With the froth of artifice and the art of the artificial, the harlot, the
harridan of centuries, thoroughly exposed, purged and burnt up, well may the
focus come to the bride of Christ, whose energies and purity have been tested to the
uttermost point in the climacteric times as the pressure was on, in this
earth; and her testimony has mounted to the heavens, for indeed its
performance came from the power of heaven itself.
Of that feature, we have
seen after the rapture in Revelation 11, COME UP HERE! the blessed nature, in the classic
words of Revelation 12:11. There was that summit perspective, in a Chapter
which like some others, reached on in its scope, in terms of its theme. Moving
in 12:1ff., from Christ's arrival, it pulsed to the thrust of the finale, as
the devil sought to extinguish the people of Christ, those whose heart desired
and whose hands sought His commandments: His followers. In that setting, Revelation
12:11 is showing in place, the tenor and tenacity of the saints within a world in the grip of
the culminating forces of corruption.
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and
by the word of their testimony,
and they did not love their lives to the death.”
Now in Rev. 19, the blessed testimony given, we are seeing the wedding, that official, that open, that
public, that universal acknowledgement of their troth with truth, of their fealty to
Christ, of being bought by Him, and now brought to Him: that assemblage in unity with Him, of His
people in heaven. From this, they are to surge together with Him, as He comes
to His kingdom and returns to this earth.
The wedding over, the bride for the Lamb as in Ephesians 5, installed and
typified with the fine linen, clean and bright,
white and clean as the
assemblage comes to this earth (Rev. 19:8,14), then comes the action of the
WORD of God Himself, the everlasting Word, the One called Faithful and True.
Here is the ultimate in that setting in contrast to the unfaithful and untrue
which had spread like the waters over New Orleans, upon this earth. Here
comes, surrounded by His saints (I Thessalonians 3:13, Zech. 14:5), the One
who is in fact Lord of Lords (unlike the case with the fallen papacy, which
had such claims, but had no such place*1A),
and therefore God, for HE ALONE is thus
(Daniel 4:34-35, Daniel 4:17).
It is He whom none aborts (Isaiah 14:27), and He alone; and it is He to whom none may be even
compared (Isaiah 42:5-8, 44:8). Thus is the true and living God, God Almighty,
and in the person of His Son, Faithful and True, the Eternal Word, the very
WORD OF GOD, so marked, He proceeds, impervious in power, to bring inexorable
wrath, unremitting ruin to the devils who have in human form (cf. John
6:69-70), so defiled this earth, and to enact a decisive end to the power
structure which has elevated its pretension to the heavens themselves, and
taken on the task of making WAR on the Almighty (Revelation 19:19)!
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Long has the time been given for it all to show its nature, its heart, its
powers and their puny polluting force, its hopes, its filthy dreams and its
self-fascinated obloquy, its very words a poem of impurity, a paean of infamy
and a pulse of fatal fever (Jude). The beast secular, the second beast
religious, their various forms and formats, their essence energised in the
flames of hell: with false fire they have come; and now they go.
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Eternity is providing a fitting exhibit, for the one, in essence and in
ultimacy, so
long dwelt on in Rev.17-18, and now categorically and for ever shown in truth:
it is an essence unspeakable of sin, longing for
lordship, the ultimate enemy using flesh as a vehicle with no more care for
its condition or destiny, than the dictators of yore (cf. Daniel 12:2, Isaiah
66:24).
Rather, with impeccable
devilishness, has it sought the divine status itself, for the better
occupation of pride (cf. II Thess. 2, cf. Ezekiel 28, Revelation 12).
Now it is over. The beast and the false prophet coming at last into the focus
of the finale, reach their due destiny; and the devil himself, bereft of
power, is put in restraint for a millenial period (Revelation 20).
Concerning this in more detail, see
Regal Rays of Revelation
Ch. 8.
Whatever the
duration of that in practical terms - since we have long dealt with symbolic
and arithmetical figuring in Revelation (cf. News
87, End-note
1; Acme, Alpha and Omega
Ch.
5,
SMR pp.
959ff.):
it is a period sufficient for the purpose of exposing the hearts of those who
merely conform before power, so that at the end of this time, there is a
sudden and short change. A final outlet brings the ultimate revolt, which
leads to the filter-action, if you will, so that the pretence of giving glory
is now removed from the reality of it, like grit on the filter paper.
Chapters 20-22
So does Revelation 20 flow straight on, the SUMMIT of ultimate divine action
arising above the VALLEY of Rev. 19. That Chapter held both the Summit and
Valley to follow, moving from the wedding of the Lamb to the return to
this earth of Christ to rule, leading to the restraint on the devil for the
millenium, followed by the resurgence of the wicked as it ends, that hopeful
but vain revolt, and the termination of the globe altogether.
That, as we see in II Peter 3, is a thorough work of divestiture (Rev. 20:11,
21:1), the universe departing with much energy, which is not unnatural, since
much was put into it in the first place.
Judgment then ensues on the
nakedness of man without his bastion of self-aggrandisement, this present
world, for it is gone! (Revelation 20:11).
The last grandeur of earthly wonder has gone; the last yields to the First
and the Last, who proceeds to the judgment: the books are opened, the book
of life with the names of the Lord's people inscribed from eternity (Ephesians
1:4), and the book of judgment, where sin without cancellation through the
Cross, remains.
You remember Isaiah 26:10 ?
“Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn
righteousness.
In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly,
and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.”
So is the predicted case in Revelation: even in a millenium, man in great
numbers, does not mellow! Enough remain plague-hearted, for the revolt (Rev.
20:8-10), even in such a time as this. It is so because it is neither poverty nor pain nor culture nor
talent which is the criterion of man's failure: it is inveterate rebellion and
chronic inflammation of the heart of sin. Revelation in 21-22 proceeds in a
merger of uplifted valley and spiritual summit, for all the action now is
celestial, but actual, so that there is a new heaven and a new earth (Rev.
21:1), and there New Jerusalem which descends from heaven, from God Himself.
Thus we leave at last behind the inveterate pre-occupation with self-centred
power, persistent even in the midst of the beauties of the millennium, unable to
settle; and exposed to the end, it ends exposed. Its accretions of villainy of
heart, are now given something more objective than even an X-ray! It is vile.
So we move to delightful creation of Revelation 21-22.
Here
the Summit has the Valley elevated to its very presence, and we move to
heaven itself, interpreted, its nature and wonder dwelt on: just as had been the
infamy of the harlot, and the arrogations of the beast, yes and the delusive
dynamics of the false prophet. Their lair has gone; our Lord has come, and has
taken us who love Him, to be with Him where He is (as in John 14). We arrive
in these last two Chapters where no valley is, for every valley shall be
exalted (Isaiah 40).
Faith, philosophy, false fervour, pretence, pretension, arrogance, pride,
vanity, courage, rest in the Lord, all have been tried, and the trials are
accounted. Eternity has the evidence; and faith which has for its object Jesus
the Christ, this has the victory (as in I John 5:4); and small wonder they are
deemed victors, for HIS is the victory and HE has given it, which must
be received; and small surprise
is it that they cry, at the Extensive Summit of Revelation 15, as we see in
its setting:
"And I saw as it were a sea of
glass mingled with fire:
and them that had gotten the victory over the beast,
and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name,
stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
"And
they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb,
saying,
'Great and marvellous are Your works, Lord God Almighty;
just and true are Your ways, You King of saints.
'Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
for You only art holy:
for all nations shall come and worship before You;
for Your judgments are made manifest.' "
In all these things, one sees that the FREEDOM God has given to man is of a
peculiarly potent quality.
