The Book of The Revelation

INTRODUCTION

One of the main reasons I decided to write a commentary on the Book of the Revelation is because I have written a commentary on the book of Daniel.  However, in order to totally understand, we must go back to the main reason I wrote a commentary on Daniel.  For the past thirty five years, I have read book after book on Daniel and on The Revelation.  The one thing I noticed about each commentary was that when I would get to a verse that I wanted to know more about, the book would bypass that verse.  I know that some verses in the Bible appear not to be very interesting or important and others are so vital that there will be a whole page devoted to that one verse. 

I would then go to other commentaries on Daniel and The Revelation and the same thing would occur.  The author of the commentary thought the verse was not that important, so they would skip it or put it in with two or three other verses and combine the explanation.  The thing I noticed was that, the one verse that I wanted to know about, the author never explained. 

I decided that if I ever had the opportunity to write a commentary on Daniel or The Revelation, I would explain every verse, in a verse by verse study, of those books.  Well, the opportunity did come about and I wrote a commentary on Daniel.  There are times in Daniel and The Revelation that I would put two or three verses together to explain their meanings.  However, I always made sure I explained all of the verses, not just the ones I thought were important. 

When I wrote a commentary on The Book of Daniel, I was asked, "Why not write a commentary on The Book of the Revelation?"  I have always told people that when they are studying Daniel, they should also be studying The Revelation.  How can a person study my commentary on Daniel without a commentary on Revelation?  Therefore, I decided I had to write a commentary on The Revelation. 

Like I said, this commentary will go verse by verse, just like my commentary on Daniel.  One thing about The Revelation is that I can include information on current conditions in the world and warn people about what is going to happen very soon.  It may be that the rapture will occur very shortly after I finish this commentary, and the things in this book will be witnessed in heaven by me and all the other believers.

Now that I have explained the reasons I wrote this book, I think it is best to explain the different schools of thought pertaining to the End Times.

First, we have the Futurist Theory.  This is the theory that I believe comes closer in understanding and explaining the events in this book.  Basically, one accepts the book as being literal unless told otherwise.  Most pre-millennialist accept this view of The Revelation.  This view believes the book is talking about coming events that are about to happen, not ones that have already taken place.

Second, is the Historical Theory.  This view teaches that John was looking at history as it was unfolding, during the time of each church.  In other words, each church would represent a different time period in history.  This means that the last church (Laodicea) would represent the apostate church of the last days.

Third, is the Idealist or Spiritualizing Theory.  This view teaches that everything in the book should be accepted metaphorically or figuratively.  These people would believe that the world is getting better and better, instead of getting worse and worse.  This view has been around for about one hundred and fifty years.  This view has fallen on hard times because of two world wars and numerous other conflicts which were never declared as war.

Fourth, is the Preterist Theory.  This theory, I believe, is the most harmful theory that a person can accept or believe.  This view believes that John wrote this book prior to 70 A.D., when General Titus destroyed the temple and burned the city of Jerusalem to the ground.  These people believe that all prophecies in this book were fulfilled at that time.  This view is held by some of the most popular Christians on radio and on TV today.  They disregard the historical dates for events such as the time and the king that exiled John to the Isle of Patmos.

The Book of the Revelation

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AUTHOR - The Apostle John is the writer of this great book on the End Times or Last Days.  John is also called the Beloved Apostle, because of the love that he had for the Lord Jesus and for the love the Lord had for John.  John also wrote the gospel that has his name and the three small epistles that have his name.  Just before Christ died on the cross, he looked down at John and stated, Behold, your mother, referring to His own mother, Mary.  It was at that time that John took care of Mary as a son would take care of his own mother, if she were alive.  After the death of Mary, John then started his ministry which would last until his death.

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DATE - The date of the writing of the book of the Revelation is unknown.  We know, through history, that John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos under the reign of Domitian.  Domitian started his reign on September 14, 81 A.D. and died September 18, 96 A.D.  Most scholars, who are Premillennialist, believe The Revelation was written right around 95 A.D., and it is believed that John died somewhere around 100 A.D.  The Preterist believe that John wrote Revelation during the reign of Nero (54 AD - 69 AD).  The reason they believe this is because they state that everything in Revelation occurred when Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D.  If they accept the date of 95 A.D., it would turn their theory upside down.  It takes a lot more faith to believe in the Preterist Theory, because history backs up the date that Domitian started to rule and when John was exiled by him during his reign.

