Posts Tagged ‘Revelation’

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Growing Clouds of Judgment: Overview

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

This is a summary of our discussion of Revelation 6-16, an overview of the structure.

The big picture

By looking at the whole, we see the big picture, about which there is agreement. This approach helps us keep the details, about which there is disagreement and mystery, in proper perspective. The big message is: despite persecution and suffering, God secures the ultimate well being of God’s own people and God will win.

The judgments are increasingly severe

In ch. 6-16 are three series of judgments:

  • the seven wax seals (6.1–8.1)
  • the seven trumpets ((8.2–11.19)
  • the seven wine bowls (16.1-21)

The last wax seal introduces the first trumpet; the seventh trumpet sets the stage for the wine bowls.

The judgments differ.

  • They increase in severity.
  • The wax seals and trumpets have a structure: first four, then interruption or change.
  • The wine bowl (severe hangover) judgments, however, occur without pause or delay. (Rev. 10.6)

Humanity responds with increasing hardness of heart

 God’s wrath is allowing humanity to experience the logical consequences of our sin. God’s mercy redeems us from our sin; God’s wrath allows sin to run its full course, which ends in death (James 1.15). In Revelation the wrath of God becomes increasingly severe. Its purpose is to turn people from sin and death to salvation and life.

In the Exodus plagues (which serve as a pattern for the plagues of Revelation) Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, by himself and by God. In Revelation humanity’s hearts are hardened. If we think of a clay pot being fired in a kiln, it is hardened. God uses judgment to confirm or harden us in our choices; God forces us to choose and confirms us in our choice. That’s the process that is occurring in Revelation.

At the end of the sixth wax seal, humanity seeks to evade by hiding from God:

15 Then the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

Rev 6:15-17 (NRSV)

But at the end of the sixth trumpet they didn’t hide; they refused to repent. They were hardened.

      20 The rest of humankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their fornication or their thefts.

Rev 9:20-21 (NRSV)

 After the wine bowl judgments, people cursed God; they refused to repent and give God glory (16.9, 11, 21),

I hope this overview helps make clear that the judgments have a purpose, are not simply divine temper tantrums.

Several persons have commented that as they study Revelation, they aren’t afraid of the book. Instead, they find hope. This is what apocalyptic literature was designed to do: to give hope to persecuted believers while hiding the message from outsiders, who were often the persecutors.

Peace Y’all!

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Principles of Christian Biblical Interpretation

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

Interpreting the Bible follows a set of well-known principles.  The science of interpretation is “hermeneutics.”

As we read the scripture, the Holy Spirit illumines the heart and mind, revealing truth. This is illumination.

A few of the most important principles of Christian biblical hermeneutics are:

  1. Humility
  2. Christ above all
  3. New more often than Old Testament
  4. Simpler more often than complicated  explanations
  5. Clear rather than obscure texts
  6. Teaching found in many biblical sources rather than few
  7. Meanings based on historical circumstances
  8. Meanings consistent with vocabulary, grammar, syntax, genre and other literary matters
  9. Interpretations agreed on by many reliable authorities more often than by few
  10. Interpretations that encourage being and doing God’s will, not just debating it

In biblical interpretation as in the Christian life:

in essentials UNITY

in non-essentials LIBERTY

in all things CHARITY

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Between Man and Man

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

Reading Gerrman in English words Buber’s Between Man and Man. I read it out loud, then again. Clearly, still don’t get it. But it’s worth it. For example, he said of revelation: “We see the light of the meteor, but we don’t have the rock.”

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Apocalypse continues

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

The Eye of the Storm

The big ideas in Revelation

1. Jesus is the first and last.
2. You can find Christ in the churches.
3. There is calm, beautiful harmony in heaven’s worship.
4. Increasing judgment calls for decision.
5. Which city is your home? Fallen Babylon or new Jerusalem?

The angel and the little scroll (10.1-11)

1. He has one foot on sea, one foot on land; in chapter 13, beasts will come from sea and land.
2. The seven thunders are sealed up; “No more delay!” See seven thunders in Psalm 29.3-9.
3. John ingests the little scroll, symbolic of assimilating the message. He feels joy after receiving the message, but sadness, because message is woeful. See Ezekiel 2.8-3.3.