It can take him to the worship of his own creations, such as a kingdom welded
from several persons or bodies of power, looming in lordly atmosphere
over the entire earth. It can lead him to having a church which is so far from
virginal in its cleansed condition, that it is the very epitome of harlotry,
of MISUSING its very POSITION, as if His elect, to damn and damage the
denizens of this earth. It can seize the term 'Rock' despite Psalm 62, as if
it were endemic to itself, or its imaginary appointee (cf. SMR pp.
98-99).
B
- PONDERING THE PERSPECTIVE
Let us review it a little, in the perspective of who and what man is.
As Revelation 17-19 moved on to its climax, what in particular have we seen
highlighted in the vexatious
spirit of unbelieving mankind ? It was such a thrust of misled power,
spilling its spirit onto the spillway, overflowing at the end: its
accretions are many, and the harlot burnt, its follies are freed. This
liberalisation of its evil is used for more ample disregard of deity, of
lordship, while its head becomes like a tombstone and its ideas like hot
coals. It takes the title of Lord, that is, it is to be WORSHIPPED on pain of
death. The religious beast is bent on making the primary Beast the ultimate.
Thus it is seen purveying its own false glory as a beast, a second beast, a
dragon in lambswool (Rev. 13:11ff.), adulating flesh in
political-financial-social-religious format, operates on its behalf. The
harlot is gone at this stage; but the bestiality still seeks a duo, and what a
duet they sing!
Bare of back now that the harlot is off, the rigors of the surrealism of the
spirit of evil teems with seemingly delightful follies; yet these are almost
as short lived as the spill over the precipice (cf. I Thessalonians 5:1-10),
to which we turn.
"But
concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I
should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the
Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, 'Peace and
safety!' then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a
pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.
"But
you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as
a thief.
"You
are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of
darkness.
Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For
those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.
But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith
and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.
"For
God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord
Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live
together with Him."
Peace and safety ? Vain hope for what is at odds with its Creator. As to the
spirit of rebelliousness, in man, buoyed by the devil, energised by culture,
backed by misled academia most often: there
is virtually no limit to its aspiration, no hold on its arrogance, no brake to
its arrogations, no shame in its USE of political power to promote its wares,
no point in its pretensions, and no end to its mischief except the destiny of
damnation, where it quite simply belongs. It is for this reason, not least,
that Christ quite distinctly indicated that HE DID NOT PRAY FOR THIS WORLD!
It was for those in it, not that diseased and soon to be deceased system, on
whose account He gave prayer, focussing on those who should come and had come
into the kingdom; while looking that any should believe and so receive the
inimitable gifts of the grace and friendship of God Almighty, seen in the
face, found in the person of Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and
forever, immutable in glory: as becomes Him who is "I AM"!
There is the delicacy of delicacies, the Lord in whom His people have
delighted, with the river of the water Life streaming in the midst, and the
Lamb the Temple and the Light, eternal truth, gracious in disposition as in
Revelation 7:13-17, illimitable in holiness, Creator of all (Revelation 21:22-23,
22:1). Here is the temple and here is the light (Revelation 21). As it is, so
it will be; and as it has commenced, so will it be consummated, but let us
pause to consider the delicacy of that tableau in Rev. 7:
"Then one of the elders
answered, saying to me,
'Who
are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?'
"And I said to him, 'Sir, you
know.'
"So he said to me,
'These
are the ones who come out of the great tribulation,
and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore
they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night
in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them.
They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat;
for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them
and lead them to living fountains of waters.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.' "
Macho-man, super-man devotees and denizens in that depth - for it is no height
at all, but imaginary flights, in fact zestfully zooming to the mines of
malady - they have to assert themselves, their culture, their religious
preference, their this or their that, but the objective and manifest living
God, from Him they turn as sheep before the sheep dog, unwilling to find the
desired gate, as if drugged, demented, sundered from their place. What to them
is an awkwardness and perhaps a desire not to be herded, is in man an aweseom
omission and desire not to know God! Gods who can be handled, manipulated,
controlled are fine, an augmentation of life; but the God of creation brings
fear to many a heart, and pride soars like a balloon in search of barbed wire,
though it knows it not.
The spirit of unbelief, the travail of dis-faith, the renegacy from the
royalty which is God's own, this has by this time had its day, with its
Babylon, its Rome, its flush with the newly freed fervour of the beast, its
false prophet to epitomise millenia of pretence, its systems of controls; and
its devil, that Satan, that deceiver, receives at last, his just deserts, his
desert where his aridity may burn.
His way of error, path of pride, discipline of deceit, delight in deviousness,
it is gone as we move on in our raised Valley, to the Summit Divine, heaven
itself. Gone is the gyration of evil gimmicks, and the whole dynamic of the
devil.
We see then the last of the scope of its power, the duration of its
derivative devilries, the sham of its shamelessness and the hold of its
arresting force, which enslaved man, making of him a chattel for its
aspirations, a prisoner for its puny dreams. Indeed, its great religious
type, Rome, became a cage for every foul bird (Revelation 17). What a
litany as the place is opened up preparatory to judgment, as seen in Rev.
18:2. It has become, the text declares,
To be sure it is
mystery Babylon that is on the forehead of the 'harlot' (17:5), but it is
centred at the time of Rev. 17, no less in Rome, for so it is
specifically identified (Rev. 17:9); and this is the story of its own peculiar
departure by fire, from the global scene of power and scurrying, hurrying,
worrying and not tarrying for the truth. Let us expand on this situation a
little.
This harlotry towards God has been settled as we
have seen, in its death mask position, as ROME quite explicitly; but its
MYSTERY aspect as in Revelation 17, this has been that admixture of faithless myths
and dreams which came to a height in the city of Babylon, duly destroyed and
humbled to the mounds, and proceeded to the Rome which went on, with its
Romanism. Therefore the fourth and final empire predicted in Daniel 7, Daniel
2, has indeed proceeded in many forms, partly strong and partly broken,
as Daniel equally prescribed from the mouth of the Lord (cf. SMR pp.
902 - 911).
Indeed, it is marvel of prophecy that this has been so, that that great city,
that concept of Empire about it, that portion of Europe that the Roman Empire
held, has so amazingly continued its thrust and lust. When you consider
not only the Holy Roman Empire, and its unholy manipulation of kingdoms and
papal decrees and directives concerning invasions and the like, not entirely
missing even by World War I (cf. SMR pp.
921ff.), or for that matter in its own diplomatic but powerfully
influential manner, in World War II (cf. SMR pp.
955,
968 - 969, *9,
921); and when you
further consider the outreach of Europe in the Portugese, German, Spanish and
Belgian hinterlands, not to mention that of Great Britain in its empire on
which allegedly the sun never set, a Britain indubitably part of that former
Empire, Daniel's fourth and final one; and when to this you look at the
movement to aggregation and European Union, there is an awesome seeming
appearance to this broken and yet continuing concept: the FOURTH. As it was to
be, so it has been, and so it is, and as it is, it is becoming more and more
the integral reality forecast FOR THE END of the AGE!
That Empire, or
beast, religious, secular, carnal, it has not ceased (cf. SMR pp.
955ff., 904ff.,
886ff.. 924ff.); but it ceases
near the end, literally burnt up (Rev. 18) as Revelation unfolds what is to
be; and its cessation has phases, in the loss of the harlot, the presence of
the false prophet and the three frogs from
his mouth, which spread spiritual vanity and unreason (Revelation 16), and
their determinate end
( see TMR Ch. 8 at frogs).
The spirit of delusion and deceit, devilish, degraded, debased, debasing, it
comes to go.
What then ? Let us rehearse what we have found and see it in the light
of the entire word of God.
