And, when I saw him, I fell at his feet like one dead. He laid his hand on me and said-- 'Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last,

I know your life, your toil and endurance, and I know that you cannot tolerate evil-doers. I know, too, how you tested those who declare that they are Apostles, though they are not, and how you proved them false.

I know your persecution and your poverty--yet you are rich! I know, too, the slander that come from those who declare that they are Jews, though they are not, but are a Congregation of Satan.

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The Devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tempted, and may undergo persecution for ten days. Be faithful even to death, and I will give you the Crown of Life.

I know where you dwell, where the Throne of Satan stands. And yet you hold to my Name, and you did not disown my Faith even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death among you where Satan dwells.

I gave her time to repent, but she is determined not to turn from her licentiousness.

But I say to the rest of you at Thyatira--all who do not accept such teaching, whose who did not learn 'the secrets of Satan,' as men call them--I am not laying on you any further burden;

Be on the watch, and strengthen what still survives, though once it was all but dead; for I have not found your life perfect in the eyes of my God.

Therefore remember what you have received and heard, and lay it to heart and repent. Unless you are on the watch, I shall come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I am coming to you.

Yet there are some few among you at Sardis who did not soil their robes; they shall walk with me, robed in white, for they are worthy.

He who conquers shall be clothed in these white robes, and I will not 'strike his name out of the Book of Life'; but I will own him before my Father, and before his angels.

I know your life (see, I have set a door open before you which no one is able to shut), I know that, though you have but little strength, you kept my teaching in mind, and did not disown my Name.

Listen, I give some of the Congregation of Satan, the men who declare that they are Jews, though they are not, but are lying----I will make them 'come and bow down at your feet,' and they shall learn that I loved you.

But now, because you are lukewarm, neither hot not cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

You say 'I am rich and have grown rich, and I want for nothing,' and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked!

These four Creatures have each of them six wings, and all round, and within, they are full of eyes; and day and night they never cease to say-- 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, our God, the Almighty, who was, and who is, and who shall be.'

But one of the Councillors said to me--'Do not weep. The Lion conquered--the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Scion of David--and can therefore open the book with its seven seals.'

And I heard what seemed to be a voice, coming from among the four Creatures, crying--'A quart of wheat for a florin, and three quarts of barley for a florin! But do not harm the oil and the wine.'

'Do not harm the earth, or the sea, or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads.'

And therefore it is that they are before the throne of God, and are serving him day and night in his Temple; and he who is seated on the throne will shelter them.

Then the fourth angel blew; and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were blasted, so that a third of them was eclipsed, and for a third part of the day there was no light, and at night it was the same.

They were told not to harm the grass, or any plant, or any tree, but only those who have not 'the seal of God upon their foreheads.'

Yet they were not allowed to kill them, but it was ordered that those men should be tortured for five months. Their torture was like the torture caused by a scorpion when it stings a man.

In those days men 'will seek Death and will not find it'; They will long to die, but Death flees from them.

But those who were left of mankind, who had not perished through these Curses, did not repent and turn away from what their own hands had made; they would not abandon the worship of 'demons, and of idols made of gold or silver or brass or stone or wood, which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk';

and they did not repent of their murders, or their sorceries, or their licentiousness, or their thefts.

And, when they spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from Heaven say-- 'Keep secret what the seven peals of thunder said, and do not write it down.'

But omit the court outside the Temple, and do not measure that, for it has been given up to the nations; and the holy City will be under their heel for forty-two months.

Men of all peoples, and tribes, and languages, and nations look at their dead bodies for three days and a half, and do not allow them to be laid in a grave.

he did not prevail; and there was no place left for them any longer in the heavens.

And I heard a loud voice in Heaven which said-- 'Now has begun the day of the Salvation, and Power, and Dominion of our God, and the Rule of his Christ; for the Accuser of our Brothers has been hurled down, he who has been accusing them before our God day and night.

Their victory was due to the Blood of the Lamb, and to the Message to which they bore their testimony. In their love of life they shrank not from death.

All who are living on earth will worship it--all whose names have not been written in the Lamb's Book of Life, the Lamb that has been sacrificed from the foundation of the world.

'Whoever is destined for captivity goes into captivity.' Whoever shall kill with the sword must inevitably be killed with the sword. (Here there is need for endurance and faith on the part of Christ's People.)

(Here there is need for discernment.) Let him who has the ability compute the number of the Beast; for the number indicates a man's name. Its number is six hundred and sixty-six.

The smoke from their torture rises for ever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night-- those who worship the Beast and its image, and all who are branded with its name.'

(Here there is need for endurance on the part of Christ's People--those who lay to heart the commands of God and the Faith of Jesus.)

Who will not reverence and praise thy Name, O Lord? Thou alone art holy! All nations will come and worship before thee, for thy judgments have become manifest.'

and men were scorched by the intense heat. They blasphemed the Name of God who controlled these Curses, yet they did not repent and give him praise.

and blasphemed the God of Heaven, because of their pains and because of their sores; yet they did not repent of what they had done.

('I am coming like a thief! Happy will he be who is on the watch, and keeps his clothing at hand, so that he will not have to walk about unclothed and let men see his nakedness.')

There followed 'flashes of lightning, cries, and peals of thunder'; and there was a great earthquake, such as had not occurred since man began to be upon the earth--none so great;

The Beast that you saw was, but is not, and is about to rise out of the bottomless pit, and is on its way to destruction. Those who are living on earth will be amazed--those whose names have not been written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world--when they see that the Beast was, but is not, and yet will come.'

(Here there is need for the discerning mind.) The seven heads are seven mountains upon which the woman is seated.

They are also seven kings; of whom five have fallen and one remains, while one is not yet come. When he comes, he must stay for a little while.

So must the Beast that was, but is not. He counts as an eighth king, although he is one of the seven, and is on his way to destruction.

The ten horns that you saw are ten kings. who have not yet received their kingdoms, but for an hour they receive the authority of kings, together with the Beast.

Then I heard another voice from Heaven saying--'Come out of her, my People, that you may not participate in her sins, and that you may not suffer from the Curses inflicted upon her.

For her sins are heaped up to the heavens, and God has not forgotten her misdeeds.

He flung him into the bottomless pit and locked it, and set his seal upon it; that he should not deceive the nations any more, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be let loose for a while.

Then I saw thrones, and to those who took their seats upon them authority was given to act as judges. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony to Jesus and because of the Message of God, for they had refused to worship the Beast or its image, and had not received the brand on their foreheads and on their hands. They were restored to life, and they reigned with the Christ for a thousand years.

(The rest of the dead were not restored to life till the thousand years were ended.) This is the First Resurrection.

and the Devil, their deceiver, was hurled into the lake of fire and sulphur, where the Beast and the false Prophet already were, and they will be tortured day and night for ever and ever.

and all whose names 'were not found written in the Book of Life' were hurled into the lake of fire.

The City has no need of 'the sun or the moon to shine upon it, for the Glory of God illuminated it,' and its Lamp was the Lamb.

Its gates will never be shut by day,' and there will be no night there.

Night will cease to be. They have no need of the light of a lamp, nor have they the light of the sun; for the 'Lord God will be their light, and they will reign for ever and ever.'

Then the angel said to me-- 'Do not keep secret the words of the prophecy contained in this book; for The Time is near.