Biblical Eschatology Revisited



The Timeline Analysis of the Book of the Revelation – Part 6

We have come a long way since the beginning of this book and as we
explore the last section of the timeline, we find ourselves at the
place where the entire written revelation of God comes together and all
the pain and suffering that was caused by the temptation in the Garden
and the Fall of Man begins to find its resolution.  This is why I have
told so many people that Revelation is the nexus and culmination of all
human and redemptive history before it.  All things found in it come
together and see their completion and fulfillment here. If we come away
with anything we must understand that the Lord God has gone to great
lengths to love man through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. What we
have already seen is the purging of the world of the evil that was
brought into it and we will see its climax in this section. So let’s
take a look at it.

We need to remember that, redemptively, the Church saw its exit from
the world scene through the results of the 6th seal in chapters 6 &
7 but not without a tremendous amount of trouble before that, the
144,000 of the sons of Israel saw their exit from the world scene in
Chapter 14 as a result of the 7th (and curiously, the last) Trumpet,
and those who have overcome the Beast make their exit in Chapter 15
just before the 7 Bowls of Wrath are poured out upon the Beast and all
his people. We should note here that none of these groups saw “God’s
wrath” being poured out on them. Some witnessed judgment, persecution,
and martyrdom but not God’s wrath. If we notice that the Lord has kept
“His own” from that day. From the releasing of the Bowls of Wrath
onward to the Second Coming, people who still have not worshipped the
Beast or taken his mark will find that the Lord has not forgotten about
them either. We’ll look into that in a moment.  

We also need to remember that, punitively, the Beast, the False
Prophet, and the armies that accompany them have met at Armaggeddon for
the war that involves both heaven and earth. The kings and their armies
that join with the Beast have been deceived and deluded into this final
conflict before Christ returns. We have already left Babylon the great
in ruins. Curiously, it is the beast and the 10 kings that are with him
who destroy Babylon the great and this is by the design of God who will
cause them to do this. In considering how this would be an advantage to
the dragon and the Beast, one need only consider that an army that has
nothing to go back to will fight to the death. This certainly will be
needed to keep the armies intent on fighting the King of King and Lord
of Lords. We should not underestimate the fierceness of the battle that will rage at Armaggeddon.

Now with all this, we are prepared to move forward into chapter 19.  We
open with four cheers of praise to the Lord God Almighty. The first
cheer is regarding God’s salvation and power that is based on His
judgments that are true and righteous. It refers to the destruction of
Babylon the great which was His avenging the blood of His bond-servants. The second cheer of Hallelujah is regarding the destruction of Babylon
the great that was total and complete, lasting forever.  The third
cheer is the from the 24 elders and the 4 living creatures who first
worship and voice agreement  with all the previous cheers of
“hallelujah!”  A voice comes from the throne of God calling all His
bond servants to praise God and they do and the final cheer goes forth
from the multitude like the sound of many waters, like the sound of
pealing thunder saying … “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the
Almighty, reigns.”  Amen, and so will it be…

Yet that is not all they say…

Continuing… they say “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to
Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made
herself ready.”  The bride has given fine linen to clothe herself,
bright and clean for this fine linen is the righteous acts of the
saints. (Revelation 19:8)  John is told to write “Blessed are those who
are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. These are the true
words of God.”  John is further told something very important when he
fell at the feet of the angel to worship.

Then I fell at his feet to worship him But he said to me, "Do not do
that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the
testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the
spirit of prophecy." Revelation 19:10 (NASB)

The fulfillment of the promise of His Second Coming is now before us…

Heaven opens up and Christ appears riding on a white horse and is
called Faithful and True who judges and wages war in righteousness. We
see a most marvelous description of Him in verses 11-16.  In that same
description, the armies of heaven clothed in fine linen, white and
clean, were following Him on white horses. Yet only one weapon is found
among them all. It is the sharp sword that comes out of His mouth and
with it He strikes down the nations and rules them with a rod of iron.
He also treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 
He is indeed the “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS”.

All of the birds that fly are called to eat the flesh of the kings, commanders, mighty men, horses and those who sit on them.

We are left without doubt that these armies are gathered to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.

We are not told of the manner of the battle but the result was that the
Beast and the False Prophet was seized and were thrown alive into the
lake of fire which burns with brimstone.  The rest were killed with the
sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse and all the
birds were filled with their flesh. Pretty gruesome but we need to
understand the finality and futility of those who resist the Lord and
fight against Him. As we move to chapter 20, the Dragon, who is known as Satan and the
devil, was bound in a chain for 1,000 years in the abyss and its cover
was sealed so that he could not deceive the nations any longer until
the end of the 1,000 years when he would be released for a short time.

Now we see thrones set up and judgment was given to Christ and His
people. At this point, we see the souls who had been beheaded because
of their testimony for Jesus and because of the Word of God and had not
worshipped the beast or his image and had not receive his mark. These
souls came to life and also reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
We see a marvelous thing here. The Lord has not left out a single group
who were faithful to Him. Everyone of His own even right up to the end,
would find themselves alive forevermore with Him.

We should note that all these who are present with Him and reigning
with Him are the “first resurrection” upon whom the second death has no
power.  They will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with
Him for a thousand years.

We fast forward 1,000 years and find that Satan is released from the
abyss and come out to deceive the nations and gather for war but the
“final purge of evil” comes and fire comes down from heaven and devours
them.  At this point, the devil is thrown into the lake of fire where
the beast and false prophet have already been cast. They all will be
tormented day and night forever and ever. Never again will these
characters cause any more problems in God’s creation.

At this point, there is something that happens here that we might need
to consider from I Corinthians 15:20-28, where we see additional
information that tells us that it is at this point that Christ, the
Son, having put everything under subjection under His feet, yet still
being Himself subject to God the Father will turn it all over to the
Father at that point.

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of
the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made
alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that
those who are Christ's at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands
over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule
and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His
enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He
says, "All things are put in subjection," it is evident that He is
excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. When all things are
subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the
One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all. I
Corinthians 15:20-28 (NASB)

So we can now understand what fits in between the “last battle” and the Great White Throne Judgment which appears next..

