France, 3/80DO 2354

1. This is what I used to call the course of useful Bible knowledge, not a lot of head-stuffing like they give you in Bible College. They give you so much you can't even remember it all. This course is something real simple to help you remember when the major events of the Bible occurred & about how far apart they were, then you kind of get your beads on the string where you can get them in order.

2. Most people's knowledge of the Bible, David, is like a handful of pearls but they don't know where they belong. They know all these different Bible stories but they haven't any idea which pearl is supposed to come first & which pearl comes next, etc. So what a teacher can do is try to make it simple for you like I've tried to do.

3. David, remember those beads you made Daddy? How many did you put on the string at once? Did you just have a whole big bunch in your hand like this? When they were a big bunch in your hand like this they weren't a string of beads, were they? It wasn't a necklace, was it? How did you have to put them on the string? Ten at a time? (David: One at a time.) One at a time, very good.

4. So we're putting the beads on for you one at a time by each 500 years & each date & the Books so you can just have a very simple little knowledge of the simple basics of the Bible—Bible History & Bible Prophecy. I know you're very interested in Bible Prophecy, but if you don't understand Bible History you'll never be able to understand Bible Prophecy.

5. If you don't understand the dates & the times, you won't know what time the Prophet was talking about.—Whether he's talking about something that's already happened, something that's ancient history way back when he was alive, or something that's just happening right now or hasn't even happened yet.

6. In order to understand Bible Prophecy you have to understand what has already happened. I've seen some poor dumb Christians try to interpret Bible Prophecy who didn't know a damn thing about history or Bible History or chronology or anything. They'd read these marvellous things in the Bible & think‚ "Oh my, think what's going to happen!"

7. Like poor Sam in India there for awhile, he was trying to get things out of the Bible that weren't even there because the other dear Sam Warner got him all twisted up!—Because if you don't know what's already happened, how are you going to know? Maybe it's already happened, see? You've got to know the difference between what has happened & what still hasn't happened yet.

8. I was like you when I was young, I wanted to know all about Bible Prophecy, I wanted to understand the whole Book of Revelation, Daniel, all the Prophets & everything that was going to happen.—And pretty soon I found out I didn't know nothing! Because a lot of these people were talking about things & events‚ & I didn't know whether they'd happened yet or not. I didn't know whether it had happened already in history or whether it happened later after them, or hadn't happened yet. I found a lot of things had already happened that they were talking about.

9. So then I found I really had to dig in & study the whole Bible from beginning to end, & Bible history, to find out what had happened, when it happened‚ & what hadn't happened yet, therefore when it was expected to happen. Now you have the benefit of all those years I spent of working hard & studying my Bible. Sometimes I thought it was all wasted, but I guess not. You've got it in the Letters & in the Books & you ought to study it, but apparently we have to refresh your memory a bit.

10. I used to recommend to my students that the best notes are kept in your Bible. Notebooks come & go & are lost & strayed & stolen, or flushed down the stormdrain in Malta (See No.794), but your Bible you usually hang on to & keep! And I try to keep it simple enough that you don't have to have too much written in there. You usually have a few blank pages in the front & a few blank pages in the back too.

11. Now please remember these are not exact dates that I'm going to give you, these are dates in round figures in 500–year periods. It would take you a long time to memorise the exact dates, & then you probably wouldn't remember them at that. But if you just leap in 500-year periods, it can be pretty easy to remember. That's close enough to remember approximately when these books were written & when these events happened, OK?

500-YEAR JUMPS FROM CREATION TO CAPTIVITY!

12. Well, about how many years before the Flood had the Lord created Man? In round numbers‚ about 1,500 years. Actually it was about 1656, something like that, & the Flood occurred about 2,500 B.C., but I like you to just try to remember nice big round numbers. My idea for students is to make it as easy as possible to remember. You're not going to remember exact numbers, but you'll remember that the Flood occurred about 1,500 years after Creation.

13. And Creation occurred about how many thousand years before Jesus? Well, at least before He was born as a baby? Now that's another case of reincarnation! I never thought about that before. He was a full-grown man & He was with God at the Creation. "In the beginning was the Word"—that's Jesus—"& the Word was with God, & the Word was God. All things were made by Him, & without Him was not any thing made that was made."—Jn.1:1,3.—4,000 years before He was born as a baby! How about that?—And in Revelation He was called "the Beginning of the creation of God"!—Rev.3:14.

