Hi. The book of revelation is really about the revelation of Jesus Christ to us and the end of the dominion of man. It is something that happens over many centuries of time from the times the patriarchs to the time of Jesus Christ as Lord in the world accomplished at the end of the dominion of natural carnal man. As we know Genesis tells us that man is allowed to have dominion. Let them have dominion the scripture says, noticing deeply the words THEM.
Gen 1:28 And God blessed THEM, and God said unto THEM, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
We note for our remembering that the scripture also says that the THEM that are to have dominion are BOTH MALE AND FEMALE. In Genesis 5 the scripture says that Male and Female made HE *THEM*, and GOD called THEIR NAME *ADAM*. In other words, ADAM is both male and female otherwise Adam or man is not mankind.
If we can accept that then we should recall to ourselves that 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that the first man is earthy, natural, and is therefore NOT THE LORD FROM HEAVEN. First is natural and that is true about the dominion given to mankind. The first dominion in this world is that of natural man and that is why the Kingdoms of man's history right up to today are pictured as BEASTS, for we are truly animal like in nature. We act like animals in the world act, only we are supposed to be more intelligent because of God's chosen influence among us.
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
In that the scripture is saying we SHALL also bear the image of the heavenly, we can see that it is talking about a FUTURE time because the IMAGE of GOD we are to be, the heavenly image, is not yet. It says we SHALL bear the image of the heavenly, it does not say we DO already bear it. This has been a very common mistaken area for Christians over the centuries and even before. Man is NOT in the image of God YET. The man that is the image of God is a spiritual man INWARDLY and one with the Father by having the divine nature, God's image, as who we are. We are to be one with God our father. This simply means that we can be his nature in total without having to be everything he is or knows "yet". The nature of God is who God is and if we are HIs nature ourselves then we are one with OUR father, but the father is still greater than we are here. That is what Jesus said about himself. He said, MY FATHER is greater than I.
Very important to note, I believe, is that Jesus HAD A FATHER. God does not have a father. Jesus was a man formed of Mary's flesh, which is the same flesh we all have at birth as a human child in the world. The ova became Jesus' body, born OF or out of A WOMAN. {unknowing person}.
All girls\women are OF man, but nevertheless men appear from out of and BY the woman. All natural mankind {who are deceived naturally about who God is at their birth as a baby} is of God, but nevertheless God as His son Jesus will be in the world {going to be} BY the woman. {natural mankind}.
The woman I am talking about is anyone, male or female, that is deceived about who God is and what God is like and does not know it. The son of God is born or "resurrected" out of the immaturity of mankind. Man is in the world through God, but Jesus Christ is going to be in the world as lord BY MAN who was once deceived or ignorant and immature about the truth of God. Every new created thing is not finished when it is first begun and is not finished until it is fully finished. Then it changes NO MORE because it is finished {perfected, matured}. Every adult in the world must come as a little child first or there is no adult in the world. To enter the creation one must begin as an unfinished creature... a child spiritually. The first man is a child spiritually and intellectually in the things of God.
The beast pictured as 666 in scripture is simply the final and powerful state of the last condition of the dominion of natural mankind in the world. The last time Kingdom is simply the highest state of man's natural intellectual and mechanical ability just before the appearance of Jesus Christ in mankind as the mature son of God in the world. The fire the beast and false prophet are cast into is the consuming fire of God. The only thing that dwells with the everlasting burnings of the consuming love of GOD are the attributes of LOVE and the wisdom and knowledge in God. The tree of life is the example of what Moses saw that was not burned. An example of the parable of the tree of life is the fulfilment of what dwells with everlasting burnings as mentioned in Isaiah 33. The hypocrites IN SION are afraid at the appearing of that fire of God. God is already beginning to pour out of His spirit upon all flesh. God's fire is His all consuming love where all things that are contrary to love and the ways and will of love will perish and can not live or exist any longer where God's indwelling full love is ruling. When the love of God in us can not be dethroned any more by hate, anger, greed, etc, then death is dead because all the causes of death in the world are ended and no more. The answer to evil deeds in the world is God's Spirit as the indwelling nature and mind of mankind and THEN man will Spiritually be in the true image of God... as His Son in the creation.
The last beast is simply mechanized mankind. If anyone desires a description that explains this please let me know and I will share what I have been given to share for us all. I will not put it all here because of length. The image of the man in Daniel that is gold headed, Silver chested, Brass midriff and thighs, and iron and clay calves and feet is a representation of man's complete dominion over time in the creation. The last dominion state is destabilized or knocked down and stands no more because of the great stone that comes from God and knocks away the footing {foundation} of that image of man's kingdoms.
