IF YOU EVER VISIT the reading room in the rotunda of the Library of Congress, look above the pillars that support the dome. You’ll see a series of plaques with quotations in gold lettering. One plaque reads:
One God, one law, one element
and one far-off divine event
to which the whole creation moves.
Thousands of people pass through that room every year, but few pause to consider those words. They’re from the epilogue to Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “In Memoriam.” The poet is reflecting on the brevity of this life and the inevitable fall of civilizations. He reminds us that the world is moving toward one God-ordained event that will bring history to a close.
Someday, even America will be no more. The whole world will come under the domination of a world leader known as the Antichrist. Yet even the empire of the Antichrist will not endure for long. With the destruction of the Antichrist and his dominion, God will bring history to a close.
The reign of the Antichrist corresponds to the period we call the Great Tribulation. The Great Tribulation is not described in one section of Revelation. The events of the Tribulation are spread across the book of Revelation, especially in the judgments of Revelation 4–11 and the symbols of Revelation 12–19 (the woman and child, the Dragon, the two beasts, the great harlot, and the Lamb). The book unfolds as a series of themes rather than a sequence of chronological events.
In the book of Revelation, we witness the culmination of history as God pours out His judgment against sin during the Tribulation. Though these scenes are disturbing, we should not fear the future. Rather, we should spiritually prepare ourselves to face the future. The central message of Revelation is not the end of this world but the glorious unveiling of the new heaven and the new earth.
The book of Revelation does not leave us in despair. It lifts our spirits and ignites our passion to witness for Christ. I’m more excited today about God’s prophetic Word than at any other time in my life. These are great times for sharing the saving knowledge of our victorious Lord Jesus. I’m grateful to be living in these exciting days.
As we look at the reign and fall of the Antichrist, let’s pause and consider an event that takes place in heaven just before the beginning of the Great Tribulation. This event is described in Revelation 4 and 5.
John looks and sees a door standing open in heaven, and a voice like a trumpet invites him to enter the throne room of heaven. Someone sits on the throne, and a rainbow encircles the throne. Before the throne stand twenty-four elders dressed in white. There are flashes of lightning and rumblings of thunder, and before the throne is a sea of glass, as clear as crystal. There are creatures around the throne, singing praises to God.
At the beginning of Revelation 5, John sees that the One upon the throne holds a scroll in His right hand. The scroll is rolled up and sealed with seven seals. John weeps because no one can be found who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll.
Clearly, the scroll contains an important secret. I believe the secret hidden within the scroll is the key to the book of Revelation. The secret contained in the scroll is so important that John weeps uncontrollably when no one is found worthy to open it. The scroll contains vital information about the future of the human race.
I’m going to venture an opinion about this scroll. I can’t prove my opinion is correct, but it is consistent with Scripture. I believe John wept because he knew that the scroll was the title deed to planet Earth. I base this view on an incident in Jeremiah 32. At that time, the kingdom of Judah lay devastated and defeated. The Babylonians had Jerusalem under siege. The city was gripped by panic and the people were dying of famine. Soon the kingdom would fall and the slaughter would begin.
In the midst of this calamity, the Lord told Jeremiah to buy a piece of land. Jeremiah couldn’t understand God’s reasons, but he obeyed and bought the land from his cousin Hanamel. Then he placed the title deed for the land in a clay jar for safekeeping. That sealed deed represents God’s promise to Israel. God had promised that after seventy years, He would lead Israel out of exile in Babylon and back into the promised land.
I believe John, in Revelation, knew that the scroll with the seven seals was also a title deed. It was a symbol of God’s promise to the human race. God gave the title deed for planet Earth to Adam, but Adam lost the deed to Satan through his disobedience at the Fall.
Satan has been running planet Earth since the time of Adam, and Satan will continue to be “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4 KJV) until the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ. John wept when no one was found worthy to open the seals because it meant that Satan still ruled planet Earth.
But in Revelation 5:5, one of the elders says, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
Then John sees the Lamb who was slain, appearing as if He has been sacrificed. The Lamb has seven horns, seven eyes, and seven spirits. As we have seen, the number seven speaks of perfection and completion. The seven horns speak of the Lamb’s perfect power. The seven eyes speak of His all-knowing wisdom. The seven spirits depict the sevenfold ministry of the Holy Spirit.
