The Time is At Hand!

As we might expect, the Body of Christ, the Church, figures prominently in every chapter, and an important key to understanding this book is the recognition that the Body of Christ repeats the experience of its Head. The letters to the seven churches are a paradigm of the experiences of Christian churches in all ages. In the Gospels, the great enemies of Christ are Satan, the degenerate church, and the State. In the heart of Revelation we find the same three. In chapter 12 Satan is named and is prominent, and in the following chapter we have the two beasts that respectively signify persecuting statecraft and degenerate religion allied to the State. In chapters 11, 12, and 13, is found the symbol of 1260 days or 42 months—reminiscent of Christ’s ministry and several earlier crises. Even Antichrist, the first beast of Revelation 13, is: … a travesty of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the Head and King, and the Guardian and Protector, of his people. Like the latter, the former is the representative, the ‘sent’ of an unseen power, by whom all authority is “given” him; he has his death and resurrection from the dead; he has his throngs of marvelling and enthusiastic worshippers; his authority over those who own his sway is limited by no national boundaries, but is conterminous with the whole world. William Milligan, The Book of Revelation, p. 224 Most important of all is the fact that the primary purpose of Revelation is to warn the church of a coming worldwide Calvary immediately prior to Christ’s return. See 6:11-17; 11:7-13; 12:17; 13:11-17; 16:12-16. See the book The Coming Worldwide Calvary by the present author for more details. Revelation is the last book of the New Testament. The Greek word for “testament” is used also and most often for “covenant.” These last 27 books of the Bible belong to the new covenant. To understand the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven last plagues, which occupy so much of the Apocalypse, we have to be familiar with the blessings and curses of the Mosaic covenant. See Deuteronomy chapters 28 and 29, and Leviticus 26. Knowing these chapters gives a key to these important forecasts. Another presupposition on the part of many interpreters is to consider that this book is to be read literally. So Armageddon becomes the great plain of Palestine where so many major battles were fought, and Babylon becomes the name of a new city yet to be set up north of Palestine. But repeatedly we are given clues that the book is a book of symbols, all of which are to be unlocked. The keys are not modern events or existing geography, but the Old and New Testaments. At the very commencement we are told that the visions were “signified” (1:2, KJV). In other words they came in signs and symbols. See Revelation 11:8, which states precisely that figurative language is being employed. Otherwise we have to believe that Christ will come from heaven with a great sword projecting from his mouth as he rides a giant white stallion (see 19:11-16). Other incongruities include a woman sitting on a beast with seven heads (17:3) and a pregnant woman in heaven (12:2). Add to that last picture the sight of an angry dragon pursuing the woman through the heavenly courts, ultimately attempting to drown her by the emission from his mouth of a mighty river. So in a few paragraphs we have endeavoured to question the vast majority of books claiming to interpret Revelation and to replace them with keys that are authentic and Christ-centred. Now let us leave controversy behind and major in what is positive and uplifting. In the Apocalypse all the books of the Bible meet and end. Every promise, hope, prophecy and theme of the preceding 65 books here find their mature consummation. Without this book the Scriptures would be a house without a roof, or a story without a climax and conclusion. Revelation is the crown of Holy Scripture, as surely as are the records of our Lord’s death in the Gospels. The interpretation of that event in Romans constitute its heart. While the Gospels record Christ’s coming in the flesh, and Acts his coming in the Spirit, this book tells of his return in glory. The Gospels speak of the Head of the church, and the Epistles of his Body, but this book speaks of the union of Head and Body. The Gospels have for their theme the Atonement, which brought our justification. The Epistles speak of this also, but spell out in greater detail the theme of sanctification, since God both justifies and sanctifies his saints. While justification and sanctification are distinct, they are never separate in the truly regenerate child of God. Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. The union of Head and Body in Revelation means glorification—corruption giving way to incorruption, mortality to immortality, and struggle and weariness to rest. Thus this concluding book of Scripture sets forth judgment, resurrection, and glorification, as well as the earth made new, with the banishment of sin and sinners forever.