Monday, March 7, 2011

Revelation: The Opening of The Seals

Dear Friends,
As I continue writing on this subject I must share with you a few things.

The first is that I am doing the same thing I have asked you to do (and which at least a few are doing), namely reading "History Unveiling Prophecy" again myself. And if I sound repetitive, so be it. It would enhance your study significantly if you would acquire the book for yourself.

It is as if I had never read it before.

The first and by far the deepest impression I get, which at times is overwhelming, is the sheer numbers of those, our fellow brothers and sisters in the faith of Jesus Christ, who have 'loved not their lives unto the death.' The immensity of the numbers is simply staggering.

It is easy to understand why the Roman Catholic Church, in the generations following Martin Luther, made every effort to suppress the study of church history. It is very, very ugly.

The second thing is that, apart from the enabling and calling of the Spirit of God, which I confess I feel deeply, not only I but also everyone in the western world, or more especially in the 20th and 21st century United States, are utterly unworthy to approach the subject.

Perhaps the best way to explain this is to look at the amazing, and apart from the Spirit of God totally inexplicable paradox in the metaphors of chapter five. It is this chapter that gives me the title of this post, "The Opening of The Seals."

I write here NOT to expound on what the seals refer to as regards history, but rather the matter, made clear in the very text itself, as to the worthiness required of the one who would open them.

I am assuming, in few words, that OPENING the seals equates to the beginning of the revelation of what is to come, and of course, what was to come (emphasis--past tense) as I have already said, was human suffering on an unimaginable scale.

The metaphors in the passage could not be more opposite. The elder tells John that THE LION OF JUDAH has prevailed, but when John looks to see this awesome Lion he does not see a lion but rather a defenseless little lamb, and if my understanding of the words employed is accurate it was a lamb with its throat cut, since that is the way every butchering process begins.

While not exactly a digression, allow me an explanation from my own early years. My teen years were spent on a small dairy farm in northern Vermont, and on at least two occasions my dad had me help him butcher one of the cows for meat for our own freezer. Once the animal is dead--either a bullet or a sledge hammer to the head--the throat is cut and then the whole animal is hoisted up by the back legs so as to allow the bleeding to be complete.

Revelation 5 says a lamb as it has been SLAIN, i.e. a live animal that had been dead, which of course Old Testament history would have made totally understandable at least to early readers of this text.

Remember that for centuries, as both Exodus and Leviticus explain as part of the law and Hebrews 9:22 mentions in one verse recounting the principle that governed that entire history, the sacrificing of a lamb as required by God, was so common an occurrence as to be as common as eating itself.

I fear we lose the sense of it in our bloodless lifestyle, and in due time, of course, they did also, becoming hardened to it all. Indeed, if there is one thing apostates of our day absolutely hate it is the thought of a blood sacrifice. They hate it and they hate those who preach it!

But to return to our subject, and in this instance my own feelings as I contemplate the task before ME, in one sense at least I feel the utter unworthiness to treat the subject.

It is as if the inspiring Spirit was saying that the only one worthy to open the subject of human suffering is One who has already suffered.

And so it is, in very truth, it is the great Sufferer Who now abides within us, as we have been baptized into His death, who qualifies us to consider these things. Amen.

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