My Thoughts

Revelation 8

Revelation 8 is the beginning of the opening of the 7th seal. And I believe that by this time God’s people will be gone. I hope and pray that I am correct.

A few days ago I was approach by a couple of young women who were Mormons. They were very nice and polite and we talked a bit. One of the women said she prays and she believes in Jesus. I said that’s good, but what about the Bible? The Bible and the Book of Mormon do not agree with each other. She said they did and she knows it because she prays about it. I told her that’s good, but the Bible says you must test everything. Even what I say. She said she would not do that. We talked a little more before we parted ways. This saddens me.

Everyone has sinned and has fallen from God’s grace. Everyone. Because of this we do not deserve God’s grace. Not even the very nice young woman who spoke with me. Also it is absolutely impossible for us to earn our way into God’s good graces. But because of the grace of God, He made it possible for us to enter His Kingdom by sending us His son Jesus. So that who ever believes in Jesus will have eternal life. Believing in Jesus not only means believing that Jesus died for us, but also that He rose physically from the dead. Even though Mormons celebrate Easter, they do not believe Jesus rose with His own body from the grave. They believe He rose only in spirit. (I know sometimes they will say they He rose physically, but I have found they sometimes will say anything to get you to go to their church.) They don’t seem to understand that Jesus paid our way with His blood. There is nothing we can do to earn our way into God’s Kingdom. Jesus did it all for us.

Revelation 8:1-2 says there will be seven angels with seven trumpets and there will be silence in Heaven for one-half hour. Someone told me that this is because of what happens will be so terrible, so horrifying, that everyone will be at awe.

Revelation 8:3-5 talks about prayers of God’s people being mixed with incense by an angel, and smoke of the two rises up to God. After that the angel fills the incense burner with fire and throws it down to earth, where terrible things happens.

Hebrews 10:29-31
Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us. For we know the one who said,
“I will take revenge.
I will pay them back.”
He also said,
“The Lord will judge his own people.”
It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Is Revelation 8:3-5 the beginning of God’s punishment? His revenge?

In Revelation 8:7 the first trumpet is blown and fire is thrown down to earth. I have nothing to back this up with but I wonder if this will be a meteor shower. Not one that passes by the earth, but one that is aimed at us.

Revelation 8:8-9 is the second trumpet, and a mountain of fire is thrown down and 1/3 of the of the sea creatures and a 1/3 of the ships are destroyed. I believe this is one big meteorite hitting either the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean. Thinking about the blood mentioned here, I notice Revelation 16:3-6 seems to be related. If I am correct, this explains the blood. Also I thought of one of the plagues, when God had Moses turn the water into blood in Egypt. Could the Egyptians been so brutal to the Hebrew slaves that God though “If you like blood so much, drink this!”? I wonder.

When the third trumpet blows in Revelation 8:10-11 a great star burning like a torch fell from the sky turning a third of the springs and river bitter causing many people to die. I’m guessing and only guessing that maybe this could be a meteor made of sulfur or some combination of elements that burns brightly. However if sulfur does fall and as it burns and mixes with water, it could turn into something like battery acid.

I remember a story of a volcano erupting in Alaska and a man was caught in his cabin. He ran outside not knowing what was going on. He ran bare footed into what he thought was snow, but it burned his feet. It was hot volcanic ash. His throat dry and scratchy, so he ran to the creek with his feet still burning. He drank the water and it burned his throat because the sulfur in the ash and the water turned to acid. He thought he died and was in Hell. He lived and soon turned he life over to Christ. I don’t know if this story is true, but it’s interesting.

The fourth trumpet in Revelation 8:12 is also clearly supernatural. A third of the day and a third of the night becoming dark is 8 hours of total darkness. Is this for one day, or for now on? If God can stop the sun in Joshua 10:12-14 He can easily do this.

After all this, things will get worse. And what saddens me about that nice Mormon I told you about earlier, is that even though she knows the truth about Jesus, she refuses to believe it. Instead she chooses to believe the Book of Mormon. She may be one of the ones that will go though the woes of Revelation. John 3:16-21 says her and other nice people will be judged.

We should tell more people the good news of Jesus so that they may believe and have eternal life.

Revelation 7

Believe it or not Revelation 7 is still part of the sixth seal which we covered in Revelation 6. In chapter 7 there are four angels that will stop the wind from blowing around the world for awhile. In Revelation 7:2 has an angel coming in the morning from the east. I’m going to assume, the sun will be in the true east which I’m guessing will be in the late spring or early summer. Now this angel told the four other angels who were holding back the winds, not to harm the earth, sea, or trees. (I wonder about the other plants.) Anyway no harm is to come to them, until God’s seal is placed on His servants.

Now about the 144,000 Israelis or Israelites. Of course we all know they will be 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes. To most people this is enough information. But I wonder where in time did they come from? I know this is an odd question, so I’ll explain.

Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead four days after he died and had started to decay. As we get towards the end of Revelation we see that many people will be very much alive and well even though they may have died many centuries ago, and more.

Many places in the Old Testament talks about Jesus coming. If you look through what I have written about prophecy, you will see much of it was written by prophets in the Old Testament. Could these prophecies by BC Christians? (Before-Christ Christians)

John 3:14-17
And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

I have to believe that the Old Testament prophets who prophesied about Jesus must have had trusted God enough to believe in the coming messiah, in Jesus. Therefore is it proper to say that at least some of these people were Before-Christ Christians? My wife says they’re more like Before-Christ Believers. I like that term. BCB – Before-Christ Believers or BC Believers.

