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Revelation 22

2011-04-01T08:51:00.001-04:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 22

Introduction
Revelation 22 begins exactly where Revelation 21 ended. In many editions of the Bible, there isn’t even a paragraph break between the last verse of chapter 21 and the first verse of chapter 22.

Revelation 22:1
HE (the angel) SHOWED ME A RIVER OF WATER OF LIFE, CLEAR AS CRYSTAL, PROCEEDING OUT OF THE THRONE OF GOD (the Father) AND OF THE LAMB (Jesus),

Revelation 22:2
IN THE MIDDLE OF ITS (the city’s main) STREET (accessible to everyone in the city). ON THIS SIDE OF THE RIVER AND ON THAT WAS THE TREE OF LIFE (I don’t think this means that a single tree spanned the river, with the water flowing through a hole in the base of its trunk; I think that it means that there were at least two trees – one on one side of the river, and one on the other – and, probably, many more than two, lining the banks of the river for its entire length), BEARING TWELVE KINDS OF FRUITS (in the present world, each kind of tree bears only one kind of fruit; but in this amazing future world, here is a single kind of tree that bears twelve different kinds of fruit), YIELDING ITS FRUIT EVERY MONTH (perhaps a different kind every month – that would make sense of the statement that it bears twelve kinds of fruit, rather than some other number). THE LEAVES OF THE TREE WERE FOR THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS. Even in this world, the leaves of many kinds of trees provide the organic compounds that are the basis for many kinds of medicine. I don’t know why there would be any need for healing (as we think of it today) in this amazing future world, since there is no sickness. Perhaps it could be said that the reason that there is no sickness is because the leaves of these trees provide the “medicines” that prevent sickness. The word that is translated “healing” could just mean “health,” which wouldn’t have the implication that there was any sickness to be “healed.”

Revelation 22:3
THERE WILL BE NO CURSE (like there was when Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, and like there has been in the present world ever since then) ANY MORE. THE THRONE OF GOD (the Father) AND OF THE LAMB (Jesus) WILL BE IN IT (the city), AND HIS (God’s) SERVANTS (will) SERVE HIM. That’s a short-and-simple answer to the question, “What will we do for all eternity?” We will do whatever God wants us to do.

Revelation 22:4
THEY (God’s servants) WILL SEE HIS (God’s) FACE, AND HIS (God’s) NAME WILL BE ON THEIR FOREHEADS. Contrast this “picture” with the “picture” in Revelation 13, in which the servants of the “beast” have the “mark” of the beast – the name of the beast, or the number of his name – on their foreheads.

Revelation 22:5
THERE WILL BE NO NIGHT (so any such expression as “day and night” can’t possibly refer to something that will take place in that world), AND THEY NEED NO LAMP LIGHT (such as was typically used at night before the invention of electric lights); FOR THE LORD GOD WILL ILLUMINATE THEM. THEY WILL REIGN FOREVER AND EVER.

Revelation 22:6
HE (the angel) SAID TO ME (John), “THESE WORDS (referring, I think, to all the words in the Book of Revelation – and, indeed, to all the words in the entire Bible) ARE FAITHFUL (trustworthy) AND TRUE (accurate). THE LORD GOD OF THE SPIRITS OF THE PROPHETS SENT HIS ANGEL TO SHOW TO HIS BONDSERVANTS (all Christians) THE THINGS WHICH MUST (begin to) HAPPEN (very) SOON (after the Book of Revelation was written).” This is almost an exact quotation of Revelation 1:1, which explains what the Book of Revelation is all about.

Revelation 22:7
“BEHOLD (“Look!”), I (Jesus will) COME QUICKLY (very soon after the completion of the fulfillment of all the other prophecies in this Book and elsewhere in the Bible). BLESSED IS HE (anyone) WHO KEEPS (obeys) THE WORDS OF THE PROPHECY OF THIS BOOK (the Book of Revelation – and, indeed, the entire Bible).” Notice that the blessing isn’t pronounced on those who understand everything that is written; it’s pronounced on those who obey whatever they do understand.

Revelation 22:8
I, JOHN, AM THE ONE WHO HEARD AND SAW THESE THINGS (the revelations and visions that are recorded in this Book). WHEN I HEARD AND SAW, I FELL DOWN TO WORSHIP BEFORE THE FEET OF THE ANGEL WHO HAD SHOWN ME THESE THINGS.

Revelation 22:9
HE (the angel) SAID TO ME (John), “SEE YOU DON’T DO IT! I AM A FELLOW BONDSERVANT WITH YOU AND WITH YOUR BROTHERS, THE PROPHETS, AND WITH THOSE WHO KEEP THE WORDS OF THIS BOOK.WORSHIP GOD.” This is exactly the same thing that was mentioned in Revelation 19:10. I don’t know if the same experience was repeated (which does, sometimes, happen) or if John was simply mentioning the previous experience again (by way of review). In any case, the point is the same. We should never worship mere angels, other human beings, Satan, demons, carved images of imaginary gods, or anything else. We should only worship the one true God.

Revelation 22:10
HE (the angel) SAID TO ME (John), “DON’T SEAL UP THE WORDS OF THE PROPHECY OF THIS BOOK, FOR THE TIME IS AT HAND (this is exactly the opposite of what an angel told Daniel, as recorded in Daniel 12:4 – the prophecies of Daniel didn’t begin to be fulfilled until some time after they had been given, so his Book needed to be preserved until the time for their fulfillment came; but the prophecies given to John were to begin to be fulfilled immediately after they were given, so his Book didn’t need to be hidden).

Revelation 22:11
HE (anyone) WHO ACTS UNJUSTLY, LET HIM ACT UNJUSTLY STILL. HE (anyone) WHO IS FILTHY, LET HIM BE FILTHY STILL. HE (anyone) WHO IS RIGHTEOUS, LET HIM DO RIGHTEOUSNESS STILL. HE (anyone) WHO IS HOLY, LET HIM BE HOLY STILL.” It seems that there comes a time when it is no longer possible for people to repent – to change their ways. I believe that that time comes for each individual when he (or she) dies; and it will come for the entire human race when Jesus returns. I don’t believe in any theory that provides for a further “chance” to “get it right” after one dies or after Jesus returns. II Corinthians 6:2 says that the day of salvation is now. Don’t count on having another chance to become a Christian some other time or in some other place!

Revelation 22:12
“BEHOLD (‘Look!’), I (Jesus will) COME QUICKLY (very soon after the completion of the fulfillment of all the other prophecies in this Book and elsewhere in the Bible). MY REWARD (the reward that I intend to give to My followers) IS WITH ME, TO REPAY TO EACH MAN ACCORDING TO HIS WORK (the ‘rewards’ are both positive and negative – eternal life for those who have followed Jesus, and final destruction for those who haven’t).

Revelation 22:13
I (Jesus) AM THE ALPHA (the first letter of the Greek alphabet) AND THE OMEGA (the last letter of the Greek alphabet), THE FIRST AND THE LAST, THE BEGINNING AND THE END (this is a combination of the statement that the Lord God made in Revelation 1:8 and the statement that Jesus made in Revelation 1:17).”

Revelation 22:14
BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO DO (obey) HIS (God’s) COMMANDMENTS, (so) THAT THEY MAY HAVE THE RIGHT TO (eat the fruit from) THE TREE OF LIFE (and, therefore, to live forever), AND (they) MAY ENTER IN BY THE GATES INTO THE CITY (where the “Bride” of Christ lives).

Revelation 22:15
OUTSIDE (of the city – excluded from the true Church of Christ) ARE THE DOGS (people who aren’t members of the “family” of God – see Jesus’ use of this expression in Matthew 7:6, Mark 7:27 and Matthew 15:26, and Paul’s use of it in Philippians 3:2), THE SORCERERS (literally, as we saw in Revelation 21:8, the Greek word translated “sorcerers” means “those who abuse drugs”), THE SEXUALLY IMMORAL, THE MURDERERS, THE IDOLATERS, AND EVERYONE WHO LOVES AND PRACTICES FALSEHOOD (a generic way of describing all unrepentant sinners, who choose to practice sin as a lifestyle rather than believing in and following Jesus).

Revelation 22:16
“I, JESUS, HAVE SENT MY ANGEL TO TESTIFY (to the truth of) THESE THINGS (all the things that are recorded in the Book of Revelation) TO YOU (John) FOR THE ASSEMBLIES (in particular, the seven assemblies that are mentioned in Revelation 1-3, but also all Christian assemblies throughout the world and throughout the Church Age). I (Jesus) AM THE ROOT AND THE OFFSPRING OF DAVID (this expression identifies Jesus as the Messiah, God’s anointed King); THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR (in biblical symbolism, the ‘bright and morning star’ – literally, the planet Venus, when it rises in the morning, just before the sun rises – represents the coming Messiah, just as the ‘sun’ represents God Himself).”

Revelation 22:17
THE (Holy) SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE (of Christ) SAY (to the unsaved world), “COME (and become a part of God’s Kingdom)!” HE (anyone) WHO HEARS (that message and responds appropriately to it, by becoming a Christian), LET HIM (join with them to) SAY (to the unsaved people that he encounters), “COME (and become a part of God’s Kingdom)!” It is the responsibility of each individual Christian to preach the Gospel to each unsaved person that he (or she) comes in contact with, just as it is the responsibility of the Church as a whole to preach the Gospel to the entire unsaved world. HE (any unsaved person) WHO IS THIRSTY (for the things of God), LET HIM COME (and become a part of God’s Kingdom). HE (anyone) WHO DESIRES (to live forever), LET HIM (receive Christ as his Savior and thus) TAKE THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY. In the long run, it will have to be said that no one who truly wanted to be saved will be lost, and no one who truly wanted to be lost will be saved. We demonstrate our true desires by acting on them, even when we deceive ourselves into thinking that we don’t.

Revelation 22:18
I (John) TESTIFY TO EVERYONE WHO HEARS THE WORDS OF THE PROPHECY OF THIS BOOK (the Book of Revelation, in particular – and the entire Bible, in general), IF ANYONE ADDS (anything) TO THEM, MAY GOD ADD TO HIM THE PLAGUES WHICH ARE WRITTEN IN THIS BOOK.

Revelation 22:19
IF ANYONE TAKES AWAY (anything) FROM THE WORDS OF THE BOOK OF THIS PROPHECY (the Book of Revelation, in particular – and the entire Bible, in general), MAY GOD TAKE AWAY HIS PART FROM THE TREE OF LIFE, AND OUT OF THE HOLY CITY, WHICH ARE WRITTEN IN THIS BOOK. At the simplest level (and this is probably what John meant by writing these words), this is a stern warning to any future copyist, who might be making a copy of the Book, not to alter its text. On a deeper level, it is a firm reminder of the importance of inspired Scripture (the entire Bible, not just the Book of Revelation): God has given us exactly the Word that He wants us to have, and we have no right to add to it, take away from it or change it in any way. Of course, that doesn’t mean that we can’t translate it into other languages – indeed, we need to, if people are to be able to understand it – but we can’t tamper with its meaning in the process of doing so.

Revelation 22:20
HE (Jesus) WHO TESTIFIES (to the truth of) THESE THINGS (all the things that are recorded in the Book of Revelation) SAYS, “YES, I (Jesus) AM COMING QUICKLY (very soon after the completion of the fulfillment of all the other prophecies in this Book and elsewhere in the Bible).” John’s response to Jesus’ statement was, “AMEN (‘So be it!’)! YES, COME, LORD JESUS!”

Revelation 22:21
(May) THE GRACE (undeserved favor – generosity – kindness) OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST BE WITH ALL THE SAINTS (believers)! AMEN (“So be it!).”

Revelation 21

2011-02-25T19:24:00.001-05:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 21

Revelation 21:1
I (John) SAW A NEW HEAVEN (a new sky) AND A NEW EARTH (a new world): FOR THE FIRST HEAVEN (the present sky) AND THE FIRST EARTH (the present world) HAD PASSED AWAY (ceased to exist – as reported in Revelation 20:11), AND THE SEA (a symbol for the constantly changing nations throughout the world – the restless “ocean” of humanity as it exists apart from trust in God) WAS NO MORE. After his vision of the final judgment, John saw this vision of a completely new universe, in which there will be only one “nation” – the Kingdom of God – and its people will live on a new world underneath a new sky.

Revelation 21:2
I (John) SAW THE HOLY CITY, NEW JERUSALEM (the equivalent, in the new world, of what the present Jerusalem is in the present world – namely, the capital city of the Kingdom of God), COMING DOWN OUT OF (the new) HEAVEN (the new sky) FROM GOD, MADE READY LIKE A BRIDE ADORNED FOR HER HUSBAND. Just as a bride, to be adorned for her husband, must be made ready (prepared), so the New Jerusalem, before coming down out of the new sky from God, must be made ready (prepared). In John 14:2, Jesus is recorded as having told His disciples that His purpose in going to Heaven was “to prepare a place for you” – the New Jerusalem is that “place” that He is presently engaged in preparing. This verse is actually a “preview” of the vision that John will explain in more detail beginning in Revelation 21:9.

Revelation 21:3
I (John) HEARD A LOUD VOICE OUT OF HEAVEN (the voice of Jesus, the “Lamb” who was sitting on the throne), SAYING, “BEHOLD (‘Look!’), GOD’S DWELLING (place) IS WITH PEOPLE (this is what people have missed – what they have longed for – ever since the time when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden and were expelled from it), AND HE (God) WILL DWELL WITH THEM (on the new earth), AND THEY WILL BE HIS (God’s) PEOPLE, AND GOD HIMSELF WITH BE WITH THEM (His people) AS THEIR GOD.

Revelation 21:4
HE (God) WILL WIPE AWAY FROM THEM (His people) EVERY TEAR FROM THEIR EYES. DEATH WILL BE NO MORE; NEITHER WILL THERE BE MOURNING (the elimination of death will eliminate the primary cause of human mourning), NOR CRYING, NOR PAIN, ANY MORE. THE FIRST THINGS (including such things as death, mourning, crying and pain) HAVE PASSED AWAY (ceased to exist).”

Revelation 21:5
HE (Jesus) WHO SITS ON THE THRONE SAID, “BEHOLD (‘Look!’), I AM MAKING ALL THINGS NEW.” No sooner will the present world cease to exist, than the new world will be created. In some sense of the word (I think), the new world will contain the “same” things, but without their negative connotations – our bodies, for example, will be the “same” bodies, but without their present weaknesses. HE (the angel who was “guiding” John through these visions) SAID, “WRITE (a description of what you’re seeing), FOR THESE WORDS OF GOD (that you are hearing) ARE FAITHFUL (trustworthy) AND TRUE (reliable).” John was assured that all of this is real, not just an imaginary “dream” of what “might” be. Someday, this vision will be literally fulfilled.

Revelation 21:6
HE (Jesus) SAID TO ME, “IT IS (as good as) DONE (the things that God says will be done in the future can be spoken of as if they were already done now, because His knowledge of the future is 100% certain and infallible)! I AM THE ALPHA (the first letter of the Greek alphabet) AND THE OMEGA (the last letter of the Greek alphabet), THE BEGINNING AND THE END (see my comments on Revelation 1:8). I WILL GIVE FREELY TO HIM (anyone) WHO IS THIRSTY (the right to drink) FROM THE SPRING OF THE WATER OF LIFE. In order to be saved, one has to want to be saved. God isn’t going to save anybody against their will. To be saved, you have to trust Jesus to save you. Everything else about the Christian life comes after you are saved and as a result of your having been saved.

Revelation 21:7
HE (anyone) WHO OVERCOMES (the temptation to refuse to be saved by refusing to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior), I (Jesus) WILL GIVE HIM THESE THINGS (the ‘things’ described in the preceding and following verses). I WILL BE HIS GOD, AND HE WILL BE MY SON (it’s all about having a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus).

Revelation 21:8
BUT (on the other hand) FOR THE COWARDLY (those whose lives are dominated by fear as opposed to faith), UNBELIEVING (those who refuse to trust God), SINNERS (those who habitually violate God’s laws), ABOMINABLE (those who do those things that God regards as especially ‘heinous’), MURDERERS (those who hate and kill other people), SEXUALLY IMMORAL (those who refuse to live by God’s standards for sexual behavior), SORCERERS (literally, the Greek word translated ‘sorcerers’ means ‘those who abuse drugs’), IDOLATERS (those who worship false gods as opposed to worshipping the true God), AND ALL LIARS (those who habitually refuse to speak the truth), THEIR PART (and the part of all other kinds of unsaved people – those who make a ‘lifestyle’ out of their sin and refuse to accept God’s forgiveness because they refuse to trust Jesus for salvation) IS IN THE LAKE THAT BURNS WITH FIRE AND SULFUR, WHICH IS THE SECOND DEATH (as explained in Revelation 19:20, 20:10, 20:14 and 20:15).” This verse reminds us that the beauty and glory of eternal life in the new world is not promised to everyone, but is only promised to those who (in the present life) establish a life-changing relationship with God through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The destiny of the unsaved is to be excluded from that new world and destroyed.

Revelation 21:9
ONE OF THE SEVEN ANGELS WHO HAD THE SEVEN BOWLS, WHICH WERE LOADED WITH THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES (see Revelation 15:1), CAME, AND HE SPOKE WITH ME (John), SAYING, “COME HERE. I WILL SHOW YOU THE BRIDE, THE WIFE OF THE LAMB (Jesus).” This symbol (the Bride) is obviously intended to be the opposite of the symbol that we read about in Revelation 17 (the Great Prostitute). The “prostitute” (a loose, immoral woman) was an appropriate symbol for that antichrist organization (the Papacy) which, as we saw, really worshipped Satan (the Devil) rather than worshipping God (as it claimed to do). The “bride” (assumed to be a pure virgin) is thus an appropriate symbol for the true Church – that organization that really worships God and was persecuted by the antichristian Papacy during the time when it had the power to do such persecuting. The angel promised to show John a visionary description of the true Church.

Revelation 21:10
HE (the angel that was mentioned in Revelation 21:9) CARRIED ME (John) AWAY IN THE SPIRIT (notice that this happened in a vision, not in “reality” – John was actually still on the island of Patmos, where he had been all along, as he had these visions) TO A GREAT AND HIGH MOUNTAIN (a good vantage point from which to see something very large – so we notice, right away, that the true Church is not, as it often perceives itself to be, a small, isolated group, but is, in fact, a very large body of people), AND SHOWED ME THE HOLY CITY, (New) JERUSALEM (which, therefore, must be the place where the “bride” – the true Church, composed of all the true believers that have ever lived, or ever will live – will live after the “wedding”), COMING DOWN OUT OF (the new) HEAVEN (the new sky) FROM GOD (see my comments on Revelation 21:2),

Revelation 21:11
HAVING THE GLORY OF GOD (just as the Tabernacle in the wilderness – and, later, the Temple in Jerusalem – had the “Shekinah” glory [the “cloud” that represented God’s presence] in it). HER (the Bride’s) LIGHT (the bright light that was shining from her face, just as a bright light shone from Moses’ face after he had spent time with God on Mt. Sinai – see Exodus 34:29-35) WAS LIKE (the bright light reflecting off) A MOST PRECIOUS STONE, AS IF IT WERE A JASPER STONE, CLEAR AS CRYSTAL;

Revelation 21:12
HAVING A GREAT (thick) AND HIGH WALL (representing the fact that God protects His people from all dangers, both physical and spiritual – just as the walls of ancient cities protected their people from the dangers of invading armies); HAVING TWELVE GATES (representing the many different kinds of life experiences that can lead a person to come to trust in Jesus Christ for salvation), AND AT THE (twelve) GATES TWELVE ANGELS (whose “job” is to make sure that all those – and only those – who believe in Christ enter the city); AND (twelve) NAMES WRITTEN ON THEM (the twelve gates), WHICH ARE THE NAMES OF THE TWELVE TRIBES OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL (this is a way of saying that it is only God’s chosen people who enter the city; once again, as we have seen before, the Jews are here being used as a symbol to represent what must literally be understood as the true believers in Christ of all nations).

Revelation 21:13
ON THE EAST (side of the city) WERE THREE GATES; AND ON THE NORTH (side of the city were) THREE GATES; AND ON THE SOUTH (side of the city were) THREE GATES; AND ON THE WEST (side of the city were) THREE GATES. This “picture” is based on the way that the people of Israel camped around the Tabernacle during their years of wandering in the wilderness – three of the twelve tribes camping on each of the four sides of the Tabernacle, which was set up facing the four primary compass directions (see Numbers 2:1-24). It means that people from every country in the world will have access to the New Jerusalem, because the Church consists of Christian believers from every country in the world.

Revelation 21:14
THE WALL OF THE CITY HAD TWELVE FOUNDATIONS, AND ON THEM (were inscribed the) TWELVE NAMES OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES OF THE LAMB (Jesus). This “picture” shows us that the Church was literally “built on” the work of Jesus’ twelve original apostles. Every person who comes to faith in Christ is led to that faith by someone who was led to that faith by someone in a long chain that eventually leads up to one of the twelve apostles.

Revelation 21:15
HE (the angel) WHO SPOKE WITH ME (John) HAD (in his hand) FOR A MEASURE (a measuring stick), A GOLDEN REED (yardstick), TO MEASURE THE CITY, ITS GATES, AND ITS WALLS. The purpose of this measurement is to demonstrate that God knows the exact extent of the Church – He knows how many saved people there are, and how many there ever will be – and He is capable of providing sufficient space for all of them to live in. The Church is big enough to include everybody who wants to be included and is willing to come to faith in Christ. As an old song puts it, “Though millions have come, there’s still room for one; yes, there’s room at the cross for you.”

Revelation 21:16
THE CITY LIES FOURSQUARE (it’s three-dimensional – a cube – the point, I think, being that it’s perfect; there are no odd edges; everything is right; it’s exactly the way it’s supposed to be, the way that God wants it to be – and it’s different from this world, which is a sphere), AND ITS LENGTH IS AS GREAT AS ITS BREADTH (that, of course, is the definition of a “square”). HE (the angel) MEASURED THE CITY WITH THE (golden) REED (that he had, as mentioned in Revelation 21:15), (and it was) TWELVE THOUSAND STADIA (long, wide and high). ITS LENGTH, BREADTH, AND HEIGHT ARE EQUAL (12,000 stadia each – again, its shape is that of a cube). A stadion is a Greek unit of measurement equivalent to 606 feet 9 inches. 12,000 stadia equals 7,281,000 feet, or about 1,379 miles. So the city had a land area of 53,012,961,000,000 square feet, or about 1,901,578 square miles (about half the land area of the United States of America) – and it was also 7,281,000 feet (about 1,379 miles) high, giving it a total volume of over 385,987,737,000,000,000,000 cubic feet, or about 2,622,235,000 cubic miles (about half the total volume of the moon). I have written a rather extensive explanation of how big that really is (and how many people could have a “mansion” in such a city) in my e-tract, “My Father’s House.” I’ll be happy to send you a copy by email (free, of course) if you ask me to.

Revelation 21:17
ITS WALL IS ONE HUNDRED FORTY-FOUR CUBITS (thick), BY THE MEASURE OF A MAN, THAT IS, OF AN ANGEL. A cubit is a Hebrew unit of measurement defined as the distance from a man’s elbow to the tip of his middle finger. Of course, that varies from person to person; in my case, it’s about 18 inches, so 144 of my cubits would be about 216 feet. But we have no idea how big that angel was, so we really don’t know how thick the wall was. What this verse tells us is that the wall is solid; no opposition can break it down or break through it. God’s people are absolutely safe inside the city.

Revelation 21:18
THE CONSTRUCTION OF ITS WALL WAS JASPER. THE CITY WAS (made of) PURE GOLD, LIKE (that is, the gold was as pure as) PURE GLASS.

Revelation 21:19
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CITY’S WALL (which, as we saw in Revelation 21:14, represented the twelve apostles) WERE ADORNED WITH ALL KINDS OF PRECIOUS STONES. Probably each of the stones had a symbolic meaning that in some way represented the character (or the ministry style) of one of the twelve apostles, and those meanings were probably well known to the people of John’s time; but, unfortunately, that information has been lost to us, and I know of no way to reconstruct it. THE FIRST FOUNDATION WAS JASPER; THE SECOND, SAPPHIRE; THE THIRD, CHALCEDONY; THE FOURTH, EMERALD;

Revelation 21:20
THE FIFTH, SARDONYX; THE SIXTH, SARDIUS; THE SEVENTH, CHRYSOLITE; THE EIGHTH, BERYL; THE NINTH, TOPAZ; THE TENTH, CHRYSOPRASUS; THE ELEVENTH, JACINTH; AND THE TWELFTH, AMETHYST. Those are the same twelve precious stones that were worn on the breastplate of the High Priest in Old Testament times, and there they represented the twelve tribes of Israel. Again, the Old Testament chosen people (the nation of Israel) is used in Revelation as a symbol for the New Testament chosen people (the Church).

Revelation 21:21
THE TWELVE GATES (in the wall of the city) WERE (made of) TWELVE PEARLS. EACH ONE OF THE GATES WAS MADE OF ONE PEARL (this where the expression “the Pearly Gates” comes from). I’ve sometimes (jokingly) said that if a city gate (for a city this big) could be made from a single pearl, it would certainly be amazing to imagine the oyster that could make such a pearl. But God can just as easily create a pearl Himself as create an oyster big enough to make it. THE (main) STREET OF THE CITY WAS PURE GOLD, LIKE (that is, the gold was as pure as) TRANSPARENT GLASS (see Revelation 21:18). This is where the expression “streets of gold” comes from – although, technically, this verse only mentions one street, even though a city of this size would need to have millions of streets. Since the entire city is described as being made of gold (in Revelation 21:18), it makes sense to think of all of the streets as being made of gold, not just the single street that is mentioned in Revelation 21:21 (and again in Revelation 22:2, as we will see when we get there), which I think refers to what we would call the “main” street.

Revelation 21:22
I SAW NO TEMPLE IN IT, FOR THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, AND THE LAMB (Jesus), ARE ITS TEMPLE. I think that this is a very important point. In the ancient world, every city had a temple (a literal building) in which the god of the city was thought to live, and which was used for worshipping that god. Even Jerusalem had a magnificent Temple, in which the Jews thought of God as living, and which was used for worshipping Him. But the Church does not have any such temple! Our church buildings are not temples in the sense that we should think of God as living in them, and we are not restricted to those buildings as places in which to worship Him. We, ourselves, are God’s temple (see 1 Corinthians 6:19), and we worship God wherever we are, not just when we go to church buildings for worship services. In the New Jerusalem, there is no special place where we should think of God as living, and where we go to worship Him. He lives equally in every part of the city, and we worship Him in whatever part of the city we are in at the time.

Revelation 21:23
THE CITY HAS NO NEED FOR THE (light of the) SUN, NEITHER (the light) OF THE MOON, TO SHINE (on it), FOR THE VERY GLORY OF GOD (the “Shekinah”) ILLUMINATED IT, AND ITS LAMP IS THE LAMB (Jesus). I don’t know if this means that there won’t be any sun, or any moon, in the new sky; our emphasis in reading these words should be on the word “need.” Because the Church has the Light of the World (Jesus) – I’m referring to John 9:5 – mere physical lights are unimportant. We can do with, or without, them.

Revelation 21:24
THE NATIONS WILL WALK IN ITS LIGHT. The Church holds forth the “light” of the Gospel to the people of the world. Without that “light,” the people of the world live in the “darkness” of sin and in ignorance of God. THE KINGS OF THE EARTH BRING THE GLORY AND HONOR OF THE NATIONS (it is the people of the nations who are the “glory” and “honor” of the nations) INTO IT. Many great leaders, throughout history, have themselves “bowed the knee” and become followers of Christ and have then used their positions of power and influence to enhance and empower the work of the Church, establishing the policies that make the Church’s work easier and – in some cases – even financially supporting specific missionary endeavors.

Revelation 21:25
ITS GATES WILL IN NO WAY BE SHUT (excluding people from the opportunity to accept Jesus and be saved) BY DAY (FOR THERE WILL BE NO NIGHT THERE [because the Light of the World – Jesus – is always shining]),

Revelation 21:26
AND THEY (not just “the kings of the earth” – as mentioned in Revelation 21:24 – but all of the saved people of the world) SHALL BRING THE GLORY AND THE HONOR OF THE NATIONS INTO IT SO THAT THEY (the people of all nations – who are, themselves, the “glory” and “honor” of those nations) MAY ENTER. Verses 21-24 again remind us that the opportunity to be saved is extended to anyone who wants to be saved and is willing to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Revelation 21:27
(But) THERE WILL IN NO WAY ENTER INTO IT (the city, which is a symbol for the true Church) ANYTHING PROFANE (unholy), OR (any) ONE WHO CAUSES AN ABOMINATION (something that God regards as especially “heinous”) OR A LIE (anything that is untrue), BUT ONLY THOSE (people) WHO (whose names) ARE WRITTEN IN THE LAMB’S BOOK OF LIFE. The true Church is composed entirely (and only) of the true Christians. People who aren’t actually saved can join humanly-organized churches, but their ability to do that can’t fool God into thinking that they are actually saved. He knows who is and who isn’t.

Revelation 19

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Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 19

Revelation 19:1
AFTER THESE THINGS, I (the Apostle John) HEARD SOMETHING LIKE A LOUD VOICE OF A GREAT MULTITUDE IN HEAVEN (this doesn’t mean that there were actually any people in Heaven, then or at any other time; John was merely saying that if you could imagine there being a large crowd of people in Heaven, and if you could imagine them all shouting something together at once, then you would have some idea of what he “heard” in his vision – it was a sound like what that sound would be), SAYING, “HALLELUJAH (‘Praise God’)! SALVATION, POWER, AND GLORY BELONG TO OUR GOD:

Revelation 19:2
FOR TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS ARE HIS (God’s) JUDGMENTS (decisions). FOR HE (God) HAS JUDGED (and condemned to death) THE GREAT PROSTITUTE (‘Babylon the Great,’ as described in Revelation 17 and 18), WHO CORRUPTED THE EARTH WITH HER SEXUAL IMMORALITY, AND HE (God) HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS (God’s) SERVANTS (the true Christians) AT HER HAND.”

Revelation 19:3
A SECOND (voice) SAID, “HALLELUJAH (‘Praise God’)! HER SMOKE GOES UP FOREVER AND EVER.” This verse has often been pulled out of its context and using against the biblical teaching that the final destiny of the unsaved is to be completely destroyed (or “annihilated”) – that they will cease to exist altogether. Those who hold the other position say, “See? Doesn’t this verse say that they’re going to burn and burn and burn forever and ever?” But, first of all, this verse isn’t talking about people at all; it’s talking about a city – and not a literal city at that, but a city that has been used in John’s vision as a symbol for a certain political and religious system. So, you might say, “Well, doesn’t it mean that that system is going to burn and burn and burn forever and ever?” No. It simply says that the smoke that was generated by the burning of the city will continue to rise forever and ever. The smoke is the evidence that there has been a fire and that something has been burned up in it. You know the old expression, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” But, that’s not literally true. What’s true is that where there’s smoke, there has been a fire; but there may not be a fire there anymore. When you have finished putting out a campfire, you can look up in the sky and see the smoke that had been generated by that fire while it was still burning. That smoke can rise long after the fire itself has been extinguished, or (as in this case) has gone out of its own accord once it ran out of fuel to burn. What this verse means is that permanent evidence that the city has been completely destroyed exists. In reality, that evidence is nothing more dramatic than the very fact that the city itself can no longer be seen, since it no longer exists. The political and religious system that had been represented by the city in the vision no longer exists, and will never exist again; the “rising” of the “smoke” is the symbolic evidence of that fact.

Revelation 19:4
THE TWENTY-FOUR ELDERS AND THE FOUR LIVING CREATURES (who had been described in Revelation 4:4-11) FELL DOWN AND WORSHIPED GOD WHO SITS ON THE THRONE, SAYING, “AMEN (‘So be it’)! HALLELUJAH (‘Praise God’)!” So there was rejoicing among the angels and among the characters in John’s vision who symbolize the people of God of all ages because of the destruction of all that which had opposed Him.

Revelation 19:5
A VOICE CAME FORTH FROM THE THRONE, SAYING, “GIVE PRAISE TO OUR GOD, ALL YOU HIS SERVANTS, YOU WHO FEAR (have reverence for) HIM, THE SMALL AND THE GREAT!”

Revelation 19:6
I (John) HEARD SOMETHING LIKE THE VOICE OF A GREAT MULTITUDE (see comments on Revelation 19:1), AND LIKE THE VOICE OF MANY WATERS (just as the “voice of a great multitude” doesn’t mean that they are any people in Heaven, so the “voice of many waters” doesn’t mean that there is actually any “water” in Heaven), AND LIKE THE VOICE OF MIGHTY THUNDERS (again, this doesn’t mean that there are actual clouds in Heaven producing thunder; these are just three descriptions of the fact that John, in his vision, heard a loud sound), SAYING, “HALLELUJAH (‘Praise God’)! FOR THE LORD OUR GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, REIGNS! You should recognize these words from the famous aria in Handel’s ‘Messiah,’ which is based on the translation that renders them, ‘For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.’ For a very long time, the antichristian system of the Roman Papacy claimed that it was ‘the king of the world.’ But now we have seen that that system will be overthrown by the rightful King of the world – God!

Revelation 19:7
LET US REJOICE AND BE EXCEEDINGLY GLAD, AND LET US GIVE THE GLORY TO HIM. FOR THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB HAS COME (Throughout this book, we have seen the Second Coming of Christ portrayed in the imagery of the conquest of a conquering King. Jesus has been seen in the role of a mighty general who leads his army to victory in battle, conquers the enemy and sets up his own throne and empire. Suddenly, the imagery shifts, and the Second Coming of Christ is described, instead, as a wedding feast. Whose wedding is it? It’s the wedding of the Lamb. Nowadays, most people think of weddings as belonging to the bride; but, in biblical times, weddings were viewed as belonging to the groom. Literally speaking, the Lamb – Jesus – was never married during His lifetime on earth. You could say that He was ‘saving Himself’ for His ‘wedding day.’ Now we see that His ‘wedding day’ is actually a symbolic representation of the Second Coming), AND HIS WIFE (His ‘bride’) HAS MADE HERSELF READY.” If Jesus is the “groom” in this symbolic wedding, who is the “bride”?

Revelation 19:8
IT WAS GIVEN TO HER (the “bride”) THAT SHE WOULD ARRAY (dress) HERSELF IN BRIGHT, PURE, FINE LINEN (nowadays, the bride’s mother usually takes the responsibility of providing her with an appropriate wedding dress; but, in biblical times, that was the responsibility of the groom’s father – in this case, Jesus’ Father – God): FOR (here comes the “clue” that will enable us to decipher the “hidden” meaning of this “wedding”) THE FINE LINEN IS THE RIGHTEOUS (good) ACTS (deeds) OF THE SAINTS (God’s true people). Where did the wedding dress come from? It was given to the bride by the groom’s father. Where do the good deeds of God’s people come from? Do they originate from our own strength and energy? Do we decide that we’re going to go out and do good deeds? No! Ephesians 2:10 says that God has “prepared” these good deeds “beforehand” so that we should “walk in” them. We are given our good deeds to do. So, who is the “bride”? If the linen represents the good deeds of God’s people, then the “bride” is the true Church – the total community of the true people of God. Revelation 19:8 isn’t saying that Jesus is a polygamist who has 7 or 8 billion wives. It’s not saying that each individual believer is the bride of Christ. The bride of Christ is a symbolic figure that is what you would get if you could imagine taking all the individual Christians in the world and using each of them as a single “cell” to build a total body, make that body a woman, and call her “the Church,” and “she” is the Bride of Christ. Jesus’ wedding is a spiritual, symbolic wedding, not a literal, physical wedding. The actual person, Jesus, will remain “single” forever; He will never, ever be literally married.

Revelation 19:9
HE (the angel who had been speaking to John earlier in the vision) SAID TO ME (John), “WRITE, ‘BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE INVITED TO THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB.’” The imagery shifts again, and this time we as Christians are viewed as the wedding guests rather than as component “cells” of the “bride.” Because this entire vision is symbolic, it’s all right for the symbols to change meaning occasionally. We need to avoid getting confused. It’s not that some Christians are part of the “bride” and others are mere wedding guests (as some denominations have erroneously taught). Both the “bride” and the “wedding guests” are symbols for the Church (and, for that matter, so are the “bridesmaids” described in another “version” of this vision, in Matthew 25). HE (the angel) SAID TO ME (John), “THESE (the words, ‘blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb’) ARE THE TRUE WORDS OF GOD.” Again, in biblical times, it was the groom’s father who sent out the invitations to the wedding feast. Here, the angel reminds John that the invitation to Jesus’ symbolic wedding feast actually originates from Jesus’ Father, God.

Revelation 19:10
I (John) FELL DOWN BEFORE HIS (the angel’s) FEET TO WORSHIP HIM (the angel). That was a bad mistake! John should have known better than to worship an angel. The Apostle Paul had already taught that it’s wrong to worship angels in Colossians 2:18. John should have been familiar with that teaching. But angels are so beautiful, so powerful, so glorious, so spiritual – they communicate so much of the nature of God to us – that it’s sometimes easy for us to forget the fact that they aren’t God. They are just messengers of God. In this case, even the Apostle John made the mistake of falling down to worship this angel, but HE (the angel) SAID TO ME (John), “LOOK! DON’T DO IT! I (the angel) AM A FELLOW BONDSERVANT (slave of God) WITH YOU (John) AND WITH YOUR BROTHERS (the other true Christians) WHO HOLD THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS. WORSHIP GOD (angels refuse to receive worship from human beings; any angel that would receive worship from human beings would become a demon – demons love to receive worship from human beings, and they are the powers behind all the false gods, idols and statues of the ancient pagan world), FOR THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS (rather than any message sent by an angel) IS THE SPIRIT (the motivating force) OF PROPHECY.” At this point, the vision that began at Revelation 15:1 finally comes to its conclusion; the rest of this chapter deals with another entirely separate vision. That vision will be the longest, most detailed explanation of the Second Coming event itself in the entire book.

Revelation 19:11
I (John) SAW THE HEAVEN OPENED, AND BEHOLD (“Look!”), A WHITE HORSE (in Revelation 6:2, we saw a white horse that was a symbol for the spiritual “conquest” of the Roman Empire by Christianity; here is another white horse that is a symbol for the literal conquest of the world by Jesus at His Second Coming), AND HE (Jesus) WHO SAT ON IT (the white horse) IS CALLED FAITHFUL AND TRUE (see the comments on Revelation 3:14). IN RIGHTEOUSNESS (as opposed to the way that most human rulers do) HE JUDGES (cases that are brought before Him) AND MAKES WAR (against His wicked enemies); this statement sets Jesus apart as different from every other King that the world has ever seen.

Revelation 19:12
HIS (Jesus’) EYES ARE A FLAME OF FIRE (see the comments on Revelation 1:14), AND ON HIS (Jesus’) HEAD ARE MANY (really, all) CROWNS (He is to be the legitimate ruler of all the countries in the world). HE (Jesus) HAS NAMES WRITTEN AND A NAME WRITTEN WHICH NO ONE KNOWS BUT HE (Jesus) HIMSELF (so, obviously, I can’t tell you what that name is, since I’m not Him, and, therefore, I don’t know it – but see the comments on Revelation 2:17).

Revelation 19:13
HE (Jesus) IS CLOTHED IN A GARMENT SPRINKLED WITH BLOOD. It’s not clear whether this is His own blood (shed on the Cross) or the blood of His enemies (killed in the final battle, which will be described in the next few verses). It could be either, or perhaps even something else. HIS (publicly-known) NAME IS CALLED “THE WORD OF GOD” (see John 1:1, John 1:14 and other verses like them). There is no doubt whatsoever that the One Who sat on the white horse in this vision is Jesus Christ, even though that specific name for Him is not mentioned in these verses.

Revelation 19:14
THE ARMIES WHICH ARE IN HEAVEN (which could either be the angels or the just-resurrected, just-caught-up-to-meet-Him-in-the-air Christians) FOLLOWED HIM (Jesus) ON WHITE HORSES (similar to His), CLOTHED IN WHITE, PURE, FINE LINEN (that certainly sounds like a description of the Church – coming, as it does, so closely on the heels of Revelation 19:8).

Revelation 19:15
OUT OF HIS (Jesus’) MOUTH PROCEEDS A SHARP, DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD (not a metal sword, but the kind of “sword” that is properly depicted as proceeding out of His mouth – namely, a word, as in Hebrews 4:12), THAT WITH IT (the spoken word) HE (Jesus) SHOULD (will) STRIKE THE NATIONS. Again, Jesus is different from every other king that the world has ever seen. Other kings fight their battles with military weapons (metal swords). Jesus fights His battle with the sheer power of His spoken word. He merely says, “Be defeated!” and they are defeated – just as, when He was here the first time, He used to merely say, “Be healed!” and people were healed. It’s the same Jesus, with the same power, but used for a different purpose in accordance with the unfolding plan of God. HE (Jesus) WILL RULE THEM (the nations) WITH AN IRON ROD (the time period of that rule is described in greater detail in Revelation 20). HE TREADS THE WINEPRESS OF THE FIERCENESS OF THE WRATH OF GOD, THE ALMIGHTY. Very strong terminology to describe His authoritative rule of those “nations” who did not want to acknowledge Him as their King, but now must do so unwillingly!

Revelation 19:16
HE (Jesus) HAS ON HIS GARMENT AND ON HIS THIGH A NAME WRITTEN, “KING OF (all the other) KINGS (this term was first used to describe King Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel 2:37; it refers to an emperor – a king who rules not only his own country, but rules over the kings who rule over various other countries), AND LORD (master) OF (all the other) LORDS (masters).” During the Middle Ages, the Antichrist (the Papacy) usurped this title and applied it to itself, referring to the Pope as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” Someday soon, the world will see Whose title it rightfully is. The next five verses are a gruesome description of the great battle in which His right to rule the world is established.

Revelation 19:17
I (John) SAW AN ANGEL STANDING IN THE SUN. HE CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE, SAYING TO ALL THE BIRDS (buzzards, etc.) THAT FLY IN THE SKY, “COME! BE GATHERED TOGETHER TO THE GREAT SUPPER OF GOD,

Revelation 19:18
THAT YOU MAY EAT THE FLESH OF KINGS, THE FLESH OF CAPTAINS, THE FLESH OF MIGHTY MEN, AND THE FLESH OF HORSES AND OF THOSE WHO SIT ON THEM, AND THE FLESH OF ALL (kinds of) MEN, BOTH FREE AND SLAVE, AND SMALL AND GREAT.”

Revelation 19:19
I (John) SAW THE BEAST (the entire Antichrist system of all ages), AND THE KINGS OF THE EARTH (who had supported the Antichrist’s rule), AND THEIR ARMIES, GATHERED TOGETHER TO MAKE WAR AGAINST HIM (Jesus) WHO SAT ON THE (white) HORSE, AND AGAINST HIS (Jesus’) ARMY (as described in Revelation 19:14).

Revelation 19:20
THE BEAST (the Antichrist system) WAS TAKEN (captive), AND WITH HIM (it) THE FALSE PROPHET WHO WORKED THE SIGNS IN HIS SIGHT, WITH WHICH HE DECEIVED THOSE WHO HAD RECEIVED THE MARK OF THE BEAST AND THOSE WHO WORSHIPED HIS IMAGE (see the comments on Revelation 13). THESE TWO WERE THROWN ALIVE INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE THAT BURNS WITH SULFUR. If we have correctly interpreted the “beast” and the “false prophet” in Revelation 13, we’ll recognize that these words are symbolic – Jesus can’t literally take systems and institutions and throw them “alive” into a literal “lake” of fire! It’s a way of saying that they will be completely destroyed – that, after this time, those systems and institutions will no longer exist, and will never be brought back into existence again.

Revelation 19:21
THE REST (of the armies) WERE KILLED WITH THE SWORD (the word) OF HIM (Jesus) WHO SAT ON THE (white) HORSE, THE SWORD (the word) WHICH CAME FORTH OUT OF HIS (Jesus’) MOUTH. ALL THE BIRDS (buzzards, etc.) WERE FILLED WITH THEIR FLESH (that’s a gruesome description of what would literally happen if a large number of human bodies were left lying unburied after a major battle; it’s a way of saying that Jesus’ defeat of His enemies would be utterly complete). This statement concludes the vision of the Second Coming and prepares the way for Revelation 20, which is the most difficult chapter in the entire book to understand.

Revelation 18

2010-12-01T17:25:00.001-05:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 18

Introduction
If Revelation 17 is a “picture” of the Antichrist world power, Revelation 18 is a rather poetic description of the final destruction of that power. As “poetry” (in my opinion), this isn’t a passage that refers directly to a lot of specific historical events. It is presented in a format that Bible scholars call “taunt song” – actually, what we might call a “parody” of the kind of song that those who love a city would have sung when the city was destroyed by a natural disaster or by invading armies. I say “parody” because this “song” is sung by those who don’t love the city and are actually thrilled to see it fall, because it has been the capital city of the “nation” that has oppressed them for hundreds of years. In it, Babylon (the city that was oppressing the Jews in the time of the Prophet Daniel) is used as a symbol for Rome (the city that was oppressing the Christians in the time of the Apostle John), which, itself, is a symbol (as we’ve seen in studying earlier chapters) for the Antichrist (which we have identified as the medieval Papacy). So this chapter is a “taunt song” of the Christians against the oppressive power of the Papacy, to be “sung” on the occasion of that power’s final destruction. The Papacy actually “fell” from its position of power in AD 1870 (as we have seen in studying earlier chapters), but antichrists similar to it still exert powerful influences in the world today. This “taunt song” probably refers not so much to the fall of the Papacy in AD 1870 as to the final destruction of every power that seeks to rule the world in the place of Christ – which will be at the time of the Second Coming, when Christ arrives in person to take His rightful place as King of Kings (we’ll see more about that when we get to Revelation 19).

Revelation 18:1
AFTER THESE THINGS, I (the Apostle John) SAW ANOTHER ANGEL COMING DOWN OUT OF THE SKY, HAVING GREAT AUTHORITY. THE EARTH WAS ILLUMINATED WITH HIS GLORY.

Revelation 18:2
HE (the angel) CRIED WITH A MIGHTY VOICE, SAYING, “FALLEN, FALLEN IS BABYLON THE GREAT (that’s actually a direct quotation of Isaiah 21:9, where the prophet Isaiah was writing a similar ‘taunt song’ about the destruction of the literal city of Babylon in Old Testament times), AND SHE (‘Babylon the Great’) HAS BECOME A HABITATION OF DEMONS, A PRISON OF EVERY UNCLEAN SPIRIT, AND A PRISON OF EVERY UNCLEAN AND HATEFUL BIRD! Many people (in those days) believed that when a city was destroyed and there were no longer any people living in it, demons and unclean spirits would make that place a sort of ‘base of operations’ from which they could feel free to roam throughout the world to afflict and oppress people. Even today, people express a similar belief when they speak of an uninhabited house as being ‘haunted’ or ‘spooky’ like one of the ‘ghost towns’ in the western United States. Those towns are no longer inhabited; the buildings are still there, but nobody lives in them. Visitors to such places feel uncomfortable. In biblical times, people expressed that feeling by saying ‘haunted by demons and unclean spirits.’ In a more literal sense, ‘Babylon the Great’ is described as ‘a prison of every unclean and hateful bird’ such as vultures, buzzards and other birds of prey that would eat whatever dead bodies were still lying around. Such birds, of course, would make their homes in a place that was no longer inhabited and in which people and animals had died.

