Introductory

Thank you, Mr. Wilson. I did find out about a serious case of fornication I had to deal with this last week, but thankfully it involved my cat. She just had a litter of kittens, and then I think the kittens are only, what, no more than two months old, maybe three at the most. She just barely weaned them, and all of a sudden she looked sort of like a cigar. I thought, wait a minute, what's going on here? So we found out, and I called the vet and I said, how come this cat had kittens like a machine gun? How long can I wait before I get her in to get her spayed? They said, well, after four weeks you better just wean the kittens and get her in here. So I got five more kittens to get rid of. You'd think that after getting rid of 14 I would have learned my lesson, but you know how we are.

We don't learn lessons very well. But anyway, they are cute little kittens, and we've had no problem getting rid of them on Craigslist. We know who the culprit is, because I thought he was a bobcat. This is the biggest cat I've ever seen. This guy is like, you know, 25 pounds of muscle, and he walks around every now and then seeking whom he can devour, like Satan the Devil, apparently, and he chose my little kitty cat. So I'm definitely taking and the new one that we kept, the little female, we want to have at least two cats to fulfill their life's goal, which is to kill gophers and mice around my house. And so I asked the vet, how soon can I get her in? I don't want this happening with that one. She said, well, it's best to wait until six months. So when she's like five and a half months, you know, bring her in and we'll make sure that she's fixed up. So anyway, if that's the worst case I have to deal with, I think we're going to somehow survive. By the way, if anyone wants blackberries, I've never seen a blackberry crop like we've got this year. There's like big clusters of grapes. I think with all the hot weather, the blackberries are almost as big as golf balls and just hanging down, and I've got millions of them. That's not an exaggeration.

So if you want to come out to our place this week, feel free to. We've been picking them.

The Reeves have been out, and they didn't even go where there's lots of blackberries.

They just went down on that one fence line. But we've got lots and lots of them. I'm sure they're everywhere, but if you are interested, certainly please feel free.

When will the world end? 2017 looks like the ideal year for the end of day's predictions.

In fact, some are predicting that this eclipse next week somehow is tied into the end of the world. By the way, it may be a lot of traffic. They're predicting. I don't understand all this, but that was in a total eclipse in Pasco back in 1979, I think it was. Everybody stops, and we all looked up while the radio played music for two minutes when you could see the entire corona cover, like just a little tiny ring around us. That was pretty cool.

But then we went back to work, and it was a normal day. But apparently there are a million people coming into western Oregon to watch this eclipse, which goes all the way across the country. Why can't they go to Wyoming and see it? Anyway.

So Salem Church is canceling next week because they're concerned about the traffic. People are coming in starting to arrive on Friday, some places down on the coast, Newport, and other areas that are right in the penumbra of the eclipse are having festivals, eclipse festivals. So there literally are going to be several hundred thousand people flying into Portland or driving in. So what I'm getting to is you might want to leave early for church next week. Allow yourself an extra half hour for traffic because they said every rental car within 200 miles is taken, porta-potties. There are farmers out at Madras that are renting out camping spots in their fields for like $100. I mean, wouldn't it be great to be a farmer and have all this land just to rent out fields? But anyway, it is what it is, and it is the eclipse of the century for this part of the world. We won't see another one here, they said, for 300 and some years. But some conspiracy theorists believe the beginning of the end times will start 70 years after the return of Jews to Israel. And of course, the UN mandate was 1947, the war was 1948. So, 1940, not 2017 or 2018 are interesting years for those who like to look at the birth of the modern nation of Judah, miscalled Israel, as an indicator of the end times. The Bible doesn't really say that, but certainly those are those that interpret it. The first time that in Europe they had several end of time prediction in the year 1000, many people thought was going to be the end of days, the black death that spread across Europe killed about 25% of the entire European population, some estimates the size 35%. In the year 1346 was widely held to be a sign of the impending apocalypse and punishment from God for sin. Nostradamus made several apocalyptic prophecies.

By the way, have you ever read Nostradamus? It's very vague, it's very general, it's been sort of cryptic talk. He really didn't know much specific, that's for sure. I'm not sure if he knew much of anything other than that anyway. But at any rate, he actually placed the end of the world in 1999, and we are now 18 years on from there. Sir Isaac Newton made an end times prediction. He said that he had come up with the year 1991.

Newton fixed doomsday then later at 2060, but not the exact date. But other thinkers have predicted all sorts of things were all familiar with the great disappointment of the 1840s. Some thought the Haldern Collider in 2008 would cause all of the molecules on the earth to disintegrate. Of course, that hasn't. One of the interesting, in 1806, a hen started laying eggs inscribed with the words, Christ is coming. Words soon spread of the avian prophets and visitors inundated the village to examine the eggs.

Panic gripped many people, and they realized that the writing was done in ink and was still fresh. So that one came to the same conclusion that most modern-day predictions have. The Great Fire of London, 1966, caused some people to think that was the end of the age, because the three-digit 666 were in the year, and the fire broke out, destroyed 87 churches, 13,000 homes.

But surprisingly, only 10 people died. And London was rebuilt after that into the modern city that we find today. Halley's Comet, 1910, and every 76 years before and after that is often used as a sign of the end of the age. And of course, it's not. The end of the world cannot be predicted with numerology. Many have tried 1834, 1844, 1994, 2011. There was a report from some sage back when that when the town of Salento in southern Italy had two days of snow, the world was coming to an end.

