Alpha Omega

After all the introductory prophecies have been revealed to St. John, our Lord then begins to reveal the events that are to precede the end of time and Judgement Day. Chapter six begins as one of the evangelists calls to him to witness these events. As our Lord opens the first seal of the book of secrets (v.1), St. John sees a man with a bow riding upon a white horse and conquering all the earth.

This event started with Adam of the book of Genesis and it represents the Lord our God, (the man), His truth (the bow) and all the faithful children of God (the horse) dispersed throughout the world. They are going out into this world teaching truth and conquering — not the nations of this world — rather, they are overcoming all false teachings. One must not forget that the book of Revelations is revealing events of St. John’s past, his present and his future (Rev.1:19).

Thus, there is nothing erroneous with this event starting with Adam of Genesis. The revelation ends with the revealing of the secrets of this book. With the scientific proof of God’s existence and the scientific proof for the exclusive divinity of Jesus Christ established, our Lord has conquered all heretical theological teachings.

This is not to insinuate that other teachings (mathematics, science, social studies, the arts, the humanities, etc.) are unimportant to God. But theological truths are more important in establishing the truth of God than other truths. Nor does this mean to imply that these other teachings are not truthful or that there is nothing else left to discover. There is still much to be learned in all fields of study, including theology.

As mentioned in the second book of this trilogy, many children of God will demand truth and justice in their particular field of interest. These children of God will not stop searching until they find the particular truth or justice for which they seek. Such souls love truth and justice more than they love their own lives (Jn.15:13). It is in this manner that truth and justice conquer all lies and injustices.

Before continuing, one should note that God is not the cause of all the chastisements that are mentioned herein. Man is the cause of his own misfortunes. What our Lord does is allow an evil person’s own thoughts to rule over him. One could say that such a person is blind to truth and justice. Our Lord may also limit someone’s thoughts. This latter is done in order to protect the person from something that will either harm them or someone else. One could say that such a person has myopic vision in the discernment of truth and justice.

Our Lord opens the second seal and another evangelist calls St. John to come see another event (v.3). This brings a man with a great sword riding upon a red horse (v.4). This symbolical man does exactly what the book says. With the sword of war he takes all peace from the earth.

God accomplishes this by allowing the corruption of evil government leaders, military leaders and civic leaders to control their thoughts and beliefs. This prevents them from knowing the solutions to all man’s problems. The answers that they do come up with often cause more harm than good. This is because they seek self glorification rather than to glorify truth and justice. Then they go to extreme lengths in order to make it appear as though their solutions will bring peace. The solutions to mankind’s problems they offer cause hostilities, wars, revolutions, riots and other similar actions that man commits against man.

Jesus Christ allows these chastisements to come upon mankind in order to bring man to repentance for breaking the law of love. Should mankind begin to obey the law by being honest and just in all their interactions with each other, then all the social and political problems would gradually disappear.

God does this by offering a person some materialistic goal to seek after. Going after the goal will then distract such a person from some contemplated evil action that would bring harm to someone. This is the same as when a chess master would offer an opponent a sacrifice in order to make a greater gain elsewhere.

God also controls an individual’s evil thoughts by allowing such a person to see the consequences of committing an evil act. This is the same as when a chess master would threaten an opponent with superior force in order to induce the opponent to move to a certain square.

God does not force anyone to do a certain deed. Each person has the freedom of choice. However, the control that sin has over an individual is that such evil prevents the person from perceiving truth and justice.

One should also note that evil cannot force a person to harm someone or do anything. It is just that an evil person has to work through trial and error in order to find the answers to the social and political problems of man, often coming up with a wrong solution.

Once one asks God for forgiveness, then the devil loses his strongest hold on such a person’s thoughts. Such a person can then begin to perceive truth and justice more clearly. Once one receives absolution, Satan loses another strong grip on one’s soul. Then it is just one’s own lack of humility and one’s secularism and love of materialism that impedes the perception of truth and justice.

The opening of the third seal by our Lord brings a man riding a black horse while holding a pair of scales (v.5). This is a figure of famine, inflation, depression, unemployment, recession and other economic problems of mankind. It is seen in the scales in the man’s hand. Thus, St. John hears one of the evangelists call out the price of goods (v.6).

But he warns not to hurt the wine and the oil. This is symbolic for homegrown food and homemade goods; the price of which is mainly one’s own good work and is not greatly affected by the economic problems of the world.