Revelation 18:3
FOR ALL THE NATIONS HAVE DRUNK OF THE WINE OF THE WRATH OF HER SEXUAL IMMORALITY (gone along with ‘her’ beliefs and practices and ‘her’ system of rebellion against God), THE KINGS OF THE EARTH COMMITTED SEXUAL IMMORALITY (a symbol for spiritual idolatry – worshipping false gods, gods other than the true God – her ‘god,’ in fact, being the man who claimed to be ‘the man who sits in God’s place’ as ‘the representative of God’) WITH HER, AND THE MERCHANTS OF THE EARTH GREW RICH FROM THE ABUNDANCE OF HER LUXURY.” The economy was involved in this multinational antichristian system, as well as the government and the religion.

Revelation 18:4
I (John) HEARD ANOTHER VOICE FROM HEAVEN, SAYING, “COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE, THAT YOU HAVE NO PARTICIPATION IN HER SINS (God’s people should withdraw from, and cease to participate in, any organization that they realize is seeking to dominate their lives in a way that only God Himself should be allowed to do, and to find fellowship only in such organizations as do not attempt to do that), AND THAT YOU DON’T RECEIVE OF HER PLAGUES (clearly, those who participate in any organization’s sins will also deserve to share in that organization’s punishment, so the best way to avoid the latter is to avoid the former),

Revelation 18:5
FOR HER SINS HAVE REACHED TO THE SKY (they were huge and numerous), AND GOD HAS REMEMBERED HER INIQUITIES. God, of course, is fully aware of everything that has ever happened; He doesn’t need to ‘remember’ things in the sense than we do. In this context, the word ‘remembered’ means ‘has decided to punish’ and ‘is about to do so’ (not just ‘hasn’t forgotten about’).

Revelation 18:6
RETURN TO (treat) HER (‘Babylon the Great’) JUST AS SHE (‘Babylon the Great’) RETURNED (treated the true Christians, during the days of ‘her’ power), AND REPAY HER (‘Babylon the Great’) DOUBLE AS SHE (‘Babylon the Great’) DID (to the true Christians, then), AND ACCORDING TO HER WORKS. IN THE CUP WHICH SHE MIXED, MIX TO HER DOUBLE (‘Babylon the Great’ is to be punished twice as severely as ‘she’ punished the true Christians, because ‘she’ only succeeded in killing some of them, but ‘she’ will be completely destroyed).

Revelation 18:7
HOWEVER MUCH SHE GLORIFIED HERSELF (as opposed to glorifying God) AND GREW WANTON (that was quite a lot!), SO MUCH GIVE HER OF TORMENT AND MOURNING. FOR SHE SAYS IN HER HEART, ‘I SIT A QUEEN, AND AM NO WIDOW, AND WILL IN NO WAY SEE MOURNING.’ The arrogance and self-exaltation of this political and religious system in the time that we’re referring to knew no bounds. All of this, of course, is thoroughly recorded in history. I refer to it as if you were already familiar with the history; if you’re not familiar with the history, take the time to read it sometime! Find out what was going on during all those hundreds of years! It wasn’t pretty.

Revelation 18:8
THEREFORE IN ONE DAY HER PLAGUES WILL COME: DEATH, MOURNING, AND FAMINE; AND SHE WILL BE UTTERLY BURNED WITH FIRE; FOR THE LORD GOD WHO HAS JUDGED HER IS STRONG. God’s power exceeds every human power and every system of human power, and He will bring to judgment those who attempt to seize His rightful place and stand in it.

Revelation 18:9
THE KINGS OF THE EARTH, WHO COMMITTED SEXUAL IMMORALITY AND LIVED WANTONLY WITH HER, WILL WEEP AND WAIL OVER HER, WHEN THEY LOOK AT THE SMOKE OF HER BURNING (they will be saddened by the destruction of that which they had held dear for such a long time, but),

Revelation 18:10
STANDING FAR AWAY FOR THE FEAR OF HER TORMENT (they won’t want to be destroyed, too, so they will distance themselves from the system that will then be coming to its doom), SAYING, ‘WOE, WOE, THE GREAT CITY, BABYLON, THE STRONG CITY! FOR YOUR JUDGMENT HAS COME IN ONE HOUR.’ I don’t know how literally that ‘one hour’ should be taken – whether it’s a literal, 60-minute clock hour or whether it’s a symbol for something else. Usually, in the Bible, a ‘day’ symbolizes a year, and any time period greater than that can be scaled accordingly, so that a ‘week’ symbolizes seven years, a ‘month’ symbolizes 30 years, a ‘year’ symbolizes 360 years, and so on; but I’ve never seen an interpretation that says that you can scale it down, that an ‘hour’ symbolizes 1/24 of a year, which would be about 15 days. It may be that, or it may be just one clock hour, or it may just mean in one unit of activity – the punishment occurred, and that was that. I don’t know. The point that is clear, I think, is that the judgment comes suddenly, and is executed swiftly.

Revelation 18:11
THE MERCHANTS OF THE EARTH WEEP AND MOURN OVER HER, FOR NO ONE BUYS THEIR MERCHANDISE ANY MORE (the Church had such a stock of money and resources that it was able to keep the economy moving by buying all of the stuff that the merchants were selling and adding it to the decorations in the various cathedrals, monasteries, convents and so on – what we will read next is a long list of the goods and products that the merchants engaged in selling and that were purchased and used by the Church in those days);

Revelation 18:12
MERCHANDISE OF GOLD, SILVER, PRECIOUS STONES, PEARLS, FINE LINEN, PURPLE (cloth), SILK, SCARLET (cloth), ALL (the most) EXPENSIVE (kinds of) WOOD, EVERY VESSEL OF IVORY, EVERY VESSEL MADE OF MOST PRECIOUS WOOD, AND OF BRASS, AND IRON, AND MARBLE;

Revelation 18:13
AND CINNAMON, INCENSE, PERFUME, FRANKINCENSE, WINE, OLIVE OIL, FINE FLOUR, WHEAT, SHEEP, HORSES, CHARIOTS, AND PEOPLE’S BODIES AND SOULS. They trafficked in every conceivable area of expensive produce, even including people, who were bought and sold during that time just like any other commodity on the market.

Revelation 18:14
THE FRUITS WHICH YOUR SOUL LUSTED AFTER HAVE BEEN LOST TO YOU, AND ALL THINGS THAT WERE DAINTY AND SUMPTUOUS HAVE PERISHED FROM YOU, AND YOU WILL FIND THEM NO MORE AT ALL. Material possessions don’t last forever in any situation, and certainly not when God comes in judgment.

Revelation 18:15
THE MERCHANTS OF THESE THINGS (just like the kings, in verses 9 and 10), WHO WERE MADE RICH BY HER, WILL STAND FAR AWAY FOR THE FEAR OF HER TORMENT, WEEPING AND MOURNING;

Revelation 18:16
SAYING, ‘WOE, WOE, THE GREAT CITY, SHE WHO WAS DRESSED IN FINE LINEN, PURPLE (clothes), AND SCARLET (clothes), AND DECKED WITH GOLD (ornaments) AND PRECIOUS STONES AND PEARLS!

Revelation 18:17
FOR IN AN HOUR (again, not knowing just exactly how that phrase should be interpreted) SUCH GREAT RICHES ARE MADE DESOLATE.’ The kings were concerned with the fact that in one hour the city had been punished, because punishment relates to the function of a king or a government; the merchants lament the fact that in one hour the city had lost all its wealth, because wealth and money is the area that merchants relate to and are concerned about. EVERY SHIPMASTER, AND EVERYONE WHO SAILS ANYWHERE, AND MARINERS, AND AS MANY AS GAIN THEIR LIVING BY SEA, STOOD FAR AWAY (just like the kings in verses 9 and 10 and the merchants in verse 15),

Revelation 18:18
AND CRIED OUT AS THEY LOOKED AT THE SMOKE OF HER BURNING, SAYING, ‘WHAT IS LIKE THE GREAT CITY?’

Revelation 18:19
THEY CAST DUST ON THEIR HEADS, AND CRIED, WEEPING AND MOURNING, SAYING, ‘WOE, WOE, THE GREAT CITY, IN WHICH ALL WHO HAD THEIR SHIPS IN THE SEA WERE MADE RICH BY REASON OF HER GREAT WEALTH!’ FOR IN ONE HOUR IS SHE MADE DESOLATE. These were the people who carried all of this merchandise from place to place. The Roman Empire was built around the edges of the Mediterranean Sea. Most commerce didn’t go over land, but it went by way of water. The Roman emperors bragged that through their conquests they had ‘turned the Mediterranean into a Roman lake’ – meaning that the Roman Empire completely surrounded the Mediterranean Sea so that, for all practical purposes, the sea was theirs as well as the land around it. Then they used that ‘lake’ as a means of transportation – you could get from one point to another by sailing on it, so the sailors made a lot of money. All of this so far has been the reaction of the worldly people who were involved with and committed to the system that was opposed to God – any system that is opposed to God, really, throughout all history, and, supremely, the Antichrist system of the Middle Ages. What is the reaction of God’s people to this destruction and this judgment?

Revelation 18:20
REJOICE OVER HER, O HEAVEN (because of ‘her’ destruction), YOU SAINTS (true Christians), APOSTLES, AND PROPHETS; FOR GOD HAS JUDGED YOUR JUDGMENT ON HER (condemned ‘her’ for what she did to you).” The destruction of that system that opposed God is a vindication of God’s people – a public demonstration that they were in the right when they were tortured and killed and accused of being in the wrong. All of that time, all those martyrs gave their lives for their faith in Jesus, and yet there was no public vindication of them. There was no way for anybody to state that they were the ones who were right and that those who put them to death were the ones who were wrong. On the contrary, those who put them to death had the last word and were able to say, “We have punished the heretics.” But now, God has turned the tables, bringing destruction on that system that brought destruction and reward to those who had been destroyed.

Revelation 18:21
A MIGHTY ANGEL TOOK UP A STONE LIKE A GREAT MILLSTONE (such as were used by the housewives in most of that part of the world at that time to grind up grain to make flour and meal with which to bake food – the “great” millstone was the “lower” millstone, a rock about six or eight feet across and a couple of feet thick with a hole in the middle of it, and the “upper” millstone was about a foot across and had a handle on it, and you would take the grain and lay it out on the lower millstone and then grind on it with the upper millstone – the upper millstone was the possession of the female head of household and it was a very important possession to her; it was a tool that she used in her work and a symbol of her authority in the family – women would carve their initials on their upper millstones, paint them different colors to decorate them, draw pictures of their family, etc. and it was their prized possession. But this angel picked up a stone the size of a lower millstone, something no human being could do) AND CAST IT INTO THE SEA, SAYING, “THUS WITH VIOLENCE WILL BABYLON, THE GREAT CITY, BE THROWN DOWN, AND WILL BE FOUND NO MORE AT ALL. When you throw a rock into water, it goes straight to the bottom, and the bigger the rock, the less likely it is that anything will possibly prevent it from going to the bottom. When you get a rock the size of a lower millstone and throw it into the sea, you know that it’ll go straight to the bottom of the sea and nothing will stand in its way. What’s meant by that illustration is that the Antichrist system will certainly and absolutely be thrown down and destroyed; there is no hope of any recovery of it in any way, shape or form. Nothing can stop God’s judgment from coming upon the system that so thoroughly opposed Him during all those hundreds of years.

Revelation 18:22
THE VOICE (music) OF HARPISTS, MINSTRELS, FLUTE PLAYERS, AND TRUMPETERS WILL BE HEARD NO MORE AT ALL IN YOU (‘Babylon’). NO CRAFTSMAN, OF WHATEVER CRAFT, WILL BE FOUND ANY MORE AT ALL IN YOU. THE SOUND OF A(n upper) MILL(stone grinding on the lower millstone) WILL BE HEARD NO MORE AT ALL IN YOU. If there was a city in which you never heard the sound of an upper millstone grinding on a lower millstone, you knew that it was a ghost town. That would have been a totally uninhabited city. There wasn’t any way for you to not hear that sound in a city that was inhabited, because all of the women would be out there grinding up the meal to make their flour.

Revelation 18:23
THE LIGHT OF A LAMP WILL SHINE NO MORE AT ALL IN YOU. Every night, people would have to light oil lamps in order to have light in their houses. No lamps shining would mean that there were no people living there. THE VOICE OF THE BRIDEGROOM AND OF THE BRIDE WILL BE HEARD NO MORE AT ALL IN YOU (no more weddings would mean no more families – no way to perpetuate the population); FOR YOUR MERCHANTS WERE THE PRINCES OF THE EARTH; FOR WITH YOUR SORCERY (deceptive miracles, as we saw in a previous chapter) ALL THE NATIONS WERE DECEIVED.

Revelation 18:24
IN HER (‘Babylon’) WAS FOUND THE BLOOD OF PROPHETS AND SAINTS, AND OF ALL WHO HAVE BEEN SLAIN ON THE EARTH.” The fact that the Antichrist system had oppressed and tortured and killed God’s chosen people is sufficient reason for its punishment.

Revelation 17

2010-11-06T21:10:00.000-04:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 17

Introduction
Revelation 17 isn’t so much a “prophecy” of specific historical events as it is a “picture” of the main “character” who participated in those events. By now, assuming that you have read “Studies in Revelation” chapters 1-16, you know that Historicism points to the medieval Papacy as the fulfiller of all the prophecies about the Antichrist. You also know that there is a close association between the Papacy, the Roman Catholic Church of that era, the clerical hierarchy of that church, and the city of Rome. It shouldn’t take much reiteration of those points to “explain” Revelation 17 as a “mosaic” picture of the points that I have brought out in previous chapters in relation to this viewpoint.

Revelation 17:1
ONE OF THE SEVEN ANGELS WHO HAD THE SEVEN BOWLS (of God’s wrath, as described in Revelation 15 and 16) CAME AND SPOKE WITH ME, SAYING, “COME HERE. I WILL SHOW YOU THE JUDGMENT OF THE GREAT PROSTITUTE (the medieval Roman Catholic Church) WHO SITS ON (is supported by) MANY WATERS (the people of many different countries),

Revelation 17:2
WITH WHOM THE KINGS (political rulers) OF THE (various nations in that part of the) EARTH COMMITTED SEXUAL IMMORALITY (got involved, in a way that was contrary to the will of God – sexual immorality being, as we have seen before, a prophetic symbol for spiritual idolatry), AND THOSE (the people) WHO DWELL IN (that part of) THE EARTH WERE MADE DRUNKEN (lost control of their own lives, as they submitted to the control of their lives by the Church) WITH THE WINE (the “intoxication”) OF HER SEXUAL IMMORALITY (improper, idolatrous relationship with the political rulers).”

Revelation 17:3
HE (the angel) CARRIED ME (John) AWAY IN THE SPIRIT (demonstrating, again, that all of this is taking place in a vision, not in what we would call “reality””) INTO A WILDERNESS (a place where no one lived – a good “setting” for a vision, so that John wouldn’t be distracted by “seeing” things other than what he was supposed to be seeing). I SAW A WOMAN (the medieval Roman Catholic Church) SITTING ON (being supported by) A SCARLET-COLORED ANIMAL, FULL OF BLASPHEMOUS NAMES, HAVING SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS (the Papacy, as shown in my comments on Revelation 13).

Revelation 17:4
THE WOMAN (the medieval Roman Catholic Church) WAS DRESSED IN PURPLE AND SCARLET (indicating tremendous wealth and power), AND DECKED WITH PRECIOUS STONES AND PEARLS (which you can literally see in the Roman Catholic cathedrals that were built during that time), HAVING IN HER HAND (where one would hold the “tools” of one’s “trade”) A GOLDEN CUP (perhaps representing the “chalice” that was used in medieval Roman Catholic masses) FULL OF ABOMINATIONS AND THE IMPURITIES OF THE SEXUAL IMMORALITY OF THE EARTH (the literal “chalice” was full of the wine used in the Eucharist; but John saw the same “cup” from God’s point of view in light of the church’s departure from His Word in turning to the Papacy for leadership rather than to Christ).

Revelation 17:5
AND ON HER FOREHEAD (in the place where you would find “her” beliefs and teachings) A NAME WAS WRITTEN, “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” Certainly, this title is “mysterious”; but, equally certainly, it shows us that – from God’s point of view – the medieval Roman Catholic Church was no more following His teachings than were the practitioners of the ancient pagan religion of Babylon, the city that had taken His people captive and was ruling over them in the time of the book of Daniel.

Revelation 17:6
I SAW THE WOMAN (the medieval Roman Catholic Church) DRUNKEN (intoxicated) WITH THE BLOOD (that was shed during “her” persecutions) OF THE SAINTS (the true believers in Jesus, which “she” labeled as “heretics”), AND WITH THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS OF JESUS (the same point, repeated for emphasis). WHEN I (John) SAW HER (in this vision), I WONDERED WITH GREAT AMAZEMENT (John obviously found it absolutely astonishing to be shown that the major historical persecutor of God’s true people would turn out to be the dominant organized church of the time).

Revelation 17:7
THE ANGEL SAID TO ME, “WHY DO YOU WONDER? I WILL TELL YOU THE MYSTERY OF THE WOMAN, AND OF THE BEAST THAT CARRIES HER, WHICH HAS THE SEVEN HEADS AND THE TEN HORNS.

Revelation 17:8
THE BEAST THAT YOU SAW WAS (in a position of power in the world from ancient times until the collapse of the Roman Empire in AD 476, as we saw in an earlier study), AND IS NOT (was not in a position of power from the collapse of the Roman Empire in AD 476 to the rise of the Papacy in AD 610); AND IS ABOUT TO COME OUT OF THE ABYSS (come back into power with the rise of the Papacy in AD 610) AND GO INTO DESTRUCTION (when the Papacy itself would fall from that position of power in AD 1870). THOSE (people) WHO DWELL (in the countries) ON (that part of) THE EARTH AND WHOSE NAMES HAVE NOT BEEN WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD (that is, the unsaved) WILL MARVEL WHEN THEY SEE THE BEAST THAT WAS, AND IS NOT, AND SHALL BE PRESENT (and follow its leadership).

Revelation 17:9
HERE IS THE MIND THAT HAS WISDOM (exactly what Revelation 13:18 had said about the number 666, which I showed was a symbol for the “slogan” that was worn on the medieval Papal “crown” – “Vicarius Filii Dei” or “Representative of the Son of God”). THE SEVEN HEADS ARE (the) SEVEN MOUNTAINS, ON WHICH THE WOMAN SITS (this is a clear indication that the “woman” represents the church that is headquartered in Rome – “the city of the seven hills”).

Revelation 17:10
THEY (the seven heads) ARE (also) SEVEN KINGS (world-ruling empires). FIVE (Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia and Greece) HAVE FALLEN (from their earlier positions of power), THE ONE (the Roman Empire) IS (still in power in John’s time), THE OTHER (the Papacy) HAS NOT YET COME (to power, in John’s time). WHEN HE COMES (in AD 610), HE MUST CONTINUE (to rule the world) A LITTLE WHILE (1,260 years, as mentioned in previous chapters – from AD 610 until AD 1870).

Revelation 17:11
THE BEAST THAT WAS, AND IS NOT, IS HIMSELF ALSO (in addition to being the seventh “king” in the series) AN EIGHTH (“king”), AND IS (the seventh) OF THE SEVEN; AND HE (the Papacy – along with all of the other “kings” – ultimately) GOES TO DESTRUCTION (will cease to exist altogether). This mathematically unclear statement is probably a way of saying that the unique thing about the seventh “king” (the Papacy) is the manner in which it combines into itself features from all of the previous six “kings” (Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece and the Roman Empire), so that it “makes sense” to represent it both as the seventh “king” and also as the complete “beast” that is an “umbrella” representing all seven.

Revelation 17:12
THE TEN HORNS THAT YOU SAW ARE TEN KINGS WHO HAVE RECEIVED NO KINGDOM AS YET (in John’s time), BUT THEY RECEIVE AUTHORITY AS KINGS, WITH THE BEAST, FOR ONE HOUR (the short time between the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Papacy – AD 476-610 – when the “earth” was broken up into the 10 smaller “barbarian” kingdoms that are also represented by the 10 toes on the statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s first dream, as explained in Daniel 2).

Revelation 17:13
THESE HAVE ONE MIND (they all have the same “philosophy” about world government – namely, that power shouldn’t be concentrated in the hand of one political organization, with its headquarters in Rome, but that it should be “shared” by the kings of the various smaller tribes), AND (this word could also be translated as “but” – and I think that would be more accurate in this context) THEY (will eventually) GIVE (yield) THEIR POWER AND AUTHORITY TO THE BEAST (the Papacy). The 10 “barbarian” kingdoms eventually submitted to the re-concentration of power in the hands of Rome (under the Papacy) despite their earlier disagreement with the idea.

Revelation 17:14
THESE (10 “kings”) WILL WAR (fight) AGAINST THE LAMB (Jesus – they will do this by attacking His people, the true Christians), AND THE LAMB (Jesus) WILL OVERCOME THEM, FOR HE IS LORD OF LORDS, AND KING OF KINGS. THEY (Christians) ALSO WILL OVERCOME WHO ARE WITH HIM (Jesus), CALLED AND CHOSEN AND FAITHFUL.”

Revelation 17:15
HE (the angel) SAID TO ME, “THE WATERS WHICH YOU SAW, WHERE THE PROSTITUTE SITS (see Revelation 17:1), ARE PEOPLES, MULTITUDES, NATIONS, AND LANGUAGES (the people of many different countries).

Revelation 17:16
THE TEN HORNS WHICH YOU SAW, AND THE BEAST, THESE WILL HATE THE PROSTITUTE, AND WILL MAKE HER DESOLATE, AND WILL MAKE HER NAKED, AND WILL EAT HER FLESH, AND WILL BURN HER UTTERLY WITH FIRE. The political power of the Papacy finally came to an end in AD 1870, as we have seen in previous studies; but that didn’t happen suddenly – it was the culmination of a long process. That process is described in this verse as passing through five stages: in the first stage, the Church was hated; in the second, it was isolated; in the third, it was stripped of the trappings of power; in the fourth, much of its property was seized; and in the fifth, its power was completely obliterated. You can read about this long process in any book that tells the history of Europe from the fourteenth through the nineteenth centuries (the time periods known in history as the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment).

Revelation 17:17
FOR GOD HAS PUT IT IN THEIR HEARTS TO DO WHAT HE HAS IN MIND, AND TO BE OF ONE MIND, AND TO GIVE THEIR KINGDOM TO THE BEAST, UNTIL THE WORDS OF GOD SHOULD BE ACCOMPLISHED. This statement reminds us of the major theme of the book of Daniel – God is in control! All of these things happened because God planned that they would. How comforting it is to know that nothing in history is beyond His reach! Because of that fact, nothing in the future can stop Him from bring His plan to complete fulfillment when He decides to do it.

Revelation 17:18
THE WOMAN WHOM YOU SAW IS THE GREAT CITY, WHICH REIGNS OVER THE KINGS OF THE EARTH.” This is the “clincher” clue. What city was “ruling the world” when the book of Revelation was written? Rome. The “woman” can’t possibly refer to anything but a world power that goes by the name of “Rome.” The Papacy was the only power in the world that went by that name during the time when these prophecies were scheduled to be fulfilled. Whatever else in the book of Revelation may be unclear, the one thing that is clear is the Historicist conclusion that Revelation 17 is a description of the medieval Papacy.

Revelation 16

2010-10-04T19:03:00.001-04:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 16

Revelation 16:1
I HEARD A LOUD VOICE (it was either the voice of God, or of Jesus, or of an angel) OUT OF THE TEMPLE (in Heaven, in this vision), SAYING TO THE SEVEN ANGELS (who were described in Revelation 15), “GO AND POUR OUT THE SEVEN BOWLS OF THE WRATH OF GOD ON THE EARTH!”

Revelation 16:2
THE FIRST (angel) WENT, AND POURED OUT HIS BOWL INTO THE EARTH (representing, as we have seen before, the part of the earth in which most of the Christians that have ever lived, throughout the centuries, have lived – namely, the territory formerly controlled by the Roman Empire – that is, Europe), AND IT BECAME A HARMFUL AND EVIL SORE ON THE PEOPLE WHO HAD THE MARK OF (gave their political allegiance to) THE BEAST (the political/religious system that dominated those countries for 1,260 years – that is, the Papacy), AND WHO WORSHIPED (gave their religious allegiance to) HIS (the beast’s) IMAGE (the religious hierarchy that was under the Papacy’s control). The key to understanding this verse would be a knowledge of what is represented by the “harmful and evil sore” that is predicted to come on those people. I’m sure that it refers to something that is at least the spiritual, intellectual and/or moral equivalent in people’s lives of what a literal sore is in their bodies – something annoying, disgusting and dangerous – but I don’t believe that we can (at this point in time) know what it refers to. It might be something that has happened within the past few decades, or it might be something that will happen between now and the Second Coming – which means that it could happen as soon as today (if it hasn’t already happened)!

Revelation 16:3
THE SECOND ANGEL (went and) POURED OUT HIS BOWL INTO THE SEA (representing, as we have seen before, the generalized “mass” of humanity all over the world – non-Christian as well as Christian), AND IT BECAME BLOOD AS OF A DEAD MAN. EVERY LIVING THING IN THE SEA DIED. It would seem that a “literal” fulfillment of this prediction would mean that the entire population of the earth would die. Obviously, that hasn’t happened yet. Equally obviously (in my opinion), it isn’t going to happen between now and the Second Coming, either – because that would eliminate the people that the Apostle Paul says will be “alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:15)! The word “died” must be a symbol for something – but, again, at this time, it’s impossible to say what.

Revelation 16:4
THE THIRD (angel went and) POURED OUT HIS BOWL INTO THE RIVERS AND SPRINGS OF WATER (representing, as we have seen before, the sources of spiritual teaching), AND THEY BECAME BLOOD (making them “deadly”). In this case, I think that we stand on slightly more “solid” ground as we try to interpret this prediction. Within my lifetime, I have definitely observed what seem to me to be many negative trends in the “world” of spiritual teaching – the spread of “liberation” theology (which denies that Christians are responsible to obey the teachings of the Bible), the rise of “New Age” philosophy (which seeks to “combine” Christian beliefs with those of other – particularly, “Eastern” – religions), the encroachment of “pluralism” (which has led many people to believe that the followers of non-Christian religions are just as “saved” as the followers of Christ are), the growth of cults (small groups that claim to be “the one and only true Church” when, in fact, their beliefs and lifestyles demonstrate that they are not even “Christian” at all), and even the growing “movement” that I would call “isolationism” (the idea that an individual can be a Christian “all by himself” without participating in the life of the Christian community as a whole). And this “list” isn’t exhaustive! There are many, many other kinds of false teaching around today, just as there were in the time around the year AD 300, as we saw earlier in our studies. The “rivers and springs of water” (our sources of spiritual teaching) have “become blood” (been made spiritually “deadly” by the contamination of false teaching) right before our eyes in the past few decades, and it is a process that continues every day.

Revelation 16:5
I HEARD THE ANGEL OF THE WATERS (probably the “third” angel, the one who had poured out his bowl over the waters) SAYING, “YOU ARE RIGHTEOUS, WHO ARE AND WHO WERE (notice the absence of the phrase “and who are to come” – evidently, in my opinion, indicating that the prophecy is to be fulfilled just before the end of history, so that there is no more “to come” after it – at least, not in this world), YOU HOLY ONE (God), BECAUSE YOU (God) HAVE JUDGED (decided that) THESE THINGS (would happen). “The angel of the waters” put his “stamp of approval” on God’s decision to make human history “come out” the way it would. Not that God needed any such approval, but it’s a reminder to us not to criticize God for the things that He allows to happen. He has a plan, and He’s working the plan; and it’s not our responsibility to “grade” Him on whether we think that it’s a “good” plan or not.

Revelation 16:6
FOR (because – that is, the reason why it’s logical that the world would be afflicted by such a “plague” as this is that) THEY (the people who followed the world’s “system”) POURED OUT THE BLOOD OF (killed) THE SAINTS (God’s true followers) AND THE PROPHETS (God’s true spokesmen), AND YOU (God) HAVE GIVEN THEM BLOOD (false teaching) TO DRINK (believe in). THEY DESERVE THIS.” The reason that God allows so much false teaching is because people have rejected the true teaching that is given in His Word, the Bible, which was revealed to His true followers and preached by His true prophets (whom they have killed – either literally, as has often been the case, or symbolically, in the sense of not paying attention to the true messages that they brought). Put that way, it certainly sounds logical to me. It’s an illustration of the principle that “what goes around, comes around,” or, more exactly, “you reap what you sow” (Galatians 6:7).

Revelation 16:7
I HEARD THE ALTAR (in the temple in Heaven, in the vision) SAYING (notice: altars don’t normally “say” anything; that’s the sort of thing that can only happen in a vision – what it means is that those who had been killed for their faith in Christ would, if they could speak, say), “YES, LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS ARE YOUR JUDGMENTS.” The martyrs add their “stamp of approval” of God’s plan to the “stamp of approval” given by the “angel of the waters.”

Revelation 16:8
THE FOURTH (angel went and) POURED OUT HIS BOWL ON THE SUN (representing the political leadership of the world – what we would call “the government”), AND IT WAS GIVEN TO HIM (the sun, representing the government) TO SCORCH MEN WITH FIRE. I would think that that would mean that in the time that we are speaking of (the time right before, and leading up to, the Second Coming of Christ), the government(s) of the world would become a bothersome and oppressive force in people’s lives. Again, it seems to me that we have been seeing a growing fulfillment of that prediction in the past few decades, with spiraling taxes, ever-growing public debts, and more and more intrusive regulations (and I’m not just talking about the United States; these things are happening in almost every country on earth – indeed, in most countries, the situation is far worse than it is in the United States).

Revelation 16:9
PEOPLE WERE SCORCHED WITH GREAT HEAT (oppressed by the power that government was exercising over their lives), AND PEOPLE BLASPHEMED THE NAME OF GOD (do I even need to comment on the way in which the word “God” is used in modern conversation, all over the world?) WHO HAS THE POWER OVER THESE PLAGUES. THEY DIDN’T REPENT AND GIVE HIM GLORY. That’s the really sad part of this prophecy (in my opinion). The way that this verse states that people “didn’t repent and give Him (God) glory” implies (to me) that God had “hoped” that by sending these “plagues,” He would “get” people’s “attention” – that they would realize that it was their sins that had brought all this upon them, and that there would be hope that things would “get better” for them if they would turn away from their sins and worship Him – but He knew ahead of time that it wouldn’t work, and it certainly hasn’t been working during my lifetime. No matter what troubles God sends our way, in an effort to get us to acknowledge Him as God, the vast majority of us curse Him and keep on sinning. I do not see where Revelation predicts that there will be another great “revival” in the years right before the Second Coming. On the contrary, even Jesus expressed a sort of “uncertainty” as to whether there would be any faithful people left in the world by the time of His return (see Luke 18:8b). Of course, the Apostle Paul assured us that there will (1 Thessalonians 4:15), but he didn’t say that there would be very many of them.

Revelation 16:10
THE FIFTH (angel went and) POURED OUT HIS BOWL ON THE THRONE OF THE BEAST (since the beast represents the Papacy, its “throne” must represent the specific place from which that system exercises its authority – that would have to be the Vatican), AND HIS (the beast’s) KINGDOM (known, throughout most of its history, as “Christendom” – the territory over which the Papacy held political power) WAS DARKENED (darkness, in prophecy, usually represents ignorance – a lack of knowledge, or of understanding, about what is going on). Isn’t it true that the people on whom these “plagues” are coming are “clueless”? They don’t recognize that it is God who is the ultimate source of these problems, so they are unable to figure out what the true source of the problems is. THEY GNAWED THEIR TONGUES BECAUSE OF THE PAIN (I think that that’s a symbolic expression of their frustration at being unable to figure out why they are having so many problems, rather than meaning that people will actually gnaw on their tongues because of the actual, physical pain that they’re experiencing – though, in this case, at least, it could possibly be taken literally),

Revelation 16:11
AND THEY BLASPHEMED THE GOD OF HEAVEN (again!) BECAUSE OF THEIR PAINS AND THEIR SORES (the fact that the “sores” are mentioned again shows, in my opinion, that all these “plagues” are happening at pretty much the same time, not scattered over a period of several centuries, as we saw in previous visions in the book of Revelation). THEY DIDN’T REPENT OF THEIR WORKS. There it is again – no matter what God does to get people to change their ways, they refuse to do so, thus demonstrating how necessary it is that God ultimately punish and destroy them. He simply can’t put up with rebellion forever.

Revelation 16:12
THE SIXTH (angel went and) POURED OUT HIS BOWL ON THE GREAT RIVER, THE EUPHRATES (the Euphrates River, which runs down the middle of Iraq, was mentioned in God’s original promises to His people, the Israelites, as the eastern border of the promised land, although, in history, it was only under King Solomon that the nation of Israel actually extended that far). ITS WATER WAS DRIED UP (remember, John saw this in a vision; he wasn’t predicting that the literal water of this literal river would literally be dried up), THAT THE WAY MIGHT BE MADE READY FOR THE KINGS THAT COME FROM THE SUNRISE. Drying up the water of the Euphrates River – if such a thing could actually be done – would make it easier for an army, marching on foot, to cross from the territory to the east of the river (from the direction in which the sun appears to rise) into the territory to the west of the river (thus, into the territory that is supposed to belong to God’s people). I think that this symbol might represent an “invasion” of the true church of Christ by the political powers of the world. It seems to me that we have already seen this “invasion” begin, as various governments have passed more and more laws restricting the activities of the church (not allowing pastors to preach on issues considered to be “political,” requiring churches to employ people that they have moral objections against employing, using zoning laws to prevent Christian activities from taking place in certain places, etc.) – and it seems very likely to me that during whatever time still remains between now and the Second Coming, we are likely to see more of such “invasion.”

Revelation 16:13
I SAW (in this vision) COMING OUT OF THE MOUTH (what comes out of mouths? words! – statements, messages, teachings – in this case, the false teachings) OF THE DRAGON (representing, as we saw earlier, the political leadership of the world, as directed by Satan and manifested through the great empires of history – Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome), AND OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE BEAST (representing, as we saw earlier, the political/religious power of the Papacy, as it was exercised during the 1,260 years between AD 610 and AD 1870), AND OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE FALSE PROPHET (representing, as we saw earlier, the Roman Catholic religious hierarchy, as it gave its allegiance to the Papacy, especially during those same years), THREE UNCLEAN SPIRITS (in this context, the word “spirits” probably means “prophetic messages” and refers, I think, to the “preaching” and “teaching” done by these three institutions), SOMETHING LIKE FROGS (to be absolutely honest, I have no idea what John meant by saying that, to him, these unclean spirits seemed “like frogs” – sorry about that! – except to say that the word “frogs” inevitably reminds me of the “plague” of frogs that took place in Egypt just before the Israelites’ Exodus from that country);

Revelation 16:14
FOR THEY ARE SPIRITS (prophetic messages) OF (inspired by) DEMONS (evil spirits, as opposed to true messages inspired by God’s Holy Spirit), PERFORMING SIGNS (we saw, in an earlier study, the emphasis that was placed by the Roman Catholic Church, during the time of its political ascendancy, on alleged “miracles” performed by its “saints”); WHICH GO FORTH TO (reach and influence) THE KINGS OF THE WHOLE INHABITED EARTH (particularly, the governments of Europe, which were subject to the authority of the Papacy during those centuries), TO GATHER THEM TOGETHER FOR THE WAR OF THAT GREAT DAY OF GOD, THE ALMIGHTY. This statement – along with many other statements in the Bible – seems to indicate that the day on which Jesus returns will be a day on which a tremendous battle is about to take place. Given our present-day world situation, especially with many nations possessing nuclear weapons – and the capability of delivering them to faraway locations in an amazingly short time – it seems to me that every single day on the calendar is a day on which a tremendous battle might take place. So, this statement doesn’t give us a clue as to when that particular day will be. It could be today, or tomorrow, or some other day.

Revelation 16:15
“BEHOLD (“Look!”), I (Jesus) (will) COME LIKE A THIEF (unannounced and unexpectedly – not preceded by a list of specific, time-dated “signs” that would enable us to figure out exactly when He will come). BLESSED IS HE (any Christian) WHO WATCHES (studies these prophecies, and observes how they are fulfilled, increasing his sense of expectation that the coming of the Lord will be soon), AND KEEPS HIS CLOTHES (lives right), SO THAT HE DOESN’T WALK NAKED (exposed and vulnerable to God’s punishment because of living wrong), AND THEY (everyone) SEE HIS SHAME (at being rightly judged for wrong behavior).” This little message is placed in the text at a point just before this particular vision’s description of the Second Coming. I think that that placement indicates that in the time period that is covered by this vision there will be an emphasis on the preaching of the Second-Coming message. That emphasis began with the Millerite movement in the 1840s (as we have seen in earlier studies), and it continues today, and (I certainly hope!) will continue right up until Jesus returns.

Revelation 16:16
HE (“God, the Almighty” – verse 14 – who is ultimately in control of all the events of history) GATHERED THEM (“the kings of the whole inhabited earth” – verse 14) TOGETHER INTO THE PLACE WHICH IS CALLED IN HEBREW, (Armageddon, which means, the mountain of) MEGIDDO. Many great battles of history have been fought on the Plain of Esdraelon (also known as the Valley of Jezreel), which is located right below the hill known as “Mt. Megiddo,” on top of which whoever was in charge of the land of Palestine at the time usually maintained a major military fortress. I don’t know if this verse means that the great battle that will be about to take place on the day when Jesus returns will literally be “set up” at this actual location, or if the name of the place is simply being used as a symbol for whatever place that battle will literally be “set up” in. The word “Armageddon” has come a long way from simply meaning “the mountain of Megiddo” to become a word that can be used to describe this great final battle no matter where it might be “set up” to take place.

Revelation 16:17
THE SEVENTH (angel went and) POURED OUT HIS BOWL INTO THE AIR. (Before the great battle could actually take place,) A LOUD VOICE (again, as in verse 1, it was either the voice of God, or of Jesus, or of an angel) CAME FORTH OUT OF THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN (in this vision), FROM THE THRONE (of God), SAYING, “IT IS DONE!” This statement is very similar to what Jesus said, on the Cross, just before He died: “It is finished!” It is a shout of triumph at the completion of a planned task. In this case, the word “it” refers to God’s entire plan for human history. That plan has been completely finished. All prophecies have been fulfilled. It is time for the Second Coming and the Judgment Day.

Revelation 16:18
THERE WERE LIGHTNINGS, SOUNDS, AND THUNDERS; AND THERE WAS A GREAT EARTHQUAKE, SUCH AS WAS NOT SINCE THERE WERE MEN ON THE EARTH, SO GREAT AN EARTHQUAKE, SO MIGHTY. We have seen all of these symbols in previous studies. They are “background noise” to tell us that the Second Coming is occurring.

Revelation 16:19
THE GREAT CITY (Rome – the headquarters of the kingdom of the Antichrist) WAS DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS, AND THE (capital) CITIES OF (all of) THE (other) NATIONS (throughout the world) FELL. BABYLON THE GREAT (which will be described in more detail in Revelation 17) WAS REMEMBERED IN THE SIGHT OF GOD, TO GIVE TO HER THE CUP OF THE WINE OF THE FIERCENESS OF HIS WRATH.

Revelation 16:20
EVERY ISLAND (the term “island” – as used in biblical prophecy – doesn’t really mean “a small piece of land completely surrounded by water”; what it means is “a country that you can’t get to – from Israel – except by boat”; that would include all of the countries in North and South America, as well as all of the countries that we usually think of as “islands” – like Cuba, Jamaica, England, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Japan, and so on) FLED AWAY (were destroyed), AND THE MOUNTAINS (the term “mountains” – as used in biblical prophecy – is often a symbol for powerful governments) WERE NOT FOUND (because they, too, were destroyed). From other passages of Scripture (such as 2 Peter 3:10, for example), it seems clear to me that the entire world “as we know it” will be destroyed when Jesus comes.

Revelation 16:21
GREAT HAILSTONES, ABOUT THE WEIGHT OF A TALENT (a “talent” was a measurement of weight, about equal to 100 pounds), CAME DOWN OUT OF THE SKY ON PEOPLE (killing – or at least severely injuring – any that they actually hit). PEOPLE (who weren’t actually hit – or, at least, weren’t killed – by these hailstones) BLASPHEMED GOD (just like in verses 9 and 11) BECAUSE OF THE PLAGUE OF THE HAIL, FOR THIS PLAGUE IS EXCEEDINGLY SEVERE. The “stage” is now “set” for the more detailed “explanation” of the destruction of “Babylon” that will be given in Revelation 17 and 18.

Revelation 15

2010-09-14T13:30:00.001-04:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 15

Revelation 15:1
I SAW ANOTHER GREAT AND MARVELOUS SIGN IN THE SKY (This is the beginning of yet another distinct vision): SEVEN ANGELS HAVING THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES, FOR IN THEM GOD’S WRATH IS FINISHED.
The fact that these plagues are specifically called the “last” plagues makes this vision somewhat different from the other visions that we have studied so far. Each of the other visions described events that would take place between the time of Christ’s first coming and the time of His second coming. By comparing the prophetic symbols in those visions with the history of the past 2,000 years, we have been able to identify what we believe to be the specific fulfillments of nearly all of them, leaving little (if anything) more, from those visions, to be fulfilled before the return of Christ. But those visions have included many “plagues” – therefore, the first of the plagues that will be mentioned in this vision can’t find its fulfillment until after the plagues mentioned in the other visions have done so (otherwise it couldn’t be called one of the seven “last” plagues).
It’s like what Yogi Berra used to say about a baseball game: “It ain’t over till it’s over.” No baseball announcer can see a home run being hit in the eighth inning and say, “That’ll be the last home run of this game.” Why? Because someone might hit a home run in the ninth inning! In fact, the game might not end until the twentieth inning, and it might end by somebody hitting a home run. The announcer can only state which home run was the last one of the game when the game is over.
So, since the entire vision that we are about to study must find its fulfillment in the time between the end of the “plagues” that have been mentioned in the other visions and the time of the second coming of Christ, and we don’t know when the second coming will occur, we won’t be able to identify the specific plagues that are described in this vision until after the second coming has occurred.
It seems to me that this train of thought leads to only two possible conclusions: either the plagues that are described in this vision have already occurred (in fairly recent times, at that) – and we simply haven’t been able to identify how they were fulfilled (perhaps because we were too close to them to see “the forest for the trees”) – or they will occur in our future, sometime between now and the return of Christ (in that case, we can feel free to guess how we think that they might be fulfilled, but we certainly can’t say for sure how they will be fulfilled, because we can’t know what will happen at any given time in the future and we don’t know how long it will be until Christ returns).

Revelation 15:2
I SAW SOMETHING LIKE A SEA (like the “molten sea” in Solomon’s temple, where the priests were baptized – see 2 Chronicles 4:2-6 – only this “sea” in the vision was made) OF GLASS MIXED WITH FIRE (something that you could only see in a vision!), AND THOSE WHO OVERCAME THE BEAST, HIS IMAGE, AND THE NUMBER OF HIS NAME, STANDING ON THE SEA OF GLASS, HAVING HARPS OF GOD.

Revelation 15:3
THEY SANG THE SONG OF MOSES, THE SERVANT OF GOD (the actual song called “the Song of Moses” is found in Deuteronomy 32:1-43), AND THE SONG OF THE LAMB (Jesus), SAYING, “GREAT AND MARVELOUS ARE YOUR WORKS, LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY! RIGHTEOUS AND TRUE ARE YOUR WAYS, YOU KING OF THE NATIONS.

Revelation 15:4
WHO WOULDN’T FEAR YOU, LORD, AND GLORIFY YOUR NAME? Certainly no one in their right mind would fail to respect the Lord, and glorify His name, if they saw a vision like this! The song goes on to state three reasons why the Lord should be “feared” and His name should be glorified: 1) FOR YOU ONLY ARE HOLY. 2) FOR ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE YOU. 3) FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED.” This is a song of celebration of the fact that it is right for God to perform judgments such as these against this sinful world. The song says that the whole world will have to recognize that God is right in judging it, and they will recognize that when He comes, whether they want to, or not. If you’re not a Christian, please note: someday, you will have to admit that Jesus is Lord, and that God is right; why not admit it now, when admitting it can do you some good? If you accept Him now, He will be your Savior; if you wait till then, He will only be your Judge.

Revelation 15:5
AFTER THESE THINGS I LOOKED, AND THE TEMPLE OF THE TABERNACLE OF THE TESTIMONY IN HEAVEN (in the vision) WAS OPENED.

Revelation 15:6
THE SEVEN ANGELS WHO HAD THE SEVEN PLAGUES CAME OUT (of the temple in the vision), CLOTHED WITH PURE, BRIGHT LINEN, AND WEARING GOLDEN SASHES AROUND THEIR BREASTS (all of what we’ve read so far is the “backdrop” of the vision of the seven golden bowls, which actually begins at Revelation 16:1).

Revelation 15:7
ONE OF THE FOUR LIVING CREATURES (the “seraphim” described in Isaiah 6:2) GAVE TO THE SEVEN ANGELS SEVEN GOLDEN BOWLS (nearly flat containers in which one could carry something, but then dump it out very quickly) FULL OF THE WRATH OF GOD, WHO LIVES FOREVER AND EVER. When we study these “bowls,” what we’ll be seeing is vigorous judgments on this sinful world. As a billboard that I once saw said, “God is coming – and, man, is He angry!”

Revelation 15:8
THE TEMPLE WAS FILLED WITH SMOKE FROM THE GLORY OF GOD, AND FROM HIS POWER (just as Solomon’s temple had been filled with the “smoke” of God’s glory and power on the day of its dedication – see 2 Chronicles 5:13-14). NO ONE WAS ABLE TO ENTER INTO THE TEMPLE, UNTIL THE SEVEN PLAGUES OF THE SEVEN ANGELS WOULD BE FINISHED (by that time, the second coming will occur, as we will see when we study Revelation 16-19).

Revelation 14

2010-08-03T16:08:00.001-04:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 14

Introduction
Revelation 14 gives us a glimpse of the true people of God as opposed to the false church that we read about in Revelation 13.

Revelation 14:1
I SAW (in the vision), AND BEHOLD (“Look!”), THE LAMB (Jesus) STANDING ON MOUNT ZION (which represents the true temple of God, since the literal Mount Zion, in the literal Jerusalem, was the site of the literal temple of God that was destroyed in AD 70), AND WITH HIM A NUMBER, ONE HUNDRED FORTY-FOUR THOUSAND (the same number that was mentioned in Revelation 7:4 – but, in this case, I believe that it is a symbolic number representing the entire true Church), HAVING HIS (Jesus’) NAME, AND THE NAME OF HIS (Jesus’) FATHER (God), WRITTEN ON THEIR FOREHEADS (showing that they are true believers in Jesus, and in God, not in the Antichrist, as seen in Revelation 13).

Revelation 14:2
I HEARD A SOUND FROM HEAVEN, LIKE THE SOUND OF MANY WATERS, AND LIKE THE SOUND OF A GREAT THUNDER. THE SOUND WHICH I HEARD WAS LIKE THAT OF HARPISTS PLAYING ON THEIR HARPS. What was this sound? I think that it was the voice of Christ (see the description of His voice given in Revelation 1:10 and Revelation 1:15).

