John hears a "great voice" coming out from the temple.

This is none other than the voice of Christ. ☆ Revelation 1:10...

Christ is in complete charge here.

He was the only One found worthy to open the seven-sealed book, and His opening of the seals ushered in this entire series of sevens.

He is the One marching to victory.

All the power, glory, honour and majesty belong to Him.

This is His judgement upon a Christ-rejecting world and the Father has committed all judgement unto Him.

Chapter 15 is like a preface to the final series of judgements which come on the earth during the Great Tribulation.

These judgements are the most intense and devastating of any that have preceded them.

This chapter is like an interlude (in this case, a quick preview of what is to come) in which...

▪ we see the Lamb on Mount Zion.

▪ we hear the proclamation of the everlasting Gospel.

▪ we have the pronouncement of judgement upon Babylon.

▪ we have the pronouncement of judgement on those who receive the mark of the Beast.

▪ hear the praise for those who die in the Lord.

▪ we have a preview of Armageddon.

Tonight we meet up with the 7th person who is the wild Beast out of the earth... this one is a religious leader.

Both are Antichrist.

Remember...

"Anti" in antichrist can mean either... "over against" or... "instead of... in place of."

▪ we have a preview of Armageddon.

In chapter 13 we meet up with the next 2 personages.

▪ One is the wild Beast out of the sea... he is both a political power and a person.

▪ The other is the wild Beast out of the earth... he is a religious leader.

When Satan sees he has been cast onto planet earth, he is full of wrath and he's out to do what he does best... wreak havoc on the earth.

Satan hates the Woman and so he persecutes Israel, because it is Israel who brought into the world... Christ the Manchild.

This is the last wave of anti-Semitism that will roll over the world, and it is the worst, because Satan has been cast down to the earth and knows that his time is short.

We now enter a time called Jacob's Trouble.

Revelation is a book of prophecy... and a final prophecy at that...

Most of it is still to happen... and all Christians should become familiar with it.

The history of this world comes to a conclusion.

All that was begun in the book of beginnings (Genesis) is consummated in the book of Revelation.

What would you say are the two greatest (most profound) cries ever heard in the history of mankind??

□ It wasn't Paul Revere's "The British are coming!"?

□ It wasn't Julius Caesar's "Veni, Vidi, Vici"... "I came, I saw, I conquered"?

We meet the two witnesses who prophesy 42 months.

And, we also have the 7th trumpet.

Time wise, the seventh trumpet brings us to the return of Christ at the end of the Great Tribulation Period.

We have an interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpets. This is the second interlude. The first one was between the opening of the 6th and 7th seal.

Two personalities are introduced in this break...

▪ A Mighty Angel (chapter 10)... and

▪ The Two Witnesses (chapter 11).

"What is truth?"... especially when there's so much information we can access out there.

Whenever we want to find out anything about everything, all we have to do is ask Doctor or Professor Google.

In this chapter we look at two trumpet woes.

In the last chapter, chapter 8, Apostle John sees an angel who announces that a peculiar intensity of woe and judgement is coming on the earth.

The last three trumpets are different from the other four... they being "woe" trumpets.

The 3 WOES are intertwined with the last 3 trumpets.

We do not have to be frightened about what we are reading here in Revelation.

As a child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit to be delivered to Christ when the Church goes out of the world (the Rapture) before the Great Tribulation Period.

This is what the Bible calls "the blessed hope" of the Church. ☆ Titus 2:13...

After the sixth seal is opened there is a pause before the seventh seal. This is a pattern all through Revelation. Six of a group of seven things will be presented, and then there is a pause with a change of subject, or a parenthetical discussion of some kind, and then the seventh thing is presented.

These seven seals open up the Great Tribulation Period.

Remember this is all futuristic... it's still to happen... it is going to happen...

This is a terrible time... where God pours out His wrath... pours out His Judgements upon the earth... upon all those who have rejected Him.

We are introduced to a book that is sealed with 7 seals.

The opening of these 7 seals play a prominent part in the up and coming Great Tribulation.

☆ Revelation 5:1...

"And I saw in the right hand (signifies power) of Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals."

From Revelation Chapter 4 onwards, no more mention is made of the Church.

That is because the Church, the Bride of Christ has been Raptured to heaven by Jesus the Bridegroom.

● The Rapture is a Scriptural truth... Scriptural teaching...

● The Rapture is a call to walk the walk and talk the talk of holiness... because Jesus can come at any time... we need to be ready.

● The Rapture is a call to urgent ministry to the unsaved... time is running out.

● The Rapture is a call to be excited that Jesus is coming again for His beloved Bride the Church.

☆ 1 John 2:28...

"And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming."

Jesus is not coming for good people.

He's not coming for people who are religious.

Nor is He coming for people who have undergone some particular Church rite or ritual.

Jesus is coming for those who are "in Him" by trusting Him and personally accepting Him as their Saviour.

He's coming for the "born again" believers.

All who are "in Christ" will be caught up!

This is the glorious mystery of the Rapture!

☆ Galatians 1:15-17...

"... it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace,

To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen. Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus."

Paul received divine revelation on the Rapture.

It was not something he made up or cleverly concocted.

God gave him the details of this mystery called the Rapture some 2021+ years ago.