To all members of PaRD.
Grace and peace to you from CPK001. Tonight is the seventh of the ten series of the book of Revelation that we are studying at Church. I have been taking notes and I am going to try and portray what I heard at Church onto here.
Here is a link to the previous topic
http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=71643229&f=119Last week was all about what brand you belong to. This week is all about preparing for the Armageddon.
Revelation 15:1 - 16:21 NIV
Seven Angels With Seven Plagues
15 I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. 2 And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God 3 and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb:
“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
King of the nations.[a]
4 Who will not fear you, Lord,
and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”5 After this I looked, and I saw in heaven the temple—that is, the tabernacle of the covenant law—and it was opened. 6 Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests. 7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever. 8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.
The Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath
16 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.”
2 The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.
3 The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died.
4 The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. 5 Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say:
“You are just in these judgments, O Holy One,
you who are and who were;
6 for they have shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.”
7 And I heard the altar respond:
“Yes, Lord God Almighty,
true and just are your judgments.”
8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. 9 They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.
10 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in agony 11 and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.
12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. 13 Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.
15 “Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed.”
16 Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
17 The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18 Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. 19 The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. 20 Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. 21 From the sky huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds,[c] fell on people. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.
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How do you prepare for the Armageddon? Can you truly prepare for the Armageddon?
Can you work out the date and time when Armageddon will come? All of these questions have been pondered by many.
We have been told that Armageddon is going to be a horrific event as it sounds. By some, Armageddon will be nowhere near as bad as the scarer's say. By some it will be much worse. When we read Revelation many read the scrolls, trumpets and the bowls as sequential events.
What if they are all the one single event but from different angles? They all end the same way with hail, storm and an earthquake. It is like the 4 great cycles are replaying in all of history next to each other.
We must also not forget that Revelation is a letter sent to the 7 Churches in the first Century. Those Christians had great and real fears with the Roman Emperor, Domitian. Domitian demanded that he be worshipped as the god. Those who did not worshipped him were dragged to the Coliseum to be killed. The Christians' fear of persecution
was very real back then. It was a life or death decision, who is more powerful God or Domitian? Long answer short is that God always wins. The 7 bowls were like 7 plagues, there is something oddly familiar about the plagues. They have happened before at some place and sometime. Could it be? It is! Exodus!
Revelation is like a rerun of the book of Exodus! We know the story of the Israelites being enslaved by the Egyptians. God sends Moses to rescue his people. God sends the plagues to Egypt, which are the same plagues as seen in Revelation. Sores - with those who had the mark of the beast, blood sea, blood rivers, darkness
Euphrates water dries up, Hailstones - 40kg each. Then there is the splitting of the Red Sea where the Israelites walked on dry land to cross the sea and it was closed down onto the Egyptians. What is often forgotten after that is what happens next.
Exodus 15:1-2 says that Moses and the Israelites sang to the Lord. In Revelation 3-4 those who stood beside the sea of glass sang the song of God's servant Moses and of the Lamb. As you can see, Revelation is dripping with meaning from Exodus.
One day there will be a judgement day, there will be an Armageddon. We remember what happened to Pharaoh when he stood up against God, the same holds true for Emperor Domitian, judgement will come. They may seem very powerful but compared to God they are nothing.
Anybody who stands up against God is the most foolish person ever. So what exactly are the plagues meant to do? They are a warning to repent. In verses 10-11 after the fifth angel pours out his bowl what do the people do? They curse God because of their sores but they refuse to repent what they had done.
In a nutshell God is sending warning signs with the bad things that happen. It is up to us to wake up and heed the warning for repentance. 3:3 "Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and
repent. But
if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you."
So what is Armageddon all about? Is it about a battle of Humans vs Humans? Russians verses Americans? Is it a battle of Humans vs Armageddon Virus? It is not. Armageddon is a battle of humans vs their creator, God almighty. We mustn't make the same mistakes that Pharaoh made. Let what happened to him be a warning to us.
In verse 17 a loud voice says "It is done!" Surely we've heard that somewhere before. At the Cross of Jesus, one of the last things Jesus said at the cross is "It is finished!" What does this mean? The judgement is finished and completed. What if there are two judgement days?
The first judgement day is the Cross, where God's wrath has already been poured out. The second judgement day is God's wrath being poured out on mankind. We must choose which judgement day we want to be a part of. Will you choose the Cross or will you go your own way? If you choose to go your
own way, what a fearful day that lies ahead of you.
This post was edited by CPK001 on Nov 23 2014 05:57am