Come Out of Her, My People

Revelation 17 & 18     Karen Downing 

Pre-trib, mid-trib, post trib. I have heard compelling teaching on all three of these concepts dealing with the rapture and when the church will be "caught up" with Jesus. Honestly, I tend to think we will be expected to endure to the end, becoming a sweet sacrifice to the Lord as we give our lives to share salvation with those last ones on the earth. I know, there are many of you who beg to differ; this is just what is in my heart when I ponder it.

What I personally believe is important in these "tribulation chapters" is the great wrath brought on the earth by The Almighty and the call of the voice in 18:4 to, "Come out of her, My people..." before the fall of Babylon. They are being called out before judgement comes and that's how it ties to what I believe about the tribulation. I can see myself compelling others to "come out!" of Babylon. What becomes obvious then, at least to me, is that this is what I need to be doing today. 

Rise up, End Time People! Set a standard! Lead the others out of Babylon!

And prayerfully, with great reverence, I ask You Lord, to show me what this means.

My Life is an Arrow

Revelation 17 & 18     Chris Kray

[Good Morning All!  Today, we have a guest contributor: Chris Kray.  Chris is part of Communitas, and you might know him from his tasty lead guitar he adds to our Worship Teams from time to time.  Chris approached Bob with this piece of writing; he wrote it while listening to Bob's last message on the Book of Revelation.  Chris is a deep thinker, and I always appreciate conversations with him.  Enjoy!  JK]

My life is an arrow. My life is a weapon. My design is that of warfare. Who I am is your undoing. World, king of T'yre, lucifer, satan, you had better come at me. I am coming for your head. I am poised, aimed for your heart. Through repentance, compassion, love, and persecution is the shaft that holds up the head, the blade that is Christ's work. When you hurt my family, my friends, you sharpen my resolve. The arrow is drawn back even farther. When you come to claim what God has redeemed, you launch the arrow sending it deeper into your chest, cutting your flesh, slicing your corrupted tendons, puncturing your lung. My life will be your destruction at the hand of my Creator. His victory is your demise. Keep coming. Keep sharpening me, as I mourn, wail in agony because of my transgressions, my shortcomings. As The Lord fashions me as He sees fit, know that even though I am afraid, He will comfort me. He will meet my needs. You are undone. You have no hope. You are defeated.

Visions

Revelation 17 & 18     Peter Nordell

Once again John is in the spirit and led to a place, the desert, where he is given the visions.  This time it is of the woman, the harlot, maybe represented by a city, Babylon.  All of the evils of the city are described, the kings who have been adulterous with the woman, along with the beast.  Yet, Rev 17:14 states that the Lamb will overcome them because, He is the Lord of lords and King of Kings and with him will be the called, chosen and faithful followers.  That is the promise we must hang onto as we read of the pain and punishment taking place on this earth.

  

The readers of these texts thought of Rome, with its 7 hills and the sins of the city. They and we, however, must remember the beast has power only until God's words are fulfilled.

One more thought: the text talks about the great Babylon.  It was great and ceretainly filled with sin of every sort including the murder of God's people until the blood flowed in the streets.  However, today we can not find Babylon; it has been utterly destroyed and God's city Jerusalem, stands strong and well, after many centuries.  God will take care of His own - and wins in the end.  

Good Wrath

Revelation 17 & 18     George Badeaux

There are differences of opinion about the woman sitting on the beast in Revelation chapters 17 and 18.  Verse 8 of chapter 17 tells us, “The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth."  Some believe the city is Rome and that this section of Revelation has already been fulfilled.  Whether this is true or not, there is a great foretelling here of justice, judgment, and the outpouring of God’s wrath.  This blog entry looks a little deeper at God’s wrath.

Before we do that, I think it is important to answer a very fundamental, yet deep question.  Why does God allow evil to exist?  A short answer is that He has decided that it is more important for us to have freedom of choice than it is for there to be a complete absence of evil.  In the mysterious mix of God’s sovereignty and our free will, He has given us the freedom to love Him or not, to choose to follow Him or not, to open our hearts to His love or to do evil.

But He must respond to evil.  And we too have a universal response when we see something evil perpetrated on another.  We desire justice.  So does God.  What if God never responded to evil?  That is unthinkable.

Because He is so good and all-knowing, He perceives things as horribly evil that we don’t even notice.  This is part of why we sometimes think His judgment is too harsh.  We are tempted to think that God is not completely good.  This is a lie, one that was first told on earth in the Garden of Eden.  Let us use the truth of God’s Word to utterly destroy this lie in our hearts and minds.  God’s wrath is completely good and completely righteous.  It is an expression of His perfect love.

