Revelation Daily Devotional - Day 19

Day 19

Revelation 12:1-17

[Rev. 12:1] ¶ Then a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and on her head was a crown of twelve stars. [Rev. 12:2] She was pregnant and was screaming in labor pains, struggling to give birth. [Rev. 12:3] Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon that had seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadem crowns. [Rev. 12:4] Now the dragon’s tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. [Rev. 12:5] So the woman gave birth to a son, a male child, who is going to rule over all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was suddenly caught up to God and to his throne, [Rev. 12:6] and she fled into the wilderness where a place had been prepared for her by God, so she could be taken care of for 1,260 days.
[Rev. 12:7] ¶ Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. [Rev. 12:8] But the dragon was not strong enough to prevail, so there was no longer any place left in heaven for him and his angels. [Rev. 12:9] So that huge dragon—the ancient serpent, the one called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world—was thrown down to the earth, and his angels along with him.
[Rev. 12:10] Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying,
“The salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God,
and the ruling authority of his Christ, have now come,
because the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
the one who accuses them day and night before our God,
has been thrown down.
[Rev. 12:11] But they overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony,
and they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.
[Rev. 12:12] Therefore you heavens rejoice, and all who reside in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea
because the devil has come down to you!
He is filled with terrible anger,
for he knows that he only has a little time!”
[Rev. 12:13] ¶ Now when the dragon realized that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. [Rev. 12:14] But the woman was given the two wings of a giant eagle so that she could fly out into the wilderness, to the place God prepared for her, where she is taken care of—away from the presence of the serpent—for a time, times, and half a time. [Rev. 12:15] Then the serpent spouted water like a river out of his mouth after the woman in an attempt to sweep her away by a flood,  [Rev. 12:16] but the earth came to her rescue; the ground opened up and swallowed the river that the dragon had spewed from his mouth.  [Rev. 12:17] So the dragon became enraged at the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep God’s commandments and hold to the testimony about Jesus.

The expression “sun, moon and stars” is established with Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37. He saw the Sun, Moon and Stars bowing down to him and we are told that this represented his father Jacob (Israel), his mother, and his brothers - the earliest beginnings of Israel. Here after, when the prophets charged Israel with turning their backs on God they pick up this language and depict Israel with expressions like, “the sun no longer gives forth its light, the moon has been turned to dark, and the stars have fallen from the sky” (or parts of this expression, such as Isaiah 13:10; Ezek. 32:7; Joel 2:31). 

John presents us with picture of the birth of Jesus and the establishment of the church. After Christ ascended, the Devil unleashed hell (so to speak) against the Church to destroy it. But John shows that God had ordained to not only preserve His Church, but to nourish His Church. Trial and persecution may appear to be the time when God has abandoned His Church, but this revelation sees it quite the opposite! It’s during difficult times that God’s presence, protection, and preservation are most enlisted. It is in these times that God’s servants are actually most nourished (vs. 14). 

She was just a lowly girl. Yet she caught the attention of Heaven. She had no standing in the world of politics or government. Yet against her was mustered the entire hordes of Hell to destroy her and her Son. From obscurity to greatness. This was the story of Mary, Christ, and the Church. And yet the often untold story is the interaction of Heaven in ensuring that this story would actually be told the way it was scripted. And this could be your two-sided story as well.

Andrew Corbett

www.andrewcorbett.net

Revelation Daily Devotional - Day 18

Day 18

Revelation 11:15-19

[Rev. 11:15] ¶ Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying:

“The kingdom of the world

has become the kingdom of our Lord

and of his Christ,

and he will reign for ever and ever.” 

[Rev. 11:16] ¶ Then the twenty-four elders who are seated on their thrones before God threw themselves down with their faces to the ground and worshiped God [Rev. 11:17] with these words:

“We give you thanks, Lord God, the All-powerful,

the one who is and who was,

because you have taken your great power

and begun to reign.

[Rev. 11:18]  The nations were enraged,

but your wrath has come,

and the time has come for the dead to be judged,

and the time has come to give to your servants,

the prophets, their reward,

as well as to the saints

and to those who revere your name, both small and great,

and the time has come to destroy those who destroy the earth.” 

[Rev. 11:19] ¶ Then the temple of God in heaven was opened and the ark of his covenant was visible within his temple. And there were flashes of lightning, roaring, crashes of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.