Rome took the sceptre of infamy, in the form of Romanism then, as Revelation
17-19 makes all too clear, and it moved towards its appointed end, its
aggregations and spiritual companions in tune; and then on its demise, the
vauntings of more direct tilts at the Lord, thrust on like demented Don
Quixotes, to the Revelation 19:19
declaration!
Alas, there is little that is jocular in this!
As to this evil dynamic, this harlotry, this unholy holiness and unreal
religiosity, Rome received it, and in turn dallied with
it, held hands, and participated in the very spirit of its illiberal
liberalism.
In this, it has been vaunting itself above the word of God, both written and Eternal;
for as John 1 tells us (On Bible Translations 17,
n 34), GOD was the Word. The beginning and the end IS God (Revelation
1:8). What created ALL things, the whole category of creation, is UNCREATED of
necessity! This is statedly the Lamb, in this book of Revelation. There is
NONE OTHER received or acceptable for rule or mastery (Matthew 23:8-10),
whether a beast dressed as a lamb, a false prophet or a kingdom of misrule
where the beast's final form is revealed.
It is the LORD ALONE to whom man must come. Whether Rome, or beast, or false
prophet, or spirit of delusion, that is all vain: there is ONE God, and ONE
Lord and ONE faith (Ephesians 4:4). What is other, is alien.
It is not to Peter, not to a Pope, not to a False Prophet, not to a chewer and
spitter out of the word of God, not to a tradition, not to an admixture, not
to a regime, post-Rome but not post-4th kingdom: it is to none of these man is
designed to come. It is to the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh
that man must come, and ANY other option is designed, destined and directed to
the fiery finale which is the ultimate requisite for rubbish. What rubbishes
the truth, alas, is rubbish. It has no truth in it.
There is no other God, from the beginning, nor is there any to compare in the
presence of the Almighty (Psalm 89:6). NONE in the heavens can be compared to
the Lord, nor share His name, nor be with Him at the beginning (John
1:1), when all
creation was made, so that NOTHING was made without the Word (John 1:3), the
inventor of the created category!
Those who want
to have Him a mere creature, therefore would have Him make Himself, before He is even there to do it,
a mere beginning of the figments of folly which arrest the declining hearts of
many. Such is the way of many of the sects. Those who want Him to be conceived
as God, and yet to share the mastery, are merely inventing what is not God,
and worshipping their own creation, using a name above every name as an
adjunct to themselves, their wares and their presumptuous prescriptions. Those
who would have new gospels begotten from a church, call them traditions or
revelations or whatever other term appeals, accretions, additions, even a
spirit or whatever: they but deceive themselves.
It is HE or nothing.
The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10), and it is
not an inventory of invented Jesus creations to which this refers, but to the
One whom the apostles saw and heard (Acts 1), and to His immutable Gospel,
everlasting and sure (Galatians 1, Revelation 14:6).
All these things come to pass as prescribed, that many may wrestle
vainly to find rest,
restless
in their shame, agile in spiritual necrosis, joining in the harlotry of
Babylon in
its mystery form; and also that many may rest in their Lord, who IS Lord, the Lord
of glory who took the cross of shame: whose name stands alone from all
innovation of form, format or formula.
Such deceptions have had a long history and
long in history has been the occupancy of "mystery Babylon" by Rome. This
however is merely a matrix for the finale! As it unwinds, it is not alone; for
the quota of the saints, the cleavage of the Christians, the church of the
living God, not in idolatrous confusions or pretentious profusions, but in
faith, where it is, by His word, where it is received (John 17:8-12): this
continues like clouds above the earth. Inseparable until its call comes
(Revelation 11:12), and having obeyed the call to leave the Babylonish
battalions (Revelation 18:4, cf. Romans 16:17), the body of Christ, called for
its mission to be complete, continues till its time comes, saying, Come,
Lord Jesus! Come! (Revelation 22:17-21, I Corinthians 16:22).
The stakes mount at the time left grows smaller, like the sand in an
hour-glass, reluctantly passing on the last grains, below. We have found that
Rome, at last rejected, is surpassed with the false prophet and the
beast with its now bare back; yet its ways have been an ultimate essence.
Yes, we have seen that: But consider man, so pathologically twisted, so sadly
arrested, so chained! What a creation he is and has been!
God did not make a series of robots. He did not so clamp the wings of the
flight power of man to his side that he could neither invent nor mimic, if he
had the mind for it, or that he must fail to ridicule, mock or disregard the Lord Himself, like children miming in offensive
derogation, their teachers, hunching and huffing and rolling the eyes in
ridicule, or smugly ignoring their presentations.
He made people in His own image, as stated from the FIRST, and shown to the
LAST. That is, mankind CAN, is so constructed that he MAY, elect
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to imitate
God in a ludicrous imposture if he will;
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to run the earth as though he himself with his puny beginnings of
comprehension tickling his vanity,
had
made it; or
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to seize in the arms of adulation, his own person as if it were in some way understood and
derivative
not from the arch-power of the Creator, but from its specific
omission, as if thought and power
and concept and order and program and
liberty itself, could be achieved by nothing much at all,
and that nothing much by
nothing at all, in a manner of thought which has nothing of rationality,
so
that it all comes to nothing.
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However, on the WAY to that nothing, which is in fact anything but nothing,
but rather devastating judgment, there is something so specious and hideous,
so unenlightened, so stricken with the suavity of the sophist while striking
with the thrust of an adder, that the end is looming like a bomb, to
which the sizzling lead is now so near that you sense the tension!
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IS IT SURPRISING that this is precisely where man is coming ? in injustice,
lying,
pretence, offensiveness, cruelty, misrepresentation, theft of ideas, lust for
power, lust to rule others,
platitudinous substitutes for thought dressed as if ethics,
based on desire, itself based on vacuity,
while corruption rises like a fountain of poison,
set in lustrous surroundings, smelling of sulphur ?
Is it surprising that after millenia of spiritual mumps and grumps, deceits
and delusions,
efforts to rebuild Christ with mere imaginations, to make over the crucified
One,
that God should act, divesting this pleasant earth of its protections, and
allowing the follies of
thought to find themselves in the less fanciful realm of disorder, such as
they love in theory, and
then increasingly are permitted to find in practice, as they "eat the fruit of
their doings"!
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While all this transpires, in the more directly arena of confrontation with
God, there is the play with
magic, as in organic evolution and its many earthy companions, religious or
other, with what is misnamed, mismatched with fact (cf.
Aviary of Idolatry, the
Highway to Hell); and there is the flirtation with folly,
as miseducation adds to the follies of the fathers, in the ears of the children,
who, misformed and misshapen
duly come, to be corrupted by vacuity. It is here that wildness roams and
nothing gives place to ANYTHING! whether in name or reality. As in the days of
Elijah, they call on a power, on an idol, on what is simply not there, and
ignore the One who has caused man to be, so that in liberty he might deny if
he will, all he is; or do something far better.
What then ?
Not content with inviting doom, they pre-dispose their children.
There are tirades and there is tyranny, there is imprisonment, of
which the efforts of the Inquisition with its dungeons and torture irons is
merely an illustration; for the souls of men are put in prison, and that
either willingly or through weakness under duress of the clammy cultures which
they invent and esteem.
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There has been imperious
imperialism in Romanism,
but now there is flirtatious seduction, for the
mystery of Babylon.
It grows towards the day of its coming culmination.
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Babylon, though clearly sited, enlarges itself into space. It moves on many
sides, this vamping of the souls of men, carried out with many who are
in the mystery expansion section of the matter, performing the same thing in their
'independent' streams, actually no less forlorn that the city itself, since
their presumption against the power, purity and purpose of God is no less in
the end. In that climate, indeed, you either COME as you are asked, BELIEVE as
you see at last the truth, and FOLLOW the Lord and therefore His word as His own,
which is written and immovable (cf. Matthew 5:17ff., Galatians 1): or you
invent and combine and synthesise and enjoy yourself with all the liberty of
those oppressed, though the life of the Lord Himself was given to deliver you.
