that the foundations of the prison house are shaken by a great earthquake and that this opens up all of the gates in the prison and it opens up all of the bonds in the prison, what does this mean? It definitely means salvation.
Actually, forget Acts 16. We know that the Bible likens sinners to prisoners. We know this. We also know that it was God’s plan to save all of His elect, every one of them, prior to May 21. It is very much like God to do a very great work at the very end or just before the door to Heaven shut. It is very much like Him to do this. We have examples of this in the Bible.
In other words, we know that God was going to save a great multitude of sinners. In saving this great multitude, He would save the very last of His elect. In other words, this is in relation to all of them, to all of the prisoners, without exception. None would be left. God’s plan prior to May 21 was to open the prison house completely, spiritually speaking, and to free everyone, spiritually speaking.
So we do not even have to look at Acts 16. This is what we were saying and this is what the Bible was teaching. This is what we were proclaiming. All of the prisoners would be free before Judgment Day came. We were saying this. Now we read Acts 16 and we find that it is speaking of midnight.
Let us go to Exodus 12. We know this account. This is speaking of the Israelites in bondage. They were in hard, cruel, bondage. They were in slavery.
What is another word for being a slave? We are prisoners. We are bondsmen. We are captives. This is exactly what the Israelites were, and the verses we read apply to the Israelites in Egypt. But it was not God’s plan that they remain prisoners, that they would remain slaves to Pharaoh, and so God began to send Moses and Aaron at the proper point in time.
Who did Moses and Aaron go before? They went before Pharaoh. What did they say again and again and again? They said, “Let my people go,” because it was time. They said this to Pharaoh. Who does Pharaoh represent? He represents Satan.
Remember that 2 Timothy 2 says that the unsaved are “taken captive by him at his will,” Satan’s will; and God sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh and brought plague after plague as He proclaimed, “Let my people go.” But Pharaoh would not and he hardened his heart. At first, he said in his pride, “Who is Jehovah, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?” Then plague after plague after plague came, until one final plague. After this final plague, God said that Pharaoh would let them go.
We read about this plague of the firstborn in Exodus. It says in Exodus 12:29-31:
And it came to pass, that at midnight JEHOVAH smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve JEHOVAH, as ye have said.
So the death of the firstborn, which was a horrible judgment, resulted in the release of all Israel. How many Jews remained? Not one remained. The Egyptians did not want a single Jewish person or an Israelite left there. They wanted them out, because their nation was ruined. There was not one house where there was not at least one dead, from Pharaoh to the captive in the dungeon. This was a desolation. They wanted them to get out, to go; and the Jews spoiled the Egyptians. The Egyptians gave them gold and silver and they hurried them out.
At midnight after this last plague occurred, how long was it before Pharaoh had Moses and Aaron before him again? It was not very long. It was the next day. They left on the fifteenth day of the first month. Passover was on the fourteenth day. On the fifteenth day, the Israelites left Rameses and they traveled out of Egypt and went to Succoth. And “Succoth” is the same word for “tabernacles” as in “the feast of tabernacle.” They left Egypt and went to a place that is the same word for “the feast of tabernacles” or “booths.”
There are actually three big tie-ins to May 21 with the release of captives. This is one of them. We see the connection with midnight. We also see the release of the Israelites, which is definitely a picture of salvation.
Since May 21 was Judgment Day, it relates to midnight. For instance, we read something in relation to this in Matthew 25. At what time was the cry made, “Behold, the bridegroom cometh”? It was at midnight. This is also a connection with midnight and the coming of Christ or Judgment Day. And we find a similarity with the Israelites, because it was at midnight when all of Israel was released.
The second thing is the release of the captives from Babylon, which again applies to Israel. We can see this in 2 Chronicles 36. I will try to come to this, but I just want to show the similarities of these passages to the prison house in Acts 16. Then we want to answer the charge that a spiritual judgment is not a real judgment, that it is just an excuse. Then we will look into these three examples a little bit more.
It says in 2 Chronicles 36:20-21:
And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: To fulfil the word of JEHOVAH by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.
