Revelation: FAQ |
Here are some FAQ’s about Revelation and the end times. We will add new questions and answers from time to time. To ask your own question, click here.
Why hasn’t Jesus returned by now?
How can a loving God be so judgmental?
Can God really sentence people to hell?
Just exactly what is the “mark of the beast”?
Can people be saved during the tribulation?
Where do Christians go when they die?
Will we recognize each other in heaven?
Why hasn’t Jesus returned by now?
Every generation since the first century, when Jesus ascended into heaven, has been expecting the “soon” return of Christ. Why has Jesus been waiting so long to return to earth? First of all, we have to keep in mind that Jesus doesn’t operate on the same time continuum that we do. The apostle Peter explained it this way:
Second, the Bible says that Jesus is waiting to return so that more may come to faith and have an opportunity for eternal life.
However, we must never forget that the Lord may come at any time.
How can a loving God be so judgmental?
Do the severity of the judgments of God upon the earth and its inhabitants as described in Revelation seem inconsistent with your image of a “loving God?” Here are two suggestions that might help you understand what is going on.
Can God really send people to hell?
Many people have this image of God as a kindly, old, lenient, and permissive grandfather-type deity. They wonder why He couldn’t just “look the other way” with a “humans will be humans” attitude. Well, he can’t—because He’s God.
Don’t get the idea that God is a mean old tyrant. Just the opposite. He is a loving God, and He does not want anyone to go to hell (2 Peter 3:8). But He is also a righteous and holy God, and He cannot let sin go unpunished.
Just exactly what is the “mark of the beast”?
In years past, people thought the “mark of the beast” would have to be some sort of tattoo. More recently, ATM cards have opened up new possibilities. But you shouldn’t limit your thinking to a tattoo or an identification card. Present technology is already way beyond that.
Currently, we can identify people by using voiceprints or laser scans or the retina. Scientists have developed a computer chip small enough to be imbedded under human skin. With such technology under the control of the Antichrist, complete power over world commerce would be possible.
Can people be saved during the tribulation?
Yes! The two witnesses and the 144,000 will be hard at work explaining that belief in Jesus Christ is the only way to have eternal life. John described an event during the tribulation when multitudes worshiped God (Revelation 7:9,10).
Where do Christians go when they die?
The Bible is clear that when Christians die, they immediately go into the presence of the Lord. When the thief on the cross said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom,” Jesus told him he would be in “paradise” that very day (Luke 23:43). And Paul wrote that he longed “to go and be with Christ” (Philippians 1:23).
However, departed Christians will not receive a glorified body until the future resurrection at the rapture. Theologians call this time between a believer’s death and resurrection the “intermediate state.” Even though the believer’s body has died, the believer’s eternal soul exists in a conscious state and enjoys fellowship with God in real time while waiting for a new, resurrected body.
Purgatory is primarily a Roman Catholic teaching. It’s a “half-way” place for those who aren’t bad enough to go directly to hell, but not quite good enough to go directly to heaven. This teaching says that those on earth can help move the inhabitants of purgatory toward heaven by means of Mass, prayers, and good works.
Protestantism rejects this Catholic teaching for two reasons.
Will we recognize each other in heaven?
Theologian Peter Kreeft states that Christianity is the only belief system in which we “become more than we were before death.” In every other belief system, you are either gone forever (naturalism), you become a spirit or a ghost (pantheism), your consciousness becomes one with the cosmos (Buddhism), or you are reincarnated (Hinduism). In Christianity, you are guaranteed a resurrected, glorified body.
Unlike our present bodies, which die and decay, our resurrected bodies will be full of glory and power and will never die (1 Corinthians 15:53). This is made possible by the resurrection of Jesus, who became “the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again (1 Corinthians 15:20).
So, will we recognize each other in heaven? The resurrected body of Christ provides us with some clues about our own resurrected bodies. Although His body was glorified, His disciples recognized Him. Therefore, it seems logical to assume that we will also recognize each other in heaven. Jesus said as much to His disciples (Matthew 8:11).
Jesus was very specific on this issue when He said, “For when the dead rise, they won’t be married. They will be like the angels in heaven” (Mark 12:25). Since God allows sex only in marriage, and there won’t be any marriage in heaven, it doesn’t appear that there will be any sex either. But is this absence really all that significant? Will not the love in heaven be so perfect that it will exceed even the imperfect love we knew in marriage?
This is a very common question for people. Some theologians don’t think there will be any animals in heaven because they weren’t created in the image of God, which means they don’t have an eternal soul.
Others argue that there will be animals in heaven. Peter Kreeft answers the question of animals in heaven by asking, “Why not?” He says that other nonhuman things will be in heaven (such as green fields, flowers, mansions, and jewels), so why not animals? “Animals belong in the ‘new earth’ as much as trees,” he writes. Kreeft also makes the point that human beings were meant, from the beginning to have stewardship over the animals (Genesis 1:28). Since we have basically violated that divine directive on earth, “it seems likely that the right relationship with animals will be part of Heaven.”