And so we continue with the judgment theme of Revelation.
The Unstoppable Demonic Army
The language that follows is very symbolic, allowing for many different
interpretations.
A word of preparation is in order. J. Vernon McGee quotes William Newell:
Believe, and you scarcely need any comment. The problem with men who come to Revelation
and say that it is difficult to understand and impossible to interpret is that
they do not believe it. If you simply
believe it and read it, it is very clear.
Hellish forces will be at work during this period.[1]
The matter of belief should not be all that difficult. If a person accepts the first four words of
the Holy Bible, In the beginning,
God..., the rest of it is His too.
And when God says there will be a demonically-inspired army after the
sixth angel gets to work, we ought to be sniffing the air for signs of smoke,
not creating doubt. That’s Satan’s work,
carried out by his followers.
DEMON
INSPIRATION
The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming! Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice speaking from the four horns of the gold altar that stands in the presence of God. And the voice said to the sixth angel who held the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great Euphrates River.” Then the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year were turned loose to kill one-third of all the people on earth. Revelation 9:12-15
The time frame is easy enough to understand, 13 months and 25 hours.
The question about the place (Euphrates
river area) may raise a question.
However, the explanation is quite clear.
The Euphrates is a natural border of Israel, according to God's promises
in Gen 12. The reason judgment is
focused on this area is because it is the place of beginnings for evil in the
world. These evils included the first
sin, the first murder, and first recorded idolatry (Nimrod, Tower of
Babel).
God may take His time in bringing judgment, but He always brings it about
properly. All the different kinds of
evil in this world are staggering to the average person.
We wonder how God can sort it all out – especially if we have felt its
sting.
When I was serving in Gainesville, Florida, there was an assault on our church
buildings one night. Fortunately no one
was there, but the gang left the place, including my study, in shambles. There were satanic symbols painted on the
walls, and things broken everywhere. The
Chief of Detectives was a member of the church, and assured me it was the same
as some other Satan-worshipping rituals he'd seen.
Another church I served had the copper tubing stolen several times from
the air conditioner. We finally had to
encase the A/C unit in chain-link fencing, like a dog lot. They stole the chain link fencing!
But that’s small stuff compared to the real depth of evil.
How deep does evil run? According
to an Associated Press Report[2] in Medellin, Columbia, the home base for the billionaire drug barons of
Columbia, their most vicious weapons are the sicarios, hired assassins, who,
with shotguns, pistols, and icepicks have killed presidential candidates,
judges, a newspaper publisher, an attorney general, assorted army personnel,
and at least forty police officials. These
sicarios are children recruited as young as six years old and trained to be
professional killers by age fourteen.
It takes demonic inspiration to bring children to this level. We are not yet in that time, yet we see the
seed being planted.
DEMON
OPERATION
I heard the size of their army, which was 200 million mounted troops. And in my vision, I saw the horses and the riders sitting on them. The riders wore armor that was fiery red and dark blue and yellow. The horses had heads like lions, and fire and smoke and burning sulfur billowed from their mouths. One-third of all the people on earth were killed by these three plagues—by the fire and smoke and burning sulfur that came from the mouths of the horses. Their power was in their mouths and in their tails. For their tails had heads like snakes, with the power to injure people. Revelation 9:16-19
If you are a normal human being, you ask: What in the world is all this for? The answer falls under the
general heading of the judgment of God – but there is a purpose under which Satan
will be operating. During the Great
Tribulation Satan will amass an army that is large enough (and mean enough) to
kill one-third of the world's population.
The purpose in that is simply to gain control – to establish his earthly
power grab by force.
Satan’s front man is called the Beast elsewhere in Scripture. The Beast
will be controlled by demonic forces to bring evil to its full potential on the
earth. This will be entirely permitted
by God’s own choice, and the evil Satan and his followers crave will be the
very weapon of their own destruction. It
will be like a madman dictator who gets a nuclear bomb and pushes the red
button on his own head.
The world is being conditioned today, even as we gather here today, to
accept the ways Satan's henchman, the Beast operates. Evil is growing stronger in this world.
·
Men's minds, under the
inspiration and direct operation of the Enemy, are up for grabs.
·
Technology is influencing
the minds of tomorrow's world leaders.
·
The rise and plummet of the
world’s economic disasters and control by the greed of world leaders is paving
the way for a one-world leader.
