Chronology
of Revelation Ch. 4 thru 19
Throughout human history there is perhaps no other question that strikes
at the heart of every person’s experience than the question, How can God let
this horrible suffering, this terrible event, this calamity occur? How can a
thoroughly good and loving God have allowed this to happen to me?
Philosophically this falls within the category of what is defined as the
problem of evil. The way philosophers structure is to say, well if God is
really a loving God then how can He allow such horrible things to happen in
history? Horrible things from natural disaster to human evil. The idea is that
if evil exists then God isn’t truly loving, or God is somehow incapable of solving
the problem.
We come to the Scriptures and we know that the Scriptures give answers.
In fact, this is not a problem or a question that is left unanswered in the
Scriptures. God recognises the seriousness of it. The very first book that was
ever written in the Old Testament was written for the purpose of addressing
this question and giving us an answer, and that is the book of Job. Job was a
righteous man and yet in the course of his life there were natural disasters
that took the life of all of his children, and wipe out all of his fortune,
there was a series of diseases that come to his body physically, and he goes
through incredible suffering. Ultimately Job appeals to God to give him and
answer and God appears to him with a series of rhetorical questions in order to
direct his attention to his own finite knowledge. God never directly answer the
question as to why there is evil and suffering. When we read Job we know that
there is something going on at a higher level, something that takes place above
and beyond what is seen in the physical, empirical world, it has to do with
this rebellion that has taken place by Satan and the angels, and so there is a
spiritual dimension to all of this. What God is basically focusing Job’s
attention on is the fact that Job with all of his capabilities could never
possibly comprehend, organise, assimilate and interpret all of the data that
God knows. There is no way that Job could understand. The bottom line is that
we have to trust God, that He has allowed evil, sin and suffering to continue
in human history because ultimately He will stop it and there will be a
resolution. But once that resolution occurs that is the end of history, and so
God allows us to continue for the time being in order to extend His grace to mankind.
Another reason he allows it to continue in history is because it teaches the
lesson of what happens when there is the creature’s rebellion against God.
When God ultimately resolves the sin problem, which is the cause of all
undeserved suffering, all evil, all of the calamities that we think of on
earth, this will involve a dealing with both creation and nature as we often
think of it, there will be unbelievable disasters, cosmic crises, geophysical
manifestations that take place during the future Tribulation period; all of
which is what the Scripture calls the birth pangs that ultimately result in and
end in that final judgment of God where he finally resolves the problem of sin,
evil, and injustice. The Bible says that God has postponed that judgment to a
time in the future but there is a time when there will be a rendering of
justice and judgment. The psalmist raise the question: “How long, O Lord, will
the righteous suffer and the ungodly prosper?” Even though it may not appear on
our timetable or in our lifetime the Bible teaches that God in His wisdom has
an ultimate and final resolution to this problem. We see this answered in the
book of Revelation.
We have seen the scene in heaven where it was found that the Lamb of God
was the one who was qualified to open the seal which brings about the end time
judgments which culminate in the final judgment of sin and evil and the final
resolution of all injustice. This is what is covered in the book of Revelation.
The major theme in the book of Revelation is the execution of justice. When
Jesus appears to John on the
Revelation 16:5 NASB “And I heard the angel of the waters
saying, ‘Righteous are You, who are and who were, O Holy One, because You
judged these things;
In chapter one we see the glorified Christ as the priest-judge of human
history. That is how He is pictured, as the priest-judge who will judge history
and will come to rule and to reign in His kingdom in the future. Chapters 2
& 3 describe the various trends or cycles of the seven churches of the
church age. The church age ends with the Rapture of the church, which is not
specifically mentioned but is indicated in 4:1 where John hears a loud voice
from heaven saying, “Come up here.” Chapters 4-22 describe the future in three
parts. The first part is on the Tribulation when God pours out His judgment on
rebellious mankind, rebellious demons and angels. The Millennial kingdom is
described in Revelation chapter 20 as the time when the Lord Jesus Christ rules
and reigns from
Another thing that we will notice as we go through our study in future
study is that the scene shifts. In chapter four we don’t start with events that
are taking place on earth, we start with events that are taking place in
heaven. We know that somewhere between the Rapture of the church and the events
depicted in chapter four is that the church age believers have already been
evaluated and rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ. During that time other
things transpired in history as the human race tries to deal with the
consequences and collateral damage which is the result of the Rapture. If the
Rapture were to occur today it would wreak havoc in the economic world, in the
military world, and in the nation as a whole as Christians are instantly
removed from the earth and taken to heaven in the blink of an eye. These are
leaders in business, leaders in industry, leaders of nations, and there will be
a power vacuum. It is in this transition period between the Rapture and the
beginning of the Tribulation that into that vacuum there will be seen this
person who is identified as the Antichrist who will begin to pull his power
base together to establish his universal one-world government. Part of the
purpose for this is to restore order out of the chaos that occurs as a result
of the Rapture. What we see in heaven is that the scroll is given to the Lamb,
the scroll representing the title deed to the planet. Jesus Christ is the
second Adam in His humanity, He is going to fulfil the destiny of the first
Adam who was to rule over the planet. He is going to come as the perfect Son of
God, who paid for sin, who is qualified to rule over the planet, and He is
going to come to defeat the enemies of God and to judge them. The breaking of
each of the seven seals represents a different stage in His reconquest of the
planet, a different stage in His judgment of the evil doers of the planet.
In chapter six we see the judgment of the seals; in chapter seven we
step back to see what God is doing, that in the midst of all the calamity, the
destruction and the death there will take place God preserves His own people
and protects them. He will initially save out 144,000 Jews because the focal
point shifts back to His people and part of what occurs during the Tribulation
is to bring
In Revelation chapters eight and nine we return back to the earth for
the second series of judgments, the trumpet judgments. At the conclusion of the
trumpet judgments there is a pause that takes place in heaven. In chapter ten
we focus on the mighty angels who has a small book which is related to the
various judgments that will be poured out upon the earth. In 11:1-14 there is a
shift to what takes place in
Then there is another shift that takes place starting at 11:15 and going
down through chapter 12 where there is a step back to look at some of the key
players and key events that are going on. Following the ascension of these
witnesses and the earthquake in
Then we go back to heaven in chapter fifteen and there is a prelude to
the bowl judgments. Once again as the seventh trumpet has been sounded and it
is revealed that this actually contains the final seven bowl judgments. These
begin to be enacted in chapter sixteen through eighteen. Chapters seventeen and
eighteen describe the final destruction of the kingdom on man, the
To understand the chronology is important. It is not going to change our
spiritual life or make us more secure in our salvation but we will understand
what God is doing, and it is part of our responsibility as believers to know
the whole counsel of God. Scripture says: “All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness.” So we have to study the Word and
understand all these things so that other parts of the Word will begin to make
sense. In doing this we need to re-examine one of the foundational prophecies in
Daniel 9:23-27 which talks about the timetable God has for