You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
10 And[kai] he saith[lego] unto me,[moi] Seal[sphragizo] not[me] the sayings[logos] of the prophecy[propheteia]
of this[toutou] book:[biblion] for[hoti] the time[kairos] is[esti] at hand.[eggus]KJV-Interlinear
10 And he
said to me, "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for
the time is near. NASB
When you are standing outside and suddenly hear a loud rolling thunder, what do you do? Most people look immediately in the direction of the sound to see what is causing the thunder.
The Word of God is Gods thunder. Unfortunately, people don't seem too interested in looking toward it. And thus the troubles of the world are inevitable.
In chapter 10, John heard the seven thunders and was told 'Do not write.' He was told not to write what he heard and saw. Seven is a number of completeness, and God has stressed to us all, the extreme urgency, importance, and completion of the information John has written in this final book of the Bible.
Those seven thunders will become apparent to the generation, which will actually live in the Tribulation. Then, many will pay attention. We do not live in the Tribulation at this time. That is a future time and will not occur until after the Rapture.
John is told now, to write all that he has seen and heard. With the exception of the seven thunders, which pertains to the Tribulation, we know all that John knows, and that is more than enough to convince any interested person, that there is much more to life than what we see on television. We know this information because we are in the 'end times.'
This is the period of our Church Age, which began in 30A.D. at the Feast of Pentecost, which was just fifty days after the Passover, when the Crucifixion occurred. And in our current year, 2011, this dispensation of the Church Age which is also known as the 'end times,' has been underway for 1,981 years and counting.
Our dispensation will continue until the Rapture, and then the Tribulation will begin. The Tribulation will last only seven years, and it, the Tribulation, is known as the 'last days.'
Daniel was told to seal up what he saw in Daniel chapters eight and twelve, Dan 8:26; 12:4-10, because those prophecies did not pertain to his era.
That information was not to become apparent until the latter times, when 'knowledge increases.' That is our era.
Since Daniels time, which was around six hundred B. C., or about twenty-six hundred years ago, a lot of history has transpired.
Since his time, the Babylonian Empire rose and fell, the Persian Empire rose and fell, the Greek Empire rose and fell, the Roman Empire rose and then John was on hand to write this book of Revelation.
Empires came and went, but knowledge or technology didn't change much.
Then we had the fall of the Roman Empire and that was the last of the empires, which were begun before Christ. The Middle Ages came onto the scene and immediately fell into the dark ages. That was followed by a period of awakening in the sciences and arts, and theology. That was the Renaissance and reformation era.
Then colonial expansion took control of history and the world was transformed in the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries.
The nineteenth and twentieth centuries, through World War Two, saw the formation and consolidation of the four major regions of power in the world. And the latter part of the twentieth century and the twenty-first century are going to be the era of explosive technology as never before, while Europe sets into what will probably be its final power alignment.
There will certainly be more realigning of powers and nations such as in Africa, but for the most part the stage seems to be getting pretty much set for the final acts of our dispensation.
We have the advantage of hindsight. None of the generations prior to World War Two, have had our advantageous view of history. The nation of Israel was not formed formally until 1948. And the nations of today just need to be filled up with people and the inevitable problems that will plague humanity. Nothing in history happens by accident.
Daniel wrote his words about 2600 years ago. John wrote these words over 1900 years ago. Today, they all make very good sense to those who have the patience and the mind set to listen to their words, to look back on history, and to look forward to what likely lays ahead of us.
Certainly the Rapture could occur at anytime, but then it may not occur for another century. All that remains before the Rapture, is for travel to continue its increase, knowledge to continue its increase, earthquakes and such to continue their increases, populations to increase, and the inevitable apostasy to continue its increase until it reaches its pinnacle called the 'great apostasy.'
Note that as all of these various increases occur, they are in direct response to the increase in apostasy that is going to occur as we near the end of our dispensation. With greater negative volition toward Christ, comes greater (increases in) warnings and sufferings. With greater increases in technology and travel and population, comes greater proof that those things will not solve mans problems.
Meanwhile, God saves more and more and then fewer and fewer individuals who believe in Christ, until that process stalls and Christianity reaches a gap in history. The third of three great gaps in history, which we have already studied.
Tomorrows study will separate the adults from the children, women from the girls, the men from the boys.
