John chapter 06 - Not to do mine own will

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Galilee is a path back to the beginning

JOHN 6:1    After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.

Galilee was a special region for Jesus. It is the land on the left-hand side (or west bank) of the sea of Galilee.

Twenty-five of His 33 great miracles happened in Galilee as well as 19 of His 32 parables being spoken there. Galilee was the province on the west bank of the Sea of Galilee.

But the west bank also had a city that was associated with a bad name. The city of Tiberias was built on a beautiful spot, but it was also the site of an ancient cemetery and was thus associated with death. The city was built by Herod Antipas, who killed John the Baptist. Herod Antipas was the son of the brutal king Herod who tried to kill Jesus as a young two-year-old Child. It was named after the second Roman emperor, Tiberius, who ruled when Jesus was killed. Tiberius reigned from AD 14 – 37. He was a brutal and perverted tyrant who enforced his will by terror and murder and confiscating properties to sell and make money. Jesus was crucified during the reign of Tiberius. That is why the brutal Roman prefect Pilate was so cowardly as to quickly give a death sentence when the Jews said they would report him to Caesar.

Tiberius was the Caesar or supreme ruler. Power had corrupted Tiberius, and he gave out two or three death sentences virtually every day. His victim’s corpses were dragged to the Tiber River and thrown into the river. Pilate knew he was doomed if he was not equally brutal. Tiberius, who loved seeing people suffer and had no compassion, would kill Pilate if Pilate did not kill Jesus. Herod Antipas also refused to pardon Jesus when Pilate sent Him there for what became a mockery of a trial in AD 33. Like Pilate, Herod Antipas was too scared for his own life and sent Jesus back to Pilate, knowing that he was giving Jesus a death sentence because the spineless Pilate, just like the craven Herod Antipas, was dead scared of Tiberius. Not that it helped much because Herod Antipas died prematurely anyway in AD 39, only two years after Tiberius was suffocated to death in AD 37. Pilate had drowned himself in AD 38. So this loathsome trinity was united in death.

Tiberius means “of the Tiber”, the river that runs through Rome. Dead corpses were the harvest “of the Tiber” in his day. He turned the Tiber into a river of death that runs to the sea. The sea represents the restless multitudes of people influenced and randomly swept about by the shifting currents of their leaders’ opinions. Endless killing kept terrified people in submission.

Jesus’ in comparison, is the spiritual River of  Life. In His final kingdom, there will be no more sea.

Galilee means a "circuit" or "pathway that ends up where it started".

When the sands of time have run out, and every saint has run their course, the New Jerusalem will come down on the New Earth.  The name of David's City, the first and only city where God placed His name, will live on.

JerUSAlem. Right from the start God was going to use America to protect Israel at the end.

President Truman was the first to recognize Israel's independence in 1948.

President Nixon saved Israel with a massive airlift of weapons in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

President Trump recognized Jerusalem as the Capital. The only modern President with the courage to defy the Arab hordes.

Truman Nixon Trump. TNT.   Israel is dynamite.

So, with Jesus, there is a circuit that has direction. Get back to the beginning where it started.

For us, that means struggling to get back to the faith that was once delivered to the saints in the first church age.

JUDE 1:3    Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that

ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

Finally,  the 2,000 year "circuit" of the history of the seven church ages will close when the last church age believes the same as the first church age. The seed on a plant is only harvested when the final seed is identical to the seed that was planted.

Jesus is the exact opposite of the Roman ruler and his hirelings. Jesus offered holiness and life, Tiberius was a perverted man of death. His hirelings, driven by self-interest, were craven cowards who would condemn an innocent man to save their own miserable lives.

So Jesus, being on the western bank of the Sea of Galilee, which is the side that the city of Tiberias was on, crossed over to the other side.

He wanted to show that He was the opposite of the Roman ruler.

JOHN 6:2    And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.

The miracles of Jesus attracted the crowds. Health is a huge benefit, so whenever the Gospel offers material benefits, people are quick to follow. A prosperity gospel will always be popular. But that does not impress God because attraction caused by the supernatural can be very superficial. Did not the Jews in the Exodus see much supernatural? Yet they deserted God as soon as they got a chance, as soon as difficulties arose.

Self-gain is not a good reason to be following God.

JOHN 6:3   And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples.

It is hard work to climb a mountain. It is hard work to follow Jesus. Jesus preferred to be alone with a few disciples who gave up all to follow Him. He was not that impressed with the big crowd who were impressed with miracles. Their faith was shallow. As soon as difficulties strike, they walk away from God. Understanding the Scripture is more important than seeing the supernatural. John the Baptist, that greatest of prophets, performed no supernatural acts.

Only one miracle is recorded by all 4 Gospels

The feeding of the 5,000 men is the only miracle that is recorded in all four Gospels during the ministry of Jesus.

Yet we do not know the actual spot where it happened; scholars still debate this point.

So Jesus did not seek to publicize this miracle. Rather He wished us to learn a deeper meaning from it.

JOHN 6:4    And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.

The feast was coming. This showed how Jesus had His eyes on the future.

John's Gospel shows Jesus as the flying Eagle. The Spirit of God Who has the amazing eyesight that can see future events.

It was April, time for the barley harvest. Barley makes bread, which is a symbol of Scriptural doctrine.

The Passover feast represented the death of Jesus as the Passover Lamb. That would launch the seven church ages because the Jews rejected Him when they demanded His death.

So Jesus, now nowhere near Tiberias as He was on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, wanted an event to represent the seven church ages where the true church could be brought out of Rome's influence and be separate from the future Roman Catholic church.

JOHN 6:5    When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?

JOHN 6:6    And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.

Philip had to learn a lesson. God endlessly uses the despised, the rejected, the inadequate, and the unexpected to accomplish His purposes.

