Fr. Stephen De Young: Verse nine: “Here is the mind which has wisdom.” That “is,” I don’t think they should have it. Notice the “is” is in italics; that means they added it. The idea here is more like: “Here is wisdom for the mind. Here’s the key. Here’s the trick. Here’s the thing. This is the thing; here it is.”

“The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.” If you want just blunt, whack-you-over-the-head symbolism, Rome is built on seven hills. Let’s be clear, right now, she’s sitting in Rome. [Laughter]

Verse ten: “There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come, and when he comes he must continue a short time. The beast that was and is not is himself also the eighth and is of the seven and is going to perdition.” So again more riddle-sounding things. This is, as we’ve seen a few other things, like the number of the beast— I mean, “seven mountains on which it sits” is pretty— But this is a little more coded. This is this reference to the beast being the eighth, who isn’t and will be and da-da-da-da-da: this is another Nero reference, to the whole wounded and coming back thing we talked about when we talked about the number of the beast, this idea that was around at the time St. John was having this vision and stuck around into the fifth century at least, that Nero was somewhere and was going to come back.

Also, referring to the Caesars as “kings” was an insult, if you’re a Roman. “Rex” was the one title Caesar never took, because “king” was, for Romans, synonymous with the tyrants who had ruled before the Republic. They were sort of everything bad. So referring to Caesar as a king was essentially a big— Yeah. So you see that in some very early United States political cartoons. They would portray the president like he was King George, and that was sort of a slap for the same reason. It was saying, “Oh, you’re just as bad as…” It was the same kind of thing with the Romans, calling him a king.

Verse twelve:

The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with him are called, chosen, and faithful.

These are future kings. St. John always has set out, even though he says that these are things which are soon to come to pass, these are contemporary things, he never makes this claim like Christ is going to return in the next year and a half. The point is these kings rule for, like, “an hour.” What does that portray? There’s this succession of human kings that each have this time, but where is their authority really from? The beast. So it’s not these individual human kings who are the problem; it’s the beast. It’s the beast. And we’ve talked before about how this fits with how St. Paul saw things. This is why St. Paul wanted to go and preach the Gospel to Caesar. He wanted Caesar to become a Christian, which would have meant separating him from the beast. So it’s not these kings who are the problem; it’s this spiritual force who’s motivating them and driving them to this evil and destruction and chaos in the world.

They’re going to make war with Christ. They’re drinking the blood of the martyrs. But, as he says, Christ is going to win.

Just because the word “chosen” came up again, and I haven’t had a “sorry, Calvinists” in a little bit… We’ve got to look at how these words are laid out. We’ve got: called, chosen, faithful. Obviously, we’re using these three things because they represent three different things. We find over and over again, for example, in Christ’s teaching, he says over and over again, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” So “called” is sort of the broadest thing. The Gospel is a call—to repentance, a call to faithfulness. So the call goes out, willy-nilly, to everybody. Many are called.

Q1: That’s the seeds in the parable.

Fr. Stephen: Right, right. So then we have this interaction between “chosen” and “faithful.” Out of the big “called,” some are chosen and some are faithful, and “faithful” is a subset of “chosen.” In the same way that “chosen” is a subset of “called,” “faithful” is a subset of “chosen.” That means that “chosen” doesn’t just mean, like, picked, like “I picked this guy for my team.” “This is a good guy: you’re a good guy because I decided to make you a good guy.” This is the “sorry, Calvinists” part.

This also does not mean, as an anti-Calvinist not far from here—I’m going to do my first “sorry, Leighton Flowers.” [Laughter] It also does not mean “choice” like “USDA choice meat”: “These are the really choice people.” People listening to the recording will not see the face I just made, but that’ll just be for you who are here. But you’re chosen—you’re chosen for something. How do I know that this means you’re chosen to do some particular thing? Because it goes with “faithful.” So out of those who receive the call, there’s a subset of those who are chosen for a purpose, and then some of those are faithful to that purpose and some are not, which is where the Calvinist part kind of falls apart, because from the Calvinist perspective, the called, the chosen, and the faithful would be, like, a circle, complete overlap, Venn diagram. The fact that these are subsets shows there are some people who are faithful to that calling and what they’re chosen for in Christ, and then there are some who are not faithful to that. So those who are with the Lamb are all three. They received the call, they’re chosen for a particular purpose, and they are faithful to that purpose.

