The Apocalypse: The Unveiling

THE APOCALYPSE THE UNVEILING

Rev. Raymond G. Cross

Copyright © Rev. Raymond G. Cross.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review.

ISBN: 978-1-64669-981-0 (Paperback Edition)

ISBN: 978-1-64669-982-7 (Hardcover Edition)

ISBN: 978-1-64669-980-3 (E-book Edition)

Some characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Book Ordering Information

Phone Number: 347-901-4929 or 347-901-4920

Email: [email protected]

Global Summit House

www.globalsummithouse.com

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Preface

Note from the Author

Introduction

Chapter 1: Revelation 1:1–3:22

Chapter 2: Revelation 4:1–11:19

Chapter 3: Revelation 12:1–13:18

Chapter 4: Revelation 14:1–17:18

Chapter 5: Revelation 18:1–22:21

Notes

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

Ephesians 1:17

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.

—Psalm 103:8–14

For the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Father,

Son, and Holy Spirit (my prayer is that He will use this

work to glorify Himself), and also for my friend and fiancée,

Mary Ellen Joslin, as well as for her children, Suzanne James

and Jason Joslin, and their families.

Preface

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,

—Jeremiah 29:11–13

To realize who God is, one has to study the Bible. We only know God by what He tells us about Himself. Studying the Scriptures reveals God’s personality, psyche, and very being. In the process of showing Himself, God reveals His plan for humanity. Very much is learned about the self from God’s Word. God is the great I Am (Yahweh). He is known as the Self- Existent and as the Eternal One. The Scriptures say, Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one (Deuteronomy 6:4). They also say, Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it (Ephesians 4:3–7).

Scriptural evidence indicates that God (Jesus Christ) divided Himself to be half-human and half-God. He did this so that He would be able to save humankind from its sins. Our Westminster Catechism asks in question 21, Who is the redeemer of Gods elect?

The answer is, The only redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continues to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, forever.

God divided Himself and became half-human so that He could experience His creation’s life. God was literally able to live a human life to better judge humankind. Humankind has no excuse for its actions, because God as a human being was able to overcome all human shortcomings so that He could become our perfect, sinless sacrifice.

Even so, humankind sins. Sin figuratively means missing the mark, as in an arrow missing the target. Sin is disobedience and evil to God. God demands a sacrifice to account for sin. Jesus became our perfect sacrifice, as God required, a requirement that Leviticus 14:19 details: Then the priest is to sacrifice the sin offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from their uncleanness. After that, the priest shall slaughter the burnt offering. Note that the priest is to sacrifice the sin offering! Jesus is our prophet, as well as our High Priest and King, and He sacrificed Himself for our sins. Jesus, as our High Priest, offered Himself for our atonement and then had Himself slaughtered on the cross for us. Some Bibles translate this passage as "kill the burnt offering," but the original Hebrew word here means slaughter and is contracted to a root word, meaning self. That is exactly what Jesus did for us in giving Himself as a sacrifice for our sin debts.

These are God’s regulations to meet His standards. He is our Creator, and His Word is law.

Why did God create the universe, animals, fish, birds, plants, water—everything—including humankind? David pondered the question of his being: What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? (Psalm 8:4).

Regardless of truth, human beings constantly make choices, whether spiritual (religious belief) or godly (the Bible and God’s way) or physical (the sexual actions of gays and lesbians). The Bible is very clear regarding homosexuality in various verses, such as Leviticus 20:13, in which the Bible says, If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. And, speaking of homosexuality, we also read in the New Testament:

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. (Romans 1:24–28)

The truth is that humankind has disregarded God for thousands of years, placing itself above God when it comes to decision making and self-control. Human beings have devised their own version of who they are, who their gods will be, and where they are going, leaving the true God completely out of the picture. Human beings have doomed themselves, choosing their own ways by leaving God out of their lives.

Human beings’ mortal life and life after death are choices we make. In fact, the choice is yours to make as well! Obviously, the correct choice is truth, to follow God and obey His instructions.

Part of our manual for life is found in the Scriptures, and the rest comes when we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. By accepting Jesus as Lord, God gives us a part of Himself, in the form of the Holy Spirit, who then guides, directs, and informs us, instructing us further with truth. The Bible communicates to us: He [Jesus] is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ (Colossians 1:28). The Bible, history, archeological findings, Noah’s Ark on Mt. Ararat (it is there!), and many other truths found on earth and in the Bible exist as proof. The Bible has never been found to be in error! Human beings who refuse historical facts and the Bible choose not to believe God for His wondrous grace, mercy, and love, so they go their own way. God created everything for His benefit. It is God’s plan that shapes the universe and not humankind’s. It is only by God’s Bible and His Holy Spirit that human beings have knowledge and wisdom concerning our future in God’s plans. God tells us this in His Holy Word, the Bible: This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words (1 Corinthians 2:13).

Because of Satan, Adam and Eve became slaves to sin. We know from the Bible that sin is a horrible corruption of God’s standards, because it is disobedience to God and to His righteousness, purity, holiness, and being. One of my previous books, Scriptural Thoughts, covers what sin looks like and what it does to people, but I will just mention a small portion of that subject here.

We know that after Jesus Christ was arrested, He was beaten, pummeled, whipped, scourged, battered, kicked, spat upon, and mocked, and he also had some of His beard pulled out and a crown of thorns placed on His head. Although bruised and bloody, He still looked like a man.

God had placed all our sins on Jesus when He went to the cross. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Hebrews 9:28 helps clarify this for us: so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. So now we understand: God had all sin, past, present and future placed on Jesus, on the cross. Because of that fact, God described to Isaiah how He saw Jesus on the cross: See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him—his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness— (Isaiah 52: 13–14). Christ Messiah, who was the perfect sinless one, took on Himself all of humankind’s sins and actually became unrecognizable as a human being! That is what sin does to human beings.

Sin has condemned human beings to death, as we read in the book of Romans: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). Our dictionaries tell us that death is the cessation of mortal life. However, death, in the biblical sense, is not cessation of life! Death is an ongoing event of ungodly Spiritual life. Death (the wages of sin) is a permanent separation from God, alive, in the lake of fire.

The Greek word for death is thanatos (θάνατος), which implies in the original language a total mortal death, figuratively and literally. However, death, in the biblical sense, implies a living eternal Hell for the person’s living spiritual being. Death is the wage or payment for sin and it is a separation from God (from all that is righteous and good).

How does one correct this situation? Ezekiel 18:31 tells us: Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. The Bible later tells us, Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit’ (John 3:5). Another relevant verse comes from the book of Job: But it is the spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding (32:8). The Scriptures further advise:

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has