JOHN 6:7    Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.

Philip was thinking big. In the parable of the vineyard, Jesus had said that a penny was the pay for a day’s work. Thus 200 pennies were more than half a year’s salary.

So Philip was beaten. He had no answer in terms of even providing a little food for each person.

They needed bread to eat to sustain their natural life.

Philip had to learn to think spiritually. It was harvest time, and the crowd of people would represent the believers in the seven church ages.

The saints from the seven church ages would be the main harvest of souls that God had His eyes on. This crowd would symbolize 2,000 years of church history.

So the question was, where would the church get its food during its 2,000-year history on planet Earth? God's Word is the Bread of Life, and that would be the only source of eternal Life for those who can believe the Scripture.

JOHN 6:63     It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing:

the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

The disciple's efforts in the flesh were useless. They could not find enough bread.

But the Gospel would start small.

One Man, Jesus, was the true Word. He would inspire the small group of apostles to write the New Testament. That was the Bread of Life. In whatever age they were in, all the Christians would only get eternal life in terms of how they followed and believed the Scriptures that the apostles wrote.

The Bread of Life would go from Jesus to the disciples to the people.

ZECHARIAH 4:10     For who hath despised the day of small things?

Small. Can one Man Who never wrote anything and who only trained 12 disciples, one of whom was a devil, hope to turn the world upside down and even have the calendar start with His birth? It looks impossible.

Andrew was at least willing to try. He found a schoolboy who had brought some lunch along. It was something, but even Andrew knew that it was obviously inadequate.

However, a small effort can produce a big result when we leave events in the hands of Jesus.

JOHN 6:8    One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him,

JOHN 6:9    There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?

Andrew saw far too little food.

Jesus saw seven items of bread and meat that represented the doctrine that seven church ages would need from the Word of God. The five barley loaves represented the first two ages and the last three ages. The first church age had the truth from the apostles; the second age still had much truth but was starting to go wrong by putting a human leader as the head of each church. Then they put a bishop as the head of all the churches in a city.

The third church age saw the Roman emperor Constantine give the bishop of Rome the beautiful Lateran Palace and much wealth. This helped to elevate the Roman bishop above the other bishops. By AD 400, the Roman bishop was called the Pope. All opposition to the Roman Catholic church was crushed by force by the Roman emperor, and true Christians had to hide in secrecy. This was symbolized by a fish that swims out of sight underwater. The truth was rejected in this age in favour of unscriptural traditions and opinions. Politics and paganism infiltrated the church. No barley loaf could represent this church age.

The fourth church age saw the Roman Pope rise to power when the Roman Empire collapsed. The Roman Catholic church now became the persecutor of Bible believers. Tens of millions were killed in the Dark Ages as true believers often hid in the Alps' high mountain valleys. Believers gathered in secret meetings to avoid being seen. An out-of-sight underwater fish represented this age too. The Roman church did its best to ban the Bible and stop people reading it in their mother tongue. Thus no barley loaf could represent this fourth church age.

The fifth church age of Martin Luther restored the Word that stated that the just will live by faith and not by works. People got saved. A barley loaf represented the portion of Scripture that was restored.

The sixth age was another barley loaf as John Wesley preached holiness and outreach, which led to the great missionary age.

The seventh church age saw the 1906 Pentecostal revival in Azusa Street in Los Angeles restore the supernatural power.

In 1963 the Pentecostal preacher with the greatest supernatural gifts, William Branham, was commissioned by seven angels to reveal six of the seven Seals of Revelation Chapter 6. These revelations enabled him to fully restore the doctrines of the apostolic fathers who wrote the New Testament. That was the final loaf of bread.

JOHN 6:10   And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.

The men sat down, which illustrates that God is not interested in man-made ideas and man-made efforts. Human efforts all too often tend to get in God’s way. We humans seldom sit still for long enough to hear from God. We rush off to do something or believe something that we think is a good idea.

Grass. The grass is passive. It waits for sunshine. Then it produces a miracle that is too humble for us to notice. Grass turns sunlight into food, and no scientist can duplicate that miracle. We know all about the theory of photosynthesis, but we just cannot duplicate the process that humble, unnoticed grass does. God working in simplicity in a blade of grass makes food for animals. Something that scientists cannot do is make good food.

Somehow the revelation of God's Word is the Light, which gave each church age the spiritual food they needed to oppose the Roman Catholic church that was the only Roman institution that survived the fall of the Roman empire.

JOHN 6:11   And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.

Bread and meat are symbols of Bible doctrine.

Jesus gave them to the disciples who gave them to the people.

This symbolized that Jesus would break the bread; in other words, explain the Bible truths to the disciples. They would write the New Testament, which is the only doctrine that we should believe because the New Testament fits perfectly into the Old Testament to produce the complete Will of God.

When we learn from the New Testament, we are getting the Bread of Life from the original disciples who got their inspired writings from Jesus.

Jesus prayed to give thanks. We need to pray that God will anoint our eyes with eye salve to break the Bread, which means that we can understand the mysteries of Scripture. Jesus was the only One who broke the bread. He alone can give you a true revelation of Scripture.

We will not understand the mysteries of Scripture with our natural human intelligence,

JOHN 6:12   When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.

The Jews had eaten and were full. Then they got careless and rejected some of the food, throwing it onto the grass.

Typical of humans. We feed off the bits of Scripture that suit us because we benefit from those Scriptures and then reject the rest of the Bible. People say that certain verses are not important or unnecessary. That just means that they do not have enough eagle eyesight to see deeper into the Scripture.

“Nothing be lost” from a spiritual (eagle) perspective means that the verses that one group rejects, God will gather up and feed to another group.

