Those that perished in the flood of Noah's day, were in the torment part of hell, as well as everyone else that had ignored the word of God for their day. Why did the flood come? you may say. Because of what mankind began to do in his life style, while living on the earth. The earth was being propagated with mankind; and things got off course. Here is what I want you to notice, From Adam's existence to the flood was approximately1656years. If anyone finds fault with my figures, I am not here giving you all the chronological dates of everything in exactness. That is not the point. This could be off a few years more or less; but the point is, There was not literally 2000 years from the beginning of Adam to the flood. That is not according to other things which are established by the scriptures. It covers an approximate span of time; but using the records of Genesis, the flood was over and the time was still2348years before the time of Christ's coming. That put the time before the flood much shorter than 2000 years. According to one chronological source, from the advent of Christ back to the advent of Adam was4004years. Therefore this lets us know, that after the flood there was a period of two thousand and some odd years elapsed before the advent of Christ. Just follow me and watch how this breaks down. We do know this, the flood fell the year Methuselah died; and he was969years of age, so when you go back969years, he was the son of Enoch who fathered him at65years of his age. Now you add his65years of age on to969, and that gives you a total of 1034 years back to the birth of Enoch. From his birth to the flood covers1034years. Now remember that we have1034years from the birth of Enoch to the flood, and notice how old Adam was when he died. Adam was930years of age when he died; so you can take2348years from4004years and you have only1656years from Adam's beginning to the flood. (These figures do not allow for the one year and ten days that Noah was in the Ark. You can make that adjustment) Then if you take1034years from that, you will see that Adam lived308years after the birth of Enoch, and243years after the birth of Methuselah; so Adam witnessed much of the perversion and evil of every sort before he died. So did all the other first born's of Adam's line right on down through Noah. Adam was approximately 622 years of age when Enoch was born. When Enoch was still very young compared to some of the others before him, he begat a son. He was 65 years of age when his son was born; and he had already began to observe the perversion and overall evil that prevailed around him; and you can believe he talked to God about it, for God gave him the name for his son. He named him Methuselah which meant, WHEN HE IS GONE, IT WILL COME. What will come? God's judgment upon all of that perversion that was going on in the world. Watch. If this 1034 takes us back to the birth of Enoch, and there were 930 years from Adam's beginning to his death, this means he lived 300 and some years inside of the lifespan of Enoch, and 240 some years into the lifespan of Methuselah. Are you seeing the picture. Those sons of God had to walk in the midst of that mess; just like you and I have to walk in the midst of this corrupt mess of humanity of our day. However even though these corrupt and evil conditions are all around us, we still do not have to become a part of them. God will have some sons and daughters in these last days that will keep themselves clean, in spite of all that takes place around them. Adam saw this evil coming. So did Seth, Jared, and all the others of their line. All of the firstborn's, coming from Adam and moving off in time, witnessed the trend of evil coming upon the scene, that caused God to have to destroy all of it and commission Noah and his sons to replenish the earth with people. These sons of God were the people I had in reference when I said earlier, that they died somewhere in this interval of time between the birth of Methuselah and God's dealing with Noah, approximately right in here. (Bro. Jackson is pointing to the chart.) The evil got worse and worse as time went on. When we come to approximately one hundred and twenty seemingly short years before the flood, as compared to the ages of those fellows, God spoke to Noah about building an ark. By the time we have come to here, (the time of Methuselah's birth, on the chart) all of that evil was getting to a very bad state. Enoch lived 300 years beyond the birth of Methuselah, and God took him out of that evil mess by translating him. God just simply took him up, just like He is going to do the faithful little bride Church one of these days very soon now. By the time God took Enoch, Adam was gone also. Seth lived beyond the translation of Enoch; but one by one God allowed all of Adam's sons of God line to die of natural causes before destruction came. By the time we come to that hundred and some years before the flood, Noah was well into his 500th year and God spoke to him about building that ark. I will read a few verses; and you can read between them later, if you wish. (Gen 6:5) "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and thateveryimagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (6:8)But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. (6:9)These are the generations of Noah: Noah was ajust manandperfect in his generations,andNoah walked with God. (Right there, is the key to why Noah found grace in the eyes of God; he walked with HIM in spite of all that was going on all around him. Notice verse 11.)The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. (12)And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.