"Thinking" (LordvSatan) webseries & Related Links: [Home Page] [God's System] [Introduction, assumptions] [Part I, Overview] [II, 'then'] [III, 'NOW'] [IVa: Church Alpha basis] [IVb, 'Body'] [IVc, Conflict] [IVd, Destiny] [V, Trib-Mill] [Satan's 'Spin' on Trib, scenario] [App: Satan's Strategy] [Trial Sum: Paradox of Merit] [Kingship: Due.Dilig.Disclosure] [Infinity-finity Dichotomy] [DDNA solves Dichotomy] [Spir.Pathology (viral dDNA results)] [Fixes (Nature of God)]

Revelation: a Play within a Play

For a Text-to-Speech rendition of this webpage, see the audio player below:

Intra-page links: [Intro, how we know Rev completes Canon] [Rev is a Quadrilogy re Four End Times, + FAKE Church as Cause] [Greek Drama Rules show how to read Rev] [Quadrilogy Outline]
[Play #A, NOW, Rev Chaps 1-3] [1, Rev 1:1, Tachos HASTE Precedence] [2, Nested REAL Prophecy] [3, Rev 1:6-7, Church must first complete as Kingdom] [4, Rev 1:8-18, Christ and His Lampstand Body] [5,Rev1:19's Meta Tauta] [6, John is Narrator, Rev1:19ff] [7, John Represents Church] [8, Rev Chaps 2-3, Church is Audience, not Actor] [9, Christ STOPS TALKING after Rev 4:1] [10, No Church post-Rev 4:1's RAPTURE 'Door'] [11, Angels Play Chorus] [12, No Church "ear..hear" post Rev 4:1] [13, Church Never Speaks] [14, Church=Sea of Glass] [15, Last=First] [16, Lamb is OT term] [17, OT imagery post Rev 5] [18, Rev 6 as Epilogue to Church, Meaning of Seven Seals]
[Play #B, Official Trib, Rev Chaps 4-19] [19, Chap 6 as intro to Play B] [20, Trib Trends] [21, Trib commences, Rev 7 Sealing Parens] [22, Trib Action Begins, Rev 8] [23, Trumpet Judgments] [24, Rev 9's 5th Trump] [25, Rev 10's Interlude] [26, Rev 11, how Trib's 1st half ends] [27, 5th & 6th Trump 'causes'] [28, Rev 11:15's 7th Trump begins last half Trib] [29, Preview Plot] [30, Rev 12's Preview] [31, Rev 13's preview] [32, Rev 14-15, God's Plan for last half] [33, Preview over, Last half officially begins, Bowl Judgments] [34, Satan's Reply to Bowl Judgments] [35, Rev 17's Fake Church] [36, Harlotry=Religion] [37, Archetype Church Trib vs. official historical Trib] [38, Babylon Destroyed]
[Plays #C & #D, Millennium & Eternity, Rev Chaps 19-22:5] [ Epilogue (what to learn NOW from the Play) Rev 22:6-21] [Why Rev 'scholarship' stays bad]

Click here for a one-page Excel Tribulation Chronology 'map'. You will find it useful. Click here for RevMap.doc. It is a comprehensive companion outline of Revelation, and of this webpage. RevMap's contents are updated versus this RevPlay.htm, as I'm still editing RevMap.doc.

Eventually, the contents of both the doc and this webpage, will fully mesh. Right now, you might find apparent or real inconsistencies, pending further edit of this webpage to 'match'. Meanwhile, you can read both, to get your brain around how Revelation is constructed and what it says. Be sure to breathe 1Jn1:9 often as you read, for above all Satan doesn't want us understanding the Book of Revelation. It's not important whether you and I agree on interpretation. Rather, the goal is to give your spiritual perspicacity a workout. You won't agree with your former ideas, a year from now. Neither do I agree with all of what I've written or said, in the past! Learning is a process of constant revisiting, and refining. We don't 'get it right', immediately. Takes re-examination, constant. So what follows is designed for brainstorming, and is not a sales pitch.

Synopsis: Revelation is a straightforward book which you interpret as a Greek Drama quadrilogy, a common format of communication at the time Revelation was written. Using well-known language mechanisms, John divides the times to show how the End of History occurs, and how Eternity begins. Thus Revelation is blatantly meant to be God's Last Word, and Canon is closed. There is nothing hidden, no secret codes, in its language. It uses well-known metaphors elsewhere in Bible and in Greek literature to communicate. Bluntly.

The webpage is structured in 40 numbered bullets, following the same verse order as the Book of Revelation, so you'll have to first be familiar with the outline of Revelation, on your own; so use the color-coded left column of RevMap.doc to help you follow this page. For, you'll need to be following along IN Revelation, as you read. Else it will be frustrating to read the bulleted commentary below.

Intro: How do we know Revelation is the LAST Book of God's Script?

Answer: "Because the Bible itself says so." Today we moderns pick beginnings and endings with headings like "Introduction", and "Final Chapter" and "FINIS" and "End" (the latter two, for movies). But the ancients preferred other ways of communicating such demarcation. Wordplay was usually the sole form of entertainment in the ancient world which everyone, rich or poor, could 'own'. So it was popular. So wordplay using metaphors rich in multilayered nuances, was popular. You see an enormous amount of wordplay in the Bible spoken by poor people. In short, they knew language better than we do. We of the modern age demand soundbyte answers. Well, people in the ancient world, didn't like soundbyte answers, they preferred pithy language you could play with while you walked, spun flax or shoed horses. Economic life was labor-intensive, so people crowded together and were constantly talking in terms of their literature. Made the time spent, pleasant. So the Bible is written cleverly. So if you'll use 1Jn1:9 as you read Bible in the original-language texts, you'll begin to see what the ancients saw, both rich and poor alike. 1Jn1:9 turns on the authorization for God to illuminate you -- whether rich or poor. Human abilities do squat for learning Bible.

Genesis is the first book of the Bible, and it linguistically proves itself to be the first book, by the fact that all Bible Doctrines begin in it. All other Bible books quote from it, use its teachings, keywords, etc. Bible is very densely-knit together, as a result; and the primary tool of communication, is wordplay: Gotta think like a thesaurus. No translation, therefore, is but adjunctively useful. ["Literal" translations are helpful in that the error they always make, is to narrowly translate each word the same way. So you can more easily search on a literal translation, once you know how it translates the keyword you're researching. However, if you want to read for sense, then you need a more idiomatic translation. Problem with these, is they go overboard with their idiom, and forget that Bible writing style deliberately uses keywords in wordplay. Good example of the overboard-idiom is to screw up ho logos in 1Cor1:5 -- it's wordplay on Christ's Title as Word, and if you don't know that, the whole book will remain a "mystery", heh. Same kind of mistake, for logikos in Rom12:1.)

    Like any legal document, Bible develops its own many keywords beginning in Genesis, so a later book which uses a keyword which is in Genesis, tells you how the other book's keyword, should be interpreted; and, at the same time, tells you more about how to interpret that keyword as Genesis uses it. Thus you know absolutely that God and God (Spirit) Alone, wrote This Book. So it becomes painstaking, though not conceptually difficult, to establish what's the right translation, interpretation, whether a verse was 'faked' or scribal error, etc. Easy example: water is metaphorically depicted for the WORD RESTORING you, in Gen1:2 onward; just as the Spirit RESTORED the earth, so also He restores the believer. So, in Ps23, David talks about waters restoring his soul. So in Rom5:5, the Spirit POURS Love in us: so LOVE=Word since WORD=Water. Of course, many other verses use these same metaphors. See how easy they are to track?

    Another favorite is double-edged, the Word as Sword. Rev 2:16 (in context) and the many OT LXX passages it references, together constitute a set of metaphors which basically add up to, if you don't get the machaira (Heb4:12, Roman double-edged 'knife' sword=Word) in you, the romphaia (Gentile broadsword) will ekporeuomai adversely OVER you. That latter verb is usually mistranslated "proceed", but it's more accurately rendered "pour", or "flood": it refers often to a pouring of troops, a 'flood' of calamity, like in the LXX of Dan9:25-26. So when you see a refrain like His Voice is like the sound of many WATERS.. yikes! Swim in the Word, or the flood will DROWN you! [No-extra-charge corollary: all those idiotic "proceed" debates among Protestants are based on a mistranslation, no one even bothering to look up the many uses of ekporeuomai in the original-language texts! There must be two hundred uses of the verb in the LXX and NT. Dingdongs obviously don't like the FLOODING connotation, and tried to make the verb more 'stately', by sometimes translating it "proceed", as if God would be undignified if He POURED. But in the original-language texts, no way can you mistake Bible meaning: Holy Spirit POURS HIS POWER, 'flooding' you, so you can get the WATERS of Scripture. Or, you get God's PUNISHMENT pouring over you, drink the cup of judgement. And why that metaphor? Because the Holy Spirit RESTORED THE EARTH from its own primordial flood (search "Pangea", on the internet), Genesis 1:2. See the visual pun? You can learn more about that in my "Genesis" videos: click here.]

    See? God's Word is really really Him talking. Translations are a bad telephone line; like two cans bored at the bottom with string knotted between them. You can get a better connection, than that!

In the exactly same manner, Revelation is the Last Book of the Bible, and likewise proves itself to be Last, by tying up all prior books' concepts/ keywords, etc., to itself. The wording, metaphorical depictions, etc. in Revelation, are all defined elsewhere in Bible, and are used in Revelation for that reason. So know the definitions, and you know how to interpret Revelation. Its Greek is the best known kind -- Drama Greek, with koine ("common", "in common"). Note well: DRAMA WAS FOR COMMON PEOPLE. Not the hoity-toity thing you hear of about theatre, today. So Revelation is intentionally easy to understand. Just grab a study Bible or software program which has already cross-referenced verses elsewhere in Bible with the same keywords, and you should get a lot more out of Revelation.

    That people mix 'high' (elegant) language with colloquialisms in their speech, is normal. These webpages are deliberately written in such a mixed-speech style. The Bible is thus written that way as well, since -- duh -- it talks to people in their own language. So, think: Attic Greek was considered upper-class, so people used it often to enliven their days. They'd all seen the (mandatory-attendance) Greek plays, so they used such concepts and Drama Wording in the marketplace, town square (place of debate), even (and especially) in the bedroom. You know how 'important' you sometimes feel when you can say something elegant, high, important? Well, they did, too. Every 'gentleman' in classical Greek society (and every Jew in the OT) was respected to the extent he was skilled in "rhetoric" (or Bible and later Talmud, for Jews). We all like to feel important. So, we mix high and low speech.

    It was part of their lives, much like movies are very much part of our cultures, now. Bible was used that way, as well: in the OT, everything revolved around wordings in Bible, and in the Hebrew, you can tell from the etymology alone how intertwined Bible teaching was, in the very language. So anyone studying Revelation who calls himself a scholar or teacher, should look for Drama Greek in it. After all, this is the most dramatic of themes, and we've oodles of evidence about how Greek drama is structured. Revelation is a straightforward Greek play of the Ending of History. Very common theme, in Greek Drama. John uses stock formulas to make meaning clear. For of course what he's talking about, couldn't be more epic-dramatic!

In sum: it's not hard to get Revelation, right, but it does take time. Because we aren't in the first century and our native tongue is not Greek, it takes us time to chase down all the many references Revelation makes to the OT; and, to think over what they mean, especially when John changes something compared to the OT ref. Even so, you don't need to be a genius Bible Scholar, to "get" what Revelation, means. In fact, what you do need, is to breathe 1Jn1:9; without it, even a genius Bible scholar can't get it right. (Pink/flesh table at the end of this webpage will cover that problem in more detail.) So with a little thinking and a lot of 1Jn1:9, you can tell it's not secret code, wild-eyed visions, etc. Just good Greek Drama, with Hebraic roots! [This is not to deprecate the need for strict and rigorous academic discipline. You need both the academics, and the Holy Spirit's Brains to get Scripture. Omniscience is omnidirectional, every dot tied to every other dot of knowledge, and very precise. So you need both the discipline of academics (yes, those initials after the name are important), and the humility of recognizing that academics are not omniscience. But people tend toward one or the other, only academics or only using 1Jn1:9; so get neither understanding nor wisdom, from Scripture. God is the God of Authority, and if you want HIS Brains to work IN you, you gotta study like an academe, under the Spirit.]


Revelation's a Greek Drama Quadrilogy about the End Times

Part IV explains in (maybe excruciating!) detail what kind of "end times" we are in. There are four types, not one.

  1. AD Tribulation as a Historical Trend, not the specific events. The Jewish Tribulation was supposed to follow in 70AD, but because the Jews rejected Christ, Church is to be formed. She had had 40 years (under the Jewish time-umbrella, running coterminous) to grow up so the Rapture could occur IN 70AD (August, just before the civil Jewish New Year began). But, she did not grow up, so time was extended. The characteristic of this time is precedented in the characteristic belonging to 70AD et. seq: tribulation. But not, the actual events. Of course, between 70AD and 96AD, no one really knew what to expect: that's why Revelation was penned, circa 96AD (giving everyone a generation longer to either spin out into apostacy, or spin in to God's System, the latter being the theme of 1Jn and his Gospel). So Revelation finishes the story of Time. [If you know when Bible books were written, you can see why Scripture was rolled out piecemeal: there was always some precipitating event. PopeMyth.htm has a list of NT Book-dates (from Scofield KJV). So for example, you'll realize Mark's Gospel and the Book of Hebrews were written just before the Temple was destroyed (also probably both of Peter's letters) but just after Paul was executed. So those books were to tide over folks, explaining what was going to happen, and what they needed to learn to prevent it. But, no one learned. So, allow those books to percolate for a generation (typical, it's like a 40-year grace/warning), then come John's writings. God always has important reasons for His Scripture Release Timings.]

  2. Blessing Trend 'endings' every 490 years (covered in Mirroring.htm at length, and briefly in LvS4a.htm), which is a trend since Adam: the four horsemen. Blatant reminder that Daniel 9:26 is operating. Idea here is that the world can end at any time, due to disinterest in Word, and only continues because God grew at least ONE believer ENOUGH, to justify continuing Time Itself. GeneYrs.xls shows how that blessing-by-association works from Adam through 2008 (entries post-Cross are sparse, and constantly being added).

  3. Completion of Tribulation. Revelation ties together all OT prophecy here on the official seven-year Tribulation, elaborating on how Dan9:27 'plays', and how God wraps up the Angelic Trial.

  4. Deus Ex Machina, the tandem Millennium followed by Eternity, which Revelation also covers. Typical Greek drama, God comes down at the end of the play (here, of real history). The actual span is 1050 years, 1000 for the Millennium, plus the typical 50-year worldwide voting period, true since Adam, typified in the Mosaic Law as "Jubilee". See Mirroring.htm for details.

    So you are to interpret Revelation as dual-meaninged (again, depicting the Hypostatic Purpose of History, the Revelation of Jesus the Christ). First, as TRENDS (explained in threaded fashion throughout Part IV); second, as ACTUAL EVENTS occurring in the last seven years that 'belong' to Israel, Daniel 9:27 thus fulfilled. Because there are two sets of promises due to Israel's rejection of Messiah: the unconditional covenants long since promised to Abram et. seq., must yet be fulfilled, but also the Body of Christ must be FIRST built (Heb11:39-40 is a crescendo passage on this topic). Meanwhile, the 490's provably continue through today (1990 being the ending of the latest 490). [CLICK HERE for a sidetrip-sketch of the historical characteristics. It's real significant, that the Book of Hebrews explained in advance how these twin promises' fulfillments were to function. But almost no one understands that book. I can't find anyone except my pastor, who does. He begins to cover that Book circa lesson 800 (et.seq., several hundred lessons following) of Series 376, 92 Spiritual Dynamics. The full exegesis of Book of Hebrews is best gone through after those lessons. His exegesis series is labelled "1972 Hebrews". When you see the Greek, you will get the meaning. Can't get it from translation. Very elegant, very deft Bible wording. People don't take Bible seriously, so always treat it shallowly. Big mistake, especially here. Billions of dollars are wasted on prophecy books and lectures which could be saved if someone would just Study Bible Itself, for a change!]

So with but one exception, Tribulational identities of the "anti-Christ", etc. -- you know, the nonsense Christians drool over when thinking about "the Rapture" -- are not generally important. So the whole European Union blah-de-blah is irrelevant, and has been an ongoing trend since 96AD, if you read your history books.

    So the current anti-christs are just the current ones; every generation HAS its anti-christs, as Paul explained to the Thessalonians, and as John explained in 1Jn. So when you analyze Revelation, you make identity assumptions, but you don't get too serious about them. For, the current 'crop' fitting the description, are helpful in seeing the structure. Whether those folks/entities actually become the identities IN the Tribulation, no one can know -- until the Tribulation actually begins.

    Move on instead to what matters, which is WHY all this is to happen.

EVERY generation post-Cross can be the Rapture generation. Precedence: the Tribulation was always contingent on Christ's Death and Temple Destruction, Daniel 9:26. So now the Tribulation is contingent on Church's 'death', for Church is the Body of Christ; so you can't date the Rapture, which is the kick-off for the Tribulation's beginning, just as Christ's Death was supposed to be. So you can't say who will be "the" anti-christs then. There are many, each generation (main theme in 1Jn2, 2Tim2:26-3:7). Goal is to grow up spiritually, not drool over the current historical similarities to Revelation, since in EACH generation, those similarities will always exist.

    Part IV of the Thinking series walks a reader through BIBLE's doctrine explaining why the Rapture is real, why it kicks off the Tribulation, and why it's legally sourced in the Groom Being Rejected. However, a quick glance at Daniel 9:26 alone should settle all disputes. Of course, no one should base his interpretation on one Bible verse. But by seeing it, you see the interpretational key: Christ. And He, is the Key to Everything. This is how we got inserted, why Matt16:18 reads as it does. This is the Logistical Key, Daniel 9:26.

One Revelation identity needs to be stressed loudly: we Church are the anti-Christ HARLOT, too! It's not the European or other future union which brings about the damage, it's a FAKE CHURCH.
  • This fake church began circa 98AD with the so-called Apostolic Fathers, and morphed into Catholicism;
  • then, it morphed into the state churches;
  • then, it morphed into all the many apostate independent churches.
  • Chief characteristic of the harlot is that she SELLS herself. Well, just turn on a Christian TV station, and watch the harlot parade.
  • Harlot LIES. So, a FAKE GOSPEL is peedled (pee+peddle) by these folks. You know, all those added verbs except the only one that works, "believe". Believe in Christ, believe He paid for your sins. Hence the fake gospels forever substitute other verbs like repent, invite, accept, make-Christ-Lord, be-baptised-by-some-human -- always mysteriously shunning Just Believe, which is what the BIBLE says. So those believing the fake gospel, are NOT saved, because they 'do' the wrong verbs! So all those poor people become the "Lord, Lord" people in Matt 7:21-22. Clever satanic ploy. Seriously: if someone can't tell you the Gospel correctly, that it's ONLY believe in Christ to be FOREVER saved, that person is both carnal and a spiritual baby.
  • Harlot wants MONEY. No elaboration needed!
  • Harlot wants GIFTS -- so work work work work.
  • Harlot uses THREATS -- oh, you can lose your salvation!
  • HARLOT WANTS POLITICAL POWER. Just look at the prolife movement and the Federal Marriage Amendment nonsense, both completely and utterly anti-Biblical. Did Christ EVER, crusade?
Your own television set will prove all this to you. On the "anti-Biblical" claim, you can even use your common sense without a Bible (no, God would be murderer if soul was ever in a womb, God doesn't need politics, the spiritual life can't be done with a corrupted body, so it must be what you THINK, etc). Folks have largely not had access to a Bible, in history. So they could use their common sense, too. Infinity can't be served by finity. Common sense. What a body does cannot ever be spiritual. Common sense. God is Infinite, I am not, so He must have devised a way to pay for my existence: common sense. So when John 3:16 is cited by a travelling friar, it makes sense. Immediately.

