And I heard a great voice out of the temple
saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour
out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the
men which had the mark of the beast, and upon
them which worshipped his image. and the second
angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it
became as the blood of a dead man: and every
living soul died in the sea. And the third angel
poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains
of waters; and they became blood. And I heard
the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous,
O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be,
because Thou has judged thus. For they have
shed the blood of the saints and prophets,
and thou hast given them blood to drink;
for they are worthy. And I heard another out
of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty,
true and righteous are Thy judgments.
Revelation 16:1-7
God spoke to Noah with these words: "And surely blood of your lives will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whose sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God make He man" (Genesis 9:5-6). When Moses spoke to Pharoah to allow the Hebrews to leave and he refused God caused the water to turn to blood and many died (Genesis 7:20-21). The life of man is in his blood, no blood you are dead. Blood carries all types of things needed for life, oxygen, nutrients, waste, and has white cells to protect against various elements that would kill man, blood is life. Water is needed for life and is carried by blood, and water is needed for all living things and if the water is blood then there is no water for life and blood that would be for life is now for death. God causes water to be turned to blood and to kill all those who oppose Him. Sea represents mankind and without water or water that has turned to blood man dies and this is what the angel does by command of God. All mankind that has the mark of the beast, that is who follow after the beast and carry the image of the beast will come to grievousness, and have sores all over themselves as the judgment of God falls upon them. Sores do not kill! Sores are sore! This analogy of sores on men show to us that they come to know that they have failed to believe but it is now to late for the judgment of God has come and they now die.
Is God unrighteous? Is God mean? Is God just showing His power? NO! If God was to be unrighteous, to be mean, to just show His power He could have done this at the falling away of Satan and his hords of fallen angels. God allowed by His providence all that was to occur and one thing that God did was to reveal Himself to man. Man is not without knowledge that there is a God, read Romans, or just look around and see the wonders of this world, and even the world that we cannot see but know is there, stars, planets, galaxies, and more and if this is not enough just look at the body and all that has to give us life: we cannot, unless we choose, not know that there is a God. God has revealed Himself even by coming to earth to die for sin. Time has been allowed for man to come to Him but God is not One who allows sin to continue, just look at the Great Flood where God destroyed sinful man but saved faithful man.
God is True! God is Faithful! God is Righteous! God's judgments are righteous, and true. God through this Revelation has again revealed Himself, His promises, and His judgments and all those before this were completed as prophesied and this will come to pass in God's timing. What we must do is to live for Him, to do what He as commanded for all of His children, that is, if we desire to be Authentic Christians. Too many denominations have added so much doctrine that people are led to believe what the Bible does not teach. A christian is one that is ethical, that is, does the right thing even if no one is watching (but there is One who is watching) and a christian denies himself/herself and does what God has simply commanded for all Authentic Christians: "put on you pants/dress and go to work and live as Authentic Christians" and quit adding to God's word just to make you feel pious, godly. We worship God not as an exercise, but as it should be, our life and this worship can be when we work, when we drive our cars, and we do not hurry God but in all this we wait upon Him. Those three things, worship, wait, work are not separate things, they are all one thing and done as one thing.
We are being warned and as we study Revelation we can see the warning: the question is: will we be warned? If so, then will we live Authentically?
Behold, I know your thoughts,
and the devices which ye
wrongfully imagine against me.
For ye say, Where is the house
of the prince? and where are the
dwelling places of the wicked?
Have ye not asked them that go by
the way? and do ye not know their
tokens, that the wicked is reserved
to the day of destruction? they shall
be brought forth to the day of wrath.
Job 21:27-30
Live righteously: you are to be the image of God
Richard L. Crumb
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