Adam is the First Seal.

I believe that the seven seals represent the seven dispensations.  I don't think I'm a dispensationalist because I'm not sure what dispensationalism is, however in general a lot of it makes sense.  What is a dispensation?  It sounds to me like something given.  To dispense is to make available.  So also when a will is read the items in the will are made available to the parties named in the will.   Jesus made it possible to open the scroll and look inside.  So you would naturally assume that only after his death on the cross would be when we be able to read the will.   But in heaven time does not exist.  So his death on the cross could have made things available to mankind seemingly before his death.    It talks about the lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world.

 Each time a seal is broken a new dispensation of freedom is granted to mankind.  For instance there is the first dispensation:  innocence. 

This is represented as a rider on a white horse.  Adam during the dispensation of innocence was innocent.  So he is white the color of innocence.

He is given a bow.    

"As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth..."   Psalm 127:4

So he is given a bow for arrows.  He has no arrows because he still hadn't had any children but he would be the father of all mankind.

"Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth."
  
He's given a crown 
" and subdue it; have dominion.."


He goes out conquering and to conquer.  



over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”   Genesis 1:28

I also think maybe the trumpets and bowls refer to the same time period though I could be wrong.  

So the Trumpet takes place soon after the first seal.  So with the seals something is granted to mankind.  Then what happens.  Satan strikes back leading to a call to arms.  A trumpet is blown because something has happened.  A third of the earth has been burned up.  What does this mean?  The earth represents God's people.  So God's creation has been tainted with sin.   Adam being innocent belonged to God.  but now he's removed.  The third is meantioned.  I believe this refers to a third of the angels.  A third of the angles have caused harm to befall the garden of Eden thus a third of Eden represented here as the earth is corrupted.  Namely Adam. 

The Bowls represent God's cure for the harm done by the third of the angels that have been doing harm during each dispensation.   So God's cure for what is done in the first dispensation is to remove Eden entirely.   

So the result is that Adam has a sore because he chose to follow the beast (the serpent).  Thus he is given a malignant sore which represents sin on all mankind.    

The second seal is the dispensation of Conscience.    This leads to a rider on a red horse.  Which then results in war.  Cain Slew able.  One third of Noah's son's turns away.  One is in heaven.  Anyway
I could go on and I haven't fully figured it all out.  But the first seal seems so compelling I feel I should share it.  

I suppose my theory is only half baked and yet I thought others might take it further.  

What it Really Means to be a Christian

It's whatever the Bible says. I think churches need to read the Bible and teach it more in Church. We have so many more ways to study the Bible with the Internet and computers and cell phones we can listen to it on mp3 all day long. Some of the best christian songs are the ones people create from psalms. People need to do what the Bible says and it's not what people think it says.  It's probably not what your church doctrine says either.    Has any church at all got the right doctrine?  You have to face the truth though whatever it is. If it's anti gay, it's anti gay. I'm not saying it is but should I say it isn't so that you will read it? It would just be my opinion.  It's against fornication and multiple partners and adultery.  It's about love too and how loving is it for two people of the same gender to prevent 2 couples and only form 1.

    Different churches practice it in different ways and if they are doing their best to follow the Bible then they are doing the right thing. Maybe people are just afraid of the truth. I know I am but luckily for me I'm not afraid of Bible truth. Maybe grace is for those of us who can't totally follow the Bible completely and practice it the way it says exactly. Read it and see and if you can't do everything it says well maybe that's what grace is for.   But reading it should change you since it's from God himself and He knows everything. Who knows how much wisdom he put into it. He may have revealed everything. One thing that seems true in my experience is that it isn't meant for individuals. It's meant for churches. In order to benefit from it everyone has to practice it. There is something about a Bible centered church. Maybe we need more Bible Study and to turn churches into classrooms with desks and make sure people learn. Maybe have real homework. Personally I wish Christians were more loving and that's what I get from the Bible.  We need to love each other more.  But then again that's what I wish.  I wish people loved me more but who doesn't?    

Life isn't a game or a competition it's an endeavor and we are colleagues working together on spaceship earth. We have the ability to make the world a utopia but it has to start with churches being little utopias. If you are an old person or a guy you will know pretty quickly whether a church is a utopia. I think a lot of people have been hurt by churches. Small churches can be difficult to take. They can chew you up and spit you out. It's like a job where you can't date anyone you work with because it would just make things too awkward and you have to do things a certain way which no one will ever explain to you.  Yeah it's the things they never preach to you that you actually need to know and small churches have no leeway. Everyone in the church has to be at the top of their game or people will get hurt and never go back. The only way to do that is to focus on the Bible with an open mind without being clouded by preconceived notions i.e. DOCTRINE. doctrine is when someone tells you what the Bible's basic teaching is when in my opinion no one has really figured it out. I basically agree but being a christian is an exact thing and a church is an exact thing and that exact thing is what the Bible says it is. But until we have figured out what it that exact thing is we should not be so judgmental. You come across verses and you are not sure about how to interpret them why not just consider doctrine to be a thing we will figure out someday in the future.

