Revelation Today - By John Bradshaw

7/28/2019 Revelation Today - By John Bradshaw

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BY JOHNBRADSHAW

Pacifc Press Publishing Association

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ISBN: 978-1-937173-05-0

Cover Design: Palmer HalvorsonCover Photos: www.photos.com

Text Typeset: 11/12 Warnock Pro

Copyright 2012 by It Is WrittenAll Rights Reserved

Additional copies o this book and a host oother spiritual resources are available rom

It Is Written. For more inormation call toll ree1-888-664-5573 or visitwww.itiswritten.com

Unless otherwise noted, all Bible texts are rom theNew King James Version, copyright 1979, 1980, 1982

by omas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.

Printed in the United States o Americaby Pacifc Press Publishing Association

Nampa, Idaho / Oshawa, Ontario, Canadawww.pacifcpress.com


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Contents

1. Light for a Dark World ........................................... 5

2. Unexpected Value ................................................. 11

3. Te Seven Churches .............................................194. How to Understand the Book of Revelation .... 31

5. Beyond the Music .................................................. 41

6. Te Bibles Best-Kept Secret ................................ 55

7. Unforgettable Words ............................................67

8. Armageddon ...........................................................81


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Ill never forget how dark it was. My family and

I were caving with friends in Kentucky. Wewere exploring a wild cave on private land,

not a commercial cave with guided tours, such asyoud nd at Mammoth Cave or Luray Caverns.

Tose guiding us were experienced with thiscave system and knew their way around it. And

of course, we were caving with the benet of cav-ing lights and helmet lamps. But when we turnedthose lights o deep underground, it suddenlybecame darkso dark you couldnt see yourhand an inch in front of your face. You could al-most feel the darkness. We all recognized how

fortunate we were to have light. Without light,there was absolutely no way in the world wewould ever be able to nd our way out of thecaveit simply wouldnt be possible.

What a relief it was to know that all we had todo was turn on our helmet lights, and we wouldbe okay. But without the benet of the light, we

Light for a Dark World

ONE


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6 REVELATION TODAY

were completely helpless, stuck in the most total

darkness any of us had ever experienced.Similarly, we currently live in a dark world,perhaps the darkest it has ever been since timebegan. Ours is an age of materialism, post-mod-ernism, cynicism, and spiritualism. Society isdarkened by crime and vice, substance abuse andchild abuse, aggression, depression, oppression,

and recession.Financially, the planet seems to teeter on the

brink of ruin. Te vast majority of news we hearabout the environment is that the world is irtingwith calamity, and earthquakes and other natu-ral disasters bring chaos on a scale never before

seen in the modern world. Socially, experts tellus that we have a generation of kids that, whileconnected electronically, are disconnected emo-tionally and consume pharmaceuticals in recordquantities. A doom merchant might have goodreason to proclaim that theres no way out of theplanets darkness.

Except for one thing. Te light.Te God of heaven has left us with a light. Je-

sus, the Light of the world, came to planet Earthtwo millennia ago to save humanity from its de-pravity (Mt. 1:21), and to reveal to the world thecharacter of His heavenly Father (Jn. 14:9). And

He left us His holy Word, the Bible, described byDavid as a lamp unto my feet and a light unto mypath (Ps. 119:105).

In the Old estament we nd the history of thecreation of the world, the calling of Gods people,the lives and example of the patriarchs and the

prophets, the giving of Gods law, and Gods jus-


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8 REVELATION TODAY

Kentucky, a man told me that his Sunday School

teacher told him the book of Revelation is noth-ing more than a Stephen King novel tucked intothe back of the Bible. Te fact is, nothing couldbe farther from the truth. While it is true thatparts of the book of Revelation can be challeng-ing to understanda beast with seven heads andten horns, a lamb with seven heads and seven

eyes, plagues and seals and thunders and trum-petsthe book of Revelation contains light espe-cially calculated by God to guide His people outof the darkness of this world and into the glori-ous light of His eternal presence.

In this book, youre going to discover how the

Bibles book of Revelation is practical and rele-vant and how God speaks in the book of Revela-tion to help prepare us for the most momentousevents in the history of the planet. It seems for-gotten by the majority of Christians that the bookof Revelation is the Revelation of Jesus Christ,and one might think that a book that reveals Je-sus is the very book we need to guide us in thissin-darkened world.

Te world is in a mess. Te enemy of souls is atthe top of his game. Everywhere we look, we seeevidence that Satan continues to tighten his gripon this world.

While this book isnt intended to be a com-mentary on the entire book of Revelation, it willexamine some of the key points of Revelationand explore its major themes. And a vitally im-portant truth of the book of Revelation is that itis given to reveal Christ. Far from it being noth-

ing more than a Stephen King book, it is a book


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Light for a Dark World 9

whose time has comea book with a message

that is urgently needed now.Te book of Revelation has for too long beenmisunderstoodbeing the target of critics andnaysayers, sensationalists and speculators. Cor-rectly understoodamong the beasts and hornsand signs and symbolsRevelation shinesbrightly, providing light to a world shrouded with

darkness. Revealing the love of God, providinggracious guidance, sounding necessary warningsabout impending spiritual danger, God oerslight in a darkened world, light given to lead usinto the eternal embrace of a loving God.

Speaking to the heart of humanity and ad-

dressing the longings of a wayward world, Godsvoice continues to be heard. And His voice willbe heard, as we take the time to carefully con-sider the last book of the Biblethe Revelationof Jesus Christ.


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Unexpected Value

TWO

Alady was walking one morning in New York

City, when she spotted something brightlycolored in a pile of trash on the sidewalk.

Curious, she examined the trash and discoveredthat the brightly colored object was actually apainting. Tinking it didnt seem right for a pieceof art to be discarded, she took the painting back

to her apartment and in time inquired aboutthe paintings origins. She eventually discoveredthat the artwork was a painting by Mexican art-ist Runo amayo and had been stolen twenty

years earlier. Returned to its original owners, itwas later sold at auction for more than a million

dollars. An extremely valuable work of art hadbeen languishing in the trash and was headed fora landll!

oo many people consider the book of Rev-elation to be of little more worth than trash ona sidewalk, and they hurry past it without tak-ing the time to look at it and understand its true


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12 REVELATION TODAY

value. Valuable, it is. Te Revelation of Jesus

Christ, it exists to point us to the One who isso valuable that He is described as the Pearl ofgreat pricemore valuable than silver or gold.

A key point about the book of Revelation isthat, as important as they are, there is more toRevelation than beasts and horns. Revelation isthe book of the Lamb. It really is Jesus book, and

as you read it, youll meet Him there, and Hellbless your life.

Te book of Revelation is the book of the Bibleespecially written for the nal days of earths his-tory. And just ve verses into the book of Rev-elation, we nd the rst portrayal of Jesus found

in the 404 verses that make up the Bibles nalbook. After four verses of introduction, Johnwrites, Unto Him who loved us, and washedus from our sins in His blood. Barely into thebook of Revelationa book that some claim isa closed or sealed bookJohn introduces hisfriend Jesus as the Savior of the world.

John describes Jesus as One who has lovedthe world. Even that simple fact is important, asthere are many people who dont realize that Je-sus takes a personal, loving interest in this world.Jesus isnt detached from the reality of our dailylives or from what is going on here on earth. He

loves us.And John points out that He washed us from

our sins in His blood. Heres a key point. Oneof the rst things the book of Revelation doesabook confused by so many and shrouded in mys-teryis to introduce Jesus as the Savior of the

world and explain the means by which eternal


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Unexpected Value 13

life can be received by the sinner. Jesus is the Sav-

ior of the worldHe washed us from our sins.Te good news of the gospel is found in the fthverse of the book of Revelation: Jesus is the Sav-ior of the world.

Tis verse shows us how salvation comes tofallen human beings. ragically, all over the worldare people whose religion is little more than a

form of slavery. In many pagan religions, peopleattempt to appease hard-to-please gods, and inmany Christian faiths, believers arent sure howto get salvation from Jesus.

Many people believe that salvation comesthrough trying to be good enough, or that it

can be gained through penances or pilgrimagesor good works or oerings. As good as some ofthose things might be, they are not what bringcleansing and re-creation into our lives. Jesus,the Light of a dark world, brings salvation to usthrough His blood. Tat is, by His death, He paidthe penalty for our sins. We cant pay the penaltyourselves, and we cant earn salvation. As a gift,we receive it by faith from the Savior of the bookof Revelation.

Tough the typical Christian might not knowit, the book of Revelation focuses on salvationthrough Jesus Christ. Revelation 3:20 sees Jesus

knocking on the door of the human heart, seek-ing admission so that He can come into the heartand change the life. Revelation 7 has the savedbeing sealed with the seal of God. Revelation 14talks about Gods saints, and Revelation endswith Gods people reigning with Him in a land

where there is no more sin.


