You made it! You have done what precious few saints of God have ever done – you have read through the entire Bible in one year! Many of God’s children have never been afforded the opportunity to read through the Bible. In numerous situations through the centuries and more than a few today the Bible has simply not been available in the native language of certain Christians. In other instances Christians have been illiterate and incapable of reading the Scripture set before them. In the case of most believers in the West the problem has been one of motivation or discipline. Either the Christian was unmotivated to read through the Bible or lacked the self enforced structures to complete the assignment. You have joined a select group to claim a complete read through of the Word of God. Congratulations! All you require for living the Christian life you have read in the Word of God. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3: 16 – 17).
You no doubt noted the warnings at the close of the Bible. God warns us against tampering with the truth: I testify to everyone who hears the prophetic words of this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of this prophetic book, God will take away his share of the tree of life and the holy city, written in this book (22: 18 – 19). Jesus bears the most solemn testimony possible concerning the sanctity of Scripture. Eternal consequences await the one who foolishly tampers with the truth of Holy Writ. It is more dangerous to tamper with the truth of Scripture than a prescription medication for while a changed prescription could end someone’s life tampering with the truth of the Bible could harm one for eternity.
Adding to the Word of God is the error of the cultist. Cult groups typically tout some authority in addition to the Bible as the source of their convictions. Whenever the Bible and their other source collide they invariably accept the teaching of the other work over the Bible. The Bible permits no additives. The canon is closed. What is new is not true. Perfection cannot be improved upon and for that reason not one syllable may be appended to the Word of God.
Taking away from the Bible is the mistake of the liberal. The liberal dilutes, dissects, disfigures, dismembers, distorts and dumbs down the Word of God until it is no longer the Word of God. Watered down penicillin never saved anyone and watered down Bible will always fail to communicate life giving truth to men and women. Paul informed the Ephesian elders, “I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole plan of God” (Acts 20: 27). The Apostle understood the importance of teaching the entirety of the Word of God to the entire church of God. Heresy is truth out of balance. The only hedge against heresy is reading, studying and teaching the whole Word of God. To say that if anyone takes away from the words of this prophetic book, God will take away his share of the tree of life and the holy city is to say that those who reduce Scripture to something other than the Bible will not inherit eternal life. Salvation and Scripture are inextricably linked in our lives.
I trust you have found this year an amazing and rewarding experience. I salute you and have every confidence that you will grow at an accelerated clip as a result of reading through your Bible. Blessings!
Remember all those promises about a coming golden age you read in the Old Testament? Do you recall what God said He would do for His ancient people Israel? Do you remember the pledges God made about an age of unfeigned and unfailing righteousness? Can you recall the assurances about the Gentile populations joining Israel for this sanctified season?
What about all the songs we sing at this season of the year which speak glowingly of an era of peace and good will? What of all the soulful sighs for worldwide wellness and wealth? Has God placed such longings deep within our breast only to mock us or are these one day to become reality?
An honest reading of history demands that we quickly admit that no such age has transpired on planet earth. Nowhere in the annals of time do we discover anything approaching a biblical golden age. A quick glance at the morning paper is a rude reminder that nirvana has yet to arrive. Our war-bathed planet is still desperately in need of a peace beyond what the force of armies and the wisdom of diplomats can offer us. No one can say with a straight face that we are currently experiencing “peace on earth, good will to men” internally, interpersonally or internationally. Wholeness, holiness and righteousness still elude us on this terrestrial ball.
Some would abandon all hope of any improvement of world conditions let alone a total transformation of the social and political constructs with which we are so familiar. The cynic says, “It will never be so.” The Christian answers, “It must be so because the Bible says so!” Six verses of Scripture give us the undaunted courage to make such a sweeping statement (20: 1 – 6). These are the six verses explaining when and why the promised golden age arrives.
The “age of gold” spans 1,000 years commencing with the incarceration of Satan in the abyss (20: 1 – 3). The righteous are resurrected to share in the righteous rule of their Redeemer (20: 4 – 6). Six times the Bible affirms that this coming age will consist of 1,000 years (20: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). What shall transpire during these 1,000 years?
