United in Praise

November 7, 2021 Background Scripture: Lesson Passage: Revelation 7:9 17 The Book of Revelation is the only New Testament book of prophecy. As such, one must be careful to not treat all its contents as historical narrative. Put another way, much of this writing is not recording what has already happened but what is to come. There is much to learn from Old Testament prophecy to guide us through this. The reason is that most of the Old Testament prophecy has now been fulfilled. In looking at Old Testament prophecy and examining the fulfilment of it, we can see that the written prophecy included images, symbols, and statements. We can also see that the written prophecy rarely had a timeline included although the events were given in the proper sequential order. So, when Isaiah prophesied about the Messiah, the prophecy included what we today know as His first advent and second coming. Isaiah's prophecy did not disclose to us the great expanse of time that would separate the two events. Today, we are living between the two advents of Christ. As we consider unfulfilled prophecy, we can take comfort in the sequential order of events, but we must take care to try to pinpoint where we are on the timeline. In considering the Book of Revelation, we should note that Chapters 2 and 3 tell of events involving the church in the world. There is no more mention of the church until after the final judgement. And then, in Chapter 21, the church, the bride of Christ, is seen descending from above. We note this because at the beginning of Chapter 4 the writer, John, is called up to Heaven to view the culmination of life on earth. With this school of interpretation in mind, we believe the church is raptured from the earth at the beginning of Chapter 4 and the events of Chapter 4 through Chapter 20 occur after the church is no longer in the world. With this as our perspective, we now turn to today's Lesson Passage. John, in Heaven, was shown a multitude of people dressed in white robes and holding palm branches. The multitude was too large to be counted. It was composed of people from every region, nationality, and language. John's guide, one of the elders, asked him to identify the group. John admitted to not knowing who they were. Then the elder informed him that the members of that group were delivered out of the Great Tribulation on earth. This group was not part of a rapture but had lived during the time of Great Tribulation on the earth. I feel confident in saying that this group is not the church. This is a countless number of individuals who will accept Jesus as their personal Savior after the church is no longer in the world. Today, when I hear someone say they want to be in that number that John saw that no man could number, I respectfully disagree with that. I want to be in the number that is raptured from the earth before the time of tribulation and Great Tribulation. The world is a sinful and difficult environment to live in. I don't want to live in this world without the church, But it is encouraging to know that God's mercy will extend beyond the Church Age. Even when there is no church in the world, the grace of God will still be available to lost souls who cry out to Him. As the church today strives to be united in praise to God, there will be other believers who will come after the church is no longer here and they too will find themselves united in praise! Robert C. Hudson October 16, 2021