Revelation 9:6

[claypot]

Hey Doug, you wrote.......

  Christ is not a star that falls from heaven to the earth!

I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright, the morning star.rev 22.16

  For God sent not his Son into the world................john3.17

I like seeing Scripture through spirit eyes the best.

I see Jesus as a star coming down to earth.

cp

[Cardinal]

Beloved,Cardinal,YES!!!

   Think of it...5 months of torment..the demon possessed man

that asked Christ if He had come to torment him before the

appointed time. The association with 'woes' because satan had

been cast out of heaven unto the earth[3 woes] BECAUSE

HE KNOWS HIS TIME IS SHORT.


  Also, John the Baptist [Elijah spirit] eating LOCUSTS and

  HONEY...speaking to those who came unto him..to offspring of

vipers  ' who warned you to flee from the coming wrath'?


  the VOICE OF ONE CALLING OUT IN THE WILDERNESS

  PREPARE THE WAY FOR THE LORD

   I baptize you with water for repentance.BUT AFTER ME WILL

COME ONE WHO IS MORE POWERFUL THAN ME

WHOSE SANDALS I AM NOT FIT TO CARRY

HE WILL BAPTIZE YOU WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND FIRE

HIS WINNOWING FORK IS IN HIS HAND,AND HE WILL CLEAR

HIS THRESHING FLOOR,GATHERING HIS WHEAT INTO THE BARN

AND BURNING UP THE CHAFF WITH UNQUENCHABLE FIRE


  BEHOLD! THE LAMB OF GOD,WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF

    THE WORLD!

:cloud9: WOW, Sheila..........I had to read this 3 times to 'hear' it...........AWESOME.......hope you will expand some more on this........loved the next 2 also. Blessings....

[Cardinal]

Hi Doug;

  For every GOOD AND POSITIVE OF GOD, Satan offers

  his perverted negative..apostles/false apostles...Prince of

peace/prince of the air. ....Abrahams seed are as the sands of

the sea and as of the stars of heaven..the wise men saw

Jesus 'star' and new a KING had been born...HE [Jesus] has the

keys...." and I hold the keys of death and Hades" 

  Matthew 12;11 If any of you has a sheep and it falls

  in to a pit[or abyss?]on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of

it and lift it out?  The sun turns black as sackcloth and the

moon to blood[especially when smoke like that of a great

furnance affects them/ don't forgot the smoke on the Mountain

with Moses in God's presence..or the smoke of GOD'S GLORY

FILLING THE TEMPLE

   the 'sting' is like scorpions..in bringing much 'torment'

   the 'torment' is the sting of truth to the kingdom of

   Darkness,that their 'time' is short....tails like serpents..

   hmmmm seems Moses had a rod that turned into a serpent

   when needed.to swallow up the serpent  the TRUTH HURTS!!!
  ..

     o' death where is your sting.?..He is basically 'stinging' the

kingdom of darkness/death...o'death I shall be thy PLAGUES.

  all flesh is as grass...but beware there are snakes in the grass

  and this 'sting/torment' is for them...and men of faith are

trees of righteousness...even though there be a snake hanging

in the branches. for 'cursed' is everthing that hangs on a tree

:cloud9: AMEN...... :thumbsup: Blessings....

[Doug]

Hey Doug, you wrote.......

  Christ is not a star that falls from heaven to the earth!

I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright, the morning star.rev 22.16

  For God sent not his Son into the world................john3.17

I like seeing Scripture through spirit eyes the best.

I see Jesus as a star coming down to earth.

cp

Hi CP;

This is a no-brainer. I think it dishonors Christ to say he is the star that falls to the earth! Look up some of the scriptures that contain the word "fall."

2 Kings 10:10 - Know now that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the LORD
Matthew 10:29 - Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
Luke 6:39 - Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?
Luke 14:5 - an ass or an ox falls into a pit
James 5:12 - lest ye fall into condemnation.
Revelation 12:4 - And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth:

Christ may be a star, and he may be coming to the earth, but not by a "fall."

Doug

[sheila]

 alittle more[so hard to put into words]

 the crowns on their heads are the crown of life..for MAN is

God's GLORY AND THE WOMAN IS MAN'S GLORY[GOD AND MAN

GLORIFIED]AND THE WOMAN'S HAIR IS HER GLORY[given by

 God for a covering/Glory]


   Jesus is the LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH


  O'death I will be thy destruction...Love is as strong as DEATH

  I will ransom them from the power of the grave, Where o'

grave is your destruction?

  HE WILL SWALLOW UP DEATH FOREVER[Isaaih 25;8]

  the Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces,

 He will remove the disgrace of His people from off the earth


   He rides WHITE HORSES into spiritual battle...

  the Egyptians horses are but flesh

  This is what your Sovereign Lord says, Your God who defends

 His people. See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that

made you stagger,from that cup, the goblet of my wrath,you

will never drink again. I will put it in the hand of your tormentors

who said to you, 'fall prostrate that we may[trample] walk over

you.[see the 'time' of the tormentors torment]


  WHAT GOD IS ABOUT TO DO,WILL MAKE HIS DELIVERANCE

OF HIS PEOPLE FROM EGYPT SEEM MINUTE. REMEMBER THE

PLAGUES WORKED AGAINST PHAROAH? AND THE "LET MY

PEOPLE GO?"Plagues worked to free slaves of sin.

