Revelation to John’S Apocalypse Unveiled and Revealed: The Spiritual View of a Carnal War

By Jim Taylor

There are many people, even Christians, who will not read Johns revelation letter for two reasons. First, they dont believe that it can be understood. Second, they are terrified of even thinking about reading of the deadly judgments of God that Johns revelation letter portraysthat is, the appalling plagues, famines, wars, and natural disasters that Johns letter discloses as having been pronounced against this present evil world, and they dont want to be any part of that, nor do they even want to be reminded of those dreadful things that they think are going to happen. Such is so sad, so very sad! One of the purposes of this book is to alleviate that fear completely, and to replace it by making the reading of Johns revelation letter a time of comfort and encouragement. That shall all be accomplished by illustrating how the deadly forces of destruction that John described in his revelation letter are not decreed against the Christiansthey will never fall upon Gods churchbut rather, they are in fact, the very powers of God that protect his church, shelter his children, and defend the Christian faith.

All of that can be established by comparing the spiritual war that John witnessed in heaven with the carnal war that was fought between the Roman Empire and the church. That comparison is not difficult to establish, because both of those wars were actually the one and the same war. Once that correlation has been confirmed, Revelation becomes a letter of comfort and security, and a letter that replaces fear with hope.

Another reason that even Christians will not read Johns revelation letter is because they do not think that it can be understood because it is so complicated, but God does not put books in his Bible that cannot be understood. Johns revelation letter can be understood, and that is the other purpose of this book, to make it understandable.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512773279

Jim Taylor

Jim Taylor is Vice Chairman of Harrison Group and one of the country’s leading experts on marketing, branding, and wealthy consumers. Doug Harrison founded Harrison Group in 1996 and develops branding strategies for some of the world’s most successful companies. Stephen Kraus has a Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard University and leads Harrison Group’s training and wealth consultancies.

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Copyright © 2017 Jim Taylor.

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Scripture quotes are taken from the American Standard Version of the Bible.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-7328-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7329-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7327-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017901420

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/06/2017

CONTENTS

About this book

Preface

Introduction

CHAPTER 1 Jesus: King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Priest of God Most High

CHAPTER 2 The Letters to the Churches in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, and Thyatira

CHAPTER 3 The Letters to the Churches in Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea

CHAPTER 4 The Throne Room of God—the Throne That Rules the Universe

CHAPTER 5 The Little Book: Closed and Sealed, Containing the Fate of a Sinful World, and the Destiny of a Sinless Church

CHAPTER 6 The First Six Seals Are Opened

CHAPTER 7 The Sealing of the Saints

CHAPTER 8 The Seven Angels, the Seven Trumpets, and the First Four Warnings

CHAPTER 9 Satan Turns All Hell Loose on Earth

CHAPTER 10 The Mighty Angel Holding God’s Book, the Gospel, in His Hand

CHAPTER 11 God’s Two Witnesses

CHAPTER 12 Beauty and the Beast

CHAPTER 13 Rome’s Monster and Satan’s Counterfeit Lamb of God

CHAPTER 14 The Victorious Lamb of God, Mount Zion, and the 144,000

CHAPTER 15 The Seven Angels with the Seven Plagues, the Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath, and God’s Judgment on Rome Begins

CHAPTER 16 The Seven Plagues and the Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath Were Poured Out Upon Rome, and Rome Was Judged

CHAPTER 17 The Harlot and the Beast

CHAPTER 18 Riches to Rags, and Gold to Dust

CHAPTER 19 Victory in Jesus

CHAPTER 20 The First Resurrection, the Second Death, and Satan’s Final Judgment

CHAPTER 21 The New Heavens, the New Earth, and the New Jerusalem

CHAPTER 22 The Sprit and the Bride Say Come! Come to the Wonderful New City of God

About the Author

This book is dedicated to Judy Taylor, my wife and constant companion.

Jim has written two other books, LEVITICUS—UNVEILED AND REVEALED, The Lamb and the Altar—The Lamb of God and the Cross. That book offers a reasonable understanding of the Levitical sacrifices, what they accomplished, and how they were fulfilled in Christ. The other book is, JESUS—The Perfect Man in whom dwells the Fullness of God. That book views the fullness of the Godhead living in Jesus, the Son of man, and the Son of God.

