Armageddon Bride

Armageddon Bride is a passionate perspective of the times we live in, at the threshold of the end of the age. The battle for the bride of Christ is an intense spiritual battle being fought at every level of life--the individual and family, as well as educational, political, and governmental authorities. As Christians, our beliefs are under assault, and we are being called to understand the dangers of these times, which are ours to claim. Scripture says that Jesus is coming back for a bride without spot or wrinkle. Red-hot love and desire for our heavenly Bridegroom will be as an iron pressing out lukewarmness, compromise, and contamination. What will those days be like? How shall we prepare? These questions are answered as the daily occurrence of political and social events begin to reveal the growing intensity of the challenges facing Christian believers in today's world. Readers will learn that the eternal Word of God will give us the direction needed and secure us in the promise that His glory to be revealed. It will be the greatest battle of all times and the greatest victory, through Jesus!

This latest contribution to the understanding of the Bible’s final book will be a welcomed addition to anyone’s personal library. The author is quick to admit that Revelation has many strange images and perplexing elements. However, he is just as quick to stress that these images and elements are not the focus. The Apostle John, in writing this apocalyptic volume, centers the attention on Jesus Christ, the only hope for those who have accepted Him as Lord and Savior, as well as those who still need to. Many people know Revelation for its striking, confusing symbolism. Many of these people would experience less confusion if they realized that most of these symbols are borrowed by the beloved disciple from other parts of the Bible. Manzano is faithful and responsible in allowing the Bible to interpret itself and establishing the Old Testament, especially the book of Daniel, as the foundation for decoding Revelation’s “mysteries.” As Bible prophecy continues to unfold, and this world continues to unravel like a cheap sweater, the frustration and turmoil that ensues will dissipate by the encouraging tone of this book. Readers are subsequently prompted to dive into Revelation and study afresh to reconnect with the Lamb/King around whom its messages revolve.

This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the six messages from the Memorial Day weekend conference, which was a web-hosted video teleconference held on May 22-25, 2020. The subject of this series of messages is “A Timely Word concerning the World Situation and the Lord’s Recovery.” The key statements in the following section embody the crucial truths and the main burden of the conference. The Announcements section at the end of this issue contains a list of upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.

The book of Revelation firstly reveals Christ (1:1), and secondly the testimony of Jesus (1:2). In other words, this book is concerned with Christ and the church. In Revelation, Christ and the church are revealed in a unique and particular way. Several aspects of Christ, such as the vision of Him as the High Priest in the midst of the churches, caring for them in love yet with a judging attitude (1:13-16), the vision of Him as the Lion-Lamb in the midst of God’s throne, and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the 24 elders of the universe opening the seven seals of God’s universal administration (5:1-6:1), and the vision of Him as Another Mighty Angel coming down from heaven to take possession of the earth (10:1-8; 18:1) have never been unveiled as they are in the book of Revelation. In this book, the revelation of Christ is unique and ultimate. In addition to this ultimate revelation of Christ, the book of Revelation also unveils many unique aspects of the church as the testimony of Jesus. The lampstands in chapter one, the great multitude of the redeemed in chapter seven, the bright woman with her man-child in chapter 12, the harvest with its firstfruits in chapter 14, the overcomers on the sea of glass in chapter 15, the bride ready for marriage and the fighting army of Christ in chapter 19, and the New Jerusalem in chapters 21 and 22 are all the testimony of Jesus which is the Spirit - the substance, the disposition, and the characteristic - of the prophecy in this book (19:10). The central content of this book is an unveiling of God’s economy concerning Christ and the church, presenting the ultimate and consummate revelation of Christ with His full salvation and the church as His loving bride, the New Jerusalem. In this book, we find the full and adequate conclusion, not only to the writings of John and to the New Testament, but also to the entire divine revelation.

This book is definitely a book on prophecy. It starts with the church age and ends with an understanding of the millennium. It is not intended to be an in-depth study of any of the topics covered. However, the writer believes the reader will come away with his appetite for more in-depth study of many of the topics, topics that are not often dealt with to the satisfaction of the reader. Topics such as: the resurrected body dress transformation of the saints seven years in heaven (I cant wait) the throne worship and fellowship The chapter on the seventy-five days is so exciting. Have you ever thought about ruling and reigning with King Jesus? There are some things that have to happen between now and the Rapture. Perhaps both the Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38 and 39 wars will take place. It is so interesting to try to place these wars with all thats taking place in the world today. Then there is the millennium, when the saints will rule and reign with King Jesus for one thousand years. Hallelujah, I cant wait!

