Description

REVELATION

35 Simple Studies in the Major Themes in Revelation

by

M.R. De Haan, M.D.

 

www.solidchristianbooks.com

2016

Contents

BRIEF OUTLINE OF REVELATION. 4

INTRODUCTION. 6

1. GOD’S PROPHETIC PROGRAM FOR THIS AGE. 8
2. THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 14
3. THE FAILURE OF REFORMATION. 21
4. THE END OF THIS AGE. 28
5. THE TRANSLATION OF THE CHURCH IN REVELATION. 35
6. THEY THAT LOOK FOR HIM.. 44
7. THREE DOORS IN REVELATION. 49
8. A VISION OF THE HIGH PRIEST. 56
9. THE PROMISE OF THE RAINBOW.. 64
10. THE SEVEN-SEALED BOOK. 71
11. THE KINSMAN REDEEMER. 78
12. REDEEMING EARTH’S MORTGAGE. 85
13. THE REDEMPTION OF CREATION. 92
14. THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF REVELATION 6. 99
15. THE 144,000 OF REVELATION 7. 107
16. THE TRUMPET JUDGMENTS. 114
17. TASTING THE WORD OF GOD. 121
18. THE TWO WITNESSES. 129
19. WAR IN HEAVEN. 136
20. THE LAST DICTATOR. 144
21. THE ANTICHRIST. 152
22. THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 159
23. THE SEVEN VIALS. 166
24. THREE UNCLEAN SPIRITS LIKE FROGS. 173
25. THE RISE AND FALL OF BABYLON. 180
26. THE RISE AND FALL OF BABYLON (Continued) 188
27. THE WEDDING OF THE LAMB. 196
28. THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 202
29. THE BINDING OF SATAN. 210
30. THE TWO RESURRECTIONS. 217
31. THE TWO RESURRECTIONS. 224
32. THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT. 231
33. THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH. 237
34. THE NEW JERUSALEM.. 245
35. “EVEN SO, COME, LORD JESUS” 252

BRIEF OUTLINE OF REVELATION

1. CHAP. 1 GLORIFIED CHRIST REVEALED
2. As the Author of prophecy. (1:1-3, 11, 19)
3. As Head of the Church. (1:13, 18, 20a)
4. CHAPS. 2,3 MESSAGE TO CHURCHES GIVEN
5. To seven local groups of believers.
6. To prophetically outline the seven aspects of the age of grace to follow.
7. CHAP. 4 RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH PREVIEWED
8. As a calling “up hither” before the judgment falls. (4:1-4)
9. As indicating the saints to be objects of heaven’s fellowship and favor. (4:5-11)
10. CHAPS. 5-18 TRIBULATION DESCRIBED
11. The 7-sealed book of judgments to be opened. (5, 6, and 8:1)
12. 144,000 of Israel to be sealed and many Gentiles saved. (7, 14:1:5)
13. The trumpet judgments, woes, and unavailing warnings of the two witnesses. (8:2-11)
14. Israel’s persecutions, the war to cleanse the heavenlies, and the casting down of Satan. (12)
15. The Anti-Christ and the Satanic trinity unleased upon the world. (13)
16. The doom of Babylon and Armageddon pre­viewed. (14:8-20)
17. The seven last plagues (vials). (15, 16)
18. Spiritual Babylon (great whore of religions) to be judged. (17, 18)
19. CHAP. 19 SECOND COMING PROPHECIED
20. After marriage supper of the Lamb. (19:1-10)
21. To end Battle of Armageddon and the reign of the Beast and the false prophet. (19:11-21)
22. CHAP. 20 MILLENNIUM AND FINAL JUDGMENT PREDICTED
23. Satan temporarily bound. (20:1-3)
24. First resurrection completed, and millennium begun. (20:4-6)
25. Satan loosed a little season after millennium. (20:7)
26. Final rebellion and Satan’s doom (20:8-10)
27. Wicked judged, cast into Lake of Fire. (20:11-15)
28. CHAPS. 21, 22 NEW HEAVEN, EARTH PROMISED
29. New inhabitants. (21:2-8)
30. New capitol city. (21:9-21)
31. New order of life. (21:22-27; 22:1-15)
32. Final blessings, warnings, promises, and bene­dictions appended. (22:15-21)… (H.G.B.)