And that's happened now quite a number of times, and the world still has not come to an end. Pope Francis is considered by many to be the last pope, because in the 1100s, there was a, I guess this guy was a, he was Irish, and he was some sort of a bishop, a 12th-century Irish bishop, made a prediction there would be 112 popes that would follow the election of Pope Celestine in 1143.

And that, the 112th, of course, is the current pope, and so there may be people who were looking at that and saying that's a sign of the end. Which, of course, it is not, because we have a book called the Bible of God, and the last part of that book is called the book of Revelation, and it is given to us for some very important purposes, one of which is not to predict the year or the day when Christ is going to return, but considering the times in which we live, and considering the world events that we hear about every week, and the possibility of those exploding into something very serious, I thought it might be a good time for us to review some of the important points in the book of Revelation, and make sure that you understand the book, not only how it is organized, but who it is written to and what its real purpose is.

So often that is lost. So this may take several sermons, may take several messages, we'll just give it in series as we have opportunity. But there are important things in the book of Revelation you must know. Number one, the three things that the Bible of the book says it reveals.

And number two, you must know the chronology of the book, which parts are inset chapters, which sections are when the time stops and it goes back and gives you kind of an inset of time and events happening, meeting up to that certain time, and then going on. There have been many errors committed in understanding by believing that Revelation is entirely chronological. It is not. It does begin at a certain point and it ends at the end, but oftentimes it does what they do in movies where they will go back and show you what's been happening somewhere else at the same time the current scene that you've been watching goes on.

We want to begin, let's look over in the book of Revelation. We want to just kind of start at the beginning, and I want you to look first at Revelation 1 and verse 19. Here we have the actual outline of the book, and once you understand this verse, then we begin to build an outline in which the entire rest of the book can be placed.

Revelation 1 and verse 19 says, write the thing. So this book is written down, and we know it came from God the Father to Jesus Christ to the messenger who gave it to John, who then wrote it down for us. So this is directly from God the Father through the angel or the messenger to John, and John bore witness to it and wrote it down for us. But notice there were three things he was supposed to write down. The things which you have seen.

So John had visions. God gave him visions of certain things, visions in heaven, visions of horsemen, visions of events on the earth, and he wrote down the things that he saw for us. So we have the things that he was to see in a vision. Next he says, the things that are. So he described some things that existed in the first century. Those would be the seven churches on the mail route that are given to us in chapters 2 and 3. And other things that are, such as the vision of God's throne in heaven and the angels that are up there around him. But some of the book then is about the things that are. So John writes, the things that he's seen, the things that are, and finally, the things which shall take place after this.

And that is the three-part outline of the book of Revelation. Of course, to begin with, we have a prologue, but there is so much in this first chapter that is important to understand that we don't want to pass over it too quickly. So John was told to write the things that he had seen, which included the glorified vision of Christ in chapter 1 and the things which are concerning the churches in chapters 2 and 3, and the things which shall be hereafter, essentially chapters 4 through 22. So based on that outline, we have chapter 1, chapter 2 and 3, and then the last chapters 4 through 22. Although some of the inset chapters there give us a vision of things that are because they continue forever, such as the throne of God and the heavenly angels that surround that throne.

I want to begin with a little bit of background now. This is from an article that appeared in 2001 in the Good News magazine on the Bible and archaeology written by Mr. Mario Seaglay. It's important we understand something about where John was. John was exiled on the Isle of Patmos. He was exiled during the time of Emperor Domitian. Emperor Domitian was one of the, I'd say, more vicious persecutors of Christians, and I think it's important that we understand who he was and what he did.

So the Bible and archaeology, to begin with, exiled to Patmos. We learned from John that he wrote Revelation from the Isle of Patmos. That is in verse 9. He says, I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Patmos was an island of, essentially, prisoners, an island of punishment. It was a place that people were taken to be punished because they had not, or they had done something that irritated the Roman government or was against their policy. He says, it's in the Aegean Sea, about 40 miles off the coast of Asia Minor, which is modern-day Turkey. Patmos is a small island of about 24 square miles, with a coastline in the shape of a horseshoe.

It was custom-marrying the Roman Empire for convicts to be exiled to an island. The Roman historian Tacitus, A.D. 56-120, in his book called the Annals, mentions the policy of banishing political prisoners to small islands. Patmos was a rocky, volcanic, and sparsely-populated island, an appropriate place to send captives. The banishment there was punishment that often involved whippings and being bound in chains before the prisoner was sent off for years of hard labor in the rock quarries. At John's advanced age, it would have been a harrowing ordeal, yet he mentions it as an honor to participate in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. During the time of John's exile, traditionally 94-96, history records violent persecution against Christians under the reign of Emperor Domitian, D-O-M-I-T-I-A-N, and Emperor Domitian ruled from 81-96. This despot declared himself a god. He was following the example of Caligula, who announced he had turned into a god after he had this sort of a deep sleep or trance experience. So Domitian, the same thing. The other emperors waited until after they were dead, and then other people would declare them god, so they built temples to Tiberius and Augustus and even to people like Claudius. But in this case, Domitian decided he wanted to be worshipped as a god in this life. He's not alone in that. There have been a lot of others in our times, guys like Emperor Hirohito and probably a number of others we can come up with. But he said he demanded the worship of his subjects.

