Ken Blue Ministries

By Ken Blue

 THE BOOK THAT WAS BITTER/SWEET

“And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:  But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.”  (Revelation 10:5-7).

The angel now lifts his hands toward heaven; this shows his harmony with Him who is in heaven. Then, “sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer.” Some reject the thought that the angel could be Christ on the grounds that He swears by One in heaven. However, the Lord has sworn by Himself before: “For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,” (Hebrews 6:13). We believe Him to be the Lord Jesus Christ.

The mighty angel declares that there will be no more delay in verse 7. The time has come, and the usurper is about to be evicted from earth to his new residence.

The mystery of God, which is about to be finished, is not an event that has been kept secret from the foundation of the world. God’s servants, the prophets, spoke of these days long ago. The only mystery was when would God judge Satan and take back the Kingdom forfeited by Adam. That mystery was about to unfold, for the time had come. The fulfillment of this mystery brings us right up to the Second Advent of Christ.

“And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.  And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.”  (Revelation 10:8-11).

This is the third looping parallelism and takes us back to the mid-point of the Tribulation. John is told to take the book from the right hand of the angel. He takes it, and he is instructed to eat it.  In his mouth it was sweet as honey, but in his belly it was bitter. There is no mystery here.

Ezekiel was given the same commission. Only the time was different. “Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.  So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll. And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness. And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them” (Ezekiel 3:1-4). “So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me” (Ezekiel 3:14).

Jeremiah experiences this same bitterness of spirit as he is called upon to take a message of judgment and condemnation to his people. “Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed” (Jeremiah 20:14). He curses his day because he is the one chosen of God to carry the message of death to his own people. This caused great sorrow and bitterness of spirit.  This is what John is yet to experience.

The book John eats contained the blessings and the curses, which were yet to come on John’s people. The blessings were the things associated with the glorious return and reign of Christ over Israel’s promised Kingdom. That expectation thrilled John and was indeed sweet as honey to him.

The prophetic message also carried judgments like the world had never seen and was about to come at the sound of the seventh trumpet. It was indeed grievous and bitter for him. This is the meaning of verse 11, “And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” This is fulfilled throughout the remainder of the book.

Ken Blue

Pastor Ken Blue was born in Boswell, Ark. In 1955 he accepted Christ as his Savior. He and his wife Joyce were married in 1955. They have 5 children. He graduated from Midwestern Baptist Bible College in 1969 and started the Open Door Baptist Church in Lynnwood, Wa. where he pastored for 39 years. Because of health issues (ALS) he was forced to resign as pastor. It is his desire to continue to be used of God to help pastors and believers through this ministry.

kenblueministries.com

BY Ken Blue

“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. 2 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. 3 Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Psalm 53:1-3.

The following is an exchange of emails between an atheist and myself.  As I said before, the atheist is indeed a fool when it comes to science or God. Jeff will never address my questions because he has no answer. Also, he reveals his ignorance of Scripture when trying to use is against me.

Ken,

You still haven’t provided the title of the article and the name of the author to which your feedback pertains. Do that, and, as I said before, I will be glad to forward your feedback to that author for his potential response.

In the meantime, something to keep in mind: I made no claims pertaining to the many unfounded assertions that you present regarding me, rather I asked you a question about your beliefs, a question that should be very easy for you to answer given that you claim to be a Bible-believing Christian for 55 years who is too dumb to care.

By the way, you sound a bit angry in your last email. Were you? According to Jesus, it is a sin to be angry, right?

Jeff,

That was not a sound of anger you detected, it was a rebuke to you for your dishonesty and ignorance. As I said, you aren’t able or qualified to play around with Scripture in an attempt to avoid answering my original questions. You should do a little more research before you try to discredit the Scriptures or me. Before you try to condemn me concerning anger, you should read the following.

 “And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.” Mark 3:5.

 “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:” Ephesians 4:26

If you want a real nugget to show contradiction in the Scripture, you might try this one. “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.  Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.” Proverbs 26:4-5.

I take it from your response; you were unable and unwilling to address any of the questions in my email. That is strange coming from someone who claims to rely on logic. You could not address one question.

 For example, show the logic of the answer to the questions I ask you “Is it reasonable that matter has always existed? Is it reasonable that matter came from nothing? Is it reasonable that life came from  Non-life? Is it reasonable that man progresses and animals never do?”

You not only reveal your ignorance of true science, you have no idea what you are talking about when it comes of Scripture. The first rule is right division is, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a

workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15. I am sure you have no concept of what that means. You reveal that in your email.

Your attempt to escape answering my questions will not work. You are the one who relies on superior knowledge and reasoning. Until you learn the meaning of the above verse, and how to apply its rules

of interpretation, you should not attempt to quote any Scripture. I don’t expect you to answer the questions in my previous email, for you cannot

Ken Blue

Pastor Ken Blue was born in Boswell, Ark. In 1955 he accepted Christ as his Savior. He and his wife Joyce were married in 1955. They have 5 children. He graduated from Midwestern Baptist Bible College in 1969 and started the Open Door Baptist Church in Lynnwood, Wa. where he pastored for 39 years. Because of health issues (ALS) he was forced to resign as pastor. It is his desire to continue to be used of God to help pastors and believers through this ministry.

kenblueministries.com