14. So about how many thousands of years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem was the World created? (Fam: 4‚000 years?) I think Usher dates it at exactly 4‚004 B.C. We figured it up, remember? Oh‚ you were never in my Bible classes so you probably never figured it up, but we had a chart where you could figure it up right to the year, no doubt about it!

15. Anybody that says they don't know when the Earth was created or says that it was millions & billions of years ago is just crazy, because it tells you right in the Bible. You can just add up the figures, simple as that, right down to what is virtually recorded history, the building of the Temple in 1‚012 B.C. There were Egyptian & Assyrian records that go back to 3,000 B.C., but the building of the Temple is an established date in the Jewish records. That's the only one you have to draw from history because the Lord knew by that time you had history & you'd know what it was!

16. So about how many thousand years before Jesus was born as a baby was the World created? (Fam: About 4,000.) And about how many years later was the Flood? All you have to do now is figure in round numbers of 500. The Flood came about 1500 years after Creation, therefore about how many years before Jesus was born? (Fam: 2,500.) Right, it's a simple matter of addition, 1,500 + 2‚500 = 4,000.

17. I used to teach all my Bible students at least ten major dates of World History so they'd know about when all these things happened. And the first date is Creation, about 4,000 B.C. We'll just hit the major events in round numbers. Then the Flood about 2,500. The next really big important date was the birth of Abraham about 2,000 B.C. See, the major dates of history jump about 500 years each time. So who was the next greatest man in the Bible after Abraham? (Fam: Jesus?) Nope! (Fam: Joseph?) Nope! (Fam: Isaac?) Well‚ they were great, there were a lot of great men, but we're hitting the high spots, the mountain tops! (Fam: Moses?) Right!

18. We're jumping every 500 years, so the time of Moses was about 1,500 B.C., which was about the time of the Exodus. Actually the Exodus occurred about 1400, but that's close enough. If you just remember it is 500 years, it's easy to remember. So now let's review! Creation? (Fam: 4,000 B.C.) The Flood? (Fam: 2‚500 B.C.) Abraham? (Fam: 2,000 B.C.) Moses? (Fam: 1,500 B.C.) Very good! The days of David & the Kings? (Fam: 1,000 B.C.) Very good! All these major events occurred about 500 years apart, isn't that easy to remember?

19. Now the important thing about this is to help you remember about when all those things which you read about in the Bible were happening. When was this? Who lived first? Who lived last? Blah blah blah. Creation, David? You can cheat a little bit & ask Mama. (David: 4,000.) 4,000 years before Christ, right! It wasn't really before Christ because He was there from the beginning & helped create the World, but it was before He came back & got reincarnated as a baby.

20. Now another important date just about 500 years later‚ or almost, was the Fall of Jerusalem. Now that one I made my students memorise specifically because it's very important in history. We're going in steps of how many years? (Fam: 500.) So it must have been somewhere around 500, well actually it was 586 B.C. & you should remember that exactly. It's very very important because it had to do with the coming of Christ.

21. It was prophesied that after Jerusalem fell & they went into captivity, they would be in captivity exactly how long? (Fam: 70 years.) Which takes you from 586 to what? (Fam: 516.) Right. Now these are smaller dates, but these are pretty important. Artaxerxes of Persia issued his commandment to the Prophet to go back & help to rebuild the city in 454 B.C.—Dan.9:25.

22. That's important because the Lord prophesied through Daniel that Christ, the Messiah, would be born exactly how many years later? There would be how many "weeks" of years? (Fam: 69.) There were to be 70 "weeks" total, but 69 from the going forth of the edict to build Jerusalem to the coming of the Messiah.—Dan.9:25. And that's how many years? Can you multiply 7 x 69 without a calculator? (Fam: 483.) Right!—483 years.—So subtract 454 B.C. from 483 years & you get 29 years left. But you see, Jesus was born in 4 B.C. according to the Roman calendar‚ & He died at 33. So according to the Roman calendar He died in A.D. 29 right on the button!—Exactly the number of years that Daniel prophesied that the Messiah would come after the proclamation to rebuild Jerusalem! It's very important, & that's something to give people who're unbelievers, to show them that Bible prophecy is true!

ROMAN & LUNAR YEARS!