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Did God know how much wed need assurance

down here in the close of time regarding salva-tion from sin, and how much wed need His workof transformation in our lives? I think He did. Ina time when there has never been so much sin,God assures this world by telling us in the bookof Revelation that there is a way out of sin andguilt and shameand that way is through Jesus.

In Revelation 1:7, we see another portrait ofJesus. Behold He cometh with clouds, and everyeye shall see Him. Just seven verses into the bookof Revelationa book ignored even by manyChristianstheres a portrayal of the greatestevent in all of human history since the incarna-

tion of Christ. Te Old estament spoke to thisevent around 300 times, and here it is mentionedin the very opening verses of the book of Revela-tion.

And why is that? Its because a key theme ofthe book of Revelationalong with that of Jesusbeing the great Savior of all the worldis thehope of the return of Jesus to a hurting world.Te Second Coming of Jesus is mentioned againin Revelation, 14:14:

And I looked, and behold a white cloud,and upon the cloud one sat like unto theSon of man, having on His head a goldencrown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. Andanother angel came out of the temple, cry-ing with a loud voice to Him that sat on thecloud, Trust in thy sickle, and reap: forthe time is come for thee to reap; for theharvest of the earth is ripe. And He that

sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the


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Unexpected Value 15

earth; and the earth was reaped (Revela-

tion 14:1416).And then in Revelation 19, we see anotherpicture of Jesus coming back to this worldoneof the most stunning passages of Scripture youllnd.

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a

white horse; and He that sat upon Him wascalled Faithful and rue, and in righteous-ness He doth judge and make war. His eyeswere as a ame of re, and on His head weremany crowns; and He had a name written,that no man knew, but He Himself. And hewas clothed with a vesture dipped in blood:and His name is called Te Word of God...And He hath on His vesture and on Histhigh a name written, King of Kings, andLord of Lords (Revelation 19:11-13,16).

Did God know that in the twenty-rst century,with all of its diculties and burdens and com-

plexities and pressures, that people would needhope? Did God know that the hope of the returnof Jesus would enable a person to see beyond thedarkness and the diculties of this world? Yes,He did. So He made the subject of the SecondComing of Jesus a major point of emphasis in the

book of Revelation. He hasnt forgotten aboutthis world, He hasnt forgotten about you, and Heis coming back soon to end the sin and the trag-edy and the heartbreak experienced in a worldwhere sin continues to do its deadly work.

If you choose to, you can be intimidated byseals and trumpets as you read the book of Rev-


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16 REVELATION TODAY

elation, and you can do battle with thunders and

plagues. And Im not suggesting those things arenot important. Teyre very important, which iswhy God had them included in the book of Rev-elation. But before you write o Revelation andput it in the too tough basket, remember whatits about. A main theme of Revelation is the Sec-ond Coming of Jesus. God tells you in Revelation

that there is hope for you, because Jesus is com-ing soon.

Revelation majors in the ideas, themes andthoughts that matter to all of us: Jesus, the Sav-ior; Jesus, the coming King.

Te book opens with John writing that it is

the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Who is this Je-sus who is revealed? Revelation calls Him the Al-pha and the Omega (Revelation 1:8). Alpha andOmega are the rst and last letters of the Greekalphabetand Revelation was originally writtenin Greek. So John is calling Jesus the beginningand the endthe A and the Z, you could say.Revelation calls Jesus the bright and morningstar (Revelation 22:16) and the Lion of the tribeof Judah (Revelation 5:5)the great, mightyconquering One. He is the Lamb as it had beenslain (Revelation 5:6), the humble servant whowent meekly to His death so we could live for-

ever. He is the One who walks in the midst of[the churches] (Revelation 2:1).

Revelation depicts Jesus as the Son of God(Revelation 2:18), the faithful and true Witness(Revelation 3:14), and the King of Kings andLord of Lords (Rev. 19:16). Amidst the symbols

and signs, theres a Savior, Jesus, who wants to be


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Unexpected Value 17

known, because if people get to know Jesus for

themselves, lives will be changed, and the worldin which we live would be a better place.Among the many portraits of Jesus in the book

of Revelation, we nd this one in chapter 14: Johnwrites, worship Him who made the heavens andthe earth and the sea and the fountains of waters(Rev. 14:7).

In earths last conict we are reminded thatJesus is this worlds Creator. John 1:3 says thatall things were made by Him, and without Himwas not anything made that was made, and youread virtually the same thing in Colossians 1:16.Tis is not to say Jesus did all of this independent

of the Father and the Holy Spirit. But the Biblecredits Jesus as being the active agent in creation,and when were called to worship Him, we arecalled to worship Him as the Creator.

Tis is Gods reassurance to a skeptical worlda post-modern world, an unbelieving worldthat we didnt get here by accident. Were notthe result of random processes. Jesus is helpingus understand our true value as those formed inthe image of God and created to live foreverfearfully and wonderfully made, as the psalmistwrote in Psalm 139:14. Te idea that humanity issimply the result of a freak, chance occurrence

robs the race of its true identity and its realworth. And in the last book of the Bible, God em-phasizes the point that Jesus is the Creator, andwe are to worship Him as such.

Revelation tells us that we are the works of Hishands, made for specic purposesto know and

serve God, to realize our full potential in Christ,


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to put o sin and all things that are destructive,

and to put on Jesus and live lives of eternal worth.Some years ago, a couple was given a paintingas a housewarming gift. In 2008, wanting to havethe painting appraised for insurance purposes,the woman of the house to whom it was givenbrought it to a screening of the PBS televisionprogram Antiques Roadshow. She was shocked

to discover that the painting, by Clyord Stillone of the founders of the Abstract Expression-ist movementwas worth at least half a milliondollars! She had no idea what the painting wasworth, and beamed when told of its actual value.

Te value of the book of Revelation is a mys-

tery to many people. When we discover that itdirects us to Jesus and presents Him as the Hopefor all humanityits Savior, Redeemer, Creator,and coming Kingthe value of the book is moreclearly seen. Not a book to be neglected and dis-carded, it was given us by God to be truly therevelation of Jesus Christ.


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Iconsider mysel ortunate to have grown up

going to church. And it wasnt just becausewe lived just fve doors down rom the church

that we attended every week. Church was impor-tant to us. We never missed. As an altar boy (anassistant to the parish priest), there was a timewhen I attended church everyday or two and a

hal years. I attended a church school, attendedextra church events with my dad, and prayedevery night beore I went to sleep.

At church, I learned a lot that was good andhelpulmuch that instilled in me a desire toknow Jesus more. Mine was a good church. It

wasnt a perect church by any means, but bymost measures, it was a good church.Down through history, Jesus has never had a

perect church. Te church He was a member owhile He lived on earth was responsible or Hisdeath. Te leaders o the church He establishedon earth ater He died were ar rom perect

The Seven Churches

THREE


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impetuous Peter; James and John, the sons o

thunder; doubting Tomas; and Paul, the reha-bilitated persecutor o Gods people.What made the church eective, usable, and

an eective instrument in the hands o God, wasits submission to the leadership o God throughthe leading o the Holy Spirit. Filled with GodsSpirit, impetuous Peter became a powerul

preacher (Acts 2:1439) and a bold witness orGod (Acts 4:19, 20). John, who at one time wasprepared to incinerate those who disagreed withhim (Luke 9:54) went on to heal the blind, spreadthe gospel, and write fve books o the Bible. Paul,who stood by holding the coats o the men who

stoned the martyr Steven (Acts 7:58) became amiracle-working, good news-preaching, church-planting missionary who ultimately gave his lieor his aith in Christ.

When the church was led by people who werein turn led by God, it did great things or Godand grew dramatically. But not long ater Jesusascended to heaven, the church began to regress,compromise, and lose its ervent love or the trutho Gods Word. Ultimately, the church reachedits nadir during the Middle Ages, known also asthe Dark Ages, because it was a time when thelight o Gods Word was virtually extinguished.

Tankully, the church o God would not al-ways languish in the darkness o apostasy andsin. ruth would rise again, and the great truthso the Bible that were obscured in a time o com-promise would be made prominent in a time ocommitment and zeal. And in Revelation, God

reveals that Jesus stands with His church.


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Te Seven Churches 21

Revelation 1 presents Jesus standing in the

midst o the seven candlesticks, described byJesus as being the seven churches (Rev. 1:13,20). What an assurance to believers throughouthistory that, in spite o circumstances or appear-ances, Jesus stands with them! Tough beset byopposition and at times wracked with apostasy,this portrayal o Jesus standing in the midst o

the churches is Gods pledge that He will neverorsake His church, described in Zechariah 2:8 asbeing the apple o His eye.

With this assurance, God addresses the sevenchurches o Revelation. While actual churches inreal geographical locations, the seven churches

are believed by many scholars to also representthe church throughout history, rom the time othe earliest Christians to the fnal days o earthshistory.

Te frst o the seven churches in Revelation isEphesus, located on the west coast o what wasknown in Bible times as Asia Minor and what isnow known as urkey. Johnwho wrote Revela-tionis said to have died near Ephesus and wasburied there. Ephesus, an important Greek centerand later, a prominent Roman city, is today the siteo a great number o magnifcent Roman ruins.

