Things To Come - Part 3: Life After The Rapture

                             "Things To Come - Part 3: Life After The Rapture"

Well, we have arrived at the time of the beginning of tribulation and beyond.  This will be a tough time for those who remain on terra firma.   What we will focus on in this last part of this series on the end times.  This has been a very compelling aspect of my study of Scripture throughout my years in ministry.  It began as a question, "what do we as Christians, have to look forward to in the future?"  Then it became, "what will become of those who refuse to believe, or who realize there are millions of people missing and become believers later?"  While much will occur throughout the seven years of the Tribulation and the 1000 year reign of Christ on Earth, I will do my very best to keep this both concise and easy to follow while maintaining the integrity of the Scriptures. It would be a book to include all my study notes, so I will provide a thorough overview, and invite you to contact me with any further questions you may have (my contact info is at the end) Buckle up, it will be a bumpy ride!
We begin with a picture of God sitting on His throne in Heaven. 

Revelation 4:2-4,
   "² And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. 3 And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. ⁴ And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold."

Who are the 24 elders?  I believe it is stated in the last verse of chapter 3,

Revelation 3:21,
   "²¹ To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."

Revelation 5:5-9,
   "⁵ And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.⁶ And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. ⁷ And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. ⁸ And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.  ⁹ And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;"

Back on Earth, the seal judgments are about to be opened. Many believe the rider of the white horse to be Jesus, however, we will see Him on His majestic horse in chapter 19.  Recall that Satan is a liar and a deceiver.  This rider is actually the Antichrist.  

Let's look a moment at the prophet Daniel,

He will appear like a man, speaking great and wonderful words to gain world wide allegiance.

Daniel 7:20,
  "²⁰ And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very reat things, whose look was more stout than his fellows."

A couple of things will happen. First he will initiate a peace treaty with the people, even instituting plans for the third temple, where OT practices and ceremonies will be reinstated briefly.

Daniel 9:27
²⁷ And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate

Daniel 8:25,
²⁵ And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.
After he has done all these wonderful things, he will in the latter half of the seven years, he will break the peace treaty and will retaliate on the believers.  

Daniel 7:21
²¹ I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;

Notice he only had a bow, no arrow.  He would come to conquer,  claim peace, thus no need for arrows.

Revelation 6:1,
   "1And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. ² And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

Revelation 6:3-4 is a picture of war on the Earth.
³ And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see ⁴ And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

Revelation 6:5-6 is a picture of famine, people would use an entire days wage for a minimal ration of food.
 ⁵ And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. ⁶ And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Revelation 6:7-8 is a picture of pestilence, sickness, disease, most likely widespread deaths.
⁷ And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.⁸ And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

⁹ And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

¹² And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; ¹³ And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. ¹⁴ And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.We see in Revelation 8:1 the last seal judgment, which cast thunder and lightning and great earthquakes to the earth. 

Immediately, the seven trumpet judgments arrived.  Each angel blew their trumpet.  Here are the seven trumpet judgments,

⁷ The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. ⁸ And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
 ⁹ And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. ¹⁰ And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; ¹¹ And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. ¹² And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.9 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.  ² And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
 ³ And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. ⁴ And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.¹⁴ Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.¹⁵ And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

Interesting to note regarding this next verse, the Chinese army numbers this today!

¹⁶ And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

This verse astounds me as well.  The horrors men have experienced through the seven seal and six trumpets thus far,

Revelation 9:21,
   "²¹ Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts."

Revelation 11
  We are introduced to the 2 witnesses (who I believe are the two men who the Bible never claims to have died, but were translated or caught up - Enoch and Elijah).  They will proclaim the Word of God, be killed, and then taken up, as people watch in amazement!

   " ¹⁸ And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.¹⁹ And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

Then the seventh trumpet sounds, and there will be a great worship service in Heaven!

Revelation 12:1, 5-6 brings us to the first two new "characters".  Often in Scripture, when we read of a woman, it is a reference to Israel.  Here, we know this is true. We read,

   "1And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: ⁵ And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. ⁶ And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days."

Compare this with the account of Jacob found in Genesis 37:9,
    
   "⁹ And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me."

Then, we see the all too familiar second "character",

   "³ And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. ⁴ And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born."

Revelation 12:13 shows a picture of a very angry serpent, who upon being cast to the Earth, becomes angry and brings his vengeance to Israel.  She flees to the desert for her safety, and this occurs over the second half of tribulation (a time is equal to a year in verse 14),

    "¹³ And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. ¹⁴ And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent."

Then the nations of the earth help out Israel against the beast, and as we progress into chapter 13, you will see things get still worse as a result.  Look at the close of Chapter 12,

   "¹⁶ And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.  ¹⁷ And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."

Revelation 13 opens with a description of the beast,

   "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. ² And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority."
  
