Understanding the Book of Revelation

 

By Dennis Pollock

 

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John (Revelation 1:1).

 I once read a “Peanuts” comic strip in which I found a great theological truth. In the comic, Linus was sitting beside Lucy, and both were looking out the window watching a torrential rain. Lucy, appalled at the deluge pouring from the skies, commented, “What if it just keeps raining and raining until finally the whole world is flooded?” Linus, looking very wise, reassured Lucy, “You don’t have to worry about that. God made a promise to Noah that He would never again flood the whole world like He did at that time, and He has given the rainbow in the sky as the guarantee of that promise.” Lucy exclaimed with relief, “That’s wonderful! I feel so much better now.” Linus calmly remarks, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.”

 Linus was right. Sound theology will always bring hope and encouragement to those who fear God and walk with Him by faith. (It will most definitely not do that to those who rebel; it will make them quite uncomfortable) 

Promises & Warnings

 When we study the book or Revelation, and read of that horrific period of time just prior to the Lord’s return to rule on earth, we see many fearful things. Death, destruction, and the wrath of God abound. For this reason end time prophecies, and especially the book of Revelation, have been relegated to the “doom and gloom” category and considered by many to hold no blessing for anyone. Yet the Scriptures plainly tell us at the outset that “he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it” will be blessed (Revelation 1:3). There are tremendous blessings of hope and encouragement that can be gained from reading and understanding this amazing book. No Christian can afford to ignore its promises, and no sinner its warnings.

 Jesus Himself graphically referred to that intense time at the end of the age, saying:

For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened (Matthew 24:21,22).

 Jesus is describing a time of unparalleled horror for the whole earth in the last days. From His very words, Christians have traditionally referred to this time as “the tribulation.” This brief period of horrible death and destruction is most clearly depicted in that mysterious last book of Bible, called Revelation. Out of this enigmatic book’s 22 chapters, 13 are given to describe this time. You cannot understand Revelation without grasping the nature of the tribulation, and you cannot properly understand the tribulation apart from giving serious consideration to Revelation.

 The Right Perspective

 There are three basic views that Christians take of the book of Revelation. As in almost everything in life, your perspective makes all the difference.

 Some Christians see Revelation as a great puzzle. To them it is simply incomprehensible. They will grudgingly admit that it is indeed the word of God, but see little real value in the book (quite a paradox, since God declares that His word is “profitable for all things.”) They may occasionally read the book, but usually they read through it quickly expecting little from it. It must be read in order to say one has read through the Bible, or the New Testament, but they have little or no expectation that it will do them any real practical good in their lives. Nor do they expect to ever make any sense of it. Leave that to the fanatics; they have more important things to do, like praying and ministering to people. In their view we will surely understand it “when we all get to heaven” but until then it is better not to think too much about it.

 A second group sees Revelation not as a puzzle, but as a parable. Just as Jesus taught in parables, so this mysterious book is actually a parable which has but one major point. As in all parables it is not necessary or even desirable to concentrate too much on the specific details, or to try to attach any significance to them. The parable is given to make one point and one point only. In the case of Revelation, that point is that, in the end, good will ultimately triumph over evil. God and His people will win; Satan and his minions will lose, and all will be eventually right with the world.

 According to this view we should not waste our time trying to decipher the difference between the trumpet-blowing angels and the bowl-pouring angels, or worry overmuch about the identity of the beast or the harlot who rides him. Never mind trying to figure out the relationship between the beast, the false prophet, and the dragon. These are all merely symbols making the point that God will come out on top at the end of things. They were given to encourage Christians with that central thought, not to confuse them with all the specifics and details.

 Now if this were the whole of the book of Revelation, that still wouldn’t be too bad. It is indeed encouraging for Christians to keep an eternal perspective, and to be powerfully reminded that ultimately good will triumph and evil will be put down. So if that’s all you get out of Revelation you haven’t done too badly. But most prophecy scholars believe there is more.

 Prophecy of Things to Come

 The third position that Bible believing Christians hold is that Revelation is not a puzzle, and is far more than a parable. It is a prophecy. Its details are important, and will, at some point in the earth’s history, be fulfilled. To my mind this is the most reasonable and Scripture honoring view.

 Dr. Henry Morris once made a statement that is profoundly true concerning the Bible’s last book. He wrote: “Revelation is not hard to understand – it is hard to believe. When you can believe it, you will understand it.”[1]

 He is right! So much of Revelation’s graphic descriptions of death and destruction are not hard to understand. It’s just that no one wants or dares to believe them. When we read of huge segments of the earth’s population being killed, we say, “This could not happen.” We do not want to believe it. Of course these things very well could happen, as even secular futurists constantly warn.

 There are a group of secular pessimists who are so disheartened at the general trends of the world, that they call themselves the “Society of Secular Armagedonnists.” They believe that due to nuclear weapons, the population explosion, the loss of natural resources, and other ecological problems, our world is doomed to destruction and the human race to extinction. Their motto is, “There is no hope; don’t give up!” (suggesting that the enlightened individual will see that our world is inevitably going down the tubes, but will be so noble as to fight for its preservation anyway).

 An Old Man on an Island

 Revelation was given to the apostle John as an old man. John had been punished for his Christian witness and influence by banishment on the island of Patmos, where he would not be able to infect anyone with his potent Christianity. The visions he recorded are simply amazing. Through them we are given a glimpse into the future. It is important to recognize that these are not the productions of a creative mind. John was not sitting down and making up stories to inspire or scare. John was merely recording that which he saw and heard. Over and over again, as we read this book we are told what John saw and heard:

 ·         Revelation 4:1  After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven.

·         Revelation 6:1  Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals…

·         Revelation 7:1  After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth…

·         Revelation 10:1  And I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven…

·         Revelation 13:1  Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea…

·         Revelation 16:1  Then I heard a loud voice from the temple…

·         Revelation 19:1  After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia!”