(13)And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. (7:1)And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before mein this generation. (7:6)And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.(7:11)In thesix hundredth yearof Noah's life, in thesecond month, theseventeenth dayof the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." Noah had to live upright before God right through the worst kind of those conditions, in order for God to see him as righteous in that generation. God said to Noah, Build a boat for the saving of your household. For over a hundred years, Noah was building a boat, something no one had ever seen before. For what reason? To escape the tragedy of judgment that was coming, because the evil was getting worse and worse; just like it is today. All the time he was building and preaching, those old patriarchs were dying. Not all of those who were left alive when Noah started building that old boat were laughing at him; some believed his preaching and were not the least bit surprised that God was going to judge what was going on. However we need to realize that God allowed all of those to die, before He brought total destruction; therefore only the wicked lost their lives in that judgment. Those who walked upright before God, no doubt died of natural causes before the flood actually hit. They may not have been what we might judge as holy people; but the fact that they did not go along with the crowd, would have caused God to look upon them that way. God looks at the heart of every person; and what they do with the chance they are given, before He cuts them off. The general trend of what is looked upon as Christianity today, does not consider what may have taken place, that is not written in the scriptures; they just take the literal wording and make a blanket coverage for everything and say, That is the way it was; Noah's family were the only one's of his generation that were not destroyed in the flood. Saints: We have to believe there were some still alive while Noah was building that boat, that God allowed to die by natural reasons, before judgment fell. All those that remained alive right on up to the end were left standing when God said to Noah, Now, take your family and get in the boat. Here came the animals two by two, male and female. I want you to know, Noah did not have to go on a safari, rounding up all the animals that were supposed to go; they heard the voice of their Creator also, and came into the boat. We used to picture Noah out trying to get all those animals rounded up before God closed the door, but he did not have to do that. Those animals had more sense than a lot of mankind has today. Somehow or other the God of heaven predestined certain male and female animals to be saved; and He was able to speak to them in that hour. You may think I am crazy to look at it in this fashion; but I just simply believe God had the ability to do that then; and that He still does. There is nothing impossible with Him; because He is a sovereign Spirit. The creation has changed; but the Creator has not changed, and will not change. I just want to remind you, that some of those animals were of pretty good size. For Noah to have had the responsibility of getting an elephant and his mate to come from miles and miles away to go into that boat, might have been a pretty good job in itself, if it had been left up to him to do it. God has a way of speaking to the animal kingdom. I have read, back in the 1950's, that in the regions of those terrible earth quakes, people who lived in those regions have said that for days before an earthquake would hit, animals from the high regions of the mountains, and birds of every description were seen making a migration out of the valley. When that earthquake came, it dammed up, slid in and covered villages, and killed thousands of people; but God had used nature to speak to those animals, to get them out of there. There is just no getting around it, those animals were moved upon by the Spirit of God. The God that created them, has a way of dealing with their instinct. Therefore when the time came that God said, Noah, take your family into the ark, here came the animals also. Furthermore they were the right ones. Noah did not have to stand at the door and say, No, not you. The right ones were coming and the wrong ones were staying away. It is just that simple. Noah did not even shut the door of the ark. God even did that. He just simply blew it shut; and when He did, He did not intend for it to be opened again for quite some time.

