Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: After these things, I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, "Hallelujah, salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God." That's the fantastic beginning of our study today out of Revelation 19:1. Welcome to Thru the Bible. I'm your host, Steve Schwetz, welcoming you aboard the Bible Bus as our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, tells us about the wonderful time of Christ's rule on Earth for a thousand years.

Our time in Revelation will soon be coming to a close. As a reminder, next month we're going to begin our five-year journey once again. So, if you'd like Dr. McGee's notes and outlines for our upcoming studies, get them all in our digital book, Briefing the Bible. You'll find it for free download on our app or at ttb.org. Or if you'd prefer to receive an abridged paperback copy of Briefing the Bible sent to you by mail, call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE. You can also write to us at Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. Now, before we get to our study today, let's hear from a couple of our fellow passengers on the Bible Bus. First, we hear from Greg, who left us a message on our listener line.

Guest (Male): Five years ago tomorrow, I started a daily habit, a good habit of listening on my app to Vernon McGee and you all, and it has been wonderful. I've been saved for 30 years and this has been the most eye-opening thing that has happened to me in my walk with the Lord. The stories, the history, the in-depth way he dissects the Bible, the fact that he has taught me how to think about the Bible and how to chew the cud, as he would always say. My name is Greg. I live in Raynham, Massachusetts, and I'm so excited that I made the five years and I can't wait to start again. Anyways, thanks to all for everything you do. My wife Karen and I have been listening together and separately when we're not together first thing in the morning. She started in Revelation; I started in Zechariah. So, we'll keep sending some money for gas, and God bless you and thank you, and we'll see you all in heaven. Bye.

Steve Schwetz: Well, Greg, congratulations on making it through the five years. I'll continue to save seats for both you and Karen. And then here's a voicemail. This one's from Tom, who's also a faithful supporter of Thru the Bible.

Guest (Male): Hello, I love the Bible because it expresses God's love and truth for us. This is Tom in Pine, Arizona. I've been listening for about 20 years now, and I support with prayer and finances. I'm on the world prayer team and telling others about the programming. I just appreciate it so much. I especially appreciate the outreach to the illiterate people of the world. It's a wonderful thing. And so I thank you and praise God for you.

Steve Schwetz: Well, thanks, Tom. We're so glad to have you aboard. If, like Greg, Karen, and Tom, you'd like to join hearts with us in the mission, we certainly welcome your partnership. Your faithful prayers and practical financial support, as the Lord leads, is a great encouragement as together we keep the Bible Bus on the road in more than 250 languages around the world. You can find out more in our app, or over at ttb.org, or by calling 1-800-65-BIBLE. And of course, we love those letters. Just send them to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. Canadian listeners, well, send it to Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we do praise You for Your glorious Word that gives hope and life to us all. We pray, Lord, that wherever it's heard, hearts will be healed, knees will bow, and voices will rise in praise to Your name. We ask this in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now today, friends, our study brings us to the 19th chapter of the book of Revelation. In chapter 18, there was brought to a conclusion this frightful period labeled by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Great Tribulation period. Now in this next chapter, the one we're coming to now, we see Him coming to the Earth to bring to an end this dismal, dark, doleful, and disastrous period.

This is the negative aspect of His coming. The positive side is the dawning of the day of the Lord, labeled in chapter 20 the Millennium, or the thousand years. Now let's take a final look at the Great Tribulation period, with its catastrophic and cataclysmic events taking place in rapid succession like a machine gun firing. The total period is seven years. It is the 70th week of Daniel. And Daniel divided it in the Old Testament and John in the New Testament, right here in Revelation, into two separate and equal periods of three and a half years.

Now Antichrist comes to power as the world dictator on the platform of peace, prosperity, and plenty. He brings about in the first period radical changes that seem to benefit mankind. He'll bring in a false peace. All governments and religions are to be controlled by him. It'll be one world, one religion, one everything. The world will believe they're entering the Millennium and the world will become a utopia. That's what they think.

