Transcript Revelation and Human Reality

Revelation and
Human Reality
Session 57
A-level Amphitheater
LLUMC
March 5, 2011, 10:30-11:30 AM
Clarifying Retrospective
 Clarification of
 timeline
 concepts
 plot
Timeline
AFTER
BEFORE
‘1000 YEARS’
Second Coming
 Rev 1:7 Look! He is coming with the
clouds; every eye will see him, even
those who pierced him; and on his
account all the tribes of the earth will
wail. So it is to be. Amen.
 Rev 22:20 He who testifies to these
things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Second Coming
– Then What?
 John 13:3 Jesus, knowing that the Father
had given all things into His hands, and
that He had come forth from God, and
was going back to God…
 John 17:13 But now I am coming to you,
and I speak these things in the world so
that they may have my joy made
complete in themselves.
“Where I Am”

NJB
John 14:2-3 In my Father's house there
are many places to live in; otherwise I
would have told you. I am going now to
prepare a place for you, and after I have
gone and prepared you a place, I shall
return to take you to myself, so that you
may be with me where I am.
“Where I Am”
 John 17:24 Father, I desire that those
also, whom you have given me, may be
with me where I am, to see my glory,
which you have given me because you
loved me before the foundation of the
world.
“And So
We Will Be with the Lord”
 1 Thess 4:15-17 For this we declare to you by the
word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are
left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means
precede those who have died. For the Lord
himself, with a cry of command, with the
archangel's call and with the sound of God's
trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead
in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who
are left, will be caught up in the clouds together
with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we
will be with the Lord forever.
“God Will Be with Them”
 Revelation 21:3-4 And I heard a loud
voice from the throne saying, “See, the
home of God is among mortals. He will
dwell with them; they will be his
peoples, and God himself will be with
them; he will wipe every tear from their
eyes.”
“With Me” vs. “With Them”
 When Jesus says that “they will be with
me,” the spatial referent is heaven.
 When Revelation says that “God will be
with them,” the spatial referent is the
earth [New Earth].
Timeline
BEFORE
AFTER
 SECOND
COMING
 NEW
EARTH
‘1000 YEARS’
‘Great Ordeal’
 Rev 7:13-15 Then one of the elders addressed
me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and
where have they come from?” I said to him,
“Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said
to me, “These are they who have come out of
the great tribulation; they have washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb. For this reason they are before the
throne of God, and worship him day and night
within his temple, and the one who is seated on
the throne will shelter them.”
‘Great Ordeal’ - OT
 Daniel 12:1 “At that time Michael, the
great prince, the protector of your
people, shall arise. There shall be a time
of anguish, such as has never occurred
since nations first came into existence.
But at that time your people shall be
delivered, everyone who is found written
in the book.
Timeline
BEFORE
AFTER
 SECOND
COMING
 GREAT
ORDEAL
 NEW
EARTH
‘1000 YEARS’
Sealing
 Rev 7:2 -3 I saw another angel
ascending from the rising of the sun,
having the seal of the living God, and he
called with a loud voice to the four
angels who had been given power to
damage earth and sea, saying, “Do not
damage the earth or the sea or the trees,
until we have marked the servants of
our God with a seal on their foreheads.”
Timeline
BEFORE
 SECOND
COMING
 GREAT
ORDEAL
 SEALING
AFTER
 NEW
EARTH
‘1000 YEARS’
Harmagedon
 Rev 16:13, 14, 16 And I saw three foul spirits
like frogs coming from the mouth of the dragon,
from the mouth of the beast, and from the
mouth of the false prophet. These are demonic
spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the
kings of the whole world, to assemble them for
battle on the great day of God the Almighty.
And they assembled them at the place that
in Hebrew is called Harmagedon.
Timeline
BEFORE
 SECOND
COMING
 GREAT
ORDEAL
 SEALING
 HARMAGEDON
AFTER
 NEW
EARTH
‘1000 YEARS’
End of Surrogate Powers
 Revelation 19:20 And the beast was
captured, and with it the false prophet
who had performed in its presence the
signs by which he deceived those who
had received the mark of the beast and
those who worshiped its image. These
two were thrown alive into the lake of
fire that burns with sulfur.
Timeline
BEFORE
 SECOND
COMING
 GREAT
ORDEAL
 SEALING
 HARMAGEDON
 END - 1
AFTER
 NEW
EARTH
‘1000 YEARS’
End of Satan

NRS
Revelation 20:10 And the devil who
had deceived them was thrown into the
lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast
and the false prophet were, and they will
be tormented day and night forever and
ever. (Rev 20:10 NRS)
Timeline
BEFORE
 SECOND
COMING
 GREAT
ORDEAL
 SEALING
 HARMAGEDON
 END - 1
AFTER
 NEW
EARTH
 END - 2
‘1000 YEARS’
Final Message

NRS
Revelation 14:6-7 Then I saw another
angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal
gospel to proclaim to those who live on
the earth-- to every nation and tribe and
language and people. He said in a loud
voice, “Fear God and give him glory, for
the hour of his judgment has come; and
worship him who made heaven and earth,
the sea and the springs of water.”
Timeline
BEFORE
 SECOND
COMING
 GREAT
ORDEAL
 SEALING
 HARMAGEDON
 END – 1
 FINAL
MESSAGE
AFTER
 NEW
EARTH
 END - 2
‘1000 YEARS’
Final Opportunity

Revelation 22:11 “Let him who does
wrong continue to do wrong; let him
who is vile continue to be vile; let him
who does right continue to do right; and
let him who is holy continue to be holy.”
NIV
Timeline
BEFORE
 FINAL
MESSAGE
 FINAL
OPPORTUNITY
 SECOND
COMING
 END – 1
AFTER
 NEW
EARTH
 END - 2
‘1000 YEARS’
Timeline of Judgment
(courtesy Ralph Thompson)
BEFORE
 Pre-advent
 ‘Decision
judgment’
AFTER
BETWEEN
‘Explanatory
judgment’
‘1000 YEARS’
 Postmillennial
 ‘Distributive
judgment’
(not
retributive)
Clarifying
the Concept of Judgment
 The human decision and the divine decision
correlate; there is never a divine decision
only.
 The divine action is subject to review.
 Till the very last moment, the human action
in judgment looms larger than the divine
action.
Clarifying
the Concept of Judgment
 “The judgment being never juridical but
revelatory, it is not the expression of the
servile terror of men, but of their
comprehension of the divine reality.”
 “The judgment at this moment is then: to
be what one has actually wished to be, but
seeing in the light of God what it was.”
Ellul, Apocalypse, 172, 176.