No Sympathy for the Devil

“The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. ⁵ They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.” Revelations 9: 1-6

The harvest of the dammed is in full bloom at this point the scriptures.   I can’t help but reflect on Deuteronomy 28:15 “…if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:”  These curse essentially means that everything that we try as humans will fail.  These curses are more than just the removal of blessing.  It means that God is actively working against those who reject him. 

In the Revelations passage above, hell has literally broken loose, more accurately it has been set free to inflict pain and misery. It has limitations set by God himself. It cannot bring death and it cannot afflict those that are sealed by God.  Be assured of this, it wants to.  Men toy with Satan, sin, and hell.  They are deluded into believing they have friends there and they will get to “Rock all Night Long”.  Delusion truly describes this falsehood.  A delusion is “a fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual facts”

Everywhere around us the goodness of God can be seen.  We witness it in creation, in life, and in acts of kindness witnessed among men and sometimes even animals. We also see the death that comes about by addictions to drugs and sex and gambling and all manner of evil that enslaves the hearts, minds and bodies of men and women.  The delusion is that the devil is a friend.  That he is the grand caterer of good times, a “man of wealth and taste” according to Mick Jagger.  The lie is found out at a scale that cannot be fully understood in the last days described Revelations 9.  It says people will “seek death, but it will “elude them”    This limits must frustrate the Devil.  He comes to kill, steal and destroy, and God says “you cannot kill.  I can hear someone asking the saying, “but this looks worse the death” “these people want to die!”  They want to die because they see death as the end of their suffering.  It is not then end of their suffering.  It is the beginning of their suffering!  The scriptures use figurative language to describe the pains of hell, “Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” Mark 9:44 The Gospel’s are full of descriptions of “weeping and gnashing of teeth”

There is no goodness in hell.  There are no comrades joined together creating mayhem and have some laughs.  There is only oppression, and pain,   and torture.  These as the attributes of evil full grown.  We deceive ourselves if we believe anything else. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is not a delusion but it is plainly seen and justifies all the judgments of God. Romans: 1: 18-20 reads   ^“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Have No Sympathy for the Devil!

Empathy for a Holy God

“The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.” Revelations 8:7

This Revelations study has been a slow and difficult one for me.  The scriptures tell us that with much wisdom comes much sorrow and the above scripture truly reflect that truth for me.  The premise of God’s love never leaves me even when I reflect on his judging of mankind.  What we see in the book of Revelations can conjure up images of a god like Zeus, throwing a temper tantrum from heaven; one who is angry with mankind and one who is going to destroy us because he has grown the hate what he has created.   This image is inconsistent with a God who loves mankind and desires what is best for us.  It is inconsistent with the character of God found throughout the Bible.

What we are witnessing in the book of Revelations is a violent intervention to remove a pervasive cancer called sin from the planet.  It is a chronic condition that has affected the planet previously.  At times this cancer, so called, fills the whole earth.  This was true in the days of Noah.  When one man found grace in God’s sight and he and his family were spared a global judgment.  At other times it infects a nation. Egypt is our best example from the Bible.  Hail was the seventh plague numbered against her, blood was the first.  Each is contained in this passage.  The fire that is mixed with them is taken from a holy altar and initiated with the prayers of saints.  They are prayers that call out for an end of persecution and must be understood as coming forth from hands that are clean from a consistent witness to a world that has chosen to reject the love of Jesus.

When this happens all that is left is for men to grow in violence, hence, we now have the judgment of a true and merciful God that must intervene for the sake of the elect.  He must, out of love, remove the infected cancer. The instruments of his operation are the trumpet judgment that we are witnessing through these passages.  This potent mixture of hail, fire and blood, will harden the hearts of men, even as they harden their own hearts toward God.  They are like Pharaoh both being hardened and choosing to be hard hearted toward God. 