The same Spirit that was in Jesus Christ, preaching, and that went down into hell preaching, was back there before the flood restraining those who did not allow themselves to be a part of what was running rampant all around them. Furthermore He was also present to cause the evil bunch to feel something, even though they failed to take heed. That is why Jesus went down into hell preaching to them, not to give them another chance, but to cause them to know what it was that gave them that peculiar feeling; and to make them know why they had to be in torment. Keep in mind, during that period of time there was no written law which said to them, Thou shalt not do this, nor thou shalt not do that. They were living in an era of innocence. There was no open law or mandatory thing for man to be guided by. It was just the way the Spirit of God moved in that period of time, and the way mankind responded, that made the difference. Jesus went to hell to witness to those righteous spirits that this was what kept them from the terrible disaster of judgment that the others had perished by. Knowing then that Jesus went down into hell to preach to those that were there, not to give them another chance, but to confirm to them the fact that the Spirit of God is what told them not to do as they had done in life, and yet the wicked ones ignored it, do we not know also that the same Spirit that dealt with them then, is still in the world today dealing with mankind? What about these perverts, and these murderers and extortioners in the world today? and what about these drug addicts and drug pushers? and what about these evil workers that are prowling the earth? From one standpoint it looks like they are made to believe there is no God; but you know most of them grew up as young boys or girls to a certain point in life innocent of all of the evil they may be involved in today. I am certain, that when that evil bunch first began to coerce them to do wrong, they felt something within them giving a restraining tug. We all know, if we will just think about it, that no person can walk right out there in this evil world today if they have never done any of those things, and step in the midst of an angry, mean crowd of dope users, and have them offer that stuff to them without feeling something within, saying, Keep away from that stuff! No one that has never experienced the after effects of using drugs, can just start using them without feeling a restraining tug from within. They may not admit it; but they heard an inner voice saying, That is wrong! There is something that tugs at our inner being; and it is the Spirit of conviction, which in reality is the Spirit of God; but if you do not know what that tug is all about, and especially if you have been made to believe there is no God, you will follow natural human desires. We are born into this world with a nature to do wrong; but God still tugs at our inner being, giving us a chance to refrain from evil. Therefore we have to ignore God's warning signals to do wrong, even though our very inherited nature is contrary to God's nature. That is why so many people spend so much time any more, trying to convince our young people that this idea of a sovereign God is nothing more than a myth, just an old traditional hand-me-down idea that ought to be ignored, because they are agents of Satan, trying to destroy anything and everything that still believes in such a God. Those agents teach our young people that nothing is wrong: that they ought to be able to express themselves any way they feel like it. That is why we have all that sex mess in school today, nothing is wrong anymore. Let me tell you saints, There is a lot wrong; and it is yet to get worse. Things will never be any better again than they are right now, until Jesus comes with the judgment of God, wipes out this wicked generation of humanity, and ushers in the Millennium. The point I want to make, is that when a person continually ignores this tugging, this Spirit of conviction, there comes a time that it is no longer there. That same Spirit that gives us an opportunity to choose right instead of wrong, finally turns you over to a reprobate mind, to do whatever you choose to do without that tugging sensation from within; but the day will come that you will give an account of it, when you stand before that great white throne judgment and all of your evil deeds are flashed before your face. Jesus went into hell, to make sure every evil person that lived and died before Calvary knew why they were in that place of torment; and to make them see what an endless hope they had; but those who live and die this side of Calvary need no such witness, for they have ignored the gospel of salvation that has been preached ever since. He witnessed to the righteous souls in paradise, to confirm to them what it was that had restrained them from doing wrong; and that had dealt with them in various ways during their lifetime. I have drawn this little chart to help illustrate what took place almost two thousand years ago; and I hope this along with what has been said, has helped you see that it was important that Jesus go into hell while His spirit was out of His body.

Let us go back into 1st Thessalonians 4, for another look at how the apostle Paul dealt with the questions arising there about the resurrection. The apostle Paul wrote like this in this epistle; because he was the one that had the revelation that there is going to be such a thing as a translation of the saints some day. Somewhere in the ending of this period of time we call the age of Grace, (which is the time allotted by the eternal God, for the Holy Spirit to work among the Gentiles, taking out a people to make up the Church, which is also known as the Bride of Christ) there is going to be a resurrection and a translation of saints of God; and I want to do everything I need to, to make sure I am one of them. Do you not feel the same way? In the Thessalonian Assembly, by the year 54 A.D., somehow they had gotten their minds all messed up with ideas contrary to what had been preached to them. They heard Paul preach the coming of Christ; and they heard him preach about the resurrection; but you know there are always people who come along and want to twist this or that a little. They have their own little idea they want to get injected into the picture. Well this is what happened in Thessalonica; therefore there were a lot of questions that had arisen among that group of godly people since they first believed. The apostle Paul wrote this epistle to that assembly praising them for their faith in God and their