https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=Gi5TqL5Dvho
Let us begin in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen Hail Mary full of grace. The Lord is with thee Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death Amen, st. John the evangelist in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen Amen All right, so we are getting near the end we’ve gotten through Most of it So if you remember right when we got to that seventh trumpet, that’s the end and the kind of section between like 15 to 20 Just kind of gives different vignettes different details of what the end is right the the final second coming of Christ And so we’ve talked about the the beast in the harlot tonight We’re going to talk about the fall of Babylon the return of the king and the a thousand years of judgment of Satan and then Next week we’ll get to the vision of eternity the new heavens the new earth the new Jerusalem The river that flows out of the temple So next week it’ll end on a happy note But we’ve got to get through Got to get through a little more distress and then we could get to the happy stuff Which is kind of what Christianity is like. So All right, I’m gonna do something a little different for Revelation chapter 18 a lot of the stuff that we’ve seen We’ve seen over and over again. So I’m just gonna read through the entirety of it. You can follow along in your Bibles and Then I’m just gonna talk about what I see and if you’ve got any questions, you can bring them up So the entirety of Revelation chapter 18 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority and the earth became illuminated by his splendor He cried out in a mighty voice fallen fallen is Babylon the great. She has become a haunt for demons She is a cage for every unclean spirit a cage for every unclean bird a cage for every unclean and disgusting beast For all the nations have drunk the wine of her licentious passion The kings of the earth had intercourse with her and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her drive for luxury Then I heard another voice from heaven say Depart from her my people so as not to take part in her sins and receive a share in her plagues For her sins are piled up to the sky and God remembers her crimes Pay her back as she has paid others pay her back double for her deeds into her cup pulled poured double what she poured and To the measure of her boasting and wantonness Repay her in torment and grief for she said to herself I sit enthroned as Queen I am no widow and I will never know grief Therefore her plagues will come in one day Pestilence grief and famine she will be consumed by fire for mighty is the Lord God who judges her The kings of the earth who had intercourse with her in her wantonness will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke of her Pire they will keep their distance for fear of the torment inflicted on her and they will say alas alas great city Babylon mighty city in one hour your judgment has come The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn for her because there will be no more markets for their cargo Their cargo of gold silver precious stones and pearls fine linen purple silk and scarlet cloth Fragrant wood of every kind all articles of ivory and all articles of the most expensive wood bronze iron and marble Cinnamon spice incense myrrh and frankincense wine olive oil fine flour and wheat cattle and sheep horses chariots and slaves that is human beings The fruit you craved has left you all your luxury and splendor are gone never again will one find them The merchants who deal in these goods who grew rich from her will keep their distance for fear of the torment inflicted on her Weeping and mourning they cry out alas alas great city wearing fine linen purple and scarlet Adorned in gold precious stones and pearls in one hour. This great wealth has been ruined Every captain of a ship every traveler at sea sailors and seafaring merchants stood at a distance And cried out when they saw the smoke of the pyre what city could compare with the great city They threw dust on their heads and cried out weeping and mourning Alas alas great city in which all who had ships at sea grew rich from her wealth in one hour She has been ruined rejoice over her heaven you holy ones apostles and prophets for God has judged your case against her a mighty angel picked up a stone like a huge millstone and threw it into the sea and said With such force Babylon the great city will be thrown down and never be found again No melodies of harpists and musicians Flutists and trumpeters will ever be heard in you again. No craftsmen in any trade will ever be found in you again No sound of the millstone will ever will ever be heard in you again No light from a lamp will ever be seen in you again No voices of bride and groom will ever be heard in you again Because your merchants were the great ones of the earth all nations were led astray by your magic potion and Her was found the blood of prophets and holy ones and all who have been slain on the earth Okay, so Last week when we were looking at chapter 17 Babylon was being portrayed as this woman sitting on the back of the beast with seven heads Now this week it’s being portrayed as a church or not as a church as a city as a city now throughout Revelation starting with chapters 11 and 12. We’ve kind of had this articulation of Of kind of the anti-trinity right? You’ve got the dragon You’ve got the beast with seven heads Whom the dragon gives his authority and power over to and then you’ve got the false prophet which goes around and promotes Worship of the beast and worship of the dragon who gives it power Kind of the anti-trinity right where the father gives all his authority and power over to the son The son reciprocates that the bond of love is the Holy Spirit and the spirit goes out into the earth drawing all Nations to worship the son and the father in spirit and truth, right? And so it made sense to me that there would be an anti-church as well, right? this opposition and Since the church is thought of as feminine as portrayed in the gospels over and over again as feminine It would seem like this woman then is the anti-church So I just kind of riffing on that. What does that mean? So, how do you enter into the church and the root and source of all justification and the beginning the foundation of your life in the church Is faith and is baptism, right? obviously Children who are baptized don’t necessarily have the ability to articulate that