And so I arrive at the last book of the bible. For the last few years I have been progressing through the New Testament chapter by chapter – not attempting to provide an exhaustive commentary but focussing on narrative that directly, or more often indirectly, deals with the subject of matters I believe has been revealed to me concerning God’s broader benign providential intentions for humanity. The background to the revelatory aspect is briefly summarized in the postscript at the foot of the post.

So, I am claiming to have had revelations concerning how Scripture should be interpreted, but that does not mean that I am able to explain the meaning of every verse in the bible, and that is especially the case with Revelation. It is riddled with symbolism, much of it cryptic in nature. Yet as its prologue affirms, “Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy andkeep the things which are written in it;for the time is near”. That surely means it cannot be ignored or disregarded by any who claim to take the bible seriously, and as the word of God.

In terms of chronology, reference to time being near may be true from a divine perspective in which as Peter affirmed, “onedaywith the Lord is as a thousandyears, and a thousandyearsas oneday” (2Pet3:8). Not so for us, so much has happened in the 1900+ years since Revelation’s prophesies were written, yet in view of the affirmations of its prologue, it still has relevance for us today, especially if as many Christians believe, its culmination may arrive in our lifetime.

Whose Revelation?

The very opening verse is noteworthy in the context of that to which I frequently and of necessity refer. The Apocalypse is sometimes referred to as John’s Revelation or the Revelation of John, rather it is a revelation to John from Jesus Christ. Yet even He was not its Originator: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicateditby His angel to His bond-servant John” (Rev1:1). The fact that the Father needed to impart information of His future intentions to His glorified Son is another (and final) affirmation concerning the magisterial status of the Father within the Godhead.

This is surely in accordance with our Lord’s and Paul’s depictions, for example in Jn14:28, Acts1:7 and 1Cor8:6. In the context of these posts and my book it is also crucial to understanding what I have been expounding regarding the Gentiles’ unforetold and unexpected  spiritual inheritance (cf. Eph3:1-11; Rom11 vv11,12,15&30). The apostle’s barely understood disclosure in turn has wondrous providential as well as dispensational (millennial) implications that shall also be affirmed later in Revelation.

Such distinct ordering within the Godhead is anyway expedient given that, as Revelation shall also later affirm, God’s human elect are corporately to be wedded to the Lord Jesus Christ (19:7), having been conformed into His image (Rom8:29). Such a betrothal is nevertheless a staggering concept given that Jesus here describes Himself as “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth; (the One) who loved us and released us from our sins by His blood and made us into a kingdom – priests to serve His God and Father” (vv5-6).

As will become increasingly evident, this mighty Apocalypse is not only from the Lord Jesus Christ, it is primarily about Him.

POSTSCRIPT

_{[These posts pertain to an expansive revelation concerning divine providence. That was the result of a prophetic insight received by the author, who in view ofrecent personal phenomenahas come to understand the process he is involved with is itself a fulfilment of scriptural prophecy, both canonical and extra-canonical, more particularly Revelation chapter ten and two related passages from the Book of Enoch (ch93:8-10 and ch104:11-13 Charles edition numbering). The full picture has been set out in “The Little Book of Providence”, freely available asa PDF file, summarized in 95 thesesHERE}.