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Revelation - The Last Book of the Bible · truthunedited

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Speaker 1: For two thousand years, one book has terrified the world.
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Speaker 1: It speaks of four horsemen sweeping the earth, a dragon
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Speaker 1: devouring the stars, a beast rising from the sea. A number, 666,
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Speaker 1: branded onto human hands, and a final devastating war called Armageddon.
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Speaker 1: The vision was so overwhelming, the man who received it
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Speaker 1: collapsed as though dead. His name was John and his
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Speaker 1: vision is the book of Revelation. But here is what
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Speaker 1: almost everyone misses. Revelation is not a book about monsters,
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Speaker 1: because before John sees a single beast, before a single
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Speaker 1: seal is broken, before 666 is ever counted, John sees
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Speaker 1: a throne, and the one sitting on that throne changes
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Speaker 1: everything we thought we knew about the end of the world.
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Speaker 1: This is the complete book of Revelation. Every chapter, Every beast,
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Speaker 1: every judgment, explained. A man stands on a rock in
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Speaker 1: the Aegean Sea. The island is called Patmos, a small,
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Speaker 1: barren crescent of volcanic stone, roughly ten miles long, used
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Speaker 1: by Rome as a place of banishment for political prisoners.
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Speaker 1: The wind carries nothing from the mainland, no letters, no news,
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Speaker 1: no voices of the churches he has led and loved
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Speaker 1: for decades. Rome has put water between John and his people.
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Speaker 1: And to the empire, that is the end of the story.
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Speaker 1: One more dissident silenced, one more sect contained. But exile
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Speaker 1: becomes revelation. The author calls himself simply John, a brother
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Speaker 1: and partner in suffering, kingdom, and endurance. As he writes
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Speaker 1: in Revelation chapter 1, verse 9, early Christian tradition says,
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Speaker 1: particularly the testimony of Irenaeus, writing around A.D. 180, connected
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Speaker 1: him with the apostle John, son of Zebedee. Many modern
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Speaker 1: scholars prefer the title John of Patmos, because the book
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Speaker 1: itself never explicitly claims apostolic authorship, and its Greek style
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Speaker 1: differs markedly from the Gospel of John. What is not
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Speaker 1: debated is what the book claims to be, a direct
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Speaker 1: commissioned vision from the risen Christ, Most scholars date Revelation
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Speaker 1: near the end of Emperor Domitian's reign, around A.D. 90-96,
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Speaker 1: though a minority argue for a date before Jerusalem's destruction
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Speaker 1: in A.D. 70, partly because the number of the beast
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Speaker 1: likely points to Nero. Whatever the exact year, this book
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Speaker 1: emerged from a world dominated by Roman imperial power. And
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Speaker 1: the book itself is three things simultaneously— An apocalypse from
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Speaker 1: the Greek word apocalypsis, meaning unveiling. A prophecy calling churches
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Speaker 1: to repentance. And a circular letter written to seven real congregations.
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Speaker 1: That word, apocalypse, matters. It does not mean the end
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Speaker 1: of the world. It means an unveiling. Revelation was not
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Speaker 1: written to hide reality. It was written to expose it.
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Speaker 1: John hears a voice behind him like a trumpet. He turns.
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Speaker 1: Seven golden lampstands, one like the Son of Man standing
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Speaker 1: among them, eyes like blazing fire, a voice like the
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Speaker 1: roar of rushing waters, a two-edged sword extending from his mouth,
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Speaker 1: a face shining like the sun at full strength. John
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Speaker 1: falls to the ground as though dead. Christ places his
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Speaker 1: hand on him and speaks, Do not be afraid. I
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Speaker 1: am the first and the last. I was dead. And look,
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Speaker 1: I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the
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Speaker 1: keys of death and of Hades. Rome controls the island,
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Speaker 1: but Christ holds the keys. Before John sees a single beast,
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Speaker 1: before a single horseman rides, before 666 is counted, or
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Speaker 1: Babylon falls, Christ stands among seven churches. And those churches
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Speaker 1: are about to hear what he thinks of them. The
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Speaker 1: seven churches formed a natural postal route through Roman Asia Minor.
