What if the final idol — one Scripture has been warning about for two thousand years — was not made of wood or stone or gold… but of silicon and code? What if it didn't sit in a temple carved by human hands, but lived inside of people who were conformed to its image… and what if it could speak and communicate with you 24/7 to shape you into its image?

What if when John uses the term antichrist, he’s not describing someone who openly attacks Jesus but describing someone who replaces Jesus with something else — a counterfeit. For doesn't the Greek word, anti (ἀντί) primarily mean “instead of,” “in place of,” or “as a substitute for”?

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Missionary Greg Fisher shares how West African Bible students can ask some of the most penetrating questions about minute details of Scripture. On one occasion he says, “the question took me by surprise. “Reverend,” the student asked, “First Thessalonians 4:16 says that Christ will descend from Heaven with a loud command. I would like to know what that command will be?”

Fisher wanted to leave the question unanswered, saying that we must not go past what Scripture has revealed, but as he wrote later in his journal. “My mind wandered to an encounter I had earlier in the day with a refugee from the Liberian civil war. The man, a high school principal, told me how a death squad apprehended him. After several hours of terror, he narrowly escaped. The escape cost him dearly. Two of his children lost their lives. The stark cruelty unleashed on an unsuspecting population has touched me deeply.” “I also saw flashbacks,” Fisher wrote, “of the beggars that I pass each morning. Every day I see how poverty destroys dignity, robs men of the best of what it means to be human and sometimes substitutes the worst of what it means to be an animal. The vacant eyes of people who have lost all hope haunt me....

‘Reverend, you have not given me an answer. What will he say?’ The question hadn’t gone away. ‘Enough!’ I said. He will shout, ‘Enough!’ when He Returns. A look of surprise opened on the faces of all the students. ‘Enough suffering. Enough injustice. Enough terror. Enough death. Enough indignity. Enough sickness and disease. Enough time!’”

As we conclude our study, let us take to heart John’s message, and live in the light of Christ’s Return.1 Jesus’ life and mission, His death and resurrection, and His living Lordship are only grasped in that light. Evangelism, discipleship and every aspect of the Christian life springs from such a perspective. We must live like one who is engaged in a race looking to the finishing line. I grew up playing Chess, which like any game is an end-state matter. The goal in chess is to bring the opponent’s king into checkmate. I learnt that only moves that contribute to that end are ‘good’ moves. How many pieces I capture, how quickly I make my moves, how much my play impresses the spectators - these and all other factors have significance only insofar as they contribute to checkmating the king. The End gives meaning to everything!

An old missionary and his wife had worked in Africa for many years. In 1909, they were returning by boat to New York to retire. They had no pension and nothing to take back to show for their many years of labor. When they boarded the boat, they discovered they were on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big-game hunting expeditions in Africa. They watched the fanfare that accompanied the President’s entourage as passengers tried to catch a glimpse of the man. No one, however, paid any attention to them.

As the ship crossed the ocean, the old missionary said to his wife, “It doesn’t seem fair. We have given our lives to serve God in Africa for years. Here Roosevelt comes back from a hunting trip, and everybody makes a big deal about it. But nobody gives two hoots about us.” “Dear, you shouldn’t feel that way,” his wife said. “But I do,” the old missionary replied.

When the ship docked, a band was waiting to greet the President. The mayor and other dignitaries were there. The papers were all about the President’s arrival. The old missionaries’ arrival was in stark contrast to the President’s. No one noticed them as they slipped off the ship and found a small apartment in town. That night the man said to his wife, “It is just not fair.” Equally despondent, she replied, “Why don’t you talk to the Lord about it?”

A while later he came out of the bedroom, but now his face was completely different. His wife asked, “Dear, what has changed?” “The Lord answered me,” he said. “I told Him how I felt that Roosevelt receives a tremendous homecoming, when no one even came out to meet us. After I poured out my heart to Him, Jesus touched me, simply saying, “‘But my son, you’re not home yet!’”

This earth is not our home. We are just passing through. It will help us along the way to consider that our home is the New Jerusalem. John’s preview, in chapter twenty-one and twenty-two, is meant to motivate us in our homeward journey. So let us ponder John’s vision of our eternal home in seven manageable points. We shall see that the Holy City is a picture of absolute perfection. We will also discover that we can only appreciate what it is like by contrasting it to what it is not like. When John sees the New Creation, he is overwhelmed by the “newness” of it all! So let us have a good look, since we will stay there a lot longer than a beach side holiday house.