Page 18 

 

Ellen White - prophet?   

Time in prophecies 

Parallelism in prophecies

Earth after Second coming 

1260 days of the little horn  


Has GOD Left Israel Forever?  

Prophecy about the tree 


70-weeks prophecy.
Starting point
 

The prophecy itself 


Prophecy about 2300 days 

Opening of the Seals 

The image, beasts of Daniel and "Revelation" 

Beasts of "Revelation"

Whore of Babylon

Trumpets of “Revelation”  

The 7-th trumpet

Armageddon 

Two prophets 

After the last battle

New or Restored Jerusalem?
 

Second Resurrection

New Jerusalem on the old planet?

After the 6-th bowl of wrath

The Judgment  

Some Adventists mistakes 


Time frame of the last days

BRIDE and GUESTS on WEDDING FEAST 


Is it important to know?

Who was Jesus before He came first time?  

How conflict in heaven had began? 

Holy Feasts 

Why Sacrifices?  

The Tabernacle 

Meaning of Sacrifices

Day of Atonement

Passover 

Summary

Seal of God and Mark of the Beast

The Book of Life

Time in Egypt


Time from Exodus to Solomon   
Application of Jephthan 


When did Exodus take place?

When will Jesus return?

What happens when we die?

God's Plan

To Adventists: Food for Thoughts 

Aliens  vs. demons 

  

 

 

26. WHO WILL BE THE BRIDE AND WHO THE GUESTS  ON THE WEDDING FEAST?
Part 2
of 3

The restored Jerusalem will be a primitive model of the new earth, there, on the restored earth, you can see the two groups of people: 
«And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves» (Isa.61:5,6). The priests will be the Jews, the strangers – the rest of the saved people.

We know, that in New Jerusalem there will be only priests of God (Rev.20:6), but on the new earth we see the two groups of people also: «And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it» (Rev.21:24). So we see the saved people and the kings. 

The saved people will be the resurrected and those alive righteous who will be taken to the new earth without seeing the death after the 1000 years. The kings are the saints, who during the 1000 years will learn to be priests on the new earth. Thus, in Rev.5:9,10 saints sung a new song to Jesus: "thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood...And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth".

«
Instead of thy fathers (the Patriarchs) shall be thy children (sons of God), whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth» (Ps.45:16).
After the 1000-years of the preparation to their mission the saints-priests-kings will edify all the saved people. 

Look closely at the proverb about 10 virgins (Mat 25:1-13 compare with Luke 13:24-30) who went to meet their groom. The virgins are representing Christians who are waiting for Jesus to come and the groom is Jesus. Five wise virgins loved their groom and the groom knew them. They went with groom to the marriage (in Kingdom of heaven) and door was shut. The five foolish wanted to marry also but only because they heard about a good life that the groom was going to give them. They even didn’t know him. The groom said to them: “Verily I say unto you, I know you not». Why He does not know them? Because «if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His» (Rom.8:9). Silly virgins could not enter the Heavenly Kingdom, because they had no Holy Spirit in them,  that means that their faith was not perfect for the Kingdom.  «The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him» (John.4:23).

The silly virgins were preparing for arrival of the groom also, therefore they do not symbolize wicked people who are not awaiting for Jesus to come and who will be destroyed. They represent righteous who will be left on earth during the 1000 years. They will await for Jesus’ coming, they will not accept the mark of the beast and will not worship of the beast, they will do good for a neighbor, but they will have no love for God, without which it is impossible to go to heaven. They haven’t received the Holy Spirit, were not born anew in Christ, i.e. they did not changed their nature. They did not sin because they were afraid of God, not because they loved Him. Their faith was not perfect for the Kingdom. They will not be priests of God and of Jesus. That will be a big disappointment for them. Even God will provide them in every their need they still will be under curse of death which will go away only on the new Earth after the 1000 years (Rev.21:4).

The silly virgins are representing also Old Testament Jews, who faithfully keep the law, but have not accepted Jesus. Isaiah told about them (52:3): «Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without silver». In KJ Bible the word “money” was used, but in Hebrew there the word “ksph” [ silver] was used the same one which  Zechariah (11:12-13) used: «So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.... a goodly price that I was prised at of them.». 

It means, that Jews have sold themselves to a sin and consequently they were sold to their enemies for nothing (52:5). Jesus came to redeem them by His life (silver), but they did not accepted Jesus' sacrifice. God will redeem them from the death (52:9) without the silver, i.e. without the faith in Jesus. «I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death » (Hosea 13:14). They will hide from God’s anger and will be saved: 
«Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD's anger (to hide from God's anger and to be lifted up  into the Kingdom of heaven is not the same)» (Zeph.2:3).

In order to enter into Heavenly Kingdom, it is necessary to do the will of God:
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Mat 7:21,12:50); it means to keep the commandments of God:

to love God  (1Cor.13:1-3) - “You shall love your God with all your heart”(Mat.22:37) and people - “You shall  love your neighbor as yourself” (Mat.22:39).

For the Kingdom it is also necessary to get rid off all pride and be humble :
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mat.5:3);
«Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven» (Mat.5:44,45);

be justified by the  Holy Spirit:
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall 
inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God
” (1 Cor 6: 9-11);

do not exalt yourself (Mat.18:4):
 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein” (Luke18:17);

 do not be a self-righteous  as a Pharisee and repent 
your sins
:  
 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom 
of heaven
” (Mat.5:20);

be no doubtful in your faith: 
 No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God
( Luke 9:62; Heb.10:38,39).

