Can you picture this colossus standing on continents and the oceans lifting up his hand to Heaven and swearing an oath? He didn't even have to put his hand on the Bible. You know somehow he is telling the truth. You know what he is declaring is going to happen!

The giant angel swears by Jesus Christ and the Father in Him, by the God who made all things. Why the specifying of the heaven (probably the sky, space) and all that is in space, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it? Why the accent on the physical creation?

The answer may be that the revival of the present hour is the beginning of the coming of the Kingdom of God into the material realm. We are passing from the Good Shepherd of the twenty-third Psalm to the God of the earth, of its peoples and its resources.

Notice in the eleventh chapter that God is termed "the God of the earth." For so long our Christian experience has been focused on the heavenlies. But we know that the Kingdom of God eventually will come to the earth.

The new emphasis on the material realm marks a very dramatic change in the Christian redemption. Bible scholars always have known that the day would come when Christ would govern the earth from Jerusalem. Yet the reality of this political move has not always been apparent.

We are not used to thinking of God as the God of the earth, only as the God of Heaven. We are not accustomed to envisioning the day when the earth will be restored, Paradise will be on the earth, and God's temple and throne will be on the earth. Yet this is where the Kingdom of God eventually will be located.

The current move of God is named "Pentecostal." The term is derived from the fourth feast of the Jews. The next feast, the fifth feast, is the Blowing of Trumpets.

The Jews have two overlapping years running concurrently. So do we in America. We have a calendar year beginning January first and ending December thirty- first. We have a business year beginning July first, the seventh month of the calendar year, and ending June thirtieth.

The Jews have a religious year beginning with the Passover and running twelve months. The Jews have a business year beginning with the seventh month of the religious year and running twelve months. The business year has been termed the year of kings and contracts.

The Blowing of Trumpets, the fifth feast of the Jews, the feast after Pentecost, takes place on the first day of the business year. The Jewish people of today do not refer to the fifth feast as the Blowing of Trumpets (the Bible name) but as Rosh Hashanah, that is, the head of the year. To the Jews, Rosh Hashanah is New Year's day. Passover is not considered to be New Year's day.

We Christians have been accustomed to the religious year, the year beginning with Passover, so to speak. Our Christian experience begins when we come to Christ as our Passover and leave the world.

Now we have come to the beginning of a new year, the year of kings and contracts, the year of doing business with God in the earth.

To be continued.