Hey everybody, welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. And all we're going to do today is cover seven or eight chapters of Revelation. That's all we're going to do. So NBD, welcome to the pod. Yeah, so do these chapters follow chronologically from where we've just been passed around? 100 percent I don't know. That's the answer. Here's what John does. John loves to employ this technique that he'll state a topic and then he'll return to it several times over in the course of his letter or in the case of his gospel in the narrative. He does this all over the place. And so in the book of Revelation, we're not surprised to see it again. And the question that we have to ask and answer as good Bible students is, is what John doing moving the chronology forward, or is he just recapitulating? Is he restating something that he said earlier, but adding more flavor and variety to it or more detail as in the case of chapters 12, 13, 14, 15. And the reason I highlight those chapters is because I, as I told you earlier, I guess two days ago. Revelation has a kind of an outline. You got seven seals, which in the seventh seal, you have seven trumpets. And in the seventh trumpet, you have the seven bowls. So I can see that here. Oh, here are the bowls. Uh, in chapter 16, I know I'm back on the chronological track. What do I do a chapter 12, And that's an answer. I don't quite have it. Uh, that's a question I don't quite have an answer to yet. Now maybe you do, Pastor PJ, but that's kind of John's approach. He likes to do this circular kind of symphonic thing where he returns to a thing over and over again. And sometimes you have to ask, okay, are you moving the ball forward or are you just telling me about where we've been? Yeah, yeah, I, I think there's two questions there. Is the vision chronological and are the events recorded chronological? I think the vision John's recording what he's seeing in a chronological fashion, but I think what's happening here is the angel is helping John understand in greater detail some of what he saw previously in the judgments. And so in that sense, it is the recapitulation. He is going back because I think what, what we find in, in. And now I'm not going to pound the pulpit on this, but I think what we find in 12 and 13, uh, with the, the, the metaphor of the woman and the dragon, and then the first beast, the second beast is a picture of the first seal with the white horse emerging the Antichrist emerging. And so you have, A flashback, even at the beginning of chapter 12 to the incarnation where you have the woman who's pregnant being Israel and you've got the dragon who Satan and you've got the woman giving birth to a male child and then the male child is not allowed to be captured by the devil, but is caught up into heaven. And you've got even all the way through the Ascension there. And so you've got a crash course on the incarnation all the way through his Ascension. of Jesus in the first part of chapter 12. And then Satan in, in, after this is, uh, ultimately, and finally cast down from, from heaven onto the earth. And at this point he decides to, to go to war and to do as much harm and inflict as much damage upon the people of God. As he possibly can, and that's going to involve the unholy trinity of Satan as the father figure, the Antichrist as the son figure, and then the false prophet as the Holy Spirit figure. Uh, and, and so you, you kind of see that at work in chapter 13, uh, with the first beast being the Antichrist, the second beast being the false prophet, both of them being empowered by Satan as the sender of both of them. But, I think I'm with you. I think it is a recapitulation, but I think it's chronological in the sense that this is what John is seeing real time in his vision. I think it's less about John's style and more about what the angel is doing as the angels unfolding these things. Now we may, may well be, uh, yeah, it's confusing and I can understand why lots of people read this letter and find themselves scratching their head saying, what, what's happening? Why, why is this here and not there? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, with regards to the Antichrist, it's important for us again, just to pay attention to the fact that it is allowed to do what it is doing. Verse 7, it's allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given, given it over every tribe, people, language, and nation. And so this is all taking place within, again, the sovereign purview, the divine, uh, ordinance of God, as God is in control of all things, including the end times here. And so is Satan behind this? Yes. Is God behind it? Ultimately? Yes, he is. Um, Verse three, one of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but it's a mortal wound was healed and the whole earth marveled. Even that the, I mentioned that this is the unholy trinity. The antichrist is going to receive a wound that appears to be mortal and he's going to have a false resurrection much like again Jesus has a true resurrection. The antichrist is going to have a false resurrection. Now, it's absurd, but people have been pointing to Trump and being like, well, Trump had a mortal wound and he came back from it when he got shot at the rally. And there's, there's people legitimately peddling such nonsense out there as going, Oh, so Trump must be the Antichrist. No, this is, this is something where it looks like he's done, like he's taken out. And yet the language is important because this is not a true resurrection. It's a false resurrection because he appears to have a mortal wound and yet is resurrected. The false, Prophet is the one that that goes out and is his his main rallying force. It's it's the one that is Sent out to glorify the antichrist And that's why he again is is pointed to as the the false holy spirit. The holy spirit's job is to Exalt christ the false prophet's job is to exalt the antichrist. And so we're going to see all of that Unfold in the these, uh, tribulation