December 19 / Revelation 5:1-6:17

Revelation 5:1-6:16

The end of today’s reading leaves us hanging – six of the seven seals have been broken; what of the seventh? We’ll have a one-chapter interlude until we get to that seventh seal. But at that point we’re only at the beginning of the end since there will still be seven trumpets (Rev. 8-11) and seven bowls of the wrath of God (Rev. 16), plus all the material in between and after!

When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood… (v. 12) As I read this verse I thought of Jesus’ crucifixion: And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised… (Matthew 27:50-52). See also verse 6:9 in today’s reading, “…the souls of those who had been slain…”.

The first book that I read after my born-again experience in 1975 was The Late, Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. In this 1970 book Lindsey interprets the book of Revelation and other end-times prophecies to give his understanding of the end times. Although the book describes Lindsey’s end-times theology, fundamentally it is more an evangelistic message to believers and non-believers to get right with God. This book turned my head and brought about an intense prayer on my part to have my life more fully changed. According to a 2017 article, “The Late Great Planet Earth was the best-selling nonfiction book of the 1970s: Ten million copies were in circulation by the end of the decade. It sold more than 28 million copies by 1990, an estimated 35 million by 1999, and was translated into more than 50 languages … an incredibly successful ‘crossover’ book—one of the first texts to bridge the divide between religious and secular audiences.” (https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2017/winter/feature/the-late-great-planet-earth-made-the-apocalypse-popular-concern) You might want to make this book your winter reading after we finish Revelation.