Do you have any articles on the net on “understanding the figurative” language of the book of Revelation (the great whore, the bottomless pit, etc., the vials, the woes, all that stuff, the 666, the beast(s)… I’ve heard guys like John Hagee preach on this, but what they say doesn’t make any sense for the most part.

To answer your question, yes, I do have just such a project. You will find it at Key Words in Scripture. You will also want to read Who Are The 144,000?? and The Two Witnesses.

I will be updating this ‘words’ list as I find the time. If you have any questions about any particular word or prophecy in Revelation, please feel free to ask. If I can help, I will. If I don’t know, I’ll say so. [Editor’s Note: Since this email was received an entire series on Revelation has been added to the web site with both video and study notes. Just click on ‘Revelation’ in the upper left corner of the home page to begin.]

I am gratified that you enjoyed the article on Rightly Dividing The Word of God. I have posted an article on this subject of understanding the words of scripture. It is entitled Will God’s Strong Delusion Deceive You?

Take a look at that, too, when you get the time.

God bless you and give you ‘eyes to see’ (Mat 13:11) the ‘demonstration of the Spirit’ (1Co 2:4) in His Word as He opens His Word up to you.

How does Christ return with many of His holy ones to execute judgment (Jdg 1:14,15); spiritually in His saints or physically with His saints?

All truth is only by divine revelation (Mat 16:17). I know of no writings which deal with the questions you ask here in a scriptural manner. Every teacher I know professes to believe that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1Co 15: 50). Yet, when questioned, it turns out that they take the scriptures concerning Christ’s physical appearances immediately following His resurrection, put them together with the scripture that says that when we see Him, we shall be as He is, and voila! 1Co 15:50 becomes ‘corruptible flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God but incorruptible flesh and bone can.’

So in the final analysis, orthodoxy teaches that flesh does inherit the kingdom. Flesh simply cannot accept its own demise. But the words of Christ to Nicodemus still stand sure, and 1Corinthians 15:50 confirms Christ’s words: That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit…[and how does ‘that which is born of the spirit’ appear?]…You cannot tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth [Why not? Because they appear as…] the wind [which] bloweth where it listeth…SO IS EVERYONE THAT IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT.

Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Joh 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Joh 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

There is no such thing as ‘incorruptible flesh.’ That is a scriptural oxymoron; a contradiction in terms. The same goes for the commonly used phrase ‘spiritual bodies of glorified eternal flesh and bone.’ There can be no such thing. That which is born of the spirit IS SPIRIT, and that which is born of the flesh is flesh. Christ came to ‘reveal the Father.’ If ‘when we see Him, we will be as He is,’ then we will be as the Father, because Christ told Phillip: He that hath seen the Son hath seen the Father.

Now, if that is a physical statement, then I submit that none but a few of that generation have any hope of salvation, for they were the only ones who ever saw Christ in the flesh. But of course that is not a physical statement, any more than any of the words of Christ: The words that I have spoken ARE SPIRIT (Joh 6:63). He is an “invisible God:” Who [Christ] is the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15 and 1Ti 1:17). How do we ‘see’ an ‘invisible God?’ The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world ARE CLEARLY SEEN, being UNDERSTOOD BY THE THINGS THAT ARE MADE, EVEN HIS ETERNAL POWER AND GODHEAD; so that they are without excuse (Rom 1:20).

Who is it that is “without excuse?” It is people who “know God” (Rom 1: 21). And what is it that they are guilty of doing? “Changing the glory of the uncorruptible [invisible] God into an image [that’s Christ; Col 1;15] made like corruptible man [with a ‘glorified fleshly body’] (Rom 1:23).

Do Christ’s saints return in glorified bodies, transfigured bodies, resurrected bodies? Are they all the same?

Just add ‘invisible to the physical eye,’ and you will have a scriptural statement: ‘glorified’ – Rom 8:17 and 30; 2Th 1:10; ‘transfigured’ – 1Co 15:51-54 and 1Th 4:17; ‘resurrected’ – same scriptures; But we must add ‘invisible’ to the physical eye because of Joh 3:8 – ‘Every one born of the spirit is as the wind, you hear the sound but do not see it’.

I will point out that Christ did appear fleshly for the sake of His doubting disciples. Will the world be any less doubting? How was Pharaoh persuaded to turn the government of Egypt, typifying the whole world, over to Joseph, typifying Christ??? “His spirit was troubled” (Gen 41:8). The word for ‘troubled’ is ‘paam‘ – Strongs #6470. It appears only five times in the O.T. The first time it appears is right here in Gen 41:8. The ‘spirit of Pharaoh is troubled’ and as a result of this Joseph is told:

Gen 41:40 Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.