Sir Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) carefully recorded the ancient history of Rome when he wrote—The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In his history he gave a detailed account of the war between the Roman Empire and the church, that is, the history of the time during which the church was intolerably persecuted by the Roman Empire. Therefore, Mister Gibbon’s history of Rome is full of first and second century church history. His writings reveal thoroughly the terrible ways that Rome persecuted the church, and how unbearably the Christians suffered during the time of that great tribulation. Therefore, Mister Gibbon’s history of ancient Rome (six volumes, 4,000 pages) was used in this book as the reference material to portray how dreadfully Rome tortured the Christians, and the unbearable sufferings that they endured. Mister Gibbon’s history was also used to illustrate how the plagues, the famines, the natural disasters, and the wars—all of which were God’s judgments that fell upon the great empire—were what caused Rome to collapse. For that reason a considerable part of this book consists of the writings that were taken from Mister Gibbon’s work—a man who lived and wrote some 250 years ago. Sir Edward Gibbon was a member of the English Parliament before and during the time when the United States signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. That is the time when he published his history of the ancient Roman Empire. Mister Gibbon deserves much of the credit for this book, because without Mister Gibbon and his history, this book could not even exist.

The book by Sir William Ramsay, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia, was also used as reference material in this book to illustrate the background and the history of those seven churches—the churches to whom John’s letter was written.

The Thomas Nelson American Standard Bible (ASV) was used for the Bible references for this book.

ABOUT THIS BOOK

There are many people, even Christians, who will not read John’s revelation letter—for two reasons. First, they don’t believe that it can be understood. Second, they are terrified of even thinking about reading of the deadly judgments of God that John’s revelation letter portrays, that is, the appalling plagues, famines, wars, and natural disasters that John’s letter discloses as having been pronounced against this present evil world—and they don’t want to be any part of that, nor do they even want to be reminded of those dreadful things that they think are going to happen. Such is so sad, so very sad! One of the purposes of this book is to alleviate that fear completely, and to replace it by making the reading John’s revelation letter a time of comfort and encouragement. That shall all be accomplished by illustrating how the deadly forces of destruction that John described in his revelation letter are not decreed against the Christians—but rather they are in fact the very powers of God that protect his church and defend the Christian faith.

All of this can be established by comparing the spiritual war that John witnessed in heaven with the carnal war that was fought between the Roman Empire and the church. That comparison is not difficult to establish, because both of those wars were actually the one and the same war. Once that correlation has been confirmed, Revelation becomes a letter of comfort and security, and a letter that replaces fear with hope.

That hope and reassurance comes from the understanding that the appalling judgments of God, as they are described in John’s revelation letter, are not dreadful catastrophes that are going to fall upon the Christians—instead, they are the very forces of God that protect the Christians and safeguard his church. They are the very forces of the Almighty that destroyed the Roman Empire for having persecuted his church, and they are the judgments of the Almighty that shall fall upon the enemies of Christ and his church in any age when those evil forces would even dare to attempt to hurt a Christian, or to try to destroy Jesus’ church.

The war John witnessed in heaven, and the war between the church and Rome was caused by Jesus establishing his church in this present evil world, and then protecting it with all of the force necessary to keep it safe and secure (Matthew 16:18). God wanted his church to be established throughout the world (Matthew 28:18–20). Satan did not want any part of the church to be established anywhere, and that is what caused the spiritual war between God and Satan, and the carnal war between the church and the Roman Empire.

Therefore, the deadly judgments that a person reads about in John’s Revelation are not the Christian’s enemy—but they are his friend and protector. All of this makes Revelation a letter of comfort, consolation, and reassurance—and not a letter of fear, dread, and trembling for the Christian—but it is a terrifying letter of fear to the unbeliever.

Another reason that even Christians will not read John’s revelation letter is because they do not think that it can be understood because it is so complicated—but God does not put books in his Bible that cannot be understood. John’s revelation letter can be understood, and that is the other purpose of this book, to make it understandable

PREFACE

The purpose of this book is to relieve the fear of reading John’s revelation letter, and to offer a solid and reasonable understanding of Revelation, the last book in the Bible. John’s revelation letter can be understood because it is a spiritual view of the history, pain, and sufferings of the first-century church. The thrust of John’s letter is to announce the victory of the church of God over all opposing forces. There is no government, military force, or power on this earth that can conquer or destroy God’s church, or even destroy just one of his children. Satan, with all the power he has in the unseen spiritual world, does not have the power to conquer God’s church, nor can he defeat one single Christian (James 4:7). Therefore, Christians do stand as more than conquerors through their faith in their Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 8:37). Not only will Christians stand victorious over all opposing forces, but God shall destroy any person, or any nation that would even dare oppose him, attack his church, or try to hurt one of his children (1 Corinthians 3:16−17).

