Unraveling Revelation

<p>Revelation 8 introduces us to “the seven angels who stand before God,” who blow the trumpets heralding a new set of judgments to come upon the earth. We speculate that these angels may be the seven archangels named in the Book of 1 Enoch, representing the belief of Jews during the Second Temple period.<br><br>Then we begin our study of the first trumpet judgment of hail and fire mixed with blood. This echoes the plague of hail and lightning that devastated Egypt (Exodus 9:22-25) and explain why “hail” (Barad) and “thunderbolts” (the reshephim) may be a “company of destroying angels” (Psalm 78:48-49) as well as a natural disaster.</p>

<p>We dig deeper into the exclusion of Dan from the list of twelve tribes in Revelation 7, and we note that a belief that the Antichrist would come from Dan dates back to within two generations of the apostle John. (Note: The excerpt Derek read was from the Treatise on Christ and Antichrist by Hippolytus, a student of Irenaeus. While Irenaeus also wrote that the Antichrist might come from Dan, what Derek read was not from that book.)<br><br>Then we explain why we believe the multitude that appears before the throne in Rev. 7:9 is evidence that supports the “earthquake resurrection” theory proposed by David W. Lowe.</p>

<p>After the earthquake that accompanies the opening of the sixth seal, four angels are directed to hold back the winds and refrain from harming the earth until the servants of God are sealed with the Father’s name on their foreheads.<br><br>We discuss the 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel who will be sealed, whose role is further explained later in Revelation, and why the tribes of Ephraim and Dan are excluded from the list.</p>

<p>We discuss the souls under the altar and the connection between the opening of the sixth seal, the Day of the Lord, geological evidence that the earth literally split in the distant past, and divine judgment that literally divides the earth.</p>

<p>We finish our recap of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and explain why we think the riders are working to bring in a new world order.</p>

<p>As we prepare to unpack the sixth and seventh seals of the scroll, moving from history to future, we recap the reasons why we believe the first three riders of Revelation 6 are Apollo, Ares/Mars, and Hermes/Mercury.</p>

<p>We discuss Chaos as an entity, rather than a concept, which is how it’s described in the Bible. Leviathan, Rahab, and “the sea” refer to this ancient enemy of God, and the riders of Revelation 6 appear to serve as its agents.</p>

<p>The first five seals of the Book of Revelation are already open, and we’re living in the middle of unfolding end times prophecy. Prophecy expert David W. Lowe joins us for the second half of our exclusive interview about his excellent book Earthquake Resurrection.</p>

<p>Could the devastating earthquake that accompanies the opening of the sixth seal in Revelation 6 be caused by the power of billions of Christians being resurrected all at once? David W. Lowe, author of Earthquake Resurrection, explains why Matthew 28 and the mysterious Shroud of Turin may point to the answer.</p>

<p>We discuss the imagery of the four beasts of Daniel’s vision (Daniel 7:1-8), compare it to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the “great image” (Daniel 2), and show how the “little horn” of Daniel 7 connects the terrifying fourth beast to God’s long war against Leviathan—chaos.</p>

<p>We dig deeper into the prophecy of Daniel’s seventy weeks, drawing on the book The Coming Prince by Sir Robert Anderson (who Sharon has decided to include as a character in her next installment of The Redwing Saga). Anderson, who was Assistant Superintendent of Scotland Yard during the Jack the Ripper murders as well as a theologian, calculated that the prophecy foretold the arrival of the Messiah in Jerusalem on the very day that Jesus entered the holy city.</p>

<p>A prophecy given to Daniel by the angel Gabriel underlies the timeline of the Apocalypse. We introduce the seventy “weeks” decreed for the Jews and Jerusalem in Daniel 9:21-27, and how they connect to the Book of Revelation.</p>

<p>Earthquakes are sometimes connected to God’s judgment, especially in the book of Revelation. However, we also find them connected to the act of resurrection—for example, in Matthew 27:52 and 28:2, and when the two witnesses are taken up into heaven in Revelation 11:13.<br><br>This is why we believe the “great earthquake” of Revelation 6:13 will be the result of the resurrection of the dead in Christ described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:12-55.<br><br>For more on that idea, we recommend the excellent book Earthquake Resurrection by David W. Lowe.</p>

<p>This week we discuss the souls of the martyrs beneath the altar in the throne room of God. Then we analyze the great earthquake that follows the opening of the sixth seal: It’s more than plate tectonics; it may be the energy released by the resurrection of those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.<br><br>For more on that idea, we recommend the excellent book Earthquake Resurrection by David W. Lowe <a href="http://(www.EarthquakeResurrection.com" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">(www.EarthquakeResurrection.com</a>).</p>