Pauls letter to the Ephesians was written to

the church in this city. In Revelation, John writesthat Jesus is pleased with the Ephesians intoler-ance or alse teachers and commends their com-mitment to the ministry o the gospel (Rev. 2:2,3). But then Jesus adds something sobering. Hesays, Nevertheless, I have somewhat against

thee (Rev. 2:4).


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How would it be to hear these words rom Je-

sus? As a child growing up in my home church,I was aware that our church wasnt heaven onearth, but Id have been shocked to know that Je-sus had something against us!

Jesus elaborates: Nevertheless, I have some-what against thee, because thou hast let thy frstlove (Rev. 2:4).

Te light that had burned so brightly when theEphesians frst embraced the message o salva-tion in Jesus had begun to dim. Like the husbandwho no longer buys owers or his wie and be-gins to treat her with less respect than his mar-riage vows outline, the Ephesians drew back rom

the initial love they had or Jesus.But Jesus spoke to the Ephesian church withhopeulness. He says, Remember thereore romwhence thou art allen, and repent, and do thefrst works; or else I will come unto thee quickly,and remove thy candlestick out o his place, ex-cept thou repent(Revelation 2:5).

Except thou repent. Tat is, Unless youmake a turnaround, amend your ways, and be-comewith Gods helpthe believers you usedto be.

In the letters to the seven churches, Jesus isgracious enough to tell the believers what they

need to hear in order to be truly connected toHim. And He is gracious enough to commendthem and arm the good He sees in them. Hecommends the Ephesians or their commitmentto the honesty and integrity seen in their min-istry and or theological orthodoxy among the

believers. Teir intolerance o the Nicolaitans


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a group which promoted an antinomian, or no

law theologyJesus praised.Te conditions Jesus described and that Johnwrote about in this brie letter to the Ephesianchurch not only speak to the condition o thechurch in that city at the time the letter was writ-ten, but also to the condition o the early Chris-tian church in the hundred years or so ater the

death o Jesus. And clearly, there is counsel inthat letter to believers o all ages: Dont sanc-tion alse teachers or alse teachings, uphold theclaims o Gods law, and repent and return toyour frst loveto that time when your love orJesus was deep and strong.

Te second church Jesus addresses in Revela-tion was the church located in Smyrna, slightlynorthwest o Ephesus. Te name Smyrna comesrom an ancient Greek word meaning myrrhasweet-smelling incense that was one o the gitsthe Wise Men brought to baby Jesus shortly a-ter His birth. Te church o Smyrna, it is said,represents a period o Christian history duringwhich the church suered intense persecution(rom A.D. 100 or so to shortly ater A.D. 300).Teir aithulness to God during this time wasas a sweet-smelling incense. Ater arming thechurch at Smyrna, Jesus encourages them not

to ear any o those things which you are aboutto suer, warning them that dicult times wereahead or the church. Te ten days o tribulationthey would endure corresponds with the ten yearso intense persecution the church endured duringthe reign o the Roman Emperor Diocletian.

Jesus had words o consolation or the church


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at Smyrna, saying, Be aithul until death, and I

will give you the crown o lie.Tis account seems to ft perectly with theexperience o the persecuted church o the earlycenturies A.D., and oers encouragement to alast-day church living on the precipice o whatDaniel described as a time o trouble such asnever was (Dan. 12:1).

Jesus states that He has a ew things againstthe church at Pergamosa compromisingchurch that began to allow Bible truth to bemixed with theological error. Te Pergamoschurch is said to have there those who hold thedoctrine o Balaam, a prophet who sought to put

stumbling blocks in the way o Gods people backin the book o Numbers. Tis church, unlike thechurch o Ephesus, tolerated the anti-law actionthat sought to minimize the claims o God on thelives o church members.

Te church at Pergamos receives a stern warn-ing rom Jesus. Repent, or else I will come untothee quickly and will fght against them with thesword o my mouth (Rev. 2:16). Undoubtedly,Jesus knew that a direct appeal to the Pergamoschurch was necessary. Looking orward, He knewthe state the church would be in i it continued todrit rom doctrinal purity and submission to the

will o God.Te church o Pergamos, relating to the pe-

riod o church history when Christianity com-promised with paganism and the corruptinginuence o the state (around A.D. 300 to ap-proximately A.D. 530), stands as a warning to

Christians today. Compromise with untruth is


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spiritually deadly. Rejecting the authority and the

protecting inuence o the Word o God is to in-vite spiritual ruin. Pergamos demonstrated that,especially in the manner by which they paved theway or the spiritual darkness that ollowed thePergamos time period.

Te church in Tyatira receives a brie com-mendation rom Jesus, beore receiving a with-

ering rebuke. I have a ew things against you,because you allow that woman Jezebel, who callshersel a prophetess, to teach and seduce my ser-vants and eat things sacrifced to idols. o thischurch, Jesus issues a solemn warning:

[I will cast] those who commit adultery

with her into great tribulation, unless theyrepent o their deeds. I will kill her childrenwith death, and all the churches shall knowthat I am He who searches the minds andhearts. And I will give to each one o youaccording to your works (Rev. 2:22, 23).

Its a good idea here to remember that Jesusinrequently speaks in such grave tones. Howserious must the spiritual peril o the church oTyatira have been or Jesus to speak so directly?Te church in Tyatira represents that period ohistory when the Christian church descended

into abject spiritual darkness. In terms o thegrowth o the Christian church and the spreado the gospel, and in terms o Satans prospectsto achieve complete domination over the onlymovement on the planet that can take the light othe gospel to the worldthe churchthis dark-ness spelled ruin or the world.


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Of note here is the spiritual or symbolic nature

of much of the book of Revelation. Te sevenchurches were literal churches, but in the larg-er sense, they were symbolic of periods of timethroughout church history. And as Jesus spoke tothe church at Tyratira, He demonstrated clearlyhow God uses signs and symbols in this last-daybook of the Bible. Te reference to Jezebel is too

clear to miss.God chose an eective symbol from history

the hideously wicked woman Jezebeland usedthat symbol to teach some powerful lessons. Inthe Bible, a woman is often used as a prophet-ic symbol to represent a church (Jer. 6:2; 2 Cor.

11:2). God uses a simple symbol to teach a pro-found truth: In the period of history that reachedfrom around A.D. 500 to A.D. 1500, a corruptchurch did to Christianity what Jezebel achievedin Israel. It incorporated unbiblical, pagan prac-tices into the worship of God, diverting Godspeople from the truth of His Word and attachingtheir aections to mistruths and errors. In otherwords, apostasy was ushered into the Christianfaith, and what resulted was seen in the historyof the church of Tyatira.

Te next of the churches Jesus addressed inRevelation was the church at Sardis. (Of interest

is that the order of the seven churches in Revela-tion is a logical progression, following the obvi-ous route a person would take if he or she startedin Ephesus with the intention of visiting all sevenlocations.) Te church at Sardis was a churchabout which Jesus could say very little of a posi-

tive nature. He described the church as having a


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name that you are alive, but you are dead (Rev.

3:1). Tere were only a ew names even in Sardiswho have not defled their garments, Jesus said(Rev. 3:4), representing a time o almost com-plete apostasy. And perhaps more alarmingly, Sa-tans complete victory over the Christian churchlooked assured at this point.

Between the 1500s and 1700s, it appeared that

the church was about to give way completelyto the corrupting inuences o alsehood andunaithulness. Yet we remember that God hadpromised He would have a people ready to meetJesus at the Second Coming (Jn. 14:3), and asJohn wrote in 1 John 4:4, greater is He that is in

you, than he that is in the world. Jesus stands inthe midst o the churches!Te church o Philadelphia was proo that

God still had a people who would be aithul in atime o spiritual crisis.

I have set beore you an open door, and noone can shut it; or you have a little strength, andhave not defled my name (Revelation 3:8). Likethe aithul ew at the time o the Flood in Noahsday, mercy was oered to this church, which hadkept His command to persevere.

Te message to the church in our day is clearlyapparent. Even in a time o great spiritual dark-

nessa time soon to come to our worldJe-sus urges His people to hang in there with Himand allow Him to keep you rom the hour otrial which shall come upon the whole world, totest those who dwell on the earth. While thesewords were no doubt encouraging to the church

in Philadelphia, theyll one day be a source o


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describes the modern church, plagued by laxity

and lukewarmness in its approach to Godacareless, self-deceived experience that substi-tutes theory for experiential godliness.

