Revelation – Part 5 – The Golden Altar

COURSE OVERVIEW:

This P&F Bible School course includes approximately 5-6 hours of in-depth study of Chapter 8 of the book of Revelation with Dr. Brian Simmons, lead translator of The Passion Translation.

Revelation 8: The Golden Altar is the fifth installment of the P&F Bible School’s Revelation series. Here is a preview of what this course has in store for us!

Finally, the seventh seal was opened, a seal unlike any other, for it was the last of the seals. When the Lamb opened the seventh seal there were not great voices, there were not thunderings and lightnings, there were not mighty commotions, movement, activities, and events. There was SILENCE in heaven for about half an hour! Silence. One half hour of silence! What is that silence?

In this dramatic scene all heaven is hushed! For about half an hour the twenty-four elders kneel in silent wonder. The living creatures fold their wings, stilled and speechless in awe. The saints before the throne are breathless and unable to utter a word. Angelic choirs put away their hymnals, the harps are laid aside; there is not a sound from anywhere throughout the vast celestial world. All is hushed. Why? As our thoughts ascend upward among divine mysteries, we see that it is because the seventh seal has been broken! At the breaking of the seventh seal all creation beholds with astonished wonder the beauty and perfection of the completion of God’s work in His many-membered Christ! Christ in His glorified body is fully unveiled!

This new priesthood of the sons of God after the order of Melchizedek is about to minister on behalf of creation in the spiritual temple of God in the heavenlies! As you read Revelation Chapter 8, you see that the indescribable silence has something to do with PRAYER! It has to do with INCENSE! It has to do with holy FIRE upon the altar! It has to do with the ROYAL PRIESTHOOD and a golden altar!

The time has come for God to bring to the golden altar every prayer of His people throughout the ages. And He will add to them the anointing and power of the omnipotent Spirit! And their prayers will be a sweet smelling savor — not the stench of the flesh, the foul smell of soulish zeal and emotion, the offensive odor of carnal religious exercise — but the sweet fragrance and pleasing scent of a priestly ministry that is in the Spirit and by the Spirit!

Then John saw the angel take the censer and fill it with fire from the altar of incense and cast it into the earth — into that earth which we are, into the world of humanity; and “there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake” — great commotions, intense dealings, powerful words, marvelous unveilings, deep revelations, fearful manifestations, fiery processings, and judgment of such intensity and severity that the soulical mind and emotions, the natural human constitution, the fleshly will, ways, and desires, and all the wisdom of this world reel to and fro, shaken to their very foundations. This is the ministry that shall break forth from the golden altar in the heavens of the Spirit of the Lord when the Christ of God is fully formed and unveiled within all the holy sons of God!

Talk about judgment unto victory! God is bringing forth His “firstfruit company” who are undefiled before God. These are they that have repented of sin and every work of the flesh. With Christ Jesus, their victorious Head, they have died to all the desires of the flesh and mind, and all the vain religious platitudes of the church systems of man. They have fixed all their hopes in Christ the Lord! Their hearts cry not for the tinsel of the world, nor yet for the trinkets of popular religion, but their prayer ascends to God day and night, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Purged of all pride, self-interest, filthiness of the flesh, and of all soulish works and worship, these shall be accounted worthy to reign with Christ as kings and judges from the spirit realm, and those who rule from henceforth are a royal priesthood like unto their Lord, after the order of Melchizedek, which is the order of the Son of God.

ABOUT DR. BRIAN SIMMONS

Dr. Brian Simmons is a former missionary, linguist, minister, and Bible teacher. As a missionary, he and his wife, Candice, pioneered church plants in Central America. As a linguist, Brian co-translated the Kuna New Testament for the Paya-Kuna people of Panama. He is also a gifted teacher of the Bible who has authored several books and serves churches worldwide through his teaching ministry. He and his wife have been described as true pioneers in ministry, laboring together for forty years to bring spiritual revival and present Christ in His fullness, wherever God sends them.

After a dramatic conversion to Christ in 1971, Brian answered a calling from God to leave everything behind, become a missionary, and bring the gospel to unreached tribes. Taking their family of three children to the jungles of Central America, he and his wife pioneered and shepherded church plants among the Kuna people group for many years. While serving as missionaries Brian witnessed firsthand God’s powerful gospel-movement among the nations through spiritual revival. As a linguist, Brian also served as a co-translator for the Kuna New Testament, providing this unreached people group with a copy of God’s Word for the first time.

After their ministry overseas, Brian and Candice returned to North America, where Brian began to passionately work toward helping people encounter the risen Christ and His story of redemption. Brian and Candice birthed numerous ministries, including the dynamic church Gateway Christian Fellowship in West Haven, Connecticut. They also established Stairway Ministries under which they travel full-time as Bible teachers in service of local churches throughout the world with the gospel. Brian serves on the leadership team for Harvest International Ministries, which oversees a network of nearly 20,000 churches and ministries worldwide.

Brian is the author of numerous books that promote the redemption and reconciliation of the nations through Christ and extension of His kingdom. His best-selling book, The Journey of the Bride, has been translated into Korean and French. Other titles include: Prayer Partners with Jesus, The Dreamer, The Stairway, The Prophet of Zion, Moses the Deliverer, and The Image-Maker. Currently he is working on a new, fresh dynamic-equivalent translation of the entire Bible, called The Passion Translation.

Brian and Candice have been married for fifty years and have three children, six grandchildren, and four great-children. Their passion is to be loving examples of a spiritual father and mother to this generation.

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