Celebrate King Jesus: A Chronological Study of the Book of Revelation

By Dr. Bonnie L. Westhoff

Many refer to the Book of Revelation as the book of the Tribulation. However, in reality, it is the time for the coronation of King Jesus. Many people ask why God keeps Satan on the earth, but are afraid to read the Book of Revelation which is an account of when Jesus does finally remove him from the earth. The Book of Revelation is the only book where God ensures a blessing to those who read it.

Gods plan was always to know Him and dwell with Him. God has been long suffering as He has given every opportunity to every generation to come to Him and make their dwelling place with Him (Col 1:23). No one knows the day or the time when Christ will come for His Church (Mt 24:36), but that will be the time of the Book of Revelation. The Greek word for Revelation is apokalypsis and means an unveiling. The word is singular; only one person is revealed: Christ. Throughout the New Testament we saw Jesus as our Savior, but now He comes to rule the world. It is only now that Jesus receives His inheritance as the King of the Kingdom of God. The Church, the bride of Christ, will rule and reign with King Jesus throughout the Millennium. The bride will share in the inheritance of King Jesus.

This book has an overview in the introduction, and before each chapter, to understand how everything fits chronologically in time sequence. The intent is that it is easy to read and the focus is to see the big picture before the details are explained. All Scripture in Revelation is included, as well as Scriptures within the Bible that prophesy each event that will occur.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512740974

Dr. Bonnie L. Westhoff

Bonnie Westhoff and her husband, Ronnie, worked at the same international corporation while raising their son. In retirement, Bonnie attended Logos Christian College and Graduate School in Jacksonville, Florida, earning her Bachelor’s in Leadership/Administration, her Master’s in Christian Counseling, and her Doctorate in Ministry/Theology. She was ordained in 2003. Her husband went to be with the Lord in 2009. She feels she has been called to minister wholeness. Recently she moved to Palmer, Alaska with her son Ron, and his wife Jennifer. She has three grandchildren: Hollie, Stephanie and Amy. Her biggest regret in life is that she lived at the opposite ends of the United States and has missed living close to her family. But God has been so faithful to allow her to draw close to her family before her life is complete. She visions the last page in her life book to read, and she lived happily ever after. Visit her website www.BonnieWesthoff.com

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Copyright © 2016 DR. Bonnie L. Westhoff.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Bible abbreviations are taken from Strong’s Concordance.

All definitions in Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary (of Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek) are taken as exact excerpts to protect the validity of the resource. Information in brackets [] is added to quoted text by the author.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4098-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4099-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4097-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016907138

WestBow Press rev. date: 7/28/2016

Contents

Introduction

1. Revelation 1: Christ Resurrected

2. Revelation 2–3: Christ’s Church

3. Revelation 4–5: Christ Receiving His Inheritance

4. Revelation 6–7: The Seal Judgments

5. Revelation 8–11: The Trumpet Judgments

6. Revelation 12–13: The Great Tribulation (Characters)

7. Revelation 14–15: Christ with the Tribulation Saints

8. Revelation 16: The Bowl Judgments

9. Revelation 17–19: Christ’s Victory over Babylon

10. Revelation 20: Millennial Rule by Christ

11. Revelation 21–22: New Things

Epilogue

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

I’d like to thank my friend Sherry Brandel for being one in the Holy Spirit with me. When my husband, Ronnie, passed away six years ago, Sherry stayed with me the first three days because she knew my inner thoughts and helped me make so many decisions during that difficult time. She was there for me when Ronnie had his heart attack, and she took me to the hospital. They were not able to resuscitate him, so he went separately in the rescue vehicle. When at the hospital they asked me if I wanted to see the body, I automatically said no; I didn’t think I could do that. Sherry automatically said yes; she wants to see him. She went with me to say my good-byes. I will be forever thankful.

Since then, she has called me daily to make sure I am all right. But it is more than that. We are unified in our love for Jesus, and she has such wisdom that it’s as if the Holy Spirit confirms everything He tells me through her.

On the way home from the hospital, I asked God for the purpose in all this; how was I to honor my husband in this loss? I told Sherry my life goal was to give glory to Jesus in everything I did as a result of Ronnie’s absence. Now, I celebrate that my calendar is sold out to Jesus and I am doing so much more today than ever.

Sherry motivates me by getting excited about all the things I do. The Bible says that when we get to heaven, we will receive a crown in appreciation for all the things we did through the Holy Spirit on earth. We laugh when we tell each other that we will ask Jesus if she and I can share a crown; we will tell Him it will have to fit on both our heads because she is so much a part of everything I do. I wouldn’t be publishing this book if it weren’t for her wanting to experience what I had learned.

Our friends are treasures Jesus sends to make us laugh when we go through bad experiences and cry when we experience something too good to be true. Thank you, Sherry, for being a friend who laughs and cries with me, gets me through the bad, and celebrates the good with me. You are a treasure God sent to me. I love you dearly and appreciate your husband, Joe, for promoting our togetherness and helping with tasks that are far too big for me. Thank You, Jesus, for friendships!

Praise You, Jesus!