faith yet But they can receive the Holy Spirit through the sacrament and anybody who does have true faith would desire Baptism naturally right that would be something that they would be drawn into And so we talk about the different things that actually Unify the church across the earth, right? Because it’s different in different places if you go out to Greece You can find Byzantine Catholics there and they do not use the Roman Missal They do not use a Roman liturgy. They would use the Divine Liturgy of st. John Chris Austin things would look a little different They’re gonna have icons everywhere. They’re not gonna have any statues Things would look a little different they’re gonna have icons everywhere they’re not gonna have any statues They’re not gonna have a crucifix front and center How are we the same? Got the same faith the same faith that comes to us from the Apostles the same faith in Jesus and it’s it’s It’s a great mystery how we can all be bound together in this way But this faith is more than just what we’re thinking that this relationship with God being pulled up into God So how do you enter into the the anti-church and it seems like greed Would would make the most sense right? Well, we heard in that lament over Babylon which is really interesting thing that that they’re all mourning over Babylon That’s all about the money, right? Now we talk about The seven deadly sins, but I think a better name for them and the more traditional name for them is the capital sins, right? Capital comes from the Latin word for head, right? And the head is what governs a head is what gives structure to the rest of the body It’s out of which you know kind of the movement of the body flows and so when you got a capital sins, it’s not like They are the worst sins in themselves But they are the sins out of which many many other sins will fall, right? And so greed then is Is considered a capital sin not because it’s the worst sin in itself But because it facilitates it gives kind of the psychological and spiritual reality necessary in order to start getting into sin So why greed especially then why is this? Pertinent to this idea the anti-church So, so what’s money right well money is actually a technology And it’s a technology that we use to store value so that we can transfer it more conveniently, right? Before anybody was able to invent money. They had to barter things it was It was kind of cumbersome. It’s hard to use once you’ve been able to represent stored value It’s a lot easier to move and transfer around right? That’s actually something Greed a desire to possess more and more and more wealth Without any regard for any kind of morality any kind of responsibility towards God and Towards your your fellow human beings. You’ve got an infinite appetite for that, right? Because you can never have enough money Right if that’s what you really want There’s always more money out there So you’d have to have all of the money in order to be satisfied and that doesn’t seem like it’s going to be very likely It’s also something that you can be caught up into and kind of a twisted community with you know That you can Cooperate with people for these kind of greedy endeavors for for trying to accumulate wealth Like a horde of bandits almost that’s Motivated by greed end and a perverse inverted way it draws people together draws people into a system now obviously Ambition and the desire to go out and make wealth isn’t something bad in itself, right? It only becomes greed when you forget to place it in its appropriate context under God, right under obligations for You know towards God Towards your neighbor Because obviously if people didn’t have any ambition to go out and work then no work would get done And nothing good would happen. So so it’s a perversion of something good already Now what binds the church together perfectly is this idea of love, right? What are the two great commandments you love the Lord your God with all your heart all your soul all your mind all your strength You love your neighbor as yourself, right? You love your neighbor as yourself, right and that’s what joins us perfectly to God and because we’re all Joined to God through this charity. We can all be joined to each other, right? What binds together Babylon is this mutual use right that this relationship is? convenient to me That we have something that we can exchange we can share in this greed and This desire to accumulate more and more wealth, right? You notice why the the kings of the earth and the merchants and the sailors were all sad over Babylon being destroyed Because they didn’t have anywhere to sell their stuff anymore That their the the the money pit was gone. You know It was like there wasn’t any like oh, oh she was she was so nice You couldn’t have think she just didn’t deserve it. It’s like no there was none of that There was none of that it was just bound together by the mutual use No, no, they I don’t think it’s going to end well for them Now the church has christ for its head, right That’s something that comes up over and over again in the in the letters of st. Paul head and the life right we literally Every sunday we get together we receive holy communion the very body blood soul divinity the life of jesus into us, right This um this anti-church has the beast for its head before its life, right this idea of being against christ is what gathers it together and Kind of distorts everything The church is scattered over the earth, right we talk about christians all over the world being joined together in the same faith and Yeah, it’s um, it’s a beautiful thing when it happens, you know, I had I had a classmate from nigeria and um He was just he was one of the guys right? He had gone through his minor seminary in nigeria and we were all in the classes together And there was no question, you know once I got to know him a little bit that he was just a christian as I was you know the the holy ghost fathers had had Evangelized nigeria. Well, um, and so we were bound together in that way It made it even it made you know the relationship easier because you’re obviously going to have those Cultural differences that you’re dealing with but we had something in common already, right? We had this christ in common this idea So that church scattered all over the earth And so the anti-church scattered all over the earth, right? We’ve got this global economy now free exchange of goods not evil in itself, but very often it becomes evil in its effects and evil in it, um, the way it