So we see that a great white throne appears and we note Him who sat on
it.  Earth and heaven fled away and no place was found for them. As we
note from II Peter 3,

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens
will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with
intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all
these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought
you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the
coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be
destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But
according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new
earth, in which righteousness dwells.  II Peter 3:10-13 (NASB)

We next see the “dead” standing before this throne.  We noted earlier
that all those who were Christ’s had been resurrected and all of them
were “the first resurrection” and the second death had no power over
them. So these people are the dead that had never been resurrected up
to that point. The sea, death and Hades, give up the dead in them and
all of them were judged according to their deeds.  Death and Hades were
thrown into the lake of fire, which is the “second death”.  Those not
found in the book of life were thrown into the lake of fire.  So it
would appear that what is called the Great White Throne Judgment is for
the “dead” who were not found to be Christ. As to the question if any
of these escape the second death, it is not clearly known at this point
but without any other information, their outlook for escaping looks
pretty dim.

We now find ourselves at the end of biblically revealed time… we see
the appearance of the new heaven and new earth and the former things
have passed away. The new Jerusalem comes down from heaven and God
Himself dwells among men.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes
and there will no longer be any death, no mourning, no crying or pain
because the first things have passed away.

He tells us that all things will be made new. Even as we ourselves have
been made new creatures in Christ when we believe, so now a more
appropriate abode for us is made. Evil folks and evil deeds will not be
found there.

As we read further, we begin to see the “city whose architect and
builder is God”, the city that Abraham was looking for… (Hebrews
11:8-10)

There is much to read here concerning this and the reader is encouraged to do so.

The book wraps up with the declaration that the book is understandable
(Rev 22:10) and the words are not to be tampered with after encouraging
the reader to “Come. And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one
who wishes to take the water of life without cost.”

He closes with… He who testifies to these things says “Yes, I am coming
quickly.”  Amen. Come Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with
you all. Amen.…

…and with my whole heart I agree. Amen.   Blessings, Mr.Vee

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Biblical Eschatology Revisited



The Timeline Analysis of the Book of the Revelation – Part 5

As you can gather from all the information found in Part 4, its not
hard to imagine that there’s a huge amount of material to cover this
time and its difficult to explain all that is going on in a manner that
its easy to track. You are encouraged to take some time with all this
and consider that He has made all the details “fit together” very
nicely but it is amazing how He has placed within His Word so many
clear references that we often ignore in our casual reading of the
scripture. Yes, the information is right there in “plain language” if
you understand His character, His plan, and His timeline and compare
that to the scriptures. Please refer to the chart to get the sense of
the order of things as we move forward.

We left off last time in Revelation 11 with Heaven making a
“declaration of war” and that Christ will reign and judgment is coming.
As chapter 12 opens up, we are introduced to a woman, a dragon, and a
child each self-interpreted in the text. We find that the child is
Jesus Christ, the one who will “rule the nations with a rod of iron”.
(see Psalms 2:9) This child was also “caught up” to God and to His
throne. (Guess what Greek word is used for “caught up” here… yes, its
“harpazo” the same word used to refer to the Rapture.)  We then can
identify the woman as Israel given the description in the opening two
verses. This is strengthened by later verses in this chapter.  The
dragon is clearly identified not only by his actions but in verse 9
where we are told that the dragon is exactly who we would expect him to
be… Satan, the devil, and the accuser of the brethren. The first 6
verses of chapter 12 seem to simply be an introduction of these
“characters” in order to clearly define who they are and give us
clarity concerning the things to follow.

So in Revelation 12:7, the action picks up again with regard to this declaration of war. A war ensues and Michael and his angels cast out the dragon and his
angels and threw them down to the earth. This clears heaven of the
accuser of the brethren who accused them day and night before the
throne of God.  While this is good news for those in heaven, this
become the 3rd Woe to those who dwell on the earth. There’s a lot going
on here that is particularly important so be sure to read the biblical
text. Note how Michael and his angels overcame the Dragon and his
forces… because of the blood of the Lamb and the word of their
testimony and they did not love their life even when faced with death.
It looks that this is the way that those in that period of time will
have to “do battle” with the forces of evil.  

Now the devil will come down to earth in a wrathful state knowing his
time will be short. He doesn’t lose any time and begins to persecute
the woman, Israel and we are clearly told here the source of all
persecution of Israel comes from Satan, himself.  Now the woman,
Israel, escapes the devil by “flying into the wilderness” with the
wings of the “great eagle” where she was well taken care of by the Lord
for “time, times, and half a time” (3 ½ years according the same
accounting method found in the book of Daniel). This time correlates
with the 1,260 days found in Rev 12:6 and let’s us know this is the
same “woman”.  The “eagle’s wings” that are mentioned are rather
interesting. This is very much like the Lord’s description of how He
had brought the nation of Israel to Mt. Sinai to be before Him at the
Exodus. (Exodus 19:4) Now the “dragon” tries to destroy Israel in a
“flood” but the earth keeps this from happening by swallowing up the
flood. The Lord will provide a very effective way to make sure the
nation of Israel will make it through the onslaught.

Since the dragon’s efforts to destroy Israel are frustrated, he goes
off to make war with the “rest of her children”.  These “children” are
described as 1) keep the commandments of God and 2) hold to the
testimony of Jesus. This description is very important to remember. If
we take a look ahead in Revelation 15:1-4, we see some people who have
overcome the Beast standing on the “sea of glass”… remember this in
Revelation 4:5-7… its in front of, in the center of, and around the
throne of God and they are doing something very curious… they are
singing the “song of Moses” and the “song of the Lamb”… Wouldn’t these
“overcomers” be those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the
testimony of Jesus? One would think so.

Now thus far we have a war break out between heaven and the devil’s
forces, and the devil’s defeat in heaven. Now on earth, he tries to
eradicate Israel but Israel escapes by the provision of God who will
take care of her the entire remaining time of Daniel’s 70th week. 
Being unsuccessful, the dragon then creates the Beast from the sea. If
we go back and see that Daniel 7 actually tells us even more about this
beast who will make war with the saints of that time. It appears that
it is not a “person”, it is a kingdom on the earth… and this kingdom
has another beast that comes out of the earth who we will find is
called the “false prophet”.

Thus he said: 'The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth,
which will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the
whole earth and tread it down and crush it. As for the ten horns, out
of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after
them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue
three kings. He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the
saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in
times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time,
times, and half a time. But the court will sit for judgment, and his
dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever.  Daniel
7:23-26 (NASB)

These things constitute a lot toward understanding who the Beast and
the false prophet are (also known as the beast from the earth … Rev
13:11). Even the number of the Beast, 666, seems to fall right into
place as well, but we simply do not have the space to explore this
here.  For now, let it suffice to say that the Beast will make war with
the saints and overcome them

Now as soon as we finish the descriptions of the Beast and false
prophet of Revelation 13, and completing the continuity of thought
concerning the war between heaven and the saints against the dragon
with his Beast, we resume the subject concerning the results of the 7th
Trumpet and the next thing we see in Revelation 14 is the 144,000 of
Israel standing in heaven with the Lamb on Mount Zion singing a song
that no one could learn except the 144,000. Do you remember that the
Mystery of God was finished at the 7th Trumpet and this mystery was
that God had made Jew and Gentile believers one in Christ? Eph
2:11-3:12 This is the last group of those to appear in heaven with
respect to the Christ’s church on earth and those of Israel who were
believers up to that time. In addition, we see a few verses later that
there is a declaration that addresses all those who would believe from
that point onward… The matter of how the 144,000 all appear in heaven
at the same time does not appear to be stated anywhere but its entirely
possible that they experience the “harpazo” as well and it is admitted
this is just supposition.

