The return of Jesus
Christ known as His return or manifestation at the end of times, as part of
a period of time called “The Day of The Lord” makes the
main point of eschatology. The Apostle John, as well as
Peter
and
Paul
do in their eschatological studies, as it could not be in any
other way, due to its importance and because it is a revelation of God's
Spirit, dedicates
–not
like his brothers and Apostles, an important part, the first in his second
letter, and the second in Thessalonians, to reveal and explain the
eschatology
of the prophetical events of the end of time, and more specific about the
return of Jesus Christ–
but by revelation of Jesus Christ, a complete book which closes The Bible.
After the Gospel with his name and his three letters, John completes
Biblical eschatology with the book of eschatology by excellence in the New
Testament, and many will say of the entire Bible: the Apocalypse of Jesus
Christ, which means precisely "Revelation" from the Green "Apokalupsis" and
to reveal means to take off the veil, the same that Jesus did when He
died on the Cross, taking the veil of the Temple, in the "Holy Place". To remember the different
eschatological views read:
The Coming of the Son of Man.
APOSTLE JOHN
AS AUTHOR OF REVELATION
The authorship of
the apostle John on Revelation would soon be recognized since the second
century, which shows how clear the knowledge of this book was for
Christians, especially because it was received by its addressees, the
Christians of the seven churches it was sent to. The unanimity of the
fathers is clear with regards that John, the evangelist, author of the
fourth Gospel, is the author of Revelation, the apostle John, known to them
also as "the theologian". Justine Martyr already in 140 A.D., Miletus 170
A.D., Theophilus and Irenaeus 180 A.D. who would receive it from Polycarp,
direct disciple of John. Then in III century Tertullian, Clement of
Alexandria, Origins or Hippolytus. But despite all the evidence, as
explained in the "Nuevo Diccionario
Bíblico Ilustrado de Vila-Escuaín, CLIE" (English dictionaries with
similar data are available), afterwards its apostolicity would start to be
attacked with the excuse of the different language, others prefer to see the
book as written by a disciple of John. But a deep study of the Texts does
not exclude John as author, because John, in the Gospel and in the Letters
uses identifiable expressions. However nobody, honourably speaking, would
miss that to write the Revelation about prophecy in symbolism requires of an
adequate expression to be faithful to the revealed. Let's not forget that
John, like the other three evangelists, was talking about grace, but in
Revelation, the only entirely prophetical book of the New Testament, writes
symbolism about the judgments of God, about the world, and about His people
to save them, as well as the establishment of the Kingdom of God and of
Christ definitively over the world, the nations and the Heavens.
THE
LAST BOOK OF THE BIBLE
John, now an elder and captive in the
island of Patmos, for the sake of the Gospel and of the testimony of Jesus
Christ, was "in the Spirit" the day of the Lord, and there he receives the
vision of Jesus Christ that, with so much precision tells the story of
humanity from The Bible, where we can see that every event fulfils
prophetically until the closing with the establishment of the Kingdom of God
and of the Lamb. It is the book then, that had to close The Bible.
A singular place in the Canon as the last, the one that closes The Bible
counts with two groups, who place it, one before and one after the time of
the enemy of the people of God, Nero, who, those who date it before,
identify him with the number of the beast, six hundred and sixty six, for
the value of the letters of his name and title, but in Hebrew. Also the
references in Revelation to the seven heads over seven mounts over which the
woman sits, are seven kings, and Nero was the fifth Cesar, and the eighth
amongst the seven was a myth of his resurrection; or will it be the coming
of the antichrist in a new roman empire "Europe"? But others preferred not
to accept that, centuries after, because they do not want to accept its
implication, and the information it contains, but that is their problem, not
an evidence, and during history there has been those who for this reason
have not accept it, and even today there are. But the fathers of the Church
have placed it in the last period of Domitian, who sent John to Patmos,
which coincides with the time when John was in the island of Patmos, an
information which is the oldest, the most documented and which counts with
more acceptance within Christianity in history, and therefore the more
feasible, about 96 A.D. in the last years of a very old John, the same who
was a teenager when he met his Master, next to whom he leaned in the Holy
Supper as if He were His older brother, and from Whom he received the
command to take care of Mary, His mother. Therefore this book deserves to
close The Bible for two reasons: the first due to its content and the second
because it was the last written.
