51. Resolving the Age of Folly

This lesson is an exposition of Revelation 16 and the seven vials of “wrath” unlike anything I have ever known before. I am so very glad! Life is the only thing God wants.

Resolving the curse is about removing the pain from God; resolving the age of folly is about removing the pain from the human experience. The phrase “the end of the world,” is Calvinist nonsense in translating the Scriptures, and it has brought much hostility against God into human thinking. God means the end of the age of stupidity, of the mind-numbing hostility against Him without a cause.

Already Complete. I recently found a snake skin in my orchard, shed by a fairly large non-poisonous snake. We are referencing the snake, here, as just an animal made by God. In fact, we humans shed our skin all the time, but as one cell at a time. Most household dust is skin cells shed off.

The advantage the snake picture gives us is that we can see the entire old skin in one piece. But whether it be human or snake skin shedding off, it happens for ONLY ONE reason. That one reason is that the new is already fully complete. This removal is called THE APOCALYPSE.

Now Visible to All. If I had seen that snake entering my orchard, I would have identified it ONLY by its old skin. I would have known nothing of the new skin already complete. Then, actually, the snake “conquers out from” the old skin, and continues on its way. The new is now visible to all. But everyone is enamored by the old skin; “getting rid” of the old skin is what everyone thinks about.

Jesus returned on the Day of Pentecost and walks this earth today. Christians on this earth ARE His only body. Revelation 12 is about seeing a Church clothed with Jesus; Revelation 16 is about setting creation free.

What Is Seen. The vials of Revelation 16 happen only because something else is already entirely ready to be made visible. That something is Christians on this earth, a hundred million or more believers in Jesus, already living in full salvation now, already submitting to the flow of a pure Word, already turned around upon the Mercy Seat, already just like the Lord Jesus Christ, already setting forth their souls for one another, already walking in committed life together, already loving one another with pure hearts fervently, already the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 16 is the removal of the final human and world stupidities that cause everyone so much unnecessary pain.

The Four Elements. I have shown, in A Highway for God, the extent to which the concepts of earth, water, fire, and air are utterly Biblical, and, in fact, reference God Himself. God is a Rock; our God is a consuming Fire. The water of the Word and the wind of the Spirit.

Jesus, then, every Word God speaks, is the Seed in each of us personally and the Plant growing as us together, rooted in the Love of God, living in heaven, in the Spirit, drawing sustenance from Love and Spirit, energized by Fire and refreshed by Water, the flow and generation of LIFE. These four are the elements, the fabric, of God’s creation.

The Four in the Seven. And, to our astonishment, these four are what the seven bowls are all about. Let’s list them in order. 1. Upon the earth. 2. Upon water as the sea. 3. Upon water as all rivers and springs. 4. Upon fire as the sun. 5. Upon the control of humans over humans. 6. Upon water as the Euphrates. 7. Upon the air.

Each of our four things gets one bowl except water, which gets three. That is important. Then, one bowl is for something else, “the throne of the beast,” that is, the vile practice begun by Adam of humans controlling humans. We are looking at Paul’s gospel!!!

Setting Creation Free. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy and have no value compared towards the glory ready to be unveiled inside of us. For the earnest expectation, the eager anticipation of the creation awaits intently for the unveiling, that is, removing the cover from off of the sons of God. Indeed, the creation was made subject to vanity and purposelessness, not willingly, but through being subjected on the basis of the hope that creation itself will also be made free from the slavery of decay into the freedom and liberty of the glory of the children birthed out from God. Indeed, we are aware that the entire creation groans together and travails together until now (Romans 8:18-22).

The Removal of Corruption. If the Gospel is true, if John’s vision is just Paul’s gospel seen as it really is, in power in the heavens, then I assert that Revelation 16 is nothing other than the fulfillment of these lines in Romans 8, and I intend to see it no other way. Each one of the bowls shows us the removal of corruption, “the slavery of decay,” from God’s creation. The removal happens because the sons of God are unveiled. The result is glorious liberty – the Age of Tabernacles.

