Real Clear Truth

I’ve always liked Revelations chapter five…

1 Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” 3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. 4 I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. 5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” (NIV)

As I looked into what these verses could mean, I had an idea of what that day may look like when this event unfolds, and so I have written a fictionalize version. In this version, my daughter Elissa is taken in a vision to see this event unfolding along with her friend Doc, who is a brave mouse. Elissa tells the story from her point of view as she sees the angel “Arcadriel” proclaim something in an exceedingly loud voice…

I saw Arcadriel descend from the heavens above the throne and in a voice that was so great it could be heard across the entire expanse of space and time he asked, “Who has merited undoing the seals and releasing the contents of this book?”

It immediately hit me what was contained in that book and why it was so important. It was my very destiny and not just mine but the destinies of all who are the children of God. It contained the full purpose that he had planned for each one of us. It was what he had intended for us all along but had been stolen from us long ago. Now God was offering for it to be fully restored — if only — if only one could be found who was equal to that which had sealed it up.

I felt the echoes of Arcadriel’s question rippling throughout all of history. I felt it go into every moment of time, every corner of space. I felt its impact upon all beings that had ever lived or ever would live. I felt the cry of the children of God in response, “Who will free us? Who will restore us? Who will redeem us?”

And God waited for an answer.

“Who has merited undoing the seals and releasing the contents of this book?” Arcadriel cried out like a symphony of sound spanning all conceivable spectrum of communications, reaching and searching for the one who could accomplish this great task.

And I saw a queue of people form before the throne of God both the living and the dead. All the greatest leaders the world had ever known. All the greatest talents. The greatest minds. The greatest composers. The greatest authors. The greatest conquerors. The greatest champions of peace. The greatest princes. The greatest kings. The greatest saints. The greatest prophets. The richest. The poorest. The most valiant. The most courageous. The bravest. The strongest. The wisest. The most loving.

I saw them all come before the throne of God. One at time they came and offered their credentials stating why they merited releasing the seals of the book. One at a time they came and pleaded their case. One at a time they demonstrated their skills, their talent, their accomplishments. One at a time they spoke with great eloquence, with superb command of language, with deft logic and reason.

They came before him who sat upon the throne and they said, I deserve to open the book because I have done great things, I have been a great person, I have helped many, I have overcome many, I have love many.

One at a time they came, people I’ve never heard of that did things I never imagined. Others came that I had long heard of and greatly respected. I heard things about them I never knew. Oh how little is written of what they had done, how short is the report given of them!

I heard of people I thought could not possibly be worthy to open up such a book, and yet they made their arguments saying they had defeated many. They had accomplished more and had greater kingdoms than others. They bristled with their confidence. They boasted of their victories.

I saw great kings, emperors, presidents and generals. I saw Napoleon and Nebuchadnezzar, Ramses and Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Genghis Kang, K’ang-Hsi and Quetzalcoatl, Helen of Troy and Cleopatra, Melchizedek and Xerxes, Khufu and Charlemagne, Hammurabi and Abimelekh, Mao Zedong and Pol Pot, Hitler and Stalin, Lincoln and Washington, Roosevelt and Churchill, Robert E. Lee and George Patton.

I saw great philosophers and scientists. I saw Archimedes and Plato, Socrates and Aristotle, Pythagoras and Euclid, Galileo and Copernicus, Descartes and Pascal, Freud and Jung, Kant and Nietzsche, Marx and Rousseau, Einstein and Newton, Machiavelli and Sun Tzu, Whitney and Watt, Ford and Edison, Tesla and Graham Bell, Darwin and Pasteur, Maxwell and Kepler, Marconi and Madame Curie, Goddard and Teller, Niels Bohr and Max Planck, Heisenberg, Fermi and Steven Hawking.

I saw great explorers. I saw Marco Polo and Pytheas, Zheng He and Leif Ericsson, Columbus and Magellan, Vasco da Gama and de Soto, Cortes and Coronado, Stanley and Livingstone, Edwin Peary, Jacques Cousteau and Neil Armstrong.

I saw great artists of all kinds. I saw Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare and Beethoven, Mozart and Bach, Chopin and Handel, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky, Renoir and Monet, Charles Dickens and Jules Verne, Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, Emerson and Thoreau, Hemingway and Faulkner, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkein.

I saw great people of all kinds. I saw Confucius and Gautama Buddha, Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi, Muhammed and Nostradamus, Thomas Aquinas and Francis of Assisi, Cyril of Alexandria, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King and Harriet Tubman, Franklin and Jefferson, Carnegie and Rockefeller, Hans Christian Anderson and Walt Disney.

I saw great angels. I saw Michael and Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael, Phanuel and Raguel, Saraqael and Zotiel.

I saw all manner of demons. I saw Lucifer and Samael, Mephistopheles and Asmodai, Azazel and Belial.

