My Daily Bible Study - Revelation

[Frances]

Revelation 18

What does the text say? - John saw another angel come from heaven and the earth was illuminated by his Glory. He called out loudly that Babylon had fallen and become the place only for demons and a prison for very foul spirit, and a cage for every kind of unclean bird, for all nations are contaminated by the city’s immorality and luxury. Another voice from heaven advised all God’s people to leave the city to ensure they don’t share in her plagues and the destruction of God’s Judgement, for every luxury and evil deed will be matched by torment and sorrow as the plagues overtake her in one day, and she will be completely burned by fire, also all trade will cease, causing those who dealt in every kind of merchandise to mourn for their lost profits. God’s people will rejoice at this Judgement of God against evil. Then a mighty angel threw a huge boulder into the sea, saying that in like manner God will throw Babylon down and it will not be a centre of trade again because of the evil done there and the blood of God’s people everywhere.

Quote:- (David Pawson)”Very few realise that the famous ‘Hallelujah’ chorus in Handel’s Messiah oratorio is a celebration of the collapse of the world economy, the closure of stock exchanges, the bankruptcy of banks and the disruption of trade and commerce! Only God’s people will be singing ‘Hallelujah’ (which means Praise the Lord) on that day!”

[Frances]

Revelation 19

What does the text say? – Then John heard a great multitude in Heaven saying “Hallelujah! Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power belong to the Lord our God, His Judgements are true and just, He has punished the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, He has avenged the murder of His servants”, then they said the smoke from the city would rise forever. Then the 4 living beings and 24 Elders fell down and worshipped God on His Throne. Then a Voice came from the Throne sounding like many thunders, saying the Lord God omnipotent reigns and the marriage of the Lamb has come and His wife is wearing the righteous acts of God’s holy people. The angel quoted God saying “Blessed are those called to the marriage supper of the Lamb”. John was told to worship only God, not the angel. The essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus. Then John saw a white horse whose rider was called ‘Faithful and True’ and His name is the Word of God; an army followed Him, out of His mouth goes a two edged sword and He will rule the nations for He is King of kings and Lord of lords. All the kings of the earth and the Beast were gathered to make war against Him. Then the Beast and false prophet were captured and were thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, and all the rest were killed by the sword from His mouth.

[Frances]

Revelation 20

What does the text say? – Then John saw an angel coming from heaven with the keys to the bottomless pit and a chain, he seized the Dragon/the devil/Satan bound him for 1,000 years and threw him into the bottomless pit, which he shut and locked; after 1,000 years the dragon must be released for a little while. John saw thrones, and on them those who had been given authority to judge, and also the souls of those who had been martyred for their witness to Jesus and the Word of God when they refused to accept the mark of the Beast or worship his image; they lived and reigned with Christ for 1,000 years. After that the rest of the dead lived again as well, the 2nd death has no power over them. When Satan was released from prison he gathered a great army then surrounded God’s holy people and Jerusalem, but fire came from heaven and consumed them. Then the devil was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the false prophet and the Beast are. Then John saw a great white throne, and He from whom heaven and earth fled, and all the dead standing before Him who sat on the throne. The books were opened, and also the Book of Life, and everyone was Judged according to what was written in the books. Then Death and the grave were thrown into the Lake of Fire with those whose name was not in the Book of Life. The lake of fire is the 2nd death.

Quote:- (David Pawson)”The Lord does not reveal the future to satisfy our curiosity or give us superior knowledge but so we may prepare ourselves for our part in it. . . . There is in this passage a very clear distinction between the ‘1st resurrection’ and the resurrection of ‘the rest’ of the human race. The two events are separated by the entire ‘millennium’. And the two resurrections have two entirely different objectives. One is to reign with Christ, the other is to be Judged.”

[Frances]

