[00:00:00] Speaker A: I now can sing Since I've been redeemed I'm on the everlasting, everlasting rock I faith in Christ my redeemer King I'm on the everlasting, everlasting rock Then roll.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Roll.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: Pillows.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: Roll.
[00:00:20] Speaker A: I'm on the everlasting rock of ages Roll.
There is a land of pure delight where saints immortal re Infinite sweet fields beyond the swelling floods and rest in living breath so to the Jews old Cain and stood one Jordan brought me.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Free.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: O could we make our doubts remove those who meet us at Christ and see the Canaan which we love without negligence?
[00:01:39] Speaker C: What comes to your mind when you think of the Book of Revelation?
Is it the symbolism, the numbers and objects that mean way more than you might expect?
Or is it the letters that John writes to the seven churches?
Or do you think of the judgment and the condemnation of the wicked?
I'm Anthony High Executive Director of Heralds of Hope.
Today we are beginning a new series in the Book of Revelation.
Though the topic of end times can be tricky and a controversial subject, we hope that through these messages from brother J. Mark Horst that you will be encouraged in your walk with God and gladly anticipate the return of Jesus and be able to say with John even so, come Lord Jesus.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: Thanks, Tony.
You know, some people are intrigued by the Book of Revelation, others because they don't know what to do with it. They just ignore it completely.
But I think for a Christ follower, ignoring a portion of Scripture is not a thing we can do.
Furthermore, it's the only book in the Bible that pronounces a specific blessing on those who read it and keep its sayings. We'll find that in chapter one, verse three. So I'm excited about studying this book with you, but before we begin to examine the text of John's letter, I'm going to use this episode as an introduction to our study.
So let's start with some definition of terms.
First of all, Revelation 1:3 says this blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near.
So John is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and he tells us that his writings are words of prophecy.
Now, you may already know this, but prophecy has two main the inspired declaration of divine will and purpose.
We might call that forthtelling or proclaiming the truth. But prophecy can also mean prediction of future events. That's probably the way we use it the most.
We must also remember that the biblical prophets were able to read the signs of their times. For example, think about the prophet Amos. When he saw what was happening in the kingdom of Samaria in the mid 8th century, he could already discern or perceive the distant rumble of the Assyrian army, even though that army didn't begin marching for another 30 years.
There's another term you may encounter in discussions about future events. It's the word eschatology.
Webster defines it this a branch of theology concerned with the final events in the history of the world or of humankind. I would add to that that it includes a belief about death, the end of the world, and the ultimate destiny of humanity.
After rehearsing some of Israel's history at the beginning of the chapter, the apostle Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 10:11.
Now, all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition or instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
Did you catch that last phrase?
Paul and the early church viewed the coming of Jesus as the beginning of the eschaton, or the culmination of human history as we know it.
Sometimes we refer to this period as the church age.
Some years ago, I was discussing prophetic scripture with a man, and he said something to me like this. It's not word for word, but I remember this.
As a child and a teenager, I knew very little about prophecy because it wasn't preached or taught in our church. In fact, we were forbidden to discuss it among ourselves.
Well, as you might imagine, I asked him about that. I said, why? Why couldn't you talk about it?
And his response was, we were told it was too difficult to understand and it was too divisive.
Roughly one fourth of the Bible is prophecy, and you were forbidden to teach or discuss it.
That's unbelievable.
Surely genuine believers should be able to discuss Scripture without rancor and bitterness.
I would say that everyone who reads and studies prophetic scriptures must admit, at least if they're honest, that there are many things in those scriptures that we don't fully understand.
My experience has been that when people become loud and attack the character of others, regardless of the subject, it's often a sign that their arguments lack strength.
And so we must hold our understanding and our convictions with humility, especially in this area of prophecy.
In the New Testament, the word for revelation is apokalupsis. And from this we get our English word apocalypse.
Now, this may surprise you, but contrary to the understanding of the way that we use the term today, the Apocalypse has nothing to do with ominous disasters or catastrophes of any kind.
It has no connotations of doom or the end of the world, as we know, simply means to reveal or to unveil something that was hidden.
Now, we don't often acknowledge this, but John's writing in the Book of Revelation is actually a letter. It's addressed to real people who lived very real lives and struggled to stay faithful to Israel's God in a dark and pagan world.
And this letter, of all the New Testament writings, is most explicitly eschatological, or we could say prophetic.
So then we shouldn't be surprised that from a very early time, this was one of the most systematically read and used books or letters of the New Testament.
Just try to imagine the comfort that it brought to believers who were suffering for their faith when they realized that in the end they would triumph over their enemies and they would enter into the glorious kingdom of Jesus Christ.
