THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST TO HIS SERVANT JOHN
The Unveiling of the Kingdom on Earth and in Heaven
Lesson 19
Succession Arrangements of the Covenant Treaty Continued
Chapter 16
Pouring Out the Seven Chalice Judgments
Lord God Almighty,
We commit ourselves to live
in obedience to Your commands and to gratefully receive Your blessings by
passing on Your message of eternal salvation to those who do not have the light
of Christ shining in their lives. Help us to take Your judgments against the
apostate old covenant people in the first century AD as a warning to us in the
present age. Help us to stand firm in our faith and to heed the teachings of
Mother Church while rejecting the false prophets of the secular world. We pray
in the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Listen! An uproar from the City! A voice from the
Temple! The voice of Yahweh bringing retribution on his enemies.
Isaiah 66:6
And say to the rebels of the House of Israel, "The
Lord Yahweh says this: You have gone beyond all bonds with all your loathsome practices,
House of Israel, by admitting aliens, uncircumcised in heart and body to
frequent my sanctuary and profane my Temple, while offering my food, the fat
and blood, and breaking my covenant with all your loathsome practices."
Ezekiel 44:6-7
Jesus' judgment against Jerusalem: "You are the
children of those who murdered the prophets! Very well then, finish off the
work that your ancestors began. You serpents, brood of vipers, how can you
escape being condemned to hell! This is why, look, I am sending you prophets
and wise men and scribes, some you will slaughter and crucify, some you will
scourge in your synagogues and hunt from town to town;
and so you will draw down on yourselves the blood of every upright person that
has been shed [ekcheo = poured out] on earth, from the blood of Abel the
holy to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the
Sanctuary and the altar. In truth I tell you, it will all recoil on this
generation."
Matthew 23:31-36
The seventh angel emptied his bowl into the air, and
a great voice boomed out from the sanctuary, "The end has come!"
Revelation 16:17
A critical aspect of God's message to John concerns the New Covenant of Jesus Christ and a new liturgy for the faithful of His Kingdom that will be fully established only when the Temple of the old Sinai Covenant has been removed, and its liturgy of worship made null and void (Heb 9:8-9). In Revelation Chapter 4, when John first entered the heavenly Sanctuary, he heard angels and saints singing a hymn to the Lamb (Rev 4:9-13), and in Chapter 15, he heard another new song, the Hymn of Moses and the Lamb (Rev 15:3-4), establishing a new liturgy of worship in heaven and on earth. John also saw the naos, the inner Sanctuary of the heavenly Temple, and the "tent of the Testimony" (Rev 15:5) that is the New Covenant Testimony of Jesus Christ and His Gospel of eternal salvation (also see Rev 1:2, 9; 6:9; 12:11, 17; 19:10; 20:4).
In the Book of Revelation, St. John's visions follow one after another; however, do not assume they all took place at the same time or even within the same month or year. The prophet Ezekiel recorded his visions, one after another, but since he dated them, we know that they occurred over seven years (as the ancients counted) before the destruction of Solomon's Temple and Jerusalem in 587 BC. It is possible that John's visions also took place over seven years (as the ancients counted) before the destruction of the Second Temple and Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70. It that was the case, John's visions would have begun in AD 64, the year Rome launched its program to destroy Christianity.
The opening verses of Chapter 15 served as an introduction or summary of what God would reveal to John in Chapters 15 and 16. Revelation 15:1 records the third and final "sign" John saw in Heaven after the heavenly sign of the Woman clothed with the sun (12:1) and the great red Dragon (12:3). John describes it as "great and wonderful," the same Greek words used to describe God's acts of judgment in the Song of Moses and the Lamb in 15:3-4. The sign is seven priestly angels carrying chalices filled with seven plague judgments, which are the LAST, since through them, "they exhaust [teleo = complete, accomplish] the anger of God." The previous judgments were warnings that allowed time for repentance and conversion; that time is over!
In Chapter 16, John extends and intensifies the imagery of the judgment on Egypt from the Book of Exodus. Exodus imagery has been pervasive throughout the chapters of the Seven Seals and Seven Trumpets, and now the Seven Chalice Judgments will correspond to the Ten Plagues of Egypt. These final, terrifying judgments will be "poured out" on "the Great City" where "their Lord was crucified" (Rev 11:8). While studying Chapter 16, be aware of how the Trumpet Judgments (which were warnings because they took only a third of the Land) relate to the Chalice Judgments and plagues of Egypt. Do not miss the fact that the Chalice Judgments are the end of God's wrath, and this time the destruction will be total. Please refer to the chart from the last lesson entitled "The Chalice and Trumpets Judgments Versus the Plagues of Egypt." It is also in Lesson 18's handouts. We will refer to the three-part chart throughout the lesson.
| THE SEVEN CHALICE JUDGMENTS |
| 1st Chalice: On the land; people disfigured with sores (Rev 16:1-2) |
| 2nd Chalice: On the sea, becoming blood (Rev 16:3) |
| 3rd Chalice: On rivers and springs, becoming blood (Rev 16:8-9) |
| 4th Chalice: On the sun, causing it to scorch = burning and darkness (Rev 16:8-9) |
| 5th Chalice: On the throne of the beast, causing darkness, pain, and sores on people (Rev 16:10-11) |
| 6th Chalice: On the river [Euphrates], drying it up to make way for the kings of the east; invasion of the frog-demons (Rev 16:12-16) |
| 7th Chalice: On the air, causing storms, earthquake, and hail; the Great City splits into three parts (Rev 16:17-21) |
From the unleashing of the Chalice Judgment, John will no longer use the imagery of warning but will concentrate on the message of Jerusalem's destruction. In Revelation 16:19, he will once again mention the "Great City" that he identified in Revelation 11:8 as the city where Jesus was crucified.
