Chapter 1

A revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him so that he could tell his servants (All faithful believers are included as "servants" , but especially the Roman Catholic Priesthood, whose vows most closely imitate the spoken and unspoken commands of Christ by His Word and the way He lived His life on earth.) what is now to take place *[Deuteronomy 2:28] very soon; he sent his angel to make it known to his servant John, and John has borne witness to the Word of God and to the witness of Jesus Christ, everything that he saw. Blessed is anyone who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed those who hear them, if they treasure the content, because the Time is near (The end of each of our individual "times" within The Creation Program draws nearer, as does the end of all time.  Those who read and treasure the contents of this Book are blessed.  We should do both.).

letters to the churches of asia
address and greeting
*[The quotations point to the glorious Messiah:
Ps 89:37, 27; Is 55:4; Ex 19:6; Dn 7:13; Zc 12:10,44]

John, to the seven churches of Asia: grace and peace ("Grace" precedes "peace", so we may assume that both are important, but grace is the more important quality.) to you from him who is, who was, and who is to come, from the seven spirits (These may be considered as the spiritual personifications of the opposites of the Seven Deadly Sins, those opposites being Humility, Patience, Kindness, Diligence, Kindness, Abstinence, and Chastity.)who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the First-born from the dead, the highest of earthly kings. He loves us and has washed away our sins with his blood, and made us a Kingdom of Priests (The Roman Catholic Priesthood leads His "Kingdom of Priests".  They are the only Kingdom on earth with the grace to duplicate the angels of the Heavenly Kingdom by taking vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.  Members of other denominations may tend toward other interpretations.) to serve his God and Father; to him, then, be glory and power (As grace precedes peace, so does glory precede power.) for ever and ever. Amen. Look, he is coming on the clouds; everyone will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the races of the earth will mourn over him. Indeed this shall be so. Amen. 'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.

I, John, your brother and partner in hardships, in the kingdom and in perseverance in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos on account of the Word of God and of witness to Jesus (he was exiled for refusing to renounce his faith); it was the Lord's Day and I was in ecstasy (my spirit was close to God), and I heard a loud voice behind me, like the sound of a trumpet, saying, 'Write down in a book all that you see, and send it to the seven churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. I turned round to see who was speaking to me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lamp-stands and, in the middle of them, one like a Son of man, *[Allusions to Dn 7 and 10 and Ezk 43:2] (Many commentators persist in calling parts of John's vision "allusions to" or "similar to", or "inspired by" Old Testament passages as those in the immedialy preceding brackets.  Such descriptions are not fully true.  In actual fact, John went to the same place and saw much the same things as Ezekiel, Daniel, etc.) dressed in a long robe tied at the waist with a belt of gold. His head and his hair were white with the whiteness of wool, like snow (His head and hair are not simply reflecting light, but are light.), his eyes like a burning flame, (Unlike our eyes, that receive light and send it down our optic nerve and into our minds, His eyes send out light, and with that light, He can see directly into whatever He wishes.  He, Who is Light, illuminates what He sees so that He sees perfectly.  He sees with the light, itself, not as it is reflected.  This key difference between His power and humans' gives us an insight as to how great a sacrifice He made of Himself because of His love for us.) His feet like burnished bronze when it has been refined in a furnace (Far superior to the feet of clay on which even the mightiest human stands, bronze (made of copper and tin, often imbued with slight traces of lead and aluminum) is remarkably resistant to cracking, and the burnished finish, both in St. John's time and for today's metallurgists, describes how bronze can be polished so that it is free of even microscopic cracks that can grow and cause collapse.  Well-made, well-polished bronze is often used for huge bearings, especially for heavy, fast-moving shafts and spindles in the largest, fastest, most powerful machinery. Such bronze bearings may even be impregnated with lubricants, making them strongest bearing surfaces on earth with the least friction.  His feet do not wear away but can even walk through the pits of Hell without taking any of it with Him, without being contaminated by the filth within, without being slowed by sin.  There were no other metals known to the ancients with these qualities, and even the author, without Divine inspiration, could not have known how perfectly bronze fit into his vision for all time.) , and his voice like the sound of the ocean (The sound of the ocean within earshot of someone hearing the pounding surf or lapping waves is only a tiny manifestation of His power that silently moves millions of trillions of tons of water in ocean currents around the globe.  From this short phrase, we see that His voice is only a glimmering of His power.  If God were conducting an orchestra the size of the solar system, we could only hear an occasional piccolo.) In his right hand he was holding seven stars, out of his mouth came a sharp sword, double-edged, (We humans speak, and our words must go through the listeners' ears.  His words slice straight through the mind and into the soul.  More on the "sword" in Chapter 2.) and his face was like the sun shining with all its force (Again, He is Light). When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead (Obviously, seeing God in The Face is utterly, completely overwhelming, His radience short-circuits our nervous system, completely overloading it.) , but he laid his right hand on me and said, 'Do not be afraid; it is I, the First and the Last; I am the Living One I was dead and look-I am alive for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and of Hades (I am able to save whom I choose.). Now write down all that you see of present happenings and what is still to come (This is one of Scripture's most intriguing passages.  The "present" is the total of the past.  His Program goes back, beyond the beginning of time, and He is One.  In the next two chapters, "present" may mean the condition of the Seven Churches whose descriptions follow.  Then, a broader future.  If precedence is meaningful, the condition of His Church, protecting the souls of His flock, is more important than other concerns.). *[ Dn 2:28] 20The secret of the seven stars you have seen in my right hand, and of the seven golden lamp-stands, is this: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lamp-stands are the seven churches themselves.

Chapter 2

1 Ephesus

'Write to the angel of the church in Ephesus and say, "Here is the message of the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who lives among the seven golden lamp-stands. (The lamp stands provide a permanent place close to God, allowing Him to continually monitor their individual and collective output of spiritual light the way we could see if a bulb was flickering or dimming.) I know your activities, your hard work and your perseverance. I know you cannot stand wicked people, and how you put to the test those who were self-styled apostles, and found them false (to My doctrine). I know too that you have perseverance, and have suffered for my name without growing tired. Nevertheless, I have this complaint to make: you have less love now than formerly. Think where you were before you fell; repent, and behave as you did at first, or else, if you will not repent, I shall come to you and take your lamp-stand from its place (If you have too little love, to Catholic Fundamentalists, the result is being "erased", "deleted", or "left in the dark".). It is in your favour, nevertheless, that you loathe as I do the way the Nicolaitans are behaving (Then, and in all time, loathers of those who ignore and/or pervert the Word of God for their own interests gain favor in His sight.). Let anyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches: those who prove victorious (Each of us must fight and win our battles with temptation.) I will feed from the tree of life set in God's paradise." [Genesis 2:9]  (Love is one of the seven spirits without which obedience to The Programmer is impossible.)

2 Smyrna

'Write to the angel of the church in Smyrna and say, "Here is the message of the First and the Last, who was dead and has come to life again: I know your hardships and your poverty, and-though you are rich-the slander of the people who falsely claim to be Jews but are really members of the synagogue of Satan (Those who help Satan keep souls from God are more than working for evil, but worshipping it, usually in the form of some idol or another.  Each idol is an embodied temptation to sin or sins.). Do not be afraid of the sufferings (have courage) that are coming to you. Look, the devil will send some of you to prison to put you to the test (of having enough courage, faith, and obedience), and you must face hardship for ten days. *[Dn 1:12] Even if you have to die, keep faithful (have courage even unto death) , and I will give you the crown of life for your prize. Let anyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches: for those who prove victorious will come to no harm from the second death. (Obeying His Operating Instructions rather than being corrupted by viruses is vital.  We may infer that one of the Seven Spirits is Obedience, helped by Wisdom and Courage.  The second death comes at the judgment of the soul to those not sufficiently faithful.)

3 Pergamum

'Write to the angel of the church in Pergamum and say, "Here is the message of the one who has the sharp sword, double-edged (Obviously, His two-edged sword, probably "words" in this case, cuts both ways.  So, what does "both" mean?  On the spiritual level, it cuts so finely it can separate the soul from the spirit.  Among human beings, it divides good from evil, truth from lies, everlasting life from everlasting death, sheep from goats.). I know where you live, in the place where Satan is enthroned (It is reported that there was a temple to Caesar, symbolizing Babylon, the worshipped state, in Pergamum.), and that you still hold firmly to my name, and did not disown your faith in me even when my faithful witness, Antipas, was killed among you, where Satan lives. "Nevertheless, I have one or two charges against you: some of you are followers of Balaam, who taught Balak to set a trap for the Israelites so that they committed adultery by eating food that had been sacrificed to idols (some of you are teaching others to put the things of the world ahead of Me); and among you too there are some also who follow the teaching of the Nicolaitans (The Nicolaitans are different from those who encouraged partaking of false idols.  They embraced their own extreme forms of purity-that-wasn't, and changed the Apostles' teaching to reflect their own unbalanced thoughts and desires.  These earliest of Puritans are still often condemned by later commentators, who may, themselves, be following the example of Balaam, referred to earlier in the sentence.  It is hard for some to imagine some Anglican rites, that take place in churches that glority whomever happens to be sitting on Throne of England rather than Peter's Successor, as being anything but "food, sacrificed to idols".  Catholic Fundamentalists expand on that today, believing that taking illicit money from taxing authorities to do something fraudulent, is also "unclean".). So repent (renounce idols/viruses, and go back to obeying The Operating Instructions), or I shall soon come to you and attack these people with the sword out of my mouth (cutting them away from the saved). Let anyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches (He is telling us to be strong in our love and obedience): to those who prove victorious I will give some hidden manna (invisible sustenance) and a white stone (This may be a type of "the stone that the builders rejected", which they rejected because it was too pure, too good, and made all other stones, meaning, as well, they, the builders themselves, "He can make Children of Abraham out of those stones", look bad in comparison.  Those given it were able to truly become one with Him.  Masons build in ordinary stone.), with a new name written on it (the name of the true believer, admitting him to Heaven?), known only to the person who receives it. (This is a profound mystery.  How could the name be known only to the person who receives it, and not be known to the same God who presumably provided it?  It may help us understand more fully the meaning of, "I will put your sins as far from you as the East is from the West.")