Christ has ended the tyranny of the Law’s condemnation. Notice that the angel blows the “seventh” trumpet? Seven in Scripture speaks of complete. Something has now come to end. It has been completed. Coinciding with this announcement is the reason for it: Christ has conquered and He now reigns! He has put an end to sacrifice and offering. He established a New Covenant of Grace. The twenty-four elders, commonly thought to represent the pioneering faithful from both the Old and New Covenants all bow in worshipful gratitude for what Christ has done.

In our highly sanitized West where our meat comes in packets, and blood is “shed” in the sterilized rooms of the Red Cross Blood Bank, it is difficult to appreciate what the Old Covenant constantly demanded. It was bloody. It was noisy. It was smelly. It was relentless. But it was necessary. Then Christ came and fulfilled all that the Law, with its sacrifices and offerings, demanded.

We so glibly spout that we are saved by grace that we sometimes mistakenly think that this means “at no cost”. But there was a terrible cost. Christ paid it. To be sure, we do not pay it in order to receive salvation, but there is still a cost for the believer to pay (albeit a different type of cost in which Christ said we must take up our own cross daily and follow Him).

The Old Covenant with its sacrifices, temple, and ark of the covenant were but a shadow of a heavenly reality that pointed to Christ not just as the fulfilment of those things, but as the One who has conquered sin, the world, the devil and death. For this reason, heaven is now “open” to all who put their trust in Christ as their Saviour, and acknowledge that Jesus now reigns as Lord God Almighty.

Andrew Corbett

www.andrewcorbett.net

Revelation Daily Devotional - Day 17

Day 17

Revelation 11:1-14

[Rev. 11:1] ¶ Then a measuring rod like a staff was given to me, and I was told, “Get up and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and the ones who worship there. [Rev. 11:2] But do not measure the outer courtyard of the temple; leave it out, because it has been given to the Gentiles, and they will trample on the holy city for forty-two months. [Rev. 11:3] And I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for 1,260 days, dressed in sackcloth. [Rev. 11:4] (These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.) [Rev. 11:5] If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and completely consumes their enemies. If anyone wants to harm them, they must be killed this way. [Rev. 11:6] These two have the power to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the time they are prophesying. They have power to turn the waters to blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague whenever they want. [Rev. 11:7] When they have completed their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will make war on them and conquer them and kill them. [Rev. 11:8] Their corpses will lie in the street of the great city that is symbolically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was also crucified. [Rev. 11:9] For three and a half days those from every people, tribe, nation, and language will look at their corpses, because they will not permit them to be placed in a tomb. [Rev. 11:10] And those who live on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate, even sending gifts to each other, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. [Rev. 11:11] But after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and tremendous fear seized those who were watching them. [Rev. 11:12] Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them: “Come up here!” So the two prophets went up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies stared at them. [Rev. 11:13] Just then a major earthquake took place and a tenth of the city collapsed; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. [Rev. 11:14] ¶ The second woe has come and gone; the third is coming quickly.

The world rejoices at all the wrong things and despises the things that are worthy of rejoicing. The Lord reigns, the Psalmist declared (Ps. 97:1) so the earth should rejoice. But it’s precisely because the Lord reigns that the wicked don’t rejoice! Instead, they rejoice in doing what God has forbidden (Prov. 2:14). 

Believers are told to rejoice with those rejoice (Rom.12:15) but all too often we find it difficult to rejoice for those who are doing better than us. Rejoicing with and for others takes humility and humility is one of the crowning virtues of a mature believer. This is perhaps why the New Testament stresses rejoicing as a Christian discipline to be developed. “Rejoice! Again I say, rejoice!” wrote Paul to the Philippians (Phil. 4:4).

The world rejoices when it seems like the Church has failed. But we shouldn’t. When a brother in Christ publicly fails it should cause us heart-ache, not to rejoice. 

What are you rejoicing about at this point in your life and walk with Christ? Do you rejoice that the Lord reigns? Do you rejoice when a brother in Christ whom you don’t like, fails? Knowing what to rejoice over and what not to rejoice over may well be one the clearest indications to others of what is truly in your heart when they see you rejoicing based on what you know to be right and good.

