Revelation Chapter One, Present & Future Events

Revelation 1:19 Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this.

This verse requires a little consideration, since it is something of a lynch pin for chapter one. In verse 1 we are told that there are, “things which must shortly take place.” This is further stressed in verse 3, where we read that, “the time is near.”

What our Lord is doing is setting up a clear chronology for the thoughtful reader to comprehend. We are repeatedly informed in the New Testament that the coming of Christ is imminent: meaning that the return of Jesus in power and glory is always close at hand. But what does this mean? It means that nothing is prophetically stopping it from happening. There is no specific prophetic event that must occur, witnessed by the Old Testament prophets, that will happen before the Day of the Lord begins.

So that we do not confuse our eschatology, we must dissect the Word rightly and determine what the imminent, unseen and sudden return of Christ means to us in this day and age. It means exactly what it meant to Peter, Paul and the others in the first century. Jesus said this of His return, how it will begin: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only,” Matthew 24:36. Then our Lord likens His return to the days of Noah. Noah preached imminent destruction to a world that did not care to listen. Only when the ark was finished and God sealed them safely within, did the judgment of God fall upon a sinful world and destroy them all. We are to learn from this lesson. The saints were saved, taken quietly away from danger, an escape from the wrath to come that any of the people prior to the Flood could have taken, but chose not to. They belittled Noah and his message, went about their daily business, and were irrevocably lost when the flood waters wrecked the earth. Jesus directly links this to His own return, Matthew 24:39. The event that truly begins the day of the Lord, and for which there is no prophetic milestone to predict its arrival is the Rapture of the saints.

Jesus describes it as one person being taken, while another is left behind, Matthew 24:40, 41. Like Noah and his family being placed in the ark and preserved from the coming judgment, so will Jesus remove the church from the earth, thus resuming Daniel’s seventy weeks and the official commencement of the seven-year Tribulation period. Again, our Lord stresses that we are to watch, because we do not know when this will happen, Matthew 24:42. Verse 44 emphasizes that His return for the church will occur at a time when no one is expecting it, also see 1 Thessalonians 5:2-4. The church, especially in the west, is deep in apostasy, heaping up the teachers our itching ears beg for, while denying the spiritual lifeblood that is doctrinal integrity, a sound adherence to God’s word. Many denominations eschew the Rapture as being an absurd notion, a misunderstanding of Scripture that would have us on hilltops in Rapture robes, waiting for Jesus. Some denominations even claim that we are currently in the Millennium, or that Christians must build God’s kingdom for Him, so that He will come and reign. These views, while popular in certain circles, are not Biblical.

The Rapture is important, because it is the hinge that determines the telling difference between, “the things which are,” and, “the things which will take place.” When will these things take place? “After this.” The NASB renders the final portion of this verse, “the things which will take place after these things.” The NIV also lends clarity, saying, “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.” Now is the church age or dispensation. Now is the period of time in which John addresses the seven Asiatic churches, who embody and represent Christendom from the time of Pentecost to the Rapture. This is why the churches are mentioned only through the next two chapters, and then when John is caught up suddenly to Heaven, they are mentioned no more. The hinge that makes this revelation clear is the reality of the Rapture. It is a termination of one mode of God’s government and the resumption of Daniel’s final week with a laser focus upon Jewry once more. So then, the things which take place after this as John writes it are the events from chapter 4 onward when the church is complete and removed from the earth, represented by the elders on their thrones in Heaven; but more on that later. All that comes next, like the instant the ark door was sealed shut from outside by God’s own hand, is, “after this.” This is how we may understand that Christ may come both as a thief in the night, and visibly in power and glory so that every eye sees Him, and all men mourn because of Him. The first time He comes is for His people, to remove them from impending wrath as both Lot and Noah were removed. Then, after seven years of judgment, Christ will descend from Heaven in glory, a sight never before beheld by human eyes. Thus will begin the Millennium. But I’m getting ahead of myself.