Seven Angels [part two] ...

The message of John continues as he reveals a series of proclamations by seven angels who deliver them at the end of time.  In our prior study we learned that they begin with a message of world-wide importance, the gospel or redemption of Christ is here.  Its relevance is even more important because the hour is late, and the final disposition of evil in the world is soon to be at its end.  Those who embrace through submission the gift of Christ, are to be made free from the evil that lives within them.  Those who refuse this gift, are left to struggle and fail against their own evil natures, a battle against the slavery of self-service that without Christ, simply cannot be won.  The second angel delivers the sad lament, that the great city of Babylon has fallen, has fallen.  What was once hoped to be the pinnacle of social order, prosperity, and enlightenment, has become corrupted by greed and avarice and is now fallen.  These two proclamations find extraordinary relevance to us, in our day, in our nation.  They proclaim to us the importance of freedom from evil that only Christ can bring.  And they open our eyes, that our nation, and perhaps even our corporate church structures, have fallen from what they once were.  We are not to be blinded by living looking backwards at former glory, but instead we are to look forward to the fullness of Christ in us.

Now, the next proclamation is to be revealed.  This one will carry even more weight to us, than it perhaps did to the readers in John’s day.  John continues in chapter 14 of his book of Revelations of Jesus Christ in verse 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, [verse 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 with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:”  First we must note that the emergence of the mark of the beast, does not occur until after the third beast has been identified.  Worship of a false beast, or of anything outside of Christ, has long been a problem for mankind.  So in that sense, it is possible to have seen a fulfillment of this warning in any age.  However, there is special significance to the placement of mark of the third beast in the forehead or in the hand, and with respect to the timing of this proclamation.  It all occurs AFTER the emergence of the third beast.

The reception of the mark of the third beast can occur in our foreheads.  How we think, what we want, what we declare, what motivates us, are aspects of who we are.  They form the basis of our identity as individuals.  To sacrifice our service to Christ, in order to maintain our prosperity, is to reveal our identity as unaligned with heaven.  It is this challenge to our identity that the mark of the beast is intended to reveal.  Should we choose worldly expediency over the freedom within us Christ offers, we declare we are followers of the beast and the dragon behind him.  The intent is to “force us” into this declaration.  Should we steadfastly adhere to Christ, and refuse to deny him, the beast intends to deny us commerce of any kind.  We will not be allowed to buy or sell until we give up our voluntary, but sworn allegiance to Christ.  We are to be starved to death, excluded from prosperity, cast out of jobs, homes, and relationships, until we submit ourselves to the beast.  Or so are his intentions.

But the reception of the mark of the third beast can also occur in our hands.  What we do, how we act, the results of who we are, are revealed by our lives.  We do in essence what we want.  This is why our desires and thoughts and motives are so important.  It is why the freedom of Christ, is not found in our actions first, but rather in our hearts first.  When we sin, it is because we continue to desire to sin in our hearts.  We still “want” things we should not want.  We therefore “do” things we should not do.  The actions reveal the heart, even if they do not define it.  If our identity as followers of Christ is revealed to be false, it will be seen in what our hands find to do.  The journey towards perfection is not an instant one.  Along the road, we fall because we have not learned to fully trust, and fully submit.  Our human nature recoils at the idea of “giving up” some indulgence we have long fostered.  But over time we begin to see that what Christ wants for us, is actually better than anything we wanted for ourselves.  What He does, He does within us, changing who we are from the inside out.

After that kind of transformation, our hands remain a clear indicator of our hearts.  The difference is that after the transformation by Christ of who we are, of what we want – what we do is something different.  Many believers in the end of time will be content to never declare against Christ with their mouths, but will be equally content to never submit and be changed either.  While their lips will never deny Him, their hearts will.  Thus their hands will reveal their true disposition, and their true identity.  They follow Christ with their mouths, but are not interested in having their lives altered to follow Him with their hearts.  Despite a lack of declaration, they follow the beast without even knowing it.  They live self-deceived that they are Christians, blinded to the hate for others in their words and deeds.  They are not in harmony with the law of God, because at its core serving self precludes us from harmony with a law based on serving others.  In this condition our hands become the revelation that we have assumed the mark of the beast.  It is the worst of all worlds.  Still forbidden to conduct commerce, and persecuted for a lack of public declaration, but neither are they made free from sin within them, for a lack of submission to Christ.  To exist in this state of misery, it will not be long before the lips begin to echo what the hands already state.

Whether through open declaration, or through actions that reveal our choice, the rejection of the gospel of Christ has the same results.  It leaves us slaves to ourselves.  It leaves us servants of the beast.  It leaves us in a state of perpetual hunger, where good is just never quite good enough.  When the heart hungers to please itself, there is no end to the hole it must fill.  Drug addicts can never seem to get enough drugs to be “happy”.  The rich and powerful can never seem to get enough wealth to make them “happy”.  Those who seek sexual fulfillment can never seem to find enough of it, to make them “happy”.  Our sins of self-service reveal the fundamental flaw in the arguments of Satan; nothing will ever truly make us happy in his systems, because they are not designed to do so.  To abandon self-service and choose to love only others, is the way of God, not of His enemy.  So to divert away from the perfect fulfillment God offers leads to only one other course, misery and eventually a longing for death to see the misery end.

The wine of the wrath of God, is simply when God ceases to intervene to spare us from the consequences of our own actions and choices.  When it is poured out without mixture, or dilution, into the cup of His indignation, we are left completely unshielded from the course we have embraced.  The love of God, for even those who steadfastly choose to remain His enemy, has long kept these erring ones from bearing the full weight and consequences of the evil they do.  At the time of the end, when the mark of the third beast comes into existence, when the forced choice and compulsion of conscience becomes the norm – it is then when the removal of the protections of God even upon the wicked will be withdrawn.  God’s indignation at our refusal to accept His love, and instead continue to choose pain and death, will have exhausted His patience.  Those who have consistently through words or deeds blasphemed His name and trampled on His love, will now feel the full effects of the choice they have made.  The final attempt by the enemy and beast to compel the conscience on a worldwide basis will be the last act permitted in his constant series of attacks.  It will be this final challenge to our identities, that will end the patience of God with evil in this world.

Finally, the ultimate disposition of evil, is to be cleansed with fire before the Lamb, and the angels at the end of all things.  There is to be no further redemption or reclamation at that point.  What is done is done.  What has been chosen is to be respected for all eternity.  Those who have chosen to submit to Christ and be transformed by Him, will remain “holy still”.  Those who have refused the love of God, and freedom He offers, are to have their choices respected too – and put to rest in final fires for all time.  John continues in verse 11 … “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. [verse 12] Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”  The final penalty is to be a permanent one, bearing permanent consequences.  The smoke, or evidence of the consumption of evil, and the torment which evil inevitably brings, is to rise up forever and ever.  Those who meet the final fires are to exist no more for all eternity.  They are to become consumed in these fires, nothing left of the evil and torment of their lives, but the residual smoke seen rising in the aftermath.  This is the final disposition discussed several times in His book of Revelations.