Andrew Corbett

www.andrewcorbett.net

Revelation Daily Devotional - Day 16

Day 16

Revelation 10:1-11

[Rev. 10:1] ¶ Then I saw another powerful angel descending from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun and his legs were like pillars of fire. [Rev. 10:2] He held in his hand a little scroll that was open, and he put his right foot on the sea and his left on the land. [Rev. 10:3] Then he shouted in a loud voice like a lion roaring, and when he shouted, the seven thunders sounded their voices. [Rev. 10:4] When the seven thunders spoke, I was preparing to write, but just then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Seal up what the seven thunders spoke and do not write it down.” [Rev. 10:5] Then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven [Rev. 10:6] and swore by the one who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, and the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, “There will be no more delay! [Rev. 10:7] But in the days when the seventh angel is about to blow his trumpet, the mystery of God is completed, just as he has proclaimed to his servants the prophets.” [Rev. 10:8] Then the voice I had heard from heaven began to speak to me again, “Go and take the open scroll in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”  [Rev. 10:9] So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take the scroll and eat it. It will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.”  [Rev. 10:10] So I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it, and it did taste as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. [Rev. 10:11] Then they told me: “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”

“Peoples and nations and languages.” The Bible is not like other so-called Holy Books. It is designed to be translated into every language for every people and still make sense. But more than just make sense, it is a God-breathed book designed to be translated into any language. The wonder of God’s Word to mankind is that connects with all people of all languages over every period of time. Words are only a small part of language. The conveying of thoughts and ideas are also major roles of a language. This is done with word pictures (metaphors), humour (often using hyperbole), but especially the real stories of real people. And this is exactly how God  has comprised the Bible. 

I often think that reading the Bible is like peeling an onion. You become acquainted with the outer layer of its message (what it says) so that you can begin to discover some of the gems that can only be seen once you’ve gone to the trouble of getting familiar with the outer layers first.

As we read the Bible we will very soon read prophecies. This book of Revelation is almost cover-to-cover prophecies.This passage of Revelation reinforces the Bible’s emphatic claim that what the prophets had foretold about “the mystery of God” would soon be fulfilled. The Apostle Paul tells us that God’s plan to unite all people under one New Covenant was the unfolding mystery of God (Eph. 3:9). 

Reading Revelation 10:7, the original readers would have had good reason to draw tremendous confidence for remaining steadfast in their faith in Christ and that Christ would fulfil His Word through His prophets to establish a New Covenant people, the Church. 

The Bible’s claim to be inspired by God stands or falls on whether its prophecies, which include clear time-frame references, have been fulfilled within their forecasted time-frames. I am convinced that they have and this gives me great confidence to trust the rest of Scripture as the inspired, inerrant Word of God. No matter what your nationality or language, I hope that you too find increased confidence in the Bible as God’s inspired Word for you.

Andrew Corbett

www.andrewcorbett.net

Revelation Daily Devotional - Day 15

Day 15

Revelation 9:20 -21

[Rev. 9:20] The rest of humanity, who had not been killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so that they did not stop worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk about. [Rev. 9:21] Furthermore, they did not repent of their murders, of their magic spells, of their sexual immorality, or of their stealing. 

What does it take for some people to see their need to repent? Repentance from sinful activities does us good. While sin may garb itself in pleasantness and pleasure, it’s sweet taste eventually becomes poisoned gravel in our stomachs. Repentance is not to be reduced to a one-off moment coinciding with our conversion to Christ. Rather it should be seen as the constant steering wheel adjustment that the soul makes to counter the drift of sin’s damage to our spiritual wheel alignment. 

John is describing events that were designed to lead people to repent from sin. The image of plagues reminds us of what God did in Egypt to deliver Israel. These plagues were a demonstration of God’s supremacy over each of Egypt’s false gods. Some Egyptians did repent and joined the wandering nation of Hebrews that Passover night on their journey to the Promised Land (Exodus 12:38). But most Egyptians did not.

It seems incomprehensible to some that God would not give in to the demands of the majority when it comes to determining what are acceptable laws for mankind. I spoke with a man recently about his sin. His response was “It can’t be wrong what I’m doing because ninety plus percent of the population are doing it as well!” The people in sin that would not repent are here identified by John as worshiping demons. Their idolatry had led them to commit murders, sorceries, sexual immorality, and theft. The response from God was dramatic. 

When Paul wrote to the Romans he described God using yet another strategy for bringing some people to repentance: His kindness (Romans 2:4). 

How would you prefer for God to facilitate for your repentance? I think I would prefer His kindness. I also think that these people described by John probably had experienced God’s kindness designed to lead them to repentance, but because they had refused to repent God used this other means. My prayer is that my heart will always respond to the kindness of God when He gently summons me to repent, without the need for God to orchestrate anything more drastic.

