THE PROPHECY LETTER
Revelation
Studies in the Apocalypse
The Revelation Of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John
This brief overall consideration of the Apocalypse is intended to be a refresher for those who wish to study the structure and content of the Revelation without resorting to the numerous books which explain it in very great detail and require much time to explore.
Those books are (cautiously) recommend in order for one to acquire a deeper, fuller understanding of the events of the revelation which Jesus Christ gave John.
This revelation was dictated by the Lord Jesus Christ to the Apostle John who, at the time, was on the Isle of Patmos either as a prisoner in exile or seeking refuge, in approximately 96AD.
The first three chapters are introduction and setting, to which are added detailed instructions to seven Ecclesias of Asia Minor.
Beginning at the fourth chapter, a series of revelations is given John as Seals being broken, Trumpets sounded, Woes pronounced, and Vials being poured out on various parts of the earth.
It will be our task to elaborate upon these actions and strive to understand and relate their significance to the Believers who would come to Christ in John’s future.
Revelation 1
The Setting of the Revelation
Rev 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
To signify a narrative is to relate it in symbols and signs.
The Apocalypse is therefore a book of symbols. It is not generally to be taken literally but is a carefully crafted revelation of future events in Biblical symbols and signs which are determinable and meaningful, as we shall see in our review of the work.
Rev 1:2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
The Apocalypse (this prophecy) is attested as being open to some who would “hear” its words, and adhere to the commandments written therein.
Note the last phrase, “the time is at hand,” indicating the rapid onset of these events. They are not given as events to happen at any one time in the far distant future as Futurists believe, but are to be a progressive work through the next centuries.
But to others, such as Preterits, its prophecies are already fulfilled. Preterits are those folk who believe the Revelation was fulfilled in John’s age and is finished.
Both views are extreme when compared to the words Jesus uttered: the events were shortly to begin to be fulfilled and would clearly stretch on into the future day when the kingdom is established because that era is palpably foretold in the prophecy.
Their fulfillment would occupy a long stretch of time into the future...
Rev 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
The geographic designation of Asia refers to Asia Minor, or the Anatolian Peninsula which is now largely Turkey. All these churches (Ecclesias) were located in the present territory of West Turkey and their sites are well-known today. Many of them have been excavated from ancient ruins and are readily available for visitation. This author personally has been privileged to visit six of the seven cities of this work, Laodicea being the exception.
Our guide advised us that the remote location of Laodicea is almost void of excavation and that there is little at that location that is valuable for observation.
Rev 1:5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
Rev 1:6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
These lofty inspired words speak to the student of the immense importance of the LORD Jesus Christ and the rarity and inherent value of his Sonship in both life and sacrifice. It is He Who is giving this Revelation.
He speaks of Himself in the third person here, and leaps forward to the supremely important Event of the Ages ... His own Second Coming; this is the object of the entire revelation recorded here.
Rev 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they (Israelis) also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
Some have opined that the use of “clouds” without reference to “the” clouds here is strictly a reference to a huge assembly of angels – a great crowd of angels – but we believe this is not His primary meaning; as we shall discover, He is likely referring to an immense “cloud of witnesses” who are to be identified as the immortalized Saints Who appear with Him among the tribes of the earth with the immediate intent of conquering Israel’s enemies and defeating them – the nations “roundabout” Israel today, and the establishment of His authority as Messiah in the midst of his People Israel.
He is perhaps also referring to the literal clouds of the heavens in addition to the great crowd of accompanying Beings who appear with Him at that time.
We remember that when He ascended to the throne of His Father, He arose from Mount Olivet and was received by “a cloud,” as recorded in Acts 1: 9 (see below discussion).
And so shall He returns...
We may read His own words as recorded in Matthew 26:64 - Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless, I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Mark records (Mark 16:19) that He was “received up into heaven (into the clouds and beyond), and sat on the right hand of God.”
We do not denigrate the use of “cloud” to describe a great conglomerate of people, for in Hebrews 12:1 the author attests to the fact that ... we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses ...
Paul’s description of His Second Coming utilizes the figure of “clouds” also – in this case meaning, we believe, a great throng of people, because “the” as modifying “clouds” in this passage is absent – added by the translators who did not get the entirety of his message: 1Thessalonians 4:17 - 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.
We believe that in this instance Paul is referring to “clouds” of people – an immense throng of immortalized Believers of all ages and cultures now assembled with Him in order to carry out the great body of work that lies ahead of Him and them.
In so saying, we reject the notion that Paul was referring to the literal clouds of heaven in that particular apocalypse as the Righteous have been assigned the earth as their inheritance – not the heavens, as many claim. None of them shall ever have left the earth. Indeed, they are destined to be raised from the (memorial) earthly graves of all ages and gathered together with the living covenanted ones before they are all conveyed angelically to the place – the venue – of the Judgment Bema (seat) of Christ the Judge.
Luke specifically mentions that He was enveloped by a cloud as He arose to the heavens: Acts 1:9 - And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
This fact does not negate the truth concerning His Second Coming, however, that He shall appear with a great cloud of immortal Saints Who shall assist Him in His establishment of the Kingdom on the earth.
Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
In this identification of Himself, the LORD Jesus is not appropriating a title to Himself which is deniable. In attaining to immortality, He has indeed assumed the nature and Purpose of His Father, and at that time may rightly claim that title with impunity.
It naturally follows that the Father’s Spirit and Power is invested in Him at this time, and He comes to do His Father’s will among the kingdoms of men ... and with His Father’s full sanction.
Now the Apostle John begins a short address, giving the background for the Revelation which he is about to deliver from the mouth of the LORD Jesus ...
Rev 1:9 I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Rev 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day (Note: this was evidently on a Sunday, “the first day of the week,” as that seems designated as “the Lord’s day” in Acts 20:7), and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet (a shophar – loud, intrusive, authoritative, and clear),
Rev 1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book (a scroll), and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
The Speaker’s decisive voice comes to John from a rather odd venue – from the midst of seven golden candlesticks! These remind us immediately of the lamp stand – the Menorah – the seven-branched candle-stand that inhabited the Temple of God in Jerusalem. The Menorah is so important in Jewish thought even today that it is the national symbol of the Jewish state!
Rev 1:12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
Rev 1:13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
It is the Master Himself!
Notice carefully the highly symbolized habiliments exhibited upon His person, and attach to these their appropriate meanings in spiritual symbology.
The golden girdle is an accouterment of FAITH, for faith is as “tried” (refined) gold. Revelation 3: 18 indicates its refined production out of great tribulation and trial.
Rev 1:14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
Whiteness represents the righteousness of a godly Man ... and of godly men and women, Who in that day are clothed similarly to Him.
Rev 1:15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; it is created in high-temperature furnaces and is durable and highly malleable (easily transformed into many useful objects). As such it shows refined meekness and teachability – the ability to be admonished – which is a prime characteristic of Believers throughout the ages.
Rev 1:16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
The student is fortunate that only four verses ahead, He gives a straightforward definition of the next two symbols: the seven stars and the seven candlesticks. The stars represent the messengers (angels) of each of the seven Ecclesias already enumerated; and the seven candlesticks represent the Light Stands which define the seven Ecclesias of the scroll ...
Revelation 1:20 - The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches (or Ekklesias in Greek: see Strong, G1577).
Rev 1:17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:
Rev 1:18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
These words leave no doubt as to the identity of the Revelator. Only one Man fits this description.
Rev 1:19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;
Rev 1:20 The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. <HEL>
Revelation 2
Note: The specific comments of the LORD Jesus to each congregation are obviously detailed and discriminatory (i.e., one size does not fit all). A closely analytical exploration of the prophesied individual circumstances and characteristics of these Seven Ecclesias will be seen in our intended analysis each to span a defined series of years of future history and to be chronological in order. The exquisite details of each will be seen unmistakably explanatory of the esoteric (signified, or hidden) meaning of Jesus’ narrative concerning each Ecclesia (congregation) and the future course of things in the spiritual and physical world – and that they will relate extremely closely to the future history of YHVH’s Chosen People in the affairs of human experience.
We intend now to insert these relevant remarks relating to each of these congregations into this document. We warn readers that these remarks are trending toward being quite voluminous ... but fascinating! Our firm conviction is that such well-founded and reasonably-expounded body of prophecy builds within the faithful a firm foundation of secure faith in the accuracy of our understanding of the revealed will of our Father. Such conviction is made surer by the verification of the parallel historical outworking of Jesus’ faithful assessments of these two chapters.
Revelation, Chapters 2 and 3
Many students of God’s Holy Word have puzzled over the extraordinary lengths to which the Lord Jesus went in instructing the Apostle John to write the letters to the seven churches.
There can be no doubt that, seeing as the Lord Jesus was now sitting at the right hand of the Father and all power had been given to Him in heaven and earth, He would have known that those same Churches and cities would not survive into the far distant future; and this is exactly what happened.
EPHESUS, the first named in Chapter 2, did not survive beyond the 13th century.
SMYRNA, though destroyed many times by earthquake, still exists, though the light of Christianity no longer burns there.
PERGAMOS still exists, though the Christianity practiced there bears no resemblance to that first brought there. It was described by the Lord as the place of “Satan’s seat.”
THYATIRA exists these days under the name of Akhissar, where there is ample evidence of an apostate religion as well as the Islamic “faith.”
SARDIS, now the impoverished village of Sart, is a place of ruins without the true Gospel hope of the Lord Jesus.
PHILADELPHIA still exists, but the little Christianity still practiced there is the debased form practiced by apostasy.
LAODICEA was totally destroyed by an earthquake and its location now is called Ladisky. The Christianity which once flourished here has long departed.
WHY then did the Lord Jesus use up so much of His precious Revelation with these seven letters to Churches which were not to survive but which were to sink, some of them into their earthen graves, and others into a “religion” which bears no resemblance to that once faithfully proclaimed?
Many authors have written their ideas and reasons for the Lord Jesus’ lengthy remarks but few of them have been very satisfactory. However, there is one excellent explanation, which we offer you in the following pages.
When studying the book of the Revelation the reader must at all times keep in mind that it is a book of symbols and signs, and as the introduction tells us (Revelation 1:1) it reveals the sequence of events which were to occur from a certain period to the end of another certain period.
John wrote the personally-breathed words of the Lord Jesus: “I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore. Write these things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.” (Revelation 1:18-19).
Many writers agree that the Revelation “takes over” from where Daniel’s prophecies conclude, but the main difference is that, whilst Daniel takes the reader to the destruction of the kingdoms of men, the Lord Jesus enlarges on the period of the feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s Image dream and the period occupying the time and times between AD96 and the actual setting up of the Kingdom of God on the earth.
The Lord Jesus explains that the nations and people of these latter ages will be like iron mixed with clay, there being no cohesion between them, “the sea and the waves roaring.” When miry or wet clay is mixed with iron particles, the clay constitutes a yellow covering over the iron to disguise it.
The thoughtful reader of the Revelation may see in this the possible meaning that the “iron power” takes on something that disguises it and hides its real composition.
We do know that Rome adopted Christianity and automatically made all persons Roman subjects – all of them – pagan and heathen, members of the new Christianity, and attempted to control the “souls of men” (Revelation 18:13) while reaching out for world domination, killing many who objected.
The new Ecclesia of God at Rome rapidly departed from the simple truths taught by the Lord Jesus, the disciples and apostles, yet their subsequent leaders claimed to sit in the Temple of God proclaiming themselves to be God (2 Thessalonians 2:4). Pope Pius in 1928 declared, “I am the Holy father … the representative of God on earth, the Vicar of Christ, which means I am God on earth.” What blasphemy!
This then is the background to the letters to the Churches. These became the Church of Rome, the only Church allowed to exist for centuries. Whilst claiming to speak the truths of the Gospel, the Church the Lord Jesus foresaw was to be a Church displaying its developing apostasy.
He thus condemned it, by prophesying great and progressive judgments upon it, stretching from its inception until the day the Lord Jesus Christ, as “the Little Stone” of the Image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, smites the Kingdoms of men on the toes and grinds the whole institution to powder, replacing it with the worldwide Kingdom of God which will last forever. (Daniel 2:44)
Messages to the Seven Ecclesias
Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos and Thyatira
Ephesus: From John’s writings to AD 100
Revelation 2:1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
Rev 2:2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
Rev 2:3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Rev 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Rev 2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
Rev 2:6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Rev 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
The meaning of the word Ephesus is ‘to let go.’ The period represented in this letter extends to about AD100 and the Lord Jesus commended His Church for their labor and patience and refusal to accept false apostles, but warned them that they showed an inclination to leave the purity of their first love.
Ephesus was a thriving Ecclesia of that exact time and a center of culture which was as diverse as any in existence. It was the site of one of the world’s largest libraries – and some of its most renowned pagan temples. Its magnificent theater has now been fully exposed archaeologically and is a wonder to behold. Even its everyday life is evident in its excavated ruins, as well as the extensive idolatry that flourished there alongside the congregation of “called-out ones” of Christ.
We can see here a picture of the Ecclesia of Christ even in John’s day with its faith being tested by anti-Christian doctrines and persecution at the hands of Imperial (pagan) Rome as well as by the Jews.
The Lord Jesus had foreseen the disappointment in His Church when He did not return, as was widely expected, and the ruin of Judaea at the overthrow of Jerusalem in AD70.
Such a combination of circumstances tempted the early Church to lose the first wave of intense enthusiasm of Pentecost. The Lord Jesus exhorts them to repent of this and also to cast aside the doctrines of the Nicolaitanes in their midst, who followed some of the teachings of Balaam, claiming that Christians were free to eat things offered to idols and to commit the excesses of heathenism such as idol worship and even temple prostitution. See Numbers 22-25.
The Lord Jesus threatened the members of that Church in that era, but also assured ‘those who overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God.’
Irenaeus, writing about AD175, confirms the presence of the Nicolaitanes within the early Church and this first letter of the Lord Jesus displays attitudes and teachings in the period spoken of, as showing a ‘letting go’ or ‘a relaxation of effort.’
Those who were persistent in their faith and overcame these difficulties received the superb promise of Life in the last phrases of His message: To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. The gracious words speak of Eden restored – exactly as pictured in the last chapter of the book of the Apocalypse.
Smyrna: AD 100 to AD 313
Rev 2:8 And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;
Rev 2:9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
Rev 2:10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
Rev 2:11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
The person speaking is the Lord Jesus, who emphasizes that He is Jesus of Nazareth, now at the right hand of the Father and He is speaking to a martyr Church of poor people who were to suffer poverty, persecution,
and imprisonment (tribulation) for ten days.
Smyrna means “anointing oil” and thus the Lord Jesus is intimating that God would strengthen these martyr saints through the anointing of His Holy Spirit.
The identity of this ‘Smyrna period’ of Church history (AD 100- AD 313) is unmistakable, for Rome carried out ten distinct persecutions of the Church.
In the Book of Martyrs, the seventh persecution of AD236 is described. “The Christians were in all parts of the Empire driven from their habitations, and tormented in their bodies: racks and prisons, axes and halters, fire and wild beasts, scalding pitch and melting wax, sharp stakes and burning pincers, were but some of the methods of their treatment.”
The ‘tribulation’ of 10 days (years) was spectacularly fulfilled in the years AD303-313 when the Church was subjected to the most terrible persecutions it ever had to endure. It commenced with an edict by Emperor Diocletian in AD 303 decreeing the destruction of Christian Churches, the wholesale burning of the Scriptures, and death to Christians by all foul means devised.
However, in AD313, Constantine became Emperor of Western Rome and the last great pagan persecutions came to an end. This was the case also In the Eastern Roman Empire where Licinius also issued a decree of toleration to the Christians. The prophecy was fulfilled to the letter!
The Lord Jesus comforted this martyr Church by assuring them that He too had been put to death as would many of them, by the soldiers of Rome, but he had triumphed over death and gained the ‘crown of life’ as they could also, and thus not be hurt by the second death (see Revelation 20: 14) which awaits those who do not overcome sin.
The ‘crown of life’ was to be everlasting life in a world renewed. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” (Revelation 20: 6)
Pergamos: AD313 to AD606
Rev 2:12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;
Rev 2:13 I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.
Rev 2:14 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
Rev 2:15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
Rev 2:16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
Rev 2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
"Satan’s seat:" Rome is Babylon the Great because she is an even greater idolatress than Babylon on the Euphrates ever was. Babylon was built by Nimrod (Genesis 10:8). This city was the "seat" of the first great Apostasy. Here the Babylonian Mysteries - ’ ... a “religion” claiming to possess the highest wisdom and to be able to reveal the "divinest secrets," was invented by Semiramis, the widow of Nimrod. She taught that Nimrod had been brought back to life (reincarnated) as a little child, whose mother she was. We can see here a parallel to the Church doctrine that Jesus was a reincarnation of God, and that He literally was Himself, God, as a part of the Trinity.
In ancient Babylon, before the secrets (or mysteries) of the worship of Semiramis (the Mother) and Nimrod (the child) could be divulged to a new initiate, he or she had to cleanse himself of his sins by confession of all his sins to a priest and by baptism in water.
The priest then had him completely in his power. Once admitted to this order, men were no longer Babylonians, Assyrians, or Egyptians, but were members of an ecumenical brotherhood over whom was placed a high priest whose title was Pontiff – or to be more exact, was Pontifex Maximus – Supreme Pontiff. His word was the law.
Babylon continued to be the “seat of Satan" until the fall of the Medo-Persian Empire, which absorbed Babylon. After that time the headquarters of this Babylonian Mystery was decisively shifted to Pergamos, in western Asia Minor.
This is where Jesus tells John Satan's seat was to be located: (Revelation 2:13).
But how did Pergamos become the seat of Satan if Babylon had been the seat?
The answer is found in history. When Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians, the priest-king, Attalus fled the city and relocated to Pergamos with his priests and sacred mysteries. There he set up his kingdom outside the Roman Empire, and thrived under the care of the population held in thrall to his idolatrous teachings!
Then, Attalus, who was the last King of Pergamos, bequeathed his crown and headship of the Babylonian priesthood to Rome. In BC 63 Julius Caesar, the Dictator of Rome was elected "Pontifex Maximus" of the Roman Mysteries, thus becoming heir to the titles and rights of Attalus, the Pontiff of Pergamos!
Thus it was that the first Roman Emperor became the head of the Babylonian priesthood and prepared Rome to become the bona fide successor to Babylon. Babylon's idolatry and Rome's idolatry are so identical that the "Reverend" Alexander Hislop entitled his famous work, devoted to the subject The Two Babylons.
Thus was forged the unbreakable bond between Babylon, Pergamos, and Rome, perceived by and understood by the LORD Jesus and revealed to John the apostle as the explicit story of how Rome inherited the Mysteries of Babylon directly and accurately.
The True Church at Pergamos was trying to maintain its faith in the midst of the very place where the rites of Babylon had held sway, the rites which were now becoming a part of the Church in Rome.
The Lord Jesus accused this Church of having some in its midst who were imitating Balaam. Referring back to Numbers 22 to 25 relating to the time when Israel was about to enter the promised land (about BC1446), Balak, the king of the Moabites, whose land adjoined Canaan, became fearful of the approaching host of Israel’s power and requested Balaam to curse the Lord’s people. (Balaam apparently had a supernatural gift of effectively "cursing" anyone). However, when he opened his mouth to curse, there came forth instead, prophetical blessings for Israel.
When Balak thus failed to obstruct Israel (but rather they were blessed), Numbers 25:1, 2, records how the Moabites “called the people (Israel) unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat and bowed down to their gods...and began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.” Thus Israel fell into sin and God was forced to punish them.
Christ condemned the Pergamos church in that there were some in the Church who were leading Christians, or spiritual Israel, to worship idols and thus commit spiritual fornication.
The analogy perfectly fits the church period from AD313 to the rise of the Papacy in AD606. When Imperial pagan Rome failed to weaken the church (by cursing, viz, persecution), and the Church was instead blessed, evil compromise within the Church badly affected the Church after the conversion of Constantine. A liberal translation of the name “Pergamos” is “married to power.” By AD337 half the inhabitants of the Roman Empire professed Christianity, which became the state religion. Worldliness and loss of spirituality automatically resulted, and such a union of Church and State clearly fulfilled the title “married to power.”
When the Empire embraced Christianity and its citizens nominally became Christians, the less dedicated in the Church lost their strict adherence to the scriptures and acknowledged the idols of pagan Rome by worshipping them with the extra ornamentation of Christian names.
Not only so, the new ‘so-called Christians,’ brought with them the pagan ideas of a multiplicity of gods … and of souls which lived on after death, perpetuating the lie of the serpent, “Ye shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4), and of devils and demons, all of which ideas linger and indeed dominate Church thinking to this day.
Thus the plan of “compromise,” like Balak’s second plan, succeeded in enticing spiritual Israel into idolatry. The nominal Conversion of the Roman Empire produced, in the succeeding centuries, a religion which was a combination of pagan idolatry and Christian ceremonies and names, and having a “god-head” of three gods, all of which, in some mysterious unexplainable way, were one God.
Christ accurately foretold all this in His description of the Pergamos Church period. This was the “falling away period” which prepared the way for the coming of the Papal “man of sin,” prophesied by the Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:2-11, “The man of sin, the son of perdition: who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped: so that he as God, sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”
The “temple of God” was the Church – and specifically St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City – and the one who sits in that temple claiming to be God on earth is the Pope. In 1928 Pope Pius XI declared from the Vatican, “ I am the Holy Father … the representative of God on earth, the Vicar of Christ, which means I am God on earth.” In making this declaration - this blasphemy - he was echoing the thinking and the claims of all the Popes from the day the first one was appointed.
The Lord Jesus Christ links “Satan’s Seat” with a place where idols are worshipped and people commit spiritual fornication, offering worship to multiple gods of wood, stone and gold.
The Church suffered these changes in the “Church period”’ of the Pergamos Church, from AD 313 to AD 606.
Thyatira: AD606 to AD1517
Rev 2:18 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;
Rev 2:19 I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.
Rev 2:20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
Rev 2:21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
Rev 2:22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
Rev 2:23 And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
Rev 2:24 But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.
Rev 2:25 But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.
Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
Rev 2:28 And I will give him the morning star.
Rev 2:29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
This is the longest commentary of the set of seven.
In 1 Kings 16-31, we read that Ahab, King of the rebellious ten-tribe nation of Israel married Jezebel, a Phoenician princess. 1 Kings 18:13-19 describes how the new Queen “Jezebel slew the Prophets of the Lord” while the “prophets of Baal ate at Jezebel’s table.”
The latter false prophets taught Israel to worship idols and to burn incense to images of the Gentile goddess Ashtoreth, whom they called the “Queen of Heaven.” The phrase has a modern meaning which is unmistakable. In Roman Catholic philosophy, Mary is "Queen of Heaven," and mother of God!
Well may we ask, in what period in church history did the so-called Christian church persecute and kill the true prophets of the Lord while elevating false prophet-priests who taught idolatry and thus spiritual fornication? The simple answer? – without a doubt the Church under the Papacy, particularly from AD 606 to the Reformation in 1517.
This prophecy was also equally applicable to the Greek Orthodox Church in the eastern half of the Roman Empire. The Thyatira Church is the middle church of the seven and it was the church of the Middle Ages, which killed multitudes of the saints who refused to worship idols and images as mediators between man and God.
Also … the false priesthood of the Dark Ages taught the people to worship Mary, the mother of Jesus, as if divine, and to call her the “Queen of Heaven,” the very same sin which Jezebel led Israel of old to commit. There are innumerable Catholic paintings depicting Mary in the art galleries of the world, each with the Gentile heathen title shown: “The Queen of Heaven.”
But the fact is, Mary died over 1900 years ago and there is no historical or Biblical record that she was at any time resurrected, or taken up into heaven. Indeed, that possibility was absolutely denied in the clear words of Jesus in John 7: 34, 36; John 8: 21, 22; John 13: 33.
It is quite plain therefore that Roman or Greek Catholics who worship Mary, burning incense to her and calling her “Queen of Heaven” are really worshipping, under an assumed name, the Goddess Ashtoreth, whom the children of Israel were taught to worship by Jezebel’s false priests.
A meaning of ‘Thyatira’ is “ruled by a woman.”
Surely Jezebel metaphorically ruled the whole church of the Middle Ages.
Christ said that this local congregation would have plenty of time to repent. It did not.
In the East, the Greek Church never repented of its superstitions and images, in spite of the scourge of the Mohammedan Arabs in the 7th and 8th centuries.
In the West, it is now nearly 500 years since the light of the Reformation burst through the blasphemous darkness of the Church, yet the Church has never repented but instead has fought the light which suddenly exposed its teachings.
Christ’s prophecy that therefore the Thyatira church would suffer “great tribulation,” has been partly fulfilled.
1. In the East by the almost total destruction of the Greek Church at the hands of the Turks and the Russians; and …
2 … in the West, by the mutilation of the Roman Catholic Church through the French Revolution and then by the Communists and the Nazis in Spain, Germany, and Poland, etc.
Finally, Christ warns the remainder of the Thyatira church, that her children will be “killed with death;” (i.e., at His Second Advent, when He comes to judge all anti-Christian systems “in flaming fire,” according to 2 Thessalonians 1:8). Hence His description of “... eyes like unto a flame of fire” is a warning to this Church of her final judgment, even as she tries to rebuild her “‘empire” in Europe.
The Lord Jesus depicts this ‘Church’ as being ‘in bed’ with others (other denominations – the “Protestants,” who commit spiritual adultery along with her and which thus assures them of great tribulation also, if they do not repent. Many great churches of the world have adopted the doctrines of the Jezebel church and have not repented of doing so, thus ensuring for themselves a share of the tribulation and judgments to be brought upon the “mother Church.”
