Unavoidable Consequences - Rumore notes 138

 Revelation 14

9 Another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead, or on his hand, 10 he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.

saying with a great voice

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet saying, "What you see, write in a book and send..." (Revelation 1:10-11)

If anyone worships the beast and his image

All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been killed. (Revelation 13:8)

He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. He makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. (Revelation 13:12)

It was given to him to give breath to it, to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause as many as wouldn't worship the image of the beast to be killed. (Revelation 13:15)

As we unpacked previously, worship is all about where we acquire our sense of worth and who we authorize to assign to us our identity. Worship involves who we come to reflect in the way we relate to both our own perceptions about who we are as well as how to treat those around us. These warnings are addressed to all who admire and become like the beast and its image and reflect their disposition.

receives a mark on his forehead, or on his hand

He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, to be given marks on their right hands, or on their foreheads; and that no one would be able to buy or to sell, unless he has that mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name. (Revelation 13:16-17)

The first went, and poured out his bowl into the earth, and it became a harmful and evil sore on the people who had the mark of the beast, and who worshiped his image. (Revelation 16:2)

The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. (Revelation 19:20)

It is important to keep in mind here what this mark actually represents. First, this is not an outward mark that can be seen physically but rather a disposition shaped by the source relied on from which one gets their identity and learns how to act like themselves. Because we are reflectors by design, whatever opinions and beliefs we receive and retain in our perception of what our God is like and how He relates to us and those around us, determines the reflection or image of who we become like. This is the likeness aspect of our creation design, for we take on the likeness, disposition, attitude and characteristics of whomever we worship, as that is what worship actually means.

Let me be even more plain here. Many people have been carefully taught various ideas about the composition, meaning and implications of this mark as well as the composition of the seal of God. In my heritage it was deeply engrained into me that the mark of the beast was primarily about compliance to laws requiring observance of Sunday as the right day to worship God. In contrast, the seal of God was taught to mean keeping the right day of worship, the seventh-day Sabbath. This was bolstered by select texts and logical explanations to prove this as truth, and these instructions were cemented into my psyche with generous doses of fear in ensure that I never forget which supernatural entity had the most power to punish those who resisted compliance to their demands.

I am not at all suggesting that the issue of which day is right to worship God and rest from our labors will not be a key element involved in the showdown involving the mark of the beast and his image. But what is becoming increasingly clear to me is that when I simply allow Scripture to define these symbols through the context of the teachings and disposition of Jesus, I see far more evidence convicting me that the mark of the beast has much more to do with becoming infected by the disposition of the beast who relies on fear, force, intimidation, compulsion and law enforcement to compel compliance to its demands more than anything else.

I have little doubt that enforced Sunday rest will be a central aspect of Satan's efforts to take total control over all who dwell on the earth, and he is even now working through human agents bent on acquiring supremacy by any means possible. Yet even though Sunday observance will likely will play a pivotal role in the final showdown between Christ and Satan, simply resisting Sunday rest and clinging tenaciously to the practice of seventh-day Sabbath observance may actually be discovered to be one of the most seductive deceptions the enemy has contrived to deceive us into believing we are staunchly standing for truth when in our heart we have failed to be transformed by the power of God's love for us personally, setting us free to love our enemies as Jesus commanded and demonstrated so clearly by His teachings and example.

I agree that the first angel's message outlines how the Sabbath of creation is a symbol of God's authority and is a key aspect of living in harmony with the truth. Yet just as the Jews wandered so far from God's will because their hearts were hardened against love to the extent they had the Author of love and life crucified for violating their rules, so too we are in just as much danger of following their example by putting more emphasis on keeping the right day while failing to be transformed by the presence of the One who is Lord of the Sabbath.

Does this lessen the importance of the Sabbath truth? Some may see this stance as scandalous and declare me a heretic for suggesting such an idea. Yet I am under increasing conviction that clinging tenaciously to keeping the 'right' day of worship may be a ploy of the enemy to divert our attention away from the true purpose of both the Law and especially the Sabbath. If I fail to experience genuine heart transformation that brings me into alignment with the disposition of the meek and humble Lamb of God, no amount of Sabbath obedience will have any power to save me. If I know all the right facts, have all the right doctrines, fiercely cling to the right rituals and adhere to all the instructions regarding what to do on what day, yet fail to receive a disposition of unconditional love and forgiveness for my enemies without resistance, I will discover too late that knowing the right facts and keeping the right day holy will prove to be a false hope, and I have inadvertently received the real mark of the beast despite all my efforts to avoid its outward mark of Sunday observance.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. (1 Corinthians 13:1-5 NIV)

Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm; for love is strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a very flame of Yahweh. Many waters can't quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man would give all the wealth of his house for love, he would be utterly scorned. (Song of Solomon 8:6-7)

He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the Earth belongs to the Earth, and speaks of the Earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. What he has seen and heard, of that he testifies; and no one receives his witness. He who has received his witness has set his seal to this, that God is true. (John 3:31-33)

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35)

Now he who establishes us with you in Christ, and anointed us, is God; who also sealed us, and gave us the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts. (2 Corinthians 1:21-22)

to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ: in whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation,--in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, (Ephesians 1:12-13)

The Jews of Christ's day were deceived by the same spirit very much alive today. They were obsessive about protecting the sanctity of the seventh-day Sabbath of the Lord. They were constantly criticizing and condemning Christ for violating their Sabbath laws intended to protect people from infringing on the Sabbath by improper behavior on that sacred day. They misunderstood His actions and motives and so became incensed over His seeming careless disregard for the holiness of that day. They argued that His Sabbath violations proved He could not possibly be the promised Messiah, for the true Messiah would be a faithful law-keeper, not a law-breaker. But love was not on their priority list.

Jesus did keep the law perfectly, but not in the way prescribed by religion that darkens and obscures the true meaning and purpose of the Law of God. Religion focuses on the externals rather than the condition of the heart, and the same deception is just as present now as it has ever been. The Law of God is merely a description of what a person's life will look like when living in harmony with Spirit of God who is love, light and truth. The Sabbath will indeed be prominent in the experience of people who genuinely appreciate the true reason for its existence as an outward expression of their belief in the real truth about God's heart. But a symptom without an authentic cause is a deception.

Clinging to a symbol without experiencing a transformed heart is like pinning fruit to a dead tree to make it look alive. The underlying issue in the final showdown between Christ and Satan is not merely about keeping up appearances or a profession of faith in God. Rather it is all about heart condition and what character is shaped through choices we make about God's disposition towards us. The true rest of the Sabbath according to Hebrews 4:10 means abstaining from trying to change God's disposition towards us and resting fully in the truth that He is completely good all the time, is only light with no darkness at all, and that His love and forgiveness are unconditional forever. As we rest in this love and live in freedom from fear, our lives are transformed to reflect His glory, the same glory as witnessed in the reflection seen in the life and love of Jesus Christ.

What this angel warns us about is the extreme danger of refusing a love of this truth and failing to avail ourselves of its healing power to restore us to reflect His likeness. Those who demand that God must resort to force to maintain the integrity of His Law, who insist that God relates to His subjects with hierarchical authority like the beast and the image does, are assimilating the disposition of the dragon through worship of his surrogates. This third angel is simply describing the unavoidable consequences in the lives of all who cling to such beliefs that transforms their life to reflect the disposition of the beast rather than the Lamb. This is the crux of what this angel's message is all about, for to spurn the Lamb's version of God in favor of worshipping a god of force and compulsion in order to keep law and order in society, such ones give their authority to the dragon, and the result is what is described in this message we are continuing to explore further.

he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God

Is this drinking of the wine forced on these individuals, or is this simply describing what happens? It makes a great deal of difference how we think God is related to these causes and effects.

Another, a second angel, followed, saying, "Babylon the great has fallen, which has made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality." (Revelation 14:8)

The angel thrust his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vintage of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. (Revelation 14:19)

The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. (Revelation 16:19)

Let's review the meaning of the wrath of God in contrast to alternative versions of wrath.

There are two Greek words usually translated into the English as wrath. In Romans 1 we find the classic definition of the true meaning of God's kind of wrath, and the word used there is orge which means intense desire, excitement of the mind.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, (Romans 1:18)

This word is about intensity of emotion but is not locked to negative emotion but rather has to do with intensity of feeling; it is simply an amplifier of whatever emotion is present. In Romans 1 the subsequent verses explain what God does when His wrath is being revealed – He releases or hands people over to the natural consequences of their own choices despite His good desires for them. This is what happened in the case of Moses arguing with God at the burning bush, the very first mention of God's anger or wrath in the Bible. When we insist on having our own way and doing our own thing in resistance to His will for us, we deny His loving will and desire to bless us and He is compelled to let us go the way we have chosen for ourselves in contradiction to what is best for us.

We need a better understanding of the intense feelings aroused in God's heart related to our freedom of choice when we turn our hearts away from the true Source of love, life, peace and joy found in His presence. When we rebel against the principles of life, love and truth, and throw ourselves into indulging in evil that defaces His image in our soul, moving us towards self-destruction, God does sit by complacently while we ruin our purpose to be recipients and expressions of His agape love. Yet without freedom to choose for ourselves who will define us and how to act like ourselves, we have no capacity to respond positively to love. This is why God will not violate our freedom by forcing us to live in harmony with the principles of life in which we are designed to thrive.

