Global Church of Lord Jesus Christ
← Study series
Study series · 22 studies · 1 hr 50 min

The Book of Revelation

Short studies through Revelation, from the letters to the seven churches to the eternal age.

Start studying
  1. 01
    Christ Among the Churches and the Letter to EphesusRevelation is a book of signs given to John for Gentile believers. Christ appears among seven lampstands; his letter to Ephesus praises endurance, rebukes cooling love and shares the church's hatred of leaders who draw people after themselves.Revelation 1:1–2:7 · 5 min read
  2. 02
    Ephesus, Smyrna and Pergamos, the First Three Church AgesThe first three letters describe the first three church ages. Ephesus loses its first love, Smyrna endures persecution and a poverty of the Word, and Pergamos faces the dangers that came when Constantine made the faith legal.Revelation 2:1–17 · 5 min read
  3. 03
    Thyatira and Sardis, the Fourth and Fifth Church AgesThyatira, from about 600 to 1500, sets a faithful few who carried the Scriptures to Ireland and Scotland beside the rising power of Rome. Sardis, alive in name but dead, is awakened when Martin Luther recovers the Scriptures.Revelation 2:18–3:6 · 5 min read
  4. 04
    Philadelphia and Laodicea, the Last Two Church AgesPhiladelphia is the age of open Scriptures and holy living, ending in 1906. Laodicea, our own lukewarm age, is told to take gold, white clothing and eye salve, and to open the door to Christ.Revelation 3:7–22 · 5 min read
  5. 05
    The Throne in Heaven and the Sealed ScrollJohn is called up to see God's throne, the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures. Revelation 5 shows the Lamb alone worthy to open the scroll of seven seals, which holds the way to life without death.Revelation 4–5 · 5 min read
  6. 06
    The First Five Seals and the Four HorsemenRevelation 6 opens the first five seals. The four horsemen show Satan's work against the Spirit in four periods of the age of grace; the fifth seal shows martyrs under the altar waiting to be avenged.Revelation 6 · 5 min read
  7. 07
    The Seventh Seal and the Half Hour of SilenceThe seventh seal brings about half an hour of silence in heaven, between the covenant and the rapture. The Lord reads the opened scroll, and the seven thunders carry its message to those who are prepared.Revelation 8; 10 · 5 min read
  8. 08
    The Two Witnesses and the First Three TrumpetsAfter the covenant, two witnesses in sackcloth prophesy for 1,260 days with power over fire, rain and water. The first three trumpets fall in the same period and match their work.Revelation 8; 11 · 5 min read
  9. 09
    The Four Winds and the Sealing of the 144,000Four angels hold back the winds of war until God's servants are sealed. The sealed are 144,000 Israelites, twelve thousand from each listed tribe, who believe in the Lamb through the two witnesses.Revelation 7:1–8; 9:13–16; 14:1–5 · 5 min read
  10. 10
    The Two Witnesses Killed, and the Fourth and Fifth TrumpetsThe beast kills the two witnesses midway through the seven years; they rise after three and a half days. The fourth trumpet darkens a third of the sun, moon and stars; the fifth looses spirits from the bottomless pit.Revelation 11:7–13; 8:12–13; 9:1–11 · 5 min read
  11. 11
    The Two Beasts of Revelation 13 and the Number 666Revelation 13 describes the Antichrist's forty-two months of rule, the wound of the first beast and its healing, the second beast that serves him, and the mark and number 666.Revelation 13:1–18; 17:10–11 · 5 min read
  12. 12
