The Book of Revelation - Session 1 of 24 - A Remastered Commentary by Chuck Missler

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father we do praise you

we thank you for who you are

and we're grateful

for the extremes that you've gone to on

our behalf we thank you that we have the

opportunity to meet here in peace and

safety

to open your word

to our lives

we pray father that through your holy

spirit you would open our lives to your

word

and we thank you father for this

incredible book that we're going to

undertake the study of we just thank you

for its

gift it's special blessings

we pray that your spirit would overrule

all things

that indeed

the meditations of our heart and the

words of my mouth will be acceptable in

your sight as we commit ourselves into

your hands without any reservation

in the name of yeshua our lord and

savior jesus christ

well we are

going to study

the book of revelation

and one of the things that i think we'll

do to start right off with let's open

our bibles to revelation chapter 1 verse

1

and let's read through

revelation 1

and uh not for detail just for the

flavor

of this book this incredible book and

then we'll take take a look at it

are we together

the revelation of jesus christ which god

gave unto him

to show unto his servants things which

must shortly come to pass and he sent

and signified it by his angel unto his

servant john

who bear a record of the word of god and

of the testimony of jesus christ and of

all things that he saw blessed is he

that readeth

and they that hear the words of this

prophecy and keep those things which are

written therein for the time is at hand

john to the seven churches which are in

asia grace be unto you and peace from

him which is and which was and which is

to come and from the seven spirits which

are before his throne and from jesus

christ who is the faithful witness the

first begotten of the dead the prince of

the kings of the earth

unto him that loved us and washed us

from our sins in his own blood

and if made us kings and priests unto

god and his father to him be glory and

dominion forever and ever amen

behold he cometh with clouds and every

eye shall see him and they also which

pierced him and all the kindreds of the

earth shall well because of him even so

amen

i am alpha omega the beginning and the

ending saith the lord which is which was

and which is to come the almighty

i john who also am your brother in

companion and tribulation and in the

kingdom and patience of jesus christ was

on the aisle that was called patmos for

the word of god and for the testimony of

jesus christ i was in the spirit on the

lord's day and heard it behind me a

great voice as of a trumpet

saying i'm alpha omega the first and the

last and what thou seest write in the

book and send it to the seven churches

which are in asia unto emphasis on the

smyrna under pergamus under thyatira and

his sardis unto philadelphia and

laodicea

and i turned to see the voice that spake

with me and being turned i saw seven

golden lampstands

in the midst of the seven lamp stands

one like unto the son of man clothed

with a garment down to the foot and gert

about the paps with a golden girdle and

his head and his hair

were

white like wool and white of snow and

his eyes were as a flame of fire

and his feet like unto fine brass as if

they burned into furnace and his voice

as the sound of many waters

and he had in his right hand seven stars

and out of his mouth when he sharp

two-edged sword and his countenance was

as the sun shineth in his strength and

when i saw him i fell at his feet as

dead and he laid his right hand upon me

saying unto me fear not i am the first

and the last i am he that liveth and was

dead and behold i am alive forevermore

amen and have the keys of hell and of

death

write the things which thou has seen the

things which are and the things which

shall be hereafter

the mystery of the seven stars which i

saw in my right hand and the seven

golden lampstands the seven stars are

the angels of the seven churches and the

seven lampstands which thou saust are

the seven churches

that's chapter one of the book of

revelation

give you a flavor as we kick it off here

one most incredible books

in the bible

it's the only book

of the bible

that has the audacity to say read me i'm

special

i know of no other book in the bible it

calls you to read it specifically

many admonitions that read the bible in

general but only one book

rises above that and says hey read this

one and you get a special blessing and

you will that's why we're together that

blessing will take several forms we'll

talk about that

but it's it's god is faithful and you'll

watch what happens

another item i'd like to mention just

right up front this is one of those

studies

that is very strange

because

it is often avoided

by people who have spent a lot of time

in their bible many pastors won't teach

on it

they're uncomfortable with the book and

they have their reasons

well there's lots of viewpoints and so

forth

one of the reasons not necessarily

always applicable but one of the reasons

is it does highlight

one's

lack of insight in the old testament

and we'll show you why as we go

but having said that it is a book that

promises a blessing and it also

strangely even though it is it is

avoided by many so-called experts it is

a fabulous book for the new believer

that shocks many people many people say

gee i haven't been in my bible where

should i start

some people point to the gospel of john

that's a good safe beginning others will

say start at genesis that's a that'll

join some issues right up front that's

great

but many i advise jump into revelation

and it surprises him

and you'll see why as we get into it

it's such a rewarding study but

i encourage you to to encourage new

believers to join in this study and

let's move on

first i want you to notice

the title of the book is singular not

plural how often i hear

even pastors or people at the in public

office especially will say revelations

plural which means they've never read it

they've never even read the first

sentence

and they they assume because it's got

all these visions and things there's

lots of revelations no that's not it's a

singular revelation it's singular not

plural

the word apocalypses is a noun it shows

up over 19 times it means revelation

that is to unveil is what it really

means it's the unveiling

and as a noun

it's 19 times a verb it's 26 times to

reveal

and to unveil if you will so

now

as we look at the new testament we

realize there are five historical books

four gospels in the book of acts luke

volume 1 and volume 2.