Revelation 14:3
THEY SING A NEW SONG BEFORE THE THRONE, AND BEFORE THE FOUR LIVING CREATURES AND THE ELDERS. NO ONE COULD LEARN THE SONG EXCEPT THE ONE HUNDRED FORTY-FOUR THOUSAND, THOSE WHO HAD BEEN REDEEMED OUT OF THE EARTH. The song that only the true Church can sing is the song of redemption. Only sinners who have been saved by God’s grace can possibly understand what redemption is all about. Angels can’t understand it, because they have never sinned, so they don’t need to be redeemed. Unsaved sinners can’t understand it, because they have never accepted God’s grace, so redemption isn’t activated in them. Demons can’t understand it, because they never do anything but sin, and Jesus didn’t pay the penalty for their sin, so they can’t possibly be redeemed. The 144,000 must represent the entire true church, because every redeemed sinner does understand the meaning of redemption, and therefore can learn the song.

Revelation 14:4
THESE ARE THOSE WHO WERE NOT DEFILED WITH WOMEN, FOR THEY ARE VIRGINS. That doesn’t mean that married people can’t be saved; again, the statement is symbolic. Being “defiled with women” is a symbol for engaging in idolatry (worshiping idols and following false gods). “Virgins” are those who have totally dedicated themselves to Christ and who don’t worship anything (or anyone) else. They put God first in their lives – and no one can be saved unless they do exactly that – and everyone will certainly be saved who does exactly that. THESE ARE THOSE WHO FOLLOW THE LAMB WHEREVER HE GOES. THESE WERE REDEEMED BY JESUS FROM AMONG MEN, THE FIRST FRUITS TO GOD AND TO THE LAMB.

Revelation 14:5
IN THEIR MOUTH WAS FOUND NO LIE (certainly that should be the case for all true Christians), FOR THEY ARE BLAMELESS (not that they have achieved a state of sinless perfection, but that all of their sins have been forgiven because of their faith in Jesus).

Revelation 14:6
I SAW AN ANGEL FLYING IN MID HEAVEN, HAVING AN ETERNAL GOSPEL TO PROCLAIM TO THOSE WHO DWELL ON THE EARTH, AND TO EVERY NATION, TRIBE, LANGUAGE, AND PEOPLE.

Revelation 14:7
HE SAID WITH A LOUD VOICE, “FEAR THE LORD, AND GIVE HIM GLORY; FOR THE HOUR OF HIS JUDGMENT HAS COME. WORSHIP HIM WHO MADE THE HEAVEN, THE EARTH, THE SEA, AND THE SPRINGS OF WATERS!” Interestingly, this angel, who is said to have “an eternal gospel” to proclaim, doesn’t preach “the Gospel” (as we understand it); he doesn’t explain the “plan of salvation” or tell anyone “how to be saved” – rather, he demands of the people on Earth that God be honored, and that His greatness be praised, because the time for judgment has come; and he includes a command to worship the God who created the world. I think that, in a sense, what we’re seeing here is a specifically “end-times” proclamation of the Gospel, and I think that it’s been going on at least since the early 20th century, and that this “angel” represents the true evangelical church that has, for the past 100 years or so, been proclaiming a message about like this: “Jesus is coming soon; we must praise God’s greatness; we must worship the Creator; judgment is about to take place; if you’re going to be saved, you’d better get saved now.” I think that it’s interesting to notice, for example, the emphasis on praise, which has been coming into more and more prominence in the past few decades as an important element of the church’s life and work. Certainly, too, there has been an increased emphasis on the rapid approach of Judgment Day; and there has even been an increased emphasis on creation, especially in contrast to the popularity (in the non-Christian world) of evolutionist thinking. I think that this angel represents the evangelical movement of the past 100 years or so.

Revelation 14:8
ANOTHER, A SECOND ANGEL, FOLLOWED, SAYING, “BABYLON THE GREAT HAS FALLEN, WHICH HAS MADE ALL THE NATIONS TO DRINK OF THE WINE OF THE WRATH OF HER SEXUAL IMMORALITY.” This is the first place in the book of Revelation where “Babylon the Great” is mentioned (details will be expounded in chapters 17 and 18; there we will find that “Babylon the Great” is another name for the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages). That church, with its false and immoral systems, has already fallen from the position of leadership in Christendom, and the position of authority over the nations, and the position of esteem which it held, during the time when its head (the Papacy) was in power. The second angel represents the spreading of a message about its fall, which had already taken place before the first angel’s message began to come into prominence. It represents, if you will, the kind of teaching about the book of Revelation, and its symbols, that I am attempting to give a sample of in these Studies.

Revelation 14:9
ANOTHER ANGEL, A THIRD, FOLLOWED THEM, SAYING WITH A GREAT VOICE, “IF ANYONE WORSHIPS THE BEAST AND HIS IMAGE, AND RECEIVES A MARK ON HIS FOREHEAD, OR IN HIS HAND,

Revelation 14:10
HE ALSO (in addition to drinking of ‘the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality’) WILL DRINK OF THE WINE OF THE WRATH OF GOD, WHICH IS PREPARED UNMIXED IN THE CUP OF HIS ANGER (God’s punishment on those who had dedicated themselves to serving the Antichrist). I don’t think that this refers to the ‘innocent’ members of the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages – those ‘ordinary’ people who knew no better, and had no other teaching given to them. I think that it refers to those who knew what was going on, realized that it was wrong, and committed themselves to it anyway, because of the economic and political advantages that came to them for doing so. HE WILL BE TORMENTED WITH FIRE AND SULFUR IN THE PRESENCE OF THE HOLY ANGELS, AND IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LAMB.

Revelation 14:11
THE SMOKE OF THEIR TORMENT GOES UP FOREVER AND EVER. You’ve probably heard that statement used to defend the teaching of an eternally burning Hell where souls are tormented and never destroyed; but I want you to notice that the text doesn’t say that the fire that torments them continues to burn forever and ever. What it says is that the ‘smoke’ produced by that ‘fire’ continues to ‘rise’ forever and ever. You know as well as I do that smoke can continue to rise long after the fire that produced it has gone out. After the fire has gone out, the smoke that it had produced while it was burning is still up in the sky, rising higher and higher. I don’t believe that this statement teaches that anyone’s ‘torment’ lasts forever; what it teaches is that the evidence that this ‘torment’ has taken place remains forever. The ‘torment’ leads to their complete destruction, and they forever remain in the condition of having been completely destroyed – that is, they are never again restored to existence and life. THEY HAVE NO REST DAY AND NIGHT, THOSE WHO WORSHIP THE BEAST AND HIS IMAGE, AND WHOEVER RECEIVES THE MARK OF HIS NAME. Again, this statement has been said to imply that the ‘torment’ of such people will go on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, throughout eternity. Several chapters from now, we will see how difficult it is to reconcile that concept with a statement that in eternity there is no such thing as ‘night.’ For now, let me just say that in order for anything to happen ‘day and night,’ it must happen (and then stop happening) before eternity begins.

Revelation 14:12
HERE IS THE PATIENCE OF THE SAINTS, THOSE WHO KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD, AND THE FAITH OF JESUS.” This verse is almost identical to the last part of Revelation 13:10. All of these statements about what went on in those times constitute a call for God’s true people to stick to their belief that Jesus (and Jesus alone) can save them – not to put their trust in any religious system or organization or follow any man-made leadership or authority. They are to follow Jesus (and Jesus alone).

Revelation 14:13
I HEARD THE VOICE FROM HEAVEN (the voice of Jesus) SAYING, “WRITE, ‘BLESSED ARE THE DEAD WHO DIE IN THE LORD (having faith in Jesus) FROM NOW (John’s time) ON (throughout all remaining history).’” “YES (Literally, ‘Amen’),” SAYS THE (Holy) SPIRIT, “THAT THEY MAY (experience) REST (in eternity) FROM THEIR LABORS, FOR (the results of) THEIR WORKS FOLLOW WITH THEM.” In this life, the results of our work (our wages) often evaporate as fast as we receive them. In eternity, the results of the work that we will do for God will continue forever, just as we ourselves will.
So far, our studies in Revelation 12:1–14:13 have taken us through another “tour” of events leading from ancient times to our own times. It shouldn’t surprise us that the next thing that we will read is another description of the second coming of Christ. It also shouldn’t surprise us that this one will be longer, and contain more details, than each of the ones that we have seen in our studies of previous chapters. In this case, the focus of the description will be on the “Judgment Day” aspect of His coming.

Revelation 14:14
I LOOKED, AND BEHOLD, A WHITE CLOUD; AND ON THE CLOUD ONE SITTING LIKE A SON OF MAN (Jesus), HAVING ON HIS HEAD A GOLDEN CROWN, AND IN HIS HAND A SHARP SICKLE.

Revelation 14:15
ANOTHER ANGEL CAME OUT FROM THE TEMPLE (in Heaven), CRYING WITH A LOUD VOICE TO HIM WHO SAT ON THE CLOUD (Jesus), “SEND FORTH YOUR SICKLE; FOR THE HOUR TO REAP HAS COME; FOR THE HARVEST OF THE EARTH IS RIPE!” In Jesus’ own teaching, during His earthly ministry, “harvest time” was often used as a “picture” of the judgment that will occur in the process of His second coming and the setting up of His kingdom.

Revelation 14:16
HE WHO SAT ON THE CLOUD (Jesus) THRUST HIS SICKLE ON THE EARTH, AND THE (harvest of the) EARTH WAS REAPED.

Revelation 14:17
ANOTHER ANGEL CAME OUT FROM THE TEMPLE WHICH IS IN HEAVEN. HE ALSO HAD A SHARP SICKLE.

Revelation 14:18
ANOTHER ANGEL CAME OUT FROM THE ALTAR (of the temple in Heaven), HE WHO HAS POWER OVER (the) FIRE (that burns on that altar), AND HE CALLED WITH A GREAT VOICE TO HIM (the angel) WHO HAD THE SHARP SICKLE, SAYING, “SEND FORTH YOUR SHARP SICKLE, AND GATHER THE CLUSTERS OF THE VINE OF THE EARTH, FOR THE EARTH’S GRAPES ARE FULLY RIPE!” The time of “vintage” (the gathering of grapes, and pressing them to make wine) was frequently used in the Old Testament as a “picture” of God’s judgment. A graphic comparison was made between what happens when you squeeze grapes (grape juice comes out of them) and what happens when human beings are killed, especially by swords, in battle (blood comes out of them).

Revelation 14:19
THE ANGEL THRUST HIS SICKLE INTO THE EARTH, AND GATHERED THE VINTAGE OF THE EARTH, AND THREW IT INTO THE GREAT WINEPRESS OF THE WRATH OF GOD.

Revelation 14:20
THE WINEPRESS WAS TRODDEN OUTSIDE OF THE CITY, AND BLOOD CAME OUT FROM THE WINEPRESS (combining the two “pictures” – instead of grape juice coming out of the winepress, and blood coming out of the bodies, John saw blood coming out of the winepress), EVEN TO THE BRIDLES OF THE HORSES (about five feet), AS FAR AS ONE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED STADIA (about 200 miles). Remember, again, that this is a vision, not a literal prophecy to be fulfilled in mathematical detail! The numbers are large enough to make it clear that John was seeing the destruction of the entire human race, except for those who are saved through their faith in Jesus. That is one of the things that will happen when Jesus returns.

Revelation 13

2010-07-16T13:31:00.000-04:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 13

Revelation 13:1
THEN I STOOD ON THE SAND OF THE SEA (never forget that John, the author of the book of Revelation, was reporting a series of visions that he had; in those visions, he was himself one of the “characters” in that he saw the visions from a specific perspective – in this case, from the perspective of one standing on a beach, looking out toward the ocean). I SAW A BEAST COMING UP OUT OF THE SEA, HAVING TEN HORNS AND SEVEN HEADS (though “seven heads” are not mentioned there, the only other “ten-horned” beast that I know of is the one that is described in Daniel 7:7, which represented the Roman Empire). ON HIS HORNS WERE TEN CROWNS (in my comments on Daniel 7:17 – see my “Studies in Daniel” – I showed that the “ten horns” on the beast that is described in Daniel 7:7 represented the ten smaller kingdoms into which the Roman Empire was divided, by the invading Germans, after it fell to them in AD 476), AND ON HIS HEADS, BLASPHEMOUS NAMES (representing attempts, on the part of a human government, inspired – ultimately, if not directly – by Satan, to take over the true role of Christ, which is to be the king of the world). Any human institution that attempts to rule the whole world is (whether it knows it or not) blaspheming against God, because establishing a world ruler is God’s prerogative, and He has chosen to give the authority to rule the world to His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and in earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18, NIV); so He is to be the rightful king of the world, and anybody else who tries to be the king of the world does so in opposition to, and in defiance of, Him. Notice that this “beast” looks very similar to the “dragon” that was described in Revelation 12:3, but it is not quite identical to it. The “ten horns” and the “seven heads” are mentioned in the opposite order, and (more importantly) there are “ten crowns” on the “ten horns” rather than there being “seven crowns” on “seven heads” as in Revelation 12:3. The “beast” in Revelation 13:1 represents a corrupt, anti-God government (just as the “dragon” in Revelation 12:3 did) – and a very similar one at that – but the “beast” and the “dragon” are not just different representations of the same entity. The “dragon” represented the Devil, as specifically personified in the Roman Empire. I believe that the “seven heads” on this “beast” represent the six most successful attempts to rule the world that spanned the many centuries of ancient history – Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome – plus the strange “reincarnation” of the Roman Empire that attempted to rule the world during the many centuries of medieval history (the Papacy). John describes the “name” of each of these empires as “blasphemous” because any attempt to rule the whole world is an attempt to contradict the plan of God, which is that His Son, Jesus Christ, is destined to rule the world.

Revelation 13:2
THE BEAST WHICH I SAW WAS LIKE A LEOPARD (which is the animal that represented the Greek Empire in Daniel 7:17), AND HIS FEET WERE LIKE THOSE OF A BEAR (which is the animal that represented the Medo-Persian Empire in Daniel 7:17), AND HIS MOUTH LIKE THE MOUTH OF A LION (which is the animal that represented the Babylonian Empire in Daniel 7:17). THE DRAGON (which represented the Roman Empire in Revelation 12:3, just as the unnamed “fourth animal” had done in Daniel 7:17) GAVE HIM (the beast, who is now seen to be a sort of “composite” of all of Satan’s attempts to rule the world) HIS (the dragon’s) POWER (the military force that was required), HIS THRONE (which was, literally, located in the city of Rome), AND GREAT AUTHORITY. In one of his attempts to tempt Jesus to sin, Satan had taken Him up into an exceedingly high mountain, and shown Him all of the kingdoms of the world, and had said to Him, “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me” (Matthew 4:9). Jesus, of course, had refused to worship Satan, and Satan had left Him for a while. Now, we see Satan making that same offer to the “beast,” and the “beast” accepting it.

Revelation 13:3
ONE OF HIS (the beast’s) HEADS (I believe that it was the sixth one – the one that represented the Roman Empire) LOOKED LIKE IT HAD BEEN WOUNDED FATALLY (it seemed as if the idea of ruling the world had suffered a mortal blow when the Roman Empire fell in AD 476). HIS (the beast’s) FATAL WOUND WAS HEALED (the blow turned out not to be fatal to the idea of ruling the world after all, as the seventh head came into position), AND THE WHOLE EARTH MARVELED AT THE BEAST (accepted the leadership of the seventh “head” because it seemed so miraculous that the idea of a “one world government” could be “revived” after the great Roman Empire had fallen and been replaced, for a while, by the ten smaller kingdoms into which the invading Germans had divided its territory). The seventh head, clearly, represents the Papacy, which (as we saw in our “Studies in Daniel”) took power in Rome in AD 610 and held it for 1,260 years, until AD 1870.

Revelation 13:4
THEY (the “whole earth” – that is, the people who had previously lived under the authority of the Roman Empire) WORSHIPED (gave their respect to) THE DRAGON (which represented Satan’s attempt to rule the world, especially as manifested through the Roman Empire), BECAUSE HE (the dragon, which represented Satan’s attempt to rule the world, especially as manifested through the Roman Empire) GAVE HIS (the dragon’s) AUTHORITY (the authority to rule over all of the people that lived in what had been the Roman Empire) TO THE BEAST (which represented, at this point, the final “phase” of Satan’s attempt to rule the world – namely, the Papacy), AND THEY WORSHIPED (acknowledged the authority of) THE BEAST (again, the Papacy) SAYING, “WHO IS LIKE THE BEAST? (No one! As a political/religious world-ruling system, the medieval Papacy was completely unique in the history of the world.) WHO IS ABLE TO MAKE WAR WITH HIM?” (No one! In AD 754, the Papacy literally sent armies to conquer three of the ten kingdoms into which the invading Germans had divided the territory of the old Roman Empire, and those armies conquered all three of those kingdoms. That territory became known as “the Papal States” for most of the rest of the medieval era.)

Revelation 13:5
A MOUTH SPEAKING GREAT THINGS AND BLASPHEMY (making the claim to be the king of the world) WAS GIVEN TO HIM (the beast, which represented, at this point, the final “phase” of Satan’s attempt to rule the world – namely, the Papacy). AUTHORITY TO MAKE WAR FOR FORTY-TWO MONTHS (42 months, at 30 days per month, is 1,260 days; a day being, in Revelation, a symbol for a year, the 1,260 days represented 1,260 years – exactly the time during which the Papacy literally had “authority to make war” – from AD 610 to AD 1870) WAS GIVEN TO HIM (again, the Papacy).

Revelation 13:6
HE (the beast, which represented, at this point, the final “phase” of Satan’s attempt to rule the world – namely, the Papacy) OPENED HIS MOUTH FOR BLASPHEMY AGAINST GOD, TO BLASPHEME HIS (God’s) NAME, AND HIS (God’s) DWELLING, AND THOSE (God’s angels) WHO DWELL IN HEAVEN (by making the claim to be the king of the world, although it was Satan, not God, who had given that “authority” to him).

Revelation 13:7
IT (the power) WAS GIVEN (by Satan) TO HIM (the beast, which represented, at this point, the final “phase” of Satan’s attempt to rule the world – namely, the Papacy) TO MAKE WAR WITH THE SAINTS (the true Church, which consists of all those people who have truly received salvation, by the grace of God, through their faith in Jesus Christ), AND TO OVERCOME THEM (during the years between AD 610 and AD 1870, over 50,000,000 true Christians were killed under the authority of the Papacy – the Spanish Inquisition was the most famous single “phase” of that process, but there were many other “phases” that are not as well-known). AUTHORITY (to rule) OVER EVERY TRIBE, PEOPLE, LANGUAGE (group), AND NATION (within the territory that the beast controlled) WAS GIVEN (by Satan) TO HIM (again, the Papacy).

Revelation 13:8
ALL WHO DWELL ON THE EARTH (within the territory that the “beast” controlled) WILL WORSHIP (acknowledge the authority that had been given to) HIM (the “beast” – that is, the Papacy), EVERYONE (that is) WHOSE NAME HAS NOT BEEN WRITTEN FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD IN THE BOOK OF LIFE OF THE LAMB (Jesus) WHO HAS BEEN KILLED (everyone except the true Christians – of whom there were always some, and they were the ones that the Papacy worked the hardest to exterminate).

Revelation 13:9
IF ANYONE HAS AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR (see Matthew 11:15, 13:9 and 13:43; Mark 4:9; Luke 8:8 and 14:35; and, of course, the ending of each of the seven “letters to the churches” in Revelation 2 and 3 – this was a “favorite” expression of Jesus’). Not everybody will receive and understand this message; but the message is intended to be received and understood by anyone who is willing to receive and understand it – and, especially, to apply the important, practical implications of it (such as are mentioned in the next verse) to his own life.

Revelation 13:10
IF ANYONE HAS CAPTIVITY (in his destiny), HE WILL GO (into captivity). IF ANYONE IS (destined to be killed) WITH THE SWORD, HE MUST BE KILLED (with the sword). HERE IS THE ENDURANCE AND THE FAITH OF THE SAINTS (the true Christians). This is intended to be a word of encouragement to the true Christians who would be living during the 1,260-year reign of the anti-Christian Papacy: “Bad things will happen to you, but you need to hold on to your faith.” It “works” equally well today, although we are living in a seemingly more peaceful age. Today, Christianity is at least tolerated by many of the governmental authorities in the world, and most Christians don’t face captivity and martyrdom on a daily basis. We still face a lot of opposition, and there is still a need for endurance and faith.

Revelation 13:11
I SAW ANOTHER BEAST COMING UP OUT OF THE EARTH (which symbolized the land of Palestine and therefore represented that portion of humanity which comprised God’s chosen people). In New Testament terminology, a beast coming up out of the earth represents a corrupt, man-made “governmental” system that arises from within the organized church of God. The first beast represented human government – attempts to rule the world from a political point of view. The second beast represented human religion – attempts to rule the world from a priestly point of view. HE (the second beast) HAD TWO HORNS LIKE A LAMB (it was “disguised” to look like a lamb – that is, it was disguised to look like the Lamb that was described in Revelation 4 – namely, Jesus; it represented a religious system that tried to control the world while looking as much as possible like Christianity), AND HE (the second beast) SPOKE (teachings) LIKE (those of) A DRAGON (Satan). I believe that the religious system that this verse described was known historically as the Roman Catholic Church as it was manifested in the time period from AD 610 to AD 1870. And, in a sense, I might go so far as to say that it’s only by historical “accident” (so to speak) that there is still an organization in the world today called the Roman Catholic Church – but it bears little resemblance to its predecessor on the stage of history, the Roman Catholic Church of the past. Great changes have been made within that church, so that it no longer is the way it was, and yet it is technically the same organization. We know that churches can change. They can get better, and they can get worse. The Roman Catholic Church started out to be the universal, worldwide Christian church. That was great. It “went bad” in becoming the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages, but since then it has “gone good” again, as more and more it is becoming similar to the kind of organization that we would call a “Protestant” or “evangelical” church. It’s headed in the right direction. Another example of how churches can change like that is the People’s Temple. In 1978, the world was shocked by the news of the mass murder/suicide of over 900 people in Jonestown, Guyana. But this cult was just a Disciples of Christ church that had “gone bad” under the leadership of a bad man, Jim Jones. So the fact that the Roman Catholic Church of today is the same “corporation” as the Roman Catholic Church of the past doesn’t mean that it has the same characteristics. It’s a church that has changed more than once throughout its long history. This prophecy is not intended to describe, and does not describe, the Roman Catholic Church of the twenty-first century. It is intended to describe, and it accurately describes, the Roman Catholic Church of the seventh through the nineteenth centuries – especially in regard to that church’s working relationship with its titular head, the Papacy, in the way that the latter institution was manifested during that same time period.

Revelation 13:12
HE (the second beast, which I have identified as the medieval Roman Catholic Church) EXERCISES ALL THE AUTHORITY OF THE FIRST BEAST (which I have identified as the Papacy) IN HIS PRESENCE (as long as the Roman Catholic Church submitted itself to the authority of the Papacy, it was the “vehicle” through which the Papacy actually exercised its ruling powers). HE (the second beast) MAKES THE EARTH (God’s people) AND THOSE WHO DWELL IN IT (everybody who lived in the countries controlled by the Papacy) TO WORSHIP (acknowledge the authority of) THE FIRST BEAST, WHOSE FATAL WOUND WAS HEALED (the Papacy).

Revelation 13:13
HE (the second beast, which I have identified as the medieval Roman Catholic Church) PERFORMS GREAT SIGNS, EVEN MAKING FIRE COME DOWN OUT OF THE SKY TO THE EARTH IN THE SIGHT OF PEOPLE (like the Prophet Elijah did, as recorded in 1 Kings 18:36-39). I don’t know what specific historical event(s) might be prophesied by this statement; but, in general, the medieval Roman Catholic Church placed a great emphasis on miracles. The “biographies” of its “saints” mostly consisted of long catalogues of the miracles that they allegedly performed. The “rule” was that unless an individual performed at least three “certifiable” miracles, he (or she) could not be listed as a “saint.”

Revelation 13:14
HE (the second beast, which I have identified as the medieval Roman Catholic Church) DECEIVES MY (God’s) OWN PEOPLE WHO DWELL ON THE EARTH (in the countries controlled by the Papacy) BECAUSE OF THE SIGNS HE (the second beast, which I have identified as the medieval Roman Catholic Church) WAS GRANTED TO DO IN FRONT OF THE (first) BEAST (the Papacy); (what was “deceptive” about the miracles was that the Church was using them as a “platform” for) SAYING TO THOSE WHO DWELL ON THE EARTH (the people living in the countries controlled by the Papacy), THAT THEY SHOULD MAKE AN IMAGE TO THE (first) BEAST (the Papacy) WHO HAD THE SWORD WOUND AND LIVED. I believe that this “image” of the Papacy represented the Roman Catholic religious hierarchy at all its levels – from the Papacy itself, through the college of cardinals, to the archbishops, the bishops and the priests. This hierarchy could aptly be described as an “image” of the Papacy, since, at every level, the clergy at that level functioned as “little popes” in the territories that were assigned to them. This was a “top-down” system of church government, quite the opposite of the “congregational” type of church government that most evangelical Protestants are accustomed to.

Revelation 13:15
IT WAS GIVEN TO HIM (the second beast, which I have identified as the medieval Roman Catholic Church) TO GIVE BREATH (life) TO IT (the image), TO THE IMAGE OF THE (first) BEAST (the Papacy), THAT THE IMAGE OF THE (first) BEAST (the Papacy) SHOULD BOTH SPEAK (it was the clergy who did all the preaching in the medieval Roman Catholic Church), AND CAUSE AS MANY AS WOULDN’T WORSHIP (acknowledge the authority of) THE IMAGE OF THE (first) BEAST (the Papacy) TO BE KILLED (hence, the “inquisitions” and persecutions that I mentioned earlier). Now, you didn’t find parish priests in the Middle Ages running around with swords in their hands, killing people who disagreed with their authority. What you had was parish priests, bishops, archbishops, etc., who could speak the word that such-and-such a person deserved to die because of their heresy, and the so-called “governments” of those countries would listen to the priests and the bishops and arrange to have the person executed. So, the Church was able to say, “Our hands are clean. We haven’t killed anybody. We just spoke the truth of God from our pulpits, and it’s very wonderful that the governments of the countries in which our churches function responded to that preaching and exercised their authority by executing the heretics.” But you can see who was really “pulling the strings.” I think that it was very clear to everybody who was living at the time, and maybe has only become muddled to those of us who live centuries later and can’t understand how in the world a church was able to control the government, since that isn’t done nowadays – at least, not in our countries.

Revelation 13:16
HE (the second beast, which I have identified as the medieval Roman Catholic Church) CAUSES ALL, THE SMALL AND THE GREAT, THE RICH AND THE POOR, AND THE FREE AND THE SLAVE (the last three phrases are just a way of “spelling out” the comprehensiveness of the preceding word, “all”), TO BE GIVEN MARKS ON THEIR RIGHT HANDS, OR ON THEIR FOREHEADS; Remember that we’re reading a prophetic book of symbolism and imagery! John saw a vision; in the vision there was a beast that represented a religious system and another beast that represented a political system. Now he sees marks in hands and foreheads. We need to ask what they represent rather than what they “looked like” in the vision. I don’t believe that anybody was ever “tattooed” with literal marks on their hands or foreheads. Nobody was ever “branded” the way cattle are branded. The “hand” refers to the instrument of economic activity (we work “with our hands”). The “forehead” refers to the instrument of intellectual (or mental) activity (we think with our brains). The “mark,” then, is an attitude that is expressed in the workplace and in the intellectual life. It was an attempt to control every phase of people’s lives.

Revelation 13:17
AND THAT NO ONE WOULD BE ABLE TO BUY OR SELL (participate in the economies of that time), UNLESS HE HAS THAT MARK (unless he conformed to the system that everybody was supposed to believe in and work for), (the “mark” is) THE NAME OF THE BEAST OR THE NUMBER OF HIS NAME. In those days, people didn’t use numerals (such as 0, 1, 2, 3, etc.) to represent numbers. Instead, they used letters of the alphabet for that purpose. Maybe you’re familiar with the Roman numeral system, in which the letter “I” represents the number “1”; “V” represents “5”; “X” represents “10”; “L” represents “50”; and so on. Similar numeral systems existed in Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew and all of the other languages. When you’re using a numeral system like that, it’s an easy “jump” to the idea (called “numerology”) in which any word (a name, for example) can be given a numerical “value” which is obtained by adding up the numerical values of those letters within the word that are used to represent numbers (ignoring any letters that are not used for that purpose). So, for example, the name “Claudius Lysias” (see Acts 23:26) would be “calculated” as C+L+A+V+D+I+V+S+L+Y+S+I+A+S, which would be 100+50+0+5+500+1+5+0+50+0+0+1+0+0 =712. (The Latin alphabet did not contain the letter “U”; where we would write a “U,” the Romans used the letter “V” – you’ve probably seen this in Latin inscriptions on public buildings.) So, “the number of” the name “Claudius Lysias” would be 712. This sort of number could even be used in a manner similar to the way in which we use the last four digits of a Social Security number (as a means of identification). Now we come to what might be the most sought-after bit of information in the whole book of Revelation – perhaps in the whole Bible! What is “the name” of the “beast” and what is “the number of” that name?

Revelation 13:18
HERE IS WISDOM (an intelligent person can figure this out). HE WHO HAS UNDERSTANDING (anyone who knows the Roman numeral system), LET HIM CALCULATE THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST, FOR IT IS THE NUMBER OF A MAN (it is “the number of” a human “name”). HIS NUMBER IS SIX HUNDRED SIXTY-SIX. First of all, the symbolism in that number, itself, is obvious to anybody familiar with the way that the biblical writers used numbers. “7” is “the perfect number” – the number of God. “6” (one less than seven) is the number of man, who stands “a little lower” than God. So, “666” would be a “trinity” of man. It would be the perfect numerical representation of humanness as opposed to divinity. So it is a logical number with which to symbolize the Antichrist – a man-made system that sought to take the place of God in people’s lives. But we shouldn’t look at this number as “a 6 followed by a 6 followed by a 6” because that isn’t the way that it would have been written in Greek. The actual number is spelled out in Revelation 13:18 as “six hundred and threescore (a “score” is 20, so “threescore” is another way of saying “60”) and six.” So, we want to look for a name, in which the sum of the values of the letters (those letters that have values) is 666.
Furthermore, it seems to me, to be done right, this calculation must meet the following three requirements:
1) The word(s) must be an actual name (or title) really used by the individual (or organization) that is being represented. You can’t just make up a name for somebody that happens to total up to the number that you want to use to represent him, and then claim that that is his name, and that therefore that number is the number of his name.
2) The word(s) must be spelled correctly, and they must be in the language that is spoken by the individual (or organization) that is being represented. If you spell a word incorrectly, or translate it into another language, you can change its numerical value, and if you try hard enough, you might be able to make it come out to any number that you want it to.
3) The word(s) must be in a language that actually used letters to represent numbers, and you must use those letters as they were used by the people who spoke that language. You can’t just make up a “code” and claim that you have produced the number of an individual’s (or organization’s) name in a language that doesn’t use that system.
Interestingly, as far as I know, these three requirements (which seem perfectly logical to me) eliminate every single attempt that I have ever heard of to identify the “beast” whose number is 666, except this one: V+I+C+A+R+I+V+S+F+I+L+I+I+D+E+I (50+1+100+0+0+1+5+0+0+1+5-+1+1+500+0+1) = 666. You can “do the math” as easily as I can: the words “Vicarius Filii Dei” add up to 666. These are the exact words that were written on the front side of the “triple crown” that the medieval popes wore. Furthermore, they translate into the expression “the one who stands in the place of the Son of God” – which is exactly what the word “Antichrist” also means (literally, “the one who stands in the place of Christ”). I don’t know how any prophetic symbol can possibly be more obvious or more certain: the “name” of the “beast” is “Antichrist” and the “number of” its name is the total of the numerical values of the letters in the title worn on the crown of every Pope between AD 610 and AD 1870.

Revelation 12

2010-05-06T15:52:00.001-04:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 12

Introduction
Revelation’s Chapters 12-14 are quite different from the chapters before them and the chapters after them. They constitute a separate vision, but it’s not a vision that comes in a series of seven chronological events leading from the first coming of Christ to the second coming. It does proceed, I think, in chronological order, but it starts before the first coming of Christ, and it continues right up to the second coming. It is in these chapters that other interpreters of Revelation – those who follow a different system of interpretation than I do – spend most of their time, and it is from these chapters that they draw most of their teaching; and it’s precisely in these chapters that I think that they go the furthest wrong by trying to take statements literally, which I see as symbolic. They do admit that some things are symbols. For example, no commentator that I know of expects to see a literal seven-headed, ten-horned monster rise up out of the ocean (Revelation 13:1). But they want to take other things (that, as far as I can tell, are equally symbolic) literally – such as the “mark” of the number 666 which is said to be received in the hand or in the forehead (Revelation 13:16-18). I think that we ought to understand the whole book of Revelation as a book of symbols, and only when the author makes it very clear to us that he is speaking literally do we need to take it that way. Primarily, we ought to try to unravel the symbolism and figure out what the author is getting at, and this is what I will attempt to do with these chapters.

Revelation 12:1
A GREAT SIGHT WAS SEEN IN HEAVEN: A WOMAN (in biblical prophecy, a woman is frequently a symbol for corporate humanity – a nation, a religious system or a church – when you put a lot of people together, you can represent them, collectively, by a woman) CLOTHED WITH THE SUN, AND THE MOON UNDER HER FEET, AND ON HER HEAD A CROWN OF TWELVE STARS. Because the same symbols (the sun, the moon and a number of stars) occur in Genesis 37:9, I think that we can find the explanation of who this “woman” represents there. Jacob’s son Joseph, describing a dream, said that “the sun, the moon and eleven stars” bowed down to him. Jacob interpreted that symbol as “I and your mother and your brothers” (Genesis 37:10). If you add another star (to represent Joseph), you will have “the sun, the moon and twelve stars” and you will see that this symbol represents Jacob’s family, which eventually became the nation of Israel. I believe that the “woman” in Revelation 12:1 represents the nation of Israel – that is, the people of God as they were known in history before the birth of Christ.

Revelation 12:2
SHE WAS WITH CHILD. At the point in time at which John began to see this woman in the vision, she had reached the term of her pregnancy and was about to give birth. SHE CRIED OUT IN PAIN, LABORING TO GIVE BIRTH. The nation of Israel gave birth, in a very important way, in the birth of Jesus. The nation of Israel was “summed up” in the person of one Israelite woman – his mother, Mary, who literally bore him, and who actually suffered the pains of childbirth. The history of the Jewish nation in the time just before Jesus was born was certainly one of pain and suffering, and they were crying out to God for a Deliverer. Many of the Old Testament saints of that time – for example, Simeon and Anna, who met Jesus in the Temple when He was 40 days old – were looking forward to the coming of the Messiah.

Revelation 12:3
ANOTHER SIGN WAS SEEN IN HEAVEN. BEHOLD, A GREAT RED DRAGON, HAVING SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS, AND ON HIS HEADS SEVEN CROWNS. Just from picturing a few things in your mind, you can see how very opposite this character is to the first one. A beautiful, well-dressed woman, about to give birth to a child – I can’t imagine a more beautiful picture. And here is a huge, red, monstrous dragon with heads and horns – obviously a symbol of something evil – yet he is also wearing crowns. He has to represent something that has political power and authority: a corrupt, anti-God government.

Revelation 12:4
HIS TAIL DREW ONE THIRD OF THE STARS OF THE SKY, AND THREW THEM TO THE EARTH. That half of a verse is the only place in the Bible from which people get the commonly accepted teaching that Satan (who is represented by this dragon), prior to the creation of the world, led a rebellion against God, and 1/3 of the angels of heaven followed him, joining him in his rebellion, and as a result were cast out of heaven. There is no other place where they get that figure (1/3) from, just this half of a verse, and it may or may not be right. How can we possibly prove any theory about what happened before the creation of the world or what was going on in the spiritual world or among angels and demons? There is no scientific way to back up such a theory. The only information that we have about such subjects is whatever the Lord has given to us in His Word – and this is the only place in God’s Word where such a thing is mentioned! So that may be the right interpretation of it, or it may not. I don’t think that it is. THE DRAGON STOOD BEFORE THE WOMAN WHO WAS ABOUT TO GIVE BIRTH, SO THAT WHEN SHE GAVE BIRTH HE MIGHT DEVOUR HER CHILD. The dragon’s intention in planning to “devour” the child is, of course, to destroy him. Here we see Satan prepared to destroy the Messiah (Jesus) as soon as He is born into the world. He was aware that the Messiah was coming – that did not take Satan by surprise, because he knew the prophecies recorded in the Old Testament, which predicted when the Messiah would come, and where, and he knew that it would have to be a child of David’s family. So, Satan had a pretty good idea of who the child would be when he came into the world. God didn’t have any secrets from him in this respect, because He had revealed it in His Word. Historically, just as the nation of Israel was personified in Jesus’ mother, Mary, the Devil was personified in the Roman Empire, working through King Herod in his attempt to kill Jesus by killing all the babies that were born in Bethlehem (which was the city of David) within a 2-year span of when the prophecy had indicated that He would be born.

Revelation 12:5
SHE GAVE BIRTH TO A SON, A MALE CHILD, (and here is a peek into the future for us) WHO IS TO RULE ALL THE NATIONS WITH A ROD OF IRON. That’s Jesus’ destiny, and it’s stated right at the point of His birth. At the very moment that the Child, Jesus, was born into the world, it is made clear that He is the Messiah and that He will rule the world. That will certainly happen. No plan of Satan’s or man’s can ever prevent it from happening. HER CHILD WAS CAUGHT UP TO GOD, AND TO HIS THRONE. But Jesus didn’t go up to God and to His throne until after the Resurrection and the Ascension. So John jumps over the entire story of Jesus’ life on earth, but this is not such a bad thing, because John had already told that story in another book – his Gospel. So the entire Gospel of John chronologically belongs between the first sentence in Revelation 12:5 and the second sentence in Revelation 12:5. If you were reading this vision in chronological order, you would read the first four and a half verses of Revelation 12, and then you would read the whole Gospel of John, and then you would read the second half of Revelation 12:5.

Revelation 12:6
THE WOMAN FLED INTO THE WILDERNESS (after Jesus’ ascension, the nation of Israel was destroyed and disbanded, and its people scattered around the world – this happened as a result of the First Jewish War, in AD 70, and the Second Jewish War, in AD 135, as we’ve seen in the course of studying earlier chapters of Revelation), WHERE SHE HAS A PLACE PREPARED BY GOD, THAT THERE THEY MAY NOURISH HER ONE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED SIXTY DAYS. Does this still refer to the nation of Israel? How could it, now that the nation of Israel no longer existed? I believe that the symbol of the “woman” is now being used to represent a new “phase” in the continuing history of the people of God – the phase that we know as the true Church of Jesus Christ. After AD 135, that Church could be found “hiding” in the “wilderness” of the world, since it was difficult to “see” her in public, as this was a time of Empire-wide persecution against Christians and Christianity, as we’ve also studied in previous chapters of Revelation. Later, that persecution would reappear as the reign of Antichrist, which, as we have seen, was to last 1,260 prophetic “days” – 1,260 literal years (AD 610-1870).

Revelation 12:7
THERE WAS WAR IN THE SKY. When did this happen? From the text, it appears to have happened, not “before the creation of the world,” but after Jesus ascended to Heaven, and after the organization represented by the woman had fled to the place represented by the desert, where God would take care of her – in other words, after the year AD 135. Why did war break out in Heaven? MICHAEL AND HIS ANGELS MADE WAR ON THE DRAGON. THE DRAGON AND HIS ANGELS MADE WAR.

Revelation 12:8
THEY DIDN’T PREVAIL, NEITHER WAS A PLACE FOUND FOR HIM ANY MORE IN HEAVEN. There’s an interesting “twist” here, in that usually the history of this world is directly proportional to the history of the angelic world, as, for instance, in the ascendancy of the angel of Persia over Daniel’s angel at the exact point in Daniel’s vision where the nation of Persia ascended in power over the nation of Israel (Daniel 10). Here, the reverse happens. Michael is the angel who represents God’ people (Daniel 12:1), and the dragon is the angel who represents the evil world power – which, at the time, was the Roman Empire. When Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels in Heaven, Michael won; but, on earth, the Roman Empire seemed to be winning. In Heaven, the dragon was defeated; but, on Earth, the Church seemed to be in the process of being defeated – a reversal of what went on in Heaven. When the dragon was defeated, he and his angels were not allowed to stay in Heaven any longer, so where did they go?

Revelation 12:9
THE GREAT DRAGON WAS THROWN DOWN, THE OLD (literally, “the original”) SERPENT (that is, “the serpent who was around at the beginning” – in other words, the serpent who was around in the Garden of Eden, who tempted Eve to sin – that serpent), HE WHO IS CALLED THE DEVIL AND SATAN, THE DECEIVER OF THE WHOLE WORLD (Eve, and her husband Adam, and all their descendants). HE WAS THROWN DOWN TO THE EARTH, AND HIS ANGELS WERE THROWN DOWN WITH HIM. Where is the “sphere” of activity of the Devil and his demons? It’s not on the planets Mars or Venus, or anywhere else in the universe – it’s not in Heaven, and it’s not in Hell. Don’t think that there’s a Devil-like being “in charge” of Hell – that idea is based on old Greek mythology, not on the Bible. The Devil’s area of activity is this planet, right here, where people are.

Revelation 12:10
I HEARD A LOUD VOICE IN HEAVEN, SAYING, “NOW IS COME THE SALVATION, THE POWER, AND THE KINGDOM OF OUR GOD, AND THE AUTHORITY OF HIS CHRIST; FOR THE ACCUSER OF OUR BROTHERS HAS BEEN THROWN DOWN, WHO ACCUSES THEM BEFORE OUR GOD DAY AND NIGHT. All right! Although the final battle of this war has not yet taken place, it is already clear that God is demonstrating His power as King, that Christ is showing His authority to rule, and that salvation is in the process of coming, because the Devil has been thrown out of Heaven (even if that means that there will still be a lot of demonic activity on the earth for a while).

Revelation 12:11
THEY (our “brothers” – our fellow-believers) OVERCAME HIM (not by fighting, but) BECAUSE OF THE LAMB’S BLOOD, AND BECAUSE OF THE WORD OF THEIR TESTIMONY. We win the victory over the Devil by proclaiming the power of the blood of Christ to save us from our sins and by proclaiming the truth which we know – the teaching of God. THEY DIDN’T LOVE THEIR LIFE, EVEN TO DEATH. How do you defeat death? Believe it or not, you don’t “defeat death” by not dying – you defeat death by dying and then rising again, like Jesus did.

Revelation 12:12
THEREFORE REJOICE, HEAVENS, AND YOU WHO DWELL IN THEM. There has been a lot of rejoicing among the angels during the past 2,000 years – Jesus said that there would be rejoicing among the angels every time one sinner repents (Luke 15:10)! WOE TO THE EARTH (which represents particularly the land of Palestine) AND THE SEA (which represents all the other countries in the world), BECAUSE THE DEVIL HAS GONE DOWN TO YOU, HAVING GREAT WRATH, KNOWING THAT HE HAS BUT A SHORT TIME.” After the war between Michael and the Devil (in Heaven), which resulted in the Devil being cast out, he began to make a special and exceedingly angry attempt to take control of this world, since it was (and is) the only place where he had (and has) any opportunity to take control. How did he go about doing this?

Revelation 12:13
WHEN THE DRAGON SAW THAT HE WAS THROWN DOWN TO THE EARTH, HE PERSECUTED THE WOMAN WHO GAVE BIRTH TO THE MALE CHILD. If you can’t get Jesus, get to His people! The next thing that happened after the war in Heaven was the beginning of the Empire-wide persecution against Christians and Christianity.

Revelation 12:14
TWO WINGS OF THE GREAT EAGLE WERE GIVEN TO THE WOMAN, THAT SHE MIGHT FLY INTO THE WILDERNESS TO HER PLACE (by divine protection, the people of God survived the intense persecution that was aimed at them by the evil world power that was after them), SO THAT SHE MIGHT BE NOURISHED FOR A TIME, AND TIMES, AND HALF A TIME (we’ve seen this phrase before, and we’ve seen that a “time” is 360 calendar years, “two times” is 720 calendar years, and “half a time” is 180 calendar years, for a total of 1,260 calendar years), FROM THE FACE OF THE SERPENT. The people of God (as a whole) were “safe” (secure) in their relationship with God, even though the evil world power was putting many of them to death. For every Christian that was killed, two new converts to Christianity took his (or her) place! So, Satan seems to have figured, “If I can’t destroy the Church by killing the Christians, I’d better try another method.”

Revelation 12:15
THE SERPENT SPEWED WATER OUT OF HIS MOUTH AFTER THE WOMAN LIKE A RIVER, THAT HE MIGHT CAUSE HER TO BE CARRIED AWAY BY THE STREAM. Things coming out of the mouth are words (teachings), so a flood of water represents a large mass of destructive teaching. I think that this sentence refers to the false interpretations of Christianity that developed around the year AD 300, as we saw in earlier studies in the book of Revelation. At that time, they were symbolized by the star “Wormwood,” which fell on the springs of water. False teaching began to spread around the Church. Satan’s idea was that if he couldn’t destroy the Church by killing the Christians, maybe he could bury it under a flood of false teachings.

Revelation 12:16
THE EARTH HELPED THE WOMAN, AND THE EARTH OPENED ITS MOUTH AND SWALLOWED UP THE RIVER WHICH THE DRAGON SPEWED OUT OF HIS MOUTH. The people of the world (as represented by the earth) “swallowed” (believed) the false teachings that came from the dragon. Most people in the world believed the lies that began to be taught around AD 300. But that – in a sense – “helped” the woman, because the true Church was able to distinguish itself from the false churches and other false beliefs that people who weren’t in the Church were accepting. As a result, even today, people who believe in the Bible believe differently from the average people in the world about all kinds of things – particularly, about God, about life, about immortality, and so on. People who believe the Bible don’t believe what everybody else believes. So, the attempt to kill off the Christians didn’t work, and the attempt to bury the Christians under a pile of false doctrine really didn’t work either.

Revelation 12:17
THE DRAGON GREW ANGRY WITH THE WOMAN, AND WENT AWAY TO MAKE WAR WITH THE REST OF HER SEED, WHO KEEP GOD’S COMMANDMENTS AND HOLD JESUS’ TESTIMONY. In studying Revelation 13, we’ll learn about Satan’s next course of action in his ongoing attempt to fight against God’s people – a very subtle and dangerous course of action, indeed!

Revelation 11

2010-04-06T23:09:00.001-04:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 11

Revelation 11:1
A REED LIKE A ROD (a “yardstick”) WAS GIVEN TO ME. SOMEONE SAID, “RISE, AND MEASURE GOD’S TEMPLE, AND THE ALTAR, AND THOSE WHO WORSHIP IN IT. This “measurement” speaks of God’s knowledge and protection over His true Church. That would be relevant to Revelation 10, which talks about the truth in the Protestant movement. God is aware of us and our churches and is careful to protect us and see to it that we are preserved from destruction by our enemies.

Revelation 11:2
LEAVE OUT THE COURT WHICH IS OUTSIDE OF THE TEMPLE, AND DON’T MEASURE IT, FOR IT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO THE NATIONS (the unsaved). THEY WILL TREAD THE HOLY CITY UNDER FOOT (They’ll walk all over it, but they’re not part of it. The organized Church contains many members that are not true, born-again believers. They are, in a sense, “trampling over” this holy city, which is a representation of the true Church, as they come in and go out through its “doors.” There are “pillars” in the church – people who really support the church and hold it up – and there are “caterpillars,” who just crawl in and out every Sunday. The “nations” referred to in this verse are the “caterpillars.”) FOR FORTY-TWO MONTHS (42 months times 30 days per month would be 1,260 days, exactly equal to three and a half years on the 360-days-to-a-year “calendar” that has often been used in prophetic writings. It corresponds to the time period of the reign of Antichrist as described in Daniel and also elsewhere in Revelation; so, this message seems to be relevant to that 1,260-year period. In our “Studies in Daniel,” we saw that the reign of Antichrist ran from approximately AD 610 to AD 1870. Revelation 10 brought us up to AD 1831, and this verse brings us up to AD 1870).

