An Epitaph for Death [part two] ...

In the previous portion of this study, our story in Revelations chapter 20 began AFTER the second coming to reunite us with our Lord and our God had already taken place.  The final end of evil remains the part of the story still to be told.  The Bible is more than just the story of the redemption of humanity.  It also serves to tell the story of the rise and eradication of evil itself.  That final ending part of the story of evil had only just begun.  Satan was bound alone with his demonic following here in the destroyed earth for 1000 years.  During this time we, the redeemed, review the judgments of our God upon those who have steadfastly refused every opportunity to accept the gift of His perfect freedom to love others.  The wicked lost have been asleep in their graves during this millennia but now, the time for evil is nearly done.  The time to see evil end is about to be revealed.

John continues in verse 7 … “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, [verse 8] And shall go out 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.”  As mentioned earlier the minute the wicked are raised, Satan looks with singular purpose to do one thing, build an army that can defeat the angels he lost to before.  Satan raises the old argument citing history from the tower of Babel, that if mankind unites behind a single purpose, we can defeat God.  Satan does not discourage evil in his ranks, he promotes it.  But in this instance he is not looking to lose troop numbers, so there is to be no early killing of each other in the ranks of his army.  We are to save our blood lust for the meek and mild residents of the city of heaven.  Notice too, there is no rebellion in his ranks.  No one stands up and rejects his ideas of conquest and murder.  No one refuses what he offers.

Think about it.  Scripture foretells all of this.  You are reading the future history of evil and righteousness right now in great detail.  Yet despite a sure knowledge of the outcome, if you find yourself awakened to be on the side of evil, you will join this insanity willingly.  What choice do you have?  What other fate is there?  Perhaps some join with the full knowledge of their impending doom.  Perhaps some continue to perpetrate evil acts of immorality and self-pleasure as much as they can while they await the coming battle.  How else to motivate his troops but to offer them temporary pleasures they might have been too timid to partake of while there was yet hope of redemption?  Evil does not look to reform and better itself, it looks only to deepen in the course it pursues.  What level of immorality could scarcely be imagined now, is fully set loose now that only one final battle remains.  Once again, the decisions to be lost or saved are seen cemented in the continued choices and actions of those in both camps.  The righteous are racked with grief at their own inadequacy in loving the lost back to redemption.  While the wicked are steeped in nothing but hate to see those who they formerly purported to love, killed to get out of their way.

Despite everything, despite the clarity of these revelations given to John and to us, NO ONE changes their minds or pursues a different course.  It is at this point, when the wicked approach the city of New Jerusalem descended from God to our world for the final battle, that a pause occurs.  The sky will serve as the 3D HD TV Screen from which a movie will be presented.  It is the actual story of humanity, of the genesis of evil, of the mission of love to redeem.  It is the story of His sacrifice here in life and on Calvary.  And within this picture is revealed to each individual the history of the attempts by God to see each of them redeemed.  All will see what Christ did.  All will see what was done in their own lives to see them redeemed.  And the results of this panoramic picture, perhaps the greatest movie ever played will have a unified result, even in the camp of the wicked.  ALL will bow before Christ and acknowledge that only the Lamb is worthy of worship and praise.  It is an involuntary response from a heart and sentient mind created by God.  No one can help themselves from doing anything other than this, up to and including Satan himself.

What happens next however is the reaction and distinction between good and evil.  The righteous once again have prostrated themselves before the Lamb, throwing their crowns to the ground at the thought of their own unworthiness.  They rise only as He comforts them and assures them once again of His so great love for them.  They think only to serve this God of Love in any way they can, according to His great purpose.  They carry no weapons.  They intend no blood shed.  They are not there to fight.  They are armed with only a love and gratitude to Christ that cannot be comprehended by us now, or by those who lay before them at that time.  They, like God, long for a different outcome.  They wish only that those who are lost, who at least now have seen the worthiness of Christ would seek one more time a chance at redemption.  Perhaps even now it is not too late.  But alas, one moment of clarity in the lives of evil, does not result in any desire to change.

And so it begins.  The evil ones rise from their acknowledgement of the love of Christ, with only one thought on their collective minds, to kill Christ.  They realize that so great a love exists, and since they cannot be a part of it, they must kill it to have peace.  But like at His second coming, this battle will end before it begins.  John continues in verse 9 saying … “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. [verse 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.”

Notice first that the attacking troops are “devoured” by the fires of God.  The devil is thrown into a lake of fire and will die last, in order that he suffer the longest and be punished for the magnitude of his deceptions and evil and pain he has caused.  John continues in verse 11 … “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. [verse 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.”  He who longed to be their savior, stands now to impose the sentences of those who have been judged in the courts of heaven.  There is no escape for any who have refused to embrace redemption.  All men and women, both small and great are to have sentences passed.  They will burn and suffer in proportion to the pain they have caused. 

John continues in verse 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.”  There is no form of death that a wicked person could have experienced in this life that does not give way to these series of events.  Whether lost in a drowning in the depths of the sea, or obliterated in the blast of an atomic weapon, all the lost have been raised, all have seen the judgment of Christ, and all are to now experience the lake of fire in direct proportion to the pain they have caused.  Those who have caused little pain for others will be consumed fully and quickly.  Those who have caused much pain for others will be consumed slower, and will die only over a period of time, receiving in direct proportion to what they have caused, the pain they have wrought.

The effects of this punishment are to be eternal, just as the choice while they lived to embrace evil would not be altered even after seeing the great love of Christ in attempting to redeem them.  There will be no further chances at redemption, nor any further resurrections to look forward to.  Whatever the length of lifeline they have lived to date, it is to be their last.  Immortality is NOT on the menu.  A permanent existence even in torture is NOT to be their fate.  They are to burn, and die, and be no more.  Satan and his demonic hoard will die last, but die they will.  The universe is to be cleansed of all evil, not have it exist forever, even in a tortured state.  Justice demands the death of evil, not its continual preservation. 

Imagine the alternative for a moment.  If traditional views of hell were correct, then Satan is obviously not impacted by the flames, or otherwise how is he able to continue to deceive mankind for the last 6000 years while hell was going on, presumably starting with Cain.  After some period of time humans will adapt to a pain that does not kill them.  It is in our nature to do this.  So either God would have to constantly continue to invent new ways to cause us pain, or whatever the fires do, would eventually become commonplace to us.  Then too, even if punishment could be eternally causing pain, at what point would our sentence be served and the demands of justice met?  Even Hitler, should have atoned for his murders at some point.  It might take 6 million years to atone, or perhaps 6 billion, but at some point doesn’t Hitler have the right to state that his debt is paid?  Eternal torture perpetuates evil forever, instead of eliminating it as God has promised.  And can you imagine the acts of evil that would continue even in a venue like hell, if hell were a place that lasts forever.  Lastly, how could any of us, the redeemed who think of nothing but to love others, find happiness while those who we loved, continue to exist in a state of perpetual torture.  None of this makes sense.  It is a misrepresentation of the character of God, as told to us by His enemy, and with attempts at using scripture to prove it.