* Israel is restored to the land (Isa. 43: 1 – 7; Jer. 24: 6 – 7; Ezek. 28: 25 – 26; Am. 9: 14 – 15; Zeph. 3: 20)
* Israel is regenerated (Isa. 4: 3 – 6; Jer. 31: 31 – 34; Ezek. 11: 18 – 20; 36: 24 – 28; Rom. 11: 26 - 29)
* The Gentile populations will worship with the Jews (Isa. 2: 2 – 4; 19: 23 – 25)
* The animal kingdom will be at peace (Isa. 11: 6 – 9)
* Sickness will be no more (Isa. 35: 5 – 6)
* Jesus will reign over all the earth as undisputed King (Zech. 14: 4 – 9)
For lo! The days are hast’ning on,
By prophet bards foretold,
When with the ever circling years
Comes round the age of gold;
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world give back the song
Which now the angels sing.
(Edmund Sears, It Came upon the Midnight Clear, 1849)
The second of three angelic annunciations in Revelation 14 previews the drama played out in chapters 17 and 18: “It has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen, who made all nations drink the wine of her sexual immorality, which brings wrath” (14: 8). After this I saw another angel with great authority coming down from heaven, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. He cried in a mighty voice: It has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen! She has become a dwelling for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, and a haunt for every unclean and despicable beast (18: 1 – 2).
Babylon should not be equated with the ancient nation by that name but with a revived Roman Empire. The Revelator said: I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names, having seven heads and 10 horns (17: 3). The seven heads are explained as “seven mountains on which the woman is seated” (17: 9). John’s original readers would have almost automatically connected the seven mountains with the legendary Seven Hills of Rome. Rome was the unchallenged world power of the first century and as such represented the world order. John saw a similar system arising in the last days of world history with all the pomp and circumstance of the storied Roman Empire but with even greater strength and control. John also witnessed the collapse of this evil empire.
The destruction of religious Babylon is presented in chapter 17. Ancient Babylon was the cradle of civilization as well as the cradle of corruption. There humanity raised the iron fist of defiance against God in a highly organized fashion (Gen. 11). The Babylon of the Tribulation era will also be the seat of sophisticated, systematized worship for humans who are inherently spiritual and if they do not worship the true God they will worship something or someone. The shrine before which they worship in humanity’s last hour is that of the beast that…was, and is not, and is about to come up from the abyss and go to destruction (17: 8; cf. 13: 1 - 10). Those not saved will be drawn to the beastly Antichrist like iron filings to a magnet (17: 8).
The destruction of economic Babylon is depicted in chapter 18. This world system is brought down comprehensively. No aspect of trade and commerce is left unscathed. World commerce is no more. It is destroyed catastrophically. It happens so very suddenly (18: 8, 10, 17, 19). Babylon is devastated categorically. This is not a temporary setback. The world system will never recover (18: 21 – 23). Babylon will fall consequentially: All this will happen because your merchants were the nobility of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery, and the blood of the prophets and saints, and all those slaughtered on earth, was found in you (18: 23 – 24).
Even now Christians must be cautious about becoming overly attached to the world system. And I say this, brothers: the time is limited, so from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none, those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it. For this world in its current form is passing away (1 Cor. 7: 29 – 31).
It is called Armageddon, the Valley of Megiddo, the Plain of Esdraelon and the Plain of Jezreel. This vast plain overlooked by the storied peaks of Carmel, Gilboa and Tabor was described by Napoleon as the greatest natural battlefield in the world. Biblical figures like Barak, Deborah, Gideon, Saul, Ahaziah, Jehu and Josiah joined battle here. On its soil Thothmes fought in 1500 B.C., Rameses waged war in 1350 B.C., Sargon saw action in 722 B.C., Sennacherib battled in 710 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar fought in 606 B. C., Ptolemy in 197 B.C., and Antiochus IV in 168 B.C. Crossing the calendar line into A.D., this historic site has played host to the Roman legions of Pompeii and Titus in the Jewish-Roman Wars. Khosru the Persian brought his forces here in 614 as did Omar in 637. The Crusades were fought here in 909. Here Saladin defeated Richard the Lion-Hearted in 1187 and the Ottomans battled in 1616. The Jews, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Druses, the Turks, the French and the English have all fought here.
The nations of the world have battled on this vast open space across the centuries and to it they will return. I saw the beast (the Antichrist), the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider of the horse and against His army (19: 19; cf. 16: 14). The armies of the north (Russia) will be there (Dan. 11: 6). The armies of the south (Africa) will be there (Dan. 11: 5). The armies of the east (the Orientals) will be there (9: 16). The armies of the west (the Europeans) confederate with Antichrist will be there. Gathered together are all the militarized masses of mankind for the battle of the great day of God, the Almighty (16: 14).