period here. One of the things that we'll often notice in texts like this and maybe just read past quickly But something that you ought to take clear notes on is the the strategy of our enemy. He loves to counterfeit He loves to create things that are almost meant to mimic and not just counterfeit The true revelation of god in christ through the spirit So I would encourage you as you read through this to notice the way that he You He plays the game, as it were. He loves to cheat people and to trick them into thinking one thing, like I have the real deal, when in fact the reality is they're interacting with a counterfeit. This would explain the supernatural, or supposed supernatural, effects of the game. False religions. I have no doubt that my Mormon neighbors experience a burning in the bosom. I believe them. I truly do. But that doesn't mean that burning is coming from the Lord. Certainly not. And again, if we can just take note of the Satan's strategy here, the adversary, we know that that's part of his job. So if your friends come to you and say, hey, look, I know this religion is true because I felt this thing. I heard this voice. I saw this vision. I would take them at face value and say, okay, that might be true. But how do you know that that vision, uh, voice, that thing was, was meant to lead you to the truth? Ultimately, the only claim for the Christian is the word of God. Right, right. Notice end of chapter 13 is where we find the number 666 given in why it is the number that is often associated with evil. It's the mark of the beast. It's the number of the Antichrist. And so that is, uh, noted there that his name, the sum of his name is added up to 666. Chapter 14. Then, uh, John is, is John gets whiplash, I would imagine here as he's going back and forth from all these different places. 'cause now he's, he's back with on, on Mountain Zion. Yeah, go ahead. Hold on a second. Can you, what does 6, 6, 6 mean? You just talked about it like it was no big deal. Well, it's the, it's the, is this Ria, uh, is this the idea? Well, and okay. So there's a belief that the numbers are. So if you add up the name, David, you get the number 14, right? Which is what Matthew does at the beginning of his book. He talks about 14 generations here, 14 generations after that. So I think in Matthew, he's trying to say, look, David is, this is the true David essentially, is that what's happening here is the number 6, 6, 6 meant to say, Oh, you add these Hebrew or these Greek letters up, and this is the person who it is. It's possible. I mean, you look at verse 17, it says, unless he has the mark, that is the name of the beast or the number of its name. Um, and so that's where the connection would be made there. I think the thing that we need to know about the mark of the beast when people are saying, well, is it this, is it that, is it this thing that this piece of technology that just came out, is it, you know, Neuralink, you're going to know what it is. Um, and if you're in the church, you're not going to be here for it's, it's, Presence in its its application. Uh, this is going to be something that you that is going to be put into place by the Antichrist in is going to be put into place in such a way that the rules and stipulation stipulations are going to say, if you don't have this, you cannot buy food. You cannot have a job. You cannot operate freely in the public sphere at all. So, um, there's gonna be no question whether this is an actual number or somebody's name. microchip, a barcode, whatever. It's it's not, nobody's going to accidentally get the mark of the beast. And I think that's the thing that we can take away from this. If someone were to put 666 on something, I don't know, a soda can or a t shirt or something like that. Is there anything that we should be aware of? Is it, is there some kind of power in that number that we should fear? We don't want to treat it casually. Um, it is certainly something that is part of the demonic. I mean, the, the antichrist is going to be heavily influenced by the demonic realm. So it's not something that I would go around saying, I got a tattoo of 666 because I'm a believer in it's, it's not the real mark of the beast. I mean, that that's foolishness, um, would be the best way to put that. So. I don't think there's anything that I would say if you get a bill at the restaurant and the total is 6. 66 that you need to add something else to your order so that you don't have to pay 6. 66. I think that's taking it too far at that point, but I don't think it's something for us to treat flippantly and be like, Oh, look at that. You know, I've got 666 on my bumper sticker. Like, I think we need to be careful about treating it too flippantly. So don't be flippant, but don't be superstitious. Right, exactly. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah chapter 14, uh, another scene of worship of the 144, 000 singing a song that nobody knows except for them. So, uh, nobody's going to be able to know this song except for those that, that God has sealed. And then you've got these angels, these angelic messengers that, that come and they cry out and basically they're, they're setting the stage for judgment and the judgment is going to come at the end of chapter 14 here. Uh, where the, the earth is going to be harvested, uh, behold, a white cloud. One seated on the cloud, like the son of man. Daniel chapter seven is a key context in, in background for that passage. When Jesus is depicted as the one coming on the clouds to the ancient of days, and he receives authority to rule and reign at that point. So he is there in the angel calls for him to put out a sickle and reap. And so this is a scene of judgment, and this is a harvest, not of, in a good sense, but a harvest for the purpose of treading the winepress of God's wrath. And so chapter 14 is about the preparation for the, uh, the, the winepress of God's wrath, which sets up chapter 15, which is the beginning of the seven, uh, bowls