REVELATION Lesson 21

REVELATION

Lesson 21

ARE WE LIVING IN THE END TIMES?

Revelation 11:16-17   ¹⁶ And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,

¹⁷ Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.

The announcement that God and Jesus will be taking over caused a tremendous reaction in heaven. From this point on Satan’s days will be drawing quickly to a close. Jesus will begin to exercise the authority over the nations that became his when he died on the cross. He will go forth to conquer the forces of evil and usher in the millennium. The twenty-four elders represent the church from Pentecost to the rapture.

Revelation 11:18   ¹⁸ And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

Satan will know his day will soon come to an end. He will stir up anger in the nations and at the same time he stirs up anger, Gods wrath will burn brighter. This will put Satan and Jesus on a collision course, Satan will unite the nations against Jesus. This conflict is referred to as the battle of Armageddon.

The nations were angry and Gods wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and your saints: all those who reverence your name, both small and great, he will destroy those who are causing destruction on the earth.

Everyone is accountable to God. No one will escape His judgement. Even the dead will be judged, but the righteous will be rewarded before the judgement seat of Christ for reverencing the name of Jesus. The wicked will be destroyed for their unrepented sin.

Revelation 11:19   ¹⁹ And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

The lightening, voices, thundering, earthquake, and great hail indicate that the scene in heaven is over and events that have to do with the affairs of men are about to be disclosed. These will be catastrophes and mounting confusion and terror that will come upon the earth. There is one thing left to discuss, how to avoid this awful period in our worlds future, it is by receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior by his own personal invitation. He is waiting with open arms for you to receive Him as Lord and Savior.

Revelation 12:1-2   12 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

² And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

Chapter eleven began this prophet which now continues into chapter twelve. Now we will be learning more about Israel, Jesus, Satan, the Archangel Michael and the inhabitants of the earth. Most of the bad things that happen do so because the world is caught up in a great spiritual battle between good and evil, which is sometimes referred to as the conflict of the ages.

It is a spiritual struggle between God and Satan that will intensify on earth at the end of the age of grace. Jesus clearly taught that it will be worse than anything that has happened on the earth ever before. This great struggle involves a woman, (Israel), a dragon (Satan), a child (Jesus) and the remainder of the woman’s offspring (Christians). The woman is referred to as a great wonder in Heaven. The word “wonder” literally translated from the Greed is “sign” and appearing for the first time in the book of Revelation it indicates that the woman is not to be taken literally as woman, but as a symbolic representation of something.

The woman, clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head says she was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Seven things are presented in revelation: the woman representing Israel the dragon or Satan, the man child Jesus, Michael representing the angels. The remnant of Israel represented by the 144,000: the beast of the sea, the world dictator of the end time: the beast of the earth, a religious leader who is a false prophet and supports the world dictator.

If the predictions of this portion of Revelation are to be properly interpreted it is necessary to give close attention to the details concerning each person.

Revelation 12:3   ³ And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

John recorded, then another sign appeared in Heaven. And enormous Red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his head. This sign is called a wonder but the word wonder is not used here. Rather it is a sign in the enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads refers to the Roman Empire.

Just because Rome has sunk beneath the sands of time does not mean that the Roman Government is not in force today. In fact, Roman government today covers a vast amount of the earth’s population. Power in the hands of evil men in the form of government has given license to murders, war, famine, heartache and suffering beyond human comprehension.

This can be attributed to Satan who is using world dictators and key leaders to manipulate the affairs of mankind. the culmination of such practices will reach a climax during the tribulation period.

The dragon spoken of in the bible will have seven heads symbolizing the seven gentile world governments. It will have ten horns symbolizing the ten that will reign with him during the tribulation period. The bible teaches that these ten kings will rise to power and the antichrist will come on the scene in a unified Europe called the European nation.

This must not be taken lightly. A one world government empowered and controlled by Satan is a terrible thought. Some feel that it will make world war two look like a Sunday picnic.

A good example of how this could happen is a proposal that came before the U.N. It called for the nations to surrender their sovereignty to the U.N. The world will be divided into ten regions, the number of permanent members of the security council of U.N. will be increased to ten. One permanent member will be put over each region.

 This is the kind of thing Christians need to be on the watch for.

# 1 one world divided into ten regions with ten leaders called kings, 10 horns,10 crowns.

# 2 The antichrist takes over three regions, leaving ten kings or horns but only seven regions, or seven crowns. Assyria, Egypt, Babylon.

# 3 Antichrist takes over the whole world. He will control ten kings and seven crowns or regions. This will be the kingdom of leaders that will rule with the Antichrist at the end of the age.

Christians don’t worry. As I have said before, we will have been raptured out before most of this happens, however you need to know this. It may help you lead someone to Christ. The word promises a blessing for those who read and study the book of Revelation.

Until the next lesson,

Stay in the word.

Brother Andy.