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Tag: death

Apocalypse 7 – Death & Hell follows him
When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come!”
Revelation 6:7

Four Living Creatures: “Come!”

Note the description of this fourth beast and the other living creatures who have summoned John to the apocalypse of the Book (scroll).

Recalling that the four living creatures worship the LORD day and night and that they reside even closer to the Throne than the thrones of the Elders of Heaven, image how in awe of these you would be as a mere mortal.
- The first living creature was like a lion;
- the second living creature was like an ox;
- the third living creature had a face like a man
- and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle.
And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
Revelation 4:8 KJV

The Fourth Seal:

Death and Hades

Revelation 6:

8 I looked, and behold, an ashen horse..

Describing ashes, a very symbol of repentance or death — some versions translate the colorless look of the fourth horse as ‘pale.’ Look on the ashen or pale horse as you might view the face of one close to death.

.. and the one who sat on it had the name Death..

Little surprise here as the three riders before had carried a bow, a sword and scales to weigh the scarcity of famine. In fact, after mention of hell, the remainder of the prophesy refers to the judgment given to them all!

and Hades was following with him.

Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, and famine, and plague, and by the wild animals of the earth.

What the Hades?
- How many of us have faced death?
If you have, perhaps then the prospect of heaven or hell became more pressing in your consideration of the Lord God and Jesus Christ.

This apocalypse of Jesus Christ to John seems far from the Good News of the pristine amusement parklike picture of heaven many of us hope for after the inevitable end of our mortal life.
- Do you have a ‘happily ever after’ view of heaven?
- Isn’t Hell just a threat to everyone else but ME?
  - (For surely I don’t deserve punishment, because Jesus wants everyone in my church to be with Him.)
- I believe in God and Heaven and Jesus,
  - BUT I don’t really think Hades or Hell exists — does it?
- Can’t the evil lives of others just end so we won’t have to put up with THEM anymore?
ᾅδης – Hades

What hidden (and perhaps dreaded) truth is being revealed here in this awful ἀποκάλυψις apocalyptic appearance to John?

The KJV translates Strong’s G86 in the following manner: hell (10x), grave (1x).

Jesus spoke of it in His teachings. The rebuke of the Lord was for those of His own home town, churchgoers (synagogue šabāṯ–keepers) where the māšîaḥ preached to those who denied that He IS the Son of God.

“And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; or if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day.
Matthew 11:23 NASB

Yes, Capernaum was destroyed — and it did not take until the end of all days of the heavens and the earth.

So it will be for most mortals who must face death.

You will face death: you may die in suffering or war of even in peace — but the judgment of all flesh will come at the end of these last days.
- Will it be heaven for you (even as those in Capernaum believed)?
Or Hell, the same Hades of which Christ Jesus cautions Capernaum?

Hell on earth!

NO, it will not be only on earth — but from beneath it and into the depths of the seas the vengeance of Almighty God will finally punish the wicked and sinners.

And let’s not forget that we ALL have sinned!

As it is now we see in Revelation that even the saints suffer; but in the judgment of the end, only the saints of the Lord have Good News.

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.
And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
Revelation 6:8 KJV

Death… and Hell always follows.

After warnings to the seven churches, the Apocalypse began its Revelation of unseen Truth near to the Throne of Heaven.

From there the seals removed by the Lamb have revealed the voice of what is to come — spoken in Heaven.

We have seen the terrible messengers sent to the four corners of the earth in a time that is yet to come. Now note the extent of death on the earth.

If the Vision was for today

And I make not any claim that it is; but look at the numbers:
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Source: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ 

[Secure links on talk of Jesus {dot}.com provide additional opportunity to research scripture and other facts beyond those mentioned here and in other posts.]
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- Does this mean that after war and famine on the earth — that one fourth of mankind will suffer death?
We have already seen a frightful vision [Revelation 6:6] of the time when a day’s wages of a denarius (comparable to a penny) might only feed one man or small family for just one day — AND that assumes that a man could find work in an economy devastated by war.

See what that could look like in these last days in the year of our Lord, 2021.

