We invite you to join us this Wednesday evening, from 7:00 to 8:00 PM, at Astoria First Assembly of God church for our new Community Group Bible Study.

Everyone is welcome to attend. The Bible Study will be held on Wednesday evenings from 7:00 to 8:00 PM. However, you are welcome to come early at 6:30 PM, if you so desire, to have Coffee or Tea with those individuals who would like to join in with you for some fellowship.

Pastor Nick Buhler will be teaching on the Book of Revelation.

The title of the book, Revelation, comes from the Greek word for apocalypse and refers to an unveiling or a disclosure of something as yet unknown. This title is certainly appropriate for the book, a work so interested in making known the events of the future.

The apostle John wrote the book of Revelation around the year AD 95 from his exile on the island of Patmos. He addressed his work to seven Asian churches—Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Because John worked in Ephesus for so many of his later years, it would have been natural for him to communicate this vision to the churches under his immediate care and influence. Each of those seven churches received a message directed specifically to them (chapters 2 and 3) before John launched into his account of the future which he received in his vision from God.

The book of Revelation provides the clearest biblical portrait of the events of the tribulation, dealing with the specifics of that terrible time (chapters 4–18). The tribulation will be a time of judgment, a time when those left on the earth after the rapture will suffer deeply for their nonbelief. John pictured this judgment as a series of twenty-one events—inaugurated by the breaking of seven seals, the blowing of seven trumpets, and the pouring out of seven bowls. This grand judgment on the sinfulness of humanity shows the seriousness with which God views sin—payment will be exacted from those not covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.

While Revelation offers many details on the tribulation—even if they are often couched in the mystery of symbolic language—it is the final four chapters that dictate the overall message of the book. Revelation 19–22 portrays Christ’s future triumph over the forces of evil and His re-creation of the world for the redeemed. Ultimately, the book—and the world—end in a final victory for truth and goodness and beauty.

We hope that you will join us this Wednesday evening. We hope to see you then!