Category Archives: Kingdom of God

My Top Ten List

I have not put out my top list in awhile, since I have read a few more books since last time! LOL That goes without saying! Ha.

So Here Goes-

  1. From Eternity to Here by Frank Viola
  2. Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright
  3. Love Wins by Rob Bell
  4. Paul and the Faithfulness of God by N.T. Wright
  5. Kingdom through Covenant by Peter J. Gentry/Stephen J Wellum
  6. Paul and Palestinian Judaism by E.P. Sanders
  7. The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle by Albert Schweitzer
  8. Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet/Frank Viola
  9. Galatians(Commentary) by N.T. Wright
  10. A Larger Hope? by Ilaria L E Ramelli

So, What do you think? Have you read any of these? What is your Top Ten Christian List?

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Kingdom

:a country,state, or territory ruled by a king or queen. 2. the spiritual reign or authority of God.

The above are the definitions of the said ‘Kingdom’. It can be either a physical area of various sizes to be ruled by a king or queen. Or it can be a ‘spiritual reign or the authority of God.

Do you ‘see’ the difference?

There are two main ones that we will discuss. The first one is the ‘location’ or the physicality of the ‘kingdom’. One is an kingdom on earth of a small or large land mass of an kingdom authority by one has the ability to rule over the area. It is one of a human king being self elected or by ruthlessly taking over land with subjects in them to rule over them. It will most deniable going to be in either case not a good king if he had to force his way into the position.

The other kingdom is of the Spiritual realm in which a deity is seen as the one of Kingly rights. In this case God is the one that is touting his reign of authority and supremacy over the whole earth. It is foreshadowed in the ‘God of the Creation’ that has built the Kingdom before time was time. This reign is not of this world, considering that it per-existed before time and creation, so it was of another matter. One of a ‘Spirit’.

Now for the second difference. The first one is a place where there has been conquered land, that has been won by an army of a king, and his announcement that as the king of this army and conquest of this land, He is the king of all of it. It is one of a seen land, a place of human form of the essence of a human’s accomplishment. The end of all things to accomplish, the height of all things to be or want. It is an organization of humanity to bring it together as one. But is it?

Spiritual reign, now this is different. This is from an outside source, not of his own ability, but of one of higher power or of a God, or both. God’s reign is of Him. Every piece of his fiber of God is what he stands for and is, is being represented in his Kingdom and His image of a King. It is what the Kingdom is also. Everything. Every part of the Kingdom oozes the Spirit of God in his Kingdom.

Now, when we use these illustrations of a ‘kingdom’ it almost seems like we want a ‘kingdom’ but we want to build it they way we want to in our image of a human kingdom? but why? Isn’t the ‘Kingdom God’s’, and did he not say that He will build it!, mainly he makes it in His own essence and Spiritual way, and not of the way of man and his ability to crudely make an ‘kingdom’ and everything that comes with it.

Man cannot rule by a Spiritual Authority, only God can.

God’s Kingdom, is designed for an ‘Eternal Purpose’.

Man’s Kingdom, is designed for ‘sinful humility’.

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Life after Death

I am sitting on my patio tonight, in a swing with my feet up, and just relaxing and enjoying the best day of ‘spring’ of the Colorado season. We have had some un-springlike weather thru this early spring, so our spring like duty of bringing in those bright and colorful flowers that you are obligated to put out from your friendly box store of flowers has not come yet.

The only thing that has so-called life in our yard are the Perennials of the shrubbery or the ‘wild’ flowers in our yard. Which if you think about it seems rather amazing that these flowers and shrubs could die and then come back to life, is nothing short of a miracle. I looked at these plants during our ‘winter’ and I am sure that they were dead, they had no life, they were not what they were designed to be or show in their fullest glory. They were dead.

So how did they ‘become’ alive again? What happened during that season of death? What was happening to make it ‘dead’? But happened under the soil that would spurn on the ingredients of bringing something back to life? Did it do something on its own? Did someone come along and do something to revive it? Or was it something bigger that happened that only He could only do to bring life back from the grave?

Oh Yeah, the Creator, the maker, the Gardener, The Man upstairs, My God, My Lord and Savior. All things are possible. God brings back life to the things that I see every year, all our trees lose their leaves in the fall, but they come back to life in the spring with bigger and better life of leaves.