The second Greek word used here in Revelation is thumos. This is fierce passion. It means hard breathing, blowing, even smoking. Its root word conveys ideas of sacrifice and immolation. This word is far more negative than orge, yet when applied to God it must still align completely with the revelation of His heart and ways solely based on the kind of God revealed by His only designated representative for Him – Jesus who is the only true Christ, both for us and on behalf of God.

Interestingly at the end of this sentence we find the other word for wrath – orge – only here it is translated as indignation or in some versions as anger. In this sentence we find both these words which helps give us a better perspective as to how to interpret them relying on the lens of how Jesus demonstrates the truth about His Father's disposition.

Why is wine mentioned here in connection with God's wrath? I believe this may be something to explore more closely. What kind of wine is connected with God, and how might such wine bring about such intense negative effects given what we understand about God's disposition in the Lamb? We will look at this more when we move to the next part of this verse.

But thus says Yahweh, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children. I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. (Isaiah 49:25-26)

Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem, that have drunk at the hand of Yahweh the cup of his wrath; you have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it. There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she has brought up. These two things have happened to you. Who will bemoan you? Desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword; how shall I comfort you? Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of Yahweh, the rebuke of your God. Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but now with wine: Thus says your Lord Yahweh, and your God who pleads the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath; you shall no more drink it again: and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and you have laid your back as the ground, and as the street, to those who go over. (Isaiah 51:17-23)

For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to me: take this cup of the wine of wrath at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. They shall drink, and reel back and forth, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. (Jeremiah 25:15-16)

I believe it is necessary we clarify in our own thinking as much as possible how we perceive the emotions and feelings of God and his actual disposition when described as being angry or full of wrath. Taking into account that we have been given capacity to appreciate God's feelings as we are designed in His image, it is possible to understand what these words mean when describing God's kind of wrath and anger. But keep in mind it is not our usual version of wrath and anger.

So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for the anger of man doesn't produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. (James 1:19-21)

Seek you Yahweh while he may be found; call you on him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says Yahweh. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:6-9)

In no way am I suggesting that God does not get angry. Rather, His anger is for very different reasons than most of our anger, and even more importantly, when God is angry, the way He acts like Himself is almost always nearly opposite of how we typically act when we get angry.

therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the nations, and against all Edom, that have appointed my land to themselves for a possession with the joy of all their heart, with despite of soul, to cast it out for a prey. Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and tell the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my wrath, because you have borne the shame of the nations: (Ezekiel 36:5-6)

If we have any capacity to care and long for the best for our own children and for those we love dearly, then we have a point of reference to be aware of what these intense words mean in regards to how God must feel when He is forced to release His protective power and agencies around those He longs to rescue and restore to health and life in His presence. The key factor we must pay attention to here to get proper perspective, is the core principle of freedom. Unless we appreciate the centrality of freedom of choice (meaning no hint of threat of force or punishment involved) in the way God designed for us to relate to Him and with each other, it will be impossible to properly understand how His wrath aligns with the foundational truths that God is light with no darkness at all in Him, and He is love that never relies on fear to elicit compliance to His will.

Wrath here involves both Greek words in the same sentence and describes the intense conflict of emotions that tears God's heart open. It was evidenced most clearly in the ripping apart of the literal heart of Jesus causing His death on the cross. The opposing passions that were allowed to contradict each other in the emotions and nervous system of Jesus' body during the last hours of his earthly ministry, demonstrate in the physical realm what God experiences in the spirit realm relating to the very same issues that brought about the death of our Savior. For it was not the beatings or the physical abuse suffered at the hands of evil men that killed Jesus, but rather the conflicting emotions that ruptured His literal heart and tore Him up emotionally so intently that it cost Him His physical life.

What we find here in Revelation is not different in some way from what Jesus demonstrated while living among us here on earth as a human. Away with the sick notion that the example of Jesus while on earth was only a partial revelation of what God is like, but when He comes again the second time His true colors will be manifest when He resorts to using His power to impose violent punishments and inflict severe harm on all who resist obeying His will. This is the doctrine of demons that has infiltrated every religion on earth but is not of God. Our own safety is to filter every idea, every interpretation, every understanding of who God is and how He acts like Himself only through the lens of the Jesus of Galilee who described Himself as meek and lowly and humble.

prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger

The word here translated as anger comes from the Greek word orge which elsewhere is translated as wrath such as in Romans 1:18. Here we find it coupled with the other word for wrath, thumos and now described as being unmixed or undiluted. The question then is, why is it unmixed? When or how was it mixed previously, and with what was it mixed before that is no longer present? This is important to appreciate in light of interpreting these symbols in light of the Lamb version of God.

