Revelation 2:22 “Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.”

“Behold, I will cast her into a bed,”

Behold is an occasional English word in your King James Bible, basically saying, ‘Look’ or ‘Pay attention’.
He’s going to cast Jezebel into a bed because in verse 20 she was known for spiritual and sexual sin. Because of that, God’s letting her reap what she sows, that she will be cast into the bed that she wants.

“and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation,”

Great tribulation means great persecution. God’s going to cast Jezebel and the people who joined her in spiritual fornication into a bed of pain.

“except they repent of their deeds.”

Unless they repent, then the Lord can prevent them from falling into that bed.

We can see a double application here.

Thyatira will be covering from 500 to 1000 AD. Thyatira means the odor of affliction. This was a time period during the Roman Catholic church system and there was a lot of persecution going amongst that time period. The Catholic church of that time period infamously killed and tortured many people, it is one of the darkest persecution of that time that the martyrs suffered under.

We talked about Balaam’s doctrine and Balak, Nicolaitans, and now Jezebel. All of these are applied to this evil Catholic church system. In this context of Thyatira, they’re focusing on the spiritual figure, Jezebel. Jezebel is a real person in the Bible, a wicked queen, who followed the Babylonian religion and system. The Catholic church came from a Babylonian religion which came and originated from Semiramis and Nimrod. This religion is not extinct, the Catholic church system carried it on up until today’s century, it carried all the trappings and ordinances of this Babylonian worship. Jezebel took the worship system from Babylon. She promoted it during her time at the days of Elijah. When she did that, her spirit of her Babylonian religion carried on to the Catholic church time period of 500 to 1,000 AD.

When the Lord focuses on different groups of people or names, He’s mostly looking through spiritual lenses. So this is all within a spiritual context right here. Her spirit is alive, not just in this church at Thyatira, but in modern Christian churches today, you see the spirit of Jezebel all over. The spirit of Jezebel, as we looked at before, consisted of two things which Balaam and Balak joined under, it was fornication and idolatry.

The Babylonian religion of Semiramis and Nimrod was infamous where they had to worship idols and sexual activity. As a matter of fact, there was even pedophilia involved and perhaps even bestiality. It is for a fact that the Canaanites did bestiality when they worshipped idols. All of these were carried on. So this spirit carried on through the Thyatira church was carried on through the Catholic church and religion in a spiritual context.

God says the children who join with her. Why does it say ‘children’? Because the followers of the Catholic church system refer to this movement as their mother, mother church. They believe that this church is known as their mother and they’re the children. There is no coincidence in your King James Bible when it says and her children are going to join her within this bed of tribulation.

Revelation 2:28 “And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.”

“And I will kill her children with death;”

There was one incident that happened that was very dreadful, it made in the pages of history that dropped a lot of the world’s population. It was known as the Black Death or Black Plague. This incident was really bad during the time when the Catholic church empire ruled over the whole world. So that’s not a coincidence right here. God was frustrated with this wicked church and system, so then He sent this plague during that time, He said ‘I will kill her children with death’.

If that is the case, initially we dated Thyatira at 500 to 1,000AD, but this means that the date is going to be amended because the Black Death was during the 1,300 ADs.

You’re going to hear two different types of date systems which I want you to keep in mind. Dr. Peter Ruckman dated Thyatira between 500 to 1,000AD but Larkin puts this all the way up to 1,500 AD. Dr. Ruckman mentions that verse 23 would be referring to the Black Death in the spiritual context, if that’s the case then we can amend this date up to 1,500 as Larkin would. The reason why Dr. Ruckman puts 500 to 1,000 AD, you’ll find out a little later on when we reach Sardis and Philadelphia.

These 3 churches, out of the 7 churches, the pastor will be giving two optional dates: Larkin’s dating and Dr. Ruckman’s dating. Both ways would work pretty much, so you can take your choice.

Now, let’s look at the doctrinal application which is to the tribulation timeline.

So then the people who join her system, they’re going to be in great tribulation. Is that true? Yes, look at Revelation 18. This is the timeline of the tribulation, by the way. Guess what, the Catholic church system doesn’t change no matter what application you put it. You can put a spiritual or doctrinal application, but it would not change the fact that this wicked religion and church system is still applicable for both applications.

We know Revelation 18 is talking about Mystery Babylon.

Revelation 18:4 “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

These children are joining her at the tribulation, but look at what the Bible says concerning these people that she is burning.

Revelation 18:18 “And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!”

This is a city that’s burning to the ground, and there is no doubt when you look at Revelation 17:18, there is only one city you can ever think of in this entire world that qualifies as a religious form that rules over kings over all the earth. That’s Rome.

There is no doubt that this Catholic church system is going to apply to Babylon mystery at the tribulation.

Notice that the Bible says ‘I will cast her into great tribulation’, it already gave you a hint that this is referring to a tribulation timeline. If you look at Revelation 7, it talks about tribulation saints and it’s worded as ‘These are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb’. That phrase can undoubtedly refer to the tribulation timeline. Now, we can simply say that it can be referring to great hardship or great pain or affliction, which is workable if you look at the verse. But you can also see the possibility this can refer to the tribulation timeline because of that exact wording there that coincidentally matches with Revelation 7 and Matthew 24 which talks about the tribulation and then talks about a great tribulation.

Another interesting thing is that if you read Revelation 2:22, this could be an application to a pre-tribulation rapture. Verse 22 says that if they continue to join this Babylon church system, then they’re going to be cast into the great tribulation timeline. This means that these people can escape the great tribulation timeline.

If we’re going to take it as an application to the church, if you get out of her then you don’t have to go to the great tribulation with her when the Antichrist rules over the world.

So this can be a good proof text for a pre-tribulation rapture. The pastor said that this could be referring to the timeline, he’s not saying that it is so. You can’t really use this as a 100% proof text for pre-tribulation rapture but if it is referring to a timeline, then yes it will definitely have to be a proof text for a pre-tribulation rapture. Even if that’s not so, there are plenty of verses in the Bible that shows a pre-tribulation rapture.