The Revelation: An Analysis and Exposition of the Last Book of the Bible

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him — .” This is the first sentence with which this last book in God’s Word begins. The best title therefore is, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.” Our Lord received, according to this opening statement, a revelation from God. This must be understood in connection with Himself as the Son of Man. As the Only Begotten He had no need of a revelation; in His Deity He is acquainted with all the eternal purposes. One with God He knows the end from the beginning. But He, who is very God, took on in incarnation the form of a servant, and thus being in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself (Phil. ii:7-8). And as the Man who had passed through death, whom God raised from the dead and exalted at His own right hand, God gave Him this revelation concerning the judgment of the earth and the glory of Himself. “God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory” (1 Peter i:21). What this Glory is which He received from God is fully and blessedly revealed in this book. It is the revelation of His acquired Glory and how this Glory is to be manifested in connection with the earth. And this revelation He makes known to His servants, because His own are sharers with Him in all He received from God.

*Read this introduction several times before taking up the

study of the book.

Pre-eminently His Revelation

The Revelation is pre-eminently His revelation; the revelation of His Person and His Glory. “In the volume of the Book it is written of Me...” (Heb. x:7). Martin Luther asked, “What Book and what Person?” and answered, “There is only one Book — the Bible; and only one Person — Jesus Christ.” The whole Book, the Word of God, bears witness of Him, Who is the living Word. He is the center, the sum total and the substance of the Holy Scriptures. The prayerful reader of the Bible will never read in vain if he approaches the blessed Book with the one desire to know Christ and His Glory. His blessed face is seen on every page and the infallible Guide, the Holy Spirit, never fails to satisfy the longing of the believer’s heart to know more of Christ. Inasmuch as this last Bible book is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, an “Unveiling” of Himself, we find in it the completest revelation of His Person and His Glory.

It is here where many expositions of Revelation have missed the mark. Occupied chiefly with the symbols of the Book, the mysteries, the judgments and the promised consummation, they have neglected to emphasize sufficiently Him, who throughout this Book is pre-eminently the center of everything. The reader of Revelation does well to read first of all through the entire Book with this object in mind, to see what is said of our Lord, of His Person, His present and His future Glory.

We shall find that all the features of His Person and His Work are mentioned. He is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last (i:11); the Ancient of Days (i:14 compare with Daniel vii:9); the “I Am,” that is, Jehovah, “I am He that liveth” (1:18); the Son of God (ii:18). These terms speak of His Deity. His earthly life in humiliation is touched upon in the statement, “the faithful Witness” (i:5). His death on the cross is likewise mentioned — “He hath washed us from our sins in His blood” (i:5); “He was dead’’.(i:18); ‘the Lamb as it had been ‘slain” (v:6); ‘“‘worthy is the Lamb that was slain” (v:12). He is mentioned twenty-eight times as the Lamb in Revelation and each time it reminds us of the cross and the great work accomplished there. His resurrection is seen, for He is called, ‘‘the First begotten from the dead” (i:5), and He speaks of Himself as, “He that was dead, and, behold, I am alive forevermore” (i:18); and again, “‘these things saith the first and the last, who was dead and is alive” (41:8).

Then we behold Him “‘in the midst” in glory, seen face to face by all the redeemed and worshipped by them, as well as by the heavenly hosts and ultimately by every creature, the fulfillment of Phil. #:10-11, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Rev. v:8-14). After the fifth chapter we have His revelation as the executor of the decreed judgments. He opens the seals; He sends forth the seven angels with the judgment trumpets and the seven angels with the judgment vials, in which the wrath of God is completed. ‘The Father judgeth no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son”

(John v:22). Then He is seen in the glorious union with the Bride (xix:7-10) and as the victorious Christ who passeth out of heaven followed by the armies of heaven (xix:11-21), conquering the opposing forces of evil, executing the wrath of Almighty God, appearing as King of kings and Lord of lords. The twentieth chapter reveals Him as the reigning Christ. He and His Saints with Him will reign over the earth for a thousand years. And all which follows reveals: Him and His Glory as well as the blessed and eternal results of His work.

A Book of Prophecy

Aside from the title of the Book, which indicates that it deals with things future, there is a direct statement which determines its prophetic character. In the first beatitude of the seven which are found in the Book, we read that it is a Book of Prophecy — “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this Prophecy” (i:3). It is known to every intelligent student of the Bible that a good part of it is Prophecy. The great prophecies concerning the people Israel and the nations of the world are found in the Old Testament Scriptures. In the New Testament there is but one Book of Prophecy, the Revelation. As it is the capstone of the entire revelation of God, without which the Bible would be an unfinished book, we find in its pages the consummation of the great Prophecies which were given by the Prophets of God in Old Testament times.

For the study of this New Testament Prophetic Book the knowledge of the chief content of the Old

Testament Prophetic Word is therefore an absolute necessity. For instance to a Christian who does not have a fair grasp of Daniel’s great Prophecies, or is ignorant of the place which the people Israel hold in the purposes of God, the Book of Revelation is a sealed book, without any possible meaning. This is one of the chief reasons why this Book has suffered so much both from the critics and from the hands of commentators. The Apostle Peter saith, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter i:20-21). The better translation for “private interpretation” is, “its own interpretation.” It means that the interpretation of prophecy must be done by comparing Scripture with Scripture. The holy men of God, the prophets, were the instruments of the Holy Spirit and made known God’s purposes in a progressive way. To understand any prophecy is only possible by taking the entire Prophetic Word into consideration. ‘That there is a wonderful harmony in the great body of prophetic dispensational truths as found in the Bible we have demonstrated in another volume.* This principle finds its strongest application in the interpretation of the Revelation. The Three Classes

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