Shout Hallelujah
INTRODUCTION
We have seen Jesus, in chapter one, as the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. We have seen the letters to the seven churches in chapters 2 and 3. Then, in chapter 4, Jesus reveals to us, through the beloved disciple John, the throne room of heaven. We are introduced to the One seated on the throne for all eternity and the Lamb of God, standing at His right hand, standing as one that had been slain and resurrected. Interestingly, there are times when the Lamb of God is seated and times when He is standing. I am being redundant and maybe a little diffuse here but I want to repeat something I heard my long-time mentor, Dr. Leo Eddleman, said back around 1970: “I like to picture Him as seated until He sees one of his children in trouble here on earth, and then He stands and steps over to the bannister of heaven to give us His full attention.” Ever since I heard him say that, I have had that picture in my mind.
Around the One seated on the throne and the Lamb, there are four and twenty elders, four living creations, and the seven spirits of God. The One on the Throne is the Lord God, our heavenly Father. The Lamb of God is Jesus Christ, the one who was slain for us and then raised from the dead. The four and twenty elders represent the church, the redeemed of the Lord. The number 12 was the number for organized religion (twelve tribes, twelve disciples). When you multiply a number by two, ten, or by itself you intensify the meaning. The number four is the universal number, possibly representing all the hosts of heaven, the angels, cherubim, and seraphim. The Seven Spirits denote the presence of the Third Member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The number seven is the number for perfection or completion.
All the hosts of heaven sing praises to God the Father, and to the Son of God. “Day and night they never stop, saying:
“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God, the Almighty,
who was, who is, and who is coming.
“Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the One seated on the throne, the One who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before the One seated on the throne, worship the One who lives forever and ever, cast their crowns before the throne, and say, “Our Lord and God, You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, because You have created all things, and because of Your will they exist and were created” (Rev 4:8-11, HCSB).
In chapters 5 through 18, Jesus reveals to us, through the Apostle John, the things that must take place after that time, meaning in the future (this did not all play out in A.D. 70 when the temple was destroyed by Titus as some have held). The message is clothed in apocalyptic language, complete with all sorts of mysterious imagery and announcements. We are given a picture of spiritual warfare that has raged since the expulsion of Lucifer from the presence of God, a warfare that will intensify as we draw closer to the end-time events revealed in this book. Then, the Lord reveals that the church will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, thus protecting them from the horrors of the Great Tribulation. He pulls back the veil to reveal cataclysmic events that will take place during that time, concluding with the final war when Jesus returns wearing the crown of victory to defeat all enemies and put all enemies under His foot. Babylon, the mother of harlots, Babylon the great, will fall to the returning King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Babylon stands for all the systems of the world which the prince of this world can use against the Creator of the world, with its religious systems, political systems, social systems, and commercial systems. They will be brought down “in one hour” (according to chapter 18).
When that is accomplished, there is a response of praise in heaven like no one on earth has ever witnessed. In chapter 19, we come to the real Alleluia chorus.
I. THERE IS A CELEBRATION IN HEAVEN, REV. 19:1-5.
A. They Are Celebrating the Fall of Babylon, 19:1a.
“After this” (after these things) is an expression used at various times when there is a turn of events in the Revelation. It has been suggested that 19:1-5 is in reality the climax of chapter 19, and that is a worthy consideration. John MacArthur says, “This is a time key. After the destruction of Babylon at the end of the Great Tribulation, just before the kingdom is established” (chapter 20). What it amounts to is that this passages bridges the gap between the Great Tribulation and the millennial kingdom.
The words “after this” bridge the gap between what had gone before and what is about to come. I am working on a series of messages from the Book of Jeremiah, which I call Jeremiah’s America. I would love to preach a sermon on two words we see so often in the Bible. One word is “therefore.” That’s right, a whole sermon on there “therefores” of the Bible. When you see “therefore” you need to go back and see what has been said, because that is the basis for what is about to be said. Based either on what God has said, or what the people have done, God will now take some action. The other word is “because.” I think I may use the title, “Just Because.” Because of some righteous action, or some sin, God is going to either bless or curse those He addresses.
