#DailyDevotion Revelation Depicts The End of The Word A Third Time. R U Ready?
December 23rd
Read Rev 11:1–19
Rev 11:15-19 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” (16) And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, (17) saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. (18) The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.” (19) Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
Chapter eleven deals with the time of the Church from Christ’s ascension to the right hand of the Father until his return. The temple and the two witnesses are the Church on earth. The three and half years and three and a half days represent our Lord cutting the time short as he had promised that would happen to preserve the elect from falling away. As we can see, even today, the world rejoices when it can stifle the message of the truth. But their rejoices will be cut short on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ’s return.
The seventh trumpet, the last trumpet is the end of the world being depicted again for us. As Paul told us, 1Th 4:16 “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” And again he said, 1Co 15:52 “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” This is what is described here in this chapter.
At the last trumpet, Christ ushers in his visible kingdom upon the new heavens and the new earth. He shall reign upon the earth and all creation in the midst of his Church with his Church. As the elders praise Jesus and say, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.” So the time of judgment has come at the blowing of the trumpet. The dead in Christ are raised first, then those of the Church who are still alive and finally all the dead are raised. Those who were believers will be proclaimed innocent. They will be presented to the Father as holy, blameless and without fault. Those who rejected the free gift of salvation in Christ Jesus will get what they’ve been asking for their whole lives, what they deserve, which is a resurrection to eternal perdition.
As the final judgment takes place, the Holy of Holies is seen and we who are in Christ commune directly with God as Revelation 22 describes.
Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you that preserve us from falling away but cutting our time short. May our witness of your salvation bring many to repentance and faith that they may not be judged guilty with the rest of the world that rejects your gift of salvation. Amen.