HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1520
Revelation
“ I F O N LY I C O U L D K N O W T H E F U T U R E . . . ” “If only I knew
what will happen tomorrow, or next week, or next year, I could . . .”
We have all thought about the future. Many of us have longed to
get just a peek at what lies ahead for us. Sometimes our motives for
this are good—we want to make wise decisions about marriage, jobs,
raising children. Sometimes our motives are not so good—we want to
get rich, become popular, get what we want.
What you will be
But God seldom reveals the future to us, probreading about
ably because we would always want to change it.
Or maybe we just couldn’t handle knowing what
1:1- 20
John’s vision of Jesus
was going to happen to us. But maybe most significant is that if we knew the future, we would
2 :1– 3:22
be robbed of the freedom to choose and discern,
Seven letters to seven
churches
to grow in maturity as we learn to trust God to
lead the way.
4:1– 5:14
The throne, the scroll, and
In Old Testament times, God did occasionthe Lamb
ally pull aside the curtain of the future for a few
6:1–16:21
prophets, allowing them to see things to come.
The seven seals, seven
A few, such as Isaiah, even saw the coming Mestrumpets, and seven bowls
siah centuries before the event actually occurred.
17:1–19:5
God also pulled aside the curtain of the future
The fall of Babylon
for the apostle John. God showed him a vision
19:6-21
of the world in the end times. What John saw is
The wedding banquet of the
recorded in this letter, which he sent to several
Lamb
churches throughout Asia Minor (modern-day
20:1-15
Turkey). But God had a very special reason for
The doom of Satan and final
giving us this glimpse of the future. He wanted to
judgment
give us hope—assurance—that he truly will con21:1– 22:5
quer death and evil and that we truly will live
The new earth, new
Jerusalem, and the river
with him forever in perfect peace.
of life
It is never easy being a Christian—we are
22:6 -21
either facing persecution for our faith in a hosThe promise of Jesus’ return
tile society or facing apathy toward our faith in
a comfortable society. In either case, believers
need hope: hope that all of God’s promises in the Bible are true, hope that
Jesus is who he says he is, hope that believers will live forever with him in
heaven, where peace and justice will finally prevail. God gave us the book of
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