On the Revelation of Yahshua Christ, Part 26: The Camp of the Saints

On the Revelation of Yahshua Christ, Part 26: The Camp of the Saints

After explaining the parable of the tares of the field to His disciples, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 13, Yahshua Christ then related to them the parable of the net, where it seems that this parable along with those of the treasure hidden in the field and the man seeking the pearl had all been meant to further elucidate the meaning of that parable of the wheat and the tares. In the manner in which Matthew recorded this, these parables were given to the disciples after they requested and received the explanation of the wheat and the tares. So we read, in the closing verses of that chapter, that “47 Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like a net having been cast into the sea and it gathers from out of every race, 48 which when it is full, bringing up upon the shore and sitting they gather the good ones into vessels, but the rotten ones they cast out. 49 Thusly it shall be at the consummation of the age, the messengers shall go out and they shall separate the wicked from the midst of the righteous 50 and they shall cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!” Next, after they received the explanation of the wheat and tares and these other parables, we read: “51 ‘Have you understood all these things?’ [and] They say to Him: ‘Yes!’”

The word for race in verse 47 of that passage is γένος, which is a race or a kind. It is the same word which we see in the Greek scriptures of the Septuagint where it says in Genesis chapter 1 that “25 … God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” Likewise the underlying Hebrew word, מין or miyn (4327) is defined as a kind or species according to the Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon. Yahshua Christ having used these terms in His explanations to His disciples as they are in Matthew chapter 13, the disciples would have understood words such as γένος in the parable of the net, or σπέρμα, which is seed, in that of the wheat and tares in their plain, literal meanings, and not in the manner in which the philosophical so-called “Church Fathers” defined them centuries later, which are corruptions of those meanings. Just as in the ancient prophets, Yahshua Christ had employed many parallelisms, and the use of γένος in the parable of the net helps us to more definitively understand the use of the word σπέρμα in the parable of the wheat and the tares, that what God created is good, but the corruptions of men or of angels are wicked and in the end God shall not accept them since He does not accept bastards.

The expression of the will of God that everything which He had created be maintained after its kind, which is a species or as we use the term, a race, is found quite often throughout Genesis and in the subsequent books of the law. Therefore, in Leviticus chapter 19 we read “18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.” So in that passage readers should realize that a neighbor is one of the “children of thy people”, one of their own kin, and not some outsider of a different race. Then in the very next verse we read “19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender [or reproduce] with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee”, where it is evident that God continues to reject the mixing of kinds even among animals and plants.

Likewise it is with people, for which reason there are laws which forbid adultery and fornication. Not all men descend from Adam, and mixing with the other races of Canaan were therefore forbidden. There were several tribes in Canaan which did not descend from Adam, with which both Canaan and Esau had mingled themselves. Among them were the Kenites, Rephaim, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, and Perizzites mentioned in Genesis chapter 15, and there were also the Anakim, who were also Nephilim like the Rephaim as Numbers chapter 13 attests, and Emims and Zuzims of Genesis chapter 14. The word translated as Zuzims simply means “roving creatures”, and therefore it is really not a name at all. So other groups of presumed people who are not related to Adam are mentioned in diverse places, and the children of Israel were forbidden from mingling with them. The sin for which Yahweh punished man with the flood of Noah was race-mixing between the daughters of Adam and the Nephilim. There are certain Old Testament accounts raised which may seem to contradict this, but the actual contradictions are in the minds of men, and their interpretations of those accounts are simply wrong, because they apply labels in modern terms without the appropriate ancient cultural context. Yahweh God is not a hypocrite, and He does not contradict His Own law. Athaliah was not the daughter of Jezebel, Ruth was not a Moabite by race, and Rahab was not a whore.

Accepting the literal meanings of the Word of God which Christ had also expressed in those parables, just as there are good and bad kinds of people in the world of the ancient Israelites, there are good and bad kinds of fish in the world today, which He used an allegory for people. These must also be the same as the sheep and goat nations in the parable of the sheep and the goats, which, just like these fish, are separated by their kind or species, on sight, into groups both good and evil. In the end, the bad ones are not even put back into the sea, but rather, they are taken and destroyed just like the goats. Here we should also realize that Yahshua Christ had foreseen current world circumstances, and this diversified cesspool in which we now dwell. The end of God’s creation shall be as He created it, and it shall ultimately be purged of the sins of men. For that same reason Paul of Tarsus had written in Hebrews chapter 12 that “8 ... if you are without discipline, of which you all have become partakers, then you are bastards, and not sons.”

Yahweh God had promised in the Old Testament prophets to discipline the children of Israel, but not the bastards. As it is in Amos chapter 3, “2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” But then He also promised to forgive all of their sins, to cleanse all of their sins, when the appointed time of their trials has completed. He had chosen them alone, and this process shall lead them to conform to Him, as He said in the very next verse of Amos, “3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” The children of Israel, the Bride of Yahweh and the reason for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, must conform to the Husband and cease from whoredom.

Therefore, speaking of Jerusalem in an allegory, in Jeremiah chapter 33 we read where the Word of Yahweh said: “6 Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. 7 And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first. 8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.” Then again, in Micah chapter 7, in the closing words of the prophet we read: “18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. 19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. 20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.”

Likewise, in Isaiah chapter 45 and after most of Israel and Judah were taken into Assyrian captivity, we read that “17 … Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.” Then a little further on, “25 In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.” However it is not a coincidence that saying those things, the Word of God had also said that “19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.” Yahweh, and not man, declares what is right, and all of the elements of His creation were said to be good. But while He had laws which forbid the making of bastards, man sinned in that manner regardless of His laws. That sin, which was also the ancient sin of the fallen angels, is evidently the origin of the bad fish, because Yahweh created nothing bad, and the goat nations, the tares of the field have their destiny with the Devil and those same angels in the Lake of Fire.

