Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and to Part LVIII (58) of our study of the Book of Revelation, and to the concluding three plagues of the Seven Bowl or Vial Judgments. But before we do that, let's quickly review the first four plagues of the first 9 verses of chapter 16 as there has been a rather longish 4 month study break this time round and I suspect our minds will need substantially refreshing! I originally paused this study because of my rapidly deteriorating health so I may not be able to produce a new study each week as I did before so I will strictly play this by ear. If I can't manage, we will stop again. In the meantime, I strongly feel we need to finish this course before it gets forgotten amidst all the anticipated, and unanticipated, turning of events that will include passing the mantle of this ministry over to my successor, and now the new Israeli war with Hamas in Gaza that's rapidly spreading to include most of the Moslem world. There are seven chapters left and a long winter in which to complete them so, Yah willing, we will see this to its completion before my own departing!

First of all, in order to give a broad context to the 7 bowl or vial judgments (and indeed to all of the judgments hitherto), let's remember that we live in a deeply flawed world that has pretty much had a continuous stream of problems since the Fall. Just look at any family, school, business, governmental organisation, community, country or association of countries like the CIS, EU or UN where people are organised or where a 'system' exists, and consistently you will find deep, systemic problems that seem unfixable. Things keep on going wrong. Human pride, greed, fear and suspicion tend to take over. And unless it is spotted, named and dealt with, it will only get worse and lead to war, such as the ones currently raging in the Ukraine and Israel.

If this systemic failure in society is allowed to flourish unchecked, it can even, unfortunately, come to be hailed as a new way of living. And as you look back at the 20th century, half of which I experienced, you will see that it was, in part, the story of 'new ways of being' and 'new ways of living' - communism, fascism, apartheid, liberalism and now wokeism being the most obvious - all these, and more, reared their ugly heads and did - and are still doing - untold damage to people and societies, until eventually the first three began collapsing under their own weight, not least the weight of the lies that were needed to sustain them. The same is happening with liberalism in our own day, here and now in the 21st century. And it was partly because because H. Richard Niebuhr, whom I mentioned last time back in Part LVII (57), could see this going on that he warned most sternly about inventing the kind of wrathless, sinless, crossless message that is liberal Christianity that has seen the near complete death of so many denominations like the Anglican Church that I was raised in, the Methodist Church, and many other denominations. That kind of message is in danger of lulling the careless to sleep just when we needed to be wide awake.

The Book of Revelation is designed more than anything else to wake up those who have thus succumbed to the liberal and now 'woke' enchantment. We see that the wrath of the Creator-Elohim (God) consists of two things, principally:

• 1. He allows human wickedness to work itself out, to reap its own destruction; and
• 2. He steps in more directly to stop it, to call 'time' on it, when it's got out of hand.

If we really understood what agency is (which Calvinists and other fatalists like Moslems don't), we would thank Yahweh for both of these, even though both can appear harsh. They need to be. If they were any less than harsh, the wickedness in question would merely pause, furrow its brow for a moment, and then carry on as before. What we saw in the first 4 plagues, was a mixture of both types of 'wrath'.

The lesson to be learned with the first 4 bowl judgments is quite simple, really. Yahweh will allow natural elements themselves (earth, sea, river and sun) to pass judgment on the people who have so grievously abused their position as Elohim's (God's) image-bearers within creation. We are supposed to be looking after Yahweh's world as stewards, and caring for one another as fellow humans, no matter what the errors in our belief systems may be. But Yahweh will call the natural elements themselves to turn on them and judge them for their wickedness.

One thing we learned about the first 4 bowl plagues is that these judgments are total. Before, with the seals and shofars, only part of the world was harmed and destroyed, sending a warning signal to those who need to repent. Here, though, in the bowl judgments, that note is absent. There is no room for repentance now. This time, everything in the sea dies. All the rivers turn to blood (reminding us of the plagues of Egypt). These last 7 plagues are the beginning of that long process, which will end in chapter 20, by which Elohim (God) will rid His beautiful world, first in chapter 16, of those who have assisted in its destruction and decay (surely a warning to both climate manipulators and environmental polluters in general); and then, in chapters 17 and 18, of the great imperial systems that have set up massive structures of injustice. And finally, in chapters 19 and 20 of the dark powers that lie behind those systems, ending with Death and Hades themselves, as Paul also testified of:

"The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For He (Christ) 'has put everything under His feet.' Now when it says that 'everything' has been put under Him, it is clear that this does not include Elohim (God) (Yahweh) Himself, who put everything under Christ. When He has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to Him (Yahweh) who put everything under Him, so that Elohim (God) may be all in all" (1 Cor.15:25-28, NIV) [1].

This long, powerful sequence of thought tells us, as clearly as anything could, that what we are faced with is neither a capricious nor ill-tempered Divine being, nor a careless, laissez-faire world ruler, leaving things to take their own course. We are faced with an Elohim (God) who made the world, and whose generous love is seen most clearly in the sacrifice of His own Son, the Lamb, the One who shares His very Throne. If this Elohim (God) (to look no further than our own recent history) does not hate the wickedness of the communist and fascist systems that devastated so much of Europe in the previous century, He is not a good or loving Elohim (God). If He does not hate globalism with its plans to systematically murder the vast majority of the human race and to enslave the rest in a kind of neo-feudalism where communism and captialism have been blended into a worldwide fascist dictatorship with the aid of Artificial Intelligence (AI), trans-humanism and wokeism, where nobody owns anything (except the greedy corporatists at the top) and everyone is forced to eat processed insects and where poisonous, artificial chemicals have been forced into their bodies against their wills, He is not a good Elohim (God). And if He does not finally do something about these and similar systems, He is not a loving Elohim (God).