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Speaker 1: They were real congregations in real cities, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea.
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Speaker 1: But the number seven communicates completeness. These churches represent conditions
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Speaker 1: that can appear in any generation. And Christ does not
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Speaker 1: begin by confronting Rome. He begins by confronting his own people.
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Speaker 1: Two of the seven churches receive no correction at all.
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Speaker 1: Smyrna is afflicted, economically poor, and facing imprisonment. Christ calls
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Speaker 1: her spiritually rich. Philadelphia has little strength, but has kept
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Speaker 1: His word and has not denied His name. Christ sets
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Speaker 1: before her an open door that no one can shut.
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Speaker 1: These two are praised without reservation. Revelation never measures faithfulness
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Speaker 1: by comfort or by size. but three churches have survived
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Speaker 1: external persecution only to be defeated from within. Pergamum held
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Speaker 1: fast to Christ's name even after a man named Antipas
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Speaker 1: was martyred among them. Yet the church tolerates teaching that
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Speaker 1: leads believers into compromise. Thyatira is praised for love, faith, service,
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Speaker 1: and perseverance, yet tolerates a teacher leading believers into idolatry.
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Speaker 1: Sardis has a reputation for being alive. Christ says she
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Speaker 1: is dead. The pattern is unmistakable. A church can survive
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Speaker 1: persecution and still be destroyed by its own compromise. Then
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Speaker 1: come the churches that cannot see themselves. Ephesus works hard, endures,
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Speaker 1: and exposes false teachers. But she has abandoned her first love.
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Speaker 1: Orthodoxy without love is a slow death. And Laodicea, wealthy, self-sufficient, comfortable,
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Speaker 1: believes she needs nothing. Christ says she is wretched, pitiful, poor, blind,
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Speaker 1: and naked. And here is something most people never notice.
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Speaker 1: The famous image of Christ knocking at the door, that
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Speaker 1: painting hanging in millions of homes, was not originally spoken
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Speaker 1: to an unbeliever searching for God. It was spoken to
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Speaker 1: a church, a church so comfortable that It had locked
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Speaker 1: Christ outside and did not realize he was missing. Every
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Speaker 1: message to the seven churches ends with the same phrase,
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Speaker 1: a promise to the one who conquers. The Greek word
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Speaker 1: is nikao, to overcome, to prevail. But how do believers conquer?
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Speaker 1: The word is planted here. Its full meaning will detonate later,
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Speaker 1: when we see what the Lamb does in the throne room.
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Speaker 1: The churches wanted to know whether they could survive Rome
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Speaker 1: But Christ first asked whether they could survive their own compromise.
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Speaker 1: Then he said, Come up here. And John stepped through
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Speaker 1: an open door into heaven. John sees a throne, not
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Speaker 1: a Roman throne, the throne, the one around which everything
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Speaker 1: else is arranged, radiance like jasper and carnelian, a rainbow
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Speaker 1: like emerald encircling the seat. Twenty-four elders clothed in white,
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Speaker 1: wearing golden crowns, seated on thrones of their own. Yet
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Speaker 1: every one of those crowns will be cast before the
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Speaker 1: central throne. Lightning flashes from it. Thunder rolls. Seven torches
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Speaker 1: of fire burn before it. The seven spirits of God.
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Speaker 1: Before the throne, something like a sea of glass, clear
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Speaker 1: as crystal. Four living creatures stand around the throne, covered
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Speaker 1: in eyes, front and back. within and without. The first
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Speaker 1: like a lion, the second like an ox, the third
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Speaker 1: with a human face, the fourth like a flying eagle.
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Speaker 1: Day and night they never cease to say, Holy, Holy, Holy,
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Speaker 1: Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.
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Speaker 1: The imagery echoes Isaiah's throne vision in chapter 6, Ezekiel's
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Speaker 1: living creatures in chapter 1, Daniel's heavenly court in chapter 7.
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Speaker 1: but Revelation gathers them all into a single, overwhelming scene.
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Speaker 1: And the point is unmistakable. God is not struggling for control.
