The Fifth and Sixth Trumpets
The fifth trumpet (Revelation 9:1-11) released locust type creatures from a black smoke. The locusts were to harm only people who did not have the seal of God upon their forehead. This does not mean an actual locusts or an actual stamp or seal, but could also mean the will of God at the forefront of their mind (my opinion) and the way to avoid these locusts (demons) is to be truly follow after what God wants from you, His will and your obedience to it. Dave Guzik writes, "These are obviously not natural locusts. They avoid plants and attack men like
scorpions attack. They are "A visual representation of the hordes of
demons loosed upon the earth." (Walvoord). Furthermore, regarding the seal, Guzik says "Those who
have the seal of God on their foreheads (the 144,000 and perhaps more) are protected, but none
other are. This is an inescapable judgment of God." The sixth trumpet released four angels (possibly different angels from chapter 8) which killed a third of mankind with mounted troops numbering over 200 million. Guzik says it may not be exactly 200 million, but that number could have been used to signify the insane amount of mounted of troops like there were too many to count. They had fire, smoke and brimstone coming out of their mouths and that is how 1/3 of human kind was killed. Chapter 9 closes out by stating that the rest of mankind that did not die from the plagues did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold" and other materials that cannot "see, hear or walk" like Jesus could. Nor did they "repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts."
And in case anyone tells you we are "near" the end of times and the end of the world, they are probably wrong based on the fact that numerous others have "predicted" the same thing- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events
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Temptation and Idolatry
Paul wanted to warn the Corinthian Christians against idolatry. He is still on the point of eating food that has been offered to idols. Paul saw that as a temptation and idol worship. Of course it is. If you eat something offered to a god and not God, that is idolatry. The temptation comes from that when the desire is to do that which God would not honor. As natural as you may feel it is, which it may very well be, giving into that is still temptation.We must remember 1 Corinthians 10:13 as rely on that to pull away when we are tempted.
1 Corinthians 10:21 shows us that Paul was trying to keep people from having a dual partnership with demons and with God. You cannot drink from a cup or eat of food offered to demons and still be on God's side. that would not honor God. As much as people might have said "Paul leave us alone, it is not hurting anybody", they would have been sadly mistaken. I hear many people in these days say that certain things are natural or no big deal and "mind your own business", but being that Paul built that church and believers were getting it wrong, he had to say something.
Lastly, 1 Corinthians 10:23 has been used out of context numerous times. I have heard it used to validate someone's sinful behavior while only quoting the "all things are lawful" part while completely ignoring the context of the chapter and of this letter to the Corinthians. It wasn't about "how bad is it" it is about "how good is it." Paul points out "not all things build up" which means not all things that are allowable as your own personal rights as humans are able to build you up as Christians. Our rights under Christ are what matters most.
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Legality and Immorality
Paul confronts the church on trivial lawsuits. Church members were suing other church members over trivial issues. Paul asks if there is no one wise enough among them that could handle the small stuff instead of going to the outsiders/unbelievers. His point is if we cannot handle the small stuff with each other (other believers) then how can we be entrusted to judge angels. Paul even suggests that let yourself be cheated in examples like this rather than going to the courts. This does not mean in all situations we should just let others cheat us and take advantage of us. That is not God honoring, but in trivial things do not go to the courts, just let it go. We need to change the focus from what is happening to us and remember what Jesus went through so that we could be reconciled to God. He was tortured on our behalf. He could have stopped it but knew that the prophecies would be invalid and God's will would not be done. God sacrificed HUGE for us. It is time for us to start sacrificing for His glory (Romans 6:1-8).
In 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Paul really breaks it down for us telling us/the Church in Corinth who will not inherit the Kingdom of God. He tells that neither the unrighteous (those not submitted to God's will) nor the sexually immoral, nor those who have false idols, nor those who practice adultery, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revilers (criticize in an insulting way) nor swindlers (scammers) will inherit the Kingdom of God. That is a long list? Why is it so long? I think it had to be because at the beginning of the section Paul says "do not be decived" which leads me to believe there were those who believed that they could do all those things and still get into Heaven. But I will take it a step further and say, if you do all of these things or even just one as a regular part of your life as an adopted practice, then is the Holy Spirit in you? The Holy Spirit will not lead you to scam people or cheat on your spouse or lead you to have homosexual relations. It is one thing to slip up, it is another to adopt it as part of your life and accept it and leave it for light (God) and dark (sin) cannot exist in the same place.
We are to flee sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:18) and treat our body as a temple (1 Corinthians 6:19). That person you have been having sexual relations with, that isn't God honoring. Those drugs you have been doing are not doing anything good to your body. That is not God honoring. That food you have been eating and the exercise you have not had is not good for your body. That is not God honoring. One day we will leave this earth and we are not to ride our bodies into the ground full force but treat them well while we have them in order to show God we are thankful to him for what he gave us.
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