Worth noticing too is that in the case of eachof the seven churches, God makes a specialpromise to those who are faithful to Him. Godpromised the faithful in Ephesus that they would

eat from the tree of life (Rev. 2:7). Te saints ofSmyrna were assured they would not be hurt bythe second death (Rev. 2:11), while the trium-phant in Pergamos are told they would be givensome of the hidden manna to eat, and I will givehim a white stone, and on the stone a new name

written (Rev. 2:17).Tose from Tyatira who continue to trust inGod are given power over the nations and aregiven the morning star (Rev. 2:26, 28), whilethe faithful from Sardis will not only walk withme in white, Jesus says, but are clothed in whitegarments. Te church at Philadelphia was prom-ised the privilege of being made a pillar in thetemple of My God (Rev. 3:12), while the faithfulof Laodicea are invited by Jesus to sit with me inmy throne (Rev. 3:21).

Clearly, Jesus cares deeply for His church,assuring His people down through timeand

assuring us in these last days that He watchestenderly over His people and that their strugglesand diculties do not escape His gaze. And inchronicling the rise and fall of His church downthrough time, Jesus demonstrates that in theabsence of a perfect church, God has honest

souls who, in spite of their failings, are willing to


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take hold of Him by faith and allow His will to be

done in their lives.And thats the story of the book of Revelation.Erring human beings, united with the power ofthe perfection of Jesus Christ, are prepared bythe Holy Spirit to leave this world and enter inthrough the gates into the city (Rev. 22:14). Andby His grace, you and I can be in that group.


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Iwas passing through Tokyo on my way home

to the United States, and with a couple ohours to spare, I decided to access the Internet

and contact my amily. I ound an Internet hot-spot in the Narita airport and opened my laptopand my web browser, only to fnd that everythingthat appeared on the screen was written in Japa-

nese. I was sure that thered be at leastsomethingwritten in English. I quickly realized I was a fshout o water.

At the airport, virtually everything was writ-ten in Japanese, and apart rom a McDonaldsand a radio in a cae playing Isnt She Lovely?

by Stevie Wonder, which seemed oddly out oplaceI was out o my depth. And now I had acomputer screen that wouldnt speak to me in alanguage I could understand.

I adventurously clicked on a ew links, in thehope that one o them would lead me to a placewhere I could navigate my way to communica-

How to Understand the

Book of Revelation

FOUR


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32 REVELATION TODAY

tion, but it wasnt until I asked a kind Japanese

man standing next to me i he could help that Ifnally could make sense o my online experience.ankully, this mans English was nearly per-

ect. In act, he lived in the United States.Would you please help me connect to the In-

ternet, in English?I asked.Oh, sure, he said. No problem. All you need

to do is click up here...where it says, English!Sure enough, in the top right-hand corner o

the screen was the wordEnglish, as plain as day.And when I clicked on that word, like magic, ev-erything on the screen appeared in English, andmoments later I was chatting online with my

wie.What I needed was a way to translate the Japa-nese on my screen. e Japanese itsel was per-ect. e problem was that I couldnt understandit. And until I learned the key to interpreting thisoreign language, there was no way I could makeany sense o what was on my screen.

And thats the experience many people havewith the book o Revelation. What is written inthe book is perectly good. As with all Scripture,it was given by inspiration o God (2 Tim. 3:16),so any problem a reader might have isnt with thebook o Revelation, but rather with the method

o understanding employed.Some choose to read Revelation as they might

read a newspaper, and beore long, they realizethat this method o interpretation doesnt worktoo well. For much o the narrative, regular read-ing will work well enough, but once you read

about a beast rising up out o the sea with seven


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How to Understand the Book of Revelation 33

heads and ten horns, you quickly realize that a

literal reading of the book of Revelation will onlyget you so far.So how is the book of Revelation to be read

and understood? You might expect that there isno pithy answer to this question. Revelation isa big book, with twenty-two chapters made upof 404 verses. It was written almost 2,000 years

ago by one of Jesus closest companions, who atthe time of writing was under arrest on the is-land of Patmosa prisoner of the Roman Empireon account of his faith in God. And in comingto a book like Revelation, we need to remem-ber that it was written under the inspiration of

the Holy Spirit. In Isaiah 55:9, God said, For asthe heavens are higher than the earth, so are myways higher than your ways, and my thoughtsthan your thoughts. Peter wrote in 2 Pet. 3:16that the Apostle Paul wrote things hard to beunderstood. So to imagine that deciphering thebook of Revelation will be a walk in the theologi-cal park is unrealistic.

When reading the book of Revelation, its im-portant to realize that almost two-thirds of its

verses contain quotes from, or references or al-lusions to, the Old Testament Scriptures. eBible John had at his disposal was the Old Tes-

tament, the frame of reference for many of thepeople who would read Revelation. So John usedthe language and the imagery of the Old Testa-ment to convey his message to his readers. By us-ing a few words of Old Testament imagery, Johncould make a comprehensive point and commu-

nicate powerful spiritual truths to his readers.


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34 REVELATION TODAY

Revelation relies heavily on the use o sym-

bols and images based upon the Old TestamentScriptures. Understanding the symbols cant bedone, independently o their origin. And this iswhat John intended. e symbols o Revelationare to be unlocked with the keys given us in theOld Testament.

When it comes to interpreting the book o

Revelation, there are two main schools o inter-pretative thought. Futurism holds that the vastmajority o the prophecies in the book o Revela-tion are yet to be ulflled (that they will be ul-flled in the uture). Preterism posits that themajor prophecies o Revelation have been ul-

flled already (that they have been ulflled previ-ously).e uturist school o prophetic interpretation

holds that the antichrist is an as-yet-unknownfgure whose identity will be revealed in the u-ture. Which means that the prophecies regardingthe two beasts o Revelation 13the one aterwhich the entire world wonders, and the beastwho causes the world to ollow the frst beastare, at best, matters open to conjecture and opin-ion.

Preterists contend that the antichrist nation oRevelation 13 has already appeared on and dis-

appeared rom the world stage, and wasin theopinion o many preteriststhe Roman Emper-or Nero. I recall teaching prophecy in a seminarin Caliornia some years ago when some studentsrom a local seminary challenged me on my in-terpretation o the book o Daniel.

Pastor John, they protested, you cant place


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Daniel 7 and the rise o the little horn in the last

days! All o that was ulflled centuries ago!You can see the cleverness o Satans tactics.Looking through the lens o either o these twoschools o prophetic interpretation, the book oRevelation is largely devoid o practical meaningor people living today. Either everything in thebook has happened and is now just an historical

ootnote, or little o the book o Revelation hasyet been ulflled, and it cant be understood inthe light o historical precedent. Either it is oldhator we have a guessing game. Either way, itcan have little bearing on lie in todays world.

Tankully, theres a third method o inter-

preting the prophecies o the book o Revelation,and thats what is known as the historicist viewo prophetic interpretation. Historicism con-nects prophecy with actual historical events andfgures, suggesting that end-time prophecies canbe related to events that have already taken place.Tereore, in looking orward to prophecies yetto be ulflled, Bible students can fnd historicalprecedents to guide our understanding o utureevents.

For example, the seven churches mentioned inRevelation 2 and 3 are all real churches that ex-isted in a historical context. Te seven trumpets

and the seven sealswhich appear to deal withevents o signifcance as relates to Gods churchdown through the agescan be best understoodby studying them in connection with historicalevents. Such an approach would consider theseals and trumpets to have been largely, though

not entirely, ulflled.


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36 REVELATION TODAY

Revelation 12 spans all o human history, rom

the time o the all o Satan and his eviction romheaven (Rev. 12:79) to the time o his last-dayattack on Gods people (Rev. 12:17).

When we look at Revelation 13, which dealswith the end-time beast, the manner in which wechoose to interpret this prophecy becomes cru-cial to a correct understanding o Gods Word.

Te Bible says that the beast will be worshipped(verse 4), will persecute Gods people (verse 7),and will have a mark o authority that bringsspiritual ruin to those who receive it (verse 16).

I all o this is a matter o history, as suggest-ed by the preterist view, then the prophecy is

merely o academic interest. I the chapter per-tains to events to occur in the distant uture, theprophecies it contains have little to say to Biblestudents o today, and any attempt to understandthe identity o the primary fgures in the chapteris virtually utile.

However, when the chapter is considered roman historicalperspective, it can be clearly under-stood.

A direct connection is seen between the headsand horns o verse 1 and the beasts (nations) inDaniel 7and the horns in Dan. 7:7.

Many historians teach that the beasts in Dan-

iel 7 represent Babylon (the lion with eagleswings), Medo-Persia (the bear), Greece (theleopard) and Rome (the dreadul beast whichhas ten horns). So one could saely assume thatthe beast with ten horns in Revelation 13 is con-nected somehow to the beast in Daniel 7 which

has ten hornsRome.


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And as Revelation 13 is studied, it is discov-

ered that many o the events portrayed in thechapterthe beasts mortal wound (verse 3), thegreat power o the beast (verse 4), the commit-ting o blasphemy (verse 5), 42 months o rule(verse 5) and the persecution o Gods people(verse 7)are linked to actual historical eventsconnected to the Roman Empire and the Roman

church. When those events are understood intheir historical context, questions about as-yet-unulflled aspects o Revelation 13 become eas-ier to answer.