opposes christ the church calls everybody every member towards righteous behavior and the the The anti-church calls everyone towards idolatry of setting up literally anything else. Um, And you noticed uh the image that the angel Threw into the water Right right there at the at the end of the chapter The millstone, right? Where else have we heard about millstones? Or anyone that thinks he got a person to sin To sin it would be better if that person had a millstone tied around their neck and they were thrown into the depth of the sea Right. Wow. So it’s like Yeah, you know john would have heard that john would have heard jesus say that And so I think there’s a there’s a connection there Um, the church is destined for eternal life, right? The whole church will be gathered together into god’s kingdom transformed Live forever. The uh anti-church is doomed to destruction, right? It’s going to be wiped out in an hour Look at the different citizens Um, it’s very interesting the citizens of the heavenly jerusalem are free born of the free woman um, and are uh Are you know They’re more themselves when you’ve taken the seal of christ Whereas it’s very interesting. It’s a cage for every unclean spirit, right? So it’s like You get trapped into this evil system And it’s difficult to break out And and so it’s very interesting that john wouldn’t just say it’s the haunt of every unclean spirit But he goes on to further specify. It’s a cage or it could also be translated prison Right. It’s something that binds you. It’s something that sucks you in. It’s it’s like an addiction that that that that Gets a hold of you doesn’t want to let you go, you know, um The uh citizens of the church are poor in spirit are humble Um They’re not necessarily occupying the positions of power Although saint steven of hungary, you know, he was he was the king of hungary and he was a canonized saint But definitely it’s the rich and the powerful that are the citizens of babalon, right? So like what’s the purpose of that whole list of the goods that are being imported into rome, right? How much of that stuff’s really necessary? Right, like the great great majority of that You know the marble and the fine wood and all of that So many of these luxuries are used, you know, not in a good way, but simply to Reinforce to people that you’re wealthy that you have status that you have power that you’re a powerful person And even the food the food was imported in such Large quantities into the city of rome and they kind of had like A welfare system there was a lot of unemployed people in the city of rome But they were roman citizens and they would be they would get bread rations every day, right and live in cheap rickety apartments You know and they had that right as a roman citizen And so sometimes there would be so much grain imported from the surrounding provinces That the price of grain would go up in those provinces just to feed the city, you know The uh, oh and uh, it’s very interesting to have that bit about slaves right at the end of um the Right at the end of that list of goods of people that are imported right in chapter 18 because uh Slavery was just like a fact of life You know It was like taxes and road construction in the mind of a roman citizen Maybe not something that you were going to get excited about but it’s like, yeah, you can’t get rid of it. Some people are natural slaves So it was really you know, it was a somewhat more revolutionary picture because and it’s it’s so brief it’s like uh Let me get the quote in there Um And slaves that is human beings, you know, um, I think if you go literally from the greek it’s something like Bodies that is human souls, you know Because that was the way that slaves were thought of they’re just bodies right and you know They were like pens. They were like wood. You just do whatever you want with it because it’s just a body, you know Just there just that tiny little critique in there and then As christianity became more and more dominant in the west slavery disappeared and then came back again for some reason that was Not a good sign for society The citizens of the church have the mark of the lamb on them, right? And so the lamb is the sacrificial animal The lamb is the lamb who was slain and is risen up again by the power Sacrifice right? Whereas the image of the citizens of babalon is this decadent luxury? The citizens of the church are obedient to the spirit they’re calm they’re lucid they’re praising god continually And the citizens of babalon are drunk on wine citizens of the Of the church are productive and The citizens of babalon are consumers Consumers And it’s very odd that we use that word so casually these days, right? Like, you know, the consumer confidence is down It’s like that’s what I am I’m just a consumer. I’m just here to consume consume Oh man, it’s not good and you know um This isn’t like an original insight for me to have the church and the anti-church because all the way back in the fifth century St. Augustine wrote this massive book the city of god And he differentiated the city of god from the city of man, right? And one is The city of god is known by its fact that it worships god It has god as its final end and the city of man worships literally anything else and has destruction. That’s its final end um the city of god, you know, it’s It’s uh, it’s organized hierarchically right it’s got its clergy It’s got its leaders leaders the city of man has its most wealthy people its most influential people its most powerful people um So yeah, um I think this image of of uh, the whore of babalon as anti-church Makes a fair bit of sense and I recommend you uh take the advice of um of The angel and uh escape not to have anything to do with it And um, you know, it’s not like it’s some place you can run away from right because the church is everywhere this system This corrupting system of the beast is also everywhere So, uh avoid things that you know are sinful, right and um So that’s what not to do And what do you do you take time for prayer every day, right? Because you’ve got to focus your eyes back up on the lamb Because it’s all around us this system of the beast this anti-church It’s all around us and if you don’t continually make sure that you’re at least trying your best to offer that proper worship to god Your eyes will go down And then pay attention to where your time and money goes right because those are like Those are the best ways to conceptualize what you actually value What gets your time and what