Revelation: Introduction

Let's pray together, shall we? What are God as we enter into the great vision of the world and of its Christ, found the book of Revelation. I pray that these great images, these difficult passages, would not seem so impenetrable to us. It would be encouraged by them that we would see indeed that these do give testimony to Christ and by pray Lord that as we do so and even as we look at the letters to the seven churches we might take the encouragement, we might have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. But the vision of Christ might indeed be our vision that those who have become lax would take heed the vision of a hymn whose eyes are blazing fire. Those whose love has grown cold remember that you are the one who holds the churches and its leaders in your hands. Lord, we pray that we would enter therefore into an academic exercise, but also in the time of seeing your Lordship over all of history praying Christ's name, amen. Working our way through the book of Revelation and just a review for a moment from last time, said our strategy for approaching the book is to try to do our best to cope with it, first we are going to confess that the book is difficult, then we are going to orient the basics. At O, P, present the themes that run through all the book and E, explain the exigenical options as best we can. Last time we did see, see just took that long, confess this difficult and we were done with point one which I always like to cover one whole point in about one minute. Now we are orienting ourselves to the basics of the book which include things like who wrote it, who wrote the book of Revelation and Apostle John and next what is it? It is a book of prophecy, it is a book of apocalyptic revelations of Christ, it is a book that is also a pastoral letter written to seven real churches. Who was it written? Who was the emperor at the time of the writing of Revelation? Remember you with me? Okay, Demission and what was Demission's claim to fame, claim to be God and wanted people to acknowledge that. It also seems that the book of Revelation was written perhaps late in the first century for one thing, Demission reign from 81 to 96 AD. Another thing that kind of fits that idea is the book of Revelation seems to have a lot of illusions at least, maybe citations, not quite citations, but allusions to teachings found in the rest of the New Testament and concentrations especially like in the letters of Hebrews and Corinthians which make it seem that maybe John knew what was in those letters to the Corinthians or to the Hebrews and have those citations in front of you. Book of Revelation also has a who question, a what question, a when question, when is the book of Revelation going to be fulfilled? I was out of town for this weekend but basically as soon as I got on campus some students began to tell me about the big gambling casino event over the weekend. In fact, one of my students greeted me and said, well, Dr. Dorianne, we saw you try to cover your face, hopping off the admiral and I said, no, see, I'm not really guilty of that because I have a perfect alibi, I was in another state of when that happened. It was kind of amusing, I guess, to us when, you know, when you, you know, they got their comeuppance, huh? You know, a barge break loose and crashes and I understand that some people inside were really panicking heavily, it's the Titanic. Here we're going down, it's, we, how stupid of us to get in a metal ship, metal sinks when it fills the water, we're going to be at the bottom of the Mississippi. Well, Christian sermons maybe, maybe at least hamileticians who operate on the spur of the moment, you know, when did it happen exactly by the way, when was it again? Saturday night, you know, so, so, you know, preachers who are relying on late night inspiration might have worked that into their sermons and might have worked that in very little else in their sermons, I don't know, but you could imagine could you not have sermon in which, maybe somehow sermon about the evils of the day, a preacher would sort of go off in a prophetic direction and say something like this about the gambling industry might say, you know, God has judged the gambling industry, it prays on the weak, it prays on the poor and on those who have no hope, those who don't know how to manage their finances, it breaks homes. The women though, the children know, it's somehow the man or maybe somehow the wife doesn't know, doesn't see what it's doing, they go back again and again thinking it lasts and make up for all that money, but they've lost it in slaves, threats, breaks down the social fabric and you know, they're ruthless, they break the law, they're supposed to go only on river boat, on the river, but they go on moats and they moor themselves to the side and say that's legal and then when a local politician takes on the task and they suddenly decide to find some candidates to threaten that politician by throwing a lot of money at an alternative person who will be more amenable, God has judged the gambling industry, God sees how it prays on the poor and it shall fall, the preacher says, one day it shall fall. Now what time frame is the preacher operating in? What's the time reference of his oration on God's judgment of the gambling industry? Future, one day it shall fall, present God sees what it's doing to the people, right? And it's past, how is it past? He has judged, God has already determined. Like literature moves like my little pseudo-sermonette on gambling effortlessly from past, present to future. Why? Because God sees past, present and future. He has judged and his word will come to pass and he sees and evaluates what's happening right now. That's what prophets do and that's the way the book of Revelation is. Those who say that the book of Revelation is about the future or not understanding what the prophecy is. Prophecy always, not every last oracle you understand, but it's the nature of prophecy to look to the past, to look to the present, to look to the future and see what God has to say about all three. Book