I saw great evangelists. I saw Philip and Augustine, Martin Luther and Erasmus, Charles Spurgeon and Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield and John Calvin, John Knox and George Fox, John Wesley and Charles Finney, William Carey and William Booth, John Wyclif and William Tyndale, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and William Brannon, Evan Roberts and Smith Wigglesworth, Billy Graham and Bill Bright.

I saw the great prophets. I saw Ezekiel and Elijah, Isaiah and Samuel, Elisha and Daniel, Jeremiah and Jonah, Nehemiah and Zechariah, Joel and John the Baptist.

I saw the disciples and the apostles. I saw James and John, Matthew and Mark, Luke and Timothy, Peter and Paul.

I saw the great men and women of the faith. I saw Abraham and Adam, Isaac and Jacob, David and Solomon, Moses and Aaron, Noah and Enoch, Joshua and Joseph, Job and Josiah, Esther and Ruth, Deborah and Mary mother of Jesus.

One by one, the greatest of all time came forward. One by one they stated their cases or someone argued their cases for them. They laid out before the court of heaven all that they had accomplished, all that they had done, all who they had affected.

Their accomplishments had been great. Their achievements far reaching. Their impact on people incalculable.

They were the proudest the Earth, the Heavens, and Hell had to offer. They were the most powerful, the smartest, the most insightful. They had been more original in their thinking, more unique in their approaches, more novel in their inventions.

They were more skilled in their art, more nuanced in their messages, more sophisticated in their elucidations. Their peers were few, their foes vanquished, their subjects many.

They were more courageous, more noble, more inspiring than any others. They were more committed, more persistent, more rigorous than any others. They were more risk taking, more bold, more brash, more disciplined, more learned, more original than any others.

They were the cream of the all that had ever lived, the height of perfection, stunning in the beauty of their works. They were unparalleled, unrivaled, un-mastered. They were everything that man has striven to be. They saw things no one has seen. They understood what is indecipherable by others.

They led armies, nations and empires. They knew no limits. They overcame all adversities. They put their marks across the long arm of history.

They were the best of the best, and some were better still.

And yet every single one of them failed the test. Every single one of them lacked the sufficient weight that was required. None of them could break the seals and open the book.

Some of them moved God’s heart in a amazing ways. David’s heart of worship to God was unparalleled. Abraham’s faith was far greater than I ever realized and stirred the Father’s heart in ways that I had never seen. Esther’s simple obedience saved a nation and altered the course of history. Moses — think of it! When Moses stood there I thought the heavens would part right before me!

Job’s righteousness put everyone to shame. Joseph’s brilliance and giftings were staggering. Noah’s steadfast stand in the day of evil was utterly remarkable. Enoch’s closeness to God was downright scary.

Elijah lived at a level seemingly beyond this planet. Daniel heard things from God that haven’t been revealed to anyone else. John the Baptist cried in the desert like no one ever has or ever will.

John the beloved saw deeper into the heart of God than has ever been seen. Peter was the rock that God himself built his church on. Paul altered the history of the world in more ways than any ten conquerors could, and discovered deeper territory in God then any explorer ever dreamed of discovering anywhere.

And yet all of it was not enough.

No one could break the seals. The angels could not break the seals. The demons could not break the seals. Nor could anyone living or dead, in heaven or in hell.

The weight of the seals was too great for any to undo.

And yet, locked in that book was mankind’s destiny. Locked away in that book and sealed tight was all that God had planned to give man, all that belonged to man but had been stolen away. Secured tight so that the book couldn’t even be read was the full list of everything man had inherited from God.

It was a title-deep, a note of ownership, a legal document assigning all that God had dreamed to give to man from before the fires of time began.

It had once belonged to man free and clear. He was the rightful heir and owner and had full access to every part of it.

And yet, he traded it all in for a pittance. He had given up all of God’s best for sheer emptiness. Conned out of his inheritance, man strived to earn it back, but it was no use. No amount of effort would prove sufficient.

And now God offered it all back — if only one could be found to merit breaking the seals.

“Who has merited undoing the seals and releasing the contents of this book?” Arcadriel called out once again.

Will no one be found? Has no one ever existed throughout all of time who can do it?

Surely one of disciples must be worthy I thought! Surely one of the saints! Surely one of the prophets!

I could not believe what I was seeing. I had seen men and angels so much greater than I ever imagined that it was hard for me to understand how they had all failed.

Wasn’t Moses good enough? Or surely Abraham! No? And what of Paul? This just could not be! This just could not be the end! Somebody must be able to break those seals! Somebody must be found!

Was not Enoch more loved by God than anyone? Then why couldn’t he do it? Didn’t David move God’s heart more than anyone? Didn’t Job prove more faithful?

Is no one worthy? Is no one able? Is no one great enough? Is no one powerful enough?

It hit me stronger than anything I have ever felt. All of man was hanging in the balance and nobody could do anything! Who could tip the balance in man’s favor? Was man to be forever cursed?

The enormity of what was at stake hit me and I wept and wept. Surely there must be someone strong enough! Surely!

But no one stepped forward.

To be continued…