How To Understand the Chronology of Revelation Is the Book of Revelation Written in Chronological Order?

By Lyle E Cooper

Have you ever wondered if Revelation was written in Chronological order? Have you ever gotten lost in Revelation's narrative and wondered when certain events would happen? If so, this book will end the wondering. You will understand that Revelation is a simple book, easy to understand.

This book will take the reader through the times God spoke to me about Revelation. It seemed at the time to be an audible voice. His first words were, as I was reading Daniel 9:27, that I could find the exact midpoint of the 70th week "clearly marked." Next, He said that I could find the entire 70th week "clearly marked" because He would use the same marker. I found what He sent me to find, and that was the beginning of His teaching for me. The 70th week is marked by sevens: the seventh seal begins the week, the seventh trumpet marks the exact midpoint, and the 7th vial ends it. I would know very little about Revelation except for His teaching.

Many people imagine that the first seal is to represent the Antichrist. Is that the intention of the Author? No. Others imagine Jesus will come at the 7th trumpet. That too is not true. Some imagine a post-trib or pre-wrath rapture of the church. Neither one is the truth. Perhaps one of the worst misconceptions is that the rapture is found in Revelation 4:1. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Are any of the seals opened? Yes. When we leave the first seal in its context, we discover it was opened as soon as Jesus ascended. When John was called up to heaven, he was shown a vision. He did not see the throne room of 95 AD or whenever he was called up. What he saw was a vision of the throne room. He saw the Father on the throne, but he did not see Jesus at the right hand of the Father, where many verses tell us He should have been at that time. Stephen saw Him there.

Then John saw the Holy Spirit there in the throne room, but we would expect that at the time John was called up, the Holy Spirit would have long since been sent down to the earth. Finally, John watched a search for one worthy to take the book and open the seals, but that search ended in failure and John wept much. While John was weeping, time passed, and something changed. It seems, another search was conducted after that one failed, and in the subsequent search, Jesus was found worthy. Why was He not found worthy in that first search?

Next, John saw Jesus suddenly appear in the throne room, as a lamb slain. But this slain lamb was standing, showing us that He rose from the Dead. God was showing John in the vision, the throne room of the past. It was around 32 AD when Jesus ascended into the throne room, and God allowed John to see that moment in the vision. Jesus then sent the Holy Spirit down and went immediately to get the book from the Father. He immediately opened the first seal.

No one can find 2000 years in any of those verses. The Father intends that we understand that the first seal was opened as soon as Jesus ascended. What then, was that first seal to represent? The Antichrist? No, that would be 2000 years off.

Many imagine that the 70th Week of Daniel will begin with the first seal. That too is another misconception. If you wish to know the truth of where the Rapture is, and where the "tribulation" is on Revelation's timeline, this book is a must. It is a short book, not quite 100 pages. I highly recommend it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lyle E Cooper
• Release date: Oct 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9798986951263

Lyle E Cooper

I was around 30 years old when I first heard the voice of God. I had been asking God about a certain verse in the bible for perhaps 6 months. I don't think I missed a day in those 6 months asking Him about this verse. Suddenly one day as I began to ask Him, I heard His voice answering my question!I learned a valuable lesson then: If we are persistent, God will always answer. After all, Jesus said, "my sheep know my voice..." We all should hear His voice.I was born again when I was 7 years old, and have never changed my mind about following our Savior. I was filled with the Holy Spirit when I was 20, and would never wish to go back to life before the Holy Spirit infilling. I was not really interested in prophecy until the Holy Spirit gently pushed me into studying Revelation about 10 years ago. Once I obeyed Him, I could not read anything else for a long time. I read Daniel and Revelation many times, not trying to understand, just depositing His word in my spirit. I was determined to know nothing unless He taught me. I laid aside all preconceptions and approached Him with an empty slate.After maybe three or four years of reading, God began to speak to me about Revelation. This is how this book came about.

Book preview

HOW TO UNDERSTAND

THE CHRONOLOGY

OF

REVELATION

Is the Book of Revelation

Written in Chronological Order?

If You Have Ever Wondered About It

This Book is for YOU!

Revised and Expanded Edition

Lyle E Cooper

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Authorized King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked as ESV" are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org

Scripture quotations marked (DRB) are taken from the 1899 DOUAY-RHEIMS BIBLE, public domain.

Scripture quotations marked (WNT) are taken from the NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN SPEECH by Richard Francis Weymouth, published in 1903; public domain

Scripture quotations marked Emphasized Bible are from the The J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible. It is in the public domain.

For simplicity, this book will use the colloquial terms: pre-trib, midtrib, pre-wrath, or post-trib. Numbers will frequently be written as numerals.