Verse 15: “Then he said to me: The waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.” Remember, water is this symbol of chaos, so this is just all the people out there in the world, the churning mass of humanity, who are described in the book of Jonah: they don’t know their right hand from their left, but who are being dominated by the beast. Rome has taken over the world.

Verse 16: “And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill his purpose, to be of one mind and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.” Babylon. Remember those ten are the future kings, these other kings in the future, who are going to be the embodiment of the beast in the future. And what do they do? They turn on the harlot and the burning and the— What happened to Rome?

Q1: Well, Rome gets burned and all that, but I don’t understand: the kings are all a part of this.

Fr. Stephen: Ultimately. So what happens to Rome? Rome gets burnt. The Western Roman Empire collapses, a thousand years go by, Eastern Roman Empire collapses. And what happens? There’s another kingdom that comes in, but that kingdom is not something other than an embodiment of the beast. The idea is that is seems like there’s this change, like: “Oh, now the Assyrians are gone; it’s the Babylonians.” But it’s: meet the new boss, same as the old boss. “The Babylonians are gone, and oh, look: now it’s the Greeks. Oh, good, we got rid of the Greeks, and now it’s the Romans.” And on and on and on and on and on is the idea.

God brings judgment on each of these empires. Eventually their abominations catch up with them and they fall, but the people who come in afterwards end up falling into the same trap. They end up being motivated by the same spirit that motivated the old ones. They turn around and start doing the same things. One of my favorite quotes from Mikhail Bacunin is—he said, “If the people are being beaten with a stick, they don’t much care if you call it the people’s stick.” [Laughter] But he was pointing that out. You stage this revolution for the people, and then the revolutionaries take over and do the same things the people they just overthrew were doing.

Q3: It’s interesting though that almost every empire kind of climbed this mirror? And almost turns into… I remember when in the Romans—one of their criticisms, at one point was like: You’re looking too much like Persia. And they become decadent, and they wanted to get back to their roots and all this. It’s interesting, with the imagery of all the people as the water, and then it’s like nothing can— Even in the beast and the harlot itself as images, it’s constant.

Fr. Stephen: Yeah, and because it’s a spirit that’s about chaos and destruction, there’s not a spirit that’s about stability and health and human flourishing.

Q3: [Inaudible] Seven heads…

Fr. Stephen: Yeah, it’s moving in different directions.

Q1: I keep trying to see how the British Empire is the exception… [Laughter]

Fr. Stephen: Yeah.

Q2: Well, the Bible’s going to end in five more chapters, and we’re not going to see it [Inaudible].

Fr. Stephen: [Laughter] Yeah. And it hasn’t been the British since the end of World War II. It’s been somebody else, and you’re living there right now! Yes, this is where, as I teased—right now, that’s the United States. We’ve been in some ways more subtle about it, not that we haven’t militarily dominated the world, because we have—we’re a little more subtle about that, too—but mostly it’s been our consumer capitalist culture that we’ve used to take over the world. To the point that where I was in England recently—we were on a long drive. We stopped at a place to get some food, and I saw a Burger King, a Domino’s… I’m like: This is not what I came to England for, but I found a fish-and-chips place which was close enough. There’s a McDonald’s everywhere. So, yeah, don’t fool ourselves. Even if you believe in American exceptionalism, we’re not an exception to this role. That same spirit is motivating our higher-ups, and pretty much always has been. And, you know, we may not be any more within our lifetime. We’ll see what happens. We’re one reserve currency change away from ending up like Britain after World War II. But, on that happy note… [Laughter] Chapter 18.

After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory, and he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying: Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling-place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird.

More great translations. “I hate that bird!” Somebody thinks pigeons are sky-rats, clearly. But the idea here, this is imagery that’s actually picked up from—Isaiah uses it a lot, but other prophets also, of sort of a city that’s been reduced to desolation, some city that’s fallen and not been rebuilt and is now uninhabited. Wild animals—that’s what they mean by unclean birds. The unclean animals were the animals outside the camp, wild animals, non-domesticated animals. So this isn’t chickens; this is vultures, buzzards, scavenger birds that are unclean. Why are they there? Well, because there’s corpses for them to pick at, because this city has been destroyed.

