Unraveling Revelation

<p>The entity called Lucifer may not be who we think he is.<br><br>We continue our discussion of the Day of the Lord in Isaiah with a look at the king of Babylon in Isaiah 13 and 14. We explain why Babylon may not mean the city made famous by Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar, and why Lucifer, a translation of the Hebrew Helen Ben Shachar (“Lightbringer son of Dawn”) may actually be the rebel Watcher chief Shemihazah—better known to us as Saturn.</p>

<p>Eclipses have been interpreted as a bad omen throughout history. In recent years, so-called “blood moons” have been taken as a sign of the imminent Apocalypse.<br><br>We explore the Bible’s references to darkness during the Day of the Lord, the time during the Great Tribulation when God unleashes His wrath on an unrepentant world. (Don’t let the next lunar eclipse spook you. A lot of things have to happen before we get there. Besides, the sun has to go dark at the same time.)</p>

<p>Isaiah prophesied a terrifying scenario for the Day of the Lord, when God finally executes His judgment on an unrepentant world.<br><br>Many Bible teachers interpret Isaiah 13:3–10 as referring to Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans of Babylon, who would destroy the Temple in 586 BC, more than a century after Isaiah’s prophecy. We explain why we believe this is also an unfulfilled prophecy of a supernatural army that will ravage the earth in the last days.</p>

<p>Our study of the Day of the Lord continues in Isaiah 2 with a look at an entity known to the Hebrew prophets, Pachad—a name that’s translated into English as “terror.”<br><br>We discuss Pachad, his role in history and in God’s plan for the end times, and other entities like him that have been buried in our English Bibles under words like “hail,” “plague,” “pestilence,” and “thunderbolts.”</p>

<p>We begin a study of the prophesied Day of the Lord with the Isaiah, who had more to say about the day of God’s final judgment than any of the Hebrew prophets.<br><br>This week, we show how Isaiah coined a term usually translated into English as “idols,” but it’s derived from the name of the chief god of Mesopotamia, Enlil.</p>

<p>The prophet Amos warned the leaders of Israel not to desire the prophesied Day of the Lord because “it is darkness, and not light”—especially since Israel had begun to worship Sikkuth (the Mesopotamian god Ninurta) and “Kiyyun your star-god”, both represented in the sky by Saturn.</p>

<p>The “shepherd prophet” Amos had a warning for the northern kingdom of Israel: Be careful of what you wish for, especially when it’s God’s judgment.</p>

<p>The resurrection of the Two Witnesses 3-1/2 years into the seven-year Tribulation is followed by the sounding of the seventh trumpet, heralding the restoration of God’s kingdom on earth.<br><br>Revelation 11:15 inspired George Frideric Handel to compose “The Hallelujah Chorus.” Derek gets emotional, and Sharon notes the parallels between Rev. 11:18 and Psalm 2:1–6—God’s response to the vain plots of the kings of the earth.</p>

<p>After three and a half years of tormenting the world with the gospel, the Beast is allowed to kill the two witnesses. But they don’t stay dead long.<br><br>We discuss the significance of the 3-1/2 days the witnesses lie in the street, the earthquake that accompanies their resurrection, and why those who survive the quake give glory to God.</p>

<p>The letters from Jesus to the seven churches not only described conditions among those bodies of believers at the end of the 1st century AD, they also outline the history of the Christian church from the Resurrection through today.<br><br>Also: Why the temple of Apollo on the island of Patmos is significant.</p>

<p>Moses and Elijah were present at the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Hermon. We explain why that’s significant and how it relates to the role of the Two Witnesses in Revelation 11.</p>

<p>A number of Hebrew prophets foretold destruction for the Philistines. We briefly discuss several of those prophecies and explain why the one in Isaiah 14 is unique.<br><br>We also discuss the possibility that the events in Israel and Gaza since the end of Ramadan could be a precursor to a wider regional war—possibly the Psalm 83 war described by prophecy teacher Bill Salus.</p>

<p>The battle of Armageddon will be fought at, and for, Jerusalem. <br><br>We explain how a mistake in transliterating led to the belief that Armageddon would be at Megiddo, why Jerusalem makes more sense than Megiddo, and why the “serpent” in Eden was not a talking snake.</p>

