Turning Point - David Jeremiah

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Revelation is filled with the Apostle John's accounts of the
figures and events he saw in heaven, each more intriguing
than the last. Today, on turning point, Doctor David Jeremiah
shed's light on some of the least understood the souls
of the martyrs. Who are they? How do they lose
their lives? Why are they given special prominence? For the answers.

(00:28):
Here's David with his message the souls under the Altar.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Friends, I remember when I was a young man, I
was given a book on martyrdom, What's happened over the
years to the people who have stood for their faith
and have lost their lives. It was a book you
couldn't read before you went to bed at night because
it would keep you awake. But it was a reminder
that there have been many who have stood for their

(00:53):
faith and the result of that has been they have
been killed. In the tribulation period, there will be many
who who give testimony to their faith in the Lord,
and because of that they will be martyred. And the
Bible speaks of the souls of these martyred individuals being
under the altar in heaven. What in the world could
that possibly mean, we're going to explore it today and

(01:16):
tomorrow here on Turning Point as we turn the pages
of the Book of Revelation to Revelation six, verses nine
through eleven. If you have your study guide, we are
hoping that you will follow along. We're in volume two
of the Study Guide and you will find a whole
section on the Souls under the Altar. It is lesson

(01:37):
number sixteen in the Study Guide series. And man, that's
a great way to follow along in what we do.
If you're taking notes, you can take notes in the
margin of the study guide and have all that information together.
Study Guides and the book Escape the Coming Night available
from Turning Point at David Jeremiah dot org. Go there

(01:58):
today and find out about all the wonderful time you
can have to help you understand this incredible book in
the New Testament. Right now, we're ready to begin this
new lesson called the Souls under the Altar. Here's part one.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
The history of Redemption for anyone who has studied it
has been written in the blood of her martyrs. Scarcely
has the Old Testament been opened before Pharaoh of Egypt
has devised a plan to destroy all of the Hebrew
male children born to Hebrew women under the Persian Empire.

(02:39):
Later on in the Old Testament, Satan inspired Hayman, the
wicked favorite of the King of Hazuaris, devised a scheme
to destroy every Jew in the empire and bring a
vast sum of money into the treasury. Antiochus Epiphanes, who
is only alluded to in the Book of Daniel in

(03:02):
the second century before Christ, became one of Israel's unrelenting enemies.
When we come to the New Testament, we learn immediately
upon beginning to read the Gospels of Herod, Herod who
tried to destroy Jesus by putting to death all of
the infants in the territory.

Speaker 4 (03:25):
And we have.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
Scarcely read the first chapter of church history in the
Book of Acts, before we meet Stephen, who was stoned
to death because of his insistence that the Jewish religious
leaders had murdered Jesus. And then in the twelfth chapter
of Acts we read of James, who was killed by Herod.

(03:49):
And we have studied since beginning our study in the
Book of Revelation the story of Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna,
who was burned at the stake and in the letter
to Pergamus, we read of a man by the name
of Antipus, who was God's faithful martyr, and others whose
names we won't mention, died because of their Christian testimony.

(04:11):
Under the cruel reign of Domitian, the Roman Emperor, many
Roman Christians suffered in the Arenas, and other believers endured
the Inquisition. The Huguenots and other Protestants were massacred or
exiled in the Reformation period. Hundreds of Chinese Christians lost
their lives during the Boxer Rebellion. Russian believers were remanded

(04:34):
to slave labor camps or to Siberia. That is to say,
just a few things for the Christian martyrs, and John
tells us that the end of persecution is not yet.

Speaker 4 (04:48):
There is still more to come.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
The Jews, who have suffered so so tragically in the
lifetime of that nation, will yet suffer more.

Speaker 4 (05:00):
There is still more.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
We have studied so far, the first four seals, and
as each of these seals is opened, we discover that
the seal is connected with a living creature, and it
is connected with a horse. Therefore we call it the
four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The last three seals, you understand,
present an even more ominous picture than the first four.

