Why The Church Is Not Israel (Acts 15)

Part 1: Separation of The Church and The State of Israel (Acts 15:1-11)

Edgecliff Baptist Church, Spokane WA. Pastor John Young. 7-29-2018

Link to Sermon Video: https://youtu.be/pPG4EkXLv8E  

Text: Acts 15:1-11 “And certain men which came down from Judæa taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. 2 When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. 3 And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. 4 And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them. 5 But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. 6 And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. 7 And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. 8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; 9 and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. 10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.”

Let’s Pray: Dear Heavenly Father, We Thank you for this passage. Think you for the opportunity understand the special place your grace through Jesus Christ has in your eyes and help us to understand the important differences between church and state and the important differences between State of Israel and the church itself and the differences between Old Testament law and New Testament law. Help us to understand the importance of this chapter and this passage upon our lives and upon our grace that we have through Jesus Christ and in Jesus name I Pray, Amen! 

Introduction: All right. So Chapter 15 is a very important and crucial chapter in the Bible because it shows us a distinction between the law and grace, between Israel and the church, between the Covenant that Israel has and the Covenant the church has with God. They are all different things. They are not the same thing. A lot of times today you will have people that come along and they say, “well, the church is Israel” or they will say, “the church is a spiritual Israel” or, “the church has replaced Israel”. The church is not a spiritual Israel. It's separate and distinct. 

 Even in the Old Testament that church that was in the wilderness was separate and distinct from the nation Israel. There was twelve tribes in the nation of Israel and Levi was given of those tribes to be helpers in the temple of the congregation, which is the Old Testament Church, and so they were separate and distinct. When the Babylonian dispersion happened, what happened was, the nation was dissolved. It was dispersed. It was taken away. But in that nation, there were, taken to Babylon, the Jews. Which basically were religious Israelites. They were kind of like how we would perceive the Russian Church here in America. The Russian Church is not Russia. It is not a nation but it is a church full of culturally Russian people and so we can see how sometimes a Russian would, perhaps, confused their patriotism with their loyalty to Christ. And also we could say, “Well, in order to be American and in order to be a good Christian you need to keep the Constitution in the United States”. 

This is similar to what the Jews at this time we're getting confused. They said, “Oh! We need to become part of the nation of Israel in order to be saved because you cannot be saved outside of the nation, which is Israel”.  Today we have the Catholic Church that says, “In order to be saved, you need to be part of the church, which is Spiritual Israel” and they get this doctrine from understanding that the church is Israel. But we of course, as Christians, know that salvation cannot be found apart from faith in Lord Jesus Christ. It is not found in being a member of a church. It is found by being in the body of Jesus Christ. In His body we are saved! It is not by being in the nation Israel. It is not by being in a church. It is not by being in a group of people but it is by being in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is baptized with him in the Spirit.

Verse 1: In this first part we see here it says, “And certain men which came down from Judæa taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.” So here in this passage we see that they’re teaching that there is no salvation apart from the circumcision of Moses. Now, what is the circumcision Moses? The Scriptures say in John 7:22 “Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man.” So circumcision is part of the Mosaic law. It enters you in to the Covenant, for the nation, to be part of that National Covenant but was not given to Moses directly. It was given to Abraham as a promise. 

Before the nation of Israel was ever a nation it was given to Abraham as a promise that his descendants, physical descendants, would become part of a nation. Now of course, we understand that there are spiritual descendants of Abraham, through the faith of Abraham, but that's a separate covenant, and a separate promise. But the promise, because the Bible talks about promises, plural, there's a promise of a nation and then there is a promise of faith, in Jesus Christ, that would come through that lineage of Abraham. But what we're doing here is the circumcision given to Abraham as a promise that his descendants would become a nation and through them all the world would be blessed and in that it was given to Moses as part of that founding promise. And then Acts 7:8 “And he gave him the covenant of circumcision:…” So this is a covenant of circumcision and it is a covenant He gave. “…and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.” Oh! So, we see that this covenant of circumcision was for the 12 patriarchs in particular and also Abraham's lineage as a promise! 

Now we understand that the nation of… you know, the nation that came out of Ishmael, was not part of that. But because Ishmael, as a child, was in Abraham's house, so too he was circumcised under this promise of the Covenant. But the Covenant was founded, it was established, just as they were given a promise in Abraham, it was established in Jacob to be Israel and the twelve patriarchs. And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: and that gives the whole story, and so forth, talking about how that they were sent into the land and then they were given the promise and verse 30, “And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight:…” and then verse 32, “saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold.” So he understands that they are going to be in that nation. 

In that passage, you'll see were it talks about how it was given to them a covenant of circumcision to be a nation, and so forth, and that they were to come. Abraham was given the promise to come, and his descends would come and serve God at that mountain, where Moses was, and was given that promise. So understand that He was entering into a covenant with Israel, as part of Israel. 

So look at what these people are doing in Acts 15. They're saying that you need to enter into the covenant of circumcision. The covenant of the nation. And then, further down says they must also keep the law of Moses. They're connected. In order to be clean and pure, in the Old Testament, you have to keep the law of Moses. We have the order of cleansing. This is specifically the Levitical. Not necessarily talking all the law. Now we understand about morality. Not saying, “Hey, you can go kill and steal, out of your whim,” and all this stuff. It's not saying they don't have to be a normal citizen. What they're saying is that you have to join with the nation and you have to keep the nation's laws in order to be saved. 

So that's a completely different thing than what we understand. As faith is completely in Jesus Christ and that you don't have to keep laws. We don't have to keep the law in order to be saved but, of course, we understand that if we don't keep law then we will be chastised, as sons. Of course, there's a different thing that goes on there. We'll deal with that next week, in the next section of this chapter about what the gentiles supposed to do. 

Paul said that people slander us and say, “well, you think that you have a license to sin!”, “You have a license to do whatever you want, if you are not connected to the law!”. So, a lot of people, they try to say, “Well, you know you're not saved by the law, but once you are saved, you must keep the law!” In fact, this is what the Pharisees said. See the certain here at the beginning, they say you cannot be saved unless you enter in but then the Pharisees down in Jerusalem say, “No, no, no! that's not what it is at all! What it actually is, is that you get saved first, then you keep the laws of Moses!”. So, these guys at the beginning of the chapter say is; “You must first enter the nation by circumcision and keep the law of Moses, then Jesus Christ will save you.” It's basically turn over a good leaf. Be a good person, to works salvation, and then God will accept you, and then Jesus will save you. But then the Pharisees out of the bottom of this chapter they switch around. “No, no, no. Jesus will save you but then He will bring you to the Covenant, and then you must keep the laws.” 

So, we see how that they are confused by this. They think it's all part of the same covenant. They think it's all part of the same thing. Even today we have people that are confused and they don't know how to distinguish between church and state. They don't know how to distinguish between Old Testament and New Testaments. So, we understand that this passage is teaching us and that church and state are separate things. They are two different covenants. They are not. The church today is not a spiritual Israel. Israel is the physical nation. 

The servants in Israel, they are supposed to be servants to God regardless of their salvation. They also, like we've been studying, is to circumcise not just their flesh but the heart as well and if they don't circumcise the heart they are going to die. They're going to go to hell and they're not going to have any eternal inheritance in the nation of Israel. So, an Israelite must circumcise their heart in order to obtain eternal life to go along with their eternal nation and that's their confusion. 

Remember, when they went up to Babylon, they went off, not as a nation to Babylon but kind of like the Russian Church or a Greek Orthodox Church or something. Where they have their culture and their faith in Christ or their faith in a church system or a religion all mixed together. So the Jews, at this time, they were that type of people. They were dispersed as a church and that church came back to Israel; To establish their nation underneath the Greeks and Persians. Then later underneath Rome, in the Roman Empire, as a nation. So, they confused them both. They're saying you've got to become Israelites before you can be saved. It’s what they're saying here. “It's wonderful that you as Gentiles are getting saved but now you need to join our nation.”, is what they're saying. “You need to go and get circumcised. You need to go and keep our national laws.” 

Verse 2: “When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.”  So, you see, nobody else has a problem with this except for these Judaizers, that are coming in. Judaizers are people that try to make the church into the Jewish nation. You got your “Hebrew Roots” people. You got your “Spiritual Israel” people. You got all these people that are someway, somehow, trying to make the Church of the Melchizedek Priesthood linked with the nation of Israel. But the thing is the nation of Israel has their priesthood. It is Levitical Priesthood. Ours is for the whole world. It is for the kingdom of heaven. It is not [only] for the Kingdom of Israel. 

So, we need to understand the differences between these. The nation of Israel had to keep laws in order to be clean. We do not have to keep laws in order to clean because we are clean and cleanse through the blood of Jesus Christ. We are different than that Covenant. We are not a “spiritual” covenant, of Israel, at all. Let's go and actually look at Acts 13:39. They were teaching the Brethren, they got to be part of Israel and in Acts 13:39 Paul was saying, “and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” You cannot be justified by entering into the covenant and keeping the law of Moses. You couldn't do that. So, Jesus Christ had to come. For if salvation were by the Law then where would there be need of a savior? You know thats what he is saying here. 

So, these certain men are contradicting everything that the Church of Antioch have been taught up to this point. The Church of Antioch taught salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone and then these Judaizers are coming up from Jerusalem contradict them. “Look at us we're teachers from the first church. We have a special position in the church and we're teachers!” and “you know the Bible says that the covenants and the promises were given to our Fathers, and therefore, you need to join us. Otherwise you cannot have a part in any of these promises because they were given to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob and to the patriarchs! So that's what they're teaching. They're teaching that’s what you need to do. “It's good that you're Gentiles but you now need to enter in.” 