The book of Revelation, in its constant recourse to the SUMMITS, keeps all
things in perspective, in their ultimate simplicity. This gives meaning to
man and to his earnest worries about the earth and the climate and the wars
and the psychological conundrums which follow from the pretence that God did
not make him: so that in a large, involved, convoluted and corrupted mass he
awaits the final controls of the infamous, which having chewed up what it may
of mankind, then seeks a consummation in corruption, as if itself Lord.
From the FIRST, this was the character of the deception of the devil (Rev.
20:2-3, Genesis 3), and to
the last, it is the pre-occupation of mankind, to BE what it is not, to KNOW
what it cannot: to act as God, beside Him, and to RULE as he cannot, since misrule
knows no rule; and that in fact, it is the prescription of the devil for the
current, the contemporary generation, which degenerates before our eyes, into
a ruin which is to be rubble. This is to be seen in the light of Romans
1:17ff., and its tracing of the regression of the rebellious, who do not care
to retain God in their knowledge, and whose ways become so like those of
today, that it is like a millenium in advance news item. It does not make
pleasant reading ? But then, neither do the newspapers which report what
fulfils it all.
Who would not understand such simplicity! Who cannot see the prescribed
symptoms of this pandemic as they force themselves with violence onto the
realm of one's sight! IT IS IN ESSENCE AS ONE WOULD EXPECT, AND AGAIN, IT IS
PRECISELY AS FORETOLD*1,
REASON AND REVELATION, CONSCIENCE AND COMMAND ALIKE IN THEIR TESTIMONY.
Excuse there is none; ESCAPE however there is, in returning with humility and
horror at sin, to the Lord, in seeking and finding His mercy which is in
Christ, the One who of the time before Abraham, could say, I AM!
It is to the Lord who as man has
provided that divine elevator, free and sure, to heaven, by taking in His own
self, the sin, and rising in His own self to His former eternal estate, the
Redeemer, taking the resurrected body with Him, to be glorified, the very
vanquisher of death, by removing its ground, for faith to receive, from His
account!
That may receive relatively few in percentage terms (Matthew 7:15ff.); but it
does receive many in absolute terms (Matthew 26:28). Thus, as in the book of Revelation, He receives at last His own bride, the
believers, and comes with them, duly identified as in Revelation 19, in
judgment. They are no small crew!
It is all clear. Metaphors there may be; but all this means is that there is no symbolism about the meaning of those
metaphors. If you say, I have an iron hand! to be sure it does not mean that
your hand is made of metal; but then again, it does not mean that you lack a
hand, that is power, or that it lacks force!
It is necessary occasionally at least, to think thoughts that are real, not
surreal, and not to take a trip with erratic irrelevance, but to face the word
of God. It is indeed, in the end, necessary, not only to tune in to what it is
saying, but to FOLLOW Him whose it is, and to find IN HIM, what God has for
you, and what you are to do for Him.
He did not make man to be an otiose oddity, but an effectual servant and even
a clear-hearted friend, like Abraham. You cannot be friends with Him whom you
detest, whose word you divest, whose ways you suggest are but for a moment, to
be torn from His breast, and still in His name, act on some innovatory
conception, the faith altered irremediably.
The current Babylonian battering of truth has only one end. The book of
Revelation shows what it is, in some detail, both in those of the Valleys
which are in the end, never to be elevated, and in the fields borne aloft,
where are to be found heroism and courage, where there is faith which works
because life acts, where there is heard testimony that is truth, because the
word of God IS truth (what would you expect, that a creation could contrive to
find it, outside the mind of his own Maker!).
There are those who if need be, are even slain for the testimony of truth and
for the blood of the Lamb, and who in any case keep to it, since they KNOW
their Shepherd, and false ones are plainly ludicrous, lacking power, purity
and commission! (Revelation 12:11). Their time comes, for the world has had
long to show every option, every of them one faced by THIS ONLY alternative, one at a time
falling down before it: but wounded, seeking to rise. Is it any wonder this
world shudders ?
What is to be envisaged from the principles of the Bible, is what is to
be seen; and what is found is what is written, as men walk this globe,
wilfully avoiding its purpose, to strive in vain and to see it rot.
What does not rot is reality, and where it is to be found is where it has
SHOWN itself to be, verifying with passion, in deeds of compassion, operating
in precision, with deeds of power, always fulfilling to the uttermost what is
written, right to the landslides of lordliness, by which man at the end, makes
a minting of false prophets, with the coin of corruption, amid fears and
terrestrial devastations, always trusting characteristically in himself,
always worrying, increasingly hurrying, flurrying like snow flakes falling in
the wind, melting as the sun rises. And it both does and will rise!
This frantic erraticism is no place for man, and he knows it; but if he WILL not repent, then
made in the image of God, that is both his glory and his shame. He may so act;
but if he does, it is an illusion which, like imagining you lack cancer when
its thrusting tendrils colonise in brain and vital organs, unheeding your
illusion, has the tang of death.
This then is the final operation, and it is available, this being born of God
( I John 3). It is then that the cancers are thrust to one side, and
health is given its full scope, not in ignorant dream, but proceeds with the
intensity of acuity and actuality; for the test is sure, and faith is not left
to be idle, but meets its challenges. The exposure of what man is, the testing
of his life, this is not a formality, but a final function of life.
Thus does Peter make it clear (I Peter 1:3-12):
"Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to
a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled
and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
who are kept by the power of God
through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time.
"In
this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be,
you have been grieved by various trials,
that the genuineness of your faith, being much more
precious than gold that perishes,
though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor,
and glory
at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
whom having not seen you love.
"Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you
rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your
faith - the salvation of your souls.
“Of
this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully,
who prophesied of the grace that would come
to you,
searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ
who was in them
was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ
and the glories that would follow.
"To
them it was revealed that, not to themselves,
but to us they were ministering the things which now have
been reported to you
through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy
Spirit
sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into."
We have, then, looked at the later chapters
of Revelation in terms of Valleys and Summits, Action and Perspective, and
seen the merging at times of the latter into the former, as it is applied;
and found that there may even be action which has its immediate outcome in
the Valley. We have seen that the Valley is in the end, not more; but its
work was done in time, before its results, its fruits were to be seen in
Eternity, where the Lamb is both Light and Temple.
Let us now revert to the earlier parts of
the book of Revelation, with Valleys and Summits in mind.
C
- SOME EARLIER REVIEW
IN THE
PERSPECTIVE, PERFORMANCE ALTERNATION
At the first, in the book of Revelation, we move from the Valley to the
Summit, as we meet John and then find his revelation from the Lord, who
manifests Himself to Him, with depiction of what is to be given, the things to
come. These are to take place quickly, without delay, the Greek phrase
indicates. It must of course be read in the biblical perspective, as in II
Peter 3:8-10, where developments that to us may seem slow, in fact have a
powerful meaning and majesty, which is displayed; for beside eternity, this is
a ripple.
It will also be but short in retrospect, no doubt, to those who at last find
so great a work done, as the testimony to the coming of the Son of God, from
eternal domain, to the life of man, in order to bring the latter to the place
where his life should be lived, in the manifest presence of God; yet not
without trial, for there is no insincerity there! It may indeed be that it
will not seem too long to those who despite the nearly two millenia, a mirror
image very nearly of the time from Abraham to Christ, the epoch of Israel as
the standard bearer of the faith, have not closed with Christ, rebellious to
the end.
