About Me-
A personal note from
Kraig Josiah Rice
www.7-star-admiral.com
| The Twelve Scrolls of Revelation |
You might be wondering why I wrote this book. You also may be wondering who I am and what I believe. Well, let us have a heart to heart talk and I will try to answer some of your questions. It all started years ago when I accepted Christ as my personal savior- I invited Him into my heart and surrendered my self will to Him. I was born again at that time and my personal world was turned upside down at the realization that the answers to life's questions were spiritual. I had been educated in public college to believe in humanism and evolution. So, finding the reality of Christ was quite a shock to me in more ways than one. At the time of my conversion I was under the guidance of 3 Assemblies of God laymen who God put together on an aircraft carrier for evangelism purposes. I was one of many of their converts- the product and fruit of their labors. I made a commitment to follow Christ, dedicated my life to Him, and was baptized in water at Glad Tidings Assembly of God Church in Norfolk,
Virginia in 1967. In April of that same year I received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit complete with speaking in devotional tongues at that church's altar. I had never heard of this experience before and was delighted and pleasantly surprised to find it real. So, God created this spiritual foundation in my life. Because I think militarily, I liken it to joining the military. In other words, I enlisted in God's army but now I had to go to spiritual boot camp to learn God's word and get grounded in the faith.
In the fall of 1967 I attended Bethany Bible College in Scotts Valley, California
(near Santa Cruz, Calif.). I attended there for three and one half years. I had a major in bible with a minor in social science. It was an expensive private and accredited university. I received grant money from the U.S. government on the G.I. Bill program because I was an honorably discharged U.S. veteran. I also worked and when I graduated, I had my entire school bill paid off. I graduated from this school (spiritual boot camp) in 1972 with a Bachelor of Science degree. Then it was time to win souls and fight the spiritual enemy. To be an effective combat soldier, one must have the will to fight.
Many of the folks who graduated from that school went into the preaching ministry
or missionary work. I was never called to do any of that. Rather, I went into
the literature evangelism field. In Cloverdale, California, I wrote and distributed gospel
tracts. I founded my own incorporated literature evangelism ministry, Bread On the Waters, and was
ordained for ten years. For awhile we made and floated thousands of missionary bottles
in the Pacific Ocean for evangelism purposes. That was when our ministry name was
Maranatha Gospel Bottle Crusade and then Current Evangelism Ministries. We loved the
Word of God and wanted to share it with others and that was one way to do it. But the devil
persecuted us
and we had to stop that activity but we still had a desire to share God's Word with
others. That desire is part of the reason I wrote this book. I was a teacher in a
Christian elementary school, and was a substitute public school teacher shortly after I
was married. In relation to my own teaching ministry, I publicly taught the bible at our
Upper Room Fellowship in Lodi, California.
I married a wonderful woman and raised three children. I went through some tough spiritual
fighting on the front lines and had to use every bit of the training that I had received
at boot camp (bible college). The enemy (the devil) shot at me spiritually as he perceived
me to be quite a threat to him and I endured much persecution from his followers.
My wife died of breast cancer, and eight years later I married another wonderful woman and we
continued my ministry (and this book is a part of that ministry).
When I was married to my first wife, I went through a Job's trial. Words cannot describe
what a horrible trial this was but with God's help, I made it through with my integrity
intact. In that trial, we were desperately poor and had lost nearly everything that we
owned. My right ankle had been broken and it gave me problems for years. The trial lasted
for nine years and eventually ended but the scars remained.
I went into secular work driving an eighteen wheel truck and resigned my ordination
because I did not need it anymore. I kept on distributing tracts and other
evangelistic literature as I journeyed along through life. I drove big-rig trucks
(18 wheels) for 20 years and enjoyed driving and traveling around.
When the internet opened up, I created (with God's help) a website that was
dedicated to His glory. It seems for years God had been dealing with me to write a
book and I even took a writing class but put it off for many years because I was
working long hard hours trying to support my family. But God gently
dealt with me to begin this writing and to use those gifts that He has given me.
So, I began writing this book. My writing and teaching reflect my own
unique individual and independent style. In that respect, I write what I spiritually see
and that is a part of the titles of my work or "the way I see it."