The bread and fish represent the doctrines of the Gospel. These Jews who filled their stomachs were going to reject the Gospel in Pilate’s judgement hall when they shouted that Jesus must be crucified.

The left-over rejected scraps symbolized the rejected Word.

The Jews rejected the Gospel 2,000 years ago, and the disciples then wrote that Gospel as the New Testament to feed the Gentile church for the next 2,000 years.

Then, as history repeats itself, the Gentile church would reject the restored truth at the end time and push Jesus, the Word, out of their church in the church age of the Laodiceans.

That is where our present situation is.

We Gentiles have rejected the full Word. We are throwing away a deeper revelation of the Scripture as we prefer the shallow human opinions and ideas of church leaders.

Church leaders endlessly restrict what portions of Scripture can be known, to justify their own ignorance of Scripture.

JOHN 6:13    Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.

At the end of the seventh church age, the full restored Word is being rejected by our modern churches, but God will gather it all up and feed it to the 12 tribes of Israel in the Tribulation.

JOHN 6:14   Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.

The Jews had seen the natural miracle. Jesus had not needed their help for that miracle. Now they suddenly thought that He needed their help to make Him king. They were prepared to force their human ideas on Him.

JOHN 6:15    When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.

John’s Gospel introduces us to Jesus as being God; the great Holy Spirit is represented as a flying eagle. The eagle is known for its incredible eyesight. It sees details and far-off events that others miss.

Jesus wanted no earthly position. He wanted no man-made kingdom. He knew it would not last as humans are too obsessed with self-gain. A mountain, difficult to climb, was the solid symbol of a worthwhile kingdom that can last.  This is illustrated by the Bible verses of mount Zion, which symbolizes our future home.

A mountain is what Daniel saw take over his vision when the Rock struck the feet of the Gentile image. That mountain represented the 1,000 years of peace that will follow Armageddon. That would be the first taste of Heaven on Earth. That will be the first worthwhile kingdom. So Jesus left these untrustworthy men. He knew that the same people who praised Him on Palm Sunday would be the same people who wanted to crucify Him the next Thursday. So much for human praise.

Yes, Jesus died on a Thursday as He had to spend three nights in the tomb before rising on Sunday morning.

Thursday night. Friday night. Saturday night.

When Jesus wanted to commune with the Spirit of God that dwelt inside Him, to get guidance, He had to get away from people and their opinions.

Jesus knew the folly of responding to human praise and people’s plans and ambitions.

We get true spiritual guidance from the God Who is in us, not from the people around us.

COLOSSIANS 2:9   For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

If God dwells within us as the Holy Spirit, we can get guidance from Him alone. If we do not get personal guidance, we are dominated by human leaders and the church's peer pressure.

I must willingly accept the Plan of Jesus into my life

JOHN 6:16    And when even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea,

Evening time symbolizes the church at the end-time. Jesus is outside the church in the final church age of the Laodiceans. Here the disciples are also separated from Jesus.

They made a group decision but forgot that Jesus, the Word, was not with them.

JOHN 6:17    And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them.

So the disciples aim for Capernaum. That is where Jesus had done great miracles in the past.

It was dark, and they set off without Jesus, Who is the Light of the world.

That represents the end-time church of Laodicea.  Jesus is outside the church, and they aim at the wrong destination.

The disciples are on the wrong course. Wind represents war and strife. We see wars, refugees, terrorism, and the desolation of bombed cities. Then trade wars—economic uncertainty.

The winds of change blow over the earth. The trumpet of alarm sounds.

JOHN 6:18    And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew.

John gives us the insight of God, the great Holy Spirit. He does not say the wind was contrary. He does not say that they struggled to row. Those are physical things.

They were aiming at the wrong destination, so God sent a great wind to blow them off their course and get them onto God's course.

That is the main reason we experience difficulties. God is busy knocking our ideas out of our heads so that He can steer us in His direction.

During all the upheavals of the world, God wants us to focus on getting back to the beliefs and the faith of the early church.

Plants grow better when they are pruned.

We all need cutting down to size. But being pruned is painful.

JOHN 6:19    So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid.

There are eight furlongs in a mile. So they were three to four miles from the shore. Call it three and a half miles. The Sea of Galilee is 7 miles at its widest. So they were about in the middle of the sea. Thus they were furthest from land and human help. Their rowing was not taking them to Capernaum, where they wanted to go because the wind was blowing them in a different direction.

Their human efforts were getting them nowhere. They were at the mercy of their circumstances.

But the storm was designed to make them desperate. Desperate people know that they depend on the Lord.

People who are smugly and complacently satisfied with life just pretend that they need the Lord.

The Laodicean church is rich, increased in goods, and has need of nothing, not even correction. End-time believers feel that they have arrived.

So God needs to send a wind of turbulent times to shake up the people.

In the midst of all their problems, far from human help, Jesus came looking for them.

JOHN 6:20   But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid.

His presence is what solves the problem.

All they had to do was accept Him into their vessel.

Our problems in life are designed to make us accept the fullness of the Word into our hearts.

But we must accept Him willingly, not with some ulterior motive. Not with some hope of self-gain. We are to serve Him according to His will, not according to our own will or our church's will.

JOHN 6:21    Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.

This is John describing Jesus as the fourth beast around the throne, the flying eagle. Symbolizing that Jesus is God.

As the Eagle, Jesus comes to meet the church in the air.

Abruptly it is all over. There is a blank. Something is missing. The Bride does not go through the Tribulation time.

They are in the middle of a seven-mile wide Sea. So they have three and a half miles to go. These three and a half miles are just erased from John's record like it was not even there.

What does this represent? The three and a half years of the most difficult part of man's journey on earth, which is called the Great Tribulation.

