Revelation Introduction 

"The Lord has more truth yet to break forth from His Holy Word…Luther and Calvin were great shining lights in their times, yet they penetrated no the whole counsel of God…Be ready to receive whatever truth shall be made known to you from the written Word of God."
   –Pastor at Leyden to the Pilgrims when they sailed to America 

Revelation 2:4-7 

Reach out to Him.
He'll be there and He'll see you through.
He will help you grin as you rest in Him.
He will help you speak when you're feeling weak.
He will strengthen you when there's work to do.
He will cast out fear as you persevere.
He will direct your day as you continue to pray.
Reflect on the battle that was won.
You're dead to sin, alive to win.
Let's claim the victory.
Christ Jesus set us free to proclaim
His wondrous story
And give Him all the glory. 
   –Author unknown 

Revelation 2:8-12 

"He who is born one will die twice; he who is born twice will die once."
   –Dwight L. Moody 

"Thyatira was situated in the mouth of a long vale which extends north and south connecting the Hermus and Caicos Valleys. Down the vale a stream flows south to join the Lycus (near whose left bank Thyatira was situated), one of the chief tributaries of the Hermus, while its northern end is divided by only a ridge of small elevation from the Caicos Valley. The valleys of the two rivers, Hermus and Caicos, stretch east and west, opening down from the edge of the great central plateau of Anatolia towards the Aegean Sea. Nature has marked out this road, a very easy path, for the tide of communication which in all civilized times must have been large between the one valley and the other. The railway traverses its whole length now: in ancient times one of the chief routes of Asia Minor traversed it."
   –Sir William Ramsay
 
Revelation 3:3-7 

"Some have indicated that there is no explicit statement here that anybody will have his name blotted out, but rather the promise that his name will not be blotted out because of his faith in Jesus Christ. The implication, however, is that such is a possibility. On the basis of this some have considered the book of life not as the roll of those who are saved but rather a list of those for whom Christ died, that is, all humanity who have possessed physical life. As they come to maturity and are faced with the responsibility of accepting or rejecting Christ, their names are blotted out if they fail to receive Jesus Christ as Saviour; whereas those who do accept Christ as Saviour are confirmed in their position in the book of life, and their names are confessed before the Father and the heavenly angels."
   –From The Revelation of Jesus Christ by Dr. John Walvoord 

Revelation 3:10-16 

"If the rapture had occurred in the first century preceding the tribulation which the book of Revelation describes, they were assured of deliverance. By contrast, those sealed out of the twelve tribes of Israel in 7:4 clearly go through the time of trouble. This implies the rapture of the church before the time of trouble referred to as the great tribulation. Such a promise of deliverance to them would seemingly have been impossible if the rapture of the church were delayed until the end of the tribulation prior to the second coming of Christ and the establishment of the kingdom."
   –From The Revelation of Jesus Christ by Dr. John Walvoord 

Revelation 3:16-19 

"A nominal growth in membership from 20 percent of our population in 1884, with 35 percent of the population in 1959, and that was high, by the way, 61,000,000 church members indicate the possibility of a church on fire for God. There are other indications: wealth beyond the wildest dreams of our forefathers, an income of 5 billion dollars in 1959, a building program that will see $800,000,000 spent in new church structures. Mass evangelistic meetings attended by tens of thousands, use of other mass media such as radio, literature, increasing constantly."
   –Dr. J. Vernon McGee 

Open Letter to Jane Ordinary 
Dear Jane:
     I am writing to help you shake this feeling of uselessness that has overtaken you. Several times you've said that you don't see how Christ can possibly use you. The church must bear part of the responsibility for making you feel as you do. I have in mind the success-story mentality of the church. Our church periodicals tell the story of John J. Moneybags who uses his influential position to witness for Christ. At the church youth banquet, we have a testimony from All-American football star, Ox Kickoffsky, who commands the respect of his teammates when he witnesses for Christ. We are led to think that if you don't have the leverage of stardom or a big position in the business world, you might as well keep your mouth shut. Nobody cares what Christ has done for you.
     We've forgotten an elementary fact about Christian witness, something that should encourage you: God has chosen what the world calls foolish to shame the wise. He has chosen what the world calls weak to shame the strong. He has chosen things of little strength and of small repute, yes, and even things which have no real existence to explode the pretensions of the things that are, that no man may boast in the presence of God.
     When Jesus Christ chose His disciples, He didn't choose Olympic champs or Roman senators. He chose simple people like you. Some were fishermen, one was a political extremist, another was a publican, a nobody in that society. But these men turned the Roman world upside down for Christ. How did they do it? Through their popularity? They had none. Their position? They had none. Their power was the power of Christ through the Holy Spirit.
     Jane, don't forget that we still need the ordinary in the hands of Christ to turn the world upside down.
   –Letter from a pastor in Arlington, Virginia, published in a church bulletin 

