The Estuary of Theology24

The White Robe

The training of the Book of Revelation is most effective when we focus on capturing the worldview of Jesus depicted in the text with our senses (five-sense data). Therefore, it is beneficial for us to practise the training, even if it is only a few lines, often whenever it is convenient in a day. The training of the Book of Revelation will infuse the worldview of Jesus into one’s memory of the senses (five-sense data), and by practising it many times a day, the worldview of Jesus is expected to constantly appear in his/her unconscious realm, that is, in his/her memory of the senses (five-sense data), and to be internalized. In the case of those who have trouble in one of their senses, this training will impress the worldview of Jesus more strongly on their memories of the senses (five-sense data) because other senses of them will work more acutely to complement the impaired sense. Moreover, the worldview of Jesus, which has descended to one’s unconscious realm, helps his/her past memories put in the realm to be accurately made into knowledge, and it will force him/her to correct the recognition of his/her knowledge of good and evil that gets connected with these memories and will heal the “bruised heel” (cf. The Estuary of Theology issue 21).

By the way, I want you to recall that I wrote in The Estuary of Theology issue 21 as follows. This time, I would like to reflect on the topic that I wrote, “We will deal with this topic in the next issue or later,” and to make sure of the importance of the training of the Book of Revelation, the formation of the twofold spirituality of the Holy Spirt, and attending the Mass.

“Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection” (Revelation 20:4-5). The phrase “This is the first resurrection” is related to this entire text and shows that the structure of God’s salvation is in this text. We will be able to understand this structure clearly by sharing in the two-fold spirituality of the Holy Spirit, which is deeply connected with the Mass. We will deal with this topic in the next issue or later.

The word “testimony to Jesus” here refers to the training of the Book of Revelation that gives us the worldview of Jesus. The word “for the word of God” refers to the formation of the twofold spirituality of the Holy Spirit that makes us realize “God’s plan.” “Those who had been beheaded” are people whose knowledge of good and evil is connected with “God’s plan,” whose free will is drawn to the Word of God “Let there be,” and who make decisions and act with the Spirit of Jesus as if they were those who cannot think any more because of having been beheaded. They are not “those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne” (Revelation 6:9). In Revelation, these two kinds of people are described distinctively. A discussion on this topic is at the end for reference.

People who are constantly undergoing the training of the Book of Revelation and the formation of the twofold spirituality of the Holy Spirit will be willing to collaborate with the Spirit of Jesus on various events that they encounter in their daily life of going to the Mass paying individual sacrifice and will come to make efforts not to miss the chance of doing it. The Mass, with the blessing at the dismissal, is directed to the next Mass. People who consciously place themselves in this flow that connects Mass to Mass and who are always willing to collaborate with the Spirit of Jesus have no opportunity to worship the beast or its image and to receive its mark on their foreheads or their hands.

“They came to life, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.” The expression “They came to life” means that they clothed themselves in white robes and passed through death to the first resurrection. “Christ” here refers to the Holy Eucharist. The word “thousand years” refers to the time of the Mass celebrated at the altar on earth that is connected with the altar in heaven, and it means that the time of the Mass, with the mission, spreads universally over the world. The expression “[They] reigned with Christ a thousand years” means that those who have passed through death clothing themselves in white robes will enjoy the grace to attend both the heavenly and earthly Masses.

“The rest of the dead” includes the free minds that have become evil spirits as well as the free minds that remain and wander in the world even after they have died and lost the knowledge of good and evil as well as the memory of senses (five-sense data) together with the bodies because they had been connected with the knowledge of good and evil that had been so attached to earthly life. The expression, “The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended,” means that these free minds cannot enjoy the resurrection until the Eucharist is eaten at the end of the Mass and until they encounter the Word “is” jumping out of the Eucharist to save them (cf. The Estuary of Theology issue 16).

To sum up the above discussion, Revelation 20:4-5 can be interpreted as follows: “Also, I saw the spirits of those who were in the darkness of no-information of God and of self because they had answered the spirit of Jesus who had wished to enter into the activity of people and to co-operate with them in their decision-making and activity. These people, who have become as if they were beheaded, did not worship that beast or its image, nor did they receive its mark on their foreheads or their hands, because they were cooperating with the Spirit of Jesus. They clothed themselves in white robes, passed through death to the first resurrection, and enjoyed the grace to attend the heavenly and earthly Masses with the Holy Eucharist. The rest of the dead, free minds that have died and become evil spirits and free minds that remain in and wander about the world after death because they have been so attached to earthly life, will not enjoy the resurrection until the Eucharist is eaten by Christians and until the presence of God gets out of the Eucharist and takes them with him saving them.”