The two witnesses (11.1-14)

Background

a. For measuring, symbolic of protection, see Ezekiel 40-42; Zechariah 2.1-4.
b. For two olive trees, symbolic of persons, see Zechariah 4.
c. Two witnesses required in court, Deuteronomy 19.15
d. Fire consumes Elijah’s foes, 2 Kings 1.9-16 (Elijah symbolic of the prophets).
e. Elijah predicts drought, 1 Kings 17.1.
f. Moses turns rivers to blood, Exodus 7.14-25; other plagues follow. (Moses symbolic of Law.)
g. Sodom, Egypt, ancient enemies symbolic of the godless city
h. Elijah carried to heaven in fiery chariot, 2 Kings 2.
i. Jesus ascends to heaven in a cloud, Acts 1.9.
j. “Give glory to God” is an idiom for confess, usually followed by execution. See Josh 7.19 ff.

Narrative

1. John measures Jewish (not Gentile) areas of Temple, vv 1-2.
2. Two witnesses preach for 3 1/2 years (= 42 months = 1260 days), vv 3-6.
3. The beast from bottomless pit kills them, v 7.
4. They lie in the street 3 1/2 days, vv 7-10.
5. They receive the breath of life, v 11. See John 20.22.
6. They ascend to heaven, v 12.
7. A great earthquake occurs, 7000 (7 x 1000) die, v 13.

Hallelujah! (11.15-19)

Apocalypse, Revelation 10-11, page 1 © 2009 by John Hamilton

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Who can stand?

Saturday, March 21st, 2009

stag-at-ssharkys

 

 

Left: Stag at Sharky’s, George Bellows, 1909

In our discussion of the book of Revelation last Tuesday, this verse jumped out at me: “for the great day of [God's] wrath has come, who can stand before it?”  (Rev. 6.17)

Who can stand?

In these troubled times you can’t count on many things.  A group of Pomona High School students youTubed the President describing their worries: what if mom and dad lost their jobs?  What if the bank foreclosed on their home?  Could they leave school to get a job? (NBC Nightly News 3-19-2009)

Who can stand?

Your favorite sin gets under your skin.  All of a sudden, you’re back in familiar territory, flat on your face or your fanny.  You wonder how many times you’ll fall for that gag.

If you’re like me, you’ve given up promising to do better.  You know promises are worth about as much as GM stock.

But you must give up your pet sins, as well as those you hate.

Who can stand?

In the classic film Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman portrays Lloyd Jackson, a decorated veteran sentenced to two years on a road gang for vandalism.  He has to establish himself in the pecking order, quickly squaring off against the leader Dragline, played by Arthur Kennedy.  In this unforgettable scene you see how he does it.

Cool Hand Luke boxing scene

 I intended to write about external forces; it turns out the hardest foes to beat lie within, those “blue devils” (Tennessee Williams) which hound us relentlessly. 

God’s standard also is unrelenting — “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood,” Hebrews 12.4 (RSV).

 The secret is to keep getting up. ”When people fall, do they not get up again?” Jer 8:4 (NRSV)

Don’t waste time feeling guilty. “Real guilt doesn’t last—real change does.” Ask forgiveness. Get back on your feet as many times as it takes.

You wonder, doesn’t God get tired of our sin-capades?  According to Jesus, we have at least 490 times to ask forgiveness.  I’ve exceeded my limit;  God, however, is not keeping count.

Who can stand?

Paul said,

Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Eph 6:11-17 (NRSV)

The good news answer to the question “Who can stand?” is this: by the sheer grit of God, who never gives up on us, you and I can!

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Reading Revelation & Les Mis

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

My day is divided now between prepping for Revelation and reading Les Miserables. For recreation, I’ve found about sixty of the old B&W Perry Mason in the CBS video collection, for free. So I go from the sublime to the ridiculous.

In reading Revelation, I’ve gone back and read some of the Hebrew apocalypses in Daniel, Zechariah and some of Ezekiel, who was certifiably off his rocker. The encouraging thing is, God can use anyone. In a time of upheaval, a psyche undone may be the best vehicle for revealing truth.

This time through the last book of the NT, I’ve concentrated on the big ideas. For example, in studying the judgments as a unit, it’s clear that they had a purpose: to urge people to come to repentance before it was too late. Therefore, the first two series pause after the first four calamities. God assures us that God’s own are doing fine. This is poignant when you realize that about AD 95, a whole generation of Christians had died. Were they lost?

Not only weren’t they lost, but they will come first!

