Commercial Praise - Rumor note 162

Revelation 16

4 The third poured out his bowl into the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. 5 I heard the angel of the waters saying, "You are righteous, who are and who were, you Holy One, because you have judged these things. 6 For they poured out the blood of the saints and the prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve this." 7 I heard the altar saying, "Yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments."

who are and who were

While testing the nature of the message from this angel, it is helpful to learn this is only one of two places where lists similar to this contain only two key factors of what is normally a set of three. It is true that there are discrepancies between translations of this verse, but here we will explore potential ideas that could arise if this only lists the first 2 of 3 attributes of God here.

John, to the seven assemblies that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from God, who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before his throne; (Revelation 1:4)

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." (Revelation 1:8)

The four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around about and within. They have no rest day and night, saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come!" (Revelation 4:8)

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)

This next passage is the other of the only two times where this is apparently short listed like it is here in this verse. What might we learn by comparing these, particularly as relating to the sentiments expressed and the context of these two passages?

The seventh angel sounded, and great voices in heaven followed, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ. He will reign forever and ever!" The twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God's throne, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: "We give you thanks, Lord God, the Almighty, the one who is and who was; because you have taken your great power, and reigned. The nations were angry, and your wrath came, as did the time for the dead to be judged, and to give your bondservants the prophets, their reward, as well as to the saints, and those who fear your name, to the small and the great; and to destroy those who destroy the earth." (Revelation 11:15-18)

Is there a discrepancy in the words of the 4 living creatures in chapter 4? Apparently these 24 elders represent the people of God on earth. Might they reflect to some extent progressive revelation by those they represent? Compare this with the familiar pattern we found in the Song of Moses, where the view of God as being both rewarding and punishing figures prominently in the nature of the praises offered up to Him. Or maybe something else is going on here.

Here is another passage that might be similar but not quite the same. Here the beast seeks to imitate attributes of God, yet as usual subtly distorts them. Satan always distorts truths about God in order to advance his own deceptive agendas.

The beast that you saw was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into destruction. Those who dwell on the earth and whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel when they see that the beast was, and is not, and shall be present. (Revelation 17:8)

you Holy One

To the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says these things: (Revelation 3:7)

The four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around about and within. They have no rest day and night, saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come!" (Revelation 4:8)

They cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" (Revelation 6:10)

Who wouldn't fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you only are holy. For all the nations will come and worship before you. For your righteous acts have been revealed. (Revelation 15:4)

For I am Yahweh your God. Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy: neither shall you defile yourselves with any kind of creeping thing that moves on the earth. For I am Yahweh who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. (Leviticus 11:44-45)

One called to another, and said, "Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!" (Isaiah 6:3)

You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. You will rejoice in Yahweh. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 41:16)

Thus says Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall worship; because of Yahweh who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you. (Isaiah 49:7)

For your Maker is your husband; Yahweh of Armies is his name: and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; the God of the whole earth shall he be called. (Isaiah 54:5)

For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite. (Isaiah 57:15)

Aren't you from everlasting, Yahweh my God, my Holy One? We will not die. Yahweh, you have appointed him for judgment. You, Rock, have established him to punish. (Habakkuk 1:12)

Immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, "Ha! What do we have to do with you, Jesus, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know you who you are: the Holy One of God!" (Mark 1:23-24)

This angel of the waters affirms that God is holy. All these passages confirm this and we sense no disagreement with this fact. But what definition of holy might be in the thinking expressed by this angel? Might it be the kind of holy that is in vogue with many today, who insist that God’s holiness means He becomes incensed and offended by our sins and is compelled to lash out in fury in violent punishment? Even prophets have puzzled over this as seen in this frustrated outcry from Habakkuk as he tries to make sense out of why wicked people are allowed to plunder and destroy God’s people.

Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice goes forth perverted.

You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously, and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he, (Habakkuk 1:3-4,13)

This is often used to enforce the notion that God’s holiness means He cannot stand to see evil and reacts by either hiding from it or imposing punishment. Yet this is not even consistent with a careful reading of the context which reveals that this assertion by Habakkuk is more about his own feelings rather than a revelation of God’s character. Clearly this has been an issue of contention for millennia and has spawned all sorts of teachings that continue to obscure the light brought to us by His Son.

Much more could be said about this topic, and it is plausible this angel of the waters may represent this mindset regarding the holiness of God, celebrating that at last the desires of righteous people throughout history for ‘just retribution’ against their persecutors has finally been realized. I will leave this be for the moment, but to simply share the perspective of Peter who spent significant time learning a radically different perspective of what God’s holiness means that definitely challenged his own paradigms about what God should or shouldn’t do with wicked people.