Christians who are helped by the training of the Book of Revelation and formed well in the twofold spirituality of the Holy Spirit in the Mass-centred life will soon become able to miss no moment when they can collaborate with the Spirit of Jesus. Thus, their free will become always with the Word “Let there be” that sustains human’s being. When one day death comes to them and the Word “Let there be” leaves their bodies, which are doomed to return to the dust, and returns to the Father, their free will will be drawn to the Word “Let there be” as before and will follow it. They, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, will join the great multitude, which no one can count, standing before the throne and before the Lamb (cf. Revelation. 7:9).

They have lived paying individual sacrifice, undergoing the great tribulation, which is sometimes accompanied by persecution even today, gathering in the Mass, and washing themselves with the Word and the Holy Eucharist. God knows each of them. “Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, clothed in white robes, and whence have they come?’ I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said to me, ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’” (Revelation 7:13-14).

In the “first resurrection,” there is the structure of God’s salvation. Structure is the relationship between the elements that compose it. The training of the Book of Revelation, the formation of the twofold spirituality of the Holy Spirit, and the participation in the Mass each have their own structure. They, as elements, again make up the structure of salvation. Each Christian, because of their name, is to be a part that sustains this structure of salvation. And the following words will be fulfilled: “Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night within his temple; and he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:15-17).

 

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In order to clarify the difference between “those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God” (Revelation 20:4) and “those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne” (Revelation 6:9), we are going to discuss how each of them is described in the Book of Revelation. First, the verses where “those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne” appear are as follows:

“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne; they cried out with a loud voice, ‘O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?’ Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been” (Revelation 6:9-11).

I would like to draw attention to the fact that the “white robe” here is expressed in a passive manner as a reward to “those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne”: “they were each given a white robe.”

Also, in chapter 3, verses 4-5, we read, “Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels” (Revelation 3:4-5). Here, the word “people who have not soiled their garments” suggests those who have died fulfilling “the witness they had borne.” Also, the similar expression used here, “I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels,” appears in Matthew 10:32 and Luke 12:8, and in these passages of both the Gospels, the word of Jesus is talked in a context of his teaching that we should not fear those who kill the body but can do nothing more (cf. Matthew 10:28, Luke 12:4). From this, we can see that “people who have not soiled their garments” are “those who had been slain for the witness they had borne.” Again, the white garment is expressed passively as “shall be clad.”

They shared the determination of Jesus who said, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour” (John 12:27), and led by Jesus’ request, “Father, glorify thy name” (John 12:28). They were directed to Jesus’ prayer to the Father, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39, Mark 14:36, Luke 22:42). They were indeed those who “shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy.”

From these discussions, we will see that the fact that they have “been slain for the witness they had borne” has its basis in the following words of Jesus: “He who hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. It is to fulfil the word that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause’” (John 15:23-25). Therefore, the phrase “for the witness they had borne” here means, in essence, “because of the testimony of the Father and the Son.”

On the other hand, the “testimony” that caused the “beheading” of “those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God” (Revelation 20:4) is the “testimony of Jesus.” This testimony is the worldview of the Kingdom of God that Jesus, God who became human, brought to the world, as we have discussed in The Estuary of Theology. The author John himself says, “[John,] bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw” (Revelation 1:2), and “[I] was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 1:9), so the “testimony of Jesus,” that is, the worldview of the kingdom of God, is to be witnessed in living, just as Jesus did.

Also, as it is written in the following letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea, those who are alive are told to change their lukewarm behaviour and voluntarily buy “white robes” to clothe themselves just as they buy gold and medicine: “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see” (Revelation 3:15-18).

From the discussion above, we can conclude that “those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God” are not “those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne,” who were told to rest under the altar. They are a great multitude, which no one can count, “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands” (Revelation 7:9).

To be continued.

Mar. 2021 in Hiroshima

Maria K