Quote from Bauckham's The Climax of Prophecy

From Richard Bauckham's, The Climax of Prophecy: Studies on the Book of Revelation, p. xv:

In his Introduction, Bauckham writes,

Chapter 8 (‘The Apocalypse as a Christian War Scroll’) investigates Revelation’s use and interpretation of another set of images drawn from apocalyptic tradition: those which relate to holy war and are applied in Revelation to the participation of Christians in God’s eschatological victory over evil. Study of the holy war motif in Revelation has been previously largely limited to the idea of God’s (and the Lamb’s) war against and victory over evil. This chapter shows that John carefully takes up Jewish expectations of a messianic war in which God’s people are to fight and win a military victory over their enemies, and reinterprets them, substituting faithful witness to the point of martyrdom for armed violence as the means of victory. Though military means are repudiated, the imagery of holy war is employed in the interests of active participation by Christians in the divine conflict with evil, following up the decisive victory which their Messiah, the Lamb, has already won. [Emphasis added -SMR]

Preliminary Thoughts on Babylon in the Book of Revelation

I think this is a vital topic for these days, and so I will introduce a number of amillennial commentators and their views. I favor the amil school over its rivals – Dispensationalists, Historic Premillennialists, Preterists, Historicists, and Postmillennialists – because it makes more sense to me and is accord with both a sound Biblical hermeneutic (method of interpretation) and the data of the Holy Scriptures themselves.

I’m assuming some knowledge of the subject in my readers, though I will try to accommodate those new to this area of inquiry with running brief intros along the way. I will also be generating some podcasts (from the parent Lightning Sword Journal site) to help further clarify these things. Of course readers and listeners may leave comments and questions, which I will try to respond to. I intend this to be educational.

I won’t engage in debates on the supposed merits of the other eschatological (end time) schools vis-à-vis the amil, as there are other forums for such discussions. This blog will remain highly focused, and will not meander in those realms.

One brief definition of eschatology is the study of “the final destiny of the soul and of humankind”, and an area of knowledge that purports to deal with such is Biblical prophecy. The basic presuppositions (things tacitly assumed beforehand) in all that I write is that there is a God – a Supreme Being – and He has spoken to humankind in a book He had His prophets put together, the Bible, comprised of the Old and New Testaments. In this Book He has revealed His character, His divine purposes, and all things pertaining to our creation and existence. It is also assumed that this entire piece of writing – the Bible – was inspired by God and is infallible in all the things it speaks of, and that God, through His wise and mighty providence, preserved it intact up through the ages. I not only assume these things, but defend them.

The value of Biblical prophecy is that we can see (looking backwards) that God often foretold things that were going to happen way before they did happen. Many prophecies are already fulfilled – especially those pertaining to the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, His life, death, resurrection, ascension into Heaven, and His everlasting reign over His glorious universal kingdom. Some of the things that have not been fulfilled yet are His return to intervene in the persecution of His beloved people at the end of this age – when the persecution will be world-wide, severe, and ghastly – and the soon-following day of judgment of all humans who have ever lived, and the subsequent consignment to the respective destinies the lives of those humans warranted, whether it be to the heavenly life on a renewed earth or the infernal existence in a place of torment. Granted, this latter is a horrific prospect, and one clear goal in my writings is to persuade men and women to avoid that destiny and choose the former, which will be a place of everlasting joy.

I am preparing writings in this vein which are to appear in the “21st Century Babylon” section (see Directory in the left sidebar) of Lightning Sword Journal. I focus on Babylon in Revelation because this end-time entity pertains to the world culture we live in and the nation we live in (if we are Americans), although I will refer to Revelation in its entirety as well, for the whole book is immensely relevant for our time.

Strategies of Seduction: Distraction & Deception

The stuff is so well done, so many genres to appeal to so many tastes, it’ll get a hook in multitudes!  Aliens, vampires, heroes, heroines, fantasy, sci fi, prowess, courage, beauty, raw power, rage, 21st century romance – now on a Big Screen (or smaller screens if you prefer, made for your phones or pads as well).