Scripture tells us that the outpouring of God’s wrath has occurred in the past, that it is an ongoing part of His interaction with mankind, and that it will result in the absolute removal of all evil from our presence in the future. 

Thanks be to God that we are safe from His wrath.  Romans 5 tells us, “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! … Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Those who trust in Jesus should trust that they are safe from God’s wrath.  But for those who do not trust Him, Hebrews 10 tells us there is “only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.”  And … "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

God’s wrath is …

            To be feared

            Coming

            Sure

Good

Let us know this.  Let us be moved in our hearts for those who don’t.  And let us speak.  Let us speak the very words of God in love, shining the light of truth on what is otherwise a very dark and fearful expectation of judgment.

Slavery

Revelation 17 & 18     Joel Keller

We're now getting down to the nitty gritty of the Book of Revelation.  I am not going to attempt (once again!) to attack the numbers & symbolism in this chapter.  I'll leave that for Bob & those much more learned than I.   As I came to Rev 17:2, I thought about how the enemy of our souls uses sexual immorality and drunkenness (chemical use of various kinds) to destroy the lives of millions.   I work in the area of mental health, so I see through the filter or grid of the things that affect individuals' daily lives. I look at commercials on TV, advertising in magazines, online advertising; sex & alcohol figure heavily into this world of marketing products.  It is blatant.

I continued & was stopped (stunned, actually) at the end of 18:13.  At the end of a long list of wares of the merchants of Babylon - including gold, silver, silk, scented wood, articles of ivory, marble, sheep, cattle [all are items of great value] - comes the kicker: slaves, that is human souls.  Human trafficking.  This is a picture in the natural of what the enemy of our souls is doing in the spirt realm.  Selling an individual as a sex slave is as blatant as it gets.  The enemy's job description is to steal, kill & destroy (John 10:10) ... and he is using this despicable act as a means to that end.  We are in a battle for people's souls.  Look around you.  Ask God to give you eyes to see the source of things in your midst.  We as the Body of Christ, must be aware of the battle raging around us.  Even here in sleepy Central Minnesota, the enemy is at work ... in our families, our workplace, our schools, our government, etc.  Now, I'm not suggesting that we walk around with our eyebrows wrinkled, a serious look on our face, scanning left & right, looking for evil at every turn.  We don't have to be fruitcakes who cause people to run away as they see us coming.  But ... we have the opportunity to be light in this world of darkness.  Jesus, the Light of the world, is in you.  Live your life, moment by moment, looking for the agenda of the Father (John 5:19).  Be real; be honest.  The Holy Spirit in you will have an impact on the darkness around you.  And slaves will be set free - both in this world and the next.

A Double Portion

Revelation 17 & 18     Kathy Carlson

Give back to her as she has given;
    pay her back double for what she has done.
    Pour her a double portion from her own cup.
Give her as much torment and grief
    as the glory and luxury she gave herself.                Rev 17:6-7

Instead of your shame
    you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
    you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,
    and everlasting joy will be yours.                              Isaiah 61:7

After spending years studying and pouring over Scripture, consuming it as if my very life depended on it (it does), I still find myself slack-jawed in amazement at the intricacy of detail and symmetry of the Old and New Testament writings.  Early on I learned to study the Word by using the Word itself – digging into the cross reference notations as if mining precious jewels, weaving in and out of different books of the Bible, Old and New Testaments, delighting in the discovery of agreement and clarification at every turn.  Immediately after reading chapters 17 and 18 of Revelation I thought of the scripture that has been my touch point since I was but a baby in my faith - Isaiah 61.  I clung to the promise early on that I would be receiving a double portion that would cover the shame that dogged my heels over the 34 years I spent grappling with sin and guilt that burdened me.  I marveled that I would also receive an inheritance of JOY in double portion as well after years of grief and anger that weighed heavily on my soul. Who but God could promise such an extravagant inheritance to a beggar covered in ashes like myself?  I was deeply aware of what I deserved (along the lines of the punishment we see detailed in Rev 17-18) and to receive Christ and put my faith in Him was to receive a blessing (and double at that!) instead of cursing and joy instead of mourning.

The enemy of our souls masquerades as a garish imitation of the true richness of our God. The woman described in Revelation mocks God with her cheap perfume, faux luxury.  The city where she dwells is stripped naked of all it’s pretense and tinny jewels.  She is brought to ruin by her own self-centered pursuit of fame and her attempt to steal the glory due to God.  In contrast to the double portion of blessing the children of God experience, she is severely punished for every deed of wrongdoing in a double portion.  It’s a fearsome punishment for the crime of all crimes.