4 Thyatira

'Write to the angel of the church in Thyatira and say, "Here is the message of the Son of God who has eyes like a burning flame (that see all) and feet like burnished bronze (that let me go and stand wherever I wish): I know your activities, your love, your faith, your service and your perseverance, and I know how you are still making progress. Nevertheless, I have a complaint to make: you tolerate the woman Jezebel *[cf. 2 K 9:22] who claims to be a prophetess, and by her teaching she is luring my servants away to commit the adultery of eating food which has been sacrificed to idols (Jezebel, like Eve, tempted Adam to eat what they were ordered not to eat.  Some wonder if a modern version of "food sacrificed to idols" is money from crooked government programs designed to help only those seeking power by buying support.). I have given her time to repent but she is not willing to repent of her adulterous life (She is so taken with her idols that she cannot abandon them, even for God.). Look, I am consigning her to a bed of pain, and all her partners in adultery to great hardship (The "bed of pain" also describes what happened to Eve and her daughters in childbirth.), unless they repent of their practices (Adam and Eve were immediately sent from the Garden without an opportunity to repent and remain close to the God who made them.  This exemplifies how profoundly different the New Operating Instructions are.); and I will see that her children die (Cain, on the other hand, was protected in a neat twist on the Old Programming Log's protection of him.), so that all the churches realize that it is I who test motives and thoughts and repay you as your deeds (our reward is not based on motives and words, but deeds) deserve. *[Jr 11:20 17:10] But on the rest of you in Thyatira, all of you who have not accepted this teaching or learnt the deep secrets of Satan (avoided sin and the near occasion of sin), as they are called, I am not laying any other burden; but hold on firmly to what you already have until I come. To anyone who proves victorious, and keeps working for me until the end ("Working for Me (Him) until the end" is what gives us victory.) , I will give the authority over the nations (In this world and/or in the world to come.) which I myself have been given by my Father, to rule them with an iron sceptre and shatter them like so many pots. *[Psalms 2:8] And I will give such a person the Morning Star (Venus shines with reflected light from the sun, the saved soul shines with the reflected and absorbed light of God). Let anyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. (Those living, human programs who encourage anyone to disobey any of My Operating Instructions will be erased.)

Chapter 3

5 Sardis

'Write to the angel of the church in Sardis and say, "Here is the message of the one who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: I know about your behaviour: how you are reputed to be alive and yet are dead (To love?  To obedience?). Wake up (your mind and spirit are asleep, and sleep is closer to death than being awake); put some resolve into what little vigour you have left: it is dying fast. So far I have failed to notice anything in your behaviour that my God (Who raised Me from the dead) could possibly call perfect; remember how you first heard the message. Hold on to that. Repent! (Reprogram yourself and act in accord with operating instructions!) If you do not wake up, I shall come to you like a thief, and you will have no idea at what hour I shall come upon you. There are a few in Sardis, it is true, who have kept their robes unstained (in this case, stayed awake and alert), and they are fit to come with me, dressed in white (Are each dressed within their white stone?). Anyone who proves victorious (Again, we have to actually win our own battles against temptation.) will be dressed, like these, in white robes (Are the white robes woven of light, itself?); I (no one else) shall not blot that name out of the book of life, but acknowledge it in the presence of my Father and his angels. Let anyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches." (Be enthusiastic in your obedience.  Hope and pray to be numbered among those whom He will acknowledge before His, and our, Father.)

6 Philadelphia

'Write to the angel of the church in Philadelphia (brotherly love) and say, "Here is the message of the holy and true one who has the key of David, so that when he opens, no one will close, and when he closes, no one will open: *[Is 22:22] I know about your activities. Look, I have opened in front of you a door that no one will be able to close-and I know that though you are not very strong, you have kept my commandments and not disowned my name. Look, I am going to make the synagogue of Satan-those who falsely claim to be Jews, but are liars, because they are no such thing-I will make them come and fall at your feet and recognize that I have loved you  (Will this happen on earth, or in Heaven, or both?). *[Is 43:3] Because you have kept my commandment to persevere, I will keep you safe in the time of trial which is coming for the whole world (Does it come for every generation, and for every person within every generation?  C.F.'s remember to separate the first syllable of "generation" from the second two.), to put the people of the world to the test. I am coming soon: hold firmly to what you already have, and let no one take your victor's crown away from you (A reminder to always be very, very careful.  Even those who have been given the crown, may still lose it by giving in to temptation.  A heresy, "Once saved, always saved." arose, partly to excuse sin by negating this teaching). Anyone who proves victorious I will make into a pillar in the sanctuary of my God (This may relate to the previously discussed nature of the robes, both flexible, perfectly fitting, flowing, and strong enough to help God hold up the Heavenly structure in this world and the next.), and it will stay there for ever ("Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Word shall not pass."  Are those who are saved also heard as a tiny nano-syllable in the Word of God with Whom the saved are joined?); I will inscribe on it the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which is coming down from my God in heaven, and my own new name as well. Let anyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches." (Obey to the end and receive great reward.)

7 Laodicea

'Write to the angel of the church in Laodicea and say, "Here is the message of the Amen (So be it.) the trustworthy, the true witness, the Principle of God's creation: I know about your activities: how you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one or the other, but since you are neither hot nor cold, but only lukewarm (Just trying to do the bare minimum to get by, a little like the man who buried his talents in the ground.), I will spit you out of my mouth (Just like the man who buried his talents.). You say to yourself: I am rich, I have made a fortune and have everything I want, never realising that you are wretchedly and pitiably poor (Some are rejected because they do not see that The Divine Program runs forever, and believe themselves wealthy for having accumulated a great many programmed entities, giving little thought as to how their souls might be able to carry those things into the Endless Program that awaits.), and blind (to the consequences of materialism) and naked (utterly defenseless against His judgment) too. I warn you, buy from me the gold that has been tested in the fire (Gold tested in human fire has had its impurities removed.  C.F.s think that gold tested in His fire has the actual metal, itself, burned away, and only the very essence of gold, which is that portion of the source code with which He programmed it with His Divine Program, remains.).to make you truly rich, and white robes to clothe you and hide your shameful nakedness, and ointment to put on your eyes to enable you to see (We are truly rich, protected, and able to see when we are uploaded, cleansed of all impurities, into Him.). I reprove and train (erase errors from and re-program) those whom I love: *[Pr 3:12] so repent in real earnest. (Be sorry enough to actually change your thoughts, words, and deeds.) Look, I am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to share a meal at that person's side. Anyone who proves victorious (Once again, only those able to follow the Operating Instructions and win against temptation) I will allow to share my throne, just as I have myself overcome and have taken my seat with my Father on his throne. Let anyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches."' (Be enthusiastic about your faith.  It is a great gift!  Be thankful for it!  Operate according to the Divine Program.)

Chapter 4

the prophetic visions
the prelude to the great day of God

God entrusts the future of the world to the Lamb
*[Ezk 1;10 and Is 6]

Then, in my vision, I saw a door open in heaven (I was given access to The Programmer's Headquarters) and heard the same voice speaking to me, the voice like a trumpet, saying, 'Come up here: I will show you what is to take place in the future.' (I was going to be shown future downloads.) With that, I fell into ecstasy (A state where one sees so deeply into the Kingdom of God that one knows the joy of Heaven.) and I saw a throne standing in heaven, and the One who was sitting on the throne, and the One sitting there looked like a diamond and a ruby. There was a rainbow encircling the throne, and this looked like an emerald. (The Diamond, Ruby, and the encircling Emerald Rainbow seem to describe The Holy Trinity, Itself, when It sits in State.) Round the throne in a circle were twenty-four thrones, and on them twenty-four (One standing watch for every hour of the day?) elders sitting, dressed in white robes with golden crowns on their heads. Flashes of lightning were coming from the throne, and the sound of peals of thunder, and in front of the throne there were seven flaming lamps burning, the seven Spirits of God. In front of the throne was a sea as transparent as crystal. (Catholic Fundamentalists see this glassy sea as "The Disc of Heaven", on which every single bit of information The Programmer needs is recorded) In the middle of the throne and around it, were four living creatures all studded with eyes, in front and behind. (These most important angelic Senior Programmers are able to access information from and download information to The Disc as well as analyze it internally.) The first living creature was like a lion, the second like a bull, the third living creature had a human face, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was studded with eyes all the way round as well as inside (For seeing things without and analyzing what is seen within each of the creatures) ; and day and night they never stopped singing: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty; who was, and is and is to come.' (They continually modified The Operating System according to The Unprogrammed Programmer's wishes.) Every time the living creatures glorified and honoured and gave thanks to the One sitting on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders prostrated themselves before him to worship the One who lives for ever and ever, and threw down their crowns in front of the throne, saying: You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you made the whole universe; by your will, when it did not exist, it was created. (C.F.s sometimes prefer the word "Programmed" to "Created" , since The Programmer of Programmers has the ability to program whole systems of particles and/or spirits into being as quickly as He desires with the characteristics He wants.")