<p>Before we return to Revelation 6 and pick up with the fifth seal, we take a brief look at horses in the Bible. In the cultures around ancient Israel, horses were animals of war. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are certainly riding to war, but the rider on a white horse called Faithful and True will put an end to their reign of terror at Armageddon.</p>

<p>As we celebrate the Resurrection, we discuss the messianic prophecy of Psalm 22 and how David foresaw the gloating spirits around the cross (the “bulls of Bashan”).<br><br>But those fallen entities know that their doom has also been foretold, and we summarize the last war of the age, Armageddon, and the ultimate end of those who have rebelled against God in the lake of fire.</p>

<p>We continue our comparison of the horsemen of the Book of Zechariah and find a fascinating link between the Old Testament and a popular story from ancient Babylon, the Erra Epic.<br><br>Erra was a warlike and violent deity, also a god of plagues. He was identified with the god Nergal, which means he was known to the Canaanites as Resheph and to the Greeks and Romans as Apollo. We explain how the Erra Epic connects the apkallu of Mesopotamia to the Watchers of Genesis 6, the “craftsmen” of Zechariah 1, and end times prophecy.</p>

<p>The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse bear a striking similarity to four chariots in Zechariah 6 pulled by white, red, black, and dappled horses. We discuss those chariots and the mountains of bronze from which they emerged and how they connect to the riders in Revelation 6.<br><br>Then we bring in context from Psalm 68, the “many-peaked mountain of Bashan,” and Isaiah 14:19, contrasting the Branch of Zechariah 6:12 to Isaiah 14:19 to explain why Isaiah’s “loathed branch” was really a dead god—Lucifer.</p>

<p>This week’s program is eerily appropriate as the world grapples with a viral pandemic that has infected more than a quarter-million people in less than two months and shows no sign of slowing down.<br><br>We discuss the pale horse rider, Thanatos, explain why Hades is a Greek version of the Canaanite death-god, Mot, and connect Revelation’s riders of the Apocalypse to the judgment God decreed against Judah in the days of the prophet Jeremiah and Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.</p>

<p>The Third Horseman of the Apocalypse carries scales, representing trade and commerce, but the Greek word is translated elsewhere in the New Testament as “yoke,” a symbol of slavery and oppression.<br><br>We connect the economic system of the Antichrist to the first global government, Nimrod’s kingdom of Uruk, and explain why we believe the rider on the black horse was the Babylonian god Nabu—better known to us as Hermes or Mercury.</p>

<p>The Second Horseman of the Apocalypse plainly represents war and bloodshed. But, as you might guess based on our recent books, we believe the rider on the red horse is a literal entity well known in the ancient world. Watch to find out why we argue that the rider called forth when the second seal is opened is the ancient war-god Chemosh—and the gender-fluid war god/dess Inanna.</p>

<p>The first of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is the topic this week. We explain why believe the first seal of the seven-sealed scroll was opened by the Lamb (Jesus) shortly after the Resurrection, and we speculate that the the rider may be the ancient god known as Nergal in Babylon, Resheph in Canaan, and Apollo in Greece and Rome.</p>

<p>John was taken up to heaven, where he saw “Him who was seated on the throne” holding out a scroll that was sealed with seven seals, but no one on heaven, on the earth, or—significantly—under the earth was worthy to open it. Then appeared the Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes.<br><br>We discuss the symbolism of the Lamb’s appearance and why John was shown every creature “under the earth and in the sea” crying out in praise of the Lamb. Hint: John wasn’t looking at worms and fish.</p>

<p>The rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak is just the latest sign that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are riding the earth—and have been since the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.</p>

<p>We continue our study Revelation 4 and the throne room of God. We discuss the similarities between John’s vision and Baal’s palace in The Baal Cycle, the reason the 24 elders cast their crowns before the throne, and why the living creatures around the throne are cherubim—which are most certainly not chubby babies with wings.</p>

<p>We move on from the letters to the churches in Asia as John is taken up to heaven to see the things that are to come. We discuss the significance of the open door, the connection between the appearance of God on His throne and the precious stones on the breastplate of the high priest, the identity of the twenty-four elders around the throne, and why the sea of glass before the throne is a callback to a special event that took place on Mount Sinai nearly 1,500 years before John’s Revelation.</p>

<p>Laodicea was known as a place where the water supply, which came to the town through six miles of aqueduct, was neither hot nor cold, which is how Jesus described that city’s church. Lukewarm water is an emetic, which is a nice way of saying it makes you vomit.<br><br>We discuss the history of the city, it’s reputation as a place of commerce and banking known for producing an eye salve, and a school of skeptical philosophy that believed nothing can be known for certain—not even that nothing can be known for certain.</p>

