The Book of Revelation: Unveiling God's Plan for Humanity

Blessings to Israel presents Discerning the Times, a program committed to encouraging you to view current events through the lens of the Bible.

Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, please join us for today's program. What's happening in our world today to universalize monetary transfer? There's a country in Europe right now where they're actually embedding chips underneath the skin of people's hands, and it's several thousand people. And this chip is radio controlled, so you can do all your business from this chip. You can walk in the store and just run your chip by the scanner, picks up all your information. You can do business with this.

You can transfer money from your hand to somebody else who may have this. It's preparing the way for the mark of the beast, because in the book of Revelation in the 13th chapter, it talks about how when the antichrist comes to rule, you will have to take the mark. And if you don't take the mark, you won't be able to buy or sell. So, if you aren't loyal to the antichrist, you will be starved out of existence. You will go to the store, collect all your groceries, but when you go to check out, if you don't have the mark of the beast, you won't be able to do any business. That's the way the antichrist will control his population.

Does that sound kind of familiar? I mean, it's changing. It's rapidly changing, and it's not hard to understand that. Read Revelation 13, and Revelation 13 cast a shadow before it, and we're living in that shadow right now.

We are living in that shadow right now. Welcome to the program. My name is Brian Thomas, and it is always a joy and honor and a privilege to join you each week. And I want to thank you for tuning in. That voice that you heard in the opening clip was that of Pastor David Jeremiah, and he is speaking about the times that we are living in and what the Bible speaks of concerning the future.

And we see things playing out right before our eyes. And so today I am very excited and privileged to have a first time guest who is also very familiar with the voice of Pastor David Jeremiah. He was his associate pastor for 10 years. His name is Pastor Pierre Rosa.

He was born and raised in Brazil. And after coming to faith in Christ, he moved to the United States to complete his education and study for the ministry for 10 years. Once again, he served at Shadow Mountain Community Church under Pastor David Jeremiah.

He's now the senior pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Salem, Oregon. So, Pastor Rosa, I want to thank you so much for coming on to speak with us today. It's an honor to have you. Thank you for having me on, Brian. I'm honored to be here with you today.

Yes. And so these times that we are living in, Pastor Rosa, there are just things that are unfolding. People are asking questions.

People are looking around. And I had you come on today to speak with us about a book that you released not too long ago that is titled The Book of Revelation, Unveiling God's Plan for Humanity. And about the book you write, the book builds up hope and tears down arrogance. It admonishes and alarms. It both comforts and confronts. It inspires and instructs. It stimulates and sanctifies. And so when I saw that, I just had to bring you on to talk about it because the book of Revelation is my favorite book in all the Bible.

As a young child, I was really drawn to it. And when God called me into ministry, I really made it a commitment to really share and to teach on the book of Revelation. So I wanted to have you to come on to share with our audience the things that you have written and what God has spoken to you concerning this great final book of the Bible. And so to get us started, as I said, there are so many things happening in the world and many people are just looking around and they sense that something is taking place. I hear from even non-believers in Christ and they just say it just feels like we're on the verge of something major happening. And so it just really looks like things are winding down. What does the book of Revelation tell us about this?

Yeah, Brian, you're right. I think the world as we know it is winding down. And you know, the book of Revelation addresses the church in chapters two through chapter three. But then after chapter four, the book doesn't mention the church anymore. And it deals with God's prophetic time clock now dealing with the earth. You know, we know the tribulation of the end times as the time of Jacob's trouble, like Jeremiah 30 verse seven tells us.

The rapture of the church is going to trigger that time when God will turn his attention back to the nation of Israel and everything will culminate with the second coming of Christ when Jesus will finally come and establish his millennial kingdom. And I think what we've witnessed in the last, at least the last two years, three years is God's got our attention, doesn't he, with everything that's going on. And it was the perfect time to study God's word and to see what God has to say about the times, about what's going on. And yeah, the Bible does clarify that the world is not really becoming a better place. Paul tells Timothy that difficult times will come when men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, etc. So we better pay attention to what God has to say to us, especially now through what we're going on in the world now because he has our attention now. And as we know, Brian, his desire is for people to hear the gospel, for those of us who are Christians, to communicate to the world and to alert the world that Jesus is still in the business of saving people from their sin.