 He is about to deliver all His children from spiritual Egypt and

Sodom, and Babylon.To the true PROMISED LAND/KINGDOM

 OF HEAVEN.


What He did and worked in those previous

deliverances will pale in comparison to what is coming !!!!

  NOW IS QUICKLY APPROACHING

  Rev 11[secound woe passed/third woe coming

 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet[judgement]

   The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of

 Our Lord and His Christ,and he will reign forever,and ever


  We give thanks to you,Lord God Almighty, the one who is and

who was,because YOU HAVE TAKEN YOUR GREAT POWER AND

BEGUN TO REIGN

 The nations were angry and your wrath has come. The time

has come for JUDGING THE DEAD and for rewarding your

servants the prophets,and your saints,and those who reverance

your name-both small and great-

AND FOR DESTROYING THOSE WHO DESTROY THE EARTH

 [the DESTROYER COMES TO DESTROY THE DESTROYER]

 Our deliverance draws nigh

[sheila]

   the PROMISED SEED HAD TO FALL TO THE EARTH AND DIE TO

   BEAR FRUIT UNTO HEAVEN.....and this is all the fruit...

   to take away all their sin

[Molly]

Jesus didn't 'fall'--he made himself of no reputation, took upon himself the form of a servant, and humbled himself.  That is not a fall.  That is a choice.




5Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

--Phil 2

[sheila]

   John 12;24

     '....I tell you the truth, unless a kernal of wheat falls to the

ground and dies.it remains only a single seed. But if it dies,

it produces many seeds'

   the Good seed is the wheat that God sows[it falls to the

   earth].....

   there is another that falls from heaven...but  it is not sown by

   God...Jesus spoke of this in the parable of the wheat and

   tares. Again for every positive of God, there is a perverted

    negative of the adversary.

   Fall is not negative of itself..we can 'fall down and worship at

   His feet' on the earth as God's footstool, or  fall down and

   worship the image of the beast.


   fall..to pass down freely, to descend, to become of lower

    degree

[claypot]

   John 12;24

     '....I tell you the truth, unless a kernal of wheat falls to the

ground and dies.it remains only a single seed. But if it dies,

it produces many seeds'

   the Good seed is the wheat that God sows[it falls to the

   earth].....

   there is another that falls from heaven...but  it is not sown by

   God...Jesus spoke of this in the parable of the wheat and

   tares. Again for every positive of God, there is a perverted

    negative of the adversary.

   Fall is not negative of itself..we can 'fall down and worship at

   His feet' on the earth as God's footstool, or  fall down and

   worship the image of the beast.


   fall..to pass down freely, to descend, to become of lower

    degree

Exactly what I was thinking, Sheila. Exactly. The seed falls into the ground. It was sent from heaven to earth. It was sown by God.

Now I am seeing something else because of this. Satan also 'fell' from the heights. The mind of man became corrupted, it fell. The conditions were perfect for this to happen. The perfect storm idea. Who creates the conditions in which all things occur?

cp

[Cardinal]

    WHAT GOD IS ABOUT TO DO,WILL MAKE HIS DELIVERANCE

OF HIS PEOPLE FROM EGYPT SEEM MINUTE. REMEMBER THE

PLAGUES WORKED AGAINST PHAROAH? AND THE "LET MY

PEOPLE GO?"Plagues worked to free slaves of sin.

 He is about to deliver all His children from spiritual Egypt and

Sodom, and Babylon.To the true PROMISED LAND/KINGDOM

 OF HEAVEN.


What He did and worked in those previous

deliverances will pale in comparison to what is coming !!!!

  NOW IS QUICKLY APPROACHING

:cloud9: AMEN to all you have written here Sheila, but ESPECIALLY this at this time. We worship You, Father! Blessings...

[Doug]

The question in this thread is about the meaning of Rev. 9:6, "And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them."

This prophecy is referring to the essence of the idea of eternal torment of unbelievers, which has been the orthodox doctrine in Christendom for centuries. Below is a quote from Edward White's Life in Christ [Elliot Stock, 62 Paternoster Row, London, 1875]. White was a minister in London in the 2nd half of the nineteenth century and Chairman of the Congregational Union in 1886.

It is the idea of unending torment of souls, a great "torment" that affects men, and has done so for centuries in the past, that was foretold by John's prophecy of the locust plague, called "the first Woe." 