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THEME - END TIMES - The Book of The Revelation is the only book in the Bible that gives us more than a glimpse of the Tribulation; it gives us details of exact events that will occur during those seven years that the Antichrist will be ruling over the earth.  It will give us a view of the persecution that people will have to go through, in order to believe in Jesus Christ.

I know some people will say that everything in Revelation is symbolic and we cannot take the Bible to be literal.  There are a large number of things that we may not understand because of the description that John gives in his writing, but I believe we must accept what John saw was the future.  If we were to see something that will

occur two thousand years into the future, could we use our terminology to explain what we saw?  The answer would be, no. 

We do not know exactly, everything that John saw, but we know he tried to describe it with the words of his day.  However, we do have enough information to understand the basics of the things he stated and we do know most of what he was speaking about, so that we can let the readers know what John was trying to say.

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RECOMMENDED - There are twenty two chapters in the Book of The Revelation and it is recommended that it be studied in blocks of three or four chapters at a time.  Each block should take one quarter or three months.  It is best to study or compare different chapters in Daniel with the chapters in The Revelation. 

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HISTORICAL SETTING - Tradition holds that the Apostle John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos because he refused to stop preaching the Gospel.  Tradition states that John was told to stop preaching and, when he did not stop, he was thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil.  Since the boiling oil did not have any effect on John, the only thing the government, under Domitian, could do was to exile him to Patmos.  The idea was that he could preach to the rocks, and they would listen.

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UNDERSTANDING REVELATION - In order to under-stand the book of The Revelation, it is best to see how the book is broken up and to understand the different dispensations and different time periods or eras of the Bible.  We have the current era or dispensation which is the Age of Grace or Dispensation of Grace. The Dispensation

before Grace was the Law, and the Dispensation after Grace will be the Millennium.  There is a small window of time called the Apostolic Age or Era.  That window of time was from Pentecost to the death of the last Apostle, which was John, on the Isle of Patmos. There are four other dispensations, but they are not going to be discussed in this book as they were before the Age of the Law.

The reason this was called the Apostolic Age or Era was so the apostles could pen the New Testament and thus complete the Word of God.  Also, it was a time when the apostles were authenticating their roles as Apostles, chosen by Christ, and to define the role of the Church in the world.  Christ taught the apostles about the Bride, or the Church, and He taught them how to raise people from the dead and to perform miracles.  The apostles were there to build the foundation of the church and to instruct the newly formed churches on the ways a church was supposed to be conducted. 

Once the Bible was finished with the writing of the Book of The Revelation and then the death of John, the Apostolic Age ended. 

Once that age ended, so did the miracles, the writings, and other gifts that the apostles used during that time period.  When we get to the last church, the Laodicea church, the Age of Grace, we will see the ugly head of apostasy raise.  These so called believers will be so bad that Christ states that He would spew them out of His mouth.

Now that we have the dispensations explained, it is time to look at this great book and explain how it is divided.  The book is divided into three parts, according to chapter 1 verse 19.  It says to Write the things which thou hast seen, which would represent the PAST.  Then write the things which are, which would represent the PRESENT.  John was then instructed to write the things which shall be hereafter, which represents the FUTURE.

The first division is chapter 1, verses1 through 20, and is The Things Which You Have Seen or the PAST. This would cover Christ's Revelation and a preview of His Return. 

The second division is chapter 2, verses 1 through chapter 3, verse 22, and are The Things Which Are or the Present.  This covers the letters to the seven churches.  In this division I will also give the Historical Theory for the time of each church.  In other words I will say that the time line for Laodicea would be from 1948 to the Rapture.  We know the church at Laodicea does not exist today in a physical form, but it does exist in a religious form.

The third division is chapter 4, verses 1 through chapter 22, verse 21, and are The Things Which Shall Be Hereafter or the Future.  This would cover the rapture of the church, the seven years of tribulation, the Judgment of the Nations, the Millennium, the Great White Throne Judgment, and the Eternal State.

As I stated in my commentary on Daniel, God’s Time Clock started on May 14, 1948.  On this date, Israel became a nation.  When Israel became a nation, there was now a homeland for the Jews.  With that homeland, the prophecy in Ezekiel chapter 36 and 37 can now be fulfilled.  In those two chapters, it tells of the restoration of Israel and the Valley of Dry Bones which depict the nation of Israel. Read those chapters.

