Book 6 introduction

[phareztamar]

Introduction

The book of Revelation is the book of all books, and every fathers challenge. Its blessing is threefold:
• Blessed is he that readeth.
• Blessed are they that hear.
• Blessed is he that keepeth.
the words of this prophecy. One doesn’t even have to buy a bible nowadays. Someone will give you one. And at the very end is this book of books.

My sixth book is an exploration of Revelation, and in the end, just one mans opinion. If it makes you think, if it makes you wrestle in the spirit to write down your own opinion for your children and your world, then I have succeeded.

The amazing images in this last book of the bible challenge even its most savvy students. Often the lines blur in these holy pages between the physical world, and the spiritual world. My book doesn’t offer the answers about Revelation’s mysteries that you may be seeking. It’s more a book of questions and theories than answers. Questions it is hoped, that will challenge you to consider some of these things, for the time is at hand.

The book of Revelation can only be deciphered with Holy Ghost filled eyes. All others are locked out. And for those precious few it must be viewed through the lens of our own day, here at the close of the six thousandth year since Adam. And what a day indeed that we live in.

A brief word then on our blessedness. We are eternal. Of spiritual certainty we came from eternity, and to eternity we shall return. In between is this wonderful, very brief moment called “life”. A moment lived out beneath a vail of forgetfulness lest we recall that eternity. A moment lived day-to-day until an uncertain end. Our nano-seven thousand years is as a grain of sand in the forever desert of eternity. And though we are but the tiniest of pinpoints in the vast endless cosmos, yet are we the geographic center of this endless universe. This because of the creation of life and the birth of God’s son. No need to do the astrophysical math. We are the focal point and prism of all space and time, and as rare as hen’s teeth.

Add to this rarity called “life” the further confines of salvation to the Hebrew people. Our blessedness becomes crystal clear. Because the hard truth is this: the vast majority of humanity lived and died having never found salvation. Entire civilizations and kingdoms have risen and fallen not knowing the Hebrew God. Whole races of people millions strong worshipping idols of every sort, with fantastical creation stories that mock sound reasoning. The Sumaritan, Hittite, Amorite, Chinese, Austrian, Roman, Assyrian, Perrizite, Hivite, Philistine, Mede, Persian, Indian, Egyptian, Iranian, Greek, the Huns, Arab, Russian, Mongolian, Phoenician, Ethiopian, Nordic, Babylonian, Lydian, Serbian, Carthaginian, Turk, Afghan, Italian, Hungarian, Teuton, Frank, Polish, Australian, Spanish, Aegean, Japanese, etc. Kingdom after Kingdom after Nation after Nation. Warring, building, prospering, and living out their days never knowing the Hebrew God. Across six thousand years of civilization, Jesus paints this narrowest of gates:

Salvation is of the Jews.

Both the natural born, and we who are mercifully grafted in. Its hard to over emphasize just how thin a slice the chosen people of God really are amongst the masses of humanity, across the ages of Kingdoms and Nations. It rivals the single sperm cell who claims the egg, while millions of others are purged in the draught of failure.

One of the latent themes of Revelation is “sent down from heaven”. Throughout the previous sixty-five books of scripture we’ve caught glimpses of heaven here and there. But in Revelation, more than ever before, are things sent down from heaven.

Ever been in an airplane on a day when clouds cover the land below like a blanket? We cannot see the earth from up there. We see only a beautiful cotton quilt stretching to the horizon. But my Lord sees through the clouds. Moreover, an entire spiritual world billions strong sees through the clouds. And for this very short moment called life, we are the only show in town.

The intended audience for this book is a spiritually mature one. These are weighty matters before us. Immersed in the dazzling images of Revelation, we should always remember what time it is for the reader. Where we stand in the history of man from Adam until today. And where we stand in the chronology of the scriptures. Because the scriptures reveal that we are living at sunset on the sixth one thousand years. The dawn of the Millennium, the seventh one thousand years, is at the door.

The spiritually mature have eaten His holy Word for years and made it pulmonary in their lives. It guides all of their actions, big and small.

