A Non-Futurist Look At the Book of Revelation

For much of my life, I diligently studied Bible prophecy. I wanted to know what the Bible said about my future. I was a “futurist”. I had a future application for every event and character in the Book of Revelation and in Matthew 24. I found many teachers of the Bible that gave me insight into the prophecies. But the thing about all my studies is this: I now find them all wrong. I now believe that all Bible prophecy events were completed by 70AD with the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. Yes, even the big one – the second coming of Jesus Christ was completed by 70AD! I am now what is called a “preterist”.

Why have I changed my ideas about Bible prophecy? In this article I will try to describe to you my reasons.

Let’s begin with the Book of Revelation where there is so much prophecy. An important factor in understanding the vision that John has in the book is WHEN the events that he is describing would take place. If God would just tell us in plain, simple language, when these things would happen it would be very helpful, would it not?

Well I have good news. We are blessed to discover that God has actually told us WHEN these things would occur. In fact, the very first sentence in the Book of Revelation tells us the answer.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave Him to show His servants – things which must SHORTLY TAKE PLACE.” (Rev. 1:1)

This just cannot mean two thousand years away, but it means “soon”. He immediately follows up in the third verse by saying that the time is NEAR.

I don’t know how I overlooked it for so long, but the whole book is full of prophecies that are for first century believers about first century events.

QUICKLY – Rev. 3:11

SHORTLY TAKE PLACE – Rev. 22:6

QUICKLY – Rev. 22:7

TIME IS AT HAND – Rev. 22:10

QUICKLY – Rev. 22:20

The Revelation is written to the seven churches in Asia Minor. These are specifically listed. It was not written to all Christians in general. John is writing to the specific churches that were present during the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant in the first century. I believe that John wrote the book around 63AD in anticipation of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD.

I also believe that there are no future time applications even though there are lessons to be learned for us now.

Multi-headed monsters rising out of the ocean. Fire-breathing creatures destroying anything in their path. Giant demon-insects with tails delivering a sting that kills with agonizing pain. Catastrophic acts of God: plagues, famine and earthquakes. With its strange and mystifying symbols, the bizarre images and doomsday scenarios ascribed to the Book of Revelation have been the raw material for many curious interpretations and predictions throughout the centuries.

Many are virtual prophecy junkies as I may have been, addicted to “updated interpretations” of Revelation, because they see this book as a handbook for predicting the end of the world.

Revelation was written during a time of extreme crisis and suffering for God’s people. It served to remind them – and it serves to remind us now – that, in spite of persecution and pain, God is fully aware of what we are going through. Revelation proclaims a message of hope. The purpose of the Book of Revelation is not to present a maze of puzzling images for some clever interpreter to unveil – specific details about future world events that can be unraveled if some human prognosticator provides the key – but rather to reveal the victory of Jesus Christ.

The topic and theme of the Book of Revelation is Jesus Christ, not some geo-political predictive timetable of future world events. The key to the book is its Christology, not its chronology. The guiding principle to be used in understanding Revelation is WHO, not WHEN.

It is critically important to realize that the book is not written in a straight-forward style easily understood by the twenty-first century western mind. It is written in a literary style called apocalyptic which uses poetic language, metaphorical messages, and figurative images and symbols to convey its message. Some images used are known – common animals for example. Other images describe nightmarish beasts unknown to any biologist or zoologist.

Characters and events symbolized by images are real but not literally real. They are physical symbols of spiritual realities. Because of their culture and familiarity with apocalyptic literature, the original readers of Revelation in the 60’sAD would have had a better sense of how to interpret these symbols than we do.

The messenger, John, used the apocalyptic style, with all of its images and symbols, because the original audience WOULD understand. He could have reasoned that the Jews would understand but the Romans would not. He didn’t use it in order to hide or confuse the meaning so that we Christians today would eventually need to decode its “true” meaning.

With this in mind, let’s begin a chapter by chapter study of the Book of Revelation.

[Read Revelation 1:1-20]

Verses 5 and 6 are the gospel in miniature.

Verse 7, “Look! He is coming with the clouds” introduces another ongoing theme and variation of Revelation: the second coming. I believe that this second coming occurred at the fall of Jerusalem in 70AD.