Absolutely. Yeah, God definitely got our attention. I mean, 2020 with COVID, I don't think anyone saw that coming. So, yes, people's eyes are definitely opening to God is speaking to us.

And you alluded to it. You do believe in the pre-tribulation rapture. You believe that that is the next significant thing that will take place, that that will be followed by the seven year tribulation, right?

Correct. I think when you take the Bible at face value and you study the book verse by verse and take it, the Bible says what it means, it means what it says, you have to come to that conclusion that the very next thing, the very next event in God's calendar is the rapture of the church and then the tribulation of the end times will start right after that, culminating with the second coming of Christ. Yeah, and I agree with you totally.

I hold the exact same position as well. Now, you say in the book that now is the time to warn people about the coming day of wrath. With that said, though, Pastor Rosa, there is so little preaching about this in churches today.

Why do you think that is? Brian, I think these are not very popular themes, you know, when you talk about condemnation, judgment and the holiness of God. And for those of us who are pastors, we like to gather people, not scatter them. So there's a real risk that by warning people to flee the wrath of God, we'll be labeled as unloving or intolerant.

We may be canceled nowadays or censored on social media. But again, the temptation is because we are pastors and preachers. We are peacemakers.

We don't want to be troublemakers. But really, if we really love people, we have to warn them to avoid divine judgment. I think of the time when I lived in San Diego in 2003, there were the Cedar fires there. Many of us received 911 reverse calls. And I thought that how loving and compassionate of them to alert us to flee the fires. You know, so I think of warning people to flee the wrath to come is like that. We're telling people there's a day of judgment coming. And the Book of Revelation is that spiritual reverse 911 call. If we love Christ and we love people, we must tell them to run to him for safety because you never know. The day may be tomorrow that the church is raptured or it may happen 100 years from now.

We don't know. What we know for sure is that we are called to tell people how to get saved and how to avoid judgment from God. And once they get saved, there's new hope. There's newness of life. So and I get to do that for a living blessing.

Yes. Amen. Amen. And, you know, I'm not a pastor myself, but as a as an evangelist, I have faced that that temptation to when you go to speak, to not speak about the wrath and the judgment, because there's a temptation to you want to say things that are going to make people feel good and put smiles on their faces. But I have to say, I have to stay true to the full counsel of the word of God. And the thing about it, Pastor Rosie, is like the analogy you gave that was so great about the five years, is that maybe in the immediate, if we are warning people about a judgment, if they do not repent, it may not put a smile on their face immediately. But in the end, the long term, they will have a smile if they heed to the word of God, because then they will have eternal life and not have to face God's wrath.

Right. Amen. That's good preaching, brother. So along with that, you speak in the book also about, you know, the fact that as believers in Christ, that there is rejection and there is suffering. That should be something that we view as a normal part of our lives. And again, that ties into the the previous question about you don't hear much preaching on that, much preaching on that as well.

Yeah. And again, if we're going to avoid the difficult topics of scripture or the controversial topics of scripture, we're going to be very limited in what we're going to talk about and we're going to have to resort to whatever people want to hear that will tickle their ears. But Paul really warned Timothy that all who desire to live godly in Christ will be persecuted. And Peter also warned the believers in Asia Minor that do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing as though something strange were happening to you. So we know that those of us who desire to honor Christ, we will be persecuted.

There will be opposition and criticism. You know, we experienced it a little different here in America than our brothers around the world. But one way or another, different levels of intensity. Since the very birth of the church in the day of Pentecost, suffering seems to be a very effective agent of transformation in God's hands.

I've experienced that in my own life when God molds our character, when he sends, you know, persecution, opposition and criticism, even our way. So I think we should embrace suffering. We don't want it, of course. We don't.

We would opt out if we could. But when suffering comes our way, rather than resist, we should embrace it as God. Molding our character and sanctifying our affections. Yes, absolutely.