Revelation 16:1-9 ~ The First Four Chalices
1 Then I heard a loud voice from the sanctuary calling
to the seven angels, "Go, and empty the seven bowls [phiale] of God's anger
over the earth [land]." 2 The first angel went and emptied [ekcheo]
his bowl [phiale] over the earth; at once, on all the people who had been
branded with the mark of the beast and had worshipped its statue, there came
disgusting and virulent sores. 3 The second angel emptied [ekcheo] his bowl [phiale] over
the sea, and it turned to blood, like the blood of a corpse, and every living
creature in the sea died. 4 The third angel emptied [ekcheo] his bowl [chalice]
into the rivers and springs of water, and they turned into blood. 5 Then I
heard the angel of water say, "You are the Upright One, He who is, he who was,
the Holy One, for giving this verdict: 6 they spilt the blood of
the saints and the prophets, and blood is what you gave given them to drink; it
is what they deserve." 7 And I heard the altar itself say, "Truly, Lord God
Almighty, the punishments you give are true and just." 8 The
fourth angel emptied [ekcheo] his bowl [phiale] over the sun and it was made to
scorch people with its flames; 9 but though people were scorched by the fierce heat of it,
they cursed the name of God who had the power to cause such plagues, and they
would not repent and glorify him.
[...] = IBGE, vol. IV, page 686.
The translation of the Greek word phiale can be vessel, cup, bowl, or chalice. It was usually a broad but shallow vessel with a stem protruding from the bottom, and it was the kind of vessel that the priests used to collect the blood of sacrificial victims in the Temple that they poured out at the altar of sacrifice; therefore, we will be using the word "chalice" for each of the last seven plague judgments (see Lev 4:7; 8:15; 9:9; Dt 12:27; Ez 16:25-36; 23:8; etc.).
Like the Trumpet Judgments, the Chalice Judgments divide into four applications followed by the last three (Rev 8:1-13 = trumpets one through four with an interval followed by the fifth, sixth, and seventh trumpets in 9:1-21; 11:15-19). In 16:1, the command authorizing the judgment comes from the naos, the innermost Sanctuary of the heavenly Temple, and is a continuation of the events in Chapter 15:5-8. The command from the Temple emphasizes both the divine and ecclesiastical origin of the plagues/judgments. The voice of authority coming from Temple should also remind us of Isaiah Chapter 66 when Isaiah prophesizes judgment on Jerusalem: "Listen! An uproar from the City! A voice from the Temple! The voice of Yahweh bringing retribution on his enemies (Is 66:6).
Question: What does the voice command?
Answer: It commands seven angels to go and pour out the seven chalices of God's wrath over the land of Judea.
Question: What is unique about these judgments? See 15:1.
Answer: They are the last!
The Greek verb translated "empty"
in the New Jerusalem text in verse 1 is ekcheo, but many scholars prefer
"pour out" or "pour" as a better, more literal expression of the Greek verb. This
interpretation can be supported by pointing to the use of ekcheo in other
verses in the Old and New Testaments.
The use of ekcheo in the Old Testament:
In the New Testament, ekcheo appears in contexts similar to the major themes in Revelation. The use of ekcheo in the New Testament:
The point is that all these references are liturgical in context and point to the imperfect sacrificial system of the Old Covenant made perfect in Christ's sacrifice on the cross! As the inspired writer of the Letter to the Hebrews wrote, it is a symbol for the present time. None of the gifts and sacrifices offered under these regulations can possibly bring any worshipper to perfection in his conscience; they are rules about outward life, connected with food and drink and washing at various times, which are in force only until the time comes to set things right (Heb 9:9). The liturgical connection to the word ekcheo is important in understanding the significance of the "pouring out" of plagues into the Land (Israel/Judea) that has "poured out" the blood of the prophets, of Jesus Christ, and His disciples on to the people who have resisted the Holy Spirit and who have rejected the Messiah: It is the parable of the wineskins that Jesus told using ekcheo in Matthew 9:17. It is not possible to pour the wine-blood of the New Covenant into the imperfect skins of the Old Covenant. The old wineskins of Israel/Judea are about to be split open!
2 The first angel went and emptied his bowl over the
earth; at once, on all the people who had been branded with the mark of the
beast and had worshipped its statue, there came disgusting and virulent sores.
In verse 2, those who follow
the beast instead of only carrying the beast's mark will find themselves marked
with loathsome and hideous marks from the first plague. It is as though the
imagery suggests that the beast's mark (on the souls of his followers) has
broken open in a deadly infection!
Question: What connection do you make with an Old Testament
event? See Exodus 9:8-11 or look at the Chart in the last lesson comparing the
Chalice and Trumpet judgments with the Egyptian plagues. Also,
see Jn 19:15.
Answer: It is similar to the Egyptian plague of boils when Yahweh
"poured out" boils on the pagan state who worshiped their king as god and persecuted
God's holy people. The parallel is that Israel was also guilty of rejecting
God (Jesus Christ) in favor of the god-Emperor of the Romans when the crowd
shouted, "We have no king but Caesar" at Jesus' trial (Jn 19:15),
and who persecuted God's holy people.
Question: What is the connection to Moses' list of curses that
will fall on Israel if they fail to keep the oath of their covenant obligations?
See Dt 28:27 (Egyptian ulcers refer to the sixth plague in Ex 9:8-10).
Answer: Moses specifically mentions the Egyptian plague of
boils in his list of the curses of the covenant for idolatry and apostasy,
which is what defines Judea's sins.
3 The second angel emptied (ekcheo — poured out) his bowel into the rivers and springs of water, and they turned to blood, like the blood of a corpse, and every living creature in the sea died. 4 The third angel emptied (ekcheo- poured out) his bowl into the rivers and streams of water and they turned into blood. The more literal translation of this passage should read, "and every soul living died in the sea." "Soul," in Greek = psyche, is generally, but not always, used for human beings. "Every soul," Greek = pasa psyche, can mean "everyone" or, in the plural, "persons." This wording may be a reference to "human life" in a historical context that will be explained shortly.
Question: Where does the second angel/minister pour out his
chalice, and what is the result?
Answer: He pours it into the sea, which becomes like the
blood of a dead man, and every living soul in the sea died.
Question: What is the connection to the plagues of Egypt, and what
is the significance of the description of the blood of dead men?
See Ex 7:14-24.
Answer: It recalls Egyptian plague #1, but instead of the
blood flowing like a river, it is clotted and coagulated.
Question: Looking at verses 3-6, how many times is blood
mentioned, and in what context?
Answer: Four times in verse 3 = blood poured out over every living
soul in the sea; verse 4 = blood poured out in rivers and springs; verse 6 =
pouring out the blood of saints and prophets, and verse 6 (again) = the blood
of the saints and prophets poured out for Israel to drink.