People who want the lie, hate the truth. So they have no common sense. Neither then, nor now. Nor, in the future Tribulation. So they are deceived, whether believers or not. This is true of all of us. Trick is, to keep ASKING GOD, using 1Jn1:9 -- asking God to make clear the lie believed, so that the truth can replace it. Congenital defect in Adam, which only the Thinking of the Last Adam can solve, Rom5:12-Rom12:1-3, 1Cor15:22.

So when you see all those many titillating books sold about Revelation or prophecy; so when you see all those TV programs sold which allegedly diagnose today's history as yes, we must be in the last days, brother! Just send in your love gift and we'll send you the latest book/tract/video so you will be prepared! Or when you see all those many oh-so-intellectual documentaries allegedly proving why Armaggedon can't be fought, logistically (right, dummy -- which tells you DEMONS HERD HUMANS into doing what makes no sense!); that Revelation is allegorical, or symbolic of something else; or, that the Rapture is mid-Trib, post-Trib; that well John wrote in 70AD (what a crock) -- you're looking at the real cause of the Tribulation: believer apostacy. Evidenced by, bad scholarship, people asking the wrong questions of Bible. We want the gory details, not the WHY. So the poor folks in the Trib will have all this misinformation, and it will be venerable, then. And since they can't get any blessing except through Church's growing up beforehand (Part IV explains this fact in great detail) -- titillated folk NOW are gonna be mighty regretful at the Bema.


Greek Drama origins and Play Construction Rules

Here's a brief on the nature of Greek plays. Following this section, Revelation itself is outlined to show its Greek-Play Structure, so you can see it for yourself. [If allowed, I'll later elaborate Revelation's keywords: they are fabulous choices, those keywords! Meanwhile, I'm sure the Holy Spirit will alert you to any errors of mine, if you're using 1Jn1:9 as you read.)] [If you are seriously interested in learning Revelation, I suggest that you get my pastor's 4-year daily exegesis of it on audiotape: titled, "1981 Revelation". Yes, four years, seven lessons per week. That's how long it should take, to really get how Bible fits Revelation together into one seamless whole. My pastor's site link is on my home page. That place never asks you for money, never mails you insipid letters, etc. Your anonymity remains protected, too. Oh: there's a limit on how many lessons per month you can get, depending on what format you want (MP3, audio, video). You'll have to find out what the current limit is.]

There's a lot of argument over the origin of drama. Folks seem agreed that it comes from religious rites, which makes sense: we like to look up, to feel part of something bigger, so we'd want to dramatise what we think the 'something bigger', is. Even today in the so-called primitive cultures you see a great deal of drama in the dances, hunting rituals, etc. Lots of storytelling. Every village in any epoch however primitive had a witchdoctor, shaman or other individual whose chief job was to tell the stories of the gods who protected his people.

Egypt, even as early as 1800BC (some say 2300, but there's debate) was putting on plays. So Moses would have known of it. (Asian drama goes back farther, but I forget the details.) Allegedly Greek drama was founded by "Thespis" (from which we get "thespian"), who (allegedly, but I dispute it) drew his ideas from the Dionysus/Bacchus spring rites, and became the first producer/ writer/ actor in a play.

Originally there was only ONE actor saying all the lines of all the characters, supplemented with a chorus. (Which is a version of the Indian narrator/storyteller, so the origin of Greek drama may come from India via Persia, but I digress.) About 30 years later, changes were made, adding actors, changing the roles of the chorus, etc. So, although the techniques for Greek drama changed a lot over time, Greek drama remained every bit as important as the Olympics, or war. Major awards were given for best play. So, there were rules for competing: you had to write your play a certain way, to qualify to compete. For example, you had to begin the play with a background explanation, the setup/CAUSE for the actual event the play would cover. For this, there was usually a chorus, or an actor with a monologue.

Also, the plot had to be epic-scale, very colorful, and exaggerated (by our modern standards). The language sounds like a soap opera, everyone woe-ing all over the place, or overjoying, taking ninety years to complete a sentence. But for the Greeks (and most others whose cultures aren't British-based, even today), this was respectable, for somewhere in the back of each play was an honoring-the-gods-and-State purpose. Can't use too many nice words to honor that theme! So, we get the word "hypocrite", for example, from the huge masks actors had to wear in the earlier dramas -- which had exaggerated expressions on them -- so folks sitting too far away could still "get" the plot (analogous to believers, today).

Thus, Greek drama always played on at least two levels, to be considered good: first, it had to deal with some historical or god-related event; second, it had to represent timeless truths on epic scale: the tragic flaw, the Hero, virtuous war, Divine Judgement/Opinion/Involvement, triumph over evil, etc. If it was a comedy , the plot could be fictitious, but the underlying meaning was some satyr->satire or commentary on: government; burning political issues of the day; or other persons well-known to the audience. (Attendance was compulsory, apparently. If you were too poor to pay the entrance fee, some charity gave it to you.)

Wordplay was vital, in Greek Drama. The more metaphors, and the more levels of meaning in a line of script, the better the script was deemed to be. This was especially important since one human actor played multiple roles. So the precision of language helped one separate the different dramatic characters portrayed by the same guy. In Greek drama there was little movement: no acting out of a fight, etc. People just stood on stage and talked loudly. So the wording itself, and the way words were used by the actors, constituted the entertainment genius of the play.

    The hero got all the transitive verbs (verbs which take an object); the villain, got all the intransitive verbs (meaning that bad never accomplishes its purpose). There were genitive absolutes for the good guys ("absolute"=noun+participle in same case ending, the clause having "no grammatical relationship to the rest of the sentence"), split-screen, technically called "simultaneous action" -- Luke does this two dozen times in Acts to spotlight Paul. (I haven't checked Revelation yet for genitive absolutes, but given the split-screen quality in it, some should be there?) On the other hand, Greek drama also uses the accusative absolute or the accusative used instead of the nominative, to stress the subject (Peter and Paul use this 'dramatic accusative' to designate Our Lord). Greek drama loves innumerable plays on word sounds and multiple meanings (use of "doulos" in Euripides' "Ion").

    Moreover, dramatic narrative in Greek is in the present tense: most English Bibles caveat in their prefaces that they freely disregarded the Greek dramatic present, where English tends to use the past tense. Christians this often misconstrue sequences, not only in Revelation, but pan-Bible. [Example: in Bible, faith precedes regeneration, not the other way around, but if you don't know Greek tense pairings and shifts, you miss that. Another example: John talks of being SIRED in 1Jn, a progressive tense in English, so "born of God" is misleading to the English reader.]

    PRINCIPLE: all these language devices, written in extremely dense metaphor -- replete with every nickname of gods, people, past wars (Ida=Troy, for example) -- were considered 'good script'. So you must TRACK these devices when you read Revelation (and Bible). Else, you'll misunderstand what it says.

Sometimes, there was another big criterion, for winning drama awards: the action had to take place in "one day", which was impossible to do, given the requirement that a play be of epic proportions. So, competing playwrights had to use flash-forwards and flashbacks to stay within the one-day rule. Even without the one-day rule, the way the play unrolls, is as if all the front action was done in a day, the chorus or some messenger filling in the details of some battle, etc. which takes place OFF stage.

Furthermore, there had to be a MORAL in the play. This moral would run throughout; finally there had to be a short Epilogue after the play ended, in which the moral is memorably summed up. For, Greek drama was designed to wring one out emotionally (katharsis) and buck one up morally. (Augustus had Virgil write the Aeneid for a similar reason.)

Finally, Greek plays were usually submitted in 'fours': three tragedies (the term originated from goat-offerings), plus one comedy or farce (aka 'satyr', from which we get the word "satire"). They didn't have to be 3-to-1; could be 2-and-2. But there was always at least one comedy, where the ending is happy.

In all events, these plays were deliberately interrelated, akin to what we would call a "mini-series" in today's movies. If you look at the way Revelation is divided, you'll see the 'four': our NOW, Trib, Mill, Eternal State. Because, there are The Four: Three Gods, plus One Human (the latter, of course, being God as well); thus, a BRIDGE to another 'four': God, angels, man, eternity. Full-spectrum synergy forever. So, "Complete": totally filled up (plerow), totally fulfilled-to-the-finish (teleiow). So, END (teleios, telos) of story, play, conflict, labor pains (see Rom8:18-end). Eternity is finally BORN!

    Deciding What's Scripture Key => Considering that '4' is the Biblical number-designator for 'completeness' everywhere in Scripture, note also that 1) John is the Last Apostle, 2) writes a book which shows the Lord Coming Back For All Time, 3) and then Closes History, 4) Ending with the Caveat Not To Add Or Subtract to the Canon ('this book'). All these bald statements are like a huge flashing neon sign: Finis Finis Finis Finis! End End End End! That Revelation is the Last Book of God's Script.

    'Especially, if you know this four-thingy about Greek drama. So all those fancy hermits who wrote beautiful-but-non-canonical things the Greek Orthodox so praise; so the Talmud, so the Jewish pseudipigrapha, Apochrypha, Christian and gnostic apochrypha and pseudipigrapha; so also post-Rev dreams, visions, etc. -- all these are bogus, coming only from Satan&Co. They may contain insight, are maybe helpful, and should not be abhorred: but they are not God's Canon. To think otherwise is to incur all the curses, as the end of Rev warns.

    If you like pain, call some book "of God".. which isn't. Frankly, it's not hard to tell the difference between what God writes and what demons or people claim He writes. For in the latter cases, God is always ridiculed. You don't have to be a Bible scholar to know what book comes from God, or not. So the liability is real. So the soul-scarring results, are real. Worst thing one can do, is to claim something Divine.. which isn't.


Now to Our Fearsome Quadrilogy, The Revelation of Jesus Christ...

The apostle John, ever the lover of marital "oneness", fellowship, home, and (perhaps consequently these themes in) Greek drama rhetoric, is cast in the classical role of a narrator in Revelation. Which, he really was: heh. Important: the narrator is always OUTSIDE the play.

John writes out his God-given vision in the form of an epic Greek play within four smaller plays, centering around what in the OT is often called the "Day of the Lord" (which is what the book's title really means, lit. "The Revelation of Jesus Christ"), with flashbacks and flashforwards. From what I can tell, John must have been very familiar with Greek drama, because he sometimes uses techniques and devices outside the "classics" (Aeschylus, etc, 500-400BC), e.g., moving tableaus. These date at least from Plato's time, and are really the base for a lot of the world's drama: for example Noh plays, and ancient Chinese drama (forget what it's called), are essentially moving tableaus. On the other hand, mime was extremely popular in John's day, especially given the 'action' and even quasi-sexual nature of the depictions; so Revelation displays a combination of tableau and mime. It's even more ironic, since pantomimes in that day were often about the uniting of god and human! (Hella S. Haase, Threshold of Fire is a great fictional novel on Emperor Honorius' Rome which centers on this topic; shows how enduring is drama mime/tableau.)

At the very time John wrote (Domitian's Rome), the most popular form of Roman play among the lower classes, were mimes burlesqueing CHRISTIANS. So Revelation is a kind of 'reply' to those plays, as well.

Now that you know you should read Revelation like a Greek drama PLAY, see how simple it is to "get" Revelation in what follows...

Play A for Apostacy, "NOW" . CHURCH.

  1. God wastes no time remind us to make haste growing up in His Son. Our friendly noun "tachos" is in Rev1:1, and is usually mistranslated. It means SUDDENLY, not "soon". What must take place NEXT IN SEQUENCE and SUDDENLY, without warning. (Search on tachú in LvS4a.htm for more info.) So John gets a prophecy about what can suddenly happen, with No Set Beginning Date. He stresses that fact in 1:3 with the word engus. Usually translated "near", it's pregnant with meaning of closeness, intimacy, and is a Temple-Slave-being-near-God-by-being-in-His-Temple concept. Paul uses this term to good effect in Eph2.

    Pause now and take a delightful Greek Techie Break...

    TACHOS and its related terms and many synonymal concepts are used by John in wordplay throughout Revelation, mostly spoken by the Lord (just like He used it in the Gospels -- as a kind of signature, like Ani, Adonai in the OT). This is a very common word in Bible, with noun forms, adjectival and adverbial forms, verb forms. No way to miss what it really means, but as a noun or adverb, it gives translators no end of trouble.

    Here's why. TACHOS is a noun for a Brief! period of time. Like, that second! you first heard the planes hit the Twin Towers, that thwack! when your car was hit, that moment! you got a flash of insight, that instant! you will remember the rest of your life! So, see? the amount of time before or after "tachos" is not in view, but rather, the BREVITY of the time "tachos" itself represents. Morover, "tachos" DIVIDES all the time before it occurred, and all the time after it occurred. Watershed: in an instant, changing forever past and future; changing forever, how you SEE your past and future. So in English, we'd have to use more than one word to translate it, but stupid Bible translation rules invented by humans, won't allow that! So when you see "soon" or "quickly", replace the single word with, "in an INSTANT!" or, if you will, "Suddenly!" Be sure to keep the exclamation point in the meaning.

    The adverbial form of tachos is tachús; term is used six times in Revelation. Tachos itself is used twice, but written as "en tachei", which is really interesting, because "en" is an encompassingness preposition. So, the English equivalent "in an instant!" is even more stressed.

    As a verb (there are many forms), it means HOW FAST you do the activity itself. Root meaning here is militaristic, frankly. Related to Greek noun "taxzis", meaning being in formation, organized, pursuing an objective. See, you do a thing en taxzei en tachei. Heh.

    Remember that the first meaning of the term is next in sequence, with a connotation of suddenness, surprise. So all words which 'tie' to that idea, will be used in wordplay. Awesome! What a way to stress the nearness of the Rapture!

    So, let's look at one of them. What's next in sequence, is next to the thing it follows, right? So then...heh.. when Rev1:3 says "the time (age) is NEAR", it first means an Age Of Nearness, get it? Spatial nearness is stressed, in the Greek. Since "time" is used as an EPOCH marker for a covenantal period (or other appointment period) in Bible, it is also 'near' in the sense that the next Time (Age) is the Tribulation. But that tells you nothing about the length of years between "now" and "later". Frankly, "near" is a wordplay term: if you want to be near God, get with the spiritual life, which will get you home faster, and get us all home faster, so we can all be near Him sooner because the Rapture will be Nearer In Time.

  2. Take time now to review the outline of the whole book. Note how the book is constructed in a nested manner, wholly dependent on the sequence of what went before. That's your big tipoff that a real set of events is being depicted. It's not allegorical, can't be allegorical, if the purpose is to Reveal The Real Person. Sheesh. All those sevenings are Oaths, Promised Things, so they are real, too. Else, just pitch the whole Bible, right now; for, "To seven" is the literal translation of the Hebrew word usu. translated "swear" or "make an oath" or "promise". And the noun, is exactly the same: "seven". So these are real, k? A promise can be of a good thing or a bad thing, but it is a real thing, just the same. Sheesh.

      Um, note that if a thing is Promised, or if Someone is Promised, the thing or Person will be Near Your Heart. Even, Next In Sequence! John's tachos wordplay, rolling out!

      That's why there are seven seals, and until the seventh one is opened, the seven trumpets can't begin; until the seventh trumpet sounds, the seven bowl ("vial", in KJV) judgements can't begin. All dependent on Church. Can't miss this. Until John goes up in Rev4:1 (the Rapture verse), the rest of the play, doesn't continue. Can't make it plainer.

      In short, when Bible talks of sevens, it's talking of REAL THINGS. Promises to be literally fulfilled. Not nice words, and definitely not some bleeping code, for crying out loud. Creeps me out how 'scholars' don't do their homework on what BIBLE says are its own meanings.

  3. Now go back to Revelation 1. Notice the purpose of the book, Revealing Christ at 2nd Advent, v.7. So notice how Verse 6 precedes. We are made a kingdom, first: John here ties back to Hebrews 11:39-12:1, Dan 7:13, 1Thess4:17. Notice that in Daniel 7, the identity of WHO would accompany Him isn't stated. Why? Because it could have been, the Jews. But due to Jewish Rejection, the prophecy still is fulfilled -- but via Church. Very pointed reference. Everyone who would get Revelation would know that, hence John makes it into a doxology. Next in sequence from our being made a kingdom, was His Being Revealed. So John, ever the lover of Drama (vv1-6 is Greek drama preamble), notches up the already dramatic fact that history is contingent on our completion, to .. His Being Revealed.

      Wow. Pretty epic play, alright! What, His Being Revealed is contingent on something? And on what? Us puny Church? Well, yes -- by Father's Design, we are Body of Christ, Eph1, 1Cor6, etc. John presumes the audience is already familiar with that Scripture, so doesn't need to reiterate it.

      Ooooohhh, tachos wordplay again: contingency represents next-in-sequence! Cause and effect is nearness! He causes us so we are caused to cause Him, another circle like the subjective and objective genitive, 2Cor5! I love that verse in David, "Because you caused me"! (Hebrew, Bible translations are awful, think it's Ps139:14, niphal plural.) Oh, and BODY? What can be nearer, than that? IN HIM? Well, you decide what that wordplay means...

  4. Verses 1:7-18 provide the fabulous opening scene. Look up each of the keywords in the OT, so you can enjoy how the Lord upgrades their Zech 2 meaning, in v.20, due to the 'mystery' (Church moniker) of us, His Body. Lampstand and olive tree depict the Word in a believer Filled With The Spirit (the olive tree). Note the emphasis on Divine Pleasure and Protection the believer gets. Spend time on this, for it will show you the genius of using metaphors. So much incorporated info packed in a single word!

      A lampstand usually represents some 'head' of a group of believers, but need not (Rev11's Two Witnesses are just two people, not two groups). Notice the stress on the individual, in the OT. Notice how the Lord then even explains that the lampstands are the churches (plural, not singular). Each local church. No denominations, no monolith, no corporateness in that sense! It couldn't be plainer. Fits the Greek of Eph4:11-16, exactly.

      The "seven spirits of God" (Rev 1:4, 3:1, 4:5, 5:6) means the Seven Kinds Of Spiritual Ability He Gives You, the implication being that if you aren't getting it from Him, you don't have it. See Isa11:2, Zech 3:9, 4:2-10 for the definition. Isaiah 11 is a prophecy of Christ Himself (see context), so He's Filled with the Spirit, and thus has six abilities of the Spirit. So here in Rev we see that we are extensions of Him, by use of "seven spirits". My pastor somewhere taught that a better translation would be "Sevenfold Spirit of God", by which we'd know categories of spiritual power/ability were being referenced. (You'll also find the term in Talmud, Mishnah, but I can't remember where right now, and I only have a paper copy.) Heh: seven ways to breathe properly, Promise! First, Him Himself, plus the six abilities He provides, as Isaiah 11:2 lists.

      Ooohhhh, stress on ruach/pneuma, BREATH, Wind, Spirit! And what is more sudden than that, when excited? Hebrew word for nostrils, also means anger/excitement, feh, feh, feh! What is nearer, than 'breathing' the Filling of the Spirit and the Word, "the Word is near your heart and and in your mouth", Deut 30:11ff. Ohhh, sevening promise, nearness, sequence, cause-and-effect, all tachos... The sudden insight due to Filling and pondering a doctrine; the intimate knowledge of Scripture which is Promised... oh, the tachos wordplay never ends.