However, the warning is not just about avoiding the final disposition of evil.  Heaven is not merely a fire escape.  Those who worship the beast and his image, those who have taken the mark of the third beast into the heads or hands, are to have no rest neither day or night from the choices they have made.  Long before the final fires, the way of the enemy is not one of luxury and ease.  He sells them that way.  But even those of means find, there is only emptiness and stress.  Our anxiety flows from worry that we will not maintain what we have amassed, nor obtain the next level of wealth we seek.  The stress of never being content, never being secure, never having enough, will plague those who are permitted to conduct commerce for their sworn allegiance to the beast and his image.  Sleep is lost to worry.  Lives are lost to hearts failing for fear and stress.  Rest is lost altogether, for none can be taken without the trust in God required to enjoy it.  Neither during the day, when we focus our efforts at work to obtain that next goal; or at night when we try to unwind from the day filling our minds with distractions and meaningless indulgences – do we ever find real rest or relaxation.  Stress is ever present.  The ways of those who accept the mark of the third beast, who deny their identities as followers of Christ, are ways of want, hunger, pain, and a longing for death.

The acquiescence to the power of the state, and its ideas of legislated morality, do not bring rest (as promised), but rather only increased stress.  Despite our continued ability to conduct commerce and avoid a physical death (in theory), the stress of filling a hunger that cannot be filled is something that can never go away.  Death is its only release.  Torment is not something reserved for the physical pain of final all-consuming fires, it is the condition we find ourselves already in when we refuse to accept the gift of relief that Jesus Christ alone can bring.  It was He who said to come to Him and find rest.  Those who adopt the mark of the third beast, are in so doing, moving as far from Christ as possible.  Therefore they are moving as far from rest as possible.  The revelation of John was intended to bring all this to our attention NOW, before we find ourselves having taken on this dreaded mark.  It was to make us see, that our lives under the system and slavery of the beast constitute nothing short of torment NOW.  Forget the final fires that will eternally purge evil from the universe, we should be seeking that purge today within us.  To be freed from evil here while still living is the message of good news of the gospel of love.

It is in this context that John declares “here are the patience of the saints”.  It is our steadfast faith in Jesus Christ alone as the sole source of our salvation that sees us transformed to be in harmony with His laws, and enable us to keep them, perfectly serving others and not ourselves.  Here is where rest is found.  Here is where stress is thrown out the window of our lives.  Here is where a trust in God replaces our anxiety about keeping and growing “our stuff” with a peace we have yet to experience.   Contentment replaces hunger.  Rest replaces stress.  Peace replaces anxiety.  These are the gifts He so longs to give us in the here and now.  There is no reason to wait to see this enacted in us.  The patience of the saints is revealed in our recognition this process may take time, but its results are eternal and worthy, and the reason we can worship and bow ONLY to Him who offered them to us.  Our gratitude to Christ for what He does within us, cannot be made to be silent.  We cannot deny Him either with words, or with what our hands find to do, because our hearts are in pure sympathy with Christ.  We begin to love like He loves, without pre-condition, or limitation of any kind.  And this love changes us, and the entire world we encounter.  For it is His love, reflected through us.

John concludes the message of the third angel in verse 13 as he reveals … “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.”  Comfort and hope are to be offered to those who face the perils of the enemy in these last days.  Earthly death is not to be dreaded by those who have found Jesus Christ.  Instead we are to consider it a form of blessing.  To rest in the graves, in the full assurance of transformations begun or finished within us before that time, is to be unaware of the blink of an eye in which time is no longer relevant to us.  One thought ends, the next begins, and the nanosecond between them could encompass the years between our physical demise, and our physical reawakening at the last trump of God in His resurrection calling.  We already know what death is like, we practice it every night when we sleep.  Time passes briefly and we awake in the morning refreshed and ready to begin the day.  Death is quite literally the same thing.  We would have reason to fear Death, if there was to be no morning on the other side of it, nothing to awaken to after the passage of time.  But the entirety of the gospel is presented to destroy this lie, and reveal the truth of a God who intended life to be forever.  For those who sleep the sleep of death in Christ, the morning is going to be the greatest one of their lives.  The awakening they are destined to experience will be like none other.  It is for this reason, we are to have both hope and comfort.  For literally nothing can forever separate us from the love of God, not even our physical demise in this world of pain.

Then John adds the icing on the cake.  Not only do we sleep resting in the assurance of our own salvation founded in Jesus Christ.  But our labors follow us.  The works of love we have done in selfless service to others, the “seeming” sacrifices we made for another, the unconditional love we showed to those in need – these all bear a harvest we could not imagine.  Our broken-tool-lives utilized by God in the united mission for the redemption of mankind are going to bear fruit through the power and blessing of His Holy Spirit.  What follows us into His kingdom are the fruits of love we planted while still living in this world of pain.  There is no higher calling.  There is no greater reward.  Not all the eons of time we spend in a life with so much joy we cannot describe it, will equal the value of seeing just one more person there with us to share it with us, because of the love of Christ we reflected unto them.  Indeed the true treasure of humanity, is found in the redemption of humanity.  The value of just one, is so infinite, and so precious, and so unique, and so irreplaceable, that nothing will ever matter to us more in the light of eternity, than to see just one there to share it with us.

This is why Christ would have come, lived, and died just for you and only you, if you alone were all who would have accepted His gift.  Just to have you in heaven with Him, was enough for Him to be willing to die to see just You there.  Praise be to God, that you, and perhaps many like you, will be willing to accept that gift.  Praise further, that He would so honor us, as to reflect His love through us, and thus make us tools in the mission of the redemption of mankind.  We will share His joy, at the redemption of just one more soul.  We will learn to value each person we encounter with the precious individuality of the love of God, for just that person.  This is another revelation of Jesus Christ made in the writings of John.  He reveals how precious each of us is to Jesus Christ.  He reveals that this work of redemption is the ONLY thing that matters.  Our deaths in this world are inconsequential to the accomplishments we can make living only one day under the transforming power of Jesus Christ in our lives.  Here is the patience of the saints.  Here are they who keep the commandments of God, through the transforming power of faith in Jesus Christ alone as the sole source of our salvation.  Lives like this, are the only ones worth living. 

But the work and messages of this group of seven angels were not over yet …

 

Messages to the Church Revealed (Philadelphia) ...