The purity restrictions of the Noachide Law and the Sinai Covenant concerning blood and death (Gen 9:4-5; Lev 3:17; 7:26-27; 15:19-33; 17:10-16; 21:1; Num 5:2; 19:11-19; Dt 12:16) decreed that consuming either raw flesh or blood was forbidden with the penalty of ex-communication from the community. To come in contact with either blood or death caused ritual impurity. Therefore, with all of Israel (Judea, Samaria, and the Galilee) covered in blood, Israel is unclean, defiled and cast out!
From what you know now (from
the passages prohibiting the consumption of blood or flesh), can you understand
the horror of the Jews listening to Jesus' Bread of Life discourse in John
chapter 6?
Question: Reading that passage, why did many of His disciples
turn and leave when He told them: "In all truth I tell you, if you do not
eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall
raise that person up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood
is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I
live in that person." Did they believe He meant this literally or symbolically?
Answer: They believed He meant what He said literally and not
symbolically, or they would not have left (verse 66). That Jesus did not
stop them proves He meant what He said literally!
There is a historical fulfillment of this disaster of the blood in the sea that recorded by the Jewish priest-historian Josephus during the events of the Jewish Revolt against Rome. During the fierce Battle of Tarichaeae, thousands of Jewish rebels fled to the area of the Sea of Galilee (called the Sea of Tiberius by the Romans). In trying to escape the Romans, the Jews launched boats and rafts out onto the Sea, where the Romans pursued and overtook them. Josephus records their slaughter by the Romans: "As for those that endeavored to come to an actual fight, the Romans ran many of them through with their long poles. Sometimes the Romans leaped into their ships, with swords in their hands, and slew them; but when some of them met the vessels, the Romans caught them by the middle, and destroyed at once their ships and themselves who were taken in them. And for such as were drowning in the sea, if they lifted their heads up above the water they were either killed by darts or caught by the vessels; but if, in the desperate case they were in, they attempted to swim to their enemies, the Romans cut off either their heads or their hands; and indeed they were destroyed after various manners everywhere, till the rest, being put to flight, were forced to get upon the land...but as many of these were repulsed when they were getting ashore, they were killed by the darts upon the lake; and the Romans leaped out of their vessels, and destroyed a great many more upon the land: one might then see the lake all bloody, and full of dead bodies, for not one of them escaped ... The number of the slain, including those that were killed in the city before, was six thousand and five hundred" (Flavius Josephus, The Jewish Wars, 3.10.9; bold added for emphasis).
The reference to "every soul dying in the sea" in 16:3 may refer to the disaster of the Battle of Tarichaeae, or the corpses strewn on the Sea of Galilee leading to the assumption that most of the drinking water became unsafe, which contributed to the death of every living thing through drinking bloody, contaminated water.
5 Then I heard the angel of water say, "You are the Upright
One, He who is, He who was, the Holy One, for giving this verdict: they spilt
the blood of the saints and the prophets, and blood is what you have given them
to drink; it is what they deserve."
The Angel of Water is probably
not one of the seven chalice angels. Instead, he is likely the fourth Living Creature
with the face of a man represented as the Water Pourer, Aquarius, in the fourth
quadrant of the zodiac chart and who gave the seven angels their seven chalices.
Question: How does the Angel of Water respond?
Answer: He praises God for His righteous judgment.
Question: By what title does the Angel of Water address God?
Answer: He addressed God as the "Upright One, He who is, He
who was, the Holy One."
The Water Angel's reference to God as "He who is, He who was" recalls the meaning of God's Divine Name, Yahweh, in Exodus 3:11-14. We usually translate God's covenant name as "I am who am," but Jews render His name as "I was, I am, and I will be."
Question: The third chalice resembles what Trumpet judgment and
what Egyptian plague?
Answer: The third chalice judgment recalls the first Egyptian
plague since it affects the rivers and streams, turning all the drinking water
to blood and bringing death.
Question: This is a reversal of the positive symbolism of the
water imagery used throughout the Old and New Testaments. How was water used
as a positive symbol?
Answer: Water is often a symbol of life and
blessings from God beginning with the story of creation and the Garden of Eden
(seen as a symbol of heaven) to Jesus' statements that He is the water of
eternal life. In this plague, the blessings of Paradise reverse into a curse.
In Revelation 16:5-6, the Angel of Water proclaimed: "You are the Upright One, He who is, he who was, the Holy One, for giving this verdict: they split the blood of the saints and the prophets, and blood is what you have given them to drink; it is what they deserve" (underlining added for emphasis). The angel announced that the punishments of the Chalice Judgments fit the crimes of Judea. They were responsible for spilling the blood of the saints and prophets and, therefore, God's just judgment is to give them ritually unclean blood to drink, separating them from the covenant and fulfilling Jesus' pronouncement of judgment in AD 30 when He said: "and so you will draw down on yourselves the blood of every upright person that has been shed [ekcheo = poured out] on earth" (Mt 23:35).
Some examples of Israel/Jerusalem's crimes of blood against God's holy agents from Scripture:
The Angel of Waters concluding statement that the blood God gave them to drink is what they deserved (verse 6) is a parallel to the message of the New Song or Hymn that John heard the four Living Creatures and the twenty-four elders sing during the heavenly liturgy in Chapter 5 ~ "You are worthy to take the scroll and to break its seals, because you were sacrificed, and with your blood, you bought people for God" (Rev 5:9). The Lamb received His reward because of the blood He willingly shed, and now the followers of the beast who persecuted and killed the saints have received their just reward for the blood they shed! It also recalls what God told Isaiah concerning His fierce judgment against those who persecuted His faithful in Isaiah 49:26 ~"I shall make your oppressors eat their own flesh, they will be as drunk on their own blood as on new wine. And all humanity will know that I am Yahweh, your Savior, your redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."
Question: How is the Isaiah prophecy in 49:26 concerning God's
just judgment against the murderers of the saints a reversal of the Eucharist?
When did God give this same prophecy, and how was it fulfilled in AD 70,
according to Flavius Josephus? See Dt 28:53-57 and last week's lesson concerning
Josephus' description of the horrors of famine during the siege of Jerusalem in
The Jewish Wars 6.3.