      Rev1:8's Alpha and Omega and 1:17's First and Last both reference Christ as God-man. Alpha begins the Greek alphabet, Omega ends it. So He's the First and Last Word on Everything. Rev 1:14's "white like wool" references His Payment on the Cross. My pastor always stressed that the shock of bearing our sins must have turned His hair white, so perhaps the reference is literal as well as symbolic of Him being the Lamb. Daniel 7:9 uses the same term. Rev 1:15's "bronze" is used to denote tensile strength and brightness. Look up "bronze" in NIV to get a sense of how Bible uses the term, especially in Temple construction, since the Lord is the Person the Temple depicts. Then you'll see why John calls His Feet (walking, living), blazing bronze. See also Ezekiel 1:7, 40:3, Dan 10:6, showing that angels of His Entourage had part of the 'uniform' also. "Many waters" depicts the Word as a flood. Probably as a play on Genesis 1:2's RESTORATION of the earth, the Holy Spirit is said to "flood" you. Flooding also has a military invasion connotation, i.e., in Daniel 9:26, Isaiah 8:8, 10:22, 28:2, etc. Greek verb for this is often ekporeuomai, usually mistranslated "proceed" in English Bibles (i.e., John 15:26), causing centuries of Christian bloodshed and confusion to this day. You are flooded with understanding, or with judgment. So the SOUND of many waters means He's the Word, full of Divine Perspicacity. It's an OT metaphor carried over into the NT, and is repeated thesauretically combined with that other Word of Word, "sword", in Rev 1:16, 4:5, (negatively, of demons) 9:17-18 & 16:14, 11:5, 19:15, (which ties back to 1:16) and 22:1 (which ties back to 1:15). Thus Revelation demonstrates the span of negative and positive flooding/pouring/issuing forth. Rev 1:16's sword and stars depict the Word, from His Mouth into ours. It would be better to translate aggelos as "messengers", as the persons referenced are the seven PASTORS of the representative local churches which receive Review during Chapters 1-3. Which should be obvious: nowhere in Bible, does a human write to an angel, lol. See Rev1:20, which tells you that.

  5. Rev 1:19's Greek verb mellw (lit., "to be about to be"), and the time-tracking "meta tauta" clauses (covered below), separate the "times" for you. Such terms wall off the TIME of one covenant from another, and that's their purpose, here.

    Time for another delightful Greek Techie Break...

    META TAUTA is a major time divider in Revelation. "Meta" conveys "in the midst of", as a preposition or prefix. When meta is used w/genitive case, it's "with" or "against" (with-someone-in-antagonism); with the accusative, meta becomes SEPARATIST, so means "beyond" or "behind", "after", next. The object of the preposition 'receives' this action. So meta comes to mean CHANGE. Change due to Association With something or Someone Else, get it? The NEARNESS changes you: changes your location, changes your outlook, changes your action, changes your soul. [Since time only goes forward, and you can never go back in time, meta never means before some time event. That's an important distinction. Each preposition has its "boundaries", and if you know what they are, you will better understand God's Word.]

    The word "tauta" is accusative neuter plural and comes from "houtos", a Greek demonstrative pronoun with a very interesting etymological history. So sometimes in Revelation, "meta touto" is used: "after this". Bible Greek often, but not always, uses "this" the way modern Americans do, sweepingly, but since Greek has case endings, we know what "this" is meant in the original languages only. (English "this" is ambiguous, as are most all English words, because English was deliberately developed to BE vague. England needed all the diplomatic friendliness she could get, to stay sovereign!]

    All the NT writers use houtos constructions to help the reader track the 'flow' of what they are saying. You can't understand Bible until you get the flow, and "this" or "these things" in English really won't help you. So when you have trouble getting the flow of a passage, i.e. when something in a verse 'jars' you (Spirit is nudging you to investigate it!); or when your eyes glaze over; or when you think you are reading the same thing in the following verse as you just saw -- crack out the original language text! John, especially, uses houtos to track the reader in 1Jn. That's why no one understands what he means, dismissing the letter as a lot of love-talk.

    So now add to your watch-John's-wordplay list: all words and concepts which 'tie' thesauretically to meta tauta, will also be used in wordplay, throughout Revelation. Awesome! What genius! What a way to stress the nearness of the SUDDEN Rapture: this phrase, its own synonymal concepts, and the many which belong "with" (pun intended), tachos!

    Um, notice how together they form an appositional shout: meTAH TAOtah, TACHahss! Meta tauta, tachos! Tachos, meta tauta! Suddenly, after these things! After these things, Suddenly! After these things, suddenly-next in sequence! Next! After these things! Sudden Changeover! Next Change! Contingent, cause-and-effect, Promised, near, in-a-breath-second, IN your own life...

    Yikes! Is there NO limit to God's Genius use of His Word? How is it every word He causes to be written has soooo much wordplay? We're talking about an adjective/adverb (tachos/tachu), a preposition/prefix (meta), and a demonstrative pronoun (houtos)? Three menial words! Unpresentable parts, reproducing all this meaning! Fractals, never ending! "And so shall we ever be with the Lord"...

    Oh boy, I think I've tachos died and gone to be WITH the Lord, meta tauta!

    Ok, let's state this Greek-techie rule on "meta tauta" in a boring way, so it will be respected by those who think a rule must be boring to be correct: whenever you see "meta tauta" in Revelation, God is telling you that what went BEFORE the phrase, belongs to a different "time", covenant/covenantal period. Whatever is AFTER the phrase "meta tauta", belongs to the NEXT covenant/covenantal period. Next in sequence, tachos. And what's next, after Church? The Tribulation.

  6. So notice: per Revelation 1:19, John's not in the Tribulation, he's only writing about it aka NARRATING it. Greek drama separated narrator from play, commentators from the play. (So also notice how the angels' jobs, don't overlap: some are commentators, some are actors, but never both.) Anyone familiar with Greek drama would be alerted to this style: especially, in Revelation. Moreover, The Lord doesn't talk to him after Chapter 3, except via a rhetorical/ drama device called a dramatic 'interjection'. The use of 'interjection' is covered in the Epilogue, as it has the same function. The only use of interjection post Revelation 4:1 is in Revelation 16:15, covered below. That's another proof Church is not in the Tribulation.

      Compare: in the Gospel of John, you'll see passim comments where John refers to himself in the third person, so he distinguishes himself as BOTH an actor IN the events he tells, as well as a narrator, since he also gives eyewitness testimony. He uses this same angle to open 1Jn with dramatic flourish. But he doesn't do present himself that way in Revelation. He says he's on Patmos (Rev1:9): that's the last witness statement as an actor on Earth, that he makes. In short, he is NOT an eyewitness on earth to the Trib events. Again, this is yet another way to show Church is not in the Tribulation.

      Hence John isn't IN the play until Rev4:1, when he's told to "come up here" (see also Rev11, where the Two Witnesses are given the same command). John thus becomes an eyewitness FROM HEAVEN, and is never an actor in the play taking place on earth. Hint Hint.

  7. John represents Church, which is why he's WRITING to Church. Church wouldn't need the information if it was already provided, so we know that the purpose of the letter is to inform Church. And it does need to know, because what Church does NOW impacts what happens then: those Trib martyrs are standing ON the sea of glass (Church) in Rev15:2; they are not the glass, themselves. Part IVa explained this fact, and also why Church is stamped with Israel's historical trends as part of "times of the Gentiles", in order to rescue Israel.. specifically, Daniel's 70th week (see Luke 21:24); so Rev1:9's "tribulation" is NOT Israel's own Tribulation: there are two times, not just one. Term "thlipsis" has many uses, some generic, and some particulate. Trace the term in the Bible.

      For those throwing away Revelation as allegorical, for preterists, and any Church-in-Trib people, Rev 1:9 is probably a big 'justification' in their minds. So, they don't know they are misinterpreting its import. For, they forget the cardinal rule of any language as well as any prophecy, that there are multiple layers of meaning and application. So, you have to be careful and distinguish the various uses of the same word. For example, the "I stand at the door and knock" verse is inanely used to justify a claim you must invite Christ into your heart, to be saved. But Christ is the Door. So why is He here knocking AT a door? Here in Rev, "door" doesn't have the same meaning. Which we immediately know, because the verse is in a passage addressed to a Church, meaning believers, hello... So do your homework.

  8. As Rev Chapters 2-3 prove, We Church are audience, NOT actors. Even NOW, we are in the world, but not of it. So we are audience. This entire Trial is about Satan & Co. claiming they deserve something for THEIR works, and so their kingdom -- this earth -- makes the same claim. When we believed in Christ we became Citizens of Heaven (politeuma Philippians 3:20 +Eph 2:12), no longer of this Earth. We stay down here as high-ranking ambassadors, 2Cor5:20 (see whole context). Ambassadors are NEVER supposed to try to influence politics in their host countries. So we aren't to do that, either. We get our instructions solely from Heaven, and are NOT actors on the world's stage.

    So too, in the Tribulation, we're not even ON the earth; the Ambassadors Have Been Recalled (see DueDisclosure.htm's "Brief" in this connection). We come TO the stage in Heaven via that Door in Rev4:1, but.. we have no lines, there is no activity recorded of us, the only believers rostered in Revelation after Chapter 3 are Jews (the 144K plus the Two Witnesses). All else, is Fake Religion, war, lots of hurting people. No mention of Church. Sign of Jonah, silence. The Protagonist is silent toward a world which is silent towards Him. So too, His Bride. Even as it was, ever since He was First Seated.

  9. The Lord HIMSELF stops talking after Revelation 4:1. You don't see Him talk to anyone BUT Church (as represented by John) in the whole of Revelation. He plays a mime, else; after all, that's how He's being burlesqued in the Roman Empire, at the time of writing! He's taking on the role of an actor whose first speech was to indicate the setup/cause (viz., Hermes, in Euripides' "Ion"): and to whom is that first speech? Church. Else, He doesn't talk. This is conclusive. Were the Church down on earth at any time during the Tribulation, He'd be talking to it ON earth. You just try to find any such 'talk'. T'aint there! Because, as He explains, we Church are setup, cause, prologue to: that's typical Greek drama. We are background, the prior, the raison d'etre for the play, Matt16:18 now fulfilled.

    In Chaps 8-18, notice how both the stage and the only actors in "The Great Tribulation" are on earth. Angels are the chorus, and a chorus goes off-stage (to heaven), or onstage to explain (like those three angels flying at noon in Rev14) to the actors. This structure is kinda complex to our modern eyes, but not to Greek multilevel ironic drama, in which the audience was considered a participant and beneficiary. But of course, just as Col1:16-18 notes, along with Ps110:1 and its repetitions, The Lord Is The Key To History. So He's at once the Chief Audience, Chief Beneficiary of the Play, the Purpose for the Play. It's all FOR Him, Ps110:1. So He's NOT on earth. So Church is not on earth, either. Couldn't be plainer.

    Roman Custom of Haughty Silence: The Lord is silent toward everyone on earth; only angels talk as messengers! Roman concept of no one else is worth talking to. No Roman noble or royal would ever talk to you directly. The Lord Himself used such dismissive language (separate sheep from goats, slay him before me, etc.) to communicate this. Not talking directly to the recipient, but to an intermediary, within the recipient's hearing.

    The actors get the silent treatment from Heaven, coupled with 'war': Divine Exodus-style disasters, for they won't hear God's Word. Reject the Machaira, you get the Romphaia, is the theme of Revelation. (See Heb 4:12, Rev 6:4, 13:10, 13:14, 1:16, 2:16, 6:8, 19:15, 19:21.) We hear the Word, so we get the Word about what all that disaster, means. They won't hear the Word, so they get the disaster; both machaira and romphaia turn AGAINST them. Could God make it plainer?

    So this is tantamount to saying the real stage is NOW, the 'play' is but a result of NOW, all future history hinges on how and if the Body of Christ COMPLETES. [Doesn't matter that we know in advance God will win, what about our team: our current generation? Do we want to be ashamed at the horror we inflicted on those of our generation and after, by not finishing the course?] Church is the End of the Play, and all else is but epilogue. Many startling verses tie in: 1Cor10:11 (bald Greek that we are the Completion of all ages); Eph1:15-23, 3:15-19, coupled with Eph 1:10's "with reference to the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times"; 1Jn4:17, Heb10:12-14, end of each Heb Chaps 10, 11, 12, Paul's Eph3:21 lexeme "Age over the Ages", just to name a few climactic passages on our NOW. (BTW: chronos, kairos, aiwn are Greek words used for "Age", though they have other meanings. Paul's lexeme in Eph3:21 uses aiwnos in double genitive, since the first genitive goes with genea.)

    Yet another interesting rhetorical device of aloofness: "a voice from Heaven". The VOICE is not identified. Yeah, those ON EARTH don't know the One speaking. Remember the Lord saying "My sheep hear My Voice?" and that refrain, "he who has an ear", which suddenly disappears from Revelation after Chapter 3? It's only used one more time, in Revelation 13:9, and that in context of the intermission. "Churches" is conspicuously absent, though the term was only used with "churches" in Revelation, SEVEN TIMES in Chapters 2-3. Yeah, because Church is in Heaven during Rev 13, and is at that point, BRIDE.

  10. Rev 4:1, "meta tauta", stated twice, at both beginning and ending of the verse! It's a keyphrase Bible uses to DIVIDE time, as noted earlier. This is the only verse where the phrase is used twice, walling off what went before, and walling off what happens AFTER. So Rev4:1, beginning of Tribulation at the time we go to Heaven, walling us off by our Going Up, and by our Arrival ('bookends' of meta tauta in 4:1); Rev7:1, beginning of Tribulation sequence on earth. See? Same moment. But Two Separate Stages, two separate occurrences. See the division? God is very precise!

  11. The angels play chorus after Chapter 3, talking either about Him, or about the people on earth, or those in heaven. But no one talks about Church, but only TO Church (John), because we aren't Church anymore, but Bride. We got promoted, risen, higher, get it? In Greek drama, the chorus plays an adviser to a protagonist, or fills in homilies, comments; or, fills in descriptions of offstage activity, like some battle which is won. So think: if Church were in Trib, then the angels would be talking about Church. But they do NOT -- they talk about the 144,000, those saved through their ministry, etc. And even these 144K folks don't have any lines to speak, until they themselves are in heaven.

  12. Note also how after the end of Revelation 3, no "ear..hear" refrain contains the tag line, "what the Spirit says to the Churches". The only Church keyword after Chapter 3 is "mystery", and it's used to designate a Fake Church: the harlot of Rev17 (SatSpin.htm has more detail). Again, because Church is no longer Church, but Bride. Important: the only OT use of Greek musterion is in Daniel, who is IN Babylon, IN exile! So when you see "mystery" and "Babylon" and "harlot" you are to immediately understand that Rev 17's Church is FAKE!

      For Rev10:7 tells John that the Mystery of God is completed with the seventh trumpet TO FULFILL WHAT WAS SAID TO THE PROPHETS -- blatant statement that Church is NOT in the Trib. See also Daniel 2, Eph1, and Heb1. Rev10:7 deliberately references those chapters with the "mystery of God" moniker, His Grand plan for the whole of human history. That's why Church is "mystery", not revealed in prophecy; why Satan Makes A Fake Church To Mask The Nature Of The Real One.

  13. Nota Bene: you never see the Church speak in Revelation. John is spoken TO as representative, since he's to write the letter; but when John speaks, he is always speaking as himself individually -- note that the content is all his reaction, what he sees; he records himself doing IN HEAVEN, what he is told. Or, he reacts, and is lightly rebuked for it. Not even once is he an actor, a decider, etc. Women-keep-silent-in-church. Betrothed is quiet, listening to Her Intended get what will be her inheritance as a result of marrying Him.

  14. Because, the Church is in HEAVEN in the Rev Chaps 4-5 scenes: entering Heaven in 4:1a ("door opened"); depicted as the "sea of glass" (tableau), reflecting Christ, Rev 4:6; see also "glass" and "reflection" verses in Bible. Important: Revelation 4:6's Greek word "krustalloi" means ROCK SALT CRYSTAL, and of course SEA is salty. Sea is used as a metaphor for PEOPLE/POLITIES in Bible, and so it is, here -- for believers, the "salt" people, the ones preserving the earth. So there is no doubt whatsoever that Church is in view, presented before Father. See verses on the Lord's warnings about how those who deny Him will not be presented before Father and the angels (Paul uses that phrase also).

    Because We've Already Been Awarded Our Kingships, there's nothing to say. Bema has already occurred: see Rev5:10's "made..kings". 'Just as promised, the Eph1:10 "summing up of all things". 1Jn4:17 and 1Cor3 are parallels. Greek theatre stage was called a bemata. Just read Revelation 4-5, notice how it's all a celebration of something which just happened. The only thing which could have just happened is the Bema, for the Lamb ceremony begins AFTER a celebration, then the same celebration punctuates the Lamb-Worthy ceremony. These facts become clearer with each re-reading.

  15. Remember "the first shall be last and the last, first"? Remember Ephesians 1:15-23, and Eph 3? Remember Hebrews 11:39-40? We are the LAST, so we have to be completed FIRST, for we are the Body of Christ. THEN He is revealed: remember the sequence of Rev1:6-7. That's why the title-deed scene (who-is-worthy-to-open-the-scroll) can even HAPPEN. After all, we are all one in Christ! A Hupostasis with THE Hupostasis, Heb11:1's Greek! Just as He'd asked for, in John 17, the longest prayer in the Bible.

      The folks in Israel during the 1st Advent were SUPPOSED to be the last series of generations alive. They would, had they voted for Messias, have become the Bride instead of us. So they would have become "first" in importance, though "last" chronologically. But they rejected Messias, so a new Bride had to be sought. While being formed, that Bride is called, Church -- analogous to growing up in the Groom's house (analogy in Heb3, Galatians 4, etc). But, once Finished (completed), then "last" chronologically, but "first" in importance. So what's FIRST in importance, must complete first before what's of lower importance, can complete. Even as, Christ had to be completed for US to exist, so even we have to be completed for history AFTER us to exist. It's that simple. Parts IVa and IVc will help, maybe.

      Shorter way to get this point: see Rev6:11 in Greek. English always sticks in a number-of-bodies idea, which is not altogether wrong, but Greek really isn't saying that. There is a superceding criteria which is clearer in the Greek: Fullness, Pleroma. It's a qualitative, not quantitative criterion. Every NT writer uses it, because "Fullness" is a moniker of Christ (i.e., "full of Grace and Truth"), we are His Body, so We Gotta Get Full, Too. In Rev6:11, it's the OT believers who are talking, since they don't get their promises until the 2nd Advent, and this verse is technically about completing them. But it's the same criterion, of a Corporate Completion. Which, is qualitative. Like a house, there are a certain number of rooms to be built, but the Whole House depends on the Quality of the Building.

  16. "Lamb" title is an OT term, and Revelation stresses it. The Lord Reverts To His Lamb Title From Rev4:2 onward. "Lamb", of course, is what He represented to Israel in the Mosaic Law's sacrifices. Lambs, of course, don't talk. So, you only see depictions of Him as you would a tableau or a mime, in John's day. Others do the talking. Quite a dramatic way to illustrate the fulfillment of the Isaiah prophecy about Him being silent (Isa53:7)!