and then there are a group of epistles

most people would list 14 pauline

epistles setting aside the dispute about

romans for the hebrews for the moment

there are 14 pauline epistles and there

are seven sometimes called general

epistles or more precisely the hebrew

christian epistles so if somebody asks

you how many epistles are in the new

testament most people answer 21

14 pauline and seven general ones

that overlooks the seven most important

there are seven epistles in the new

testament written by jesus christ

himself

and that's they're contained in fact the

book of revelation is like a cover

letter that goes to these seven churches

ephesus smyrna pergamus thyatira sardis

philadelphia and laodicea

many of these churches you may have

never heard of except from this book

and what's rather astonishing as you

start thinking about it are the ones

that are not listed

where's the church of jerusalem

where's the church at rome

even a superficial knowledge of the new

testament would cause you to list a

handful of churches that are not listed

here

and one of the questions i'm going to

have you research between now and our

next session

is to reflect and be able to respond to

why these seven that why did jesus pick

these particular seven

and therein lies some very fascinating

discoveries

the scripture

john 16 tells us that he shall glorify

me

the old testament

glorifies jesus christ in prophecy the

whole old testament is really a prophecy

of the lord jesus christ

in the gospels we have his history on

the earth in the book of acts we see

christ active in the church through the

holy spirit

the epistles then expand and exposit

that and gives us the the experience and

its relevance

but the apocalypse the book of

revelation is going to

dramatize graphically christ in glory

the great climax is what we're on the

threshold of the old testament says

behold he comes the gospels behold he

dies

and acts behold he lives in the church

behold he saves in the epistles

and we're going to see him reign we're

going to see him take over the earth and

reign exciting times

now to whom

is

this book given let's read the first

sentence carefully

the revelation of jesus christ

which god gave unto him

whoops

unto whom

jesus christ the revelation of jesus

christ which god gave unto him to jesus

christ if it sounds rather strange it's

the father revealing to the son

that's astonishing many people

have read that and don't stop to realize

what it's saying

why did he give it to the son to show

unto his servants things which must

quickly come to pass the word uh shortly

there is not shortly like right now it's

quickly in the sense once it starts it's

going to come very quickly

to get suddenly

shortly come to pass

the word is the same word in the greek

from which we get the word for

tachometer

on a car

and he sent and signified it signified

it if you will see

it's given to him and it's

rendered into signs

he sent and signified it

by his angel unto his servant john

we're going to see a lot about angels

angels are going to be very prominent in

this book angels

of all different ranks

signified by his angel and to his

servant john who bear record of the word

of god and of the testimony of jesus

christ and of all the things that he saw

we want to not lose sight of the fact

that what we're seeing here is a record

that john penned of what he actually saw

and he saw from a very

astonishing point of view which we'll

take a look at but i'd like to talk a

little bit about the basic units of

information i have to apologize that's

been my technical background but i think

it's relevant to our study here

when we talk about the language the

basic unit in a written language of

course is the alphabet

what whatever language you have the

basic units typically are the letters of

the alphabet

in sound when i'm speaking to you

someone that would electronically

analyze my sound would break it up in

what's called phonemes the different

sounds that make up the spoken language

those are called phonemes

if we talk about images this is a word

most people have never heard of in the

past but most people today have heard it

when you buy a camera or whatever

digital that is you talk about pixels

the smallest unit of an image if you

will

what about meaning there is a word in

the information sciences called a semi

it's the basic unit of meaning

and that's exactly the word in the greek

that we have here where it speaks of a

mark over four thousand fact 45 almost 4

600 times in the bible we have a mark

sometimes it's just a mark as you and i

think of it simply simplistically

sometimes it's a seal the word

semi is a mark and it also is a basic

unit of meaning

and uh

one of the things that galvanized me as

a teenager i was a christian i'd been

saved i'd gone to church but i haven't

attended a lecture

by one that person that became a very

dear friend as the years went by

in which he was speaking about

revelation in an evening series at

church

and he happened to open the series by

pointing out that the book of revelation

is entirely in code

but every code is explained somewhere

else in the bible

well that grabbed me as a as a guy that

was just interested in information

anyway

in fact made it my profession really in

effect but uh the uh

the fact that revelation was in code is

no surprise anyway skim the book can get

a little uncomfortable with the strange

idioms there but the fact that each one

of those is explained somewhere in the

scripture is the real point and that

that

will launch you on a treasure hunt

and that treasure hunt is the most

exciting thing you'll ever do in your

life i had i've had a life

i've i i've been uh of uh adventures

i won't bore you with my background but

but the lord has put me in more

different interesting places through my

uh

career that uh i've always

been uh somehow

developed an appetite or a passion for

adventures

in lots of different ways but the most

exciting in my entire life

is the adventure we're going to embark

on together and that's a treasure in the

word of god and there's nothing more fun

than to take something and start looking

and have it all suddenly become clear

it's just i think that's fun

the word uh

semeno is a to give a sign or signify or

indicate or to make known and that's

what these symbols or sesames are in the

scripture

now

the apocalypse of the book of revelation

focuses of course as most of you realize

on the catastrophic

end crisis of the present age

and

we're going to see the spectacular

reappearance

of the king of kings

in his global empire

we're going to see the internment of

satan at last not finally he's going to

be put away for a while

in the abuso

we're going to see the millennial earth

reign of jesus christ now some of these

are controversial i'll touch about that

shortly

and

we'll see the final insurrection and the

abolition of sin

and we'll see a new heaven and a new

earth it's interesting that the creation

that is being redeemed is not just you

and i and not just the planet earth

we're going to see a new heaven and a

new earth interestingly enough

and that's all

laid out in isaiah and elsewhere but

climaxed here in this very book

but i want to call your attention to

verse 3 of chapter 1 that we read just

shortly ago

this is one of several reiterations of

this promise in the book but let's keep

in front of us

the bible says blessed is he that

readeth and they that hear the words of

this prophecy

and keep those things which are written

therein for the time is at hand i want

you to notice it claims to be prophecy

it claims to be prophecy from end to end

in fact the whole bible is prophecy but

let's not go down that path here we

clearly there are people that do not

regard the book of revelations prophecy

well they're entitled to their view i'm

not here to create controversies but i

call your attention like it claims to be

and we need to keep that in focus as we

go now i realize that many of you are

regulars and you know the basic premises

of our ministry but so that this

discussion can reach those that are have

walked into our group for the first time

let me go back and cover some very basic

presumptions on our part

the first discovery that we've made that

is one of the foundation stones of our

ministry

is that this the bible

this collection of books that's in your

lap

consists of 66 separate books

that were penned by over 40 different

guys over several thousand years

and the discovery that is you have to

make for yourself is that these 66 books

consist of these 66 books they consist

of a message system

an integrated design i don't just mean

thematically i don't just mean that

there's themes in the old fulfilled the

new no no much more than that

is that every number every place name

the very structure of the text itself

even the mathematical structures

underneath the text

demonstrate

very skillful engineering

that's the first discovery the second

discovery when you've gone that far is

you can demonstrate that the origin of

that message system had to come from

outside time because the very structure

anticipates things before they happen

and as you begin to realize that

that will change your entire perspective

of the bible

that we have a message system

very skillfully engineered

from outside our space time and once you

discover that it changes your whole

approach perspective and so forth

it has a central theme the old testament

of course is primarily an account of a

nation the new testament is the account

of a man

the creator of the universe became a man

and his appearance

as a man is the central

point

turning point of all history and he died

to purchase you and me

and he's alive today

the astonishing thing isn't just that

the creator became a man the more