So throughout these scenes of incredible judgment, flows the soft melody of God’s love, securing and comforting the saints. The majestic choruses of heaven echo in the hearts of God’s people, even on the mean streets.

There are so many references in Les Mis to French history, and geography, that go over my head. I’m reading the Wilbour translation, which was done so quickly. You can’t help but wonder how good it is. Hugo is daunting. To develop a character he takes five or six long chapters of history, of literature, of politics; in that nest he places the individual character.

So why not cut out all the 19th century verbiage? I think it’s in those long passages that he really paints the world as he sees it. This isn’t just an incredibly well plotted drama about an escaped convict. It’s about a society, about what we need to become human. And of course, it’s the contradiction between law (Inspector Javert) and grace (Valjean).

The pity is, that many of our young students are learning computer programming and web page design, which I admire, but their souls don’t get stretched by big ideas and great hearts like Hugo’s.

For example, the following description of young Marius, Cosette’s future love interest (Project Gutenburg):

For many great deeds are performed in petty combats. There are instances of bravery ignored and obstinate, which defend themselves step by step in that fatal onslaught of necessities and turpitudes. Noble and mysterious triumphs which no eye beholds, which are requited with no renown, which are saluted with no trumpet blast. Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are the fields of battle which have their heroes; obscure heroes, who are, sometimes, grander than the heroes who win renown.

Firm and rare natures are thus created; misery, almost always a step-mother, is sometimes a mother; destitution gives birth to might of soul and spirit; distress is the nurse of pride; unhappiness is a good milk for the magnanimous.

God’s hands, with destitution, can sculpt great souls. But how many thousands are simply ground into dust? Gandhi said, “Poverty is the worst form of violence.”

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Hometown: heaven

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

Our Tuesday night Bible study took off. We are reading Revelation, especially finding the big ideas which are clear and many people agree about. The overarching structure of Revelation is plain as day:

  • Jesus Christ, the first and the last, ch. 1
  • The church, where Christ walks among his people, ch. 2-3
  • Heaven, a place of order, praise and harmony, ch. 4-5
  • Gathering clouds of judgment on earth: though God continually acts to protect and comfort the saints, most of the world ignores calamities intended to bring about repentance, ch. 6-16
  • Final doom upon Satan and the secular city, ch.17-20
  • The new heaven and the new earth, God abiding among us, ch.21-22

My previous outline is very complex and misses the point.

Some thoughts that particularly blessed us were:

  • “in heaven a door stood open” (4.1), no matter how many closed doors you face on earth, there stands a door open in  heaven.
  • “in heaven stood a throne” (4.2), God reigns in heaven, does God reign in your heart?
  • “four living creatures” (4.6), representing wild and domesticated animals, humans, and birds. All of us who love animals can derive comfort from the presence of all God’s creatures before the throne.
  • The three great hymns of ch. 4-5 teach us three reasons to praise: because God is (4.8), because God created all things (4.11), and because God redeems the world (5.9-10,12)

I’m struck again at the broad, deep threads of praise and pastoral care that run through Revelation. This book was written for suffering people to give them hope of victory and comfort in the storm. It should do the same for us today.

But when we look at it primarily as a secret code to be deciphered, we miss the biog picture.

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Lent is for “lencten”—lengthen what?

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

As, from outside, I endure the extreme misery of my friends, sometimes it gets too much. This week it did. I turned to Victor Hugo’s mythic novel Les Miserables, which I’ve never read, I don’t know, maybe as a way to transfigure the suffering I’ve gotten so close to it burns like arctic iron.

I’m not good at keeping other people’s suffering separate from my own, a flaw which doomed my career as a pastoral counselor, but may in the end save me as a human being.

So, rather than writing a post on the beginning of Lent as part of our CCBlogs community exercise, I’ve engulfed myself in 19th century France and the trials of Jean Valjean.

I’m also preparing my income taxes, and in two Bible study groups leading a close reading of the book of Revelation.

The last is my response to the huge interest in the Left Behind series. (I didn’t want to be left out!) A friend’s faith was awakened when she read the books and began looking up the biblical prophecies.

I’ve taught Revelation four or five times over the past thirty years, usually in response to something like Hal Lindsey’s Late Great, for instance.

My mind is not systematic, but intuitive-poetic, so it’s hard for me to snip verses from here and there and paste up an end times chronology. So many have been wrong! I’m sure I’d be, as well, if I tried.

I prefer to take the whole book—Daniel, Ezekiel, Revelation—study its message as a whole, and leave systematics to others.

