eBible Fellowship

[Note: First 10 minutes of this file were not recorded. Transcript picks up in the middle of one of Chris’ answers.]

1^st Question: Question is in relation to verses in Esther and their possible relation to May 21.

Chris: Esther 8:7-8:

Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews. Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring: for the writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no man reverse.

Then the scribes are called and so forth. Verse 9 is a very long verse, so I am not going to read that at this time.

I do not really want to try to get into the spiritual meaning of this. We do know that Haman is a picture of Satan. The name “Haman” means “adversary.” He is a clear picture of Satan and he is defeated here by Mordecai and by Esther, and Christ defeats Satan; we know this.

What I am hesitating about is trying to fit this into the 5-month period. I think that there is other information that has to be looked at before we try to do something like that. But thank you for bringing up these verses.

 

2^nd Question: I wanted to have you look at Genesis 6:16 to help you with your study tonight. I know that this is obvious. I just want to make sure that people know that God did say that there was a door on the ark.

Chris: We read in Genesis 6:16:

A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.

Right. There was one door in this huge craft. This was the door that was shut on the day that the flood came, which was the 17^th day of the 2^nd month.

 

3^rd Question: Could you look at Revelation 6:9-11? This is referring to May 21, 2011.

Chris: We read in Revelation 6:9-11:

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God…

To be “under the altar” means that they are covered by the blood of Christ, just as the sacrificial animal would be slain on the altar and the blood would be spilled there.

It continues:

…and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them…

Again, this is referring to the elect people. They all get a white robe. We all get the same attire. We all get the same crown and the same white robe because we all receive the same salvation.

It continues:

…and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season…

This “little season” would identify with the great tribulation.

So these souls are in Heaven. They are truly saved. They are “under the altar.” They do not have their bodies, and so they are waiting. But they identify with those who are saved in times past; more than likely, during the church age. They are told to “rest yet for a little season” because there is still the great tribulation that has to take place; and remember that Satan was “loosed a little season.”

It continues:

…until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

No; this is not May 21, 2011. This is what people are trying to say. They are trying to say this about Revelation 11:7 when the two witnesses are killed.

4^th Question (continued from Question #3): Revelation 11:7 is referring to 1988, and that identifies with those who are under the altar who get the white robes.

Chris: You have to remember that the spiritual definition of killing according to John 16 is to be driven out of the temple, out of the synagogue. If someone were to drive individuals out of the church, they “killed” them.

So these people died throughout history. One way or another, they could have physically and literally died for the cause of Christ. But many of them died in the spiritual sense because they held to the truth and they would have been outcasts.

Likewise, God’s people during the “little season” are killed like them. We also were driven out of the churches and out of the congregations.

This does not mean that we were killed on May 21, 2011. We have to look at this in the way that God is directing us. With all of the other information in the Bible, this was a day of freedom. God gives us no picture anywhere of carrying a bunch of corpses out of Egypt or carrying corpses out of Babylon.

They were living people who came out. The only dead one was Joseph when they took his bones with them, but everyone else was alive. This is the picture that God wants us to have, not that we were killed in any sense.

5^th Question (continued from Question #3): The killing is not the physical killing. We were killed in the eyes of the unsaved who did not believe our testimony. Our testimony is killed.

Chris: We would have to be alive first in their eyes to be killed. Since when did the world ever look upon true believers as though we were anything? We have always been the offscouring of the earth.

What the world thinks of us is not spiritual killing. God is concerned about the religious place, the synagogue or the churches, because that is where spiritual life would be found, not in the world. So it has nothing to do with that. But thank you for your question and your comments.

 

6^th Question: There are verses in the Bible that talk about the shepherd being silenced. I thought that this could be talking about our day in relation to Mr. Camping. For over 50 years, he has been like a shepherd to so many of us with all of the new information that God wanted us to know. Do you see any Biblical relation to those verses and to what has happened to Mr. Camping and Family Radio in these last days?

Chris: You are going to have to find a verse, because I am not thinking of a verse where that statement is made.

We do read what God is doing in Ezekiel 34. Ezekiel 34 is a summary of practically God’s whole salvation plan. In the early verses of Ezekiel 34, we read of lost sheep. The shepherds of Israel, which would be the pastors in the churches, are not feeding them. By their teaching, they are actually scattering them and making things worse. This would be during the church age. Then God comes to visit and He says that He is “against the shepherds” and He causes them to cease. This might be what you are referring to.

We read in Ezekiel 34:10:

Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock…

This is the end of the church age. God removed all authority, officially, from the churches. The pastor still calls himself a pastor and the bishop still calls himself a bishop and they have authority in the eyes of one another; but in God’s sight, they have no more authority than anybody. They have zero authority. God removed their shepherdship or their feeding of the sheep. They were not bringing truth, and so He caused it to cease and the church age came to an end.