love of other saints, reminding them of all that he and his fellow ministers had taught them while they were with them; and admonishing them concerning the truth they had received. He set in order those things that had a question mark hanging over them; and we are going to look at some of those things again for the sake of the Video, and also for the paper, when we print it. I know somewhere down the line there will be doctors of divinity, and clergymen of various beliefs get hold of this message, just for the sake of picking it apart, not even considering that they will one day have to answer to God for it. Well let them help themselves. Those who say that the Bible does not teach that there is to be a rapture before the tribulation, and say that it is a false teaching, say so because they do not know how to read their bible's. They use the book of Revelation to interpret what was know by those early saints before there ever was such a thing as the book of Revelation. Brothers and Sisters, saints of God, Do not use the book of Revelation to interpret Thessalonians! What do I mean by that? Paul wrote this as anepistle to the Church; and it is the true Church is to experience this rapture, not just everything that claims to be a Christian. The book ofRevelation is a prophecy, and it was also given to the Church; and John, the man who in 96 A.D. experienced a divine visitation of God, that gave him thisprophetic picture, did not even see the rapture among the things that were shown to him. What did John see?He saw the Bride already in heaven, in the 19th chapter of Revelation. How did she get there? She was raptured of course. She is there in heaven with Jesus during the great tribulation; and comes with Him when He comes to earth to pour out the wrath of God upon wicked mankind, at the end of the tribulation. These saints that these doctors of divinity see going through tribulation, that are dealt with so severely, are not the Church at all. They arethese blind religious people(which were called foolish virgins in Matthew 25:1-13) who have had nothing to eat spiritually except their denominational theology for far too long. They went to sleep and slept too long; and had no time to get themselves dressed up in wedding apparel before the rapture. No that does not make them lost; it just makes them have to face a terrible ordeal of martyrdom that they would not have to face, if they had not been too taken up in Charismatic manifestations to settle down on a true revelation of God's word and prepare themselves for the coming of the heavenly Bridegroom for His prepared bride. As for the resurrection and rapture, let us just take it in its proper order, and see if we cannot present a clear, scriptural picture for you to look at. Paul does not say one thing that annuls what John said, or wrote later. Neither did John, forty two years later, say anything that would annul what Paul had taught. I do not serve a God who lets His anointed men do things like this. It is only traditional religion that has people contending with each other on these basic doctrines of the Church. Let us see what the apostle Paul is talking about, here in 1st Thessalonians 4. We will begin in the 13th verse; and I want you to pay attention to his words. Let me read the whole thing together, before I comment on it. (1Thessalonians 4:13-18)"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.(14)For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.(15)For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.(16)For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:(17)Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.(18)Wherefore comfort one another with these words.Notice what he says as we examine these verses,"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which areasleep,(He is not talking about the wicked dead. He is talking about the dead in Christ, those that had died believing in God with all their heart back in 54 A.D.; and whoever else will be in that category on through time.)that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.(That is the man out in the world for sure; but there are a lot of very religious people that do not have any genuine hope in these sure promises we depend upon. In other words, just going to some church house regularly, does not mean that you have any genuine faith in the provisions of the word of God.)For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,(That is where our faith rests. To a person who possesses genuine faith in the word of God, natural and physical circumstances mean nothing. Even when all conditions look hopeless, if we know what God has said about such circumstances, we can conduct ourselves as though everything is favorable; because as far as God is concerned, it is. His word declares that All things work together for good to those that love Him.)even so them also whichsleep in Jesuswill God bring with Him." We have to say then, God will bring with Jesus, at His second coming, (and we are not yet talking about His visible appearance to earth when we say this, we are talking about His coming for His Church, which is His Bride.) all of those which are sleeping in Jesus. Notice it says, God will bring with Him, so we can say this, During His first advent, when He arose from the dead, which is pictured here, if for any reason there were spirits taken out of paradise which did not pick up an immortal body, just keep all of that in your mind, knowing that this is God's business, to do whatever it takes to fulfill His purpose, and do not feel that you have to know why. However if God will bring all those saints with Him (Jesus) it means this, Jesus is coming for a Church that will have to be resurrected and changed into an immortal state, along with those who remain alive at that time. He will bring the spirits of all those others, to participate also in a resurrected state, and if there are those in that particular category, (though they are not the primary object you are to see in this picture) you will have the righteous saints of other ages there with Him. You are to see the Church though; because at His coming, that is what He is coming for. Listen, as we go on. Paul says this in the 15th verse,"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord,(You are not able to go back in the Old Testament and find where he got this. He got it by divine revelation. Paul was not a doctor of divinity. He had been, but he resigned from it. He had been that, when he was on the Sanhedrein court.)that wewhich are alive(We know Paul is not still yet alive. Time has lasted longer than He thought it might. We are the"we"that are alive. Maybe some of this "we," that are still alive now, will be dead by then; but there is going to be a "we." How many believe there will be a "we" alive when these scriptures are fulfilled? Let us look beyond what we learned in Sunday school and begin to see what it says here.)and remain unto the coming of the Lord(He is coming for what? His Church of course.)shall not prevent(or hinder)them which are asleep.