23. The Romans changed the calendar when they took over‚ they tried to get it straightened out & simplified. What they were really trying to do was make it a little easier for business‚ etc., & they didn't follow the old Jewish calendar, & they didn't follow the lunar calendar. Do you know what the lunar calendar is?

24. What is the Lunar Calendar? What do we mean by lunar, luna? (Fam: That's the one based on the cycles of the moon.) Right. What does the word "luna" mean? (Fam: Moon.) That's where you get the word "lunacy," because the moon can drive you crazy if you get too much moonshine! Yes sir, I can prove it by the Bible: "The sun shall not smite thee by day" nor what? (Fam: "The moon by night!"—Psa.121:6.) A lot of lovers get smitten by the moon every night & they go crazy—with love! Ha! Nobody thought that was funny, they take it so serious!

25. Well anyway, Luna means Moon, & the Lunar Calendar is the Moon Calendar. And how long is a moon month, from full moon to full moon? (Fam: 28 days.) So how long actually then would be a lunar year of 12 months? I had a course in school called Rapid Cal‚ & an easy way to figure is you take 28 x 10 = 280, right?—Which is a woman's gestation period for a baby, 280 days, 10 lunar months exactly. And 2 months more would be 28 + 28 more or 56. So it would be 336 days, right? An exact 12-month Lunar Year would be 336 days.

26. How much is the new Roman year? (Fam: 365 days.) That's almost exactly 13 lunar months. So the Roman Year is 13 of God's lunar months long, think of that! So I'm sure the Devil got in there & fritzed up the works in order to keep people from figuring accurately the times & the seasons, so we may be a lot closer to the End than we realise on the basis of a Lunar Year. Well anyhow, if you go by the Lunar Year it has 13 months of 28 days.

27. What's the Solar year? (Fam: The time it takes the Earth to go around the Sun once.) Very good. The time it takes the Earth to go around the Sun one full circle, one year, is how many days long? (Fam: 365.) Right, one complete revolution is about 365 days, & a few hours more or less—the Solar Year.

28. Well anyway, rounding the dates off to 500 years is a simple way to remember various time periods in the Bible. It makes it much easier for you to remember when these things happened, right? If you know Creation was about 4,000 B.C. & the next major event was the Flood, about 1,500 years later‚ then you know that everything in the Bible between the Creation & the Flood & Noah took about how long? (Fam: 1,500 years.) Right. Incidentally, the Book of Job was there long before the Flood. In fact, the Book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible, written even before the Books of Moses.

THE PENTATEUCH & THE TALMUD!

29. What are the first five Books in the Bible called? (Fam: Pentateuch.) Who can name them? That was the first assignment I always gave all my students for Bible Knowledge, to memorise the Books of the Bible & be able to write them down in order. Otherwise, how are you ever going to find anything if you always have to look in the Table of Contents & find what page it's on, that's not very good knowledge of the Bible.

30. What does that big Greek word "Pentateuch" mean, anyway? It means five books, that's all. And what is the name the Jews give them? (Fam: The Torah.) The Torah, or commonly called in the Old & New Testaments‚ what? (Fam: The Law.) The Books of the Law. And by whom were they written? (Fam: By Moses.) Right, & they are also therefore called what? (Fam: The Books of Moses.)

31. What are the four names of the first five Books of the Bible? Who wants to recite them? (Fam: Pentateuch, Torah, the Law & the Books of Moses.) Very good. Well, that's so much useless knowledge, because I don't know that that's really important that you know those names‚ but anyhow, you'll recognise the names if somebody called them that.

32. Now the Jews make a big deal & talk a lot more about the Talmud. Do you know what the Talmud is? Well, if you've ever seen a set of Talmud, they're worse than Das Kapital, books about that high, that wide & that thick‚ each one of them, & it would take a bookshelf longer than that mantlepiece there to hold them all! Do you know what they are?

33. They're all the traditions & old wives' fables & literally a commentary on the Bible. Has anybody ever looked in the Talmud? Right in the middle of this huge big page like this, there's a little tiny Scripture like this, about one or two verses out of the Bible, & all the rest is footnotes.—Headnotes‚ sidenotes & footnotes about one little tiny Scripture! (Maria: The Protestants do that too in all their Bible commentaries‚ volumes & volumes & volumes!) Yes‚ like the Scofield Bible, they've got whole half pages of footnotes on some pages.

