Today, I am reading and commenting on  Revelation 20-22.

I spent a fair amount of time today thinking about the thousand year reign and Satan deceiving the nations at the end of it.  However, I was unable to get my thoughts to come together into something I could write.  Then I came to John’s vision of God’s judgement over mankind.  He writes that he saw the dead gathered before God’s throne, where the books were opened.   All of everyone’s actions were recorded in the books which were opened before God’s throne.  Further John writes that the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.  This passage probably provides the primary source for the idea that in Christianity if your good deeds outweigh your evil deeds, you to heaven and to hell if the reverse is true.  However, that misreads what John says here, because John tells us that there is another book besides the books which record what people have done.  That other book is the Book of Life.  Each person will indeed by judged by what they had done, but only those whose name was recorded in the Book of Life will escape the lake of fire.  So, while we will all be judged by our deeds, it will not be our deeds which will spare us from damnation.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Revelation 17-19.

I always find this passage difficult to understand.  I am convinced that John believed when he wrote about the woman and the beast here that they referred to Rome.  John would have seen the seven hills referenced here as being the seven hills of Rome.  And perhaps the passage does indeed refer to Rome.  After all the passage says that it once was, now is not, yet will come again.  That being said, when I read John’s description of the woman he identifies as Babylon, the only place which fits his description today is the United States.  Or, perhaps, Washington, D.C. because he does write that the woman is the great city which rules over the kings of the earth.  However, if we read the woman referred to in this passage as the Untied States, we see that the merchants of the earth would mourn its fall because there would indeed be no one to buy their merchandise.  I also see the United States fulfilling what John writes about all the nations being led astray by her magic.  Reading this passage, I think Christians should be warned against allowing themselves to be seduced into thinking that we can give our loyalty to both the Kingdom of God and to the United States.  While being loyal to the Kingdom of God does not make us traitors to the United States (or whatever other nation we live in), loyalty to the United States (or whatever other nation we live in) will make us traitors to the Kingdom of God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Revelation 13-16.

As with many people I am fascinated by the two beasts described in today’s passage.  That fascination primarily comes from how they seem to resemble things I see in the world around me today. I remember previous generations connecting these beasts with different things in the world than what they now look like to me.  First I want to note the circular reasoning of those who worshiped the dragon (which John had previously told us was also know as the Devil or as Satan).  They worshiped the dragon because it had given power to the beast, which they worshiped because of the power it had been given by the dragon.  I also find it interesting that the beast was something which one does not ordinarily think of as speaking (although perhaps I am reading too much into John noting that it was given a mouth).  I also think we need to take note of the fact that this first beast had been given what appeared to be a fatal wound before it rose to the power it exercises in this passage.  What else do we know about this first beast?  It utters proud words and blasphemies.  As I look around, I see organizations like the World Economic Forum, various UN agencies, and other similar organizations which all exercise power, but it is unclear from where their power derives.  In addition, many of these organizations express blasphemous contempt for God and those who put their faith in Him.

Which brings me to the second beast.  The second beast, in particular its mark, reminds me of the tech giants of today.  They seem to be working hand in hand with the shadowy organizations which I mentioned in the first paragraph.  I keep seeing new information about how the various tech giants (Google, Facebook, etc.) had secret agreements to manage what information people would be able to see.  In addition, the tech giants all seem to be promoting a move towards a unified system of identification, which people will be required to be part of in order to do even the most basic of business.  I want to state that I do not think that all of these organizations are intentionally working hand-in-hand towards these ends.  Rather, different people and groups are acting according to their interests, often working together because their interests converge.  Which brings us to the number of the beast, 666.   My understanding of that number derives from my understanding of two numbers with biblical significance: three and seven.  Three and seven are two numbers associated with God.  Seven is the number of completeness, while three is the number of divine perfection.  So, it seems to me that 666 represents the imperfection of man.  The number of the beast tells us that while, to a degree, the two beasts seek the best interests of mankind, their imperfection and incompleteness leads them to do the exact opposite.  Instead of ushering in an empire of perfection and goodness, a utopia, they usher in an empire of failure and evil, a dystopia.  The two beasts represent what happens when humans attempt to create a more perfect world without making God the center of their lives.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Revelation 9-12.