Once this is all understood and accepted, it is also evident that Yahshua Christ had come to uphold this same order of Creation, where in Revelation chapter 3 He calls Himself “the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God”, and in Romans chapter 15 Paul of Tarsus informs us that He also came “to confirm the promises made unto the fathers”. Then if Yahshua Christ, who is Yahweh God incarnate, upholds His promises, then all of the children of Israel shall be saved, and they are the sheep, the wheat and the good fish of the parables. However there is nothing in the promises of the fathers by which we may imagine that bad fish or tares or goats may ever be saved. So if we understand that Yahweh God does not contradict Himself, and that therefore Yahshua Christ cannot make a lie, then where we read of those with the mark of the beast being tormented, we cannot imagine any interpretation which conflicts with these other scriptures which promise a cleansing of sins and salvation for all of Israel.

Many people often express the sentiment that certain others are such dreaded sinners that they should be destroyed completely, and that they have done things which are so hideous that there is no hope for salvation. But man cannot justly judge man, even if we are compelled to judge in this life and punish sinners. For this Paul of Tarsus had written, in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, that even if in the end a man has no good works, that “he himself will be preserved, although consequently through fire.” Then, writing of a grievous sinner in chapter 5 of that same epistle, Paul wrote commanding the assembly to “5 deliver such a wretch to the Adversary, for destruction of the flesh, in order that the Spirit may be preserved in the day of the Prince.” These scriptures and others make it evident that for their sins men are punished in this life, and for whatever good works they may have had, they may be rewarded in the next. But even if a man has no good works, then being empty-handed he shall stand in the end. Only God declares what is right because only God can know the hearts of men, and of what circumstances or experiences led them to sin. A man who condemns his brother in the flesh for some sin does so in accord with the law of God, but a man who would condemn his brother eternally denies the sovereignty of God. As the apostle John wrote in his first epistle, “he hating his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness” and “each hating his brother is a murderer…” Conforming ourselves to Yahweh, we seek to condemn only what He has condemned.

So where we read passages such as those concerning the mark of the beast or worship of the beast here in the Revelation, we cannot justly accept any interpretation which conflicts with those other scriptures concerning mercy, forgiveness, and salvation. If our interpretations of Scripture conflict, then we must amend our understanding and seek truthful interpretations which do not conflict. Yahshua Christ having promised to save all of Israel, and to forgive all of their sins, if any one of them is destroyed then He has failed, yet men should be thankful and praise Him because He does not fail. So we read in Isaiah chapter 25, speaking of Yahweh God: “8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.” Then we read in Revelation chapter 21: “4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

These passages both reflect the same promise, as we also read in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that “22 Just as in Adam all die, then in that manner in Christ all shall be produced alive”, and a little further on in that same chapter: “51 Behold I tell you a mystery, we shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed. 52 In an instant, in a dart of an eye, with the last trumpet; for it shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 This decay wants to be clothed in incorruptibility, and this mortal to be clothed in immortality. 54 And when this decay shall have put on incorruptibility, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then the word that has been written shall come to pass: ‘Death has been swallowed in victory.’ 55 ‘Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?’ 56 Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57 but gratitude is to Yahweh, in whom we are being given the victory through our Prince, Yahshua Christ.” So Paul of Tarsus understood that the promise in Isaiah chapter 25, that “He will swallow up death in victory”, shall indeed be fulfilled in Yahshua Christ, where he also cited Hosea chapter 13, and we read in Brenton’s Septuagint in another promise of salvation for Israel: “14 I will deliver them out of the power of Hades, and will redeem them from death: where is thy penalty, O death? O Hades, where is thy sting? comfort is hidden from mine eyes.”

Therefore we must interpret the prophecies of the Revelation concerning the worship of the beast and the mark of the beast in a manner which does not conflict with any of these other promises and prophecies. But if we make an interpretation in which Yahweh God contradicts Himself, it is not God who is a liar, but rather, we are interpreting His Word according to our own lies and therefore we are the liars. This we hope to avoid.

So in Revelation chapter 13 we read of people who were deceived into worshipping the beast, but then all men were made to take the mark of the beast, or they would not be able to eat. So after it spoke of the deception by which men were persuaded to make an image to the beast, we read: “16 And it makes all, those who are small and those who are great and those who are wealthy and those who are poor and those who are free and those who are slaves, that they have given to them an engraved mark upon their right hand or upon their forehead, 17 and in order that one would not be able to buy or to sell if he has not the mark: the name of the beast or the number of his name.” However we had interpreted that period of time when men were forced to worship the beast and take his mark as having been the time of the temporal rule of the papacy, which is now long past. While all men were forced to comply with the Church in that period, or die, not all may have done so if they had another option, and even bishops and kings were raised from childhood to believe that doing so, they were complying with the will of God.

Then later, in chapter 14, within the context of the fall of Mystery Babylon, we read of an angel who announced that “9… If one worships the beast and its image and receives an engraved mark upon his forehead or upon his hand, 10 then he shall drink from the wine of the wrath of Yahweh which is poured unmixed into the cup of His anger, and he shall be tormented in fire and sulfur before the holy messengers and before the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment ascends for eternal ages, and they who worship the beast and its image and one who receives the engraved mark of its name shall not have rest day and night.” Here it does describe men who worship the beast and take its mark of their own volition, and we interpret this passage in relation to our own modern times. But we do not interpret this eternal torment as the Lake of Fire, and if we did, then it would not be true that all of the sins of the children of Israel are forgiven, and it would not be true that all of Israel would be saved. Rather, where it says that “the smoke of their torment ascends for eternal ages,” we interpret it to mean that they would be punished in this life, and that the memory of that punishment would last forever. So we interpret it to be a description of those same fiery trials of the faith which men face in this world, which were described by Peter in chapter 1 of his first epistle, and also by Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 where he spoke of the works of men being tried and burned in the fire.

