Commentaries and Podcasts

On the Revelation of Yahshua Christ, Part 12: The Condemnation of Roman and Byzantine Churches

As we proceed with our commentary on the Revelation, we shall hopefully be able to even more clearly elucidate the fact that its prophesies have foretold many of the most notable events of the history of these past two thousand years. But these are not singular events. Rather, most of them take place over several or even many centuries, so they really describe historical processes instead. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse describe four processes and sets of circumstances in the course of the history of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, which from the time that it began extending overseas to the time of the fall of the western portion of the empire, which includes Rome itself, had lasted over seven hundred years. During the last three centuries of that process, the Germanic tribes were contending with the empire with increasing frequency until they were finally able to overrun it completely.

On the Revelation of Yahshua Christ, Part 11: The Fall of an Empire

Describing the sealing of the hundred and forty four thousand unsoiled saints of the tribes of Israel as The Assurance of God in Revelation chapter 7, we also saw that there was a much greater assurance, that an innumerable multitude “from all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues” would also be preserved, although they would first wash their garments in the blood of the Lamb, in what was described as a great tribulation. It is this latter group which is depicted as having made the exclamation that “Salvation is with our God sitting upon the throne and with the Lamb”, and therefore although they may not have been assigned the same special status as the hundred and forty four thousand who were sealed, they are nevertheless saved, in the eternal sense of the word as it is used in Scripture.

On the Revelation of Yahshua Christ, Part 10: The Assurance of God

Discussing the so-called Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in relation to The Pattern of Empires in Revelation chapter 6, we sought to reconcile them to the apparent stages of the rise and fall of the Roman empire, since even though other empires certainly seem to have followed the same general pattern, Rome is the primary subject of the prophecy in these chapters of the Revelation. Now before we commence with our commentary on the Revelation itself, we shall take a moment to review Daniel chapter 2, as it is directly relevant to Revelation chapters 6 and 8. As we had also cited in that last presentation, this same observation was made by the 2nd century Christian bishop Irenaeus.

But first we must offer another digression. In our observance of the pattern of empires we noted that the various stages actually overlap one another. Rome’s White Horse stage began to take form when the city warred against the other tribes of the Italian peninsula and subjected them to itself. Then it turned to the nations abroad and began to subject them as well. Initially this expansion of the empire was conducted under the pretense of good intentions, especially as the bickering Greek states invited Rome to settle their disputes with one another. This White Horse seems to parallel the original expansion of the United States, when the contiguous territory on the North American continent was subjected up through the mid-19th century.

There are three methods of interpreting prophecy which are prevalent among Church commentators today, which are usually labeled as historicism, preterism and futurism. The preterist view generally upholds some variation of the belief that all Biblical prophecy was fulfilled by 70 AD with the destruction of Herod’s temple in Jerusalem. This view fails miserably not only here in the Revelation, but also in the words of the Old Testament prophets, and especially in Daniel and Obadiah. The futurist view generally upholds the belief that prophecy has more or less been put on hold for some period far into the future, when the descriptions of world events found in the Revelation and other prophets will play out like some sort of Hollywood science fiction movie. This view also fails miserably when it is compared to the actual words of the Revelation and the prophets. While we will not offer a detailed refutation of these views here and now, we have already endeavored to do that in the past, and here we would assert that the content of this commentary on the Revelation, when it is completed, will in itself provide a sufficient refutation of all opposing views.

On the Revelation of Yahshua Christ, Part 8: The Lamb of God

Presenting our commentary on Revelation chapter 4 we had discussed Visions of the Throne of God, where in part we had compared John’s vision here with the similar earlier visions of both Isaiah and Ezekiel. In chapter 6 of Isaiah, the prophet had said rather explicitly that he saw “the Lord sitting upon a throne”, while in the opening chapter of his book Ezekiel only said that “upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it”, and described the man as having the appearance of fire. But towards the end of the chapter, Ezekiel said “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.” Then as he opened chapter 2, he described things which the man had said to him. While Ezekiel attested that what he saw was merely a vision, and used a word which means likeness quite often in its description, Isaiah did not use those terms. But what Isaiah saw also must have been only a vision, or the burning coal which the seraph creature had set upon his mouth would certainly have caused him harm.

Having presented the messages of Yahshua Christ to the seven churches in Roman Asia which are found in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, we noticed that five of those churches, which were those in Ephesus, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis and Laodicea, had all been guilty of one sin or another from which they were commanded to repent. But the only sins which had been specifically mentioned to any of them were the sins of fornication and idolatry, or the eating of things sacrificed unto idols. These sins were specified in the messages to the churches of Pergamos and Thyatira, and in order to describe them Christ had evoked the Old Testament accounts of Balaam and Jezebel.

In the events of which we are informed by Scripture that the counsel of Balaam had precipitated, which are described in Numbers chapter 25, the children of Israel had “began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab”, as it is explicitly stated. We have already discussed at length and with historical references the sexual activities leading to race-mixing and other forms of fornication which were practiced by worshippers of Baal. In the account of this incident, the idol Baalpeor is mentioned, and it is evident that the Moabites had practiced those same perversions. That is how the sons of Israel had committed whoredom with the daughters of Moab, and not merely with the idols of Moab. In the events surrounding the life of Jezebel, she had actively promoted the worship of Baal in Israel, and the prophets of Baal and the prophets of the groves “which eat at Jezebel's table” were all confronted by the prophet Elijah whereupon they were all destroyed. Both Ahab and his wife Jezebel had died around 850 BC, and a hundred years later there is an account of the sins of Israel in the words of the prophet Hosea.

