NICOLE STEVENSON
As Colleen Tinker and I have been working our way through Daniel and Revelation for the Former Adventist Podcast, I’ve noticed my heart changing in unexpected ways. I can hardly approach corporate singing without thinking about the 24 elders and the angels around the throne falling to the ground in worship of the Lamb. Tears come quickly and relentlessly every time I’m surrounded by the sound of singing Christians. I can’t hear the words of gospel-rich hymns without thinking of the great multitude around the throne praising God for that same gospel! Nearly every sermon, every Scripture reading, every prayer seems to be spoken in the echo of the Throne room in Heaven for me these days. Something about studying Revelation has placed my mind in eternity, and I’ve been changed by it.
The very book used by the Adventists to support their worldview and infuse their followers with last-days fears is the book the risen and glorified Christ gave to His believing church for her comfort, blessing, and hope! Who knew? As an Adventist the book of Revelation made the god I knew look scarier, less approachable, less gracious, and more dangerous. I believed it foretold my demise because I knew I would not stand up to the last day persecution of Adventists as I’d been taught it.
Contrary to how I understood the final days as an Adventist, Revelation makes clear that God’s wrath is not a cosmic temper tantrum unleashed on all within it’s reach. While that may not be the official Adventist teaching regarding his outpoured judgements, it is the description of how I thought of the Adventist god and last day judgements on earth.
Revelation shows us, though, that God’s judgements are planned even now. They have limits and boundaries and determined effects. They are executed in order and with purpose, and His judgements are targeted and purposed at every step along the way. For those who are alive in Christ, we can know that we are safe in HIs will, and we do not need to fear the One who has redeemed and rescued us and who provides for our every need!
The truth is, these books aren’t supposed to be fearful for the people of God; they’re here to encourage us.
The truth is, these books aren’t supposed to be fearful for the people of God; they’re here to encourage us. Daniel (saturated in evidence for our trust in the God of the Bible) points us with commanding authority and great anticipation to the book of Revelation. Revelation, then, begins by revealing that God is, in fact, our safe and mighty fortress who walks among us and knows us intimately. He is imminent in His care for us, full of grace and purpose in all He allows into our lives, and in His holiness He holds us accountable before Him as we carry His name into our communities and into the world. Jesus also details tender promises He’s made to His church as He encourages her to overcome in faith. Revelation then brings us into the throne room of God where we see that God is more sovereignly in control of all things than we ever could have imagined as Adventists! He will not fail to punish the wicked, but He has not failed to make predetermined provisions for His people in the midst of it.
The Encouragement of the Glory of Jesus
Recently, on a Sunday morning, pastor Mark Rogers of Fellowship Church in Southern California was teaching in Matthew 17 on the Mount of Transfiguration. During his sermon he said, “We can and should be encouraged by the glory of Jesus Christ.” He went on to say that he believed that Jesus brought Peter, James, and John to the mountain, in part, to encourage them with the truth of the Glorious Christ before sending them into the events and lifelong persecutions that would follow.
He then shared several accounts in Scripture when God comforted His people as He revealed His glory to them either just before or during their suffering. As I listened to Pastor Mark share various texts from both testaments about the glory of God, I felt as though I had words to express what I was experiencing in my worship and relationship with the Lord since studying Revelation. When God’s born-again children see and study the glory of Christ in the pages of Scripture, there is a kind of encouragement and hope that spurs us on in our race toward home.
The changes in my own heart bring to mind the promise of Revelation 1:3, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.”
The changes in my own heart bring to mind the promise of Revelation 1:3, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.” As we look at our coming Conquering King and learn of His Sovereign rule over all creation for all of time, and as we see and trust all He has promised for those who are His, it changes how we experience life on this side of eternity and it fuels our hope and our endurance for all we face here.
Remember The Glorious Christ
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8).
“Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Revelation 1:17,18).
“And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.
And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:6-10).