Later, in Revelation chapter 17, we read of the beast to which the Woman, as the Whore, is joined and it says in part: “8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.” As we had explained in other contexts earlier in the Revelation, the bottomless pit represents those who are “from of those below”, and not those who are “from of those above”, as Christ Himself had explained of His adversaries in John chapter 8. Therefore they cannot be of the children of God who are born from above, and for that reason they cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven, as Christ had explained to Nicodemus in John chapter 3. So we would assert that those from the bottomless pit, the same pit from which the locusts who helped to destroy Byzantium had emerged, are of the non-Adamic races, the tares, bad fish and goats.

Then we read further on in Revelation chapter 17 that “16 … the ten horns which you saw and the beast, these shall hate the whore and they shall make her desolate and naked and they shall eat her flesh and they shall burn her down with fire.” This is the same fire which is the “smoke of their torment”, the punishment of the children of God who have taken the mark of the beast, and it is a punishment which is suffered in this world as the Whore is destroyed by the very beast to which she had joined herself. So ultimately, we also read in that chapter that “14 These shall make war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them, because He is Prince of Princes and King of Kings and those with Him called and chosen and faithful!” That war is the same war which is described in Revelation chapter 19, and which is also described in a different way here in chapter 20.

So at the end of Revelation chapter 19, where we left off with our commentary, we read where John had written: “19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered to make war with Him sitting upon the horse and with His army. 20 And He seized the beast, and with him the false prophet who had been making signs before him, by which he deceived those having received the inscribed mark of the beast and who worshipped his image. These two are cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with sulfur. 21 And those remaining were slain by the sword of Him sitting upon the horse, which came from out of His mouth, and all the birds ate their fill from their flesh.”

So there we explained that not all who ever had the mark of the beast are necessarily thrown into the Lake of Fire, but only the false prophet who had deceived them. In Revelation chapter 20 we shall see the mark of the beast mentioned once again, but it does not conflict with anything we have said here, especially once we understand the historical context of that prophecy, how much of it has already been fulfilled. Then further on we read “15 And if one is not found written in the book of life, he is cast into the lake of fire.” But this must also be interpreted in accordance with the parables of the wheat and the tares, the net, and the sheep and the goats. That we hope to accomplish here, as we proceed with our commentary with Revelation chapter 20.

But before we commence, it is fitting to explain that the events and circumstances described in this chapter do not follow those which are described in previous chapters. Rather, as we have said, each of these chapters of the Revelation, from 14 through 20, are parallelisms, and each of them describe the last times of the punishment of the children of Israel in the time of Jacob’s trouble from different perspectives. Yet very much like Revelation chapter 13 was an overview of a broader period of that punishment, so it is in chapter 20. The visions in chapter 13 are a summary explanation of some of the aspects and history of the beasts, and the visions in chapter 20 are a summary explanation of some of the aspects and history of the true church of God in Christ.

XX 1 And I saw a messenger descending from out of heaven [א wants “from out of heaven”] having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

Yahweh God is Sovereign, and He has power even over His enemies, whose very origins are also represented by this bottomless pit in Revelation chapters 9, 11 and 17. In chapter 9 the locusts, which we interpreted as the Arab hordes of Mohammedanism, had come out of the bottomless pit to destroy a great portion of the Byzantine Empire. In chapter 11 the beast from the bottomless pit would make war against the two witnesses of Yahweh, which we interpreted as the wars against those of the children of Israel who broke from the Roman Catholic Church in the Reformation. Various Jews both inside the Church, especially in the form of the Jesuits, and outside of the Church, such as Cromwell’s presumably Dutch financial backers, had instigated at least many of those wars, and perhaps even all of them. But just as the Revelation typically describes historical processes, rather than spectacular singular events, the binding of Satan into the pit was a process, and the loosing of Satan was also a process, each of which took decades or even centuries to complete, depending upon how they are reckoned.

2 And he held fast the dragon, that serpent of old, who [א has “which”] is the False Accuser and the Adversary, and he bound him for a thousand years 3 and cast him into the bottomless pit, and barred and set [the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia have “bound”] a seal upon it, that he may no longer [the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia have “he may not”] deceive the Nations, until the thousand years should be completed. After [the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia have “And after”] these it is necessary for him to be released for a short time.

So just as in Revelation chapter 12, which had visions that are prophecies of things which happened in ancient times as well as in historical times, here we see once again that the Serpent of Genesis chapter 3, “that serpent of old”, who is also called the Dragon, is one and the same as the False Accuser and the Adversary, which in most popular Bible translations are the Devil and Satan. Then, just as the enemies of God who make war against the Saints are described as coming out of the bottomless pit, here Satan is described as being locked into it for a thousand years. In light of the irrefutable historical fulfillment of elements of the prophecy in Revelation chapter 12, especially concerning the Christ as a child, it is plainly evident here in the Revelation that the Dragon, that serpent of old, is represented by those who are of the assembly of the Adversary, the “synagogue of Satan” who claim to be Judah and are not (Revelation 2:9, 3:9). These are the Edomite Jews who had populated much of the land of ancient Israel and Judah after the Assyrian and Babylonian deportations. Then centuries later, having been forcibly converted to Judaism in the days of John Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannaeus, from perhaps 128 to 76 BC, with the struggle with Rome and the treachery of Herod the Edomites came to control Judaea, and under Herod and his successors they held a dominant political advantage within the province until the destruction of Jerusalem. Portions of this story are related or become manifest in Ezekiel chapters 35 and 36, Malachi chapters 1 and 2, Luke chapter 11, Romans chapter 9, John chapters 8 and 10, Revelation chapter 12, the Antiquities of the Judaeans, Book 13 by Flavius Josephus, and Book 16 of Strabo’s Geography.

