I just received some new revelation and I'm so excited I just had to share it with you. The scriptures tell us Jesus was raised from the dead with all power in heaven and earth, was given the name above every other name, was raised above all principalities and powers, etc, etc. This is the reason I put Him on the highest throne in heaven, but last week, I studied Acts 1:7. Jesus said, "It is not for you to know the times and seasons the Father has put in His own power." This was after Jesus was raised from the dead. So even though Jesus was given all power and all authority, the Father held something back. The times and seasons the Father put in His own power.
In Mark 13:32, Jesus’ says, “But of that day and of that hour knows no man, no, not the angels in heaven, neither the son but the Father” And again Matthew 24:36, “But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” Now consider these two verses in the light of Acts 1:7. "It is not for you to know the times and seasons the Father has put in His own power."
So, when we look at Revelation five and the one who sets on the throne is handing a scroll to Jesus, the one who is sitting on the throne with the scroll in His hand is the Father; He has put the times and seasons in His own power. The seven year tribulation period will begin when the Father hands the scroll to Jesus and not before.
Jesus is not clear in Mark 13:32 or Matthew 24:36 what day He is referring to but it wouldn’t matter, all seasons and times are in the control of the Father. The Father set the day Jesus came to earth, He also set the day of Jesus’ death, set the day of His resurrection, ascension, commissioning of the Church, etc, etc. So, if it is the Father who controls the times and seasons, who put the seals on the scroll?
I have to believe it was Jesus that sealed the scroll. The Father controls when it is unsealed but the only one found worthy to unseal it is Jesus. He is therefore, the one who sealed it in the first place. Again, the Father gave a gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church but it was Jesus who issued the commandment the whole world stumbled over.
Now as to who sets on the throne, I believe it is like quantum principals. Jesus said I and the Father are one. If you are looking for Jesus and look at the throne you see Jesus but if you are looking for the Father and look at the throne, you see the Father.
In Acts 1, Jesus commissioned the Church but by the time of the Revelation to John, the new covenant had been sealed. When Jesus addressed the seven churches in Revelation 2, He did not address the facts of the commissioning of the church or their lack of obedience to His commandments because the new covenant had been sealed till the time of the end. In Revelation 6, what we see is a recommissioning of the Church.
What we are looking at is behind the scenes workings of the kingdom of heaven. In the beginning of Church history, Jesus commissions His Church by sending it out to preach and teach one simple truth; that Christians should maintain a saturation of the Spirit of God through the use of a gift of tongues, and live in fellowship with Jesus.
That commission got confused with the doctrine of the old covenant and Jesus’ death on the cross to fulfill the old covenant and finally morphed into something else entirely. Peter’s first message to new believers contained a command to repent, even though Jesus washed away mankind’s sin and God was in Christ not imputing mankind’s sin against them. Even though Jesus tried to reset the doctrine of the Church on its proper foundation with the events of Cornelius’ house, He was unsuccessful.
Paul was most likely called in an attempt to recommission the Church. Paul was caught up to heaven to receive His doctrine from the Lord personally. Paul’s doctrine did not have its roots in the teachings of the other apostles, yet Paul could not overcome the teachings of Jewism. Each church he founded suffered an onslaught from those teaching another gospel, one that focused on mankind’s sin against old covenant law. Though Paul was the most prolific apostle, his efforts to reset the doctrine of the church were fruitless.
Thus, Jesus resealed the Church. The truth of the Church age was sealed before Jesus’ death on the cross. God’s holy people, His chosen, did not see the coming of the Church age, even when it was upon them, they did not see it. The Church age was hidden from view. The disciples did not see it, even though Jesus taught it. And once mankind rejected the commission of the Church, to follow a different doctrine, Jesus resealed it. And thus in Revelation 6, what we see is a recommissioning of the Church.
This time, Jesus will raise an army of people from the dead and send them out preaching and teaching the new covenant doctrine. This army will not be swayed by the doctrine of devils; will not veer off from the truth. It will remain steadfast to the truth revealed by Jesus. It will be a short work in the earth, but this work will cover the whole earth, as the waters cover the seas, and every tribe and nation will hear the pure, unadulterated gospel. Then, all believers will be caught up together in the air. This is Revelation 10:7: “When the angel shall begin to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God shall be revealed.”