The Lamb, of course, is Jesus. He has conquered death and won back the title deed of planet Earth from Satan. All the creatures of heaven praise Him:
You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased for God
persons from every tribe and language and people
and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve
our God,
and they will reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:9–10)
Notice that one of the elders called the Lamb of God by another name: “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Revelation 5:5). The Lamb who was slain is also the Lion who executes judgment. If your sins are covered by the blood of the Lamb, then you need not fear the Lion. The Lion will judge you based on what you have done with the Lamb. Did you receive the Lamb as your Lord and Savior? Or did you ignore Him?
If the Lamb is not your Savior, then the Lion will be your Judge.
The most somber part of Revelation is the opening of the seals. When the Lamb breaks the first seal, the Great Tribulation begins—and the Antichrist steps onto the world stage. In all the bloody history of the human race, this will be the darkest and bloodiest of all. The Tribulation was foretold in Daniel 9 by the angel Gabriel:
He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision:
“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
“Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.” (vv. 22–27)
The first person to unlock the mystery of these verses was Sir Robert Anderson, a high-ranking police commissioner at Scotland Yard. In his book The Coming Prince (1894), Anderson worked out, with mathematical precision, the meaning of this prophecy. Anderson saw that the seven “sevens” of years plus sixty-two “sevens” of years equaled sixty-nine “sevens” of years. Sixty-nine times seven equals 483.
Notice that phrase: “from the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.” Anderson realized it referred to the decree of King Artaxerxes I of Persia, who ordered the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Using information from both the book of Nehemiah and secular history, Anderson determined that the decree was issued on March 14, 445 BC (the first day of the Hebrew month of Nisan). So the prophecy predicted that, from March 14, 445 BC until the Anointed One, the Messiah, came as a ruler, would be a span of 483 years. Using a 360-day calendar—the same calendar Israel used in Daniel’s time—Anderson calculated that 483 years equals 173,880 days. Anderson counted the number of days from Artaxerxes’ decree to Palm Sunday, April 6, AD 32—and it came to precisely 173,880 days.
The prophecy of Gabriel in Daniel 9 predicted the exact date of the Lord’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem as Israel’s King. Isn’t it amazing that the proof of this ancient prophecy lay undiscovered until Sir Robert Anderson did his computations in the 1890s?
Still more amazing, Gabriel told Daniel: “After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing” (Daniel 9:26). Less than a week after that Palm Sunday, Jesus was crucified.
And there’s more: the angel Gabriel goes on to say, “The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary” (v. 26). This prophecy was fulfilled in AD 70 when the Roman army, commanded by General Titus (who later became emperor of Rome, “the ruler who will come”), conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. Centuries later, Jesus also predicted the destruction of the temple:
Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” (Matthew 24:1–2)
But there’s more to Gabriel’s prophecy. The angel went on to tell Daniel about another seven-year period of prophetic history:
The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him. (Daniel 9:26-27)
Here, Gabriel tells Daniel of a seven-year period that is separate from the earlier “sevens.” Today, Gabriel’s prophecy of the triumphant entry and death of the Messiah has been fulfilled. His prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem has been fulfilled. But his prophecy of the seven years of the Antichrist’s reign has not yet been fulfilled. This seven-year time of tribulation lies in our future.
As you study the seven-year period of the Great Tribulation, you find that the prophecies of Daniel, Jesus, and the book of Revelation are absolutely consistent. They all refer to the reconstructed temple in Jerusalem. The prophecy of the reconstructed temple is implied yet undeniable.
The angel Gabriel tells Daniel that enemies will “destroy the city and the sanctuary” (9:26), yet just a few sentences later, he says, “at the temple [the Antichrist] will set up an abomination that causes desolation” (v. 27). Similarly, Jesus tells His disciples that the temple will be destroyed (Matthew 24:2)—then He, too, tells them that the Antichrist will set up the abomination of desolation in the temple (v. 15). So, according to some interpretations of Scripture, the temple must be rebuilt.
In Revelation 11:1, God tells John to take a measuring rod and measure the temple. Some Bible scholars think this refers to a literal temple in Jerusalem. But no Jewish temple has stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem since the destruction of the second temple by the Romans in AD 70 (the first temple was Solomon’s temple, which was destroyed by the Babylonians). What stands on the Temple Mount today? Two Islamic edifices, the Al-Aqsa Mosque (the third holiest site in Islam) and the Dome of the Rock, the golden-capped shrine that is one of Jerusalem’s most famous landmarks.