astonishing thing is that there is a man

on the throne of god as we speak this

evening

and our most exalted privilege is to

know him and that's what the bible's all

about and that's what the book of

revelation specifically focuses on

in fact the

book of revelation will become a lens

through which we'll look at the rest of

the whole bible and if we if we do it

diligently it will it'll be full of

surprises

let's talk about some of our

presuppositions just to make sure you

know where i'm coming from it doesn't

mean you have to agree with me there are

many good people i have very different

views and some of the things we'll talk

about but at the same time i want you to

understand where we're coming from more

importantly why

we believe god means what he says

and says what he means

and the bible is an integrated whole

every detail is there by design

and jesus so declared it

i remember when i first one of the early

stages in israel remember i came across

this strange proverb by the rabbis say

that we really won't understand the

passages in the scripture

until the messiah comes when the messiah

comes he'll interpret not only the

passages the very words the very letters

he'll even interpret the spaces between

the letters and when when i first heard

that i used to uh

be kind of amused i thought was just a

colorful exaggeration there are many of

those you run into of course

but then i read matthew 5 17 18 where

jesus himself says that

think not that i come to destroy the

torah or the prophets i come not to

destroy but to fulfill for verily i say

unto you one yacht or one

one yacht or one tittle shall not pass

away from the law until all be fulfilled

now a yacht and or tittle are hebraisms

a yacht

is one of the smallest of the 22 hebrew

letters it looks like a little

apostrophe on the paper it's almost like

a little blemish it's the little mark

a tittle is the little hook on some of

the letters

the perception of which are essential to

discern the difference of some of these

letters that look like otherwise

a little tittle so a yacht and a tittle

is equivalent sort of to you and i

saying not the crossing of the tea or a

dotting of an eye shall pass till all be

fulfilled that that's a call by jesus

himself to take the text seriously

and now

i'm also going to suggest that nothing

in the text is trivial

that's just as true of leviticus as it

is of revelation

in revelation to become clearer because

they'll leave out at you and some of the

other places in the bible you see these

things they sound like they well they're

trivial little by-products no

you're going to one of the great

discoveries that you study your bible

seriously is that there's nothing in

there trivial everything there is for

our learning that's what paul tells you

in romans chapter 15 verse 4

whatsoever things are written before

time were written for our learning

that we through the patience and comfort

of the scripture might have hope

and god is his own interpreter

god is his own interpreter most of the

passage

the critical identities

in the book of revelation

are

interpreted in the book for you

you have to guess

some of them you have to go dig in

through the old testament and i'll show

you why in a minute but also i always

forget to put this up for years i always

did this for our group if you're taking

some notes i want you in the upper

right-hand corner of your notepad to put

the acts 17-11 just jot it down

what it says in acts 17 11

paul had gone from thessalonica to berea

and bereans the bereans were like the

people from missouri they had to be

shown you know they were doubters

paul says of them says they were more

noble those in the berea those are more

noble than those in thessalonica how in

that they received the word the word of

god with all readiness or openness of

mind

but they searched the scriptures daily

to prove whether those things were so

see in other words they'd be shown what

luke is saying here is don't believe

anything chuck missler tells you

i hope my my primary goal is to

stimulate you to do your own homework

but on all these critical issues that

i'll try to highlight for you do your

own homework and come to your own

conclusions because we're going to enter

areas where good scholars disagree

and your anchor is not chuck missler or

whoever your anchor is the word of god

check it out for yourself do your

homework that's the whole point

well the revelation the unveiling

consummation of all things it's the only

book that promises special blessing and

one of the reasons it's such a blessing

the book of revelation consists of 404

verses

we'll probably cover three tonight of

those 144

and you can do extrapolations and figure

we'll be here for quite a while but it

won't go quite that slowly but appointed

four verses but here's the exciting

point

those 404 verses

contain illusions

direct delusions

to over 800

passages in the old testament

and they're all catalogued and indexed

they'll be in the notes that that

accompany uh this

presentation

we'll take it chapter by chapter and

show you can check them out yourself

when you add them all up for the whole

24

sessions or 22 chapters you'll discover

there's over 800 of these illusions

some are very clear and direct some are

a little more elusive but they're there

and and so cataloged but that's the

point you see if it sound if the book of

revelation seems strange to our ears

it's because we haven't done enough time

in the old testament

these idioms these these issues

presume

of the old testament

you can almost look at as if john is

assuming you've done your homework

and

and of course uh the reason it's so

important for all of us it presents the

climax of god's plan for you and me

let's before we jump in talk a little

bit about john himself john the author

interesting guy

he's written

five books in the new testament

the gospel of john that most of us are

familiar with and that's a great place

to start if you're ever at a loss where

you want to jump in jump into the gospel

of john

it's been described as shallow enough

for a child to wade in

deep enough for an elephant to

submersion

in other words it will meet you on your

terms it can be very simple and direct

and it's wonderful

but if you're as you get more

sophisticated

the more you go through it the deeper

it'll go

you can study john for 30 years for the

hundredth time and make new discoveries

every time you go through it's a very

unusual book in that regard done by the

same guy that we're dealing with tonight

he also wrote three epistles john did

the first john is a sermon it's in the

form of a letter but we're not sure who

exactly probably emphasis but we're not

sure it's really like sermon notes on

love fabulous fabulous piece of work

second john is a mystery to most it's my

suggestion for you to check out i

believe it's a personal letter to mary

the mother of christ

and i conclude that from the whole

epistle but especially the first

sentence you can check that out on your

own third john is a small personal note

to gas

but then of course his climactic piece

of work is the apocalypse that we're

undertaking tonight

john the person he was born in bethsaida

younger brother of james to zebedee and

salome we infer that zebedee was

probably had some means

because he funded this this fishing

enterprise that they're partners in with

peter and andrew and they had servants

so it was not a trivial uh enterprise of

that kind

and his mother was salome not the salome

you may be thinking of but uh salome is

uh also well-resourced and one of the

major

uh supporters of christ's ministry

and she's very prominent in if you watch

the allusions to her

he was john wasn't both of them probably

were early disciples of john the baptist

and they later

become disciples of christ and they

later get called by christ to actually

be with him

we do infer that john was actually a

well-connected guy

because we discovered that he knew the

high priest personally somehow

and he also is the only one that really

had direct commerce apparently with

nicodemus because he records things that

only he does and and so we'd get the

impression that he somehow was well

connected he is very misrepresented by

the way by most christian literature we

always

view a soft almost maybe effeminate

namby pamby kind of guy he's just the

opposite

his nickname his brother were known as

the sons of thunder

they were

a man's man if you will

and you may recall in luke 9 where they

encounter some unbelief in samaria and

it's john's suggestion to christ let's

call down fire on these people

and josh said christ is not we're not

going to operate that way but john john

was ready to do it he assumed he could

do it like elijah did that was his

you don't get the john was intensely

devoted to christ

very passionate person

he

he ran deep

peter was sort of reactive

he was you know he suffered from foot

and mouth disease

the only time he changed feet you know

all the time you open his mouth just

change feet as some people put it

reactive

john

ran deep

we also know he could run faster than

peter and so forth but that's not

important to us tonight

john was one of the inner circle as you

study the bible you discover there were

three that were very much inside

at the mount transfiguration there were

three peter james and john

at the raising of jairus daughter the

three of them were allowed right on in

where others were excluded

at the olivet discourse they're joined

by andrew the four of them get this

private briefing on his second coming

and of course at gethsemane they all

were in gethsemane but peter james and

john came were brought in a little

closer if you notice the text carefully

so we get the impression clearly that

peter james and john were the inner

