We live in a world that is rapidly changing: Political disagreements, financial instability, natural disasters, confusion over truth. This book contains amazing prophecies, revealing the end of the world and our only Hope – The Ultimate Sacrifice.

<p>We live in a world that is rapidly changing: Political disagreements, financial instability, natural disasters, confusion over truth. This book contains amazing prophecies, revealing the end of the world and our only Hope – The Ultimate Sacrifice.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Empower Missions

Christian Hjortland

The Book of Revelation - Introduction

Thank you for a new day and new opportunities to walk with you.

I thank you that you sustain us, sustain our lives and that you're upholding our lives and that for a reason you want to, you have a plan for each and 1 of us and you want to use us in your service.

I pray that you may go with us today as we study.

Will you speak to our hearts and will you give me the right words and help us to to understand and learn important things from your word.

It's, you know, we live in a world, it is rapidly changing politically.

And financially, natural disasters just don't increase.

I mean, you have a lot of confusion, you have a lot of so-called truth and, you know, And we see how Revelation has predicted some of these things quite clearly.

And the book was obviously written about 2, 000 years ago.

We have...it was written by John, the Apostle John.

Some people, I mean, we have a lot of symbols obviously in this and what can we say, like cryptic language and we have to keep that in mind as we study it.

And in the beginning we read the following words here in Revelation chapter 1 verse 3.

Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words so this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand.

So some people believe this book is sealed in Christianity, so they just say, oh, don't study it, you know, it's sealed.

But it's kind of ironic if you think about the name, Revelation.

I mean, and also here we have this promise, blessed is he that readeth.

So God wants to bless those that reads and he wants to give us understanding.

And so you not only want us to read and understand, but you want to bless us through it.

So, I would say that the Revelation is 1 of the most important books for us today.

We have, I mean, here we have the climax of the great controversy.

And even history, I mean, from the beginning to the end, the description in part of the book and the very final events is written in here.

So like I said, it was written by John at the island Patmos in Greece and this was an island where they put prisoners.

As he wrote this book, I mean he was a prisoner himself on this island.

I mean he, so he was persecuted like all the other apostles And then he was put in prison.

He went through, I will show you some quotes in a moment.

And then he comes here, and he was quite old.

And maybe he would think, well, I guess this is it.

And then God just, you know, gives him visions of 1 of the most important books in history.

So God can turn a disappointment to an appointment.

What are some keys to understand the Book of Revelation?

The scriptures will be important, in particular the Old Testament.

In fact, more than 270 expressions in the Book of Revelation are actually from the Old Testament.

So We have, for instance, the Book of Daniel.

Several of the prophecies here is corresponding with the prophecies in the Book of Revelation, like Daniel 2, Daniel 7, and yeah, and so on, Daniel 8, Daniel 11.

So, again, the Revelation is giving more details than we have seen earlier in Daniel.

Just like Daniel is giving more and more details for each prophecy, it talks about the same thing.

So Revelation gives us even more details again.

So according to tradition, John was the only survivor of the Apostles.

And then, he, like I said, he went through really hard times here from Acts of the Apostles, page 569 to 570, says, "...the rulers of the Jews were filled with bitter hatred against John for his unwavering fidelity to the cause of Christ.

John was accordingly summoned to Rome to be tried for his faith.

Here before the authorities, the Apostles' doctrines were misstated.

John answered for himself in a clear and convincing manner and with such simplicity and candor that his words had a powerful effect.

His hearers were astonished at his wisdom and eloquence, but the more convincing his testimony, the deeper was the hatred of his posers.

John was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil.

Imagine that, I mean I think this is it I'm gonna die but the Lord preserved the life of his faithful servant even as he preserved the 3 Hebrews in the fiery furnace so God had great plans I mean he didn't know at this point you know the Lord why do this very my life I guess you have a plan for me.

By the Emperor's decree, John was banished to the isle of Patmos, condemned for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Here his enemies thought his influence would no longer be felt, and he must finally die of hardship and distress.

Patmos, a barren rocky island in the Aegean Sea, had been chosen by the Roman government as a place of banishment for criminals.

But to the servant of God, this gloomy abode became the gate of heaven." Isn't that beautiful how God can, you know, He has His ways, and even though it may look really dark to us, God has his plans with what is happening and he can turn hardship to joy and to using us in those circumstances.

So, basically, this book was believed to be written around 94, 95 AD.

And then, How old do you think John will be approximately by this time?

It's in fact around 100 years old he would be.

And after this, another Emperor, Nerva, took over.

And he, when he got, when he took over, he released the political prisoners.

So then it's believed that John also was released and returned to Ephesus, to the mainland.

Okay, so here we have some of the structure, like roughly, of Revelation.

You have the historical parts, talking about the whole history of humanity, which means some of them still need to be fulfilled, right?

So you have the prologue, like in the beginning, the introduction, kind of.

Then you have 7 churches, and you have 7 seals, you have 7 trumpets, and then you have the great controversy with, we had a French Revolution in chapter 11 and in chapter 12 you have even more you see the great controversy from the beginning in heaven until the end recording God's Church and Revelation 13, the 2 beasts, and Revelation 14, the 3 angels messages, and then also how they, yeah, the description of the 144, 000, and so on.

So, The first half is showing the experience of God's people.

And yeah, so we have, for instance, the seventh seal, the seventh trumpet is yet to be complete.

So we have certain things that is not fulfilled yet.

Then we have the eschatological, it's called a part.

Roughly, you can say in time events, right?

It comes from the Greek word eskaton, which means end, end or last.

And this is dealing with almost exclusively.

And of course, here, like I said, this is roughly.

So it's not exactly somewhere in between.

There may be things that would pertain maybe more to another part and so on, but this is roughly.

So the eschatological part deals with topics such as death and judgment, the final destiny of the soul and the final events basically of this world's history.

And These are to be fulfilled in the future, the 7 last plagues.

You have the fall of Babylon and the final moments there for Babylon.

And then you have the millennium, the New Jerusalem, and then an epilogue in the end.

So let us look more at, I want to I want to show you, let us see here, it seems like there is missing a slide here okay yeah actually it is here.

Anyhow, so, well, I already asked the question if Revelation is sealed, as some believe.

It's not sealed, and as I said, the name of it just reveals that fact, almost revelation.

I want to just, you know, we've been talking about the end of time.

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The Book of Revelation - Introduction

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