The Temple Mount is a sacred site to Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Muslims call the walled compound atop the Mount the Noble Sanctuary. In that compound, the Muslims built the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 705 (it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times). Muslims built the Dome of the Rock in 691, constructing the shrine around the foundation stone, which the Jews believe was the site of the Holy of Holies of the second temple—and the very spot where Abraham bound Isaac to sacrifice him. When both Jews and Muslims claim one rock as their holy site, there will be trouble.
After the Muslim warrior Saladin defeated the Crusaders and recaptured Palestine in 1187, the Muslims banned all non-Muslim prayer on the Temple Mount—a ban that is in force to this day. Lately, growing numbers of Orthodox Jews visit the Temple Mount, walking barefoot on the stones as a sign of respect to God, and praying under their breath in defiance of Muslim law. If they are caught praying, they are forcibly removed from the site.
Meanwhile, Jews are demanding the freedom to pray alongside Muslims on the Temple Mount. Some are laying plans and raising funds for a new temple, crafting ritual utensils of gold and silver, and hand-stitching priestly vestments. Israeli cattle breeders hope to produce an unblemished red heifer—a young cow that has never calved and is red from nose to tail—to be sacrificed in accordance with God’s command in Numbers 19:2. An unblemished red heifer has not been seen in Israel in nearly two thousand years, but many Israelis hope to sacrifice a red heifer as part of the restored temple worship.
Ever since the Israelis captured the Old City of Jerusalem during the Six-Day War in 1967, the Temple Mount has been the most fiercely disputed piece of real estate in the world. In 1990, a group of Israelis attempted to lay a cornerstone for a new Jewish Temple and rioting broke out, killing twenty-two Palestinians. In 2000, Israeli leader Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount and a violent uprising broke out. Over five years, that uprising (the Second Intifada) killed three thousand Palestinians and one thousand Israelis.
Muslim Palestinians are angry about Jewish plans to build a third temple where the Dome of the Rock now stands. Mohammad Ahmed Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem’s Muslim community, said, “No one but Muslims are allowed to perform any kind of prayers at Al-Aqsa [meaning the entire Al-Aqsa compound]. Jewish prayer at Al-Aqsa is . . . an aggression.”1
Meanwhile, Yehuda Glick, an American-born rabbi who leads Israel’s Temple Mount Heritage Foundation, has vowed, “The Third Temple, which will be a house of prayer for all nations, will be built very soon.”2
At Jerusalem’s Shalem College, hundreds of Jewish students study the ancient rituals of sacrifice and laws of Passover. They wear priestly vestments, slaughter sacrificial lambs, and sprinkle blood on the altar. They are practicing to perform these rituals in the future temple. The director of the program, Rabbi Yehoshua Friedman, anticipates a fully operating temple where hundreds of priests will carry out the ancient temple sacrifices.
Only one problem stands in the way—the Dome of the Rock, which currently occupies that site. One person involved in the temple rebuilding effort put it this way: “If not for the problem of the Dome of the Rock, they would build the temple today.”3
The prophecies of Daniel and Jesus in Revelation make it clear that a third temple will be built. And it is equally clear that the third temple cannot be built without enraging the Muslim world.
Returning to Revelation 11, we see that God told John to measure the temple of God. It may be that God literally wants John to measure the physical temple of Jerusalem that will exist during the Great Tribulation. But there may be another explanation for God’s command to John: He may be telling John to draw a measuring line around God’s people. As Paul wrote, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). I believe that John’s measuring of the temple in Revelation 11 symbolizes God placing His protective boundary around believers.
To measure is to define limits. John’s measuring line draws a boundary around God’s people. Satan and his fallen angels cannot touch us, because God has sealed us and has measured out a boundary line around us.
Persecutors cannot destroy the true temple of God, because the temple is the church of Jesus Christ, the body of believers. Persecutors may be able to enter the outer courts of the temple, but not the inner courts. We are safe within God’s sanctuary, inside His measured boundary line of protection.
Whether John’s measurement refers to the physical temple or to the figurative temple composed of all believers, we know that the temple will be built. During the Great Tribulation, the people of Israel will offer sacrifices to God according to the Old Testament pattern.
And halfway through the Great Tribulation, the Antichrist will set up the abomination of desolation in the sanctuary of the temple in Jerusalem.
In Revelation 11, we meet two witnesses who proclaim the gospel one last time. John presents them in symbols that echo Old Testament prophecy:
“And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” They are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth.” If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. They have power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want. (vv. 3–6)
These two witnesses will prophesy for 1,260 days, which is exactly three and a half years, according to the Hebrew 360-day calendar. The symbol of two olive trees and the two lampstands comes from the book of Zechariah:
Then I asked the angel, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?” . . .
