Wednesday Night Bible Study with Jeff Shipley - Revelation 6

Eschatology, Doctrine, and Theological Distinctions

All right, so let's review. Let's review for a little bit, okay? All right, guys. What is eschatology? What is eschatology? It is the study of end times, okay? That's what eschatology is. That's the fancy word for the study of end times.

What's the difference between doctrine and theology? The difference is doctrine is an absolute cardinal truth found in the Word of God that is absolutely crystal clear, i .e. grace, i .e. justification.

Those are doctrines, okay? And theology is the study from the concept and the paradigm of mankind. So I might look at God, and I might see A, B, and C, okay? But just because I see that, or because I believe, that's just theology.

It doesn't make it a doctrine. Doctrines are, and I gave you a rule, these are two of seven rules that I use, but there are two, these two rules that I use is that doctrines have to be found throughout all of Scripture, and they could never contradict other doctrines.

Doctrines have to be from Genesis to Revelation, and they have to be in non-contradiction with any other doctrine, okay? So that's eschatology. Theology, doctrine, okay? Now, we're talking about, in the Olivet Discourse, we're talking about, in my opinion, theologically, we're talking about what I believe is dispensational, premillennial, futurist theology, okay?

That's just crystal clear. So that's, that's, I just wanted full disclosure. That's what I believe. Now, having said that, okay, and I'm also a pre-tribulationist. If you want the whole wording, here it goes.

I'm a pre-tribulationist, dispensational, futurist, premillennialist. That's what I am, okay? Now, all of that is theology, okay? If someone doesn't believe that, or if they're an amillennialist, or they're, I personally think they're wrong, but they're still my brothers in Christ because we all believe in the doctrine of the second coming of Jesus, and the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing, and the main thing is Jesus, okay?

So, as we look at things, we're gonna get to heaven, and I'm gonna go, oh, man, I should have thought, yeah, I was wrong on that one, or yeah, oh, yeah, no, I was right on. We're gonna, theology is gonna be fleshed out in the reality of what God intended and not what our silly, limited minds think.

You've grown, brother, since you've left Nashville. Yeah, I've gotten fatterer, if that's what you mean. Yeah, 1 -800-JENNY, man. But anyways, so, as Christians discuss these topics, we need to have good, healthy discussions and debates, and they can be, they can be vigorous debates, but the minute it brings disharmony, and the minute it brings you know, a split, a division among the people of God, you're wrong.

I don't care. It doesn't matter how passionately you believe. If it's not based on the doctrines of the Word of God, your passion needs to be curtailed into the reality of, let's keep God first and foremost.

Hey, Lisa. Miss Linda, will you do something with him, please? Ah, that's good, Keith. I needed that. All right, so, last night, with my awesome little drawings, no, hang on, I'll do it again. But my awesome little drawings, I told you about the three main viewpoints about in times, okay, specifically about Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation.

Premillennial, Postmillennial, and Amillennial Views of the End Times

There are pre-millennialists, of which I am, which I believe that at some point, here's Jesus dying, at some point in the future, God's church is going to be raptured up. Remember, rapture and second coming are two completely different things, okay?

Hey, Jeff. Hey, Samuel. Hey, Aisha. The church is going to be raptured up, to be sure, and then I believe that there's going to be a seven-year period of great tribulation, and then I believe Jesus Christ is going to come back and rule on earth for a thousand years, okay?

So, Jesus comes back before pre-millennial, before the thousand years, okay? That's what pre-millennial means. That's it, okay? You have post-millennial, which believes that Jesus will come back after that thousand years, that his second coming will be, he will rule from heaven, we will rule on earth, and he'll come back after the thousand years.

And then there's the amillennialists. Hey, Carly, Caroline. Hey, Dennis and Robin. You're a post-tribber, okay? Okay, that's good. All right, so now listen. So, an amillennialist believes that the thousand years spoken of Revelation chapter 20 is just allegorical, okay?

It's not a literal thousand years, and what's going to happen is the world's going to continue to hear the gospel, and it's going to get better and better and better, and it's going to get more godly and more godly, and then all of a sudden, boom, here Jesus is, okay?

Those are the three. So, you have pre, post, and amillennial. It's that simple, okay? Now, Samuel just said, I'm a post-tribber, okay? Only, you know, the rapture, where the church is taken up, has nothing to do with the second coming, where the church is taken up.

Hey, Rodney. That is only found in premillennial theology. Both post-mill and amill groups, amillennialism and post-millennialism, do not believe in the rapture. They don't believe in the Great Tribulation.