In Daniel, chapter 9, verse 27, it speaks about a covenant that will be signed by the Antichrist and the nation of Israel.  The signing of this covenant, or treaty, will begin the seven year tribulation.  Obviously, the things spoken of in this book could not occur until there was a nation called Israel.  When Israel became a nation, God’s Time Clock began to tick.  It will tick until the things in His book have been fulfilled.

The next event will be the Rapture of The Church.  Even though we do not know the year, the month, the week, the day, the hour, the minute, or even the second, the rapture will occur, Christ said that we would know the season.  In Matthew 24:34 - Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these thing be fulfilled. 

One must ask the question, what things?  The things would be those things spoken of from verse 4 through verse 31.  Then in Matthew 24:32 and 33, Christ gives us the key to understanding what verse 34 is speaking about.  The fig tree, in verse 32, is Israel and that generation that sees Israel become a nation or bud, will not pass away until they see all the things happen that Christ mentioned in verses 4 through 31.

There is a movement in the Christian church that states that the word generation in Matthew 24:34 should be mankind or humankind.  They want you to believe that mankind or humankind will not pass away until the things in Matthew 24:4 through 31 have occurred.  This idea is not true.  The word generation speaks of a certain time period of people.  If the Holy Spirit wanted the word mankind or humankind in that verse, He would have said it that way. 

The question now has to be asked, how long is a generation?  After a long study in the Word, I have come to the conclusion that a generation has many different time periods.  I did find a number of places where a generation was forty years.  I found other places in scripture where a generation is three score and ten, which is seventy years.  In the dictionary, it states that a generation is twenty to thirty years in length.

If we look at Matthew 1:17 - So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.  We know for certain there were more than fourteen generations between Abraham to David, but if we take just the fourteen generations between Abraham (2000 B.C.) to David (1000 B.C.) we come up with a little over seventy years for a generation.  This is great for the theory for seventy years for a generation, but when we look at the next fourteen generations we have a problem.  From David to the carrying away to Babylon (586 B.C.) is 414 years.  When we divide 14 into 414 we get 29 years.  What I have decided is the generation that saw Israel become a nation will not pass away until the rapture. That means that some of those people born in 1948 will not die before the Rapture occurs.

The rapture could occur anytime from now until around the end of 2018.  Even though I am not putting a date on the rapture, I do believe we can see the season that Christ spoke about.  From the day of Pentecost until now is 1979 years which is considered the Age of Grace or The Church Age.  Since there are a little more than seven years left until 2018, I would consider seven or eight years as a season.  We must also remember there could be an error in the calendars. 

The Devil and his demons would like for Christians not to believe we are so close to the Rapture that we can hear the knocking at the door.  The Devil knows if Christians knew that we were that close to the Rapture, we would tell everyone we came in contact with and that would mean that more people would get saved and that the Devil would lose some of his greatest followers.

The Devil knows that his time is short and he is interested in leading people down a path of destruction.  That path will get wider and wider, the closer we get to the Rapture.  During the Tribulation, the path will be so wide that people will flock to get the number or the mark of the Antichrist on their foreheads or their right hands. They will believe they are safe from harm when they do that.

We Christians must be telling everyone that will listen that the Rapture is close and, if they miss the Rapture, under no circumstances should they take the number or the mark of the Antichrist.  If they do take the number or the mark, they will be doomed for eternity. 

John on Patmos

John the Apostle was the last of the apostles.  When John died, that was the end of the Apostolic Era.  But, before he died, he knew he must first finish this great book.  The Revelation of Jesus Christ is the greatest book of all 66 books in the Bible that I have ever read.  If I had not accepted Jesus as my Savior in July of 1975, and I read this book, I would be scared to death.  After reading this book, I would have dropped to my knees and begged Christ to let me into His family, the family of Born Again believers. 

The things that are going to happen on earth are almost to the point of being unbelievable.  I know, before I was saved, I believed in God and knew there was a higher being that created all things.  I may not have been the smartest person in the world, but I was not stupid.

God does exist and He lives in a place called Heaven.  He has watched this world and He has decided He has had enough of the rebellious life styles of people and their disregard for moral cleanliness.  Because of the sinfulness of man, God commanded John to write this book so He could inform mankind of the things that will shortly come to pass.

The Apostle John is now going to let that last generation know about the judgments that God is going to bring upon the world.  If these coming judgments are not enough to open the eyes of sinners to realize that they need a Savior, then what will open their eyes? 

Chapter 1