He replied, “Do you not know what these are?”
“No, my lord,” I said.
So he said, “These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth.” (4:11, 13–14)
Olive oil was used for anointing, so the olive trees stand for two men who are anointed to proclaim God’s truth. The two lampstands symbolize those who shine God’s truth into a darkened world.
Though the Scriptures do not identify these witnesses by name, they are almost certainly Moses and Elijah. In the Gospels, Moses and Elijah met with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration: “Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus” (Luke 9:30). In Revelation 11, these two witnesses have all the earmarks of Moses and Elijah. They possess the same supernatural powers Moses and Elijah had in the Old Testament—the power to call down fire, stop the rain, turn water to blood, and strike the earth with plagues.
Some Bible scholars believe Moses and Elijah will literally return in the flesh in those days. Others suggest that these figures symbolize faithful believers in the Last Days who will perform miracles and prophesy in God’s name. God will give these witnesses a supernatural anointing to proclaim His truth, and they will act in complete unity. They will prophesy together, suffer together, and die together. They will be raised together and ascend to heaven together.
Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the public square of the great city—which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.
But after the three and a half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on. (Revelation 11:7–12)
These two witnesses have a ministry on earth that lasts for three and a half years, right to the midpoint of the Great Tribulation. Notice that this is the same point in time when Daniel and Jesus predict that the abomination of desolation will be set up to defile the temple. At that same time, “the beast that comes up from the Abyss”—this is the second beast (the False Prophet)—“will attack them, and overpower and kill them.”
The corrupt government of the Antichrist leaves the corpses of the witnesses in the public square of the city. There may be two corpses, belonging to Moses and Elijah—or, if the “two witnesses” symbolize many anointed witnesses, there could be hundreds or thousands of corpses. The entire world will see these bodies in the public square—perhaps by means of television, the Internet, and smartphones.
John says that this takes place in the great city where the Lord was crucified—Jerusalem—yet he also says that the city “is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt.” These symbols tell us a lot about what the kind of place Jerusalem will be when it is the capital city of the Antichrist’s global empire. Jerusalem will be like Sodom, a place of wide-open corruption, violence, and sexual immorality. And Jerusalem will be like Egypt, a place of oppression and bondage. Just as Jerusalem crucified Christ, so the godless empire of the Antichrist will crucify His followers.
What did these witnesses do to warrant execution? They preached God’s message. They testified to God’s truth. By simply speaking the truth, John says, these two witnesses tormented the people of the earth. We already see a rising intolerance toward the truth today. If you speak God’s truth, people will try to shut you up. They will slander you. They will try to get you fired from your job. Some of the most intolerant people you’ll ever meet are those who preach “tolerance.” Yes, they gladly tolerate any form of immorality or abortion or false doctrines—but they cannot tolerate God’s truth.
The people of the world rejoice over the death of these witnesses. They even celebrate a satanic anti-Christmas, exchanging gifts to celebrate these deaths. When ungodly people feel the conviction of sin, they frequently get angry. They will hate you and try to destroy you. An old Arabian proverb says, “He who would tell the truth should have one foot in the stirrup.” In other words, if you tell people the truth, you’d better have an escape plan, because they will come after you.
In May 2012, scientist Mark Armitage of California State University at Northridge made an amazing discovery. While working at a fossil dig in Montana, he discovered one of the largest triceratops horns ever found. He brought it back to California and conducted microscopic examination of the horn—and the microscope revealed well-preserved soft tissue. Armitage is a Young Earth Creationist, and a fossil with soft tissue lends support to his belief that dinosaurs died in the Genesis flood about four thousand years ago, not sixty-eight million years ago as evolutionists claim.
In February 2013, Armitage published a paper in Acta Histochemica, a peer-reviewed journal of cell and tissue research. Armitage reported his findings without drawing any conclusion about the age of the fossil. He made no reference to creationism or the Flood or the Bible. Two weeks after the paper appeared in print, the university fired him.4 He was fired for simply reporting the scientific facts.
Armitage sued to get his job back. Court documents show that a university official told him, “We are not going to tolerate your religion in this department!”5
Firing someone because of his or her religion is illegal in America. Attempting to bury scientific evidence and silence free speech violates all principles of scientific ethics. So far, Armitage’s firing stands. We can expect more persecution of Christians for the “crime” of speaking the truth in days to come.