Verse 3: “And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.” So, these Judaizers are saying you are not yet converted. You see they're going to a church that's already saved and converted and they're subverting their souls by saying, “Oh, you must be converted, still. Converted to the law of Moses. 

Verse 4: “And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them.” So, they're declaring all these wonderful things that happened and all the Apostles there said, “Oh, it's wonderful! The gentiles have come to the Lord! Amen! Hallelujah!” “But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees…” Okay, so, the big fight causes them to go up to Jerusalem in order to discuss this thing. What's going on here? Why is it? Do we have to enter in? Do we? What's this problem? And Paul and Barnabas are at great odds. 

Now we know Paul is the Jew of the Jews. He is “Ultimate Jew”. You know, I mean, like, if he would be the Chuck Norris of Judaism. He would be like, “Nobody Jews better than I Jew. So, we need to understand that for Paul to have the strong dissension shows that there is not just some sort of semantics going on here. This is a very important fact that it is completely separate and Paul understands this as being the Jew of the Jew. He is very adamant about this!

So, they were brought in by the church and they want a solution to this problem. It's not just a small dispute. The whole church has it. So, they send them back. What's neat about this is also that they send back the people, the teachers, and Paul and Barnabas, back to the church from which they came from. When you have a church problem; say you understand that everything should be taken care of locally, and then when you have people coming from a certain church, and they got this problem. Where do you go to solve it?” You go back to the church that was teaching them. Right? “Hey, Church! What are you guys teaching these guys? What's going on here?” 

You see the problem a lot of times that people have is that if a church is in error, or teacher is an error, what do they go do? They spread it all around Facebook. They spread it all around YouTube. They spread all over the place! But what are they supposed to do? One or two. Go to your brother. If you have aught with him. That's what Paul and Barnabas did. They disputed with them and then the church. They brought them before the church. Then the church is saying, “Hey, these guys came up from Jerusalem. Go back to Jerusalem and find out what's going on down at that church!”

So we see here in the proper method of dealing with problems that are outside of your church. You go directly. If you can't solve the problem within your church. You go directly to the church from whence the problem came. This is basically going back down the trail. Go take that paper trail and track it back from where it came. So often times we say, “Well, I have a problem with X Y & Z. So I'm just going to spread it all over the place but I'm not going to deal it. With the people that have the problem.” All right and so we see here the important principle of dealing with this. If you've brought it to up to your church. And if there's still a problem because there are people from outside of your church, you go to that people's church. 

So what they did…These people came up from Judea and taught. So, they go back to Judah and into Jerusalem saying, “Hey, what's going on here?” Plus, because they are the Apostles, and the authority over the Lord's Church, they go to the authority. They don't just go spreading gossip and “This is what's happening here” and they go to that church and infiltrate in and spread all this gossip. No! What they do is they go to the leaders. They go to the leaders. And so they bring up this problem and they're talking about all the people that they got converted. Everybody's happy and singing “Kumbaya”. There so lovey dovey and being happy about this. And then…

Verse 5: “But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed.” Now notice this. It doesn’t say certain of the sect of the Pharisees that pretend to believe. These are actual believers! A lot of times this problem, problems like this, that crop up, are not because the people are unsaved but because they've been taught error. They've been taught a falsehood. They maybe were confused. Not everything is an error because somebody is intentionally trying to deceive one another. 

See this confusion, even, is up in our day today. The Catholic Church said, “Oh we are a spiritual Israel”. Even Baptist churches today. They can confuse about this issue and they say, “Oh, we are spiritual Israel! There's no such thing as a National Israel. It's all spiritual now!” So, they get confused by this even today. But does that mean that they're lost and going to hell, and they’re all reprobate, and they don't know nothing, and they're false teachers, and…you know… people on one side, they are teaching the error out of ignorance and then on the other side they look at them in horror and say, “The horror! That's not the way it's supposed to be! They're false prophets! They're all of the devil! They cannot be saved!” Not everything is because it's false prophecy. Not everything is because they are trying to serve their own bellies. So we need to understand that there can be some serious error but it's a serious question that needs to be resolved and it's not [intentional] deception of any kind. Its among believers. 

But notice here, the men that came there, put circumcision before. You know, you must enter in before you can be saved. They put it in before but the Pharisees which believed put it in after. A lot of times you'll have false doctrine that says, “Unless you believe this certain thing you cannot be saved.” Other people say, “Yes, by faith alone but you must have a good show of works, to show that you have been saved.” Saying you have to do this, or that, or the other thing, you have to have a progression of faith! Now, I don't disagree that, if you are saved, the Holy Spirit will be working in you, and will be washing you, but for me to look at your life and tell you that you have not progressed properly and therefore must not be saved….It is not for me to do that. It's for me to look at myself and say do I have a show of good works showing that the Lord is indeed working in me. For if I do not endure chastisement myself, I am not his son but I'm a bastard, the Bible says.

So, we need to be careful to not look at others because what we justifying in ourselves we do not justify in others. And what we condemn in others we do ourselves. What’d Paul say? Ye that teach the law, thou shalt not steal, do you steal yourselves? You know? So if you teach somebody that they must have a show of good works, in order to show everybody else, that they’re saved… as if I have to critique you, to justify and verify your salvation… No! They're there for our own selves. To examine ourselves. To see if we be in the faith and not to be deceived, of our own selves.

“And when there had been much disputing…” verse 5 which is certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed so they are believers! Don't get this wrong! It's not a bunch of reprobates, trying to trick you, to deceive the church. It's just people that are confused. And the Pharisees, God bless them, they love the law. They love the things of God and they want to do what is right, and they have a wonderful spirit about them and love of the law. And saying that it was needful to circumcise them, to command them to keep the law of Moses…So, what are they saying? “Hey, they are saved. They are believers. But you need to teach them the law of God and you need to command them.” Command means to force them. To expect of them. 

Alright, and so here we have believers saying, “Yes you are saved we believe that. But you need to keep the law. You need, now that you've returned to Christ, and returned to God through Christ, you need to keep the law of God. Because you've entered in by the law.” You've entered in… 

So, this is the same way, the phrase “repent of sin” [for salvation], has a similar problem associated with it. We as Christians understand, that repent of sin is just generic slang, to say that you need to stop “trusting yourself” and trust in the Lord. You need to focus on the Lord. But then, often times, lost people think “repent of sin” means, “Well, I got to turn over a new leaf.”, “That means, I have to have work salvation.”. It's a confusing term for some people. Just because people use that term, does that mean they're lost or anything. Is just that it's bad wording. Sometimes our failure is bad wording. Bad understanding. Not necessarily that we're trying to lie to people. 

It says, saying, That it was needful. This is something they need to do. It's wonderful that they're saved but in order to have fellowship… see, so, these are believers. The first people, they say, “Hey, you need it. You need to, you have to. Have circumcision in order to have Jesus.” Here they say those who have Jesus must keep the law. It's the same way of saying, “Well you don't need to be saved by works but you need to keep the law, in order to show that you are saved.” It is the same thing. Its the same problem. It's the same issue. Maybe not quite as nuanced or similar but it's the same general idea.  “That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.” Just like somebody said, “Oh, you're saved now but you must be baptized and you must keep the law of the church.” No! It's not! For salvation, you did not need baptism. You do not need those things. You don't need circumcision.

Verse 6: “And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.” They considered it. They thought about it. What's going on here? Why is there such confusion on whether it's by grace through faith alone and confusion on whether or not to keep the law. Confusion on whether or not the church is “spiritual” Israel. Confusion on whether or not you should join the nation of Israel, because isn’t the nation of Israel God's people? Aren't they God’s people and aren't we God’s people because we're saved in Christ Jesus? So, isn't it the same thing? 

A lot of error comes from acquainting two different things as the same thing. Now we understand that things can be interconnected. Like we understand that in Israel, the church was part of Israel in the sense that the same people that were in Israel, were also in the church. So there was a there was an overlap there but just because somebody was in Israel, does not mean that they congregate with the church, in fellowship with the church, and in all those things. It just means that, in Israel, the leadership was all part of the church and the church taught the people. All Right? So we understand how that goes but in this we understand that, especially as Baptist, we understand, innately that there is a separation between church and state. But what we allow for us, what we say about the Church and State today, we just ignore, or confuse about separation of Church and State in their day. Just as in our day the Church and State is separate so to it is, and was, Church and State separation in the Old Testament and so to it was separate in the New Testament. So, we cannot confuse and integrate both systems. They interact with each other, and overlap, and there's an interconnectivity there, but they are separate, distinct, systems and covenants.

Verse 7: “And when there had been much disputing,” so even in church, with the Apostles, with the leaders of the church, at this time, They was a lot confusion that people were, “What about this”, “What about that?”, “You can't just have lawless people running around and committing murders and still be in Christ, can you?!”,  “What's going on here?”, “Maybe it's just the moral law that they have to keep and not the ceremonial laws?”. You know all this debate that goes on here. 

But I'm here to tell you that faith in Jesus Christ is all you need to be saved and you can ignore the whole law and still be saved! You do not have to keep any law. You could be… you can, technically, if you want to say… You can be a vagrant and you can be a person committing all manner sins, but, I also tell you… to guarantee you… that if you are saved and the Holy Ghost dwells in you, you're not going to be a vagrant. You're going to be led by the Spirit! 