Mr. Spurgeon, whose opinions represent in the most vigorous form, and with striking sincerity, the theology of the middle and lower classes of England, does not hesitate to hold before his hearers a prospect of endless physical agony:--

'Only conceive that poor wretch in the flames, who is saying, "O for one drop of water to cool my parched tongue! "See how his tongue hangs from between his blistered lips! How it excoriates and burns the roof of his mouth, as if it were a firebrand! Behold him crying for a drop of water. I will not picture the scene. Suffice it for me to close up by saying, that the hell of hells will be to thee, poor sinner, the thought that it is to be for ever. Thou wilt look up there on the throne of God,-- and on it shall be written, "For ever!" When the damned jingle the burning irons of their torments, they shall say "For ever!" When they howl, echo cries, "For ever!"
     "'For ever' is written on their rocks,'
      'For ever' on their chains;'
      'For ever' burneth in the fire,'
      'For ever' ever reigns."
Doleful thought! "If I could but get out, then I should be happy." "If there were a hope of deliverance, then I might be peaceful; but here I am for ever! "Sirs! if ye would escape eternal torments, if ye would be found amongst the number of the blessed, the road to heaven can only be found by prayer,' etc.-- Sermon preached in 1855.

The sting of the locusts is compared to the sting of a scorpion, only the pain is emotional and spiritual. The 5 months of torment links the prophecy to the flood of Noah; the waters prevailed for 150 days, Gen. 7:24. Within that time, "every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark." [vs. 23]

Instead of dying, the doctrine of unending infernal torment says the unsaved suffer as described above by Mr. Spurgeon. That, I suggest, is what Rev. 9:6 depicts. Below is another graphic description of the suffering of the unsaved by a Roman Catholic, that is provided by White.

A still more graphic style of representation is common among Roman Catholic preachers. Those who believe in the beneficial effect of pictorial horrors on young and ignorant people might take a lesson from the religious manuals of  the Roman priests. Mr. Lecky quotes the following, in his History of European Morals, from a Tract 'for children and young persons,' called The Sight of Hell, by Rev. J. Furniss; published "permissu superiorum," by Duffy (London and Dublin). It is a detailed description of the dungeons of hell:--

'See on the middle of that red-hot floor stands a girl: she looks about sixteen years old. Her feet are bare. Listen; she speaks "I have been standing on this red-hot floor for years! Look at my burnt and bleeding feet! Let me go off this burning floor for one moment! "The fifth dungeon is the red-hot oven. The little child is in the red-hot oven. Hear how it screams to come out; see how it turns and twists itself about in the fire. It beats its head against the roof of the oven. It stamps its little feet on the floor. God was very good to this little child. Very likely God saw it would get worse and worse, and would never repent, and so it would have to be punished more severely in hell. So God in His mercy called it out of the world in early childhood.'

All this, says Mr. Furniss, is to last for ever.

Doug

[sheila]

 Doug,

  No doubt ET is a horrible doctrine of demons that have

  used this to afflict mankind[God's children] and torment then.


   However, what I am speaking about is the time of the

tormentors torment that is brought about by the locust plague.


  You will note that God instructs Babylon to receive double for

all the evil she did.the Plagues are her torment,along with

  satan knowing his time is short. The unjust judgement she

  and the kingdom of darkness put on mankind will be theirs,

  they are the ones that will be eternally cut off


  You will note that the locust do not hurt or go near to afflict

those that have the seal of God. All mankind are 'sealed' for

salvation, due to be opened and testified ,and are hidden in

Christ.

  All the plagues[including the locusts] are aimed at the

  Kingdom of darkness, to loosen it's hold on mankind.For

deliverance for rethinking[repentance of mind to those blinded

  by it,and under it's hold]

   A doctrine is spoken of devils[such as ET] and their tongue

rots while they are speaking[dead flesh without spirit of God]

   Birds come and eat[vultures] the dead flesh[where the

  carcass is there the vultures will be gathered.]


     The TRUTH these locust speak of[ babylons fall,coming

judgements,prince of the air destroyed,son of perdition to be

done away with] is a plague and torment  mentally as to what

is about to take place.

   I hope this clears up any mis-understandings.


   Men pray for death and will not find it, it is very true that

  the doctrine of ET does do that to mankind[I have actually

   expierenced that very thing] And it is horrible, however I was

delivered by a locust who stung the kingdom of darkness

in this very matter..We will not find death because the

commandment is unto life.[the doctrine/lie] is what is due to

die..and the Father of the lie with it. Our covenant with death

is annulled[joined to  the spirit of rebellion/slander of God's

  truth] We are married to our rightful/legal husband/Shiloh/truth


  We have all been robbed [mankind] of the truth/life that is

ours in our Father, and been sorely mistreated and manipulated

  by the Kingdom of Darkness....Jesus will steal back any child

that has fallen prey to them.[I come as a theif]


   Sheila

       

 

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: Wonderful Sheila.......AMEN..........Blessings....

[Doug]

You will note that the locust do not hurt or go near to afflict

those that have the seal of God. All mankind are 'sealed' for

salvation, due to be opened and testified ,and are hidden in

Christ.

In the context of the prophecy of the first "woe," the locusts hurt "only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads."

