What Does an Accurate Timeline of Revelation Look Like?

What does an accurate timeline of Revelation look like? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question. Here's our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

833-843-2673. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites, and of course you can always email us your question at questions-at-core-christianity.com. Bill, before we get started with the broadcast today, we got an email from one of our listeners yesterday.

I just wanted to read it. Actually, part of it is a prayer, but it was really encouraging. Our team, you know, we get together and we pray before the broadcast every day, and our producer shared this with us.

It says, Thank you for your time, and I love your show. So many times I break down in tears while listening to your show, hearing from others that have very similar storms in their lives and attacks on their spirits from the evil one, and to hear a godly response through your show. Father God, I pray for all those who are involved, both on the air and behind the scenes, that you continue to shower them with your blessings and keep them safe.

Lord, please allow this show to continue for years to come. Father, not our will, but may your will be done. I ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. And I just want to say amen to that prayer from one of our listeners, Richard. What a blessing it is to get to serve you all in answering questions about the Christian faith every day. And I know the lines are open right now.

Give us a call, 833-843-2673. And Bill, isn't it just awesome to hear those kinds of encouragements and also to know that listeners are praying for us as well? Oh, I just love that. And Richard, thank you so much for taking the time to actually send us an email and to pray for us.

We can't tell you how much that means because there are spiritual attacks going on in this world, and sometimes the arrows are pointed at us because of what we do. So thank you. We'd encourage all of our listeners. If you're a regular listener to Core Christianity, keep our program and our staff, our entire ministry in your prayers. Well, let's go to a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners. This is from Marty in Kansas. I'd like to ask him about Proverbs 25, where it talks about keeping coals upon a person's head. I know that isn't literal, but I don't know what it actually does mean, and I'd like to have him explain that. Thank you.

Hey, Marty, excellent question. Proverbs 25. This is a really important text, especially right now. There are so many Christians who wrestle with, I might be persecuted for my faith in Jesus Christ, and there are so many who oppose our views of the world, our views of God, our views of things like sexuality. And so when we're mistreated or when people persecute us for those things, how do we respond? And here Proverbs 25 says in verse 21, if your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head and the Lord will reward you. Now, is wisdom here telling us that by doing good to our enemies, really sort of backhandedly, secretly, they're going to get it really bad. They're going to get burning coals just cast down upon them.

I don't think that that's the point. I think that the burning coals here in particular are a metaphor, if you will, for that conviction, that shame that comes. You know, when you do something to harm someone and they respond with gentleness and kindness and grace, what does that bring? It brings shame.

It brings conviction. And this is actually confirmed, I would say, in the way the Apostle Paul uses this very verse when he's writing to the Romans in Romans chapter 12. He says to them in Romans chapter 12 verse 19, Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord, to the contrary. If your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. In other words, as we do good to our neighbors, even our enemies, and Jesus talks about this at the very end of Matthew chapter five in the Sermon on the Mount. Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. This is how God is. He's good and kind to the just and the unjust. And if we are children of the Heavenly Father, we ought to love even our enemies by doing good to them.

Why? So that they might come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and repent of their sins. And so, Marty, may God bless you and bless all of us and enable us to exhibit that kind of love. It's a supernatural love.

It doesn't come naturally. Normally, if somebody harms us or persecutes us, we want to respond in kind, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And yet, we're called to something else as the children of God.

We're called to exhibit that supernatural love produced by the Holy Spirit in our lives through the grace of the gospel. God help us. Amen. And, Adriel, wouldn't you say that that extends to our social media posts? No, that doesn't count. Social media, say whatever you want there.

And it does everywhere, right? Jesus said there isn't a stray word that you throw out there that isn't going to be liable to judgment. That should sober us up a little bit in terms of thinking about how we engage with others. This, by the way, and we could go on and on about this, Bill, but this is one of the ways I would say that we really can shine as lights in the world today where there is so much heat and misrepresentation and people tearing each other down in the world.