Answer: The judgment prophesized in the covenant curses of
Deuteronomy 28:53-57 found fulfillment during the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70,
as reported by Josephus when, during the famine caused by the Roman presence,
the Jews became cannibals and ate their own children. Christ gives His
faithful the reward of His precious blood in the Eucharist, but because the
apostate Jews shed the blood of the saints and rejected the blood of the
Messiah, God gave them their own blood to drink.
7 And I heard the altar itself say, "Truly, Lord God
Almighty, the punishments you give are true and just."
Notice that the force of God's Presence is so powerful that everything in Heaven has life, even the altar!
Question: Joining the Angel of Water is another voice. Whose
voice joins in agreement? See Rev 6:9-11.
Answer: The voice of the altar answers the prayer of the souls
of the saints gathered underneath or its base, who cried out for justice and vengeance
in 6:10, saying: "How much longer will you wait before you pass sentence and
take vengeance for our death on the inhabitants of the earth (those who
dwell on the land)."
Revelation 6:10 is another of the twelve times the expression "those who dwell on the land" appears in Revelation, referring to Israel/Judea. The answer to their petition came in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.
It is not a coincidence that the basis of the prayers in Revelation 15:3-4 and 16:5-7 are on the Song of Moses (Ex 15) sung by the priests and the Levites during the interval between the preparation and the offering of the sacrifice at the liturgical services of the daily Tamid sacrifice in the Temple and with the Song of Witness on every Sabbath. It is ironic that just as God Himself is preparing for the whole-burnt sacrifice of Jerusalem in AD 70, the very angels of Heaven were singing apostate Israel's own liturgy against her! (Massyngberde Ford, Revelation p. 266).
8 The fourth angel emptied (ekcheo - poured out) his
bowl over the sun and it was made to scorch people with its flames; 9 but
though people were scorched by the fierce heat of it, they cursed the name of
God who had the power to cause such plagues, and they would not repent and
glorify him.
Question: How is the fourth Chalice Judgment related to the fourth
Trumpet judgment and the plagues of the Exodus?
Answer: The fourth Trumpet Judgment resulted in a plague of
darkness (8:12) like the ninth plague of Egypt, but now the heat of the sun has
increased to the point that it scorches people with its "fierce heat."
Question: In addition to their suffering, what is the reaction of
the people to this plague?
Answer: The people are stubborn and do not repent.
The fourth Chalice Judgment is a reversal of the covenantal blessing of the Exodus when the Shadow of the Almighty in the Glory Cloud protected the children of Israel from the sun's heat (Ex 13:21-22; Ps 91:1-6), a covenantal promise repeated throughout the books of the prophets. Now that protection is withdrawn. The last line, they would not repent and glorify him, reminds us that the whole purpose of suffering and judgment is to be redemptive in turning the transgressor to reject sin, come to sincere repentance, and to restored fellowship with God.
Revelation 16:10-16 ~ The Fifth and Sixth Chalices
10 The fifth angel emptied [ekcheo = poured out] his bowl [chalice] over the throne of the beast, and its whole empire
was plunged into darkness. People were biting their tongues for pain, 11 but instead
of repenting for what they had done, they cursed the God of heaven because of
their pains and sores. 12 The sixth angel emptied his bowl over the great river
Euphrates; all the water dried up so that a way was made for the kings of the
East to come in. 13 Then from the jaws of the dragon and beast and false
prophet, I saw here foul spirits come; they looked like frogs 14 and in
fact were demon spirits, able to work miracles [semeion =
signs], going out to all the
kings of the world to call them together for the war of the Great Day God the
Almighty. 15 Look, I shall come like a thief. Blessed is anyone
who has kept watch, and has kept his clothes on so that he does not go out
naked and expose his shame. 16 They called the kings together at the place called in
Hebrew, Armageddon.
Question: Looking back over the first four Chalice Judgments,
what were the "targets" of those judgments, and what do they reflect? There
are four.
Answer: The targets of God's wrath in the first four Chalice Judgments
were the land, sea, inland waters, and the sun that are all part of the
physical creation.
10 The fifth angel emptied (ekcheo — poured out) his bowl
over the throne of the beast, and its whole empire was plunged into darkness.
People were biting their tongues for pain, 11 but
instead of repenting for what they had done, they cursed the God of heaven
because of their pains and sores.
With the first four plagues, the
judgments fell on the elements of nature but with the last three, the
consequences are more political. They will include the sea beast's political
center (his throne), the war of the great Day of God, and the fall of the city
symbolically called "Babylon."
Question: What is the result of the pouring out of the fifth Chalice?
Answer: It is "poured out" upon the beast's throne (the Roman
Empire), and even though the sun's heat is scorching those who worship the beast,
the lights are now dark on his kingdom.
Darkness is a familiar Biblical symbol for political chaos and the fall of kingdoms (see Is 13:9-10; Amos 8:9; Ez 32:7-8). At the time of the Jewish Revolt, there was chaos, war, and rebellion across the Roman Empire. In addition to instability in the Empire, the murders of Nero's three successors within the year AD 69 after Nero's forced suicide contributed to the climate of chaos. Finally, Vespasian regained control, but that same year the Temple of the Capitoline Jupiter, a symbol of the Empire, burned to the ground on December 19. It is interesting that seven months later (eight as the ancients counted) the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, resulting in the destruction of the two most important holy sites of the ancient world: the Temple of Jerusalem and the Temple of the chief of the Roman gods.
In verse 11, the people are
biting their tongues and cursing God because of their sores. These would be the
sores from the first Chalice Judgment. The judgments are "poured out" so
quickly that there is no relief; each successive plague builds on the last.
Question: Do the people repent and turn to God?
Answer: No, they curse Him.
12 The sixth angel emptied [ekcheo
= poured out] his bowl over the great Euphrates; all the water dried up so
that a way was made for the kings of the East to come in. 13 Then
from the jaws of the dragon and beast and false prophet, I saw three foul spirits
come; they looked like frogs 14 and in fact were demon spirits, able to work miracles [semeion
= signs], going out to all the kings
of the world to call them together for the war of the Great Day of God the
Almighty. 15 Look, I shall come like a thief. Blessed is anyone who
has kept watch, and has kept his clothes on, so that he does not go out naked
and expose his shame. 16 They called the kings [them] together at the place
called, in Hebrew, Armageddon."