Because of the nature of His love, He will not always be stepping in and calling 'time' before the appointed moment, much as we might want Him to. If He did, too many, who might yet repent and be saved, would be caught in the middle. But He will let evil take its course and bring about its own nemesis (retributive end); and, at a moment which He is in any position to judge, He will bring the necessary closure to the world's wrongs. This He must do if He is, indeed, the Father of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Chist). This is what it meant last time when the malakim (angels) poured out the bowls of wrath upon the earth, the sea, the rivers, and the sun.

With that in mind, let's now look at today's segment in chapter 16, beginning with verse 10 - as always I shall be using the New King James Version (NKJV) with such modifications and alternative readings as will improve the translation from other Bible versions. And to remind you, I shall not be reading aloud all these variations which you can read in the printed text if you want to study each nuance out more carefully afterwards:

"10 Then the fifth malak (angel) ('messenger' - ISRV, CLNT) poured out his bowl on the throne of the ['wild' - CLNT] Beast ['of prey' - AENT] ('monster' - KNT; 'animal' - JBP) (Rev.13:2), and his kingdom ('whole empire' - JB, 'reign' - ISRV) became full of ('was plunged into' - KNT, NLT, NIV, JB, NEB, NRSV, JBP, ESV, RNAB; 'enveloped in' - Barclay) darkness ('became darkened' - NASB) (Ex.10:21-23; Is.8:22; Rev.8:12; 9:2); and they gnawed ('were biting' - HRV, JB, Barclay; 'chewed' - KNT) their tongues ('ground their teeth' - NLT) because of the pain ('in anguish' - NLT, ESV; 'in agony' - NIV, NEB, NRSV, JBP; 'for misery' - CLNT). 11 They blasphemed ('cursed' - JNT, NLT, NIV, JB, NEB, RSV, NRSV, ESV; 'hurled their insults at' - Barclay) the ['name of' - Barclay] Elohim (God) of heaven (Rev.11:13) because of their pains ('agonies' - KNT) and their ['terrible' - KNT) sores ('boils' - HRV; 'ulcers' - JBP, AENT) (Rev.16:2), and did not ('refused to' - NLT) repent of ('turn from' - JNT) their ['evil' - NLT] deeds ('what they had done' - NIV, NEB) (Rev.2:21).

"12 Then the sixth malak (angel) ('messenger' - ISRV, CLNT) poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates (Rev.9:14), and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings ('sovereigns' - ISRV) from the east ('rising sun' - KNT; 'the rising of the sun' - AENT, OJB) might be prepared ('could march their armies westward without hindrance' - NLT) (Is.11:15-16; 41:2; 46:11). 13 And I saw three unclean spirits ('shadim/shedim' - HRV, OJB, RSTNE) (Rev.18:2) like frogs (Ex.8:2,6) coming out of ('issuing from' - AENT) the mouth ('jaws' - JB) of the Dragon ('beast of prey' - AENT) (Rev.12:3), out of the mouth of the ['wild' - CLNT] Beast ('monster' - KNT) (Rev.13:1), and out of the mouth of the False Prophet (Rev.19:20; 20:10). 14 For they are spirits of demons ('shadim/shedim' - HRV, OJB, RSTNE; 'demonic spirits' - JNT, RSV, NRSV, ESV; 'demon spirits' - JB; 'devils', NEB; 'diabolical spirits' - JBP) (1 Tim.4:1), performing ['miraculous' - NIV] signs ('miracle-working' - JNT, NLT, JB) (Mt.24:24), which go out to ('muster [all]' - NEB, JBP, Barclay) the kings ('sovereigns' - ISRV) of the earth and of the whole ['inhabited' - JNT] world, to gather ('assemble' - RSV, NRSV, ESV, RNAB; 'moblizing' - CLNT) (Mt.24:14) them to the battle ('war' - JB; 'battlefield' - OJB) (Rev.17:4;n 19:19; 20:8) of that great ['judgment' - NLT] day (Rev.6:17) of Elohim (God) ('YHWH' - ISRV) Almighty (Yahweh-Tzava'ot).

"(15 'Behold ('take note' - NLT), I am coming ('he comes' - HRV) [unexpectedly' - NLT, OJB) as a thief (Mt.24:42-51; Lk.12:39 1 Thess.5:2-10; 2 Pet.3:10; Rev.3:3). Blessed ('Happy' - JBP) is he who watches ('stays awake' - NASB, JB; 'who are watching for Me' - NLT) (Lk.12:37), and keeps ('guarding' - ISRV) his garments ('robes' - KNT, NRSV-fn; 'clothes' - NIV, JB, NEB, RNAB; 'is clothed' - NRSV; 'keeps his clothes at his side' - JBP, Barclay) ['ready' - NLT), lest he walk naked and they see his shame ('have their shame exposed' - KNT; 'ashamed' - NLT; 'be shamefully exposed' - NIV; 'indecency' - CLNT)m (Rev.3:18;b 16:16).')

"16 And they gathered ('mustered' - Barclay) them together to the place called in Hebrew (Rev.9:11), ['Har' - JNT, ISRV; 'Mount' - KNT] Mediggo (Armageddon) (Judg.5:19; 2 Ki.23:29-30; cp.Zech.12:11).