This is, of course, the embryonic, Genesis, shadow fulfillment of 1Co 15:27-28. The last place this word, ‘paam,’ is used is very similar to the first time. It is in Dan 2:3. King Nebuchadnezzar also has a dream which ‘troubles’ him. And what does this dream concern?: “There is a God in heaven that… maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days” (Dan 2:28). Daniel then tells the king about his dream of the great image with the head of gold and feet of part iron and part clay. The ten toes, just as all the other parts of the image, represent the world ruling government of the ‘time of the end.’ They most certainly do not represent simply ten nations of Europe. They represent a very fragile ‘unified’ world ruling government, just as all the previous parts of the image. It will be very short-lived because iron does not mix with clay, any more than oil mixes with water. The whole world will turn on the hypocritical whore and “murder” her (Jer 4:30-31) “and shall eat her flesh and shall burn her with fire” (Rev 17: 16). This ‘whore’ includes all of the world’s great religions including: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. “Every man’s hand will be against his brother” (Isa 3:4-5; 9:18-21; 13:10-12; 19:2; 24:6; Zec 8:10; 14:3 and a hundred other scriptures).

The world’s leaders will be brought to the point of ‘being troubled in their spirit’ because of some impending disaster which ‘the powers and principalities in the heavens’ will impress upon them as it was impressed upon Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar. It will be an easy thing for Our Father to effectuate these things. One thing that we are specifically told will bring “great fear… upon them” is the resurrection itself (Rev 11:7-12). The ‘two witnesses’ are simply a symbol of those who are “my witnesses” (Luk 24:48 and Act 5:32). The ‘two witnesses’ are the people of God. “And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations…” will witness their resurrection “and great fear will fall upon them.” It will be through these resurrected saints that the seven last plagues will be poured out upon a rebellious mankind in judgment.

1Co 6:2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

The resurrections (Rev 20); spiritual, literal or both?

This one is easy if only we can relinquish the flesh and believe what we are told: How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?…It is sown in corruption [flesh]; it is raised in incorruption [spiritual]: It is sown in dishonour; it is it is raised in glory [though that glory may be as dim as the earth itself, 1Co 15:40]: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power [simply because]: it is sown a natural body; IT IS RAISED A SPIRITUAL BODY (1Co 15:35 and 42-44). Just turn to:

Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Heb 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him [a spiritual searching] shall he appear the second time [either ‘NOW on the house of God’ or the ‘great white throne’] without sin [“He was made to be sin for us” the first time] unto salvation.

The ‘second death’ is not a second dying, it is the second, much larger, group of people who, as resurrected spirits, now must be judged and learn to ‘die daily’ just as those ‘in Christ’ learned while they were still in the flesh. It is raised a spiritual body. ALL RAISED BODIES ARE SPIRITUAL BODIES (1Co 15:44).

Heavens passing away and the elements destroyed with heat and the earth and its works burned up (2Pe 3:10); literal heaven and earth or symbolic heaven and earth?

2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

This is symbolism until after the symbolic millennium. As long as babies are being born ‘in Adam,’ death can never be destroyed. Releasing Satan from his prison to deceive the nations is God ‘seeking an occasion against the Philistine flesh of all nations’ (Jdg 14:1-4). All nations will follow him to the destruction of all flesh. This is immediately followed by the second (in order of occurrence) resurrection and the ‘great white throne judgment’ where ‘Satan and his angels, along with all mankind whose names are not in the book of Life (Christ)’ will be judged in the ‘lake of fire’ (Isa 33:14-15). Know ye not that ye shall judge angels (1Co 6:3). Those ‘in Christ’ do not need physical (therefore temporary) planets, They are spirit, that ‘substance from which the ‘things that are seen are made’ (Heb 11:3).

Millennium (Rev 20:6); symbolic or literal?

The whole book is “SIGNified”. If 1000 years is not symbolic, then neither is ‘the Lamb’.

What the heck is my promised land (Canaan)? A transfigured body, a glorified body, a resurrected body?

Your promised land is the same as your rest (Heb 4).

Heb 4:9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

It is being in Christ. “When he shall come to be glorified IN HIS SAINTS and to be admired IN ALL THEM THAT BELIEVE.”

2Th 1:10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.