Why is Revelation written to the Church and not the Jews?

Now, if Daniel and Revelation describe Israel’s end-time troubles, and not the church’s troubles, then why is Daniel in our Bible, and why is the book of Revelation written to the church and not to the Jews? A good question! Part of the answer: Most of the Old Testament was written about Israel, and not the church, yet Christians treasure all of the Bible. Moreover, when Revelation was written (the late 90s A.D.) the Jewish nation had been scattered throughout the nations (A. D. 70), so could not be reached as a united group.

However, most of all, Deity wants His church to know what is going on, and will continue to go on right up to the end, so that we believers can tell both the world and the Jewish people about the salvation available in Christ. Between that sixty-ninth and seventieth week, the church is God’s official voice in the earth until Christ takes us out of here and begins to deal with the Jews as a nation again. In fact, it started right after WWII, when Israel was finally again officially recognized as a bonafide nation by most of the nations of the world. All of the struggles in the middle east today are part of that divine process. (Looks like this lesson will be the preamble to our study which proves that the church has not taken Israel ’s place, but does have a special place of its own. So, it is not either/or, but both/and. Both the nation of Israel and the church are called God’s special treasure.) 

Just because the church as we know it today will not be on earth during the Tribulation does not mean that nobody will get saved during that time. 144,000 Jews, 12,000 from each of 12 tribes, will become the first fruits (first Israelites during that 7 year period to accept Jesus as their Messiah). However, there will also be multitudes of the Gentiles born again during the Antichrist’s reign of terror. Of course, many if not most of those believers will be beheaded because of their refusal to take the mark of the beast—Antichrist—and their acceptance of Jesus Christ as their savior. And those multitudes will be made up of people from all nations around the world—Revelation 6:9-11, 7:9, 13-17. 

     The swift beheading of those new Gentile believers partly explains why the angels at one time will be entrusted with at least part of the Gospel, announcing it as they fly through the air—Revelation 14:6-11. The church will be gone from the earth, so we will not be here to proclaim the Gospel. Moreover, the 144,000, who will actually be the man-child, will also have been caught up to heaven by that time (Revelation 12:1-6, 14:1-5. Also see Isaiah 66:7-8.), so they will not be around to preach the Gospel. Also, those two Israelite witnesses (who have to be Enoch and Elijah—Zechariah 4:2-5, 11-14, Revelation 11:3-12—will finally be killed, resurrected, and caught up to heaven, so they will no longer be on earth to minister God’s Word to anyone. Please look up all of these references.

(Ron Craig is pastor, teacher, and author of Christian books; and these articles. You may view all the books by logging onto www.livingwayfellowshiponline.org. While logged on the website you can even listen to audio Bible-lesson podcasts. You may also send your questions or comments to ronwritercraig@gmail.com.)