And so there are things that I can tell you, so you can examine yourselves. If you're truly saved then you'll be washed and God will be dealing with you and He'll be chastising. You don't need the law, you have the Spirit! You're saved through the Spirit. The Spirit will lead you into all truth. It's not that you must keep, like, because law is me looking at you and telling you what you must do, but faith is me looking to God and God telling me what I must do. So whenever we have anything outside of that system, looking down upon me, and saying this is what you must do, then that's no longer faith. That is a command. 

When I as a pastor look at your life and say you need to stop doing that thing and then I as a Christian look at you and say, “Yes! I must stop doing that thing. Yes sir, yes sir!”, then it's not my faith. It is like Lot living in the faith of Abraham. I may be saved but I'm not living in my faith! I'm following after your rules. I'm following after your thing. Now, should we have a standard of conduct? Yes we should. But when I chastise you as the pastor, when I say, “This is what you should be doing.”, you just choose to look at your scripture and say, “Yes that's what God wants me to do.” Not what my pastor wants me to do. Not what somebody else wants me to do. And then you do it.

Not because I told you what to do but because you see it's what God wants you to do and what the Holy Spirit convicts you. And through your conviction you say, “Yes Lord. Your servant heareth. That's what I'm doing.” So faith is that way [gestures up and down] not this way [gestures back and forth]. So when we interject the law. The law is made for this way [gestures back and forth]. It's made for the lawbreaker and for the rebellious but when you have an indwelling of the Holy Ghost, it's this way [gestures up and down] and then if we're this way [up and down] Paul said that all the things that are this way basically have no law because the law takes care of itself. 

Paul gives an example of this in 1 Corinthians 6:12. He says “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient:”. So everything that is in the law that says, “You're not allowed to do this.” I can go ahead and do it! As a saved believer, I can go ahead and do whatever I want. But don't expect to be without chastisement. Don't expect to be without corruption of the flesh. You can feed the flesh all you want to still be saved. Yes you can! But, all things are lawful for me, because I’m justified in faith to Jesus Christ. Not my own faith. Not my own righteousness. 

“…but I will not be brought under the power of any.” Why? because the Holy Spirit dwells in me and I will be used of God. If I don't keep the law… which I can break at any time and even… yeah I'm not perfect and I can break or whatever I want, or because I got a bad habit, habitual… I it's lawful for me. I'm not going to lose my salvation but I'll be chastised and I won’t be useful for God. So we need to understand, that, we are allowed.

We don't need to keep the law, and as Gentiles. Now, later on, we'll show this, and see, that, as the nation of Israel, as a national representative in Israel, you have to keep the Israelite law. But not for salvation. It was for being part of that nation. So, the Gentiles, who are not part of the nation, don't need to keep that law whatsoever. There's no obligation there. But Paul the Apostle and all those people that are part of that nation, they ought to keep those laws because they are their national laws. 

We Gentiles have our own nation and have our own laws! If I go down the road and say, “Oh! Ah! All things are lawful for me!”. I can go speed down a hundred miles on a ten mile road, in the parking lot, through and in front of the police station, and then throw bombs at the police stations, and, “No, it's okay. I'm not under the law!” You know, that's not expedient for me as a Christian, is it? Yeah. I'm going to get a bunch of people saying,  “Oh yeah? We're gonna make you accountable to this law!” Sovern citizen here! … No. I'm gonna make you accountable to this law. 

The thing is that we will be judged for what we do in this body. 1 Corinthians 10:23 says All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. The Christian is about edification. The Christian is about helping one another. The Christian is not trying to say, “You need to keep the law buddy!” No. The Christian is to say, “Hey that's not expedient for you to do that!” That's a helpful for you to do that. If you do that, you can't be one of us. You got to go somewhere else. You're not productive. You know. 

If somebody goes and does some heinous crime or violation of something that's in the law, then we need to see that they're not in fellowship with the Spirit. We don't kick them out because they're violating that law necessarily. We kick them out because they're not in fellowship with the Spirit. We cannot be a faithful group of Christians if they're doing that. But we'll deal with that dynamic later. 

But right now, we can understand the importance of realizing the separation between the church and state here and the fact that we don't need to keep the national laws in order to be saved. 

Of the nation, of the Nation of Israel and of course, to give in this example, people say, “Well, they weren’t really a nation. I mean, they're just a religion. Jews are just a religious group of people.” Acts 5:21 shows us that at this time, even though they're under subjection to Rome, they have a Senate. Now a nation has a Senate. So, with these verses I want to show that the Nation of Israel was there. They just did not have the kingdom of Christ. We of course, as Christians, are the priesthood of the Kingdom of God. Which is in Heaven but that was not, according Acts 1, not restored unto Israel yet. But they did, as a nation, as a people, with the circumcision, have a nation, and a law. 

Acts 5:21 says, “And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning, and taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate…”, it doesn’t say “of the Jews”. It says, “of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.” So we can see here, at this time, that there is a Senate of the Children of Israel. At that time. So that shows that they are gathered, as a nation, at the time of Paul and Peter and all those things. So to say, “Hey you know the Jews are just a religious organization at this time and they don't really have a nation.”, It's not quite true. They don't have their own authority but they are still assembled as the Children of Israel. 

Acts 18:18 says, and of course here we have Paul the Apostle keeping a vow for his Nation, “And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.” We believe that that was a Nazarite vow, for a certain amount of time. As part of his nation. See he's working under his covenant, as an in the nation of Israel, in order to, in the Nazarite vow, in order to ask a favor with God and in a little bit there… So we see that Paul himself is keeping part of his National vows. So how do they?... as an Israelite, he can still continue in that covenant he has with God. So he had a vow and he's keeping it. 

In Acts 21:17-30 we see that he ends up in Jerusalem and he's going to keep a vow in the temple. It is before his Nation. Acts 21:17-30 says, “And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. 18 And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.” So similar to where in Acts 15 they're all present there disputing this matter and they decide, “Hey you know everybody saved under the faith of Christ, right?” So people say, “Well look their! Not even the Jews have to keep the law or anything like that!” But in this passage we see, “Hey, even though we're saved under the faith of Christ, I want you to go keep this vow in the temple.” So, it's supposedly, that system is done gone away with and has no authority. Then why is James, the leader of the church, asking Paul, who had the strong disputation in Acts 15, to keep a vow in the temple? And to purify himself in the temple? And so look at this. 

“And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present. 19 And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.” So they're glad for that. “And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord”, So they're still glad and they're holding to what they said in Acts 15, about the faith of Jesus Christ not being subject to the law of Moses. 20 “And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:”. Now he's referring not to Gentiles but to the Jews. He says, “Hey, you know all these Jews that believe (Just like the Pharisees that believe in chapter 15) they believed but they're worried that you as a Jew, not as a Gentile, but as a Jew, in our nation, as a citizen of our nation, are not keeping the laws of Moses!” 

You see? The Gentiles were not required to keep the law of Moses. Christians that are Jews, that believe, are not required to keep the Law of Moses for salvation but they were required to keep the Law of Moses. For faith in their nation and to be subject to their nation. 

So here he gives this problem. Here is Paul going around telling, “You don't need to keep the law.” To all the Gentiles. Galatians 3:1 is like this, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should…” and they get these letters say, “Where is Paul telling people to be rebellious to the law? What's going on here?” And so people are a little confused about this even in this chapter. 

19 “And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. 20 And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe;”. So this is not a church problem this is a Jewish problem and a National problem that they have with Paul. Not a church problem because they call him brother. They don't say, “You seest heretic!” they don’t say that at all. They say brother. They are in fellowship with him. 

“…Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:”. They still continue in their law and they are important. So, Paul doesn’t say, “We don't need to worry about them because they're fools! They don’t understand!” No, No. He says, “They're zealous of the law.” 21 “and they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.” No, because Paul saying, “Hey, you know, the nation of Israel is in Israel and the Land of Israel is not in Crete. You're living in Crete right now. So, you're not in the nation of Israel. You're Cretians. You're not Israelites. You used to be Jews. Now you are Cretians.” They're seeing this confusion here because, remember, they were a dispersed Church, that came back to found the nation. 

He says, “saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.” You know, the national law. So if I'm in a nation, when I go across the border, what do they say? Border and Customs Patrol, right? The customs...neither to walk after the customs. 22 “What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.” They want to hear what's going on with this problem. Didn’t they solve it in Acts 15? Well they solved it for the Gentiles but the question now is for the Jews. 

So what should Paul be doing in regards to the Jews? Tell them not to keep the Law of Moses? or to keep the law of Moses? We see previously, as he's traveling, he’s making a vow, in order to be a Nazarite, according to, after law of, Moses! Yet people are confused that he's not keeping the law of Moses. So he says, 22 “What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come. 23 Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;”. So Paul has a vow as he was traveling and they have avow in the Jerusalem Church. So here's the Jerusalem Church that has four men among them that are keeping a vow after the Law of Moses. So we see here that the Law of Moses was not wrong to keep for the Jew. For the nation of Israel. For the people that had that [covenant]. 

So he says, 24 “them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing”;, because James knew and understood that Paul kept the Nazarite vow. Paul kept these vows! And so he says I want you to fulfill this in the temple in our Nation. He says, “concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest…” What does it say there?... “orderly, and keepest the law.” 25 thou thyself also walkest…” What does it say there?... “orderly, and keepest the law.” 25 “As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.…” We'll deal with that next week…. 26 “Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple,” So how is he purifying himself? “I’m glorified by the blood of Jesus!”  No! He's purified himself after the law of Moses. That's Leviticus. That's Levitical law! So that is after the Nation of Israel. He's walking orderly after the nation of Israel.