Therefore, prepare your minds for action, be sober and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ-- as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance, but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior; because it is written, "You shall be holy; for I am holy." (1 Peter 1:13-16)

because you have judged these things

Here is what we must examine more closely, for far more critical than how the eternal nature of God is described as only present and past. This is more overt and should concern us. This resonates with a deception that is difficult to unmask as it feels so true. It parallels the opening song in chapter 19 displaying the contrast between the old paradigm of how God is viewed with the more complete version resonating with the Lamb as re-presented after correction is accepted from verse 5.

After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Hallelujah! Salvation, power, and glory belong to our God: for true and righteous are his judgments. For he has judged the great prostitute, who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand." (Revelation 19:1-2)

Notice the difference in emphasis. Now consider a contrast found in this passage in Hebrews.

Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as you see the Day approaching. 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?

For we know him who said, "Vengeance belongs to me," says the Lord, "I will repay." Again, "The Lord will judge his people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings; partly, being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions; and partly, becoming partakers with those who were treated so. (Hebrews 10:24-33)

In this passage we find phrases that highlight this contrast. The true gospel these believers originally embraced had radically transformed their hearts and lives. It was the true Good News, the truth of God’s unconditional love and graciousness in sharp contrast to previous perceptions they had of Him rooted in a legal, performance-oriented definition of righteousness.

consider how to provoke one another to love and good works

assembling together... exhorting one another

we have received the knowledge of the truth

the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified

the Spirit of grace

remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened

being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions

becoming partakers with those who were treated so

These are all related to believing our identity originates with God. These people had received an advanced awareness of the true meaning of the blood of the covenant, for they did not view it in the commerce context of debts and credits, but were being transformed. The evidence of the blood of Christ is proof that He has already taken away our condemnation and false identity as sinners, opening the way for us to believe and embrace His identity in us as loved children of God.

This exposes The Lie that identity is based on performance. God is not righteous because He ‘judges.’ He is righteous because of His Word. His actions merely express and confirm His Word.

The mistaken version of identity emphasized in the law system administered by Moses (and sometimes by angels) was predicated on the belief that works were the basis of identity. Consequently we judge God based on what we think He does or has done rather than on what He says and reveals about Himself through His Christ. Jesus came to refute this mistaken identity, both for God and for us. It is incongruent to believe that our identity and worth are not based on what we do or don’t do, yet continue to maintain that God is good and righteous because He does good or righteous things. The key word here is the word ‘because.’ What we believe about what comes before and after this word makes all the difference in what song version defines our thinking and motivates our heart. The angel of the waters asserts that God is righteous because He executes judgment on those because they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, so punishments are inflicted to rectify the imbalance in the accounting books of justice; God has given them blood to drink.

This thinking presumes God is the one directly causing these plagues. This mindset is expressed by recipients of these plagues later in this chapter. Why should we believe the assertions of those who dwell on the earth, who get their identity from the beast and his image? They define their identity on performance and relative value. Their version of justice is balancing scales measuring relative worth, paying back evil with evil and rewarding good behavior. This all originated in the mind of Lucifer who developed the system of this world. But this is not the kingdom of heaven. These familiar paradigms must be replaced with the heart truth as it is in Jesus, the true King of kings and Lord of lords. His justice is about restoration of God’s original design and plan based on love alone, not settling scores or paying off debts and offenses or demanding reparations and punishment.

Now in contrast to doing all things in love (what the believers addressed in Hebrews had been taught and had tasted previously), the opposite mindset is described to remind them of those old familiar patterns of religion designed to induce fear that comes from living under the law.

if we sin willfully [this means choosing to distrust God’s goodness, despising His kindness and mercy as the basis of His identity, resisting belief that He is only light with no darkness at all]

there remains...a certain fearful expectation of judgment

[expectation of]a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries

[under] Moses' law [one] dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses

How much worse punishment, do you think, will he be judged worthy of [the operative principle involved here is the judging of worth, deserving, earning, payback for offenses]

trodden under foot the Son of God [refusing the revelation of the truth about God brought to us through the life and death of the only accurate representative of God]

counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing

For we know him who said, "Vengeance belongs to me," says the Lord, "I will repay." Again, "The Lord will judge his people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

What does this we know Him mean? This is fundamental for salvation. Jesus says that to know Him is to have eternal life, so it is not a peripheral issue but is central for our eternal destiny. This is an issue of the heart, for truly knowing Him involves our deepest longings, fears, hopes and cravings. To really know God involves what our heart believes about His motives and how He relates to us. That is directly influenced by the paradigm through which we view Him. The the fruit of really knowing God personally will be seen in how we relate to others. As we know He is good – righteous, consistent and trustworthy all the time, we may receive peace and confidence and experience a stability when encountering circumstances that previously would have triggered us.