Then He says in Ezekiel 34:11-12:

For thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep…

Primarily, in a big way, when God brought in the great multitude, He was searching and seeking His sheep because they were scattered. Then He brought them together, as we read in Ezekiel 34:13:

And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.

We know that God worked greatly through Mr. Camping, greatly, like no other man. He used him for fifty years to feed sheep and to find sheep, to bring the Gospel. God used that to gather in the elect and God also used many others who went on tract trips and many others on the caravans and individuals here and there.

This is all due to the glory of God. He is the One who moves in individuals “to will and to do of his good pleasure.” He is the One who gives insight, the One who gives understanding.

I really highly respect Mr. Camping and I thank God for him. Without him, I would have continued to be the mess I was for the first half of my life. Who knows where I would be if that voice had not been coming through the radio. Somehow, God used that to really bless me in ways that I could never imagine. But I know that, of himself, Mr. Camping does not know a thing. I know that I, also, do not know anything. Mr. Camping says that he is a nobody. Well, I am the chief of nobodies.

This is the truth of every child of God. We do not know anything spiritually. We cannot do anything spiritually. All glory goes to God because He gives us understanding, He directs us in truth, and He moves us to obey Him, to do His good pleasure.

So this is the case with all of the children of God. This is how Christ feeds sheep. This is how He has found them, this is how He feeds them, and this is how He has behaved all through history. We are only ambassadors on His behalf. We are the guy who found favor.

We say this politically. That person must have been given some kind of political favor because he was given an ambassadorship. Well, it is all by grace and by favor that God chose us, gave us salvation, and sent us on His behalf. On the behalf of Christ, we beseech people.

So if you look at Ezekiel 34, the sheep are lost. Christ God found the sheep. He gathered the sheep on the mountain, and then He feeds the sheep. It is a summary of what is going on up until this point.

Thank you for this question.

 

7^th Question: I know that the spiritual earthquake of May 21 was a snare to the entire world. Do you think that Jehovah will test the believers again?

Chris: This is a good question, but God has not stopped. It did not stop with the great tribulation. We know that that was a great time of testing and it is continuing. It is continuing right now, and it is spiritual, spiritual, spiritual.

Some people do not realize that they are making the same mistake. They are now trying to relate everything to October 21. All of the judgment that the language of the Bible can only explain over these five months, they are trying to explain that it all takes place on October 21 because we did not see this and because we did not see that. They want to see these things on October 21, even though there is no time for all the things that God has said to happen within the space of a day. There is no time. It has to be over the five months.

They are falling into the same trap. They did not see anything, and this is the death of anyone who does not have spiritual eyes. This is the death.

It is amazing how long some people can cling. God told us in Daniel that some cling “with flatteries.” Do you remember that? We read in Daniel 11:33:

And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days.

This is referring to those who understand. Who understands? The wise will understand, but we were going to fall.

It goes on to say in Daniel 11:34-35:

Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen [or helped] with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. And some…

The word “some” is not actually there. So this says:

And of them of understanding shall fall…

Three times we read that “them of understanding” will fall.

Remember that the wise will understand. We read in Daniel 12:3:

And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

So the wise are identified as stars, the wise are also those who understand, and those who understand fall.

Do stars fall? Do we read about stars falling? We read about this in several places. One of them is in Matthew 24:29:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened…

The sun is Christ.

…and the moon shall not give her light…

The moon is the Word of God.

…and the stars shall fall…

But these are supposed to be those unsaved “wandering stars” in the church. How does that fit when the sun is Christ, the moon is the Word of God, and when these stars are identified with the sun and the moon? These are the lights in the heavens. These are the true believers, and these stars fall immediately after the tribulation.

I do not think that I have to remind anybody. It certainly seemed like we fell. “Them of understanding” was even mocked. This was even mocked, “The wise will understand! The Bible guarantees it!”

Wow? What happened? Well, God says here in Daniel 11:34:

Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen [helped] with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries.

I am sorry, but we have to get away from this idea that everybody who held a sign with us was a brother and a sister and that everybody who wore the hats and the shirts were brothers and sisters.

A brother and a sister is someone whom God made part of His family like us. It is somebody whom God gave a new heart to. That is a brother and a sister.

We have to question individuals who are going to the point of denying this and saying that Family Radio should be taken off of the air. All of the craziness that we have heard has been from “brothers and sisters.”

The “third part” is dead, and we are not hearing this from them. They are dead. We have been hearing this from “brothers and sisters.”

This is why so many have been cast down. They have been burdened and saddened. This is because we could take this if this came from the world. We would expect this from the church.