So what’s all this got to do with Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent?

First, to get my view, you have to know I’ve had to undo a layer of anti-Catholic prejudice that I took in with mother’s milk. Ironic that my dad’s family had been Catholic before converting to Baptist, though Mom told me Dad, a Baptist preacher, was never baptized. I guess he wanted to play it safe, and keep his infant baptism credentials.

I never got any of his affection for the Church, only his objections to it. So I’ve had to unlearn a lot of stuff.

The value of Lent, for example.

Lent, from the Old English “lencten” or as we spell it today “lengthen,” a reference to the lengthening daylight of spring. In Lent the hours of light lengthen!

That’s a symbol I love. A whole lot better than Jeremiah’s sixth century lament,

Woe to us, for the day declines,
     the shadows of evening lengthen! Jer 6:4 (NRSV)

A time of reckoning had come. The enemies of Judah were massing, and soon would descend upon Jerusalem and Judah like a horde of destroying angels.

How about us? For our culture, which are lengthening: hours of darkness or hours of light?

Some Left Behind folks believe the doomsday clock is about to or has already begun to strike midnight. A submerged ice mountain has rent the hull, the ocean liner is going down.

 Abandon ship! Our job as Christians is to get everybody into the lifeboats.

 Lent, however, has a different meaning. It’s the light that is lengthening toward the full force of day. Life on this earth, by the breath of the Creator, is renewing. The voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

 There comes a moment in the second Lord of the Rings films. Sam, Frodo and Gollum stand on the edge of the Great City, which lies in ruins from the juggernaut of the flying Nazgul.

 ”What are we fighting for?” Frodo asks, exhausted from wrestling with his addiction to the ring.

 Gollum looks up. It is the question, the only one that matters.

 Sam says, “There’s some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”

 That’s the question we Christ followers also must answer. Is the message of Lent that all is dust and ashes? Or is the message this: that we need to examine our lives, recommit to our vows, and get on with the struggle to walk in newness of life, not just as individuals, but as a planet, not just for the world to come but for the good earth here and now?

 I believe it’s the second that’s true. Apologies to Tim LaHaye, but I’m not ready to jump ship just yet.

 In the 19th century Victor Hugo wrote:

Society must answer for the night which it produces. If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.

 His words are as true today as when he penned them.

 One of Isaiah’s disciples wrote the people of his time, those who had returned to Palestine from exile, only to wake up to a very hardscrabble morning after. Were their hopes a foamy draft of deception? Would they have been better off to stay in exile?

 Some turned to ritual, the rules of their fathers: just recite the prayers right, offer the right animal on the right altar exactly as God requires.

 No, Isaiah said, ritual has its place. But what God wants now and here is something else:

 Is not this the fast that I choose:
     to loose the bonds of injustice,
     to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
     and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
     and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
     and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
     and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
     the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Isaiah 58.6-8 NRSV

 Whether it’s evening or morning that’s lengthening may be up to us.

 The fastnesses of extremism far from here have demonstrated how deep the roots of hatred and terror grow in the rocky soil of poverty, ignorance, and neglect. It’s not Islam vs. Christianity at issue here, but light vs. darkness in Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism and in all other religions.

 But, the arms of love are stronger. The reach of Light is infinite. John wrote, “God is light, God is love,” (1John 1.5; 4.16).

 Lent is God’s calling us, for the sake of this world, come what may, to live in love and in the light.

So let’s get a move on. As John Wayne (or was it Shakespeare) said, “We”re burning daylight.”

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Cracking the Code of Revelation

Friday, February 13th, 2009

People are suffering today.

You try to live like a CEO in Manhattan on 500K! A recent NY Times article estimated the life costs $1.6M or more.

In the real world, the rest of us feel lucky to live, period.

So what does the book of Revelation say to us?

The Bible always urges God’s people to get their hands dirty, make a difference for real hurting people. It promises that always God is with us, God shoulders oiur pain with us, God will see us through.

That’s the message: God cares for you when your world’s coming to an end.

Although it’s fun to teach Revelation, it’s also challenging. As a young pastor, I was daunted by all the visions, monsters and numbers.

But when The Late Great Planet Earth came out, I felt like shouting, “That’s only one viewpoint!” It dates back to a 19th century clergyman named Darby and the 1909 Scofield Reference Bible; it’s

 ”premillennial dispensationalism”

Of course, nobody’s listening. Late Great sold 40 million copies. Sort of like The Da Vinci Code!

