Worship God
In having read through the entire New Testament there are chapters and verses I have had to read multiple times to understand parts to help me further understand the whole. I had to read through Revelation 22 a couple times and then a section of the chapter jumped out at me. Revelation 22:8-9 is significant as it clarifies the worship of the source and not the messenger. John, the writer and seer of the visions summarizes his experiences with the angel who showed him these things and he began to worship the angel. To me, this is a natural response to someone has helped you and revealed things to you that you now hold dear. For instance, you may praise the teacher aide for helping you understand math when you both have had the same teacher. Or you praise Jesus or angels and scoff at God. John, was not scoffing at God, but he did worship the angel and bow at its feet. The angel corrected John and told him that the angel is a fellow servant with (not above) John and the fellow prophets. We can do the same and focus on the messenger and not the message or even the source of the message. We need to remain focused on praising and worshiping God and not idolizing the messenger.
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Book of Life
This vision starts off mentioning the great white throne which symbolizes significant, pure and royalty. That we know, through our readings as Jesus. The dead were standing before the throne as books were opened. One book was the Book of Life. As it was opened and read from, those whose names did not appear in the book of life were cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15), which we have come to understand as hell/hades. Being in the book of life would be a good thing then, wouldn't it? If you don't want to be in that book then the other option is the lake of fire. We must remember when people say "why would God do this to people" the response can be "why would people ignore the warnings and overlook the repercussions?" It may seem like a dismissive response, but like a loving parent who disciplines their child for disobedience, God also had discipline for disobedience. The big difference is, this is eternal, since we are all going to die anyway.
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The Rider on a White Horse
Revelation 19:11-16 reveals the rider on the white horse who was understand as Jesus. These verses describe the clothes he wears and that he was followed by the armies of heaven. There is something written on the robe on his thigh that reads "King of kings and Lord of lords." If you look at the word King and Lord the word are capitalized and singular. The other words kings and lords are lowercase and plural. That further solidifies that Jesus is the ONE and not one of. The plurality and lower cased lettering displays less significance in authority to the real King and Lord. No matter what nation you rule or army you lead, Jesus stands taller.
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Babylon Falls, Kings Weep
This a probably a different Babylon in this chapter than the one mentioned in Chapter 17. The Babylon in Chapter 18 has some characteristics that are not contained within the Babylon of Chapter 18, such as great city, port city (coastal), habitation, marketplace, guilty of greed and self-indulgence and destroyed by sudden act of God (Dave Guzik). In verse 9 we read "and the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning." That means the leaders (not all necessarily will be kings) who were connected to her and benefiting from her (power, greed, ungodly things) will lose the influence and power they had with Babylon as it will fall. As I stated in yesterday's post, the Lamb wins again.
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The Lamb Wins
I may have mentioned this before, but in reading through the Book of Revelation it is easy to fear the end of days with all of the visions that are reported through the writing. But, the visions are not necessarily to be taken as the images that are represented. So, when you read through chapter 17 and read of the prostitute and the beast and all of these different images, these more than likely are representations of ideas and events that have or have yet to take place. Regardless of the image and turmoil and tribulation, remember this as stated in Revelation 17:14 "They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful." Jesus wins in the end. The power of Jesus, bestowed unto him by God will prevail over evil. On a small scale, look at being loving and how that can change your heart from being hateful toward someone. Love like Jesus. Overcoming temptation through the power of Jesus and receiving the self-control can keep you away from bad decisions. The Lamb wins.
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They Never Repented
Seven angels had seven bowls and each of these bowls contains a wrath of God. People can say "God id this to us" but they overlook their actions that led to God's actions. people want to live in heaven now but do not want to do what is required of them by God to get there. God wants your obedience. God wants you to repent for sinful ways. Revelation 16:9 and Revelation 16:11 give specific incidences in these visions where no matter what wrath was being poured out by God's angels, people still could not and did not repent for their ways.