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

To Be Read First

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. (Rev. 1:3).

Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. (Rev. 22:7).

The author of the book of the revelation is Jesus Christ (Rev. 22:16). The Lord intended that this book should be read and studied especially by His people (Rev. 1:3). It is not a sealed book, as many suppose, but one which is open and easy to understand (Rev. 22:10). Bearing these facts in mind, we find the study of Revela­tion to be fascinating, illuminating and deeply pro­fitable, instead of difficult and confusing. The messages in this volume constitute thirty-five radio sermons which were preached first over the Mutual Network and by foreign and short-wave stations around the world, from August, 1945, to April, 1946. The response to these radio messages was so enthusiastic and the evi­dent desire for light on the book of the Revelation so general that we soon decided to print these studies on one volume. Hence this book.

No attempt has been made to present an exhaustive verse-by-verse exposition of the book, but, rather, we have tried to present the general outline, the basic structure and the framework. We have dwelt at length on certain passages because they constitute the pillars of the book. Our purpose is to present clearly the general outline and structure, and then the details will fall naturally into their proper places.

If certain simple rules are followed in reading and studying it, the book of the Revelation becomes clear, logical and easily understood. We present here a few rules which should be observed before studying the book:

1. Revelation is not a dark book. It is a revelation.
2. It is not necessary for one to understand all the symbols and details if he is to gain a deeper knowledge of the book as a whole. One need not be able to identify every tree in the forest to appreciate the beauty of the forest as a whole.
3. Observe the rule of literal interpretation. The greatest curse of the Christian Church is the evil of spiritualizing the Bible. Although there are many symbols and signs in the book, as in every other book and in our daily conversation, the context indicates whether a passage is to be interpreted literally or sym­bolically. Interpret literally, except where the context or grammatical structure clearly indicates that the re­ference is a symbol or a sign.
4. Approach the Book with a “fresh” mind. Try to forget the views you have held concerning the Book because others have declared it to be mysterious and beyond our understanding. Thousands of believers never read Revelation, but carefully avoid it simply because someone told them it is a dark book and im­possible to understand. Study the book for yourself.
5. Read the book prayerfully, realizing that the Holy Spirit who infallibly inspired the book is also the person Who must illuminate the book. Never read a portion of scripture without first asking Him for light and guidance.

We submit for your help the following simple out­line of Revelation. Remember these five rules as you study it. If you will memorize the outline thoroughly, and keep it clearly before your mind, you will have no trouble filling in the details.

 

Grand Rapids, Michigan                                          M. R. DeHaan

 

1. GOD’S PROPHETIC PROGRAM FOR THIS AGE

 

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written there­in: for the time is at hand (Rev. 1:3).

There is probably not a book in the entire Bible which is less read and understood than the book of the Revelation. To the average person the last book of the Bible is a deep mystery, consisting of strange fantastic predictions which cannot be understood, and as a re­sult the average Bible-reader knows little or nothing about either its contents or its meaning. No greater delusion, however, could occur than to call the book of the Revelation a dark book and one difficult to under­stand. In these messages we shall try to prove that if we are willing to believe the book and read it with an un­prejudiced mind, it is not only one of the most instructive and important books, but also one of the easiest to understand. The very title of the book gives the lie to the statement that Revelation is a dark book and im­possible of understanding. The name is “revelation,” the translation of the Greek word apocalypsis, meaning “un­veiling.” If, then, the book is a dark book, then the author, the Holy Spirit, made a grave mistake in call­ing it “Revelation.” Start, therefore, with this thought: the book is an unveiling, a revelation. Many people, preachers, teachers and others have complained that the book is hard to understand; consequently the average person has believed this misinformation and carefully avoids this most important book for these last days.

A Special Blessing

Not only is the book called “Revelation’’ to encourage us to read it, but it is the only book in the Bible in which God promises a special blessing to those who will read and study it. No wonder, then, that the devil has tried to delude men and women with the lie that the average person cannot understand this last book of the Scriptures, and therefore had better leave it alone. Satan would like to rob you of the special blessing God has promised to those who will read it. Listen to the promise again:

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written there­in: for the time is at hand (Rev. 1:3).

