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The PLAIN TRUTH, in conjunction with the Ambassador College Bible
Correspondence Course, presents brief excursions into the fascinating study
of the Bible. You simply turn to and
read in your Bible each verse
given in
answer to the questions. You'll be amazed at the new understanding gained
each month from these short studies!
The Crisis at the Close ofThis Age
H
ow would you react if God suddenly
spoke to you- and warned you to
take drastic action to save your life?
Wou ld you listen? Would you
heed?
Few realize that God has already spoken to
us
today: "God, who ... spake in times past ... by
the prophets, hath
in
these
last days
spoken unto
us by his Son" (Heb. 1:1-2). When you read the
Bible, God is speaking
directly to you!
In fact,
for nearly 6,000 years God has been expressing
his love toward mankind .
1n
!ove
God reveáled his
w
A Y
of life that Ieads to
everything good and desirable-including eterna!
life- to our first parents, Adam and Eve. But they
rejected that way. God later sent his prophets with his
law- his message of
love,
revealing to mankind the
way to peace, happiness, joy and eterna! rewards.
Through them God has pleaded with this stiff–
necked and self-willed world for nearly
60 centuries!
But men have rejected the words of that message of
!ove and killed the prophets.
And so, as any wise and loving father
punishes
his
children for their own good when they refuse to
respond to kind and loving verbal admonition, an all–
loving, all-wise God will finally plead with rebellious
humanity in the only Janguage humans will under–
stand!
The book of Revelation is full of warnings of awe–
some, catastrophic events soon to occur. In the Iast
chapter of this most misunderstood book of the Bible,
the Revelator- Jesus Christ-concludes: "Behold, 1
come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth
[acts
on] the
sayings of the prophecy of this book" (Rev.
22:7).
Bible prophecies are not to be taken Jightly. The
events they foretell will have a tremendous effect on
your future and the future of this whole world. As the
old saying goes, "Forewarned is forearmed. " To those
who will heed the warnings of God recorded in his
Word, he promises a
way of escape
from the coming
time of worldwide peril!
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Great World Trouble Fo r etold
We are now fast approaching the crisis at the clase of
this chaotic, unhappy world that Jesus foretold. Let 's
notice what he said would be happening.
l.
In his "Olivet prophecy" recorded in Matthew
24,
Mark
13
and Luke
21,
Jesus explained to his
disciples that certain events would have to occur
before
his return to earth. What did he first warn
about? Mat t .
24:4-5,
11.
COMMENT: Here we are told of those who would
proclaim Jesus as the Christ but who would deceive
the world about Christ's message!
2. What are we told elsewhere about these so-called
representatives of Christ? 11 Cor.
11:13-15.
Who do
they actually represent? Verse
15.
Are they them–
selves deceived? Rev.
12:9.
3. What further events did Jesus predict would be
taking place at the clase of this age? Matt.
24:6-7.
We
are now in the recess between stages of
world war.
COMMENT: Two world wars have already occurred.
In this interim, brushfire wars have raged and "rumors
of wars" continue. Famines, disease epidemics and
earthquakes will grow in severity. Then World War
111 will erupt. Hundreds of millions of earth's inhabi–
tants will be affected by these conditions!
4. But are these events only the "beginning of sor–
rows"-or, more properly translated, of travail or trib–
ulation? Verse 8.
COMMENT: This four-part "beginning of sorrows" is
elsewhere pictured by the Four Horsemen of the
Apocalypse. They are described in Revelation
6:1-8
under the symbols of the first four seals that cover the
scroll of the Apocalypse or book of Revelation (Rev.
5:1 ).
For a more detaile4 explanation of these "sor–
rows"-false religion, wars, famines, disease- write
for our free booklet
The Four Horsemen of the Apoc–
alypse.
S. How is the
fifth seal
described? Rev.
6:9-11 .
What did Jesus say about this time of religious perse–
cution? Matt.
24:9;
Luke
21:12-17.
COMMENT: At this point we need to understand that
the principie of
duality
applies to many prophecies.
The
PLAIN TRUTH
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