The Second Coming of the Lord takes the church off this world to the wedding feast in Heaven.

There is a gap of about three and a half years on earth before they reappear for Armageddon and the 1,000 years of peace in the new kingdom.

Mark tells us that they landed at Gennesaret.

MARK 6:53     And when they had passed over, they came into the land of Gennesaret, and drew to the shore.

They "passed over".  What does "pass over" mean?

John mentioned the Passover feast just before the 5000 were fed. So "pass over" is important.

JOHN 6:4    And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.

The emphasis on Passover is two-fold.

Thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus as the Passover Lamb Who died for our sins, we can "pass over" hell without having to go there. That is salvation. That happened at the beginning of the church ages. Jesus paid the price at the beginning, so He is called the Alpha.

At the end of the church ages, we have the Omega where Jesus has to rescue us so that we can "pass over" great Tribulation by going to the Wedding Feast.

I must willingly accept the Plan of Jesus into my life.

That is the Holy Ghost baptism, which restores the full Word of God.

JOHN 16:13   Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:

Gennesaret means a garden of riches. With Jesus in the boat, they inherit all the riches of Heaven. The end-time violent wind of war and strife is just designed to make us believe the fully restored Word as that alone will get us ready to meet the Lord when He comes. The full Word is the true riches that we should strive for.

JOHN 6:22   The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone away alone;

The crowds who had been fed now traveled to the other side, to get the next free meal. They only saw the boat that the disciples sailed over in. They knew Jesus had not got into the boat when the disciples set sail. Thus they did not know where Jesus was.

Chasing the supernatural benefits, they lost sight of Jesus.

JOHN 6:23    (Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks:)

In their enthusiasm for a free meal, they sailed across the sea of Galilee from Tiberias to where Jesus had created food. But He was not there. People who benefit from the supernatural often have a short-term interest in the Word, as long as they keep benefiting.

JOHN 6:24   When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus.

They then looked for Him in Capernaum.

You do not come from Heaven to do your own will

JOHN 6:25   And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?

They were fascinated. He had not gotten into the boat with His disciples, yet here He was on the other side of the sea.

JOHN 6:26    Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.

The crux of the matter is that they were seeking Jesus for the wrong reason. They wanted more free meals. We, humans, are always greedy for gain.

JOHN 6:27    Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

We must not rely on worldly things as they do not last. Our focus should be on spiritual matters. Eternal life is sealed into Christ. He alone is the source of the Holy Spirit, which is what we should be seeking. The Holy Spirit is the only One who can take our souls to heaven. Only Jesus can open the seven-Sealed Book of redemption so that the mysteries of Scripture can be revealed.

JOHN 6:28   Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?

Now they were keen to learn what works God required of them. A recipe of religious works so that their works could save them.

JOHN 6:29   Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

But salvation comes by faith, not works. They just need to know Who they must have faith in.

The only work that we can do for God is to believe in Jesus Who is the Word. Scientists can come up with the Big Bang theory and the theory of Evolution, but if you want to do God’s work, you must keep believing in the Bible and not abandon faith in the Bible for a theory of Science.

No humans saw the universe at the beginning. So scientists are just guessing about the start of the universe and the beginning of life. They have no evidence to present, just guesses of what they think happened. Having no original evidence is not good science.

God has used different men to restore truth during the seven church ages. We serve God when we recognize who God is using to fulfill His Word. God may use someone that we do not like. Then, we must change our mindset so that we are not found opposing someone whom God uses to bring His Word to pass.

The majority of the Americans opposed Trump in the 2016 election because they had no clue that God wanted Jerusalem recognized as Israel's capital. As President, only Trump was prepared to do this. He lone had the courage to defy the Muslim hordes.

Fulfilling Scripture is the real work of God.

JOHN 6:30  They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?

This is the fallacy of looking for a sign.

This is the weakness of relying on miracles.

How many miracles do you require before you are convinced?

They had just seen 5000 men fed from a schoolboy’s lunch. They had just discovered that Jesus had crossed a windswept sea at night without a boat.

Yet they were asking for a miracle, a sign.

They were looking for a supernatural showoff who could just generate miracles on-demand to impress them.

They had clean forgotten all the great miracles that He had already done in Capernaum.

MATTHEW 11:23   And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell:

for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee,

had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

JOHN 6:31   Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Then they reminded Jesus of their great prophet Moses who led the Exodus when manna fell from heaven. Now that was a miracle. If they had been there, they would definitely have followed Moses.

JOHN 6:32   Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

Jesus reminds them that Moses never made the manna. God did. So what Jesus had just done was greater than Moses, because it was Jesus Who had created the baked bread and cooked fish.

So Jesus, sent by God, had the true bread, which is the Word of God that feeds the soul.

JOHN 6:33   For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.

A loaf of bread can only feed a few people with natural life. Natural bread makes them focus on themselves. They enjoy a temporary meal. Jesus offers eternal life to everyone. Eternal life can spread to many, not just a few. Then our focus is on other people rather than on self.

JOHN 6:34   Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.

The people wanted this bread. They thought it was something to eat, and they would never feel hungry again.

JOHN 6:35    And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Born as the Bread of Life, He was laid in a manger with a similar shape to a bread tin used for baking bread. Herod wanted to kill Him, which symbolized an oven's heat to bake the Bread of Life. In the end, soldiers spat on Him because bread can only be swallowed if it is chewed and covered in spit.

He truly was the Bread of Life.

In Heaven, there will be no hunger or thirst.

Once you believe the Bible, then your soul hungers no longer after unscriptural beliefs. They suddenly become very flat. The Word of God becomes the food that keeps your soul content.

Even the thirst for alcohol disappears as the true wine of the stimulation of revelation of understanding the Scriptures takes over.

JOHN 6:36    But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.