However, there were to be some Christians in the Thyatira period who would not “have known the depths of Satan.” This latter description indicates that Christ must have regarded this Church as the very masterpiece of sinful delusion. All who have read anything of the history of the Roman and Greek churches, with their wicked deceptions, “appearances” of Mary, bleeding hearts, weeping idols, bogus "relics" and fake shrouds, will readily admit the accuracy of Christ’s prophetical description of that period in church history. To “the overcomers” He will give the privilege of ruling the nations in the Millennium, which will be a contrast to their humiliating persecution at the hands of that counterfeit Christianity.
Christ’s title to sit in judgment – “The Son of God”– is surely a sharp rebuke to the Church of the Middle Ages, which consistently reduced Christ to the subordinate position of a babe, “the son of Mary,” instead of the triumphant resurrected Son of God, the one and only Mediator between God and sinful humanity. <HEL>
Revelation 3
Letters to the Seven Ecclesias
Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea
Sardis: AD1517 to AD1739
Rev 3:1 And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
Rev 3:2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
Rev 3:3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
Rev 3:4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Rev 3:6 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
The meaning of Sardis is “a precious stone … a shining light,” and there can be no doubt that this is what the Reformation (of 1517-1739) was. A great light shone forth from the Scriptures to illuminate the minds of men and separate them from the corruption and the priesthood of Rome. The translations and printing of the Bible brought a revolt against the teachings of the Church. The simple teachings of the Lord Jesus which proclaimed Him as the one Mediator between God and man, replaced a thousand years of pagan dogmas introduced into the original Church of God by pagans exchanging paganism for the Roman Empire’s new brand of “Christianity.”
So strong was the demand by the people, for the truths hidden from them for so long, that many were prepared to die for that freedom of truth, and die they did at the hands of Roman Catholic priests and tormentors. The Lord Jesus told the emerging Reformers, “I know thy works … remember how thou hast received and hold fast.”
Mighty men of spiritual renown came forward and were strengthened by the word of Truth, to expose the enormous heresies introduced into the Church and to teach the simple truths hidden from the masses by an unspiritual organization posing as the only receptor of the truth from the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
The Lord Jesus warned them however, that even though their name was known as “living,” they were in fact “dead,” not in sin or in mortality but in taking advantage of the ‘light’ which had shone upon them from the newly exposed word of God. They were being encouraged not to retreat back into the teachings of the thousand years gone by, but were to reach out to all mankind and proclaim enthusiastically the salvation available through the risen Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus warned the people of the Sardian era that, if they shalt not watch, He would come upon them as a thief, unexpectedly and unannounced. The Apostle Paul exhorted not only the people of that Sardian era of 1517-1739 but all Brothers and Sisters of the true Ecclesia, “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” (1Thessalonians 5:4).
The Lord Jesus admonished those of His day, “… if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh.” (Matthew 24:43).
Thus the message of the thief was not restricted only to the days of the Sardian era of the Church, but was a continuing message to all who have looked for the Lord’s return.
We intend here to divert into a short discussion of this event ... this “coming as a thief in the night.”
A few Bible students have realized that this “coming as a thief”’ Scripture means primarily a “secret coming” to a few.
There is compelling evidence for this expectation.
When the LORD Jesus first appears, it will be for the purpose, in our studied opinion, to raise the covenanted dead – the “memorial” dead – from their graves and to marshal them with the living Believers and to escort them to the sacred (and secret) place of the Judgment Bema where they shall all appear before Him to “give account for those things done in (their ) bodies, whether good or evil,” as spoken of Believers (only) in 2Corinthians 5: 10: For we (Believers) must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
The world population, in general, shall be unaware of the enormity of this event. It is none of their affair, being personally not answerable to THIS judgment of the Lamb of God Who is shortly to become the Lion of Judah. Multitudes of them shall have an opportunity for salvation on HIS terms and according to HIS Gospel if they survive the approaching uncertainties of the Second Advent.
After the Great Assize of that day, those deemed “worthy” of His reward shall be given immortality and their vile bodies (of Adamic nature) shall be raised to the quality of His glorious body.
Then, following the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, all these immortal ones along with their Master, shall burst forth upon the world scene in great fury to begin settling accounts with the disrupters and rebellious of this world – all those who resist His People Israel (and therefore, those who resist Christ Himself) – and to save His People Israel from those who hate them and who seek to take their lives and properties of the nations round about. (Luke 1: 71, 74; Isaiah 59: 16-21)
This event is ushered in by the Great Trumpet (the shofar of the resurrection) being blown in the heavens, accompanied by the great shout of the voice of the Archangel. (1 Thessalonians 4:16). And the dead in Christ shall come forth from the ground to join their living counterparts prior to the Judgment.
As they sally forth into the visibility of the world (having previously been “cloaked” for the procedure of Judgment by Him) our conviction is that THIS is the time when “Every eye shall see him,” which was the promise of the Lord Jesus. (Revelation 1:7)
It is at this event of the coming era when we suggest there will not be anything secret, silent or hidden at the coming of the Lord Jesus, but that the TV news services of the world will give ample coverage of the stupendous events of those halcyon days of victory of Christ over His enemies! That will be an easy task as there are more news services and staff members (reporters) stationed in Israel than in nearly any other country in the world, even at the present time!
From that point, every successive populace which faces His progressive expansion of His Kingdom will be taken by surprise, as by a “thief in the night.” But that is an extended subject in itself, so we return to the events of Sardis ...
Unfortunately, the mighty reformers did not fulfill the promise of freedom offered by their release from the bonds of Roman theology, for they retreated back into the pagan teachings which plagued the Church. Instead of casting off the teachings of devils and demons and fallen angels, and the horrors of hell torment and the blasphemy of the Trinity, they joined in these teachings, revealing the very truth of the words of the Lord Jesus: "I have not found thy works perfect before God.”
The Church of England, so proud of the King James Version of the Bible of 1611, which had written in its preface, “So that if, on the one side, we shall be traduced by Popish persons at home or abroad, who therefore will malign us, because we are poor instruments to make God’s holy Truth to be yet more and more known unto the people, whom they desire still to keep in ignorance and darkness,” was and still is, overpowered by the very teachings they started out to abhor.
So much so, in these very days, they entertain the idea of rejoining Rome with all its idols and pseudo-priests and their teaching of Mary being the mediator. Again they desire to return to the darkness of Popish teachings and its final destruction.
For all this, the Lord Jesus was able to look far down the corridors of time and see that there would still be, in the Sardian era, “a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments … and they shall walk with me in white.” (Revelation 3:4)
In every era, there has always been one here and one there who is determined to seek out the simple truths of the Scriptures; the Lord Jesus knew that some would never revert to the paganism of what had gone before.
The promise to all those of the Sardian era was that all those who “overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment: and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father.” (Revelation 3:5)
The Reformation Church should have dispensed with the Popish idea that a priest was permitted to confess the name and sins of the supplicant to the Father. Instead, they established their own priesthood and continued the opposition to the truth of God’s word, which insisted There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5).
To this day, the failings of the Sardian era of the Church may lead many to eternal death. One God has become THREE, and the One Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, has been replaced by Rome with Mary referred to in idolatrous terms as Queen of Heaven, whose ancient pagan names were Astarte, Ashtoreth, Venus, and Ishtar.
The Lord Jesus was positive in His promise to those of the Sardian era who stood firm to ‘overcome.’ He promised they would be clothed in the garments of righteousness which will mean worthiness before God at the resurrection and the judgment.
Philadelphia: AD1739 to AD1850
Rev 3:7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;
Rev 3:8 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
Rev 3:9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.
Rev 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
Rev 3:11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
Rev 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
Rev 3:13 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
The Lord Jesus saw ahead to the Great Reformation, when the “open door” of Truth and the release from the idols and the teachings of Rome would open to millions the simple truths of the Scriptures. Such was the Philadelphia Church era.
The name Philadelphia means “brotherly love.”
This period in the Letter to the Churches is the period 1739 to 1850, which commenced with the wonderful work of Charles Wesley and others opening the Scriptures to all, revealing the centuries of domination by the Popes and the Church of Rome for what it was … pagan domination of people who were denied access to the Bible by the church’s “burning and murder squads.”
Suddenly, the claim by the Church, that they alone had the power to read, interpret and teach the Bible doctrines, came under intense scrutiny and multitudes of people commenced to obey the injunction to “come out of her (the latter-day Babylon) my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remembered her iniquities.” (Revelation 18:4, 5)
The printing presses of Europe started to hum with the printing of the Scriptures and although Rome sent priests and others to try to burn the books as fast as they were printed nothing could stop this avalanche of God’s word which swept across Europe, and indeed the known world. Rome decreed that many should die for daring to oppose the church and great numbers of people perished to ensure the new found freedom remained to their loved ones who would follow them.
Missionary Societies blossomed and took the word of God’s (open door) Truth to all parts of the world, even as the Church of Rome faced invading hordes, which finally eventuated in the invasion of Rome and the taking prisoner of the Pope and the loss to the Pope of the Papal States.
This “Church era” was introduced by the Lord Jesus as an era in which an “open door” became apparent to men and women, a door which, once opened, could never again be shut by anyone. The opening of that door released the Popish captives from the synagogue of Satan and many of them streamed out upon the earth, towards freedom which would never again be denied them, the freedom to embrace the simple truths of God’s word, which had been hidden under the dogmas of a Church which taught of triple gods and immortal souls and devils and demons which consumed men’s souls.
Suddenly men and women were able to read the Bible for themselves and understand the enormous edifice of deception and lies which had been built up in the name of the God in heaven.
Looking ahead, the Lord Jesus could see that there would be a remnant of people who would be kept “‘from the hour of temptation (trial),” which would come upon the earth, both in the Roman trial just ahead of that era, and the trial of the dedicated ones as they prepared themselves for the coming of the very one speaking to them from this book, the Lord Jesus Christ.
That great trial was to escalate at the end of the days, a trial which the Lord Jesus describes as occurring in days similar to those of the days of Noah, a time of complete and utter wickedness. (Luke 17:26)
But the Lord promised that all those in Christ would be saved out of it. The Lord Jesus spoke of “the elect” who would be gathered together from the four parts of the world (Matthew 24:31) and the Apostle Peter describes these “elect” who would appear at the resurrection and judgment, as “Elect … through sanctification of the spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:2). There is no difference between the elect of the Philadelphia era and the elect of our days. They cannot be elected unless called to Christ by the Father, filled with the knowledge of the word and faithful to baptism into the saving name of the Lord Jesus. Without that prescription for ‘election’, there can be no salvation for any man or woman.
The Lord Jesus was quite aware of the weaknesses of his servants and thus He exhorted those of the Philadelphia Church era to “hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” (Revelation 3:11). That crown was the one the Apostle Paul sought, “the crown of righteousness, which the Lord … shall give me at that day, and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:8)
James, the Lord’s brother, describes that same crown as “the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him.” (James 1:12).
The Apostle Peter was also convinced of the crown, describing it as “the crown of glory that fadeth not away.” (1 Peter 5:4)
That the Church of the Philadelphia era did not hold fast to “‘that which thou hast” (as the Lord Jesus described their new found freedom in the enlightening truth of the Scriptures) is apparent even in our day. We see many newly “born of the spirit” (!), canvassing the possibilities of rejoining the Roman church, and re-assuming the yoke of idolatry, which in fact they never did really cast off.
However, in all ages past there has always been a faithful remnant which has held fast; and even though these few are vastly outnumbered today, there can be no doubt that the promises of the Lord Jesus are real, live promises, to be enjoyed by Saints of His appointing and certainly not the spurious “saints” of the Church’s appointing.
Again the Lord Jesus promises those of the Philadelphia Church era, that those who overcome the power of sin and oppose His will, which is within us all, He will make of them “pillars” in the future dwelling place of my God.
Not only so, He guarantees that at the same time, He will write upon all these “elected” ones His new name, which is an iron-clad guarantee that He will grant to all overcomers of all ages all the things that He will be in the Kingdom age.
Laodicea: AD1850 to the Present
Rev 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
Rev 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Rev 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Rev 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Rev 3:22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Laodicea, once named Jupiter, was once the mother city of 16 bishoprics after many there accepted the Christian Gospel in the Apostolic Age. But Laodicea was destroyed by an earthquake in AD64; it was rebuilt to excel over its original glory. By the time of this letter from the Lord Jesus, the Ecclesia in this city was “lukewarm” and the city became known for its amphitheater seating 30,000 people, built after the arrival of the Lord’s letter.
The city did not heed the Lord’s warning and all its beautiful and exotic things were buried under the ruin of a great earthquake.
The Laodicean Church is the last of the Seven to receive admonitions from the Lord Jesus and, as such, represents the final era of the Church from 1850 to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, which (Church) is so derelict in its godliness that the very Head of the Church has to stand outside and knock, trying to make Himself heard, that He might enter in.
He describes the Ecclesia as “lukewarm … neither cold nor hot.”
How well this describes the Churches of the latter days who have turned their ears away from the truth to entertain devils, demons, evil spirits, imaginary fallen angels and trinities of pagan gods. They retain a “form of Godliness, (warmth) but deny the power thereof,” as the Apostle Paul described the state of many in the latter days just before the Lord Jesus returns.
In 2 Timothy 3:13 he points out that “evil men and (spiritual) seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” Then, as now, they thought they were rich in this world’s goods and in the knowledge of the Lord, but instead were “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.” (2 Timothy 3:4).
The world’s Churches today are often rich in property, in splendid, famous buildings, in fabulous works of arts, in gems and treasures; but they are miserable and poor in the knowledge and understanding of the Gospel and the promises of the word of God for the days of the coming Kingdom of God on the earth. Very few encourage the reading of God’s word and fewer still, teach the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus and the Kingdom age on the earth, which is close upon us.
Why did the Lord Jesus counsel the Laodiceans to buy white raiment and to anoint their eyes? The simple answer is that then, as now, their garment of faith was stained with the traditions of men – and they had become blind to the righteousness of true faith. The white linen of the servants of the Lord has been replaced by the scarlet and purple vestments of the church, the leaders of which unfortunately teach “another Gospel and another god.”
The Reformation – and thus freedom from the bonds of the Roman terror and ignorance of centuries – brought a brief flurry of truth; but gradually this new feeling of euphoria subsided and the new freedom was gradually exchanged for the very same pagan bonds of spurious worship of many gods and the fear of disembodied spirits which had been foisted on to those who had not put forth the tiniest spark of inquiry into the wonders of the true God.
The new Churches established their own priesthoods which grew rich in their diplomas as Doctors of Divinity, well trained in philosophy and modernism, and in fund-raising and bringing in multitudes of “members,” but poorly trained in the simple truths of the Scriptures, which became buried under the adopted teachings of Rome.
No wonder the Lord Jesus advises this Laodicean Church of the latter days, to “anoint thine eyes that thou mayest see.” The Lord Jesus could see ahead 2,000 years and saw a continuing state of blindness in the end-time Church, exactly as had happened in that early Church in Laodicea, where the teachings of the Apostles were abandoned for the apostate teachings of men who invaded the Church.
The Lord Jesus pleaded with the Laodiceans of both ages, to be clothed with white raiment that the shame of their nakedness, their desperate lack of the knowledge of His salvation, might not be apparent, indeed might be covered. His love for His children of faith shows then, in His assurance that, “As many as I love, I rebuke (admonish and convince) and chasten; be zealous therefore and repent.”
His word repent reveals a sorry state of affairs in the apostate “Church,” for it reveals a state of wickedness which had overtaken His servants. Yet, in this age as in the Apostolic age, the Father is “rebuking and chastening” a remnant which is remaining faithful to the high calling to which they are called. (Romans 11:5)
One section of the Church is to be spued out and discarded, whilst the few who overcome not only the sinfulness of human weakness but also the apostasy leading many to eternal death, will be granted to “sit with the Lord Jesus in His throne,” which will be the restored throne of David, when “the word of the Lord shall go forth from Jerusalem.” (Micah 4:2)
Whilst the visions recorded in Revelation 6 to 19 are detailed prophecies concerning the Christian “church” in its spiritual and political relations with the nations during the “Church Age,” it is obvious that the Lord Jesus provided us with a summary or synopsis of that same history in His Letters to the Seven Churches. [End of adopted comments as included.] <HEL>
Revelation 4
The Rainbowed Angel
Rev 4:1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.
The first voice has the clarity and tenor of a trumpet – a shofar – which was the instrument employed in the Feast of Trumpets, or Rosh Hoshanah, the two-day celebration of the beginning of the Jewish civil year. The trumpets are utilized to “raise a noise” to the LORD on that occasion, and thus gets the rapt attention of all within earshot. This trumpet is saying to John, “Pay attention to this!”
Rev 4:2 And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.
Rev 4:3 And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.
We understand “heaven” here to be indicative of higher planes of being or of thought, symbolized by the exalted heavens of the Great Expanse. It does not mean the Heaven where the Almighty dwells. This symbol is consistent throughout the scroll. Remember that the entirety of the Apocalypse is “sent and signified...” as in Revelation 1: 1.
This account of the Angel of the Bow (obviously representing the LORD Jesus Himself) sets the stage for the entire remaining scroll of the Revelation.
He appears at various intervals throughout the narrative, as we shall see.
The trumpet spoke to John, bidding him to “ascend” in the Spirit of God so that he might behold future events. As already stated, trumpets in scripture are used to gain attention – to rivet the concentration of one upon a given task or revelation.
As is true of all rainbows, the rainbow consists of sunlight filtered through water droplets suspended in the air – a process which fractionates the clear light of the sun into the component colors of the visible light spectrum. “White” light is made up of all these colors in a divinely founded and defined proportion and intensity.
Rainbows are first mentioned in the account of the flood of Noah’s day, where the first one was given by the Almighty as a token of His promise never again to flood the earth.
Four and Twenty Elders; Four Beasts
Rev 4:4 And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
The vision widens with this added description. As with the Angel (Greek, aggelos, pronounced “angelos” – a messenger of God) upon the throne, the twenty-four elders clothed in white and crowned with golden crowns, also deserve attention. We believe that these two dozen beings represent the called of God during the Israel age (the twelve tribes) and the Ecclesial age (the twelve apostles) – both in the most significant of terms, an expression of the principle of “God with us”): thus they symbolize the Twelve Tribes of Jacob and the Twelve Apostles of Christ, twenty-four in all. In these bodies were vested the mission of witness to the Truth of His word, and the forward movement of His plan with men in every age.
These are referred to in these assorted, widely-separated passages; notice particularly their specificity throughout the Revelation and that they are entirely subservient to the Angel of the Bow as indicated in every case by the underlined portions of the text:
Rev 4:4 And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
Rev 4:10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
Rev 5:8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
Rev 5:14 And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 11:16 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 19:4 And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.
There were also the voices of authority and supremacy emanating from the throne, lightnings and thundering and voices, echoing the words and will of the Most High.
These represent an innumerable multitude of crowned ones (kings) those who are with, but subservient to, the Angel of the Bow – they represent the Redeemed Ones of all ages and nations; the entire scene is a symbol of the initial days of Christ’s kingdom upon the earth and their conquest of it.
All the events of the Apocalypse lead to this end – the triumph of Zion over Rome, of Christ over Antichrist, of Good over Evil, of the Seed of the Woman over Satan. Indeed, these entities illustrate the polarities and the themes of the entire scroll.
The narrative looks ahead to a glorious day of the blessing of the Saints of God – at that later, ultimate time, immortalized and dwelling on the earth with their Master, and interfacing in the affairs of the world as it resists the Christ of the Second Advent.
Seven lamps, or candlesticks of fire, were before the throne, representing the Seven Spirits of God – that is, His power universal which pervades the heavens and the earth. The voices with which they speak define their admiration for the Angel of the Bow and their faithful dedication to His work abetted by their immense, newly-acquired power.
Rev 4:5 And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
Rev 4:6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.
The sea is a representative of multitudes of men and women of the world, as we shall see in several future references to this sea – sometimes troubled, as in our present time, and sometimes smooth, or glassy, as in this vision.
This sea is like unto crystal, which is clear, and transmits light. Its surface is smooth and peaceful and tranquil. This means that the Light of God – the Light of the World – is present within the nations so represented.
Thus, the nations are at rest in this vision, enjoying the peace which has been brought by and is ruled over by Christ. It consists only when Christ is in the earth again with His Saints (the Redeemed of all ages) and is overtly enthroned in Zion, and foreshadows the conditions which will exist when all these events have transpired.
The four beasts that were seen are the Cherubim of God, reminiscent of those in the first and tenth chapters of Ezekiel, q.v.
As in that earlier vision of the prophet, these have the likenesses of a lion, a calf (ox), a man and an eagle.
These are identical symbols of the four sections of Israel’s encampments of their wilderness journey.
They also represent the four major aspects or roles of the Son of Man, as illustrated and portrayed by the Gospel authors: Matthew (viewing Jesus as a Lion), Mark (as an Ox, or beast of burden and sacrifice), Luke (as a natural Man), and John (as an Eagle, or ascendant Son of God).
Rev 4:7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
Rev 4:8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
We visualize these four beasts as components of the Cherubim – the entire apparatus of the will of God in the earth, His expression in Jesus Christ, His plan for permanence and universal peace, and His enormous, electric, omnipresent power.
The collective is fully described in rather esoteric terms in Ezekiel One.
Their movement is unhindered, symbolized by the wings; they are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle.
They seek their goals without wavering or temerity of any sort.
They are always victorious and dominant.
They give glory and honor and thanks to the eternal Angel of the Bow.
In this great figure is embodied, in the finality, the Redeemed Saints of God as manifested by their devotion before Him, indicating complete and willing submission to Him, and subservience TO Him in all things – their faithful obligation to uphold His will in all things.
Their confession in verse 11, is that only He is worthy to receive their homage because He has brought about the New Creation, and it is He Who is described as He … Who was the beginning of the Creation of God (chapter 3:14, and verse 11, below).
Rev 4:9 And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,
Rev 4:10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying (thus, they follow faithfully the lead of the four Beasts),
Rev 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
This acknowledgment of His role as Creator of the New Creation of beings who are entirely dedicated to his service reinforces our assurance that the object of their adoration is the LORD, Jesus Christ, Who at that future time sits upon the Throne of David in Zion, and rules over the earth.
Note well the distinction that He is not described as the original Creator of the heavens and the earth, but as the Creator of the New Creation of the spiritual realms of YHVH in the earth.
The vision is an earnest of the distant future. But its certainty is as final as the clarity of the vision: it shall be done. <HEL>
Revelation 5
The Scroll With Seven Seals
Within the ensuing narrative, there is fully bound up and globally represented the certain future of the interface between Christ and Caesar – between Zion and Rome – the overall theme of this entire Revelation. The book is a scroll secured with seals at intervals, each of which, when opened, will reveal yet another chapter in future history – future to John’s day.
By the study of these accounts throughout history, men of faith have found their own place within the scheme of progressive fulfillment, many of whom recorded their findings for future students to prove and acknowledge.
This is the daunting task before us as we progress through this marvelous body of information, which shall mean little (and even be contradictory) to those who are not called, and chosen, and elected.
Luke 18:7 records Christ’s words concerning the great advantage of His elect: And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them?
It is to this end that the Revelator commends to His people the intensive study and interpretation of the Apocalypse, in chapter one, verse 3: Blessed is he that readeth (meaning, to understand, or perceive), and they that hear (pay rapt attention to) the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
The last phrase bears witnesses to the imminence or nearness of the beginning of the unfolding of the events of the Scroll which is sealed with seven seals, proving quite sustainably that the Revelation is a document of continuous coming events of history, and is the only context in which it may be understood. This does not mean that the narrative is continually progressive from one point to the next, but allows for the narrative dropping back in time at some points to “catch up” an ancillary line of developments – such as the Muslim along with the Eastern Orthodox trains...
Rev 5:1 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book (this is a scroll) written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.
Rev 5:2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?
Rev 5:3 And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
Rev 5:4 And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
This phraseology reflects the interim condition described so exquisitely by Isaiah59:16 - And He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore His arm brought salvation unto Him; and His righteousness, it sustained Him.
One who possesses the credible opening authority is elusive, at first; but one of the elders (Greek, presbuteros) speaks to John, informing him that the Lion of Judah, the Root of David shall perform the task – a discovery of which results in John beholding the Lamb of God, Whose sacrifice on Golgotha conferred the worthiness which He now possessed.
He is festooned with horns and eyes representing the universal power and perception of the Father of us all.
That personage, we know as the Lord Jesus Christ, Messiah of Israel, Son of Man and Son of God, who shall occupy in future the Throne of David reinstated in Mount Zion. Although he actually beheld a Lamb as if it had been slain, the elder bids him behold, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah!
This comparison shows the two to be identical.
This contrasting representation illustrates not so subtly the metamorphosis of Jesus of Nazareth into Christ Jesus, the Anointed Savior.
He has been divinely commissioned with the sole charge of bringing about these landmark events of a future time – all incessantly leading Believers toward the Kingdom of Christ.
Rev 5:5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
The entity which the prophet turns to behold is, however, not a Lion at all – but is in appearance as a slain Lamb. But in this statement, the elders equate the two symbols.
But its physiognomy is unique ... almost bizarre to the initiated!
Rev 5:6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. Being so equipped with horns and eyes, he is perceived to be a Creature of unlimited power and unlimited perception, or knowledge.
Rev 5:7 And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
In this action, the divinely sanctioned and approved Son of God receives the mandate from His Father to begin the revelation of all aspects of His New Creation, unloosing the seals of future history, which will eventuate in “the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2: 25).
Rev 5:8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
Rev 5:9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
Rev 5:10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
Rev 5:11 And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;
The symbolic number (10,0002 ) yields one hundred million as a base; add to that the indefinite number represented by “thousands of thousands” and the number arrived at is an enormous number of the Redeemed of that day! Their ready praise rings forth...
Rev 5:12 Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.
Rev 5:13 And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.
Rev 5:14 And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.
This account is the highly symbolic representation of the final scenes of glory and honor as rendered to the LORD God by His Son, Christ, and all Who are His at that future time.
The ultimate victory of the Saints of God is depicted here as now being in the process of being accomplished, and the kingdom to have been set upon its course of establishment, leading to its being inherited by Messiah and the Elect.