<p>Philadelphia was one of the two churches in Revelation for which Jesus did not express a concern. As with Smyrna, the church of Philadelphia was oppressed by something Jesus called the “synagogue of Satan.”<br><br>We discuss this group (and how the teaching has been misused over the years), the open door Jesus described, and the who, what, and when of the “hour of trial” that he said would soon test those on the earth.</p>

<p>JESUS PROMISED those who “hold fast” in the church of Philadelphia that they would become pillars in the temple of God on which would be written “the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem.” We discuss the historical background of that promise and explain why that would have made sense to readers of Revelation in John’s day.</p>

<p>JESUS DESCRIBED himself as the the one “who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.” We discuss Jesus’ reasons for connecting himself to prophecies in Isaiah 11 and Zechariah 4, and why he said he would “come like a thief” against the church of Sardis.</p>

<p>WE MOVE to the fifth of the seven churches of Asia named in Revelation, Sardis. We explain how Jesus used that city’s infamous tendency to be overrun by enemies even though it was built with nearly impregnable natural defenses, and the city’s worship of the goddess Artemis, to chastise the church for being dead despite its reputation for being alive.</p>

<p>In his letter to Thyatira, Jesus condemned the self-proclaimed prophetess Jezebel, who’d led members of the church of Thyatira into sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols. We discuss the mystery religions popular in that part of Asia Minor in John’s day and “the deep things of Satan” that had corrupted the church.</p>

<p>Thyatira was a town dominated by craftsmens’ guilds, and to have a career you needed to belong to a guild—and worship its patron deity. We discuss comparisons of Thyatira to the medieval church between 606 and 1517 AD.</p>

<p>Besides the Great Altar of Zeus, Pergamum was known for the Asclepion, a temple of healing devoted to the demigod Asclepius. We discuss the pagan rites of Pergamum and why the church there represents the history of the Christian church between 313 and 606 AD.</p>

<p>The third of the seven churches addressed by Jesus was called the place “where Satan dwells.” We discuss the great Altar of Zeus, the connection between Zeus and Satan, and the other pagan deities worshiped at Pergamum in John’s day.</p>

<p>Smyrna, the second of seven churches to receive a letter from Jesus in the Book of Revelation, was told it would be tested and suffer tribulation for ten days. We discuss the trials of Smyrna, which represents the church age between 100 and 312 AD, and the reminder that the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation is about the long war with Death.</p>

<p>The second of the seven churches addressed by Jesus was in the city of Smyrna. It was a wealthy city, but the Christian community there was poor, shut out of normal business activity because they refused to bow the knee to pagan gods and the Imperial cult—the worship of the emperors.<br><br>We discuss two of the important deities venerated in Smyrna: Nemesis, the embodiment of divine retribution, and Roma, the deification of Rome and Roman culture. And we analyze who Jesus meant by “those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.”</p>

<p>Ephesus represents the first era of the church age, from the Resurrection through the early 2nd century. We discuss the focus of the early church’s lost love (God, one another, or both), and then we talk about the mysterious group called the Nicolaitans.<br><br>The Nicolaitans were condemned by Jesus in his letters to Ephesus and Pergamum, but we don’t know much about them. They may have been a sect founded by the deacon Nicolaus, who was mentioned in Acts 6:5; it may have been the beginning of the hierarchical church, with a clergy ruling over lay people; or it may have been a group that believed sexual immorality was condoned by God.</p>

<p>Ephesus was a world-class city in the first century, the most prominent in Western Asia Minor. We discuss the importance of the goddess Artemis, evidence of demonic activity during the apostolic age, and begin to analyze the letter from Jesus to the church in the city where John spent his last days.</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>Jesus dictated letters to the seven churches of Asia—but they were addressed to the angels of the churches. Traditionally, it’s been taught that the angels were bishops, human leaders of the Christian communities in what is now western Turkey. <br><br>We suggest that the letters were actually sent to angels, just as the book says—supernatural entities who were perhaps responsible for overseeing and protecting the churches.</p>

<p>A brief outline of the Book of Revelation and how it’s been interpreted by Christians over the centuries.</p>

<p>John was the youngest of the apostles, the last one to die, and the only one we know of who wasn’t martyred for his faith. We summarize what we know about John, explain why we believe he was the author of Revelation, and discuss the odd rumor that John wouldn’t die until Jesus returned.</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. 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. We suggest it may have something to do with 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 Garden of Eden was on the holy mountain of God (Ezekiel 28:13-14). Eden was at Jerusalem, and it’s where the battle of Armageddon will be fought.</p>

<p>Derek and Sharon Gilbert begin a new weekly program that analyzes end times prophecy in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. This week, we discuss a supernatural entity who may have rebelled even before the serpent in Eden—Leviathan.</p>