A.D. 2021 – counting what counts

We easily get lost in today’s HEADLINE numbers of bad NEWS, but let’s begin with a couple of everyday numbers from which we can weigh what happens on a daily basis AND and give context to the foreboding projections of Revelation.
Current World Population

7,845,681,871 >TODAY

More than 7 BILLION, 800 MILLION

Deaths this year >7 MILLION
Deaths today >92,600

Deaths of 25% of Mankind

> 1 BILLION, 961 MILLION

MORE THAN the TOTAL POPULATIONS of Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern America, (including the U.S.) and Oceania.

One fourth of ALL mankind destroyed by God’s wrath!
Now see TODAY’S HEADLINES in light of the apocalypse of THE END.

A closer look at A.D. 2021 population:
- China > 1.4 BILLION — Deaths of 25% > 360.7 MILLION
- India < 1.4 BILLION — Deaths of 25% > 347.1 MILLION
- U.S. < 0.3 BILLION — Deaths of 25% > 83 THOUSAND
  - * US> 332,221,081
Compare today’s HEADLINES:
- CORONAVIRUS DEATHS = 2,411,000
- COVID deaths per million of population = 0,000,309.3
- Abortions this year > 5.2 million
- Communicable disease deaths < 1.6 million
- Cancer deaths this year > 1.0 million
Death Toll: 1/4 of the earth!

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.
And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,
to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
Revelation 6:8 – apocalypse of the fourth seal

AS OF TODAY …

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

more than 7 BILLION, 8 million souls …
MORE THAN 1 BILLION, 961 million lives would end in death!
Math of the fourth seal of Revelation applied to AD 2021

Do you indeed speak righteousness?

(WLC 58:11) יִשְׂמַח צַדִּיק כִּי־חָזָה נָקָם פְּעָמָיו יִרְחַץ בְּדַם הָרָשָֽׁע׃

The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked

So that men will say,
“Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
Surely He is God who judges in the earth.”

excerpt from Psalm 58: NKJV
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NEXT: The fifth seal + the saints cry out... 
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February 15, 2021
Rumors of Life & Death
Reporters of News

And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judaea, and throughout all the region round about.
Gospel of Luke 7:17 – KJV

Sojourners become clarions of news to uninformed ears in new places from the places where they have witnessed life.

The ‘rumour‘ to which the Gospel-writer Luke refers (above) is Jesus’ raising a young man from his coffin along his own funeral procession in Nain in remote Galilee. Other English translations of the same Greek word [λόγος] use “report.”

When we return to John’s Gospel (Good News) we will encounter such reports again, some stories which veer from the truth.

Good News/Bad News: True or False?

The Disciples who traveled with Jesus from town to town reported the Good News of Jesus the Messiah of Israel to many who had not heard in places distant from the events they had witnessed. Reliable reports from other witnesses also reached the ears of thousands who had not yet seen Jesus in Person.

The four written NEWS accounts of JESUS CHRIST are not the only news of the Savior. Many reports are oral, even many first-hand stories from witnesses to Jesus’ many miraculous events recorded by the Apostles.

Picture the Apostles after Jesus’ death and resurrection as reporters and add to their number every saint of the Church who consequently believed their report of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you may realize why John and others had to address false reports of their time.

While reading the Gospels we discover many who reject the “Good News” of Jesus which challenges one or more of their earthly embraces of sin. Many reject God and refuse to acknowledge or let go of their sins.

Some will believe in anything in order to deny the Truth.
Roger Harned – talk of Jesus .com

All the REPORTERS of Jesus had to be taken at face value for their rumors (stories) of the Messiah. Those who did not witness an event had to ask themselves the same questions we would ask today.
- Is this even possible?
- Is their report TRUE or FALSE in some way?
- If it is true, is this GOOD NEWS or BAD NEWS for me?
- How should I react? (What must I do?)
- What is my response to this NEWS to others who have not heard?
Brief Vitae of the Good News Reporters

As mentioned previously in Witnesses to Jesus Risen! John and the Apostles continue to report their GOSPEL to others until the end of their lives and John writes to some who have witnessed even more miracles than he reports in his Gospel.

