Samuel L. Morris

Revelation 1:1-8

John: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

“Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”

John: “To the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.

“Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. “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.”

Jesus: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”

—

To John, the beloved, the last surviving Apostle of the Twelve, was accorded the privilege of speaking the final word of inspiration – thereby closing the canon of Scripture. Biblical scholarship differs, however, as to whether the last book written was the Gospel of John, one of his Epistles, or the Apocalypse. In the practical use of the Bible it is of little consequence which of these was the last product of his pen – and therefore the closing word of inspiration. The providence of God, which determined the permanent arrangement of the books of Scripture in their order, has assigned to the Apocalypse the last place in the canon. This has the practical effect of making it the final message of God to a lost world.

Inspired Authorship

From Moses, author of the Pentateuch, to John many “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,” through a period of nearly fifteen hundred years. Profound scholars and the most illiterate, kings and peasants, poets, prophets and philosophers, wrought upon this masterpiece of the ages without collusion or conference, each with little or no thought of the others – nearly forty in all – and there is not the slightest conflict or contradiction from Genesis to Revelation; but instead, a unity of purpose binds the separate parts, like the robe of the Master “woven without seam throughout,” – the miracle of the ages. Written in the solitude of the desert or in the heart of the crowded city, emanating from kings’ palaces or from foul prisons, whispered in secret places or proclaimed on mountain tops – considered solely as literature – it is the sublimest of seraphic expression, the deepest of philosophic thought and the most practical and perfect of all moral codes.

Left alone, his companions having all fallen victims of tyrants, the executioner’s axe or the fiery furnace, John, nearly one hundred years of age, formally closes the canon of Scripture; and the voice of Inspiration is hushed till the trumpet shall sound, which will summon a world to the grand assize for its final account.

Patmos

The date of its composition is somewhat uncertain. Whether this “Revelation,” intended primarily for “the Seven Churches which are in Asia” – and ultimately for the church of God throughout the ages – was given in AD 67 or in AD 96 cannot now be determined. The historic place, however, is not left to conjecture. “The isle that is called Patmos,” a barren rocky land of mountain ridges in the Mediterranean, enjoys its chief distinction as being the scene of John’s banishment – “for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ,” – which event occurred during the reign of Nero about AD 67, or during the persecution of Domitian in AD 96. If written before the destruction of Jerusalem AD 70, that fact would throw light upon the interpretation of certain significant passages, serving perhaps as a warning to contemporary Christians; but this would in no way affect its meaning and message for the church of succeeding ages. It matters little to Christians of later periods, whether Nero or Domitian – if either – was primarily “the Beast” that symbolises the spirit of world-kingdoms in their antagonistic attitude to the spiritual kingdom of Christ.

Its Place in Scripture

Each separate book in the canon has a sphere and distinctive place of its own. Genesis is the book of beginnings, the only authentic account of creation, and furnishes a brief compendium of the earth’s earliest ages. The remaining books of the Old Testament record the history and experiences of the Jewish Nation. The Gospels contain the early life and ministry of Christ. The Acts of the Apostles is little else than a history of the church in the early days of Christianity. The Epistles of the New Testament narrate the history of Christian doctrine and expound its meaning.

Revelation is not simply a fitting close in its appropriate place as the last book in the canon of Scripture, but it serves as a spiritual rather than a historic program of Christianity itself. Distinctive historic books exhibit the track along which the church has travelled in the past. Prophetic writings reveal dimly the future course of its pilgrimage. The Book of Revelation deals alike with the past, present and future of the Christian Dispensation. Amid the fires of persecution and the fierce conflicts of the church militant, it guarantees assurance of future triumph – an inspiration in every age to disheartened, discouraged, suffering saints.

The Apocalypse approaches Moses in singing of the new deliverance, Isaiah in celebrating the glory of the church triumphant, and it surpasses all others in its description of the New Jerusalem with its pearly gates, its streets of gold and Paradise restored, with its “water of life, clear as crystal” and its tree of life which “bears twelve manner of fruits,” whose “leaves are for the healing of the nations.”

In its distinctive characteristics it is unique. No other book in the entire Bible approaches its conspicuous features. It has an individuality peculiarly its own, pre-eminently striking, not simply in its organic structure, but as well in its internal composition, mystic symbols and spiritual significance.

1 – Comprehensive Epitome of Divine Truth

The Apocalypse is an epitome of the whole Bible, a unique interweaving of all the symbols, types, shadows, figures and fundamental ideas of the entire Old Testament into one comprehensive book of brief compass. Just as the acorn contains in embryo and potentiality the entire oak with its roots, fibre, bark, branches and leaves, so Revelation as no other one book embodies in itself the entire volume of the Scriptures. One cannot fully understand its meaning, significance, scope and design without the greatest familiarity with the “Seraphim” of Isaiah, the “Cherubim” of Ezekiel, and the “Beasts” of Daniel, the “olive trees” of Zechariah, “Babylon” and the “New Jerusalem” of both Testaments, “the song of Moses and the Lamb,” the “Elders” of the synagogue, the story of “Balaam” and of “Jezebel,” the “manna” of the wilderness, the “palms” of victory, the “plagues” of Egypt, the “trumpets” of Jewish worship, the “incense” of the tabernacle, etc. As a whole it is modelled after the apocalyptic writings of Ezekiel and Daniel. What Ezekiel and Daniel were to the Jewish Church, the Apocalypse is to the Christian. Jewish imagery and terms are baptised into a new significance and dedicated to the new task of expressing Christian thought and doctrine. It is New Testament thought and ideas expressed almost exclusively in Old Testament language and symbols.

