Gospel Study - The Book of Revelation

by John-Peter Gernaat

We are approaching the end of the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Following the imagination of the woman bringing forth a child and a dragon waiting to devour it, which was discussed in the February newsletter together with the meaning of the dragon and the two beasts, the mighty imaginative pictures continue. These are the imaginations that accompany the Angels who pour out the bowls of the passion of God that can take hold. We learned more about the City who is also a woman. The city is the place where people are too firmly settled on the earth, who have lost a connection to the Spirit.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the human being in this great Earth cycle of time, must learn to discern and thereby judge between ‘good’ and ‘evil’. This is the imagination of the judgement that occurs. There are people, but more likely, aspects of each one of us, that are too firmly settled on the earth. These aspects of ourselves must be discerned.

What is the beast that was, is no more and will be again? It was in the past, will be in the future but in the present is not there, ever. This beast is an illusion. The Son of Man was, is and will be, as we read in chapter 1. This beast is false in that it does not exist in any present time.

Our mission is to create a culture of what it is to be human which overrides all other cultures, peoples, etc.

As has been evident from the beginning of this Book, the images are not something that is inflicted upon us, as people on this earth, by a divinity that is harsh. It is all about the transformation within ourselves as we evolve on the journey to reach the goal of being fully human and being accepted as a son of God as Jesus was with the fullness of the Christ present in him.

We discussed other images that are enigmatic in these latter chapters. In chapter 17 we encounter a beast who is also a king, who is the 8th king but is part of the seven. The story of Genesis recounts the creation of this earth as a process of seven days. The process of the Resurrection is a new creation of earth existence which takes place over seven days and concludes on the ‘first day of the week’. This second creation is one of eight days – seven plus one, but the eighth day is part of the seven. The beast described in Revelation is trying to make a mockery of the creation of Christ and will meet its destruction.
The Act of Consecration of Man mirrors the seven in the seven parts each of which begins with the three crosses, and the eight with the eight times the priest turns and the Angel from the altar speaks a blessing to the congregation through the priest. The imaginations present in the Book of Revelation are very much a part of our theology.

We encounter seven kings who are seven mountains. A valid explanation for these mountains are the seven Deadly Sins that live in each one of us. These sins represent an imbalance in seven of our twelve senses – lower and middle senses (see the Holy Nights theme report in January). These are:

• Lack of will or an imbalance in our will forces leads to a lack of the sense of appreciation of life – also called Sloth, which is overcome through diligence.
• A lack of control of our overriding feeling, which is love, it becomes anger, we become fixated and stop our sense of movement – also called Wrath, which is overcome by patience and composure.
• A lack in our work to achieve true thinking leads to a loss of engagement in our sense of balance – we become filled with Pride, which is overcome with groundedness and humility.

These three Deadly Sins involve a lack. The next four involve an excess.

• An unhealthy desire which is an imbalance in our morality that finds its basis in the sense of smell – known as Greed, is overcome by charity.
• Imbalance in our sense of taste leads to Gluttony is overcome by temperance.
• An imbalance in our sense of sight leads to Envy which is overcome by acceptance and gratefulness.
• An imbalance in the sense of warmth leads to Lust which is overcome by chastity.

The last two chapters of the Book of Revelation have been spoken about in different ways in several presentations: the New Jerusalem as the seed created by the labour of humanity for the future. The various elements of the New Jerusalem – the foundation stones, the names on the gates, the River of Life and Tree of Life, the fruit that the Tree of Life bears in each month, etc. (See again the Holy Nights theme report in January 2025.)