of Revelation is prophecy, prophecy looks at all three time frames. For some of you who may be inclined to think when I say that, that you're disagreeing with me, of course you're free to do that and you may be thinking, well you know I've always taught and I've always been taught, I've always held that the book of Revelation is mostly about the future, perhaps about the great tribulation things have come at the end of the time. But if you yourself have taught on the book and if you've been taught well on the book, if you read the best sources, even those who say the book of Revelation by the best sources I mean the best scholars, to say the book of Revelation is mostly about the future, I ask you to look closely and listen closely and you will see that the best scholars say it's about the future but it has these implications for the present day, why? Because God's will and God's evaluation is always based on His holiness, on His justice and His love and His mercy. God looks at humans in the same way no matter whether it's now or in the future. So you look at good scholars and they'll do that and you listen to good sermons, can you nod your head if you agree with me? Good sermons on the book of Revelation, don't just say here's what's going to happen at the end, even if someone thinks the book of Revelation is mostly about the end, they say there are principles that apply today, am I right, have you heard that, most of you have heard that I think probably, maybe almost all of you have heard that idea and if they're thinking clearly they'll also say the book of Revelation is about the past, it looks back to the past, let's take a look at that just for a moment, if you would and look back at for example Revelation 12, Revelation 12 would be one of a few indications that the book is about the past, what is Revelation 12 about? 121 says, a great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with a moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head, she was pregnant and cried out on pain as she was about to give birth, another sign appeared, an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, seven crowns of his head, he swept the stars from the sky and he wanted to devour the child, verse 5, she gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter, whose birth is this about, it's about Jesus' birth, this is a message about the incarnation, it's about Satan's desire to destroy the Christ child even at his birth, right? Now just a little quickie here, if you ever get tired of giving messages on Matthew 2 and Luke 2 at Christmas season, you want to take a little bit of a risk, teach on Revelation 12, maybe not at Christmas Sunday, people might think you're a little strange, but maybe you can work it in for a couple of the early Sundays during the season, but Revelation 12 is about the past, it's about Christ's incarnation, and certainly it's about the present, we'll see that abundantly tonight above all in the seven letters, which says over and over, this is what the Spirit is saying to the churches, it's what the Spirit was saying then and it's what the Spirit continues to say, the letters to the seven churches are, letters to real churches that existed then, but it's also letters to the way churches are to this day, so what the Spirit is saying, and he who has ears to hear, let him hear right now, and of course we could think of chapter 4 and 5, the scenes which we'll look at later tonight, in which Christ is worshiped, and God is worshiped on His throne, and isn't that what happens now every Sunday? In the sense you might say as a reenactment of Revelation chapter 4 and 5, it's about the present, or revelations also about the future, it's about especially in the later chapters 19, 2021, it's about the fall of Satan, it's about his overthrow about him being cast in the lake of fire, about the coming of the new heavens and the new earth, and that's clearly about the future, since that has not yet occurred, so the book of Revelation is about the past and the present and the future. Okay, who what when, where, where, let's talk about where next, where are we in the book of Revelation? Well, John is in the Island of Patmos when he wrote, correct, so mining colony, by this time, apparently an abandoned mining colony off the coast of Ephesus, but that's something only place that John was, where else was he? Bob, Robert, in the spirit, he was in the spirit, he was in the spirit on the Lord's day, where else was he? He's lifted up in heaven, he saw heaven open, right, so he's in heaven, and he's in the spirit, and it's also taking place you might say in Asia Minor, where the various churches that were actually receiving this. Now, the question we could ask is how, we're still orienting ourselves to the book, how does the book work? How does the book strike? You can ask you, I know, we have kind of a large class, but how does the book strike you? How does it work? Does the book of Revelation work about the same way? Well, let's say the book of Judges works, or second Kings? Does it work? Does it have its impact on the reader about the way the book of Romans does? How does it work? We'll be in an analogy to the way it works. It doesn't. Oh, that's one answer. How does it, for those of you that get something out of the book? How does it work? Highly sensory. You remember that? She heads nodding? I like that answer. Yeah. What media, what medium of communication with the book of Revelation be like that we use today? Visual. Like movies, I hear a couple of people sing. Does that make sense? Yeah, I think that's about right. I mean, it has, you know, when the movie is over in the light school and you say, wow, what a, you know, maybe something fantastic avoids the outer space or inner space or something like that. It strikes us, not with ideas. There's not a lot of therefores and because in order that, the way the book of Romans has it, right? It's a book that operates by appealing to us by sort of even spraking or even overloading our senses of book of imagery. There's another way that it works. It works by immersing