Introduction

John the apostle wrote Revelation just prior to the turn of the century, before AD 100. He was exiled to the island of Patmos (Rev 1:6) where the Lord gave him visions of the following:

• chapter 1: things you have seen (victory of the resurrection of Christ)

• chapter 2–3: things that are (victory of the church age)

• chapter 4–22: things that will take place (victory of Christ’s rule)

John’s gospel brought forth redemption for the inhabitants of the earth at the first coming of Christ, and the book of Revelation brought forth the judgment for those who reject Christ’s redemption. Anyone who rejects the Lord throughout time will be judged by Jesus Christ (Ro 2:3).

Chapter 1 begins with John seeing Jesus on the throne of God after His resurrection. This is to let the church know He is there as the head of the church, the Lord of Glory seated as our High Priest. John was told these were the things that you have seen. In John’s day, this had already happened.

Chapters 2 and 3 depict the church age, things in the present time for all who read the Word. This will continue until the church is raptured.

Chapter 4 opens with the church, the lampstands in 1:20 around the throne of God. That means the church has been raptured.

Chapter 5 finds only Christ worthy to open the seals that show His inheritance contract—earth belongs to Him. It was only temporary for Satan to rule the world. Genesis 3:15 was a promise that Satan’s reign would end.

Chapter 6 is the rise of the Antichrist after the restrainer, the church, has been raptured.

Chapter 7 shows Christ sealing God’s people, those living in the tribulation who have seen the truth of God’s Word. God will always protect a remnant of His people (Ro 9:27).

Chapters 8 through 19 are the seven-year tribulation. In heaven, Jesus is crowned King and comes to earth to be victorious in the Battle of Armageddon. His church, the bride of Christ, comes with Him in their glorified bodies to rule and reign throughout the millennium. Satan is thrown in the bottomless pit during the thousand-year reign.

Chapter 20 covers the millennium. I don’t see where anyone dies during that period. I don’t see sickness during the millennium reign as was the case during the forty years in the wilderness when God protected His people.

During the millennium reign, the earth will be repopulated as it was in the time of Noah. The millennium ends by allowing Satan to be released, at which time he convinces many who were born during this period to rebel against Christ. At the great white throne judgment, all nonbelievers, followers of Satan, will be judged and will spend eternity in the lake of fire.

Chapters 21–22 show God’s people living harmoniously in His divine love. Everything Satan corrupted is restored new; then God’s plan is complete.

The program of God culminates in Revelation. God’s plan was for us to know Him and dwell with Him. God has been long-suffering; He has given every generation the opportunity to come to Him and make their dwelling place with Him (Col 1:23). No one knows the day or the time when Christ will come for His church (Mt 24:36), but that will kick off the tribulation in Revelation.

The Greek word for revelation is apokalypsis. We refer to it as the Apocalypse, meaning the unveiling. The word is singular, referring to only one person who will be revealed: Christ. Throughout the New Testament, we see Jesus as our Savior, but He will come to receive His inheritance as the King. Here, the holy Jesus will be revealed on the throne of God and the judgment promised in the Bible will occur.

Revelation is a difficult book because everything God said in the Bible has already been prophesied. Prophesies from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, Amos, Zechariah, and Jesus Himself all culminate in this end-time book. Amos wrote, Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets (Am 3:7). Therefore, my intent is to reference Scripture throughout this commentary that prophesied each event. God is not a God of surprises.

Throughout the introduction, the following topics will be revealed for a better understanding of the book.

1. Revelation is a Book of Sevens

2. Revelation of Heaven and Hell

3. Revelation of the Satanic Trinity

4. Revelation of Satan’s Plan

5. Revelation of the Five Judgments in Revelation

6. Revelation of the Tribulation That Begins at the Time of the Rapture of the Church

7. Revelation of the Seventy Weeks of Daniel

1. Revelation is a Book of Sevens

Revelation is a book of sevens. Seven is the number of completion.

• Rev 2: The seven churches

• Rev 4: The seven spirits of God

• Rev 6: The seven sealed judgments

• Rev 8: The seven trumpet judgments

• Rev 12: The seven people of the great tribulation

• Rev 15: The seven bowl (vial) judgments

• Rev 21: The seven new things

2. Revelation of Heaven and Hell

Since Revelation switches from heaven to earth and to hell rapidly, it is important to just briefly describe some terms.

The Hebrew for the word heaven is shamayim, a plural noun. Scripture reveals three heavens.

• The first heaven is the earth atmosphere: Lord, when You went out from Seir, when You marched from the field of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens poured, the clouds also poured water; the mountains gushed before the Lord, this Sinai, before the Lord God of Israel (Jdg 5:4-5). The rapture will take place when Jesus returns in the clouds.

• The second heaven is the planetary system: The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork (Ps 19:1). The spiritual wars are fought somewhere out in the firmament.

• The third heaven is God’s dwelling place: When they pray toward this place, then hear in heaven Your dwelling place; and when You hear, forgive (1Ki 8:30). Here, we will find the throne room where all the angels are discharged to fight for Christ during the tribulation.

