Some further discussions on the topics discussed this week in Sunday School
We open up with John being escorted into the Throne Room in heaven, and describing what he sees for us.
One of the things we see here, and something that will hold true for us whenever we get a glimpse into the throne room, is the imagery that is used to describe God, or Him who sits on the throne. Let’s talk about that…..
In Rev 4, we see a mighty God who is the color of jasper (pure white → symbolizing God’s glory) and carnelian (deep blood red → symbolizing God’s grace). There is a rainbow to remind us of God’s covenant with man (from Noah after the flood – Gen 9), and 7 torches which represent the perfect light of God.
Then in Rev 5, just 1 chapter later, we see the image of a lamb who was slain in the midst of the throne. Here is the image of Christ as the perfect sacrifice and who has the right and has been given the power over the Earth and mankind. But in this case, we see the slain lamb as a reminder of the sacrifice that Christ made on our behalf. We are reminded of this incredible sacrifice that was made that we might live, and become sons & daughters of God through the blood of Jesus.
In the 4 living creatures, we see a mixture that reminds us of some of characteristics of God, which also line up with the perspectives of the 4 gospels.
Lion → King (Matthew)
Ox → Servant (Mark)
Face like Man → Son of Man (Luke)
Eagle → Sovereignty (John)
In the lamb that was slain description, we also see some symbolism from his appearance description. 7 horns = omnipotence, 7 eyes = omniscience, 7 spirits = omnipresence or full measure of the Holy Spirit. Remember that the number 7 is a perfect number, so we see measures of perfection in Christ’s description here.
Preliminaries are those things that the Word of God tells us must come about before the ‘end times’. We get these from a number of bible passages in both the Old and New Testaments.
(1) Formation of Israel – comes from Ezekiel and Luke. We are told that Israel will become a nation once more and will govern themselves, and not just as a religion. This has come to pass, as they are currently a nation and have been since 1948.
(2) Rise of many other nations – comes from Luke in the reference of trees blooming and shooting forth. During much of Old Testament times, we saw a world that was dominated by a single empire. While there were other nations and people groups, for the most part the dominating force was that empire that was ruling at that time. Here we see a picture that is different in that there will be a number of nations which hold prominent positions in the world – much as we see in our modern day society.
(3) Return of Israel to the land – comes from Ezekiel. Not only will Israel be a nation, but they will be returned to the land that was originally theirs, or at least was the promised land that God gave them after the exodus from Egypt. They are back now.
(4) Ecumenical Movement (world church) – we read hints of this in several New testament passages, but really get a strong feel in Rev 17 & 18. Keep in mind that not all of Revelation is chronological, and in chapters 17 & 18 we read about something that has already come to pass, therefore it had to occur. Anyway, this is movement by which the world’s religions will make efforts to find commonality and become one large organization. So not only are they watering down their beliefs and combining them, but we will also see that they have a high priest who is closely aligned with the Antichrist.
(5) Worldwide increase in spiritualism – comes from 1 Timothy. There will be an increase in spiritualism beliefs and uses. Such as tarot cards, mediums, séances, spirit worship, satanic activity, horoscopes, palm reading, etc. You name it, and it’ll become popular.
(6) Decline in moral standards – comes from 2 Timothy. Just about every generation believes that the morals of the subsequent generations is declining. Our parents and grand parents say that about us, we’ll probably say that about our children (for the most part). This is a shift away from the absolute standards and truth that comes from God, and instead a reliance on man’s standards, which are situational and relative at best. As we move further away from God as a society, then we will see these relative standards of man slip and what is acceptable moves further away from hard moral standards.
(7) Violence and civil disobedience – comes from 2 Thessalonians. More people break laws, and there are more violent crimes than there were before.
(8) people with a form of godliness, but deny its power – comes from 2 Timothy. This is a curious one, because what is basically being said is that people will have more power to do things, accomplish things etc. – but deny that they come from God. So is this Satan’s power? Not necessarily. This comes in 2 forms. (1) That this power really is from God, but in our self-centered trend we take the credit instead of giving the credit and glory to God. An example might be God heals for the benefit of the healed person, and yet people involved take the credit upon themselves. We can see how this could happen through the watered down message and emphasis on God that we hear of in so many of our churches today. (2) That this power is a counterfeit power that comes from a source other than God. In either case, it is taking the focus away from God and shifting it to man – and trend we see much too often in our modern day society.
(9) Revived Roman Empire (nations confederacy) – comes from Daniel. While earlier we talked about a rise of many nations (see #2 listed above), we will also see these many nations move to form a confederacy of some sort which will come close to binding all the nations under a single government. Some believe that this could be a rise in power & influence of a group such as the United Nations. But because of the rise of many nations, this will be a loosely held together entity at best. This is symbolized by the mixture of clay and iron in the feet of the statue in Daniel 2. But while this may be a loosely held group, it does represent basically a one world government, which will become solidified into a 1 world government once the Antichrist solidifies his power over the world.
(10) Denial of God’s Judgment in affairs – comes from 2 Peter. This will be a movement where people as a whole turn from God and do not recognize God’s power and control over affairs of man. If we think about it, we can see some of that trend now in some of the decisions being made in our country. In most places, they are not allowed to teach Creation/Intelligent Design. Even though many of our laws are based on the 10 Commandments, we are not allowed to display them on government property. It is these types of activities that lead us away from an understanding of God’s influence and presence in our lives.
We also talked about some Precipitating Events, or events that will happen around the early stages of the Tribulation. In these cases, they may or may not come before as the others, but may overlap and go into the Tribulation period itself.
(1) Covenant with Israel – comes from Daniel. This is the kick-off event for the timing of the Tribulation. This covenant will be a 7-year covenant made with Israel for her protection against the other nations. It will be kept for the 1st 3½ years, and then broken by the Antichrist. This covenant will mark the start of the 7-year Tribulation timeline.
(2) War against Israel – comes from Ezekiel. We are given a picture of groups coming against Israel from northern Middle east and the area of southern Russia. They will attack Israel, who will be spared by miraculous intervention from God. Many believe that this will be the event that sparks the need for a covenant with Israel, which would then put this just before the start of the Tribulation period. But in the passages it is referenced as coming when Israel is in a time of peace, which may also mean that it comes after the covenant.
(3) Antichrist comes to power – comes from 2 Thessalonians and Revelation. This is the Antichrist basically taking over the Revived Roman Empire and ruling the 1 world government. At 1st we know that he will come by way of flatteries and deceit, and for a time will be a good ruler, or at least look like a good ruler.
(4) Temple re-built – comes from 2 Thessalonians and Revelation. This is another one that we know from inference. We know that the Antichrist will enter the temple and desecrate it, so then obviously there would need to be a temple to do that.
(5) Levitical sacrifices resumed – comes from Daniel. Again, we are told that Hebrews will fall back on more orthodox ways and will return to sacrifice. This will also be a period in which Hebrews return strongly to their religious roots and to God.