Again, our Lord allows this to happen in order to chastise man for breaking the law of love. Again, this is done by giving control of the world to the corrupt beliefs of those individuals responsible for solving man’s economic roblems. Thus, they cannot come up with the correct solutions to all man’s economic problems. Should man begin to obey God’s law, then all the economic problems of mankind would gradually disappear.

One should note that any government that does not propagate total truth and impart total justice to all its citizens, then such a government will eventually fall. Such a government may be likened to a city that is protected from flood waters by an insufficient levee. The levee may hold back many storms but someday a great storm will come and destroy the inadequate levee and the city.

The same is true of governments. A corrupt government is an inadequate government. If it is not totally truthful and totally just with all its citizens, then the government will eventually collapse under the weight of its own corruption. A corrupt government may withstand the onslaught of many corrupt individuals but eventually it will lose its credibility and the citizens will reject the government.

They will then rebel and either overthrow it or just cease to be loyal to it. Such a government will then divide and fall the victim of its enemies, both within and outside its borders.

One may therefore conclude that those individuals in government and in positions of authority who are offering inadequate policies and incomplete justice as the solutions to man’s social, economic and political problems love themselves more than they love the government or the citizens of that government.

Our Lord opens the fourth seal of the book of secrets and another evangelist calls St. John to witness another event (v.7). The opening of this seal brings a figure of death riding upon a pale horse (v.8). This symbolizes epidemics, plagues, pestilence, sexually transmitted diseases, and other communicable diseases and man’s inability to eradicate them from the earth. Again, God accomplishes this by allowing the corruption of evil government and civic leaders to control their beliefs.

These individuals believe that it is more profitable to build monstrous corporations than to build schools and universities. They believe that there is greater glory in constructing large inefficient bureaucracies than in constructing scientific and medical laboratories. The ungodly leaders of the world believe that it is wiser to erect destructive war machines than to erect hospitals and medical centers. These godless souls believe that it is better to create institutions of destruction than to create establishments of peace.

Thus, the government, civic and business leaders of the world have directed large portions of the resources and finances of their nations toward fulfilling their perverted philosophies. Then they produce enormous public relations programs that deceive the citizens of the supposed truthfulness and justice of their actions. This reduces the ability of the children of God to help themselves.

Because of these obstacles, the children of God make very little and very slow progress toward eliminating poverty, ignorance, disease and war itself; the eradication of which would help man solve many social, economic, and political problems. The ungodly leaders of the world cannot see that if man would only eradicate poverty, ignorance, disease and war then man would conquer almost all problems.

This is especially true of ignorance. It is a great tool used by Satan in order to deceive many souls. Ignorance is the seed from which all evil grows, and if mankind cannot eliminate ignorance through education and protect the children and teach them to live in peace, then man is the endangered species.

Thus, the elimination of just ignorance would be “one giant step for mankind,” while each person could make their own “one small step” by seeking a higher education. This is because learning is a never ending process. It does not end when one finishes their formal education.

The angel of Death was given power over the four parts of the earth (v.8). This is symbolic for the great number of men, women and children who die of diseases that could be cured were it not for man’s ignorance. The beasts of the earth that are mentioned in verse eight are the bacteria, the viruses and other disease carrying organisms of this world that kill men, women and children.

The opening of the fifth seal (6:9) brings one to about the time of the Renaissance. The actual date and time are known only by God. This is when God our Father made the decision to prepare the world for the coming of the antichrist, his disclosure by the Holy Spirit and then the Second Coming. This is the dawn of the end.

One may liken the world at the time God made this decision to a spaceship, poised for liftoff from a launch pad, that has just started its final countdown. The end is not here at this time in the history of mankind but the end has started its approach. One may say that its “time has come.”

God made the decision to prepare the world for the Second Coming for two reasons. First, because mankind had reached that point in their spiritual growth where such was needed before further growth could continue.

Just as a mother bird knows when it is time for her brood to leave the nest and will nudge her fledglings out of the nest, so also God knew that it was time for mankind, at this point in their spiritual growth, to break free from the protection of the mother’s nest, so to speak. Thus, God our Father made the decision to prepare His children for the end.

The second reason our Lord made the decision is because the Papacy had become too corrupt. This is seen in such popes as Boniface VIII (1294 - 1303), Clement V (1305 - 1314) and Clement VI (1342 - 1352).