And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Write, 'Blessed are the dead
who die in the Lord from now on!'" "Yes," says the Spirit, "so that
they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them."
Revelation 14:13 (NASB)

Three angels appear in chapter 14… one with the everlasting gospel…
perhaps to keep a witness to the Lord available to the earth while
everyone who loves righteousness is running for their lives. Another
angel appears and declares the doom of Babylon the great. The third
warns all who worship the Beast and his image and receives a mark on
his forehead or on his hand will experience God’s wrath and be
tormented with fire and brimstone …

Two reapers then appear, one who will apparently take up those who
overcome the Beast and they are seen in the chapter 15 standing on the
sea of glass before the throne of God and another that will reap the
“grapes of wrath” that will be thrown into the great wine press of the
wrath of God and be prepared for destruction at the Second Coming of
Christ. From what we see in chapter 15 (the temple filling with smoke
until the wrath of God has been finished) and chapter 16, these are the
Beast, the false prophet, and all those who worship him and have taken
his mark.

Before the 7th bowl of God’s wrath is poured out, the dragon, the
Beast, the false prophet speak with the spirits of demons to perform
signs which draw the kings of the world into the conflict to occur at
Armaggedon.

At this point, the wrath of God is poured out in full at the final bowl
of the 7 bowls. Please read the text to get all of the details. Note
that this is where the destruction of Babylon the great occurs. We get
all the necessary details about the destruction of Babylon in chapters
17 & 18. Please refer to the post concerning Babylon the great
where there is a much more detailed analysis there.

This finishes the 5th page of the chart and we’ve covered a lot of
ground up to this point and we’ve got a bit more to go. Next time,
we’ll be preparing for and seeing the Second Coming of Christ and all
that follows. Until next time... Blessings, Mr.Vee

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Biblical Eschatology Revisited



The Timeline Analysis of the Book of the Revelation – Part 4

As we address the matter of the 6th seal in chapter 6, we find that three things develop out of the opening of that seal.

First, from the perspective of those who are not redeemed by the blood
of the Lamb, we immediately see that the very signs spoken of by Christ
in Matthew 24:29-31 appear. This is the one instance where the signs of
His coming for His own match up the best of anywhere I’ve found. It is
also important to note His mention of the reaction of the people of the
earth when this happens also happens here. They all fear the wrath of
God to come.  Such will be the upheaval that there will be no
“atheists” on that day.

Second, from the perspective of those who are the “chosen” of Israel at
that time, we see the intervention from heaven on the behalf of the
bondservants of our God by a seal on their foreheads. These
bondservants are 144,000 from every tribe of the sons of Israel, 12,000
from each of the named tribes. These tribes are not listed in order of
their birth and Dan is missing from the ranks and Manasseh appears to
replace them.

Third, from the perspective of those who have trusted in Christ before
this point, we see a huge multitude assembled from every nation, tribe,
people, and tongue before the throne of God and before the Lamb, all
clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, crying out
“Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And we
are told who these people are.

Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are clothed
in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?" I
said to him, "My lord, you know." And he said to me, "These are the
ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason,
they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in
His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle
over them. They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the
sun beat down on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and
will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe
every tear from their eyes." Revelation 7:13-17 (NASB)

So the question is this… where were these people before the 6th seal?
Where are they now? Is this not the result of the “harpazo” aka the
“Rapture”? What a scene! All those redeemed by His blood are “home” at
this point. The 144,000 remains on earth to be God's redemptive witness to the world in their stead.

As we begin chapter 8, we see there is silence in heaven for about a
half an hour as He opens the 7th seal . I would suppose that it would
take a while for everyone to settle down after the “harpazo” to take in
the upcoming events that will literally rock the world to its core and
prepare the way for the Second Coming of Christ.

Now, we turn to what is known as the “Trumpet Judgments”. If one takes
time to notice the first four of these trumpets release damage to the
environment and nature. Now I’ve been wondering for quite some time now
if the world is aware of what is coming and is trying to falsely
prepare people for these environmental disasters by spawning the “Green
movement” and attempting to blame “global warming” and other things on
the work of man.  Can you see the diabolical thing going on here? The
world system may be trying to convince itself that God’s wrath is not
upon them at this point. This will be the heyday for those folks who
said “I told you so!” yet they’ll be lying through their teeth. God has
already shown us nearly 2,000 years ago what will be happening that is
caused by His direct exercise of His power.  At the end of the 4th
Trumpet, 3 woes are proclaimed upon those who dwell on the earth. This
is appropriate because He begins to turn up the intensity on these
things and the focus becomes “man” in the 5th and 6th Trumpets in
chapter 9. (The 1st woe is the 5th Trumpet Judgment.)

 It is very difficult to understand what these things are exactly
coming out of the bottomless pit and what is going on in the 6th
Trumpet without going into a tremendous amount of speculation so it is
best that we acknowledge that something that corresponds with this will
be evident at that time. Given that the Word of God has been quite
accurate in describing the things it is referring to at the proper
time, it should be understood that those who will experience these
things will understand it all too well.

