Subject: What is "entering into God's rest?" |
Bible Note: I can only respond with common sense. We're told one thing by Paul in a straight forward letter dealing with problems in his world, his timeframe. But as you say, we're told something quite different by John in a futuristic Book with many figures and many mysterious symbols very difficult to interpret. The main message of Revelation was one of comfort to christians who knew their Old Testament very well and most of those symbols seem to mean something very significant to them. Also notice this mysterious way writing of an Inspired Book this late in that century was addressed to christians who were undergoing tremendous (unimaginable to us today) persecution from the Roman Government and Roman citizens. IF this Book were ever seized by those Romans and correctly interpreted, it would have meant even more severe and unrelenting persecution. Thus the need for this "disgused" form of issuing a message to this poor, practically defenseless christians. The most excellent example of this kind of coded message IMO is from Rev 18:21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore. 22 The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore. No craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore, and the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you anymore. 23 The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived. 24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.” Now to us as modern Bible students, we can see that God was clearly referring to the Roman Empire when He used this code word, Babylon. But to the Romans, they would be confused because of the use of past tense in this passage; they would think it meant some other city or empire. Clever, huh? Rev 15:17 Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.” 19 So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs. In this earlier passage, we can see the Lord is going to take His time in "crushing" and destroying the Roman Empire, like as He's pressing it for their blood instead of grape juice in a winepress. Remember Rome didn't actually fall until 476 AD. So the bottom line in my conclusion is to NOT put so much stock for us as modern christians in the Book of Revelation and instead go with the straight forward language of the other NT writers. Please don't misunderstand my meaning. The most important message we as modern christians can glean from Revelation is that God has already won the war. We just need to choose whose side we want to be on, the winning side with God or the losing side with Satan. I could provide some commentaries from Bible scholars that support this position if you'd be interested. God bless, Inquisitor |