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Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Children of the Dragon, Children of the Lamb #10: 7 Trumpets (Revelation 8-11)

As we enter another highly charged political year, I have been thinking how much the book of Revelation has to offer in terms of casting a discerning eye on how the forces of empires (symbolized by Rome/Babylon) challenge the faith and ethics of the Kingdom of God. To really understand the political broadside John offers in this apocalypse ("unveiling") will take some time. Here, finally, we arrive at the Seven Trumpets.

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Now when the Lamb opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour[1]. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 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.
The Old Testament associates silence with divine judgment.[2] This seems to be a response to the death of and the prayers of saints that bring about the judgment on those through whom evil and suffering have been unleashed in the world.

The smoke coming from the incense, along with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth[3], and there were crashes of thunder, roaring, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.[4]

Sunday, June 2, 2024

Children of the Dragon, Children of the Lamb #9: The Seven Seals (Revelation 6-8:1)

As we enter another highly charged political year, I have been thinking how much the book of Revelation has to offer in terms of casting a discerning eye on how the forces of empires (symbolized by Rome/Babylon) challenge the faith and ethics of the Kingdom of God. To really understand the political broadside John offers in this apocalypse ("unveiling") will take some time. Here, finally, we arrive at the Seven Seals.

Previous post: http://empiresandmangers.blogspot.com/2024/05/children-of-dragon-children-of-lamb-8.html

We are going to read today about the opening of the 7 seals (the first in a series of visions of 7 seals, 7 trumpets, and 7 bowls). There are different ways people views the seals, trumpets, and bowls unfolding.  I have some opinions about timelines,[2] but I am for more interested in faithfulness until the finish line. 

What we do know about when things happen is this from Revelation 1: these “must happen soon,” and “what is and what will be.” That didn’t help, right? Let’s move on.