How the Story Ends
By J. Vernon McGee

It has long been my practice, when I need a time of relaxation, to read a mystery story, a detective story. When I began my ministry, I was a single man, and on Sunday nights after the evening service, I would get into bed and read one of the mystery stories.

Well, about one o’clock in the morning I would get to the place where the heroine has been tied down to the railroad tracks by the villain. She is in a desperate situation. I think that the hero is going to be able to get there and rescue her, but I find out that he is in that old warehouse down by the pier, tied to a chair under which is a stick of dynamite with the fuse already lighted! Well, I can’t leave the hero and heroine in that kind of position. But, since it is time for me to turn over and go to sleep, I slip over to the final page.

A different scene greets me there. I see the hero and the heroine sitting out in a yard. I see a lovely cottage encircled by a white picket fence. They are married now and have a little baby. What a wonderful, comfortable scene that is! So I would just turn back to the place where I stopped reading, and I would say to the hero and heroine, "I don’t know how you are going to get out of it, but I tell you this: It’s going to work out all right."

I will be frank to say that I get a little disturbed today when I see what is happening in the world. It is a dark picture as I look out at it, and I wonder how it is going to work out. My friend, I have a book in the Bible called the Book of the Revelation, and it tells me how this world scene is going to end. All I do is turn to the last book of the Bible, and when I begin to read there, I find that it’s going to work out all right. Do you know that? Emerson said that things are in the saddle, and they ride mankind. It does look that way. In fact, it looks as if the devil is having a high holiday in the world, and I think he is, but God is going to work it out. God Himself will gain control–in fact, He has never lost control–and He is moving to the time when He is going to place His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, upon the throne of His universe down here.

It does look dark now. I think that any person today who looks at the world situation and takes an optimistic view of it has something wrong with his thinking. The world is in a desperate condition. However, I’m no pessimist because I have the Book of Revelation, and I can say to every person who has trusted Christ, "Don’t you worry. It’s going to work out all right." My friend, the thing is going to come out with God on top.

Therefore, I want to be with Him. As Calvin put it, "I would rather lose now and win later than to win now and lose later." I want to say to you, friend, that I am on the side that appears to be losing now, but we are going to win later. The reason I know this is because I have been reading the Book of Revelation. And I hope that you are going to read it too.

Adapted from Introduction to Edited Messages on Revelation by J. Vernon McGee,long-time host of Thru the Bible Radio