Truth always provokes hostility. The truth can cost you your career. A day is coming when it may cost you your life. Don’t let threats or intimidation silence you. Speak the truth. Provoke a confrontation. Lay out your evidence and demand a verdict.
Don’t accept the namby-pamby nonsense that Jesus was a “good moral teacher.” C. S. Lewis observed that by claiming to be God, Jesus made it clear that He was either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord God.6 Jesus has not left any other option open to us.
I once heard an English bishop say, “When the apostle Paul came into a town, he either incited a riot or triggered a revival. When I go into a town, they give me a high tea. In all truthfulness, I don’t want high tea. I would settle for either revival or a riot. At least the riot would prove I had proclaimed God’s truth without compromise.”
If you compromise the message of Jesus, the world will love you. But if you proclaim Jesus and His gospel without compromise, the world will hate you. Proclaim it anyway, just as the witnesses in Revelation 11 proclaimed the gospel.
After the bodies of the witnesses lie dead for three and a half days, God breathes life into their bodies—and the witnesses come to their feet (Revelation 11:11). Everyone watching around the world is struck with terror. God calls the witnesses to heaven, and they ascend in a cloud—then an earthquake destroys a tenth of the city, killing seven thousand people (v. 13).
The terrified survivors, John says, give glory to God. They have experienced shock and awe. They know whose power raised the witnesses from the dead and shook the city with a mighty earthquake. They are still unrepentant—but in their terror, they give glory to God in an attempt to appease Him.
During the Great Tribulation, Jesus will open the scroll with the seven seals, and the world will be wracked by cataclysm after cataclysm. The Antichrist will rule the world along with the False Prophet. As we have seen, it appears that Satan is preparing the Muslim world to welcome the Antichrist as their Mahdi, and the False Prophet as Isa.
But Western civilization is not safe from the delusion of the end times. Here in America and across the Western world, our civilization is also being prepared by Satan to receive the false messiah, the Antichrist. If we don’t want to be deceived when the Antichrist comes on the scene, then we must be ready—and we must be aware of the deceptive spiritual forces in our culture that would enslave us.
In our fascination with end-times prophecy, we tend to forget that the spirit of the Antichrist is already among us. The Antichrist with a capital A is yet to be revealed, but antichrists with a small a are all around us, spreading false teaching in our culture and in the church. As the apostle John wrote, “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour” (1 John 2:18).
Who are these antichrists? John writes, “Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22). What does it mean to deny that Jesus is the Christ?
Anyone who teaches that Jesus is one of many ways to God is an antichrist with a small a. Anyone who denies Jesus’ claim to be the only way to God the Father is an antichrist with a small a. Anyone who says that Buddha or the Mahdi or Krishna is just another name for Jesus is an antichrist with a small a.
I believe Satan is infecting many churches today with false teachings in order to prepare the way for the Antichrist. When the Antichrist comes, he will be hard to recognize as the Antichrist. He will be attractive and charming, and even Christians may be fooled. Jesus said that “false messiahs” will come, performing “great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24).
No matter how many people the Antichrist deceives, he is ultimately destined to fall. He is the man Paul calls “the man of lawlessness” and “the man doomed to destruction” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). The prophet Daniel says that this man will rule “until the end that is decreed is poured out on him” (Daniel 9:27).
Through thousands of years of human history, human sin, and human rebellion, God has been patient. He has withheld His judgment and wrath, in spite of being blasphemed and rejected by the wicked human race. God’s people have been persecuted and killed by the ungodly—and through it all, God has been patient. In fact, He has been so patient that His followers have often asked, “Lord, where are You? How much longer will You wait?”
For now, God patiently entreats people to repent and to receive His Son, Jesus. When I consider God’s patience toward the human race, I think of the people I am witnessing to now who are not responding. I think of the people I have pleaded with over the years.
Many of them have locked the doors of their hearts. They always have their reasons. “Someday, maybe, I’ll surrender to Christ—but I’m not ready now.” “I live a good life. I don’t need a Savior.” “If I become a Christian, my friends will reject me.” “I want to control my own life. I don’t want God to tell me what to do.” So many excuses—but when these people pass into eternity, what good will their excuses do for them?
When the day of wrath comes, there will be no escape, no second chances. Today, the window of salvation is still open—but for how long? The apostle Peter wrote, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). It is not God’s will that you perish for all eternity, but God’s will is not the only factor in this equation. Your will is also a factor. It is God’s loving and gracious will that you receive the gift of eternal life—that’s why He sent His Son to die for you. But God will not overrule your free will.
