It's Supernatural

See so when you understand the feasts here again you start seeing all the analogies and the pictures of what John is writing. But here’s what I want to show you. I want to take you and, uh, show you this about the comparison, for example, of the prophet Ezekiel and John. Both were priests and were linked to the priesthood, Ezekiel chapter 1 and also the history I was talking about a moment ago. Both were held captive against their will, Ezekiel 1:1, Revelation 1:9.

Both were near water when their visions occurred. Now I don’t know what there is about water, all these prophets are hanging around river banks when the angels show up, Ezekiel 1:1 and John was surrounded by the Aegean Sea. Both saw heaven open and saw the visions of God, Ezekiel 1:26, Revelation 4:2.   Both saw the four-faced living creatures. Now that’s important. In Ezekiel 1 and 10, Ezekiel saw the “cherubim” and also Revelation 4 and 7, John saw the same thing. Both saw the throne of God and God sitting on the throne. It’s a fascinating story in Ezekiel 1:26, Revelation 4:3.

There was a rainbow around the throne, Ezekiel 1:28, Revelation 4:3. Both saw a scroll filled with trouble and woe, Ezekiel chapter 2:10, Revelation chapter 6. Both were told to eat the scroll and prophesy, Ezekiel 3:1, Revelation 10:9. Both saw angels mark the head of the righteous, Ezekiel 9:4, Revelation 7:1 through 3. Both saw judgment strike Israel in Jerusalem, Ezekiel 14, Revelation 11:13. Both saw a Jewish remnant, Ezekiel 12:16, Revelation 12, verse 17.

And so when you look at this you say to yourself wait a minute. Ezekiel and John are actually paralleling their visions the same. Now here’s an example again of what we see in the Book of Revelation has a foundation in the Old Testament. Let me show you something else here.

And we could go on and talk about the Babylonians conquering the Egyptians and this is what they did and they did it through different methods. So what Christ does is this. Christ uses the “Seven Sealed Book.” You know we’ve talked about this on our series in detail. Because in the Book of Revelation one of the first things you see in heaven is the Lamb has a Seven Sealed Book.

Now don’t think of a book like your Bible because in John’s day these would be scrolls. They would be a very large scroll. And it has leather ties. in the scrolls in that day in the Roman period, or in the time of when John wrote this, you’d have a scroll and you would have leather that would, let’s say seven straps of leather and you tie it. Then to seal it you’d take hot wax and you put on top of the leather, and every, you have to have a Signet ring.

A Signet ring, a Signet was a ring that had a symbol on it. It could be a lion, it could be a, a serpent, it could be uh, uh, an animal, it could be a cosmic thing, it just depended on the family. Sometimes it was a family seal or a, or a kingly seal. And when the wax was hot you, you put your imprint of that ring on that. Now you know, I think we’ve talked about this,

I know our ministry partners know this, that, that I tend to be very strong what we call “Pre-Trib,” meaning that somewhere before the, or right at the time of, or right before the signing of the seven year treaty there’s a “catching away.” Now let me tell you one of the reasons why,, and this is a strong point and most people know nothing about what I am getting ready to tell you. This was done through research. It has to do with the Seven Seal Scroll.

But notice what I am about to tell you. According to early church fathers and even scholars who know history, the Book of Revelation was written by John on the Isle of Patmos where he was a political prisoner around the year 95 A.D. After the Emperor who had him arrested died, John was allowed to be released from the Island. Now someone said “why do you think he had to write it in symbolism?” Let me give you one example why he had to write it in symbolism.

Because if you read Revelation chapter 17 and 18, it talks about a “Mystery Babylon,” a city ruling over the kings of the earth that’s going to be destroyed. John, in fact in the time of Jesus, when the Jews were speaking against Rome they always called it Babylon.   They coded it. And the reason they coded it is any statement by a Jew against Rome or the Roman Empire was instant persecution, jail and death time. So God allowed John to veil it as Babylon so that no one who would be a Roman who would look at that scroll would keep that scroll and burn it.

I mean think about this for a moment. Here’s an old man, he’s probably close to a 100 years of age and he’s had a vision of a flying dragon with seven heads and ten horns, a woman that’s pregnant in the heaven with the dragon trying to eat her and he has all this weird symbolism of a seven sealed book and a Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes and obviously if the Roman people were reading that and looking at that they’d say this guy musta been smoking something.

Give him his old scroll and get out a here. God actually allowed the symbolism to protect the book from its destruction by Romans. Everybody got that? So we always want to know why didn’t God just make it simple why didn’t God just say I’m going to destroy Rome one day. Because if he said it that way that book would have never got off the Isle of Patmos.