in the scriptures. Book of Revelation has almost no quotes of the rest of the Bible, but it has hundreds of illusions, clear illusions. One author said there 404 and I checked them out enough to know that he's pretty reliable, but I didn't check all 404. He didn't list all 404 actually. And then thousands of illusions through chains of, for example, references to Babylon, which comes up dozens and dozens of times in the Bible and drinking of the cup and the reign of God and the wrath of God and the Lamb of God and white garments and smoke and thunder, hundreds and hundreds of images. Some of those images, a large number of them and I have them in the outline in front of you. A large number of the images dominate whole chapters. For example chapter one has the dominant image of a son of man in glory. Where does that come from? It comes from Daniel chapter seven, doesn't it? And then in chapter two there's the image that's pretty important of the book of life, which can be found in Ezekiel 32 and Isaiah 22. We've thrown in heaven surrounded by living creatures who are worshipping. What does that remind you of from the Old Testament? Isaiah chapter six, right? Very similar and also Ezekiel chapter one. We have a scroll that has to be open seems a lot like Zechariah five. And in chapter that's a chapter five revelation chapter six, we have horses and riders running throughout the earth. You know where that comes from? What book of the Bible and what chapter? Yeah you have it in front of you so you all know. Do any of you know what book of chapter the Bible that comes from? Together Zechariah six. And then we have a lion from the tribe of Judah from Genesis 49 and horses and sorry we have ceiling. Sealing is described in Ezekiel 9 and Ephesians 1 and you can look at the rest there. Certainly the idea of a composite beast in chapter 13 is very similar to Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 and the fall of Babylon and Babylon's wealth comes up over and over again in Isaiah 14, 13, 46, 48, 21, various chapters in Daniel. Not only are there hundreds of images in the Bible from the rest of the Bible but they are dominant images. That's my point. There are ones that dominate whole chapters of the Old Testament. That's how the book works. Well, how should we interpret the book? That's the next thing we have to do, eh? Why don't we go ahead? Would you say it would be a good thing to look at a hard passage? I've been making it sound pretty easy so far, haven't I? Have I be eluded in any of you into thinking this is easy? No, it's too sophisticated. Revelation chapter nine, verse one, tell me how you like this one in terms of difficulty ratings or something. Revelation chapter nine, the fifth angel sounded as trumpet and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the abyss. When he opened the abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the abyss. Out of the smoke, locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like those of the scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree. Those are odd locusts, aren't they? But only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads, they were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. I wonder what that might mean. The agony they suffered was like the that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. During those days, men will seek death, but will not find it. Along to die, but death will elude them. The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle on their heads. They were something like crowns of gold and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair so far so good, eh? Their hair was like women's hair, human faces, women's hair. Their teeth were like lion's teeth. Now we're going south here. They had breast plates, like breast plates of iron. Should we think of the Vognirian operas here? They're trying to depict this. The sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing in the battle. Now, any of you have been to a prophecy seminar? No, what this is, don't you? What is this? Come on, somebody said, helicopters, not just helicopters. It's Apache helicopters. I mean, people have been in my face about this. Were you a non man? As I was a non man, I saw. This is it. This is it. I mean, people have been in my face. These are Apache helicopters. That's exactly what they sound like. Breast plates of iron, sea, thundering of horses. They had tails. That's helicopters, of course, you see. And stings like scorpions in their tails. That's the gun in the back of the helicopter. They had the power to torment people for five months. No comment on how helicopters do that. They had as their king over them, angel the abyss. Now, the helicopter theory begins to break down. His name and Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek Apollion. The first world was passed, two other worlds are yet to come. Well, that's a hard one, isn't it? Now, can we make sense of this? What I'd like to do is propose just before theories that I've outlined you last time, right? Tell you how they would interpret this vision of the Locust plague and so on. A priest would say that the events outlined here describes something that was happening right then or in the recent past to the seven churches. They would say, perhaps above all, that this would be an oppression of the Roman Empire, a directed against the church. The futures would say, no, no, no, this is all about the last few years, the Great Rebellion before the end of time. And when somebody says, these are attack helicopters, what they're also saying is, we're in the last days. And these helicopters, this kind of helicopter will be used in the Battle of Armageddon or something like that. Third view is that this represents something from the history of the church. We're in chapter nine, there are 21 chapters, 22 chapters in the book of Revelation. So this would be something sort of before the year 1000 AD. And what they'll pick is maybe something like the Muslim invasion of Europe. And they would remark on the way in which it caused great suffering and great