Exotic lands, planets, creatures, villains, monsters, superb weapons and strength – just sit back and relax, enjoy yourself.

In the meanwhile the invasion of planet earth continues, our extra-dimensional adversaries know how to use those already in their power – the artists, filmmakers and producers, writers, actors and actresses, high tech special effects – and your attention is arrested, you are lulled for the hit.  You never knew it was happening; you likely never will until you wake up on the other side of death:  the horror!  You have been taken, you have been had in a horror beyond what you ever thought possible – certainly the movies in whose thrall you were lulled never portrayed this reality!  You are dead and you are still awake; you see your body lying there and you aren’t in it, and there are creatures here – besides fellow humans in the same boat you’re in – who are terrors to look at, and their amused malice rippling across the currents of fury welling up in them now that they have you in their hands!  Why weren’t you warned of this!  Why weren’t you told this was coming?  How can it be!

But wait, you were told, it just didn’t strike you as true or real.   You just couldn’t be bothered with those jerks who told you you were morally accountable and that there was a God to answer to, and a spirit-world filled with devils and angels.  You actually hated those who talked – or even preached in the public places! – of Jesus Christ giving His life to pay for your sins so you could be forgiven them (for the asking!), and of His being raised from the dead so He could be your Savior and Shepherd on the throne of power in the Heavens to watch over you and protect you as you lived your life in the demon-infiltrated world.  You hated this kind of talk, and now you see it is true.

Everything was a lie!  Everything you believed in, wanted to believe in!  And the real heroes and heroines – the ones with genuine power and wisdom – were those you thought fools and jerks:  the ones who walked with the God of Heaven and earth, the Creator God, the God who so loved the world that He gave His only Son the Christ to save the perishing – and now you are perished!!!

Although you indeed have a terrible adversary – known as Lucifer the prince of demons – you were your own worst adversary, for you loved this world and its diversions and deceptions more than the truth; and you did know it was the truth, you just hated it, and suppressed the knowledge of it so you could get on with your pleasures, and with being the god of your own life – “to Hell with these preachers and their God!” was in your heart, but now it is you who have awoken in Hell.

Strategy #1 in the arsenal of Hell:  Divert the fools from considering the reality they are in; deceive them with delicious and fantastic dreams; keep them lulled until they are dead and in our hands, and we will vent our rage on these vile humans who have usurped our place in the favor of Heaven, who are creatures of the great Enemy on high!  Keep them distracted!  Never let up!

Delusion or Malice, take your pick: Evil news bias at the NYTimes

On Sunday February 26, 2012, the NYTimes online published a story, "In Nigeria, a Deadly Group's Rage Has Local Roots", wherein they painted the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram, as freedom fighters of a sort, with no mention of their continual slaughter of peaceful Christians in northern Nigeria (though initially these Christians did try to fight back).  The terrorist killers — linked to al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab — are bent on a campaign of "religious cleansing" to make the north a strictly Islamic state.  Their message to Christians:  If you stay, you die.  Ditto for any opposing the Islamic agenda.


For an accurate view see Barnabas Aid's reportage:  "Christians Flee Northern Nigeria As Deadly Attacks Continue" (see also sidebar with related articles).


This bias is nothing new at the NYT.  On Jan 24 of this year they wrote, "In Police Training, a Dark Film on U.S. Muslims" — this with respect to the courageous documentary, The Third Jihad.  The producer, Clarion Fund, says, "The New York Times cites the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a credible source, while continuing its policy of never mentioning that CAIR was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood."  CAIR has documented ties with numerous terrorist groups, as amply documented in the book, The Muslim Mafia, by Gaubatz and Sperry.  Clarion Fund did hit back with their video response, "Anatomy of a Smear", linked to on its The Third Jihad page. 