"17 Then the seventh malak (angel) ('messenger' - ISRV, CLNT) poured out his bowl into ('on' - KNT, NEB; AENT; 'upon' - NASB) the air (Eph.2:2), and a loud voice (Rev.11:15) came out of the Temple ['of Heaven' - KJV, NKJV, Moff.; 'in heaven' - NLT] [2] ('sanctuary' - JB, NEB, Barclay) (Rev.14:15), from ['before' - HRV) the Throne, saying, 'It is done!' ('The end has come' - JB, JBP; 'It is over!' - NEB) (Rev.21:6) 18 And there were ['noises and' - NKJV; 'rumblings [and]' - KNT] thunderings ('thunderclaps' - KNT) and lightnings ('flashes of lightning, voices (sounds) and peals of thunder' - JNT, NASB) (Rev.4:5); and there was a great ('severe' - NIV, 'most violent' - JB) earthquake (Rev.6:12), such a mighty and great ('massive' - JNT) earthquake as had not occurred ('happened' - HRV) since ['the sons of' - HR] men ('humans' - KNT) were ('had been' - HR) on the earth (Dan.12:1; Mt.24:21). 19 Now the great city (Rev.17:18) was divided into three parts, and the cities ('city' - AENT) of the nations fell ['into heaps of rubble' - NLT; 'in ruin[s]' - NEB, JBP] ('collapsed' - KNT, JB, Barclay). And great Babylon ('Bavel' - HRV, RSTNE; 'Babylon the Great/Babel haGedolah' - JNT, NIV, OJB; 'Babel' - ISRV) (Rev.14:8) was remembered ('recalled' - KNT; 'not forgotten' - JB; 'called to mind' - JBP) (Rev.18:5) before ('in the presence of' - KNT) Elohim (God), to give her ('make her drain' - ESV) the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath ('His raging fury' - JNT, 'anger' - KNT) (Rev.14:10). 20 Then every island fled away ('vanished' - NEB), and the mountains were not found ('disappeared' - KNT, Barclay, RNAB; 'leveled' - NLT: 'not to be seen' - NEB; 'vanished' - JBP) (Rev.6:14). 21 And great hail ('enormous/huge hailstones' - KNT, NIV) (Ex.9:23, Ezek.13:13; 38:22; Rev.8:7; 11:19) from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent ('70-pounds' - JNT, OJB; 'seventy-five pounds (34 kilograms); 'like huge weights' - RNAB)' - NLT; 'a hundred pounds [each]' - KNT, NASB, NIV, NRSV, ESV; 'a hundredweight' - NEB, RSV, Barclay). Men blasphemed ('cursed' - KNT, NLT, NIV, ESV; 'hurled their insults at' - Barclay) Elohim (God) (Rev.16:9,11) because of the plague of the hail (Ex.9:23-25), since that plague was exceedingly great ('[so] terrible' - JNT, KNT, NLT, NIV; 'severe' - NASB, NEB, ESV; 'so fearful' - RSV, NRSV; 'fell upon them with savage and fearful blows' - JBP; 'devastating in the extreme' - Barclay) (Ezek.13:13; 38:22; Ex.9.23-15)" (Rev.16:10-21, NKJV).

¤BIBLE VERSIONS KEY: AENT = Aramaic English New Testament (NT, Gabriel Roth), Amp.V. = Amplified Version (1958 ed.), Aram.Pesh. = Aramaic Peshitta (NT), Barclay = William Barclay New Testament, B.Wilson = Benjamin Wilson's Emphatic Diaglot, Vatican MS 1209 (NT), CLNT = Concordant Literal New Testament, CJB = Complete Jewish Bible (David Stern), HCSB = Holman's Christian Standard Bible, HRV = Hebraic Roots Version (James Trimm), ISRV = Institute for Scripture Research Version ('The Scriptures', 2009 edn.), JB = Jerusalem Bible (1st edn.), JBP = J.B.Philips New Testament, JNT = Jewish New Testament (David Stern), KNT = Kingdom New Testament (N.T.Wright), MRC = Messianic Renewed Covenant (NT), NASB = New American Standard Bible, NEB = New English Bible (1974 edn.), NIV = New International Version (1984 edn.), NKJV = New King James Version, NRSV = New Revised Standard Version (1995 edn.), KJV = King James Version, Moff. = Moffat Translation, NLT = New Living Translation, RNAB = Revised New American Bible, RSTNE = Restoration Scriptures True Name Edition (2005 edn., Moshe Koniuchowsky), RSV = Revised Standard Version (1952 edn.), Tischendorf = Tauchnitz Edition, Vol.1000, 1869 (NT), S&G = Smith & Godspeed

I can remember an amusing incident (for me and some others, at least), when in a ministers' meeting in an Oxford church one of the participants fell asleep in his chair on the stand. He was an older man to be sure and the long talk by his colleague had lulled him into a deep slumber. He was even snoring! The meeting finally ended, nobody wanted to wake the venerable old man up, so we crept out quietly and simply let him rest and filed out back to the chapel. A while later, when everyone had gone home and the building was being locked up, he must have suddenly woken up and wondered where everyone had gone, or indeed perhaps he had wondered where he was, a situation I am sure we have all found ourselves in in at one time or another. There was an occasion in Oslo when I fell asleep on the bus taking me to work. When I woke up, fortunately at my intended destination, I did not know where I was and panicked, to the great amusement of some of my fellow passengers. That was a most unpleasant experience, I can tell you.

Why am I sharing these two anecdotes with you today? Well, because that's the kind of shock that the writer of the Book of Revelation, the apostle John, administers to his hearers in verse 15:

"This is how it will be [at this time]: I (Yah'shua/Jesus) shall come like a thief. Happy is the man who has stayed awake and not taken off his clothes so that he does not go naked and expose his shame" (Rev.15:16, JB).