Chapter 5

I saw that in the right hand of the One sitting on the throne there was a scroll (Zechariah, 5; 3 describes a scroll that was, when opened, fifteen by twenty feet.  One must wonder if this is the same scroll, rolled up.) that was written on back and front (Either John was given the ability to see through the scroll on which The New Download was written, or the scroll was transparent, with opaque writing, or his mind was given enough ability to access that information directly.) and was sealed with seven seals (indicating the number of programs to be opened). Then I saw a powerful angel, (As opposed to less powerful.) who called with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll (access The New Download) and break its seals (open/download the seven Programs within it)' But there was no one, in heaven or on the earth or under the earth, who was able (authorized) to open (access) the New Download and read (publish) it. I wept bitterly because nobody could be found to open (access) the scroll and read (download/publish) it, but one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep. Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root *[Gn 49:9; Is 11:10] of David, has triumphed, and so He will open (access) the scroll and its seven seals.' Then I saw, in the middle of the throne (He is One with The Father, here, emerging as The Lamb, Second person of The Trinity.  Coming from the "middle" of the throne, He must be sometimes literally One with The Father.) with its four living creatures and the circle of the elders, a Lamb standing that seemed to have been sacrificed; it had seven horns, and it had seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits that God has sent out over the whole world (In Chapter 1, we considered that Christ saw with actual light radiating from Him, not with reflected light as we are able to see.  This corroborates that interpretation, with the implication that He also sees through spirits). *[Zc 4:10] The Lamb came forward to take the scroll from the right hand of the One sitting on the throne (In the process, transforming Himself from Lamb of God to Son of God?), and when he took it, the four living creatures prostrated themselves before Him and with them the twenty-four elders; each one of them was holding a harp and had a golden bowl full of incense which are the prayers of the saints (This is one of the most important passages in all of Scripture.  In it, we see that our prayers take real form in Heaven.  Seriously considering this one, short phrase should inspire all sane people to spend more time in prayer, depositing the prayers and pleas coming from us directly into the Golden Bowls that are held in the hands of those Elders whose sanctity has elevated them into the Very Presence of God. Here we see all the proof we should need that in Heaven, the prayers of the saints take actual forms that are visible to God, His Four Creatures, His Elders, Saints, and Angels in Heaven.  One can almost see that praying is like depositing money in a bank that cannot fail.  One wonders if, and hopes that, this accumulation of prayers with a real presence in Heaven is not limited to the prayers of actual saints, and that the golden bowls, by His grace, include the prayers from those of us with less sanctity.  If the prayers in the Golden Bowls are only those of actual saints, The Roman Catholic Church, in Her infinite wisdom, covers all the bases by encouraging us to ask the very saints, themselves, to intercede with God on our behalf, as well as appealing directly to Him.). They sang a new hymn (For The New Download): 'You are worthy to take the scroll and to break its seals, because you were sacrificed, and with your blood you bought people for God of every race, language, people and nation and made them (upgraded their programs) a line of kings and priests *[Is 61:6] for God, to rule the world" (either through them and/or they rule by "rising above", making both sin and earthly concerns less worthy than obeying the Operating Instructions). In my vision, I heard the sound of an immense number of angels gathered round the throne and the living creatures and the elders; there were ten thousand times ten thousand of them and thousands upon thousands (More than one hundred million, yet less than two hundred million, a figure later recounted?), *[Dn 7:10] loudly chanting: "Worthy is the Lamb That was sacrificed to receive power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory and blessing (Again, the number, in this case of gifts, is seven.)." Then I heard all the living things ("all the living things" lets us assume that those who did/do not join in praising God are not alive.  In short, the Devil, his spirits, and unrepentent sinners are dead.) in creation-everything that lives in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, crying: To the One seated on the throne and to the Lamb, be all praise, honour, glory and power, for ever and ever . And the four living creatures said, 'Amen' (So be it, validating the New Download with all their power); and the elders prostrated themselves to worship (The bowls of our prayers held out in front of them, even closer to God?).

(Chapter 5 included seven seals, seven horns, seven eyes (spirits), and seven gifts.)

Chapter 6

The Lamb breaks the seven seals

1. Then, in my vision, I saw the Lamb break one of the seven seals (access the First Program of The New Download), and I heard one of the four living creatures (The main attendants who read from and write to The Disc.) shout in a voice like thunder, 'Come!' 2. Immediately I saw a white horse appear, and its rider was holding a bow; he was given a victor's crown and he went away, to go from victory to victory. (His "arrows" may be seen as The Spirit that put the love of God ahead of the desire for programmed entities in the souls he hit.  This Spirit fired his first "arrow" into the soul of Adam, who, at Eve's behest.  The second "arrow" was fired into Abel, and later "arrows" were fired into the souls of all believers who followed.  Their conversions were the "victories" of that Spirit.  Zechariah, 9;13 makes reference to this re-happening later on a larger scale, "For I bend my bow, it is Judah.  I make Ephraim its arrow."  This describes how Judah and Ephraim take over Europe, north Africa, the Americas, and the other territories they are given, the faith from Judah firing the eager Ephraimites into the lands they would conquer, both spiritually and politically.) 3. When he broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature shout, 'Come!' 4. And out came another horse, bright red, and its rider was given this duty: to take away peace from the earth and set people killing each other. He was given a huge sword. (This sword, the spirit of those who loved earthly things so much they'd hate those who had them and kill to get them, first animated Eve, prompting her to lead Adam into disobedience.  Then, it animated Cain, driving him to murder his brother.) 5. When he broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature shout, 'Come!' Immediately I saw a black horse appear, and its rider was holding a pair of scales; 6. and I seemed to hear a voice shout from among the four living creatures and say, 'A day's wages for a ration of corn, and a day's wages for three rations of barley, but do not tamper with the oil or the wine.' (This Spirit judged the warring spirits (Godly vs. worldly) of men as they battled.  That spirit was allowed to control access to programmed entities, rationing such things as food and water, but not to have enough power, even through torture and death, to destroy the souls of the Godly by destroying their relationship with God, represented by the oil and wine of The Sacraments.) 7. When he broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature shout, 'Come!' 8. Immediately I saw another horse appear, deathly pale, and its rider was called Death, and Hades followed at its heels. (Those who love the things of creation, the programmed entities, more than The Programmer, Himself, condemned themselves to Hell.  They were given authority over a quarter of the earth (This may mean that, in any period of time, Death and Hell rule over 25% of the earth.  Seems like more, now.), to kill by the sword, by famine, by plague (war, famine, and plague are caused by the Seven Deadly Sins.) and through wild beasts. (In our time, we may understand that "wild beasts" include deadly bacteria and viruses, many of which, like the ravenous, brain-devouring microbes of venereal diseases, exist as a result of sin.) 9. When he broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of all the people who had been killed on account of the Word of God, (The Word of God was/were the arrow(s) fired by Rider #1, with the bow into the souls of the faithful, inspiring them to obedience, even unto death.) for witnessing to it. 10. They shouted in a loud voice, 'Holy, true Master, how much longer will you wait before you pass sentence and take vengeance for our death on the inhabitants of the earth?' 11. Each of them was given a white robe (Did they the souls under the altar take human form in order to be robed?), and they were told to be patient a little longer, until the roll was completed of their fellow-servants and brothers who were still to be killed as they had been (more souls had to have the opportunity for death and Salvation). 12. In my vision, when he broke the sixth seal, there was a violent earthquake (This happened when Christ died.) and the sun went as black as coarse sackcloth (This happened during the eclipse when Christ died.) ; the moon turned red as blood all over (This happens during an eclipse, so it's reasonable to assume it happened the day Christ died), 13. and the stars of the sky fell onto the earth like figs dropping from a fig tree when a high wind shakes it (In the vast caverns of Hell, the evil spirits that hovered in the dark, fetid clouds of sin fell to the floor of the caverns.  Their support was extinguished when Christ died, went to Hell and harrowed it.) ; 14. the sky disappeared like a scroll rolling up and all the mountains and islands were shaken from their places (Hell could no longer sustain its atmosphere.  Dante describes the fallen rocks and boulders and collapsed structures within the Circles of Hell, torn down by Christ during His descent.  We know that the space was cavernous because II Peter 2;4 tells us that God put the angels into "caverns under the earth".). 15. Then all the kings of the earth, the governors and the commanders, the rich people and the men of influence, the whole population, slaves and citizens, hid in caverns and among the rocks of the mountains. ("Of the earth", in this interpretation, means, literally, "of" the earth, within the caverns of Hell.   The society of fallen angels still retained a vague form of the hierarchy in which they had been created, from the mightiest of evil spirits to the lowliest imps.  They cowered in fear as Christ left no stone unturned in liberating the souls sent there to await His coming) 16. They said to the mountains *[Is 2:10, 18, 19] and the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us away from the One who sits on the throne and from the retribution of the Lamb. 17. For the Great Day of his retribution has come, and who can face it?' *[Jl 2:11; 3:4] (The only way the hierarchy of evil spirits, those who chose to follow the Great Virus, can be kept from being utterly erased is to hide from Christ.)

(Note:  The above interpretations of the five preceding Seals depend on anchoring this particular Seal (#6) in time.  Each part of The Sixth Seal's description can be seen to have happened at the Crucifixion and Descent.  While no claims of its correctness is claimed, it does appear to cover all the bases.  After having pored through countless pages of commentaries and comments on the commentaries, (research uncovers literally dozens of meanings, for instance, for the Rider of the White Horse, alone) this Catholic Fundamentalism interpretation seems to fit.

Once the 6th Seal is given a place in time, the previous Five Seals seem to fall into what seems to be reasonable time periods.

This is, of course, not considered to be the only, or even the most valid interpretation.  It is only offered as being merely reasonable to a degree that does not admit of easy refutation.