Our traditional teachings of an eternally burning hell are the doctrines of the enemy, designed to perpetuate a myth of an unfair God who desires pain and not redemption.  But to punctuate this fact, and undo any lingering doubts in our minds, John continues and concludes this epitaph in verse 14 … “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. [verse15] And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”  The final thing to be consumed by the fires sent by God are “death” and “hell”.  Death itself is to be put to an end.  Once Satan has died, once there are no more alive who have chosen to embrace evil, death will NO longer be relevant or needed in our universe ever again.  Its purpose will be ended with no future victims of its concepts.  Evil will now be in a state of non-existence.  Only good will remain.  The fires will go out.  They will do their eternal job, in inflicting an eternal punishment, but then when the job is completed, they will be needed no more.  There is to be no more hell.  There is to be no more death.  They are both to be ended.  This revelation is to be their epitaph.

There is no balance between good and evil, as these are mutually exclusive concepts where only one can rule.  Should evil win, life itself would cease to exist for all the roads of evil lead to death, the death of others, and eventually the death of self to escape what we become.  Balance, has never been needed.  Balance, is the mantra of the enemy.  Good does not need evil to survive or find identity.  Good is love, and it will on this day, overcome evil forever more.  In the battle between good and evil, good was always destined to win, as existence itself was the prize in question.  Evil is destined to die, to be extinguished forever in every form. 

From this point forward, even death will be gone forever.  The cycle of life is all we have ever known.  We witness in the leaves of the trees, the cycle of birth, growth, decline, decay, and rebirth.  But once death is gone, perhaps the leaves will be ever green.  Perhaps there is no decay anymore, perhaps to pluck a rose from a bush is to begin a new plant as a result.  We have no idea what it means to live life without the reminders of our own mortality.  We live now treasuring every moment because of the brevity of our lives, but then perhaps we will live treasuring every moment because every moment will have no end.

We might have thought the story of our redemption ended when once we were reunited with Christ.  And perhaps our redemption story was over at that point.  But scripture did not end then, nor did the revelations of Jesus Christ given to John.  The disposition of evil in finality had yet to be given, the ending of death itself was an important point that must be relayed.  This revelation helps us understand what love means, and what justice means.  This revelation dictates the end of evil forever and ever.  It amplifies the finality of the choices we make.  Should we elect to be redeemed, it will be so by the power and love of Jesus Christ.  But should we elect to place our salvation in ourselves, our self-deception will be our undoing.  The evil within us MUST be removed.  For ALL evil will one day meet its end.  If it is still a part of us on that day, our fate will be that of evil.  If we trust to Jesus Christ, our fate will be that of love that remains.

But even now, scripture was not to be at an end.  There is yet more to be revealed.  There is yet more to this story …

 

Epilogue of our Nation [part two] ...

In the previous section, we reviewed the fate of the counterfeit ideas that have infected the churches of our nation.  Indeed the message of warning has been given, that Babylon has fallen, has fallen.  It is not with joy that the angel of heaven must relay his warning, it is with heavy heart.  But the message must go out, and the self-deception must be revealed.  The plagues will fall.  The consequences of our sins will be felt in full measure, no longer shielded from us by a loving God.  Our decisions to remain slave to self and self-love are to be honored forever now, as is our decision to find salvation from Jesus Christ alone.  In either event, our choices are made permanent.  Those who remain in the chains of self-reliance will no longer seek any other course.  Those who have found their freedom in the salvation of Jesus Christ alone will have come to know, there is no other source for it.  When the plagues are finally poured out, and all the self-deception is wiped away, it will be a cause of great lament.  But notice in the passages that follow, the lament of the wicked is not about the pain his actions cause, it is about the lack of wealth he is going to experience.  No one weeps for the burden of the poor in increasing the wealth of others.  They only weep at the thought that now their own wealth will be impacted.

John resumes his revelation in chapter 18 continuing in verse 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, [verse 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.”  The leadership of evil must stand rebuked.  The destruction of our nation, and of the churches who are the daughters of harlotry and have corrupted the pure reliance on Jesus Christ for salvation, are an example to the world of the fate and judgments of God upon these ideas.  Our punishment is so great the kings of the earth stand “afar off”.  They do not desire close proximity to our pain and punishment, for fear it might be visited upon them as well.  Here again, selfishness is revealed.  Christ left heaven, and became one of us, in order that He might be with us in our misery, and bring us relief from it.  Those kings who have only enjoyed the pleasures of a whore, are not at all interested in seeing her relieved in her suffering.  They only lament the end of a lavish life they too once enjoyed.

John continues in verse 11 … “And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:”  The markets will crash.  The economy will fall.  Currency will become of no more value than toilet paper.  The commerce that was thought to be the tool used to compel the conscience of men, the threat used in the Mark of the Third Beast, is to be obliterated.  An ironic punishment meted out by a loving God who stands forever rejected by the evil of men.  John then begins to list in specifics the products that will have lost their allure in the great nation of Babylon once the plagues begin to fall as follows starting in verse 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,”  These are the currency, the jewelry, and the most expensive construction materials used in the amassing of wealth.  The raw materials of wealth supplied by the merchants of the earth are to have no more customers.

John continues in verse 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. [verse 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.”  Next are listed the items of a more personal nature; spices, perfumes, food, and servants.  The things a whore seeks, the things our nation has sought, are to be taken from it as well.  The merchants who became rich providing these necessities of a lavish life are to once again find their customer base has gone away, completely evaporated under the outpouring the plagues upon the evil of this world.

John concludes the great lament of evil for the loss of evil beginning in verse 15 saying … “The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, [verse 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! [verse 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, [verse 18] And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! [verse 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.”  Notice again that both the merchants and those who trade by sea remain “afar off”.  Notice too, that both “weep” and “wail” at the prospect of the loss of wealth.  For there truly is no nation like ours.  And such a contrast is presented in the nature of the laments for fallen Babylon.  Heaven laments that it has “fallen”.  The loss, or refusal to be saved, is what is lamented in heaven.  Whereas those who are enslaved to self, lament only the loss of self-pleasure that wealth is thought to bring.

The wicked are never sorry for their wickedness.  They are only sorry for the consequences of their wickedness.  They lament getting “caught”.  They lament that their path of wicked behavior has been cut short unexpectedly.  Satan desires only that he could continue committing wickedness for all of eternity, unstopped by the powerful hand of a loving God.  So it is, in the heart that has chosen to embrace self-love in any form, there is no end to it.  There is no concept of “enough”, only the desire for “more”, no matter how much has already been acquired.  The kings, merchants, and seafarers lament the loss of wealth they will now experience due to the fall of Babylon.  They care not for her misery, only in that it will now impact them as well.  This is the lament of the wicked. 

