© Wendy Clark, 2023

I’m reading through and studying the book of Revelation right now. I’m nearing the end. Have you read Revelation? It is a book in the Bible that has a promised blessing for those who will read it aloud.
(Revelation 1:3). This is the first time in reading it for me that the vision of the Apostle John seems not so much of a mystery. It seems so clear, even obvious.

I still have questions about parts of it, of course; some things are weird. But the justice of God and the finality of God’s justice makes so much sense. It just HAS TO BE. There is no way around it. And there is great comfort in knowing that it one day will be. No one escapes.

There have been other times in history when Believers read John’s revelation and felt certain they were near the end–there were so many signs:  evil was so obvious, self-interest so prevalent, the abuse of power, the oppression of people, so out in the open, with so many willingly participating and cooperating.

The rise of Nazi Germany was one of these times in history, but only one. Hitler, Satlin, Pol Pot–as evil and murderous and anti-God as they were, they will not compare to the  man who will rise to world power in the end. But every murderous tyrant throughout history has demonstrated for us why the system of evil, the world as we know it, must one day come to an end, a complete and utter end.

I watched the movie Priceless the other day, a movie based on true stories of human sex trafficking. I’ve been watching interviews about the movie The Sound of Freedom, which is also about true stories of human sex trafficking, focused on the selling of young children. More importantly, it is the story of the people who fight against this evil. 

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but those who have, say it is a good movie about a deeply dark subject. Tim Ballard, a former government agent whose story is being told in the film, talked in an interview with Jordan Peterson about the unbelievable, inconceivable nature of the evil he has encountered. We can’t fathom how deep and dark is the pit of human depravity, the things that we can be led to find attractive and appealing and to justify as acceptable and right by our own standards.

What is the sickest, darkest, most horrendous thing that you can imagine giving you pleasure? According to Ballard, your imagination can’t come even close to the horrible things that people find pleasure in. 

Jordan Peterson talked about how getting from where you likely are in your thinking and imagination right now to where deep, abased, depravity resides requires millions of decisions, searing your conscience over and over and over again, over time molding and shaping your heart to a place where it delights in depravity. It dwells there.

James, the brother of Jesus, writes about the progression of sin in this way:

“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (James 1:13-16, ESV)

Our own desires lure and entice us, and we must decide how we will respond to them. Will we reject them? Flee from them? If we lean into those desires, they will take root, grow, and give birth to sin in us. That sin, if we continue to nurse it and then feed it solid food, protect it, shelter it–it grows up. Fully grown sin brings death.

There’s a progression that must take place to create a Hitler, a Stalin, a Pol Pot, a child sex abuser. It’s a long, dark progression that takes place in a human heart, and it involves the step-by-step cooperation of the individual.

The book of Revelation shines a light on the complete depravity of the human heart apart from the redeeming and transforming presence of God. At the end of human history God will allow those who reject Him to live as they desire, fully, and without His restraining presence in the world, feeding all of their own unrestrained passions and desires, but not without consequences. The consequences are deeply embedded in the carrying out of the desires. They can’t be separated from each other

The deepest, darkest things going on now, bringing brought into the light of day for us to see will pale in comparison to the things that people will do to each other out of their own love of self and rejection of God in those final days.

How clear it will be who we are without God! How obvious it will be that we need the restraining power of the Holy Spirit in our lives to live and walk according to God’s ways. We will understand why our best life is always lived on God’s path, according to His plans and purposes.

John’s revelation shows us that humans will always serve a master. Will it be God, who is good and perfect, holy and just, compassionate, merciful, truthful, faithful, trustworthy, almighty, wise? Or will we serve the master who is evil, cruel, selfish, deceptive, divisive, destructive, foul, depraved, corrupting, decaying? Will we serve him to our own demise?

Moses stands before the people of God and explains a clear choice they have to make. Here is what God is offering you–but God’s offer is attached to obedience to Him. You must listen to Him, believe Him, follow Him, obey Him, submit yourself to God and God’s ways. Moses tells the people that this is the message to them from God:

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curses. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice and holding fast to Him, for He is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” (Deuteronomy 30: 19-20, ESV)

Will you choose God? Make no mistake, there are consequences attached to your choice. Moses says that the consequences are life and death.

In Revelation we see the playing out of those who say a definitive “no” to God’s rule and reign in their hearts. They know that what they are seeing is the judgment of God, and still they refuse to worship Him and walk in His ways. They know by experience the emptiness and suffering associated with their own depravity, and still they choose their own depravity.

It is because of this deep depravity played out–human desires going to their necessary conclusion–that the final judgment of the LORD, though fierce and terrifying, will be celebrated and bring great joy for those who are safe in Christ Jesus. And so, after all of the horrifying things that the Apostle John saw and recorded, he ends his account this way:

“Come, LORD Jesus!”

May we stand with the Apostle John, saved by the blood of Jesus poured out for our sins on the cross, having chosen to follow God and to walk in His ways, and say with confidence and anticipation of great joy, “Come, LORD Jesus!”