“After this” holds before us all that has gone before, but only to a degree. If we look at all that has gone before we recall the vision of the throne room of God, the seven seals which no one could open except the Lamb of God. The seals were broken, with dramatic results. We have seen the seven trumpet judgments. We have seen the beast rise up out of the earth and the beast out of the sea. We have seen the angel from the bottomless pit. We have been introduced to the anti-Christ, to the dragon, Satan, and to his vicious attack on all God loves. We have seen the great tribulation, and finally, the pouring out of the seven bowls of final judgment, which come right before the final return of the Lamb of God, who will be wearing the crown of victory. He will wage war against Baby on, which denotes the systems of this world which are under the dominion of Satan, religious systems, political systems, social systems, and commercial systems. Babylon, the fallen world, will fall in just “one hour.”
All commands have come from the throne room of heaven, and all the voices John has heard have either come from the throne room of heaven, or they have been directed by the One on the throne. All the angels he has seen have come from the presence of the Lord of heaven and all creation. The hosts of heaven, all the martyrs and saints of all ages, along with all orders of heavenly beings (angels, Cherubim, and Seraphim are fully aware of what has just happened. They know what it means, and they know what is about to happen. The seven last bowls of God’s judgment have been poured out on the earth, and on those remaining on the earth. The Great Tribulation has come to a close and the millennial reign of Christ is about to begin.
Is there any wonder they are singing the perfected rendition of the Allelujah Chorus?!!! Regardless of one’s interpretation of the Millennium, this passage should be an inspiration. The hosts of heaven will shout and sing of the victory of the Lamb of God over all the foes of His kingdom. He will defeat the anti-Christ, the evil forces of the world, and set the stage for the ultimate and long-awaited destruction of Satan. I hold a Pre-millennial position, but as I have heard Adrian Rogers say, while I am dogmatic about it, I am not bull-dogmatic about it. If you disagree, we can still be friends and have fellowship together. Whether you believe the millennium means a literal thousand years or a long definite period of time symbolized by the thousand years, that period is nothing more than a warmup for what follows, when a thousand years is as a day and a day is as a thousand years.
B. We Will Sing Hallelujah, 19:1b-4.
“After this I heard something like the loud voice of a vast multitude in heaven, saying: Hallelujah! Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God, because His judgments are true and righteous, because He has judged the notorious prostitute who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality; and He has avenged the blood of His servants that was on her hands. A second time they said: Hallelujah! Her smoke ascends forever and ever! Then the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who is seated on the throne, saying: Amen! Hallelujah!”
1) The victory of the Lamb of God over Babylon will elicit a loud praise, 19:1b. There is not repetition in the Bible without purpose. Repeatedly, in Revelation we read that John heard a loud voice, a voice like thunder, or a voice like cascading waters. The point is that he heard the voice, he didn’t imagine it. He heard it because it was loud and clear. Have you ever heard a voice but you could not make out the words? Then, you have not been paying careful enough attention to your wife when you take her out to eat. You know the times - you say something and wait for a response, but find that she is distracted. Guess what? She is listening to a conversation at the next table. You are aware of the fact that there are people at other tables, and there are conversations going on, but you could not recall anything anyone has said that might be of such interest to your wife, right. In fact, you have tried to shut out those voices because you are trying to catch the score -without appearing to watch the TV in the little nook by the manager’s desk. There are voices, but your wife doesn’t know the score and you don’t know how someone’s Aunt Martha got Uncle Fred’s fingers loose from the table he was repairing with it with Super Glue. The voice John heard was loud and clear.
John heard the loud, clear voices of multitudes in heaven declare, “Hallelujah! Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God.” God is receiving all the honor and credit for the destruction of the notorious prostitute and Babylon, the mother of harlots. This expression of praise is thundered out of heaven in recognition of the victory of God over the world and the Anti-Christ, and in praise of the justice of God in destroying this enemy of his people.
They shout in a thunderous voice, HALLELUJAH! This is the first time the word appears in the New Testament. “Hallelujah” is found first in the Psalms in response to the destruction of the ungodly. The word “Hallelujah” (which occurs four times in this passage) means “praise Jah.” Jah is not a contraction of Jehovah, or Yahweh, since it sometimes occurs jointly with the latter term. Jah means, “He who is,” whereas Yahweh is “He who will be, is, and was.” It implies God experienced as a present help [The New Commentary on the Whole Bible].