Lest we forget, the wealth of Babylon was not gathered through ethical means.  And the fervor with which she treated those who refused to abandon their identity as followers of Jesus Christ alone resulted in more than a few deaths.  The limits of depravity do not exist in those who seek first the love of self.  So John interjects in verse 20 … “Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.”  The misery of Babylon is well earned.  The punishment she reaps are from the seeds she has sown.  We are to rejoice that her reign of terror has come to an end.  No more will she continue to shed the blood of the apostles, and prophets, and saints.  Her ability to murder those who dissent is now ended.

John concludes the epilogue of our nation beginning in verse 21 saying … “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. [verse 22] And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, 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 shall be heard no more at all in thee; [verse 23] And the light of a candle 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. [verse 24] And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.”

It is with great and sudden violence that our nation is to meet its end.  In an hour are the judgments of God revealed.  And the finality of those judgments endure.  The great city of Babylon is to be torn down and found no more at all.  Music is gone from our nation.  Trade is obliterated.  Food production is at zero.  Light has vanished.  Marriage and simple pleasures are no more.  The lure of our wealth that has seduced the merchants and great men of the earth exist no more.  For it is our sorceries that deceived the nations of the earth.  We, the United States, are to be the birthplace of those final deceptive sorceries.  Some speculate the antichrist would emerge from Rome and rise to take control of the United Nations Security Council.  But if the last and final sorceries are to originate from the U.S., then perhaps the final impersonation by Satan of the coming of the Messiah and other assorted world deities is to begin in our nation instead. 

The final text penned by John stands as the indictment of our nation in annuls of time and memorial.  In “her”, or in us, was found the blood of the prophets, and of the saints, and of “all” that were slain upon the earth.  We are guilty not only of shedding the blood of those who follow Jesus Christ alone, we are guilty of indiscriminant murder as well.  All of this is the result of “blending” truth with error.  All of this comes from attempting to “balance” the love of self, with the love of others.  All of this comes from breaking trust with God, and trusting in our own wisdom and common sense.  It is the universal acceptance of the counterfeit, that by nature cannot perform to the specs of the original that leads to so much death and destruction.  The seeds of the counterfeit were planted long ago.  They require attention to detail.  The master of lies has prepared his final battle plan, but the outcome has already been decided.  Our nation was once thought to be a beacon of light and enlightenment, but from that state we are to fall.

The Catholic Church once had the opportunity to take the gospel of love to the entire world, but it became corrupted by the introduction of self-reliance and self-importance in its doctrines.  The protestant faith was founded in the ideals of a reformation to return the church of Christ back to Him alone.  But it too has become corrupted by the wish to control and compel the lives of others.  In so doing it has joined with its mother in the naked pursuit to co-opt the power of the state to enforce its edicts.  Islam would convert the entire world at the point of a sword.  Atheism would teach us there is no greater god than the man in the mirror.  Satanism offers us the allure of power over others, supplanted by forces unseen and beyond our explanation.  ALL are counterfeits that introduce self into the process of our perfection and evolution.  It is this counterfeit that is to be judged by God.  It is for the purposes of revealing these falsehoods that these revelations were given.  Only Jesus Christ can save us from ourselves.  This universal truth underscores the entire book of Revelations and is the recurring theme of each of these prophecies.  There is no other truth as fundamental and important to us in any age as this. 

In the next chapter, John will resume the telling of the story at the end of the seventh plague and the return of our Lord.  Salvation is next to be seen in person …

Armageddon ...

The last war begins.  It will have 2 great battles.  The first battle begins at the second coming of Jesus Christ, as He returns to earth triumphantly to bring home those of us who have waited to see Him for so so long.  The second battle will occur more than a thousand years later, as there is one final assault of the city of heaven itself.  The 2 opposing sides were defined years ago.  The 2 opposing ideas outlined at the birth of evil into the universe.  Love-of-self versus love-of-others; it is this opposition that gives rise to conflict.  Love of self has produced evil, pain, and death.  It has proven what the opposite of God is, what the opposite of love is, what the opposite of life is.  Those who broke trust with God, and embraced the love of self, have become slaves to this sickness they chose.  They are now powerless under its insatiable grip.  The hunger that cannot be filled will not be filled, and so death must be its only outcome.  The war which began in heaven has moved to earth.  It will wage its next battle here on earth where evil is destined to lose, as it was always destined to lose.  The defeat of evil is known by all those in the supernatural realm, but it is refused to be accepted.  Instead pain and death will only be magnified and intensified before evil meets its end.  So Armageddon has arrived.

Unlike the Bruce Willis movie, where he and Ben Affleck can through sacrifice save a planet filled with the “innocent” and those in need, the time for sacrifice is ended.  There is no one left who can call themselves “innocent”.  There is no one left who might repent and seek to be saved.  There are only those bent on destruction, and those who have already put their trust in the salvation of Jesus Christ.  The former can think of nothing more, no greater cause, then to murder the latter.  The servants of Christ suffer from failing memories, and facts defined in a history of sin.  We know we have sinned and rack ourselves trying to remember one that might not have been sought for forgiveness, but can find none.  It makes no sense to us.  We know ourselves to be sinners, yet standing to wait upon His return, His work of perfection has been completed within us, and we can remember no unpardoned sin anymore.  The real fact of our former human imperfection causes us great misery as we seek a perfection that has already been provided to us.  We wrestle as Jacob wrestled, without need, without purpose, the victory having already been provided.  The fear of who we were causes us great trouble, but the reality of His salvation within us speaks only of peace, and the anticipation of His return.

The six previous plagues have all led up to this moment, to these events.  The last great war, World War 3, begins not as humans feared, as a rivalry between nations over “more” – but as a continuation of the war in heaven, between good and evil, between those who bare the mark of the third beast, and the Lord of Lords and King of Kings who dares to do, what He has always promised to do.  The great day of the Lord, of His return has come.  And the sequence of seven begins to see its fulfillment.  It occurs in the days of the seventh Laodicean church as found in the beginning of this book of Revelations of Jesus Christ that John has written.  The seventh seal is now opened.  The seventh trumpet is now sounding.  And the seventh plague must now fall.  It is the destruction of the seventh plague that will leave the evil ones of this world dead for the next thousand years.  The work of the seventh angel will be to descend and bind Satan in chains to the isolation and destruction of this abandoned earth for the next thousand years while the followers of Christ have gone home with Him, and will review the books of Judgment in heavenly courts to see why those they knew or loved are not there in paradise with them.  The sequence of seven, of wholeness, of perfection is reaching its zenith.