I am old now but still devote much of the three t's (time, treasure, and talents)
to the Lord. I share this book with you as my love gift to you in His name. I thank Him
for using me as His instrument throughout my life and for giving me the gifts
that He has blessed me with. Well, that explains a little bit about me and my background.
A word or two about my work:
I try to make my teachings as simple as possible as most of the folks in the world
are on a third grade level. I do not like to use big words but sometimes I use
theological words to convey a particular meaning and these may be difficult for some
folks to understand.
This is a paraphrase of Revelation, however, I have placed much emphasis on the meaning
of many original Greek words in the writing of this work. I have tried to be as accurate
as I can.
More about what I believe:
What do I believe about salvation? One is saved by grace through faith.
Jesus paid it all by His blood in redemption and one must accept this free gift
of salvation from Him. There is no other way to be saved.
What is my theological persuasion? For any theologians that might be reading this,
I am pretrib and premil. What
does that stand for? Pretrib is just a fancy word that stands for pretribulation.
That means that I believe the rapture of the church will take place before
the Great Tribulation Period of seven years in our future. Premil is just another
fancy word that stands for premillennium. This simply means that Christ will
literally come to the earth in His Second Advent after the Great Tribulation
period of time and rule the world from Jerusalem for one thousand years or a
millennium of time. Then there will be the end of the world as we know it.
Many Christian conservatives hold to these beliefs.
What do I believe about creation? I believe in a revised gap theory where God originally created a perfect world 4 1/2 billion years ago. He had all kinds of plant and animal life here at that time. Then Satan was cast to this earth after the war in Heaven and literally destroyed this planet (darkness was upon the deep or here). Then God had to re-create it in 7 literal 24 hour days to make it habitable for modern mankind, as well as the recent plants and animals.
What do I believe about the soul? The human body or soul is the exterior of a person. The spirit of a person lives on the inside or interior of a person. Some bible writers have interchanged the words "soul" and "spirit" to describe this. This spirit can be dead to Christ or alive to Christ. This spirit is also life. When the spirit leaves a body in death, so does the life. Your spirit is the real essence of who you really are- the part of you that will live eternally.
Do I believe in eternal security? Yes, to a point. I believe you are sealed until
the day of redemption and you can have security in your salvation. Your free will
must be in harmony with God's will for this to work out in your life.
These book pages are readily available for all overcomers to print and place in a
personal study folder, share with your friends and family, use them to preach
and teach from, to translate into other languages, or whatever God leads you to do.
Many words in this book are color coded:
The words of God are in red that symbolize His shed blood.
The words of Scripture are in purple that symbolize His royalty.
Sometimes in this book I give the application of a verse rather than just the
interpretation of it.
I am an evangelical conservative.
What do I believe about Jesus Christ? He is God the Son in the Holy Trinity.
I have read and studied the Book of Revelation in bible college and also on my own. I must
confess that I have never met two Christians who agreed 100% on the interpretation of
everything in this book. And that is good because I believe that is how God intended for
it to be. It is a very subjective writing and that is perfectly acceptable in regards to
the oriental way of thinking.
There were a total of Ten persecutions by the secular Roman government. The last one was under Roman Emperor Diocletian that ended in about 313 a.d.
John was the only original Apostle alive at the time and Christians everywhere were
looking to him for spiritual help so they could face persecution with spiritual confidence.
It was near this time that John wrote this bible book of Revelation, his gospel of
John and three letters that are now part of the New Testament.
Keeping all of that in mind, it seems to me that Christ has seven major goals in this book to help His suffering saints facing death:
In other words this is a world where nations rise
and fall, where all things change, where all things die, but Christ does not change.
After we receive His nature when we are born again, we will suffer persecution and
possible martyrdom. But death by martyrdom is not the final end. As Christ lives on
and on in Heaven, so we will live on and on there with Him. We may have eternal youth
that never changes there. What a blessing that is- and it is a comfort to
those Christians facing martyrdom at any place and at any time.
Why does the devil want Christians out of the way? He is attacking on two fronts against
the church: opposition from without and corruption from within. He was doing that in
John's day, he is doing that today, and he will do that in our future. One of our jobs
is to throw down his strongholds and he does not like that. We are in a spiritual war- onward Christian soldiers! And, as in any war, there are those who are wounded and killed-
The bible book of Revelation was written in the code of symbolism and in other ways.
