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Glorifying God

29 December 2021 AnneT The Little Book of the Revelation An ordered list of links for each blog series is on the Archive page. (0)

The Little Book of the Revelation - Nineteenth and final in a series

This series is a call to Christians to prepare for persecution. There is no one or way to prepare you outside of the Lord through his Word and your prayers.

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial among you, which cometh upon you to prove you, as though a strange thing happened unto you: but insomuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, rejoice; that at the revelation of his glory also ye may rejoice with exceeding joy. If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are ye; because the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God resteth upon you. (1 Pet 4:12-14)

We have observed an orderly sequence of seven seals, seven trumpets and three woes, and finally, seven bowls. Yet, not all of the end-time prophecies revealed in the chapters of the Revelation are presented sequentially; prophecy does not follow a linear path but may take a circuitous route, and will be clarified through words that echo in the chambers of the Testaments.

This study has proposed that the first woe is a prosecution of conscience upon those who are firmly rooted in evil. The second woe is part of the message of the Little Book, that an end to the day of grace will arrive. The third woe is enforced in the seven bowl judgments. Thus, we see that the unsaved are heavily pressed to consider their sins before losing the opportunity to repent, after which they are finally damned.

I have suggested that the two witnesses of the Little Book symbolize mature Christians whose testimony will be made effective by God’s grace. They will join their martyred brothers and sisters from previous generations in God’s throne room as the Beast and his minions persecute them during the time of the Great Tribulation until the last ones of them who are killed but not buried, are resurrected. This event will convict the remnant of the Israel of God who will join them in life everlasting.

These concepts are not presented dogmatically. I hope this blog series will help to establish the true religion, as we noted in Post 1 that Sir Isaac Newton stated that a study in Revelation ought to do. It has presented many Scriptures without insisting on a particular interpretation so the reader can more easily reflect upon the events of the endtimes.

The reason the Lord chooses us in the furnace of affliction is for his glory. (Isa 48:10-11) “Jehovah trieth the hearts.” (Pro 17:3)

Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me;
Thou wilt stretch forth thy hand against the wrath of mine enemies,
And thy right hand will save me.
Jehovah will perfect that which concerneth me:
Thy lovingkindness, O Jehovah, endureth for ever;
Forsake not the works of thine own hands. (Ps 138:7-8)

Before the bowl judgments are emptied

28 December 2021 AnneT The Little Book of the Revelation An ordered list of links for each blog series is on the Archive page. (0)

The Little Book of the Revelation - Eighteenth in a series

In this penultimate post, we will consider some Scriptures that confirm the Lord’s people are safe with him before the bowl judgments begin.

Paul explained to the Corinthians God’s order in the resurrection of souls and bodies:

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. (I Cor 15:23)

He made clear that if the dead were not to be raised, then Christ was not either, so that those now dead have perished.

Indeed, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, then we are miserable in our faith. (1 Cor 15:18-19)

He wrote to the Thessalonians:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (I Thess. 4:16-17)

Paul taught the Romans that God gave the Jews a spirit of slumber (Rom 11:8) yet they did not stumble to eternally fall, but rather through their fall, salvation came to the Gentiles, provoking the Jews to jealousy, and as ‘the diminishing’ of the Jews meant riches for the Gentiles, so their salvation will mean ‘life from the dead’. (Rom 11:15)

In this perspective, the change of heart described in the previous post— in Revelation 11:13, may be viewed as the salvation of the 144,000 whom we first met in Revelation 7:4. These come into view again in Chapter 14.

And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on the mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads… and they sing as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders: and no man could learn the song save the hundred and forty and four thousand, even they that had been purchased out of the earth. ((Rev 14:1, 3)

In contrast, in Chapter 15 those who ‘had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name,’ stood on the sea of glass where the Lord was, and sang the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. (Rev 15:2-3). They loved both Old and New Testaments. They, too, were introduced in Revelation 7, as the ones who had come out of the great tribulation.

Why was the song of the 144,000— one that only they could learn— a different one from the larger group’s? This is something to reflect upon as we see both groups in the safe surroundings of God’s home before the ‘bowl’ judgments of Revelation 16 are poured out.

It would seem that the two witnesses obtained a measure of success by God’s plan and grace. Their testimony helped to achieve the change of heart in the remnant of Jews who were marked for security before the seventh seal was opened. (Rev 8:1)

God alone

‘God is doing many things at one time.’ In revealing to John the events of the end, he has a pattern of assuring him that all will be well before he shows him the destruction of the earth.

