Our Great Hope

There is much of what is revealed to us in Daniel, Revelation, and elsewhere regarding what has been labeled “End Times Prophecy” that I do not understand, nor is it really important to me to understand. While there are many different interpretations on this topic, I find none of these make any difference to me regarding my faith and how I should live. Of course, your mileage may vary, and I do not mean to diminish other views.

Yet, there are some things that seem quite clear to me – right or wrong though I may be. So, this, from Revelation:

Revelation 7: 9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”

14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.”

So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. 16 They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; 17 for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

This passage comes right after the passage regarding the 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes. I only point this out because this passage makes clear that those whose robes are washed by the blood of the lamb come from every tribe, every nation – and that they make up a “great multitude”; unlike the 12,000 times 12, these are too numerous to number.

This passage to me presents a great hope – that whatever tribulations I go through in life (and we each face many tribulations without concerning ourselves with any understanding of any of the great tribulations in John’s apocalypse), this is my end – my hope.

I will stand before the throne of God, serving Him; He will dwell with me. I will not hunger or thirst.

And He will wipe every tear from my eye!

There is a different end for others:

Revelation 9: 20 But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

An epilogue of sorts:

Revelation 8: 3 Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.

I remember the first time I went to an Orthodox Liturgy. What is this voodoo, with censors and incense and smoke?

Well…here it is.