Andrew Corbett

www.andrewcorbett.net

Revelation Daily Devotional - Day 14

Day 14

Revelation 8:1-5

[Rev. 8:1] ¶ Now when the Lamb opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. [Rev. 8:2] Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. [Rev. 8:3] Another angel holding a golden censer came and was stationed at the altar. A large amount of incense was given to him to offer up, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar that is before the throne. [Rev. 8:4] The smoke coming from the incense, along with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. [Rev. 8:5] Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth, and there were crashes of thunder, roaring, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

In the midst of the upheaval enveloping the believers of the first century where John reveals that these dire circumstances are actually comprising the judgment of Christ on His opponents, there is something glorious being revealed simultaneously in heaven. As the geo-political climate takes a turn against Christians on earth, their prayers ascend to heaven and fill heaven with an enchanting aroma that bears resemblance to holy incense used in Temple worship.

Little do we realise how effective our prayers are. Billy Graham is reported to have said that heaven is filled with answers to prayer that no-one asked for. While the saints, those who were faithfully following Christ, prayed for God to intervene and bring them relief, God was preparing to answer. Like many answers to prayer, things would seem to get worse before they would get better - but what John sees is that it is the apparent increase in the cause for prayer that God was actually using to bring about His purposes. How often we experience disappointment and setback and reckon it to be God ignoring us when in fact it is God answering us. C.S. Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain; it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Suffering is a divine test of trust. Chuck Swindoll has said, “Trust in God delights in His ‘No’ to our requests.” 

These first century Christians were enduring tremendous hardship. This Revelation was a promised blessing to them. Surely this vision of their impassioned pleas filling heaven with the smoke of holy incense could have only encouraged them to pray more fervently. Would we pray more if we received a similar revelation of the effect of our prayers?

Andrew Corbett

www.andrewcorbett.net

Revelation Daily Devotional - Day 13

Day 13

Revelation 7:9-17

[Rev. 7:9] ¶ After these things I looked, and here was an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands.  [Rev. 7:10] They were shouting out in a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God, to the one seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”  [Rev. 7:11] ¶ And all the angels stood there in a circle around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground before the throne and worshiped God,  [Rev. 7:12] saying, “Amen! Praise and glory, and wisdom and thanksgiving, and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”  [Rev. 7:13] ¶ Then one of the elders asked me, “These dressed in long white robes—who are they and where have they come from?” [Rev. 7:14] So I said to him, “My lord, you know the answer.” Then he said to me, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb! [Rev. 7:15] For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them.  [Rev. 7:16] They will never go hungry or be thirsty again, and the sun will not beat down on them, nor any burning heat,  [Rev. 7:17] because the Lamb in the middle of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Far from the feared demise of the Church, a grand vision of Christ’s triumph bursts onto the visionary stage. Not only would the Church survive, it would succeed! In the end, no-one will be able to number those who have joined it. Birthed (as what some have dismissed as) a sect of Judaism, the truth now gloriously unfurls that it is not a deviation from the spiritual lineage of  God’s  people - it is the continuation of it! 

Even today it may look like the Church will soon falter and wither, but John sees that it shall instead be comprised of people from every nation, tribe and language! It is no mere institution these spiritual refugees have joined - it is to Christ! He had become their food to quell their hunger. He had become their drink to quench their thirst. He had become their shelter to cover, protect, and secure them. And ultimately He would wipe away every tear from their eyes! But more than this is depicted here in a little expression too easily missed. They will be enjoying the full sanctuary of Christ while holding "palm branches". It was ancient Israel's greatest victory against all natural odds that saw the walls of Jericho (the "city of palm trees") come crashing down as the Hebrews marched around them waving "palm branches". Forever after this, palm branches became the symbol of divinely-aided victory to God's people. The were boldly embossed on the Temple walls to remind Israel that with God's help victory was theirs. John reports that in the end, faithful followers of Christ will be holding palm branches!

Today, we should continue to serve Christ (especially in Missions activities) with both passion and a Biblically informed confidence. William Carey was someone who did just this. His counsel to us is- “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God!”

Andrew Corbett
www.andrewcorbett.net

WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY FOR?

