Revelation chapter 14 verse 6: "Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth--to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people--saying with a loud voice, "Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water." And another angel followed, saying, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name." Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, "Write: 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.' "Yes," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them."

In modern times, people have to be very careful what they say to other people. We have to be sensitive, we have to be politically correct is the term. I was given for Christmas a little book called The Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook and I was enlightened. I've been saying all the things wrong and this book tells me how to communicate now, what words are appropriate now. For instance, you should no longer use the word pet to describe whatever animal you have at home but you use the words non-human animal companion. And instead of the word bald you use follicly challenged. Rather than saying dead, it's now appropriate to say terminally inconvenienced. Rather than calling someone drunk, the word sobriety deprived is now en vogue. Rather than saying he's old, you say he's chronologically gifted. And no longer do we call people in prison prisoners, but he is a client of the correctional system. Rather than stupid, which isn't a good word anyway, the words cerebrally challenged are appropriate. And rather than using the word wife, what is now appropriate in this day and age is domestic incarceration survivor. The result is we have a generation of people who are afraid to say anything because everything will offend someone. Even God's people, rather than just saying it like it is, are afraid to say anything in the name of being sensitive.

Well in the tribulation period, three angels come on the scene who really aren't cared about what is politically correct language, rather what is spiritually correct. They come on the scene and they have a message from God to deliver to the entire earth. These are the words of heaven speaking to everyone who dwells on the earth. It's a phenomenon never seen before in the world where angelic beings would appear and give a message universally to everyone who dwells on the planet. That's never happened. There have been a number of angel sightings that people attest to. There have been some real biblical sightings. But never before has a group of angels given messages from heaven to the earth to everyone who dwells on it. You might say that they set the record straight, that they rectify, they correct the wrong thinking that people have, the false ideas that people have had for a long time. I was reading and rereading these verses this week and I was just looking at how it was put together and what the messages were and I'm looking at it to outline it and see how it fits together and I realized something I'd never seen before. Almost every single thing the angels say is directly opposed to the philosophies and the assumptions of mankind. Almost everything that comes out of the angels' mouths contradicts what many believe today. People have assumptions about the gospel, about man's origin, about Satan, about death, about eternity. The angel talks about these things--all of them do, even the voice from heaven. And it contradicts what people believe in today which goes to show that man cannot come up with right concepts about God or these issues apart from God revealing it to them. Apart from revelation, man is left with assumption. And as we've noted and noticed as we look around in society, people today are becoming more spiritual but the kind of spirituality that people are into is not the spirituality of God's Revelation, rather it's the spirituality of how I feel about something. Well, I picture God as... and I think... and my view is... it's sort of like construct-your-own-god-ism.

In Kyoto, Japan there is an interesting temple. It's called the Temple of a Thousand Buddhas and inside there are a thousand different images, all different from one another, of Buddha. The idea is the worshiper goes in and finds the face that most resembles himself and worships that image. That's basically what people do today. They find the philosophy or image of God that best works with them and not according to revelation and they worship that. Now as we look at these verses, I did this week, I wondered about all those people who say, well religion is a private thing, you don't discuss it publicly. I wonder how they will fare with this episode as three angels talk very publically about these issues so that everyone in the world will hear. Now we know that angels are active, we've seen that in the Bible, in the giving of the Law they were active, the book of Hebrews tells us that angels are ministering spirits who presently help those who are heirs of salvation. We see them very active in the end times. The book of Revelation has angels from chapter 1 through chapter 14 they are mentioned in every single chapter except chapter 13. They're very active in God's plan and carrying out God's plan. We saw them ministering God's will, fighting demon hordes, enacting judgments, and now giving messages from God. Angels will appear, not in the outfield, but in the heavens and everyone will see them.