A day is coming when God’s patience will come to an end. Let no one assume that He will tolerate sin and rebellion forever. When the Day of Judgment arrives, events will move very swiftly.
In Revelation 15, John gives us a glimpse into heaven, where we see seven angels with the seven last plagues of God’s wrath. The temple of heaven is filled with smoke, signifying the glory and power of God as He prepares to pour out His wrath upon a rebellious earth (v. 8).
The imagery in Revelation 15 and 16 echoes the book of Exodus. In Exodus 15:1–18, after God parted the Red Sea and His people walked between the walls of water and crossed to the other side, the Israelites sang a song of praise, called “The Song of Moses.” In Revelation 15, the believers who reach heaven, who have been delivered from the oppression of Satan, will also sing a song of praise:
Great and marvelous are your deeds,
Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
King of the nations.
Who will not fear you, Lord,
and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed. (vv. 3–4)
In Exodus, Pharaoh is much more than an Egyptian king who oppressed the people of Israel. He is a symbolic type of Satan. Pharaoh’s oppression of Israel symbolizes Satan’s oppression of God’s people today. Pharaoh was a slave driver and a tyrant, just as Satan is a slave driver and a tyrant on a global scale. Just as God delivered Israel from the clutches of Pharaoh, He will deliver us from the clutches of Satan. When that day comes, God’s people will continually praise their Lord and Deliverer.
This song of praise in Revelation 15:3–4 lists five attributes of the Lord Jesus. First, He is the Creator—“Great and marvelous are your deeds.” Second, He is the trustworthy Judge—“Just and true are your ways.” Third, He alone is worthy of worship—“Who will not fear you, Lord, and bring glory to your name?” Fourth, He is the Holy One—“For you alone are holy.” Fifth, He is Lord over all the nations—“All nations will come and worship before you.”
After this song, the temple of heaven opens and seven angels come forward with seven plagues contained in seven golden bowls of judgment (Revelation 15:6–7). God is present in a special way when smoke pours from the temple. The people saw the smoke of God’s presence when Solomon dedicated the first temple (2 Chronicles 7:1–3), when the prophet Isaiah saw the Lord on His throne (Isaiah 6:1–4), and when Moses ascended Mount Sinai and met God on the mountaintop (Exodus 19:18).
In Revelation 16, we see the pace of God’s judgment quickening. We have become so accustomed to the patience of God that we have taken His patience for granted. As Paul writes, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7). What the human race has sown by rejecting His Son is now being reaped planet-wide. In rapid succession, the seven angels go forth to pour out God’s wrath upon those who have rejected Him.
In Revelation 16:1–2, the first angel pours out the first bowl of wrath, and painful sores break out on all who bear the mark of the beast and who have worshipped the image of the Antichrist. This plague of sores is a global form of the plague of boils that God inflicted on Egypt in Exodus 9:8–12.
The second angel pours his bowl upon the sea, causing the waters to become red like blood. Every living sea creature dies. Again, this is a global form of the plague in Exodus 7:17–18, when God turned the water of the Nile into blood.
The third angel pours his bowl on the rivers and springs, and all of the drinking water on earth turns to blood. The angel in charge of the waters explains that this is because
they have shed the blood of your holy people and your
prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink as they
deserve. (Revelation 16:6).
Yet those who run to the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed on the cross will be shielded from God’s wrath.
The fourth angel pours out his bowl upon the sun, causing the sun to burn more fiercely, scorching the earth. As human suffering intensifies, the people of the earth cry out. Do they beg for salvation and forgiveness? No! They curse God for their suffering.
The fifth angel pours his bowl directly onto the throne of the Antichrist. In that moment, the entire satanic empire of the Antichrist is plunged into darkness. When noonday brightness turns into midnight blackness, people panic—and they curse God all the more.
John writes, “But they refused to repent of what they had done” (Revelation 16:11). John finds it remarkable that the people of the world refuse to repent, and this tells us that God has not yet shut the door of salvation. These plagues are intended to drive people to God, yet they refuse.
The plague of darkness is a global version of the plague in Exodus 10:21–29, when God plunged all of Egypt into darkness. The physical darkness God inflicted on Egypt symbolized the spiritual darkness of this rebellious world. When God’s people are removed from this world, the light of Christ will be removed as well. The people of earth will stumble in darkness, and their hearts will become even more hardened against God.