Pushing the prophecies o the Bible back intothe past or orward into the uture makes Revela-

tion virtually impossible to understand. An his-toricist approach to understanding Revelationsprophecies helps make sense o the Bibles lastbook.

So where did preterism and uturism comerom? Knowing that will help us understand howwe ought to approach the book o Revelation.

Ater the Protestant Reormation began, theRoman Catholic Church ound itsel the tar-get o some pointed teaching by people such asMartin Luther, who began to expose what theyconsidered to be the errors o the Roman church.Among other ideas, the Reormers taught that

the Roman Catholic papacy was the antichrist oBible prophecy.

e Vatican reacted to this attack on its le-gitimacy and authority by conducting what be-came known as the Counter-Reormation. eCouncil o Trenta commission o high-ranking

Catholic leaders tasked with deending and re-


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38 REVELATION TODAY

defning Catholicismturned to a Spanish Je-

suit named Francisco Ribera. Ribera was chargedwith defning the prophecies o the Bible so theycould be interpreted in such a way as to exoner-ate Catholicism o the charges made against it byLuther and others.

Riberas commentary on the book o Revela-tion placed the ulfllment o much o the book

o Revelation in the distant uture, shortly priorto the Second Coming o Jesus. Based on thistheory, Luthers charge that the papacy was theantichrist o the Bible couldnt possibly be cor-rect, as the antichrist wasnt going to appear onthe world scene or many centuries.

While it took some time or Riberas ideas totake hold, they now represent the most popularlyheld views in Protestantism. A Jesuit work o u-turismproduced with the intention o remov-ing Rome rom consideration as the antichristorms the modern-day basis or Protestantunderstanding o the subject o the antichrist.

Another Spanish Jesuit, Luis de Alcazar, or-mulated the theory o preterism. Like Ribera,Alcazar ormulated his ideas during the Coun-ter-Reormation with the purpose o providing asystem o prophetic interpretation that did notimplicate the Roman papacy in discussions about

the end-time antichrist.Alcazars idea was that the apocalyptic proph-

ecies o the book o Revelation were ulflled inthe frst century. Like Riberas interpretation oRevelation, Alcazars theories removed Romerom any discussion about the identity o the

antichrist. For the most part, modern-day Prot-


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estants who subscribe to Alcazars view on the

book o Revelation dont realize that their belieis based upon an attemptlike that o Riberato discredit the work o the Protestant reormers.

Te historicist approach to interpretingprophecyincluding the book o Revelationrecognizes that some prophecy has been ulflled,some is in the process o being ulflled, and some

will be ulflled in the uture. Such an approachto understanding Bible prophecy allows the Biblestudent to base his or her understanding o theuture on the past ulfllment o prophecy an-chored in history. While historicism doesnt re-move the need or careul study o Gods Word,

it does eliminate the need or speculation andguesswork.Not every comet that arcs through the sky

can be Halleys Comet. But even an amateur as-tronomer, basing his or her conclusions on solidscientifc observation, can avoid coming to aultyconclusions that have no basis in act. I we wantto correctly understand the book o Revelation, itis important to approach it rom the right pointo view. Historicism provides a ramework orreliably understanding end-time prophecy thatother schools o interpretation cannot oer, en-abling us to avoid speculation and misinorma-

tion that will lead us ar rom the truth God hasgiven us.

Halleys Comet last appeared in 1986. Likemany others, I was eager to see this once-in-a-lietime phenomenon and ventured out one nightdetermined to witness something truly historic.

How thrilled I was to fnd a little blurry speck


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40 REVELATION TODAY

in the distant sky dragging a tail behind it as it ca-

reened through space. But after a while I noticedthere were other objects that looked remarkablylike Halleys Comet. In fact, they looked exactlythe same as what I had been looking at. Ten Irealized that wherever I looked in the sky, I wasseeing small blurry specks with tails trailing be-hind.

It became evident that I hadnt been lookingat Halleys Comet, after all. I never did see itat least, not knowingly. But I learned that if youdont start with the correct information, you canend up seeing things youre not looking at.

And how true that is when it comes to study-

ing the Bible. Many people arrive at wrong theo-logical conclusions because they begin with aawed premise, causing the Bible to say things itisnt actually saying.

Learning to look at Revelation in its propercontext will help the Bible student to make reli-able conclusions about Gods Word. Just as myJapanese-language computer screen suddenlyappeared in a language I could understand, thebook of Revelation will become understandable,when we apply the right principles of interpreta-tion.


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As a teenager being drawn into the world

of popular music, I became fascinatedwith singer Don McLeans magnum opus,

American Pie. Te song had been released whenI was a child, and one day I became intriguedwith its lyrics. Words such as, Te players triedto take the eld, the marching band refused to

yield; do you recall what was revealed the day themusic died? left me wondering what the songwas all about. I found out later that the popularbelief is that McLean wrote the song at least inpart about the death of musician Buddy Hollythe day the music died.

Later, I became intrigued with the sometimes-obscure lyrics of songs by Paul Simon, which Ioften played on the radio during my days as abroadcaster. He is surrounded by the sound, thesound, cattle in the marketplace, scatterlings andorphanages. He looks around, around, he seesangels in the architecture, spinning in innity; he

Beyond the Music

FIVE


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42 REVELATION TODAY

says, Amen and Hallelujah! (From You Can Call

Me Al.) Words such as that have to meansome-thing, dont they?What I found out later was that in many cases,

the words of songs dont really mean anythingat all. In the song Me and Julio Down by theSchoolyard, Simon sang, Its against the law, itwas against the law; what the mama saw, it was

against the law. When asked in an interview withRolling Stone magazine in 1972 what it was thatwas against the law, Paul Simon said, I have noidea... I never bothered to gure out what it was.Didnt make any dierence to me.

David Byrne, once a part of the band Talking

Heads, said in an interview that he consideredthe meaning of the words in a song to be muchless important than many people think. Peopleignore them half the time, he said. In a certainway, its the sound of the words, the inectionand the way the song is sung...that has as muchof the meaning as the actual, literal words.

Of course, there are times a songs words arevery meaningful, but in many cases they dont re-ally mean a thing. A case in point: Paul Simongot the title of his hit song Mother and ChildReunion from a menu in a Chinese restaurant.Mother and Child Reunion was the name of a

chicken-and-eggs dish where Simon was eatingone day. He liked the phrase so much he decidedto include it in a song (which was about the deathof a dog), and the songwith its meaningless ti-tle phrasealmost made it to the top of the popcharts.

When it comes to the book of Revelation, one


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Beyond the Music 43

of the rst things a reader often asks is, Do these

strange things Im reading actuallymean

any-thing? A beast with seven heads and ten horns(Rev. 13:1)? Another beast with two horns likea lamb that spoke like a dragon (Rev. 13:11)?Whats the meaning of words such as these?

Many have dismissed the Bibles last book asvirtually meaningless (such as our friend who

made the apostle John of the same ilk as novel-ist Stephen King). Nineteenth-century agnosticRobert Ingersoll dubbed Revelation the insanestof all books. Many modern-day Bible teachersclaim the book of Revelation has no signicancefor modern Christians.

But we nd in Revelation chapter 13 that Godopens to the understanding of end-time believersdetails regarding the nal great spiritual battlesthis world will pass through. Te reason for do-ing so is clear. In earths nal days, the planet willbe subjected to spiritual confusion the likes ofwhich has never been seen, jeopardizing the eter-nal future of every inhabitant. In other words,were heading for a spiritual crisis of the rst or-der, and in the book of Revelation God providesus with the information we need to get out of thisworld and into the world to come.

Revelation 13 starts with John seeing a beast

rise up out of the sea. I once met a man wholived on the coast of the state of Washington whotold me that each morning he looked out overthe ocean and wondered if today would be theday the beast would come up out of the sea.Whoever this beast is, it is obviously enormously

signicant. Revelation 13:3, 4, and 8 says that the


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44 REVELATION TODAY

whole world will follow and worship this beast.

Of tremendous global signicance, this beast willpossess more power than any ruler who has everlived. No gure in history has ever had the wor-ship of the entire world. Whatever or whoeverthis beast power is, it has to be big.

It would seem strange that God would warnthe world about the biggest deception to come

to the earth in thousands of years and not tell ushow we can know the identity of the key playersin this drama. So, who is the beast?

Actually, a better rst question would be:What is the beast? And nding the right answerto this question is more simple than many people

might think.Keep in mind that in writing Revelation, Johnborrowed a lot of symbolism and imagery fromthe Old estament. A signicant amount of whathe wrote is clearly based on the book of Daniela book that deals with subject matter similar tothat in Revelation and that is written in a similarstyle. In Daniel, chapter 7, Daniel dreams of fourgreat beasts that came up from the sea (Dan.7:3), and later in the chapter, he explains whatthose beasts are. Tose great beasts, which arefour, are four kings which arise out of the earth(Dan. 7:17). In verse 23, Daniel said that the

fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom. Danielwas very clear that a beast represents a king-dom or a nation, and when John borrowed theprophetic symbol from Daniel, he intended thesame meaning.

