The Bible and Revelation

The Bible and RevelationCommentary'sThe Bible and Revelation

   Most Christians refers to Revelation as “The Revelation of Saint John the Devine” because in some Bibles that is how it is title.  We must remember that it’s important to remember that this title was added by men and is not the original text of the translation. You don’t have to take my word but the very first verse contradicts this humanly devised title because it is written, “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:”   Verse one of Revelation explains to us the this book is the direct revelation of Jesus Christ Himself, which He received from the Father.

   When Jesus walked the earth, He often talked about the future.  Jesus never said so in a speculative or wishful sense.  Jesus spoke authoritatively, because He had come directly from the Father and spoke the words that the Father gave Him, not mere human ideas. “ He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me” (John 14:24).

   Jesus Christ came with a message; the good news about God’s coming Kingdom and how we could become a part of that k Kingdom.  Read what it says in Mark 1:14-15, “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”  Yet when He was here on earth almost 2,000 years ago, He did  not establish that kingdom.  Only days before His crucifixion, as He traveled to Jerusalem one last time, He spoke a parable to His disciples, who mistakenly thought that the Kingdom would immediately appear.  Jesus told a story about a young nobleman who first had to go away into a far country to be invested with kingly power before returning to possess his kingdom.  “And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.  He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.”  (Luke 19:11-12).

   Would you be excited, I know I would, if you could ask Jesus Christ in person about the events that would precede His return and the establishment of His Kingdom?  Some of the twelve Apostles did have exactly that opportunity.  Jesus’ answer is preserved in the parallel accounts of Matthew 24, Mark 13’ and Luke 21, in what is often called the Olivet Prophecy.  Seated privately with His disciples on the Mount of Olives, a hill just east of Jerusalem, Jesus described the signs of His future coming and the end of current age.  In this Olivet Prophecy, Jesus used plain language to describe many events that would later figure in the Apostle John’s symbolic visions when He would open Revelation’s seven seals.  In Revelation, as in the Gospel, it is vital to remember that Christ is the Revelator.