of judgment, uh, that are known as the seven plagues here. Uh in chapter 15 the bulls are essentially presented in this chapter There's not really much else happening here But the the john sees the bulls being brought forward to be ready to be poured out Uh, and then in chapter 16, uh, the angels are told to go and pour these bulls on the earth Uh as they uh, they continue the judgments of god and so in verse 2 you get the first angel pouring out his bull the painful sores. And so here's a lot of the, uh, the things that we often think about with the tribulation period. You've got the sores, you've got, uh, the sea becoming like blood with the second angel pouring out his, uh, his there. The third, uh, in verse four pulls out his bowl into the rivers that they become like blood. And just think about being here in this situation for a moment that the fresh water supplies are all of a sudden now There's no more fresh water. The water is blood. The sea is blood. The animals are dying within the sea. The fourth angel pours out his bowl on the sun and it's allowed to scorch people with fire. And so you've got the UV rays, whatever it is, but it's, it's you step outside and there's intense burning. This is, is something that would be terrifying to exist during the season. During this time, the fifth angel pours out his bowl on the throne of the beast and its kingdom is plunged into darkness so much so that people gnaw their tongues and anguish over being in dark. That's fascinating that darkness is not in and of itself something that's painful, but being in darkness for so long leads to that torment that causes them such anguish that they're gnawing at their tongues, uh, as they're grinding their teeth over the situation that they find themselves in. And then you've got the sixth angel who pours out his bull on the river Euphrates. And this is not so much anything that's inflicted upon the people, but this is preparing for Armageddon because it's via the river Euphrates and the dry riverbed that you've got the armies of the earth that are going to come up for battle against the sun when the sun returns, when Christ returns at that point. Any insight into the three unclean spirits like frogs? The only thing I could think of was the plagues in Egypt, how God plagued them with the frogs. But here, I don't think I can recall any other time in scripture where frogs are associated with unclean spirits. Do you have any insight on that association? You know, I don't other than just, you know, the plain attribution there in verse 14, they are demonic spirits performing signs. Um, I've heard everything from these are aliens to, um, these are, I'm surprised I haven't heard that one. Yeah, to, um, you know, a smaller legion of false prophets. But yeah, um, the deception continues and the deception is allowed to continue here on the people on the earth to keep them ultimately again from repenting. The seventh bowl then is poured out at the end of chapter 16. Um, and then the voice coming from the throne saying it is done. And, uh, just, uh, again, a terrifying, uh, geological phenomenon, flashes of lightning rumblings, peels of thunder, great earthquakes, such as there never been since man was on earth. So great was that earthquake. And then you get the great city, which is Babylon in the great city is split into three parts. The cities of the nations fell. God, remember Babylon, the great to make her drink the cup of the wine of his wrath. And that, that, It leads into chapter 17 and 18, where Babylon is really representing, I think, the world system personified here as the object of much of God's wrath in these next two chapters here, as he specifically targets her as the one that had led so many astray and cause so many of the nations to partake of her, as he puts it, her sexual immorality in the nation's bemoaned. They are art. are troubled over the downfall of Babylon, because with the downfall of Babylon comes the downfall of the economy and all of the things that the world trusted in. And so this is the undoing of all of the idols of mankind in the downfall of Babylon and the downfall of the, the world's system here in chapters 17 and 18. And it's interesting too, because you don't get any sense from the text that Jesus is struggling, that the father is pulling his hair saying, Oh no, what are we going to do? It's stated as a matter of fact. The lamb is going to crush them in verse 14 of chapter 17. They will, uh, they will make war on the lamb and the lamb will conquer them for he is the lord of lords and king of kings and those with him are called and chosen and faithful. As a matter of fact, no issue here. In fact, you would expect a lot more from this account. You would expect there to be some kind of, you know, I don't know, there was arrows that were shot and flames that were, none of that dramatic effect. Just a statement. The Lord's going to win. He, he crushes them, defeats them with the sword of his mouth and it's like a no contest. This is fascinating. Right. Yeah. And we're going to see that even tomorrow as well in chapter 19 as well. This is, yeah, Jesus wins and it's not even, it's not even close. So with that in mind, speaking of tomorrow, we'll wrap up today's episode and we're going to finish. The Bible tomorrow. We're going to be all done until the next day and it's going to be the end of the year. Wow. It is. So anyways, let's pray. And then we'll be done with this episode. God, thanks for this day. Thanks for your word. Thanks for helping us to understand as much as we can. Keep us in your word. God, we pray as we are on the doorstep of another year. We want to be a church faithful to reading your word and reading your word with diligence next year as well. So until you come home, keep us faithful to be in your word, learning more and more all along the way. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Keep reading your Bibles and tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast. Happy New Year.