The Unsealed Book Podcast Dr Mark Roser

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This podcast is based on Mark Roser's book, The Unsealed Book, a study of the Book of Revelation. The podcast takes the listener through the last book of the Bible. Each episode includes a look at current events in the light of Bible prophecy. 

  1. 3D AGO

    A.I. - Another Idol or the Final Idol: Artificial Intelligence and the Speaking Image of the Beast

    What if the final idol — one Scripture has been warning about for two thousand years — was not made of wood or stone or gold… but of silicon and code? What if it didn't sit in a temple carved by human hands, but lived inside of people who were conformed to its image… and what if it could speak and communicate with you 24/7 to shape you into its image? What if when John uses the term antichrist, he’s not describing someone who openly attacks Jesus but describing someone who replaces Jesus with something else — a counterfeit. For doesn't the Greek word, anti (ἀντί) primarily mean “instead of,” “in place of,” or “as a substitute for”?     Support the show

    40 min

  2. MAR 30

    22nd Episode - Millennium: Seven Questions Regarding 'The Thousand Years' from Revelation 20:1-15

    I have presented a non-literal, non-linear approach to Revelation, because I am convinced that it consists of parallel visions during the Christian era. Last chapter we saw that the Beast and his forces were completely destroyed, and there was a certain sense of finality to their judgment. But just as John has taken us to the End and back again through successive cycles, so in this chapter the forces of Satan reappear, once more, before their destruction. Since none of the wicked escaped the judgment of the last chapter to regroup against Christ, this chapter does not follow the previous chapter chronologically. Instead, John provides the same fiery ending as at Armageddon, but with an emphasis in this chapter on Satan’s judgment. John saw Satan cast down from Heaven with his time running out. And he now shows us the conclusion to Satan’s history in the Lake of Fire.  The parallel visions of judgment reach a climax in chapter twenty and the cycle ends. John’s writings contain recurring scenes during this evil age. Evidence for this is found also in ‘the war’ image. The definite article features in the expression “the war” in three places: in chapter sixteen, nineteen and again in twenty. The word “war” occurs nine times in Revelation, but the last three have the definite article, stressing the culmination of the conflict at the end of time. The wording is nearly identical in its final three uses: “to gather them for the war” (16:14); “gathered to make the war” (19:19); “to gather them for the war” (20:8). It is easy to accept that these passages cover the same war.  Revelation chapter twenty is John’s vision of Satan’s final judgment. Like each of his visions, it extends from Christ’s First Coming to His Second Coming. John saw Satan cast down and diminished in power as a result of Christ’s First Coming. Although Satan was bound to the Abyss, he was also released. We are also told that Satan, like the Beast and False Prophet, will be cast into the Lake of Fire. I am convinced that this happens at Christ’s Return, and that John reveals to us spiritual realities, during this interim period, between Christ’s First and Second Coming. These realities are also presented in visionary language and said to extend for a thousand years. This period is called “the Millennium.” Its nature is greatly debated by scholars.” Support the show

    50 min

  3. MAR 30

    23rd Episode - New Jerusalem: Descriptions of the City of God from Revelation 21:1-22:5

    An old missionary and his wife had worked in Africa for many years. In 1909, they were returning by boat to New York to retire. They had no pension and nothing to take back to show for their many years of labor. When they boarded the boat, they discovered they were on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big-game hunting expeditions in Africa. They watched the fanfare that accompanied the President’s entourage as passengers tried to catch a glimpse of the man. No one, however, paid any attention to them.  As the ship crossed the ocean, the old missionary said to his wife, “It doesn’t seem fair. We have given our lives to serve God in Africa for years. Here Roosevelt comes back from a hunting trip, and everybody makes a big deal about it. But nobody gives two hoots about us.” “Dear, you shouldn’t feel that way,” his wife said. “But I do,” the old missionary replied.  When the ship docked, a band was waiting to greet the President. The mayor and other dignitaries were there. The papers were all about the President’s arrival. The old missionaries’ arrival was in stark contrast to the President’s. No one noticed them as they slipped off the ship and found a small apartment in town. That night the man said to his wife, “It is just not fair.” Equally despondent, she replied, “Why don’t you talk to the Lord about it?”  A while later he came out of the bedroom, but now his face was completely different. His wife asked, “Dear, what has changed?” “The Lord answered me,” he said. “I told Him how I felt that Roosevelt receives a tremendous homecoming, when no one even came out to meet us. After I poured out my heart to Him, Jesus touched me, simply saying, “‘But my son, you’re not home yet!’”  This earth is not our home. We are just passing through. It will help us along the way to consider that our home is the New Jerusalem. John’s preview, in chapter twenty-one and twenty-two, is meant to motivate us in our homeward journey. So let us ponder John’s vision of our eternal home in seven manageable points. We shall see that the Holy City is a picture of absolute perfection. We will also discover that we can only appreciate what it is like by contrasting it to what it is not like. When John sees the New Creation, he is overwhelmed by the “newness” of it all! So let us have a good look, since we will stay there a lot longer than a beach side holiday house.  Support the show