Reader, do you think I'm anti-American because of the theme image of Lightning Sword Journal above?  I'm not, but I am anti what America is becoming — is really far down the road to becoming! — the NYT just a precursor to what lies ahead.  For all its lofty "freedom-speak", NYT will betray us and become an organ of the Oppression.  If our beloved land betrays the principles on which it was founded and becomes a police state — actually far more than a police state, which I will elaborate on shortly — what is loyalty to America, cleaving to its original dream, and decrying its betrayal, or supporting an alien sort of Big Brother government that takes our freedoms from us (in the name of "safety" and "national security") and where freedom of speech — including freedom of the press — applies only to those who toe the line of acceptable submission to the State.


My grandfather, Stefan Von Müller, Editor of the Neue Freie Presse (New Free Press) in late 1930s Vienna, died in a Nazi prison while under Gestapo interrogation, as the "Jewish paper" Hitler loathed was no longer acceptable after the "Anschluss" of Austria, and had to be shut down.  I guess his blood is strong in my veins, and with the recent National Defense Authorization Act decreed into law (whereby American citizens may be detained indefinitely by the military for "national security" reasons — without any due process), I may have need of such blood.  He was, incidentally, a Jew who years earlier had converted to the Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth.


A good way to assess the agenda of radical Islam is to see how Muslims treat not only Christians in the countries where they are in power and Sharia law is enforced, but all who are not Muslims.  One can see in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Tunisia, Egypt, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Pakistan — I could go on and on! — one can see rapes, kidnappings, murders, bombings of churches, executions of pastors and their families, diversion of international aid in natural disasters, and various other kinds of oppression and persecution.


Which is not to say that all Muslims are like this.  An Egyptian friend of mine (Kamelia), an elderly woman, told me she has dear friends among her neighbors who are Muslim, and who love her.  And there are many others like this.  But the Koran, which is the Book that guides Muslims in the way they are to live, has in it the Suras mandating the enslaving, torturing, and killing of infidels — those who do not believe.  Even gentle Muslims may easily be radicalized, especially when violence and death are threatened against them and their families if they are not "devout" in their adherence to Muhammad and the Koran.


I regularly read the NYTimes, as their journalism is high quality. But then again, the devil produces high quality stuff as well.  There is a profound evil in their bias, which bodes ill for America.

Back in America after 9 years away!

For you folks who've been looking in on this site (and there've been quite a few) I apologize for being away for over a year!


Almost all of 2011 was taken up with the move from one country (Cyprus — part Middle-East, part Europe) back to the U.S., and when back most of the rest of the year was taken up looking for and getting an apartment, and then shipping a container full of our stuff over here — weight-wise mostly books! — and setting up so that's it's livable.  Which it now is.


You can see by the new Lightning Sword Journal image that there are going to be changes in focus.
From 2009 to 2010 I preached through the Book of Revelation, 60 sermons in all, not including the Babylon series.  I should explain how I came to be doing that:  With the help of an OPC (Orthodox Presbyterian Church) pastor I planted a church in the city of Limassol, and pastored it for four and a half years (and, earlier, an Arabic Evangelical church on the same premises for two and a half years.  With the Arabic-speaking folks I mostly spoke through translators).


At any rate, for over a year I pondered and studied the Book of Revelation.  I mean, I had been reading it for some forty years, but now studied it in depth, so as to be able to fully comprehend it, and then teach it.  Below I'll give a list of some of the commentators I used at that time, as well as some more I am studying presently.


It's an electrifying book!  In it the risen Lord Jesus speaks to the seven churches in Asia Minor (modern Turkey), and not just to them, but to all the churches extant then, and to all the churches up through the ages till now, and even till the end of this age.  Imagine the Son of God addressing a particular congregation, with either reproof or commendation, or a mixture of both!  And thus these letters — there are seven of them, one each to the seven churches — speak to varying conditions in all the churches, if faithfully unpacked by godly pastors.


