City Life Starter

Revelation 20:11 – 15

¹¹ Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. ¹³ The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. ¹⁴ Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. ¹⁵ And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

The End Time

In Christianity, eschatology is the one area of discipline in Christian theology that focuses on end times and includes the promise of the return of Jesus Christ as our reigning King and Judge.  You have probably been exposed to or are aware of this subject through end time movies such as The Rapture or Left Behind, Left Behind 2, Left Behind World at War & Left Behind: Next Generation-Vanished.  If you have not been exposed to these end-time movies, blessed are you for you have escaped the misrepresentation of end time imagery from Hollywood.  

They are trying… and why wouldn’t they? Since creation and the fall, mankind has been wondering how it is going to end.  Every five years or so, there are groups of end time theorists that come out with some form of end time prediction causing fear, anxiety and stress for people, including Christians.  Within the past five years, such groups have based end time predictions on the Mayan calendar and the “blood moon,” neither of which panned out the way many predicted.  I can promise you that in the near future, another end time theorist will attempt to convince you of their theory.  The question is how should Christians approach end time theories?  Through God’s Word.

Good News

In Christian eschatology, our view of the end time is grounded in the Scripture, from words of the prophets to Book of Revelation we are currently reading.  Though it is quite difficult to navigate through the Scripture and understand many different rhetorics to imageries that authors used to communicate their visions, message is quite simple that the second coming of Christ is imminent, He is returning as a King and the Judge, but not as the Lamb as He was 2,000 years ago.    

In today’s reading, the emphasis is on Satan’s fall, Christ’s reign, true worshippers reigning with Christ, and the judgement.  As believers, the Book of Revelation is great news and should not be portrayed as a dreaded future that involves death and judgement as Hollywood portrays it to be.  We are promised to reign with Christ forever!  If this is not your view of the end time, I hope you will start seeing the end time as it is portrayed in the Word of God.   

Final Thought

Reigning with Christ forever is reserved for those who are His, and those who are written in the Book of Life (20:12).  We will all stand before the judgement seat of Christ (Romans 14:10) and the Book of Life will reveal if we are written in the book or not.  Revelation 20:13 reads, “And they were judged, each according to His works.”  This is why it is important for us to live according to His Word and exemplify Christ on Earth.  We are His, and as His own, we are required to live by His Word and not by the worldly standard.  JY