circle of innocence

it's fascinating to realize that john

was the one that jesus

consigned his mother to at the cross

he's on the cross

he's got brothers and sisters

no not he doesn't consign

his mother to one of them he consigns it

to the apostle john and that's exactly

what he does he takes care of her she

she and john are both buried near

ephesus

and uh that's important to understand

and so

he alt he obviously he will be an exile

at patmos but after he gets uh

out of papua so i'll come to that minute

he retires to ephesus

after his exile

now if you look at a map

of

the aegean between turkey and greece

and you zero in on a little spot there

on the map if you'll see there and get

in a little closer

and it's about 26 miles from the

um to i think about 24 26 miles 24 miles

from the mellitus the peninsula and the

coast

it's in fact

when i was first on patent i've been

there many times but the first time i

was on there i couldn't help but see the

comparison to catalina

not only in its shape but also its

distance from the shore

it's very similar in many respects

surprisingly for those of you that

happen to be familiar with catalina

that's useful i suppose if it isn't that

isn't

all right um anyway um

so

you'll notice you'll notice the uh the

location of patmos there very strangely

you know sort of it's sort of a crescent

the game you play there is with

windsurfing

you try to windsurf outside the lee of

the island and then windsurf in and if

you if you miss it you get caught by the

antennae which will take you all the way

to libya so you want to really know what

you're doing there

that's that's sort of a chicken race

thing they play there but anyway that's

patmos and

so

the patmos exile is what we're in the

middle of

john was exiled by the mission

who reigned from 81 to 96 a.d

and it's clear some people try to make

the book of revelation dated earlier but

they're fighting

those views are brutally assaulted by

the facts

um the mission

finishes at 96 a.d is replaced by trajan

when domitian dies

john is freed and goes back to ephesus

and retires

domitian was the brother of titus you

may recall who

destroyed jerusalem in 70 a.d

but

some other

uh traditions of the church this does

not mean they're accurate but just so

you know where they come from hippolytus

who wrote the second century uh has

promoted this story that john was first

plunged into boiling oil

and when that didn't have any effect

they exiled them to

to the to

patmos and that's a very colorful story

but i think most serious scholars don't

regard it seriously it's just one of

those legends that show up

uh victorinus uh

indicates that john was forced to work

in the mines that were located on patmos

i don't think we have any any other

evidence of that

but irenaeus clement and eusebius

uh point out that after the mission dies

john was returned to ephesus he went to

the churches pointed out leaders and set

things in order now he's by this time

he's getting on in years and uh so he's

really uh

uh

at the end in the twilight time of it he

did die a natural death just as christ

implied that he would

okay now there are alternative views of

the book of revelation that i want to

get out on the table

there is a view called

of the preterists they argue that the

book of revelation was only

applicable in the first century it was

true only then and then only

and we don't take that seriously for a

number of reasons that doesn't mean

we're right but i just want you to

understand where we're coming from there

are these other views

there are some that feel the book is

historical it was written later and it

sort of recaps history that's their view

there is an idea what some people would

call the idealist view that the entire

book is strictly allegorical

that christ reigns in our hearts not

literally on the earth etc and the al

they make everything just a big allegory

and

that that really started from

oregon and uh

augustine and uh it was carried on

through from a medieval church into

reformation and unfortunately is the

heritage of most denominations today

there's a fourth view that we are

we lean to and that is the futurist that

it's prophetic

and we'll show you why we believe that

you should come to your own conclusions

from your own study but i want to let

you understand where we're coming from

and be aware that there are other views

and the book of revelation claims to be

the latter it claims to be prophecy all

through it cover to cover

and uh so

why prophecy why are we interested in

prophecy

well in the old testament

there are over 1800 references to

christ's rule on the earth

very explicit all through the old

testament not in a few places almost two

thousand places

seventeen old testament books give

prominence to that very issue

the ruling of the messiah on the earth

it was so focused on it's one of the

reasons that the leadership when christ

was on the earth failed to recognize and

they were so fixated on the ruling

aspect they often the jews will some

hold to the view that there's two

messiahs the suffering servant

ben yosef and the ben david the ruling

there's a suffering servant and they see

two messiahs they're so different

never occurred to them probably that

they're two sides of the same guy but in

any case

17 old testament books give give a

prominence to the rule of christ on the

earth

in the new testament out of 216 chapters

of new testament there are 318

references to his second coming in the

new testament

so it's important

it's mentioned in 23 of the 27 books

and uh the three that it don't mention

are the single chapter books to the

private individuals and galatians

and uh so uh still most people still

sort of believe that life's gonna be

just a linear extrapolation tomorrow be

like yesterday next week like last week

next month like last month next year

like last year we tend to be linear in

our extrapolations but the bible says

quite to the contrary there's some real

surprises coming

for every prophecy of christ's first

coming

there are somewhere between seven and

eight

prophecies of the second coming

is it important absolutely

where the first the prophecy the first

coming fulfilled literally absolutely

and we maintain the second the prophecy

the second coming will be just as

literal

now we're jumping into a field of study

called eschatology

that's a fancy word for study of the

last things the last

the last things and

and when you study eschatology the first

fork in the road you come to

is you will tend to be either a

millennial or pre-millennial meaning you

either

if you're a millennial you don't really

believe that christ is literally going

to rule on the earth as a king for a

thousand years like revelation portrays

you allegorize that

if you believe in a literal millennium

which we do

then you're called pray millennial a

millennial no millennium pray millennial

believe in a million that's your first

fork on the road

and

there is a there used to be a group

called post-millennial people that felt

we were already in the millennium

but as we got into the 19th century most

people gave that up they began to

realize things are not getting better

and better in a moral way

and uh so

it's uh it or his way

chuck smith likes to say if we're in the

millennium then satan's chain is too

long see

so

there are other beliefs that are sort of

affiliated with this preterism and

reconstructionism are issues we don't

have to get into here but are again

non-pre-millennial

now the point is hermeneutics is your

theory of interpretation

and your your tendency as you interpret

the bible

can be very literal that's where we lean

obviously

or you may be very willing to allegorize

well the bible says that but doesn't

really mean that and you start treating

these things as allegories

if you lean to the left on this chart

and are given to allego excessive

allegorical

uh ideas that will you that you that

will drift you into in the direction of

millennialism

if you're very strict in your

hermeneutics if you have a very what

they call a high view of inspiration if

you think the holy spirit really picked

every letter and word

through the through the penman

then you will go the other way so your

eschatology will derive from your

hermeneutics

so that's why very important for you to

come to come to grips with how you treat

your bible if you treat it very

seriously you take it very very

literally then you're going to lean to

the right side

now when i say literally don't jump on

me and say well gee then you think god

has feathers

because psalm 91 under his wings thou

shalt trust

there are obviously in the scripture

figures of speech

the most conspicuous ones of course are

allegories

metaphors similes

similes are easily identified because

it's always

like this or as that you are you know

like when there's the word like or as

you know it's a simile metaphors are

like a simile except that you don't get

the clue with this with the like or as

but still it's a figure of speech you

are the salt of the earth

you know is it does that mean you ionize

when you're wet no no

no it's it's determined it's it's it's

an expression to make another point

those are called metaphors

do you know how many different kinds

of figures of speech different radical

rhetorical devices are in the different

kinds of rhetorical devices in the bible

i mentioned about four already similes

metaphors

um types

we go on

do you how many there are

over 200

and they're all listed and cataloged

with examples from the scripture

as in our appendices to some of our

materials

and that's not where i could get down

caught up in that but you want to be

aware of that just because you take the

bible literally doesn't mean you're

blind to the use of figures of speech

