2796) The Book of Revelation (a)

Adapted from a sermon I gave February 9, 2025 on the New Testament Book of Revelation.

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     The reading before the sermon was from Revelation 13:11-18:  ¹¹ Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. ¹² And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. ¹³ He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. ¹⁴ And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. ¹⁵ He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. ¹⁶ He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, ¹⁷ and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. ¹⁸ Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.  Here ends the reading.

     Are there any questions on those verses, or is it all pretty clear?  Let me tell you about the book of Revelation.  I read that passage as a sample of what we are getting into today.

     The announcement of an upcoming sermon or Bible Study on the book of Revelation usually creates some interest and anticipation, at least more so than a sermon on Leviticus or Obadiah.  This is, I believe, because there is a widespread belief that the book of Revelation has, within its mysterious words, the key to predicting the future; and we find that very interesting.  Perhaps this time, we think, perhaps this minister or this book or this TV program, will tell us something that will unlock the mystery, and we will know what to expect and when.  And yes, the book of Revelation is certainly written as a vision of the future.  In the very first chapter, verse 19, Jesus, speaking from the throne of heaven itself, says: “Write down what you have seen; what is happening now, and what will take place later.”

     Well, I am sorry, but I have only one specific prediction for you today.  And that is to say that the world will end in your lifetime.  Yes, indeed it will.  Even if Jesus does not return before your death; when you die, the world ends for you.  So you will be here for it.  That much I can predict with absolute certainty.

     Now someday, as it says in I Thessalonians, someday the heavenly trumpet will sound, and all the dead will be raised, and Jesus will appear in the clouds, and we who are still living at that time will join those risen from the dead, and we all meet the Lord in the air together.  Someday that will happen; but whether or not that will happen in your lifetime, or, when that will all take place; I don’t know.  All I can tell you is what you already know.  This world will end for you, one way or another, in your lifetime. So, says Jesus in chapter 2: “Be faithful… and hold on to what you have until I come.”

     I really can’t tell you much more than that.  I know there are many preachers who will get much more specific, and will quote many verses from here and there to prove their predictions of the Lord’s imminent return.  This verse is talking about Donald Trump, they might say; and that verse is talking about Benjamin Netanyahu; and they might even find Putin and Zelenskyy and the war in Ukraine in there somewhere.  But I am not interested in any part of that whole project.  And the sheer number of Bible scholars who, over the years, have been so completely wrong on all of this, should by now, discourage anyone else from the effort.  Jesus himself, after all, did say, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but about that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels, and not even the Son of God, but only the Father.”  And Paul said, “about times and dates we do not need to write you; for the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”  That is to say, completely unexpected (Matthew 24:44).  So, by definition, it will come as a surprise, and not as calculated.  That is what ‘unexpected’ means.  But they never learn, and any Sunday morning on TV you can hear one televangelist after another, laying it all out, telling us just who is going to do what, when, and what will happen after that; linking the most recent violence in the Mideast or the latest aggression by China, to the books of Ezekiel and Daniel and Revelation, making the case that the world will end any day. So, in order to be prepared, you must believe in Jesus, AND, “Go to the website at bottom of your screen where you can send your donation of $50 to get the book that will fill you in on the rest of the details.”  Now, someday, some one of these preachers is going to be exactly right and the world will end that week, maybe even before they get your fifty dollars.  But when that happens, it will be by sheer luck, and not because they discovered some hidden clue or timetable in the book of Revelation.  That’s what I think.

     Well then, what good is this book of Revelation with all its strange language of beasts with horns coming out of the sea and fighting angels and talking dragons and the number 666?  Actually, to be honest, this is not one of my favorite books.  There are large sections of Revelation that are extremely difficult to understand; and there are, in our big Bibles, many hundreds of other pages that are much easier to understand and far more helpful for daily life.

     But Revelation is a part of Holy Scripture, and it does have a certain fascination, and all the hoopla around it can be very confusing; so, I have occasionally preached on it.  I am not going to attempt a complete, or even a partial explanation of its many meanings and symbols.  Much is unclear to even the best scholars, and there is little agreement among them on many parts.  But I will, in the next little while, tell you a few things that might be helpful.  I will have seven points.  (continued…)