Tag Archives: Revelation

Revelation Commentary available for pre-order!

Ever heard this one?

Revelation is impossible to understand, and anyone who says otherwise is lying to you.

Of course, there’s also the people who say this one:

The events in Revelation are happening now!  Or at the very least, they’re about to happen.  The end is near!

People have been trying to use the book of Revelation to predict the end of time for years.  And every time, they are proven wrong.  Why is that?  Because Revelation isn’t a book about things that are happening today, tomorrow, or sometime in the future.

Revelation is about things which have already happened.

Oh, don’t take my word for it.  Read Revelation 1:1 and 3.  Then read chapter 22, verses 6 and 10.  Twice at the beginning of the book, and twice at the end of the book, God told the readers, these things are close.  They’re about to happen!

Do you want to know what the book of Revelation is really about?  Do you want to see the proof, straight from the Bible?  Do you want to know why the stuff in Revelation was so important to the Christians who first read it?

Literally thousands of hours (seriously) of work have gone into this 500+ page book, so that you can know what Revelation is talking about.

Pre-order your copy today by clicking here!

Use the coupon code REVELATION to get free shipping!

What others have said:

If you want to understand Revelation, talk to Bradley Cobb–Michael Shank (author of Muscle and a Shovel).

I’ve studied the Bible for over fifty years, and this is the first time Revelation has ever made sense to me.–A long time Bible teacher.

I can’t believe I didn’t see this before.  You’ve made it so clear and easy to understand.–an elder.

Awesome.  Just awesome.–another elder.

The [Revelation] material you have online has been a great help to me in my studies.–A long-time preacher.

News and Updates

First and foremost, we want to say a great big humongous THANK YOU to all of our readers.  This past week was amazing, and it’s thanks to you!

Twelve days ago, we set a new record for our site.  The sermon on Hell was shared on Facebook 35 times, which was the most of anything we’ve ever posted.  I realize that for some websites, that’s a disappointing number, but we’re still growing.

But that didn’t even come close to preparing us for the response to this past Friday’s article on the “thousand year reign of Jesus on earth.”  As of Sunday evening, it had been shared 124 times!  That’s more than three  times the record-setting mark from the week before.

I realize that this information might seem meaningless to you, but it is something that excited us.  We are humbled that so many of you found that article helpful and worth sharing.  So, all of this is to say this:

Thank you.

We’ve also got a lot of new readers the past couple weeks (probably due to those two articles), and we’d like to take a moment to tell you about the other good things you’ll find on our website.

Bible Q&A

Our Friday Bible Q&A articles seem to be people’s favorites.  We try to answer each question sent our way in a logical, easy-to-understand way, but most importantly in a biblical way.  All of our Bible Q&A articles can be read here (or by clicking “Bible Q&A” at the top of our website).

Cobb Publishing

In addition to writing articles, we also produce a lot of books.  We’ve got books about the Restoration Movement, debate books, sermon collections, as well as our own line of in-depth but easy-to-understand commentaries.  These books are available in paperback and eBook format (and if you use Kindle, they’re all available at Amazon.com too).  Click on “shop” at the top of the page to see everything we’ve got available.

We’ve got a few projects currently in production that we hope will be worth the wait, The Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts, Alexander Campbell: A Collection (Volume 2), as well as others.

The Cobb Kids Audio Show

If you like to smile, then check out the Cobb Kids Audio Show.  Our four kids (and some other relatives) had put together several episodes of their own home-made “old time radio show.”  Complete with sound effects, laugh tracks, and (sort of) commercials, these shows are guaranteed to make you smile.

The Book of Revelation

Over a thousand hours of work went into putting together this collection of 48 sermons covering the entire book of Revelation.  The first three lessons, which introduce the study, can be downloaded from our Revelation page.  After reading them, if you want, you can purchase the entire collection (with powerpoints and handouts) for less than $10.  In fact, until the end of the month, it’s only $5.00.

Bible Study Helps

If you use e-Sword, then you’ll want to check out our exclusive e-Sword files.  And if you want more, go to the Gravel Hill church of Christ website (which we also take care of).

And there’s plenty more.  Just take a few minutes and look around!

Thank you once more.  We truly appreciate you.

-Bradley Cobb

Bible Q&A – What About the Thousand-Year Reign?

Question: A man was talking to me today about the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth, and he said that some people don’t believe it will happen. Why would people ignore such a clear Bible doctrine?—Jack T., Oklahoma.