The use of “coming” in relation to judgment is an Old Testament concept also used in the New Testament:

“Behold, the Lord rids upon a swift cloud and shall come into Egypt” (Isaiah 19:1)

“Behold, the Lord comes forth out of His place and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth” (Micah 1:3)

“I will come to you quickly and will remove your candlestick out of his place unless you repent” (Revelation 2:5)

“Repent or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against you with the sword of my mouth” (Revelation 2:16)

The Bible uses the symbol of “clouds” to show that the Lord is coming in JUDGMENT. See Ezekiel 30:18. “I shall break there the yokes of Egypt…a cloud shall cover her…” Everyone will be able to know of His coming in JUDGMENT when they see that Jerusalem  is destroyed. Those who would see Him were further identified as “they who pierced Him”. This had to be in Jerusalem and clearly pointed to the Old Covenant Jews, who had led the charge for His crucifixion forty hears earlier.

As a further point, the Jewish historian, Josephus, described miraculous events of armies in the skies over Jerusalem at that time.

Verses 12 to 20 focus on the divine Author, the risen Lord, who is later introduced as the Lamb of God. The placement of this vision at the beginning of the book provides further emphasis for its Christ-centered perspective. His glorified appearance given here is the only biblical description of His immortal eminence and serves to place human mortality in dramatic contrast.

[Read Revelation 2:1-7]

In His message to Ephesus, Jesus has many positive things to say. They saw through seductive appeals but their genuine Christian love seems to have withered. The first love of Christians is our romance with God’s grace. The love we have at first includes our trust and faith in the Lamb of God who took our place. The Ephesians apparently left their grace-based relationship with God in favor of a relationship based on ritual, doctrine and earning their favor with God.

[Read Revelation 2:8-11]

Smyrna was a beautiful and prosperous city that was overwhelmed and controlled by pagan religion making it difficult for Christians to live and make a living. Jesus let them know that He recognized everything they had endured, the severe persecution and even imprisonment for their faith. Jesus encouraged them to trust in Him.

[Read Revelation 2:12-17]

Many pagan shrines and altars were part of the landscape of Pergamum. Jesus said, “I know how bad it is where you are living.” Jesus warns that as they deal with challenges and temptations, and accommodation and compromise, to remain true to Him and His grace and strength.

[Read Revelation 2:18-29]

Thyatira was the smallest of the seven churches, a smaller manufacturing and trade center. Unique forms of religion flourished there, many of them connected with trade unions.

Some in the church at Thyatira had apparently allowed a false teacher named “Jezebel” to lead them away from God into idolatry and sexual immorality. Jesus commended this church for its love, faith, service, and perseverance. But he also corrected them because they tolerated this woman who called herself a prophetess.

[Read Revelation 3:1-5]

Sardis was once great but was now a city in decline. The church at Sardis played the Christian game.    They were nominal Christians. They were going through the motions at the right time, but they were dead spiritually. The letter to Sardis is a warning against complacency and compromise that spans the ages – living in the past, compromising with culture, assuring that “all roads lead to heaven”.

[Read Revelation 3:7-13]

The region around the city of Philadelphia experienced frequent earthquakes, and for that reason may have had a small population. Physical calamities helped to make the city aware of its need for God, and that it could never be righteous enough by its own power to attain God’s kingdom of heaven. God’s grace must have been much in their thinking.

Jesus tells Philadelphia, and all of us, that He has given us an open door of grace which no one is able to shut. No human or circumstance can shut you out of God’s eternal life once you have it. The “hour of trial” coming, I believe, was the attack on and final destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD, and that the “inhabitants of the earth” were represented by the whole world of Judaism to which this passage applied.

What about this term “rapture” which we hear in many churches? The word “rapture” does not appear in the Bible. Christians have been waiting for 2,000 years for something to occur, which has already occurred in 70AD.

Jesus has John tell the church in Philadelphia that because they have kept His command to persevere, He will keep them from the hour of trial. In Revelation chapter 7, 144,000 and a great multitude are sealed out of the tribulation. Apparently many faithful Christians were removed from the earth during the Roman approach to Jerusalem in order that they would avoid the tribulation.

[Read Revelation 3:14-22]

The city of Laodicea considered itself to be self-sufficient, in need of nothing. But Jesus said they were actually lowlifes in their pride of being self-sufficient.

There was one thing about which the Laodecians could complain. Their water supply had to come by aqueduct, and by the time the water arrived in the city, it was neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm. In nearby Colossae the water was cold, pure, and delicious; but not in Laodicea. Jesus said that their spiritual condition was like their drinking water.

Jesus again comments on standing at the door and knocking. Many depict this as knocking at the door of unsaved sinners. But Jesus also knocks at the door of the Christian conscience, reminding us to remember His grace and to trust Him.

