Wow! Have I been so wrong for so long?

Maybe I have.

It is so refreshing to read all the various, different things here on FiveDoves.

I heard about FiveDoves from Ron Reese.

I had gotten on his mailing list, because a friend of mine, who was debating with Ron, had me in the Cc:

Ron then sent me an email (technically he sent it to his list).

I wrote back to Ron, and was extremely strong and opposing to what he had written.

I was so utterly ashamed of myself when I saw how humbly Ron personally responded to what I had written to him.

Intrigued by Ron, I came to FiveDoves to see if others were like him - and so many are.

I cannot begin to explain how much I’ve learned here, and how many different vantage points I’ve now seen.

 

Probably the thing that I had previously been the most wrong about, is my approach to the book of Revelation.

The awe & wonder, and sometimes even the mystery, which some here seem to have when approaching the book of Revelation, bewildered me.

I had always thought that I had to approach the book scientifically & mechanically, to break it all down, and to lay it all out.

The proverbial “last straw” for me was David’s beautiful letter about the book of Revelation being painted by the LORD.

I’m convinced, that after all the study of that book, and after all the preaching and teaching on it that I’ve heard, I’m no closer than I’ve ever been.

When I think that I’ve got something “pigeon holed”, and when I think I have all my eschatological “ducks in a row”, then a dear saint posts a letter to FiveDoves.

Then the pride of the old man says, “Back to the drawing board, Gino - get back on top of this, quickly”, and I quickly lose the blessing of the dear saint’s letter.

 

For years, I too often approached the book of Revelation like it was a collection of secrets for me to decode with a special decoder ring.

I came at the book of Revelation almost like it was a collection of quatrains of Nostradamus, or a bowl of Chinese fortune cookies.

You could tell, if you heard me call it Revelations (plural), rather than Revelation (singular) - “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh”.

It is not revelations of secrets, i.e. a collection of little prophecies about the sequence & timing of the last days.

 

No, the book starts out saying, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ”.

All of it is a revealing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not a revealing of end-times secrets for some smarty-pants to show off with.

 

Therefore everything within that book is in context of the revealing of Jesus.

For instance, I so often tried to identify the great whore, “Mystery, Babylon the Great”.

I would show things, like trying to prove it to be a rebuilt ancient Babylon, in modern day Iraq.

However, since the entire book is all about Jesus & is a revealing of him, that changes my view of Babylon.

Whatever Babylon is, it is a whore, which clearly has gone a-whoring from Jesus.

The term whore cannot be generic, political, symbolic, or even in an old testament relationship to the children of Israel.

No, because, the book is all about Jesus, and a revealing of him.

Therefore everything about Babylon must be completely understood in the context of her whoredom against Jesus, personally.

That changes everything in my mind.

 

Even all the plagues & judgments, and the corresponding repenting of some & the lack of repenting of others, are all about Jesus.

It is not about people generically repenting to a generic “God” about generic sins, but people turning to Jesus or consciously rejecting Jesus.

Jesus doesn’t want to see billions of people going to hell.

He didn’t want that when he got on the cross and shed his own blood for their sins.

And, he doesn’t want that when the events of the tribulation are bringing billions to a point of decision about turning to him or rejecting him.

The grace of God, the new covenant, and the gospel of Jesus Christ, don’t get shelved for the tribulation.

The entire tribulation is about Jesus and people’s relationship with him.

Seal after seal, trumpet after trumpet, vial after vial, people have the opportunity to repent & turn to Jesus.

That is why each are a blessing, more than cursing, because like the people of Ninevah found out in the days of Jonah, Jesus is looking for people to repent.

Except for those who take the mark of the beast, there will great opportunities for people to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Clearly a great multitude do exactly that.

For them, the tribulation will have been the greatest time in their lives.

For them, it will be when those things that are going on, bring them to their knees.

For them it will be when they got saved.

We all look back on the day we got saved as a wonderful day.

They will too, even though their day is during the tribulation.

 

The scenes of the book go back and forth between heaven and earth and back to heaven again.

Therefore we see that everything happening on earth is happing in concert with all those wonderful, blessed things going on in heaven.

Since it is all about Jesus, a revealing of who he really is - it is too wonderful to take it all in.

It is not simply a revealing of a wrathful lamb, although his wrath is part of who he is, it must needs be revealed.

However, his wrath must be understood in context of his love, and so that is how the book reveals it.

The cross showed the wrath of the LORD in the context of the love of the LORD, not one without the other, but in context of each other.

 

All the divine and glorious attributes of Jesus are revealed by the book of Revelation.

As much as it reveals his wrath, it reveals his love.

As much as it reveals his righteousness, in the same context it reveals his mercy & grace.

It reveals his infinite holiness, contrasted against our vile un-holiness, in context of his pure blood.

That wonderful blood, of that infinitely holy Jesus, can & will wash, and make the vilest sinner clean.

 

That book reveals how Jesus destroys the works of the devil all the way to completely gone.

It reveals a kind & compassionate Jesus, who will turn all those sorrows & sufferings of the tribulation, into unfathomable joys & pleasures of the last two chapters.

 

It is all about Jesus & everything in the book then needs to be understood in the context of Jesus.

 

What a marvelous book.

Thank you David for you letter.

Thank you all on FiveDoves who have taught me so much.

Thank you Jesus for revealing in that book, how lovely you truly are!

                                       Gino