And then the unfolding of the New Covenant period — from the ascension of Jesus Christ, the God-Man, till His return at the end of this age and the resurrection of the dead, the great Day of Judgment, and the commencement of the destinies of the damned and the blessed, the former in what Christ calls "the lake of fire" and the latter on the New Heaven and Earth, where God has chosen to actually dwell in the midst of His beloved people, which He calls the Bride of His Son, in an eternity of festive rejoicing and glory.  But in that New Covenant period of the present age — symbolically depicted as "1,000 years", a millennium — there will be a terrible battle of the powers of darkness and death against the New Covenant people of God.  These people will stand faithful in the face of whatever the hostile world throws at them, and where they fail, the mercy of their God will cleanse and sustain them — for the times will be very difficult.


The Book goes into some detail regarding these things, as well as the judgments of the Almighty upon the world that persecutes His blood-bought children, and worships the idols this world manufactures in their hearts and loves (idols such as beauty, power, wealth, comfort, illicit pleasure, race, religion, etc).


The Revelation also talks about an entity called "Babylon the great", its oppression of the nations generally and the people of God — called "the saints" — in particular, its manifestation in various world powers, including Chaldean Babylon and the Roman Empire, and some mysterious political-economic-military entity manifesting at the end of the age, which shall surpass in brazen audacity all the oppressive pleasure-loving empires of the ages.  That shall be the primary focus of Lighting Sword Journal for a while.  Stay tuned.

Supernatural Deception

For those who take the prophecies of the Apocalypse seriously, as well depictions of angels, this show seems to be serving the purpose of distorting all things pertaining to God and Heaven to the end of poisoning minds and hearts to the reality of these things.

Angels are shown to be evil, haters of humans, and ambivalent toward God. God is shown (in this show) to be indifferent – callous – toward humans, "a deadbeat dad" in Dean's words. Those angels who are for the humans rebel against the orders of Heaven to do so. Heaven is shown to be a weird space where all who go there have their own little scenes that sometimes intersect with others' scenes, but mainly are isolated. Angels can intrude into these scenes, and so those humans who get there learn to dodge them.

The "four horsemen of the apocalypse" – taken from the Book of Revelation's 6th chapter – are shown to be individual characters having traits pertaining to, respectively, war, famine, pestilence, and death. These are like comic book stereotypes of those symbolic riders of their horses, the last three of which in reality standing for waves of destruction increasingly moving across the earth as judgments sent for various reasons.

In Revelation 6, the first horseman, who sat on a white horse, wore a crown, and went forth conquering, is Christ, or His gospel of salvation, going forth through the earth winning hearts by his love and truth (with war and trouble following hard after Him), although some good commentators do differ on this interpretation of the first horseman. In a separate writing these things will be gone into in depth.

So there are really three horsemen who work ill, the one on a red horse, with a great sword, who took peace from the earth; the rider on a black horse, signifying famine, and the one on a pale horse – of a sickly greenish color – killing by various means.

It's fascinating to see the working out of these forces up through the almost 2,000-year period of this prophecy to our own day, all these things constantly intensifying.

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As the 4th season draws to a close (what a disappointment to learn this will drag on into a 5th!), we hear the cursing of God by a "good" angel – Cass – and then see such a distortion of the Revelation's vision of "harlot Babylon" as relegates it to meaninglessness. In fact, John's Apocalypse shows the symbolic visions of Babylon and its final destruction to be most pertinent to our own days. All this is lost in Supernatural's popular disinformation orgy.

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Rather than, in reality, Death having entered the world through sin – by the alienation of the first man from the life-source of God – we have Death personified as a character supposedly "as old as God", and one who says he will eventually take God's life also.

All the ideas in this fiction are so bizarre compared to the reality of spiritual truths.

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We are left in the 4th season with Sam having tricked – and spiritually overpowered – the devil, casting him back into Hell, although Sam went there also, for the devil had been possessing Sam and was in Sam's body, and the only way to put Satan "back in his cage" was for Sam to jump in while possessed.

Dean is somehow made out to be a "true servant of God" in the next to last (21st) episode, though how such a foul-mouthed ungodly – yet likable – rake could be called such defies reason.

There are no "redeeming qualities" in Dean – or in any of us – that would warrant such an exalted title, "a true servant of God".