the holy spirit deals in puns

it's important to understand that

and so forth now

the first division though

many people have different perceptions

of eschatology

different viewpoints and that's fine

but this first dividing

uh point between all millennialism and

premilition

is deeper than just eschatology

so i don't want to pass by this without

making a few to be a millennial and and

the reason is so important here's the

tragedy

most

classical traditional protestant

uh denominations are amillennial

they gain they they

derive that from the from the catholic

church which is all millennial

and so uh

this is difficult because most of the

people you run into the denominational

christians are all millennials where

they realize it or not

the problem you have you've got to deal

with the hundreds of messianic promises

throughout the old testament god is very

explicit about christ ruling on the

throne of david he's never done that

before is that allegorical

the destiny of israel is paramount here

one reason we had the holocaust in

germany is because of the silent pulpits

in germany that failed to deal with

god's place for israel

israel has a destiny in god's covenants

paul in his definitive statement of

christian doctrine we call the book of

romans hammers away for three chapters 9

10 and 11. god is not through with

israel they have a prophetic destiny we

need to understand that we need to

understand that

we need to deal with the promise that

angel gabriel gave mary when he

announced the birth of jesus that he

would sit on the throne of david the

throne of david did not exist in those

days

is that allegorical i don't think so

god promised it

in depth throughout the old testament

and confirmed in the news so we need to

deal with that

and of course there's all kinds of

confirmations of things i've just

mentioned in the new testament so it's a

non-trivial issue and the tragedy is if

you embrace millennialism you run the

risk of poking your finger in the eye of

god

your calling in effect maybe unknowingly

but you're calling god a liar

we serve a god who delights in making

and keeping his promises and that's what

we're dealing with here

so if you're pre-millennial you'll

discover that doesn't end your headaches

you got three different brain you know

brands of premillennialists

it has to do with when does the church

get raptured

and

some feel that the church will be

raptured at the at the end of the

tribulation

and they're called post-tribulational at

the end of tribulation

you'll discover that we lean the other

way we think the church will not even

see the tribulation so we're

pre-tribulation we think the rapture

occurs before the tribulation starts

there is an offshoot of both of these

that say well we believe it's going to

be in the middle of the tribulation and

i'll set those issues aside now just be

aware of the fact there that that's

another area of of division that need

not be an impediment to fellowship

many people make a big thing of that and

that's a mistake too if we're saved

we're saved and the lord will sort it

out for us but still

we're going to we're going to show you

why we lean very strongly to being

tribution here again

it depends on your hermeneutics

the more you're allegorical the more you

can swing to the left on this on this

chart

to post tribulationalism

if you're very strict in your humanities

you take it very literally you'll tend

to be premillennial and

pre-tribulational as a subset of that

are we together

you'll discover it's very rare to find

someone's pre-millennial and

post-tribulational

most post-tribulational people are also

in effect on millennials so it's it's

it's there are some notable scholars

that were exceptions but that's they're

unusual

something else you're going to be very

sensitive to sensitive to as we go here

is the seven-fold structure of the book

as soon as you get to chapter six you're

gonna encounter the seven sealed scroll

and each seal as broken ushers in a

whole bunch of wild things

and you'll discover that there's all of

these seven there's six and then a

parenthesis

it's almost as if there's a build up

first second third when you get to sixth

you almost need to catch your breath so

there's a change of subject for a

chapter chapter seven stuck in there to

give you a chance to catch a breath

when you get to the seventh seal then it

breaks up into seven trumpets

and again you go through trumpet one

trumpet two you go through these and

when you get to the sixth trumpet there

is again you catch your breath there's a

parenthesis this time from chapters 10

through 14 are stuck in between

those last the last two trumpets

and when you finish get through this

this sort of

what what scholars call a parenthesis

when you finish that you get to the

seventh trumpet ends up ushering in

seven bowls of god's wrath

and even here again when you get to the

sixth bowl there is a parenthesis it's

only it's just a it's just a little one

uh but it's still it's a parenthesis and

so for what it's worth so you can't help

but notice as you get more familiar with

the book that there's this heptatic

structure heptatic fancy word for

sevenfold everything's in sevens okay

in fact it gets even more complicated

when you look at the bowls more

carefully

and you go back and compare them to the

trumpet judgments you'll discover

there's a parallelism the trumpet

judgments are anticipatory sort of of

the seven trump seven bowls except

they're about a third

and uh

so uh as you go through this you know in

one case you have the the sea of blood

and all died at the end but the in the

trumpets intestination only a third in

the sea died and you'll notice that

there's a

some people call them the the the first

group of these the uh judgment of the

thirds

all that's saying is that they're

they've no scholars have noticed a

parallelism it's not perfect but it's

just suggestive i throw it out for your

consideration

well the sevens that everybody

recognizes right away in the scripture

there are seven churches that will be

the primary focus of chapters two and

three

and they're the most important chapters

of the entire book

if you're going to only attend a couple

of sessions i encourage you to focus on

chapters two and three because they're

the ones that affect you and i for

chapter four on we're gonna watch from

the mezzanine anyway i'll show you why

when we get there

okay

but once we deal with chapters two and

three then we're going to encounter

this seven sealed book a scroll with

seven seals

very big deal

but then we when as after those seals

are open they're the seven trumpets that

we just reviewed and after the seven

trumpets seven bowls so everybody that's

even a superficial knowledge of the book

recognizes somehow everything's in

sevens

you have no idea

there are seven lampstands seven spirits

seven stars seven lamps seven title

pairs

seven promises of the overcomer

seven horns and seven eyes

and it goes on seven angels

and uh we're gonna talk more we'll talk

more about that later uh seven thunder

seven thousand seven heads seven crowns

seven plagues seven mountains seven

kings

we're just getting started

one of the things that we give our

graduate students a challenge to do is

make a list

and try to find

a seven that's not on our list and our

list has hundreds

okay

but uh

there are seven beatitudes now this is

something we're getting more subtle ones

you don't have them listed that way but

you'll find in chapter one blessed is he

that readeth we read that one and they

that keep hear and keep those things

right in chapter 14 blessed are the dead

who die in the lord that's a beatitude

and blessed is he that watcheth and

keepeth his garments in chapter 16

chapter 19 blessed are they who are

called to the marriage supper of the

lamb

and we get to

chapter 20 blessed and holy is he that

hath part in the first resurrection

the first and second those are not

events they're categories be careful

that one

but blessed is he that keepeth the words

of the prophecy of this book

and

blessed are they that wash their

wash their robes and so in chapter 22

it's interesting there's not six or

eight there's seven

and uh there are more subtle ones that

take a little more perspective there are

seven features in chapter one there are

seven letter divisions chapter two and

three those are pretty obvious seven

percentages in chapters 12 and 13.

chapter 12 13 is a parenthesis you have

a woman a man child a red dragon a

seven-headed beast a false prophet

michael the archangel and the lamb of

god there's seven

players in sort of a these are sort of

summary chapters

and

there are seven years of judgments

chapter 11 12 and 13. there are seven i

am statements in the throughout the book

there are seven doxologies in heavens

there are seven new things in chapters

20 and 21

and you could go on and on and on and on

i i suspect

it's probably not possible

to make an exhaustive list of the sevens

whatever number you come up with i think

there's seven times that many

okay that's just a

perspective of my own

something else you'll notice as you go

through the book

you'll always notice that there are all

kinds of phrases that are time

dimensional

they speak with past present and future

the present is now the past is a memory

the future is a hope right

god in revelation chapter 1 the god

which was which is and which is to come

remember that the expression of god

the very

the jehovah or something or jehovah from

the german or whatever we the

unpronounceable name of god is

a statement of existence the god i am

he always has been always will be okay

he's the god that which was which is and

which is to claim that's an echo from

colossians 1 john 8 hebrews 7 revelation

1 verses 7.