Now, if you've listened to any of my teaching, you know I emphasize context and how the original readers of Scripture would have understood it.
I approach the text of Revelation no differently than I do with John's Gospel or the Epistles.
The primary meaning of the Book of Revelation is what John intended it to mean as it was revealed to him, which in turn also must have been something his readers understood it to mean.
And so we must discover what revelation meant to John's readers if we hope to comprehend its meaning today and then make application to our own lives.
I would say this, though, since I believe in progressive revelation, I think there are certain aspects of this letter that help us better understand specific prophetic scriptures. Why? Because 2000 years have elapsed since John received these visions.
And this same idea also applies to the books of Ezekiel and Daniel and other prophetic Scriptures.
Furthermore, people who eventually live through these events will have a much better understanding of them than you and I do.
Whether you realize it or not, you have an underlying framework that you use to interpret and understand the Bible. There's a big word for that. We call it hermeneutic. It simply means the method or the principles you use in interpreting the Scriptures.
Some possible methods of interpretation are things like this.
Literal, allegorical, symbolic, maybe even mythical, and perhaps a combination of several of these.
Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology are two theological systems that govern how you and I interpret the overall storyline of Scripture.
Each of these systems seeks to describe how God's redemptive purposes unfolded throughout history.
These are what we call whole Bible theologies. They're ways of understanding God's redemptive purpose throughout the Scriptures.
If you have seriously studied the Bible you belong somewhere in one of these camps, whether you realize it or not.
If you believe that some of God's promises to Israel in the Old Testament still await fulfillment in a future millennium, then you are generally aligned with dispensationalism.
If you believe instead that all of God's promises to Israel are fulfilled in the Church, then then you are somewhere within covenantalism.
These theological frameworks can be summarized as the two primary distinctions of dispensationalism are 1 passage priority in hermeneutics and 2 a distinction between Israel and the Church.
Covenantalism mirrors these, holding that number one, New Testament priority in hermeneutics and number two, Israel, with all its promises, is fulfilled in the Church.
So keep in mind these are broad definitions with many variations within each of them, and I need to give credit for some of that material to a friend of mine, Julian Stalsfus, who writes for the Sword and Trumpet.
At this point I'll briefly introduce some of the views of eschatology within Christianity because they impact our understanding of the Book of Revelation as well as the other prophetic texts.
However, you should be aware that within each of these views that I'm going to give you, there are various understandings and applications. So necessarily my definitions will be broad.
First of all is preterism, and it has two main divisions. Full preterism teaches that all the prophecies, including the second coming of Christ, the Resurrection, and the final Judgment, were all fulfilled in the past, specifically around the first century AD.
Now there is a very tiny minority of people who hold this view, and among most Christians it's considered to be heretical.
The second then, is partial preterism. It affirms the future bodily return of Christ and the Resurrection. But it teaches that most of the other prophecies, especially those that concern Jerusalem, were fulfilled in 70 AD.
This view is held by the Churches of Christ as a denomination, and some Reformed and Presbyterian churches also embrace this view.
The late R.C. sproul espoused a partial form of preterism.
I would add to that that Christian reconstructionism sometimes influences this idea because it says that the Old Testament law should serve as a guide for civil society.
Reconstructionists teach that Christ will return to set up his kingdom on earth when enough people have converted to Christianity.
Moving on, then we have millennialism, and that's a reference to the 1000 year reign of Christ, as it's described for us in Revelation chapter 20 and verses 1 to 10.
And the major views of millennialism are as premillennial amillennial and postmillennial. So let's take a look at each of them just briefly.
The premillennial view of prophecy has two major divisions. Historical premillennialism teaches that the Church is the fulfillment of Israel and that the resurrection and second coming of Christ occur immediately preceding the millennium.
Historical premillennialism interprets Scripture as mostly grammatical and historical.
Then there's dispensational premillennialism. It teaches that Israel and the Church are separate entities. They have unique redemptive plans, and the rapture of the Church that's described in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 happens before the seven year tribulation.
Dispensational premillennials also believe that Christ will reign on the earth literally from Jerusalem after the tribulation.
Their method of interpreting Scripture is the most literal, and it's for that reason. It is the hermeneutic I use in studying and expounding the Scriptures, whether they're prophetic or not.
Then there's amillennialism. It teaches that we are currently in the millennium, not a literal 1000 year reign of Christ.
One question.
Revelation 20 clearly states that Satan will be bound for the duration of 1000 years.
In their interpretation, he must be bound now, but I haven't found that to be my experience.
They also believe that the Church is the eschatological fulfillment of Israel. In their view, the rapture takes place just before the judgment of the nations.