They don't believe in a futurist antichrist, okay? They don't adhere to any of that. In fact, they believe that those prophecies that are spoken of in both Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation are, for the most part, have already been completed.

They're already done. Hey, Jim. And so, they believe those have already passed, okay? Now, I can sit there and go, he's still my brother in Christ. I think he is being woefully ignorant, but he's still my brother in Christ, okay?

So, there's no need for everybody to draw up camps and, you know, try to hack each other up, okay? It's just, I don't believe all those things, and I'm gonna try to prove that to you tonight. I'm gonna try to prove to you why I am a premillennial theologian, okay?

So, we left off last night. Any questions so far? I'll try to watch. I'll try to watch down here, but I get focused, and I'm old, and I can't focus like I used to, so if there's not any questions so far, and guys, remember, at any time in here, you can write a question down.

You can write a question down, and I will get to it. I promise, okay? All right. So, we left off last night in verse 21, okay? Now, I'm gonna go back just for the sake of clarity, and I'm gonna start again in verse 15, okay?

So, let me set the tone and the pace for maybe those of you who weren't here last night as a review for everyone else. Jesus, in Matthew 23, is really mean to the Pharisees and scribes. It's called the woes chapter.

We call it that. Jesus didn't call it that, because remember, there were no chapters in Jesus' times. Hey, Brother Johnny! So, in Matthew 23, he enters physically the temple complex for the last time.

He's about to be arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, of course, go to Calvary, and then be resurrected and rise again, and then ascend. So, Matthew 23, he cuts loose. Basically, he's, I have had enough.

For three and a half years, I've tried to convince you people, and you're not going to be convinced. You are not going to, how, and it's the most chilling, in my opinion, one of the most chilling comments Jesus ever made.

He makes it, and he says, how will you escape the damnation of hell? I mean, that's just a pretty powerful statement, and for those of you who don't believe in a literal hell, that every time hell is mentioned in the New Testament, that it's just talking about a grave, I want you to go back and read the words of Jesus again, where he says, how will you escape the damnation of hell?

That doesn't sound like a grave, okay? And the reason why it doesn't sound that way, because it's not, okay? There is a hell. It's a reality, and if you don't have Jesus Christ, I'm sorry, you're going there.

It's just that simple, and you can be a spiritual person all you want. You can be a millennial Enlightenist. You can be everything you want, but the exclusivity of the name of Jesus Christ, and his death, burial, and resurrection for the payment of our sins, is the only way you will escape eternal damnation.

Just the way it's going to be. Wrap your head around it if you got to. Say, oh, I don't believe that. Do whatever you got to do, but the reality is, this is fact, and you need to come to grips with that.

Hey, Brother Andrew. Hey, buddy. That's my music minister down there, Brother Andrew Dean Cook, and he's also very smart on the computer stuff. All right, so, having said all that, Jesus walks out of the temple complex.

He goes, I'm out. Later, guys. The scribes and Pharisees go off. They meet at Caiaphas' house, and they go, okay, how are we going to kill this dude? Because we've had enough. And so, they're over here plotting.

Jesus walks out the temple complex, and he don't run. He don't get on a horse and try to get out of town. He doesn't hit the next boat to Margaritaville. He simply just walks out, walks up a hill, sits down on a little mountaintop, and when I say mountain, don't think of, like, Pikes Peak or something, you know.

Think of, you know, just a hill there, and he's looking down into Jerusalem, and as, I'm sorry, as he's walking out, the disciples are sitting there, and they know Jesus is upset, and they go, Jesus, look at this big temple complex.

What are you talking about, man, you know? I mean, this is it. This is, and Jesus looks at them and goes, you see all these stones? You see these walls? See all these buildings? I'm going to tell you a day's coming when not one of these stones is left on top of another.

They walk up the hill. They get on the Mount Olives, and the disciples privately come to Jesus because they don't want to look like schmucks. They're going to be like, oh, yeah, we know what Jesus is talking about, but they had no idea, and in the first part of chapter 24, verse 3, I believe, yeah, verse 3, while he's sitting there, they come to him privately, and they ask him three questions.

Number one, tell us when these things will happen, specifically referring to Jesus just saying that the whole temple is going to come down, and what is the sign of your coming? That's the second question, and the third, what is the end of the age?