I recommend a fast jet read through Revelation in its entirety in a single setting, if possible.

Why?

You get the big picture. The details are shards of glass, each beautiful and luminous. But it’s the whole window you want to see, not separate pieces.

Here are the big bones of the outline:

  • Jesus, the author (ch.1)
  • The church on earth, warts and all (ch. 2-3)
  • The throne room of heaven, hub of the universe (ch. 4-5)
  • Three series of judgments, more and more severe, to bring humanity to repentance  (ch. 6-16)
  • The fall of the great whore, the godless city, and her allies (ch. 17-20)
  • The new Jerusalem, the new heaven and new earth (ch. 21-22)

If you keep in mind where you are as you read, you won’t get disoriented.

The purpose of the book of Revelation is (1) to glorify Christ, the true Lord and Savior—not the Roman emperors who liked those titles, and (2) to comfort and encourage the people of God, who were facing martyrdom, exile, imprisonment, as well as loss of social position and property.

Everybody loves puzzles. But, Revelation is not an end times rubik’s cube. It’s a mystery, always. You can’t ever unravel all its knots, or shine a light into all its shadows.

But it is good to know that—beginning, middle, and end—God cares for you and God wins.

You’ll find a fabulous, reasoned collection of materials on apocalypse by the PBS program Frontline here.

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Jet Ride through the Apocalypse

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

 

 I prepared this outline for my stalwart Bible study cohorts. We’re diving in this spring.

A. Meet the Author: Jesus Christ

1. Introduction 1.1-8
2. A Vision of Jesus 1.9-20

B. Letters to the Seven Churches 2.1-3.22

The churches were seven churches in cities of central Asia Minor (Turkey). Churches today may be like them. It is important to notice how each Letter varies from the Letter format:
• To the church at ___________
• Description of Jesus
• Commendation
• Criticism
• Let anyone who has an ear listen
• Gift promised

C. The Throne Room of Heaven-Despite the chaos on earth, calm ordered praise goes on in heaven. 4.1-5.14

1. A door stands open in heaven!
2. One seated on the Throne
3. Twenty four elders (12 tribes, 12 apostles)
4. Seven spirits (7= whole, the Holy Spirit?)
5. Four living creatures = all life on earth
6. Three reasons to praise God and the Lamb

i. For who God is 4.8
ii. For all that God created 4.11
iii. For God’s ransoming the saints 5.9-14

7. The Lamb that was slain (= Jesus) 5.1-8

i. Scroll (of history?)
ii. Seals are like old fashioned wax seals securing a legal document.

The (wax) seal judgments are the first of three series: seals, trumpets, drinking bowls (suggesting drunkenness, severe hangover). The judgments bear resemblance to the plagues that caused Egypt to let the Israelites go free. As the Lamb breaks each seal, a judgment occurs. The level of destruction tends to increase in the different series. The purpose of these terrifying events is to cause people to repent and be saved (see 9.20-21). 6.1-17

D. Before the seventh (wax) seal is broken, God protects the saints by sealing (anointing with oil, marking) them (see 2 Cor. 1.21-22). There are two groups of saints who endured the persecution:

1. 144,000 from Israel (12 x 12 x 1000) meaning a complete, very large number 7.1-8
2. A great multitude of Gentiles 7.9-14
3. God promises, the Lamb will shepherd these people, guide them to the water of life, and wipe every tear from their eye (7.15-17)

E. The breaking of the seventh (wax) seal begins the series of trumpet judgments.

1. The censer symbolic of the saints’ prayers is filled with fire that is cast on the earth. 8.1-5
2. The trumpets begin.

i. The first four trumpets 8.1-12
ii. The last three trumpets = the three woes (8.13)

3. Trumpets 5 and 6 = the 1st and 2nd woes

i. Trumpet 5 = 1st Woe: demonic locusts (devastating locust plagues of Near East, see Joel 2)
ii. Trumpet 6 = 2nd Woe: 1/3 of humankind killed by demonic army of 200 million
iii. People refuse to repent. 9.20-21

