followHIM - Revelation 1-5 Part 1 • Dr. Nick Frederick • Dec 4 - Dec 10

Episode Date: November 29, 2023

How can I study Revelation in a way that makes sense to me? A warning, a contextual outline, and the promise of Jesus' salvation are all included in Dr. Frederick's framework for studying Revelation.Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/new-testament-episodes-41-52/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/follow-him-a-come-follow-me-podcast/id1545433056YouTube: https://youtu.be/2Bt8tPSr4hMInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15G9TTz8yLp0dQyEcBQ8BYPlease rate and review the podcast!00:00 Part 1–Dr. Nicholas Frederick 01:36 Teaser by Dr. Frederick to Revelation03:37 Biography of Dr. Frederick06:26 William Miller and dangers of the Book of Revelation10:52 Revelation in The Book of Mormon13:46 Author and audience16:28 Genre18:58 Prophecy20:10 Apocalyptic literature23:55 Dangers in finding just one application27:24 The Old Testament as a lens for Revelation28:59 Revelation 1:130:55 John’s witness and testimony of Jesus31:49 Pattern of sevens35:09 Jesus’s power to save37:18 Thesis statement of Revelation40:28 Rome has sent John to Patmos44:28 John is going to write and send to seven churches46:13 Son of Man50:32 Outline and interpretation of Revelation52:55 Ephesus56:50 Smyrna59:22 Pergamum1:03:37 His name in your forehead1:05:50 Thyratia1:09: 50 End of Part 1–Dr. Nicholas FrederickThanks to the followHIM team:Shannon Sorensen: Cofounder, Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignAnnabelle Sorensen: Creative Project ManagerWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Hello, my friends. Welcome to another episode of Follow Him. My name is Hank Smith. I'm your host. I'm here with my divine co-host, John, by the way. Hi, John. Blasphemy. Well, I opened up to the book of Revelation, John, and it said the revelation of St. John the Divine. People who know me are laughing out loud right now, but yeah, thank you. In the book of Revelation, I know you've read it before. What are you thinking about over the next couple of weeks? Are you excited? Are you nervous?

Well, I'm really excited because we have access to such amazing scholars. I love to use this word because it makes me sound smart. This book is written in a different genre. See, did I sound smarter right there? It's written in apocalyptic. It's like a different genre see did i sound smarter right there it's written in apocalyptic it's like a different language almost and that requires us to look at it differently and i am ready to just learn on this one because i know what i think it means but i do not think it means what i think it means i think i'm going to do the same thing, probably adjust what I thought was happening to what probably is happening.

I read this from Elder McConkie this week. He was talking about the book of Revelation. He says, if you have already fallen in love with John's presentation of the plan of salvation set out in this apocalypse, you are one of the favored few in the church. If this choice experience is yet ahead of you, which it might be for a lot of our listeners, the day and hour is here to launch one of the most intriguing and rewarding studies in gospel scholarship in which any of us will ever engage. Now that's Elder McConkie leading us into this great book. John, we're joined by a Bible scholar this week and also a good friend

of mine. His name is Dr. Nick Frederick. Nick, what are we looking forward to? I know this is one of your specialties, the book of Revelation. Over the next couple of weeks, we're going to really get into what is one of the more fascinating books, at least for me, in the Bible. This is one of those books that's very different than the Gospels. It's very different than the letters of Paul. You can pick up and read the Sermon on the Mount and get some great insight from it. You can pick up a letter of Paul

and get a snapshot of what's going on in the first century. The book of Revelation is doing something else entirely. They call this a unique experience, but the book of Revelation is a fair one. What we're going to try to do today is talk about some ways of reading this book responsibly, how to approach it in a way that hopefully will be uplifting and edifying while also helping us ground ourselves in what the book is doing and importantly, what the book isn't doing. Book of Revelation gets a lot of press,

a lot of its fame because of how it's been interpreted over time. Someone once said that the only thing scarier than the beasts of the Book of Revelation are the interpreters of the Book of Revelation are the interpreters of the book of Revelation because the book has been interpreted in so many different ways over time. We shouldn't expect to spend the next amount of time giving you the definitive interpretation of the book of Revelation. That would be a mistake. What we'll try to do is go through here and

suggest some possible ways of reading it, talk about who John was, what this text may have meant in the first century, and how we can draw from it in the 21st century today. That's exciting. I am really looking forward to this. John, one of my favorite quotes is from Richard L. Evans. He said, it is good to be faithful. It is better to be faithful and competent. As I approach the book of Revelation, I want to be faithful, but I also, over the next couple of weeks, want to learn. I want to worship God with my mind and really dig into this so I can understand what it's meant to say and what it's like Dr. Frederick said, what it's not meant to say. John, Dr. Frederick is new to our podcast. He's not new to me. He's a good friend, but our audience might not know who he is. Can you introduce him? Absolutely. Dr. Nick Frederick is an associate professor at Brigham Young University.

He was born in Provo and raised in Delta, Utah. Go Rabbits. What? I didn't know that. I love Delta. They've invited me down there a few times, and I love those folks down there. And they have their own airline. No, just kidding. If only that were true. After returning from a mission in Brussels, Belgium, which is French-speaking, isn't it? It was, yep.

He attended Brigham Young University, where he received his bachelor's in classics and master's in comparative studies. Then he attended Claremont Graduate University, where he completed a PhD in the history of Christianity with an emphasis on Mormon studies, after which he returned to BYU to teach full-time in religious education. His research focuses primarily on the intertextual relationship between the text of the Bible and Latter-day Saint scripture, specifically the Book of Mormon. He enjoys teaching courses on the Book of Mormon and the New Testament, particularly the writings of Paul and the Book of Revelation. He has been married to Julie Parker Frederick for 18 years,

is the father of four children, Miranda, Samuel, Cassandra, and Madeline. Welcome, Nick. Thank you so much for bringing yourself and your expertise today. Hey, happy to be here. Happy to be here. Big fan of you guys. In fact, I'll share a brief anecdote. Again, small town, Delta, Utah, pretty cut off from everywhere else in Utah.

I kind of do our own thing down there. Didn't really hear much about the broader Latter-day Saint cultural things like EFY and things like that. So there I am, my first semester up at Rick's College. Everyone in my apartment complex, my ward gets super excited because there's going to be a special guest that's going to appear in Rexburg. And they're all going around saying, you've got to come watch this guy. You've got to come watch this guy. And I'm like, well, what's his name? They're like,

John, by the way, this is my first introduction to you, John blew my mind. I thought it was fantastic. But ever since then, I still remember your Owen, by the way, joke, even 25 years later, Owen, by the way, and you're also amazing on guitar. It was a Delta ticket agent who said, are you going to name your son Owen? When he looked at my ticket and I went, Owen, by the way, I had literally never thought of it before. So I actually laughed. You've heard all of them. I thought I had until I heard that one.

