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. 

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 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. 

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 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. 

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 In 1899, a U. S. Patent Office worker said, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” A memo from Western Union, predicted that “the telephone has too many shortcomings for useful communication.” As a child, I read a science magazine that claimed everyone would be flying around in air-cars and living in domed houses by the year 2000. 

Predictions about the future are mostly bad guesses. The only reliable source is the Bible; yet, men have often read into the Bible what is not there. That has really been the case when we consider what people have taught concerning the Beast and 666. In this chapter, we examine seven interpretations of 666. These will help you to clarify your approach to this greatly disputed passage. 

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 Sir Issac Newton’s third law of physics states, “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” In other words, “The bigger the push, the bigger the kickback.” That is why a gun recoils. As it fires in one direction, it moves in the opposite. That is also how a plane flies and a rocket enters space. Like the law of sowing and reaping, action and reaction has a moral and spiritual parallel, which applies to everything seen and unseen. 

Throughout Revelation, earth reacts to hidden actions occurring in Heaven. In John’s vision of the last chapter, we saw a Great War was fought in Heaven to remove Satan from his place. After being cast down to the earth, an angry Devil now reacts by making war on the Woman and her Offspring. 

Revelation chapter thirteen tells us how Satan conducts his war. Although the images are profound, the message is simple. There are two directions from which Satan attacks God’s people: from without by worldly powers and from within by religious deception. 

Just as God has Two Witnesses on earth, the Dragon has two Beasts to wage war against them. They appear in different forms, but they have the same purpose.1 Stop God’s witnesses by force or usurp them by deceit. Let us outline Satan’s sevenfold scheme.

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Revelation is a book of visions. It has it's own language of dreams and visions. Let me give you a simple, genuine example. I had two vivid dreams in the space of week, when I first came to Christ. In my first dream, I was in a car with my hands on the steering wheel, moving very fast. It was pitch black and I could not see anything in front of me. With no brakes at my feet, I was in dire straits. I cried out, “Jesus!” At that moment, the light came on in my room, and I heard my mom call to wake me. In the second dream, I was again in a car, but now I could see; it was broad daylight. Cars were closely parked on either side of the road. I was moving fast in reverse with my tires screeching. Although my hands were on the steering wheel, an unseen power was steering the vehicle backwards. 

These God-given dreams revealed a lot about my life. Driving spoke of the direction my life was heading. The first dream was about Christ coming into my life to prevent me from blindly rushing into a dead-end eternity. “Wake up, O. sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”1 The second dream was about Christ taking control of my life, enabling me to back out of sinful habits and bad associations, symbolized by the dead-end street with cars parked on both sides. In dreams, dramatic events are often conveyed through symbols. Once these symbols are interpreted, the dream is understood. God given dreams will always be in harmony with God’s written Word. 

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A ‘head-hunter’ who hires corporation executives said, “When I find an executive that I’m trying to hire for someone I like to disarm him. I offer him a drink, undo my tie and talk about football, or whatever, until he’s all relaxed. I then look him square in the eye and say, “What’s your purpose in life?” It’s amazing how top executives unravel at that question. Well, I was interviewing this guy and had him all relaxed with my feet up on his desk, talking about his family. Then I leaned up and said, “What’s your purpose in life, Bob?” Without blinking an eye he said, “To go to heaven and take as many people with me as I can.” For the first time in my career I was speechless.” 

I like Bob’s answer. It is a purpose we share. Jesus told His followers “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth.” After Christ ascended, angels announced, “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”  Instead of standing around, looking up, the disciples were empowered to witness. John was an initial witness, and ever since then, the Return and the End waits for the witnesses to complete their global testimony. The pause between the sixth and seventh Seal gives time for God to seal His people before the Day of Wrath. In this interlude, between the sixth and seventh Trumpets, it follows that the Church must complete her witness to every nation so that all may be sealed before the End. 

