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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About Our Lord's Return (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 39. In a Nutshell
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In a Nutshell
The remainder of the book of Revelation can be quickly, briefly gathered up. Chapter nineteen begins with a great burst of praise by the multitudes in heaven. [Note: Rev_9:1-10.] The Lord Jesus comes out of the opened heavens, riding to war against the assembled hosts of evil on the earth. A word from His lips decides the conflict, the lawless one and his court-preacher are taken captive, [Note: Rev_9:11-21.] Satan himself bound, the resurrection of dead believers takes place, and Christ's own people reign with Him a thousand years. [Note: Rev_20:1-6.]
At its end there is a final supreme test between Satan and God, that every one's free choice may be freely made. The one thing God insists upon is utter freedom of choice by every man, as the determining factor in his character, and his future. The test results in God being supreme. Then comes the final judgment of those not included in the first resurrection, and of all living on the earth. [Note: Rev_20:7-15.] Then the present earth and heavens pass away, and there is a new heaven and earth. [Note: Rev_21:1-2.] And the picture closes with a scene of wondrous winsomeness,—the redeemed race, living on the earth, in the presence of the Lord Jesus, with all pain and sin gone. [Note: Rev_21:3 to Rev_22:5.]
Let us try to summarize briefly the book's teachings about the Coming. There is a time coming when our Lord Jesus will take some step in heaven, which will precipitate the tribulation on the earth. That tribulation will run for three years and a half, from the time of the coming to his full power of the lawless one, and the profaning by him of Jerusalem as then held again by the Jew nation, up until the end comes in radical earthly and heavenly disturbances.
Then the Lord Jesus will appear, the Jew nation then living on the earth is changed spiritually by the power of the Holy Spirit; the believing Church is caught up out of the tribulation into the Lord's presence; the lawless one is destroyed and the reign of terror is ended; the Kingdom is set up; Christ's own who have died, are raised, and together with the living changed ones, reign with Him over the earth for a thousand years.
Then comes a final crisis of evil, a final triumph over it, a final judgment, a passing away of heavens and earth, the making of a new heavens and earth, and then the redeemed race restored to Eden conditions, and more, on the new earth.
The item of special note is the seven views, from different angles, of the terrible tribulation; first is the general description of the tribulation as seen on earth; [Note: Chapters Revelation 6-7.] second, a description of the unloosing of evil in the earth as seen from heaven; [Note: Revelation 8-9.] third, the pure witness maintained to the truth of God in Jerusalem; [Note: Revelation 11.] fourth, the sketch of the rule of the lawless one; [Note: Revelation 12-14.] fifth, the final group of judgments ending the tribulation; [Note: Revelation 16.] sixth, the system of iniquity called Babylon; [Note: Revelation 17.] and seventh, the destruction of the city of Babylon. [Note: Revelation 18.]