To a doubter, it does not help to see miracles. It does not even help to see Jesus. If a person wants to be an atheist or an unbeliever, then nothing can change their minds. Whatever evidence God shows an unbeliever, that person’s free-will simply overrides and rejects any evidence that they do not want to believe in.

JOHN 6:37   All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

God is the inner Attractor. He pulls us to the Word, which is Jesus. And whoever comes to Jesus, even like the dying thief on the cross, Jesus will never reject.

JOHN 6:38   For I came down from heaven,

not to do mine own will,

but the will of him that sent me.

We cannot serve God when we do our own will.

ISAIAH 55:8   For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

God’s ways are too far above anything that we can think of. So whatever we do in our human strength and wisdom is a waste of time.

ZECHARIAH 4:6   Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

We need to die to ourselves and our self-will so that we can come alive in God’s Will.

JOHN 6:39   And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

We must trust God. God will not lose any of His children. If, after we have died, God can finally give us life in the resurrection, then if we die to ourselves, He can certainly give us the will to live the lives that He wants us to live.

JOHN 6:40   And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Jesus is God in the flesh. God made visible. If we believe that Jesus is God, God with us as a fellow Man, then we have seen the human veil that God was hiding behind.

The visible Man is the Son of God, but the Father was the invisible Spirit of Life within Him.

In the same way that there is an invisible life within a loaf of bread. But we only gain that life when the bread comes into us and becomes part of us.

Humans cannot understand spiritual things

JOHN 6:41   The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.

The Jews could not see beyond the natural. They thought that bread from Heaven meant a loaf of bread coming down, just like the manna that had come down in the Exodus. They had no spiritual insight. They could not see that bread was a symbol of the Word of God.

People read that Adam and Eve ate a fruit and insist it was a natural fruit like an apple or something. But then they cannot explain why Adam and Eve got two very different punishments for doing the same thing wrong. God punished Eve by multiplying her conception. If she had a conception, then it means that she was pregnant. So original sin is an issue that is much deeper than taking a bite out of an apple or some other natural fruit. No wonder atheists are skeptical when told that she is punished in childbirth for eating an apple. Childbirth is the one punishment that Adam could not share, but he had eaten the same fruit.

Just as it was in the days of Jesus, people cannot see deeper into the Bible's symbols.

JOHN 6:42   And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?

Now they looked at Jesus through natural eyes. They knew Joseph and Mary and claimed that they were His parents. But they did not look deeper and ignored the evidence that did not suit their theory. When Mary conceived, she went to her cousin Elizabeth for three months. Only then did she return to marry Joseph. That was the scandal of the day. She was pregnant when she came back for the wedding, so Jesus was obviously not the son of Joseph, especially when He was born six months after the wedding.

If you are not prepared to think deeply about God's plan, you will always find a shallow, superficial answer that contradicts the deeper truth.

Just like scientists used to believe that atoms were solid because atoms make up all the solid objects that we can see. But that was the wrong concept of an atom.

JOHN 6:43    Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.

Men and women are atheists by nature. People naturally argue against the Word of God when it has a deeper spiritual meaning. People can only see the natural world and reject God because they cannot see Him in the natural world.

But the horizon is the limit of our natural vision, and that should be a warning to us that our natural thinking is very limited. We think the sun moves across the sky every day, but we then discovered that it is the world that spins on its axis. But we cannot see or feel the world moving. So we soon learn not to trust what we can see and feel because those two senses do not always tell us the truth. When you stand on the earth, you are convinced that you are standing still because you cannot feel the earth moving.

When you see a car moving away from where you stand, you are convinced that you are standing still. But when you are in the car, you are still convinced that you are sitting still, but then everything in front of you suddenly moves towards you. So you cannot get the real truth by relying on your natural sight. You have to look for a deeper reality.

So atheists argue against God from a material or visible point of view. They cannot see Him. But the material or visible objects cannot tell us the true nature of atoms nor the true nature of God. We have to learn to think a lot deeper if we are to understand atoms, or God, or even tides in the sea.

It looks like the water rushes onto the land at high tide, but it does not. The moon’s gravitational pull makes a heap of water rise up in the sea just under the moon. Then the earth, as it spins, makes the land move into this heap of water. So it’s the opposite of what you saw and thought. It’s the land moving into the heap of water that makes high tide.

We are easily fooled by what we think is happening in the natural world.

How much more easily are we fooled by what goes on in the spiritual realms.

JOHN 6:44    No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Earth's gravity is a force that no-one understands because the earth pulls us. A pull is tricky. A push is easy. Put your hand flat against an open door, and you can easily push it closed.

Put your hand flat against a door and try to pull it. You cannot. To pull a door, you have to grab the handle. But when your hand is over the handle, your fingers behind the handle actually push the handle towards you.

To pull an object, you need to grip it with your fingers; you have to have an elbow that bends as you pull an object towards you. Most important, you also have to have a brain to control all this.

The earth has no brain, no bendable elbow, and no fingers to grasp something. So how does the earth pull us towards itself? We simply do not know.

Gravity is the mysterious force. What makes it attract us? Scientists have no idea how an attractive force works.

Equally in the spiritual world. We have absolutely no idea how God attracts us to Himself or how He makes us believe the Bible, including the difficult sections we struggle to understand.

Jesus is the Word. The born-again Christian gets attracted to the Word and finds that the Bible can be believed and loved, despite its difficulties. But God has to pull us towards the Bible, and God has to open our eyes to make us believe it.

How does God do it? Just like the gravity force, we have no idea how He does it.

But when the Spirit of God moves into a person’s life, that person changes, and the sinner turns into a saint. The atheist becomes a believer.