What redeems us is the cleansing we receive through Christ's blood (an innocent life given for the guilty), and His death for sin in our stead – and further, that righteousness of absolute moral perfection which is the Man Christ Jesus' bestowed upon us as a royal gift of the heavenly Father to His beloved children. Washed clean of all defilement – anything that would render us unworthy to stand in the presence of the infinitely holy God – and clothed in Christ's own righteousness, we have been redeemed from the realm of darkness and made fit to stand in Heaven, now adopted sons and daughters in the royal family of God.

But Jesus Christ is totally absent from the Supernatural deception (save for one brief curse). For if He were to be in it – as He really is (accurately depicted in the New Testament) – He would show the lie of the whole series, a tawdry little fantasy seducing multitudes from a right understanding of things with eternal significance.

Supernatural's plot

It seems certain after the recent episode (5.13), The Song Remains the Same — though it was clear before that — the theme they will drive home at the end of this season is that humans have free will, and Sam and Dean will be able to prevail over both the devil and (the supposed) "God" and his bunch of unsavory angels, maintaining their freedom from being possessed by either. Both Satan (so the fictitious story line goes) and the archangel Michael have told them they cannot escape their destinies to embody these spirit beings and so be "vessels" for their cosmic showdown and battle, Sam destined to die in the process. The brothers rightly see this as denigrating to their humanity and are determined to remain unpossessed. Their weakness is their love for each other, and this has been capitalized upon before — and was the downfall of their dad, John, also.

This is, despite all the debauchery, delusion, and silliness one has to wade through, a significant issue. The reason I am responding to this television show is because it encroaches upon a reality I live in, and such popular disinformation cannot but harm multitudes. It is an axiom that deception is a prime weapon in warfare. And there is a spiritual warfare really going on.

There is an Apocalypse, and we are in it now. But who rightly depicts it — at least in an understandable manner?

This is what Michael tells Dean, when Dean doubts the supposed plan "God" has in store,

"And you think you know better than my father?" Michael asks. "One unimportant little man? What makes you think you get to choose?" "Because I gotta believe that I can choose what I do with... my unimportant little life," Dean says. "You’re wrong," Michael says. "You know how I know? Think of a million random acts of chance, that let John and Mary be born. To meet. To fall in love, to have the two of you. Think of the million random choices that you make, and yet each and every one of them brings you closer to your destiny. Do you know why that is? Because it's not random. It's not chance. It's a plan that is playing itself out perfectly. Free will is an illusion, Dean. That's why you’re going to say yes . . . You can't fight City Hall."

This "yes" pertains to Dean having to give consent before Michael can possess him (the same true for Sam and Satan).

So the "artists" behind the show — the script-writers — have set up a straw man they're going to knock down: humans don't have free will, they're just puppets. I am reminded of something Dostoevsky said; Nicholas Berdyaev, in his little volume, Dostoevsky (Living Age Books – Meridian, 1968), shows how Dostoevsky also was greatly wrought upon over the matter of human freedom. In Letters from the Underground, Dostoevsky's hero says of a human being,

All he needs is an independent will, whatever it may cost him and wherever it may lead him…. In only one single case does man consciously and deliberately want something absurd, and that is the silliest thing of all, namely, to have the right to want the absurd and not be bound by the necessity of wanting only what is reasonable…. for at all events it will have safeguarded our dearest and most essential possession—our personality and individuality…. If you say that everything, chaos, darkness, anathema, can be reduced to mathematical formulae, that it is possible to anticipate all things and keep them under the sway of reason by means of an arithmetical calculation, then man will go insane on purpose so as to have no judgment and to behave as he likes. I believe this because it appears that man's whole business is to prove to himself that he is a man and not a cog-wheel. [Italics Berdyaev’s] (pages 52, 53)

It is a real and very important matter, this business of free will, and relatedly, what it is to be human! So I'd like to talk about it a little here. In relation to God — the true God — what is the status of our wills?