34. It would be better to call the Talmud tall-lies, because it's mostly so much baloney!—The writings of the various great Rabbis about the Bible. All that to explain this one little tiny verse or two in the middle of the page. So that's what the Jews spend most of their time studying, the Talmud. They call them Talmudic schools & Talmudic studies. Well, let's get back to useful Bible knowledge, shall we?

FALL OF SAMARIA!

35. Another date you should also know just before 586 is 722‚ the date of the Fall of Samaria. 722 B.C. was the main fall of Samaria with the city of Samaria in Northern Israel. The ten tribes were taken into captivity by what great nation? (Fam: Assyria.) Assyria, very good! Where did you learn all that? Well, they actually had a lot of conquests & they'd come back & conquer cities & they'd take more & more, but that was the finish when they captured the capital city of Northern Israel, Samaria, & it fell & the Assyrians took away most of the population. That was the end of Israel, 722 B.C.‚ if you want to remember that.

36. (Fam: Who was the Prophet of Northern Israel? Was there a Prophet before it fell?) There were several, but don't be getting me into the Minor Prophets. I am totally lost if you get me into the Minor Prophets, because the major ones are about all I can remember. If you get me into Kings I'm lost too. I never memorised all that & I didn't think it was that important. But if you want to be an expert, you should, if you want to know all the Minor Prophets & when they lived, etc.

37. We're getting ahead of the story now, but this is a part of general Bible Knowledge & I usually go into this first. First the Books of the Bible, & then the approximate dates of these major periods to give you a little idea of the chronology of the Bible, & then the major divisions of the Bible. We haven't gotten into that yet except we just talked about the Pentateuch, now you're already getting into the Prophets!

THE MAJOR PROPHETS!

38. OK, you wanna shine? How many major Prophets were there? (Fam: Three?) No. (Fam: Four?) Very good. Who were they? As long as you're right you can keep on answering. (Fam: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel & Daniel.) Very good. But Daniel's just a little tiny short book, only 12 chapters‚ the others are big long books, so how come he was considered a major Prophet? Do they judge by the size of the books?—No!

39. In that case they judge by the importance of the Prophet & what he predicted, & there are more specific prophecies about the future, & time prophecies & amazing prophecies in Daniel about today & tomorrow, the real distant future—it's close now but it was distant then—than there are even in the other Major Prophets!

40. What kind of a Prophet was Isaiah? (Fam: Messianic?) The Messianic Prophet, very good. Isaiah was the Messianic Prophet because he prophesied mostly about Whom? Who did he talk about mostly? (Fam: About Jesus.) Isaiah was the Messianic Prophet because he prophesied mostly about Jesus, both about His first coming & about His second coming! And there are more prophecies about the Millennium in Isaiah than anywhere else in the Bible.—Beautiful, beautiful prophecies!

41. Jeremiah was concerned mostly about the Jews.—Their history, their fall & their future & even about the restoration & about the Jews going back to Israel & all that sort of thing, which they did & which is true. Only they're not God's people any longer, contrary to what the Evangelicals teach.

42. So Isaiah was the Prophet of what? (Fam: He was the Messianic Prophet.) Well let's forget the big word Messianic, it sounds like a mess! Isaiah prophesied mostly about Jesus! And Jeremiah prophesied about whom? (Fam: The Jews.) Ezekiel also prophesied mostly about the Jews, the fall of the Jews‚ but he had many more prophecies regarding the distant future, particularly about the Antichrist & Armageddon & those like that, even clear up to the Holy City.

43. And Daniel was a Prophet of what? (Fam: The Endtime!)—The Endtime, the Future! They all prophesied about the Endtime, but he especially prophesied about the distant Future.—Very little about the current history of Israel at his time or even shortly after, mostly about the prophecies of the distant Future. Because he was told to do what? Shut up the book &... (Fam: Seal it till the Time of the End.—Dan.12:4.)—The Endtime, because it wouldn't be revealed what it meant until the very end. And the Lord said He would show us what it meant, & He has, PTL?

FALL OF SAMARIA TO DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM!

44. OK! Are you learning anything? (Fam: Yes!) You've learned a little chronology & we sort of got onto some other things we didn't intend to get onto yet, but your first assignment in Bible Knowledge is to memorise the Books of the Bible & be sure you have the major chronology down. We're getting down to finer dates as we go along, we can't jump in 500-year periods any more.