All we can do is repent and accept Jesus into our lives. He alone can raise us up from our sinful state of spiritual death and unbelief. In the end, He alone can raise us up from death to life in the resurrection.

JOHN 6:45    It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.

The prophets wrote the Word. We are taught from the written Word. God is the mysterious, invisible Attractor. He pulls us in a way that we cannot understand. But as we learn more from Scripture, so we find ourselves drawing ever closer to Jesus.

We only love Jesus if we love and obey the Scriptures.

JOHN 14:15   If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Loving Jesus is not an emotional feeling towards Him. It is an ability and a desire to believe every word in the Bible. Then we must obey what the Scriptures say.

JOHN 6:46    Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.

The force of gravity that holds us to the earth cannot be seen. Neither has anyone seen God. The only Man Who has ever seen God is Jesus because He is God in the flesh.

So when God, Who is inside Jesus, pulls us, then we obviously draw closer to Jesus, Who is the Word. As we get closer to the Word, we love the Bible more and obey it better. We refuse to see faults in one we love. So a Bible-lover cannot accept that there are faults or contradictions in the Scripture. We need to try harder to see and understand the deeper spiritual truths.

JOHN 6:47   Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

The only key we have to eternal life is to believe every word that is in the King James Bible.

It is an on-going struggle to understand it all, but we have to believe it is all true. There is no difference between Jesus and the Bible. If you reject bits of the Bible, then you reject bits of Jesus. That is not wise.

JOHN 6:48   I am that bread of life.

“Companion” comes from two words, “com” meaning with and “panis” meaning bread.

A companion was someone you shared bread with.

The Bible should be our companion from whom we get advice, rebuke, guidance, and encouragement.

Spiritually, to break bread is to open up the Bible verses and allow Scripture to interpret Scripture as we follow an idea through the Bible.

JOHN 6:49    Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.

God blessed the Jews with material blessings, even bringing down food from heaven. A wonderful miracle. Yet they died. When God blesses us materially, it does not necessarily mean that we are right with God.

The Jews in the Exodus saw fantastic miracles, but it did nothing for their faith. They still chose not to believe. Miracles are a secondary issue. Believing the Word of God is the main issue.

JOHN 6:50    This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.

There is a deeper walk with God. Most people are content with God’s material blessings. That is the main thing that they want from Him. God must supply the needs of their self-will. These are the foolish virgins.

Then there are the wise virgins. They have no self-will. They rely on God to provide for them, but that is secondary in their lives. Their main desire is to understand and obey Scripture so that they can fulfill God’s will, His Big Picture. Eternal Life makes us part of God’s plan for mankind.

JOHN 6:51    I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

Propaganda is to manipulate people by presenting yourself in the best possible light. This is the basis of the prosperity gospel. Serve God and get rich.

Jesus here does the exact opposite. He presents the Gospel's truth in its harsh basics, which are very unappealing to the natural mind.

Following Jesus is very hard to do

Jesus knows that no one can follow Him unless that person is born again. So He does not pretend that the Gospel is an easy or a popular path.

JOHN 6:52   The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

Jesus is not begging for followers. He does not drop the standards to attract people. He preaches a deep truth to people who can only reason in a shallow, physical way that implies that they must become cannibals.

JOHN 6:53    Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.

He goes beyond the physical realm into the spiritual realm. Eternal life has nothing to do with the physical body that is doomed to die in due course.

JOHN 6:54    Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

They had completely missed the point. To sustain natural life, we need to eat to obtain nutrients and drink water to cleanse our inner systems. Our insides need washing and flushing out with water, just like our outside bodies need washing with water.

This symbolizes spiritual life. We need to feed on the Word of God, which is the Bread of Life. Natural life is invisible and dwells within a wheat or barley seed.

We eat the visible seed as the only way we have to obtain the invisible natural life that is in the seed.

Then for spiritual life, the Scripture is the only part of God that we can study to see and understand God’s mysterious way of dealing with us. Churches teach their own vain traditions and rules that are pointless. But by studying the Bible and starting to think for ourselves, we can get God’s guidance, which steers us away from human error.

The fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ. So His Body of flesh was the only part of God that the people could see. Thus His visible flesh symbolized the invisible Scriptures.

Our inner thoughts and motives need cleansing from unbelief by the Blood of Jesus, which alone washes away sin. Unbelief is believing something that is not written in Scripture or not believing something that is written in the Scripture. Blood is the spiritual drink that makes us inwardly clean and stops us from being hypocrites, which happens because it is easy to look religious on the outside but to be full of unbelief on the inside.

JOHN 6:55   For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

There is no better life-giver than God's Word, which directs our footsteps and the Blood of Jesus that washes away the sin and unbelief, which stops us from believing the Word.

JOHN 6:56    He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

Believe the Bible, and you dwell in the will of God. Life is in the Blood. By prayer, we ask for the Blood to cleanse us, and then the Holy Spirit, the Life that was in His Blood, comes into us to control us and guide us into all truth.

JOHN 6:57   As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

The Spirit of God was in Jesus, controlling Him. This inner Life of God meant that His human Body could only fulfill the will of God. Jesus never allowed His human will or His human desires to deviate from God's divine will. At all times, He kept his human-will in submission to God's will.

If we eat bread and meat, our body digests it, and then it becomes part of our body.

So the food we eat becomes the body that we live in.

By eating (reading and believing) the Word, then we digest and absorb (understand) the Scriptures, and those Scriptures become our inner man. Then the Life of Christ within us makes us fulfill God’s will because we want to do things His way, and we no longer have any desires of our own.

JOHN 6:58   This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.

The Jews kept thinking in the natural. The bread came down from heaven during the Exodus, and they called it manna. But those Jews who ate the manna eventually died anyway.

