Spiritual Nuggets For

12-21-2008

106. In Rev. 7:9, we read:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

According to v. 14, that great multitude in heaven came out of the great tribulation period. If you happen to be of the last generation, John might have actually seen YOU in that crowd 1,900 years ago. Isn’t that an awesome thought?! Remember Rev. 12:11.

107. Every time you read of the Abyss (NIV) or the bottomless pit (KJV) it always refers to where demons or Satan will be held temporarily. No people are ever thrown into this place, with the possible exception of the antichrist:

And they [demons] begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. (Luke 8:31)

The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. (Rev 9:1,2)

They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon. (Rev 9:11)

Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. (Rev 11:7)

The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come. (Rev 17:8)

And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. (Rev 20:1)

He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time. (Rev 20:3)

108. There is some controversy over what are the demons, that is, are they fallen angels or something else? Rev. 9:14, 15 seems to shed some light on this:

It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind.

Much more clear is the following passage:

Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Mat 25:41)

109. Part of the reason Revelation can be a mystery is because God didn’t want John to write everything down that he saw:

And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down.” (Rev 10:4)

That was the exception to Rev. 1:11 where John was commanded the following:

Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.

There are exceptions, at times, in the Bible.

110. Can demons be the cause of plagues? Yes, according to the following:

A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. (Rev 9:18)

The context shows that was caused by demons.

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