So then Jesus begins a two-chapter discourse, Matthew chapter 24 and chapter 25. He talks for the next two chapters answering these three questions. Now, I believe that most of what he said in chapter 24 and 25 is referring to future events, and I'm going to tell you why.

Why Matthew 24 Points Beyond the Destruction of Jerusalem

All right, you ready? Get your pen and paper out. Let's just dissect this, and let's get going. You ready? Here we go. First of all, have you ever watched the news, or you can do it when we're done here.

You can write on a piece of paper. I want you to go look up the Wailing Wall, or the Western Wall. I want you to go look up the Wailing Wall. It's in Jerusalem. It's standing today. You can walk up, put your hand on it, and this section of the wall is, you know, 30 feet high, let's say, or 60 feet high.

It's sitting there, and these stones are massive. I mean, some of them are bigger than cars, you know, these huge stones. Well, that Wailing Wall was there at the time of Jesus. Now, why are you saying this, pastor?

Well, I'm saying this. Jesus just said not one of these stones will be left on top of another. If that already all happened, and that prophecy is fulfilled, did Jesus miss something? Did what happen? Because he just said not one stone.

Go back and read it. Not one stone. It says here in verse 2, not one stone will be left here on another that won't be thrown down. Things that make you go, hmm. So, if that happened in 70 AD, by the way, we're sitting here in the book of Matthew.

Okay, we're sitting in the book of Matthew. Here's Jesus about 33 AD. 37 years later, in 70 AD, Rome did attack Jerusalem, and Rome did whoop the Jews and whoop Jerusalem like red-headed stepchildren.

Okay, all right. But, Jesus said no stone would be left on another, and them stones in 2020 are still there. You ever had a kid you tell to go clean up the room, and they clean up half of it, and you go, oh, well, that's good enough.

Jesus said not one stone will be left on another. Yeah, when he says not one, he means not one. So, if that's already happened, you already got a huge problem. Remember, looking at reality in history, because remember, this isn't Bible history.

This is history. It just is. There's no such thing as Bible history. Okay, history is history. So, the reality is Jesus said this temple's coming down, but he said it's coming down to such a degree that one stone will be not left upon another.

Look down with me to the verse we left off with last night, verse 21, and this will be a review from what we said about verse 21, but it says this, For at that time there will be a great tribulation, great tribulation, and that's what we're talking about tonight.

There will be a great tribulation, the kind that hasn't taken place in the beginning of the world until now and never will again. Now, we understand that the Jewish war, this is called the first war, the Jews fought Rome, I mean tooth and nail, and they lost.

But from 66 AD to 73 AD was the first Jewish Roman War. The second one took place later on in 130, but we'll get to that later. It culminated in 135 AD, and that's when the last Sanhedrin met was in 135 AD.

That's when all of it stopped. Okay, but we'll get to that later. And this is really cool stuff, guys, because you don't have to search through 42 pages of Hebrew to figure this out. All you gotta do is pick up a newspaper, man.

We're living in times that are very exciting if you're a Christian. But anyways, we'll get to that later. So, a lot of bad things happened in 70 AD. A lot of bad things happened when Jerusalem was attacked.

People were butchered, to be sure. If you lived in Judea, you ran for the hills, and we know that. And that's what it says. So, in that time, Jesus being very specific, he's answering their first question.

It says, if you live in Judea, man, you better run for the mountains, buddy. If you're in the field, don't go back home to get your clothes. You see the enemy coming, man, you hear you run. That's what he told them, right?

But then he goes on and he makes this statement. He says, the destruction will be so bad, the death toll will be so huge, the absolute chaos is going to be so bad that that is going to be a defining moment in history where nothing that bad had ever happened before in history, and nothing ever that bad happened in the future.

Now, the problem that pre and amillennialists have to come up with in the face of recorded history for the last 2 ,000 years is the fact that a lot more Jews have been killed in individual events and wars than were killed in Jerusalem in 70 AD.

Yeah, a lot were killed, and the numbers range. Josephus has one. They all have different numbers. But the height of it is about a million people, and that is a far stretch. That is a far stretch, but let's just say it is a million people.

Well, the problem with a million Jews killed in 70 AD is it still falls way short of what happened during the Holocaust in World War II. It falls even shorter, and please know your history, it falls even shorter than what Stalin did.

Everybody talks about Hitler being the personification of evil. Stalin killed everybody. He didn't care. He killed his own people, man. He was just killing folk left and right. This is usually when I tell all you millennials to stop being idiots.