Let’s begin our study of the vials with this verse from Chapter 15. One of the four living things gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the pain-filled anger of God.

Two Pictures. I want to draw from two pictures in order for us to grasp the meaning of these bowls and the resolution of this pain-filled anger. The first will be the story of Frodo and the ring, from J.R.R. Tolkien, and the second will be the four living things from Revelation 4 and 5. Both pictures speak the same truth.

The primary purpose in Tolkien’s great story was to take Sauron’s one ring to the fire where it might be destroyed and thus the dark threat of Sauron’s control would be gone. This was Frodo’s task, and all who would help him. The three books are the journey from the Shire to Mt. Doom and then back home again.

The Desire to Control. In Tolkien’s history, before Sauron turned to evil, he was a metal smith, the greatest in his craft among his kind, a species of angelic like beings. As a metal smith, Sauron cared little for woods and fields and running streams and growing things. His shop was a shop of order and in order to work his craft, Sauron required complete control over everything. When he turned to evil, this need for control grew into an obsession that became a deep-seated need to bring all living things entirely under his control. Something living as it wished was unacceptable to him.

Amplifying an Inherent Quality. When he made the one ring for himself, Sauron used all the skill of his craft to fill that ring with the ability to enhance and enable whatever qualities its wearer possessed, but always towards the need to control others. All the rings of power were like this. They did not give new skills to their wearer, rather, they amplified and gave power to the skills the wearer already possessed. Most of the rings also tended towards outward control; only the three rings of the Elves amplified and gave power to that which would lift up and benefit others without control.

The great contradiction that is human evil is a heart made by God to rule coupled with a very weak human frame.

No Control to Amplify. Then Tolkien brought into the picture a unique and fascinating species of beings, the hobbits. Elves, men, and dwarves were all open to the desire to control others, but not hobbits. Hobbits had no thought in the construction of their beings to control their neighbors. Thus the main job of the Shire’s chief was to officiate at various occasions. No hobbit ever sought to control another.

This, then, was why three hobbits, Gollum, Bilbo, and Frodo could carry the ring for years and yet it could find nothing in them to anoint towards power and control. The great ring of power could find nothing in Frodo to enable, because he had no thought towards abusing others.

The Four Living Things. When we looked at the four living things in Revelation 4, I spent little time on them. This time, as one enters the picture again, I wondered if they might not fit the four things being judged in Revelation 16, earth, water, fire, and air. When I looked at their introduction again, I thought, “No way.” I do not bend to make things “fit.”

But I wondered what these four descriptions mean. Thus, I brought each image to mind and thought of the first thing, the first picture it would bring to my impression. Here is what I thought. – A lion? – inherent authority. A calf? – sacrifice. A face of a man? – kindness (Jesus’ face). A flying eagle? – the practice of authority.

Inherent Authority and Sacrifice. And so I saw the extent to which Tolkien was in tune with God’s reality. Here is what it means to me now. A lion is the image of authority, yet it is the lionesses who act, while the male sits watching – inherent authority. Consider fire. Fire is of great importance to humanity, yet I know from deep experience that fire can go from good help to raging enemy in one second’s time.

A calf is sacrifice. Some assert that beef (grass fed) is about the single most nutritious and even healing food that exists for humans. Consider the earth. The earth is the source of human weakness. All sacrifice is of the earth, including our bodies. It was Frodo and Sam’s “weakness” that defeated power.

Kindness – Like Jesus. There is only one first true human, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Paul said that His face is upon us. Here is the face of God, the face of a man. – And be kind with one another, tender-hearted, forgiving, that is, giving favor to each other, in exactly the same way that God inside of Christ gives favor freely to you (Ephesians 4:32).

Consider water, the water of the Word. We are made to be just like the Lord Jesus by the operation in our lives of WORD, a living Spirit Word that transforms our thinking. Thus polluted word, false word, is the greatest enemy of Christ in the human experience, a falseness that gets three bowls of judgment, not just one like the others.