I was like, give me that ticket. That's funny. Let's get started here. Nick, how should we approach this book? I'm guessing we need some background. Before we hit Revelation 1, verse 1, what do you want to talk to us about before we get started? Can I start with a story? Please do. Turn of the 19th century, there's a young man named William Miller who's coming of age. He fights in the War of 1812

and comes out of that war a little bit disillusioned. He's turned to the Bible, starts reading the Bible. He's a Baptist by tradition, and he becomes particularly engaged by the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation. He begins to study it, looking for some of the patterns, looking for clues. And in the year 1818, he decides he can predict the date of the second coming. It's going to happen in 25 years, he says, in the year 1843. As we roll closer to about 1840, he begins to attract thousands of followers to come be present for the second coming of Jesus Christ. And this is, again, quite a popular event. Gather in

1843, Jesus doesn't show up. So he says, well, maybe I did my computations wrong. Maybe I need to use a different calendar. 1844, Jesus doesn't show up. And by the end of 1844, this has become known amongst Miller's followers as the Great Disappointment. Well, Miller's followers fracture into several different groups. A woman named Ellen White leads one of the groups of Miller's followers and founds the Seventh-day Adventist Church. A little bit later on, the Jehovah's Witnesses will spring off from this group. And if we jump ahead to about the 1950s, there's a third group known as the Branch Davidians, who come from the Miller tradition. And as their name indicates, they believe that the Branch,

the Messiah, the heir of David, the son of David, is going to be revealed through their faith tradition. And a young man named Vernon Howell, who's a disaffected Seventh-day Adventist, joins up with these branch Davidians. He begins to read the book of Revelation. He begins to think that he is the lamb who's going to break the seals on the seven seals and usher in the last days.

He changes his name to David Koresh. And again, representing as kind of the heir of this messianic line. And of course, as I'm sure the two of you remember, as I remember well, 1993, Waco, Texas, tragically 80 people, about a third of them children, are killed in an unfortunate standoff with the FBI. The Book of Revelation is a dangerous book. There's literally a body count attached to this book. And not just here in America, but all the way from the 2nd century AD

with the group known as the Montanists, who believed that they knew the date of the Second Coming, all the way up to the modern age. The stakes have run high with the book of Revelation. There's something about this book that draws people's attention to it and has changed the course of religious history in America. We go back again to the 19th century, 1805. A young man named Joseph Smith is born in Vermont.

Over the next few years, his family moves along the Atlantic coast up into New York. 1820, he has a vision of the Father and the Son. 1823, he sees an angel. 1827, he's given some gold plates. In 1830, he publishes the Book of Mormon. Now consider, what's the first story in the Book of Mormon? A prophet named Lehi finds himself transported into the throne room of God, almost an exact representation of Revelation chapter 4, where John finds himself transported into the throne room of God. 1 Nephi chapter 8, Lehi has a vision of the tree of life, which again harkens back to Revelation chapter 2 and Revelation 21, Revelation 22, where you have this image of the tree of life in a very prominent position in the new kingdom of God. Then in 1 Nephi 11

through 14, Lehi's son Nephi has a vision that we're told has connections with the book of Revelation. And this is what to me is remarkable. Nephi's even told the name of the person who's going to write the book of Revelation. It's one of the disciples of the Lamb, right? It's a man named John. That doesn't happen for any other book in the New Revelation. It's one of the disciples of the Lamb, right? It's a man named John. That doesn't happen for any other book in the New Testament. No other author in the New Testament is mentioned in the Book of Mormon. Not Matthew, not Paul, not Luke. But John is mentioned specifically not once, but twice.

Because then you go to the Jaredite record, where the brother Jared has a vision, likened to the revelation of John. And then Ether chapter 4, again, we're told to watch out for the revelation of the apostle John. The second most often cited New Testament text in the Book of Mormon is the Book of Revelation. So clearly the Book of Mormon is telling us, read the Book of Revelation, study the Book of Revelation. Well, Joseph Smith, after he publishes the book of Mormon in 1832, devotes time to studying the book of Revelation. He even produces

a question and answer document with questions he has for the Lord about certain signs and symbols in the book of Revelation. It's unfinished. He only gets through Revelation 11. He doesn't include it in the 1833 book of commandments. He doesn't include it in the 1833 Book of Commandments. He doesn't include it in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants. But in 1876, Brigham Young canonizes it as, you can't make this stuff up, DNC 77. If there's any number you're going to connect with the Book of Revelation, it's going to be seven. What better way than 77, right? You won't forget that one. And if you look at the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants,

again, they cite and they quote all the time from the New Testament. The book of Revelation is again, the second most often cited New Testament text in the Doctrine and Covenants. So that's two books of scripture where the Lord and his prophets

seem to be saying, study this book. This book has something to say. Joseph will continue all the way up through 1844 to give sermons on the book of Revelation, to give clues onto some of the symbols in the book of Revelation. D&C 130, for example, contains some of those hints. What is the sea of glass mentioned in Revelation chapter 4, right? I think you could argue that in a way, in 1842, when Joseph introduces the endowment ceremony, what is the endowment but a chance for not just the prophets, but all of us to find ourselves transported into the presence of God, conversing with his angels? In a way, it's democratizing the book of Revelation so that all

of us can have that experience. The history of the Latter-day Saint tradition is one that is very much informed by the interpretation of the book of Revelation. And this book has an incredible impact for both good and bad in the history of religion in America, history of religion in Europe, the last 2,000 years of Christianity. The book of Revelation has been a key player in that drama. One thing I'm hearing, John, I don't know about you, is we need to probably be careful in our classes, in the way we discuss this with our children. There's a way to read this responsibly. This isn't one to go crazy with and to start reading things that really aren't there. Things can go up the rails quickly. If there was any way of attaching a PG-13 rating or putting some caution tape around the book of Revelation, that's what I would do.

What a great introduction. That is so fascinating. The impact this book has had on all those movements. That's amazing. Yeah, that's pretty incredible. We got the right guy, Hank. Nick, I would like to know a little bit of what's happening to the people this is written to. As we've heard from many of our guests, these books don't just fall out of the sky and say, read me. They have context.

There's an author, there's an audience, and there's a lot of things happening to those people that are going to help us understand what's said and why it's said. Yeah, those are great questions. We should start with authorship. Book of Revelation. In literally church up until about the third century, it was generally accepted that this was written by the apostle John. That changes in the third century.

