Further Comments on Revelation

John's vision in the book of Revelation switches back and forth between scenes in heaven and scenes on the earth. In chapters 4 and 5, John recorded a tremendous worship service that occurred both in heaven and on the earth. God exerted His mighty power to cause all that He had ever created to praise and worship Him with thunderous exuberance. That part of every human who ever lived that was created in God's image participated in this worship service.

But that part of man's nature which is totally evil and depraved refrained from worshipping God. Total evil never repents or worships God. But in this worship service, God's power caused the totally evil part of man's nature to keep quiet while the good part of every human worshipped God.

But there exists a third part of man's nature which consists of his goodness that has been sullied by his depravity. This part of man's nature often causes him confusion about what is right and what is wrong. This constitutes the weakness in man that causes him inevitably to sin. God understands this helpless weakness, and in His compassion for fallen man, God sent His Son to separate man's goodness from his evil, and save believers from hell by His grace. God also has the power to recover all of the good works of the rest of humanity because when Jesus descended into hell He left behind there all of the sins of mankind. This means God possesses the power to separate man's sins from his good works by the use of His consuming fire. Jesus' descent into hell was a part of His sacrifice, and so this recovery of God's good works in man directly connects to the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ. The burnt offering in the Old Testament symbolizes this power of God.

Satan's project has always been to exert his power to the utmost in his efforts to cause his total evil to so overpower God's goodness in man that the image of God itself becomes depraved and lost forever. Should he succeed, he would cause sin to enter into the very nature of God and cause His downfall. Satan demonstrated his project when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. Satan has no gratitude to God for giving him free will. Satan believes God made a mistake in creating free will, and that he can exploit this mistake in man to make God's goodness filthy and so destroy both God and man. But God's love for man and His gift of free will to man has been tested to the absolute limit by Christ's sacrifice on the cross. God proved through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son that He still holds the power to separate mankind from the eternal penalty of his sins no matter how horribly depraved they may be. Satan has already lost and will end up in the lake of fire. Revelation 20:10.