KEYS TO REVELATION
John receives a series of visions, similar to those received by the prophets
of the Old Testament centuries earlier, Daniel, Ezekiel and Zechariah. All
the symbolism of Revelation is already in the Bible, but Revelation is
the prophetical jewel of The Bible that unites
and organizes all the information in one book, as if it were the plans of
prophetical historical architecture. Animals and their symbolism, numbers,
colours and the firmament and its spiritual significance are keys to keep
the "message" for it to reach humanity.
You may read
more studies about Biblical Eschatology.
To go deeper into Revelation you may contact Yahshua.net for specific Text
interpretation, or read books from recognized seminars.
But Revelation is not only a prophetical book, but most of all
–and this is something that those who
know The Bible will have realized and studied–
it is the definitive and explicative book of all the story of humanity, a
book that puts events in order, that unties man's history, the one of the
people of Israel, of the Church and of nations. That explains the fight
between God and His angels, and the devil and his angels, and how God wins
and reigns over all, for His is existence and Creation. MacDonald comments
in his Bible Commentary that Revelation has been designated by many as the
"Grand Central Station" where all trains go, referring to trains of
thinking, of interpretation and of historical events, past, present and
future, the Biblical station where all the other books of The Bible go, from
Genesis.
The interpretations of Revelation are many but
we can talk about four main lines of basic interpretation. The preterist
which understands the content as history already happened in the time when
it was written. The historical-prophetical which understands the book as a
scheme of history of humanity, of Israel and the Church and of the fight
between good and evil at the end of time. The futuristic, sees all the book,
from chap. 3 as pending to happen at the end of time. And the symbolic,
which interprets all the book as visions of the truths that will happen in
the history of the Church.
Revelation includes past, present and future,
therefore it can be seen in three divisions, but where we find the key to
all the book is in 1:19 when Jesus Christ tells John: "...Write the things
which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will
take place after this." Those which you have seen, are told in 1:10-18
Christ in the midst of the seven lamp stands of gold. Those which are, cover
chapters 2 and 3 about the story of the Church, from its decadence, until
its final rejection, the ecumenical and apostate church, that which we now
see in our days. And those which will take place after this, the seals, the
trumpets, the rapture, the millennium, the judgment, the new Jerusalem.
Number 7 is central in the entire book. 7
churches, 7 lamp stands or churches, 7 seals, 7 trumpets, 7 angels or stars,
7 plagues from 7 cups.
Resume of Revelation: Jesus Christ shows John
the revelation that the Father gave Him for the Church, with a promise of
blessing for all those who read the book 1:1-3. John greets the seven
churches of Asia, to which he warns that Jesus Christ comes with the clouds
and every eye shall see Him, He who is the Alpha and the Omega, who is, who
was and who is to come, the Almighty 1:3-8. The vision of John and what he
heard from Him who says is the one who lives, but was dead 1:9-20. The seven
churches, who are a mirror of the history of the Church, divided in seven
times which coincide with the character of each of the ones mentioned here,
like Ephesus or the post primitive who leaves its first love, passing
through the medieval, the one of the Reform, the one of the revivals and
finally Laodicea or the lukewarm of ecumenism and of current apostasy, Chap
2 and 3. The throne in heaven with the four living creatures who see all
things, Chap 4. The scroll that could not be opened by anyone except by the
Lamb, with seven seals, and the twenty four elders sing a new song for
Christ, Chap 5. The Lamb opens six of the seven seals, Chap 6. The 144.000
sealed, the saved Jews from the 12 tribes of Israel and the multitude
dressed in white garments, who are those saved from all the nations, who
have come out of the Great Tribulations, Chap 7. The last seal and its
consequences for the Earth 8:1-5. The 7 trumpets and judgments they bring,
first 6 trumpets, Chaps 8:6 - 9:21. The angel with the Little Book which
when eaten by John was suit to his mouth, but bitter in his stomach Chap 10.