Now I don’t know how those trees, flowers, shrubs, or wild things were in their age of sprouting or dying, whether they were trying to be what they were designed to do or not, but they came back to life, either way that they acted. God gave them life every spring for 25 yrs.

Life comes After death.

Always.

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“Your Kingdom come. Your will be done,On earth as it is in Heaven”

I wonder if maybe we have forgotten about this statement in the bible.

I think we have gotten all wrapped up in this ‘church’ thing that we have forgotten that God’s Kingdom is here now, and is coming to its fullness in the future.

I believe I know why Christ said what He said in His profound statement “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. Matt. 16:18

We have tried to move in on Him to do his work of his kingdom, When it is the King of the said Kingdom that builds the Kingdom. I have alot of issues with people in discussing this with the understanding of what this means.

A Proclamation, an announcement, a invitation, a phone call, an email, a letter, are ways that exactly the same as what the ‘Gospel’ is. It is a notice that something is new, different, or worth shouting about. The Gospel is proclaiming that God is King! God has stepped into his creation, in the middle of time, of man and his ways to say that “His Kingdom is starting”, it is building to a crescendo to make it full of Him.

We have missed out on what the scriptures are and were telling us as we read it the first time. I have told multiple people that I converse with that the bible is a narrative, a story that God is telling about his creation and his image in that creation. Read the scriptures from front to back, take your time and ‘eat it'(this is what is called eating ‘Christ’) chewing each thing 6 times(lol), it is a narrative, a story, to be told in this specific way so that we will know the character and mind of God and his purpose, his eternal purpose.

The story is NOT about a building(church) that we need to worry about, it is the mind and heart of all his images(his people) to be in Him and Him to be in Us. We are to be one. We are to be an Image of God.

God’s kingdom was in the first few pages in the bible. It is characterized in a more plain and bare example of what it was, but it was an illustration of what it is. We revolted. We wanted our own version of a kingdom. Let’s look back at history and see how that has worked out?! lol

God again gives his special images of God, Israel, as another example of ‘the Kingdom’ in the first of what we always think of a kingdom in our minds and our drawings. It is this that we need to keep in mind when we now continue reading the scriptures of the narrative for us to get the right picture. God is faithful. Yes, He is, He has created a ‘New Covenant'(Kingdom of God), and He is going to have it. He will build it, He will build with his son helping him. Jesus, Christ and Savior will be the catalyst for the dawn of the Kingdom.

Matt 6:10 “Your Kingdom Come, Your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven”. This verse I could use as a major screw up in christian theology in it’s usage over the last 400 yrs. “Where did we see in this verse that we were going “To Heaven” at any time? This thought process has been used for the evangelical’s in their message with out any understanding of it!! I don’t understand it!!

But now that we know that the “Kingdom has started, and has started here on earth, and it will continue into it’s fruition. We can finally ‘see’ and ‘hear’ what the “Gospel” is and enjoy God’s Kingdom to its fullest!!

Praise God, Hallelujah, and Amen.

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God’s Word continues to give and give and…….

I have had a few instances in the last few months with fellow christians that feel that they can stand pat in the knowledge of God’s word. This scares me, I mean really scares me!

God’s word is like the ‘Energizer Bunny’, it continues to give and give to use to further the knowledge and wisdom of God.

It seems that once someone feels comfortable in their skin of righteousness they believe they have it ‘all’, and need no more insight from God and his words that they refuse any brotherly discussion of any or all said discussions being fruitful, which is very sad.

Iron sharpens Iron.

What I think is very hypocritical of this is that they stand on their premise of going to a church to be with their fellow ‘christians’ to fellowship with them in the weekly bible study. Now the bible studies(real bible theology discussions) that I have always been in, are nothing short of differing opinions of positions of their beliefs. It would (in my circumstance, that we had a vary degree of people from different backgrounds of religion) we were always cordial in our discussion but we were always talking things out so that we all knew where we were coming from.

I would surely say that true biblical studies should be in this context of ‘What do the scriptures really say to God’s people’? This has gone on for a few thousand years and it will continue to do so until God has us as ‘One Sound Mind, One Sound Heart’!!

