Bible Studies
"Scripture Quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)
This paper was originally published January, 1999. The first part of the paper was done using a word processor that didn't permit me to use italics, footnotes, different fonts, etc. The second half of the paper was done using a PC, with Word 97. I'm making some modifications at the time I put the paper into Word 2002 format to upload to the internet (2007). I am making further modifications at the time I split this paper up into several parts to put on this Christian article site.
Every verse of the book of Revelation, which is extremely important, is discussed in papers on my internet site, except for Rev. 11:1-14:5, which are discussed in a thorough verse-by-verse manner in my book, "The Mid-Week Rapture." For a condensed version, see my paper titled "Twenty-Four Articles on the Mid-Week Rapture" that is available on my internet site. Those twenty-four articles are available individually on this Christian article site: "The Mid-Week Rapture, Part 1," and so on. Those twenty-four articles serve as a good introduction for my book and for the mid-week rapture viewpoint, that Christ will return and the rapture will take place right in the middle of the seven-year period that is sometimes called Daniel's 70th week.
Verse-by-verse discussions of Revelation chapters 1-10 are available on this Christian article site. (If you click on my name beside any of my articles it will take you to a listing of all my articles on this site.) This present paper covers all of Revelation chapters 14-19, except for Rev. 14:1-5. Before long verse-by-verse discussions of Revelation chapters 20-22 will be available on this site too.
I always use the New American Standard Bible, 1977 edition, in this paper unless I mention otherwise. Sometimes I use double brackets [[ ]] and (( )) to make them more obvious.
A DISCUSSION DEALING WITH THE SUPREME IMPORTANCE OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION:
The book of Revelation is of key importance on God's end-time plans to save and to judge, and on His plans for the eternal state that follows the millennial kingdom. The more I study this book, the more I'm impressed with it; it is a very special book of the Bible. I'll take a couple of pages to illustrate this point. It was written relatively late, about AD 95.
The book of Revelation (especially chapters 11-13) shows that all true Christians will be raptured from the earth at essentially the same time that the devil (and his angels), having great wrath, is thrown down to the earth in the middle of the seven-year period (Rev. 12: 4, 7-9, 12-17) and just before the super-evil reign of Antichrist begins in the middle of Daniel's 70th week (cf. Rev. 3:10; 7:9-17; 11:11, 12; 12:5; 13:1-5; and 17:14). If we didn't have the book of Revelation, I would teach that the rapture will probably take place near the end of Daniel's 70th week (the end-of-the-week rapture viewpoint), but because of this super-important prophetic book, I'm confident of the mid-week rapture. Daniel chapter 12 is the second most important passage (along with Revelation chapters 11-13) to show that the Lord Jesus will return right in the middle of Daniel's 70th week. (Daniel chapter 12 is discussed in detail in my book, "The Mid-Week Rapture.")
It is significant that the book of Revelation shows that the rapture will take place right in the middle of Daniel's 70th week, right after the short great tribulation. The warfare of the short great tribulation will take place under the sixth trumpet (Rev. 9:13-21), and the Lord Jesus will return and the rapture will take place at the sounding of the seventh and last trumpet (Rev. 11:15-18), right in the middle of Daniel's 70th week. We already knew that the Lord Jesus would return right after the short great tribulation from Matt. 24:21, 22, 29-31. The sixth trumpet will sound about a month before the seventh trumpet, about the time of the abomination of desolation (cf. Matt. 24:15; Dan. 12:11). It is significant that the trumpet of Rev. 11:15 is the same trumpet as the ones we already knew about from Matt. 24:29-31; 1 Cor. 15:50-52 [note "at the last trumpet"]; and 1 Thess. 4:16, 17.
Without the book of Revelation, we wouldn't know that the gospel will still be proclaimed on the earth after Christ has returned and the rapture has taken place (Rev. 14:6, 7), and that many (including the end-time remnant of the nation Israel) will submit to the gospel after the rapture (e.g., Rev. 11:13, 19; 12:17; 13:5, 7 [with Dan. 7:21, 25], 10; 14:12, 13; 15:2; and 20:4).
Even though the Old Testament has much to say about God's ultimate salvation plans for the nations (the nations being distinct from true Israel), I couldn't be sure that these prophecies are to be fulfilled in a literal sense if it weren't for the confirmation of the book of Revelation. Apart from the book of Revelation, the New Testament has very little to say regarding God's salvation plans for the nations. If it weren't for the book of Revelation, I might have been persuaded by the idea of many Christians that such prophecies are to be interpreted in a non-literal sense, that these prophecies speak only of Gentiles receiving Christ during this present age (before Christ returns).