You start to get some arguments that John the apostle can't be the same as John the revelator. The main reason is because of the text itself. Like the Greek of the Gospel of John, it's simple Greek, but it's pretty good Greek. The Greek of the book of Revelation is the worst Greek in the entire New Testament. There's just no other way to say it. There's mistakes all over the place. It's like if you were reading a paper and they used words like ain't every few words, that's the kind of vibe you get from the book of Revelation to the point where today most people don't associate the apostle John with John the

revelator. Now again, Latter-day Saints, we have the advantage of the book of Mormon where in two places we're told that the apostle John is the author of the book of Revelation. We can pretty safely say that the Apostle John is the one who has this experience. He has it, we're told, on an island called Patmos, which we can talk about when we get to chapter one. As far as the dating of this goes, when was this book written, right? Is it contemporary with the letters of Paul? Is it later? Because Hank, this goes to your question of what are the people experiencing at the time? There's two dates that get thrown around with the book of Revelation. Is it written in the 60s or it's written in the 90s? And there's good arguments for both, but they both revolve around the questions of what the Christians are going through.

Are the Christians being persecuted? Because this type of literature, what we call apocalyptic literature, tends to become popular when things are bad. Like when a people's undergoing persecution, what they want is a type of literature that gives them vindication, where they can watch their enemies get literally trampled under the hooves of horses. Chapters 13 through 17 very clearly bring the Roman Empire into the forefront. And it seems like it's events in the Roman Empire that are happening in the 80s and 90s. My best guess for a date of this would be sometime during the 90s, where the Christians are experiencing certain things and the book of Revelation is responding to certain pressures that they're under. There's our authorship. There's our dating.

The big one to go back to a word that John used at the beginning of the podcast here is genre. We have to understand the book of revelation and its genre. Different genres of books, as you know, have different rules. When we were done here, the three of us were to meet at Barnes and Noble and we would all pick out a book. Hank picks out a book on the history of World War II, and John picks up a book on John Grisham. He likes fiction. And I pick up a fantasy book by Brandon Sanderson. All of our books have different genres. We have history, we have fiction, we have fantasy, and there are certain rules that

apply to those. Hank would expect that his history of World War II would have footnotes, that it would be an accurate portrayal of events during World War II, and that your book, your John Grisham thriller, you would expect that it would not be about real people, but these would be real circumstances in the sense that there are people that you could meet on the street in any town in America. They're going to drive cars. They're going to buy food at the supermarket. They're going to live lives like unto yours. It's plausible. Plausible. Exactly. That's a good word for it. You're not all of a sudden going to find yourself on Mars shooting laser guns or something like that. All of a sudden you would say that's not

the type of book this is. Mine, on the other hand, fantasy has its own rules. You would expect something to happen on a world far, far away. You would expect a magic system of some sort to be in place. You would expect that these are people who have names that you haven't seen before, who are doing things that you haven't seen done before. And I would not expect that this is a factual retelling of an actual thing that happened like Hank would be expecting for his book. If we try to apply the rules of my genre to Hank's or vice versa, the book all of a sudden makes no sense. And that's the same way the book of Revelation is. The book of Revelation is complicated that it is actually three separate genres. The first is it's an epistle. There's

very clearly parts of this book that are a letter. It's going to have some of the same rules you would expect a letter of Paul to have. It's located in the first century with real churches, with real people, to whom are getting written a letter and all the things that that genre expects. Number two, the book of Revelation is a prophecy. Prophecy has its own genre and its own requirements. A prophet stands up and says, thus saith the Lord. It usually revolves around moral issues. You've descended into sin. The Lord expects you to repent or you'll be destroyed. Think of Ben-Hadai or something like that here, Jeremiah.

Prophecy is also predictive. Prophets can stand up and say, think Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14 behold a young woman will conceive and bring forth a son and he will call his name emmanuel butter and honey shall he eat but before he knows to choose the good from the evil the land of the abhorrence shall be rid of both her kings within eight or so years king a has a young woman will give birth and a young boy will grow up and then these Kings that you're worried about are going to be gone. Okay.

That's a prediction. Yeah. These two smoking fire brands. Exactly. And we can look and we can say, okay, who's the fulfillment of that prophecy? How long until that comes to pass?

Is this Hezekiah? Is this a son of Isaiah? How does this play out with gospel of Matthew? And Gabriel appears to Joseph and says, you're going to see the fulfillment of this prophecy? A prophecy is predictive. The third genre here is a complicated one. It's what's known as apocalyptic literature.

The word itself literally means to unveil. And the sense is that what you're going to do is you're going to unveil. Apocalyptic literature unveils things from God's perspective. Often, apocalyptic literature will have a tour of the heavens. Someone from earth gets transported to heaven and gets a guided tour. An angel will show them around because you're seeing things from God's perspective. A prophet is on earth. Apocalyptic literature takes place in heaven, so the rules are going to be different. And what you're often going to see is apocalyptic literature is concerned with the end of the world.

A prophet speaks to you somewhat about what applies to you in your time. Apocalyptic literature is concerned about the end. What does the end look like? Because again, this is God and God's perspective and God's plan. So what is God's end goal here? This is different than prophecy. Apocalyptic literature isn't trying to predict what's going to happen in a few years. Apocalyptic literature wants to show you the big picture from God's perspective

with the idea that you will have confidence and trust once you see he's in complete control. So you can maybe start to see this is where the problem comes in. If I take the rules of prophecy, that it's predictive and it's going to tell me what's going to happen in a few years, which the book of Revelation is, chapters 2 and 3 and chapter 22 are prophecy. But the vision itself is apocalyptic. Chapters 4 through 21 are doing something different. And I can't take the rules of prophecy and apply them to the genre of apocalypse. Or else I have the same problem as if I try to take the rules of fantasy and apply them to Hank's history of World War II.

It just doesn't work. And that's why I say this book has to be read responsibly. You're dealing with three genres, each of which have their own rules. And where we run into problems is when we try to apply the rules of one genre to a different genre that exists in the book of Revelation. So well said. I feel like I'm creating some boundaries as I enter each chapter. What lens I'm putting on the text as I go in. I'm seeing a lot of yellow tape, caution tape around the book. Exactly. Yeah. I love what you've done here. Your first statement about reading the book responsibly made me laugh. But when you went through history to see what has happened for people taking this in a futurist or literalist type of a thing, it's, whoa,

this can be dangerous. I'm excited to read it responsibly. Yeah. The number 666 has always drawn their attention. So back in the 1980s, well, it was Ronald Wilson Reagan. Six letters, six letters, six letters. Okay, I've done it. I've cracked the code. I figured out. It's American democracy. That's the mark of the beast or something like that. Well, then you get into the 1990s and we're all still here and people say, well, the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is the letter W, W, W, W. What are we without? Oh, it's the internet. It's a worldwide web is how Satan's going to infiltrate everybody and introduce the chaos of the end times. It's very easy to just let this get off the rails if we read this without just some general guidelines, some general caution in place.

So interesting. I know you're saying there's some fluid ways to look at this. Be careful. But are you saying as a hard and fast rule, don't try to look for things John hid in the numbers and the symbols that really we're talking about the United States in 2023. Is that a hard and fast rule? Stay away from that area. Great question.