warfare. And there's a ferocity to those warriors and they caused great harm to the church. Those statements are true, of course. They would say, this is about the 8th century, sorry, 8th, 10th century, 700, 800, 900. The idealist says, you're all correct. There's a fulfillment of this in the past. There's a fulfillment of this in the future, final times. And this Locust plague also played itself out at least occasionally in the history of the church. Those are the views that people would take. Now let's see if we can detect the way in which this works. Would I have in your syllabus the various images and then have a right? And don't tell you what they mean. So what I want you to do is be engaged with me, okay? I know you're still recovering from daylight savings time, but I want you to engage, all right? What you tell me, the symbolism that is the root of each of these symbols, that's what we're going to do. Look for symbolic meaning and see if they apply. The very first symbol is that of a star falling from the sky. What do you know from the Bible? Satan falling from heaven. Found in, what are you thinking of? You think of the Old Testament or New Testament? Old Testament. But there is also from the New Testament, Bula. Where is it in the New Testament? You know, it's in Luke chapter 10, where Jesus says, I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven. It's also in the Old Testament as well. Okay, so let's suppose that the star falling from the sky is accurately identified as Satan because that's the biblical imagery here. Number two, we have the star being given the key to the shaft of the abyss. Now, what is the abyss in the Bible? What's the abyss? It's hell. Can you get more specific than that? Okay, sometimes the sea is viewed as sort of an abyss in which people are swallowed up. There's something more specific in the New Testament, a subcategory under hell, or a particular way of describing hell. Maybe that's too refined to question, maybe I should have been happy with hell. It is especially the abode of demons. For example, when the gathering demoniac is a costeter, actually, he comes running up to Jesus. And the demons speak, you know, the man who had legion of demons in him. What do they say to Jesus? Don't cast us into the abyss. That's the abode of demons in their punishment. Not a lot of references to that, but a handful at least. And the number of them in the book of Revelation, chapter 9, verse 11, chapter 20, verses 1 to 3, chapter 11, verse 7, chapter 17, verse 8, as well as Luke 8, 31. Okay, so Satan is cast into the abode of demons. But then from that abode, it says that there is darkness and smoke rising. Where do we have smoke rising earlier in the Bible? I hear a number of people saying softly, Sodom, Gomorrah, right? True. Is that the first time we have smoke rising? The smoke of those cities going up? That's true. There's another place where smoke rises, though. Mount Sinai here. I'm always, I like this. I'm gonna wait until two or three people say it, and then I'll feel I have a quorum. Mount Sinai is absolutely right. Now what would Mount Sinai and Sodom Gomorrah have in common? How could they both be the source? Well, why did a smoke rise from Sodom Gomorrah? Okay, because of judgment, because of burning, because of judgment. And was there an element of judgment at Mount Sinai? There was. Remember, who could touch the mountain? Who could go up into God's presence? Moses, and one of the words was, no one could touch this holy mountain? And in fact, it inspired me here. In fact, one of the things, if even an animal touched the mountain, it was to be stoned to death. Remember that? Because God as a holy God in Israel is not a holy people. Therefore, beware of the judgment that can be fall. So smoke rising and darkness are symbols of judgment. Genesis 19, 28, Exodus 19, 18, and so on. All right, next we have not only smoke rising like smoke from a furnace and darkness, but out of the smoke, a locus came down upon the earth. Now do locusts figure in any very important and apocalyptic passages, maybe about judgment or or about things of that nature? Where do we have locusts in the Bible? Okay, we have locusts in the Exodus, and what do the locusts do? Or are they part of? They're part of the 10 plagues, what are the 10 plagues do, the Egypt? They destroy, they judge, they showed God's wrath against Egypt, right? All right, now, any other place that we have locusts? Okay, I've heard one person say it, wait till I hear two or three, Joel, Joel, Joel, very good, the book of Joel. The locusts are associated with punishment for sin, and punishing a land for their evil doing as a warning of the greater wrath that come. That's a locust do. They strip the land, they take all the vegetation, they punish the people. So locusts are agents of God's judgment, Exodus 10, Joel 2. Now the next thing that comes up, it says that they have power like scorpions of earth, scorpions really don't appear in the Bible much at all. In fact, they don't appear at all in the Old Testament, or they don't seem to have any symbolic weight anyway in the Old Testament. So let's pass over scorpions for a moment. Then it says a strange thing in verse 4, they were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads, seal of God, where do you hear about the seal and God protecting people from harm? Go ahead. Okay, in Ephesians chapter 1 it says we are sealed, how are we sealed? Sealed by the Holy Spirit, for the day of redemption and so on were protected. Is there anywhere else that seals show up in the Bible? This would be for, I think for about 10,000 bonus points. You need 500,000 to get one extra point in your test. 10,000 bonus points. What about the covenant? Now that's a question, that's not an answer. I want an answer, not a question. Where do you find seals? Yes? On the scrolls, okay, coming up in a little bit, where else? Okay, tombs are sealed. Yes, that's it. Seals giving protection. Yes, yes, the sealing of document, that's true, but there's another one, there's a better one. Pass over, now we're getting