Starting to Look at Revelation

The Pause on the Brink of Eternity, part 3

So, if natural disasters, diseases, and crime are not enough in themselves to let us know clearly when Jesus is almost here, what is Jesus really waiting for?  If these events are destined to increase in frequency and intensity in the future, in fulfillment of the words of Jesus, is it possible for us to determine when the end of time is truly near?  What is Jesus waiting for, and why has He not come yet?

This question has been on my heart for years, and when I used to teach classes on the book of Revelation, finding an answer to that question was the focus of my lessons.  I believe that the last book of the Bible gives some of the clearest answers to that question in all of Scripture, and my heart thrills as God continues to reveal more and more to my mind as I ask why we are still on this planet and not in heaven.  This is a big subject, and I certainly don’t claim to understand it in all of its manifold ramifications, but I would like to share with you at least part of the aspect of the answer that I have begun to understand.

Why are we still here on earth, and how will the end come?  I believe that Revelation gives clear answers to those questions, and gives us hope and clear direction both as individuals and as a church.  I am no theologian, but I do know that I have come to my understanding through the study of Revelation in connection with other books, and that I am not alone in the bulk of my thinking on this matter.  I may present the matter differently than others would, but I tread well-worn paths in my lessons on Revelation.

In the first half of the book of Revelation, three series of seven elements are presented: seven churches, seven seals, and seven trumpets.  The historical Adventist understanding of these three series of seven is that they are concurrent time-lines, if you will, of events in the world from the time of Christ and up to the Second Coming, and I believe that understanding is  correct.  The messages to the churches represent conditions in the church of Christ from the time He was here on earth, up to the end, with the church that should be waiting for Him to return, but which in reality looks like it ends up being too consumed with its own attainments and possessions.  The seven seals largely represent the effect that the church has on the world during that same period, and the seven trumpets depict events in the world that the church may be affected by, and should take warning from.  

The church, as represented by the letters to the seven churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, goes through many differing stages, often needing reproval and correction, but never forsaken by Christ.  Ephesus has lost its first love, but not its Lover.  Smyrna is poor and persecuted, but unrebuked.  Pergamos is becoming infiltrated with non-biblical doctrine, but is still commended and given promises for the overcomer.  Thyatira stands for the church of the Middle Ages, doing much good, but needing reproof in this longest of the letters.  Yet, they are not forsaken, and the overcomers are promised power over the nations, which the church received during the Reformation.  Sardis is largely a hypocritical church, claiming to be alive while actually dead, but not everybody in Sardis has soiled their robes.  Philadelphia is the second unrebuked church, in which their weakness doesn’t keep them from holding fast to the truth.  Then we come to the letter to Laodicea, which is the most reproaching of all of the letters, with nothing to commend in Laodicea, but with beautiful promises to those in the church who let Jesus into their hearts.  Perhaps we can say that the best thing about the letter to Laodicea is that the letter exists at all, that Jesus has not forsaken this pathetic, self-deceived church.

Reading Revelation, one sees that after the letters to the seven churches, the focus of the narrative shifts to things transpiring in heaven, specifically in the throne-room of heaven, and especially surrounding a certain book which is sealed with seven seals.  Those seals are removed from the book in chapters six and eight, with chapter seven containing an interlude in the opening of the seals, to tell about a different seal, the seal of God, which is placed in the foreheads of the 144,000.  While the book with the seven seals is in heaven, the opening of the seals reveals events that happen on earth, events that will take place before the book in the hand of God can be opened. 

The first four seals reveal horses that show the progression of the church from a white, conquering power that turned the world upside down, to a red, persecuted church that took peace from the earth by the preaching of the gospel, then a black, compromising church selling the graces of salvation, to the pale horse of death, representing the church that brought death to others.  From being willing to die for its faith, the church ended up killing for the faith, and was best depicted by words such as Death and Hell.  From bringing life to the world, the church had become so corrupted that it brought death instead.  With the confusion resulting from such a regression of the once-pure church of Christ, the fifth seal makes perfect sense.  Souls are seen under the altar, crying out for vengeance.  These martyrs are given white robes, when the Reformation uncovers the truth about who the true “heretics” really were during the Dark Ages of the pale horse, and the world sees that the martyrs were righteous.  The sixth seal portrays celestial and terrestrial events leading up to the Second Coming, when the church’s effect on the world is one of being the center of a rescue mission that ends up unraveling the very sky.  When the seventh seal is opened, there is silence in heaven, an event that must surely be connected with the Second Coming itself.

I know that I am here going through these beautiful prophecies very quickly.  I do that because I don’t want to make this too long, and because if you are interested in more details, and have not already studied these prophecies for yourself, you can find several books covering these matters in greater detail in your nearest Adventist Book Center.