I think the devil gets way too much publicity and credit. Some things are still too stubborn for mankind. We’ve never been able to produce a new species even with genetic engineering — only to impart new qualities to old species. The challenge of Babel persists even with automated translation, and linguists set forth excellent explanations about why that is. (As a small example, terms that mean “good night” are greetings in one language, farewells in others; and without a context, the best that can be given is some generic phrase without heart.)
Good read
Bill, I’ve been reading your material on Rev. 4-7 with interest. With all respect, please let me make a couple comments.
You say that you “do not believe Revelation is written with strict chronology in mind,” yet in part 1, Christ gave the time frame for the book in 1.1, 3, when he said they “must soon take place,” and “the time is near.” You didn’t notice that time element at all, so you apply Rev. 6.11-17 to the last days of our age.
Please consider that this passage speaking of people being judged and hiding in the dens and rocks, and pleading for the mountains to fall on them, is a direct quote from Isa. 2-4. In Isa. 2.2, Isaiah foretold Old Covenant Israel’s last days. These are the last days of the Mosaic age, for the age of Christ has no end (Isa. 9.5, Lk. 1.33). In Isa. 2.12, Isaiah says that “there shall be a day off Jehovah” in Israel’s last days, and on that day, Isaiah gives in 2.19-21 the very passage John quoted inn Rev. 6, and that you quoted in your article this morning: “19 And men will go into caves of the rocks, And into holes of the ground Before the terror of the LORD, And before the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble. 20 In that day men will cast away to the moles and the bats Their idols of silver and their idols of gold, Which they made for themselves to worship, 21 In order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, Before the terror of the LORD and the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble “
It’s astounding that Jesus quotes these verses in Lk. 23.28-31 and applies Isaiah’s teaching of the Day of Jehovah in Israel’s last days to the upcoming destruction of Jerusalem! As he carried the cross to Golgotha, he turned to the women who were bewailing and mourning what was happening to him, saying, “28 But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming, in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the breasts that never gave suck. 30 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.” Our savior applied Isaiah’s prophecy to the doom that’s to imminently befall these ladies and other citizens of Jerusalem when Titus destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70.
Not only that, but the author of Hebrews quotes from them in Heb. 12.26 and gives them the same application. Finally, John quotes them in Rev. 6.16 and also applies them to the upcoming destruction of Babylon the harlot, the city where Jesus was crucified! (Rev. 11.8)
These are the very verses you quote from Rev. 6 and apply to our present age. Wouldn’t it be much better for all of us to take heed to the time statements Jesus gave in Rev. 1.1, 3, and then again in Rev. 22.6 (“must shortly come to pass”), 10 (“the time is at hand”), 12, and 20 (“I come quickly”), and then apply the prophecy in Isaiah as Jesus, the author or Hebrews, and John did?
Thanks for reading, and considering,
Amen.