They told the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath has come; and who is able to stand?" (Revelation 6:16-17)

What is lost in the thinking of those who view the passion of the Lamb of God as fierce anger rather than passionate love, is the truth about God's heart. They have rejected God's mercy in favor of belief in a god who enforces his laws with retribution against all who disobey or offend him. They view God in primarily a legal way, imagining that He is more interested in conformity to rules rather than longing for reconciliation of an intimate relationship with His estranged children.

By clinging to such dark views despite all God has done to repair their thinking about Him, they have a permanent set in their character that cannot be altered so that no amount of truth or revelation of love has any power to heal their hearts. From this perspective we see how the true meaning of God's wrath fits here, for when one has given themselves over completely to evil until their character and heart is impossible to repair, the only option left is for God to respect their determined choice to believe The Lie and to release them to experience the natural outcome of those choices, which is living in a false reality shaped and filtered by the dark, fear-based assertions of the enemy of truth.

The greatest danger for any of us is clinging to lies that feel true but only lead to death. God's judgment simply describes how when we encounter the truth that God is love and light with no darkness in Him, we react based on the interpretation that fits our settled choice of what we believe God's disposition is towards us. This is worship – choosing one side or the other as to what God is like which in turn determines our beliefs about our own identity as His reflectors. Unless we embrace the version of God as displayed by the slaughtered Lamb as the only accurate version, and allow the Spirit of the Lamb to transform our hearts, minds and disposition to reflect that version, then when we are confronted by exposure to the vivid revelation of the real truth by the up close encounter in the presence of the Lamb and the holy angels, our opinion and gut reaction to this intense revelation of the power of love will only feel like He is bringing punishment to us. This is the unavoidable result for every person whose perception of God has remained trapped in the lies of the dragon rather than transformed by the principles of love and life as experienced by those who follow the Lamb.

What can we learn from tracing the history of the cup as related to God and to the Lamb?

But Jesus answered, "You don't know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They said to him, "We are able." (Matthew 20:22)

He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, "All of you drink it, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins. But I tell you that I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on, until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's Kingdom." (Matthew 26:27-29)

He went forward a little, fell on his face, and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not what I desire, but what you desire." (Matthew 26:39)

In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord's cup in a manner unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he doesn't discern the Lord's body. For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep. For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn't be judged. But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait one for another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest your coming together be for judgment.... (1 Corinthians 11:25-34)

The cup of fellowship shared by those whose hearts have been softened by the tenderness, kindness, compassion and love of our Lord and Savior, is experienced as just the opposite as experienced through the mindset of the enemy that makes them afraid of closeness to God, not attracted. They interpret the blood of the Lamb to mean God will seek revenge and severely punish all who refuse to comply with His demands, despite the fact this is opposite to the actual truth. They interpret the blood of the Lamb that represents Jesus' covenant of love with His children, to be a threat of vengeance and bloodshed against all who dare oppose His will. They view the wine of the covenant of Jesus with His disciples the same as the intoxicating obsession with power in the wine used by the great harlot.

In other words, when we perceive God through the mindset of the beast and his image, the original meanings of all the symbols get perverted to fit how they are used based on the ways of this world instead of according to the Spirit. Fear interprets love as wrath, and blood infers death rather than life.

The true meaning and purpose of the blood of Christ is to cleanse our heart of distrust of God's heart. The intoxicating harlot's wine filled with lies and slander against heaven will cause us to react in terror and torment in the presence of the Lamb with the angels instead of ecstasy. The blood of the covenant is mistaken as the opposite of what the Lamb came to accomplish. Without a corrected appreciation of the real truth of mercy and the kindness of God that alone can lead us to genuine repentance, our final condition will be hopeless as there is no capacity to return to the sweetness of love we have spurned. The wine is unmixed with the truth of God's mercy, and without this key ingredient our reaction to drinking it turns tragic instead of producing healing and restoration to joy.

Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily. I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place. Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand.

When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it. As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message." For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in. (Isaiah 28:16-20)

For in the hand of Yahweh there is a cup, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out. Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and drink it to its very dregs. (Psalms 75:8)

The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning? (Isaiah 33:14)

Behold, they cried out, saying, "What do we have to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?" (Matthew 8:29)

When we consider carefully these passages relating to the cup and wine associated with God rather than the harlot of Babylon, and we understand that the missing ingredient in the wine that causes the wicked to live in madness and terror is belief in God's mercy, the question then becomes, why is this wine without mercy? Is it because God has ceased to be merciful, or because mercy is rejected?