gets your money if we’re going to think about money as a store of value itself, right? What do I value? That’s what you spend your money on So if you do that, you’re just making sure you’re you’re praying And you’re you’re Obeying a lot god’s laws, you know it You can trust that the holy spirit is actually the one who’s going to save you you don’t have to do it yourself You don’t need to operate on your own power. Um, you don’t need to fight this all by yourself This is holy spirit’s work And as long as you’re following those promptings, um You’ll save you it’s not your it’s not your job your job is just to be faithful All right So that’s what i’ve got for chapter 18, uh, we’ll just move on to our previous Previous way of doing things chapter 19 After this I heard what sounded like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying hallelujah salvation glory and might belong to our god for true and just are his judgments He has condemned the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her harlotry. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants They said a second time hallelujah smoke will rise from her forever and ever The 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped god who sat on the throne saying amen. Hallelujah And so we’ve seen this multitude in heaven before right? Uh, a we were first introduced to them in chapter 7. Uh, they were wearing the white robes They had been they received the mark of the lamb And then we saw them again in chapter 15 and they were singing Uh the song of moses, you know, that was right after the first time getting to the end And god executing his judgment and celebrating god’s judgment is a part of worship, right? So we’ve all seen movies, right? We’ve all seen movies we’ve all heard stories, you know, and so gosh, I don’t know six weeks ago Father dale and I were sitting around and and I found this this dumb action movie on netflix And it was like a sunday night. We’d both you know, been working all day We’re just gonna put our feet up and relax and it was it was called the ice road It was one of those b movies starring liam neeson, you know, and and the bad guy god has come up and set the end You know, he got sucked underneath the ice road He was a really bad guy that made sure to let you know he was a bad guy right at the beginning of the movie So you knew exactly who you were supposed to root for and root against and when the bad guy lost It was like finally got finally got what he deserves, you know God is telling the best story right now The best possible story with the most perfect poetic judgment Poetic justice available and so I don’t know how it’s all going to fall out I don’t know who’s going up and who’s going down. I don’t want to try and calculate You know what percentage of humanity is going to be saved what percentage of humanity is going to be condemned I have confidence in the god of heaven That whatever his judgments end up being i’m going to like it Because he is the best storyteller and he is going to execute the most perfect justice With mercy as much mercy as he possibly Can have you know, it’s going to be good. I’m not worried about it when I see it I’m actually going to rejoice in it. It’s not going to be like this The stain on the joy of heaven, you know, and it’s not like the people who refuse to receive god’s blessings the people who refuse to follow him to to Open their hearts up to the promises that he has it’s not like they’re going to be able to veto joy forever Like they’re they have their time and it’s going to end and it’s not It’s not going to be bad to see that A voice coming from the throne said praise our god all you his servants and you who revere him great and small All then I heard the sound Something like the sound of a great multitude or the sound of rushing water or mighty peals of thunder as they said Hallelujah, the lord has established his reign our god the almighty Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory for the wedding day of the lamb has come His bride has made herself ready. She was allowed to wear a bright clean linen garment The linen represents the righteous deeds of the holy ones Um So this sound of rushing water we’ve heard that As the voice of the ancient of days and as the voice of jesus speaking, right? This overwhelmingly powerful sound, you know, and then peals of thunder. We’ve heard that over and over again You know all the way going back to mount sinai that manifestation of god on earth, right? Right now It is the song of this great multitude, right? And and and the song of the church begins to share in the glory of god, right? so um So let’s imagine Just just god himself, right? And we could do this quite logically God is infinitely glorious in himself, right? Right, so if he had never created anything He would still be infinitely glorious, right? And there’s glory in creation, right? That was a manifestation of his power. That was a manifestation of his excellence But still all of the glory of creation plus the glory of god doesn’t even add into the glory of god it participates in glorifying god, right? So we can’t actually Make god any greater by his creating all we can do is participate in what he’s Saying saying for us and that is what the church is doing in heaven. It’s a song becomes like the one it’s praising And now all of a sudden st. John’s introducing the idea of a wedding feast, right? The wedding day of the lamb has come, you know, it’s like that’s another part of an excellent movie, right? right, the the hero goes and he gets the girl and there’s either a wedding scene or You can tell it’s moving in that direction, right? That’s a good story right there. It’s exactly the same This is the greatest story ever told And this is a common theme in the new testament from st. Paul’s letter to the ephesians Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her Cleansing her by the bath of water with the word that he might present to himself the church in splendor without spot or wrinkle Or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish All right. So, uh, there’s an important thing that we got a note about the way Okay 19 chapters five to eight. Oh, I that was from the letter to the ephesians Yeah, the quote it’s probably really small though You can’t see the quote that’s letter to the ephesians there Uh, just showing that that’s a common new testament theme. It wasn’t something john made up Got to remember how? Jewish wedding customs worked, right? There was the betrothal