Gino,
your comments (edited):
A
Primer on the Book of Revelation
by Gino
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 Nineveh 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 does 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 happening 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