Scriptures that describe hell include the following:

• Ps 9:17: The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

• Isa 14:9–11: Hell from beneath is excited about you, to meet you at your coming; it stirs up the dead for you, all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. They all shall speak and say to you ‘Have you also become as weak as we have, you become like us, your pomp is brought down to Sheol, and the sounds of your stringed instruments; the maggot is spread under you, and worms cover you.’

• Isa 66:24: And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against me. For their worm does not die, and their fire is never quenched. And shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.

• Mt 25:41: Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’

• Mt 25:46: And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

• 2Pe 2:4: For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment.

• Rev 9:1–2: Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. And to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit.

• Lk 16:19–31: the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Verse 22 says the rich man died and was in torment in Hades. In verse 26, there is a great gulf fixed so those who want to pass from Hades to paradise cannot, nor can those in paradise pass over to Hades.

When Jesus died and went to hell to take over Satan’s authority, He emptied all the Old Testament saints from paradise, and they went to heaven with Jesus. Ephesians 4:8–10 says, When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men. (Now this, ‘He ascended’—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

All saints who die today go to the third heaven, not paradise. When Jesus through His shed blood overcame Satan, He took legal authority and released all God’s saints from eternity past to eternity future; Jesus died for all God’s children, those who will enter the kingdom of God.

3. Revelation of the Satanic Trinity

The godly Trinity is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and Satan copies everything God does. Revelation 20:10 depicts Satan as a trinity: And the devil [Satan], who deceived them, was cast into the Lake of Fire and brimstone where the beast [Antichrist] and the false prophet [Antispirit] are.

4. Revelation of Satan’s Plan

Any plan in opposition to God’s plan is Satan’s plan. Revelation 20:4 reads, Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the Beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. These beheadings are part of radical Islam that opposes the God of Jews and Christians and calls them infidels. It is important to understand the beliefs of Islam.

1. Muhammad, the father of Islam, died in 632. There are three different faiths that developed under Islam.

• Sunni (Iraq): Their doctrine is the Qu’ran.

• Shi’a (Iran): The descendants of Muhammad were called imams. During the ninth century, the twelfth imam was said to have hidden; it is believed he will return with Jesus. Their doctrine is the Hadiths, which consists of the original sayings of the imams.

• Wahhabism (Saudi Arabia): under Sunni; believe both the Qu’ran and Hadiths, and have also added a book on monotheism.

2. Five Pillars of Islam—agreed upon as essential for all three faiths.

• Shahadah (creed): There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.

• Salat (daily prayers): Prayer five times a day in direction of Mecca.

• Zakah (almsgiving): Give alms to the power (2.5%) to imam or charity.

• Sawm (fasting): Fast each day during Ramadan from sunrise to sunset.

• Hajj (pilgrimage): pilgrimage to Mecca once during lifetime.

3. The Mahdi

Muslims believe Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Isaac became the Jews, and Ishmael became the Islamic faith. The twelfth imam is called the Mahdi. In 2006, the tomb of the tenth and eleventh imams in a mosque in Samarra, Iran, was destroyed supposedly to cause a civil war. One thousand Muslims died. The twelfth imam’s mosque was not touched. They believe that when Christ returns, the Muslims will kill the Jews and rule and reign with Jesus Christ. They believe the Mahdi will rule seven years when the Antichrist appears, they will kill the Jews, and then world peace will come (Serah 4:159, 43:61 and sixteen Hadiths relating to Jesus). True peace for Islam is that the Jews and Christians, all infidels, must come under submission to Allah, their god. Ahmadinejad’s effort for nuclear supremacy is to prepare for the twelfth imam. He believes that civil war will bring the Mahdi’s return.

4. ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria)

This is a Sunni group that originated as jihad in 1999 and was renamed al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2004. By 2013, the group changed its name again to ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi entered a civil war and today has a large presence in Syria and Iraq. Today, Amir al-Mu’minin has been named caliph and claims authority over all Muslims. Islam is the world’s second largest religious group with 1.5 billion people and makes up 23 percent of the world’s population.

We do not condone killing in the United States. Islam lives under Sharia law and approves of honor killing as an act of vengeance against anyone who has brought dishonor upon his or her family. Sharia is used as a basis for divorce and gaining inheritance. If Sharia law were to come to the United States, this law would protect terrorism and these honor killings. They could not be legislated under the government but instead would be classified as under religious jurisdiction.

The Qu’ran 2:191 says, Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah loves not transgressors. And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers.

We see Shite Islam (Iran) taking over Sunni Islam (Syria and Iraq). As we see the tribulation break out, the Antichrist will seek a one-world rule, a one-world religion, and a one-world currency.

5. Revelation of the Five Judgments in Revelation

1. Bema seat judgment of Christ for believers

The word bema is Greek and comes from the bema platform used by the judge in the Isthmian games in which contestants would compete for the prize. Victors would have wreaths placed on their heads. This judgment takes place after the rapture, when the church receives rewards for those things done through the love of Christ. It pictures the Lord our God as the consuming fire. Each judgment was prophesied in the Old Testament, prophesied through the Lord, and fulfilled in Revelation by our Lord Jesus.

• Dt 4:24; Heb 12:29: For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

• Jn 5:24: "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him Who sent Me has