I believe that this scene of worldwide darkness and panic is the closest thing we will ever see to hell on earth. Yet even this is not hell. The reality of hell will be infinitely worse.
Turning to Revelation 17 and 18, we see that before God destroys the government of the Antichrist, He will destroy the false religious system that dominates the world. Where did this false religious system come from? It began in the Garden of Eden when Satan told Adam and Eve the oldest lie in the book: “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5).
Satan still whispers this lie in our ears today. “You can pursue riches and fame and power, and you can be like God.” “You don’t need Jesus. You can choose any path to heaven, and you can be like God.” “The Bible can mean anything you want it to mean. Quote it out of context, twist its meaning, make up your own religion. You can be like God.” “Crystals and tarot cards, channeling and holistic healing, ritual magic and sorcery—all of these practices can give you the power to change your life. You will be like God.”
Satan, the con artist, is still pitching that worn-out line—and it still works after all these years. People are still buying his lies while rejecting the truth of God’s Word. That’s the false religious system of this world, and God will destroy it—just before he destroys the Antichrist and his works.
As Revelation 17 opens, one of the angels of judgment says to John, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries” (vv. 1–2). Then the angel carries John in the spirit into a wilderness. There the angel shows John a woman sitting on a scarlet beast—a beast covered with blasphemous names, with seven heads and ten horns. The scarlet beast is the Antichrist; his description matches that of the Beast in Revelation 12.
The Antichrist is Satan in human form. The prostitute is dressed in purple and scarlet, with jewelry of glittering gold and precious stones. Revelation 17:5 says that across her forehead is written:
BABYLON THE GREAT
THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
In her hand, the prostitute holds a golden cup filled with sin and abomination. The woman is drunk—not with wine, but with the blood of Christian martyrs. I believe there’s a deliberate symbolic parallel here. In Revelation 5, there’s an interesting detail: “the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people” (v. 8).
Have you ever heard the saying, “God keeps our prayers in golden bowls”? That expression comes from Revelation 5:8. The angels and elders hold golden bowls from which rise clouds of incense, the sweet-smelling prayers of God’s people. It’s a blessing to realize that God not only hears our prayers, but He keeps our prayers in golden bowls.
The prostitute, the woman who rides the Beast, holds a golden cup in her hand, and the cup is filled with sin and abomination, with murder and persecution. Her golden cup of sin is a mockery of the golden bowl of the prayers of God’s saints.
The woman has the word “Babylon” written across her forehead. What does Babylon mean in the Bible? Babylon represents the false belief system of this world. It represents all false religions that seek to supplant faith in Christ. All false religion originates with Satan and is demonic at its core.
In the Old Testament, prostitution is often used as a symbol for a false belief system. When you see the word idolatry in the Bible, it is often used synonymously with adultery or prostitution. Both idolatry and adultery involve unfaithfulness. An adulterous husband is unfaithful to his wife. An adulterous wife is unfaithful to her husband. And those who practice idolatry are unfaithful to God.
In the Old Testament, God told the prophet Hosea to marry an unfaithful woman, a prostitute. Hosea married her, yet she soon went back to prostitution. Brokenhearted, Hosea still loved her and forgave her. By forgiving and accepting his wife after she was unfaithful to him, Hosea demonstrated God’s love for the unfaithful people of Israel.
In the closing verses of Revelation 17, we see the destruction of the prostitute of Revelation. The angel says to John, “The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire” (Revelation 17:16).
At first the prostitute, the false religious system, comes riding on the back of the Antichrist. She even appears to control the Antichrist. But in the end, the Antichrist turns on the false religious system and destroys it. Why does the Antichrist destroy his ally, the false religious system?
Answer: the Antichrist views the false religious system not as an ally but as a competitor. The Antichrist wants the whole world to worship him alone. His alliance with the false religious system will last as long as it benefits them. And when the prostitute outlives her usefulness, the Beast will destroy her without a second thought.
The false religious system is not some future religion that will arise in the end times. This false religion is with us today. It pervades every corner of our culture and has infected the church. One of the doctrines of this false system is a notion called universalism. It’s the idea that it doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere; there are many paths to God, and a loving God wouldn’t turn anyone away. That’s the prostitute of Revelation 17.
This false notion will gain global acceptance and deceive the masses. The Antichrist will permit this false belief system to go on for a while as he gains power. But a point will come when this false religion no longer serves his purposes—and that point occurs halfway through the Tribulation. That’s when the False Prophet sets up the image of the Antichrist in the temple and forces the world to worship the Antichrist or be killed.