So this understands, the distinction between Israel The Church are two different things. The Gentiles are not part of the Nation of Israel. So, therefore, they don't have to keep that law, as a nation. 26 “Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.” Of course we associated that with the Levitical, probably the Nazarite vow, most likely. And the laws is that it has to be offered there [in the temple]. 

27 “And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him,” So this is a Jewish problem. 28 “crying out, Men of Israel, help:”. So they're Jews religiously from other nations that come back here. They're not believing Jews and then they say men of Israel. So the nation of Israel. “Men of Israel, help. Were religious Jews we keep Law of Moses and you Nation. You need to have the authority to stop him from entering into this temple. We believe that he is telling all the Gentiles not to do these things. Not to convert to Judaism and all this stuff. He's now destroying our temple and desolating our temple!” Which, in fact, he was purifying himself in the temple after the Law of Moses. 

and so 28 “crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where…” not just Gentiles, they think…. “against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place. 29 (For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.)” He did not bring them. So Paul's doing this as a Jew. Not as a person of the church. Not as a person of the Gentiles. And so, therefore, he did not bring the Gentiles with him. 

30 “And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut.” They don't want him back in. 31 “And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.”, because of it. So they're confused about this whole matter.

Let's go to Acts 24:10. It says, 10 “Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, Forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto…” What? This church? The Jewish people? No. It says, unto “this nation”. So we see that this is dealing with the Nation now. Problems of the laws of the Nation, all right? He says, “thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself:”. So he's defending himself as being lawful and just and part of this Nation of Israel. 11 “because that thou mayest understand, that there are yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship.” He is worshiping in the temple. “But also, Isn’t our bodies the temple? Isn’t our bodies…” you know all this. Saying, the temple. The physical temple. 

12 “And they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues, nor in the city: 13 neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me. 14 But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets: 15 and have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. 16 And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.” So he doesn't want to offend the laws of God. He's not trying to be an insurrectionist. He just knows the distinction between State and Church.

17 “Now after many years I came to bring alms to my nation.” So he's keeping the Nazarite vow for his Nation. He is keeping the purification for his Nation and he's bringing alms for his Nation. What nation that in? The nation of Israel.

18 “Whereupon certain Jews (religious Jews not of this nation) from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither with multitude, nor with tumult.” He's doing this thing as a National Israelite. 19 “Who ought to have been here before thee, and object, if they had ought against me.” They send him off to jail and then they go off on their way back to it wherever they're going. 21 “except it be for this one voice, that I cried standing among them, Touching the resurrection of the dead I am called in question by you this day.” 

And then Acts 26:1-7 says, “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand, and answered for himself: 2 I think myself happy, king Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews: 3 especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews:” So he’s associating the Nation of Israel and the Jewish people as holding to the laws of that Nation. So the Jews whether religious or national locally, whether a Greek or Hebrew, of the Jews, keep the Law of the Nation.  That was the problem the Old Testament Jew as they kept a Law of the Nation even when they were not in the Nation. 

“…wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently. 4 My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews;” “They know that I'm a perfect Jew. They know I'm a perfect National Israelite. They know this!” 5 “which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify”, See. Notice there was the Jews of Asia that sent him up and gave this problem. None of the Jews in Israel had this problem with Paul. Except for the fact that converted to Christ. 

5 “which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.” So he's right along there with those Pharisees. Keep the law of Moses for the Jew. Keep the law of Moses for the Nation. But not for salvation! That's why. That's the disputation he has with the believing Pharisees. Not that he doesn't want to be a Pharisee because, in fact, we have evidence in scriptures that he continued being a strict Pharisee in most of his life!

6 “And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: So this is not the promise of circumcision made of God to the Fathers but the promise of Salvation through Jesus Christ, the Messiah. 7 unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night,” So the Nation of Israel serves God. They are servants of God and they serve God. “…hope to come.” They hope for the promise that was going to be Christ. “For which hope’s sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.” They don't believe in this hope. I do. That's the only difference between those Jews and this Jew. I'm accused of the Jews. 8 “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?” and then he continues on and we don’t have time for the rest of the chapter. 

Galatians 1:13 “For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:” So we noticed here in separation between the Jews religion and the Church of God. The Jewish religious Old Testament is after the laws. They followed the laws of the Nation but they are separate. It says, 14 “and profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation,” So we talk about the Jews religion and then he says, in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. So the nation is that a tradition of the fathers. Under the tradition of circumcision and so forth.… “and profited in the Jews’ religion” that is religious after that [tradition and covenant], whether in the nation are out of it.

15 “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, 16 to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: 17 neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. 18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. 19 But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother. 20 Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not. 21 Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; 22 and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judæa which were in Christ:” So there's churches. The churches are not in in Israel. They are in Christ. This is the differences. The Jews are in the Nation and the Church is in Christ. And those Jews that believe are in the Church and the Nation. And so there is a difference there.

22 “and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judæa which were in Christ: 23 but they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. 24 And they glorified God in me.” So, we see the differences there. The distinctions. 

So we have here in the disputation. There's beauty in this thing. They're arguing about this thing and in Acts 15:7 “And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.” He said, “Hey, Remember what God told me about the Gentiles? What to what they should keep? What they should do? and what He said before they were even believers? You know. What he said to me about them?” He says this, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. So he says, “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.[Romans 10:17]”. That's what Peter is saying here. He does not say faith cometh by the law or faith cometh by circumcision or faith comes by enduring but by hearing of the word of God. And they would believe! 

Verse 8: “And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost,” so the people at the beginning…say “certain men which came down from Judæa taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.” Now, how is salvation? By the receiving of the Spirit, of the Holy Ghost, that comes in the name of Christ, who is able to save our souls. Right? Because he quickens through the Spirit, that is in Christ. So Peter said, He gave these Gentiles, by the speaking of my word, the Holy Ghost, which saved them. Which cleansed them. He says, 8 “And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, that they're saved by the Holy Ghost.” So he's saying they are saved by the Holy Ghost. Not by the circumcision. Not by the law.

8 “And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, and He put no difference between us and them.” “We [Jews] are saved by hearing the word of faith, inside of our covenant, by faith. They [Gentiles] are going to be saved outside of the covenant through faith and there's no difference.” Salvation comes upon all men who hear the Word and receive the Spirit. Whether they're in the covenant [of Israel] or not.

Verse 9: “and put no difference between us and them,” Who’s the “us” and “them”? “Us” would be in the Jews, for the Nation of Israel, who keep the laws of Nation of Israel, by circumcision, and keeping the law of Moses. They could not be saved by that but there's no difference. He says, “put no difference between us...,” “purifying their hearts by faith”. So the Law of the Old Testament, the Levitical law, was to purify them. To cleanse them. We talked [in other sermons] about how the stages of people that are unclean, people that are clean, people that are sanctified, people that are holy, and we talked about that level of cleanness. That's where they could cleanse and purify themselves and so forth. The law and all that. He says there's no difference. The Old Testament law could not purify [hearts]. 

Verse 10: “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” We talked about [in other sermons] that a Nazarite was the cleanest person possible. Having the strictest lifestyle possible and the most perfect lifestyle possible. All he was able to muster up of perfection was the shavings of his hair, as a sacrifice. Yet we see as Christ, who was fully consecrated. The Nazarite had consecrated hair but Christ had the consecrated body. Was able through his body to redeem us but we being as perfect as possible can only use the sacrifice of our hair. Not to redeem anybody but to get a little bit of a blessing from the Lord.

He says, “Why would you want but that yoke for purification and sanctification upon the Gentiles when we ourselves could not be saved by it? We couldn’t keep the law for salvation! Why would we want to force them to do it?” 

10 “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” You say that the Gentiles, and everybody like that, should become a part of the Nation of Israel you're putting upon them something that they were never called to have. The physical children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, were called to be part of the Nation of Israel through circumcision. But the Gentile believers, they're not called to be in that nation. We [Saved Gentiles] are part of the Nation of heaven but not the Nation of Israel. 

“…and put no difference between us…purifying their hearts by faith.” We're pure! Were saved by faith! We are not saved by keeping of the law. We see how Abraham was saved before he received the Covenant of Circumcision. He was saved before that! 10 “Now therefore why tempt ye God…” 

Verse 11: “But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we” (the Jew, the Nation of Israel people) “we shall be saved, even as they” (the Gentile of other nations). So we see the salvation is irrespective of what nation you are in. Irrespective of what Covenant you are in, of the Old Testament. It is a separate thing from the Covenant of Circumcision. A separate thing from the Law of Moses. That is for them. Especially in the Old Testament to be purifying themselves. So they can be in fellowship with God. Now there's certain things in being a Jew that is special for the Jew, as part of that circumcision but salvation comes upon all men in the same way regardless of nation. So he says, we shall be saved, even as they. 

Now a lot of people… I want to bring up these two verses real quick… that people may have… probably... the confusion some people have. The Pharisees which believe, they say, “Well they believe but they got to be part of the Nation of Israel.”, Exodus 12:48-49, Would say, “Hey these people can be saved but then they have to, in order to have fellowship with the church, they need to be circumcised.” It's probably where they got it. Exodus 12:48-49. Because even in the Old Testament, people who wanted to keep the Passover, with Israel, could become part of the Nation of Israel. 

Exodus 12:48-49 says, “And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land:”. That doesn't say he's saved but born in the land but there's a confusion there. “for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.” So they can’t eat of the Passover unless they are circumcised. And 49 “One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.” 

So if we are spiritual Israel we need to have circumcision of the flesh and of the heart! You know? So if we're Israel that's what we need to have because otherwise we cannot keep Passover. But we don't keep the Passover. We keep the Lord's Supper, right? Now…but anyway. 