  17. Of course, Revelation's metaphors and images are exclusively OT terminology, after Chapter 5, as any good study Bible will prove by its margined cross-references. You have a mix of Church terminology and OT in Chapter 4 and 5 (because, duh, the Church is in the Throne Room); in Rev1-3, its awards are then-current-Roman (e.g., crowns, voting/citation pebbles, privileges), as well as new Equites terms. See, the metaphors divide the "times" for you. [Class Note: 92 SD L1455-56 has a neat summary list of "riches of His Glory" and taxzis-timeline groups' verses.]

  18. Chapter 6 acts like an epilogue to mini-play A, the "NOW" play, the preparation phase of Operation Footstool; so, is a recitation of historical trends. In Greek drama, epilogues were designed to teach you the MORAL of the play, what you could take home with you and live on. For, Greek drama was always about virtue and morality (often weirdly defined, but hey). So, after the play closes, you are given the Message of it. That's one of the jobs Rev6 does, here.

      Note First: because the Church has entered Heaven, completed, the LAMB is thus ready to break open the seals. That's why the legal ceremony of His Opening the Scroll BEGINS. So Chapter 6 is the opening-of-title-deed ceremony. "Seal" in ancient world was seal of ownership or entitlement or reward. Only the proper recipient could BREAK the seal. Notice He doesn't open the seals, until we are in front of Him (place of honor, before the Throne).

    The meaning of the Seven Seals

    These Seals are Criteria For The Completion Of History, and we are NOW informed of them via Revelation, since we are NOW in the world -- clearly, since there is no other reason to tell us NOW. The Title Deed To Earth the Lamb holds in the ceremony, is not unencumbered until all seven seals, complete. So it's an overview of the criteria, since Israel became a nation. So we Church are part of the Encumbrance, now (fifth seal). Until we finish, the rest of the seals cannot be opened. So, for US, the first four seals (shown below), play, even as they have played, since Israel became a nation. For the first Bride was supposed to be, Israel. She is to be rescued now, via Church ("Dan9:26c" section of PartIVa).

    The first four seals in Rev 6, are of Jewish Origin: again, Israel's historical trends stamp Church, for Church is to make history, not prophecies, Part IVc. The four horsemen are taken from Zechariah (start reading in Chap1): notice the allusion to Esther.

      Here we gotta pause and remember what the Book of Esther means. First, the name: "Esther" is Persian, "Hadassah" is the Hebrew, and English version of the name is "Myrtle", a name common among 19th century American women. Myrtle is an abundant and very hardy plant in Palestine; what's very unusual about it, is how it reacts to Water (Word!) -- it grows into a tree if it gets enough water. Else, it remains a bush. Smells nice, has berries which are edible -- many uses. The Book of Esther is about how Israel is protected during the Diaspora. Since Israel was supposed to be the First Bride, the Book of Esther has a larger meaning of how the Gentiles get blessed through the Jews, as well. And also, the darker side of that: jealousy against the Jews. Notice how it doesn't matter that Israel is unfaithful (which is the cause of Diaspora, and in the Book of Esther not even one word is said about God, so they aren't observing the Law, not even thinking of Him). Genesis 12 promise, nonetheless operates, as well as all those other promises by the prophets that God will punish Israel, but never fully abandon her. [Book of Esther needs a lot more attention than it gets, and the attention it gets, is usually stupid, like about women's role in society. We don't need to look so low! Start looking instead at the uppermost Truth level, God's...]

      So when the Second Temple is to be rebuilt, Zerubby baby has some problems getting motivated, because everyone around the returning exiles is against them, they can't build the Temple to the old standards, etc. So in Haggai, the prophet conveys God's beautiful nagging To Rebuild My House. So in Zechariah, a contemporary, God sends a different message: I'm here protecting you, no one can stop the Building of My House. So, God uses TEMPLE words, like lampstand and olive tree (depicting how the Holy Spirit enlightens a person who eats the Bread of the Presence, His Word), calling Zerubabel those things, to show Protection. But note -- among the MYRTLES is the Lord with the four horsemen. Meaning, among the EXILES. Sooo awesome, are God's Words!

      But NOW, the Church upgrade: Israel played Vashti by refusing Her Groom at the First Advent, even though once she WAS Esther, and thus Returned to the Land. So, like the decree for the historical Esther, Christ orders riders out to the highways and byways to find a Replacement Bride Among The Gentiles (Matt21-24). For, notice Zech1's theme: Return to Me, and I will Return you from exile; so the horsemen among the myrtles, are Protection -- or, adminstrators of discipline, if the Lord is not wanted.

      So that is why you see the same vision in Revelation 1, but upgraded to the Lord standing amidst the LAMPSTANDS, not myrtles. And He alone standing, no horsemen with Him, for those belong to ISRAEL. Oh, how vastly superior and clearer the explanation, when you have changes in metaphors!

      Look: the most important metaphors in the Jewish vision are concatenated in the Church one, Depicting The Completion Of The Hypostatic Union. Kinda like the root meaning of YHWH as hayah+hawah, the One Who Was, and Is, and Is to [be]Come. Yahweh: always was, hayah, God; will become (First Advent), hawah; now WILL COME (2nd Advent).. because He BECAME. Cool wordplay, in Revelation, to call Him by this "One Who Was.." title! Note the double-entendre and next-ness: He will come for US, Rapture; which justifies He will COME, at 2nd Advent.

        Notice how this doesn't go to the right nor too the left. It doesn't go to the left, because the interpretation isn't based on counting Bible as some dippy acrostic, like the Bible Codes nutcases do. It doesn't go to the right, glossing over the rather dense metaphorical and poetic words, as mere beauty. Bible words always have important meaning. Even and especially, the small words...

      So, look: In the among-the-myrtles metaphor, the Lord is the most important. In the lampstand-and-olive-tree metaphor depicting the protection and Filling given Zerubabbel, the lampstand is most important. During His Incarnation, He became the Light of the World. So, in the Rev1 vision of Him, the Brightness of Him is stressed (folding in connotation of uncompromising Righteous Judgement), and so the LAMPSTANDS are His Churches. Also, the term still stands for an individual Filled believer, remains, as in Rev11 and OT -- many allusions in NT to this idea. See "light" and "lamp" verses in NT. (NASB has the better term, "lampstand", but all three keywords are helpful. Matt6:22/Luke11:34-36 state the principle: learning Him, not works, alone matters.)

      So, what do we know? Well, via this vision in concatenated metaphor, we know a LOT, but here's just an off-the-top sampling of basic stuff: 1) He's gonna use Church to deliver Israel, so clearly Church is not Israel herself. So the covenant to Israel is not operating during the time the LAMPSTANDS are on earth, get it? Israel's lampstands had to be in the TEMPLE, but there IS no Temple. So our bodies are temples (1Cor6,12), so we individually are temples, so our churches are lampstands. So if the time for the myrtle must resume, then.. the lampstands must first EXIT. 2) A lampstand is not a myrtle, but a lampstand can be used to Find And Protect A Myrtle (see Luke15:8). So any myrtle now who believes in Christ, becomes a lampstand (see Rom11). 3) Lampstands can be removed (like He warns the Ephesian church), but they don't become something else -- can't lose your salvation. 4) Lampstands can be refueled (1Jn1:9) or extinguished (1Jn1:8,10).

    So now, back to Revelation 6. remember, we are in Heaven before the Throne, from Rev4:1 onward, so we are witnessing this ceremony in Heaven. The Bride has been collected. So: in Revelation 6, each of the four seraphim (from Rev4), who together represent the Lord in tableau of Heraldic Shield Quarters, order on the world, the very vision Zech got about the Lord protecting (then, the nation) Israel.

      Now we gotta pause again, to see why these four seraphim do the ordering. Back in 1981+, my pastor spent SO much time explaining the heraldric ESCUTCHEON meaning of Rev4 seraphim's outfits/appearances, I thought I would vomit. (Don't even ASK how much God spanked me for being bored.) But, I did remember his Rev4 teaching, due to soooo much repetition! So that is why Part III of the Lord vs. Satan series, is largely expressed in terms of the Escutcheon (basis for all the reward).

      So, 20 years after hearing all that heraldry stuff, and (now) doing the research for these sites, guess what? I stumbled across an amazing historical fact: about 98AD, Caesar began or had just finished, changing the role of the "Equites" ("Knights"). They were his Personal Imperial Household, an honorable term meaning those who governed Caesar's private ownership of countries, goods, etc. Caesar owned most of what was called the Roman Empire, so this was an extremely sought-after goal, to become a member of His Imperial Household. So at that very time, Caesar's hiring criteria changed to wholly over to merit, not blue-bloodness or money (well, the money requirement was much reduced). As a result, all manner of what we today view as chivalric organizations, began. They distinguished themselves by badges, pennants, clothing, etc.

      So God uses all that Equites heraldry, to Communicate His Own Imperial Policy With Respect To His Household. It's sheer genius. (We miss so much when we don't know the isagogics of Bible.) So, one at a time, each Heraldic Quarter (worn as a 'mantle' by each seraph, as my pastor described the scene), 'orders' a 'horse'; thus you know WHY those horsemen ride. Lion=conquer; Ox=war (when men treat each other like cattle); Man=grain/staples famine (because not feeding on the Bread of Life); Flying Eagle=Death, swooping down on everyone, not protecting them under His Pinions (Deut32:11), but attacking. See how important, the use of specific metaphors? They Attest God's Talking; You Have In Writing From Him What Is Playing Out Live Before Your Very Eyes.

      It just has to be the God of the Bible, when The Bible's Judgements Play As Written. Here, because the horsemen alike represent judgement, and the Escutcheon, because this OT metaphor of Him being the Protector of ISRAEL is evoked, any Jew then alive should identify his "time". But of course, they and the goyim, largely won't. So why talk to the world, when the world won't read what is written and playing before their very eyes? Revelation is written now: it's tying to the OT, and those 'seals' really play. We see them even NOW. But we don't read or listen, either. So they won't, then, even as we don't, NOW.

      Of course, we don't recognize that since the Dome Of The Rock is in Jerusalem instead of the Temple, "Messiah" can only BE Jesus Christ (see PartIVa's "Dan9:26c" section); so they won't hear God's obvious testimony, either. We learn from Bible that we learn nothing from Bible. No wonder God let it stay largely hidden until the mid 1800's. No wonder people got bored with its languages, as soon as He brought it out! [I'll never get over hearing my pastor explain that when he was in seminary in the 1930's, they chucked the requirement that students write their exam answers in Latin/Greek. For centuries every student learned those languages, because manuscripts were extant, and because a whole lot of non-Biblical material was in those languages. Bible manuscript books were in pieces; among them all you could cobble together a full set. So an effort was undertaken in the 1800's to collect, collate, and correct scribal errors in what MSS we could find. Well.. God had Tischendorf rescue an almost complete MSS, now known as (if I remember) Codex Aleph, Sinaiticus. Within a few years, Tregelles' prodigous collection efforts and memory would force the Vatican to release its long-secreted MSS, the Beth, aka Codex Vaticanus.]

      People who don't want to know the Bible in the original-language texts GOD WROTE are just snubbing their noses at God. No kind way to state that fact.

    Fifth seal is the criterion of FULLNESS. Pleroma. It's one of the Lord's Titles in Bible, and all NT writers talk about us in terms of being filled up with Him, therefore (especially Paul). So "Pleroma" is a pass-through title for believer heroes. It's the HEROES who must be filled up.. at which point, the criterion is met. Note how the rank-and-file don't matter. For, they reject God. In heaven, sure, if believers. But if they didn't fulfill the First Commandment (see the warning to Ephesus, who was starting to slip, there), then they don't matter. If God matters to you, then you will learn His Son via His Book. If He doesn't matter to you, you don't matter in history. Your choice.

    Sixth seal is spectacular disaster as 'wakeup call'. Idea to get people to recognize as Warning that this is coming from God. We can see they will recognize the Author, but .. not change their minds. Notice the differences: first four seals are blatant advertisement of BIBLE being of God, via the trends which are deliberately tied to Israel and post-Cross, to Church -- but still bearing Israel's historical-trend stamp. By contrast, Seal #5 is the trend of people growing up to Pleroma fullness, justifying the continuance of time, as has been true also since Adam. So those not learning from the first five 'seals' get Seal #6, spectacular disaster.

    So the first six seals run from Adam onward. Who learns from them? Nearly no one. Till yet, most people barely know how to spell "God", let alone have any fluent understanding of Him. This world's preoccupations they know well; religion, they know well; works, they know well. But "God"? They don't know Him at all. Now you know why those seals are encumbrances: we are all tied up in them.

    Seventh Seal 'opens' the Tribulation itself. So if we don't complete, they won't, the Earth's title deed stays encumbered, Christ will not be revealed, all the promises in the OT will not be delivered. ["Encumbrance" is a legal concept as old as Adam; idea that ownership claims over the same property encumber the property from delivery until the rightful owner can be proved, found, 'completed' (if there are conditions to delivery, as is true in the Trial).]


    Play B, "The Great Tribulation"

  19. Chapter 6 also begins a new play: "The Great Tribulation", the last (shortened) seven years before the 2nd Advent occurs. Technically, "the great tribulation" is the title for last 3.5 years (7th trumpet onward); but often plays are named after their climactic purpose. Here, that purpose is to deliver Israel from her labor pains so she becomes a child of God forever, and inherits all He's been saving up for her, since forever past. Metaphor within metaphor!

    Greek drama themes were always stated at the beginning of the play, usually by someone not in the cast, especially if the play itself centered on the activities of the gods. (For example Hermes explains the theme of Euripedes' play, "Ion" at the opening.) So, what is the Epilogue of Play A, is also what opens Play B, because the opening of Play B depends on the closing of Play A. Again, Church must complete for history to continue, for Christ to be revealed.

    So, the Seventh Seal Remains To Be Opened, when Chapter 7 begins; for, with the opening of the seventh seal, the Trib sequences trumpet out. Again, our friend "meta touto" DIVIDES OFF what happens in 7:1 onward, from Play A. This keyphrase thus ties right back to its sibling "meta tauta" which ended Rev4:1, so you know that 7:1 is happening at the same time as 4:1; but, on Earth. Like watching two cable channels at once. Of course, we humans have to read sequentially, so Chapter 4-6 are like an explanation behind the commencement of Play B, in Rev7:1. In short, a parenthesis. Just as the Church is a historical parenthesis, just as everyone treats Christ as but an asterisk of history, so also what happens in Heaven, is disconnected from Earth, uncared-about BY earth, so unseen by earth. What a dramatic way to show the impact, of Church!

    Next, why use the metaphor of Trumpets. Well, the Jewish Year is marked by Trumpets, which announce the times of certain festivals, etc. Jewish history's macro structure, is patterned on these Trumpets, as well. So also, special years like the Jubilee year. Trumpets sound peace, rest, war, royal processions. But in all cases, Trumpets mean Royal Command. So too, here. Hebrew word "moedth" is real important to investigate. (Greek LXX counterpart words vary depending on what meaning of "moedth" is used in the Hebrew.) The word "moedth", like all other Hebrew words, has a variety of connected meanings, and ALL of them depict Doctrine, especially due to the way these seemingly-disparate meanings, hook up. For, "moedth" means Meeting, Time-of-Meeting, Meeting Attendees, Appointment, Meeting Place (Tabernacle, in Moses' day, later the Temple). You always had an appointment with God. God would always "seven" -- keep his Promise. "Seven" was always the Meeting/Appointment/Time word, then, for Assembly. I can't explain "moedth" better -- research how it is used in Bible, i.e., in those famous Daniel passages on "time times, half a time". Real important, to do this...

  20. So, because these Trumpet Judgements are Official Appointments Ordered By The Supreme Court Of Heaven, we need some introduction, before they roll out, so we will know how to read them. So, too, because Greek drama precedes a play's action with upfront explanation, we now pause to get it. We already got Chapter 6. We are in the Sixth Seal: seventh hasn't yet been opened. We know from Chapter 6's themes, the "backwards" meaning for Church, though still rooted in Israel (myrtle vision in Zech). OK, but now we look forwards and notice -- hey -- it's still the same vision. Underlying trends of Play B.

  21. So Rev7:1 breaks the line between the two plays, for it begins with the meta touto time-divider. So, first the purpose of the Tribulation Play: Harvest of Trib, a honor-roster tableau, akin to Heb11's. Notice again, how the Fifth Seal Criterion For Completion Of The Play, Is First In Importance. Before any further ACTION is allowed, those who are to be Fullness, are determinative. [Fullness doesn't have the same meaning post-Rapture, but its root idea still obtains. Trace the difference in nomenclature here compared to what Church is called via the same plerow and teleiow verbs and cognate concepts.] This sealing of the 144,000 is also first chronologically, because these folks will be alive in the first half of the Trib, and will immediately believe. Won't be too hard to believe, with the Two Witnesses keeping everyone away from the Holy of Holies (Chap11).

      Notice the wordplay -- don't open the seventh seal until you close the seal on these 144,000. 7:9 is a cool flash-forward (using meta tauta to divide time) on how these folks will turn out victorious, and due to their witness in the first half, many will be saved. Very tender, folds in a lot of OT prophecy, especially Deut 32:11's concept. But! Note the difference in 7:15-17's Greek -- He dwells ON them -- versus Church NT descriptions related to how He dwells IN us (epi in 7:15 versus "en" in the NT -- can't see this distinction in English, can't see that NT writers use special Temple words like skenow, katharizw, etc. to make those distinctions).

  22. So Chapter 8 begins the Tribulation proper, by opening the seventh seal. All other activity is PART of the seventh seal, and when its scheduled stuff ENDS, the Lord returns.

  23. So, 'within' the Seventh Seal, are the 7 trumpets. These Are Tribulation-Specific, not general trends like Chap6. And clearly, they haven't happened till yet. Trumpets 1-6 are 1st half of Trib; 6th trumpet is the midpoint, 7th Trumpet is what happens in the last half.

    • 1st Trumpet, an Exodus-reminder plague (Exo9:23ff).
    • 2nd Trumpet, kinda like in Lev26 where the punishment intensifies each cycle, this 2nd Trumpet sounds a mix of plagues from Exodus, Jer51, Zech13. All to communicate to anyone willing to read Bible, that God is behind them.
    • 3rd trumpet is Satan's fall from heaven, and waters means doctrine. Double-entendre verse.
    • 4th trumpet is again an Exodus-reminder, plus a whopping assemblage of selected prophecies from OT prophets, playing out. Very obvious that God is doing it. So if you don't read Bible, you still know God did it... and if you DO read Bible, it's extremely communicative.
    • 5th Trumpet, 1st woe, beginning Rev9: Satan lets out the Abyss demons.
    • 6th Trumpet, 2nd woe, still Rev9: the Abyss and Tigris demon assault armies, 200 million strong.
    • 7th Trumpet is sounded in Rev11:15, but its playout doesn't begin until Rev16. Big parenthesis intervenes when the Trumpet is sounded. Again, an Explanatory Prologue is needed before the action of the play can be described. Let's see why...

  24. Rev 9's Fifth Trumpet halts the play just before the Trib mid-point, to provide AN INTERMISSION which lasts through Chapter 15. We know this, because the famous "meta tauta" phrase is in Rev9:12. So we are to understand that the 6th Trumpet IS the Tribulation midpoint, and because of it, the 7th Trumpet will sound (Rev15:5's Seven Bowl Judgement ceremony begins with meta tauta). Must be pretty important, then, the whys...