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Speaker 1: He already sits on the throne. Rome has a throne,
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Speaker 1: but it exists under this one. A scroll appears in
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Speaker 1: God's right hand, sealed with seven seals. It holds the purpose,
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Speaker 1: the judgment, and the redemption of all history. A mighty
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Speaker 1: angel cries out with a loud voice, Who is worthy
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Speaker 1: to open the scroll and break its seals? No one
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Speaker 1: in heaven. No one on earth. No one under the earth.
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Speaker 1: John weeps. This is the only moment in Revelation where
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Speaker 1: the prophet breaks down. And his grief is not trivial.
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Speaker 1: If no one opens the scroll, then the martyr's blood
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Speaker 1: remains unanswered. Suffering stays meaningless. Evil keeps winning. History has
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Speaker 1: no resolution. Everything the churches have endured, the persecution, the poverty,
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Speaker 1: the exile, amounts to nothing. The scroll stays sealed. The
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Speaker 1: story has no ending, but an elder speaks. Stop weeping. Look,
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Speaker 1: the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David,
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Speaker 1: has conquered. He can open the scroll. A lion. Finally, raw,
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Speaker 1: devastating power. The kind of strength that can match Rome,
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Speaker 1: crush the beast, and tear the dragon apart. John turns
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Speaker 1: to look. John heard a lion. he turned and saw
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Speaker 1: a lamb, standing as though it had been slaughtered. Not
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Speaker 1: a lion attacking its enemies. A lamb, alive, but still
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Speaker 1: bearing the marks of the death that should have ended him.
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Speaker 1: Seven horns, seven eyes, complete power and complete sight, but
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Speaker 1: expressed through the form of the one who was killed,
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Speaker 1: not the one who kills. This is the interpretive key
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Speaker 1: to the entire book. Every time Revelation shows you something terrifying,
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Speaker 1: this is the lens you must read it through. God
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Speaker 1: does not conquer the way the beast conquers. The cross
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Speaker 1: is not a temporary defeat before Christ starts winning. The
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Speaker 1: cross is how Christ wins. The Lamb takes the scroll.
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Speaker 1: The elders fall before Him. The living creatures worship. A
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Speaker 1: new song fills heaven. You are worthy because you were slain.
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Speaker 1: and by your blood you ransomed people for God from
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Speaker 1: every tribe and language and people and nation. The sound expands,
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Speaker 1: thousands upon thousands of angels. Then every creature in heaven,
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Speaker 1: on earth, under the earth, and in the sea, all
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Speaker 1: of them crying, To the Lamb be blessing and honor
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Speaker 1: and glory and power forever and ever. The Lamb reaches
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Speaker 1: toward the first seals. one of the living creatures spoke.
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Speaker 1: Its voice was like thunder. It said one word, Come.
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Speaker 1: And across the earth the first horse began to ride.
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Speaker 1: A white horse, its rider carries a bow and is
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Speaker 1: given a crown. He rides out, conquering and to conquer.
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Speaker 1: Then a red horse, its rider is given a great
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Speaker 1: sword and the power to take peace from the earth.
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Speaker 1: Then a black horse, its rider holds a pair of scales.
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Speaker 1: and a voice calls out the price of bread in
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Speaker 1: a starving economy. A quart of wheat for a denarius,
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Speaker 1: a full day's wage for a single meal, then a
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Speaker 1: pale horse. Its rider's name is Death, and Hades follows
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Speaker 1: close behind. They ride in sequence because that is the sequence.
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Speaker 1: Conquest creates war. War produces scarcity. Scarcity ends in death.
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Speaker 1: These are not four mysterious strangers. They are the autobiography
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Speaker 1: of every empire that believes its own violence is justified.
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Speaker 1: Empires promise order, but their hunger for domination produces the horsemen.
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Speaker 1: The riders are not sent from outside history. They rise
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Speaker 1: from within it. Under the altar, John sees the souls
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Speaker 1: of those who were killed for the word of God
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Speaker 1: and the testimony they held. They cry out, How long,
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Speaker 1: sovereign Lord? holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants
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Speaker 1: of the earth and avenge our blood? This is not impatience.
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Speaker 1: It is the oldest cry in Scripture, the cry for justice.
