Missionary Greg Fisher shares how West African Bible students can ask some of the most penetrating questions about minute details of Scripture. On one occasion he says, “the question took me by surprise. “Reverend,” the student asked, “First Thessalonians 4:16 says that Christ will descend from Heaven with a loud command. I would like to know what that command will be?” 

Fisher wanted to leave the question unanswered, saying that we must not go past what Scripture has revealed, but as he wrote later in his journal. “My mind wandered to an encounter I had earlier in the day with a refugee from the Liberian civil war. The man, a high school principal, told me how a death squad apprehended him. After several hours of terror, he narrowly escaped. The escape cost him dearly. Two of his children lost their lives. The stark cruelty unleashed on an unsuspecting population has touched me deeply.” “I also saw flashbacks,” Fisher wrote, “of the beggars that I pass each morning. Every day I see how poverty destroys dignity, robs men of the best of what it means to be human and sometimes substitutes the worst of what it means to be an animal. The vacant eyes of people who have lost all hope haunt me.... 

‘Reverend, you have not given me an answer. What will he say?’ The question hadn’t gone away. ‘Enough!’ I said. He will shout, ‘Enough!’ when He Returns. A look of surprise opened on the faces of all the students. ‘Enough suffering. Enough injustice. Enough terror. Enough death. Enough indignity. Enough sickness and disease. Enough time!’” 

As we conclude our study, let us take to heart John’s message, and live in the light of Christ’s Return.1 Jesus’ life and mission, His death and resurrection, and His living Lordship are only grasped in that light. Evangelism, discipleship and every aspect of the Christian life springs from such a perspective. We must live like one who is engaged in a race looking to the finishing line. I grew up playing Chess, which like any game is an end-state matter. The goal in chess is to bring the opponent’s king into checkmate. I learnt that only moves that contribute to that end are ‘good’ moves. How many pieces I capture, how quickly I make my moves, how much my play impresses the spectators - these and all other factors have significance only insofar as they contribute to checkmating the king. The End gives meaning to everything!  

 An old missionary and his wife had worked in Africa for many years. In 1909, they were returning by boat to New York to retire. They had no pension and nothing to take back to show for their many years of labor. When they boarded the boat, they discovered they were on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big-game hunting expeditions in Africa. They watched the fanfare that accompanied the President’s entourage as passengers tried to catch a glimpse of the man. No one, however, paid any attention to them. 

As the ship crossed the ocean, the old missionary said to his wife, “It doesn’t seem fair. We have given our lives to serve God in Africa for years. Here Roosevelt comes back from a hunting trip, and everybody makes a big deal about it. But nobody gives two hoots about us.” “Dear, you shouldn’t feel that way,” his wife said. “But I do,” the old missionary replied. 

When the ship docked, a band was waiting to greet the President. The mayor and other dignitaries were there. The papers were all about the President’s arrival. The old missionaries’ arrival was in stark contrast to the President’s. No one noticed them as they slipped off the ship and found a small apartment in town. That night the man said to his wife, “It is just not fair.” Equally despondent, she replied, “Why don’t you talk to the Lord about it?” 

A while later he came out of the bedroom, but now his face was completely different. His wife asked, “Dear, what has changed?” “The Lord answered me,” he said. “I told Him how I felt that Roosevelt receives a tremendous homecoming, when no one even came out to meet us. After I poured out my heart to Him, Jesus touched me, simply saying, “‘But my son, you’re not home yet!’” 

This earth is not our home. We are just passing through. It will help us along the way to consider that our home is the New Jerusalem. John’s preview, in chapter twenty-one and twenty-two, is meant to motivate us in our homeward journey. So let us ponder John’s vision of our eternal home in seven manageable points. We shall see that the Holy City is a picture of absolute perfection. We will also discover that we can only appreciate what it is like by contrasting it to what it is not like. When John sees the New Creation, he is overwhelmed by the “newness” of it all! So let us have a good look, since we will stay there a lot longer than a beach side holiday house. 

 I have presented a non-literal, non-linear approach to Revelation, because I am convinced that it consists of parallel visions during the Christian era. Last chapter we saw that the Beast and his forces were completely destroyed, and there was a certain sense of finality to their judgment. But just as John has taken us to the End and back again through successive cycles, so in this chapter the forces of Satan reappear, once more, before their destruction. Since none of the wicked escaped the judgment of the last chapter to regroup against Christ, this chapter does not follow the previous chapter chronologically. Instead, John provides the same fiery ending as at Armageddon, but with an emphasis in this chapter on Satan’s judgment. John saw Satan cast down from Heaven with his time running out. And he now shows us the conclusion to Satan’s history in the Lake of Fire. 

The parallel visions of judgment reach a climax in chapter twenty and the cycle ends. John’s writings contain recurring scenes during this evil age. Evidence for this is found also in ‘the war’ image. The definite article features in the expression “the war” in three places: in chapter sixteen, nineteen and again in twenty. The word “war” occurs nine times in Revelation, but the last three have the definite article, stressing the culmination of the conflict at the end of time. The wording is nearly identical in its final three uses: “to gather them for the war” (16:14); “gathered to make the war” (19:19); “to gather them for the war” (20:8). It is easy to accept that these passages cover the same war. 