Some years ago, I saw an internationally

known television Bible commentator say with


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Beyond the Music 45

clarity and conviction that every time the book

of Revelation uses that wordbeast,

it is referringto a man. But in Revelation 13, when John seesa beast coming up out of the sea, he is referringto the rise of a powerful nation. And by depict-ing the nation as rising out of the sea, John isstating that the nation rose into prominence in aheavily populated part of the world. Te sea rep-

resents multitudes of people (Rev. 17:15).So in warning the world about a coming beast,

John is saying that there would come a time whena nation would rise to prominence and becomeso powerful that it would eventually lead theworldwhich, surely, is not so hard to believe.

And I want you to notice what weve done inour attempt to understand the identity of Rev-elation 13s rst beast. Weve gone to the Bibleand allowed the Bible to interpret itself. Rarely isthere any reason to guess when it comes to inter-preting Bible prophecy. Comparing one text ofScripture with another is always the best way tocome to correct conclusions in studying the bookof Revelation, or the whole Bible, for that matter.

Te nation is depicted as having seven headsand ten horns, clearly identifying it as being ofthe same character as the dragonSatanpre-sented in Revelation 12:3. It comprises charac-

teristics of the pagan kingdoms Daniel viewedin Daniel 7: It is like a leopard (Greece), has themouth of a lion (Babylon), and the feet of a bear(Medo-Persia). And the dragonSatangavethis nation its power, throne and great authority.Te nation would recover from a deadly wound

and would be followed by the entire world.


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46 REVELATION TODAY

Te identity of this beast has been the sub-

ject of much study and perhaps even morespeculation. Ive had people tell me this beast isformer U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Why? Be-cause each of his three names (Ronald WilsonReagan) has six letters, standing for 6-6-6, thenumber of the beast. It isnt hard to see that rea-soning of that nature isnt going to help a person

understand the truth of Gods Word. As I sit typ-ing this, Im less than two miles away from whereformer President Reagan is buried. Ive been tohis grave at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Li-brary in Simi Valley, California. Let me assureyou: Ronald Reagan isntand wasntthe beast

of Revelation.Tere seems to be no end to the creative at-tempts to understand the identity of the beast.Ive heard people say the beast is Prince Charles,heir to the British throne. Te name of King JuanCarlos of Spain has also been suggested (such aridiculous claim, that Ive barely bothered to ndout why it has been suggested). Former U.S. Sec-retary of State Henry Kissinger was said to be thebeast some years ago, as was former Soviet Pre-mier Mikhail Gorbachev(remember the markon his forehead? Some thought it was the mark ofthe beast)and even former President Bill Clin-

ton. Years ago it was suggested that a supercom-puter at the headquarters of the United Nationsin Brussels, Belgium, was nicknamed the beastand was therefore the beast of prophecy. EvenAmerican multinational corporation Procter &Gamble was incorrectly tagged as the antichrist

of prophecy, after some people believed there


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Beyond the Music 47

was something sinister about its former corpo-

rate logo.One simple thing prevents us from even need-ing to entertain these ideas. A beast represents anationnot an individual, not a computer, andnot a corporation. If we make the Bible its owninterpreter, we cant possibly go in these faultydirections.

Revelation 13:5 says the beast will continuefor forty-two monthsthe same period of timementioned in Revelation 11:2 and expressedagain in the next verse as 1,260 days. Rather thanconcluding that this nation will rule for 1,260days, we must remember another key to inter-

preting Bible prophecythat a day is used torepresent a year. Youll see that in Numbers 14:34and Ezekiel 4:6, and the principle is made obvi-ous as it reveals the accuracy of various prophe-cies. So the 1,260 days the beast reigns is a periodof 1,260 yearsmuch longer than any human be-ing has ever lived on the earth.

And a key to comprehending the identity ofthe beast of Revelation 13 is to recognize thekey issue of the chapter. Revelation 13 shows usthat the agenda of the beast is to receive worship.Verse 4 says, So they worshiped the dragon whogave authority to the beast; and they worshiped

the beast, saying, Who is like the beast? Who isable to make war with him? And verse 8 says,All who dwell on the earth will worship him,whose names have not been written in the Bookof Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation ofthe world.

If you give this the thought it deserves, the big


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48 REVELATION TODAY

picture suddenly becomes a whole lot clearer.

In fact, one reason so many people dont under-stand the book of Revelation as they might is be-cause they dont see Bible prophecys big picture.Lets think about it for a moment.

Long ago, Lucifer rebelled in heaven. As re-markable as it seems, he became discontentwith his own position and with the way God was

running the universe. Ultimately, Lucifer cravedworship. Te thought of his heart was, I will ex-alt my throne above the stars of God; I will also siton the mount of the congregation on the farthestsides of the north; I will ascend above the heightsof the clouds, I will be like the Most High (Isa.

14:13, 14). After being evicted from heaven, Lu-cifernow Satancame to the earth determinedto receive here the worship he wasnt successfulat receiving in heaven.

He quickly succeeded in turning the hearts ofAdam and Eve away from God, and then he be-gan developing a kingdom on earth that wouldstand in rebellion to the kingdom of heavenakingdom whose subjects would be loyal to Satanand opposed to the government of God. Satansgoal is to bring planet earth to the place where itsinhabitants worship Satan and reject Gods sov-ereignty. He is seeking worship, with the mark of

the beast being the sign that people have rejectedGods authority and have instead accepted Sa-tans authority in their lives.

So in Revelation 13, the beast is not a rogueMiddle Eastern dictator or a disaected Jewishleader, as some commentators claim. Te beast

is, instead, a nation that arises in a populated part


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Beyond the Music 49

of the world, rules for 1,260 years, is religious in

nature, blasphemes God (Rev. 13:6), persecutesGods people (Rev. 13:7), and receives worship(Rev. 13:4, 8).

Tat Christianity is today in such confusionon this topic is curious. At one time, ProtestantChristianity was virtually unanimous in its opin-ion on the identity of the rst beast of the book

of Revelation.Te Protestant Reformation came about as

a reaction to what were perceived to be the er-rors and abuses of the medieval church. JohnWyclie, in the early 1400s, and Jan Hus (JohnHuss) strongly opposed the rampant corruption

that existed in the church at that time. MartinLuther was appalled at the corruption he wit-nessed within the church during a trip to Italyearly in the sixteenth century, and after he nailedhis ninety-ve thesespoints on which he feltthe church was in errorto the door of the castlechurch in Wittenberg, Germany, in late Octoberof 1517, the Reformation began in earnest.

Although it was not his original intention,Martin Luther found himself increasingly atodds with the church. In time, Luther, along withother Reformers such as Switzerlands UlrichZwingli and the Frenchman John Calvin, identi-

ed the papacythe oce of the pope of the Ro-man Catholic Churchas being the rst beast ofRevelation 13. John Knox, the father of the Pres-byterian Church, and John Wesley, who foundedthe Methodist movement, also agreed that Johnwas discussing the papacy when writing about

the rst beast of Revelation 13.


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50 REVELATION TODAY

Modern Protestants, curiously, have generally

forgotten the teachings of their spiritual ances-tors on the subject of Revelations beast. Perhapsa question to ask is: Does the opinion of the Re-formers on this subject stand up to academic andtheological scrutiny?

Te answer is: Yes, it does. Te Vatican Citya sovereign nationarose in populated Italy. It

dominated the global political and ecclesiasticallandscape for 1,260 years, before a deadly wound(the capture of Pope Pius VI in 1798) brought ittemporarily to its knees. Obviously, it is a reli-gious power, which viciously persecuted dissent-ers during the height of its power and will receive

worship when the mark of the beast is enforced.Tis does not mean that individual RomanCatholics are the beast of Revelation 13. Johnthe Revelator identies a system that has notonly departed from the truths of the gospel butalso endangers people spiritually, by promulgat-ing teachings that lead people away from Christrather than pointing people to Him.

In spite of promoting many solid spiritualvalues and emphasizing trust in Jesus Christ,the papacy continues to espouse teachings thatunequivocally deny some of the basic tenets ofChristianity. Christianity teaches that there is

one mediator between God and men, the manChrist Jesus (1 im. 2:5). But Rome teaches thatforgiveness for sins comes as a result of a sinnerreceiving absolution for his or her sins from apriest, acting in the person of Christ. Forgive-ness of sin is one of the fundamental principles

in a relationship with Jesus Christ and is tightly


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Beyond the Music 51

linked to the doctrine of justication (pardon) by

faith. Te Bible teaches that salvation from sincomes freely (Eph. 2:8) through the forgivenessthat ows from confession of sin through JesusChrist (1 Jn. 1:9). Te Catholic teaching of con-fession to a priest and forgiveness based uponpenances performed is an unbiblical monstros-ity.