[Read Revelation 4:1-11]

Chapter four abruptly shifts the scene and setting from letters to the eternal throne room of God. Our attention is moved from struggling churches and imperfect humans to a glimpse of perfection and holiness, of splendor and glory of the eternity that God inhabits.

Chapter four paints a word picture of the worship and praise that is continually given to God. John can only convey this majesty, might, and power in metaphorical terms of brilliance because the glory of God is beyond human language and comprehension. Chapter four whisks us from the problems to the solution, from sin to holiness and eternal, absolute perfection.

[Read Revelation 5:1-14]

First century readers recognized the scroll that John saw as an ancient will. The giving of wills was customarily witnessed by seven people, who would then affix their seals to the document. Only the heir of the deceased was entitled to break the seal, read the will and execute the instructions written in it. Only Jesus, the Lamb of God, is qualified to open its seals and reveal the purposed of God.

Chapter five is filled with inspiring words of praise, reverence, and worship that have become known to us in Christ-centered music: traditional, conservative, and in contemporary praise and worship music.

The scene described depicts a lamb that has just been slaughtered, a grisly sight. John expects to see the Lion of Judah, but it is as if the Lion of Judah has morphed into the Lamb of God.

The fifth chapter is one of the watershed chapters of this book because it insists that the message is all about Jesus. The message is not some spiritual recipe about how we can decrypt and decode ancient prophecies so that we can save our physical necks from pain and suffering.

[Read Revelation 6:1-17]

As Jesus opens each seal something happens. The first four seals have become known as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. These four horses and their riders do not represent any particular historical figure of any specific era, but instead they depict chaos, terror and destruction whenever it may be unleashed.

The first horse is the white horse of conquest. The most probable meaning of this horse is that it represents human governments and religious power that promise rewards to their subjects on return for obedience and worship. This white horse can’t be Jesus, because the Lamb of God in chapter five conquered through His own death, not through terrorizing others. This white horse is the Antichrist who deliberately looks and sounds like Christ, who appropriates His name, and uses holy sounding religious language and terminology in order to go forth to deceive and conquer.

The second horse is the red horse of war. Whether this horse causes war in the name of governments or in the name of religious power or in some kind of unholy combination of the secular and the supposedly sacred, the result is the same: hatred, violence, and bloodshed. When we reject the Lamb who died for us, we can wind up killing each other in a vain attempt to establish our own superiority.

The third horse is the black horse of famine. The rider demonstrates famine by the scales he holds. What can we expect from rejecting Christ? Emptiness, famine, spiritual and physical hunger. A void that yearns to be filled. Our world has never lacked for religion that worships something or someone other than the Lamb of God.

The fourth horse is the pale horse of death. It symbolizes those who are the walking dead, who seem to have life but are spiritually and emotionally dead. Those who accept Jesus Christ are immune from spiritual death. For those not sealed by Jesus, death is the end result of any path they may choose.

The fifth seal is opened, and we see the brutal reality of death by martyrdom suffered by those who believe in Jesus Christ. The shocking story or our time is that more Christians have died this century simply for being Christians than in the first nineteen centuries after the birth of Christ.

And now the sixth seal is opened. It’s a gigantic cosmological upheaval. But is it a literal or symbolic upheaval? In the Jewish commentary of that time, earthquakes were often used to describe divine intervention. See on Mount Sinai (Exo. 19:18). Other metaphors such as those in this sixth seal were common and understood by the people. Therefore I interpret this earthquake, blackened sun, bloody moon, and falling stars as symbolic of divine intervention and JUDGMENT. When the world of the kingdom of men collides with the kingdom of heaven, earthquakes and conflict always result.   

[Read Revelation 7:1-17]

Suddenly in chapter seven, everything is put on hold  until an extremely important piece of business is taken care of. The servants of God must be sealed and protected. Upon an initial reading of this passage, it might seem to be a picture of future punishment. But rather the 144,000 is a symbolic number depicting the great number of God’s faithful who bear His seal and are under His spiritual protection. The great multitude that no one could count represents another view of God’s faithful who come out of great tribulation and wear clean robes of righteousness made white in the blood of the Lamb. These two groups are sealed by God’s grace. This sealing demonstrates that no one can separate them from the love of God in Jesus Christ. That’s the message of the 144,000. Don’t’ get sidetracked by some juicy speculation about the exact demographic, racial, and chronological identification of the 144,000.

The great multitude is an even bigger number who seem to have survived, by God’s help, slightly differing challenges of persecution and tribulation. What is crystal clear is that God will make a way. We can be sure of our salvation when we are sealed. Nothing can touch us.