Revelation chapter twenty is John’s vision of Satan’s final judgment. Like each of his visions, it extends from Christ’s First Coming to His Second Coming. John saw Satan cast down and diminished in power as a result of Christ’s First Coming. Although Satan was bound to the Abyss, he was also released. We are also told that Satan, like the Beast and False Prophet, will be cast into the Lake of Fire. I am convinced that this happens at Christ’s Return, and that John reveals to us spiritual realities, during this interim period, between Christ’s First and Second Coming. These realities are also presented in visionary language and said to extend for a thousand years. This period is called “the Millennium.” Its nature is greatly debated by scholars.”

 “Ancient religions, such as the Roman paganism of Jesus’ day, believed that the actions of gods in the heavens above affected the earth below. If Zeus got angry, thunderbolts shot out. Like kids dropping rocks off highway bridges onto cars below, the gods rained cataclysms onto the earth. ‘As above, so below,’ went the ancient formula.” 

Philip Yancey observes that Jesus “inverted that formula: ‘As below so above.’” He points out that “a believer prays, and heaven responds; a sinner repents, and the angels rejoice; a mission succeeds, and Satan falls like lightning; a believer rebels, and the Holy Spirit is grieved. What we humans do here decisively affects the cosmos.” 

What men do on earth really does effect what transpires in Heaven. When the Man-child ascended from the earth, Satan was cast out of Heaven. In the Seals, Trumpets and Bowls, we saw an interconnected Heaven and earth. But the relationship between them is more involved than a cursory glance. It is a two-way superhighway with many lanes and overpasses – a complete thoroughfare whose traffic is hard to measure. The movement is swift and vast. And the interaction between earth and Heaven continues to this hour.

John’s visions take him from earth to Heaven and then back again. He shows us great contrasts between these two realms. In our last chapter, the judgment of the Great Prostitute caused terrible mourning on earth, while there was a roaring applause in Heaven.4 The roar was not only because God had judged Babylon and avenged the blood of His saints, but also because the wedding of the Lamb had come. In this chapter we examine (in words that start with “W”) seven interconnected happenings between Heaven and earth. 

 Fyodor Dostoevsky, the great Russian writer, asks, “What is hell?” In “The Brothers Karmasov,” the monk, Elder Zosmia, says, “I think it is the suffering of one who can no longer love…This is why the creature was given life on earth, and with it, time and space. And what happens? The privileged creature rejects that priceless gift, fails to appreciate it, does not even like it, sneers at it, and remains unmoved. When such a creature leaves the earth…he is filled with suffering at the thought that he will appear before the Lord never having loved and will be brought into the presence of those who have loved him but whose love he has scorned.” 

Babylon has spurned God’s love like an adulterous wife. She fully embodies the moral failure Christ confronted in His Church. “You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen!” Since Jesus’ love is the very highest love fathomable, to fall from it is a bottomless fall. Babylon’s fall means she is left with nothing. Her prestige, her love of money, her lusts for the world have all passed away. As a result, she is full of “woe.” “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great” is the cry of Revelation chapter eighteen. We thus outline Babylon’s awful judgment in seven silhouettes. 

 The roller coaster at King’s Island in my hometown, Cincinnati, is called “The Beast.” And the introduction to Revelation in my son’s “Teen Devotional Bible” invites us to “Remember your first roller coaster ride? You wondered if you could handle the speed, the shaking, the twists and turns of this awesome ride. Even its name was scary…You did not know everything that would happen on your first roller coaster ride, but the view before you gave you a feel for it and issued a challenge to ride. That is exactly what the book of Revelation does.” 

The outline for Revelation provided in this study Bible continues the Roller Coaster analogy:

• Welcome, roller coaster riders. (Revelation of Jesus, Chpt.1). 
• Instructions for your safety (Letters to Seven Churches, Chpts 2-3). 
• Climbing the first big hill (View in Heaven, Chpts. 4-5). 
• The big dive downward (God’s Judgments, Chpts. 6-10, 15-16). 
• Twists and turns (Battle of Good and Evil, Chpts. 11-14) 
• The Corkscrew (Defeat of False Religion, Chpts. 17-18) 
• Back to the terminal (Return of Jesus, Chpts. 19-20) 
• Let’s do it again (New Heaven and New Earth, Chpts. 21-22). 

We have ridden the track of Revelation for seventeen chapters. We have climbed the first big hill, taken the big dive downward and experienced the twists and turns along the way. In the last chapter, we encountered “The Corkscrew” of false religion. Riders of Revelation hold very different opinions about that leg of the ride. So, as we did earlier, with the debated 666, we need to consider other views, which has been one of our aims throughout our study. Let us ponder seven solutions to Babylon and the Beast. Remember these views must: Explain who or what Babylon represents, differentiate between Babylon and the Beast she rides, decipher the Beast’s riddle, “five have fallen and one is,” Interpret the coming eighth one in relation to the other seven, account for the ten kings who are allies of the Beast Relate how these make war against the Lamb as well as how they destroy Babylon, and finally are themselves destroyed themselves.  