In Revelation 1, then, we find that the revelation of the source of the deposition to John is
this: it is from the First and
the Last who as in Isaiah 44:6 is God, besides whom, it declares, there is no
other.
Then we see the source particularised as the Son of Man, a name for Christ which He
gave to Himself, one found in Daniel 7 as the recipient of honour and majesty
and power and dominion for ever. There is NO OTHER NAME given to man by which
he must be saved (Acts 4:11-12), and the ONLY Saviour being God (Isaiah
43:10-11), this is that person of the trinity with whom we have at the outset
to do. He is the way out for the revelation of God, as His Word, and the way
in for the salvation of man, as His door (John 10:9), and that salvation is
final (John 10:27-28), finished and unduplicable by any man, means or spirit
(Galatians 1). It needs no human fulcrum: for like the first creation, so the
creation of a clean and a new heart, this too is a work of God Himself (II
Corinthians 5:17ff., John 3), wrought by His Spirit (cf. I Cor. 12:13, John
3).
The Alpha and Omega has already spoken in
1:8, and is now seen in His Declarative Word (Rev. 1:11 and for those a little
hard of hearing, 1:17): one God, and it is He, God the Son who is the
faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler of the kings of the
earth of which there is ONE, in the presence of His Father, robed in the
majesty of the triune,
definitively God from the language, the position, the power. We reach not to
the foothills, but to the mountain head, not to the emissaries, but to the
Lord God Himself (cf. John 20:27-29, where this realisation is a cardinal
principle for Christianity, at the mouth of Christ).
Then this Son having again declared Himself the First and the Last (Rev.
1:17, as in 2:8), the divine
signature from Isaiah, in the most exclusive possible context in that prophet
(Isaiah 44:6),
makes the matter divinely simple, declaring,
"I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive
forevermore. Amen.
And I have the keys of hell and death."
Here is He who can open and none shut, whom none restrains, and
here, then is God Himself, in His definitive expression, in authority over the
destiny of life (Isaiah 14:27).
WRITE! He says, to the apostle John.
In terms of Valleys and Summits, then, here we have started in
the Valley, by which one refers to the realm of
normal action in this world: we do it with John on the Lord's Day, the Sunday,
John in the
Spirit on that blessed day, commemoration of the resurrection and acme of
rest: and we find this commission, this authority, this authentication of
the deity of Christ and this transmission of His testimony to the apostle.
Chapters 2-3
Chapters 2-3 are in the Valley of
Church life ON THIS EARTH, quite simply, while yet they arise to the concept of
judgment and diagnosis with destiny. Hence they are a valley kind of chapters,
but the Summit
looms like a vast cloud with the sun shining, or the gloom unabated, as the
case may be, above. Again, by the Summit one means that whisking to the
celestial, where perspective is granted concerning the earthly scene, or
action impending is forecast.
Chapters 4-5
Chapters 4-5 take us most specifically to the Celestial Summit, the reality of
worship of the Creator of ALL THINGS (as in John 1) and the Initiating
Heavenly Process, by which the Lamb takes the scroll in which lie depicted the
coming events of which He spoke in Ch. 1. Such is the dramatic scene in Ch. 5.
Such however is the finality and drama
attached to this unrolling of the history to come, as if one were to see the
results of a laboratory work of many years, or the new work of some great
author, while here it concerns the immoveable work of the sovereign God, that there is at
first no one found who could unscroll it. It is too profound, judgments in it
too deep, it is so final that who would DARE to take hold of it, or to handle
the things of eternity!
Who but God the Son, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), just
as He is Himself the very Purchaser of eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12)!
Operating as the eternal word of the eternal God, increate (John 1:3), yet
having humbled Himself literally to the dirt for love, HE opens it. Let us
consider this one moment.
History is too pregnant, the ultimates too exalted, too gruesome or too
wonderful, to be finally exposed to every eye. Thus the delay to show the
eminence and authority of the Son (cf. John 5:19ff.). It is as in the transition from
Isaiah 41 to 42, or from 51:16 to 52, that there is NO ONE capable of handling
the ultimates of history, the necessities of sublime and infinite counsel, the
axes of humanity, to show it turning to its last. NONE, says Isaiah, NONE can
be found; but it is only when the eye turns to the Messiah in whom is the
Father's delight, only then that someone is found. NO MAN is found; but the
incarnate God AS man, He is found (cf. I Timothy 3:16).
Is it forever, this scroll, then, to lie unopened ? Is the fire too hot, the
end too calamitous, the thing too awesome ? Not at all, as in Isaiah 51:16,
God has the answer, one prepared before He so much as made the earth (cf. with
Isaiah, see Revelation 13:8, Ephesians 1:4). It is
the LAMB who is found, the sacrificial offering of God by God to man as man,
the ONLY name as Saviour that there is. Just as the Messiah, the Servant, was found in Isaiah
42:1ff., after the lack amongst men, of such one, so the provision of God
comes, as it was symbolised and typified to Abraham, at the potential
sacrifice of Isaac, when GOD HIMSELF provided a lamb! (Genesis 22:8-13).
The "lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world"
(John 1:29) had to come, though many are they who avoid His offer, and do not
use His glorious function.
He had to come where no one
has had his home from eternity, from the Creator Himself, who is the ONLY GOD
THERE IS (cf. Isaiah 44:24, 45:18ff., Colossians 1:15ff., John 1:3). Having
created, He now paid for the re-creation, the salvation.
Like a
solar flare, in one respect, moving from the interstices of the great orb, so
is this finger of God, this expression with all His incandescence and power
(Hebrews 1:3),
laden with His power, moved in His expression, showing Him forth. HOW did He
show Him forth ? It was in compassion, in companionship, in correction, in
concern, in healing, in helping, in answering, in resolving mysteries, in
confuting false shepherds, in paying for sin, in disrupting death on time, in
three days as pre-announced for centuries (cf. SMR Ch. 6), and constantly
affirmed by Himself when on earth. It was not enough to be resurrected, just
as it was not deemed sufficient for all practical purposes, to come; but the
announcement was made both of the time He would be in the grave, as to body,
and the date at which it would occur, as to history (More Marvels
Ch. 4).
Thus, in Revelation 5, we see acclaim when HE comes to take the scroll which
will undo history and let it flow to its fateful, but in much, glorious
destinies.
Praise comes
quickly as this ultimate sacrifice comes with ultimate sovereignty in the
ultimate deity that is His, and blessing, honour, glory and power come to Him
in association both in the throne and in the reception of the unique accolades
reserved for deity (Rev. 5:13). Praise mounts to the heavens, as this Lamb who
shares the very glory of God (Rev. 5:13), who REFUSES to give His glory to
another (Isaiah 42:8), but rejoices to load it on this His Son, who though He
was in the form of God, yet took in humiliation out of love, the form of a man
(Philippians 2). His worthiness is unlimited (Rev. 5:12).
Chapter 6
From this SUMMIT, to give meaning and understanding and perspective: at once we move to the VALLEY of
Ch. 6.
Here seals in sequence are opened,
seals laden with rebuke for mankind, as in multitudinous multiplicity, making
himself foreign to God. Piece by piece the information is to come, and so the
movements of the dynamic called history, are released. It is to mankind; and
what a crowd is this, and what pathos that man should so adroitly, led by
deception, so lower himself, when the heights call from the voice of his
Maker, and the grace of his Redeemer. So the seals come, and some will
respond, but they are few (cf. Matthew 7:15, Rev. 9:20ff.)
