2 And immediately I was in the
spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.
3 And he that sat was to look upon like
a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne,
in sight like unto an emerald. 4 And
round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw
four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their
heads crowns of gold. 5 And out of the
throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven
lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
6 And before the throne there was a sea
of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the
throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. 7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the
second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the
fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
Verse 2 - In chapter one, verse
ten, John was in the Spirit, uppercase S, which is the Holy Spirit of God.
Here, in verse 2 he is in his own spirit and carried up. Paul saw the third
heaven, as well, but was not sure if he was in his body or, presumably, in his
spirit like John here.
2Corinthians 12:1 ¶ It is not
expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of
the Lord. 2 I knew a man in Christ above
fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the
body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the
body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) 4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and
heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
In any event, this is John seeing
this for himself and it is not a dream. He saw a throne in heaven that had
someone seated on it.
Verse 3 – The image is one of a
jewel-like beauty.
Exodus 24:10 And they saw the
God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a
sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.
Ezekiel 1:26 ¶ And above the
firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the
appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the
likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.
Verse 4 – Who are the twenty four
elders? Are they the twelve Hebrew patriarchs and the twelve Apostles,
including Paul? Or, are they, being elders, twenty four elders of the early
church, representing those seven churches mentioned previously? If so, would
Antipas be among them? We don’t know because the Bible doesn’t say and you
can’t make an argument from silence. Here is evidence for at least twelve of
them being Jewish.
Matthew19:28 And Jesus said unto
them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the
regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also
shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Does this represent all Old
Testament Jewish believers? And does the following mean that twelve of these
elders represent all Christian believers?
2Timothy 4:8 Henceforth there is
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge,
shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love
his appearing.
Crowns imply kingship and
authority, the ability to judge.
1Corinthians 6:3 Know ye not
that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?
Also, they are clothed in white
raiment.
Revelation 19:8 And to her was
granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine
linen is the righteousness of saints.
Verse 5 – Now, get the frightening
picture here of lightning and thunder and voices coming from the throne. Note
the repeat of this later in Revelation;
Revelation 8:5 And the angel
took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the
earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
…and in another passage…
Revelation 16:18 And there were
voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as
was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
…and see how God’s presence manifested itself to the Hebrews,
escaped from Egypt…
Exodus 19:16 ¶ And it came to
pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings,
and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud;
so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
Exodus 20:18 ¶ And all the
people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet,
and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood
afar off.
The seven lamps in front of the
throne are the seven Spirits of God.
Ezekiel 1:13 As for the likeness
of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and
like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures;
and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.
Daniel 10:6 His body also was
like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as
lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and
the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.
Revelation 3:1 ¶ And unto the
angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven
Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name
that thou livest, and art dead.
Revelation 5:6 ¶ And I beheld,
and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of
the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven
eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
Notice that the spirits, lowercase
s, in Isaiah 11:2, even if you could stretch it out to say there were seven,
are attitudes, wisdom, and knowledge, not entity or entities.
Isaiah 11:1 ¶ And there shall
come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his
roots: 2 And the spirit of the LORD
shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of
counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in
the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes,
neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the
poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the
earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay
the wicked.
God can send you a spirit, lowercase
s….
Exodus 28:3 And thou shalt speak
unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom,
that they may make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he may minister
unto me in the priest’s office.
Exodus 31:3 And I have filled
him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge,
and in all manner of workmanship,
…or the Spirit, uppercase S.
Judges 6:34 But the Spirit of
the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered
after him.
John 14:17 Even the Spirit of
truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
John 15:26 But when the
Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit
of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
Verses 6 – 8: In front of the
throne was a sea of glass like a crystal. Can you picture it? Here are some
other references to the terrible beauty of God’s throne.
Ezekiel 1:22 And the likeness of
the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the
terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.
Exodus 24:10 And they saw the
God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a
sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.
These four beasts with eyes in
front and in back, saying, Holy, holy,
holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come, are like the
four beasts referred to in Ezekiel’s two visions.
Ezekiel 1:4 ¶ And I looked, and,
behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding
itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the
colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. 5 Also out of the midst thereof came the
likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the
likeness of a man. 6 And every one had
four faces, and every one had four wings. 7
And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like
the sole of a calf’s foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished
brass. 8 And they had the hands of a man
under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their
wings. 9 Their wings were joined one to another;
they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. 10 As for the likeness of their faces, they four
had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four
had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an
eagle. 11 Thus were their faces: and
their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to
another, and two covered their bodies. 12
And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go,
they went; and they turned not when they went. 13 As for the likeness of the living creatures,
their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of
lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright,
and out of the fire went forth lightning. 14
And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash
of lightning.