Chapter 7

God's servants will be preserved
*[14:1-5]

Next I saw four angels, standing at the four corners of the earth, *[Ezk 7:2] holding back the four winds of the world (In 1859, there was one or more solar flare(s) of such intensity (the Carrington Event) that the earth's magnetic shell actually shuddered.  So much electricity bombarded the earth that telegraph lines were able to work with their batteries disconnected, and telegraph paper was ignited by the sparks that came out of the wires.  Smaller solar flares in more recent history have caused widespread computer, communications, and power disruptions since then.  A very large solar flare could blow the earth's atmosphere away.  These are the sort of forces that Iron Age vocabularies could best describe as "winds" from which the four extremely powerful Angels protect us.) to keep them from blowing over the land or the sea or any tree. (The use of "any" seems to imply that the winds kept back would, if they destroyed one, would destroy all trees, supporting the broader suggestions of "wave" in the preceding considerations.)   Then I saw another angel rising where the sun rises, carrying the seal (access authorization) of the living God; he called in a powerful voice to the four angels whose duty was to devastate land and sea, 'Wait before you do any damage (This seems to mean erasure of Programs.  It also reminds us that the angels are in a hierarchy of authority.) on land or at sea or to the trees, until we have put the seal on the foreheads *[Ezk 9:4] of the servants of our God. (Nothing says that this seal has to be visible to anyone but God and His angels.)' And I heard how many had been sealed: a hundred and forty-four thousand, out of all the tribes of Israel. 5. From the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand had been sealed; from the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Naphtali, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Manasseh, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Zebulun, twelve thousand; and from the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand had been sealed. (The Four Angels keep the "winds" from deleting the Earth until the important work of having the required, pre-determined number of souls saved is complete.  The Tribes of Dan and Ephraim, son of Joseph, brother of Manasseh were erased as named Tribes.  It seems clear that they were "out of all the tribes of Israel".  Their bloodlines may have been eliminated, or may be found among the unnamed saved, or they may have been so obtuse and disobedient that God just gave up on them.   This also indicates that ten of the Tribes of sealed souls must come from the Lost Tribes. These Lost Tribes, Catholic Fundamentalists believe, went on to populate Europe and much of Asia and North Africa in waves of migration after their deportation from Northern Israel in 720 B.C.  The Tribes' migratory progress, and continued existence today from India west to Hawaii, is ignored with remarkable studiousness.  Catholic Fundamentalists believe that the 144,000 represent holy and undefiled Roman Catholic priests, 12,000 of them having to be drawn from the ranks of each tribe and sealed with Holy Oil at their ordinations before the four angels can unleash chaos.  Considering this, it may simply be that there were no Catholic Priests required of the Tribes of Dan and Ephraim.

the rewarding of the saints
*[15:2-5]

After that I saw that there was a huge number, impossible for anyone to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language (The "huge number", "impossible to count", implies that this vision is of a much later time than St. John's.  Interpreters who place this happening in the Roman era, for instance, are not able to account for people of every nation, race, tribe, and language  We remember, of course, that even Caesar was able to count the number of people in his empire with a census, certainly a far larger number than Christians would total for centuries to come.  Since the number was "impossible to count", it must be vastly larger than 200,000,000, the largest number listed in Revelations.  A number "impossible for anyone to count" could only have come into existence in much, much later times, possibly in our own age.); they were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, (Were they on, or a part of, the Glassy Sea, The Disc, as living bits of beloved programming?  Do the souls of the saved not beneath the Altar emerge from The Disc into the very place of Elders, Angels, and the Four Creatures, on the doubly-blessed shore on the inside rim of the "Glassy Sea", the most exclusive piece of real estate in All Creation?  On a pragmatic note, one might be reminded that concerning ourselves with living forever on the beaches of The Glassy Sea might be a more profitible pasttime than concerning ourselves with more ordinary respites on more conventional shores.) dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands. They shouted in a loud voice, 'Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!' And all the angels who were standing in a circle round the throne, surrounding the elders and the four living creatures, prostrated themselves before the throne, and touched the ground with their foreheads, worshipping God with these words: Amen. Praise and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honour and power and strength (Once again, seven occurs in the number of blessings.) to our God (Loving Programmer) for ever and ever. Amen. One of the elders then spoke and asked me, 'Who are these people, dressed in white robes, and where have they come from?' I answered him, 'You can tell me, Lord.' (This is an appropriate answer for all of us, when we have a question.) Then he said, 'These are the people who have been through the great trial (The "great trial" was/is/will be the ongoing persecution of Christians in their lifetimes from the earliest days through to the erasure of the Creation Program.  One hopes that this group includes not only those martyred, but all those who remained faithful and obedient.); they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb (Validating The Sacrament of Confession.). That is why they are standing in front of God's throne and serving him day and night in his sanctuary; and the One who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them (We may be sheltered in the infintie awesomeness of His Program.). They will never hunger or thirst again; sun and scorching wind will never plague them, because the Lamb who is at the heart of the throne will be their shepherd and will guide them to springs of living water ("living water" may mean the freely flowing fountain of The Programmer's life-giving Programs, one of which The Old Programming Log describes as "the Tree of Life", to which we owe our existence.  It's opposite, "dead water", is that which will be nothing after the Creation Program is erased.); *[Is 49:10] and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes.' *[21:4; Is 25:8]

Chapter 8

the seventh seal

The Lamb then broke the seventh seal, and there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.  (Within The Scroll Program were there all the downloads that were and are to to come?  It is hard to tell if the Angels about to blow their trumpets are recounting earlier happenings, future happenings, or both.  The downloads to come were so huge that it took, even with the Power of The Programmer, a half an hour to download.)

Next I saw seven trumpets (Trumpets differ from instruments like drums, pipes, and harps in that they direct energy directly toward a target.  What the vocabulary of the Iron Age could best describe as a trumpet may be re-considered in light of what we know of energy transfer devices like lasers, sonic welders, and micro-wave transmitters.

     For more on the heretofore overlooked necessity of translating Scripture from its Iron Age sources to our own time, when electrons are easily moved, the book, New Road to Rome may be downloaded at no cost in the Books and Excerpts Section available on the heading of this website.  In the here and now, each and every one of us may reasonably conclude that those trumpets have been aimed through time and space directly at us, zeroed in upon our minds and souls with a far greater precision than any laser.) being given to the seven angels who stand in the presence of God. Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. A large quantity of incense was given to him to offer with the prayers of all the saints (For the second time in Revelations we see that, in Heaven, the prayers of all the saints take actual form and become parts of future downloads.  Here, they are combined with incense to be pleasing to The Programmer.  The last record in the Old Programming Log, Malachi, verse 11, tells us that incense is mandatory where God, The Unprogrammed Programmer, is truly and most faithfully worshipped.) on the golden altar that stood in front of the throne; and so from the angel's hand the smoke of the incense went up in the presence of God and with it the prayers of the saints (One must consider the number and quality of the prayers we pray.  There may, or must be, be a mechanism by our prayers are measured, and this measurement may affect our chances of Salvation.  If so, we should pray more and pray more fervently.) Then the angel took the censer and filled it from the fire of the altar, (One may assume from this this passage that where God is most obediently worshipped there will be not only incense, but also, fire.  In the Roman Catholic Church, fire is provided by candles on the altar, which vaporize some of the burning incense, combining it with prayers of the congregation, along with those prayers raised from the side altars, from whence it ascends to our Dear Father in Heaven.) *[Lv 16:12; Ezk 10:2] which He then hurled down onto the earth; immediately there came peals of thunder and flashes of lightning, and the earth shook (When prayers raised to God are returned to earth, their power is shown to be so magnified that light, sound, and programmed structures resonate, the way tuning forks do when exposed to their own frequencies, as those prayers were answered, some of them possibly thousands of years, others, mere nanoseconds after they were sent to Heaven.)

the first four trumpets
*[16:1-9]

The seven angels that had the seven trumpets now made ready to sound them. The first blew his trumpet and, with that, hail and fire, mixed with blood, were hurled on the earth (Ice, a solidified liquid; fire, a solid or liquid rapidly dispersing and releasing heat in the process; and blood, living water, are, respectively, cold, hot, and 98.6 degrees.  Both ice, broken into pieces like hail, and fire from burning particulate matter would come from a comet coming into the atmosphere.  If it smashed into people or animals, blood would be spattered.  The shock would hurl lava (red, liquid rock, the "blood" of the earth) from the earth, as well as ice, if it hit glaciers or icecaps.): a third of the earth was burnt up, (Many interpreters have considered "the third of the earth" as devastations including, but not limited to, those of Assyria, Rome, the Moslems, the Tartars, the Vandals, the Goths, the Franks, the Ottomans, and so on and on and on.  In reading the commentators of recent centuries, one is struck by the notion that a lot of learned men had the volumes of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire at hand along with a great deal of time on those same hands.  Most of them, to varying degrees, were virulently anti-Catholic Protestants.  Newton, for instance, though pre-Gibbons, was a Unitarian employed by a government agency, The Royal Mint, whose "rightful owners" were Protestant Royalty.  Newton's interpretations inspired not only many of the anti-Catholic interpretations that followed, but also, at least one denomination based their justifications for being a separate and entity (The Seventh Day Adventists) on his interpretations.  

    Only the Communists really took over "a third of the earth", though the English Empire may be considered to have done so, as well, when adding the oceans under its control to the 1/4 of the earth it covered.) and a third of all trees (The trees, mentioned in Chapter 7, are no longer protected by the four angels, who allowed whatever force it was, to get through.  Those "winds" may have been evil spirits, like the one that drove Marx into perpetual anger.   Some commentators equate "trees" with powerful humans; kings, commanders, and the like.), and every blade of grass was burnt. (We are told by students of the subject that the grass symbolizes people.  Possibly, only the blades were burnt, so humanity may not have been wiped out, but burned off, then, returning, the way grass in a burned field later grows again from its seeds and roots, as is happening now in China, Russia, and other parts of what was recently a more unified Communist empire.)