Isaiah 56:6 …so these are some examples how that Gentiles could become Israelites. They could become part of the nation in order to partake in the National laws and the National things. Isaiah 56:6 says, 6 “Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants,…” Now notice this! The Covenant of Israel is to be Servants but we are no more Servants but we are Sons! So those are the difference between the Covenants. Servants verses Sons. every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of… What?... my covenant;. 

So Circumcision, to enter in by Circumcision, is to take hold of the Israelite Covenant, in order to be part of that nation, but salvation is not through entering into that Covenant! It is through Jesus Christ alone! Through a separate Nation which is the Kingdom of Heaven. And he says, 7 “even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.” 

So we understand that, yes today, if you want to become part of the nation of Israel, you can be circumcised and you can keep the law of Moses! But that is not for salvation! That’s as a whole different matter. We see that Paul, as part of that nation, kept the law of Moses. He kept the Covenant of his people. He kept those things. 

But we understand the seed. That they are two different Covenants. Salvation is by Jesus. By being in Christ. The Law of Moses…those put you in the Nation of Israel. And the Nation of Israel has special promises given to it as a physical nation but they are separate. So we need to always make this distinction that the Church and Israel are separate. The State and Israel are separate [from the church]. Although, they are interconnected and one can be part of the Nation of Israel and be part of the Church. They are separate. One could be a Gentile and part of the Church but not part of the Nation of Israel. They are separate. 

They're two different things. You are not saved by the Covenant of Israel. You're saved by faith and grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Who purified your hearts through faith! 

Let’s Pray: Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for the blessings you’ve given to us Lord. Thank you for the opportunity and that special promise that we don't have to keep laws. We don't have to become part of a Nation. We don't have to be a Spiritual Nation of anything on this earth but we are of that Heavenly Nation. Through faith in Jesus Christ. Through the blood of Jesus Christ alone. We don't have to, as the Nation of Israel, keep those Covenants for a land or anything like that. We can just be in your son Jesus Christ without any conditions. Without any Circumcision. Without any law keeping. This by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ and just I pray and thank you, in Jesus Name. Amen!

(Part 2: "We are David's Tabernacle - Acts 15:12-41" was not transcribed. The Sermon Video can be found here: https://youtu.be/5GMzLXVL4FM)

The Four Stage Return of Christ (A Basic Revelation Outline)

Stage 1: The Return of Christ For His Church.

INTRODUCTION: What I want to look at today is an introduction to the “Book of Revelation”. I want to give an overview of Revelation. A lot of times when we do Sunday School we go down deep. One verse at a time. Sometimes one word at a time. Doing 30 years in the Book of Romans, or whatever. So, your grandkids will be able to hear the next book… because you can't ever exhaust the depth in which you can go. Of course, when you learn something you want to first have an overview of it.

Its's like when you're going in the forest and you're walking around, it's easy to get lost, right? You can see that tree and you can see that tree and then… wait a second… did I just see that tree before? Am I going in a big circle? What's going on? So, it doesn't matter how much you look at the great detail of that one tree, if you don't know where you are in the forest, you're lost, right? and so that's the general idea for the Book of Revelation. A lot of times you hear a lot of lessons and a lot of teachings about the Book of Revelation, or any other book for that matter, but they focus on the little details and you learn about those details but you say wait a second where am I?

So you always see the guy in the front with a big poster with the timeline on it; “..and this is where everything goes in the timeline” and then Revelation, instead of looking at the bible, you're looking at that timeline. You're trying to see where that goes and where this goes, and then they oftentimes say something like this, “Well you know the book of revelation, you got to cut it up in these different sections. You got to move this over here. You got to splice that over there.”

Like for example, with the rapture you believe the rapture is pre-tribulational then you see it in the first section. You see it in chapter one and four and all that stuff. If you believe the bible is post-tribulational, you see it down in the second section or in the third section. If you believe like Catholics or like some primitive Baptists do, you see it in the last section of the bible. You see it when Christ is returning in great power and glory and His kingdom is coming behind Him, and you see that as the rapture.
And then, you also equate return with rapture and all these different phrases and things are mixed together and mismatched in order to get somebody's theology. And the big issue is, you get something that looks like an oak tree,

“Well I saw an oak tree over there.”. Is that the same oak tree? No, they're two different oak trees. Or you see an aspen. Or you see, this, you see different things. They're all trees and they look like trees but they're not the same tree. And so, a lot of times, somebody will say well I see an earthquake here, I see an earthquake there, I see an earthquake there, and then you see these four different earthquakes. Well that must be the same earthquake and therefore I'm going to divide Revelation into four, and so, depending on theology, you can have Revelation divided up into two parts, into three parts, and realigned and mis-mixed and matched.

But in the Bible, we don't do that with any other book. In the bible, that I know of, we don't say, “Okay the bible here in Genesis is two parts”. No we don't do that. We read it chronologically and we understand that every once in a while, when we don't understand something, an explanation is given. And so, sometimes, it'll back up, “Okay here's the explanation of the section” and so with Revelation you need to understand that there's “Four Stages to the Return of Christ.”

Why do people see four different returns in the bible? Why does one person say, “Oh, I see the return coming in the first part of the book, another person says, “No, I see the return come in the second part of the book” and another group says, “No, I see him returning in the fourth part of the book? Well it's because it's a four-stage return. There are four different things that He's doing. And so, when you look at the Book of Revelation, you got to say, “Hold on a second!”. Just because he's returning here, and it looks like he's returning over there, and it looks like he's returning over there, you got to look and say what is He returning for? And then, why is he returning?

And then, you see something over here. “Oh, that's a gathering. This is a gathering. That must be the rapture!”. No that's the gathering of Israel and this is the gathering of His church, and this is the gathering of people to be judged.

And so, when somebody looks in maybe Matthew chapter 24 they say, “Hey, this is the gathering of the rapture by the angels!”. No, that in Matthew 24 it is actually the gathering of Israel to Jerusalem and then it is the gathering of the wicked nations to be judged in chapter 25. And so, when, a lot of times, people see these things they say, “Oh that's the rapture and therefore “after the tribulation” is the rapture!”. No, after the tribulation is the judgment. The gathering for judgment.

And so, when we look and put everything in perspective, when you read Revelation, you have to read it progressively and in order. You can't allow somebody to mix and match. If somebody's mixing the matching, they're trying to insert their theology on top of it. I used to ask if just a difference of like three and a half years… if I'm pre-tribulational or if I'm maybe mid tribulational… it's no big deal all right? Personally, I would say I don't care when Christ is coming, I'll come when he comes to get me. It doesn't bother me too much, but the thing is that when you allow somebody to change any part of the bible… That's why, when it says don't insert anything or take anything out you've got to take it in progression.

The First thing you need to see here is that the Revelation is a “four-stage return”. In each stage He's returning for something and then He's bringing them to Himself. He is bringing that thing under his authority; under his control.

HOW TO READ THE BOOK OF REVELATION: And so, the first part I have here in the notes is, “The chronology of Revelation is progressive and accumulative in Nature.” Progressive and accumulative in nature. So, if it's later on in the book it doesn't come before something that's before in the book and you can't cut it off and move it up in the timeline. It's progressive. So, when you read something chapter one it happens before stuff in chapter seven. If you read something in chapter seven it happens before stuff in chapter 14. And so, it is progressive. Just as we read in any book, you progress through the book, and so the timeline progresses.

So, the chronology of revelation is progressive and accumulative in nature. In other words, if you have a seal here, the things that the seal opens up, or breaks forth upon the world, continues on all the way until the end of the book. So those things that are happening in the first seal, the second seal, all the way to the last seal, that will herald in the antichrist, will continue on as they build up. They're all happening until the end of the time, when Christ returns for the judgment. And so, all the events of the seals, all the events of the trumpets, and then all of the events of the judgments, they all accumulate. And are happening and building upon each other. It doesn't mean that once the seal is broken and then the second seal, then that all ends. It continues and builds. Sometimes you'll see where he's explaining something and then at the end of the seals, maybe he'll explain the end event of all those. And so, some things may be in parallel, but they are always starting before the next thing.

Okay. So, it's progressive and accumulative in nature, interjected at times with explanatory passages. So sometimes you'll stop and say, “What means these things in the white robes?”, “What means these things?” and so forth. And so those are interjections explaining. It does not continue the timeline it explains what's happening in those events. So, for example, when he stops and explains what the two prophets and he takes a whole chapter to explain what that is. Or what is the woman with the twelve stars and the sun and the moon? and so he explains what that is from beginning to end. And so those are interjected explanations.

Notice the phrase is always “hereafter”, “after this”, and “then”, and not, “another viewpoint of this is”. For example, some say, “Well this is the viewpoint from this perspective and then from 14 on it's the same thing over again, except from this viewpoint.”. And they can chop it up to four times and say, “There's just four different views of the same event!” No, it's not that way. It is always, “after this”. For example, when the last seal is open, he says, “there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour”.

So, what that means is that in every one of these sections, until all the seals are open, you don't have a beginning of a trump. Until all the trumpets are blown you don't have the beginning of the vile judgments being poured out. Sometimes people say, “Well the trumpets and the vile judgments happen at the same time”. No that's not correct. Because in the scriptures, in Revelation, it gives a period of pause or gives a period of explanation of events and then it starts up again and they accumulate together. So it's progressive.

The last note there says, Rearranging of the book is often done to get man's theology to fit, but God's order is correct.”. And so, when you study the Book of Revelation, you need to take it in progression, you need to take it just like any other book. You progress through it.