(We are talking about the dead in Christ, are we not?)For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with ashout,(When He does that, the earth will not see Him. No one will see Him. That shout has to be something the Holy Spirit does by sending a message throughout the earth to the spiritual people of the world. Are you sure, Bro. Jackson? I did not know that is what that means. I didn't either, forty years ago; but God is still revealing some things the Church needs to know before she gets out of here. Any time there is an event in the earth, in a natural sense, and there are people invited, but they do not know at what moment in time to get ready for it, there has to be some kind of announcement sent out. Therefore since this has got to be a spiritual communication from the spirit world to the natural world we live in, the shout is for the living, for those that have ears to hear it. It is how the Holy Ghost executes it that counts; but that shout has to be in existence, echoing back and forth throughout the earth until it encircles the entire globe, before the event that is being announced can actually take place. Theshoutwill not wake up the dead. It will not change the dead in any way. The shout is for those who are still alive and will remain unto the time of its occurrence. It wakes up the living who are going to church, playing church, but sound asleep and snoring. They have been living on creeds for so long, they do not even know what time it is. Now watch. He descends with a SHOUT....)with the voice of the archangel."The mortal realm of mankind will not hear the voice of the archangel. That is not for the living. That is to announce the event to the dead that are to come forth, because the event is to include what? First the dead will rise, because Paul puts it in precise order. The dead will risewhen the last trump has sounded. Now the last trump that Paul speaks of here in Thessalonians is not the last trump you read about in the 11th chapter of Revelation. Those in Revelation 11, are trumpets of judgment that are sounding in that time of great tribulation on earth. It has nothing to do with this trump that sounds here at all. Now why did I say that about the angel, his voice? Why did I say it in that manner? Did it ever occur to you that when Jesus was to be born, that royalSon of God, who was it that came to earth to announce His birth? Gabriel. Did he come to church headquarters? Did he come to the mayor of Jerusalem? The governor of the state of Israel did not get a special announcement. Who did he come to? He came to a little woman that lived in the town of Nazareth. He announced His birth to her by saying,"Hail Mary."He did not say Mother of God, pray for us now and at the hour of our death. What he said was, (Luke 1:28)"Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.(30)And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.(31)And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call His name Jesus." He told her she was to conceive. The angel was announcing the event. When that same son grew and died on the cross, who was it that came down and rolled the stone away? An angel of the Lord. Therefore if an angel announced His birth, and it was an angel that came the minute His foot stepped forth back upon earth, when this One that was dead came forth from the grave, to make the announcement you can be assured that it will be an angel that will announce the exact moment of time for this other event! The voice of the archangel announces the event. It is that trump that sets it in motion. Now watch."Then we which are alive and remain:"Some of us are going to be the "we," if we walk right, and if we can get all our playing around out of our minds and get earnest with God. However as long as we are willing just to work our heads off thinking, I need to make a little more money first, then I am going to do this, that and whatever, things are not right for you to partake of what we are talking about. I say, Yes, go ahead and be occupied like the Bible says; but every nail you drive you need say, Praise the Lord! He is coming soon, Hallelujah! At least you need to be thinking like that. If you are laying carpet, Praise the Lord! He is coming, just like He said He would! I do not know when; but He is coming. I am against these characters who go out here and sit down somewhere, thinking they have it all figured out when He is coming. Six more years, three months, twenty one days and at a certain hour, He will be here. Well I have so much money in the bank, that will take care of me until then, I am not going to work any more. There are people professing to be Christians, that live exactly like that; but I just have to say to them, If you have no more respect for the rest of the word of God than that, you will wind up in hell as sure as anything. He is not coming for lazy people that are looking for just enough religion to get them by, and just enough of everything else to last them, and they have no regard for the rest of what God's word teaches believers. Twenty some years ago while sitting in a barber shop, I had two characters walk in there and talk to me just like that. Those characters have gotten older, the Lord has not yet come for His bride, and they have probably spent what they thought was enough back then and had to go back to work. He is not coming for that kind of people. He is coming for a people whose minds are awakened to the truth of God's word and that know how to walk in that truth each day for Him."Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with(Who?)them(Those that have come out of the ground.)in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."This is the second order, or phase of the first resurrection; and I just must say, It is going to take a host out of there.If for any reason there is still some of the bodies of the Old Testament saints (I do not know) still in the ground, which did not come out the first time, when God brings Him for this event, He will bring the spirits of them with Him. Those bodies will go out. Why? Because we are looking at a prophecy in Zechariah. I will take you right back to Enoch.