Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #10 of Revelation, chapter 22. We are reading Revelation 22:7:
Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
We read this and we wonder how God can make this kind of statement because we understand that the Book of Revelation was completed in the 1st century AD and the Bible was completed at the same time the Book of Revelation was completed. We are presently living in the 21st century AD, twenty centuries later or almost 2,000 years and what is being referenced here is the return of the Lord in judgment upon the world and the very end of the world and its destruction. These things would take place when Christ comes and it so happens that the time we are living in is the time of the judgment of God. Christ has come “as a thief” in the night on May 21, 2011 to bring judgment upon the nations of the world, but that judgment is not complete. It will be completed on the last day when God destroys the world and creates the new heaven and new earth, so although Christ has come as Judge there is still an element of His coming that has not taken place.
But May 21, 2011 was hundreds and hundreds of years from the point in time when God moved the Apostle John to write these words: “Behold, I come quickly.” How can God say that? God made a similar statement earlier in the Book of Revelation where He addressed the church at Ephesus, but we always have to keep in mind that each of the addresses to the seven churches are an address to the entire corporate church body, because it says in Revelation 2:7:
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches…
This is the same statement Christ made at the end of the addresses to each of the churches. It is not just the church at Ephesus or at Philadelphia, but the things God is saying is addressed to all the churches and here is what God said in Revelation 2:4-5:
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
We can see that it is a similar statement and it is using the same Greek words, “I will come unto thee quickly,” and when God comes quickly to the churches it is in judgment and the judgment will be the removal of their “candlestick.” The light of the Gospel had shined forth in the churches and congregations because the Spirit of God was in the midst of the churches, but when have sinned and they have not repented He then comes quickly and takes away their candlestick. It is the same idea we see in Christ’s address to the church at Thyatira, which, again, is for all the churches and He is describing their sin of suffering the woman Jezebel to teach and seduce His servants to commit fornication. Then He says in Revelation 2:21:
And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
This is a similar idea to what the Lord said to the church at Ephesus – repent or He would come quickly. Here, the Lord gave her space to repent, but she repented not. It goes on to say in Revelation 2:22:
Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
This is using different terms and figures, but it is saying the same thing spiritually. To be cast into great tribulation is the same thing as taking away the candlestick. They occurred at the same time at the end of the church age and it is looking at the same judgment which began at the house of God and there are the same results: no more light of the Gospel and no more salvation within the churches and congregations.
Going back to Revelation 2:5, it said, “I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” Once again, we know that Jesus was saying this in the 1st century and it was not until the year 1988 (over 1,900 years later) that He finally did come at the end of the church age to remove the candlestick; the Holy Spirit came out of the midst and the churches no longer had the light of Truth. That began the judgment process at the end of the world starting with the house of God.
But how can 1,955 years of the church age be considered coming “quickly”? As we look at God, we know He is eternal and He has a different perspective on things because He is “outside of time.” So some people might think that explains it and they may cite the verse that says, “a thousand years is as a day,” so time goes quickly for Him. But that is not really the right idea. When God says, “I come quickly,” what is in view (when we study it in the Bible) is that God will come “at the soonest possible instant” and in order for Christ to come and remove the candlestick, there first had to be given “space to repent,” which was the entire period of the church age or 1,955 years. That was according to God’s timetable. He could not come in the year 1000 or 1500 or 1800 because there was a precise and set time. Once that set time elapsed, then at that exact moment Christ came in judgment and the Holy Spirit left the congregations. He came as a thief upon the churches and they were unaware of His coming. He did “come quickly,” according to the timetable of God. It is not as if May 21, 1988 came and God did nothing for a while, but He came at the exact point that the time given had expired for the church age and all the firstfruits had been brought in and then Christ came in judgment upon the churches.
This is what is in view when it says in our verse in Revelation 22:7, “Behold, I come quickly,” but in this case it refers to the judgment upon the world, not the judgment on the churches. Now the churches are part of the world and they experience that judgment along with the world, but the focus is on the entire world and its kingdom of darkness.
Likewise, God comes quickly in the sense that the judgment of Christ as He came as a thief in the night took place at the “soonest possible moment” and from the point that God moved John to write these things it was necessary for the church age to expire and for the Great Tribulation to be completed, which was exactly 23 years from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011. Then, “immediately after the tribulation,” we read in Matthew 24:29, “shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven.” Then Christ comes quickly. He does not delay. He does not wait a week, a month or a year, but He comes “immediately after the tribulation of those days” because it is time – there is no hesitation or delay. He comes quickly according to the set timetable of God’s program of “times and seasons.” He comes at the soonest possible moment. He could not come as the Judge of the world at any other time than the appointed Day of Judgment on May 21, 2011.