Question: What is the connection between the sixth Chalice Judgment,
the sixth Trumpet Judgment (Rev 9:13-21), and one of the Egyptian plagues (Ex 8:2-4)? See the chart comparing the Chalice Judgments to the Trumpet Judgments
and the Egyptian plagues in the handout to last week's lesson
Answer: The sixth angel's chalice brings the invasion of
"kings," or the armed forces of kings, from the East who cross the Euphrates
River followed by demon spirits that looked like frogs. In the sixth Trumpet Judgment,
an army from across the Euphrates River invaded and killed 1/3 of the people
(Rev 9:13-21), and in the Egyptian plagues, the second plague was the invasion
of frogs from the great river (which in that case was the Nile).
|
Sixth Chalice Judgment: On the Euphrates, drying it up to make way for kings of the east; invasion of frog-demons; Armageddon (Rev 16:12-16) |
Sixth Trumpet Judgment: An army from the Euphrates River kills 1/3 of the people of the land/Judea (Rev 9:13-21) |
Second Egyptian Plague: An invasion of frogs from the river (Ex 8:2-4) |
The frogs invaded Egypt from the Nile River like an army. The Euphrates was beyond Israel's northern frontier and the direction from which most invading armies came to ravage and oppress God's covenant people, including the Assyrians in the 8th century BC, Babylonians in the late 7th and 6th centuries BC, the Romans in their conquest of the Levant in the 1st century BC, and the Roman legions of Vespasian in AD 67.
The water of the Euphrates drying up may have two historical connections. The ancient city of Babylon sat astride the Euphrates River encircled by canals. This natural protection made the city practically impregnable; however, Persian King Cyrus solved this problem by damming up the great river and marching his army across the drained riverbed (see Herodotus, Histories, I.191). The other historical connection is that the 1st century AD Roman Emperor Vespasian sent his son Titus gathered four Roman Legions on the banks of the Euphrates River to launch their invasion of Judah.
Question: Do you see any connection to the invasion of the
frog/demons across the river that had dried up and the Israelite's Exodus
experience? See Ex 14:21-22 and
Josh 3:9-17 and 4:22-24.
Answer: The reference to the drying up of the River to allow
the enemy to advance may be a symbolic reversal of the miracle of the Red Sea
flooding and destroying the Egyptian enemy in the Exodus experience. It may
also be a reversal of the miracle of the Jordan River parting to allow the children
of Israel to cross over and invade the Promised Land.
This passage is another example of tragic irony. God saved Israel by allowing the children of Israel to pass through the waters of the Red Sea and to take possession of the Promised Land by passing through the water of the Jordan River. However, in the 1st century AD, judgment fell on an apostate covenant people when the Roman enemy crossed successfully over a great river (the Euphrates) as though it was dry to attack the Promised Land and destroy the old covenant people of God who rejected the Messiah (see Josephus' description of Titus' invasion in AD 69 in The Jewish War, 3.1.3; 3.4.2 and 5.1.6; 7.1.3).
Revelation 16:12, 14, and 16 use two different Greek words for "kings," basileus in verses 12 and 14, which means "king" or "ruler," and autos in verse 16, which should be translated as "them" or "their." The four Roman legions and the auxiliary forces were composed of men from client kingdoms, gathered together from across the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire, who came as the representatives of kings or rulers to bring judgment on Judea.
13 Then from the jaws of the dragon and beast and false
prophet, I saw three foul spirits come; they looked like frogs 14 and in
fact were demon spirits, able to work miracles (semeion — signs), going out to all the kings of the world to
call them together for the war of the Great Day of God the Almighty.
Question: In verses 13-14, what does John see in the mouths of
the dragon, the sea beast, and the false prophet (Judea, the beast of the land)?
Is there a connection to one of the Egyptian plagues? See Ex 8:1-7.
Answer: He sees three unclean spirits. The connection is to
the judgment of the second Egyptian plague.
The multitude of frogs that invaded Egypt came from the Nile River (Ex 8:1-7), and John's vision combines these images:
In the Old Covenant dietary laws, frogs were ritually unclean (Lev 11:9-12, 41-47). But these frogs are demons who are performing "signs" to deceive and lead humanity astray. Here is the imagery of the unholy trinity of the dragon/Satan, the beast, and the false prophet (land beast/Judea) with the sea beast and false prophet Judea imitating the dragon/Satan and the triple use of the word "mouth," which is reminiscent of the sixth Trumpet judgment when John wrote: In my vision, I saw the horses, and the riders with their breastplates of flame color, hyacinth-blue and sulfur-yellow; the horses had lions' heads, and fire, smoke and sulfur were coming from their mouths. It was by these three plagues, the fire, the smoke and the sulfur coming from their mouths that the one-third of the human race [men] was killed. All the horses; power was in their mouths and their tails (Rev 9:17-19).
However, the dragon/Satan is not in charge; God is in charge, and He will use the "work of error" performed by these lying spirits to bring about the destruction of His enemies in the "War of that great Day of God the Almighty" (Rev 16:14). The "Day of Yahweh" is a Biblical term, which refers to a "Day of Judgment" against the wicked (Is 13:6, 9; Joel 2:1-2, 11, 31; Amos 5:18-20; Zeph 1:14-18). It is Israel's day of judgment that Jesus foretold in His Parable of the Wedding Feast in Matthew 22:7 when the "King" would send his armies to destroy the murderers and set their city on fire because they had refused his invitation to attend the Wedding Banquet (Eucharist) of his son (Jesus) and had killed his servants ( the Apostles and disciples who carried the Gospel message of salvation first to the Jews and then to the world).
Revelation 16:15 has the third
of the Book of Revelation's five Beatitudes: Blessed is anyone who has kept
watch, and has kept his clothes on, so that he does not go out naked
Question: Does this passage remind you of any passages of
warnings or promises from Jesus' letters to the seven churches? See Rev 3:3
and 18.
Answer: Jesus told the church of Sardis that He would come
like a thief in the night, and they wouldn't know the day or hour. He also
told the church of Laodicea to purchase white garments that you may clothe
yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed
(Rev 3:18).
