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According to Isaiah God will remove the sins of all peoples on the earth. In 52:10 he writes ". . . the entire earth . . ." which here stands for the "remote regions" the extremities and everything inbetween on the earth. It can be considered a universal sacrifice in that it encompasses all peoples & nations, though the word universal may be a misnomer in that the angels are not included in this plan. It can be said that Jesus' sacrifice was wasted on some people when you think about those that in the past, the present and those in the future that came to know the truth and knowing it, still rejected it and continue to live in their decadent, perverse and immoral styles, hating God. God being a just God has all the right to condemn and destroy all of us, yet because He is a mercyfull and loving God, He still saacrificed Himself even for a few. He would not have destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah if Abraham would have found just 10 people who loved God.

The basic elements involved in a sacrifice for sin are: a) The confession of one's sin; One must present an unblemished animal; c) The laying on of hands, transferring the sin(s) to the animal; d) The slaying (killing) of the animal; e) The collection of the blood and then the sprinkling of it; f) Burning of the animal and then eating of the meat. Which of the above are still necessary? The conferssing of one's sins, acknowledging that one is a sinner. Which are not necessary and why? Presentation of an unblemished animal, the transferring of the sin, the slaying of the animal, the collection of and sprinkling of blood, the burning and eating of the meat. These are no longer necessery because Jesus fullfilled then at Golgotha. He was the unblemished sinless one, He took the sins of the world on Himself, (past, present, and future) He was slain, He shed His blood while being scourged, when walking to Golgotha outside of the limits of Jerusalem as was required. To remember all of this we partake of the wine and bread. There are no more sacrifices, His was once for all.

The idea of animal sacrifice being repulsive to modern man/people, has to do with the way in which a society is cultured. I believe that it is against man's basic nature to kill when not defending his/her own life. Even in the military it takes some training and "motivation" to et a person to become a fighting machine. That aside, the killing of animal in a ritualistic manner is viewed as unatural, today we think of it as macabre, it is used by those that practice Santeria, Voodoo, etc. For those not knowing the reasons for the sacrificies of the Isrealites they would wonder why God would require such a bloody ritual to "apease" Him. They would probably put those animal sacrificies as the same as those practiced by pagans. As far as a city or farmining way of life having to do with how one may look at an animal sacrificie, I donnot think there would be much difference. It would be the same as with a hunter and a none hunter. Though one kills for sport and then to eat the game, to kill and butcher in a ritual would still not be viewed as "normal".

Anger is an appropiate response to sin in that one is responding to an act or nature that is totaly oppossed to God. The Lord our God being perfect, righteous, and truth cannot look upon sin. It is an abomination to Him. We who are saved from sin and eternal separation from God because of His grace and love, then can also show anger towards sin and the conditions that bring about sin. We are not being angry towards anyone particular person, because that person is also loved by God, but we are angry at the condition that is keeping that person away from God. If someone sins against us or does some harm, we naturally will show some type of anger, but our reaction show not be impulsive and vengefull. A woman learns of her boyfriend dating another woman so she confronts him and shoots him. Later the man dies. What has happened? The man may have died in sin, he is eternaly separated from God. The poor woman now, is faced with murder. I for some reason she would die, assuming she did not ask God for forgiveness through Jesus, she too would would be eternaly separated from God. That is what sin does. That is why we can be angery towards sin.

Through out the Scriptures (OT) the promise was of a messiah. Also, the sacrificies that the Hebrews were required to do in order to receive atonement for their sins were symbolic of the final atonement that the Messiah would do for once for all. We now, looking back can see and know that when John said Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, that he was talking about the Messiah who would be put to death and that death would be the atonement for the sins of man. How did he know? I know that wasn't the question, but he grew up with Jesus, or at least visited, and, he studied the scriptures, and most impotantly, he was led by the Holy Spirit.

What is bitter in Rev 6-10? In that mankind has rejected God; has rejected his free guft of salvation through jesus; has progressively become worse in his sinful condition, God now begins His judgments against man. Still, though givening enough latitude for man to repent. What is sweet? That God woth all His love still gives man an opportunity to repent and return to Him. How God protects those that love Him from the judgments that are to come. How He cares for those that have suffered greatly for Him.

The people that make up the multitude before the throne are those saints that have suffered and died during the great tribulation. These peoples origins are from all over the world, many nations, and tongues.

