Chapter One.

Introduction.

If there is one book in the Bible which causes divisions of opinion more than any other, it must surely be the Book of the Revelation. Many and varied have been the teachings expressed as to its meaning. Yet I dare to believe that approached from the correct basis, and studied with the correct co-relationship with "The Scriptures", it becomes a book of unsurpassed blessing and elation as we realise that it is in fact quite a simple book to understand. That is not to say that there are no difficulties in studying it. It certainly requires that we fully commit ourselves to its study. But it is certainly not the "impossible-to-understand" book which so many Christians think it is, or are taught it is. I remember some years ago when I was giving a series of studies of this book in my home. One of the folk who was attending these talks was approached by his church minister with a very strict warning not to come to the studies as, according to him, we weren"t supposed to understand it. Thankfully, he didn"t heed that particular advice. But I"m afraid that this impression is far more prevalent than we imagine. It looks difficult, so people are encouraged to leave it alone, never realising, and certainly never being taught, that once we find the key to it, it throws such a flood of light and understanding upon God"s Word as to completely fulfil Peter"s definition that;

"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto we do well that we take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place."

(II Peter 1:19).

I can"t help asking the question, that if we are not supposed to understand it, then why is it that in verse 3 of the very first chapter we are told;

"Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy,
and keep those things that are written therein."

The word "readeth" means "to learn". The word "hear" means "to understand". The word "keepeth" means "to watch over and observe attentively". Now why on earth would our Lord Jesus Christ promise that those who learned it, understood it, and watched over and preserved what they had learned would be blessed, or happy, if we were not supposed to understand it in the first place? And how on earth would the same Lord expect us to understand it if He didn"t provide the KEY to its understanding?

But before going into this, let us first paint in the background to our studies with a few pertinent details.

The book itself was written about 96 A.D., during the reign of Domitian asEmperor Domitian Emperor of Rome. It was not accepted into the full Canon of Scripture until the Council at Carthage in about 397 A.D., or nearly 300 years after it was written. So we see that it took some 300 years before it was even accepted as inspired Scripture. It had to fight to be recognised in the first place, and has had to fight ever since to be understood.

The author was NOT the apostle John, as stated at the heading of the book in many translations. The author was our Lord Jesus Christ, as stated in chapter 1 verse 1 of the book itself. John was only the scribe who wrote down what Jesus Christ told him. As such, we will refer to him as the "writer".

And the circumstances which led to John becoming the writer of this wonderful book are quite fascinating. John, who was by this time about 90 years of age, had been arrested under orders from the Emperor Dometian who has gone down in history as having one of the worst reputations of any of the Emperors for his persecution of Christians. Under his directions, Christian PersecutionsChristians were soaked in oil, and tied to poles where they were set alight to provide lighting to the arena so that the people could more easily watch other Christians as they were fed to the lions. Dometian did not like Christians at all. According to some records, John, the Apostle whom Jesus loved, was sentenced to death by being boiled alive in oil. These records maintain that he was lowered into the boiling oil, and after an appropriate period of time lifted back out. But John was completely unaffected by this ordeal and walked away unscathed. Now some will say that this is a bit fanciful, but may I remind the reader that a similar incident is recorded in the Old Testament where three of God"s servants were cast into a fiery furnace which was so hot that the guards who threw them in were killed by the heat. Yet they survived this ordeal without any harm whatsoever. If we can accept this evidence of God"s protection of His servants on that occasion, why should it be difficult for us to accept that the same God could do exactly the same kind of thing again. Or has God lost His power over the centuries??

John on PatmosSo being unable to kill John as he intended, Dometian had him exiled to the Isle of Patmos. It was there that the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him and gave him the Revelation which forms the final book of the New Testament. As far as is known, that is where John eventually died, one of the few disciples not to meet a violent death.

Now as we commence the study of the book itself, there is a special sequence or format in the expressions used which, I believe, we must have clear in our minds. Studying this book is no different to studying any other subject in this regard, that we must set ourselves a proper and solid basis on which to build. I am going to set out the first three verses in such a way as to emphasise the relevant points which we need to understand.

"The Revelation of Jesus Christ;

Which God gave unto Him;

To shew unto His servants;

Things which must shortly come to pass;

And He sent and signified it;

By His angel;

Unto His servant John;

Who bare record of the Word of God,

and of the testimony of Jesus Christ,

and of all things that he saw;

Blessed is he that readeth;

and they that hear the words of this prophecy;

And keep those things which are written therein;

For the time is at hand."

