Laying Out Revelation Part 2
This is where we run into our very first problem, along with our first blessing. And, as much as we want that blessing, that problem is an unsettling conundrum, which is why most pastors won’t talk very much about the Book of Revelation.
No one wants to get the Book of Revelation wrong.
However, events in our world appear to be accelerating towards something that looks an awful lot like what John the Apostle wrote. So, we don’t have the luxury of ignoring this book.
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Revelation 1-3 – A Blessing, A Conundrum, And Seven Churches
Laying Out Revelation – Part 2
The first three verses present us with a challenge:
1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. 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.
– Revelation 1:1-3 NKJV
Historical records tell us that John wrote Revelation in AD 95 or 96. Those who say otherwise are ignoring a vast amount of evidence from Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 150-215), Eusebius (AD 260-339), Irenaeus (AD 130-202), Victorinus of Pettau (AD ?-304), and Jerome (A.D. 340-420). If you need proof, start here and here.
It wasn’t Nero who put John on Patmos. It was Domitian. When Domitian was assassinated in September of AD 96, the Roman Senate freed everyone imprisoned by Domitian. This meant that John was able to return to Ephesus where he was reported to have died in AD 98.
So, what does this ‘shortly’ and ‘for the time is near’ mean?
I don’t know.
I have my speculations. We all have those, but speculations are not facts. They aren’t truth. And, there are many things in the Bible that are unexplained, but that shouldn’t matter to us. Feel free to speculate, but make sure that your speculations do not stray over the boundaries laid out by the Bible.
Here are a few of my own:
- The White Horse – When the first Seal is broken, and the first horse rides out, we don’t know who that is, or when it happens. But, it is possible that this rider has been riding for almost 2000 years. Remember that the Roman way of governance has spread around the world.
- The RCC Rising – When Revelation was written, the church at Rome was already beginning to the lay the foundation for the Roman Catholic Church. This Great Whore figures prominently in the Book of Revelation, and it started rising right about this time.
- The Two Beasts – The Beast that rises out of the sea in chapter 13 and the one that rises out of the bottomless pit in chapter 17, don’t rise just when the Antichrist comes. No, those beasts have been around for a while. Does their rise begin ‘shortly’?
- Something COMPLETELY different. There could be a completely different reason why these things must begin ‘shortly’. We won’t really begin to understand properly until Seal Three, or maybe even Seal Six.
Again, these are speculations and should NOT be considered fact. I get things wrong all the time, so I only offer these thoughts to help you avoid stumbling over the words ‘shortly’ and ‘for the time is near’. As events progress, we will have a better understanding of what happens in Revelation and when it happens.
Just be careful to make sure that none of your theories come into conflict with what the New Testament says or what the Hebrew Scriptures say. Foolish men and women have destroyed themselves and others by speculating over certain verses and then twisting the rest of the Bible to fit their speculations.
Peter, speaking of Paul said this:
as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
– 2 Peter 3:16 (NKJV)
There are countless heresies out there that were created by foolish speculation. And my hope is to help put a stop to such abominations. And, we start by saying that it’s okay to not understand what the Bible means when it says something difficult.
Are you with me in this?
Good. Let’s move on.
The Seven Churches
I don’t want to get too far out into the weeds here with the Seven Churches spoken of by Jesus. These were real churches. They had real struggles and real problems. They are not symbolic. They are not metaphors. They do not represent periods of time during the past 2000 years. Whoever keeps saying stuff like that, needs to stop.
However, these churches act as examples. I grew up in a loveless church like Ephesus. I have attended compromising churches that were a bit like Pergamos. I have been in far too many lukewarm churches like the Laodiceans. And, I have to travel two and a half hours to a church in Kaohsiung each Sunday – because the churches here in Tainan is are either corrupt like the church of Thyatira, dead like the church of Sardis, or speak Chinese only (and I love Mrs. Little too much to make her translate for me).
I am grateful to have been a part of churches like the one in Philadelphia.
What I have not been a part of, is a persecuted church, like Smyrna. Unfortunately, as our current civilization declines, persecution will come. Churches in Asia and Africa are already suffering terribly. Our time cannot be too far away.
By the way, did you notice that Jesus was not speaking to the Church of Rome?
Let that sink in.
Just remember the blessing of Revelation 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…
So, be blessed as we continue through the Book of Revelation.
I truly hope that you’ll be ready for this
A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished. – Proverbs 22:3
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Keep this ministry alive with a donation.
Subscribe for free to Revelation Six and receive my articles in your inbox:
https://revelationsix.substack.com/subscribe
And, read my two books:
If you miss my rantings about geopolitics, idiocy, resource collapse and incompetent globalism, follow me on Twitter.
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