<p>Research for other projects leads us into unexpected territory this week: We discuss the strange connections between St. George, the patron saint of England, and mythical/supernatural characters “Green George,” the Green Man, Osiris, Kronos, and al-Khidr (or al-Khadir), a revered figure in Islam who is sometimes equated with the prophet Elijah, who we believe will be one of the two witnesses of Revelation 11.</p>

<p>This week, we explain why we think Moses and Elijah are the prophesied Two Witnesses of Revelation 11.<br><br>We dig a little deeper into the Balaam Inscription that we discussed last week, and we highlight the connections between the Plains of Moab, Mount Hermon, and ancient Sodom, along with a prophecy from the Book of Malachi, that point to Elijah and Moses as the two dynamic prophets of the end times.</p>

<p>The king of Moab hired Balaam son of Beor to curse Israel. Instead, he blessed the Israelites, foretold the coming of Messiah, and spoke a cryptic prophecy of the ultimate death of the sons of the Titans.<br><br>We also discuss the Balaam Inscription, a text found in 1967 at Deir Alla, Jordan that confirms Balaam as a historical character.</p>

<p>Several of the Old Testament prophets had harsh words for Israel’s cousins and next door neighbors, Edom. We look at Ezekiel 35 and the Book of Obadiah as more examples of “already but not yet” prophecies, fulfilled in the 6th century BC by Babylon and again during the end times.</p>

<p>Ezekiel 37:1–14 prophesies the return of Israel to the land, but it’s much more than that. We explain why this is a prophecy of God’s ultimate victory over the giants of the pre-Flood world, and why Ezekiel’s Valley of Dry Bones was probably the area between Mount Hermon and the Sea of Galilee.</p>

<p>A close examination of Ezekiel 31 reveals that it’s not just about Assyria, the nation, but Ashur, the chief god of the Assyrian pantheon, an entity connected to the Watchers of Genesis 6 and the things from the Abyss in Revelation 9.</p>

<p>We continue with Ezekiel’s tour of the underworld and explain why the “mighty chiefs” in the midst of Sheol are the Nephilim, the giants of Genesis 6.</p>

<p>Ezekiel gives us the most detailed description of Sheol, the Hebrew term for the underworld.<br><br>This week, we discuss Ezekiel’s description of Pharaoh as a lion and a dragon, the Mesopotamian concept of dragons, and how the prophet’s description of the Egyptian king is connected to Mesopotamian creation stories and the Bible’s chaos-dragon, Leviathan.</p>

<p>The letters from Jesus to the seven churches not only described conditions among those bodies of believers at the end of the 1st century AD, they also outline the history of the Christian church from the Resurrection through today. Also: Why the temple of Apollo on the island of Patmos is significant.</p>

<p>One of the burdens of being a prophet is seeing things you would rather not. This week, we discuss Ezekiel’s vision of pagan worship inside the Temple in Jerusalem.</p>

<p>The prophets John and Ezekiel were commanded to eat scrolls that were as sweet as honey in their mouths.<br><br>We discuss the reasons for the seemingly odd request, the differences between the effects the scrolls had on the prophets, and we take a brief look at temple measurements and whether the visions of John and Ezekiel were of the same temple.</p>

<p>A powerful angel appears before the blowing of the seventh trumpet with a voice like a lion’s roar. When he calls out, seven thunders sound—but we don’t know to this day what they said.<br><br>We discuss the angel and the books in heaven, including one in which every one of your days has been written.</p>

<p>Isaiah 45:19 is a strange verse—unless you know what the prophet knew about the pagan religions of his day.<br><br>This week, we discuss demons, the underworld, and why most of our English translations don’t capture the sense of what God said.</p>

<p>We skip ahead to Revelation 16 to compare the sixth bowl judgment with the sounding of the sixth trumpet in Revelation 9. Is there a connection between the demonic army of 200 million, the angels bound in the Euphrates, and the kings from the east?</p>

<p>The only thing we can say for certain about the massive army that crosses the Euphrates in Revelation 9 is that it’s not from China.<br><br>You may have been taught that the army that goes forth to kill a third of humanity after the four angels bound in the Euphrates are released must be Chinese, since it’s the only nation in the world with the population to field an army of that size. That overlooks India, which is only slightly smaller (1.398 billion vs. 1.366 billion), and the fact that China only has about 2.1 million soldiers in uniform (about 3 million if you include reserves and support personnel).<br><br>So, who or what is this army? We revisit the ancient concept of the Euphrates as a boundary between the natural world and the realm of the dead, similar ideas about the Jordan River in the Book of Ezekiel, and conclude that it’s demonic—an end times army of the evil dead.</p>

