Revelation Chapter Six, Part 6 of 6

6:15-17 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
After thousands of years of patience and forbearance, God finally looses wrath upon this sinful world: the great day of God Almighty has come. The day of the Lord had been a subject of prophecy amidst the men God chose to speak through since the days of Enoch, Jude 1:14-15. The universality of this judgment is indeed global as the language implies: it affects all manner of men from the highest to the lowest; just as the destroying angel in Egypt killed all the firstborn from the lowliest prisoner in the dungeon to Pharaoh upon the throne.

Revelation Chapter Six, Part 5 of 6

6:12-14 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
The sixth seal unleashes a great earthquake. It is not the greatest to come, but it moves mountains and islands out of their places. This seems to indicate that our continents suffer a violent shifting due to this global earthquake that changes the position of mountains and islands in the ocean. Apparently Jesuit missionaries in China uncovered an ancient record with similar language to this from an event long since past.

Another Year in Review

Well, I find myself at the second anniversary of What's in a Name, and I pause to look back on the year since June of 2010 to see what has changed, what I've learned, and what is the same.

Revelation Chapter Six, Part 4 of 6

6:7-8 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
The fourth and final rider comes, and he is given power (the Greek word means authority) over a fourth of the earth. With this authority he kills by war or crime (the red rider), famine (the black rider), death (pestilence and disease), and with the beasts of the earth. The fear of man that animals were stricken with after the Flood has apparently been removed, Genesis 9:2. Whereas God once gave all animals into man’s hand for food; now God reverses this fear that He placed in the animals and they come and kill men.

Revelation Chapter Six, Part 3 of 6

6:3-4 And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
The first rider was given a crown; the second rider is given “power.” The word power isn’t actually in the original Greek, so the verse states that it was given to him that sat upon the horse to take peace from the earth. In fact, a “great sword” was given to him, representing not necessarily war, but violence and unnatural death. The Greek term for “great” is “megas” and means: physically large, intense or violent.

Revelation Chapter Six, Part 2 of 6

There is something withholding the Antichrist until it is his time to be revealed. Someone must be removed, or taken out of the way, before the Antichrist can appear. Again, if we infer that the “falling away” is the Rapture, then this someone taken out of the way is the Holy Spirit’s presence in the body of Christ, the church. Recall Paul’s inspired words: “for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first (Rapture), and that man of sin be revealed.” We see the Holy Spirit before the throne of God with the raptured saints earlier in Revelation. Now we see that His removal via His indwelling presence in Christians leaves the door open for Satan’s champion to arrive. I am not suggesting that the Holy Spirit is altogether removed; that would be impossible since He is God and omnipresent. No, it is His peculiar presence in the church, the salt of the earth that preserves the world, which is taken away. When the preservative is removed deterioration is immediate.

Revelation Chapter Six, Part 1 of 6

6:1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
Judgment has begun. John was an eyewitness not only to Jesus Christ’s first advent, humility, crucifixion, death and resurrection; he would also be privy to witness Jesus as Judge over this world. If we go back again to John’s gospel we find Jesus telling His disciples, “If I will that he (John) remain until I come, what is that to you?” John 21:22. John did indeed remain until Jesus came again to visit him; this time with His revelation. It is not only a revelation of judgment on the earth, the nature of the Tribulation that will come on this earth and the kingdom that follows, but it is a revelation of His character. Chapter one of Revelation is most descriptive and informative. John is exiled on Patmos, and on this rocky, isolated isle Jesus visits the disciple whom He loves in glory. The images that John uses to describe Jesus at this point are deliberately taken from the Old Testament prophets; vivid descriptions that the prophets used when they saw the Lord of hosts, Jehovah.

Identity Theft

Imagine if you would if I were in a conversation with you and made mention of someone’s name that you likewise know. Further, let’s say that the someone’s name we both mention is not actually the same person at all—different personality, abilities, perhaps even gender—but we go on for a time until we realize that you and I are not speaking about the same person. This is a common dilemma in many conversations with persons of various religious views. We use the same terminology but do not mean the same person. The names God, Spirit or Jesus are empty so to speak until we fill them with content. The content of the name defines who that person is and who they are not…but I’m getting ahead of myself.

A Basis for Faith and Morality, Part 4 of 4

Love, and other abstract qualities find their meaning (both by definition and implementation) in the Biblical account. By contrast, Evolutionary thinking so permeates someone’s mind to the point where they give no regard to the powerful and devastating implications it carries. Abortion is certainly in line with Evolutionary thought, though many atheists/Evolutionists find abortion repugnant.

A Basis for Faith and Morality, Part 3 of 4

When something dead touched anything in the Old Testament law, that which was touched was always made unclean and unfit for anything useful or good. The corruption of evil in us taints every good deed we would perform, even religious deeds, making them incapable of being received by God, Isaiah 64:6. Only when we receive life and are cleansed by the blood of Christ for remission of sins may we offer to God service that God considers acceptable, Titus 1:15-16.

A Basis for Faith and Morality, Part 2 of 4

Scenario 2a: illogical faith
I will set down first the example of blind religious faith for a start, to compare and contrast against historic Christianity. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, as founded by Charles Taze Russell, is a good example of blind faith. In the late 1800’s Charles Russell became disillusioned regarding the cardinal doctrines of Christianity: the Trinity, the deity of Jesus Christ, the person and deity of the Holy Spirit, the atonement of Jesus Christ, the reality of an eternal Hell, and the immortality of the soul just to name a few. At odds with what the Christian church espoused and taught, he began a systematic opposition of Christianity that taught God was strictly monotheistic, Jesus was Michael the archangel, the Holy Spirit was an energy source, Christ’s atonement was only for the obedient or righteous, sinners were annihilated, not sentenced to Hell, and when the body died the soul was annihilated.

A Basis for Faith and Morality, Part 1 of 4

“Faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love,” 1st Corinthians 13:12.

The reason for quoting both the verse above, and using the title I have chosen is to demonstrate the moral, abstract qualities of these very real, very human emotions. Also, I hope to put forward the reality that such concepts cannot properly function, much less exist, in a world divorced of a transcendental power; i.e. God. For the reader’s interest, I will consider the usage of transcendental in this context to specifically identify with “giving value or authority to words that transcends human opinion.”