It was common in Jewish belief to believe that in these destroyed cities that were never rebuilt, the gods that were worshiped there sort of haunted the place as demonic spirits. That’s why it’s a house for demons now. The whole idea is it’s now desolated and uninhabited and a ruined city. It’s been defeated.

Remember, this is after these things. So we’ve now moved ahead. We’re coming to the end of this cycle again. This succession of kingdoms motivated by the spirit is not going to go on forever; it’s not just this endless cycle repeating itself, but it’s going to have an end.

“For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” This isn’t just a matter of, like, political tyranny or a police state or something. Remember, this is an image of seduction.

Q1: And this is where our consumer culture comes in.

Fr. Stephen: Yes. Yes, but this was true of Rome, too. Rome opened up trade even beyond its borders, to the Far East, all over the place. The Roman way of life seduced people. We see this with the Sadducees. We see this with lots of sort of collaborators in Judea, wanting to sign on with the Roman way of life, forget about their God, forget about— This was a constant pull. For Christians, we saw this, especially in St. Paul’s letters to Corinth, that they had come out of this pagan world, Roman world, Roman system, and become Christians, and in so doing had cut themselves off from their trade guild and civic life and all these things. And there was this constant push to go back, to go back.

This has been all through history. This isn’t something that stops there. If you’re a Christian in a primarily Islamic country—there’s everything in the world to motivate you to want to convert to Islam! You’d have a lot of privileges and things would become a lot of easier if you do that, and over the centuries Christian families did convert there. Under communism, there was a lot of pressure to just give up on the whole Christianity part, and you’d do a whole lot better in the world if you became part of the Soviet system, if you got on board with the party. So this is continuous.

And it’s more slippery and subtle in a place like the United States of America, where the same thing exists; we just are better able to trick ourselves, because Starbucks, McDonald’s, Amazon, Bill Gates—they don’t come out and attack Christianity publicly. They don’t come out and say, “Hey, you need to stop being a Christian to sign on.” They just say, “Hey, sign on! You can have it all. Here’s the lifestyle you can have. Here’s what you can have.” Then they never express it as: “Oh, by the way, you’re going to have to basically give up living a Christian way of life.” They never present it to you that way, which makes it all the more subtle and seductive.

Q2: “[Inaudible] But I’m not giving up Amazon.”

Fr. Stephen: [Laughter] But you take my point. Jeff Bezos has the largest yacht in the world. It is 357 feet long. That’s his yacht, not his companion yacht that follows the yacht, so that he can land his helicopter on his companion yacht and not disturb the party on his yacht while he takes a boat from the companion yacht to the yacht. Anyway. We’re going to be talking about the rich man and Lazarus this Sunday… [Laughter]

But so there’s this seductive thing. This is everywhere. This is a constant for Christians. This is the world versus Christians. As I was saying, in some ways, where there’s this stark contrast, where the persecution is open and obvious, in a way at least your decisions are clear-cut, whereas when that persecution is not obvious, when it’s more on this level of seduction, when the temptations are more subtle, that makes our decisions much less clear and much more difficult, require much more thought and care from us.

Verse four: “I heard another voice from heaven, saying: Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.” Remember, we had the bowls, this Exodus imagery. Judgment is coming upon her. This is over, this is ending, and so now the righteous are now called to come out of the world. They’ve had to live in the world; they didn’t have an option, but now God is saying, “Hey, come out, so that you don’t face the judgment.”

There’s a little something there: “For her sins have reached to heaven.” This is a reference back to the Tower of Babel, the first time Babylon showed up in the Bible. Remember, they were trying to build a tower that reached to heaven? This is: her sins have piled up until it reached heaven. So now judgment is coming, and that “God has remembered her iniquities.” Obviously, this is not, like, he forgot but now: “Oh, yeah! I need to do something about Babylon.” This is— “Remembered” is the opposite of “forgiven.” Why are they not being forgiven? Because there’s no repentance, as we saw with the bowls.