warm. That's right. The Passover provides a protection over the people. It's not exactly called a seal, but I heard a couple of people saying, yeah, that's what I want to say. And that's good, because the Passover provided a kind of a seal over house, a mark over house that led them to being passed over. Just as Ephesians chapter 1 is sealed for the redemption by the Holy Spirit, so protected for that day, so the Passover meant there's a passing over of wrath, which is the subject here, right? Rath will judgment. So here's protection from wrathful judgment, but there's more. Robin, nope, you got it. I thought you're going to start your hand up. Okay, there's one more. What's it turn with me? The Zechial chapter 9, this is where the image really comes from, makes me feel so good that you didn't get it. Nobody got it. It's a proof that you still need me to teach you. Zechial chapter 9, Zechial chapter 9 describes, well, it's chapter 8 and 9 together, but let me just tell you briefly, chapter 8 of Ezekiel is about idolatry in the temple, the testable idolatry, even in the very temple of God and God's wrath as he reveals these detestable acts of God's own leaders right there in the temple. And he's going to call judgment down upon the people. Let me maybe get a little context chapter 9 verse 3. Now the glory of Israel went up from above the cherubim where it had been and moved the threshold of the temple. And the Lord called the man, clothed in linen, who had the writing kid and said, go through the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it. Verse 5. As I listen, he said, follow him through the city and kill without showing pity or compassion. Slot or old men, young men and maids, women and children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark. It could be translated the seal. Beginning at my sanctuary, so they began with the elders who were in front of the temple. That would be those elders who were corrupted by the idolatry in temple. You see the point. This passage is strongly building on excess. This is the way revelation works. You've got a symbol to pass over that a couple of you had exactly right. It starts it off. The idea that there's judgment on wickedness with God will mark his believers and whoever has the mark will not suffer judgment. Ezekiel continues that theme by saying it's time for wrath upon the people of Israel, but those who lament the detestable things shall be marked. And when the judgment goes forth and you know that judgment on Jerusalem is terrible and it came during Ezekiel's lifetime just a few years after Ezekiel 9 and vast numbers were killed, those who lament shall be sealed, protected, guarded, they won't fall. That I believe is what we have as a symbolic value of Revelation chapter 9, the seal that marks people out or protects people from the judgment to come. They shall not be harmed verse 4 says. Now what about these locusts? What do they do? Well they don't kill but for five months they torture people. Now does anybody can because anybody remembers a time that five months are marked out or singled out in the Bible? Can anybody remember that? For 20,000 bonus points but be careful because you can lose 20,000 bonus points if you if you guess that there's one and there isn't. Can anybody think of five months anywhere? I can't. I don't think five months are in there. In fact I looked it up in my concordance and it doesn't have it either. So I don't think five months is symbolic. So what might that mean? Well here's where you need a good commentary and or knowledge of Flora and Fauna. How long does a locust live? Maximum. Take a wild guess. Five months. The point is there will be the maximum possible punishment as the locust have their maximum life span. Then he says something else so I take this then not to be symbolic but rather referring to what people might have known from the day. Agony is like the agony of a scorpion everybody knows what that is very severe. During those days men will seek death but will not find it. They will long to die but death will elude them. This idea of longing for death is found a few times especially in Job chapter three verses 20 to 23 where he's weary of life and wishes to die. Jeremiah chapter eight verse three makes it a sign of punishment and can I ask you to just think about this one with me a little bit. People longing for death but death eluding them. I'll never forget a time when I was just running down a street. I was running and I happened upon a car with an older person getting out of it and he kind of was struggling to get out of this car. He looked at me as I was running for my exercise you know jogging by and he looked at me I was maybe 32 or I don't know 35 maybe. He looked at me and said whatever you do don't get old. I had no idea who he was he had no idea who I was he just maybe he was watching me cruise effortlessly you know I ran a whole block during the time that took him to get out of the car and he lamented that. I already had somebody tell you that whatever you do don't get old. Okay a few of you have heard people say that to you but now some of these people who say you know I hate being old I can't stand being old whatever you do don't get old. Some of these people who don't like being old didn't like being young either. Have you ever talked to somebody like that? Say man I can't stand being old and retired. So well you know would I've asked people this once would you like to go back to being young again? Would you like to be a teenager again? It's like teenager. Pimples and dating and not having money and under the parents orders. What would you like to be in college again? Man I didn't get you know then you go to go whatever they didn't like college. Would you like to be a young married person babies and diapers? Couldn't imagine would you like to be in your 30s your 40s? Oh man that was terrible. Early in my career just working long hours all the time it was endless labor. Never got to do a thing. It was like I missed the whole decade you know back then when I was trying to get my career going well how about you