The Revelation of Jesus Christ - Extras

---

The Revelation of Jesus Christ was written by the Apostle John while he was imprisoned at the penal colony on the island of Patmos.  Most scholars assign a date of 95 AD to its writing, but the formal writing was done upon his release from Patmos at the death of the emperor Domitian in 96 AD.   John's writing of the Revelation is se3ldom questioned nor is there any significant documentation of such.  The title of the book is accepted as The Revelation, The Revelation of Jesus Christ or the Apocalypse.  It is noted the Greek word for revelation is apokálypsis or apocalypse. 

The purpose of the Revelation of Jesus Christ is to document the things which were, the things which are and the things which will be (Rev 1:19).  He reveals specific information on a view into the throne room of God (Chap 1), the history of the church (Chap 2-3) and the events of the end times *eschatology) including the status of the Church at the end, the rapture of the saints, the Millennial Period, the Two Beasts, the Antichrist, God's Final Judgement of Humankind, the final assignment of the righteous and the unrighteous and the establishment of the New Heaven and the New Earth.

John was speaking to all of the entire Church.  In verses 1-2 of Chapter 1, John states it this way, " 1 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 communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, 2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw."    

The Revelation of Jesus Christ is the core and the embodiment of the entire doctrine of Christian eschatology, the study of the end times.  While greater detail on several components of eschatology is documented in other places like the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of the New Testament, the systemic doctrine for how the entire eschatological system fits together is told here.  John reveals God's process for the entire Church Age from the Resurrection of Christ through the Second Coming of Jesus for the Rapture of the Saints and the Final Judgement of the world.  He shows the extraction of all believers before the initiation of judgement upon the lost who remain.  He demonstrates His unconditional mercy to the lost world by sending 144,000 Jewish evangelists to explain salvation to all who remain.  He shows an enumerable group of people, all who respond, as rescued from the Tribulation Period taking place on Earth.    

The Book of Revelation has more volumes of explanation and evaluation than the combination of any other dozen of Bible Books.  While it is true that the Revelation is written in a different style than most of the other books of the Bible, this study will not concentrate on the style and miss the content.  So, rather than define apocalyptic literature or numerological techniques of presentation, this study will teach content and application and touch on the Apostle John's writing style and reasoning as asides.  The schedule for the presentations are immediately below, followed by the list of studies which including embedded links to take you directly to the study for that date.  The little icon below and to the right allows question or comments which go immediately to the author's email account for responses. 

Here is a list of the words of Revelation's major events of the end times in the relative order of their happening.  During our study of the Revelation, each of these events will be placed into perspective which each other.  We will see there are three interpretations related to the Rapture of the Saints and the Millennial Period which frustrate the solid teaching God presented.  For the Millennium, there are Premillennialists, Postmillennialists and Amillennialists.  The Pre's believe the Rapture will take place before the Millennial Period while the Post's believe the Rapture will take place after the Millennium.  The Amillennialists do not accept that there is a Millennial Period at all.  They believe we are already living in the last days, there is no Rapture of the Saints, no Tribulation Period and Christ's kingdom is already established..

Within the Premillennialists, there are three additional camps.  There are Pre-Tribulation, Premillennialists who believe the Rapture will occur before the Tribulation Period; Mid-Tribulation, Premillennialists who believe the Rapture takes place in the middle of the Tribulation; and Post-Tribulation, Premillennialists who believe the Rapture takes place after the Tribulation.  The preponderance of literature and scholarly teaching centers on the Pre-Tribulation, Premillennialist understanding, so that will be the focus of our study here.  (See Ironside's 10-volume commentary set on that understanding as just one of a myriad of major studies). 

John receives the revelation of the Seven Churches primarily to describe the states of the Seven Churches of Asia or the Churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea..  Looking at the map of the Seven Churches of Asia in the Introductory Section above, will show that these churches are listed in an order starting at the left, or southwestern edge of Asia and continuing clockwise around to the other six churches.  It was not in the order of founding or any order of importance beside that.  However, as you look at the second column in the figure above, it becomes clear the the churches are listed by their dominant characteristics of the General Christian Church throughout the church age.  That is, the church began and operated as an Apostolic Church for its first 100 years and, roughly until about the time of death of the Apostle John, its author.  It continues through its life until it becomes the Lukewarm church of the Church of Laodicea in 1840 through the end of the Church Age.  

Most probably noticed the note in the second column of the Table of Churches above.  The dates on Ephesus, the Apostolic Church, was 30-100 AD.  This represented the purity and holiness of that early period between  about 33 AD when the Christ was founded at the Pentecost when the Holy Spirit became resident in believers.  Of course that ended when the last Apostle, John died a few years after his was released from Patmos.  The period for Smyrna, the persecuted Church (100-313).   Its "10 days of testing" refers to the severe persecution for ten years under the Emperor Diocletian (303-313).  While under persecution, its deeds were exemplary.   The Church at Pergamum (313-538) was the Indulged Church.  They opposed the rise of apostasy, for which they were commended under the symbol of "my faithful martyr Antipas (meaning "against the fathers" or popes) even as the church grew in worldly prestige.   The Church at Thyatira (538-1500) was the Pagan Church.  They were praised for great works more toward the end than the beginning.  But they tolerated Jezebel (Ahab's wife) symbolizing toleration of false religion with its offerings to idols and gross immorality.   The Church at Sardis (1500-1790) was the Dead Church.  The zeal of many had fallen off or died.  The battle between East and West Roman Church was stilled when Constantinople fell to Turks in 1764, leaving Western Roman Church unopposed.  The Church at Philadelphia (1790-1840) was the Loved Church.  They had no reproof against them, but they were weak compared to the power of evil all around them.  This was the Church of the Reformation.  And last, the Church at Laodicea (1840 to Rapture), the lukewarm Church.  No power, no zeal, no progress, totally complacent.  This age ends with Jesus Christ standing at the door of the church knocking to be allowed to com in (Rev 3:20).