John describes the scenes of Armageddon.  He details what the first battle plan in the last great war looks like.  Satan, the dragon, and the Beasts he has raised in his alliance, have through the power of demons and the impersonation of every deity and religious icon, have gathered fallen mankind to war in a place called in the Hebrew tongue “Armageddon”.  They stand ready to greet and war against the return of our Lord, though they are unaware of who they fight for, and who they fight against.  So deep is the blindness of those who have accepted the Mark of the Beast, that they can no longer tell Satan from Christ on any level.  Confusion, chaos, the hallmarks of sin and disorder, are on display as at no other time in the history of our world.  Six plagues have already fallen exactly like the scriptures predicted.  Those who refused the Mark of the Third Beast remain untouched, and unaffected.  They are shielded from the wrath of our God, because it is only to be poured out upon evil.  Yet despite the clear word of God in these Revelations, despite the reality of what has transpired, evil does what evil always does – it refuses to accept reality and seeks to redefine it.  Still suffering from grevious sores, thirst, scorching heat, and regional darkness, what is left of mankind seeks to war, to kill, to exert power over others.

So John describes the futility of evil and the start of its demise in chapter 16 of Revelations, beginning in verse 17 saying … “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.”  This plague begins with a declaration, a definitive utterance of simplicity and finality – it is done.  Before the enemy has time to engage a single member of his troops to war, the destiny of this battle has been announced from heaven itself, from the temple, from the throne – it is done.  This will not be a contest.  This will not be an exercise that can lead to victory for the forces aligned with evil – there will be only one victor, and He is returning from the throne room of heaven to what is left of this world.  The words those who follow Christ have so longed waited to hear have been said.  There is to be time no more.  Decisions were made well ahead of this declaration, fates were sealed well ahead of this.  This is not an arbitrary end to mercy and redemption offered by our God.  It is a recognition, that no mercy is being sought.  There are none left who are undecided, or in want of salvation.  There are only those who have been saved already, and those who wish never to be saved.  So the words it is done, reflect the reality of our world.

John continues in verse 18 saying … “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.”  The passages we studied earlier in chapter 11 describing the blowing of the seventh trumpet are repeated here again.  There were voices, thunders, lightnings, and a great earthquake.  Perhaps only on that day will we know what the voices of the thunders are stating.  But this is to be no secret affair.  This is not a silent approach, where the enemy would not detect His coming.  Instead it is a very noisy affair.  In case you were able to sleep through the sights and sounds of the storm, the very ground will shake you from your slumber.  No one will be able to miss the end of all things.  No one will sleep through the end of the world, the final battle, the Armageddon of wars. 

John continues in verse 19 saying … “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. [verse 20] And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.”  Here John identifies three separate entities that are impacted discreetly by the return of our Lord.  First John identifies a “great city” which is divided into three parts.  Perhaps this refers to Jerusalem given the idea that the final battle is believed to be centered in the Middle East.  Or perhaps this refers to Rome, as the Vatican is centered there and is one of the locations of the three Beasts the dragon has created in his alliance to compel the conscience of men.  The cities of the nation’s falling then may refer to the seats of the dragon where Christ was never a part of any religion still maintained.  And finally Babylon is called into remembrance before God.  While most would like to ascribe this image of Babylon to a religious entity, it has been better identified with a governmental one, namely with the United States, where the Mark of the Third Beast began.  When examining the United States as its fulfillment, the following passage carries even more meaning – that every island is fled away, and the mountains were not found.  If we are the Babylon here referred to, we have the geography to make this passage meaningful.

John continues in verse 21 saying … “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.”  Only now is the final destruction reaped upon the earth, and even now it causes none to come to repentance but rather to deepen in their blasphemy.  The last plague is to be one of hail.  Each stone is to weigh nearly one hundred pounds.  Imagine grapefruit sized hail of an incredible density, or basketball sized hail, where each stone, each drop or rain made ice, weighs nearly one hundred pounds.  Falling from an altitude of great height, perhaps mixed with fire and from a clear sky as in the days of Pharaoh of old.  The level of destruction this final plague is to reap is to be universal as well.  No one on the side of evil is to survive it.  The righteous ones, and those who sleep in Christ will have already been called forth to greet Him in the sky.  They are to leave behind this world of pain and sin.  They need not see or witness the destruction this plague will cause.  The suffering of mankind steeped in evil is to sleep for the next thousand years.

No cities would survive hail of this size and weight.  No cars, or buildings, or life will survive it.  The words “it is done” were not to be taken lightly.  Our world is to be left barren, our infrastructure completely obliterated.  All that will remain for the next thousand years will be the desolation of water turned to blood, earth scorched by the sun until all is barren, an earthquake that re-writes the geography, and a surface pounded by 100 pound rocks of hail.  It will be to this “bottomless pit” that Satan is to be bound.  He is to be locked into isolation to contemplate what his evil has wrought.  The nations will not survive these events, allowing him a further audience for his lies and deceptions.  Instead the work of the seventh plague is universal desolation, and the finality of the end of evil for next millennia. 

The last great World War 3, code name Armageddon has begun, and the first battle has ended without contest as was foretold.  What John will reveal next in the aftermath, is an epilogue of sorts, a post script on the fate of a church who would not be true, and a nation who would not either.  There were a few more Revelations yet to be revealed …

 

Prologue to War ...

Our world has suffered through 2 wars that touched it on a massive scale; everyone dreads the idea of a World War 3.  But while most of us have tried to stem back fears over the years that communism might try a military solution over inherent dedication, few have imagined that the actual World War 3 would pit the evil men in humanity, aligned with Satan and his demonic hoard, against God in the form of a returning Jesus Christ.  The intensity and destruction of the first four plagues have not let up.  Their effects can still be felt; their calamity is still seen upon those who carry the Mark of the Third Beast.  And strangely, those who have not forsaken their identity as followers of Jesus Christ alone, remain untouched by the disasters of God’s judgments upon the world.  This only serves to intensify the hatred for the untouched by those who are suffering.  A worldwide hunt to pursue and kill any who do not wish to take the Mark, replaces a “starve them to death” strategy.  In this the evil of those who have steadfastly refused His salvation only intensifies.  Evil does what it always does.  It refuses to admit defeat and doubles down on its previous course.  No repentance will be sought, no mercy offered to the untouched, none sought for themselves.  The hate that leads us to murder is seen magnified in a world where no longer are the winds of strife held back.

