REVELATION

The Seven Churches
The seven churches (or communities of believers in seven different cities) represent seven different types of believers that have existed since the first century.

The Rapture

The only church Christ actually says he will keep from the hour of tribulation is the church of Philadelphia. The Greek word means He'll keep them out of it within its midst.

Seals, Trumpets and Vials
The seals are a general overview of the main events of the tribulation. Taking place concurrently with these events are the judgments occurring when the trumpets are blown. These are events where God uses man to carry out His judgment indirectly, through things like possible nuclear warfare.

Incidentally, when you look at the trumpet judgments, it's pretty clear all our current worries about climate change and the other environmental issues are for naught, at least when we look at what is actually going to come upon the earth. While I believe Christians should be in the forefront of protecting the environment in ways such as conservation, waste management, etc., we as believers need to keep in mind we have a more certain word of prophecy and that this final book of Scripture is telling us in advance about the actual events of a time period which I believe is in the not-too-distant future.

The judgments of the vials, called the wrath of God, are God's direct judgment and, again, occur concurrently with the seals and the trumpets, the last trumpet signifying the return of Christ.

A Bit More On Seals and the Four Horsemen
- the anti-Christ comes to world power, in a peaceful manner at first, hence why the bow has no arrows;
- as people start to chafe under the anti-Christ's rule and resist him, he retaliates with nuclear weapons as described in trumpets;
-as we know, war causes famine and disease (the other two horsemen);
- during this time, the six other groups of Christians scattered throughout the world are killed for not taking the mark of the beast: according to Rev. 6 11, this persecution will continue a little longer from that point in the tribulation;
- the events of the sixth seal probably take place just before
- the return of Christ (the seventh seal)

The 144 Thousand and the Great Multitude
The 144 thousand are physical descendants of God's people, the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, Scandinavian, Celtic, and kindred people, who are also born-again and are among the Philadelphia Christians. The great multitude are the strangers among them that believe, and are thus part of that holy nation along with the 144 thousand.

The Mark of the Beast
The mark of the beast is a microchip all people will eventually decide to get so they can continue to buy and sell. Those who refuse to take it, as stated above, will be killed.

Babylon
Babylon represents the world, meaning the world system or world order. The religious element (the great whore) is included because everybody practices some type of religion. The commercial system is included because money makes the world go round.

The Antichrist
Sometime before the tribulation, the world will have been split up into ten world regions, each region of the world functioning the way nation states operate today. According to Albert Pike's letter, there will be a third world war between Christianity and Islam over Zionism, with all other religions taking sides. During this war, the Vatican will be destroyed, forcing it's relocation to Jerusalem. Atheists will be treated like the conscientious objectors in the first two world wars.

World War III will disillusion most people (except for the Philadelphia Christians and a certain number of Christians from the other six groups) with all the world's traditional religions, but because of the proverbial God-shaped hole, the world's population will look for something in which to believe. The anti-Christ will be that something.

There will be a power sharing agreement between the beast and the ten rulers, but I haven't quite figured out the chronology of events concerning that yet.

The Millennium
Check out this article on salvation during the millennium. It's really good, although water in the verse he refers to points to baptism (Acts 2 38.)

It's possible the earth, aside from the saints of course, will be populated by all those (including aborted, miscarried and stillborn) babies who died since the fall, as well as those who were children during the tribulation, as it doesn't seem to me they can be held responsible for taking the mark. It also seems like it will include the mentally retarded who lived throughout history.

At the end, when Satan is loosed, they will choose to join with him in rebellion against God who has ruled them benevolently for the last thousand years and with whom most of them have enjoyed time in Heaven prior to that.

However, I am not quite conclusively sure about the issue of who will populate the earth apart from the saints or whether there will be salvation in some form for those who die between the beginning of the thousand years and the time at the end when Satan is loosed.