F. Interlude before 7th trumpet

1. Angel shouts, 7 thunders roar; John told to seal up or hide the message of the 7 thunders. No matter how much we know about the book, a lot remains a mystery. But the mystery is about to be fulfilled (10.7).
2. Like Ezekiel in the past (Ezek. 2.8), John is given a little scroll to eat (= digest, understand) which is symbolic of the message he must prophesy (= preach).
3. John measures the Temple and worshipers there (symbolic of protecting them).
4. Two witnesses prophesy (= preach) for about 3 ½ years, a brief time. They are like prophets of old, especially Elijah and Moses. They are killed by the beast from the bottomless pit. They lie on the street of the city where their Lord (Jesus) was crucified (Jerusalem), here called symbolically Sodom and Egypt. The world rejoices at their deaths; but after 3 ½ days (a very brief time) they are raised to life and taken up into heaven, causing terror on earth. An earthquake kills 7000 (7 = whole, 1000 = huge) people; the remaining people give glory to God. (see Josh 7.19 ff).
5. Seventh trumpet (= 3rd Woe) sounds. Loud voices in heaven praise God for God’s kingdom has now come.

G. The Messiah is born, the great war of good vs. evil kicks into high gear (12:1-17)

1. The pregnant woman clothed with the sun (= Mary, Israel) gives birth. A dragon with 7 heads and 10 horns (= Satan, Rome, Roman emperors) tries but fails to devour the child (the Messiah, Jesus), who is snatched up to heaven. The woman flees into shelter in the wilderness.
2. The angel Michael defeats the dragon, who makes war against the saints on earth.

H. The two beasts (12.17-13.18)

1. Beast rising from the sea (= peoples, see 17.15) is Rome. Head which received a mortal blow is Nero. A rumor raged in Rome that Nero would come back to life.
2. Beast rising from earth is the cult of emperor worship. Many Christians died because they refused to worship the emperor.
3. The number 666 may have two meanings.

i. 6 = evil; triple 6 = very evil
ii. Hebrew letters also can be numbers. Add the numeric value of the Hebrew letters for “Nero Caesar,” and you get 666.

I. The Lamb and the saints sing praises, while three angels announce the eternal gospel to earth’s inhabitants, and two harvests occur.

1. The Lamb’s host sing praise 14.1-5.
2. Angels proclaim the gospel, announce the fall of Babylon (= Rome); and the people who worship the beast are doomed to drink the wine of God’s wrath.
3. One like the Son of Man reaps the (grain?) harvest (positive?) 14.14-16.
4. Another angel harvests the grapes of wrath 14.17-20.

J. The bowl judgments are introduced. Ancient people drank wine from bowls and cups; those who drink from the cup or bowl of God’s wrath will have quite a hangover! (Nothing funny about it.)

1. As Moses’ sister Miriam sang in triumph over Egypt (Exo. 15), so the saints sing as God’s wrath reaches its horrifying climax. 15.1-4
2. Angels emerge from the temple or tent of witness, and receive the bowl judgments from the four living creatures.
3. Note the finality and totality of the first six bowl judgments.
4. The 6th bowl judgment dries up the river Euphrates. Rome feared enemies from the east.
5. Three foul spirits emerge from the mouth of the dragon and the two beasts. The second beast is called the false prophet. Through false signs the foul spirits assemble the armies at Armageddon, mount of Meggido. Israel fought many ancient battles at Meggido.
6. The seventh angel empties his bowl into the air; a loud voice from the temple cries, “It is done!” (compare “It is finished!” John 19.30). Babylon (= Rome) falls.
7. Lament for Babylon (see Jer 51.63) 18.1-24

K. The rider on the white horse, the Word of God, defeats the beasts.

1. Rejoicing in heaven 19.1-10
2. The Word of God leads the armies of heaven. 19.11-16.
3. Defeated, the beast and its armies become a carrion feast 19.17-21.

L. The 1000 years-symbolic or numerical?-and its aftermath. A great mystery of Revelation.

1. Satan locked in bottomless pit for 1000 years. 20.1-3
2. Those raised in the first resurrection reign with Christ for 1000 years. 20.4-6
3. Satan’s brief release and final defeat-thrown into the lake of fire, the second death. 20. 7-10
4. The great white throne judgment-two sets of books: one records our works, the other is the book of life. Anyone not found in the book of life thrown into the lake of fire.

M. The new heaven and new earth 21.1-22.5

N. Conclusion 22.6-21

If you wish to use this, acknowledgment of your source will be appreciated, as are your prayers for anyone foolish enough to tackle this work (myself not least).

Apocalypse / Handout #2 / © 2009 by John Hamilton

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