But there is also a witness in the words of the prophet Zechariah. In chapter 3 of the prophecy of Zechariah, Joshua the high priest stands before God, and he is opposed by Satan. It is evident in Nehemiah chapter 2, and in other sources, that this prophecy was fulfilled in an immediate sense where the Canaanite people of the countries which bordered Jerusalem had resisted and sought to prevent the rebuilding of the temple and the city. But in another sense, Joshua the high priest stood as a type for another Joshua, which is Yahshua Christ. So the long term fulfillment of this prophecy is where Yahshua Christ is opposed by Satan throughout His Own ministry. But His opposition was not simply from the devil who offered Him the world. Rather, it was from the organized priesthood which since the days of the first Herod had consisted mainly of Edomite political cronies and operated the temple as a criminal enterprise. This we explained in part of our commentary by that title for John chapter 8. While Joshua the high priest was rebuilding the second temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem, Christ Himself had explained that He had come to reveal the raising of the true and eternal temple of Yahweh, which is the temple of His Body, as John professed in chapter 2 of his gospel.

Elements of the criminal enterprise of the Sadducees are described by Christ Himself in Matthew chapter 23. But for a more explicit example, Flavius Josephus had described how in the time of Albinus, around 61 or 62 AD, the “high priest Jesus [yet another Jesus] … also had servants who were very wicked, who joined themselves to the boldest sort of the people, and went to the threshingfloors, and took away the tithes that belonged to the priests by violence, and did not refrain from beating such as would not give these tithes to them.” The real priests were being driven into poverty by those who called themselves Jews, but were truly the synagogue of Satan. That account is in Antiquities, Book 20, where it is evident that the Sadducees, the crime lords of ancient Judaea, were persecuting the Levitical priests, who were the only truly legitimate priests of the day. Josephus explains in that same book that they had killed the apostle James, whom he also said was the brother of Christ. These Sadducees, and those from among the scribes and Pharisees and others who clung to them, they were the opponents of Christ. As they themselves had professed, as we see it in Matthew chapter 27, “25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.” Their children are the Jews of today. This is the Satan of Zechariah’s prophecy which Joshua the high priest was to face, as it was described in Zechariah chapter 3. This is also the Satan described as being locked in the bottomless pit here in Revelation chapter 20.

The Byzantine emperor known as Constantine the Great issued an Edict of Toleration of Christianity in 313 AD, gave Christianity official approval ten years later, and then endeavored to organize it to suit himself by calling for the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. Later, in 380 AD, emperor Theodosius I recognized the general catholic orthodoxy established at Nicaea, and made that the State religion of Rome. Then, once Christianity became the official religion of the Empire, laws were passed against the Jews throughout the 4th through the 6th centuries, which virtually excluded Jews from Christian society.

Under the Theodosian Code, from 404 AD Jews were excluded from many government positions, and by 418 they were completely barred from the civil service and the military. It became unlawful for Jews to hold any public office or military position, to loan money to Christians at usury, or to purchase Christian slaves. Jews were forbidden to testify against or concerning Christians in a court of law. Jews who already owned slaves were permitted to keep them, more for the benefit of the slaves than for the Jews themselves. Later, under the code of Justinian, the Theodosian laws restricting Jews were maintained, and in many cases made even more severe. For example, Jews caught owning Christian slaves faced execution, and synagogues were taken and ordered to be converted into churches. Justinian even forbade the Mishnah, which is the Jewish so-called “oral law” found in the Talmud. Many Jews were therefore persuaded to leave the grounds of the Empire, and they migrated into Khazaria, Arabia and elsewhere. So the Jews were pushed out of the kingdom of God and into the bottomless pit, so to speak. These Jews would later create Mohammedanism as a tool of vengeance against the Empire.

Later, in Medieval Europe, those Jews who remained were forced to live in separate communities, which they themselves had called ghettos, but within those communities they were often allowed their own laws. From the time of Charlemagne, they existed in Europe as chattel property of the nobles, for the profit of the nobles, heavily taxed and forced to live in their own ghettos. This is evidently when the words of Christ in Revelation 3:9 were fulfilled, that those who claim to be Judaeans and are not, Christ said that He “shall make them that they shall come and they shall worship before your feet”, as the Jews were forced to do for a thousand years before Christian nobles throughout Europe.

4 And I saw thrones, and they who sat upon them, and judgment had been given to them, and the souls of those having been beheaded on account of the testimony of Yahshua and on account of the Word of Yahweh and who did not worship the beast nor his image and did not receive the inscribed mark upon their [literally “the”, the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia have “their”] foreheads and upon their hands. And they lived and ruled with Christ for a thousand years.

For a thousand years, even under the imperfect governments of men, and for better or for worse, Christianity prevailed in Europe and Christian governance, in spite of Medieval imperfections, was the general way of life. The martyrs, those early Christians who did not worship the first beast and who died in pagan Rome at the instigation of the Jews during the persecutions of Christians, were now vindicated and venerated as the heroic examples that they were, although one cannot endorse the Roman Catholic practice of making statues and praying to the images of men. For three centuries the Jews had attempted to destroy Christianity, and they had used the Romans to persecute them. But the testimony of the Christian martyrs prevailed over the Jews and the pagan European world became the Christian world.

For a thousand years, Christian governance prevailed in Europe without the ability of either pagans or Jews to rule over Christians, to own Christian slaves, or to loan money to Christians at usury. Of course, throughout so much time there were Jews who were able to corrupt various noblemen or even common Christians. But in the 13th century, for example, Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican friar and priest in Italy, had written to Margaret of Flanders and expressed to her in a letter that the Jews should not be allowed to keep anything which they acquired through usury. Later, for another example, before the time of Martin Luther, Dominican monks in Germany sought to outlaw and burn the Talmud and the Kabbalah, which Jews were spreading throughout Europe. Throughout the entire period of the so-called Middle Ages in Europe, the people were compelled to attend Christian churches, the civil calendars were organized around Christian feasts, and daily life was regulated by the ten commandments, the sayings of Christ as they were then understood, and the local ecclesiastical authority of the bishops.

