A Great Multitude
After this I looked, and there was an enormous crowd—no one could count all the people! They were from every race, tribe, nation, and language, and they stood in front of the throne and of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
One of the elders asked me, “Who are these people dressed in white robes, and where do they come from?”
“I don’t know, sir. You do,” I answered.
He said to me, “These are the people who have come safely through the terrible persecution. They have washed their robes and made them white with the blood of the Lamb.
(Revelation 7:9, 13-14) KJV
The enormous crowd may be more familiar to us as a great multitude, and the terrible persecution is where we find the phrase “great tribulation.” They stand before the throne on the sea of glass.
It’s the season of Christmas and it’s satisfying to re-read the scriptures that describe the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then we ponder: are phenomena like the star of Bethlehem congruent with Matty’s Paradigm?
Putting it another way: does our logical construct include a way to account for the star of Bethlehem? Can we use our paradigm in order to identify it? If so then it means that Matty’s Paradigm, if it were a hypothesis, is predictive. That’s a requirement for it to be considered scientific. Let’s take a look.
We’re going to show you the deductive process behind our conclusion, but we’ll tell you the conclusion: the truth is stranger than fiction. A rigid crystalline firmament solves a lot of scriptural problems, including the Lord traveling to Earth on a structure that looks like a sheet of sapphire.
Read through the Bible in a year
| Reading plan | December 26 | |
| Linear | Revelation 7-9 | |
| Chronological | 1 John |
Salvation
- Call upon the name of Jesus Christ,
- believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
- confess your sin.