There are two aspects to the Gospel. There are the short-term physical benefits that we can ask from God, whereby He provides our physical needs and cares for our health. That is usually as far as most people go. As long as they are well and have food, jobs, houses, and material possessions, they will happily serve God. They serve God in return for a comfortable, prosperous, and healthy life.

The Jews in the Exodus had food from heaven, water from a rock, and their clothes never wore out. Plus, they would take over homes, cities, and farms from the Gentiles who would be driven out of their Promised Land. With all these benefits and free manna from Heaven as often as they needed it, the Jews nevertheless died. They missed something that was more important than material benefits.

God also wanted them to serve Him according to His Will. But all they wanted was the material gain.

Now Jesus had something better than the natural benefits. He offered them His Holy Spirit, which could enter and control their minds and enable them to believe the Word of God at a much deeper spiritual level. This was the secret of eternal Life. It has to follow the blueprint of God’s Word, which is our Bread. The Bread we eat or believe becomes a part of us and becomes the way that we want to live and think. We rejoice to think God’s way, not our own way.

JOHN 6:59   These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.

Capernaum means the field of repentance or the city of comfort.

This city could go in two directions. It could be a field of repentance where people turned to the Lord and followed Him because of all the great miracles that were done there. Or it could become a city in which people were comfortable with their religious man-made doctrines and preferred to follow a human leader. This was the seed of organized denominational beliefs.

Capernaum had within itself the seeds of the future Roman Catholic church. Exalted as the Vatican, the control centre of the biggest, richest, and most powerful church on earth.  Yet it is the centre of spiritual error and pagan beliefs and will go down into hell during great Tribulation as it is atom-bombed into a burning ruin.

MATTHEW 11:23   And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

Despite all His miracles and good works to help the poor and needy, what the money collectors really wanted from Jesus was His money. This was a preview of the Popes’ endless lust for money, just like Judas had.

MATTHEW 17:24   And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?

A church organization automatically opens the door to more important positions. Soon a hierarchy of bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and Popes develops. Each person ambitiously trying to be more important as he moves up the ranks. The greatest person will be at the top.

MARK 9:33   And he came to Capernaum: and being in the house he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?

:34   But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest.

As they approached Capernaum, the disciples each had the urge to be the greatest.

MATTHEW 8:5   And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum,

MATTHEW 8:14   And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever.

Peter’s home was in Capernaum. This was a preview of how the Roman Catholic church would choose Peter as the most important of the disciples. They would claim that he alone had the keys to heaven so that he alone could open the door to heaven. As his so-called successor, this gave the Pope huge authority amongst the barbarian tribes in the Dark Ages. They had to obey the Pope if they wanted Peter to open the door for them to Heaven when they died.

(But there was one mistake, Peter was married and Popes cannot marry).

Thus the way to heaven was reduced to doing certain approved works. As long as they obeyed the Pope, gave him land and money, fought and destroyed the Popes’ enemies, and attended the Catholic church meetings regularly, then they would be sure of Heaven.

Thus the Roman Catholic church reaped the wealth of the barbarians and lived comfortably as it rose to power on the ruins of the Roman empire.

So when Jesus presented the truth that most of the Jews who escaped from Egypt in the Exodus basically died in the wilderness because they only wanted God’s material blessings, then most of His Jewish followers left Him.  They, too, were mainly interested in the gospel of gain.

JOHN 6:60   Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?

When it comes to popularity, the truth cannot compete with an error.

Truth is hard. Too hard for most people to hear and accept. Religious leaders will invent a more plausible alternative belief that is not strictly based on Scripture. The majority will find comfort in these watered-down beliefs.

JOHN 6:61    When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?

Even the disciples were offended by God’s strict standards. They also desired material gain and health benefits. We all prefer an easy gospel.

JOHN 6:62   What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?

But Jesus had His sights on God’s heavenly will. He was not on earth to prosper and grow rich. He turned down all human offers of a kingdom as he came from above. Thus He knew that nothing of this earth would last. He wanted only to do God’s will, which meant losing His life so that He could return to heaven and prepare the true kingdom.

When He said, “Ascend up” He showed how little value the earth's things actually are. Only the will of heaven is important down here on earth.

JOHN 6:63   It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Only the Holy Spirit can give us eternal life. All the deeds we do in the flesh are a waste of time. God’s Word is all that is important. We must believe it and follow it and live it. God’s Spirit only functions according to the Scripture, not according to human opinions or ambitions.

The mark of the beast makes us betray the Word

JOHN 6:64   But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.

In every group, there will be unbelievers. Many Christians believe in the Big Bang and Evolution, which are scientific ideas that contradict Scripture. In their desire to be accepted by scientists, Christians betray their true faith that God inspires all Scripture.

Professors teach our children that they come from animals and then complain that our children behave like animals.

JOHN 6:65    And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.

We cannot come to the Bible in our own wisdom. We have to be born again to see things God’s way. So we have to repent and invite God to take over our minds and lives. Only God can give us the insight that we need to understand what the Bible means.

JOHN 6:66   From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

Chapter 6 verse 66 reminds us of 666.

This is a spiritual insight into 666, the mark of the beast. Antichrist means anti the Word. These people refused to follow Jesus. When we turn away from believing the Scripture, then we take on the mark of the beast.

When He refused to be their earthly king, they lost interest in Him and deserted Him as they could see no material benefits for themselves.

If He had become their earthly king, then there would have been earthly rewards for them.

Humans are always interested in self-gain.

Jesus never mentioned the mark of the beast when He was on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Now that He is on the same side as Tiberias, named after a Roman ruler, He refers to the effects of the leadership of the Roman Catholic church system. They will get Catholics and Protestants to walk away from Scripture.

