Truth Matters: Intro to Revelation

Today on Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis, she begins part two of the prophecy series, moving from the book of Daniel to the book of Revelation and the majestic visions of the end time Jesus gives the Apostle John. Dr. Davis begins her teaching of the book of Revelation today with a brief introduction and overview of the book, beginning with the seven churches of Asia Minor, the rapture of the church, the removing of the Holy Spirit, the seven years of tribulation, the revealing of the man of sin, God's judgment of the nations, and finally, the return of Jesus. It is a compelling and captivating study of the end time as the people of Earth experience a paradigm shift of global powers that usher in the messianic reign of Jesus. Now, Dr. Davis and the Revelation series.

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 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 of 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 one, 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. And about 50 days or 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. So why is that?

You know, you may be asking that question. Why must Christ return the second time? Why must Jesus come back?

So there are a number of reasons why. The first one being Jesus must come back to take his church to be with him. You know, the church is presented in 2 Corinthians, Ephesians and Revelation as the bride of Christ. And if you remember the Jewish wedding tradition, the dowry was paid by the groomsman to the bride's family. And that agreement is made that there's going to be a marriage, but the bride waits eagerly for the surprise time that the groom is going to come to get her. So in the day that the dowry is paid, it's not that she becomes his bride that day. The groomsman goes back to the home, builds the house onto the father's house and prepares for the bride.

And when he's ready to come take her, then he comes to get her at a time unbeknownst to her or her family. So the rapture is very similar to this, that right now the church is eagerly awaiting the appearing of her bridegroom, Christ. So this return of Christ coming to get the church is known as the rapture. After the rapture, Christ takes the church to heaven to enjoy the marriage supper of the Lamb, the symbolic unifying of Christ and his bride to be for eternity. In addition to the marriage supper of the Lamb, there will be for the believer the judgment seat of Christ. The judgment seat of Christ is where our works are evaluated. It's a judgment of commendation, not necessarily condemnation. It's commendation. So it's a reward type judgment for our works here after we are saved.

But also it's where we receive our victor's crown. After the rapture begins the tribulation on earth, which is also known as the judgment on the earth, the church is being judged in heaven by Christ where our works that we have done and their continuing influence on others. This is where we get into success and significance. There are a lot of things and works of the church that are successful, but really those that are significant are those works that go on beyond our death. There are rewards that will be given to our faithfulness to Christ.

It will be an evaluation of our work for Christ on earth. But to study the events surrounding when the rapture takes place, you know, we can reference 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 as well as Matthew 24. We won't necessarily get into those chapters here as we may study them later as we go through Revelation 2 and 3. However, the key point that I want everyone to understand is that there are no more prophecies that need to be fulfilled before the second coming of Christ takes place.

I'm going to say that one more time. The rapture is as close to us as the next moment, the next second. There are no more prophecies that need to be fulfilled before the second coming of Christ. So the first reason, as I stated, that Christ needs to come back the second time is that he must come back to take his church to be with him. The second reason that Christ needs to come back is that he must come back to judge the world. The second coming of Christ happens in two phases.

The first phase is in the air. Christ will come in the air to gather his bride, which is what we know is the rapture. But seven years later, at the end of the tribulation, Christ comes to earth to judge the world. So we find this mentioned in scripture in 2 Thessalonians 1, 8 through 9. Verse 8 through 9 says, In flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, these shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. Also, we find this judgment in 2 Timothy, chapter 4, verse 1. I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. So we know that Jesus Christ will come back to judge the world. The second reason, Jesus must come back to rule the world. You know, a lot of people don't necessarily think about this, but we know that it appears, you know, that Satan is the prince of this world.

He is the prince of the air. But he has been defeated on the cross, but that sentence has not been carried out just yet. When Jesus comes back to rule the world, that sentence will be carried out on Satan and he will be eternally bound and cast into the lake of fire. But this was shown to Daniel in Daniel, chapter 7, verse 13 and 14. And we reviewed this in our Daniel series, but we will just refresh ourselves by reading verses 13 and 14.

Here, this is in chapter 7, where Daniel saw the vision of the four beasts and the vision of the Ancient of Days. Verse 13 says, I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, he came to the Ancient of Days and they brought him near before him. Then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. Daniel is describing the millennium when Jesus will be given his reward for his death on the cross, as God promised him to be the sacrifice and the propitiation for our sin. Also, it's discussed in Revelation, chapter 11, verse 15, where all the seals, the bowls and the trumpets have been poured out.

And in verse 15, it says, Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. So here we see Jesus taking his rightful place as ruler of the world to start the millennium as a reward for his death on the cross. So why does Christ come back the second time? First, he must come back to take his church to be with him. Second, he must come back to judge the world.

But third, he's going to come back to rule the world. So you may be asking, if there's no other prophecies that need to be fulfilled before the rapture takes place, really, what is going to happen when Jesus comes back? We find this in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, chapter 24. This is a well-known scripture where the disciples are asking Jesus, you know, what is it going to be like whenever you come back, whenever you restore Israel to her previous splendor?

And we'll get to that later. But the rapture is a trigger that sets in motion many events that will take place on earth immediately prior to Christ's second coming. So one of these is the tribulation. We believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, and we'll get to, you know, how we know that.

But right after the rapture is the tribulation. The church leaves, you know, Christ comes in the air to get his bride. The church leaves the earth and is in heaven with Christ. Also, the church is the vessel in which the Holy Spirit dwells in the earth currently. As we know from the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit indwelled believers. And when the church is taken to heaven, the Holy Spirit also leaves. So when the Holy Spirit leaves, there is no restraining influence of righteousness on earth. Currently, the Holy Spirit serves as a significant restrainer of evil, as we know today. Revelation 6 through 19 deals with the events of the tribulation.

That is conflict, confusion, wickedness. But the church, we know that the pre-tribulation rapture is how this is going to happen, based on the fact that the church is last mentioned in Revelation chapter 3, verse 10. He says, Because you have kept my command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial, which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. Christ is writing to the church of Philadelphia and telling them, because they are faithful, because I've not found any wickedness or improvement or repentance that is needed within you, I'm going to keep you from the hour of trial, which he's talking about the tribulation. The rapture, we know, is the final act of grace before the church is taken to heaven, so that the tribulation can occur. Please join Dr. Davis in the coming weeks on Truth Matters for the Revelation series, an in-depth study of what Jesus showed the Apostle John during the final seven years of man's dominion on earth, Israel's redemption, and Satan's fall from power. It will be a thrilling study of God's saving grace, the judgment of wicked nations, and the destruction of Satan's empire on earth, and the principalities that have ruled in space.

You will not want to miss this in-depth study of the book of Revelation, Man's Destiny with God. Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis is a ministry of The Truth Project. If you would like to contact Truth Matters, you can reach us by emailing Dr. Davis at CherylDavisatProjectTruthMatters.com or write her at P.O. Box 159, St. Paul's, North Carolina, 28348. You can connect with Truth Matters on Facebook or visit our website at ProjectTruthMatters.com. Please join us again for our next edition of Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis. We are a Christian ministry of The Truth Project.