Four Key Questions About the End Times — Understanding Revelation

Introduction

Recently, a group of my friends who attended some of my Bible classes asked me to lead a study on the Book of Revelation. Revelation is the final book of the Bible and completes the New Testament. It reveals what will happen during the Second Coming of Jesus and the final judgment.

As I began preparing, I was concerned that we were starting at the end of the Bible rather than the beginning. I wanted to ensure we had enough context so that our study would be both understandable and useful.

Four Key Questions as We Begin Our Study of the End Times

During my daily morning prayer, four essential questions came to mind:

1. Why is Jesus Jewish?
2. Why is Jerusalem so important to the end times?
3. Why did Jesus have to come twice?
   If He is God, couldn’t He have done everything the first time?
4. What is the purpose of the Book of Revelation?
   Why should we study something that may happen thousands of years from now? Why did God show John these visions of the future nearly 2,000 years ago?

Why Answering These Questions Matters

The Bible is a perfect book, and the truths within it are complete. It explains all of human history—from creation to final judgment. Any study of the end times is, by definition, a study of God’s final plan of love for His creation.

A Helpful Introduction to Revelation

Pastor Darrell Johnson provides an excellent introduction to the Book of Revelation in his 2016 YouTube presentation:

In this presentation, Pastor Johnson offers a clear overview of Revelation. I especially appreciate the diagram he draws on the whiteboard—it beautifully illustrates humanity’s fall and how Jesus’ return restores us to a place even better than the Garden of Eden.
His diagram also outlines the major events between the fall and Christ’s return, providing valuable insight as we study Revelation

The Day and Hour Unknown

Matthew 24:36–51 (NIV)

36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;
39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.
That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.
41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.
44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?
46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.
47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.
48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’
49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.
50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of.
51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

We Must Be Ready for the Return of Jesus

We must always be ready for the return of Jesus.
In my next few posts, I will answer the four questions listed above as we explore the end times and the Book of Revelation.

To be ready means to have accepted Jesus as your Redeemer and to follow Him daily with sincerity and love.