‘Day 320

“And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse, and against His army.²⁰ And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire, which burns with brimstone. ²¹ And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.”      Rev 19:19,21.(NASB)

The gruesome reality of these images may make us feel uncomfortable. The thought of human beings burning in a fire or being penetrated with a sword is not pleasant. However, we know from the literature of the times, that the apocalyptic symbolic images of Revelation 19 resonated with that generation. God meets people where they are. The message of this violence is that sin and evil will one day be eliminated from the earth. Abuse and torture will end when the beast and the false prophet meet their end. It is like medicine for a sick world.

I teach my Science students about the discovery of antibiotics in the 1920s. Until then infections were like death sentences. Amazingly, even after the discovery of penicillin, it was still a decade before other scientists took notice of Fleming’s work, purified penicillin for mass production, and turned it into a miracle drug. Antibiotics are God’s tokens within the natural world that He will one day purify the universe from sin and evil. 
Resistance to antibiotics occurs when people don’t finish the bottle. They take just enough of the medicine to feel better and then they stop. The problem is, the partial dose of antibiotic kills off the weaker bacteria in their system, but the remainder are strong enough to resist the next batch of antibiotics to some degree. If enough people take partial doses, new strains of bacteria may arise that are unaffected by the antibiotic.

By way of analogy, resistance to God’s saving work arises from free will. God allows us to frustrate His work in our lives if we so choose. When we apply the gospel just enough to feel better but don’t take the full dose of its cleansing power, our resistance to the gospel gradually grows. Over time we are less and less affected by God’s call. The day may come when our resistance can only be overcome by the destruction illustrated in the passage of the day.