The first four plagues were universal in nature, and served to rouse the world’s attention that all was not right.  Had reason, or love, remained even a little in charge, repentance might have been sought and patience might have been extended.  But now, the choices of men were sealed.  The final Mark of the Beast offered a choice from which there is no further changing of the mind.  There would be no retreat from the course now pursued by those immersed in evil.  The next two plagues however, had a new element of geographical significance.  They begin in specific locations, and cause specific reactions.  They act as a prologue to the great and final ending World War 3.  Who we have chosen to oppose as evil reigns supreme is none other than the returning Christ.  But self-deception is also a key trait of those plagued by evil.  They see no evil in themselves, only point it out in others as a reason for what they do.  Under another self-inflicted plague of blindness to who they are, and with whom they quarrel, they pursue the drums of war, attempting to stamp out once and for all time, the people of Jesus Christ.

However where the Third Beast has established his mark on a universal basis, the restriction of commerce as threat to compel the conscience and attack the identity of those who follow Jesus Christ alone; there is another mark worth examining.  Those who have refused to follow the edicts of mankind, those who look to Jesus Christ alone for their salvation, not trusting to men or self, or doctrines and majority opinions on the interpretation of scriptures, are quietly sealed with a different mark.  These attacks of the enemy have always been about identity.  To clarify and identify those who side with Satan and his promises of ease and wealth and power over others, against those humble servants who refuse to follow anyone but Jesus Christ.  Those of us who cling to Jesus Christ alone are also marked in our foreheads with the Name of His Father.  Our invisible marking may be such to human eyes, but it is crystal clear to those from the realm beyond our own.  Our angels see our transformation, as do those of the enemy.  There is nowhere to hide, and frankly no reason to do so.  For our lives are fully in the hands of our God, should He elect not to protect us, we would perish.  But then, this is a realization we should have in the here and now, for His protective mercies alone keep us alive this very minute.

There are always sides chosen in a war.  It began in heaven itself.  Lucifer convinced, perhaps deceived, perhaps bribed, a third of heaven’s population of angels to rebel against God and pursue this new course of pleasing self instead of others.  He must have had strong verbal arguments that made logical sense.  But then the entire birth of evil came from a breaking of trust in God, and instead trusting to the wisdom of self.  The war in heaven did not begin through acts of murder, but through words of persuasion.  But when persuasion had accomplished all that it was going to, the birth of war entered the universe, and angel rose up against angel, and against the Father and Son, our perfect God.  The love of God was reflected even in this first war, as Lucifer was defeated, but not exterminated.  He was instead cast out, perhaps our God still hoping that Lucifer might change his mind before his new name of Satan must be bound to him.  But there would be no changing of minds, only a deepening of the path of destruction and death that comes from any sin – even one so seemingly small as to trust our own common sense, rather than the word of our God.

When our world stood before on the brink of destruction, Noah too, might have trusted to his own common sense, instead of to the words of our God.  Building a giant boat for rain that had never been seen, upon dry land that had never known a flood, for a period of 120 years, while preaching of the coming flood – does not qualify as heeding to common sense.  Logic would dictate the impossible and never before seen, simply cannot and will not occur, but they did.  While the doors of the ark stood open, and Noah preached, any one of mankind could have elected to join “Noah’s folly” and enter the ark for safety.  Surely there should have been some pure cowards living then who enter the ark only for an insurance policy “just in case” Noah was right.  But none entered.  Fear of the mob, was greater than fear of an invisible God, promising destruction no one had ever witnessed.  The same was true then, and will be true in our near future.  Now is the time before the door is shut, before the final choice has been forced upon the world, before the plagues of miraculous destruction begin to fall.  Now is the time when minds still have time to change and alter their course.  Once the door is shut, this time will be no more.  Lucifer became Satan, he never reverted back.  The war rages on for him, and now he wishes to enlist us in its next chapter.  Fear of the mob will once again over-ride fear of an invisible God.

There are only two sides now.  Those who have accepted and been marked by the third beast, either through oral declaration, or by refusing to submit and be transformed by Jesus Christ; and those who through submission have seen the power of Jesus Christ transform how they think, what they want, and therefore what they do.  Both sides are clearly marked, either through the actions of the hands, or the thinking of the foreheads.  Both sides have established identities.  Both sides have seen the results of the first four plagues – either suffering them because of an embrace of evil, or completely sheltered from them through the protective mercies of God’s love for His children.  The war must now continue.  So the capitals become the prime targets.  Satan will target heaven, and where he believes it will descend.  But God too will pour out His wrath upon the capitals of evil, and focus His attention upon the locations where sin has had its closest embrace, and where the false doctrines and edicts of men have their strongest hold and influence.

John begins to chronicle the last three plagues in chapter 16 of his book of Revelations of Jesus Christ and in verse 10 continues saying … “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, [verse 11] And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.”  The location, or capital that God chooses to attack with this fifth plague may have multiple targets.  If we assume the beast mentioned is the second beast raised by the dragon (whose seat and authority were established by the dragon and mentioned earlier), then we can expect the Vatican or Rome to experience physical darkness, because of the darkness they allowed to corrupt the purity of the Christian faith throughout the dark ages and into today.  For the seat or capital of this beast is clearly in Rome or Vatican city.

But there is another beast to consider.  If the beast referred to here by John is the third beast, not the second, then the United States would be its target.  Perhaps Washington D.C. our seat, or even our entire nation from coast to coast is to see a plague of darkness to come upon us.  For darkness to be effective, we would have to lose power.  A well-lit night sky and homes tends to defeat the idea of a plague of darkness.  Perhaps what lies in our future after a series of calamities already expressed, is the loss of our electrical power combined with a plague of darkness that causes men to gnaw at their tongues to see if they are still alive.  Whether this plague is poured out in a constrained fashion on our nation’s capital, or universally across our nation, its intent would be to target the locations most steeped in the evil of blasphemy.  The Pope has claimed equal authority to God in this world and in so doing has established ceremonies and traditions mandating and controlling the nature of the worship of men.  The United States will have mandated the mark of the third beast, compelling the conscience under threat of commerce attempting to make itself equal with God to mandate the nature of the worship of men.  Both beasts caused the compulsion of conscience, perhaps both are to suffer from the darkness of the edicts they caused.

There is still however one more beast to consider, the dragon himself.  Perhaps the capitals of atheism, and the religions of the world that do not accept Christ at all, are to be plagued by the plague of darkness they have chosen to embrace.  Protestant churches who now dictate the conscience of men are no more immune than corrupt governments, or churches that have no concept of Jesus Christ.  Any organization or assembly, or conspiracy that would seek to compel the conscience of others, and cause others to abandon following Jesus Christ alone, to instead augment or add to, who they follow and corrupt their identity as followers of Christ, stands equally upon the side of the dragon, and perhaps may also be a part of his capital under the attack of this plague.  The results are the same, whether in Rome, or the USA, or across the world in places and churches of abject rejection of Jesus Christ alone; none of those impacted by the plague of darkness repent of what evils they have done.  Instead they lament their continued suffering (the sores have not gone away), and they blaspheme further the name of God. 