And when it comes to other texts, again, letters of Paul, I would say there are hard and fast rules you have to maintain. Book of Revelation, again, I get much more cautious, but one of the hard and fast rules that I would say we need to maintain is don't try to give everything a one-to-one correlation. Don't assume that John is telling you about one specific thing that is in a code that you then have to crack. I think that's where it becomes problematic. I think the book of Revelation uses images because images have polyvalent meaning. You can extract different meanings to those symbols.

There are some exceptions. I think the lamb is Jesus. I don't think there's any other way to take the lamb. The dragon is Satan. I don't think there's any other way to take that. But the rider on the black horse from Revelation 6 or the two witnesses in Revelation 11. The one thing I've noticed among Latter-day Saints is every time we hear about apostles traveling to the Holy Land, we get super duper worried because Revelation 11 predicts that two witnesses are going to lie dead in the streets of Jerusalem for three and a half days. We look for

the one-to-one meaning there. Well, that must mean two apostles are going to go to Jerusalem and they're going to die and be resurrected after three and a half days. So we get a little bit anxious when we hear about apostles traveling. I don't want to say that's not what it means or that's not what's going to happen. I just think if that's all we're looking for is that one-to-one hard and fast correlation, we're missing what the book is trying to tell us. Yeah. What an excellent limit. I like that. If we were to describe apocalyptic, apocalyptic means revelation. It has lots of symbolic, we call them strange characters, symbols, animals, beasts, things like that. Would that be a way to describe apocalyptic? Because I know people have read the book of Daniel and we studied that last year.

Can you tie how Daniel is apocalyptic and how revelation is apocalyptic? Yeah. And for those exact same reasons that you mentioned, right, the extreme use of numbers, the extreme use of animal imagery, those are all part and parcel of the apocalyptic tradition. It's almost like it's a different language that you have to learn. I mean, it's written in English or whatever language you're reading it in, but it uses numbers, 7, 12, 4, 10, 144,000, 1,000. And these numbers, if you take them literally, you miss the point of what the number is trying to say. The numbers are metaphorical. They're symbolic. They're a language unto themselves. You got four horsemen that are white, red, black, and pale. Those colors mean something symbolically. There is a second language of

sorts, the language of symbolism when it comes to apocalyptic literature that you see in the book of Daniel, that you see in Ezekiel to some extent, and that you see in the book of Revelation. Again, another thing you have to do before you start is remember that the book is symbolic, and these symbols mean something. What does seven mean? It could mean that it's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, or seven could mean something like completion or perfection. If something has seven eyes and seven horns, you could imagine something with literally seven eyes and seven horns, or you could say horns represent power, eyes represent wisdom,

seven represents perfection or completion. So I'm looking at something that is complete or perfect in its wisdom represent power. Eyes represent wisdom. Seven represents perfection or completion. So I'm looking at something that is complete or perfect in its wisdom and power. And those are two very, very different things. You almost have to learn a second language when you deal with apocalyptic literature. That's the case for Daniel. That's the case for the book of Revelation. Excellent. Nick, I've heard it said that in order to grasp the book of revelation you need to have a

background or an understanding of the old testament almost as if john is saying i hope you know your old testament or else you might miss quite a bit that's in this book is there anything to that oh absolutely just like symbolism itself is a second language you have to learn to understand the book of revelation a second language you have to learn to understand the book of Revelation, the third language you have to learn is the Old Testament. Of all the verses in the book of Revelation, probably 75% of them contain at least one allusion to an Old Testament text. The language of the book of Revelation is Old Testament scripture. John is taking images from Ezekiel. He's taking images from Daniel.

He's taking references to Exodus and Genesis, and he's, in a way, extracting them from the Old Testament and re-situating them in a new context. That new context is Christ and Christianity. You have to understand the meaning, and we'll see that especially in chapters two and three. Chapters two and three is all about these references to things from the Hebrew Bible, from the Old Testament. And so if you don't know your Old Testament, there's entire messages in this book that are just going to go just whisk right over your head. John is demanding that before you read this book, make sure you brush up on the Old Testament.

It's a good thing that we have someone here to guide us. Thank you for being here. With that, I think we're ready to take a look at chapter one. Well, let's just start at the beginning here. Hank, would you just mind reading the first verse for us? Absolutely. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant john this verse there's a lot to unpack the name of the book

is the book of revelation or the apocalypse of saint john the revelation that second word there right the word is apocalypse and the unveiling of what jesus Christ. There we get our theme. There we get our topic. It's going to be about the unveiling, not of the future, not of what's going to happen. It's the unveiling of Jesus Christ. John's primary direction to us is as you read this book and you look for a lens of interpretation, you need to ask yourself, what does this have to do with Jesus Christ?

What does this teach me about Jesus Christ? There's another way you could take that. You could take of as from, the revelation from Jesus Christ. Both of them work fine, the revelation about Jesus Christ. But the sense of verse one here, I think is John saying, look, before I even get started, it's going to get crazy. It's going to get crazy quickly. Let's not lose sight of what matters here, which is the Savior. The point. Exactly. And then, of course, things which must shortly come to pass, we can argue about, does that mean 10 years? Does that mean 100 years?

Does that mean 1,000 years? And that's one of the arguments is, what does that mean? To me, it seems to mean shortly. This has to have application to john's audience in the first century and of course our first reference to his servant john okay which again christians today see john the revelator and john the apostle is two different john's book of mormon tells us this servant john is john the beloved tank do you want to just continue on? Verse 2. Who bear record of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw. Record here literally means witness, statement of truth. What John is going to tell

you is almost his testimony in court. It is if he's standing up, raising his arm, putting on the Bible and saying, I'm going to tell you what I saw. This is my witness, and it's a witness of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, which again, you could take a couple different ways. Is this John's testimony of Jesus, or is this Jesus Christ witness of God? And I tend to lean towards the latter there. What John is going to say is, here's how Jesus Christ witnesses of the Father. So we're going to see god the father's plan unveiled through his son jesus christ okay we're going all the way to the top here excellent want to keep going verse three blessed is he that readeth hey that's good news there you go

blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand here we get in verse three the first of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. Here we get in verse 3 the first of a pattern of sevens that's going to appear in the book of Revelation. We're going to have seven blesseds that will occur over the course of the book of Revelation. In chapters 2 and 3, we get seven churches. In chapter 6, we get seven seals. In chapter 8, we get seven trumpets to be followed by seven bowls. We get our first indication of this importance of seven occurring early on here in the book of Revelation. So that'll be something to track, this use of seven throughout the book.

I like that they that hear the words. In the first century context, this would be read orally. You don't have a written text, so to speak. So someone's getting up in sacrament reading this out loud. It would take about 90 minutes to read the book of Revelation from beginning to end. You can imagine, again, just a congregation as somebody stands up there reading the book of Revelation to them as they're hearing themselves and their experiences represented in the text. It's mentioned as a prophecy. We have our second now indication of genre. First one, apocalyptic. Now it's called a prophecy.