Yet like several other bedrock teachings of Ro-man Catholicism, confession to a priest and theperforming of penances has absolutely no basisin the Bible and does, in fact, remove in a greatway the work of salvation from Jesus, transfer-ring it into the hands of an earthly priest.

Many other false teachings diminish the role ofJesus and belittle the Bible teaching of salvationby faith alone. Te very existence of an earthlypriesthood is a denial of the biblical teachingthat believers have not an earthly but a heav-enly priest. Hebrews 8:1, 2 says, We have sucha high priest, who is seated at the right hand ofthe throne of the majesty in the heavens, a min-ister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernaclewhich the Lord erected, and not man. Te be-lievers priest is Jesus, enthroned in the heavenlysanctuary and not in an earthly church.

Consider also the teaching of praying to saints.

Remember 1 im. 2:5: One mediator betweenGod and men, the man Christ Jesus. Millions ofpeople are instructed to pray to saints for anynumber of reasons, while the Bible encouragespeople to pray to nobody other than the God ofheaven.

Te infallibility of the pope, the assumption


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52 REVELATION TODAY

of Mary into heaven, praying to Mary, the ven-

eration of relics, and transubstantiation (the ideathat the bread and juice used in the communionservice are the actual body and blood of Jesus)are likewise teachings that nd no basis in Scrip-ture.

Which brings us to the reason the book ofRevelation identies the rst beast of chapter

13 as the papacy. It isnt that the papacy is com-prised of bad people, and it isnt that Catholicsare bad or insincere. What the Bible is telling us isthat there will rise a power that will diminish therole of Jesus in the plan of salvation and will urgepeople to look away from Jesusand to priests

or saintsin receiving salvation and to rely ontheir own works as being meritorious in the sal-vation transaction. Such teachings minimize therole of Jesus Christ in salvation.

John the Baptist said of Jesus, He must in-crease, but I must decrease (Jn. 3:30), but theVatican causes Jesus to decrease and the papacyto increase. Additionally, the teaching of divinegrace coming to an individual via the sacra-mentstaught to be necessary for salvationalso reduces the role of Jesus in salvation. Insteadof faith in Christ being the only means of salva-tion, Rome has included sacraments and human

works in the salvation process.Such teachings cheapen the full salvation

available to believers through the simple act offaith in Jesus Christ. Tis is why the Bible goesto such lengths to speak of the rst beast of Rev-elation 13 and why John and Daniel give such

exhaustive information for the purposes of iden-


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Beyond the Music 53

tifying the beast. When we understand the na-

ture of the beast, we can understand better theenormous importance of a vital relationship withJesus Christ that is not compromised by a reli-ance on human eorts or the role of mediationother that of Christs.

Revelation 13 emphasizes Revelations uniquerole as a revelation of Jesus Christ for earths nal

days. Everything about Revelation 13 urges us totrust fully and only in Jesus Christ for salvation.Other entities, no matter how righteous theymay seem, cannot be relied upon in any way forassistance with salvation. Only Jesus savesnotpriests, not prophets, not teachers, not pastors,

not churches, not governmentsonly Jesus. Un-reserved faith in Christ, faith in His sacrice forsinners, and trust in His power to save will aloneconnect us with the power of God to transformand redeem.

I was intrigued when, in 1999, the famousCape Hatteras lighthouse was moved over halfa mile inland. Since it was completed in 1870,the ocean has crept closer to the lighthouse dueto shoreline erosion, so in order to preserve theiconic, 200-foot-tall lighthouse, it was removedfrom its base and slowly moved on railroadtracks to its new location. Simply demolishing or

mothballing the lighthouse wasnt an optionitis located on Hatteras Island near what was onceknown as the graveyard of the Atlantic, and inspite of modern technologies such as GPS, thelighthouse is still considered an important navi-gational aid. It warns marine trac of danger and

encourages ocean vessels to stay in safe water.


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54 REVELATION TODAY

Revelation 13 acts as a lighthouse, urging

Gods people to stay away from the rocks of de-ception and error and to stay in the safe watersof faith and trust in Christ. As we do, we can becondent that, through Jesus, well safely navi-gate the troubled seas of this world and arrivesafely on the shore of Gods great salvation.


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When my children were very young, my

wife, Melissa, and I had the opportunityto take them to my home country of New

Zealand. I planned to share a couple of specialsurprises with themthings that had been x-tures of my upbringing that they hadnt ever beenable to experience.

As we drove west of my hometown throughsheep and cattle country, the children wonderedwhere Daddy was taking them. All they knewwas that it was going to be good, fun and wet.We had taken towels, so they had wondered ifwe were going swimming, but I had told them

we werent going to the beach. Where could webe going?About twenty minutes after we left town, a

large building came into view directly ahead.Whats that, Dad? they asked. Te Waingaro

Hotel was the only building we had seen, otherthan houses and farm buildings, since leaving

The BiblesBest-Kept Secret

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56 REVELATION TODAY

town. Te mystery intensiedthey knew we

werent going to a hotel!Just a moment, I said. Youll see. Immedi-ately before the hotel, we turned into a drivewayand stopped at a small oce, which doubled as astore. And it was from there the children couldsee where Mum and Dad had taken them.

Swimming pools! they called out. Dad, one

of them exclaimed, hotpools! Sitting on the Pa-cic Ring of Fire, New Zealand is known for itsthermal activity, and growing up, we often wentto the Waingaro Hot Springs. Tree pools: onelarge and warm, one smaller and much warmer,and one for children that is a bit cooler. Te hot

springs also boast a couple of magnicent wa-ter slides: one long and winding and the other ahigh-speed thrill ride straight down the side ofthe hill. You can imagine my childrens excite-ment when they saw the slides!

Te complex is surrounded by bush, and dur-ing my childhood, peacocks roamed the area,giving the place a relaxed, serene, away-from-it-all feel. Its fantastic. I felt like one of the luckiestkids in the world to have a place like this virtuallyin my backyard.

As I expected, my childrenthen sevenand vehad a great time, but one thing they

couldnt understand was why there werent morepeople there.

Dad, a place like this should be packed! Jacobsaid to me. Tis is something everyone shouldknow about!

I thought about what he said: Something ev-

eryone should know about. And looking at it


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Te Bibles Best-Kept Secret 57

from his point of view, I completely agreed. Fun,

beautiful, inexpensive, healthythe hot springshad it all. He was rightthis was something ev-eryone should know about.

And then I put that in a spiritual context.Teres a passage in the book of Revelation thateveryone should know about. In fact, the Biblesays that one day, everyone will know about it.

Te passage contains what the Bible calls theeverlasting gospel. If youve never heard of it,you might want to ask yourself why. Read this andconsider how important these words have to be.

And I saw another angel y in the midstof heaven, having the everlasting gospel to

preach to them that dwell on the earth, andto every nation, kindred, tongue, and peo-ple (Rev. 14:6).

An angela messengeris depicted as yingin the midst of heaven where nobody can pos-sibly miss him, with a message that is to go to

every inhabitant on earth. And the message iscalled the everlasting gospel.

It seems strange to me that while virtually ev-ery Christian church on the planet claims to bepreaching the gospel, precious few pay any at-tention at all to what the Revelation of Jesus de-

scribes as the everlasting gospel. If the gospelis important at all, the everlasting gospelpre-sented in the context of earths nal crisismustbe colossally important. Tis everlasting gospel,referred to as the eternal gospel in some trans-lations of the Bible, contains the nal message ofwarning and mercy to the world.


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58 REVELATION TODAY

Tis close to the return of Jesus, youd have

to think that the proclamation of the everlastinggospel would be the highest priority any churchcould have. Tis message, given by Jesus Himself,especially for His people living at the end of time,has to be the Bibles best-kept secret.

Why is that? Why would Christians neglect toproclaim a contemporary message that is stun-

ningly relevant to the times in which we live?Perhaps it is because Satan doesnt want the mes-sage proclaimed. And perhaps theres somethingabout the message that even many Christiansnd especially challenging.

Revelation 14 opens with a picture of the

144,000 in the presence of Jesusthe saved withthe Savior. Based on what we read in Revelation 7and 14, the 144,000 are the group of people whocome through earths nal conict triumphantand faithful to Jesus. Tey are sealed with the sealof God, rather than being marked with the markof the beast. As such, they are ready to meet Jesuswhen He returns. Tey have survived the greattrying time about to come upon the earth and areprepared to spend eternity with Christ. Put sim-ply, the 144,000 is that group of people who arealive on the earth and saved, ready to meet Jesusat the Second Coming.

What follows the opening passage of Revela-tion 14 is a group of seven verses given to theend-time church to prepare people to be savedand not lostto be sealed and not marked. Teeverlasting gospel, the message of the three an-gels, is the message that produces Gods end-

time, sealed saints.