It is now when the final war is to commence.  It is now when Satan intends to marshal what is left of his earthly evil forces and summon them to battle.  John records in verse 12 saying … “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 sixth plague begins in nearly the same location as the fifth and sixth trumpet that sounded when leaders who did not embrace the religion of Christ emerged before.  There were historically many wars between those surrounding nations who opposed Israel (God’s people).  In the Middle East, which has traditionally been so long a focal point for conflict in our world, is to begin the last great world war.  Perhaps the loss of power in the capitals of darkness think to believe they must own the oil reserves in these lands to rectify what has been lost.  Perhaps the religions of Islam and the traditional Jewish faith which cannot embrace the idea of the Messiah of Jesus Christ have finally come into remembrance before God, and for this reason the location of the last most intense human conflict has been selected.  In any case, a plague is poured out in the regions of Iraq, Iran, Israel, and the Middle East.  The waters have been dried up in preparation for kings bent on war.

It is at this point in the sequence of events that miracles are needed to rally the troops of Satan.  Sores, lack of water, scorching heat, darkness, and the death, destruction, and chaos that ensues have left little will or strength in the evil ones of this world to make one last ditch final attack.  But by now, Christ has long since left His temple in heaven with His accompanying angelic throng.  He will arrive here soon, and Satan wishes to attack Him upon His arrival.  To do this he needs to make one more rallying cry.  So given the lateness of the hour, and severity of the stakes, demons must take a more active and visible role in the affairs of men.  Without working some miraculous deceptions of his own, no one will believe Satan any further.  So John continues his revelations in verse 13 saying … “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. [verse 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.” 

Demons emerge from the mouth of the dragon himself.  But also they come from the mouth of the beast, which perhaps in this case refers to our nation.  They also come from the mouth of the false prophet, which perhaps in this case refers to the Pope seated in the Vatican.  The identity of the dragon is clear.  But whether the beast mentioned is the second, or third, or both is less so.  The false prophet has heretofore been unmentioned.  It is however commonly believed that in order to deceive the nations, Satan will impersonate the return of Christ with a false version of these events.  He will not be allowed to fully mimic Christ’s returns descending in the clouds with every eye seeing him and trumpet of God sounding.  However he will make enough of a parity to deceive nearly the entire world, even the elect if time were not shortened.  It may be in this series of events that a supernatural figure is introduced to the world as Allah, and Buddha, and Ganesh, and the Messiah, and Jesus Christ – but in reality he is only the false prophet here described, a demon in the form of whoever we wish him to be.  It may these other demons traverse the world attempting to show by supernatural power, that the false worship and edicts of men are worth rallying behind one more time.  The intent is to rally mankind for the final extermination of those who have refused the mark of the third beast.  It is to prepare them for a war perhaps Middle East based for land, or oil, or money, or religious dominance – but no matter why men of evil rally, who they are destined to fight against is Jesus Christ returning triumphant.

In the midst of the revelation of all this calamity, John pauses.  He reminds us that he is writing in the future tense.  He reminds us that the mission of redemption, is ALWAYS the mission of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  While the intensity of all these plagues is nearly upon the wicked and the time of the end of all things nearly in sight of you and I.  John pauses, to once again remind us, redemption is still within our grasp in the here and the now.  John pauses in verse 15 with a message from the only true Messiah as he relays … “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.”  You and I have been living on the precipice of all these things, yet we live as if time has no end, and nothing is imminent.  This is the reason the coming of Christ is as a thief in the night, when NO ONE is expecting Him.  Our hearts have grown cold of eager anticipation, and routine is the master of all.  In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, ALL were found sleeping.  None escaped the sleep of complacency and weariness of time passing.  The difference was in the preparation for the final events.  Some looked to be ready, even though they fell asleep.  Some assumed they would have what they need later on, and slept.  Both had to be woken up by the return of the Bridegroom.

Even with all this calamity, John reminds us that NOW is time to prepare for His return.  We are to keep our garments ready, to take on His righteousness for our own lack thereof.  We are to cloth ourselves with His white raiment, or be found naked in our shame and unreformed sin.  The wise virgins took extra oil “just in case”.  We need the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and His fire in our lives, to bring us the reform of character we so desperately need.  And we need it now.  We need to be prepared now, not delayed in anticipation of some future date.  For some of us, death will be a surprise before these events transpire on a day and time when we are not ready to see it come.  On that day and time, our ability to prepare will be forever cut short.  Our chances at a changed mind, forever gone.  The life He wants to give us, one that is free from the pain and death that sin brings, can begin now.  All we need do, is to submit to Christ, and let Him bring our new lives to us, in the here and the now.  This is the message of pause John relays.  Do not read of these events that are still to come, without an eye for where your salvation stands today.  Do not read the sure word of God, and let it roll off of your soul like the water rolls off of ducks and geese.  Absorb the water of life.  Let it sink into your soul.  Let the healing power of Jesus Christ transform you today, and begin a process in you that has no end, forever making you better than you are at this moment.

After his pause, to remind us again, of the message of redemption while there is yet time, John resumes with the events that are fast transpiring.  He continues in verse 16 … “And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.”  Again geography plays a role in the sequence of the final seven plagues.  World war 3 is ready to commence.  No matter who we thought the foe would be, no matter who Satan in his imitation of Jesus Christ has purported to war against, the true foe of evil is about to return in triumph.  There will be no winner of earthly, or demonic origin, in the battle about to be intended.  There will be no final solution for followers of Jesus Christ like that which Hitler proposed in the past for his Jewish enemies.  There will be no final extermination of those who bare the mark and seal of the Father God, refusing to sacrifice their identity as followers of Jesus Christ.  Instead there will be a culmination, a reckoning, a judgment, and a consequence the evil ones of this world are wholly unprepared for.

For there is one more plague about to be unleashed …

 

The Past is Prologue ...

The Revelations of Jesus Christ to his servant, the prophet John continue with events so close to the return of our Lord, they can nearly be seen already.  To say these events occur in the last days would seem obvious.  But when trying to pinpoint a more precise timeframe, one need only look at the sequence of events in terms of what has been completed already, and what is still left unfulfilled.  The sequence of seven that is the method of these revelations since the start of this book is once again to be employed as the last plagues of God’s judgments are poured out upon the evil in this world.  But to gauge where we are today consider the previous sequence’s.  The messages to the seven churches show you and I to be living in the days of Laodicea the last church before He returns.  The sixth seal has been opened.  The sixth trumpet has been sounded.  The history of the great disappointment, and work of the two witnesses is in our past now.  The plan of the enemy in raising three beasts to war against the lamb has seen us witness the rise of the third beast.  The ability to conduct commerce to be tied to the compulsion of conscience on a worldwide basis is something only our country has the power to implement.  And we are fast on our way to seeing it done.  Our direction in that regard has already been set; all that remains is to see our direction achieved.  Whether by those atheists, or believers of other religions who deny Christ altogether; or by those zealous fundamentalists Christians who believe only their version of doctrine is correct; the compulsion of conscience and attacks of our identity as followers of Jesus Christ is certain to be seen in our near future.