And the time is at hand. The important things are happening now. So this is again, why I always get suspicious if people want to say, well, this is about the future, this is about things thousands of years in the future. John says the time is at hand. Something important is happening now. We need to figure out what that is. Excellent. Do you want to go to verse four? Because it starts with John. So we probably ought to have John.

John, that's a big J there for you. Verse four. John to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be unto you and peace from him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne. Here we have John now introducing this proper. Notice it takes the form of a letter at this point. Remember, Paul would write his letter, Paul, an apostle to the saints who live in Galatia or something like that, right? John to the seven churches. So now we've entered into that epistle genre that we talked about. So again, where it gets confusing, seven churches, we'll meet those seven churches in chapters two and three. And again, the question becomes, is this seven specific churches or is this seven

symbolically? Is he addressing this to the complete or perfect or universal church? Anybody who considers themselves a part of God's complete and perfect church, I have a message for you. Or is it perhaps both? Are both meanings implied there? From him which is and which was and which is to come, we get our first reference back to the Old Testament. Remember Exodus chapter 3 verse 14, the name of God, I am that I am. I am the one who is, or I am the one that exists. We seem to be saying that connecting this divine being here in verse 4, who John's going to talk about with that Jehovah figure in Exodus 3.14,

the one who is, the one who was, and which is to come. Exodus 3.14. John, you're a the one who was, and which is to come. Exodus 3.14. John, you're a good reader. Let's have you keep reading. Verse 5, And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. Beautiful imagery there, right? To put this in a first century context, one of the questions that Christians would be asking is, is Jesus powerful enough to be able to save me?

I mean, I've got the Roman emperor and he's pretty powerful. You talk about this fellow named Jesus. Is he powerful enough to beat the Roman emperor? Is he powerful enough to beat these other divine beings that you might have heard about? What we're going to start to do is we're going to start to build Jesus Christ up as a God in whom you can trust. He's the first begotten of the dead, the prince of the kings of the earth he's the messiah essentially he's god's anointed one what did he do he loved unto him that loved us and in greek this is actually present tense even though in king james it sounds

like it's a past tense or perfect tense he loves us he to love us. He loves us in the present. And he washed us. That's a past tense. That's a completed action. He washed us. The atonement has been performed. It's been completed. And you are made clean by a God who's powerful and loves you and wants to help you and wants to help you make it through this world that is perilous and dangerous and scary.

It's always interesting to me that blood is, for us, it's a stain that needs to be washed and cleaned, but Christ's blood is a cleansing agent. The book of Revelation is going to play on that image. And to get to chapter 7, we're going to see the 144,000 are washed clean. They're made white through the blood of the lamb. And that's not how it's supposed to work. Blood does not make things white. Blood stains things. But somehow, in Jesus' case, makes you clean. The book of Revelation has paradoxes that run all the way

through. And one of those paradoxes is blood turns your clothes, your garments white. Wow. Okay. Verse six. Yep. Yeah. These first verses 4, 5, and 6 are a thesis statement of sorts. This is what you expect when you get to the book of Revelation. You're going to be introduced to Jesus Christ. You're going to understand that he's the one who loves you and saves you. And then what does Jesus want to do? He wants to make you kings and queens, priests and priestesses. We have another allusion to Exodus here, in this case Exodus 19,

where we're told that Moses wants to take the Israelites and make them a kingdom of priests, or as King James translates it, kings and priests, but it's more literally a kingdom of priests. You'll start to see that why Joseph Smith was so attracted to the book of Revelation. You'll start to see language like kings and priests. You'll start to see seals become a very big deal in subsequent chapters. We'll start to see echoes of our own tradition as we work our way more and more into the book of Revelation. The cool thing about this is when you get to chapters 2 and 3, the churches are promised images that have to do with kingship and priesthood. So here we're told Jesus makes you kings and priests, queens and priestesses.

And then chapters 2 and 3, we'll actually see the promises and how the promise of becoming a king and a priest is actually brought about and then in chapter five we'll revisit this exact same image again come to come full circle let's keep going here verse seven says he cometh with the clouds every eye shall see him they also which pierced him and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, amen. We're getting a couple of amens here. Cometh with clouds. What does that bring to mind?

Daniel chapter seven, right? The prophecy of one like the son of man. Who is this guy, Jesus? Okay. Well, he's also the powerful son of man. He was going to come on the clouds of heaven with the angels behind him and conquering the earth we get a passage from zechariah 12 here they also which pierced him you have to be fluent in the language of the old testament to understand

all these illusions that are coming through here this is a good example of how john adopts and adapts a language from jewish scripture daniel, Zechariah 12, things like that. Is this the first time we see that name title for Christ being Alpha and Omega? Yeah, this is where we start to see the description of God and Jesus in these absolute terms. Alpha and Omega, the first letter in Greek and the last letter in Greek. The beginning and the end, the first and the last. The idea here is we want to situate Jesus and Jesus's father as having absolute power. You can put your trust in them because they can overcome this Roman

empire that has all this power on earth. This is one of the ways the book of Revelation is going to do this is with those titles that stretch from one end all the way to the other. Okay. I like how in verse eight, it says that like three times I'm alpha and Omega. I'm the beginning and the ending. I'm that, which is that, which was that, which is to come.

It's, are you getting this? Yeah. You can trust me. I've seen it all. I can do it all. Yeah. Okay.

Let's keep going. I'll read nine. I can do it all. Yeah. Okay, let's keep going. I'll read 9. I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. This is where we can situate things a little bit more historically. One of the things the Romans would do, especially with astrologers and soothsayers, if you had people that were predicting gloom and doom upon Rome, they would relegate just saying, go cool your jets for a while since you've been predicting this stuff, kind of doom and gloom about what's going on here in Rome. And he says, while he's there on this island of Patmos, which is about 13 square miles, you can walk from one side to the other in about half a day to this island in the Aegean Sea. While he's there, he says, I was put there for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Christians are still this nebulous group. There's really no clear idea what to do with them. Are they Jews? Are they something else? Later on, there's going to be more of a policy in place. But right now, it's just, look, we don't know quite what to do with them. They're saying things. Let's send them over here.

Wait for things to cool off a little bit. We don't know how long he's there. Then he comes back. But this seems to be at the instigation of Rome, specifically for what he's saying about Jesus Christ. Nick, when he says, I am your companion in tribulation, what's the audience, the people he's writing to, what have they been through?