John was in the spirit when he was called up into heaven to see the things that must come to pass (Revelation 4:1–2). Everything John saw took place in the spiritual world. He saw nothing, and he wrote of nothing that happened in this physical world. The war he saw was between the mighty and holy spiritual forces of God as they warred against the evil and corrupt spiritual forces of Satan. Had it been a carnal war, it would have been very bloody. The war between the Christians and the Roman Empire was very bloody.

That spiritual conflict causes a person to wonder, where could such an evil person come from—a person who felt he had the strength to attack God and destroy his church? Why would God, who has complete power, complete control, and all authority to protect himself against all opposition, and the capability to quickly destroy all of his enemies, even allow such a one as this evil being to exist—and then allow him to destroy his creation with sin?

The answer to that question is—the person who caused that terrible war was the devil, and his name is Satan. He was created by God to be a cherub, a mighty spiritual guardian of holiness and truth, a powerful angel who was in the throne room of God, and his function was to protect the holiness of God. Satan was the cherub that God had created to be the guardian and the overseer of his new world, and Jesus called him the prince of this world (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). Satan was also called the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:3–4).

So what happened? There is very little known or written about Satan and his origin, but there is one passage in the book of Ezekiel that helps us to understand a little about where he came from and who he is. In his letter, Ezekiel pronounced a lamentation over the king of Tyre. However, his lamentation does not relate to that king at all, but it does relate perfectly to Satan.

Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering … In the day that you were created they were prepared. You were the anointed cherub that covers: and I set thee so that you were upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, till unrighteousness was found in thee … thou hast sinned: therefore have I cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I have cast thee to the ground; I have laid thee before kings, that they may behold thee. (Ezekiel 28:11–17)

But the king of Tyre was not in Eden, nor was he a covering cherub created to protect the holiness of God, in God’s holy place, and none of what Ezekiel wrote applies to the king of Tyre. But Satan was in Eden, the garden of God, and he was a covering cherub, and all of this does apply to him!

God did not destroy Satan when he sinned, for had he done so he would have had to destroy the whole creation with him, for it also had been defiled by sin (Romans 8:20). Nor did God strip Satan of his power when he sinned, but he allowed him to continue on as the prince of this world, because God had given his new creation to Satan for him to oversee and protect.

But as a result of Satan’s rebellion, instead of Satan working with God to protect his creation, and instead of there being peace and harmony between God and his new world, there would be war! It was that war that caused the battle that God fought against Satan, and against all of the angels who chose to rebel with him. It was those angels who became the demons (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6), and they have no hope of redemption, not even through the cross (Hebrews 2:16).

God was not fooled by Satan’s rebellion. By God’s foreknowledge he had preplanned the redemption of the world and the establishment of the church by the death of his own Son on the cross. In the mind of God, all of that had already been accomplished before the world had even been created (Romans 8:21, 16:25–26; Ephesians 1:4, 3:9–11; 1 Peter 1:17–21).

The war John saw take place in heaven had a profound impact on the entire first-century world. At that time Rome ruled the world, and the church was just being established throughout the empire. Rome felt threatened by the church and decided to extinguish it, because the church and Rome were diametrically opposed to each other. Under Roman law just being a Christian was a capital crime, and the method of execution was not quick and painless. Christians were executed by meeting the gladiators or the wild beasts in the arena, some were covered with tar and burned alive to light Nero’s garden, and others were crucified.

Such extreme penalties for just being a child of God, and such horrible forms of execution, made it seem impossible to try to convert a person to Christ, or for a person to become a Christian and survive. Why would a person want to be converted to any religion when they knew they might be tortured to death the very next day for that decision? Yet, it was under those conditions that the church grew faster and stronger than at any other time in history. It was that growth that terrified Caesar and all of Rome, for if the church could grow so rapidly under such horrible circumstances, how could it be stopped?

But the church stood steadfast because its strength was in God and its faith was in Christ. It was the Christians’ faith in Jesus, their Savior, and his promise of victory by the way of the cross that anchored the saints in their faith so that they just would not give up and quit. God’s glory was firmly established throughout the Roman world by his children believing in him and living pure, simple, and holy lives. Even under the most severe conditions they refused to deny their Lord, and it was their blood that became the seed of the church.