A Prophetic Book

The book is not only a source of blessing to all who study it, and a revelation, but it is a prophecy of things to come. How all of us would like to look into the future! How man longs to know what lies ahead! He has turned to inane and insane delusions and magicians, sooth­sayers, charlatans, crystal-gazers, fortune-tellers and ouija boards in his endeaver to know the future. He has neglected the one and the only book the Bible which does tell the future without fail.

Thousands of prophecies were fulfilled in the past, and not one failed. There are hundreds of prophecies concerning the first coming of Christ, all of which were fulfilled when He came the first time. Hundreds of years before Jesus was born it was foretold where He would be born, of what tribe, in what province and in what city. His birth, His life, His miracles, His betrayal, His crucifixion, His death, His resurrection after three days and His ascension into heaven were all foretold. The coming of the Holy Spirit and God’s program for the Church were all foretold and fulfilled in minutest detail. These same prophets, writing at the same time and under the inspiration of the same infallible Spirit, also foretold the course of this age and the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet many accept the prophecies of His first coming as being literal because they are liter­ally fulfilled, whereas they spirtualize the unfulfilled prophecies of His second coming, and argue them away. How inconsistent! The prophecies of His First and Second advents were written at the same time by the same men, indicted by the same Holy Spirit, and if those which have already come to pass were literally fulfilled, then simple logic must cause us to expect the same literal fulfillment of those which are yet to be fulfilled.

The Book of Revelation

While prophecies of the future are found throughout all the Scriptures, both in the Old and the New Testa­ments, there is one book in particular which is called prophetic. That book is the one we shall study, the Book of Revelation. It is called a prophecy in verse 3. That is what God called it, and we shall see that it deals with the events in God’s program beginning with the time when John wrote it some nineteen hundred years ago on the Isle of Patmos.

The Person of the Book

The name of this last book is “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.” In your Bibles you have the caption “The Revelation of St. John the Divine,” but that is quite in­correct. That is the name mere men who translated the book gave to it: the book is not the revelation of John, but the revelation of Jesus Christ. Remember this simple rule, and it will simplify many otherwise difficult pass­ages. Christ is the subject of the book, the center and the consummation. Throughout the book He is pre­eminent, as we shall see, and it ends with the final revela­tion of Jesus Christ at the end of the Tribulation period and the setting up of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Re­member that it is the revelation of Jesus Christ, and it was given to John to be passed on to us, that we might study it and particularly in these last days might know what the appalling events in the world today mean in the light of the Scriptures. Remember these rules as you study the book:

1. Revelation is not a dark book.
2. A special blessing is promised to those who study it.
3. It is a prophetic book, telling of the future.
4. It deals with the final coming of Christ.

Three Divisions of the Book

The book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ is divided into three well-defined parts given by the Holy Spirit in chapter 1:19:

Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.

You will notice the three divisions here: past, present and future. “The things which thou hast seen,” are chapter 1, the vision of the glorious Christ. “The things which are,” cover the present age, the age of the Church. John lived during its early days, and we are living at the close of the same age, called here “the things that are.” This division ends with chapter three with the Laodicean Church, and in chapter 4:1 the third division begins with the Rapture of the Church at the end of this present age, to be followed by the description of the Tribulation in chapters 6 – 19, and closing with the personal glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ spoken of in Revela­tion 19 and the setting np of His millennial kingdom described in chapters 20 and 21. The entire first chapter deals with the glory of Christ in His coming again and are thus the things which John had seen in the vision and are called “the things which thou hast seen.” Chapters 2 and 3 are “the things which are,” the present Church Age, ending in apostasy, war and destruction and the coming of Christ for His Church in the Rapture. The third part, “the things which shall be hereafter,” that is, after this present age, covers the remainder of the book.