So this was seventy years, and seventy years has everything to do with the great tribulation. We will not get into this, but there are historical types of the great tribulation, like the seven years of famine in Joseph’s day, the 23-year period of 609 to 587 B.C. inclusively from the death of Josiah to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the seventy years from the death of Josiah in 609 to 539 B.C., which is when the Babylonian king, King Belshazzar, was feasting and completely ignorant that the Medes and the Persians were marching on his kingdom that very night. Babylon was then taken like “a thief in the night.”
After seventy years, these Babylonians had no clue. All of the lords and princes were feasting and drinking and partying. Only Daniel knew. Daniel knew from the writing on the wall that “God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it…and given [it] to the Medes and Persians.” That very night, this king of Babylon was slain.
This was a seventy-year period. This is what this is referring to here. It is referring to the seventy-year period from 609 to 539 B.C. This relates in every way to May 21. We can actually relate these seventy years to eighty-four years, because this seventieth year was the eighty-fourth year according to God’s own reckoning from historical passages. May 21, of course, was the 8400th day and the end of 23 years.
Then it goes on to say in 2 Chronicles 36:22-23:
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of JEHOVAH spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, JEHOVAH stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath JEHOVAH God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? JEHOVAH his God be with him, and let him go up.
What is this referring to? This is a release. It is a release of all the Jews in Babylon or in the Babylonian provinces. Cyrus is now the king over all of Babylon. We know that they had a huge kingdom and that the Jews had been dispersed amongst many provinces, but God raised up this King Cyrus and God refers to him in Isaiah as, “Cyrus, He is my shepherd.” And at the end of seventy years, what do we find? We find that God likens His people to sheep, and here is Cyrus the shepherd who is issuing a release to all of the captives or the prisoners of Babylon. The prisoners are set free at the end of these seventy years, and this relates to May 21.
There is a third tie-in and similarity between captives and Acts 16 and the prison house, which is the Jubilee; and so let us go to Leviticus 25:8-9:
And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement…
What happened back in September 7, 1994? On the first day of the seventh month in 1994, there was a memorial blowing of the trumpets, of ram’s horns.
Mr. Camping has pointed out that there was a memorial blowing of silver trumpets in every month but the seventh month. In the seventh month, there was a blowing of ram’s horns as a memorial of the Jubilee.
God ended the church age on May 21, 1988 and started a period of 2300 evening/mornings, which was a horrible time when virtually no one was being saved in the world. When these 2300 evening/mornings came to an end in September of 1994, the trumpet of the Jubilee blew, the second Jubilee.
We studied this. It says in Isaiah 11, “The Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people.” This was a second proclamation of freedom; like it says here in verse 10, Leviticus 25:10:
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
So this is a release. September 7th of 1994 began the Jubilee, which would go for 6100 days, but we identified this more as the “latter rain.” I think that we kind of forgot that this was a Jubilee period. This was a time when all of the captives would be released, and May 21 would be the final day, the 8400th day.
We were coming up to May 21 and the great earthquake; and, by the way, in the King James Version, it says “at [or about] midnight” in Acts 16; but if you look in Jay P. Green’s Interlinear Bible, he interprets it as “toward midnight” in relation to the great earthquake. And as we were approaching this judgment, as we were getting close to the end of God’s salvation plan, we kept telling this to others.
I remember on that Friday night that I was out. I am sure that most of you were also. May 21 was Saturday and we were out at the train station at 69th Street. We had a friend join with us who was standing there hollering for about an hour that we should not be listened to and that nobody should take our tracts. This was happening because we were in intense spiritual activity at that time. Satan knew, even if mankind was ignorant of this; but Satan knew that he had a kingdom and that he had prisoners in that kingdom. His kingdom was being ransacked like never before in history. God was saving a great multitude.
I remember saying to people, and this was mostly our emphasis because I did not talk about the next day being a great earthquake, I said that this would happen on that night either at midnight or 1:00 A.M. in the morning due to Daylight Savings Time, which always messed me up. But I kept saying to people, “Tonight the door to Heaven shuts. The end of salvation is tonight.”
Did many of you not tell people this? This really was the big deal. This was the big deal; it was not the shaking of the earth. This was the huge thing and this was our emphasis, “Look; the door to Heaven shuts.” John 10 says that Christ is the door, and the door was going to shut forever. There would be no more salvation. This was our focus, but we either forgot something or we did not emphasize it enough; because not only was God shutting the door, He was opening all doors to all of His elect.