Authority in Action. Eagles symbolize the sons of God, soaring in the heavens, keeping watch over all, shepherding the nations. Natural eagles are looking for food, but sons of God are carefully watching for any time that a human hurting another is not just human stumbling, but rather, of malevolent intent. The moment they see such, they come, turn on the lights, and bring an end to the abuse. This is authority in action, the rule of the Age of Tabernacles.

Consider air. Satan is called “the prince of the power of the air” because his accusation rules the heavens in which all humans live. As eagles, we take that place and turn the heavens all around humans into rivers of life and blessing.

God Has a Path. Here, then, is what the Spirit of God means for us by these four living things. As humans, we are given authority over all things. But authority, like fire, can do as much harm as good.

And so God has a path through which we must pass before we can rule as sons in the heavens. That path is first the sacrifice of weakness, giving all of our human lives to the Father for the sake of others. Second, that path is becoming just like the Lord Jesus Christ until His image, the face of kindness, is the only image we bear. Only then does God trust us to be His Love ruling all.

The Slavery of Decay. Before we look at each of the seven vials, let’s return again to the ruling verse in operation in Revelation 16. “The slavery of decay” in Romans 8 is another term for the curse. It is the causes of all the kinds of awfulness taking place throughout the human experience.

God has given us to know those many specific causes of awfulness, the first of which is unthankfulness and the chief of which is Adam’s lust to control other people. “Into the freedom and liberty of the glory of the children birthed out from God” then MUST mean the removal of all that curses BY replacing each with God’s original intent, fully formed and ready. – Conquering OUT FROM.

How We Interpret. Here, then, is how we will see and interpret the descriptions of each of these bowls of judgment. First, God’s anger goes to the root. The axe is laid to the root (John the Baptist). The root is the cause of each element of awfulness. You see, each of the seven bowls is described in terms of outward appearance and of earthly things. Sons of God see as God sees, looking through appearance to find the root.

Second, we are on God’s side; we share His Heart. We understand His pain, and we give ourselves to its resolution. In each, we act to set creation free and thus to release God to be known by all.

Conquering Out From. Third, although our primary focus is on the root, we neither dismiss nor attempt to “predict” the actual outward experiences of humans on this earth in each scene. Humans are creating their own hell on earth as fast as they can; God is just and right to bring human folly to its fulness and to expose it as utterly false.

Finally, God’s judgment is always Jesus proven faithful and True as every Word God speaks through millions on this earth, proven ready inside the unveiling of Jesus Christ. In every one of these things, we see a conquering out from, a bursting off of temporary appearance by the coming forth of that which is complete already, the Love of God revealed.

Judging Unthankfulness. The first departed and poured out his bowl into the earth; and a nasty and painful sore came upon those having the stamp of the beast and those worshiping its image.

The judgment begins with the earth, and with what humans have done with their God-created weakness. This is appropriate, because unthankfulness for his human form entered Adam’s heart BEFORE any other part of sin and death entered creation. I can see now that through my entire life, the one theme of God in His dealings with me has been to bring me to terms with and to peace in my human weakness and inability.

That Which Removes the Root. More than that, sacrifice is inherent inside of God. Our reciprocal union with God is called Grace on God’s side and sacrifice on ours, and always flows out for others.

The primary excitement of the experts considering artificial intelligence is that it will finally give us the tools to conquer human weakness. They are saying that death will be conquered by 2030. Yet all this desire is given to the beast and the victory of its stamp, the greatest force against the good-speaking of Jesus the human soul has ever known.

Great pain comes upon all who reject sacrifice because we have given our earthy human weakness to God as a living sacrifice, that we might live in union with God for others.

Judging All False Stories of Self. The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood, as of one dead; and every living soul that was in the sea died. Here is the substance of God. – We reckon thus, that if One died for all, then all died (2 Corinthians 5).