Now the only angel I ever met I married. I want to say that right off the bat. She is my wife, or I should say, my domestic incarceration survivor. But I have never met an angel in the biblical sense as far as I know. I may have but I don't know that I have. Let's look at these verses then. Verses 6 through 11 are announcements of tribulation. And then verses 12 and 13 are an announcement of triumph. Announcements of tribulation, angels give out announcements, and finally there is a voice from heaven, an announcement of triumph. In the first announcement of tribulation, there is an angel that preaches salvation, verse 6: "Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth--to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people--saying with a loud voice, "Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water."

The first angel is a preacher and his pulpit is the firmament of heaven, out of the reach of man. No one can shut this guy up. Now sometimes the last thing people want to hear is preaching, right? And today people can turn off the television or change channels on the radio or walk out of the service or throw away the book. They won't be able to get out of this one. Beyond the reach of anyone or anything, an angel is flying through the heavens preaching the everlasting gospel. Throughout history there have been times when man could silence God's preachers. They could kill them, they could banish them, and in the tribulation period they will martyr many of them, but here's one they are not able to touch. Now Paul was in prison one time and he wrote a letter to Timothy and here is Paul, a preacher, you know he wanted to get out and he wanted to proclaim the gospel and he felt he couldn't do it and he was right, he couldn't do it in that sense. But he wrote these words to Timothy: I suffer trouble as an evildoer even to the point of chains but the Word of God has not chained. The Word of God is not chained. I'm chained but God's Word isn't chained and there will never be a time when that's truer than in the tribulation period when these angels fly through heaven and preach the gospel. Now they've never done that. This is unique. This is a phenomenon that has never occurred. Angels have never preached the gospel to the earth. They've never flown through heaven with a little P.A. system or a megaphone and said repent, get right with God. I'm sure there are many times when they wanted to do it. I'm sure in looking at us and our attempts and our efforts or our lack of diligence in getting the gospel out, they've probably thought many times they'd like to just move us over and do it right. But they haven't done it. Remember in the book of Acts a guy by the name of Cornelius, he's a Roman soldier, and he prays every single day. He wants to know who God is. He wants to know the truth. And an angel appears to him. and the angel says, Cornelius, send a group of men to Joppa and call on a guy by the name of Simon whose surname is Peter and he's at this house and he'll come and tell you what to do. And so an entourage has to be sent out to Joppa, bring Peter back and Peter shares the gospel with them. Now why doesn't the angel who appeared tell Cornelius the gospel? Why go through all of the rigmarole to send Peter? Because that's not the commission of angels, that's the commission of men and women. That's our privilege. The angels don't preach the gospel until here. We do it. Remember that next time you're wondering, should I share the gospel with this person or not? Remember this is the last chance you'll get. You'll never be able to share the gospel with people; you'll never be able to witness in heaven. Who are you going to share with? What unbelievers will you find there? Will you go up to Peter or John or James and say, you know God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Would you mind reading this tract? This is the last chance you get at it--the earth. It's the commission of men and women to go preach the gospel.

This angel, it says, is flying in the midst of heaven, or literally in mid-heaven. And this word refers to the apex of the sun at noon day, the time when the sun is at its greatest visibility, at its meridian. And the angel is flying and in the original language means, continually, constantly flying, as if to say hovering over earth's atmosphere for everyone to eventually see and hear. It's the greatest message he preaches, it's the everlasting gospel. What does that mean? Simply it's the gospel that has been always preached. It's the Good News of Jesus Christ and it provides the means of everlasting life--salvation, entrance into the everlasting kingdom. It's the gospel that never changes and all of the people that we have failed to reach in our lifetime or in successive generations' lifetimes, all of these people, every group, every tongue, and every nation will be able to hear this angel. I think this is what Jesus meant when He said in Matthew 24 the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all of the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come. I think He was speaking of this. Now it says he preaches the gospel to every nation. The word is ethnos, where we get the term ethnic group, and then every tribe and every tongue, every dialect, every language, every ethnic group, every place, every corner of the earth will be able to hear. And then all of those people who love to argue and say well what about the pygmy in Africa who's never heard, well what about all those people in these far corners--they'll all hear. Every single one of them will hear this message. It's as if God gives one all-out final attempt to reach the world. This is the heart of God. Before He buries the world in judgment, ultimately, finally, and pours out the seven last plagues, a message of the gospel goes out, an invitation, an opportunity to change. They will have rejected the 144,000 Jews who witness. They will have rejected the two witnesses who do miraculous signs. They are killed. They are taken. They will have rejected the martyrs, most of whom they have killed. And now an angel is sent, flying through mid-heaven, the pulpit of greatest visibility for every tribe, tongue, and people on the earth.