In places like social media, boy, we get to set a different kind of example as the followers of Christ and, again, as I said, may God help us to do that because it's so easy to get sucked into saying things or doing things we shouldn't do when we're offended by others. Yeah, people thinking, just one burning coal? Yeah, that's right.

We want to throw the burning coals at the people we don't like. Lord, I think that's what that means. We'd love to interpret the verse that way, but that's not what it means. And so I'm glad that I could clear that up. Thank you. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Please beware what you post on social media. And if there's a fellow brother or sister who's posting stuff that doesn't represent Jesus, I think you can feel free to. Right now, Bill, so many people are coming under the conviction of the Holy Spirit as you say those things.

They're just thinking, oh, man, you know, what? I got to go back and check what I said. For sure. Delete, delete, delete. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We'd love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life, doctrine, theology, something going on at your church that you're concerned about. Give us a call.

833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. We'll be taking your calls for the next 15 minutes or so.

So now is the time to jump on the phone. We do get emails as well, and you can email us anytime. Here's our address.

It's questions at corechristianity.com. Got this email from Ricardo. He says, I have a friend who has just come out and disclosed he is a practicing bisexual. What approach have you used to share the good news in this kind of situation? Ricardo, thank you for that question.

I'm sorry to hear about this situation. You know, the temptation that so many of us have is to compromise on the truth of God's word. When we have a friend or a loved one who, quote unquote, comes out of the closet.

They say, well, I'm gay, I'm lesbian, I'm bisexual. We love them, and so there's this deep concern, but I've seen it happen so many times where believers just say, okay, well, I guess that's just how things are. You remember what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians?

He gives a really stern warning there, and I just want to bring this up and highlight it very, very quickly. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 9. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. See, there's a temptation here to be deceived, to think people can live however they want, you know, walk in unrepentant sin, and that's okay.

Peace, peace, where there is no peace, as the false prophets used to say in the Old Testament. Do not be deceived, Paul said. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. And so, Ricardo, for this individual, this friend who has come to you and disclosed this information, I think it's good to ask questions, you know, how long have you felt this way, you know, what was sort of leading up to this and so forth, but it's also important to know that the grace of God extends to this individual, to this person, and that we receive that grace as we confess our sins.

As we say, Lord, I have these disordered desires inside of me, this inclination towards certain things that are contrary to your law, and certainly same-sex relationships would fall under that category. And rather than just affirming or reinforcing that belief, that decision, I think we as Christians want to come alongside of individuals with the grace of God and with the truth of God's Word. And so I would say again, asking some questions, showing truly genuine concern, genuine interest, but not minimizing the importance of the truth of God's Word and that call to repentance and the reality of the gospel of God's grace for this individual. As the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, your identity was transformed by the gospel through your union with Jesus Christ by faith, and that is what this individual needs, and pray for that because it is the work of the Holy Spirit. And so I was just talking to a member of my church yesterday who had this very same question.

They're meeting with a friend who is in this kind of relationship, and literally asking the same question. I said, look, prayer is so key because it is the work of the Holy Spirit, and I could tell there's a genuine love there and a desire to encourage and come alongside of this person, and praying for the boldness also, not to be ashamed of the Word of God, but to apply it. And that the Lord would open up the opportunity to do that, and so may God grant you that as well, Ricardo, and bless you as you have this conversation.

Really good counsel. Thank you for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you've got a question about the Bible, maybe a passage that's always kind of confused you and you'd like some clarification on it, or maybe a theological or doctrine question that you'd like to ask Adriel, feel free to give us a call right now. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

Our phone lines will be open for the next 10 minutes, so now is the time to call. By the way, if you're a parent or a grandparent, we have a really great resource for you that offers some songs that will help you sing hymns, sing scripture together with your kids or your grandkids. The resource is called 10 Songs to Sing as a Family.

