Revelations 7 – 11
After mentioning the 144,000 from Israel seated in heaven we get an vision in verses 7:9-10 of a great multitude:
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Many dooms day preachers focus on the 144,000 and say that’s all that are going to heaven, the rest remain on earth. This is not what Jesus said, but rather simple faith in Him will allow you into heaven. This proves that Jesus’ was right and these preachers who believe heaven is limited is not reading past verse 8. Again we have two images of Jesus in Revelations, one as coming down from the clouds to enact judgment and the other is here as a lamb.
This is where I believe the imagery of Revelations could get us in trouble. How many times have we been preached that Jesus will return to clean the earth as a warrior? Like the Israelites who had a preconceived idea on who the Messiah would be and since Jesus did not match that idea they rejected Him. What if Jesus came again, but not in flowing white robes, but rather jeans and a tee? Would we reject Him because He just is some “dude”?
Verses 9:20 & 21 are after 6 trumpets have been blown:
20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshipping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, 21 nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
I almost wonder if we are close to here now. I wonder if we are not in Revelations and again since it doesn’t match perfectly with the images we are rejecting this. Now more than ever we are worshiping idols of wood, gold, metals or glass. We are allowing seeming innocent portals to be opened in our faith which are undermining it completely. Horoscopes are a perfect example; they seem relatively benign and are fun to read. They don’t seem intrinsically evil but have roots back to Egypt. The Sphinx is a representation of Libra and Leo the first and last sign of the zodiac joined.
We need to be more vigilant on how we look at evil. These seemingly benign practices open paths to demons and Satan himself. This is a subject that one could go hours on, but just be on guard. Even popular stories like Harry Potter or Twilight are so deep in the occult it’s spooky.
Verse 11:8 had me scratching my head:
and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.
The comment about the Lord being crucified in Egypt caught my eye. Our Lord and savior Jesus was by all accounts crucified in Jerusalem, not Egypt. The verse talks about dead bodies in Sodom and specifically says “their Lord” implying not God or Jesus. But the fact Lord was capitalized is confusing. The one thing I noticed different from this word and other uses of Lord in this version on Bible Gateway is this is “Lord” and other instance is “LORD” implying one is deity and the other is just a name. Since it’s difficult to change font and how “LORD” appears I tend to leave it just “Lord” in my writings, but the copies show different.
Any ideas about who this “Lord” is in this verse?