Today’s discoveries inside of the invisible atom alone, brings mind boggling detail to His marvelous creation. Yet for all of creation’s complexity and diversity, for all of its beauty and glory, it is of the earth earthy. The heavenly world is made of so much better things. His holy Word is heavenly, and its depths past finding out. If the lowly atom is complex in its beauty, its poetic rhythm, and its mystery and mathematics, how much more so is His holy Word from heaven? He speaks therein not only of the stars and cosmos that baffle us, but also instructs Israel to bury their poop because He walks the camp at night.

In the laws of heaven sin is a felony judged by death. There is no appeal, as the iron-clad judgment of death remains steadfast. To then learn from medical science that sin and its death penalty are passed to us at birth, means that the entire human race is sentenced to death. History bears this out. When Adam fell, the seed of all humanity in his loins also fell. Saved or not, the law of sin that flows in your veins and corrupts your body must be judged. Death is passed to all men.

At one point in our journey through the book of Revelation we shall be asked to leave Patmos with John, to behold a panoramic view of the end. The time is at hand. Every idle word and wayward thought of this sinner saved by grace, will shortly be laid bare.

The student of scripture should recognize two important things before he leaves Patmos. First one needs an acute awareness that the earth and all that therein is, are flush with spiritual meaning. A full course meal, preserved even until your generation and waiting to be dined. The second is that the population of the spiritual world far exceeds the population of humanity. Consider the stars. The deeper we look the more there are. We cannot even count them. In scripture these stars represent the innumerable host of heaven.

There will be a countable, though very large, number of dead whom John saw standing before the great white throne. From Adam and Eve until today, every soul who ever received the gift of life will be there. From the insignificant to the pompous. Your family, your friends, your enemies, world leaders, Hollywood stars, brutal killers, and every soul who ever lived life on earth standing before God. All will be clear then, fearfully clear, like waking from a dream. The dark glass will be removed from before our eyes. Thank God for His unchanging holy word. It out-lives the rise and fall of generations and imparts life to the few. How sweet a find are the words of this life. His word is marrow to our bones and sight to our eyes. Leaving Patmos, it is the only luggage allowed.

To be alive at this time in history, to be baptized in his name and filled with his Spirit in these last days, is both humbling and mouth-stopping. The living word is springing to life right before our very eyes as the world continues to roil.

As a trembling Hezekiah spread his threatening letter from Sennacherib before the Lord, so do I spread this letter. Whether it stand in a line of a million such letters or shoots straight to the throne, still do I spread it before Him. Not before my Lord only, but before a trillion watchers and angels and recorders. Before all the spirits of heaven and every devil in and out of hell, this tiny speck of carbon in the universe rises up to write: thank you Lord Jesus. Now this is more than my daily “thank you Lord Jesus for this excellent job” as I leave my driveway for work. And more than my daily “thank you Lord Jesus for a safe trip home” as I return each day. And so much more than my nightly “thank you Lord Jesus for this peace” as I lay my head down and no bombs are exploding around me.

In the grand scheme of the universe O you angels I am less than a vile speck of dirt. And I am only one of billions at that. Yet I spread this letter before you all because I am seen through the cloud cover, and in the halls of heaven I am known by name. I have been given a voice to stand and say: thank you Lord Jesus for life, and for the beauty and complexity and wonder of your creation. Thank you for the baptism of your Spirit and the opening of your word. To the unseen trillions in heaven this tiny voice on earth declares: thank you Lord Jesus for Calvary and new covenant salvation. Nearly two thousand years after the fact record O you angels that this sinner saved by grace shouts to the cosmos: thank you Lord Jesus for the depth of your love, to sacrifice your own life that you might overcome death, hell, and the grave for everyone. Thank you that two thousand years ago in the prime of your precious life you submitted your own will to His will, that two thousand years later a slob like me might be born into the Kingdom. While this body still has voice and breath I will praise the name of the Lord. Write it down you recorders. Spread the word you His angels. Let it be known in all the heavens that there is none greater than our Lord as we stare at the stars here on earth.