Belief in the resurrection from the dead is opposition to today’s culture.

Acts 4:1-4

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

“Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.” Acts 4:1-2

“They” refers to Peter and John who spoke to the people about the resurrection of Jesus Christ after He was crucified on the Cross to atone for sin. The priests and captains of the temple were leaders of the synagogues and the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. They were very unsettled that Pater and John were preaching about Jesus being the resurrection, as Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he will live.” John 11:25 The Sadducees, captains, and priests considered the Good News to be blaspheme and worthy of punishment up to death.

In today’s culture, the “priests”, “captain of the temple”, and “Sadducees” are those who oppose the teaching of the resurrection from the dead through faith in Jesus Christ. The “priests” are those who disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness but avoid teaching and preaching about the resurrection of of our Lord Jesus. They preach and teach according to the will of the “captain of the temple”. The “captain of the temple” is the beast that sits in the temple of God, our body, as if it is God, to give people what to speak, do, think, and feel. That is the one “…who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:4 The “he” in this verse is the “man of sin”. Click here for a post on the “man of sin”. The “Sadducees” include everyone who rejects belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is core to our Salvation, our born-again experience, belief in our resurrection from the dead into eternal life, belief in Heaven and Hell, and belief in the judgment to come beyond the grave. As quoted, “Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen…And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.” 1 Corinthians 15:12-13, 17-19

When we live for the reward of immortality of eternal life, then we go against the mortal fleshy benefits that are given through the beast that has power over physiology. Jesus Christ is more important to us than uncanny knowledge, extraordinary skills and talents, heightened intuition, amazing physical abilities and feats, physical/sensual comforts, amazing emotional responses, uncanny authority over others, etc.

“And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.” Acts 4:3-4

The Jewish leaders placed Peter and John under arrest until the next day, which would have been overnight since it was already evening.

Today’s atheistic culture puts the Gospel of Jesus Christ in custody to imprison the spread of the testimony of Jesus and to prohibit the Good News of His resurrection and eternal life. In a spiritual sense, Christianity will be held in custody until the “next day” and that “next day” is the return of our resurrected Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We are already living in the evening hours. This present global government and its global culture will govern on this earth until the Fifth Plague of Revelations 16:10-11, when the power center of the beast is plunged into darkness. The Battle of Armageddon comes after that in the Sixth Plague of Revelations 16:12-16. Jesus returns when the Seventh Trumpet sounds in Revelations 11:15-19 and during the Seventh Plague of Revelations 16:17-21. Together, the Seventh Plague and Seventh Trumpet is the Day of the Lord.

Global warming is instrumental in bringing the destruction of the power center of the beast and is the Fourth Plague of Revelations 16:8-9. The more powerful the United Nations become as the one world government the hotter and more intense the effect of global warming becomes.

The preaching and teaching of Peter and John, before they were taken into custody, had already began to be fruitful. Many believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and in His resurrection from the dead and said “Yes” to Him as their Lord and Savior. Today, from the time our Lord Jesus walked on this earth, multitudes upon multitudes have come to believe God through Jesus Christ. The “cat is out of the bag” so to speak and cannot be put back in. The Good News has permeated the world, regardless of us followers of Jesus Christ being put in custody to prevent the sharing of His testimony.

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11