This insertion by John is so unusual that there are those who think that some copyist added verse 15 here by accident. Why in the middle of these particular plagues? Was this just an afterthought of the author? If there's anything the current Penultimate Judgment has taught me, it's this (and this is something also the Enemy knows all too well): during protracted war, war-weariness sets in. When the First World War broke out in July of 1914, everyone thought it would all be over by Christmas and the troops could go back home in less that five months. Well, that awful war, in which so many millions suffered and died, dragged on for over four years. By 1917 the troops on both sides were so shell-shocked and worn out that some of them started to mutiny. The possibility of victory seemed impossible and it looked as though the fighting would pointlessly drag on indefinitely. They had had enough of the nighmare and just wanted to go home.

I don't know about you, but I am pretty 'war-weary' myself. The enemy has seemingly won one victory after another. Life seems hopeless at times. I know many believers who are burned-out and just don't want to do anything more. Many want to just 'go home' to be with Yah'shua (Jesus), and one or two, seeing the apparent hopelessness of their circumstances, have even toyed with the unthinkable, suicide. To that attitude in whatever æon (age), John says, No! Stay awake! Hang on! It's not as hopeless as you think. Have you forgotten Elohim's (God's) promises to you? Just look up the word 'endure' or 'endurance' in your Bible concordance and you will find dozens of references. Guess what Paul says happened to him and his companions:

"We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life" (2 Cor.1:8, NIV).

Has anybody 'been there'? Of course you have; and if you haven't yet, I promise you will at some point, whatever your circumstances. So what should our response to that feeling be? Paul's was: "When we are persecuted, we endure it" (1 Cor.14:12, NIV). "Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Messiah Yah'shua (Christ Jesus)" (2 Tim.2:3, NIV). Why should we do that? Says Paul again, this time to young Timothy, "I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Messiah Yah'shua (Christ Jesus), with eternal glory" (2 Tim 2:10, NIV). We endure for the sake of others who need us, and because of 'eternal glory'. What does that mean?

"If we died with Him (Christ),
we will also live with Him;
if we endure,
we will also reign with Him.
If we disown Him,
He will also disown us;
if we are faithless,
He will remain faithful,
for He cannot disown Himself" (2 Tim.2:11-13, NIV).

You see, this is part of the 'package deal' of discipleship - of following our Messiah. But it's even more sobering than that because to fail is to reap eternal consequences. As if to make the point, Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself said:

"And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved" (Matt.10:22, NKJV).

This immediately makes out those who parrot, 'once saved, always saved', to be liars, and dangerous ones at that. You see, Yah'shua (Jesus) is speaking to the saved here - those saved, or born-again, who have made it thus far to the present - and saying that there is a salvation-future too, and that to fall away is to lose that salvation. Therefore endurance isn't an option but an absolute requirement for the final salvation of the true believer. Part of the package deal of being forgiven our sins and being offered eternal life in glory is enduring to the end, 'no matter what'. Oh, I don't know how many times people have told me they would stick by my side in this ministry, or even in marriage, 'no matter what', only to run away when the going got hard, of if they got offended by something, or if I made a mistake, or let slip in something. Yah'shua (Jesus) is willing to forgive anything except denying the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) so long as we repent and return to the front line until the job is done! We all have relapses, we all make mistakes, we all need grace, but the important thing is not quitting, being true to covenant-love. Whatever happened to stout-heartedness?

But I would like to suggest that there is another dimension to the question of not falling asleep in verse 15, another reason John warns us here right in the middle of these judgments. We can all nod off physically, but what of spiritually? [3] As the plagues and oppressions become more terrible, as we see in the three sets of 7 woes in the Book of Revelation, there can be a tendency to start thinking carnally about the fate of the wicked (and goodness knows, I am guilty of this sometimes too). 'Oh yes! Those people have got it coming to them - they're wicked and they deserve their fate; but we're alright, we can just relax. Let's sit back and watch the judgments happening,' some might be tempted to think. And believe me, they're happening even as I speak to you in the thick of this Penultimate Judgment.

So, no, you can't just sit back, John says, because he is warning us about the serious danger of deceitful spirits let loose into the world. It is all too easy for Yahweh's people to become conceited and think that they're so much 'better' than those being brought under judgment and suppose they can slacken in their spiritual life. So many Christians and Messianics have a poor track record at recognising deceit when it's staring them right in the face. Right now I'm thinking of those believers who support the Zionist cause and those who support the Palestinian cause in the current war in and around Gaza. How can we support either side when their driving force is hatred, revenge and the desire to exterminate each other! We are not to be involved in the dirtiness of world politics. We have brothers and sisters who are Christians and Messianics who are both Arabs and Jews. They - with humanitarian compassion for all victims of violence, terror and war - ought to be our sole interest...and being peace-makers. Irrespective of who is the greater or lesser evil of the two parties, it's not our business to get involved other than to place ourselves in situations were we can show compassion and radiate the Light of Christ for a witness. Taking 'sides' is to be lured by one deceitful spirit or the other.

It is our duty to the Saviour to keep awake else our Messiah might suddenly arrive to find us slumping over and falling asleep in our own arms. And that would be a terrible mistake to make. We owe our allegiance to no man-made systems, be it Zionism or any other -ism. Neither of the two warring parties are the rightful owners of, or residents on, Yahweh's piece of real estate that is the Promised Land. The only ones in that territory who will be able to make a claim to residence rights in the future when Christ returns are the Messianic Jews and the Christian Arabs who share a common brotherhood and allegiance. If you've taken sides, my friend, you've fallen asleep spiritually and are lost if you won't repent.

