In The Beginning   

Revelation

Updated: June 20, 2007

.....things which must come to pass........


[C]2000-07 by Richard L Zorek
  • Rev 1:1: "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" The revelation of Jesus Christ, the mysterious book of prophecy which relates the events leading to the end of the world and coming of the new Jerusalem--is coming! All things symbolized by God's messenger angel "must shortly come to pass". That's one of those promises that we earthly minded Christians don't think about much. Personally, though the book of Revelation is available to all men, I believe it will only be understood by those who it is directed to: "His servants." It will also become more real as more is revealed as the time gets closer. Revelation begins with God. Every truth which men discover is two things: a discovery of the human mind and a gift from God. Men never create the truth, they receive it from God. The Greek word for "Revelation" is "apokalupsis." "Apokalupsis" is composed of two parts. "Apo" meaning "away from" and "kalupsis" a veiling. "Apokalupsis", therefore, means an "unveiling, a revealing." It was not originally a religious word, it meant simply a disclosing of any fact.

  • Rev 1:2: Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony pf Jesus Christ, and of all the things that he saw A lot of the things John is about to describe, he saw in visions.
  • Rev 1:3: Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.The man who hears the word is blessed. Men died to give it to us; and the professional clergy sought for a long time to keep it to themselves.
  • Rev 1:4-5: The churches which John addressed were in the province of Asia, not the continent Asia, but one of the provinces of Asia minor. These seven churches are reprsentatives of the entire church, and prophetically unfold the history of the church on earth.

  • Rev 1:6: Instead of being "kings and priests unto God and his Father" in Christ, we are television addicts (an average of four hours daily) who have little time for the Bible and prayer. We are losing by default.

  • Rev 1:13: "And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle." The seven candlesticks (some translations use the word "lampstands") are the seven churches. (see Rev 1:20).

  • Rev 1:16: "And he had in his right hand seven stars..." According to Rev 1:20. the seven stars are seven angels.
  • Rev 2:6: "But thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolatans, which I also hate" Hate is a necessary corrollary to love. If we truly love good, we will hate evil. It is easy to see perverse hate as itself evil, but this should not cause us to denounce moral hatred. "Love" can be used in an evil way just as hate can. Man can also speak of the things of God in an evil and blasphemous way, but this does not make them any less holy.

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  • Rev 2:9: I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich), and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan." They were rich in the things that really count. Being kidnapped and held for ransom doesnt worry the poor man.
  • Rev 2:21: I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. There is no indication of how much time, but it was evidently enough time.
  • Rev 2:24: Localizing sin in a class, group, or people leads to Phariseeism. It becomes not a problem of Christ vs. fallen humanity, but us against ther evil world. Moreover, too often false views of the world's problems have us study evil as an outside or alien problem, us against them. Our Lord warns against the study of "the depths of Satan," or "the deep things of Satan," so the study of conspiracies is off limits for Christians. The law-word of God, the bible, not Satantic conspiracies, must be our study. We win by God's grace, not by the knowledge of evil. Too many people who call themselves Christians can tell you more about conspiracies than about the word of God; this is evil. We need to have a biblical perspective on good and evil lest we become evil ourselves.
  • Rev 2:29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The message is for everyone: who has an ear.
  • Rev 3: 1"To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. A reputation doesn't always mean what it seems.

  • Rev 3:16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. God cannot deal with fence sitters. One must either be for or against, in or out, hot or cold.
  • Rev 4:8-11: And the four creatures, each having six wings.......and cast their crowns before the throne saying 'You are worthy, O Lord, to recieve glory honor and power; for you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created." Notice the submission made by falling down and casting their crowns before the throne. "They worship..saying" and then folows a beuatiful and majestic verbal expression of adoration. By definition, worship is directed to God, yet the glorification or God is magnified when words of adoration are heard by others.
  • Rev 5:9: And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. The vision reveals the redemptionm of the whole of the elect. They represent a complete spectrum of human variety, but the redeemed are not united because of their objective characteristics, but without regard to them. It is by faith that they are brought into true unity with Christ.
  • Rev 6:2: I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.It has been suggested that the rider on the white horse is the victorious Christ himself. The conclusions is drawn because Rev 19:11-12 tells of a white horse and on it a rider called Faithful and True and crowened with many crowns, who is the victorious Christ. However, the crown used in Rev 19 is diadema which is the royal corwn. The one used in the verse is stephanos which is the victors crown. Putting Christ in the horse where woe upon woe and disaster upon disaster is loosed is probably not correct.
  • Rev 6:6Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!" inflation!

  • Rev 8:1: "And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. Possible this was an awestruck silence. Everything in the universe realized that what God had planned was about ready to happen. There's no more, "Oh, it's not going to happen." It's happening. The time has come. The church could use a little silence today.

    Rev 12:10: Satan will visit your church also. In church? If Satan can stand before God and accuse us day an night, he would have no problem coming to your church (or mine).

  • Rev 12:15: And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flodd after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. Satan is pouring out a flood of wickedness against God's people, in a last effort to "carry them away."
  • Rev 12:17: And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Satan is waging a war against the church in these last days.
  • And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having sven heads and ten horns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy..." The "sea" John mentions is probably the masses of humanity. The beast will come out of the "masses." The beast is growing or being built up over time and will appear as a "multi-headed" monster (various leaderships or countries maybe...........and multiple blasphemies). The thing to note about this is that it will come from amongst us as humans....but, though it may seem overnight...in truth, it will not be. It is being groomed as you read. The spirit of the beast has always been there.
  • Rev 14:10: Worship Him who made heaven and earth. The primary obligation of man is to worship and serve His creator.
  • Rev 17:1-5: The seven heads and horns signify the worldwide influence of the harlot.
  • Rev 18:2: And he (the angel) cried mightili with a storng voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird" Martin Luther and other reformation preachers taught that Baylon was the catholic church, and the Pope was the beast. Baybylon, however, is the harlot church. Babylon is all professed Christians who love the world. It consists of those who love the world's favor, rather than its reproach.
  • Rev 21:4: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away": After he had seen that, John was never afraid again.

  • Rev 21:8: "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." "Whoremonger" is one who has allowed immorality to become a lifestyle. Sorcery includes drugs and the occult. Liars have made falseness a way of life.

  • Rev 22:2: We are told of the Tree of Life, Jesus Christ, whose leaves were "for the healing (or, the health) of the nations." The parallels are many. Christ, the true vine, produces us, His branches, to bear fruit. Christ, the Tree of Life, bears leaves, His people, for the health of the nations. The nations all need health and healing, beginning with ours. the Christmas tree is Christian in character. It is an emblem of Jesus Christ, our tree of life. The tree of life is descibed as an everbearing fruit, and ever-green. Hence the use of evergreen trees.

  • Rev 22:13: "I am the Alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." History imposes restraints on humanity. History compels us to recognize that man cannot escape creaturehood. God has been in charge of hisotry from beginning to end. God created physical laws that ordinarily cannot be violated. Men cannot reverse aging or gravity--they can deescalate the former and temporarily escape the latter, but they can reverse neither. God imposes political, social, and moral restraints. The Pax Romana and third Reich are always overthrown. Socialism always fails. The wages of sin is always death.

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