     The second angel blew his trumpet, and it was as though a great mountain blazing with fire was hurled into the sea

    (In one sense, this could be the Kingdom of Lucifer and the fallen angels being expelled from Heaven, because out of the sea, a beast later rises.  Historically, Phoenicians and Carthaginians were Baal worshippers who traveled the seas to trade and pillage, enslaving and "passing children through the fire", so their empire could be seen as a "mountain of fire", which is what it would have appeared to be to the sacrificed children as they were thrown into it.  It could, of course, be a large meteor, or a comet.

    It's certainly possible that the mountain was thrown into the sea by someone with enough faith to put Matthew, 17;20 into effect: "Jesus said to them:  '. . .For, amen I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove from hence hither, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you.'"  This passage, by the way, quantifies spiritual power very accurately. We have seen that prayers returning to earth from The Altar are very powerful.  Therefore, the "great mountain blazing with fire" may be the result of one, or of an aggregation, of those prayers, which, in physical form to which we could relate, is the size of a mustard seed.

    In keeping with the possibilty that a comet caused the damage recounted by the First Trumpet, this may also be explained by an asteroid or very large meteor to explain the "great mountain, blazing with fire".): a third of the sea turned into blood, a third of all the living things in the sea were killed, and a third of all ships were destroyed.

    (The literalist would say that until the British Empire's Navy imposed British authority over much of the world, or until WWII, one third of the sea was not yet turned into blood, if that phrase signifies global war.  We do not have any record of a third of sea creatures having been killed (except, possibly, by Noah's Flood) and at no known time in history have fully one third of the earth's ships been destroyed.  Since ships were common in China, Japan, and the East in all the times since these words were written, it's unlikely, if not impossible, that any Roman battle would have destroyed a third of the world's water transport.  Limiting "the sea" to the Mediterranean, as some interpreters have done, and "ships" to warships, may allow for Mediterranean naval victories to apply, as at Actium, when Antony and Cleopatra's fleet was was destroyed, but that does not seem to fit the global nature of "all the earth", "every blade of grass", "a third of all the living things in the sea", and "a third of all ships".

    The water may also be turned into blood by His Re-programming of a third of the sea, literally transforming it into blood.  

    Some commentators have suggested that the "ships" symbolize churches.  They signify from that the various persecutions of Christians, like Diocletian's, or the Moslem destruction of so many Christian churches, or the Protestant destruction of so many Catholic institutions, or the Catholic destruction of heretical churches, depending on the point of view of the provider of funds that sponsored such scholarship, are what the passage means.   While the symbolism is important, and surely has meaning, Catholic Fundamentalists start with the most literal meaning when considering what the Inspired Words, themselves, represent.) 

     The third angel blew his trumpet, and a huge star fell from the sky, burning like a ball of fire, and it fell on a third of all rivers and on the springs of water; 11. This was the star called Wormwood, and a third of all water turned to wormwood, so that many people died; the water had become so bitter.

     (The "huge star" is generally seen as a fallen angel, usually Lucifer.  Catholic Fundamentalists begin by considering its name, and finding out what Wormwood is.  It has been known for thousands of years.  It comes from the Family Compositae, the largest group of flowering plants.  Wormwood is the second-most bitter of plants.  It is, with almost as perfect a symbolism as found in the name of the only plant more bitter, "rue", placed in what was named the Genus Artemisia.  That group of bitter plants was named for Artemis, twin sister of Apollo, called Diana by the Romans.  

    Artemis's personality, like the plant named after her, was incredibly bitter.  Legend tells us that she was so acrimonious as to be utterly immune to the charms of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love.  Her bitterness went beyond the inability to love, and indicated an underlying desire to hate and kill.   In one of her devotee's ceremonies, a male sacrificial victim was symbolically cut with a knife, so her, and her followers', dislike of men was well known.  When Acteon, the hunter, saw her bathing, she was so angry that she turned him into a stag, and had his own hounds chase him down and tear him to bits.  "I'll show you what I think of men!" she said, ever-echoed by bitter women of all times.  

    Interestingly, the compound thujone is found among the bitter chemicals of Artemis's plant.  It is said to increase mental ability.  Scripture may be telling us very emphatically that Diana's bitterness, combined with a stimulant and spreading through womankind, causes problems among men.

    Artemis was also known as Selene, Goddess of the Moon.  In an exact reversal of Catholic iconography, Selene was pictured with a crescent moon over her head.  Mary, the Blessed Mother of our Savior, is, of course, often portrayed standing on top of a crescent moon.  The meaning is clear.  Our Blessed Mother has put bitterness beneath Her.  Artemis/Selene, on the other hand, put it where she could only look up to it.  This would have been quickly clear to people living at the time who would have understood more easily than we the symbolism and validity of what St. John had revealed to him. Only one major religion still looks up to the crescent moon that bitter, angry, hate-filled Artemis admired, and many of its teachers continue to shower that hateful bitterness on all their neighbors.

     When the Third Angel blew his trumpet, all that bitterness fell to earth, "burning (fittingly enough) like a ball of fire".  As the bitterness fell on "a third of all rivers" (those women, and some men-hating men), and the "springs of water" (young women and girls) , they, too, became bitter.  All that bitterness ran downhill into seas of people.  A later passage makes clear that "seas" symbolize people;  among those seas, of course, flourished the Great Whore of Babylon.

     ". . . many people died" refers to the tragic wave of deaths that have come since bitterness was thrown down among us.  Many were encouraged to act out their bitterness by choosing anti-life, pro-death practices.  Governments, particularly in Communist countries, where bitterness was not merely enshrined, but, in the Other Side's most exalted form, hatred, given total power.  Such people greatly preferred death to life.  Some also thought that they could, in the short term, profit with fewer children.  For many reasons, and all of them bad, they fostered the bitterness of birth control and the anger of abortion in every media and among all the people under their control.)

The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were blasted, so that the light went out of a third of them and the day lost a third of its illumination, and likewise the night. (The wholesale abortion of countless millions of unborn babies may have reached an amount of slaughter that may be symbolized by so much light being extinguished.  Awareness of this, and what's behind it, leads many into the "dark night of the soul".  Death, not by germs or war, but by bitterness and hatred, spread, not like a cancer of the mind, but by a spiritual disorder that devours first love, then life. 

     It is reasonable to at least consider that we are living in the time of the Fourth Angel's download.  That does not mean he caused it, at God's command, but that the forces that kept this particular"wave of evil" away were removed, as in the Church-hating mindset that showed itself in parts of Vatican II)

In my vision, I heard an eagle, calling aloud as it flew high overhead, 'Disaster, disaster, disaster, on all the people on earth at the sound of the other three trumpets which the three angels have yet to blow!'

Chapter 9

the fifth trumpet

(The "Woe Angels", as the three angels that end Chapter 8 are often called, bring about things that do not appear to have happened yet on earth.  If they have not happened, the time they will take place is drawing closer.)

Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven onto the earth, and the angel was given the key to the shaft leading down to the Abyss. When he unlocked the shaft of the Abyss, smoke rose out of the Abyss like the smoke from a huge furnace *[Ex 19:18] so that the sun and the sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss (Those in clouds of induced ignorance and subjectivity are unable to see the light.), and out of the smoke dropped locusts onto the earth (Ravenous stupidity in living form.): they were given the powers that scorpions have on the earth: 4. they were forbidden to harm any fields or crops or trees and told to attack only those people who were without God's seal on their foreheads (Some commentators are convinced that these locusts are either the Saracens, Ottomans, Tartars, or some such group.  Unfortunately for that theory, they usually tried to get rid of all the people with God's seal whom they could find.  Here the locustsfind those who do not believe in God susceptible to their attacks.). They were not to kill them, but to give them anguish for five months (The 150 days are sometimes thought to refer to 150 years, but no known human has lived that long in the time this was written, except, possibly, St. John, himself, to endure life on earth for an even longer time.  But, we have had a century and a half of evil stupidity and the awful pain it caused since Communism began.), and the anguish was to be the anguish of a scorpion's sting (The pain of living in brutal slavery.). When this happens, people will long for death and not find it anywhere; *[Jb 3:21] they will want to die and death will evade them (For instance, those living under totalitarian, Communist rule.). These locusts looked like horses armoured for battle; they had what looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces looked human, and their hair was like women's hair, and teeth like lion's teeth. They had body-armour like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings sounded like the racket of chariots with many horses charging. Their tails were like scorpions' tails, with stings, and with their tails they were able to torture people for five months. As their leader they had their emperor, the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek Apollyon. ('Destroyer') That was the first of the disasters; there are still two more to come. (These locusts have been breathlessly compared to Saracen cavalry, Ottoman warriors, helicopter gunships, Moslem invaders, flying robot-drones, and a patient Heaven knows what else.  None of these things seem to fit the descriptions closely enough to be taken especially seriously as having happened at any time or place in all of recorded history.  On the other hand, we may have missed something blatantly obvious.)

the sixth trumpet

The sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a single voice issuing from the four horns of the golden altar in God's presence. It spoke to the sixth angel with the trumpet, and said, 'Release the four angels that are chained up at the great river Euphrates.' These four angels had been ready for this hour of this day of this month of this year, and ready to destroy a third of the human race. I learnt how many there were in their army: twice ten thousand times ten thousand mounted men. (This appears to indicate a heavenly, rather than earthly, army.  At no period in history is there recorded an army of two hundred million.  A human invasion of such proportions could not have occured unless generations of one people continually attacked.  In that case, a Moslem invasion lasting many, many generations, even centuries, might involve such high numbers.  The only states that could field such an army today are China, India, or a very large portion of combined Moslem areas.  They are the only ones working actively to produce an army of suicidal killers in such numbers.  An interpretation of 200,000,000 conventional armed forces is less likely in that these are "mounted" warrors, involving the logistical nightmare of supply lines stretching not only to the soldiers, but food to their horses or fuel to their vehicles, as well.  So, an army of angels or Moslem suicide attackers is the most logical possibility.

