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Tag: Revelation

The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John

  • Swords & Sickles

    Swords & Sickles

    Proclaim this among the nations:
    Consecrate for war;
        stir up the mighty men.
    Let all the men of war draw near;
        let them come up.

    Beat your plowshares into swords,blacksmith-hammer
        and your pruning hooks into spears;
        let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”

    Joel 3:9-10

    Consecrate them, says the LORD! Yes. It is a holy war – war between the Lord God and those who hold to their sins, following idols, false prophets, foolish sages and lying leaders.

    What has been will be and what has never before been seen will blind the eyes of the nations.

    Joel 3:sickle

    13 Put in the sickle,  
        for the harvest is ripe.

    Go in, tread,
        for the winepress is full.
    The vats overflow,
        for their evil is great.

    14 Multitudes, multitudes,
        in the valley of decision!
    For the day of the Lord is near
        in the valley of decision.

    syria-kurdish-fighter-destroyed-city

    Borders and Nations Destroyed

    By what proxy have the nations divided Tyre and Sidon to the spoils of nations beyond the valley of destruction?

    Have the people not fled for their lives by land and by sea to places where they remain an enemy?

    Though you rebuild fallen towers and repair the breach of five-walled fortresses, refugees will yet invade your borderless regions. Their helpless will expose the evil of princes; their plight unveils the nakedness of greed.

    Has anything changed? Are these last times so different than the demise of the godless in the days of Joel?

    Six centuries later Peter would preach the words of Joel’s prophesy fulfilled by the Holy Spirit speaking through a few Apostles heard by the crowd in many languages. [Acts 2:16-21] The last days have begun, Peter preaches, with the incarnation of Christ Jesus and the Lord’s crucifixion for our sins and His resurrection and ascension to the Throne of the LORD!

    It is the Lamb of God who will judge. He was not a sword-wielding conquering King, general or prophet. God’s own compassion for the nations sacrificed the promised king of the jews as full payment for our sins, even the sins of His own enemies.

    The Rumblings of Peace

    One of the Apostles of Jesus lived to see Jerusalem fall once more under the domination of Rome. John wrote letters of love to the churches of Asia (modern day Turkey). Then as the last living Disciple prophesy came to John.

    Rome has since fallen. A false prophet emerged from a cave to conquer the continents. Wars to end all wars. Emperors and dictators and despots have risen with sword and perished in humiliation. Even Israel is replanted after shameful killings of the remnant.

    Only the message of the Lamb remains viable – a call to repentance and redemption in the blood of love, rather than the blood of war. Like in times before the falls of the mighty some claim peace, but it is war they invite. It is the Lord who will judge. Hear the Truth of these last days:

    Revelation 6:1-8 excerpt

    1. And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.
    2. And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
    3. And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand.
    4. And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.
    4-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse
    And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.

    Death Tolls of War

    • Current estimate of the population of the earth: 7,404,976,783
      • a fourth of the earth killed = 1,851,244,195
      • 9/11 Death toll           = 2,996
      • 2016 Migrant deaths = 4,310 of 243,000+ war refugees
      • Syrian war deaths      = c.300,000-400,000
      • Abortion deaths         = 40,000,000 – 50,000,000
      • WWII deaths              = 50,000,000 – 80,000,000
    • The current combined populations of China, Russia and the US = 1,831,278,025

    I am not suggesting that these three empires will be those destroyed in the end. The number of souls tormented and killed on the earth will exceed the total number of people living in these three earthly super-powers!

    Our sin is rampant! The judgment of evil is inevitable.

    The Lamb of God IS and will be, forever, Lord and Savior!

    He did not come to the world with a sword of power or a sickle to reap the riches of other lands. No, Christ Jesus came into the world as a Lamb of sacrifice for our sins. He will return on the clouds as John as prophesied.

    Revelation 6:

    9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice,

    “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

    11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

  • Seven Seals

    Seven Seals

    A scroll or proclamation sealed by the One of Authority

    Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. – Revelation 5:1

    The King James Version of the Bible uses the word ‘book’ in the place of scroll and interestingly enough you may recognize its importance from the original Greek: βιβλίον – biblion from the Greek root biblos.

    The Apostle John, exiled to the island of Patmos, survives the other eleven martyred for their faith, and receives a book of prophecy from the risen Lord. A few years prior to John’s apocalypse Rome had destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.

    An Ancient Sealed Prophesy

    Seven centuries prior to this witness of John, the prophet Isaiah had correctly predicted an earlier fall of Jerusalem to Babylon in 586 BC.

    Isaiah 29:

    9 Astonish yourselves and be astonished;
    blind yourselves and be blind!
    Be drunk, but not with wine;
    stagger, but not with strong drink!
    10 For the Lord has poured out upon you
    a spirit of deep sleep,
    and has closed your eyes (the prophets),
    and covered your heads (the seers).

    11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed.

    חָתַם סֵפֶר

    When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

    The Lamb of God

    John had witnessed Christ Jesus slain on a cross. He was the Lamb of God sacrificed for the sins of the world; yet three days later and for many days John witnessed the risen Christ! Jesus was about thirty years old, but John was even younger. Hundreds of jews and gentiles saw the risen Lord, who previously had told the Apostles of His return.