Have you seen those Che Guevara t-shirts? They have no idea who that guy is. It's amazing. I hear people all the time, millennials, talking about how great Communist Russia was. Didn't turn out real great, guys, okay?

And people always talk about socialism so great, and I have yet to see a socialist country succeed, and usually some idiot will bring up Sweden and Norway. Yeah, okay. I tell you what, you get to a point where you want to get 75 taxes on your paycheck, you can go tell me how great Sweden is, okay?

But I'm sorry, I'm getting off into politics. Anyways, so the reality is this, is that the greatest tribulation that has ever happened to those people has not yet happened yet. It has not yet happened.

There's no way that this could have happened in 70 AD, okay? Is everybody with me so far? I want you to turn with me to Revelation chapter 6. Revelation chapter 6, and we'll be here for the rest of this evening.

And then we'll go back to Matthew 24 tomorrow, and hope we can get through all of Revelation chapter 6, but we'll see, we'll see. All right, so now let me explain to you Revelation chapter 6. Daniel chapter 9, by the way, this abomination of desolation, we will get to it.

Don't think I'm skirting it. I've asked you to read Daniel's, write this down, Daniel chapter 9, 10, 11, and 12. Read those four chapters, and then read Matthew 24 again, as well as the parallel passages in Mark 13 and Luke 21.

I can't remember exactly where it is, but it's the Olivet discourse talked about in the other Gospels. So once again, by the way, that's three different eyewitnesses to Jesus saying all this in Matthew 24, okay?

Also, I'd ask you to read Revelation 6, I know this is going to be a lot, but 6, chapter 6 through chapter 20. And it's going to give you, from Daniel to Revelation, because remember, it's important to study the entire Word of God, it's going to give you a better overview of what we're talking about tonight.

So read those chapters this week, and we'll try to culminate this discussion, or this monologue so far, we'll try to culminate this and come up with a conclusion, or at least a consensus, at the end of the week.

The Seven Seals in Revelation 6

All right, so Revelation chapter 6, verse 1. Are all y 'all still receiving me? Someone do the blue thumbs if you're still receiving me. When y 'all aren't talking to each other, I get nervous, because I'm afraid that we're no longer recording.

Yay! I see a whole bunch of little blue thumbs. All right, cool. All right, so Revelation chapter 6, verse 1 says this,. Then I saw the Lamb open one of the seven seals. I got thumbs everywhere. Then I saw the Lamb open one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice of thunder, Come.

I looked, and there was a white horse. The horseman on it had a bow. A crown was given to him, and he went out to conquer and to conquer. Still blue thumbs. We can't talk in church. Yeah, well, you come to Whitton, you can talk.

I've had debates from the pulpit before. It's hilarious. I'll never forget that one guy with covalent bonding. That was hilarious. But anyways, all right, so these are known as the seven seals. The seven seals, and they are followed by seven bowls, seven trumpets, okay?

Within these 21 judgments of God are what I believe is a description of a seven-year period known as the Great Tribulation. And the reason I, when you read Revelation chapter 11, you're going to understand why I say seven years.

Both Daniel and Revelation talk about this seven-year period or this three-and-a-half-year period, and I'm going to explain all that to you. I'm already going to do a little drawing for you again, so be ready for that third-grade artistic thing.

Okay, so these seven seals, what are they? Okay, so the three differing viewpoints, pre, post, and amillennialism, they vary a lot on what these things are. I personally believe that this is defining something that is going to happen in the future, and I'm going to try to prove that to you tonight.

Other people say, well, no, this is purely allegorical. It's not, doesn't literally mean that a guy's going to come out and do it. And then another person says, oh, no, it's literal, but it's already happened.

It happened with the Romans in the time of the apostles and right after that. And once again, I see their arguments, I really do, but they're just devoid, once again, it's an interpretation from only the construct of the word of God.

But the word of God is written in a historical narrative and a whole historical then and 700 years, you know, and all this other stuff. So there's a reality to us looking at history. Jesus talks about the descendants and coming forth and then the future, this is going to happen, and the tribe of Judah and all this other stuff.

So to remove an articulate study of history from biblical prophecy is at best well, it's childish. At worst, it's absolute borders on stupidity. So we have this first seal and it basically says this, the horseman on it had a bow and a crown was given to him and he went out to victor and to conquer.

Now, what's that mean? Well, over the years people have said, well, that was Hitler. Of course, you know, you had the Nostradamus fans. Real geniuses there. But you have people who've said, well, it was Napoleon, Julius Caesar, you know, every generation, I guess, or every era has someone who could fit there.