Briefly from our Gospel archives take a look at these dates of the reports.
- Jesus was crucified around the year AD 30
- John Mark’s Gospel – before AD 49; martyred AD 68
- Matthew’s Gospel – as early as AD 50, before martyrdom ~AD 60
- the physician Luke’s Gospel/Acts – AD 60-61, prior to the great persecution that began under Nero in A.D. 64; Luke likely martyred in AD 84
- John writes his Gospel to the churches after AD 85 [~AD 90-100]
- 2nd c. AD – many Church fathers, disciples of John, Peter & others, testify to the truth of their Gospels and oppose false reports by false teachers.
Countering False Reports

So this rumor spread to the brothers and sisters that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not tell him that he would not die, but, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? ”
John 21:23 CSB

John 21:

Recall from John’s previous report [Witnesses to Jesus Risen! – Peter] of a third time they encountered Jesus after His resurrection:

5 So Jesus said to them, “Children, you do not have any fish to eat, do you?” .. 7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”
- Peter enthusiastically dove into the water and swam to meet Jesus on shore before the other Disciples came onshore in a boat filled with fish.
- Simon Peter and Jesus have a conversation about feeding His sheep and Simon hesitates in his answers to the Lord (our Shepherd).
- Jesus asks:
  - “Simon, son of John, do you agapaō Me more than these?” then, “Simon, son of John, do you agapaō Me? and finally,
  - “Simon, son of John, do you phileō Me?”
- Peter’s hesitates in answering Jesus call to agapaō and each time confirming that he loves Him (phileō differing slightly in meaning).
- The Lord commands him with some subtlety after each response:
  1. Tend My lambs.
  2. Shepherd My sheep.
  3. Tend My sheep.
And to the reader knowing that Peter has already died for his Lord, (Peter’s dearly departed friend) John offers an explanation.

17 .. Peter was hurt because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You..

Good News, Bad News

John gives the reader some ‘bad news,’ which is no longer NEWS to most and the ‘good news,’ which the other Apostles also witnessed. (Most of them had also died for their witness of the risen Christ Jesus!)
Rumor vs. TRUTH

Who said it?
What is the RUMOR?
Where were they when it happened?
When might this have taken place?
Why would your NEWS source tell you?
How does this impact you?

WHO DO YOU BELIEVE?
As the last surviving Apostle, John witnesses the Good News of Jesus Christ and His resurrection for decades!

What happens when a rumor creates a myth short of truth?

This would happen later when the Church tells stories not supported by Scripture.

When the saying (or story or myth) multiplies, then eventually encounters truth what most certainly will happen? The rumor is crushed and faith along with it (when the aging Apostle dies).

And remember, regardless of when or how the saying had started, it has already been around for a time since the original witness is some fifty years before John writes his Gospel truth.

Many disciples of The Way and saints of the church might easily elevate John (or for that matter, Simon Peter, other Apostles or even family of Jesus) to glory and worship due only the LORD.

John’s simple approach to false witness

The always esteemed and ever truthful Disciple does two things:
1. John states the false witness (translated: saying, rumor, story)
2. He refutes it by his own authoritative true witness.
WHO DO YOU BELIEVE? It’s as simple as that.

The incident in question involves what JESUS said to Simon Peter. Only six other Disciples including John witness it first hand. So John states:
- 21:23 Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die:
- yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die;
  - (FALSE rumor – John categorically states: – Jesus said NOT)
- but,
  - (here is the truth I witnessed, says John)
- [Jesus said ..],
  - If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? [KJV] or
- “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?” – NASB
The Disciple by quoting Jesus refutes the rumor of John’s alleged immortality told in this story circulating among early Christians.

John squashes this rumor before it can multiply into false teaching which will cause us to doubt the ‘Gospel Truth.’