So now we understand that God is using this language of “coming quickly” to let us know that He is not going to “mess around,” as the expression goes, once everything is in place and the time schedule has arrived. Then God acts. Since May 21, 2011 God has been acting out the process of Judgment Day. Christ has come as a thief and we are now going through the Day of Judgment and the completion of Judgment Day will be the destruction of this world and the completion of Christ’s coming.
Let us go on in Revelation 22:7:
… blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
As we noted in our last study, the word “sayings” is the Greek word “logos” which means “word.” It refers to the Scriptures in their entirety. It says in 2Peter 1:19-21:
We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
The whole Bible is called the prophecy and that is another reason why when God’s people declare the words of the Bible we are “prophesying” or sharing prophecy. God said in our verse, “Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” That is how the Book of Revelation began in Revelation 1:3:
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
It is worded differently, but it is saying the same thing. Who is it that keeps the sayings of the prophecy of the Bible? Chiefly, it was Christ. He was faithful and kept the Law of God perfectly, so His righteousness was imputed to all the people of God. But more than that, God gives those He has saved a new heart and a new spirit that is without sin, so they keep the Law of God or the sayings of the prophecy of the Book perfectly in their soul existence. They are blessed because they have already been saved and this is the blessing of God, “even life for evermore,” we read in the Psalms.
Another interesting verse is in Revelation, chapter 14 is in the context of Judgment Day as it speaks of the cup of wrath and it says in Revelation 14:10-11:
The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Here God is speaking about the final judgment of mankind. There is no question about that and then it says in Revelation 14:12:
Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Why does God say this here? We did not know this before Judgment Day came, but now that the elect are living on this earth in the Day of Judgment and God has opened our eyes to discern the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, we are able to see exactly what this verse means. God is testing and trying each professed child of God or true believer since May 21, 2011 when we entered into spiritual judgment and it is a matter of patience: “In your patience, possess ye your souls.” Patience has to do with patiently waiting upon God and enduring sound doctrine to the end. So this entire period is a likely 1,600 days, which breaks down to “40 x 40” and “40” is a number of testing. It is a trial of faith and patience with the doctrines of the Bible. Will the child of God endure and continue to uphold the teaching of the end of the church age even though May 21, 2011 looked outwardly like it was not correct. We have seen that many have fallen and renounced the Biblical calendar of history and some have gone back to the churches. They have not exercised the “patience of the saints.” The true believers that are judging the world with Him continue to wait on the Lord and continue to trust the Bible because God has given them spiritual eyes to discern both “time and judgment.” This aids them in patiently waiting on the Lord. It goes on to say in Revelation 14:12:
… here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
In other words, here are they “that keepeth the sayings of this book.” They keep the commandments of God. That is their endurance and it is what they endure in doing, as it says in Matthew 24:13: “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” In Judgment Day God’s people are steadfast, immoveable and they are attached to the Word of God and they do not go back from it or falter because God upholds them. God is keeping them in their keeping of His commandments and this brings God glory. This is the glory that God speaks of in this time period.
It greatly glorifies Him that His people are waiting, like Job, who was a great example of patience and suffering affliction. He was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Job was suffering and suffering and Job’s friends were coming up with various reasons for his suffering that were not in accord with the Bible and did not apply to Job. This was an affliction to Job. He was experiencing these terrible things and those around him did not understand his situation. God gives us these examples of Job and of the prophets as they endured hardship and, yet, continued to trust the Bible. Job did not curse God. He refused to do that, but rather he blessed God in his affliction.
And God’s people have been brought through a situation where outwardly it seemed that things went wrong (on May 21, 2011) and, yet, in point of truth it was God testing them and trying them as He put them through the spiritual fire to see how they would react. Would they come through as “gold, silver precious stones” and keep the sayings of this Book? Or, would they burn up as “wood, hay, stubble” by going back from the sayings of this Book? Of course, every one of God’s elect will pass through the fire and come out the other side.
This is our hope right now that October 7, 2015, the date which is the 1,600th day from May 21, 2011, will be the time we come out from the fire and enter into the glorious new heaven and new earth.