Rediscovering Revelation: “I Will Build My Church”

Contents

Introduction

A Dispensation of Error

A Wrong Foundation

Dispensational Error

Not Knowing the Scripture

God Does Not have Two People Groups

Correctly Dividing the Word of Truth

The Destruction of Jerusalem

The Opening of Revelation

The Theme of Revelation

Behold, He Comes Quickly

Every Eye Shall See Him

The Date of Revelation

The Warnings of Jesus

Occupy

The Birth of the Church

Old Out & New In

The Bride

The Exodus

The Temple

Jerusalem

Not Replacement Theology

Babylon

New Jerusalem

The Millennium

The Feasts

Some Applications

Interpretations of Revelation

The Harlot Church

Our Deliverance

Everlasting Punishment

The Mark of the Beast

Hyper Preterism

What’s Next?

A Vision of Christ’s Kingdom

A Post-millennial Vision

Further Reading

Appreciation

To the Provost, board, staff and students of Christian Faith Institute and pastors of Pentecostal Christian Faith Assembly churches in Africa.

To the prayer partners, supporters and coordinators of Christian Faith Ministries International.

To the editors of Rediscovering Revelation.

Preface

Pre-millennialism (the belief that Jesus will come and reign in earthly Jerusalem for 1,000 years) takes much of its basis from a wrong interpretation of Matthew chapter twenty-four. Interpretive principles are applied to the chapter that are Greek or Western in origin and do not align with the Hebrew Scriptures and thought in the text.

A wrong understanding of Matthew twenty-four can present us with a world view that has serious implications – in particular, relating to our view of how the kingdom of God in Christ comes; the interaction of our faith and the world in which we live; the mandate to be salt and light in the world, and to overcome evil with good.

It is common to regard the wars and rumours of wars of Matthew twenty-four as a catalyst for the second coming of Christ. This creates belief in the inevitability, even the promotion of such wars and rumours, as the means of establishing the kingdom of Christ. But this view is in direct contradiction to the teaching of Jesus, who said His kingdom is not of this world and that His kingdom does not come about by human means.

The Jewish zealots of Jesus’ day saw the kingdom politically and were out to overcome Rome and felt the Messiah should come in this sense. Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey symbolising humility, rather than on a horse symbolising warfare, was a direct contrast. Jesus came to give us inner transformation: that being how His kingdom comes. It is by His blood and His Spirit that He saves. This is the use the New Testament writers make of these Old Testament passages, and the way in which we are to understand the Hebrew prophets.

But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen. Hos 1:7

A-millennialism and post-millennialism, on the other hand, both see the millennium (i.e. the kingdom of Christ) very differently. The Hebrew prophets foretold the present reign of Christ from heaven, where His kingdom would extend through all the world and reach every group of people. His present reign in our hearts would bring peace with God and with one another. The sin and beast within the human heart would be overcome by the reign of Christ. Of the increase of his government in us, i.e. over the former self-centred rule of sin, there would be no end.

This present reign of Christ prompts us to beat our swords into ploughs. The mutual hatred between Jew and Palestinian, or between any other types of groupings, gives way to a brotherhood in Christ that is genuine, as we yield together in love to His lordship. This is how the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock Is 65:25: portraying formerly warring tribes sharing at Christ’s table of faith. Wherever His kingdom extends through the true gospel, this is what we see. This is not speculation on the millennium, as an eschatological interest or hobby, but actually seeing the millennium as a current reality, daily taking root in the hearts of people.

Introduction

The New Testament Gospels and Epistles contain teachings that were given to the early church in the historical context in which Jesus and the first apostles lived. Their statements often explicitly refer to the events which occurred or were expected in that day.

It is commonly accepted that to understand the scriptures correctly we must read them as the recipients would have received and understood them. This means understanding the historical context in which they lived, the Hebrew idioms and language styles in which the scriptures were given and the Old Testament passages from which they were drawn. These factors make up the mental framework by which the early disciples and church understood what they were taught.

Approaching the book of Revelation is no different. It was an epistle written to seven churches which then existed in Asia Minor. Our first step in understanding Revelation must be to ask what it meant to those who received it. It is only after we have embarked on this first step that we can ask what lessons from Revelation may be applied to our own time.

Revelation is often used as a speculative tool in predicting end-time events before the second coming of Jesus. These predictions have always been in error and therefore most preachers today shy away from using the epistle in a profound way. However, when Revelation becomes clear to us, as it was understood in the first century of the church, its applications and encouragements become a valuable resource.

This book, Rediscovering Revelation, was written for this purpose; that in understanding the epistle we may all benefit from its lessons in the way God intended. He didn’t preserve the epistle for us to relegate to non-use, but to reveal the gospel and victory of Christ throughout the church age.

This book is not a verse by verse treatment of Revelation. It covers the intended themes of the book. For a more detailed commentary and for follow up study, please see the Further Reading section at the back of this book. This book doesn’t have all the answers on the questions it looks at, nor does it cover all scripture says on the issue. However, we do hope you will allow it to provoke your reflections on the gospel of Christ and lead you to further study.

Rediscovering Revelation begins with an appraisal of a common belief system that impacts many people today, known as dispensationalism. This appraisal is necessary to prepare the reader for what Revelation teaches. The church is not a temporary dispensation. Jesus and His church is the reason for creation and the theme of the whole of the Old and New Testaments.

Our prayer is that the glory of Christ will be more greatly revealed in and through you and those you love, to encourage the church in the days in which we live. I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The blessings of Christ’s rule through the church shall extend to all nations on earth in the years ahead.

Dr. Kent Hodge

A Dispensation of Error

A Wrong Foundation

Since the mid-nineteenth century futurism has, in some quarters, become a popular view in interpreting the book of Revelation. This popularity began with John Nelson Darby and became wide spread through the works of Scofield and Dake in their reference Bibles editions.

