What did the Altar Say to the Demon Frogs?

Revelation 16:7 (ESV)

7 And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!”

Revelation 16:13–14 (ESV)

13 And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. 14 For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.

So there I was, preaching my way through the book of Revelation, and trying to stay away from statements like “Trump is the Anti-Christ” and “this is purely metaphorical to show the inward changes that come about blah blah blah.”

Is Revelation Allegorical or Literal? When asked that question, I have one answer:

I’m non-binary.

I haven’t posted my recordings yet, but when I do, you’ll hear me say over and over that we shouldn’t try to tie the book of Revelation to this or that current event. While I do think there are a lot of things in there that are literal and will happen, if we try hard to tie this event to Trumps war on Iran or Obama and the EU, we miss out on some much more applicable and helpful things.

The more commentaries and preachers I listen to talk about the book of Revelation, the more I think are motivated by fear in one way or another. Either by their own fear about all of the violence and such that is happening in the world, or they are stoking the fear of their listeners.

Remember in the Prince Bride, how Grandpa asks Kevin a few times if he should stop reading the story? (I know his name isn’t Kevin in TPB, but I watched The Wonder Years so much, that’s who he is. One universe.) Kevin gets so wrapped up in the story that he is afraid and nervous. (“Who kills Humperdink!”)

I think the same thing happens with folks reading Revelation during the anxiety of World War III. Persia, Israel, Hegseth, Armageddon!

But you know what the book is called?

The Revelation of Jesus Christ.

It’s Christ revealed. For all of us who believe in Him and call on His name, that’s pretty much the best thing ever. However it comes about.

He rules over the 7 lamp stands.

He rules over the 7 churches.

He rules over the 7-sealed scroll.

He rules over all wars and all kingdoms.

He even sends out angels to pour out bowls of wrath and judgment over people that hate Him and refuse Him. It sounds harsh, but the boss is the boss. It’s beyond our gent(i)le understandings in democratic culture. We are already set back from understanding kingdoms and authority in our rugged individualism of America.

One of the angels pours a bowl of wrath on Satan’s throne. Think that through for a minute. So much authority that you could walk up and pour a bowl of wrath on it. That’s not a description of a war. That’s not a battle of Armageddon. That’s like pulling the bag up out of the trash can and carrying it to the curb to be hauled away.

Talking Altars

So in light of that, what’s up with the talking altar? I said it was symbolic and my brilliant son Levi said, “No, it’s not symbolism! It’s the fulfillment of the rocks crying out!” And I’ll tell you what. I’ll buy that. They weren’t cut stones, but stacked, so sure enough, here they are crying out!

Or maybe not. Maybe it’s the altar because it’s the altar in Heaven. It’s the real altar that every other altar ever built is modeled after. Every stack of stones Abraham put together. Every altar assembled (there couldn’t be any cut rocks in an altar,) by Jacob, Joshua, or the rest, points to this altar. The altar in the tabernacle and the altar in Solomon’s temple were all pointing to this one.

And what did they all see?

Blood.

From the blood poured out after the sin of Adam and Eve to the blood of the abomination that causes desecration, this altar has witnessed all of the blood of every sacrifice ever offered. And when it’s all over, all it has to say is, “God, you are true and just.”

Exodus 20:25–26 (ESV)

25 If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it. 26 And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.’

(I’m pretty sure every church I’ve ever been in has a profaned altar. If you bow down to it when you walk in front of it, you’re just making it worse. Praise Jesus that He has freed us from the Law and its judgement, or we’d all be cooked! So maybe we don’t need to take our profaned altars so seriously?)

Demon Frogs!?

Ok. So this is quite the ramble, but we need to address these guys.

For crying out loud, they aren’t frogs. They are LIKE frogs. Just like the Holy Spirit came down LIKE a dove onto Jesus when He was baptized. We get so much more out of the scripture when we see the poetry and imagery in it instead of feathers and warts.

Have you ever experienced frogs? How did that go? What would it be like if a demonic power moved about like a frog?

• fast
• gross
• does all of its work with its tongue
• hard to catch
  

They go ahead of the kings and they are riling people up for war. They aren’t even necessarily riling people up against Jesus, like the Armageddon folks would imply. The Devil doesn’t care who we fight against. If we’re fighting and killing one another, we’re doing his job. Just like Quintus Arrius says in Ben Hur. “They want blood. They’re all Romans now.”

The wisdom for us isn’t to figure out if the three frogs are Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram or if they are NBC, Fox, and Al Jazeera.

The wisdom for us is to not get caught up in the love of war.

If you’ve beaten that, then those demon frogs won’t have any influence on you, whatever they are.

I’ll get all of my sermons on Revelation posted soon. Until then, keep reading. Keep searching and asking. Avoid the pride of certainty about stuff that is just going to put us in the same club is Mr. 88 reasons why the rapture will happen in 1988.