    Greek plays, like modern ones, needed intermissions so folks could use the restroom, get food, etc. So here we have an intermission, to see how the mission has gone thus far. To see why what will happen in the 2nd half of the Tribulation, is Ordained by Holy, Loving God. It's a question which alike answers NOW, all the bad stuff God allows to happen. For, man is disposed in Adam to blame: blame others, blame things, blame God. By the Trib midpoint, man is so in love with blaming, drastic action has to be taken to rescue him. So a huge explanatory pause, must precede.

      All good drama builds up to a climax. So since the 2nd half of the Tribulation is the climactic Ending of the Play (the bowl judgements, kicked off by the 7th trumpet), Greek drama rules require this pause. (Remember, the entire Play is about the Day of the Lord, the Revelation of Jesus Christ.)

      Due to the released demons, Trib pattern intensifies from here on out. So, there is a pause to a) review why, and b) unveil the plot themes of the 2nd half of Trib.

  25. So, first Intermission topic, Rev10: Like Ezekiel did in Eze3, John takes a break, gets more prophecy to eat (believe, learn), is told to be quiet about some of it. The prophecy running from Ezekiel 3 forward is extremely gruesome: I used the BibleWorks version of latest NASB to read the prophecy, checking what words in the original texts I needed to verify. [NASB tends to translate the same original words the same way. Doesn't matter if the translation is wrong at times; you know what original words are being used, so review is faster.] Like most prophecies, it is a very dense explanation of the "riv" (Heb: court case) against the nation Israel (representing any era of believers, in the larger sense). Since only in Ezekiel is there another reference to eating a scroll, it is very clear what God means. The reader is directed to Ezekiel by this wording in Rev10.

      Ezekiel is given prophecy to 'eat'. That means God just put the entire contents into his head, and it was up to him to believe it. Which he did. (Remember, Truth is Thought, because God Is Thought, the quintessential property of Aliveness. Thought replicates by many different means, and of course God can do anything, so He can transmit thought -- Bible is an output result of such transmission, so it can happen to us, too. HS alone runs the transmission, so if you don't use 1Jn1:9 you will get garbage, even if the words, knowledge, etc. seem the same.)

      As a result, Ezekiel is to go to the exiles (note parallel to situation of Jews in Rev10) and tell them the contents of the prophecy; plus, Ezekiel is to put himself in a very uncomfortable situation and during it stage a horrific (and humorous) mock seige, lasting 13 months (one per tribe, looks like) plus 40 days -- in all, 430 days, the same number as were their years in Egypt (Gen 12 prophecy to Abram, see also Exodus 12:40-41). [Nerd note: 400 of the 430 years were slavery. Joseph was still vizier when they arrived, so for the first 30 years, they were not enslaved. So the kant about Bible contradicting itself, is the insanity of the accuser, nothing more. Yes, 13 tribes. Joseph got a double portion. If you look at the Rev7 roster, you'll find that double portion listed as "Joseph" and "Manasseh", but Dan is missing. Because, no one in Dan will be among the Jewish evangelists. The anti-christ prophet in the Trib will be from Dan, too. It's true that in Mill only 12 foundation stones representing the tribes will be laid, so apparently one of the tribes is either assimilated under another (i.e., maybe one stone for Joseph's double portion), or some other explanation. It's kinda off-the-point, to be concerned about this, imo. God has His Reasons.

      Note that it is still "every tribe" of Israel per Rev7:4: every tribe which has responders, duh. See also Romans 9, 11. God never coerces volition, He just tells us in advance how volitions will respond to Him. Moreover, there aren't since who-knows-how-long, any 'pure' tribes remaining. Intermarriage among the tribes, and among the Gentiles, for centuries, probably means that most of humanity has some Jewish blood in them! After all, God DID promise Abram he'd make him, AbraHAM. Look up the etymology of his new name (Gen17:5) in HALOT or Kittle or other lexicon which spends time on name origins. The wordplay is soo incredible! Words like amen (believer!), Ammon, Haman, roar, uproar, victory shout, so many words are related to "HAM": multitude of Word, multitude of nations, no kidding!]

    In short, there is no way Jews can miss the meaning, except by being negative to it. Same, for any other believer alive now OR during the Tribulation. God is saying thus that what follows will be of the same character as Ezekiel prophesied; John will be writing added information about it. The overall meaning is plain: ceremony announcing COMPLETION -- again, Fifth Seal Criterion is in view -- of God's Plan for all humanity, and especially Israel. God Keeps His Promises. Promises to destroy, to regather, to rebuild. Amos 3:7 also ties in, which in the LXX uses PRAGMA, meaning Trial Disclosure in that context. Prophecy is designed to warn and thus bless. If you don't heed it, then you get taught, blessed, the hard way.

    At this point the unbeliever's soul is shrunken, with respect to God; soooo small, that all these horrible catastrophic events must ensue to awaken him. Particularly, for the Jew. These will be the worst 3.5 years of pogroms in the history of the world. Hence the Rev10 reference to Ezekiel.

  26. Rev11's Intermission Topic: WHY the three woes (5th-7th Trumpets): because people didn't listen during the first half of the Tribulation to the two Witnesses. Also, because the 144,000, are not heeded. Two Witnesses keep people AWAY from the real Holy of Holies. They want in, and the pair keep them OUT. So when Abbadon is released from the Abyss, he gets to kill the Two Witnesses. God replies with the massive Korah-rebellion-style earthquake. That completes the Second Woe.

    Notice well: the evil people are RELIGIOUS. They are being kept AWAY from the Temple they built which God forbade. So they are happy when the Two Witnesses are killed. Religious types are always bloodthirsty, and even pride themselves on how holy they are, for it. So too here. Funny how mainstream Christianity treats the rebuilding of the Temple as a good thing. It's NOT. It's a satanic thing. Satan invented religion, so the religious think religious things are holy. So too, here.

    Rev11:1 ties to Daniel 9:27, which is in stark contrast to Dan9:26, which says that the Temple will NOT be rebuilt. We already know from a bizillion promises in OT that God and God Alone will regather Israel, restore the people, restore the land, and rebuild the Temple. So any regathering, etc. attempts before Christ is Visibly Back at the 2nd Advent, are all satanic ploys. Look: everything in Ezekiel after Chapter 39 (the 2nd Advent) is wholly dedicated to Temple rebuilding. Parallel passage is in Isa 59:18ff. We all know and gag over the huge amount of detail given to this topic; for it takes a lot of work to figure out what all those measurements mean, the articles mean, etc. Notice God spends much time on Temple structure and building.

    When you tie Daniel 7, 8, 9:27 and 12 to Revelation 11, a kind of chronology emerges. Rapture occurs, and these Two Witnesses appear. (It's not said that they are recussitated Moses and Elijah, but could be instead just two new Jewish believers.) These two start on the first day of the Tribulation and last until the 3.5-year midpoint. At the same time, someone in the West claims to be Christ, Dan9:27, and some Danite then in religio-political power in Israel, backs the claim. But these Two Witnesses are OBSTRUCTING. At mid-'week', they are killed, and the claimant sets up a statue of himself in the Temple instead, looks like within 30 days of the death and rising of the Two Witnesses. Which seems to mean that the claim PRECEDES the Tribulation, since the number of days from 1335 in Daniel 12:12 exceeds 3.5 years (the 1335th day is the 2nd Advent, so it's the ending period being depicted, as the context shows when compared to Daniel 9:27).

    Of course, in every generation there's always someone claiming to be Christ. The current obsession over whether Christ had kids (i.e., that silly Da Vinci Code nonsense) is enough of an example to prove plausibility. So again, you can't predict Rapture from that -- but you can see how historically valid, the Revelation chronology.

    Of course, Satan's been trying to occupy us with Temple Rebuilding ever since it was destroyed in 70AD, since we are NOT supposed to do that. Part IVa's "Stone Witnesses" link shows some of the historical attempts, all of them happening in years pivotal to some new 490-year time grant, completing. So the fact that he ultimately succeeds in getting the Temple rebuilt before the Tribulation begins, is here depicted. Plausible -- again, given the history we have already.

    So how strange, here in Rev11:1ff. Yeah, strange as in "strange fire", "strange god", foreign 'gods'! First, notice that although John is given a command to measure the Temple, he never does it. Compare to Chapter 10, where he's given a book to eat and then says he ate it (10:10), but there's no counterpart reply here. Nor is anything done. Nothing. Moreover, no matter what parallel Bible passage you look at (where the same command is given), the recipient is an angel -- never, a human being. [Many angelic appearances are called "a man" or "men" but you can tell from the context that they are angels.] So the reader should go on red alert: God doesn't want the Temple Rebuilt. So, He must be sarcastic.

    As if God is rebelling: like in Jer14:12, Isa59:1-17, Isa1:11. How apt: the Rev11:1-2 command itself is rebellion-like, truncated, compared to other OT commands, and the Speaker isn't even identified; and what John's given to use, is a REED (meaning no faith, no strength) for a 'staff' (meaning, it won't work).. and, it has no measuring length specified. Why? Well the 'staff' is the same word for the ROD OF REBELLION, get it (LXX, Rabdo, Num17)? Because not until the 2nd Advent is there to BE a Temple. See Ezekiel Chaps 39 and following, through the end of the book. The detail on the measuring rod and what is done with it, is huge. Similar pattern in all the other verses where this activity is enumerated.

    But not, here in Revelation 11! Instead, you see a truncated, sarcastic command, making one think of Matt7:1-2, where the measure which you measure shall be measured back to you: God takes measure of who will really worship Him; but, principle of Isa59:16a, finds no one, so HE solves the problem (Isa59:16b). Here, sends the Two Witnesses. So Rev11:1-2 must be sanctified sarcasm about measuring: Come on, TRY to measure what shouldn't have been built; they tried to make a Temple here when I, even I told them I, even I would Alone regather them -- by means of My prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and all My other bond-servants! Yet back then, when I, even I told them to build, and twice! they were always a rebellious people! So now John, measure by PEN [wordplay on reed], what you ate in Chapter 10, the bitter faithlessness of this people. Oh? You are silent, John? Silent, because you cannot find a just defense for them? Very true! Then I'll measure it..

    Notice how the sequence between Chapters 10 and 11, suddenly make more sense, given this sarcasm. Ezekiel's prophecy is SEIGE. It's horrible, it's panoramic of Israel's history, and it's also specifically limited in time. The entire reason for it is laid out, bare and ugly. Ezekiel did a mime of the seige, and he had to lay on his side for 390 days, then on the other side for more 40 days, while he played with bricks and hair and iron to depict what was going to happen. Because, the people wouldn't hear his words. People who were IN exile. Just as, the Jews are now, and at the time Rev11 actually takes place. Doesn't matter if they themselves assemble themselves and call themselves, Israel -- God Didn't Regather Them, God Didn't Authorize This Temple. So, it will be beseiged. God will protect the Rock, and that's it. Their vain sacrifices don't count, since Christ is risen (read Book of Hebrews); so they don't get to sprinkle blood on the Holy of Holies -- the Witnesses will prevent that, and do whatever other plagues they are given by God, to make plain what's wrong. And, they will do this for the first 3.5 years of the Tribulation. So no one can pretend to not know.

    We in modern times can readily understand how televised this will be. It's a big deal to rebuild the Temple, Satan wants that badly (on his timing, of course), so he can gather the Jews; so since he already knows what God will do about it, he's working history to get the best advantage out from this situation. So count on the Two Witnesses being promoted via every publicity device which then exists. Count on the Temple Rebuilding being promoted -- even as it has been, since Constantine's Day. Promote and fight, to kill everyone on both sides. Then, when needed, make one side win (Islam, for example), to keep the fire-to-rebuild, alive. Then, when needed, 'give in' a little, like in Balfour Declaration (authorizing Jews to rebuild in the Land) -- and then reinforce that sop with huge pogroms (i.e., WWI and WWII), so Jews will FLOCK there in the name of protection. Ahhh, cornered now. Beseiged. Satan's not stupid!

      Daniel 9:26 makes it clear that the Temple is not to be rebuilt until the end: detail is in PartIVa. Christ made it clear in Matt24 that as soon as you see the Abomination of Desolation (metaphor of Antiochus Epiphanes), Get Outta There, don't come back until I your Messiah BRING you back. Who listened to Him? Prophecy reinforcing this don't-shub (return, big Jewish emotional word) is all over the place in OT. Who listened? Do you realize, even Satan was so amazed at Jewish blindness, he raised up a "Surrender" (Arabic: "Islam") -- to show the Jews they should surrender their goofy idea of return? Satan is always double-minded: he admires God and God's people, and despises both as well. So now a Permanent Abomination sits atop the Rock, even called, "The Dome of the Rock"? Who listens?

    So Rev 11:3 (corrected trans from the Greek), suddenly makes much more sense, fitting with all the other prophecy: "Then I shall give [the measuring task, the Word of Warning of what measure is about to be measured back to them] to My Two Witnesses; then they shall prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth." If God wanted the Temple, they'd not be in sackcloth (what you wear when mourning a Temple DESTROYED). It's a FAKE TEMPLE, get it? See also Dan9:27's sacrifices-stopped, which is alike the Trib midpoint. Meaning, some kind of Temple will be there in which to sacrifice, in which sacrifices could be stopped. Which we know, from Rev11:1's sarcastic 'order' to measure the "Temple of God". The Real God, as opposed to the fake version of God being pandered since.. well, even before the Tribulation. That's why the Two Witnesses, are there. Because a Temple is there, and God is NOT its Contractor, so the Witnesses warn everyone to STAY AWAY, Matt24. See, the abomination of desolation is first due to the wrong people having the Temple. The right people are the Jews, but God says only HE will do the rebuilding. So they are supposed to wait, not do it themselves. (See the wry way John reminds readers of this fact in Rev13:6 -- the only Tabernacle is in Heaven, until the 2nd Advent. Greek skenow is used of 'the' Temple, the Glory, in particular. Special word, which John loves using.)

    So, vv4-6, God gives them certain authentication which He has historically done for all His real prophets (as distinct from the many false ones, even today): they can shut the sky, blow fire, etc. These two have all the powers of plagues -- way more than even Moses was given. At will. So notice: the people blame the Two Witnesses for all the calamities, rather than wake up and realize God is 'behind' them. Or, realize God is 'behind' them, and hate Him for ordering these things. People hate God like that now, even when lesser calamities strike. Not too hard to imagine a deeper hatred, when the shallower one is soooo prevalent.

    So it's no surprise that even before the Tribulation begins, two ongoing trends -- that of someone claiming to be Christ and Temple Rebuilding -- are 'bought' by the billions among the world's populace. So you can't use those indices to date the Rapture, either. All you know is, Satan succeeds in getting the world to buy the claims, by the time the Trib actually begins. [Side notes: 1) I can find no justification for the supposition that the Two Witnesses 'return' from the grave. Looks like they are new believers due to Trib, just like the 144,000 -- and maybe, among that number. In short, their first death is at the hands of 'Abbadon' (11:7). 2) It's not clear whether 'Abbadon' is named after Satan, and was locked up with the other Abussos demons; or whether 'Abbadon' is Satan (who was never locked up), given how his name/identity is expressed in Rev9:11, and other OT passages which use that name (not always transliterated, which is a pity). Primarily because Satan's not one to get his 'hands' dirty; partly given the way Rev13 distinguishes between dragon (who IS Satan, no doubt) and beast, yet the one enabling the beast to kill the witnesses came up from the Abyss (11:7, again); and a lot due to the description of the beast being possessed by the one who comes UP from the abyss (Rev17:8+9+11), I bet 'Abbadon' is a separate person who was head of those locked up in Abussos. Trib scenario in SatSpin.htm (link at pagetop) thus assumes that Abbadon has been trapped, waiting for his buddy Satan to get him out. This doesn't have to be a right answer for the rest of what is said to remain valid. It just makes more sense , right now.]

  27. So let's look at the connections between the Fifth Trumpet, the Two Witnesses, and 'God's Reply' of the Sixth Trumpet. We know Abbadon&Co. are released as part of Fifth Trumpet. We know from Rev 11 that 'Abaddon' kills the Two Witnesses (viz., 'the beast from the abyss', Rev11:7). Hence the earthquake and the ending of the 'second woe', aka the Sixth Trumpet. Which means, before the Two Witnesses are killed, the Sixth Trumpet has sounded. Question is, WHY?

    This link between the Fifth Trumpet, the Two Witnesses, and the reply of the Sixth Trumpet, tells a chilling tale. Let's review: Trumpets #1-#4 are Exodus-style Cecille B. DeMille displays by God, telling the pharaonic human race to let go of their disbelief; for, Bible has lots of verses post-Exodus on how these disasters are ordered for anyone who acts like Pharaoh did. Moreover, these Revelation 8 Trumpets have "third" components, which Ezekiel's beseiging mime portrayed (i.e., Eze3ff). Other prophets use the same "third" language, so to see 1/3rd effects, will plainly point to these prophecies, and thus, to the Real God. So for sure we're not talking about natural phenomena, but someone deliberately doing it. Of course, during these Trumpets, the Two Witnesses are nice and handy to blame for everything. Especially, since while these things occur, they will be explaining them. Which also accounts for why they individually have all plague powers, so to show it IS deliberate, IS of the Same Source; applied at selected times on selected individual targets. So even if you know no prophecy, you can watch television...

    So, people aren't responding to God by the appointed end of Trumpet #4 (assuming #1-#4 don't run co-terminous).. why? Well, look at Trumpet #3; it emphasizes the bitterness of the water, to mimic both human negative attitude toward the Water of the Word, like the folks at Meribah; to mimic Satan's own bitterness and self-poison. Since Scripture is multilayer, the first meaning of Wormwood (a name for Satan) could be intended to convey he comes down, deus ex machina-like; especially since Greek word piptw is in the active voice (it's not happening to him); whether or not the other demons join him, I don't know. But clearly this is something he wants to do, is not forced (you can't tell that in the English). It's not the same thing as happens in Rev12, where he is then thrown down (Greek word is ballw, and he does get it done to him). In fact, this Third Trumpet is how we 'go from point A to point B'.. the sequence of how Rev12's angelic battle, can occur.

    So maybe Satan clamors for the key in the Trial; so, at the Third Trumpet, and he thus DELIBERATELY 'falls' down in order to prove to God he should get that key. 'Rich idea, that; now he can get empathy from selected humans, lulling them into thinking he's less powerful than he is -- same ploy he's made since veiling himself via the serpent, in Gen3. So between that time and the endpoint of the 4th Trumpet, he organizes the 10 horns, etc. (metaphors for political and religious federation, the 'beast' of Daniel and Rev13, 17). Because, another layer of meaning in the Third Trumpet, is that 1/3rd of the people accept him, so they get God's 'wormwood' reply of bitter water. That doesn't wake them up, so they got the Fourth Trumpet, the 1/3rd darkening, to show them they are darkened. But they still don't respond. Remember, all this time, since Day One of the Tribulation, the Two Witnesses have been protecting the Holy of Holies, and are publically known...

    Wouldn't take long for him, alone or not (though I bet not alone, but heading all non-imprisoned demons), to convince the 'right people' to side with him: he's gorgeous, powerful, and obviously is allowed to display himself to mankind. Satan is self-righteous, very high-minded. Very messianic. That's why he rebelled in the first place. Power-hungry people reflect his mindset, are often very moral and big-picture oriented. In the name of good, they will align with him. Don't mistake the attraction to Satan as a lascivious feely-thing: that's just a game played upon humans in movies like "Rosemary's Baby", so we will be decoyed from the real operation, do-goodism.