The main reason some people (like myself) deny the doctrine of a thousand-year reign of Jesus on earth is because it’s not in the Bible.

I’ll wait a second for you to calm back down before I continue. 🙂

There are several problems with the idea of a “1,000-year reign,” and we’ll only be able to deal with them briefly. The primary issue with each of them is that people have started assuming things that aren’t actually in the text, and then they’ve made them into doctrine.

The only place that mentions a thousand-year reign is in Revelation 20, and so it is to there we must go for our answers.

1. Jesus isn’t the one reigning for 1,000 years.

Let’s look at the text:

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years (Revelation 20:4).

The subject of this verse is not Jesus. The subjects of this verse are those who had been martyred for the cause of Christ. It is they, not Jesus, who are said to reign a thousand years.

I’m sure that right now, you think I’m grasping at straws here, but let’s prove this assertion by way of an illustration.

Imagine you have lost your job and you need a place to live. So, I invite you to come live in my house. Now, let’s say you live there for almost three years (let’s say 1,000 days). I would say that you lived with me in my house for 1,000 days. Does this information tell you how long I lived in my house? No, it doesn’t. It only tells you how long you lived in my house with me.

Revelation 20:4 says nothing about how long Christ reigns. It only tells how long the martyred saints reigned with Him. The fact is, The Bible states that Jesus began reigning in the first century (Acts 2:32-33; Revelation 1:9; Colossians 1:13).

2. This verse is not literal.

How can you say that? Of course it’s literal! There’s nothing in the verse to make us think otherwise!!!

If this verse is to be taken literally (as is claimed by many well-meaning believers), then you have a really sticky problem:

Jesus has to die again.

Most people focus on the reigning part of this verse, and tend to ignore the living part. If the thousand years is literal, then that means Christ ceases to reign at the end of the thousand years—but more than that, Christ must also cease living.

Let’s also look at another problem this verse presents, if we are to take it literally. The only ones who are allowed to live and reign with Christ are the ones who have no head, and who were killed for the faith. That means that if you died a natural death, you can’t live or reign with Christ. This also means that if you were killed for the faith, but by some way other than beheading, you cannot live or reign with Christ.

And one more problem presented by taking this verse literally: the only ones allowed to live and reign with Christ are the ones who had already been beheaded for the faith when John wrote this down. This is written in past tense, speaking of something that had already happened.

So, if we take this verse literally, no one today (or for the past 1900 years) has any hope of living and reigning with Christ—and Christ has to die again. These conclusions are demanded if we take this verse literally. And these conclusions contradict other passages of the New Testament.

Therefore this verse is not meant to be taken literally.

3. This reigning is not on earth.

Go ahead and read all of chapter twenty. Nowhere in that chapter does it place Jesus Christ on earth, let alone Jerusalem. With so many doctrines existing about Jesus reigning on a literal throne in literal Jerusalem on the literal earth, you’d think those items would be mentioned here—but they’re not.

The kingdom of Jesus Christ existed during the first century. The apostle John said he was a part of it while he was alive in the first century (Revelation 1:9). The apostle Paul said that Christians had been (past tense) translated into the kingdom of Christ (Colossians 1:13). There can be no kingdom without a king. Since Jesus’ kingdom existed in the first century, Jesus was already a king in the first century.

Since Jesus was already a king 2,000 years ago, that means He’s been reigning over His kingdom for close to 2,000 years already. And He’s been doing it from the throne in heaven (Acts 2:32-33).

4. Revelation isn’t about things which haven’t happened.

The most common assertion about Revelation is that it is describing something that hasn’t happened yet. But that view contradicts what the Bible says about the book of Revelation.

God makes it extremely obvious that the things which are in Revelation are things that were “at hand” and “shortly come to pass” when John wrote it—in the first century! The book opens with those statements (1:1, 3). The book closes with those statements (22:6, 10). It is the bold man indeed who calls God a liar by saying the things in Revelation are about things that were 2,000+ years away from the lifetime of the original readers.

Conclusion:

Jack, I do hope this helps you understand the topic better. The reason why some people (including myself) deny that there will be a literal reign of Jesus Christ on earth for a literal thousand years is that the Bible doesn’t teach it. Christ has been reigning from His throne in heaven for almost 2,000 years already. And the verses that people go to in order to “prove” the thousand-year reign don’t actually say what they claim.

-Bradley S. Cobb