THE FOUR STAGES OF REVELATION: So in the chapters, when you break down the chapters: Chapters one through four, you see Christ returning for His body; Chapters five through seven you see Christ returning for His house, the temple; In Chapters 8 through 14 you see Him returning for His nation, the children of Israel, the new Israel if you will, of believing Israel; and then Chapters 15 through 22 you see Him coming for His kingdom.

You see him coming before the world judging the world and readjusting the world into one that can be reconciled back to God in the millennial kingdom. Its purpose is to purify and to cleanse in order to so that man can one day be with God. And then in the last chapter it says, basically that, man is one with God. He's reconciled with God. God is with man on the earth. And so that's the whole purpose. It’s to bring these things into reconciliation to Christ, into God.

STAGE 1: THE RETURN OF CHRSIT FOR HIS CHURCH: So, chapters one through four we introduce this. He's coming for His body. This is where, we in this church, we believe that the rapture is pre-tribulational because we see this as the rapture. You first got to understand what the rapture is. You got to understand the rapture is, “The Holy Spirit removing people with Christ back into Heaven”. And so, we see this in chapter one. Chapter one is “the Return for His Church”. So, if you look in Revelation chapter one, we see Christ returns in clouds. He returns! and that's the declaration. Now remember it's a four-stage return. So it's not four different returns but it is four stages of this one return. And “he cometh with clouds”. He's coming for different purposes.

Chapter 1 talks about the return of Christ for His Church. You see in our paragraph there it says, “guided by the angel from Christ who will explain to him the events he sees”. This is verse 1. “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:”. So, in Revelation we have these two. The angel and John walking through each of these things, and then John sees it, and then the angel explains things that John doesn't understand, or the angel will explain to him what's going on. So, in this return he's guided by and will explain to him the events he sees.

John is caught up in the spirit on the Lord’s day in chapter one and it gives the introduction to seven churches. Now remember he is just off the coast with these seven churches. So when he's going to be caught up in the return it will be with and around these seven churches. He's going to be caught up with them. These are the seven churches closest to John, actually, if you study at the locations where he is. “and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”

And verse seven, “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.”. This is a conclusion of the whole matter. His return will eventually, everybody eventually, will see him. The first stage it will be his church, the second stage it will be those at the temple in Israel, and the third stage be the restoration on Mount Zion with Israel and then He'll come in glory and great power to take over the world in the fourth stage. So, every eye will see him but not all at once in this progression.

“I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

Verse 10, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day,”. So, remember he's “in the Spirit” when he sees all these things. He's in the Spirit. We need to understand the return of Christ for His church will be “in the Spirit”. We are in one Spirit with Christ. We are in the Spirit with Him. We are going to be going to Heaven through His Spirit. Not by the angels gathering us to Israel. We are going to be gathered in His Spirit on the Lord's day.

“The Lord's day” is His return. His initial return will be through His Spirit for His Spirit. In Matthew chapter 24 verse 14 it says, “And this gospel… shall be preached in all the world… and then… the end [shall] come.” and so we understand that Christ comes first for His Spirit and for those who are “in the Spirit”.

“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,” So that is the trump of the archangel, the trumpet of the Lord, “saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last:”. The trump is saying this, and, “What thou seest, write in a book,”. “I want you to explain this stuff”. And if you look whenever prophecy is given for Daniel and Ezekiel, they are also told, “what you see write in a book. You write it down. Let people know this. It’s going to happen.”. They're always told it in the Spirit.

“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,” verse 12, “And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;”. So, what is the first thing he sees? He's talking to these seven churches and then when he turns to hear this voice that is calling him, then he sees the churches, the seven churches that are closest to him on the Isle of Patmos, when he's gone up into the clouds, into the air. He sees the seven churches and among those seven churches is Jesus Christ. So, he is in the midst of them.

“I turned to see the voice that spake with me.” Who's speaking to him? It is Jesus Christ who’s speaking to him! “And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.” So where is Jesus Christ? He's among the churches. He's with them. They're gathered in the Spirit, on the Lord's day! So, this is the Return of Christ in chapter one.

“His head and his hairs were white like wool,”, he's explaining who he is, “and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.”, “And he had in his right hand seven stars:” So where are the spirits of the churches? The angels of the churches? They're in his hand at this time! “And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.” So, this is the return of Christ, in the Spirit, for the churches.

“And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:” So He's gathering the first and the last in His Spirit and is gathering the Spirit to Him, in the air.

And verse 20 says, “the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.” So, these churches he's writing to, he's saying, “On the Lord's day, I saw you in the lord's hand! This is where I saw you!” And so, we need to understand that when we are raptured, in the Spirit, on the Lord's day, it will be by the Lord in His Spirit. And that is the return.

Look at this for chapter one “The return of Christ for His Church”, First Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 16 to 18. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” So we see that Revelation chapter one starts with the Return of Christ for His church. He is meeting them in the air. And if you look in Hebrew and Greek “air” is synonymous with “spirit” as well. So that's important to understand. That's why we meet him in the air it’s because we don't meet him on the earth, we don't meet him in heaven. We meet him in the Spirit, in the air, in the in the ether, if you will. Between Heaven and Earth. We meet him in the Spirit and are forever with him.

JUDGEMENT OF THE CHURCHES: So, He has them, He's gathered them, and now what does He do in chapter two and three? He's judging the churches. Throughout all of time. These seven churches and all the other churches. Because if you read these passages it says to, “hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches”. And so, what he wrote for these seven churches is things that we should hear.

In my opinion the angels overseeing these churches, just as Michael the Archangel is the angel overseeing Israel, so to, we as a church have an angel overseeing us, and guiding us, and protecting us, having a hedge about us to protect us, as we do the Lord's work, through His Spirit.

In the church judgment, in these chapters, basically we have our judgment. He says here's what you're doing good, here's what you're doing bad, and if you're not careful about fixing the things you're doing bad, this is what's going to happen to you. And then, He also explains because of the things that you're doing good and you're working for me, here's your reward. And Christ also says, when I return my reward is going to be with me. And so here in this judgment of these churches, He's explaining to them, “here's what you need to do”. And the benefit of this especially is, that because he's talking to churches at their birth, they have a chance to fix all these things. All these churches are there, and so they have a privilege.

Even though He's talking about the rapture, He's talking about the Return of Christ and the accumulation of all things, he has an opportunity to write in this letter things that will help them in the present moment. Pretty neat. He says, “Hey! At this present moment in time you have been persecuted.”, “Over here you guys have to deal with these satanic people.”, and, “You guys have to deal with this over here is these Jews who hate God and are synagogues of Satan.”, “You have to deal with all these people, but here's what you got to do.” He's giving the practical advice for that time. He doesn't give them some crazy advice for something that happens 2,000 years from then, but he's given advice and judgment for them at that time. Very practical. But, basically, that's the judgment of those churches.

And also, for “the judgment of the churches” Look at Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10 and 20. We understand that, when we return to Christ, we're going to be before him and his throne and before his judgment seat. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10 says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”. Verse 20 says, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”

So here He is in chapters two and three. He is saying, “Hey, here's what you do” and even in other parts it says, “Hey, I'm going to give you a stone with your name on it.”. That's a reward. “I'm going to do this for you.” I'm going to do that for you.” that is His return. That is his judgment time. He's judging those churches.

And so, we know that when Christ returns in His glory, we are going to meet him in the air and then he's going to judge us, He's going to reward us, and he's going to give us our authority. He's going to give us our thrones. He's going to give us our roles, if you will, in eternity, and then he's going to take us to be with him. John chapter 14 verse two, “In my Father’s house are many mansions:… I go to prepare a place for you.” And so that's what Christ is doing now. He's preparing. He's reconciling. He's issuing that.

“HERE AFTER” CHRSIT RAPTURES HIS CHURCH: And then in chapter four, He is rapturing the Church to Heaven by the Spirit. Chapter four verse one is the rapture of the church to Heaven by the Spirit. So we understand, here is Christ in the air with His churches and he is judging them. He explained these things to them, and He gave them their rewards.

And then verse one, “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven:”. So, here's this door opened in heaven. Christ has returned in His great glory and power. He has the churches in His hands. He's judged them, He's given them their rewards, and now, He along with John and all the other people in the churches, are going to go through this door that is opened in Heaven.

“a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me;” You know, the trump of the archangel, “which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”.

So when we go up, when we are removed from this earth, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that we are in, (we are in the Spirit on the Lord's day) the Spirit is removed into Heaven. Not the Holy Spirit because he holds creation together, but rather the ministry and spirit of Christ. The Holy Ghost within us, in that role, is removed from this earth. So no longer will there be salt and light of Christ upon the earth because we've removed to heaven with Him.

And so what's going to happen in the hereafter is about when the church is gone. “Here after” the church has left. “Here after” the Spirit of Christ (which is in us, reconciling the world to Himself) has left. And so no longer is this gospel being preached. It's now the end [of the Gospel ministry of Christ through us] and that moves on to verse 15 in chapter 24.

“After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”

Here I have 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 1 through 7. “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 2 that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.”

So, what's preventing this end time? It is the hereafter. It is the Holy Spirit that we are caught up in the air with Christ. We're being removed through this door in Heaven. It is holding back that Spirit of Christ. That salt and light in the earth today. What's the famous saying? It says that, “If good men do nothing, the wicked prevail.”, or something like that. The same way is that, the salt and light in this earth, is preventing the wicked from completely taking over.