CONVERTING CHRISTIANITY

What does it mean to be a Christian? Recently a minor Party Senator criticised Christians for voicing concerns over her Party’s policy agenda. She claimed that Christians should stop preaching “at” people because Christianity was really about helping the poor. Her claim was bolstered by a recent delegation of nearly 200 Christian ministers who agreed with her! But she’s not the only Politician to think that Christianity is merely about improving social conditions.

Just before Prime Minister John Howard lost power, his opponent was interviewed about being a Christian. He said that his Christianity was like that of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (the German pastor who withstood Hitler, was jailed for nearly three years by the Nazis and was executed at the command of Hitler- Hitler’s final command - which he gave two days before he committed suicide and the War consequently ended). Bonhoeffer, stated this politician, did not see Christianity as being about converting people. Rather, Christianity was about opposing injustice - which is why this German pastor withstood Hitler at the cost of his own life. If elected Prime Minister, this politician would promote Christianity as a force for social justice - not converting people “like evangelicals”!

It’s one thing for politicians to not understand what Christianity is about, but it’s quite another matter for so-called Christian ministers! Today there is a growing number of such ministers who deny that anyone need to be “converted” in order to become a Christian. For those of us who do know what a Christian is and care about how Christianity is understood, we are faced with the challenge of not only defending it - but getting on with it!

CONVERTING TO CHRISTIANITY MEANS BECOMING A “PILGRIM”

In John Bunyan’s unequalled classic, Pilgrim’s Progress, he tells of a man who prayed. As a result of praying he becomes aware of the burden on his back. This man realises that no matter how hard he tries he cannot free himself from this burden. He embarks on a journey to find relief and becomes Pilgrim. He meets Evangelist who points him to a hill called Golgotha. It is there that he meets the bleeding Saviour. As he gazes into the face of Jesus he cries out, "For me He dies! For me He dies!" The burden of sin, guilt and shame snaps off his back and rolls down the hill. At that point Pilgrim is converted! So firmly did Bunyan believe that Christianity only began with conversion that he was prepared to be jailed for that belief for some 17 years! 

UNIVERSALISTS DENY CONVERSION

Theologically, a Universalist believes that everyone is saved without having been converted. They base this idea on verses like Romans 5:15 which compares Adam’s sin condemning everyone with Christ’s death saving everyone. If the Universalists are correct, then Evangelicals are wasting their time preaching for people to be converted and should  instead be concentrating on helping the poor. But Universalists must ignore much Scripture and history to come to this conclusion. But what’s more concerning is this: if they are wrong their error has dire eternal consequences for millions of people.

WHAT CONVERSION MEANS

To be converted to Christianity is a dramatic spiritual change. It is described as being “translated” (‘transferred’) from darkness to light (Col. 1:13; 1Pet. 2:9), brought from death to life (Eph. 2:1-5) and being “born again” (John 3:3).  

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.
1John 3:14

The problem that the Universalist faces in sustaining their case from Scripture is: Scripture. Reading all of Romans 5 it becomes apparent that the salvation achieved by Christ is available to every person through the preaching of the Gospel to those who “receive the abundance of God’s grace” (Rom. 5:17). Salvation must be “received”. But this is not the only problem the Universalist must deal with. Not only does the Bible affirm that all people are in the grip of sin’s tyranny, human experience down through history confirms every time someone does something evil to other humans. But the same testimony of human experience points us to literally millions of examples of people who have been converted, some dramatically, to Christianity.

Conversion involves a change of heart, mind, spirit and will. It is not merely “turning over a new leaf” or “making a New Year’s resolution”. It is rather a miraculous transformation by the Holy Spirit which begins with a recognition of a person’s sinful guilt. This is called “conviction”. The Holy Spirit then opens that person’s heart to the Gospel where they receive God’s grace and forgiveness as they are enabled by the Holy Spirit to repent.

It appears in Scripture that God generally uses three broad approaches to lead people to repentance. Firstly, Romans 2:4 says that God uses kindness to lead people to repentance.

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
Romans 2:4

Secondly, it appears that God uses miracles to bring people to repentance. Christ expresses His disappointment that many of the cities in which He performed miracles did not repent-

Then Jesus began to denounce the cities where he had done most of his miracles, because they hadn’t turned from their sins and turned to God.
Matthew 11:20

Thirdly, God uses tragedy to bring people to repentance. 

