Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
There is a promise (or prophecy) tucked away in an obscure corner of the Bible that people don't seem to talk about, but nevertheless it's there awaiting the future.
It's about the last-days' events that will startle the world when God's people humble their hearts and lay self aside and let the Holy Spirit teach and guide them--that is, when the corporate "self" of the church is "crucified with Christ," and He only exalted.
The Lord doesn't dare let this prophecy be fulfilled so long as His church would become proud or arrogant because of it, for it is something that would startle the world more than anything else imaginable; so much so that thoughtful people just say it's impossible.
It's what John the Revelator "saw": "Something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory [had gotten the victory, King James Version] over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God" (15:2).
Multitudes who love the Bible and "tremble at [the Lord's] word" (Isa. 66:2; "tremble" with excitement) recognize (a) that the "beast" of Revelation 13:1-8 is Romanism; and (b) "the mark of the beast" is its claim to have the authority to abolish and change the holy law of God that says "the seventh day" is the Lord's holy Sabbath, instituting the first day instead; and (c) that the "image" of the beast is that segment of professed Protestantism that has abandoned "protesting" and has adopted the essential nature of Romanism.
But (666)? "The number of his name"? That is the Roman Catholic headquarters of Romanism, the heart of the papacy, the Curia. And the inspired prophecy declares that there will be some from this group who will respond positively to the "light" of that "other angel" of Revelation 18 whose message will "illuminate" the earth with "glory," a final message of justification by faith that will startle the world and will call every honest-hearted soul now in "Babylon" to "come out of her, My people" (vs. 4).
Does the Lord Jesus Christ Himself personally want this glorious denouement of Bible prophecy to take place now in "this generation"? Yes!
When the collective or corporate "self" of "the remnant church" (Rev. 12:17) has received the "atonement" and is reconciled to Him, the earth will be "lightened." God will know how to grip the world's attention!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 30, 2007.
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