Rev. 1:1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants[1] the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,
John is instructed to write down everything he sees to the seven churches. The revelation is presented to John in images.
Each church, namely the churches of
Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea,
receives both praise and rebuke from Jesus.
Chapters 4+5
John is then invited into heaven. He sees the throne of God. He also sees 24 elders. Around the throne are four living creatures. They resemble a lion, a bull, a man, and an eagle. They say
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!
Now John sees a scroll, written on the inside and outside. He also sees a lamb, as if it had been slain. This lamb is worthy to open the scroll.
Chapter 6
The Lamb opens the seals. When the first seal is opened, a white horse comes out, and the rider wears a victory wreath and has a bow.
When the second seal is opened, a red horse comes out, and the rider takes peace from the earth.
When the third seal is opened, a black horse appears. The rider has scales in his hand, indicating that there will be a great famine.
When the fourth seal is opened, a pale horse appears, which is death, and Hades followed him. He is given power to kill a fourth of the earth.
Rev. 6:9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers[3] should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
When the sixth seal is opened, something terrible happens to the people: there are great earthquakes, the sun is darkened, the moon is like blood, and the stars fall to the earth. The people try to hide in the mountains. They realize that God's war has begun.
Chapter 7
Now John sees four angels standing at the four corners of the earth. They hold back the winds and say that no wind can blow over the earth until the 144,000 have been sealed. 12,000 from each tribe of Israel. Then he sees a great multitude who have washed their robes in the blood of Jesus. They serve in the temple of God day and night.
Rev. 8:1 When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
Now seven angels each receive a trumpet.
Rev. 8:7 The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. 8 The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.
9 A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. 10 The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11 The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter. 12 The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night. 13 Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”
Chapter 9
Tev. 9:1 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. 2 He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.
These creatures from the abyss are like scorpions and will torment people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads for five months, but they will not kill them. Their king is the angel of the abyss, Abbadon or Apsllyon.
Chapter 10
Now John sees a great angel speaking with a voice like thunder:
Rev. 10:6 and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, 7 but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.
Rev. 11:1 Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, 2 but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months.
Rev.11:3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” 4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed.
6 They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. 7 And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit[1] will make war on them and conquer them and kill them,
The beast from Revelation chapter 17 will kill them.
They will lie in the street for three and a half days, and people will rejoice. But then...
Rev.11:12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them.
Now the seventh angel blows his trumpet, and God intervenes. The 24 elders fall down.
Rev. 11:17 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.