This totally messes with my mind, in that for the first point, ‘Did you not start with an ‘Theology’ that you believed in already and now you completely changed it in a matter of seconds? Or you deny the furtherance of learning new things in and about the scriptures that could have one or multiple ‘aha’ moments in your thinking?

One thing I have noticed in some ‘christian’ searching for their theology, is that they went about it in a bad way of weighing their research for it. It seems that the way that some people ‘learn’ or ‘research’ their religion, is to just go to that ‘church’ and have them tell you what their religion is all about, ins and outs, and here is the pen to sign on the dotted line! What? It is like going to auto dealer, say a ford dealer, He is going to try and sell you a ford car, since you are looking for a car. He is going to tell all the good things of the ford, but not the bad things, or tell you that other car dealers,chevy,buick, toyota,jeep,etc are good too. This is like pulling sheep over your eyes?!

For the second point, it seems that from other people that they see that maybe your decision making of the biblical resources have been limited with testimonial sharing with people that says that you could be suspect to wrong informed decisions. Our journey with God does not stop. period. In fact in doesn’t stop for anyone or anytime until God has decided to bring back the New Kingdom to his Creation..

I see a problem with some christianity sects that seem to be very inclusive, in that it is ‘their way or No Way’ thinking. This seems to be a stumbling block for Christians and Christianity if this is to be continued. God will tell us what is ‘The Way’ and When. I have not seen it or heard it,yet. I feel that it is working itself out in christianity as we speak.

This also is ironic in its subject matter that I see and hear this in the U.S. , America has got all the answers about religion and Christianity! Not! The failure of these sects that feel that they are in the know of the ‘right’ way, have no understanding that there is a whole world out there that probably can and will disagree with them. It is that famous saying that needs to hit the box of the church to “Believe outside of the BOX”

The world is what God is saving, I know, I know, The United States really needs saving the most right now, but that’s not what the bible tells us. It is the world that he is worried about. It will be what the whole world ‘needs’ to hear and believe in to ‘see’ and ‘know’ Him! It will be a Universal Language.

If we cannot talk or meet with our fellow believers, how are we going to talk or meet with the unbelievers?



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John- The New Kingdom

I have always thought that the Gospel of John was the ‘Crescendo’ of the story of the Bible. But to really know what it is really saying is key to knowing what the beginning of the bible is telling us. All aspects of the bible are important.

I believe that for us to understand the Gospel of John, we have to read and understand what Genesis,Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy tell us in the first hints of God’s story. It is crucial that we do this. Each one of these books tells us an very important segment of the storyline, each one a different part, not one more important than the other, but important. They are historical, but they also lay the groundwork or foundation to the Gospel of John in the realization the the story is much bigger and is from a different world. The books of the bible do this in various themes that it incites us to look deeper into God’s eyes and soul to know.

Let me point out something right here at this point, That God is so amazing at his logical and illogical things that he brings us to in our world, even tho it makes us stop and ponder and think and be in the mind of our creator. One mind, One Spirit. Even the most studious bible reader may not catch why John’s gospel is in the order that it is, it is there for a reason.

John’s gospel, is the final frontier of God’s Heaven Trek. It is what comes to fruition when all things have been put back to rights. (this is statement that one of my authors says that puts it exactly the way it needs to be said) God has created a storyline that has wonderful beginning that takes a fork in the road, then he plans for that storyline to comeback to the original road to put things back to rights!

God created a Kingdom in the beginning. It was called the Garden of Eden, it was the realm where God(King),Garden of Eden(the land), and his people (christians) are to reign together forever. It was Heaven on earth! Let’s stop again, to define something that has historically been misidentified as to what it was,Heaven.

If we realize that all of us, now and past,and future people that are born will be citizens of the earth. It is just obvious where we have our citizenship. We also have a citizenship that is subletted even more by the country, or state, or providence that we live in. Our world is one of our making by who we are and by how we see fit to rule ourselves as a society. We have a plethora of ways to do this all around the world.