and then At some time distance away. There was the wedding feast, right? Now you might be tempted to think of in terms of engagement and wedding day But a betrothal was actually a lot stronger of a notion. They were considered Legally married when a man and a woman were betrothed together, right? It was like already kind of a done deal, but there was this time to make preparations and and to get things ready And and it wasn’t fully Done done until the wedding day when the bride went to go live in the groom’s house And so, uh That’s explains a the gospel of matthew, right? Joseph hears about mary’s pregnancy They aren’t living together yet So he decides to what’s the it’s a divorce or quietly because they were already legally married and um Yeah, so uh, that’s the way it works and so that’s kind of how The church is at this time, right? We are betrothed, but we have not gone into the Wedding feast yet. We have not gone to live In the bridegroom’s house yet, you know that is still coming but we’ve already got that betrothal there And that’s um I think there’s something also that that can be useful to to think about is um, you know, we can all hear all about about jesus loves us god loves you jesus loves you and it just it just starts to kind of sound like the the the air conditioning run in the background, right? like not something you really listen to but it’s like Jesus made it a point To come down to earth and to suffer for your sins specifically So that you could be washed clean so that you could put on this garment Which is the righteous deeds of the holy ones You know He didn’t have to do that. There was a desire in his heart to pull that off And he does it for you for you specifically if you had been the only person who had ever lived and ever sinned Jesus would have done it anyway, just for you highly individual And all of us together So You know, it’s not like okay fine. I’ll go down to earth and save them if I have to Um, I’m talking about these, uh, bright clean linen garments and the righteous deeds of the holy ones. Um, So the new american bible renders us, uh, she was allowed to wear a bright clean garment as if like you needed permission It could be translated a little more literally as it was granted to her Right, and I think I think that actually might be the better translation might more clearly get at it Um, I think that’s the better translation I think that actually might be the better translation might more clearly get at it, uh, because catholics are often accused of Practicing works righteousness right that we believe that if you say enough rosaries and go to mass and and kneel everywhere Uh that that will be saved and that’s not What we believe at all. Um and obviously The linen represents the righteous deeds of the holy ones So how do we understand the interplay between faith and acts? Um So What it all comes down to is being united to christ through faith through hope and through charity, right and This is something that gives us grace, right this participation in the life of christ this Participation in the divine nature itself When we are so moved by grace to do a good deed It is actually the power of christ Acting in us right that we really are as a church Had been joined to christ and and charity, you know that love for god is kind of that that hook That hook between heaven and earth That that brings us up there and so The church is teaching and I think um Saint augustine put it well is um lord give Us the strength to do what you command and then command what you will Or or I think he put it elsewhere. Um When christ crowns the merits of his saints, he’s crowning his own works Right when christ crowns the merits of his saints, he’s crowning his own works so None of our human powers. None of our human capabilities. None of anything that we do Apart from god’s grace has the power to sanctify us has the power to earn god’s grace, right? But when we have been united to christ and when we are When we are Responding to the inspirations of the holy spirit now They don’t always come with trumpet blasts can be the littlest things moving you towards the good At that point, it’s the spirit of christ moving at us and that has the capability of being Meritorious right meritorious of heaven in the same way that suffering at the life death and resurrection of jesus was meritorious For our salvation. That’s how we participate in the saving work of christ And so it’s not like our own deeds are actually what sanctify us But it’s our deeds which come to us by the power of the holy spirit. That’s what makes us holy so In case you were wondering The good news is you don’t have to know any of that and it still works Then the angel said to me write this Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast to the lamb and he said to me these words are true They come from god I fell at his feet to worship him But he said to me Don’t i’m a fellow servant of yours and of your brothers who bear witness to jesus worship god witness to jesus Is the spirit of prophecy? Oh, we’ve already covered with jewish wedding customs. Okay Um, and here we’ve got a funny little scene that john decides he’s going to try out idolatry for once, you know Uh, and this angel, uh has to stop him, right? It is very very good to remember To give our best to god and to god alone, right? and When you find somebody or something That helps you on to way on the way to god That brings you to god that maybe somebody who has good words good insights They are an instrument in god’s hands to remember where to give the glory To remember who if it is truly coming from god where they’re getting their power, right? I just talked about all that stuff about merit. It’s not The minister it’s not the preacher. It’s not the evangelist. It’s the spirit of christ working through that person And it’s good enough just to be an instrument of goodness you know, um, and so um Yeah, just you can say thank you but uh Don’t put your hope in the wrong places. Um, there’s a sad case of father john korapi. I don’t know how many of you would be familiar with him And um You know, he had this great conversion story. He was this wealthy Fabulous, I can’t remember what he did, but he was wealthy and fabulous and had all the access to the The spoils of babalon that you could possibly want Then he has this conversion. He becomes a priest of the society of our lady of the whole most holy trinity and I remember Listening to him just getting goosebumps, right? And he really was anointed