5 This is the first restoration. 6 Blessed and holy is he having a part in the first restoration. Over these the second death does not have authority, but they shall be priests of Yahweh and of Christ and they shall rule with Him for the [A and the MT have ‘a’; the text follows א] thousand years.

These are the many crowns on the head of Christ as He sits atop the White Horse in Revelation chapter 19, as they represent the Christian kingdoms of the world which are legitimately His. This also represents the fifth kingdom of Daniel chapter 2, where after the fall of the last of the beast empires we read: “44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” While here we see that the saints had ruled for only a thousand years, that is because in Revelation chapter 17 it is explained that they gave their kingdom over to the beast. That happened after Satan was let out of the pit, which we see here in verse 7. So Christ returns, as it is in Revelation chapter 19, and He has their crowns because they were rightfully His in the first place. As we have also explained, His return as King fulfills His Word in Hosea chapter 13 where He said “9 O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. 10 I will be thy king…”

Here in our translation, verse 5 contains only the words “This is the first restoration”, restoration being a literal meaning of the Greek word ἀνάστασις which is usually translated as resurrection in most Bibles. Here I will correct an error in the 2011 version of this commentary on the Revelation, where it is mistakenly asserted that the rest of the verse was found only in the copies of the Majority Text which follow Andreas of Caesareia. That is not true, as the words are also found in the Codex Alexandrinus (A). But the words are not found in the Codex Sinaiticus (א) or in the traditional Majority Text manuscripts. The words are not found in certain Syrian manuscripts, and neither are they found in the writings of some of the “Church Fathers” who cite this verse. Among them is the early bishop Victorinus of Pettau, who died around 304 AD and who therefore wrote at an even earlier time than the dating of the Codex Sinaiticus. But in spite of the fact that they are not found in most of the Majority Text manuscripts, they are found in the King James Version, which reads them to say: “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” So this we must dismiss as an interpolation.

The kings of Europe under the medieval Church, in spite of its flaws and the evil which was introduced into it during the course of its history, is the first restoration as its people ruled with Christ by keeping His Word and living under His commandments for a thousand years, in spite of whatever wars or other political events befell them. But towards the end of this period, when the German monks sought to burn the Talmuds and Kabbalahs, it was because at that time the Jews were becoming more and more influential in German academic and political circles. As we had already explained here in relation to Revelation chapter 18, Martin Luther wrote in his essay On the Jews and Their Lies (chapter xi), written in 1543, that the Jews of his own time were already boasting that they did control of Germany. Jews began to control Germany politically by corrupting noblemen and bishops through usury, enticing them to borrow money, and Jews began to control Germany academically through the popularity of alchemy and the dissemination of the Kabbalah. The careers of Johann Reuchlin and John Dee were significant early examples of that corruption. Once the Reformation took place, Jews were able to use secret societies and the lodges of Freemasonry to undermine Christendom and gain their emancipation, while at the same time spreading the ideals which he would then use to destroy it. So secular humanism and the false ideals of liberty, fraternity and equality, as well as their control of international mercantilism, would enable the Jews to gather the world’s heathens hordes against the Camp of the Saints. The thousand years of Christian dominance in Europe began to end with the emancipation of the Jews in the time of Napoleon, as that is when Satan was let out of the pit.

7 And when the thousand years are completed, the Adversary shall be released from his prison 8 and shall go out to deceive [א inserts “all”] the Nations which are [א wants the plural neuter article rendered “which are”] in the four corners of the earth [א wants “of the earth”], Gog and Magog, [א and the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia insert “and”] to gather them to battle [or “to the battle”], of which the number of them is as the sand of the sea.

This is another description of what we have already seen in Revelation chapter 19, where Yahshua Christ comes to the Wedding-feast of the Lamb in order to save His people from their enemies. But first, we shall read again from Revelation chapter 17: “7 And the messenger said to me: 'For what reason do you marvel? I shall tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast carrying her, having the seven heads and ten horns! 8 The beast which you saw was and is not and is going to ascend from out of the bottomless pit and go into destruction, and those dwelling upon the earth, whose name is not written in the book of life from the foundation of Society, shall marvel seeing the beast that was and is not and shall be present. 9 Thus is the mind having wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains, where the woman sits upon them. And there are seven kings: 10 five have fallen, one is, another has not yet come, and when he should come it is necessary that he remains a short time. 11 And the beast which was and is not even he is the eighth and is from of the seven, and goes into destruction. 12 And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, who have never received a kingdom, but they shall receive authority as kings for one hour with the beast. 13 These have one mind and power and they give their authority to the beast. 14 These shall make war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them, because He is Prince of Princes and King of Kings and those with Him called and chosen and faithful!”

Here in the Revelation, and also in the words of the prophets, we do not have multiple wars and thousand-year periods where Christ sometimes prevails, and then His enemies prevail for a time before Christ prevails once again. But rather, in Revelation chapter 19, after a vision of Christ coming upon a white horse as a conquering King, we read in part: “19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered to make war with Him sitting upon the horse and with His army.” So this vision in Revelation chapter 20 is a parallelism with both of those visions, in chapters 17 and 19, and they are all describing the same great war but from different prophetic and historical perspectives, so that having all of them we can have a better understanding of what is to take place, and why. This is all a panorama of events future to John’s time, but now very much of it is in our past, as it describes the period of the punishment of Israel for their sins, and the last days which are the time of Jacob’s trouble, during which Esau prevails, a circumstance which does not end until Yahweh God has His vengeance. That we discussed in relation to Revelation chapter 19, and here in chapter 20 we see a different description of the same process, from a different perspective.

