Many years
ago, I was reading through the Psalms and came upon the verses below. The part
I have underlined bothered me. It said God’s people would never be left to the
power of evil people and be condemned. I knew this wasn’t true. There are
history books and the Bible itself that tell us how Jews and Christians have
been persecuted, condemned and killed all through time.
Psalm 37:32-34
Though the wicked lie in wait for the
righteous,
and seek to slay them,
the LORD will not leave them in their power
or let them be condemned under judgment.
Wait for the LORD and keep His way,
and He will raise you up to inherit the land.
When the wicked are cut off,
you will see it.
I told God my misgivings and it came into my mind that this
promise was made for the far future, when the judgement of God comes upon the
world. At that time, we will not be condemned and not only that God will raise
us up from our graves or from the earth to inherit our own land.
I thought about all the promises I’d read in the Bible and
it all became clear to me why Jesus said things like, “Whatever you ask for in
my name, you shall receive it.” Because I knew that didn’t happen in a literal
sense. If it did, we would all be millionaires.
God and Jesus speak in a Spiritual sense. They speak to us
about the deep things of life through poetry and the use of similes, metaphors,
personification and hyperbole. Jesus’ disciples had a very hard time
understanding what Jesus was trying to convey. This is just one example from
the Bible:
“When the disciples reached the other side of the lake, they
had forgotten to bring any bread. Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of
the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” And they began discussing it among
themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” But Jesus, aware of this,
said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the
fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the
five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the
seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How is
it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the
leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that he did not
tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the
Pharisees and Sadducees. Matthew
16:5-12
The rulers of the church of that time didn’t understand a lot
of what Jesus was teaching, but they did know that their influence of the
people was waning while Jesus’ influence was gaining and they hated him for
that.
I have noticed that whenever a person asked Jesus what he
meant, he always answered and explained. He did this for the disciples and this
has been true for me when I have had questions about spiritual things. The Lord
always brings the answer to my mind. I know it is him because it is usually
something I wouldn’t have thought of. My sister says the same thing. She brings
a problem to God and says, “You could do A. B. or C.” She told me he almost
always does D. Something that surprises her. We laugh a lot about how God
answers our prayers.
The Book of Revelation uses personification throughout.
Symbols, imagery and poetry abound. Even though the title of the book means, “to
reveal,” scholars disagree on what the book means. There are probably hundreds
of interpretations and I won’t go into that. However, there is one part of
Revelation most people have heard of and that is the number 666.
“And
the second beast performed great signs to cause even fire from heaven to come
down to earth in the presence of the people. Because of the signs it was given
to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived those who dwell on the earth,
telling them to make an image to the beast that had been wounded by the sword
and yet had lived. The second beast was permitted to give breath to the image
of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to
worship it to be killed.”
The
Mark of the Beast
“And
the second beast required all people small and great, rich and poor, free and
slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead,
so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark—the name of the beast
or the number of its name.”
“Here
is a call for wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the number of
the beast, for it is the number of a man, and that number is 666.” Revelation
13:11-18
I
believe all scholars agree that the number 7 in the Bible signifies perfection.
God gave us 7 days, the Sabbath was made for us to worship God on the 7th
day. In the book of Deuteronomy and Leviticus the number 7 was referred to over
and over.
“Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed
the tabernacle and all that was in it, and consecrated them. And he sprinkled
some of it on the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its
utensils and the basin and its stand, to consecrate them.” Leviticus
8:10,11
Jesus referred to the number 7 when talking about forgiveness:
“Then
Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother
who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I
tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!”
In
saying this, Jesus was telling us to always forgive. He told us that if someone
sinned against us 7 times in one day and asked for forgiveness, we must forgive
them.
666
So,
most have concluded that the number 7 symbolizes spiritual perfection. In the
case of the number 666, it is close to perfection, but it is off by one number
three times. In my opinion, this means it is an entity which is close to
spiritual perfection but is not. It looks spiritually perfect, but it is
not. The Bible text tells us it deceives the people of the world and
will try to force people to worship it or they will be killed. This
entity will not allow people to buy or sell unless they worship the way they
want. Most scholars see this as the time near the end of this world.
“And
a third angel followed them, calling out in a loud voice, “If anyone worships
the beast and its image, and receives its mark on his forehead or on his hand, he
too will drink the wine of God’s anger, poured undiluted into the cup of His
wrath. And he will be tormented in fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy
angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises forever and
ever. Day and night there is no rest for those who worship the beast and
its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” Revelation 14:9-11 (There is no spiritual
rest for these people at the end. They have accepted a lie because they liked
the spirit of that lie.)
When
I started writing, I had no plans to write about 666 or the end of the world.
But sometimes this is the way it goes, and it seems God wants me to write about
it.
One
last thing. There are about 500 verses in the Bible that describe death as a
sleep or being in the grave. Jesus himself said death was a sleep. There is no
hell to go down to. There is no eternal punishment. God says, “All the wicked I
will destroy.” Period. Destroy does not mean keeping people alive in a place to
torture.
There
are a few verses that people believe says there is a hell like the one I
described. They are wrong. Personally, I could never worship a God who could
invent such a thing. The verse above which says, “…the smoke of their torment
arises forever,” is symbolic. The smoke lasts forever, which symbolizes their
sin, and the result of their sin will never, ever be forgotten so that no one
in the universe will desire to sin again. We will remember what rebellion against
the Lord of the Universe brings: heartache, destruction, pain, vile evil and
death.