(05:26):
For a while the first four have to do with
the human government that stands behind persecution, the last three
seals have to do with divine intervention, and God is
now directly affecting what is going to happen in the
lives of the people on this earth. There is one
other difference in the fifth seal that I have to

(05:46):
mention before we actually look at the text, and that
is that the fifth seal does not present any action itself.
There are no horses riding across the stage. There is
no action that we can witness. The fifth seal, you see,
is simply the response to an action. When we read
what happens as the fifth seal is unrolled, we see

(06:09):
the result of persecution, not the persecution itself. By the
time we read about it in the fifth seal, the
martyrs are already dead. Their souls are under the altar.
The persecution as far as those people, is over. John,
according to the text, looks at the altar, and under

(06:30):
the altar he sees the souls of those who have
already been slain. And we are left to imagine the
method by which they were martyred, and the suffering they
must have endured, But we are not told how it happened.

Speaker 4 (06:45):
Now, I think in order.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
For us to understand these simple verses that are before us,
there are four or five points we ought to discuss together.
First of all, I think it's important for us to
look for a moment at the context of their martyrdom.
Why they were killed, in what setting were they killed?
Who are these martyrs who are slain? And we read
about them in the text that their souls are under

(07:09):
the altar? How did they lose their lives? Where did
they come from? Well, there's some interesting things we can
learn if we read carefully. First of all, we must
remember that the Church of Jesus Christ has already been raptured.
The Church of Jesus Christ is in heaven. You remember
what the scripture says that when Christ comes back in

(07:30):
the rapture, not only will he take all of the
saints who are alive, but the dead in Christ shall
rise first, and we who are alive will be caught.

Speaker 4 (07:39):
Up together with him.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
And after the rapture, immediately the tribulation starts. How did
they get to be saints? How did they get to
be believers. Secondly, as we look at this, and we'll
answer that question in a moment. Since the martyrs ask
for judgment on those who dwell on the earth, notice
what it says in the text. They say, how long

(08:01):
Lord before you will take vengeance on these who have
persecuted us who are dwelling on the earth. Since these
martyrs are talking about people who dwell on the earth,
it is obvious that their murderers are still living. They
are still living somewhere on the earth. While they have
been martyred and are in heaven, their murderers are alive

(08:21):
and well on this earth. And this would strongly suggest
that these martyrs have come from the Tribulation period, because
what's going on in heaven now is coincidental with what's
going on down here on this earth. These are Tribulation
saints who have been martyred in the early part of
the Tribulation period. They are, no doubt casualties of the

(08:44):
first four judgments that we have looked at already. I
think it's important that we understand that when the Church
is taken out of this world in the rapture, God
is going to deal with Israel once more. Many Jews
will turn to God in that day, And writing to
the Romans, Paul said it this way. He said, blindness

(09:04):
in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of
the gentiles be come in, and then all Israel shall
be saved. As it is written, there shall come out
of Zion the Deliverer, and she'll turn away on goodliness
from Jacob. Paul told the Romans that for a period
of time the Jews would have a blindness, a partial blindness,

(09:28):
and that here and there someone from the Jewish faith
would come to Christ, but there would not be a
large scale returning to the Messiah. But when the times
of the Gentiles are finished, and when is that? When
the rapture comes the times of the Gentiles. Now God
will turn again his main attempt to the Jewish people.

(09:49):
This is just another way of saying that Israel as
a nation will be saved. The partial blindness will be
taken away. Many of the Jews during the tribulation will
turn to God and reject the Antichrist. Because of this,
the Antichrist will make their blood run like the river,
and many.

