I've been giving quite a bit of thought to the book of Revelation lately, since one of the TV/Radio pastors I listen to quite a bit has been doing a series.
It's grown to be the broadcast I love to hate. It's not because the teaching is necessarily wrong, but it seems to have no present value for those of us who worship the Lord Jesus Christ. It is true that we need this knowledge, but I'm tired of it, frankly, after decades of prophecy conferences, reading limitless books on prophecy (an exaggeration, of course), and lots of my own teaching devoted to Bible prophecy in general, and the book of Revelation specifically.
So now I'm going to give you all an opportunity to hate ME, and study the book of Revelation with you (briefly), and attempt to make it apply to you so that you feel "in tune" with what's next. So the first thing about the book is this:
It's an "unveiling of Jesus Christ;" that's the meaning of the word "revelation," and of its parent in Greek, "apokalupsis." The word used literally means to lift off the covering, the veil, that hides this information from us.
Since it's the last book in the New Testament, it has meaning. Our goal is to discover that.
It's the "unveiling of Jesus Christ;" much as the four Gospels unveil Him to the world at his first arrival, this book unveils the process by which His return takes place. The majority of the book is occupied with what happens before He returns--a huge amount of drama, incredible events, dictators, persecution of Christians, Jews, God, Angels, Satan, and of course, "The End." Which is not really an end, but the doorway into forever, where He is, and where we shall be.
So it's important to know and understand, so far as we can. I maintain that there is much here that we can only fully know when it happens, and people here at that time will say, "OH, Yeah!! I get it now!" A great deal of teaching on Revelation is speculation. I will do that as well, because I have to if I want to make the story consistent, but I'll try to identify when I'm doing it.
Hope you all like it.
God Bless all of my readers.
It's grown to be the broadcast I love to hate. It's not because the teaching is necessarily wrong, but it seems to have no present value for those of us who worship the Lord Jesus Christ. It is true that we need this knowledge, but I'm tired of it, frankly, after decades of prophecy conferences, reading limitless books on prophecy (an exaggeration, of course), and lots of my own teaching devoted to Bible prophecy in general, and the book of Revelation specifically.
So now I'm going to give you all an opportunity to hate ME, and study the book of Revelation with you (briefly), and attempt to make it apply to you so that you feel "in tune" with what's next. So the first thing about the book is this:
It's an "unveiling of Jesus Christ;" that's the meaning of the word "revelation," and of its parent in Greek, "apokalupsis." The word used literally means to lift off the covering, the veil, that hides this information from us.
Since it's the last book in the New Testament, it has meaning. Our goal is to discover that.
It's the "unveiling of Jesus Christ;" much as the four Gospels unveil Him to the world at his first arrival, this book unveils the process by which His return takes place. The majority of the book is occupied with what happens before He returns--a huge amount of drama, incredible events, dictators, persecution of Christians, Jews, God, Angels, Satan, and of course, "The End." Which is not really an end, but the doorway into forever, where He is, and where we shall be.
So it's important to know and understand, so far as we can. I maintain that there is much here that we can only fully know when it happens, and people here at that time will say, "OH, Yeah!! I get it now!" A great deal of teaching on Revelation is speculation. I will do that as well, because I have to if I want to make the story consistent, but I'll try to identify when I'm doing it.
Hope you all like it.
God Bless all of my readers.
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