It is obvious we have free wills. I can choose what kind of computer I'll buy, what kind of hiking shoes I'll get, what I'll eat in my next meal. I have all manner of choices, and I am free to make them. Of course I can not choose what is beyond my ability, such as producing $1,000,000 by tomorrow, as that's beyond what I am able to get. Nor can I choose to grow two inches, or to become twenty years younger. You get my point. Where our ability to choose becomes limited — whatever the cause — our free will is bound and cannot attain its desire.

But in relation to God, which is how the plot of the story is going, is it true that "free will is an illusion"? Is it true, as this supposed angel says with regard to willing, "You can't fight City hall"? In other words, you can't exercise your will but are a puppet to the divine decree? This is what Dean is being told, and he is also being told what exactly this decree is: "You're going to say yes" and allow yourself to be possessed by this "angel". And you will be the vehicle for the power that will destroy the vessel of your brother, Sam, and the evil spirit, Satan, who is possessing him. Dean is just a puppet in the hands of "God" — or his unsavory henchmen "angels" — in a cosmic war where humans are expendable "unimportant little" creatures, no matter they love and suffer, they are but pawns in a bigger game. And this Dean will not have, nor will we if we value our humanity.

But what about the true God? Granted, this show does not depict Him or His angels or the demons with any semblance of truth. but what about the real spiritual world, what gives there?

It goes like this: there is a history of the human race, believed or not, that makes this issue clear. A quote from the ancient man of God, Augustine,

"It was by the evil use of his free will that man destroyed both it and himself."

In a nutshell, The destruction of the primal man and woman's partaking of the divine nature through siding with the (actual) devil against God led to an alienation so profound that he became a spiritual child of Satan, under his control and in bondage to a nature corrupted and limited by sin, unable any longer to approach God or in any way please Him. He was an utter alien to God, utterly hostile to Him, even as his new ontologic father the devil is. R. C. Sproul has well said,

"Man's will is free to follow his inclinations, but fallen man's inclinations are always and invariably away from God."

It is like a man in prison is free to choose within the confines of his lock-up, but cannot go outside it, unless a governor or president grant him a pardon.

God said through His apostle Paul,

"There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God . . . there is none that does good, no, not one." (Letter to the Romans 3:10-12)

So man is no longer free to make choices with respect to the will of God. He just doesn't have it in him. However, those who hear God's words, realize the truth in them, and — having been quickened inwardly by the life and power in them — turn and ask Him for mercy and a new heart able to love and obey Him, these find a new spiritual birth and entrance into His presence. Now they are able and willing to freely choose. Such "new creatures" (as Paul calls them) do indeed have the ability to choose to disobey God, but the new heart God has given them increasingly desires — effectually desires — to please the One who has done such good to them.

But back to the story. You see it is more nuanced a matter than the evil fairy tale Supernatural spins. Were Dean not such a wanton womanizer, but rather a true son of the true God who saved his heart and body for a woman he committed his life to in marriage, and who kept the commandments of God, he would be able to say to a demon — or to the devil himself — "Be gone, in the name of Jesus Christ" and the devil would have to flee from the power of God's Spirit in those words.

There is so much jive nonsense in this program that it clouds up the mind and heart as regards the truth!

To inject some reality into the show: In his default condition, Dean's will is in bondage to his fallen and darkened nature. In this state he is a slave of Satan and cannot fight or resist him; his desires control him, and Satan can manipulate these. Likewise with Sam; if he were a "new creature", born of God, partaking of the Spirit of Christ to energize, illumine, and liberate his own spirit, the devil could have no power over him. Only in union with the Spirit and heart of Jesus Christ is there the power and wisdom to regain the free use of our wills, and to resist that which ordinarily would overpower us, be it demons, Satan, or our desires.

I hear from the grapevine there will be a sixth season of this show. I'm greatly disappointed — I thought it would be done with this year!

The misinformation put out by it is significant. The "horsemen" depicted, such as War and Famine, are silly cartoons of that which the real horsemen in Revelation chapter 6 symbolize.