- The book is a revelation of Jesus Christ (Rev 1:1) and His wonderful plan of salvation since the beginning of time. God wants all (Christians and otherwise) to read, understand and keep what the book says, for the time is at hand and He has promised to bless all who do this (Rev 1:3). We shouldn’t be like the Israelites who had all the prophecies but it was the men of the east who were studying it, eagerly awaiting and expecting the coming of the Messiah. Revelation says this carelessness and disregard of pure truth will be the state of Christianity before Christ returns so we should all beware. 💡
- To understand the new, we must understand the old. Revelation is an intentionally codified book by God (Rev 1:1). To interprete it, we need three things: 1) the Bible (old and new testaments) to compare scripture with scripture and to understand the codes/symbols, 2) the Holy Spirit for wisdom to understand, and 3) history to see how precise and spot on all the prophecies have been and to guarantee us that what it says about the future will surely happen. 👌🏾
- There is an incredible battle going on in this world between good and evil. 👿 We are often oblivious to it and God doesn’t want us to be, hence why He’s given us all these prophecies. “Do not despise prophecies but test everything and hold fast to what is true” (1 Thess 5:20-21).
- Satan’s primary desire is worship, i.e. taking the place of God, which he does through great deceptions. So great will these deceptions be in these end times that he’ll even appear in brightness to men, counterfeiting the return of Jesus and deceiving many. Jesus says don’t even go there when you hear them say Jesus is here or there (Matt 24:26-27). Therefore, revelation tells us a lot about the past, present and future of satan’s deceptions, among God’s people i.e. his attempts to cause God’s children to unknowingly worship satan and not God, falsifying God’s commandments and doctrines (on things like the Sabbath, baptism, confession of sins, death etc.).
- It shows us the practices/principles/teachings/characteristics of religious systems and powers that the devil has, is, and will use (Roman catholicism, apostate protestantism, spiritualism a.k.a juju/jazz). Many disagree because they’ve never heard this before but this is unquestionably what the Bible and history points to. 🤷🏾♂️ Afterall, to deceive, you must look like the real deal.
- Revelation tells us that the devil will be incredibly successful because God’s children have not studied to know the truth and have gone the common way. Therefore, we must daily be on guard, checking our Christian beliefs/practices with scripture alone, particularly when those beliefs are very popular!
- God does not desire for anyone to perish so even before probation (i.e. the pleading by Jesus, in heaven, for each of us, to God, answering our prayers etc.) closes, God will make a great call on earth for His children who have fallen into the devil’s deceit to “come out of her My people” (Rev 18:4). 🙌🏾🙏🏾😁
- In other words, there are good Christians in every Church, walking in the fullness of light that they’ve been given but God doesn’t want them there. These true Christians will come out of “her” but many will be hardened, ultimately accepting the mark of the beast and not the seal of God, and suffer the seven last plagues of God’s full wrath.
- God’s children will however be saved from these terrible last plagues. 🕺🏾💃🏾 These are those who keep the commandments of God (including the Sabbath; when – from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, not Sunday as changed by the Catholic Church – and how God clearly stipulates and how Jesus and His apostles lived) AND have the testimony of Jesus (Rev 14:12) – they will be persecuted by unbelievers and satan’s systems, and forced to go into hiding just like the early Christians did after Christ died and the temple was destroyed again in AD70.
- This life is meant to continuously prepare us for these soon-coming end time trials. We should not be mistaken because the trials will be so so great. Nothing like the world has ever seen. Jesus tells us in John 16:2 that God’s children will be persecuted, even by people who think they’re doing God’s work. It’s happened before (READ YOUR HISTORY!!! or read The Great Controversy by Ellen White) and will surely happen again.
- We go through trials now so that we can learn to trust God as our source, learn how to stand on His promises when all looks gloomy and dark.
- We go through all of this now as a constant refining process to prepare us to stand in the end and successfully make the decision to accept the seal of God and not the mark of the beast, even when our very life is at stake.
- We bear shame for Christ now so that we can bear shame then.
- This is a core part of God’s wonderful plan of salvation.
In summary, I’ve learnt a whole lot and strongly encourage you to dig deeper and search for the truths for yourself. That the truth inconveniences us does not make it any less true. That the truth is uncommon does not make it any less true. Jesus was called a blasphemer by even His own people – so the truth will also be to Christians in the end…piercing to the soul, unpopular, dividing to the heart and inconveniencing. Practicing living by the truth from now is what makes us ready for the ultimate test because we would have mastered long suffering and perseverance with God through the power of the Holy Spirit! 😁 Without holiness, no man can see God. We can’t pick and choose what books to understand, simply read only God’s promises or forever read only studies done by other men. We must grow beyond the milk of the word so that our growth will not be stunted or incomplete. All scripture is perfectly interwoven and we must strive to study and understand this wonderful book of Revelation also. God bless you! ❤️
NB: The best and most consistent resources I found are on www.amazingfacts.org and www.sabbathtruth.com ✌🏾
The Langford Files 