If all men knew that Christ is "the Saviour of all men," I suppose there would be no one who the locusts could hurt.  :Sparkletooth:

In Revelation, the sealing of God's saints is described in Rev. 7:1-8. The 144,000 who are sealed are the ones later described standing with Christ on Mount Zion; they are the temple of God today, the individuals in whom He dwells by His Spirit. They are included in the 12 tribes of Israel, 12,000 in each tribe, many having been "grafted in" from the nations as Paul described in Romans 11. And there is no guile in them; they are spiritually "virgins" as they do not seduce anyone by teaching false doctrine. They "follow the Lamb wherever he goeth; These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb." [Rev. 14:4]

The ones who are "sealed" are the "firstfruits," which implies there are more to follow later. And there is another group described in Rev. 7:9-17, "a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues."

Only the relatively few are sealed, as the number 144,000 implies; it is much fewer than the 200 million mentioned in Rev. 9:16, for example, although I consider these numbers to be symbolic, rather than literal. Some scriptures that tell us about the nature of the seal of God are: Rom. 8:7-9, 2 Cor. 1:21-23, Eph. 1:12-14, Eph. 4:29-32, 2 Tim. 2:19. The seal is the Spirit of Christ.

Doug

[sheila]

   Hi Doug,

   every human has a son of God and a son of

  perdition,wheat/tare

  the locusts only torment the son of perdition.

   those on Mt Zion are 'opened'; in other words Christ has

  opened the sealing on His Word in them. The others are

  sealed but not opened at that time.Opening the scriptures

or opening their understanding


   Like a deed to a land placed in a claypot is the sealing of the

  Holy spirit in the sons of God. The revealing of Christ to

these,and the opening of them is the revealing of the Sons of

  God also.

   The only one lost is the son of perdition,as was illustrated

  by Judas when satan entered him to betray Christ. We see

  further as to the identity of the man of lawlessness where it

  is shown he was a theif. This theiving spirit would put to

death the sons of God for mammon .


   The woes are because satan is thrown down from heaven

  when this opening of the 'word' or Christ unsealing them is

   done. Satan in not able to mislead with false doctrine anymore

  and woe to the earth because he knows his time is short.


   Ths saints expierence an all out attack from the kingdom of

  darkness against their flesh at this time ..to try and sweep her

  away and overcome her. They use the man of sin in others to

  launch this attack, and the sin in our own flesh also,at times

   When the dragon saw he had been hurled to the earth,he

  pursued the woman. He wars against the testimony of truth.


   You have seen this, when the salvation of all mankind is

  spoken, our brothers bound by satan and not opened in

understanding yet, are used as dupes to fight against it.


   Each man of sin will turn upon one another in fleshly warfare

  Muslims and Jews are two examples of this. This is in response

  to Christ's returning to begin His reign and the Kingdoms of

darkness due to lose their reign[remember satan offering all the

kingdoms of the world for one act]


   There are both woes to babylon and woes to the earth due to

this spiritual warfare. It is a tribulating time. Pateint endurance

is called for on the part of the saints.

        Sheila

     

[sheila]

p.s.

   Jesus and God and the angels and the locust KNOW that

  Christ is the saviour of all men. The blinded son may not be

  aware of it yet.

     Thanks, Sheila

[Doug]

alittle more[so hard to put into words]

  the crowns on their heads are the crown of life..for MAN is

God's GLORY AND THE WOMAN IS MAN'S GLORY[GOD AND MAN

GLORIFIED]AND THE WOMAN'S HAIR IS HER GLORY[given by

  God for a covering/Glory]

Rev. 9:7
... and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

Crowns are symbolic of authority. Many denominations and sects claim to be the one true church, and this belief provides priests and ministers with an enormous power and influence over the members. The locusts make use of the doctrine of unending infernal torment to generate fear in their followers, who view their leaders as holy men. Many church leaders view that doctrine as essential. 

Doug

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: I can so see what you're saying Sheila.......thanks........Blessings....

[Doug]

     The TRUTH these locust speak of[ babylons fall,coming

judgements,prince of the air destroyed,son of perdition to be

done away with] is a plague and torment  mentally as to what

is about to take place.

   I hope this clears up any mis-understandings.

The locusts of John's prophecy are those who have the true word of God, but have failed to comprehend it, or corrupted it. This is true in most of the 38,000 Christian denominations, where unbelievers are said to end up in hell and suffer endless torment. We can see this depicted in John's prophecy of the 3rd trumpet too.

3rd trumpet

Rev. 8:10-11
And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

The 3rd angel affects fountains and rivers. The fountain that is available to the house of David, and the river of living waters flowing from Jerusalem, in the prophecies of Zechariah, represent the word of God flowing like a river from the church to the world.

Zech. 13:1
In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.

Zech. 14:8
And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.

God is called the "fountain of living waters" in Jer. 2:13 and in Jer. 17:13.

