THREE UNCLEAN SPIRITS LIKE FROGS - WHY FROGS?

[Oseas]

11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Why, what's the devil going to do?

Though it be very hard to interpret and understanding biblical alegories, anyway we must preach Revelation literally and search to translate what they mean like the parables of our Lord JESUS Christ.

Revelation 11:v.15 and 18:
15 - The kingdoms of this world (the Devil's world) are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.  (The Word of GOD is speaking about the Universal GOD's Kingdom)

18 - And the nations were (will be) angry, and thy wrath (GOD's WRATH) is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be Judged, and that GOD should give reward unto His servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear His name, small and great; and should destroy them which destroy the earth.

Revelation 12:v.16 to 21KJV

16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords.

17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls(all the fowls? I would like to know they all, the TRUE CHRISTIANS to which the loud voice are speaking) that fly in the midst of heaven(heaven?Ephesians 1:v.3 and Phil.3:v.20-21), Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; (HALELLUJAH! The Word made flesh-JESUS-is a great GOD)

18 That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. (The hosts of Satan will be defeated and destroyed as we can see in Revelation 6:v. 10 to 17)

19 And I saw the Beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

20 And the Beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the Beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

21 And the remnant were slain with the Sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

Get ready

[RabbiKnife]

The Apocalypse is not allegory.

It is written in the apolcalptic genre, which uses many symbols and figurative language, most based on the Old Testament, but it is not a parable or to read like one reads Pilgrim's Progress.

[Oseas]

The Apocalypse is not allegory.

It is written in the apolcalptic genre, which uses many symbols and figurative language, most based on the Old Testament, but it is not a parable or to read like one reads Pilgrim's Progress.

OK. What matters is to interpret truly the Scriptures. Revelation 19:v.17 above says: "And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls..."

The verse above shows an angel speaking with fowls and standing in the sun. How could an angel, standing in the sun, speak to the fowls (speaking to the fowls?) flying so below from him?  Literally/materially is impossible to explain this event. Who are these beings? What really the Word of GOD is revealing for us and for our understanding?

[Fenris]

So...what am I getting ready for?

death.  thrown into a fire pit. 

Psalm 27: A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

[ross3421]

The Apocalypse is not allegory.

It is written in the apolcalptic genre, which uses many symbols and figurative language, most based on the Old Testament, but it is not a parable or to read like one reads Pilgrim's Progress.

OK. What matters is to interpret truly the Scriptures. Revelation 19:v.17 above says: "And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls..."

The verse above shows an angel speaking with fowls and standing in the sun. How could an angel, standing in the sun, speak to the fowls (speaking to the fowls?) flying so below from him?  Literally/materially is impossible to explain this event. Who are these beings? What really the Word of GOD is revealing for us and for our understanding?

the angel is whom we see in rev 19  his red vesture shines upon the moon....

who else speaks to the fowls and they obey

And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

[Fenris]

who else speaks to the fowls and they obey

And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

I thought we were talking about frogs.

[RabbiKnife]

"I'll take 'animals that start with the letter F" for $500, Alex."

[Athanasius]

"I'll take 'animals that start with the letter F" for $500, Alex."

Ferengi, Trebek! (obligatory Sean Connery accent.)

[CadyandZoe]

Revelation 16:13
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;

I think this is an interesting question. I don't know the answer, but I can make a couple of observations.

1. Frogs reminds me of the Exodus.
Perhaps John intends for us to find a connection there.

2. They come "out of the mouth" of the dragon et al.
Words come out of the mouth. So it seems as if the words will be frog-like in some way.

3. The frog-like words convince the world to gather for "for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty."
False teaching? Propaganda? Fake News? Bold faced lies?

4. In the New Testament (and perhaps Zechariah 13:2?) unclean spirits are associated with demon possession.
I suspect that the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, are speaking through demon possessed human beings.

I'm not sure what sounds a frog might make that would remind me of false teaching.

Any ideas?

[RandyPNW]

I'm not sure what sounds a frog might make that would remind me of false teaching.

Any ideas?

No, but they do have a big mouth and a wicked tongue. That and they diet on bugs without blushing. Should be warning lights going off!

[Athanasius]

Maybe it's an ancient "blah blah blah" insult. "You blabber like a frog you philistine."

[RabbiKnife]

And maybe, just maybe, we as believers need to learn how to properly read and understand various types of literature, and various types of literary devices.

First, what John says he saw, which is the use of a figure of speech called a personification and a simile.  Clearly, unclean spirits are invisible, having no physical form, so they cannot be seen.  As such, taking the unseen and attempting to communicate visible reality can only be accomplished by a figure of speech, a literary device, in which the author (John) attempts to express an abstract idea by use of giving physical or human attributes to the object.   In other words, which the use of "froggishness" as, say, opposed to "snakeishness" or "goldfishishness" or "koalaishness"?  To think that these are in appearance like a frog is foolishness, as these are demons, which cannot be seen.  The "frogishness" can, accordingly, only apply to their unseemly actions viewed in a spiritual sense.



Secondly, the use of simile is the use of a comparison for explanation sake in which the words "like" or "as" are used a prepositions; here, "three unclean spirits" are not identified as frogs but explained by comparison to frogs.  It is up to us, the reader, to figure out the "froglike" characteristics that could be applied to a trio of unclean spirits.

Thirdly, it takes only a modicum of familiarity with the Exodus story of the 9 pre-passover plagues to recognize the 7 bowls as being closely aligned with God's previous display of wrath and disfavor with various people .  The Egyptians in Pharoah's day worship frogs in the persona of the idol and false god, Heqet.  God's repetition of various plagues in the bowls of wrath (sores, water to blood, darkness, etc., would come as no surprise to any moderately religious student of the Old Testament during the late 60's A.D.

All that we can safely say about this isolated passage is that Satan (who is unequivocally the dragon), and the beast and the false prophet (whoever they are) control and send  out demons as emissaries to the kings of the world to invoke war and conflict.

Efforts beyond that leave the realm of interpretation and move into the world of abject speculation.

Or, as the Aristophanes would put it, from his play The Frogs, "Brekekekex koax koax"

[Athanasius]

Or, as the Aristophanes would put it, from his play The Frogs, "Brekekekex koax koax"

Followed up by The Clouds, to quench these obviously thirsty frogs.

I fear I need to start adding /s. Surely not.