The first seal
(Rev. 6:2) is of special significance as its
whiteness and conquest in the light of the symbolism suggest the immediate
spread of Christianity as in fact happened, with rapid force and grand zeal in
the civilised world. Amidst calamity to come, there is the cry of the martyrs,
in the 5th seal (6:9ff.), who learn that there is more yet, and that the cone of
history is not about to be truncated, however 'speedily', and however much
'without delay', its terminal events are to transpire.
Chapter 7
Then back to the SUMMIT we go, in Ch. 7, where we see both the symbolic
depiction of the chosen Jews, 12 times 12 of them in super-abundance, and this
a thousand times, and then the statedly innumerable Gentile hordes of
Christians, exposed to view from their celestial heights and resting place,
like a harvest of holiness, crying with a LOUD voice,
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"Salvation belongs to our God who
sits on the throne and to the Lamb."
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It is a joint operation of those two persons of the trinity, who alone is
Saviour, whose alone is salvation, who applies it by the Spirit (as in John
16:8ff.).
We remember again, from Isaiah 43:10-11, that ONLY God is saviour, just as
there is no other name by which men must be saved (Acts 4:11-12). From all
sides, and in all directions, the scripture says one thing from one God, and
its mouth is most clear (cf. Proverbs 8:8).
The pastoral felicity in the Lamb in the Celestial Summit is shown with great
tenderness in Rev. 7:16-17, as one would expect from the GOOD SHEPHERD, whom
God promised PERSONALLY to be and to become (Ezekiel 34) and as whom Christ
identified Himself (John 10).
Chapter 8
In Ch. 8, we move, first on in the summit for a moment, with the 7th seal, which
occasions half a holy hour of silence in heaven, such is its pregnancy with
the child of coming events. Then jarringly to earth we go, to the valley
which is low indeed! Then we see the power of effectual prayer like incense
poured forth (Rev. 8:3), and then ... ACTION!
Then trumpets sound, associated with vast and systematic judgment on a macro, or
even giga-scale, upon the earth.
Chapter 9
Ch. 9 simply continues this scene of terrestrial judgment, very much in the
VALLEY. Spiritual evils take on dynamic forms, and the non-repentance of man
in the valley is most conspicuous despite this augmentation, this
amplification of the curse into its full complement (Rev. 9:20-21). Impenitence is
impenetrable, but some will be saved, as we see as we progress, and saw in
that glorious
SUMMIT
scene in Ch. 7 before.
TRIAD
Chapters
10-12
Now we move to SUMMIT TRIAD in Chs. 10-12. While awaiting the seventh trumpet
of desolation, we come to the celestial scene of an angel clothed in a cloud,
obscuring somewhat his power and task, but with a rainbow set on his head, to
remind us that mercy is the ultimate, and love is the context and that though
judgment is to come (despite any apparently excessive period, as in II Peter
3:9), it is as a long-delayed finale. It is one reached only where mercy first
has paid ALL for deliverance, and that one which was free and loving
(cf. Rev. 21:6), compassionate and wonderful, and performed by this same Lamb
who is Ultimate Lord. The judgment is executed by the very One sent for
salvation, and none can find it except this is disregarded (John 3:19).
It is therefore judgment which appropriately BELONGS to the Lord, as Jonah
also saw! (in his own private preliminary version of judgment, swallowed up IN
the sea, but not BY the sea - Jonah 2). It is not,
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"this hurts me more than you!",
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but it is almost as if instead this were being said:
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"I have already borne all needed to deliver you, and since to you heaven is
hell, because of your pride, folly, rejection slip syndrome, alas, truth
cannot die that you may live, and you must face judgment; for the very love of
God is immutable, and His purity is bliss, and there is no other way but
this."
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That is the scriptural tenor of it.
No more delay! At last, and it now seems fast, events are to proceed (Rev. 10:6).
Indeed TIME ITSELF in our
terms, is soon to be dispersed! John EATS the book, so that it is assimilated
within (Rev. 10:9), and it is sweet in his mouth as is the word of God to the
believer, but its bitterness, that of the cross of Christ refused, and so
suffered by unrepentant sinners, is to be felt also! MORE is to be
prophesied, and so John proceeds on the expansive task, so swift, and yet with
much to perform for in this setting, a thousand years are as a day!
Chs. 11-12 are super-summits, in which the whole epoch of
Gentile dominion over Jerusalem is sketched in, using the arithmetical
symbolism derived from Daniel *2,
and this of course fortifies greatly the understanding of Christ's prediction
that Jerusalem would in fact be trampled under the foot of the Gentiles UNTIL
their day, their phase in the Jew-Gentile two-step, was over. It is now over,
as you see, and could see with some clarity since 1967, and the writhing of
this earth with false prophets and foolish misuse of atomic powers since that
time is becoming not a thing of control, but uproar! The terminus of this
phase is like a craze!
The further SUMMIT depiction of perspective proceeds, as the two witnesses to
the truth are killed, those who have held forth for the same
arithmetically indicated period as that of the entire Gentile
dominion over Jerusalem! It is the church of the living God which is indicated
by these, as was the entirety of the princely, priestly structure of Jerusalem
and Israel in the original of this olive tree symbolism, in Zechariah 4.
This in our time of course signifies the falling of
the major denominations, the arising of the sects of folly, the rebels who use
the name and at times the very uniform of Christ in order to attack Him, and
the chief is Rome as we have already seen (cf. SMR pp.
729ff.,
946ff., Biblical Blessings
Ch. 2); but hers is not the ultimate in this scenario of the fallen, as
she is statedly to be displaced Rev. 17:14-16: and the false prophet is to
have his more MODERN FLING (in process, and awaiting its consummation
shortly! cf. News 121, 122,
82, SMR pp. 684ff.,
857ff.).
These witnesses (cf. News 87, End-note
1; Acme, Alpha and Omega
Ch.
5
) are the actual Church, the two as required for testimony (John
8:17ff.), as we see from Zechariah, where the olive tree terminology is placed, now deployed in action!
Thus the formal power of the British (Protestant) Empire is gone, the name of
the game on all sides of the power is delusion (cf. The gods of naturalism
have no go!), and folly froths at the mouth in its hurry to intimate,
intimidate and mislead the children of mankind. Error plays with sex in its
offices, same sex couples co-ordinate in massive effrontery against the Maker
of all things, and disaffection from morality brings its inevitable shame,
which becomes a mockery, and a means of massed murder, as in Zimbabwe, as it
was in Cambodia, in Vietnam, as it is in China, as it has been in the Sudan,
and growingly in the murder fields of Africa, and the drug clashes in South
America; and this proceeds, while typhoons rush and waves perform their appointed tasks (Luke
21:11,25), the predicted era of horrid sights coming with them, as TV expresses the inglorious
default in our globe, through sin.
Before the end, when it seems almost as if it is possible to deride the
'fundamentalist' (an unfortunate but useful term for the devil), and divide
the churches until they are in the main fallen, when death seems assured for
the Two Witness, the Church, yet that people of the Lord arises, fearless and triumphant.
This it does despite
the galling and even gruesome things to come, which we shall see in Rev. 13,
before called aloft,
it departs, in the Rapture of Matthew 24, I Thessalonians 4.
COME UP HERE! is the cry, and they go as foretold (Rev. 11:12).
Now we see the importance of recognising the SUMMITS and the VALLEYS
especially; for this summit, Rev. 11-12, is giving a cardinal perspective, and to that extent is not
limited entirely to the particular valley about it. We see a THEME and pursue
it in its integrity, either because it is apt for the current understanding of
the valleys before us, or for later valleys, or for themes associated with
valleys or future summits. It is exposition, in situ. This type of thing, this
species of event is given a tracing here.
At last, now the 7th trumpet sounds, this orientation being now concluded, so
that we as reading of it, can understand.