    It is also reasonable to consider the "army" as levellers, communists and their environmentalist successsors.  They have, combined with their allies in the abortion, birth control, and anti-DDT environmentalists, as well as by war, starvation, and death camps, effectively worked to "destroy" possibly two billion human beings, "a third of the human race".) In my vision I saw the horses, and the riders with their breastplates of flame colour, hyacinth-blue and sulphur-yellow; the horses had lions' heads, and fire, smoke and sulphur were coming from their mouths. (As in the preceding chapter, the imaginations of recent interpreters tend toward various types of tanks, jets, remote-controlled drones, or fanciful helicopter gunships.) It was by these three plagues, the fire (If abortion is considered, the "fire" is the perversion of the thought process that replaces abortion with "freedom" and "choice".), the smoke (the mental confusion they cause with their assaults on truth) and the sulphur coming from their mouths (Sulfur is their poisonous hatred, crystallizing in death.), that the one third of the human race was killed (Again, when one totals all the needless deaths encouraged by and committed by, Communists, combining the vast plague unleashed by birth control, like RU-484, along with all the other deaths by abortionists and DDT-banning environmentalists, the loss of two billion people (a third of the world's population) does not seem unreasonable, leading to the conclusion that modern times are being covered by the 6th Trumpet.). All the horses' power was in their mouths and their tails (taking cognizance of this of this last phrase, modern writers, almost to a person, mention something about "tail gunners", "smart bombs", and/or "air-to-ground missiles".) : their tails were like snakes, and had heads which inflicted wounds (syphilis spirochetes?). But the rest of the human race, who escaped death by these plagues, (It would be impossible for a believer to ignore such activities, no matter how much they were involved with earthly concerns, if they were not blinded to the suffering of others.  It may describe the unleashing of death by abortion, malaria, and starvation.  Most of us largely ignore those deaths as they take place, some , because they approve, others, because we simply don't know how to stop it.) refused either to abandon their own handiwork *[Is 17:8] or to stop worshipping devils, the idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood *[Dn 5:4] that can neither see nor hear nor move. Nor did they give up their murdering (Abortion is an institutionalized murder that the other side will not "give up".), or witchcraft, or fornication or stealing. (Plenty of that's going on while we pay too little attention to the slaughters around us.  That, combined with the numbers of deaths, "one third of the human race was killed", may show that the Sixth Trumpet in Chapter Nine concerns us, in our times.)

Chapter 10

the imminence of the last punishment

Then I saw another powerful angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in cloud, with a rainbow over his head (If this rainbow is related to the "emerald rainbow" in Chapter 4, it may be that The Holy Spirit, Himself, accompanied this angel to provide Programming Power of the highest order.); his face was like the sun, and his legs were pillars of fire  (He was pure energy.). In his hand he had a small scroll, unrolled (A separate Program was opened with The Holy Spirit's direction and assistance?); he put his right foot in the sea and his left foot on the land (This Program Addition covered land and sea and the air in which he stood.) and he shouted so loud, it was like a lion roaring (The "roaring" is the angel downloading the Program Addition.). At this, the seven claps of thunder (The thunderclaps were words from God.  They tell us that by comparing the deafening energy of a clap of thunder to the energy of a lion roaring we humans may have at least an indication of His power as compared to that of powerful angels.  It may help our appreciation of the various angelic powers when we consider that, most of the time, we are stone deaf to our guardian angels' whispers.) made themselves heard and when the seven thunderclaps had sounded, I was preparing to write, when I heard a voice from heaven (Was it always the Son who spoke to men, even to Abraham and Moses?) say to me, 'Keep the words of the seven thunderclaps secret and do not write them down.' (St. John was allowed to access that portion of The New Download, but not allowed to copy.) Then the angel that I had seen, standing on the sea and the land, raised his right hand to heaven, *[Dt 32:40] and swore by him who lives for ever and ever, and made (programmed) heaven and all that it contains, and earth and all it contains, and the sea and all it contains, 'The time of waiting is over; at the time when the seventh angel is heard sounding his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled, just as he announced in the gospel to his servants the prophets.'

the seer eats the small scroll

Then I heard the voice I had heard from heaven speaking to me again. 'Go', it said, 'and take that open scroll (The Additional Download) from the hand of the angel standing on sea and land.' I went to the angel and asked him to give me the small scroll, and he said, 'Take it and eat it (John was told to make a full and complete download of the Additional Download.); it will turn your stomach sour, but it will taste as sweet as honey.' So I took it out of the angel's hand, and I ate it and it tasted sweet as honey, *[Ezk 3:1-13] but when I had eaten it my stomach turned sour. Obviously, there is something in this of The Eucharist in that when we partake of the Holy Food, we are also aware that those who do not are likely to be lost.  There's also a reminder of Midas, who at first thought that having everything he touched turn to gold was a good thing.) Then I was told, 'You are to prophesy again, this time against many different nations and countries and languages and kings.' (The following chapters will tell us what will happen on earth.)

Chapter 11

the two witnesses

Then I was given a long cane like a measuring rod (The rod with which surveyors measured was about 16.5 feet long in the 6th & 7th centuries AD, when the sons of Isaac, Isaac's sons which was, over the centuries, shortened to Saxons, moved into England.), and I was told, 'Get up and measure God's sanctuary (the Vatican), and the altar (from which, measuring downwards, is the tomb of St. Peter, whose bones still form "the Rock, on which I build My Church"), and the people who worship there (The Church); but exclude the outer court (those too far from The Church to believe in The Trinity) and do not measure it (because its size means nothing to Me), because it has been handed over to gentiles (unbelievers, likewise, are not measured because they mean nothing to Him)-they will trample on the holy city for forty-two months. (Many have "trampled on the holy city", but offerings are still made at the Altar.  42 months equal 1,260 days, which some take to mean years.  This caused a problem for many Protestant enthusiasts, who tried to make The "Reformation" appear after their imagined corruption of The Catholic Church.  They have been unable to make it fit.)  But I shall send my two witnesses (There may be convincing record of the two specific witnesses who appeared as individuals with these powers.  Or, they may be the two orders of The Church, Clerical and Monastic.  Monastic and Mendicant, as well, must be considered as possibilities for the two witnesses.  A more likely alternative is that the two witnesses are the Dominicans and the Franciscans.) to prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, wearing sackcloth (Dominicans and Franciscans both wore sackcloth, leading Catholic Fundamentalists to the conclusion that if the two witnesses refer to specific individuals, St. Francis and St. Dominic are certainly among the very likeliest candidates.) These are the two olive trees *[Zc 4:3, 14] and the two lamps in attendance on the Lord of the world. *[2 Kings 1:10] Fire comes from their mouths and consumes their enemies (Both Dominicans and Franciscans were active in the removal of heretics during the Inquisition, during which time four thousand particularly vile and offensive apostates, some of whom were charged with political crimes, bestiality, sodomy, etc., were burned at the stake.  Considering the 40 million babies murdered by abortionists, millions of English and Irish Catholics murdered by extremists between Henry VIII and Cromwell through brutal occupation and the "potato famine", during which Irish foodstuffs were confiscated and sent to England while countless hundreds of thousands of Irish Catholics were starved to death) and the hundreds of millions destroyed by Communists helps put those 4,000 deaths over several centuries into perspective.  In fact, since the Inquistion focused on the most vicious haters of life, many of us owe our very existence to the pro-life and pro-Church culture it protected.) if anyone tries to harm them; and anyone who tries to harm them will certainly be killed in this way. (If not here, in the life beyond.) They have the power to lock up the sky (Heaven) so that it does not rain (God's help is kept away by their request for Programming alterations.) as long as they are prophesying; they have the power to turn water into blood and strike the whole world with any plague as often as they like. When they have completed their witnessing (The Inquisition ended in 1834.  Ironically, the corn planter and refrigerator, part of the death knell to the small farms and shops of the Iron Age, were both invented that year.  The first would "free" millions of farmers from farm labor. They, in coming generations, would be drafted into ever-larger armies as agriculture was mechanized.  The second made mass production, shipping, and storage of foodstuffs possible, eliminating, over the following century and a half, millions of small farms, shops, and shopkeepers, making even more available to be drafted into military service.) , the beast that comes out of the Abyss (personifying itself into Napoleonic, Marxist, Stalinist, Maoist, Castroite Church-haters) is going to make war on them and overcome them *[Dn 7:21] and kill them. Their corpses lie in the main street of the great city (During the Spanish Civil War, the bodies of priests and nuns, no doubt including Dominicans and Franciscans, were dug up from their graves.  Their disinterred corpses were put in front of many Catholic Churches, on main streets, by the macabre spirit that lurks in Communist hearts.) known by the symbolic names Sodom and Egypt (Any city or nation where the God, truth, and life-hating forces of excessive government take power.), in which their Lord was crucified (Jesus is personally, and repeatedly crucified in the each person who suffers in His name.). People of every race, tribe, language and nation stare at their corpses, for three-and-a-half days, (Photographs of the disinterred bodies were sent all over the world.) not letting them be buried, and the people of the world are glad about it and celebrate the event by giving presents to each other, (The temporary triumph of Communism in Spain was a cause of great rejoicing among Communists all over the world.  The celebration was especially ecstatic because the Stalinists took 510 tons of gold from the Spanish Government and gave that as a "present" to Russia.  Some of that gold had come from earlier evil empires of Aztecs and Incas.  Communist Russia was a fitting repository for the rewards of human sacrifice.) because these two prophets have been a plague to the people of the world (Those who follow the beast.  "Of" the world means "of" the abyss, those who come from it are "of" it, which is why the poor friars and monks were such a plague to their sense of well-being.).' After the three-and-a-half days, (The Spanish Civil War lasted about three and a half years) God breathed life into them and they stood up on their feet, *[Ezk 37:5, 10] and everybody who saw it happen was terrified (The Communists, by then, worldwide, were very much afraid when The Church and Franco stood up to them, and won.  They thought they'd be next.); then I heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, 'Come up here,' and while their enemies were watching, they went up to heaven in a cloud. Immediately, there was a violent earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed; seven thousand persons (If the Spanish Civil War, that greatest armed dispute between Church and state in modern times, is considered as being partly represented by this Chapter, 7,000 was the population of Guernica, in which many, though not 7,000, were killed.) were killed in the earthquake (the bombing of Guernica and other Iron Age cities caused tremors and shock waves that made many stone structures collapse.) and the survivors, overcome with fear, could only praise the God of heaven. (Which is exactly what believers all over the world, but especially in Spain and Portugal, did.) That was the second of the disasters; the third is to come quickly after it.  (If the preceding interpretation is correct, and the putting of the holy corpses on public display certainly validates it, then the third disaster is in, or near, our own time.)