But many difficult and dreadful historic transactions were to mark the tortuous progress toward this perfect solution.
The Revelator now sets out to reveal the continuing course of future history couched in spiritual terms and within His divinely telescopic framework, so that the Elect may understand and be encouraged – but that the detractors from Truth shall be confused and hopelessly mystified in their attempts to understand the Revelation, as we see so clearly this day.
The Futurists forecast all manner of guesses as to its meaning, including a period of seven years of tribulation (based upon their misunderstanding of the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks) and a singular, personal Antichrist, which they expect to appear and deceive the whole world with his supernatural powers.
Their expectation of their version of Antichrist is to be precisely fulfilled in the appearance of the Christ of the Second Advent, Who shall proceed with the setting up of His kingdom in exactly that manner which they have already confidently attributed to “the Antichrist!”
By their blindness they are deceived, for He shall fulfill their expectations precisely – up to a certain point in time!
Their misapprehension of Him shall be reflected in the dishonor and resistance that they shall show Him, and the rejection of His “everlasting gospel” which He sends forth to them – a Gospel which they have never understood, and which does not conform to their gross prejudice as to events to come (viz., denying their hope of going to heaven at death, the “rapture,” a personal devil infusing the Antichrist, etc., etc.)
The other “class” of interpreters of the Apocalypse are labeled preterits (or preterists) and we understand that their conviction is that all the events of the Apocalypse have already come to pass and that none of the events depicted are yet to be fulfilled.
The gracious and effusive blessing of The Lamb of God is warmly portrayed by the great multitude of harmonious, immortal voices Who cry in heartfelt and thankful unison, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing (verse 12).
The implication of these words is that not only does He possess these qualities but that He is also willing and able to share them with all the redeemed of all ages!
Their faithful and relentless trust in His Truth has not been misplaced nor misunderstood; their spiritual perseverance is, therefore, being richly rewarded. <HEL>
Revelation 6
Six of the Seals Opened
The First Seal
Rev 6:1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
Rev 6:2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
The first Seal – the White horse: its rider is equipped with a bow but no arrows. It signifies a time of bloodless warfare within the Roman Empire. It was uniquely fulfilled within the time span from AD96 to AD183 – from Domitian’s death to the beginning of the reign of Commodious.
Gibbon describes this as the happiest period of the Roman Empire. The invitation to Come and see is intended to draw the attention of the reader, and cause him to perceive (see) the meaning of the events described.
The rider is crowned; he represents the “spiritual conquerors” of Gibbon’s description; he represents the spiritual warriors who went forth into the empire with the words of truth, wearing the Stephan, which, as symbolic of victory in the Roman games, was also symbolic of the success of the word of God over paganism – the result brought about by the teaching of the Gospel. The period followed a time of unrest, and presented a window of opportunity for the Believers in Christ to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
The victory Stephan shows that his work was effective, though in the end of the seals period, the price will be seen to have been heavy.
The Second Seal
Rev 6:3 And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
Rev 6:4 And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
The Second Seal: the Red horse: a complete change came over Europe. The period of the Seal is AD 183 to AD 211.
This rider took peace from the earth, and wielded a great sword indicating bloody warfare. This sword is a machaira – a large knife or dirk – usually employed for animal slaughter. It was the short sword of the Roman soldiers, including the Praetorian Guard.
The sword is “great” because of its effects, not its size.
Commodious was a despot; he was killed at the instigation of one of his concubines and the Roman scene became bloody.
The real power passed into the hands of the Praetorian Guards – the soldiers stationed at Rome – and a period of rapid assassinations of the emperors who reigned after Commodious; all were rulers for only short periods.
The demise of Julian initiated a civil war; three of the greatest generals in this conflict were Severus, Niger, and Albinus. The revolt of the Guards was fatal to Julian, who was beheaded, and continued the “red” period of the empire for a time.
The Third Seal
Rev 6:5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
Rev 6:6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.
The Third Seal: the Black horse: its rider carried a set of balances (scales). A voice is heard which proclaims, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. The period is AD 212 to AD 235.
This announcement implicates a class of agents who possessed administrative authority and involved taxation. Caracalla succeeded Septimus Severus in AD211 and distributed the wealth of his father’s administration to his soldiers in order to suppress their rebellion against him.
He extended the citizenship of Rome to all the population of the empire along with its privileges – but also the burden of its taxes!
The black horse brought dark times of gross injustice upon the people.
Some of the most exorbitant taxes were levied against the commodities most needed by the general population – the barley and the wheat being representative of such.
This period lasted until the close of the reign of Alexander Severus which brought a period of comparative calm.
The Fourth Seal
Rev 6:7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
Rev 6:8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
The Fourth Seal, a Pale horse: its color was greenish – a corpse-like hue, which suggested the demise of the body politic. But its end was not yet to be: its curse fell on a fourth part of the earth, by which is implied the chief region of the earth, Italia, which included Italy. The sword is now not the machaira, but the rhomphaia – a large, broad sword used by the Thracians. The period began with the reign of a Thracian, Maximin, in AD235, after the murder of Alexander Severus by the army. It ends in approximately AD 303.
In the short space of 50 years, twenty-one persons ascended the throne of Rome. This does not even include the number of those who tried to attain the throne – of which there were 19 such pretenders during one reign!
A long and generalized famine took place during this period, which along with the murders illustrated the Death and Hell that followed him. In addition a severe plague existed from AD250 toAD265, from which during one extended period, some 5,000 persons in Rome died daily!
The “wild beasts” imply the untamed peoples who were located within the empire, who finally subverted the empire.
The Fifth Seal
Rev 6:9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
Rev 6:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
Rev 6:11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
The Fifth Seal – Souls Under the Altar: Now Diocletian arises as emperor. He was successful in converting the assaults upon the empire to fall upon the conveyors of its trouble. The community which brought the peaceful war of the first Seal was itself affected greatly by the action of Diocletian, who determined to put an end to the successes of the arrowless bowman which had continued throughout the entire previous Seals. The Roman feast of Terminalia, in February 303, was designated as marking the end of the Christian religion! The short term of this seal ends in AD 311. It was the last and greatest period of persecution of Believers.
Great numbers of true Christians were killed by various heinous means; these constituted the “souls (lives) under the altar.” Reference to Hebrews 13 gives credence that the altar is figurative of Christ: Heb 13:10: We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. It was solely for the teachings of Christ that they were slain.
Diocletian changed the character of the empire from that of a Republic to that of an eastern Potentate, including its trappings and practices. The people were compelled to regard him as a god. As such, he wore a Diadem, instead of the old Stephan of earlier rulers.
The reference to these souls crying to God is a literary device similar to that used of the blood of Abel which cried from the ground in Genesis 4. Perhaps it was some comfort to those so persecuted to realize from the pages of the Apocalypse the concrete and sure promise of retribution which would ultimately arrive.
The Sixth Seal
Rev 6:12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
Rev 6:13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
Rev 6:14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
Rev 6:15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
Rev 6:16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
Rev 6:17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
The Sixth Seal – an Earthquake: The “little season” of persecution passed, and a season of a violent confrontation between Constantine and the opposing pagan rulers ensued – an earthquake which began to change the face of the empire forever.
It encompasses the years AD311 to AD324.
The sign referred to in the heavens was a complete solar eclipse as well as a lunar eclipse. … and the sun became black (solar eclipse) as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood (a blood moon).
The darkness of the sun symbolized the total eclipse of the pagan emperor; the dimming of stars represented the diminishing of the powers of the lesser luminaries of Rome.
The blood moon, however, represented the hierarchical priesthood, which as the heavenly moon, shone in the reflected light of the emperor; it was thoroughly quenched.
The great cost to the victors earlier hinted at was seen in the next chapter; it was the corruption of Truth which even in this era is already underway. But within this period, Roman paganism is essentially defeated and put down – and the Roman Church established! <HEL>
Revelation 7
The 144,000 Sealed
The flow of the narrative is now interrupted to inform the hearers/readers of the Apocalypse that because of the corruption of truth in this era, it became necessary to record the continuation of the “sealing” of the TRUE servants of God with HIS TRUTH.
The recipients of the Seals are not literal Israelites. Two tribes are omitted (Dan and Ephraim): Joseph and Levi are included, showing that In Christ, all these are a “royal priesthood.”
So these are representative of all the called, chosen and faithful in Christ Jesus, who have had impressed upon their minds and hearts the Truth which God had revealed.
The first purveyors of Truth had been the apostles of Jesus; their work was carried on by faithful followers who resisted the corruption of the faith that John recorded as to be expected, and which indeed ensued.
The special angel that appears holds a seal of a different kind – the seal of the living God.
As W. H. Boulton states, the process of calling out a people for His name continues even today, and will not end until the symbolic number is reached. These are thus sealed unto salvation through the ages which should transpire while the great and tumultuous events of the Apocalypse were being enacted.
The scriptures in at least one other instance, make allusion to this number it would seem in this statement of Paul: Romans11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. We are aware that Israel can only be enlightened by the return of and intervention of Christ in their mundane affairs – a blessed time after which, in light of His spectacular victories against their enemies – the people cry with one accord, “Blessed is He Who cometh in the name of the Lord,” as foretold by Jesus Himself in Luke 13: 35, which is the signal and landmark moment of Israel’s enlightenment as to His identity as the Messiah Who they slew at the time of His original manifestation, AD26, as they saw the dove come down and light upon Him, and a voice from heaven proclaiming, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3: 17.
That time is well summarized in such readings as Isaiah 2: 1-8, q.v.
Rev 7:1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
Rev 7:2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
Rev 7:3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
Rev 7:4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
Rev 7:5 Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.
Rev 7:6 Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand.
Rev 7:7 Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand.
Rev 7:8 Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.
The result of this process of sealing is now explained; it shall result in these Redeemed ones standing before the Lamb, clothed (equipped in every way) appropriately to their new station, praising God. The Elders and the Four Beasts join them in their worship of Him.
The Revelator clarifies their identity for us in verse 14: These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They are all the people of His covenant.
He also illustrates that their number is not simply a symbolic 144,000, but a Great and Infinite Multitude which no man could number – they are the Redeemed of all ages and peoples Who shall serve God day and night; He shall tabernacle among them forever.
Their reward is outlined in the last three verses of the chapter – one in which finally, God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
Rev 7:9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
Rev 7:10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation (be ascribed) to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
Rev 7:11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 7:12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
Note carefully how precisely these acknowledged qualities parallel those of the Multitude in chapter 5. This is a personification of the gory and majesty of the Father by the same group of Redeemed ones. And the wonderful reality of these descriptions is that their blessings fall upon ALL the covenanted People of ALL ages – even the saved Jews who served God under the Law.
But we believe it is limited to those who had entered into a covenant with him, and excludes all others, unfortunately, who have not sought out and found the Door to the Fold, the Lord Jesus Christ as attested by: John 10:2 But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
Further inquiry by the apostle results from the godly reasoning expressed by the tutorial elders there present, asking such rhetorical questions as that which now follows ...
Rev 7:13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they?
The question begs a deduction which the apostle is not able to make …
Rev 7:14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Everyone will admit that this process is accomplished ONLY by a specific parade of actions: by baptism into the name of Christ after carefully learning the reasoning behind that necessity – in other words, it is accomplished because they admitted the LORD Jesus Christ into their lives and beings in the most intimate and intelligent manner of being instructed as to His nature and being and purp0se for the earth.
Rev 7:15 Therefore are they (… for this reason only, are they here present – because of the covenant which their description belies and makes intelligible; that is their BASIS for being before Him. It is only among such that He intends to dwell forever) before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
Rev 7:16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat.
Rev 7:17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
This wonderful description is a summary of their resultant eternal lives, stretching into the infinite future! It indicates no worldly influence upon them anymore, no failings, and no fleshly difficulties discomfiting or harming them.
Since questions have been raised as to whether this named destiny might even refer to the Jews lost in the Holocaust, who unmistakably passed through some of the most heinous persecution of all men who ever lived – whether they might be included in this number.
We think not, based upon their persistent refusal to accept that Jesus Christ was their Messiah, and their failure to have made a covenant with Him by baptism into His name.
He was not in their conscience in that day. Their leaders and rabbis had persisted in rejecting any such reality, continuing to lead their flocks astray from the revealed will of God.
Their race had remained outside the pale of understanding for nearly 2,000 years; so for that reason, we do sadly feel that they died without any real hope. To expect a different fate for them is to deny the basis upon which those pictured here are in that blessed position of being before the throne of God and the Lamb, and of receiving His eternal blessing.
Some might see this as a harsh judgment.
Please allow some further observations.
The Jews have long been under a special covenant as it pertains to the Law of Moses.
We admit to not having been perfectly advised as to the consequences of this Covenant upon His people after the death of His Son.
We can be certain that His death ended the observances of the Law, but know that it did not erase the benefits of the acceptable sacrifices of those who came before Jesus’ time; their historic sacrifices, as we understand it, were not abrogated (abolished by authoritative action), but were instead validated and made effective by His blood sacrifice.
Having stated those quite obvious facts, we also must realize that the words of salvation had been given to their race by the persons of such men as Peter and John – men of their own ilk who faithfully had worked alongside Him, and had received His words of life and salvation, and had allowed themselves to be carried faithfully forward in the spirit of Christ.
They had progressed from their own previous status, as the older covenant was made void and the newer covenant (which was actually precedent to the old covenant, as given to Abraham long before Sinai) was established in Christ.
That opportunity of acceptance by all men had been in existence all the while, had they sought it and believed it, but their blind leaders would not.
These followed their faithless forefathers, the scribes and Pharisees – the hypocrites of Jesus’ day according to His own word – who rejected Him and vigorously urged, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”
Those had consistently and persistently followed the false lead of their forefathers which had been vigorously upheld and taught to reject Him, as expressed by the LORD Himself: But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering (viz., willing to enter) to go in. Matthew 23:13 <HEL>
Revelation 8
The Seventh Seal – The Seven Trumpets
Now the Seventh Seal is broken, revealing a series of Trumpets, which are blown by seven angels which stood before God. They represent the will of God being done in the earth – an ongoing process which we shall now investigate.
The Seventh Seal
Rev 8:1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
This silence in the ruling class for half an hour is representative of the peace and calm that followed the accession of Constantine until his death in AD337, a period in which he founded the city which bore his name and became the seat of his dominion. The period is some fourteen years.
From this time forward, Constantinople has become associated with the Dragon Power of the Apocalypse.
A Summary of Things to Come
Now we see the Empire broken into thirds:
1. The Latin West – overthrown by the Teutonic barbarians.
2. The Hellenic East – which was torn away by the Saracens.
3. Hellenized East – as the Eastern Empire collapsed by the inroads of the Turks.
These times are typified by …
1. The decay of the West on the removal of the capital to Constantinople.
2. Barbaric invasions of the Western Empire, with generally a reverence for the Roman Empire.
The details of this process involve –
1. Alaric and the Goths, Suevi, Vandals and the Burgundians.
2. Gaiseric and the Vandals.
3. Attila and the Huns.
4. Odovacar and the Heruli, Theodoric and the East Goths (Ostrogoths).
The First Four Trumpets
Now, more vigorous activity is about to be witnessed...
Rev 8:2 And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.
Rev 8:3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
Rev 8:4 And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.
Rev 8:5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
Rev 8:6 And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
The First Wind Trumpet
Rev 8:7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
The details of this First Trumpet are strikingly appropriate to the historic fulfillment.
The policy of the Roman emperors was to allow barbarians inside the bounds of the Empire, and to enroll them in their armies.
This practice resulted in swarms of barbarians being enticed to the borders, and even allowing them to come within the Empire, preparing them for the time when the Trumpets should begin to sound.
The Visigoths were given permission to cross the Danube, placing them in position for the time when the angels “prepared themselves to sound.”
The first angel sounded with the result recorded. Alaric and his Goths answered the trumpet call, and visited the earth with hail, fire and blood. The entire barbarian movement has been likened to “a furious tempest." As such, it was a dark cloudburst in hail and thunder upon the borders of the Empire.
The assault of Alaric affected the people of the entire domain – they being represented as “grass and trees” in accord with other scriptural imagery; but in addition, the literal, fertile grasslands and forests of Western Europe received the full brunt of Alaric’s assault.
Finally, Rome itself was given up to the invading Goths to pillage.
The historian Hodgkin, in Theodoric, the Goth, pages 16, 17, is quoted here:
“The bare fact that Rome itself, the Roma Aeterna, the Roma Invicta of a thousand coins of a hundred emperors, Rome whose name for centuries on the shores of the Mediterranean had been synonymous with world-wide dominion, should herself be taken, sacked, dishonored by the presence of a flaxen-haired barbarian conqueror from the north was one of those events apparently so contrary to the very course of nature itself, that the nations which heard the tidings, many of them old and bitter enemies of Rome, now her subjects and friends held their breath with awe at the terrible recital.”
This terrible beginning of the Wind Trumpets was a prelude to the greater judgments that was to follow. Alaric is quoted as having said this about his campaigns: “It is not of my own will that I do this; there is One who forces me on, and will not let me rest, bidding me spoil Rome.”
The reverberations of the First Trumpet died away to silence, only to find that silence abruptly and rudely broken by the sound of the Second Trumpet:
The Second Wind Trumpet
Rev 8:8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
Rev 8:9 And the third part of the creatures which ere in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
The sea is the Mediterranean – the western portion thereof – and these actions portray the assault of the Vandals, who by their maritime exploits, caused a tumult in the sea, in the islands, and in the coasts thereof. Genseric (Gaiseric) says Gibbon, in his great work, The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, “cast his eyes toward the sea.”
So successful were his naval tactics that it is said, “The fleets that issued from Carthage again claimed the empire of the Mediterranean.”
By these means, a third part of the sea became as blood!
Similar to Alaric, Gaiseric, when asked by his helmsman what course he should steer, replied, “Leave the determination to the winds. They will transport us to the guilty coast whose inhabitants have provoked the Divine Justice,” according to Gibbon.
The naval response of the Eastern and Western Empires seemed to end the Vandal scourge when a further tactic was sprung upon them by Gaiseric’s fire-ships – the “mountain” burning with fire” destroying the Roman vessels and killing the crews. Nothing could stay the Vandals until their mission was fulfilled. Then they came to an end as indicated later.
The Vandals, like most of the other attackers of the Empire, were Aryans; as such they favored greatly the “heretics” who were being persecuted by the orthodox Romans.
Boulton and Barker (in The Apocalypse and History; p. 56) opine that, “With persecution, there is usually also a protection raised up for the people of God – the earth helps the woman.”
The Third Wind Trumpet
Rev 8:10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
Rev 8:11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
The sense of this Trumpet is that it briefly affected lands (“waters” being the people of those lands) which could best be described as rife with rivers and fountains of water.
The Trumpet portrays the assaults of Attila and his Huns, whose violent attacks gave name to a byword which caused great bitterness among the people affected.
This “star” was termed “Wormwood;” Absinthos is the Greek for Wormwood; it means calamity, or bitterness.
Attila was not a nation-builder. His appearance was brief. He was simply a star, burning as a lamp, falling upon its appointed place, and going out as quickly as he had appeared. Its meteoric period occurred in the west – northern Italy and the surrounding areas of France, Switzerland, and Germany/Austria. But it was a significant assault, bringing distress upon all the peoples of those areas. The history of Attila agrees quite fully with the figures employed by the Revelator.
The Fourth Wind Trumpet
Rev 8:12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
Rev 8:13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!
The Fourth Trumpet’s effect was to endure longer than earlier ones. The eclipse which John saw occurred in the western third of the Empire – in Rome and in Italy. The desecrations of the Goths, Vandals and Huns had left the Empire weak and vulnerable.
Several of the barbarian chieftains seated their own people upon the throne of Rome, giving them the full authority and eminence of a Roman Emperor in name only.
Odovacar overthrew the last of these puppet rulers, eclipsing the constitution which governed the western third of the Empire. The diadem of the west was handed over to Zena, the eastern emperor in Constantinople.
The political eclipse of Rome passed, as do all natural eclipses. Once again the sun and moon of Rome shone brightly. Theodoric became “King of the Goths and Romans.” Although a barbarian, Theodoric assumed the guise and role of a Roman emperor.
The Gothic is recognized as one of the seven “heads” of the beast of the Apocalypse.
Utilizing Gothic officers in state positions, he maintained the Roman establishment with all the titles that had existed under the emperor.
The fourth Trumpet blast required, historically, that the (sixth) Imperial form of government should be removed and be replaced with another – the Gothic – which was the seventh. The interpretation of the horned beast required that the sixth head should be replaced for a short period by the seventh. Both these requirements are met by the establishment of a kingly government – Gothic by race, but Roman in spirit and profession!
Under Gothic rule, the empire in the west settled somewhat; so we leave it there.
Revelation 9
The Woe Trumpets
The Revelator now turns his attention to events in the Eastern Empire, foreshadowed by the words of verse 13: “Woe, woe, woe …”
These are called the Woe Trumpets, as numbered, and refer only to events of the East. It describes the awful advent of Mohammed and his savage hordes which originated in the “abyss” (bottomless pit) of desert Arabia – events which we shall summarize at the end of verse 11 – this first Woe Trumpet.
“Woes” represent a change of character in the Trumpets’ effects. These fell upon the Eastern Empire and affected mostly its religious character, Islam being imposed on much of its lands and people. Their effects were also much more widespread that the first four Trumpets. Their effect would change the world!
The effects of the WOE period would touch the Empire in significant ways. For example, during the reign of Diocletian, it is estimated that 100 millions of people died from plague which ravaged the kingdom between 527 and 565AD (Boulton, p. 65).
Fifth Trumpet: the First Woe Trumpet
Rev 9:1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
The “angel” here is really an EAGLE, according to some expositors.
Its use portended the might and authority of Rome’s Empire, both east and west, as the eagle was a common symbol of Rome and its armies.
Rev 9:2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
Rev 9:3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
Rev 9:4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Rev 9:5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
Rev 9:6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
Rev 9:7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
Rev 9:8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
Rev 9:9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
Rev 9:10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
Rev 9:11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
As already stated, these verses foretell the rise of Mohammed of Mecca – the originator of a new “monotheistic religion” known as Islam (“Submission”).
The name of the “angel” of the Abyssos is given in Hebrew and in Greek as Abaddon and Apollyon. These are not the name of one man, but a succession of the Caliphs, the descendants of Mohammed. The two names of these Caliphs both relate to a destroyer, which they surely were. But it is notable that their work of destruction is limited; they destroyed the Roman possessions of the eastern and African portions of the empire.
The bottomless pit is otherwise known in Greek as Abyssos, an unfathomable depth. It may be considered to be the Rift Valley of Africa, the lowest portion of which is in eastern Israel – the valley of the Salt Sea, at 1300 feet below sea level.
That is one conclusion.
Another is that the Abyssos is representative of the trackless dunes of Arabia where nothing of value exists (until oil was discovered!) and which supports little life. Its windswept, dry, hot climate fostered no vegetation except a few palm trees about its infrequent oases – pools of water in the desolate landscape around which the Bedouin encamped and tried to survive. This area lies just to the east of the Rift Valley and may be considered to be the same geography.
Fisher, in A History of Europe, p. 137, has said, “It was a land of mystery … as remote and inhospitable as the frozen north. Nothing reported from this scorching wilderness would be calculated to disturb the bazaars of Damascus or Alexandria. Arabian society was still in the tribal stage.”
We rather favor this application of the meaning, for it is here that Mohammed arose with his new “religion” of Islam, with a vast cadre of warriors who wielded the sword in their conquests, and showed no mercy to any resistance. The sword was the KEY to the bottomless pit; by it was Mohammed who was to emerge triumphant over so many in such a short period of time.
Their power was to torment men for five months (verse 5), and to hurt men for five months (verse 10). Ten months in total.
This period of time corresponds closely to the time of their ascendancy, as we shall determine below.
That Mohammed was a bright star in the political-religious firmament is incontrovertible.
Mohammed is here referred to as a star falling from heaven to the earth – appearing like a falling star (a meteor) out of the blackness of nowhere to torment and oppress the elements of earth’s peoples. He was given the key to the bottomless pit, which he opened, and out of it poured his hordes of violent, sword-bearing cavalry bent upon their mission of spreading the name and fame of Allah – a diminutive stone god which Mohammed adopted as “the one god” of the world.
Although Islam eschews the fact, their worship is based on idolatry pure and simple.
Fire and smoke came out of the pit, representative of war and oppression – and of persecution of those who thought not as Mohammed, who referred to himself as “a prophet.” Indeed, he claimed to be the ultimate prophet – the one who took precedence over all the previous prophets of God and uttered his “god’s” final decrees. Smoke implies a scorching judgment upon those who are targeted. Cf., Revelation 14:11 and 18:9.
But his decrees were not in accord with those of the God of heaven – the God of Israel, and Father of the Lord Christ – and were contrary thereto, offering little of value to the world of “religion.”
Mohammed’s great army of destroyers is depicted as horses like unto locusts (cf., Joel chapter 1) which came out of the smoke. The horse was then distinctly an Arabian animal and used in warfare. The warriors’ golden crowns are representative of the turbans worn by the Islamicists; they had long hair like women; their iron breastplates represented their relative invincibility against their enemies. Thus, their dress is described in some detail, depicting them as fierce, nearly unconquerable, and extremely dedicated to “holy war” or Jihad.
Their mission was to be against the false Christianity of Byzantium – the Eastern Third of the Roman Empire – or Catholic Orthodoxy. Abu-Bekr, a successor of Mohammed commanded that his troops show no mercy to “people who belong to the synagogue of Satan,” by which he meant the Orthodox people of Byzantium. This is reflected in the language of verse 4.
Next, their torment is described as that of scorpions. The stings of scorpions hurt but do not kill as a rule, if adults are healthy. Five months were to be devoted to their torture by this method.
But in verse 10, five more months are added for their “hurt.” These ten months, on the day for a year principle, is 300 days (or prophetic years). How was this fulfilled?