The method they use to interpret the Scriptures is allegorical and non literal for the most part.
The challenge with that is it leads to subjectivity in deciding what is literal and what is figurative, not only in the prophetic books, but throughout the entire scope of Scripture.
And then finally, we have postmillennialism. It teaches that the millennium is an era, not a literal 1000 year period. And like others, postmillennials believe that the Church is the fulfillment of God's promises to Israel.
They do believe in a literal reign of Christ after the Church Christianizes the world, in other words, Christian reconstructionism.
This they have in common with the partial preterists. And their interpretation of Scripture is largely from a covenantal historical perspective.
Apart from dispensational premillennialism, all of the others teach that the Church is the fulfillment of God's promises to Israel. How this can be reconciled with the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel, as well as with Paul's lengthy discussion of the subject in Romans 9, 10, 11 is something that's beyond me.
It appears that Emperor Constantine and the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. played a significant role in helping people reach those conclusions.
There's another thing to keep in mind when studying Revelation, and it's that it doesn't always progress in a neat, linear fashion.
We have to remember it's a thoroughly Jewish book. It doesn't promote the individuality and the abstract values and the linear reasoning of those of us who live in the West. We are primarily influenced by Greek philosophy.
Jewish thought is more practical, it's more cyclical, and it's more community focused. And you will see this Jewishness unfold as we progress through the Book of Revelation.
There are specific themes that are repeated and expanded as you work your way through the book.
Furthermore, apocalyptic literature as a genre makes generous use of creatures and images and symbols to communicate its message. If you've read Revelation, you know that there was other apocalyptic literature that was written at around the same time. And if you compare it with the Book of Revelation, you see many similarities.
The early church fathers did not see those writings as divinely inspired, so they didn't include them in the canon. But that doesn't make them worthless.
That said, they must be used with caution.
A significant number of people would argue that the scenes in the Book of Revelation should not be taken literally.
But picture language, with its symbols and its images and its figures, is just as capable of conveying literal truth and describing literal events as just mere prose.
It's just another way of communicating reality. And so Revelation uses picture language to emphasize historical fact rather than to deny it or diminish it.
Revelation 1:1 says that God signified the book to John.
The word translated signify, or in the niv, it's translated as made known, suggests that God communicated the book to John through signs or Symbols.
According to G.K. beale, the background of this term is Daniel chapter 2, where God signifies to the king through his dream what is going to occur in the latter days. And he does that by giving him a pictorial revelation. You can check that In Daniel chapter 2 and verse 45, there were pictures that Daniel used that represented concrete facts that were related to Nebuchadnezzar's future.
For most of the Bible, the general rule is you interpret it literally, except where the context clearly calls for a symbolic reading.
Dr. J.B. smith authored a commentary on a revelation of Jesus Christ. And in the preface to the revised edition, the editor, the late Dr. J. Otis Yoder, wrote, the central premise of this commentary is when the literal sense makes sense, seek no other sense.
Any other sense is usually Nonsense.
Now, I don't know that that quote was original with Dr. Smith, but he does make a valid point.
Incidentally, the revision of Dr. Smith's commentary on Revelation was the last significant contribution of Dr. Yoder to the contemporary church, made just before a stroke ended his public ministry in March of 2000.
And by the way, copies of that commentary are available from our offices if you contact us.
However, acknowledging that the book needs to be taken literally, we readily acknowledge that not everything John saw can be taken that way. For example, he describes a woman sitting on seven hills in Revelation, chapter 17 and verse 9.
Now, if you take that literally, it is either one enormous woman or those are some very tiny hills.
While we acknowledge this is not a literal woman, it doesn't deny the truth of Scripture.
Rome was a city that was built on seven hills, and John's readers were familiar with that word picture.
Another important aspect of correctly interpreting and understanding the Book of Revelation is its connection to the Old Testament. John's letter is filled with echoes and allusions to the Old Testament. In fact, nearly 70% of the verses in Revelation contain Old Testament references.
That's more than any other New Testament book by far. And many of those references come from the books of Psalms, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and more. And so, as I teach through this series, I will highlight many of those references.
Conservative scholar John Wolford wrote this, and I'm quoting Among the great prophetic books of Scripture, none provides a more comprehensive and chronological prophetic view of the broad movement of history than the Book of Daniel.
Of the three prophetic programs revealed in Scripture outlining the course of the nations Israel and the Church, Daniel alone reveals the details of God's plan for both the nations and Israel.
Although other prophets like Jeremiah had much to say to the nations and to Israel, Daniel brings together and interrelates these great themes of prophecy like no other portion of Scripture does.