Rome, on the other hand, was the exact opposite of the church, and the church stood as a powerful testimony against the empire and all of its evil ways. Therefore, Rome felt threatened by the church and would no longer tolerate its existence, because the Christians were proclaiming throughout the empire, Jesus is Lord. They refused to bow down and commit themselves to Rome with Caesar as lord.

At the time John wrote his revelation letter, Rome consisted of three social classes: the filthy rich, the very poor, and slaves. Most of the emperors were homosexuals, terribly immoral, and not concerned at all about the poor. They lived their lives in the most luxurious lifestyle possible. One of the emperors hosted a banquet that cost over a half-million of today’s dollars, with delicacies such as peacock tongue. Nero hosted a banquet for which the roses alone cost over 160,000 of today’s dollars. The rich women had many slaves whose duty was to cater to their rich mistresses. All that some of them had to do was just apply their mistress’ makeup. Caligula’s wife owned emerald earrings that were worth over two million of today’s dollars.

On the other hand, the poor class—those who lived in abject poverty and did not even have enough to eat—observed all of this, and it caused great resentment and rivalry between the rich and the poor.

Slaves did all of the work in Rome as they were the most inexpensive form of labor, and that left very few jobs for the workingman. Gibbon wrote in his history, It was more for the interest of the merchant or manufacturer to purchase, than to hire his workmen; and in the country slaves were employed as the cheapest and most laborious instruments of agriculture … Slaves were at least equal in number to the free inhabitants of the Roman world (vol. 1, p. 52).

According to Roberson there were twice as many slaves in Rome as there were free citizens. As a result, the people of Rome, both the rich and the poor had nothing to do. That left them idle, and most of the idle-poor were supported by the state. Gibbon stated in his history that when the government of any nation supports more than one person out of every one hundred, that nation is soon to fall. With nothing but time on their hands, from the rich to the poor, there was little else to do besides look for pleasure, amusement, and entertainment.

Gibbon wrote in his history, We are obliged to confess that neither before nor since the time of the Romans have so much art and expense ever been lavished for the amusement of the people (vol. 1, p. 395). As a result, new things to entertain had to be invented, and they became quite bloody, cruel, and severe. It took great violence and blood to satisfy the Romans’ thirst for pleasure, and to entertain the people. Thus, they delighted in watching the Christians fight for their lives against the gladiators and the wild beasts in the arena.

The Romans loved lascivious pleasure so much that marriage was held in high contempt, and many Romans refused to marry and bear children. They did not want to be burdened with family life. They just wanted to have a good time. That problem became so extreme that Caesar began taxing single people and childless families—making it quite unprofitable to stay single and childless.

With such great differences between the Christians’ and the Romans’ lifestyles, a great war between them was inevitable. John witnessed the spiritual side of that war from his viewpoint in heaven, and it was that spiritual war that was the cause of the carnal war between the Roman Empire and the church. When the church entered into the time of the great tribulation in its war against Rome, it was experiencing the effect of the spiritual war that John witnessed in heaven. It was the carnal war between Rome and the church that was the cause of the great persecution that fell upon the church in the first century.

Therefore, the war John witnessed in heaven, and the war Gibbon described between the Roman Empire and the church were actually the one and the same war. When Gibbon wrote his history, he had no thought of the struggle about which he wrote between Rome and the church as being a spiritual battle, for he was not a lover of the church, but he greatly admired Rome. Some of the things he wrote about in his history, such as the victory that Christianity achieved over all of the established religions of the world, and over the great empire itself, are astonishing.

It was a statement Jesus made, and something he intended to do that caused the war between Rome and the church. Jesus said, And upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). Gibbon described the tremendous impact of Jesus’ statement when he wrote,

Our curiosity is naturally prompted to inquire by what means the Christian faith obtained so remarkable a victory over the established religions of the earth. (vol. 1, p. 505).

A candid but rational inquiry into the progress and establishment of Christianity may be considered as a very essential part of the history of the Roman Empire. While that great body [Rome] was invaded by open violence, or undermined by slow decay, a pure and humble religion gently insinuated into the minds of men, grew up in silence and obscurity, derived new vigor from opposition, and finally erected the triumphant banner of the cross on the ruins of the Capitol. (vol. 1, p. 504)

And the blood of the martyrs, according to a well-known observation, became the seed of the church. (vol. 2, p. 42)

Mister Gibbon was quick to observe how inhumanely the church was persecuted. He also observed that the more intolerable the persecution became, the stronger and the faster the church grew. In addition, he wrote that when the war between Rome and the church ended, it was not Rome that had