 Over and over again John declare “I saw, I saw, I heard…” In our world we have futurists who study societal trends. Using statistics, noting past and present indicators, they make projections of what we can expect in days to come. Sometimes they are right; sometimes they miss the mark by miles.

 John was no futurist. He used no charts or graphs. His task was much more simple. He served as a reporter and a witness. He merely told what he had seen. The tribulation he wrote of is highly significant to our generation for many reasons. One of those reasons is that it occurs just prior to that time when Jesus Christ steps out of heaven and makes His appointed appearance on the world scene. As societal indicators point to the coming tribulation, we can be sure that Jesus is literally “at the doors.” The nearness of the appointed “hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world” is one of the surest signs of the times. We look for Him to come for His church just before this hour of trial. He will come to earth as Judge and King at its conclusion.

 Nature of the Tribulation

 Revelation reveals that the tribulation period will be divided into three series of judgments. These are referred to as the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls of wrath. By the time these judgments are completed the earth will be, as Isaiah saw, "entirely emptied and utterly plundered” (Isaiah 24:3). He goes on to say, “The inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left” (Isaiah 24:6).

 This time of wrath and judgment starts with a question:

 Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?'' (Revelation 5:2).

 John is given a vision of the Father seated on His throne, holding in His right hand a scroll which has been sealed with seven seals. The seals indicate a type of legal document, only to be opened and read by the proper authorities. In this case, there is a “worthiness” required before the scroll will be allowed to be opened and read. Hence the question: “Who is worthy to open the scroll…?”

 A search is made throughout the universe. No corner of the cosmos is left untouched. Angels, men, principalities and powers are all examined, and still no one is worthy to even look at the scroll, much less break its seals. As the vision continues, John is broken. He begins to weep and sob over the unread scroll. Even with all the godly saints on earth and all the spotless angels in heaven, no one has that perfect holiness required to read the scroll.

 At last John is given a comforting word:

 But one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals'' (Revelation 5:5).

 There is one worthy after all! It is a Lion, and yet a man. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Yet when John looks over in His direction, he sees not a lion but a lamb:

 And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain… (Revelation 5:6).

 So we have a Lion, who is a man, a Jew from the tribe of Judah. And He looks as though He has been slain. It would have been hard for the Scriptures to make this any clearer that the Person in question is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself! He is the only one worthy to open the scroll.

 The Appointed Judgments

Keep in mind that the essence of this scroll has to do with the fearful judgments which are appointed to come upon the whole earth in the last days. To open the seals is to begin the tribulation, that period of the earth’s history which will be more bloody than any other time, nor will ever be equaled again. According to a literal reading of Revelation, billions of people will die in a few short years. The carnage will be unimaginable. Hence the need for someone of spotless perfection to launch this concert of the outpouring of God’s wrath.

 All of this must take place before Christ can come back to reign on earth. At this point many may ask why. Why must these things occur? We can guess. We can speculate. But ultimately we must rest upon God’s perfect wisdom and declare that this is God’s business and not ours. He has announced what He will and must do, and we cannot argue against it. God’s perfect holiness, wisdom, love, and justice are all interconnected with one another, and He cannot act otherwise. His actions always spring from His own perfection. At the end of the age, the tribulation and the coming of Christ to reign on the earth are the results of this dynamic interplay of God’s attributes.

 Who is worthy to launch such a horrific devastating blow upon the earth? The only one suitable is the spotless Lamb, the very One who came with mercy to save men from the wrath of God. Now that same Lamb has become a Lion to wreak vengeance on those who have defiantly shaken their fists in the face of their gracious Father, and spurned His offer of mercy.

 The Seven Seals

 As John watches in fascination, the Lamb opens the scroll until the first seal is broken. Immediately a thunderous voice cries out, “Come and see!” Before John’s eyes a mysterious rider appears on a white horse. The rider is given a crown and goes out “conquering and to conquer.”

 Two views have been espoused concerning this conquering rider by those who take prophecy seriously. Some have suggested that this rider represents Jesus Christ, going forth with His gospel of mercy and grace in the last days to convert large numbers of humanity before the end comes. The other view suggests that this is the antichrist riding forth to conquer and control the world.

 The latter view seems more reasonable. Keep in mind that all the other of these various events symbolized by the seals, trumpets, and bowls of wrath are negative in nature. They relate to an onslaught of destruction, expressing God’s fierce anger at a rebellious, immoral world. The idea of Jesus and His gospel being represented by one of these seals just doesn’t fit with the rest of the scenario. Contained within that terrible scroll that John wept over is literally the world’s “worst nightmare.” It seems far more likely that the rider of the white horse is the antichrist who is granted the authority to do that which neither Hitler, Napoleon, or Alexander the Great could do: control and possess (if for a very brief time) the entire world including every nation, tribe, and language group. The release of the antichrist, who has been until now restrained, is the kickoff of the tribulation. 

After the white horse, John sees another horse and rider. This time the horse is brilliant red, and there is no question as to his role in this Last Days concert of misery. John writes, “It was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another…” (Revelation 6:4).

 War is no novelty. Since the beginnings of recorded history, there have been wars aplenty. So what makes this rider who causes wars so unique? It would seem that the warfare that will erupt in the earth’s final days will eclipse all known wars in both scope, size, and deaths. Until the last century, men had pretty primitive ways of killing one another. For many thousands of years bows and spears were the weapons of choice. Finally gunpowder was discovered, and men learned that they could kill at greater distances. Still, muskets and cannon balls had their limitations. War deaths were usually limited to thousands or at most ten thousands.

 New Kind of War

 During the twentieth century a new term was coined: World War. We had two of them. In these gigantic international clashes we had groups of nations pitted against other groups of nations. Armies numbered in the millions, deaths in the hundreds of millions. More men were killed in war in the twentieth century than in all other centuries combined. No longer was war limited to tribe against tribe or nation against nation. Alliance fought alliance, expending money, materials, and men as no previous wars had ever done before. The rider on the red horse is drawing near. World War III may well be that worldwide conflict that will only be concluded by the appearing of Christ Himself.