Without the book of Revelation, we wouldn't know about the very important ministry of the two witnesses/prophets of Rev. 11:1-13, and we wouldn't have the important confirmation of the fact that the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem (Rev. 11:1, 2). We wouldn't know about the seven trumpets (Rev. 8:1-9:21; 11:15) or the seven bowls of wrath (Rev. 15:1-16:21); and we wouldn't know of God's judgment of Babylon the great harlot. Many of the details regarding Antichrist we wouldn't know, including knowing of his coming back from the dead; and we wouldn't know of the false prophet, or of the image of the beast, or of the mark/number of the beast (666).
We could know something of an intermediate kingdom that will take place before the eternal kingdom/state from several Old Testament verses (e.g., Isa. 65:20-22; Dan. 7:12). We wouldn't know enough, however, to understand the millennial kingdom without the book of Revelation. For one thing, this is the only book of the Bible that mentions the thousand year duration of this kingdom. We wouldn't have known that the devil will be temporarily bound in the abyss throughout the millennium (Rev. 20:2, 3), and we certainly wouldn't have anticipated a major revolt by a multitude from the nations at the end of the millennium (Rev. 20:7-9). And we wouldn't have known that the resurrection of "the rest of the dead" (Rev. 20:5), which is the resurrection of the dead who aren't part of true Israel, won't take place until it's time for the great-white-throne judgment at the end of the millennium (Rev. 20:11-15).
The seven letters to the seven churches of Revelation chapters 2, 3 are very important. For one thing, several verses of key prophetic significance are included in these chapters (e.g., Rev. 2:26, 27; 3:10, and 21). But the most important feature of these letters to the seven churches which existed at that time (about AD 95) - it's a somewhat shocking feature - is the powerful call to repent or forfeit their salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself to many of these Christians. And we must understand that the things that the Lord Jesus said to those Christians (both positive and negative things) are applicable for all Christians of all generations who are in the same situation. The words were apparently chosen to address many of the needs of the universal church throughout this entire age. Five of the seven churches are called to repentance, and in three of the five there was a call for very serious repentance on the part of all, or at least many/most, of the Christians there. He warns them that they are on the brink of ceasing to be His people - they must quickly repent.
The most shocking feature is that the first church Christ spoke to, the church at Ephesus (see Rev. 2:1-7), was doing so much right. But Christ told them that they had left their first love (the love they formerly had for God and His Son [Rev. 2:4]) and if they didn't repent and do the works they did at first (Rev. 2:5), He would remove their lampstand. In other words, they would cease being His church/people. It is very clear that Christ was speaking (for the most part at least) to born again Christians in the church at Ephesus. For one thing, He couldn't have said the positive things He said about them if they hadn't become born-again Christians, and they wouldn't have had a lampstand to begin with if this wasn't a genuine Christian church (see Rev. 1:20).
These two chapters of the book of Revelation (chapters 2, 3), taken seriously, will help bring some balance, some desperately needed balance, to many Christians of our day. Many are far from the Scriptural balance through errors like minimizing, or totally skipping, God's call to repent, both at the time of conversion, and afterward, when repentance is required (the word repent, and the concept of repenting, have seemingly disappeared from many churches; we don't want to offend anybody); errors like minimizing the call for Christians to be righteous and holy, doing the works that are required of us (by God's enabling grace in Christ/by the Holy Spirit); errors like overstating the Christian's right standing (no matter what they believe, or what they do), and errors like overstating God's unconditional love (while failing to take seriously all that the Bible says about His wrath) and denying the possibility for Christians to ever fall away from Christ and be rejected by Him (no matter what they believe or how they live). Revelation chapters 2, 3 make it clear to me (as does much other Scripture) that Christ has different ideas on these topics than many Christians do. He will have the last word, so where we disagree with Him, we had better change with a high priority.
Yes, it is the will of God for Christians to be secure in Christ, and to know that they are, but we shouldn't feel secure while we are in obvious violation of our covenant with God - the fear of God that the Bible (including the New Testament) frequently speaks of is more appropriate. We are supposed to be afraid to sin against God. We must make it top priority to get things straightened out (to repent) if we're in sin, by God's grace. It's a very positive thing (a blessing) if Christ is dealing with us to repent. Why does Christ call His people to repent? In Rev. 3:19 (where the Lord Jesus was speaking to Christians at Laodicea, who had a very serious sin problem, but were not aware of it) He says it is because He still loves them. Of course forgiveness is provided for us in Christ, but the primary thing Christ demanded in these chapters was repentance, not asking for forgiveness. Those who are saying that God doesn't even see it when Christians sin because He looks at us through the blood of Christ, or that He doesn't take our sin seriously, had better read these two chapters (and many other chapters) again. I recommend reading my papers, "Once Saved, Always Saved?
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