The mystery of God is the true Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was hidden, revealed, hidden again and then revealed in all its glory as Jesus intended. Jesus is returning for a Church without spot or wrinkle. A Church that is not imputing sins against men and is not calling for repentance to sins no longer imputed. This Church keeps the commandment to saturate itself daily with the Holy Spirit and is constantly kept pure by the washing of water by the Word.
Notice again the story of Peter and Cornelius from Acts 10. Peter is asleep on the roof of the house and has a vision. In this vision all sorts of animals prescribed unclean for the Jews is lowered on a sheet and Peter is instructed to rise, kill, and eat. Peter says, “Not so Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is unclean.” The voice answered Peter, saying, “What I call clean, you should not call unclean.” This happened three times.
Now, what has God cleaned? According to numerous scriptures, God cleansed the whole human race. 2Corinthians 5:19 tells us “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing men’s sins against them.” 1John 2:2 tells us Jesus propitiated the sins of the whole world. Galatians 4:4-7 reveals, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because we are sons, He has sent His Spirit into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore you are no longer servants, but sons and heirs.” And 1Peter 2:24, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body, that we being dead to sin, should live as righteous.”
What did Peter do when the Holy Spirit demonstrated Galatians 4:4-7? Peter rushed to get these people baptized for their sins, sins the Farther no longer imputed to their accounts. The Holy Spirit already resided in their hearts because they had been made pure as the wind driven snow by Jesus’ death on the cross. All mankind received the redemption from the law and the Holy Spirit in their hearts because all mankind was under the demands of the law. Though the law was made with the Jews alone, no man could keep it, making all men subject to it.
By insisting the people in Cornelius’ house be baptized, Peter called that which God had called clean, unclean, and was working against God. I think I understand how this happened. In a certain place, Jesus was asked about John the Baptist. Jesus said, “Of those born of women, there has not arisen one greater than John.” The disciples were standing nearby and heard Jesus’ words. They equated John’s greatness with his message to repent and so when Jesus sent them out, they went out with the message to repent in an attempt to be like John.
The disciples failed to take into account the rest of Jesus’ words. Jesus went on to say, “Howbeit, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John.” The disciples failed to appreciate the two kingdoms and how Jesus came to fulfill the kingdom of God and establish a new kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. The disciples failed to recognize the new kingdom or understand Jesus had redeemed mankind from the old covenant law or that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. They did not appreciate the truth that the message of God changed from the old to the new covenant or that they were called to preach the message of the new covenant. The disciples were too busy arguing over who would be the greatest among them.
On two separate occasions the disciples argued over who would be the greatest. The mother of James and John came before Jesus to respectfully ask, “When you come into your kingdom, grant that these two sons of mine may set at your right and left hand.” Obviously with the disciples’ quest for greatness, Jesus’ words concerning John would have a huge impact on their thinking.
Moreover, Jesus came at the behest of His Father to fulfill the old covenant law. If He was to teach the new covenant to the disciples outright, He would have sinned against the law, making it impossible to fulfill it. Remember the commandment, “Thou shalt have no other God’s before me.” Jesus and the Father could not both be God at the same time. Only God issues commandments. Jesus laid aside His Godhood to come to earth and could not blatantly teach the new covenant till after the old covenant was fulfilled. After the old covenant was fulfilled, the title and authority of Lord passed to Jesus.
If the Holy Spirit is already in our hearts crying, Abba, Father, we don’t need to be instructed to repent, our sins are already removed from us, as far as the east is from the west. Obviously, by the end of Peter’s life, he had realized his mistake, but it was too late. The whole Church by then was preaching a message of repentance from sins and defining those sins by the old covenant law, a law God had redeemed mankind from through Christ Jesus.
Jesus did issue new commandments and as John pointed out in 1John, to disobey commandments is sin, but sin Jesus is faithful and just to forgive, if the sin is named and repented of. The problem was, and remains today, the Church does not recognize Jesus’ commandments as commandments, and if we do not keep Jesus’ commandments, we cannot abide in Jesus’ love or inherit everlasting life. The Church needs to be recommissioned on the truth of the new covenant.
