"Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw." - Revelation 1:2
From Omega Frequency: Episode 2 (5:10):
John had been a true witness - both in his life and in his preaching. It was his testimony about Jesus that got him exiled to the prison island of Patmos. Church history tells us that John was arrested by a Roman soldier and brought before Titus Flavius Domitian, the Roman emperor. Like most Roman emperors he believed he was god.
John was asked to deny Jesus and swear allegiance to the Roman emperor. John would not do this and deny his faith in the Messiah. The emperor knew John had a large following of Christians, so he wanted to make an example out of him. He ordered that John be placed in a giant pot of boiling oil. Instead of hearing John scream for mercy John began to preach about Jesus because the oil did not burn him. It was so amazing that the emperor's nephew and many of the Roman soldiers that saw it were converted.
Word of this miracle spread like wildfire, so the emperor sent John off tho the island of Patmos. He figured that if John was gone people might forget about him. But what Satan planned for evil backfired on him. While John was in exile he received the greatest vision of his life - it was the vision of the return of the Messiah. He wrote it down and told the world how Satan was going to be defeated.
Not much has changed today. If the devil can't kill you he will try to exile you. But if you serve God faithfully and do not deny his name, even death itself won't be able to stop you from fulfilling your destiny.
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