The sea is the largest form of water and the first form of water to be judged. We are looking at the general false story of self held by the unregenerate, a story of self they claim to be their “right,” a flow of words inside that refuses the good-speaking of Jesus, but considers themselves to be their only Source.

Removing Self-Entitlement. A “right” is an inherent possession that none can take from us. Our right is to receive Jesus as our Living Word and thus to become like Him as children coming out from God. Calling self to be Source is not a right; it is theft, stealing from God that acknowledgment that belongs to Him alone.

“Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” It is right and just that God would remove this self-entitlement from all those who refuse Jesus in this hour. He is actually removing nothing, for they live only out from a lie, a sea of words that have no meaning and that accomplish nothing. This does not “kill” them; the cross already did that. But I suspect it would leave them lost and with no self-purpose.

Eliminating the Sources. The third poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood.

This vial, then, continues the work of the second, searching out the source of every false story of self among the unregenerate, bringing it into blood. This “blood” represents the life of this world, that which twists the good-speaking of Jesus-sustaining-all into a “life of my own.” In this picture it means “brought to an end.”

The contrast, then, is that they have “shed the blood” of those who belong to Jesus and call themselves only by Him. I think that there is a very great emptiness coming upon all, even as Dr. Naomi Wolf and others have observed.

Removing the Causes of Decay. Here is what I am seeing. You do not heal a sick body by attacking the symptoms, but by giving true nutrition and ending false nutrition. You do not set creation free except you remove the causes of its decay by replacing those causes with a true Word. A story of words – Jesus.

Just because the majority of humans on this earth refuse that true Word does not mean they can retain the false “right” to a story of self-entitlement. As we give ourselves to the Father for the sake of others, sharing life with Him, so we are stripping away the sources of the false story inside the consciousness of this world.

Control Gone Wild. The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to burn men inside of fire. And the men were burned with great heat, and they cursed the name of God. What a contrast this is against a woman clothed with the sun. God’s images are purposeful, filled with meaning.

Now we are eliminating that thing most loved by humans, the authority given by God to mankind, the authority to rule, an authority that runs like wild-fire destroying everything. God gave all authority to Adam before He placed him before Life or death. In essence, God was saying, “Rule by Life or rule by death.” This “great heat” is rule by death released to its fulness. It is the full and final result of human control.

The Elijah Moment. I am not suggesting that there is no literal or outward fulfillment of these things. Rather, any outward fulfillment serves only to point to the real, if humans would hear.

Notice that they do not curse “God,” but rather, His name. That name is written on our foreheads. In essence, when the power controllers see people on this earth laying down their lives to set all these “deplorable” people free into honor and regard, their own fury will “burn them up.” This is the contrast God is setting, for the people of this world will see both. And it is at that moment of seeing that Elijah speaks his word.

Eliminating Control. The fifth poured out his bowl upon the throne of the beast, and its kingdom became dark, and they were gnawing their tongues for the anguish. Just as the second and third bowl are closely related, eliminating the false story of self, so are the fourth and fifth bowls, eliminating the authority to rule.

These things are truly about Adam’s choice, valuing control over his wife as everything and life with God as nothing. This unveiling taking place, things seen as they really are, is not just about the power controllers of this world, but that root inside each person that would manipulate and abuse others (the Lord Jesus as others) for some sense of self-gain.

A Mighty Collapse. We are looking at a mighty collapse of human political power, not just at large, but also local attempts of various gangs of humans to dominate others and even individual manipulation. I picture in my mind Peter Jackson’s depiction of Sauron’s great tower of Barad-Dur falling in ruin just after his ring of power-to-control is consumed by fire.

These people will have nothing left when their self-entitled power to rule is stripped from them. They will be as a gnawing agony of anguish in the shadows, wishing for something that does not exist. Yet they have only refused Love Revealed, and that only for a season, according to Paul.

