Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
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Scratching
the Surface of Revelation
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A prayer line
shared by Presbyterian Elders in Prayer and Belvidere, Illinois' First
Presbyterian Church along with my cellular's voicemail have the same message:
"Someday everybody will return from the cemetery but you or me. If
that thought troubles you, you really don't get it. You really don't
understand what Jesus has done for you. I would like to talk to you about
Him at anytime. The most important thing is your personal relationship
with Jesus so you can face the future unafraid - here, now, and
forever."
Everybody's gonna
die in time on earth - sooner or later yet definitely
whether it's sooner or later.
Everybody's gonna
live forever with the
ultimate destination being the only interrogative.
That's what
Revelation is all about - ultimate destinations.
Precisely,
everybody's gonna live forever in heaven or hell in the end.
Revelation was
especially entrusted or
breathed into John to encourage people who are going to heaven to
see beyond immediate burdens to eternal blessings: "The revelation of
Jesus Christ, which God gave to show to His servants the things that must soon
take place...Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and
blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is
near."
This last book of
the Bible has been revealed to
women and men who have chosen voluntarily
to be servants/slaves of the Source, Starter, Sovereign, and
Savior.
Eschatologically
(because this book points to end times) and existentially (because knowledge of
the positive outcome in the end for those who have chosen God enables a sense
of triumph over temptations and tribulations in the meantime), Revelation is about the
consequences of the voluntary decision to
be or not to be a believer in God as Source, Starter, Sovereign,
and Savior: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears
My voice and opens the door,
I will come in to him and eat with him...I will grant with him to
sit with Me on My throne..."
This volitional
choice to be or not to be a
believer with consequences here and now and forever was articulated so clearly,
concisely, and conclusively by our Lord in the most famous or at least quoted words
of Holy Scripture: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For
God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that
the world might be saved through Him. Whoever
believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned
already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And
this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the
darkness rather than the light..."
God provides the
choice - "No one can serve two masters" - but we must choose.
C.S. Lewis
referred to this choice as The
Great Divorce: "It is...'either-or.' If we insist on
keeping Hell,...we shall not see Heaven. If we accept Heaven, we shall
not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of
Hell...There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God,
'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'
All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice, there could be
no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss
it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened."
That's the big
message of Revelation.
We get to choose
our ultimate destinies; and Revelation is explicit in providing the details of
this great divorce.
Heaven awaits
anyone/everyone who chooses God: "He will wipe away every tear from their
eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying
nor pain anymore..."
Hell awaits
anyone/everyone who fails to choose God: "Torment...no rest...the second
death, the lake of fire..."
The good news for
those who choose God and the bad news for those who do not are in the words of
the Lord: "Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with Me, to
repay everyone for what he has done."
It's a consistent
message in Holy Scripture.
David: "The
Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will
perish...The Lord has set apart the Godly for Himself..."
Jesus: "I
will separate the sheep from the goats...Come, you who are blessed by My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you...Depart from Me, you cursed, into the
eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels...[and explaining how
behavior confirms the belief that determines ultimate destinies]...As you did
it to/for them, you did it to/for Me."
Unless one is
dense by design or decision, it is impossible to read Holy Scripture and not
acknowledge the ultimately and distinctively different destinies of those who
choose and those who do not choose God as Source, Starter, Sovereign, and
Savior.
That's the big
message of the book, the whole book, and nothing but the book with Revelation
highlighting that message with symbolic language and flare to encourage
everyone who has chosen God as Source, Starter, Sovereign, and Savior.
Certainly, there
are many other important lessons to be learned in Revelation.
If you want to
know what heaven will be like, it's there (viz., 24/7/365 worship): "Day
and night they never cease to say, 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty..."
If you want to
know the difference between good/Godly churches and bad/unGodly churches, there
are seven letters to 1st century churches commending behaviors confirming
authentic belief and condemning behaviors exposing infidelity with striking
parallels to contemporary versions of the same.
If you want to
know more about battles between good and evil that will get worse before the
final score, it's there.
Yet, again, as
Grandpa Kopp warned, "Don't miss the forest for the trees!"
Revelation is
about Jesus as Alpha and Omega - Source, Starter, Sovereign, and Savior - who
has always wanted to save us for Himself forever
and will do that with enthusiasm, without equivocation, and without
exception as the ultimate consequence/destiny of our choosing Him.
I like Tozer's
summary of this book as a summary of the whole book and nothing but the book:
"Since the Christian is a part of God's eternal purpose, he knows he must
win at last, and he can afford to be calm even when the battle seems to be
temporarily going against him."
Then Tozer echoes
C.S. Lewis' conclusion of the great divorce by
choice: "The world has no such 'blissful center' upon which to
rest and is therefore constantly shifting about, greatly elated today, terribly
cast down tomorrow, and wildly excited the next day."
We live triumphantly here and now
and forever because our Source, Starter, Sovereign, and Savior predetermined
that triumph in the end for all who choose Him.
That's what I've concluded
by scratching the surface of the book, the whole book, and nothing but the book.
It's possible to
live happily ever after by
the book.
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...to be concluded...
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Blessings and Love!
3 comments:
Dr Kopp, Scratching the Surface of Revelations. Very good.
I enjoy reading all that you write. Sometimes I might make the wrong comment. I must be more care full. God Bless
I have never read a wrong comment from you, brother!
There it is, to live "happily ever after by the Book" (which is to say in/with/for Him), or to live miserably, if not now, then sooner than we think, and forever, by anything and everything else but the Book (which is to say without/apart from Him).
We get to choose, but what really matters (Thanks be to Him!), is that before even getting to work on laying the foundations of the earth He chose us. Or, to put it another way, our choice is determined by His choosing, and moving heaven and earth to get us to where we make the right choice.
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