Sea of Glass - Revelation 15

I have to be honest, I’ve really lost where we are as far as what is happening when and I was really tired last night so I don’t remember anything about what we talked about. Before getting into chapters 15 & 16, we have to go back to the end of 14 when there are two harvests. The IM says, “John described two harvests in Revelation 14:14-20, which are reminiscent of those described in the parable of the wheat and the tares. The first harvest gathers out the righteous from the wicked. This gathering began when the gospel was restored in the latter days and will continue into the Millennium. This is important because when I initially read about the 7 plagues that are discussed in chapters 15 and 16, I thought that maybe it was talking about stuff that was going to happen after all the righteous got taken up to meet Jesus, but it appears that that probably won’t be the case. Another important point to note here, and I don’t know why this didn’t occur to me earlier, but Revelation is laid out in a linear fashion because that’s how book narratives work, but instead of this all being sequential, it seems to me that it’s more like several of these things are happening at the same time. So when it comes to the events talked about here in the book, it’s not “this then that,” but more “this AND that.” The IM gives an excellent overview of chapters 15 and 16 saying, “Revelation 15 appears to describe what the righteous – gathered in the first harvest- will experience, whereas Revelation 16 seems to describe what the wicked- gathered in the second harvest- will experience. Chapters 15 and 16 work together. In Revelation 15:1.7 John learned of seven destructive plagues that are to be poured out upon the wicked. Revelation 16 describes these seven plagues. The repeated use of the number seven may suggest that the plagues represent the completely of God’s judgment against the wicked in the last days: ‘For in (the seven last plagues) is filled up the wrath of God.’” I guess this begs the question, what is the definition of wicked vs. righteous. I know so many good people who aren’t members but that I would consider righteous. I know so many people who are good and that I wouldn’t consider wicked. To imagine these people suffering these plagues just because they are not members of the Church is hard for me to reconcile with a loving God. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, people reject the gospel for SO many reasons, and usually they are because of the toxic parts or Church culture. My brother said it is similar to “people don’t quit jobs, they quit bosses,” and similarly, most people don’t quit the gospel, they quit the people. So for generally good people to suffer simply because they won’t accept bull crap from the people in a specific church, doesn’t make sense to me. All I’m saying is that it will be interesting to see how it works when the “righteous” are gathered together because Jesus doesn’t say he’s just saving the Church members, even if that’s what some people have assumed, he says he’s saving the non-wicked ones. All this back and forth with Satan thinking he’s winning but actually knowing that he won’t and God’s doing his work quietly, behind the scenes and Satan is throwing himself a parade, it’s all made me wonder why. Why did Satan have to be involved at all? I think about the absolute horror found in the depths of human depravity, it’s honestly almost unconscionable, and it almost seems like a game between a father and a son. There’s a movie called Trading Places, it’s hilarious but rated R. Anyway, in this movie two rich men are bored so they make a bet and end up ruining a good man’s life for their entertainment. Then at the end of the movie, when the bet is over, one man pays the other man $1. They destroyed a good man’s life over $1 entertainment, and so much of Revelation feels like that, like Satan is a spoiled rich kid beating up people and then his daddy comes and pays everyone off $100 like nothing happened. Then there’s his victims who have suffered mercilessly at the hands of this rich idiot and we end up feeling completely screwed. I guess my question has been why, why do humans have to go through this hell called mortal life just because Satan didn’t want to do what daddy said? Why did he have to come to earth and ruin everything for everyone? When he presented his alternative to the plan and God said no, why not just cast him out and make him watch everything from a distance? Why did he have to be allowed to get involved, why did he get to be allowed any power at all? The only answer that I can come up with comes from the book “The Infinite Atonement” by Tad R. Callister who asks why Jesus had to perform the atonement, why did he have to suffer so much, was there no other way to accomplish the salvation of mankind and also spare Jesus that pain? His answer was that if there had been any other less painful way and Heavenly Father still make Jesus do the more painful thing, then that would make Him cruel. And since we know that God is not cruel, then we can deduce that the atonement as performed by Jesus was the least painful option. Using that same logic, we would have to deduce that for some reason, Satan being able to reign with blood and horror on this earth is the only way for the path to salvation to work. I saw a glimpse of this when discussing the actual atonement as described in the scriptures when we were going through the four gospels several years ago. There was a point where I saw that in order for justice to be satisfied to the point of allowing Jesus to pay the debt in full for us, there had to be an opposition that did every single thing in its power to stop Him. This opposition is enabled by Satan, but there was no other way. And for being willing to endure life on this earth, we are rewarded with resurrection and salvation if we want it. A compensation plan beyond anything we could even imagine. 15:1-4 - John sees “seven angels having the seven last plagues.” But first, he sees the righteous standing “as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire.” The IM says that the “sea of glass” is representative of a celestialized earth, which again begs the question, at what point in the story are we. Chapter 16 describes horrible conditions on the earth but here the righteous are standing on the celestialized earth, doesn’t really make sense, this was the point at which I thought “maybe this isn’t a linear timeline.” The righteous have harps and “sing the song of Moses.” The IM says, “’The Song of Moses’ was sung by the children of Israel following their deliverance from Egyptian bondage. Revelation 15:3 tells us that the song of Moses will be sung again by those who inherit the celestial kingdom in celebration of the Lamb of God delivering them from the bondage of sin.” 15:5-8 – John sees “the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven,” I’m not exactly sure what that means, maybe it’s God’s personal temple. Out of the temple comes seven angels “clothes in pure and white linen, having their breasts girded with golden girdles,” and one of the four beasts from the beginning “gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God.” The temple was “filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.”