In the meantime we can study the Bible as if it were the most important document that ever existed and study it till you memorize it.  Read through it in a way that it will never be forgotten.  Put outlines of the Bible on your walls.  Focus on the books you don't have a clue about what they're about.  Listen to it all day long on mp3 when you are in your car or with earphones at the store or don't use earphones so others will hear it and ask you about it.    Brainstorm about ways to memorize the Bible such as memorizing outlines of all the books.   Don't let the only thing you do right be kicking people out of church because if it is you will be kicking out the wrong people.

I found more evidence that the first trumpet begins at the beginning of Acts.  l Peter himself refers to the Sun being black as sackcloth and the Moon turning to blood.  This represents Jesus putting on sackcloth while the Church is persecuted.   It could also represent God not being able to look upon Jesus during the Crucifixion.  Also Jesus refers to people talking about people asking the rocks to fall on them.  This clearly puts a "YOU ARE HERE" and tells you the point in time the 6th seal represents.  From that point on you will see events unfold that take place after that.  Everything in the 7th Seal comes after.  However I believe that after the 6th Seal you get the 6th trumpet and after that the 6th bowl.  The reason I'm saying this is that for each of the 3 sets of 7 signs it's the amount of detail spent on the 5th 6th and 7th is greater than the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

It's weird because I believe in dispensations however I'm starting to think that the millennium represents the first 1000 years where the catholic church spread Christianity throughout the world.  The catholic church would then be the iron scepter.  I come not to bring peace but a sword.  It's similar to the Israelite conquering the promised land.   Having served it's purpose the protestant churches took over and began to move things to the next level.  However the drying up of the Euphrates could be the removal of the United States or the Rapture of the Church.  Without Christianity to protect Israel the final battle will take place when Jesus returns to bring them to safety.

I think 144,000 represents the fact that Isreal is not forgotten and God will fulfill all his promises to them.

Elohim

If we are in Jesus image then angels are also in Jesus image because they look like us (why ignore the obvious) I was just asking because we haven't determined in what sense we are in his image. If it's the trinity then we are in the image of God in the sense that we are triune beings. We are a body soul and spirit. God is a Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So maybe we are in his image in that sense or maybe we are in his image in the sense that our bodies literally look like Jesus or the Angel of the Lord with two arms two legs a body and a head in the same configuration as his. Did god mean: "We will make man a trinity just like us in our image because we are a trinity we will also make man a trinity". Or maybe the "us" in "let us" is just God talking to angels or the angels are talking to God working together as they employ teamwork and cooperation like colleagues. So when he said our image maybe he meant in the image of Jesus and the angels. The "us" also occurs in the story of the tower of Babel. It seems like the Trinity wouldn't need to talk among themselves and use the word "us". When someone said "Show us the Father" Jesus said, "Don't you know me?" I also heard that Moses drew from the Egyptian creation myths and that the Egyptians had three different creation myths that greatly contradicted one another. It didn't matter to the Egyptians that there were contradictions because it doesn't matter to pagans who is right or who is wrong. Every belief is equal. That may seem like a good system but if truth doesn't matter I think society eventually disappears or you end up like the Aztecs sacrificing all your enemies on a pyramid and watching their corpses tumble down the stairs in a bloody blood spurting spectacle or like the Romans enjoying a bloody gladiator spectacles. Life becomes about not being bored. When truth doesn't matter nothing matters. Life can be like a game but the sort of game you want to play determines what life will be like. If you happen to enjoy violent video games then for you the game of life will probably involve violence. Men eventually take over and it's all about war because war is exciting. When religious truth doesn't matter no truth really matters and right and wrong don't matter. Moses may have found out what was true and what wasn't behind the various creation myths and showed how they all connected and to him these connections were obvious and everyone who heard them would probably have uttered an ahah as they heard it they would see the connections and for them all their confusion cleared up and everything suddenly made sense but to us we not having spent our lives confused over these vastly contradictory stories see these two stories and all we see are Maybe he didn't notice that he had left in the plural "us" rather than a singular God. The whole book of Genesis could be about the Idea of Truth. Look how much people lie in Genesis and how much trouble lies get them into. For us it brings truth to the forefront because we have to wonder whether or not to accept the creation story that seems to contradict what our eyes tell us. Does the truth matter? Does what you believe about the world really matter? Does it matter what God you worship does it matter what others worship? Thanks to the Bible it became very important to people what it is that we believe or don't believe. People blame violence on religion but I say violence will occur no matter what because people like a challenge and they like to compete. The Aztecs didn't have the Bible and they ruled like the Romans and they were tyrants. Sure the Catholic church wiped out their society but can you say for sure they were better off beforehand? They played a form of basketball to the death. Is that really better? Look at all these reality TV shows. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them eventually involved torture and even violence. The Japanese have some that seem to involve torture. I don't know maybe those Aztec sacrifices and basketball to the death are just stories to Justify the takeover. But still what kind of empire was it if it could be taken over by a couple of ships full of Europeans? They were a fragile empire ruling over even more fragile villages because they didn't know the truth about reality because they didn't have real science. They may have figured something out but not as much as the Europeans. I'm thinking that "Iron Rod" is the Spanish and the Catholic Church. We are past that now and now it's time to cooperate among ourselves and work toward Utopia. If the Muslims take over and prevent it that's on them or if our Utopia goes wrong hopefully the Evangelicals are correct and Jesus will come back and save the day. We shouldn't assume too much. Maybe we should assume that Jesus already saved the day and that it's our job to create a paradise on earth right now at least within our churches. I've heard Judas tried to force Jesus hand and by putting him into a position where he would have to fight and conquer. Isn't that similar to what some evangelicals are doing when they just say God will take care of he Muslims and all the evil when he comes back. Rebuild the Temple Jews because that will force Jesus to come back and we will be raptured. I digressed so much because I said the Egyptians didn't care which creation myth was right. Anyway that's what I heard I'm not sure about that. It's not all religion that causes wars though. Jesus said "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." It's not all religion that brings war It's religion that cares about the truth. But in the end without truth you still end up with chaos and violence. Egypt still fought wars. They weren't peaceful simply because they didn't care about the truth.