The sixth church out of the seven that comprised the whole of those who follow Christ, was located in the city of Philadelphia in Asia Minor.  Many people are aware of the city’s name being associated with “the love of one’s brother”.  This began historically as it was established by an ancient king who gave it to the brother he loved and would succeed him in his reign.  But throughout the message of Christ in the book John recorded in Revelations chapter 3, there is no reference to this characteristic being associated with the Christian church there.  Because “we” associate brotherly love with the name Philadelphia, we imply it to this Christian church.  But there really is no specific mention of it in Revelations that would cement this point of view.  There is also significant debate about the time period associated with the Philadelphia church.  It is generally thought that it occurs near the end of the reformation, perhaps in the middle of the 1800’s; but when it ends, or even if it ends, is still a matter of study.  Some believe it overlaps with Laodicea and extends to the return of Christ, others believe only the final church period exists at that time.  None the less, what matters is the revelation of Jesus Christ that is made clear in His message to His church which was located in Philadelphia, and what relevance that same message has to us reading it today.

John begins in verse 7 to relay what he hears … “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;”  It is important to realize the author of the coming message remains Jesus Christ.  The only one who was ever holy in our world was Jesus Christ.  The only one who remains ever true (or is truth itself) is Jesus Christ.  This message did not originate from the apostle John, or Peter, or any leader of the church.  As in the past 5 messages, Jesus begins by identifying traits about Himself that will be relevant and meaningful to the church He is about to address.  In this case, it is His holiness, and His truth.  But the introduction does not end there.  It is Christ who has “the key of David”.  It is Christ who is able to “open and no man shutteth” or Christ who alone can “shutteth and no man openeth”.  This distinction is important.  As with his other churches, Christ is asserting His leadership of His followers.  He has NOT delegated these roles to any man among us.  We have NOT been given this authority or responsibility.  Christ alone retains it.  Christ is the rock upon which His church is to be built.

There are way too many “spiritual leaders” of every sect who believe themselves to have authority in both this world and in heaven.  From the Pope, to the popular evangelist, to the leader of the megachurch on TV, to the local pastor; many believe themselves to have authority in this world and in heaven.  They believe themselves to have a special relationship, with special access, and a special role with respect to God.  But here is Christ saying that only He has the key of David.  It has not been given to men.  Christ alone has the authority, the leadership, the access to His Father – it is He alone who can open the doors to heaven, or to close them, for He alone holds the keys.  As if for clarity, John relays the message of Jesus, that we should not look to men for leadership of our salvation, but to Christ alone.  Our role will be one of servant, not one of leader, whether we serve only a few in our homes and communities, or whether we serve many through our participation in His ministry and service.  Christ alone will be our leader, He alone will hold the key to heaven, and to our salvation.

John continues in verse 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.”  This is not exactly a stunning endorsement of the success of the church of Philadelphia.  As before, Christ plainly states that He is aware of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and what works have resulted in the church of Philadelphia.  And in association with those works, He immediately reveals He has set before them, an open door that no man can shut.  Apparently what the church of Philadelphia needs most is access to Him and His Father.  We need His word to point us to Him, and we need the ability to find Him unimpeded by the distractions of men, who might otherwise close the door.  The condition of the followers of Philadelphia is that they have “a little strength” in that they have “kept my word” and have not “denied my name”. 

To keep the word of Christ is derived from the “little strength” we may have.  Perhaps we have discovered that even a partial surrender of our will to Christ, allows in our lives a small measure of His strength.  How much better we would be if we were to allow a full surrender of our will, to see a full measure of His strength within us.  To hold fast to the name of Christ, is more than a false profession, but a genuine recognition of our need of Him to save us from who we are.  It appears that while Philadelphia is not perfect, nor incredibly strong, they have at least experienced a small measure of strength in Christ.  They have not attempted to use grace as a license to sin, but rather have attempted to use grace as an escape from sin.  This is the power of the name of Christ used in our lived.  It is the basis of our salvation, and is every bit as needed today as it was when this message was penned.

John continues in verse 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.”  This is where the key of David becomes important.  There are those who claim to have access to God, by a means outside of Jesus Christ.  They claim that Jesus is not necessary for access to God.  They have access by right of birth, through a lineage that dates back to David, or Moses, or Abraham.  Today they may claim a different lineage, one that makes Jesus nothing more than a prophet, like Muhammed, and a lineage that traces back to Abraham through Ismael, or Esau.  Those who claim access to God, either through a competing ideology such as humanism, or by right of birth through a lineage that dates back to Abraham, have disassociated themselves with Jesus Christ, and in so doing are here revealed as being part of the synagogue of Satan.  When we divorce ourselves from Jesus Christ as the author of our salvation, when we trust only to our own wisdom, we adopt the precepts of the synagogue of Satan.  Claiming a heritage of association with God does not make it so.  Because our parents were devoted followers of Christ does not make it so for us. 

One of the ideas, made popular by His enemy, is that prosperity alone is the only symbol of the favor of God.  Because the Lord so loved His Jewish people, because He loved Moses, and Abraham, and David, He richly blessed them, even in this world.  This blessing was only ever a symbol of His love for us.  It was never intended to be “the” living witness of His favor.  But we sometimes misinterpret wealth as the only sure sign of God’s blessing and favor in our lives.  We forget, He is often the author of our trials as well.  He permits trial and temptation to enter our lives, and instructs us to rely on Him when it does.  This builds our trust in Him, our reliance on Him, and can make of us gold tried in a fire.  But when the bad things happen, we sometimes interpret them as did Job of old.  “what did we do wrong?”  “Aren’t we doing what you said?”  “Why do bad things happen to good people?”.  Those who do not rightly understand salvation, who embrace false ideologies, look at our lives and laugh.  They taunt us and try our faith by pointing out that we do not have wealth and ease, and obviously are living in the disfavor of our God, if there even is a God.  This false sense of identification of worldly wealth, with the favor of God, must be broken.  And so the True author of our salvation, and of the only access to the True God, will cause these members of the synagogue of Satan to see that followers of Christ were truly loved by both Christ and our God.

When through our submission to Christ, we find the freedom that comes from seeing sins removed.  When we find the peace that comes from “wanting” to love and serve others, for the joy of it.  When we truly learn how to love, not with thoughts of what is in for us, but what can be given by us to others.  Our lives will be lives worth living.  They will stand in contrast with the selfishness in the world.  They will be a reflection of His light, His grace, and His love and favor.  To this stark contrast, those who trust only to self, will see the error of their ways.  They will be compelled to see that a true follower of Christ has found a salvation that is meaningful even in the here and now.  Perfection comes ahead of the final transformation, and the peace of living with sin departing is one the world cannot take away.  Those who do not know the truth of this will see it lived in the lives of those who do.

John continues in verse 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.”  The goal of Christ is to see us redeemed.  All of us.  His mission is one of our redemption.  He delays His return, because of His stubborn love for us, and His efforts to make every attempt to save us from ourselves by the power of His so great love.  The members of Philadelphia understand that this may mean a delay in His return, but that His patience will yield a crop of souls in His Kingdom.  They do not lose heart at the delay of the coming of the Lord, for they understand His delay is for our own benefit.  He is reaching and seeking every lost soul, to try to lure them back to the gift He so longs to give them, and to us. 