Revelation 11:3
I WILL GIVE POWER TO MY TWO WITNESSES, AND THEY WILL PROPHESY ONE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED SIXTY DAYS (This brings up an interesting question – if it’s true that from AD 610 to AD 1870, the Antichrist – the Roman Papacy – dominated over not only most of the kingdoms of Europe but also all of the organized churches; if there was no other church in town but the Roman Catholic church, and it was in submission to the Pope, and they were not preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ; then who – or what – was preaching the true Gospel of Jesus Christ during all that time?), CLOTHED IN SACKCLOTH (which represents humiliation, fasting and prayer).

Revelation 11:4
THESE (two witnesses) ARE THE TWO OLIVE TREES AND THE TWO LAMPSTANDS, STANDING BEFORE THE LORD OF THE EARTH. This is a reference to Zechariah 4:2-3, which is just as hard to interpret as Revelation is, without some other clues. Here, John gives us some clues:

Revelation 11:5
IF ANYONE DESIRES TO HARM THEM, FIRE PROCEEDS OUT OF THEIR MOUTH AND DEVOURS THEIR ENEMIES. IF ANYONE DESIRES TO HARM THEM, HE MUST BE KILLED IN THIS WAY.

Revelation 11:6
THESE HAVE THE POWER TO SHUT UP THE SKY, THAT IT MAY NOT RAIN DURING THE DAYS OF THEIR PROPHECY. To me, that sounds very much like a description of the Old Testament prophet Elijah. Once, when Elijah was hiding from Israel’s King Ahaziah, he was up on a mountain and the king sent officers of the army with bands of men to get him. Each time one of the officers told him to come down from the mountain, he said, “If I’m a true prophet of God, may fire come down from Heaven and destroy you all!” That happened twice; then, the third time, the officer was a God-fearing man, and he said to Elijah, “Please don’t destroy me and my men with fire! We were sent here by the authority of the king to request that you come to the palace.” The Lord said to Elijah, “Go with them!” So this “fire coming out of their mouths” is the word coming out of their mouths, which results in the fire coming down from Heaven. Elijah was also famous for his authority to shut the sky so that there would be no rain during the time that he proclaimed his message. He walked in to King Ahab and said, “There will be no rain in Israel, except at my word, for the next three and a half years.” And that’s exactly how long the drought lasted. Notice that this is exactly the same time period that we’re talking about here in Revelation 11. So, Revelation 11:5 and the first half of Revelation 11:6 seem to me to be a description of Elijah; we’ll see, below, what Elijah represents. THEY HAVE POWER OVER THE WATERS, TO TURN THEM INTO BLOOD, AND TO STRIKE THE EARTH WITH EVERY PLAGUE, AS OFTEN AS THEY DESIRE. To me, that sounds like Moses. In Exodus 4, God gave Moses several signs to show to Pharaoh (the king of Egypt). He told him to throw his rod onto the ground, and it turned into a snake. He told him to put his hand into his coat, and when he pulled it out it was covered with leprosy. He told him to strike the Nile River, and the water turned into blood. God struck Egypt with 10 different plagues. So, here we have Elijah and Moses. These are the same two men that appeared in the vision on the Mount of Transfiguration, when Peter, James and John saw the Lord changed in appearance before them. In that vision, they saw Elijah and Moses talking with Jesus. Elijah was a prophet, and Moses was the lawgiver. Together, they represent the Law and the Prophets. In the New Testament, the expression “the Law and the Prophets” was a name for the Word of God, particularly as it was revealed in the Old Testament. All together, I think that these two witnesses (Elijah and Moses – the Law and the Prophets) represent the Bible – the Word of God – and during the time when the Church wasn’t preaching the Word of God, the only witness that God had on the earth was the Word of God preaching the Word of God, as those few people (like John Wycliffe) who were able to get copies of it were able to read the truth and understand it. Those were dark days, when the Church of Jesus Christ was not proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ, and the only way that you could find that message was to find a copy of the written text.

Revelation 11:7
WHEN THEY HAVE FINISHED THEIR TESTIMONY, THE BEAST THAT COMES UP OUT OF THE ABYSS WILL MAKE WAR WITH THEM, AND OVERCOME THEM, AND KILL THEM.

Revelation 11:8
THEIR DEAD BODIES WILL BE IN THE STREET OF THE GREAT CITY, WHICH SPIRITUALLY IS CALLED SODOM AND EGYPT, WHERE ALSO THEIR LORD WAS CRUCIFIED. A very interesting thing took place in AD 1514. Backing up a little bit, from John Wycliffe’s time (AD 1384) up to almost Martin Luther’s time (AD 1517), the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church attempted to stamp out all “heresy” – all disagreement – all groups and all ministers that tried to go against their system. This was known as the Inquisition. The most famous part of it took place in the country of Spain; there, it was called the Spanish Inquisition. But there were inquisitions in all the other countries, too. Anybody that disagreed with the Pope was hauled up to the courts. Often, they were tortured in an attempt to get them to take back their disagreeing beliefs. Mostly, it was true Christian people that would be called Evangelical Protestants nowadays that were treated in this way. Many millions of them were killed. Finally, in AD 1514 – the Inquisition having just about run its course – they called a big convention and all the bishops were supposed to report. Each was asked, “Are there any known ‘heretics’ in your area anymore?” All the bishops said, “No.” They had a big party in Rome, celebrating the “fact” that the Protestant-type movement started by John Wycliffe had been completely stamped out. As far as they knew, every Christian in the world was submissive to the authority of the Pope. For three and a half years – from the spring of 1514 to the fall of 1517 – not a peep was heard anywhere in the world from anybody disclaiming the authority of the Pope or his religious system. It seemed as if the “beast” (the Papacy) had fought against the Law and the Prophets (as they were being preached by the “Protestants”) and had defeated them and killed them and their “bodies” (that is, their churches – the groups of people that followed their teachings) right there in the street of the great city (that is, the Church) whose symbolic name at that point was “Sodom” or “Egypt” (meaning that the Church – the organized religion of “Christianity” – had become completely corrupt and worldly).

Revelation 11:9
FROM AMONG THE PEOPLES, TRIBES, LANGUAGES, AND NATIONS PEOPLE WILL LOOK AT THEIR DEAD BODIES FOR THREE AND A HALF DAYS (a day symbolizing a year of literal time – three and a half literal years, from the spring of 1514 to the fall of 1517), AND WILL NOT ALLOW THEIR DEAD BODIES TO BE LAID IN A TOMB.

Revelation 11:10
THOSE WHO DWELL ON THE EARTH REJOICE OVER THEM, AND THEY WILL BE GLAD. THEY WILL GIVE GIFTS TO ONE ANOTHER, BECAUSE THESE TWO PROPHETS (“Elijah” and “Moses”) TORMENTED THOSE WHO DWELL ON THE EARTH. Strangely, the “Protestants” were blamed for the Inquisition. All those people that were tortured and killed – it was being said, “It’s their own fault. If they only had submitted to the authority of the Church, this wouldn’t have had to happen.” So they were blamed for all the suffering that they (and others) endured.

Revelation 11:11
AFTER THE THREE AND A HALF DAYS (in the fall of AD 1517), THE BREATH OF LIFE FROM GOD ENTERED INTO THEM, AND THEY STOOD ON THEIR FEET. GREAT FEAR FELL ON THOSE WHO SAW THEM.

Revelation 11:12
I HEARD A LOUD VOICE FROM HEAVEN SAYING TO THEM, “COME UP HERE!” THEY WENT UP INTO HEAVEN IN THE CLOUD, AND THEIR ENEMIES SAW THEM.

Revelation 11:13
IN THAT DAY THERE WAS A GREAT EARTHQUAKE, AND A TENTH OF THE CITY FELL. SEVEN THOUSAND PEOPLE WERE KILLED IN THE EARTHQUAKE, AND THE REST WERE TERRIFIED, AND GAVE GLORY TO THE GOD OF HEAVEN. I can’t give you an interpretation of every detail in these verses, but I think that they refer to the astounding fact that after three and a half years of nobody objecting to the Pope’s domination of the Church, all of a sudden – seemingly out of nowhere, like a resurrection from the dead – Martin Luther appeared in Germany. This time, there was no stopping the movement. It (as it were) “ascended to Heaven” (to a position of “authority” over the earth), where nobody would be able to stop it, and nobody has stopped the Protestant movement since then. It’s alive and well.

Revelation 11:14
THE SECOND WOE IS PAST. BEHOLD, THE THIRD WOE COMES QUICKLY. Back in Revelation 8:13, an eagle flying in mid heaven said, “Woe! Woe! Woe for those who dwell on the earth, because of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels, who are yet to sound!” When the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, there was a great judgment against the Arab people in the form of the Mohammedan Empire. That’s the first woe; in Revelation 9:12, it is mentioned that that’s past, and there are still two woes coming after it. When the sixth angel sounded his trumpet, there was another great judgment against the people in the Middle East – the 200,000,000 mounted troops of the Turks over a period of almost 400 years. That’s the second woe; here in Revelation 11:14, it is mentioned that that’s past, and the third woe comes quickly. When is the last woe to take place? The angel who stood on the sea and on the land (in Revelation 10) said, “There will be no more delay.” So it’s time for the sounding of the trumpet of the seventh angel.

Revelation 11:15
THE SEVENTH ANGEL SOUNDED (Every time we get to the seventh of one of these series, we come to the Second Coming of Christ. The end of the seventh church in the church ages was the end of this world and the Second Coming of Christ. The end of the seventh seal was the silence in Heaven because the action is here on earth. Even the seven thunders, which don’t take us to the Second Coming of Christ itself, take us up to the proclamation of the message of the Second Coming of Christ in AD 1831. Now, the seventh angel gives us the longest and best look at the Second Coming that we’ve had yet in our study of the book of Revelation; but there are better ones yet to come. Not to contradict the seventh seal, which said that there was silence in Heaven, but simply to put it another way), AND GREAT VOICES IN HEAVEN FOLLOWED, SAYING, “THE KINGDOM OF THE WORLD HAS BECOME THE KINGDOM OF OUR LORD (God), AND OF HIS CHRIST (Jesus). HE WILL REIGN FOREVER AND EVER!” This is not the proclamation of the message about the Second Coming (which took place in AD 1831), but the proclamation of the event of the Second Coming itself (which can take place at any time now). John saw this in a vision looking into the future. He heard loud voices in Heaven that have not yet spoken but that are due to be spoken any time now. What will happen when those words are spoken? John saw it in a vision:

Revelation 11:16
THE TWENTY-FOUR ELDERS (representing the entire people of God of all ages, Old Testament and New), WHO SIT ON THEIR THRONES BEFORE GOD’S THRONE, FELL ON THEIR FACES AND WORSHIPED GOD,

Revelation 11:17
SAYING, “WE GIVE YOU THANKS, LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, THE ONE WHO IS AND WHO WAS (Do you remember the description of “the Lord God Almighty who is and who was and who is to come” in an earlier chapter? But now they can’t say that anymore! He has come. So now it’s just “the one who is and who was” – there is no more future; we’ve come up to the point of the culmination of time); BECAUSE YOU HAVE TAKEN YOUR GREAT POWER, AND REIGNED.

Revelation 11:18
THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY (that’s a quotation of Psalm 2:1), AND YOUR WRATH CAME, AS DID THE TIME FOR THE DEAD TO BE JUDGED (When will the dead be judged? Only at the Second Coming of Christ, not before!), AND TO GIVE YOUR BONDSERVANTS THE PROPHETS, THEIR REWARD, AS WELL AS TO THE SAINTS, AND THOSE WHO FEAR YOUR NAME, TO THE SMALL AND THE GREAT (When will the reward take place? At the Second Coming of Christ, not before!); AND TO DESTROY THOSE WHO DESTROY THE EARTH (When will the judgment take place? At the Second Coming of Christ, not before!).”

Revelation 11:19
GOD’S TEMPLE THAT IS IN HEAVEN WAS OPENED (in the vision), AND THE ARK OF THE LORD’S COVENANT WAS SEEN IN HIS TEMPLE. LIGHTNINGS, SOUNDS, THUNDERS, AN EARTHQUAKE, AND GREAT HAIL FOLLOWED. We recognize these things as symbols of God’s judgment. So, now, for the first time, we have five full verses describing the actual event of the Second Coming of Christ, which the whole book of Revelation focuses on. The book comes in cycles of seven, each cycle leading up to and seemingly not quite getting to the Second Coming of Christ – then we back up and start a new cycle, but each time when we get to that seventh one we learn more; we see more; we enter more into the experience of the Second Coming. When we get to the very last of the series, it all breaks forth on us with a complete and thorough description of the event and the judgment day itself. So Revelation 11:19 is the conclusion of the vision of the seven trumpets. When we start Revelation 12, we’ll be going all the way back to the beginning again, and we’ll be going through another whole cycle.

Revelation 10

2010-02-05T13:25:00.001-05:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 10

Revelation 10:1
I SAW A MIGHTY ANGEL COMING DOWN OUT OF THE SKY, CLOTHED WITH A CLOUD. A RAINBOW WAS ON HIS HEAD. HIS FACE WAS LIKE THE SUN, AND HIS FEET LIKE PILLARS OF FIRE. This description is very similar (although not identical) to John’s description of the Lord Jesus in the vision that he saw in Revelation 1. It is similar enough that I take this “angel” to be a representation of the fact that the true faith of Jesus Christ is about to be unfolded to the world again in the time period represented by Revelation 10, as it had been at the beginning in the first century. This angel, then, is not the Lord Jesus himself, but represents the Lord Jesus in the restoration of His gospel to a position of prominence and notice in the world.

Revelation 10:2
HE (the “mighty angel”) HAD IN HIS HAND A LITTLE OPEN BOOK (a small, unrolled scroll). I believe that this small scroll is a representation of the gospel – the evangelistic message that began to go out to the world at the time in history that we are about to study. The scroll is “open” (unrolled) – unlike the “sealed book” which contained God’s total plan for these 2,000+ years of history since His time. In that case, the Lamb himself had to unseal it so that it could be unrolled a little at a time. This small scroll – which contains just a portion of that total plan; namely, the evangelistic message – is open. It’s available for anybody to look at; as, indeed, a popular hymn says, “Whosoever will may come.” HE (the “mighty angel”) SET HIS RIGHT FOOT ON THE SEA, AND HIS LEFT ON THE LAND (he stood on the seashore). When I first heard this read, when I was a small child, I thought, “Wow! It would take an angel 500 miles tall to put his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land.” I pictured it as if there was a globe of the earth and the angel was standing with one foot in the middle of the ocean and the other foot in the middle of a continent. But, any 5-year-old child can go down to the beach and put his right foot in the sea and his left foot on the land. So, that doesn’t tell us how big the angel was; it just tells us that he meant to cover the entire world. When you add together the sea and the land, you have the whole planet. The “little book” represents a worldwide evangelistic message.

Revelation 10:3
HE (the “mighty angel”) CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE, AS A LION ROARS (the lion, as the king of beasts, roars with majesty and authority; the “little book” represents an authoritative worldwide evangelistic message). WHEN (after) HE (had) CRIED, THE SEVEN THUNDERS UTTERED THEIR VOICES. What did they say? John heard what they said.

Revelation 10:4
WHEN THE SEVEN THUNDERS SOUNDED, I WAS ABOUT TO WRITE (John was thinking, “I’ll write down the message that was preached by the seven thunders”); BUT I HEARD A VOICE FROM THE SKY SAYING, “SEAL UP THE THINGS WHICH THE SEVEN THUNDERS SAID, AND DON’T WRITE THEM.” I’ve heard it said that because John was told to “seal up” (keep secret) what the seven thunders had said, and not to write it down, we can’t know anything about those seven thunders and their message; but, I asked myself, “Then why are these two verses in the Bible? What do they teach us if they are there to show us that here is a secret message that we can’t know anything about?” Somehow, that doesn’t sound like a “revelation” to me – that sounds like a “covering” (the opposite of a “revelation”)! So, I think that we can figure out what these seven thunders represent. We can get an idea of what the seven thunders’ message was all about despite the fact that John was told not to write it down (and for good reason). What is God’s true way if it’s not Judaism, Romanism or Islam (as we saw in Revelation 9)? The next major religious movement that occurred in the world after the beginning of the fifteenth century (which is where we left off at the end of Revelation 9) is Protestantism – Christian churches not in subjection to the self-proclaimed authority of the Bishop of Rome (the Papacy). In the Protestant churches (some to a greater, and some to a lesser, degree), we find the “open book” – the gospel of Jesus Christ – made available for people to read and come to know Him. Protestant churches were formed in seven major movements, beginning even before the end of the fourteenth century, as we read in Revelation 9. Let’s take a look at those seven movements. I think that they are what is represented by the seven thunders.
Thunder #1 was John Wycliffe. In AD 1384, Wycliffe did something unheard-of, illegal and for which he was punished by being burned at the stake – he translated the Bible into the language of the common people. Can you imagine somebody being burned at the stake for doing that? It’s almost unthinkable nowadays, because Wycliffe started a movement that is still going on today, and it has become so big that the Bible is now available in thousands of languages and tens of thousands of different translations and the common people can now read the Word of God for themselves. But, you must remember the “black horse” in Revelation 6:5 – the “famine” that occurred when the Papacy had made it so that the Bible was not available to the common people (and, for a time, not even to the priests) in the Catholic Church. Only the bishops and higher authorities were allowed to read the “secret” revelation from God. John Wycliffe didn’t live long enough to start a church. No Protestant church grew up as a result of Wycliffe’s work, but the idea that the Bible would be available for the people and would be read by individual Christians for their own understanding was something that they couldn’t stop by burning him. Today, over 600 years later, Wycliffe’s idea has made a huge difference in the history of Christianity.
Thunder #2 was Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk who, on October 31, 1517, nailed to the door of the Catholic church in Wittenburg, Germany, a paper containing 95 objections to the practices of the Papacy. Luther, of course, was “defrocked” – he had his ministerial credentials withdrawn – and he was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. But, he took most of people of Germany with him and formed a new Christian movement, which today is known as the Lutheran Church. He is best known for his emphasis on Romans 1:17 – “The just shall live by faith.” The Catholic Church of that time was proclaimed a “salvation” exclusively by works (you do these things, and you’ll make it into Heaven). Luther said, “Only by faith in Jesus Christ is a person saved from sin.” Luther, by the way, held to a teaching that’s very dear to my own heart – Conditional Immortality. He wrote some really scathing literature against the Roman Catholic doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul. He used some very impolite words in describing the Roman Catholic belief that souls live forever regardless of whether the individual was saved or not.
Thunder #3 was John Knox, in Scotland. In 1559, Knox broke with the Church of England (which was very similar to the Catholic Church but with different leadership – England’s King Henry VIII, in the 1400’s, had pulled the English churches out of the Pope’s control, but had not changed their doctrine much, and had elevated the Archbishop of Canterbury to a status very similar to that of “pope”). Knox formed the Presbyterian Church. For the first time since the second century, there were churches that were governed by a board of elders rather than being dominated by the authority of a priest or bishop or pope. In founding the Presbyterian Church, Knox brought many biblical truths back into focus; and, of course, the Presbyterian movement is alive and well even to this day.
Thunder #4 was the Congregationalist movement, which began in England in 1606. Here, for perhaps the very first time in history (we don’t really know to what extent first-century churches might have been congregationally governed), we have the idea that all of the adult members of a local assembly should have a vote in determining the rules to be followed in their church. The Congregationalist churches came over to England’s North American colonies and exerted a major influence on them (particularly in the area known as “New England”). This way of thinking bolstered the formation of the United States of America in 1776. There was no one particular leader (that strikes me as typical; you would expect that a group of Congregationalists wouldn’t have one particular man that they looked to for leadership; rather, they looked to the total body and believed that every man had a voice that could be exercised in church government).
Thunder #5 was the Baptist movement, which began in England in 1633. Here, the great truth of baptism by immersion was recovered for the church after many centuries of the Roman Catholic practice of “baptism” by sprinkling. Again, there was no one particular leader, but the Baptist movement has been successful (not only in England, but even more so in the United States) in reaching many millions of people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Thunder #6 is, once again, an individual man and his work. If you ever want to read the life story of a man and the accomplishments that one human being can set in motion, read about John Wesley and the founding of what is today the Methodist Church! The Methodist Church is probably the third largest religion in the United States, behind the Roman Catholic Church and the Baptist Church. Wesley himself had no intention of forming a new denomination, but he saw that there were some things that were wrong with the Church of England, as John Knox had seen over a century before him, and he had what he thought was a method for restoring that Church to its proper emphasis on individual holiness and personal salvation. Uniquely (in his time), he preached outdoors to whatever crowds he could attract – and, particularly, to the poor people and the oppressed people in England. It has been said that John Wesley’s preaching alone can be held responsible for the fact that England did not suffer an experience like the French Revolution, because of the way that he reached the people in the lower classes; by the time that the revolution would have come to England, they were so devoted to Christianity that they didn’t rise up and overthrow the king as the French peasants had overthrown their king in 1798. Wesley and some of his preachers also came to North America and founded the Methodist Church here in North America, which even today is a great influence in America’s knowledge of the gospel. It’s true that some of these movements and some of the people in these movements have gotten away from their founders’ original intentions, particularly in the twentieth century (through liberalism, an interpretation of the Bible that says that it is not entirely true and that we don’t rely upon it for our faith and for our guidance, but, rather, we turn to human reason and to modern ideas). Some Lutherans, some Presbyterians, some Congregationalists, some Baptists and some Methodists have gotten away from the great intentions of the founders of these churches; but, at the time that they spoke, back in the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these were the great evangelists of their day and the founders of the Protestant Reformation.
Thunder #7 was William Miller. In 1831, Miller rediscovered the importance of the Second Coming of Christ as a biblical doctrine. Between 1831 and 1843, his message had spread around America and throughout much of the civilized world at the time. It’s true that a lot of people abandoned that movement after the Great Disappointment in 1844; it’s true that today the majority of the people who trace their spiritual heritage to Miller (such as the Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc.) are off his track; it’s true that the organization that followed his teachings most closely – the Advent Christian Church – is very small; but I think that the message that he preached was the seventh phase of the restoration to the Church of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Without the emphasis on the Second Coming, all of those other churches would have never gotten anywhere in reaching people for Christ. Now, today, there are far more people who believe Miller’s message about Jesus’ return than there are who identify with Miller’s movement. So, I believe that he could be classified as the seventh of the seven thunders.
Altogether, then, from 1384 to 1831, these men and their associates brought back to the Protestant churches teachings and truths from the early church that had been lost and buried under 1,000+ years of Roman Catholicism.

Revelation 10:5
THE ANGEL WHO I SAW STANDING ON THE SEA AND ON THE LAND LIFTED UP HIS RIGHT HAND TO THE SKY,

Revelation 10:6
AND SWORE BY HIM (God) WHO LIVES FOREVER AND EVER, WHO CREATED HEAVEN AND THE THINGS THAT ARE IN IT, THE EARTH AND THE THINGS THAT ARE IN IT, AND THE SEA AND THE THINGS THAT ARE IN IT, THAT THERE WILL NO LONGER BE DELAY (There certainly has been some “delay” up to this point, particularly from our perspective as Advent Christians. William Miller predicted that Jesus would return in 1843 or 1844, and He didn’t. For a long time, Advent Christians “wrestled” with that fact, trying to figure out why He didn’t, because they couldn’t see where Miller was wrong in his predictions. So, it has certainly seemed to us, for the past 150+ years, that there has been a “delay” in the return of Christ. I’ve heard sermons on the idea that Jesus won’t return until certain things are accomplished, and we are the ones who are standing in the way of accomplishing them. I suppose that that would be a very strong motivational factor. If I could tell you what we’re doing wrong – what prevents Jesus from coming – it would certainly get you all fired up to go out and do the right thing – at least, enough of it to “make” Him come! But, I don’t believe that we have that kind of control over the Lord. I think that He has a specific time in mind when He will come, and He will come then. As the kids say, when playing hide-and-seek, “Ready or not, here I come!” But what is the “delay”? I don’t think we know what the “delay” is. Peter tells us that God is not slow to keep His promises, as some men count slowness – so, for us, it seems like He’s slow, but to Him it never seems like He’s slow. And Peter goes on to say that we should look upon the Lord’s patience in not bringing about the final destruction of the world as an opportunity to be saved and to tell others how to be saved. But the angel says, “There will be no more delay”),

Revelation 10:7
BUT IN THE DAYS OF THE VOICE OF THE SEVENTH ANGEL, WHEN HE IS ABOUT TO SOUND, THEN THE MYSTERY OF GOD IS FINISHED, AS HE DECLARED TO HIS SERVANTS, THE PROPHETS. That verse, of course, stands here as a reminder to us that Revelation 10 and 11 are in between the sixth and seventh trumpets. The sixth trumpet brought us up to at the most AD 1453, and the seven thunders have brought us from 1384 to 1831; now we’re in the stage that could be called “the delay,” and the angel is telling us that the “delay” will eventually come to an end. When the seventh angel blows his trumpet, the plan will be accomplished, and there will be no more delay. The seventh trumpet will be the Second Coming of Christ.

Revelation 10:8
THE VOICE WHICH I HEARD (speaking to me) FROM HEAVEN, AGAIN SPEAKING WITH ME, SAID, “GO, TAKE THE BOOK (scroll)WHICH IS OPEN (unrolled) IN THE HAND OF THE ANGEL WHO STANDS ON THE SEA AND ON THE LAND.” So, John – representing, in a sense, the entire Protestant Church – was told to go to the angel and take the scroll.

Revelation 10:9
I WENT TO THE ANGEL, TELLING HIM TO GIVE ME THE LITTLE BOOK (scroll). HE (the angel) SAID TO ME, “TAKE IT, AND EAT IT UP. Eat a scroll? They made their scrolls out of materials that not only were sufficient for writing on, but also were biodegradable and even digestible. It was entirely possible to literally eat “books” in those days, because the materials that they were made of were digestible to the human stomach, unlike modern paper. Don’t try eating a lot of paper! It would definitely not be too good for you. But, if you eat the scroll, the angel said to John, IT WILL MAKE YOUR STOMACH BITTER, BUT IN YOUR MOUTH IT WILL BE AS SWEET AS HONEY.” That is literally what would be true of that material – it would taste sweet as you ate it, but it would turn sour in your stomach. I think, perhaps, that if there is a symbolic meaning to that, it is that when you first encounter the message that the scroll is referring to, it is very appealing to you, but later on you realize the consequences of it, and that kind of turns it “sour.” The message of the gospel is a message for the world, that first of all tells the world, “World! You can be saved! All you have to do is turn to Jesus Christ in faith!” A message like that is as sweet as honey, isn’t it? But, then, the rest of the message is, “Jesus is coming again, and if you haven’t repented, there will be judgment and destruction.” That’s a little “sour”!

Revelation 10:10
I TOOK THE LITTLE BOOK (scroll) OF OUT THE ANGEL’S HAND, AND ATE IT UP. IT WAS AS SWEET AS HONEY IN MY MOUTH. WHEN I HAD EATEN IT, MY STOMACH WAS MADE BITTER.

Revelation 10:11
THEY TOLD ME, “YOU MUST PROPHESY AGAIN OVER MANY PEOPLES, NATIONS, LANGUAGES, AND KINGS.” For John, personally, this was a statement that his prophetic work was to continue – that he was not done – and, indeed, we have another 12 more chapters of the book of Revelation to go; but, also, I think, in the context of Revelation 10, this is a message to the Protestant movement that it still has work to do in proclaiming God’s Word throughout the world. Many nations, many races, people of many languages, kings and other rulers of the nations of the world must hear the message that the Protestant churches have to offer – the message of the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 7

2009-12-14T15:08:00.000-05:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 7

Introduction
Chapter 7 is an interlude between the sixth seal (most, if not all, of which has already been fulfilled) and the seventh seal (which relates to the Second Coming itself and certainly has not been fulfilled). This interlude is a description of two groups of people. The people in both groups are saved and will be in the Kingdom of God, but there are some differences between the two groups. These are descriptions of two different groups of people within the true Church of God.

Revelation 7:1
AFTER THIS, I SAW FOUR ANGELS STANDING AT THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE EARTH (we know, and John, the author of this book, knew, that the earth doesn’t literally have “corners” – it’s not a square; it’s a sphere – but this is a common way of speaking, and we use it ourselves, just as he used it, to mean “all around the world”), HOLDING (back) THE FOUR WINDS OF THE EARTH (the north wind, the south wind, the east wind and the west wind), SO THAT NO WIND WOULD BLOW ON THE EARTH, OR ON THE SEA, OR ON ANY TREE. This statement speaks of a pause – a delay – in the vision. Before we move from the sixth seal to the seventh seal, the angels are commanded to hold back the winds of judgment and keep everything calm while the next few events take place.

Revelation 7:2
I SAW ANOTHER ANGEL (in addition to the four angels mentioned in verse 1) ASCEND FROM THE SUNRISE (the east), HAVING THE SEAL OF THE LIVING GOD (in his hand). HE CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE (shouted) TO THE FOUR ANGELS TO WHOM IT (the power) WAS GIVEN (by God) TO HARM THE EARTH AND THE SEA (by releasing the winds and allowing them to blow),

Revelation 7:3
SAYING, “DON’T HARM THE EARTH, NEITHER THE SEA, NOR THE TREES, UNTIL WE HAVE SEALED THE BONDSERVANTS OF OUR GOD ON THEIR FOREHEADS!” We will hear more about people being “marked” with a “seal” on their foreheads in a later chapter, but there it will actually be a parody of what has happened in this chapter. There, it will be the Antichrist who demands that a “mark” (or “seal”) be placed on the foreheads of his followers, but God was there first (here in chapter 7), putting a “mark” (or “seal”) on the foreheads of His servants. The forehead, of course, is closely related to the brain, which has to do with the processes of thought. A “seal” (or a “mark”) on the forehead indicates a protection of one’s thought processes and beliefs. These are people whose mental capacity is under God’s control and is directed toward Him. These are true believers. They are known to be true believers by this “seal” on their foreheads, which is a feature of John’s vision, not a literal, visible seal that people in this world can actually see.

Revelation 7:4
I HEARD THE NUMBER OF THOSE WHO WERE SEALED, ONE HUNDRED FORTY-FOUR THOUSAND, SEALED OUT OF EVERY TRIBE OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL:

Revelation 7:5
OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH WERE SEALED TWELVE THOUSAND, OF THE TRIBE OF REUBEN TWELVE THOUSAND, OF THE TRIBE OF GAD TWELVE THOUSAND,

Revelation 7:6
OF THE TRIBE OF ASHER TWELVE THOUSAND, OF THE TRIBE OF NAPHTALI TWELVE THOUSAND, OF THE TRIBE OF MANASSEH TWELVE THOUSAND,

Revelation 7:7
OF THE TRIBE OF SIMEON TWELVE THOUSAND, OF THE TRIBE OF LEVI (this is a bit of a surprise, since the Levites were not usually included in the lists of the twelve tribes that we find in the Old Testament; correspondingly, for some unknown reason, the tribe of Dan is omitted from this list) TWELVE THOUSAND, OF THE TRIBE OF ISSACHAR TWELVE THOUSAND,

Revelation 7:8
OF THE TRIBE OF ZEBULON TWELVE THOUSAND, OF THE TRIBE OF JOSEPH (usually called “the tribe of Ephraim” in the Old Testament) TWELVE THOUSAND, OF THE TRIBE OF BENJAMIN WERE SEALED TWELVE THOUSAND. Who are these people? What does John mean when he says that they are from the twelve tribes of Israel? Why the emphasis – again and again and again – on each specific tribe? Most of the book of Revelation is very obviously symbolic, and we interpret the things in it symbolically; we figure out what is indicated by any given symbol. We see horses; we hear souls crying out from under an altar; we see stars falling; and we try to figure out what these things mean. I think that these few verses are written in this unusual way to “clue” us not to try to do that. The specific reference to each tribe in these verses is there to tell us to keep the emphasis on the tribes of Israel. These people are really exactly what it sounds like they are – Jewish Christians – people who can literally trace their ancestry back to one of the twelve tribes, but who have received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah and Savior. I think it’s interesting where this pause in the vision is placed in relationship to the fulfillment of the prophecy. We’ve been saying all along that these seals are fulfilled in chronological order. We’ve seen them work their way from AD 30 almost up to the end – almost to our own times. In fact, we’re just about ready for the seventh seal and the Second Coming of Christ when the “pause button” is pressed and now the subject of Jewish Christians is mentioned, right here. At what time in history have large numbers of Jewish people ever turned to Jesus Christ for salvation? Since the first century, that hasn’t happened in any century until the middle and late twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century. We have suddenly seen a dramatic increase in the number of Jewish people who have accepted Jesus as their Savior. When my father, who was Jewish, became a Christian (in 1943), it was very rare – almost unheard-of; and when he went to New York City to preach to the Jewish people that they should receive Jesus as their Messiah, he was thought to be crazy (the Yiddish word that they called him is “meshuggeneh”). Most Jews didn’t believe in Jesus. My father found just a tiny handful of other Jewish believers in Jesus in New York to fellowship with. But, now, we have Jews For Jesus, the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, Chosen People Ministries, Messianic Jewish Ministries and several other such major national and international organizations of Jewish Christians. It’s been estimated that there may be close to 500,000 Jewish Christians in the world, so that 144,000 is too small a number to represent them, instead of too large a number, as it would have been in my father’s time. The 144,000 then is a somewhat symbolic number, representing the full number of Jews who would turn to Christ at the time the prophecy is speaking of. It seems striking to me that this reference to what appears to me to be literal Jewish Christians should come at the very point in the prophecy that is being fulfilled in our own times, precisely when I would expect it to be. If I had been living back in 1900, and had held this interpretation, I would have been saying, “Chapter 6 has been fulfilled, but we haven’t seen this great turning of Jews to Christ. I expect that it will happen sometime within the next 100 years.” And I would have been right, because it has indeed happened.

Revelation 7:9
AFTER THESE THINGS I LOOKED, AND BEHOLD (“Look!”), A GREAT MULTITUDE (an enormous crowd), WHICH NO MAN COULD NUMBER (that sounds to me like many times more than 144,000; it’s easy enough to count 144,000 people – there are more than that in many hundreds of American cities), OUT OF EVERY NATION (not just the Jewish nation, but every Gentile nation, from Croatia to South Africa to the Philippines to Japan to Canada and the United States and every other country in the world) AND OF ALL TRIBES (not just the twelve tribes of Israel, but every one of the 500 American Indian tribes, and all the “tribal” people that live in the backwoods parts of India and Afghanistan and New Guinea and China and dozens of other countries), PEOPLES (“nations” that have no “country” of their own, like the Kurds and the Uyghurs and the Chechens and the Basques), AND LANGUAGES (there are over 12,000 different, mutually unintelligible languages in the world, and every one of them is represented by at least one person in this crowd), STANDING BEFORE THE THRONE (of God) AND BEFORE THE LAMB (Jesus), DRESSED IN WHITE ROBES, WITH PALM BRANCHES IN THEIR HANDS.

Revelation 7:10
THEY CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE (shouted), SAYING, “SALVATION BE TO (rather, “comes from”) OUR GOD, WHO SITS ON THE THRONE, AND TO (rather, “from”) THE LAMB (Jesus)!” These are people who are saved because they understand and believe that salvation comes only from God and from Jesus, God’s Son, and they have put their trust in Him.

Revelation 7:11
ALL THE ANGELS WERE STANDING AROUND THE THRONE, THE ELDERS, AND THE FOUR LIVING CREATURES (described in chapter 4); AND THEY FELL ON THEIR FACES BEFORE HIS (God’s) THRONE, AND WORSHIPED GOD,

Revelation 7:12
SAYING, “AMEN (‘So be it!’)! BLESSING, GLORY, WISDOM, THANKSGIVING, HONOR, POWER, AND MIGHT (seven separate things!), BE(long) TO OUR GOD FOREVER AND EVER! AMEN (‘So be it!’).”

Revelation 7:13
ONE OF THE ELDERS (described in chapter 4) ANSWERED (responded to this statement), SAYING TO ME (John, the author of the book of Revelation), “THESE WHO ARE ARRAYED IN WHITE ROBES, WHO ARE THEY, AND FROM WHERE DID THEY COME?” I’m sure we would like to know the answer to that question, and I’m sure it was on John’s mind, as well, when he received this vision.

Revelation 7:14
I (John) TOLD HIM (the elder), “MY LORD, YOU KNOW (implying, ‘I don’t know’).” HE (the elder) SAID TO ME (John), “THESE ARE THOSE WHO CAME OUT OF (or, ‘safely through’) THE GREAT TRIBULATION (or, ‘terrible persecution’ – but I have to tell you something about coming safely through a terrible persecution. It’s not as comfortable as it may sound to us at first glance. We tend to think that the phrase ‘come safely through the terrible persecution’ means that while the persecution rages all around us, and thousands of other people are tortured and killed, somehow God protects us, and it’s quiet right where we are, like in the eye of a hurricane; and, at the end of it all, we emerge untouched. That’s not at all what the elder meant. He went on to explain what happened to ‘those who came safely through the terrible persecution’). THEY WASHED THEIR ROBES, AND MADE THEM WHITE IN THE LAMB’S BLOOD (They maintained the purity of their faith in the midst of the terrible persecution. Every martyr who has ever been burned at the stake – anyone who has ever given his life for Christ, no matter what torture, or what kind of death, they experienced – can be said to have ‘come safely through the terrible persecution’ – not ‘safely’ physically, but ‘safely’ spiritually. If you persevere to the end, and your faith is not diminished, and you do not give up because of the persecution, and you die in that condition of faith, you have ‘come safely through’ – that’s what he really means).

Revelation 7:15
THEREFORE (because they have maintained their faith, right up to the end of their lives, even despite the suffering that they have endured as a result of doing so) THEY ARE (standing) BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD (in this vision), THEY (will) SERVE HIM DAY AND NIGHT IN HIS TEMPLE (in eternity). HE WHO SITS ON THE THRONE (God) WILL SPREAD HIS TENT OVER THEM (not while the persecution is going on, but after they have ‘come safely through’ it, there will come a time – after the resurrection, and in the new world – when God will protect them and there can be no further persecution – or any suffering at all, for that matter – as we will see both in the next verse, and in the final chapters of the book).

Revelation 7:16
THEY WILL NEVER BE HUNGRY (I can barely appreciated the significance of that promise. The moment my stomach gives me the slightest indication that I’m in need of food, I can quickly run to the refrigerator, or to a restaurant, and within minutes I have all the food I can eat, and I can’t be hungry again for several hours. But there are people in this world who are constantly hungry, day and night, all of their lives, who never get enough to eat to satisfy their hunger at any meal that they ever eat. I am sure that this promise means a lot more to them than it does to me!), NEITHER THIRST ANY MORE (the same could be said about thirst that is said about hunger); NEITHER WILL THE SUN BEAT ON THEM, NOR ANY HEAT (Where I live, if it gets too hot, I just go indoors and turn on the air conditioning; it’s hard for me to appreciate what a wonderful promise this is! There are many, many people who have to endure whatever tortures the weather throws at them, because they don’t have the kind of equipment, to shelter them, that I have);

Revelation 7:17
FOR (all of this is true because) THE LAMB WHO IS IN THE MIDST OF THE THRONE (Jesus) SHEPHERDS THEM (think of Psalm 23:1), AND LEADS THEM TO SPRINGS OF WATERS OF LIFE (think of Psalm 23:2). AND GOD WILL WIPE AWAY EVERY TEAR FROM THEIR EYES.”

Conclusion
I believe that this “enormous crowd” is a picture of the total Church of Jesus Christ – all the people throughout all the world at all times and in all places who have ever trusted (or will ever trust) in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and “come safely through” whatever experiences they have had (or will have) in life, dying (at last) in faith, looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ, and includes also those who will never die, because they will still be alive when Jesus returns. Someone has estimated that perhaps 10% of all the people who have ever lived have accepted Christ and have followed Him. How they made that estimate is beyond me, but it’s a figure that Billy Graham quotes, and I quote it quoting him. Someone else has estimated that since the creation of the world, approximately 140,000,000,000 people have been born and lived, and all but the last 7,000,000,000 of them have died. The “enormous crowd” of people that we have in the world today (about 7,000,000,000 people) are just all that is left of the 140,000,000,000 people that have lived at one time or another since the creation of the world. The other 133,000,000,000 are already dead. If it’s true that 10% of all the people who have ever lived have followed Christ, that means about 14,000,000,000 born-again Christians, and we expect to see them all on that great resurrection day that we so often sing about. “What a Gathering” that will be! Twice as many people as are alive in the world today will be raised from the dead to live forever. That’s an enormous crowd. It includes Jewish believers (those symbolically referred to as the “144,000”) who, in these last times, have turned to Christ, and also Jewish believers of previous eras and those Jewish believers who lived at a time when they could only look forward in faith to their promised Messiah. But the crowd is predominantly made up of the Gentile Christians from all over the world who have lived in the last couple of thousand years.

I’m sure that there are many other interpretations of chapter 7, but that’s mine, and I know that I haven’t dealt with every word or every verse in the chapter, but I think it fits in, and it’s an appropriate place to introduce the two pictures that we have of the people of God, because, chronologically, the 144,000 people of Israel come to faith in Jesus after the sixth seal and before the seventh, and the enormous crowd has been collecting all these thousands of years and is only completed just before the seventh seal and the Second Coming of Christ, so that the very next thing that we should expect to read about is the Second Coming of Christ itself. In Revelation 8:1, we will see a very strange, kind of anticlimactic, kind of suspenseful way of putting the Second Coming of Christ, because John really isn’t ready, at this point in his book, to unload the whole picture of the Second Coming to us.

In the letters to the seven churches, he didn’t mention the Second Coming at all. The last letter simply concluded with the last church age and the statement, “If you have ears, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.” That closes the vision; there is no mention of the Second Coming; John goes on to tell of another vision. Now, in this second vision, when he reaches the seventh seal, he gives us just the briefest little hint of the Second Coming. As we go through this book, we will see that, cycle after cycle after cycle, each time we build up to the Second Coming, he gives us a bigger picture of the Second Coming, until, finally, in the last vision, it all sort of bursts through, and he devotes a whole chapter to telling us what that Coming itself will be like, and then he goes on to tell us what will happen after it. But, in Revelation 8:1, for the first time in the book, we have the first hint being given.

Revelation 9

2009-11-10T08:23:00.000-05:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 9

Introduction
Revelation 9 continues John’s report of the vision of the seven trumpets, begun in Revelation 8:2. As I stated in the Conclusion to last month’s study, I believe that what is prophesied in Revelation 9 is God’s judgment against the wicked people of the Arab world (those people who occupied the Middle East after the Roman Empire was destroyed). During what we call the “Dark Ages” in Europe’s history, the lands of the Bible – the countries that are now Israel, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and so on – were conquered by the armies of the false prophet Mohammed, who claimed to receive the “revelations” from “Allah” that are recorded in the Qur’an. He gathered a band of followers who not only supported his religion, but also his efforts to take control of that part of the world, and went out to conquer all of that territory. He and his successors built an empire that reached its peak right at the time when Europe was at its lowest point.

Revelation 9:1
THE FIFTH ANGEL SOUNDED (his trumpet), AND I SAW A STAR FROM THE SKY WHICH HAD FALLEN TO THE EARTH. THE KEY TO THE PIT OF THE ABYSS (the place in “the depths of the earth” where demons are imprisoned until their final punishment) WAS GIVEN TO HIM.

Revelation 9:2
HE (the “star”) OPENED THE PIT OF THE ABYSS, AND SMOKE WENT UP OUT OF THE PIT, LIKE THE SMOKE FROM A BURNING FURNACE. THE SUN AND THE AIR WERE DARKENED BECAUSE OF THE SMOKE FROM THE PIT. A “smoke screen” is an expression for the way that you can prevent people from understanding the truth by “covering it over” with so much confusing falsehood that they can’t “see” the truth that is buried in it. Having read several different English translations of the Qur’an, I have to tell you that my impression of that book is that it is a giant smoke screen, filled with so many confusing and conflicting assertions that if there is any truth in it, it’s awfully hard to see it. Many times, after reading several surahs (chapters) of the Qur’an, I had the feeling that I was in a room that was thick with smoke and couldn’t feel my way around.

Revelation 9:3
THEN OUT OF THE SMOKE CAME FORTH LOCUSTS ON THE EARTH (the original armies of Mohammed were so large – because they involved all of the adult men from the communities that Mohammed ruled – that as they went around the countryside conquering, those who were conquered by them often compared them to the “invading armies” of locusts that covered that part of the world every so many years and ate up every form of vegetation that there was), AND POWER WAS GIVEN TO THEM, AS THE SCORPIONS OF THE EARTH HAVE POWER. Scorpions have the power to inflict pain, and even to kill, by their sting – and Mohammed’s armies had the power to inflict pain on, and even to kill, those who refused to submit to their claim of authority.

Revelation 9:4
THEY WERE TOLD THAT THEY SHOULD NOT HURT THE GRASS OF THE EARTH, NEITHER ANY GREEN THING, NEITHER ANY TREE (as literal locusts would do), BUT ONLY THOSE PEOPLE WHO DON’T HAVE GOD’S SEAL ON THEIR FOREHEADS (non-Christians in the Middle East quickly fell prey to Mohammed’s new religion, and became Muslims; only those who knew Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior were able to stand up against this onslaught – by maintaining their faith in Jesus – and many of them were martyred).

Revelation 9:5
THEY WERE GIVEN POWER NOT TO KILL THEM (destroy their communities altogether), BUT TO TORMENT THEM (reduce their population, wealth and influence) FOR FIVE MONTHS. 5 times 30 days is 150 days. Each day represents a year; so we’re talking about a period of 150 years. The initial Muslim conquest of the Middle East took place in the 150-year period beginning in AD 636 and ending in AD 786. THEIR TORMENT WAS LIKE THE TORMENT OF A SCORPION, WHEN IT STRIKES A PERSON.

Revelation 9:6
IN THOSE DAYS PEOPLE WILL SEEK DEATH, AND WILL IN NO WAY FIND IT. THEY WILL DESIRE TO DIE, AND DEATH WILL FLEE FROM THEM. People groups who lived in the Middle East had a tendency to give up, in despair, when confronted by the conquering armies of Islam. They accepted the new religion and the domination of their communities by Mohammed’s armies rather than be killed; then they found that life under Muslim domination was so bad that they wished that they had chosen death instead, but the Muslims wouldn’t kill them as long as they submitted to the Muslim claim of authority.

Revelation 9:7
THE SHAPES OF THE LOCUSTS WERE LIKE HORSES PREPARED FOR WAR. That statement, if nothing else, should be a “clue” that John isn’t reporting a vision of a literal locust plague. ON THEIR HEADS WERE SOMETHING LIKE GOLDEN CROWNS, AND THEIR FACES WERE LIKE PEOPLE’S FACES. The “locusts” in the vision were symbols of actual people – men riding into battle on horses.