Some popular forms of futurism teach that almost all the contents of the book of Revelation are yet to be fulfilled in the future. It is said that from chapter four of Revelation onwards the subject is about a seven year tribulation period that is still future. During this seven year period a man called antichrist will arise and cause everybody to receive a literal mark of 666 on their body. Some versions claim that half way through this seven year period the church shall be raptured out of the world. Then after a great tribulation Jesus will return and reign in Jerusalem for one thousand years.

This has produced constant speculation about the antichrist. All the theories proposed have proved abortive. Futurism has stimulated constant date-setting on the return of Jesus, while Jesus forbad this (Acts 1:7). This view of Revelation makes believers negative about the church’s role in the world as salt and light, instead looking for the rapture to get out of the world: contrary to John 17:15 where Jesus prayed we be taken not out of the world, but kept from the evil. Escapism results in self-fulfilled prophecy regarding decay and falling away in our societies. The doctrine of a pre-tribulation rapture is not once mentioned in the scripture and has never before been mentioned by any church father, neither among the first apostles nor since. The doctrine was developed from a prophecy in Scotland in 1830.

This future seven-year idea is said to come from Daniel chapter nine, where Daniel states there will be seventy weeks of years from his day to the coming of Christ to establish the new covenant. This, read in context, has nothing to do with Christ’s second coming. However, dispensationalists claim sixty-nine weeks (483 years) passed till Jesus’ first coming and the prophetic clock stopped, so we are still waiting for the last week (seven years) to usher in the second coming of Jesus. Daniel does not state, nor even hint, anything about this gap between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks. It is wrong to build a system of belief on something that the scripture has not said.

Gap teaching is common in the Scofield and Dake Bible commentaries. They claim there was a gap of millions of years between God’s creation in Gen 1:1 and a supposed second creation in Gen 1:2. Nothing in the Bible teaches this. They claim that before Gen 1:2 there was a pre-Adamic race of people that were all destroyed. They claim that millions of years later God started again and created Adam. This is not taught anywhere in the scriptures. The Bible states clearly that Adam was the first man (1 Cor 15:45).

They claim Satan rebelled and was cast down to earth after creation and this caused the first destruction on earth. Nowhere do the scriptures teach this. These ideas come from Jewish myths. Paul told Timothy to give no heed to the Jewish myths circulating in the churches of Ephesus (1 Tim 1:4-7). Dispensationalism (see below) itself is a Jewish myth, which predictably leads men back to the law and away from Christ. It wrongly interprets Isaiah chapter fourteen and Ezekiel chapter twenty-eight, which plainly speak of men and not of Satan. (We look at this in more detail in our book Christ in You: where it is shown that Lucifer is not a name for Satan.) Inevitably, these errors focus attention on the devil (which is his aim) and not on the Son. Satan was not cast down to earth before the creation of man. His role as accuser was cast down when Jesus brought us grace and the gospel through His death and resurrection. (Luke 10:18, Matt 16:17-19, John 12:31, Col, 2:13-15, Rev 12:9-10.)

There is a gap: the gap is not in the scripture, but in their understanding of it! Scripture must be interpreted through the finished work of the Christ in the new covenant. All the Old Testament looks forward towards this and all the New Testament looks back to this.

Dispensational Error

Associated with futurism are the teachings of dispensationalism. These teachings come in different forms and often teach that God saves people in different ways in different dispensations. The English word dispensation may be used in a valid way and may refer to a stewardship given or time fulfilled, an era or age – the new covenant and revealing of Christ came in the fullness of time. But it is the teachings known as dispensationalism we are speaking of here.

Forms of dispensationalism teach that in Abraham’s time people were saved by following their conscience, but when the Law of Moses came people were saved by the law. The Bible consistently refutes this. Scripture shows (e.g. Paul in Romans and Galatians) that people are saved only one way, in all eras – by Jesus Christ through faith. No one has been or can be saved by the law:

For as many are of the works of the law are under a curse… That no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. Gal 3:10-11 & Hab 2:4

Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Rom 3:20

Even in Habakkuk in the Old Testament it is said that the just shall live by faith. The law was never given to save, but to point us to Christ:

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be saved by faith. Gal 3:24

Faith was preached to Adam and Eve, when God clothed them and spoke of the coming seed of woman. The gospel was preached to Abraham and he was given the promise by grace, not by works (Gal 3:8, 16-18, John 8:56). He was justified by faith (Rom 4:3). Isaac and Jacob were also called by grace alone (Rom 9:9-13). David was justified by faith (Rom 4:6-7). If we claim that any man in any age can be commended to God by conscience or by law, we speak against the gospel (Gal 3:22). Moses broke the law, so not even he was saved by it. Every man has broken both his conscience and the law of God and stands condemned by both of these (Rom 1-3).

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God: being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Rom 3:23-24

Most Pentecostals and many Evangelicals are impacted today by dispensational teachings, even though they might not even be aware of it. Dispensationalism has fostered spiritism, extreme arminianism (works salvation), speculative end-times teachings and withdrawal from society. A denial of the gospel has led many into misguided spiritual warfare activities, not knowing that Christ has broken every curse, whether the curse of the law, ancestral curses or those put on them by other people.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every man that hangs upon a tree. That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles… Gal 3:13-14

If the blessing has come through Jesus then the yoke is broken by faith. But faith comes by hearing and since some people haven’t heard this from the Spirit of God within their heart they don’t have faith and they go chasing after demons. People who falsely call themselves men or women of God also prey on them for money, promising them freedom.

Because dispensationalism can foster spiritism (the manipulation of spirits, believing one gains personal advantage), many people stray from the gospel into