So Revelation chapter 17 explains that the eighth beast (verse 11) is the same as that beast upon which the woman is seated, which ascended from out of the bottomless pit (verse 8). So behind that eighth beast are the enemies of Yahweh God, the same Dragon which also gave its power to the beasts of Revelation chapter 13. So Mystery Babylon is the eighth beast, to which the woman is joined, and it is therefore shown to be one and the same as this Satan who is released from prison – the Adversary who emerges from the pit – here in Revelation chapter 20. This has already happened, and it is the very reason why all of the nations of the world of today are deceived and under the control of the international Jewish banks, corporations, and non-governmental agencies! This process began with the de' Medici popes and the acceptance of usury by Christendom, and culminated when the Jews were finally emancipated in Europe, at the time of the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte. Satan had surely been locked away, as the Jews kept apart from Christians, for a thousand years. But with their emancipation Jews were free to go out and deceive the nations with their cries for liberty, equality, and fraternity, to the extent that today have all the world's tares, bad fish and goat nations threatening the very existence of the White Christian race.

9 And they had gone up upon the breadth of the earth and encircled the encampment of the saints and the beloved city, and fire descended [using different prepositions, the MT manuscripts and those following Andreas of Caesareia have “from God from out of heaven”; the text follows א and A] from out of heaven and devoured them.

It is not a mere coincidence, that the language here of the ultimate salvation of the children of Israel from the hands of their enemies is described with the same language found in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 describing that same event, and the words of Ezekiel in those chapters have never yet been fulfilled, as they were written long after the majority of the children of Israel in Palestine had been taken off into the Assyrian captivities. Furthermore, the fact that Yahshua Christ uses this language to describe the fate of the Camp of the Saints proves that this prophecy pertains to those Christians who are true Israel, and not to the Jews who are actually of the Synagogue of Satan.

But the visions in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 are not prophecies of separate or consecutive events. Rather, like these seven chapters of the Revelation, they too are parallelisms, they are both prophecies of the same event given consecutively from two slightly different perspectives. So here it is fitting to review parts of these chapters of Ezekiel, but especially chapter 39, since much of the language is very similar to what is found in Revelation chapters 19 and 20, and it is surely a prophecy of the same events which we look forward to now. In Ezekiel chapter 38, some of the allies marshaled along with Gog are listed, such as Meshech and Tubal, and Persia, Ethiopia, Libya and others. Meshech and Tubal are among the Slavic Japhethite peoples of modern Russia, but Magog itself is difficult to identify precisely in history. All of the other nations listed by Ezekiel were Adamic nations, at least at one time, but now they are among the mongrel hordes of the Near and Middle East and Africa, and they are no longer Adamic as they have been mingled with other races. From a proper Biblical perspective, these can certainly be described with terms such as tares, bad fish or goats.

Here it is also established that, there having been no Gog in historical times, the name is used as an epithet for the Ashkenazi Jew, who came from southern Russia into the west, and under the guise of peace and commerce has operated a criminal enterprise throughout Christendom for many centuries. It was Jews in France who were behind the French Revolution, which set the stage for all subsequent European wars and revolutions, and both Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews have participated in fostering these upheavals – so that all Jewry may share in the spoils. The Ashkenazi Jew took over Russia in the Bolshevik Revolution, and he was financed by the Jews in London and New York. While it appears that Marxist Communism and the Capitalism of the West are opposed to one another, they are actually in league with one another, and the Ashkenazi Jew is operating in partnership with his Sephardic cousins. Therefore Gog is Ezekiel's term for the eighth beast of Revelation chapter 18, which is world Jewry, and that is verified here as the same term appears in Revelation chapter 20, in a role being fulfilled in history by the same Jews. Having infiltrated 19th-century Christianity and having completely poisoned its doctrines with the Bullinger and Scofield Bibles and other such works, now most of the true Christian Israel peoples of the world worship this beast. The Israeli state in Palestine which most Christians now worship may actually be the modern image of this beast. But it must be said that the same problem of confusing Jews for Israel began with the Bible commentaries written by converso-Jews as early as the 13th century, as well as with so-called “Church Fathers” as early as the 2nd century. Now Gog, in league with Magog and the other nations listed in Ezekiel, is the beast by which Satan gathers all of the nations to battle against the children of Israel, which is also described in Revelation chapter 20.

Furthermore, in Ezekiel chapter 38 Yahweh is portrayed as saying to these heathen nations “9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.” That may describe a military invasion, or it may not. The phrase “come in like a cloud” may describe their coming in covertly, as western immigration policy has allowed tens of millions of aliens entry in the nations of Christendom under the guise of peace, in the name of fraternity, equality, and liberty – those same false ideals espoused by the beast and by the false prophet. The beast and the false prophet are two different aspects of the same enemy: the beast is the Jew of international finance, and the false prophet is the Jew of rabbinical Talmudism, or of any other modern religion which upholds the Jew as the chosen people of God, when in fact the Jew is Satan pretending to be Israel. All of these alien peoples, and many others, have already come in like a cloud to cover the land of all of the nations of the earth inhabited by the children of Israel. It has been done under the pretenses of multiculturalism, diversity, globalism, open borders, immigration, workers' rights, and other nefarious agendas. Yet in the minds of the aliens themselves, they are not immigrants, but conquerors, while Jewish media propaganda purposely conceals their true sentiments.

But certain parts of Ezekiel chapter 39 seem to indicate that it is indeed describing a military invasion, however that is not a requirement for a realization of the prophecy. For example, in verse 3 we read: “And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.” Then after these hordes are destroyed, we read further on in the chapter “9 And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years: 10 So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.” However even these things do not necessitate a military invasion, as many people in the West today are in possession of weapons even without being a part of any military.

Whether there is ever an actual military invasion of the White Christian nations by aliens does not matter. Already, all of the White Christian nations, the Camp of the Saints, have been and are currently being overrun, looted and pillaged by aliens without a military. In many White nations today, genocide is being disguised as mere criminal behavior, and it is hidden behind statistics while reports everywhere are distorted or squelched by Jewish-controlled media outlets. Christendom is overrun by the aliens which hate the whore, while any Whites who do stand up and speak out against the genocide are persecuted even by those of their own race! Such is the proof that Yahweh God has caused them to hand their kingdom over to this last beast, as it is described in Revelation chapter 17. Those Whites who worship the beast, who take the side of the beast against their own race, fail to love their brother, and take upon themselves the mark of the beast.

