Revelation 9 - Lake Erie Bible Church

Chapter 9
THE REVELATION TO JOHN
12. That their –V is recalcitrant is seen in the fact that the survivors of these catastrophes
that will ultimately reduce the world population by a couple billion people, “did not
repent of the works of their hands”.
13. The verb “repent/m e t a n o e , w – metanoeo” is a compound that comes from the verb to
think and the preposition “m e t a . – meta” that has the nuance of afterward.
14. The term literally means to change one’s mind, opinion, or purpose, and has nothing
to do with the subjective issue of feelings.
15. The verb is preceded by the conjunction “ouvde, - oude/not even/did not” that serves to
make this more emphatic in the Greek, giving the sense of “in spite of all this, they
did not even change their minds!”
16. While this verb has been used toward the 7 churches as a challenge to orient their
thinking and practice back toward God, it is used here as a call for unbelievers to
make the salvation adjustment.
17. As many interpreters have noted (Beale, Aune, Osborne) this constant offer of
salvation to the nations and their rejection of it, serves to demonstrate God’s grace
and to clearly reveal the depravity of those that are -V.
18. In effect, since they will not change their minds and believe in Christ they
demonstrate that they are worthy of the sentence of condemnation.
19. The phrase the works of their hands is used only 4 times in the NAS and all are
found in the context of false doctrine and idol/demon worship. 2Chr.34:25; Jer.1:16;
Act.7:41; Rev. 9:20
20. Instead of embracing the free offer of eternal life through Christ, these people
preferred to continue in a works oriented mentality, serving the gods they
manufactured for themselves.
21. This has certainly been one of Satan’s prime deceptions throughout history, as he
seeks to convince men that they can accomplish the necessary tasks to gain God’s
favor and enjoy eternal life.
22. There is tremendous evidence that the satanic principles of works leading to salvation
has infiltrated and influenced entire segments of the religious world including but not
limited to Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Churches, Orthodox Church of North
America and various cults.
23. Still others, like the Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Assemblies of
God and Nazarenes set forth a distorted view that claims to teach salvation by grace
and faith, but requires works to prove the genuineness of salvation or to maintain
salvation.
24. The reality is that all this tends to focus on human ability to gain or maintain a
relationship with God via subjective, human systems of relative righteousness.
Joh.1:12-13
25. John is very explicit about how he views the works of their hands as he moves to
the negative result clause, “so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and
of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood”.
26. Generally, “i[na – hina/so as” is used to introduce a purpose clause.
27. However, the text here focuses more on the result of their failure to repent and
continued relationship with the evil spirits.
28. The WOG is quite clear on the relationship between idolatry and demon worship in
the OT (Deu.32:16-17) and Paul expands on this in the NT.
Lake Erie Bible Church
P-T Ken Reed
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