THE BOOK OF REVELATION!

THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING

THE BOOK OF REVELATION!

Revelation 1:19-20 - Write the things which you have seen (past tense), and the things which are (present tense), and the things which shall be hereafter (future tense); the mystery of the seven stars which you saw (past tense) in My right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks.  The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches:  and the seven candlesticks which you saw (past tense) are the seven churches.

Note:  The Apostle John, the human author of the divinely inspired Book of Revelation, lived during the Church Age!  Therefore, the things which are describe the Church Age!  Chapters Two and Three are written describing the things which are; note the verb tense throughout the two chapters.  Following these two chapters, the Church is not mentioned, and we see the beginning of the description of the things which shall be hereafter:

Revelation 4:1 - After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will show you things which must be hereafter.

TWO REASONS THE CHURCH IS NOT

MENTIONED IN THE DESCRIPTION OF

THE THINGS WHICH MUST BE HEREAFTER!

1.  The events described in the following passages apply to the Nation of Israel, not the Church:

Jeremiah 30:1-7 - The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,  Thus the LORD God of Israel, said, Write all the words that I have spoken in a book.  For, lo, the days come, says the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, says the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.  And these are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah.  For thus says the LORD;  We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.  Ask now, and see whether a man does travail with child?  Wherefore (why then) do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?  Alas!  For that day is great, so that none is like it:  it is even the Time of Jacob's Trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.

Daniel 9:24-27 - Seventy weeks (weeks of years) are determined upon thy people (Israel) and upon thy holy city (Jerusalem), to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.  Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks:  the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.  And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.  And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:  and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Matthew 24:15-21 - When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whosoever reads this, let him understand):  then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:  let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:  neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.  And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!  But pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day:  for then shall be Great Tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

2.  The Church, the Body of Christ made up of born again believers, will be removed, via the Rapture, from the earth before the events in Chapters Six through Nineteen.

John 14:1-3 - Let not your heart be troubled:  you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father's house are many mansions:  if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 - For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven, Whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, Who delivered us from the wrath to come.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 - But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others who have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so those also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.  For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (precede) those who are asleep.  For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:  and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 - For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.  

Note:  The Tribulation is known as the out-pouring of the wrath of God (see Hosea 5:10; Ezekiel 21:31; John 3:36; Revelation 14:10, 19).  The wrath of God is also the subject of Matthew 3:7; Luke 3:7; 21:23; John 3:36; Romans 2:5; 5:9; Revelation 6:16-17; 11:18; 14:19; 15:1, 7; 16:1, 19; 19:11-16!  

BELIEVERS LONG TO SEE JESUS RETURN!

UNBELIEVERS SHOULD TREMBLE AT THE THOUGHT!