Now this brings up a false assumption. False assumption number one, that the earth has, that people generally have when it comes to the gospel, and that is that the gospel is a western religion. It's a way. It works in America but it doesn't work anywhere else. It is not an absolute. It's just a cultural thing. Frank Zappa, the musician, once said, "Missionary evangelism is the height of cultural arrogance. To go to somebody else's country and attempt through trickery or food or medicine to capture souls for Jesus presumes that the guy with the travel budget and the hypodermic needle has a spiritual edge over the native that he's going to save." Well that may be politically correct but it's spiritually incorrect. And the angel would beg to differ with Frank. In fact, the angel has a message for everyone. The gospel is for every ethnic group, every language, every tribe, and every nation. Jesus said for God so loved whom? The world. Not for God so loved America. God loves the world. And Jesus Christ said to His disciples go into all the world and preach the Good News to every creation--every person. After the resurrection He said repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations. It is the everlasting gospel and because it's everlasting and it's the Good News, it's for every creature. That's what Jesus said. That was always the commission of the disciples, the church, that the gospel goes to everyone. Just like diseases that require treatment, a lung disease, a heart disease, Hanson's disease, the treatment universally is the same. It's not like well, he's got cancer and in Africa we use aspirin and that cures it. If you've got a disease there are certain antidotes, certain treatments, certain remedies that work everywhere. And the only cure for sin, the universal cure for sin, is the gospel. And nothing else.

Notice also in verse 7 this first angel includes something else in this message. He says with a loud voice, "Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water." Included in the everlasting gospel now is a message to worship God as the Creator. Not mother earth, not mother nature, not father spirit but Creator God and one noticeable thing in the Scripture, whenever preachers of God approach the pagan world they almost always approach the pagan world from the vantage point of God is the Creator. Even Paul did it when he went to Athens and they had all of these gods. He spoke about the one true God who made heaven and earth, who is the Creator. Why? Because that's the one big unanswered question. Where did all of this come from? There's got to be some great cause for such a great effect. And the great cause is God made it. Notice it says He made heaven, earth, sea, and the springs of water. In other words, all of these elements testify of design. God designed it. The sun, 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit at its surface, the earth 93 million miles from the sun. If the earth was 50 degrees colder or 50 degrees warmer, we wouldn't survive. Why is the sun 93 million miles away? Why not 93,000 or 130 million miles? Why is it 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit? Why not 1200 or 120,000 or whatever? Why 12,000? It's all designed. The earth rotates 365 times around the sun in a year. If it did it 36 times our days and nights would be ten times longer. We'd have extreme heat and extreme cold, as other planets. Our air is a unique balance. It just so happens that it's a balance of nitrogen and oxygen, 79% to 20% with 1% of variant gases. Why not 50% oxygen? Why not 2% oxygen? Why just that perfect balance for the biosphere? It's designed! And when you see design, you think somebody designed it.

So this brings up false assumption number two that the angel corrects and that is, the world would say we evolved, we were not created by God. It's interesting. no matter how many books, no matter how many seminars or symposiums that great minds, creationists, who are brilliant and have thought through it, and no matter how much of this goes on, the world still persists in believing this and it will take an angel to set the record straight in the tribulation period. This dominates today's thinking. It will dominate thinking in the end times. The angel, in effect, is saying the Creator is the Judge. The One who started it is the One who will end it. The Maker is the Executioner. He's the Creator. I love what one woman said. She said if evolution works, how come mothers still have only two hands? You'd think by now they'd have grown three or four with all they have to do. Sir Frederick Hoyle, a professor of astronomy at Cambridge University said, "The chance that higher life forms might have emerged in this way is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junkyard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein." And the angel will pronounce among the everlasting gospel is worship God, He's the Creator. It's the direct antithesis to what people believe today.

