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 August 22, 2026

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And he [the land beast] does great signs, so much so that he causes fire to come down out of heaven to earth in the presence of men. And he deceives those who live on the earth because of the signs which he was given to do in the presence of the beast, saying to those who live on the earth that they should make an image to the beast who was fatally wounded by the sword and came back to life. Rev 13:13-14.

           Emiko Okada was 8 and playing in the yard with her two little brothers when she saw the blinding light. Then came a loud boom and a blast that knocked her unconscious. When she came to, she recalls, “I felt like the sun was falling toward me.” Her brothers wailed beside her, their bodies swollen with burns. Neighbors stumbled by, naked, skin hanging off them in shreds. Corpses littered the road.
           It was August 6, 1945, in Hiroshima. No one in the southern Japanese city had paid much attention to the distant buzz of three American B-29 bombers overhead. But one of them was the Enola Gay, and at 8:14 AM it dropped a single bomb that unleashed the “rain of ruin” President Truman had promised if Japan did not surrender.
           An estimated one-third of the city’s 350,000 residents–including Korean conscripts and imperial army units–were killed instantly. Many thousands more would die from its radioactive poison in the coming years. The bomb turned glass into liquid, building to dust, and people to mere shadows etched on the ruins.
           A black rain fell. It looked like oil to Seiko Komatsu, then 9. He saw the rain soak his wounded grandparents. He had been having breakfast in their house when the bomb fell and gutted it. Three days later, the city of Nagasaki was destroyed by another atom bomb. Japan announced its unconditional surrender on August 14. Thus the greatest and most terrible of wars ended in an event that was far more terrible than the war it sought to end.¹
           There is nothing that can minimize the horror of that day when fire rained down from heaven on an unsuspecting Japanese city. It would be easy to condemn President Truman and all others involved as the first mega-terrorists. But it is a historical fact that two atomic acts may have saved millions of lives and years of suffering for all involved in the war.
           The land beast of Revelation 13 uses “fire from heaven” to assert the authority of the unholy trinity (dragon, sea beast and land beast). That fire from heaven will increase evil and suffering rather than decrease it. The One who did not shy away from the cross will find a way to end a war far more universal and more terrible than World War II.

           Lord, I long to see an end to suffering and fear. As You wrestle with the end-game of the Great Controversy, help me to trust in You no matter what may come.

¹ Based on Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, “Unleashing an Era of Dread,” Time, March 31, 2003, A25.