This meant that once a year each head of household had to appear before authorities and burn incense to the emperor and declare that Caesar is Lord. So other religion was tolerated as long as you participated in burning incense to the emperor and declaring that Caesar was Lord. Those who refused were branded as traitors and either sentenced to death or exile. Since Christians confessed they had only one Lord, Jesus Christ, they were mercilessly hounded.

John the last living apostle of the original 12 apparently was banished for that reason.

A little bit of history on Domitian. The historian Pliny called Domitian the beast from hell who sat in its den licking blood. So Pliny was an individual who knew Domitian. Pliny has some letters that go back and forth to Trajan who replaced Domitian later. Trajan was a fairly good administrator of the Roman Empire, in fact one of the best. But from Pliny's letters, this is Pliny the Elder, believe it is, that we kind of find out what was happening during the time of Domitian and what he did. He did not think much of Emperor Domitian. In the book of Revelation, John of the Apocalypse may have referred to Domitian when he described a beast from the abyss who blasphemes heaven and drinks the blood of the saints. So they had a real live emperor who was persecuting Christians to death during the time in which this was written. So it was written at a time when the church needed comfort, it needed hope, when the people who were suffering that way and some of them losing their lives were being exiled into prisonments, that they needed to know there was a hope in the future of a resurrection.

The mission repelled invasions from modern-day Romania then called Dacia, something later emperors would have increasing difficulty doing. He was also a master builder and a droid administrator, one of the best who ever governed the empire. Suetonius, who hated Domitian, had to admit he took such care to exercise restraint over city officials and provisional governors that at no time were those more honest or just. But there was something wrong with him. He enjoyed catching flies and stabbing them with a pen. He liked to watch gladiatorial fights between women and dwarfs. During his reign, he was so suspicious of plots against his life, the number of imperial spies and informers proliferated, as did the number of casualties among suspect Roman officials. Domitian was the first emperor to have himself officially titled in Rome as God and Lord. He insisted that other people hail his greatness with acclamations like the Lord of the earth, invincible, glory, holy, and thou alone.

When he ordered people to give him divine honors, Jews and Christians balked. The resulting persecution of Jews is well documented, and that of Christians is not quite so well. However, the beast that the author of Revelation describes as well as events in the book are perhaps best interpreted as hidden allusions to the rule of Domitian. In addition, Flavius Clemens, a council in 1995, and his wife Flavia Domitilla were executed in exile, respectively, by Domitian's orders, many historians suspect, because they were Christians. The what goes around comes around the next slave of Clemens, James the Fantas, was mobilized and eventually murdered the emperor. So the emperor did not die of natural causes. So what we have is a situation down the pile of Patmos where John is exiled, where he is essentially probably suffering as a prisoner. It doesn't say he worked in the mines. He may have been too old to have been even considered to be a valuable worker or even able to work there. But he was certainly at a time when the church was going through great persecution, and many were having to be giving up their lives on the death penalty if they did not worship the emperor.

Let's begin in chapter 1 and verse 1. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him. So the relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ is given to us clearly by John in all five of his books, especially his gospel. And he continues with that knowledge here because it is so important in our time. It certainly was in his. To show his servants the things which must shortly take place. Now the word revelation is the Greek word apokoloupsis, which means to unveil or uncover. It implies the lifting of a curtain so all can see what is behind it. When used of writing, it means to make the meaning clear or to reveal what is being read. When used of a person, it means to reveal their physical presence.

So this book is The Revelation of Jesus Christ. It's pretty much what it has always been called.

Even the Septuage of the Latin Vulgate, they just simply title it The Revelation, but the Greek word simply uses the first word of that book. In this case, it would be The Revelation or apokoloupsis. So God the Father gave him information of things which must shortly take place, emphasizing that it must happen fairly quickly, that these things were not going to simply take forever. Two or three thousand years in God's time, of course, is very short a period of time. He views time much different than we do, and certainly we need to understand that shortly for us means much different than shortly would be for him. So God gave it to Christ, perhaps illustrating the limitations or the difference between the two. We have quite a number of verses in the Gospels where God the Father gave Jesus Christ. Matthew 28, 18, all power in heaven and earth has been given to me, and a number of other places where things have been given to Jesus Christ by God the Father, and John continues in this theme. Now the purpose is to show what is here, to reveal what is coming, not to hide.

We might, after reading all of these visions of these beasts and various things, think, wow, there's a lot to hide here, but perhaps it's more important to understand that these beasts do represent nations and how they are interpreted because the angel does interpret them in most cases. And so there are certain things that must come to pass. And notice he signified it by his angel unto his servant John. So this messenger that came through was able to signify it, all those things that came to pass. But notice, to show unto his servants. Now the word servants is used 111 times in the New Testament. So the servants of God include quite a lot of people, quite a lot of things, quite a lot of servants, quite a lot of names that we know of. Now the things that he's talking about, the word things, which occurs 45 times in this book, means the events of the whole church, the entire panorama of the church age. We have events in heaven. We have events of the future tribulation of Daniel's 70th week. We have events of the millennium, Revelation chapter 20. We have events of the new heavens and new earth. So the word things there might could be called, or might could be better translated as events, the events that are going to happen and will surely take place in the future. Verse 2, who bore witness, so John bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, which the servants of God in Revelation 12 continue to have. They love not their lives unto death, and they have the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. In other words, the words, the prophecies, the teachings of Jesus Christ. To all things that he saw. So John bore witness to all these things that he saw. Then we get to verse 3, which is an interesting verse. It tells us kind of an SPS as to why this is written. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things. So there are three purposes that are laid out here for this book. Number one, we are to listen. Blessed is he who reads those things. So reading is a form of listening. So blessed are those who read this book and then who hear, understand the words of this prophecy. So this is given to us so that we can read, so that we can then hear it, understand it, and then finally keep those things that are written in the book. The word keep is mentioned seven times in the book of Revelation.