Let's look at the second angel in verse 8: "And another angel followed, saying, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." Now this angel is not preaching the gospel. There's no invitation. There is no option available. This angel is proclaiming doom on the system--Babylon. The great worship system, the final kingdom of the Antichrist, we'll talk more about it in chapters 17 and 18 where it's detailed for us, but it's as if nobody heard the first angel or listened to the first angel, believed it, so the second angel comes and pronounces doom on the entire system. Now it could be that it speaks of the system of Babylon, it could be since it mentions the city of Babylon that Babylon will be rebuilt. A lot of people feel that the literal Babylon, the city, started by Nebuchadnezzar will be rebuilt. It's interesting, over the last few years and it's continuing today, Saddam Hussein is literally rebuilding the city as a ceremonial city. I saw the ruins last year when I was there. And so it could be that, though the image of the Antichrist is worshiped in Jerusalem, that his political headquarters will be in Babylon or it could just refer here to the entire system, spiritually as well as the political system. Notice the reason the angel makes this announcement. "Because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." In other words, this system literally deceives and intoxicates the whole world. Which brings us up against another false assumption that people have today which is well the whole world can't be wrong, can it? Well the majority can't be wrong. If most people believe in that it's gotta be right, right? That's a false assumption. We live in a democracy where the majority rules. But don't think that because the majority rules that the majority is right. The apostle John said in 1 John 5 we know that we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4 the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.

Now think about it in chronology. Those who believe in Jesus, the church formally, will be raptured off the earth before the tribulation period. There will be 144,000, yes Jews, who believe in God and believe in Jesus. There will be many who are martyred. But by and large the world, as Paul said, will be deceived and believe that great lie--the delusion of the Antichrist. So it is possible that the majority can be wrong. Remember when Moses sent 12 spies to spy out the land of promise? Was the majority right or wrong? They were wrong. The ten said we can't enter the land, it's impossible. Well they did enter the land. The minority was right. The majority of people in Jerusalem were wrong about Jesus Christ when they crucified Him. The majority of scientists were wrong when they said at one time the earth is flat. In fact, the great historian Arnold Toynbee said it's doubtful that the majority has ever been right.

Well let's look at the third angel, verse 9; this angel predicts judgment, damnation. "Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name." this third angel is not preaching the gospel, the third angel is not predicting the doom or the fall of a city, but this is the prediction of damnation to all those who worship the Antichrist, the beast. I think the choice between the beast and the Lamb, the Antichrist and Christ, will be so marked and so profound that everyone will know about that choice. You will have to make a conscious decision to follow the beast. It won't be like oops, I never wanted to do this. And now is that prediction of judgment. They believed the lie but they are now aware of it and heaven gives them this declaration.

They've rejected the witness of 144,000, two witnesses who do miraculous signs, all of the martyrs whom they've killed, the first angel who proclaims the everlasting gospel, and now this third angel comes and basically, it's like, ok, if you insist, if you persist in drinking the cup of the wine of her fornication, if you want to continue to drink of this system, God will give you a cup--another cup. And it will be the cup of His wrath, the cup of His judgment. The destiny for people who reject Jesus Christ during the tribulation will be the exact same destiny of those who reject Jesus Christ at any other time and that will be hell. Notice it says it will be poured out, His wrath, full strength. Now that's a wine metaphor. In ancient times, water was so bad that they'd mix wine with it to kill the germs but still leave a lot of it water, most of it water, so that you could be refreshed by it. But the idea here is there's no mixture of water and wine. It's just unmixed judgment. And I think we should notice again, and not skip over it, is verse 11, the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.