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Speaker 1: The same cry Abel's blood made from the ground in
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Speaker 1: Genesis chapter 4. They are told to rest a little longer.
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Speaker 1: History has not yet reached its appointed conclusion. The sixth
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Speaker 1: seal breaks open, a great earthquake. The sun turns black
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Speaker 1: as sackcloth. The moon turns to blood. Stars fall from
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Speaker 1: the sky. The heavens are rolled back like a scroll. Kings, generals,
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Speaker 1: the rich, the powerful, they hide in caves and beg
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Speaker 1: the mountains to fall on them and hide them from
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Speaker 1: the wrath of the Lamb. Old Testament prophets, Isaiah, Joel, Ezekiel,
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Speaker 1: used this same cosmic language to describe the collapse of
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Speaker 1: kingdoms and the arrival of the day of the Lord.
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Speaker 1: The imagery is theological as well as visual. The world's
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Speaker 1: power structures are coming undone. But before further judgment, God
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Speaker 1: seals his servants. John hears a number, 144,000 from the
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Speaker 1: twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sees something else, a
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Speaker 1: countless multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing
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Speaker 1: before the throne in white robes. Some scholars read these
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Speaker 1: as two distinct groups. Others see them as two perspectives
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Speaker 1: on the same people, first counted like a military census,
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Speaker 1: then seen in their true, innumerable reality. The secure conclusion
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Speaker 1: is this. God knows exactly who belongs to him, and
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Speaker 1: his redeemed people will come from every nation on earth.
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Speaker 1: The seventh seal opens, and heaven falls silent. For about
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Speaker 1: half an hour, After all the cosmic noise, the worship,
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Speaker 1: the thunder, the crying of the living creatures and the
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Speaker 1: roar of angelic armies. Silence. Complete silence. The weight of
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Speaker 1: what is coming needs no announcement. Even heaven holds its breath.
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Speaker 1: The trumpets follow. They echo the plagues of Exodus, deliberately, unmistakably.
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Speaker 1: A third of the earth is burned. A third of
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Speaker 1: the sea turns to blood. A third of the rivers
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Speaker 1: are poisoned. A third of the sun, moon, and stars
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Speaker 1: are struck dark. Where the plagues of Egypt targeted one empire,
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Speaker 1: the trumpets expand the pattern across the whole earth. But
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Speaker 1: unlike the bowls that will come later, these judgments affect
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Speaker 1: only a third. This is warning, not yet finality. God
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Speaker 1: is signaling, not yet concluding. Then an eagle flies overhead,
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Speaker 1: crying with a loud voice, Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! to the
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Speaker 1: inhabitants of the earth. The remaining trumpets unleash demonic locusts
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Speaker 1: from the abyss and a mounted army of 200 million.
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Speaker 1: The imagery is deliberately overwhelming, not because John expected a
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Speaker 1: literal insect army, but because the horror of spiritual rebellion
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Speaker 1: demands language that exceeds the ordinary. And despite these warnings,
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Speaker 1: The survivors do not repent. Revelation chapter 9 verses 20
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Speaker 1: and 21 records this explicitly. They continue in idolatry, in violence,
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Speaker 1: in sorcery, in theft. The terrifying point is not merely
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Speaker 1: that judgment comes. It is that suffering alone does not
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Speaker 1: automatically produce repentance. Two witnesses appear. They prophesy for 1,260 days.
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Speaker 1: They confront evil they are killed. Their bodies lie exposed
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Speaker 1: in the street for three and a half days while
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Speaker 1: the world celebrates their silence and sends gifts to one another.
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Speaker 1: Then God raises them. A loud voice from heaven says,
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Speaker 1: Come up here, and they ascend in a cloud while
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Speaker 1: their enemies watch. Their imagery draws from Moses, Elijah, and
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Speaker 1: the prophet Zechariah. Their precise identity is debated. Their meaning
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Speaker 1: is not The world may silence faithful testimony temporarily, but
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Speaker 1: God will never allow it to disappear forever. The seventh
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Speaker 1: trumpet sounds. Loud voices in heaven declare, The kingdom of
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Speaker 1: the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and
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Speaker 1: of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.