know in your 50s all my wife hated it when she was I was okay from me but she hated it she was so unhappy when our kids left home and our marriage was really rough in our 50s. How about your 60s? Well my back began to get bad in my 60s. Well you know would you like to die? Die you know terrified of dying. You know like being old they didn't like being young they didn't like being middle-aged and they're terrified of dying. Have you known people like that? Unfortunately there's a fair number. Men will seek death but it will elude them. This is the punishment that God gives to evil doers it's like this thing of a scorpion and it lasts as long as it can last can last their whole life long. It's not that that they're punished with you know with being you know horribly killed or something like that. Their punishment is they have to live like that. Now we have to think about this just a little bit more where does this come from? Where does this punishment come from? Who does this to them? Comes from the locusts it comes from who's it come from? To themselves that's part of the answer. Where does it come from? Look at the text don't look at me. It came from the abyss. It came from Satan. This is the punishment that Satan wreaks upon his own. He makes them miserable. He promises them excitement and life and whatever and the truth is their lives are miserable all they may have you know fleeting pleasures of sin for a season and some of them maybe indeed happy as we would call happiness in this life happy-go-lucky people. But by and large the way of Satan is to wreak misery on his own. You see that because who is stricken by this as those who are not marked by the seal the seal marking God's protection. Christians not to say that every Christian is happy all the time to understand but globally speaking Christians are spared this misery because God won't let Satan do it to us. But Satan is free to harm his own, to sting them with this in his own way. Now what I just did was take you through a test case on the book Revelation and what I just did was what is called idealist exegesis. That is to say I looked for an ideal that holds in every generation. Was it true? Was if this is correct that's taken from biblical images what idealists do and it's real it's that everybody does a preterist and futurist every interpretive school looks for biblical images the way I just did try to interpret what's happening. Do you think if these principles are true if you've agreed with what I said that it comes to the Bible that's a revelation which do you think this held in the year 90 AD? Do you think it was important for the church in the year 90 or 95 AD to know this as a suffered persecution that they're sealed and this particular affliction or inflexion of pain by Satan couldn't strike them. Can you see how valuable that would be in 95 AD? Do you think it holds true in the last seven years of history or the last times the last generation of history? Will this be true? Is it true today wherever we are for in the last times or not? If if Christ is to come in 200 years is it true today? Was it true in the year 1500? Was it true in the year 900? 700? You agree this is a universal principle and you are stepping along with me in the path to seeing the book of Revelation as holding out principles or ideals that apply to all ages in the book of Revelation. We're on under cope we're on step three COP present the themes of the book and here if I can give you a bit of advice if some of you wanted to teach the book of Revelation if you have a teaching role in your church or a Bible study of some kind as somebody says hey let's do a study of the book of Revelation I would urge you to try this. Spend three or four weeks on the book of Revelation developing the three or four main themes that will wet their appetite it'll get you off the hook it will give them the main points of the book of Revelation and you will get bogged down in the meaning of some of the difficult visions which can lead to a great deal of debate and more heat than light. The first theme found all throughout the book of Revelation is that God gives comfort to the church and its struggle against evil. God gives comfort to the church and its struggle against evil. Now the visions of book Revelation depict Satan attempting to devour, to cast, to persecute, to destroy the church but the visions also make it very clear that Satan is thwarted at every turn. Maybe a place where we could see this right away is in Revelation 12 which we'll talk about in more detail later but which is the follow the outline of Revelation 12 we already started with it. A moment ago you remember that there is a woman who's pregnant and standing on the moon and so forth and a dragon appears ready to devour the Christ child. Verse 4 says once she gave birth her child was snatched up to heaven into his throne so Satan had a plan of devouring destroying the Christ child but that failed we can think of Herod trying to kill the Christ child right then the woman fled for success so he tried and failed once so far and the woman fled into a desert place prepared for her by God where she stayed 1260 days and there was war in heaven and Michael at his angels fought against the dragon and his angels but Michael won. They have to understand one thing here that is then the battle in heaven it's not God against Satan it's Michael against Satan it's an archangel Michael against a former archangel now Archdemon Satan and even in the battle of archangels Michael wins you know God doesn't even have to put his best troops at it you see I'll just send Michael Michael's good enough he'll take care of things now Satan has lost twice onto the next chapter the dragon was hurled down verse 9 sorry next verse a dragon was hurled down and he came to the earth and when he came to the earth he accused the brothers verse 10 in the middle it says the accuser of our brothers accuses them before our God day and night but he's been hurled down they overcame him by the blood of the land Satan accuses the brothers saying they're sinful they're wicked and