 The third horse John sees is black and the rider has a pair of scales in his hand. John hears a voice proclaiming the sale price of grain in the last days: a quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius. What does this have to do with anything? It is helpful to note that a denarius was the standard wage for an ordinary man of New Testament times. Thus we find that it was costing a man his entire day’s wages to purchase a quart of wheat or three quarts of the less desirable barley. In other words it was requiring a man to spend all he could earn just to feed his family survival rations for another day. Clearly this represents a terrible economic collapse, the natural result of this titanic clash of world superpowers.

 It is the fourth horse and rider that are the most fearful of all. The horse is pale and its rider’s name is death. He is given authority to kill one fourth of the earth’s population. Here is a classic example of Henry Morris’ statement about Revelation not being so hard to understand as it is hard to believe.

 I can mentally calculate one fourth of humanity. It comes out to a little under two billion people. The arithmetic is not that hard. But believing that people will die by the billions is an enormous thought to digest. It is beyond anything the world has ever seen. It is death by wholesale. Who would want to believe such a thought? It is far easier to suggest that John is not to be taken literally here; he is merely indicating… well, we don’t really know what he is indicating, but he is surely indicating something other than what the words seem to suggest!

 The problem is that once you start turning these rather plain predictions into symbols and signs, you have the gargantuan and impossible task of trying to explain what they all mean. Some brave souls make the attempt, but many give it up and content themselves to say that we will understand the deep meanings of Revelation in heaven. Until then, better leave these things alone! 

The Seven Trumpets

 Time and space do not permit an examination of each of the specific judgments, but we will now look briefly at the trumpet judgments. In each judgment an angel blows a trumpet, which initiates a fearful calamity upon the earth. It is important to recognize that these judgments are not merely the consequences of men who abuse their environment, nor are they purely “the work of the devil’ (although I don’t discount that the devil will be quite active during this time). First and foremost these are divine acts of an angry, holy, righteous God. Jesus breaks the seals of the scroll, and death and destruction follow. Angels blow trumpets and more devastation occurs. Other angels pour out bowls of God’s anger, and the world goes through more misery still. God could hardly be more plain in demonstrating that this is His work. What the world is experiencing is, to borrow a phrase from the pre-eminent New England theologian Jonathan Edwards, “sinners in the hands of an angry God.”

 With the completion of the opening of the seven seals John sees seven angels with seven trumpet preparing to blow their instruments at the command of God. He describes the first such blast:

 The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up  (Revelation 8:7).

 We are not told the precise scientific reason why “hail and fire, mingled with blood” are falling upon the earth. We are told the results: a terrible destruction of vegetation occurs. One third of the earth’s vegetation is no more. The ecological trauma of such an event would be incalculable. Because plant life is the basis for all other life, there would inevitably be a domino effect, resulting in ecological catastrophes and mass starvation on a global scale. If this were the only judgment of the tribulation, it would still be the worst disaster in earth’s history. But the tribulation is not even at the midway point!

 John sees another angel, and hears another trumpet:

 Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed  (Revelation 8:8,9).

  Here again we see a devastating blow with unimaginable consequences. Life in “the sea” is reduced by one third. First death has come to the land and its vegetation; now the mighty oceans are targeted. Notice that John does not say that a great mountain was thrown into the sea. He says it was “something like” a great mountain burning with fire. In other words John is doing the best he can with the language he knows to describe something which cannot be more specifically identified. 

God’s Reporter

 This is highly significant and gives us an important key to understanding the book of Revelation. It appears that what is happening is that John has been transported in time by the Holy Spirit to witness a terrifying holocaust in the last days, which will include wars, ecological disasters, and the death of billions of people. Much of what he sees, John has no basis in his personal experience to label or identify. He cannot write about intercontinental ballistic missiles or nuclear submarines. He has no knowledge of hydrogen or neutron bombs.

 For this reason he is forced to use primitive terms such as mountains burning with fire or earthquakes or smoke and brimstone to describe sophisticated weapons of mass destruction that may well be found in our own day and time. Certainly the results that he does describe – the reduction of the earth’s population by over half – would be consistent with such a scenario. What Revelation may well be presenting is a first century man’s description of a twenty-first century world war.

 John watches in horror as angel after angel blows his trumpet, and fearful calamities rain down upon the earth with furious intensity. By the time the last angel sounds, the world has seen the destruction of much of its vegetation, the death of one third of life in the oceans, the poisoning of fresh water supplies, the atmosphere clogged with debris, and a massive loss of life, such as has never occurred on earth before. The death toll numbers are in the hundreds of millions at this point, if not billions. There aren’t enough preachers to conduct funerals, enough caskets for the bodies, or enough graveyards to hold the dead. Chaos and death are everywhere. Those who have survived are reduced to scrounging and looting to stay alive. The planet has become dysfunctional. 

Pouring out of the Bowls

 God’s anger is not yet satiated. One final series of judgments must be loosed before “that great day of His wrath” is fulfilled. The seals have been broken, the trumpets have been blown. Now it is the time for the pouring out of the bowls.

 John hears a loud voice commanding the angels to go and pour out their bowls of wrath upon the earth. He records what he sees: 

So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image  (Revelation 16:2).

 This is one of the milder judgments John sees. Those who have pledged their worship and allegiance to “the beast” (the antichrist) will experience a “foul and loathsome sore.”

 It goes downhill from there. With the second bowl every living thing in the sea dies. Next the earth’s supply of freshwater is ruined and becomes blood. And on it goes.