Now at the end of the 6th Trumpet, we see something very important. We
see that the rest of mankind did not repent of all the things that were
listed there. While that is a sad commentary for man, it is an amazing
thing to see from a redemptive standpoint. The Lord was paying
attention to see if any of them would repent. He was not acting in
blind wrath in these things. He continues to look redemptively at the
situation here on Earth.  No, it would not change anything except that He is consistent in how He
deals with man and we begin to understand the depth of the meaning we
find in II Peter 3:9…

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is
patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come
to repentance.  II Peter 3:9 (NASB)

In the midst of judgment, He is still looking for the repentant.
Further, we now understand a bit better the words of the angel in
chapter 10…

Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up
his right hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever and ever,
WHO CREATED HEAVEN AND THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE EARTH AND THE THINGS
IN IT, AND THE SEA AND THE THINGS IN IT, that there will be delay no
longer, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is
about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He preached to
His servants the prophets. Revelation 10:5-7 (NASB)

The days of God’s patience we saw in II Peter 3:9 is coming to an end
(i.e. there will be delay no longer). At the time of the 7th Trumpet,
there is an important thing that will happen… the Mystery of God will
be finished. What is this Mystery of God?  Paul tells us all about this
in Ephesians 2:11-3:10. Please read the passage since its very long but its message is clear.
The Gentiles, through faith in Jesus Christ become fellow partakers and
heirs with Israel through the Gospel. (Eph 3:6). Now what could this
mean at this point in time (at the 7th trumpet)? We will be able to
find this out in the next installment but not before quite a bit of
intervening information. I assure you it is an amazing thing to
consider… at least it was for me. (Now if you are curious and can’t stand waiting, read Rev 14:1-5 and note what’s going on there.)

It is at this point we note that we now are focused on “the temple”.
Not one in heaven but one on the earth where its outer court has been
given to the nations.  The measuring rod and staff that was given to
John and the command to use them means that something is going to be
built, presumably the temple but without the outer court since its
under the authority of the “nations”. So how does such a temple get
built? Perhaps 6 Trumpet Judgments have convinced the “powers that be”
that it would be in their best interest to allow Israel to build the
temple after all. From the reports I have heard, we already know that
the very pieces to build it are already made waiting for the day for
the actual assembly.  It would be easy to see how a “peace treaty”
might come to pass in that sort of scenario and along with it the
permission to build the temple.

Now the “two witnesses” (the 2nd Woe) appear on the scene and are given
1,260 days of authority to witness and prophesy. (Now this constitutes
a 3 ½ year time period… which causes us to consider that this is the
first half of Daniel’s 70th Week particularly since, later on, the
Beast has authority for 42 months which is again 3 ½ years which is the
latter half of the “week” of seven years).

At that time, those who don’t like the witnesses’ message and
prophesying and then try to remove them will be destroyed by fire that
comes out of their mouth. If we are in the days just before all this
happens, this will probably be necessary as those who currently hold
the Temple mount now will not like the idea of these witnesses being
anywhere near their shrine.  There’s more that we can glean about them
so take some time to read the text regarding their power and message.
The key thing to remember is that NO ONE will be able to hurt them
until their time is over.  The one that will get rid of them will be
the Beast who will make war with them, overcome them, and kill them. It
shouldn’t be surprising then that in Revelation 13, we read that the
world is amazed and says… “Who is like the Beast and who is able to
wage war with him?” Once this happens, what use is the treaty made for
the temple? Its easy to see why the treaty is broken at the midpoint of
Daniel’s 70th week.

At any rate, after 3 ½ days have passed since the witnesses were
killed, they are resurrected and brought up to heaven in a cloud. This
surely ruins the celebration the world had the few days before. There’s
also an earthquake, 1/10th of the city falls and 7,000 people die. The
world is terrified and gives God the glory.

In the last 5 verses of chapter 11, the 7th Trumpet sounds and we see a “declaration of war” from heaven and indeed it
is and is taken that way by the Enemy himself. We will see this ahead in
the next part but, for now, in chapter 12, we are told there is a war
in heaven and the Dragon is cast down to the earth. Whatever place they
had before in heaven would no longer be available to them. (Rev 12:7-8)
This becomes the 3rd Woe and after attempting to destroy Israel and is
unsuccessful, he turns his wrath upon those who keep the commandments
of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. But we are getting ahead of
ourselves here. More on this later.

We have now reached the mid-point of Daniel’s 70th week. Based on
simply taking what has been said here, I am amazed at what has been
shown to us. Now I know there has been a good deal of debate on if and
when something called the Rapture was going to happen and all of the
reasons why it was just “escapism” to avoid the horror of experiencing
persecution and martyrdom. Folks, I think the Lord is quite clear what
is happening here. Personally, I am beginning to think that quite a
number of us read the part we wanted to read and missed some other
important parts and never understood the whole.

This has been rather interesting. The usual designations we give for
various positions seem to be flying out the window. There is a Rapture
but it isn’t quite where many thought it would be. There will be
persecution and martyrdom before it but still before the terrors of the
final years hit. Ok, that fits reality. Many think the Trumpet
Judgments are part of Daniel’s 70th week but perhaps not given the
strict timeline of how things are given to us. Is this God’s way of
giving the world a “wake-up” call? We see the Mystery of God fulfilled
by the middle of the “week” and that is quite interesting. Did we ever
wonder what happens to the 144,000 of Israel in relation to the Mystery
of God? Have we considered how we might describe the converts of the
144,000 who we’ll see later in our analysis? And we also see that the
saints are taken out of the great tribulation that Jesus said (in
Matthew 24) started when Jerusalem was destroyed and trodden under the
feet of the Gentiles (we now know this as 70 AD) and is not to be
considered the same as Daniel’s 70th week even though they overlap in
the end.  There is nothing mysterious here except the “locusts from the
abyss” and the “army of 200 million” which may still require time to
understand what they truly are. To me, to waste too much time worrying
about the details of that distracts from understanding the bigger
picture into which they fit.

From this point forward in the analysis, we have 3 ½ years remaining
before the Second Coming of Christ. Much of it tells us of how this
current world system will be dismantled and ended and it prepares us
for the real hope to come. Two more parts to go… Blessings, Mr.Vee

Here's page 4....

Biblical Eschatology Revisited



The Timeline Analysis of the Book of the Revelation – Part 3

We now begin in Revelation 4 and we start out with a door open in
heaven in verse 1… now right off the bat it is curious to note that the
Lord has an “open door” shown here while in the last chapter the
Laodiceans were behind their “closed doors” where Christ stood at their
door and knocked, waiting to be invited in. The immediate meaning of
this is not clear but it is a very interesting use of a “door”
especially when Christ also refers to the “open door” set before the
church at Philadelphia. (Rev 3:8)

There are some people who have claimed that this is the “harpazo” or
Rapture. I have thought that way before and but then wondered if that
isn’t stretching the following statement a bit too far…  "Come up here,
and I will show you what must take place after these things." Now we’ve
already been told what John’s mission was in writing about what he saw,
this being the part where he was shown what must take place “after
these things” i.e. after the messages to the churches. So the
connection is not so clear on that. As we will see, there is a much
more convincing place to put that event.