Revelation 21

What does the text say? – The old heaven and earth was gone, then John saw a beautiful new Heaven and a new Earth come down from God. A voice proclaimed that God’s Home was now with His people, and that there will be no more sorrow, crying, pain, or death for He who sat on the Throne had made all things new; He is Alpha and Omega and will give the water of Life to everyone who is thirsty. Those who overcome will be God’s son and inherit all things, but the coward, murderers, immoral, idol worshippers, liars and sorcerers will go to the lake of fire and brimstone – which is the 2nd Death. John was taken in the Spirit to the new Jerusalem that has 12 gates, each named for a tribe of the children of Israel, 3 on each side. The foundations of the city are named after the 12 Apostles of the Lamb. The city is 1,400 miles long, 1,400 miles wide, and 1,400 miles high with walls 216 feet thick made of jasper, sapphire, agate, emerald, onyx, carnelian, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth and amethyst; the 12 gates were pearls and the streets were of pure gold, the Lamb is the city’s Light and the Glory of God illuminates it. Nothing evil will ever enter the city, only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Quote:- (David Pawson)”(the Books) will not be a selection of the commendable occasions . . but a complete record of the deeds and words of a whole lifetime, from birth to death. We may be justified by faith, but we shall be Judged by works. If this was all the evidence to be considered it would damn us all to the 2nd Death. Thank God . . there is the Lamb’s Book of Life. Those who are ‘in Christ’ are listed there, those who have lived and died ‘in Him’, those who have been joined to and have remained in this ‘true vine’ (John 15:1-8). They have thus borne the fruit that attests their continuing union with Him. The fruitfulness is proof of their faithfulness. Their names have been put into this Book when they came to be ‘in Christ’, when they repented and believed ‘from the ‘creation of the world’ (which) simply means ‘through the whole of human history’ . . . and their names have not been ‘erased’ . . . because they have overcome”.

[Frances]

Revelation 22

What does the text say? – John was shown a crystal clear river, pure water of Life, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb. On both sides of the river grew the Tree of Life which bore 12 crops of Fruit each year, and it’s leaves were for the Healing of the nations. The Throne of God and the Lamb will be there, so there will be no curse, no night nor sun for the Lord God gives Light to His People, who have His Name on their foreheads. He is coming, and said ‘Blessed are those who act on the prophecies of this book. John fell down and worshipped the angel, but he said ‘do not do that, only worship God’, and told John to share the prophecies he’d seen, as they will surely take place. The Lord will come and reward everyone according to their good or bad deeds, for He is the Beginning and the End, the First and Last. Blessed are those who wear clean raiment to enable them to have the right to the Tree of Life and enter the city – those outside will be the sorcerers, sexually immoral, idol worshippers and those who love, and practice, a lie. The Spirit and the Bride say ‘come, and those who thirst come and take freely of the Water of Life’. If anyone adds to, or takes from, this book may God take away from them the good things promised to them, for the Lord Jesus will surely come quickly.

Application? – Have I accepted the Salvation Jesus offers? Have I repented (turned away from) everything that displeases the Lord God? Do I wear my Lord Jesus’ ‘robe of righteousness’ and so have the right to access the Tree of Life? If I knew Jesus would come again today is there anything I would do before He got here? If so, would I be wise to do them straight away?

Quote:- (David Pawson)”On the positive side is the Promise to satisfy the thirst of those seeking ‘the water of Life’, but this must lead on too an ‘overcoming life’, in order to inherit a place in the new earth and enjoy the family relationship with God in it. On the negative side is the warning that those who do not overcome, but are cowardly, faithless, immoral and deceitful will never be part of all this. . . It needs to be pointed out that the warning is given to wayward believers, as in the whole book. Most of Jesus’ earlier warnings about Hell were addressed, not to sinners, but to His own disciples.
The materials used in it’s (the New Heaven) constreuction . . . is one of the most remarkable proofs of the divine inspiration of this book. Now that we can produce ‘purer’ light (polarized and laser), a hitherto unknown quality of precious stones has been revealed; when thin sections are exposed to cross-polarized light they fall into two distinct categories. ‘Isotropic’ stones lose all their colour, for they depend on random rays for their brilliance (eg. diamonds, rubies, and garnets). ‘Anisotropic’ stones produce all the colours of the rainbow in dazzling patterns, whatever their original colour. ALL the stones in the New Jerusalem belong to the latter category! No one could possibly have known this when Revelation was written – except God Himself! . . . the reader (Rev. 21:8; 27; 22:15) must never be allowed to forget that the glories of the future will not come to them automatically because they have believed in Jesus and belong to a church, but to those who ‘press on towards the goal to win the prize for which Christ has called us heavenwards in Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 3:14) and who ‘make every effort . . to be holy, ‘for without holiness no one will see the Lord’(Heb. 12:14) . . . all the saints cry ‘Come’ both to the renegade world and it’s returning Lord, Jesus Christ.”

