Introduction: These transcripts of Kay Arthur's lectures on Revelation (Parts 2-4) are provided as a service to the body of Christ with the written permission of Precept Ministries International. This material is the property of Precept Ministries International and all rights are reserved. The transcripts are for the most part verbatim with deletions identified by the characters (...). The utilization of italics, bolding, hyperlinks and pop up notes represent editorial additions. Any written additions are identified by the designation "Ed note". Note that all text in blue identifies a link or popup. All reference are the NASB unless otherwise indicated. 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:
Revelation - Pt 1 - Revelation 1-3, 10 lessons
Revelation - Pt 2- Revelation 4-22, 12 lessons
Revelation - Pt 3- Revelation 4-22, 11 lessons
Revelation - Pt 4 - Revelation 4-22, 14 lessons
If you can find a local Precept class studying Revelation, I would strongly encourage you to join the class, as I know of no other study available anywhere in the world that will equip you so thoroughly to discern the signs of the times and cause you to live expectantly as you look for Christ's Return!
Literal chart summaries
Revelation Pt 2, Lecture 8
by Kay Arthur
We will never be prepared for the day of adversity unless we are a man or woman of the book.
Rev 6: The Great Day of the Wrath of the Lamb has come: Who is able to stand?
The breaking of the SEALS OF THE SCROLL is
(1) a very significant act
(2) takes place at a definite time and
(3) brings definitive events, which culminate in the Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, in Rev 19:11ff.Revelation is given to the church because Rev 1:4 ("John to the seven churches that are in Asia") and Rev 1:11 ("Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches") specifically say to the churches.
REVELATION IS A MESSAGE
TO THE CHURCH
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 6:1-19:21 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).
| PROMISE | FULFILLMENT |
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Rev 2:7: I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God |
Rev 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. |
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Rev 2:11 shall not be hurt by the second death. |
Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. |
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Rev 2:17: I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it. |
Rev 22:4 and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads |
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Rev 2:26-28: I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES, as I also have received authority from My Father and I will give him the morning star. |
Rev 22:5 And there shall no longer be any night; and they shall not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall illumine them; and they shall reign forever and ever. |
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Rev 3:5: He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels. |
Rev 21:27 and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. |
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Rev 21:12: I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. |
Rev 22:4 and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. |
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Rev 3:21: I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. |
Rev 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. |
What about those who do not OVERCOME?
(1) Their deeds are important in Revelation 2-3.
(2) Great tribulation appears in Revelation 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.")
Revelation 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.
Revelation 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!
Revelation 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.
Revelation 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.
THE FOUR HORSEMEN
OF THE APOCALYPSE
First seal
Revelation 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
Revelation 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
Revelation 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.
Fourth seal
Revelation 6:7-8 When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come.” 8 I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. 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.
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", see Mt 10:15, Mt 11:20-24, Jn 19:11, Lu 20:45-47, Heb 10:29)
Fifth seal
Revelation 6:9-11 When the Lamb 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; 10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.
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:
Revelation 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
Revelation 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 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 Revelation 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?
Jesus is showing us the things that must shortly come to pass so that we might go out and proclaim the good news of salvation in Christ so that those who still have ears to hear might hear what the Spirit is saying and might know the consequences awaiting those who do not repent.
Warn men to flee from the wrath which is to come! Shout to them 'Prepare to meet Your God!'
Prayer: Father, how we need to stay in Your Word otherwise we will never be prepared for the day of adversity. We'll never be prepared for tomorrow unless we wisely use today, staying in Your Word, letting it be a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our heart, letting Your Word wash us so that we might be clean through the washing of the water of the Word of God, letting Your Word nourish us so that it is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path and the very bread by which we live, so that we have direction, Father, for the way that we are to walk. Father, hearing Your Word behind us, saying this is the way, walk ye in it, knowing Your Word, Father, so that we are prepared for the days ahead and so that we can snatch some from the fire, hating even the garment that is spotted by the flesh. Father, the fire is coming and it is an awful fire, a fire that's going to devour the earth, a fire that is going to destroy men and eventually a fire that will not be quenched, a fire that does not devour the worm, a fire that burns forever and ever and ever in torment and those in it never escape. Oh Father, may we warn men to flee from the wrath which is to come. May we shout to them 'Prepare to meet Your God!' and may we be prepared and may we have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. In Your Name we pray. Amen.