Speaker 4 (10:07):
Will be martyred.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
These people whose souls are under the altar are basically
Jewish Christians, Jewish Christians who have been martyred for their faith.
But I ask a question a few moments ago, and
I didn't answer it, and I need to answer it now.
How will people be saved in the Tribulation period? If
no believers are going to be left on the earth

(10:31):
at the beginning of the tribulation, how will people be saved?
Some of them will be saved because of the two
witnesses God sends forth, and somehow also we learn in
the seventh chapter that there will be one hundred and
forty four thousand Israelites who will be sealed for God's
service during this period. It is possible that through the

(10:53):
witness of these two agents, many will come to Christ
among the Jewish population. Doctor Morris had suggested that we
may not only have the sealed witnesses, we may have
some silent witnesses too. Leave it up to an author
to think of this one, and this is what he said.
Millions upon millions of copies of the Bible and Bible

(11:15):
portions have been published in all major languages and distributed
throughout the world through the dedicated ministries of the Gideons.
The Wycliffe Bible translators and other Christian organizations removal of
believers from the world, that the rapture will not remove
the scriptures, and multitudes will no doubt be constrained to

(11:35):
read the Bible in those days. Thus, multitudes will turn
to their Creator and Savior in those days and will
be willing to give their testimony for the Word of God,
and even to give their lives as they seek to
persuade the world that the calamities it is suffering our
judgments from the Lord end of quote. I couldn't help
fantasize this in my own mind as I was thinking

(11:57):
about this. Can some reprobate who never had any time
for the Word of God didn't want to even talk
about it. Maybe his wife invited him to go to
church all of their married life, and he just made
fun of it. Then all of a sudden, one day
he comes home and nobody's there. His wife is gone,

(12:18):
his children are gone, and the only thing left that
even reminds him of them is the Bible that's laying
on the coffee table. Do you think he might be
motivated to read it? Especially when he goes to work
the next day and finds out that his experience is
not unique. That hundreds of his friends also experienced the

(12:39):
same thing, and that people were jerked out of this
world in a very unannounced fashion, and hundreds, yay, thousands
of people are missing. And then some of the things
he remembered his wife talking about began to come back
to him.

Speaker 4 (12:55):
And so he picks up the Bible.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
And many of the Jewish people who have the cop
of the scriptures in their own language, will do the
same thing. And I believe they will read the Bible
with more motivation than you and I will ever imagine.
And so people will be saved. Now in the tribulation period.
After they are saved, they're going to have to pay
a price, because in the tribulation period martyrdom will be

(13:20):
as common as it is uncommon today. Those who trust
in God in that time will be called upon to
demonstrate their faith. Oftentimes they will have to demonstrate their
faith with their lives. Revelation twelve eleven says this, and
they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and
by the word of their testimony.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
Now listen to this.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
And they loved not their lives unto the death. Zachariah
the Prophet speaks of the day of Tribulation as a
time when he says, two thirds of the entire Jewish
population will be killed, and it shall come to pass,
says the Prophet, that in all the land saith the Lord.
The two parts therein shall be cut off and die,

(14:03):
but the third shall be left therein. And I will
bring the third part through the fire, and will refine
them as silver is refined, and will try them as
gold is tried. And of course this follows again what
our Lord said in the twenty fourth chapter of Matthew.
That's exactly the Lord's prophecy on the Mount of Olives.

(14:24):
Listen to what he said, All these are the beginning
of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted,
and shall kill you, and you shall be hated of
all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many
be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate
one another. So the reason that there are people martyred

(14:47):
during this period of time is simply this. They have
been saved, they have come to Christ, and now they
are under pressure from the Antichrist. And when by the
word of their testimony they acknowledge their faith in Christ.
They will be killed, and we'll see why and how
in just a moment. That is the context of their martyrdom.

(15:09):
Who are these martyrs, these souls under the altar, They
are the people who are saved during the Tribulation period?

Speaker 4 (15:16):
All right? What is the cause of their martyrdom? Number two?