so uh that's a they're tenses

when we talk about jesus christ it says

he's the faithful witness that's past

tense the first begotten of the dead

that's present tense and he's the prince

of the kings of the earth that's coming

see again it's past present future all

the way through and the references are

there they'll be in your notes

unto him that loved us and washed us

from his our sins and his blood and made

us kings and priests

he loved us notice the past tense

whenever you see the past tense of god's

love it's an allusion to the cross

but that's past it's happened already

the present tense he washed us from our

sins in his own blood that's now that's

happening

and the future tense he made us kings

and priests that's coming

and you want to pay attention to that

phrase

kings and priests

that shocks the ear of the old testament

reader because the old testament you

know the kings were the line of judah

the priests for the lion from the from

aaron in the line of david uh levi

and they narrated a cross several

episodes were wrong when they were

crossed if you will

priests and kings were separate in the

old testament and and deliberately so

there was an exception that melchizedek

and that example is used by the writer

of the book of hebrews to make a big

deal that christ is a priest after the

order melchizedek but then peter in

first peter 2 and luke 19 and revelation

in several places emphasizes

that you and i are kings and priests the

more you know about kings and priests

the more shocking that is

we're both

that's going to be very important as we

get before we get to chapter 5 to

understand that because there's a group

of people that identify themselves on

that very aspect

now we get to verse 19 of chapter one

there's a verse that outlines the book

for you the book of revelation to the

best of my knowledge is the only book in

the bible that provides you an outline

usually in any study of the book of the

bible one of the first things you want

to do for yourself is sort of outline it

get a feeling for how it's organized

well revelation gives it for you

thank goodness

in chapter 1 verse 19 john is instructed

to write the things which thou hast seen

the things which are

and the things which shall be metatata

after these things hereafter

well what were the things he had seen by

the time you get to verse 19 the things

he'd seen were verses 12 to 18 the

vision of christ

chapter one has this incredible vision

of jesus christ

and john said write what you've seen

this vision of christ that's past tense

write the things which are and that's

going to turn out to be the seven

churches because those are churches that

were in place live and real running

at the time john was pinning this

it was present tense

and

write the things which shall be

metatata in the greek it means after

these things or hereafter

when you get to chapter four verse one

the opening

phrase of chapter four verse one is

metatata

hereafter and then it goes on to these

wild things from chapter four to the end

of the book is future

so he got past

the vision that john saw while he's on

patmos

the things which are these letters to

that are dictated to him by jesus christ

that he writes

and the things which then shall be

hereafter and that of course is appended

as a cover letter on to all the seven

that get mailed out of course to the

churches

okay

past present future it may surprise you

to discover

your salvation has three tenses did you

know that

we use that term being saved to mean so

many different things

like i saved from a fire last night

the apartment's on fire and they saved

me from the fire well that means in the

context of that a certain thing right

let's talk about the three times being

saved the first place

past tense

you have been saved hopefully

that is positionally

before the court

you have been saved from the penalty of

sin who paid that penalty

i can't hear you

that's great amen got you

that's a positional thing

the the some of the theologians would

call that justification salvation you're

justified before the the the bar of

justice or law because jesus paid your

penalty for you so you have been saved

you've been saved from the penalty of

sin

present tense you are right now being

saved from what

from the power of sin

romans 5 6 7 hammers this you sin should

no longer reign in your mortal bodies

yes you may stumble here and there but

you should be repentant which means you

don't just say you're sorry you turn 180

degrees the other way

if you're living in sin you stop it

if you're having an affair outside your

marriage you stop it

don't just say gee i'm sorry i'm going

to be under grace no you stop it

if you're subject to some other sinful

addiction

the power of the holy spirit breaks that

you are saved from the power of sin

that's operationally and that's not by

your energy it's by the holy spirit

moment by moment that's what romans 6 is

all about need to study it carefully

some people would call that

sanctification to give it a different

name

and there's a future aspect you shall be

saved

from the presence of sin

and that's called in romans 8 the

redemption of our body

but your salvation has three tenses past

present and future depending on whether

you're talking the position of the

penalty the power or the presence of of

sin

so if you're all not in agreement you

flunk the core if that's supposed to

disturb you enough to go back and study

those things okay okay let's move on

another thing we're going to encounter

as you study the bible is a thing called

types in engineering we speak of

prototypes a type is a model of

something for some purpose

and you can make a mathematical model of

an oil field to understand something you

make a mathematical model of an airplane

wing before you design it those guys

those are models the biblical term is

like a type there's a prototype and an

epithet

abraham and isaac in genesis 22 it's

called the akidah when abram offers

isaac he is acting out a prophecy he

knows he is he names the place in the

mount of the lord it shall be seen and

it was his belief that if he offered

isaac isaac would be resurrected that

saved him that's what he uh

hebrews 11 verse 19 emphasized so that

whole study of genesis 22 fascinating

study but it's the classic example of

what's called in the literature a type

abram is a type of a father isaac the

son the whole model is the father

offering his son

as for an offering for sin

and

abraham probably didn't realize that on

that very spot 2000 years later another

father would offer his

son as an offering for sin

but so that's a whole study but that's

what we call a type it's the classic

example another type is often pointed at

nebuchadnezzar's image in daniel chapter

3

the king of the known world makes an

image and forces people under penalty of

death to worship him the whole fiery

furnace thing is an uh a foreshadowing

in a sense of revelation 13 and

and so forth that's a type

the redemption of the land of the book

of ruth you won't understand a kinsmen

redeemer unless you understand the book

of ruth in fact before we get to

revelation chapter 5 your assignment

will be to study carefully the book of

ruth four chapters

take you less than an hour to read it it

is so i've taught that book dozens of

times and every time i go through i make

a new discovery it's fun

but the main thing is it you'll learn

what a kinsmen redeemer is all about

that's what that one of the reasons that

book is there

and then of course we have a model of

the book of revelation it's called the

book of joshua

joshua is is a hebrew term for jesus

george put the other way around

yeshua is yahushua it's the same

equivalent word

so here we have a military leader

in joshua

dispossessing the land of usurpers on

behalf of the people of god

and he does that by sending in first

two spies

two witnesses

and those two witnesses get rahab saved

right and then

they march around seven times with the

trumpets

and then they they they end up fighting

an alliance

of these seven kings under adonis zedek

who calls up the lord of righteousness

and he gets defeated by signs of the son

of the moon

and the kings that get defeated say

rocks hide in caves rocks fall on us

the more you read joshua you'll discover

it's structurally an a model of the book

of revelation in advance so in a sense

it's a type also

and we could go on the tabernacle

boy

you want to do a serious study of the

book in the book of exodus of the

tabernacle every detail every dimension

every material points to jesus christ

it rested on silver sockets silvers that

restaurant is blood silver's a symbol of

blood

and the more you know about the

levitical idioms there

the more you'll see that every detail

points to jesus christ

when you're outside you see nothing but

the white line all you see is

righteousness there's only one door

anybody that goes out other than through

that door is a thief and a robber

and the first thing you come to is the

raisin altar sacrifice first then the

washing

then you go to the holy place and as you

go in every detail every detail speaks

of jesus jesus christ makes an i am

statement for all seven pieces of

furniture in that tabernacle it's it's

again a fascinating type of the messiah

himself anyway we go on and on there are

hundreds of types some very conspicuous

some subtle

what we're dealing with here are idioms

and

it's interesting abraham is called the

friend of god how many knew that if i

say a friend of god it's abraham right

and god associates that with letting him

know what's going on is he not my friend

shall i not tell him what i'm going to

do in genesis

18 right

and so that's abraham

how about the new testament who are

jesus friends

the disciples

in the upper room he says you were my

servants henceforth you are my friends

and what does he do in john 14.

he tells him that he's going to come

back for them he gives them prophets

prophetic insights

so the friend of god is associated with

prophetic insights with abraham in the

old testament the disciple the new so we

give the friend of god idea the concept

is linked to

a glimpse of what's coming

well let's carry that to the extreme

the ultimate friend is one that's dearly

beloved that's a friend squared right i

mean it's up a notch right

who in the old testament was which

prophet was known as

dearly beloved

daniel exactly

who in the and of course daniel has the

apocalyptic prophecies right

who in the new testament

john right so daily beloved associated

with the apocalyptic writings prophecy

squared if you will

i mentioned this it's not a big deal

except i want you get sense of the fact

that this

entire package we call the bible has

been designed

there is a principle that scholars will

call the principle of expositional

constancy all that's a fancy word means

there's a tendency

of the idioms to be consistent in the

old in across the different books

and i'll show you some surprising

examples of that before through

what's your protection

of

staying on track what keeps you from

getting into these side

tangents and so forth what's called the

whole council of god always make sure

christ is at the center of what you're

talking about if you've got a passage

you don't understand put christ right in

the middle of it and see what happens

and peter tells us

in the second letter

that even though he's an eyewitness

you've got something better you have the

more sure word his term more sure word

of prophecy

prophecy is more convicting more

convincing more impressive than any

other facts you'll find on the planet

earth we have a thing there how sure can

we be you've many of you been through

that with us

jesus challenges you search the

scriptures for in them you think you

have eternal life and they are they

which testify of me john 5 39

so christ makes that very claim

challenge it

in psalm 40 verse 7 he says the volume

of the book is written of me

and i don't think there's a passage in

the entire bible that you can separate

from the from jesus christ in one way or

another

and revelation even underscores this in

chapter 19 it will say the testimony of

jesus is the spirit of prophecy

now is the bible prophetic the

prophecies all relate some way to the

mission destiny and victory of jesus

christ

in fact we pray that whenever we pray

the lord's prayer most people don't

realize that thy kingdom come what does

that mean

you're praying that those prophecies

will be fulfilled and that his kingdom

comes

and when you pray that i don't think you

can do that as a millennialist

unless you do it well in my heart always

there already let's go on okay

now john says i was in the spirit

several times

four times

but the important one to keep in mind is

in chapter 1 verse 10 i was in the

spirit on the day of the lord there are

a lot of people many commentaries well

he must have been that means sunday no

it doesn't

no it doesn't the lord's day was

established centuries later as sunday

that's a whole nother history i'm going

to hear

if you read that as i was in the spirit

on the day of the lord

you've got the meaning that's what joel

talks about

john through the spirit was brought

forward through time

and get been he was he was

given the ability to see what's going to

happen

i was in the spirit

and i don't know whether it was a trance

i don't know how that mechanically

happened but clearly he was

in a time warp of sorts and he isn't he

is propelled to the day of the lord

even though he's on patmos of course

in chapter four he's going to be in the

spirit

to the throne in heaven

that's important see he has this vision

of christ in chapter one he's going to

get these seven letters in chapter four

he's going to be in the throne room at

the climax

and there's chapter four is going to be

a very important chapter for you and i

understand or the rest of the book won't

make more sense to you

and of course in chapter 70 is carried

away in the wilderness and then you

carry up to a mountain that's

later in the book okay there's another

phrase that shows up as sort of markers

it's almost like a symphony and you've

got certain scorings in the symphony

that that organize it for you

there's a phrase thunders voices

lightnings in an earthquake that is

repeated four times

once with regard to the throne in

chapter four

once in charge of the opening of the

seven seals in chapter eight

once through the trumpets in chapter 11

and once to the bolds in chapter 16

usually at the at the end of those

sequences but we have these thunders

voices lightnings and earthquake

and uh and some people try to make the

book as if it's those are four parallels

four

stanzas in parallel with the other most

scholars think they're sequential but

that we'll deal with that as we go along

there are also doxologies

there's four of them it's interesting

that they escalate they're climactic

glory dominion is only two then in

chapter four it's glory honor and power

in chapter three and then it's blessing

honor glory in power four and chapter

five you get chapter seven there's seven

of them blessing glory wisdom

thanksgiving honor power and might and

so i won't spend hairs on what the

differences are i'll leave that to you

to do your own word study but the point

is clearly as you get into the book

you'll see it build up as a crescendo

looks like a symphony

then there's worship

or songs if you like how many are there

make a guess

seven good guess okay

holy holy holy we have in chapter 4.