they shouldn't be allowed in heaven but he's silenced the blood of the land covers them basically says yeah they're guilty but it's been taken care of so now Satan's failed three times he's failed to destroy Christ he's failed to win battle in heaven and third he's failed to accuse the brothers successfully then in verse 13 it says that when this dragon had been hurled down to earth he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child but the woman got away she was given two wings of a great eagle so she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert so now he's lost four times and then as he sees this occurring verse 15 says that the serpent spewed water like a river to take the woman over to sweep her away but then he lost again number five the earth opened its mouth and she escaped and then he was really mad because he's a five-time loser he's tried to kill Christ he's tried to fight Michael he's tried to accuse he's tried to kill the woman nothing works and he's really ticked and so he goes to fight against the rest of her offspring now revelation 13 to 14 make it very clear that in the battle against the rest of the offspring the rest of the offspring suffer real harm Christians are persecuted Christians are killed but same is going to lose the church is comforted in that even in the even in the pain of church experiences we read that God will wipe every tear from the eyes of the saints you wipe away tear from little child's eyes a crime they fall down their four-learned their best friend doesn't like them anymore you can comfort a child wipe away those tears and make them smile again that's what God says he will comfort us he'll wipe away every tear that seal will limit their suffering and even if we die he says blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on they will rest from their labor for their deeds will follow them and more than that is the comfort of knowing that God will avenge the blood of the saints his cause will win the battle so there are several lines of comfort Satan's powers limited you can wipe away the tears from her eyes and the evil doers will be punished now this some of these overlap a little bit but second second theme is the victory of Christ and his allies over Satan and his allies theme of judgment and a vengeance fits here if somebody wanted to argue their four themes and the fourth theme is judgment on evil doers I wouldn't I would not argue with them I'm just putting it underneath the victory of Christ because the defeat of Satan is the victory of Christ the two go together they're not separate phenomena the first half of the book shows chapters 11 show there's hope of victory even amidst the suffering and struggle and persecution because as we'll see in the second half of class tonight um God sovereignly controls even the suffering and then chapter 19 for just a jump to another verses 11 to 21 we have Jesus as the king riding on a great white horse on a war horse wielding his two-edged sword and now nobody can find where we are in in the outline so everybody found where we are see pages flying right and left everybody okay everybody know we turned to page okay everybody's cool all right good it troubles me when I see you flipping and then flipping back you know some movement we're okay we just turned to page on the go 19 11 to 21 Jesus is the rider on the white horse the war horse wielding his two-edged sword his robe is dipped with blood because he has slain his enemies his robe is is is touched by the blood of his enemies and the devil's allies fall next scene one by one the antichrist and the beast are cast into the lake of fire the harlot is is ruined and the word is how a luya for her smoke goes up forever because her doom is searching foul fire falls from heaven devouring the army of the devil chapter 20 verses 7 to 10 and they're cast in the lake of fire victory is sure third thing is in all this a vision of Christ that prompts worship how many songs that you may sing come from the book of revelation with a handful one or two or many what do you think many I once gave an assignment to one of my students who was musical wanted to make a duel extra work to find how many songs he could locate that had themes from the book of revelation or based on a verse or an image in the book of revelation you know you know he came up with 50 50 and I lost the list so I've been upset about ever since I don't know where I put it 50 different ones lots of them do you know the choruses chapter four and chapter five chapter four have two very close together we have a thing is like chapter four verse eight holy holy holy is a lord god almighty who was and is the and is the come that's a classical him then a little bit later we have in 4 11 that that sort of popular Christian song that has always played far too slowly thou aren't worthy you are worthy our lord and god to receive glory and honor and power just three verses later we have worthy is the lamb we have a song about we have salvation is to god and to the lamb in chapter seven and and then there's one talk about classical the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our lord and of his christ and he will reign forever and ever see some of you maybe already moving your hands the conduct of the highly chorus chapter 11 verse 15 now if comes salvation and power in the kingdom of god and of his christ there's a chorus that uses that from chapter 12 great and marvelous are your deeds just and true are your ways there's another chorus that's used you are lord of lords and king of kings king of kings and lord of lords back to how will you chorus and we have how will you for the lord our god the almighty reign some of you might use that in worship in your churches from chapter 19 or many many more many more it's just a sampling but it's not just songs the book of revelation is full of titles titles of christ we'll see some of them in a moment from the book of from the first chapter of revelation but there are quite a few others that are used well i'll just say chapters 12 and three we'll look at those some of those