Jeremiah 11 tells us that the Lord “judges righteously,” and “tests the heart and the mind”, The Apostle Paul says “wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts.” I Corinthians 4 These and other passages in the scriptures should encourage our trust in God.  What makes this study difficult is a deep sadness that is experienced when I elevate my empathy from wicked men, to a loving God. 

I start with my fellow wicked creatures, because I am made of the some stuff.    However, when I contemplate what it is like to be God. Let me dare to do so my friend! Let us dare together! Let us create man in own image, then breath the fullness of our character to mankind as well! Then let us enter into the species itself permanently. Let us move from glory and eternity into decaying flesh and a fallen world. What do we gain? We experience hunger, and pain, and ridicule, rejection and ultimately crucifixion.   

However, not from all! Our garment is touched and virtue pours out of our sinless body, because an inflected soul has faith. Another pours a year’s worth of wages onto our body in anticipation of our death.  Some faith filled fisherman and their like, drop their nets and tax ledgers and follow us.  The blind call out for sight, a leper says thank you.  A group cries out Hosanna in the Highest and they mean it.  A multitude from every tribe, nation and language bow their knee in appreciation!

When the hardened in heart turn on those who have opened their heart are we not justified in damming the one and glorifying the other. Truly I think we are!   Let us empathize with a Holy God who is well able to separate the wise and the wicked.  

Silence in Heaven Makes a Big Bang on Earth

“When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” Revelations 8:1

Silence and heaven are not words that usually fit together.  They tend to be mutually exclusive.  The reason for this is that heaven is a place of life and not death.  Moments of silence are engaged in to recognize a time of mourning or death.  Where there is life there is noise.  This half hour in heaven represents the beginning of a period of death about to come upon the earth. It is a mournful time a time in which hell itself will be opened and devils given almost free reign.   Why is this happening? How do we reconcile this period of time with a God who is love? 

The reason that it is happening is that mankind’s rejection of God is coming into full maturity.  144,000 evangelists have been roaming the earth with sign and wonders following their ministry.  The believers that were on earth have been rapture to heaven before a watching world. Creation continues to point out the glory of God.  God is working everywhere that men can see. He is setting up the acceptance or rejection of himself. Mankind determines that, “We will not believe!”  It is not that there is a not reason to believe, buts hearts have grown cold. What results is the natural consequence of unbelief.

It is important to point out that the trumpet judgments fall from heaven and they are initiated by God.   This becomes a loving act because the rejection of God leads to horrors at the hand of man that are worse than God is about to inflict on mankind.   Many are fond of pointing out the atrocities that have fallen upon mankind in the name of religion.  They blame God for these atrocities or his church.  The Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition are two examples that are often pointed out.  The crusades were a response to Islamic aggression that took over all of North Africa and much of Europe and the Spanish Inquisition was maintained without the endorsement of the Church outside that country.   But let’s me concede that evil grew in both circumstances.  This evil confirms my point it does not dismiss it.  The rejection of the message of God’s love leads to war, famines and pestilence.  Mankind, left to gown in evil, would destroy the entire earth in time.  God intervenes and destroys the earth by thirds. God releases his judgment to occupy the minds of men and remind them that there is still of God in Heaven.

One third of the trees and grass, a third of the sea creature and the ships of the sea, a third of the fresh water, even a third part of the day and night are destroyed. The angels cry out “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!” Revelations 8:13

All this occurs because men love darkness instead of light. Romans 1:32 reads ^“Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” The truth of this scripture is reflected more in our generation than in any other history of mankind!  Let me add clarity to this incredible statement. Every other society, every place on earth has always been based on religion.  It may have been a false religion, but there was an acknowledgement that there is something that is to be worshipped, or at least feared, that is greater than mankind.  Our generation is the generation in which the “love of many waxes cold” and we insist on teaching our children that “there is no God.”  All that is true is secular. 

What is the consequence of this foolishness?  The list is long, but I will limit it to the “calling of evil good and good evil.”