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Speaker 1: Heaven has announced the kingdom. But before John sees that
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Speaker 1: kingdom fully arrive, the vision pulls back the curtain on
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Speaker 1: the enemy and who has been directing the war from
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Speaker 1: behind every earthly throne. And the enemy has a name,
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Speaker 1: woman clothed with the sun, a crown of twelve stars,
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Speaker 1: crying out in the agony of labor, and a great
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Speaker 1: red dragon, seven heads, ten horns, sweeping a third of
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Speaker 1: the stars from the sky, waiting to devour her child
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Speaker 1: the moment he is born. The child is born. He
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Speaker 1: is destined to rule the nations. He is snatched up
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Speaker 1: to God and to his throne. War breaks out in heaven.
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Speaker 1: Michael and his angels fight the dragon. The dragon is
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Speaker 1: cast down. And the text names him with absolute clarity
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Speaker 1: in Revelation chapter 12, verse 9. The ancient serpent, who
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Speaker 1: is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the
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Speaker 1: whole world. No ambiguity. The dragon's identity is the clearest
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Speaker 1: identification in the entire book. The woman represents the covenant
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Speaker 1: people of God. Israel giving birth to the Messiah and
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Speaker 1: then the persecuted community of believers who belong to him.
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Speaker 1: The dragon fails to destroy Christ. Therefore, he turns his
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Speaker 1: fury against Christ's followers. This is the engine driving every
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Speaker 1: persecution in the book. The dragon cannot reach the throne.
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Speaker 1: so he attacks those who belong to the one on
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Speaker 1: the throne. A beast rises from the sea. It combines
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Speaker 1: the features of all four beasts from Daniel, chapter 7.
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Speaker 1: The lion, the bear, the leopard, the terrible fourth beast
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Speaker 1: rolled into one monstrous creature. It receives its authority directly
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Speaker 1: from the dragon. It demands worship. It blasphemes God. It
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Speaker 1: wages war against the saints. For John's audience, this beast
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Speaker 1: strongly evoked Roman imperial power, political authority claiming sacred honor,
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Speaker 1: demanding absolute allegiance, punishing resistance with death. But the pattern
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Speaker 1: is larger than one empire. Any political system that demands
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Speaker 1: ultimate loyalty, claims sacred status, and persecutes resistance is wearing
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Speaker 1: the beast's face. A second beast rises from the land,
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Speaker 1: It looks less threatening, but it is deeply deceptive. It
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Speaker 1: performs signs. It directs worship toward the first beast. It
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Speaker 1: creates an image. It enforces compliance. Later, Revelation calls it
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Speaker 1: the false prophet. The first beast rules by force. The
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Speaker 1: second beast teaches society to call that force sacred. It
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Speaker 1: can represent false religion, propaganda, state ideology. any system that
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Speaker 1: persuades people to worship coercive power willingly. The mark appears
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Speaker 1: on the forehead or the right hand. Without it, no
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Speaker 1: one can buy or sell. Forehead, what you believe, who
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Speaker 1: you worship. Hand, what you do, whom you serve. The
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Speaker 1: mark is the opposite of God's seal on his people.
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Speaker 1: It is an allegiance marker. Revelation does not identify the
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Speaker 1: mark as a vaccine, a microchip, a barcode, or any
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Speaker 1: present technology. Technology may serve oppressive systems, but the mark's
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Speaker 1: central issue is worship and allegiance. The text invites the
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Speaker 1: reader to calculate the number. The Greek verb in Revelation
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Speaker 1: chapter 13, verse 18 is sephizo, to reckon, to count
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Speaker 1: with stones. It is a riddle. and the most widely
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Speaker 1: supported scholarly solution is this. The name Nero Caesar, written
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Speaker 1: in Hebrew letters Nun, Resh, Wau, Nun, Kof, Samech, Resh,
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Speaker 1: adds up to 666. Some ancient manuscripts contain the variant
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Speaker 1: reading 616, which matches the Latin spelling of Nero's name.
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Speaker 1: The variant does not weaken the identification. It confirms it.
