Truth Matters 80: An Overview of Revelation

This week on Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis, she begins part two of the Prophecy Series, the Book of Revelation and the majestic visions Jesus gives the Apostle John concerning the last days. Here's Dr. Davis with an introduction into the study and a quick overview of the Book of Revelation.

Hello, I'm Dr. Cheryl Davis. I hope that you enjoyed our past series on the Book of Daniel and the view into end time prophecy that was revealed well over centuries ago to the prophet Daniel. There are many things that we saw through this book as far as the fall of Babylon and the visions that Daniel had for his people in the end times. Oftentimes with the study of Daniel, Revelation, the Book of Revelation is related to that. So I'm pleased to announce and delighted to say that we will begin our next series on the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John. But before we get into the chapters of Revelation, I would like to do an overview as far as the introduction to prophecy. Not all of us are familiar with prophecy, and actually it's not taught a great deal in our churches today. And when I gave this to my church, I started out with an introduction to prophecy and thought that this would be a great framework to start the Book of Revelation.

So my plan prior to getting into the book is to give a panorama of prophecy, just to give an overview of prophecy in order to give a framework to understand the Book of Revelation. I'd like to talk about God just for a moment. And how I view God is that he sees everything as now, really as, you know, he's outside of time. There is no past, present or future with God, for he sees all things from the beginning to the end at once. As a result, the future is not an unknown for God as it is for us. For us, we can only view things in finite time. You know, the Bible tells us that our thoughts are not his thoughts.

His ways are not our ways. So when we look at time, we see it as a finite object. There is a future, there is a past.

For us, there are many things that are unknown in the future. But for God, the future is not unknown as it is for us. Everything for God is in the present tense, even including the future.

Why is that, you may ask? God is eternal. There is never a time that he was not, therefore he is. You know, the Bible says, before Abraham, I am. God is eternal. So because he is eternal, he is the Alpha Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

He always is and always has and always will be. Therefore, his view of time is not as our view of time. Everything is the present tense. But the Bible, even though we know it is the inspired word of God, is written in human terms. It's written in human terms for our benefit. It deals with matters of the future, however. One fifth of the Bible addresses matters of the future at the time that it was written. One particular event, the second coming of Christ, is referred to 318 times in the New Testament.

In the Old Testament, many times as well. The book of Revelation has to do almost exclusively with the end time events associated with the return of Jesus Christ. The word revelation means a revealing and unfolding or an unveiling of Jesus Christ at the end of time. So I just want to go over a couple questions that you may be asking as to how do we know that Jesus is coming back? We really don't give a lot of time to this to really think about that Jesus is coming back.

I think our world is so fast paced that we're caught up with a here and now. We don't think about the second return of Christ. How do we know he's coming back? We find the answer to that in Acts chapter 1 verse 11, who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up here into heaven? This same Jesus who was taking up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven. Here in Acts, we see at the ascension of Jesus Christ back to heaven. This is after the resurrection when he appeared to his disciples. About 40 days after his ascension back into heaven, we know that as to be the time of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came. But shortly after his resurrection, he was on the earth for a short amount of time. But then his disciples witnessed him go back into heaven. And at this point, these are the angels saying to them, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?

The angels are saying, This same Jesus who came or who was taken up to you into heaven will come back in the same manner as you saw him go into heaven. Thank you for joining us for today's edition of Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis. We invite you to join us again as Dr. Davis continues her teaching from one of the most mysterious, intriguing, and fascinating books in the Bible, the Book of Revelation. Please connect with Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis on Facebook at Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis and email us at CherylDavis at ProjectTruthMatters.com. Truth Matters is a ministry of The Truth Project.