Whether there is ever a formal military invasion or not, near the beginning of either of these visions in Ezekiel, there is wording which explains that Yahweh Himself has gathered the alien hordes against the Camp of the Saints, which are the world’s Christian nations, ostensibly for the purposes of both His glory and to execute His vengeance. In chapter 38, Yahweh first says that “4 … I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army,” and in chapter 39, reading the New American Standard Bible, as there are mistranslations in the King James here: “2 and I shall turn you around, drive you on, take you up from the remotest parts of the north, and bring you against the mountains of Israel.” But then, where He promises the complete destruction of those same people, in chapter 38 the enemies are portrayed as turning upon one another, while in chapter 39 we read “4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.” That language parallels what we have also seen of the marriage supper of the Lamb in Revelation chapter 19, so perhaps the offspring of the fallen angels do indeed devour one another, or perhaps the reference to birds is literal, and the flesh of the enemies is devoured by scavengers.

Then, in language similar to what we have seen here in Revelation chapter 20, we read in Ezekiel chapter 39: “6 And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD”, and a little further on, “11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog. ” This is how He shall sanctify Israel, and how the nations of Israel shall know that He has sanctified them, as it is prophesied at the end of Ezekiel chapter 37, and it is also how He shall sanctify Himself, which He explains in Ezekiel chapter 38 where it ends by saying “23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.”

So the Gog of Revelation chapter 20 and Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 represents the modern Jews, and the nations from the four corners of the earth are all of the aliens who have immigrated into Western lands at the instigation of the Jews. By the hand of God they shall all be destroyed here. As it is described at Revelation chapter 19 verse 21, “those remaining [who had made war with Him] were slain by the sword of Him sitting upon the horse, which came from out of His mouth, and all the birds ate their fill from their flesh.” So it is also fully evident that the Wedding Feast of the Lamb is the destruction of all of His enemies in the last day, all of those who would come against the children of Israel, and that Revelation chapters 19 and 20 are discussing the same events which were prophesied by Ezekiel.

Yahweh God shall be glorified by eliminating all of the aliens among the Christian Israel nations, just as He was glorified by eliminating all the first-born of Egypt. All of those peoples who come against the children of Israel in the last days, those “beasts” which the house of Israel and the house of Judah would be sown with, as it was described by Jeremiah, the “beasts of the forest” who arise and devour the people of God because their dumb-dog pastors do not know any better, as it was described by Isaiah, they shall all be destroyed here. All of these aliens pillaging the lands of Christendom today shall all be destroyed in those same lands. There is no mincing words: this is the Gospel of Christ as it is found in the Revelation and in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39, and in the parables of Christ of the tares of the field, the bad fish and the goats. This is the Word of God, and to be ashamed of these words is to be ashamed of Him, and to invoke His shame upon ourselves.

10 And the False Accuser who deceived them is cast into the lake of fire and sulfur where are also [א and the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia want “also”] the beast and the false prophet, and they shall be tormented day and night for the eternal ages.

The description of the beast and the false prophet being cast into the Lake of Fire is found at the end of chapter 19, and here it is expressed as if that has already happened at the point where the Devil is cast into the same Lake of Fire. Perhaps this may help us once again understand that Babylon must fall, which would indeed diminish both the beast and the false prophet, before the destruction of the enemies and the demise of the Devil, which collectively refers to the Jews. At the end of this age, upon the return of Christ, the False Accuser, or Devil, which is the Adversary, or Satan, all Jewry and all of those who oppose Christ, are cast into the Lake of Fire. The Adversary, the beast, and the false prophet are no more.

The children of God can sin and do, but they do not create sin. The fallen angels and their progeny are long ago the authors of sin. They planted the tares at the foundation of the world, which is the Adamic society. That is the meaning of another parable, which is found in Genesis chapter 3. In 1 John chapter 3 we read: “9 Each who has been born from of Yahweh does not create wrongdoing, because His seed abides in him, and he is not able to do wrong, because from of Yahweh he has been born.” Because His seed abides in him: because he is of a pure γένος, of the race of Adam which Yahweh created, as Christ explained in the parables. Then as David said, and Paul quoted, “blessed is the man to whom Yahweh will not impute sin”, and that describes only the children of Israel, the legitimate seed of Abraham. Yahweh God has promised that He will forgive all of their sins, and when He made that promise, in several different places in the prophets where it is worded in several different ways, He gave no exceptions.

In any of the examples of those parables of which we had first spoken here, there is never a third alternative: one is a sheep or a goat, a wheat or a tare, and of the good race of fish or of a bad race of fish. As Paul had said in Hebrews chapter 12, one is either a son or a bastard. There is no other choice. There is no third alternative anywhere. Those who offend, where Christ had spoken of gathering “out of his kingdom all things that offend” in Matthew 13:41, are the bastards, and they must be, since they were created by man in violation of the Genesis law of “kind after kind”. Then as He exclaimed in Matthew chapter 15, “Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” Here in the Revelation, the process of that rooting up is both explained and prophesied.

The apostle John also explained in the fourth chapter of his first epistle that there are those who are from of God, and there are those who are from of the world. Their origin is in the world. While Yahweh created all things, He only created all things which He had created! The things which man created are sins, they are only mere corruptions of the creation of Yahweh, and these things cannot ever be restored to Yahweh. The so-called “restoration of all things” is only a restoration of all things which Yahweh created, all things between Yahweh and Israel, and there are clearly many plants here which He did not plant! The goat nations are goats and not sheep, because they are bastards and not Adam. There is no third alternative which can honestly and explicitly be found in Scripture.