the testimony of the trinity

incidentally

worthy art thou that's emphasized all

through here

unto him that sitteth and so forth

salvation to our god amen blessing

kingdom of this world and so forth we

give you thanks great marvelous and the

four hallelujahs

in uh

in uh

in chapter 19. it's interesting that

many of these words

if you take

the old and new testament together

they're always a multiple of seven there

are 24 hallelujahs in the old testament

there's four in the new when you put

them together it's 28 which is a

multiple of seven

it's an evidence of integral of design

do you follow me where i'm headed okay

let's move on

there are several things that are out of

place

that revelation corrects

the first is israel they need to be in

the land

oh by the way have you noticed

that's being corrected not finished yet

the church is on the earth supposed to

be in heaven and it will be

the lamb is supposed to be on his throne

he's not yet he's on his father's throne

the day is coming when the father's

going to say the son go get him

and that starts a whole bunch of

exciting things

hasn't happened yet satan is free to run

around

he's going to be bound

for a thousand years

these four things will be

put where they should be

there are three women in the book of

revelation

the wife of yahweh vape or jehovah if

you will the wife

that's the woman that's summarized in

revelation chapter 12. it's israel it's

not the church

a lot of people assume it's the church

because for some reason it's interpreted

for you by none other than israel

himself jacob himself but the point is

is that

the easy way to summarize this if if the

woman in revelation 12 is the church

she's in big trouble because she's

pregnant

she's going to give forth the franchise

and no the church is always portrayed as

the virgin bride in fact that's the

second one we're going to talk about the

virgin bride of christ

that's the church

don't confuse israel in the church

throughout your entire bible study you

need to be very sensitive fact that

israel and church have different origins

and different destinies

you need to be sensitive that don't

don't let those get confused many many

prominent teachers are very

um

loose with that discernment

and the third woman is the harlot

mystery babylon that's the woman who

rides the beast these are three

different women

israel the church and mystery babylon

which we'll deal with when we get there

there are two big events

in god's domain

the creation obviously

and the and the conferences are full of

people dealing with the creation story

and so forth that's important and of

course the redemption

which is more important well how do you

tell what's more important well first of

all let's talk about the space that's

devoted to it

the creation how much space in the bible

is devoted to creation well you got a

couple of chapters in genesis a few

psalms a few chapters in job

and some passages in isaiah and that's

about it

you can get your arms around all the

passages deal with the creation pretty

pretty easily

what about redemption

what past what what how much the bible's

dealt with redemption well

uh the whole book of genesis in exodus

leviticus

joshua it's all about ruth

all the prophets

the gospels the epistles and of course

the book of revelation redemption gets a

lot of coverage

it's obviously in in some respects the

bigger issue for us

what about the price that's another way

to talk about well the creation was

breathed god breathed from his nostrils

you get the impression god could create

another universe

with uh i'll i'll figuratively say this

snap of fingers or something

what did the redemption cost him

his son

the redemption is the big issue that's

what we want to focus and understand not

that the creation isn't worth study

don't misunderstand me but we're going

to really be plunged right into this

issue of the redemption that's what

revelation is all about

one of the things you're going to want

to be sensitive to

is the contrast between genesis and the

book of revelation

everything that was stuck in the bible

it starts in genesis and everything that

starts in genesis gets climaxed in

revelation let me give you some examples

the earth was created in genesis 1 it

passes away in genesis in revelation 21

the son was to govern the day in genesis

1. there's no need for the sun in

revelation 21. the darkness he called

night in genesis 1 there is no night

there according to revelation 22.

the waters he called the seas in chapter

1. there is no more sea in chapter

i have no idea what that means

there's a river for the earth's blessing

in chapter two there's a river for the

new earth in chapter 22. in revelation

the earth's government was through

israel in chapter 37 the earth judgment

again will be through israel in chapter

16 of revelation

man was created in god's image in

chapter 1 and man is headed by satan's

image in revelation 13.

the entrance of sin in genesis 3 in

contrast to the end of sin in revelation

the curse is pronounced in genesis 3

there is no more curse in genesis in

revelation 22.

death enters in chapter 3 there is no

more death in chapter 21.

man is driven out of eden in genesis 3

man is restored in revelation 22 that's

what it's all about

the tree of life is guarded in chapter

three and the right to the tree of life

and the reason it's god is to preserve

it so there will be a right to the tree

of life in chapter 22. that's often

misunderstood by many

sorrow and suffering enter in chapter 3

there is no more sorrow in revelation

22.

that always bothers me how can god wipe

away the tears of their eyes in heaven

if there's no more sorrow

there's no more sorrow what are they

crying about

you know i think it might be

lost opportunities

i think we'll be very analogous to

schindler at that last scene in

schindler's list

where he realized that his little badge

could have saved one more jew

we will realize as we go look back in

life the opportunities

that we've squandered

nimrod founds babylon in chapter 10 and

babylon falls in chapter 17 and 18.

in genesis 6 through 9 we have god's

flood to destroy evil generation

and in chapter 12 satan's flood

tries to destroy the elect generation

and of course in genesis we have a bow

of god's promise and in genesis 4 we

have a bow for remembrance sodom and

egypt representing corruption in

judgment chapter 13 and 19 sodom and

egypt referring to jerusalem in chapter

11.

confederation of was against abraham's

people in genesis 14

and we see a confederation against

abraham seed in revelation 12.

in

genesis 24 we had a bride for abraham's

son and in

revelation 21 we have a bride for

abraham seed

and just we have the marriage of the

first adam and in revelation you have a

marriage of the last adam

exciting stuff man's dominion ceased and

satan's begun in in genesis 3.