The two witness may be Israel and the Church or two prophets: the Law and
the Grace, two prophets of the end of time, Chap 11:1-14. The seventh
trumpet proclaims the Kingdom of Christ and opens the Temple in Heaven,
11:15-19. The woman and the dragon, are Israel and the enemy who persecutes
Christ as He is born, and the descendants is the Church whom he persecutes,
Chap 12. The two beasts or two times of world government, Chap 13. The song
of the 144.000 that only they know, the three angels that announce the
coming of the judgment and the persecution, and "blessed are the dead who
died in the Lord". Reaping of
the Earth, Chap 14. The 7 angels with the last 7 plagues, Chap 15. The 7
cups of wrath of the judgment over the Earth, Chap 16. The great harlot is
condemned, and Babylon falls, a religious and political system that makes
merchandise of souls of men Chaps 17 and 18. The worship in Heaven for the
last victory of the Lord and the marriage supper of Christ with the Church,
the Salvation, Hallelu-Yah!, Chap 19. The millennium and its different
interpretations, premillnennialist, amillennialist and postmillennialist in
Chap 20:1-10. The judgment before the great white throne, where only those
who are written in the book of life of the Lamb, come out blessed, Chap
20:10-15. The new Heavens and new Earth, which coincide with 2Peter 3,
because the Lord says "Behold, I make all things
new", the new Jerusalem that
John sees when caught up by the Spirit to the great and high mountain and
his beautiful description, with an important point in verse 22, that there
was no temple in it; because the Lord God Almighty is the Temple of the New
Jerusalem and the Lamb, Chap 21. Revelation finishes with Chap 22 where we
end with the final eschatological Text which also is about the coming of
Christ, and it tells that is near, and a warning, not to take or add
anything from this book under punishment of suffering the plagues of the
book.
Finally we may say that the addressee are the
seven churches, which represent the history of the Church in their
particular characteristics, which means that they include all Christians, or
those who are called to be. That it is a prophetical book, and we are
commanded not to despite the
prophecies. It is a book of judgment and condemnation of God, but also
poetical, with songs and liturgy and full of spiritual symbolism. But it is
also a book of hope in the salvation of the faithful to God, those who
believe in the work of His Son Jesus Christ on the Cross. And that the
purpose of Revelation is to keep burning the fires, whether of the love of
God in the Church, which is the light of the world, as well as of the hope
in the coming of Christ and the faith of His final triumph where the world
will bow its knee before Jesus Christ, who in His first coming was not
received, because He came to give His life so that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish but have everlasting life, for God so loved the world.
ESCHATOLOGICAL TEXTS OF THE COMING OF
CHRIST IN REVELATION
Revelation is in itself pure eschatology, but in this occasion we will only
concentrate in its centre, the Texts about the coming of Jesus Christ. This
message is parallel to
1Tessalonians 4, from Paul, as it is of
2Peter
3 and his reference to the millennium is also key and fruit of much
debate about the meaning of this period. But precisely Revelation opens and
closes with the parousia, or coming of the Christ:
...Behold, he cometh with
clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which
pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even
so, Amen. Revelation 1:7.
...Behold, I come quickly:
hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Revelation 3:11.
...Behold,
I come as a thief. Blessed is he
that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see
his shame. Revelation 16:15.
...Behold,
I come quickly: blessed is he
that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. Revelation 22:7.
...And, behold,
I come quickly; and my reward
is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. 13I
am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Revelation 22:12.
I think the Lord is coming, and is coming quickly! The
last Text I have kept for the closing.
ESCHATOLOGICAL CONCLUSION
The eschatology of Revelation is its essence. We especially talk, is this
brief study, of the coming of Christ. Christ is coming, is the beginning of
Revelation, what John receives from the Lord Himself, and it is also, as we
have seen along the Texts, the end. Jesus Christ reveals, takes off the
veil, discovers the hidden of the final message to John, although the key to
understand the book is the Holy Spirit Himself, who will talk to the heart
of any disciple who loves God and His living Word, to whom He opens, as well
as the vast amount of information in Revelation, also the message of the
coming of Jesus as true in the heart of the believer. The great hope of
every Christian, of the faith that God has granted us, which can cost us our
own physical life, but which gives us the eternal life in the Paradise of
God and of Christ in the New Jerusalem which descends from Heaven, as the
bride of the Lamb.
The eschatological closing of John revealed by the Holy Spirit in Revelation
is "Maranatha - Christ is coming" 22:20-21:
...He which testifieth these things saith,
Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come,
Lord Jesus. 21The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with
you all. Amen.