In reality, I've got to be honest with you, they could fit. I mean, seriously. I mean, you look at Napoleon and what he did. Genghis Khan, look what he did. Charlemagne, look what all these guys did. The British Empire, I mean, my goodness, right?

So it could be that. So we can't speculate on who that is. And I get on to pre-mill people about this. My fellow pre-millers, they're saying, well, that's the Antichrist. No doubt about it. Well, I believe it is the Antichrist, okay?

I personally believe that. But to take that one verse and say we're 100 totally sure just based on that one verse, well, you're doing the same thing that we accuse them. You have to be intellectually honest.

Now, let's glean from it what we do know. It said the horseman on it had a bow, a crown was given to him, and he went out as a victor to conquer. So there is some anomalies in the wording here, okay? And I won't bore you with the Greek because this is a pretty good translation of the Greek, okay?

But basically it says this, he was given a crown. It doesn't say he won it, doesn't say he defeated anybody. It said he was given a crown. And it says he had a bow, but it doesn't talk about any arrows.

In other places, it talks about the arrows that flyeth by day and the terror of night, you know, it talks about the arrow being the actual thing that causes damage. The bow here is airless. It's kind of like, you know, an unloaded gun kind of thing.

And then it says he went out as a victor to conquer. So before he conquered, he was already walking as a victor. Now, some suppositions. Understand, time out. These are suppositions. These are conclusions that, and they're wild conclusions so far.

These are conclusions that I see. Number one is, I believe this individual is going to have a political victory. I believe that he is going to do something that is going to be awe-inspiring and he is going to be elevated to a place of leadership and ruler by doing a political movement.

Guys, if you could think just for a second, you could get me a no-name nobody. Okay, and as long as he is a great orator and as long as he has a message, guys, people will follow him blindly. You don't believe me?

Well, there's this guy named Hitler one time who took over an entire country. Yes, he used intimidation. Yes, there was violence, but in mass, 90 percent followed him because of what he promised. There was this other guy, and I want you to listen to me carefully.

I'm about to say this. I do not equate Barack Obama and Hitler in any way, shape, form, or fashion, okay? Two completely things. The only thing I am alluding to is their oration skills. I don't believe Barack Obama is the Antichrist and he's not Hitler and all that other stuff.

He wasn't personally the president for me, but I'm not going to go so far as to say he's the Antichrist. That's just stupid. But, it's amazing that he literally was a community organizer, became a senator, and became the president of the United States twice.

Man, that guy could preach. Man, that guy could speak. I'll never forget watching his inauguration speech, probably one of the best political speeches ever given, even though, once again, he and I did not see eye to eye politically.

I respected his ability to deliver a message verbally, and I'll remember the camera pan and people literally crying. There were people fainting because of that speech. Wow. Now, think about just for a second.

Think, what has there been a worldwide problem that has been attempted to be solved for about 6 ,000 years now that nobody has been able to solve for 6 ,000 years? Forget oil crisis. Forget cow flatulence.

Forget all this. A 6 ,000 year old problem that has not been able to be solved, that has been the bane of human existence, and that is the problem in the Middle East. No doubt about it. Now, I know some people would say, oh, no, you know, we got to save the whales.

Well, okay, go hug a tree. But in reality, the finances, the death toll, the absolute horrendous amount of just human misery has been wrapped up in the conflict of the Middle East, whether it be Sunni or Shia, whether it be, of course, the eradication of the Israeli state that so many nations, so many groups, it's part of their constitution that they would like to see Israel wiped off the map.

What if some guy could walk in, not Jimmy Carter in the Camp David Accords, not President Reagan. No, no, he didn't do it either. What if a guy could walk in and somehow unite the people of the Middle East?

Nobel Peace Prize, they would pave his sidewalk with Nobel Peace Prizes. I mean, just think. Now, I'm not drawing a conclusion yet. I'm asking you a question. That guy could take over and never have to fire a shot.

He would be an Oprah Winfrey, Joel Osteen, a Hitler, a Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, Winston Church, all rolled into one. That'd be one powerful individual, okay? But it's just supposition. We cannot say that is what the first part or the first seal is talking about yet.

That's just intellectually dishonest. Hey, Johnny. So go to verse three. It says, when we open the second seal, I heard a second creature say, come. And there another horse went out, a fire-red one, and its horseman was empowered to take peace from the earth so that people would slaughter one another, and a large sword was given to him.

