Chapter 22 opens with the River of the water of life that flows from the throne of God, and mentions the Tree of life. This couples with verse 3, which says that “No longer will there be anything accursed.” This is a clear reference to the renewal of what was good before the fall of man in Genesis. Jesus tells john that he is coming soon, which means that his coming will be unexpected.  The victory of the Lord over death and the evil one is complete; and just as he promised, he has prepared a place for all who will come and “take the water of life without price.”

/Bob’s boy

Bible Reading Schedule for this month
Click links below to read or listen to audio of one of this week’s chapters in Colossians and Luke

Rev 18, Rev 19, Rev 20, Rev 21, Rev 22

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some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please visit this site’s menu item “The Author’s Books” for info on the author’s books, website, and Facebook page.

All of my comments in this blog are solely my responsibility. When reading any commentary, you should always refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word.

Chapter twenty contains the “thousand years” that is fodder for the views of the per-millennialists, who preach that Jesus will actually come back physically before judgement day to reign on earth for a thousand years because he failed somehow in his first mission. Such a view ignores so much of what is taught in scripture, that one hardly knows where to begin. The death burial and resurrection were a complete success and all part of God’s plan of salvation.

Also, note that the chapter makes no mention whatsoever about a second coming, a literal throne of David, or a resurrection. His resurrection already happened! The thousand years is no more literal than the headless souls in the first few verses. The time period might represent the limited power Satan has enjoyed since the completion of that which is perfect (1 Cor 13:10).

Chapter 21 describes a new heaven and a new earth – the new Jerusalem, and it is not difficult to understand what it describes. it is clearly heaven. It is not a literal description, of course. But it does describe a place of enormity and beauty beyond imagination.

/Bob’s boy

Bible Reading Schedule for this month
Click links below to read or listen to audio of one of this week’s chapters in Colossians and Luke

Rev 18, Rev 19, Rev 20, Rev 21, Rev 22

___________________

some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please visit this site’s menu item “The Author’s Books” for info on the author’s books, website, and Facebook page.

All of my comments in this blog are solely my responsibility. When reading any commentary, you should always refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word.

There are some that equate the reference to Babylon again in chapter 18 as an all-inclusive representation of Apostate Christianity. And there may be some truth to that allegorically. But remembering the opening verses of the book, we must insist that ti this audience, it is the clear pronouncement of judgement against Jerusalem for its own apostasy and rejection of the Son of God.

In Chapter 19 after the fall of Babylon, the rider on the white horse in verses 11 and following is clearly Jesus. he now goes out to defeat the enemy with a sharp sword, which comes from his mouth. And the fact that he is called “The Word of God” in verse 13 makes the inference clear – it the God’s word that will be used as the weapon.

/Bob’s boy

Bible Reading Schedule for this month
Click links below to read or listen to audio of one of this week’s chapters in Colossians and Luke

Rev 18, Rev 19, Rev 20, Rev 21, Rev 22

___________________

some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please visit this site’s menu item “The Author’s Books” for info on the author’s books, website, and Facebook page.

All of my comments in this blog are solely my responsibility. When reading any commentary, you should always refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word.

An analysis of chapter 17 can be a daunting task. There have been so many disagreements among commentators as to the identity of the beast, the harlot, and even the sixth king. It has even given rise to a ridiculous myth about Nero being resurrected as the eighth king! The most convincing arguments I have read declare the beast as Rome.

Whatever you take away from this book, remember our blog that included the first verse of chapter eight: “When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” We agree with Coffman’s assessment that this means that this marks the day of judgment, and that we are not told what comes thereafter – as John said in 1 John 3:2:

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

With that in mind, everything that follows that section of chapter 8 must occur before that time. Couple that with what we are told at the beginning of the book – that the Revelation is of “the things that must soon take place” – and it is clear that John is writing of things the seven churches are familiar with and that some of them can reasonably expect to see take place.

For the modern Christian, as well as the recipients of John’s epistle, the bottom line is the same. Despite the trials and tribulation of the day and of times to come, “the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”

/Bob’s boy

Bible Reading Schedule for this month
Click links below to read or listen to audio of one of this week’s chapters in Colossians and Luke

Rev 13, Rev 14, Rev 15, Rev 16, Rev 17

___________________

some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please visit this site’s menu item “The Author’s Books” for info on the author’s books, website, and Facebook page.

All of my comments in this blog are solely my responsibility. When reading any commentary, you should always refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word.

In chapter 15, we have seven angels with seven plagues, followed in chapter 16 by seven bowls of God’s wrath that are poured out over the earth. Whether one reads these image-filled chapters as an account of final judgment or that of God’s judgment against Jerusalem, the two chapters convey the message that when God issues his judgment, there is no struggle against Him.

Notice Rev 16:16: “And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.”  Much is made of this by secular literature, etc., yet there is no reference whatsoever to any battle. There is nothing but God’s judgment being carried out on the wicked.

/Bob’s boy

Bible Reading Schedule for this month
Click links below to read or listen to audio of one of this week’s chapters in Colossians and Luke

Rev 13, Rev 14, Rev 15, Rev 16, Rev 17

___________________

some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please visit this site’s menu item “The Author’s Books” for info on the author’s books, website, and Facebook page.