Verse six:

Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works. And the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow. For she says in her heart: I sit as queen and am no widow and will not see sorrow. Therefore her plagues will come in one day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

All of these empires at their peak, and the spirit motivating them, are always invulnerable. “Nothing bad will happen to me. See how I live. Everything is perfect; everything is wonderful. We’re the greatest thing the world has ever seen. We sit astride— The sun never sets on our empire.” Pick your historical epoch and empire. And in that hubris, that just means that judgment comes unexpectedly. That just means you don’t see it coming when it all comes crashing down, because you become so sort of drunk with power and pride.

Verse nine: “The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying: Alas! Alas! That great city, Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour your judgment has come.” They won’t see it coming either. And this is part of that imagery that Christ is always referring to, of “the last shall be first and the first shall be last.” So these kings of the earth that they’re talking about, these are the people who have become powerful and become mighty through their allegiance to this sort of demonic power that’s motivating this world system. So when that all comes crashing down, they’re going to be left with nothing. That’s why they’re all now mourning. “Oh no! How could this happen?” These are the same people who were cursing God about the bad things happening before, because they put all their hope in what they had built.

Verse eleven:

And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise any more, merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble, and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men.

So these are people taking slaves, too, to boot. So: shot at slavery in there.

“The fruit that your soul has longed for has gone from you, and all the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all.” All these things that they valued so highly, that they thought were so precious, all the merchants, all wheeler-dealers, he who dies with the most toys wins—all these possessions, all these things he’s talking about, are now gone. What have you got left? They’re not coming back, because this is the end.

The merchants of these things who became rich by her will stand at a distance for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying: Alas! Alas! That great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, for in one hour such great riches came to nothing. Every shipmaster, all who travel by ship, sailors and as many as trade on the sea stood at a distance, and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying: What is like this great city?

It’s all over.

They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying: Alas! Alas! That great city in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she is made desolate. Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her.

Those are the people whose blood she was drinking. Right now, St. John is saying, you look out at the world. You see the Romans, who looked powerful and strong, and their way of life is seductive, and they have all these technological innovations, and they have all these mighty armies that are portrayed as undefeatable, even though they’ve already been defeated a few times by this point, but portrayed as undefeatable. And you see all this, and you see them killing, wiping out the Jews in Palestine, killing Christians. You see them doing these things, feasting on the blood of martyrs. One might look at that and say, “Hey, maybe I’m on the wrong side? Like, things don’t seem to be going well for us? We’re supposed to be righteous?”

St. John is saying: There’s more to this picture that you’re not seeing. One is the spirit that’s motivating this, that this is a spirit of chaos and evil and destruction, not of glory or beauty or power or strength or any of those things. And then, number two, the time is going to come when what you’re seeing now is going to get flipped on its head, when the people who are high and mighty and powerful now are going to be laid low, when the people who, right now, are being killed, being persecuted, being beaten, they’re going to be lifted up; they’re going to be the ones rejoicing. They’re going to be the ones rejoicing.

Verse 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 any more. The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you any more, no craftsmen of any craft shall be found in you any more, and the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you any more. The light of a lamp shall not shine in you any more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you any more. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived, and in her was found the blood of prophets and saints and of all who were slain on the earth.”

These examples that get picked about craftsmen and about musical instruments, these are drawn from Cain’s genealogy in Genesis; these are the things that Cain’s progeny invent after he builds his city. All of these things that you prided yourself upon, your ability to feed a massive people—that’s the millstones—your art and culture, your craftsmanship and technology: all of these things that you pride yourself on, those are done. That’s over; that’s gone.

And that’s because the flip-side of that, the flip-side of all of those things, was all of this blood from all of the victims of your civilization.

Chapter 19, verse one:

After these things, I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God, for true and righteous are his judgments, because he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants shed by her.” Again they said, “Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever.”

So this is— Remember there was the call from the angel for them to rejoice because Babylon has fallen, and so now we see in heaven that rejoicing happen. Notice, they’re not rejoicing over humans going to hell. They’re not rejoicing at humans being punished. They’re rejoicing that this world system, this spirit who had oppressed and victimized them, has now been defeated and will be making no more victims. This is one of the things we have to be clear about in the Bible. Very often in the Bible the enemies being talked about are spiritual enemies. It’s talking about spiritual warfare, not talking about a human does a bad thing and so God smacks them over the head or smites them. That’s not what this is aimed at. So this is aimed at— Remember, this is the spiritual force that was riding Rome. Remember, this is the spirit who’s thrown down and whose smoke goes up forever. That’s why they’re rejoicing. They’re rejoicing because that is over, because that judgment has happened.