Our glorious Christ is the eternal, self-existing One. He always has been, always will be, and He is coming back for us! He is the author of life who conquered death and who holds the deed to the earth and all therein! He is the One who has purchased us with His own blood so that we no longer have to fear Him or death— for He holds the keys of Death and Hades! Our glorious Christ is the Lamb who reconciled us to God and made us a kingdom of priests with the promise of one day reigning with Him on the earth! He has also promised that we will one day be with Him in glory.
In my life as a Christian, my natural gravitation to the gospels and epistles means that my mind is often focused on the earthly ministry of Jesus and the teachings He gave us through His apostles in the epistles. Please don’t hear me saying that this is an inadequate focus of time in the word. It is important to be in all of Scripture. Yet what I’ve come to notice with my time in Daniel and Revelation is that by reading in genres I would normally read around and not through, I have been given a fuller picture of God—a picture He gave to us which speaks into every circumstance of life.
When we remember Jesus as He is even now— the glorified Christ, everything about what we face on a daily basis changes.
When we remember Jesus as He is even now— the glorified Christ, everything about what we face on a daily basis changes. Everything changes about how we worship, how we pray, how we wait for God to save our loved ones, how we wait for Him to deal with injustices, how we face the unknown and wait for His will in whatever God has planned for our futures. Our glorified savior told us in Revelation 1–3 that He walks among us and sees us and knows our weaknesses and our strengths, and He is actively involved in our ability to do effective ministry! This changes how we walk, how we love, how we trust, and how we obey. It also changes how we feel about secular threats and spiritual battles. Remembering the glorified Jesus changes everything!
The Glory of Christ Gives Us Hope to Endure
Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke 9:28-31).
Believers on this side of the resurrection have “seen” the glorified Jesus in the pages of Scripture. Yet, for Peter, James, and John, the humanity of Jesus was all they seemed to grasp at the time of their trip up the mountain. They had seen His divine acts and knew He was from God, and they believed that He was the son of God, but they didn’t have descriptions of Him in His glory like we do—they didn’t see yet what we see now as we read about His earthly ministry. They were walking in real time toward something bigger than they could have imagined!
The works Jesus performed provided evidence of who He was, but they had not yet seen His deity. They had only seen the Jesus who tired, hungered, and thirsted, and who by all appearances was just like them. However, in this merciful and compassionate moment designed by God from eternity past, God pulled back the curtain over Jesus’ deity to reveal His glory to His dearly loved disciples. His face shone like the sun and His clothes became white as light! These descriptions mirror the description we read of Him in Revelation 1:13-16:
“…and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.”
This experience with the glorious Christ deeply impacted Peter throughout his lifetime and his ministry. We see this clearly as we read the words he penned near the end of his life sometime between 65-68 A.D, just before being martyred by Nero in 68 A.D.,
“For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”— and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:16-19).
It was the glory of Christ on display that Peter carried with him in his heart as he walked in obedience with the Lord. Knowing Jesus as He is gave Peter the hope to endure all that was set before him from the beginning of his ministry to the end of his life. When we look to the living, reigning, glorious Christ in Scripture we, too, are equipped to walk in obedience with hope in our hearts as we hold fast to all He has promised:
“Behold, I am making all things new… these words are trustworthy and true… It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son (Revelation 21:5-7).
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:12-13).
Hope Drives Us Home
When I looked at the book of Revelation as an Adventist, I felt hopeless—hopeless to understand it, and hopeless regarding my ability to endure and survive God’s judgements on earth. I didn’t see the glorified Lamb. I saw the horrifying terror decreed for unbelievers. And I tried to see what my Adventist leaders told me was in the letter— the persecutions of our people for their Sabbath keeping.
Knowing who Jesus is, what He did, and what He is going to do has completely shifted my internal response to Revelation. This book now offers me a living hope that drives me to persevere when I keep my mind set on the things above where Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. We follow the example of the faithful before us and of Jesus Himself when we turn our gaze from our circumstances and instead fix it upon the hope set before us.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city (Hebrews 11:13-16).
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1, 2).