Because the members of Philadelphia understand the reason for His delay, He offers them the promise of being spared from the hour of temptation which will come upon all the world to try them that dwell on the earth.  This temptation is ever as it was.  From the origination of evil being born into the universe, the only real question has ever been … do we trust God, or in our own wisdom.  Lucifer failed this test as he chose to turn away from God and believe in himself.  Evil was born as a result.  Adam broke trust with God, even in perfection, as he chose to love Eve, more than to trust in the love of God to save Eve.  You and I face the same challenge today, will we trust in our wisdom in scripture and doctrine to save us, or will we trust in Jesus Christ to remake us a new in this world.  The members of Philadelphia who understand the patience of the Lord in His delay in returning, do so, because they have already answered this question for themselves, and have embraced Jesus as the sole source of their salvation.  Therefore they are spared the hour of temptation because they already know it is Christ alone who can save us all from ourselves and our wickedness.

Jesus continues His message to us as John writes further in verse 11 … “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.”  Despite what we see, or what Philadelphia sees as a delay in His return, from the point of view of Jesus, He is coming quickly.  It is faster than we may imagine.  And once again we are admonished not to allow any “man” to take our crown.  We are not to put our faith in the words of others, or in the leadership of others, but in Christ alone.  We are not to relinquish our salvation to the Pope, or Billy Graham, or Joel Osteen, or our local pastor, or our parents.  We are to keep our salvation steadfastly based alone in Jesus Christ.  It is trusting in Christ alone that will see us saved.  When we replace Christ, even when it is with those we perceive to be living a righteous life, or seem to have great spiritual enlightenment, we allow another “man” to take our crown.  We must remain steadfast in our reliance on Christ alone to see His gift of the crown of our salvation remain with us.  Crowns of victory are to be GIVEN to us by Jesus Christ.  They do not come from our fellow man.  They do not come because we earn them.  They are His gift to us.  They are His victories wrought in our lives.  We are to be the beneficiaries of His perfection remade in us.

The promise continues in verse 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.”  What must be overcome then?  A trust in self, a trust in those who believe themselves to hold the Key of David instead of Christ alone, an impatience to see Christ come now so that our suffering alone can end, the idea that access to God can be achieved outside of Christ;  all these ideas must be overcome through our constant submission of our will to Christ alone.  When through our submission we find His victory, we are promised to be made “a pillar in the temple of my God”.  This idea of permanence would have been quite meaningful to a people who suffered through the effects of earthquakes in the region in which they lived.  It is equally meaningful to us, as we see we are promised a permanence in the ministry of our God, a place in the mission of redemption to which all of heaven is engaged. 

Then the promise gets extreme.  For it says … “he shall go no more out”.  Our faith, given to us by Christ, will be shaken no more.  We will not choose to leave the temple of my God.  We will see evil rise no second time within us.  For our salvation will be made complete by the working of the Holy Spirit and the gift of our Creator in our lives, to see us restored and remade completely in His image.  We will never again choose to leave the value, the principles, the government, the law, and the love of God.  We will not decide again to see it questioned in us; for we shall “go no more out”.  We, through the gift of Christ, will be cemented in the salvation He brings to our lives.  And symbolically our identity is to be changed again.  We are to have written upon us, the name of my God, the name of the city of my God (which is new Jerusalem), and my new name.  We are to be branded, to be named, to be associated with, on a very personal level – the God of the universe and His son Jesus Christ.  How we are known is to be altered by Christ Himself.  We are to lose our earthly name, and our earthly association and be known now, only as He would choose to name us.  We are to have His name, the name of His God, and His city, implanted so deep in us that it is a part of us.  Our reflection of this new identity will be complete in every part of “who” we are. 

This is perhaps the greatest promise made so far, as to see us known to be something completely different than who we are today.  It is our character, our identity itself that is to be remade by Christ alone.  This is His ultimate gift to us, that we are more closely associated with God, than anything that has defined us to date.  This is the promise of a new life, taken even a step farther.  For it is not just new in the sense of how we live it, but new in the sense of who we are.  It is the depths of our salvation that we are to be known for our close proximity to God, for our participation in His love and mission to redeem, for our unending gratitude and worship of who He is.  The remainder of the sentient universe is to come to know us differently than they know us today.  Instead of our association with the long history of sinful selfish things we have done again and again.  They are to see us remade and rebranded by the Son of God, to carry His name written upon us, and a new name that reflects the transformation and salvation He has wrought within us.  We are to be known by them forevermore as being tied to His God, His City, and Him, and named by Christ Himself that is a unique reflection of His work in us.   This is a new life that is quite beyond our comprehension, yet penned by John as the revelation of Jesus Christ to you and I.

John concludes this revelation by again quoting the words of Christ in verse 13 … “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”  This message is to be for more than just the members of the Philadelphia church who followed the true Christ.  It is to be for us, for we who have ears, and are eager to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  What must be overcome is relevant to us, but also the patience, and promises that are contained in these texts.  The fullness of our salvation is wrought by Jesus Christ and Him alone, and so we have His promise of even a new identity found in Him alone.

And the messages were not over yet …

 

Revelations: The Nature of God Revealed ...

Jesus was known of His disciples as the man they had spent three and a half years with while He ministered here on earth.  This was the only context they had known Him in.  They saw glimpses of His divinity, but never the full picture of it.  John was now to reveal Jesus Christ to the masses, out of the context of the friend he knew, and in the role of the God we worship.  John begins with his introduction in verse 9 of his book Revelations in chapter one saying … “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. [verse 10] I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,”  John begins by identifying himself as our brother, not as our leader, or our prophet, or as the bishop of the church, or as any other hierarchical figure in Christianity, but merely as our brother.  He further states that he too suffers in tribulation (both physical and spiritual) in the waiting for Jesus Christ.  He was in the Roman prison colony of Patmos because of his preaching of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ.  John witnessed to what he saw of the life of Jesus, but he also used scripture to illuminate the truth of Jesus Christ.

John then goes on, and says that he was “in the Spirit”; given the prophecy that follows, this is likely to be interpreted as being touched by the Holy Spirit, or filled with the Holy Spirit.  It happened on “the Lord’s Day”.  The only day throughout all of scripture to be directly associated with God was the Sabbath set at creation, verified in the law, and rested upon by Christ even during His sleep of death while in His work to redeem us.  Nowhere in scripture is found any directives to change this day, or discontinue its observance.  And so, both the early Christian church, as well as the traditional Jewish faith continued to observe the Sabbath to try to keep it Holy.  Though the Christian church had a bit different perspective on what that meant in terms of service to others.  John continues that behind him he hears a great voice, as of a trumpet.  Trumpets are loud.  They are clear.  They are musical.  It is not just a large crash, or big bang of something falling that grabs John’s attention – instead he refers to it as a voice.  A voice has purpose, and clarity.  But in this instance, the voice is loud, and requires attention.  The voice has structure and meaning and will continue to reveal to John a deeper of picture of Jesus Christ.