 Businessman Lindsay Clegg tells the story of a warehouse that he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash on the floor. As he showed a prospective buyer the property, Clegg took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage and clean out the garbage. “Don’t worry about the repairs,” the buyer said. “When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want the building; I want the site.” 

Efforts to save the earth are like fixing up a warehouse slated for the wrecking ball. God’s intention for our planet is not mere renovation. In Revelation chapter twenty-one, we see God’s plan is a New Heaven and a New Earth. But first, in chapters fifteen and sixteen, we see God’s wrecking ball for this trashy world. We cover these chapters as a unit, since the angels are introduced in chapter fifteen and in sixteen, they pour out their seven Bowls of wrath. “I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues - last, because with them God’s wrath is completed.”

Seven angels with Bowls bring about this demolition of warehouse earth. Each Bowl deconstructs a different realm of creation. The Bowls are the last cycle of the three series of seven. We saw that the Seals revealed judgment on “the fourth” part of the earth, while the Trumpets affected “one third.” Up until now, earth has experienced partial judgments.2 With the Bowls, however, the judgments on the earth are complete and final. 

 Bruce Willis is David Dunn in the movie, Unbreakable. The movie begins with Dunn as the sole survivor of a terrible train crash, from which he emerges without a broken bone. In contrast to Dunn, Elijah Price, the other main character, has brittle bone syndrome. He can break a bone getting out of bed in the morning. For years, Elijah has researched countless disasters to f ind the ‘Unbreakable One.’ Like comic book heroes and their archenemies, Elijah is the antithesis to David, but he only reveals his identity at the movie’s end. Elijah, we discover, has caused many catastrophes to find Dunn. When asked by Dunn why he destroyed so many lives, Price says, “I could only know who I was by finding out who you are!” 

Babylon is the antithesis to the New Jerusalem and known by her lewdness. Revelation angels relate a ‘tale of two cities,’ or two women, one holy and one profane. John tells us the angel’s explanation of Mystery Babylon. This chapter serves as an addendum to the seventh Bowl, where the judgment on Babylon was first mentioned.1 Chapter seventeen and eighteen greatly enhance our understanding of Babylon’s nature and relationship to the Beast. To understand who she is, I provide a seven-fold identification in this chapter. In our study here, we are like detectives who use forensic science and DNA to establish a positive ID on a person. 

 The lyrics of a song, popularized by John Lennon, invite us to “Imagine there’s no Heaven; it’s easy if you try, no hell below us, above us only sky.” The melody is soothing as the song further envisions “no country, no possessions, and no religion too.” 

Cancel all antitheses, avowed in the Bible like Heaven and hell and you arrive at utopia. That’s a motivating theme of the post-modern era; the erasure of life’s antithesis. Blend opposites and do away with differences is also Babylon’s answer to mankind’s dilemma. In Revelation, as throughout Scripture, contrasts are numerous and extensive. In fact, the antithesis, which began with Adam’s sin, reaches its zenith in the Apocalypse. 

Antithesis is John’s chief teaching method, and what a way to learn. Experiences bear out that contrasts are part and parcel of life. We learn what is good by its contrast to evil, light by darkness, life by death, blessing by cursing, and what’s real by what is fake. Not only is the Dragon’s Beast best known in contrast to God’s Lamb – so it is with their followers. Revelation chapter fourteen shows us the Lamb and His genuine followers. In chapter thirteen, we saw the Dragon, cast to earth, standing on the sand of the seashore. 

In chapter fourteen, we see the Lamb, caught up to Heaven, standing on Mount Zion. Christians possess upward mobility, but Satan and his crowd are headed down. Satan’s war efforts were exposed in chapter thirteen, but now we behold the victorious saints who overcame him. We saw that the Beast marks his followers too, since the Lamb marks His own. The followers of the Beast and Lamb are as different as the Ones they follow. Here we ponder seven main characteristics of those who follow the Lamb. 

 While I was studying prophetic timeframes in Daniel and Revelation, our church accountant, Tony, was reconciling the church’s set of books. I teased him, saying, “After you’ve finished those accounts, could you help me reconcile Daniel’s 70 weeks, his 2,300 mornings and evenings, his 1,290 and 1,335 days with John’s 1,260 days, his 42 months, and both their time, times and half of time?” We had a good laugh. The same joke for my wife was also fun, and one that brings balance to her husband’s studies. She told me that “most people are just trying to live their life one day at a time.” 

 Be that as it may, how about you and I balancing these prophetic timeframes? It is time that we address Revelation’s various “timeframes.” In the last chapter, we saw the last reference to a 42-month period, and from chapter eleven to thirteen, we saw the following timeframes: “1,260 days,”“42 months,” and “time, times and half of time.” What do these timeframes mean? In the last chapter we surveyed the various approaches to 666, and in this chapter, we look at how the schools of interpretation understand these timeframes. I will also let you in on how I have perfectly reconciled them.