The man Jesus Chirst(Church of God world mission society)

The gospel prospered even in tribulation and persecution

In the days of Nehemiah, Sanballat and Tobiah took the lead in hindering the Israelites from building the temple. They scorned and ridiculed them, saying, "If even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!" Thus, they brought so many troubles on Israel. Despite such hindrances, all the officials and leaders of the Jews continued building the temple, being one in mind; half of them did the work and half stood guard, holding spears and shields (Ne 4:1-23). At last they finished building the temple. When all their enemies heard this, they were afraid and lost heart, because they realized that the work had been done with God's help (Ne 6:15-16). Even in persecution and affliction, the apostles were burning all the more with a sure faith in Christ. Where are they now? They are comforted by God in the eternal kingdom of heaven. Where is the Apostle Paul who proclaimed that Jesus is God? He is at rest forever in the glorious kingdom which no one has ever seen or heard or thought. How about the high priests and religious leaders who brought a false charge of ‘a ringleader of the Nazarene sect' against Paul and afflicted him? Where are they now?

Promise of victory through great fight

If many religions had hope for heaven, they would not be conformed to this world but pursue the truth of the Bible. But they do not follow it, just like the religious leaders in the time of the Early Church.The 144,000, spiritually represented as materials for the temple, repent and receive the Christ, seeing the light of the Spirit and the Bride and hearing Their voices. All unreasonable things that happened in the Early Church are occurring in this age, too, according to the prophecies. However, even under such circumstances, we are not disheartened; for God gives courage and comfort to us, who will enter the kingdom of heaven. The Bible says:

Rev 12:17 『Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring―those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea [the sand of the sea, KJV].』

The sand of the sea represents human society, which the dragon dominates; he is standing on it to fight against the rest of her offspring. The spiritual fight is to be made. However, the Bible says that mighty is God who wins a victory over the dragon. The Apostle John saw how the spiritual war would start and how it would come to an end. Eventually, the devil will be thrown into the lake of burning sulfur.(continuation)