So here are more thoughts about the 144,000. Even though these people were God fearing and were righteous in God’s eyes, King David is not one of them. Neither is Issac or Jacob. Why would I say that? Revelation 14:4-5 said these men were virgins. David, Issac and Jacob all fathered kids. I also wonder, could these 144,000 be from through time. In other words, could some be from long ago as while as being from this time period? I don’t know. Does it really matter? Maybe not.

Revelation 7:9-12 says there is a great number of people from everywhere, every language, and every people; which means even from nations and tribes that are now extinct. And they will all be around the throne worshiping God. Will we be part of this? These people will be wearing white robes. Will they be the same ones that are mentioned in Revelation 6:9-11, the fifth seal? What I’m asking is, will this vast crowd, too great to count be people who were martyred, or will this be all of God’s people including those of us who will be taken by Jesus?

The people in chapter 6 were souls of those who were martyrs for Christ. They were under the altar and were given white robes to wear. The people in chapter 7 are wearing the same white robes, but now there are lots and lots of them. Not only that, but now they are among the angels around the throne. I believe these people in the white robes around the throne is everybody who has believe in Jesus. And those that were under the alter are now in the group. I also believe that by this time the rapture has happened.

Another question I have is about the great tribulation in Revelation 7:14. Is it the tribulation happening only during the time of the Anti-Christ? If so then why is the Anti-Christ not mentioned until later? Here is a link to tell what tribulation is in the Greek. Is it possible that there is a difference between the tribulation we are in now and the judgment that will happen after the Christians are gone?

If the tribulation started with the opening of the seals, and if we are living through one of the seven seals now; then our time here is short. Jesus could be calling us up at anytime. Even as soon as now.

I hope I am correct in all this. Again I will remind you that I am not a theologian, I have never had any training at all. It would be very wise to test everything I say.

1 Thessalonians 5:20-22
Do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil.

Revelation 5

The Monster, Gamera

In Revelation 5, we will start with the Seven Seals which are the doom and gloom to come. (Or have opening of the seven seals already started?)

Everyone enjoys disaster movies and monster movies. Even the flying monster turtle called Gamera. I found out that crazy turtle can fly at the speed of Mack 3. Monster movies are fun fantasies. The seven seals however are not fun and worst yet, they’re not fantasy. And there is nothing we can do about it but to turn to God through our Lord Jesus. I read through Revelation again the other day and well, there are a lot of things I’m thinking about now. I’m not sure where to start.

I’ll start with an article I read on February 9 from The Guardian. I wasn’t looking for the article, I just stumbled across it and thought it looked interesting with all the drought we’re having on the west coast. The article said “Egypt has demanded Ethiopia stop construction of a mega-dam on the Nile, vowing to protect its historical rights to the river at “any cost”.” Of course if you read the article you’ll see there is a water shortage even without the dam.

But what I found most interesting is that it reminded me of what I wrote in my post Into The Future III on August 1, 2013, when I said: “But what about Isaiah 19:5-10 where it talks about the Nile River drying up? I have done some research on this and found that the Nile River has never failed to flood. It also has never completely dried up either. So obviously this part of the prophecies hasn’t happened yet. But I wonder; will this be because of climate change, or because somebody built a dam.”

I believe this is prophecy that is about to come to pass now! I would like to start in with what I noticed about a couple of the seals. But I’m getting way ahead of myself now.

I will now start with Revelation 5. Remember John was in the presence of God as he was witnessing all this as the Lord (the one who sat on the throne) asked who is worthy to open the scroll. No one was worthy except the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne, the Lord Jesus Himself. No surprise there.

What I notice though was what seems to be a ‘chain of command’ for the angels. Any one important, whether president or king would be surrounded by high ranking officials, then of those less important or of less authority. And they would be surrounded by even less important until you have the average citizen. So if I understand correctly; angels, since they are on the outer circle answers to the 24 elders who answers to the four beings who answers to Jesus since He is between them and God.

So what is our chain of command? Jesus answered this in John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. Why? Well you can find the answer to this in John 3:16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

I believe God loves us more than He loves the angels. After all Jesus didn’t die for them. He died us. We were made in His image. I don’t believe the angels ever were. God will do anything to bring us back to Him. And this is why I believe the scroll with the seven seals must be open.

In my book A Whole Mess Load Of Grace , I told how when I was on a Coast Guard ship in the Bering Sea, there was a time when we thought the ship would sink. We went to the only known active Christian to learn how we could get into Heaven when we die. What’s interesting was after the danger was over, everyone went back to their old life styles.

Years later when I was in the Army National Guard and we were playing war games (there was no war then except for the Cold War) people became interested in salvation. Me and another guy had even started a Bible study for some of the men on Sunday mornings. In those days that was perfectly OK. I have talked to many men about our Lord Jesus.

My point to all this is when things start to get difficult, some people will turn to God. When things get a little more difficult, a few more people will turn to Him. Unfortunately many people never will. When the seven seals are being opened, I believe we must help the poor, the hungry, the wounded. All through the four Gospels Jesus talked about this. And because Mark 16:15-16 says And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.” We should spread God’s word while we still can.