in a minute but there are many occasions the book of revelation to see christ in his and his grandeur into worship as a consequence now what i'm doing want to label what i'm doing i know i want to be very candid with you i am saying things today that you're inclined to agree with but i want you to i want to be honest with you and say that my approach is really not exactly the approach that some of you have learned what i'm doing one more time is called idealism and if i can take the e from cope and just walk through that with you for menace so you can evaluate and the book you're reading for the course the message of revelation is idealist if you've been reading it he labels himself as an idealist and it's important to recognize you know that with candor there are four views on how to interpret the book revelation we've hinted at them already so far the pratterist says the fulfillment of the book of revelation wise in the past the john's visions describe the persecution of christians by Rome in the first century and a true blue pratterist a hardcore pratterist would say and it doesn't do much besides the weakness of pratterism of course is that the book seems to predict the future especially the later chapters unmistakably seem to describe what will come so most pratterists actually are willing to agree or walk part way with futures and ideals the historicist view one more time says that revelation is a symbolic preview of the church's history from the first to the second comes of christ each vision represents something in church history and you march century by century the weakness is that people tend to get very much centered on their own culture in their own time and historicists i think they ask you to just take a guess a sorry a pratterist a pratterist writing in the year 1800 when do you think in germany where do you think they thought most of the visions were going to be fulfilled take a wild guess in germany that's right and you get up you get a historicist writing in brazil guess what place they're going to find a lot of the fulfillments they're going to find them in brazil if they're writing in 1800 what year do you think they anticipate history coming to climax about 1810 1820 if you have somebody writing in 1968 what do you think they're going to say the end is going to come in their lifetime that's a that's a good safe answer people always putting it in their lifetime and they say we're in the last seven years and they say we're in the last generation but they're always saying in my lifetime now of course as an idealist i agree with them and i say yes it will be in your lifetime and in lifetimes earlier and in lifetimes later but they say no it's got to be one for one correspondence future says the book of revelation describes a distressing and chaotic period shortly before the return of christ known as the tribulation seven years of tribulation followed by the return of christ to reestablish the kingdom of israel to rule the world with a rod of iron to last have a literal physical reign a thousand years by christ what can we say about this one my chief difficulty here with futures hard core futures is that it doesn't seem to do justice to the book of revelation as it says at the beginning blessed is the one who reads not blessed will be those who read that says bless and are all the read or you could take for example a look at chapter 22 verse 10 crucial passage from interpreting the book revelation 22 verse 10 very often misquoted i will say reads this way do not seal up the words of this prophecy or the prophecy of this book because the time is near and the interpreters say you see the book says the time is near so here I stand in the year 1912 and I say to you the time is near or I stand in the year 1530 the time is near or I stand in the year 1990 or 2002 whatever year the time is near so we can be sure they say that it's coming in our generation now what's the problem with that they've been saying it for many years that's true that's absolutely true but there's you can even put a finer point on it the time is near 2210 says the finer point the sharper point is time was near in 22 in in the year 95 AD the time was near when he says the time is near when somebody says the time is near and they say see here we are in the year 1960 the time is near they're missing the point that revelation is when the book was written the time was near that's when it was near he was saying to the seven churches the time is near meaning this book is relevant now now it doesn't only mean it was near then again the principle is that it's always near the person who says it near 1950 is not all wrong they're right the time is near but it's also true in the year 95 and in the year 950 this book is for all Christians that's my viewpoint that's called idealism and the reasons for idealism I've been giving you all throughout but let me just define it for you it says the idealist view says the vision is fulfilled in the first century at the return of Christ and at all times in between but the book of Revelation describes principles or ideals that always hold throughout the age of the gospel throughout the sage it portrays the cosmic conflict between Satan and God and Satan and the church and that battle is always raging the weakness with idealism is that idealists can get too agreeable and can become vague the real problem is they get real vague and they talk about general principles and they don't get specific in their analysis maybe of the times but I do believe it's correct because one three says all who read this book are blessed blesses one reads the words of this prophecy 22 is 10 as I just quoted says the time is near always near all of the rock of letters to the seven churches this emphasis the spirit is speaking not it did speak or will speak for the spirit is speaking to the seven churches throughout this book and of course chapter 19 10 which says alluded to it last week or quoted it last week the book of Revelation is about Christ the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus and that's what the book is about