I agree with you. Yeah, that was the exact word that was in my mind as you were talking as is embracing. And that is one of the things that I also when I when I preach, I try to to get people to understand that.

It's like, no, I'm not going to say that in the natural. We look forward to to suffering, but embrace it. Just like the apostles in the book of Acts, when they were taken up before the council and they were beaten for being followers of Christ. And the scripture says they went away rejoicing, having been counted worthy to suffer for Christ. And that is just something that you don't hear preached very often today for people to rejoice in order to suffer for Christ. So I agree with you. And I just love the fact that that you present that as that. Yes, this this rejection and suffering should be a part of our our normal life and we should embrace it. Amen.

True. You also speak about in the book about the fact that things are going to get worse before they get better. So I'm going to have you speak to that.

But before I do, I want to play a couple of clips. This is Dan Celia. And he's speaking about something that he believes is about to come on the horizon concerning some of the things that we should be prepared to face. Chain is going to become a crisis, I believe, leading to even worse shortage of goods and possibly shortage of food. So will these be the next crises that the world leaders can't let go to waste? It will be the next crisis. I said that a year ago. There are going to be food shortages. Yes.

There is no doubt about it. It started this year with fertilizer shortages. We have dramatic shortages in fertilizer and can't think of what the other chemicals called that protects crops.

That is almost nonexistent. Now we can get through the next harvest. We're not going to get through anything more than that. But this harvest, the next harvest is going to be yielding quite a bit less because of the lack of fertilizer and bug and pest protection. We're going to see lower harvest and lower yields. And that's going to drive commodity up. Commodity prices are everything when it comes to inflation. The reason why I said a year and two months ago that we were going to have inflation and it's going to be here to stay was because of commodity prices. And that's what you look at. That's what every good economist ought to be looking at.

I assume they were and they were ignoring it because I don't want to think that they weren't smart enough to see it. We have to have food shortages. That will be the next thing. There are some things that are definitely going to happen in a food shortage is the greatest final crisis that could come to America. Adolf Hitler got elected for one reason. He promised everybody a loaf of bread on the table. That was his campaign. His whole campaign was built upon that because people were starving. So, again, that was Dan Celia.

He was being interviewed by Jan Markell. And he's he's predicting food shortages on the near horizon. So. So, Pastor Rosa, speak to us about other birth pains that the Bible speaks about that we should see that will come upon the world.

Yes. So food shortages. That's the the famine that we read about in Revelation six.

That's talking about the end times, the the black horse, the third seal there in that chapter. And that's going to happen in a global scenario. Now, we in America are not familiar with food shortages because we've had abundance for so long now.

And we we are a prosperous nation. But I think in this last year, what we've witnessed with the supply chain and a little bit of shortages here and there and the not being able to buy and sell, maybe this is a preview of what's to come in the end time. If we read when we read about what's going to happen in those times, man, we don't want to be here for that. And those of us who are believers in Christ, we will be raptured out of here first.

But there will be shortages, inflation, economic troubles and all of that. And we see the progression of all of these birth things like Jesus mentions in the all of it discourse. And the illustration that Jesus uses is obviously very appropriate because he's God. But the idea is that when a woman is experiencing birth things, she knows the hour is coming. It serves to warn her that there's new life coming here. And when we see that these things are happening in the tribulation of the end times, it will be a reminder for those who will be left behind that pretty soon Christ is going to come back. But there is a world to reach. There are things to accomplish. But the good thing is for us, Brian, those of us who are believers in Christ now, church aides think we will be raptured out of here.

We will be in heaven receiving rewards and worshiping God. But we do have family and friends that will be left behind and we care about them. And that's another reason why we should warn them and tell them.

Even if they tell us that they call us intolerant or a Bible thump or whatever else people like to call us these days. We say, man, I'm concerned about you. Like I told my cousin one time.

He told me, he said, if you speak of Jesus one more time, I'm not going to come over on Christmas or anything like that. I said, all right, I'll honor what you're asking me. Just do me a favor. Don't die. Because if you die, man, you're not going to be in heaven with me. And I am concerned about that. Well, that's so true.