The salt and light in in this earth but when we are removed, taken out of the way, there is no longer salt and light and the restrainer, the restraint that was upon the Antichrist and his goals, was removed. Just think if there were no good people, would Hitler have prevailed in this world? If there were no good people would have Japan? But if they've been able to take over, if no good people were in this earth, would there have been wicked people that would have overcome any good that was left on this earth? I would say yes.

All the greatness we have on this earth and the western civilization. What makes the western civilization great is because they were submitted for a very long time to the cause of Christ. Now they weren't perfect, but they were salt and light. They were seeking to do what was right. When those type of people are removed, those people that have the Spirit of Christ within them, ministering on behalf of Christ, are removed, then the restraint upon wickedness is removed. And so, what happens after that is removed? That is what the angel shows in the rest of the chapter.

So here in this passage we've gone on to that and we've explained, that is in progression and we never had to take anything out of order, did we? The Return of Christ for His church is the rapture. It is what happens “here after”. It is in progression. It is in alignment with other passages of scripture, and that's only the first stage.

Chapter 4 and verse 11, I want to notice here also, is that they go through the door and then the elders of the church worshipping God, casting their crowns before him, in verse 11. That means that these 24 elders of the church, the Old Testament, New Testament, they are before the throne. They have been given their authority and crowns and powers. and the crowns on their heads, they cast them before the throne. Verse 11, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

INITIATING THE SECOND STAGE: And then, Chapter five starts the next one, [the second stage,] where he switches from being in His ministry position into His role as the Lion of the Tribe of David. And so, once he completes his ministry through us on earth, He switches roles. So, we see here, He's not ministering any longer as the Head of The Church. His ministry now, as the Head of Judah, the Head of Israel. So, what He does from this progression onward is not for us “The Church”, because we're with him. He's one with us. We are in His body. The salt and light has been removed and now He's coming with His body in great power and glory. We are ruling with Christ at this time. And we will be with Christ in heaven watching him initiate the next.

The seals, the trumpets, and the viles are all initiated by God through His power. And Verse 1 of chapter 5 “And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?”. No man could do that.

And verse four, “And I wept much, because no man was found worthy…” And verse five, “And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.” And notice where Jesus is in this group. “and I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.”

So here we have Christ gone on to Heaven and in his hands was the seven churches, the candlesticks, and then now here he is amongst the elders. And he's coming forth from amongst them. The seven candlesticks and the elders they symbolize the same thing. And He come from amongst them, to stand before God, to take this seal. So, with God, we see him take this sealed book. “And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.”

And that initiates and restarts Daniel's 70th week; that initiates and restarts the events of Ezekiel; and it restarts the events in Matthew chapter 23 through 24. See what happened is that the events written about in Daniel were on pause. We had 69 weeks and there's a 70th week yet to be fulfilled. And then it restarts Ezekiel. Ezekiel talks about the desecration in the temple and that restarts as well.

CONCLUSION: We don't have time to go through the other stages but hopefully this overview will give you a general idea of what's going on. I only worked with the first few passages here. On the other side of this paper is, of course, for the next stages but I didn't give a detailed explanation of those. I just gave a one sentence explanation for all the chapters. And so, we'll just end it there but hopefully this paper will give you a general idea. If I do any more teaching, I'll go into the next stages of this progression. Thank you.

(Trans-scripted from the audio video Sunday School lesson, taught by Brother John Young, at Green Meadow Bible Baptist Church, In Kalamazoo, MI. on 9-6-2020. Pastor Steven Zantjer presiding. Audio Video can be found here: https://youtu.be/q6s_Qe12WcY)

LESSON NOTES: 

"The Four Stage Return of Christ"- A Basic Revelation Outline - Part 1
Chronology of Revelation is progressive and accumulative in nature, interjected at times with explanatory passages. (Notice the phrases are always “hereafter”, “after this” and “then” not “another view of this event is”. Also notice sections of explanation pause the chronology “What meanith” or “come and see” etc. Rearranging of the Book is often done to get man’s theology to fit but God’s order is correct.)

Chapter Sections: 1-4 For His Body, 5-7 For His House, 8-14 For His Nation, 15-22 For His Kingdom

Chapters 1-4 For His Body (Rapture of the Church, 7 Candlesticks) Time: Now till the Rapture
Chapter 1: Return of Christ for the church.(1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)
Chapters 2-3: Judgment of the churches. (2 Corinthians 5:10, 20)
Chapter 4: Rapture of the church to Heaven by the Spirit. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-7)

Section synopsis: Guided by the Angel from Christ who will explain to him the events that he sees (1:1) John is caught up in the Spirit on the LORD’S DAY with Christ and the seven churches (1:10-18, 1:20). After brief explanation letters to the churches of this present time and their judgment they are then taken by Christ by the Spirit to Heaven through Heaven’s door (4:1-2) into God’s throne room where we see the elders of the Church worshiping God and casting their crowns before Him (4:11). Notice they already have their rewards (4:4). From this room the church will see what happens “hereafter” they and the Spirit of Christ (HG in us) are removed from the earth.

Chapters 5-7 For His House (Cleansing the Temple, 7 Seals) Time: Rapture til Midweek
Chapter 5: Christ is found worthy to open the book and start Daniel’s 70th week (D.9).
Chapter 6: Christ opens six seals, which initiates the first half of Daniel’s 70th week,
Chapter 7: Christ re-initiates events of Ezekiel and Matt 23-24 leading to desolation of Anti-Christ Israel, The great tribulation, and the birth of righteous Israel.

Section synopsis: Christ, now reunited with his Spiritual body, now claims his role as Head of Israel (5:5-6) in order to restart Daniel’s 7th Week and to reclaim his earthly throne (The ark of the convent), as shown in the visions of Ezekiel. This throne will be transported to Israel’s desolate house (the Temple in Israel), upon which the Ani-Christ will attempt to claim by placing his image upon it (2 Thess 2:4, Ezekiel 8). This Act cause God's glory to appear upon the throne, who then directs seven angels judge the wicked and seal the righteous in the temple and in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 8). This event will anger the Anti-Christ who will then retaliate by initiating war against the saints who flee Jerusalem and enter the wilderness (Matthew 24:15-22). The anti-Christ will then initiate the “Great tribulation purge” by slaughtering any non-sealed but repentant people he can find and will reclaim the city (Psalm 79:1-4) but not the temple or the inner court which will be divinely protected so that he two prophets God chooses can witness in the inner court before the temple doors to the world (Revelation 11).

Chapters 8-14 For His Nation (Saving Sealed Israel, 7 Trumpets) Time: Last half of the week
Chapter 8-9: Christ opens 7th seal initiating Prayer of Slaughtered Saints from 6:10-11, 7:13-15 and Psalm 79. and Six angels sound the coming Judgment of God.
Chapter 10: John is shown the Seven Thunders that will come just after the seventh angel sounds but before the vial judgments. They will reveal God's eternal plans.
Chapter 11: Two temple prophets described. Called away just before 7th angel sounds.
Chapter 12: New's Israel's Spiritual struggle with The Devil is shown.
Chapter 13: The earth's Struggle with the Beast and False Prophet is shown.
Chapter 14: Christ gathers Israel to Mt. ZION and gathers the World to be judged.
Chapters 15-22 For His Kingdom (Judging the World, 7 Vials) Time: Last day of the week
Chapter 15: The Vials of wrath shown going out of the Heavenly temple.
Chapter 16: The Vials are poured out upon the earth. Great Babylon Judged.
Chapter 17: Great Babylon described as a Whore. The Whore and Beast explained.
Chapter 18: Great Babylon destroyed for killing the saint of God.
Chapter 19: Marriage supper of the Lamb and supper of The Great God.
Chapter 20: Thousand-year reign and the final Judgment explained.
Chapter 21: New heavens and earth, New Jerusalem, God reunited with man.

What I Know About Life and Death

What I Know About Life and Death

Life and Death

Before I lived I did not wish for life;
yet now that I live I do not wish for death.
Yet both come unbidden and sudden.

As I wait for sleep,
I toss and turn with the realization:
I am alive and will cease to be.
Death will come upon me just as it has to all life before me.

What does death have in store for me?
Before I lived I had no thought of such things.
There was no fear for there was no me... that I can recall.

Will it be as it was before?
Before life.
Before me.
Before my existence in this life?

Will death restore me to the state I was in before life?
Or is death just a stepping stone to another new life?
Is death only the removal of my living being from its cocoon of a shell;
so that it may continue on its journey of life in a new form?

Will it be to a new body
(to begin a new life,
with fresh memories to create,
with no memory of previous life),
to begin the cycle of worry and pondering over anew?

I have no memories from before this life,
so why would I have them after?

All that I know now I know from this life
and from the ideas of those who lived before me,
in this existence.

No one has come from beyond life,
nor from beyond death,
to tell us they come from a place of life.
No one.

That is,
unless I believe what some say of Jesus,
whom,
some say was the God creator;
life incarnate.

But even this is told to me by people of this existence;
past down to them from ages past.
I would certainly like to know if this is true.

Sleep is coming.
I can feel it now.

The focus of my pondering is wandering.
Fear of death and worries of life slowly leave me;
a calm assurance covers me.

I know that when I sleep I will dream and then I will awake.

(Written by John Young, September 8, 2010)

Revival Hymn edited

I am an Independent, Fundamental, Baptist

I am an Independent, Fundamental, Baptist. By Independent I mean that I determine with whom and how I follow Christ. No one or thing has "Absolute Authority" over me except God. By Fundamental I mean that I try to practice my Christianity as is presented in the Bible as Christ has modeled it for me. By Baptist I mean that I follow in that Doctrinal Tradition. Namely in the Pillars as defined by the acronym: B.A.P.T.I.S.T.S.