So we see firstly that the sequence of revelation was that God gave the revelation to Jesus Christ, who as the angel or messenger of God, transmitted it to John, who in turn shewed or transmitted it to us as the servants of God.

Which was a total waste of time and effort if He didn"t intend us to understand what He was transmitting to us.

Secondly, we see God "sent and signified" the revelation. Now these are two very important words, especially the word "signified". The word "sent" means not only to despatch the message, but also includes the authority of the one who sent it.

But the word which absolutely MUST be understood is the word "signified".

I cannot place too much stress and importance on this fact. The word means;

TO SHEW BY SIGNS AND SYMBOLS.

I cannot emphasis too strongly the absolute importance of remembering this definition at ALL times whilst studying this Book of the Revelation. It is a book written in signs and symbols, just like the codes that are used during war time, or for secret messages, and which can only be interpreted and understood by use of the correct keys. The book was NOT written to be interpreted literally. That doesn"t mean to say that there are not incidents recorded therein in which can be seen literal interpretations or fulfilments. But when this occurs, we must be very careful to firstly understand the symbolic meaning associated with the particular statement, as this will take precedence over any literal meaning which might be seen to apply. I am convinced that the present confusion and lack of true understanding of what this wonderful book is actually teaching us is caused by a lack of appreciation and application of this simple rule. Let me give you a few examples of what can happen. Some years ago I heard that a certain local church was holding a series of meetings on the Book of The Revelation, so a friend and I decided to go along to hear what they had to say. On that particular night, the minister was discussing chapter 18 and verse 21 where it recorded that "A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, etc.. Those present were mostly young people, and they sat there with rapture on their faces as this minister went to great lengths to describe the time when they would see some enormous rock hurtling through the air and landing in the sea. The symbolism was not applied, and thus the teaching of what our Lord was actually saying was completely lost to them.

The second incident happened only recently. I was listening to a tape recording of a well known evangelist who was speaking of the present, and near future, world position from what he considered to be the teachings of the Book of The Revelation. I"m not mentioning names in these incidents, as it is not my intention to cause any harm to those who in other areas of ministry are being mightily used of God. I only recite these incidents as illustrations of the principle which I have enunciated. He was referring to the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, and was expounding the church theory of what they refer to as "the secret rapture". Whilst there are some variations in details among its expositors, put very briefly, the main points he made were as follows.

"Seven years before the actual return of our Lord, every Christian who has ever accepted Him would be raptured up into heaven to be with Him. But those left on the earth would still have a chance for eternal life. Whilst they had now missed out on the offer of Christ"s life being offered as a substitute for them, they could still receive eternal life by making a stand for Christ during what he termed "the great tribulation" and literally laying down their own lives then for their convictions. And how were they to lay down their lives and be killed? Well, the Book of The Revelation had the answer. If we turn to chapter 20 and verse 4, we read of "the souls that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their forehead or in their hands, etc.." This verse was quoted in conjunction with verse 9 of chapter 6 which says that these souls were under the altar. So here we have the answer. All those people who, during "The Great Tribulation", (a phrase incidently which nowhere appears in the Bible), were prepared to give their lives themselves in order to gain eternal life would be "beheaded". And how do they get beheaded? Well of course, how else but by a guillotine. The congregation was told that the original guillotine that was used in the French Revolution was still preserved in some shed in France and would be recommissioned. But for those who lived too far away, this is what would happen. One day you would be sitting at home and there would be a knock on the door. When you answered it, you would be confronted by an official who would advise you that you were listed as one who had not submitted to having the "mark of the beast" tattooed on your hand and forehead. You would be asked whether or not you were now willing to submit to this requirement, and that refusal to do so would mean instant execution. You had now reached the final point of decision. You could now decide to continue living and forfeit your second chance for eternal life, or choose to die immediately, and by your own death gain eternal life. If you refused to obey, the official would say, "Would you mind stepping this way sir?", and you would be taken out to the footpath where there would be a portable guillotine, and you would immediately be beheaded. This activity, we are told, would be going on all over the world, and there would be a constant stream of headless bodies floating up into the skies from all over the place with their heads tucked under their arms, heading for underneath the altar in heaven. The Lord then turns to the angel Michael and asks him what all the noise is about that is coming from under the altar. Michael then tells God that it is the cry coming from all these underarm heads asking how long they had to wait before being reunited with their bodies. The Lord then tells Michael to go over and tell them to be quiet, as they still have some time to wait."