It was written that way so that the one world government of imperial Rome would not
take it as a threat and
burn it because it was considered to be nonsense by them. The Apostle John,
a convicted Roman criminal, was discredited by the Roman government
at the time- and having his name signed to the document only further promoted the
fact of the document's worthlessness to them. So, imperial Rome did take
the document to be Christian, but, since they did not understand it to be a
propaganda threat to the state, they took little action against it.
It was written in code so that Christians who understood the code would be blessed
As one studies this book of the bible, one will be exposed to several bible doctrines
that includes creation, sin, redemption, and so much more.
I write this book the way that I see it. I believe the Lord has helped me to see
it to the degree that it was written by me. God has given me several gifts to help
enable me in this endeavor. I have penned down what I see and present those things in
a teaching method in the simplest manner possible. If you hold to any different views
from mine, then you might want to glean what spiritual nourishment you can from my teachings
that you do agree with.
As of January 7, 2024
For two hundred years or so the early church was a growing church- many folks were getting
saved, healed, and baptized in the Holy Spirit
(Acts 2:4), but it suffered horrible persecutions. About thirty years or so before Revelation
was written was the First Imperial Persecution of Christians under Roman Emperor Nero
(64-67 a.d.). It was against the law at that time to be a Christian, especially if the
believer did not worship the Roman emperor as a god. In that persecution many Christians were martyred for their faith- some were thrown to wild beasts in the Roman arena, the Apostle Peter was crucified upside down, the Apostle Paul had his head cut off, others were wrapped in burnable items and set on fire. There was much imprisonment, torture, rape, suffering, and death, but all of this helped spread the faith.
Special agents of Rome knew what Christianity really was but they deliberately slandered and falsely accused true Christians to discredit them. They willfully served the devil. They also invented ridiculous rumors that Christians practised magic, offered children in sacrifice, and that they ate human flesh! Christians were totally misrepresented to those in the secular Roman government so Satan's lies could more easily be believed. The early Christians had to meet in secret to worship- mostly at night or early in the morning, so they would not be discovered and be persecuted. The Romans used the fear of these secret meetings to their own advantage saying that these were revolutionary meetings and plots to overthrow the government. They used these lies to help promote persecution against Christians.
To my way of thinking, the bible book of Revelation shows that Satan, who sometimes is allowed to kill Christians, is not all powerful- he will be eventually tormented forever in a lake of fire and will be eternally damned.
1. Up with Christ- He is a constant amidst our changing circumstances.
2. Down with phonies and poison doctrine- do not give in to the doctrines of devils.
3. Resist the evil world system and any compromise.
4. Live a separate and holy life as unto Christ.
5. Build the faith of each believer to help him or her face their deaths.
6. Keep the Christian's hope alive to the end of his or her life.
7. Remind us of our eternal destiny and reward once we get to Heaven. God wins.
...yes, and all those who choose to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution
(2 Timothy 3:12).
(Revelation 1:3). Understanding the code was based upon several things. One is knowledge
of Old Testament scriptures, especially the "Sectateuch". What in the world is
that? That is simply the Greek designation for the first six books of the Holy Bible.
One would not understand the meaning of Revelation without that knowledge.
Another is the style of writing that is apocalyptic or eastern oriental in thought
(apocalyptic literature)- literature that is a code in itself as this way of thinking
was vastly different from the western Greek-Roman way of thinking.
Another is "Scriptural Emphasis scriptures" where truths are repeated
by God for our learning. Some of these are not readily apparent to the casual reader
but spiritually discerned by those who the Spirit of God chooses to reveal them to.
The agents of Rome were not threatened by this book of the bible because the
literal meaning of it appeared to be idiotic to them. That is the way it was meant
to appear to them, therefore, this bible book survived many literal fires of persecution.
But the truths in this book extend from the past to the future- to a miserable future
where another one world government will tread down the civil rights of it's citizens.
God, through the Apostle John, enlightens all Overcomers about this coming Satanic
kingdom on earth. And God prophesies about the Second Coming of Christ and His wonderful
kingdom on earth.
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