Revelation 9:8
THEY HAD HAIR LIKE WOMEN’S HAIR (as far as I know, the only armies in the history of the world that have allowed their male soldiers to wear long hair have been the armies of the Arab peoples), AND THEIR TEETH WERE LIKE THOSE OF LIONS. Once caught in such “teeth,” the victim has very little chance of ever escaping, especially not unharmed.

Revelation 9:9
THEY HAD BREASTPLATES, LIKE BREASTPLATES OF IRON. THE SOUND OF THEIR WINGS WAS LIKE THE SOUND OF CHARIOTS, OR OF MANY HORSES RUSHING TO WAR. In a sense, John is “interpreting” his own vision for us – he tells us that the “locusts” aren’t literal locusts. They represent the “cavalry” of the Muslim armies.

Revelation 9:10
THEY HAVE TAILS LIKE THOSE OF SCORPIONS, AND STINGS. IN THEIR TAILS THEY HAVE POWER TO HARM MEN FOR FIVE MONTHS (AD 636-786, see verse 5, above).

Revelation 9:11
THEY HAVE OVER THEM AS KING (literally, the first “king” of the Muslims was the false prophet Mohammed, who, for part of his life, was actually the King of Mecca; later, the caliphs were the “kings” of the Muslims) THE ANGEL OF THE ABYSS (“behind” Mohammed and the caliphs, John, in this vision, sees a demonic spirit “pulling the strings” on this whole operation). HIS NAME IN HEBREW IS “ABADDON,” BUT IN GREEK, HE HAS THE NAME “APOLLYON” (both of these names, translated into English, mean “the destroyer” – one of the things that Mohammed and his armies succeeded in doing was destroying the culture that had existed in the Middle East before his conquests; of course, after this destruction, the Muslims then built their own culture, including such impressive creations as the Mosque of Omar, which sits on the site formerly occupied by the Temple, in Jerusalem).

Revelation 9:12
THE FIRST WOE (corresponding to the fifth trumpet) IS PAST. BEHOLD (“Look!”), THERE ARE STILL TWO WOES (corresponding to the sixth and seventh trumpets) COMING AFTER THIS (both in the text, and in the order of chronological fulfillment).

Revelation 9:13
THE SIXTH ANGEL SOUNDED (his trumpet). I HEARD A VOICE (coming) FROM THE HORNS OF THE GOLDEN ALTAR (one of the items of “furniture” that John had seen in the earlier vision recorded in Revelation 4) WHICH IS BEFORE GOD,

Revelation 9:14
SAYING TO THE SIXTH ANGEL WHO HAD ONE TRUMPET, “FREE THE FOUR ANGELS WHO ARE BOUND AT THE GREAT RIVER EUPHRATES!”

Revelation 9:15
THE FOUR ANGELS WERE FREED WHO HAD BEEN PREPARED FOR AN HOUR AND A DAY AND A MONTH AND A YEAR (on our “scale” of a day for a year, that would come to a little over 396 years – just about exactly the time between January 18, 1057, and May 29, 1453 – see my comments on verse 16, below), SO THAT THEY MIGHT KILL ONE THIRD OF MANKIND (that is, 1/3 of the people living in the region being discussed, not 1/3 of all the people living on the entire planet).

Revelation 9:16
THE NUMBER OF THE ARMIES OF THE HORSEMEN WAS TWO HUNDRED MILLION. This number astonishes anyone who tries to put the interpretation of this prophecy into the present time or any time in the near future. What country could field an army with 200,000,000 mounted troops? According to the 2009 World Almanac, on June 30, 2008, the United States had a total of 1,385,122 troops on active duty. At no time in history was that number ever higher than the 8,266,373 that it reached in 1945, near the end of World War II. The People’s Republic of China – a country with over four times the population of the United States – had only slightly more troops, in 2008, at 2,105,000. Only three other countries – Russia, North Korea and India – had over 1,000,000. The total number of soldiers in the whole world, today, isn’t anywhere near 200,000,000. So whose huge army is this? The answer, I believe, is that it is the composite number of all of the soldiers that served in the Turkish Muslim armies, which conquered most of the Middle East, and almost half of Europe, between January 18, 1057, when they first began their assault on the region, and May 29, 1453, when they were defeated at the very gates of Vienna, Austria, whereupon their empire began to dwindle down. Today the whole “empire” only amounts to the country of Turkey. I HEARD THE NUMBER OF THEM (and saw them, in the vision, as if they were all gathered together on the battlefield at one time, although, in reality, the fulfillment of the vision took place over a period of nearly four centuries and involved many separate generations of soldiers).

Revelation 9:17
THUS I SAW THE HORSES IN THE VISION, AND THOSE WHO SAT ON THEM, HAVING BREASTPLATES OF FIERY RED, HYACINTH BLUE, AND SULFUR YELLOW (those were, in fact, the colors of the flag that was flown by the Turkish army in those days, though the modern country of Turkey uses a simpler red flag with a white star and crescent); AND THE HEADS OF LIONS. OUT OF THEIR MOUTHS PROCEED (teachings that have the characteristics of) FIRE (which is destructive), SMOKE (which is confusing), AND SULFUR (which is offensive) – that is exactly how the nominally-Christian Europeans felt about the teachings of Islam (and, particularly, its Turkish form).

Revelation 9:18
BY THESE THREE PLAGUES WERE ONE THIRD OF MANKIND (again, that is, 1/3 of the people living in the region that is being discussed – the Middle East and Eastern Europe – not 1/3 of all the people living on the planet) KILLED: BY THE FIRE, THE SMOKE, AND THE SULFUR, WHICH PROCEEDED OUT OF THEIR MOUTHS (ultimately, the source of the devastation that occurred was not the military might of the armies, but the destructive, confusing and offensive teachings of Islam; and, ultimately, the devastation itself was not the death of so many millions of people, but the enslavement of the hundreds of millions who remained, and of the billions who have since been born under the domination of this false religion).

Revelation 9:19
FOR THE POWER OF THE HORSES IS IN THEIR MOUTHS, AND IN THEIR TAILS. FOR THEIR TAILS ARE LIKE SERPENTS, AND HAVE HEADS, AND WITH THEM THEY HARM. The Turks were the only people in history ever to develop the idea of shooting an arrow behind them. Everybody else held their bows out in front and shot their arrows in the direction in which they were facing; but the Turks learned how to hold their bows backwards and shoot their arrows at whoever was chasing them. This thoroughly confused their enemies, who would think that the Turks were running away when, in reality, they were attacking. They killed a lot of people that way. Eventually, of course, their enemies learned that the one thing to avoid seeing in battle was the rear end of a Turkish horse.

Revelation 9:20
THE REST OF MANKIND (that is, the rest of those people who lived in the region under discussion – the Middle East and Eastern Europe), WHO WERE NOT KILLED WITH THESE PLAGUES, DIDN’T REPENT OF THE WORKS OF THEIR HANDS, (so) THAT THEY WOULDN’T WORSHIP DEMONS, AND THE IDOLS OF GOLD, AND OF SILVER, AND OF BRASS, AND OF STONE, AND OF WOOD; WHICH CAN NEITHER SEE, NOR HEAR, NOR WALK (the writers of the Bible often made fun of the false gods that were worshipped by those people who didn’t worship the true God, on the basis of the fact that the false gods were impotent, whereas the true God is omnipotent).

Revelation 9:21
THEY DIDN’T REPENT OF THEIR MURDERS, NOR OF THEIR SORCERIES, NOR OF THEIR SEXUAL IMMORALITY, NOR OF THEIR THEFTS. These last two verses contain the main point of the entire chapter. The main point is not the delineation of the time frame during which Mohammed’s Muslim armies would establish their hegemony over the Middle East and parts of Europe. The main point is that God was judging the peoples of that part of the world for their idolatry and wickedness, and that He was doing it by allowing those peoples to be invaded, conquered, killed and subjugated by the Muslims. And the proof that He was acting rightly in doing so is found in the fact that their troubles didn’t lead them to turn away from sin to Him. That leads me to wonder if there might not be a contemporary application to this historical prophecy. “Western” Christendom survived the Muslim onslaught of the seventh through fifteenth centuries; but have the peoples of Europe and North America maintained a true reliance on God, or are we still worshipping idols and engaging in sinful practices? Have you repented of the works of your hands (“doing your own thing”), or are you still worshipping the “American idols” of gold and silver (money), brass, stone and wood (material things), murders (like abortion), sorceries (the word literally means “drug abuse”), sexual immorality (which is any sexual activity outside of the sacred bond of marriage) and theft (which includes “petty” crimes like cheating on your income tax and doing personal stuff on company time)?

Conclusion
So far, we’ve covered six of the seven trumpets. As in the vision of the seven seals, there is now a “pause” extending all the way from Revelation 10:1 to Revelation 11:14. Before we get to that seventh trumpet, we need to see what was predicted to happen between AD 1453 and the Second Coming of Christ.

Revelation 8

2009-10-07T16:53:00.001-04:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 8

Introduction
In his letters to the seven churches (Revelation 2-3), Jesus didn’t mention the Second Coming as an event that would take place during one of the church ages. The last letter simply concluded with the last church age and the statement, “If you have ears, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.” That closed the vision; there was no mention of the Second Coming; John went on to tell of another vision (the vision of the seven seals). Now, in this second vision (the vision of the seven seals), when John reaches the seventh seal, he gives us just the briefest little hint of the Second Coming. As we go through this book, we will see that, cycle after cycle after cycle, each time we build up to the Second Coming, he gives us a bigger picture of the Second Coming, until, finally, in the last vision, it all sort of bursts through, and he devotes a whole chapter to telling us what that Coming itself will be like, and then he goes on to tell us what will happen after it. But, in Revelation 8:1, for the first time in the book, we have a hint being given. We will see a very strange, kind of anticlimactic, kind of suspenseful way of putting the Second Coming of Christ, because John really isn’t ready, at this point in his book, to unload the whole picture of the Second Coming for us.

Revelation 8:1
WHEN HE (Jesus) OPENED THE SEVENTH SEAL, THERE WAS SILENCE IN HEAVEN (because all the “action” is on Earth; when this prophecy is fulfilled, Jesus will have left the heavenly scene and returned to Earth, and the important things that will be happening then will be happening on Earth, where He will be, not in Heaven) FOR ABOUT HALF AN HOUR (1 Corinthians 15:52 describes this same “time period” using the expression “in the twinkling of an eye” – in either case, I’m not sure that the expression should be taken literally; in both cases, I believe, the point is that the Second Coming will take place very quickly – we have similar expressions, like, “in no time at all” and “it’ll all be over before you know it”). This verse marks the end of John’s vision of the seven seals. Revelation 8:2 begins another vision (note the words, “I saw,” which often mark the beginning of a new vision). Like the vision of the seven seals, this vision of the seven trumpets will portray events that take place on Earth between the time of the first coming of Jesus and the time of the Second Coming.

Revelation 8:2
I SAW THE SEVEN ANGELS WHO STAND BEFORE GOD (I am not aware of any other reference in the Bible to these “seven angels who stand before God,” but there is a reference to them in one of the books of the Apocrypha – see Tobit 12:15, where Tobit, the main character of that book, encounters an angel named Raphael, who says that he is “one of the seven angels who stand before God” – evidently, that “bit” of information happens to be true, since John refers to it as true in Revelation 8:2, even though we wouldn’t be able to know if it were true or not based only on our finding it in a book that wasn’t inspired by God, as Revelation was), AND SEVEN TRUMPETS WERE GIVEN TO THEM. In this vision, the angels themselves aren’t of much interest; it is the trumpets that are of interest, particularly, what happens on the Earth when the angels blow them. In biblical prophecy, trumpets are often used as symbols of judgment, because trumpets would be sounded before a battle, and a battle was often viewed as a judgment of God, the outcome of the battle being determined by God, not by the relative strengths or weaknesses of one or the other of the battling armies. So these seven trumpets will represent seven judgments of God that were predicted to come on the Earth during the Church Age.

Revelation 8:3
ANOTHER ANGEL CAME AND STOOD OVER THE ALTAR (in front of God’s throne in John’s vision of Heaven), HAVING A GOLDEN CENSER (incense container). MUCH INCENSE (which was used in Old Testament temple worship services as a symbol of prayer, because, as is easy to see, the rising toward the sky of the smoke produced by burning the incense was a visual representation of the rising toward God of the prayers being spoken by His people on Earth) WAS GIVEN TO HIM, THAT HE SHOULD ADD IT (the incense) TO THE PRAYERS OF ALL THE SAINTS (believers in Jesus) ON THE GOLDEN ALTAR WHICH WAS BEFORE THE THRONE (of God).

Revelation 8:4
THE SMOKE OF THE INCENSE, WITH THE PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS, WENT UP BEFORE GOD OUT OF THE ANGEL’S HAND. The idea is that God’s people, experiencing all kinds of trials and persecutions at the hands of their enemies here on Earth, respond to those trials and persecutions by praying to God, and their prayers come to God’s attention, and the judgments that He pours out of the Earth are His way of answering those prayers.

Revelation 8:5
THE ANGEL TOOK THE CENSER (incense container), AND HE FILLED IT WITH THE FIRE OF THE ALTAR, AND THREW IT ON THE EARTH (fulfilling the “wish” that Jesus had expressed in November of AD 29 – see Luke 12:49). THERE FOLLOWED THUNDERS, SOUNDS, LIGHTNINGS, AND AN EARTHQUAKE (generalized symbols of the approach of judgment).

Revelation 8:6
THE SEVEN ANGELS WHO HAD THE SEVEN TRUMPETS PREPARED THEMSELVES TO SOUND. As the angels blow the trumpets, we will see another series of historical events portrayed in symbolic form, just as we did with the vision of the opening of the seven seals. In this case, the symbols are not as obvious – not as easy to interpret – as were the symbols in the previous vision. I could certainly be wrong in my interpretation of them, but, to the best of my ability to do so, I’ll give you what I believe to be the correct interpretation.

Revelation 8:7
THE FIRST (angel) SOUNDED (his trumpet), AND THERE FOLLOWED HAIL AND FIRE, MIXED WITH BLOOD, AND THEY WERE THROWN TO THE EARTH (which is often used in biblical prophecy as a symbol for the land of Palestine, just as, in reverse, the land of Palestine is often used in biblical prophecy as a symbol for the whole Earth – in both Hebrew and Greek, the word translated “land” is the same word that is also translated “Earth” and you can only tell the difference by analyzing the context to see which translation makes more sense in a given passage). ONE THIRD OF THE EARTH (Palestine, representing, in turn, the Jewish people, who were living in Palestine at that time) WAS BURNT UP (destroyed), AND ONE THIRD OF THE TREES (often used in biblical prophecy as a symbol for national leaders) WERE BURNT UP (killed), AND ALL GREEN GRASS (often used in biblical prophecy as a symbol for the common people) WAS BURNT UP (killed). This verse speaks of a judgment against the Jewish people (as a nation) for rejecting Jesus as their promised Messiah. When Jesus stood before the Roman Governor of Palestine, Pontius Pilate, and was accused of leading a rebellion against Caesar because of His “claim” to be the King of the Jews, the Jews responded to a question from Pilate by shouting, “We have no king but Caesar!” Forty years later, in AD 70, God’s judgment fell upon them in the form of an invasion by Roman armies, led by a general named Titus (who would later become a Roman Emperor). Buildings, including the Temple in Jerusalem, were destroyed; leaders were killed or taken into captivity, and most of the population was either killed or scattered throughout the Roman Empire in what later became known as the First Jewish War (at the time, of course, it was simply called “the Jewish War” – just as what we now call “World War I” was called “the World War” at the time when it happened, and only became known as “World War I” when World War II happened, a couple of decades later). Much of what Jesus Himself had predicted in His “Olivet Discourse” (Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21) was fulfilled in AD 70 as well.

Revelation 8:8
THE SECOND ANGEL SOUNDED (his trumpet), AND SOMETHING LIKE A GREAT BURNING MOUNTAIN (the great mountain representing the entire Jewish community, worldwide; and the fact that it was burning representing another great judgment on them) WAS THROWN INTO THE SEA (the sea, in biblical prophecy, often represents the entire world of Gentile nations). ONE THIRD OF THE SEA (the scattered places in the world where Jewish people lived at that time) BECAME BLOOD (was affected by this judgment),

Revelation 8:9
AND ONE THIRD OF THE LIVING CREATURES (representing the Jewish people) WHICH WERE IN THE SEA (scattered throughout the world) DIED. ONE THIRD OF THE SHIPS (on which people traveled from place to place throughout the world in those days) WERE DESTROYED. I believe that this prophecy was fulfilled in the Second Jewish War of AD 135, in which 580,000 Jews (about 1/3 of the total world population of Jews at the time) were killed. This war was started when a man named Simon, who called himself “Bar-Kochba” (which means “Son of the Star”), claimed to be the Messiah (in fact, the leading Jewish Rabbi of the time, a man named Akiba, actually proclaimed Simon to be the Messiah, the only time in all of Jewish history when a leading rabbi proclaimed a man to be the Messiah) and led a worldwide revolt against Rome, which, of course, was completely smashed, and the Jews who survived the war were scattered so thoroughly that they never reorganized as a fighting force until after World War II, more than 1,800 years later.

Revelation 8:10
THE THIRD ANGEL SOUNDED (his trumpet), AND A GREAT STAR FELL FROM THE SKY, BURNING LIKE A TORCH, AND IT FELL ON ONE THIRD OF THE RIVERS, AND ON THE SPRINGS (the sources) OF THE WATERS (water, in biblical prophecy, often represents the Bible itself – or, more exactly, the message that is found in the Bible – the “word of God” – Scriptural truth).

Revelation 8:11
THE NAME OF THE STAR IS CALLED “WORMWOOD” (sometimes translated as “Bitterness”). ONE THIRD OF THE WATERS BECAME WORMWOOD (bitter). MANY PEOPLE DIED FROM (drinking) THE WATERS, BECAUSE THEY WERE MADE BITTER. If water is a symbol for the truth of God’s word, then this bitter water is a symbol for the “poison” of false teaching. I believe that this “star” called “Wormwood” represents the rise of false teachings within the Church which took place around AD 300. Of course, there had been false teachers around ever since the first century. There were some even during the Apostle Paul’s lifetime, and there were even more after his death, before the death of the Apostle John. Cults continued to grow, and to spread false teachings, all during the second and third centuries, too, at times even seeming likely to overwhelm the true Church, so that more people in some areas of the world had received the false gospel than had received the true Gospel. But, throughout those times, the true Church had always rejected those false teachings and done what it could to combat them. Toward the year 300, though, something different took place. False teachers (most of them known as “Gnostics” – which, literally, means “people with special knowledge”) arose within the true Church, and the same false teachings that had been rejected by previous generations of Christians were now accepted by the generation living at that time, and “incorporated” into their view of Christianity. “Wormwood” was God’s judgment against the Roman Church of that time for accepting these false doctrines. Many (if not most) of the Christians in the Roman Empire “died” spiritually (lost their spiritual vitality) because they followed these false teachings. Many others literally died in the terrible persecutions of AD 303-313 (see Revelation 2:10).

Revelation 8:12
THE FOURTH ANGEL SOUNDED (his trumpet), AND ONE THIRD OF THE SUN WAS STRUCK, AND ONE THIRD OF THE MOON, AND ONE THIRD OF THE STARS, SO THAT ONE THIRD OF THEM WOULD BE DARKENED, AND THE DAY WOULDN’T SHINE FOR ONE THIRD OF IT, AND THE NIGHT IN THE SAME WAY. I believe that the “light” described in this verse (and the sun, moon and stars that “carry” that light) represents what was good about the Roman Empire: its ability to bring a measure of peace to the territories under its control, its provision of useful public works such as roads and aqueducts (which made spreading the Gospel easier than it would have been in a world without Roman leadership), and its eventual recognition of Christianity as its “state religion” (which at least made it easier for Christians to do the work that God had called them to do than it had been during the days of pagan persecution of the Church). But, under this trumpet, we are seeing God’s judgment against what was bad in the Roman Empire, in the form of a diminishing of that “light” (a diminishing of the Empire’s power). I believe that this “diminishing” took place between AD 410 (when the city of Rome was “sacked” by barbarians) and AD 476 (when the last Roman Emperor was replaced on his throne by a coalition of barbarian kingdoms).

Revelation 8:13
I SAW, AND I HEARD AN EAGLE, FLYING IN MID HEAVEN, SAYING WITH A LOUD VOICE, “WOE! WOE! WOE FOR THOSE WHO DWELL ON THE EARTH, BECAUSE OF THE OTHER VOICES OF THE TRUMPETS OF THE THREE ANGELS, WHO ARE YET TO SOUND!” This is a warning that we are stepping into an even greater phase of God’s judgment against wicked people than we have seen in the demolishing of the Jewish nation (under the first two trumpets) and in the demolishing of the Roman Empire (under the second two trumpets). The fifth and sixth trumpets, which contain much longer stories, are so intertwined that, in a sense, they have to be viewed almost as if they are one judgment that comes in two phases, and I believe that it refers to the Arab world (those people who occupied the Middle East after the Roman Empire was destroyed). What became of the lands of the Bible – the countries that are now Israel, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and so on? What went on in those places during what we call the “Dark Ages” in Europe’s history? What went on is that the false prophet Mohammed claimed to receive the “revelations” from Allah that are recorded in the Qur’an, gathered a band of followers who not only supported his religion, but also his efforts to take control of that part of the world, and went out to conquer all of that territory. He and his successors built an empire that reached its peak right at the time when Europe was at its lowest point. Some of that is what is prophesied in Revelation 9.

Revelation 6

2009-06-02T14:18:00.000-04:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 6

Introduction
Now we come to the beginning of the “exciting” part of the book of Revelation – the part that everybody likes to study. This is the part where history is predicted before it happens, and we get to see how these prophecies were fulfilled. The vision of the “seven seals” extends from Revelation 6:1 through Revelation 8:1.

Revelation 6:1
I SAW THAT THE LAMB (Jesus) OPENED ONE OF THE SEVEN SEALS (so that a portion of the scroll that represented the “title deed” to the earth – as we saw in our study of Chapter 5 – could be unrolled, unveiling the progress of a portion of the history of the earth, from the Apostle John’s time toward the time of the Second Coming), AND I HEARD ONE OF THE FOUR LIVING CREATURES SAYING, AS WITH A VOICE OF THUNDER, “COME AND SEE!”

Revelation 6:2
AND BEHOLD (“Look!”), A WHITE HORSE (the ancient equivalent of an armored car), AND HE WHO SAT ON IT HAD A BOW (he was preparing to go out conquering). A CROWN WAS GIVEN TO HIM (he had the authority to conquer), AND HE CAME FORTH CONQUERING, AND TO CONQUER. I think that the color of the horse is a clue as to what kind of “conqueror” this was, and from that clue we ought to be able to figure out who this “conqueror” represented. White is a symbol of holiness or purity. This “conqueror” was on God’s side. I believe that this first seal is a prophecy of the “conquest” of the Roman Empire by Jesus Christ (the One who was pictured as sitting on the white horse), which took place in history in the spread of Christianity throughout that empire between AD 30 and AD 395. During those 365 years, Christianity spread like a wild fire, starting in an obscure corner of Palestine (the Galilee) and working its way throughout Asia Minor and Greece, into Italy itself and around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, until almost half of the people supposedly living under the rule of Caesar were actually living under the rule of Christ. This time period includes the entire Apostolic and Persecution Ages of Chapter 2 and the early part of the Constantinian Age. Dispensational Futurism would make this verse portray the coming of Antichrist instead of the coming of Christ. If that were the case, then why would he be riding the white horse of purity and holiness? This question, alone, is enough to convince me that Dispensational Futurism is a wrong interpretation of Revelation, but the theory has many other problems, as well. I believe that Historicism provides a clearer and more reliable interpretation.

Revelation 6:3
WHEN HE (Jesus) OPENED THE SECOND SEAL, I HEARD THE SECOND LIVING CREATURE SAYING, “COME!” (I don’t know why – this time only – the creature wasn’t also reported as saying, “and see!” – and, in some copies of Revelation, those words are, indeed, included.)

Revelation 6:4
ANOTHER CAME FORTH, A RED HORSE. TO HIM WHO SAT ON IT WAS GIVEN POWER (that word is “implied” in the text, rather than actually stated; what the text actually says is, “To him who sat on it was given) TO TAKE (the) PEACE (the “Pax Romana” – the Roman “peace” which prevailed in the territory controlled by the Roman Empire for almost 500 years, as the Roman armies enforced Roman law and prevented smaller countries from fighting each other, as they had previously been accustomed to doing) FROM THE EARTH (so, obviously, when “the peace” was “taken from” the earth, the result would be the coming of a war to the earth; that happened in AD 395, when the Roman Empire was split into East and West, and the Roman armies were no longer able to enforce the famous “Pax”), AND THAT THEY (the people of the countries that had formerly been ruled over by the Roman Empire) SHOULD KILL ONE ANOTHER (which they promptly did). THERE WAS GIVEN TO HIM A GREAT (big) SWORD (an obvious symbol for a major war; red, of course, is the color of blood, and it is easy to see why a red horse would be used to symbolize a war in which much human blood is shed). This time period includes the rest of the Constantinian Age and the beginning of the Medieval Age, up to about AD 606-610. Notable wars of the period include (among many others) the barbarian “sack” of Rome in AD 410 and the final collapse of the Western Roman Empire in AD 476.

Revelation 6:5
WHEN HE (Jesus) OPENED THE THIRD SEAL, I HEARD THE THIRD LIVING CREATURE SAYING, “COME AND SEE!” AND BEHOLD (“Look!”), A BLACK HORSE, AND HE WHO SAT ON IT HAD A BALANCE (a set of scales, used for weighing items against a standard set of weights to determine their weight – also, a universally-recognized symbol for justice and fairness) IN HIS HAND. If the rider on a white horse represented Christ, doesn’t it make sense that the rider on a black horse would represent Christ’s opposite – Antichrist? So the third seal represented conditions that would prevail during the time of the Antichrist. I believe that time began in AD 610, and that the Antichrist was the Roman Catholic system of government headed by the Papacy (the succession of Popes) from then until AD 1870.

Revelation 6:6
I HEARD A VOICE IN THE MIDST OF THE FOUR LIVING CREATURES SAYING, “A CHOENIX (about a quart) OF WHEAT FOR A DENARIUS (the coin that would be paid to a “minimum wage” worker for one day’s work), AND THREE CHOENIX (about three quarts) OF BARLEY FOR A DENARIUS (the coin that would be paid to a “minimum wage” worker for one day’s work)! Those would be extremely high prices, so this verse represents a famine – not a scarcity of food, in my opinion, but a scarcity of the Word of God. One of the major “crimes” of the Antichrist system was withholding access to the Bible from people – only allowing the Bible to be in the hands of its priests and bishops. Here’s how that came about. The first step was for the Popes to declare that the Bible is not the only source of authoritative teaching; there are three other sources – logic, tradition and (especially) the teaching of the Church (as promulgated by the authority of the Papacy). The next step was to declare that the authority of the Church (as expressed in the teachings promulgated by the Papacy) superceded the authority of the Bible. Then it became logical to restrict access to the Bible to avoid the possibility of an “unauthorized” person reading it and coming up with their own interpretations, which might go against the teachings of the Church. At first, only laypeople were denied access to the Bible; later, even local priests were denied access. At that point, only bishops, archbishops, cardinals and popes were allowed to read the Bible (and a lot of them didn’t bother, since they already knew what the Church taught, and knew that it wouldn’t do them any good to read the Bible and come up with a different interpretation of it). Eventually, it came down to where the only people who knew much about the Bible were the monks who lived in monasteries. They made handwritten copies of it and wrote commentaries on it that hardly anybody ever read. The “cost” of gaining access to the “bread” became prohibitively high. DON’T DAMAGE THE OIL AND THE WINE!” Oil and wine are symbols of the Holy Spirit. The Papacy was unable to withhold the Holy Spirit from people, so the “oil” and the “wine” flowed freely during this time, even though people didn’t have access to the “bread” of life. Many true Christians, led by the Holy Spirit, refused to follow the Church’s unbiblical teachings and were persecuted to death (as individuals) and to extinction (as groups) for doing so.

Revelation 6:7
WHEN HE (Jesus) OPENED THE FOURTH SEAL, I HEARD THE FOURTH LIVING CREATURE SAYING, “COME AND SEE!”

Revelation 6:8
AND BEHOLD (“Look!”), A PALE (sick-looking, light green colored) HORSE, AND HE WHO SAT ON IT, HIS NAME WAS (the) DEATH. This is not just “ordinary” death, but a prediction of the specific historical experience known as “The Black Death” – the bubonic plague that struck Europe in AD 1347-1351. HADES (the grave) FOLLOWED WITH HIM (people were dying so frequently, during those four years, that there wasn’t enough time to bury them individually; many thousands were buried in mass graves). AUTHORITY OVER ONE FOURTH OF THE EARTH (in this context, the expression “the earth” refers to the territory controlled by the Papacy – basically, Europe), TO KILL WITH THE SWORD (thinking back to the red horse), WITH FAMINE (thinking back to the black horse), WITH (the) DEATH (described here by the pale horse), AND BY THE WILD ANIMALS OF THE EARTH (thinking ahead to the fifth seal) WAS GIVEN TO HIM (“Death”). The bubonic plague alone accounted for the death of over 20% of the people who had been alive in Europe at the time that it started, and the other factors (war, famine, etc.) accounted for almost another 5%; by the time the plague had run its course, Europe’s population was down to only 75% of what it had been when the plague started.

Revelation 6:9
WHEN HE (Jesus) OPENED THE FIFTH SEAL, John might have been expecting to see another horse, probably of a different color, but that didn’t happen; instead, he reports, I SAW UNDERNEATH THE ALTAR (in the heavenly temple that he was seeing in this vision) THE SOULS (literally, the blood; see Leviticus 17:14, where the “life” – same Hebrew word that is usually translated as “soul” – “of all flesh is the blood thereof”) OF THOSE WHO HAD BEEN KILLED FOR THE WORD OF GOD, AND FOR THE TESTIMONY OF THE LAMB WHICH THEY HAD. This verse refers to the persecution and martyrdom of many millions of true Christians in the Inquisition (which actually began before the bubonic plague of AD 1347-1351, and continued after the great earthquake of AD 1755, but was concentrated mostly in the 400 years between those two events), and views their deaths as if they were sacrifices to God.

Revelation 6:10
THEY (the “souls” – literally, the blood) CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE (like Abel’s blood, in Genesis 4:10, which is also referred to in Hebrews 11:4 and Hebrews 12:24), SAYING, “HOW LONG, MASTER, THE HOLY AND TRUE, UNTIL YOU JUDGE AND AVENGE OUR BLOOD ON THOSE WHO DWELL ON THE EARTH?” The murder of an innocent human being – particularly the politico-religious church/state-authorized murder of a follower of Jesus Christ – “calls out” for the judicial execution of the murderer(s). The call is just, and it is a call for justice, but it is a call that will not really be answered until the Judge appears (that is, until the Second Coming of Christ).

Revelation 6:11
A LONG WHITE ROBE WAS GIVEN TO EACH OF THEM. THEY WERE TOLD THAT THEY SHOULD REST (sleep in their graves) YET FOR A WHILE (literally, from the time that they were killed until the time when the Judge comes), UNTIL THEIR FELLOW SERVANTS AND THEIR BROTHERS, WHO WOULD ALSO BE KILLED EVEN AS THEY WERE, SHOULD COMPLETE THEIR COURSE. Persecution and martyrdom was particularly intense during the Inquisition, but it didn’t completely end when the Inquisition ended. It is still going on today, and it is actually increasing in many parts of the world, although not particularly in those countries in which the Papacy sponsored it during the middle ages. See Daniel 12:7 and my comment on it – “WHEN THEY HAVE MADE AN END OF BREAKING IN PIECES THE POWER OF THE HOLY PEOPLE, ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE FINISHED. But, the ‘breaking in pieces’ (persecution) of God’s people has not yet completely ended, even now….”

Revelation 6:12
I SAW WHEN HE (Jesus) OPENED THE SIXTH SEAL, AND THERE WAS A GREAT EARTHQUAKE (the most violent earthquake in recorded history took place on November 1, AD 1755; it was centered in Lisbon, Portugal – a city of over 60,000 – which was completely destroyed; the earthquake was felt all over western Europe, northwestern Africa, and the western half of the Atlantic Ocean; geological evidence indicates that it may have affected, in some way, 1/4 of the total surface of the Earth, though, fortunately, much of the area it affected was either ocean or uninhabited desert, so that not as many people were killed by it as have been killed by less violent earthquakes that were centered in places like China, where hundreds of millions of people live). THE SUN BECAME BLACK AS SACKCLOTH MADE OF HAIR (I believe that this is a prediction of the infamous “Dark Day” – May 19, AD 1780 – on which, in some places, particularly in New England, it became, by 12:00 Noon, almost as dark as it normally is at 12:00 Midnight, for reasons that have never been explained by science), AND THE WHOLE (full) MOON BECAME AS (red as) BLOOD (that same night, although it was not a normal eclipse; astronomers can predict those with 100% accuracy, and this was not one that was predicted).

Revelation 6:13
THE STARS OF THE SKY FELL TO THE EARTH, LIKE A FIG TREE DROPPING ITS UNRIPE FIGS WHEN IT IS SHAKEN BY A GREAT WIND. The greatest meteor shower in recorded history took place on November 13, AD 1833, when the Earth passed through the tail of Comet Tempel-Tuttle. At one point during the shower, the “stars” were “falling” at a rate of over 100,000 per hour (a “normal” meteor shower is usually less than 100 meteors per hour).

Revelation 6:14
THE SKY WAS REMOVED LIKE A SCROLL WHEN IT IS ROLLED UP. EVERY MOUNTAIN AND ISLAND WERE MOVED OUT OF THEIR PLACES. Is there any record of an event that could have been described by this statement? I’m not aware of any. Does that mean that it hasn’t happened? Not necessarily! Certainly there have been events that have happened, and have been reported, but I don’t happen to have read those reports. It’s also possible that events have happened, and have been reported, but the records have been lost, or destroyed, and no one now living has ever read them. Perhaps events have happened and no one has reported them. It’s also possible that whatever this verse is predicting hasn’t happened yet, but will happen just before Jesus comes. That doesn’t mean that Jesus couldn’t come today, because this event doesn’t need to take much time. The great earthquake only took about four days. The dark day only took about four hours, and the same is true of the blood-red moon and the great meteor shower. Whatever this verse is describing could take place in only a few minutes. According to the sequence of events in this “seal,” it seems that it should have happened sometime in either the nineteenth century or the twentieth century, but since we don’t know what it’s referring to, we obviously can’t pinpoint the date.

Revelation 6:15
THE KINGS OF THE EARTH, THE PRINCES, THE COMMANDING OFFICERS, THE RICH, THE STRONG, AND EVERY SLAVE AND FREE PERSON, HID THEMSELVES IN THE CAVES AND IN THE ROCKS OF THE MOUNTAINS. I don’t know that this took place, literally, but we have a similar expression: they “hid their faces in the sand”: which means they saw these things happen, and thought that the day of God’s judgment had come (that’s exactly what many people thought in 1755, and 1780, and 1833), and then, when they realized that it hadn’t, chose to ignore these “warnings” and to pretend that these things hadn’t happened at all, or, at least, that they didn’t mean that the judgment day was coming, or, in any case, that they weren’t the fulfillments of the biblical prophecies that I am suggesting that they were.

Revelation 6:16
THEY TOLD THE MOUNTAINS AND THE ROCKS, “FALL ON US, AND HIDE US FROM THE FACE OF HIM WHO SITS ON THE THRONE (that is, God), AND FROM THE WRATH OF THE LAMB (Jesus),

Revelation 6:17
FOR THE GREAT DAY OF HIS (God’s) WRATH HAS COME; AND WHO IS ABLE TO STAND?” Well, since no one is capable of “standing up” to God’s judgment, no one wants to “face up” to the possibility that today is the day that we will have to do that – so, whenever things happen that make it look like the judgment day is upon us, people shut their eyes, plug their ears, and pretend they don’t see and hear what’s happening. That was certainly true on these historical dates, when these prophecies were fulfilled, and it will undoubtedly also happen when Jesus comes, as well.

Conclusion
The opening of the first six seals introduces us to the events of the New Testament Era – that period of time between Christ’s first and second comings. It covers, specifically, events that took place between AD 30 and AD 1833 (or maybe later). It does not predict he Second Coming itself. Before we get to that prediction, which (I believe) is found in Revelation 8:1, we will need to take a look at another chapter – Revelation 7.

Revelation 5

2009-05-09T20:27:00.001-04:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 5

Revelation 5:1
I SAW, IN THE RIGHT HAND OF HIM (God) WHO SAT ON THE THRONE, A BOOK (actually, a scroll) WRITTEN INSIDE AND OUTSIDE (as was usually done, in the first century, to record title deeds to property and wills indicating the disposition of property after the owner’s death – unlike most other scrolls, which were written on only one side and then rolled up, with the unwritten side out), SEALED SHUT (again, as was usually done, in the first century, only with such legal documents – unlike most scrolls, which were simply tied together with string) WITH SEVEN SEALS (which were put on, separately, by seven different individuals, who could then serve as witnesses to the writing and sealing up of the deed and will). What “book” was this? I believe that this “book” was the “title deed” to Planet Earth, and the “will” of its rightful Owner, God the Father.

Revelation 5:2
I SAW A MIGHTY ANGEL PROCLAIMING WITH A LOUD VOICE, “WHO IS WORTHY TO OPEN THE BOOK, AND TO BREAK ITS SEALS?” (Of course, one would have to break the seals first, in order to “open” the “book” – literally, to unroll the scroll. As each seal was broken, the scroll could be unrolled a little more, and a little more of what was written on it could be read. And who would be “worthy” to do that? Only the legitimate owner of the property, and his heir! I believe that the next verse – Revelation 5:3 – will give us the precise moment in history that the Apostle John was seeing in this vision; and it wasn’t a moment in our future, or even in John’s future – it was a moment in John’s past, a moment that John himself had experienced, in real life, but from a different vantage point.)

Revelation 5:3
NO ONE IN HEAVEN ABOVE, OR ON THE EARTH, OR UNDER THE EARTH, WAS ABLE TO OPEN THE BOOK, OR TO LOOK IN IT. (The one moment in history when Jesus Christ, the Son of God – the legitimate heir to God’s property, Planet Earth – was not in Heaven, not on Earth, and not “under the earth” in Hades was the exact moment that we know in history as the Ascension, recorded in Acts 1:9. John had been present when Jesus ascended; he saw Him leaving the earth and going up into a cloud; now, 66 years later, he has a vision of what had happened in Heaven at that same moment.)

Revelation 5:4
AND I WEPT MUCH, BECAUSE NO ONE WAS FOUND WORTHY TO OPEN THE BOOK, OR TO LOOK IN IT. (Of course, John didn’t yet understand what he was seeing; he was disappointed that it seemed that he wouldn’t be able to find out what was written on the scroll.)

Revelation 5:5
ONE OF THE ELDERS SAID TO ME, “DON’T WEEP. BEHOLD (‘Look!’), THE LION (Jesus) WHO IS OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH, THE ROOT (descendant) OF DAVID, HAS OVERCOME (Jesus himself said that, back in AD 30, as recorded in John 16:33, which John wrote down just a year before he wrote Revelation. And when, exactly, did Jesus actually win this victory? He won the victory over sin by His crucifixion, and He won the victory over death by His resurrection); HE WHO OPENS THE BOOK AND ITS SEVEN SEALS (because He, alone, is worthy to).”

Revelation 5:6
I SAW IN THE MIDST OF THE THRONE AND OF THE FOUR LIVING CREATURES, AND IN THE MIDST OF THE ELDERS, (Now, this is strange! The elder had told John, “Look! A lion!” – but what John saw was) A LAMB (seemingly, the exact opposite of a lion; but both of these animals are symbols of Jesus – one portrays Him as the King, the other as the sacrificial victim) STANDING (which shows that “it” was alive), AS THOUGH IT HAD BEEN SLAIN (there was evidence that “it” had been killed – so what is “it” doing alive? The only possible answer is that “it” had been resurrected), HAVING SEVEN HORNS (representing total authority, as Jesus himself had said, back in AD 30, as recorded in Matthew 28:18), AND SEVEN EYES (representing total knowledge), WHICH ARE THE SEVEN SPIRITS (as we saw back in chapter 1, the Holy Spirit) OF GOD, SENT OUT INTO ALL THE EARTH.

Revelation 5:7
THEN HE (the Lamb, Jesus) CAME, AND HE (the Lamb, Jesus) TOOK IT (the scroll) OUT OF THE RIGHT HAND OF HIM (God) WHO SAT ON THE THRONE.

Revelation 5:8
NOW WHEN HE (the Lamb, Jesus) HAD TAKEN THE BOOK (the scroll), THE FOUR LIVING CREATURES AND THE TWENTY-FOUR ELDERS (see the Study on Revelation 4) FELL DOWN (in worship) BEFORE THE LAMB (Jesus), EACH ONE HAVING A HARP, AND GOLDEN BOWLS FULL OF INCENSE, WHICH ARE THE PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS (God’s people).

Revelation 5:9
THEY (the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders) SANG A NEW SONG (one written for, and specifically relevant to, this particular vision), SAYING, “YOU (Jesus) ARE WORTHY TO TAKE THE BOOK (the scroll), AND TO OPEN ITS SEALS (and read its contents): FOR YOU (Jesus) WERE KILLED, AND (by Your death) BOUGHT US (God’s people) FOR GOD WITH YOUR BLOOD, OUT OF EVERY TRIBE, LANGUAGE, PEOPLE, AND NATION,

Revelation 5:10
AND MADE THEM (God’s people) KINGS AND PRIESTS TO OUR GOD, AND THEY (shall) REIGN (rule) ON (some translations say “over” but I think that “on” is correct) EARTH.”

Revelation 5:11
I SAW, AND I HEARD SOMETHING LIKE A VOICE OF MANY ANGELS AROUND THE THRONE, THE LIVING CREATURES, AND THE ELDERS; AND THE NUMBER OF THEM WAS TEN THOUSANDS OF TEN THOUSANDS (hundreds of millions), AND THOUSANDS OF THOUSANDS (millions);

Revelation 5:12
SAYING WITH A LOUD VOICE, “WORTHY IS THE LAMB (Jesus) WHO HAS BEEN KILLED TO RECEIVE THE POWER, WEALTH, WISDOM, STRENGTH, HONOR, GLORY, AND BLESSING (notice that there are seven things that He is said to be worthy to receive – the number 7 is a very important symbol, in this book, of perfection and completion – so the singers were really saying that Jesus is worthy to receive everything)!”

Revelation 5:13
I HEARD EVERY CREATED THING WHICH IS IN HEAVEN, ON THE EARTH, UNDER THE EARTH, ON THE SEA, AND EVERYTHING IN THEM (all living beings in the universe), SAYING, “TO HIM WHO SITS ON THE THRONE (God), AND TO THE LAMB (Jesus), BE THE BLESSING, THE HONOR, THE GLORY, AND THE DOMINION (this time, it’s four things – but 4 is also a symbol of perfection and completion, as in the expression, ‘the four corners of the earth,’ which really means, ‘the whole world’), FOREVER AND EVER! AMEN!”

Revelation 5:14
THE FOUR LIVING CREATURES SAID, “AMEN!” THE ELDERS FELL DOWN AND WORSHIPED.

Conclusion
What we’ve seen in Revelation 5 is a description, not a prediction. It’s a description of what happened in Heaven at the time of Jesus’ ascension. It’s in the book to “set the stage” for the predictions of then-future events that will be found in Revelation 6-22.

Revelation 3:14-22

2009-02-26T19:15:00.000-05:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 3
Verses 14-22

Revelation 3:14
TO THE ANGEL OF THE ASSEMBLY IN LAODICEA (literally, ‘of the Laodiceans’ – meaning that the church represented in this letter isn’t really Christ’s church or God’s church; it’s a church ‘owned and operated’ by its members – a ‘People’s Church’; in fact, the name of its city, Laodicea, literally means ‘the city where the people rule’ – representing the Modern Age, from AD 1914, when World War I broke out, to the present, an era in which the church no longer feels obligated to follow Christ’s commands, but feels free to ‘do its own thing’ – and I want you to notice that this is the last of the series of letters; there will be no ‘eighth’ Church Age – the Modern Age will continue right up until the second coming of Christ; and as we go through the book of Revelation, we will see that almost every series of seven mentioned in the book covers the same time period – from the first coming of Christ to the second coming of Christ; but each one tells that history from a different viewpoint, emphasizing different aspects of each time period) WRITE: ‘THE AMEN (the word “Amen” literally means, “So be it!” or “Yes!” – here, it is used as a “title” for Jesus Christ, based on the idea that all of God’s promises to His people find their fulfillment in Him – see 2 Corinthians 1:19-20), THE FAITHFUL AND TRUE WITNESS (see my comments on Revelation 1:5), THE HEAD (literally, “firstborn” – not in the sense of His coming into being before anything else did, but in the sense of His having authority over everything else, just as the firstborn son in a family would take his father’s place as the “head” of the family when his father died) OF GOD’S CREATION (you would think that since Jesus has the authority to rule over everything in God’s creation, He has the authority to rule over His own church – but that is precisely what is denied in the Modern Age, as His people insist on their own “authority” and, in fact, often deny that there even is such a thing as “God’s creation” since they believe that the world and everything in it originated by chance and evolution), SAYS THESE THINGS:

Revelation 3:15
“I KNOW YOUR WORKS, THAT YOU ARE NEITHER COLD (like refreshing cold iced tea) NOR HOT (like delicious hot coffee). I WISH YOU WERE COLD OR HOT (either one would be good, but it’s necessary to be one or the other; but this is a church that doesn’t want to commit itself or stand for anything particular).

Revelation 3:16
SO, BECAUSE YOU ARE LUKEWARM, AND NEITHER HOT NOR COLD, I WILL VOMIT YOU OUT OF MY MOUTH. What a ‘graphic’ way of expressing how Jesus feels about a church that is ‘open to anything’ and doesn’t really ‘take a stand’ for Him, one way or another! The Modern Age is characterized by a ‘church’ that has tried to be Christian in name, but remains worldly in character. Jesus is disgusted by that combination.

Revelation 3:17
BECAUSE YOU SAY, ‘I AM RICH, AND HAVE GOTTEN RICHES, AND HAVE NEED OF NOTHING (never has the organized, institutional church been as materially wealthy as it has in the Modern Age; back in the Middle Ages, the Papacy had power – it was able to “pull strings” and “make things happen” in the world – but it didn’t have the sheer monetary “net worth” that is owned by the professing “Christian” community nowadays; and the result is that people trust in, and rely on, their wealth, rather than relying on God to take care of them);’ AND DON’T KNOW THAT YOU ARE THE WRETCHED ONE, MISERABLE, POOR, BLIND, AND NAKED (as seen from a spiritual viewpoint, as opposed to the physical viewpoint that the church is focused on);

Revelation 3:18
I COUNSEL YOU (to each of the other churches, He has said, ‘I command you’ – but He can’t say that to the Modern church, because it doesn’t recognize His authority to give ‘commands’ – so He is reduced to saying, ‘I advise you’) TO BUY FROM ME GOLD REFINED BY FIRE (true, spiritual ‘treasure’), THAT YOU MAY BECOME RICH (instead of merely seeing yourself as rich); AND WHITE GARMENTS (later in the book, we will see that these ‘white garments’ represent ‘the righteous deeds of the believers’), THAT YOU MAY CLOTHE YOURSELF, AND THAT THE SHAME OF YOUR NAKEDNESS MAY NOT BE REVEALED; AND EYE SALVE (the actual city of Laodicea, in the first century, was famous for an eye-salve that had been invented in the city’s medical college and was marketed throughout the known world) TO ANOINT YOUR (spiritual) EYES, THAT YOU MAY SEE (spiritual truth). Is Jesus saying all these things to the Modern church because He hates it? No!