We can see things that make us sick today, like viruses and so on. But we can not see them with the natural eye. We have a mechanical aid that lets us see things smaller than our natural eyes can see. This is what the "miracles" the beast out of the ground {mechanical motorized technological things} does. We can see things beyond our natural ability, thus super naturally, using mechanical aids such as microscopes, and atomic reactors, and so on. That is all the words super natural mean. They are not of some "demonic" spiritual bodied beings. The real man of SIN is ADAM, natural ADAM. It is his ideas and beliefs and ways that are natural to mankind that sit in us and often make those ways and ideas out to be of God or like God. {we are deceived by our own image\nature and the experiences we have in the world, both good and bad}. Those who believe that God will not give life to all in the time of their perfection at some future time are only basing their belief on their own ideas of judgment and correction as they follow and have had done to them in the world. They like their children more than the children of their neighbours, quite naturally. And it is natural to assume that God likes the present believers better than he likes the non believer and will therefore favour them over the "others". This is a natural prejudicial human behavior passing itself off as being Godly and of God's Spirit. That is "who" deceives us about what God is really like. Our own natural carnal nature and the mind based upon many natural natured attributes of hate, anger, prejudice, and so on.
The two men Jesus destroys the enmity between and makes one new man is the natural and the Spiritual man. The enmity that makes man separate from Jesus witness is the carnal nature and mind in man that is there naturally. No demons etc. here. The law of sin in our members is there for the purpose of keeping mankind physically in existence until He can be spiritually matured by God as God's Son Jesus Christ. We have to eat food and the body has to do it's own works properly or we perish. We have to reproduce children physically of our own ways and works through the sex drive or we perish as a natural organism in the creation. The sex drive is there because if it wasn't we would not have any purpose or appetite to procreate, not having a natural love. These things are of the law of "immaturity" or sin in our own bodily members. They are there as our own works for the purpose of keeping the clay {humanity} on the potter's wheel until we are completed\perfected.
Revelation says that when the seventh message {angel} BEGINS to sound the mystery of God will be no mystery any more. {there will be no more time, because the end will have BEGUN}. Time no more means no more delay before the things written about the revelation of Jesus Christ begin to be alive or active in the creation. For this to be true Jesus Christ has to be being SENT BY GOD at this time, the time of the restoration of all things as per Acts 3.
Act 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
Act 3:20 And he shall SEND JESUS CHRIST, which before was preached unto you:
Act 3:21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
The "Sending" of Jesus Christ is the sign or the time of our understanding of participating with God in putting all things, as THE SON, under OUR FEET. The tares and the wheat are to be fully identified for and within each of us. Out maturity is the walking out of the fulfillment of the words of Jesus Christ right here in the world. This is when we begin to spiritually stand {resurrect} before and at the judgment seat of Christ while still in our body in the world.
Mat_24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
All the tribes of the earth are all the earthy or natural lusts of the flesh, as it is they that are only "of the earth" and are not of THE SPIRIT OF GOD in eternity.
I want to remind us that it is LOVE, God, that is going to do this and it is done spiritually within each person as each person walks with God. We become the SON THAT KNOWS THE FATHER because of each of us being raised and taught by THE FATHER personally.
I also want to say that this is GOOD NEWS because we all have to be given this judgment or we can not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven yet. It is a judgment INTO ETERNAL LIFE.
Rom_14:10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand {resurrect} before the judgment seat of Christ.
2Co_5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
The first and second resurrection are spiritually discerned truths about good and evil, according to the Spirit that Gives life.
Just as Jesus was perfected {completed is what the word means} so too do we all have to be perfected by and as the FINISHER. It is only IN or AS Jesus Christ that all the promises of GOD are yea and AMEN.
This is part of the everlasting gospel or good news. We all have to be "redeemed" from the earth and no longer be defiled with women. Being defiled with women does not have any gender bias or physical meaning. It simply means that we will not be deceived about God and Jesus Christ any more. The woman is anyone who is spiritually unaware of the way, the truth, and the life that is God. Those who are "redeemed" from worldliness simply means no more deceived, and so having no more mistaken beliefs. This is not a gender delineation. Males and Female humanity are EQUAL in the Lord God.
If the spirit of him who raised JESUS from the dead dwell in us, He who raised CHRIST {not Jesus, but the pouring out of God's SPIRIT in active occurrence now in the world} from the dead shall ALSO quicken out physical mortal bodies by HIS SPIRIT that dwells WITHIN IT. Make the INSIDE clean {mature} first and the outside will be clean at the same time. Paul, in speaking about himself as an example, said "this mortal" {his flesh body} and "this corruptible" {spirit of man} must put on immortality and the Spirit of Incorruptibility. The flesh body and the Holy Spirit marry and are ONE FLESH, Jesus Christ the son of God in maturity.
God bless, ken