DAY NINETY-SIX:
A Voice and a Vision
Just five more days for our study! I've been looking forward to our look at the Book of Revelation since we started. It's my favorite book of the Bible because it wraps everything up and puts a ribbon on it. Jesus puts the last touches on God's plan of the ages. Everything that sin ruined Christ will repair!
Before we get very far I think it's important to discuss the four major frameworks for interpreting the Book of Revelation:
- Futurist. This is the most common view in evangelical Christianity. All the events after chapter 3 take place in the future and the book unfolds chronologically. One event follows after another until the conclusion. The Dispensationalist variation, which we discussed when we looked at 1 Thessalonians 4, adds the rapture of the saints and a seven-year tribulation before Christ's return. Proponents of this view look for signs of Christ's return in current events.
- Preterist. The word comes from the Latin word for before or previous. Everything in the Book of Revelation (indeed, every prophecy in the Bible) was fulfilled by the time the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. The events and signs in Revelation had historical significance in the first century but are for us only a record of what happened. Some Preterists believe that Christ returned in 70 AD secretly and will not be coming back again. Those who die trusting in the Lord are raised spiritually immediately after they die.
- Historicist. This view interprets Revelation as an account of the church through the ages. The Seven Churches of Asia represent seven periods in church history, which unfold one after another in the rest of the book.
- Idealist. I saved this one for last, so you might assume that this is the view I hold. And you'd be right. As a young Christian I was schooled in the futurist view (I didn't think there was any other way). But as I studied the book the idealist view started to make sense to me. Idealism says that the events and symbols of the book represent different themes that run throughout history. This view sees Revelation as a philosophy of history based on the working out of God's plan for the ages.
If you want to learn about these four schools of thought you can read this article.
Now, at last, let's look at God's Word. "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place." The Greek word is apocalupsis, from which we get our word apocalypse. It means to reveal or to unveil something that is hidden. Some call it the Revelation of St. John, but it is in fact the Revelation of Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus will reveal to His people what's coming.
"He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw." Jesus revealed this to His disciple John, who walked with Him in the days of His flesh, who witnessed His resurrection and ascension and who lived and ministered in the power of Christ all of his life. He will write down what he sees and share it with the believers.
"Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near." Blessed- the same word that Jesus used in the Sermon on the Mount when He gave us the Beatitudes. Those who read and keep the words of this book will be blessed. The words have immediate application because the time is near (we'll talk more about the timing of these events later)
"John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth." We'll see in a few moments that Jesus told John to write this book for the benefit of the seven church of the province of Asia, which was the western part of what is now Turkey (the name came to be applied to the entire continent of Asia). I love that phrase "who is and who was and who is to come." God is eternal, existing in the present, past and future simultaneously. There are different views about the "seven spirits." Some argue that this should be read as the "seven-fold Spirit." The number seven in the Bible often represents completeness. There's one Holy Spirit, who is perfect and complete. Others see them as lesser spirits who surround the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Still others see them as the fulfillment of Isaiah 11:1-2, "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord." Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit and exhibited these seven manifestations.
"To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen." I can't read these words without a chill running up my spine! The one who loved us enough to die for us is coming back for us! This is another place where a shout of "hallelujah" would be very appropriate!
"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and sounds like our letter a. Omega (big o, to distinguish it from omicron, or little o) was the last letter. God is like a dictionary in that He knows it all from beginning to end. Again, He is and was and is to come. Time as we know it is meaningless to God (and will become meaningless to us, too, when we're with Him in heaven!).
"I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus." John didn't identify himself as an apostle, and not even as an elder, as he did in 2 and 3 John. He's a brother in Christ, and a partner who is sharing in the persecution the church is facing. He was on Patmos. Patmos is a small island (13 square miles) off the coast of modern-day Turkey. Today it's a delightful tourist destination. In John's day, however, Patmos was a hellhole. The island is in a dry zone, with little rainfall. Groundwater ran deep and wells were few. The Romans used it as a prison colony, forcing the inmates to quarry marble. Though a subject of debate, most scholars date John's stay on Patmos around 95 AD, during the time of Emperor Domitian's bitter persecution of the church. If so, John would have been at least 90 years old.
"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, 'Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.'" John was "in the Spirit," worshipping God despite the horrible conditions he faced. No prison or fortress has ever been built that can keep God out! This was "the Lord's day," which was Sunday, the first day of the week. The earliest Christians observed both the Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest, and the first day of the week, when Christ rose from the dead. In time Christians worship centered around Sunday, as it does now. John heard a loud voice like a trumpet that told him to write all he will see and hear and send it to the seven churches of Asia. We'll look at Christ's message to these seven churches tomorrow.
"Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength." Wow! This doesn't sound like the meek and gentle Jesus of Warner Sallman's paintings. White hair, eyes like fire, glowing feet, and face like the sun. His voice was like the roar of Niagara Falls, drowning out all other voices. He held seven stars in His hands and had a sword coming from His mouth. This is the glorified Christ, Lord of all!
John reacted as we would if we saw what he saw: "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead." We read in the Bible that any who behold God in His glory are frightened. Isaiah said, "Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips living among a people of unclean lips." There's a reason we don't see God. If we were to look upon Him in all His holiness our sinfulness would slay us. The time will come, however, when we will see Him face to face without any fear.
But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades." Jesus picked John up and got him ready for what was ahead. He told John not to be afraid, that the same love that led Him to calvary is everlasting, and He holds the keys that release the dead and raises them to life.
"Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches." The angels of the churches might refer to the pastors. The word angel means messenger or herald, someone who speaks God's message. Pastors fit that bill, as we teach and preach God's word to His people. It makes sense to me that Jesus would address His remarks to the pastors, who would then pass the message on to the people. The lampstands represent the churches. Jesus said, "You are the light of the world." (Matthew 5:14) The churches shine for God in their communities.
We're off to a flying start! Tomorrow we'll look at the seven churches and the contexts in which they lived.
I can't think of a better song to cap off today's study than that great spiritual John the Revelator. I listened to a lot of different versions (and I really enjoyed doing so!) and settled on this version by John Mellencamp. The accompanying pictures are great!
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