Originally in Scripture, nakedness was symbolic of innocence (i.e. the Garden of Eden). Biblical images of nakedness also include defenselessness and vulnerability, humiliation and shame, guilt and judgment, and sexual impropriety and exploitation. However, "nakedness" opposed to "clothed" is symbolic of a sin-filled life opposed to redemption, which is being clothed in God's gift of grace. You will remember when Adam and Eve fell from grace, they feared God and said: "I was afraid because I was naked" (Gen 3:9-10). St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "And in this earthly state we do indeed groan, longing to put on our heavenly home over the present one; if indeed we are to be found clothed rather than naked (2 Cor 5:3).
Question: Do you see a similar connection between the symbolic
imagery of being "clothed" or "naked" or improperly clothed like the man in Jesus'
parable of the Wedding Feast in Matthew 22:1-14 and a link to partaking of the
feast of the Eucharist?
Answer: In Matthew 22:12-13, the man was thrown out of the
feast for being improperly dressed since he was not wearing a "wedding
garment." He was not in a state of grace, and, therefore, he was not eligible
to partake in the feast. When we come to the Lord's Eucharistic feast, we must
be sure that we are wearing the proper "wedding garment" of sanctifying grace.
16 They called the kings [them] together at the place called, in Hebrew, Armageddon.
The demon spirits calling them together at the place called, in Hebrew, Armageddon, probably refers to the troops of
the client kings of the Roman Empire who served in the six legions of General Titus.
The pouring out of the sixth chalice results in the demons active in gathering an army at a place called,
in our English translation, "Armageddon." Revelation 16:16 is the only passage in the Bible where the word "Armageddon" appears.
The accurate spelling in Hebrew is Har-Magedon, which means Mount Megiddo. The identification of this site is a problem, especially
for those who want to take Revelation literally. Megiddo is not a mountain. The location of the hill that is the ruined
city of Megiddo is at a pass that leads to the fertile plain of the Esdraelon between Mt. Carmel and Mt. Gilboa (find these sites on a map).
Both Mt. Carmel and the town of Megiddo (destroyed in 350 BC) figured prominently in the history of the covenant people.
Is John referring to the mound or tell that covers the 25-30 levels of what remains of a city that existed from the Chalcolithic
period until the fourth century BC, or does he want his audience to think of the historical significance of both Mt. Carmel and Megiddo?
Question: What significant Old Testament events happened at or
near Mt. Carmel? See
Josh 12:21-22,
1 Kng 18:19-42,
2 Kng 2:25 and 4:25.
Answer:
The city of Megiddo was one of the most important cities of the Levant during the historical periods of the Old Testament. It was located not far from the Mediterranean Sea on a fertile plain near the major trade routes leading from Egypt to Mesopotamia. One such major road was the "Way of Horus" (Egyptian name) or the Via Maris (Roman name meaning "Way of the Sea;), the major international military and trade route that ran through the land bridge of the Levant and linked Egypt in the south with Syrian, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia in the north and east. Its strategic position gave the city of Megiddo control of a bottleneck where the Via Maris emerged from the narrow Aruna Pass into the fertile Jezreel valley. Megiddo is the only ancient site in Israel mentioned in the archives of every great power in the ancient Near East.
Because of its strategic location, the city on the Plain of Megiddo (also called the Plain of Esdraelon), located 75 miles northwest of Jerusalem, became a stage for bloodshed since the 15th century BC. The oldest surviving written record of a battle that took place at Megiddo was in 1468 BC between the Egyptians and the armies of Canaanite city-states; it was a battle the victorious Egyptians recorded in detail. Megiddo became a major Egyptian administrative center during the first millennium BC, and despite its violent history, was rebuilt approximately 26 times (some archaeologists say 30 times).
Scripture mentions the place name "Megiddo" eleven times in Scripture, the twelfth is the allusion to Megiddo as Armageddon (Har-Magedon) in Revelation 16:16 (see Josh 12:21; 17:11; Judg 1:27; 5:19; 1 Kng 4:12; 9:15; 2 Kng 9:27; 23:29; 23:30; 1 Chron 7:29; and 2 Chron 35:22).
Question: What significant Old Testament events happened at Megiddo? See
Josh 12:21;
Judg 5:19;
2 Kng 9:22-29; 23:29-30;
2 Chron 35:20-25.
Answer:
According to the records discovered in the Assyrian archives, the plain of Megiddo was also where the Assyrians assembled the ten northern tribes of Israel, after the defeat of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC. The Assyrians sent the Israelites into exile in Assyrian territories to the east (2 Kng 17:5-6). These tribes never experienced a return to their ancestral lands and are referred to as "the lost tribes of Israel." The Assyrians resettled five Gentile groups in what had been the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The same Assyrian archives documented the capture of Megiddo ten years earlier in 732 BC and the establishment of Megiddo as Assyrian King Tiglath-Pileser III's provincial headquarters of Samaria.
Writing in circa 480 BC, the prophet Zechariah associates the "plain of Megiddo" with death and mourning (Zech 12:1-14), remembering the exile of the ten Northern tribes and prophesizing that the Messianic age will come about through a mysterious death when the inhabitants of Jerusalem will mourn for "the one they have pierced" during a future siege of the city: They will mourn for the one whom they have pierced as though for an only child, and weep for him as people weep for a first-born child. When that day comes, the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad Rimmon in the Plain of Megiddo (Zech 12:11). John 19:37 interprets this passage as a prophecy of Jesus' Passion.
The town of Megiddo was abandoned in the Persian period circa 350 BC and never rebuilt until the occupation of the Romans during the first century AD. For the generation of St. John the Apostle, Mt. Carmel was a symbol of victory, while Megiddo was a symbol of defeat and desolation for those who set themselves against the Word of God. It would also become the site of the rendezvous of the forces that would inflict the greatest defeat the Jews would ever suffer as a people. In AD 69, from his headquarters at Caesarea, Emperor Vespasian's son, General Flavius Titus, assembled his Roman legions and auxiliary forces that had been rampaging through Samaria and Judah, on the Plain of Megiddo. It was from that site that General Titus launched the final assault on Judea, resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in the summer of AD 70.