Now this brings up another false assumption. Isn't it amazing? Everything the angel says is exactly what people do not believe. False assumption number four: hell is not real, hell is not forever, and hell is a metaphor. Or hell is what you make on earth. It's either heaven or hell--you make your own. It's not real. I got to admit hell is the most unappealing subject, the most unpalatable subject, the most politically incorrect subject of all of them. Of all of the things that the angels proclaim, this is probably the one that most people would have the most difficulty with. But the Bible has a lot to say about hell, doesn't it? In fact, it's funny how people say well the God of the Old Testament, the God of the wrath of judgment versus the God of the New Testament and there's no hell or judgment. I beg your pardon. Jesus Christ spoke more about hell than any other person in the Bible. Here are the words of Jesus Christ. He said that He would say to those hypocrites in the end, depart from Me you who are cursed into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. In Matthew 25 verse 41 He will also to those on the left hand, depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. In another place Jesus said do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. He described hell as a place of unquenchable or unending fire where the worm never dies, wailing and gnashing of teeth. He spoke more about it than anyone else.

Now today there are a lot of books written about near-death experiences. In fact, if you want a best-seller just write your experience of how you came close to death and while your body was lying on the operating table and you seemed to hover over your body while they were working on you, you saw a bright light and felt warm fuzzies. And now you can come back and tell people death is ok, you don't have to worry about it, it doesn't matter what you believe in because, on the other side, everyone will be accepted. You'll all be embraced by the light. Well are they telling the truth? I think they are. I think they're telling the truth of what they saw, but could it be a deception? Could it not be Satan the angel of light telling people, do anything you want, I'll give you any experience you want so you can perpetrate the lie that you can die outside of Christ. It's funny that's only half the story, the near-death experiences, the bright light, the warm fuzzies. There are a lot of others that aren't getting much press. Dr. Morris Rollings, a cardiologist at the University of Chattanooga Tennessee said that he found no basis whatsoever in his medical practice of the biblical doctrine of heaven or hell until he observed 100 patients. Being a cardiologist, watching them die or near death, and in his book Beyond Death's Door, he said, "I am thoroughly convinced now that there is life after death and that there are at least as many going to hell as going to heaven. The turning point of my own concept occurred when a patient experienced cardiac arrest and dropped dead right in my office. Of course, that alone didn't change my thinking but the fact that this 48-year-old postman was screaming, I'm in hell, keep me out of hell, each time he responded to resuscitation efforts did cause me some concern." It caused him so much concern that he started writing down his observations and he wrote a book that's not as popular as other books about the light and the warm fuzzies but there are so many experiences.

What amazes me, though, is people are so apt to believe the author who has the experience of the bright light and the warm fuzzies but they'll reject the words of Jesus Christ, the only One who has died and risen from the dead and still lives to tell about it. He's the only real authority and they'll reject His experience and His words but be quick to believe the words of others. Well let's move to the second phase, the announcement of triumph, in verses 12 and 13: "Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, "Write: 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.'" "Yes," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them." Do you notice the contrast between the followers of the beast and those who die in the Lord? The followers of the beast will be tormented forever and ever. They'll have no rest. Those who die in the Lord will rest, it says, from their labors. Better to follow the Lamb for a thousand years than the Antichrist for three-and-a-half years. That's sort of the contrast that is drawn in these verses. It talks about the perseverance of the saints in verse 12, that is tribulation believers will have to suffer and pay the ultimate price, many of them, for their faith in Jesus Christ. But how opposite this is from the philosophy of the world. False assumption number five: blessed are the living only, cursed are the dead.