in revelation 22 satan's domain ends and

man's is restored praise god hallelujah

one integrated zion the new testament is

in the old testament concealed and the

old testament is the new testament it's

one book it's an integrated design

and if you come away from the study with

nothing else that'll be a treasure

over 8 000 predictive verses make up the

bible and almost 2 000 different

predictions and over 700 different

matters according to just one

categorization in j barton payne's

encyclopedia that's one example there's

different different scholars with cattle

garden catalogue slightly differently

and there are major themes going on in

the world today each one of which is a

fulfillment of a theme of prophecy

whether it's israel jerusalem the temple

the city of babylon

the magog invasion the rise of china the

european superstate the move towards an

ecumenical religion the rise of global

government the rise of the occult all

these things are predicted in scripture

all of these things you can track today

in an intelligence

gathering sense and you'll discover the

more you know about the bible and the

more you know about what's really going

on the more convergent they all are not

just one of them not not some little

proof text the whole thing

so here's your challenge

i've told you about a lot of things

tonight that

you need to study for yourself

but there's one i'm going to put us on

the screen a challenge which if you

accept this premise on the screen you

flunk

i want you to disprove the thing i'm

putting on the screen

that you and i are being plunged into a

period of time about which the bible

says more than any other period of time

in history including the time that jesus

walked the shores of galilee or climbed

the mountains of judea

that's a preposterous statement

that you and i are entering a period of

time

about which the bible says more than

does about any other period of time in

history including the gospel period

how do you challenge that period don't

accept it how do you challenge it you

have to do two things

the first is find out what the bible

says about all these things not what

chuck missler says or whoever what the

bible says

the second thing you've got to do used

to be hard it's not today

find out what's going on

and you won't on the 10 o'clock news

our all but one of our major media has

prostituted their mandate

as they tried to topple a sitting

present during time of war

by publishing things they knew were not

true trying to shape opinion rather than

inform it they've disreported the good

news is they've clearly discredited

themselves in the mind of the average

american

the good news is aside from the major

media you've got all kinds of new

services world net daily and others on

the internet you've got talk radio

there's all kinds of ways today

that there have gotten around the

stranglehold of the mainline media

find out what's really happening in

israel in europe in china everywhere and

the more you know about your bible the

more you know what's going on the more

excited you'll get

because it's all coming to a climax

but the ultimate issue is that you and i

are in fact in possession of a message

system

that message system is of

extraterrestrial origin

and it portrays you and me

as objects

of an unseen warfare

you and i are being contested over

as we speak day by day moment by moment

we're both the prize and the pawns not

in that uh conflict

and our eternal destiny eternal destiny

individually depends

on our relationship with the ultimate

victor in that conflict

that's what it's all about

and the question you're going to ask

yourself every time we're together is

where do you stand with respect to him

the one that's going to win this

conflict that's going on

now i want to give you before we close a

few

suggestions about how to study many

people ask me gee what do i do check

well first thing you always pray first

and you will not understand what we're

talking about unless you have a

relationship with the author which is

jesus christ

so if you haven't accepted jesus christ

or if you need to renew that

relationship do so in the privacy of

your own counsels

but do so as we go

because it's a prerequisite to god

revealing to you what he's all about so

the first thing is prayer and

relationship with that author

then the other thing you want to do is

set aside your presuppositions i will

tell you mine so you're aware of what

mine are to evaluate yourself but set

aside your own and go at the scripture

with an open mind and let the holy

spirit deal with these issues

not chuck missler

i also encourage you to take extensive

notes as i look back at my 50 years of

bible study i wish i had been more

systematic

in jotting things down and pulling them

together fortunately with today's

technology they're all kinds of aids to

create word you know word searchable

notes

and i prefer to make my notes

independent of a bible package

all these bible pages have ways to make

notes and that's fine the trouble is you

may want to change bible packages

someday

so i use a standard word processor and

use your own system but pull notes

together always referencing it to the

scripture

but i'm going to tell you another little

secret that i love to get in right up

front

and that's i'm going to encourage you

people to start a secret journal

your girls know what i'm talking about

the guys having the foggiest notion what

i'm talking about

you can go to a stationery store and buy

what they call a journal it's a bound

book not loose life it's a not loose

leaf it's a bound book blank pages maybe

line but blank pages

and what you resolve up front is never

to show it to anybody ever

you do that because i want you to be

really candid with yourself

if you have any suspicion you may show

it to someone it'll cloud that this is

secret it's your own private treasure

the more secret it is the more valuable

it'll be to you

and what you do when you come across a

passage in the bible you don't

understand it makes no sense it seems to

contradict x with y or whatever

what you do is you take your journal put

down the date put down the reference and

then here's the hard part you do this in

ink not pencil

try to describe in your journal why it

is that passages confuses you

well it seems to contradict or it's just

not clear try to capture in writing in

ink

privately

why it is that verse puzzles you

once you've done that

close your journal

go before the throne of god

with words to the effect father you've

promised that the holy spirit would

teach me all things not some things all

things

well father i don't understand

verse 7 of chapter 3 of hezekiah i'm

making that up of course

i don't understand that i'm asking you

in the name of the lord jesus christ in

accordance with the commitment you've

given me to illuminate that verse for me

in the name of jesus and so forth and

tied off

now

i'm not going to suggest that it's going

to get resolved and then next 10 seconds

big flash of lightning and oh wow

there's the answer

but i tell you what will happen

you'll be reading somewhere else

and it'll suddenly click

or you may over be driving and hear some

preacher talking about it'll happen may

not even be talking about that issue but

something he'll say will cause you

oh i get it

follow me

you may be in a restaurant and you'll

overhear a conversation another table

it's got nothing to do with what time

but but for some reason that well like

i have no idea what the lord is going to

do but he will do something and well

here's what's going to be the problem

it then will be so obvious you will have

forgotten how much it puzzled you

i want you to go back to your journal to

that page put down the date

and describe the means that the lord

used to clarify that puzzling verse

now you say g chuck that sounds great

but it's a lot of paperwork what for

i'll tell you what

for because the day will come

when you will go through your valley of

doubt

there will be something happen you

you'll be going through a stage in your

life where you may feel gee i think i've

gotten carried away with it all am i

really sure you'll have your doubts

i want you to go back to that journal

and read

how the holy spirit carried you

on his footprints

through life

that journal would become so precious to

you because it won't be chuck missler or

teach your ex or teacher y it'll be the

holy spirit that guided you

from one difficulty to the next

and that

those trail markers will be precious to

you to the extent you can be candid with

yourself up front

and as you do that it'll be one of your

most treasured possessions

so i encourage you and by the way when

you do have a verse i'll give you

another shortcut when you have a verse

that puzzles you try putting christ

right in the middle of it see what

happens

but uh they're also i'm going to

encourage you some people just use the

bible don't read commentaries a lot of

people preach that i don't

i think you you want to get some

exegetical helps that is translational

helps

get a strong concordance if you don't

have one

there's computer software today that's

absolutely flabbergasting what it'll do

for you some are very expensive some are

very fancy all kinds uh there's also

expositional helps commentaries

don't rely on one get several

because

each one has their different their

different views i encourage you one of

the things i'm going to encourage you to

do is make the bible your hobby

what do i mean by that invest in it

how many of you have hobbies can you

show dance

anybody without their hands up probably

was likely to lie about other things too

you probably have more invested in your

hobby than your wife you want your wife

to find out

you probably know more about your hobby

than your profession it's a labor of

love make the bible your hobby what do

you mean invest in it buy some helps

build it build your own little library

of a concordance and some commentaries

and some helps so when you have a

question you can jump right in and find

out who why was i hitting phil the you

know grandfather of bathsheba what do i

settle about you can quickly go down

some of these trails without spending a

whole sunday afternoon you can do it

five to five or ten minutes and get the

oh wow i see well great

so invest in it anyway so for what it's

worth

for the next session i want you to first

of all read the book of revelation it's

not that big a deal read it through

but especially i want you to reread

especially

you review chapter one of course because

you'll touch on that but then read

chapter two and three

the seven letters to seven churches

and what i'm going to suggest to you

those seven churches

each letter has seven elements

so you can take a spreadsheet if you're

inclined

with seven rows

the the name of the church and the title

christ uses themselves about seven

elements and seven churches will go

through this next time you get the idea

but i want you to make your own

spreadsheet to discover that there are

seven elements of those seven churches

seven by seven forty nine little boxes

you're going to feeling

and but i want you to ask yourself the

question why those seven churches

read the seven churches and be prepared

to

if i asked you to write a one page extra

essay and why did why those seven i want

you to think about that for next time

let's stand for a closing word of prayer

exciting book it'll change your whole

perspective not just of the bible of

life itself

let's be our hearts father we thank you

for your word

and we thank you that that word

became incarnate

and dwelt among us

and we beheld his glory

full of grace and truth we thank you

father

that you've gone to such extremes

that we might live

that you've brought each one of us to

this point in time for your purpose

we understand father no accidents in

your kingdom that we're all here right

now by a divine appointment we pray

father

especially that your purpose would be

accomplished

in our lives each of us individually

we pray for you to help each of us to

grow and grace the knowledge of lord and

savior

that you would help each of us

to be more fruitful stewards

of the opportunities you put before us

oh father we would just ask

you would just take over

our lives

each of us

that we might be more

pleasing in your sight as we commit

ourselves into your hands

in the name of yeshua our lord and

savior jesus christ in whose name we do

pray amen

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you