[Read Revelation 8:1-13]

If we avoid twisting and contorting this language into some literal application, then a fascinating window into how prayer “works” in God’s time opens. We humans are often confused by Jesus’ absolute promise to answer prayer (Mat. 7:7-11) followed by what we can only interpret as a failure on God’s part to answer. Prayers here symbolically ascend to God but they are not answered for “half an hour”.

The angel takes the collected prayers of the saints and hurls them to the earth as the dramatic symbol of God’s answer, resulting in divine judgment against all the wickedness.

A series of seven trumpets, sounded by seven angels, now begins. Each trumpet signals a different disaster sent to drive an unrepentant and unbelieving humanity to its knees. These plagues are described in symbolic terms as part of the mysterious symbolic language of the apocalyptic style in which Revelation was both inspired and written.

The last three trumpets are accompanied by “woes” – especially severe.

[Read Revelation 9:1-20]

Commentators, pastors, teachers and myself included have perched on precarious limbs outdoing themselves trying to identify these images with literal objects and events. A prophecy of helicopters and tanks?? Such an interpretation teaches that no one could understand Revelation until the modern weapons of warfare were manufactured.

The overall message is that we humans are stubborn. Even in the midst of severe trials, we will assert our independence rather than surrendering to God.

In the apocalyptic imagery of the Book of Revelation, people are either with Christ or against Him. After all, those who are suffering persecution, such as the original readers of this book, do not need ambiguity. They need black and white reassurance.

[Read Revelation 10:1-11]

The interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpets is marked by teaching about God’s faithfulness to His people. John is given another vision. But John is instructed not to publish these messages. This reminds us that some aspects of God’s work are simply not revealed to us.

The angel announces that there is no delay. The kingdom is here. The kingdom is now in the person of the risen Christ who lives His life within those who accept Him.

The angel gives John a small scroll and directs him to eat it. What is this all about? This action of ingestion symbolized the vision that John is commissioned to internalize and later write to God’s people. But it often involves more sacrifice and suffering for the messenger than most humans are able to tolerate on the basis of human strength and resources alone.

[Read Revelation 11:1-19]

John was told to measure the temple. So we know that this occurred before 70AD when the temple was completely gone. The two witnesses prophesied for 1260 days (3 ½ years). They had much power but finally were able to be killed. Their bodies lay in the street in Jerusalem (“where the Lord was crucified”) for 3 ½ days. God brought them to life again and they ascended to heaven in a cloud. We do not know who these two witnesses were. Some Bible scholars have suggested that they might be Moses and Elijah.  Whoever they were, they gave final warning to Israel before their final judgment was dispensed.

[Read Revelation 12:1-17]

Here we meet more symbols. A woman clothed with the sun who was pregnant. This woman apparently is representative of believing Israel – those Jews who converted to Christianity. The woman bore a male Child (Jesus) who was to rule the nations with a rod of iron. Satan is pictured as the fiery red dragon. He wanted to destroy the Child but failed to do so. The Child was caught up to God and His throne. The dragon persecuted the Christian Jews called the “Remnant”, who are designated as the “twelve tribes of Israel”. They overcome the dragon by the blood of the Lamb. The Remnant are the Jewish believers who are not part of the spiritual New Covenant people of God. They are joined in the spiritual Kingdom by the believing Gentiles.

[Read Revelation 13:1-18]

The “Beast” has a twofold role or element to it. Politically, it is the Roman Empire. It was going downhill toward destruction after Nero burned the city and committed suicide. Civil war began and chaos reigned for a while. But it revived again. It is also identified by the kings who led it. The 10 horns are possibly smaller kings inside and outside the Roman Empire. These are smaller political powers and entities which participated with the revived Roman Empire and went against Jerusalem.

As with many political governments, the state is sometimes identified by the name of the ruler or leader. For example, people may say that “Cuba controls all of the people through communism!” Others may say that “Castro controls all of the people through communism!”

The sixth king that was not present when John arote the Book of Revelation was Nero. John refers to the Roman Empire as the Beast which comes out of the sea. Since Revelation is written in relation ti Israel, the beast (Romans) came from the Mediterranean Sea to attack Jerusalem. “Rome attacked Jerusalem!” is like saying “Nero attacked Jerusalem!”

The second beast mentioned in this chapter is apparently some strong political leader who hated Christians and he spoke and did acts as from the devil, Satan. The “mark of the beast” is some actual thing which set apart Christians and non-believers. Exactly how the mark operated in that society can only be speculated.