Now it sounds kind of odd when you read this, doesn't it? Blessed are the dead. That's an odd statement. It sounds like a sermon Jack Kevorkian would preach. Blessed are the dead. in fact, the word blessed means oh how happy, to be envied, that feeling of inner satisfaction and bliss. You say what's so blessed about these who have died? Well there are two reasons. How they lived and how they died. How they lived? With perseverance. How they died? With promise. They died in the Lord, it says. It's in contrast to those who die outside of the Lord. Why are they blessed? Figure it out. Paul the apostle said to be absent from the body is? To be present with the Lord. Not a bad deal. That's pretty blessed, isn't it? It's funny how man stops with just the outward appearance. Mankind taken to a cemetery would see nothing but hopelessness, the empty grave, the tears, the loss. God, who lives on the other side of the time-space continuum, sees the rest, sees the rewards of the righteous, the resurrection of the body, the glories and the bliss of the heavenly kingdom. And so he says blessed are those who die in the Lord. The world would say, cursed are the dead and they're sort of right. If you're an unbeliever, death is a curse. If you're a believer, death is a blessing. You're ushered into the presence of God.

Notice verse 13, the end of it: "Yes," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them." you know it's sort of modern vernacular today when you want to emphasize something, you're really into something, you're really stoked, you go, Yes! Here the Holy Spirit does it. The voice comes and, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord and the Holy Spirit goes, yes! He's happy that they're dead. You go why is He so happy? Because all of their tears are ended. All of their torment is ended. He has kept them through this time but now all of the struggle, like a weary soldier scarred from battle comes home to rest, and the Holy Spirit says, yes! They are blessed. He makes the affirmation. Why? Well it says they rest. That doesn't mean you just do nothing. It's not inactivity. The word rest means rejuvenation or refreshment. They rest from all their labor, or literally, their toils, their weariness, their troubles. It's over. No more tears. When you think of what's waiting for you who are Christians, you have absolutely no fear of death. You know that's why reincarnation is such a bum rap. Who wants to come back? Been there, done that. I think of being in heaven. Now don't misunderstand when a friend of mine or a relative of mine, even if they're a Christian, dies, I weep. But I'm not weeping for them. I'm weeping for me. I'm going to miss their company. I'm not crying for the person who died, oh I'm so sad, they're in heaven! Eternal bliss before the throne of God, oh what a drag! Oh please. Blessed, to be envied, bliss, delight, are those who die in the Lord. Paul said in Philippians 2, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better. A pastor of a church went to one of his friends who recently lost his wife to death and he said, I'm so sorry you lost your wife. The man said, you're wrong. You don't lose something when you know where it is. Those relatives and friends of yours who are believers who have died in the Lord--they're really alive. They're really alive. They beat you. They made it to heaven before you did. By the time you get there, they'll have the place wired. They can show you every nook and cranny. They have been blessed. We often say he's dead. I think we should change that and say he moved. He relocated. He's been beamed aboard Starship Heaven or whatever. So this is Christian death. This is what the Bible talks about Christians who have died. They haven't been terminally inconvenienced. There's no inconvenience. They're in the presence of God. Death is inevitable. Everyone dies. If the Lord tarries and He doesn't come back in our lifetime, every one of us will face the grave, will face death, we'll be six feet under. It's inevitable. As you've heard often times, the statistics on death are quite impressive. Every one out of one dies. But will you die in the Lord or will you die apart from the Lord? Will it be able to say blessed or cursed? It's funny how so many people love to live apart from Jesus Christ, pay no attention to God in their life at all, and say they don't believe in God and argue and then all of a sudden at death, everybody wants to talk about how they're in a better place and they're in heaven. Why? They're not! That's a pipe dream. It's false. If you want nothing to do with God in your life, He's not gonna force you to be with Him forever. But if you're in the Lord and you die then you're alive in the Lord. And no matter how much surgery or lotion or whatever you do, you're going to die. Will you die in the Lord? You can add a few years to your life but Jesus can add life to your years--now. Politically correct? It's en vogue. Temporarily. Spiritually correct? It's en vogue. For eternity. I'd rather be against the grain. I'd rather be against the world because the world lies under the sway of the wicked one. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.