Seat of Power

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

SEAT OF POWER

Rev 16:10-11

10 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony 11 and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.

NIV

It would seem that all the previous plagues, all the trumpets, all the bowls have been leading up to this moment, and it may not be over yet. Here we see the fifth angel pouring out his bowl on the very seat of power that is of the anti-Christ ideology. There is a thought that being plunged into darkness could mean that this ideology had some light, it was empowered to influence many people with its amount of light but now it is plunged into darkness. Its influence has been extinguished. Some scholars believe this is reference to the power of Rome, the Vatican to be exact, which is the throne of the Pope. This would certainly infer that Catholics are not really Christians, that they have been deceived by this great ideology of Rome. That would be an extremely harsh concept, yet that is what some of these Protestant scholars of old would have us believe. Although it is plausible and it may be this great power, there are other ideologies with great seats of power which are anti-Christ or anti-scriptural that have a great influence over many people, some of which might even influence a number of believers. Here in America we have a great seat of power in Wall Street, or the market, or just simply the accumulation of wealth. We also have a great anti-Christ movement within our own government, an anti-God, anti-scripture movement to take God out of the Government under the premise of separation of Church and State. In other counties we see Islam having an overwhelming influence upon so many, which those scholars of old never thought would happen. Yet Mecca or somewhere close is the seat of Islam, the place of its birth, in what is now Saudi Arabia. If there is any anti-Christ ideology spreading across the world it is Islam. The reference to having light or having its light put out, certainly would cause a great deal of distress among its followers. Of course if the economic ideology were plunged into darkness many would be in great anguish as well. Within our history during the great crash on Wall Street back in the 20’s men threw themselves to death from buildings. We have to be careful not to be deceived by anything that would take the place of trusting completely in God. There are so many things which can distract us from the truth of God. There are false teachers, false prophets even today who have just enough of the truth, but mingled with their own brand of religion, that many are being led astray. Whatever this seat of power we have to make sure we recognize but one seat or throne and that is of the one and only God, the creator of all. This even implies that we must dethrone ourselves. We cannot have our self upon any throne. We cannot worship self in any way. Maybe that is the great power that will be plunged into darkness. That would certainly cause a great deal of anguish, of gnawing of teeth. In either case, we must always be right with our God, seeing him as who he is, knowing our salvation is in him, knowing our strength is in him, knowing our provisions are in him, knowing our direction, our enlightenment, our hope, our everything is in him. He is on the throne, the seat of power in our life.