15 ¶ Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold
one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. 16 The appearance of the wheels and their work
was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their
appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. 17 When they went, they went upon their four
sides: and they turned not when they went. 18
As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their
rings were full of eyes round about them four. 19 And when the living creatures went, the
wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the
earth, the wheels were lifted up. 20
Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit
to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the
living creature was in the wheels. 21
When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when
those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against
them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. 22 And the likeness of the firmament upon the
heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal,
stretched forth over their heads above. 23
And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the
other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two,
which covered on that side, their bodies. 24
And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of
great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise
of an host: when they stood, they let down their wings. 25 And there was a voice from the firmament that
was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings.
26 ¶ And above the firmament that was over their
heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and
upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man
above upon it. 27 And I saw as the
colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the
appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even
downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round
about. 28 As the appearance of the bow
that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the
brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of
the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one
that spake.
Ezekiel 10: 1 ¶ Then I looked,
and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there
appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the
likeness of a throne. 2 And he spake
unto the man clothed with linen, and said, Go in between the wheels, even under
the cherub, and fill thine hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims,
and scatter them over the city. And he went in in my sight. 3 Now the cherubims stood on the right side of
the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court. 4 Then the glory of the LORD went up from the
cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled
with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD’S glory.
5 And the sound of the cherubims’ wings
was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of the Almighty God when he speaketh.
6 And it came to pass, that when he had
commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, Take fire from between the
wheels, from between the cherubims; then he went in, and stood beside the
wheels. 7 And one cherub stretched forth
his hand from between the cherubims unto the fire that was between the
cherubims, and took thereof, and put it into the hands of him that was clothed
with linen: who took it, and went out.
8 ¶ And there appeared in the cherubims the form
of a man’s hand under their wings. 9 And
when I looked, behold the four wheels by the cherubims, one wheel by one
cherub, and another wheel by another cherub: and the appearance of the wheels
was as the colour of a beryl stone. 10
And as for their appearances, they four had one likeness, as if a wheel
had been in the midst of a wheel. 11
When they went, they went upon their four sides; they turned not as they
went, but to the place whither the head looked they followed it; they turned
not as they went. 12 And their whole
body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were
full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they four had. 13 As for the wheels, it was cried unto them in
my hearing, O wheel. 14 And every one
had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face
was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the
face of an eagle. 15 And the cherubims
were lifted up. This is the living creature that I saw by the river of Chebar.
Lion, calf or ox or cherub, eagle,
and man’s are the faces of these creatures. There are two curious things
here. The first is that Satan was a
cherub. The reference in the following verses begins talking about the King of
Tyre likening him to Satan, which gives us more important information about
Satan than it does Tyre’s king. This is a way the Bible uses one description to
describe two individuals. You describe how one is like the other and you have a
prophecy of both.
Ezekiel 28:11 ¶ Moreover the
word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 12
Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto
him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and
perfect in beauty. 13 Thou hast been in
Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius,
topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the
emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy
pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. 14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth;
and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast
walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day
that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. 16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have
filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will
cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O
covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy
beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast
thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by
the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore
will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I
will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold
thee. 19 All they that know thee among
the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt
thou be any more.
As you can see, Satan is a cherub,
a living creature, in the form of a beast. He is, in Job, chapter 41, in another
multi-layered description, a dinosaur, or dragon in pre-1800’s terminology, and
a king over all the children of pride.
Satan is called a dragon as you can see by
cross-referencing;
Isaiah 27:1 In that day the LORD
with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing
serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that
is in the sea.
Revelation 12:9 And the great
dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which
deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were
cast out with him.
Satan is a dragon, what we today
call a dinosaur, in appearance, but can appear as an angel of light to deceive us.
2Corinthians 11:13 For such are
false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of
Christ. 14 And no marvel; for Satan
himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his
ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end
shall be according to their works.
The second curious thing is that
one of these creatures has the face of a man. So, God could have made a beast
with a man’s face but instead He made man to be very different although made of
similar materials. We live longer than most creatures. We take longer to
mature. Most creatures have lived their life cycle long before we are adults.
We are helpless physically and need to manipulate our environment to protect
ourselves and make weapons to fight against other predators. Our brains consume
60% of our available energy, I’ve read, although I have not confirmed this and
that’s why I’m not citing the source. Just putting it out there for
conversation purposes. Anyway, one of
the prototypes for beasts has the face of a man. It is not the face of an ape
as God could have said that easily (1Kings 10:22; 2Chronicles 9:21). We were originally made in God’s image, in
His likeness, as Genesis 1:26.
Adam, being the first man, was a son of God. He was created
to look like God.
Luke 3:38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son
of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
After Adam’s sin mankind began to degenerate and Adam’s
descendants were made in his image, lacking the perfection that God intended.
Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years,
and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
From this scientific fact we can make a prediction. All
humanity has and will experience genetic decay as long as we exist in this
physical existence. I refer you to Alexey Kondrashov’s 1995 article in the Journal of Theoretical Biology entitled,
“Contamination of the Genome by very Slightly Deleterious Mutations: Why Have
We Not Died 100 Times Over?”(4) Another example is James F. Crow’s “The High
Spontaneous Mutation Rate: Is it a Health Risk?” for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. (5) There has been
nothing since these papers to indicate the opposite idea, that mankind is
genetically improving.
(4) Alexey Kondrashov, “Contamination of the Genome by very
Slightly Deleterious Mutations: Why Have We Not Died 100 Times Over?” Journal of Theoretical Biology 175
(1995): 583-594.
(5) James F. Crow, “The High Spontaneous Mutation Rate: Is
it a Health Risk?” Proceedings of the
National Academy of Science Vol. 94 (August 1997): 8380–8386.
Image and likeness have to do with
how you look, not your mental character or spiritual state. Adam walked upright
like God.
Verse 7 shows God’s taxonomic
classification; flying creatures, domesticated, wild, and man. Man’s connection
to the other animals is through these living creatures. All creatures were made after their kind as it
says in Genesis.
Genesis 1:21 And God created
great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought
forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and
God saw that it was good…25 And God made
the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every
thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was
good.
Genesis 6:20 Of fowls after
their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the
earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them
alive.
Genesis 7:14 They, and every
beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his
kind, every bird of every sort.
Obviously,
this is a very general classification and has nothing to do with the dozens of species that Darwin and modern
scientists use to classify different living creatures. Much is made by the creationist minded and the fundamentalist about the
phrase after their kind in Genesis 1:21,25;
6:20; & 7:14. The word kind,
contrary to what is said often, does not refer to an individual species, whichever
of the many definitions of species you use (6), whether it be a local,
isolated group of finches or something like the, “breed,” of Animal Husbandry’s
dog breeding. (Although there are significant differences between breed and
species they are also not from the same disciplines so the issue is basically
one about definition of terms that refer to similar but not identical things.)
One of
the things Charles Darwin was against was the popularly preached by clerics and
many pre-Darwin biologists view that every species of animal that existed in
his day was said to have come down from an original ancestor just like them in
a doctrine called, “the immutability of species.” If there are a hundred
species of a type of bird today then those species would have existed back to
Noah’s Ark, goes the idea. This is, of course, absurd as mankind created many
breeds of dogs in the last two hundred years alone. If you regarded a breed and
a species as having similar meanings but under different types of scientific
disciplines, Zoology versus Animal Husbandry, then you can imagine speciation,
the process where different breeds or species of dogs, cats, horses, or birds
came about taking place rather quickly in history.
But
the word kind doesn’t mean species at
all. It is more like a general type of creature. Many species of cats came from
the first cat creatures on Noah’s Ark. The problem with evolution is that the
cat never became a dog, the pea never became a chrysanthemum, and an ape-like
creature never became a man. There is no evidence of such a thing occurring
without twisting the evidence into knots and the whole popularly understood
concept of evolution in that regard, called macroevolution, is a fairy tale for
atheists and in complete opposition to the Bible and reality.
Modern taxonomic classifications of living
things are purely man-made and are totally subjective to what man chooses to
include as a characteristic of the creature being named. God classifies animals
differently based on characteristics that would be understood by men without
microscopes. For instance, fowls fly, so the bat is a fowl in Leviticus 11:19
and Deuteronomy 14:18 and the Hebrew could not eat fowl with certain
characteristics. The words reptile and mammal were classifications created by
man for his own convenience and study. The Bible speaks of beasts of the field domestic animals, and beasts of the forest wild animals. It speaks about animals in the
way of their usefulness generally to agricultural man or military man, not
their peculiarities to the curious, modern man. Trying to force man’s
definitions of everything from beasts to sin on the Bible’s definitions is futile
and arrogant. When you argue allowing your opponent to control the definitions
of words you are surrendering all leverage to them. Finally, a whale is a large
creature that swims in the sea and therefore can be called a great fish,
because fish are creatures that swim in the sea. Compare Jonah 1:17 and Matthew
12:40. The order, Cetacea, for whales, is not a concern of the Bible. A whale
simply signifies a Leviathan, a large creature which, like all creatures, came
first from the sea and then from the earth. (Genesis 1:20-24) Human taxonomic
classifications are different language for a different purpose.
Don’t read your own definitions, preferences,
or opinions any more than your own personal fears, hatreds, or bigotry back
into the Bible.
(6) John S. Wilkins, “A List of 26 Species “Concepts”, Science Blogs: Evolving Thoughts, http://scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts/2006/10/01/a-list-of-26-species-concepts/ (accessed 1.14.2015).
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