Ending the Lies. The sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings of the rising sun might be prepared. The Euphrates is the river that nourishes and gives “life” to Babylon, that fills the “golden cup,” the river of death. This is the third of the three judgments on water. God is right and just to END the lies of Nicene theology.

The “kings of the rising sun” does NOT mean the Chinese marching to war. It means that the appearance of authority stripped from the human lust to control is now given to the sons of God, clothed with Jesus and dwelling in the Spirit.

The False Call Dies. As we saw in A Highway for God, when the true caller begins to call those who belong to Jesus into all the life of Christ, so the false call tries in vain to be heard. And, losing all its strength, it dies.

Yet the river of death, the false call, vanishes away only because the river of Life, the golden oil of a pure Spirit Word, is flowing out from God into the Church. This is the True Story of God inside the consciousness of humans as God intended from the beginning, the Words that are God coming through Jesus to become the words that are us. We are speaking of ending and of Completion.

Altering the Heavens. The seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a great voice came out from the throne in the temple, saying, “Become!” The “throne in the temple” is the sons of God upon the Mercy Seat, inside of the Church.

When we look at the lightning, thunder, and earthquake that seems to follow this pronouncement, “Become,” we do not see them as the result of that command, but rather the setting. This is the same as how we saw the trumpets. This is the judgment on the realms of spirit, the prince of the power of the air, the false “caller of death.”

The Power of Sacrifice. Only one thing brings an end to the command of death in the realms of the spirit surrounding and energeoing all humans, the air. The one thing is the command of LIFE. – Become! This is the exact same word as in Chapter 11. “The kingdom of the world-cosmos has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ…”

This is what we have been doing, speaking Christ into the heavens. This is the power of sacrifice, going back to the beginning, GIVING THANKS inside of and for the sake of all things, to turn all to GOODNESS. We are changing everything, BECOME visible to all.

Let’s Set Creation Free. A most amazing thing has just happened. At the beginning of this study, when I first compared the seven bowls of wrath with the seven overcomings and the removal of the seven seals, I saw ZERO connection between the sevens. Now I see all connections, although I still don’t want to “force-fit” the patterns together. God uses many patterns, all speaking the same truth, but in quite different ways.

And I feel so invigorated – ENERGEOED – in seeing the absolute authority given to us to set creation free. Let us place all our confidence upon God, for we walk with Him. Let us give our all to the Father and set creation free.

Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is titled “A Golden Cup.” For that lesson read all of Revelation 17 and 18 at least twice in the JSV. Although we have drawn from Chapter 17 prior to now, this will be the only lesson from these two chapters.

Those dwelling on the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her pornographic immorality. – She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with detestable things and the impurity of her pornographic immorality. – “Come out of her, My people, so that you may not fellowship with her sins.”

Our Christian lives have been filled with detestable ideas best described as “fellowship with sin.” Be prepared in the Spirit for next time, for we will consider awfulness.

Let’s Pray Together. “Father, we are humbled inside of Your presence, for You have caused us to know Your Way through us for the sake of all our Christian brethren.

“Father, we do not look to setting creation free until Your Church upon this earth is walking in All-Salvation now, clothed with Jesus inside of life together. Yet, as we see our Christian brethren today, those who are members of us and we of them, we see a people who have given themselves to evil greater than anything in history, from receiving the alteration of their human genetics to worshipping the revived head of the beast, even as it kills its neighbors, the Lord Jesus, once again.

“We know, Oh Father, what Jesus is doing through us. In full repudiation of Adam, we give ourselves to You, with all our hearts, that we might receive Grace and Life from You, Oh God, for the sake of all our Christian brethren.

“Inside of the name of Jesus, we see and call forth thousands of pastors all over this planet, who are right now being called of the Spirit to be like the Lord Jesus in all truth and sacrifice. Inside of the name of Jesus, we see and call forth millions of Christians across the earth, who are right now being marked for Your Devoted City, Oh God, regardless of any outward stain. – Come out of her, My people.

“We know that our call prevails, for our call is stronger than the call of the false. Our call is Jesus through us.”