      Look how easy his ploy could be, for his favored targets (unbelievers who think they are 'Christian', or Jews who as yet are unbelievers, but want Messiah): Psssst! I'm the real Messiah. [Powers demonstrated here, akin to those like Christ did during Incarnation, plus many He would not do.] See how horrible those Two at Our Beloved Temple! I'm seeking disciples to come with me to kill them [play on 2nd Advent mass arrival]. Father has allowed these His Enemies a certain time limit [no kidding, he reads Revelation 11!], but that's coming to an end; would you like to join me? Then comes the pitch about getting together politically, etc. This is how he got the Catholic Church started, how he has been massing Christians for the kill for centuries: why try something 'new'?

      Look how easy his ploy could be, for other targets: Psssst! I'm the REAL Allah/Mohammed/God-of-the-Month, come back to collect My People. But first, I need a little show of faith. Those pesky Jews and Christians have caused you trouble all these millenia, and look -- see how their "Witnesses" are really demons? That's why you have all these plagues! I LET them do it because YOU weren't responding to the threat by GATHERING YOURSELVES into a FORCE and WARRING with them. So: show Me your faith, organize, and I WILL EMPOWER YOU to defeat them [display supernatural powers here]... See? There's a sucker born every minute.

      Look how easy his ploy could be, for the two targets who'll head the whole thing up, the guy who'll be the topmost head of the 'beast', and his 'prophet': Lemme be honest with you. I need your help. All we need to win against God is for everyone to either die, or vote against Him. [Explanation, here -- fast, supernatural demon-thought transference, works kinda like a vision -- and oh, how good it feels! so the hearer aches to have that much power.] Will you help me? Matt4, baby, all the kingdoms of the world. Who can resist, that? Christianity hasn't...

      Pause and think about America, today: how is it the entire country can be talking about a Federal Marriage Amendment, when in third grade you learn the Bill of Rights? And our President sponsors such a thing? Do you know how that got started? The pope made a comment in reply to questions about the many European homosexual marriages, that such marriages were wrong. Someone asked President Bush his opinion: I saw this on television, think he was in Camp David at the time, but maybe not. Somewhat abstractedly, the President replied he didn't think homosexual marriages were ok, and agreed with the Pope. The President clearly had other things on his mind, and was just answering a question put to him; in other words, he didn't have any plans of furthering some cause or amendment in America. Yet suddenly, within mere weeks, wham! there is this national movement to amend the Constitution? And how piously, how self-righteously, all the independent Christian churches join together on it! Even though, such an amendment VIOLATES the Bill of Rights and -- even more importantly -- states alone have the right to make marriage laws? So never be skeptical about demon influence being so fast and powerful, that all the world will "wonder after the beast". We can just turn on our televisions any day, and see the same thing happen even among believers. Satan loves manipulating believers who are soooo bored with Word they don't learn it. Easy to see how quickly and how satanic we Fake Church all are, whatever our demon nation...

    So now Satan can justify getting the key to the Abyss, since man's votes are for him, even despite the 4th Trumpet. So he gets it, 5th Trumpet. Again, remember 9:12 is a "meta tauta" clause, so there is a gap in time between the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets. Which gap, is at least five months. For notice carefully the LEGAL TERMS of 9:4: don't kill them, don't harm the growing things, but only those who are yet unbelievers, and don't KILL them, either. FOR FIVE MONTHS.

      Notice the description of the Abussos demons. Emphasis on attractiveness and power, eloquence. Also, on stealth, speed, and ravenousness: qualities of lion and scorpion. Both animals lie in wait. Both pounce when they are sure of a kill. So all that attractiveness is to ambush the victim.

        As the above example of the FMA depicts (or, Hitler's Germany, same phenomenon), demons use thoughts to mass everyone to an idea. It's very fast, we are puppets in their hands. Only Doctrine can defend you. Bible is very explicit about this, with innumerable illustrations -- just use 1Jn1:9, ask Father in Son's Name to have the Holy Spirit help you find the illustration in Bible you'll need.

        So possession, which can only occur in an unbeliever, is the lesser option. Takes more of the demon's time. So they are very selective about who they possess, and the actual possession is often invisible to outsiders (any visibility is to ridicule the object, which is not the usual purpose of possession, post-Cross). So the person thus possessed will be smart, attractive, able, etc. This, of course, affects the millions who see that person. Which seeing, all the demon thought-transference, marshalls then to even better effect. Again, just turn on your television, to see how easy it is, to marshall people around a few selected individuals or issues. Note how, if issues, they are stupid, not worth any time in discussion. But people slobber all over themselves, anyway. [Nerd note: never mind trying to figure out if those individuals are possessed, lol -- that's not the point. You won't be able to tell, and it's none of your business. Just learn the lesson God wants you to learn, not the lesson your demon-influenced hunger for titilation wants you to learn.]

      So the same Pssst! ploys can be used by each demon on many selected targets; or, a more heavy-handed tormenting approach, should the situation warrant. The goal is to get the humans negative, because this is all about VOTES. Bear in mind, torment comes just as much from too much pleasure, as from pain. The helplessness of it is eventually tormenting. Addict the person, then withhold -- that's tormenting, too. Any number of combinations of tactics can be used. And this time, by millions of millions of the 'regular' (never-imprisoned) demons, plus those who come up from Abussos. Good cop bad cop, one pretending to be the demon and the other an elect angel (kinda like how they fake healings and tongues). Many options!

    God's Five-Month rule is a classic Grace clause: 'five' in Bible is the number of profit and recompense. So, for five months the unbelievers can be tormented. Gives them time to change their minds about Christ. They don't respond; since 9:12 reads as it does, it's not clear how much is the extra time, after the torment ends. But we know they don't respond, for God replies by releasing all those Abussos demons and those under the four demon generals bound at the Euphrates, Sixth Trumpet (9:14), THIS time with a right to kill a third of mankind (9:15 -- "with the result that" should be how Greek hina is translated -- God isn't doing the killing). So presumably, the restriction on the Abussos demons, ends as well.

    What distinguishes the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets is that the demons are doing it. For, the unbelievers wouldn't listen to God, so.. ok.. demons get free reign. It's always been the rule in Bible, and here we see it writ frighteningly large. Yet notice: Rev9:20-21 shows that even all that ensuing supernatural destruction, didn't sway those who survived. Amazing: if I'd never seen such hardness in humans, if I didn't see how incredible the disbelief in Christ -- Despite the Dome of the Rock being an obvious stand-in fulfillment OF Matt24 and Dan9:26 -- I'd be hard-pressed to believe Rev9:20-21. Man blames. Man blames everyone. Man blames everything. Man blames God. It's just not possible, is it -- that people are so bad, they need this kind of wake-up call? Sheesh.

      These are not human armies. Note the similarity of the description of the "armies" in the Fifth Trumpet, and those of the Sixth; understand that metaphors are used to depict the essential quality in common between the metaphor chosen, and what it really represents. So "locusts" in the Fifth Trumpet means a destructive swarming, which is what locusts do -- eating up everything in their path. The long hair, my pastor reminded us, represented their beauty. Again, a metaphor used was chosen for what it meant at that time, so do your homework...

      If my pastor told us once, he told us 10,000 times that the Greek text talks of demons, not humans. It's not hard to notice. So, "Three Demon Assault Armies" (my pastor's term), at least (or maybe six, since four demon generals +Abussos demons, +Satan&Co -- well, depends on their TO&E). So while it is true that well over 200 million people in China have gone through military training and are of military age, the armies of the "kings of the east" is not being depicted here, and its size is not stated in Scripture. ["Assault troops" is a better translation than horsemen, since that's what horsemen, did. John is describing what he sees, and what he sees, he calls horses, because that was the way assault armies moved quickly in his day; but what horse belches fire, smoke and sulfur? The region around the Dead Sea has deposits of flammable coal-like sulfur deposits. Fire of God, sorta. So unstable, it spontaneously ignites.]

      Lots of famous Christian teachers/leaders interpret the 200 million as being the kings of the east. It's really hard to be in public life as a teacher/leader, and everything you say, you end up thinking you have to stick to, because of your position. That's how Catholicism got started, how any institution gets started, and it's a real pistol to admit a mistake. Because, we stupid underlings do lose our faith and do go on rampages of iconoclasm, forgetting that the leader is also human, and has no wiggleroom, for he is in a glass bowl. Cut them slack for being incorrect here?

    What's painfully clear, is that many of the human rejectors, are Jews. All these signs and plagues have very special meaning in Judaism. Jews know better than anyone the story of the Exodus: they spend a great deal of effort recounting it at every Passover. That's why so many of the post-Exodus judgement verses, use the plague words like frogs, sea-becomes-blood, hail, etc. Any Jew would recognize a real plague of that kind, as coming from God. Every Jew knows that Moses and all the prophets had such powers given them. So to continue to be negative, and hate the Two Witnesses, depicts a soul hardened a bizillion times beyond Pharaoh's (see Rom9 and 11, here).

      If I didn't see for myself already the total negative volition among Jews because they can see the Dome of the Rock over the Holy Of Holies, I wouldn't believe they could remain so negative under the plagues of Trumpets #1-#4. Even Ezekiel 20:30-44 is plain in Tanakh translation, especially v.32! Kill me now, Father: I can't take knowing this, seeing the prophecy so blatantly fulfilled, and they don't see it? But then, some among the Jews DO believe in Him, thank you Father! And others, think themselves, their own messias, interpreting Isaiah 53 to mean Israel saves the world! Kill me now! [Search "Isaiah 53" references in dogpile or other search engine, see that weird Israel-is-its-own-Messiah interpretation, or you won't believe it either!]

      Ouai! That's why the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets sound; why demons are allowed to torture and then, kill those who do not believe in Christ. See the demon ploy? It's the same today! Seduce and destroy, baby. Worked real well, to gather them in Israel, from the Balfour Declaration, forward; oh no, don't wait for God to do it, but go to Egypt, Caesar, whoever, you she-camel-in-heat Israel, Eze16-23!

      So why should the demons change strategy, go to something 'new'? The tried-and-true is still the best! So, then -- Seduce the negative who hate these Two Witnesses, who hate the 144,000, and hate them because the ceremonial aspects of the Law are refused by GOD (real important, to see the many OT verses on this) -- seduce them, by destroying the Two Witnesses. Then, destroy the seduced! Who, by the way, will be mostly Jews who love observing a Law God instead fulfilled in His Son Behind The Veil; who today! love squinting at blue and white thread, rather than opening their eyes to see the Dome Satan put over Abraham's Rock! Makes you want to wail in sackcloth and ashes, to know this horrible fact. For if today's Jews can't read the Rock, they won't then read the plagues. Us, neither. We are all blind together!

  28. Hence Revelation 11:15, SEVENTH TRUMPET sounds. Review on why: we know from the end of Revelation 9, that whoever survived, still didn't believe in Him. So using the guy who's to be worshipped by men as the head of the 'beast', to gain in popularity with humans, 'Abbadon' wars with and kills the Two Witnesses (which obviously God allowed), Rev11. So the stupid humans wildly celebrate, for crying out loud -- despite being tormented and killed by all these demons. You gotta be very sick, to be so glad at the deaths of two people, you won't allow them to be buried (11:9-10). If you ever saw how the Taliban publically killed people in the Kabul Stadium (Japanese satellite had it on cable, playing LIVE in its US stations for a few days back just after 9/11); or, if you know anything about how the Jews were treated during WWII Germany, then you know how low humans can sink.

      Rest of Chapter 11 thus focuses on the Ceremony of the Divine Pronouncement for the Seventh Trumpet. Notice the focus: on the ENDING of the 'wait'. Ceremony of worship. Verse 19's "ark" should be capitalized, see Heb6-9, for it's CHRIST, not a box! See also Jer3:16, 31:31-34.

  29. So time for the next round of Judgements to be ushered 'within' the Seventh Trumpet, the last 3.5 years of the Tribulation. So the Intermission topics switch in perspective: from backward, explaining WHY, to forward -- showing thematically what will happen. Again, in typical Greek fashion, this mini-play within the Tribulation Play, must first explain the PLAN of the opposing sides. Especially, since this is a Trial, anyway (due diligence disclosure).

  30. Hence Rev 12's Intermission Topics:
    • First the underlying goal of both God and Satan -- Israel. Full bio of Israel told in the tableau of the woman. Please notice that Church is not mentioned!
    • Followed by, Satan's persecution throughout Israel's history. Again, notice that Church is not mentioned. We are spiritual 'children of Abraham' (see Romans 4 and 9), and in that sense are indirectly included, but.. not Church as an entity. The entity, is Israel. So it's not even remotely possible that Church is in the Tribulation, since this is an all-time tableau, with its own Tribulation subsection (Rev12:6 being the most important point of it, her protection during the last half, since we are in an intermission explaining the last half). God is precise.
    • Followed by, Satan&Co. revolt against Heaven, due to man's joy over the Two Witnesses being killed -- Satan claiming, see, all mankind hates you, Elohim, it's a MISTRIAL!
    • Note how at this mid-point, Satan already has all the demons with him, already has lined up the politico-religious power structure, at the time when he begins to war with heaven. We saw how this happened, beginning at the Third Trumpet, justifying all four remaining ones. Seventh Trumpet is God's Response to their CHOOSING Satan and going against the Two Witnesses (etc), which we know because the 7th Trumpet sounds in Rev11:15, just AFTER the 'earthquake' reaped 7,000 believers (v.13).

        Note the extreme grace, the extreme value God places on belief in Christ -- all that horrific activity with the demons was allowed to reap belief. We benefit, for crying out loud. God doesn't benefit from saving us. He obliges Himself to taking care of us in heaven forever, and worse -- all those other humans for whom Christ died, become cannonfodder. For us. Doesn't matter it's not God's or our fault they didn't believe. They are horribly tortured. So that we could be spared. Because, until we saw the horrible torture, we ourselves did not believe...

    • It's the elect angels who fight the demons; so obviously, Satan's claimed a Mistrial; God has refused to agree, so now it's between the elect and fallen angels, yet again -- whether God is right. Notice all this is explained. That's a "chorus" function in Greek drama. Again notice how no humans are battling the demons. So much for the mid-Tribbers who think they get that privilege.

  31. Chapter 13's tableau themes point forward to review Satan's plan for the 2nd half of Trib: pogrom and unparalleled religious world war. OT passages on the imagery in Chapter 13 are so many, no elaboration is needed. The land-and-sea standing so typical in Scripture, denotes authority.

    First, we already saw how this "beast..sea" arose, due to the human reaction from Third Trumpet onward. Now, we're getting explanation of the politico-religious structure which had resulted. "Sea" means a sea of people, since sea is salty and people are supposed to be also. Dead sea, bituminous-salt (aka "brimstone") people, full of evil 'doctrine', now congregated into a confederacy. The head of the heads, will be the one to be worshipped, kinda like an Emperor (though who knows what nice name will be then used to disguise the fact, if any). Sponsoring him is a Jewish Danite who maybe pretends to be some past-prophet, returned (lamb with two horns). "The earth" is really HA ERETZ, the Promised Land. (LXX translates ha-eretz as "he ge"; it's a play on words even though the term is the exact equivalent of ha-eretz, since Israel was to eventually inherit the world through the Lamb of God/Messiah-to-Come.)

    Now fold in Dan9:27, and a bunch of other prophecy. The 'beast' and the 'prophet' strike a deal. After all, 'the beast' has just been kind enough to rid the world of those Two Witnesses; shouldn't there be something in EXCHANGE? Not asking much -- just a little respect, homage, statue in the Holy of Holies.. and oh, by the way, all commerce and activity has to be LICENSED. No one can eat without me getting my share of tribute, because I have all these TROOPS to pay for that little campaign against those horrid Witnesses, AND THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN THEM, right? Oh.. and to show that respect, the license is needed even once I end tribute. The license, of course, is FREE! You get it simply by calling me, god, since obviously that's who I am. I am who I am, so you just ADMIT that, and eat all you like! Enjoy! I'm not getting the taxes, you know. Those are to show how much you WANT TO FUND the capture of those who foolishly BELIEVED in those demonic Witnesses. You DO want them captured, right? So now the final-layer meaning of that multi-layer prophecy in Matt24, has its ultimate desolation. Just like Nebuchanezzar did in the time of Daniel (which is why Daniel got this prophecy). Whoa. We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.

  32. By contrast, Chapters 14-15 show God's Plan for the 2nd half. First, like in Rev7, a hall-of-fame ceremony: the 144,000 of Rev7 are all martyred by this point. So, just as the first half of the Trib began with a tableau about sealing them, the 2nd half begins with a tableau of them being rescued and with the Lamb forever (14:1-5). The rest of Chapters 14-15 constitute the Divine Pronouncements: witnessing (the three angels who will fly, Rev14:6ff), bloodbath (to give maximum pre-death warning, see also Isa63), and alongside these, the seven bowl judgements. For, as always, the Supreme Court of Heaven must rule on what may or may not be done by the parties on the ground. And what the Supreme Court rules, is that the bowl judgements are to awaken, to harvest anyone who just might have a nanosecond's interest in the Lamb Who long ago, paid for him...

  33. INTERMISSION ENDS, AND THE BOWL JUDGEMENTS BEGIN, REV16:1. Our friend "meta tauta" announces the ending of the intermission, the TIME is Rev11:15, when Rev15:5 actually commences. From that point forward the ceremony in Heaven changes to the uniformed angels bringing out the bowls, etc.

    Timewise, we are at Rev11:15, just after the 7th trumpet sounds, just after the earthquake, just after the war in heaven which finally locked all demons out of heaven; just after the beast and the prophet, still breathing hard with the rest of the world over the sudden events, have concluded their peace deal to usher in the god who delivered them. Celebration! Statue set up! Does the same things as those horrid Witnesses, but against any who oppose him! Yay! Oye, oye, all mankind come worship the real god, get your license here, nice fine lambs, can't buy or trade or work or breathe or watch tv without the license; nice fine lambs, come pay homage, free license if you admit him god, come buy eat without money and without price.. but, um.. don't you want to pay tribute to help catch the evil ones who supported the Witnesses? Um, if you don't pay the tribute.. then do YOU support them?

    So now, God has to reply again: bowl judgements. The most gruesome of God's judgements have always used particular OT language to denote them: drinking the wine of your own evil, down to the last drop. Hence, blood. Hence, in Rev14:6-11, the daily flying angels will be telling everyone that they will 'drink' God's wrath upon themselves if they don't wake up and smell the coffee. Hence, the Rev14:14ff ceremony about the outcome, a harvest of both believers and DEAD, with so much blood flowing in Ha-Eretz, people won't be able to live there for a long time after He even Returns.

    The "bowl" is a specialized term, especially for drink offerings to the gods. So you'll find translations like the King James, use "vial". Oh, they're vile, alright. Just so you know, these are DRINKING bowls. See Rev16:1-7 on the meaning.

    Beginning in the 2nd half, note how there are NO HUMAN WITNESSES. So, instead, three indestructible angels start flying around where people can hear and see them: daily. They announce what's really going on (Rev14:6ff shows their appointment and what they'll do). Time to help people notice those angels are real, not flying machines.

    • The first three of the bowl judgements (within 7th trumpet, aka 3rd woe) are upgraded repeats of the Exodus plagues; sores, sea-turned-to-blood, freshwater turned to blood. Can't blame the plagues on the Witnesses, now!

    • From there it gets far worse, and all of what happens is in the OT -- many verses about these particular plagues. Can't say that God is Allah, Buddha (who never even pretended to be a god, Siddartha), or.. anyone but YHWH, the One Who always Was and Became, Christ! [Nice wordplay on the YHWH meaning in all the clauses about who was, is not, and is, etc. in Revelation.]

