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Revelation

Preamble

Although we cannot be dogmatic about many things in the book of the Revelation, we can get a 'birds-eye' view of the book that gives an account of the consummation of world history. Let us take a quick tour of the book! Some versions of the Bible introduce the book of Revelation by stating it is "The Revelation of St. John the Divine." No, it is not! (That is just one thing that upsets me - another is well-meaning folks who call this book "Revelations"). This book is a revelation (singular) that was given to John, and it is "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." Chapter 1 verse 1 says so.

Perhaps that's a bit nit-picky, but understanding precisely what the Bible says is important. I have had people say to me, "Aw, com'on, you've studied this stuff, you must have some idea when Jesus is returning. I mean, the Bible says we can't know the day or the hour, but it doesn't say we can't know the year" (See "Warnings"). Or it may be that events in the news may trigger someone to insist that a marvelous prediction in the last book of the Bible is right now being fulfilled before our very eyes!

I was once in this class of Bible enthusiasts - excited and eager to jump to conclusions - sometimes wrong conclusions! I don't mind hearing about far-out interpretations regarding Bible prophecy but only because I am secure knowing that the best method of understanding the Revelation is what is referred to as the futurist view (See Four Views of Revelation). It is on this view that these comments are based. You, too, can be secure in knowing what the Word of God has to say!

The Revelation of Jesus Christ

The Bible is an integrated document - in order to understand the individual books of the Bible, one must understand the whole - and vice versa. One by one the great themes of Scripture emerge in Genesis and are woven together throughout the Old and New Testaments. In Revelation these themes are all brought back together in a grand consummation of earth's history.

In chapter 1 we are given a grand picture of Jesus Christ as He is now in eternity. Especially emphasized is His role as Great High priest and Lord over the church. Chapters 2 and 3 contain the direct words of Jesus to seven representative local churches (see map). From these letters we see the commendations and admonitions from Jesus Himself which are applicable to churches today.

In chapter 4 an abrupt transition takes place. John is caught up out of time and invited into the throne room of God. He sees events which for us are yet future. The principal activity of heaven is said to be worship and this is what one sees in chapter 4. Innumerable angels are gathered in constant worship, singing and praying around the throne of God the Father. The Father is holding a mysterious seven-sealed scroll. A search is made of heaven and earth for a person who is qualified and worthy to receive this scroll and to execute its divine commands. Jesus  - the slain Lamb - the Lion of the Tribe of Judah - is the only qualified recipient. When Jesus takes the scroll from the hand of the Father the center of worship in heaven shifts to Jesus. The time has come for Jesus to invade earth's long dark history and to establish God's kingdom on earth among men.

Christians have been waiting for some two thousand years for this awesome event. In 1744 Charles Wesley penned this glorious hymn, the words of which are about to become reality as we move into the Revelation:

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.
 

Revelation, as it is written, describes events occurring in the heavenly realm and then jumps to consider events happening on earth. However, earthly clocks and heavenly clocks are not usually in synchronization, at least not in the Revelation! There are many symbols in the book of the Revelation, but most of the book is quite literal and real at the same time. Revelation is easier to understand if one can keep these discontinuities in time in mind - and the transitions back and forth between events in heaven and events taking place on earth. One must stop frequently and ask if something is symbolic or literal - or both. Often "both" is the best answer.

Revelation lays before us three sets of seven great judgments of God which will come upon our earth at the close of the present age. In between each of these sets of judgments we are given several "interludes" in which other important end-time events take place in heaven or on earth. Again, these other events are not necessarily in synchronization with the material just presented. The first such interlude, for instance, is actually a flashback of the type commonly used by newspaper journalists who interrupt the story and backtrack to fill us in with events that have already taken place. We are seeing here, then, not chronology but degrees of intensity. It is as though God keeps probing deeper and deeper into the events of the last days. The judgments of the seven seals give us a quick trip through this seven-year period that Daniel identifies as the last days. The trumpets, however, return as it were to a section of the last "week" and give us a different facet of judgment. That is what we are looking at in chapters 8 and 9. When we come to the bowls of the wrath of God we will see still greater depths of earth's agony, but just how to fit it all into a time sequence is difficult. This is made still more confusing by the fact that certain periods - theologians call them 'parentheses' - pause the flow of time to focus on events of special interest that are occurring.

The first set of judgments of God upon human evil is brought about largely by God's releasing the restraints of evil that are now in place in society. I take this to be the removal of the restrainer - the Holy Spirit - at the time of the rapture. The subsequent sets of judgments invoke cosmic disturbances in the sun, moon and stars. Nature is disrupted catastrophically - ruining the environment. Increasing demonic deception and oppression are unloosed on an unrepentant mankind. Symbolic language, which I interpret as a possible nuclear exchange, plus the release of biological and chemical weapons can easily be fitted into the imagery of the book.