Yet focusing on that probably causes us to miss the very interesting
things happening in the upcoming verses and on into chapter 5. I would
encourage you to first read these two chapters (Rev 4 & 5) and then
turn back to Daniel 7 to see an amazing correlation of these two
visions. It is admitted that Daniel contains some different details
than those described in Revelation but it is easily seen that this
discrepancy can simply be a “different perspective” between what Daniel
saw and what John saw, which appears to be the same thing.  In Daniel
7, we first note that several beasts arise and the fourth supersedes
them and begins “his boast” and we then see...

I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took
His seat; His vesture was like white snow and the hair of His head like
pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, its wheels were a burning
fire. A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him;
thousands upon thousands were attending Him, and myriads upon myriads
were standing before Him. The court sat, and the books were opened. 
Daniel 7:9-10 (NASB)

and

I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of
heaven, One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient
of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion,
glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every
language might serve Him.  His dominion is an everlasting dominion
which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be
destroyed. Daniel 7:13-14 (NASB)

The rest of Daniel 7 outlines the interpretation of the vision which
is, in essence, a synopsis of what happens in the book of the
Revelation.  When I saw this, it gave me goose bumps especially knowing
that the “fifth empire” of Daniel 2 (which is really an extension of
the “fourth”), Rome, will arise and make its “boast”. If one is savvy
to current world events, it is not hard to determine what has real
control of Jerusalem and the Temple mount that is spreading all over
the world in a manner exactly described by Daniel 2:42-43.

Yet we now know what the book with the Seven Seals is, it is the Father
giving the kingdom into the Son’s hands… and the Lamb Himself opens up
the book to begin the process which will culminate in the eradication
of those who have opposed Him.

In Revelation 6, these seals (the first five dealt with here), opened
sequentially, represent things that appear much like what Christ told
His disciples concerning the last days in Matthew 24 and if one takes
note of this we see that these things have indeed happened in history.
However, we would not be wise to ignore the fact that the Lord has
often had things happen in the past, only to amplify and point out the
real thing that is to come. There is much to say here but just like the
messages to the seven churches, there is a more immediate historical
meaning that applies here and one that extends far into the future. 
The identity of the rider in the first seal must be identified by the
simple description made of him and definitive sequence follows. There
are many today that are carefully watching world events because we may
be seeing a more immediate application to our own day and there is an
appearance that the opening of the seals may have already begun. Yet we
must always be careful to remember that it could be that what we are
seeing is yet again another “prototype” of the real thing to come.
However, we should not be so complacent to assume its nothing more than
that. Remember, we are told to “watch” for His coming.

Many were shocked one day several years back when we began to
understand that there really is an entity out there bent on world
conquest that is distinctly and ardently “anti-christ” who relishes
death and it wasn’t Russia or China.  The world has been at war ever
since whether they like it or not. And now what is happening to food
prices all over the world? They are escalating but also note that
famine has not yet set in.  In the last few years, we have seen some of
the most devastating natural events occur in China, Malaysia, and
Indonesia with huge losses of human life… and even as we would hope
that it would not happen, Christians are being persecuted (and even
martyred) especially in areas where radical Islam controls
things. Now these things have been happening in the past but what
brings importance to the things we see now is the rapid succession and
intensity of such things on a “worldwide basis” and in such “massive
form”.  So the advice here to those who trust in the Lord is to “stay
awake” and pay particular attention to these days, preparing for His
coming, even if this is not the time.

Some notes about the chart should be made here. I have learned that
Revelation is a book that has several concurrent themes and threads
running through it and this is shown by the color bands on which the
“information blocks” rest.  Light blue indicates a heavenly scene.
Light green represents activities on Earth that are redemptive in
nature. Light tan represents the Lord’s punitive actions upon a world
that has rejected Him prior to Daniel’s 70th Week which is then split
into two halves and have their own color designations. Study the charts
as you get them and it isn’t too hard to see that there are things
which correspond to each other.

So here we go with page 3….     Blessings, Mr.Vee

Biblical Eschatology Revisited



The Timeline Analysis of the Book of the Revelation – Part 1 & 2

The time has come … and the reduction of the larger chart developed a
couple of years ago is now finished. Its been a lot of work to finally
get it down to a size that anyone can print it off for themselves on a
common computer printer.  Among other things, this effort slowed me
down on my posting but I hope it will be worthwhile to you. As you will note, the first two pages of the charts will not be
particularly exciting but offers an introduction, some selected notes
from Revelation 1 on the first page and some details about the seven
churches on page 2. In addition, it will give me a good idea if they
will look ok.  I will include the first two pages with this post and intend to post a
page a day after that. Things get a little more interesting on page 3
to page 6 where it looks like a timeline from several perspectives.

Please accept my apologies for being unable to put all the notes
contained in the original work onto these but there simply was not
enough room and still make everything readable since the internet makes
it difficult to read smaller fonts that I often had to use for notes on
the original work.

The original work required two pages of 11” x 17” paper crammed full of
detail and it was best done in color to keep things organized and
easily viewable. It was estimated that most people simply do not have a
large format printer to print that size so this subsequent work was
started to be able to offer that information to my readers.

I took Revelation 22:18-19 very seriously, there was no attempt to “add
or subtract” from the text and if there is such a thing there, it was
not at all intended. Some brevity was necessary to simply get the
“flow” of the Lord’s message to be clear and straightforward. After
all, these charts do not replace the book. They are merely notes and
observations of events on the Revelation timeline.

As a matter of fact, the reason for doing this work in the first place
was for my own benefit because I kept getting things mixed up about
“when and where and what” was going on.  So the effort was to simply
figure out what was really going on and put things into a sensible
order. I wonder that this hadn’t really been done before in the works
that I had seen before. Anyway, I share this with you and hope it will
be a help.

As you read these charts, remember that the Book of the Revelation does
not stand on its own but is the nexus and culmination of all that has
gone before it in the Bible. It makes a good deal of sense why the Lord
warned about “adding and subtracting” to it since everything in that
book refers back to something else elsewhere in the Bible so the
tampering that people have done to Revelation over the years becomes a
huge offense to the entire Bible. In fact, those who have taken
Revelation to make their own inverted eschatology may be one of the
very things the Lord was referring to when He clearly warns of “adding
and subtracting” in Rev 22. The promises made to Israel in the Old
Testament find their fulfillment here and those who would resolutely
dispute with Israel’s claim on their inheritance will certainly find a
most disagreeable end to themselves at the appropriate time.

So here goes… enjoy!  Please let me know if the graphics are clear.  Blessings, Mr.Vee.

Page 1.....

Page 2 ...

Ever Heard of the "Pioneer Anomaly"?

I'll bet if you are like most of us, you probably haven't. Check out this article...

