Title: Final Gathering, Attack, and Collapse (Rev. 19-20)
Topic: Second Coming
Summary: Final Gathering, Attack, and Collapse (Rev. 19-20)
Use the reference links below to follow along in the Bible as you watch.
References:
Revelation 19; 20:1-14; 6:9
Hebrews 9:27
Exodus 15:6, 8-10
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Ezekiel 38:8-13, 20-23; 39:1, 4-7, 17-29
034 - Final Gathering, Attack, and Collapse (Rev. 19-20)
Door Jonathan S. Rose
Spirit and Life Bible Study broadcast from 3/30/2011. The complete series is available at: www.spiritandlifebiblestudy.com
Revelation 20:1-14
1
And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
2
And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
3
And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
4
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
5
But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
6
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
7
And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
8
And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
9
And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
10
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
11
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
12
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
13
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
14
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Apocalypse Revealed #238
238. Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. (4:6) This symbolizes a new heaven formed of Christians who possessed general truths taken from the literal sense of the Word.
Atmospheres are seen in the spiritual world, and also bodies of water, as in our world - ethereal atmospheres seemingly where angels of the highest heaven dwell, airy atmospheres seemingly where angels of the intermediate heaven dwell, and watery ones seemingly where angels of the lowest heaven dwell. These watery atmospheres, moreover, are seas that are seen at the borders of heaven, and the inhabitants there are people who possess general truths taken from the literal sense of the Word. To be shown that waters symbolize truths, see no. 50 above.
As the place where waters terminate and are collected, a sea therefore symbolizes Divine truth in its terminal expressions.
Accordingly, since the One sitting on the throne means the Lord (no. 230), and since the seven lamps which are the seven spirits of God before the throne mean a new church which will possess Divine truth from the Lord (no. 237), it is apparent that the sea of glass that was before the throne means the church with people who are at its peripheries.
[2] Seas at the borders of the heavens are something I have been granted to see, and it has been given me to speak with the inhabitants there and so to learn the truth of this matter through personal experience. The inhabitants appeared to me to be living in a sea, but they said that they did not live in a sea but in an atmosphere. It was apparent to me from this that a sea is an appearance of the Divine truth emanating from the Lord in its terminal expressions.
The existence of seas in the spiritual world is clearly apparent from the fact that they were often seen by John, as in the present instance, and in 5:13 verses; 7:1-3; 8:8-9; 10:2, 8; 13:1; 14:7; 15:2; 16:3; 18:17, 19, 21; 20:13.
The sea is called a sea of glass like crystal owing to the translucence of the Divine truth emanating from the Lord.
[3] Since Divine truth in its terminal expressions produces the appearance of a sea in the spiritual world, therefore a sea elsewhere in the Word has a similar symbolic meaning, as in the following passages:
On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, part of them to the eastern sea and part of them to the western sea. (Zechariah 14:8)
Living waters from Jerusalem are the church's Divine truths from the Lord. The sea is consequently where they terminate.
(Jehovah,) Your way was in the sea, and Your path in many waters. (Psalms 77:19)
Thus said Jehovah, who made a way in the sea, and a path through the many waters... (Isaiah 43:16)
(Jehovah) has founded (the world) on the seas, and established it on the rivers. (Psalms 24:2)
(Jehovah) set the earth on its foundations, so that it should not be moved to eternity. You covered it with the deep (or sea) as with a garment. (Psalms 104:5-6)
The earth was "founded on the sea" because the church, which is meant by the earth, is founded on general truths. For these are its footings and foundations.
[4] I will dry up (Babylon's) sea and make her spring dry... The sea will come up over Babylon; she will be covered with the multitude of its waves. (Jeremiah 51:36, 42)
To dry up Babylon's sea and make her spring dry means, symbolically, to extinguish all the church's truth from the firsts to the lasts of it.
They shall walk after Jehovah..., and His sons shall come with honor from the sea. (Hosea 11:10)
The sons from the sea are people who possess general truths or truths in their terminal expressions.
(Jehovah,) who builds His ascents in the heavens..., who calls the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth... (Amos 9:6)
By the word of Jehovah the heavens were made... He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap, putting the depths in storehouses. (Psalms 33:6-7)
...by My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness. (Isaiah 50:2)
And so likewise in other places.
[5] Since a sea symbolizes Divine truth with people who live on the borders of heaven, therefore Tyre and Sidon, which were on the seacoast, symbolized the church in respect to its learned concepts of goodness and truth. And therefore "the islands of the sea" 1 likewise symbolize people engaged in a relatively remote Divine worship (no. 34).
For the same reason, too, the word used for the sea in Hebrew is "the west," that is, the direction in which the sun's light turns into its evening state, or truth into haziness.
We will see in subsequent discussions that a sea also symbolizes the natural component of a person divorced from his spiritual one, thus also hell.
Voetnoten:
1. Also called "the isles of the sea" and "the coastlands of the sea." See Isaiah 11:11; 24:15