When we know Him as Jesus knows Him, we will not view these references about His vengeance in a negative light, but know that God’s vengeance, just like His judgment, is nothing at all like we previously thought of vengeance. Just as God’s judgment and wrath are perceived from an entirely different perspective once we know His heart better, so too we can come to be aware that His vengeance involves different responses from those who treat Him as their enemy. Paul expands on the true nature of God’s vengeance this way.

Don't seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God's wrath. For it is written, "Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord." Therefore "If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head." Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:19-21)

This is how God does vengeance and how He wants those who follow Him to emulate His ways and motives. God overcomes evil with good. That message is at the heart of the gospel and should be front and center in our thinking at all times. God’s judgments are not punitive as this angel of the waters implies, but rather always seeks to attract with kindness, regardless of how resistance it meets.

You have also given me the shield of your salvation. Your right hand sustains me. Your gentleness has made me great. (Psalms 18:35)

Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. (Philippians 4:5)

This angel of the waters asserts that God is righteous because He judges these things. He also invokes the word ‘deserve’ as justification for God doing this, meaning he is in sympathy with the system of earning and deserving. This angel infers God pays back in kind the injustices committed against His saints, those loyal to Him. This is not how Paul and others write regarding the righteous judgments of God. We must better appreciate what both of those words mean (righteous and judgment) in order to discern why the expressions of this angel are suspicious. We have reviewed considerably the meaning of righteousness, but we also need to clarify the difference between God’s kind of judging in contrast to how it has been distorted and promulgated by religion in God’s name. How does religion and the world in general portray God’s judgment?

Let’s review some basic definitions involved in typical views of judgment. The idea of debts include offenses or sins that require/demand payment in order for justice to be satisfied according to popular opinion. It is common to hear people assert that justice has to be satisfied after some great crime is committed. It is usually assumed that until justice is satisfied, offenders cannot be forgiven. Such teachings are predicated on the assertion that God is holy, and their definition of holiness is defined as God’s presumed feelings of extreme offense over our sins, especially the really bad ones.

It is asserted by many that the law forbids God from forgiving (to give up demand for payback) sins until sufficient payment (merit of sufficient worth, or punishment equal to the crime, or both) has been executed in order to zero out the debt in heaven’s record books (so much for love not keeping a record of wrongs). This is the popular explanation of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Yet this is contradictory, for if a debt has been paid in full, it is totally dishonest to then claim to forgive it, for a debt can only be resolved one way or the other, it cannot be both.

Righteousness gets involved with this because in commerce thinking it is assumed that righteousness (defined as obedience to the Law) is what God (or the Law) demands as payment before He will (or is allowed) to accept sinners or forgive them. This is the context from which religion interprets the meaning of the cross of Christ. Yet this is in fact straight out of paganism and is the essence of most false gospels. It is riddled with dark assumptions and insinuations about the disposition and motives of God.

So what is the problem of this message by the angel of the waters? He asserts that God is righteous because of what He does and because He judges. God is not righteous because He keeps His law, anymore than anyone else can become righteous by keeping that law. God’s judgment happens when the light of truth exposes us, and it also involves how we react.

The true judgment of God is not about executing punishments against evil-doers lest they get away with breaking the rules. God’s judgment is defined by Jesus in John 3:19-21 as light exposing what is hiding in our darkness and how we relate to that light. But this is not the kind of judgment inferred by this angel of the waters. His comments are more in line with our version of judgment and justice as practiced by those who dwell on the earth.

The assertion of this angel of the waters is that God is righteous at least in part because He has judged. Let’s review the difference between the emphasis of the Song of Moses and the New Song of the Lamb.

They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God, the Almighty! Righteous and true are your ways, you King of the nations. Who wouldn't fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you only are holy. For all the nations will come and worship before you. For your righteous acts have been revealed." (Revelation 15:3-4)

Agents of the Lamb are in training to transition beyond the old song mindset to embrace exclusively the New Song expressing only praise for our heavenly Father. This is seen in the corrective voice that interrupts the performance of the old song of Moses in the first verses of chapter 19.

A voice came forth from the throne, saying, "Give praise to our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, the small and the great!" (Revelation 19:5)

Here in chapter 16 we see indication that this angel of the waters is more in sync with the old song based on what he presumes about what defines God’s righteousness. In other similar passages God is assessed as being righteous because He judges, because He executes vengeance, because of His works. This is an element exposing a flaw in the old song, that actions and works are the basis of identity rather than fruit. In this old paradigm, God is viewed as good because He does good, or worse yet because He punishes those who are bad. This leaves us vulnerable to feeling that when it seems He is not good, when things are going wrong in our lives like what happened with Job. then we struggle to believe there is no darkness in Him at all. This predisposition has been passed down from the serpent who asserts that God is both good and evil.

The serpent said to the woman, "You won't surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:4-5)

The antidote to this dualistic view of God that poisons our perceptions and feelings about Him is the solid truth expressed by the disciple who came to know Him best and who also transcribed this book.

This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)