Let’s go back. In Genesis, God did not tell Adam he would lose the right to dwell in the Garden of Eden if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was implied in the words, “You shall surely die.” This phrase indicates Adam’s existence would change dramatically. Likewise, when God called Abraham to “go out to a land that I will show you,” there was no promise of inheritance explicitly stated. It is implied by the words, “that I will show you.” The question always should be, “What has God implied?” We know the book of Revelation is about the revealing of secrets.
The book of Joel tells us there will be a former and latter day rain. What happens in the interim? A long drought is predicted but is not stated. This drought is of the knowledge of God. In other words, there was a deluge of the knowledge of God in the beginning of the Church age but then the Church age was sealed. It will be unsealed again. The Father controls the times and seasons.
So, we know the father has reserved the times and seasons in His own control, we know not even Jesus knows the times and seasons, but we also know the secrets of God were foretold by the prophets and we know every secret will be revealed before the end. We know there is just as much in what God does not say as what He does. So can we know when it is time for Jesus to return?
Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for not knowing the times and seasons. In Luke 12:56, Jesus said, “You hypocrites, you know how to discern the earth and sky, why is it you don’t know how to discern this present time?” and in Matthew 16:2, “When the evening comes, you say tomorrow will be fair because the sky is red; and in the morning, today it will be stormy because the sky is red and overcast. You know how to interpret the sky but not the signs of the times.” Should we be able to discern the times and seasons God has placed in His own control? We may not know the hour or the day, but we certainly should know the season.
Jesus rebuked the Pharisees because they could predict the weather through the signs in the sky but didn’t know it was time for the appearance of the Messiah. One of the signs they missed, was the sign of time itself. It had been nearly 2,000 years since the establishment of the old covenant. It was 2,000 years between Adam and Moses and this the Pharisees knew very well. The fact that the old covenant law was nearing its 2,000 year anniversary should have been a sign to them.
Then, Jeremiah had prophesied 70 years of captivity for the Jews and Daniel heard 62 weeks till the Messiah would be cut off. For the Pharisees to know the signs that indicated the weather but not know the time of the appearing of the Messiah and His death, when these were the spiritual leaders of Israel, is absurd. And the same can be said of Christians today.
The Father has reserved the times and seasons under His own control and Jesus does not even know the hour or the day but certain preparations must be made for Jesus’ return in the air. Jesus has to know the time of His return. Besides the preparations that need to be made in heaven, there are certain preparations that need to be made on earth and men only live 70 years on average. Of those 70 years, only a small percentage are years of maturity. In order to prepare a people on earth to meet the coming of Jesus in the air, Jesus must know the time.
The Pharisees have taught us a very valuable lesson. They have taught us you can be an ardent follower of God, fastidious in your service, and be oblivious of who God is and what He is doing. The Pharisees did not recognize Jesus as the Christ and many Christians may fail to recognize the Lord. The Pharisees, for all their studies, failed to understand what God was doing, and I fear most Christians will not understand what God is about to do today.
So, what we have is the commissioning of the Church in 27 AD and somewhere around 100 AD, the Church age is sealed on a scroll. There is a long drought of almost 2,000 years and the Church age is unsealed and continues for seven years. We see this in the secrets God shared with His prophets. In Acts 1:7, Jesus told the disciples, “It is not for you to know the times and seasons God has placed in His own power,” but God had already foretold the times and seasons. There is nothing hidden that has not already been revealed.
Daniel didn’t see a 2,000 year Church age. Daniel saw the death of the Messiah and a seven year Church age. The 70 years of Jeremiah became the 70 weeks of Daniel and the Messiah is cut off in the 69th week. This is because the message Jesus gave the disciples to preach was never preached by them. On that first Pentecost, when three thousand souls asked, “What must we do to be saved,” Peter answered, “Repent,” even though mankind’s sins had been washed away by Jesus. The new covenant age never came because mankind never practiced new covenant theology. It will come however. When Jesus calls the dead in Christ up from the grave, they will go out preaching the new covenant.
We are talking about a number in the thousands. Every man and woman who has believed in Jesus since His death on the cross, all have been reserved in waiting till this day, when Jesus will call them forth for that which He has called them. They will serve Him faithfully.