In fact, some of the key words, such as keep and patience, have an eerie number seven to them. The word patience also applies or occurs seven times in the book of Revelation. We all understand there's a meaning, a purpose in the number seven. But we are to listen, we are to read, we are to hear, and then we are to keep those things that are written in this book. Interesting, the last chapter, one of the last things that says, blessed are they that do His commandments, that they shall have the right to enter the tree of life, enter the city and partake of the tree of life. So this book admonishes all of us to keep the commandments of God, to read, to hear, and then to do it. So these three classes of people who are blessed give us the real purpose for this book, and we should never lose sight of that. The purpose for this book isn't to sit down and decipher, you know, June 17th, 2017, or some other date. It is instead to keep those things that are written in it and the admonishments to obey God. John, to the seven churches which are in Asia. So he begins by saying these messages go to the seven churches that are in Asia. But first I want to give a little more background. The material in Revelation is presented as an expanded chronological outline of biblical prophecy. But it's not until Revelation that many Old Testament prophecies can be put in their proper order. In fact, some, especially in Ezekiel and the latter part of Jeremiah, it's a little bit difficult to know exactly where do they fit unless you have the book of Revelation. Now if you hold your place there, let's go back to Daniel 2. We will come back to Revelation, obviously.

But Daniel 2, as you know, is the beginning, the foundation of all Bible prophecy, of all of the four world-ruling powers for all the events of things that are coming that are going to take place. Daniel 2 is very, very important because it begins the story that ends in Revelation 21. Revelation ties up a number of chronologies, a number of open-ended questions that are left unresolved without that book. So here we have King Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel chapter 2, and King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream, and this dream, of course, is about this large kind of a statue. Probably looks like him, but it had four different sections to it. Verse 28 says, there's a God in heaven who reveals secrets. This is after Daniel was brought to him. He may know in Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Now, the book of Revelation is about the latter days, the end of times. This dream that Nebuchadnezzar had begins the story that ends in Revelation 21. So here we have God simply as telling through Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar, what will be in the latter days, your dream and the visions upon your head were these. As for you, O king, thoughts came upon your mind along your bed about what would come to pass after this. And he who reveals secrets has been known to you what will be. And he mentions, of course, verse 30, that it was given to him not because of any greatness of Daniel or the king, but because God wants simply to reveal it. Verse 31, you, O king, are watching and behold a great image, this great image whose splendor was excellent, stood before you, and its form was awesome.

So here we have descriptive words, but not much detail. It says it had splendor, it was great, and it caused awe. People were standing in awe of this great statue. The image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. So there really are five parts to it. There are the four world-rally empires, as it is understood. And, of course, the last part, the feet, are made up of partly clay and partly iron. But verse 34 says, you watched while a stone was cut without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke it into pieces. So this chapter begins with Nebuchadnezzar's reign, and it ends with the return of Jesus Christ and his kingdom consuming all the kingdoms of the earth. It says, the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together and became like chaff from the summer-threshing floors. The wind carried them away so that no trace was found. So there's no more trace found of the kingdoms of men or of world-ruling governments after Jesus Christ returns. But that stone became a great mountain, meeting the New Jerusalem, and filled the whole earth. So we have Revelation 21 completely covered here in this image and the vision of it. This is the dream. Now we'll tell you the interpretation of it before the King. You, O King, are the King of Kings, the God of heaven, has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory. Wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven are, He has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold. And after you shall rise another kingdom inferior to you, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth, and a fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron. So we have the Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian kingdom, and then the Mediopurgeon kingdom, and then the kingdom of Alexander the Great, the Greeks, and then finally the Roman kingdom. Inferior to yours, a third kingdom, and a fourth kingdom strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything.

And the dynasty of Rome basically for about the 140s, 180s BC, until the 400s. The total domination of Rome over the known world lasted about 600 years. Rome basically went from a small city-state to controlling most of the known world in a span of 53 years, almost unbelievable in world history. With the fall of Carthage, they expanded north and other places in the history of the 100s. 200 to about the year 100 BC is just amazing, and of course beyond that, even more. But we saw verse 43, you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay. They will mingle with the seed of men, but they will not adhere to one another just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of these kings, being the kings of these ten toes, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people. This is the first chronologically, the first real prophecy we have of God setting up a kingdom over all the earth. Now there are indications and there are things written earlier, obviously, you know, in the Psalms and other places that we know talked about the kingdom of God and predicted it. But here we have in Daniel's time a specific statement that this kingdom of God shall be set up, it shall not be broken in pieces, it shall consume all kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

