Title: Final Gathering, Attack, and Collapse (Rev. 19-20)
Topic: Second Coming
Summary: Final Gathering, Attack, and Collapse (Rev. 19-20)
Use the reference links below to follow along in the Bible as you watch.
References:
Revelation 19; 20:1-14; 6:9
Hebrews 9:27
Exodus 15:6, 8-10
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Ezekiel 38:8-13, 20-23; 39:1, 4-7, 17-29
034 - Final Gathering, Attack, and Collapse (Rev. 19-20)
By Jonathan S. Rose
Spirit and Life Bible Study broadcast from 3/30/2011. The complete series is available at: www.spiritandlifebiblestudy.com
Matthew 13:24-30
24
Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
25
But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
26
But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
27
So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?
28
He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
29
But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
30
Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
Apocalypse Revealed # 158
158. "'Be watchful.'" (3:2) This symbolically means that they should have truths and live in accordance with them.
To be watchful has precisely this symbolic meaning in the Word, for a person who learns truths and lives according to them is like someone who awakens from sleep and becomes alert. By contrast, a person who lacks truths, but who is engaged simply in worship, is like someone who is asleep and dreaming.
Natural life, regarded in itself or apart from spiritual life, is really no more than a state of sleep, whereas natural life that contains spiritual life is a state of alertness. This alertness, moreover, is obtained only through truths - truths which appear in their own light and in their own clarity when a person lives in accordance with them.
This is the symbolic meaning of watching in the following passages:
Watch..., for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. (Matthew 24:42)
Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he comes, will find watching... Be ready, for the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect. (Luke 12:37, 40)
Watch..., for you do not know when the lord of the house will come..., lest, when he comes suddenly, he find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: Watch! (Mark 13:35-37)
While the bridegroom was delayed, (the virgins)...slumbered and slept... And the (five foolish) virgins came..., saying, "Lord, Lord, open to us!" But (the Lord) answered..., ."..I do not know you." Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour at which the Son of Man will come. (Matthew 25:1-13)
Because the Lord's coming is called the morning (no. 151), and truths are then revealed and light dawns, therefore that time is called "the beginning of the watches" in Lamentations 2:19, and the Lord is called "a watcher" in Daniel 4:13. Moreover we read in Isaiah,
Your dead shall live... Awake..., you who dwell in dust. (Isaiah 26:19)
To be shown that the state of a person who lacks truths is called slumbering and sleep, see Jeremiah 51:39, 57, Psalms 13:3; 76:6, Matthew 13:25, and other places.