<p>Many of us have the mistaken impression that angels look like humans with wings, except maybe the strange ones like cherubim and seraphim. <br><br>This week, we continue our discussion of Ezekiel 1 by taking a brief look at what the Bible tells us about the inhabitants of unseen realm—and why angels are definitely not “humans with wings.”</p>

<p>We discuss the significance of where Ezekiel was commissioned as a prophet.<br><br>The Chebar canal flowed through the ancient city of Nippur, home of the E-Kur, the temple of Enlil, chief god of the Mesopotamian pantheon. That’s where God revealed His glory to Ezekiel—the heart of enemy territory!</p>

<p>The political and social changes of the centuries before John wrote the book of Revelation turned the world of the apostles upside down.<br><br>We summarize the political and social changes from Antiochus Ephiphanes to Domitian, including the 1st century myth of Nero Redivivus, the belief that Emperor Nero didn’t die in 68 AD and would return someday, possibly as the spirit inside another evil Roman emperor.</p>

<p>Parallel scriptures in Matthew 24 and Luke 17 say the days of the coming of the Son of Man will be like the days of Noah and the days of Lot. Our research connects the final battle of the age, Armageddon, to the ancient cult of the dead.</p>

<p>Genesis 6:1-4 records a strange incident in humanity’s distant past: Angels, called “sons of God,” saw that human women were desirable and chose to defy God by taking them as wives, producing the giant Nephilim. We explain why this was an actual event, and how the spirits of the Nephilim are prophesied to play a role in the end times as soldiers in the army of Antichrist.</p>

<p>The media is buzzing with the conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn on December 21, the winter solstice. Many are calling this the Christmas star.<br><br>Not so much.<br><br>We explain why the real Christmas star was probably a conjunction of Jupiter and the “King Star,” Regulus in the constellation Leo, on September 11, 3 BC, which followed a conjunction of Jupiter and Venus a month earlier, and how all of that fits into Revelation 12.</p>

<p>Who are the four angels bound at the River Euphrates? We discuss some thoughts, including possible evidence from a site in northeast Syria called Tell Halaf.<br><br>The Euphrates was considered a boundary between the netherworld and the land of the living, and Tell Halaf was on the Khabur River—Mesopotamia’s equivalent of the River Styx.</p>

<p>Clues from the 9th chapter of Revelation, the Old Testament books of Job, Proverbs, and the Psalms, and ancient myths from Greece, Canaan, and Babylon lead us to a surprising answer to this mystery: Who is Apollyon, the angel called the king of the creatures in the abyss?</p>

<p>We return to the Book of Revelation this week and the locust-like creatures that fly out of the bottomless pit in Revelation 9.<br><br>What is this place? We discuss the abyss from its Sumerian concept as the dwelling place of the god Enki and his assistants, the apkallu, the name the Mesopotamians used for the Hebrew Watchers, to the Greek and Jewish understanding of the abyss, or Tartarus, as a place of punishment for supernatural rebels and threats to the divine order—the angels referred to in 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6-7.<br><br>In other words, the “sons of God” from Genesis 6:1-4 are the entities who emerge to torment those not sealed by God for five months during the Great Tribulation.<br><br>Also: Farewell to Irvin Baxter of Endtime Ministries who was called home last week at the age of 75.</p>

<p>We see in the Book of Job that Satan could approach the heavenly throne. Is that still the case?<br><br>When Jesus said he saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning, was that a past event (Ezekiel 28:11-19, Isaiah 14:9-21), something fulfilled at his birth (Revelation 12:7-12), or a prophecy of a future war of the angels (Revelation 12:13-17)?</p>

<p>Isaiah had a vision around the year 740 BC that terrified him—he was transported to the throne room of God and saw the Lord on His throne.<br><br>We discuss the entities Isaiah saw there, the seraphim, and compare them to the lamassu of Assyria, the sphinxes of Egypt, and the cherubim of the Bible. We also explain why Isaiah’s journey to the divine council was a key aspect of his commission as a prophet.</p>