the seventh trumpet

Then the seventh (and last) angel blew his trumpet, and voices could be heard shouting in heaven, calling, 'The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever (all errors will be erased).' The twenty-four elders, enthroned in the presence of God, prostrated themselves and touched the ground with their foreheads worshipping God with these words, 'We give thanks to You, Almighty Lord God, He who is, He who was, for assuming Your great (programming) power and beginning Your reign (He replaces the chaos and evil that a perverted use of free will had brought to so many with His order.). The nations were in uproar (Vanity ruled, with chaos.) and now the time has come for Your retribution (You will punish the disobedient and reward the obedient.), and for the dead to be judged (souls will be rewarded according to works and faith), and for Your servants the prophets, for the saints and for those who fear Your name, small (There's hope for us!) and great alike, to be rewarded. The time has come to destroy those (viruses and error messages) who are destroying the earth (What His Program would have been without them.).' Then the sanctuary of God in heaven opened, and the ark of the covenant (which contains The Source Code) could be seen inside it. Then came flashes of lightning, peals of thunder and an earthquake and violent hail. (When The Source Code's container became visible, The Power that emanated from it shook the very foundations, programs of particles and structures, of the earth.)

Chapter 12

the vision of the woman and the dragon

Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, robed with the sun (dressed with the source of earth's energy), standing on the moon (From earth, would she have appeared to be no more than a foot or so tall?), and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant, and in labour, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth (She was crying so loudly, or with some special wavelength or transfer of energy, that, miraculously, the sound reached the hearer on earth through the vacuum of space.). Then a second sign (evil always follows after good) appeared in the sky (In this one chapter, the great war is summarized.  It begins with the virus in Heaven, trying to corrupt the Programs there.  It ends with him on earth, and expelled from Heaven.): there was a huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and each of the seven heads crowned with a coronet (Its power came from its mental ability, as opposed to the beast to come in the next chapter, which had its horns, not its head, crowned.). Its tail swept a third of the stars from the sky and hurled them to the ground, (As in the last chapter, one third of humanity, whether the tragic deaths of the born and unborn on earth, or the spirits above who'd chosen to sink into sin and disobedience.)*[Dn 8:10] and the dragon stopped in front of the woman as she was at the point of giving birth, so that it could eat the child as soon as it was born (To stop a greater good from appearing.  Jesus was a greater good, for instance, than His Mother, though He could not have come among us without Her.). The woman was delivered of a boy, the son who was to rule all the nations with an iron sceptre, and the child was taken straight up to God (One reason that Jesus is usually thought not to be symbolically referred to here is that He went to Hell before ascending.  And, He reappeared on earth before His Ascension.  The "straight up to God" may mean that Jesus did ascend "on a straight path to His destiny", which path began in the stable at Bethlehem.) to His throne, while the woman (Both Mary and The Roman Catholic Church) escaped into the desert (Places where the increasingly well-defined souls of the faithful would find some safety, even, prosperity.), where God had prepared a place for her (The Roman Catholic Church) to be looked after for twelve hundred and sixty days (years?). And now war broke out in heaven, when Michael with his angels attacked the dragon (at God's command). The dragon fought back with his angels, 8. but they were defeated and driven out of heaven (denied access to The Programmer, Program, and Holy Wireless Connector). 9. The great dragon, the primeval serpent, known as the devil or Satan, who had led all the world astray (Virus, father of viruses, only able to survive by corrupting programs, always knowing that was all he could do, only able to gain energy by tearing down, rather than building up.), was hurled down to the earth (the lower order of programmed entities) and his angels (lesser viruses) were hurled down with him. Then I heard a voice shout from heaven, 'Salvation and power and empire for ever have been won by our God, and all authority for His Christ, now that the accuser, who accused our brothers day and night before our God, has been brought down (Now, the Virus has been removed.). They have triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb (His obedience to His Father, The Loving Programmer) and by the word to which they bore witness, because even in the face of death they did not cling to life (The Program and those who perfectly obey it could not be destroyed by the virus.  Christ's victory was the only thing needed to destroy the virus.). So let the heavens (All who have joined with the Programmer, Program, and Holy Wireless Connector.) rejoice and all who live there (in the presence of and in obedience to, Holiness); but for you, earth and sea (Those programmed entities corrupted by the virus), disaster is coming-because the devil (virus) has gone down to you in a rage (and can do nothing but destroy everything he can), knowing that he has little time left (to remain in existence.  He knows now that he is being erased and can do nothing about it.)' As soon as the dragon found himself hurled down to the earth (eternally separated from, and with all Heaven knowing he was lesser than The Programmer he could no longer attack directly), he sprang in pursuit of the woman (Roman Catholic Church), the mother of the male child (The Roman Catholic priesthood through which salvation comes to the most obedient), but she was given a pair of the great eagle's wings (Faith and Obedience) to fly away from the serpent into the desert, to the place where she was to be looked after for a time, two times and half a time (three and a half periods, another instance of the 1260 days/years.). So the serpent vomited water (To destroy Her with sin, personified by this unholy water.) from his mouth, like a river, after the woman (The Roman Catholic Church, Bride of Christ.), to sweep her away in the current (vast flood of lies), but the earth came to her rescue (The underlying logic of Creation neutralized the lies.); it opened its mouth and swallowed the river spewed (unholy lies) from the dragon's (father of lies') mouth. Then the dragon was enraged (He's always angry.) with the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children (destroy as many Christians, especially Catholics, as he could), who obey God's commandments and have in themselves the witness of Jesus.

the dragon delegates his power to the beast

And I took my stand on the seashore.

Chapter 13

Then I saw a beast emerge from the sea (The second-most destructive deprogramming corruption was a more effective way to attack, something that people would not easily recognize as the evil more obvious in the dragon.): it had seven heads (Each one representing a deadly sin.) and ten horns, with a coronet on each of its ten horns (Unlike the first, and most-destructive virus thrown from Heaven in the preceding Chapter, its attraction was in its more obvious manifestations of power, and not in the mind(s) that held them up, which is why the "horns" were crowned, and not the seven minds beneath.  This indicates that its appeal was to a class of people so dulled by sin as to be unable to appreciate The Programmer, Program, Holy Wireless Connector, Their Church and the teaching She provided those who desired it.) , and its heads were marked with blasphemous titles (Just as each head symbolized one of the Seven Deadly Sins, the "horns" were there to immobilize the prey so that the mouth beneath the heads could devour the souls impaled on, attracted to, or crippled, by the "horns".). I saw that the beast was like a leopard (It was camoflauged to blend in, regardless of where it was.), with paws like a bear (To root up souls that were hiding from it.) and a mouth like a lion  (There is only one mouth but seven heads to show us that all Seven Deadly Sins lead to the gaping, ravenous maw of Hell.); the dragon had handed over to it his own power (to destroy) and his throne (authority to organize lesser destroyers) and his immense authority (over those who chose to follow the beast). I saw that one of its heads (Pride) seemed to have had a fatal wound (It was its pride that made it fight against God.) but that this deadly injury (which it suffered when thrown out of Heaven) had healed and the whole world (all the worldly) had marvelled and followed the beast (grateful that truth and love were their enemies). They prostrated themselves in front of the dragon because he had given the beast his authority (They were grateful for the chance to do battle with the faithful to loot and destroy them.); and they prostrated themselves in front of the beast (who would lead them in battle against God's people), saying, 'Who can compare with the beast? Who can fight against it?' (Since they were blinded to the power of God, the beast seemed to be their invincible leader.) The beast was allowed to mouth its boasts and blasphemies and to be active for forty-two months (1260 days/years?); and it mouthed its blasphemies against God, against His name, His heavenly Tent and all those who are sheltered there (All the faithful, especially Catholics). It was allowed to make war against the saints and conquer them, and given power over every race, people, language and nation (Governments and people all over the world came under Communist control.); and all people of the world will worship it, that is, everybody whose name has not been written down since the foundation of the world in the sacrificial Lamb's book of life. Let anyone who can hear, listen: Those for captivity to captivity; those for death by the sword to death by the sword. *[Jr 15:2] This is why the saints must have perseverance and faith. (In recent times, the apostate European countries have nearly been consumed by the beast, whose first successful war began before the French Revolution and culminated in the increasing chaos it was able to unleash on Europe.)

the false prophet as the slave of the beast

Then I saw a second beast (With the dragon and the first beast, the second beast is the third being of the unholy triad of evil.), emerging from the ground; it had two horns like a lamb (With the superficial similarity to Christ, it represents the pretence of "goodness" masking the intents of the two earlier evil beings from the more gullible, vain, and death-loving people.  Commiunism, environmentalism, and the controlled media make death and destructioin seem "reasonable" to many.) , but made a noise like a dragon (Its true nature is a reversal of Christ and His Teachings, this pro-death being worked to take life, faith, and freedom from all, "for their own good".). This second beast exercised all the power of the first beast, on its behalf making the world and all its people worship the first beast (Using the media tyranny used by political monsters, presently taking control with the endless excuses provided by environmentalism), whose deadly injury (to its pride) had healed. And it worked great miracles, even to calling down fire from heaven (Nuclear energy, as in an atomic bomb, is the same type of energy with which the sun and stars light the heavens.) onto the earth while people watched (On newsreels and television, if not in person.). Through the miracles which it was allowed to do on behalf of the first beast, it was able to lead astray the people of the world (with all kinds of propaganda for useless, destructive projects) and persuade them to put up a statue (This statue is made of the endless government and related non-government structures, all inter-connected to be virtually one.) in honour of the beast that had been wounded by the sword (from God's mouth) and still lived (installing the rule on earth that it had been denied in Heaven). It was allowed to breathe life into this statue (The activities in the globe-encircling structures, wired as one, would all claim to be "making things better".), so that the statue of the beast was able to speak (tell people what to do) , and to have anyone who refused to worship the statue of the beast (The one government of the world in its myriad of inter-connected structures.) put to death. It (through its endless minions of uncivil servants) compelled everyone-small and great alike, rich and poor, slave and citizen-to be branded on the right hand or on the forehead, and made it illegal for anyone to buy or sell anything unless he had been branded with the name of the beast or with the number of its name (All human activity would be controlled.). There is need for shrewdness here: anyone clever may interpret the number of the beast: it is the number of a human being, the number 666.