    Now John is an old man (even by modern standards). The Lord gives John a vision, just as the Lord has previously uncovered a certain future to His Prophets centuries before Christ.

    John’s apocalypse shows events of a Day to come .. a day of wrath and a day of justice.

    ἀποκάλυψις

     

    Revelation 5:2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”

    9 And they sang a new song, saying,

    “Worthy are you to take the scroll
        and to open its seals,
    for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
        from every tribe and language and people and nation,
    10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
        and they shall reign on the earth.”

    Revelation 6:

    The Seven Seals

    6 Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder,“Come!”

    3 When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!”

    And again with the third and the fourth seal. “Come!”

    The breaking of each seal introduces a horse of a different color. Did you know this scriptural source of this familiar expression?

    Read in Christ’s revelation to John the fearful imagery of these riders; for the deceiver leads the world to see these foretold truths of that Day as highly imaginable fantasy, when in truth, the wrath of that terrible terrible Day should bring a quaking of terror into unrepentant hearts of the living and souls of the dead.

    9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

    12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth…

    Read it for yourself, you who fear Almighty God!

    Revelation 7:

    4 And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:

    A Great Multitude from Every Nation

    A seventh seal is yet to be opened…


    When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. –

    Revelation 8:1

    Christ the Lamb looks to you

    • Is reverence for the Lord an attribute of your life; do you show any respect for the deserved honor of the Living God?
    • Does your heart consider deserved repercussions of your sin?
    • Is your arrogance before the risen and living Son of righteous the foolishness of fallen angels who have told adam’, “You will be as gods, knowing good and evil?” Genesis 3:5

    Are you a god, failing flesh with mortal soul?

    Or does your own sin convict you of your many failings?

    Repent! While it is yet today.

    For the Day will surly come when seven seals will be broken and the judgments of God proclaimed before all souls – souls saved and souls condemned.

    To which side will the Lord separate your eternal soul?

    Read the Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John and be blessed.

     

  • The Fire of His Wrath, The Gospel of His Salvation

    The Fire of His Wrath, The Gospel of His Salvation

    The fire of the Lord consumes the complacent,

    The wicked and the righteous fleeing their homes.

    They flee His great wrath and abandon their plans,

    The Gospel of His Salvation will comfort or condemn. 

    Revelation 14 King James Version (KJV)

    NOTE: For ease of reading our contemporary language the ESV is recommended; I have chosen the KJV for its powerful poetic presentation and direct translation from the original Greek. The Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John is presented here by excerpt only, a brief glimpse into awe unspeakable. Read the Book of Revelation in its entirety. You will be blessed.

    And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion…

    Make no mistake: the apocalypse here revealed is from the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, to the Apostle John. The Book of Revelation is a trumpet warning of the wrath of God to this generation and generations to come.

    The-Sacrificial-Lamb-Josefa-de-Ayala-ca-1670Christ is Atonement for man

    He IS the sacrificial Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the Messiah, Christ, who suffered and died for your sins and for mine.

    Leviticus 4:35
    And he shall take away all the fat thereof, as the fat of the lamb is taken away from the sacrifice of the peace offerings; and the priest shall burn them upon the altar, according to the offerings made by fire unto the LORD: and the priest shall make an atonement כָּפַר  for his sin that he hath committed, and it shall be forgiven him.

    Revelation 14:

    2 And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder:

    The LORD GOD speaks! The LORD speaks with a voice of absolute power and majesty and might. The LORD proclaims the victory of the Lamb of God over the sin of the world.

    And angels worship the LORD!

    3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne…

    Do you take ANY time to worship Almighty God? Do you worship the One who has created you? He has dominion over all creation; for the LORD IS and was and will always be! The LORD is worthy of worship. He IS a father unto those who seek him. He is a consuming fire to those who flee from him.

    6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,

    7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

    What do you think of the Judgment?

    Who would not fall down in fear in this awesome moment? Who would fail to worship the LORD of all creation?

    How presumptuous of man to exhaust our brief days of mortal consumption with no regard of the Image reflected in our soul.

    Pompeii2Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? – Genesis 18:25b

    His purifying judgment shall consume more than Sodom. Neither shall pillar of salt stand nor ash-baked corpse remain in that awful day. His fire will make way for a new heavens and a new earth!

    Returning to Revelation 14

    …Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

    14 And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

    15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.

    And in the end…

    Yes, there is more to the Apocalypse. Can your soul bear it? Will your soul not awaken from the sleep of death to the sounds of deafening waters and unspeakable thundering of His Voice? Are you not in awe of the LORD GOD?

    Remember your days, that we are dust. The LORD has created us for himself, for worship, for our own sacrifice of love to others, as the Lord God Almighty gave His only Son Christ Jesus on the Cross as Perfect Sacrifice for our sins.

    The Lamb of God will come on the clouds! He will stand on Mount Zion once more and rule as the loving King of all creation. The Lord will judge the sins of mankind and He will cover the sins of the saints.

    Did you know that in Christ Jesus you are a saint of God?

    For God IS as a Father to you, as well as a Father to Jesus the Messiah, the Sacrifice of the LORD’s great love and mercy. The Lord God IS in the Holy Spirit reaching into your soul to embrace the worship of your soul with a purpose of love to follow faithfully.

    Will you respond? Will you call on the LORD, while it is yet today?