We'll see this more when we get to chapters two and three. What used to be said about the book of Revelation and about early Christianity was there was this myth of persecution like christians to the lions that the christians in the first century had all these terrible things happen to them there probably was some persecution paul mentions persecution say for example in first thessalonians but it's probably overplayed a little bit as far as christians being killed christians being fed to the lions, things like that. It's probably more not an imperial persecution of sorts, although Nero,

the Emperor Nero, did have a reputation for persecuting Christians. And the emperor who's currently in charge at the time of this, if we assume a later date for the book of Revelations, the Emperor Domitian, who reigns from 81 to 96 AD, perhaps doesn't look very fondly upon the Christians, but it's probably the tribulation is coming from their neighbors. It's coming from the fact that Christians who live in cities like Corinth, like Ephesus, aren't playing along with the other members of society. They aren't attending the temple. They aren't eating the food that's offered to idols that everyone's expected to eat. We might say today in America, we have a civil religion. We stand up for the Pledge of

Allegiance. We take off our hats when the flag enters the room. We have holidays that reflect patriotism and things like that. The ancient world was the same way. And all of a sudden, the Christians aren't playing along. They're not standing up for the Pledge of Allegiance. They're not putting their hands over their hearts. They're not doing the things you expect them to do. People are saying, we don't know what to do with you. You're unpatriotic. So the Christians are stuck between,

do we go along with what the world wants us to do and accommodate as best we can, or do we stick to our beliefs and hold our ground even though we risk upsetting our neighbor, upsetting people in our community? That seems to be more the case of what's happening here at the end of the first century. When John says, my companion tribulation, it's probably something more like this. They're having a very hard time carving out their identity in society. That's really helpful. Why don't we look at verse 11,

saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. We get repetition of those ideas again. What thou seest, write in a book. We're being told now that what John is going to see is going to write in a book. In this case, it would be a scroll. And then send it unto the seven churches

which are in Asia. Then we're given, again, we talked about seven blessings earlier. Now we're going to be introduced unto the seven churches which are in Asia. Then we're given, again, we talked about seven blessings earlier. Now we're going to be introduced to the seven churches. And they are Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. The thing about these seven churches is they all form a semicircle of sorts in Asia Minor. So they're all churches that are next to each other. All of them are within a couple days travel from one another. John may very well have been familiar

or maybe founded some of those churches. What we're going to see in chapters two and three is each of these seven churches is going to get their own specific message. Some of those churches are doing well. Others of those churches are not doing very well, but each of them will be promised something specific. Verse 11 really sets the stage for John to write down his vision and then brings these seven churches into the conversation. And Nick, you said earlier, are the seven churches symbolic or are they real? These are real congregations. These are real congregations. There are churches at these places. The question is, should we interpret this today as, I mean, seven. Were there more than seven churches? Absolutely. It could be eight or nine or ten, but he chooses seven because seven has a specific meaning.

And so as we look at this and say, how should we interpret it? First century context, these are real churches, but does it have meaning to us today? In other words, when we read chapters two and three and we get these really cool blessings, can we apply them to us because we are quote unquote part of the seven churches in the sense that they are God's universal or complete or perfect church? It just goes to a question of application.

But absolutely, these are real first century congregations with real people who would be undergoing real problems. Let's keep going here because it seems that john sees the lord himself he describes him in ways that we're maybe not used to yeah so should we just go to verse 13 then yeah in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the son of man which again controversial phrase does it mean someone who's like a human being or does this mean somebody the son of man in the sense that jesus is this messianic semi-divine figure probably more the latter in this case probably closer to daniel son of man than ezekiel son of man clothed with garment down to his foot and gird about the paps with a golden girdle there's

something majestic about this. You're supposed to see him as well-dressed, likened to, say, an emperor or something like this. There's majesty in this description here. But you could also see priesthood in this as well. His head and his hairs were white like wool. Echoes of the Ancient of days in Daniel 7, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire, signifying divine power. His feet likened to fine brass as if they burned in a furnace. His voice is the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand connoting strength. We'll see the

right hand again in chapter 5. Notice the seven stars. He uses the right hand, his strong hand, to protect the seven stars. And that's going to come into play later on. God in his role as a protector can trust him. You are in his right hand. And out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. The image here being one of defense. God can defend you. He can protect you. God's word being like a two-edged sword. The image here being one of defense. God can defend you. He can protect you.

God's word being like a two-edged sword. We see this in Hebrews. We actually see this very prominently later on in Revelation 19. What comes out of God's mouth, right? A sharp two-edged sword and his countenance as the sun shineth in his strength. John's reaction when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. He's overwhelmed by this image. It's unlike anything John has ever seen before. And I love this passage. He laid his right hand. Again, he's been holding, protecting the seven stars in his right hand. He takes that same right hand, that same hand that represents power, and lays it on John, offering him that same hand that represents power and lays it on john offering him that same protection fear not i am the first and the last again you can trust me literally i've got i've got your back

i'm the one you should be following i have the keys of death and hell yep you're okay when i read this should i say oh this is how the Savior literally looked? Or should I say, this is John symbolically describing the Lord? I would lean more towards the last. Again, symbolism is its language unto itself. Fire means something. Right hand means something. And so John is using symbols to describe certain ideals, certain features,

certain characteristics of the Lord. And symbols can just carry more meaning than, say, just a word can. He was powerful. And I'll relay that to you by saying his eyes were like fire or something like that. His voice was as his mouth came out of two-edged sword, right? He just had this incredible power of speech. He's relying on you as a reader, understanding how symbols work. I would actually say more often than not, when you're reading the book of Revelation, err on the side of metaphor and symbol before you take a literal meaning. If metaphor symbol doesn't work and you want to take it literally, that's good, that's helpful. But more often than not, John's assuming, I think you'll read this metaphorically. Figurative first, literal second. Exactly. Maybe even figurative first, figurative second, figurative third,

literal fourth. The more trouble, the more literally we take the book of Revelation. Close out chapter one, write the things which thou hast seen. Revelation chapter one. The things which are. Revelation two and three. These seven churches that you have contact with. And the things which shall be hereafter. Revelation four through 22.

Here we get the structure in verse 19. Hmm. Fantastic. Things which you have seen. Things which now are. things which shall be hereafter so we could watch for those yes exactly gives you an outline of what things are going to be where they're going to be why they're going to be in this particular order and how to interpret them revelation two and three take it as present circumstances revelation four through 22 we're

going to have a different picture. Now we're dealing with apocalyptic. What's the end game from God's perspective? I noticed in chapters 2 and 3 that there's breaks along the way as he talks to the angel of the church of Ephesus. And then that's verse 1. Chapter 2, verse 8, the angel of the church of Smyrna. You go along and there's these individual letters to these congregations. That's absolutely right. This is the epistle part of this is each church is going to get their own short letter, which gives them commendation.

In some cases, it gives them condemnation. Then it leaves them with a promise. If you can turn things around, or if you continue on your course, you'll be blessed in some fashion. This letter, chapters two and three, or maybe the whole vision would be taken to these churches specifically. Okay. But the idea that each of them is individually addressed here, this is maybe an itinerant route that a missionary would take. You can hit all these churches in about a two-day walk from each other. Oh, okay.