Revelation 3:19
AS MANY AS I LOVE, I REPROVE AND CHASTEN (so the ‘reproving’ and ‘chastening’ that He’s been doing, in these verses, is a sign that He loves us; He wants, ever so much, for us to ‘shape up’ and become the true Christians that He has called us to be). BE ZEALOUS (sincere and eager) THEREFORE, AND REPENT (turn away from your sins, and begin to live the way a Christian ought to live). Notice, though, that the ‘sins’ Jesus is criticizing in this letter are not so much the ‘gross’ sins of idolatry, immorality, apostasy, etc., that were dealt with in the earlier letters – the Modern Age is characterized more by sins of pride, self-sufficiency, and refusal to acknowledge God as Creator and Savior.

Revelation 3:20
BEHOLD (‘Look!’), I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK. IF ANYONE (any individual; this appeal is extended to the entire world, but it must be responded to on an individual basis) HEARS MY VOICE AND OPENS THE DOOR (of his own life), THEN I (operating through the Holy Spirit) WILL COME IN TO HIM, AND WILL DINE (a symbol of intimate fellowship) WITH HIM, AND HE (will dine) WITH ME. So, although Jesus clearly disapproves of the ‘Church of the Laodiceans’ (the Modern Age of the Christian ‘movement’) as a whole, He is constantly willing and ready to fellowship with any individual (or any church) that will receive Him and allow Him to come in.

Revelation 3:21
HE WHO OVERCOMES, I WILL GIVE TO HIM (the right) TO SIT DOWN WITH ME ON MY THRONE (when He returns, which will be right at the end of the Modern Age), AS I ALSO OVERCAME (see John 16:33), AND SAT DOWN WITH MY FATHER ON HIS THRONE.

Revelation 3:22
HE WHO HAS AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR (see Matthew 11:15, 13:9 and 13:43; Mark 4:9; and Luke 8:8 and 14:35 – this was a ‘favorite’ expression of Jesus’) WHAT THE SPIRIT SAYS TO THE ASSEMBLIES.”’

Conclusion:
After nearly 2,000 years, the “bottom line” is that any individual who wishes to repent of sin and receive Christ as Savior will have the right to sit beside Him on His throne when He comes; but most of the professing “members” of the organized church throughout the ages have never really made a personal commitment of faith to Him as Lord, and they are not included in the final reward. Today, out of nearly 7,000,000,000 people in the world, fewer than 2,000,000,000 even nominally profess that they follow “the Christian religion.” Billy Graham estimates that maybe as many as 10% of those have actually received Christ as their personal Savior. Perhaps the figure is even lower than that if you count only those who have not only received Him as Savior, but have maintained and continued their faith in Him throughout their lives. We have no way of taking a real “census” of the true Church; but we know from these messages that Christ does. Several times, He said, “I know what you have done.” He stands amidst the “candlesticks” and He knows who His people are and who they aren’t. At the end of the Church Age, when He comes, it will all be sorted out and we will know for sure, then, who was really saved and who was not. Meanwhile, on the basis of Revelation 3:20, any one of us can know, as an individual, about our own personal relationship with Him. I am absolutely confident, on the basis of God’s Word, of my own salvation. How about you?

Revelation 3:7-13

2009-01-31T13:08:00.000-05:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 3
Verses 7-13

Revelation 3:7
TO THE ANGEL OF THE ASSEMBLY IN PHILADELPHIA (representing the Missionary Age, from AD 1798, when the French Revolution reduced the temporal power of the Papacy to a mere fraction of its previous levels, to AD 1914, when World War I broke out) WRITE: ‘HE (Jesus Christ) WHO IS HOLY, HE (Jesus Christ) WHO IS TRUE, HE (Jesus Christ) WHO HAS THE KEY OF DAVID (not an ancient artifact that had been handed down through the family line of David for 1,000 years, until Jesus literally came into possession of it – a 1,000-year-old brass key – but, rather, a symbol of the authority that belonged to David when he ruled as King of Israel; just as we say that the mayor can give someone “the key to the city,” meaning that he has the authority to allow that person access to the city and its opportunities), HE (Jesus Christ) WHO OPENS (a “door” – using His “key” to exercise His authority) AND NO ONE CAN SHUT (no authority in the universe can overturn any action that is done by the authority of Jesus), AND (conversely) WHO SHUTS AND NO ONE OPENS (this is exactly what Jesus said to His disciples when He gave them the “Great Commission” in Matthew 28:18, when He said, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth” – this is just another way of saying that), SAYS THESE THINGS:

Revelation 3:8
“I KNOW YOUR WORKS (Christians were ‘doing’ a lot of ‘new things’ in the nineteenth century – using new means of transportation, such as steamboats and railroads, to take the Gospel into far-distant, previously-unevangelized places like Africa, India and China; using newer and better printing presses to publish millions of Bibles and other books; and so on) (BEHOLD, I HAVE SET BEFORE YOU AN OPEN DOOR, WHICH NO ONE CAN SHUT – there were no major ‘hindrances’ to this worldwide missionary expansion effort; but, since AD 1914, such hindrances have been increasing in most countries all over the world), THAT YOU HAVE (some translations insert the word ‘a’ here, changing the meaning considerably, but it shouldn’t be there; it’s not in the Greek text) LITTLE POWER (the ‘Philadelphian’ church didn’t have much political influence, or the kind of control over people’s response to their message that the churches in previous ages had had; they were pioneers, reaching out into areas of the world that had never been under Christian ‘power’ before), AND KEPT (obeyed) MY WORD (my command – the Great Commission), AND DIDN’T DENY MY NAME (remained faithful to Me).

Revelation 3:9
BEHOLD (‘Look!’), I GIVE OF THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN (the false Church), OF THOSE WHO SAY THEY ARE JEWS (meaning ‘Christians’ – as the word ‘Jews’ often does – in the symbolic language of this book), AND THEY ARE NOT, BUT LIE (He’s referring to people who call themselves ‘Christians’ but are not actually His disciples). BEHOLD (‘Look!’), I WILL (at the Second Coming) MAKE THEM (the false Christians) COME AND WORSHIP (Me) BEFORE YOUR FEET (in your presence), AND TO KNOW (acknowledge) THAT I HAVE LOVED YOU (as opposed to them – see Luke 13:24-30).

Revelation 3:10
BECAUSE YOU KEPT MY COMMAND TO ENDURE (see Matthew 24:13), I ALSO WILL KEEP YOU FROM THE HOUR OF TESTING, WHICH IS TO COME ON THE WHOLE WORLD, TO TEST THOSE WHO DWELL ON THE EARTH. How can we say that the Christians of the Missionary Age were ‘kept’ from the ‘hour of testing, which is to come on the whole world,’ if we understand that ‘hour of testing’ to be a reference to the Great Tribulation (the reign of the Antichrist)? I believe that the answer to that question is found in recognizing that the reign of the Antichrist (the Papacy) – especially that part of its reign called ‘the hour of testing’ – was almost completely over by the time the Missionary Age began (AD 1798). Thus, the Christians of that age were ‘kept’ from it, because it wasn’t happening during their lifetimes.

Revelation 3:11
I AM COMING QUICKLY! (This is the first time in this series of letters that the Second Coming is described as being ‘near at hand’ – foreshadowing the fact that it was during the Missionary Age that the Millerite/Adventist movement, with its emphasis on preaching the message about the nearness of the Second Coming, came into prominence, in AD 1831-1844.) HOLD FIRMLY THAT WHICH YOU HAVE (preserve what knowledge of the truth of God is already available to you), SO THAT NO ONE TAKES YOUR CROWN (Jesus seems to be saying, here, that it’s possibly for a church to ‘lose’ its status as His, if it doesn’t follow through with the life that He commands it to live).

Revelation 3:12
HE WHO OVERCOMES, I WILL MAKE HIM A PILLAR IN THE TEMPLE OF MY GOD, AND HE WILL GO OUT FROM THERE NO MORE. This refers to a practice that was common in the ancient (pagan) world – and is paralleled, to some extent, in the modern world – whereby when wealthy people (in particular) made (or make) donations to civic or religious institutions, they are ‘memorialized’ by having their names inscribed on the pillars (or walls) of those institutions’ buildings. Nowadays, we often see donors’ names on stained-glass windows, pews, organs, pianos, etc.; sometimes, an entire building is named after a donor or someone who contributed a lot of work to the institution that the building belongs to. In ancient times, it was common to name a pillar after a donor, and then the donor was thought of as having ‘become’ that pillar, and thus never ‘going out’ of the building from then on. This is the actual source of the expression that we sometimes use, when we say that a hard-working, exemplary individual ‘is a pillar in the church.’ I WILL WRITE ON HIM THE NAME OF MY GOD (God the Father), AND THE NAME OF THE CITY OF MY GOD, THE NEW JERUSALEM, WHICH COMES DOWN OUT OF HEAVEN FROM MY GOD (we will learn a lot more about the New Jerusalem when we get to Revelation 21), AND MY OWN NEW NAME.

Revelation 3:13
HE WHO HAS AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR (see Matthew 11:15, 13:9 and 13:43; Mark 4:9; and Luke 8:8 and 14:35 – this was a ‘favorite’ expression of Jesus’) WHAT THE SPIRIT SAYS TO THE ASSEMBLIES.”’

Revelation 3:1-6

2009-01-06T13:21:00.001-05:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 3
Verses 1-6

Revelation 3:1
AND TO THE ANGEL OF THE ASSEMBLY IN SARDIS (representing the Reformation Age, from AD 1517, when the Protestant Reformation began, to AD 1798, when the French Revolution reduced the temporal power of the Papacy to a mere fraction of its previous levels) WRITE: ‘HE WHO HAS THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD (Revelation 1:4), AND THE SEVEN STARS (Revelation 1:16, 20) SAYS THESE THINGS: “I KNOW YOUR WORKS, THAT YOU HAVE A REPUTATION OF BEING ALIVE, BUT YOU ARE DEAD. The Reformers were mostly concerned with changing the outward format of Christian organizations; they engaged in a lot of religious and political activity, but they really didn’t accomplish very much in the way of inward spiritual renewal for Christian people. They were still very ritualistic and formal in their approach to worship; their doctrinal changes were very intellectual, but they didn’t really restore the apostolic emphasis on Christian morality. They moved the Church in the right direction, but not far enough to satisfy the Lord. In these few verses, we will see more criticism than we might expect to see, when we think of them as applying to the Reformation Age, which many people look back on as a time when things were “really moving.” Actually, they weren’t yet moving that much after all.

Revelation 3:2
WAKE UP, AND KEEP THE THINGS THAT REMAIN, WHICH YOU WERE ABOUT TO THROW AWAY (the little “spark” of faith in Jesus that the Reformers had needed to be “fanned” into a much bigger “flame”), FOR I HAVE FOUND NO WORKS OF YOURS (such as restructuring the organized Church) PERFECTED BEFORE MY GOD (because it hadn’t yet really gotten back to first-century evangelical Christianity).

Revelation 3:3
REMEMBER THEREFORE HOW YOU HAVE RECEIVED AND HEARD (the basic message spread by Martin Luther, the first of the great Protestant Reformers, was the message of Romans 1:17 – “The just shall live by faith”). KEEP IT (don’t just repeat the words of this message; put its principles into practice), AND REPENT (turn away from your sins, and live a righteous, just and holy life). IF THEREFORE YOU WON’T WATCH, I WILL COME AS A THIEF, AND YOU WON’T KNOW WHAT HOUR I WILL COME UPON YOU. One teaching that did not reappear to a very great extent during the Reformation Age was a sense of the imminence of the return of Christ. The apostolic expectation that Jesus would come back soon – maybe even in their lifetimes – had been buried for several centuries under a mountain of Papal dogma, and the Reformers weren’t quite able to dig it back up again in their times.

Revelation 3:4
NEVERTHELESS YOU HAVE A FEW NAMES IN SARDIS (the “remnant” Church, a small group within both the Protestant and Catholic churches) THAT DID NOT DEFILE THEIR GARMENTS (they did not live immorally, as so many people who considered themselves to be “Christians” did in those days; they lived a holy life, to the best of their understanding of how to do so). THEY WILL WALK WITH ME IN WHITE, FOR THEY ARE WORTHY. Remember, though, that their “worthiness” wasn’t based on any of their “good works” – it was based on the fact that their lifestyle was a genuine reflection of their faith (Romans 1:17, again).

Revelation 3:5
HE WHO OVERCOMES WILL BE ARRAYED IN WHITE GARMENTS (like the “remnant” believers mentioned in verse 4), AND I WILL IN NO WAY BLOT HIS NAME OUT OF THE BOOK OF LIFE, AND I WILL CONFESS HIS NAME (Jesus knows the names of all those who have ever lived who have trusted in Him for their salvation, and He can, and will, “recite” those names) BEFORE MY FATHER (God), AND BEFORE HIS ANGELS.

Revelation 3:6
HE WHO HAS AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR (see Matthew 11:15, 13:9 and 13:43; Mark 4:9; and Luke 8:8 and 14:35 – this was a ‘favorite’ expression of Jesus’) WHAT THE SPIRIT SAYS TO THE ASSEMBLIES.”’

Conclusion
The Reformation phase of Church history extended from AD 1517 to AD 1798. It was a time when outward progress was made in ridding Christianity of the extreme abuses it had undergone during the Medieval Age, but it was a far cry from the perfection the Lord has always wanted to see in His Bride; it would take two more church ages (described in the rest of Revelation 3) before She would be in the condition that Jesus expected Her to be in at the time of His prophesied return.

Revelation 2:18-29

2008-11-20T16:26:00.000-05:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 2
Verses 18-29

Introduction
The message to the church in Thyatira is the longest of the seven messages – both in terms of the number of verses in the text (12, as opposed to 7 for Ephesus, 4 for Smyrna, 6 for Pergamum, 6 for Sardis, 7 for Philadelphia, and 9 for Laodicea) and in terms of the number of years of history covered (980, as opposed to 73 for Ephesus, 212 for Smyrna, 226 for Pergamum, 282 for Sardis, 117 for Philadelphia, and probably only a few more than 95 for Laodicea).

Revelation 2:18
TO THE ANGEL OF THE ASSEMBLY IN THYATIRA (representing the Medieval Age, from AD 538, when the Bishop of Rome proclaimed his office to be that of ‘Papacy,’ to AD 1517, when the Protestant Reformation began) WRITE: ‘THE SON OF GOD, WHO HAS HIS EYES LIKE A FLAME OF FIRE (see Daniel 10:6 and Revelation 1:14), AND HIS FEET ARE LIKE BURNISHED BRASS (see Daniel 10:6 and Revelation 1:15), SAYS THESE THINGS:

Revelation 2:19
“I KNOW YOUR WORKS (the Church, in the Medieval Age, was very big on ‘works,’ even viewing them as a means to salvation), YOUR LOVE (there is no question but that millions of members of the Church, in the Medieval Age, were very devoted to Jesus), FAITH (in the sense of ‘faithfulness’ – their ability to continue believing throughout all of the changing circumstances of their times), SERVICE (certainly a tremendous amount of work was accomplished, in the name of Christ, during this era), PATIENT ENDURANCE (‘stick-to-it-iveness’), AND THAT YOUR LAST WORKS ARE MORE THAN THE FIRST (the sheer quantity of work that was accomplished during that age far exceeded the quantity of work that was accomplished during the Apostolic Age).

Revelation 2:20
BUT (after only one verse of commendation, the text continues with Jesus’ words of judgment against the Church of this era) I HAVE THIS AGAINST YOU, THAT YOU TOLERATE YOUR WOMAN, JEZEBEL (the literal woman, Jezebel, was the daughter of Ethbaal, the idol-worshipping king of Phoenicia – the country that is now called ‘Lebanon’ – and the wife of Ahab, the idol-worshipping king of Israel; she is used here in Revelation 2:20 as a symbol to represent the idol-worshipping leadership of the Medieval Church), WHO CALLS HERSELF A PROPHETESS (a messenger from God). SHE (the organizational Papacy, which called itself ‘the Vicar of Christ’ – the ‘Representative of God on Earth’) TEACHES AND SEDUCES MY SERVANTS TO COMMIT SEXUAL IMMORALITY (not physical ‘sexual immorality’ – actually, the Church, during this era, was very much opposed to physical sexual immorality, and promoted its opposite, virginity, more than any other organization in history has ever done; but ‘sexual immorality’ is used here in Revelation 2:20 as a symbol for idol worship, and the ‘idol worship’ taught by the Church, during this era, was the extreme ‘reverence’ for the Papacy that put the popes on a level with God Himself: at one point, the ‘slogan’ written on the Pope’s throne, in Rome, was, ‘Our Lord God, the Pope’), AND TO EAT THINGS SACRIFICED TO IDOLS (this may be a reference to the Roman tradition of ‘offering’ the Mass as a ‘sacrifice’ before a statue of Jesus, whereas the Bible makes it clear that the Eucharist is simply a memorial of Jesus’ sacrifice – not a ‘sacrifice’ in itself – and that it is wrong for Christians to think of statues as being ‘real’ representations of God). (See Numbers 25:1-2).

Revelation 2:21
I GAVE HER TIME TO REPENT (no other era in history included as much time for repentance as the Medieval Age did – as we have seen, above, it lasted 980 years!), BUT SHE REFUSES TO REPENT OF HER SEXUAL IMMORALITY (there was no feeling, in the leadership of the Church during this era, that there was any need for ‘repentance’ – in the sense of changing their ways – because they were fully convinced that what they were doing was right and didn’t need to be changed).

Revelation 2:22
BEHOLD, I WILL THROW HER (Jezebel, symbolizing the Medieval Church) INTO A BED (symbolizing, in this context, a place where punishment will take place), AND THOSE (church members who followed such false leadership rather than worshipping God as prescribed in the Bible) WHO COMMIT ADULTERY (symbolizing the worship of anything other than the true God) WITH HER INTO GREAT OPPRESSION (punishment from God), UNLESS THEY REPENT OF THEIR WORKS (which, we know from history, most of them didn’t – but some did).

Revelation 2:23
I WILL KILL HER (the Papacy’s) CHILDREN (church members who worshipped the Papacy) WITH DEATH (this is probably a reference to the “Black Death” – the bubonic plague that swept through Europe, where most of the Papacy’s followers lived, in AD 1347-1351), AND ALL THE ASSEMBLIES (the churches of all succeeding eras) WILL KNOW THAT I (Jesus) AM HE WHO SEARCHES THE MINDS AND HEARTS (knows all secrets). I (Jesus) WILL GIVE TO EACH ONE OF YOU (not just the followers of the Papacy, but all Christians of all eras) ACCORDING TO YOUR DEEDS (whatever you deserve as a result of what you have done with whatever knowledge of God and His ways you have had).

Revelation 2:24
BUT TO YOU (the Christians who lived during this era, but who didn’t follow the teachings of the Papacy – such as the Eastern Orthodox, the Waldensians, the Albigensians, etc.) I (Jesus) SAY, TO THE REST WHO ARE IN THYATIRA, AS MANY AS DON’T HAVE THIS TEACHING, WHO DON’T KNOW WHAT SOME CALL ‘THE DEEP THINGS OF SATAN’ (one of the worst things that took place during the Medieval Age was an actual mixture of Satan-worship with the professed worship of Christ), TO YOU I (Jesus) SAY, ‘I (Jesus) AM NOT PUTTING ANY OTHER BURDEN ON YOU (since such people had very little knowledge of the truth, although they knew that the extreme forms of Papacy-worship were wrong, Jesus reassured them that He didn’t expect very much of them, except, as He said in the next verse:).

Revelation 2:25
NEVERTHELESS, HOLD FIRMLY (don’t give up) THAT (small understanding of the truth) WHICH YOU HAVE, UNTIL I COME (which, from their point of view, in the Medieval Age, was still a long time in the future).’

Revelation 2:26
HE WHO OVERCOMES, AND HE WHO KEEPS MY WORKS (does the things that I want him to) TO THE END (of his life), TO HIM (any true believer in Jesus) I (Jesus) WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS (something that the Papacy illegitimately claimed to have).

Revelation 2:27
HE WILL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, SHATTERING THEM LIKE CLAY POTS (Jesus’ consistent promise to all His followers has always been that they will receive a share in His Kingdom when it is finally established); – AS I ALSO HAVE RECEIVED OF MY FATHER (God):

Revelation 2:28
AND I (Jesus) WILL GIVE HIM (the one who overcomes) THE MORNING STAR (a symbol of Jesus Himself; to the believer in Jesus, Jesus will give a personal relationship with Jesus).

Revelation 2:29
HE WHO HAS AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR (see Matthew 11:15, 13:9 and 13:43; Mark 4:9; and Luke 8:8 and 14:35 – this was a ‘favorite’ expression of Jesus’) WHAT THE SPIRIT SAYS TO THE ASSEMBLIES.”’

Conclusion
In the few statements in these 12 verses, we (of course) haven’t learned everything that we are going to learn about what happened during the Medieval Age. Much more information about the events of those centuries is to be found in later chapters of the book of Revelation. That fact shouldn’t be surprising, since (after all), the Medieval Age covered almost half of all the time that has gone by since Jesus’ return to Heaven.

Revelation 2:12-17

2008-11-06T14:59:00.000-05:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 2
Verses 12-17

Revelation 2:12
TO THE ANGEL OF THE ASSEMBLY IN PERGAMUM (representing the Constantinian Age, from AD 313, when the Edict of Milan ‘legalized’ Christianity, to AD 538, when the Bishop of Rome proclaimed his office to be that of ‘Papacy’ – during much of this time, the official Church was ‘married’ to the State; the word ‘Pergamum’ literally means ‘married’) WRITE: ‘HE (Jesus, as described in Revelation 1:16) WHO HAS THE SHARP TWO-EDGED SWORD (referred to as “the word of God” in Hebrews 4:12 – something you need when you’re going to try to split two things apart that are very, very close together – as, for example, in the Constantinian Age, if you’re trying to discern between the true Church and the false Church) SAYS THESE THINGS:

Revelation 2:13
“I KNOW YOUR WORKS AND WHERE YOU DWELL, WHERE SATAN’S (representing the Roman Emperor’s) THRONE IS (Pergamum was the capital city of the Roman province of Asia; it was a place where Emperor-worship was practiced in John’s time; and Rome was the city where the official Church was beginning to have its ‘headquarters’ during the Constantinian Age). YOU (the true Church within the official Church) HOLD FIRMLY TO MY NAME, AND DIDN’T DENY MY FAITH IN THE DAYS OF ANTIPAS MY WITNESS, MY FAITHFUL ONE, WHO WAS KILLED AMONG YOU, WHERE SATAN DWELLS. It sounds like Jesus is referring to a specific historical event here, but unfortunately we don’t know what specific event He was referring to. There were about 3,000,000 Christian martyrs during the Persecution Age, and many of them may have been named Antipas, which was a very common name at the time. Notice how little commendation Jesus had for the church in Pergamum: ‘I know where you are, and I know that at least some of you are still faithful to Me.’ It would be good if He could say a little more than that about today’s true Church!

Revelation 2:14
BUT I HAVE A FEW THINGS AGAINST YOU, BECAUSE YOU HAVE THERE SOME WHO HOLD THE TEACHING OF BALAAM (a false prophet), WHO TAUGHT BALAK (the king of Moab) TO THROW A STUMBLING BLOCK BEFORE THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL (see Numbers 31:16), TO EAT THINGS SACRIFICED TO IDOLS, AND TO COMMIT SEXUAL IMMORALITY (as was done, for example, in the cult of Dionysius).

Revelation 2:15
SO (in the same way; but spiritually, rather than physically) YOU ALSO HAVE SOME WHO HOLD TO THE TEACHING OF THE NICOLAITANS (see Revelation 2:6) LIKEWISE.

Revelation 2:16
REPENT (of your sin of tolerating the presence of such false teachers in your midst) THEREFORE, OR ELSE I AM COMING TO YOU QUICKLY, AND I WILL MAKE WAR AGAINST THEM (the false teachers) WITH THE (sharp two-edged) SWORD (that comes out) OF MY MOUTH (as described in Revelation 1:16 and referenced in Revelation 2:12). That ‘sword’ is (of course) the “word of God” (Hebrews 4:12) – the message contained in the Bible. To the extent that people pay attention to the message of the Bible, they don’t pay attention to false teachers; so Jesus pictures Himself as ‘fighting’ against them, using the Bible as his ‘sword.’

Revelation 2:17
HE WHO HAS AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR (see Matthew 11:15, 13:9 and 13:43; Mark 4:9; and Luke 8:8 and 14:35 – this was a ‘favorite’ expression of Jesus’) WHAT THE SPIRIT SAYS TO THE ASSEMBLIES. TO HIM WHO OVERCOMES, TO HIM I WILL GIVE OF THE HIDDEN (see 2 Maccabees 2:8) MANNA (see Psalm 78:24), AND I WILL GIVE HIM A WHITE STONE (‘a badge or token of admittance or membership’ – like a hand-stamp), AND ON THE STONE A NEW NAME (see Isaiah 62:2) WRITTEN, WHICH NO ONE KNOWS BUT HE WHO RECEIVES IT.” (Many suggestions have been given to explain this expression, but I’m not going to get into them, since I don’t have any idea which one of them – if any – is right.)’

Explanation
For 211 years (AD 102-313), Christianity had been “illegal” in the Roman Empire, and the government had made frequent efforts to stamp it out by killing Christians and by passing laws against Christian activities, especially in the last 10 of those years (AD 303-313), as we saw in our study of the letter to Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11), which represents the Persecution Age.
But in AD 313, Emperor Constantine I, after fighting a battle with some of his enemies, and having a vision in which he saw a cross in the sky with the words “In this sign, you will conquer” written on it, and painting crosses on the shields of his soldiers, and winning the battle, legalized Christianity, and everything changed. Now that Christianity was legal, Christians were free to worship as they pleased and to witness to their pagan neighbors. This was good, or so they thought at the time.
Some time later, the situation changed again: Christianity was made the official religion of the Roman Empire, and paganism was outlawed. You might think that that was a good thing for the Church, but it proved to be otherwise. The Church was now “flooded” with members who didn’t really understand the Gospel of Jesus, and some of them rose to positions of leadership in both the Church and the government. They used their government power to force “Christianity” on the remaining pagans, and the form of “Christianity” they forced on them wasn’t much more Christian than their former paganism had been.
So the Church was “married” to the State, and it was becoming more and more like the State had always been, and less and less like what Jesus had intended it to be. Then the State itself began to fall apart: first, in AD 395, the Empire was divided into East and West; then, in AD 410, the city of Rome (the Western Empire’s capital) was attacked; finally, in AD 476, the Western Empire fell apart completely, conquered by “barbarians” (Germans) who invaded it from the north. The “widowed” Church took the place of “authority” in the lives of its members that its deceased “husband” had once held; and the Constantinian Age came to an end when the Bishop of Rome proclaimed himself to be the “pope” (the word literally means “father”) of all Christendom, in AD 538.

Revelation 2:8-11

2008-10-01T15:21:00.000-04:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 2
Verses 8-11

Revelation 2:8
TO THE ANGEL OF THE ASSEMBLY IN SMYRNA (representing the Persecution Age, from AD 102, when John, the last of the original 12 Apostles, died – systematic, organized, government-sponsored persecution of Christianity began very soon after that – to AD 313, when the Edict of Milan “legalized” Christianity) WRITE: ‘THE FIRST AND THE LAST, WHO WAS DEAD AND HAS COME TO LIFE (Jesus, as described in Revelation 1:17-18), SAYS THESE THINGS:

Revelation 2:9
“I KNOW YOUR WORKS, OPPRESSION, AND YOUR POVERTY (in earthly, material possessions) – (BUT YOU ARE RICH) (in the things of faith and of the Spirit) – AND THE BLASPHEMY OF THOSE WHO SAY THEY ARE JEWS, AND THEY ARE NOT, BUT ARE A SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN. Remember, the book of Revelation is a prophetic message written in symbols. In this case, literal Jews (descendants of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham) are used as a symbol for Christians (believers in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah). The Jewish synagogue (congregation) is used as a symbol for the Christian church (congregation). So the real meaning of this statement is, “[I know] the blasphemy of those who say they are Christians, and they are not, but are a church of Satan [rather than of God].” The second century began to see the rise of “Christian” cults – groups of people who claimed to be Christians, but in reality were worshipping some other god(s). From Jesus’ point of view, there are only two possibilities: if you aren’t worshipping Him, you’re worshipping Satan, whether you realize it or not.

Revelation 2:10
DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE THINGS WHICH YOU ARE ABOUT TO SUFFER. (He says “about to” because the Persecution Age had not yet begun at the time when Jesus dictated this letter to John – AD 96 – but it began very soon after that, in AD 102.) BEHOLD, THE DEVIL IS ABOUT TO THROW SOME OF YOU INTO PRISON, THAT YOU MAY BE TESTED; AND YOU WILL HAVE OPPRESSION FOR TEN DAYS (representing either 10 separate “waves” of severe persecution, taking place at 10 different times throughout the Persecution Age, or the very last 10 years of the Persecution Age, AD 303-313, when the most severe “wave” of persecution of the entire age took place). BE FAITHFUL (to Me), even TO (until) your DEATH, AND I WILL GIVE YOU THE CROWN OF LIFE (in the Resurrection).

Revelation 2:11
HE WHO HAS AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR (see Matthew 11:15, 13:9 and 13:43; Mark 4:9; and Luke 8:8 and 14:35 – this was a ‘favorite’ expression of Jesus’) WHAT THE SPIRIT SAYS TO THE ASSEMBLIES. HE WHO OVERCOMES WON’T BE HARMED BY THE SECOND DEATH.” (They may be “harmed” by the first death, when the Roman authorities came to torture and kill them, but they won’t be harmed by the second death – which we will read about much later in this book – because that’s the punishment God reserves for those who refuse to acknowledge and obey Him.)’

“CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?” – God

2008-09-09T15:00:00.000-04:00

BIBLE STUDY BY TELEPHONE
By Dr. John H. Roller

I’ve been a Christian for 39 years, and during all that time there’s been no experience in the Christian life that I’ve enjoyed more than Home Bible Study.

Usually, I’ve had that experience by being one of a relatively small group of people – anywhere from 2 to 20 or so – sitting in a circle, perhaps around a kitchen or dining room table, or maybe in a living room, with Bibles open and an opportunity for everybody to share the insights that God has given them in their own personal study of His Word.

In my own case, I’ve usually been the “leader” of such a group, studying the selected passages ahead of time so that I could present the major points of the passage, which then leads to the free-wheeling discussion that I enjoy so much.

But, I recently had the opportunity to be a “visitor” in a Home Bible Study that was very much like the others that I’ve been to, with one unusual “twist” – the “leader” wasn’t in the same room as the rest of the group; in fact, he wasn’t even in the same State! And neither was I.

The group had started out “normally” enough – my friend, Rev. Rick Searles, and several of his friends, meeting on Monday nights in a home in Torrington, Connecticut. But, some time later, Rick had moved to Briarcliff Manor, New York. That’s when the group tried something really different – they continued to meet, every Monday, with Rick “leading” – but, rather than in person, he was there by telephone.

At 7:30 every Monday evening, Rick calls the host family, and they put their speaker-phone on the living room coffee table, and that is now “Rick” for the next hour. Everything after that is just like most other Home Bible Study groups that I’ve participated in.

When Rick told me about this, I thought that it was a great idea, but I wanted to experience it for myself before I started telling a lot of other people about it. The problem, though, was that I don’t live in either Connecticut or New York. I live in North Carolina.

With modern technology, though, the problem was easily solved. At 7:30 Monday evening, Rick called me, then put me on “hold” while he called the host family. Moments later, the Home Bible Study had successfully expanded to include a “visitor” over 700 miles way! But the distance really didn’t matter: I could have been anywhere in the world, as long as I had access to a telephone!

The first item on the agenda is always to “go around the room” and identify where everybody is sitting. Since Rick had been to the meeting site many times before, he knew the location of every chair, couch and loveseat in the room. Having led the same group for many months, he also knew all of the people. So, after this “identification” ritual, Rick is able to picture the whole group in his mind, and it makes him feel a lot more like he’s right there. Of course, from the group’s point of view, he is – he’s on the coffee table!

Everyone was very friendly, and they welcomed me as a “visitor” even though Rick was the only one who knew what I looked like, and even he didn’t know the “layout” of my office in Concord, North Carolina. After about five minutes of informal sharing, and two minutes of opening prayer, we spent 50 minutes digging into Exodus 12:1–13:16, alternating between volunteers reading passages of the Scripture text and open discussion of the points, loosely led by Rick. The meeting wrapped up with 15 minutes of prayer requests and concert prayer (which I was given the privilege of closing).

After the host family had hung up, Rick and I chatted for about 20 minutes, evaluating the experience from both his point of view and mine, and brainstorming other ways this concept could be utilized. Here are some of the ideas that occurred to us:

1. With 3 speaker-phones, not only could one “leader” and one “visitor” participate, but 3 entire groups could “network” together, and there’s no limit on how far apart (or close together) they need to be.

2. Shut-ins could participate in “over-the-phone” Home Bible Studies, in the same way that I did.

3. A group member who was out of town, but available at the time of the meeting, could participate by phone rather than in person, thus not having to miss the meeting.

4. Using Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP) instead of regular telephones could eliminate the cost of making the phone calls. To VOIP, it is also possible to add cameras, thus enabling participants to see each other as well as hear.

5. If the “leader” had a webcam, s/he could “conduct” the meeting over a website, and (in theory, at least) just about anybody in the world, with access to the Internet, could participate.

Well, I’m sure there are many more possibilities, but those are the main ones that Rick & I have thought of. I’d sure be interested to know of any that you might come up with. If there’s interest, maybe we can get another such group going! You can call me at 704-425-3911 if you’d like to talk about it.

Revelation 2:1-7

2008-09-01T19:25:00.000-04:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 2
Verses 1-7

Introduction
There are many valid ways to interpret the seven short “letters” that the Apostle John (in his vision) heard Jesus “dictate” to him. Perhaps the most obvious way is to take them literally – as letters from Jesus (in Heaven), through the Apostle John (on Patmos) to the Christians who attended the churches in those seven cities of Asia Minor near the end of the first century AD. In that case, the statements in the letters would apply to the situations and circumstances under which those people lived at that time – and they would be of relatively little interest to us, unless we wanted to know more about what was going on in Asia Minor over 1,900 years ago. Another way to interpret these letters is to say that every church, in every place, and at every time, can find itself “represented” by the message given to one of these seven churches. Still another way is to say that the statements in the letters apply to all churches in all places throughout history, in such a way that every Christian who has ever lived could find something in at least one of these letters that would apply to his (or her) own situation and the circumstances in which he (or she) lived (or lives) – and to the church that he (or she) attended (or attends). Each of these three interpretations is fairly easy to “do” and the results will contribute to your understanding of what God meant to communicate to us in this Book. The first one requires that you have some knowledge of first-century history; for the other two, you would simply read the letters as if they had been written with you in mind, and see what part (or parts) of them apply to your situation and circumstances.
There is also a somewhat more specific (and somewhat more difficult) method of interpreting the letters, which I will be presenting in these “Studies.” In this view (known as Historicism), each of the seven letters contains a symbolic representation of the events that were to take place in the Christian church (all over the world) during a specific period of time in history. Thus, taken together, the seven letters present an overview, in chronological order, of the history of Christianity, from the first century until just before the Second Coming of Christ. This view is more “difficult” for two reasons: first, because it requires taking plain-sounding statements as symbolic, and then guessing what the symbols refer to; and, second, because it requires a knowledge of history that is more extensive than most people have.
There is a structural pattern that prevails throughout the seven letters, with slight (but significant) variations. Each letter begins, “To the angel of the church in (or of) _______ write:” (the blank representing the name of the city to which that letter is addressed). Then there is a statement identifying the Author of the letter (Jesus) by a description drawn from the description of Jesus in Revelation 1 and particularly appropriate to the message in that particular letter. Next, most of the letters contain a statement beginning with the words “I know” and either commending the recipients for their good deeds, criticizing them for their sins, or (in most cases) both. Usually, there is a challenge to repent and do better. Each letter includes the statement, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies,” and each letter includes a promise addressed to “him who overcomes” – sometimes the statement comes first, and sometimes the promise comes first. The promise is always particularly relevant to the situation described in that particular letter.

Revelation 2:1
TO THE ANGEL OF THE ASSEMBLY IN EPHESUS (representing the Apostolic Age, from AD 30, when the church was ‘born’ – on the Day of Pentecost – to AD 102, when John, the last of the original 12 Apostles, died) WRITE: ‘HE WHO HOLDS THE SEVEN STARS IN HIS RIGHT HAND (see Revelation 1:16), HE WHO WALKS AMONG THE SEVEN GOLDEN LAMPSTANDS (see Revelation 1:13) SAYS THESE THINGS:

Revelation 2:2
“I KNOW YOUR WORKS, AND YOUR TOIL AND PERSEVERANCE (during the Apostolic Age, Christians worked very hard to spread the Gospel throughout the world; most non-Christians had never heard of Jesus and didn’t know anything about Him, so the Christians constantly had to explain to their friends and neighbors what Christianity was all about), AND THAT YOU CAN’T TOLERATE EVIL MEN (during the Apostolic Age, the church maintained a very clear standard of righteousness, by which one had to live if one was to be accepted as a member of the Christian community), AND HAVE TESTED THOSE WHO CALL THEMSELVES APOSTLES, AND THEY ARE NOT, AND FOUND THEM FALSE. Whenever something genuine and valuable is available, there will be people who produce counterfeit copies of it, in the hope of making money from those who don’t know the difference. Nobody prints counterfeit $3 bills, because there are no genuine $3 bills. People produce counterfeit $20 bills, $50 bills and $100 bills, because there are genuine $20 bills, $50 bills and $100 bills in circulation. So, when there were genuine Apostles of Jesus Christ on Earth, preaching His message, there were also counterfeit ‘apostles’ preaching their own ‘versions’ of ‘Christianity.’ First-century churches had to ‘test’ claims of apostolic authority, and they learned how to distinguish true Apostles from the pretenders. (But we won’t read much about ‘apostles’ in Jesus’ letters to the other six churches, because they describe conditions that existed only after the true apostles had all died.)

Revelation 2:3
YOU HAVE PERSEVERANCE (patience) AND HAVE ENDURED (suffered) FOR MY NAME’S SAKE, AND HAVE NOT GROWN WEARY. Those are all very commendable qualities.

Revelation 2:4
BUT (having looked at Jesus’ commendation of the Apostolic Age church, we turn to His criticism of that church) I HAVE THIS AGAINST YOU, THAT YOU LEFT YOUR FIRST LOVE. In Ephesians 3:17-19, the Apostle Paul wrote, ‘[I pray] that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know Christ’s love, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.’ Paul, writing to the literal church in Ephesus, emphasized the importance of love; 36 years later, Jesus criticized the church age that is symbolized by Ephesus for abandoning that emphasis on love.

Revelation 2:5
REMEMBER THEREFORE FROM WHERE (from what ‘height’ of love) YOU HAVE FALLEN, AND REPENT (turn around) AND DO THE FIRST WORKS (get back to an emphasis on love); OR ELSE (if you don’t) I AM COMING TO YOU SWIFTLY (Jesus could have returned at the end of the Apostolic Age if God had wanted Him to – see John 21:22-23), AND WILL MOVE YOUR LAMPSTAND OUT OF ITS PLACE, UNLESS YOU REPENT. (The sad ending to the story of the literal church in Ephesus is that it didn’t repent, but continued on its path toward ritualistic legalism, declined, and eventually closed, and there never was a Christian church in the city of Ephesus again.)

Revelation 2:6
BUT (returning to commendation again) THIS YOU HAVE, THAT YOU HATE THE WORKS (peddling religion for financial gain) OF THE NICOLAITANS (one of the groups of false teachers), WHICH I ALSO HATE. It’s sobering to think that although there are relatively few things that Jesus is said, in the Bible, to ‘hate,’ one of them is the very common sin of trying to get rich by preaching what people like to hear, rather than preaching what the Bible says.

Revelation 2:7
HE WHO HAS AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR (see Matthew 11:15, 13:9 and 13:43; Mark 4:9; and Luke 8:8 and 14:35 – this was a ‘favorite’ expression of Jesus’) WHAT THE SPIRIT SAYS TO THE ASSEMBLIES. TO HIM WHO OVERCOMES I WILL GIVE (the right) TO EAT OF THE TREE OF LIFE, WHICH IS IN THE PARADISE OF MY GOD (which really means, ‘to live forever’).”’ We will see the ‘tree of life’ again when we come to the passage about ‘the Paradise of God’ in Revelation 21-22.

Revelation 1

2008-08-08T11:09:00.000-04:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Chapter 1

Revelation 1:1
THIS (book) IS (a record of) THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST (that last phrase should actually be thought of as the “title” of the book – it is not, as some Bibles portray it, “The Revelation of St. John;” if anything, it is “The Revelation to St. John,” as we’ll see), WHICH GOD GAVE HIM (Jesus) TO SHOW TO HIS (Jesus’) SERVANTS (Christians) THE THINGS WHICH MUST (begin to) HAPPEN (very) SOON (and continue happening from then on, which is why I reject the theory that this book is a prophecy of things that have not even begun to happen yet – over 1,900 years after the book was written), WHICH HE (Jesus) SENT AND MADE KNOWN BY HIS (Jesus’) ANGEL (just as God had revealed things to His servant, Daniel, in the Old Testament, by means of an angel) TO HIS (Jesus’) SERVANT (a Christian), JOHN (the son of Zebedee and his wife, Salome, who was the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus, making John a first cousin of Jesus; he was the youngest of the original twelve apostles, and the last one to survive, after all the others had been killed because of their preaching about Jesus),

Revelation 1:2
WHO (John) TESTIFIED TO GOD’S WORD (the message that was revealed to him), AND OF THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST (the message that He revealed to John), ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT HE SAW (not holding back any of the information that was revealed to him – so, if any question is not answered in this book, as we read it, we couldn’t get that information from John, even if he were alive today to speak to us; and God has not spoken to anyone, in the way that He spoke to John, in the 1,900 years since this book was written – so, if any question is not answered in this book, we simply can’t get the answer to that question).

Revelation 1:3
BLESSED IS HE WHO READS (in John’s time, that would mean the person whose job in the church was to read written documents – Scriptures and other writings – aloud, during the meetings, so that others would be able to hear them) AND THOSE WHO HEAR (since most people, at that time, were unable to read for themselves; they didn’t have public schools, like we do; only certain people had the opportunity to learn to read; and, in any case, there were very few copies of any particular book available, since copies had to be made by hand) THE WORDS OF THE PROPHECY (the content of the book of Revelation), AND KEEP (remember and obey) THE THINGS THAT ARE WRITTEN IN IT (the word “keep” – in its sense of “obey” – implies that the book contains not only “prophecies,” but also “commandments”), (and why would the reader and the hearers be blessed?) FOR THE TIME IS AT HAND (when the prophecies will begin to be fulfilled). No other book in the New Testament has such a blessing attached to it, so we should gain a lot spiritually, as well as in the way of understanding, from our studies together in this fascinating book. Everything we’ve read so far corresponds to the title page of a modern book – a section in which the contents of the book are listed and explained and a sort of “dedication” to the readers and the hearers is given. The book itself actually begins with Revelation 1:4, where it takes on the format of a typical first-century business letter, starting with the name of the writer,

Revelation 1:4
JOHN (followed by the names of the intended recipients) TO THE SEVEN ASSEMBLIES (which will be named, more specifically, later in this chapter) (followed by the address of the intended recipients) THAT ARE IN ASIA (meaning the Roman Province of Asia, which covered the southwestern corner of the country now known as Turkey): (followed by a brief greeting) GRACE (which is a translation of the word “charis,” which the Greeks used as a common greeting, equivalent to our word “hello” – except that it had a much deeper meaning for the Christians, since it refers to God’s amazing generosity to us in making salvation, including the forgiveness of our sins, available to us at no charge, based only on our trust in Jesus) TO YOU (the readers) AND PEACE (which is a translation of the word “shalom,” which the Jews used as a common greeting, equivalent to our word “hello” – except that it had a much deeper meaning for the Christians, since it refers to the health, prosperity and general well-being that results from the cessation of hostilities between us and God when we renounce our sin and submit our wills to Him as our Lord) FROM GOD (the Father), WHO IS (He exists in the present, and that is precisely what His personal Name, Yahweh, means, as revealed in Exodus 3:14) AND WHO WAS (He has always existed throughout the past) AND WHO IS TO COME (He will always exist throughout the future; but be watching for an interesting “twist” on this phrase that will occur much later in the book); AND FROM THE SEVEN SPIRITS WHO ARE (or, the sevenfold Holy Spirit who is) BEFORE HIS (God’s) THRONE (in Heaven); (What is “sevenfold” about the Holy Spirit? The answer is found in Isaiah 11:2, where the Holy Spirit is described as “The Spirit of Yahweh, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the spirit of the fear of Yahweh.” I believe John was referring to Isaiah 11:2 in speaking of the “seven spirits” who are before God’s throne.) No other book in the New Testament contains as many quotations from, and references to, the Old Testament as the book of Revelation does.

Revelation 1:5
AND FROM JESUS CHRIST (the Messiah), THE FAITHFUL WITNESS (see Psalm 89:35-37 for the origin of this “title” for Jesus, where the physical sun is used as a symbol for God the Father and the physical moon, which reflects the light of the sun, is used as a symbol for Jesus as God’s Son), THE FIRSTBORN OF THE DEAD (He is the first – and, so far, the only – human being to be raised from death to immortality; see 1 Corinthians 15:20), AND THE RULER OF THE KINGS OF THE EARTH (as opposed to any of the other men who have claimed that title, such as Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, and so on, as we studied in the book of Daniel; indeed, much of the book of Revelation is concerned with the conflict between Christ’s claim to be “the King of Kings” and the Antichrist’s claim to be “the King of Kings”). TO HIM (Jesus) WHO LOVES US (see 1 John 4:10), AND WASHED US FROM OUR SINS (see Psalm 130:8 and Titus 3:5) BY HIS (Jesus’ own) BLOOD (his death on the cross);

Revelation 1:6
AND HE (Jesus) MADE US (Christians) TO BE A KINGDOM, PRIESTS TO (serve) HIS (Jesus’) GOD AND FATHER (which is what the nation of Israel was originally intended to be; but, because of the Israelites’ sin, the priesthood was restricted to just one of their tribes – the tribe of Levi); TO HIM (Jesus) BE THE GLORY AND THE DOMINION (the authority to rule the world) FOREVER AND EVER (as opposed to the limited time that each of the other men who claimed the title “king of kings” was allowed to rule it). AMEN (This word means “So let it be!” or, as the younger people might say, “Right on!” or, as the still younger ones would say, “Yes!”).

Revelation 1:7
BEHOLD (This word means “Look!”), HE (Jesus) IS COMING (back to Earth) WITH THE CLOUDS (that represent the glory and the power of the presence of God, like the pillar of cloud that led the Israelites through the wilderness in the books of Exodus and Numbers), AND EVERY EYE WILL SEE (and recognize) HIM, INCLUDING THOSE WHO PIERCED HIM (that has to mean that the dead will be raised to life when He comes, since the soldiers who pierced Him with a spear when He was hanging on the cross had probably already died before this book was written, and have certainly died since then, and long before His second coming). ALL THE TRIBES OF THE EARTH WILL MOURN OVER HIM (as it says in Zechariah 12:10, which is another prophecy of the second coming). EVEN SO! AMEN. This is the key verse of the book of Revelation; it states the theme of the book, which is the Second Coming of Christ.

