I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Revelation 20-22.

As I read this passage, it is unclear to me how literally we should take where it says that those who receive the first resurrection are those beheaded for their testimony about Jesus.  I am quite confident that the first resurrection is not limited to only those beheaded because of their faith in Christ.  I believe that the first resurrection includes all of those who were killed for their faith in Jesus.  However, I am not sure that the first resurrection does not include all who died while putting their faith in Christ.  Having said that I come to my main point on the description of those who experience the first resurrection.  The wording implies to me that everything which came before does not apply to a singular set of events future to when this was written.  Instead, all of the vision before this represents a picture of what each and every person faces throughout life (with perhaps some representation of the cycles which we see in history).  In particular, the Mark of Beast does not represent a particular time in the future when people will have literal marks in order to buy and sell things (although, I would still be very wary of things which fit that description).  Instead, it represents compromises of following our faith which everyone of us faces throughout our lives.  Do we compromise with evil in order to put food on the table?

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Revelation 13-16.

Just as the four Living Beings from earlier in this book corresponded with, but had differences from, the four Living Beings in Ezekiel’s visions, so the two beasts in today’s passage correspond, but differ from, the beasts in Daniel’s visions.  First, I want to say that there is more to the meaning of this passage than what I am writing today.  Trying to get a starting point on writing about today’s passage I did an Internet search on what people had written about these beasts.  I found that some believe the first beast represents the great Empires of history.  I will not say that they are wrong, but that did not seem right to me.  However, as I thought about what they had written, it struck me that the first beast is, in a way, government.  In the passage, those who worship this beast say, “Who is able to fight against him?”, which reminds me of the phrase, “You can’t fight City Hall.”  Over all, there are those who worship government and look to it for answers that can only come from God.  This view would make the second beast, those religious leaders who direct people to the government for solutions to problems for which they should turn to God and the transformative power of His Spirit.  I want to point out that such religious leaders are not just on one side of the political spectrum.  And such leaders do not necessarily represent themselves as religious.

OK, I did not expect to write that much about the beasts.  What I wanted to focus on is something which puts a different perspective on the timing of the entire vision.   After the seventh angel poured out the seventh bowl containing God’s wrath upon the earth a voice cried out from God’s heavenly Temple, “It is finished.”  This is exactly the phrase which John wrote in his Gospel as what Jesus said just before dying.  So, everything which came before that phrase in John’s vision happened, at least symbolically, before Jesus died on the Cross.  Having made that connection, I want to think about what that means for understanding the earlier portions of the Book of Revelation.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Revelation 9-12.

Every time I read this passage I try to find some part of it where I can feel confidence either that the passage is about specific events in John’s future, or that it is a figurative account of human nature.  And every time I fail to do so.  I suspect that was God’s plan.  Having said that, during the description of the aftermath of the blowing of the Sixth Trumpet John writes something which reflects human nature (although it may represent a specific event as well).  He tells us that despite experiencing the terrible tortures which came after the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets, people will not repent of their sins and turn to God.  They will continue to worship demons and idols.  I want to expand on that a bit.  Many people today would claim that they do not worship idols.  Yet, they confidently proclaim that modern technology will allow us to solve problems of human nature.  Or, they proclaim that we just need to implement the correct laws and rules.  All of this represents a refusal to acknowledge that previous attempts to solve problems in that manner resulted in murders and thefts.  They refuse to accept that sexual immorality is even a problem and dismiss the idea that witchcraft exists while practicing it in the name of science.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Revelation 4-8.

One thing I meant to mention yesterday that I think is important to understand about what I believe about the Book of Revelation: I believe that the Book of Revelation describes a vision which John actually had.  However, John made editorial decisions about what words to use to describe that vision,  what things he chose to quote and what things he paraphrased.  Which brings us to the resemblance between John’s vision and some of Ezekiel’s visions.  Comparing and contrasting John’s and Ezekiel’s visions can give us insight into their meaning.  John saw the four living beings differently than Ezekiel did because the message he was being given in his vision was different.  In Ezekiel’s vision each of the beings had the face of a lion, an ox, a human, and an eagle.  In John’s vision, each being had a different face, one that of a lion, one that of an ox, one that of a human, and one that of an ox.  There is meaning in why those faces are present in both visions, but I have yet to see an explanation which causes me to care. 

I realized the other year that the popular understanding of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is based on a merger between what John writes here and elements from Ezekiel.  The common understanding is that the Four Horsemen were summoned one at a time and then rode out together.  In fact, John describes them as each being summoned, one at a time, and riding out immediately by themselves.   The Four Horsemen do not ride together, they follow one after the other.  I am not fully sure of how to interpret this, but the third and fourth Horsemen represent things which follow after the second.  The second Horseman brings war and violence, the complete breakdown of order, throughout the earth.  Famine, the third Horseman, follows such an outbreak of violence.  And death and disease follow closely behind that.  I am unsure of the connection between the first Horseman, the Conqueror, and the other three.  The second through fourth Horsemen represent something we see again and again throughout history.  Part of me thinks that the Four Horsemen described here represent a repeating pattern in history.  Another part of me thinks that the first Horseman represents a conqueror whose conquest will mark the beginning of the End Times

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Revelation 1-3.

I think we should spend more time thinking about the end days, but I struggle deciphering God’s message for us in the apocalyptic writings of the Bible.  However, I really like the first three chapters of the Book of Revelation.  John uses some phrases which convey some basic truths in a way which conveys the mysticism which they truly contain.  The first of these (taken from the NIV) is

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

He could have written something like, “God is eternal”.  That would have said the same thing, but does not convey the same sense of immediacy that God is present at every moment in history, even those which have yet to happen.  All of time is laid bare to God.  When He acts today it is with full knowledge of what will happen tomorrow, just as His actions yesterday were based in part on what He knew would happen today.

The other phrase (also taken from the NIV):

I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Another example where the idea could have been conveyed with more pedestrian phrasing.  John begins by connecting the being he saw in his vision to God, the Creator.  The phrase used here, “the First and the Last,” also makes sure that we understand what is meant by the phrase, “the Alpha and the Omega.”  The rest of the phrase communicates both the basic, essential Christian dogma that Christ lived, died, and rose from the dead and shows us what that means for us.  Because of Christ, those who put their faith in Him need not, should not, fear death.  He holds the keys both to death and to the place of the dead.  He can, and will, free us from death.  Even if we die, He holds the ability and willingness to raise us once more to life.  Death holds no power over Jesus, therefore we do not need to, and should not, allow it to hold any power over us.