We thought we were all right in line. The Bible asks, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” And yet, no, no. We see this in every group. Even amongst the twelve apostles, there was a Judas.

So, too, with individuals who proclaimed May 21. Not all of them were saved. If Christ would have come on that day, they would have been left behind. Their falling away now is evidence of this.

Thank you for that question.

 

8^th Question: Can you please check Isaiah 19:1-6? Could verses 4-6 be referring to what happened to the churches and congregations on May 21, 1988? Can you please also compare verses 1-4 with Ezekiel 29:19? Could the “cruel lord” and “fierce king” be referring to King Nebuchadnezzar who was a picture of Satan?

Chris: I am sorry, but this is a little bit too much for this format that we have right now. On top of that, I am not all that familiar with Isaiah 19. I would probably just stumble around, and so, unfortunately, I will not be able to answer this question. But thank you for your question.

 

9^th Question: Do you have any new understanding of the 1,335 days in Daniel 12:12 referring to the end times versus Christ ministering from 29-33 A.D.?

Chris: No. I would recommend reading Mr. Camping’s teaching on this. It fits perfectly. There is no other place to fit this because it had to do with the period of time of Christ’s ministry.

 

10^th Question: During your study, you were mentioning the fact that the elect or the body of Christ bring judgment or fire and brimstone on the world. Us being the body and Christ being the head, He directs all of our actions or lack of actions. Is this what you were referring to? We do not really do anything.

Chris: What this is is that there was the Lamb’s Book of Life that contained 200 million names. As long as there were names in that Book of people who had not yet been redeemed, the Gospel went out into the world. But prior to May 21, God saved the very last one. He completed it and that act cut off the Gospel to the world.

This is because Jesus said, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Once the sheep are found, then the Gospel is cut off.

As far as that act of saving us, we were acted upon if God had elected us and saved us and redeemed us. We did not do anything and we are continuing to just go about our lives. But since we are one of those, it is like He is using us as that battle axe to break in pieces all of the rest of the world.

Thank you for that question.

 

11^th Question: In regards to Isaiah 20 where we read about Isaiah being commanded by God to “loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot,” did this happen literally? Why did God want him to walk naked and bear that embarrassment? Did he really walk naked or was this just spiritual?

Chris: I understand the question and I have thought about this before. From everything that we can read, it was literal. God commanded Isaiah to remove his clothing and to walk about naked and barefoot for three years. For three years, he walked around this way for a sign, as it says in Isaiah 20:3-4:

And JEHOVAH said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot…

This was a sign towards them.

God sometimes does things that are very humbling to the individual whom He is dealing with. Do you remember something that Ezekiel was told to do? God wanted Ezekiel to bake bread with man’s dung. Ezekiel was to use the dung in the preparation of the fire. Then He changed it to cow’s dung.

But God does things that, to us, seem unreasonable. For example, He told Abraham, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”

Did this make sense? Would this have been something that would have seemed reasonable to us?

If anyone is prone to questioning God and His will and His purpose and His plan, the Bible gives plentiful opportunities to do this on many, many doctrines. Isaiah could have questioned God and said, “Lord, do you know how humiliating this is? Do you really want me to go around like this?”

Remember that we went around with signs and hats and shirts for months. That was a little embarrassing at first. After awhile, it was actually very freeing. It was very freeing because that undercurrent, that spiritual battle that is always in the world between the people of the world and the people of God, that thing that is always underneath where we hear those jabs and blows, this was brought right to the surface. They knew where we stood and it became obvious where they stood in response.

We look at it and say, “Wow! Isaiah walked naked for three years.” But I am sure that this was a great blessing to him. I am sure that God worked things out in his life to where he became very much humbled by this and broken and submissive to God knowing that He does everything perfectly. This is always a good thing.

Thank you for these verses.

 

12^th Question: In Revelation 9, are the 200 million a spiritual figure of God’s elect? How can we be sure that this is literal?

Chris: The 200 million is an actual number. We know this because God at other times has talked about coming with His saints. How many saints? He speaks of ten thousands of His saints in a couple of places.

God could have said in Revelation 9, “There were ten thousands of horsemen and I heard the number of them,” and this would have been a number that we could not pinpoint or calculate at all. Instead, He gives us the number of 200 million. This number is found nowhere else in the Bible in that sense. There are no 200 million used as a picture anywhere.

I believe that this is a literal number. Mr. Camping has pointed out before that this is a representation of one-tenth of about two billion professing Christians in the world. This would be 10% of that; and so we have this evidence.

Maybe we cannot be 100% certain, but I think that there is a great amount of evidence that this is a number that identifies all of the elect who would be saved throughout time.

Thank you for that question. We will stop here.