<p>As we learn more about the world around ancient Israel, the more we understand the writings of the prophets and apostles.<br><br>This week, we look at Psalms 22 through 24, which prophesy not only the Messiah’s coming, but his return as well. And it appears that the Valley of the Shadow of Death was not just a metaphor, but an actual place connected to the war of God and Magog—and the Battle of Armageddon.</p>

<p>We continue our study of Isaiah with a discussion of destruction of Leviathan and how the prophet borrowed his description of the chaos-dragon from the Baal Cycle.<br><br>We also discuss related passages in Micah 1, Psalm 23 and 24, and chapter 37 of Ezekiel, whose description of reanimated “dry bones” may be a specific reference to the ancient kingdom of Bashan, which, we are learning, was a giant necropolis at the base of Mount Hermon.</p>

<p>Isaiah prophesied the future destruction of the Rephaim—the demon spirits of the Nephilim—and possibly their angelic parents as well.<br><br>We continue our study of Isaiah, focusing on chapter 26 verses 13 through 19. The “shades” of verse 14 and “dead” of verse 19 are translated from the Hebrew word rephaim, which scholars have only begun to realize within the last forty years should be a proper name and not a term for human dead.<br><br>We discuss the significance of that shift in thinking and the implications for end times prophecy. Suddenly, Isaiah 26 is no longer a polemic about pagan kings who ruled over the Jews, but a prophecy of the final destruction of the Nephilim and the “sons of God” who created them.</p>

<p>The prophet Isaiah foretold a day when God would destroy Death. This doesn’t just mean the end of physical death, but the literal destruction of the death-god.<br><br>This entity was called Mot by the pagan Amorites, but you would know him better as the rider on the pale horse, Thanatos.</p>

<p>The Jewish New Year, which began Friday evening, is one of the times during the year that prophecy scholars believe could mark the Messiah’s return.<br><br>We also discuss the historic Abraham Accords, the peace agreement signed September 15, 2020 by Israel, Bahrain, and the United Emirates. Then we return to our study of Isaiah 24:21-23 and an overlooked prophecy of the ultimate destruction of the rebellious elohim worshiped as the gods of the nations.</p>

<p>Isaiah has a lot to say about the end times, and much of it is about God’s judgment on the supernatural entities who have rebelled against His authority.<br><br>This week, we look at Isaiah 24 and a verse that could point to God literally emptying out the netherworld, and passages that connect to verses in Isaiah 51, Job 41, and Psalm 47 that foretell God’s earth-shaking judgment on Leviathan, the chaos-dragon.</p>

<p>We dig deeper into the fifth trumpet judgment this week to explore the links between the locust-like creatures that fly out of the abyss and older stories from the Near East like the Epic of Gilgamesh and Inanna’s Descent to the Netherworld.<br><br>Then we compare the creatures from the bottomless pit to the apkallu of Mesopotamia, the Watchers of the Bible, and the Titans of Greek mythology, and conclude that they are one and the same.</p>

<p>With Revelation 9, we get into the real action that leads up to Armageddon. An angel fallen to Earth was given the key to the abyss, releasing the monstrous things that have been confined in the bottomless pit.<br><br>Who is that angel? Is he loyal to God? And what are those locust-like things? We discuss what we know from the Bible and compare that information with what the people of the ancient world believed about the old gods—the Titans, Watchers, and Mesopotamian apkallu.</p>

<p>The order of the first three trumpet judgments (hail and fire, a mountain hitting the sea, and Wormwood) roughly follow the sequence of the events of the Exodus—a plague of hail and fire, the parting of the sea, and the bitter waters at Marah.<br><br>We discuss the significance of the pattern, and consider whether President Trump’s new Space Force might be connected to the potentially hazardous asteroid Apophis that will make a near pass of Earth on April 13, 2029.</p>

<p>The third trumpet judgment causes a “great star” named Wormwood to fall from heaven, “blazing like a torch,” that poisons a third of the earth’s fresh water to become toxic.<br><br>Is it an asteroid or is this another supernatural entity tasked with delivering God’s judgment to an unrepentant world?</p>

<p>The second angel blows his trumpet and “something like a great mountain, burning with fire,” is thrown into the sea. We discuss the evidence from scripture and the extrabiblical Book of Enoch to show why this is not a meteorite or an asteroid, but an angel sent to bring judgment to Earth.<br><br>See every new episode at our website, <a href="http://www.UnravelingRevelation.tv" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">www.UnravelingRevelation.tv</a>!</p>