2 – Its Symbolic Form

Divine Revelation may take the form of authentic narrative, in which the finger of God may be vividly exhibited, and interpreted, as in the case of the handwriting on the wall, or left to the imagination and rational powers of the reader to search out its hidden meaning. It may, however, be cast in other forms – sublime poetic thought, didactic reasoning, prophetic foreclosure of future events and divine purposes; or in the imagery of mystic symbols, resembling and yet differing from allegory, parable and type. The Apocalypse belongs to the latter, presented in a series of mystic visions. The natural and the spiritual are so closely related, the product of the same divine mind, that numerous objects in nature – fire and water, wind and hail, thunder and lightning, bread and wine, rocks and mountains, sun, moon and stars – are capable of conveying spiritual thought. Drummond’s “Natural Law in the Spiritual World” is based upon the assumption that the two worlds are the counterpart of each other.

Symbolism abounds pre-eminently in the Scriptures, and was the favourite method of Christ himself for conveying to the minds of His disciples the most impressive spiritual truth as to His person, mission and relation to the individual believer and the church, saying, “I am the bread of life,” “the door of the sheep,” “the true vine,” etc.

“In the symbol,” says Auberlen, “as well as in the parable, the lower is used as a picture and sign of the higher, the natural as a means of representing the spiritual. All nature becomes living: it is a revelation of God and of the divine mysteries and laws of life in a lower sphere, as much as the kingdom of heaven is in a higher … It is on this correspondence that symbolism and parabolism are grounded. The selection of symbols and parables in Scripture therefore is not arbitrary, but is based on an insight into the essence of things. The woman could never represent the kingdom of the world, nor the beast the church … To obtain an insight into the symbols and parables of Holy Scripture, nature, that second or rather first book of God, must be opened as well as the Bible.” It is, therefore, in accordance with “the eternal fitness of things,” that the judgments of God should be represented by thunder, lightning and hail, and His mercy by the rainbow. “White” is the natural symbol of purity; “red,” the emblem of bloodthirstiness and war; and earthquakes, of mighty upheavals and convulsions.

In any rational interpretation of the Apocalypse there must be no confusion of terms. The same symbols must always be given the same meaning, and interpreted in strict accordance with symbolic language. The characteristic quality of truth is its consistency. Any interpretation of a symbol which cannot apply uniformly is evidence that the reader has missed the way. The symbolic character of the Apocalypse is, therefore, its outstanding feature; and if that fact is not recognised, or is overlooked, the reader will wander hopelessly in the labyrinth of a mystic maze.

3 – Symbolic Numbers

Its most striking peculiarity in this respect is its prevalent use of symbolic numbers – the number seven leading all the rest: seven churches, seven stars, seven angels, seven golden candlesticks, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven thunders, seven vials with the seven last plagues, seven heads of the beast, seven mountains of the city, seven eyes of the Lamb, and seven Spirits before the throne.

As seven is divided almost equally by its components, three and four, so these two numbers play almost as conspicuous a part as seven itself. There are four living creatures, four angels standing on the “four corners of the earth,” holding in their hands the four winds; four angels are bound in the great river Euphrates, etc. Equally remarkable is the frequent occurrence of the number three. There are three woes, three unclean spirits like frogs, three parts into which Babylon is divided, three gates on each side of the city which is foursquare. Even the very divisions of the sevens occur between the three and four parts. This may be verified by examining the message to the seven churches, the seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven vials of
wrath, where there is always a noticeable change occurring between the three and four in each series. This could be abundantly illustrated but would extend the limits of this study beyond reasonable bounds and thereby divert the mind from the real purpose of the author. Other significant figures are “six hundred three score and six,” the number of the beast, and “a thousand years,” the basis of all Millennial literature.

4 – Characterised by Its Christology

No book in all the Bible is so pervaded with the presence, personality, power and purpose of Christ. Not even the Gospels which contain the events of His earthly life are perhaps so complete a revelation of Himself. He appears as its chief personage, introduced in the first chapter as the author of Revelation and chief speaker, delivering the messages to the seven Churches, opening the seven seals of the Book, standing on Mount Zion with the 144,000, leading the spiritual hosts to victory, the judge on the great white throne, and as speaking the final word to the church and the world in the closing chapter. While it reveals Christ in His three-fold office as Prophet, Priest, and King, the larger emphasis is given a different three-fold aspect of His life and work as may be seen by the following:

(1) – Revelation is saturated with the thought of redemption by His blood. It opens with ascriptions of praise “unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” Everywhere on its pages the epithet most frequently given Him is “The Lamb,” the symbol of atoning sacrifice. In the midst of the throne He is beheld, “a lamb as it had been slain.” The redeemed are represented as having “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” It is said, “the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and lead them unto living fountains of waters.” This great multitude which “stood before the throne and before the Lamb … cried with a loud voice saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth on the throne and unto the Lamb.” The victorious hosts are represented as “overcoming by the blood of the Lamb.” The redeemed church is “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” Their names are written in “The Lamb’s book of life.” The New Jerusalem is described as having no need of the sun, “for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof,” and “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.” The river of the water of life proceeds “out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.”

