Please note that these lectures by Kay Arthur supplement the excellent Precept Upon Precept inductive Bible study on the Revelation. Click the following links to view each division of this encouraging study and note that you can also download the first lesson of each of the 4 parts:
 

What is the PURPOSE? to show us what will SHORTLY TAKE PLACE

(Ed note: In this lecture Kay reviews extensive from the Scripture in the Observation Worksheets so have your worksheets available or your Bible open as you read).

Revelation 1 Jesus prepares John to tell the church of the events "which must shortly take place"


Rev 1:7 "Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Even so. (Even though they are going to mourn he still says ''amen'' or so be it. We would rejoice if we saw Him) Amen."

Revelation 6-19 does not reveal "pleasant" events. These are events that have never happened before in the magnitude with which they will occur. 

Revelation 2-3: The church is being prepared for the events that "must shortly to take place". Jesus knows that all those who are in the churches are not necessarily OVERCOMERS. He gets very personal at the end of each message admonishing that  ''He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says'' and ''to him who overcomes I will give....'' There are Seven different churches, reflecting different degrees of commitment, etc., yet every church was reading each individual message. Almost all of the things that Jesus promises to overcomers we see at the end of the book (see summary in table below).

What about those who do not OVERCOME?
(1) Their deeds are important in Rev 2-3.
(2) Great tribulation appears in Rev 2:22 ('Behold, I will cast her upon a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds.) and Rev 7:14 ("And I said to him, "My lord, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.")

Rev 2:23 'And I will kill her children with pestilence; and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.

DEEDS show what you BELIEVE and whether one has truly received the truth so as to be saved.

Rev 2:26 'And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations;

So it's NOT HOW YOU START but HOW YOU FINISH!

Rev 3:1 "And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars, says this: 'I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.

THEIR DEEDS ARE NOT GENUINE.

Rev 3:8 'I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name...10 'Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test THOSE WHO DWELL UPON THE EARTH.

Revelation 4-5: JESUS PREPARES to take the Seven Sealed Scroll.

Revelation 6: THE BREAKING OF THE SEALS: the beginning of God's judgment on the earth, these events culminating with Jesus triumphant return in the clouds.

 First seal
Rev 6:1-2: And I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, "Come." And I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him; and he went out conquering, and to conquer.

Who is this person on the white horse? Some say the same person as Rev 19, but the events that follow the appearance of each are not the same.

The first horse is a white horse with one who conquers. This rider has a bow but the rider in Rev 19 has a sword. The word for crown in Rev 6:2 here is small crown (Ed note: stephanos which was a crown of victory in the Olympic games) and in Rev 19 is a magnificent rulers crown (Rev 19:12 "upon His head are many diadems" the Greek word diadema which was a symbol of royal dignity). Furthermore if Jesus breaks the first seal and then comes to earth, He has to go back up to heaven to break the next seal and yet we know from other Scriptures that there are only 2 comings.

 Second seal
Rev 6:3-4 "And when He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come." And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men should slay one another; and a great sword was given to him."

Red horse = takes peace from the earth ( so PEACE was on the earth preceding the RED horse). Could it be that the first one who goes out (conquering & to conquer) and ''conquers'' by ruling the earth in a state of peace for a period. YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IN THE WORD OF GOD SO THAT YOU WON'T FAINT.

 Third seal
Rev 6:5-6 And when He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Come." And I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard as it were a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine."

Black horse = scales, weighing out food implying FAMINE which often follows on the heels of war.

Rev 6:5-8 And I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. And authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.

 Fourth seal
Ashen horse = Death & Hades together. Rev 20:13 refers to same phrase (And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds) Why does Hades follow? Because in all probability that is where they are going to go.

The hour of testing is an hour of wrath coming on the whole earth and one fourth of the earth is going to die and they will go to hell because He gave death and Hades power over them and they refused to believe in Christ. They will be judged at the Great White Throne to see how deep their punishment will be because they will be judged in the light of what they heard and they will be cast into the lake of fire, the second death. (Ed note regarding "degrees of punishment", refer to Mt10:15, 11:20-24, Jn19:11, Lu20:45-47, Heb 10:29)

Rev 6:9-10 And when He broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, wilt Thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"

 Fifth seal
Under the altar the souls of those that had been slain. Does this refer to a specific period of martyrdom? Kay does not think this is a likely scenario. In any event, from this time in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, we to see that God begins to avenge the blood of those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

In regard to the timing, note that each of the seals follows one after another as separate events.

 Sixth seal  The great day of the Wrath of God:
Rev 6:16-17: and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of their wrath has come; (Aorist tense indicates a definitive and specific point in time. The indicative mood is the mood of reality or certainty and defines this as an actual specific event. The active voice indicates that the subject [God] carries out the action of the verb) and who is able to stand?"

So mankind clearly recognizes what is happening and that these catastrophe events clearly signal the WRATH OF GOD.

 Seventh Seal
Rev 8:1-2: "And when He broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God; and seven trumpets were given to them."

The Seventh Seal leads into Seven trumpets which will culminate in Seven bowls

So John prepared churches in Revelation 2-3, but from Revelation 9 to Revelation 19 we see that the EARTH IS NOT PREPARED because they are deceived because they did not love the truth so as to be saved (2Th2:9-10 "the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.")

Those who dwelt upon the earth had the opportunity to be saved (E.g., see Rev 14:6-7 "And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people and he said with a loud voice, "Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters."), as did those who were sitting in the churches yet were not true believers. Jesus gave them time to repent (Click here for all 10 uses of "repent" in the Revelation) and He clearly laid out the rewards to the overcomers (click here for list of rewards) contrasted with the consequences of those who would not hear. He gave them all time to repent, but they would not.

Then in Rev 6-19 we come to these cataclysmic events and even then the world still has time to repent because there are witnesses present on the earth. Some did repent (because you see martyrs all the way through) but the majority did not repent.

The WORLD IS NOT PREPARED but we are PREPARED.

What is Jesus' commission to you and to me?