Trinity, Christmas, Good Friday, denominations, archbishop, a nameless water baptism in three titles, and a man as the head of the church. These are some of the unscriptural Catholic beliefs that the Protestants have accepted.

So with the Roman Catholic church, Satan set out to build up a worldwide church, ruled by a man. A rich church that could offer people pomp, prestige, well-paid jobs, and impressive ceremonies.

JOHN 6:67    Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?

Jesus was not interested in numbers. The unvarnished truth had chased most of His followers away.

He was still prepared to lose the last twelve if they were not prepared to follow Him. Jesus only wanted disciples who were completely obedient to God’s will and did not follow their own opinions.

JOHN 6:68   Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

Peter realized that the path was difficult. Truth is not easy to understand. God gave Peter a deeper revelation whereby Peter somehow knew that Jesus had the truth, difficult though it was to understand the truth.

Truth is like an iceberg. Nine-tenths is invisible to the casual glance as it is below water. It requires much digging and hard work to understand the symbols and deeper patterns of truth. There is no easy path to truth. The truth will always be unpopular with the majority. So Peter had the courage and was prepared to disagree with all the others who left. He had the faith to stay with Jesus, but it also required courage to oppose the majority-will, which is a binding form of the herd instinct.

But when you follow the herd, you will find that the good grass has already been eaten.

When you go with the flow you can only move downhill.

Peter was prepared to follow Jesus, even though it meant that he would only be part of a small group.

JOHN 6:69   And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

Peter was the spokesman for the small group of twelve. He expressed confidence in his little “church” group. They, after all, believed the truth.

JOHN 6:70   Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?

Jesus replied that He had selected the group. And they had a deeper purpose. To fulfill the plan of God, there had to be a devil in their midst.

Thus our confidence should never be in a church, but rather just in our relationship with the Lord Jesus.

Jesus had  devil in His church-group. What makes you think that there is no devil in your church-group.

The disciples thought they were all right with God. But with Judas in their ranks, they were not.

Is there any church group that does not have a devil in their midst? We humans just do not know.

CHURCH AGE BOOK.  SMYRNA CHURCH AGE

Death was not only the seed of the false vine but even in the true vine there was a creeping paralysis and impotence because they had already drifted from the unadulterated truth of the first few years after Pentecost; and no true believer is any stronger and spiritually healthy and alive than his knowledge of and adherence to the pure Word of God,

as seen by multitudes of examples in the Old Testament. Organization was growing apace, confirming and augmenting the death of the membership, for Holy Ghost leadership was deposed and the Word was replaced by creeds, dogmas and man-made ritual.

JOHN 6:71   He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.

The name Simon means "listen".

Unfortunately, Judas loved money too much and listened to the chief priests who covenanted with him that he should betray Jesus.

If Judas had stayed away from his “get rich beliefs” and just listened to Jesus, the Word, then he would have been fine. But when religion is driven by the desire to gain money, that union is toxic.

Some scholars say that Iscariot can mean “Man of the cities”. Notice the plural word, cities.

The first Biblical city was built by Cain (Genesis 4:17), a man of force who slew his brother Abel. Men or women who rule need a city to rule from, as power over people is more easily controlled when people are grouped together. People who wanted to rule the world, starting with the first kingdom of Nimrod, set out to conquer and build many other cities. But their empires never lasted. The love of force does not lay down a long-term foundation for peace and stability. The empire of the city of Rome lasted longest as it was built on greedy taxes and the brutal force of iron swords that crushed any rebellion. But the rulers, once in power, greedily demanded more and more taxes. Eventually, the empire grew too big to control from one city. Soldiers kept demanding land to retire on.  Thus the empire had to keep growing. But defending all the territory demanded too many men as soldiers and cost too much money. So it collapsed.

Thus Satan had to rethink his plan for world domination.

Ruling the world is more effective if it involves a church power.

People pay the church in return for a place in heaven, which costs the church nothing.

Thus the church easily accumulates wealth. With centralized control by one man, a church becomes a big business.

The church leader then invents and offers a special doctrinal belief that reveals the mysteries that are the path to Heaven. Only by following the leader can Heaven be reached. Thus the leader has complete control over the people. Once people are in the church, they are too scared to leave the church because only the leader who invented the mysteries can explain this only path to heaven.  And only the leader can further develop and open the door to yet deeper mysteries that he alone can create.

So Satan changed his mindset. Instead of "cities," meaning more and more conquered cities in a growing empire, he decided on a more effective “city church” inside a city.

A wall was built around Rome that included the Vatican City.

Vatican City.  Vat“ican” .

“ican”when the letters are re-arranged becomes “Cain”.

“I can” is the ultimate description of self-will, which is the ancient enemy of God’s will.

“Cities” became a city within a city. Vatican City is a tiny city.  It is the world’s smallest city-state. It is recognized as a separate country. The Vatican City is inside the city of Rome that originally started as a city on seven hills.

Yet it has grown into a worldwide power with over 1.4 billion Roman Catholics, which gives it vast political, religious, and financial influence. It is by far the world’s biggest church. It also has by far the longest line of rulers (the Bishops of Rome who became Popes around the year AD 400) who have ruled the Catholic church way back into the early years of church history. Tiny and powerful, the Vatican is the “little horn” of Daniel’s prophecy.

The Vatican is the modern-day Judas. Man-made doctrines have betrayed the Word of God (which is Jesus) as faith in the Bible has been replaced by faith in denominational churches with their unscriptural traditions.

Protestant churches have also adopted the man-made denominational pattern of centralized control that the Roman Catholic church developed. Consequently, as some form of church unity develops or is enforced, it becomes inevitable that the  Pope will be the obvious leader or head of the One-World-Church.

This is the fate of those who do not have full faith in the written Bible as the Word of God. Jesus, the Word, is the only Head of the church.