 Men are scorched by the sun’s rays, possibly due to the destruction of the ozone, darkness envelops the capital city of the antichrist (probably Rome), and demons are released to gather the major armies of the world together to participate in that final battle known as Armageddon. At the conclusion of these bowls of anger, the earth experiences a storm of hundred pound hailstones. Normally we describe hail as being marble sized or golf ball sized if it is quite severe. In this case “bowling ball” sized would not even fully describe the kind of hail that will come crashing down upon an already devastated earth. Men will blaspheme their Creator in anger and frustration at this horrible plague of freakish weather.

 Keep in mind that this tribulation will be a worldwide phenomenon. It will not merely be limited to Rome or Israel, or any other local context. There will be no safe place on earth where people can go and ride out the storm. Isaiah writes:

 For behold, the LORD comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; The earth will also disclose her blood, and will no more cover her slain  (Isaiah 26:21).

 Jesus refers to this time as: “the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world…” (Revelation 3:10). Whites and Blacks, Hispanics and Orientals shall all taste the bitter cup of God’s wrath. Major superpowers and third world nations shall equally experience this “day of trial.” Once the first seal of the scroll is broken, the only way out is death. 

The Results of the Tribulation

 When the dust has cleared and God’s wrath has been spent, our earth will be unrecognizable. Isaiah describes it this way:

 Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty and makes it waste, Distorts its surface and scatters abroad its inhabitants… The earth is violently broken, The earth is split open, The earth is shaken exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall totter like a hut  (Isaiah 24:1,19).

 Overpopulation will no longer be a problem. Over half the world’s inhabitants will be no more. Money will be worthless. Survivors will scrounge and barter for whatever they can get to keep alive. Entire cities will be uninhabitable for the radioactive waste they contain and the terrible stench of millions of rotting corpses. Looting, robbing, rape, and all kinds of violent crimes will multiply as men cast off all restraints in their desperation and despair.

 Such a scenario seems surreal. It is unlike anything most of us have ever experienced or could even imagine. Before the nuclear age it seemed an impossibility. In John’s apocalypse, he is describing the utter ruin of the planet. Swords and spears, muskets and canons, or even mortar shells and machine guns are not capable of bringing about such terrible carnage as John vividly describes in Revelation.

 In times past there have been few choices for those who hold to a literal understanding of the Bible’s final book. Most have suggested that God will supernaturally zap the earth with these various plagues and judgments. Fire and hail, death and destruction will be rained down from heaven by an angry God. No need to try to explain these things further; God will simply do it. There was no plausible way to account for plagues of Revelation otherwise.

A New Era

 Then came Hiroshima. On August 6, 1945, the United States authorized the first use of an atomic bomb on the heretofore untouched city. The bombardier on the Enola Gay, Tom Ferebee noted: “It’s like bubbling molasses down there … the mushroom is spreading out … fires are springing up everywhere … it’s like a peep into hell.”[2]

The people of Hiroshima within half a mile of the explosion were seared to bundles of smoking char in a fraction of a second. Thousands of these small black bundles could be seen stuck to streets, bridges, and sidewalks. 70,000 buildings were obliterated. 80,000 people died instantly. A six-hour firestorm began. A history professor described it thus: “I climbed Hikiyama Hill and looked down. I saw that Hiroshima had disappeared.. I was shocked by the sight .. I saw many dreadful scenes after that – but that experience, looking down and finding nothing left of Hiroshima was so shocking that I simply can’t express what I felt … Hiroshima didn’t exist – that was mainly what I saw – Hiroshima just didn’t exist.”[3] Mankind had en­tered the atomic age, the end of which was too terri­fying to contem­plate.

 Since the beginning of the atomic age, nuclear weap­ons and the term "Armageddon" have been frequently linked together. Billy Graham rose to prominence in the 1950's proclaiming that the nu­clear "sword of Da­moclese" was hanging over all the nations, and that only Christ was a sure foundation in such perilous days. Hal Lindsay's mega-best-seller, The Late, Great, Planet Earth made a strong case for a nuclear holo­caust scenario in the days just before Christ’s second coming. Even secular sources took up the theme. The June 12, 1981 Toronto Globe and Mail noted that the decision to go ahead with the neutron bomb was the biggest step taken toward Armageddon since 1961.

 Before the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, director for the atomic project in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Robert Oppenheimer,  watched the devastating results of their first nuclear explosion in the New Mexico desert, and thought of the words from the Hindu writings, “Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds.” Truly mankind after numerous centuries of wars with swords and spears, had a weapon that could destroy the world.

 After the war was over, and our nation began to realize what a terrible weapon we had developed, reporters went to Oppenheimer and asked him about the future of the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer replied, “If you’re asking me if we can make them more terrible, the answer is yes. If you’re asking me if we can make lots more of them, the answer is yes. If you’re asking if we can make them terribly more terrible, the answer is probably.”[4]

 Since those first nuclear bombs students of Bible prophecy began wondering if perhaps Revelation weren’t more literal than we had previously thought. Maybe God will not need to zap the judgments down from heaven. Perhaps John is describing a nuclear holocaust and its horrific consequences.

 When you look at the various plagues and calamities in this light, it is no real stretch to see in them all the earmarks of nuclear destruction. Could it be that in the earth’s final days before Christ’s return, God will take His hand off mankind and allow us to do what we, in our moral insanity, would have done a long time ago – to destroy ourselves with our own devices?

 So many of Revelation’s judgments: the poisoning of the waters, the reduction of visibility, terrible sores upon the people, the death of billions of peoples, and the breaking down of the earth’s protective atmosphere could hardly be caused by anything else that we know of. What if the book of Revelation is a first century man’s description of a twenty-first century nuclear holocaust?

 In his sermon on the day of Pentecost, Peter quoted the prophet Joel who spoke of similar things:

 I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and notable day of the Lord (Acts 2:19,20).

 Peter’s quotation of Joel uses the term “vapor of smoke” but Joel’s original writings refer to “pillars” or “columns” of smoke. Anyone who has seen the aftermath of a nuclear bomb knows that this is exactly what occurs: a gigantic column of smoke! Could the Hebrew prophets have been seeing the results of nuclear weapons that would not be invented for thousands of years?