In 632AD they invaded Syria – the beginning of Islam’s “torture” and “hurt.”
300 years later – or thereabouts – we arrive at the conquest of Jerusalem (937AD); the power of the Caliphs was in a distinctive decline at that time. Speaking of Rhadi (936AD), Gibbon remarks, “(he) was the last who deserved the title of Commander of the Faithful … the last who represented the wealth and magnificence of the ancient Caliphs. After him the lords of the eastern world were reduced to the most abject misery.”
And so it was that the first Woe, for 300 years, spread over the Eastern Roman Empire and its African possessions, overturning the Christian religion (Byzantium) in those areas.
Rev 9:12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
The Sixth Trumpet: the Second Woe Trumpet
Rev 9:13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
Rev 9:14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
Rev 9:15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
Rev 9:16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.
Rev 9:17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
Rev 9:18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
Rev 9:19 For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.
Rev 9:20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
Rev 9:21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
Summary:
Verses 13, 14. The sixth angel sounded his Trumpet, and was instructed to loose four angels which were bound in the River Euphrates.
The Euphrates was the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire of the East. To be “bound” is to be tied, or restrained. Beyond that boundary to the east lay numerous tribes of the Tartar races. But we are concerned with only four, which successively invaded the Empire spreading death and destruction upon the Orthodox power. These were the Seljuks; the followers of Ghengis Kahn; the Moguls (Mongols); and the Ottomans (Othmans). These are nominated “angels” (messengers) because of the message of death and destruction directly from the Lord, which they brought to Byzantium.
Verse 15. These four were “prepared” for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
These four separate campaigns covered a long period as specified here on the prophetic, day for a year basis. But John does not speak of a “time” but of “a year,” Eniantos in Greek, a word that means “that which returns upon itself,” and thus indicates a year of 365.25 days.
Elliott, in Horae Apocalypticae, vol. 1, pages 524-529, reveals his calculation of this period. He says, “taking it as an exact year, we arrive, on the day for a year principle, we arrive at a total period of 396 years, 121 days; thus an hour (1/12th of a day), say 30 days; a day, one year; a month, 30 years; a year (of) 365 years and 91 days.”
The Ottomans conquered Constantinople on May 29, 1453, This date certainly was a “woe,” as the Orthodox Church was trampled in the dust by this fourth “angel” from the Euphrates, and the proud adherents of Eastern Catholicism fell from their position of pre-eminence under the Moslem conquerors.
The Eastern Third of the Empire had now suffered “death” at the hands of the followers of Mohammed.
It is greatly significant that “if one back-dates from May, 1453 by 396 years and 121 days, he arrives at January 1057 – the exact month in which Togrul Beg (the first “angel”) left Baghdad and began his career of conquest” (ibid.)
Verse 16. The army of the horsemen numbered 200 millions.
Horsetails formed the battle-standard of the Turkish pashas; under this standard they fought and conquered.
This numerical figure of 200 million is the symbolic, collective number of all four waves of conquest. Records indicate that the numbers of horses alone were enormous: Alp Arslan fielded 40,000 horses; Melek Shah had a hunting train of 47,000 horses; Ghengis Kahn used 30,000 horses in his conquest of Persia; Tamerlane the Mogul entered the same country with 90,000 horses; Amaruth entered Albania with 60,000 horses and the same number were used by Mohamet II in his siege of Constantinople. Horses were indeed overwhelmingly dominant in their war tactics. But their armies consisted of innumerable foot soldiers additionally...
Gibbon says “The myriad of Turkish horse overspread a frontier of 600 miles from Taurus to Erzeroum, and the blood of 136,000 Christians was a grateful sacrifice to the Arabian prophet.”
Verse 17. Affords a symbolic description of the horsemen and their riders:
I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone:
and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions;
and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
In addition to the natural cavalry of the time, another most peculiar type of “horse” is here described in symbol.
The makeup of their breastplates being “of fire, and of jacinth, and (of) brimstone,” is also significant. These were the colors under which the Moslems conducted their campaigns.
But the last two phrases describe something much different.
The goal of the woe must be considered here – to kill a third of mankind. This “third” was that of the Hellenic East.
This killing was done by a secret new innovation brought by the Moslems, specifically the Turks – gunpowder. It was gunpowder and the weapons in which it was used which effected the downfall of Constantinople – an empire which had stood for over a thousand years!
Its effects were astounding. Its use inculcated terror in those being attacked and rendered their resistance entirely ineffective.
Gibbon makes special reference to this new element of warfare, and shows what a striking effect it had upon the Byzantines. Mahomet II, in his siege of Constantinople, made special use of cannon, which were said to have been introduced to him by a deserter from the Greek army who made the first Moslem cannon. It is said to have been able to propel a stone bullet of 600 pounds weight a distance of one mile! Others used by Mahomet in later campaigns could do the same, and 14 batteries were recorded as being used in the conquest of Constantinople.
The “mouths” of the cannons spewed invincible and certain death upon their enemies.
The missiles were launched in clouds of smoke and fire, and their appearance conformed to the vision which John saw.
Verse 18. The fire, smoke and brimstone kills one third of men.
As already noted, this “third” of men was the “death” of the Church of the Hellenic East – or Byzantium.
Verse 19. Their power was in their mouths; their tails had serpent heads, which did hurt.
See above comments. Its trail of smoke as it bore in on its target may be the “tail” which hurt – or “bit” like a snake, in the minds of those being attacked.
Verse 20. The rest of men who were not killed repented not of their devil worship and their idolatry. 21. And the rest of men repented not of their murders, sorceries, fornications or thefts.
The third part of men who were “killed” was those of the eastern region of the empire – or Constantinople. The language indicates that they were neutralized as to their former power among their citizens. The Islamic control which defeated them and obliterated their dominance was oppressive and cruel.
Those pagans (“Christians”) who survived – that is, the other two thirds of the empire which remained – were not “corrected” by their singular defeat, and continued to pursue their idolatries, their sorceries, and their moral depravity, as well as their teachings of false doctrines which could not save.
As a result they moved their center of influence northward – to Moscow, which became “the third Rome.”
But the influence and hegemony of Islam remained as a pall upon the lands of its conquest. That cloud hung over the land and peoples up to the time of the Second Advent of the LORD from heaven, as ushered in by the events hinted at in the apostle’s next words... <HEL>
Revelation 10
This chapter opens with another vision of the Rainbowed Angel – the Lord Jesus Christ – who was “clothed” with a cloud – a fitting symbol of a great crowd of redeemed people – and his image was bright as the sun and his feet as fire. He holds in his hand a little book; and his feet are planted upon the sea and on the earth.
Rev 10:1 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
Rev 10:2 And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,
The Seven Thunders; Sealed –
Part of the Second Woe (or Sixth Trumpet)
Rev 10:3 And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.
Rev 10:4 And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
The timing of the Seven Thunders which were not allowed to be recorded by John has caused much discussion in prophecy circles. John Thomas opined that they represented the wars of Jesus Christ and the Saints subsequent to His Second Advent.
But in the narrative’s sequence, Jesus has not yet arrived on the earthly scene. So we must reject that interpretation if we are to consider the Apocalypse as being a continuously historical prophecy.
These Thunders therefore evidently usher in His Advent, leading directly to it.
We have researched this subject as extensively as it can be researched, and have concluded – whether rightly or not – that they represent the conflicts of the State of Israel with its Proximal neighbors prior to His appearance. The represent the conflicts of the returning People of God to their Land being opposed by the powerful, overshadowing shroud of Islam – the nations “round about” the newly-formed State of Israel around the “season” of the Second Advent.
Our studied reason for this opinion is that the Apocalypse is not concerned with, and does not directly address, the establishment or survival of the State of Israel, chronicling as it does, the interface of the Church with the Ecclesia of Christ. This subject is not the premise for the events revealed in the Apocalypse, so they are not recorded – merely implied for our consideration.
It reveals events that occur in the Land at times, but does not relate them to the State or People of Israel.
If it is true, we conjecture that the Trumpets indicate seven major conflicts of Israel with her neighbors leading from Statehood to the Advent.
In previous studies we have “assigned” these Trumpets to the major conflicts of Israel with her enemies since 1948.
We have supposed these conflicts to be:
1. War of Independence
2. 1967 Six Day War
3. 1973 Yom Kippur War
4. Lebanon Invasion
5. War of Attrition
6. Intifada
7. This conflict remains unfulfilled in our opinion, and will bring the Second Advent.
Verse 7 below indicates the indubitably correct order in the narrative for the Trumpets; they LEAD TO THE COMPLETION OF THE MYSTERY OF GOD, i.e., to the Kingdom Age, in our opinion. They do not occur after He has come and is interacting with the nations.
Those conflicts are therefore fairly well revealed (are not hidden from our prophetically-enlightened eyes of this late period of the end-time) and are of little mystery.
The Angel who John saw – whose feet were upon the sea and the earth – now lifted his hands to heaven with an holy oath.
It was that there should be time no longer.
In our thinking, this means that the Adamic aion is depicted as coming to a close; the time for the resurrection and judgment of the saints has come; this dispensation is finished.
Rev 10:5 And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,
Rev 10:6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
Rev 10:7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
Note carefully that John was given the message that in the specific days of the Seventh Angel’s sounding, the mystery of God should be finished; that is, as commented upon above, it is the end of the Adamic aion, or dispensation. The Bridegroom has appeared to claim His Bride, and redemption as we know it is at its terminal point.
John Ingests the Little Book
Rev 10:8 And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
Rev 10:9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
Rev 10:10 And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
Rev 10:11 And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.
In a credible sense, John’s ingestion of the Little Book meant that he and his followers would at a later time minister and prophecy before the world.
We believe that time shall be that of the world of the Kingdom Age, in which the resurrected and immortalized John and others shall minister again to the nations, teaching them the Gospel message which they have never heard, and continuing his work as an Apostle in the kingdom age, including occupying a throne over one of the Tribal allotments of that age (Matthew 19:28).
But a more immediate result of John’s ingestion of the Little Book may be seen in the significant events which befell the Word of God (the Biblos, or little Book) at the end of the Middle Ages – the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the invention of movable type for printing.
At that time, only the learned of the clergy could read and write. The commoners had to rely on these hirelings for all their spiritual guidance. Nobles did the governing; priests did the teaching, at first. Only the Renaissance and the Reformation could change the course of these affairs in which the pope chiefly filled both positions – that of regent and high priest. <>HEL
Revelation 11
The Second Woe (Sixth Trumpet) Continues
Two Witnesses
The narrative now turns to the development of Christendom – meaning the state religion which was imposed upon the masses, governing both civil and ecclesiastical behavior.
The history is a contortion of various intrigues and obscurity of justice and truth.
The long ascent from the depths of Church dominance is not within the purview of this review, but includes such faithful objectors to Church dominance as all the early scholars who learned Hebrew and Greek for themselves and were able to translate the Bible directly from these original languages to English and other common languages, being no longer dependent upon the Latin Vulgate of Jerome.
The main feature of this portion of the prophecy was that the Holy City should be under oppression for 42 months. The Holy City is Jerusalem, and represented those who held the Truth of His Word – and were put down by the false Church.
Two witnesses to His Truth should arise who should prophesy during this time, clothed in sackcloth – i.e., in mourning. We learn right away that these are equivalent to the two olive trees and the two candlesticks “standing before the God of the earth (verse 4).”
Please peruse these next 13 verses of text, then consider our comments after that verse...
Rev 11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
Rev 11:2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
Rev 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:4 These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
Rev 11:5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
Rev 11:6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
Rev 11:7 And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
Rev 11:9 And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
Rev 11:10 And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.
Rev 11:11 And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
Rev 11:12 And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
Rev 11:13 And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Our summary of this momentous time must include a discussion of the Two Witnesses, especially. It is important to note that the Apocalypse is largely silent upon the details of this period, but that we may easily fill in the details from historical accounts in order to understand the events portrayed.
“In order to maintain the remarkably accurate character of the symbols, as hitherto disclosed,” writes Boulton (p. 111), “we should find a dual testimony in progress, and the witnessing carried on under conditions which will justify the parties being described as ‘prophesying clothed in sackcloth,’ the garb of mourning and suffering.”
But since they are not in agreement, both cannot be the saints of God; indeed, neither can be.
So what is their identity?
The two olive trees and the two candlesticks (light stands) standing before God remind one of a similar vision given to Zechariah. The difference between these visions, however, is remarkable. Both refer to two olive trees, but all other aspects are different.
Zechariah was shown one light stand with seven lights, connected with seven pipes to the branches of the olive trees.
John saw two light stands but says nothing about bowls or pipes.
In addition, these “stand before – actually, in the face of – ‘the God of the earth.’”
This is not the God of heaven (as verse 13); it is the God of the “earth,” or Western Third of the Empire: it is the papal-sponsored Trinity and those who propagate that doctrine – and is a witness against that doctrine as well as many others.
The God of the earth is the god that the earth worships!
But the witness against this system is two-fold: 1) religious, and 2) socio-political.
1. The first is represented by everyone who held a religious objection to the God of the earth – a term which applies “to the papal constitution, where the pope, seated in the (supposed) temple of God, declares himself to be a god” (2Thessalonians 2:4). Thus, Gregory II, writing to the emperor in Constantinople, in the eighth century, said, ‘All the lands of the west have their eyes directed toward our humility; by them we are considered as a God upon earth.’” [Ranke, History of the Popes, Vol. 1, p. 13]
The ministers of this “God” are supposed to be powerful enough to make a god out of a piece of bread over which they mumble some form of words whereby they profess to transform it (the Eucharist) into the actual body of Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity! (Boulton) Whenever and whatever body of religious resistance arose against the papacy (its “god”) has felt the persecuting power of that system.
2. The best representatives of the other Witness are those who prosecuted the Protestant Reformation, standing firmly against the Church in socio-political issues. It provoked a war which lasted thirty years, in which everyone involved suffered immensely. This is surely an example of what is recorded of the Witnesses: that … if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies; and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These also cannot refer to the true saints of God, for their Master commanded them: Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you (Matthew 5:44). So one must realize that, apart from the testimony and the fighting of the witnessing people (the Protestants) the saints would have been entirely subdued by the Beast of the Sea and the Image of the Beast. The prevalence of this group of people, much like the Protestants of today, in a real sense, protected the true saints of God who stood in the shadows of that movement, agreeing with some of it and rejecting other parts of it.
The Two Witnesses therefore are recognized to have been the resistant forces of both religion and philosophy to the incursions and excesses of the Church of that time.
The account continues: the Witnesses are SLAIN.
“Western Latinity manifested intense opposition against the rebels against the papacy and their political allies,” says Boulton (p.113).
Factions in both France and Spain most notably stood against this system. In France, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day, in 1572, decimated the resistance of the Protestants in that country. It is important that this was exactly 1,260 years after the accession of Constantine – 42 months of years!
Later on, some relief was given by “the Edict of Nantes, but when this was revoked in 1685, the churches of all protesting sects were demolished, all non-Catholic ministers had to leave France within 15 days, and a most terrible persecution was instituted against the people who refused to worship the Roman god.” (Boulton, p. 113)
Those who did not leave the country were forced to attend Mass “at the point of the sword, subjected to every indignity, horror and violence. Over a million emigrated. So far as France was concerned, the Witnesses were dead” (ibid.).
They were dead, but not buried – thus they lay exposed to general society for a time. Their isolated remnants exhibited no power to resist any longer.
Their bodies (remains) lay exposed in the street of the great city spiritually called Sodom (for its wickedness) and Egypt (for its persecution of God’s people).
The street is Plateia, in Greek, which means wide or broad – a broad way or a broad place, which is a suitable description of France in its relation to the territories of the Beast of the Sea, the Latin West.
Their fall resulted in the failure (fall) of a tenth part of the great city, which was Rome – not the actual city, but the symbolic possessions of that city as a state or empire.
A tenth part would be one of the ten kingdoms comprising Rome of the day – namely, France.
These events occurred in the French “street” of the Roman metropolis of ten streets, or ten nations.
Just to reinforce this fact, in Revelation 14: 8, 18, the Great City is referred to particularly in the ecclesiastical sphere. It is that Great Babylon, which will be found later to apply to the Romish Church, the Harlot riding upon the scarlet colored beast with seven heads.
The Huguenots were a prominent group among the Resistant Ones to the Church’s teachings and practices. These folk were effectively shut down as to any effective resistance, and could no longer exist as a state within France. But they remained intact, and lay “dead,” (inactive, but not “buried”) in the street of the city for three days and an half, or 105 days.
The determination of this length of time is based on the silence in heaven (Revelation 8:1) of a length of half an hour as being the 14 years that it lasted. On this basis, one hour would be 30 years.
John Thomas, following Dr. Bicheno, a Baptist minister of Newberry, wrote that the time should be considered as three and an half lunar “days” (or months). If so, three and an half lunar months of 30 days each would equal 105 days, or years.
The event of the Witnesses’ death may be taken as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685. Add 105 years and one reaches 1790.
What event did that anniversary bring?
It eventuated in the resurrection of the Witnesses... their re-activation and revitalization.
“In the very year 1790 (105 years after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes) the civil constitution of the clergy (priesthood) was decreed, Church lands were sold for the benefit of the revolutionary state, and all clergy had to be elected. The orthodox clergy were looked upon as the enemies of the revolution; they (priests) were persecuted; and if a priest refused to take the oath prescribed by the revolutionaries, he was transported.” (Boulton, p. 116)
By this means, the Protestants were “resurrected” as the Protesters that they were supposed to be. Political resistance was also allowed to be rampant against the Church.
Both were effective.
This era came to a close with the disastrous French Revolution – an action in which the clergy was abolished, Church properties were sold for the benefit of the people of the realm, and any supporter of the Church was subject to Dr. Guillotine’s instrument of retribution.
The Church was decimated, its properties confiscated, its priests defrocked. The Reign of Terror ravaged the established “religion” and dismantled it nearly completely for a season.
Although little was accomplished in the fact, in the midst of all this turmoil, a decree was passed in which belief in “a Supreme Being” was voiced publicly.
They “gave glory to God,” but little came of it beyond that affirmation.
The events of this era are certainly consistent with “woe” in every sense of the word. The French Revolution and its sequential events set out “liberte, egalite, fraternite” as a way of life for the people of France, a status of utter freedom in opposition to the oppression which it had endured from centuries of papal dominance.
The last two verses of the Second Woe describe the newly refurbished image of the Protesters against Catholicism – their elevation to great heights of effectiveness.
At this time Napoleon Bonaparte emerged as Emperor of France. He persecuted the Church and its pope unmercifully, signally ignoring the pope’s self-appointed authority; on one occasion he imprisoned the pope, who in turn ex-communicated Napoleon. But he cared not for the fiery barbs of the Vatican and forged ahead with the plans he had made for the Continent.
Rev 11:14 The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.
The Seventh Trumpet & Third Woe
Rev 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are (have) become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
This represents the event of the Ages – the return to earth of the LORD Jesus Christ, and His summary handling of the affairs with which He is then concerned.
Rev 11:16 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 11:17 Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
Rev 11:18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
Rev 11:19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.
This action is clearly that of the resurrection of the responsible dead, and the brief chronicle of their rewards – to the prophets, the saints, and all who fear God’s name, both small and great, and the destruction of those who destroy the earth – that is, the progressive but final judgments of the tribes of men who have always resisted His will and teachings.
As such, it represents that period when there should be “time no more” as attributed to the ages of man, and the certain advent of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Another feature of the Seventh Trumpet is that it transports certain apocalyptic events to the time of the end.
But at the same time, it pours forth a series of events which foretell historical events from earlier times and brings them also to the time of the end, at the Seventh Vial, the series of which begins in Revelation 16. <>HEL
Revelation 12
Constantine enters the scene: a brief outline of what is to come may be helpful: (cf., Boulton, p. 37).
A. The Progress of Christianity
a. The work of the Apostles and their Contemporaries.
Two and a quarter centuries had elapsed between the writing of the Apocalypse and the events summarized in Chapter 6.
The effects of the apostles’ teaching cannot be overemphasized here. These Jewish men went forth into the Empire proclaiming loyalty to one Jesus of Nazareth – Who had originated from a tiny enclave about which many had long ago asked, “Can any good thing me out of Nazareth?” John 1:46 – Nathanael.
b. The permeation of the gospel through the Empire.
The apostles had received what might have seemed an impossible assignment: Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15).
The purveyors of the gospel were Jewish – a point not in favor of their message being taken seriously. But they consistently and doggedly taught that the Jesus who had been rejected by His own people, and crucified by the Romans, had been raised from the dead and was destined to become ruler of the entire world, deposing from their thrones every ruler of a nation under the heaven. Their message was remarkably well received by the pagans of the West.
c. Some causes of its progress.
1. Direct.
The success of the early expositors of the gospel was great – a fact which has baffled many scholars for centuries.
Their success might be attributed to the promise of a future life which Christianity offered as one cause, especially in view of the perilous times during which they lived. The zeal, courage and commitment of the Christian teachers must have been highly appealing to the people as contributing to the stability of their times.
2. Indirect.
But those reasons seem insufficient to explain the phenomenon.
It may be satisfactorily explained by the words of John Mark that it was due to The Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Mark 16:20.
The Apostle Paul summed it up in his statement in 1Corinthians 2:4: And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
d. The position at the opening of the Sixth Seal.
The teachings of the Christians raised opposition from the priesthood, particularly, for their doctrines brought resistance to their tradecraft (cf., Acts 19) which dealt in the dark arts and gave them a good living.
Many of the brethren of Christ suffered persecution and even martyrdom.
This effected a strengthening of their bond of brotherhood and a shared lot among their fellows. Their organization was excellent.
The result was that a “Christian Republic” grew up among the pagans – a factor which might not have been adverse had it kept to its apostolic purity.
But it did not.
An increasingly large percentage of these early believers began to drift away from the commandments of Christ which had instructed, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.
They began to desire political force, which was destined to gain great power.
B. Constantine and the Church
a. The struggle for imperial title.
War between Michael and the Dragon (Revelation 12:7) – Christian and pagan forces: AD 312 et seq.
The Pagan Roman Empire is symbolized by a Great Red Dragon.
Michael symbolizes the “Christian” power that was being expressed by Constantine, who sensed the upswing of this new way of thinking, and upon seeing a “sign” at the battle of the Milvian Bridge – not the “sign of the cross” as commonly taught, but the XP (chi rho, in Greek, which are the first two Greek letters of CHrist, superimposed upon each other – believed that he was being divinely instructed to fight against pagan Rome in the name of this “religion,” which at this time had already significantly deviated from the Truth of God as delivered to it by Christ and the apostles.
He was to become the Church’s political head, but although he proclaimed “Christianity” to be the official state religion, did not “convert” and become “baptized” until days before his own death.
b. The rise of Christianity to Imperial dignity under Constantine. The Church in honor; the Woman clothed in the Sun, the moon under her feet, her head circled with a wreath of 12 stars (cf., Revelation 12:1). AD324.
Constantine is here represented as the Woman clothed in the sun; the figure of the woman is that of the Church. The clothing in the sun (brightness) is the glory that was attributed to her, although false in nature.
Its royally-favored existence protected the TRUE believers who were dispersed about the Empire, but who had not adopted the false tenets of Christianity held by the Catholics.
c. The true Ecclesia in exile – flight of the Woman to the wings of the Empire (Revelation 12:6) for “1,260 days” – AD312 to 1572?
C. Effects of the Constantinian Triumph
a. Spread of Christianity – sealing the servants of God.
b. A Period of Peace – an half hour’s silence.
c. Discontent of the pagans; Voices, Thunderings, Lightnings, and an Earthquake.
d. Proselytizing the barbarians – preparation to sound the Trumpets.
(All three of the above heading groups from Apocalypse and History, W.H. Boulton, p.37)
At this time we insert a quotation from Boulton (p. 75) as a summary for the next considerations: “In order to simplify the subject matter of this section, it is proposed first of all to trace the rise of the papacy and the method by which the Church carried over to the barbarians the traditions of Rome: and secondly, to consider the rise to supremacy of the Franks over the other Germanic tribes. It will then be necessary to see how the spiritual authority of the Pope, in conjunction with the military power of the Franks, resulted in the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire noting the rivalry of Emperor and Pope and the claims made by each.”
The fall of Constantinople in 1453 brought to an end the series of events which effectively dismantled all three parts of the empire of Augustus.
But the West maintained a certain permanence, passing through multiple permutations, which will need to be explained by bringing the reader up to date on the events which brought the barbarians to the West and overthrew the Empire – the Great Red Dragon being representative of Pagan Rome.
This task will be complex, but will be elucidated as we come into contact with many of the symbols of that period, such as that now following.
The reader should expect narrative of some uneven progress in this discussion …
The Woman Clothed with the Sun;
and The Great Red Dragon
Rev 12:1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
Rev 12:2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Rev 12:3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Rev 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Rev 12:5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Rev 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
Rev 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
Rev 12:8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
[Editor: what is the rationale for Michael the Archangel here combating Roman paganism if his main charge is to guide and lead Israel? Do the closing words of Isaiah 54 relate to Michael, leading to the events of Isaiah 55:4 which might refer to Michael?]
This narrative is a complex picture of what happened at the initial entry of Constantine into the “Christian” mixture. His mother is symbolized as a Woman (the Church) clothed with the sun (i.e., in flashy and tawdry attire, representing her doctrines and practices, but yet refined above the level of the pagans which she had come to displace), and with twelve stars surrounding her head.
These twelve stars will be seen in much later displays of symbols of Europa, the goddess which was abducted by Zeus and later gave birth to Apollo
The display of twelve stars has been appropriated by the Church to symbolize the virgin Mary, and is seen prominently today in the logo of the European Community, the successor to the Holy Roman Empire.
The infant that is being born of the Woman (the Church) is Constantine, founder of the nascent Church of Rome, which he was about to establish as the State Religion and which began at that time to displace and replace the Great Red Dragon.