These final 3 plagues, which complete the sequence of the 7 bowls or vials, are terrible indeed, and part of their terror is the sense of how easy it is to give allegiance to the systems that are here under judgment. We are to get out of these systems, not pick warring sides within those systems! As with the seals and shofars (trumpets), the first 4 seem to belong to one set, and the last three to another. However, in this third sequence - and mark this well - there is no gap, no pause, no interlude - between the 6th and the 7th. Why? Because at this stage of the 'game' there is no chance - no possibility or time - for repentance! That ought to sober us up because there are those who mistakenly believe that grace can never be exhausted. They're wrong. Grace may follow us right up to the very last of those decisions the wicked must make before being usshered into hell, but it will be extended no further. Here, then, is the line of final decision. The choice made at this point is absolutely final, make no mistake about that. Only now can a believer, who has made it thus far, make the claim of 'always (securely) saved' because this is the 'end' of the line, and only those who endure to the end can be finally saved. If you have grasped that, you're on safe ground. If you haven't, you're potentially dancing on your own grave.

Today, as the Penultimate Judgment is being executed before our very eyes over this 40 day period, we are privileged to witness firsthand how these symbols 'work' in the real world. With the 2023 Gaza War excalating into a war of extermination and all eyes turning off the Ukraine and to the Middle East, we are able to see how the devilish system is working. What we are witnessing now, here, in October 2023, is a Counterfeit Armageddon being unfolded. The war in the Ukraine, and before that the sudden evacuation of Afghanistan by the United States, and now the Gaza Crisis, are all part of a coordinated plan. Tanks sent to the Ukraine by the West are now appearing, viâ the Balkan black market, in Egypt and are finding their way to Hamas in Gaza. Hezbollah has begun its attacks on the northern Israeli Republic as rebellion in the West Bank is fomented and threats are being made by Syria and Iran in the northeast. Then there's all that military hardware abandoned in Afhganistan by Biden on 30 August 2021, including planes, tanks, Humvees, and a ton of other weapons, all waiting to be shipped westwards viâ Iran and Iraq. And guess what? The Taliban in Afghanistan and the régime in Iran, have all pledged support for the Hamas-initiated war. What river will all this hardware in Afghanistan have to cross before it can reach Islamic forces?

Try to understand the bigger picture here. The Illuminati, as admitted by Albert Pike in that infamous letter to Giuseppe Mazzini in 1871, lays out their plans for three world wars, the third and last of which would be to get Islam, Christianity and Judaism to destroy one another in wars of mutual self-annihilation so that the new occultic order could arise on their ashes. Western Christianity has effectively been destroyed from within, Eastern Christianity is now in a ruthless civil war between Russia and the Ukraine formented by the élites (which has failed to go the way the élites planned, as prophesied), and now all attention is being switched to all-out war between Islam and Judaism whose radical elements have sworn to destroy each other. Do you see the different levels or layers at work here? As Islam and Judaism slog it out over the counterfeit Rothschild Illuminist State of 'Israel', so those faithful Christians who have not been corrupted by liberalism, as represented politically by the war-mongering Neo-Cons, are now placing all their money on the counterfeit state being the real Israel (Zionism) and will cooperate with the 'good-cop' forces arrayed in support of Israel. We are actually in this Third World War already, and lots of naïve, brainwashed evangelical Christians have been drawn into the deception.

The Illuminati Script is actually failing in one sense (mimicking the Book of Revelation) but succeeding in killing what will be millions and in duping uninformed believers. The Ukrainian war has already consumed over half a million lives on a scale very reminiscent of the First World War. All Three World Wars were scripted for devilish ends, including the elimination of Christianity, and global dictatorship. The Enemy, as always, has backed all sides of each conflict to ensure the outcome he wanted - in the case of the Second World War, the advancement of materialist, anti-religion Communism for the final strangling of Western Christianity.

So what is going on in verses 10-21 of chapter 16 that the élites are trying to reproduce but which will be turned in on them for their defeat? Three bowls are involved. In the fifth plague, a direct attack is made on the Beast's throne - a strike at the very heart of the monstrous imperial system, making it collapse under its own weight. We saw, for example, in 1989, the fall of Eastern European Communism by this means, a dominoes effect set in motion by one East German official who made the mistake of letting East Germans escape to the West viâ Czechoslovakia and Hungary and into Austria. Once that had started, the people's revolution could not be contained or prevented. The same process was unleased on the West and is now coming to its point-of-no-return in our own year of 2023. This is a repeat in the West of what happened in the East. Make no mistake, Soviet leader Gorbatchov was an élitist playing a rôle, just as Zelensky is in the Ukraine. Gorbatchov died a wealthy man in the USA. It won't be long before Zelensky (believed by many to be a CIA asset) is 'airlifted' out of Ukraine to some Western nation where he can spend his millions of ill-gotten gains. In a recent visit to the USA his wife spent over $1 million in one day on jewels. Ukraine is today's sacrificial offering. However, two people came and spoiled the Illuminati plans - first Trump and second, the patriotic Russian 'upstart' Putin. Though the élites have not succeeded in all their goals in the Ukraine (régime change in Russia, westernisation and NATO-inclusion of the Ukraine and the conquest of Russia which they failed to accomplish under Yeltsin), they feel confident enough to launch the most important phase of their plan, the fake Armageddon leading to the mass genocide of Moslems, Jews and Christians. If you don't believe me, just watch as events play out, assuming Yahweh doesn't intervene to stop it.