Four More Spacecraft Show Bizarre Speed Changes...

So my question is, why haven't we been told about this before?

Here's some interesting quotes that I got from it...

A decade ago, after rigorous
analyses, anomalies were seen with the identical Pioneer 10 and 11
spacecraft as they hurtled out of the solar system.

A decade ago?     This also means that there are now SIX examples of this going on. Ok, I guess we need to give the scientific community a break. They've just been too busy debunking creationism.

Now Jet Propulsion Laboratory
astronomer John Anderson and his colleagues — who originally helped
uncover the Pioneer anomaly — have discovered that four spacecraft each
raced either a tiny bit faster or slower than expected when they flew
past the Earth en route to other parts of the solar system.

Hmmm... I suppose this means that we either have a "calculation error" or we've got something that we don't understand about deep space physics.  I wonder if we also have other things like that, too, that folks have known about for a decade or more. 

Just about the time man gets cocky about understanding the universe, we get something like this to occur. Quite interesting...    Mr.Vee

Biblical Eschatology Revisited



The Long Awaited Expectation of Israel Appears

Now that we have discussed the Beast and Babylon and how each of them
is destroyed, we now look at the things God has for the nation of
Israel in this immediate time period. Now in a short post like this,
one should figure that we’ll only touch on the very beginnings of
understanding what will be happening when the Second Coming occurs
with regards to Israel.  It is hoped that we will be able to examine a
study of the glorious rejuvenation of Israel after Christ’s return
sometime in the near future. For now, we will need to be brief.

Babylon the Great, having already fallen, we then see the Beast turns
his eyes toward Jerusalem. During the battle for Jerusalem, we find
that it will partly fall, not completely as in 70 AD and the Lord will
come and fight for Israel and it is the beginning of the end for the
evil forces in the world as we know it.

Now it will be the Lord who is intentionally going to draw Israel’s
enemies toward Israel in an attack on Jerusalem. It would appear that
they would be marginally successful to completely draw her enemies into
the fray. Then the Lord appears...

Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you.



For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the
city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and
half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off
from the city.



Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He
fights on a day of battle. In that day His feet will stand on the Mount
of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of
Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large
valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the
other half toward the south. You will flee by the valley of My
mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you
will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah
king of Judah.



Then the LORD, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him! Zechariah 14:1-5 (NASB)

At a point, of what would seem utter desperation, the Lord appears to
His people and now they understand who they are seeing and the battle
turns against the Beast.

In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the
one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the
house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD before
them. And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that
come against Jerusalem. I will pour out on the house of David and on
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication,
so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will
mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep
bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. Zechariah
12:8-10 (NASB)

Perhaps it is desperation and the realization that Jerusalem is falling
to the Beast that changes the hearts of Israel as a people because of
what He has told us in Matthew 23:29

For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, “'BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!'" (NASB)

There will be no more false prophets and unclean spirits… after this point.

In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity. It will come
about in that day," declares the LORD of hosts, "that I will cut off
the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be
remembered; and I will also remove the prophets and the unclean spirit
from the land.

And if anyone still prophesies, then his father and mother who gave
birth to him will say to him, 'You shall not live, for you have spoken
falsely in the name of the LORD'; and his father and mother who gave
birth to him will pierce him through when he prophesies.

Also it will come about in that day that the prophets will each be
ashamed of his vision when he prophesies, and they will not put on a
hairy robe in order to deceive; but he will say, 'I am not a prophet; I
am a tiller of the ground, for a man sold me as a slave in my youth.'
Zechariah 13:1-4 (NASB)

This how Israel’s opponents will die…

Now this will be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the
peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot
while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their
sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. It will come about
in that day that a great panic from the LORD will fall on them; and
they will seize one another's hand, and the hand of one will be lifted
against the hand of another. Zechariah 14:12-13 (NASB)

There will be no more blasphemy and the last thing they see will be the
sight of the Son of God that they have spurned who will bring them to nothing.

The word of the Lord in Psalm 2 is now understood in its proper context…

Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing?
The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel
together against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us
tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!"  



He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Then He
will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying,
"But as for Me, I have installed my King upon Zion, my holy mountain."
"I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD:  He said to Me, 'You are
my Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will surely give
the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your
possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall shatter
them like earthenware.'"



Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; take warning, O judges of the
earth. Worship the LORD with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do
homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge
in Him!  Psalm 2:1-12 (NASB)

Beloved, the Lord has left nothing to chance and what you see happening
right now helps us to understand that He means business and when He
takes care of Babylon, the boasters and those who have changed His
words into their own, it will be sure and final. Yet as we also know,
His magnanimous mercy and grace is still with man so that those who can
still hear His voice and respond to His call away from such evil can do
so. It is a wonderful thing that those who have made themselves the
enemy of God can turn away from that and freely accept the grace He is
offering and live with Him with eternal life. If one waits too long,
the time to turn from that will be over… and the sure word of prophecy
has spoken to us about how that will turn out for Babylon, the boasting
Beast, and the armies that mount their attack against Jerusalem in
those final days.

May the blessing of the Lord be with you who look for His appearing.  Mr.Vee

Biblical Eschatology Revisited



Babylon in Revelation: The Answer - Part 2

The question that was left to us in the last post on this subject was
“what is Babylon?” We had a lot of clues and we’ve had time to think
about this and now it is time to answer this question.  Some people
have figured it out but many more simply don’t know.  One cannot look
at one aspect of Babylon in these verses and suggest a country like the
U.S. saying it is Babylon. Why? While the U.S. indeed has some grievous
sin to account for, it lacks the open and bloody persecution of Jews
and Christians, a requirement in the characteristics mentioned about
Babylon. So we keep looking… and perhaps if we select a few key bits of
evidence, we can zero in a bit better on what Babylon is

In order to come to the best answer on this, we need to consider these
characteristics in a broad fashion.  For instance, “immorality” as a
clue isn’t just “sexual perversion”. It covers a lot more things that
are “immoral” including the worship of false gods just as was the point
of God’s message to Israel during her time of such activity. It can
even extend to improper treatment of people.

Actually, the most troublesome clue might be the best clue… Babylon
being responsible for all the blood of those ever slain on the earth.
Now that takes us back to Cain.  What was Cain doing?  He was
“worshipping God however he saw fit” and did not come to Him in the way
He prescribed. Those who are wise will realize that those who do this
declare themselves “god” because they can deem what is appropriate
worship and what is not instead of God Himself. He didn’t stop at that.
He killed his brother Abel who was righteous before God. He also
rejected the judgment of God, for that murder. Now God had said he was
to be a vagrant and wanderer in the world.  In defiance of this, he
built his own city to provide for his own redemption from such a
judgment. So we have already noted that Babylon involves the worship of
a false God, corrupting God’s word and defiance of it to create its own
“true message” and by extension the prohibiting of others to hear what
God truly has to say (censorship). It also involves the persecution and
murder of the righteous and godly in martyrdom, and acts of preventing
God’s judgment to fall upon themselves by inventing ways to insure
against calamity by seeking power and control over the situation.

