Revelation chapters 14-15 -- a Bible study

C.I.A. Bible Study

C = Clarification

What does the historical document tell us 
about the Triune God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), 
or about ourselves (humanity)?


I = Implication

How am I implicated?
 What am I going to do about the clarifying insight about God 
or about myself?

A = Application

With whom or with what kind of person 
will I share this news?

Use this CIA method to investigate each of the bullet points below from Revelation. For a few of the bullet points I have provided helpful scriptural citations or insights.

14.1-5 = The Faithful Community

• 13.16 to 14.1 — two humanities
• 14.2-3 — new song
In the Old Testament, a ‘new song’ was an expression of fresh appreciation to God for a new victory over the enemy.
• 13.17 & 14.4 — the bought/redeemed

14.6-11 = The Hour of Reckoning

• 14.6-7 — 1st envoy: good news
• 14.8 — 2nd envoy: intoxication
• 14.9-11 — 3rd envoy: consequences
Apocalypse of Peter [a pseudepigraphic writing from c.125 ce]: “we did not know that we would come into everlasting torture . . . [we] did not believe that we would come to this place of eternal judgment.”

14.12-13 = Rest for the Faithful

• 14.11 & 13 — rest
• 3.8 & 14.13 — works
1 Timothy 5.24-25 — “24 The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. 25 So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.”

14.14-20 = The Harvest Ripe for Wrath

• 14.15 — 4th envoy: the hour
Mark 13.32 — “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
John 5.30 — “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”
Galatians 6.7-9 — “7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
• 14.17-19 — 5th envoy (& 6th envoy): the vine
14.19 KJV/NKJV: “So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.”
• 14.20 — trodden
Isaiah 63.2-4 — “2 Why is your apparel red, and your garments like his who treads in the winepress? 3 “I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel.
4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption had come.”

15.1-8 = The Lamb’s New Song Opens
the Holy of Holies for the 7 Envoys of the 7 Bowls

• 15.2 — present and ongoing activity
Complete Jewish Bible: “Those defeating the beast”
• 14.1-3 & 15.2-4 — the Lamb’s song for the Father
• 11.16-19 & 15.5 — praise opens heaven’s inner sanctum
Psalm 100 — “1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! . . . 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!”
Isaiah 60.18 — “Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.”
Revelation 21.21 — “And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl . . .”
• 15.6-8 — 7 Envoys of the 7 Bowls