The hosts of heaven shout Hallelujah because Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God. He is the source of our salvation and He possesses all power, which tells us that He deserves all the glory for our existence, our salvation, and our eternity in His presence.
2) God is praised because of three things He has accomplished, 19:2. He is praised “because His judgments are true and righteous, because He has judged the notorious prostitute who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality; and He has avenged the blood of His servants that was on her hands.”
First, He is praised “because His judgments are true and righteous.” Man may question God’s actions here and now, but in eternity when we understand how He works, we will understand that His judgments are always both true and righteous. There will never be any question of that once we are in heaven.
Second, He is praised “because He has judged the notorious prostitute who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality.” You will remember the notorious prostitute from chapter 17:
“Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me: “Come, I will show you the judgment of the notorious prostitute who sits on many waters. The kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and those who live on the earth became drunk on the wine of her sexual immorality.”
So he carried me away in the Spirit to a desert. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names, having seven heads and 10 horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls. She had a gold cup in her hand filled with everything vile and with the impurities of her prostitution. On her forehead a cryptic name was written: BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE VILE THINGS OF THE EARTH. Then I saw that the woman was drunk on the blood of the saints and on the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. When I saw her, I was utterly astounded” (Rev 17:1-6).
Prostitution is often used as a metaphor for idolatry and false religion. During the great tribulation, the world will follow the notorious prostitute in rejecting the true God for the false gods, who do not even exist.
Third, He is praised because “He has avenged the blood of His servants that was on her hands.” In chapter four we see the martyrs around the throne of God in heaven, crying out for vindication. Recall the words from chapter 17 and you will appreciate this more: “the woman was drunk on the blood of the saints and on the blood of the witnesses to Jesus” (17:6). Satan is the source and master of all the religions of the world, and all of them are used to seduce people to reject God and embrace false gods. The notorious prostitute was so vile and so successful in persuading people to reject God and commit spiritual harlotry with her that John was astounded.
We should be astounded when we see the horoscope in the news paper, the television appeal to people to call the psychic network, the spread of Islam in America, and the spread of both cults and the occult in out society. We should be astounded when someone rejects grace and tries to gain God’s favor through their works. The notorious prostitute has been very successful, but her days are numbered. Jesus is going to destroy her, as the Bible says, “in one hour.”
3) “A second time they said: ‘Hallelujah! Her smoke ascends forever and ever!”, 19:3. The praise continues. For the second time the four and twenty elders and the four living creations shout “Hallelujah!” This time they are celebrating because the notorious prostitute had finally come under the judgement of God. Her judgment, however, had just begun. This we know because “her smoke ascends forever and ever.” She will pay the price for her sins forever and all those who are seduced by her will pay the same price. Hollywood embraces the latest religions fad and the media gives that religion the kind of exposure the church can only purchase. The actor/actress tells us what they have done to help victims of the latest hurricane and the media gives them all the time they want to tell about all the good things they are doing. Following Katrina, the order of disaster relief was, in order, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and the Southern Baptist Disaster Units. Many of the meals served by the Red Cross were meals provided by Southern Baptists and other Christian denominations. Yet, I heard more about what a couple did in the name of Scientology, than all the Christian churches put together. Let me stress that I am talking about what I heard. You may have heard differently. Here is the point: I don’t care how much human good they did, the movement is of the devil and regardless of their good intentions, the actors were deceived by the devil.
4) The 24 elders join in the praise, 19:4. John writes, “Then the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who is seated on the throne, saying: Amen! Hallelujah!” We are introduced to the 24 elders and the four living creations in chapter four. Most translations have “four living creatures”, but the idea seems to be four living creations. Creatures may imply hideous, frightening beasts like those revealed in chapter 13. The 24 elders symbolize the redeened, and the four living ones represent all the hosts of heaven. In both chapters, they are worshiping the One seated on the throne. They were saying: Amen! Hallelujah! Praise is important for God’s children. The glory, power, character, and nature of God demands such a response.