But it is different when we talk about the Creator who created everything we see, everything we participate in, everything that we have, and everyone around us. God created everything for ………..MAN! Not man for the world, as everyone seems to think. Now think of the directionality of the phrases of this statement. God created everything for Man. God created the Kingdom(earth) for man! Everything! including himself, God talked to adam and eve in the Garden of Eden, He walked with them daily with their Creator! How cool was that! A God actually having a connecting with his creation.

This is a stark contrast later in the story of the roman and greek stories being far off from their ‘so called’ creations that they never saw them or talked to them, they had to make themselves the replica’s of them as a idol in their ‘temples’ to worship. Now how is god a god if you are to make a ‘image’ of them with your own hands?

God made his own image of himself. US! WOW!!!! We are HIS Image!! Guess what, He made us as an image of Him, in His own Temple! The Earth!! WOW, how neat is that! God wants to be with His creation again!

Can you see it Now? Look back at the beginning of Genesis 1-2 chapters to see the creation of the world, Now look at what John’s Gospel is saying and foreshadowing of things to come. IT IS THE SAME!!

It is the exact same picture that God made in the beginning that he is restoring back to rights!!

This is the Storyline of the scriptures that God has made and restored to Him the ‘Eternal Purpose’!!!

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Christianity, what is it saying?

Don’t know about you, but I think they are saying the wrong thing.

Studying the New Testament, from Matthew to Revelation, it seems to be pushing this thing called “Kingdom of God”. What I don’t hear from chrisitanity is “Kingdom of God”, but I seem to be hearing week after week, we need to go out and bring the sheep in out of the cold, and let us take care of them.

Although, that last statement might sound right to us(only because we have heard it from the pulpit),but the storyline we must hear is that we are now in the “Kingdom of God” with God and his people molded into one, God in us,us in Him. This is the story of the “Restoration of God’s World” that is told in the New Covenant.

We for to long have taken this storyline upon ourselves to take it further in our own humanistic ways. Which totally is not what God has said in scripture. What we done, I believe, in Christianity, and Catholicism have seen the literalization of God’s word’s to Peter ” I will build MY Church upon you”. We have taken this as our War cry to use for us to take it further on ourselves to champion the call to do this on our own, No God needed! God’s exclamation with Peter was a call on humanity was one of this is the first stone(Peter realized that Jesus was the Messiah,first to acknowledge this,even from the disciples)He would be put next to the cornerstone(Himself) to start the ‘building’ of His Body(Ekklesia). This is the ‘Picture’ that was to be ‘seen’ by the disciples and to the world.

Jesus presence in the human world was first an ‘on hands experience’ to be with his fellow humans(He was 100% man, and 100% God) He was showing man that His God side was being shown too, in his healing people, out of this world wisdom,His power, His New talk of the things to come, in his people to be ‘New’ in his Creation of the World.

This was a foretaste of the ‘New World’ of God’s Kingdom. God was inviting all to come and join him for this new experience.

If this is not what you are hearing from christianity, then we must correct our insight to ‘see’ that God is calling us to his Kingdom. It is now but not yet.

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” John 18:36

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Perspective, it always helps.

I have said before in alot of my blogs, that we have to get back to the basics. Get back to context. But also we must get back to perspective in the minds of people, especially the ones in the early times of the Jews, and the old testament.

To many times we screw up in our process of thinking things thru of an argument or facts. One must always remember to ‘see’ the understanding of the people, era, social, events of time to have the right perspective.

Hear is such one, for you to just keep in your mind as you read scriptures in the bible to help you ‘see’ things clearly in their mind set into what they were using as a base of their logic. Keep this handy to go back and clarify something you have issues with. Do not use an illustration from any other time frame for biblical study. What ever you do, don’t use something from ‘today’s’ picture of the World.

The Earth as seen by first Christians

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Opposites?

I stumbled on to something today, while studying something else.

It is always like that with me, I will be researching some theme, word, or story in the scriptures and I ‘see’ something else that relates to some other story or theme. All tho it gets me sidetrack from my original studies, I welcome an ‘AHA’ moment anytime!

Everyone knows what it means by using ‘opposites’ in a conversation, right? When you tell some one directions to a restaurant either to turn right or left at the corner of 2nd street, or you tell them that the earth is round, and they say it is flat, or that things are either black or white. It is an ‘either or’ kind of thing.

