Random Thoughts on Revelations

23 October 2017

Dear Phyllis,

Gomen nasai. I am sorry that I am a day late today. Actually I wrote you yesterday, but before I sent my letter, Paul came over for some fellowship. I told him what I had written and he pleaded, “Please don't send that letter. It is not of the Lord and won't help anyone.” I felt strongly convinced that I was right and my letter was true. Incontestably what I had written was true but Paul challenged me, “Will this help anyone?” I have been convicted that every (maybe most) stories have two sides. As Christians we tend to only tell one side. In the interest of honesty I felt the other side should be told. I told about the dark side of a couple of really good testimonies and then went into detail sharing about shocking flaws of several great men of God. I said “we all have clay feet”. I felt very strongly that I was right. But the argument was; a man might be a man of integrity with a good message, and yet have bad breath. Bad breath doesn't detract from his message. What he says may be wonderful, but if you stand near him he might smell bad. Who is going to be blessed by talking about his bad breath? Okay, I deleted my letter and didn't send it.

Now it is Monday morning and I really don't have much to say. I just have a few scattered thoughts. I love Revelation. John's experience on Patmos is of extreme importance. His opening remark is very interesting. He was on the island and heard a Voice behind him. The first lesson we can learn from that is that he was looking the wrong way. I wonder if that isn't true of some of us. It looks like I was looking the wrong way when I wrote you yesterday and had to turn around before I could see the Lord. Man howdy, it is hard sometime to turn around.

The second lesson that we can learn from John's experience is after he was turned around the first thing he saw was 7 candle sticks. This perfectly expresses the function of Christians in the world. Paul reminds us that, “Ye are letters known and read of all men” (2 Cor. 3:2) It has been accurately said “that the only Bible that many people will ever read is Christ in you”. In nearly all cases before anyone ever picks up a copy of the printed Word of God or hears the Gospel the only representation of Christ is what they see of Jesus in us. That was the first thing that John saw. Then He saw Jesus standing in the midst of the Seven Golden Candle Sicks.

I cringe when I think that the Church is Christ's representative on earth. Like it or not, that is the way it is. But fortunately the Lord is very honest is showing us an accurate view of the Church with all of her warts and blemishes. That is why I thought I was in the Spirit yesterday talking about the blemishes of high profile Christian leaders. But talking about bad breath isn't uplifting and no one gets blessed.

Innumerable messages have been preached on the Seven Churches of Rev. 2 & 3. Rolly Reasoner was preaching a series in Karuizawa many yeas ago and prefixed his messages by saying, “In looking at the churches; just because one thing is right does not mean that everything is right. And just because one thing is wrong does not mean that everything is wrong.” That was a word for me. I had a strong tendency to denounce somebody if they were off on some point. I am still very hard head on false prophets but reluctantly have to back off sometimes and give a few speakers I don't like a little slack.

There are three interpretations about the Seven Churches. The first is that this was John's message to seven actual churches in Asia Minor. That may be so. In John's day there were actually seven churches there, in what is now today Turkey. The second interpretations is that this is a chronological view of the history of the Church. I'll buy that. This is pretty accurate with Ephesus being the first church and Smyrna being the second persecuted church. Laodicea is a dead ringer for the disgusting affluent church today. The third interpretation of Revelation 2 & 3 is that these churches represent various weakness and sins in our personal lives. Who hasn't gotten under conviction when we hear a message about losing our first love for Jesus? Every sin that we see in the Seven Churches are red flags to be careful about in our own personal life.

Along with Revelation we must read her sister book, Daniel. I have been an avid student of eschatology ever since I have been saved. Along with everybody else I bought into the traditional view of Daniel 2 – Nebuchadnezzar image. When I was saved in 1957, the bench mark of spirituality was the CI Scofield Bible. If a man didn't have a Scofield Bible it was questionable whether or not he was saved. This set the stage for the traditional western view of eschatology. But recently Joel Richardson and several prophetic scholars have challenged the traditional view saying that the Bible is Mideastern and the Bible seen through the eyes of people from the Middle East looks much different. I think they are right. For nearly a century nearly everyone was agreed that Ezek. 38 & 39 was Russia's invasion of Israel. Hal Lindsey eloquently forwarded that position. The key to Ezek. 38-39 is the identification of Gog, Magog, Meshech, and Tubal (Ez. 38:2,3). Scofield placed these participants in Russia on the basis that they come out of the land of the north (Ez. 38:15; 39:2). No reasonable prophetic scholar questioned that. But Richardson challenges, if you take a globe and draw a line directly from Jerusalem to the north pole it misses Moscow altogether. Russia is well to the east of true north. But the line goes directly through Ankara, the capital of Turkey. And every conservative Bible atlas list these areas as being located in northern Turkey. Richardson warns, the country to keep your eye on today is Turkey. All this is very much under the radar. Turkey is still held up as the model western Islamic nation. But there are a few voices warning that there a very intense nationalistic movement in Turkey today. Richardson says that Erdogan, the dictator of Turkey, is the Ayatollah Khomeini of Turkey. What Ayatollah Khomeini did in converting a very western Iran to a fanatical Islamic theocracy in 1973 Erdogan is doing exactly the same thing in Turkey today. Richardson also lays up a strong argument that Gog is another name for the anti-Christ. It doesn't take too much imagination to believe that the anti-Christ is Islamic. These are some major shifts I have made in my position of eschatology. All this makes a great deal of sense as we watch the kaleidoscope of the changing scene in the Middle East. I really believe we are in the day of “hold-your-hat-Hanna” as we are galloping towards the day of the fulfillment of what the Word of God has told is will happen in the last act.

Gomen nasai for being late this week and I apologize for a rambling letter. As they say in the south “Ya'll pray for us now, he'ya. bill