·
All the conditions of the
prelude to the Great Tribulation are ripening under the direction of Satanic
inspiration.
And God is allowing it because it will serve the purpose of letting evil
be the designer of its own punishment.
Consider MTV as a
micro-cosmic example:
A recent self-promotional ad in an advertising
trade publication bragged:
Any channel can deliver eyeballs. But how many can include hearts and
minds?
In another ad, MTV calls itself not a TV
channel, but a cultural force."
Still another and perhaps even more revealing
ad shows a young man relaxed in an armchair with his remote control. The ad
copy tells us this man is …the opinion leader among his friends. The headline declares: Buy this
24-year-old and get all his friends absolutely free.[3]
It is impossible to gauge the amount of influence cultural giants like
MTV will wield in the Great Tribulation.
But, just the same, I'm glad God is still in control, and He will allow
Jesus to pluck the church out of this world before that all starts.
The Unrepenting Human Survivors
War is seldom the war to end
all wars. But this one is getting close.
Under the holocaust of the fourth seal[4], one fourth of the population died.
In this chapter, under the sixth angel's trumpet, one-third of those
survivors now die. You would think
Hell's Angels and maybe even Madelyn Murray O'Hair would get religion after
that! But the delusion of man’s
invincibility marches on!
DELUSION'S
STUBBORNNESS
But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to repent of their evil deeds and turn to God. They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that can neither see nor hear nor walk! Revelation 9:20
The people left on earth, rather than repent and give glory to the true
living God, simply become hardened, and
turn even more so to their material gods and devil worship.
A man wrote to the Dear Abby column. He asked: Dear Abby, I am in love, and I am
having an affair with two different women.
I can't marry them both. Please
tell me what to do, but don't give me any of that morality stuff.
Abby's answer is classic. Dear Sir: The only difference between humans and
animals is morality. Please write to a
veterinarian.
It is indeed an amazing thing that people would worship nutty things like
crystals, ouija boards, Psychic Friends goofiness, and the like, rather than a
God who came right to us, and died for us, and rose again so we could too! Yet, that is exactly what they do. And they get angry at anyone who tells them
the truth.
It is reported that in Germany there are more registered fortune tellers than
pastors. Satan worshippers all over the
world pray to the devil for him to break up the marriages of pastors. Just a faint shadow of delusion's real
stubbornness, which will show up when the Beast is in charge.
And delusion leads to many unintended consequences, least among the
intention is to be lost for eternity.
DELUSION'S
LOSTNESS
And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their sexual immorality or their thefts. Revelation 9:21
What a picture of a crime-oriented culture! Man has finally arrived at his goal – a
government and culture in which permissiveness is the accepted norm and where
all kinds of deviation and misbehavior are applauded and encouraged, a
government presided over by fascinating
but foul individual called the man of sin.[5]
Up to this juncture the seals and trumpets have been judgments of God's allowance. This judgment indicates the progressive
nature of sin and its consequences – this time the judgment is by God's activity! It is the wrath of God that is beginning to
fall. And in the day of God's wrath, who
can stand?
Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these
sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. Ephesians 5:6
And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal
life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but
remains under God’s angry judgment.” John
3:36
God is an honest judge. He is angry with the wicked every day. Psalms 7:11
These judgments could tend to depress you – if they didn't scare you to death and make your heart pound!
It was a simple prayer by a 9-year-old boy riding his bicycle down the dirt road in front of our house....who finally got it – that which he heard from his Mom and Dad, Uncle Sid the Sunday School teacher, and Pastor Olson…sin is on the side of evil; salvation is God’s gift; trust Christ and be saved. I asked, Lord, please forgive my sins, and save me; I’ll be yours and do what you lead me to do. And if He will save me, He will save ANYBODY!
Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved!
Title Image: Pixabay.com
Unless noted, Scripture from The New Living Translation
[1]J. Vernon McGee quoting William R. Newell, Through the Bible With J. Vernon McGee (Pasadena, Ca, Through the Bible Radio, 1983), 971
[2] Associated Press 5-30-90
[3]Advertising Age, 7/28/93
[4]
See Revelation
6:7-8
[5] John Phillips, EXPLORING REVELATION, (Neptune, NJ,
Loizeaux Bro, 1993), 137
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