Chapter 14

the companions of the lamb
*[7:1-8]

Next in my vision I saw Mount Zion, and standing on it the Lamb who had with him a hundred and forty-four thousand people, all with his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads (The scars from their own crowns of thorns?). I heard a sound coming out of heaven like the sound of the ocean or the roar of thunder; it was like the sound of harpists playing their harps. There before the throne they were singing a new hymn in the presence of the four living creatures and the elders, a hymn that could be learnt only by the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the world. These are the sons who have kept their virginity (perpetually hated by the worldly) and not been defiled with women; they follow the Lamb wherever he goes; they, out of all people, have been redeemed to be the first-fruits for God *[Jr 2:2-3] and for the Lamb. No lie *[Zp 3:13] was found in their mouths and no fault can be found in them. (In all of history, only the Roman Catholic Church could have produced such a number of such truly holy people.)

angels announce the day of judgement

Then I saw another angel, flying high overhead, sent to announce the gospel of eternity to all who live on the earth, every nation, race, language and tribe. He was calling, 'Fear God and glorify him, because the time has come for him to sit in judgement; worship the maker of heaven and earth and sea *[Ex 20:11] and the springs of water.' (This angel called to all.  Those who would be saved heard and heeded.)  A second angel followed him, calling, 'Babylon has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen (It's program has been erased, even though it continues to function in its dying days, thrashing about like a snake with its head cut off, the head still able to bite.), Babylon which gave the whole world the wine of retribution to drink (for encouraging people to worship false idols).' *[18:2-3; cf. Is 21:9; 51:17] A third angel followed, shouting aloud, 'All those who worship the beast and his statue (falsest, therefore among the most powerful, of idols), or have had themselves branded on the hand or forehead (those who obeyed the false idols instead of God), will be made to drink the wine of God's fury (the exact opposite of the Holy Wine of the Eucharist) which is ready, undiluted, in his cup of retribution; in fire and brimstone *[Gn 19:24] they will be tortured in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb and the smoke of their torture will rise for ever and ever (Their individual living programs are not simply erased,  but given over to eternal agony.). *[Is 34:9-10] There will be no respite, night or day, for those who worship the beast or its statue or accept branding with its name ("Worship" and "accept" are in the present tense, meaning all those who allow their souls to stained with the sin of idol worship in all times.).' This is why there must be perseverance in the saints who keep the commandments of God and faith in Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven say to me, 'Write down: Blessed are those who die in the Lord! (Always remind ourselves, and others, that if we ask forgiveness before death, we recognize Him, and may be saved.) Blessed indeed, the Spirit says; now they can rest for ever after their work, since their good deeds go with them (Good deeds, like the prayers in the Golden Bowls of the Elders, take actual form in Heaven.  The more good deeds we take with us, the better off we will be.).'

the harvest and vintage of the gentiles
*[Dn 7:13; Jl 4:12-13]

14Now in my vision I saw a white cloud and, sitting on it, one like a son of man with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand (St. Gabriel, in a form "like" a son of man?). 15Then another angel (St. Michael?) came out of the sanctuary and shouted at the top of his voice to the one sitting on the cloud, 'Ply your sickle and reap: harvest time has come and the harvest of the earth is ripe.' (The mighty Archangel Gabriel was The One sent to tell Mary that she had been chosen, if she chose, to bring the Second Person of The Trinity to earth, as God had programmed.  It would then be fitting that St. Gabriel was also chosen to let Creation know that The Program had reached the point of harvesting all the souls on earth at this point of The Program.) 16Then the one sitting on the cloud (In this interpretation, St. Gabriel.) set his sickle to work on the earth, and the harvest of earth was reaped. 17Another angel, (St Raphael?) who also carried a sharp sickle, came out of the temple in heaven, 18and the angel in charge of the fire (St. Michael) left the altar and shouted at the top of his voice to the one with the sharp sickle (Here, either Archangel St. Gabriel or Archangel St. Raphael), 'Put your sickle in, and harvest the bunches ("bunches" may refer to those who participated in the same sins.  If each grape represents a human body, those in similar "bunches" of sin were, naturally, together.) from the vine of the earth; all its grapes are ripe.' 19So the angel set his sickle to work on the earth and harvested the whole vintage of the earth and put it into a huge winepress, the winepress of God's anger, 20outside the city, (This "city", seen in this interpretation as the New Jerusalem described elsewherein this Book is where the "grapes", representing souls, are taken.) where it was trodden until the blood that came out of the winepress (Just as the prayers of the saints take actual form in Heaven, so may the sins and sinful natures of those squeezed in the winepress take actual form in their place of punishment, which is previously said to be in eyesight of Heaven.  Here, sin takes a form that filled a space two hundred miles long, three or so feet high, and of unmentioned width.), was up to the horses' bridles as far away as sixteen hundred furlongs (200 miles).

Chapter 15

the hymn of moses and the lamb
*[7:1-8]

And I saw in heaven another sign, great and wonderful: seven angels were bringing the seven plagues that are the last of all, because they exhaust the anger of God. I seemed to be looking at a sea of crystal suffused with fire, and standing by the lake of glass, those who had fought against the beast and won, and against his statue and the number which is his name. They all had harps from God, and they were singing the hymn of Moses, *[Ex 15; in fact the hymn uses Jr 10:7; Ps 86:9] the servant of God, and the hymn of the Lamb: How great and wonderful are all your works, Lord God Almighty; upright and true are all your ways, King of nations. Who does not revere and glorify your name, O Lord? For you alone are holy, and all nations will come and adore you for the many acts of saving justice you have shown.

the seven bowls of plagues

After this, in my vision, the sanctuary, the tent of the Testimony, opened in heaven, and out came the seven angels with the seven plagues, wearing pure white linen, fastened round their waists with belts of gold. One of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the anger of God who lives for ever and ever. The smoke from the glory and the power of God filled the temple * [1 K 8:10] so that no one could go into it until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.

Chapter 16

6:1Then I heard a loud voice *[8:6-12] from the sanctuary calling to the seven angels, 'Go, and empty the seven bowls of God's anger over the earth.' The first angel went and emptied his bowl over the earth; at once, on all the people who had been branded with the mark of the beast and had worshipped its statue, there came disgusting and virulent sores. The second angel emptied his bowl over the sea, and it turned to blood, like the blood of a corpse, and every living creature in the sea died. The third angel emptied his bowl into the rivers and springs of water and they turned into blood. Then I heard the angel of water say, 'You are the Upright One, He who is, He who was, the Holy One, for giving this verdict: they spilt the blood of the saints and the prophets, and blood is what you have given them to drink; it is what they deserve.' And I heard the altar itself say, 'Truly, Lord God Almighty, the punishments you give are true and just.' The fourth angel emptied his bowl over the sun and it was made to scorch people with its flames; but though people were scorched by the fierce heat of it, they cursed the name of God who had the power to cause such plagues, and they would not repent and glorify him. The fifth angel emptied his bowl over the throne of the beast and its whole empire was plunged into darkness. People were biting their tongues for pain, but instead of repenting for what they had done, they cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and sores. The sixth angel emptied his bowl over the great river Euphrates; all the water dried up so that a way was made for the kings of the East to come in. Then from the jaws of dragon and beast and false prophet I saw three foul spirits come; they looked like frogs and in fact were demon spirits, able to work miracles, going out to all the kings of the world to call them together for the war of the Great Day of God the Almighty. - Look, I shall come like a thief. Blessed is anyone who has kept watch, and has kept his clothes on, so that he does not go out naked and expose his shame.- They called the kings together at the place called, in Hebrew, Armageddon. *[i.e. the mountains of Megiddo, symbol of disaster since King Josiah was killed there, 2 K 23:29] The seventh angel emptied his bowl into the air, and a great voice boomed out from the sanctuary, 'The end has come.' Then there were flashes of lightning and peals of thunder and a violent earthquake, unparalleled since humanity first came into existence. *[Dn 12:1] The Great City was split into three parts and the cities of the world collapsed; Babylon the Great was not forgotten: God made her drink the full winecup of his retribution. Every island vanished and the mountains disappeared; 21and hail, with great hailstones weighing a talent each, fell from the sky on the people. They cursed God for sending a plague of hail; it was the most terrible plague.

Chapter 17

the punishment of babylon
the great prostitute

7:1One of the seven angels that had the seven bowls came to speak to me, and said, 'Come here and I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute who is enthroned beside abundan