Each one starts with, to the angel of the church of, fill in the blank, and then it finishes with, he that overcometh, like you said. There's a fixed structure for each one of these. They'll all follow the exact same pattern. Each one has its own problems. Each one is very unique. Each one is given its own unique blessing. We could hit on all seven of them quickly, just maybe just talking about what the problem is and then maybe what they're promised. Because I think that's where the application will come in is what is this church

dealing with? And then what is this church promised by overcoming what's going on? Is this to be seen as here's the lord speaking to this congregation yeah because what john is going to do is john's going to write essentially what god is telling him to write he's a scribe for these couple of chapters these are individualized blessings from the lord so the mapleton sixth lord gets a letter from the Lord. Yes, essentially something like that. I know what problems you're having. Which ones do you want to look at, Nick? Well, we can start with the first one, Ephesus here.

In chapter 2, verse 1, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus, one of the largest cities in the world. Ephesus was famous for the worship of the goddess artemis there was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world was the temple of artemis a problem that's identified in verse two all right he says first of all i know your works i know your labor i know your patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil thou has tried them which say they are apostles and are not and has found them liars so he's like you've been. You're doing the best you can. There are some that have come among you and you've recognized who they are, that they aren't necessarily what they say they're going to be. But unfortunately, verse four, the Lord says, I do have a problem with what you're doing.

You've left thy first love. Don't know quite what that means. Maybe the love you had at first, maybe this was a congregation that originally was very open, very welcoming, but over time has become more closed off. They've stopped loving their neighbors because their neighbors have been giving them grief. You're not where you used to be. Is that? Yeah, something like that. There's behavior you used to have that was good. You've lost that specific behavior. I think kind of that outreach we might say today. You were a congregation

that had some outreach, but you've tapered off in that. I want you to turn it around. It feels like an Alma 5 type. That's that same sense. Go back to the basics. And then verse 6, thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans. Probably this is, again, a theme we're going to see throughout here. This has to do with eating food offered to idols. They're feeling pressure to go to the temple of Artemis, for example. From like 1 Corinthians 8, Paul has this conflict about what to do with meat offered to idols. And the issue was, this is where the parties were held. this is where your socials as a community would be and you were expected to be there and participate in this and people are looking at

you sideways because you're not going to the big community parties anymore and there's people in Ephesus who are like well is it such a big deal can can't we do this can we accommodate a little bit can't we go to the temple of Ephesus just to have a party on Saturday and then go to church on Sunday? So the challenge here is accommodation, assimilating with religion. God's saying, no, no, you can't. And he's like, good for you for not doing it. You hate the people who are doing that. Keep that up. This is, I think, the biggest problem for these churches is how do they live in the world, but not of the world. If we kind of look for a modern takeaway, I mean, this is something Latter-day Saints. You're going to get a lot of pressure socially, a lot of pressure politically. A lot of people might look at you sideways because you're not doing the things that people think you

should be doing. So what should you do? Should you accommodate a little bit or should you hold your ground and do what you know you're supposed to do? That's an age-old conflict here. And some of these churches are doing better than others. Some churches are doing, yeah, we're good. We're not accommodating. Other churches are, unfortunately, accommodating. The Lord's going to have some harsh things to say. Then he closes out. Every one of these closes out on a positive note. Verse 7, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

To him that overcome. And that'll be a constant theme. There's something about overcoming here. Will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. So we have this first promise of, in some fashion, harkening back to Genesis,

back to Ezekiel, but also ahead to the end of the book of Revelation, where we're told that in God's new kingdom, when Zion's built on the earth, right on both sides of the street, was a tree of life. And so there's something about eternal life rests with me, and I offer it to those who can overcome the challenges that the world offers you. Got it. Who's next in line for the letters? Next in line is the church of Smyrna and everything all is well at the church of Smyrna. These guys are doing great. Verse nine, he says, I know thy works in tribulation and poverty.

Smyrna was traditionally a very rich, prosperous city, but he says, you know, your poverty. I know the blasphemy. This is probably the slander people are saying things about christians because they won't go to the temple which is not necessarily about worship it's just eating at the temple is a civic responsibility and their christians won't do it of them which say they are jews and are not because they're not true israel in a sense is the idea here because they haven't accepted Jesus. And acceptance of Jesus, as Paul says, is the mark of true Israel. But they are the synagogue of Satan, which is kind of harsh. We want to be careful here.

This could very easily become anti-Jewish a little bit. The idea is there's the congregation of the Lord, where the righteous are. And there's something called the synagogue of Satan, where the wicked are. And in apocalyptic literature, this is one of the hallmarks. Everything's very dualistic. There's good and there's bad, and there's no middle ground. There's black and there's white, but there's no gray area. You're either in the congregation of the Lord or you're in the synagogue of Satan. Church of the Lamb, Church of the Devil. That's very Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 11. Yeah, the same.

1 Nephi 14. This or that. Yeah. Yep, absolutely. He says, look, verse 10, be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. So here we have another nice image of, call it exaltation if you want to. Bring a Latter-day Saint lens into it. That's the idea.

You will have a space in my new kingdom. Probably the image here is of a laurel wreath. In the ancient world, athletic competition, the winner would be given a laurel wreath to wear like a crown. And that's probably the image. We shouldn't see like a crown that a king would wear, but someone who's triumphed in a competition is the idea. You've made it through, like Paul says, I ran the race, I finished my course. I won the wrestling match. And here, that same idea, you overcame the obstacles. And so you get what winners get, which is a laurel wreath. But in a sense, dying is its own victory. You die, you move on. And what do you get? You get a lower weight. You won the competition.

The people of Smyrna, they're doing okay. Yeah, these have been individualized. Ephesus, it's you were doing well. You're not doing as well as you used to. Smyrna, it's, hey, you're doing really well. Keep going. Yep, absolutely. Okay.

First 12, we get our third church, which is the church in Pergamum. Verse 13, I know thy works where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is. In Pergamum, there was a humongous altar to Zeus. That's probably what he means here on their Acropolis, this big altar to Zeus. He calls Satan's seat. And he tells us that a man named Antipas was slain among you, probably as a result of persecution. So that's probably where he says Satan dwells in your city because one of my disciples, Antipas, was killed there. So he has some harsh things to say about what's going on in Pergamum.

We don't know who Antipas is, but something bad happens to him. And as a result, again, the Lord has some harsh things to say about this. Verse 14, I have a few things against thee, he says, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam. Now this takes us back again to Balaam in the Old Testament. He lures Israel into apostasy by convincing them to worship the Moabite gods. And what the problem is assimilation. They start to indulge in Moabite practices because of the Moabite women. And that seems to be the case here. The people in Pergamum are assimilating into common cultural practices like eating things offered unto idols.

