Post by Daniel on Aug 17, 2015 7:23:15 GMT -5
BILLY GRAHAM: What Does God Have in Store for the Grand Finale?
Billy Graham
8/16/2015
Note: This article appeared in the April 1984 issue of Charisma. It's just as pertinent today as it was when it ran more than 31 years ago.
There is definitely a "mystery of iniquity" attached to the four horses in chapter six of Revelation. We may not fully understand everything that will happen when they come upon the earth.
But, Revelation does not end with chapter 6! For John points us in chapter 19 to another horse and rider—One who rides to bring the kingdom of God in all its fullness to earth. Like the first horse in chapter 6, this horse is white. But there the resemblance ends, for the rider of this horse is Jesus Christ Himself, coming in glory and power to the earth.
Let us see what the aged apostle is trying to tell us in the account of the rider on the white horse in Revelation 19. Chapters 7 to 18 deal with the catastrophic saga of history, perhaps just ahead, about which Jesus insisted we are to make no mistake, when "there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened" (Matthew 24:21, 22). It will be a time of nuclear conflagrations, biological holocausts and chemical apocalypses rolling over the earth, bringing man to the edge of the precipice. History will "bottom out" in the battle of Armageddon. We already see its shadow creeping over the earth.
Will man exterminate himself? He almost will, as Jesus stated. But just before man does so, Christ will come back! The demonized leaders "of the whole world" will have mobilized both as antagonists and protagonists of that coming world anti-God system—probably headed by the Antichrist. They'll be "gathered," we're told, "together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon" (Revelation 16:16).
Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke of "the war to end all wars," and now Ellen Goodman, the columnist, speaks of a possible ominous war ahead, "to end all life." It won't happen. God has other plans for the human race! Life is not going to be brought to a catastrophic end. God's intervention will see to that.
Everywhere I go, people ask, "Are you an optimist or a pessimist?" My reply is that I'm an unswerving optimist. In the words of Robert Browning, "The best is yet to be." I believe that, too.
It is estimated that forty wars are going on somewhere in the world at any given time. Any one of them could be the beginning of "the beginning of the end!"
So we have to ask: Can paradise be restored? Is there light at the end of the tunnel? As the late Sir Winston Churchill asked a young American clergyman thirty years ago, "Young man, can you give me any hope?"
For the answer to Churchill's question, I take you into the future by going back to the Bible.
In Revelation 19:10-13 the ancient apostle writes, "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one but he himself knows. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God."
So the four horses of the Apocalypse of Revelation 6 have gone on before. Other judgments have fallen. Now God is about to make His final move. The identity of the rider on the white horse in Revelation 19 is the Lord Jesus Christ, Israel's Messiah, head of the church, the King of kings and Lord of lords. The white horse of deception in Revelation 6 darkens into a dirty gray in comparison to the impeccable, immaculate white horse here in Revelation 19. Whereas the red horse in Revelation 6 inflicts war to kill and defoliate, this white horse, with the mounted "King of kings" draped in a robe dipped in blood, declares war on the killers—to establish His kingdom of salvation and peace. Whereas the black horse of Revelation 6 carries famine and disease, the white horse of Revelation 19 brings healing and the Bread of Life. And whereas the pale horse of Revelation 6 brings death and hell, the white horse of chapter 19 brings life and heaven to all who place their faith in Him.
When will the Man on the white horse, as outlined in Revelation 19, appear? The clear teaching of the Word of God is that He will come when man has sunk to his lowest and most perilous point in all history—the time when the four horses of the Apocalypse, with their mounted riders, have run their course and pushed man to the very edge of the precipice. There is an eerie feeling throughout society today that concurs with the late Dr. Albert Schweitzer, who lamented, "Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth." Left to himself, that is precisely what man would do. Barbra Streisand put her finger on the problem; she is reported in Esquire as having said, "I do believe the world is coming to an end. I just feel that science, technology and the mind have surpassed the soul—the heart. There is no balance in terms of feeling and love for fellow man."
Who is better qualified to make a statement on this theme than the dean of behaviorists, Harvard's B.F. Skinner? At 78, Skinner shocked the American Psychological Association Convention (1982) by asking in understandable anger and anguish, "Why are we not acting to save the world? Is there to be much more history at all?" Asked afterward, "Has the observer of social conditioning lost his optimism?" his reply was, "I have ... When I wrote Beyond Freedom and Dignity, I was optimistic about the future. A decade ago there was hope, but today the world is fatally ill ... It is a very depressing way to end one's life ... The argument that we have always solved our problems in the past and shall, therefore, solve this one is like reassuring a dying man by pointing out that he has always recovered from his illness" (Philadelphia Inquirer, September 25, 1982).
continue reading
www.charismanews.com/40-year-anniversary/51049-billy-graham-what-does-god-have-in-store-for-the-grand-finale
Billy Graham
8/16/2015
Note: This article appeared in the April 1984 issue of Charisma. It's just as pertinent today as it was when it ran more than 31 years ago.