His own witness, true to facts unknown through rumor, states what happened (decades ago):
- 20 Peter turned around and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them—the one who also had leaned back on His chest at the supper and said, “Lord, who is the one who is betraying You?”
- So Peter, upon seeing him, said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?”
- Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!”
  - Peter turned around, John was following him and Jesus.
  - Peter asked the Lord about John, because Jesus had just told Peter:
18b “.. when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will put your belt on you, and bring you where you do not want to go.”
- John tells the reader, who likely knows of Peter’s crucifixion, why Jesus said this.
- After having refuted the rumor with the truth, John puts his seal on the whole truth of restating the ‘story.’
This is the disciple who is testifying about these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
John 21:24 NASB

John’s closing is comparable to Paul writing, “I sign this in my own hand.” At stake is the Authority & Truth of the Lord Jesus
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Rather than adding questions on this section of John,
I leave you to question Truth vs. fiction.
Please click PG 2 
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December 23, 2020
Another Day of Silence at the Grave of a Loved One
It’s a familiar scene — loved ones mourning their loss in silence once the dead body can no longer be embraced by eyes or arms.

All that remains are our fleeting memories of a life which has passed into lifeless dust. I have been there. Likely you have as well.

It happens that the Beloved Body laid to rest previously is Jesus Christ.

Perhaps you missed these mourners outside the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea where the remains of Jesus were sealed. In our own grief we lament how such a public spectacle of Jesus’ Crucifixion on a Roman Cross could have been inflicted on the Son of God.

A Day of the silence of the Passover Lamb

“An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Then he left them and went away.
Matthew 16:4 CSB

Now the LORD had prepared a great fish…

(Certain death: Three days & three nights away.)

Now the LORD had appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah spent three days and three nights in the stomach of the fish.
Jonah 1:17 – with commentaries

Perhaps the bereaving Apostles or distraught mourners had recalled this and other sayings of Jesus.

“A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.”
John 16:16 NASB
Christ :: The Three Days and the Three Nights

Don't become too immersed in the discussions of 'days' or 'dates' of Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection, but for the curious here is an article discussing some of the Jewish calendar issues involved.

After a brief time of carrying His pierced body from the Cross, Joseph and the others must wait until the completion of the Passover feast and until the day after the Sabbath to return and dutifully complete their burial task.
We noted several witnesses to Jesus’ crucifixion previously in It is finished.. + Death’s witnesses. John does not list everyone nor does the Apostle include some additional events.

John has not mentioned Judas Iscariot since his betrayal of the Lord in Gethsemane. Yet Matthew’s Gospel reveals the death of Jesus’ betrayer, the 30 pieces of silver purchasing the field of blood and how it fulfills prophesy.

3 When Y’hudah, who had betrayed him, saw that Yeshua had been condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the head cohanim and elders..

“I sinned in betraying an innocent man to death.”
the confession of Judas Iscariot – Matthew 27:4 HNV

5 Hurling the pieces of silver into the sanctuary, he left; then he went off and hanged himself.

From Crucifixion until Christ’s Resurrection

Before we proceed to John’s witness of Christ’s Resurrection, let’s linger just one more day to note events and witnesses beyond the tomb where Jesus’ body lay.

Matthew 27:

59 And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

61 And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.

What a sorrowful scene…

And Matthew records:

62 Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate..

64 Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day..

65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” And they went and made the tomb secure with the guard, sealing the stone.

Luke 23:

And a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man (he had not consented to their plan and action), a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God; this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain. It was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes.

(Note the brief amount of time these women John names had to see the tomb, return with spices and just begin the wrapping of Jesus’ slain body.)
- Luke tells us (Luke 23:56b) why they had to leave Jesus’ body until later.
And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.
Luke 24:1 NASB
The Apostle Matthew tells how Joseph wrapped Jesus’ crucified body in a clean line cloth and laid the Lord in a place he had prepared for his own death.
Then Matthew tells us (27:60b NASB):

and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.

Matthew, the Disciple of Jesus also records the sad scene of silent mourning, where Joseph must have recalled these two women who lingered there.
⁶¹And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.

Joseph rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed.
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To be continued..
.. at dawn the first day of the week ...
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December 4, 2020