At the moment the Antichrist demands the worship of the world, universalism is no longer his ally—it’s his enemy. He will demand to be worshipped as a god. He can tolerate no other God. The Antichrist will be Satan’s imitation-Christ—that’s why he’s the Anti-Christ, the opposite of Christ. Paul describes the Antichrist this way:
Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. (2 Thessalonians 2:3–4)
When the Antichrist declares himself to be God, those who claim there are many paths to God will become enemies of the Antichrist. The totalitarian religion of the Antichrist will permit no dissent. The Antichrist’s reign will be global, so there will be no place to hide, no place beyond his reach.
Don’t be misled by talk of peace and global harmony. Don’t be misled by talk of higher consciousness or mantras or spiritual healing. There’s nothing new about so-called New Age practices. Those beliefs and rituals were practiced in ancient Babylon, thousands of years ago. That’s why the book of Revelation uses Babylon as a symbol of false religion. There is nothing new under the sun.
In Revelation 19, we encounter a scene where John hears a great multitude in heaven, shouting:
Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
for true and just are his judgments.
He has condemned the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.
He has avenged on her the blood of his servants. (vv. 1–2)
This song says that God condemned the great prostitute. Yet Revelation 17:16 says the Antichrist and his allies destroyed the prostitute, the false religious system: “They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire.” If it was the Antichrist who destroyed the prostitute, then why does the heavenly multitude praise God for her destruction?
This is an important lesson regarding the sovereignty of God. This passage shows that even the treachery of the Antichrist serves God’s purpose. The Antichrist had a selfish motive for destroying the false religious system. The Antichrist wanted to be worshipped as God, so he eliminated all competition.
But the Antichrist’s treachery served to avenge the blood of God’s martyrs. When the Antichrist destroyed the false religious system, the multitude in heaven shouted, “Hallelujah! / The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever” (Revelation 19:3).
The symbolic Babylon, the great prostitute, has been destroyed by fire. Evil has destroyed evil, God is glorified, and heaven resounds with praise: “Hallelujah! / For our Lord God Almighty reigns!” (v. 6).
On December 5, 1996, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan gave a rather technical speech about the economy at the American Enterprise Institute. No one expected any shockwaves from the speech, least of all Greenspan himself. At one point, Greenspan asked, “How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values?” That kind of rhetoric puts most people to sleep—but professional investors heard those words and panicked.
The Tokyo stock market was open while Greenspan was speaking, and by the time the market closed, news of Greenspan’s speech had shaken Japanese investors like an earthquake. Stock prices plunged. As other markets opened around the world, the sell-offs continued. The stock market lost billions of dollars of value in a day.
Why? Two words: irrational exuberance. Without meaning to, Greenspan had set off a stampede of selling. Investors misinterpreted his words, and a jittery global market overreacted. The moral of this story is that it wouldn’t take much to send the global economy into a full-blown meltdown. If two words could send waves of panic around the world in 1996, imagine how today’s markets would react to a Middle East war or a debt default by a major industrial nation.
Revelation 18 depicts the destruction of the global economic system and global political system of the Antichrist. All who place their confidence in wealth will despair when the economic system crashes. The wealthiest people in the world will lose everything in a single day. Only those who invest in heavenly futures will have true net worth.
The chronology of these events is unclear. Many of the events depicted in Revelation 18 and 19 seem to occur at the same time as the signs of judgment elsewhere in Revelation. For example, Revelation 6:1–8 depicts the opening of the first four seals of God’s judgment. Each seal is represented by a rider on horseback. These riders unleash a series of calamities. The rider on the black horse brings economic devastation, famine, and death. So Revelation 18 and Revelation 6:1–8 seem to describe the same global economic collapse.
In the final days of the Great Tribulation, the Antichrist will see his global empire collapsing to ruin all around him. He has had seven years to reign over the earth; seven years to receive the worship of the masses; seven years to rule the world. And in the final days of his empire, the Antichrist will realize that his doom is approaching.
In the time he has left, the Antichrist will unleash as much destruction as he can. We tend to think of Satan as a powerful and terrifying creature, and he is. But in that day, it will be the Antichrist, Satan in human form, who will be terrified. The devil has one great fear: he fears the final judgment. That’s why he hates to be reminded of it.
In the next chapter, we will see the Antichrist gather his forces for his last stand—the Battle of Armageddon.