I know there are other prophets that mention some similar things, but this is about as plain a statement as you can imagine here given in the time of Daniel. And so we have this stone that was cut without hands that becomes the kingdom of God and consumes the entire earth. So this story begins in Daniel chapter 2, and it finally concludes in Revelation chapter 21. But there's much more to that because Revelation concludes quite a number of open-ended topics in the Bible. Genesis begins with God recreating a new physical environment because the original earth had become uninhabitable. In Revelation, we have a completely new heaven and new earth where all is spirit and renewed Garden of Eden for all the earth, so to speak. Genesis has darkness. Genesis begins with everything is darkness, and God had to say, let there be light to bring light. So darkness then established night and day, but in Revelation, night ceases to exist. All the darkness that has permeated humanity's history has been removed, and that is symbolized by continual light. In Genesis, Satan the devil is introduced and then released to the world. In Revelation, Satan the devil is captured and restrained and removed forever. In Genesis, sin is introduced by the sin of Adam and Eve. In Revelation, sin is destroyed. Sin is gone. There is no more sin, no more pain, no more suffering. Nothing is a result of sin. Sin is removed in the book of Revelation. In Genesis, man surrenders to Satan, and Satan has dominion over him. In Revelation, man is restored through Jesus Christ to a relationship with God the Father and being in his family forever. So the dominion of Satan is removed in Revelation.

All of these are issues that are left open. They're open now. They're not resolved yet.

They are somewhat like this cognitive dissonance that people study about in college and in high school. That it's dissonant is an open-ended subject that has to be dealt with.

Pain, suffering, and death are established. How often do we find people asking the question, why is there pain? Why is there suffering? Why does God allow these things to happen?

The answer is it will be removed because pain and suffering will cease and death, the final enemy, will be destroyed in the book of Revelation. In Genesis, curses are placed upon men and the ground. The earth itself receives a curse. Mankind receives a curse. They are driven out of the Garden of Eden. In Revelation, all curses are removed. It says there will be no more curse. We hear about that every year at the Feast of Tabernacles. What will the earth be like when there's no more curse for man or for the ground?

In the book of Genesis, man is chased out of the Garden of Eden and has no more access to the Tree of Life. The relationship of God's Holy Spirit is removed. But in Revelation, the Tree of Life is given freely to all. Access for everyone in the Tree of Life is restored in the Book of Revelation. Perhaps most important, they are all important, but man was driven from the presence of God. Adam and Eve lived with God in the Garden of Eden, and they walked with God in the cool of the day. But man was then ejected from the presence of God. There were angels to protect the entrance to the Garden of Eden, so man could not give it back in there. But in Revelation, that is removed. Man is restored to the presence of God. It says, he will tabernacle with them. Revelation 21, with the new heavens and new earth come down, the new Jerusalem, that he will, from that time forward, dwell with those who are in his family, that were men and women. So men are then restored to the presence of God forever. The last is that Babylon is established. We have Nimrod, the record of him, and other men came going out and building a city. But we have the system of Babylon, of men oppressing and hurting their fellow man, ruling over them. And that system of Babylon continues to this day. But Babylon is going to be removed, according to the chronology in Revelation 18 and 19. So we have the removal of Babylon. And Babylon means confusion. And mankind's government has been in confusion ever since they decided to create their own. And we have their system of Babylon that continues to this day. So it's very important we understand, as we look at this book, that all of these unresolved questions of the history of man are finally resolved to a very positive ending in this book, that the great questions of justice, of judgment, of how is God going to deal with all of the evils that have gone on through history? How is God going to deal with great murders like Paul Pot, Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and so many more? All of that is resolved in the book of Revelation.

Let's continue now in Revelation 1 and verse 4. We'll see a few things in this section called the prologue. The prologue, essentially, is the introduction of the book. It is the message of Jesus Christ about this book and who He is and what He intends us to gain from it. Without this prologue, which essentially lasts from verse 1 to verse 8, we don't know much about the purpose of the book or what we are doing, what we are to gain from it.

Verse 4, John to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace to you and peace from Him who is, who was, and who is to come. So we have the God giving this as the one who is, who was, and is to come. Now, we will talk about that in a minute because it's very important.

Because the identity of God, the Alpha and the Omega, the Yahweh or the YHVH of Moses' introduction, all that is imperative to understand, and it certainly has been mistaught and misused, and a lot of heresy has gone out for many, many centuries about that. But grace to you and peace from Him who was, who is, and who is to come. And Jesus Christ later calls Himself the one who is and was and is to come, but it also applies to God the Father. Notice and from the seven spirits who are before His throne. So there are seven spirits before His throne. These are symbolized by the golden candlestick, which Jesus Christ is in the midst of as the book opens up. Now, these seven spirits that are before God essentially are seven angels, what it certainly appears to be, and they are letting the Bible be its own interpreter. They are the ones that are giving the messages to the seven churches.

They are pictured also in the book of Zachariah and also a little bit in Malachor in Haggai.

But we have here these seven spirits that are at the throne of God and sending messages to each one of the seven churches. And John sees this in vision, and he understands that there are seven spirits before His throne. Now, the candelabra that was in the Tabernacle and then later in the temple was a seven-candle candelabra. When some people read this chapter, he says he's in the midst of the seven lampstands. I've seen it depicted in some diagrams or pictures as like seven different lamp posts in a circle, with Jesus Christ being in the middle. That probably is not accurate because there was never anything in the temple that looked like that. And as Paul said in Hebrews, that the instructions given to Moses were reflective of what is actually in heaven. So the seven-candle candelabra has the big one in the middle and then the six that come out on these pipes. All of the bowls are exactly horizontal because as they're filled with oil, they all fill with oil to the same level.