John repeats what the voice states in verse 11 … “Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, 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 voice is that of Jesus Christ already identified as the Alpha and Omega, the first and last of our salvation, and of existence.  John is directed to write what is revealed in a book.  A book implies that this will not fit in a traditional letter, it is going to be more content that a letter would usually contain.  And it’s audience would be the seven churches, or the Christian church of his time.  Now the key centers of Christianity in that day that comprise the church of Christ are revealed by name.  All seven were in reasonably close proximity in the Roman province referred to as Asia, sometimes called Asia minor.  On a recent map all of them would be located within the country of Turkey.  What is most interesting personally about the designation of these seven churches to me, is that none of them were tied to any political centers of power, either historical, current or emerging.  Jerusalem was once the capital of Israel and housed the Ark of the Covenant within the temple Solomon built.  The actual Mercy Seat where the physical presence of God dwelt with His people was there for years.  But no more.  Regardless of where God had been, or who comprised His church before, His current church was now only to be made up of those who follow Christ.

Rome was the current political power of the day, Athens and Babylon preceded it.  No churches of Christ were identified in any of these political capitals as being part of the seven.  Instead, seven cities, of no special significance, located in a province of no special significance, but each containing followers of Jesus Christ made up the representation of His church.  The marriage modern Christianity would appear to love to nourish between the power of the state and the morality and values of Christianity does not reflect what the leader Christ revealed about Himself or His church.  Christ was never interested in politics, or the power of the state.  He was however always interested in people and whether they would allow Him to give them the gifts of perfection through the submission of their will to Him.  Following Christ, not leading Him, or attempting to compel others to join with Him, or attempting to mandate the morality of others in His name – no, Following Him implies submission.  It is in our submission we find salvation, not in our vain attempts at control or power.  Christ built His church under the pagan power of the Roman empire.  Politics were not in support of His church, and rather were determined to see it ended.  Yet Christ did nothing to overturn Roman rule while here on earth or after His ascension.  Instead He did what really matters, He focused on turning only the hearts of His followers.  This would one day change the entire world.

John now knows who will be the immediate audience for book he is to write.  But as this voice was coming from behind him, he wishes to see who is speaking and turns around.  He continues to pen what he sees in verse 12 … “And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;”  There is often a distinction made between the Old and New Testaments regarding the covenant between God and His people.  But it is interesting that the symbolism used in the Old Testament sanctuary finds new purpose in the New Testament revelation of Christ.  John sees seven golden candlesticks, it is easy to picture a Menorah in this instance in some variation.  For one just like it is described in the original sanctuary worship service of the Old Testament days of Moses and what would follow. 

Having seen the candlesticks, John turns his attention to Christ in verse 13 he continues … “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.”  John identifies the person in the midst or middle of the candlestick as “like” the Son of Man.  He resembles Jesus that John knows, and uses language that was used by the King of Babylon in the days of Daniel’s three friends who were cast into the fiery furnace; one who is like unto the Son of Man.  Nebuchadnezzar recognized Christ, even without ever having met Him that we know of, and John recognizes Him as well.  Next John sets about describing the attire he sees, eerily similar to that of a traditional temple priest.   Clothed with garment down to the foot, and wearing about the waist and thighs a “golden girdle”.  It was not long ago that Christ had girded himself with a simple towel to wash the feet of his disciples, now that same implement seems to show He is still working in service to His church, and for their salvation.

John then sets about to describe Jesus the Man he knows as God continuing in verse 14 … “His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; [verse 15] And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.”  The purity of God is reflected in his head and hair as they are white as snow.  This is not to designate Christ as being of Arian decent, nor to decry his Palestinian heritage or perhaps previously olive complexion.  It is instead to remind us, that our God is not bound by our divisions or national ideas, or heritage of ethnicity.  Instead He bears characteristics that we do not find in ourselves.  He has a head and hair, though white as snow.  But his eyes are neither brown, green, nor blue; they are instead as a flame of fire.  John cannot see much of His skin due to the full length garment, but His feet are as fine brass, still burning in a furnace.  In our day the CGI effects in movies like the Terminator where seemingly liquid metal gels into the appearance of a man might be a good allegory.  And again John reminds us that His voice, is not merely the voice of a man, but as the sound of many waters.

John then describes items Jesus is carrying in verse 16 … “And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.”  In the right hand of Christ are seven stars, John does not know what this means at first, nor does he fully understand the imagery of the candlesticks as yet.  But out of His mouth went a two-edged sword.  Coming from the mouth of Christ are the words and teachings of Christ.  I AM that I AM had given His laws once to His people.  But in the life of Christ, was revealed the motives behind the laws, and the lesson of what it means to love and serve others, even to the point of offering His life for them and us.  Those words of Christ and teachings of Christ were a TWO edged sword.  Or in other words, they CUT both ways.  They both liberate and condemn.  They both save and judge.  Those who will hear the word of Christ, will be saved by His power to cut the evil out of the minds and hearts.  Those who will refuse to hear the words of Christ, are cutting themselves off from the only source of their salvation and are dooming themselves to be cut off from His presence forever.  The teaching of Christ, the fulfillment of the mission of Messiah, is that we ALL need a savior.  We are NOT to save ourselves.  This is a lesson even modern Christianity could stand to re-learn.  Those who put self at the center of their religion find no room for Christ there, and thus find only the doom of isolation from Christ.

The sun is difficult to stare at when it shines without clouds at noon day.  If you attempt it, you will likely lose your sight altogether.  The countenance of Christ is so bright, John can only describe it in that way.  His purity, His love is so intense, that as you gaze upon it, it is too bright for the selfishness still within us to stand.  Our evil compels us to recoil or withdraw from the presence of such purity.  As such John falls prostrate as he describes in verse 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:”  John sees in himself the unworthiness of standing in the presence of perfect love and purity, and falls before God expecting to be dead.  Instead, the familiar hand of the one he loves placed upon him, perhaps helping him up, and the familiar greeting … “Fear not”.  How often John has heard those words from the voice of God, and how often they were needed.  Even before the message is delivered to John, Christ pays attention to the needs of John, and FIRST assuages his fears.  Then He continues saying again He is the first and the last, the beginning and ending of our salvation, of our transformation, of our perfection, and of our existence.