The Great Red Dragon (Pagan Rome) was ready to destroy (devour) the Church because of the adverse decrees of recent emperors against the Church; but the Woman’s Son (the Church’s son, Constantine) who, as emperor, prevailed against the Great Red Dragon, replacing it with the establishment of “Christianity” as the State Religion of Rome!
Thus Pagan Rome, later defined as, that old Serpent, which is the Devil and Satan in Revelation 20:2, was “bound” during this period of time, with a term stated in that passage as being “a thousand years.”
This period of time would nominally be, it would seem, from 312 AD until about 1300 AD. But are these dates in accord with history?
In other words, a better question is, Was paganism truly bound at this time? It would appear not to be so for some two hundred years or so.
Indeed, we may more closely determine the span of the period by considering that the pagan powers were “loosed" again by Martin Luther’s nailing of his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral in 1517.
This would indicate the beginning of the period as being around AD517, which more nearly accords with the historical fulfilment.
Much further elaboration of this historical sequence will be seen when we reach the 20th chapter of Revelation.
The Great Red Dragon displayed seven heads and ten horns.
These seven heads were representative of the seven forms of government which it had featured, the Gothic being the seventh (as above). But with the passing of the Gothic phase it reverted to the Sixth Head – the Imperial – which became the Eighth Head.
Its ten horns were ten regional and ethnic powers into which the empire was already metamorphosing, and which resulted in the ten parts of the Holy Roman Empire some time later.
The Man Child in another figure was Constantine who rose up into “heaven” as he became Emperor of Rome – supreme ruler of the political heavens.
His ascendancy to the emperorship represented the conquest of Pagan Rome, thus there was found no place for that institution in “heaven,” which symbolized secular power and prestige.
The Woman actually consisted of (in the sense of she contained) the True saints of God, and those who had at that time not apostatized.
In a sense, the Pure Woman had brought Constantine to the pinnacle of power, but due to the Church’s corruption, was required to withdraw from it and separate herself from it (fled into the wilderness – or the netherworld) for survival. There she was protected and fed by the Almighty for a thousand, two hundred and threescore days – 1,260 years in prophetic time. Please refer to further discussion ahead in Revelation 20./
The Dragon Cast Out
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon (Pagan Rome) was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan (note this particularly detailed descriptive name of Pagan Rome and cf. Revelation 20), which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Paganism was “officially” dethroned at this time, by decree of the new emperor, Constantine. But the result of its downfall did not immediately take effect as Constantine and his regime was “soft” on its enforcement at this time.
Rev 12:10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
The term “accuser” as used here is extremely important. The term “Satanas” (Strong, G1567) in Greek means “false accuser.” Note that emphasis here is given to the accusations of the TRUE believers, although by this time they were in an extreme minority within the greater Church of Rome. These would be called upon to have faith in the face of all sorts of temptations and adversity, and to preserve and uphold steadfastly the Truth of God’s word. Many of them would be horribly martyred. Their destiny was preserved by their exhibited faith – but not in every case were their natural lives preserved.
Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Rev 12:12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
Rev 12:13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
Historically, the Church was persecuted by the remnants of paganism, but was eventually accepted as supreme authority. Hurlbut and others reveal that paganism was not immediately put down, but that it persisted for approximately another 200 years as a nettlesome thorn in the side of the Church. Again, refer to discussion on Revelation 20.
However, the adherents to the core Truth of God’s word, the un-adulterated Ecclesia of Christ which was enfolded within the garments of the mother Church, continued to be persecuted by both paganism and the Church. Thus the “persecuted woman” was the true Ecclesia of Christ as persecuted by both Paganism and Christianity, as it was then defined!
It was a convoluted paradox of suspicion, persecution, and hatred.
Rev 12:14 And to the woman (i.e., now representing the true Believers) were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
This process of the Ecclesia’s finding nourishment occurred over a period of some time, extending to more than a millennium. It effectually ended in this context, with the Protestant Reformation as begun by Martin Luther in 1517AD.
Rev 12:15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
Rev 12:16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
This is a depiction of the true remnant of the Ecclesia disappearing into the nether parts of the society of Rome as it had now been established under Constantine.
When the true Believers tried to express their (true) understanding of God’s word, they were epressed and persecuted – for their gospel was not that now being taught by the corrupted Church! Their lot was to be labeled “heretics” by the Church authorities, and to be increasingly persecuted for their adherence to God’s testimony.
Rev 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Editor’s Note: We certainly admit that ALL THE ABOVE NEEDS MORE INVESTIGATION, which will be attempted, God willing, in future days. Meanwhile, these posted notes are offered as valid commentary on this chapter. <HEL 3O> ~1700 words – chapter 12.
Revelation 13
(Appendix to the Trumpet Period)
Beast of the Sea: Ecclesiastical Rome
Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 13:2 And the beast (Rome) which I saw was like unto a leopard (Greece), and his feet were as the feet of a bear (Medo- Persia), and his mouth as the mouth of a lion (Babylon): and the dragon (paganism) gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
This fourth beast incorporated all the elements of its predecessors.
Rev 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
Rev 13:5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
Rev 13:6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
Rev 13:7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Rev 13:9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
This powerful, vital message is pivotal for those who seek salvation!
We note one difference in the description between the Great Dragon and this Beast of the Sea: the Dragon had crowns upon its HEADS. The Beast of the Sea has crowns upon its HORNS.
Boulton (p. 86) writes, “We must, therefore, apply the symbol to the time when horn kingdoms had arisen on the body of the beast, that is to say, after the ending of the sway of the seventh (Gothic) head and the establishment of the barbarians as independent sovereignties on the territory of the Empire.”
The “sea” is the peoples of Europe of the time – the western third of the Empire.
The powerful Beast of the Sea is Ecclesiastical Rome, which rose up against the true Ecclesia of Christ. We see in his makeup great similarity (verse 2) to the beasts seen by Daniel, which were parallel to the phases of the metallic Image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of Daniel 2, but more particularly of the graphic description of the beasts of Daniel 7.
Thus the continuity of Rome is seen to pervade the apocalyptic events depicted, and to thread passionately through all its future history.
In it is embodied all the heritage of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome, all purely pagan civilizations and all idolaters. Such was Pagan Rome – the Great Red Dragon.
Its name of blasphemy was written prominently upon its heads. They reflected the Dragon’s principles and constitution – qualities which transferred seamlessly to the Holy Roman Empire which replaced it – the Beast of the Sea to which the Dragon gave its power when “converted” by Constantine.
What do we know about the head that was wounded unto death, but was healed? It is a peculiar feature which we easily see fulfilled in the demise of the Sixth head by the ascendancy of the Gothic head which subdued the empire under the fourth trumpet blast. But it was not destined to last very long, and was in turn displaced by the Imperial Head’s return, or HEALING, when the Gothic was overturned by Justinian; thus its deadly wound was healed. (Boulton, p. 87.)
It is significant that the Beast was given power to make war against the saints, and to overcome them, i.e., to persecute and kill them. It is in these phrases (to make war with the saints) that we see the substance of the statements later that the Whore was drunk with the blood of the saints – i.e., by her satisfaction at persecuting them to the death for “heresy” against her utterly false teachings and practices.
It is this Beast that the entire Western world of the time came to worship – that is, all except those whose names are written in the Book of Life; those names are blessed and precious … destined for eternal security in the Kingdom of God on the earth, for they have “come out of her” in reality (cf., Revelation 18:4).
Verses 4 and 5 above seem to give equivalency of the Beast to the papal power, for it is HE who is indicated: … there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
This time period of 42 months is equivalent to 1260 days/years; how is this realized?
It will be noted that the period is exactly equivalent to the Woman’s being sheltered and nourished in the wilderness – 42 months.
It was during this period that the Church wielded its greatest strength and influence against the Plan of God, much as it claimed to preach salvation. Its “salvation” was that dreamy, demanding, man-made system of pagan Rome, not of God-fearing Jerusalem; its mortal enemy was those (who were represented by the Woman) who professed the faith of Christ (considered by them “heretics”).
This period of persecution is considered to have been preceded by the decree of Justinian, that “We ordain that the most holy priest of the elder Rome be the first of all Priests,” a decree which assured Rome’s papal primacy to increase, even as the power of Imperial Rome decreased.
How did it decrease? It did so by the removal of the capital to Constantinople by Constantine; Rome’s authority was thus decreased politically: but was increased as to its “moral” authority by this decree.
“It was by creating the position that caused this development, ‘that the Dragon – the power (now) enthroned in Constantinople – gave him (the Beast of the Sea) his power, and his seat, and great authority.’” (Boulton, p. 87)
The impetus was carried further by the later decree of Phocas (termed by Gibbon, “the brutal ruffian”) issued the decree making the pope the “Universal Bishop” of the Church. Note carefully that the Dragon (now Constantinople) was the giver of this boon.
“Thus the deadly wound was healed by the revival of Rome in the hands of its ecclesiastical -political head, the Pope,” as Boulton has written.
Because Rome had now re-attained its position of supremacy in the West, Rome again dominated the Western world and all the world wondered after the Beast.
The period of forty-two months (1,260 years in prophetic terms) is defined as beginning at the time when Phocas decreed the primacy of the Bishop of Rome: Phocas reigned from AD602 to AD610. Add 1260 years to the latter figure and we arrive at AD1870 – the signally important year when the power of the papacy to exert any penalty upon the True saints ceased.
It is thus proven to be an exact prophecy of the ascendancy of the papacy and its later decline.
After this date of 1870, the papacy has been subdued as to its secular power. It is destined again to increase this area of influence in the end-time – a factor which we believe we can discern as we consider the influence of the papacy upon world affairs in the 21st century.
That series of events is preamble – is precursor – to the prominence of Rome as the Harlot sitting astride the Beast (Europe) as, in our opinion, we shall soon see.
Meanwhile, the normal course of affairs of that early day was to continue for a great while:
Rev 13:10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
The Beast of the Earth
Eastern” Roman Empire
Now we consider the Beast of the Earth. Note carefully that it comes up out of the earth; this is a territory different from that of the Sea Beast. It is an indication that the primacy of Rome was moved to Constantinople by Constantine – styled “the earth.” We shall note that its characteristics were different from the Beast of the Sea.
Rev 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Rev 13:12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Rev 13:13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,fu;;
The next verses illustrate that that power was issued thunderously from the throne upon its domains, enforcing arbitrary authority upon all.
This Beast of the Earth (Constantinople) assumed the power of the Beast of the Sea (Rome), especially in its oral authority (it spake as a dragon). But it still appeared to be a lamb, masking its conduct as (claiming it to mimic) that of the Lamb of God, but was instead a wolf – in sheep’s clothing.
This is the deceptive mien of the Man of Sin.
The authority of Rome still resided at this time with the Eastern emperors, but decisively gave enhancement to the Beast of the Sea, causing the earth and them who dwell therein to worship that Beast! And it still spoke with the authority of Rome.
These unique symbols lead us now to consider the Image of the Beast. An image is a copy of something previously in existence. We shall see that the Image of the Beast shall be a “religious” copy of pagan Rome as embodied in the pope/emperor of the successive governments to Rome.
The Apocalypse, therefore, pictures for us the metamorphosis of Empire into Church.
We can easily see in this description the character which is universally exhibited by the ecclesiastical head of this Roman system.
He is a unique ruler of both a political realm as well as its religious system (is king and priest of Romanism).
Thus he (the pope) is a false copy (a pretender) of the previous Roman Emperors (who considered themselves as gods) and moreover, a pretender of Jesus Christ, the King/Priest of the universe to come!
The Image of the Beast
The Roman Church
Rev 13:14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
Rev 13:15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
Rev 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
Rev 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Rev 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
This narrative contains all the marks of identity of the Roman Catholic system which had been developing, had gained authenticity (credibility in the eyes of the population) and authority from those able to confer it.
In verse 14, reference is made to the miracles which it was able to perform or claim: our thoughts go to the shrines of Lourdes, for example, and the millions of prayers offered to Mary in complete contradiction to the commandments of Christ (that HE is their only intercessor with His Father), and the hundreds of “apparitions” seen by children and the simple folk of Christendom upon which so much superstition is based in the Catholic world of “religion.”
Note firstly, that this institution (the Image of the Beast) is a copy of the beast which was wounded to the death but revived – the Imperial head.
No term could better describe the papacy! His actions are certainly imperious, haughty, authoritarian, and overbearing.
Verse 15 foretells the perpetuation of the superstitions of the previous legacy of Babylon/Rome Pagan. Those who would not conform were to be slain!
The narrative forecasts precisely what occurred in history.
The “mark” which the Beast conferred upon men of that world refers, in our opinion, to the number of the man – the Vicar of Christ – which in many different permutations results in the number 666 – the number of his name.
In the numerology of scripture, the number six is that of man; here that implication is tripled! It is the immutable mark of humanism and sectarianism in its purest form – the three categories of sin, in effect, namely the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life. Those characteristics mark every follower of the pope and his crowd.
That mark, displayed prominently in either the forehead or hand, identified the pope’s followers with the false system of Christianity; the “sign of the cross” which is universally a symbol of papal following, is notably made with the hand from the forehead.
The official name of the pope of Rome is in Greek, LATEINOS, and the numerical value of the letters of that word (the gematria) is 666 – a fact which was recognized in this very early time, and stated by Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp, who was contemporary with the Apostle John!
It is significant that in past time, it was necessary for one to prove that he was a faithful adherent to Catholicism before he could buy or sell anything. But the merchandise that is really indicated is the comprehensive list of “spiritual” commodities (including the souls of men) in which the Church traded – listed in great detail in Revelation 18: 11-13 as the bill of goods traded by the Harlot and the Merchants of the Earth: after the destruction of which no man BUYETH “her MERCHANDISE” any more! (verse 11)
Even today, we use the same figure of speech as to dubious claims or doctrines: “I can’t buy that!”
The newly gained status of papal primacy (primus inter pares, or ‘first among equals’) conferred by Justinian and Phocas, assured the pope of great weight in the affairs of the Western Empire.
A consideration of the intricate, complex details of his further rise to power would require scores of pages of discussion, and is outside the purview of this consideration; suffice it to say that the pope became the de facto head of the empire, followed by becoming its de jure leader, by the authority of others who had power to confer these offices upon him (Constantinople).
These historical events set the stage for the reckless, profligate, and despicable reign of the Harlot over the Beast for 1,260 years, and brought about the conditions which would result in the remainder of the Apocalyptic story of the inevitable conquest of Zion over Rome. <HEL>
Revelation 14
The Lamb on Mt. Zion
Rev 14:1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.
Rev 14:2 And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
Rev 14:3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
Rev 14:4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
Rev 14:5 And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.
The voice from heaven is that of a multitude. It is the voice of many waters, of thunder, and the strains of an harp in addition to a great chorus of voices.
The new song is the refrain of the Redeemed from the earth – those chosen from all ages and tongues, now enjoying resurrection glory – immortality in the nascent kingdom of God on the earth. It is a “new song” because its possibility of having been sung has never occurred until now. The immortalization of the Saints is a singular occurrence to this date in history, only to be repeated upon still other recipients at the end of the thousand year reign of Jesus on earth.
This feature is the basis for their nomination as the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb; they are precedent to the final harvest of a presumably far greater number of souls who are to be redeemed from the much diminished tribes of mankind inhabiting the earth during the thousand year reign of Christ, who have successfully assimilated the message of salvation which shall at that coming time be preached universally.
An hundred and forty four thousand is a perfect symbolic number indicating the totality of the redeemed, as if 12,000 had been selected from each Tribe of Israel. For these redeemed ones have become adopted Sons of God if called from the Gentiles, or Israeli Sons of God if Hebrew folk. All have become “Israel” in the truest symbolic sense – the Israel of God.
These were not defiled with women – a clear reference to the Harlot and her daughters of like mien and deportment. They are those who have, in response to His command, come out of her My people – Revelation 18:4. Such are “virgins” in the spiritual sense.
It is the blessed, terminal condition of salvation that is referred to by the Apostle Paul when he wrote, in Galatians 6:15, For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. 16 And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
This scene is that of the victorious Lamb of God and His Saints standing triumphantly upon Mt. Zion – the place of the restored Throne of David, which He shall occupy. The Lamb of God is blessing His followers with glory – these redeemed from among men. Their lives and beings have supernaturally been brought up to the full measure of the stature of their Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, and they are now perfectly aligned in nature and purpose with Him.
That much-coveted, perfected condition is that which is celebrated by Paul, in Ephesians4:13: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
The great company, being victorious over the untold enemies of not only the Ecclesia of Christ, but more lately readily assisting the Christ to bring order to the Restored Nation of Israel, are now preparing to send forth the Gospel message of salvation to the peoples of the outer world – that world beyond the boundaries of the First Dominion of His Kingdom (Micah 4: 8) who have never heard the true Gospel message, but have for all ages been fed the lies and deception of the Church of Rome.
It shall be a momentous occasion, and one pregnant with great implications for the human race yet in darkness – an incontrovertible fact judging from the words of the angel flying in mid-heaven, his being commissioned to preach … the everlasting gospel unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
The instruction is to preach it to ALL nations, kindred, tongues and people – an injunction which tells the reader that those folk have never been exposed to the TRUE Gospel of Christ!
The world of Catholicism is most greatly affected by this message. The Pope has learned, taught, or presupposed nothing that shall have happened within the past several months of history at that time. The Lord Jesus Christ shall have appeared from virtually nowhere with a vast company of True Saints, and has made physical war upon the enemies of Israel and has defeated them summarily in the Land of Abraham’s Promise.
An horde of outsiders headed by Gog shall then have invaded, intending to destroy the nascent Kingdom and its King, and these were defeated in one day by the fury of the Almighty. The King and His people survived unscathed, and are advancing their agenda of the New Order of things to be established throughout the earth.
And now He is bringing this message of salvation to the peoples of the Harlot – a message which is not recognized by the Pope or his priests.
Obviously, in their eyes, this intruder is “the Antichrist” of Jesuit fame (a myth initiated by Ignatius Loyola and Francisco Ribera to take attention away from the Church’s culpability in this matter of gross deception and falsehood).
In their estimation, He must therefore be resisted and rejected.
It shall be a singularly fatal error made by the Vicar of Christ!
The remainder of the Apocalypse reveals many of the key episodes and facets of this struggle, which we continue with great anticipation.
This final consideration occupies nearly half the apocalyptic Revelation.
It begins post-Gogian in our opinion, and represents Christ’s progressive intention to convert the entire world to His way – and now Israel’s way – of Truth.
Its details are striking, definitive, and conclusive; the end of the process shall be seen to elevate the name of God in pure, unadulterated truth, and to result in the unabashed admission of the entire world that to Him belongs the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever. Matthew 6:13.
The Everlasting Gospel Proclaimed
Rev 14:6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Rev 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
This precursory announcement comes from the “heaven” of Christ’s kingdom. It comes from the most elevated, capital Member of that polity. It is advice of the highest order and refinement, and shall result in the salvation of many who shall heed it. It is sent to all the world’s peoples –to preach unto them that dwell on the earth – to every one without exception.
Its content reflects the only worthwhile initiative of the time: Fear God, and give glory to Him! For the “hour” of His judgment has arrived – the moment of truth in the most meaningful sense – and bids ALL recognize and worship the Creator of all things.
That injunction is closely allied with the reiteration of the fall of Great Babylon, and surely draws into fine focus the difference between His ways and her ways, that difference being the difference between life and death, between the fame and the shame of their respective followers.
The infamy of Great Babylon is recalled – her pervasive corruption of all the peoples of all the nations, who were induced to drink of the filthy dregs of her Cup of fornication.
Rev 14:8 And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
These dire words speak of an entity which is in every sense the continuation of the ancient constitution of Babylon of old, the persistent apostasy of men toward their Creator, and substitution of fleshly desires for spiritual aspirations. These qualities are surely the heart and soul of the beast and his image – and embodied in his “mark” of identity.
Rev 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented (i.e., destroyed) with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
We readily recognize this “pouring out” of the contents of His Cup of indignation as being a consistent continuation of such previous initiatives – such as when the same Cup was given to the Proximal Islamic nations for their enforced consumption after the Almighty’s having withdrawn that Cup from Israel, His People.
That important occasion is marked by the words of the prophet: Isaiah 51:22 : Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:
Now it is given forcibly to yet another long time enemy of His Plan and Purpose ... and the “torment” quickly consumes the victims, reducing them to nothing – erasing any possibility of more rebellion from that quarter!
Rev 14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever (its effects never to be erased or forgiven or reversed; permanence is evoked in these words): and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
The contrast between the adherents of God’s way and those of the Harlot’s way is drawn clearly. If they have partaken of her Cup of fornication, they must also drink of His Cup of wrath.
This condemnatory phrase, “the cup of wrath” of the Lord was drunk by Israel for ages nearly without end. But in 1948, at the moment of the establishment of the State of Israel, that Cup, in our opinion, was withdrawn from Israel, as discussed briefly above – a factor which now began to exhibit the behavior that He desired of His People (a return to Him as manifested first by their return to His Land).
At that moment in history the Cup of His wrath was taken from the hand of the Jewish people and given to their most immediate enemies – the Proximal Islamic States surrounding them completely, and being so vehemently hostile to them at that time.
These were made to “drink” of the LORD’s Cup of Fury during all the years of the Second Restoration of Israel, culminating with their being destroyed by His fury at His Second Coming.
It was then transferred to the vast Gogian Host which then threatened Israel in the beginning days of Christ’s Commonwealth – and that cohort was completely destroyed by the descending furies of God’s wrath, probably in one day (? Cf., Ezekiel 38: 14, 19), upon the mountains of Israel.
Thus was His Kingdom solidified and secured for all the world to see and accept – whether they like what they saw or not. The fact of His appearance and His Kingdom was thus made firm among the nations of the earth.
And now the Cup of Fury is handed to the Harlot and the Beast nations for their “swallowing down” – their utter consumption. This Cup of Fury now works its work upon still others who have incessantly resisted the commandments of Christ and His Father in matters of conduct and salvation!
Their destiny is the certainty of destruction from before His face, as symbolized by fire and brimstone, the smoke of their torment ascending up forever, for His judgments shall not be rescinded nor reversed.
Why is fire and brimstone used as a symbol here? Because it is realized by men and women as the most destructive agent known to men. The “fire” likely means lightening; the brimstone is burning sulfur – an agent nearly impossible to extinguish in its extreme combustibility.
But in actuality, death is fully as destructive. It merely appears and seems more benign.
It has long been realized that combustion is quite similar to the much slower, natural bodily decomposition of death. The uniquely repugnant, unique scent of the death of human tissue is largely due to the decomposition of the amino acids composing it.
But both combustion and decomposition may be described in medical terms as complete chemical oxidation of the tissues – both bringing the body of flesh back to the elemental components of its composition. It is the final, irreversible end of the process known as the Second Law of Thermodynamics, Entropy.
The symbol of fire is much more rapid and impressive than “mere” death.
Great Babylon’s devotees are entirely separate from Christ’s adherents, their destinies being the opposite poles of corruption and incorruption.
The worshippers of the Beast and his Image are turned aside unto the everlasting destruction of their flesh. But those of the Lamb are blessed with life everlasting and with His favor forever.
The Great Reward of Patience
Rev 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Rev 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.
Rev 14:14 And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
Rev 14:15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
Rev 14:16 And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
Rev 14:17 And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
Rev 14:18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
Rev 14:19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
Rev 14:20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
These powerful words are a harbinger of the victory over sin in the earth – over sin, embodied in the transgressors and resisters to righteousness among men, and especially to the traders in lies and deception. The Beast, his Image, his Mark and his Number are signally defeated forever.
The symbolism of a thousand and six hundred furlongs is peculiar – the dimension of depth (to the horse bridles) being expressed by that of length (1600 furlongs) – two dissimilar measures.
Revelation 14
The Lamb on Mt. Zion
Rev 14:1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.
Rev 14:2 And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
Rev 14:3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
Rev 14:4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
Rev 14:5 And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.
The voice from heaven is that of a multitude. It is the voice of many waters, of thunder, and the strains of a harp in addition to a great chorus of voices.
The new song is the refrain of the Redeemed from the earth – those chosen from all ages and tongues, now enjoying resurrection glory – immortality in the nascent kingdom of God on the earth. It is a “new song” because its possibility of having been sung has never occurred until now. The immortalization of the Saints is a singular occurrence to this date in history, only to be repeated upon still other recipients at the end of the thousand year reign of Jesus on earth.
This feature is the basis for their nomination as the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb; they are precedent to the final harvest of a presumably far greater number of souls who are to be redeemed from the much diminished tribes of mankind inhabiting the earth during the thousand year reign of Christ, who have successfully assimilated the message of salvation which shall at that coming time be preached universally.
An hundred and forty-four thousand is a perfect symbolic number indicating the totality of the redeemed as if 12,000 had been selected from each Tribe of Israel. For these redeemed ones have become adopted Sons of God if called from the Gentiles, or Israeli Sons of God if Hebrew folk. All have become “Israel” in the truest symbolic sense – the Israel of God.
These were not defiled with women – a clear reference to the Harlot and her daughters of like mien and deportment. They are those who have, in response to His command, come out of her My people – Revelation 18:4. Such are “virgins” in the spiritual sense.
It is the blessed, terminal condition of salvation that is referred to by the Apostle Paul when he wrote, in Galatians 6:15, For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. 16 And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
This scene is that of the victorious Lamb of God and His Saints standing triumphantly upon Mt. Zion – the place of the restored Throne of David, which He shall occupy. The Lamb of God is blessing His followers with glory – these redeemed from among men. Their lives and beings have supernaturally been brought up to the full measure of the stature of their Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, and they are now perfectly aligned in nature and purpose with Him.
That much-coveted, perfected condition is that which is celebrated by Paul, in Ephesians4:13: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
The great company, being victorious over the untold enemies of not only the Ecclesia of Christ, but more lately readily assisting the Christ to bring order to the Restored Nation of Israel, is now preparing to send forth the Gospel message of salvation to the peoples of the outer world – that world beyond the boundaries of the First Dominion of His Kingdom (Micah 4: 8) who have never heard the true Gospel message, but have for all ages been fed the lies and deception of the Church of Rome.
