PERRY: All right, let me go back to the Seven Seal Book because now this again is just basic introductory material on the Book of Revelation. One of the things that helped me to believe and understand that “The Tribulation” happens, it starts happening around chapter 5 in the Book of Revelation but you have this multitude in heaven— you know all of a sudden you’ve got chapter 2 and chapter 3 which are seven churches, which can represent seven church ages, and then it shifts in chapter 4. The church is never mentioned again in the whole Book of Revelation after chapter 4. It’s only mentioned in chapter 2 or 3. The shifting is “I heard a voice from heaven like a trumpet saying “come up hither.” That’s the picture of 1st Thessalonians 4, the “catching away.” And immediately he’s [John] in the throne room in the spirit there. Okay? But— let’s go back to the “7 Seal Book.” Why “seven seals”? Because He addresses 7 churches and He also addresses the 7 church pastors. Now this is— if we take the idea that in the Roman period a very wealthy person’s “will” was sealed with 7 seals, and in order for the will to be opened there had to be a representative from the family that sealed it to match the signet ring on the seal. If we take that assumption and build on that, then guess what we come up with as a conclusion? That before the 7 sealed book can be opened, you have to have the 7 pastors with the 7 churches that it’s addressed to standing before the Lamb at the Throne Room.
AUDIENCE: Whooo!
LARRY: Because the Book was addressed to them. It was addressed to those seven. Remember? Now if that’s so, then you know what that means? All those folks that’s mentioned in this Book in chapter 2 and 3, the church at Smyrna, Ephesus, Philadelphia, Thyatira, Laodicea, etcetera, Ephesus, you know, on and on, seven of them it means that all those people are now dead, all those pastors are in the grave. It also means that when the dead in Christ rise they will be risen— they will raise up with all the dead in Christ for the past 1900 and 88, 1900 and 90 years or however long until the Lord comes and then all of us who are living will be caught up. And it means that those to whom the Book was addressed have to be present when the seals are opened. Now what that means is that’s a strong argument for “Pre-Tribulation catching away.” Because it’s not just He’s going to come for partial church or partial dead in Christ, THE dead, meaning all the dead in Christ are going to rise at the same time. And so this is interesting. Now the second thing I want to tell you that, that intrigued me when I started doing the study— now I’ve, I’ve been in church all my life. I said one time I was born in church, I really wasn’t, I was born in a hospital like everybody else. That’s just an expression we ministers say, “I’s been raised in church, born in church.” But uh, we did not teach a lot from the Book of Revelation. I have a good friend of mine named Donald Perkins, he’s an African-American brother, and I said “When you grew up, Donald, did they preach a lot on the Book?” And he said, ‘no, as a matter of fact they told you to stay away from it when I grew up.” And I said, “Why did they do that?” They said, “Well they were so afraid of misinterpreting it because of the curse that’s placed on misinterpreting it, that we just— He said— “Honestly, Perry, we left the Book alone.
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