There have been many interpretations of the number “666”. Only those that the book was written to could really interpret its meaning.

[Read Revelation 14:1-20]

John records that the Lamb, (Jesus) sealed 144,000 Jewish Christians and protected them from His judgment upon Jerusalem in 68-70AD. The number “144,000” is symbolic. It represents a specific large number of believing Jews from the twelve tribes. They are God’s beloved redeemed believers.

As the final slaughter in Judea took place, the blood from the dead people and animals flowed outside the city of Jerusalem. Josephus records that over one million three hundred thousand people lost their lives in Jerusalem alone. Add to that the murders of people all over the rest of the nation of Israel and the blood-flow must have been horrendous.

[Read Revelation 15:1-8]

The scene switches to God’s throne in heaven with praise to Him and preparation for the final judgment of God.

[Read Revelation 16:1-21]

These “bowl judgments” included sores upon people, dead bodies’ blood in the sea, blood in the rivers, scorching of people with fire, darkness and pain upon people, spirits of demons doing battle Against God in the valley of Megiddo. Stories have been told and movies made about the final climactic world war called “The Battle of Armageddon. But the truth is that it is only a place that was used by the invading armies to gather during their siege of Jerusalem in 70AD.

[Read Revelation 17:1-18]

There is a deliberate focus in the Book of Revelation about the judgment of the Woman. She is seen as being arrayed in purple and scarlet and accused of being full of abominations. These are descriptions of unbelieving Jerusalem and the Temple. It involves Old Testament ritual clothing of the High Priest. The woman is also known as Babylon, which describes Jerusalem. Why was Jerusalem described this way? It is because the unbelieving nation of Israel willingly rejected the Messiah Jesus. Their Old Testament system was ended at the Cross of Calvary. God divorced Israel and married a new bride, which is the New Covenant church. This consists of believing Jews and believing Gentiles, who are also known  spiritually as the Body of Christ. The old is finished, the new is begun. Finally God would bring judgment on the now meaningless, adulteress, and blasphemous Temple. This was done in 70AD.

[Read Revelation 18:1-24]

This chapter describes how the destruction of Jerusalem (Babylon) is completed and how its destruction affected the nations around it. The city had merchants from many nations that made money buying and selling in the city. The secular people mourned when she was destroyed by God. She had persecuted the new Covenant remnant and in her was found the blood of prophets and saints. The city had turned away from God and had become a worldly place of evil. Heaven rejoiced when Jerusalem was burned and made desolate.

[Read Revelation 19:1-21]

There is celebration in heaven that the Old Covenant has been completely destroyed with the judgment and destruction of Jerusalem. Now the New Covenant people of God are compared to a happy marriage between Christ (the Lamb) and His Church.

Christ is then pictured as riding in on a white horse in power to totally finish the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. His judgment is fierce and complete.

Then is described how the beast and “false prophet” are captured together. This is symbolic of the Jewish Leaders, probably more specifically the High Priest who worked with the Roman government to control the people. He and they rejected Christ and deliberately turned the temple and holy city into a market place that was a den of thieves instead of a place of worship.

This chapter is probably the most difficult to explain to someone who says, “Look! This hasn’t happened yet!” But everything in this chapter HAS happened already in the first century.

John writes that he say an angel coming down from heaven who bound the dragon, who is Satan, for a thousand years; He set a seal on Satan so that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.

John is giving a kind of history of the world before and up to 70AD. Throughout the entire Old Testament period of history, Satan was free to deceive all of the nations of the world except Israel. That one nation was God’s chosen nation for His Word to be recorded, His prophecies to be made, His laws to be established, and His promise of a coming Messiah to be taught. Satan was bound from interfering with God’s plan.

After the Messiah Jesus came to earth and lived His ministry, He fulfilled all Old Covenant laws, satisfied all prophecies about the Messiah, accomplished the defeat of sin and death for His people, and established a New Covenant including a new spiritual kingdom. His new kingdom is now made up of all of His believing Christians.

The binding of Satan was initiated by Jesus when He ministered to the Jews during His earthly ministry starting in about 26AD. He told the Pharisees that He could not be casting out demons unless He has bound Satan first (Matt. 12:29).

Satan was bound during the roughly forty year period between Christ’s first coming as a human being and His coming in judgment on Jerusalem in 70AD. He was released from that binding for a short time (7 years – about 63AD) to bring the armies of Rome to a fever pitch against the Jews. After being again defeated by the Lord Jesus in 70AD his binding continues so that he cannot stop the world from receiving the gospel message.