Acts 16 tells us that “all the doors were opened,” but we did not really look at it from this perspective. He would open the prison house. All would be free who met the conditions that the Bible set forth. The Bible refers to this as those whose names are “written in the Lamb's book of life,” predestinated to salvation from the foundation of the world; because this is when Christ died and took the sins of His elect upon Him, paid the penalty for those sins before the world began, rose from the dead to be declared the Son of God, and, as the Son, created all things. These are the conditions that God set, and He numbered a great multitude. We do not know how many; maybe tens of millions.
We are living in a world that is almost seven billion. It is not yet. I Googled it. It is not yet. There is one estimate of this being reached in October. In October, there will be seven billion people upon the earth. Think about what is coming in October. In October, there is an estimate that there will be seven billion people upon the earth. Some others estimate that this will not happen until 2012. There is no reason to get into this, but this is an interesting little bit of information.
God certainly saved a great multitude. He tells us this. These number into the tens of millions, maybe 180 or 190 million. As we read the history of the Bible, He did not save that many before the time of Christ in the Old Testament. Neither did He save all that we would expect during the New Testament. He did save the best for last. Not only this, He saved, probably right up until that very last day, with the greatest act of salvation that the world has ever known.
Does it not say this about the earthquake in Revelation 16? If we look at this in comparison with Acts 16 and Revelation 6, which identifies this earthquake with May 21, it says in Revelation 16:17-18:
And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake [megas seismos], such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
God has never saved as many people as He did during this short little period of the great tribulation, this “little season.” God identified these words with May 21 and with the opening of a prison; and everything that we read in the Bible about the captives going free has to do with or can be shown to relate to Judgment Day and to May 21.
By the way, Revelation 16 ties into Revelation 6. Look at Revelation 16:20:
And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
This is similar language to what we read in Revelation 6.
So we have been saying for a period of time that Judgment Day happened on May 21, because the door to Heaven was shut; and this is a fact. People do not like this, of course. Now we are saying that there was a great shaking. Among the unsaved, a lot of people were nervous. This is true, but God is the One who is identifying this great earthquake with salvation. This was a great work of God and a great act of God in saving a great multitude of people.
This is why we say, yes, there was a spiritual earthquake that happened, the greatest earthquake that the world has ever seen. This happened on May 21, just as we were saying.
Now we hear the charge, “Come on! Come on! You guys! Why do you not just admit that you were wrong? Why do not just admit this? Say that you were wrong. This did not happen.”
Well, we were wrong. The ground did not shake. We were also wrong for not minimizing this part of it. This is because the far greater thing was the shutting of the door to Heaven and the opening of the prison to the captives. All of these physical things were minor, minor things that we allowed to get out of hand. This is because, of course, this is where the natural mind of man goes and this is where the questions would be, “What is going to happen with the earthquake? What is going to happen as a result of this?” Because of this, we got sidetracked.
We were wrong. It is wrong for us to have gone in that direction. We should have brought the focus back to the really important thing again and again and again. We should have just said, “Let us forget about the earthquake and let us talk about salvation. If you have hope for salvation, it is now until May 21.” This is what we should have brought the focus back to repeatedly.
We are just going to have to look at how to understand the Bible, how anybody can understand the Bible. How can we understand the Bible? How is it possible to understand the Bible?
The way in which the seminaries teach today is that there is a certain method. They teach that there is a way of understanding the Bible and that we are just to follow their method. But when we look at their methods, they are all different. They all come to different conclusions. They all have different teachings or doctrines. When we hear their teachings and doctrines, every one of them actually differs from the Bible itself, and this is why we suspect that these seminaries, which are run by these churches, really do not know how to understand the Bible. They do not know how to come to truth.
To be a little bit lenient, this is understandable because no man does. Of ourselves, none of us know how to understand the Bible.
Let us go to Matthew 16:6:
Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
I referred to this earlier. Jesus is talking to the disciples, most of who were saved. We know that Judas was not. But He is telling them to beware of leaven, and leaven has to do with bread.
