JABRIL.MUHAMMAD

These are changes of the most significant kind.   A man was seen sitting on a throne.   The scene is in heaven. According to the book of Revelation, in the 4th verse of the 4th chapter we read:   “In a circle around the throne were 24 other thrones, on which were seated 24 elders dressed in white and wearing crowns of gold.”   After additional, more aspects of this heav ­enly scene are described: “…the 24 elders fall down before the one   who   sits   on   the throne,   and worshipped   him   who   lived   forever and ever.”   They threw their crowns down in front of the throne and said “Our Lord God!   You are worthy to receive victory, honor, and power.   For you created all things, and by your will they were given existence and life?”

Let us remember–as we were taught–these words are a small part of a vision of the end time granted to a follower of Jesus, of two thousand years ago, so we were told, by White Christians.   (Actually, this vision really goes back 4,000 years earlier.   More of this later.)

Who are the persons described in this vision?   It is clear, from the text, that the One sitting on the throne was not always recognized to be Who He is, Who was to be recognized at a certain time, known as the end of the world?   If we are reading of a major aspect of this recognition, in Revelation, chapter 4, are we reading of that which occurs out of the sight of the masses of the people of the earth?   Is this something that takes place, first, out of the sight of the public, then, later, His ident ­ity dawns on the general public?   Has this process begun in America?   To be brief, the answer is yes.  

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Let us ask this question of the scholars and scientists of this world, of God’s word:   How could the Creator of all things, according to this vision, be that and yet He was not recognized as God until a time period (the end time) well after the Jesus of two thousand years ago?   How does He become known?   What occurs to reveal Him?   Why was He not known before He be ­came known?   In other words, we have been taught that John was given this vision around 95 or 96 A.D.; some 60 or so years after Jesus went to heaven by means of the cross. He was granted this vision of the future by Jesus.   That is what we have been taught.

The vision of the revelation of Jesus was to be fulfilled at the end of this world.   If this is true, then the One Who takes the throne in Revelation, chapter 4, is Someone Who takes over the powers of the heavens and the earth at the end of the world.   This Person is not the Jesus who granted John the revelation, 2,000 years ago.   He was not here, in person, 2,000 years ago.   Who is He Who gains universal power at the end of the world?   If this vision is true, we really need to deepen our knowledge of Him, especially if we are alive at the same time He is here in person and in power.  

How can He be One who gains universal power at the end of the world and yet be the Creator of all things.   How can He be the One by Whose will all things were given existence and life and yet He only comes into power at the time of the end of this world’s power to continue to rule?

The vision continues on into the 5th chapter where the writer reports that he saw a scroll, or a little book, in the right hand of the One sitting on the throne.   He saw a mighty angel raise a question in a loud voice:   “Who is worthy to break the seal and open the scroll?”   Actually, all of the translators of the Bible that I have read, so far, do not state that this angel raised a question as much as he made an announcement.   In any case, no one was found: “…in heaven or in earth or in the world be ­low who could open the scroll and look inside it.”   Presumably this included even the 24 who bowed to the One on the throne who had this little book.

Who is he who opened this book?   Where did he come from?   What does it contain?   When was it written?   Why was it writ ­ten?   Certainly it was not written two thousand years ago. Was that little book part of that which was to come at a time well af ­ter the time the vision was granted?   The scholars and scientists agree that this vision would become a reality, or take place, in people and in the events that these people produce at the end of the world.

One of the elders told the one who was granted the vision, “Do not weep.”   He continued with these words, to the effect, that a man, who was a descendant of David, had conquered and was found worthy to open the book.

In one Catholic Bible this man who is described as having “overcome” looks as if he had been slain.   He was not slain or murdered.   He only looked that way.   The use of the word slain, here, clearly implies that an attempt on his life had been made and he escaped the plot.   It had to be a very close call; yet not really, due to the unlimited wisdom and power of God, Who controlled the entire situation.  

What is very hard, or im ­possible for us to do, is very simple or very easy for Allah to do. Various translations of the Bible of Revelation 5:5 say that this man, under the symbol of a lion and of a lamb, overcame.   Others say he conquered and this overcoming or conquering was key to his being in position to open the scroll, which was bound by the seven seals, and to learn and make use of its contents.  

What did he overcome? What did he conquer?   Was it that which was outside of himself, or inside of himself or was it both?   Since no one was found worthy other than he to take and open the scroll and to break the seal, are we to understand that this man overcame or conquered that which no person before him had ever succeeded in overcoming?

Is this which qualified him to approach the One sitting on the throne, as he did, and to take what he did, and to do as he did afterwards?   What is the connection between this overcoming or conquering and the fact that he looked as if he had been slain?   Does this make him like God? More exactly, does this make him next to God, or God’s second self?

Before I go further I would like to state that which many of us already know, from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and from experience, that visions are not the reality but a picture close to the reality.   There are some special prophecies that have a double reference, or they refer to, or cover time frames in which events occur and then re-occur.   And there are still fewer very special prophetic events that are envisioned in a three-fold sense.

More next issue, Allah willing.