 Consider the horrific implications of this vision seen by John:

 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind (Revelation 9:13-15).

 Not one third of Israel, or Russia, or the United States, but one third of mankind! This is one of those passages so aptly described by Henry Morris as not so hard to understand, simply hard to believe. We can calculate such carnage. We can mathematically deduce that this would mean over 2 billion people killed. But we cannot believe it. Surely this cannot be! 

Terribly More Terrible

 We now have the weapons to bring this to pass. It could not have happened in the age of spears and bows. It was pure science fiction in the age of muskets and cannons. Today it is a chilling reality. Every day our nation’s nuclear submarines continually cruise below the ocean’s surface. These subs have the capacity to destroy entire cities; they carry more firepower than all the bombs dropped in all of WWII.

 Robert Oppenheimer had suggested that they could probably make the nuclear bombs “terribly more terrible.” We have certainly done that. Consider the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It essentially annihilated a city of 250,000 people. While there were some survivors, and a few buildings throughout the city stubbornly remained upright, the city was effectively demolished. As the surviving history professor noted, “Hiroshima didn’t exist.”

 If such a bomb could destroy a city of a quarter of a million people, think about a bomb that was ten times as powerful. What a weapon that would be! Or suppose you had a bomb 100 times as powerful as the one dropped on Hiroshima. What an incredible killing device that would be!

 We have not merely created bombs ten or one hundred times as powerful. We now have bombs that are one thousand, two thousand, and even five thousand times as powerful as those first atom bombs. We are no longer dealing with bombs that can destroy cities of 250,000; we can obliterate any city on the planet – Lost Angeles, Tokyo, Mexico City, or any other city could be instantly wiped off the map with no survivors. Such is the magnitude of the weapons nuclear researchers have developed in the last sixty years.

 For the first time in man’s history we have the capacity to bring the book of Revelation to pass with our own hands. We need no special supernatural zap from heaven; all that is required is for God to take His hand of mercy off our sin crazed world and allow us to go at it. The fulfillment of the book of Revelation may be nearer than we think and much more literal than we think! 

The Nature of God

 The purpose of the Bible is essentially to reveal God to us. We see our need for a Savior as we come to recognize God’s absolute perfection and holiness. Whether we are reading in Genesis, Leviticus, Luke, or Revelation, if we are not growing in the knowledge of God, we are missing the point.

 As we consider this terrible time of tribulation, there are many aspects of God’s character that are revealed. Let us consider some of these.

 God’s Anger

 One of the most readily apparent truths about God that is vividly displayed is that God really does get angry. Multitudes today want to cling to the idea of a Creator, but discard any notion that He might actually make demands upon our lives, or that He might become angry when we defy those demands.

 Revelation cuts through such spiritual fluff. God is not merely a little put out with His creation during this time of tribulation; He is furious. The bland, toothless theology that whines: “God would never do anything harmful or the least bit negative to any of His creatures because He is too nice for that,” is annihilated by this book. People are dying by the billions, and God is the conductor, orchestrating this symphony of judgment. Angels blow their trumpets and pour out their bowls of misery at God’s express command. This sounds like it belongs somewhere buried deep in the Old Testament, but we’re in the New Testament here, and Jesus is one of the principal players, unrolling a scroll that sends a tidal wave of terrors and death over the earth. Not exactly a great bedtime story to read to your pre-schooler, but the word of God nonetheless!

 At the beginning of the Tribulation, in chapter six John writes of kings and great men running into the caves and calling to the nearby rocks:

 “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17).

 Later on he describes the wicked men on earth as the grapes of wrath:

 So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God  (Revelation 14:19).

 God’s Anger Accumulates

 To properly understand what is happening with all this judgment and wrath, it is necessary to grasp the principle of the accumulation of man’s sin and God’s anger. The Scriptures plainly teach that God’s anger is not static. It builds over time, often very long periods of time, until it is eventually manifested in judgment. An excellent illustration of this can be found in God’s exhortations to Abraham.

 When God called Abraham out from his family, He promised him the land of Canaan as an inheritance. While Abraham did get to live in the land, God warned him that his descendants would not be allowed to remain there:

 Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete'' (Genesis 15:13-16).

 As many years as I have been reading the Bible, that last verse has never ceased to intrigue and captivate me. God tells Abraham his descendants must not possess the land until four generations have passed and declares that the reason for this is that the “iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” Now the Amorites were a notoriously wicked people. They were sexually immoral and idol worshippers. God was indeed planning to remove them from the land and give it to Israel. But He could not do it for a while. He had to follow “the rules” that He Himself had established. And the rules said that sin must reach a climax before judgment falls.

 At that time the Amorites hadn’t sinned enough. Their wickedness hadn’t reached that flashpoint of judgment. And so the heirs of the promise must wait.

 Individual Accounts

 We see this principle of the accumulation of sin and wrath on a more individual basis in the writings of Paul. He writes to the Romans:

 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are storing up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God (Romans 2:15). 

Paul is addressing individual sinners here, and telling them that they have begun a “wrath collection.” They are storing up a nice collection of God’s fury which will be manifested on that final day of judgment. People have many collections. Some are stamp collectors, some collect coins. Some fill their houses with antiques. Paul informs us that those who refuse to repent and turn to Christ are collecting the righteous anger of a holy God. They may not feel it, sense it, or believe it, but the collection grows daily nonetheless. 

Doctors tell us that from our youth a microscopic kind of film begins to coat our veins and arteries. It is called plaque. It is not spectacular; it is in fact totally unnoticeable. Our dietary habits may be awful. We may be 100 pounds overweight and a confirmed couch potato. But we notice nothing. We rush through our twenties with hardly a health problem. We eat our way through our thirties with just a whisper of physical maladies. But all the while our collection of plaque grows quietly deep within the recesses of our bodies.