At its sounding, and it is in a sense like a reveille, for the camp is in a
new situation, and it is almost like a departure blast, a song of the redeemed and
for them and of them, something beautiful occurs. There is the glorious statement of what has now been
accomplished. It is this:
"The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of
our Lord and of His Christ,
and He shall reign forever and ever!"
There
is only one whose reign is eternal, and that is God, who with and through His
Word, does so rule (Isaiah 14:27). If you do not grasp this, or will not, it
is then NOTHING to do with Christianity, or being or becoming a Christian,
since this is its centre and meaning, that God is with us, and thus is He with
us, through the DEFINITIVE Christ, the express image of His person, of Him who does
not give His glory to another (Isaiah 42:8), and whom none so much as resembles
for comparison (Ps. 89)!
Thanks come from the elders as this vast harvest is taken in and this
consummation of so much for so long is now safely in hand. The people of God
are OUT. It is like the opening of the death camps of the Nazis by the
invading Allies in this, that the persecution for them is now over and the
endurance test is concluded, the Lord they served is now with them manifestly,
as they with Him. Thus have we proceeded in this phase and aspect of the
whole, to its very conclusion, seeing it as we look down from the summit to
the entire scope of history. As our eyes linger on this consummation, thus
surging into the scene for the completion of our understanding at this phase,
another field comes before us.
The SUMMIT of Ch. 11, continues with another view, that of Rev. 12, as if a rocket ship now on the one
side of the moon, looks down and beams to earth its messages, and then does
something similar from the other side of it! Again, it is a vast perspective,
going right back to the time of Jesus Christ on earth, in this rather like Ch.
11, and it proceeds in the midst of the topic of persecution, till our eyes
see the distance scene receding into finality at last, as Ch. 12 ends.
Now as this Ch. 12 opens, we see the part in this of the devil: himself a most active and acrid personality who
is interested in numbers and revolt and rebellion and challenge to the very
heart of the throne of God, a substitute for Christ, who would INVADE GOD and
seize His goods and persons and people, rather than EXPRESS Him and honour the
salvation He provided in His love. Like many too fond of him, he sees no need
for salvation: it is for others. As to him, it all depends on him, his is the
role, and his is the mscreancy, this non-creator who would control the works
of Him who created.
This devilishness is force instead of faith, and riot instead of regality. As
to this disastrous personality, the Satan, the adversary, the king of rioters
and potentate of rebels, he is thrown out from the very precincts of
heaven, with many angels, excluded as "the
accuser of our brethren", one who fiercely, and often in virtual frenzy,
seeks to overthrow all that is of grace before the face of God, with his
revilings and slanders.
Thrown out (cf. Luke 10:18-20), he is however by no means inactive. His
diabolical power
is countered entirely by that of the salvation of Christ (cf. I John 4:4,3:8,
Hebrews 2:14-15), but it is operative where it finds place; which is in much
of this unhappy because so afflicted globe, one afflicted in the abuse of
liberty and the misuse of love, leading to the judgments arising, and now
being enforced.
Angry at his humiliation and lowering, this evil devil, he continues his
lustful efforts, like a virus waiting for those not inoculated against him, or
not seeking such deliverance.
Like a spewer of floods (Rev. 12:15), the devil sends out from t he power of
evil after those who love the Lord; but the earth, in the Lord's mercy, is able to swallow up this
disagreeable swamp! Just as we saw in the beginning of this summit, the
12-fold woman, Israel (Rev. 12:1), give birth to Christ on this earth, herself
chosen for the repository of such a wonder, so we see the devil seek to kill
the child, and later as we read to the end of the Chapter, the persecution that
which follows from her (Rev. 12:17). This relates not to her rebellious phase,
but to her participation
as a twelve-tribed nation in providing the scriptures (as in Romans 9:1-6 precisely) and being the human
source place for Christ, to whom now all must come from Israel or any other
place, for salvation.
So it is that now we see in continuity (in terms of Romans 11,
as in the same olive tree, from which temporarily only, 'Israel' has been
lopped off), her 'children' being persecuted by the swamping endeavours of the
devil.
As to these, they are currently swamping many a university, college and
school, and where this has proved (amazingly) inadequate, then they swamp the
media in news and TV in radio and wherever else it can be hammered. They
thrust, they labour, they produce noise with this
banging of the belittlement of the Bible, of the only and living God, with this riot of reductionism, this Nature Bashing
spree (which is the substitute for 'Bible bashing', and a substitution now in
full and indeed flood flow - but the earth swallows it up still).
This, it is because God
is still available, livingly available, enabling the script to proceed; and His history is unfolding just as Revelation depicted,
and how it unfolds. The cyclotron, if you will, is finding its fund of evil
dynamics amid its resources, as the most deadly
accelerations of folly mount to the skies, as if to mock heaven itself: but
God is not mocked! He knows and ACTS, and delay there shall be no longer.
We may recall that Rev. 10:6 announced this in the midst of that far-ranging
summit, looking forward to the seventh trumpet with its glorious result as
noted. It is so, for
the time is near (as in Luke 21 with 21:24, in this pattern of history, with the Jews now
safely back in Jerusalem, and this no longer under the Gentile heel! though
how the Gentiles whine and growl about it!).
We should not, in retrospect, and here is a timely moment, forget that the two
witnesses were KILLED (as in China, as for so long in Russia, have so many
persons, some by guile and
spiritually as by sect and by other seduction, like so much mould and fungus, so many
parasites, seeking to take over the power of the word and work of the Lord).
Yet you CANNOT really kill them, those who are the people of the Lord; and so they arise! as in Revelation 11:11,
before the rapture. Like Master, like servant in this, for HE is the
first-fruits, and we who are left are the harvest when His dead body, shall we
arise (Isaiah 26:19), the dead in Christ first, and then those Christians who
remain yet alive on this earth (I Thessalonians 4, cf. I Corinthians
15:50ff.).
Now we reach the point where the celestial SUMMIT of 10-12 is past, and the VALLEY is
increasingly full of water!
Chapter 13
Let us put it mechanically:
Rev. 13 shows the screw being turned in this new inquisition, for the harlot
does not stay (Rev. 17:16-17, in a forthcoming valley), and the beast, the
fourth in its culmination, of Daniel, although undergoing some transformation,
like a snake shedding a skin, is taking over from the harlot, asserting its
internal and intrinsic power, for she was but an episode, however damning, and
proceeds without her (cf. Rev. 17:13-14). In Rev. 13, we find this, that
finance is to be controlled to the uttermost, meretricious marvels are to be
performed, astonishing those capable of deception, and
the beast gives breath to the image of the beast (13:15), in a sort of
devilish attempted parallel to the Lord giving breath to MAN, as in His own
IMAGE.
Here is the copy-cat aspect of the devil, the imitative aspect, as E.J. Young
liked to stress in his often delightful presentations! What however can he do,
this beast, this political-social-financial complex of dominating authority
and dehumanised deadness of spirit
? What sort of 'life' is to be found in the image of the beast (cf. News 5).
It cannot have morality, it cannot have life which is genuine, only a falsetto
copy, a fabricated deception, along with the other deceptions just noted
(Revelation 13:14).
Nevertheless,
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whether cybernetic, an implant, an export of force
on screens with
apparent sophisticated power through access to knowledge and data bases,
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whether through personality programmatics, which never reach liberty or
humanity,
but still are active and obedient to the beast,
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whether through a
man with access, or
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via an instrument with erzatz pseudo-humanity:
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it is all one
in the milieu of deception and self-aggrandisement, which is involved.
