Revelation, Not Linear

12 October 2008

 Dear Phyllis,

Praise God, we are one week closer to that wonderful moment when the kingdoms of this world will be the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever (Rev. 11:15). Daniel saw a wonderful thing when he saw that great image and the stone that was cut without hands that smashed the toes of that image. The Lord promised, “In the days of those kings, the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people…and it shall stand for ever.” (Dan. 2:44). How wonderful that you have graduated from this life and are looking at things that are only dreams for us here on earth. But even you all in heaven are waiting with us for that moment when Jesus will receive the full reward of the price He paid at Calvary.

 The two dominant news items of the past week have been the political situation, with the elections coming up in three weeks, and the economic crisis. In the past thirty years the bad guys have put up three champions. The first one was that poor dunce from Georgia that was so weak and brain dead he was an embarrassment for the country. The next one was that clever fellow from Arkansas whose main concern was seducing women, and he couldn't keep the zipper on his pants zipped up. He was a disgrace to the White House. But the one they are setting forward this time looks genuinely spooky. If he gets in, I don’t like to think of where the poor USA will go. That could be on a rocket sled to destruction. The handmaiden of the election certainly is the economic crisis. For anyone under 70, we haven’t seen anything like this in our lifetime. In talking with another brother the other day he remarked, “The frightening thing is that it is hard to believe that there are so many stupid people living in America.” I wonder if this isn’t the long-awaited judgment of God on America. It has accurately been said, “If God doesn’t judge America He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. I wonder if there has ever been a county that has had more light and yet been responsible for polluting the world with more filth and moral degradation than America. Someday the ax must fall. If this is the time, then we are in for a severe time of purifying.

I have been studying Revelation for the past several months. The Lord promised a special blessing to anyone who read that book and keeps His commandments (Rev. 1:3; 22:14). Jesus promised us that the Holy Spirit would show us things to come. That is one of His ministries (Jn. 16:13). But more importantly, we are told right at the beginning that this book is not about the revelation of the judgment that is coming on this earth, but it is the revelation of Jesus Christ (Rev. 1:1). I want to know Jesus better and so I am reading this book that is the revelation of Him. Needless to say the Revelation of John reads considerably different than the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John tells us of Christ on this earth, but Revelation shows us Christ as He is now sitting on His Throne.

One of the biggest things I have learned from the study this time is to come to an unshakable conviction that the events in Revelation are not linear. They are not sequential. I have always been very traditional and felt that everything was linear, but I see now that is impossible. It might be accurately said that this book is about  the opening of the Seven seals, or God’s concluding plans for the world.

 The first four are the four horses; the White, the Red, the Black, and the Pale (Rev.6:1-8).The White horse is obviously bloodless conquest. The Red horse is clearly war; probably nuclear. It says, “A great sword was given to them to kill one another” (Rev. 6:4). The Black horse is probably economic. It says the he that sat on the horse had a balance in his hand. The balance was always used for buying and selling. This is commerce. The Pale horse is God’s primary mode of judgment used frequently in the OT – the sword (war), hunger (famine), death (disease), and beasts (crime) (Ez. 14:21, Rev. 6:8). They are given to kill ¼ of the earth.

The 5^th Seal obviously is terrible persecution. We see the souls under the altar who have been martyred, and they are told to wait until the rest of their brethren are killed (Rev. 6:9-11).

The 6^th seal we see everything breaking loose: massive earthquake, the sun turns black, the moon turns blood, the stars fall on the earth like figs, the heavens rolled up like a scroll, and every mountain and island moved out of place. If this isn’t the final gong I don’t know what is. This is exactly the same scene that we see when the final vial is poured out on the earth in Rev. 16:17-21. I see Rev. 6:9-11 as the same event as the final vial in Rev. 16:17-21.

But then I see the 7^th Seal as an explanation of what led up to this final event on earth. The thing that preceded that final judgment was Seven Trumpets (Rev. 8:1,2). The 1^st Trumpet is defolligazation (8:1). The 2^nd Trumpet looks to me like a meteor strike in the ocean; or it could be volcanic – “a burning mountain falling in the ocean” (8:8). The 3^rd Trumpet is the rivers (8:10). The 4^th is the atmosphere sun, moon and stars darkened (8:12). The 5^th Trumpet is the release of demonic hordes (8:1-11). And the 6^th Trumpet is the Euphrates (9:13-21).

The 7^th Trumpet we see the temple of God opened in heaven (11:15-19).

 Out of the temple we see seven angels appear (chap 14).

The 1^st angel preaches the Gospel unto the earth (14:6). The 2^nd angel proclaims Babylon is fallen (14:8). The 3^rd angle declares if any man worships the beast (Anti-Christ) or receives his mark (666) they can never be saved (14:9-11). The 4^th angel comes out of the temple crying “Thrust in the sickle” (14:15,16). The 5^th angel comes out of the temple with the sickle (14:17). And the 6^th angel thrusts in the sickle to reap the earth (14:18-20). I see this as the same event as the 6^th Seal.

And the 7^th angel are seven more angels having vials of the wrath of God to be poured out on the earth (15:1). The thing that I find amazing is that these final seven angels are the same as we see with the Seven Trumpets. The 1^st was grievous sores on those who had the mark of the beast (666) (16:2). The 2^nd is the ocean (15:3). The 3^rd is the rivers (15:4-7). The 4^th is the atmosphere – the sun was seven times hotter (15:8,9). The 5^th is darkness (15:10,11). And the 6^th vial is the Euphrates again (15:12-16). And the 7^th and final vial is the grand finale that we previously saw as the 6^th Seal – earthquake, hail, mountains and islands moving out of place.

I don’t see this as sequential at all. I see a great deal of overlapping or repeats. I see the 7^th angel the same as the 7^th Seal. I see the 6^th angel with the sickle the same as the 6^th Seal. I see the seven vials almost the same as the seven Trumpets – 2-  the ocean, 3- the rivers, 4- the atmosphere (sun), 5- darkness, and 6^- the Euphrates. These are the same in both the Trumpets and vials.

I don’t know in what order these events are coming to earth but I am sure they will be in a different configuration than what we are used to on earth. And this shouldn’t be surprising or unreasonable. These are events settled in eternity. In eternity there is no three phases of time. There is no past, present, and future. In eternity in the year 2000, 1950 is still happening, and the year 2050 has already come. All three years are going on simultaneously.

Where are we now? I don’t know. But I do know we are getting very close to the final events of time. We know that the political situation will be such that the anti-Christ will soon appear. We know that militarily, politically, economically, and religiously catastrophic events are coming soon. These are all human generated scenarios. But in addition to that, the Lord is going to send catastrophic natural disasters – the ocean, rivers, atmosphere, earthquakes, etc. Jesus said that all these things would be part of the last days.

We can dismiss Al Gore and his global warming. There certainly will be global warming but not the type he is talking about (2 Pet. 3:10, 11). The significant thing is that the cause of that global warming will be moral – not burning hydrocarbon. The cause is not CO2 but SIN. 

These could be very exciting days. But Jesus certainly is on the move and that is cause for great rejoicing. It won’t be long and we will all be together.

 

                                                                                          bill