Revelation: Letter to a 9-Yr-Old
Letter w/answersRevelation
Below is an aggregation of questions posed to me over several correspondences with my Godson, Bradley.
As I have discovered in the course of my studies, it is not easy for most adults to understand the Book of Revelation. Nevertheless, God planted a thirst for Bibical knowledge in Bradley, and I felt blessed to have the opportunity to help him understand some the many questions arising from the study of this complex book of the Bible.
Whenever i am asked questions about the Bible, regardless whether it's from a child or an adult, I pray that the Lord will give me the wisdom and ability to answer them accurately. I remember when I was around nine years old, and I would have similar questions to those of Bradley's. However, the adults that I would ask would only give me easy answers, or not really answer me at all, thinking a child of my age wouldn't understand. I know that within each of us Christ speaks to us at our own level, and He'll give us the answers we need if we seek Him out. So here's praying that He'll speak to you through this lesson.
What follows below is more-or-less our verbatum conversation.
When you consider studying about end time events you should always keep in mind one thing - God's in control, He has a plan and it will work out perfectly even if we don't understand all of it. There will always be pieces we don't fully understand but He's given us His Holy Word through the Bible so we'll know He's in control and He does have a plan.
The Book of Revelation has so many things happening at different times and places and with so many different people it's hard to understand it all as a single picture. It reminds me of standing in a Control Tower at an Airport and looking down at the airport. You see airplanes taking off and landing, some are taxing along the taxiways, some are parked, some are backing out. Trucks and cars and baggage carts all coming and going. It's all a very confusing and busy picture, yet in the Control Tower it's all closely controlled and monitored and at the end of the day all of the airplanes got where they needed to go and everything ran smoothly.
Revelation is like that. All of the end time prophecy in the Bible comes together in Revelation, Christ returns, judgments occur and Gods great plan for mankind successfully comes together as Satan is defeated and he and his followers are sent away into eternal punishment forever, never to trouble God's people again. So, as we consider our study of Revelation and try to understand it all we need to always remember that no matter our understanding, God is in control, His will will be done and we will reign forever with Christ, what an exciting thing to look forward to.
Now, to your questions about Revelation.
- Does the beast come before Jesus does?
- If the beast is just about to kill someone such as a believer, will Jesus come before the beast touches that person?
- How many days is the end of the world process?
- Is it ok to Jesus and God if we fight back with the beast?
- How do we know when we are in the process of revelation?
- Won't the end of the world be when the gospel is taught to the world? If so then are we really close?
- Would it be ok to pretend to be on the Beast's side and then double cross him?
- How do we call Jesus for help if we are in deep trouble with the Devil or the Beast?
- If you know of a good movie on Revelation could you tell me so I can watch it?
My wife Sherrie and I were really thankful that Christ put it in Bradley's heart to learn more about Him and about His plan for us. I encouraged him, and told him that I would try and answers that he may have in the future, as I do with all of my students. As we grow and learn more about Jesus, we will naturally have more and more questions, so I admonished him not to be afraid to ask me, or his mom and dad, or pastor, since God uses mature Christians to help us better understand his Word.
I pray that God will really bless you as you try to learn more and more about Him as well.
Yours in Christ,
Wes