Presents the Tell it like it is! series of studies:

Revelation 2:17  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

John 15:26
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

John 16:13-14
[13] Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. [14] He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

This Bible Study was originally written by Roger Christopherson, 
 published at http://www.theseason.org/ 

Without the leading by the Holy Spirit, there is no understanding of the truths, for all the truth of the Scriptures are revealed to us by God's Spirit.

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Now here is our revised study from: Christopherson's Revelation chapter 2

"Revelation to the Seven Churches Continued."

Here is the second church Jesus told John to write about. It is the church of Smyrna, and all those churches of today which are like it. This is one of the churches God is very pleased with. If your church is not like Smyrna, then you could be in trouble. The key to the church of Smyrna's form of worship is that they took and understood the entire Word of God.

Remember from the first chapter; "He that is first [first earth age], and the last [eternal] is our Lord Jesus Christ". "The Alpha and Omega" is one of the names for Jesus Christ, and it is He that is speaking to John. "Which was dead, and is alive;" is another description of Jesus. Jesus Christ's flesh body was crucified and dead, and in three days Jesus came alive again to conquer death. Jesus is the Messiah.

Revelation 2:9 "I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, [but thou art rich] and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan."

This tribulation is the tribulation of the instead-of-christ. Remember, John is in the Spirit, on the "day of the Lord", or "the Lord's Day", which is the last day of this earth age. The seventh trumpet is about to sound. We are living in that generation and this writing is to you and me in our generation.

To the Christian, our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit of God.

The synagogues were, and still are the subsitute for doing it God's way.

It became the, "instead of the temple of God", when they came to worship.

Those of the synagogues of Satan were the cause for the changes made in worship in Jesus day, and they are the same ones who are causing many churches to worship and follow other ways today.

Do you know who these Kenites are?

Do you know what they do, or where they came from?

The Smyrna Church did.

Jesus is saying here, if the ability to identify and know these people of Satan is not taught in your church, He is not happy with you.

Jesus said you're rich if you understand the seed line of Satan. 

That understanding of the Kenites is the "Key of David", the truth. 

In Mark 13, Jesus makes it very clear, there is a tribulation coming; and that tribulation is a deception of the truth. 

While some Christians will be very ashamed, others that are not ashamed will be delivered up before these synagogues of Satan, and then the Holy Spirit will speak through them, as He did on the Pentecost Day.

We read of this in Acts 2.

Peter identified this in Acts 2:14-21, as that spoken of by Joel the prophet. [Joel 2:28-32]; This was a sample of how it will be in these end times. My fellow Christian, we are living in the end times. This "synagogue of Satan" is very active today, and putting up quite a deception before the churches of today, to draw them into their godless, "one world system", which is preparing the way for their father Satan's arrival as the false-christ.

The Church of Smyrna and those churches of like doctrine, know who these Kenites are, and God will bless them for this knowledge.

Revelation 2:10 "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.."

When you know exactly what the deceptions of these Kenites are and from the rest of Revelation, you know how these Kenites are working.

The purpose is how to identify them, and then you will have nothing to fear from them. 

God will protect you, for the entire tribulation is nothing but smoke and mirrors. 

It is deceptions, and tricks, and all sorts of supernatural wonders which  God is allowing to Satan [the Antichrist or instead-of-christ] to perform in order to test your faith and knowledge of His Word.

The Antichrist and his children, the Kenites, will use those powers to deceive you, into worshipping Satan, even if in ignorance as if he is the true Christ.

When you know who Satan is, and that he comes to the earth before Jesus Christ comes, you simply can not be tricked by Satan or his children. 

These Kenites are Satan's children through the womb of Eve.

The child born from that sexual union was "Cain", and all the offspring of Cain, to this generation are called the "Kenites". 

Though you my be unaware of this, rest assured that the Kenites know all about themselves.

This race of Kenites copy and mimic what ever group they enter into, 
And in this case it is the tribe of Judah.

I Chronicles 2:55 "And the families of the scribes which dwelt in Jabez [Jerusalem], the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, the Suchathites. These are the Kenites that came of Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab."

These scribes were the Sopherites that set out to write the "Textual Criticism" called the "Sopherim". Their purpose was to rewrite the Word of God, and teach is as their traditions, to replace the teaching of the Massorah of the Levitical priesthood. 

This is why they sought to kill Jesus from the day of the start of his ministry, Jesus knew the difference. 