45. So the Fall of Samaria was when? (Fam: 722 B.C.) And the Fall of Jerusalem? (Fam: 586 B.C.) See, that's later, in B.C. you go backwards in time & backwards in the numbers & you get smaller as you approach zero. So when was the edict of Artaxerxes to rebuild the city? (Fam: 454.) About 453-454, whatever you want to call it. And the birth of Jesus? (Fam: 4 B.C.) Death of Jesus? (Fam: 29 A.D.) Exactly 483 years later, or 69 x 7. And how old was He then? (Fam: 33.) About 33 years old.

46. The death of Paul the Apostle is the next date you should know because it sort of ends the Apostolic Era. He was one of the last ones to be martyred, not the last one but one of them. Does anybody know the time of the Roman persecution & the death of Paul? It was 66 A.D. The Lord must have wanted to spare him from the next major event, & that was what? (Fam: The destruction of Jerusalem.) What year? (Fam: 70 A.D.) Where did you learn all this? Did they teach it to you in school? (Fam: No.) Very good, Honey!

47. 70 A.D.—The destruction of Jerusalem by whom? (Fam: The Romans.) 100,000 Jews were crucified on the hills around Jerusalem‚ & one million were crucified throughout Israel. How many died in the Temple? Set on fire? (Fam: 5,000.) How many Christians fled across the river & were saved? (Fam: 2,000.) Apparently most of them had already fled, they were pretty smart to get out of Jerusalem, & they got across. Those weren't all the Christians there were, these were just the ones who got out of Jerusalem & got across the river & were spared. So in 70 A.D. the city was destroyed.

DEATH OF JOHN THE BELOVED!

48. The next major date in Christian history is the death of John the Beloved, or John the Revelator as he's called, the man who wrote the Gospel of John, the Epistles of John, & the last one, the Book of Revelation, or Apocalypse as the Catholics call it. And he's the fellow they tried to boil in oil & he wouldn't boil! Did you know that, David?

49. The bad wicked System Emperor took the Apostle John who wrote the Gospel of John & the Epistles of John, & wanted to kill him! He wanted to think of a nice painful way to kill him because he didn't like him. So do you know what he did? He tried to boil him in oil! They tried to boil him in a great big cooking vat of oil like they cook french fries in & things like that‚ deep fries & fondue.—I'm sure John wasn't so "fond" of that kind of "do"!

50. Anyway, it was a miracle! They dropped him in this boiling oil & he wouldn't boil!—The only Apostle who didn't die a martyr's death. He wasn't even hurt, he wasn't even burned! He wasn't even scorched or blistered. So since he was virtually indestructible, they just took him out & they sent him to the Isle of Patmos, which is a little tiny island just off the Western shore of Turkey.—A little island that's still there, David, the Island of Patmos. In fact, when we were in Malta we saw the little island where St. Paul was shipwrecked, didn't we‚ just off Malta.

51. So all these places are still in the World today where these things actually happened. I'll never forget after one of my "Bible in Pictures" lectures—I was showing the story & it had pictures & maps & actual photographs of the places—& afterwards this good Christian man‚ a dear old elder of the church walked up & said, "All those things really happened‚ didn't they!"—Ha!

52. OK, so our last date was approximately the time of the death of the beloved Disciple John on the Isle of Patmos after he got Revelation. Really‚ the name of the book is a misnomer. It says "The Revelation of St. John the Divine" in our nice King James Version, but if you read the first three verses you'll find out it's not the revelation of John, it's the revelation of Whom? (Fam: Jesus Christ!) The Revelation of Jesus Christ! But it was recorded by dear John, so, OK, he gets some credit.

53. About what year did John die? (Fam: 90 A.D.) Very good. He lived a long time & he died an old man, a natural death, peaceful death, on the Island of Patmos. So sometimes you're better off in jail than you are outside. Well, he wasn't actually in jail‚ they let him roam the Island, but he could not leave the Island.

54. Well, let's see, any other major dates in Christian history? How many have we got now? I'm going to give you the years now & you tell me the event, OK? 4,000? (Fam: Creation.) 2,500? (Fam: Flood.) 2,000? (Fam: Abraham's birth.) 1,500? (Fam: Moses.) 1,000? (Fam: Kings.) 500 & thereabouts? (Fam: Fall of Jerusalem.) Really, the complete fall of Israel & Jerusalem & everything was a little before that, but anyway, very good. Oh, you're so smart! 4 B.C.? (Fam: Jesus' birth.) 29 A.D.? (Fam: His death.) 66? (Fam: Paul's death.) 70? (Fam: Destruction of Jerusalem.) 90? (Fam: The death of John.) Very good‚ Class!