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Speaker 1: 666 was not designed first as a puzzle for the
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Speaker 1: 21st century. It was a warning John's 1st century audience
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Speaker 1: could decode. Nero was the pattern. The beast is the principle,
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Speaker 1: political power making itself God. The beast conquers by killing,
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Speaker 1: but those who heard the lion and saw the lamb,
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Speaker 1: they conquer differently, by the blood of the lamb, by
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Speaker 1: the word of their testimony. by not loving their lives
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Speaker 1: even unto death. Revelation chapter 12, verse 11. The beast
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Speaker 1: makes people afraid to die. The Lamb's people conquer when
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Speaker 1: fear can no longer purchase their allegiance. But the beast
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Speaker 1: does not operate alone. Behind it stands a city, wealthy, seductive,
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Speaker 1: glittering with gold, that has made the nations drunk. Her
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Speaker 1: name is Babylon. And Babylon is about to fall But
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Speaker 1: when she falls, pay attention to who mourns and what
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Speaker 1: they mourn for. The bowls complete what the trumpets warned.
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Speaker 1: Where the trumpets struck a third, the bowls strike everything.
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Speaker 1: They echo the plagues of Exodus, amplified, total, final. This
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Speaker 1: is no longer warning. This is conclusion. Demonic spirits go
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Speaker 1: out to the kings of the earth. gathering them for
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Speaker 1: battle at a place called in Hebrew, Harmageddon, the mountain
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Speaker 1: of Megiddo, a region soaked in the blood of ancient battles.
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Speaker 1: But the word Armageddon appears exactly once in the entire Bible,
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Speaker 1: and Revelation gives no detailed battlefield description. The forces gather
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Speaker 1: and are immediately defeated. Armageddon represents the final gathering of
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Speaker 1: rebellious human power against God. It is not a map
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Speaker 1: reference for any present conflict. John sees a woman dressed
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Speaker 1: in purple and scarlet, glittering with gold, jewels, and pearls.
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Speaker 1: She sits on a scarlet beast. She holds a golden
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Speaker 1: cup full of abominations. She is drunk, not on wine,
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Speaker 1: but on the blood of the saints. Her name is
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Speaker 1: written on her forehead, Babylon the Great. For John's first audience,
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Speaker 1: Babylon pointed directly toward Rome, the imperial capital, the center
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Speaker 1: of political domination, the engine of international trade, the power
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Speaker 1: responsible for the persecution of the churches. But the text
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Speaker 1: does not stop at Rome. Babylon is a pattern, wealth
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Speaker 1: built on idolatry, sustained by violence and dependent on exploitation.
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Speaker 1: And when John first sees her, The text says he
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Speaker 1: marveled greatly. Even the prophet is momentarily awed by the spectacle.
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Speaker 1: The angel has to pull him back. Why do you marvel?
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Speaker 1: This is the honest moment. Babylon is designed to be impressive.
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Speaker 1: The question is whether you can see through the gold
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Speaker 1: to the blood underneath. Revelation chapter 18 lists the luxury
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Speaker 1: goods traded through Babylon. Gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet, ivory, marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, wine,
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Speaker 1: olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, chariots, and
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Speaker 1: at the end of the list, somatakai psychos anthropon, bodies
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Speaker 1: and souls of men. The Greek word somata, bodies, was
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Speaker 1: the Roman commercial term for slaves. Babylon is not condemned
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Speaker 1: merely because she is wealthy. She is condemned because her
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Speaker 1: wealth depends on idolatry, violence, and the conversion of human
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Speaker 1: beings into merchandise. Human trafficking is not a footnote in
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Speaker 1: the text. It is the final item on the list,
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Speaker 1: the last thing God sees before judgment falls. The luxury
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Speaker 1: economy that dazzles the world rests on the bodies of
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Speaker 1: the powerless. And when she falls, in a single hour,
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Speaker 1: the merchants of the earth weep. The kings who shared
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Speaker 1: her luxury stand at a distance, terrified. The sea captains
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Speaker 1: who grew rich from her trade throw dust on their heads.
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Speaker 1: But none of them weep because Babylon was a righteous.
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Speaker 1: They weep because no one buys their cargo anymore. Heaven opens.