The men who comprised Titus' fighting force were from the various provinces and client kingdoms across the Roman Empire who provided the fighting men of the Roman legions and the allied nation's auxiliary forces: men of the kings of the earth. The Twelfth Legion from Syria, stationed on the banks of the Euphrates River, joined Titus on April the 14th outside the gates of Jerusalem. The Jewish historian and chief priest, Joseph ben Matthias, who adopted the Roman name Flavius Josephus, described the force Titus assembled: "Titus, when he had gotten together part of his forces about him and had ordered the rest to meet him at Jerusalem, marched out of Caesarea. He had with him those three legions that had accompanied his father when he had laid Judea waste, together with that Twelfth Legion which had been formerly beaten with Cestius [Gallus]*; which legion, as it was otherwise remarkable for its valor, so did it march on now with greater alacrity to avenge themselves on the Jews, remembering what they had formerly suffered from them. Of these legions, he ordered the Fifth to meet him, by going through Emmaus, and the Tenth to go up by Jericho; he also moved himself, together with the rest; besides whom marched those auxiliaries that came from the kings, being now more in number than before, together with considerable number that came to his assistance from Syria" (The Wars of the Jews, 5.1.6[40-42]). * The Jewish rebels defeated Cestius Gallus' Twelfth Legion in AD 66. He died in AD 67, either from wounds during the failed campaign or vexation over his defeat.
It was in the spring when the Roman legions marched on Jerusalem. It was time for the annual feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread (Nisan 14th and the 15th — 21st), and since Unleavened Bread was a "pilgrim feast" (Ex 23:14-17; 34:18-24; Dt 16:16), there were Jews in the city from across the Roman Empire. When the Jerusalem fell to the Romans, the total number of deaths, according to Josephus, an eyewitness to the destruction, came to 1,100,000 Jews and the enslavement and disbursement of surviving Jews into the Gentile nations of the Roman Empire totaled 97,000, with only 40,000 permitted to remain free (from Jerusalem with an unknown number from the rest of the province). It was the literal "end of the world" for Judea and the Old Covenant people of God as announced by the voice from Heaven: "The end has come" (Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, 6.9.3 (420-21; 6.8.2 [386], Rev 16:17).
Revelation 16:17-21 ~ The Seventh Chalice Judgment
17 The seventh angel emptied [ekcheo] his bowl [chalice]
into the air, and a great voice boomed out from the Sanctuary [naos]. The end
has come. 18 Then there were flashes of lightning and peals of
thunder and a violent earthquake, unparalleled since humanity first came into
existence. 19 The Great City was split into three parts, and the cities
of the world [land] collapsed; Babylon the Great was not forgotten: God made
her drink the full wine cup of his retribution. 20 Every
island vanished, and the mountains disappeared; 21 and hail,
with great hailstones weighing a talent each, fell from the sky on the people.
They cursed God for sending a plague of hail; it was the most terrible plague."
The Temple was the final stronghold against the Roman army in AD 70. Josephus recorded that the twice-daily Tamid sacrifice, ordained as a perpetual sacrifice as long as the Sinai Covenant endured (Ex 29:38-42), ended on the 17th of Tamuz (The Jewish Wars, 6.2.2 [94]). Concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, Jesus prophesied that many would die but there would be those who would escape (Mt 24:21-22; Lk 17:36). He could not have been speaking of the Final Judgment since none will escape that event. Daniel's prophecy must be referring to the events of AD 70 as well, since the end of the "perpetual/standing" Tamid sacrifice, associated with the prediction of the great judgment in Daniel 11:31 and 12:11, did not take place until just before the destruction of the Temple by the Roman army in AD 70. The vengeful Roman legions became Christ's "coming in judgment" against His enemies in the Wrath of the Lamb! For more information on the daily Temple worship services of the Tamid sacrifice, see Jesus and the Mystery of the Tamid Sacrifice.
In the Book of Revelation, John is told "now" is the time to reveal the secret/mystery and to unseal the scroll that Daniel had to keep secret in Daniel 12:9. In Revelation 10:7-8, a "powerful angel" told John: "The time of waiting is over; at the time when the seventh angel is heard sounding his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled, just as he announced in the gospel to his servants the prophets." Then I heard the voice I had heard from heaven speaking to me again. "Go," it said, "and take that open scroll from the hand of the angel standing on the sea and land."
17 The seventh angel emptied [ekcheo] his bowl [chalice]
into the air, and a great voice boomed out from the Sanctuary. The end has come.
Suddenly the scene changes, and "a great voice" makes an announcement (verse 17).
Question: From where does John hear the voice and what is the
announcement? What is the connection to Daniel 12:4 and 9-13 and ?
Answer: When the seventh angel poured out the seventh
chalice, a great voice from the Sanctuary in Heaven announced, "The End Has
Come!" (Rev 16:17), fulfilling the prophecy Daniel received referring to the
end of the Old Covenant and its ligurgy of worship.
The "great voice" heard from the Sanctuary (naos) must be the voice of God (also see Rev 16:1), because no one else is able to enter the Sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed (Rev 15:8). In Greek, "the end has come" is a single word, ghegonen. "It is finished or fulfilled" were the words of the host at the ceremonial close of the Passover Feast and Jesus' last (or next to the last) words from the cross recorded in the Gospel of St. John (John 19:30) when He said: "Tetelestai," "It is finished [accomplished, completed]," from the root word teleo.
The phrase ghegonen is the central theme of the Book of Revelation as announced by Christ's warnings to the seven churches in Revelation Chapters 2-3 (see Rev 2:5, 25, 26; 3:3, 11). The Old Covenant is "fulfilled," as Jesus promised in Matthew 5:17 when He said, "Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them." It is also the fulfillment of Hebrews 9:8 that the New Covenant could not be fully implemented until the Old Covenant passed away as long as the old tent stands the way into the Holy Place is not opened up.
Question: How many times did Christ warn the seven churches in
His letters that the end was coming soon?
Answer: In the letters to the seven churches, there were five
warnings of coming judgment to
Ephesus in 2:5,
Pergamum in 2:16,
Thyatira in 21-23,
Sardis in 3:3, and
Laodicea in 3:18-19.
Question: What did Jesus prophesize concerning the destruction
of Jerusalem in Matthew 24:15-22, and what is the connection to Daniel's
prophecies of the "appalling abomination" repeated three times in Daniel 9:27; 11:31,
and 12:11?
Answer: In Matthew 24:15-22, Jesus foretold the fulfillment of
Daniel's judgment prophecies in 9:23-27, 11:31-35 and 12:5-13, and the appalling
abomination (Mt 24:15; Dan 9:27; 11:31; 12:11) set up in the Jerusalem Temple
after the end of the Temple's liturgical sacrifice and worship services.
