Friday, August 7, 2015

Dear family, brethren, and friends,

Greetings to all from the great island of Mindanao in the Philippines. While Keith Greer and Grayson Key are preaching on Palawan, I am teaching classes at Cagayan de Oro City Monday through Friday. Jhun Carpentero and Cyrus Gesulga invited preachers from far and wide for our classes on the book of Revelation and events relating to the end of time.

Monday, August 3, our classes began with 50 men. I began by emphasizing that God made our gathering possible through the donations of brethren which financed my travel, our venue, and the printed materials. Three lessons were presented introducing Revelation as apocalyptic literature revealing future events in symbolic language. Then we read and discussed the first three chapters including the short epistles to the seven churches of Asia.

It is clear from the start that John is preparing the saints of Asia for a period of severe persecution which had only begun and which would result inn many martyrs. We read chapters 4-7 where John saw the vision of God on His throne and of Jesus having the power to open the seven seals on a scroll outlining future events. When the fifth seal is opened in chapter six, verses nine through eleven, the souls of martyred saints cry out to God asking how long He would allow Rome to execute His people. God answered they must trust Him as He would extend the time of suffering for a short period. Chapters 7-20 present visions of the persecutions of the saints and of God’s judgments upon the Roman Empire, ending in its destruction and the vindication of the faithful saints.

With the arrival of additional preachers, our Tuesday attendance reached 60. I taught eight lessons plus conducted an open forum. We read and discussed Revelation 8-20 which pictures God’s judgments on the Roman Empire as seven trumpets are blown and as seven bowls of incense are poured out.

Revelation 20:1-6 pictures the final victory of the martyrs who reign with Christ 1,000 years upon the fall of Rome. Numbers such as 7, 10, 1,000, and 144,000 are used in Revelation not to signify numerical values but to symbolize concepts. 1,000 is a multiple of 10, representing completion or fulness. The perfect victory of Christ over Satan can be seen when he was crucified and was raised to reign in his kingdom for 1,000 years, a perfect and complete rule. The martyred saints were faithful unto death, thus overcoming Satan, and thus sharing in the victory of Christ.

Many years ago Cyrus Gesulga embraced premillennialism under the influence of Robert Boyd, a well-known premillennialist among churches of Christ in the U.S. Preachers associated with Cyrus learned the doctrine from him. In recent years he expressed regret for his part in causing this division among Filipino saints. Though he has been saturated with this doctrine for many years, he has come to see some of its errors such as the claim Matthew 24 gives signs of the end time. He and I have studied many hours by correspondence and in person, and he continues to reach out as he has done by bringing several of his brethren to this week of study. During today’s open forum, many of their questions surfaced and we had a very frank discussion.

I am not so deluded as to think I can easily convince all of these men to give up the premillennial system. Time will tell whether Cyrus and others will see the whole system is false from top to bottom, but at least they are willing to listen at this time and I want to take full advantage of this open door until it is closed.

The preachers were very attentive again Wednesday as we covered the last two chapters of Revelation describing heaven and urging the saints to be faithful. At mid-morning our study of Mike Willis’ Then Comes the End began by covering death, the soul, hades, and reincarnation. After lunch attention was given to purgatory, Christ’s second coming, the resurrection, and the destruction of the universe. Since I am the only teacher this week in the Revelation series and Then Comes the End, it is exhausting to teach all day but also rewarding when I see the interest shown by these preachers.

Again Thursday everyone seemed to be very engaged as we studied the Judgment, hell, heaven, the A.D. 70 heresy, a summary of Matthew 24-25, millennial theories, the so-called rapture, and the Battle of Armageddon. This was followed by an hour long open forum which included passages such as Zechariah 14:1-5, Isaiah 2, and Daniel 2. There was a frank discussion of the premillennial division and the need to remove this wedge of division.

Friday morning I completed the last lesson in Then Comes the End dealing with the 1,000 year reign of Christ in Revelation 20. The perfect victory of Christ over Satan is pictured by the martyred saints joining his reign. They had suffered infamy and execution for refusing to worship Caesar’s image, but now the mighty Roman Empire and its policy of enforcing emperor worship had suffered infamy and defeat. This victory of the saints is called “the first resurrection” to distinguish it from the future resurrection of their bodies on the last great day.

To conclude the week of study I presented my lesson entitled “Premillennialism Undermines the One Hope,” showing that this doctrine is not just a harmless opinion but violates the divine platform of unity in Ephesians 4:4-6. Cyrus Gesulga and several preachers with him regard this doctrine as an opinion which should not result in division. Though recognizing these men have been baptized into Christ, I labored to show this doctrine violates “the one hope” by adding many additional hopes such as end-time signs, the rapture, the tribulation age, Christ on David’s literal throne in Jerusalem, a military Battle of Armageddon, and the 1,000 year reign of Christ in an earthly civil government.

I pointed out that the only way to truly heal the division is to remove the wedge of premillennialism which caused the division. The only way to reach that goal is by patient teaching of God’s Word which is His power of persuasion. The process is sometimes painful as pointed questions are posed and as animated exchanges occur, but such discussion promotes meditation on the differences between truth and error. No carnal inducement or pressure changes the soul, but the power of God’s Word is the moral power of His kingdom which brings us into submission to His will.

I am thankful for this week of study and trust that His Word will work in all of our souls to fulfill His purpose – we know it will not return unto Him void. How I wish I could personally thank every saint who has helped to make this week of study possible by your prayers, financial donations, and encouragement. Surely God will reward you in eternity!

In Christian love,

Ron Halbrook