Alexander wrote: "The reversion of the lifegiving Gospel fountains to death-dealing bitter waters, takes place whenever the lifegiving doctrines of divine grace are corrupted by apostate and carnal religion." [Revelation Spiritually Understood, by Charles D. Alexander, http://www.allbygrace.com/alexrevelationmainpage.html]

The star which fell from heaven has been identified with various Christian teachers, such as Origen (as Luther thought) or Pelagius. Other suggestions are the devil, Lucifer, or Atilla the Hun. Rivers, and fountains represent the teachings that come from the church. Wormwood seems to picture an attitude of bitterness or rebellion (Lit. hemlock etc.)

Hengstenberg wrote, "The star, burning like a torch and named Wormwood, forms here a contrast to the wood with which Moses, as a type of Jesus the Saviour, made the bitter water sweet, just as in ver. 8, 9, the great mountain burning with fire forms the contrast to the mighty life-stream of Ezekiel. For his own people God makes the bitter waters sweet, for the world he makes the sweet waters bitter." [The Revelation of St John v. 1, by Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg, T. & T. Clark, 1852. p. 422. http://books.google.ca/books?jtp=420&id=b5UXAAAAYAAJ]

Paul viewed the waters that the Israelites drank as symbolic, or typical; "And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ." [1 Cor. 10:4]

Waters picture the word of God; the scriptures were turned bitter, because of the scientific revolution and the enlightenment; the cosmology of scripture had been corrupted in the hellenistic era; scientific discoveries made scripture appear to support a flawed cosmology. This was followed by an era of critical scholarship, by which the bitterness was intensified.

Ezekiel wrote about the shepherds, who polluted the waters and the pasture of the sheep: "Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet? And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet." [Ezek. 34:18-19]

Doug

[sheila]

   eating the scroll..or prophesying again.....the word of God

   is like honey in the mouth,but turns John's belly bitter.

    true words of God  sweet and bitter to John


    It is because of the sweet/blessings/promises to the child of

God in each human, and the bitter judgement that goes to the

man of sin in each human. Bitter herbs were eaten along with

the Lamb of passover/symbolizing the bitterness of slavery to

  sin in Egypt/this world.


   the water to wine[sweet] to the child of God in each of us

  water to blood /death to the man of sin in each of us.


    thus the aroma of death to death for the man of sin

  but life to life to the child of God


   It was really a matter of people mis-applying the wrath

  scriptures  to mankind instead of to the kingdom of darkness

   the bitter is the curse/wrath judgements against the man of

   sin. For the judgement/wrath of God was cursed is the

   serpent and cursed is the earth on account of Adam.

    the ground would bring forth thorns and briars..and be fit for

    burning/destruction to kill the tare seeds/death of the ,man of

sin in us
   and the promised seed was also sown in the earth/ground.

   We undergo all this expierence

   there is a time..when there is no more curse...when the

judgements of God are finished/ the child of God is perfected

  the tares have been bundled and burned and the wheat

  gathered in[harvest of the earth] the man of sin cut off


   we pick up our own cross,in the likeness of Christ,as we bear

  judgemnt/putting to death of sin in our flesh,also

   the many men who die are the sons of perdition in each of us

   the outer court third  that are not measured[have not the

  spirit] that trample[the Grace of God]


   the two wittness have power to turn the water into blood

  and work all these plagues..these are worked against the son

   of perdition in all of us....because these two prophets had

tormented those who live on the earth. The judgement on the

man of sin,/death/everlasting cutting off is what 'tormented'

  them. The Word of truth the two wittnesses spoke'were as

  plagues and torments to the kingdom of darkness..just as

  in Moses day. All this is a work done of deliverance for

  HIS PEOPLE FROM BONDAGE TO THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS


    Yes, the Kingdom of Darkness has tormented,mocked the

  children of God ....but look!  Isaaih 37;22  The virgin daughter

of Zion despises and mocks you.The daughter of Jerusalem

tosses her head as you flee.Who is it you have insulted and

blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice, and

lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel .

  And this.....1Kings 18;27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them

.....then Elijah said to all the people,'Come here to me'...

  then Elijah commanded them....Seize the prophets of Baal..

don't let anyone get away! they seized them and Elijah had

them brought down to the Kishon valley and slaughtered there.


    now that the people had confessed that the Lord alone was

  God,Elijah prayed for the covenant curse to be lifted.


  Rev11;6 these men have power to shut up the sky,so that it

will not rain during the time of their prophesying.


   the spiritual warfare continues.....

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: And again I say AMEN........we are to look inward FIRST, for judgment BEGINS in the house of the Lord, whose 'house' we are. Blessings....

[sheila]

  'I kill[death of the man of sin]

and I make alive[the son of God]

  He does this work in all of us.

  we are wonderfully and fearfully made

[Doug]

    Yes, the Kingdom of Darkness has tormented,mocked the

  children of God ....but look!  Isaaih 37;22  The virgin daughter

of Zion despises and mocks you.The daughter of Jerusalem

tosses her head as you flee.Who is it you have insulted and

blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice, and

lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel .

  And this.....1Kings 18;27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them

.....then Elijah said to all the people,'Come here to me'...

  then Elijah commanded them....Seize the prophets of Baal..

don't let anyone get away! they seized them and Elijah had

them brought down to the Kishon valley and slaughtered there.

    now that the people had confessed that the Lord alone was

  God,Elijah prayed for the covenant curse to be lifted.

  Rev11;6 these men have power to shut up the sky,so that it

will not rain during the time of their prophesying.

   the spiritual warfare continues.....

How does this relate to the prophecy of the locust plague?

Hmm...  "the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle" [Rev. 9:7]
 
Joel wrote, "The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run."  [Joel 2:4]

In scripture, horses and mules are those with no understanding. "Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee." [Psa. 32:9]

A locust plague has a vast number of individual locusts. In Joel 2:2, they are "a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations."
 
Locusts destroy the pasture; they eat up all the grass. The pasture is the food for the sheep. "The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted:" [Joel 1:10]
 
The "grain" in the NT is the word of God. Jesus said, "The seed is the word of God." [Luke 8:11]

"The seed is rotten under their clods" [Joel 1:17]

The word of God is made ineffective, and rots in the ground (the hearers of the word, Luke 8:8), because of the locusts. Isn't that true today? Flawed interpretations of prophecy have caused the word of God to "rot" in the hearts of many. For example, consider the failed predictions of the dispensationalists, in the past century, who misinterpret prophecy. They adore and swoon over the racist Zionist state in Palestine, armed with nuclear weapons, which they think somehow fulfills prophecy. But those Jews have not returned to Christ. Some dispensationalists think the USA should contribute to Israel's "defense," and they lobby for a preemptive attack on Iran! They encourage the immigration of Russian Jews to populate the stolen lands. Is that Christian? No! Rather, is spiritual "fornication", IMO!

The Preterists are similar, as they deny prophecy applies to us today, and try to cram all of it into 70 AD. Both of these groups "kill" the message of the prophets about the church today.

Joel's prophecy is about the lack of spiritual nourishment for the saints; "How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate." [Joel 1:18]

Joel said of the locusts, "They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief." False prophets are thieves, as they take away the promises of God meant for us.
   
The locusts obscure the Gospel: "the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:" The sun represents the Gospel; it clothes the woman in heaven, Rev. 12:1. The sun is made dark because the locusts (especially the ones described in Rev. 9:1-11) proclaim the doctrine of an immortal soul, and unending infernal torment of unbelievers.
   
Locusts are people who need to repent! "Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil." [Joel 2:12-13]

Doug

[sheila]

Doug

  I beleive we are differing in outlook on this because I see all

the Plagues worked to deliver the people from the false

lying spirits[shepherds] Plagues on the pastures of the false

shepherd,locust destroying what the false shepherds are

pasturing the people on[grass/flesh]

   These torments are on lying Babylons religious system.No

doubt organized religions of Babylon's people are spiritually

starving.pastures devastated

   I see all these plagues as if He was working to release His

people from bondage.Certainly Egypt was devastated

   Plague of darkness,plague of locusts,plague of boils,plague of

   hail,plague of livestock,plague of flies,gnats,frogs,blood.

   and finally,death of firstborn


   All these are worked against the source of bondage of His

  people...Jesus said..if they are not against us..they are for us.


   Let my people GO..these literal plagues upon Pharoah,finally

  resulted in Pharoah letting loose of them.

   These plagues are worked against Babylon and prince of this

world. They are spiritually fulfilled now. Hail..cold hard

  facts/truth from heaven to devastate lies.


   Locusts..prepare ye the way of the Lord/REPENT=rethink

  honey=true words of God...behold the Lamb of God that takes

  away the sin of the world...what is this sin, what is the error?

   see John [the locust] sting those without the seal'ye offspring

of viper,who showed you how to escape the coming wrath'

  that sting of rebuke was to the offspring of viper..the very ones

  that were of anti-Christ.no seal of the Holy spirit..Certainly

   John the Baptist was a spiritual plague to Herod,in a manner

  a spiritual vexation and stinging of truth and rebuke[did he

  not reveal the lawless one in Herod?]


Christ

came to deliver and save the people and judge the prince of

  this world. This is the occurrance of the plagues,both literal

and spiritual fulfillment.

   Enmity of the promised seed and the seed of the serpent

  continues.

   All of Revelations is the REVEALING OF CHRIST and

deliverance of the peoples from the Kingdom of darkness

and judgement upon the Kingdom of Darkness, I know we can

both agree on that, so I will leave it at that.

   Blessings,brother

[Molly]

Joel said of the locusts, "They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief."

Revelation 9:3
And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.


[TechScope]
As Robots Get Smaller, Potential Applications Get Bigger
An emerging generation of microbots promises to explore new frontiers in medicine, security, and other fields. But designers must first overcome challenging device movement, control, and power issues.

John Edwards  |October 10, 2008

Step inside the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland. Here, in a country perhaps best known for its fine chocolates and wristwatches, engineers are building awesome robots with formidable powers. But you may have to squint a little to see them at work, because the Swiss bots can be kind of hard to see.