Copyright © 2021 by Lyle E Cooper

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher

except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Originally published as a paperback book by Westbow Press 7/20/2020 with the ISBN: 9781973695189

Published as an ebook in the United States of America

ISBN 979-8-9869512-6-3

Self Published as a .epub

Lyle E Cooper

1792 Laramie Cir

Viara FL 32940

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: How God taught me about Revelation

Chapter 2: The vision of the Throne Room

Chapter 3: Points to Ponder in John’s Chronology

Chapter 4: The Seals

Chapter 5: John’s Use of Parentheses

Chapter 6: Six Different Parallel Paths

Chapter 7: Observations, Warnings, and Prophecy

Chapter 8: The Numbered Events in Revelation

Chapter 9: The Sequence of Events After the 70th Week

Chapter 1

How God Taught Me About Revelation

My study of Revelation started with the Holy Spirit gently pushing me to begin to study Revelation and end times. His push got so powerful that for about three years I read nothing else but end-times passages in the bible. I read Daniel, Revelation, and the minor prophets on the end times, over and over, but mostly Revelation, while praying much in the Spirit.

I probably read Daniel and Revelation over a hundred times. I did not try to use human understanding at that time to attempt to understand any of it. I was depositing it in my spirit and waiting on the Holy Spirit to teach. I told the Lord I would come with an empty slate. If I was to know anything about Revelation He would have to teach me.

The Midpoint of the Week Clearly Marked

Finally, one day as I was reading Daniel 9: 27, when my eyes and my mind got to the word midst, suddenly God spoke to me in what seemed like an audible voice:

I was suddenly in the Spirit, and could not speak, but my spirit man immediately spoke and ask How would I find that?

He answered,

Every time I mentioned an event that would begin at the midpoint and go to the end of the week, I always included the 3½ year period of time. When you find the mentions of the 3½ years, you will be very close to the exact midpoint. (Note: this extended Italic font is to replace the red letters of Jesus spoken words.)

Then, almost as an afterthought, he concluded:

"In fact, you could find the entire 70th-week ‘clearly marked.’ "

When He said that, He also revealed to me without words the reason I could find the entire 70th-week would be that God would use the same marker to mark the beginning of the week, the midpoint of the week, and the end of the week. That came as a download of information, not in words.

This event started me on a diligent search. I already knew about the five mentions of the 3½ years He spoke of: two given as 1260 days, two given as 42 months, and one given the way Daniel wrote, as time, times and half of time. So I concentrated my search on chapters 11, 12, and 13 in Revelation.

I guess I studied these chapters hours each day for perhaps 2 months, trying to find the exact midpoint clearly marked. During this time I often asked God for help. I began to understand how John broke from his timeline of the seals, trumpets, and vials between the sixth and seventh seals, and the sixth and seventh trumpets, as a kind of intermission. I began to ask God about that, too.

I came to realize John’s narrative was like a long play with intermissions. I named his break between the sixth and seventh seals an intermission. At a play, when an intermission comes, the curtain is closed and they rearrange the setting for the next act. Then I understood what John did.

Before Jesus opens the seventh seal to begin the 70th-week with God’s wrath, the setting must be rearranged. Two events must take place before the seventh seal can be opened to start the 70th-week and begin the trumpet judgments with God’s wrath: the two events are the sealing of the 144,000 and the church caught up to heaven before the 70th-week begins. Chapter 7 shows us these two events.

Before the seventh seal opens the 70th-week, the sealing of the 144,000 will be accomplished for their protection from God’s wrath in the trumpet judgments. John left the real-time narrative of the breaking of the seals to rearrange the setting before he showed us the breaking of the seventh seal. The sealing of the 144,000 will be accomplished and the church will be seen in heaven before Jesus opens the 7th seal to begin the 70th-week.

The church will be raptured before God’s wrath begins, and it begins at the sixth seal. John saw the raptured church in heaven in chapter 7, right after the great earthquake. This does not necessarily mean the rapture came after the earthquake, for they were already in heaven when John saw this great crowd, too large to number.

There is much I could say about this crowd too large to number. There will be only one group shown in Revelation that will be too large to number. When the bride of Christ is caught up, it will be all those who have died in Christ for perhaps 50 generations. This alone will be a huge number, in the billions of people, but added to this number will be all those who are alive and in Christ who Jesus will snatch up.

Added to that, all the children in the world under the age of accountability will probably also be caught up. The Old Testament saints will also be a very large number when they are caught up, including all those who God called from before the flood, but John does not mention them. I believe their resurrection will come on the last day of the seventieth week. John did not see it so did not write about it.

Together, this crowd will be billions of people. This crowd John saw around the throne will be far bigger than any group from the 70th-week. In other words, when we read of a group of people too large to number, we can know it is the church, caught up to heaven.

Just to compare, it would take a person nearly 32 years to count to a billion, counting one number a second and counting 24 hours a day. It would take almost a hundred years if someone counted only eight hours a day. My point is, this is a very huge crowd.

There is another intermission between the sixth and seventh trumpets. I called this intermission the midpoint intermission, for it is near the midpoint