Then we read in verse 7, Matthew 16:7:
And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.
They make a natural connection. He is warning them to beware of leaven and leaven has to do with bread. They relate this to not having brought bread.
So Jesus tells them to “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.” The disciples then reason among themselves that because they have no bread, maybe Jesus is thinking that they will have to borrow some from them and it might be defiled. Maybe it will even be poisoned, because they knew that they did not like them and that they did not like Christ.
These disciples were thinking naturally. This is how people think. We tie one and one together. We connect things on a natural level.
Then we read in verse 8, Matthew 16:8-12:
Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Nowhere does Jesus say that He spoke to them in a parable. Again and again and again, Christ would say, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” But the theologians will say that whenever Jesus was telling a parable, He would give us an indicator.
For instance, we read of the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. The Bible does not tell us that this is a parable, but it is.
Here, it just seems like Christ and His disciples are having a common discussion. They are just talking as they are going along on this journey. Jesus just brings up a word and they do not understand. But He faults them, because it is their responsibility to understand, just like it is our responsibility to understand.
It is also the church’s responsibility to understand that when God says, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains,” that they are Judaea. Also, when God makes mention of Babylon and commands, “Come out of her, my people,” and so forth, it is the responsibility of people to understand these parables, these parabolic statements.
This is all our responsibility. If God wrote the whole Bible like this, which He did, it is our responsibility to know this. Why do we not? We do not because we are dead spiritually. It is because of our sin. We “have eyes, and see not” and we “have ears, and hear not.” We are ignorant of spiritual things. This is our condition, and yet God is trying to help us. This is why God spoke in parables.
We would think that over the centuries of the church age, it would be possible to read a commentary on Matthew 13:34:
All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:
We would think that over the span of 2,000 years that there would be a commentary that the church could have developed in which a commentator, a theologian, would say, “You know, Christ is the Word made flesh. He tells us, ‘In the volume of the book it is written of me,’ and He spoke without a parable to the multitude. Without a parable, He did not speak. Do you know what He is trying to do? Since He is the Word, He is trying to teach us how to understand the Word, the Bible. He is trying to teach us that this is how God wrote the whole Bible. Without a parable, He did not speak.”
Do we read this in any commentary? How do we understand this today? Well, because we are living at the time when God is opening the Scriptures and because we are living at the time when He is making these really common things known, it becomes easy.
For example, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus must have been scratching his head because he said, “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?” But how was Nicodemus thinking? He was thinking naturally. Then Jesus chides him, “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?”
It is pretty simple, right? From our perspective as we read this and as God lays this all out in John 3, this is very simple. But because of the way in which God has written the Bible, nothing is simple. If we think that it is simple, this is mistake number one. Because of this, we will go off in a big way and we will go astray.
The Bible is the most difficult and complex book known to man. We can add all the law books and the medical books and the science books and compile them all together and there will be no comparison in the measure of difficulty. The Bible is the most difficult book because of its Author.
This is what God tells us in Isaiah 55. We read in Isaiah 55:8-9:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith JEHOVAH. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
There are the heavens and here is the earth. How much higher are those stars that are out there? How far away are they than the earth? The scientists give us numbers that are just astronomical and I guess that we can believe them. But that expanse is the space, the gulf, the boundary between the mind of God – the infinite eternal mind of the Almighty God of the Bible and our tiny finite little minds – and between you and me. We can put all seven billion of us together and total this enormous mass of minds and it is still going to be about the same difference, because we are creatures. We do not get this too well, but we are creatures. God is the Creator and He knows all things. This is His Book and His Word.
So if on occasion, we do not understand something, like the earthquake, and if we do not understand one point, while we do understand a whole lot else, I think that this is forgivable. But, alright, we are making excuses again.
Let us go to 1 Corinthians 2. We read in 1 Corinthians 2:10-11:
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
This is basically saying that you know you, yourself, and I know me, myself, better than anybody else knows you or knows me. Right? Does anybody really know you? How about your wife or your husband? They might know you better than others, but does anybody really know you? How many thoughts have you not shared? How many things have you done that you have never told to anybody? Nobody knows you like this, but you know these things. Actually, we have limitations even in knowing ourselves.