They only have to fill one, and then all of them fill up. And on them, then, of course, each has a wick and a candle that was to be kept continually burning. So that is the best understanding, I believe, of this seven spirits or the candelabra that represented them. Jesus Christ being in the middle of it simply means he's standing behind the one in the middle, and all the other six come out from him. So we have in verse 5 or verse 4, the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness.

So the grace and peace came from him, which would be God the Father, who is, was, and is to come, and from his throne and from Jesus Christ. So again, the two are mentioned, God the Father and Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born from the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth. So Jesus Christ's role here is described three ways. He is the faithful witness. He brought the words from God the Father. He did the work that his Father gave him to do, and he said he had the words of life and that his testimonies are true. We could spend a lot of time talking about the places where Jesus Christ described his own validity as a witness and that he came to reveal the Father and the things the Father wanted to be said. So Jesus Christ is a faithful witness. He is the first born from the dead. He later says, I was dead, but now I am alive. So Jesus Christ did die. He says very simply, he is now the first born from the dead. He's the first born of many brethren, and his resurrection gives us hope and faith in a coming resurrection of all of God's people at a future time. So he's the first born from the dead, the faithful witness, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. Now he hasn't taken that rulership yet. The kings of the earth are still ruling over men. Righteous leadership has not yet been instituted, but Jesus Christ has been given the job as ruler over all the nations or the kings of the earth. To him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. So we know exactly who we're talking about, Jesus Christ, the one that died and shed his blood, so our sins could be made white. He has made us kings and priests to his God and Father. So we are to be kings and priests. Peter talked about us being a nation of priests.

We are to be kings, ruling over five or ten cities or whatever responsibility he gives us, that he shares with us in his throne. And priests who not only teach what God teaches, brings the words of God, but also can act as intermediaries when it comes to things like offerings and various placations made. So he has made us. He's telling the readers of this book that God has made us kings and rulers to rule with him and to be priests of God the Father.

To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. So God the Father is the eventual focus of this book.

To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. And we, the saints, those who are called now and had our blood or our sins washed in his blood, are given the responsibility to be kings and priests to God and his God and Father. Behold, he is coming with clouds. He's referring to Jesus Christ returning in the clouds, and every eye will see him. So every eye will see Jesus Christ returning.

You know, God speed that day. Every eye will see him, even they who pierced him. So even those Roman soldiers who pierced him will be resurrected at some point, and they will see him probably in the Second Resurrection. It could also perhaps refer to the descendants of the Roman Empire, the resurrected Roman Empire, and those who taught evil things and those who carried on with the persecution of the church doing Satan's work for him.

Notice all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. There will be seven last plagues.

There will be all sorts of punishments coming on the earth, and men will suffer. People will die.

All the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. Then John says, even so, amen. So here's a summary of who gave us the book. God the Father, the Jesus Christ, Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler over all the kings of the earth, our Savior who forgave our sins by what he did. He's made us to be kings and priests. That's sort of the SBS of the book.

We are then to be ruling the earth with him when this is all fulfilled, and behold, he is coming with the clouds very soon. He says these things shall shortly come to pass.

Now then, verse 8 is a phrase that demands us spend some time on.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord, or says essentially Jesus Christ, but we'll see also later the Eternal, the Father, who is, who was, and who is to come.

Now this term, I am the Alpha and the Omega, is used four times in this book. It's used here in chapter 8. It's also in verse 11, saying I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.

So we're saying I am the beginning and the end, the first and the last. I had no beginning and I simply have no end. Let's also go over to Revelation 22, verse 13.

The last time it is used, Revelation 22, verse 13.

And this obviously is from Jesus Christ. Verse 12 says, Behold, I am coming quickly. My reward is with me to give everyone according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are those who do his commandments, God the Father's commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city.

Now having read those three verses, one might conclude that the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, refers to Jesus Christ, and it does. But turn back one chapter to Revelation 21 and verse 6. And we find here that it is the one sitting on the throne in heaven that says he is the Alpha and the Omega. Chapter 21 in verse 2, I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God, as the Father, is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. And God himself will wipe away, be with them, and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, there shall be no more death, there shall be no more sorrow nor crying, no more pain, the former things have passed away. Then notice verse 5, He who sat on the throne, Jesus Christ is never depicted in this book as sitting on the throne. He has given a throne when He returns, the throne of the earth. But in this case, we have the New Jerusalem, God the Father, sitting on the throne in the New Heaven. And He says, Behold, I make all things new. And He said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And He said, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to Him who thirsts. So here we have God the Father speaking, saying He's the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. And we had three verses that were clearly God the Son, Jesus Christ, saying He was the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Because in reality, they both are. There is no conflict. They both have these roles. Sometimes people like to divide them up. But it is a very risky thing to do that because so oftentimes their roles are the same.

And in fact, it would be very difficult to separate them except for the sacrifice. Jesus Christ the Son died. God the Father did not. Over in Revelation chapter 1, verse 8, we have I think just an interesting sidelight on this.

He says, Jesus Christ speaking says the Lord, He says, Who is and was, and is to come the Almighty.

So Jesus Christ refers to Himself as the Almighty, a term we often apply to God the Father.

Now there's an interesting analysis in this book that I want to read to you.