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Speaker 1: A rider on a white horse. His name, Faithful and True.
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Speaker 1: his eyes like a flame of fire, his robe dipped
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Speaker 1: in blood, his title the Word of God, written on
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Speaker 1: his robe and on his thigh, King of Kings and
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Speaker 1: Lord of Lords. A sword comes from his mouth, not
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Speaker 1: from his hand. His weapon is his word, his judgment,
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Speaker 1: his truth. The beast and the false prophet are captured
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Speaker 1: and thrown into the lake of fire. The world expected
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Speaker 1: a conquering general, But John had already learned the truth.
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Speaker 1: He heard a lion, and what saved the earth was
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Speaker 1: not a sword in a warrior's fist. It was the lamb,
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Speaker 1: still bearing the scars of the death that defeated death.
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Speaker 1: Christians hold three major views on the thousand years described
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Speaker 1: in Revelation chapter 20. Some believe Christ returns before a
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Speaker 1: literal thousand-year reign on earth. Others believe the thousand years
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Speaker 1: symbolically describes Christ's present reign with his saints between his
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Speaker 1: first and second coming. Others believe the gospel progressively transforms
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Speaker 1: the world before Christ returns. The documentary does not choose
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Speaker 1: between them. The shared conviction is enough. Satan's authority is limited.
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Speaker 1: Christ reigns and evil will not survive forever. Satan is released.
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Speaker 1: He gathers one final rebellion. Fire falls from heaven. He
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Speaker 1: is thrown into the lake of fire. Then heaven and
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Speaker 1: earth flee. A great white throne appears, and every person
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Speaker 1: who has ever died stands before God. The book that
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Speaker 1: began with seven struggling churches has reached the final courtroom
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Speaker 1: of creation. And the last enemy standing is not an emperor,
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Speaker 1: not a beast, not a dragon. The last enemy is
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Speaker 1: death itself. The dead stand before God, all of them.
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Speaker 1: Books are opened, the record of every life. Another book
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Speaker 1: is opened, the book of life. The sea gives up
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Speaker 1: its dead. Death and Hades give up their dead. Each
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Speaker 1: person is judged according to what was written in the books.
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Speaker 1: Then death and Hades themselves are thrown into the lake
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Speaker 1: of fire. The last enemy destroyed in Revelation is not
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Speaker 1: an emperor. It is death. John sees a new heaven
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Speaker 1: and a new earth. The first heaven and the first
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Speaker 1: earth have passed away, and the sea is the ancient
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Speaker 1: symbol of chaos, of separation, of the abyss from which
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Speaker 1: the beast arose, is gone. Then John sees the holy city,
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Speaker 1: New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. Revelation
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Speaker 1: does not end with humanity escaping the earth. The city
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Speaker 1: comes down. God's dwelling comes to humanity. The final hope
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Speaker 1: of scripture is not evacuation. It is homecoming. A loud
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Speaker 1: voice from the throne declares, Behold, the dwelling place of
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Speaker 1: God is with man. He will dwell with them, and
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Speaker 1: they will be his people, and God himself will be
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Speaker 1: with them as their God. He will wipe away every
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Speaker 1: tear from their eyes. Death shall be no more. Neither
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Speaker 1: shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. The
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Speaker 1: former things have passed away. And the one seated on
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Speaker 1: the throne speaks, Behold, I am making all things new.
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Speaker 1: New Jerusalem is described as a bride adorned for her husband.
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Speaker 1: The city is vast, measured at 12,000 stadia in length, width,
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Speaker 1: and height, a perfect cube recalling the dimensions of the
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Speaker 1: Holy of Holies in Solomon's temple. Its foundations are adorned
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Speaker 1: with every kind of precious stone. Its twelve gates are
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Speaker 1: twelve pearls, each gate bearing the name of one of
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Speaker 1: the twelve tribes. Its walls carry the names of the
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Speaker 1: twelve apostles. There is no temple building, because God and
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Speaker 1: the Lamb are its temple. There is no sun or moon,
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Speaker 1: because the glory of God gives it light, and the
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Speaker 1: Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by that light,
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Speaker 1: and the kings of the earth will bring their glory
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Speaker 1: into it. Its gates will never be shut. The river
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Speaker 1: of the water of life flows from the throne of
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Speaker 1: God and of the Lamb, bright as crystal, running through
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Speaker 1: the middle of the city's street. The tree of life
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Speaker 1: stands on both sides of the river, bearing twelve kinds
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Speaker 1: of fruit, yielding its fruit each month, and its leaves
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Speaker 1: are for the healing of the nations. The curse is removed.