    • Fourth bowl is searing sun and heat; don't try to figure out how God does this, just remember that as God, He can do whatever He likes. What protects us from the heat of the sun are a number of factors, and in a precise balance. Just change the balance a little among the constituent chemicals, and you have zero protection. God can make that change. Man and all the pollution, cannot.

    • Fifth bowl is a reprise of the darkness Trumpet (and Exodus); note how only a particular portion of the earth is put in darkness, the portion belonging to the 'beast' and the 'prophet'. Reminds you of the time Goshen still had light but the rest of Egypt, no.

    • Sixth, is drying up the Tigris/Euphrates, making it suddenly traversible for land armies (fulfilling Jer50:38, inter alia). So, the demons organize them. Here plays on words between frogs and demons, since the former was a plague in Egypt. Note how axiomatically John writes: "to gather them together". Like cattle, for battle. At Har-Megiddo. Rev16:15 is an interjection, to warn of how awesome a thing is this demon conspiracy, spoken to Church. 16:16 changes who brings them together at Megiddo; in v. 14, the subject is plural, demons. But in v.16, it's singular. After all, they go there due to Christ, to fight against His People.. so why shouldn't He be considered the one who brought them together?

        Church isn't listening to Him. We either get all excited and write books and movies, yes! to liven our dull drab lives (we don't get gladiators to watch). Or, if we are priding ourselves on our smarts, we treat this warning, this horror.. as allegorical. Or, we dilute the meaning down to well, it just means a big world war. Big mistake. The purpose of prophecy for Church is to realize how important is its role: that's why Christ interjects, here: demon conspiracy affects us, too. Sure shows, too: look at the Crusades, the institutional Rev17 harlot which at the time was Catholicism (since has morphed into the other denoms, too)...

        True, at that point of the Tribulation there's a world war going on, but.. Satan has to kill the Jews to prevent Messiah's RETURN. The prophecy of the bloodbath we saw back in Rev14:14ff (pronouncement), 19:15-19 (its fulfillment) and passages like Isa63 and Eze39 are 2nd Advent passages which make it clear it's THE LAND which gets the bloodbath. Well, the plain of Esdraelon is big enough to have enough bodies, just like Eze39 explains. See also Eze38. Treat 'Armaggedon' as misspelled, but don't treat it as mistaken or allegorical, as so many scholars do. Just because stupid people get titillated, doesn't mean the thing they oooh over, is false.

        When scholars are nervous about a topic, they hedge. It's understandable. To be an accepted scholar, you have to follow certain political rules, like.. don't act confident, unless the whole discipline is united about a thing being true. Moreover, sex topics make everyone nervous, so you can't bluntly explain what Bible says, lalalala. Most nervewracking is the blatant fact God will execute this bloodbath personally upon all those armies, with gruesome details on how they die (i.e., those verses on their flesh rotting while they are yet standing and alive, Zech14). These details don't comport with the sanitized version of God we have all been taught to pavlove. So we treat God like dog, and lick up whatever spittle is drooled out to us in His name.

        So all this rot about Armaggedon being not possible because Megiddo is a hill or something, because the armies depicted would be too large for the valley, or 'whatever'.. is ridiculous. If people are under demon influence, what's sensible is not perceived. Just because they all go there, doesn't mean they should -- in fact, we know they shouldn't, and even the common sense that, hey, if everyone went there, they'd be the ones trapped! never occurs to these minds. But then, it never occurred to anyone in America during the Enron brouhaha, that trashing Arthur Andersen was wrong, either. So thousands upon thousands of jobs were lost. For awhile in the Chicago area, the sheer amount of furniture and equipment thus up for sale from that branch of Arthur Anderson, depressed prices so badly, you couldn't sell your own...

        This paragraph is written in 2005, during an editing session. We in 2005 have more than ample evidence how crazy people get. Look at the Pope's funeral. Do ya get that emotional over someone you never met? Do ya travel thousands of miles when you do not have to (politicians had to), to stand in line for 24 hours, to get a five-second glimpse of a shrivelled body in a fishhat and pointy shoes? Of course, a Chicago underpass soon after had a flowing salt stain thousands considered an 'appearance' of the Virgin Mary. Would God authorize such insulting-to-Him things? God doesn't do pet tricks. God doesn't want US doing pet tricks. But the demons sure do: they gashed the guy among the tombs, they gash anyone in the human race stupid enough to want the touchy-feely harlotry they sell. So: pick any media event you like, dissect its 'sense', and you'll find there is none. We are emotional puppets, and Satan&Co. know just how to pull our strings. While the Bible goes unread in every hotel room and bedroom, everywhere it exists...

    • The seventh bowl finishes all the Judgements; looks like a nuclear holocaust, going by the symptoms, in Rome. But also an earthquake with an epicenter of Jerusalem, which is split in three parts (to help to save the believers left). Hailstones amidst it (another plague visited upon Pharaoh). Dunno if you noticed a world globe, lately, but if Jerusalem is an epicenter, a whole lot of damage results worldwide. There is an east-west faultline under the Mount of Olives. UC Berkeley scientists discovered it, not too long ago. Ought to be something on the internet about it, somewhere...

      At this point, what my pastor calls the Armaggedon Campaign, is on. It is halted by the 2nd Coming, and as a result of Christ personally slaughtering everyone (outdoing his record with Sennacharib's army, way back in 701BC), the blood does run high as a horse's bridle. What, each human has how much blood, a quart? Half gallon? If the depiction is more to illustrate bodies than actual blood flow, we've seen how those bodies were stacked in mass graves.. we've got gruesome pictures taken by the murderers at the concentration camps, at Nanking.. it's not beyond man's capacity to kill or be slaughtered in large numbers. How much more, then, should the Lord kill all in the most gruesome way, those who but for that manner of death are too hard-hearted, to believe in a God they can see coming from light-years away in space. For on that day, His Coming will be the only source of light (Zech14, Eze39, Isa63, Rev19, other passages).

      Look at the Grace inside the Gruesomeness: if you can See Him Coming, You Have Time To Believe. If by the time He ARRIVES you still do not believe, what else is left for Him to do? If you aren't motivated to believe, even to save your own skin, how much are you controlled by your own hatred? Survival is the strongest psychological instinct in mankind. That's why we have this urge to bear kids. That's why we are willing to go to war. That's why we sometimes do superhuman things, like lift cars when someone we love is trapped underneath them. That's why we do almost everything we do. That's why the Gospel is couched in save-yourself terms: Believe (simple), or burn (oh no, then I'll be hurting forever).

      So how crazy must these people be, that when they see Him COMING, they still do not believe? So what must He do? Give them a slow death. Their flesh rots on them (leprosy-of-mind, depicted). [See Rev19:11-19, Ps110:5 (note context from v.1), Joel 3:9, Jer 16:4, Jer 41:20, Zech 14:12, Eze39:18ff, Isa34, Isa63, Matt24:28, etc., many more passages.] So they still have time, while dying, to believe. Takes but a nanosecond to believe. They see Christ Personally. So if they refuse Him even while dying, they hate Him. And they would rather be tortured forever, than believe. So, they get what they want. Can't blame God. But, they will. But, we humans do. Hatred is like that. Satan is like that. We are like that. So here, we see our real nature, exposed: we are in darkness, and we love it.

      So how much are we in unwarranted darkness, now? Granted, when it comes to prophecy there is much educated guesswork -- Is it really a nuclear holocaust? Is it really a river of blood, or that high a level of stacked, rotted, dead bodies? Well, think: are these the right questions to ask? Sure, you have to plug in assumptions while vetting Bible data, but is the objective to be 'right' about whether it's Rome (i.e., due to Jer51:6-9, 25, compared to Rev17, 18:8ff), or Jerusalem (Rev11:8, Isa13:19).. or instead of musing over location, isn't it more important to be informed about what God means by all this information? [There's some kind of deliberate, double-entendre being made. I remember my pastor saying the nuclear explosion was in what we call "Rome", geographically. That makes sense, too. Babylon IS Rome, and specifically a religion (whether RCC or not, who knows) based in Rome, given Rev17-18; but those other verses with their OT cross-references make it look like Jerusalem, too. Which is true: all the nations of the earth, including all nations today, are stumbling over Israel. Israel is never out of the news, never out of conflict; every time in the past when Israel stopped being the center, Satan did something to get her back into the limelight. Satan, not God. Islam and the Zionist movement are his creations, and the poor folks in them have no clue how they are being used like cannonfodder. It's heartbreaking. When Jews bought land from the Turkish Sultan in the 1800's et seq. to rebuild Israel, that was a Satan-sponsored thing. Which the poor buyers, of course didn't know. But then they weren't reading Scripture, and were violating the many many prophecies warning them not to regather themselves, like (the aforementioned) Eze20:30-44. Kill me now!]

      Obviously, what God means is the more important. So you can plug in your assumptions, be wrong or right about identities, but... learn the principle, not the petty stuff. So what does He mean by all this gruesome information? He means us to be wary of ourselves. We have an enemy who is just as interested in turning us NOW into a charnel house as they will succeed at doing, during the Tribulation. We should stop being so naive about people and ourselves. We can't stop, though, absent breathing 1Jn1:9 and sustained study under our right pastors. That's the message we need out from this horrific future which for years will be remembered with a shudder...

  34. Satan's 'REPLY' to the Bowl Judgements: Rev17, make it look like the Millenium has ARRIVED. Here in the last half of the Trib, Satan's already succeeded in getting his 10-nation confederacy and pogrom going, but now needs a new twist: find as many believing Jews and Christians, as possible -- and right now! Hence, there must be a pretence of Christ's Return. Stopping the sacrifices (Dan9:27b) is a great way to accomplish that. For, the believers will know the sacrifices are abominations, and won't come out of hiding. So, when the Two Witnesses are killed, those folks would expect the sacrifices to be resumed. But they are not resumed. Heh. Satan's not stupid. To the world, it looked like the 'beast' bested their longtime enemy. But now, that 'beast' has to look like Christ Himself, in order to LURE OUT those real believers, especially Jews, from hiding.

    Bible already showed us Satan got the Temple rebuilt, in Dan9:27 and Rev11:1. That had to have happened before the Tribulation took place. Because believers associate the temple rebuilding with the Tribulation but don't understand its import, they will FLOCK by the millions to be near it, once it is rebuilt. Nice and handy for being slaughtered. Jews, of course, will be drawn like moths (muth, Hebrew=to die) to the flame. That's a true 'mothman prophecy' you can bank on. Satan sure is.

    So expect the Temple to be rebuilt at any time. That's why Satan keeps making Israel the center of world history (in a negative way, of course). That's why he sponsors Islam, and that's why now he appears to be withdrawing his sponsorship of Islam. Then 'Christians' and Jews, who none of them read Matt24+Eze20:32 and understand, will triumph over the Moslems, and in their glee, will flock by the millions to live in Israel, boy oh boy -- so they will be sitting targets whenever the real Tribulation begins. Part V explained this ploy and its eventual success, in more detail. The Appendix has a table on it as well to show how it can play NOW: the "MEGA Promote to MEGA Persecute" table.

    So this is a constant goal. Satan has to time it, though. We can see his timings often try to match the 490's of God. (See Mirroring.htm re the nature of the 490's and their rollout from Noah to 70AD. CLICK HERE for the roll outs after 70AD.) The ending dates have been 560AD, 1050, 1540, 1990; and we're in the fifth one since the Cross. Satan trotted out Islam just after he got Christendom to split and exhaust itself, since Julian did not rebuild the Temple (the goal didn't ever materialize).

    • So, out trots Mohammed, and the weird idea that it was the older Ishmael God wanted sacrificed (what for, doesn't even make sense in the Koran, but hey). Click here for the Koranic explanation pasted from the Yusif Ali translation of the Koran.
    • So, by 685 the desired 'temple' WAS constructed, remaining there ever since.
    • But people stopped paying attention to it, so Satan&Co. sponsored the spread of Islam, which was on-and-off-again; wasn't until the Crusades that enough 'Christian' moxy to go to Jerusalem could be seriously mustered. Even then, not much happened, but that bought what, maybe four more centuries of attention on "the Land".
    • So when that attention was exhausting, well! Just have Islam take over Byzantium/Constantinople (1453). So now the desire to go back, can be fueled again.
    • But oh, attention waned again, as the Porte was civilized, easy to live with.
    • So then the Jews themselves have to get all misty-eyed (so they can't read their Tanakh, of course), and BUY the Land from the Porte.
    • So now, Balfour and WWI and WWII can take place, which puts Israel right back in the limelight, where she (rightfully!) belongs.
    Yeah, as sitting duck, ever since.

    So now in the 2nd half of the Tribulation, what are people thinking? Oh, the Temple is cleansed of those horrible Witnesses, and we can worship the real god who killed them. But what a dilemma, for the believers are the targets Satan wants. He doesn't really care about unbelieving Jews, for they will not inherit the promise. But he needs to kill them before they believe, since he has no control over whether they believe. So he needs to cater to whatever version of god they will buy. We saw him do that the first half. But in the second half, he's got so much less time, he's got to concentrate now on believers, because their being believers mean their votes count. Only way he can get them out of hiding, is to pull a switcheroo, and make this 'beast', Messiah. Genuinely.

    That, of course, will polarize all those who believed against the Witnesses and with the beast on the grounds he wasn't the Bible's God. So they will be mighty upset to 'learn' that now this same guy is claiming to be the Messiah. Hence the world's armies converging toward Megiddo, makes sudden sense. Hence the warring between the political and religious factions, with the former eventually winning (Rome and Jerusalem get torched) makes sudden sense. Dunno if you've noticed, but the Revelation 17 depiction of the warring, has already happened many, many times since the Cross. Europe bled itself white during its many religious wars, and what about all those Crusades? When you stop to think about it, Jerusalem has in effect been at the center of history, since Constantine's day...

    Meanwhile, the switcheroo could easily be sold to believers. The "Satan's Spin" link at pagetop offers one such scenario; doesn't have to be the actual one, does have to show the plausibility and mindgames. Key to the switchover will, as always, be some kind of feel-good supernatural display. Just 'explain' that the angels flying daily are demons, just 'explain' that the continuing calamities are demonic, just 'explain' that Christ Himself bested the beast who killed the Witnesses, and is really BACK! At the Temple! People have believed sillier things.. like God would be so sadistic as to put a soul in the womb -- so they will believe this, as well. 'Sucker born every minute.

      The Fifth Bowl Judgement will make this claim more plausible. Darkness over the kingdom, but then it becomes LIGHT. God doesn't do His Judgements without pauses. The pauses give the person time to reflect. If the person won't change (which each bowl judgement's verse notes), then the NEXT judgement comes. So too, here. So the LIGHT coming back can be easily mistaken for a Christ returning. Just in time, too -- for Armaggedon.

  35. Hence the Bible pauses to show Rev17 to believers, NOW: to show how Satan makes his Rev12-13 goals, effective. And, relevant today, not just in some far-off future. Again, this cannot be overstressed: Satan needs a fake church/temple to gather believers and Jews. By gathering them, he can more effectively apostatize or kill them. Satan knows anything that polarizes, gathers people into 'camps'. So by DIVIDING, he 'gathers'. So by 'uniting', he divides and conquers. Cute, huh? All or any of which strategies will work, but only if the political is married to religion, a time-tested reliable mechanism of power successful since Ziggurat of Babel. People like to feel they have the 'right god' but others do not. A marriage to politics gives them a greater sense of self-worth and Crusade. (Not sure why this motive is so strong in the human race; it never has made sense. If 'my' idea of god is more right than yours, or yours is more right than mine, it has zippo to do with how good either you or I, are.)

    So, it's particularly important that Satan set up in advance certain structures before the Tribulation begins:

    • anti-semitism, Rev 12;
    • a fake Church, Rev 17;
    • world government preference, or -- better -- world government itself (if he can get away with it) , Rev 13; and
    • a fake Temple ON the Holy of Holies, Rev11.

      So, while Rev 11-13,17 depict what happens in Trib, for it to HAPPEN then, it must be built.. NOW.

      And, pretty much in that order of importance, since each one feeds to the next, more efficiently. Notice how it played out, when Catholicism got started -- pretty much in that order, except that the 'fake Temple', wasn't yet needed, because the pogroms were going sooo very well. (Per Gibbon, the Emperor Julian tried to rebuild the Temple, but fortunately God stopped him.) Again, note the 'coincidence' of an Islam rising to claim ground on the Holy of Holies, just when the two halves of the thoroughly-apostate Roman Empire, had exhausted themselves (Short History of the Arab Peoples by Sir John Glubb, historical introduction.) Since Rome could no longer keep its claim on the grounds (the Roman temple there being in ruins, having been constructed under Hadrian, circa 140AD), well.. someone had to pick up the baton...

    Satan now delays the Rapture, by means of these structures. That's why God gave us this prophecy, NOW. Alternatively, Satan can use Rev17's apostacy to bring about the Rapture, too early. PartIV exhaustively covers all the strategy here, because believers in Church really don't seem to recognize that the sole criterion for history, is how they grow up in Christ. Satan needs desperately to deflect that recognition, because then he DELAYS his own incarceration. He already knows that the last seven years won't work -- he does know the Bible rather well -- so he's not stupid. He needs Rev17 to delay or abort God's Timing for the Rapture. Timing which is dependent on Believer Votes, even as it was depending on Christ's Voting to go to and through the Cross. Part IV has the details (especially IVa and IVb).

    So, it's not surprising that historically you can see these very 'bullets' killing the human race, generation after generation. Revelation 17's fake-church harlot description began to come true only four years after Revelation was penned (rise of the so-called "Apostolic Fathers")! There's a whole lot of writing done by the founders of what became known as Catholicism, and it's worth reading, to trace the degradation of their doctrines into the same "traditions of men" that felled what became the Pharisees and modern Judaism. We learn from Bible that we learn nothing from Bible; so we learn from prophecy that we learn nothing from prophecy; so we learn from history that we learn nothing from history; we learn the hard way, that we didn't learn.

    But you can search the internet: God has preserved a very healthy remnant of Jews who believe in Christ. They usually couch everything still in Judaic terms, and some still cling to the rituals, etc. -- but they are saved! God has also preserved a not-so-healthy-right-now remnant of Christians. Remember, a "Christian" is someone who at least once 'obeyed' John 3:16 -- and since no Christian channel ever gets the Gospel right from what I can tell, millions of folks who imagine themselves 'Christians', are not. That's frightening. Part V went through the problem. Such fake-believers, Jews and 'Christians' both, will be trapped by the twin ploys of fake-Church and fake-Temple. Just as they always have been, in the past.

  36. The term "harlotry" is a frequent OT metaphor for substitute-religion, a form of spiritual fornication -- see Hosea, Eze16-23, Jer16, etc. 'Babylon', of course, is always used as the moniker, since it was Babylon which Satan used to replace the Tower of Babel, and has been repeating in history ever since. In the second 3.5 years of the Trib., though, it will be the primary instrument of pogrom and world war, simply because people will mistake it as genuine. See why it is sooo important to know that the real Church is NOT in the Tribulation? today's falsehoods will become the justification to those future generations, to falsely conclude Church-in-Trib, since by then, the paperwork will have been long-venerated. No wonder the fake papertrail began shortly after Revelation was penned...

    The terms "harlot" and "Babylon" are such oft-used and multilayered OT metaphors, no Jew should conclude but that the Christ has come and gone and that the NT is a true record about Him. It's positively appalling that the Dome of the Rock sits over the Petra, an abomination of the Holy of Holies, and no Jew catches on? Talmud is chock-full of correct definitions of these terms. Yet itself, is quite blind. Awesome. So we Christians shouldn't be surprised that we too are just as blind, allowing all manner of false interpretations of Scripture, to be popular. Scary. Downright scary.