This could be a picture of Daniel's prophecies (see Daniel 2 and Daniel7) regarding the empires ruling through history until the seventh led by this beast. Thus, those empires, for quick review,  are 1. The Egyptian Empire, 2. The Assyrian Empire, 3. The Babylonian Empire, 4. The Persian Empire, 5. The Greek Empire and 6. The Roman Empire. This final empire will be the worst ever.  The beast (Antichrist) will hold high position as global leader, where he will oversee the ten world divisions headed by their leaders. 
Furthermore, in verse 3 Antichrist will suffer a fatal wound to his head, and will be revived, causing all to marvel at him.  The people will worship him, believing him to be the true messiah.
  
Revelation 13:13-14,
   "¹³ And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, ¹⁴ And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live."

But to those who will not worship him, 

   " ¹⁵ And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.   ¹⁶ And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: ¹⁷ And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.¹⁸ Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."

He will control everyone through the use of the mark.  Noone will be free to buy and sell food, necessities, shelter, etc.  Times will seem impossible to those who do not worship Antichrist.  There will surely be a bounty upon their heads.

Read Revelation 14:1-2,

   "And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. ² And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:"

And Ezekiel 43:2,

   "² And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory."

These are the 144,000 sealed Jewish people (I believe the "Tribulation saints" are also with them) who will be standing with and for God and Jesus Christ at this juncture.  They will be praising Him (harps are used throughout Scripture as praise instruments). Chapter 14 is surely a praise chapter both by the believers here and because of this, by the angels and saints in Heaven...AMEN!

Chapter 15 will show these saints standing strong in faith as heaven opens the skies again in preparation for the final seven judgments to be poured out upon the unbelievers.  Prepare, we go into chapter 16 to reveal the seven vial, or bowl, judgments.

Revelation 16,

   "² And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.³ And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.⁴ And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. ⁸ And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. ⁹ And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. ¹⁰ And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
 ¹¹ And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. ¹² And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.  ¹⁶ And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. ¹⁷ And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. ¹⁸ And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. ¹⁹ And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. ²⁰ And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. ²¹ And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great."

A couple things worthy of mention here.  First with all these plagues do you notice men are still unrepentant?  When one reads the book of Revelation, particularly the judgments, it baffles the mind as to how stiff necked men are.  Second, Armageddon is a reference to a city in northern Israel named "Megiddo" (Joshua 12:21), whereby the greatest battles Israel faced were fought.  This will surely be the greatest - EVER!

Revelation 17 is about the Woman, the one who,   "upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth." (v.5)
This is a false religious system in its fullness.  When God punished the Israelites for idolatry, pagan practices and false/perverse teachings, this global religion will be vile in its perversion of the Word of God! The words "Mother of Harlots", "Babylon"(Ge10)  Because verse 9 states she sits on seven mountains, it is believed to be the Roman church (a further perversion of the Roman Catholic church) as Rome in fact sits on, or in the midst of seven mountains. 
God still pleading with His people to turn from her wickedness, blasphemy, idolatry, and puts a swift destruction to this false religion as they cry "Mystery Babylon is fallen, fallen" in chapter 18. 

Recall earlier when chapter 6 opened with a rider on the white horse?  Let's look at Revelation 19:11-16, where I am certain you will agree this is most certainly Jesus Christ!

   "¹¹ And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.¹² His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.¹³ And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. ¹⁴ And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
 ¹⁵ And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. ¹⁶ And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords.

He battles with the beast and the false prophet, where He binds them in the bottomless pit for 1000 years (chapter 20).  Christ will rule the Earth during this thousand years, which Christians know to be the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ. 
Following the thousand years, there will be another battle between Christ and Satan, where his end (and those who are still unrepentant - all the inhabitants of hell).  Revelation 20 describes that Great White Throne Judgment, whereby, 

   "¹¹ And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.¹³ And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.¹⁴ And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.¹⁵ And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."   

Chapters 21 and 22 close the Book, both of Revelation and the whole of God's revealed word to men.  It is a beautiful portrait of a new garden, a new and eternal paradise.  We will, at last, be with God, exactly as He wanted since Genesis 1!  He wipes our tears and removes all pain from us and sets us in an eternal place of ultimate peace, safety, and rest. 

As always, friends, I pray you are sealed by the Holy Spirit as one of his children.  If you know Jesus as your personal Saviour, you know He will keep you unto Himself.  If you do not know Him, I encourage you to take the time today to confess your sins to God and ask His forgiveness.  Ask for His Spirit to fill you and guide you all the days of your life.  Read the Bible  and pray daily.

The content in this post was taken from a series of sermons  entitled, "Revelation Revealed" by Rev. Aaron M Mathews, Th.M.
Additional sources include the KJV 1611 Bible and seminary study notes. 

People often have questions, so I invite you to contact me anytime at reverendamathews@yahoo.com
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