It shall be a momentous occasion, and one pregnant with great implications for the human race yet in darkness – an incontrovertible fact judging from the words of the angel flying in mid-heaven, his being commissioned to preach … the everlasting gospel unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
The instruction is to preach it to ALL nations, kindred, tongues and people – an injunction which tells the reader that those folk have never been exposed to the TRUE Gospel of Christ!
The world of Catholicism is most greatly affected by this message. The Pope has learned, taught, or presupposed nothing that shall have happened within the past several months of history at that time. The Lord Jesus Christ shall have appeared from virtually nowhere with a vast company of True Saints, and has made physical war upon the enemies of Israel and has defeated them summarily in the Land of Abraham’s Promise.
An horde of outsiders headed by Gog shall then have invaded, intending to destroy the nascent Kingdom and its King, and these were defeated in one day by the fury of the Almighty. The King and His people survived unscathed, and are advancing their agenda of the New Order of things to be established throughout the earth.
And now He is bringing this message of salvation to the peoples of the Harlot – a message which is not recognized by the Pope or his priests.
Obviously, in their eyes, this intruder is “the Antichrist” of Jesuit fame (a myth initiated by Ignatius Loyola and Francisco Ribera to take attention away from the Church’s culpability in this matter of gross deception and falsehood).
In their estimation, He must, therefore, be resisted and rejected.
It shall be a singularly fatal error ma by the Vicar of Christ!
The remainder of the Apocalypse reveals many of the key episodes and facets of this struggle, which we continue with great anticipation.
This final consideration occupies nearly half the apocalyptic Revelation.
It begins post-Gogian in our opinion and represents Christ’s progressive intention to convert the entire world to His way – and now Israel’s way – of Truth.
Its details are striking, definitive, and conclusive; the end of the process shall be seen to elevate the name of God in pure, unadulterated truth, and to result in the unabashed admission of the entire world that to Him belongs the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever. Matthew 6:13.
The Everlasting Gospel Proclaimed
Rev 14:6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Rev 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
This precursory announcement comes from the “heaven” of Christ’s kingdom. It comes from the most elevated, capital Member of that polity. It is advice of the highest order and refinement, and shall result in the salvation of many who shall heed it. It is sent to all the world’s peoples –to preach unto them that dwell on the earth – to every one without exception.
Its content reflects the only worthwhile initiative of the time: Fear God, and give glory to Him! For the “hour” of His judgment has arrived – the moment of truth in the most meaningful sense – and bids ALL recognize and worship the Creator of all things.
That injunction is closely allied with the reiteration of the fall of Great Babylon, and surely draws into fine focus the difference between His ways and her ways, that difference being the difference between life and death, between the fame and the shame of their respective followers.
The infamy of Great Babylon is recalled – her pervasive corruption of all the peoples of all the nations, who were induced to drink of the filthy dregs of her Cup of fornication.
Rev 14:8 And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
These dire words speak of an entity which is in every sense the continuation of the ancient constitution of Babylon of old, the persistent apostasy of men toward their Creator, and substitution of fleshly desires for spiritual aspirations. These qualities are surely the heart and soul of the beast and his image – and embodied in his “mark” of identity.
Rev 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented (i.e., destroyed) with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
We readily recognize this “pouring out” of the contents of His Cup of indignation as being a consistent continuation of such previous initiatives – such as when the same Cup was given to the Proximal Islamic nations for their enforced consumption after the Almighty’s having withdrawn that Cup from Israel, His People.
That important occasion is marked by the words of the prophet: Isaiah 51: 22: Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:
Now it is given forcibly to yet another long-time enemy of His Plan and Purpose ... and the “torment” quickly consumes the victims, reducing them to nothing – erasing any possibility of more rebellion from that quarter!
Rev 14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever (its effects never to be erased or forgiven or reversed;ITS permanence is evoked in these words): and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
The contrast between the adherents of God’s way and those of the Harlot’s way is drawn clearly. If they have partaken of her Cup of fornication, they must also drink of His Cup of wrath.
This condemnatory phrase, “the cup of wrath” of the Lord was drunk by Israel for ages nearly without end. But in 1948, at the moment of the establishment of the State of Israel, that Cup, in our opinion, was withdrawn from Israel, as discussed briefly above – a factor which, AGAIN IN OUR OPINION RESULTED FROM THEIR BEGINNING TO exhibit the behavior that He desired of His People (a return to Him as manifested first by their return to His Land).
At that moment in history the Cup of His wrath was taken from the hand of the Jewish people and given to their most immediate enemies – the Proximal Islamic States surrounding them completely, and being so vehemently hostile to them at that time.
These were made to “drink” of the LORD’s Cup of Fury during all the years of the Second Restoration of Israel, culminating with their being destroyed by His fury at His Second Coming.
It was then transferred to the vast Gogian Host which then threatened Israel in the beginning days of Christ’s Commonwealth – and that cohort was completely destroyed by the descending furies of God’s wrath, probably in one day (? Cf., Ezekiel 38: 14, 19), upon the mountains of Israel.
Thus was His Kingdom solidified and secured for all the world to see and accept – whether they like what they saw or not. The fact of His appearance and His Kingdom was thus made firm among the nations of the earth.
And now the Cup of Fury is handed to the Harlot and the Beast nations for their “swallowing down” – their utter consumption. This Cup of Fury now works its work upon still others who have incessantly resisted the commandments of Christ and His Father in matters of conduct and salvation!
Their destiny is the certainty of destruction from before His face, as symbolized by fire and brimstone, the smoke of their torment ascending up forever, for His judgments shall not be rescinded nor reversed.
Why is fire and brimstone used as a symbol here? Because it is realized by men and women as the most destructive agent known to men. The “fire” likely means lightening; the brimstone is burning sulfur – an agent nearly impossible to extinguish in its extreme combustibility.
But in actuality, death is fully as destructive. It merely appears and seems more benign.
It has long been realized that combustion is quite similar to the much slower, natural bodily decomposition of death. The uniquely repugnant, unique scent of the death of human tissue is largely due to the decomposition of the amino acids composing it.
But both combustion and decomposition may be described in medical terms as complete chemical oxidation of the tissues – both bringing the body of flesh back to the elemental components of its composition. It is the final, irreversible end of the process known as the Second Law of Thermodynamics, Entropy.
The symbol of fire is much more rapid and impressive than “mere” death.
Great Babylon’s devotees are entirely separate from Christ’s adherents, their destinies being the opposite poles of corruption and incorruption.
The worshippers of the Beast and his Image are turned aside unto the everlasting destruction of their flesh. But those of the Lamb are blessed with life everlasting and with His favor forever.
The Great Reward of Patience
Rev 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Rev 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.
Rev 14:14 And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
Rev 14:15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
Rev 14:16 And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
Rev 14:17 And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
Rev 14:18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
Rev 14:19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
Rev 14:20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
These pul words are a harbinger of the victory over sin in the earth – over sin, embodied in the transgressors and resisters to righteousness among men, and especially to the traders in lies and deception. The Beast, his Image, his Mark and his Number are signally defeated forever.
The symbolism of a thousand and six hundred furlongs is peculiar – the dimension of depth (to the horse bridles) being expressed by that of length (1600 furlongs) – two dissimilar measures.
This esoteric peculiarity has been the object of much study, so they will not be elaborated on further at this point. <HEL>
Revelation 15
This group of eight verses is preamble to what is now to come.
Its vision is panoramic as to its effect upon mankind and his failed, fleshly society.
It is summary of the last judgments of God upon the transgressors among men – upon those who were marked by the name and number of the Beast.
It chronicles the glorious triumph of those who had achieved victory over the beast – those who now are seen standing quietly and victoriously upon the sea of glass, an entirely pacified population of worshippers of God, equipped with the harps of God.
Their song of victory is compared with that of Moses, as composed and sung by him when the forces of Pharaoh were destroyed in the waters of the Red Sea. Exodus 15: 1-21.
But its chords are transcendent of such mortal victories, reflecting instead the intense and soaring spiritual victory of the Saints of God over the forces of darkness.
The procession of the Seven Vials gives the details of the victory of the Spirit over the Flesh …
Victory over the Beast
Rev 15:1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
The seven last plagues are symbolized as seven vials of His wrath now to be poured out upon the earth ...
The all-powerful Sons and Daughters of God – now secure in their destinies as symbolized by the utterly smooth “sea” of glass – now have achieved the victory over the Beast and his minions. Their harmonic song of victory recounts the details of their adventure, praising God and adoring His blessings upon them and His righteous judgment upon the earth of the day ...
The narrative that follows is attributed to them almost in retrospect. It is written almost as if they had stepped back in time from their achievement of immortality in the Kingdom age and performed these miraculous tasks of the executive advancement leading toward the Kingdom itself! It is a literary device which securely connects the Redeemed with the salient events of the end-time; of course they are not actually involved in the events as they occur.
Rev 15:2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
Rev 15:3 And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.
His consummate victory over the nations is the subject of their praise – and the administration of His righteousness their great joy!
Rev 15:4 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.
Rev 15:5 And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:
Rev 15:6 And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.
Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.
This 15th chapter is a summary preview of what is to come – a foreword in a sense. It is entirely sensible as to content – transparent to the mind of the Spirit, and profitable for enlightenment and exhortation of all those who are in His service.
All the coming events are necessary of fulfillment prior to any man “entering the temple” of the new Aion of righteousness.
Until they be overpast, both their realization of it and their inheritance of it are impossible; the evil course of Great Babylon and the hindrances which it appropriately represents must eventuate and expire; and the faithful must show themselves devoutly faithful during these troublesome times.
Now the reader shall peruse the details of how these final events shall be accomplished … <HEL>
Revelation 16
Until the time of the pouring out of the Seven Vials of Wrath, the Roman Catholic Church had had its way with men. Its priests were overlords, subservient to but also purveyors of the papal decrees, avid promoters and lurid executors of the Inquisition, unrestrained sellers of Indulgencies (licenses to commit sin), and deceivers of the people.
All this was severely disrupted by the singular violent uprising in one of the “Streets” of the City – France!
The French Revolution changed the world. It opened a new door to the world, in the giving of the Seven Vials of God’s wrath. The previous events covered in Revelation stretched from John’s time to the end of the 18th century. The student will now see the progression of the Vials and what they accomplished …
The Vials of the Wrath of God
These outpourings of God’s wrath no longer consist of ancient history. They depict events more proximate to our own times, and are times actually remembered by our recent forefathers.
The first Vial affects “the earth,” or Europe primarily, but it was felt worldwide as well.
The First Vial
Rev 16:1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
Rev 16:2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.
The target of this Vial is “the earth:” those who worshipped the Beast and were marked with his mark, and upon the adherents of Romanism (the Church).
The time of its fulfillment cannot be before the events introducing it, and grow out of the events of the Revolution; its date may be noted as 1792. Thus the Revolution itself cannot be the grievous ongoing sore of those who have the mark of the Beast; but it introduces this “sore.”
The effects of the revolutionary movements were felt widely – far beyond the borders of France. The “earth” is the human population of the lands. The grievous “sore” would drain their vitality and their resources just as does a bodily ulcer degrade the human body, and debilitate, infect, and hamper its activities.
In the oppression of the Church, other human institutions were elevated while some were greatly degraded.
Liberal ideals and principles became accepted and widespread.
They caused the most distress in Catholic countries – or most of West Europe.
The rebellious leaders went much further than had been advocated by the inciting writers such as Rousseau and Voltaire, both of whom had inflamed the Revolutionary movement.
The Revolution upset all Europe by deposing the “benevolent despots” who occupied positions of power in France, Russia, Sweden, Spain and Tuscany, and other states.
Fyffe, in A History of Modern Europe, p. 73 (quoted by Boulton, p. 130) writes: “After a momentary stimulus to freedom, it (the revolution) threw the nations themselves into reaction and apathy; it totally changed the spirit of the better governments, attaching to all liberal ideas the stigma of revolution, and identifying the work of authority with resistance to every kind of reform.”
Thus there came a general weakening of the old Roman form of government, draining the vitality as an ulcer would in a natural body.
The Second Vial
Rev 16:3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.
At first the revolutionary movement was established on land. But when France declared war on England other countries than France became involved. The sea became the necessary battleground. It extended the misery to a greater portion of the “sea,” a term which now must be extended beyond the Western Mediterranean, for Britain became the Master of the Seas of the world with victories over ...
1) The fleets of France and Spain off Cape St. Vincent;
2) The destruction of the Dutch (Batavian Republic) fleet at Camperdown;
3) The victory of the Nile, or Aboukir;
4) The seizure of Malta by England;
5) The destruction of the Danish fleet at Copenhagen; and
6) The final victory at Trafalgar by Nelson.
It is easy to perceive that in these events, the seas became the curdled and clotted blood of dead men literally. Britain’s navy rapidly attained decisive supremacy over all others. And Napoleon was reduced to economic sanctions as his only recourse.
The Third Vial
Rev 16:4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
Rev 16:5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
Rev 16:6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
Rev 16:7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
The venue of this Vial turns to the rivers and fountains of waters, which became blood. The language is representative of the battles and skirmishes which now pervaded the areas around the “dome of Europe,” the Alps and highlands of Switzerland and Italy, where great rivers originate, lakes abound, and many nationalities – French, Russian, Sardinian, and Austrians took part in these conflicts, which claimed huge numbers of dead and wounded. The rivers and fountains thus became bloody as the forces of anarchy prevailed.
The Fourth Vial
Rev 16:8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
Rev 16:9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
The sun is the objective of this Vial. The sun is a symbol of the imperial power of the Roman Empire – the clothing of the Woman of chapter 12, and the subject of eclipse in the Fourth Trumpet. There is no reason to change the symbology here. The sun is the luminary of the natural heavens, and so represents the luminary of the political “heavens.”
That luminary was The Holy Roman Empire, beginning with Charlemagne in 800AD, and ending with its overthrow by Napoleon in 1806.
This specific personage who overthrew the HRE is nominated in the use of the pronoun, “him” to whom it was given to scorch men with fire.
Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Austria as an objective of his wars – Austria, which had become the “sun” of the Holy Roman Empire, displacing the Franks and Germans – and thus was fulfilled the prophecy of the Vial being poured out on the “sun.”
A detailed study of the Napoleonic Wars will be helpful to the student here, but is beyond our intention to discuss at this time.
The Fifth Vial
Rev 16:10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
Rev 16:11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their
sores, and repented not of their deeds.
The objective of this Vial is the “seat of the Beast,” or Rome – the Thronos (Greek for throne) to which the Dragon gave him his seat, and his power, and great authority (13:2).
The animosity between the pope and Napoleon is well documented; it was fierce at times. Napoleon imprisoned the pope on one occasion, and took the Papal States from his authority, deposing the pontiff as political head of the Vatican and as religious head of the Church.
The reader may consider this series of compromises and insults to the Vatican to have come to an end in 1870, when the Pope was removed from office, de-throned, and made superfluous to the societies of the world.
The Sixh Vial: Euphrates Dried Up
Rev 16:12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
The Euphrates River forms in eastern Turkey – in the highlands near Mount Ararat – and flows eastward and southward toward the Persian Gulf some 1,000 miles to the east. At this time in history it is occupied and controlled by the Ottoman Empire, which stretches from the gates of Vienna to the Persian Gulf and from the Balkans to southern Egypt and Libya.
The Euphrates power is a symbol for the Ottoman Turk, which had held all the Levant in its thrall for 400 years!
The statement of this one sentence addresses the long, dreary, drawn-out decline of the Ottoman desolator, who at that time also occupied the Holy Land, although this is not apparent from this passage. The astute student of Bible prophecy however, will make this certain connection with the O. T. prophets’ predictions.
This summary statement covers an acute era in which the Promised Land was freed from the control of the Ottomans, and opened for settlement by the Jewish people at the end of the Times of the Gentiles – the label placed upon that anniversary by the Lord Jesus in Luke 21:24.
Until that time, the Jews had been abandoned to the nations of the world by their Father in punishment for their rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ at His first coming. Micah 5 had proclaimed that the Almighty would “give them up” (abandon His People) for a certain time ... UNTIL the time when “she that travaileth” had given birth (to a new Israel). THEN (and only then) would and could “the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the (land of the) children of Israel.” These two time-markers clarify wonderfully the forecast so that after it came to pass it became an easily and certainly recognizable progression of His Plan for His People.
Thus it was now time for His people to begin to return home; it would be the second such recovery of the Jews – this time from all nations – as specified that they should be in Isaiah 11: 11, et seq.
The Revelation mentions only the kings of the east as subsequent occupiers of the desiccated “valley” of this river. Being the largest portion of its eastern holdings, the Euphrates valley is put for the Ottoman Empire itself, which in this abrupt change of circumstances lost its dominance and all influence in its eastern holdings; its forces were largely not destroyed but “came to his end with none to help,” and were forced back into the Anatolian peninsula (Asia Minor) where the Empire came to its final end under the reformer, Gemal Ataturk, who immediately set about re-forming the nation into the Turkish Republic.
But much more is implied by other references to the same event.
In Luke 21:29, Jesus bids the disciples consider “the Fig tree (Israel) and ALL the trees” (these, in our opinion, are the direct equivalents of the “kings of the east” of Revelation 16:12) – those nations which arose in concert with “Palestine” as it eventually morphed into “Israel” of those days: 1948.
But the process had inevitably begun with the liberation of Palestine (as it was then named) from the Ottomans, and the acquisition of the Levant by Great Britain and France, the victors over all the Central Powers in WW I. The great milepost of 1917 saw the end of the period known as “the times of the Gentiles,” utilized by Christ as He alluded to these important events of the latter day in Luke 21: 24, q.v.
And, unrecognized by many, it was also the end of the Last King of the North, for the Ottomans held this position without controversy. When the Ottomans “came to their end with none to help,” as Daniel’s prophecy had stated they should (cf., Daniel 11: 45), the era of this group of oppressors had finally ended.
The British Empire, backed by the official decree of the Balfour Declaration, took the Land of Palestine not for its own imperial advantage, but in order to establish an homeland for the Jewish People, as spelled out in its language, and made a part of the final peace agreement at San Remo, Italy, in 1922. Therefore, Britain did not become another “king of the south;” there is no further mention of such an entity.
That series had abruptly come to its end in these stark events of 1917!
In that sense alone it was entirely different from the extended series of conquerors of Palestine and adjacent lands by the long line of the Kings of the North and South of Daniel 11.
It is highly important for the student to realize that this was the fulfillment of a long-term prophecy that signaled a giant step forward in God’s eternal timetable, and His now concentration upon bringing His People home the second time (cf., Isaiah 11: 11) from “all nations,” and not just from Babylon (the first recovery).
The removal of the oppressive Ottomans and establishment of the British Mandate for Palestine made space for many other antagonistic new states in this now dried-up “valley” – not only the nation of Israel, but many other entities headed by the “kings” of the east, the Islamic polities which filled in the voided spaces of the great Valley (the eastern territories) of the Ottomans.
Given that the Revelation is not designed to explain or discuss those intimate details of the establishment of Zion in the end times, it is up to the reader to make the correlations which are appropriate, and integrate them into his understanding of the end-time events. We hope our readers will accept the above comments as an attempt to correlate these important facts.
The Frog Like Spirits
Rev 16:13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Rev 16:14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. N. B., this is a reference to Armageddon (vs. 16).
Rev 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
Because, as just stated, the Revelation does not concern itself with the details of the re-establishment of Israel and its internal struggles just after the Second Advent, these significant events are not part of the narrative at this time.
But the diligent student will be able to “fill in the gaps” of historical development of the Kingdom’s nascent character within the Promised Land: its survival against the “nations round about” for over 70 years and then its final victory over them in Phase One of its end-time wars, assisted by the sudden appearance of the Christ of the Second Advent accompanied by millions and millions of immortal Saints, all of Whom leap into the fray saving Israel from its enemies and those who hate them (Luke 1: 71, 74; Isaiah 59: 10-21).
After that initial conflict, the Gogian host “thinks an evil thought” and attacks from the lands beyond the Rivers ... and is utterly destroyed in one day (?). Phase Two.
Then comes the Phase Three wars of Israel (our label of these “phases” for convenience) – the War of Armageddon. It is a term that is not applicable to the past two Phases of the wars of Israel as the term is utilized ONLY in this upcoming account of the conflict of the Kingdom with the Church – in Europe, primarily.
Armageddon
Rev 16:16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
Our conviction is that the Sixth Vial period is presently in progress (in 2019). It shall lead inevitably to an event to be known as “Armageddon;” but that event is successor to the ‘decisions’ that are yet to be made in the Valleys of Jehoshaphat and that of Decision – that virtual depression in which the initial victories are to be achieved – which we anxiously await today...
“Armageddon’s” fulfillment shall have required several years to bear fruit. And given that the Revelation is a commentary upon the interface of Rome spiritual with Zion Spiritual, including the Second Advent with the Judgment of Saints, the Proximal Islamic debacle, and the Gogian affair – the present-day conflicts of the State of Israel – are not considered here; to do so would muddy the waters of understanding for the saints of the end time who are striving to understand this prophecy.
Those details are well delineated in great detail by the prophets of the Old Testament and are generally well understood today; many have been fulfilled.
We thoughtfully consider that the next verse leaps over all the details of the conflict within the Land Between the Rivers (the Promised Land) which we are experiencing today, and goes directly to that time when the “everlasting gospel” is proclaimed to the world, as the initiative of Christ and the Saints begins to spill over into the international scene.
The Lion of Judah is now leaving His lair and venturing out into the broader world with His Gospel message...
The first target, in our opinion, is that “Church” which has supplanted the Gospel of Christ, and changed the truth of God into a lie. It is the “meat” of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and continues the narrative which has so adequately described the previous events leading up to it, that are given by prophets such as Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Isaiah (especially) and many of the “minor” prophets.
Its account leaps forward from the events of the Valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3: 2, 12) events that are coeval with the Valley of Decision (Joel 3: 14).
In our opinion, these are terms specifically relating to the Promised Land and the conflicts which shall occur within its limits ... its boundaries being the defined limits of those valleys of conflict. It is there where the decision is finally determined in the eyes of the nations as to whom the Land belongs in perpetuity – and as a result, they shall know the Lord (meaning God’s People, Israel).
Now that that decision is clearly apparent, and these two conflicts (the defeats of the Proximal Islamic states and the Gogian confederacy) are settled in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the Revelator gives clarity, in our opinion, as to the divine continuation of His rapid expansion of His Kingdom to the world at large.
He names THAT specific coming conflict (series of conflicts) “Armageddon” (in the Hebrew tongue) in order to attach the identity to it as an extended DRIVING initiative – designed by, prosecuted by, and easily won by – an Hebrew of the Hebrews, the Lord Jesus Christ of the Second Advent. It will shortly be realized by those doomed adversaries that their kingdoms are being actively absorbed by the Kingdom of Jerusalem then in overdrive toward those universal acquisitions of the kingdoms of this world as in agreement with the diktat of Daniel 7: 27 q.v.
As such, this conflict is not just another in a long series of international human (Gentile) disagreements: it is the specific action of the (Hebrew) Master and Commander of the Lord’s Army to overcome the ungodliness of the worldly (Gentile) polities which are in conflict with His principles, His doctrines of salvation, and His plan for the fulfillment of His purpose with the entire earth.
Its character and objective is Hebrew as to origin and objective. It is a message to the remainder of the earth to begin thinking in Hebrew terms – in terms of the will and sovereignty of the newly arrived Hebrew Administrator and Executor of His Father’s Plan in the earth.
As such, ALL its participants are decidedly Hebrew as to identity. They are the Lion of Judah, divinely established successor of the Lamb of Bethlehem, Son of Mary and Son of David, and the millions of Redeemed Saints – heritors of the (Hebrew) promises anciently made to Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob (all Hebrews) – and to their Seed, the LORD Jesus Christ which was for to come (Isaiah 41: 22)...
That is the decided reason for designating this conflict alone as being “in the Hebrew tongue, ‘Armageddon.’”
Having said that, it becomes quite readily apparent to the mind of the spirit that NO PREVIOUS CONFLICT may be assigned the designation “Armageddon,” because the scriptures limit the term to that of the Kingdom of God versus the Kingdom of Rome – the precise context in which we find the account in the Apocalypse as dictated to John by the LORD Jesus Himself...
Perhaps some will find our conclusion too tightly defined; if so they betray their general attitude to have become the vapid conclusions of the sensationalist profiteers and film moguls of Hollywood, who have adapted the term loosely to any catastrophic event that occurs! They have no valid concept of “Armageddon” as such!
It is highly significant – and completely in agreement with our conclusions expressed above – that “Armageddon” now is played out in the detailed events that are now described by the Revelator – the coming of “Great Babylon ... to remembrance before God” and her ultimate destruction by the Lion of Judah and His Forces which fall upon the Image that at that time shall have reconstituted itself adequately for ready identification by those who are scripturally well schooled ... and fulfill perfectly the graphics of the text of Daniel 2:45 - Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
The destruction of the powers of the Image are to be so thoroughly destroyed as to be obliviated for eternity ... as a millstone dropped into the sea (Revelation 18: 21) specifically designated as the fate of “great Babylon” of that future day!
The Seventh Vial: Great Babylon Destroyed - Armageddon
Rev 16:17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
Rev 16:18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Rev 16:19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
Rev 16:20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Rev 16:21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
As Great Babylon (Rome) comes into remembrance before God (verse 19) the serial events of Armageddon begin to unfold. It is this conflict as named in the previous verse that is pointedly meant here: the judgment of the Great Whore: Armageddon! <>HEL Revised October 2020
Revelation 17
Judgment of the Great Whore
Rev 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
The following is a flash-back to inform readers of the detailed reasons for that Judgment:
Rev 17:2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
All the peoples of the earth – low and high, peasants to kings – have been deceived of the Whore. Her teachings and practices are stated as virtually universal; all her minions are blind to the Truth of God’s Word! The following sentences describe her in great detail …
Rev 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
The Beast with seven heads and ten horns is festooned with names of blasphemy – names of dishonor to God and His Plan – curses and vilification of the basest sort. Scarlet is the color of sin (Isaiah 1: 18). The Pope of Rome sits upon (rules over) the Beast, which is the remnant of the Holy Roman Empire of Medieval times. It (in our opinion, the European Community) has re-emerged progressively to assume its ancient character among the peoples and nations over which the Whore holds sway.