Now, sometimes we might go just by our ‘assuming’ of what is read by the first condition of a supposedly either or statement, because we are used to it.

I think we may have done this with actually a statement in the bible, and used it throughout the bible as a definite presupposition. It comes in Genesis 2: 9 Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Let’s look at this, starting with the second part of the verse, The tree of Life is in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil is too. Did you see any opposite statements in that narrative? Neither did I.

In fact, there wasn’t anything that looked close to it. It was like it said “life and Knowledge” as the basic message of it. We have to start with the first statement of that there was “a Tree of Life, for this to be an “opposite’ scenario the last condition of the statement had to say “a Tree of Death”. But it doesn’t.

This is actually an avenue of ‘self acknowledgment ‘or ‘self identity’. This avenue, which if we break it down is one of the precursors of what we of society have called the period of time as “The Enlightenment” period where we have gone outside the realm of God and chose a realm of our own. This could be first ‘sign’ of the ‘individualistic narrative that was introduced into the gospel, altho it has always pointed to the ‘NT’ period for that. We can use this ‘use of knowledge of good and evil’ as a spiraling to the opposite of good, especially with a dose of ‘evil’. Nothing good usually comes with playing with evil, pun intended.

Let’s start with the obvious, (This here is exactly what I talk about is the issue of ‘the lack of biblical knowledge’ of the christians) I have used in my studies the ‘opposite’ method of some of my thinking. If we have been ‘offered’ a ‘Tree of good and evil’ for your use, then that would mean you didn’t have it to begin with, right. So God is giving you the ability to have it to use. I don’t know if we would understand the ‘concept of good and evil’ but for the sake of the argument let’s say we do. Satan says later, “that we are the same as God if have this knowledge of good and evil.” Digging deep into God’s world can and should lead us to the inner Spirit of His intentions. But in basic language, we have chosen to go on our own.

Now I know what you are going to say. That by knowing the things that have been said in the scriptures that ‘Our not choosing the Tree of Life’, automatically means “Death”. We have to take this argument just one more step deeper to find the ‘Truth’. Sometimes we can find the ‘Truth’ by what it doesn’t say. Yup.

Wouldn’t God if He was to give an ‘ultimatum'(this is what it is), He would of just said, “Do you want to pick an ‘apple from the tree of Life or the apple from the Tree of Death? If you want to go deeper still, if this would of been the question, I am thinking two things, one if I had chosen ‘Tree of Death’, wouldn’t I have been stricken dead instantly! Two, Who in their right mind would of not chose ‘Life’. (assuming we knew what life and death actually meant, yes this comes into play).

The Narrative of the story continues, which just all by itself, should tell us something. Did you ‘hear’ it? Did you ‘see’ it?

This scenario of the second tree, the ‘Tree of good and evil’ is an open ended scenario. There is that road that will get us back to the “Tree of Life”. Road back. Now, if you realize that it wasn’t you or me that built that road, It was already there. Then we must realize that the God of Creation built it.

Now, I don’t know if that road was yellow(OZ) or not, but I somehow think it might be stained with the color of ‘Red’.

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Kingdom of God-What is it?

We are going to delve into the Kingdom of God. All the questions that surround it and what it all means after we know them.

Jesus’s Ministry on earth was one of multiple facets. Jesus was on a mission. Mission from God.It was a one of ‘identity’,one of ‘reason’, and one of ‘salvation’. It was a Mission of intrigue.

We are going to concentrate on the end result or the ‘reason’ for all the mission.

The Kingdom of God is describe to us in Revelation’s 21st and 22 chapter. For a foundation on what we are dealing with I feel that we must all be on the same page. So here is the two chapters to read, we will continue with this in the next blog.

The New Heaven and Earth

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

5 And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” 6 Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. 7 He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. 8 But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

The New Jerusalem

10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. 12 It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15 The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall. 16 The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal. 17 And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements.18 The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; 20 the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

22 I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; 26 and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; 27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

The River and the Tree of Life

1 Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; 4 they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 5 And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.

6 And he said to me, “These words are faithful and true”; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place.

7 “And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.”

8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. 9 But he *said to me, “Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God.”

The Final Message

10 And he *said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. 11 Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.”

12 “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.

16 “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.

18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.

20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

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