Are you still blind to the true riches of our God?  Are you foolishly running after an imitation of His perfect and extravagant future for you?  Dear one, turn around and head for home.  His arms are open wide.  He awaits you and longs to lavish upon you a double blessing, a homecoming celebration, a wedding feast to end all wedding feasts.  He is your double blessing.  His love, His grace, His righteousness and justice and His ability to bless and bless and bless again at His choosing.  Joy instead of mourning - the decision is yours - choose Christ today and live. 

When He Returns

Revelation 15 & 16     Eric Boberg

It's hard to comprehend the magnitude of destruction in just these two chapters of Revelation. Imagine these headlines.

Painful Pandemic of Skin Sores Affects Most of Population

All Water in Sea's and Rivers turned to Blood, All fish and sea creatures killed
 Mountains and Islands Obliterated.

Earthquakes Splits Great City, All Other Cities Collapse.

Hundred Pound Hailstones Shatter Buildings

Any one of these disasters would be overwhelming but when you put them all together along with a few others it seems like most of the earths population would be destroyed. Matthew 24:22 says "And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened."

It's an overwhelming massive display of power. Add up all the calamities throughout history and this is more.

The Bob Dylan Song "When He Returns" came to mind this afternoon when I was pondering these passages. How may songs can you think of that are written about the judgement of God?  Here is the first part.


The iron hand it ain't no match for the iron rod
The strongest wall will crumble and fall to a mighty God
For all those who have eyes and all those who have ears
It is only He who can reduce me to tears
Don't you cry and don't you die and don't you burn
Like a thief in the night, he'll replace wrong with right
When he returns.

If you study the flow of human history you would have to say we understand. the principles of power and force well when it comes to autocratic dictators, those who have ruled with an "iron hand". Yet Dylan correctly points out they are no match for the iron rod of God. As I said we can understand force and power but it is the next sentence that is the surprise. For all those who have eyes and those who have ears. (This is clearly a reference to false gods and idols as in Psalm 135: 15-17) "It is only he who can reduce me to tears." We will not weep for false gods nor will we weep for raw expressions of power. But we will weep for tenderness shown to us. We will weep at seeing goodness mercy and love. We will only weep at real interaction with a real personality who knows and loves us deeply "It is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance." Romans 2:4

Back to Revelation, this massive show of power in judgement means nothing unless it is backed by Gods goodness justice and mercy.  It's taken me a long time this week to get my head around the idea of Gods wrath. But I do believe some of the concept that says "the opposite of love is not hate but indifference." A good God can not be indifferent to evil. To allow evil to run on and on, especially when that evil is bent on the destruction of God's people, would not be good for anyone including the evil doers. A world where evil is not restrained and punished would be ultimately unlivable.

 Last week I wrote about superheroes and super villains. Apparently there is a trend in the comic book world that is reacting against a cycle of evil. In the old days, super villains were carted off to prison, only to escape and show up in a future story. There they would once again wreak havoc and possibly kill thousands. After awhile this apparently this became emotionally unsatisfying to comic book creators and their readership. These stories are almost always set in a Godless universe, yet they recognize a universal truth, evil must ultimately be stopped. As are result some superheroes have started executing the villains. They often do it with much anxiety and trepidation, but the bad guys won't show up in some future issue, their run has ended. And so we see even those who do not call themselves Christians, are nevertheless yearning for judgement of the wicked and the rule of righteousness.

Just on more thing.  Just as I find the personal nature of God's love so wonderful I find it almost equally wonderful that he takes evil personally as well. His plan to destroy it in the universe and in my own heart through Jesus is completely and utterly brilliant. I think this is why when whole world realizes this they will bow down in worship.

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.

Here is the rest of Bob Dylan's song along with a link:

Truth is an arrow and the gate is narrow that is passes through
He unreleased His power at an unknown hour that no one knew
How long can I listen to the lies of prejudice ?
How long can I stay drunk on fear out in the wilderness ?
Can I cast it aside, all this loyalty and this pride ?
Will I ever learn that there'll be no peace, that the war won't cease
Until He returns ?

Surrender your crown on this blood-stained ground, take off your mask
He sees your deeds, He knows your needs even before you ask
How long can you falsify and deny what is real ?
How long can you hate yourself for the weakness you conceal ?
Of every earthly plan that be known to man, He is unconcerned
He's got plans of his own to set up His throne
When He returns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPbWvj9SEcg

YouTube - Videos from this email