    And helpful, to avoid misinterpretation. The beast and statue images are paradigmal repeats of what prompted the first Temple's destruction; prompted Daniel's capture and visions. all that meaning, so many hundreds of exact variables, are all conveyed via the simple word, "Babylon". Yet everyone guesses? There's NO guesswork here. Legwork, not fanciful imaginations...

  37. So if you read through Rev6-18, you'll realize that not all the events depicted have yet happened, but the pattern of them began (as any encyclopedic review of Church history will prove) sometime around 100AD -- partly due to the excesses of Domitian; so at that point Christianity began to 'go political'. (See Gibbon on this -- Amazon sells his tome on disk.) There were so many Christians, they began to realize their own clout. Just like activism, today. By 200AD the Church was institutionalized, and people couldn't well read Biblical Greek, anymore: that's how low the Church had sunk. Of course, the stupid religious wars which began just after Commodus, and attained final legitimacy under Constantine are all-too-well-known.

  38. Revelation 18's destruction of Babylon, is accounted in a very common ancient Greek drama format, viz., the end of Euripides' "The Trojan Women". Because "Babylon" is the woman's name, we know Jerusalem is meant: Rev16:19, 17:5,18+Rev18, other passages. And it is true: everyone has eaten from her table, sampled her pleasures, Eze16-23 writ large. That's the history of the world, really. So no wonder the double-entendre with Rome, since Rome was built from the Jewish God, Who Became Human -- built, not by His Hands. So, a 'Babylon', just like Israel. Playing the harlot. With the remnant safely in hiding. Hope they stay hidden...

    Rev18:1 has a "meta tauta" clause, so we know this is the seventh bowl judgement of Rev16. All the woe woe woe language, of course, is common in Greek drama, as well as in Revelation. So, too, the sorta hyperbolic style of Revelation as a book -- Greek drama is very melodramatic by our modern standards. In short -- this is a deliberate writing style, not some secret code. Why, when it is obvious just by looking at Greek drama subject matter, don't scholars recognize that an ACTUAL EVENT is deliberately depicted? Classical Greek dramas aren't ever about fiction, for crying out loud! Whatever allegory/fictional format is used, it's meant to display something REAL underneath; this, coupled with the very detailed OT prophecies about the Trib and Mill should leave no sane person with any doubt that, hello -- the Lord's Return is a real event, and this is a real timeline preceding it, according to the way the Age of Israel's covenant works. Oh well.

    Truth to tell, the historical record amply supports the claim that all the world has depended on Jerusalem. A dusty city. Crazy to think such a small place, named "The Foundation of Prosperity" (Jeru+salem), should be soooo important. But look how true is that statement:

    All of modern history is based on the Cross,
    and the Cross, occurred IN Jerusalem.
    Everyone either reacts or responds to it.
    Islam is a reaction.
    Modern Buddhism is a reaction.
    Mormonism is a reaction.
    "Evolution" is a reaction.
    Do even atheists crusade against
    the Bhagavad-Gita?
    The Koran?
    Or, against the Bible?
    Most any religion you want to name has tenets 'reacting' to Bible.
    Of course, a good bit of the reaction is in the name of "the West".. like 9/11, for example...

    So it sure looks like the One Lampstand/candelabra, the One Person Who Was Crucified In One City.. stands before the World Which Reacts To It. Witnessed by Two Stone Structures which mutely testify to the Fulfillment of that One Person's Goal, just as foretold in Dan9:25-26, Matt24; just as forecast in Rev11:1ff. And all that, even if you didn't know all the provable fulfillments of Time Being Orchestrated Around Him in 490-year segments (see Mirroring.htm).

    Of course the West only formed, due to the Cross. The very existence of later Rome, Europe, Russia, US, was a response to the Cross. And an apostatized reaction, too, pretending to be 'Christian'. The US was founded mostly by Reformed people of one stripe or another, who didn't quite agree with the sterility that Calvinism became. One of my natal parents was of that group, coming over here in the 1700's, very prolific. If you read a history of the US by some famous and thinking historian like a Thomas Bailey, or William Manchester, you'll get a good sense of how important faith was, in our founding. An independent faith. Again, the Reformed movement had a lot wrong with its doctrines and still does; but one of the several fundamentals it got right, was Faith Alone In Christ Alone, permanently saves you. Today, they are almost the only denomination in Christendom, who say the Gospel correctly (the Baptists and many other 'independent' churches, have long forgotten how to read John 3:16). So it's no small wonder that the US began to flourish, and especially in the 1800's, when all those manuscripts were found by Europeans. Europeans who likewise were experiencing a resurgence of interest in the real Bible. That's the only reason the West prospered. So, yes: Jerusalem indeed has been the foundation of prosperity for the world. We are all saved, because of her. And her thanks for that will be devastation. But then, RESTORATION, SHUB at last! the proper Queen among Nations. Just as Her Rejected Husband, always promised...

    So close Chapter 18. Bye, Bye, Babylon; HELLO, BRIDE!


    Plays #C and #D, "Footstool" and "Eternal State", now commence.

  39. Again, the four plays in a quadrilogy were often two tragedies followed by (or interspersed with) two comedies, showing how all ends well due to the gods' intervention. Thus John divides out the last two "times", Millenium and Eternal State, as happy endings. Even the deepest of Greek tragedies had some very funny comedy lines in them. Even the funniest of Greek farces had some solemn lines in them. Greeks fashioned their plays with this mix, because their philosophy was that everything was connected. So, grief with joy, and vice versa. So too, in these latter two mini-plays. So, instead of an unmixed tragedy coupled with an unmixed, happy-ending comedy, you have a mix. Part V covers the rollout in detail, so only a few comments will be made here.

    1. So, Chapter 19, the REAL CHRIST RETURNS! Rev19:1 is a "meta tauta" clause, so it's after the Seventh Bowl. Time to end The Tribulation play with the usual deus ex machina, except it's the REAL GOD-MAN, this time! Chapter 19, the 2nd Advent arrives when all these armies are gathered in wars around the world, particularly in the Valley of Esdraelon. At the same time, Rome is a target of a major nuclear holocaust (seems like).

    2. So, note this: when you finally see the Bride, 'she' is coming DOWN with Christ, not going up, AT THE SECOND ADVENT. So, where was the 'Bride' all that intervening time, huh? If she was on earth, being as she is sooo important, don't you think John would have said something earlier? Honestly, do ANY brains turn on when reading Scripture? Look: if it were even remotely true that the Church was in the Tribulation, then Revelation would depict it doing something, right? But Rev is silent on that topic, because the Church is no longer there, and is instead BRIDE; because, Jews are the evangelists, viz., the 144,000, with tribes etc listed as a roster. That's not Church, but ISRAEL. Oh well.

    3. Revelation 20 is the Millenium, so naturally it has a "meta tauta" clause to divide the time. Kinda humorously, though. In Rev20:3, in connection with the END of the Millenium; that "after these things [Mill]", Satan must be released again to have his last chance in the perfect environment he'd always tried to bring about. There's a brief on how that will turn out, and then -- oddly -- in Rev20:11 and following, no time divisions are given, but only the 'earth and heaven fled away' to introduce the GWTJ. (Part V has more on the meaning of the Millenium and Eternal State, Hell, etc.)

    4. So, the dramatic epilogue of Rev 22:6-21 to the audience -- the MORAL, since the play is now over -- which affirms that Canon is closed with Revelation, ergo the two warnings: don't add/subtract from Canon, and 'beware, I come suddenly!' -- which fit perfectly with the Greek patriotic style. Be careful to obey Written Instructions, keep sharp, for you have been forewarned!

  40. So now let's note in Epilogue, the dramatic technique called "interjection". The Lord used two interjectory phrases with regularity in the Gospels, and in Revelation they still have the same meaning -- but with added force of ATTESTATION. Part IVa explains one of the interjectory keywords, tachú. You might want to load that page and search on "tahk-OOH", if you forgot its meaning: Suddenly. Like a surprise military attack. Like a thief. So, "like a thief" was SYNONYMAL, and He used that too; for, in those days, SUDDENNESS, not stealth, was used to steal things. (Modern example: African shipments of rice are blatantly attacked IN PORT, people grabbing whatever they can and running away.)

      The First Advent Was Also Like A Thief. John's announcement in Matthew 3 is isagogically about the King Who Is On the Road, make the Road passable (level, so he can travel royally).. in advance! Imminency. The Lord Himself told many stories about this and parallelled it to His SECOND Coming, like the parable where the king goes away and Suddenly returns to find his stewards, or the messengers Suddenly sent to the vinedressers, or the parable of the virgins Suddenly needing lamp oil. Since all prophecy is dual, one of the meanings was to say, "I AM HERE AS PROMISED." The Second Meaning was, that He'd RETURN. For, Both Advents were promised Israel. One poignant verse shows Him telling them that they are evil, seeking a sign: and yet have the biggest sign of all, His Being There. English masks the force with the translated word "visitation" in the passage -- but in Greek it's a fearful thing: oh, the Emperor Has Suddenly Arrived On Surprise Inspection! for which of course, you could get executed if derelict.

      In Mark's Gospel, practically every paragraph ends with another "suddenly" synonym, Greek word "euthus". It's usually mistranslated "immediately", which is marginally okay -- if you know the English "immediately" as right now. For, Mark's using that word to warn people that Temple Destruction was imminent, just as the Book of Hebrews (released at the same time) warned them. Flee Jerusalem, Get Out Right Now. Parallel to the imminency of the First Advent, so used in the Gospel. Parallel to the Rapture, so used in the Gospel. Parallel to the 2nd Advent, since parallel to the other two. For the 2nd Advent, while predictable kinda like the first one was, still SUDDENLY descended. And no one was paying attention. Only a few will be paying attention when the sudden inspection arrives again (Rapture, 2nd Advent).

      So the "suddenly" moniker is nothing new. The First Advent was imminent, until Daniel 9, as explained throughout Part IVa; and the Second 'becomes' imminent, because the Rapture triggers the countdown. Just as they couldn't know when His First Advent would be absent Word study, so also they can't know when His Second Advent will be, absent Word study about Church (meaning, the NT). It's not hidden, and you don't have to wait for the "sign" to occur. So you wade through the Word, then you know: which is why This Word Of Revelation, is given. Hence the epilogue is worded as it is. That's what they will do, in the Trib: read this Book. That's what we all should do, always...

    The Lord was using a Drama technique of communication, too, to emphasise SUDDENNESS. For, in Greek and other drama, sometimes actors just talk directly to the audience, stopping the play for a comment or two. Or, leave the stage and go into the audience. Aristophanes plays often humorously begin with this device; he liked using it at least once in all of his plays. In Shakespeare's plays, this is often called an "aside". There were two flavors: i) an aside to the audience, like in the opening monologue of Richard the Third (get the version with Lawrence Olivier and Clare Bloom) and Othello (rent the version with Lawrence Fishburne); or, ii) an aside to another actor in the play itself. The long-running "Cats" play of recent Broadway fame used this technique, with the actors running into the audience. When James Farrentino played Peter in "Jesus of Nazareth", he suddenly uses this technique at the end of the movie, thus combining it with the purpose of an "epilogue": when he looks at the camera and says, "All of us."

    In short, it's a well-known drama technique, so the Lord uses it several times in Revelation, making it clear that the Church is not on earth in the play, that the play is real and to forewarn; and He uses the same "suddenly" and "like a thief" catchphrases He used while still down here, to verify HE's the one talking. Akin to signing prophecies in the OT with "thus says the Lord", "Ani, Adonai" (Hebrew) -- except He's God-Man, now. (I think Molière's "The Invalid" had some of the same technique in it, unless the version I saw in Los Angeles was 'doctored'. If I remember rightly, Aristophanes in "The Frogs" had Dionysus criticise Aeschylus for using too-long interjections, so... look up that play and re-visit Aeschyulus'.)

So, the Play ends. Question is, did you get its story? If you're like most of the human race, and particularly, the "experts", the answer, is Nope! Let's see why, because this is the postscript historical response to the Lord's EPILOGUE in Rev22:6ff.

Yet Scholars and Teachers routinely fail to properly interpret Revelation?
For Centuries?

To conclude a no-Trib/no-Mill or not-pre-Trib Rapture, requires one throw out Greek drama which in John's day was as popular as Shakespeare is to us; drama which at the very time of writing was used to satirize Christians, in Rome itself. Also, one would have to burn or trash most long-established principles of OT hermeneutics, to construe Revelation as solely allegorical, not to mention trashing all the bizillion passages in the OT which use the same metaphors for the same time period. So one must work extremely hard to chop out John's obvious narration of a dual significance to Revelation, since that is also an OT style which the Lord Himself used, as indeed all 'prophets' before Him. Moreover, John's use of Greek to communicate OT metaphors should have been a tip-off all by itself. I mean, why else use deliberate OT metaphors, if not to make a PARALLEL? Finally, the specific-timeline events depicted in Revelation did not occur by 96AD, and have not occurred until yet.

    Greek plays are easily available: my favorites so far are "Ion", "The Frogs", and "Trojan Women". Or, rent a Greek tragedy video sometime and watch its extended stylistics. Anthony Quayle plays Oedipus in "Oedipus at Colonnus": that's a good sample. Then read Revelation, taking into account that all the metaphorical descriptions there are Hebraic -- but put into a Greek-play format. Use a study Bible, for the OT cross-references will make it easier to see that at least deliberate ties to the OT are intended by John. See if Revelation doesn't make more sense to you as a result. Scofield editions of the Bible still seem to have the most comprehensive cross-references and concordances I've yet found. BibleWorks "TSK database" is generally quite helpful, if you have BibleWorks.

So why all the incompetence? Scholars resort to CANNING, instead of Canon. One of the sad facts of life is that people in "professions", from attorneys to zoologists, get lazy. In a way, they have to, because the politics of the job end up eating 90% of a day. So, when you go to an attorney to get a will, he doesn't really draft the will, but pulls something CANNED out of a computer which he bought from a legal service or even Office Depot! He may or may not really examine it for quirks you need. You won't know the difference.

    Same, for a physician: nowadays, especially, you spend time with just the nurse or the "P.A." -- because, the doctor doesn't really have the time to see you. He orders lots of tests, and those too are evaluated based on CANNED criteria -- for, that's all the time he has.

    Of course, we all know by now that the politician resorts to mom-and-apple-pie stuff to get elected, and he really has to: people are always "on" him for favors. So, he takes the party line, and plays the game.

    So, too, the university professor must keep publishing 'research' to be well-paid. So he has no time for students, either. Hence you get a T.A. (teachers' assistant) at the 'prestigious' universities, not the professor; the T.A. gives CANNED LESSONS to the class. Yet the students each pay 20K or more annually, for the privilege!

    Of course, this problem has plagued all the sciences since forever. In a word, ossification.

So Bible scholars and teachers resort to work someone else did in the PAST. So OLD errors persist. A screwed-up translation of a Bible verse, then, is often known, but not fixed. It's too expensive, takes too much time, people will be affected, etc. So the Word Of God remains unfixed.. for centuries.

    It's real easy to see how this could happen, even in the lexicons (most of which are old, and only 'edited' from time to time). See, research is always built on prior research, and from respect, those before 'you' get quoted and venerated. Problem is, ossification results, so it becomes a fearful thing, to go against all that past expertise. The Lord was crucified for that (going against the Pharisaical 'experts'), so it's no little fear.

    Bible incompetencies thus lurk along, for centuries. A a slightly wrong translation yields a BIG interpretational screwup.

      1st Example: James 4:5. Click here for details. If you want to peruse this via video, click here. It has response videos attached to it, since the KJV mistranslates James 4:5. You can also download the originals.

      2nd Example: due to old comments by lexicographers, Isaiah 53:10-11 in the LXX, never gets the serious attention it deserves -- never mind, the NT writers keep on tying back to that LXX text. It's a real eye-opener (pun intended) to read how the lexicons all follow each other. For more on the Isaiah 53 problem, click here..

      3rd Example: the prolife movement read their Bibles only REVERSED translation. Click here for details. Bible translators are understandably of ascetic bent, i.e., lexicons are loathe to admit Bible's swearwords or sexually-explicit terms. So you can see why "womb" verses in Bible are reverse-translated, compared to Bible. Pattern: "the woman walked the dog" is rendered "the dog walked the woman"; or, into "the woman DIDN'T walk the dog."

      4th Example: misconstruing Genesis 1 as the initial creation of the Earth. Click here for Genesis exegesis videos showing BIBLE says Earth was RESTORED, not initially created, during the six literal days. My pastor taught that fact for years (i.e., in his "Genesis" lessons), but here presentation is independently from Bible.

      See how destructive, the scholarly canned approach? How many millions of dollars have been wasted in misread Bible, re prolife and creationism? So what happens at the Bema? God cans your hide, 1Cor3 -- all your hard MISGUIDED efforts are so much wood, hay, stubble to be burnt! So you got canned from this life, as no 1Jn1:9 leads to 1Jn5:16, for crusading is a sin, especially on a topic that maligns and contradicts God's Word; and then, canned at the Bema. All because one insists on CANNED TRANSLATIONS (Hosea 4:6, 8:7, Gal 6:7). Ouch.

So with regard to Revelation, the centuries of canned dismissiveness is replicated over and over and over. No one revisits what the BIBLE says, lest one publically disagree with a respectable-but-WRONG, past 'scholar'.

    Now add in the fact that scholars' lives are awful: they have the responsibility, without the pay. One must go hat in hand to this or that meeting, jump on a plane, justify some budget item to some public forum, hob nob in fund-raising, get new prospects, give speeches which put people to sleep, blah blah blah. If a scholar has even one hour during which he can do original research, it's a miracle. Over time, he ceases to be a real expert, anymore. But still has the credentials.

    Everyone's always after the religious professional for "counsel." So, the poor guy has NO time to do what GOD wants: study and translate/teach. That's what the Bible says you do: DIDASKW. Not, run around making invocations, prayers, visiting the sick. Other spiritual gifts have those other roles.

    So, too, the religious professional has to deal with a lot of political garbage, with the result that he too sticks with the canned -- whatever is respected in the past, that he also follows. It's understandable, but it's really a problem when it comes to the Bible. Most people don't need complex wills; most don't need complex medical attention; most don't need complex classes, even. But we all need accurate translation and teaching of Scripture. Sadly, the good ol' boy network is even worse among religions (of any type, Christian or non-Christian). Because, it's more POLITICAL. They don't like the politicization, either. So everyone is suffering, not getting away with anything. It's heartbreaking for everyone.

So that's why This Quadrilogy isn't properly taught, why the Rapture and Millennium are pooh-poohed by hoary heads with lots of respectable initials. They go by other scholars, rather than revisit DE NOVO what the Bible says. And they do that, because what the Bible says, is not important. Peer approval is the god, instead. One can heartily empathize. So now you know why the people IN the Tribulation, will fall for Satan's wiles. We are now too enamored of human approval. And, with such a 'respectable' paper trail of lies that there is no Rapture or Mill, the people in the Tribulation will then agree. And, perish.

But the NOW Play must go on; it will terminate SUDDENLY, like-a-thief! at the Rapture. So as believers, let's do two things, since we are Crown-Prince-Priests-in-Training: a) PRAY for those involved in Bible to 'see' 1Jn1:9, lest their erudition go wasted, and b) ourselves grow up via His Brains, in God's System.

Sisyphus