Day 5: Revelation Postscript

DAY 1: MAJOR THEMES IN REVELATION

• Babylon
• The Antichrist
• Protection
• Eternity

The antichrist as described in Daniel 11

Daniel is told by angelic revelation that a king would fight many battles and end up setting up the “abomination that causes desolation.” He would then conquer a lot of lands, including Israel, but not Moab, Edom or Ammon. This is to the east of Israel and may be the desert place prepared for God’s people to flee to during this time.

Daniel’s description perfectly describes the situation that historically surrounded Antiochus IV Epiphanies, but then diverges from his experience, leaving us to believe that there is another leader to come who will be like Antiochus but will in the end be successful with his ambitions.

DAY 2: JUDGMENT AND JUSTICE

This is the main thing believers must take away from Revelation. We have to set aside any notions that God is being harsh or cruel and understand that everything He does in Revelation He does from righteousness.

We must trust and embark on this journey from a place of knowing that God is good. If He judges the way He does, it must be because of the necessity for it.

God will judge planet earth and bring an everlasting peace in a time of the greatest wickedness and turmoil the world has ever seen.

We have to understand that during this time, and leading up to it, that the “restrainer,” as Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians 2:7, will be taken away. This means that mankind will be uninhibited to do all the wickedness that has always been in their hearts. The only thing keeping people from being as bad as they are capable right now is that the Holy Spirit restrains them. When He ceases to do that for unbelievers, they will kill and destroy to their hearts’ content.

God’s judgment is not in context to men growing more evil, but in context to God allowing them to finally be as truly evil as they already are.

DAYS 3-4: SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Matthew 24

1. Persecuted by ALL NATIONS

2. Many false prophets

3. Great falling away

4. Gospel of the Kingdom preached to all nations (ethos)

5. Abomination of Desolation

6. False messiahs & prophets with great signs

7. Worldwide increase in famine, war, earthquakes

Luke 21

8. Great signs from heaven

9. Jerusalem surrounded by armies

10. Great antisemitism

11. Perplexity at the roaring of the seas

12. Great terror (of what is coming)

13. Heavenly bodies shaken

2 Timothy 3-4

14. People will love themselves

15. Greedy, boastful, proud people

16. Increase in abuse

17. Increase in rebellion against parents

18. Unforgiving

19. Slanderous

20. Having a form of godliness but denying its power

21. People will gather teachers to tickle their ears

Daniel 12

22. Increase in knowledge

23. Increase in travel

1 Thessalonians 5

24. There will be “peace”

There are many more that we can find and a vast number greater we can imply (such as from Romans 1), but it is important to be students of what the Lord told us to “watch” for.

I feel that when Jesus said that this time will be unrivaled in history, He really meant it. That makes me feel that the signs He set forth will be statistical anomalies of history. Right now, the earthquakes, riots, wars, etc. are not unprecedented in their intensity or scale.

Wickedness seems to be unprecedented, not in its scope, but in its scale. There has always been sin. What seems different about our era is that it is being accepted on a global scale at a breakneck pace. I believe it is this, if we are truly entering the end times now, that will eventually be reflected in the earth.

DAY 5: TAKING TO HEART REVELATION

How do we “take to heart” the words of this book? What does that look like for us?

We want to commit these things to our hearts so that we can examine ourselves in light of them. Revelation should be a mirror that we set before us to judge our lives.

Does the way we live now conform to the truths set forth in this book? Are we offended by what God is doing? Are we turned off by the idea of spending an eternity bored strumming a harp on a cloud? Do you struggle with the idea of Jesus Himself killing people?

This is our opportunity to examine whether the God revealed to us is the One we serve, or if we have fashioned for ourselves a god of our own making. Will we accept Him on His terms, or ours?