In verse 10 the Beast's Kingdom is "plunged into darkness" (KNT), evoking the plagues of Egypt once more, reminding us once again that the purpose of the plagues is the destruction of the oppressors in order that the oppressed might escape. Who are the oppressed in this Penultimate Judgment? The Remnant of my generation, their children and other believers. Who will be the oppressed of the Final Judgment of which the Book of Revelation is primarily speaking? The Remnant children of my generation who have grown into maturity, the latter-day 'Joshua Generation'. Darkness is being sent to the Enemy Camp now so that we might be preserved to fulfil Yahweh's work. That's the only reason. The enemies of our Elohim (God), we are told - both the élites themselves and their brainwashed dupes - will be in such great agony (caused by their "terrible sores") that they will be "chewing their tongues" and "cursing Elohim (God)". What form that will take in this Penultimate Judgment is anyone's guess at this point - it could be the result of biological or chemical warfare, the after effects of the 'Great Contagion-stopper' pretending to be the remedy which the foolish and uninformed accepted uncritically, or it could be anything. We shall see. And that goes for the Final Judgment that is yet to come in the future too.

In verses 12-16 we are told of the drying up of the 1,800 mile-long "great river Euphrates" to allow the "kings from the rising sun" (that's to say, from the east) to cross-over (v.12, KNT). We have already encountered the Euphrates once before in Revelation 9:13-19 where destroying malakim (angels) that were earlier bound there were released to carry out tremendous destruction. Now understand, please, the great significance of the River Euphrates anciently. There was, in Roman Europe particularly, when this prophecy was written, a deep-seated fear about the great enemy to the east, which then was Parthia, an Iranian nation that once stretched from the Euphrates to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Euphrates formed, anciently and importantly, its western boundary with the Roman Empire - the 'front line', as it were, much as the River Rhine does in Western Europe and the River Dniepr in Eastern Europe where Russian and Ukrainian forces have been facing each other now for some time.

Now the Euphrates, like the rivers Rhine and the Dniepr, was a natural barrier that was relatively easy to defend being, as I said, 1,800 miles (2,900 km) long and in its major part 3,600 feet (1,100 meters) wide and 30 feet (9 meters) deep. That advantage can only be lost if the river dries up, and that is exactly what the 6th malak (angel) does now. When he empties his bowl or vial, the mighty river is supernaturally dried up, so as to prepare the way for a very different kind of 'Exodus' - instead, not, of the children of Israel going dry-shod through the Red Sea (Yam Suf - Sea of Reeds), the kings from the east can now cross with their armies over the river, ready to attack. Many have speculated that this will be the enormous Red Army of the People's Republic of China though we have no idea what the political landscape will look like in about 30 years' time. There are billions of people who live in Asia, China as well as India, Indonesia, etc., who could be in that vast company. But for now - in this Penultimate Judgment - it is not unreasonable to speculate that the main users of this highway will be the Moslem nations of Afghanistan, Iran and maybe even Pakistan (all three of which are highly radicalised), and for all we know, perhaps even Russia will be coming down from over the Caucasus could be included in this scenario though I somehow doubt this as it was never a part of ancient Parthia. At any rate, consider the possibility of the Euphrates being crossed in a staged 'Jihad' against the Republic of Israel, possibly by daming the river upstream, something the Turks are now able to do.

Interestingly, it is by this method of drying up the River Euphrates that Isaiah and Zechariah prophesy that Ephraim (the 10 nothern tribes of Israel) will be able to cross over during the Last Exodus, remembering that Ephraim (Israel) isn't only in Europe and North America but in the southern hemisphere too (South Africa, Australia and New Zealand), hence the dual references to both Assyria and Egypt:

"Yahweh will dry up
the gulf of the Egyptian sea;
with a scorching wind He will sweep his hand
over the Euphrates River.
He will break it up into seven streams
so that men can cross over in sandals.
There will be a highway for the remnant of his people
that is left from Assyria,
as there was for Israel
when they came up from Egypt" (Is.11:15-16, NIV).



"'The Ephraimites will become like mighty men,
and their hearts will be glad as with wine.
Their children will see it and be joyful;
their hearts will rejoice in Yahweh.
I will signal for them
and gather them in.
Surely I will redeem them;
they will be as numerous as before.
Though I scatter them among the peoples,
yet in distant lands they will remember Me.
They and their children will survive,
and they will return.
I will bring them back from Egypt
and gather them from Assyria.
I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon,
and there will not be room enough for them.
They will pass through the sea of trouble;
the surging sea will be subdued
and all the depths of the Nile will dry up.
Assyria's pride will be brought down
and Egypt's scepter will pass away.
I will strengthen them in Yahweh
and in His Name they will walk,'
declares Yahweh" (Zech.10:7-12, NIV).

The West has been threatening to put 'boots on the ground' in the Ukraine but it has resisted doing so for now for many reasons, not least of which would be the risk of starting a nuclear conflict with Russia it would likely lose. It has already lost its proxy war in the Ukraine, despite what the lying mainstream media tell you. For now, the Holy Land is the prize if they can get it. Why would our Western governments become embroiled? To answer that question, ask why they have become embroiled in the Ukraine while our economies nose-dive into oblivion? Because these governments are controlled, both the 'left-' and 'right-wing' ones - the 'Uniparty' (Democrat/Republican, Labour/Conservative, SPD/CDU, etc.) as they are cynically called by those-in-the-know. Revelation 16:13 and onwards tells us the spiritual reasons: the Dragon, the Beast from the sea, and the Beast from the land, whom we now learn is also a "false prophet" (v.13), deceive the kings of the earth, and lure them to this great and disastrous battle. Again we find an echo of the plagues of Egypt, since the "unclean spirits" that come out of the unholy Triad appear like frogs, able to hop to and fro with their specious stories and plausible arguments...a picture, if ever there was one, of the rôle mainstream media plays in today's massive deceptions, persuading both the great and powerful, as well as ordinary folks like us, to commit themselves to hopeless causes.