What remains undone to place us along the timeline of events that John has revealed to us is … the completion of the latter rain in the harvest described by the work of the Lamb and the fourth angel in the prior chapter.  The fulfillment of His work within us in the sealing of the 144,000 first fruits who have a special mission in the last days of our world’s history (likely tied closely to the work of the fourth angel).  The worldwide implementation of the Mark of the Third Beast which will restrict commerce unless we forfeit our identity as individual followers of Jesus Christ.  After which follows the seven last plagues which fall upon the evil in this world about to be described, as well as the work of the fifth and sixth angels who see a harvest of blood reaped among the wicked through these events.  These sequences conclude with the “seventh” church, or seal, or trumpet, or angels mission, or plague all being the culmination of His return and the beginning of our reunion with our Lord and our God. 

We, you and I, live perilously close to the end of all things.  While for believers to have thought that the last days have been with us for hundreds of years prior to now is also true.  In no other time has our country been in the position it is in today financially and with its ability to influence the financial systems of the entire world economy.  Our worldwide network of computer systems are now the backbone of immediate controls of wealth from every nation on the planet, and no nation can survive financially without participation in these systems.  In no other time has our nation had such a tremendous momentum to tie politics to fundamentalist beliefs in the right wing of the Republican party, or such fervor to see religion denied altogether from far left wing of the Democratic party.  Regardless of which political power triumphs, the ultimate compulsion of the conscience and attack on our identity as followers of Jesus Christ alone is imminent.  People today have more of a desire to look to men to find salvation than to submit to Jesus Christ.  Believers of all religions are more willing to follow their human leaders, than to seek Christ with a submissive heart and allow His transformation to be completed within them.  Instead we would rather follow the Pope, or Joel Osteen, or the Dali Lama, or a Cleric, or Rabbi, cult leader, or local pastor – most of all the man in the mirror; than to trust in ONLY Jesus Christ to save us from ourselves.

So while the delay in His return and the messages of warning cries about its nearness have persisted so long we have become hardened to them; the events needed to transpire to see the end emerge have crept up upon us like a thief in the night.  We sit now on the edge, on the precipice of the end of all things, and yet go about our lives with no sense of urgency or even joyous anticipation.  We marry and divorce with no thought other than to find what pleases our hearts as they are.  We attend our churches and try to find food in our sermons, but we tire of the idea of living as if tomorrow may be our last day, and today our last opportunity to see love reflected through us, inspire another to find Jesus and their salvation.  We have come to a point where prophecy is only decried by extremists wearing sandwich boards on the streets and in electronic forums predicting nothing but doom and fear as the reasons to seek God before it is too late.  But these revelations were not given to us to inspire fear; or as an attempt to use fear to bring us back to God.  In fact, quite the opposite.  The revelations were provided so that as events unfold they would NOT surprise us, or cause us fear.  We can be prepared for them both mentally, and spiritually.  We can take heart knowing that while danger and attacks are employed by the enemy of souls, the ultimate triumph of the Lamb is foretold in the same passages – both within us, and external to us.

All of the revelations described in this book, were intended to be of a redemptive nature.  Even what follows of the plagues in this chapter is to give comfort to those who accept His redemption and refuse this final mark against our identity as followers of Jesus Christ alone, that all is not lost.  The judgments of God against evil and the pain it has so long caused, are NOT poured out upon His servants in these last days.  For God is not indiscriminant in pouring out the cup of His wrath, His wrath is reserved against evil alone, and is reserved only for those whose choice He must respect to remain apart from the salvation He offers.  Unlike His enemy, God does NOT compel the conscience of men.  He offers them salvation, through the power of His love, but He does not force them to take it.  If we choose to remain true to our love of self, we will ultimately be allowed to make this choice, and remain aligned with the ranks of His enemy.  It is for those who make this choice, who the following passages will inspire fear.  Those who have elected to be saved from the love of self, will see only His protective hand in the final sequence of events in this world’s history.  Like Noah before them, they will find grace and protection from the Lord during the destruction that lies all around them.

So John begins in verse one saying … “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.”  John does not specify if the voice who begins these plagues is that of God, or of the Lamb, or of an Angel, or one of the 4 beasts in front of the throne.  We assume it is the voice of God, because no human was allowed entry into the temple while the plagues are to be poured out as we learned in the previous passages.  John continues in verse 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.”  What is past is prologue.  Egypt, due the hardness of the heart of the Pharaoh, suffered plagues and judgments from God because Pharaoh thought of himself as god, instead of submitting to the power of the only true God.  So now after the Mark of the Third Beast has been universally implemented which places the time of these plagues very close to when we live, the first vial of His wrath contains noisome and grievous sores to be poured out on those who have accepted this mark.  The men of our day accept no god greater than themselves.  They would rather worship self, or other men, than to worship Christ alone.  They would rather declare against Jesus and remain able to conduct commerce and live, than to risk starvation, persecution, and death by the majority who bare the mark of the beast.

Pharaoh refused to accept the supremacy of a god greater than himself.  He and his nation bore the consequences.  Now, the men of our day, will refuse once again to accept toleration of the voices of dissent among them.  They will choose to compel the conscience of others, and in so doing raise themselves to the level of “god”.  They will force a choice to deny personal and individual worship of Jesus Christ alone, and instead demand we follow the edicts of mankind.  In so doing they mimic the Pharaoh of old and share in his fate.  What is past is prologue.  When Satan came to tempt Christ, he came in the disguise of angel of light.  When men propose the choice to submit to their edicts, or follow conscience to serve Jesus Christ, they will also take on a disguise.  They will carry with them the wisdom of the majority in matters of doctrines and beliefs.  They will use scripture to “prove” their doctrinal positions are the only correct ones to take. 

Islamists often quote the Bible today to attempt to show they are not completely unaligned with the history of other “prophets” of God.  However, they do not accept the divinity of Christ, as that would prove the undoing of their entire religion.  The Jewish faith of today, still adheres to the scriptures of the Old Testament, but they cannot accept that Jesus Christ was the Messiah.  Catholics still believe the Pope has equality to God upon this world, and thus has authority to dictate practices he believes are scripturally based.  Protestants believe in a scriptural morality that would see those who dissent die, rather than to pollute the faith.  And atheists do not accept any god greater than the man who stands in the mirror.  To find any of these groups, or all of them united in purpose to see individual worship of Jesus Christ ended can be no surprise.  All of these groups can present excellent arguments and facts to support their various positions.  All of them tell elements of truth, and can cite our own scriptures, in an attempt to dissuade us from our various and personal beliefs.  But for all the strength of their arguments, their goal remains the same, to attack our individual identity as followers of Jesus Christ alone.  Whether we share some basis of belief or doctrines with any of these groups or ideas, it cannot excuse a wholesale denial of allowing ourselves to follow anyone other than Jesus Christ alone.  It is not the Protestant doctrines that save me, it is Jesus Christ alone.  It is not the Pope, or a cleric, or Rabbi, or a local pastor, or the majority opinion of any group, it is Jesus Christ alone.