When I was a teenager my father thought that the description which John gives of the locusts released by the fifth trumpet sounded like a description of the military helicopters used in Vietnam.  The members of the Church I grew up in were convinced that Christ’s Return was imminent. So, they spent a lot of time trying to figure out how the events described here, and in other prophecies of the End Times, applied to what they saw going on around them.  Many of them even thought that they could calculate the date (or a close approximation of it) if they just looked at these passages closely enough.  My father did not believe that was possible, but he did believe that we should look at the prophecies made here and see how they were being fulfilled around us.  My father believed that we should live our lives as if we KNEW that Christ would return tomorrow.  I fail to live up to that, but I believe he was correct.

Now, let’s look at what John writes here.  After the fifth trumpet sounded, people faced great suffering and hardship, but no one died from it.  Followed by the sixth trumpet sounding and a third of mankind died violent, painful deaths.  Yet, no one repented of their sins.  No one looked at the suffering and death and said, “We should change our ways and turn to God.”  While I do not see events in the world right now which match up to these two prophecies, I do see people behaving in a similar manner.  They see great suffering, but no one died, so why should they change their ways?  Then, they see people die, but their response is, “What difference would it make if I change my ways?  It’s not my sin which caused these problems.  It is other people who need to change their ways.”

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Revelation 4-8.

Once again I come to a passage where I am unsure what all I am going to write.  I will start by noting that The Lion of the Tribe of Judah is The Lamb.  I want to note that John writes that no one on earth, or in heaven, or under the earth was found worthy to open the scroll, but then the Lion of the tribe of Judah triumphed and was able to do so.  He triumphed as the Lion, but opened the scroll as the Lamb.  Jesus went to His victory as a dominating king of beasts, a Lion, but obtained His victory as a sacrifice, as a Lamb.  This represents one of the most important points about Christianity: God’s power is expressed in weakness.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Revelation 1-3.

Usually when I read this passage I write something about what John writes to each of the seven Churches to which this letter is addressed.  Today I was struck by what John writes about God, and about Jesus.  John refers to God the Father as “Him who is, and who was , and who is to come.”  A few verses later he quotes God as saying that He is “the Alpha and the Omega who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”  Then when Jesus speaks to John in his vision, He says, “I am the First and the Last.  I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever!”  The phrase, “who is, and who was, and who is to come,” strikes me so powerfully.

• God is!  There may be those who say that God is dead, that He does not matter, that mankind no longer needs God, but they are mistaken.  God is, and mankind desperately needs Him now.
• God was!  There are those who say that  we cannot trust what the Bible says because it happened so long ago, but God was there.
• God is to come!  There are those who say that we do not know what the future holds, and they are correct.  But we know that God is already there waiting for us.

God was there at the beginning and He is there at the end.  Jesus was dead and now He is alive because death could not hold Him.  And that means that death will be unable to hold those who put their faith in Him.

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Revelation 20-22.

I can never quite figure out how the thousand year reign described here fits with the other prophecies about Jesus’ Second Coming in other New Testament books (that does not mean I think it is in contradiction with them, just that I cannot understand how they fit together).  However, one part makes sense to me: the resurrection of those who were martyred for their faith in Christ.  These were those who had not worshiped the beast or received its mark.  The passage says that they will be blessed above and beyond those who are also faithful but do not suffer death for their faith.  Then John writes about the second resurrection when all of the remaining dead shall rise in order to come before God for judgement.  On that day the books which record the deeds of everyone will be opened and all will be judged based on what they have done, except those whose names appear in the book of life.  Ultimately, those whose names are not written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire, along with devil, and suffer the second death.

Then God will create a new universe, one which will not experience any of the flaws which the current universe has as a result of sin.  The new universe will have no death, nor mourning, nor pain of any sort.  Those who have truly given themselves to God will live in this new universe in the presence of God, walking with God as Adam and Eve walked with Him before they disobeyed.  On the last day of 2022 it is time to remember that the last day of this earth will come soon.  Let us serve God here while we still have the opportunity to do so.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Revelation 17-19.