It happened, when the priests were come out of the holy place, (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, and did not keep their divisions; also the Levites who were the singers, all of them, even Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brothers, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals and stringed instruments and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them one hundred twenty priests sounding with trumpets;) it happened, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking Yahweh; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised Yahweh, saying, For he is good; for his loving kindness [mercy] endures forever; that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of Yahweh, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of Yahweh filled the house of God. (2 Chronicles 5:11-14)

I count 40 times in Scripture that this phrase recurs emphasizing the truth that God's mercy endures forever. Yet there comes a time when the wicked, those who worship the false representation of God and receive the mark of the beast and its image, will drink the wine of wrath from the cup of God that here is said to be unmixed, undiluted. The conclusion has to be, since God's mercy does endure for all eternity, that the only reason it is missing is due to their intransigent unbelief in this reality, leaving them to perceive the passion of God as being just like their passion which puts them into terror instead of awe of God's true glory.

Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.

But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for [in] yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.

There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God. (Romans 2:1-11 NAS95)

What becomes clear here for those with discernment from the Spirit of truth, is that judgment as Jesus defined it in John 3:19-21 is what happens in reaction to exposure to the light of glory. The light of God's true heart does not change in relation to one side or the other, for the fact is that God is never partial, something important to keep in mind. Thus we must conclude that the contents of cup of wrath that wicked drink is the same as the cup Christ drank during the last hours of His life here on earth, and what caused the death of Christ was the weight of guilt, condemnation and shame laid on His psyche internally resulting from all the sin of every human being from all of history from beginning to end.

It may sound strange, but in truth the cup Jesus consented to drink in Gethsemane corresponded to the laver in the sanctuary symbolism which contained the water used to wash away the filth and blood involved in the sacrificial system representing the sins of the people. This water increasingly filled with the pollutants and residue of the sanctuary rituals represented what Isaiah describes as the iniquities of us all that was laid on our Messiah in order to reopen a way for many who would be willing to be reconciled.

He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease: and as one from whom men hide their face he was despised; and we didn't respect him. Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for [by] our transgressions, he was crushed for [by] our iniquities; the punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn't open his mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute, so he didn't open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who among them considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the disobedience of my people to whom the stroke was due? They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Yahweh shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by the knowledge of himself shall my righteous servant justify many; and he shall bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:3-11)

The only way to discern the true meaning and purpose of the sacrifice of this Messiah who allowed all the natural effects of our sins to come on Him, is to view it apart from a legal perspective. Otherwise it distorts our perceptions of God's disposition as being different from that of His Christ who came to this world to reveal the heart of the Father, not to appease Him. What this passage describes is the willing Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world because He identified with the false identity humanity received as soon as anyone ever sinned, and took full responsibility for all of our sins upon Himself in order to make way for us to identify with His innocence and right relation with God in order to be restored back to living in harmony with heaven and thrive once again in the presence of His passionate fire of love again. This is what both the Father and the Son eagerly look towards as the outcome of this amazing display of love and grace. This is the pleasure of Yahweh that will prosper in His hand. This is the true saving knowledge, the reinstatement of intimacy with the heart of the Godhead that resets our thinking and spirit and perspective when we embrace the saving truth that our sin identity does not belong to us because our Savior purchased this identity with His own blood and let it kill His body on the cross.

This is the mercy, the loving kindness (in Hebrew checed), the magnetic beauty, attractiveness, goodness that must be at the center of what we believe God to be like. Without this core ingredient present in our heart to properly appreciate the nature of the wine given for His disciples to drink as our bond of covenant fellowship with the heart of God, all that is left in our thinking is a God who sooner or later will be compelled to use violent retribution against His enemies to enforce the laws that have been broken, and punishment is the opposite of mercy.

This is the choice every one of us faces, for what we choose to believe God to be like in His disposition towards us is the determining factor as to our reaction when we become exposed to the intense passion of His heart and how we interpret and experience that passion.

For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify the Son of God for themselves again, and put him to open shame. (Hebrews 6:4-6)

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries. A man who disregards Moses' law dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will he be judged worthy of, who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:26-29)

But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:39)

Now therefore fear Yahweh, and serve him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt; and serve you Yahweh. If it seem evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh. The people answered, Far be it from us that we should forsake Yahweh, to serve other gods; (Joshua 24:14-16)

"Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)