 Finally in our forties or fifties, or (if we are blessed with a superior constitution) in our sixties or seventies, the serious problems begin. Some drop dead before they ever know they have a problem. While they ate and drank, slept and played, worked and rested, a quiet killer was doing its deadly work. The day of reckoning finally came.

 Such is the case of all who refuse the forgiving grace of Jesus Christ. They may not seem so bad. They may be nice people, pillars of their communities, a pleasure to talk to. But still there is that sin collection. With every day that they live, their collection grows. Every lie that they tell, every act of deceit, each sexual sin, their sins of omission and commission … all are adding to the terrible pile of evidence that will eventually be exposed and judged on “the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”

 Here is the great dilemma for the sinner. If he refuses to repent, he is in a no-win situation. If he dies early in life, he finds himself without hope in Hades, without any prospect of deliverance. But it he lives long he adds greatly to the number of his sins that will determine the degree of punishment he will experience in the lake of fire. He is literally “damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.” 

The Great Illusion

 Most of us would prefer that God not wait so long before judging sins. If only He would bring speedy retribution on the heads of the wicked they might learn to be better. And in fact the Bible indicates that this is indeed a major stumblingblock for the sinner:

 Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil  (Ecclesiastes 8:11).

 Think how much sin would be prevented if only judgment would immediately follow sin. Suppose that God would fix it so that every time a person used His name in vain, a shiny ball peen hammer would materialize over his head and vigorously rap him on the skull three times. Using God’s name as a curse word would quickly disappear from the earth. There might be a few hardy souls who would forget once or twice more than the others, but they would soon see the light and curb their tongues.

 Or suppose that every time a person committed an act of sexual immorality, they would break their leg the very next day. This would occur without fail for every sexual sin. The stocks of crutch manufacturers would go through the roof! And while there would still be some that might be willing to pay the price, most people would get the point and cease sinning sexually.

 No such things happen, of course. You can curse like a sailor, fornicate every day of the year, lie, cheat, steal, and kick little kittens, and still have no apparent judgment from on high. You may be rich and healthy, fat and sassy. Surely you haven’t done anything too seriously to offend God. Look at how well your life is going!

 The truth is, sentences against evil works seem to either come slowly or not at all. Not all wicked people have lives full of bad luck. In fact, many of the wicked seem to be doing considerably better than the righteous. This was a big part of Job’s complaint: 

The tents of robbers prosper, and those who provoke God are secure in what God provides by His hand (Job 12:6).

 This is where faith comes in. If good things always happened to good people and bad things always happened to bad people, there would be no need for faith. Pure selfishness would drive all of us to follow God’s ways.

 Instead we find we live in a world that rarely makes sense. As Solomon put it:

 I returned and saw under the sun that The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all (Ecclesiastes 9:11). 

Life is so … random! When the Twin Towers were attacked by Muslim terrorists, it was not only the sinners that died that day. Christians died right alongside the atheists; Sunday school teachers perished next to adulterers. Why didn’t God just have all His people stay home that day, and let the sinners go to work? What a testimony it would have been if every Christian told of how God gave them a dream and told them not to go to work that day and were thus spared. 

That is simply not how God works. Judgment will surely come for the sinner, but not necessarily in this life. Rewards will abound to the godly, but they may see few of them here and now. God “stores up” his anger toward the sinner, to be revealed in that day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. In like manner our Divine compensator stores up rewards for those who, having been justified through faith in Christ, spend the rest of their days living sacrificially for the glory of God and the good of their fellow man. Until then we must walk by faith. 

The Quiet God

 When I turned sixteen (a long time ago) I rushed down to the local driver’s license agency to take my driver’s examination. As I drove around the city, my instructor said almost nothing. He seemed a very quiet man. But I noticed that he wrote a lot. It seemed like he was always writing something down on a pad in his lap. Little talking, but lots of writing. (He did say something when I started to pass a school bus with its stop sign out, but that’s another story!) Finally the test was over. The instructor told me that I had failed. He then proceeded to tell me what he had been writing – a list of all the offenses I had committed in that short little drive. I was crushed. 

God is much like that instructor. He doesn’t say so much. He doesn’t scream at you for making a left turn from the right hand lane. He doesn’t shout at you for driving on the sidewalk rather than the street. He just writes it down – all of it. We are told that the sinners will be judged according to their works, which have been recorded in heavens’ records. God seems so quiet about our misdeed that we often mistake His silence for approval. Surely we must be all right – God hasn’t brought about any severe punishment upon our lives. 

Then we die. As we meet our Creator we find that we have failed the most important test of all – the test of life. All our offenses testify that we have no right to the holy city where God dwells. God’s anger and our sin kept accumulating day by day, hour by hour, and sin by sin. Finally we face the consequences and are cast into the lake of fire. Such is the experience of all who do not appropriate God’s grace through Jesus Christ. 

The Fitness of Worship

 Though few realize it, Revelation is a book that has a strong emphasis upon praise and worship. There is a continual contrast in this book between the death and disaster occurring upon earth, and praise and worship being offered in heaven. In one example of this in the fifteenth chapter, we see the saints who have been through the horrors of the tribulation now in heaven giving praise to God: 

 “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints! Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, For Your judgments have been manifested”  (Revelation 15:2-4).

 What is fascinating about this declaration is that these saints are actually praising God for manifesting His judgments! When we think of giving thanks and praise to God it is almost always for the "nice” things He has done – His acts of kindness and compassion. But here they are praising God for doing things that seem not so nice. He is raining down misery upon the planet, billions are dying, and these saints, who have just recently come out of this scenario of horror, are praising God as though all of this is a very good thing.

 And it is.

 There is a certain beauty about the justice of God. We humans intuitively sense that justice can be a good thing  - as long as it is not directed at us. Justice always looks better on the other man than on ourselves.