Now, one of the other reasons I say that the guy on the first horse, the first seal as it was, took over politically is because you see the second horse, the subsequent horse, now coming out and taking peace from the earth.

So if the first guy didn't do it by politics, he did it by war, it doesn't make sense. But if he did it through political means, if he did it through maneuvering, that definitely would be in sync with the second seal.

Now, it says he, it didn't say he just went out and made war. It says he took peace from the earth, meaning that there was a peace there to take. Now, I think we live in the greatest country in the world.

Let me rephrase. I think we live in the greatest country in the history of mankind. I know people cringe when I say that. I'm sorry. I believe the United States of America is the greatest country that has ever existed in the history of mankind.

But even at its height of history, even at its height of history, man, there hasn't been peace. I mean, people always talk about, man, you know, in the 1950s in America, America was the greatest place in the world.

Well, it was if you weren't black. If you were black, it kind of stunk, you know, you had to have your own water fountain, you know, you couldn't go in the front door of anywhere. So get off the Brady Bunch bandwagon there.

That didn't float, okay? Well, you know, America's had peace for many years, the Roaring 20s. Well, yeah, but there was this little thing called World War I that happened, then the Roaring 20s, and then World War II.

So not a great era of peace there in the 20s, 30s, and 40s to be sure. It says it would take peace from the earth. What if this guy in the first seal solved that Middle Eastern problem, and somehow everybody, for the most part, was on board?

Dude, that would be peaceful, right? Now, the one thing I will tell you this, is whenever you're number one, whenever you're in the lead, whenever you are on top, there is always someone looking to knock you off.

That has been true of human nature from time past in perfection, and it will be until the time Jesus Christ comes back. Now, this guy may have been very powerful, but I think the reason he went to war was he was stomping out anybody who could usurp his authority.

But I'm going to go one step further, okay? I believe this individual, whomever he is, I believe he has a mission, and I don't think that mission is to bring peace to the earth. I believe this person is going to be the embodiment of Satan himself, and he is going to try to complete, for the first time, or I'm sorry, for the last time, he is going to try to complete what he has tried to do since word go, and that is destroy the people of God.

His hatred knows no bounds, and anything that God loves, he hates, and so I believe that war is going to be focused on Israel, and we'll talk more about that later. Let's do the third seal. All right, so you have this individual who came to great political power.

He had great ability to unite and solve millennia of war in the Middle East, and I'm just speculating it's the Middle East. I mean, he could solve, you know, the whole boy scout, can girls come in problem, but if the world's going to follow him, I think it's going to have to be a little bit of bigger problem than that.

So he comes in, he takes over politically, and then peace is left from the earth. And then the third seal comes, and it says, I heard a third living creature say, come, and I looked, and there was a black horse.

A horseman on had a set of scales in his hand, and then heard something like a voice in the four living creatures say, a quart of wheat for denarius, and three quarts of barley for denarius, but do not harm the olive oil and wine.

Okay. There's going to be an economic collapse, okay? I mean, obviously. In other words, if you went down to your local Kroger, or Publix, or wherever you people are watching, if you went down to your local Kroger, and you make $10 an hour, and you worked eight hours, a loaf of bread is going to cost you $80.

That's what it's basically saying, okay? So basically, there's going to be an economic collapse, and where a loaf of bread is going to cost a day's wages. Now, people say, well, that's common after war.

It is. Economic collapse in the battle ground states, and even if you, once again, I point to World War II, even in the midst of World War II, that generation had to ration, okay? But it never got to the point in the United States, it never got to the point of where it was a day's wages for a loaf of bread.

Now, however, in Germany, there's a famous picture, and I cannot remember the title of it now. There's a famous picture in post-war Germany where he has actually a wheelbarrow full of Reichsmarks going to the store.

That's true. But I want you to read that verse again, because it says it's going to cost a day's wages for a quart of wheat and three quarts of barley for a day's wages. A denarius was a day's wage. But then it says this, but do not touch, do not harm the olive oil and the wine.

Now, both of those were considered luxurious items. So, the economic hardship hit the lower classes of people, but the upper classes, they were still doing okay. Once again, supposition, but that's how I would pull out of that, that the basic necessities of life, wheat and barley, and guys, barley bread, if you've ever had barley bread, if you can't get wheat and you have to eat barley, well, you're in tough times.

I remember Gwen and I were so desperate for money one time. We had a garden, we had zucchini, and she got a package of these god-awful corn tortilla things. They were nasty, and we had zucchini quesadillas.