Christ continues in verse 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.”  Christ identifies himself as the man they knew and the life he spent with them.  He reminds them that He died for us, and is now risen for us.  He also states that He will be alive forevermore, there will be no future death for Him again.  And in addition He holds the keys of “hell” and of “death”.  “Keys” are needed to open prison doors.  They are needed for our freedom.  Hell is the condition of life while separated from God.  Any existence cut off from the presence and author of love, is ALREADY hell.  You do not need fire and flames to torture the flesh, if you are unable to love and be loved, and know only the pain of self-love and the slavery it causes.  You are already alive in hell.  You are already the prisoner of hell.  And no prisoner ever frees himself from this condition or state of existence.  However, Christ holds the keys to freedom from it.  Death, or the sleep of non-existence, is also something that Christ can free us from.  He can raise us from the dead, both our minds and bodies, but also from the death of our spiritual condition of self-focus.  He can raise us from the death we have embraced of our spiritual nature, and put life in its place, life that is found, rooted, and grounded in Christ alone.

Notice Christ does not hand John the keys.  No angel holds the keys.  We are not to be partners with Christ in freeing ourselves from our conditions of hell or of death.  We are to be freed BY Christ from these conditions and from Him alone.  Buddha, and Mohammed, and Moses, do not carry these keys.  There is no path to self-enlightenment.  There is no level of self-denial that will result in freedom from hell or death.  There is only Christ.  The two-edged sword has the power to cure us, or if we reject it, the inevitable result of seeing us trapped where we are, cut off from His presence.  The whole goal of our salvation was to bring us home to Him, to restore us into the presence of that kind of purity, without the stain of self to cause us to wither away and recoil. 

Christ then gives John his mission in verse 19 … “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;”  John is to record everything that has just transpired.  The timeframe for relevance will be … “things which are” … or messages that are needed today in the present timeframe of the audience of John.  But also they are “things which shall be hereafter”, or messages that are intended for those who will live beyond the immediacy of the audience of John’s readers.  Again the messages of these revelations have meaning in more than one timeframe, but key to any interpretation is the central premise of revealing Jesus Christ.  Outside of Jesus Christ, there can be no proper interpretation of scripture, the law, or the prophecies contained here. 

Christ then reveals the meaning of the symbolism John has just witnessed to him as He continues in verse 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.”  The seven stars represent seven angels that work and minister to each of the seven churches, one a piece.  The seven candlesticks that Christ was walking amidst are His churches that he has just listed before.  Christ is establishing that these churches belong to Him.  He has assigned angels to minister to those churches.  He does not designate that each church belongs to its current pastor, or evangelist, or its founder, or committee of church board members, or elders, or deacons, or even its members.  Each church belongs to Christ.  Each member, or leader, all belong equally to Christ, to be led by Christ, and taught by Christ, and saved by Christ.  It is not the structure of the governance of the church that saves us, but the only real leader, Christ.  It is not our position of service that makes us any more or less important than other members of the church, our value is found in the love of our leader, Christ.  We belong only to Him.  We are His.  It is that which gives us value.

And the revelations of Christ had only just started …

 

On Pain of Death ...

The biggest difference between God and Satan is that God refuses to compel the conscience of man, or control his mind and heart – whereas Satan would gladly enslave both. God is love, and love must be freely given or you cannot call it love. For us to truly love God we must be free to choose to love Him, or free to choose against Him. The choice must truly be ours, if God were to control it in any way, the result could no longer be called love. Satan on the other hand, is much less interested in love and free will; he is interested only in power and control. He is constrained by our free will as God will not let him subvert it without our consent. But Satan is not interested in preserving our free will; he is far more willing to threaten us with death if we do not do things his way. While the consequences of embracing evil always do lead to death, Satan is willing to hurry the process along should we find ourselves in disagreement with him. This is why in the unseen war all around us, angels of light are sent to guard each human being, to preserve their right to choose, even if that choice is against the very being who sent the guardian to preserve their ability to make that decision. Ironic. We spit in the face of God, yet He preserves our ability to choose to do so. What other deity ever claimed to do that?

At the end of time, the Holy Spirit will be poured out in great measure to reap a final harvest of souls who are seeking to follow God. But then He will withdraw His presence from the earth allowing what was bound to become loosed before the return of Jesus. Satan eagerly awaits this day, the day He is given more ability to enforce his will upon mankind without constraint by our loving God. And death too, it seems is eagerly awaiting this day as well, as you can bet death will be the predominant news story in every corner of the globe. The day for Satan’s ability to enforce his will on the conscience of man will have arrived.

While Satan will not be able to possess the righteous and force them to do as he wishes, he will be able to surround the righteous with his followers who are eager to do his bidding. Human agents will take on the work of Satan with great vigor, believing they do the work of the almighty God himself. Forgetting that God never compels the conscience of men, eager servants of the evil one, will use the name of Christianity in efforts to enforce worship to Satan on pain of death. And they will have many allies who effectively attempt the same thing. For instance, there are many totalitarian governments on planet earth who deny the existence of God altogether. They tell their citizens they are not allowed to believe and worship the true God, or they will be imprisoned for it. At the end of time, the punishment will be universally raised to killing the non-compliant. The Catholic popes have for years told their parishioners to follow the edicts and traditions of men and the church over what the plain word of the gospel directs them to do. Compelling the conscience is not a new phenomenon, even inside of Christianity. But it is the hallmark of the evil one.

But why shoot us, if starving us is cheaper? And so the only way to earn a living, to buy or sell anything, will require receiving the mark of the beast himself. This mark may be in the form of a physical tattoo, a scar, or merely the symbolic agreement (in the mind) with evil, or taking up the actions of evil (in the hands) to do the will of Satan. But without the mark, those who believe will be placed in a position to starve. It will be easy to get the mark, one need only verbally swear to agree NOT to follow the God of the Bible, but to do as men, or Satan, or the Pope, or whoever else says to do. The idea is simple, deny the real God, and receive the mark that allows you to live as you did before (stuck in your sin, without hope, if we were being technical).

Satan’s ultimate idea of punishing God for the death of evil he is sure to experience, is to have no one on planet earth waiting for God to return to save. Before you start thinking that should be nearly impossible, remember that ONLY Noah was saved in the ark with his family. No-one else on the planet believed, or was saved. If Satan could pull off this feat again, he might make God delay or cancel coming back at all. But there will remain a stubborn few who simply will not give up their Bibles and do as the men around them command them to do. Despite the apparent starving solution, the faithful refuse to let go of their true God and will not embrace the earthly alternatives including Satan in the form of Christ. This all but infuriates the evil one; particularly when birds seem to be flying to the caves of the earth with food for those who hide there from his evil presence. I guess the righteous won’t be starving after all.