I Chronicles 2:55 gives us the time that the Kenites took over the duties of the scribes, or keeping safe the true meaning of God's Word, and because of this we have a Massorah Text. Whereby, if anything is added to, or taken away from God's Word, it will stand out. These Kenites dominated the priestly duties of the Levites also, when the Jews came out of Babylon. This is quite obvious by Ezra's writing, in Ezra 2:43-65. It is this band of Kenites that sat in the seat of Moses, that Jesus referred to constantly through His ministry in the Gospels.

The nature of the Kenites is exactly as their father Satan is, thus when you understand how Satan infiltrates, and uses and twists the Word of God to deceive and confuse, you can see how these people will infiltrate your church, and lead you into their father's camp. 

We are told in Mark 13:11 that when you go against them, they will cause you to give an answer why you will not follow them.

That is why you are not to think ahead at this time of what you will say, but to, instead, let the Holy Spirit to speak through you.

It is because these people are wordsmiths, they know how to take words you say and twist meanings to accommodate themselves. 

Don't make plans to fight the Antichrist,

for you will lose.

Instead, study to prepare yourself to know about him, and what he will do.

 He will do exactly what God will give him the authority to do, and nothing more.

 When we keep our eyes on Jesus Christ and know we will not see Him while still in this flesh body that each of us now have, then the hardest step is out of the way.

For whoever claims to be Christ, simply cannot be Christ, if you are still in your flesh and blood body.

We see also in Mark 13:11, the total time of tribulation [testing] for the saints and faithful is for ten [10] days. For those who hold fast to the Lord for those ten days, God's reward [those that know the truth and remain true to Christ] is "the crown of Life", that is eternal life. 

This earth age is about over, and our minds should be set, and looking to the day of our Lord's return.

The only two that will lose their lives in the Antichrist's tribulation are the two witnesses. Their death marks the last three and an half days of this earth age. Then Christ will return. This is recorded in Revelation 11 and we will study it in detail.

Remember that the Church at Smyrna is still on earth when all this takes place.
No so-called "rapture" has occurred; However, all those who are looking for "the rapture" will have already served the Antichrist, and taken his name and his number, so they are lost and will have to spend the next 1000 years, during the Millennium, proving to Christ that they too now deserve to be awarded eternal life at the "Great White Throne of Judgment", i.e. the Second Resurrection to Eternal Life.  If not it is "The Second Death", i.e. eternal death for them also, just like for Satan and his angels.

Revelation 2:11 "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death."

Here we see that beautiful saying again. Those in the church of Ephesus, except for the overcomers, are going to have their church [candlestick] smashed; 

However, those in the Church of Smyrna are getting ready to receive the "crown of life", eternal life. Those who receive this reward will not see the second death, the death of there soul.

American Wisdom Series Editor's Note: We are going to stop here in this "Revelation of Jesus Christ" study to review some commentary from verses 8 through 11 in an earlier study we published on the "Revelation of Jesus Christ."  I don't believe you will find much difference in the general opinion of these 2 authors, but to read another person's perspective of events that did and will take place may prove helpful in our understanding of Jesus' revelation. Also, our introduction #9300 was taken from this earlier study so keep your eyes open for study tips and rules to help simplify your grasp of Jesus' end time revelation.

Let's pay close attention to this next church, the church in Smyrna, for there are only two churches that Christ will find no fault with, this one and the church in Philadelphia. Hey, go with a winner! We will find that they share a common teaching, so whatever it is it must be very pleasing to Christ.

Now notice what identifies the church of Smyrna. They know who the blasphemers are that say they are of Judah, who run around claiming to be God's chosen people, while all along they are liars and are of the synagogue of Satan. Whew, that's pretty powerful stuff! You bet!

Jesus Christ identified these same imposters who lay claim to God's inheritance in John chapter 8. The scribes and the Pharisees were trying to "sell" their lies, deception, to Jesus Christ Himself (talk about bold).

Time for another pop quiz.

Note: We will be addressing the subject of the Kenites throughout the Book of Revelation, so just be patient if this is new to you. However, if anyone would like to be brought up to "modern times" concerning Rev. 2:9 and 3:9 then do some research on the subject of Khazars. Here's a quote from one paragraph in the Encyclopedia Britannica:

Now let's return to Revelation.

Of course, this is nothing new. Christ talked about these trials in Matthew 24 and Mark 13. Let's check it out.

Continuing in Mark 13:

Think carefully now. Remember the picture we were given? The message to the churches, and to the whole world for that matter, comes directly from the mouth of Jesus Christ (His Sword, the Word). Right? That's why God's elect are not to premeditate what they will say. They won't have to! It will be the Sword of Christ, His Word, the Holy Spirit of God, proceeding directly out their mouths to proclaim His Gospel to this world.

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