John the Baptist, Luke 7:18

People are putting down some football player. who didn't do something people thought he should do. If that bothers you and your a christian what does the Bible say? It says love your enemies. If you can't love this person then maybe just say something positive about Tim Tebow or some other christian football player. Share something about Tim Tebow on facebook and share something about some football player who did something good. Christians come across as Judgemental. John the Baptist was a good man but apparently he wasn't in the Kingdom. "He who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than He". John did tell it like it was. He condemned Herod and he wasn't wrong to do so. He taught the Israelites about God's Justice. He prepared peoples hearts and made them ashamed of their sins. He told them what they should be doing so they would realize how hard it is to do what you should and they would then need a savior. He leveled the mountains in other words those who thought they were something good realized they weren't. He brought them down to earth so that they would realize their need for a better way. John is the Old Testament. It shows how hard it is to change. The Israelites are like us trying to change themselves by simply doing good. So if you want to be a part of God's kingdom start loving your enemies do good to those who mistreat you. Apparently we should actually be defending him rather than putting him down. If Muslims see Christians praising them for their fervor and dedication. Maybe that will win them over faster than all the hate.

Revelation 6:13

Stars of the sky falling to earth could be the end of paganism. Jesus (the sun) is now the only God and polytheism has come to an end. Sorry if this offends anyone but look at Luke 3:5 "Every Ravine will be filled and every mountain and hill brought low;" Did that actually happen to every mountain? It was symbolic that an the environment necessary for the messiah to perform his work was now completed. Everything was ready to set in motion the events that would bring about our salvation.  Mountains and hills brought low means that those who thought they were great are humbled and the lowly will be raised up.    The perfect environment was finally here.   The people now hungered and thirsted for righteousness.   I know this may seem offensive because "it's symbolic" is a common reason people give to continue in sin and and the main excuse to not go to church.   It's the ones who take it literally who spread the Gospel and take it seriously.    There aren't too many who would see it as symbolic who take it so seriously.     Just because it's symbolic doesn't mean it has no meaning.  It doesn't mean we should just ignore it   If you hunger and thirst after righteousness though maybe you will start to understand the Bible correctly.    

Not everything is symbolic of course.   But the visual stuff in revelation probably is symbolic.    He's not seeing Helicopters and interpreting them as locusts.  He's seeing a swarm of locusts and those are symbolic of some thing else.    

 I started out reading one chapter a day 5 times.   I made marks in my Bible for each time I read the chapter.  I read it more times now but I'm not sure if that's necessary.    Anyway by keeping track with marks in your Bible you are able to keep track of where you are at.   You don't have to follow any set schedule but you always remember what you are reading about and where you are at and where you left off.   That way you can work up to doing it every day.   If you read a chapter a day you can get through the whole Bible in about 4 years.    Also once you are done reading the chapter 5 times you can then spend the rest of the day thinking about it.  You can think about it while standing in line or while driving or walking.   Alternatively you can get the Bible on audio cd or dvd or download it from a website.    This way you can listen to the chapter you just studied all day long.   If you have any more ideas please leave a comment.   Thanks.