Thus speaketh Christ our Lord to us:
Ye call Me Master and obey Me not.
Ye call Me Light and see Me not.
Ye call Me Way and walk Me not.
Ye call Me Life and choose Me not.
Ye call Me Wise and follow Me not.
Ye call Me Fair and love Me not.
Ye call Me Rich and ask me not.
Ye call Me Eternal and seek Me not.
Ye call Me Noble and serve Me not.
Ye call Me Gracious and trust Me not.
Ye call Me Might and honor Me not.
Ye call Me Just and fear Me not.
If I condemn you, blame Me not.
   –Inscription on the cathedral in Lübeck, Germany 

Revelation 3:20–4:1 

"There are going to be some churches which will meet the next Sunday after the Rapture, and they won't be missing a member-they will all be there."
   –Dr. George Gill 

Revelation 4:7–5:1 

"Dr. Walvoord, in his very excellent book, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, calls attention to something here that I think is important. The living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne. They worship Him for His attributes, because He is who He is. However, the four and twenty elders who represent the church worship Him not only because of His attributes but also because of what He has done. Here they worship Him as Creator–‘thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.’ In other words, the church comes out of this little earth which is God's creation, and they join in the worship because he created this earth down here. Genesis 1:1 is accurate, and the church believes it."
   –From Edited Messages on Revelation, by Dr. J. Vernon McGee 

Revelation 6:1-8 

"One of the paradoxes of this age is that it is the age of Pacifism, but not the age of peace."
   –G. K. Chesterton 

"Thus spiritual death comes immediately through an unbroken line of posterity. Over against this, physical death is received from Adam immediately, as each person dies in body because of his own personal share in Adam's first sin."
   –Dr. J. Vernon McGee 

Revelation 9:7-20 

I'm Not Growing Old 
They say that I am growing old.
I've heard them tell it times untold,
In language plain and bold– 
But I'm NOT growing old.
This frail old shell in which I dwell
Is growing old, I know full well–
But I am not the shell. 
What if my hair is turning grey?
Grey hairs are honorable, they say.
What if my eyesight's growing dim?
I still can see to follow Him
Who sacrificed His life for me
Upon the Cross of Calvary. 
What should I care if Time's old plow
Has left its furrows on my brow?
Another house not made by hand,
Awaits me in the Glory Land.
What though I falter in my walk?
I still can tread the Narrow Way,
I still can watch and praise and pray. 
My hearing may not be so keen
As in the past it may have been,
Still, I can hear my Saviour say
In whispers soft, "This is the way." 
The outward man–do what I can
To lengthen out his life's short span–
Shall perish, and return to dust,
As everything in nature must. 
The inward man, the Scriptures say,
Is growing stronger every day.
Then how can I be growing old
When safe within my Saviour's fold? 
Ere long my soul shall fly away,
And leave this tenement of clay.
"This robe of flesh I'll drop, and rise
To seize the everlasting prize"–
I'll meet you on the Streets of Gold,
And PROVE that I'm not growing old.
   –Clyde Brigner
 
Revelation 9:21–10:3 

"We have only to think of the use of alcohol stimulants, of opium, of tobacco, of the range of cosmetics and medicaments to increase love attractions, of resorts to the pharmacopoeia in connection with sensuality–of the magical agents and treatments alleged to come from the spirit-world for the benefit of people in this–of the thousand impositions in the way of medicines and remedial agents, encouraging mankind to reckless transgression with the hope of easily repairing the damages of nature's penalties–of the growing prevalence of crime induced by these things, setting loose and stimulating to activity the vilest passions, which are eating out the moral sense of society–for the beginnings of that moral degeneracy to which the seer here alludes as characteristic of the period when the sixth trumpet is sounded."
   –From The Apocalypse (circa 1906) by Dr. J. A. Seiss 

