We have to understand that the key to the Book of Revelation is found in the person of Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of this World and as the conqueror of evil and the presentation in symbolic form of the program by which He will carry out His work.
The Book is shows 4 great visions, each of which begins with the phrase "in the spirit" and contains one aspect of the person of Christ in His capacity as the Judge of this World. Through a succession of Judgments, Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls, the earth is punished for its sin, and the great day of God's wrath is ushered in. No indication is given of the length of the process, though it seems to accelerate toward the end. In the 17th chapter through the 20th, we are given a detailed view of the consummation of the age and through other passages in the scripture we can find the reason why it has to end.
Revelation 21says: ... A new heaven and a new earth ... and there was no longer any sea ... there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away... I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.
Isaiah 66 says: For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind... no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.
2 Peter 3 says: ... First of all you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation. They deliberately ignored this fact, that by the Word of God heavens existed long ago, and an earth formed out of water and by means of water, through which the World that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same Word the heavens and earth that now exist have been stored up for fire, being kept until the day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
1 Timothy 4 says: Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the Faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared ... Have nothing to do with godless and silly myths. Train yourself in godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. Let no one despise you, but set an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Till I come, attend to the public reading of scripture, to preaching, to teaching. ... Practice these duties, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. Take heed to yourself and to your teaching; hold to that, for by doing so you will save both yourself and your hearers.
2 Timothy 3 says: But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion but denying the power of it.
2 Peter 2 says: But false prophets also arose among the people just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their licentiousness, and because of them the Way of the Truth will be reviled. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words; from of old their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not been asleep.
For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether gloom to be kept until the Judgment; if He did not spare the ancient World, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with 7 other persons, when He brought a flood upon the World of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes He condemned them to extinction as and made them an example to those who were to be ungodly; and if He rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked (for by what that righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of Judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. ... These, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed, reviling in matters of which they are ignorant, will be destroyed in the same destruction with them, suffering wrong for their wrongdoing... They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the Right Way they have gone astray; they have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Be'or, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked by his own transgression; a dumb ass spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
There are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved. For, uttering loud boasts of folly, they entice with licentious passions of the flesh the men who have barely escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved.
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