to preach the word I think that he really did have a gift from god and then he started getting a little too full of himself, right? And and I don’t remember the exact story and it doesn’t really matter. Um He didn’t have anybody around him keeping him humble You know It’s good to be kept humble. Do you remember bishop fold this solemn? Uh command to you mom. Do you remember what that was? Yeah, the family gets to keep the priest humble right that’s what we need Yeah I got three older brothers. They do their they work just fine Father carapi has reconciled with his order. He’s living a quiet life of prayer and contemplation Yeah, so he’s he’s been reconciled He does not in any kind of public facing ministry anymore. So that’s a you know after that whole, you know, black sheepdog Debacle that’s about as happy an ending as we could have hoped for So we could praise god for it, but you know, it could have been a smoother landing So, yeah, it’s real it’s real don’t worship me worship god That’s that’s the spirit, um, okay, so uh We’ve had this wedding feast promised but we got to tie up a few loose ends, right? And that’s what we’re going to do in the next Versus the harlot was the last to be introduced and the first to be punished, right? So it’s going to kind of go in in reverse order from the way they were introduced So we still got to deal with the dragon the beast and the false prophet. So let’s see what happens to them Then I saw the heavens opened and there was a white horse Its writer was called faithful and true He judges and wages war and righteousness his eyes were like a fiery flame and on his head were many diadems He had a name inscribed that no one knows except himself He wore a cloak that had been dipped in blood and his name was called the word of god The armies of heaven followed him mounted on white horses and wearing clean white linen Out of his mouth came a sharp sword to strike the nations He will rule them with an iron rod and he himself will tread out in the wine press of the wine of the fury and wrath of god the almighty He has a name written on his cloak and on his thigh the king of kings and lord of lords Right, so this is kind of that image of the final judgment The writer is obviously jesus Christ coming to judge again and and this is this is the second coming Something that we’ve believed since the very beginning christ will return in the same way that he left in the skies Writing a white horse the uh roman generals doing a triumph would wear ride a white horse right symbolizes victory We saw that all the way back in chapter Six five or six six I think it’s all the way back in chapter six The horse of war but It’s different this time because He judges and wages war in righteousness, right? So you notice, you know anytime that we want to we want to come up with a bad guy, right? We always come up with nazis, right? Because the nazis Were pretty obviously bad. They’re pretty obviously the bad guys and it’s like you can you can just tell a really Simple crisp story about it The nazis were the bad guys and the good guys came in and beat them, you know Never mind that half of the good guys were communists. Um And stalinists, you know, but it’s still you know, we have this desire That when there’s going to be a war It’s just it’s being waged in righteousness It’s just it’s being waged in righteousness Good news that war is available to you every day of your life. It’s the war against the system of the beast It’s the war of the lamb against the powers of evil and that’ll always be trying to creep into your life You can always keep those borders strong So we can fight forever in that war and we’ll be victorious because we know the power of the one who is actually fighting in us christ jesus Now You remember the image of the beast and the dragon, right? They’ve got seven heads and horns and diadems on on the different heads, right? And we talked about how the capital The kapus the head is what governs and what controls right? So you’ve got this image then Too many heads, you know Everybody trying to be in charge not able to actually bring the power into that appropriate unity Well here christ isn’t shown having seven heads Thank goodness. Um Just the one head with many diadems on it that he is the one who can rule who can Bring all of this together instead of the power being warring against each other smashing up against each other being Divided into multiplicity. He can bring everything into true Appropriate and proper unity, right? That’s so hard It is so hard to actually have a good unity that can respect diversity and multiplicity right can respect different ways of doing things You know, we’ve all got this little totalitarian impulse in us to make everything after our own image but that actually just stamps out the the the The different variety that should be allowed, you know christ doesn’t do that He makes everything more itself when his spirit comes and anoints us All right, he’s got this cloak dipped in blood Now in isaiah chapter 33 the lord is portrayed as going out to war And returning and his cloak is covered in the blood of his enemies but You notice in here Before he even gets to fighting the cloaks already been dipped in his blood, right? That’s the true fulfillment. That’s his own blood That he shed for us And is named the word of god, right? So, you know, there’s all these biblical scholars who are like well, you know The greek is so different between the gospel of john and the revelation of john they couldn’t have possibly been the same john and there’s Um You know look at the way that this supposedly rustic greek writing writer identifies Who jesus is the word of god does that sound familiar in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god Probably the same author Maybe maybe somebody else was actually putting john’s words down onto the greek in the gospel That could have been the case but uh, but there’s definitely a deep resonance just kind of right there How do you come up with that on your own? I don’t know how And we can just look at the different ways that christ has been portrayed in revelation. Um You know the very first time we’re uh introduced to him. He’s the son of man with glowing eyes You know, he’s like he’s like a superhero basically And then we get to chapter five he’s the lamb who had been slain Right the exact opposite idea than we had previously is no longer superpower. He’s now the sacrificial animal In chapter 12, he’s portrayed as the child destined to rule and