But this is part of the big lie of that period. The true church, the body of Christ, they were removed before the Great Tribulation began. They are to become the bride of Christ, and we're going to see the bride shortly in this book. And Israel again becomes God's witness on Earth, 144,000 strong, sealed by the Spirit of God, and they witness here upon the Earth. There's also a great company of Gentiles that are sealed.

But somewhere near the middle of the seven years, the King of the North, we believe it's Russia, moves against Israel, and God judges Russia as He did Sodom and Gomorrah. If you want that picture, see Ezekiel 38. It'll be the same way. Now this opens the floodgates of war, for Antichrist now begins to move and the deception, I think, will become apparent to a great many folk. Restless mankind under the control of Satan begins to march and the world begins to fall apart like an overripe pear.

The man of sin, Antichrist, breaks his covenant with the nation Israel. The Middle East has become the center of world's activity in this period. Babylon has become the religious capital of the world, and that's Jerusalem, and it is called Babylon in the first chapter of Isaiah. And the political capital is another place, as we have seen. Antichrist began in Rome and the false prophet in Jerusalem. And Antichrist, when he comes to world power, rebuilds Babylon.

And we see, therefore, that the apostate church is destroyed by Antichrist and the kings of the Earth who are subservient to him. Ancient Babylon on the Euphrates has become the political and economic center of the world. If a few Arab nations can turn the spigots and stop the flow of oil and by so doing can bring the world to its knees in our day, think what it'll be when ancient Babylon in that very land becomes again the world's center.

New York City will then be a whistle stop on the toonerville trolley. It won't be worth a string of glass beads. The Indians really drove a hard bargain with the white man when they demanded several strings of beads. They got more than it was worth. Los Angeles will return to an adobe village and will no longer be the City of Angels, but the dwelling place of demons. By the way, they're beginning to move in today, it seems to me. London and the other great cities of today will become villages with muddy streets and natives with muddy feet.

Judgments from God will fall swift and sudden upon a God-rejecting and blaspheming world. At one fell swoop, one-fourth of the population of the world is destroyed. And at another, one-third is blotted out. Nature is afflicted: the grass of the Earth, the trees of the land, the fish and commerce of the seas, and the rivers will run dry. All are destroyed. The sun, moon, and stars are in convulsion. One disaster after another falls on the Earth, but the hard heart of man is still unrepentant and he defies and blasphemes the God of heaven.

Then armies march toward Israel. For three and a half years the war rages. It's not the Battle of Armageddon, but the war of Armageddon. Millions of men are marching at that time in that land, and they're engaged in the conflict. And they're destroyed there, blood up to the bridle bits, three feet deep, and that'll be no exaggeration. And into this horrible arena of chaos of man's making and Satan's scheming, comes the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Yes, the King is coming to the Earth, friends.

But before all of this can take place, His church must be removed to be with Him and to come with Him to the Earth. Now we are not looking for the fulfillment of any of these things that we've looked at from chapter 4 through chapter 18. In fact, the rest of Revelation is still future. We are looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Now I do not have the date and I do not even know the period in which He'll come.

It may be soon. It could be today, even before I finish this broadcast. But it may not be for a hundred years, even several hundred years. No one can say for certainty or be sure. Anyone who sets a date, fixes a period, is entirely out of order and must be out of his mind, or at least he has information that's not in the Word of God. And I think everything that's happening is significant. We live at a great period in the history of the world.

But I think all we can say is, "now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed." I remember the late Dr. Bill Anderson in Dallas, Texas used to put it like this. God is getting the stage all set today. It looks like He's coming soon. And since it would take a lot of doing to get it in position again if He's not coming today, he says, "You know, if I were the Lord, I'd come on and take the church out of the world so I wouldn't have to get it in this position again and have all that trouble."