Revelation 1:8
“I AM THE ALPHA (the first letter of the Greek alphabet) AND THE OMEGA (the last letter of the Greek alphabet),” SAYS THE LORD (Yahweh) GOD, “WHO IS AND WHO WAS AND WHO IS TO COME, THE ALMIGHTY (El Shaddai).” (This statement, which might be paraphrased as, “I am the beginning and the end,” is an idiom which amounts to a claim to be “everything.” God is really saying, “I am the only Being that actually exists, always has existed and always will exist. Everything else that exists is only temporary – merely something that I created and that I can just as easily destroy.”)

Revelation 1:9
Now we have the account of how the book of Revelation came to be written, told by the author himself. I, JOHN, YOUR BROTHER (notice John’s humility – he was the only living apostle of Jesus Christ, virtually the leader of all of the Christians in the world at that point in time, yet he simply calls himself a “brother” – on an equal level with all the other members of the Christian church) AND PARTNER WITH YOU IN (the) OPPRESSION (that was then coming to Christians because of their belief in), (the) KINGDOM (of God), AND (the) PERSEVERANCE (that they needed to have in their faith) IN CHRIST JESUS, WAS ON THE ISLE THAT IS CALLED PATMOS (the first-century equivalent of America’s Alcatraz – a prison island, where he had been sent by the persecuting Roman government, probably to do forced labor in the mines, although he was about 85 years old at the time) BECAUSE OF GOD’S WORD AND THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST (the message that John had been proclaiming throughout the world at the time when the persecution began, which led to his being exiled to this prison island).

Revelation 1:10
I WAS IN THE SPIRIT ON (thinking about) THE LORD’S DAY (the Day of the Lord – the day of the Second Coming of Christ) (I believe this is the correct interpretation of those words, rather than the more commonly accepted interpretation, which is, “I was engaging in worship on a Sunday morning,” which doesn’t make any sense to me in a first-century context, especially not when you consider that John was on a prison island – he certainly wasn’t allowed to hold “church services” there!), AND I HEARD BEHIND ME A LOUD VOICE, LIKE (as loud as) A TRUMPET (blast)

Revelation 1:11
SAYING, “WHAT YOU SEE (John was told to expect to see something – to have a vision), WRITE IN A BOOK (John was told to write a book describing his vision) AND SEND (copies of the book) TO THE SEVEN ASSEMBLIES (Christian churches): TO (the churches in the cities of) EPHESUS (where John had been serving as an elder before he was exiled to Patmos), SMYRNA, PERGAMUM, THYATIRA, SARDIS, PHILADELPHIA, AND TO LAODICEA.” These seven cities lay along a postal route that the Roman government had set up to facilitate official communications.

Revelation 1:12
I TURNED TO SEE THE VOICE THAT SPOKE WITH ME. Wouldn’t you? HAVING TURNED, I SAW (this is where the vision itself begins) SEVEN GOLDEN LAMPSTANDS (probably similar to the lampstand that had been in the Temple, which had been destroyed by the Romans in AD 70, as Daniel had predicted that it would be – see Daniel 9:26).

Revelation 1:13
AND AMONG THE LAMPSTANDS WAS ONE LIKE A SON OF MAN (see Daniel 7:13), CLOTHED WITH A ROBE (most men, in that time, wore robes on a regular basis; but this robe was unusual because it was) REACHING DOWN TO HIS FEET (most men’s robes reached down only to their knees, so they wouldn’t get in the way as the wearer went about doing his work; only rich men, and priests, and kings, who didn’t have to do manual labor, wore robes that reached all the way down to their feet – so this is a “clue” that the “One like a son of man” is really the King, the Messiah, Christ Jesus), AND WITH A GOLDEN SASH AROUND HIS CHEST (again, only a man of extreme wealth and power could afford to wear such an expensive item, and only a man who didn’t have to do manual labor for a living would wear such an item around his chest – where it would make him look tall, and thus imposing – rather than around his waist).

Revelation 1:14
HIS HEAD AND HIS HAIR WERE WHITE AS WHITE WOOL, LIKE SNOW (as people get older, their hair tends to lose its original color – red, brown or yellow – and gravitate toward gray or white; when they get to the stage where their hair is pure white, then they must be very old; so when their hair is as white as wool or snow, they must be as old as they can possibly get; this statement is a symbol to teach that Jesus is infinitely old; He is eternal). HIS EYES WERE LIKE A FLAME OF FIRE (this speaks of His ability to “see right through” things, like Superman, with his “X-ray” vision – not so much that He can see the inside parts of our bodies, but that He can “see” our thoughts and intentions; it’s a reference to the characteristic that theologians call His “omniscience”).

Revelation 1:15
HIS FEET (His ability to move, to go from one place to another) WERE LIKE BURNISHED BRASS (a recognizable Old Testament symbol for judgment – the altar in the Temple, where sin was judged, and penalties for it were paid, was made of brass), AS IF IT HAD BEEN REFINED IN A FURNACE. This means that when Jesus “moves” from Heaven to Earth – at the Second Coming – He will be coming to execute judgment on this sinful world. HIS VOICE (in addition to being “like a trumpet”) WAS LIKE THE VOICE OF MANY WATERS (like a roaring waterfall – have you ever been to Niagara?). His speech is full and complete; He says everything that needs to be said. When He has spoken, there is nothing else to say.

Revelation 1:16
HE HAD SEVEN STARS IN HIS RIGHT HAND (the place where, in John’s time, a man would keep whatever was of most importance to him). A king would keep his scepter in his right hand. A soldier would keep his sword in his right hand. A merchant would keep his moneybag in his right hand. A craftsman would keep his tools in his right hand. So, whatever is represented by the seven stars, it is the thing that is of most importance to Jesus. Keep an eye on this fact! OUT OF HIS MOUTH PROCEEDED A SHARP TWO-EDGED SWORD (the word of God – see Hebrews 4:12). HIS FACE WAS LIKE THE SUN SHINING AT ITS BRIGHTEST (see Judges 5:31 and Acts 26:13).

Revelation 1:17
WHEN I SAW HIM (remember how Daniel reacted when he saw a vision of Jesus, hundreds of years before Jesus was born? – see Daniel 10:9), I FELL AT HIS FEET LIKE A DEAD MAN (fainted). HE LAID HIS RIGHT HAND (the one He’d been holding the stars in) ON ME, SAYING, “DON’T BE AFRAID (see Daniel 10:12 and Daniel 10:19). I AM THE FIRST AND THE LAST (notice how Jesus, in this vision, made essentially the same claim for Himself that the Almighty God had made in Revelation 1:8),

Revelation 1:18
AND THE LIVING ONE (these words are essentially a translation of God’s personal name, Yahweh – the name that is translated “I AM” in Exodus 3:14). I WAS DEAD, AND BEHOLD (“Look!”), I AM ALIVE FOREVERMORE (Jesus is the only Being in the universe Who could, in John’s time, make this statement – even God the Father could not say, “I was dead,” and no other human being could say, “I am alive forevermore”). AMEN (“So let it be! Right on! Yes!”). I HAVE THE KEYS OF (authority over) DEATH (He can decide who will die at any given moment, and He could even tell “Death” to let go of Him so that He could rise again; and He can decide who else will rise from the dead at any given moment, and who will die the second death, and who will live forevermore, as He will, when He comes in judgment) AND OF HADES (the place where dead people are; that is, the grave).

Revelation 1:19
WRITE THEREFORE THE THINGS WHICH YOU HAVE SEEN (this is a repetition of the command that John had been given in Revelation 1:11), AND THE THINGS WHICH ARE (some of the things that John saw in this vision already existed in his own time), AND THE THINGS WHICH WILL HAPPEN HEREAFTER (others of the things that John saw in this vision didn’t yet exist; they only came into existence in John’s future);

Revelation 1:20
(Here is) THE MYSTERY (the revealed meaning) OF THE SEVEN STARS WHICH YOU SAW IN MY RIGHT HAND (the thing that is of most importance to Jesus), AND THE SEVEN GOLDEN LAMPSTANDS: THE SEVEN STARS ARE THE ANGELS OF THE SEVEN ASSEMBLIES. In the book of Daniel, we learned about individual angels who carry messages from God to man and from man to God, and we learned about national angels who supervise the affairs and the destinies of the various nations to which they are assigned. Here we have a reference to “angels” of churches. Each of the seven churches has an angel who represents it before God and supervises its affairs and destiny. THE SEVEN LAMPSTANDS (among which John had seen Jesus standing, in Revelation 1:12-13) ARE (the) SEVEN ASSEMBLIES (the churches in the seven cities to which John was instructed to send copies of this book, in Revelation 1:11). See Matthew 5:15. God does not “light a lamp” (save a person) in order to “hide him under a bushel” (keep him isolated from other believers), but in order to “put him on a lampstand” (get him into the church, where his light will be able to shine, along with the light of all his fellow believers).

Conclusion
There is a lot to be learned from Revelation 1, but not much of it relates “prophetically” (to events of the future); rather, Revelation 1 is the “introduction” to an entire book that is largely concerned with events that would occur in the future (from the point of view, in time, of the author, John). As you will see, in future studies, I believe that almost all of these prophecies have already been fulfilled, and that the only important one that hasn’t yet been fulfilled is the one recorded in Revelation 1:7.

Studies in Revelation -- Introduction

2008-06-25T10:16:00.001-04:00

Studies in Revelation
by Dr. John H. Roller

Introduction

The Book of Revelation, in the New Testament, can only be understood once one has understood the Book of Daniel, in the Old Testament. For that reason, intending to produce this series of “Studies in Revelation,” I first prepared a chapter-by-chapter and verse-by-verse series of “Studies in Daniel,” which, if you haven’t already read, you should first read before you begin to read these “Studies in Revelation.” If you don’t already have a copy of the “Studies in Daniel,” just send an email to johnroller@faithbiblechristian.com and request them, and I will send them to you absolutely free of charge. Like everything else I have written, they aren’t copyrighted, so you can feel free to do anything that you want to with them, including (as I hope that you will do) pass them along to others who might benefit by reading them.
Throughout these studies, the biblical text that I’ll be quoting will be that of the World English Bible (WEB), which you can find at www.ebible.org -- click on “New Testament” and scroll down to where you can click on “Revelation” and the appropriate chapter number. I selected this translation because it was recommended by a friend as being very accurate to the original Greek text, very readable in modern English, not copyrighted (so that I don’t need permission to quote from it) and available free of charge to anyone with internet access. I’ll be using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS whenever I’m quoting the text, because using a different font, a different type size, a different color, bold print, italics or underline doesn’t always come through via email, but using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS does.
I have been saying all along that we would be able to understand and interpret the Book of Revelation once we had studied the Book of Daniel – that the Book of Daniel contains a “key” (or several “keys”) to the understanding of the Book of Revelation. One of the “keys” that we picked up from studying Daniel is the Historicist method of interpretation. In most of Daniel’s visions and prophecies, Daniel was given information that started with where he was (in time) and then progressed systematically into the future from there, so that prophecy is really just history written before it happens. Using that “key” from the Book of Daniel, when we come to the Book of Revelation, we should expect to find that the prophecies in Revelation will begin to be fulfilled in the lifetime of the author (John, the son of Zebedee, known in the Gospel of John as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”) and progress forward in time from his time up until the great goal of all of his prophecy is fulfilled. That great goal is the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Daniel predicted a lot of things that had to do with the first coming of Christ; in particular, his great prophecy in Daniel 9 specified the exact time when Jesus would come, so that if anybody had understood that prophecy during those centuries, they would have been able to predict the exact date when the Messiah would be revealed, and then they would see the event fulfill that prediction. John’s prophecies deal with the Second Coming of Christ, but there is nothing in the Book of Revelation that will enable us to predict the exact date (or even an approximate date) when Jesus will return. There are no time-specific prophecies that lead all the way up to the Second Coming of Christ in such a way that when we would see the beginning of the fulfillment of some prophecy, we would know that so many more days, weeks, months or years would elapse until the Second Coming would take place. The book is set up in such a way that all of the timed prophecies within it are coded so that they could be fulfilled in a very short time, and the Lord could easily have worked out a means of fulfilling those prophecies within just a few years of when it was written, so that the Second Coming could have taken place early in the second century AD if He had wanted it to. But, as it is, over 1,900 years have passed since then, and we have every reason to believe that the prophecies in the book have been fulfilled over the spread of all that time – not concentrated in any one particular section of the time (not all being fulfilled suddenly, within a few years of when they were given, leaving a great big “gap” of time during which nothing more happened that had been predicted; nor the other way around – a great big “gap” of time during which no prophecies were fulfilled, followed by just a few years in which all of the prophecies would be fulfilled one right after another). We have every reason to believe, now, that Jesus is coming soon, because of the fact that we can point to the specific fulfillment of nearly all of the prophecies in Revelation, and there is no prophecy, left to be fulfilled before Jesus comes, that could not be fulfilled in a very short span of time indeed.
Obviously, the Book of Revelation does not predict every event that took place from John’s time up to our own – no single book could be big enough to do that! Nor does Revelation describe every event that is considered “significant” by secular historians. Many “great” events in history (such as the establishment of the British Empire) are left out; no mention is made of them. The point is not to minimize the importance of such events, but to concentrate on certain specific events that are relevant to God’s plan to exercise control over history, beginning, especially, when Jesus returns.
So, before we study Revelation itself, I want to give you a brief overview of some highlights of the history of the past 1,900 years, because nowadays not many people know much about the history of the past 1,900 years. It took me until I was a senior in college before I got a grip on the events that have taken place since Bible times, except for the events of American history, which I studied in high school. But what was going on in Europe for all those hundreds of years? Most Americans don’t have the foggiest idea. So I want to give you a few highlights of what has happened from the time of Christ until our own time, and every one of the events that I will mention was specifically prophesied in the Book of Revelation and came to pass exactly as described in the prophecies.
First of all, there was the beginning of the spread of Christianity. A new religion appeared on the world scene in AD 30 – in the person of Jesus Christ (and in His followers) – with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and, a few weeks later, with the conversion of 3,000 Jews in a single day, Christianity began to spread. It spread very widely and very rapidly in those first few centuries.
Then, in AD 70, the Romans had finally “had it” with the Jewish people and their independence. General Titus – without authorization from the Emperor – marched into Jerusalem and destroyed both the city and the Temple. This fulfilled the prophecy recorded in Daniel 9:26.
In AD 102, the Apostle John, the son of Zebedee, who wrote the Book of Revelation, and who was the last of the original 12 apostles, died, ending what is called the “Apostolic Age” of Christian history.
In AD 135, a false messiah – Simon bar-Kochba, whose name means “Son of the Star” – led an unsuccessful Jewish revolt against Rome, in which many hundreds of thousands of Jews died. The Jewish nation, for all practical purposes, ceased to exist at that time, and was never restored until AD 1948.
The years around the turn of the fourth century (just before and after AD 300) saw an important development. As the church had spread far and wide, throughout the Roman Empire, and almost half of the people living in the Empire had become Christians (at least in name), a lot of people began coming into the church who really didn’t understand the Gospel, and false doctrines and cults began to arise within the Christian community.
The years AD 303-313 saw the severest single persecution against Christians that has ever taken place. During this time, Christians were constantly being hunted down and killed by the Roman government, and they had to hide in caves to avoid being captured. But even then, the numerical membership of the church continued to rise. At the end of this decade, Christianity was declared to be a legal religion, and the situation changed dramatically.
AD 395 marks the beginning of the downfall of the Roman Empire, when it was split into the Western Empire, with its capital in Rome, and the Eastern Empire, with its capital in Constantinople. In AD 410, the city of Rome was invaded by the “barbarians” from the north, and in AD 476, the last Western Emperor was deposed, and the Western Empire was divided up into what later became the “countries” of modern Europe.
In AD 538, the Bishop of Rome began to put forward the claim that he was the head over all the bishops of the worldwide (or “catholic”) church. That claim wasn’t recognized by everybody for a considerable period of time; but, finally, in AD 610, it was officially recognized by the then-reigning Eastern Emperor. At that point in time, it could be said that the institution of the Papacy had actually come into power.
The years AD 636-786 mark the beginning of the rise of the Arab/Muslim power in the Middle East. Islam is the world’s newest major religion, having been started by Mohammed in AD 622, and within only a few years, Mohammed’s followers began to have not only religious influence in their part of the world, but political power as well, so that the Muslim religion quickly became the Arab Empire.
In AD 1057, Muslims from Turkey began a push to invade Europe, and they conquered most of what is now Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and even Austria, coming right up to the gates of Vienna by AD 1453, before the “tide” began to turn and they began to lose their influence in most of those countries.
In AD 1347-1351, the biggest disaster the world has ever seen (since the Flood in Noah’s time) took place – the so-called “Black Death,” or bubonic plague, which killed 1/4 of the total population of Europe.
Organized opposition to the power of the Papacy can be said to have begun by AD 1384, when John Wycliffe, against the reigning Pope’s orders, translated the Bible into the common language of the people of England. Forty years after his death, Wycliffe’s bones were exhumed and burned at the stake.
The Reformation broke out in earnest in Germany, in AD 1517, under the leadership of an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther. This led to the founding of the Lutheran denomination, the prototype of all of the Protestant and Independent churches.
Another great disaster took place in AD 1755 – an earthquake, centered in Lisbon, Portugal, which was felt over nearly 1/4 of the earth’s surface, including the entire continent of Europe and the northern half of Africa. Over 50,000 people died in Lisbon alone, and probably several million all together. No earthquake since then has had such a widespread effect on the surface of the planet.
By AD 1798, a new thrust to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all the peoples in the world had begun; we refer to the period from 1798-1914 as the “Missionary Age” in Christian history. World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945) put a “damper” on this effort, and, although missionary work still continues, there are now many more people living in countries that are “closed” to such work than in countries that are “open” to it.
That’s a really quick overview of some of the events that have taken place in the past 1,900 years (all of which were prophesied in the Book of Revelation); as we go through these “Studies,” we will learn more about each of these events and many others related to them.
Revelation is the most recently written of the 66 Books that make up the Bible as we know it. It was written in AD 96 by the Apostle John, the son of Zebedee, who was a first cousin of Jesus, and the youngest of His original 12 disciples. In my next “Study,” I will dive right in to chapter 1, verse 1, and begin going through the book verse-by-verse, as I did in my earlier “Studies in Daniel.”

2008-05-24T13:44:00.000-04:00

I've just completed a whole NEW "2008 edition" of my e-book, "The Doctrine of Immortality in the Early Church." Normally, I sell this "book" for $4.50, but I am happy to offer YOU -- as a "subscriber" to my Bible Study blog -- an absolutely FREE copy. It's 90 pages long, so it's far too big to post on this website -- so, if you want a copy, just drop me an email at johnroller@faithbiblechristian.com. If you have any suggestions for improving it, just drop me a note to let me know! Thanks!

Baptism

2008-03-04T08:07:00.001-05:00

Baptism
By Dr. John H. Roller

Nowadays most evangelical Christians practice “baptism by immersion.” By definition, this is the act of completely submerging an individual in water as a testimony to his or her commitment to live a Christian life. It is usually performed by an ordained (or licensed) minister, and accompanied by a formal statement such as, “Upon profession of your faith in Jesus Christ, I now baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” How did this tradition come to be, and what is the Biblical basis for it?

Perhaps you think that John the Baptist “invented” baptism. After all, the first time baptism is mentioned in the New Testament, it is John who was “doing” the baptizing. Would it surprise you to learn that baptism was practiced 1,450 years before John was born?

The first appearance of “baptism” in the Bible – though the word itself does not occur there – is in Leviticus 8:6. Following God’s instructions (see Leviticus 8:5), “Moses brought Aaron and his sons” (to the door of the Tabernacle – see Leviticus 8:4), “and washed them with water.” The occasion, of course, was Aaron’s dedication to the Levitical priesthood. Thus we see that the original, primary meaning of baptism is that the individual being baptized is being designated to serve God as a priest.

(Please note that in the New Testament, ALL Christians – not just the “ministers”! – are designated to serve God as priests. See, for example, I Peter 2:5 and I Peter 2:9. That is why it is appropriate that ALL Christians – not just the “ministers”! – be baptized.)

480 years after Moses’ time, Israel’s King Solomon constructed a magnificent Temple in Jerusalem, to replace the old Tabernacle where Moses had baptized Aaron and his sons. One of the items in that Temple was a “sea” described in II Chronicles 4:2-6. Considering its dimensions (II Chronicles 4:2) and volume (II Chronicles 4:5), we would say that this object would make a good-sized backyard swimming pool. Notice that II Chronicles 4:6 ends by saying, “the sea was for the priests to wash (that is, to be “baptized”) in.” Thus we see that a true act of baptism requires a large quantity of water. (The priests did not “sprinkle” or “pour” the water on themselves. The “sea” needed to be that large so they could be submerged in it.)

Throughout the Old Testament era, ONLY the priests were thus baptized, never the rest of the people. Between the writing of the last book of the Old Testament (Malachi) and the coming of John the Baptist (recorded in the Gospels), Judaism broke up into several different “denominations.” One of these groups, known as the Essenes, are most famous (today) for their writing of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Essenes added a new concept to the Old Testament idea of baptism: in the Essene community, ALL ESSENES were considered as “priests” and thus any individual who became an Essene was baptized in a “sea” they constructed in Qumran.

The relevance of this fact to New Testament practice becomes clear when we realize that John the Baptist was probably a member of the Essene community. However, while the Essenes recognized the idea that “all God’s people are priests,” they kept this knowledge to themselves, baptizing all Essenes but not baptizing anyone who wasn’t an Essene. John the Baptist took the practice to the next logical step: he began to baptize EVERYONE who came to him repenting of their sins and expressing a desire to live for God (see Mark 1:4-5). Thus the New Testament principle of “the priesthood of all believers” (clearly enunciated, for the first time, nearly 1,500 years later, by Martin Luther) began to be established.

Notice that John, too, needed “much water” (John 3:23) to do his baptizing – again confirming that true baptism is done by the procedure nowadays called “immersion.”

The fact that Jesus Himself was baptized by John certainly adds a note of authentication to John’s views of the meaning and method of baptism. Note, for example, Jesus’ statement that the purpose of His being baptized was “to fulfill all righteousness.” Though it is not specifically stated in the Bible, it is agreed by most evangelical Christians that another meaning of baptism is that the individual is expressing a desire to “identify” with Jesus by doing what Jesus did, and for the same reasons. This belief is usually expressed by the statement that so-and-so has decided to “follow the Lord in the waters of baptism.”

Note, too, that Jesus was baptized by immersion. No other sense could be made of the statement in Matthew 3:16 that after His baptism he “went up straightway out of the water.” (It would be impossible for Him to go up out of the water unless He had first gone down into it.)

At the close of His earthly ministry, just before ascending to Heaven, Jesus gave His disciples the so-called “Great Commission” (Matthew 28:19-20), a command (not a suggestion!) which included “baptizing” as one of the activities His disciples were to continue to “observe” . . . “even unto the end of the world.” Thus there would be no excuse for the Christian Church to decide that baptism is no longer relevant and should be discarded along with other culturally outmoded practices such as following dietary regulations that Jesus specifically stated were no longer valid (Acts 10:9-16).

The Book of Acts contains many references to baptism, all of which combine to remind the reader that ALL Christians should be baptized (Acts 2:38), whether they be male or female (Acts 8:12), white or black (Acts 8:36), former persecutors of the Church (Acts 9:18), Gentiles (Acts 10:47), or believing spouses, children, or servants of believers (Acts 16:31-33). Notice that in all of these cases baptism followed almost immediately after repentance and faith. Nowadays it is more likely that a time of teaching and preparation will intervene between the initial profession of faith and its “acting out” in baptism. But no such time is required by Scripture; indeed, Scripture would seem to imply that any such time should be as brief as possible (Acts 8:36).

Some further meanings of Christian baptism are seen in the following verses from the letters of the Apostle Paul:

Romans 6:3-5. Baptism pictures the believers’ death (firstly, to sin, and secondly, at the end of this present life), burial (which confirms death, and is symbolized by the submerging of the candidate in water – just as one is only said to be “buried” when completely covered by the earth), and resurrection (firstly, to a life of holiness, and secondly, when Jesus comes).

Galatians 3:26-27. Baptism is equated with “putting on” Christ, just as the candidate (after being baptized) will, of course, remove his or her wet clothing and put on clean, dry clothing. (See also Colossians 3:8-14.) Note, too, that Galatians 3:28 emphasizes the universality of Christianity, which tears down all such distinctions as those between Jews and Gentiles, slaves and freemen, men and women, etc. In today’s world, we would do well to recognize that this verse also implies a tearing down of such distinctions as black and white, rich and poor, old and young, “city” and “country”, “Eastern” and “Western”, “Northern” and “Southern”, “geek” and “jock”, etc., etc. etc. Baptism is for EVERYONE who receives Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Ephesians 4:5. The fact that there is only “one baptism” overturns the idea that churches of a given denomination should only extend fellowship to those who have been baptized according to the traditions of that particular denomination. It doesn’t matter what “brand” of church you were baptized in – once you have been baptized, you have been baptized, and ALL Christian churches should extend fellowship to you as a fellow Christian regardless of what denomination the minister who baptized you belonged to.

Titus 3:5. Baptism doesn’t “save” you! GOD saves you, and He does so in response to your profession of faith in Jesus (Romans 10:9). This is what the Bible means by the baptism “of the Holy Ghost (or Spirit).” (See Matthew 3:11.) Water baptism is merely a TESTIMONY to your salvation. You were saved the moment you accepted Jesus as your Savior. You should be baptized as soon as possible after you have done that. But your salvation doesn’t depend on your baptism, or else the thief on the cross (Luke 23:42) would not have been saved, since he never had the opportunity to be baptized. So, if you never have the opportunity to be baptized, you will be just as saved as he was. But if you have the opportunity, you need to obey Christ’s commandment and be baptized as soon as possible.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE ORDINANCE OF BAPTISM
as practiced by Dr. John H. Roller

Pastor:
“(Full Legal Name of Candidate), do you repent of all your sin, and renounce all influence of the Devil in your life?”

Candidate:
“I do.”

Pastor:
“Do you believe with all your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, and do you put your complete faith and trust in Him for your salvation?”

Candidate:
“I do.”

Pastor:
“And do you now consecrate yourself to a life of complete obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, as symbolized by this means of identification of your life with Him?”

Candidate:
“I do.”

Pastor:
“Then, in obedience to the command of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and as a duly ordained minister of the Advent Christian Church, I now baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

My Father's House

2008-02-28T19:42:00.000-05:00

My Father’s House
By Dr. John H. Roller

The junior campers (ages 8 to 13) who attended the Bible classes at an Advent Christian camp I used to go to every summer really got excited when we sang a song whose chorus goes:

Come and go with me to my Father’s house!
Come and go with me to my Father’s house!
It’s a big, big house with lots and lots of room.
There’s a big, big table with lots and lots of food,
And a big, big yard where we can play football.
It’s a big, big house. It’s my Father’s house!

“What kind of house did you grow up in?”

I’ve asked that question of many of my Advent Christian friends. Not counting the ones who joined the Advent Christian church later in life (though, indeed, many of those gave the same answer), nearly all of the born-and-raised Advent Christians that I’ve talked to gave the same answer! It was a single-family house. Coming in the front door, you would enter a front room where casual visiting might take place. Further in, there would be a kitchen, a dining room, a large living room, two or three (or maybe even four or five) bedrooms, perhaps a den, one or two (or maybe several) bathrooms, a garage for parking the car and an attic (or basement) for storing stuff. This house would comprise about 1,000 to 3,000 square feet (depending on the family’s income level) and sit on a property between ¼ of an acre and a few acres (or more) of land. It would be occupied by the person I was talking to, their brother(s) and sister(s) – if they had any – and their parents, possibly also a grandparent or two, maybe even one or two other relatives or non-relatives.

On either side of the house, and up and down the street, there would be other similar houses sitting on similar-sized properties and occupied by similar families. In over 95% of the cases, this neighborhood would be located in a suburban community, in a small town (demographers define that as a community with fewer than 25,000 residents) or in a rural area. For those Advent Christians who grew up in farming families – and there are thousands of you out there! – such a house is now referred to as “the old home place.” Some of you still live there.

My story is quite different. You see, I’m a city kid.

From the time I was born until a few weeks before my thirteenth birthday, I lived in a series of apartment buildings. The one I remember best was built during the year I was in kindergarten. When I first saw it, it was a very large hole in the ground, surrounded by a construction fence. Gradually it grew to a height of six stories (about 120 feet), then it opened to occupants and we were among the first families to move in.

Our apartment (called 1P) was on the ground floor. You would enter the building either by having a key or by pressing a buzzer with the number of the apartment you wanted to visit, conversing briefly with the people in the apartment, then waiting for them to press a button that would unlock the door for a few seconds (or you could cheat, and just wait for someone to exit the building, then grab the door from them before it closed). You would walk up the hall, passing several other apartments, till you came to 1P. You could then enter our apartment just as anyone else might enter a single-family house.

Once you were inside, you would find a small foyer area, a large living room, one bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom and a small room my father used as his study (it was really not much bigger than a walk-in closet). The total area of this apartment was about 500 square feet. It was “the old home place” to me, my sister, my parents and (later) my baby brother. There were 19 other nearly identical apartments on the floor we lived on and 20 more on each of the five floors above us (my sister’s best friend, Marcy Berman, lived directly above us, five stories up, in 6P, which was exactly identical to 1P).

120 families – about 500 people in all – lived in this building, which occupied less than a single acre of land, located at 142-30 Sanford Avenue, next door to the First Baptist Church. Within a one-mile radius of this home there were over 100 similar buildings (and, yes, even a few single-family houses scattered among them). Together, the people living in them made up the community of Flushing, with a population (then, as now) of about 70,000. Flushing is one of about two dozen such communities that comprise the Borough of Queens, the largest and most heavily populated of the five boroughs that constitute New York City. At the time, New York was the biggest city in the world, with a population of about 8,000,000 – not counting another 12,000,000 who lived in its suburbs in a three-state metropolitan area. My “home town”!

In John 14:2, Jesus told his disciples, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” Did it ever occur to you to ask, “How can there be ‘mansions’ inside a ‘house’?” It’s just possible that my experiences as a child might help you get an idea of what Jesus might have meant.

I realize, of course, that most modern versions translate his statement as, “In my Father’s house are many rooms” (rather than “mansions”) – precisely, I think, because the translators aren’t seeing my Father’s “house” the way I do. The Greek word “monai” literally means “dwelling places.” Are you looking forward to an eternal “dwelling place” that can only be called a “room”? Not I! I’d rather have an old-fashioned “mansion”! And I think there’s a way that I can.

I see my Father’s “house” as a single, gigantic apartment building. Like the one I was raised in, it has many stories, or floors. On each floor there are many similar-sized, similar-shaped apartments. There are, of course, hallways to walk in, to get from one apartment to another. There is a front entrance that you can only get through by “buzzing” the person you’ve come to see – in this case, my Father. Some people refer to the entrance as “the Pearly Gate(s).” The picture, of course, is drawn from Revelation 21:10-16, where the Apostle John reports seeing a vision of “that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God…. And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.”

The length and the breadth and the height! The “city” is in the shape of a cube – 12,000 furlongs east-to-west; 12,000 furlongs north-to-south, and 12,000 furlongs from the bottom of the ground floor to the roof – about the same shape as my “home” at 142-30 Sanford Avenue, in Flushing. But what about its size? The Greek word translated “furlong” is “stadion” (in the singular); “stadia” (in the plural). 12,000 stadia in length; 12,000 stadia in breadth; and 12,000 stadia in height. Suppose each “story” consisted of a number of apartments, rectangular in shape, two stadia in length, three stadia in breadth and one stadion from floor to ceiling. Six square stadia of floor space; six cubic stadia of total volume. Suppose, further, that the apartments themselves only took up one half of the total volume of the building – the other half being occupied by hallways, stairways, elevators, insulation, and room for wiring, plumbing, and so on. How many stories would the building have? How many apartments on each floor? How many people could live in a building that size?

12,000 x 12,000 x 12,000 = 1,728,000,000,000 cubic stadia of total volume.
½ x 1,728,000,000,000 = 864,000,000,000 cubic stadia occupied by apartments.
1/6 x 864,000,000,000 = 144,000,000,000 apartments.

More than enough for every human being who has ever lived to have his or her own apartment!

(Please note: I’m not saying that every human being who has ever lived is going to be saved. Jesus said, “wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). What I’m saying is that there could be enough apartments in the holy Jerusalem for every person who has ever lived to have his or her own apartment if s/he were willing to receive it.)

It’s a “secure” building, like the one I grew up in, in New York, with one difference: you can’t cheat and get in by grabbing the door when someone else leaves. It doesn’t work that way. Jesus is the Door (John 10:7) and you can only get in if he lets you in (John 14:6).

But where do the “mansions” come in? The answer to that is found in the definition of a stadion. According to “Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament,” by Dr. Joseph Henry Thayer, published by Associated Publishers and Authors, Inc., of Grand Rapids, Michigan, on April 10, 1889, a stadion is “a measure of length comprising 600 Greek feet, or 625 Roman feet, or 125 Roman paces, hence 1/8 of a Roman mile [i.e., 606.75 English feet (about 195 meters)].”

My “apartment” has a floor space of 2,208,873 square feet, and a ceiling height of 606 feet and 9 inches. So does yours! That is far bigger than the Bill & Melinda Gates “mansion” in Seattle, Washington – the largest “single-family” home in America. Suddenly, the question isn’t, “Is there room enough for every person who has ever been saved to have a ‘mansion’ in our Father’s house?” It is, “What am I going to do with all that space?!”

Audio Adrenaline, the singing group who wrote “Big House” – the song the kids at camp like to sing – has a few ideas.

“It’s a big, big house….” The entire apartment building I grew up in could easily be placed in one corner of my apartment; its roof would only reach 1/5 of the way to the ceiling of the apartment, and it would only consume about 1% of the apartment’s floor space. You would hardly notice it was there unless you were looking for it.

“…a big, big table with lots and lots of food.” Revelation 22:2 informs us that “the tree of life” grows in the “City” – yielding “twelve manner of fruits” year round. There’s enough room in my apartment for an entire acre of fruit trees (an acre is only 43,560 square feet; I’ve got about 50 acres of floor space to fill). The ceiling is so high that I could fill a box 200 feet deep with California soil and grow redwood trees in it (they only grow to a height of 350 feet and don’t require half that depth of soil; there would still be 50 feet of air space above the tops of the trees for my pet eagles to soar in). Revelation 22:2 also mentions a river. Most rivers aren’t more than one or two hundred feet wide. That river could run right through the middle of my apartment and it would use up less than 10% of the total floor space! Ezekiel 47:9-10, describing the very same Place, refers to “a very great multitude of fish” and “a place to spread forth nets” – the kind that are used for catching fish to be eaten. I know people with resurrected, immortal bodies can eat fish, because that's what Jesus ate after He rose (Luke 24:42-43 and John 21:9ff.). There are also numerous references to bread, wine and other dietary staples in the passages that describe my Father’s house. I can believe that every kind of food that exists will be available there, because Jesus “declared all foods clean” according to Mark 7:19 (NIV) and Acts 10:9-16 (see, especially, verse 15).

“…And a big, big yard where we can play football.” Growing up in Flushing, it was difficult to play much of anything in the apartment, except checkers and Monopoly. If I tried to play catch with my sister, I’d probably break something and be punished. We could, of course, go outdoors if the weather were nice. We were fortunate enough to live right across the street from Public School #20 (where we spent many dreary days studying reading, writing, math, and social studies). I say “fortunate” because P.S. 20 also had a great big playground. There were sandboxes for the littlest kids, swing sets and jungle gyms for the slightly larger ones, even two handball courts where a game similar to racquetball (or “squash”) could be played by those high enough in the grade-school pecking order to qualify (the rest of us could play handball on rainy days if we didn’t mind getting wet). It also had a full-sized baseball diamond complete with bleacher seats and a backstop. And, of course, the ubiquitous half-courts for the basketball games that were the favorite of the taller kids. Football is a “country” sport not particularly favored in the Borough of Queens. But there’s enough room in my Father’s house for each and every apartment to have its own full-sized football stadium: it would only consume about 20% of the floor space that remains after putting in the mansion, the tree-of-life orchard, the redwood “forest”, the river, the bakery, the vineyard, the sandboxes, the swing sets, the jungle gyms, the handball courts, the baseball diamond and the full-sized basketball courts. We still haven’t accounted for more than three of the six square stadia of floor space in this single-person apartment.

I don’t know what you would do with all of your 50 acres. Maybe you want a single-story farmhouse with a barnyard, a chicken coop, a pond and forty acres of “fruited plain.” There’s certainly enough room for that. Maybe you don’t like the idea of living alone and would prefer that eight or ten of your closest friends and relatives could “pool” their apartment space and create a “mansion” with almost an entire square mile of floor space. That would work. I can’t imagine my Father’s house being so structured and stereotyped that every apartment is the same size and shape – the way Marcy’s (6P) was the same as ours (1P). He’s a God of infinite diversity and variety. So yours won’t be the same as mine; but, whatever it is, it’ll be big enough and good enough. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

There’s only one point that brings me sadness as I contemplate what the Bible teaches me about eternity. It’s the stunning fact that most of the 144,000,000,000 “mansions” that there could be will be uninhabited. Billy Graham (who should know as much about this subject as anyone now living does) estimates that only 10% of the people who have ever lived have responded in faith to Jesus’ offer of salvation and eternal life. Thinking about what the future holds for me – undeserving as I am! – makes me wonder how any one of them could possibly reject such an offer. Is human nature so ruined – so sinful – that most people would purposely choose a few years of “the pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:25) rather than “signing a lease” for eternity in my Father’s house?

Or could it simply be that no one has told them what’s available? And whose job would that be?

For more information, contact:
Dr. John H. Roller
johnroller@faithbiblechristian.com

Robbing Yourself

2008-02-28T18:39:00.001-05:00

Robbing Yourself
by Dr. John H. Roller

One of my favorite “internet legends” tells of a man who hijacked a car and forced the driver (at gunpoint) to drive to various ATM’s in the city so he could withdraw money from his own bank accounts. (I tried checking this story out on www.snopes.com, but I couldn’t find it). The point was – how stupid would the guy have to be to think he was gaining anything by literally robbing himself? Yet something at least as stupid is practiced every week by millions of professing Christians all over the world. Like the would-be thief (who was eventually caught because the bank had his account number), these Christians are robbing themselves, and most don’t even realize it.

The prophet Malachi raised an interesting question: “Will a man rob God?” (Malachi 3:8, World English Bible, www.ebible.org). Is such a thing even possible? Surprisingly, God’s answer was, “Yet you rob me!” Malachi’s hearers, as stunned as we are by this exchange, asked, “How have we robbed you?” – to which the prophet (speaking for God) replied, “In tithes and offerings.”

Malachi’s hearers were Israelites; they lived under a law God had given them 1,000 years earlier, which required them to give one-tenth of all the income they received from farming and animal husbandry (their two main industries) to those whom God appointed to serve as “ministers” among them (see Leviticus 27:30, 32). By refusing to do this, they brought down a curse on themselves (see Deuteronomy 27:26, which is quoted in Galatians 3:10). The prophet was merely pointing this fact out to them when he stated, “You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation” (Malachi 3:9).

How we praise God that we, as Christians, are free from the obligations of that oppressive law (see Romans 6:14-15)! The apostle Peter described the law as “a yoke . . . which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear” (Acts 15:10). Anyone who has ever tried to “please God” by obeying laws has discovered how difficult it is to achieve that kind of perfection. By freeing us from the law, Christ has also freed us from the curse (see Galatians 3:13). Now we can sing, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last!”

But is freedom enough? Now that we are freed from the curse, wouldn’t it be great if we could actually receive the opposite – a BLESSING? Preaching in the Temple, after God had miraculously healed a man who had been lame all his life, Peter told his hearers, “The promises of God through his prophets are for you, and you share in the covenant which God made with your ancestors. As he said to Abraham, ‘Through your descendants I will bless all the people on earth’” (Acts 3:25, TEV).

“The promises of God . . . are for you . . .!” Would it be wrong for us, as Christians, to look through the writings of the Old Testament prophets, searching, not for laws to obey, but for promises God made – with a view to claiming those promises as fulfilled in our lives, provided we meet the conditions for them? I don’t think so. There certainly are some conditions. A few of God’s promises are unconditional (speaking of future events He predicts will happen no matter what we do to try to stop them), but MOST of God’s promises are conditional (speaking of things He will do for us IF we meet the specified conditions).

That is precisely what Malachi offers next, right after his condemnation of the Israelites’ rebellion: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,” says Yahweh of Armies, “if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough for” (Malachi 3:10). This has nothing to do with any “law” – it’s all about CONDITIONS for receiving God’s BLESSING. If you pay your tithes in full, God will bless you beyond your ability to receive it. This is a PROMISE, and God can be counted on to keep it.

The first mention of tithing in the Bible comes over 600 years before the law (recorded in Leviticus 27:30, 32) was given. Genesis 14:16-20 tells how Abraham, returning from his victory over a coalition of enemies, “brought back all the goods, and also brought back his relative, Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. The king of Sodom went out to meet him, after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, at the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine: and he was priest of God Most High. He blessed him, and said, ‘Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth: and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.’ Abram gave him a tenth of all.”

There being no previous mention of any law requiring that Abraham do this, I can only conclude that he did it VOLUNTARILY – as a free expression of his gratitude to God for helping him win the battle and recover the goods and people. From then on, we read of blessing after blessing that God showered on his faithful servant.

Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, promised God (how’s that for a switch?) that if God would bless him, he would give God one-tenth of everything God gave him (Genesis 28:22). The next few chapters tell how God worked to increase Jacob’s net worth from one walking stick to a large family and a vast herd of sheep – a pretty good “return” for only 20 years’ labor!

I believe God is committed to similarly blessing ANYONE who activates the premise of his promise by faithfully giving the first 10% of every paycheck to God by supporting the work of His “kingdom” on earth – the Church of Jesus Christ. Several points in that statement probably need to be elaborated a little.

1. Giving any amount of money you happen to feel like giving at the time is NOT “tithing.” TITHING is giving 10% of all the income you receive. That’s because the word “tithe” is merely an old-fashioned way to spell the word nowadays spelled “tenth.”

2. Giving 5%, or 8%, or 9.99% of all the income you receive is not “tithing” either, and for the same reason.

3. The most practical way to ensure that your giving really is 10% of your income is to give it FIRST, before you do anything else. I speak from personal experience here: if you receive a paycheck, cash it and start paying your bills, you will run out of money before you get around to tithing. That’s why the law commanded the Israelites to tithe their “FIRST fruits.” Part of the “blessing” consists in the fact that the 90% you have left will “go” further than the 100% you started with. That’s a miracle, and it happens to tithers so often they get used to it.

4. The Temple was destroyed in AD 70, so it’s no longer possible to bring tithes to that “storehouse” (Malachi 3:10). But the New Testament teaches that the Body of Christ – the Church – is the modern-day equivalent of the Temple (1 Corinthians 6:19). I believe God is most honored when tithes are brought to His Church, not given to “whatever” and “whoever” you, the tither, might like to give them to. This brings me to the question, what if you don’t belong to a church? The short answer is, you’d be better off if you did. If you think there’s a valid reason why you can’t, please write and tell me about it. (There certainly are such reasons; it’s just that Christians to whom the valid reasons apply are relatively rare.) For most Christians, the place where they regularly attend worship services is the place where they should be putting their tithes. If there’s a good reason why you can’t do that, I’d like to discuss it with you and see if I can suggest a solution to your problem.

How will God’s promised blessing be manifested in your life? The only way to find out for sure is to try it. Don’t worry about what you’ve done (or haven’t done) in the past – remember, this is not about “purchasing” God’s favor or obtaining forgiveness for having “sinned” by not obeying His law! It’s about beginning, today, to experience a new level of blessing in your life by activating one of His promises. Next time you get a paycheck, take the first 10% of it and set that money aside to be put in the offering the next time you go to church. (THEN pay your bills!) Do that every week (or however often you get paid) for at least a year, and then write to me and tell me how your life has changed as a result. I’ll be SPEECHLESS if your story doesn’t include considerable improvement in your financial situation.

If you decide NOT to tithe, you aren’t robbing me. You aren’t even robbing God, because that’s not really possible. You’re only robbing yourself.

For more information, contact:
Dr. John H. Roller
johnroller@faithbiblechristian.com

"To Depart, and to Be with Christ"

2008-02-28T18:38:00.000-05:00

“To Depart, and to Be with Christ”
by Dr. John H. Roller

Philippians 1:23 is often quoted by opponents of “soul sleep” as if it were some kind of proof that the Apostle Paul believed that his own death would immediately be followed by a disembodied “life” in Heaven with Christ. In my opinion, the verse teaches no such thing.

Three verses earlier (in Philippians 1:20), Paul mentions two “options” that were facing him as possible outcomes of his impending trial by Nero Caesar: 1) “life,” or 2) “death.” In the very next verse (Philippians 1:21), he clearly states that both of those options are equally appealing to him: “to live is Christ” (that’s good!); “to die is gain” (that’s good too!).

Philippians 1:22 elaborates on why option #1 is good (“to go on living ... will mean fruitful labor”), then concludes with the searching question, “What shall I choose?” – and immediately answers it with the emphatic statement, “I do not know!”

Here I pause to ask, “If Paul emphatically did not know (in verse 22) whether he preferred to live or to die, how can anyone think that a moment later (in verse 23) he is saying he prefers to die?”

Philippians 1:23 begins with a restatement of the essence of Philippians 1:22: “I am torn between the two” – that is, “I am undecided whether life, or death, is the preferable option.”

At this point, I would like to suggest that the rest of verse 23 should be placed in parentheses, and the line of reasoning resumed at the beginning of verse 24.

Philippians 1:24 proposes a solution to the dilemma: while the two choices (“life” and “death”) are equally attractive to Paul as an individual, he reckons that he would be more valuable to his readers if he were to live rather than die. This thought continues into verse 25 (where he concludes that he is “certain” he will live on to continue his ministry).

What, then, does the parenthetical statement (“having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better”) mean?

Last things first, in this case: “to depart, and to be with Christ” is “far better” than what? Is it “far better” than continuing to live? No, he has just finished saying that death is no better than life. Is it, then, “far better” than dying? No, he has also just finished saying that life is no better than death. The only possible explanation is that he means that “to depart, and to be with Christ” is “far better” than either living or dying! What is it that he says would be “far better” than either of the two options? Remember, “to depart, and to be with Christ” cannot possibly mean the same thing as “to die” since the latter is one of the two options it is said to be “far better” than!

Literally, the Greek text can be translated as reading, “having a desire for the returning, and the being with Christ.” The one thing Paul says would be better than either “life” or “death” would be the immediate returning of Christ, which would unite him with his Savior forever. Failing that, he says, only life in ministry would be preferable to a martyr’s death.

So the passage does not teach against “soul sleep” at all. It does not teach that dying is “far better” than living. It does not teach that “departing” from this life means immediately “being with Christ” in Heaven. It teaches that neither life nor death are important enough to distract the Christian from his real and ultimate goal, which is to experience eternal life, with Christ, in His Kingdom, when He comes.

For more information, contact:
Dr. John H. Roller
johnroller@faithbiblechristian.com.