God is in the business of conversion. He loves to convert people. He loves to rescue those who cry out to Him in humility. To those people, including Parliamentarians, who ridicule us Evangelicals for promoting Christianity by conversion, converted people like Apostle Paul, C.S. Lewis, and Andrew Corbett present a problem. It might also be worth noting that Dietrich Bonhoeffer would sound a loud "Amen!" He made this extremely clear in his book "Life Together" where he stressed the need for conversion and pointed out that the Christian community should only be considered as being constituted of those who have been converted. 

Phillip Adams, one of Australia’s most renowned ABC media personalities and an avid atheist, spoke at a Pastors’ Conference. He stated what should never have to be stated by atheist to a group of Christian leaders: If I believed what you claimed to believe that eternity, heaven and hell, and the need to be converted - I would be shouting it from the rooftops and I wouldn’t care who ridiculed or opposed me in the process!

It is my prayer that we will see many thousands of people authentically converted to Christ all around the world. It’s one thing to claim that we believe everyone needs to be converted in order to become a Christian - but it’s an entirely different thing to live like we believe it!

© Dr. Andrew Corbett, October 13th 2012

www.andrewcorbett.net

Revelation Daily Devotional - Day 12

Day 12

Revelation 6:1-14

[Rev. 6:1] ¶ I looked on when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a thunderous voice, “Come!” [Rev. 6:2] So I looked, and here came a white horse! The one who rode it had a bow, and he was given a crown, and as a conqueror he rode out to conquer. [Rev. 6:3] ¶ Then when the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come!” [Rev. 6:4] And another horse, fiery red, came out, and the one who rode it was granted permission to take peace from the earth, so that people would butcher one another, and he was given a huge sword. [Rev. 6:5] ¶ Then when the Lamb opened the third seal I heard the third living creature saying, “Come!” So I looked, and here came a black horse! The one who rode it had a balance scale in his hand. [Rev. 6:6] Then I heard something like a voice from among the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat will cost a day’s pay and three quarts of barley will cost a day’s pay. But do not damage the olive oil and the wine!” [Rev. 6:7] ¶ Then when the Lamb opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come!” [Rev. 6:8] So I looked and here came a pale green horse! The name of the one who rode it was Death, and Hades followed right behind. They were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill its population with the sword, famine, and disease, and by the wild animals of the earth. [Rev. 6:9] ¶ Now when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been violently killed because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had given. [Rev. 6:10] They cried out with a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Master, holy and true, before you judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood?” [Rev. 6:11] Each of them was given a long white robe and they were told to rest for a little longer, until the full number was reached of both their fellow servants and their brothers who were going to be killed just as they had been.  [Rev. 6:12] ¶ Then I looked when the Lamb opened the sixth seal, and a huge earthquake took place; the sun became as black as sackcloth made of hair, and the full moon became blood red; [Rev. 6:13] and the stars in the sky fell to the earth like a fig tree dropping its unripe figs when shaken by a fierce wind. [Rev. 6:14] The sky was split apart like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place.

In the ancient times, royal decrees were written on a scroll, sealed with wax and then impressed with the Emperor’s emblem. Upon receipt, only the authorised representative was permitted to break the wax seal and unfurl the scroll to reveal the King’s judgment. While Caesar was issuing decrees to martyr Christians and forcibly close churches, John sees a vision of the True King issuing the real decrees of consequential rather than temporal judgment.

Today, we still live in a world where kings and tyrants, professors and celebrities rail against God. Feigning brightness they espouse irrationality. Pretending to be mighty they are destined to bow before the One who is Almighty.

John is writing to his readers in two languages. The first is Greek. The second is symbolism, or more accurately: Biblical symbolism. You may never get the opportunity to learn Biblical Greek. But you should create an opportunity to learn Biblical symbolism. Most of the Book of Revelation is written in this latter language which a Bible reader learns from becoming familiar with the Old Testament.

Undoubtedly, John’s original audience knew this latter language. This Biblically symbolic revelation would have been immensely comforting to them. He refers to a precise number yet waiting to be made complete. These disasters against the Church were not a matter of the Enemy gaining the upper hand. In a way that is often beyond immediate human comprehension, the persecution and martyrdom was actually an integral part of Christ’s plan - which would be completed - and still will ultimately be.

Rather than the Church being crushed by the opposition it faced from Rome and Jerusalem, Christ's plan was still on track and He would be vindicated. And it still is and He was and He will be still.

It’s now up to us to live like it.

 Andrew Corbett

www.andrewcorbett.net