We saw the saints in heaven having come out of the great tribulation before we were told what they must endure in Chapter 13. Likewise we were told the marked Jews will be with the Lord in heaven before the ‘bowl’ judgments of God’s wrath.

John tasted the prophecy that the Lord’s witnesses must be despised and die before they are raised to life, and it was bittersweet. We, too, are happy that a resurrection awaits the faithful and those who are beloved for the fathers' sakes. (Rom 11:28), the 144,000, but we are grieved that the day of grace must end.

“Multitudes in the valley of decision” (Joel 3:14) —or, more accurately, The harvest is past, the summer is ended, … (Jer 8:20)

Salvation is no longer possible. The second woe is ended. Perhaps it is this horrifying truth that required a book within a book to lift it to clear view.

Let’s pray more than ever for loved ones and all who do not know the Lord.

In the next and final post we will wrap up any loose ends of this series.

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Only a remnant will be saved

27 December 2021 AnneT The Little Book of the Revelation An ordered list of links for each blog series is on the Archive page. (0)

The Little Book of the Revelation - Seventeenth in a series

Let’s ask whether the ‘remnant’ of Revelation 11:13— those who gave glory to God when the witnesses were raised to heaven, were the ‘marked’ Jews? Or, were they simply those from the ‘peoples, tribes and nations’ who were not among the seven thousand who perished in the earthquake?

As a matter of translation, the English word for ‘remnant’ in this instance is the same as occurs 92 times in 91 verses in the King James Version, 83 times in 82 verses in the English Standard Bible and 65 times in 64 verses in the New International version (etc).

But for each translation, only one verse in the entire Bible has a unique Greek word —hypoleimma— for the word that Paul uses for ‘remnant’ in Romans 9:27. All other ‘remnant’ occurrences simply mean “remainder, rest, residue.”

Romans 9:27 says—

Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved

Even Isaiah’s verses (Isa 10:22) do not use a special word, but rather the same word as is used in other Bible passages (ref) to indicate a remainder or residue. So, Paul’s specially denoted word for ‘remnant’ in Romans 9:27 seems to be a refinement of Isaiah’s prophecy to make clear that only those Jews who are God’s own people will ultimately be saved, not ALL Jews.

This is in keeping with the Romans 9 theme of election—

For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: (Rom 9:6) …It is the children of the promise and not those ‘of the seed’ who belong to the Lord. (Rom 9:8)

This theme continues on to Romas 11 where Paul makes clear that God will yet ensure the salvation of his special remnant. In this context he is referring to Jewish people, not saved Gentiles.

Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. (Rom 11:5)

Also, in Romans 11 we find an association of the resurrection of the dead with the remnant’s day of salvation:

For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? (Rom 11:15)

As suggested in the previous post, perhaps as the two witnesses are taken up to heaven, those who were terrified and gave glory to God, were also taken up at the last trumpet, Thus, the ‘remnant’ Jews who are blind to who Jesus is until the last possible moment, could be the fulfillment of this prediction.

To consider this a possibility, somehow the final chapters of Zechariah would need to be compared with this passage to inquire whether these prophecies could dovetail. This will not be addressed at this time.

The mid-tribulation view

For now, I rest with my ‘mid-term’ view of the timing of the Resurrection, because I don’t detect that people are saved as the seven bowl judgments are poured out. And I do see in Scripture that Christians must be prepared for a time of Great Tribulation, though not the very worst time of that period.

I am a member of a reformed church that holds to the ‘amillennial’ standard in eschatology, that the thousand years symbolically comprise the Church Age which began with the ascension of the Lord and continues to the end of the world, after which believers are resurrected.

However, that view does not acknowledge verse 4 of Revelation 20:

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

This is a very specific prophecy that Christian martyrs will come to life to reign with Christ for a thousand years, even if the number is to be understood as symbolic. It fits with a ‘resurrection of the just’, a first resurrection. In contrast we saw the martyrs in Revelation 6:10 under the throne of the Lord, crying out for justice.

Many passages in the Bible inform our limited understanding of how the world ends, and then is renewed somehow in the ‘millennium kingdom’ that is described in Revelation 20. A beautiful one is in Isaiah 11:6—

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.