55. Isn't this a pretty smart class, David? Are you listening? You can learn something! I know this is pretty deep for little boys, but if you listen you could learn. If you're not interested, maybe you'd rather go to bed, huh? I think we've almost had an hour already & we don't want to get the children too tired.

56. (Fam: I have a question about the time periods—I also have 500 written down as the Prophets. Is that like in general?) Well, yes. The prophecies of Isaiah & Daniel & some of those were mostly in the 500 & 600's B.C. They were during the days of the Kings, the latter days of the Kings‚ the last days of the Kings, see?—Just like the Lord has raised us up to be prophets during the last days of modern kings. But the end of their time, that was the endtime for them & for Israel, was about the 500's. So that's when the Prophets started prophesying the most.

57. Another date you ought to remember is the date of the last Book of the Old Testament, Malachi. In round numbers it was about 300 years before Jesus‚ the last book of the Old Testament. There had been Prophets pretty frequently every few years‚ but then all of a sudden God shut up & never said another word for 300 years, at least not recorded. Why?—Because they didn't listen, & they wouldn't obey, so why should He talk? He just quit talking! There were no Prophets or prophecies for 300 years, from about 300 B.C. until Jesus came.

CHRISTIAN HISTORY!

58. So we could go into Christian history a little bit to bring us up to modern time! Let's see if we can remember any dates. In 500-year periods again to make it easy for you‚ what happened around the 500's A.D.? (Fam: The church broke up?) Well, it was along in there, the major Roman persecutions of which there had been many. But about 500 A.D. the Church split into the Eastern & Western so-called Roman Empires —the Orthodox & the Catholic.

59. What happened about 1,000 A.D.? That date, 1,000 to 1,100, is considered the middle of the what? (Fam: The Dark Ages.) That was the depths of the so-called Dark Ages under the dear Catholic Church. That's when they hit bottom & when there was the greatest darkness & superstition & the worst kind of Christian heathenism. About 500 years later, what brought us out of the Dark Ages?—The Renaissance about in the 1,400's & the Reformation followed the Renaissance in the 1,500's.

60. The date of the King James Version?—1611! It's right in the front of your Bible in case you forget it. As I recall, the death of Shakespeare was 1616. He had his Globe Theatre still open in 1613, two years after the King James Bible had been issued, & someone has said that if there were not another Bible in the whole World, you could recapture a lot of it just out of the writings of Shakespeare! He was apparently an avid reader of the Bible & liked it & quoted it again & again. Someone has also said that you could recapture most of the Bible from the writings of most great men who quoted it.

61. So the Reformation was around 1,500 A.D., & the next step somewhere around 2,000 is going to be what? (Fam: Jesus is going to come back!) The Reformation around 1,500 & the Resurrection somewhere close to 2‚000! So that'll be about how many thousand years since the Creation? From Creation to the Second Coming of Christ is approximately 6,000 years!

MILLENNIUM TO ETERNITY!

62. The next major event that's going to follow the Coming of Christ is the Millennium! In a way there are really three comings of Christ. The first coming was as a baby, the next coming is when? (Fam: The Rapture.) The Rapture of the Saints at the end of what? (Fam: The Tribulation.) And then what follows immediately? (Fam: The Millennium?) Not the Millennium, but the Wrath of God, the horrible Seven Vials of Wrath! Maybe we need to brush you up a little on your Bible Prophecy too!

63. And then after the Wrath of God on the people left behind, Jesus comes again!—Third time's the charm! This time He comes in mighty power riding on a white horse, & all of His people after Him riding on white horses! If you've never ridden on a horse before, you're gonna ride on a white horse some day when Jesus comes back for the third time, think of that!

64. And what is Armageddon? (Fam: The major battle between the forces of Jesus & the forces of the Devil?) No, Armageddon is not that. That's the Battle of Armageddon. Ha! I'm just being finicky! Armageddon means the height of Meggido. It's a big round mountain right in the middle of the Valley of Meggido, & that's where the last battle's gonna be. You're describing the Battle of Armageddon. I was just trying to catch you!

