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 May 14, 2026

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And I saw, when he opened the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became like blood, and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, like a fig tree drops its unripe figs having been shaken by a mighty wind, and the sky was split open like a scroll being rolled up and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great ones, the captains of thousands, the rich and the strong, and every slave and free person hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. Rev 6:12-15.

           The sixth seal portrays the end of the cosmos as the ancients understood it. The seals begin with the four horsemen, who depict the kind of judgments that repeat over and over in the course of history (Rev 6:1-8). The passage above, however, includes the absolute dissolution of the heavens (6:12-14) followed by the world’s recognition of that event and its condemnation by the wrath of the Creator (6:15-17). This seems to express the end of history as we know it.
           The ancients used to sum up the totality of humanity in contrasting opposites like “rich and poor,” “slave and free,” “male and female.” In our text John lists representatives of the entire social order. Absolutely no one, from Caesar on down, will escape this final judgment.
           How we relate to a passage like this depends on the culture in which we were raised. The Shona of South Africa, for example, traditionally believed that earthquakes were caused by God walking around on the earth. Other tribes attribute earthquakes to the work of special deities. To them a passage like this expresses God’s full control over everything that happens on this earth.
           God’s control over earthquakes has proven comforting to Christians living near the San Andreas fault in California. “God just clapped His hands,” announced one witness of the Bay area earthquake of 1989, an earthquake that claimed 55 lives and billions of dollars in property damage. Because John’s audience in Asia Minor knew and feared earthquakes (the Roman Province of Asia was in the middle of an active seismic area), a passage like this would prove unnerving, rather than comforting.
           The overall impact of this text is to terrify anyone who has too much confidence in the material things of this world. There is no security, no firm ground to stand on, nothing in the universe to depend on except God Himself. The creation, and everything in it, will one day collapse. If our confidence is based on that which we can hear, see and touch, our lives are tenuous indeed.¹

           Lord, teach me the uncertainty of money, land, education, and everything else I am tempted to trust in. I place my confidence today in You, and in You alone.

¹ Based on Keener, 220, 224, 225.