Revelation

Introduction

DailyBibleStudy.Org

Well, I feel like the lights should fade out, the curtain should rise, and stirring music should reach deep inside of you and just twist your emotions to their limits.

But, you’ll have to create that scene within your own mind for the time being.

This is the last of the books in our Bible.It reflects on the vast amount of prophecy which has yet to be fulfilled historically, and is still future even with respect to our current day. 

A great deal of prophecy concerning the first advent of Christ and the events of the Cross have already occurred of course, but there remains a vast amount of prophecy in the Bible, which concerns the final days, and the Kingdom of God, which the Jews were looking for in Christ's day, but excluding the sacrificial events of the first advent.

In between these two historical events, the first advent and the Second Advent, is a hidden dispensation, the Church Age, which was not revealed to humanity or anyone for that matter, until the end of Christ's first advent.  

Jesus introduced the concept of the dispensation of the Church Age, and the writers of the New Testament expanded further on it, but nowhere in the Old Testament was it ever mentioned, nor even hinted at.

And then here we are.The Age of Israel was interrupted as it closed in on its final years, per Daniels seventy weeks prophecy, and with only seven years remaining, our dispensation was inserted into history, interrupting the previous dispensation, which will not resume until our era of history is concluded.Our dispensation has been ongoing for about 1,979 years now (2009-30) and still counting.  That is assuming that the Cross occurred in 30 A.D.Remember that our calendar of today, did not exist back then, so the dates are approximate.

Therefore, there remains the final seven years, Daniel's 70th week, of the Jewish age, the Age of Israel.This segment of time was ignored by the priests of Jesus time as well.  They fully expected that the Savior, their Messiah, would come down out of heaven, defeat their Roman oppressors and install His Kingdom. And naturally He would install them in cushy government jobs.  But that was not to be.

This final seven years of the Age of Israel is the period we know as the Tribulation.  A period which will begin with no believers on the face of this earth (unbelievers only). 

The rapture, being the event which marks the conclusion of the Church Age and the resumption of those final seven years of the Jewish Age, will effectively remove all believers as well as the restraining ministry of the Holy Spirit from the world.  And with that restraint removed, evil will run rampant throughout the world, culminating in the death of the entire population of the world, except for a very few mature believers, who Christ will rescue at His Second Advent.

Only unbelievers will exist initially in the Tribulation, and from there disaster will run rampant throughout the planet culminating in the last great war, Armageddon, which will be terminated by Christ at His second advent. 

During those seven years, many will come to believe in Christ. Most of those believers and Jews will die in violent deaths.However, the greater portion of the population will reject Christ and they will engage in the most atrocious lifestyles and behavior, far worse than history has known to date.

For their evil, God will bring tremendous judgments into the world, pushing everyone to the brink of their beliefs, and yet most will not turn to Christ for help, but instead will turn toward the anti-christ and evil for their relief.That relief will never come.

And at its end, He, Jesus Christ, will return riding His white war horse, created just for this occasion.   We, believers of the Church Age, will be right behind him riding our white horses, through outer space, and no doubt shouting at the top of our resurrected lungs, like Indians hot on the attack. But we won't do any fighting.Bummer!!  Oh, and when you are in the charge, don’t fall off of your horse, because we will all laugh at you forever!!!  That is as good as my humor gets, I’m afraid.

Anyway, history is divided into era's of time.  These era's of time are known as dispensations.  Understanding dispensations will help us understand the nature of and timing of prophecy.There are many prophecies still remaining to be fulfilled, and it is quite common for folks to look at world events today, and see, in their own minds, the fulfillment of prophecy in our current day.

However, we will see as we study this Book of Revelation, that all prophecy remaining applies to either the Tribulation, or to the Millennium, or to eternity, with but one exception, and that exception is the Rapture of the Church, which will be the terminating event of our dispensation.

The Church, or the existence of it, was kept a secret by God.  It was never revealed anywhere throughout the Old Testament scriptures.Understanding this, then you can understand that all prophecy has nothing to do with our current Church Age.If our age is a secret one, then prophecy would not be applicable to it, obviously.  But we are not without our historical trend predictions, which Christ gave us.

But you say, 'What about all of these events in history?The new European Union, the new nation of Israel, and such?  A one world government? A one world money system?What about these things?'

Well, all in due course.But suffice to say, that this age (the Church Age) is not without its contribution for bringing world events and nations into their proper array and ready for the beginning of the Tribulation, when our Rapture occurs.

During our dispensation, God is aligning all of the parts of the puzzle of history into their proper places.This includes nations, powers, peoples and attitudes, social norms, as well as natural geographic conditions for storms, earthquakes and such.

But more detail on that later in the study. This is just the introduction.

History is divided into era's of time.  As we have already stated.These era's are called dispensations.You should print off the Dispensation Five Phase chart for your reference, if you have not done that already.

What remains in history is as follows:We are currently in our dispensation, the Church Age.Sometimes we call it the Age of the Royal Family, or the Age of the Bride of Christ.  All these are synonymous terms which refer to the same dispensation, for we are all of these.

Our Age terminates with the Rapture of the Church (that's us - all believers in Christ).    In the last generation of our Church Age, during a state of great apostasy, God will suddenly and without warning, remove every believer in Christ from the face of the earth.  All those who have died over the last nearly 2000 years, and those who remain alive in that last generation will be removed from earth or from heaven, in the second resurrection.  Jesus was the first resurrection.