You're going along with it maybe they're even participating in the ritual and the sacrifice which for the lord is a big no-no to commit fornication he says and that's probably idolatry not fornication the sense of anything immoral sexual sense but in the book Revelation, I think when we're talking about fornication, you'll see this with the image of the prostitute in Revelation 17 and 18, probably more about idolatry than about anything else. And they're feeling the pressure. It's something we can relate to, right? You feel the pressure from society to act in a certain way. Your neighbors are expecting you to act a certain way. Your co-workers expect you to act a certain way. And in Pergamum, they're doing it. They're going along with certain way. Your co-workers expect you to act a certain way.

And in Pergamum, they're doing it. They're going along with what their neighbors and co-workers want them to do. And God has to step in here and say, you can't do it. You're different. When you chose Christianity, you chose to be different. Stay different. So verse 16, repent or else I will come unto thee quickly, which does not sound like a good thing. Okay. And we'll fight against them with the sword of my mouth. That's a promise that only applies to some people read this and say, well, this is the Lord saying he's going to second come. It's going to happen fast. It's just this church. He just says this church, I will come unto you quickly, but notice what they get. This is fun.

In verse 17, to him that overcome, will i give to eat of the hidden manna not entirely sure what that means but it suggests something secret that the lord is going to reveal are there echoes here of the messianic banquet when i come and establish my kingdom you're going to be part of it is it a reference to the manna that's traditionally in the Ark of the Covenant. He'll be brought into the presence of the Lord in some aspect. Of course, I will give him a white stone. This is familiar to us from D&C 130. What this perhaps means in context is when someone would be put on trial, the way that you would decide if they were acquitted or they were condemned, we should have like a white stone and a black stone and if you cast the white stone it was for acquittal if you cast a black stone it was for a verdict of guilty god is saying here i'll give you

a white stone meaning you will be acquitted you'll be declared not guilty you'll be vindicated you'll be judged as not guilty and in that stone a new name will be written perhaps jesus's own name as we'll see it could be a different name. Which no man knoweth, saveth he that receiveth it. So there's a lot of fun things there. If we're using our Old Testament references here, Isaiah 62, the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness,

all kings of thy glory, and thou shalt be called by a new name. Perhaps something akin to that. And you'll be given a crown of glory, a royal diadem in the hand of thy God, Isaiah says. So perhaps something again like that is in mind here. To go back to Alma 5, you have his image in your countenance. It's his name written on your forehead, so to speak. That's kind of the idea. Declare this day whom you serve. You can serve the broader community or you can be my disciple and serve me. If you serve me, I'll claim you as my own. I will be there for you when you need me.

Yeah, that is a different promise than the first two. Yeah. There's a lot of fun stuff there, right? Not that all of them aren't nice promises, but those are a little bit more intriguing than just a generic crown of righteousness or something like that. Yeah, you're right. Something you would pause and say, oh, what does he mean? And it takes some time to figure that out. What is this hidden manna? What is this white stone? And of course, D&C 130, Joseph specifically addresses this. The white stone mentioned in Revelation 2.17 will become a Urim and Thummim to each individual

who receives one. A white stone is given to each of those who come into the celestial kingdom whereon a new name is written. Joseph gives us that interpretation of this specific verse in D&C 130. So again, a lot to play with there. That's interesting. I'm reading on Bible Hub, the pulpit commentary. He's referencing Trench. Trench's explanation of the white stone has an allusion to the Urim and Thummim, which the high priest wore. So this isn't something that's unique just to Joseph Smith. It's not. That's the case. You think of the high priest, he has the breastplate and in the pouch is the Urim and Thummim. And the Urim and Thummim would work because the priest would ask a yes or no question. And then if he pulls out the white stone, it's a yes.

He pulls out the black stone, it's a no or something like that. And that's how you would divinate in ancient Israel. That's that idea. There's a priestly significance to this in the sense that the white stone is the Urim and Thummim. And we saw in chapter one, he says, I'll make you kings and priests. Crown of righteousness, now a white stone. Okay, we're getting these images of kingship and priesthood that are being stressed in these chapters.

The idea of this being a Urim and Thumm is not necessarily unique for Latter-day Saints. There's a long interpretation, actually, of the white stone having Urim and Thumm implications. Wow, that's great. That's a lot of fun. All right, so we're on our fourth church here in verse 18. Yeah, this is the longest of these individual letters, and it's the most severe, the most serious, which is addressed specifically to Thyatira. And as we can see in verse 20, this is the reason why. Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel.

Probably not her real name. And using symbolism here, Jezebel brings up images of what? She's like the wicked woman of the Old Testament, right? Yeah. Yeah, idolatry. Introducing idolatry to the Israelites. She calls herself a prophetess, which is not unusual. The Old Testament is full of prophetesses. Miriam, Huldah, Isaiah's wife is called a prophetess which is not unusual the old testament's full of prophetesses

miriam holda isaiah's wife it's called a prophetess to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication probably not sexual but religious infidelity and to eat things sacrificed to idols we see the same problem occurring do Do we accommodate with society or not? Not just about eating at Texas Roadhouse, right? I know Hank's favorite restaurant. There's more implied here when it comes to eating meat offered to idols. He says, I gave her space to repent, but she repented not. Then verse 22, which is a difficult verse, but I will cast her into a bed and them that commit adultery with her into

great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds and I will kill her children with death. This is the PG 13 part you were telling us about. Yes. Yeah. This is part where it gets a little bit tricky and depending on how you interpret this, you could say that anybody is the Jezebel and talk about what's going to happen to them and have some vindication in punishing them. The bed here probably just means a sickbed. That's how it's used in the Old Testament. And I will kill her children with death, probably meaning plague or sickness again. I, the Lord, will bring a plague upon them if they don't repent.

That's not that unusual. But the language itself just casts her on a bed and I'll kill her children. I mean, that's pretty intense. But the promise is made to Thyatira, just as it's made to the other churches in verse 27. If you overcome, I'll give you power over the nations. In other words, I as the Messiah will share my authority and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. Even though things are problematic in Thyatira, they have their problems and they're big problems. The Lord still holds out hope. There's still a time to repent. There's still

time to turn around. And what's the promise? You can co-rule at my side as the Messiah. And that's pretty cool. Nick, with this letter, I can see my children going, wow, is the Lord really going to wipe out these people who sin? Could I take this to be just a contrast of sin versus righteousness and what sin brings and what righteousness brings? It goes to how you interpret the Old Testament as a whole. When we see the Lord bringing plagues upon people, what are those literal plagues? Or are those more symbolic of the sinful behavior of a community? The consequences of sin. Yeah.

Exactly. The absence of the spirit or something. Yeah. I'm more comfortable with that, I think. Yeah, me too. And I would strictly say the Lord is going to specifically kill your children. Just more that, be aware that what you do has implications upon your family. Generations.

The behavior you demonstrate has implications upon your children and their children and their children. There's implications if you follow Jezebel. If you follow idolatry, then your kids are going to have to struggle with that. And a plague will come upon them and they'll have to deal with the consequences I would probably lean more towards that interpretation here probably alright we have three more churches

please join us for part two of this podcast