The Last Hour
Revelation moves
inexorably from the death of Jesus to the final day when God judges the
wicked and vindicates the righteous. At the conclusion of his ‘Olivet Discourse,’ Jesus gave his parable of the Sheep and the Goats. On the day when the “Son of Man arrives in glory,” his angels will gather all nations before him for judgment, and he will divide them into two groups. One will receive “everlasting destruction,” and the other, “everlasting life.”
The Book of Revelation does not
reference this parable, but its visions reflect the same process of sifting
humanity that began at Calvary, a process that will continue until the end of
the age when humanity is divided into two groups for final judgment - Those who
follow the “Lamb,” and those who give allegiance to the “Beast” and
its overlord, the “Dragon.” There will be no third alternative.
In his death, Jesus became the “Faithful
Witness,” and the “Firstborn of the Dead” upon his resurrection.
Consequently, he now reigns supreme on the messianic throne; he is the “Ruler
of the kings of the Earth,” and his realm extends to the “uttermost
parts of the Earth” as foretold in the second Psalm.
THE GREAT DENOUEMENT
Even now, the risen “Son of Man” is “shepherding
the nations,” and like any good caretaker, he is separating the “sheep”
from the “goats” in preparation for the “final hour” – (Psalm
2:1-9, Matthew 25:31-46, Revelation 1:4-6).
The final settlement of all accounts
will not occur until the final “day” and “hour” when all humanity
stands before the “Great White Throne of Judgment.” At that time, everyone
whose name is “written in the Book of Life” will receive everlasting
life, while all others will be cast “into the Lake of Fire.”
And on that final day, one’s fate is determined by how he or she responds to the “Lamb” and the “Beast” in the here-and-now – (Revelation 21:24).
In the city of Sardis, the Risen Jesus summons
the church to repent and remain ever vigilant, otherwise, he will “come as a thief,” and there was (and is) no way for the church to know “in what hour
I will come upon you.”
To the saints in
Philadelphia, he promises to keep them from the “Hour of Trial” that will
come inevitably on the “whole habitable earth.” In Revelation,
the “final hour” represents the time of final judgment. The promise to
this church is not escape from trials and persecution, but that its faithful members
will not partake of the “Second Death” – (Revelation 3:1-3, 3:10).
The opening of the sixth seal reveals
the final “day of wrath,” the “Day of the Lord.” On that day, the “stars of heaven will fall to the earth, and the
heavens will be withdrawn as a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and
island will be shaken out of their place.” It will be the “great day of
the wrath” of the “Lamb” - (Revelation 6:12-17).
When the “sixth trumpet sounds,” four
angels are released that have been “prepared for THE HOUR and day
and month and year.” When the “seventh trumpet” sounds, the final
victory of the kingdom of God is declared and the time of judgment arrives - (Revelation
9:14-15, 11:11-19).
Likewise, when the sixth bowl of wrath
is emptied, the “kings of the earth” are gathered to the final battle on the “great day
of God Almighty.” There, the forces of the “Beast” will be destroyed
– (Revelation 9:14-15, 16:12-16).
THE HOUR OF JUDGMENT
In Chapter 14 of Revelation, an
angel proclaims: “The hour of his
judgment has come.” This will mean the fall of “Babylon”
and the destruction of those who have rendered homage to the “Beast.”
And that “hour” will culminate in
two “harvests” (“For the harvest of the earth is ripe”): The “reaping”
of the righteous, and the “ingathering” of the “vine of the earth,”
and the latter will be cast into the “winepress of the wrath of God.”
Likewise, in Chapter 18, the destruction of
“Babylon” arrives “in one hour,”
and she is “laid waste” in the very same “hour” - (Revelation
14:1-20, 18:10, 18:17-19).
The series of seals, trumpets, and “bowls
of wrath” all culminate in judgment in the “final hour.” When the “sixth
seal” is opened, the day of “wrath” arrives for the unrepentant. The
“seventh trumpet” announces the day of judgment for the wicked and the vindication
of the righteous. And the seventh “bowl of wrath” completes the “wrath of God”
- (Revelation 6:12-17, 11:15-19, 16:17-21).
The Book of Revelation is about far
more than history’s final few years. Its visions provide a broad sweep of the
great cosmic war that has been raging between the “Lamb” and the “Dragon”
since the enthronement of Jesus, one that will end with the Son of Man’s final
victory in the city of “New Jerusalem.”
The exaltation of the “slain Lamb” to the “throne” has set events into motion that must culminate inevitably in the judgment of the wicked, and the vindication of the righteous.
All this is the outworking of God’s
redemptive plan that the “Lamb” began to implement following his death and
resurrection. He is the “Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the
beginning and the end,” the “firstborn of the dead,” and the “beginning
of the (new) creation.”
And all this began with the same Jesus of
Nazareth who first appeared in Galilee proclaiming the kingdom of God. His
future return in the “final hour” will consummate all things set into
motion thousands of years ago, which is why the Book concludes with the
exclamation - “Yea! I come speedily. Amen!
come, Lord Jesus!”
For the “overcoming”
saint, that “hour” will mean vindication and life everlasting in “New
Jerusalem.” But for the impenitent man, it will end in the “Second Death”
in the “Lake of Fire.” When the clock strikes twelve, for him, it
will be too late.
