BATTLE TANKS AND ATTACK HELICOPTERS

Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.  They called to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hid us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!  For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”   Revelation 6: 15, 16, 17  NIV

I, like most everyone else I know, have much difficulty deciphering exactly the real meaning from a lot of the Book of Revelation.  I do know that it is a revealing of events that for the most part would not unfold for thousands of years. 

This Revelation was given to John in the first century sometime after Jesus had already ascended to the right hand of His Father.  I can just imagine the difficulty John had in describing these futuristic events and scenes.  John having never seen a weapon of greater proportions than a catapult, having never seen anything fly but birds, having never seen a tidal way, a massive earthquake, a supersonic and huge meteor crashing to earth or into the sea, a hurricane or a catastrophic volcanic eruption, would truly have had to struggle to describe fighter jets, supersonic bombers, rocket launches, intercontinental ballistic missiles, atomic bombs, battle tanks and attack helicopters with an array of guns and missiles.  We take for granted the power and destruction caused by all natural disasters for we see them daily on our TV’s and computer screens from around the globe, but a first century citizen like John would have had none of these modern advantages. 

The one thing I am sure of is, that in the “last days”, John is telling us that men, all men, will know the truth which is that God is pouring out His judgment upon mankind.  In the above scripture, it is plain that the folks knew from whom they were hiding, and they chose not to repent.  Later on in 13:20 & 21, we find that following many more judgments, “The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood---idols that cannot see or hear or walk.  Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts."

C. S. Lewis wrote in his book, “The Great Divorce”, that Christians that had already passed on and were in regions of Heaven looked back at their lives on earth as the beginnings of Heaven and that those folks who had already passed on and were in regions of Hell looked back at their lives on earth as the beginnings of Hell.  The same lives, the same earth, the same opportunities and so on but with two completely different life visions. 

Father God, Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, help us to examine our lives according to your Word.  If there are some who find that their lives seem to be the beginnings of Hell, then call them to you Father through Christ Jesus and lead them to repentance.  And, for those of us who find that our lives are the beginnings of Heaven, help us to realize that our robes are only white because they have been washed in the Precious Blood of Jesus.  I ask these things and give You the praise for them in the name of Jesus.  Amen and so be it.  Amen and so be it.