11 And I saw a great white throne and He sitting upon it, from whose presence the earth and the heaven had fled, and a place is not found for them. 12 And I saw the dead: the great ones and the small ones, standing before the throne. And books had been opened, and another book was opened, which is that of life, and the dead were judged from out of the things written in the books according to their works.

Here “the earth and heaven” are evidently allegories for the people and their governments. This describes the final judgement of God. All those written into the Book of Life shall live, and all others shall be cast into the Lake of Fire. Again, like the parables described above, there is no third choice. One either goes on to eternal life, or eternal destruction, which we interpret as a cessation of existence. The sheep nations – the nations of Israel, are all preserved. The goat nations all go into the Lake of Fire, or in other words, they cease to exist. There is no coming back from the Lake of Fire, since in the end even Hades and Death are cast into it, whereby we determine that it represents a cessation of existence, because Death and Hades are certainly not going to be resurrected.

As for the Book of Life, which is not mentioned explicitly in the Old Testament, this was first mentioned by Paul of Tarsus in Philippians chapter 4 where he wrote commending “my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life.” But elsewhere Yahshua Christ Himself is described as the “Word of Life”, as the apostle John wrote in chapter 1 of his first epistle, and said: “1 That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we have observed, and our hands have touched concerning the Word of Life: 2 that the life was made manifest, and we have seen and we bear witness and we announce to you the eternal life which was with the Father and has been made manifest to us.” So their own hands, meaning those of the apostles, had touched Christ, the Word of Life, and if He is the Word of Life, then the Gospel of Christ must be the book of Life.

As for judgment, Christ had stated, as it is recorded in Luke chapter 10: “22 All things have been given over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is if not the Father, and who the Father is if not the Son, and the Son shall reveal it to whom He should determine.” This same statement is also recorded in Matthew chapter 11 thus: “27 All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son if not the Father, nor does anyone know the Father if not the Son, and to whom the Son may wish to reveal Him.” Of course, Christ had revealed to His disciples that He is one and the same with the Father, as it is also revealed here in the Revelation.

So in the Gospel, in John chapter 10, we read, in part and omitting the verse numbers: “Truly, truly I say to you that I am the door of the sheep! … I am the door! If one should enter by Me he shall be preserved and shall enter in and shall go out and he shall find pasture... I have come in order that they would have life and they would have abundance! ... I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life on behalf of the sheep! … I am the Good Shepherd and I know Mine and Mine know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father, and I lay down My life on behalf of the sheep. And I have other sheep which are not from this pen, and these it is necessary for Me to bring and they shall hear My voice, and they shall be one flock, one shepherd.... For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life in order that I would receive it again. 18 No one takes it from Me. Rather I lay it down by Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to receive it again. This command I have received from My Father.... But you do not believe, because you are not My sheep! 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they follow Me, 28 and I give to them eternal life and they are not lost forever and one shall not snatch them from My hand. 29 My Father who gave them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them from the hand of the Father! 30 I and the Father are One!”

Where Christ had said “But you do not believe, because you are not My sheep” He was speaking to certain of the rulers of Judaea who had opposed Him, who were Edomites and not Israelites. In the words of the Gospel it is absolutely clear, that there is no path to Yahweh God except through Christ, and Christ only came “but unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel”, as He Himself exclaimed, which is recorded in Matthew chapter 15. In the new heaven and new earth of Revelation chapters 21 and 22 which follow, it is therefore manifest that of all the people here in this world presently, there is only a place for the children of Israel to enter into the City of God, as He had come for no one else. There is one exception, that those of the other branches of the Adamic race share a promise of a restoration to eternal life in the Tree of Life, which is Christ, in Genesis 3:22, and Christ Himself had attested that they shall also be resurrected. But evidently they cannot enter the City of God, which is only reserved for Israel. Christ being the Word of Life, and the Word made flesh, the Bible is a reflection of that Word, and of all the world’s races, only the race of Adam is written into the Book of Life. For that reason Paul explained in Romans chapter 5 that while in Adam all men die, in Christ all men shall be made alive. Speaking of men, Paul was only speaking in reference to men who had descended from Adam.

13 And the sea had given over those dead who were [the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia want “who were”] in it, and Death and Hades had given over those who were [again, the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia want “who were”] in them, and each are judged [א has “sentenced”, κατακρίνω rather than κρίνω] according to their works.

Here we see a complete picture of the judgment of Christ, that nobody – not one descendant of Adam who has died – shall escape the notice of God, regardless of how they have died. Here we would also assert once more that the sea is an allegory representing the mass of the world’s peoples, the waters upon which the woman sits in Revelation chapter 17, and in the opening verse of Revelation chapter 21 we find there is no more sea, because the mass of the world’s peoples are no more, if they have not the Spirit of Yahweh. Only those who came from God shall be given over to Him, as Christ assured His disciples, as it is in John chapter 10: “28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and my Father are one.”

14 And Death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire. This [א has “And this”] is the second death: the lake of fire. [the MT manuscripts following Andreas of Caesareia want the clause “This is the second death: the lake of fire.” The King James Version only has part of the clause.] 15 And if one is not found written in the book of life, he is cast into the lake of fire.

Once again we must be mindful of the words of Christ in the parables of His Gospel and the promises of His prophets, and we cannot interpret this or any other passage in a way which contradicts those terms. Neither Satan, the Jews, or any of the tares, the bad fish, or the goat nations, all of which must represent the alien nations, can be written into the book of Life, because their origins are not from of God, the Author of Life. Rather, as Christ had told His adversaries, “You are from of those below”, in John chapter 8. Then here in the Revelation all of the enemies of Christ and Christendom are described as having come from out of the bottomless pit, which certainly describes whatever has it origins “from of those below”.

Here, where Death and Hades are cast into the Lake of Fire, which is also described as the second death in Revelation chapter 21, our assertion that the Lake of Fire is an allegory for a cessation of existence is corroborated. As we read in Revelation chapter 21, “4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death…”

This concludes our commentary on Revelation chapter 20.