Now when you"ve got over the initial shock of all this, please remember friends that the above is an accurate precis of the talk which was given recently to a large congregation in a church here in Australia which holds at least 4,000 people, I"ve been inside this particular church, and have personally heard the tape of this talk. I repeat. I am not trying to embarrass the preacher, nor am I in any way trying to bring disrepute upon his ministry in general. But what do you make of such nonsense. How can we expect people to understand the Word of God with this type of fanciful rubbish being taught. The whole situation arose simply because the speaker broke the cardinal rule of understanding and applying the SYMBOLISM of what was recorded. It arose because he was left with no other alternative but to make up a Hollywood production to fit what he interpreted to be a statement intended to be taken literally. Yes, it is quite laughable, but how pathetic also. The only picture that all those dear people in that congregation were left with was that of hundreds of Porta-guillotines being towed everywhere, and hopefully, thousands of headless bodies floating up into the air from all points of the compass with their heads under their arms. As I have said, it is really quite pathetic.

We MUST understand that the Lord is using "signs and symbols" in what He is saying, and the very first thing we must do is to look for the KEY to unlocking and explaining the true meaning of the particular sign or symbol which we are studying.

But where do we find these "keys" which will unlock the meaning of the symbols used? It must be obvious that if God promises such blessings to those who understand what He has recorded, then He would not leave us without the means of interpreting the various symbols, or "code", which He has used. It would be ludicrous for Him to say that He was going to bless us if we understood the code He used and then refrain from giving us the key to understand and interpret that code. So where do we find this "key"? The answers is quite simple. We find it in the writings of "The Scriptures", or as we now call them, the Old Testament. When the Book of the Revelation was written, there was no New Testament, only what was referred to as The Scriptures. They constituted the only Word of God available to that time.

I have found no exception to this rule:-

Every symbol used in the Book of the Revelation is contained, and explained, in the Old Testament, and supported by historical events subsequent to Christ"s First Advent!

Which brings us to the next important factor. The Revelation was NOT given mainly to describe events still in the future to the days in which we now live, as most Bible teachers would have us believe. This is the fallacy of what is termed the "futurist" interpretation of prophecy in which most of the events quoted in the book are still to occur at some unknown time in the future. It is this theology which gives rise to the ridiculous story, and that"s all it is, which I quoted above. Obviously, there are still a few prophecies, and I emphasise the word "few", which are still to occur, but the great majority of events foretold have already passed into history long ago.

The Book of the Revelation is primarily A HISTORY BOOK. And it can only be properly understood as the events described therein are applied to history. It covers the period from the First Advent of our Lord, up to and beyond His Second Advent. The wording contained in verses 1 and 3 of the first chapter surely leave no doubt as to the truth of this principle. Jesus Himself tells us in verse 1 that He is showing us "Things which must SHORTLY come to pass." In verse 3 He says that the time for us to understand and watch attentively over what we learn is "AT HAND". How could these two statements possibly be construed to mean that we don"t have to worry about these events happening for another two thousand years from when they were written? The statement "at hand" means that whatever is being spoken of is "about to commence immediately". In fact, when we turn back to the book of the prophet Daniel, we find the lead up to this. In Daniel 12:9, he is told;

Go thy way Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end."

John, on the other hand, is told to write down what he sees, that is, not to seal it, for; "The time is at hand."

The Book of the Revelation is an HISTORICAL book, not a FUTURISTIC book as is almost universally taught today. This doctrine of "Futurism" is of Satan, and was inspired by him, through the teachings of the Church of Rome, to destroy the true understanding of God"s Word by God"s people. How successful this action has been can be gauged by the results whereby millions of sincere Christians have been deluded into accepting a lie, and have been left not only in ignorance, but with absolutely false hopes, of what lies in the immediate future.

The other important aspect to understand in conjunction with the fact that this book is an historical book, is that it deals almost exclusively with the history from the time of writing onward, of the nation and people of Israel in their position as the kingdom of God here on earth. And I"m certainly not referring to the people known today as the Jews. But more on that aspect later.

We now look at another factor which is also of the greatest importance in understanding its message. It is this.

The Book is not one continuous succession of events starting with the first chapter and ending with the last chapter. For instance, the events recorded in the 4th chapter do not follow in chronological order after the events recorded in the first three chapters. The events set out in the Book of The Revelation are recorded in cycles, each cycle recording a different aspect of the history of Israel over the same period of time, that is, from the Lord"s first advent to His second advent, and even beyond that into the Kingdom Age. So in order to simplify our studies, and to give us an ordered foundation on which to build our studies and our understanding of this, the final recorded message from our Lord Jesus Christ, I am listing the major subject matter contained in each successive chapter, followed by a short list of the cycles into which the various chapters fall. They are as follows:-

THE BOOK OF THE REVELATION

CHAPTER BY CHAPTER

Chapter

.