For this reason, the Book of Daniel is essential to the structure of prophecy and is the key to the entire Old Testament prophetic revelation.
A study of this book, that is the Book of Daniel, is therefore not only important from the standpoint of determining the revelation of one of the great books of the Old Testament, but but it is an indispensable preliminary investigation to any complete eschatological system.
And that's the end of the quote.
I hope that these introductory ideas have been helpful, and I certainly invite you to join me for this exciting study from the Book of Revelation.
[00:21:26] Speaker A: Are you dressed for the wedding? Have you washed your robes? Are you dressed for the banquet? Are you ready to go? Are your lamps trimmed Burning with the spirit's light? Are you ready for the wedding? If the groom comes tonight?
Have you heard that there's a wedding and it's coming soon? I know the whole wide world's invited Are you ready now to go? Oh, there will be a banquet Won't you come and dine? See the king of all the ages to turning water into wine Are you dressed for the wedding? Have you washed your robes? Are you dressed for the banquet? Are you ready to go? Are your lamps trimmed and burning with the spirit's light? Are you ready for the wedding? If the groom comes tonight?
When you hear that trumpet sounding on a bright and glorious day when you hear the angels singing you will up and fly away There will be a celebration like none the world has known on that everlasting morning when the Lord comes for his own Are you dressed for the wedding? Have you washed your robes? Are you dressed for the banquet? Are you ready to go? Are your lamps trimmed the wedding with the spirit's light? Are you ready for the wedding? If the groom comes tonight?
Are you dressed for the wedding? Have you washed your robes? Are you dressed for the banquet? Are you ready to go? Are your lamps trimmed and burning with the spirit's light?
Are you ready for the wedding? Mr. Bride comes tonight.
[00:23:24] Speaker C: Thank you. J. Mark, you, know, as much as people would like to dispense of certain parts of the Bible because it's too difficult or too confusing, each book of the Bible was inspired by God and is part of the larger whole. Each and every portion of Scripture is indispensable and essential.
I hope this series will be a blessing to you.
We'd love if you could send us your comments, concerns or prayer requests to hopeheraldsofhope.org or you can call us at 866-960-0292 and our mailing address is the Voice of Hope, 6183 Lincoln Highway, Harrisonville, PA 17228. And don't forget, you're welcome to listen to past episodes or explore more Bible based content right on our
[email protected] including videos from our podcast called Guide through the Bible.
Your prayers and support help us keep sharing the good news of Jesus Christ around the world.
Thank you for standing with us and keep tuning in for more Bible teaching and encouragement right here on the Voice of Hope.
[00:24:53] Speaker D: Convictions are silenced, truth is obscured, innocence trampled, the lines have been blurred, consciences crumble as morals decay, and all we have left are a Few shades of gray but there are still those who will not be dismayed A remnant of God fearing men and we pledge to not be ashamed or afraid to stand Stand up and show we still can Be strong in the faith Be strong in the fight Be strong on the line between wrong and what's right Be strong in the power Be strong in the Lord Be more courageous than ever before Faithful determination Determined, steadfast and true Willing to sacrifice everything to.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: Be strong.
[00:26:12] Speaker D: Champions of honor Heroes of faith warriors.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Of valor Empowered by grace Cold to.
[00:26:25] Speaker D: Temptation Callous to pain and even through.
[00:26:31] Speaker A: Hard times Our vows will remain Men.
[00:26:35] Speaker D: Who when tested Refuse to deny the gospel we firmly believe and whether it means that we live or return die.
[00:26:50] Speaker A: Be certain that we'll always Be.
[00:26:59] Speaker D: Strong in the faith Be strong in the fight Be strong on the line between wrong and what's right Be strong in the power Be strong in the Lord Be more courageous than than ever before Faithful, determined, steadfast and true Willing to sacrifice everything to.
[00:27:30] Speaker E: Be strong In a time where concessions are applauded and compromises glorified it's time to be strong on principles that are proven on standards that stand on values that have value and on truths that are timeless it's time to stand up and stand out we don't need more superstars and celebrities we need men to be heroes of honor Examples of character Role models of integrity and inspirations of godliness it's time to be strong we have the power if we will receive it we have the call if we will answer we have the duty if we will obey so take courage, friend There is nothing to fear Nothing to dread and nothing to regret For God Almighty is on our side we are more than conquerors if only we will choose to be strong.
[00:28:24] Speaker D: Be more courageous than ever before Faithful, determined, steadfast and true Willing to sacrifice everything to.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: Be strong.
[00:28:46] Speaker D: We will be.
[00:28:51] Speaker C: Strong.