What do we learn about God? We see that God has a limit to His patience. Though He is longsuffering and gives many multiple opportunities to repent there comes a time when He will say, enough! Still, during the times of judgment He gives opportunity for repentance, and to those who love Him He will spare. - Look at Abraham's negotiation with God over the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah, as an example. In Ezekiel 9, He seals those people who abhorre the sins & wickedness occuring around them. These are the ones who still love the Lord their God. God spared them with a seal, painted on their foreheads. This mark would seal them against the judgment of God on jerusalem. The seal on the 144,000 will protect them against the "natural" desasters that will occur agaainst the Land & the sea. Many will be destroyed but not those sealed with the mark of God.

When the 5th seal is broken John sees the souls of those saints who have been martyred for their testimony of Jesus. These souls are the saint s from the church that have maintained their convictions, their love for God. I ask here, are these saints from only the tribulation times or could they include all of the souls from the begining of the church. I think they could include all of the saints from the begining. These souls proximity to the altar I believe signifies a sort of self sacrifice in that they were willing to give up their lives for their convictions, their love of God. I do not think of it as a sacrifice like that of Jesus' in that that type of sacrifice only Jesus' was acceptable to God. The proximity may mean that they follow Jesus and are covered by His sacrifice for them, (and us). These souls were killed for their testimony of Jesus, the Truth. They ask God for vengeance in that only God can be vengefull. By killing the saints, they are really trying to kill God. Because they cannot kill God, they take it out against those that love God. Remember, Jesus saiad, "they hated Me first". It is christian to pray and ask God for vengeance in this circumstance. There will be many that will not repent of their actions, their name is not written in the book of life. All the saints are asking is for God to fullfill His plan.

The Laamb who was given the scroll with the seven seals is the One who initiates the strom of destruction. The Lamb of God, Jesus. He is the one worthy to open the seals. He was the ransom that was paid for all the sins of the world. He paid the one and only price that was to be paid. He redeemed those who will believe in Him. In that He paid the price by His death on the cross, He and only He can begin the final judgment. It is just, because God is just. It is against His nature to be unjust. This judgment is against those whom have rejected His plan for salvation. Mankind has had opportunity upon opportunity to accept Jesus. Even through the time of tribulation there appears to be opportunity to repent but, many will still reject the conviction of the Holy Spirit during this time and so God is just in His dealing with man.

The quality of worship that is being offered to both God the father and God the Son is significant in that both the Father and the Son are One. Jesus is God incarnate, He was and is the Word. He said that before Abraham was "I AM". He said that He and the Father are One. If you have seen Him you have seen the Father. There is but one God, there is but one worship. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal this to one. Though some of say that we know that know, we may not truly understand it in it's totality until we are united with Him.

Our destiny includes reigning in that when we accepted Christ and His act of redemption in our place we were grafted onto His family. We are then His brethern. In that He is the King of Kings and we are His brethern, we will then reign with Him in His kingdom. In that Jesus is a High Priest in the order of Melchizedeck, and we will serve as priest with Him, this service I imagine it will be as one that may interceed for some one during the millinium kingdom and on.

What made Jesus so worthy of opening the scroll? As it is written in 5:9, "You are worthy to take the scroll and break the seals and open it. For you were killed, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." This act is very noteworthy in that because of Adam's sin, we know that there is no one worthy enough to have the ability to open the scroll, which shows the consumation of this age and the culmination of the plan of God. Jesus as the second Adam, born without sin and being sinless through His time on earth, is the only one who can pay the ransom for mankind and thereby being the Only one who can bring to culmination this sinfull age and the restoration of His creation as it was intended.

What can we learn about Christian worship from these two chapters? 1. We worhip Him in spirit; 2. All creation worships Him; 3. We worship Him for His holiness; 3. for His awesome power; 4. continueslly dday for say, night for night; 5. we worship Him standing; 6. we worship Him kneeling; 7. we worship Him prostate; 8. we give to Him all the glory; 9. we give to Him to all the honor; 10. we give to him all praise; 11. we sing of His glory; 12. we sing praises to Him; 13. we thank Him for His love; 14. we thank Him for His mercyfullness; 15. we thank Him for being who He is; 16. we priase Him for being worthy to recieve all honor; 17. we worship Him for He is the only One true God; 18. we worship Him because we love Him; 19. we worship Him because He loved us first; 20. we worship Him because He has prepared a place for us to be with Him for all eternity, forever and ever; 21. we worship Him because His will will be done here on earth as it is in heaven and throughout all of His creation.

In summary, the churches are criticized for putting on an outward appearance of being christian, but compromising themselves to avoid persecution; teaching false doctrine. Some are praised for keeping to the truth and not being lead by those that were corrupting the churches. The churches in this century need to take heed of what was said to the seven churches for the same errors that they were comitting then, the churches can and are comitting now. A believer has to ask the Lord for discernment to know where false doctrine is being preached. A believer has to hold fast to the Truth.