There is definitely a "mystery of iniquity" attached to the four horses in chapter six of Revelation. We may not fully understand everything that will happen when they come upon the earth.
But, Revelation does not end with chapter 6! For John points us in chapter 19 to another horse and rider—One who rides to bring the kingdom of God in all its fullness to earth. Like the first horse in chapter 6, this horse is white. But there the resemblance ends, for the rider of this horse is Jesus Christ Himself, coming in glory and power to the earth.
Let us see what the aged apostle is trying to tell us in the account of the rider on the white horse in Revelation 19. Chapters 7 to 18 deal with the catastrophic saga of history, perhaps just ahead, about which Jesus insisted we are to make no mistake, when "there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened" (Matthew 24:21, 22). It will be a time of nuclear conflagrations, biological holocausts and chemical apocalypses rolling over the earth, bringing man to the edge of the precipice. History will "bottom out" in the battle of Armageddon. We already see its shadow creeping over the earth.
Will man exterminate himself? He almost will, as Jesus stated. But just before man does so, Christ will come back! The demonized leaders "of the whole world" will have mobilized both as antagonists and protagonists of that coming world anti-God system—probably headed by the Antichrist. They'll be "gathered," we're told, "together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon" (Revelation 16:16).
Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke of "the war to end all wars," and now Ellen Goodman, the columnist, speaks of a possible ominous war ahead, "to end all life." It won't happen. God has other plans for the human race! Life is not going to be brought to a catastrophic end. God's intervention will see to that.
Everywhere I go, people ask, "Are you an optimist or a pessimist?" My reply is that I'm an unswerving optimist. In the words of Robert Browning, "The best is yet to be." I believe that, too.
It is estimated that forty wars are going on somewhere in the world at any given time. Any one of them could be the beginning of "the beginning of the end!"
So we have to ask: Can paradise be restored? Is there light at the end of the tunnel? As the late Sir Winston Churchill asked a young American clergyman thirty years ago, "Young man, can you give me any hope?"
For the answer to Churchill's question, I take you into the future by going back to the Bible.
In Revelation 19:10-13 the ancient apostle writes, "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one but he himself knows. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God."
So the four horses of the Apocalypse of Revelation 6 have gone on before. Other judgments have fallen. Now God is about to make His final move. The identity of the rider on the white horse in Revelation 19 is the Lord Jesus Christ, Israel's Messiah, head of the church, the King of kings and Lord of lords. The white horse of deception in Revelation 6 darkens into a dirty gray in comparison to the impeccable, immaculate white horse here in Revelation 19. Whereas the red horse in Revelation 6 inflicts war to kill and defoliate, this white horse, with the mounted "King of kings" draped in a robe dipped in blood, declares war on the killers—to establish His kingdom of salvation and peace. Whereas the black horse of Revelation 6 carries famine and disease, the white horse of Revelation 19 brings healing and the Bread of Life. And whereas the pale horse of Revelation 6 brings death and hell, the white horse of chapter 19 brings life and heaven to all who place their faith in Him.
When will the Man on the white horse, as outlined in Revelation 19, appear? The clear teaching of the Word of God is that He will come when man has sunk to his lowest and most perilous point in all history—the time when the four horses of the Apocalypse, with their mounted riders, have run their course and pushed man to the very edge of the precipice. There is an eerie feeling throughout society today that concurs with the late Dr. Albert Schweitzer, who lamented, "Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth." Left to himself, that is precisely what man would do. Barbra Streisand put her finger on the problem; she is reported in Esquire as having said, "I do believe the world is coming to an end. I just feel that science, technology and the mind have surpassed the soul—the heart. There is no balance in terms of feeling and love for fellow man."
Who is better qualified to make a statement on this theme than the dean of behaviorists, Harvard's B.F. Skinner? At 78, Skinner shocked the American Psychological Association Convention (1982) by asking in understandable anger and anguish, "Why are we not acting to save the world? Is there to be much more history at all?" Asked afterward, "Has the observer of social conditioning lost his optimism?" his reply was, "I have ... When I wrote Beyond Freedom and Dignity, I was optimistic about the future. A decade ago there was hope, but today the world is fatally ill ... It is a very depressing way to end one's life ... The argument that we have always solved our problems in the past and shall, therefore, solve this one is like reassuring a dying man by pointing out that he has always recovered from his illness" (Philadelphia Inquirer, September 25, 1982).
continue reading
www.charismanews.com/40-year-anniversary/51049-billy-graham-what-does-god-have-in-store-for-the-grand-finale