Blog to discuss the book "The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter: A Literary Analysis of the Book of Revelation" and current events that point to the events described therein.
Proverbs 30 27 The locust hath no king, yet they all go out by their bands.
Apocalypse 9 3 And from the smoke of the pit there came out locusts upon the earth. And power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power
7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle: and on their heads were, as it were, crowns like gold: and their faces were as the faces of men.8 And they had hair as the hair of women; and their teeth were as lions: 9 And they had breastplates as breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was as the noise of chariots and many horses running to battle. 10 And they had tails like to scorpions, and there were stings in their tails; and their power was to hurt men five months. And they had over them 11 A king, the angel of the bottomless pit; whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek Apollyon; in Latin Exterminans,
My brother-in-law, Steven Paul, explained that the first woe was the falling star, a holy bishop who apostatized from the faith. Indeed he identified him as Martin Luther and the woe as protestantism in general.
So the "locusts" relate to that time and that event. Steven did not go into much depth about them. He mentioned a couple of their characteristics - that breastplates of iron signified "a will hardened against all natural reason."
In the passages above, I am pointing out that in Proverbs, a characteristic of locusts is that they "have no king". They do not follow a single leader but rather they swarm together.
A major objection of protestantism is the primacy of the pope. They rejected central authority. As a result, they are untethered from the traditions and teachings of any body or person, the Church and Her pope specifically. So they are "free" to change traditional teachings at their whim or to satisfy current trends and fads, like women priests, gay marriage, gay bishops, etc.
But in Chapter 9 of the Apocalypse, they now have a king, the king of the abyss, Satan. Up until the time of the second woe, they are perfectly comfortable rejecting Christ's Vicar on earth. Instead, they opt for a more powerful and charismatic leader, an angel.
In his book, The Book of Destiny, Rev. Herman Bernard Kramer writes:
"These locusts obey him and do his work. He aims at the destruction of the Church, of the faith of his poor victims and of heir souls forever in hell. The promoters of heresy, error and immorality, are the subjects of Satan and bring irremediable and final ruin to all his followers."
Kramer goes on to give the history of opinions regarding when and whom these locusts are. My update is that we are seeing them in the persons like the current Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, folks like Eugene Robinson, and many evangelical "Christians" who rail against the Holy Roman Catholic Church.
There are also locusts inside the Church because they have not yet been cast out. We are indeed in the days of the end of the first woe and right before the second. Consider these passages carefully and don't be deceived.
Whenever Easter comes around, like most Christians I greet it with joy. But I also note that in the book, The Apocalypse - Letter by Letter, my brother-in-law, Steven Paul showed how the Book of Revelation has many puns and hints at relationships between terms in different places in the book. In this passage, Steve showed how the third woe, the final battle between good and evil is likely to take place in the 49 days between the Christian holidays of Easter and Pentecost. Indeed, I feel slight trepidation every time Easter comes around. But I know from the book what events precede this and that they have not yet occurred. Note: I omitted the original Greek because Blogger does not support that font. From Chapter 20: John did not indicate when the great Battle of Armageddon would be fought. However, bear in mind that the three Divine Persons in one nature, though they are not dunces for redundancy, have, in the past, evidenced a penchant, if you will, for repetition.
Now, the festival of Passover commemorates the exodus of the Jews from Egypt; it begins on the eve of the 14th day of the month of Nisan, the first month of the Jewish calendar, and is celebrated for seven days by Reform Jews and Jews in Israel.
The festival of Easter commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ; it is observed on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox [as calculated on the Gregorian calendar, not the Julian, which the Orthodox churches use].
Well, the way it works out, Passover and Easter come about the same time in the spring, the time of renewal. In Matthew 24:32-33, Christ said,
"And from the fig tree learn the lesson: when already its branch is becoming tender and it is sprouting its leaves, you know that summer is near: so also you, when you see all these things, know that he is near, at the doors."
In Apocalypse 3:20 [the seventh letter, Laodicea], Christ used the expression [epi ten thyran], "at the door," which is similar to [epi thyrais], "at the doors," in Matthew 24:33. Jesus punned on the noun [theros], "summer," and [rypa], "door, gate," to make the point memorable.
Now, the critical time for crops in Israel [if this old brain remembers faithfully] comes between Passover and the festival of Shavuoth, that is, during the Omer, the period of 49 days [7 weeks] from the 2nd day of Passover to the 1st of Shavuoth [the 6th day of the month of Sivan]; for, if the hot winds blow from the desert, too early, there will be little or nothing to harvest.
The festival of Pentecost comes 49 days [7 weeks] after Easter. The first Pentecost was the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles; and that Pentecost is regarded as the birthday of the Church.
So, first comes Easter/Passover, then 7 weeks later comes Pentecost/Shavuoth. To these facts, relate three more:
(1) The "fig tree" is the symbol for the nation of Israel. (2) The "birth pangs" mentioned by Christ in Matthew 24:8 will end when the seventh plague [in the Apocalypse] ends. (3) The period of the seven Apocalyptic plagues will be, at least, several weeks long, especially, because it will take a few just for the armies under the kings from the East to travel westward, cross the dried-up Euphrates, and move into Palestine--even if the armies are totally mechanized.
All these things together, plus the fact that...
(1) the noun for "harvest" is [therismos], (2) and the verb for "reap" is [therein], both relevant to the [thërion] or [thër], the Beast to which the nouns [theros] and [thyra] bear similitude, ...
give me the impression of being a big hint. Aye, whereas Apocalypse 4:1 reads,
"After these things I looked, and behold, an opened door [thyra] in heaven!";
and whereas 15:5 reads,
"And after these things I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of the witness [martyrion] in heaven opened, and out came the seven angels having the seven plagues from the sanctuary...";
and whereas 19:11 reads,
"And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse and the one seated on it called faithful and true...";
I am compelled to assert that Christ's phrase, "at the door," or "at the doors," refers to the door(s) of the sanctuary, and that it means he is about to issue judgment.
Hence, I strongly, very strongly, suspect that:
(1) The Two Witnesses will be in Jerusalem for Easter/Passover at the end of their 1260 days. (2) The conversion of the Jews will be when the "fig tree sprouts its leaves." (3) During the 7 weeks until Pentecost/Shavuoth will come the 7 last plagues [martyrion] to the nations. (4) On or about Pentecost/Shavuoth, there will come, to Armageddon, the Great Day of Almighty God.