Bill, I know you love to sing. You were in choir, and did you guys ever sing as a family together, songs just around the dinner table, that kind of thing? You know, when our kids were little, we did. When they got to be teenagers, they were too interested in TikTok.

Oh, no. Well, I hope that my kids, even as they get older, they're just going to have to sing. We're going to make them sing because maybe, I don't know, we'll see. But I hope you get a hold of this resource.

It's called 10 Songs to Sing as a Family. It's a free resource. It'll introduce you to some great Christian hymns, and as we've been saying over the last couple of days, music, songs, rich theological songs are a great way to teach the faith.

We're singing the word of God into our hearts and our minds. It's a great way to memorize scripture. Take advantage, again, of this resource.

You can get it over at corechristianity.com forward slash radio for your free download of 10 Songs to Sing as a Family. You know, I'd encourage you to check out some of the other resources at our website. There's just some great material there.

Many of the things we offer are absolutely free. We also have some great Bible studies available if you are going to be leading a small group or a Bible study this fall. Check it out, corechristianity.com. Well, we do receive voicemails here at the Core. You can call us 24 hours a day and leave your question for Adriel on our voicemail system.

The number is 833-THE-CORE. Here's a voicemail from one of our listeners named Byron. Hey Pastor Adriel, I was trying to explain to my friend the other day the timeline from the tribulation to the millennial reign, then transitioning from there into heaven and then the lake of fire. So I was wondering if you could kind of like go in depth on like that timeline for me. Thank you.

Hey, excellent question. Boy, in depth, you're going to have to check out the series I did through the book of Revelation. We do also offer a Revelation Bible study here written by Dr. Dennis Johnson, who wrote another book called Triumph of the Lamb. Both of those resources would be excellent resources to go really in depth.

I'm only going to be able to scratch the surface here. But as far as the timeline is concerned, a couple of things I think that are really important to keep in mind when we're approaching the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation was written to Christians in the first century to comfort them and to encourage them in the midst of the persecutions they were facing. And so when we look at the book of Revelation as this sort of mysterious, you know, you just can't understand it.

This book that was written, you know, with, you know, the mysteries of the future way down the line, you know, we really do a disservice to the book because one, it had a really practical purpose and it still has a very practical purpose. It's given by Jesus to John to comfort the suffering church. And brothers and sisters, there is a lot of suffering in the church today and there has been for the last 2000 years. And so the book of Revelation is just so important that we actually understand it the right way. And John in the Revelation is getting this information pertaining to, relating to a lot of the things that were happening there at that time. The book opens up the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant, John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near. And then the first few chapters, in particular chapters two and three, are letters addressed to churches that were there in Asia Minor. Seven churches that are being addressed, commended and challenged by Jesus and encouraged really to persevere in faithfulness in the midst of the temptation to commit idolatry or apostasy or to be insular and not preach the gospel, not share the gospel with their neighbors.

So you have all of that. And then in chapter four, John is given this picture of heaven. He sees the throne room of heaven and he's taken up and he has this amazing vision of Jesus in chapter five. And that right there in chapter five, this sort of corresponds with the ascension of Jesus.

What happened? Have you ever wondered what happened after Jesus ascended into heaven? Read Revelation chapter five.

It is for you right there. The Lamb of God with all authority and power being worshiped and praised and all creation bowing down before him there, the heavenly host worshiping him. And then John begins to unpack those visions that he has in chapters six and following. And I think those chapters, so there are a couple of ways in which the book has been taken. There are some who focus a lot on the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. That's sometimes referred to as the partial preterist view where the focus is on Jerusalem's fall and Jerusalem is associated with Babylon.

Babylon as it's described later, especially towards the latter chapters of the book. There are others who say, no, it was probably not referring to the fall of Jerusalem because Revelation was probably written after 70 AD. And part of the argument there is the persecution that Revelation describes wasn't really, that's not what's being described with the local persecution that was happening in chapters two and three and so forth. Probably the Babylonian false prophet, the evil that John is really seeing is the Roman Empire.