then finally in chapter 19 here he’s proclaimed as grown man the bridegroom A king and a judge, you know And so there’s this idea that i’ve said more than once, you know How does christ actually bring everything together in himself? It’s by he he he is identified with everything right all the way from the top to the bottom all the way from superman with glowing eyes To the lamb who was slain all the way from bridegroom king and judge To the child who had to be protected by his father He fills up everything He brings it all in together Then I saw an angel standing in the sun he cried out in a loud voice to all the birds flying high overhead Come here gather for god’s great feast to eat the flesh of kings the flesh of military officers and the flesh of warriors The flesh of horses and their riders and the flesh of all free and slave great and small Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered to fight against the one Riding the horse and against his army. Yeah Here comes the battle the beast was caught and with its false and with it the false prophet Who had performed in its sight the signs by which he had led astray those who had accepted the mark of the beast And those who had worshiped its image the two were thrown alive into the fiery burning pool with sulfur The rest Were killed by the sword that came out of the mouth of the one riding the horse and the birds gorged themselves on their flesh Well, that’s wonderful So this uh, this is the day of the lord, right? That’s what we’re showing. We’re showing this very end of history here when christ comes to conquer and the battle isn’t even described Right. The angel doesn’t give orders for how the battle’s supposed to go, you know You guys flank around here you guys hold this hill doesn’t do any of that. He gives orders to the birds. Hey guys This is where the feast is going to be and it’s like Again, we’ve got this this this parody this inversion of the great feast But instead of the wedding feast, it’s the feast of the birds on the flesh of the evil ones and Yeah So what is this battle then? um We remember jesus saying to saul. Why are you persecuting me? And we remember jesus saying fear not those who can kill the body but after though that can do no more Fear the one who can kill body and soul and have them both thrown into fiery. Gehenna So it’s persecution it’s precisely this spiritual battle that we’re each Thrown into every day and which will be intensified at the end of time Uh the lake of fire, I think this is the first time it’s mentioned here. It’s mentioned six times in the book of revelation Uh, so obviously not a place you want to go because as we’ve learned the number six is no good And later on he’s going to connect this with this idea of the second death, but we’ll cover that when we get there Revelation chapter 20 Now if we were in certain protestant circles all of you would already have a very strong opinion on how to interpret this Because we’re catholic It’s kind of we got our minds made up for us A little bit but not in like a controlling way like in a loving fatherly way Then I saw an angel come down from heaven holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a heavy chain He seized the dragon the ancient serpent which is the devil or satan and tied it up for a thousand years And threw it into the abyss which he locked over it and sealed so that it could no longer Lead the nation to stray until the thousand years were completed after this it is to be released for a short time Then I saw thrones those who sat on them were entrusted with judgment I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to jesus and for the word of god Who had not worshipped the beast or its image nor had accepted Its mark on their foreheads or hands They came to life and reigned with christ for a thousand years The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were over This is the first resurrection Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection The second death has no power over these they will be priests of god and of christ and they will reign with him for the thousand years all right so What’s up with this thousand years, huh? And you know, I bet you At the start of this Or if you hadn’t studied the book of revelation much this would that kind of make you nervous like what on earth is your time? like jesus is going to come back and he’s going to have a kingdom on earth and And he’s going to reign for a thousand years and then for some reason we’re going to mess that all up by letting satan out That’s a serious position that some people play even some early church fathers like saint justin martyr, um Had interpreted this passage in this way Uh, the opinion is called millenarianism that christ would Come back to reign as king for a thousand years and then the general resurrection would happen And so in this time of christ’s a thousand year reign like Christians would be kind of immortal and then you know, there would also be the people on the outside Of the holy ones before the tribulation that the holy ones would be caught up And then the tribulation would happen and then christ would come and reign for a thousand years and then after a thousand years christ would be risen That would be the general resurrection the second coming That’s not really what the catholic church teaches It’s uh That’s not really what the catholic church teaches, um, it’s uh, you know, it’s just um All throughout this we’ve been looking at things symbolically and symbolically hasn’t made anything less real if anything looking at things symbolically Has made it more real because you can start to instead of projecting this out into some distant unknown future It’s like oh wow, these are spiritual realities that are affecting me now and I could do something about it You know, and so symbolic does it mean not real sometimes it might make things more real So this a thousand year reign of christ It’s symbolic um, and the position which I hold and which I think is kind of the majority catholic view Uh is uh a millenarianism that the thousand year reign of christ is happening right now Right um The first resurrection could be interpreted either to say baptism, right? Baptism is that coming out of the kingdom of satan and into the kingdom of god or to the souls that are already enjoying God’s presence in heaven But that’s actually the same thing Right, we don’t think of it that way, but it is actually the same thing, right? Because the process of eternity begins at baptism