(2) – The outstanding event of Revelation is the Second Coming of Christ. The great prophecy of the Old Testament is the First Coming of Christ. The great prophecy of the New Testament is the Second Coming. It has been computed that one verse in every eleven of the latter refers to it. No other book in the entire Bible is so pervaded with it as Revelation. It opens with the statement, “Behold he cometh with clouds.” In five out of seven of the messages to the churches it is mentioned. The one voice in all the “seals,” “trumpets” and “vials” is the statement, “He cometh.” Revelation 19 contains a magnificent description of His coming:

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

“His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

“And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

The last chapter asserts three times: “I come quickly,” one of the three being the closing message of Scripture which evokes the fervent response, “Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus,” – in which prayer every child of God joins most devoutly. It is the blessed hope of the church, the consummation of all the ages.

(3) – The third distinctive feature in the Christology of the Apocalypse is the “reign” of Christ. Multitudes of those, who love our Lord Jesus most loyally and devoutly, anticipate His reign as some future outstanding event, which shall crown His work and in which all enemies shall be put under His feet, when every knee shall bow and “every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

These fond hopes will be fully and gloriously realised. In their longing, however, for this consummation they lose sight of the fact that Jesus is already on the throne of the heavens. Whatever the future may have for Him, both the Scriptures and the Creed assert: “He sitteth at the right hand of the Father.” The great Commission investing the church with the responsibility of world-conquest proceeds upon the basis that He is already on the throne, now reigning, and His guiding hand is not impotent: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth … And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” The Book of Revelation furnishes the comforting assurance of His present reign embodied in the hymnology of the church, the following being a specimen:

“Hark! ten thousand harps and voices
“ Sound the note of praise above:
“Jesus reigns, and heaven rejoices:
“ Jesus reigns, the God of love:
“See, he sits on yonder throne,
“Jesus rules the world alone.”

The reign of Christ is the guarantee that history is not the result of chance. Revelation is the “unveiling,” the lifting of the curtain, showing His divine guiding and ruling hand, bringing to pass the events of history according to a definite pre-arranged plan.

If faith staggers in its weakness, or gropes in the darkness, Revelation lifts the curtain and exhibits the intimate connection between the things of heaven and earth, demonstrating that the events of earth are directed from the throne. Waves of purposes are revealed as starting in heaven which break on the shores to time. See Revelation 8:5 where fire from the altar in the heavenly realm, “cast upon earth,” was accompanied by startling results in the earthly sphere. One of our poets has given an interpretation of providence, which might have been inspired by a glimpse behind the curtain such as John saw in the Apocalypse:

“History’s pages but record
“One death-grapple in the darkness
“’Twixt false systems and the Word.
“Truth forever on the scaffold,
“Wrong forever on the throne:
“But that scaffold sways the future,
“For behind the dim unknown
“Standeth God within the shadow
“Keeping watch above his own.”

The same Christ on the throne, whose omnipotent hand guides the world in their orbits, takes notice of the fall of a sparrow and numbers even the hairs of the head of the saints. The destiny of nations, the rise and fall of empires, are not more the object of His solicitude and providential oversight than the most insignificant event in the life of His humblest servant.

5 – Eschatology

The last characteristic of the Apocalypse, calling for notice is its “Eschatology” – signifying a discourse of the “last things.” It is the one book of Scripture which more than all others reveals the things pertaining to the end of the Dispensation, the future destiny of the righteous and the wicked, and gives a brief, faint flashlight of the dim unknown, designated as Eternity. As these future events catalogued under the theological term, Eschatology, will come up for consideration again and again in this study, no other notice will be given them here except their enumeration in the supposed order of their occurrence: 1 – Unfulfilled Prophecy; 2 – The Second Coming; 3 – The Resurrection; 4 – The Millennium; 5 – The Last Judgment; 6 – Heaven and Hell; 7 – Eternity. As a summary, the things discussed in this chapter, which characterise and make it distinctive from other inspired writings, are hereby rehearsed for convenient reference: 1 – An Epitome of the whole Bible – with New Testament thought couched in Old Testament terms. 2 – Its Symbolic Form. 3 – The largest use of Symbolic Numbers. 4 – Its exalted Christology. 5 – Its Eschatology.

Copyright. Used with Permission. Taken from The Drama of Christianity: An Interpretation of the Book of Revelation by Samuel L. Morris. Available at Trinity Book Service