And so there are some that focus on that. There are others who, you know, they read the book of Revelation, there is more of a historicist understanding. So there are specific historical reference to the various visions that John sees.

Here's what I would say. John is giving us a picture as he sees these various visions of the unfolding of human history. And it's very, there's a lot of repetition. It's history repeating itself, if you will. It's these judgments of God being poured out upon the world. The church continuing to advance through the proclamation of the gospel, plagues, you know, false teaching, deception, and so forth, leading up to culminating in the final battle apostasy, if you will, and then the ushering in of the new heavens and the new earth towards the end of the book of Revelation, Revelation chapters 21 and 22. And so I would see the meat of the book, all of these visions that John is getting, as focusing on the unfolding of human history. And in particular, again, John is highlighting for us God's care and concern for his suffering people in the midst of human history. And that's why this book really, I mean, we need to preach on it. We need to talk about it because as we experience suffering for our faith, as we experience persecution for our faith, man, this book was given to comfort us and encourage us and to help us to persevere.

And so I know I've gone longer than I probably even should have, and like I said, I'm just scratching the surface, but check out those other resources that I recommended earlier because those are going to give you a lot more of a detailed description, if you'd like. God bless. And Adriel mentioned that great Bible study we have on the book of Revelation. You can find that by going to corechristianity.com slash radio.

Just browse around, look for our Bible studies and the Bible study, particularly on the book of Revelation. Well, we have time for one more call. Let's go to James who is in Missouri. James, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? James, are you there?

Yeah. Hey, James. How are you doing? I'm doing well. How are you?

I'm doing pretty good. All right. What's your question? In the beginning, there was Adam, Eve, and then came Cain and Abel. Now, before Cain killed Abel, Cain married a wife. Where did this woman come from if these are the only four people on the face of the earth at the time?

Hey, James, thank you for that question. This is a question we oftentimes get, and it's one that even skeptics will bring up, trying to challenge the history in scripture. Where did Cain get his wife? There's a couple different approaches.

Here's the one that I typically take, and it's this. In Genesis chapter 5 verse 4, it says, the days of Adam, after he fathered Seth, were 800 years, and he had other sons and daughters. This is the dawn of the human race, human history. We believe that our first parents, Adam and Eve, the first human beings on earth, they begin to procreate and to fill the earth. Really, what you're left with is Cain had to get his wife from these other children that Adam and Eve had. Again, there's a long period of time that's described there.

The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years. That's one approach. That's the one that I'll share with you, and I appreciate that question. Like I said, it's one we oftentimes get on the broadcast, isn't it, Bill?

One of those sort of, wait, how did that happen? I think people were left scratching their head, but it's not as bewildering when you realize that, well, no, Adam and Eve had other children that weren't mentioned there. Well said. Here's a quick question from Mary Ann. She says, I have a friend who claims to be a Christian, but has been living with her boyfriend for five years.

In previous relationships, she had three abortions. She won't go to church because she's afraid she'll get judged. She prays, but barely looks at a Bible and won't attend church. She claims she and her boyfriend are believers. I've tried talking to her, but to no avail. Are there some scriptures I should give to her to meditate on? I want to encourage her and not judge her.

Hey, thank you for that question. John chapter four, I would say Jesus's engagement with the woman at the well, encourage her to read that. Jesus, you know, goes and pursues this woman who has had multiple relationships. She was living in sin. She was living with a guy that wasn't her husband. And yet Jesus pursued her and he didn't say that what she had done was okay.

He wasn't saying, oh, it's fine what you're doing. No, he called her to follow him and he called her to repentance. But there was so much grace and love. He welcomed her into his church as she turned from her sins. And so Christ is merciful and gracious to all who turn to him, including his friend. I'd say, including your friend, I'd say meditate on John four. Thanks and God bless. When you contact us, let us know how we can be praying for you and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.