"Each is about the size of a locust," explains Miko Kovac, the machines' creator.

Unlike the thundering, lumbering monsters that staggered through several decades' worth of science fiction novels, comic books, and movies, these 21st century robots are so small, they can slip between a user's fingers—or pass through the eye of a needle. Like circuits and SUVs, robots are getting downsized. The result is a rapidly growing number of handy helpers designed to accomplish tasks in medicine, security, and several other fields that are too difficult or dangerous for people or even larger robots to tackle.

"We're making robots that are tiny, nimble, and fearless," Kovac says.

Yet as robots get increasingly minuscule and versatile, their creators are encountering challenges in controlling, moving, and powering their creations.

"When you get down to the microbot level, many conventional technologies go out the window," says Randall Shumaker, director of the Institute for Simulation and Training at the University of Central Florida. "In many different areas, because of the size scale involved, you have to come up with entirely new ways of doing things."

Microbots in Motion

Like other microbot developers, Kovac believes the technology's greatest potential lies in its ability to explore places that are too cramped or otherwise inaccessible to humans, animals, or conventionally sized robots. But simply getting tiny bots into the places where they are needed is sizing up as a major challenge for developers, since intricate walking- and wheel-based locomotion technologies are difficult to achieve on a micro or smaller scale.

Microbot researchers are addressing this problem with a variety of different and innovative approaches. Kovac's solution was to develop a bot that jumps like a grasshopper (Fig. 1). His prototype weighs just 7 g, but it can leap 1.4 m—more than 27 times its body size.

"That's 10 times farther for its size and weight than any existing jumping robot," says Kovac, who is developing the robotic bug as his PhD project. He observes that his "biomimetic" jumping technology is unique, since it allows the microbot to travel over the kinds of rough terrain that would block most walking or wheeled devices.

Small jumping animals, such as fleas, locusts, grasshoppers, and frogs, use elastic storage mechanisms to slowly charge and quickly release their jumping energy, Kovac explains. In this way, they can achieve very powerful jumps and very high accelerations. Kovac's jumping robot uses the same basic principle, charging a pair of torsion springs via a small 0.6-g pager motor and a cam.

To be able to optimize the jumping performance, the legs can be adjusted for jumping force, takeoff angle, and force profile during the acceleration phase. Kovac notes that his bot could be fitted with tiny sensors to allow it to explore rough, inaccessible terrain or to aid in search and rescue operations.

Duke University researchers are also taking a mechanical approach to microlocomotion, though on an even smaller scale than Kovac's machine. The Duke engineers are developing tiny bots that are designed to roam inside a laboratory-on-a-chip to perform various experimental and housekeeping tasks. Each microrobot resembles a kitchen spatula, but with dimensions measuring just microns (Fig. 2).

"We're talking about robots that are invisible to the unaided human eye," says Bruce Donald, a Duke computer science and biochemistry professor.

Helping the microbots get around, a "scratch-drive" motion actuator enables the devices to propel themselves across surfaces in inchworm-like fashion. The microrobots advance in steps measuring only 10 to 20 billionths of a meter. On the other hand, their pace is blazingly fast.

"Little steps can add up very quickly, especially when they're repeated at up to 20,000 times per second," Donald says.

Cornell University researchers are also looking to nature to uncover ways of moving microbots quickly, accurately, and efficiently. Working on a scale that makes using conventional electronics impossible, the team has turned to biological chemistry for inspiration and is looking at sperm cells, of all things, as a potential propulsion model.

Sperm cells move with the help of a wiggling flagella, a tail-like structure that propels the cell forward (Fig. 3). Alexander Travis, a Cornell assistant professor of reproductive biology, believes that the same chemical energy that moves sperm cells can be used to drive nanoscale robots.

"We're interested in creating an energy delivery to power nanoscale robots," he says. "The approach works well in nature, so there's no reason to believe that it won't work with nanoscale robots."

Travis sees potential applications in medicine, including delivery systems loaded with chemotherapy drugs or antibiotics to target specific cells. Such a system would allow doctors to provide steady doses while reducing side effects that result from treating the entire body with a drug.

Control Issues

Getting microbots to move is crucial, but so is controlling their actions. In fact, perhaps the biggest challenge currently facing microbot developers is finding effective ways of controlling their creations, Shumaker says.

Radio control, the preferred method of directing and coordinating robot operations, becomes problematic when machines are scaled down to toy-sized or even smaller dimensions. Depending on the system's size and shape, it can become difficult—sometimes even impossible—to add basic wireless technology to a microbot.

"Even if you do find a way of squeezing a receiver onboard, and the microbot can handle the added weight, you face the problem of installing an antenna that's large enough to provide decent reception capabilities," Shumaker says.

The Duke researchers are addressing control issues by designing their bots to respond to electrical stimuli as they move through a chip's pathways. Built using microchip fabrication techniques, the bots are each designed to respond differently to the same single "global control signal" as voltages charge and discharge on their working parts.