Should we find ourselves in sympathy with those who would seek to compel the conscience of others, we have found ourselves on the side of the Beast and the enemy of souls.  For compulsion is not the way of Jesus Christ.  No matter how devout our faith in a given doctrine of scripture, there is never a reason it needs to be advanced at the point of a sword.  The punishment of the wicked must be left to God, not to us.  We are commanded only to love them, to love specifically those who hate us and would seek to kill us.  We do not show love, when we inflict persecution, and death, in order for their “greater good”.  That is not love.  That is the tool of the enemy.  It is not love we show when we kill our enemies “in order to defend ourselves, or our faith”.  It is what it is.  It is pain and death, and a vain attempt to advance scripture at the point of a sword.  It is blasphemy to think ourselves and our ideas as equal to God, to believe we can take life or allow it to persist based on an acceptance of our ideology.  It is the devout thinking of the Pharisees that took this idea and used it to crucify Jesus Christ.  Lest we think we are different, we are not.  What is past is prologue.  We should learn from history, that compulsion of morality can never be achieved.

John continues in verse 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.”  The parallels between the second plague and the second trumpet sounding in ages past are undeniable.  Both are poured out against the sea.  The sounding of the second trumpet affects a third of life in the sea, whereas this plague appears to affect the entire sea.  It is not immediately apparent how the alteration of water into blood would result in the deaths of all those on the sea at the time.  But consider the effects of the difference in buoyancy between water and blood.  Could metal ships and submarines that use water as coolant still function if blood were introduced instead?  Could steam be produced from blood as it is from water?  The ocean life that lives in the sea, would likely also die.  On a worldwide scale this plague would certainly cause a level of devastation like none we have ever borne witness to.

John continues in verse 4 … “And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. [verse 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. [verse 6] For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. [verse 7] And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.”  The third plague turns what is left of the world’s water supplies to blood.  All of the fresh water has been turned.  Egypt witnessed this plague as well.  The corollary to the winepress of the wrath of God which produces blood instead of grape juice springs to mind. The wicked are offered blood to drink, as they have seen fit to believe that the killing of saints, and prophets, were in the best interest of everyone.  The “purification” of the church has seen any who dissent give their lives violently for the cause of Christ.  In vain efforts at keeping church doctrine pure, countless saints and prophets who actually serve God were murdered.  In changing the water into blood and offering it as drink, God shows His supremacy to the men who cling to the ideas of control they have embraced.  They have none.  They never did.

It is not dissent the makes doctrine impure.  It is dissent that causes us to learn, to grow, and to either deepen in our faith and beliefs, or to alter and expand them to embrace greater truth.  Dissent is not our enemy, nor those who will not comply with our majority view.  It merely represents a different position in the journey to the perfection Christ brings about.  Over time, incorrect thinking and beliefs are altered by the power of His love and grace to the point where truth is better understood, and embraced.  This process is inevitable.  But it happens on different timelines, as each of us are unique.  He must bring it about in our lives in the ways in which each of us respond to His love.  He knows us better than we know ourselves, and MUCH better than we know each other.  We must allow Christ the freedom to change each of us, in His time, and in His manner.  To seek to accelerate the process through force is nothing but folly.  We cannot compel others to stop believing what they believe, and we need not do so.  Christ will take care of the incorrect thinking and beliefs of others.  This is the process of salvation.  Our “job” is merely to love them through the process, and to realize this process is also going on within us.  It may well be “we” who are changed in matters of belief and doctrinal persuasion over time, to believe otherwise is arrogance and pride.

John continues in verse 8 … “And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. [verse 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 fourth plague in our day could be easily attributable to global warming, or global climate change; but as scientists point out, these changes take place over very long periods of time.  The plagues that are falling upon the wicked are thought to happen in fairly rapid sequence and with worldwide dimensions to their scope.  This plague in particular only affirms the pattern set by Pharaoh of old, in that repentance is not sought.  Instead blasphemy occurs.  We think ourselves equal to God, and therefore deny His power in the genesis of this plague, or any other.  Despite all the miraculous events that occur during these plagues, atheists do what atheists always do, they look for a scientific explanation that negates the need of God.

But blasphemy is not the exclusive province of the atheist.  It is shared in hearts of those who prefer the wealth of this world to the humble service found in the next one.  Many who still carry the name of “Christian” will suffer under the weight of these plagues.  This will only serve to intensify their passion to weeding out and killing the voices of dissent.  They believe that until every soul who refuses to follow their majority view is killed, the plagues will continue.  They must all be found and slaughtered, offered as human sacrifice to the vengeful god they serve in order that relief is found.  The fact that those who do NOT bare the mark of the third beast, are NOT suffering from any of these plagues has been lost on them.  They believe it must be Satan protecting his own, instead of God who alone has the power to perform these plagues, protecting His own.  They like the Pharisees of old, accuse the divine protection and healing that comes from God as coming from demons.  What is past is prologue. 

Suffering does nothing to inspire the wicked to change.  This is the mistake even Christians have so long made in their evangelistic efforts.  Fear has been presented as a prime motivator to bring people to Christ.  But fear and punishment do not deter evil in the slightest.  If anything, evil is fed off of fear.  The first words of Christ to His servants all throughout time have generally been … “do not be afraid”.  Christ does not look for us to fear Him, rather to respond to His so great love.  His first concern in almost every dialogue is for us to lose our fear.  We cannot think well when we are afraid.  We do not reason well, and it is impossible to love under the threat of fear.  The reason for these revelations of great plagues upon the evil of this world, is that our fear is to be completely negated.  When all these events unfold we will be fully aware, and the peace of Christ will be our pursuit.  While the wicked carry sores upon them, our bodies will not.  While the wicked are offered only blood to drink, we will find water to sustain us.  While the sun bares down in scorching heat upon the men of this world, for only a miraculous reason, we will find none of its ill effects.  For we know that our God is God.  Like the children of Israel who awaited in eager anticipation to leave what they knew of slavery and find God in a promised land, so we too will wait eagerly knowing these plagues only mark a timeline for His imminent return to take us away, home to be with Him forever.

But three more plagues are to mark that timeline, for what is past remains prologue …