All through the Bible you see that God's love is manifest to men everywhere in urging them to escape this judgment. God in love pleads with people, "Do not go there!" But ultimately His character demands that he must judge those who refuse his offer of grace. He says, in effect, "I love you and I can provide all you need. Therefore, love me, and you will find the fulfillment your heart is looking for." But many men and women say, "No, I do not want that. I will take your gifts, I will take all the good things you provide, but I do not want you! Let me run my own life. Let me serve my own ends. Let me have my own kingdom." To such, God ultimately says - with a broken heart - "All right, have it your way!"

In chapter 7 we are made aware that millions of people will come to know the Lord Jesus Christ during the seven-year end-time tribulation period. 144,000 Jewish evangelists will undertake this bold, final campaign of world-wide evangelism. Although these Jewish evangelists are supernaturally protected, most of the converts will be quickly hunted down and executed by the united world government of that day - a government fully controlled by Satan.

In Revelation chapter 12, the long history of true, believing Israel is portrayed as a woman wearing a crown of twelve stars, clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet. We also see Satan exiled from heaven and cast down to earth by the archangel Michael. Satan is now furious, "knowing that his time is short." He wages war vigorously against the remnant of believing Jews who are exiled in Bozrah and Petra, in Southern Jordan - and he seeks out and kills anyone, anywhere, who would dare to name the name of Jesus.

Two "great" end-time world leaders are presented to us in chapter 13. These men may seem to earth-dwellers to be great and charismatic leaders ready to save the world, but God - drawing from the imagery in the book of Daniel - refers to them as wild beasts. The secular, military and political seat of world-power of earth's final governmental system will arise out of the now-developing revived Roman Empire and a temporary Middle-East peace treaty will be promoted by a false Messiah, (the second beast) who comes to power.

Jesus Himself leads two great judgments described in Chapter 14. The long promised separation of the wheat and tares (announced by Jesus during his First Advent in Matthew 13) takes place.

Jesus also judges unbelieving Israel. Demonic forces unloosed by God have drawn together the armies of the world, numbering 200 million men - and the battleground of this terrible last war is within the tiny nation of Israel. Much of the bloodshed will be Jewish blood. Jerusalem will be plundered and pillaged one more time by foreign armies just as predicted in Zechariah 14.

"The angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled outside the city [Jerusalem], and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses' bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs [200 miles]" (Rev. 14:19-20).

Revelation describes the final overthrow of what the Bible calls "the present world system." This occurs in two phases. The seven-year tribulation period begins soon after the removal of the true church at an event called the rapture. Left behind is a counterfeit or prostitute church whose influence in world affairs grows very strong for the next several years. Then the world-ruler (beast number one) - insists on being worshipped as God and stops tolerating even that false church which previously worked in his favor. The judgment of all false religions - the great harlot - is portrayed for us in Revelation 17.

Revelation 18 describes the sudden and violent overthrow of the commercial, economic, and political power structures of the world system, also part of "Mystery Babylon." This seems to occur at the end in conjunction with the actual Second Coming of Christ.

In Chapter 20, Jesus steps out from behind the scenes of the invisible heavenly places and boldly assumes rule over the world. His return to the Mount of Olives in power and splendor initiates the last great world-wide earthquake, the destruction of the major cities of the world, and drastic topographic and geological changes over the face of the whole planet. The assembled armies of the world now turn to fight against God, but Jesus Himself overthrows them. The beast and the false prophet meet their appointed end. Jesus begins his thousand year rebuilding program for a devastated earth, establishing a new world wide government based on truth and righteousness.

Revelation 20 also describes for us the great final judgment of the unbelievers of earth down through all of history. Every individual will receive a fair trial according to what was written "in the books" - but only those whose names are in the "Lamb's Book of Life" can move on into the kingdom of God.

The Apocalypse - another name for the book of Revelation - closes with a brief description of the great heavenly city - the New Jerusalem - apparently a satellite city almost the size of the moon - which perhaps orbits the earth. This magnificent city has plenty of room for the saints of all ages - God's people - to dwell in comfort and with great joy.

The final and total end of all evil is promised in Revelation 21-22 - a "new heavens and a new earth." God's people can look forward to adventures beyond this present life which will be greater than anything we can now imagine. The good news is that the invitation to join in and be part of all this is still open to all of us today.

The last chapter of the last book in the Bible concludes with these both strange and frightening verses: "He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still." In effect God is saying "If the words of this book - the Bible - are not sufficient to change a man, there's nothing more I can do." Someone wisely said that "death changes nothing - it just crystallizes into permanence whatever you were in life." If you live your life unjust and filthy, that's the way you will live your eternity. If you live your life - through the grace of God - righteously, that's the way you will live your eternity.

It is a sobering thought that a day is coming when men will cry out to God and God will not answer. "My spirit shall not always strive with man," Genesis 6:3. The day is coming when God will stop striving and start judging. And that time may not be far away at all.

And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie. I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star." And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:10-17).

God is still striving today. He is still calling. He cares about you. His offer of eternal life is freely available to anyone who will come... come to God today, while there is yet time.  To learn how to do that, click here... Salvation.

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