So true. And that's one of the things, Pastor Rose, I'm glad you pointed that out, because I've heard some of the critics of the pre tribulation rapture view. They say that we tend to just say, well, we check out of life and we just say, OK, the Lord is going to come at any moment. And we're ready to go with him.

But I say no. Everyone that I know, including myself, of course, that holds to the pre tribulation rapture view. It gives even more of an urgency to say get right with Christ now, because this could happen at any moment. You don't want to be left here and to face the judgment or or to die without Christ as your Lord and Savior.

So, yeah, we love people. And that is why we study these things that are to come in the future, even though we'll be in heaven, as you said. All right. So for those just now joining us, I am speaking today to Pastor Pierre Rosa on his book, the Book of Revelation, unveiling God's plan for humanity.

All right. So now I want to talk about the coming Antichrist. And as you said, we as believers in Christ, we are raptured.

We are gone. We don't need to be concerned and consumed by who the Antichrist is, as I see some people are at times, because, well, once he's revealed, we're gone. But with that said, the coming Antichrist, he is going to have a thirst for followers of Christ and for Jewish blood. And I want you to to speak about that after we listen to this clip that speaks about one of the ways in which I think the Antichrist is going to control the world and society is through a cashless system. No cash. It's a trend that's growing in popularity worldwide. Last year, Visa ran a campaign in which it offered 50 restaurants $10,000 each if they agreed to stop accepting cash.

I don't know. Michael Ryan wasn't able to apply, as his restaurant had already gone cashless. I've been in this business a long time, and I feel like there's a lot of theft when you have cash around. So when there's cash in the safe, downstairs, in the office, behind the counter, everyone's dipping in, everyone's sharing. You share your drawer with another employee. There's cash always goes missing. So it's just like this eliminated theft issue. So that's off the table.

But the more importantly, it's like today I was late to work. The place can still open because they don't need to go to the safe, get cash, set up the store. You can just arrive and open up.

So it's from an operational standpoint, it's a breeze. All right. So we're not yet in the tribulation. But as we heard in the opening clip, Pastor Jeremiah, he said, well, prophecies cast shadows before itself.

And I think we're seeing that already. And again, the Antichrist, he's going to have a system in which he's going to control the world and he's going to be after Christians and the Jews. So what is the reason as to why he would have this thirst for their blood? You know, Satan hates people in general because we are redeemable and he is not. You know, Jesus didn't die on a cross for demons or for Satan. He died on a cross to save people. But specifically, Satan hates both Jews and Christians because one is the people of God with whom God established the covenant.

You know, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And the other is the bride of Christ, which, by the way, has not replaced Israel. But what we know now from scripture and that brings us comfort is that God has Satan on a leash now. But during the tribulation of the end time, that leash is going to get a little more slack. God's going to permit Satan through the Antichrist to persecute Israel. He'll sign a covenant of peace with the nation. We read about that in the book of Daniel, chapter 9, verse 24 all the way through 27. But he will break that covenant in the middle and trigger the great tribulation and start persecuting Christians and messianic Jews. Who will finally come to faith in Jesus Christ. And we have we have several previews of guys like this throughout history.

Nero, for example, Hitler and all of these guys. But but the one of the end times, the one that the Bible talks about is yet to come. And yet maybe he will establish a cashless society because that's how you control commerce.

It's a lot easier to control commerce when you when you use a cashless system. So like I said, perhaps the stage is being set right now. But the good news, Brian, is that we won't be here. Those of us who are Christians that we need to warn people that they can join us if they come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Amen. And that is what the book of Titus calls our blessed hope. That is what we are looking forward to for Christ to come and take us to be with him. And I'm so glad you pointed out that the church has not replaced Israel.