Also the Heavenly kingdom is for those who always tries to restrain a human anger and for those who suffered and died for Christ:

 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, 
and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice…for great is your reward in heaven
» (Mat 5:9-11).

For those who have an access to all kind of pleasures 
it is difficult to enter into the Kingdom:
 A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mat.19:23). However in order to be saved a 
rich and a poor have same possibilities.

It is difficult to enter into the Kingdom:
 We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God”(Acts 14:22); “That ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer” (2Thes 1:5).

Now look at these verses:

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord (i.e. who put his hope in the Lord) shall be saved (Rom.10:13; Joel 2:32).
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” 
(
Acts 2 :21);
Compare it with the next verse:

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord ( is the same as “shall call on the name of the Lord”), shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Mat 7:21).

You see it is not the same: to be saved and to enter into Heavenly Kingdom.

 Jesus gave us a parable about the talents (Mat.25:14-29) which is about 3 types of the believers. The parable is telling about the 3 servants to whom were given the talents. 

To the first servant the five talents were given. To the second – two talents, to the third – one talent. Their lord went to travel into a far country for a long time. When he came back he found out that two of his servants doubled the talents, and the third servant still had the one talent which the lord gave to him. The lord was pleased with the two first servants and was angry on the third. He took the talent away from the bad servant and gave it to the first one who had already 10. The lord ordered to cast out the bad servant into outer darkness where “
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”.

In Mat.24:51 there is a key for a better understanding of outer darkness, where “weeping and gnashing of teeth” will be. It is another parable about a good and a bad servant, who were left by their lord for a long time. When the lord returned, he found that one servant still was faithful to him, and another servant became disobedient and had done many bad things. He blessed the first servant. About the destiny of the bad servant it is said: “(lord) shall cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. Now we can understand that the bad servant who received one talent will go to the same place as the bad servant from the second parable. They both will die.

The parables are about Christians. As servants knew their lord, so all Christians know their Lord. There are three groups of Christians. Those who before the Second coming will have a very strong faith (5 talents) will strengthen their faith twice and even more (+ 1 talent from the bad servant) during the troubled time. They will be the priests in the Heavenly Kingdom. Those who will have a not very strong faith (only 2 talents) still will double it and they will be saved. Those who will have a little faith (1 talent) will lose their faith and will die as all wicked people will die.

So, we have learned, that during the sounding of the 7th trumpet the saints who will die for the faith in Jesus during the antichrist's time will be resurrected as well as those saints, who died from the beginning of the world “ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:28), all of them were lead by Spirit of God. All of them will be the priests of God in Heavenly Kingdom - New Jerusalem.

 The righteous who were not born anew of God, but had not accepted the mark of the beast, did not worship him and did good to people, i.e. kept the second commandment written on the second tablet, will stay on earth. In order to be saved it is necessary only to love your neighbor, do not worship the beast, do not sin for sake of  the fear of God and to trust in Jesus. 
«Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life (the everlasting life is salvation)” 
(John 3:16), 
«you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life»(1John 5:13); 
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” 
(John 3:36).  
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life”(John 5:24); 
« he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live » (John11:25-26).

 Salvation requires a love toward to people. Kingdom of Heaven requires a love toward to people and to God.  
People who knew God but did not love their neighbors will not have a chance even for salvation (Mat.25:41-45). 
 Some people can be very strong in their faith they even can prophesy, do wonders, cast out demons (
Маt.7:22), they can give their bodies to be burned and bestow all their goods (1Cоr.13:3), but if they do not have a love 
for people they will never reach Kingdom of Heaven (
Маt.7:21).

People who did not know God but did good for people 
all their life will have a chance for Salvation through the love, because love is greater than faith (1Cor.13:13). 

We know that Pharisees knew God well, they spent a lot of time in prayer and reading the Scripture, they kept faithfully the God's Sabbath, but they were so proud to be the chosen ones, they looked down on rest of people. They were so focused on the relationship "I and God" (Luke 18:10-14), they completely forgot  about the relationship "I and people" (Mark 7:9-12; Luke 11:42). The proverb about the good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-36) is telling us that this kind of people are not our neighbors (nigh ones). Why? 

Because without love for people they not only will enter into Kingdom of Heaven (Mat.5:20), they even will not see the new earth (i.e. they will not be saved). People who know God but are indifferent to needs of another people will never be our neighbors on new earth. People who did not know God (as the Samaritan) but loved another people will be our neighbors on the new earth. 

If  you remember the movie “Schindler’s list” (best picture of 1993), it will be easy for you to understand completely the issue of salvation. Oscar Schindler was the man who saved lives more than 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust. He risked his life for that every day, because he loved people. However he was an adulterer and drunkard, and Bible says that no adulterer, nor drunkard will inherit Kingdom of Heaven (1Cor.6:9,10). 

If the Kingdom of heaven would be the same as salvation, that would mean that he wouldn’t be saved. That would present our loving and forgiven God as merciless God, who sees only an negative in people and ignores the good. And that is not true. If love (Agape) is greater than faith, the love is greater than just well behaved style of life. It is the love what God sees in the person like Oscar. Oscar will not go to heaven, but God will save him due to his remarkable love to people. And a teetotaler and a moral man who are careless about needs of the people around will not go to heaven and will not be saved.  

(the chapter continues)

 

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