or at the first time you’re coming to faith if you’re an adult convert Timing can be different versus infant and adult baptism, but that doesn’t really matter It’s the seed of eternal life that’s being planted in baptism which grows to maturity when you enter into god’s kingdom and so doesn’t matter if you interpret the first resurrection as The souls in heaven or his baptism because how do those souls get to heaven through baptism the baptism is real and alive in you This binding of satan happens at the crucifixion or throughout the life of jesus he shows himself having power over Sin and death and satan and all that by his exorcisms Being able to drive out demons. Nobody else could that was a sign of his power the sign of his reign here And I think you know we could go back to chapter 11, right? Remember chapter 11 that was the two witnesses and the two witnesses give their testimony And eventually are killed at the end. This is like kind of the inverse picture of it, you know Or the photo negative, you know, it still shows you the same picture um the thousand year reign of christ because The serpent is being bound up in chains, but at the end he’s released for a short time and Everything accelerates into the end so Abel and arianism the thousand year reign Isn’t going to be christ literally coming back on earth It’s uh, it’s now it’s a reality that we can experience and enjoy now Wow And the number of thousands probably symbolic. It’s a big number. It was like the biggest number that the greeks had a proper word for They didn’t have to count up to millions and billions and trillions and quadrillions. You know, they’re just a thousand a thousand thousands When the thousand years are completed satan will be released from his prison He will go out and deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth Gog and magog to gather them for battle their numbers like the sand of the sea They invaded the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the holy ones in the beloved city But fire came down from heaven and consumed them The devil who had led them astray was thrown into the pool of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were There they will be forever tormented day and night forever and ever and so As we’ve done time and time again, we turn the clock back and we run it forward again We did a different camera angle on the same effect so This is another depiction of the uh final battle um Introduce gog and magog Those are definitely symbolic names They come to us from ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 Um gog is a ruler and magog basically just means the land of gog So that’s like the land that he rules Um, it’s a very long chapter as we don’t have any time to get into it tonight um, it basically represent evil nations that don’t um That don’t submit to god’s rule If you’ve got certain interpretations of the bible, uh this final battle ends up being literally at the hill of armageddon and it’s christ and And like the bad guys literally fighting with armies and guns and that kind of thing But we’re not going to go with that interpretation And we’re going to say that this is the same spiritual battle that’s come up over and over again the confrontation between Those who have the mark of the lamb and those who have the mark of the beast It’s the city of god city of man again Uh, and despite having apparently unbeatable armies, uh gog and magog Do not stand a chance against god just wipes the floor with them again Next I saw a large white throne and the one who was sitting on it The earth and the sky fled from his presence and there was no place for them I saw the dead the great and the lowly standing before the throne and the scrolls were opened And then another scroll was opened the book of life The dead were judged according to their deeds by what was written in the scrolls The sea gave up its dead then death and hades gave up their dead All the dead were judged according to their deeds then death and hades were thrown into the pool of fire This pool of fire is the second death Anyone whose name was not found written in the books of life was thrown into the pool of fire Uh, so this is actually a transition into our next section Christ is one And everything after that is just going to be what does christ’s victory look like we’re done with The seals and the bowls of wrath and the trumpets and and the battles were onto eternity here um First thing that happens is that the sea in the sky fled from his presence, right? So i’m going to read something from the second letter of st. Peter The day of the lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar And the elements will be dissolved by fire And the earth and everything done on it will be found out But according to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells And so that’s our belief then you know Believe that The current order of things is going to be fundamentally transformed probably still recognizable but different and A new heaven and a new earth In particular, you know, you always when you’re in your ccd classes you struggle with the little kindergartners Will I have my dog in heaven? Like no you won’t have your dog in heaven But there’s going to be a new earth We could have dogs there I don’t know It’s going to be an earth, right? and We’re going to be Reunited with our bodies And this is actually what’s going to last forever, right? Right at st. Thomas. I mean if you if you heard me preach yesterday, you’re going to hear a lot of this again. Um St. Thomas Aquinas actually taught that a soul a human soul without its body is actually an aberration It’s unnatural And that are supposed to be soul and body together So this is you know, we got the new heavens the new earth and New bodies with our souls a human being isn’t a soul and we’re going to walk around on the earth That’s going to be great I haven’t been there yet. So I can’t tell you exactly how it’s going to be great But we got two whole more chapters to uh to study about this Um All right the last Here’s a quote from St. Paul’s first letter to the corinthians Christ after christ has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power the last enemy to be destroyed is death This is the last enemy to be destroyed Death gets thrown into The pool of fire It has gone has no more power over us and that’s the end of chapter 20 next week is our last Our last class and then you guys will all be experts on the book of revelation. Thank you for your time and attention