Controlling commerce does more than just provide a method of punishing those who refuse to give up their faith. It provides a way to control the rich, the powerful, those who up until now have known no fear more than losing what they have. With the beast in full control of the events of the world, short a few, he takes many liberties in establishing his course to war with God. “The dragon was wroth with the woman” … it says in Revelations … “and he went to make war with the remnant of her seed.” Satan has no illusions that war with believers is coming. He is well prepared and plans to win. He intends to use every device against us. Not just the power-plays of obey or die, but the subtle ones like he used with Adam – “can you really imagine life without your loved one who agrees with me?” Any manner to compel the conscience, force a version of morality the individual would not normally accept,

Christians still seem not to have learned the lesson Christ tried to teach them with the analogy of the splinter in your neighbor’s eye, and the beam or log in your own eye. While it makes perfect sense to most believers that Satan will try to compel the conscience at the end of time to worship him, his way or else. They do not see that participation in groups like the “Tea Party”, or attempting to take over the “Republican Party” in order to bring “God” back to America is exactly the same work Satan himself will take over when he is given more power at the end of all things. God does NOT compel the conscience. It is why when Christ was here, he never made any moves to become part of the government in order to make His will the law. He invites us to listen, does not force us to. He lures us with love, does not compel us with control, even though He is able to do so. Those who do not yet believe in Christ are supposed to be free to make that decision. It is the very will of God that they have the freedom to choose against God. Humans trying to force other humans to give up evil and embrace love by force; are the perfect recruits for Satan when he begins his unholy, unrestrained final efforts to control us all.

If we lived lives of love, dedicated to serving others ahead of ourselves, we would not have time for the folly of trying to control the minds of others through the power of the state. In fact, we would gladly return to our true Christian heritage keeping the state completely away from our religious beliefs and thinking. Better for Christians to be governed by Atheists who believe in nothing, than to be ruled by fellow Christians intent on enforcing “the will of God”. Love can never be achieved by force. This principle can be used as a dividing rod at the end of time, to sort out the fake claims of divinity, from the real ones. When God heals someone, he does it in love, asks nothing in return, and looks only to the best interest of the person He is healing. When Satan heals someone, he is looking to make headlines in the news, increase his influence or control of a person, and intends to use the healed person for his own tasks. Where God is about love and service, even to us; Satan is about nothing but power and control over us. The mark of serving Satan will come in the form of trying to compel the conscience of another human, this effort itself is the work of the beast. And it has already begun. Will we walk in it, or away from it.

I hope when push comes down to shove, we choose to worship the God of the Bible who we cannot see, but has taught us what love is – than the imposters all around us who believe they know better than we do what “god” wants us to do. The Bible we take so much for granted now, may become a collector’s item in the not too distant future. I hope He leads us deep into truth before that day comes, for only through His strength can we hope to remain standing for the real God.

The Last Plagues ...

Exactly how crazy am I? It may be difficult to quantify just how crazy I may be, given that a universal “scale” for measuring “crazy” seems to be still under development. For instance, if I told you I could predict the future, you might dismiss me as merely mildly delusional. If I told you that God had spoken directly to me, you might consider that a touch more alarming as direct communications from “God” usually accompany some self-destructive behavior in the nut-balls who claim to have heard from Him one-on-one. But then, how crazy do I remain, if I told you something was going to happen in the future and it did happen exactly as I predicted it. We could call that luck, perhaps even guess that I had somehow an inside knowledge of what was going to occur from other more reliable scientific sources and as such ease our concerns and logically founded mind. But what if what I predicted was outside all the scientific norms, and happened anyway? Can’t call that insider info, can’t really call it luck, it would begin to cause you to question whether I really was crazy, or just right? Perhaps then, it is your own sanity you begin to question.

No need to worry, I do not claim to have heard from God one-on-one; nor do I claim to be able to predict the future. I am no prophet, at least not yet. I do consider myself a conspiracy enthusiast as I can often trace the fingers of conspiracies in the actions that otherwise seem random in the world, perhaps that just makes me a bit paranoid. But it does not mean I am wrong.  In any case, the life of a prophet is never an easy thing. It is hard to tell sane people that you have heard a message directly from God. This idea alone is often enough to get you ostracized at best, and committed at worst. To follow your pronouncement of hearing from God with news of a disaster is to invite the strongest type of ridicule and criticism imaginable. And so for those few servants of God who had the courage to bare their lives in scripture to we who read the accounts of their lives and stories, I wish to honor them as I am humbled by their sacrifice.

I cannot imagine what it must be like to have to take news of a dire consequence that will almost certainly get you killed into the governing palace of Kim Jung Ile, or Saddam Hussein, or Adolph Hitler when they were in power. It is hard enough for me to imagine taking in “God’s warnings” to our president Obama who I admire and respect, let alone to an all-powerful dictator with malevolent designs on my life. But such was the case for Noah to an angry world, Joseph to an egomaniac pharaoh, Moses to another even more egomaniac, Elijah to a wicked king, Jonah to an angry city, Daniel to a worldwide monarch, just to name a few. But to think that prophesy has all but been forgotten or fulfilled is to ignore one of the final writers of the gospel whose name was John the Beloved of Christ. For John also known as the Revelator penned a few prophesies that have yet to be fulfilled. We have at our disposal messages directly from God. Given to us, one-to-one, if you will – that we should be able to give to the world who still needs to hear them.

And so I ask the question once again, just how crazy am I? If I begin by telling you about a series of events that are to captivate the world’s attention, would you dismiss me once again as just another nut-ball who takes the Bible too seriously? Many would. You may. I would not hold it against you, as I myself have often wondered at the purpose of prophecy for those who believe. So if you read my council and decide I am crazy; that would be the norm. But if you remember my words, or rather His words, and then see them fulfilled in your lifetime, will you remember ALL of His words, or just those that had to do with the supernatural.

Take the life of Noah once again for consideration. If Noah had predicted regional floods instead of a worldwide phenomenon that wiped everyone off the planet at once, would those in the surviving regions had accepted Noah’s calls to repentance? If you lived in India for example at the time of Noah, and you saw Japan, China, and Indonesia wiped away by floods, would you start believing in Noah? Or would it take the further destruction of North America, Mexico, down to Panama for you to begin to believe. Or perhaps would you wind up staring at the ark as the door closed and realize you would never be on board as your logical mind would simply not allow you to believe what you see. After all the idea of flooding on this scale was “against science” to that point in time.

There are many today, both inside and outside the church who question the Bible’s more miraculous stories as authentic. They believe them to be more allegories designed to teach us a moral lesson, rather than accurate depictions of facts of the ground as they occurred. The idea that miraculous events have ever occurred forces one to accept the idea that God is real, and perhaps even that Satan is real, and even more importantly to me, I am not the center of the known universe. But then to witness a miracle first hand is intensely more personal than to simply read about one that took place before you were born. Apathy has grown great within the Christian community for just such reasons. Believers have all but stopped submitting their will to Christ and therefore lost the witness of miracles He works within us changing the core of who we are into His image once again. Believers have long ago forsaken testing their faith by requiring miracles of God in healing, raising the dead, curing disease, etc. And most prophesies have been fulfilled more than 120 years ago. So apathy grows in our hearts. What a waste, and what a disappointment to those who need to hear the living word.

