The penultimate sermon in our series on Revelation and probably the toughest one both to preach and to hear.
In Revelation 19-20 John tells of his vision of final judgement when the whole world is held accountable to God and salvation is only found in the book of life. It’s a dreadful yet wonderful picture of God bringing justice and salvation.
There were lots of question on Sunday and if I get chance I’ll post them here but if you’ve got others feel free to add them below.
Steve
This post is tagged eschatology, Jesus, judgement, Revelation, wrath
There were 4 questions on Sunday which aren’t recorded as part of the talk but which are really useful so I’ll try and post a brief summary here…
1. In what sense is the devil presently tied up because it seems that he’s still active.
Ans.
Being tied up does not deny that he’s active presently. The last few chapters of Revelation have shown us the activity of the beasts under his command. He’s tied up in a Mark 3 sense in that Jesus is able to rob the devil’s house and steal people for himself.
2. Will hell be worse for some people rather than others?
Ans.
Rev 20:13 assures us that people will be judged according to what they have done, which seems to reflect proportionality. It’s difficult though to be sure what that will look like. However if hell is the final handing over of sinners to the wrath of God as in Romans 1 then we could assume that the greater ones present wickedness the worse the immediate results of being handed over will be.
3. Does hell have to be forever?
Ans.
I answered this question with a short ramble about how the shock of Rev 19-20 is not that people are judged but that anyone can be saved. Then went on to say that when the Bible talks about the eternity of heaven it also talks about the eternity of hell in the same way. A temporary hell would only make sense if there was no ongoing rebellion but the Bible seems to suggest that the judgement of hell doesn’t bring repentance but further rebellion. Therefore eternal hell is proportional. We also talked briefly about how God has made us eternal beings and hell doesn’t overthrow that.
4. Are you sure the blood on the robe of the rider of the horse was his own and not the blood of the people he’s judged as it seems to be in Isaiah?
Ans.
The commentaries are divide over this. And in someways it makes no difference to the point which was that the bringer of judgement is the one who has also faced that judgement (Rev 1:4, 5:6). Also as Ed Peck pointed out to me on Sunday reading it as his own blood makes more sense of the logic of the passage where the rider is yet to bring judgement.
Hope that’s helpful, feel free to respond to those comments or make other ones.
Steve