In the Book of Daniel, a heavenly figure told the prophet "the end" of the Old Covenant was coming when the perpetual sacrifice of the Tamid would come to an end (Dan 12:10, 11). In Daniel 12:13, an angel tells the prophet he must "rest" or "sleep" before he rises for his reward. The reference to "the end" is not the end of time but the end of the Temple sacrifices and the old covenant. Daniel would rest in Sheol, the abode of the dead (also called in Jesus' time "Abraham's Bosom" in Luke 16:22), until Jesus gives up His life on the cross. At that time, Jesus, like all humans who die, descended to Sheol to preach the Gospel of Salvation to all who reside there, the good and the wicked. Those who believe in Him and accept His gift of salvation, like Daniel, will be taken by Him into the gates of heaven. See CCC# 536; 632-37; 1026; 1 Pt 3:18-19; 4:6; and Heb 2:14.
The prophecy Daniel received concerning the "appalling abomination" (Dan 11:31 & 12:11) and the prophecy Jesus repeats in Matthew 24:15 reaches fulfillment on the 9th of Ab, AD 70 (this is the same day and month the Babylonians destroyed Solomon's Temple in 587/6 BC). After the Romans burned the Temple and subdued the city, the Legions of Titus set up their military standards (depicting pagan gods) in the ruined Temple and offered pagan sacrifice within the sacred precincts. This event was undoubtedly the "appalling abomination." Josephus wrote: "And now the Romans, upon the flight of the seditious into the city, and upon the burning of the holy house itself, and all the buildings round about it, brought their ensigns to the temple, and set them over against its eastern gate; and there did they offer sacrifices to them" (Flavius Josephus, Wars of the Jews, 6.6.1 [316]). Daniel 7:23 identifies the "fourth kingdom as a kingdom which is different from all other kingdom. It will devour the whole world (Dan 7:23). The Roman Empire covered what was the "known world" of the first century AD. Earlier in Daniel's prophecies in 2:31-45, four historical kingdoms can be identified, which in turn conquered and dominated the Holy Land. They were Babylon, Persian, Alexander the Great and the Greek kingdoms that succeed Alexander upon his death, and the Roman Empire, which is the fourth kingdom. See the chart on Daniel's prophecy concerning the five successive kingdoms in Revelation Lesson 16 (Chapter 13) and handout 2 for that lesson.
Question: What is the connection in this passage to the seventh
Trumpet Judgment in Revelation 11:15-19 and to one of the judgment plagues that
afflicted the Egyptians? Is there a connection to the revelation of God on Mt.
Sinai in Exodus 19:16-25?
Answer: The Trumpet judgment had voices, storm, earthquake,
and hail (Rev 11:15, 19) like the seventh Chalice Judgment (Rev 16:17), and it
is reminiscent of the hail of the seventh Egyptian plague. These manifestations
of nature are also similar to the Theophany of God at Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19:16-19 where there were peals of thunder, flashes of lightning, trumpet
blasts (voices), and the mountain shaking in an earthquake.
While the lightning, thunder, and violent earthquake of Revelation 16:18 are all reminiscent of the Theophany of God at Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19:15-20, the next phrase, unparalleled since humanity first came into existence, recalls the disaster Jesus prophesized for the city of Jerusalem.
Revelation 16:19's Great City is the same Great City where "the Lord was crucified" (11:8; 14:8). God intended Jerusalem to be a "the light of the world, a city set on a hill," but it denigrated into an apostate, harlot murderess and condemned to perish under the Law. Under the seventh and final Chalice Judgment, Jerusalem will be split into three parts (Rev 16:19). The imagery is from the Book of Ezekiel Chapter 5 in which God instructs Ezekiel to act out the coming destruction of Jerusalem by dividing his beard into three parts and burning them separately (Ez 5:1-17).
During the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70, the city was physically and emotionally torn apart by three Jewish factions fighting against each other for control. The Roman general Titus (son of Emperor Vespasian) besieged the city from the outside, but three leaders of the Jews were destroying Jerusalem from within (Josephus, The Jewish War, 5.5.1-5).
There is another irony in Revelation 16:19. In Deuteronomy Chapter 6, Moses instructed Israel to remember God's covenant and His kindness in their deliverance from Egyptian oppression. However, in this final judgment, there is no place to hide. The great hailstorm is another reference to the Book of Ezekiel 13:1-16, in which Yahweh addresses His prophet: "Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel; prophesy and say to those who make up prophecies out of their own heads, Hear what Yahweh says: The Lord Yahweh says this: Disaster is in store for the foolish prophets ... it will rain hard; it will hail, it will blow a gale and down will come the wall.'" It didn't hail snow pellets in 587 BC when the Babylonians broke through the walls of Jerusalem, nor when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem's walls; rocks hailed down from siege engines. The "hail of stones" from Roman siege engines recalls not only the plague of hail on Egypt but also the large stones from heaven that God threw down upon Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24) and later the Canaanites when Joshua conquered the Promised land (Josh 10:11) and as Deborah sang in the Book of Judges, claiming that the stars of heaven made war against the enemies of God (Judg 5:20).
Deborah's song isn't any more literal than the Revelation passage. It is symbolic just as the Revelation passage and Ezekiel's prophecy against Jerusalem in 587 BC was symbolic. There might also be an historical connection to the "hailstones"/boulders the Roman siege engines threw against the walls of Jerusalem as recorded by Josephus: "The engines that all the legions had ready prepared for them were admirably contrived; but still more extraordinary ones belonged to the Tenth Legion: those that threw darts and those that threw stones, were more forcible and larger than the rest ... Now the stones that were cast were of the weight of a talent" (The Wars of the Jews, 5.6.3 [269-70]); a talent is about 88 pounds).
The chalice containing the last of the plagues of God's wrath was "poured out" on Jerusalem, but this was not "the end." The next chapter will deal with the destruction of the great Harlot-City and her allies. The final chapters will conclude with the revelation of the glorious Bride of the Lamb: the true and Holy New Jerusalem, the Catholic Church, and the Final Judgment to come at the end of time as we know it!
Catechism references for this
lesson (* indicates Scripture quoted
or paraphrased in the citation):
Rev 16:15 (CCC 2849)
Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2000, revised 2020 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.