PMT 2014-001 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.
In my latest blogs I have been focusing on Revelation 6 and the seven-sealed scroll. John separates the seventh seal from the preceding six by inserting an interlude. At Revelation 7:1 a gracious interlude interrupts the seal judgments (Rev 7:1–8) before presenting the seventh seal, which will finally be opened a Rev 8:1.
In this interlude we find “four angels” temporarily hold back the “winds” (of destruction; cp. Jer 49:36, 37; 51:1, 2; Da 7:2; Mt 7:24ff), countering the four destroying horsemen (Rev 6:1–8). Then another angel appears (Rev 7:2) and commands: “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads” (Rev 7:3). Continue reading
In my previous blog study I focused on the significance of the seven-sealed scroll as God’s divorce decree against his old covenant wife, Israel. Now the Lamb begins opening the seals so that God’s judgments against his adulterous wife may begin.
The seven-sealed scroll in Revelation 5 seems to represent a “certificate of divorce” handed down against Israel by the enthroned Judge who was seen in Revelation 4. In Scripture marriages are based on a covenant contract, so that in biblical days the Jews wrote out divorce decrees (Dt 24:1, 3; Isa 50:1; Jer 3:8; Mt 5:31; 19:7; Mk 10:4). The following evidence suggests that the scroll in Revelation 6 is a bill of divorce (a deeper reading of Revelation strongly compels such a conclusion). 
This is my fourth and final installment (for the time being!) on Paul’s Man of Lawlessness. Though it is a difficult passage, it serves as a foundation stone to peculiar dispensational beliefs involving the rebuilt temple and the re-institution of animal sacrifices. I have been showing, however, that this passage is dealing with first century concerns, not last century ones. We will see this further in today’s installment.
Recent comments