[Frances]

Quote:- (David Pawson)”It is the same Jesus who will return . . . yet the Jesus of Revelation is very different from the Man of Galilee. His first appearance to John was so awesome – snow-white hair, blazing eyes, sharp tongue, shining face and burnished feet - that this disciple who had been closest to Him (John 21:20) fell in a dead faint. There are brief glimpses of the angry Jesus in the Gospels (Mark 3:5; 10:14; 11:15) His sustained wrath in Revelation strikes terror in the hearts of all kinds of people, who would rather be crushed by falling rocks than look into His eyes. Many believe Jesus preached and practiced pacifism despite His assertion to the contrary. ‘Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth, but a sword’ (Matt. 10:34; Luke 12:51). . . Jesus rides down from heaven on a horse of war rather than a donkey of peace. Jesus is clearly depicted here as a mass killer . . . Has Jesus changed? . . . It is not His personality or character that have changed but His Mission. His first was to ‘seek and save what was lost’ (Luke 19:10). ‘He did not come into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world’(John 3:17). He came to give human beings the chance to be separated from their Sins before all Sin has to be destroyed. His second visit is for the opposite purpose – to Destroy rather than to Save, to punish Sin rather than to pardon it, ‘to Judge the living and the dead’ as the Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed puts it. . . At that time ‘the Son of Man will send out His angels and they will weed out of His Kingdom everything that causes Sin, and those who do evil’ (Matt. 10:41) . . . if it is totally fair it must be applied to believers as well as unbelievers (as Paul clearly teaches in Romans 2:1-11, concluding that ‘God does not show favouritism’). Once again we need to remember that the book of Revelation is written exclusively to ‘born again’ believers . . . it is all too easy for those who have experienced the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to forget that He will still be their Judge (2 Cor. 5:10). Those who have known Him as Friend and Brother are apt to overlook His more challenging attributes. He is the Ruler of God’s Creation . . He was involved in it’s Creation, is responsible for it’s continuation, and will bring it to it’s consummation.(John 1:3; Colossians 1:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-2).

Quote:- (Henry H. Halley)”the Bible is all one story. The last part of the last book of the Bible reads like the close of the story begun in the first part of the first book in the Bible.
Gen.1:1 – ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’ Rev. 21:1- ‘I saw a new heaven and a new earth’.

Gen 1:10 – ‘the gathering together of waters He called sea’, Rev. 21:1 – ‘and the sea is no more’.

Gen. 1:5 – ‘The darkness He called night’. Rev.21:25 – ‘there shall be no night there.’

Gen. 1:16 – ‘God made the two great lights (Sun and moon). Rev.21:23 – ‘The city has no need of the sun or the moon’.

Gen. 2:17 – ‘In the day you eat thereof you shall surely die’. Rev. 21:4 – death shall be no more’.

Gen. 3:16 – ‘I will greatly multiply your pain’. Rev. 21:4 – ‘neither shall there be pain any more’.

Gen. 3:17 – ‘Cursed is the ground for your sake.’ Rev. 22:3 – there shall be no more curse’.

Gen. 3:1,4 – Satan appears as the Deceiver of mankind. Rev. 20:10 – Satan disappears forever.

Gen.3:22-24 – They were driven from the Tree of Life. Rev. 22:2 – the Tree of Life reappears.

Gen. 3:24 – They were driven from God’s Presence. Rev. 22:4 – ‘they shall see His Face’.

Gen. 2:10 – Man’s primeval home was by a river. Rev. 22:1 – Man’s eternal home will be beside a river.
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[Gibberscrib]

Quote:- (Henry H. Halley)”The woman about to give birth seems, up to verse 5, to represent Israel; and from verse 6 onwards to represent the Church. The Hebrew nation, nurtured of God, through long centuries, for the purpose of bringing Christ into the world, is here personified as a queen in heavenly glory, giving birth to the child of the ages. . . . Michael and his angels may, even know, be fighting our battles . . . in a more real sense than we know . . .the outcome may depend . . on the armies of the invisible world. . . . The woman sought refuge from the dragon, this seems to symbolise the True Church being driven underground by persecution.”

Quote:- (David Pawson)” The interpretation (re. the woman) which best fits all the data sees the woman as a personification representing the Church in the end times, preserved outside urban areas during the worst troubles. Her man-child is a personification representing the martyred believers, at this time safe in heaven, outside Satan’s reach. The ‘rest of her offspring’ are those who survive the holocaust, yet obey God’s Commandments yet hold to the testimony of Jesus. There are still some tensions with the text in this view, but far fewer than any other explanation.”

So, the woman who represented Israel suddenly became the church? I don't see why that would be an interpretation; if the symbol doesn't change, why would the meaning change?