    The Woman on the Scarlet Beast, and Babylon the GreatThe great harlot sits on Rome's seven hills, riding a scarlet beast. Revelation 17 explains her colours, names of blasphemy, Babylon as confusion, the eighth king and the ten kings of one mind; Daniel 9 adds the stopped sacrifices.Revelation 17:1–13, 17–18; Ezekiel 23:4–7; Daniel 9:27 · 5 min read
  13. 13
    The Three Angels, the Woman and the DragonIn the second half of the final seven years, the 144,000 carry three angelic warnings to the nations, while Israel, the woman of Revelation 12, flees from the dragon into the wilderness.Revelation 14:4, 6–13; 12:1–17 · 5 min read
  14. 14
    The Sixth Trumpet and the Martyrs of the Great TribulationThe sixth trumpet brings a war that kills a third of mankind, while believers who refuse the Antichrist's mark become martyrs and the Lord reaps His people before the Day of the Lord.Revelation 9:13–21; 7:9–17; 15:2–4; 14:14–16 · 5 min read
  15. 15
    The Fall of Babylon and the Seventh TrumpetThe ten kings destroy the Antichrist's world system within "one hour", and the seventh trumpet announces that the Lord has taken the kingdom and that His wrath is about to be poured out.Revelation 17:12–18; 18:1–24; 11:15–19; 15:1, 5–8 · 5 min read
  16. 16
    A Shaken Earth and the Vials of WrathThe seventh trumpet opens the Day of the Lord, with signs in the sky, a shaken earth, burning heat and the first six vials of wrath, until very few people are left alive.Revelation 16:1–12; 6:12; Isaiah 13 and 24; Matthew 24:29; 2 Peter 3:7–10 · 5 min read
  17. 17
    The Sixth Vial and the Battle of ArmageddonThe sixth vial dries up the Euphrates and gathers the kings of the east at Armageddon, where Christ treads the winepress of God's wrath and, with the word of his mouth, overcomes the ten kings.Isaiah 63:1–6; Revelation 14:17–20; 16:12–16; 17:14; 19:1–21 · 5 min read
  18. 18
    The Seventh Vial and the Great EarthquakeThe seventh vial brings the greatest earthquake since man was created, drying up the seas and sinking the mountains. Few survive to the end of the forty-five days, when the Lord comes down to the Mount of Olives.Revelation 16:17–21; 6:12–17; 21:1; Isaiah 2:20–21; 24:1, 6, 18; Micah 1:3–4; Amos 8:8; 9:5; Jeremiah 25:31–33; Luke 21:25–28; Zechariah 14:4, 12 · 5 min read
  19. 19
    The Judgement of the LivingWhen the Lord descends at the end of the forty-five days he judges the living, separating sheep from goats, before the Millennium begins. The church is then shown as his wife, the New Jerusalem.Zechariah 14:4; Revelation 14:1–5; Matthew 25:31–46; Malachi 4:3; Revelation 19:6–10; 21:9–10, 16 · 5 min read
  20. 20
    The Wife of the Lamb and the New JerusalemThe church, taken up and joined to Christ, is the Lamb's wife and the New Jerusalem, and comes down with him at the end of the forty-five days. Its people reign with him and become like him.Revelation 19:6–10; 21:1–2, 9–27; 22:1–5; 15:8; Ephesians 5:26; Matthew 20:1–16; Galatians 3:28; 1 John 3:2; John 10:34–36; Psalm 82 · 5 min read
  21. 21
    The Thousand-Year KingdomAfter the Lord descends, Satan is bound and Christ reigns for a thousand years through the New Jerusalem over the survivors on earth, who live long, peaceful lives. The rest of the dead rise only at its end.Revelation 20:1–6; Matthew 19:28; John 5:28–29; 1 Peter 2:9; Isaiah 11:1–9; 65:17–25 · 5 min read
  22. 22
    The Last Judgement and the Eternal AgeAt the end of the thousand years Satan is loosed briefly, then destroyed, and the dead are judged. The eternal age follows, with death abolished; the earth lasts until it wears out, and God's people live on.Revelation 20:7–15; 22:6–21; Matthew 10:28; Ezekiel 28:19; Genesis 8:22; 1 Corinthians 15:26; Isaiah 51:6; Deuteronomy 4:19; Galatians 4:1–7 · 5 min read