That leadership – that authority – shall be largely by default in our opinion, for what greater overall unifying factor does the European Union have than the papacy? It is and always has been the shadowy (and often not so shadowy!) power behind the national heads of the European powers, nearly all of which are strongly influence by or even governed by Christian Democrats (i.e. Catholic officers).
Now... note carefully how pin pointedly accurate the appurtenant ornaments of her status are exhibited by ROME – and specifically not by other agencies suggested by others, such as the nations of Islam – or worse still, the entity of Israel itself which has been implicated by some students who emphasize strongly the whoredoms of Israel of past time as proof of its identity.
Such might be a considered notion except that the Almighty has made a provision for the RETURN of Israel to Him as a faithful wife upon repentance: Jeremiah 3:20 - Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband (is divorced from him), so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.
Jer 3:21 A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.
But the Almighty is not a mere man; He has made gracious provision for the Return of His People to Him and for their healing...
Jer 3:22 Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.
Such realization renders foolish the presumption of mere mortals that Israel shall continue indefinitely as a woman put away who cannot return (for that is a provision of the Law of Moses – not of the New Covenant), and misplaces their suppositions that Israel cannot “return” unto Him and be forgiven ... and reinstated.
Such is the core purpose of God with His returned People, regardless of the inane suppositions of her critics and detractors who cannot perceive that level of divine forgiveness following the abject repentance and contrition depicted as displayed by the future Israeli populous which shall behold Him standing before them on the Mount of Olives, displaying His credentials – the nail prints in his hands and the wound in his side – and revealing Himself to them as their Savior and Redeemer – their true Messiah (cf., Zechariah 12 and 13).
Thus is destroyed the supposition of the Whore’s identity as “Israel” of the end-time. Those who suppose such shall find themselves on the wrong hand (the left hand) of His Judgment if they do not themselves repent and change their teachings ... their deepest held convictions as to Israel’s ‘eternal’ guilt!
Note how perfectly the symbols of her filthiness continue in perfect harmony with the outfitting – the livery and jewelry and apparel of the Roman system...
The Papal robes – and those of the “Cardinals” – are first described:
Rev 17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
The tawdry, flamboyant Harlot appears triumphant, sitting carelessly astride the Beast – confident and assured of her position of superiority. Her attire is fraught with costly stones and pearls as we know the garb of the priests of Rome and its Pope to be today. Wealth is abundantly visible in the Vatican and its environs. The enormous value of all Vatican properties is beyond any accurate evaluation; she is among the wealthiest nations on earth at the present time.
Purple is the color of Royalty – the very color of the robes of the Roman Emperors as defined in the phrase, that each “assumed the purple” (the robes) of the Imperial office.
But red or scarlet is the color of evil, and denotes a sinful constitution as well.
But there are further identifying marks. She is actually labeled with a defining logo upon her forehead, plainly written for all to see:
Rev 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
It is not a label of her own design, but that of the Revelator – her Judge and Jury – the living Savior who came to remove her from her lofty perch, and to disgrace and condemn her forever.
For many years, the word MYSTERY was emblazoned upon the diadem of the Popes for all to behold; it was removed from that triple-tiered papal crown at the suggestion of a counselor, as being just too blatant a reminder of the similarity to this description given John!
This small historical note merely militates for the certain, completely undeniable identification of the Whore with the Roman system and its chief officer, who has always been world-renowned for his commercial and political intercourse with the kings and merchants of the earth (or spiritual fornication).
The sentence is just, for her sins are profound.
These are summarized in the Lord’s next words to John …
Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration (or astonishment).
Her power, gone to her head, has rendered her senseless with delirium at her success in ridding her realm of all “heretics” and other truth-seekers by means of the rack and stake – or by their forced “conversion” to her evil plans and constitution.
She has successfully drawn away everyone except those in whose foreheads are sealed the Hope of Israel, indelibly inscribed there for all eternity and against all opposition – the faithful of every age and time.
Many of these have been her victims – not of “conversion” but of coercion – failed coercion, which resulted in many deaths and much martyrdom for those faithful ones.
Coerced by the Pope to give in to his authority and constitution, they steadfastly refused, and were often slaughtered by savage means for that election.
John registers his “admiration” of her – not approbation, but astonishment and bewilderment at her confident mien and exalted position among men.
Rev 17:7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
The Beast upon which she came to power was already, at the time of the prophecy, in existence.
What is his identity?
He is identified with every aspect of the pagan Roman Empire, out of which later grew the Holy Roman Empire, and then the Harlot power and office. The pagan Empire passed away, but the Beast continued in a (slightly) changed form as the image of the Beast, as illustrated in our discussion of this metamorphosis several chapters previously.
But further identification is forthcoming …
Rev 17:9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
Scriptural devotees have for centuries recognized these seven mountains as those upon which the city of Rome is situated – the famous “seven hills of Rome” of historical identity. And within the precincts of Rome is located Vatican City – a small enclave of less than one square mile, a bona fide political State, the Emperor of which is the Pope – the only monarch in history who has been both a head of state and head of a religion, so we understand! This concise feature of being situated upon seven hills is another brick in the mortar of identification of Rome as the Seat of the Harlot which sits astride the Beast of the end-time!
Rev 17:10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
Rev 17:11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
Even further identifying features are now given the student of God’s word. Verses 10 and 11 refer again to the kings represented in the Beast. The student will remember that the Imperial head was the Sixth Head – the sixth form of Roman governance over the Empire – and that it was replaced for a short time by the Seventh Head, which was revealed to be the Gothic.
With a change of regime, the Gothic was done away and the Sixth Head reinstated: the Imperial form of government (the sixth head) became also the Eighth Head.
This transaction stands as a perfect correlation to the facts of history. The pope of Rome is identifiable as such a despot within the realm of his influence; his diktat is absolute law, and cannot be contravened.
Rev 17:12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
Rev 17:13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
This description and account of the ten “horns” spans a long period of history. When the ten horns first appeared, they were as already delineated (see Chapters 12 and 13), the ten major divisions of the Roman (pagan) Empire at the time of Constantine.
At that time, three of them were dismissed by the Pope as a matter of historical record, on grounds that their dogma was Aryan, and they were summarily dissolved by him.
But the ten horns are symbolized in the end time by the ten toes of the Image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of Daniel 2 as well as in other references.
The Holy Roman Empire which succeeded the Roman Empire consisted of ten kingdoms. That inference is carried forward to the end time as symbolic of the territory of the Beast of the Earth – presently the European Community in our opinion.
At the beginning of the Treaty of Rome (1958) there were only a small number of countries included in the treaty; but as it grew, ten of the member nations were given the “power” to wage war by the Beast Corporate. We have published several articles concerning these in The Prophecy Letter in the past years.
These specific ten nations of the European Community were charged with making war (received power from the Beast) for a short period of years designated here as one hour; but then the power to make war was TAKEN AWAY from those nations and assumed by the entire Beast only decades ago!
We believe, therefore, that this specific prophecy has been fulfilled already, and indicates the palpable approach of the Time of the End of this dispensation.
Nowadays, all “these” (nations of the European Community – the entire Beast) will make war when war is to be made! Their destiny is the subject of the next verse …
Rev 17:14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
This is a graphic summary of the events which culminate in the victorious shout, “Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen …” for their opposing forces are the immortalized Saints of God, Who accompany Christ in the mission of sending forth the everlasting Gospel – the message which the Beast, at the instruction of the Whore, shall reject and resist, much to its later sorrow and remorse.
Rev 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
Rev 17:16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
The “waters,” consistent with earlier figures of speech in the Apocalypse, symbolize the populace of the European nations – the subjects of the Beast and the Harlot.
But the Beast is another entity altogether, decorated by ten “horns.”
These consist of the merchants of the earth embodied in the territories of the ten kings who serve the Harlot. These come to recognize her true character and to “hate the Whore.”
Their enlightenment is better late than never! They bewail her demise in a display of bittersweet lamentation at both her deceit and her ability to generate great riches for the merchants of the earth.
Their kingdom is given unto the Beast until the words (deeds) of the LORD removes him and releases them from his grasp and identity.
The demise of that System symbolized by and embodied in Rome shall then reach its termination under the aggression and dictates of Israel’s Messiah (what an embarrassment!) and pass away as thoroughly as a millstone cast into the depths of the sea!
Rev 17:17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
Rev 17:18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
This “seal” upon the identity of the City which reigneth over the kings of the earth, i.e., Rome, is the final epitaph of the demise of her glory and power.
Thus the final sentence upon Babylon the Great is divinely uttered: Babylon the Great is fallen! <HEL> Revised October 2020
Revelation 18
Babylon The Great is Fallen!
Rev 18:1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
Rev 18:2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
This doleful sentence is pronounced upon Babylon’s remains as she lies dying in the street of her city. Her destiny is here identical with that of ancient Babylon upon which her society and mores were modeled from old time – the rank paganism, the greed and pride of empire, the sumptuousness of great riches and raw power which she has expressed.
All these shall have been destroyed – cast unto the bats and the moles – to rust and canker – to death and dissolution – for all time.
And she shall never be remembered anymore, forever!
The basis for this judgment is stated once more for the record – and as stark testimony to the practice of their iniquity and blasphemy against God. Her duplicity has been astounding, and her punishment conclusive. Those duped by her sorceries repent in great sorrow for their having been deceived by her.
Rev 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
As in other passages in Bible prophecy, “all nations” here does not mean “all the nations of the world,” as some suppose – although this example comes closer to that meaning than any other of which we are aware. (We are thinking of Zechariah 14: 2 where the phrase “I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle,” but does not mean all the nations of the earth.)
It does mean all the nations “round about” the modern State of Israel, those nations which at that time “have fought against Jerusalem” (see Zechariah 14: 12: a limited, designated number of entities – cf. Psalm 83, of which this war would be the beginning episode in our studied opinion); for that verse and those immediately following it, refer to 1948-49 – the Israeli War of Independence – in which it fell out that Jerusalem for the first time in history, was only half-conquered by their enemies, and half left in the possession of the Jews who had won vast territories in this conflict over and above the territories awarded to a proposed “State of Israel” by the UN Partition Plan of 1947!
In its entire history of some thirty conquests, this eventuality has never happened to Jerusalem except on the occasion in 1948-49. That prophecy is therefore fulfilled!
But we have digressed...
Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
This command has obviously gone forth to her people prior to her destruction, for they are here given a final invitation to escape her corruption and her fate. Some of her number shall evidently recognize the direction which things are then taking, and remove themselves far from her spiritually, and move toward the ranks of those protected by and instructed by the Lord Jesus Christ and the Saints of God Who are with Him.
Zechariah 8: 23, q.v., indicates this humble admission by the people of the nations as a later development as well.
Rev 18:5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Humanly directed, this sort of revenge is forbidden to the present Saints of YHVH, but these victors are no longer in the state of fallible mortality; they are now the infallible executors of her sentence of death!
Rev 18:7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
Her queenly demeanor and luxurious life has been liberally supplied by the millions of poor souls whose treasure has long been drained by her in “penance” payments, in enforced “donations,” in the purchase of “Indulgencies,” and in demands of funds for “charity,” and have given her this regal existence, and her ability to consort with the kings of the earth. The result has been in the estimation of many, that the “Church” of today possesses physical wealth beyond calculation or comprehension!
Such confident arrogance is brought into remembrance in one day: and she shall be utterly burned with fire …
Rev 18:8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
Rev 18:9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
The conclusion of the Harlot’s demise is here indicated – we believe, in one calendar day. The Christ of the Second Advent shall waste no time with protracted warfare as do human leaders. His retribution shall be swift and immediate ... and consummate! – as it shall also have been in the case of the Gogian host of Ezekiel 38 and 39 (see Ezekiel 38: 19 in which a great earthquake is pictured; these events, in our opinion, are not protracted for even one whole day).
Shall the Harlot’s destruction also be this immediate? We believe it to be so.
As already noted, the kings of the earth and the merchants of the earth who have consorted with Great Babylon’s Harlot are struck with both remorse and amazement at her judgment. Their mournful cries are heard by means of worldwide television and print media.
Rev 18:10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
Rev 18:11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
Rev 18:12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,
Rev 18:13 And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.
If you counted these, we believe there are some twenty nine named commodities, the last of which is entirely different in nature from the other twenty eight – the souls (lives) of men. This “commodity” marks a false system which at one time could influence men even against their will to accept her dogmas; it speaks of a System which even today, trades the lives of men as in a slave market, coercing them to become slaves for the Church, and draining their pockets of even their small change; they are “milked” mercilessly for the wealth that each can bring to its coffers!
Forcible “conversion,” as an historically common Church practice, did nothing except devote the gold and silver of the “converted one” to Mother Church. It confers no intelligence or devotion to its principles, and no benefit whatever to the recipient of “conversion.”
Such is the “merchandise” of the lives of men and women!
Rev 18:14 And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.
Rev 18:15 The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,
Rev 18:16 And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
Rev 18:17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
Rev 18:18 And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!
Rev 18:19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
Thus is ended the saga of Romanism and her great pretensions; her ability to entice and beguile the teeming peoples of her domain has reached its terminal point – it sinks below the billows of the Great Sea – destitute, devoured, and devoted to the consumptive fires of Hades (the grave) forever as finally as a millstone cast into the depth of the sea, never to be seen nor heard from again! Cf., verse 21.
Rejoicing Over Her Demise in "Heaven"
The reaction of the heavenly (elevated, immortalized) Ones Who have effected the great victory is diametrically opposed to these worldly laments …
The vengeance of our God against Great Babylon has been purposeful in this violent consequence; He is avenging His righteous anger, the blood which was shed by Babylon’s persecution of His people throughout past ages, the individual believers in Christ – the true saints.
Rev 18:20 Rejoice over her (her destruction), thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
Rev 18:21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
Rev 18:22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters (all marks of high honor – of homage to the Church leaders and their head, the pope), shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone (the industry of construction, and of grinding grain: in other words, daily activities of life. These are forever terminated for her) shall be heard no more at all in thee;
Rev 18:23 And the light of a candle (picture here any “altar” of the Church, always festooned with lighted candles in memory of perhaps a loved one who is said by the Church to be “in purgatory” awaiting the deliverance of prayers (and money))shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
Rev 18:24 And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.
So it is in this cataclysmic manner that the Church of Rome has her vile career ended forever. Her sorceries and spiritual intercourse with all peoples is terminated – is cut off and utterly destroyed.
The millstone’s heavy and rapid descent into the depths of the bottomless ocean signifies her permanent demise. For in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.
But now her guilt shall have been expiated by her extinction from the realms of humanity; her minions are either converted to God’s way or destroyed; her riches are turned to the treasury of the Christ of Zion, much in the manner that the Egyptians were spoiled by the Hebrews of the Exodus and that wealth placed in the nation’s treasury!
Her presence and influence, having been exhaustively and terminally shattered by the Lion of Judah, is directly to be replaced by His ways and concepts, which have been proclaimed already among men: Fear God, and give glory to Him! Revelation 14:6. <HEL>\]]
Revelation 19
Alleluia!
The narrative given John here – after verse 5 – moves back to a time previous to the above, for the events of most of this chapter are precursor to the judgment of Great Babylon as shown by verses 19-21.
It is a depiction of the preparation of the Saints for the task at hand.
Please note, also, that their involvement with the People of Israel in conflict with their Proximal neighbors is entirely omitted; that series of conflicts is wholly separate from this completion of His goal of cleansing the remainder of the earth after He shall have cleansed His Land between the Rivers and the Seas.
The scene shifts to the moment only a short time after the Judgment of the Saints has been rendered by their Judge. They shall have appeared before Him to “receive the things done in their bodies whether good or bad” as in 2Corinthians 5:10 .... For them to have been judged “worthy” of immortality and to have been instrumental in punishing the Roman System, their passing through this process is necessary to have occurred already.
Their rejoicing is thankful and heartfelt …
Rev 19:1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven (persons now occupying the station of immortality – highly elevated above mortality), saying, Alleluia (meaning, Praise ye Jah!); Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:
Rev 19:2 For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.
Rev 19:3 And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.
Rev 19:4 And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.
Rev 19:5 And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.
The necessity of the next portion of the narrative having taken place is also true; after their being raised to immortality from mortality (as in the twinkling of an eye) they immediately celebrate the Marriage with the Lamb as Bride and Bridegroom – thus becoming eternally united in One Purpose, One Nature, and One Life.
The Marriage of the Lamb
Rev 19:6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
This is the collective voice of the Saints, thankfully praising God for His mercy and compassion upon them – for saving them from death while admitting their dire NEED to be thus saved (for none is truly worthy of life).
Their homage is to their Master, here styled the Lamb of God, for it was the sacrifice of that Lamb which brought it all about, and made it possible for them to inherit a greatly extended life!
Rev 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
The multitudinous Bride in perfect harmony humbly cries glory and honor to His name, for it was his honorable service and life which redeemed them all. By following Him, the Saints have made themselves ready – even in their imperfection, have purified and sanctified themselves to His service – so that now they may be united with Him forever in glorious bodies and perfect spirits, never again to see corruption at all.
The fine, white linen is symbolic of the Saints’ collective righteousness, and a visible token of their faithful obedience to Him. At the same time, they soberly realize that the “righteousness” which is conferred upon them individually is HIS righteousness which He has conveyed to them, naming it upon them in irreversible terms as a result of the promise He had made to them.
This process of imputation of righteousness is illustrated in Paul’s dissertation in Romans 4, where he considers the faith of Abraham being counted to him for righteousness (verse 9), and pointedly illustrated in verses 21, 22, thereby clarifying this compassionate principle.
The same “righteousness” is imputed to true believers of His word.
Rev 19:8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
Rev 19:9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
Rev 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
We take this statement to mean that Jesus Christ was the greatest of the prophets – even greater than John Immerser – and eternally holds this position before His Father. His words eventuated perfectly in the redemptive conditions which He foretold, and toward which His entire life was leveled.
A description of Him and His Saints, now immortal, is next given … and their mission stated as He and They both embark upon their end-time activities which are now in the narrative about to begin.
To repeat a principle: the Apocalypse is concerned with the transactions between Christ and Rome; it is not concerned with the conflicts of Israel with its enemies, either Proximal or Distal (the Arabs round about or the Gogian Confederacy), but with the War of Armageddon – that vast conflagration directed against the Whore of Babylon and her institutions.
Yet, the narrative that follows easily comprehends those earlier conflicts as well, as its language is not exclusive to Rome and its defeat.
The apostle now beholds an army in “heaven,” a concept of which the ministers of Christendom make great significance, believing it to refer to the literal heaven of God’s throne.
It refers to no such thing. It does refer to the elevated nature and position of these future Rulers of the earth – these ones whose mundane lives have been lifted up to the rank of immortality with the Lamb. In that prominence their preparation is outlined …
Rev 19:11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
Rev 19:12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
Rev 19:13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
Rev 19:14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
Note carefully here the use of the phrase “in heaven.” As already noted, these immortal Beings are not in the literal heavens – never have been, and never will be. Their reward is that of faithful Abraham and his Seed, which is Christ – their returned Master who has appeared in the end-time to present the Kingdom which He has “prepared” while at His Father’s right hand (in heaven, bodily). That kingdom was “prepared” in a place to which He told His apostles, Whither I go, ye cannot come, but that He would return unto them so that where He was (then) they also could be!”
Isaiah 40:10 and 62:11 state this principle in another set of phrases, in Isaiah 62: 11, that, Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
His “work” is to establish the praise and glory of His Father in THE EARTH – a “work” not necessary in heaven, for there it cannot be otherwise!
His mission and works are now outlined – descriptive of the activities to be undertaken and accomplished by Him in that future day …
Note that the only weapon which He needs is the “sharp sword” of His mouth – or Speech! Therefore, it is the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. Ephesians 6: 17.
Rev 19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Rev 19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
Rev 19:17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;
This invitation is much the same as that issued to such creatures at the time of the invasion of the Land by Gog and his hosts. They also had been given a great banquet of the flesh of unworthy men and horses to devour.
But it is not the same feast. This feast is much broader in its scope, involving many more enemies upon a far wider ground of destruction.
In this war, we behold the last significant resistance to Him from those infidels of the earth, for the universal Church’s influence runs deeper and wider than any other influence upon the earth!
Its minions will not give up easily, nor surrender willingly to an upstart Jewish king, self-appointed at that, and to them, arrogantly demanding their fealty to Him.
Their resistance shall be fatal.
Rev 19:18 That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
Rev 19:19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
Rev 19:20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Rev 19:21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
In these sparse but glorious phrases is described the subjection of the earth to His will and purpose. Doubtlessly there shall be an extended time of activity before universal peace is established. The narrative now summarizes the end point of the Millennial Reign of Christ, in our opinion, while recounting an important interval leading up to the end-time. <HEL>
Revelation 20
The author of this series of comments presents here the “traditional” acceptance of this chapter as taught for over 150 years, with a disclaimer...
Portions of it are untenable for reasons later given, so please do not receive this explanation as the author’s current convictions; it is presented only for historical context. There is clear scriptural proof available that is contrary to some of the statements presented in this immediate commentary, which will show the unworkability of this explanation.
We shall counter this presentation by citation of an inserted paper that depicts a far superior interpretation of the bulk of the chapter. It is a study written by W. R. Tanner, and is inserted at the end of this short discussion.
Sin Bound a Thousand Years: the Seventh Millennium
Rev 20:1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
N.B. This verse (5) is highlighted because it is spurious by the estimation of almost all commentators; it was retained in the Diaglott by Benjamin Wilson, its editor and publisher, for a particular reason to be addressed later.
Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog (note this certain event-marker, which is a one-time occurrence; it cannot be fulfilled twice, so the preceding events must be related to our earlier scriptural conclusions about it. In other words, does the war of Gog and Magog occur at the END of the Millennial Reign of Christ...or of some other era?), to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Here the terms Gog and Magog are used, it has been claimed by some, to typify the resistance which shall have developed (to our amazement!) during His Millennial Kingdom against His regency over the earth – according to this earlier view. But there is a much more workable (and scriptural) interpretation, which see below.
The inherent sin-nature of man will “out,” it has been said, and will be manifested in what appears to be a final revolt against His authority, according to that explanation.
It is claimed by some to be an event which defines and identifies all the remaining resistance of Man to God, and will provide the occasion for the final expiation of sin, thus cleansing the earth unto infinite time.
But there is great difficulty with the flow of the text in striving to prove that thesis.
After this time, Christ shall give up the kingdom to the Father, and all shall be subject to Him forever.
The narrative continues...
Rev 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10 And the devil (the sin-principle – diabolos – that pervades human nature, causing them to sin) that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Here is clearly signified the utter destruction of the three principal deceivers of mankind. Diabolos (sin nature of man) is the primary source, and has brought forth the adverse elements represented by the Beast and the False Prophet. These are defined by the Apostle John as “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” in I John 2: 6.
All three are summarily pictured as destroyed in the symbolic flames of Hades, and of necessity, meaning the termination forever of all three. In this action, death itself – and the grave – are subjected to Him and are destroyed. Only life and divine things remain on the now purified earth...
The Great White Throne: Final Judgment
Rev 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away (these are obviously not the physical earth and heavens, but symbolize the high and low powers of the earth: those who rule and those who are ruled over); and there was found no place for them (all become submissive to Him).
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
This narrative depicts the judgment at the end of the Millennium, when the mortals who were taught God’s way, and lived and died during that age, are raised from the dead and judged.
For there shall be a great multitude of these fortunate folk (fortunate to have lived under the personal administration of righteousness of the King of Israel).
Yet a number even of these opportune folk shall have not lived according to His concepts and are in the end, rejected – turned aside to die forever outside the pale of His favor.
And since the Millennial period of purification of the earth is at an end, we suspect that these rejected by Him at that time are put to death in some manner by Him – for there shall be no future era of mortality for them to live out their lives in the now purified earth, and to die in as a natural consequence. Mortality is about to be abolished by the destruction of all that is adverse to God and His ways...and the kingdom of His Son.
After this time, death and the grave are finished; they have consumed their last victims and now have no cause for further existence.
In this sense these identities (principles) ALSO are cast into the lake of fire – that is, utterly destroyed and abandoned forever.
This account does not mention those who are approved at this judgment scene – only that all were judged and that the instruments of the demise of the failed souls (death and the grave) are destroyed once they are employed for the final time.
The implication is of course that the approved ones are at that time awarded immortality and enter in through the gates into the Kingdom of God upon the earth!
In this manner is brought to perfection and to completion the New Jerusalem – the creation of the new heaven and new earth – the creation of God (Revelation 3:14) of which the Lord Jesus Christ was the first fruit.
That glorious Creation shall then have superseded the Old Creation. Its appearance and constituent parts are described in the symbolic language we have learned to respect.
A Better Consideration of
the Thousand Year Binding of Satan
The above discussion is one of the traditional views of Revelation 20. But there are contradictions inherent in that explanation. I here inject a short treatise on the chapter authored by Wayne Tanner of Bulverde, Texas, which he forwarded to me in late 2014. Here it is …
THE BINDING OF SATAN
(Revelation 20th Chapter)
THE TRADITIONAL VIEW OF REVELATION CHAPTER TWENTY
The traditional view regarding the 20th Chapter of Revelation for far more than a century, contradicts much of God's truth that is set forth throughout the Scripture. The traditional view holds that the 1000 years of the kingdom; and the 1000 years of the binding of Satan are synonymous...and conterminous.
We hope to demonstrate that such a view is contradictory, and denies much of Bible truth.