This is actually a sign of the strength of the Catholic Church. God would not allow the evil one to have so much influence in His Mother Church if She did not have the strength to withstand his onslaught. This is seen in the apologists of the Holy Catholic Church. Thus, such children of God as St. Catherine of Siena and Girolamo Savonarola (1452 - 1498) came and tried to get man to repent and return to their faith.

Many may disagree about the faith of Savonarola but he had only one real goal: Reform the Catholic Church and the Papacy, especially Pope Innocent VIII (1484 - 1492) whose death, along with that of Lorenzo di’ Medici (1449 - 1492), he predicted. One should also note that his alleged confession for heresy is in question as it was gotten under repeated torture by the deceitful Pope Alexander VI (1492 - 1503).

Our Lord opens the fifth seal (v.9) and St. John sees all those souls who were martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ up to the time of the Renaissance. Included with these children of God are all those who were branded as heretics and then murdered but were actually innocent of the charges against them.

For example, the Grand Master of the Knights Templars, Jacques de Molay, and one of the order’s knights, Geoffrey de Charnay, were both tortured and burned at the stake as heretics by Philip the Fair, King of France. But their only “crime” was believing in the authenticity of the Holy Shroud. Philip’s real reason for destroying the order was that he wanted the wealth of the Templars.

The martyrdom of any of God’s children is a sacrifice to our Lord and they are automatically in the state of grace. This is why St. John saw them under the altar of heaven (v.9) instead of under the earth in purgatory. The white robes given to them (v.11) represent that they loved God more than their own lives (Jn.15:13). Hence, they have a perfect love of God and man.

In verse ten the martyrs ask our Lord how long they must remain under the altar and when will they receive the justice rightfully due to them. In verse eleven they are told to be patient as more children of God are to be martyred.

The opening of the sixth seal (v.12) brings a great earth shaking event. This is symbolic for the great science and philosophical revelations that followed the Renaissance. These discoveries seem to overshadow religious truth. St. John sees this as the sun becoming as sackcloth and the moon as blood (v.12).

One should note that scientific truth does not displace theological truth; it merely appears to overshadow it. Scientific truth cannot replace theological truth because all truth ultimately comes form God, the Author of all truth.

While it is true that some of these discoveries (particularly those in philosophy and democracy) were made by the ancient Greeks, most of this knowledge was lost with the destruction of the library in Alexandria in 640 A.D., the fall of the Roman Empire and the following Dark Ages. Except in a few scattered areas such as the Byzantium Empire and the Arabic nations, mankind did not come out of the Dark Ages until the advent of the Renaissance.

One should also note that during the Middle Ages Christianity, guided by the Holy Spirit, was excelling in theology. Only after the Renaissance, did Christianity begin to advance in the arts and sciences. Our Lord did this because theological truth is more important to God than secular truth.

The gaining of the knowledge of scientific truth by man is seen in the stars of heaven falling to earth (v.13). Each star is a different truth from God. Those who propagate scientific truth are persecuted by the Nicolaites (both Catholic and non-Catholic pseudo-Christians) because these wolves in sheep’s clothing do not have the love of truth needed to perceive that God is the Author of all truth.

The acquiring of scientific truth helps man understand the mysteries of the universe, the earth, life, man, God and His kingdom. St. John sees this as heaven folded up (v.14). The old knowledge is gone and the new knowledge gained changes man’s view of the world. Thus, every mountain and island are moved (v.14).

In verse fifteen one learns how the great scientific revelations affect all those who do not have their faith, hope and love in Jesus Christ. This is seen in their hiding in the caves of mountains, which represents their incorrect biblical and incorrect scientific beliefs. Hence, they do not believe in the truth; they believe in lies (2Thes.2:10).

These ungodly souls (Nicolaites) propagate their own beliefs in the vain hope that these will protect them from the wrath of God (v.16). But the Author of truth condemns all their lies and twisted teachings.

Before continuing one must say something about the growth of mankind’s spirit, which one may liken the growth of a single child.

In the beginning, man’s spirit was not much more than a fetus groping in spiritual darkness for truth. Knowledge of God’s existence was born in Adam of Genesis, at which time mankind’s spirit may be seen as a newborn infant. Faith, hope and love may be said to have expressed their strength in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Mankind’s spirit at that time may be pictured as a small baby. With the rise of king David and the prophets mankind’s spirit may be visualized as a young child.

Our Lord Jesus Christ came when mankind’s spirit may be said to have reached a pre-adolescent stage of growth and ready to blossom and learn the first secrets of God. With the opening of the scientific revelations one may say that mankind’s spirit became an adolescent. At that time our Lord began to prepare man to learn the inner secrets of God. This latter will bring mankind’s spirit to the mature adult life when the end finally does come.