Our parent ministry is blessings to Israel, and we put a lot of emphasis on the nation of Israel. And we do speak against that that lie from from Satan about replacement theology. And, you know, for me, Pastor Rosa, when I really understood God's plan for the church and God's plan for Israel, that's when the rapture became clear to me when I really started to read and to understand the 70 weeks prophecy and understood that, well, the final week and we could go on for hours about that, we won't get deep into it. But when I when I realized that final week is about the nation of Israel, that is the primary purpose to bring Israel to repentance. Then it really made sense that there's no need for the church to be here during the during the tribulation. And so thank you so much for pointing that out. Now, we don't hear much about the retribution of God, but I want you to share with us about what it looks like in Revelation, because we know the end includes it talks about these cosmic calamities, pollution, immorality, demonic activity, all these things happening. So so speak to us about that.

And do you think we are fast approaching that season? Yeah, because when we read, it's easy to get confused with all of the imagery and the apocalyptic language in the book of Revelation and the bizarre, really the bizarre images there, but they're all pointing to spiritual truths. And what we have in the book of Revelation very clearly is that God is lining up the canon and aiming the guns directly at Earth for the coming bombardment, really, which is his wrath going to be poured out here. But he is long suffering and quick to forgive. And he says vengeance is mine.

I will repay. And he loves and doers forever. But his patience doesn't. So we when when we read about the retribution of God is that he is holy. He must make sure that that sin is dealt with.

Of course, he sent his own son to take the punishment that you and I deserve. But on a global scale, he is lining up the canon. Again, we don't know the exact timeframe.

We're not supposed to know. But what we do know is that when the rapture of the church happens, the clock is ticking and God is going to finally pour out all of the judgments that we read about in the book of Revelation, demonstrating his holiness and his grace also, because there will be people who will be saved during that time. Those will be the tribulation saints. Amen. Amen.

Yeah. God, he's so gracious, he's so compassionate, merciful in giving us opportunities to to come to him. So where I want to wrap things up with you also write that our job is not to make the word of God acceptable. Our job is to make it available. Do you think we try too hard to make it acceptable to unbelievers?

I think we do, Brian. And because and the reason for that is because we love people so much and we want them to be saved. We want them to come to faith in Jesus Christ so much that we might be tempted to water down the gospel and make promises that God never made.

Or maybe avoid the the controversial parts of the gospel, the talk of judgment and all of that. But we need to focus on we need to present the gospel like it is, because our job as pastors and preachers and even lay believers, every believer is commissioned to make other disciples. Our job is to deliver the message. We are the delivery boy. We're not the originator of the message. So to me, it becomes a lot easier to deal with the temptation when I think when I when I'm convinced that my job is to deliver the food.

I didn't make the food. I'm the I'm the carrier here. And my job is to be faithful to the message. But if we water down the message and make it try to make it acceptable to to sort of close the deal with unbelievers, that's all we get into trouble. Amen. Amen. Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly, because when we look in the Bible at the prophets, you know, they they gave hard messages to the people and they were not loved.

They were they were definitely not popular. They were persecuted and they suffered tremendously as far as people being after them. But they were obedient, obedient to God's truth. And that's what we have to do today.

But there is a temptation to water it down. But if we really love people, as you said, you will warn them of the coming wrath of God. So, Pastor Rosa, can you share with us once again how our listeners can get a copy of this book? Yeah, it's available on our Web site, truthwithgrace.org or Amazon. So all those both both of these places there, Amazon or truthwithgrace.org, our Web site there.

All right. Well, once again, Pastor Rose, I want to thank you for coming on with us today. I just admire the work that you are doing. I listen to so many of your sermons and you're doing awesome things. I've never been to Oregon, but if I ever make a trip there, I will definitely drop in on one of your church services. So thank you so much and continue to work for the kingdom of our great Lord. Thank you, Brian. An honor to talk with you about these things.

Please do come and see me if you're on this side of the country. Amen. All right. All right.

Well, thank you so much. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. Please come back next week as we continue to encourage you to put God first while discerning the times and looking through life through the window of the Bible. Until then, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel. Until the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Thank you for tuning in to discerning the times. Please come back and join us next week as we continue to encourage you to view current events through the lens of the Bible. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.