In this chapter, we explore John’s mission and that of the Two Witnesses. Much symbolic language surrounds both John and the Two Witnesses. Consider how laden with symbolism the passage is. For John eats a little book and measures a temple. He then narrates the mission of Two Witnesses who are represented by two olive trees and two lampstands. These Witnesses speak with fire, strike the earth with plagues, battle with a beast who ascends out of a bottomless pit, and are put to death in a city that is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt. The great conflict between the Beast and the Two Witnesses concludes with a resurrection and ascension. 

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 Two men in a small village had a big dispute, which they could not resolve. So each decided to talk to the town sage. The first man told him his version of the story. When he finished, the sage said, “You’re absolutely right.” The next night, the second man called on the sage and gave his account. The sage responded, “You’re absolutely right.” The sage’s wife chided her husband. “Those men told you different stories and you told them they were both right. That’s impossible - they can’t both be right.” The sage turned to his wife and said, “You’re absolutely right.” 

I felt that way when I began hearing different views on Revelation. Each version sounded right, but part of me kept saying, “that’s impossible – both can’t be right.” Well, I am glad to say that I am now sure that the Trumpets, like the Seals, foretell kinds of events and not literal, historical one-time events. Once that is accepted, their prophetic import can be appreciated. 

Well-established in Scripture, loud trumpets represent endtime disclosures. They alert God’s people of war with the Beast and warn the world of impending judgment. Just like Jericho fell at the sound of the seventh trumpet, this old world is going to fall at the sound of the seventh Trump. 

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 “The World’s Worst Predictions” catalogues history’s great forecasting blunders. In 1773, King George II said, “the American colonies have little stomach for revolution.” An official declared “the Titanic unsinkable.” And just days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox said, “whatever happens, the Navy will not be caught napping!” When it comes to foretelling the day Christ will return, results are no better. As early as 53 AD, the Thessalonians were troubled by rumors that the day had arrived. Although Jesus taught against date setting, it is still done.

Not long ago, Harold Whisenant wrote, “88 Reasons Why Christ Will Come Back in 1988.” His book sold six million copies that year. Although Christ did not return, that did not keep Harold from coming out the following year with a new book called, “89 Reasons Why the Rapture is in 1989.” Someone called this “the Wolf, wolf factor!” You know the story. The boy cried, “wolf!” He sent the herdsmen running time and again. When a real wolf did come prowling, no one responded to his cries. In a similar way, date setting discourages men from anticipating and proclaiming Jesus’ Return.

In response to Whisenant’s prediction, Bob Hoskins published a book with a catchy title. “UNFINISHED: 2.7 Billion. The End only comes after God has ‘sealed’ His own. This vital act of sealing answers two questions raised in chapter six. “Who can stand? and “How long?”

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 Private Jones was assigned to the Army Induction Center. His job was to advise new recruits about their benefits, especially Serviceman’s Life Insurance (SLI), which could be upgraded for an annual premium. It wasn’t long before his Officer noticed that Jones had a near 100% sales record. This had never happened before. So his Officer decided to listen in. Jones explained SLI’s basic coverage to the recruits, and then said, “If you have SLI Upgrade and go into battle and are killed, the government has to pay $70,000 to your beneficiaries. If you don’t, they only pay $6,000.” “Now,” he concluded, “which ones do you think they are going to send into battle first?” 

In Revelation chapters two and three, we saw things in the churches. In four and five, we saw things in heaven. Now from chapter six onwards, Christ shows “His servants the things that must soon take place.” These are the things in the Seals, Trumpets and Bowls, the prophetic content of Revelation. The Seals begin with the famous ‘Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ who ride into battle. But who do you think rides into battle first? Who is the White Horse Rider? That is a big question for interpreting the Seals. Interpreters go, like horses, in different directions to answer.  Some say the White Horse is the anti-Christ! But God sent His only Son into the world to overcome death by dying to save all who believe. We provide an abundance of evidence that Christ rides first from Heaven.  

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