 Being a former elementary school teacher, I always pay a little closer attention to children than most men do. Occasionally, while shopping at a Wal Mart or some other such store I will notice a child who is badly in need of some justice (translation: spanking). The little tyke may have seen some toy that he just has to have, and is screaming and crying for all he is worth to try to persuade Momma to buy it for him. Often his mother is trying to sweet talk the boy into submission (which never works) and telling him reasons why he can’t have that particular toy, but might be able to get something like it later on. The child continues to plead, whine, and cry. Finally Mom gets tired of all this and gives him a good swat on the backside. The surprised child usually cries a little louder for a moment and then realizes that the game is up.

 Although I pretend not to notice, at this point I am rejoicing at the fitness of the mother’s actions. Justice has come, and it was badly needed.

 Most of us recognize that there are times when justice is the only appropriate response. Any judge who can give a rapist / murderer a suspended sentence and ten days of community service is unfit for his position. Any school teacher who tells a boy who has just given a black eye to a girl that he must clean the chalkboard after class as his punishment has no business in the classroom. Justice demands appropriately tough punishments for vicious offenses. All humanity throughout history have recognized this until recent years, when social scientists began to question punishments for criminals and apply various therapies instead.

 We recognize the fitness of justice because we are created in the image of the One of whom it is said:

 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne (Psalms 97:2).

 It is one of the great contrasts in Scripture, that while men are cursing God for their many plagues and miseries on the earth, the saints and angels are worshipping Him in heaven, and rejoicing at His justice. The God revealed in Revelation is no wimpy deity with a message of “Why can’t we all just get along?” He is holy, demanding, and at times furious. He calls to mind that classic line from C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, where the children ask about the Christ figure, Aslan: “Is he safe?” “Heavens no,” they are told. “He is not safe. But he is good.” 

God’s Love

 Another facet of God’s nature that is revealed in John’s record is God’s great love for His creation. Most people miss this entirely. Yes, Revelation describes an angry God who deals out destruction to a defiant, immoral world. But for those with eyes to see it, there is also a clear manifestation of the love of God.

 We see God’s love in the fact that, even in the midst of the terrible calamities that befall the earth in the last days, the Holy Spirit is still mightily at work, wooing souls unto Christ. John sees an enormous, uncountable throng of people in heaven and is told:

 These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb  (Revelation 7:14).

 While God’s mighty hand of judgment is extended toward the earth on the one side, His tender hand of mercy is drawing men and women on the other. People are getting saved by the millions! Throughout the tribulation period, there will be a tremendous degree of evangelizing going on. We read of 144,00 Jews from the various tribes that are called the “servants of God,” and given a special seal of protection. These may well be specially called and anointed Jewish evangelists that God uses as a witness to the world in the time of the earth’s travail.

 Many have speculated that when the church is raptured (before the tribulation) the Holy Spirit will be taken out of the world, and then the antichrist will be allowed to come forth. They base this on Paul’s passage in 2 Thessalonians, which says: 

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way (2 Thessalonians 2:7).

 They believe that the Holy Spirit is the “He who now restrains” and that when He is taken out of the way (at the Rapture) the antichrist will come forth. Then the Holy Spirit will no longer be on earth.

 Where Can I Go From Your Presence?

 The problem with this interpretation is that it would absolutely preclude anyone being born again during the tribulation. The Bible plainly tells us that no one can say that Jesus is Lord without the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Take Him out of the way, and there would be no hope of salvation for anyone. Gabriel himself could preach the sermon and the apostle Paul give the invitation, and not one sinner would genuinely respond. (Of course if the Holy Spirit were ever to completely leave the earth, the planet and everything on it would crumble into dust!)

 A more reasonable interpretation is that the “restrainer” is the Holy Spirit working through the church. This would be in line with Jesus’ words, telling us that His disciples are the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world.” We are the vessel through which the Holy Spirit restrains evil. If you think things are bad now, wait until the church is taken out! When that happens the Holy Spirit will still be around, but for a very brief time He will have not one Christian as a vessel through which to work. That will be the climate in which the antichrist will be launched. Soon afterwards many will begin turning to Christ but it will be too late to stop the antichrist, who will have begun his meteoric rise to power. 

We also see evidence of the love of God in the book of Revelation through His tender promises to believers. Those who receive Christ during the tribulation will experience the most horrific few years in the earth’s history. Most will not live through it. Some will be tortured, hunted by secret police, or obliterated by nuclear weapons. Others may suffer terrible sores and diseases as a result of nuclear fallout. The nations’ economies will be in shambles, and violent crime will fill the earth. It will be hard to identify with the “prosperity message” at this point. 

God has special promises for His precious children in these circumstances. He tenderly declares:

 He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes  (Revelation 7:15-17).

  Later on John hears a voice assuring the blessed future of those who have served God during the world’s worst time of calamity:

 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:3,4). 

This, Too, Shall Pass

 When I was a young pastor I took our small congregation to a roller skating rink for an evening of fellowship and fun. We had rented the entire rink so we had it to ourselves to play Christian music and skate to our heart’s delight. Toward the latter part of the evening, I got a little too sure of myself and ended up falling. As I tried to stop my fall I sprained my right arm severely (along with some major damage to my pastoral pride).

 As I drove home that night I was in agony. I was driving a stickshift van, and every time I shifted gears, my arm screamed at me in protest. When I went to bed I could not sleep. My wife had no trouble getting to sleep, as I recall. (Don’t you hate it when you can’t sleep and your spouse sleeps like a baby?)

 I lay there for what seemed several hours, in intense pain. As I lay there and suffered, I had one consoling thought that ran through my mind over and over again: “This pain will not last forever.” I knew that in time the pain would subside, and I would be normal again. Until then, I must endure.

 One of the great mercies of God expressed during the tribulation is that the time is “cut short.” Those who receive Christ during this time of misery on earth will have at most about seven years to endure, and most less than that. Afterwards they will have all eternity to enjoy the bliss of the eternal presence of God and fellowship with the saints. Not a bad tradeoff, really. The Rapture is far better, but eternity with God is worth enduring a few years of misery on earth.