This is consistent, all the way back to the Passover in Exodus. God says, “I’m going to render judgment against all the gods of Egypt.” It’s the spiritual powers that God is about breaking, and breaking their hold over humanity, that then leaves humanity free to choose to follow God or not, to choose to repent or not.

Verse four: “And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying: Amen! Alleluia! Then a voice came from the throne saying: Praise our God, all you his servants, and those who fear him, both small and great.” So now we’re back to— Remember, this is where, before we started all the cycles, this is where we were. St. John was standing before the throne of God and seeing the worship, the 24 elders, the four living creatures. We’re back there now at the end of the cycles. This is now. We’ve ended up in the same place.

Verse six: “And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters, as the sound of mighty thunderings.” So he’s saying this is a big crowd, all engaging in this worship together. “Saying: Alleluia! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns”—or “reigneth” if you want to go…

Q2: Handel.

Fr. Stephen: [Laughter] Yes, if you want to get a “Handel” on it.

Verse seven: “Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.” What we’ve just seen at the end of that last cycle is the end of the world, under that one definition of “world,” not the material creation, not these things, but this world system that’s sort of powered by the demonic. That’s now done away with. Remember, the people of God were called out. There was this Passover symbolism.

So now who is it who’s going to be married to the Lamb? Also Passover symbolism. It is that people who have been called out: the Church, the people of God. Now’s the time for the consummation of all things. That’s what this is referring to.

Verse eight: “And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” Remember, the saints themselves were wearing these white linen garments previously in the book, and now they as a whole—now they’re being treated as a whole, as one whole body—is arrayed in white linen, and is a “she.” So the correct pronoun, technically, for referring to the Church is “she.” Certain editors of mine have not liked that and thought it was quaint, but I can do it anyway, because I’m stubborn. [Laughter]

So that’s the idea. Now we have the whole Church as this bride, in this bridal dress of this white linen, and the whiteness of the linen is the righteous acts of the saints. More works righteousness sneaking in here.

Verse nine: “Then he said to me: Write: Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me: These are the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me: See that you do not do that. I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” There’s a couple interesting things here. Remember when he saw that first figure, who we said was Jesus, and he fell down and worshiped him? He didn’t say, “Stop.” And we see people worshiping the Lamb. But now this person whom he’s talking to—

Q1: This is the angel.

Fr. Stephen: —who’s his guide. Well, is he an angel? We’ll get there in a second. But this person who is his guide, who when he starts worshiping him says, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! No, no, no, no! Enough of that!” [Laughter] Notice what he says. He says, “I am your fellow servant and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus,” implying that this is a human, because that’s what “brethren”—“your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus.” “Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” So you need to be worshiping God, i.e., Christ himself.

But this goes back to, in terms of who this is, then— Remember when we talked about how St. John might have been talking to himself? He might still be talking to himself. And you shouldn’t worship yourself; that’s bad. It’s kind of narcissistic. I’m just throwing that out there. [Laughter]

Verse eleven: “Now I saw heaven opened, and behold: a white horse, and he who sat on him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.” Remember, we’re gearing up for the wedding supper of the Lamb. This imagery is picking up—it’s not just all through the gospels with the bridegroom and the bride that Christ uses, but this goes back into the Old Testament, where Israel is God’s bride, who was not as well arrayed as this bride. So this imagery now of—spoilers—Christ riding out on this white horse is— You know, we have the bride coming arrayed in the white linen. Now we have the bridegroom riding out to her.

Verse twelve: “His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except himself.” That seems strange! [Laughter] But this is another reflexive hint as to who this is. I say “reflexive” because, remember back in the letters to the seven churches, one of the promises to one of the churches was “I will give you a new name that only I know,” that only Christ knows—well, Christ has a name that only Christ knows is the idea there.