At the risk of being misunderstood, I want to say something about praise. As a matter of fact, I want to say two things about praise. First, praise is important, it is essential. At the same time, it is possible to abuse the practice, or to practice it in a way that does not honor God. I appreciate an Amen when I am preaching, but when the Lord gives me a sermon, and he give me an opportunity to preach it, I would not want any emotional expression or exhibition that might prevent people from hearing and understanding the sermon. This may come as a surprise to some people, but Paul stresses in Romans 10 that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of the Lord” (Rom 10:17). While God reveals Himself through His inerrant Word, Paul’s subject is the Word preached. When the Gospel of Jesus Christ is faithfully preached, God speaks to the hearts of spirit-filled believers. The preacher preaches an expository sermon and the Holy Spirit takes the same message and makes an application from one worshiper to the next in a way that defies the imagination of the one doing the preaching. The Holy Spirit speaks to one about his need for the Savior; to another it is his family, to another it is his job, to another it is a neighbor, to another it is a temptation. When the Gospel is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, God speaks to those who hear it with a mind to obey it.
There is a time to praise the Lord, but it is not while He is speaking to our hearts in a still, quiet voice! Can you imagine some of the ecstatic utterances, dramatic gymnastics, and emotional dancing of some services while Jesus was delivering His Farewell Discourse, or the Sermon on the Mount?
Some, I might add, actually do have these expressive praise services before or after the sermon. But. can you imagine some of the emotionalism popular in some services while Paul was preaching - or Charles Haddon Spurgeon? Jonathan Edwards has been criticized by liberal theologians and educators for emotionalism associated with his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” The simple fact is, Jonathan Edwards never raised his voice and never made a gesture while delivering that sermon. The emotionalism came from the Holy Spirit, as He convicted lost people of their lostness and the consequences of rejecting God’s salvation.
I might add that most modern church members would feel theologically challenged listening to Jonathan Edwards - but not so the average member of his congregation. And lest you jump to the conclusion that Jonathan Edward’s preaching would never bring revival - that is exactly what it did bring. Have you ever heard of the Great Awakening that swept America in his day. He was God’s instrument, but before revival came the people had to hear the Word preached and then act on it. That is the time for our Amens and Hallelujahs. I love to hear them when I preach, but never to the point that they distract from the message, or the communication between the preacher and the listener in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now for the second thing I want to say about praise. You cannot praise God with your tongue if you do not praise Him with your life. My optometrist a number of years ago was a serious Christian, and a very intelligent man. He was also a friend. One day he told me about a lady who came in for an eye exam, and from the moment she was shown back to the examining room she filled the air with praise. She just praised the Lord for everything imaginable. Her conversation was laced with religious cliche’s - that is, until he closed that little gadget they use to examine your eyes and it caught one of her eyelash implants (which surprised both of them - he didn’t know she had them and she didn’t expect him to pull them out!). Immediately, she began ranting and raving, and replacing the “praises the Lords” with profanity. A he said, “She cursed like a sailor” until he told her he could replace them. He had never done it before, but he did it that day.
Dr. Jan Mercer was a member of a giant mega-church in a large city. She had memorized more Scripture than your pastor and hers put together. Name a subject and she would quote an appropriate verse for it. She was also a creation scientist, and well acquainted with the leading creation scientists in the world. She could tell you the ones who focused on the truth and the ones who were more focused on their own success. She love to worship. Her family gathered around her bed and sang hymns the day she died. The last things she heard on this earth was the singing of hymns by gifted family, her husband Andy and her beautiful daughters and gracious son. Imagine the singing she is hearing today!
Here is the sad part of the story. In the last few years of her life, when she went to her church, she attended her Sunday School class and then waited for the song service to be over before she entered the sanctuary to hear the sermon. Why, you may ask. She said that the music was so loud and the beat so offensive to her that she could not worship with all the noise and the hand waving and swaying. She was not opposed to praise songs or choruses. What she was opposed to was replacing the great hymns of the faith with children’s verses and chanting them over and over, and the attitude that this was the worship part of the service. She wanted to hear the Word of God preached, and she believed that her Bible taught that the preaching of the Gospel should be central in any worship service.