Satan is now like a “mob boss” in prison who is still able to affect things on the outside. He has been actively involved in the spiritual world among people and will continue to do so to the extent that God allows him. The present physical earth and physical non-believing humans are still within his permitted sphere of spiritual sway. His powers are limited and overseen by God.

The number 1,000 is a symbolic figure in prophecy. It represents a long time, or a large number, or even practically unending. Some examples of the use of the number 1,000 in the Bible are as follows:

Israel will be a 1,000 times more numerous (Deut. 1:11)

Cattle on a 1,000 hills (Psalm 50:10)

A day in your courts is better than a 1,000 (Psalm 84:10)

To God, one day is as a 1,000 years and a 1,000 years is as a day (2 Peter 3:8).

The use of 1,000 can be subjective and be dependent upon the context in which it is being used. So here is what we have:

The period called the “Millenium” by futurists is actually the period from Christ’s earthly ministry to the destruction of Jerusalem – about 40 years. The early Christians lived and “reigned” in the power of Christ during this 40 years. At the end of this “Millenium”, the dead in Christ were resurrected and, as Josephus says, were seen physically around Judea in 70AD.

Then is mentioned a “great white throne judgment”. This is a final rewarding of all born-again Christians to their rightful home with God and a final judgment on unbelievers of separation from God.

[Read Revelation 21:1-27]

Here we need to understand what is the “new heaven and new earth”.

Israel was the “old heaven” (religious system) and the “old earth” (nation and political system) that God had formed for His Old Covenant purposes. Someday that same heavens and earth would pass away as described in 2 Peter  3. This system was fulfilled by Jesus and it is now finished. The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple along with the Lord’s judgments upon Israel ended that former religious system forever in God’s eyes.

God would form a new heavens (New Covenant system) and a new earth (spiritual Kingdom of God). This is the spiritual Israel made up of God’s Christian people consisting of believing Jews and believing Gentiles. This occurred historically by 70AD.

John says that he saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. This represents all of God’s Christian people and their spiritual dwelling place. It is a city in the spiritual realm where the redeemed enjoy sweet fellowship with God in His presence.

What we must understand is that ALL of Revelation 21 and 22 are in existence right now. The whole system of spiritual Kingdom for Christians began in 70AD. The descriptions may seem overly glorious compared to living right now but all the beauty is ours right now as born-again Christians. We just have to appropriate it by living the Life of Christ now and trusting in His power and glory.

Physical descriptions of this spiritual New Jerusalem are given by John. This city is cube shaped. It measures 1,200 miles on all sides of the cube. It represents the Lamb’s bride, His wife. The city has no temple in it. Almighty God and the Lamb are its temple. The glory of God illuminates the city. The Lamb is its light.

All deceased Christians after 70AD immediately go to heaven and are with Christ for eternity. When our human life ends on earth, we immediately receive our new immortal bodies and live with God in heavenly places. Whether that is within the New Jerusalem city or another heavenly dwelling, one thing for sure, it will be with Christ forever.

[Read Revelation 22:1-21]

In this last chapter, John accentuates again that Christ is coming QUICKLY: verses 7, 12 and 20.

John continues the glorious description of the spiritual Life that is ours in Christ. And he completes the Book in the last verse with HOW this is all achieved: “The GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, Amen.”

So what now? Now that we don’t have to anxiously look forward to the coming of Christ? Live NOW the way we will live always after our death – trusting in Christ within us. This includes active personal and corporate worship of God. It involves obeying Him. We are to continually listen to the Holy Spirit.

This certainly does not mean to hunker down and drop out of life to just await the coming of Christ. Christians need to set an example and get involved in the culture, community, schools and politics. Christians should work to make it easier for themselves, their families, and future generations to study the Bible, pray, fellowship, stand-up for Christ, and build His Kingdom.

The bottom line is this: I don’t know the future of the world. I cannot know the future – I must just let it transpire as God directs. It is a waste of time and energy to try to apply Bible prophecy to the future – it was never meant by God for us because its application  ended in 70AD.

Now maybe Christ is going to do something spectacular and miraculous in the future to rival His power and majesty in 70 AD. Christ can do whatever He wants to do and I would never attempt to limit Him in any way. But the Bible doesn’t TELL us anything about future events except that we Christians are saved and will go to God’s heaven when we die. We will just have to wait to see what happens.

(In a future article, I will discuss the prophecies of Matthew 24 and Daniel 9-12 to show their application to 70AD.)