This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the eight messages of the international training for elders and responsible ones hosted by Living Stream Ministry on October 2-4, 2020. The messages were provided via webcast from Anaheim, California, and the mutual fellowship, prophesying, and studying by groups were practiced locally in the various churches that participated. The general subject of this series of messages is "The Christian Life, the Church Life, the Consummation of the Age, and the Coming of the Lord." The present age--the age of grace, the age of the church--is the age of mystery, and the consummation of the age, the end of the age, will be the three and a half years of the great tribulation. In the dispensations from Adam to Moses and from Moses to Christ, everything was unveiled, and there was no mystery. It will be the same in the dispensation of the millennial kingdom and in the new heaven and new earth. However, in the dispensation from the incarnation of Christ to the millennial kingdom--the church age, the age of grace--everything is a mystery. During the church age, the age of mystery, Christ is building up the church, the Body of Christ, to be His bride. We need to see the signs of the Lord's second and imminent coming. The greatest sign of the end of this age, the last three and a half years of the great tribulation, is the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth. To be taken by the Lord, we need to be those who are watchful for His imminent coming and prepared and ready to be His bride so that we may be raptured before the great tribulation. Every day we need to be watchful by paying the price to buy the Spirit as the golden oil so that we may supply the churches with the Spirit for the testimony of Jesus and be rewarded by the Lord to participate in the marriage dinner of the Lamb. If we want to save our soul-life, we will lose it, but if we lose our soul-life for the Lord's sake, we will save it. If we allow our soul to suffer the loss of its soulish enjoyment in this age for the Lord's sake, we will cause our soul to have its enjoyment in the kingdom age; we will share the Lord's joy in ruling over the earth. If we lose our soul-life, we may participate in the rapture of the overcomers. The salvation of our soul is our receiving the end of our faith. Those who would receive the end of their faith are those whose faith has been proven by fire in this age, that is, proven by all kinds of circumstances, environments, and sufferings that cause the loss of their souls. The salvation of the soul means that our soul will be saved from sufferings into the full enjoyment of the Lord at His coming back. We must be faithful in service in the Lord's commission to give God as food to the members of His household so that we may win Christ as our reward in the coming kingdom. God has set faithful and prudent slaves over His household as household administrators, stewards, channels of supply, to give His people food at the proper time, that is, to minister the word of God and Christ as the life supply to the believers in the church. Furthermore, we must be faithful in service in the Lord's gifts to make a profit for Him so that we may enter into the joy of the Lord in the coming kingdom. The prayer of the age is the prayer of the church as the Body of Christ, the prayer that exercises the authority of Christ as the ascended Lord and Head of the Body, for the fulfilling of God's economy. To fully enter into this kind of prayer and be able to exercise the authority given by the Head to the Body, we need to realize that we are members of the Body, and we must live, act, and move in the Body. In His heavenly ministry Christ is interceding, ministering, and executing God's administration, and we need to be those who respond to Christ's activities in His heavenly ministry by our prayers in the church as the temple of God, a house of prayer. We need revelation to know the reality of the Body of Christ and to enter into the realm and intrinsic significance of the reality of the Body of Christ as God's heart's desire and His ultimate purpose. Only a revelation from God will usher us into the realm of the reality of the Body of Christ, and only then will the Body become our experience. In order to live together with other members in the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to have a consciousness of the Body of Christ. The overcomers typified by Zion are the reality of the Body of Christ and consummate the building up of the Body in the local churches to bring in the consummated holy city, New Jerusalem, the Holy of Holies as God's dwelling place in eternity. We need to follow Paul's pattern of having an overcoming life of fighting the good fight, finishing our course, and loving the Lord's appearing. To fight the good fight of the faith means to fight for God's New Testament economy; in particular, it is to fight for Christ as the embodiment of God and for the church as the Body of Christ. A proper Christian life involves running the course, the race, for the carrying out of God's economy according to His eternal purpose. We need to seek out the journey that the Lord has ordained for us and faithfully walk on it, paying any price to wholeheartedly continue on our journey until we reach the end. The journey that the Lord has ordained for us is the race that we must run with endurance by looking away unto Jesus as the Author and Perfecter of our faith. As those who love the Lord Jesus, take Him as our life, live Him, and magnify Him, we should await His coming and love His appearing. This should be our heart's desire and our living as those who hope to enter into His joy, be saved into the Lord's heavenly kingdom, and receive the crown of righteousness. God's desire is to end this age and bring in the age of the kingdom. In order for God to accomplish this, He must have His dispensational instrument. All of us should look to the Lord and pray that we will have dispensational value to God. Because the church has not attained to God's purpose, God will choose a group of overcomers who will attain to His purpose and fulfill His demand; this is the principle of the man-child. The man-child consists of the overcomers who stand on behalf of the church, take the position that the whole church should take, and do the work for the church. The rapture of the man-child to heaven, the casting of Satan to earth, and the declaration in heaven that the kingdom has come signify that God's gaining of the man-child is His greatest dispensational move because it brings an end to the church age and introduces the kingdom age. The Announcements section at the end of this issue contains a list of upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.

The American family has long been at the centre of the typical Hollywood narrative. But the depiction of the nuclear family within contemporary mainstream US cinema has not yet been closely studied. Home Movies addresses this oversight by assessing recent cinematic representations of the family in terms of cultural politics and representations of gender, sexuality, race and class. Focusing on a diverse range of popular films - from Meet the Parents to The Incredibles - Claire Jenkins analyses the father-daughter relationship within sequels and series; Meryl Streep's embodiment of the mother; the superhero family and extraordinary manifestations of the ordinary family; disaster films which depict the president as father; 'mom-coms' and Hollywood's representations of the non-traditional family. She combines film studies, gender studies and family history to demonstrate the complexities of Hollywood's family values.