The Book of Revelation provides the Truth seeker with a view of future events that was given to the Apostle John about the time he he was codifying the books and letters written by the prophets and apostles that would become the Holy Bible.  Jesus gave John the vision (revelation/apocalypse) and told him to preserve it in writing for His true saints living at the end of the age.  The vision concerned the events that would take place from the establishment of the New Testament Church in 31 A.D. until His return to establish His Father’s kingdom on earth whose capitol will be New Jerusalem and its environs which will be inhabited by the Godhead (Father and Son) and their Very Elect saints.  The walls of kingdom headquarters will be 1500 miles long, 1500 miles wide and 1500 miles high (Rev. 21:16).

By the time the reader of Revelation comes to chapter 11 the Lord has appeared to John, has identified Himself, has dictated individual letters to the seven churches located along an old Roman mail route.  These seven churches were the forerunners of the seven church eras that would follow the establishment of the first church in Jerusalem.  The spiritual characteristics and conditions of those early churches reflected the characteristics and conditions of the future church eras that would bear those church’s names.  Proof that Jesus knew the end from the beginning of all things becomes evident when one compares His letter to the church located in Laodicea (Rev. 3:14-20)–the last church on the mail route–to the last church of this end-time era.  The two churches are are identical relative to their spiritual condition.  We are living in the Laodicean era of the church.  One needs to read John’s letter to the Laodicean church to determine God’s attitude toward today’s church system.  Doing so, one will realize that (Christ’s) letter to the ancient Laodicean Church should memorized by every member of today’s church system.

Beginning with the fourth chapter of the Apocalypse (revealing/revelation), John writes about being taken into heaven in spirit where he is shown a throne upon which sat the Eternal Who, being spirit and therefore invisible, could not be described.  Recall that in chapter one John described Jesus from head to foot in vivid detail.  In the vision John also saw the ark of God, His throne, numerous people and several animal-like creatures, all of whom were gathered around His throne.  John heard them speak and watched them as they bowed before God and worshiped Him.  John was also shown a book bearing seven seals and a Lamb that was declared to be the only one worthy to open its seals (5:1,5).  In chapter six the Lamb begins to open the seals.  As He did so John would hear a roll of thunder and watch as the future of the world came to life before his eyes in chronological order.  John noticed that between the opening of the first and seventh seals the scenes changed, growing ever more dark and dangerous as God poured out ever more of His wrath upon the earth and its people.  This process would continue until the end of the final era of the world’s social systems–the generation now alive on earth.  The exact time when the end of the world will come was not revealed to John.  When His disciples asked Jesus when the end would come and the kingdom would be restored to Israel, Jesus told them that neither He nor God’s angels knew when the end would come.  Only God knows the day and the hour.  However, He did provide “signs” that would tell His people when the end was approaching.  All but one of those signs have come and gone.  This lone sign is recorded in Luke 21:20.  I believe that the “armies” referred to in the passage are now developing and coming together as the nations within the European Union combine their military forces and talk about the need to expand their military role throughout Europe and Africa.

What John saw in vision as the Lamb began to remove the seals of the book is revealed in chapters 6-10.  The book that the Lamb received from the One sitting on the throne has great end-time, prophetical significance.  Many generations earlier the Prophet Daniel had received a revelation from God in which He had shown him what would take place on the earth in the future.  In Daniel 8:19 the Lord referred to that distant time period as “the last end of the indignation, for at the time appointed the end (of the world) will come.”  God was telling Daniel that what he saw was the future of the world up to the coming of His Messiah which He depicted as a “Mountain” that would crush the end-time political-religious union known as the “Beast” and the “False Prophet” respectively.  Until that time the Lord will continue to pour out His wrath on sinning man in the form of sickness, war, invasions of foreigners, economic downturns, “natural” disasters such as floods, droughts, famines, tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, global warming, global cooling, mud slides, hail, earthquakes, rodent and insect infestations, crop failure due to blight, mildew, and rot, etc.  When Daniel replied that he did not understand what he had seen, God told him that it was not for him to understand.  He was to seal up the book (scroll) for future use.  He told John that at the end of the age He would reveal the meaning of the book to His faithful ministers who would share the Truths it contained with His true brethren.

The time for the revealing of the revelation is now.  The Lord’s appointed and anointed ministers understand the meaning of the book and are declaring its meaning to those with eyes and ears to see and hear its end-time message.  Those who know their God realize that Daniel’s writings reveal that most of the signs he recorded have already come to pass.   This lets us know that we are living in the end of the end of time.  The last sign will soon come to fruition.  World events provide proof that the world as we know it is soon to end.  L.J.