Speaker 3 (15:19):
Notice the ninth verse, and when he had opened the
fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of
them that were slain. Now here it is for the
word of God and for the testimony which they held.
If you have your bibles opened, I want you to
notice back in the first chapter of the Book of
Revelation and the ninth verse, that these martyrs of the

(15:41):
Tribulation period are slain for exactly the same reason that
John was exiled on the Isle of Patmos. In the
ninth verse we read, 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 Old Patmus for the word of God and for

(16:03):
the testimony of Jesus Christ. The Tribulation saints are martyred
for the same reason that John was exiled for the
word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. These
saints have been sacrificed in the Tribulation period on the
altar of their own devotion to God and the cause

(16:25):
of their death, says the Scripture, is their testimony and
their adherents to the Word of God. We need to remember, folks,
that after the rapture of the Church, the restraint of
the Holy Spirit will have been removed, and the world
rulers of that day will no longer be held in
czech by the godly people who are here and filled

(16:48):
with the spirit of the Lord. And when they are gone,
the Spirit of God having been removed, the Spirit of
God will operate in the tribulation period as he did
in the Old Testament. He will selectively come upon people
as he did in the Old Testament scriptures. The Spirit
of God having been taken out of the world in
the sense that the Church is removed, now the Christians

(17:11):
who remain will be the objects of torture, and they
will be able in these unrestrained ways to vent their
anger and rebellion against God by taking the lives of
the Christians. Revelation nineteen warns that all who receive the
mark of the Beast, which we know is the number

(17:34):
six sixty six. All who receive it will suffer eternal
judgment from God.

Speaker 4 (17:39):
Let me say that again. It says that.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
Every person who takes the mark of the Beast will
suffer eternal judgment from God. But the converse of that
is also true. The passage reminds us that those who
refuse to receive this mark will suffer the wrath of
the Antichrist Instead. You got two choices in that period

(18:03):
of time, either Christ wrath or Antichrist wrath. If you
take the mark, the Bible says, you will suffer the
wrath of Christ. But if you don't take it, the
anti Christ will take your life. Now, the word of
their testimony is very likely a reference to the word
of judgment which they will preach. Let me give you

(18:24):
the scenario. After these Jewish converts are saved and they
recognize what has happened, they realized that they had missed
all of their lives, knowing them a sigh, and they
begin to read the scripture. They will read Matthew twenty
four and Revelation six, and then they will begin to
rush around in their culture saying repent for the judgment

(18:46):
of the Lord. Draw us nigh. We are just about
to be annihilated on this earth. Repent and receive Christ.
That's your only hope. God is going to judge this
world in an even worse judgment than we have known.
And it will be their message of j judgment that
will infuriate the anti Christ and his followers. And when
they go about preaching judgment, they will become the objects

(19:08):
of the wrath of the anti Christ and his followers,
and they will kill them. It is interesting to think
about the fact that in any day, when a prophet
of God speaks as a true prophet, he usually engenders
somewhat of the same response. We're living in a prophetless day,

(19:29):
and that is not a pun. We are living in
a time when there are no prophets. Do you remember
back in the Old Testament, when prophets began to be known.
Think of Samuel, way back in the beginning, who prophesied
to Eli that because of his evil sons Hofni and Phineas,
judgment would fall upon his house. And think of Isaiah,

(19:51):
the prophet who prophesied that the people of Judah would
be carried away into captivity, and that the temple would
be destroyed, and Jerusalem would be destroyed. And think of Jeremiah,
whose prophecy was so hated by his contemporaries that they
put him in stocks and in change and throw him
in prison. And think of Jonah, who finally was willing

(20:14):
to listen to God's instruction. And when he went to Ninevah,
what did he preach? The prophet of God? Here was
his message. He shouted it throughout the streets of the city. Repent,
repent for forty days, and Nineveh will be destroyed. And
when Paul wrote to Timothy, he warned that perilous times

(20:34):
would come. And even Jesus prophesied judgment in his message
in Matthew twenty four. What is the message of the prophet?
It is the message that these martyrs are going to
preach before their lives are taken. They are going to
walk up and down the land preaching the coming judgment
of the Lord. And as they preach, they will infuriate
all of those who hate the Lord and hate his children.