65. Armageddon itself is this mountain in the middle of the Valley of Meggido which lies about halfway between Haifa & Jerusalem, & runs Southeasterly. And if you've read "Israel Invaded" (No.281) you know all the details & routes of the invasion & everything, just as plain as day in the Bible.

66. OK, well I think maybe you've had enough for one night! Did we finish our chronology from the beginning to the end? Oh! If the coming of Christ is going to be near 2,000, we figured it might be around 1993, maybe that's 2‚000 Lunar Years, who knows? I never really figured it out.

67. What is the next major date in history after the Coming of the Lord? (Fam: 3,000!) Yes, the end of the Millennium! And what happens at the end of the Millennium? (Fam: Space City?) Not yet, there's another big event first. Another big what? (Fam: Battle!) Called the battle of what? (Fam: Gog & Magog.)—Right!

68. It's called the Battle of Gog & Magog—they haven't gotten rid of the Devil yet even after a thousand years! Think of that! Just think, he's around at the invasion of Israel & the conquest of all that, but 1,000 years later he revives again. The Battle of Gog & Magog, & then what happens? What's the result of the battle? (Fam: All the people on the Earth are destroyed.) Just the forces of the Devil are destroyed. There's no Antichrist then, the Devil himself leads the forces then & they're all destroyed.

69. And how are they destroyed? With what? (Fam: Fire?)—Fire! That's when fire burns up the whole Earth & the atmospheric heavens too! All the heavens & the Earth are destroyed!—The surface of the Earth, that is, the ball is still here because we're going to reinhabit it. And the Lord recreates it, completely reconstitutes the surface of the Earth into a beautiful New Earth & lovely New Heavens wherein dwelleth righteousness!—2Pet.3:13.

70. Well‚ you've had a whole chronology of the Bible from Creation to the New Heaven & the New Earth! And what will we see coming down then? (Fam: The Heavenly City.) The Heavenly City! Coming down from... (Fam: God out of Heaven!—Rev.21:2.) Very good. Obviously to the Earth. And God is going to dwell where? To be Scriptural He's going to dwell with whom? (Fam: With men.) Right, He's going to dwell with us on Earth in the Heavenly City, think of that!—Rev.21:3.

71. We're not going to have to go to Heaven, Heaven's going to come to us! We will go to Heaven for a little while in the Rapture, but then we come back to Earth again for the Millennium, then we go back to Heaven again for the Battle of Gog & Magog, then we come back to Earth & Space City. And then as far as we know, we haven't had any information beyond that‚ we'll be here forever! PTL!

72. Well, I hope you know a little more about the Bible now & Bible chronology! Thank You Lord for this time of fellowship & study together! May it be not merely informative, Lord, but instructive‚ inspirational & edifying to the use of Thy children that they should be able to teach others, to teach others, to teach others, & understand Thy Word & the days in which we live better, in Jesus' name. TYL! Bless the children & help them not to be too tired, amen. It's a late night, but you've stayed up to see movies this late lots of times!

73. OK, that's it, GBY! If you wanna be a shiner tomorrow night you'd better brush up on your Bible! Brush the dust off & get to work! I'm going to ask you about the divisions of the Bible & their approximate times‚ according to the chronology you learned tonight‚ which one of those 500–year periods each division was in. That way you'll know when those books were written & what period of history it was talking about. You're pretty dumb if you read a book & you have no idea when it happened or how these beads relate to each other on the string! All right, children, class dismissed!

SUMMARY OF BIBLE TIME PERIODS AND IMPORTANT DATES:

About 4,000 B.C.Creation

About 2,500 B.C.The Flood

About 2,000 B.C.Abraham

About 1,500 B.C.Moses

About 1‚000 B.C.David & the Kings

722 B.C.Fall of Samaria

586 B.C.Fall of Jerusalem

4 B.C.Birth of Jesus

29 A.D.Death of Jesus

66 A.D.Death of Paul the Apostle

70 A.D.Romans destroy Jerusalem

90 A.D.Death of John the Revelator

About 500 A.D.Church Splits into Western & Eastern Roman Empires

About 1,000 A.D.Dark Ages

About 1,500 A.D.Reformation

1611 A.D.King James Version

About 2,000 A.D.Second Coming, Armageddon & Millennium

About 3,000 A.D.Gog & Magog/Great WhiteThrone, New Heaven & New Earth

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family