So how is this sort of thing still manifested in the world?
Religiously, we can see it everywhere only it may not take the form of
“religion”. Sometimes, religion has more to do with “secular” things
like it is with environmentalism, secular humanism, etc. Each of these
things take a bit of truth and stretch it to the proportions necessary
to achieve their ends even to the point of outright pre-meditated
deception and manipulation. Sometimes such things start in the
religious realm and then cross over into the secular. A recent news
article reported on a famous preacher on the political scene for a
particular interest group was identified as using his ability to cause
“boycotts” from his constituency to blackmail companies in order to
receive large sums of money himself (how about his constituents?). 
Each of these systems within the workings of Babylon have their own
concepts of “righteousness”, “sin”, and “redemption”. Environmentalism,
probably the most recent to show its hand, measures these things based
on one’s “carbon footprint” as if living on this planet by God’s grace
is some sort of sin that needs atonement through the purchase of
“carbon credits”. Those of you that are perceptive will realize this is
the same thing as “indulgences” that could be purchased in the Catholic
Church in the Reformation period to allow people to buy “forgiveness”
for their “indulgence in their sins”. The point here is not to put any
particular blame on that church but simply point out such activities
seem to happen in all areas of human experience. Now environmentalists,
as a group, aren’t the only ones creating a “religion” apart from God.
Such is the religion of Babylon.

Moving on, we should consider something else about Cain. He was the
first person in scripture to build a city and he built it for his son.
What could this mean? Could it not be said that God, the Creator of
heaven and earth, was to have a Son for whom He would build a city i.e
“Jerusalem”. So Cain, in rebellion, names his city after “his son”
named Enoch (of Cain’s lineage, not Seth’s) and by implication of other
circumstances, that “city” becomes very wicked and violent. Should we
miss the blatant claim that “man is God” and what comes from it in this
seemingly little detail in scripture? Isn’t this what we also see of
Babylon in Revelation? Will not the Beast (aka the man of sin) also do
the same? Now we know that Cain’s “city”, the antediluvian “Babylon”,
is destroyed in the Flood but it is only a few hundred years after the
flood that Nimrod shows up, a mighty one on the earth (apparently like
those who were destroyed in the Flood which also suggests that he was
wicked and violent). We might even come to that conclusion since both
Babel (aka Babylon) and Nineveh, cities he built, were known for that
very thing. Nimrod could be called the first of a long line of
post-Flood “high priests” of Babylon the Great.

Now it is interesting that Babylon again appears as an empire to bring
Israel into captivity for 70 years, starting the “times of the
Gentiles” as was given by Nebuchnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2. In that
chapter, we found that there were to be five kingdoms, the last
represented by the “feet”, of which would hold onto control of
Jerusalem until the time of the Gentiles was complete (Luke 21:24).
History tells us that the prophecy was correct and specifically the
most important point in Jerusalem is the Temple Mount on which elements
of Islam have a lock grip and that has been the way it has been since
638 AD with only a few inconsequential breaks of that possession.  

We can certainly see from the clues from the last post that Babylon is
everywhere and even portions of Islam is part of that as well. It needs
to also be noted that in the same verses in Revelation 17 & 18 that
tell us that the Beast and Babylon the Great are two different things.
One is the real mystical Babylon and the other is the Beast who, in his
treachery, plots to destroy Babylon and will achieve this even as
Babylon “rides” on the Beast before that happens.

And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the
harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and
will burn her up with fire. For God has put it in their hearts to
execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their
kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled.
Revelation 17:16-17 (NASB)

The most obvious example of how something like this can happen is to
listen to the rhetoric of some particularly vocal elements of Islam
today. So the intention of these “radical elements” is to destroy just
about everything in the world particularly Israel and the U.S. if it
makes sure that Islam dominates the entire world.  One of the most
conspicuous characteristics of these people today are their “boasting”.
The description of the final beast as a boaster is certainly supported
in the text of Daniel 7.

Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which
the horn was speaking; I kept looking until the beast was slain, and
its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire.  Daniel 7:11
(NASB)

In these two passages, we’ve have seen we see how God will dispense
judgment upon the evil in this world system as manifested by the evils
of Babylon and that of Satan’s representative and mouthpiece, the Beast.

So in identifying one, we have gotten closer to identifying the other.
A curious thing to note is the possibility that the personage that is
“the Beast” is also likely a turncoat against the harlot (Babylon).
Both may even have the same backgrounds. It could very well be that if
this Beast is the Shia Muslim messiah, the Mahdi, it could very well be
that he will indeed turn upon the Muslims that support him and destroy
them and the rest of Babylon as well unknowingly according to God’s
purpose. With his remaining army which would seem to be still quite
large, would begin to take on Jerusalem which will be his undoing. This
possibility comes from some study of Islamic eschatology that I’ve made
reference to in an earlier post, “Discovering God’s Character:
Implications - Part 17E”(located on the sidebar) and relating it to what the scriptures
actually says will happen to come to that conclusion. However, the Beast using
nuclear weapons to destroy the Babylon world system as we know it is also a
possibility.

It is hoped that this study has helped some in your quest to understand
biblical eschatology and the portion of Revelation involving Babylon as
well.  The purpose here is to help us have a better understanding of
what the Lord gave us in Revelation and at a minimum helps us take that
writing out of the realm of the “totally mysterious” and “brings it
into a very stark and possible reality” because we can see that the
things written about in Revelation are not so “figurative” as we might
have imagined.  Some of these things can be quite obvious and appear as
very real and dangerous possibilities and others give us the certain
hope that as we go through this ordeal, the Lord, the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, the only one and true God, Creator of heaven and
earth will send His Son, Jesus Christ to do exactly what He has told us
in the scriptures. He will reign in Jerusalem. Islam and Babylon will
be no more. Israel will realize the One who came to die for their sin
was the One, their long awaited Messiah… and that is the subject of the
next post.  Blessings, Mr.Vee

Commentary

No "WMD's", eh? How about plans to build them? And Iran has been identified being involved in smuggling those plans now wants to develop their nuclear program... for peace?... I think not.