The Outline of the Book

In the chapters to follow we shall study the details of the book, but before we do, we want you to have a general idea of the main outline of the book. Chapter 1, as we pointed out, is the picture of the Person of Christ, the center of the book. Chapters 2 and 3 give us the history of the Church pre-written from Pentecost to the Rapture of the Church. This history is in seven periods, represented by the seven churches of chapters 2 and 3: Ephe­sus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. These seven churches represent the suc­cessive chronological history of professing Christendom. It is a history of declension, apostasy and progressive decline. The history of the professing Church closes with chapter 3 where Jesus is pushed outside the door. In the first period of history under the figure of the Church of Ephesus we see the Lord in the Church walk­ing in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, which are the seven churches. In the last days of the Church we see Him pushed outside professing Christendom, typified by the Church of Laodicea, knocking at the door from the outside. He is now outside, having been turned out by the mass of professing Christendom. The door is shut to Him, and the place He should occupy has been taken by social service, the social gospel, banqueting and feasting, bloodless preaching and denial of His deity, atonement, resurrection and coming again. When Christendom shuts the door on earth to Him, something happens in heaven.

Another Door

Chapter 4 begins by telling of another door in heaven. Revelation 4:1 reads as follows:

After this (that is, after the Church has turned the Saviour outside the door) I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

This verse speaks of the Rapture of the Church. When all appears to be lost in Laodicea, and it seems that the Gospel will perish from the earth and the preaching of the Gospel is so hindered that it seems hopeless, the door in heaven will open and the Lord will “descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” The Church will be taken out to be with her Lord.

The Scene in Heaven

In the remainder of Chapter 4 and all of 5 we have a record of what the Church will see when it gets to heaven at the Rapture. Beginning with Chapter 6 we have a description of the period of time between the Rapture and the second coming of Christ spoken of in Revelation 19:11. Almost fourteen chapters are de­voted to this brief period of the world’s greatest tribulation, of war and death and destruction greater than any in all history, when the demons from the pit shall be loosed upon the earth, hailstones weighing a hundred pounds shall fall from the sky, when the man of sin, the world-dictator and the Satanic superman, will unite the world in a great political federation, kill all the be­lievers and set up his devilish kingdom on the earth. He will marshall the kingdoms of the world in the greatest battle of all history just north of Palestine in the battle of Armageddon, and were it not for the inter­vention of the Lord no flesh should be saved. Man would be annihilated and perish. When that seems about to happen, the Lord will come, as we read in Revelation 19:11:

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

This is the coming of Christ after the Tribulation to put an end to the battle of Armageddon and the reign of man. Before the Tribulation He came for His Church to take them out; now He comes after the Tribulation with His Church to reign.

The Devil Bound

Revelation 20 speaks of the devil bound, the millen­nial kingdom established, the creation restored and blessed, wars come to an end, peace over all the earth, even the vegetable and animal creation at rest and peace one with the other. For one thousand blessed years Jesus will reign according to the promises of His Word. At the end of the thousand years Satan will be loosed for a moment only to be cast into the lake of fire with all his followers. Then will follow the judgement of the Great White Throne where all wicked will be judged and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, and in chapter 22 we have a picture of the eternal state and rest.

This, in brief, is the outline of the clearest book in the Bible and the easiest to understand, the most illum­inating and instructive in these dark days. In the follow­ing messages we shall fill in the details. In this chapter we have merely tried to give you an introductory out­line so that you may be able to insert the details where they belong. In our next message we shall consider the history of the Church as given in Revelation 2 and 3.

Behold, I come quickly.

peace over all the earth, even the vegetable and animal creation at rest and peace one with the other. For one thousand blessed years Jesus will reign according to the promises of His Word. At the end of the thousand years Satan will be loosed for a moment only to be cast into the lake of fire with all his followers. Then will follow the judgement of the Great White Throne where all wicked will be judged and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, and in chapter 22 we have a picture of the eternal state and rest.

This, in brief, is the outline of the clearest book in the Bible and the easiest to understand, the most illum­inating and instructive in these dark days. In the follow­ing messages we shall fill in the details. In this chapter we have merely tried to give you an introductory out­line so that you may be able to insert the details where they belong. In our next message we shall consider the history of the Church as given in Revelation 2 and 3.

Behold, I come quickly.