A Brief Overview of the Book of Revelation

THE BOOK OF REVELATION, OR THE APOCALYPSE AS IT IS ALSO CALLED, is the last book of the Bible. It is
a revelation that was received by the apostle John while he was in Roman-imposed exile on the Island of
Patmos in the eastern Mediterranean around 90 A.D. According to the first words of the book, God gave
this revelation to Jesus, who entrusted it to an angel to pass on to John. Although not at first in chapter
form, the book of Revelation is now divided into 22 chapters and can be broken up into four separate
parts for an easier understanding of how it flows.

Chapters 1–6:

The first chapter introduces the book and how it was received. Chapters 2 and 3 are letters to churches
in seven cities that were in existence in John’s day. In chapter 4, John the Revelator is taken up to the
throne room of God, and in chapter 5, he sees a scroll with seven seals, the first six of which are opened
by Jesus in chapter 6. These take us though a summary of world history from a spiritual perspective,
from the birth of Christianity to the end of the world.

Chapters 7–14:

These deal with the time we call the Great Tribulation, and once again these chapters culminate in the
end of the world. Chapter 7 talks about the 144,000 and others who go through the Tribulation. The
seventh seal is opened in chapter 8, and it heralds the beginning of the sounding of the Seven Trumpets
of Tribulation. In chapters 8 and 9 the first six trumpets sound and result in various plagues and
chastisements on the wicked. In chapter 10, the seven thunders sound to announce the seventh
trumpet (the Second Coming of Jesus and the Rapture). In chapter 11 we are told that there will be two
famous Endtime prophets who will be the vanguard of God’s witnesses in the Tribulation, and that three
and a half days after their martyrdom, the seventh angel sounds his trumpet. In chapter 12 we learn
more of the Endtime church, and in chapter 13, we are told about the Beast and the False Prophet. In
Chapter 14 we reach the end of the world again—well, almost—as both the Second Coming and Rapture
occur, as well as the beginning of the Plagues of the Wrath of God.

Chapters 15–20:

In these chapters we are taken through the events that occur at the very end of this world’s current
epoch. In chapters 15 and 16 the Plagues of the Wrath of God are poured out. In chapters 17 and 18 we
read of the judgment and destruction of Babylon the Great Whore. In chapter 19 we are told about the
Marriage Supper of the Lamb and then about the Battle of the Great Day of the Lord, commonly known
as Armageddon. Chapter 20 is a busy chapter, as it covers the imprisonment of Satan, the 1,000-year
reign of Jesus and His saints on Earth, the Battle of Gog and Magog that occurs at the end of the
Millennium when Satan is loosed for a little season, and then the final destruction of the surface of the
earth as we now know it. Finally, we are told of the Great White Throne Judgment when all the unsaved
are judged.

Chapters 21–22:

These pick up where chapter 20 leaves off and cover the New Earth that is made on the surface of the
old one and the enormous, glorious Heavenly City that descends from outer space and the bright,
beautiful happy future that awaits all believers in the most wonderful place ever made.