The hostilities of humanity against her God are well documented in Scriptures like Psalm 2 (cf. Acts 4: 23 – 30). Ever since Eden’s exodus the planet has been in revolt. The anger seething in the souls of men and women will boil over on the plains of Megiddo leading to the final assize in which our Lord will render justice’s verdict on humanity’s hatred. This battle, or war as it might better be described, will be so intense that blood will rise to the level of horses’ bridles for a space of 180 miles or better (14: 20). Carrion feeding fowl will be commissioned to clean the carcasses of the combatants cluttering the vast stretches of Jezreel’s vale.
The Bible declares that our Lord will rout this unprecedented army with His unerring Word. He Who remains the Word of God will strike the nations with a sharp sword issuing from His mouth (19: 13 – 15). By the Word of God the world was created (Gen. 1: 3, 6, 9, 14, 20 24, 26), by the Word of God the world is controlled (Heb. 1: 3) and by the Word of God the world will be consumed. Not even the marshaled militaries of the world can stand against the prevailing power of the Word of God.
At Armageddon Jesus will right every wrong and answer the oft prayed prayer of His people: Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6: 10). No more will truth be forever on the scaffold and wrong forever on the throne, as James Russell Lowell pungently phrased it. The darkness is presently enveloping but the morning star (2: 28; 2 Pet. 1: 19) is soon to appear dispelling once and for all the darkness. Sickness and sorrow are everywhere to be found but soon the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings (Mal. 4: 2). Both the eastern sky and the eager eye await the coming of Him Who sits astride the white stallion steed of victory!
War in heaven sounds as unlikely as a screen door on a submarine but the Bible describes this celestial conflict resulting in Satan, the one who deceives the whole world….[being] thrown to earth (12: 9). On earth he is conquered as well: They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not love their lives in the face of death (12: 11). God opens our arsenal against the adversary here for review and we discover three unfailing weapons against the wicked one.
We conquer the devil by affirming our covering from Christ – the blood of the Lamb. The Cross was the devil’s Waterloo. At His Cross, Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities (demons) and disgraced them publicly (Col. 2: 14 – 15). Hebrews affirms Jesus became flesh so that through His death He might destroy the one holding the power of death – that is, the Devil (Heb. 2: 14). No demon can swim through the rich, ruby, red, redemptive blood of Christ to attack the child of God. In prayer we trench out a moat around the castle of our lives and fill it full of Jesus’ omnipotent blood believing it sufficient to repel every demon seeking an advantage in our life. Calvary says the devil is a toothless tiger whose roar need be feared by none of the faithful.
We conquer the devil by announcing our confession of Christ. The word of our testimony sends shudders through satanic hosts. If Satan’s forces cannot keep us from coming to Christ they will attempt to keep us from discovering and affirming our identity in Christ. We are so united with Christ that John dares to say: we are as He is in this world (1 Jhn. 4: 17). We confess who we are in Christ. Our treasured identity shouts in hellish ears that we are saints, participants in the divine nature, sons of God, heirs and joint heirs with Jesus and more in Christ. We confess Whose we are in Christ. We do not belong to this world or the god of this age (2 Cor. 4: 4) but to God Who has bought us at a price (1 Cor. 6: 20). We confess what we are in Christ. We are victors in Christ (2: 7, 11, 17, 26; 3: 5, 12, 21). The Bible declares that whatever has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith. And who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God (1Jhn. 5: 4 – 5)?
We conquer the devil by asserting our commitment to Christ even in the face of death. Suicide bombers have taught us that you cannot stop someone who is prepared to die for what they believe in. The man or woman who is ready to die for the Jesus Who died for them is an unstoppable force for God. With what would you threaten someone prepared to die? If a soldier of the Cross is ready to lay down his or her life as their Lord did there is no fear with which to stop them. Truly our Lord’s death frees those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death (Heb. 2: 15). Men and women unafraid to die are an unstoppable force in the cause of righteousness. The enemy cannot win. Even if we lay down our life we have nothing but heaven to gain. Killing us just sends us to the very place he forfeited by his rebellion and for this the adversary must have angst.
You need not go another hour getting your spiritual teeth kicked in by the enemy or his hellish imps, the demons. Assured victory is ours by our covering from Christ, our confession of Christ and our commitment to Christ.