This book is not written as Bible commentary. In fact, I don't even know if the author, his name is Graham Hancock. I don't even know if he was even considered himself a religious man or a Christian. The book is called The Sign and the Seal, discovering the most shattering historical secret of the last three thousand years, the quest for the lost Ark of the Covenant. So I guess if you're a Raiders of the Lost Ark fan, maybe you've read this.

I think this is probably a more scholarly effort than what's his name?

What's his name? The star of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Harrison Ford. Yes, I wouldn't quote Harrison Ford as an authority on the lost Ark, but Graham Hathcock had done a great deal of work.

He researched the Temple of Solomon and all sorts of things in the Knights Templar.

And this is simply a scholarly work on all the various historical records of that. It's a very interesting read, by the way. And when you read it, you don't get the impression that he is a member of any particular church. He is simply a very thorough researcher. I think the references run somewhere around 100 pages. But what he says concerning Moses in the YHVH, I believe, is very important for all of us to understand. I believe he's accurate in his analysis here. First, he quotes James Fraser's book, The Golden Bough. He says, every Egyptian magician believed that he who possessed the true name possessed the very being of God or man, and could force a deity to obey him as a slave obeys his master. So the origin of a sacred name or a magic name that you could say and cause God, a supernatural God, to do something goes back to the ancient Egyptians.

Thus, the art of the magician consisted in obtaining from the gods a revelation of their sacred names and left no stone unturned to accomplish this end. The Lord, however, did not respond directly to Moses's question. Instead, he replied briefly and enigmatically with these words, I am who I am. By way of further clarification, he then added, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. So when Moses asks God, who shall I say has sent me, he said, I am who I am, and I am the God of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The phrase, I am who I am or I am what I am, was I discovered the root meaning of the name Yahweh used in the Old Testament and subsequently morphed in the old authorized King James Version of the Bible as Jehovah, which of course it is not translated that way and is simply a mispronunciation of the word. This name, however, is not a name. Rather, it is an evasive formula based loosely on the Hebrew verb to be and written for as four consonants which transliterated into the Latin alphabet, our YHVH, but known to theologians as the tetragrammaton, these letters reveal nothing beyond the active existence of God and thus continue to conceal the divine identity from modern researchers every bit as effectively as they had once done from Moses. Indeed, so potent was their mystery that no one today can even claim to know exactly how it should be pronounced.

Brethren ring the tetragrammatron as Yahweh by one insertion of the vowels A and E was, however, accepted convention but not provably accurate. The importance of all this from biblical perspective was that the deity knew and pronounced the name Moses. Moses, by contrast, only managed to obtain from him the ritual incantation, I exist that I exist. Henceforth, therefore, the prophet was bound to answer God and do his bidding. Likewise, all his sorcery in the future would derive from the power of God and from the power of God alone. So of all the commentaries and all of the places I've researched, I believe this author, Graham Hathcock, has nailed that down. The interesting thing is he had no purpose in doing it except to explain it. He was not trying to promote any particular form of religion or worship. But what he says about the YHVH or the I Am that I Am is interesting because the phrase Alpha and Omega and Beginning and Ending in the Greek are the same.

Alpha and Omega has the same meaning in the Greek as YHVH. So these are not formal names of God.

That heresy and that falsehood has been around for many, many years. It's simply God saying, well, I exist and I am the God of your forefathers. That's all you need to know. And in fact, that's why Alpha and Omega and the YHVH can be used interchangeably and it can apply to both God the Father and God the Son. I think that's fairly provable from Scripture. So we have this YHVH, or the I Am, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega. If Revelation were written in Hebrew, it would simply say, I Am, but I Am. It would say the YHVH, but it's written in Greek.

So he says, I Am the Alpha and the Omega. I want to go over to a couple other verses, just if you would. Turn over to chapter 4 and verse 8.

The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within, and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is to come. So we have these angels talking about Lord God Almighty, but don't say that He was dead. They don't say that He wasn't. He was and is to come, is the same as the YHVH, I Am that I Am, or the Alpha and the Omega. In this case, it refers to God the Father as a Lord God Almighty. Let's go down to Revelation 11 and verse 17.

We give you thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the one who is and who was and is to come. You have taken your great power and reigned. Verse 18, the nations were angry and your wrath has come.

The time of the dead they should be judged, that you should reward your servants, the prophets, and the saints. So here we have God the Father rewarding the servants, the prophets, the saints.

Yet Jesus Christ says He's going to return with His reward with Him. So the two roles are one and the same. They are the same role being performed by both so that we don't get confused or begin perhaps to try to make differences that are not there. In chapter 15 and verse 3, it says, They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are your ways, O King of the saints, who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name, you alone are holy, and all nations shall come and worship before you. And so again we have the Almighty being referred to there in that section of Revelation. In Revelation 21 and verse 22, I think we have time for this one, I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple.

Another indication that when the term Lord God Almighty is used in Revelation, it is referring to God the Father as opposed to God the Lamb, who is also there with it.

Let's go back now to Revelation 1. I think we have time to cover some of the last part of the chapter here, which is the vision of the glorified Christ. Jesus Christ never intended to be depicted as a dead man hanging on a stick or as a little baby in a manger.

Did you ever think that both of those commonly used symbols are harmless? Nobody's ever been harmed by a little baby in a manger unless you consider baby vomit on your shirt harmful, which, having had it many times, I really don't. I've never had a stick attack me of its own free will or a dead man. So the common vision that is often put forward so that when people hear the word Jesus Christ they think of, they think of a being that is harmless and has no power.