Keeping His gaze on the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the greatest trial and shame any human ever had or would again before taking His seat at home— at the right hand of the throne of God. This ought to be our form as well, as we lay aside the weights and sins of this life to run with endurance the race set before us by our Sovereign God knowing that, because of Jesus, we run full of confidence and without fear toward Mount Zion and a better home!
For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them… But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven (Hebrews 12:18-25).
God Does Not Share His Glory
Hope gives us endurance as we run, but hope in the wrong thing will not lead us home to God. The warning in Hebrews must be taken seriously. God does not share His glory with idols or anyone else. To Him alone belongs all glory!
Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped (Revelation 5:11-14).
There is only room for One God in the throne room. Those who reject the God who warns from Heaven will not escape His judgement. Rejection doesn’t always look like overt unbelief, either. Look at the Pharisees! Those who glorify systems of thought and tradition which place the human mind above God’s own self-given testimony are engaging in idolatry.
The Pharisees read Torah and then created their own interpretations of it as well as additional fences of legalism to protect their interpretations. Sound familiar? Adventism “reinterprets” the Bible for it’s adherents, builds fences of legalism around Adventism to protect the system, and then overtly slanders believers who believe the clear words of the Bible rather than their special “present truth”.
Saving faith does not rely on the interpretations of extra biblical prophets, well organized conferences, or incorporated counterfeit churches. It doesn’t even rely on Christian pastors, beloved reformers, favored scholars, long held systems of organizing the Bible, or upon the traditions of our believing ancestors. Saving faith does not rely on expensive degrees, cleverness, or even human insightfulness.
Saving faith has everything to do with the object of one’s faith. Only the Jesus Christ of Scripture saves, and He put the “cookies on the bottom shelf”. By the Spirit, we are all able to understand the gospel that saves as we read the clear words of Scripture, and by the Spirit we are made alive to live lives of worship in the Only One who deserves all glory— our Triune God of the Bible.
Take Back Revelation!
The same Jesus we love to sit with in the gospels is the one who holds the 7 stars in His Hand in Revelation 1, who takes the scroll in Revelation 5, and who reigns on earth in Revelation 20. He is the One who will wipe our every tear. He has written to us from His home with the Father in His glory. It’s our letter from beyond time, and it’s ours to love and to grow in.
Once we place our faith in this Jesus we, too, are destined to see Him in His glory. Just as Moses and Elijah saw the glory of God on the mountain, both in their lifetime on earth, and at the Mount of Transfiguration, we are called to see the glory of God both in His Scripture, and one day again face to face.
I pray the Lord will redeem Daniel and Revelation for all of us who were once abused by false religion using these treasures from Him.
I wish I knew how to articulate how much seeing the Glorified Christ in my Scripture study has changed me. I pray the Lord will redeem Daniel and Revelation for all of us who were once abused by false religion using these treasures from Him. While we can find ourselves angry at what Adventism did to these books, we can know that God has told us in their very pages that He will deal with the false systems of the earth, and they will be held accountable for what they do against Him and against His people. So we can entrust Him with that and choose to move away from the fear and toward the books as we pray to know what God wants us to know in them. It’s time to take back Revelation!
Set Your Mind on Our Glorified Jesus
I don’t know where you are in your walk away from Adventism and with the Lord— I pray you are walking with the Lord— but I know this road is long and painful. Maybe you’ve been on it for a long time, and your struggles are not related to leaving Adventism at all. Whatever struggles you may find yourself facing, try shifting your gaze toward the glorious and glorified Christ seated on the throne at the right hand of God holding the deed to the earth. Perhaps sit and read through Revelation in one sitting, or listen to it. The God it reveals is not the god of Adventism. It is not the god of the Great Controversy. It is the God of Scripture from the Old to New Testament, and all that He says He’ll do, He will do— it is decreed!
If Revelation is hard for you to look at after Adventism, I encourage you all the more to push into it. If you’re a believer, it belongs to you! If you’d like some company, consider joining us in our study through Revelation on the Former Adventist Podcast. We’d love for you to join us and to hear from you if you do! †
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