We will be immediately changed into our resurrection bodies, which unlike our current physical bodies, will be incorruptible and immortal.  These new bodies we will have forever.

So, when will this Rapture occur?No one knows. That is the best kept secret of God and will not be revealed until it actually occurs.  But again, suffice to say that it has not yet occurred, even though it could occur at any moment, today, tonight, tomorrow, next year, or a hundred years from now.  We do not know when it will occur.

Therefore, we do not know how many years remain in our dispensation of the Church Age.

Once the Rapture does occur, then the timetable of human history is more certain.  There remains seven years in the Age of Israel, the Age which immediately preceded ours and of which our Age interrupted.Again, see the Dispensation chart.

Those final seven years are referred to as the Tribulation.   That period will conclude with the second advent of Christ.  And then the last of the dispensations, the Millennium will begin. The Millennium will last 1000 years, then history will conclude and eternity will begin.

So how much time remains in human history?The remainder of our dispensation, the Church Age, plus the Tribulation (seven years), and plus the Millennium (1000 years).That adds up to 1007 years plus the remainder of our dispensation (one minute, one day, one century, who knows).

It really does not matter how long any of these times will last, because our purpose in life is not to simply be entertained with future prophecy, but to grow up in our own personal spiritual lives.

That will be the emphasis of the first chapter of Revelation.  We all think that we will be reading about spirits and dragons, of sealed scrolls, dramatic judgments, and mysterious numbers and signs, which we will in due course, however despite the many warnings that will be directed to those who will actually live throughout the tribulation, the emphasis to them will be exactly the same as it is with each one of us - to listen, to learn, to be in fellowship (very important), to understand, to apply Gods wisdom to our daily lives and to grow up to spiritual maturity.

Spiritual maturity is your God mandated objective of the Christian life.

For regardless of our environment, whether in relatively prosperous times, or in the unbelievably violent time of indescribable atrocities which will occur in the Tribulation, it makes no difference.God will deliver the mature believer.The mature believer is secure in God.There is nothing and no one who can destroy Gods own.

But remember that Gods own, come in two categories.  Those who are mature - those who have a genuine desire to advance toward, and actually make a dedicated effort to advance toward spiritual maturity, and then there are all the others who do not make the effort.

To the former category, God will deliver.To the latter group, their indifference will lead them to great misery in life, both now if they live in our current time, and especially in the Tribulation, if they live then.

This book, Revelation, summarizes the importance of Bible doctrine, of Christ first, then moves through our Church Age trends in our various spiritual lives, from those hot for doctrine to those who are cold on the subject.

The book summarizes the events of the tribulation, views the mechanics of evangelism in the tribulation, views the period through the eyes of the gentiles, views the period through the eyes of the Jews, reviews the conclusion of history and the final judgments of unbelievers, and then the new heavens and earth.

As we approach the end of our current dispensation, the Church age, a great apostasy will grow up in society.It will be in this period, when all other pieces of the historical puzzle of Gods plan are in place, that the Rapture will occur.

With the Rapture, we believers will be whisked off to heaven in our brand spanking new resurrections bodies.Our first response will be all heads bowed, all knees bent, in worship of our Lord, Jesus Christ.Then off to heaven we will go for the Judgment Seat of Christ, followed by the great wedding feast.  These will occur in heaven, simultaneously with the seven year Tribulation which is unfolding back on earth.

The Judgment Seat of Christ is where each one of us will receive our personal spiritual evaluation, and based on our spiritual growth and production, we will receive our just rewards, which we will possess for all of eternity.  For those who advance to spiritual maturity, the rewards will exceed the imagination.  For those who do not advance to maturity, the rewards will be less if at all.

Meanwhile, back on earth, the Tribulation will be unfolding.  For the first three and a half years, known as Satan’s Utopia, the world will fail miserably with bad government, bad policies, bad economics, all leading to famine, disease, inflation, unemployment, crime, storms and so forth.A fourth of the worlds population will die.

The utopia will fail miserably.

Then during the second half of the Tribulation, called the Great Tribulation, then during those last three and a half years, quite literally, all hell will break loose.  Jews and Christians will be blamed, and atrocities and disasters will increase dramatically.

Suffice to say, the entire world will not follow the anti-christ.  The rest of the world will break off into their natural spheres of power, north, south, east and the west.  And that will lead to the last great confrontation, the grand-daddy of wars, which Jesus Himself will terminate at the Second Advent.

And so this study begins. The last study lasted about nine months, and we ended up with about 1500 pages of study material.During this study we will veer off into the studies of other books that have applicable material.

Forewarned.

Revelation General Outline

I.          The letters to the seven churches of Asia. Christ first.Church trends. 1:9-3:22.

II.        The seven-sealed book and the earthly events it announces. 4:1-6:17.

Heavens organization, 4.

Church after the rapture, 4-5.

III.       The judgments announced by seven trumpets. 7:1-9:21.

Evangelization in the tribulation, 7:1-9:21.

IV.       Tribulation as seen through the eyes of the gentiles, 8-11.

V.        Tribulation as seen through the eyes of the Jews, 12-19.

VI.       The darkest hour of world history. 10:1-13:18.

VII.     The seven vials of judgment. 14:1-16:21.

VIII.    Babylon and Armageddon. 17:1-19:21

IX.       The Millennium; History concludes; Last Judgment;

New Jerusalem and Eternity. 20:1-22:5.