{"id":711,"date":"2013-05-08T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/2013\/05\/08\/the-beginning-of-the-end\/"},"modified":"2013-05-08T11:30:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-08T11:30:00","slug":"the-beginning-of-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/2013\/05\/08\/the-beginning-of-the-end\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beginning of The End"},"content":{"rendered":"

Revelations 1 \u2013 6<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starting this book means the end in more ways than one. It\u2019s obviously the last book of the Bible, but it also starts the end of this year long reading. Revelations is one of the most difficult books in the Bible to read because it is full of imagery and allegory that could apply to many ages over time. Remember when this was written, they were expecting Jesus\u2019 return during their life. Ever since I presume each generation has been saying this. Just in the last 100 years people have looked at Hitler, Hussein, Stalin, Mao, and even Obama have been claimed as the Antichrist.<\/p>\n

Honestly almost every leader in modern history has been called the antichrist by the opposition. I think it\u2019s going to be harder to notice them, but that is not where this reading is going today. Verse 1:8 reminds us who God is in our world:<\/p>\n

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I am the Alpha and the Omega,\u201d says the Lord God, \u201cwho is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.\u201d <\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We have a tough time with things on this scale. Sure God has always been and always will be, but to really comprehend that is difficult.The universe is something that we have put limits on, saying it is 16 billion years old. But what was there before and how did it get here. Limitless boundaries are difficult to imagine for any human, yet that is the God we serve. We try to put Him in a box more often than not. Remember He raised the dead!!<\/p>\n

The next few chapters are notes to the seven churches and a report on how they are doing. Verse 2:29 caught my eye because of recent study:<\/p>\n

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And I will give him the morning star. <\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The \u201cmorning star\u201d is what I have been attracted to in this verse. My study Bible is clear that it is Jesus and gives other references that show it to be Jesus. At the same time we go to Strong\u2019s Concordance and find Lucifer means the \u201cshining one, morning start\u201d. With that said could this verse be construed that Lucifer is being handed over to God and not Jesus since He and God are one? See how difficult the imagery can be to interpret; here are two very different readings of \u201cmorning star\u201d. (NOTE \u2013 all the translations I searched had the same wording, interestingly the Orthodox Jew Bible actually details how it\u2019s Venus).<\/p>\n

Verse 5:12 uses the imagery of a Lamb to represent Jesus:<\/p>\n

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saying with a loud voice, \u201cWorthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!\u201d <\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a key image to the sin sacrifice the Israelites would sacrifice in the temple. They would take an unblemished lamb, place their hand on it to transfer their sins and kills it. This is in effect what Jesus did for mankind. He did this once for all humanity where we must place our hands (figuratively) on the head of Jesus and confess our sins. He was the only true perfect lamb, worthy of taking the sins of the world.<\/p>\n

I like how \u201cwealth\u201d is slipped in there. Wealth is NOTHING in the afterlife, or at least it has a different definition than of the living. We get so hung up on the prosperity aspect of the Bible I often wonder if that is more a sin than a blessing. If it matters to us than much, we are like the rich man who could not give everything for Jesus. We are pushing Jesus aside for riches, so we can presumably serve him better. Guess what, even the poorest amongst us can serve the Lord, so don\u2019t wait for the big trade or lottery win. JUST DO IT!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Revelations 1 \u2013 6 Starting this book means the end in more ways than one. It\u2019s obviously the last book of the Bible, but it also starts the end of this year long reading. Revelations is one of the most difficult books in the Bible to read because it is full of imagery and allegory … Continue reading “The Beginning of The End”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}