The Rich Man and Lazarus

2008-02-28T18:30:00.000-05:00

The Rich Man and Lazarus
by Dr. John H. Roller

You probably either saw or participated in a production of Thornton Wilder’s three-act play Our Town when you were in high school. According to Wikipedia, it “is, perhaps, the most frequently-produced play by an American playwright. The play is set in the fictional community of Grover’s Corners, modeled on several New Hampshire towns….Using meta-theatrical devices, the play is set in a 1930s theater. Through the actions of the Stage Manager, the town of Grover’s Corners is created for the audience and scenes from its history between the years of 1901 and 1913 play out…. It is a story of character development that details the interactions between citizens of an everyday town in the early twentieth century through their everyday lives.”
One of the “meta-theatrical devices” used in several scenes of Our Town is the series of “conversations” that take place in the Grover’s Corners cemetery – between the former residents of the town who are now deceased! The dead people are portrayed as remembering events from their own lives, observing events in the lives of the living characters and commenting on their feelings about both kinds of events. The ones who have been there longer, though, seem to be “fading away” – having more and more difficulty remembering their own lives (which were longer ago) and having less and less ability to “relate” to the lives of the living characters (some of whom they don’t even know, because they were born after they had died).
Of course, the “savvy” members of the audience are quite capable of understanding two important facts: 1) The entire play is a work of fiction. 2) The “conversations” that take place in the cemetery are understood to be a “meta-theatrical device” rather than a reflection of Thornton Wilder’s beliefs about what “life” in a cemetery is actually like. Unfortunately (in my opinion), most Bible students are not nearly as “savvy” when it comes to similar stories that happen to be told by Jesus Christ rather than by a twentieth-century American playwright.
The “classic” example is, of course, the tale of The Rich Man and Lazarus, recorded in Luke 16:19-31. In the King James Version, these verses appear as follows:
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
Opponents of the view I have been sharing in this series of E-Tracts (the “sleep” of the dead and the final destruction of the unsaved) insist that this passage is to be taken literally and that it teaches a conscious intermediate state and the everlasting conscious torment of the unsaved. I would, therefore, like to discuss three questions:
1) Should the passage be taken literally?
2) Does it teach a conscious intermediate state?
3) Does it teach the everlasting conscious torment of the unsaved?
First, should the passage be taken literally? It seems clear to me that, if taken literally, the passage teaches the following points:
a) When poor people die, angels carry them to a place called “Abraham’s bosom.”
b) When rich people die, they are buried.
c) After rich people are buried, they “wake up” in a place called “hell.”
d) People in hell have bodies with eyes, tongues and other organs.
e) It is possible to see “Abraham’s bosom” from hell, although it is far away.
f) It is possible for people in hell and people in “Abraham’s bosom” to talk to each other.
g) People in hell are tormented by fire.
h) People in hell think that a tiny drop of water would ease their torment.
i) Rich people go to hell because they had a good life on earth.
j) Poor people go to “Abraham’s bosom” because they had a bad life on earth.
k) Hell and “Abraham’s bosom” are separated by a great gulf that prevents travel.
l) People in hell think that people in “Abraham’s bosom” can be sent back to earth.
Few people would affirm the truth of most of these twelve statements, so I think it’s fair to conclude that few people really do believe the passage should be taken literally – even though that is what they claim to believe!
Second, does the passage teach a conscious intermediate state? Well, it would seem to – if taken literally! But we’ve just seen that it can’t be taken that way. In that case, how is it to be taken? I believe it should be taken symbolically. The various characters and statements in the story must REPRESENT something rather than being literal descriptions of what “life” is like in the “world of the dead” that people “go to” when they die. Rather than TEACHING a conscious intermediate state, the story IMAGINES a conscious intermediate state (like the one imagined by Thornton Wilder in Our Town) and describes an IMAGINARY conversation between two “characters” (the rich man and Abraham) who are both dead. This is a “meta-theatrical device” and it’s one that had been used for many centuries before Jesus Christ used it. Such “meta-theatrical devices” are found in Judges 9:8-15; 2 Samuel 12:1-4; 2 Samuel 14:1-24; Isaiah 14:3-23; Daniel 7:2-28; Zechariah 3:1-8. Many similar New Testament passages are also universally considered to be “parables” and, in many cases, they are explicitly called parables in the text. The entire Book of Revelation is written in this kind of symbolism. An incredible amount of false teaching about the future of this world has been based on trying to take its statements “literally” (though, just as with The Rich Man and Lazarus, it’s clear that no one REALLY wants to do that). If you are interested in learning how I believe this parable SHOULD be interpreted, please ask me to send you some further literature on this subject.
Third, does the passage teach the everlasting conscious torment of the unsaved? It most emphatically does not! The Rich Man and Lazarus makes no mention whatsoever of conditions in any world after the Second Coming of Christ. It’s all about the possibility of getting a message to the rich man’s “brothers” in the hope that they will then take steps to avoid going to “hell” when they die. After the Second Coming of Christ, there will be no unsaved “brothers” for anyone to take a message to! It will be too late by then! So, at most, this parable can only refer to “the intermediate state.” If it were to teach anything about “conscious torment” it would be teaching the TEMPORARY conscious torment of the unsaved during the intermediate state. But such torment would be contrary to all principles of justice, both human and divine, for it would involve punishment before judgment.
We must conclude, then, that those who oppose the view I have been sharing in this series of E-Tracts (the “sleep” of the dead and the final destruction of the unsaved) are insisting that this passage be taken in a way it clearly cannot be taken and that it be taken to teach doctrines it clearly does not teach. The fact that they are wrong about this passage should lead you to ask if maybe they are wrong about the entire subject of personal eschatology and if maybe the view I have been sharing is, after all, more consistent with the entire Bible.
For more information, contact:
Dr. John H. Roller
johnroller@faithbiblechristian.com.

Absent=Present?

2008-02-28T18:29:00.002-05:00

Absent=Present?
by Dr. John H. Roller

Many who oppose the doctrine I’ve been explaining in these e-tracts (soul sleep) have told me, “The Bible says, ‘to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.’ Doesn’t that prove you wrong once and for all?” Since I’ve stated many times that my purpose is to discover and promote what the Bible teaches, I will now say that if the Bible says that, I will give up this teaching. But it DOESN’T say that!!

When issued this challenge, my first response is to ask, “In what verse?” Unfortunately, many people – even many preachers – are unable to locate the book, chapter and verse they claim to be quoting. This is a sad commentary on the level of biblical literacy in the Christian community. “Heretics” (such as John Roller) are able to simply deny that the Bible says something and walk away from the conversation “victorious” because their challengers can’t open a Bible and point to a statement they believe is found in it.

In this case, the problem goes even deeper than mere ignorance of biblical references. I have 76 different versions of the Bible in my personal library, and NOT ONE of them contains the words “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” The statement, as quoted, simply ISN’T in there!

The verse to which my opponents are referring is 2 Corinthians 5:8, where the Apostle Paul writes, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (KJV). Please notice two things: 1) My opponents have substituted the word “is” for the word “and”; 2) My opponents have quoted only a part of the verse as if it were the whole verse. Both of these errors have radically altered the meaning of the apostle’s statement.

The first point reminds me of what former U.S. President Bill Clinton is reported to have said during a Congressional investigation into his alleged misconduct in the Monica Lewinsky matter: “It all depends on what your definition of the word ‘is’ is.” While I was never a supporter of President Clinton’s political views, and while I was thoroughly disgusted by the revelations that were made about his personal life, I absolutely agree with his understanding of the importance of definitions. As his most famous critic (radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh) was fond of saying, “Words have meanings.” I don’t agree with everything Limbaugh says either; but once more I have to say I agree with that statement. Even the little word “is” has a meaning, and it is different from the meaning of the little word “and.”

The importance of this distinction comes out when the second point is examined. My opponents have ignored the importance of the words “willing rather.” Paul has stated a WISH, not a theological truth, in this famous verse. If I were to say that I was “willing” to move to Australia “rather” than to continue living in the United States, would that make me a resident of Australia? No, it wouldn’t. There are many things one might PREFER to be true that are simply not true. Paul is saying he WISHES he COULD be “absent from the body” (whatever that means) AND simultaneously “present with the Lord” (whatever that means), but he is NOT saying that such “IS” what happens when one dies.

Even to WISH that his death would mean that his “soul” had separated from his body and gone to heaven to be with Jesus seems to me to be uncharacteristic of Paul (in general) and directly opposed to what he is writing in this passage (in particular). Only four verses earlier in this chapter, he had specifically denied that he desired to be “unclothed” (meaning, for his “soul” to exist in a bodiless condition) and stated that he preferred to be “clothed upon” (that his present mortal body, without going through the dying process, would be instantly changed into an immortal body, as he had described in 1 Corinthians 15:51-54). Why would he now suddenly change his mind and state that he wished that what he had just denied would actually occur?

In my opinion, Paul’s expression “absent from the body” doesn’t refer to death at all. The “body” he’s referring to isn’t his own mortal body (from which he can never be “absent” since it is exactly the same thing as he himself); he’s referring to what he has elsewhere called “the body of Christ” – that is, the organized, visible fellowship of Christian believers. As a result of his relationship with God (2 Corinthians 5:5), which relationship is “guaranteed” to him (that’s the meaning of the word translated “earnest” in the KJV) by the presence of the Holy Spirit (in that same verse), he is so “confident” (verse 6) that he can endure life “at home in the body” (living in fellowship with other Christians) even though it means being “absent from the Lord” (because Jesus isn’t here, visible, among us; he’s in heaven) – as he says (parenthetically) in verse 7, “we walk (live) by faith, not by sight” – because he knows that even if he weren’t in personal contact with those other Christians (I think that’s what he means by “absent from the body”) he would still have the sense of God’s blessing on his life (that’s what he means by “present with the Lord”).

After all, if you think of “the Lord” as the Holy Spirit (rather than as Jesus), it isn’t possible to be ANYWHERE that can’t be described as “present with the Lord.” David knew this when he wrote Psalm 139:7-12. The World English Bible puts it this way:
Where could I go from your Spirit?
Or where could I flee from your presence?
If I ascend up into heaven, you are there.
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there!
If I take the wings of the dawn,
and settle in the uttermost parts of the sea;
Even there your hand will lead me,
and your right hand will hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me;
the light around me will be night;”
even the darkness doesn’t hide from you,
but the night shines as the day.
The darkness is like light to you.

2 Corinthians 5:8 does NOT teach that “to die” means that “your soul separates from your body and goes to heaven to be with Jesus.” It teaches that you can sense God’s blessing on your life even when you are isolated from other believers. That truth should be very comforting to many of you, especially those who don’t have the privilege (as I do) of waking up every Sunday morning and driving to a nearby church building where Christians will gather to worship the Lord and precious biblical truths (like those contained in these e-tracts) will be faithfully preached.

For more information, contact:
Dr. John H. Roller
johnroller@faithbiblechristian.com.

Paradise, Today?

2008-02-28T18:29:00.001-05:00

Paradise, Today?
by Dr. John H. Roller

Working as a newsletter and magazine editor has renewed my interest in the importance of correct spelling, punctuation, grammar and formatting. Several times, I’ve run head-on into the misunderstandings that can be created by a simple typographical error. For example, failure to hit the space bar can change the comforting statement “He is now here” into the distressing statement “He is nowhere.” Credit goes to my friend Roger Byrd for the following examples of what re-punctuation can do to a biblical text:

“I would not have you, ignorant brethren” (Romans 1:13, Byrd Re-emphasized Version).
“Let him that stole, steal. No more… let him labor” (Ephesians 4:28, BRV).

Even mere placement on a page can make a difference, as is pointed out in the introduction to the Contemporary English Version. The following examples are given:

WRONG:
He brought me out into a broad
place.
RIGHT:
He brought me out
into a broad place. (2 Samuel 22:20)

WRONG:
With the loyal you show yourself
loyal.
RIGHT:
With the loyal
you show yourself loyal. (2 Samuel 22:27)

WRONG:
The Lord my God lights up
my darkness.
RIGHT:
The Lord my God
lights up my darkness. (2 Samuel 22:29)

Keep this in mind as we study a key objection to the teaching of “Soul Sleep” that can easily be overcome by simply putting a comma where it really ought to be instead of where some biased translators put it hundreds of years ago.

Jesus of Nazareth had claimed to be the Messiah (Mark 14:61-62). This claim enabled the jealous leaders of the Jews to haul him before the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, and accuse him of treason against Caesar (John 19:12), because the definition of “Messiah” is “King of the Jews” (Luke 23:38). Pilate ordered his soldiers to crucify Jesus along with two other criminals (Luke 23:32). While the three men were hanging on three crosses, one of the two criminals joined the crowd in taunting Jesus (Luke 23:39), but the other rebuked him and made a truly amazing request of Jesus: “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). It is Jesus’ answer to that request that has been seriously misinterpreted into a basis for denying the sleep of the dead (which is taught in dozens of passages of Scripture, as I have shown in E-Tract #3, titled “Soul Sleep”).

“Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you, Today you shall be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

“There it is!” say many who oppose the doctrine I’ve been explaining. “Jesus told the thief on the cross that he would go directly to Heaven the moment he died! It’s right there in the Bible!” But is it? Without quibbling about the fact that Luke calls this criminal a “malefactor” (in the King James Version) rather than a “thief” (as he is called in Matthew 27:38) – although the Romans were not in the habit of crucifying mere robbers – can we notice the fact that the word “heaven” doesn’t occur anywhere in the passage? If Jesus meant to promise this criminal a trip to Heaven, why didn’t he say “heaven” instead of “paradise”?

Paradise, in fact, is an entirely different place than Heaven; it was never in Heaven, and it never will be in Heaven. Paradise was (and will again be) on Earth. The word “paradise” came into the Aramaic language (the language Jesus and the criminal spoke) as a loan-word from Old Persian (the ancestor of modern Farsi, the language spoken in Iran): in that language, it was the name given by the Old Persians to what is called in the Bible “the Garden of Eden.” Wherever the Garden of Eden was (there is no way now to tell, no matter what legends you may have heard), one thing is for sure: it was on Earth, not in Heaven. It doesn’t exist anymore – it was destroyed in the great flood in Noah’s day – but it will exist again, when God creates “a new heaven and a NEW EARTH” (Revelation 21:1). The Tree of Life will grow there (Revelation 2:7 and 22:2), as it did in the original Paradise (Genesis 2:9). Trees grow on Earth, not in Heaven.

What had the criminal asked of Jesus? He wanted to be “remembered” (favorably) when Jesus “comes into his kingdom.” When will that be? Did Jesus come into any kingdom the day he was crucified? No, the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus will “come into his kingdom” when Paradise is restored – when he returns to Earth in clouds of glory (see E-Tract #1, titled “Jesus Shall Return!”). That didn’t happen the day he was talking to the “thief.” It would be irrelevant for Jesus to respond to the criminal’s request for favorable remembrance in a future kingdom by assuring him that in a few hours they would both be in a place that hadn’t existed for thousands of years and wouldn’t exist again for thousands more!

Did the “thief” actually go to Paradise when the Roman soldiers broke his legs? Did he then find Jesus (who had already died before this took place, according to John 19:32-33) waiting for him there? For that to be true, Jesus would have to have lied on at least two major occasions: first, when he told his disciples he would spend “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40) – surely that’s not where Paradise is! – and second, when (after his resurrection) he told Mary Magdalene, “I have not yet ascended to my Father” (John 20:17). We have it from Jesus’ own lips that HE did not go to Heaven when he died! What makes us think anyone else will?

Perhaps you have heard that “paradise” was the Jews’ name for the “compartment” in Sheol/Hades (otherwise known as “Abraham’s Bosom”) where the righteous dead (of pre-Christian times) “rested in peace” until Jesus went there (after his crucifixion), preached the Gospel to them, then (after his resurrection) emptied the place out and took them all to Heaven with them when he ascended. It’s a fascinating theory, except for a few minor details:
1. It’s never mentioned anywhere in the Bible.
2. It contradicts what IS mentioned in the Bible about Sheol/Hades.
3. If it’s true, King David wasn’t saved (Acts 2:29-36 tells us he didn’t go to Heaven).
Believe such a theory if you want to, but I prefer to stick with what the Bible says.

What DOES the Bible say?

It’s important to realize that no museum in the world has on display the original manuscript of any of the books of the Bible, handwritten by its author, who was inspired by God (and, therefore, in evangelical belief, infallible). What the museums do have are over 5,000 copies of copies of copies of the books of the Bible, handwritten by scribes who did the best job they could, but who occasionally made minor mistakes. We are more certain of the “original” text of the Bible than of the original text of any other book from ancient times (Homer’s “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey,” for example), but absolute certainty in every detail is beyond our present reach. Among other things, those scribes, attempting to copy lengthy texts as quickly as possible, didn’t record ANY punctuation for us: not chapter divisions, not paragraph divisions, not periods, not commas and not even spaces between words. In no manuscript of the Bible from before the invention of the printing press would you have been able to distinguish “He is now here” from “He is nowhere” except by studying the context. Actually, they would both have been written as “HEISNOWHERE.”

What does this “juicy” tidbit of trivia have to do with Jesus’ promise to the “thief”? Simply that we have no way of knowing whether Dr. Luke originally wrote, “Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you, Today you shall be with me in paradise” or “Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you today, You shall be with me in paradise.” We have to guess at what he wrote based on a careful study of the context of the statement. The context, as we have seen, does NOT support the traditional version. I believe the sentence makes a lot more sense if the comma is placed AFTER the word “today” (as it is, for example, in a very scholarly translation made back in 1902, known as Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible).

At least two other biblical writers used similar expressions. Moses told the Israelites, “I declare to you this day, that you will surely perish, and that you will not prolong your days in the land which you are passing over Jordan to go to possess” (Deuteronomy 30:18). Clearly, the comma in this sentence belongs after the expression “this day” rather than before it. The Apostle Paul told the elders of the church in Ephesus, “I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men” (Acts 20:26). Again, it is clear that the comma in this sentence belongs after the expression “this day” rather than before it. If viewed this way, Jesus would be responding directly to the criminal’s request. The criminal asks to be “remembered” (favorably) when Jesus “comes into his kingdom” and Jesus replies, with a solemn oath, that his request will be granted – he (and all the others whose promise of eternal life Jesus was at that moment – “today” – in the process of purchasing) would be with Jesus when Paradise is restored.

So we see that it’s grammatically possible, contextually probable and theologically certain that Jesus DID NOT promise the criminal, “We’ll both be in Heaven in a few hours” – rather, he promised him exactly what he asked for: a seat at the Messiah’s inaugural banquet (Matthew 8:11, Luke 22:30) in the age to come (Mark 10:30 – notice, in that verse, WHEN “he shall receive . . . eternal life”).

Amazingly, Jesus – resurrected and (40 days later) ascended – is now able to make the same promise “TODAY” to anyone who will receive his free gift (Romans 6:23) of salvation. YOU, too, can know that “you will be with” Him “in paradise” and (if he doesn’t return before your lifetime ends) you can die with the same assurance in your heart that the “thief” on the cross had. You need only to turn to him with the same kind of faith the “thief” had, and pray, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” HE WILL!

In future e-tracts, I plan to deal with some of the other objections that are often raised against conditional immortality and the sleep of the dead. If you’d rather not receive those essays, simply email me and ask to be removed from my mailing list. On the other hand, if you have questions you’d like me to answer – either privately or in a “public” forum – I’d be happy to do that.

For more information, contact:
Dr. John H. Roller
johnroller@faithbiblechristian.com.

Soul Sleep

2008-02-28T18:28:00.000-05:00

Soul Sleep
by Dr. John H. Roller

“Be careful with that sample; it’s hot!” warned my lab partner, pointing to a petri dish in the middle of my counter top. I froze in confusion. What was Al trying to tell me? Did the sample have such a high temperature that I would burn my fingers if I touched it without wearing asbestos gloves? Was it radioactive, so that I would need to don protective clothing before approaching it? Was it contaminated with some bacterium, and I should wear latex gloves while handling it? Was it the product of the latest new research, meaning the boss would be very upset with me if I damaged it? Was it electrically charged, so I would receive a “shock” if I touched it? Was it very spicy, like Mexican food? Had Al stolen it from another lab? Webster’s Dictionary lists nine distinct definitions for the word “hot” (and Al and I knew of a few that weren’t in the list) – and he had given me no context by which to decide which one he meant.

Many words, in most languages (and especially English), have a variety of related and unrelated meanings. “Sleep” is another word like “hot” – Webster defines it as “the natural periodic suspension of consciousness during which the powers of the body are restored” – but different things are meant if I say, “My foot went to sleep” (I lost the sensation in that part of my body) or, “I’ll sleep on it” (I’ll think about it and come up with an answer later) or, “Let’s have a sleepover!” (All the other kids will gather at my house and we’ll stay up all night talking, playing games and eating pizza) or, “They’re sleeping together” (They’re having sex) or, “I’m afraid this country is full of sleeper cells” (There are terrorists waiting to be told it’s time to strike) or, “I had to put my pet to sleep” (I had to ask the veterinarian to kill it).

What does the Bible mean, then, by using the word “sleep” to describe what theologians call “the intermediate state” (the condition of human beings between the moment of their death and the moment of the resurrection at the return of Christ)? Let’s make no mistake: the Bible definitely does use the word that way. My friend Geoff Davies, in his paper, “If A Man Die” (published in July 1993), lists 44 references in the Old Testament and 20 in the New Testament “teaching that the dead are asleep.” But what does “asleep” mean in this context?

Some have suggested (and perhaps you believe) that man is a “two-part” being – one “part” of the man being the “body” and the other “part” being the “soul” (or the “spirit”) – and that it is only the “body” that goes to “sleep” when the man dies, the “soul” (or “spirit”) remaining conscious and going somewhere (heaven, hell, purgatory, limbo, paradise, the bosom of Abraham, and the arms of Jesus being some of the “places” where a “soul,” or a “spirit,” might go when the “body” goes to sleep). If you’ve read my previous e-tract (“Final Destination”), you know that I don’t believe in the “two-part” theory. It’s my contention that “the body IS the soul” – or, more exactly, that both terms (“body” and “soul”) are merely different ways of describing the one specific human being – and that whatever happens to either the “body” or the “soul” necessarily also happens to the other, since they are the same thing. That is true at the moment of the final judgment (which is what I was discussing in “Final Destination”), and it is also true, I believe, of what happens during the intermediate state.

Does Scripture support my belief? Can I quote specific verses that teach complete unconsciousness and inactivity in the interval between an individual’s death and the great resurrection day? Here are just a few (quotations are from the World English Bible, available free at worldenglishbible.org):

Job 14:12 – “Man lies down and doesn’t rise. Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.” (This doesn’t sound to me like the “man” is going anywhere, or doing anything, while he is “asleep.”)

Ecclesiastes 9:5 – “The living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything.” (The dead are unconscious, just as in the dictionary definition of “sleep.”)

Ecclesiastes 9:10 – “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.” (“Sheol” is the Hebrew word for “the place of the dead.” It is directly related to the English word “hole,” as in “hole in the ground.” Notice the list of things that are NOT found there!)

Psalm 115:17 – “The dead don’t praise Yah, neither any who go down into silence.” (If dead believers were capable of praising the Lord, wouldn’t they be doing so?)

John 11:11-14 – “He said these things, and after that, he said to them, ‘Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awake him out of sleep.’ The disciples therefore said, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.’ Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he spoke of taking rest in sleep. So Jesus said to them plainly then, ‘Lazarus is dead.’” (I think it’s interesting that Lazarus, dead for four days, then raised back to life, didn’t leave us with any stories about where he’d gone and what he’d done while he was dead. Wouldn’t his case have been a perfect opportunity for this important information to have been revealed to us?)

Acts 2:24 – “David didn’t ascend into the heavens” (If David didn’t go to heaven when he died, who will? Some have suggested that only since Jesus’ ascension have believers been taken to heaven. But this was spoken AFTER Jesus’ ascension. So Jesus didn’t take David to heaven with him when he ascended, as is sometimes said he did with all the Old Testament saints.)

Revelation 20:5 – “The rest of the dead didn’t live until the thousand years were finished.” (As opposed to, “All the dead continued to live, in another place, during the thousand years” – as is taught in most churches nowadays.)

Our ancestors, who developed the English language, seem to have understood this concept. To describe the place where people go when they die, they coined the word “cemetery,” from the Latin word “coemeterium,” itself based on the Greek word “koimeterion,” which meant “sleeping room” (as in, “we have three rooms in our house – a kitchen, a living room, and a sleeping room”).

John Wycliffe (1324-1384), known as “the Morning Star of the Reformation,” taught that there was “unconscious sleep between death and resurrection.”

Martin Luther (1483-1546), the founder of Protestantism, referred to the resurrection (which will take place when Jesus returns) as being “awakened out of a deep sleep.”

William Tyndale (1490-1536), who was burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English (which was a crime in his day), argued that the traditional view, “in saying that the souls of the dead are in heaven, hell, and purgatory, destroys the argument with which Jesus and Paul prove the resurrection…. The true faith speaks of the resurrection. The heathen philosophers, denying the resurrection, said that the souls of the dead continued to live…. If the souls are in heaven… why do we need to look for a resurrection?” (Good question, William! Does anybody have a good answer for it?)

On the other hand, John Calvin (1509-1564) “blasted” his opponents, the Anabaptists (predecessors of the modern Baptist movement), with a tract calling them “unskilled persons who ignorantly imagine that in the interval between death and resurrection the soul sleeps.” (Evidently the Anabaptists believed as I do; I wish the same could be said of their successors.)

Anyway, truth isn’t determined by who believes what, but by what the Bible says. I don’t expect you to be “convinced” of this truth just because the above 10 verses seem to me (and a handful of famous reformers) to teach it. Those verses, though, are just a sample of what can be found in many other places throughout the Bible (and, for that matter, those reformers are just a few of the hundreds of eminently qualified Bible scholars who have held this position). I’d just like to suggest these few thoughts as a starting-point for your own investigation into the topic, if it’s one you’re interested in.

In future e-tracts, I plan to deal with some of the objections that are often raised against this belief. If you’d rather not receive those essays, simply email me and ask to be removed from my mailing list. On the other hand, if you have questions you’d like me to answer – either privately or in a “public” forum – I’d be happy to do that.

For more information, contact:
Dr. John H. Roller
johnroller@faithbiblechristian.com.

Final Destination

2008-02-28T18:27:00.000-05:00

Final Destination
by Dr. John H. Roller

On the way home from a much-needed vacation trip, I listened to the flight attendant’s familiar phrase: “We hope you enjoy your stay in Orlando, or wherever is your final destination.” It got me thinking. Orlando definitely wasn’t my “final destination” that day. For reasons totally unknown to me, my ticket said I was only there to change planes for Washington, D.C., only to change again, this time for Charlotte, N.C. It would be several hours before I was “home” in Concord. But even Concord wasn’t my “final” destination! North Carolina is the eleventh state I’ve lived in, and there is no way to predict how many more times I may move before I reach my “final resting place.” Is it even over then? What will happen to me after I die? Where (if anywhere) is my absolutely “final” destination, forever?

For one-tenth of my life (during my teenage years), I was an atheist. I was absolutely convinced that all religions were wrong; God didn’t exist; the world and everything in it (including human beings) were nothing but atoms in various combinations; it had all come about by chance and evolution; and nothing would ever happen in the future that would change those basic facts (or my beliefs). I was certain that all talk of “afterlife” was nonsense and wishful thinking. I knew I would die someday, whether by accident, by violence, by disease, or by the decay brought on by old age, and at that moment, I would cease to exist and would never exist again. The only “comfort” in that belief is that I knew I would never even realize it had happened.

Religion teaches a different view. One of the oldest religions in the world (Hinduism) teaches that there are over 300,000,000 gods (and goddesses); the world and everything in it is permeated by them and their activities; everything that happens is under their influence; and the future will consist of endless repetitive cycles of what has happened in the past. For Hindus, every individual person has lived before and will live again, the soul migrating from body to body to body in an endless round of birth, life, death, and rebirth. Furthermore, this is not perceived as a “good” thing! It’s our punishment for not pleasing the gods and goddesses. If we please them, our next life might be somewhat better than this one; but if we displease them, it will certainly be worse. In this scenario, my “final” destination would be to suffer the punishment of living forever. I didn’t find this idea very attractive.

Buddhism, developed out of a Hindu background by Siddhartha Gautama, offers a solution to this problem: if one achieves enlightenment, one can escape the cycle of death and rebirth by being absorbed into the “World Soul,” thus having one’s candle of suffering (life) extinguished. The reward for living a good life would be to not have to live another one. To me, this sounded like we were back to atheism. My final destination would be non-existence. Enlightenment would literally gain me – nothing!

I had some Christian friends (you know who you are!), and over a period of a few months, they convinced me (in this order) that the life they were living was better than the life I was living, that the only way to have that life was to receive Jesus as my Savior, that God really does exist, and that after my death – which could happen at any time – my “soul” (the real me) would go to Heaven (if I was a Christian) or Hell (if I wasn’t). Deciding to act on that information was very difficult for me; it meant revising my entire worldview; but on December 29, 1968, I took that “leap of faith” and it was (as one of them predicted it would be) a decision I knew I would never regret.

Christianity is not a monolithic religion (not all Christians believe the same things), and I soon discovered that the picture of the afterlife my friends had given me was not believed by all the Christians I ever met. For example, Roman Catholicism (the oldest and largest “branch” of the Christian religion) was teaching that there are four possible places to which a person’s soul can go when death occurs: Heaven (for saints), Hell (for non-Catholics), Purgatory (for Catholics who aren’t saints), and Limbo (for children who die before being baptized). (Limbo has recently been eliminated, by a decree of Pope Benedict XVI, so it’s unclear to me, at this point, where those unbaptized babies are supposed to be going.)

The denomination I was saved in had simplified this complicated system somewhat. Everyone was either saved or unsaved; the saved went to Heaven, the unsaved went to Hell. Heaven was pictured as “real” place where people would recognize each other, have conversations, sing, eat delicious food, and enjoy life forever – though I was a little confused by this description, since it was taught that it was my “soul” (NOT my body) that would be going there. If the soul is immaterial, I thought, how can it enjoy all these material pleasures?

But it was the picture of Hell that bothered me the most. Hell was also a “real” place – a “lake of fire” – in which those who had never accepted Jesus would burn forever, in unbelievable pain, screaming, and “gnashing their teeth,” but would never burn up! Furthermore, all this was going to take place WITHIN EARSHOT of Heaven, as vividly described in the “true story” of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). No matter that it was also taught that it was “souls” (not bodies) that were going there: these “souls” had eyes (v. 23), bosoms (v. 23), voices (v. 24), fingers (v. 24), and tongues (v. 24)! As far as I could tell, the “soul” was nothing but a different kind of body: a kind that couldn’t be destroyed, even by an unquenchable fire.

I want to pause, at this point, to offer a suggestion. If this is what you believe, and if you are satisfied with believing it, and you don’t want to think about changing that belief, put this e-tract in a folder, and come back to reading it some other day. It’s not my purpose to upset you, or to get you to leave your church, or anything like that. But I want to warn you: if you keep reading, you’re going to have that view challenged. So don’t keep reading and then write to me to say you’re upset with me. I’m giving you a fair warning! I also want to say this: if this is what your church teaches, I feel very, very sorry for you. I vividly remember what it was like to believe that this was the fate of my unsaved loved ones – and to think that I would have to “spend eternity” listening to their screams.

Billy Graham, among many others, has (after several decades) quit preaching this view of the final destination of the unsaved. He still says, “You have a soul that will live forever somewhere” – and he still talks about Heaven as the final destination of the saved – but he now describes Hell as “eternal separation from God” and claims the “fire” is merely a figure of speech whose purpose is to describe the “mental anguish” of the realization that one has missed out on the joys of Heaven. But this view troubles me as well. Nearly every theologian I’ve ever heard of teaches that God is “omnipresent” – He’s EVERYWHERE. If He’s everywhere, then how can I be “separated” from Him? Psalm 139:7-12 asks (and answers) that very question. In the King James Version, verse 8 specifically states that Hell is NOT “a place where God is not.”

Furthermore, I also worry about the impact this kind of preaching will have on the unsaved. Had I heard Billy preaching this when I was a teenager (back then he was preaching the literal fire and brimstone), I might have responded, “Great! If I don’t accept Jesus as my Savior, I’ll get to live forever, in a place where there is no God. It sounds like you’re promising Heaven to the atheist and Hell to the Christians!” I don’t think any atheist will ever be drawn to faith in Jesus by the “threat” of being “separated from God.”

Another “modern” solution (though it’s really not modern at all; it was preached over 1,700 years ago) is to say that while it’s true that all souls live forever, and only Christians go to Heaven when they die, it’s not true that the souls of non-Christians burn forever in Hell. They burn only until their sinful natures are burned away (in a process that reminds me of the purification of gold or silver), then they are transferred to Heaven and enjoy eternal life right along with the saved. This process might take longer for some than for others, but eventually everyone (or, in some versions of this theory, ALMOST everyone) will be saved. This theory goes by the name of Restorationism, or, sometimes, Universalism. While it’s usually affiliated with the “liberal” wing of Christianity, it’s gaining more and more adherents among the “conservative” wing as well. It troubles me, too, though. It doesn’t seem to leave me much motivation for holy living here on earth. My final destination will be Heaven no matter what I do in this life! In that case, why not “live as the heathen do” – enjoying the pleasures of sin for this “season” of 70 years (or so) – knowing that Hell will be only another “transfer point” like Orlando or Washington, D.C.?

Not long after I joined the church where they described Hell as “25,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and not a drop of water in sight” I met some Christians who held another view, one I haven’t mentioned yet. When they first described it to me, I thought, “It sounds great, but it isn’t what the Bible teaches, so what good is it?” This new group didn’t try very hard to convince me they were right. They simply suggested, “Read the Bible and see for yourself.” So I did.

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY about my “final destination”?

For starters, the Bible doesn’t say that “souls” are immortal. The Bible doesn’t actually say very much about “immortality” at all. The word only occurs half a dozen times.

What it DOES say about “souls” is that they are MORTAL (capable of dying, and of being destroyed). Take a look at Ezekiel 18:4 (and 18:20), and Matthew 10:28, and I don’t see how you can come to any other conclusion.

The Bible speaks of “living souls” (Genesis 2:7), and it also speaks of “dead souls” (Numbers 19:13). This is not immediately obvious, unless you can read Hebrew. The word translated “body” in the latter verse is the same word (“nephesh”) that is translated “soul” later in the same verse!

Furthermore, the “soul” (in the Bible) is not a “part” of the human being (distinct from the “body”): it is simply a name for the human being himself (or herself). The same word (“nephesh”) is also used to describe non-human beings, such as fish (Genesis 1:20), cattle (Genesis 1:24), and God Himself (Matthew 12:18, quoting Isaiah 42:1). Saying “my soul” is just another way of saying “I.”

So what is MY final destination? It is the same as the final destination of my “soul.” Where does the “soul” go? What becomes of “it”? This is just another way of asking, “Where do ‘I’ go? What becomes of ‘me’?”

Hundreds of verses, throughout the Bible, make it perfectly clear that the final destination of the saved is eternal life in the presence of God, and the final destination of the unsaved is complete nonexistence. Here are just a few:

“Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:19) – “thou” (you), not “thy body” (leaving “thy soul” free to go somewhere else).

“He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life (1 John 5:12) – “not life” at all, not just “not a blessed, happy life in Heaven.”

“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23) – the word “but” clearly shows that “death” is a different thing from “life,” not just life in a different place.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Here is the most-quoted verse in Christendom. It contrasts the destiny of the unsaved (“perish”) with the destiny of the saved (“life”). What could be plainer? The destiny of the saved is to live forever. The destiny of the unsaved is to not do so.

The final destination of the unsaved is always, in the Bible, described in terms such as “die,” “death,” “perish,” “destroy,” “burned up,” “consumed,” and so on. Such concepts as “ultimate restoration to Heaven,” “eternal separation from God,” “burning forever and never burning up” and “eternal life in hell” (which I found on a tract published by a prominent disciplemaking ministry) are never once hinted at in any of its 31,173 verses.

I don’t mean to brag, but the fact is, I’ve read the Old Testament cover-to-cover in 11 different translations, and the New Testament cover-to-cover in 19 different translations. It simply isn’t in there.

God certainly has a plan to punish those who refuse His generous offer of eternal life. The punishment consists of the fact that they will not get what they didn’t ask for. No harsher punishment than that is needed, and none is promised in the Bible. To me, this is a far more comforting belief than to think of my now-deceased, never-saved loved ones as burning forever, screaming in pain, within earshot of my heavenly mansion. How would I be able to enjoy eternity in a scenario like that? But that is precisely what most Christians believe. I’m glad I “discovered” what the Bible says!

I didn’t really “discover” it, though, and neither did the small denomination I now serve as a minister. It’s been there all along. Every Christian writer before the year 177 taught it (I’ve proved this in my doctoral thesis, which became my “book,” “The Doctrine of Immortality in the Early Church;” I’d be happy to send you a copy by email if you ask me to.) It was “buried” under the traditional view for several centuries, but there were always “heretics” who believed it, often at the cost of their lives. It “reappeared” during the Reformation and was held by such “greats” as Martin Luther, John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, John Milton, and others – though later rejected by the “mainline” churches they founded. It’s been preached in America, under the label “Conditional Immortality,” since at least the year 1795. I, myself, have held to it for 35 years now, and have never found a “flaw” in it, though many of my friends have shared with me the “flaws” they believe it has. I’ll be writing about some of those “flaws” in future e-tracts. I hope you’ll study them with an open mind. But I don’t ask you to believe ANYTHING unless you become convinced it’s what the Bible teaches.

For more information, contact:
Dr. John H. Roller
johnroller@faithbiblechristian.com

Jesus Shall Return!

2008-02-28T18:26:00.002-05:00

Jesus Shall Return!
by Dr. John H. Roller

In their concerted drive into the Pacific, the Japanese army landed on the northern coast of Luzon Island, in the Philippines, on December 10, 1941. The American and Filipino troops were slowly pushed southward until they were concentrated on Bataan Peninsula and on Corregidor Island, near the mouth of Manila Bay. General Douglas MacArthur was on Corregidor Island at the time and he listened to the daily news bulletin every evening via shortwave radio.

MacArthur was one of history's greatest military orators. When ordered by President Franklin Roosevelt to evacuate to Australia, he made one of his shortest, yet most memorable speeches, a simple statement to reporters: "The President of the United States ordered me to break through the Japanese lines and proceed from Corregidor to Australia for the purpose, as I understand it, of organizing the American offensive against Japan, a primary objective of which is the relief of the Philippines. I came through and I shall return."

These three small words became the "rallying-cry" of the United States Army for the next few years. They gave courage and hope to millions of soldiers as they fought toward the goal of recon¬quering lost territory. They represent the "hope" of MacArthur's Army. Eventually, on October 22, 1944, the promise was fulfilled. Standing on a small beach in the Philippines, the great speechmaker began a longer oration with the words, "I have returned."

But it was not Douglas MacArthur who first inspired discour¬aged followers with a departing promise of his final victory! Over 1,900 years earlier, under orders from his father to ascend to Heaven, Jesus Christ told his handful of disciples, "I go to prepare a place for you…I will come again…" (John 14:2-3). These words, too, have given rise to a "rallying-cry": "MARANATHA!" (which means, "Our Lord, come!"). The return of Christ is the hope of the Church. One of these days his promise, too, will be fulfilled. Standing on a small hill outside Jerusalem, Jesus will be able to say, like MacArthur, "I have returned."

The Apostle Paul wrote, “But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left to the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore comfort one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, WEB).”

Paul had founded the Christian Church in Thessalonica, a major city in northern Greece (known today as Saloniki), during a three-week visit there, in AD 50, early in his second missionary journey (see Acts 17:1-9). Considering how short a time he had spent with these new believers, he had succeeded in teaching them quite a lot about their new-found faith, as is evidenced by the number of times he uses expressions like "you know" in his first Epistle to them, which we know as 1 Thessalonians. Yet, obviously, there were gaps in their understanding. Bible scholars believe that when Paul's assistant, Timothy (whom he had left behind in Macedonia), came to visit him in Athens, he brought with him a list of questions to which the Thessalonian Christians needed authoritative answers. The result of their query is the Book we call "First Thessalonians" – probably the first piece of the New Testament to be written by Paul.

One of the questions the Thessalonians asked seems to have been concerned with the condition of Christians who die. Probably no Christians had died during the three weeks Paul had spent in their city, so the question hadn't arisen then, and Paul hadn't dealt with it. Now, after the passage of several months, which included affliction and persecution (1 Thessalonians 3:3-4), they had probably had that experience, and were wondering what would become of their deceased loved ones in the future. Would they ever see them again? The Scripture text we are looking at is Paul's response to that question.

Paul's answer begins with a strong affirmation of both the importance of their question and the truthfulness of his answer. "We don’t want you to be ignorant…this we tell you by the word of the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:13,15). This is not an irrelevant "side issue" and it is not a matter of personal opinion or speculation! It is a doctrine of vital importance to the "brothers" to whom Paul is writing (1 Thessalonians 4:13) and it is given in the form of a clear revelation from God (1 Thessalonians 4:15).

What is the present condition of Christians who have died? Three times in as many verses (vv. 13-15), Paul uses the expression "those who have fallen asleep" to describe those he later calls "the dead" (v.16). It is clear that Paul, along with all the other writers of Scripture, portrays Christians who have died as being "asleep" – unconscious and inactive – unaware of anything that is going on in the world and unable to participate in it in any way. Since the moment of their decease, they haven't gone anywhere or done anything, and that condition would remain unchanged forever were it not for God's revealed plan to intervene and change it!

But there is such a plan! Beginning in v. 16, Paul describes, in sequential order, the events of a day the Church can still look forward to, eagerly and expectantly:

1. “The Lord himself” (Jesus Christ) "will descend from heaven" (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Notice that nothing is said, in this passage or any other, anywhere in the Bible, about deceased Christians (or anyone else) "going to heaven;" rather, the promise is about a living Jesus "coming from heaven" back to this earth.

2. "...with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with God’s trumpet" (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Where did anyone ever get the idea that this event would be a "secret"? This is a description of one of the "noisiest" events in our planet's history! Not only is it "loud" but Revelation 1:7 adds that everyone in the world will see it happen as well as hear it.
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3. "The dead in Christ will rise first" (1 Thessalonians 4:16). The importance of resurrection (rather than "surviving" the experience of dying) cannot possibly be overemphasized. Paul would later write, in 1 Corinthians 15:13-14, "if there is no resurrection of the dead, … then … your faith also is in vain." Of course, you have to be dead (not "more alive than you've ever been before") in order to experience resurrection.

4. "Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up ..." (1 Thessalonians 4:17). This is the aspect of the event we are studying that gives it the name "Rapture" (the word "rapture" means "being caught up"). Notice that the "Rapture" is not a separate event from the Second Coming of Christ. It is a part of that same event.

5. "...to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thessalonians 4:17). The word "meet" calls to mind a specific tradition in the ancient world: that when a conquering king makes a royal visit to a city he has added to his empire, those citizens of that community who have hoped he would someday rule them would come running out of the city to "meet" him on the road and to accompany him into the city as he makes his triumphant entrance. It would be a misuse of the word "meet" to apply it to a vision of the Church being "raptured" several years before the actual return of Christ.

6. "So we will be with the Lord forever" (1 Thessalonians 4:17). In order to be "with" the Lord, of course, we will have to be wherever he is at the time. Where will that be? The logic of the word "return" implies that he will be on Earth, since one cannot "return" to a place other than where one has been before (remember MacArthur? He didn't "return" by relocating from Australia to the United States; he "returned" by going back to the place he had earlier left, namely, the Philippines). So if Jesus is planning to return to Earth, then it is on Earth that we will "be with" him “forever.”

. 7. "...comfort one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:18). This statement isn't part of the description of the Second Coming, of course, but it is extremely important for an understanding of the entire passage. When loved ones die, we are instructed by this statement to use this very Scripture in giving comfort to one another. We are to remind one another of Jesus' promise to return. We are to look forward to seeing our (formerly deceased, but now resurrected) friends again when he comes (and not before then). We will live eternally with him and them on his beautiful, newly re-created Earth – not in Heaven, where he himself specifically said (John 13:33) it is impossible for us to go.

Think about it!
1. Why is it important to know what condition the dead are in now?
2. How is the issue of the condition of the dead connected with the prophecy of Christ’s return to earth?
3. How can discussion of a future event (the Second Coming of Christ) bring “comfort” to a bereaved Christian?

In the next chapter, Paul goes on to say, “But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that anything be written to you. For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman; and they will in no way escape. But you, brothers, aren’t in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief. You are all children of light, and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, nor to darkness, so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep in the night, and those who are drunk are drunk in the night. But let us, since we belong to the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and, for a helmet, the hope of salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-8).

Another question the Thessalonians may have asked Timothy to convey to Paul is, "When will the Second Coming take place?" This is a question that naturally occurs to anyone who is thinking about an event that is said to be in the future. We want to put things "on our calendar" so we can plan for them and anticipate.

However, Paul introduces his answer to this question with the little word "But" (1 Thessalonians 5:1), indicating a contrast between the vagueness of the answer he is about to give to the "when?" question and the detailed specificity of the answer he had just given to the "what?" question. "Of the times and seasons" he says (to the very same "brothers"), it is totally unnecessary that he should write. Why? Because "you already know perfectly well" (we would say) "that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night" (1 Thessalonians 5:2).

Has your home, or place of business, ever been invaded by a burglar? (Having been through that experience myself, I can assure you I wish your answer would be "no!"). But if it has, let me ask you another question: did the burglar first warn you that he was coming? Could you have marked your calendar and known when to expect him? Were there even any "signs" to give you a hint that his approach was imminent? I rather doubt it!

In the same way, Paul is telling us that Jesus will return without warning and at a time when his return is not expected. That is quite the reverse of the impression you would get from the flood of books on "prophecy" currently on the market. We are led to believe that the Bible is full of predictions about when Jesus will come and how we will know that the time of his advent is near. If those books are telling the truth, then how is the day of the Lord going to come “like a thief”?

The correct answer is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:3-8, where Paul explains a certain difference in the nature of Christ's return between how it is to be viewed by believers and how it is viewed by unbelievers. To the unsaved, his coming will be like that of a thief; when they are not expecting him (v. 3), he will suddenly come, and the effect of his coming will be their "destruction." But to the saved, there will be no "surprise" on the day he returns, since we live in the "light" of the knowledge that he has promised to return. We don't know when he will come, but we do know how (thanks to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17), so the day will not "overtake" us like the arrival of a burglar at midnight would.

Think about it!
4. Does prophecy contain any "clues" as to when Jesus will return?
5. In what way will Jesus' coming be "like" the coming of a thief?
6. Should the actual return of Christ come as a "surprise" to his followers?

The Apostle Paul explains to curious Christians the truth about their loved ones who have died: those people are now asleep, awaiting a future resurrection to life in God's eternal kingdom. They will remain in that condition until Jesus returns. His return will take place suddenly and dramatically, accompanied by audible sounds and visible activity. Deceased Christians will be the first to experience the change, but they will be joined immediately by the Christians who are still alive at the time. Together the entire Church will meet Jesus in the air and accompany him to his throne in the New Jerusalem. “What a day – glorious day – that will be!”

This message should be used to comfort the bereaved in their moment of grief – this message, not the spiritual-sounding platitudes of man-made tradition. Use the Scripture for its intended purpose: not to answer our curiosity about the future, but to encourage us with a hope we can live with in the present!

Remember: "... the Lord himself will descend from heaven..." (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

For more information, contact:
Dr. John H. Roller
johnroller@faithbiblechristian.com