Why are so many churches a hotbeds of apathy? I believe in general the congregations become self centered and may think that they are the only ones that "know" the way to salvation, and in seeing the way the world is continuing to turn towards sin more and more; the proclamations by the juduciary that what was considered sinfull in the past is now by law not so, and we can continue on and on. All these things can cause some to become apathetic and say, "leave them go their way, it's their problem, let them solve it" I believe the only way to combat spiritual apathy and an insipid witness within ourselves is to pry to the Lord our God and ask Him to convict us of our failing, we must remember that He so much loves the world that He gave His only begotten Son, Who died for all, and was raised from the dead and now sits at the right hand of the Father, and that who ever believes in Him and confesses that He is Lord, shall live.

Yes, having to compromise with the heathen trade guilds in order to be able to work was spiritually destructive from the stand point that on the one hand one would be believing in Jesus, in the gospel and the Truth, and on the other wouldsaying to some one that they are not believers in order to maintain a position, some type of income. Those individuals would know that they were living a hypocritical life. In this 21st century a similar situation exists. Though there is still some sort of freedom here in the U.S., a Christian may find himself in a position where he thinks he may have to compromise his/her beliefs. In a work enviroment for example, encountering a situation where one would be able to witness for Jesus, another individual (non-believer) could file a lwa suite against the believer for imposing his views against the will of the unbeliver. It could be classified the same as a sexual harrassment standard. The other and more obvious situation where a believer may feel he may have to compromise is in a "Government" institution, building or work place, to include a school, (public), where it is still considered that if any institution or building that recieves funds from the government allows anyone to as much say Jesus, that there is then a violation of the Establishment Clause. Using though, the "diplomacy" tactics without violating the commandments of God, one can still go about his business and work and not compromise oneself to the ways of this world in order to live

The problem with loosening sexual conduct that violates traditional standards is that accepting it changes the setting in which men and women deal with each other in a way that radically weakens family life. This in turn weakens the structure of christianity. We as believers hold to what the scripture says. If we tend to dismiss one small point in order to not alienate ourselves from the society that is accepting a "new" standard, that same society will then look at the believer as a hypocrite. When one witnesses for Jesus, that testimony is then weaken in that the believer is stating one message but others will not accept it because they will see that the believer is not being truthfull to his/her "convictions. This culture as any other culture has and will contue to take the "edge" off a Christians convictions by over whelming that individual with propaganda that shows that the new norm of sexual morality is okay because "look what prominent people" are doing. If they can be as such, and still be "accepted" by the public, then it must be okay. The enemies lies are so deceptive that if it were possible even the elect would fall in its trap. Jesus warned us of this.

Any local congregation and or church can lose its "first love", being Jesus, in a number of ways: They may start to search for a "deeper" meaning of the scripture, the simplicity of salvation and the plan of God, for some reason, some may want to make it out to be more stringent. The fact that God's plan for salvation is Jesus, His atoning death and the resurrection and that only by believing one can be saved is so simple that we then beging to think as the world thinks and start to legalize salvation. Once that occurs, the congregation starts placing themselves in a position where by they believe that they have the way to salvation and there begins the process of making Jesus secondary, and there by one loses their "first Love which is and always shall be Jesus.

The significance of Jesus walking amongst the lampstand. The lampstand represents the seven churches that were in Asia at that time. From that day to today and until He comes again, the lampstand will still represent the churches. Jesus walking amongst the lampstand signifies that Jesus is the central figure of the church. He is the church. The church is the believers and Jesus is in the believers.

The vision of Christ amongst the lampstand evokes a vision to us of the Exalted, Glorified Jesus, who now sits at the right hand of the Father and has rule over all. As the teacher-carpenter in Galilee and Judea, He was just a man like you and I. He still is a man of Flesh and Bone but now glorified as He said He would be and was promised to all by God the Father as told by the prophets. We need to understand this in that it is the promise givewn to all that belileve in Jesus. That because of Him, through Him, the Father has given us the way to be with Him eternally in our new resurrected bodies as it should have been from the beginning.

From accounts related in articles, though not said in the media, those countries that are predominately Muslin are the ones that persecute Christians, and any one that does not adhear to their beliefs. The book of Revelations gives believers the hope to the future promise given to us by Jesus that He will come again, this time to establish the Kingdon of the Father here on earth, and eventualy return this earth to what God had intented it to be.