When in reality, when we think of Jesus Christ, we should think of an eternal God that has all power on heaven and earth and is ready to punish those who have persecuted, killed, and tortured his servants and is coming back to this earth on a white horse to do just that.

Revelation chapter 1 and verse 9, John says, I, your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom, so in other words, he was also persecuted, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, one of the seven places where patience is mentioned, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Then he says in verse 10, one of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible, he says, I was in the spirit, and the Greek actually says, during the era of the Lord. Some translate it as the Lordian era, but it is the time in history when the Lord sets his hand to take control. It literally has nothing to do with a Sunday, nothing to do with the day of the week. None of these events simply could not come to pass in one day of the week. So when people try to use that to justify not keeping the Sabbath but keeping a different day of worship, it literally falls apart very, very quickly. I came to be in the spirit on the day of the Lord, or the time of the Lordian era, or the era of the Lord, the time when God was going to set his hand. He said, I heard behind me a loud voice as a trumpet, saying, I'm the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. Again, it is repeated. This is the second time. What you see write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia, to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. So first, John hears this voice behind him, saying that he's the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, and giving him orders to write to these seven churches. Then John turns around. He turns around and says, who's talking to me?

I turned to see the voice that spoke with me, and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. So it's this lampstand with seven candles coming off of it, seven pipes with bowls and with wicks floating on them. In the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like the son of a man. So we know that in this case, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, refers to the son of man, Jesus Christ, whereas in Revelation 21 it was God the Father on the throne, who was the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

Or we might could say the Hebrew, the YHVH. So we have the one like the son of man, clothed with a garment down to the feet, and girded about the chest with a golden band. So it's not a baby, it's not a dead man hanging on a stake, it is a being in the midst of these seven golden lampstands, clothed down to the feet with a golden chest band, a large middle girdle, it's bright gold.

His head and hair were white like wool, so very, very white, and white as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire, so very intense and sparkling, shining like fire, apparently. This is not a being to be ignored or to be interpreted as having no power. His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, so the presence of God, the check of the glory, dancing around his feet, the same as Ezekiel describes at the base of the throne of God in chapter 1 and chapter 10. And his voice as the sound of many waters, in other words, very loud, very imposing, very demanding that we listen to it.

Yet in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. So we have these seven stars in his right hand, and his right hand these symbolize the angels of the seven churches, because that's interpreted in verse 20. The mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand, the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.

So these seven stars he has in his hand symbolize these angels or these messengers to these seven churches. Out of his mouth went a two-edged sword. Of course, Ephesians 6 and verse 17 says, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and that God's Word is like a shining, or like a bright sword that penetrates all the way down to the marrow, or the very core of our life. So out of his mouth, meaning he gave the Bible, Jesus Christ inspired every word, every word as God breathed, and out of his mouth came this two-edged sword, and his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. Very, very bright. The sun is so bright you can't look at it without having your eyes burned and going blind after a short period of time. So this countenance of this individual, this vision is given to us as part of the things that he saw. John was to write down the things that he saw, and he saw that the being giving him this message was indeed the resurrect of Jesus Christ in a form that most people have no concept of what it could be like.

When I saw him, I felt that his feet is dead, but he laid his right hand on me, saying to me, don't be afraid, I am the first and the last. The phrase really means I am the life giver.

I have the ability to bring up and give life. I am the first and the last.

Behold, he who lives, or I am he who lives and was dead. This cannot be God the Father, because God the Father was never dead. But Jesus Christ, the son of man, was one who is alive now, but he was dead. He said that earlier in the chapter, that he's one that was in the grave for three days and three nights, and behold, I am alive forevermore. He will not die again. He's going to be alive for all eternity. Amen. And so be it. That will never change. He says, I have the keys of Hades and death. In other words, I have the keys of the grave. Nobody else does. He's saying, I have the keys to bring people back to life. I have the keys to open up the graves of all people who have ever lived. So we have this incredible vision. Jesus Christ announcing first who he is, that he is beginning in the end, the alpha and the omega, and also here now saying, don't be afraid, because I am the one who was dead. I am the one who is your savior, and I have the ability to bring people back to life. I have the keys of Hades and death.

Then verse 19, we have the three-part division that we mentioned earlier.

The things which he was to see. John was to write down the things which are existed in the 90s A.D. and the things which shall take place after this. And much of the book concerns those. Then he explains the mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands. They are interpreted somewhat in Zechariah and Haggai, but they are interpreted here too. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.

Those churches have angels assigned over them. So whatever error of the church you believe we are in, we have an angel assigned over us. An angel is to deliver a message, but also to do the other work God has for them to do. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, which you saw, and the seven lampstands which you saw symbolize the seven churches. Because the churches do have the oil of God, the Holy Spirit of God, and it is to be burning in our lives. It is to be kept burning all the time, just like the eternal flame was to be kept burning in the tabernacle in each of those seven pipes. So it's a good place for us to take a break. I hope it's been a little bit of an interesting study for you. We'll continue next time in the ensuing chapters, but we're going to make a lot faster speed a little later because most of you have had many, many sermons on Revelation 2 and 3. But it's important that we understand the things which are and the things which are to take place so that you are not deceived by anything you hear in the future.