Can you understand, now, why John tells his readers and listeners why they need to keep awake? If you've been swallowing the false narrative of the mainstream media - in whole or in part - then you're well-and-truly asleep and are in mortal danger. Wake up! This isn't just about politics, it's about your very lives! It's about the very survival of Western Christian civilisation...what's left of it, and that's precious little right now. Nevertheless what's left is still worth fighting to preserve and, who knows, perhaps some of what's been lost can be restored.

Which brings us to "Mount Megiddo", 'har Megiddo' or Harmageddon (v.16) which lost its 'H' in the course of time and became 'Armadeggon' in our English vernacular. As you probably know, this is a place, some way inland from Mount Carmel in the north of the Promised Land, where several major battles took place in ancient times; and though no 'Mount Megiddo' as such was known in ancient Israel, the area was a well-known battlefield, and the town of Megiddo was close to mountains where, in prophetic symbolism, such conflicts might occur. So, no, there is no literal place called 'Armageddon' or 'Mount Megiddo' but that shouldn't trouble us as it would be most unusual for John to use a place name literally. John's point is quite simply that all the powers of evil must be brought to one place so that they can be dealt with there. Isn't that ironic, as the élites, in trying to counterfeit this part of the Book of Revelation, must at the same time assemble their own forces for their own judgment! Not that it matters where the leaders try to hide themselves, for Yahweh will find them out and take care of them wherever they are hiding, even if it's in their 'impregnable' subterranean bunkers in the depths of the earth.

Could it be, then, that the actual location of 'Armageddon' isn't necessarily in the geographical land of Israel at all? I'll leave you to ponder that question. Just know that an 'Armageddon'-like action will be taking place somewhere (or even in multiple places) sometime soon in this Penultimate Judgment. Arguably, the Ukrainian battlefield has been one of them where, incidentally, from 1941-44, the outcome of the Second World War was also determined. We are seeing history repeat itself in a cyclical fashion. And shortly after that terrible world war, was there not another war in the Middle East - in Palestine - that saw the emergence of the Israeli Republic in May 1948? It is no accident that the attention on today's Ukraine war is now shifting to Israel. Note also that after the so-called 'Israeli War of Independence', the war in Korea, from 1950-53 followed, so it's quite possible we will see the conflict resuming there too especially as the communist north has recently acquired nuclear weapons. We must wait and see.

This brings us to the 7th bowl or vial. Where does it empty? Interestingly, "on (or in) the air" (v.17). I think I can hear your brain-cells firing-off! Is anyone getting mental flashes of 'EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) attacks' going off in your heads? But stop, please, if you are. Let's remember this is first century language. This is a Hebrew speaking to Hebrews, not an American or European speaking to other Americans or Europeans. The 'air' here is ruach in Hebrew, a representation of the spiritual dimension first of all, and in the primitive cosmology of the times, the space between 'heaven' and 'earth', what occultists call the 'astral plane'. This is where spirits, powers, ideas and influences associated with the demonic are principally located. Once emptied here - in this invisible space - this will finish the devil's work for good - because ideas are what drive political agendas and wars - and will bring Yahweh's whole work to completion. I speak, now, of the Final Judgment, of course.

In our current Penultimate Judgment time, this can only refer to a complete exposé of all the lies told by governments, the media, religious leaders, politicians, the institutions, and so on. Just as in Revelation 8:5 and 11:9 which likewise round off a sequence of judgments, the collision between heaven and earth, as well as that between truth and lies, results in both literal and metaphorical thunder, lightning and earthquakes. And at least as far as the Final Cycle is concerned at the very End of this æon (age), as in Zechariah 12, where Jerusalem is split apart by an earthquake (and remember that today modern Jerusalem or Israel is a very divided society now), the "great city" (v.19, KNT) - i.e. Rome and all the latter-day 'Romes' like Washington DC, London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, New Delhi, Brasilia, Pretoria, etc. - is split into three, and other cities collapse as well, like Jericho before the trumpets of Joshua. Islands flee away, mountains disappear. What does this 'splitting into three' represent? Well, on one level at least (and there are many - we don't have time to address those today), how many perceptions of reality are there at any one time? Broadly speaking, three: actual reality, a 'good-cop' version of reality and a 'bad-cop' version of reality, though the Enemy wants you to believe that there's only a straight choice between the 'good-cop' and the 'bad-cop'. Thus in the present Ukrainian conflict, we are asked (or rather, forced), to accept one of two options only: the official mainstream 'Western/Ukrainian view' or the official 'Russian view', both of which are exercises in propaganda. The true view is neither of them - the 'third' or realistic view, Yahweh's view. We here represent the third view, looking at and analysing from a position above the lies and propaganda, what we call 'critical realism', the same way we interpret Scripture. Just a thought for you to consider.

The final cycle will take us to the end Taw () of the æon or age

Now we could spend several hours analysing those current affairs that surround the Penultimate Judgment but we don't have time to do that today. More importantly, we need to ask ourselves the question: how would John's original audience have understood the things written in Chapter 16 that we're looking at today? The debate over whether there is a literal interpretation aside for now, the believers in John's day would have understood all of this to be a colourful description of the collapse of the entire social and political system on the earth! That's the very plain overall sense. Terrible things will happen in human society, for which the only fitting metaphor will be the literal earthquakes and huge hailstones which will simultaneously occur. Indeed, one of our own revelations speaks of the events herein described in a literal sense:

"And the hour cometh when great hailstorms shall destroy the crops of the earth, and great rocks of ice shall slay those who hear not My Voice neither obey it. And it shall be as it was ordinaed in the beginning" (Olive Branch 368:11-12).

