Revelation: God’s Last Love Letter

Those who have traveled from Genesis to Revelation have, when they get to Revelation, had a journey of sixty-five Books that span some 4000 years. They have read true-to-life action packed adventure stories about love and hate, drought and flood, feast and famine, war and peace, life and death, miracles and murders… But one theme was consistent and constant throughout every page -- the bottom line: who would serve the Lord? God repeatedly demonstrated His deep concern to win some loyal followers. He consistently proves faithful and dependable to those who choose Him. Man, on the other hand, did not generally respond to God’s advances. They seemed to prefer idols, pleasure, selfishness, and pride rather than submission to God – they did not really believe that God was the perfect Provider. Those who did believe God and followed His ways shine as brilliant stars in a dark sky of wickedness. Those who did not often learned of His jealous wrath and righteous justice.

The Message

When considering the main themes and the emphasis of the three sections, we deduce the following main points: Christ, the Holy One, is in charge of history and when He returns in glory for His servants He will also judge the sinful world, and establish His kingdom. God’s servants will be persecuted greatly during the end times, but they will have great rewards in heaven. God’s servants are instructed that they are to live for the eternal home, and Revelation gives great incentives for doing so.

There is considerable emphasis placed on the end times in both the Old and the New Testaments for this will be the climax and conclusion of the struggle of the ages. Satan is given much authority in those days, and his persecution will reach a greater scale than ever before. The pressures on God’s servants world-wide will be beyond that of any previous time. The testing will be of such a nature that it is called the “apostasy” (the falling away from the faith) by Paul (2Thess.2:3), and the Lord Jesus said, “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of My name. And at that time many will fall away and will deliver up one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many. And because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved” (Matt.24:9-13).

Revelation deals with this time and speaks much about the conditions as: “Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has {only} a short time…And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus… And it was given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them; and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. ..If anyone {is destined} for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints…” (Rev.12:12,17; 13:7,10). Will those in the churches hold steadfast for Him even when the enemy blasts at them with all his fury? Most will not – it is called the great falling away. God has sent a letter to help His servants through it. The letter is called, “Revelation.”

Why is there such a strong emphasis in Revelation and in many other Scriptures on the last days? Because all of history is moving toward those last days. The gospel will go into all the world, and Satan will be fighting to defeat the gospel with his powerful and deceitful attack. The fate of billions of people on earth will be at stake when each has made his final choice. It is the big battle. And it will be a dark day for God’s saints. Satan will seemingly and outwardly win the battle, but, “They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death” (12:11).

God seemingly lost round one to His archenemy when Adam preferred the enemy to God. Because of unbelief and pride, man failed the test and disobeyed God. God has seemingly lost many such battles through the ages. The darkest hour was when the Son of God was hanging dead on a Roman cross. Not many chose the Son of God, and He looked like anything but a champion on that dark day. The wisdom, power, and love of God looked like foolishness. But He arose from the tomb, and God turned even the darkest hour into victory, even to victory over sin and death for all mankind. God had made a way back to fellowship with Himself. Perfect Adam did not believe God, but chose the evil one. Corrupt man is now asked to believe God with the forces of an evil environment pulling against him. Can the love of God reach down that far and pull up fallen man to a level of obedience, purity, and love to God? To the glory of God, can His love pull rebels to a level of devotion beyond the enemy’s power to dissuade under the most severe circumstances?

Since that dark day on Mt. Calvary many men have already proved, by their commitment to the Lordship of Christ and by their service to Him, that the love of God was not in vain. For some, like the martyrs of the faith, circumstances cannot be more severe. But we are told that there will be a time when testing will be severe world-wide. The last days will be a time when God's soldiers will be put to the test on the greatest scale. What a privilege to fight for the King of kings against His archenemy in the big battle! What honor it brings to God when His servants remain faithful against all that the enemy can muster! The Son came to gain a bride and died to win her love. Because of His love and His faithfulness to her she responded to Him; she was faithful to Him...many even to death. The Book of books is about the King of kings and His bride, and this is the greatest love story of all time...and eternity. Revelation gives the exciting conclusion, the dramatic finish, the fitting finale.

God's message, “The things to heed,” to His churches is: “Overcome.” The Christian has trusted in Jesus to be his salvation, and he has proclaimed Jesus to be Lord of his life. But the Christian is asked to do constant battle against a foe that he cannot see, and for a God he cannot see and cannot scientifically prove. He must constantly row upstream against the flow of society and against his own sinful human nature. He is asked to relinquish all of his rights to his own self-interests to serve another. In return he is informed that life on earth will not be easy and may require extreme suffering. He is asked to be willing to forego any and all pleasures in this life in anticipation of rewards in another life – a life which he cannot see, cannot prove and about which he knows very little. In short, he must daily combat the full force of the world, the flesh and the devil against all reason – except for the promises of God. He “bets” everything on God. He has learned experimentally that God is the good and faithful One who promises to reward those who place their trust in Him. He believes God, He chooses God.

In Revelation God uses the most dramatic style of writing and the most persuasive appeals to graphically impress the importance that men believe Him. Herein is the purpose of Revelation. It is the glorious climax, the dramatic conclusion, the dynamic appeal to assist His servants to be His shining stars in a dark, selfish, cruel world; and to be His dear children in His eternal home.