Revelation 13:2-8 

"One of the paradoxes of this age is that it is the age of pacifism, but not the age of peace."
   –G. K. Chesterton 

"The Antichrist will come disguised as the great humanitarian. He will talk peace, prosperity, and plenty, not as a means to lead us to God, but as ends in themselves. He will explain guilt away psychologically, make men shrink in shame if their fellowmen say they are not broad-minded and liberal. He will spread the lie that men will never be better until they make society better."
   –Bishop Fulton J. Sheen 

Revelation 15:2-7 

Sometime, Somewhere
Unanswered yet? Faith cannot be unanswered.
Her feet were firmly planted on the rock.
Amid the wildest storm she stands undaunted.
Nor quails before the loudest thunder shock.
She knows Omnipotence has heard her prayer
And cries, It shall be done sometime, somewhere.
Unanswered yet? Nay, do not say ungranted.
Perhaps your part is not yet wholly done.
The work began when your first payer was uttered,
And God will finish what He has begun.
If you will keep the incense burning there,
His glory you will see, sometime, somewhere.
   –Ophelia Guyon Browning 

Revelation 16:18–17:5 

"The Beast, who was dominated by the harlot system (Revelation 17:3) rises against her and destroys her and her system completely. Without doubt the harlot system was in competition with the religious worship of the Beast, promoted by the False Prophet, and her destruction is brought about so that the Beast may be the sole object of false worship as he claims to be God."
   –From Things to Come by J. Dwight Pentacost 

Revelation 18:9-24 

Historian Edward Gibbons' five reasons for the decline and fall of Rome
1) The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.
2) Higher and higher taxes; the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace.
3) The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting, more brutal, more immoral.
4) The building of great armaments when the great enemy was within; the decay of individual responsibility.
5) The decay of religion, fading into a mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to guide the people. 
   –From The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon 

Revelation 19:1 

When I quit this mortal shore
And wander 'round this earth no more,
Don't weep, don't sigh, don't sob.
Maybe I've struck a better job.
And don't go and buy a large bouquet
In which you'll find it hard to pay.
Don't mope around and feel all blue.
I may be better off than you.
If you've got roses, bless your soul,
Just pin one on my button hole
While I'm alive and here today,
Don't wait until I've gone away.
   –Author unknown 

Revelation 19:11-21 

They were looking for a king 
To slay their foes and lift them high; 
Thou cam'st, a little baby thing 
That made a woman cry. 
   –George McDonald 

Revelation 20:1-6 

"If you will tell me why God let him loose in the first place, I'll tell you why God let him loose in the second place."
   –Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer on why Satan is loosed after God had put him in the abyss in chains 

Revelation 20:4-9
 
"Then I will just have to apologize and say that I must have misunderstood the Lord. But suppose we get over there and find that it is true? What then?"
   –Dr. Bill Anderson, when asked, "Suppose we get over there and find out that what you preach about hell is not true at all?" 

Revelation 21:2-5 

"The following notice appeared in a recent addition of the Sunday bulletin of St. Thomas the Apostle Church. Now here it is: To make it possible for everyone to attend church next Sunday, cots will be placed in the vestibule for those who say that Sunday is the only day they can sleep in. We will have steel helmets for those who say the roof would cave in if they ever came to church. Blankets will be furnished for those who think the church is too cold and fans for those who think it's too hot. We will have hearing aids for those who say the pastor speaks too softly and cotton for those who say he preaches too loudly. Score cards will be available for those who wish to list the hypocrites present. Some relatives will be in attendance for those who like to go visiting on Sundays. There will be TV dinners for those who can't go to church and cook dinner too. One section will be devoted to trees and grass for those who like to seek God in nature. And finally, the sanctuary will be decorated with both Christmas poinsettias and Easter lilies for those who have never seen the church without them." 
   –B.E. Fitzgerald 

Revelation 21:22–22:1 

Jerusalem the Golden
Jerusalem, the golden, with milk and honey blest!
Beneath thy contemplation sink heart and voice oppressed;
I know not, O I know not what joys await me there;
What radiancy of glory, what bliss beyond compare.
   –Bernard of Cluny