Of all the 66 books none is so highly commended for our special consideration as this one. Through its perfect symbolic language the Lord reveals secrets of how He will judge and set aside all evil preliminary to His glorious Kingdom. It is most instructive as to the principles of everything at work around us in the false church, Israel and the nations. No other book so marvelously unfolds the future glories of Christ and the Church.
The seven stages of the church as a responsible witness are in chapters 2 and 3. From chapter 4 on, the true church is in heaven until 19:11, but the false left to be cast off and destroyed in the middle of the seven years when Satan is cast out of heaven onto the earth, the antichrist revealed, Jewish religion abolished, and the ten-horned Beast casts off the Harlot, with its last vestige of Christianity, to make room for enforced worship of the Beast and his image during the last 3 ½ years. Armageddon and the end of the times of the Gentile nations is described in the 16th and 19th chapters. The six seals of chapter six are in the first 3 ½ years, “the beginning of sorrows.” Six trumpets and corresponding six vials occur during the last 3 ½ years, leaving the seventh trumpet and the seventh vial for the very end when the Lord comes in judicial wrath. After the 1000 years reign and the white throne judgment of the wicked for the lake of fire, the new heaven and earth will provide God His eternal rest and dwelling place with His redeemed.
Prayerful carefulness will help to discover the actual order of events in the parenthetical chapters, 7, 10-14, 17, 18, and 21:9-22:5. The martyred remnant are referred to in 5:9, 10, J.N.D. Trans.; 6:9-11; 11:3-12; 12:11; 13:7, 15; 14:2; 15:2; 20:4, J.N.D. Trans.