    40 min

  4. MAR 30

    24th Episode - Response: Seven Areas for Your Spiritual Health Checkup from Revelation 22:6-21

    Missionary Greg Fisher shares how West African Bible students can ask some of the most penetrating questions about minute details of Scripture. On one occasion he says, “the question took me by surprise. “Reverend,” the student asked, “First Thessalonians 4:16 says that Christ will descend from Heaven with a loud command. I would like to know what that command will be?”  Fisher wanted to leave the question unanswered, saying that we must not go past what Scripture has revealed, but as he wrote later in his journal. “My mind wandered to an encounter I had earlier in the day with a refugee from the Liberian civil war. The man, a high school principal, told me how a death squad apprehended him. After several hours of terror, he narrowly escaped. The escape cost him dearly. Two of his children lost their lives. The stark cruelty unleashed on an unsuspecting population has touched me deeply.” “I also saw flashbacks,” Fisher wrote, “of the beggars that I pass each morning. Every day I see how poverty destroys dignity, robs men of the best of what it means to be human and sometimes substitutes the worst of what it means to be an animal. The vacant eyes of people who have lost all hope haunt me....  ‘Reverend, you have not given me an answer. What will he say?’ The question hadn’t gone away. ‘Enough!’ I said. He will shout, ‘Enough!’ when He Returns. A look of surprise opened on the faces of all the students. ‘Enough suffering. Enough injustice. Enough terror. Enough death. Enough indignity. Enough sickness and disease. Enough time!’”  As we conclude our study, let us take to heart John’s message, and live in the light of Christ’s Return.1 Jesus’ life and mission, His death and resurrection, and His living Lordship are only grasped in that light. Evangelism, discipleship and every aspect of the Christian life springs from such a perspective. We must live like one who is engaged in a race looking to the finishing line. I grew up playing Chess, which like any game is an end-state matter. The goal in chess is to bring the opponent’s king into checkmate. I learnt that only moves that contribute to that end are ‘good’ moves. How many pieces I capture, how quickly I make my moves, how much my play impresses the spectators - these and all other factors have significance only insofar as they contribute to checkmating the king. The End gives meaning to everything!   Support the show

    27 min

  5. MAR 20

    20th Episode - Babylon's Fall: Seven Silhouettes of Judgements from Revelation 18:1-19:3

    Fyodor Dostoevsky, the great Russian writer, asks, “What is hell?” In “The Brothers Karmasov,” the monk, Elder Zosmia, says, “I think it is the suffering of one who can no longer love…This is why the creature was given life on earth, and with it, time and space. And what happens? The privileged creature rejects that priceless gift, fails to appreciate it, does not even like it, sneers at it, and remains unmoved. When such a creature leaves the earth…he is filled with suffering at the thought that he will appear before the Lord never having loved and will be brought into the presence of those who have loved him but whose love he has scorned.”  Babylon has spurned God’s love like an adulterous wife. She fully embodies the moral failure Christ confronted in His Church. “You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen!” Since Jesus’ love is the very highest love fathomable, to fall from it is a bottomless fall. Babylon’s fall means she is left with nothing. Her prestige, her love of money, her lusts for the world have all passed away. As a result, she is full of “woe.” “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great” is the cry of Revelation chapter eighteen. We thus outline Babylon’s awful judgment in seven silhouettes.  Support the show

    30 min

  6. MAR 20

    21st Episode - White Horse Rider: Seven Realities of Christ's Coming from Revelation 19:1-21