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Speaker 1: God's servants will see His face. His name will be
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Speaker 1: on their foreheads, not the mark of the beast, but
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Speaker 1: the name of God. The mark of belonging has been answered.
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Speaker 1: The counterfeit is replaced by the original. Revelation is not
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Speaker 1: the story of God abandoning His creation. It is the
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Speaker 1: story of God completing it. Genesis begins with creation. Revelation
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Speaker 1: ends with renewed creation. The serpent enters in Genesis. In Revelation...
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Speaker 1: the serpent is removed. The tree of life is lost
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Speaker 1: in Eden. In Revelation, the tree of life is restored.
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Speaker 1: The curse begins, the curse ends. Death enters the world.
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Speaker 1: Death is destroyed. Humanity hides from God's face in the garden.
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Speaker 1: In the new city, humanity sees God's face. The Bible
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Speaker 1: does not end with escape. It ends with a garden
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Speaker 1: inside a city, a river flowing from a throne. and
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Speaker 1: a God who finally, after all of human history, comes
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Speaker 1: home to live with the people he made. Return to
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Speaker 1: the Seven Churches Revelation was not written merely so that
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Speaker 1: Christians could identify future villains. It was written to ask
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Speaker 1: what they would worship now. The beast represents power demanding allegiance.
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Speaker 1: Babylon represents prosperity built on compromise. The false prophet represents deception.
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Speaker 1: that makes corruption appear sacred. The mark represents belonging, expressed
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Speaker 1: through belief and action. The mark may point to something
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Speaker 1: still coming, but its warning is not waiting for the future.
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Speaker 1: It is asking what already owns you now. The question
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Speaker 1: is not only who will receive the mark one day.
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Speaker 1: The deeper question is what has already captured your loyalty,
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Speaker 1: shaped your actions, and taught you what you cannot live without.
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Speaker 1: Are we like Ephesus, correct but without love? Like Sardis,
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Speaker 1: famous but spiritually dead? Like Laodicea, prosperous but blind? Or
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Speaker 1: like Smyrna and Philadelphia, weak in the world's eyes but faithful?
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Speaker 1: Revelation does not call believers to panic. It calls them
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Speaker 1: to endure. It does not command them to defeat the
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Speaker 1: beast with the beast's weapons. It commands them to follow
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Speaker 1: the Lamb. Rome looked permanent. The emperor looked untouchable. The
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Speaker 1: churches looked fragile. John looked forgotten. But Rome fell. Its
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Speaker 1: emperors died. Its temples became ruins. And the vision given
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Speaker 1: to an exile continued to be read across the world.
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Speaker 1: Because John heard a lion, and he turned, and he
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Speaker 1: saw a lamb. And two thousand years later, The lamb
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Speaker 1: is still standing. The dragon is fierce, but defeated. The
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Speaker 1: beast is powerful, but temporary. Babylon is wealthy, but destined
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Speaker 1: to fall. The saints may suffer, but they are not forgotten.
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Speaker 1: Death appears final, but death itself will die. At the
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Speaker 1: center of history stands not a beast, but a lamb.
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Speaker 1: And the one seated upon the throne declares, Behold, I
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Speaker 1: make all things new. When you read Revelation, do you
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Speaker 1: see it primarily as a prophecy of the future, a
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Speaker 1: message to the first century churches, or both? Drop your
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Speaker 1: answer in the comments. We read every one. If this
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36:08
Speaker 1: everything we put out. And if 666 pointed first toward Nero,
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Speaker 1: why has every gen someone new? How did one ancient
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Speaker 1: code become an obsession that never dies? That story is next.
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Speaker 1: Share this with someone who needs to hear it. God
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Speaker 1: bless you. We'll see you in the next one.