Hello! I am Jon Paulien and I’m glad you came to this page to check out my work. I am a New Testament scholar and Professor of Religion at Loma Linda University. On this website you will find a collection of my articles, commentary on Revelation, and links to my blog, videos, and other resources. Make sure you check the articles link above regularly to see the latest postings. In my hand above is an exact replica of p52, the earliest extant New Testament manuscript fragment, containing portions of John, chapter 18. Centered above my head is a replica of ancient Greek pottery. At either end above are two sets of books from, and about, my favorite spiritual author, Ellen G. White. I hope you enjoy the site.

Daily Devotional For June 19, 2026

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And it was given to them (the locust/scorpions) that they should not kill them (the unsealed) but rather that they should be tormented for five months. And their torment was like the torment of a scorpion, when it stings a man. And in those days men will seek death but they will not find it. They will long to die, yet death will flee away from them. Rev 9:5-6.

           Recently my wife and I were in Australia. She wanted some video footage of a new “down under” hairdo she had just received and we decided it would be fun to put her behind a jungle bush and in front of a tree in which a Kookaburra (the famous Australian “mocking” bird) was calmly sitting.
           My wife was posing like a model, turning front to back as the video recorded, the Kooka-burra visible just above my wife’s head. Suddenly my wife disappeared from view. I made some wisecrack or other into the camera and continued filming. Suddenly my wife started shrieking:
           “Ants, ants, they’re biting me, help! Get them off of me!”
           Knowing my wife’s tendency to joke for the camera I sauntered unhurriedly in her direction. As I came around the jungle bush I suddenly noticed that the ground seemed to be moving. There was a swarm of fast-moving ants between the bush and the Kookaburra’s tree. My wife raised one leg of her slacks and was swatting wildly at her shoe and the skin of her leg.
           “Help! Do something!”
           I moved into action at last. “Get away from here! Quick! Get out of this spot!”
           She started running with me half dragging her to the laundry room about twenty meters away. There we slammed the door for privacy and pulled the pants off. As I snapped the pants like a whip ants scattered onto the floor, where we went after them with a vengeance. After we had finished off all the ants that appeared on the floor, we tended to six or seven large welts on my wife’s right leg. She had been attacked by bull ants, whose bite burns like a flame. Only after the intensive application of anesthetic did the fire in her legs die out. For a few moments, at least, she experienced as severe a torment as she had ever known. Had the “fire” lasted for hours or days, she would probably have felt just like the tormented ones of Revelation 9.
           The basic message of the text is that those under Satan’s control may think they have real freedom but in reality they have subjected themselves to a tyrant that makes Hitler or Idi Amin appear moderate. The torment of stinging insects illustrates how enslavement to Satan sucks the joy out of life and eventually makes even death seem an attractive option.

           Lord, help me to just say no to the attractions of sin. May its enslavement and torment become clearly seen whenever temptation comes.