    “Ancient religions, such as the Roman paganism of Jesus’ day, believed that the actions of gods in the heavens above affected the earth below. If Zeus got angry, thunderbolts shot out. Like kids dropping rocks off highway bridges onto cars below, the gods rained cataclysms onto the earth. ‘As above, so below,’ went the ancient formula.”  Philip Yancey observes that Jesus “inverted that formula: ‘As below so above.’” He points out that “a believer prays, and heaven responds; a sinner repents, and the angels rejoice; a mission succeeds, and Satan falls like lightning; a believer rebels, and the Holy Spirit is grieved. What we humans do here decisively affects the cosmos.”  What men do on earth really does effect what transpires in Heaven. When the Man-child ascended from the earth, Satan was cast out of Heaven. In the Seals, Trumpets and Bowls, we saw an interconnected Heaven and earth. But the relationship between them is more involved than a cursory glance. It is a two-way superhighway with many lanes and overpasses – a complete thoroughfare whose traffic is hard to measure. The movement is swift and vast. And the interaction between earth and Heaven continues to this hour. John’s visions take him from earth to Heaven and then back again. He shows us great contrasts between these two realms. In our last chapter, the judgment of the Great Prostitute caused terrible mourning on earth, while there was a roaring applause in Heaven.4 The roar was not only because God had judged Babylon and avenged the blood of His saints, but also because the wedding of the Lamb had come. In this chapter we examine (in words that start with “W”) seven interconnected happenings between Heaven and earth.  Support the show

    40 min

  7. MAR 19

    15th Episode - Timeframes: 1260 Days, 42 Months, 3 1/2 Years in Revelation and Daniel

    While I was studying prophetic timeframes in Daniel and Revelation, our church accountant, Tony, was reconciling the church’s set of books. I teased him, saying, “After you’ve finished those accounts, could you help me reconcile Daniel’s 70 weeks, his 2,300 mornings and evenings, his 1,290 and 1,335 days with John’s 1,260 days, his 42 months, and both their time, times and half of time?” We had a good laugh. The same joke for my wife was also fun, and one that brings balance to her husband’s studies. She told me that “most people are just trying to live their life one day at a time.”   Be that as it may, how about you and I balancing these prophetic timeframes? It is time that we address Revelation’s various “timeframes.” In the last chapter, we saw the last reference to a 42-month period, and from chapter eleven to thirteen, we saw the following timeframes: “1,260 days,”“42 months,” and “time, times and half of time.” What do these timeframes mean? In the last chapter we surveyed the various approaches to 666, and in this chapter, we look at how the schools of interpretation understand these timeframes. I will also let you in on how I have perfectly reconciled them.  Support the show

    22 min

  8. MAR 19

    16th Episode - Lamb Followers: Seven Descriptions from Revelation 14:1-20

    The lyrics of a song, popularized by John Lennon, invite us to “Imagine there’s no Heaven; it’s easy if you try, no hell below us, above us only sky.” The melody is soothing as the song further envisions “no country, no possessions, and no religion too.”  Cancel all antitheses, avowed in the Bible like Heaven and hell and you arrive at utopia. That’s a motivating theme of the post-modern era; the erasure of life’s antithesis. Blend opposites and do away with differences is also Babylon’s answer to mankind’s dilemma. In Revelation, as throughout Scripture, contrasts are numerous and extensive. In fact, the antithesis, which began with Adam’s sin, reaches its zenith in the Apocalypse.  Antithesis is John’s chief teaching method, and what a way to learn. Experiences bear out that contrasts are part and parcel of life. We learn what is good by its contrast to evil, light by darkness, life by death, blessing by cursing, and what’s real by what is fake. Not only is the Dragon’s Beast best known in contrast to God’s Lamb – so it is with their followers. Revelation chapter fourteen shows us the Lamb and His genuine followers. In chapter thirteen, we saw the Dragon, cast to earth, standing on the sand of the seashore.  In chapter fourteen, we see the Lamb, caught up to Heaven, standing on Mount Zion. Christians possess upward mobility, but Satan and his crowd are headed down. Satan’s war efforts were exposed in chapter thirteen, but now we behold the victorious saints who overcame him. We saw that the Beast marks his followers too, since the Lamb marks His own. The followers of the Beast and Lamb are as different as the Ones they follow. Here we ponder seven main characteristics of those who follow the Lamb.  Support the show

    31 min
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About

This podcast is based on Mark Roser's book, The Unsealed Book, a study of the Book of Revelation. The podcast takes the listener through the last book of the Bible. Each episode includes a look at current events in the light of Bible prophecy. 

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