(20:59):
I am reminded as I study and read that we're
living in a day when somebody needs to be the
voice of a prophet. Doctor Chris Rowl, in his commentary
on the Book of Revelation, reminds us that this is
indeed the true character of a prophet of God. He writes,
whenever there is a true prophet of God, he will

(21:21):
preach judgment. These modern so called ministers of God speak
all things nice, modern pedagogical methods admonish never to mention
anything negative. Ignore them, and they will not exist. They
tell you there is not any hell, and there is
not any devil, and there is not any judgment of God.

(21:43):
All that is now intellectually passe. We have evolved beyond that.
We are told. Centuries ago they may have had a hell,
and years ago they may have spoken of a devil,
and way back yonder they may have spoken of the
wrath and of the judgment of God. But in our new,
enlightened and sophisticated day, we do not talk about things

(22:04):
like that. So we stand up and we speak of
the love of Jesus, and we speak of peace, and
we speak of all things pretty and beautiful. But remember,
these other things are just as real. The same book
that tells us about the good tells us about the bad.

(22:25):
The same Revelation that speaks to us about heaven speaks
to us about hell. The Bible that presents the Lord
Jesus as the savior is the same Bible that presents
to us the devil as our enemy and adversary of
damnation and destruction. The two go together. If there is
not anything to be saved from, we don't need a savior.

(22:47):
And if we can evolve into angels, just give us
a little more time and maybe it we'll be arch
angels by and by end of.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
What is he saying.

Speaker 3 (22:59):
Saying somebody it needs to not be afraid to say
the judgment is coming.

Speaker 4 (23:04):
God is going to judge this world.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
It's a not very popular message these days, and even
among evangelicals, we are told that if we want to
hold crowd, we better tell nice and encouraging and comforting
stories and never warn of the judgment to come, because
people will not listen to that today. And of course
the answer to that is, it isn't our job to

(23:29):
be sure people listen. It is our job to preach
the truth. And the truth of the Word of God
is a mixture of God's love for and compassion for us,
but also his hatred of sin and his determination to
someday vindicate himself against a rebellious world.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Amen, it's the whole story. Everything in this story, nothing
left out, all of the side issues and the central issues,
the tribulation. What's coming upon this world when Jesus Christ
returns to take his own to heaven, and we're studying
that right now, tomorrow part two of the Souls under

(24:12):
the Altar, and then Thursday and Friday when the whole
world trembles. These are astounding things that are happening, and
we may think that we're in the middle of it already.
When you read what's actually going to happen, you will
never say that nothing we have ever experienced comes close
to what the tribulation will be like. And the Bible

(24:33):
speaks of it so very clearly say, don't forget to
get your copy of the book Sixty Days of Prophecies,
The Truth behind End Time Warnings. This one hundred and
forty four page paperback book will really be a blessing
to you and help you understand the prophetic events of
the future. Ask for the book when you send your
gift today. Thanks for listening.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
For more information on Doctor Jeremiah's series, Escape the Coming Night,
please visit our website where We also offer two free
ways to help you stay connected, our monthly Turning Points
magazine and our daily email devotional Sign up today at
David Jeremiah dot org slash Radio. That's Davidjeremiah dot org
slash Radio, or call us at eight hundred ninety four

(25:18):
seven nineteen ninety three. Ask for your copy of David's
timely and valuable new book, Sixty Days of Prophecy, The
Truth behind Endtime Warnings. It's yours for a gift of
any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible
in the English Standard, New International and New King James
versions available in your choice of versatile and attractive cover options.

(25:41):
Get all the details when you visit our website. Davidjeremiah
dot org slash Radio. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join
us tomorrow as we continue the series Escape the Coming
Night on Turning Point with Doctor David Jeremiah