 The time will speedily come when God will reward His faithful children with the sweetness of His presence, and all tears and sorrow shall be forgotten.

 One final expression of the love of God found in Revelation is His free invitation given to all, to come to Him and receive the gift of eternal life:

 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely (Revelation 22:17).

 In the midst of all the destruction and death, as men are permitted, in their moral insanity, to destroy themselves and one another with their weapons of mass destruction, God’s quiet voice (along with the church’s) is still crying out, “Come, take the water of life freely.” Judgment is never God’s first choice; mercy is always His preference. He pleads with the rebels even as they defy Him, “Come.” 

Imminent Tribulation

 We could well be living in the generation that sees all these things. For the first time since John was given this revelation two thousand years ago, we now have the capacity to bring these things upon ourselves. We have the technology; the destruction of our world is quite possible. When God lifts His restraining hand the four horsemen will come galloping forth. There was no possibility for this to happen during the Civil War era when men killed each other with muskets. The mighty Roman Empire, with all their millions of soldiers, had no ability to bring these things to pass. We can today. We have made our nuclear weapons “terribly more terrible.”

 From a purely rationalistic perspective, a nuclear war involving the deaths of millions or billions is bound to come. Man has never invented a weapon that he has not used. The fact that we have gone since 1945 without using nuclear weapons in war is truly amazing. Sooner or later the nukes will be brought out. The consequences will not be pretty. A California group called the “Society for Secular Armageddonists” warn that we truly have no hope. Man will make himself extinct. It is just a matter of time. Their slogan is: “All is hopeless; don’t give up!” (They see no way to change our prospects, but feel that the noble thing is to do whatever you can to try to prevent it, anyway.)

 Whether we are months, years, decades, or centuries away from the tribulation, one thing is clear. The wrath issue is something that each of us must settle individually. Just as God’s wrath is slowly building toward our rebellious world, so it builds toward all whose lives have not been covered with the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ. Until we meet Christ, each of us is “storing up wrath for the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” 

The answer is actually found in the first chapter of Revelation. John exults:

 “To Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Revelation 1:5).

 The Lamb in the Midst of the Throne

 It is interesting that the book which speaks so much of the anger and judgment of God also speaks so frequently of the Lamb of God. There are more references in Revelation to Jesus being the Lamb than in all other books of the Bible combined. A few of these include: 

§         These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14). 

§         For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters (Revelation 7:17). 

§         And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony… (Revelation 12:11). 

It is through the spotless sacrificial Lamb of God that atonement was made, and man’s sin was forgiven. God has always been in the escape business. When God was ready to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, there was escape for Lot and his family by fleeing to the mountains. During that first Passover in Egypt, escape was through painting blood upon the doorposts. When Israel was destroying Jericho, Rahab and her family escaped death by staying in the house with a scarlet rope hung by the window. In Noah’s day it was an ark that provided safety. 

Our greatest danger is not nuclear bombs or fallout or international war. Man’s greatest danger has always been his own sin and the wrath of God that must inevitably accompany it. Jesus declared:

 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28).

 The writer of Hebrews says: 

…we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us (Hebrews 6:18).

 A Christian is simply one who has fled for refuge. And that refuge is Jesus Christ Himself. His cross, His blood, and His resurrection have made forgiveness and remission of sins available to all who receive Him.

 Paul writes: 

For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:9). 

Our world has an appointment. It is an appointment with the wrath of God, and it is known as “the tribulation.” This is one appointment they will keep. And each sinner has an appointment with God’s wrath in a more individualized way when they stand before Him and give an account of their lives. Such people are seen in God’s eyes as “vessels of wrath” (Romans 9:22). 

But those who trust in Christ have an altogether different appointment. They too will stand before God, but not to be punished or condemned. Their appointment will be for mercy and reward. They are known as “vessels of mercy” (Romans 9:23).  

The Ultimate Prize

 It is in the book of Revelation that we are shown the ultimate prize attainable to men and women. The question may be asked, “What do you get for serving the Lord?” 

Here is one who has received Christ as his Savior. He has spent a lifetime denying fleshly desires, making the sacrifices that love requires, and living for his God rather than himself. What reward does he receive? What prize is there for him? 

Some would say that any such talk of rewards for serving the Lord is carnal, and that the grace of God dictates that our works and labors in the service of Jesus have nothing to do with reward. 

They are wrong. The idea of rewards for service runs all through the New Testament. Paul declares that “whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord…” (Ephesians 6:8). John warns: “Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward” (2 John 1:8). Jesus exhorts us to give to the poor privately, “that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly” (Matthew 6:4). 

While salvation is all of grace, clearly there are rewards for serving Christ. We are told about the glories of heaven, the streets of gold, and the beautiful gems that adorn the city. But the greatest reward has nothing to do with gold or silver or amethyst. Our ultimate reward will be the privilege of living in the presence of our God and Father. John describes a heavenly voice describing this reward: 

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God”   (Revelation 21:3). 

God is our reward! We will live with Him! His presence, His joy, His peace, His life shall be ours forever and ever and ever. God will dwell with men. What do we get for serving God here on earth? We get God – forever.  

By the end of the Bible we have come full circle. By the third chapter of Genesis man has rebelled against his Creator, fallen into sin, and been banished from God’s presence. By the end of Revelation, man is restored to full fellowship with his God, sin is banished, the effects of the fall are done away with, and a beautiful new world of righteousness, peace, and joy await God’s redeemed family that will never be stained by sin again.

 Perhaps one of the most amazing promises in the Bible, and one that points to this final great redemption, is given us by the apostle John:

 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (1 John 3:2)

 To see Him as He is, to enjoy and delight in our God forever – this shall be the privilege of all who humble themselves at the foot of the cross during their brief sojourn on this earth. For such the wrath issue is forever settled, and a future of inexpressible joy and glory awaits them, having been purchased by our magnificent Savior.