WORSHIP OR DIE! comes the same call as occurred in the Roman Empire days, as in
the Roman Catholic Inquisition days, within the day of the Holy Romans Empire, when people NOT in the service of the
truth, or in its interests, appallingly mocked it by their misuse of force to
enhance a useless heresy, to worship bread: as if Christ had committed suicide in the last
Supper, being true man with one body accordingly (Hebrews 2), and no one ...
noticed! (cf. SMR pp. 1088Dff.,
John 6:62ff.)
As it has been, so it is and if possible, because of its universality and
cutting off of apparent escape routes: it is worse! No wonder those rescued,
as seen in Rev. 14:4ff. are referred to as "virgins"; for the power of the
harlot to pimp for slaves is vast! So the beast has its own version of CONFORM
OR BE KILLED! This is entirely correlative to Rev. 20:4, in its stress on the
absence of culpable pollution, so that the physical word "virgin" gives the
sense of unspoilt.
How beautiful the reality of Rev. 20:4, where it moves specifically to
resurrection itself, that it is not only those "beheaded" as some translations
wrongly have it, but quite clearly "and those who not worshipped the beast"!
That is indeed the first resurrection, to mercy, of those who meet the Lord,
that of I Corinthians 15:50ff.. Both Gospel and the evil stamp have not
changed: the essentials remain. On this translation (cf. the NASA, American
and English Revised Versions) - see On Biblical Translations,
Ch. 4,
number 52.
There is a broadness in God's mercy, though it comes, like all good answers,
with the stringency of reality, as to where it may be found.
Meanwhile, from this partial parallel, we revert to our present passage in
Rev. 13-14.
Chapter 14
From this dire VALLEY in Rev. 13, we proceed to the SUMMIT in Rev. 14, where
in parallel to the designation of the 144,000 as symbolic of the Jewish
segment of the redeemed in Rev. 7, we now have another 144,000, obviously
symbolic of something else and parallel. What is it then that it is ? In terms
of the 'harlot' (cf. Ezekiel 16, 23) as designated an unfaithful 'wife' (cf.
Hosea - where the prophet, by divine command, married an ACTUAL harlot to
make the point unmissable, ineludable and in another sense, ineluctable),
these are they who have NOT moved to embrace other 'options'. Not for them
have been those delirious
fragments of the philosophy of man (cf. SMR Ch.
3 in contrast to Ch. 5), nor have these
been surreptitiously
embroiled in a vicious form and distortion of religion, one used to infect a Christian testimony, so defiling
from within, what cannot fail when it moves in its own integrity with the
Lord!
These are they who are moved out of the times of almost unspeakable
suffering, and come in the adornment of the innocence of the Lord, their Saviour, to heaven, out of the morass, the mess, the myths and the deaths just
imposed, as we saw in Ch. 13 preceding.
The everlasting Gospel is then sighted and sited (14:6), going inexorably,
indefatigably, unmitigated, untruncated, unintimidated, relentless from love,
indomitable from sovereignty of the Lord, sent in its glory from Him who IS
glorious; and the
message to FEAR GOD and GIVE GLORY TO HIM, is out, for the time of judgment is
come! This is like a submersion, and one needs to batten down that hatch, and
await with faith, the washings and bursting about one, save in the depths of
the controlling power of Christ. History after all is His, and its rigours are
within His grasp (Ephesians 1:11).
Babylon
is noted as going, for her hour has come at last! (Rev. 14:8). She is fallen!
Here is the precursor to what we learn in Rev. 16:19, with 18-19, to come. The beast
mixture is doubly intoxicating now, and so be reminded, it proceeds, that if
any drink of it, the result is appalling, for there is no remission to this
guilt, and the truth shames the shambles that result, unendingly (14:9ff.). Patience is
needed, not to capitulate (Rev. 14:12): it is gained from God, and those who are His will not
submit, since His law, it is
written in their hearts, and He whose they are, He sustains them; and they do not need to explore folly
to find its end, or be its butt! Peter himself slipped, but how he repented,
and with what bitterness, and how soon was he found on fire (Acts 2), in
confrontations (Acts 4-5), in prison for Christ, and brought out of it (Acts
5, 12).
The SUMMIT provides a new phase, as we se the reaping of the earth (Rev.
14:14ff.), and so from this celestial perspective post, we see these grand movements in
the spiritual history of man. It must always be remembered that apart from
sequenced events in their own outfit, like seals or trumpets or thunders (too horrible ? to be
annotated - 10:3-4), perspectives are not by any notation LIMITED to a particular
phase. You see this in Ch. 12 for example, when we go BACK to the birth of
Christ, and then ON to the endeavours until the END, of the Satan to engulf
the church! However, just as we saw earlier the 144,000 symbol of the reaped
saints, so now at this ultimate climate, we see the reaping of the other
harvest as in Matthew 13;39ff., 24:31). The way with weeds is ever one ... No
weed was ever given more scope, more opportunity ...
Vast is the result!
Chapter 15
Ch. 15 continues the SUMMIT conferments and conference, as it were, and now in
additional perspective, we see symbolically depicted, the holiness of God, the
praise where it is found in heaven, by His saints. We observe their marvelling
at His marshalling of all history and bringing in its consummation, the acme
of information, the culmination of meaning and the visitation of judgment of
One SLOW to wrath (Nahum 1:1-9).
Indeed, let us hear Nahum, who sees so much so briefly:
"The Lord
avenges and is furious.
The Lord
will take vengeance on His adversaries,
And He
reserves wrath for His enemies;
The Lord
is slow to anger and great in power,
And will
not at all acquit the wicked.
"The Lord
has His way
In the
whirlwind and in the storm,
And the
clouds are the dust of His feet.
He rebukes
the sea and makes it dry,
And dries
up all the rivers.
Bashan and
Carmel wither,
And the
flower of Lebanon wilts.
The
mountains quake before Him,
The hills
melt,
And the
earth heaves at His presence,
Yes, the
world and all who dwell in it.
"Who
can stand before His indignation?
And who
can endure the fierceness of His anger?
His fury
is poured out like fire,
And
the rocks are thrown down by Him.
"The Lord
is good,
A
stronghold in the day of trouble;
And
He knows those who trust in Him.
"But with
an overflowing flood
He
will make an utter end of its place,
And
darkness will pursue His enemies.
"What do
you conspire against the Lord?
He will make an utter end of it."
There has been a
long warning, a long working and a long day of mercy! Millenia have known it,
with the one message of the one God in its one and only way, fulfilled
constantly, applied continually to the hearts of the children of men, and now
for over two millenia, in the very midst of the Gentiles, its word spreading
over the globe like a torrential rain.
What then do we find ? It is that the Lord is
One who, though merciful to profundity, yet when once aroused, is not declining to deal where
mercy is rejected, and where truth, for so long mocked, will not be received. We see
what is the result where the EVERLASTING GOSPEL (Rev. 14:6 cf. Barbs
17, TMR Ch. 3), being despised, is like a
raft neglected in the surging torrent: where following HIS OWN refusal to omit
salvation, gained and provided at His own infinite expense, the case moves to
man refusing to include it, so freely given, to take to his safety (cf.
Hebrews 1:1-3, 2:1-3).
Thus, if man should then omit it at His own folly to receive this provision,
there is no more opportunity, but only a certain fiery looking forward
(Hebrews 10). Now
the FORWARD look in the prophetic eye, this has become the PRESENT for the
light of common day! This is it. Now those who said, God cannot
do evil or good! find that their mockery of this His mercy and patience,
after so long a time, is but mockery of themselves (cf. Proverbs 1, Zephaniah
1:12).
Then the time taken, the few millenia, becomes beautiful, sacred ... and
in itself, a further sign of mercy as II Peter 3:8-10 expressly indicates.