The lesson this week depicts "The Climax of Apocalyptic Expectation" with the themes of the Second Coming of Christ, the fate of the wicked, the resurrection of the righteous, and the restoration of Eden, drawing from both testaments to paint a comprehensive picture. I thought it would be interesting to develop the same themes from the book of Revelation itself to see the apocalyptic depiction of the climax to the Great Controversy.

The great drama began in Genesis and climaxes in Revelation. The last three chapters of Revelation answer the first three chapters of Genesis. The lead characters are God, the serpent, the woman, and the Seed of the woman. The stage props are the garden, the tree of knowledge, the tree of life, the city, and the river of life. The relationship between the introduction and the grand finale can be illustrated as an extended chiasm.

The Old Earth and the New

God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1)
Darkness upon the face of the deep (v. 2)
Light: day and night; sun and moon (vs. 3, 16)
Man and woman created in God’s image (v. 26)
God planted a garden as a dwelling (2:8)
A river flowed from Eden (v. 10)
Tree of life in midst of garden (v. 9)
Tree of life on either side of the river (22:2)
River of life flows from the throne (v. 1)
God prepared a city for habitation (v. 2)
They shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads (v. 4)
City does not need sun or moon: Lord God and Lamb are light (21:23)
No more sea (v. 1)
A new heaven and a new earth (v. 1)

Into the center of the above chiasm we can insert a second one:

The Great Controvery Begun and Ended

Enter: the serpent (Gen. 3:1)
The serpent deceives the woman (v. 2)
The man and wife clothe themselves with fig leaves (v. 7)
A curse on the serpent and the ground (vs. 14, 17)
The woman to experience pain in childbirth (3:16)
Banishment from Eden (v. 23)
The return to dust (v. 19)
The righteous come to life (Rev. 20:4)
"They shall see his face" (22:4)
No more pain, sorrow, or crying (21:4)
No more curse (22:3)
The saints clothed with white robes (19:8, 13)
The dragon deceives the nations no more (20:3)
Exit the dragon: He is thrown into the lake of fire (v. 10).

Genesis tells the story of the origin of the world, living things, the human race, Satan, sin, pain, and death. Revelation gives the resolution to the conflict—the end of Satan, sin, sorrow, and death, and the restoration of a beautiful world. But restoration was not easy. Scripture tells not only the triumphant end of the story, but also the harrowing means by which victory, as announced in Genesis, was to be won by the Seed of the woman who would slay the serpent, but himself be slain in the process. The Seed would enter the deadly garden and step barefooted on the head of the serpent, crushing its head but receiving a deadly wound in his heel (Gen. 3:15). Revelation employs similar figures: the woman’s child, after being slain by the dragon, ascends to heaven, drives out the great red dragon, and wins victory by his blood (Rev. 12:4–5, 7–10).

The triumph of Christ on the cross was D-Day for the world: ultimate victory was assured. V-Day will come with the Second Coming of Christ.

Revelation depicts the Second Coming as a great battle between the armies of heaven and the armies of earth (Rev. 19:11–21). The commander of the heavenly host, the King of Kings, is clad in a robe dipped in blood, a figure from Isaiah, which describes someone in glorious apparel, with garments soaked in blood, treading the winepress of the wrath of God (Isa. 63:1–6). Following him is a great cavalry of saints arrayed in white garments and riding white horses. Opposing the forces of heaven are the beast, the false prophet, and the kings of the earth, with their armies. An angel gives the battle taunt: Come to the great supper of the vultures where you will be devoured! The rider on the white horse captures the beast and the false prophet and casts them into the lake of fire. Then he smites the armies with the sharp sword issuing from his mouth—his word. Here is the apocalyptic picture of the victorious Second Coming of Christ and the destruction of the wicked (Rev. 19:11–21).

The resurrection of the righteous takes place at the beginning of the thousand years when the martyred saints come to life and reign with Christ (20:4). These are the ones whose blood cried for vengeance on their persecutors (6:9–11) and who now have the privilege of judging their foes.

But the victory of the Man Child results in more than restoration of the pristine Garden of Eden. There are great advances as a result of the plan of salvation.

At first there were only two human beings reflecting God’s image, the man and his wife, to whom God gave the command: "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth" (Gen. 1:28). The God of vast numbers envisioned a world filled with a host of human beings in his likeness. He communicated his grand design to Abraham—descendants as numerous as the sand of the sea and the stars of the sky. In the end God will have his "great multitude which no man can number" bearing his likeness, singing his praises (Rev. 7:9; 19:6).

The original home God prepared for the parents of our race was a garden with the tree of life at its heart, and a river flowing through it. Urban development subsequently transforms the garden to a vast city with streets of gold and walls of precious stones, with the river engineered to flow down the main street of the city, and the tree of life on either side of the river (Rev. 22:1–2).

But the greatest advance in the Great Controversy is that God himself establishes his throne in the midst of the city. By sin, humanity was deprived of direct communication with God: no one could see his face and live (Exod. 33:20). Through salvation, open communion with God is restored. God comes down to live with is people in a closer union than existed before sin entered. Since they bear his character—his name is written on their foreheads—they can look into the glory of his face and praise him for the splendid victories which redeemed them from bondage to Satan.

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