A Cowboy Bible Study

The title of this book is from that of which it came; a group of cowboy believers wanting to know what the Bible really says about the return of Christ Jesus to planet earth. John, the revelator, was in the "Spirit" on the Lord's Day when he heard a loud voice speaking to him as of a trumpet. The voice said to him, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia." It is clear that God wanted to get a message out to the believers. It is that message that we at Cowboy Country Fellowship seek to understand.

In our world today we have many who teach on the book of Revelation. Our problem is that they cannot all be right! Some teach a pre-tribulation Rapture. Others teach a mid-or post-tribulation Rapture that must take place at the return of Christ. Still, there are others that teach something totally different. So who is right? Not everyone is going to be right! What is the truth concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto him? We wanted to know!

It was readily accepted that the only way to know the truth was to know it for ourselves. We set aside our preconceived ideas brought about through doctrinal teaching and set out to learn the truth from the Scriptures for ourselves. If something didn't fit, we would acquit any preconceived idea not backed up in Scripture as un-provable. Nonetheless, it was difficult to let go of some things we had held so dear from our lack of knowledge. It is much easier to believe something that may not be true when it sounds so good and requires little effort. Few are willing to suffer for His cross.

For the first year we spent a lot of time on the words of Jesus given to the early church leaders in Matthew chapter 24, which took us to the book of Daniel. In Daniel 2:44, it says: "And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." We, therefore, set out to identify if those kingdoms were in existence today.

After a rather hard start we began to fit Scripture with Scripture found in both the old and New Testament. We began to understand the symbolism God used in scripture based on prophecy already fulfilled. We studied the symbols used concerning the coming of Christ Jesus to become the only propitiation for our sins that God would accept. After about a year we were ready to begin a detailed study into the book of Revelation written by the only disciple of the twelve who lived to an old age who was not martyred (killed) for the testimony of Christ. Some will escape the sword!

It may interest you to know that Daniel and John the revelator are the only two men in the Bible of which it is written of them personally that God either "greatly loved" or "whom Jesus loved." We know that God loves us all. John 3:16 tells us that. But for some reason God saw to it to mark these two men by saying he loved them in Scripture. You can find it in Daniel 10:23 and John 10:19, and both wrote some of the most prophetic words ever written.

Enjoy this study. Time is running out to forever know the truth within our hearts for ourselves. All we need is the "want to." God will do the rest to open our understanding. You will find that this study places Scripture with Scripture, line upon line, here a little and there a little, and precept upon precept as it is written within the scriptures. This study is much more than just a bunch of drug-store want-a-be cowboys blowing off steam. We discovered Truth!

It is exciting to begin a new year with a president who is not a polished politician. Will he drain the swamp? Or will he become a creature of the swamp? Will he keep his promises? Or will he morph into broken promises as one of