Q1: This is the opposite of the harlot whose name was written all over.

Fr. Stephen: Oh, yeah, and blasphemous names.

Verse 13: “He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.” Logos Theou, the beginning of St. John’s gospel again, pretty clear. And the blood is his own blood.

“And the armies of heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses.” So this is the bridegroom and his party. It’s the hosts of heaven [who] are following him out to his bride.

“Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should strike the nations, and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” This is picking up on messianic imagery from Isaiah and other prophets, that ruling with a rod of iron, that scepter, all the way back in Genesis 49 and the tribe of Judah. “You will rule over the nations.” That imagery here is all being— So we’ve got the Word of God imagery, we’ve got the Messiah imagery: all of this is being put onto Christ as he rides out to meet his bride.

Verse 16: “And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written.” This is the third name we’ve been given. He has the name known only to himself, he has the name the Word of God, and now he has this name. “King of kings and Lord of lords.” And that’s not just… So that is correctly taken as an intensifier, but it’s not just an intensifier. “King of kings” doesn’t just mean the great king; it also means the king who rules over all other kings. When we say that God, like the God of Israel, is the God of gods, we do mean he’s the Most High God, but we also mean that anything else called a god worships him as God. He is the King of everyone who calls themselves king; he is the Lord of anyone who calls themselves a lord. And that de facto makes them a greater lord or a higher lord than [they are].

Verse 17:

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.”

[Laughter] Yeah. So I alluded to this last time briefly, that this was coming up. This is imagery again drawn out of the Old Testament prophets, and even out of the psalms. This has to do with these forces of chaos and evil. For example, when it says that God had smashed the heads of Leviathan and given him as food to the Ethiopians. You say: Well, that’s weird. [Laughter] But the idea there is God defeats these forces of chaos that were anti-creation; they were against his creation. They were about destruction and death and destroying his creation. He defeats them, and then offers them as food to his creation. So he takes these forces of death and destruction and makes them a source of sustenance and life. That’s the imagery that’s being used. Their defeat and destruction becomes a source of sustenance and life to the creation.

That imagery is not just about God being able to take evil and use it for good, though it is for that, but it goes further than that in the sense that, like: Why does God allow these forces to be around and do things? Why does he allow these things to go on for as long as he does? We’ve talked about how, even though we tend to translate it in English as “tempting,” usually the words that are used mean more like “testing.” And it’s not testing like God’s going to give us a test, because God doesn’t know where our heart is or God doesn’t know what we’ll do; that’s not what it means. It’s testing like when you’re purifying and refining metal when you’re working as a blacksmith. You have to keep testing the metal. You have to keep applying pressure and heat to it—and that strengthens it.

The idea is not only that God will bring good out of this evil, but that God is sort of continuously bringing good out of the evil in the world for those who love him. It’s not just, for example, Joseph gets sold into slavery by his brothers and ends up saving their lives from a famine, but that is an example of it; that there is continuously at least this potential for the faithful, depending on how we receive things, for these evil things to be ultimately turned to good—not through us giving into the evil or becoming part of the evil, but through us participating in the victory over that evil. We come out the other side of the struggle stronger and better than we were before we engaged in the struggle.

And so the imagery here of the creation is signified by all these beasts, by all these wild animals. They’re being called out. The angel’s calling them all out because: “Hey, you’re about to have a big banquet.” This wedding banquet is for the whole creation.

Verse 19:

And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth and their armies, gather together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army. Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet, who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.

So those spiritual forces—[Whtt]—into the lake of fire.

“And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.” These evil forces are defeated, and they become food for the creation in this celebration.

And now I am going to end, now that we stand on the brink of chapter 20. Next week, when we get together—Lord willing, we’ll be able to get together, and, Lord willing, we will cover chapters 20 and 21, and finish the Bible.

Q1: Whoo!

Fr. Stephen: And then we will start over.

Q2: Wow. And we’ve spent, what, 16 years on this?

Fr. Stephen: Twelve. Only twelve.

Q2: Oh, twelve.

Fr. Stephen: But, yes. So, Lord willing, we will—

Q1: We started in ‘92… [Laughter]

Fr. Stephen: We will finish up next time. But then we’ll be starting over. Thank you, everybody.