But to wake our Laodicean minds from the spiritual slumber we foolish virgins have engaged in, world events will once again become very intense. Before the end of time, just before the orders to kill all those who do not follow the beast (or the Anti-Christ if you will) worshipping him as he commands rather than as God has laid out in scripture, a series of plagues will be poured out upon the world. This is not done to torture evil people, or punish those who sin for the fact that they sin. This is the unfortunate consequence required to wake even the most evil and steadfast doubting mind up to the possibility that the Bible may be correct, God may exist, and that while late, perhaps Salvation is not yet out of reach. This is the purpose for pouring out the “wrath” of God on the world. Many will die in this process. Again unfortunate, but the messages of love will have already been rejected. Great death is about the only thing left that captures the attention of the world. And so it will be.

The details of the plagues can be found in Revelations chapter 16. John uses language that would appear to affect the entire world. We do not know if the plagues themselves will fall over the entire face of the earth, or just in very large regions, with the news of the events being carried on every TV news outlet capable of running the stories. John also speaks about two references to time in chapter 17 that may be a reference to the plagues. The first reference is a day which in prophetic time period generally equals a year. The second reference is an hour, which doing the math generally lasts about a week. We are not certain if John intended the pouring out of the plagues to take about a year to complete, or the final “burning of Babylon” to take about a week to complete. So there are a few unknowns related to these prophecies. But with the unknown is also what we do know.

The first plague will be one of grievous sores that fall upon men who worship the Beast and his image. This means for those who reject the Bible and embrace the teachings of men over the teachings of God, they will be susceptible to the plagues of God. If in tumultuous times you find yourself infected with the grievous sores of the first plague, you are worshipping the WRONG way, or to the WRONG god. This is your first wake up call, that something has gone wrong. Very wrong. And sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the False Christ or Anti-Christ or Satan who is impersonating Christ will tell you lies, that these things come from him as punishment because he has NOT been universally recognized as the only true god. In short he wants you to get mad to true believers and take your anger out on them for the sores you could have avoided if you chose not to worship the false god in the first place.

The second plague sounds even more daunting, as it is poured out on the sea, and “every living soul” in the sea dies as the water is turned to blood. We can infer from the first plague that this will only affect those who worship the beast, but there is no guarantee of this protection. It is possible when this plague is poured out on the sea, all will die who are on it at the time. The third plague is also related as the turning to blood phenomenon occurs in the lakes, rivers, and streams as well. The intention is to offer the wicked blood to drink, as they seem bent on shedding the blood of the saints. I am sure that devout atheist scientists will formulate opinions, hypothesis, and theories on how this is all explainable without supernatural influences to comfort themselves, but it will not quench their thirst.

The fourth plague sounds like global warming run amok. The sun was given power to scorch men, and rather than come to repentance they choose to blaspheme the name of God; perhaps by continuing to offer worship to the fake gods of science and the Anti-Christ rather than to the creator of all things. No doubt people will simply say Al Gore was right all along. But happening in this order, with these exact effects, is designed to show people the validity of the God of scriptures, and the way of Salvation. Alas will there be any who see, remember, and repent before time itself runs out for them?

The fifth plague is poured out on the seat of the beast and is a great darkness. This would be a welcome relief from the scorching rays of the Sun, and defies scientific logic as to why the Sun would suddenly “go dark” even if only in a particular region of the planet. The seat of the beast could infer the headquarters location of the beast. Some have speculated this may mean Rome, where the papacy was long claimed equality with God in religious standing. Some say Washington D.C. as our nation seems bent on dictating morality to others in the forms the majority sees fit denying the rights of the minorities to worship God as they choose. Some say Beijing as the communist capital has long denied even the existence of God to its people and has restricted anyone from Biblical worship outside a rigorous state approved process. But wherever the darkness falls, people will chew on their own tongues for the pain in order to remind themselves they are still alive. And more bad news, the sores from the first plague are still there with them as well.

The sixth plague is decidedly a regional one, as the water of the river Euphrates is dried up, preparing the way of the kings of the east. I should imagine this will cause a massive drought around the areas where the river’s waters once flowed. But this plague appears to be a precursor to something even more terrible, a final war called Armageddon which we will discuss in more detail in another section. None the less the sequence of plagues seems a bit interrupted after the sixth plague with many events seeming to take place all at once.

It is possible that the seventh plague takes place immediately before the coming of the Lord in the clouds. It is possible that the effects of this plague will be felt less as there may not be anyone left on planet earth to talk about it. The righteous gone to heaven, the wicked killed in the final chaotic events. But the final plague of hail will fall from the heavens, every stone about the weight of a talent. Depending on whose version of a talent John was referring to, the current weight estimates would range from 57 pounds on the low end to 130 pounds on the high end. Falling from the sky like rain, the destruction of ice weighing this much would literally crush everything it comes into contact with. Even if this plague is regional falling only where the final war might occur, the devastation would be immeasurable. And worst of all, it appears that if one has not found Salvation by plague number 6, number 7 is already too late.

There is one point that the falling of these plagues makes above all else – evil itself is on a time clock. Evil will NOT be permitted to endure until it can self-destruct and take the world with it. Evil will be cut short, miraculously, and permanently by the God who has no evil in Him. The plagues may be labeled with flimsy scientific explanations designed to placate the masses, but the truth of their foretelling in every KJV Bible in print will be hard to deny. And I imagine that since the plagues are designed to prove the authenticity of the God who is their originator, they will be beyond the normal bounds of scientific theory. For years the siren cry of the Atheists is “show me proof”, how sad that even when this proof is offered it will not be enough for the minds bent on rejecting it.

I ask a final time, just how crazy am I? Am I so crazy you will simply reject these predictions as misplaced faith in a literal version of the Bible that could never come true … until it does. Or is possible that the entire reason for John’s foretelling of the horror of these events was for YOU specifically to be able to avoid them, by accepting the Salvation that Christ longs to offer you? Think about it, why else would a loving God given such a detailed accounting of last day events, including the violence and horror of some of them – if not to warn you on how to avoid these things – staying nestled in the loving protection of a God who is eager to bring you home with Him again. These plagues are not threats to change or die, they are the proof some required that God does exist, and the consequences to evil actions illustrated in the lives of all who remain to see such times. The only reason why we know about them now, is for the purpose of being sheltered from them. If God were out to “punish the guilty” why bother to announce what He is going to do, just do it quietly and effectively. But by writing all this in detail, He shows His purpose is not to destroy but to help as many as possible avoid destruction. Will you be saved from the cataclysm that is to come, or will you follow the edicts of man, science, and logic over the still small voice of love that tugs at your heart strings?