For instance, the traditional view espouses the position that as the kingdom of God begins, sin in the flesh is bound for the 1000 years of the kingdom of God [i.e., the Millennial Kingdom].
It is also believed that near the end of the 1000 years of the kingdom, sin in the flesh is released, bringing war and destruction once again over the entire earth. It is believed that the rebellion ends with fire and brimstone falling upon the rebelling multitudes, putting them all to death.
The reader should take particular notice that Revelation 20: 7 does not say, "near the end of the 1000 years." Instead, it clearly declares, "When it is finished."
The trouble with that [traditional] view is that it contradicts some beautiful prophecies regarding the development of the kingdom age and eternity following it.
Let us examine a few of those prophecies of the peace and righteousness beginning with the establishment of the kingdom of God.
Isaiah 9: 6-7 - "Of the increase (the Hebrew term is marbeh, meaning abundance) of his government and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David ..."
Comment: If there is any time after the kingdom has begun, and Jesus has ascended the throne of David (having subdued all his enemies and those of the Kingdom of Christ) that there is war and turmoil, this prophecy is rendered null and void.
The prophecy declares no end of peace will ever happen after Jesus ascends to his throne and He has established His authority in the earth.
A rebellion after the thousand years of the reign of Jesus would absolutely be an end to the abundance of his government and peace, a thing which the passage says will never happen.
Do we believe God? If so, we must allow our beliefs to demonstrate that fact.
Isaiah 60: 18 - "Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; thou shalt call thy walls salvation, and thy gates praise."
Comment: If there is a rebellion against Jesus and the saints with enemies numbering as the sand of the sea (Revelation 20: 8), and a battle breaks out between the immortal saints and the rebels, with the saints raining fire and brimstone upon those enemies, numbering as the "sand of the sea" killing them all, has Isaiah 60: 18 been fulfilled as the passage promises?
The answer is "No!" It represents a complete failure to deliver what God promised He would accomplish. We must not espouse such an error.
Psalm 72:3, 5: The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills by righteousness.... Verse 5 – “They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure."
Comment: If the time comes when people cease to fear (have reverential awe for him), the promise has failed completely and there will be no more sun or moon. To deny these truths is to deny the glorious truth of God.
Isaiah 2:2-6; Micah 4: 1-3: "And it shall come to pass in the last days ... many people shall go and say ... come let us go up to the house of the Lord .... He shall judge among the nations ... and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."
Comment: Anyone subscribing to the traditional view is willing to hold views that contradict God's plain truths. These truths declare that once the kingdom is fully established, violence and war will no longer occur. Also, those who subscribe to the traditional view believe and contend that the kingdom age will end with the widest instance of war and violence ever known during the six thousand years of the history of man. We repudiate that belief...
Revelation 20: 7 reads: "And when the thousand years are finished (expired) Satan shall be loosed out of his prison..."
Comment: The Greek word for “finished,” teleo is translated "expired" in verse 7. That word speaks only of something that has completely come to an end; something that is then in the past.
If the 1000 year binding of Satan is synonymous (identical) with the 1000 year kingdom of God (the Millennial Kingdom), we have an insurmountable problem, for the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 15: 24-28 wrote in verse 24, "Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God."
Therefore, we must realize, such a rebellion would not be against Jesus and the saints, but against God, who will by that time have received the kingdom completely unto Himself. In verse 25, Paul declares by inspiration, "Jesus must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet." How could that be possible, for in verse 25 Paul says that by then "there is no more death?"
Therefore dear readers, what have we here? What we have is the worst misunderstanding and wresting of God's word to be found anywhere on the earth. At a time when truth tells us the kingdom has ended, and there is not an enemy left on earth anywhere, and death is no more, that enemies rebel against the kingdom of God, and are killed at a time when death no longer exists upon the earth. What an unbelievable contradiction!
A TREATISE CONSISTENT WITH ALL OF GOD'S REVELATION
Revelation 20: 2 contains the essential, identifying statement: “the dragon, that old serpent, who is the Devil and Satan." Nowhere in the Bible does this phrase identify "sin in the flesh." All (Believers) immediately recognize in Revelation 12: 7, that pagan Rome is identified by that exact phrase. In fact, the believers of the truth of the Bible have always known that in Revelation 12: 7, pagan Rome is identified by the phrase “the dragon," that old "serpent" called the "Devil" and "Satan."
Why then, can it not be seen that when the same phrase is encountered in the 20th chapter that we are dealing with the same agency, not with something entirely different?
Revelation 12 is dealing with the time of Constantine, around 312 to 324 A.D. as pagan Rome and pseudo Christianity fought with each other for control of the Roman Empire.
Revelation 20: 2 deals with events regarding the same two agencies two hundrd years later – just after 500 A. D. (Story of the Christian Church, by Hurlbut, pp. 83-85).
The term, "dragon" often has been understood to refer to the (Roman) military (See Apocalpse Epitomized, p. 155, dealing with Revelation 12th chapter). That agrees with Encyclopedia Britannica. It should be known that the Roman army carried at its forefront a large banner displaying the form of a "dragon."
Therefore, when a person encounters that term "dragon" in Revelation, the [pagan Roman] military is in view. Both paganism and pseudo-Christianity sent their military forces against the others' as the battles raged. The term "serpent" defines the lying feature of pagan doctrines, as God's truth was challenged, as it was by the serpent in Genesis chapter three, while the term "Devil" Greek (“diabolos") means to strike through, a term which defines the destructive ability of paganism as it sought to destroy opposing religious entities.
The same agency is in view in Revelation 12 and Revelation 20, at two different times. In fact, in Ephesians 6: 12 the apostle Paul remarks to the Ecclesia that they "were not wrestling against flesh and blood as much as against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." The greatest enemy they had to fear was governments whose religion was not God's truth – governments which had dominion over them and who sought to extinguish the truth – including governments such as Vatican City!
The book, Story Of The Christian Church by Hurlbut, published by Zondervan Publishing House, is vital in following the history of this matter, and has been used for years by this writer in carefully verifying events that fulfilled these prophesies.
Rev. 20: 1: “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.” Scripture depicts anone, mortal or immortal, righteous or unrighteous, who fills the purpose of God, as an "angel" (messenger) of God. Inasmuch as Constantine and his successors carried out the purpose of God, they are depicted as having "come down from heaven," meaning that God sent his spirit from heaven to cause them to come into existence and to do his will, much as was said of John the Baptist in John 1: 6. [They were the “angels” or agents which brought about this condition of affairs.]
Verse 2: "And he (the angel of verse 1 – i.e., Constantine, and others) laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.
Verse 3: “And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.”
"That he should deceive the nations no more..." describes an action which he was doing in Revelation 12: 7-9 – an action which was brought to its end by the Christian rebellion against it.
Comment: Pages 73-75 of The Story of the Christian Church, by Hurlbut, relates the history of the victory of Constantine as he dethroned Paganism from the throne of Rome and set up Christianity as the state religion. However, at the bottom of page 75, Hurlbut relates that Constantine "was tolerant and allowed pagan worship to continue;” therefore, paganism was not yet bound at that point, for pagan worship continued in the empire for a season. [And Satan was not yet “bound.”]
On pages 84-85, the book states that the successors of Constantine were not as tolerant as he had been. We quote the following from the bottom of page 84 to the top of page 85: "Not long after Constantine's reign his son ordered to [upon] all worshippers of idols the penalty of death, and confiscation of their property. The enforcement of these repressive laws varied greatly in different portions of the empire; but their effect was that heathenism (Roman paganism) entirely passed away in the course of three or four generations."
A generation is about fifty years. It speaks of the duration of the ability to bear children. Four generations amounts to two hundred years. Constantine dethroned paganism in 312 A.D. and it was later outlawed (See The Story of The Christian Church, pages 83 - 85).
Therefore, at around 500 A. D., pagan worship was outlawed and bound completely.
Revelation 20: 2-3 declares that it was to be bound for 1000 years.
Therefore, we must look for something [an event] around 1500 A. D. in order to discover the "loosing of the dragon, that old serpent called the devil and Satan" (paganism).
We do find it in 1517.
On page 152 of The Story of the Christian Church, we read: "The exact date fixed by historians as the beginning of the Great Reformation is October 31, 1517. On the morning of that day Martin Luther nailed to the oaken door of the Wittenberg Cathedral a parchment containing Ninety-Five Theses, or statements, nearly all relating to the sale of Indulgences, but in their application striking at the authority of the pope and the priesthood.
“The rulers of the church vainly endeavored to cajole Luther, but he stood firm, and the storm only made him more resolute in his opposition to doctrines and practices not countenanced by Holy Scripture."
The result of Martin Luther's efforts was that Catholicism could no longer prevent the existence of any form of religious opposition to exist.
Those decrees opened a new door of entry for loose living and license of other sorts. From that date, Paganism was allowed to recover, and become a reality again. [The dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan was loosed again upon the world!], In addition to that, many other forms of anti-Christ beliefs and practices came into existence.
In other words, Catholicism earlier had dethroned and finally bound “paganism.” For one thousand years, Catholicism kept it “bound.”
But then a great change was begun: Martin Luther's Reformation broke down the ability of the Catholic Church to prevent any other than itself from becoming a fact, and as a result, every form of "-ism" began to come forth, including paganism, which today has filled the earth and, as a result, the nations are now ready for the great day of battle.
Revelation 20: 4: "And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and who had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."
Comment: Many have thought that these thrones are thrones being sat upon [occupied] by the servants of God. However, the scene greatly resembles the events under the fifth seal in Revelation. 6: 9-11 where we see saints refusing to deny the word of God; this continued for some time afterwards. They were put to death and told to rest a little season, a season that has not yet [in our own day] come to an end. [Their faithfulness to God’s Way is indicated by the words referring to their destiny: “they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years,” those years being the years of His Millennial reign.]
The beast and his image did not develop until 800 A. D. , and afterward; no one could refuse to worship the beast and his image, until they [again] came into existence.
Charlemagne and the papacy (Revelation 13: 11-18) constituted that beast (the empire) and his image (the papacy). The papacy was an image of an empire in that it was given a territory, the pope was its ruler and there were many subjects over whom to rule. Therefore, it was like an empire itself. The pope was both head of state and head of government...
Verse 5: “The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. "
Comment: This verse is omitted by many authorities (and should be omitted). The Diaglott retained it because Benjamin Wilson [the editor/publisher of the Diaglott] believed in immortal emergence [of the dead from their graves] and this was the only verse in Scripture which seemed to separate the resurrection of the just and the unjust by 1000 years. John Thomas and he separated over that question, and the booklet Anastasis came into existence resulting from that controversy.
Since Revelation 20: 4 shows the beheading of saints because of their refusing to worship the beast and his image, the period of time after 800 A.D. is emphasized. Therefore, "the rest of the dead" would refer to anyone dying who did not live contemporary with, or before the beast and his image.
The apostles and the early ecclesial believers did not die because they refused to worship the beast and the image, for these did not yet exist. All the dead of the O.T. did not die because they refused to worship the beast and his image, for again, the advent of these conditions was yet future. If Revelation 20: 5 were authentic, none of them (those O.T. and N. T. believers) would rise until after the 1000 years of the kingdom age if, as many falsely believe, the kingdom and the binding of Satan are synonymous.
Yet, those early believers are all promised blessings during the 1000 years of the Kingdom of God. This demonstrates what the meddling and additions of men to God's word can do to the beauty and harmony of God's truth. Of course, verse 5 has no authority. It is not part of God's word.
Verse 6: “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”
Verses 7, 8: "And when the thousand years are ended, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison .... And shall go forth to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea."
Comment: The Greek term teleo is rendered "ended" in Revelation 20: 7 (sometimes the term is translated "finished”). The term always refers to something that has run its full course and is a thing of the past. If both the thousand years of the kingdom, and the thousand years of the "binding of Satan" is meant here, then the 1,000 year progress of the Kingdom [of Christ] is over and it has been delivered up to God (I Corinthians 15: 24-28).
According to Paul, at that time there is no longer a single enemy remaining on the entire earth. Even death, the last enemy, shall be no more after that time.
Are we to understand that "friends" rebel against the kingdom – since there are no enemies left?
Who are the rebels against the kingdom?
And who are killed by fire and brimstone at a time when there is no longer any death?
What contradiction such a false idea places against the truth of God! Such an understanding makes God's Revelation contradict the inspired word that God gave to the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 15: 24-28.
This all proves that God's revelation is emphasizing a time prior to the kingdom age as Gog and Magog and others come against God's people Israel (Ezekiel 38, 39; Revelation 20: 8, 9).
There are two separate one-thousand-year periods in Revelation 20th chapter.
One is the thousand years of the binding of Satan (paganism) from around 500 A. D. to 1517 A. D. and the other is the thousand years of the reign of Jesus and the saints. No other explanation holds an ounce of logic.
Martin Luther's Reformation resulted in the reawakening of Paganism which the Church of Rome had outlawed on pain of death a thousand years earlier. It has gone forth again since the year 1517 and has again filled the earth, gathering the nations together for battle, which is an event that looms just ahead of us in the world today.
Revelation 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. 10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
These details correlate entirely with the details of the destruction of Gog contained in the 38th and 39th of Ezekiel.
Revelation 20: 11: And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away..."
Comment: All the events of this narrative and on to the end of the chapter occur just prior to the establishment of the kingdom of God on the earth. It is the present heavens and earth (the kingdoms of men) that disappear from before the coming of Jesus (Revelation 11: 15).
Mistaken Bible students place all of this at the end of the thousand years of the kingdom of God. These passages instead are fulfilled just before the kingdom of God is established.
Consider this!
If verse 11 [comes to pass] at the end of the kingdom age, Jesus and the saints have by then (by the end of the kingdom age) constituted the new heavens for a thousand years.
Why would they flee from whoever is on the "great white throne" at the end of the kingdom? The traditional view of this chapter contains no logic.
It is the "heavens and earth" which are now that disappears from view as Jesus comes and sits on his throne of judgment, after which he and his saints begin to judge all people who then reside upon the earth (Revelation 5: 8-10; Psalm 149: 7-9).
In that day and forever after, there will be one Lord and his name one. (Zechariah 14: 9).
<Wayne R. Tanner, Bulverde, Texas, November, 2014.>
Revelation 21
New Heaven and New Earth: New Jerusalem
Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
This allusion to a Bride is a clear signal that the Holy City is a vast group of people who are then commissioned to inhabit the earth forever as a fitting complement to the Bridegroom Who shall have brought them to this place.
The place they inhabit is the new earth – the domain of God’s initial promise to a man of Ur of Chaldea, the Land between the Rivers – who He selected to receive the promise of faith primarily, but in his Seed (Christ) to include all the lands and seas of the earth … forever.
And as to “seas” note that there IS no more sea. This means that the teeming, tossing, turbulent, wayward multitudes of Adamic mankind are no more!
He tabernacles with them – or dwells among them – forever.
By this accomplishment, he brings to pass His great promise to be with you (faithful followers) to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20) … and beyond, to infinity, as here stated.
Rev 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Rev 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Rev 21:5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
This promise to make all things new is a statement of confirmation of the new Creation of which Jesus Christ is the Beginning, and the Creator.
His role as Creator of this New Creation is stated earlier, in Revelation 3: 14, where He is defined as the beginning of the creation of God – or the first of the New Order which He was destined to create; it shall be a renovation or renewal of the first, a creation sullied by Adam’s transgression, now brought back to a condition of refinement and elegance which surpasses the first in both quality and permanence.
Rev 21:6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
Rev 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
Those who are “athirst” shall drink from the fountain of the water of life freely; but note carefully in the next verse (7) that their qualification is “he that overcometh.” A life of lazy indolence in Christ will not yield salvation; being “athirst” induces obedience and deep faith, both of which are required for one to be an overcomer – and an inheritor of all things!
Rev 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
This list of eight infractions or failures of mankind is comprehensive – and fatal to each practitioner of these sins. All such are doomed to eternal death in the “fire” that utterly consumes them, and removes them from the presence of the Lamb.
Those remaining are the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife, in the sentence that follows:
Rev 21:9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
Now, the apostle is shown a great city which represents the Lamb’s wife – a mixed metaphor whose implications are certainly profitable to observe.
Rev 21:10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, (Note that by direct reference, this City IS (represents) the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife.)
Rev 21:11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
Rev 21:12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
Rev 21:13 On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.
Rev 21:14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
We believe we see in these gates and foundations a reflection of the four and twenty elders – the twelve Tribes and the twelve Apostles of the LORD, embodied in whom are all the promises and expectations of the righteous of all ages.
Rev 21:15 And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.
Why is this measuring stick termed a “golden reed?” It is, we believe, because the measurements arrived at by its standards are DIVINE specifications, godly standards of perfection and permanence.
Rev 21:16 And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.
The length, breadth and height being uniform, the city is a giant cube measuring 12,000 furlongs in each dimension. A furlong is the Greek stadion, meaning a distance of 202 English yards. In literal measure, this yields a distance of about 1,400 miles in each dimension if the measurements were literal.
Rev 21:17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.
Rev 21:18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.
The stated quality of this city attains a quality not known to man, for no gold is known of a quality as to be “like unto clear glass,” or transparent. This City is therefore transcendent – of quality far beyond mortal comprehension or realization.
Rev 21:19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;
Rev 21:20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.
These twelve precious stones are analogous to the twelve stones of the High Priest’s breastplate, but only those underlined above are also included in the Breastplate. Further study may reveal just why the discrepancies – or whether some of the stones are the same but simply called different names – a subject for further investigation.
Rev 21:21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
Rev 21:22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
Rev 21:23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
These words bring our attention to the return of Shekinah to the House of the Lord as foretold in Ezekiel 43:4 - And the glory (the kabod) of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.
This illustrates the restoration of God’s bright presence with His people. As Shekinah had hovered, cloistered and was hidden to all but the High Priest above the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies of Solomon’s Temple, so the Shekinah of God – His holy Son and King – shall tabernacle among His people in open manifestation for all his brethren – every one now a priest-king, and therefore privileged to behold Shekinah.
His glory shall be the eternal light of it, and the manifestation of its eternal blessings and power to conquer sin and death!
Rev 21:24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
Seeing His great glory manifested in all the earth – having brought all human will to bow before Him in obedience – the former kings of the earth willingly surrender their sovereignty to the occupant of the Throne of David and all nations pass away by being dissolved and incorporated into the Kingdom of the Christ.
Rev 21:25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
The certain message of this statement is that the Shekinah of God shall never again be extinguished or removed as it was at its first appearance and manifestation. The people there present shall not repeat the mistakes of their predecessors – the error of refusing this bright Star of Jacob. Instead, they shall vigorously honor Him … an action reflective of the deletion of the nations’ former glory and surrender of such to the King of kings
Rev 21:26 And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.
Rev 21:27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.
At this juncture, those written in the Lamb’s Book of Life are the only remaining inhabitants of the City. No defilement of any kind shall ever be seen there, and no feature that disappoints or saddens the King. <HEL>
Revelation 22
Finally, the scenes now depicted illustrate that the pristine character of the original Garden of Eden shall have been restored in the earth, including every feature of it except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The Tree of Life is there in multiple manifestations as the Wood of Life, lining the shores of the beautiful river of the water of life, which proceeds from the throne of God and the Lamb.
There is no more curse, but only blessing and supreme happiness.
Rev 22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Rev 22:2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life (or wood of life), which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Rev 22:3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
Rev 22:4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.
Rev 22:5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
Here we should note that in the New Creation, there is only LIGHT, and NO darkness, whereas prior to the original, physical creation, there was NO light, and ONLY darkness. Genesis 1:1.
These opposite states underline the universal reversal of the rudimentary heavens and earth, and their conversion by Christ Jesus into the New Heavens and the New Earth!
Rev 22:6 And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
Note that these words repeat the concepts of Revelation 1:1, in which the same terminology was employed. The progression of the events of the Apocalypse were to begin immediately and proceed to this end time of perfection out of chaos – of infinite value from all worth having been forfeited.
Rev 22:7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
In the realization that this statement, “Behold, I come quickly,” we observe what some might fail to understand as eminently true.
When does any Believer perceive the “coming” of Christ? – or actually observe Him to have “come” to them? It is when they physically observe or perceive His presence – His reality, and when that observation works a decisive change within those individuals, causing them to seek Him and His glory in zeal and with continuing fortitude (faith).
This ultimate result of this compelling event is reserved for the time of their resurrection, when we shall see Him as He is, or personally, as depicted by the Apostle John, in 1John 3:2 - Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
How, then, may He claim to “come quickly?”
Is it not because our sensible perception of Him is foreshortened throughout all the period of our sleep in Christ – our dissolution in the grave, be it only a few years or millennia – that consciousness is dormant, and is insensible to us, and that when we arise in the resurrection it shall be as but a short period of sleep in the night?
It is our conception that at the moment of the death of each saint of God, that his next, immediate realization shall be that of being not “dead” at all, but now immediately IN THE PRESENCE OF THE RETURNED CHRIST, and to have been in the grave only momentarily, or not at all.
In our understanding it shall be tantamount to being passed through a closed door into another room beyond – a space in which all things are become new – where new realities confront the covenanted ones whether their lives have been lived in a worthy manner or not; there they shall behold the Christ of the Second Advent, their promised Kinsman Redeemer, their elder Brother in the faith, the Judge of all the (responsible) dead, and giver of immortality to the faithful whose names have not been blotted out of the Book of Life that He holds in His hands – and out of which He determines their service to Him as either faithful or unfaithful.
For the gentleness and utter peace of this benevolent gift of complete, deep, insensible surgical anesthesia, as induced by death, the covenanted of God’s people can be supremely grateful – appreciating the freedom from any dreaded periods of limbo such as should be incurred by the belief of purgatory and its uncertainly, or of the eternal torments of the fires of an everlasting burning hell.
So it is superbly verifiable by these gracious words, that “I come quickly” is a stark reality in the sensibilities of the dead in Christ.
Rev 22:8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
Rev 22:9 Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.
Rev 22:10 And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.
Here again is verification: the time is at hand. Of these prophecies it is claimed that they should begin to be fulfilled immediately at the time of their giving. It is information that annuls any consideration that these events had already been fulfilled (the view held by Preterits) or that they all lie at the end time (the view held by Futurists); but it is confirmation of the prophecies’ continuous and progressive fulfillment in a septiform, telescopically-arranged pattern.
We see in the Apocalypse, repeated several times in order to illustrate fully the essential factors which would bear upon the salvation of the LORD and the Plan of His Son to bring all these preparations to fruition, progression of sometimes precarious and uncertain events resulting in the development and the perfection of the Kingdom – to the ultimate glory of God and His Beloved Son, the LORD, Jesus Christ.
The highest level of conditions for each participant are thus set in motion for eternity, with no further adjustment of those conditions in the offing.
The Plan of God shall have reached its interim conclusion at this time – “interim” we claim because our conception of events to follow these during the infinite ages yet to come are at this present time completely unknown even to the faithful.
But the beloved and now perfected Sons and Daughters of God may be sure of this one concept ... that their continuing service during the infinite ages ahead shall be eminently satisfactory to their sense of fulfillment and reward for the inconsequent time of hardship and privation that during their mortality they may have been required to suffer for His sake, that these shall have not been worthy to be compared to the joy that lies before them (Romans 8: 18).
Rev 22:11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
Rev 22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
Note again these important words which we have already marked and stressed: He is coming “quickly” in the sense that He “comes” to each believing man and woman when their lives are finished, and they are brought down into the dust of death. Their probation has expired; their destiny is sealed for each one, and will be made manifest when all are resurrected at the same future time.
They are resurrected on the earth. He has RETURNED to earth, bringing with Him the Kingdom which He has prepared for them by guiding each of their individual lives of service to Him – and bestows life upon them at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
His reward of infinite life and happiness is “with Him” and shall be conferred upon the faithful BY Him when He returns.
Rev 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Rev 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
These words evoke our memory of the sad declension of human affairs at the beginning – at the time when Adam and his wife forfeited the “very good” things of Eden for the bitterness of transgression by giving way to their desire to be more like Him.
In this highly desired outcome, that dream reaches its ultimate reality within the framework of His terms ... His Plan of redemption ... and redounds to HIS glory (not that of mankind) forever!
Rev 22:15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
Rev 22:16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
His Final Invitation
Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Rev 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Of all His admonitions, these special words of caution incur severe penalties upon those who would corrupt or change the meaning or the surety of these words of the LORD Jesus which were given to the Apostle John on the dreary, desolate, penal island of Patmos, isolated as it is, and surrounded by the dark waters of the Aegean Sea.
In a sense, Patmos was a safe-haven for the persecuted John, sufficiently separated from Asia by troubled and dangerous waters to protect him from the lions of revenge and retribution to holders of Truth, in adversity to the paganism of Rome, under whose laws John lived.
But in the most pungent sense, the testimonies of Jesus Christ intruded upon and over-rode those temporal rules of men; John’s adherence to their majesty and authority brought to him the deliverance from death which lies in fealty to the Master, Who he heard and recorded in this magnificent Apocalypse of Him and of His will for men and nations.
Rev 22:20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Rev 22:21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this glorious and powerful account given by the mouth of the Lord Jesus Himself, is revealed the summary iteration of the principal and terminal events which open the way back to the Tree of Life as it originally stood in the midst of the Garden of Eden.
Its benefits are now yet available to all peoples; the will of the Almighty One shall be done in all the earth. Shall we be there? By our present conduct and demeanor, by our commitment to Him and our faith, we indeed “make the answer now.”
There shall in that day be no more tears – no more death or pain; and no memory of all the terrible precursory trials of men and women leading to this blessed time!
<HEL 7N, 2O> ~56,000 words.
Note: These notes were finished as written during late March to August, 2019.
But no such compendium of study notes is ever actually “finished,” for further study will surely bring forth myriads of new associations and profitable connections with the remainder of the Word of God. We shall, God willing, continue its study when time and energy are available.
H. E. Lafferty, Western Maryland, USA