Read this shocking report in the Washington Post about what's been going on in the world that we all never knew about... and note how long its been going on and who has been identified as "participating"

Smugglers Had Design For Advanced Warhead

As I've told so many before, don't criticize Bush until you know what he knows... because you don't know what he knows and you might not be able to handle the truth if you did.

Mr.Vee

Biblical Eschatology Revisited



Babylon in Revelation

While we have discussed the seals of Revelation a bit and found that
the symbolism found there leaves a lot of room for error in the midst
of some troubling information that seems to appear as we dig into them, we will now divert
our attention to another subject in biblical eschatology, Mystery Babylon,
which is also symbolic but perhaps the statements about it are much
more definite and this is a welcome thing. Many people have made all
sorts of guesses as to what Mystery Babylon is in
Revelation. There was a Babylonian Empire in history long ago and its glory had
long since faded after the Medes and Persians overran it.
However, as we read the information that Revelation gives us, we
quickly understand that this Babylon in Revelation is not at all what
we would have thought it to be in history.  We are not left without
clues about what it is, however, and it might be interesting to the
reader to take a careful look at what it really is. What was found
there in the biblical text was quite surprising and it is hoped that
you might find it interesting as well.

To gain a better understanding of what “Babylon” is as referred to in
Revelation, we need to carefully read chapters 17 and 18 and learn about what it is and how it is destroyed.  As we do, we
will carefully outline its characteristics and see if a fairly accurate
conclusion can be made.

Babylon: Political Characteristics

1. A “city” that reigns over the kings of the earth suggest or implies political and economic power:  Rev 17:18

2. The “city” sits on many waters interpreted as peoples, nations,
tongues, multitudes suggests or implies it has control over the people
of the world:  Rev 17:15

3. The “city’s” immorality affects the kings of the earth who
participate in it: Rev 17: 2. World leaders & politicians use the
“city” to advance their power base.

4. The “city’s” immorality affects the rest of the earth who were made
“drunk” with it:  The world was affected by the forced propagation of
Babylon’s “message of immorality. Rev 17:2

Babylon: Economic Characteristics

1. The “city” looks like the model of prosperity and is lavishly
adorned. This suggests or implies that it appears to have the best and
latest of everything. It is the home of the wealthy. Rev 17:4
    
2. The great men of the earth were the “city’s” merchants who were made
wealthy there. This suggests or implies that economic and financial
empires are built there.  Rev 18:3

3. The “city” is extensively involved in sea trade. This suggest or implies it is heavily involved in world trade.  Rev 18:17-19


Babylon: Product Types that will be Destroyed; Skills & Items that will disappear

1. Precious metals and jewelry.  Rev 18:12
2. Fine clothing:  Rev 18:12
3. The constituents of luxury items. Rev 18:12
4. Exotic spices and perfumes.  Rev 18:13
5. The constituents of fine food.  Rev 18:13
6. Faster forms of transportation.  Rev 18:13
7. The workforce for the wealthy. Rev 18:13
8. The fine arts in musicians & music. Rev 18:22
9. The manufacturing of fine goods and their craftsmen.  Rev 18:22
10. Fine restaurants & their chefs, no fine foods.  Rev 18:22
11. The power to light the city will be gone.  Rev 18:23
12. Hope for the future and joyful weddings will not happen in it.  Rev 18:23

Babylon: Attitudinal Characteristics

1. Wrathful in pursuing immorality (word “passion” is used): This
suggests or implies a “jam it down the throat” mentality of forcing its
immorality on others.  Rev 18:3

2. Reckless with regard to sin (piling as high as heaven) with a mindless regard for the repercussions of sin.  Rev 18:5

3. Attitude is so severe that righteous retribution requires a double penalty.  Rev 18:6

4. Arrogance and sensuality was its hallmark, an “its all about “me” and what pleases “me” situation.  Rev 18:7

5. Has a sense of invincibility and entitlement, “sitting as a queen
and never seeing hardship”.  This suggests an attitude of entitlement
to sin to one’s “benefit” and hateful response to those who would
forbid it. Rev 18:7

Babylon: Religious Characteristics

 1. The “city” represents idolatrous worship and/or abandoning God for
“idols”. True Christianity will not be popular there.  Rev 17:5

2. The “city” is drunk with the blood of the saints and the witnesses
of Jesus suggesting that it will actively suppress and repress and
martyr Jews & Christians. Rev 17:6, 18:24.

3. The “city” is responsible for the blood of all those ever slain on
the earth. This suggests that this “city” has a very ancient history of
murder.  Rev 18:24

Babylon: Spiritual Characteristics

1. Demons dwell there and unclean spirits keep watch over the “city”.
Hateful birds (winged creatures?) are imprisoned there.  This suggests
a totally unwholesome spiritual environment over which unclean spirits
maintain and keep watch over this situation.  Rev 18:2

2. No good thing is going on there and God’s people are told to come out of it.  Rev 18:4

3. The “city” rides on the Beast who has the same characteristics as
Satan. This suggests that the “city” is empowered by Satan where sin
and debauchery is encouraged and supported.  Rev 17:3, 13:1, 12:3

Babylon: The Manner of Its Destruction

1. When Armaggeddon draws near, the Beast’s use for the “city” ends
since he hates it. This suggests that the success of Babylon is only a
deliberate illusion meant to promote Satan’s endgame.  Rev 17:16

2. The Beast and the ten kings allied to him will destroy Babylon
because of God’s purpose. This suggests that the Beast and his allies
will have their own reasons for destroying Babylon but it is God’s
purpose behind it to use the Beast to have Babylon destroyed for its
wickedness.  Rev 17:17

3. Its destruction will be swift burning by fire that is described as
happening in one day, and in one hour.  This suggests that mass
destruction by “fire” will be performed by the Beast.  Rev 17:16, 18:8

4. The timing of the destruction will be just before the war at
Armaggeddon. This suggests that once Babylon’s destruction is complete,
Christ will now meet the armies of the Beast and will defeat them and
at its completion, it is all finished.  Rev 16:13-21, 19:19

5. Its destruction will be accompanied by the Beast and 10 kings
pillaging the “city”. This suggests that the Beast apparently needs
resources to wage his war against Christ.  Rev 17:16

Now for the Big Question…
So there we have it with all the relevant scriptural facts laid out
before us.  If you are like others who have seen this list, you might
have some immediate impressions. Be careful, though, Rev 18:24 has some
very important things to say about the answer.

And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth. Revelation 18:24 (NASB)

Given this and considering each of these facts mentioned, what is “Babylon”?   Blessings, Mr.Vee