God’s Word Shines: A Bird’s Eye View Of Revelations

This devotion is a weekly ministry of the Pee Dee Baptist Association, comprised of 32 Southern Baptist churches in Dillon and Marlboro Counties.  For more information, call 774-8062. Featured this week is the late Rev. Kenneth Cox. Kenneth was the pastor of Beulah Baptist Church, Hamer, at the time of his death in March 2010. He was one of the original writers for this ministry, and his mother has given permission to reprint his newspaper articles. This article is from May 1994.

A Bird’s Eye View of Revelations
With the ever-growing crime rate, the constant reminders of natural disasters (earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes), and the existence of “There-is-no-absolute-truth-because-everyone-has-an-opinion”  mentality, many people ask , “What is this world coming to?” The Book of Revelations answers the question about the destiny of people and the world. Taken from a premillennial, eschatological viewpoint, this last book of the Bible points out three basic promises. First, there will be a RAPTURE that removes Christians from the Great Tribulation Christ refers to in Matthew 24:15-21. The apostle Paul outlines the Rapture in First Thessalonians 4:14-17. Prophetic scholar Hal Lindsey refers to this removal as “the Great Snatch.” Regardless of terminology, Scripture teaches that the Church will leave this world before a seven-year period of devastation occurs. Prior to Revelation 4:1, the word church is mentioned exclusively; after Revelation 4:1, the
word church no longer appears. God has bodily removed the saints from the world before Satan has his long-awaited chance to deceive a befuddled population.
Secondly, there will be a RULERSHIP. Revelations 4 portrays the arrival of a great dictator, the Antichrist. By Chapter 13 of Revelation, one sees the emergence of the beast (a political figure) and the false prophet (a spiritual, miracle-imitating figure). Given the pseudo-trinity of Satan, the beast, and the false prophet, the world will get the unity it has sought after for so long: three-and-one-half years of peace will exist before the Antichrist shows his true colors (Daniel 9:27). Then three-and-one-half years of God’s wrath upon the earth will take place:  nature will be destroyed; people who have rejected God will receive the mark of the beast in their right hand or forehead, sealing their doom forever; Satan will be bound in a bottomless pit while Christ sets up a 1,000-year earthly reign; Satan is released for the last battle against God, and Satan and all his entourage will spend eternity in hell (Revelations 20: 1-10).
Thirdly, there will be a RENOVATION:  a new heaven and a new earth will be constructed (Revelations 21-22). Peacefulness, contentment, and warm fellowship with God and others will exist in the new world which God will have ready when time shall be no more. Reservations for this new world can be made by repentance of sin and belief in Jesus Christ’s work on the cross and resurrection from the dead. Contact with God needs to be made now:  tomorrow might be too late.

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