So God is saying that your spirit within you knows you and nobody else can know you like yourself. And God’s Spirit knows God and the things of God.
When a theologian or anybody goes to the Bible and they say that through study and through diligence and through intelligence that they are going to tell us what the Bible says, then they are forgetting one thing. The only One who knows the things of God, which would be the Being or the Spirit of God who indwells that enormous Being, just like our spirit indwells our little bodies, is this Spirit. He is the only One who knows the things of God. If we try to understand the things of God without consulting Him or going to Him and asking Him for help, and, more than this, without God’s Spirit within us to guide us, we are never going to come to any kind of truth.
Look at John 16. Jesus is speaking here. We read in John 16:12-13:
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth…
This is referring to the Holy Spirit. He is our Guide into all truth. We need Him. This, of course, is the enormous problem with the churches today. The Holy Spirit is not there because the Holy Spirit came out of the midst. They have no Guide. They have no One to direct them into truth. This is why the churches are in the condition and the situation that they are in.
But then there is that voice that says, “Hold it; hold it! Concerning May 21, the churches were right and you were wrong.”
There is really an amazing thing that happened in the world and in the eyes of the world on May 21, apart from the things that we have been looking at. Here is the actual situation. The churches and the congregations of the world are without the Spirit of God and are full of errors. This can be documented. Church after church after church, denomination after denomination after denomination, is in spiritual darkness and blindness. They are just full of false gospels. Their standing and condition amongst the world is that they are despised and lowly-esteemed, as they really should be because they do not have the Spirit of God.
Then we have Family Radio, which is the most faithful ministry in the world with the most faithful teacher who is in the world today, Mr. Camping. Mr. Camping has been ever careful as he has tried to find truth and understanding. He readily admits that he himself does not know anything. He knows that he cannot go to the Bible with his own mind, so he goes to God. He finds God’s methodology of comparing Scripture with Scripture, spiritual with spiritual, and he does this carefully as he comes to doctrines.
Think of the doctrines that Family Radio teaches. They teach that only the Bible is God’s Word. Tongues are not allowed. There is to be no seeking for supernatural activity of any kind. There is to be no charismatic activity of any kind. They also teach that the church is not the authority over the Bible. God is the authority. The Bible is the authority.
Who else says these things? Also think of the salvation message that has been brought forth through Family Radio, that man does nothing and cannot do one thing in relation to their salvation.
This is not what the churches teach. Church after church after church says that man is supposed to walk down that aisle, that man has to somehow express the fruit of the Spirit by speaking in tongues. Of course, this is contrary to God and the Bible. I could go on and on and on.
So here, we understood things pretty well. If there is any place in the world where we are going to hear truth from a ministry, Family Radio is it. Stay away from the churches. Then when a minor detail like a great earthquake does not happen – and I understand that these are serious things – suddenly, the churches are all vindicated and correct and Family Radio is the false prophet. Mr. Camping is the false prophet.
This was an amazing slight of hand. It was incredible. This is how things apparently stand, and it is all due to this great earthquake not happening.
But, tell me something. First of all, let us allow that the churches were correct, even though they are wrong about Judgment Day because it did happen and even though they are wrong about the great earthquake because it did happen; but there was no physical shaking of the ground and they were correct on this. How does this mean that the churches are correct on all of their other doctrines? Why should this be counted to them as some great thing?
There were some Buddhists out there who also said that these things were not going to happen. There were Muslims out there who also said that these things were not going to happen. There were agnostics who said that these things were not going to happen. There were atheists who said that these things were not going to happen.
Is everything that the atheists believe correct now just because they said that these things were not going to happen? No. Neither is everything that the churches teach correct just because they, along with the other nonbelievers of the world, were in agreement in saying that these things were not going to happen.
This does not make them correct in any way. This also does not make Family Radio wrong in every other doctrine. This does not mean that Family Radio is wrong in adhering to the Bible as the Word of God. This does not mean that Family is wrong in teaching that God does all of the work in salvation. This does not mean that Sunday is not the Sabbath.
I think that there are children who think that they can go play on Sunday now because these things did not happen. This has nothing to do with it. This has nothing to do with the teachings and doctrines of the Bible that are still true.
Let us close here.