The tectonic plates of different idolatrous systems will move against one another (as with Judaism against Islam, Christianity against communism and liberalism, NATO against Russia, etc.) one more time, and nothing will ever be the same again. By the time the Penultimate Judgment is over nothing will be quite the same again. Everything will change. So you can imagine what it's going to be like at the very end! British Prime Minister MacMillan's boast, 'you've never had it so good' in the late 1950's and 60's which has aptly described the West's prosperity ever since for the last 70 years, is effectively over. Our current generation of incompetent politicians, the stooges of the élites, have led us into bankruptcy from which we will never fully recover because the élites want us impoverished so that they can set up their new feudal order of the super rich (them) and the super poor (with no stabilising middle-class in the centre). The old West is dead, I'm afraid. The élites will be - and are being defeated - this time round but they have successfully dismantled our world of hitherto material prosperity too.

The 'First World' is over. Prosperity for all, driven by and large by Christian values, is over because the once Christian society has been systematically dismantled by being inflitrated by the by-now 'woke' version of Marxism. On the other side of Penultimate Judgment a new 'triad' will result:

• 1. Remnant Christianity/Messianiism;
• 2. The new Good-Cop contender to replace the present one; and
• 3. The new Bad-Cop contenders, who have been posting as the Good-Cops, who will go underground for a while before re-emerging during the Great Tribulation and sweeping away the Good-Cop stooges, the 'useful idiots' as Lenin cynically called them.

Well, I have talked a lot about current events today because they provide an excellent way for us to understand how apocalyptic language works. We are able to see the cyclical nature of time and prophecy in the present so this has been a superb opportunity we could not possibly let slip. So to end today's message, let's turn to our text again, and to verse 19. Right in the middle of all of these last woes, we are told that Yahweh will "remember Babylon" (v.19b, KNT), and this is where chapters 17 and 18 will next take us next time. Part of the final judgment of the last bowl/vial of wrath is the judgment on the city that has become the world's whore. Only when her ghastly parody has been unveiled and destroyed can we appreciate what it means to belong to the people John calls the Bride.

We meet again in two days' time for Rosh Chodesh which resets the four weeks of sabbaths thereafter to Roman Sundays, at least for us in this particular 'Moon Zone' of the biblical Creation Calendar. Depending how I feel, we'll be looking at the first half of Chapter 17 next week or the week thereafter. More in two days' time. Yahweh bless you until then in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] This, incidentally, undermines the Catholic trinitarian doctrine of the co-equality of the members of the Elohimhead (Godhead). The 'all authority' given by the Father to the Son is only as a temporary plenipotentiary until the work of redemption is completed.
[2] 'Of heaven' is not in the original Aramaic or in the majority of the Greek MSS
[3] Also see the series, The Slumbering Spirit, The Awakened Spirit and I Choose to Live

Acknowledgements

[1] Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone - The New Testament for Everyone Commentary Series, Vol.19 (SPCK, London: 2011)
[2] E.W.Bullinger*, Commentary on Revelation (Kregel Classics, Grand Rapids, Michihan: 1984)
[3] David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary (JNT Publications, Clarksville, Maryland: 1992)
[4] ESV Study Bible (Crossway, Wheaton, Illinois: 2011)
[5] The NIV Study Bible (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan: 1995)
[6] Ed. J.R.Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (MacMillan, London: 1909)
[7] David Pawson, Unlocking the Bible: A Unique Overview of the Whole Bible (Collins, London: 2007)

*E.W.Bullinger was a brilliant Anglican clergyman and scholar whose works merit careful study by serious students of the Bible. He was, however, seriously in error in at least three main areas, namely, (1) he believed the 'Church' has been raptured before the Book of Revelation opens, (2) he believed that the 7 churches in Revelation 2-3 are 7, literal Jewish churches or assemblies yet to come, and (3) he believed in a pre-tribulation, pre-millennial rapture.

• 1. White horse - military aggression
• 2. Red horse - bloodshed
• 3. Black horse - famine
• 4. Pale Green/Blanched/Pallid/Sickly-looking horse - disease, epidemics

  ---

• 5. Persecution & prayer
• 6. Tremour & terror

  ---

  INTERLUDE I (Ch.7)
  (The 144,000 Redeemed)

  ---

• 7. Silence in heaven, listening to prayers which are then answered in a final catastrophe: a severe earthquake I

• 1. Scorched earth
• 2. Polluted sea
• 3. Contaminated water
• 4. Reduced sunlight

  ---

• 5. Insects and plague (for five months) (1st Woe)
• 6. Oriental invasion (200 million army) (2nd Woe)

  ---

  INTERLUDE II (Ch.10-11)
  (The Malak with the Little Scroll)
  (The Two Witnesses)

  ---

• 7. The Kingdom comes, the world is taken over by Yahweh & Yah'shua (Jesus) after a severe earthquake II (3rd Woe)

  ---

  INTERLUDE III (Ch.13-14)
  (The First & Second Beasts)
  (The Lamb & the 144,000)
  (The Messages of the Three Malakim)

  ---

• 1. Boils on the skin
• 2. Blood in the sea
• 3. Blood from the springs
• 4. Burning by the sun

  ---

• 5. Darkness
• 6. Armageddon

  ---

• 7. Hailstorm (OB 368:11-12) and severe earthquake III, leading to international collapse