All of my comments in this blog are solely my responsibility. When reading any commentary, you should always refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word.

Chapter 12 is a magnificent illustration in imagery of the birth of Jesus and Satan’s attempts to stop him before he even begins his work. The woman is not Mary, but can best be understood as faithful through the ages. She goes to safety for the 1260 days (or the 42 months), just as Jesus warned the faithful before his crucifixion in Matthew 24:15-22.

Satan’s war against the church is a central piece to this part of the book, and would have special meaning for these early New Testament Christians, who were seeing the earliest battles that he fought with fury. Nevertheless, that war certainly continues today, as he has not ceased his attempts to destroy it. But still it continues.

/Bob’s boy

Bible Reading Schedule for this month
Click links below to read or listen to audio of one of this week’s chapters in Colossians and Luke

Rev 8, Rev 9, Rev 10, Rev 11, Rev 12

___________________

some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please visit this site’s menu item “The Author’s Books” for info on the author’s books, website, and Facebook page.

All of my comments in this blog are solely my responsibility. When reading any commentary, you should always refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word.

In chapter 10, the “little scroll” (or in some translations “little book”) is absolutely the focal point. Some, like Coffman, see this as the New Testament – that which is perfect (1 Corinthians 13:10). It is hard to imagine that it could not be, once you consider it. It is, Coffman says, the only “book continuing to remain open in spite of the most vigorous efforts of hell and the devil to close it, and deserving to receive the supernatural guardianship of one of God’s most mighty and glorious angels.” It is part of the fulfillment of Jesus’s promise that He is “with you always.” And holding that book open is the only function that the seventh angel performs in this chapter. When his trumpet sounds, verse 7 says, “the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets” (judgment day).

In verse 11, the two witnesses are generally thought to be Moses and Elijah, although it could simply mean “Moses and the prophets.” The 42 months that “they will trample the holy city” in verse two is the length of time that Rome took to end the Jewish rebellion in A.D. 70. In verse 15, the seventh angel blows his trumpet and “there were loud voices in heaven, saying,  “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

/Bob’s boy

Bible Reading Schedule for this month
Click links below to read or listen to audio of one of this week’s chapters in Colossians and Luke

Rev 8, Rev 9, Rev 10, Rev 11, Rev 12

___________________

some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please visit this site’s menu item “The Author’s Books” for info on the author’s books, website, and Facebook page.

All of my comments in this blog are solely my responsibility. When reading any commentary, you should always refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word.

Chapters 8-9 have the seven angels with seven trumpets, who unleash plagues of magnificent destruction when they blow their horns. Some equate each of these events to things that after during and after the destruction of Jerusalem. naturally, all sorts of disasters through the centuries have been attributed to  the “prophecies” of these trumpet-initiated events. However you interpret them, it is highly unlikely that the 1st century Christians would have benefited from being warned of some disaster or catastrophic war in the 15th century – or in the 21st, for that matter.

One thing seems quite significant, as pointed out by the late Burton Coffman. Chapter 7 seems to clearly point to the the time when the God’s faithful reach heaven. Then in the verse of chapter eight, the seventh seal is opened and there is silence in heaven for a half hour. No other explanation from the opening of this seal is given, but rather the narrative moves to the seven angels. The significance is clear. There will be no disclosure of what happens next in heaven. And all that follows in this great book is simply more about the events that lead up to that final judgment. Understanding this, Coffman says, is essential to understanding the chapters that follow.

/Bob’s boy

Bible Reading Schedule for this month
Click links below to read or listen to audio of one of this week’s chapters in Colossians and Luke

Rev 8, Rev 9, Rev 10, Rev 11, Rev 12

___________________

some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please visit this site’s menu item “The Author’s Books” for info on the author’s books, website, and Facebook page.

All of my comments in this blog are solely my responsibility. When reading any commentary, you should always refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word.

It is in chapter seven where the wheels really start coming off for those who want too much literal meaning. Some want the 144,000 to represent martyrs. Others want them to literally represent members of the original 12 tribes of Israel. It is a symbolic number, this 12,000 times twelve. Twelve is a somewhat sacred number in scripture, just as the the number seven has special meaning.

But notice that John is saying in verses 3-4 that there is talk of the “servants of God,” and that he heard the number of them (144,000). Then in verse 9 he looked upon “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…” This great multitude that no one could number is the same group of people that are numbered 144, 000 in the previous verses. If they were not, both groups would have needed to be “sealed.”

The 144,000 is simply the great number of the faithful from all the earth – the new Israel. John tells us so in verse 14: “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.  They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

/Bob’s boy

Bible Reading Schedule for this month
Click links below to read or listen to audio of one of this week’s chapters in Colossians and Luke

Rev 3, Rev 4, Rev 5, Rev 6, Rev 7

___________________

some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please visit this site’s menu item “The Author’s Books” for info on the author’s books, website, and Facebook page.

All of my comments in this blog are solely my responsibility. When reading any commentary, you should always refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word.