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Revelation 14:6, 7 makes clear how important

the everlasting gospel is. Te angel who bringsit is in the midst of heaven. Te message is to beproclaimed to every inhabitant of planet Earth,and the angel speaks with a loud voice. Teoriginal Greek in which this passage was writ-ten actually says that the angel spoke with amegas phonea megaphonewhich we know

is something that amplies a message.So this message, proclaimed with unmistak-

able clarity, God sends at the end of time for thepurpose of preparing a group of people to besaved and not lost, informed and not deceived,sealed and not marked.

What are the specics of the message? o be-gin with, the angel urges people to Fear God andgive glory to Him (Rev. 14:7), to live lives of to-tal surrender to God, and to honor Him in everyaspect of their lives. Te reason for this exhor-tation is made clear in the same verse. For thehour of His judgment is come.

Paul told the Corinthian church that wemust all appear before the judgment seat ofChrist (2 Cor. 5:10), and he told the philoso-phers in Athens that God has appointed a dayon which He will judge the world (Acts 17:31).Te concept of a judgment day is entirely bibli-

cal. Te message of the rst of the three angelsof Revelation 14 announces the opening of thejudgment.

If we could know when the judgment was go-ing to begin, we could know with even greatercertainty the era for which the everlasting gos-

pel message was intended. Again, we can be sure


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60 REVELATION TODAY

God has not left us in the dark, when it comes to

understanding a concept so obviously vital.Keep in mind that John borrowed many ofthe concepts and symbols we read in the book ofRevelation from the Old estament Scriptures.In the Old estament, judgment day occurred ev-ery year on the Day of Atonement, a Jewish feastdescribed by one scholar as a crisis of confes-

sion and repentance (see Leviticus 11). Indeed,the wordjudgmentcomes from the Greek wordkrisis, which means the act of judging. Te Dayof Atonement was a time when sins were con-fessed, sacrices were oered, and the truly re-pentant had the blessed assurance of unity with

God and the forgiveness of their sins.When Jesus returns to earth, He will have agroup of peoplethe 144,000, as well as thoseraised from the deadready to meet Him. Isa-iah 25:9 says: Behold, this is our God; we havewaited for Him, and He will save us. Tis is theLord. We have waited for Him; we will be gladand rejoice in His salvation. Paul wrote to theTessalonians that when Jesus returns, we whoare alive and remain shall be caught up togetherwith them in the clouds to meet the Lord in theair. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.Te last-day judgment is going to determine who

is prepared to meet Jesus when He returns andwho of the sleeping saints will be raised at theSecond Coming.

In the early to mid-1800s, a Baptist preachernamed William Miller studied the prophecies ofDaniel and predicted that Jesus would return in

the year 1843. Miller had discovered that Daniel


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8:14 said, Unto two thousand and three hundred

days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed, whichMiller took to refer to the Second Coming of Je-sus. When Jesus didnt return that year, some ofMillers associates discovered an error in the wayMiller calculated a time prophecy in the book ofDaniel and found that Millers original predic-tion should have placed the year of Jesus return

in 1844, rather than 1843.A great revival swept the American northeast,

and while many of the Baptist preachers oppo-nents doubted his interpretation of the Bible,nobody could doubt his math. aking Daniels2,300-day prophecy, Miller rightly reckoned that

because a prophetic day represented a literal year(see Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6), Daniel 8:14was talking about a time period of 2,300 years.

William Miller found the starting point forthese 2,300 years. Daniel 7:25 gave the startingpoint of this great prophecy as the going forthof the command to restore and build Jerusalema decree recorded in Ezra chapter 7, and dated inhistory as having been issued in the year 457 B.C.For Miller, it was now only a question of math-ematics to determine when the Messiah wouldcome: 2,300 years after the decree of 457 B.C.,which worked out as the year 1844.

But as we know, the godly Baptist preacherscritics were right, and Jesus didnt return in 1844.But surelysomethingsignicant had to have hap-pened. Te Bible said the sanctuary was to becleansed. Did this not mean that Jesus would re-turn? Te mathematics of the prophecy pointed

unmistakably to the year 1844. Perhaps Miller


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was right about the timing of the event, but

wrong about the event itself.But as some of William Millers followers laterdiscovered, rather than the cleansing of the sanc-tuary being the return of Jesus, the Word of Godteaches that the cleansing of the sanctuary meansonly one thing: judgment day.

So while Millers math was correct, his inter-

pretation was not. Jesus was never going to re-turn to the earth in 1844but in 1844, in thecourts of heaven, judgment began. Te nal workof determining who would be saved eternally andwho would be lost eternally had to begin some-time. Te Bible says that when Jesus returns at

the Second Coming, He brings His reward withHim (Rev. 22:12), so therefore He has to deter-mine what each persons reward will be beforeHe returns, much as youd determine what eachfamily members Christmas gift will be sometimebefore Christmas.

So one of the vitally important reasons for theproclamation of the everlasting gospel is that itwould announce to humanity that we are livingin the time of heavens nal judgment. Under-standing this leads us to consider several pro-foundly important truths. First, Jesus is comingback soon. When the judgment is over, Jesus re-

turns to gather the saints (Rev. 22:11) and receivethem to Himself (Jn. 14:2).

Second, it must be time to stop playingchurch. If Jesus is soon to return, and if He isnow engaged in the work of nal judgment be-fore He returns to the earth, there can surely

be no more important consideration for Gods


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people than being ready for that great event. For

thousands of years, Satan has been perfectingschemes to distract people from the importantwork of preparing a character that will see us outof this world and into the world to come.

When I was a child, we talked about how won-derful it would be to be able to watch your fa-

vorite movies whenever you wantedat home!

Instead of watching sports on television only onSaturday afternoons, we dreamed of being ableto watch sports seven days a week. Now there arehundreds of TV channels, broadcast on satellite,cable, the Internet, and even the old fashionedway of broadcasting to an antenna or rabbit

ears. Add to all this Internet surng, smartphones and social media sites such as Facebook,and this is a distracted society. Not only can wecall each other from our cell phones, but we cantweet, instant message and text virtually any-where, anytime.

We could do none of this just a generation ago.And while these arent bad things, they meanwere distracted. We have more entertainmentchoices than ever, a challenged economy de-mands we work harder and often longer hours,and there are more ways to spend money thanthere have ever been before. And when people

get busy and distracted, their spiritual lives startto suer. Now is no time to be distracted.

So God reminds us: Fear God and give gloryto Him, for the hour of His judgment has come.Get serious, He says. If ever there was a timefor people to live as though they really believed

Gods Word, now is certainly that time.


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Tird, the judgment hour message urges us to

embrace Jesus fully and completely and to live alife of total commitment to Him. Te Bible saysthat the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23), andevery last person on earth has sinned (Rom.3:23). Te reality is that theres no way a personcan have hope in the judgment without Jesus.First John 2:1 tells us that we have an advocate

with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, while1 imothy 2:5 reminds us that Jesus is the me-diator between God and men.

Te Bible promises that Jesus will save to theuttermost those who come to God through Him,since He always lives to make intercession for

them (Heb. 7:25). Te wordgospelmeans goodnews, and news never got any better than this!Every person on earth can come to Jesus and becleansed and saved, and in the judgment, hav-ing Jesus Christ as your personal Savior is yourguarantee that the gift of eternal life is yours.

Te judgment hour message is part of theeverlasting gospelextremely good news foranyone who would choose to trust in Jesus. Heis soon to return to the earth, and all who havechosen to fear God and give glory to Him canface the judgment knowing they are cleansed andpardoned, not by works of righteousness which

we have done, but according to His mercy (i.3:5). Freely and completely, Jesus saves us froman old broken life of sin and transforms us byHis grace so that we can be a new creation. Oldthings having passed away, and all things havingbecome new (2 Cor. 5:17).

For those who have chosen Jesus as their


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Savior and Lord, the judgment will reveal that all

sins have been forgiven, and that the righteous-ness of Jesus stands in the place of an old life oftransgression. Te everlasting gospel really isgood news! Shouldnt everybody know about it?


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At a time of crisis, well-chosen words can

have an enormous impact. Te civil rightsmovement of the 1960s grew out of the bit-

ter racism that continued to plague this nationlong after the Emancipation Proclamation hadbeen signed. As he addressed a crowd of morethan 200,000 civil rights supporters, Dr. Martin

Luther King, Jr. galvanized a movement withwords that continue to inspire people around theworld. His I Have a Dream speechdeliveredfrom the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Wash-ington, D.C.is widely regarded as one of thegreatest speeches ever made, and it announced

to the world that there was no turning back forthe civil rights movement.Te Gettysburg Addressgiven by President

Abraham Lincoln in 1863 at a time of crisis forthe United States, as the Civil War continued toclaim thousands of livescontained only 272words and took President Lincoln just over two

Unforgettable Words

SEVEN


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minutes to deliver. It too is another oratorical

masterpiece that continues to inspire and moti-vate.A time of crisis calls for words that arrest the

attention and that focus minds on which mattersmost. In the book of Revelation, a time of crisiscauses God to respond with words that are un-mistakably

Documents

Revelation Today - By John Bradshaw