I struggle with putting together a blog on today’s passage.  The passage speaks of the woman who sits on a scarlet beast.  The woman is described as both a prostitute and as ruling over the kings (governments) of the earth.  The woman abuses those who follow Christ (drinks their blood).  The beast existed in the past, did not (does not?) exist for a time, then exists once again.  The heads and horns of the beast are kings (governments) who give their power to the beast.  Together the kings and the beast make war on Christ and His followers, but Christ will be victorious over them.  Despite sharing an animosity towards the Christians with her, the beast and its kings will hate the woman and seek her destruction.  The beast will succeed in destroying the woman, to the dismay of the kings who gave their support to the beast in her destruction.

I can see this prophecy reflected in the world today, although I am unsure that it is being fulfilled now.  As a side note, I believe that God intends for each generation to perceive aspects of the prophecies contained in the Book of Revelation as coming to fulfillment in the events they witness.  So, how could this prophecy apply today?  The woman would be the United States government.  The beast would be the various international organizations supported by world governments (if you look at these organizations, most of them share common goals and have overlapping governing boards).  These organizations all seem to hate the United States, yet all of the world would suffer badly if the United States was destroyed.  These organizations, and the U.S. government, are hostile to those who faithfully follow Christ.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Revelation 9-12.

John writes that when the fifth trumpet is blown a star will fall from the sky to earth and be given the keys to the Abyss.  When the star opens the Abyss, smoke will rise out of it and darken the sky.  Locusts, which look like horses, will emerge and torture those who do not have God’s seal on their foreheads.  The angel of the Abyss, also known as The Destroyer (Abaddon in Hebrew, and Apollyon in Greek) , was king over these locusts with the sting of a scorpion.  Tradition holds that Abaddon is one of Satan’s fallen angels, but there is reason to connect Abaddon with the angel who killed the first-born of Egypt, and the angel who spread the plague over Israel after King David’s census.  If those other angels were serving God in bringing destruction, perhaps Abaddon is also.  In fact we have four more angels who carried forth destruction at God’s command after the sixth trumpet is blown.

Which brings me to something that I want to pull out for extra attention.  After the sixth trumpet is blown, the four angels are released and kill one third of all mankind by plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur.  Yet, those who survived refused to repent of their sin and idolatry.  They did not turn from their murders, thefts, sexual immorality, or magic arts.  It strikes me as how true this is to human nature.  There have been several times in my lifetime when the actions of people led to suffering for many of those who performed those actions, yet others refused to stop taking the actions which increased the likelihood of suffering the same fate.  Likewise, we should remember this prophecy when trying to bring the Gospel to those around us: many of them will refuse to turn from their sin, even in the face of great suffering.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Revelation 4-8.

Yesterday I wrote that it is important that we pay attention to the symbolism in the Book of Revelation.  Today, my first thought was, “Why are there 24 elders?”  I tried to do an Internet search to see what others had thought and all I found were people discussing WHO those elders were.  While I can understand some people wondering who they were, I don’t think that who they are is important (if it was, John would have given us more information about that).  So, I then looked up what significance the number twenty-four has elsewhere in the Bible.  I found that David had divided those responsible for music in the Temple into twenty-four divisions and that the priesthood had also been divided into twenty-four divisions.  It also occurred to me that twenty-four is twice twelve.  Twelve being the number of tribes of Israel and the number of Apostles whom Jesus called while He was on earth.  Which leads me to conclude that the twenty-four elders appeared in this vision to remind us of the importance of worshiping God (the twenty-four divisions of musicians and twenty-four divisions of priests led the people of Israel in worship).

Then we have the scroll sealed with seven seals.  Now seven is the number of divine perfection.  Which explains why only the Lamb was worthy to open the scroll, because only the Lamb shared in divine perfection. Seven also carries the idea of completion.  The Children of Israel marched around Jericho for six days, then on the seventh day they marched around Jericho seven times with priests blowing on seven trumpets.  So, when the seventh seal was opened, revealing the completion of God’s plans for this world, seven trumpets were blown.  When the seventh trumpet was blown it indicated the completion of God’s perfect plan (although we do not get to that point in today’s passage).

So, let us worship God as His perfect plan moves to its perfect completion.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.