Well, we're ready for Him to come. He may come any moment. We don't know. We have no information. But all of this takes place after the church is removed from the Earth. And we are given no signs today. We do see the setting of the stage for all of these things to take place. I think it's very significant that Western Europe is looking for a man to put it together. Western Europe's like Humpty Dumpty, fell off a wall, had a great fall, and all the king's men and all the king's horses can't put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

But Antichrist is coming one of these days. They're waiting for him over there now. And there is a great power in the North, it's Russia. Egypt is coming alive again. China, as Napoleon said, is a great giant and God pity the generation that wakes it up. Well, we did the waking and I tell you, God pity us. That's where the population is today and they're going to come marching out of that area one of these days. And then Israel is in the land. That is the crowning setting of the stage. And it looks like it could begin tomorrow.

But as far as the church is concerned, it could have begun 1,800 years ago, a thousand years ago, but it didn't, and it may not be today because we're given no sign. But now that brings us to chapter 19, the great event that concerns us, the marriage of the Lamb and the return of Christ in judgment. And we have here in this chapter, first, four Hallelujahs as verses 1 to 6. Then we have the bride of the Lamb and the marriage supper, verses 7 through 10. Then in the third division, the return of Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

My what a thrilling chapter this is. That's verses 11 through 16. And then the Battle of Armageddon, I'm going to change that. It should be war of Armageddon, verses 17 and 18. And then hell opened in verses 19 to 21. My friend, there's a whole lot of things in this chapter. Now we turn the page on that which marks a drastic change in the tone of Revelation. The destruction of Babylon, the capital of the beast's kingdom, marks the end of the Great Tribulation.

The somber now gives way to the song. The transfer is from darkness to light, from the inky blackness of night to white light, from dreary days of judgment to bright days of blessing. This chapter makes a definite bifurcation in the book of Revelation and ushers in the greatest event for this Earth, the second coming of Christ to the Earth to establish His kingdom. And it's the bridge between the Great Tribulation and the millennial kingdom that He'll establish on the Earth.

Now great and significant events are recorded here, and the two central features are the marriage of the Lamb and the return of Christ to the Earth. And one follows the other. Now the Hallelujahs open this chapter, and the opening of hell concludes it. Two great suppers are recorded: the marriage supper of the Lamb and the cannibalistic feast of carrion after the last part of the war of Armageddon. Now we come to the four Hallelujahs in the first six verses.

We're going to sing here now the Hallelujah Chorus. Well, maybe I better not sing, because if I started singing the Hallelujah Chorus at this point, you'd think we were in the Great Tribulation period. So, we're not going to be able to sing it till we get to this point, by the way, and then I will be able to sing. Verse one: "After these things I heard as it were a great voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, 'Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power unto the Lord our God.'"

Now you noticed I read from my translation, "after these things," meta tauta again. You see, when we bump into that expression, actually, John gave the division of the book. The things that shall be after these things, after what things? The church. And it began with chapter 4. It opened with meta tauta and we've been meta tauta-ing ever since. And here there is a chronological progression. You have here a sequence of events. What takes place after the Great Tribulation?

Well, what's recorded in this chapter, the coming of Christ to the Earth. He's the only one that can end it. So, it brings us to the end of the Great Tribulation and this is the last occurrence. Now a great multitude, we're told, the voice of a great multitude. And some have been added to what we had back in chapters 5 and 7. Back there we had, you will recall, the elders, the church is there, and uncounted number of angels, created intelligences, and they all worshipped God.

All right, now there've been a great company of tribulation saints added to the chorus, and now they're going to sing. And here is something that is quite marvelous. This is Hallelujah. Did you know it's the first time it's occurred in the New Testament? And it occurs four times in these first six verses, and it's the only occurrence in the New Testament. You see, this business of Hallelujah is reserved for the final victory.

And it's interesting to note that Hallelujah occurs frequently in the book of Psalms and it just simply means praise the Lord. It appears in frequent succession in Psalm 146 to Psalm 150. In fact, Psalm 150 is a mighty crescendo of praise. And I think that's what they're going to be singing. Hallelujah, I think, is a fitting note of praise at this juncture in Revelation. Great Tribulation is over, Jesus is coming, the church is to be united to Christ in marriage.