Let me stress here that praise songs are good, not bad. However, the most critical decisions for Christians will not be between that which is good and that which is bad, but between that which is good and that which is best. The great hymns of the faith have been subjected to the test of the musician and the theologian. They do not lend themselves to the manipulation of multitudes as some of the praise songs may, if used for that purpose. I sat with a denomination leader who was asked by a man from a small church, “What’s it like preaching to all those people?” The response was, “Sometimes I don’t.” When asked for an explanation, he said, “If it’s going really good, I don’t preach.” I didn’t get over my surprise in time to ask why he thought God had called him to preach the Gospel. Did Jesus commission him to feed His sheep, or to entertain them?
My younger brother is a very highly disciplined attorney. He was a serious student as early as the first grade. He has always been a serious student of the Word. He finally left one of those mega-churches when he discovered that their services no longer centered around the preaching of the Word of God, but upon little praise phrases they repeated over and over. He said that he refused to stand there for twenty or thirty minutes (or longer) while someone half his age tried to manipulate him with those choruses.
There are some Baptists who go to churches and sing praises while waving hands, shouting, even dancing in the aisles, who leave to use the rest of the Lord’s Day for personal pleasure, for profit, or for other selfish purposes. There are people who love those services, but spend the rest of the week wallowing in the sins of the world. They love the so-called praise services because they are not confronted with their sins. They never hear anything about repentance or hell for those who do not repent. They want to come “feeling good” and leave “feeling great.” People may sing traditional hymns and be guilty of the same things, but the praise without the preaching of repentance is not as popular with the world.
I am not asking people to choose between traditional hymns and praise songs. I think there is a place for both, and we would be well advised to find that place. I might add that a young man named Dan Lucurini has written a book entitled, Why I Left the Contemporary Music Movement. He states that he led churches from traditional to contemporary and he states very bluntly that those who announce that they are having blended services, or separate services do not understand that the goal today, just as it was for him, was one contemporary service. I would strongly recommend that book for anyone who is interested.
My point is that there are people who sing praises on Sunday morning who live like the devil the rest of the week. God is not deceived. He invites people to praise Him after they have been blessed. It would be interesting to see how many young adults would stick around to sing praise songs if we scheduled them to follow an expository sermon. Leonard Ravenhill once said that after he preached, people would sit in the pew in prayer and meditation for fifteen or twenty minutes before some would get up and start moving very quietly from the auditorium. And, by his own testimony, he preached very long sermons. Which group do you think will praise God most sincerely with their lives the rest of the week?
II. YOU ARE INVITED TO JOIN IN THE PRAISE, 19:6.
“A voice came from the throne, saying: Praise our God, all you His servants, you who fear Him, both small and great!” (Rev 19:2-5.).
A. There Is the Invitation from Heaven.
Francis Shaeffer was one of the greatest thinkers of the Twentieth Century. I have always been amazed at how little Baptists knew about the work of Francis Shaeffer, but I do understand why some have never read his works. I am a little like John MacArthur, who once said, “I don’t understand Edith Shaeffer, let alone Francis Shaeffer.” I have twenty two of his books in five volumes, and I will confess that I had to read and reread them, some of them four or five times, before I really came to understand some of them. His first three books formed a trilogy, and two of those books hold before us a truth we must not overlook. The first was, THE GOD WHO IS THERE and the second is, HE IS THERE AND HE IS NOT SILENT. What amazing thoughts for a man who had been an agnostic! God is there - He exists. And He is not silent - he takes the initiative in communicating with us. That is absolutely mind boggling! God speaks to us, His creation. Here, He invites us to praise Him. Amen! Hallelujah!
One of the first people I remember meeting when I arrived on the campus at Mississippi College was Sam Gore. Sam was head of the Art Department, as well as our dorm counselor. His father had baptized my father and he and I became good friends, often working together (digging post holes), fishing, and at times dealing with water fights in the dorm. I was on campus one day to visit my son Mark, and stopped by to visit with Sam - Dr. Sam Gore, Head of the Art Department for 42 years, a former national educator of the year. Sam is an amazing sculptor, who has produced some masterpieces, including the bust of Senator John Stennis (at the Stennis Office Building in Washington, D.C., The Student Nurse in the little museum off the lobby at Baptist Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, and The American Farmer, displayed in front of the Mississippi Agricultural Museum, on Lakeland Road in Jackson.
