It has been said that God is slow, but never late. God’s slowness to fulfill his promise of a just world order redounds to the benefit of us sinners, who are given ample time to repent of the error of our ways. But God’s patience is not limitless. As C.S. Lewis somewhere puts it, there are only two kinds of people in the world: those who say to God, “Your will be done,” and those to whom God says, “Your will be done.” When God determines that more time will not result in another change of heart, then he will … Continue reading The Great Day of Their Wrath (Revelation 6:12-17)

 Submission, peacemaking, generosity, and hospitality all require patience: Patience with a corrupt government to reform, with the violent to act peaceably, with the poor to move from dependency to productivity, and with the sick to heal. The last two items are borne with comparative ease. The first two items? Not so much.   It is fascinating to me that after describing the devastation wrought on earth by the four horsemen of the Apocalypse (Rev. 6:1-8), John turns again to a scene in the throne room of heaven (6:9-11). There, he sees “under the altar the souls of those who had … Continue reading O Sovereign Lord, How Long? (Revelation 6.9–11)

If there is a great tribulation, how shall we then live?   The answer to this question depends on “then.” It depends, in other words, on the environment we are called by God to inhabit. As we read Revelation 6.1–8, it becomes quite clear that God calls us to live in an environment of conquest, war, scarcity, famine, pestilence, and death—or at least to be prepared to do so.   (Some futurists, such as Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, deny that Christians will go through the great tribulation, and perhaps they are right. But consider three facts: First, conquest, war, … Continue reading The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (6.1–8)

In Revelation 6.1–8.5, John turns our attention from heaven to earth, from the Lamb to the seven seals that he alone is worthy to open. The turn is abrupt and unpleasant, for the earthly scene John portrays is the polar opposite of the heavenly scene he has just revealed. Instead of the unending worship of heaven, we see unceasing warfare on earth, as successively greater disasters—manmade, natural, and divine—befall the planet upon the opening of each seal. This is “the great tribulation” (7.14; cf. 2.22, Matt. 24.21) whose intensity forces the question: “And who can stand?” (6.17).   When Will … Continue reading Four Views of the Great Tribulation (Revelation 6:1-8:5)