Hallelujah, friends! Let's sing it. Handel's Messiah will be sung at this season of the year. And I don't care whose choir sings it, my, they're not even going to touch the rim of the greatness of it in this day. Psalm 104:35 says this: "Let the sinners be consumed out of the Earth and let the wicked be no more." What does that mean? It says, "Bless thou the Lord, oh my soul, praise ye the Lord," that is, Hallelujah, because God is coming to judge and the wicked are going to be removed from this Earth.

And I'm for that. I hope you are too. Now Hallelujah is an expletive of praise as the final phase of salvation is coming to pass. And that is something Paul had talked about, and I think I'll just turn to it. Over in Romans 8, beginning with verse 18, listen to this: "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies."

And friends, this is that great day that's coming. The Earth will be released from the bondage of sin. But in the meantime, it groans. You go down to the seashore, anywhere, and listen to the waves break. I slept right by the Atlantic Ocean in Virginia Beach, and every night I was put to sleep by the breaking of those waves on the shore. They're just sobbing out, as it were. There's no high note at all. Then you go up to the mountains out here in California and listen at night to the wind blowing through the pine trees.

There's not a soprano in all those pine trees and there's not a redwood tree that can sing soprano. It's all subdued, it's groaning. All of it's groaning, waiting for this day that's coming someday upon the Earth. And we groan. I don't know about you. When I first built my home up here in Altadena, I was a young man then, I could come bounding down the stairs. When I come down now at every step I groan. My wife says you ought not to groan. I tell her it's scriptural to groan. We groan within these bodies, the scripture says. And I'm for groaning while we're here. But one day, friends, it's going to be Hallelujah and not groaning. And that's what he's talking about in this passage of scripture here. Now we're going to come to the other three Hallelujahs, but we can't sing it today. Our time is up and we're going to wait till next time. But we hope you'll be with us. This is without doubt one of the most thrilling sections of the Word of God and it's not weird and wild, friends. It makes good sense when we look at it as God gave it to us. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: Well, if you've been following Dr. McGee's study for the past five years, I know you're rejoicing that we've finally arrived at its highest point, the one where all of heaven and the creation of Earth are singing Hallelujah. If you'd like to listen to these terrific messages in Revelation again or even share them with a friend, they're available anytime in our app or at ttb.org. And when you visit ttb.org, you can also share a copy of our Bible Companion for Revelation.

In it, you get an excellent synopsis of Dr. McGee's teaching as well as prompts to both listen to Dr. McGee's message and read the scripture for yourself, as well as some pretty significant questions for reflection, or better yet, for group study. Again, our Bible Companion for Revelation is available in our app or at ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help. And as our time in Revelation continues, we're more and more aware that our five-year study is coming to a close, which is exciting because we're that much closer to beginning a new five-year journey through God's Word.

And whether you've been on the Bible Bus with us for years or you're on your first five-year journey through the whole Word of God, we want you to help us celebrate. All you have to do is tell us why you travel with us through the Bible. Really, that's it. Just tell us why you love studying and understanding the Bible. Or has there maybe been a book or a passage that's come alive for you in a new way because of what you've learned here on Thru the Bible? What's challenged you or given you hope?

Well, we know we'd love to hear from you. So share your story simply by leaving a message on our voicemail line at 1-800-65-BIBLE or write it out and send us a note through our app or by emailing us at biblebus@ttb.org. Again, that's 1-800-65-BIBLE or biblebus@ttb.org. And when you're in touch, be sure to tell us your favorite way to listen to Thru the Bible. Are you listening with our app? Is it on a Christian radio station? Well, whatever it is, tell us those call letters, and maybe if you listen on ttb.org, we'd love to know that too. This is an amazing study in Revelation, isn't it? And it's going to continue as we take a look at three more Hallelujahs. Join us next time. I'm Steve Schwetz and I'll be here saving a seat on the Bible Bus just for you.

Today's study with Dr. J. Vernon McGee is brought to you by Thru the Bible and it's made possible by the generous prayer and financial investments from listeners like you on the Bible Bus all around the world.