B is for BIBLE SOLE AUTHORITY (I only use the A.V. of the Bible for my faith and practice).

A is for AUTONOMY OF THE LOCAL CHURCH (The local Church must determine how they are to govern themselves).

P is for PRIESTHOOD OF THE BELIEVER (My relationship with God is determined by Him and I and no one else).

T is for TWO ORDINANCES (Baptism and Lord's Supper as symbols of what Christ has done for me).

I is for INDIVIDUAL SOUL LIBERTY (Each person has the responsibility alone to determine whether or not they are right with God).

S is for SAVED, BAPTIZED CHURCH MEMBERSHIP (Only those who are in good standing with God and their local church should determine how it should operate).

T is for TWO OFFICES IN THE CHURCH (Male Pastors and Male Deacons as presented by Paul in Timothy and Titus should lead local churches).

S is for SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE (Godless government should not lead God’s Church).

These are the basics by which I try to live my Christian Faith. If every Church and Christian sought always to live by such principles then I could go to any Church run by people who claim to be Independent, Fundamental, Baptist in individual practice and fellowship with them in a Godly manner. However, people’s motives are not always pure and holy. Many, under the guise of Christianity are motivated by their sinful lust to something more carnal. That is why each Christian who seeks to join a local Church (Independent, Fundamental, Baptist or otherwise) must beware of that group’s motivations. As for me I will try to seek those who seek Christ so that we may grow to God together.

Saving Faith According to God's Word.

The Bible is a consistent record of eye witness accounts to Gods working with mankind spanning over 6,000 years. According to the Bible, Repentance and Belief on Christ (His Works and Righteousness) is needed for Salvation from Hell and entrance into Heaven. (Christ is Greek word for “messiah” which is the Hebrew word for “anointed by God”). 

Repent basically means “to turn and forsake”. Most people trust in their own works or goodness to get them into Heaven. The bible’s message to people is to turn by forsaking your own abilities and to trusting in God’s way to Heaven. To get to Heaven we repent to God and believe on the works of His Son Jesus Christ by “Calling on the name of the LORD”. We call out to God and tell Him that we will follow His ways only.

The monument we call out to God and commit ourselves to Him alone He will send us his Holy Spirit to us. When the Holy Spirit enters us it will quicken (make alive) our spirit and make us God’s Child. God’s Children cannot God to Hell and will go to Heaven no matter what they do. If they sin later God will chastise them until they repent of the sin but they will no never again be in danger of Hell. It is the job of every Christian to follow God’s Word in the way Jesus Christ showed us. The closer we follow God’s Word the more he sanctifies us and makes us holy.

Men’s spirits are dead in sin and their soul are bound for hell:

Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

James 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Romans 6:23a For the wages of sin is death;

Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 

Revelation 20:14-15 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

God paid the penalty for sin and death and quickened our Spirits through Jesus Christ:

1 Corinthians 15:44-49 There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

1 John 4:9-11 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Colossians 1:19-21 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 20 and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. 21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22 in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Colossians 2:13-15 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14 blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15 and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. 

To take part of this salvation payment and quickening ourselves we need to repent of our old life (our righteousness and works, etc) and accept the life of Christ by calling on him for it:

Acts 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

Acts 20:21 testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:21-26 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Romans 10:6-13 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise….. 8 The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Genesis 4:26c ...then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.

Psalm 116:13 I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.

When you call on the name of the Lord you are making a covenant with Him to be adopted by His Spirit:

Psalms 89:26-34 He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. 27 Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. 28 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. 29 His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. 30 If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; 31 if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; 32 then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. 33 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. 34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

Romans 8:14-17 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

The Sons of God are not the Angels

If we go solely on the scriptures and not on extra-biblical sources we see:

ANGELS NEVER WERE SONS

Hebrews Chapter 1 makes it clear that the angels at no time were called sons.

Hebrews 1:5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

Hebrews 1:13 But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? 14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

Only the sons are heirs to salvation. Angels minister to the heirs but are not sons themselves. Both Genesis and Job and etc. are referring to the saved people of earth. Additionally if God meant "ANGELS" he would have said angels. The word is present in Genesis 11 times singular and 4 plural and in Job once plural (4:17). And in every instant of "Sons of God" in the N.T. never refers to angels but rather those who walk in the spirit of Christ.

THE SONS OF GOD OF GENESIS 6

To understand Genesis 6 we should never go outside of context to find the context. Rather we should see it as an integrated part of the passages around it. In Genesis 6 it is plain that God is striving with man not some angel hybrid.

Genesis 6:1-8 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. 3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Read starting with Cain in Chapter 4:16. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod and built a banished civilization in the wilderness. Cain's descendants did not walk with God and ended with Lamach threatening seven times violence on others who would try to punish him in the manner of Cain. In V.26 we see that the men remaining with Adam and God began to call on the LORD.

16 And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. 17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.

23 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. 24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.

In Chapter 5 we see Adam's line beginning over, excluding Cain's line and Abel. Cain's line is no longer counted as part of  God's descendant through Adam even though they still existed as men. Notice carefully How the new line is called after God's and Adam's image up to Noah who was perfect in his "generations". Also notice that besides Christ Adam is also called the son of God in Luke 3: 22,38.

Genesis 5 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; 2 male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. 3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

32 And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Genesis 6:9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

Luke 3:22 and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. 23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,....38 which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

1 Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

Then in Chapter 6 "God's Sons" go to the "daughters of men". This is God's Holy Men taking wives of the banished Cain women. The Spiritual taking the fleshly.

4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the samebecame mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

Because the lines were separate and pure from each other until 6:4, Cain's line had 50% or so of all genetic code material and Adam/Seth's line had the other half. This caused a genetic Heterosis effect (sometimes called hybrid vigor) in the descendants of the combined lines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterosis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD6vpheUoPE

God's people are referenced taking lost women several times later also. When Balaam recommended the locals intermarry with Israel (Numbers 31:16) and when the people returned from Babylonian exile (Ezra 10:2). In each instance it was referred as God's men with non-godly women. Never does the bible say lost men taking God's women or God's wemon taking ungodly men. There is clear president that "God's men" are responsible for this type of action.

Numbers 31:16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord.

Ezra 10:2 And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing.

THE SONS OF GOD IN JOB

Job is referencing God's people coming before God in prayer, offerings, and supplication. (Hebrews 4:16, 12:22-24.) Satan was not one of these "Sons" but "came also among them". Satans purpose was to accuse the "Sons". (Revelation 12:10)

Job 1:5-7 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. 6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. 7 And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

Deuteronomy 29:10 Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,

1 Samuel 10:19b ... Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes, and by your thousands.

Jeremiah 36:7 It may be they will present their supplication before the Lord, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the Lord hath pronounced against this people.

Daniel 9:20 And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God;

Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 12:22-24 but ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

Revelation 12:10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

THE SONS OF GOD IN GOD'S DISCOURSE TO JOB

Job 38:4-7 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. 5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? 6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; 7 when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Some think these verses are one whole question referring to the creation of the earth and logic is used to say Man did not exist yet so this "must be" angels. But the passage does not say this. Notice the passage is actually five separate questions. They were not present at creation but the were present when the "Corner stone" was laid. In the Bible every time we see "Corner stone" in scripture we see it is only ever referring to Christ. Christ became this Cornerstone at his resurrection and this is when "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy."

Isaiah 28:16 therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.

Matthew 21:42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

Ephesians 2:20 and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

1 Peter 2 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

Matthew 21:42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

Ephesians 2:20 and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

1 Peter 2 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

THE REAL FALLEN ANGELS

God's angels have always done God's will. Those that do not the will of God are the Devil's angels which fell with Satan when he was cursed for deceiving the woman in the garden of Eden and turning the heart of humanity from God. This is what Jude and Peter are referencing. They are not referencing the "Sons of God" from Gen 6.

Genesis 3:14-16 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:15 and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Jude 6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

2 Peter 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

ANGELS CANNOT MATE WITH HUMANS

According to scripture Kinds and Glories of God's creation that cannot crossover and mate with another Kind or Glory. Neither can we observe such things happening in verified history or modern times. There are none and yet we are asked to believe that God who formed us out of the ground would make us genetically compatible to Angels which are not even part of earth's creation?! Genesis 1:11-25, 1 Corinthians 15:35-44

Genesis 1:11-25 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 13 And the evening and the morning were the third day..... 24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Hebrews 2:16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

1 Corinthians 15:37 and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: 38 but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. 39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. 40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43 it is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 44 it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

THE VIRGIN BIRTH OF CHRIST

If angels could "mate" with humans it would make the virgin birth suspect. If following after offspring of angels cause God to destroy the world in flood how then how can we know this is not what is happening again with Mary's child whom Gabriel could have mated? Or perhaps Beelzebub came to Mary. Whose Child? It is clear in scripture the only Spirit which ever "mated" with a human was when God manifest Himself in the flesh of Christ Jesus. For it is only God who can create life.

Luke 1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

Psalm 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.

CONCLUSION:

The myth that "the Sons of God are Angels " is not actually found or stated ANYWHERE in the bible. It is derived from a Jewish Fable self imposed on scripture and spread in ignorance of the context of ACTUAL scripture. If we study the bible without the help of this myth and others like it we will see the true facts unfold.

The New Testament is very clear the "Son's of God" refer only to the Saved Human Race. What is true of the "Son" is true of the "Sons" as we are co-heirs with Christ. The Angels are not co-heirs with Christ but rather ministers to the Sons.

John 1:12-14 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,even to them that believe on his name: 13 which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Galatians 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.