Genesis 2:23
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”
From an oil on canvas painting by Auguste Levêque (1864-1921), ‘Hymne d'Amour’ (Love Hymn), 1901
Genesis 1:26-28
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Were it not for the fall, we would have filled the earth, and subdued it, being the true image bearer of God on Earth - His human family, working the earth in it's fullness.
This remains our destiny in the new earth, when His Kingdom comes.
Genesis 17:4-5
Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates"
Abraham's Vision, 1853
John Linnell (English, 1792-1882)
Revelation 21:1-4
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away... And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
'The Last Judgement' by John Martin.
The first element of the triptych, The Last Judgement, is the central piece, intended to be displayed between the peaceful landscape of The Plains of Heaven to the left and the turbulent scene in The Great Day of His Wrath to the right.
Revelation 19:11-13
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
Thank you to @PilgrimIntoWord for use of their amazing original artwork!
Revelation 14:1-3
Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
Illustration from a beautiful wood engraving entitled Book Of Revelation, XIX, (1-8), Meeting of the Kings in Heaven by Victor Delhez, undated but understood to be 1950-60. How wonderful this would be in high-resolution.
Revelation 12:7-9
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
This 2.8m x 2.2m painting is The Fall of the Damned by Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1620.
The British Museum hold an extraordinary sketch/study in black and red chalks with a grey wash. It is assumed to be the work of a studio assistant, which Rubens went over with brush and oil colour.
Revelation 12:1-4
And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth.
From a watercolour painting by William Blake entitled 'The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun' held at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
This is one of four studies on the subject painted by Blake between 1805 and 1810.
Revelation 6:12-14
The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up,
and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
This painting is by John Martin and titled 'The End of the World' - or commonly known as 'The Great Day of His Wrath', 1851-53.
It is the rightmost part of his triptych The Last Judgement which also comprises 'The Plains of Heaven' and 'The Last Judgement'.
Revelation 6:7-8
And I looked, and behold, a pale horse!
And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him.
Death on a Pale Horse, by Benjamin West, 1817.
Revelation 6:1-8
The leading horse is white.
The second horse is red.
The third one is a black.
The last one is a green.
Picture taken from Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by artist Viktor Vasnetsov, 1887.
Text is from the song The Four Horsemen by Aphrodite's Child, 1971.
Revelation 3:15-18
To the Church in Laodicea.
I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
Revelation 3:10-11
To the Church in Philadelphia.
Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.
I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.
Revelation 3:1-3
To the Church in Sardis.
I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.
Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent.
If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.
Revelation 2:19-27
To the Church in Thyatira.
I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead.
And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.
But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come.
The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.
Revelation 2:13-16
To the Church in Pergamum.
I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is.
Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.
Revelation 2:9-10
To the Church in Smyrna.
I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer.
Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation.
Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Revelation 2:2-5
To the Church in Ephesus.
I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.
But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
Matthew 10:19-20
But when they deliver you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given to you in that hour what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy's Day
by John Donne
'Tis the year's midnight, and it is the day's,
Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks;
The sun is spent, and now his flasks
Send forth light squibs, no constant rays;
The world's whole sap is sunk;
The general balm th' hydroptic earth hath drunk,
Whither, as to the bed's feet, life is shrunk,
Dead and interr'd; yet all these seem to laugh,
Compar'd with me, who am their epitaph.
Study me then, you who shall lovers be
At the next world, that is, at the next spring;
For I am every dead thing,
In whom Love wrought new alchemy.
For his art did express
A quintessence even from nothingness,
From dull privations, and lean emptiness;
He ruin'd me, and I am re-begot
Of absence, darkness, death: things which are not.
All others, from all things, draw all that's good,
Life, soul, form, spirit, whence they being have;
I, by Love's limbec, am the grave
Of all that's nothing. Oft a flood
Have we two wept, and so
Drown'd the whole world, us two; oft did we grow
To be two chaoses, when we did show
Care to aught else; and often absences
Withdrew our souls, and made us carcasses.
But I am by her death (which word wrongs her)
Of the first nothing the elixir grown;
Were I a man, that I were one
I needs must know; I should prefer,
If I were any beast,
Some ends, some means; yea plants, yea stones detest,
And love; all, all some properties invest;
If I an ordinary nothing were,
As shadow, a light and body must be here.
But I am none; nor will my sun renew.
You lovers, for whose sake the lesser sun
At this time to the Goat is run
To fetch new lust, and give it you,
Enjoy your summer all;
Since she enjoys her long night's festival,
Let me prepare towards her, and let me call
This hour her vigil, and her eve, since this
Both the year's, and the day's deep midnight is.
Deuteronomy 30:19
Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make.
Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!
Acts 2:1-4 The Day of Pentecost.
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind.
Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.
Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
Noah gives Thanks for Deliverance, 1901
Domenico Morelli (Italian, 1823-1901)
Matthew 10:14-15
Mankind rejects the Gospel at its peril. Sodom & Gomorrah were a lesson and a warning. They did not have the saving grace of Jesus to call upon; not then. We do. Modernity pours scorn on God's word but judgment will come.