The idea has paid off in rather spectacular fashion. Donald's team recently got five of the microbots to group-maneuver in cooperation under the same control system. During a recent demonstration, two of the devices were directed to pirouette to a Strauss waltz on a dance floor measuring just 1 millimeter across. In another exhibition, the bots were directed to pivot in a precise fashion whenever their boom-like steering arms were drawn down to the surface by an electric charge.

"The response is similar to the way dirt bikers turn by extending a boot heel," Donald says.

Although microbot researchers are developing a variety of impressive control methods, Shumaker believes that the ultimate and definitive answer to microbot management lies in autonomous operation.

"We have to at least downplay the notion that people will be able to continuously direct microbot operations," he says. "Autonomous operation allows a microbot to decide for itself where it will go and what it will do, basically eliminating the need for continuous human oversight."

Autonomy becomes a necessity when deploying swarms of flying or rolling microbots.

"It's one thing to manually direct a very large robotic drone, like the Air Force's Predator," says Daniel Burrus, CEO of Burrus Research, a technology trends forecasting firm. "But it would be very difficult for a human, or even a team of people, to coordinate the interaction of hundreds or even thousands of tiny moving robots."

Fortunately, a new generation of smaller and more powerful processor and memory devices is enabling microbot developers to add a great deal of intelligence to very small systems. The biggest remaining roadblock lies in developing the sophisticated onboard software required to manage microbot activities.

"Software is the key element and is becoming one of the most active areas of research," Shumaker says.

Autonomy is already beginning to appear in some microbots. Researchers at the Israel Institute of Technology, for instance, have developed a neurosurgical microbot that directs itself using detailed information obtained from electronic preoperative patient scans.

During surgery, the microrobot is affixed to a head clamp attached to the patient's skull. The bot automatically positions itself with fine accuracy, locks itself in place, and then serves as a guide for the insertion of a needle, probe, or catheter by a surgeon to carry out a specific procedure such as removing a tumor.

The technology helps reduce the amount of pain a patient experiences, since it enables faster surgery by allowing the surgeon to know exactly where to insert the surgical instrument, says Moshe Shoham, director of the school's robotics laboratory and one of the microbot's developers. Surgeons generally like the system because it's easy to use and is applicable to a wide variety of neurosurgical procedures. There are some other benefits as well.

"It allows much less invasive surgery [and the need for] much less radiation," Shoham says.

Power Play

While microbots have relatively modest power needs, most also have little spare room available for storing fuel or other energy sources. This has forced designers to think both small and creatively, turning to both proven and highly experimental technologies to satisfy their microbots' power requirements.

Working on a limited budget, Kovac opted to use a tiny battery—a relatively mundane and low-cost technology—to power his jumping microbot. Since charging or replacing a microbot's battery would be difficult and time consuming, Kovac designed his system so it could be fitted with small solar cells.

"The cells help the robot to recharge between jumps," he notes.

At Cornell, Travis and his team are targeting a couple of energy sources to power their sperm tail propulsion system. The researchers have zeroed in on glycolysis, a process that breaks down glucose to derive adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a substance cells use for energy.

The glycolysis process requires 10 enzymes. Using special "targeting domains," sperm tether these enzymes to a fibrous sheath that runs the length of the tail. The researchers are trying to recreate this glycolytic pathway by modifying each protein's targeting domain so they can instead bind to nickel ions onto a manufactured chip.

So far, the researchers have successfully attached three of the 10 enzymes required to make ATP from glucose. If they manage to attach all 10 enzymes, each enzyme will in principle act in a series to ultimately generate ATP to power a nanodevice. In the body, such a device could conceivably use readily available blood glucose as fuel.

In the years ahead, at least one family of microbots may be able to draw energy from the same materials that the bots are constructed from. This is the promise of chembots, the convergence of soft materials chemistry and robotics. out of electro- and magneto-rheological materials and other exotic chemical combinations, self-powered chembots will literally ooze their way into otherwise inaccessible places.

Chembot researchers expect their systems will be able to perform feats unmatched by any current machine. The systems would be able to enter confined or complex spaces; follow cables, ropes, or wires; and climb trees or other branched structures.

Once in place, an energy self-contained chembot could survey an area and then morph into a specific form to accomplish its task. The device might, for example, gain entry to an improvised explosive device to gather information or potentially disable the device. Other applications include landmine detection, search and rescue in hazardous conditions, and biomedical diagnosis.

A New Era

As microbot research evolves and matures, developers are finding an increasingly deep well of design tools available for addressing critical issues.

"Depending on the situation at hand, a developer may already be able to select from two or three different approaches to a specific problem," Shumaker says.

Additional advances are certain to come, Shumaker notes. In fact, future historians may someday look back at the early 21st century as a golden age of microbotic innovation and, perhaps, the dawning of an era as important as the introduction of the automobile, airplane, or the Internet. Burrus observes that tiny robots seem destined to play important roles in national defense, home and business security, medicine, transportation, home maintenance, and an almost endless number of other fields.

"As robots get smaller," he says, "the number of possibilities seems to grow greater."





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God help us all...