I have his Head of Christ with the crown of thorns which he made for me. There are a number of pictures under the glass on my computer desk. One of them is a picture of Sam Gore with his sculpture of the Head of Christ.
Sam and I spent quite a bit of time discussing art one afternoon when I was on campus to see my son Mark. I was especially pleased that he had read Francis Shaeffer’ works dealing with art. He has been blessed by Shaeffer, as had I. Before I left, he explained the sculpture, The American Farmer, to me. The farmer, whose pattern was his father, is seated on a stump or a block of wood with a Bible in his left hand, his dog curled around his foot. Sam told me that he took the hands off the sculpture and made larger hands, “Because the hand that holds the Bible should not be a wimpish hand.”
Sam presented programs in worship services, chapel at MC, and before international audiences for many years. Even when he reached the point that he had to slow down and limit his presentation, he presented several services for me - the Head of Christ, Creation of Man, and Mother and Child. As Sam worked, lights focused on the sculpture were constantly changing, and a tape played his favorite hymns, some sung by his daughter Judy, a highly respected pediatrician in Jackson. Speaking of his work Sam told me something I will never forget. He said that when he is working with the clay, molding it and shaping it, he thinks of it as his song to the Lord. In essence, it is his hymn of praise. Isn’t that amazing! We may all praise God in various ways. With one it is a song, with another a sculpture, with another a testimony, with another it might well be meal shared with someone who is hungry.
B. God Calls on Us to Praise Him.
We are invited to “Praise our God, all you His servants, you who fear Him, both small and great!”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “Praise is the honey of life which a devout heart extracts from every bloom of providence and grace.”
I will never forget the night. Even though I was not a Dodger fan, I was watched the World Series that year when Orel Hershiser sat on the bench between innings with his lips moving. Later, Hershiser appeared on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show’s 27th anniversary program. Carson asked him what he was saying and the pitching great told him that he was singing hymns. I will never forget sitting there in front of the television praising the Lord as the great pitcher delighted the late night host with a sample of songs he sang to calm himself between innings. Carson recalled that Hershiser, an outspoken Christian, caught him a bit off guard by actually singing the song on the live program, but added that he was “moved” by it. Apparently, Carson chose the taped segment to conclude his prime-time television special. I know I was praising the Lord because Orel Hershiser had taken advantage of the opportunity to praise Him. Listen to the words he sang:
PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW;
PRAISE HIM ALL CREATURES HERE BELOW;
PRAISE HIM ABOVE YE HEAVENLY HOST.
PRAISE FATHER , SON AND HOLY GHOST.
Our Lord invites us to praise Him. He inspired to the psalmists to write hymns that will aid us in praising Him. He leads people today to compose songs of praise to the Lord:
For all things beautiful, and good, and true;
For things that seemed not good yet turned out good;
For all the sweet compulsions of Thy will
That chased, and tried, and wrought us to Thy shape;
For things unnumbered that we take of right,
And value first when first they are withheld;
For light and air; sweet sense of sound and smell;
For ears to hear the heavenly harmonies;
For eyes to see the unseen in the seen;
For vision of The Worker in the work;
For hearts that apprehend Thee everyone;
We thank Thee, Lord!
-- John Oxenham
CONCLUSION
God, in Jeremiah, promises that if we call on the Lord we will find Him, if we seek Him with all our heart. In reality, he finds us. Our salvation is all of God, by His grace. He loves His children and in the Book of Revelation He seeks to assure us of certain eternal truths. He reveals to us the end time events He wants to know. If you do not understand everything about the Rapture, the Great Tribulation, and end time events - and who does have all the answers? - don’t worry about it. Just trust the One seated on the throne. He is in charge. He will bring all things to His conclusion. You don’t have to know what the future holds when you know Who holds the future.
Now, before we sing our hymn of invitation, let me ask you to join me in singing the Doxology:
PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW;
PRAISE HIM ALL CREATURES HERE BELOW;
PRAISE HIM ABOVE YE HEAVENLY HOST.
PRAISE FATHER , SON AND HOLY GHOST.