Hence, the end begins to dawn as God our Father makes the decision to prepare the world for the Second Coming.

However, in what appears to be a contradiction — with the dawning of the end of time, mankind may be said to be as an unborn fetus that is in position and has dropped into the birth canal. Mankind’s birth into the kingdom of heaven will follow a process that is analogous to the birth of a baby.

Mankind’s birth process will proceed as the end slowly approaches. Just as there is much pain preceding the birth of a child, which is then received with much joy, so also will man’s birth into the kingdom of heaven proceed with some pain followed by the joy and celebration of knowledge of eternal life with our Lord and His angels and saints.

Chapter seven gives one an interlude in the narration of events. It covers a period of time from the Renaissance to Judgement Day. It is about all the children of God alive on earth throughout this time. During this time period there are four angels holding the four winds of the earth (v.1).

These winds are worldwide chastisements that are to befall man for disobeying the law of God. But the angels are not to release these punishments until the children of God have the Word of God imprinted in their memory (v.2-3).

This is not to insinuate that the children of God are not going to have to endure these chastisements. They too will have to bear them. But with the will of God always in their minds, they offer up to our Lord, as an atonement for sin, all the trials and tribulations that are to come upon a disobedient mankind.

These four angels appear when the sixth trumpet is sounded (Rev.9:14) and again when the sixth vial is poured out upon mankind (Rev.16:12).

The 144,000 from every tribe of Israel (v.4-8) are a symbolic number of souls from every faith and belief who have obtained a perfect love of God and man during this time period. Only God knows how many souls (Catholic, non-Catholic Christian and non-Christian) actually obtained spiritual perfection.

Then St. John sees all the children of heaven (v.9). These are the souls of everybody from heaven or purgatory who have ever gone to heaven or will ever go to heaven, from the beginning of time to Judgement Day.

The white robes represent the cleanliness of their souls and the palms in their hands represents their victory over evil.

One may wonder how God can know the date of the consummation without predestining it or how He can know who is going to heaven or hell without predestining anyone. This may be better understood by comparing the history of the world and the history of one’s own life to a picture that can be held in one’s own hand.

One can see the top of the picture, the bottom of the picture, the left side of the picture, the right side of the picture and the middle of the picture all in one glance. So also is it with God. Because of His omnipresence He can see at one glance the beginning of the world or the beginning of one’s own life, as well as each passing event as it occurs. He can also see the end of one’s physical life or the end of time in one glance.

While each person is limited by space and time, and thus can see only one small section of the history of the world or of their own life, our Lord, who is not limited by space and time, sees the whole of it. Hence, God is able to see and to reveal the past, the present or the future to anyone He so desires.

He knows when the world began and He knows when time will end. He knows who is going to heaven and He knows who is not going to heaven. Jesus Christ predestines no one for heaven or to hell, for to do so would be unjust. Each person makes his or her own choice while alive in this world where he or she will go after physical death.

Although many saints seemed to have lived lives that appeared to manifest some form of predestination (e.g. St. Paul, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena) and other individuals seemed to have been predestined for hell (e.g. Judas Iscariot, Nero, Adolf Hitler). No one has ever been predestined for heaven or hell.

The saints were specially chosen by our Lord and inspired to complete a specific task. God does this by choosing the child of God who possesses the right personality, with the right qualifications and who is able to complete the specific task that must be accomplished from among all the children of God who are alive at the time they are needed.

One will recall that this was discussed in the second book of this trilogy using chess as an analogy. Each one of His children has the free will to accept God’s will. It is our Lord’s faith in them that they will accept Him and His will.

However, the henchmen of Satan sought their own selfishness and their own love of materialism. God allowed them to obtain an exalted position where they could accomplish their evil deeds. It is an evil person’s own free will to accept or to reject the law of God.

Verses ten, eleven and twelve of the seventh chapter describe the praises of all the children of God. Then in verse thirteen one of the ancients asks St. John who all these people are. St. John answers: thou knowest (v.14). The ancient prophet of our Lord tells him that they represent the souls of everyone who has had their faith and works tried by humility (v.14).

They have washed the robes of their souls and have been made clean by our Lord’s death and Resurrection.

Finally, the prophet tells St. John of all the joys all the children of God will receive from Him.

Alpha Omega

Opening the Seals