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Victory Over the Beast
Revelation 15:2 shows the hope we have when facing the beast. I know many fear the book of Revelation due to the tribulation on the earth during the time of these visions, but there is victory. In verse 2 it says "And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands." Granted the victory is not for everyone, but for those that could conquer the beast and its image and its number. Those are the tribulation martyrs? Meaning those are willing to die for the name of the Lord.
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His Number is 666
Remember the red dragon that represents Satan from Chapter 12? Well, the dragon has an understudy so to speak. The understudy is to have ten horns, seven heads with physical characteristics like a leopard, lion and bear. This beast will worship the dragon (Revelation 13:1-3). The beast will also have authority for 42 months and will blaspheme (curse) God.
The second beast will have 2 horns and will speak like the dragon (Satan). It will have the same authority as the first beast and makes others worship the first beast. The "mark of the beast" will be obtained from this beast on the right hand or forehead. The beast's number is 666 (Revelation 13:11-18).
Once again, these are not literal beasts, but representations of evil. The number 666 could represent a false Christ (messiah) and also could represent a good man who turned evil, as it would be mocking Solomon who also made six hundred and sixty-six talents per year.
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The Seventh Trumpet
The seventh trumpet sounded and the loud voices that came from Heaven said in Revelation 11:15 "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." What does this mean? This means that the kingdom of the world belongs to Jesus. But the world isn't one kingdom as it has 7 continents (currently) and many countries with different rulers and methods of governing. But once that 7th trumpet sounds, Jesus will rule all. It won't matter what continent or country you live in. No matter what city, town or state, Jesus will have rule over all. Not for a short while. Not for a week. Not for a year, but "forever and ever."
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The Seventh Angel
The seventh angel swore by Him who lives forever and ever (God) that there would be no more delay and the mysteries of God would be revealed just as He announced to His servants the prophets (Revelation 10:5-7). This means that the inclusion of Jesus is a part of God's mystery.
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The Fifth and Sixth Trumpets
The fifth trumpet (Revelation 9:1-11) released locust type creatures from a black smoke. The locusts were to harm only people who did not have the seal of God upon their forehead. This does not mean an actual locusts or an actual stamp or seal, but could also mean the will of God at the forefront of their mind (my opinion) and the way to avoid these locusts (demons) is to be truly follow after what God wants from you, His will and your obedience to it. Dave Guzik writes, "These are obviously not natural locusts. They avoid plants and attack men like
scorpions attack. They are "A visual representation of the hordes of
demons loosed upon the earth." (Walvoord). Furthermore, regarding the seal, Guzik says "Those who
have the seal of God on their foreheads (the 144,000 and perhaps more) are protected, but none
other are. This is an inescapable judgment of God." The sixth trumpet released four angels (possibly different angels from chapter 8) which killed a third of mankind with mounted troops numbering over 200 million. Guzik says it may not be exactly 200 million, but that number could have been used to signify the insane amount of mounted of troops like there were too many to count. They had fire, smoke and brimstone coming out of their mouths and that is how 1/3 of human kind was killed. Chapter 9 closes out by stating that the rest of mankind that did not die from the plagues did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold" and other materials that cannot "see, hear or walk" like Jesus could. Nor did they "repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts."
And in case anyone tells you we are "near" the end of times and the end of the world, they are probably wrong based on the fact that numerous others have "predicted" the same thing- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events
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The Man of Lawlessness
While it is very tempting to use some of these verses to apply to some people who currently walk the earth and may be horrible representations of their country or of people, this section (verses 1-12) applies to the revealing of the antichrist. That is not a title to just throw around to people because you don't like what they stand for. It is deeper than that. You would need to read through Revelations to understand the coming if the antichrist and the destruction that will follow. One may say, "why does the antichrist have to come?" Well in verses 11-12 we read "Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." In other words, God allows for this to happen to really show the difference between believers in the almighty God and the faith of others that they have in false teachers and false prophets. Either get right....or get left.
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