Major Subject Matter.

  1. Messages to the 7 churches. Introduction.
  2. do. No."s 1 - 5.
  3. do. No."s 6 - 7.
  4. The Throne of God - The 24 Elders and the 4 Living Creatures.
  5. The Book with the 7 seals presented.
  6. The opening of the seals No.'s 1 to 6.
  7. The sealing of the 144,000.
  8. The 7th seal opened - The sounding of the first 4 Trumpets.
  9. The sounding of Trumpets 5 and 6, which are the first 2 Woes.
  10. The Little Book and the seven Thunders.
  11. The Two Witnesses - The 2nd Woe finishes - The 7th Trumpet sounds, which is the 3rd Woe.
  12. The Woman in the Wilderness - The "Man-Child" - War in heaven,
    Satan cast out and makes war with "the seed of the woman".
  13. The beast from the sea - the beast out of the earth - The Mark of the Beast, 666.
  14. The 144,000 with the Name of God in their fore-heads. -
    The announcement of the coming fall of Babylon. - The two reapings.
  15. The Song of Moses. - The 7 Plagues and the 7 Vials introduced.
  16. The 7 Vials poured out. - The 3 unclean spirits. - "Behold I come as a thief". - Armageddon.
  17. Judgment on Babylon the Great. - The 8th beast.
  18. The Fall of Babylon.
  19. Subsequent rejoicing. - The Marriage Supper of the Lamb. - The Return of Christ.
  20. Satan bound. - The First Resurrection. - Satan loosed. -
    The Great White Throne Judgment and the 2nd death.
  21. The Holy City, the Lamb's Wife.
  22. The Tree of Life restored. - Final exhortations and warnings.

All the above subjects fall into, and are recorded within the following groupings or cycles, forming the different aspects of the national development and life of the nation of Israel, the Kingdom of God on earth.
Group

Aspect

Chapter

1. Religious. 1 - 3

2. Political. 4 - 11

3. Parenthesis. 12

4. Economic. 13 - 18

5. Kingdom Age & Beyond. 19 - 22

From the foregoing, it will be obvious to the reader that if we engage in an in-depth study of every aspect of every chapter, that the resultant work would be quite impractical and unwieldy. So what we intend to do is to concentrate our studies within each of the above five aspects or cycles as separate subjects within the context of the entire Book of the Revelation. Obviously we will not be able to cover every detail these subjects contain, but we trust that you will be given enough information on which to continue your own studies. The blessings you will receive as you do this will be quite unsurpassed.

We cannot close this introduction to our studies without paying special heed to the warning given by our Lord Jesus Christ as stated in Rev. 22:18.

"For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.

And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this book."

This is a very solemn warning, and one which Jesus Christ did not make lightly. He means us to take very careful heed of it. The penalties, especially the second one, for the violation of this warning are horrific. Please be assured friends, that Jesus was not joking. He means exactly what He said. Our responsibility as we study this wonderful book is enormous. So as you read, do it prayerfully. What I personally say is not the important issue here. What is of absolute importance is that we use what is written here to study, and rightly understand, the Word of God. Pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit as you study. Only He can lead you into TRUTH. Check everything with the Scriptures for yourself. Check it against known and established historical facts. Don't take anyone else's word for anything.

What ever else you do, don't start with your own pre-conceived ideas and beliefs, accepting only that which agrees with what you already believe, or want to believe. If anything is written hereafter which you consider doesn't agree with the Scriptures or established historical facts, or which you cannot immediately understand, then put it aside until you receive more light on the subject, or are convinced of God that it is wrong. But what you find to be right, treasure it and hold it fast. Protect it and defend it. Remember the Lord's promise.

"Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear, (or understand) the words of this prophecy,and keep those things that are written therein."

As you study, remember these basic rules:-

  1. The Book of the Revelation is primarily a book of SIGNS and SYMBOLS.
    You will never understand it properly if you apply everything it says in just a literal sense.
  2. It is basically an HISTORICAL book, not just a book about religious beliefs.
  3. Its teachings cover the period of the entire Christian age and beyond, not just the future age.
  4. It IS meant by God to be understood.
  5. It is the only book in the entire Bible which promises a blessing to those who understand it.