On the Revelation of Yahshua Christ, Part 6: The Churches at Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea

In our last presentation, having concluded our commentary on Revelation chapter 2 we discussed the messages to the assemblies at Pergamos and Thyatira. In those messages, each of these assemblies were criticized by Yahshua Christ for having accepted men and women who were advocating the same sin, but in a somewhat different manner. The assembly at Pergamos had evidently had at least several unnamed members who upheld what Christ had described as the “teaching of Balaam, who had taught Balak to put a trap before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication.”

Consulting the Old Testament Scriptures in order to find what the teaching of Balaam had been, in Numbers chapter 25 we find that the Moabites had instructed their women to seduce the men of Israel into engaging in illicit acts of sexual intercourse. There we read, in part, “1 And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.” Then a little further on: “3 And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.” But it is not until this incident is mentioned again later, in Numbers chapter 31, that we find that it was indeed Balaam who had taught this, where we read that it was done “through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.” So Balaam, who was hired to curse Israel, could not curse them as Yahweh had caused only blessings to emanate from his mouth. Therefore, perceiving that if the men of Israel could be coaxed into such a sin that they would lose the favor of their God, he instructed Balak to do that very thing.

On the Revelation of Yahshua Christ, Part 5: The Churches at Pergamos and Thyatira

Presenting the first part of Revelation chapter 2 and the messages to the assemblies at Ephesus and Smyrna, we had encountered and discussed several concepts that are contained in those messages which we believe are necessary to understand not only in relation to the Revelation, but also to the entire Bible as well as to our lives as Christians today. First, although we are not told what sin it was that they had been committing, because the Ephesians had left their first love, as it was described, they then began to accept or to commit some sin from which they were commanded to repent. Then Christ had threatened that if they did not repent, they would be punished. So it is evident that even Christians who profess Christ and endure in His Name, who reject false apostles and Nicolaitans, which we interpret as those professional priests who with pretense would rule over the people, and who are also even commended for not bearing evil, must nevertheless seek to maintain complete obedience to the Gospel of Christ or face the consequences of punishment from God. This is absolutely contrary to the general belief of most Christians today, who basically claim that all one has to do is to believe in Jesus and perform some rituals in order to be saved. Having rejected false apostles, the Ephesians clearly believed the Gospel as it was taught them by true apostles, so they must have believed in Jesus, as today’s denominational Christians would also claim to do. Yet Christ Himself had warned them that they would be punished if they did not repent of their sin, that their lampstand would be removed from its place.

On the Revelation of Yahshua Christ, Part 4: The Churches at Ephesus and Smyrna

In our last presentation we took a long digression in order to elucidate the mistakes which the early Christian writers had made where they attempted to explain the references which Yahshua Christ had made in Revelation chapter 2 to a certain group, or class, of men whom He had called Nicolaitans. The earliest of those writers, Ignatius of Antioch, had acknowledged the existence of a group called Nicolaitans, but without explanation he referred to them as being “falsely so-called” Nicolaitans, and if they did not deserve the label then even if an actual sect existed which called themselves by that name, it could not have been the same as those to whom Christ had referred here.

Later so-called Church Fathers attributed to the Nicolaitans certain sins for which Christ had explicitly condemned Balaam and a woman whom He called Jezebel in this chapter, but Christ Himself never attributed those sins to the Nicolaitans, so the attribution cannot stand. Several others went so far as to connect these Nicolaitans to the Nicolaus of Antioch mentioned in Acts chapter 6, which is basically a slander of that particular Nicolaus. The events of Acts chapter 6 date to as early as 34 AD, and certainly happened long before 41 AD where the death of Herod Agrippa I is recorded in Acts chapter 12. We may think that if a man who was described by Luke as having been one of the early saints and leaders of the church in Judaea had broken away and began some heretical sect supposedly known to all of those early Christian writers, that Luke, as well as Peter, James and Paul along with him, most of whom must have known Nicolaus personally, would have mentioned his heresy somewhere in their writings, as they all lived and wrote for at least another 28 years. James and Paul each died about 62 AD, in different places and under different circumstances, and that is when Luke ended the records of the Book of Acts. Therefore it is highly unlikely that the Nicolaus of Acts chapter 6 had founded any heresy worthy enough to be mentioned, and even hated, by Christ here in Revelation chapter 2. Yahshua Christ must have been referring to something else.

On the Revelation of Yahshua Christ, Part 3: What is a Nicolaitan?

In our last presentation we discussed Revelation chapter 1 and the nature of Yahshua Christ as He revealed it through the apostle John. While there are numerous indications in the words of the ancient prophets that Christ is Yahweh God incarnate, and while Christ Himself had made similar professions in several different ways in the accounts in the Gospels, and especially in the Gospel of John, here in Revelation chapter 1 He made several explicit statements as well as several allegories which reveal that He is God. This is found in the underlying meaning of epithets such as “He who is and who was and who is coming” and “First Born from the dead”, but it is explicit in verses 7 and 8 where we read: “7 Behold! He comes with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him, even whoever had pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn before Him. Yeah, truly! 8 ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, says Yahweh God, He who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.’”