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THE REVELATION. Pages 1-10 1. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one great subject of the Word of God being the promised “Seed’’ of the woman. Luke 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself. John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. Gen 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. He is therefore the master-key to the Divine revelation of the Word. The whole Bible is about Him directly or indirectly, and as everything centres in and around Him, apart from Him it cannot be understood. We see that Genesis and Revelation, “the first’’ and “the last’’ books of the Bible, are inseparably linked together. Genesis “is the beginning’’ and Revelation the ending of the written Word, even as the Lord, the Incarnate Word, spake of Himself. Rev 21:6 And He said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. Rev 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and last. Revelation is the compliment of Genesis. Either without the other would be unintelligible.Genesis 1:2 finds its correspondence in Rev 21-22 Without the first chapters of Genesis, Revelation would be an insoluble riddle, as indeed it is to those who treat the record of “the Creation’’ and the “Fall’’ as myths. 2 Tim 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. Without the last chapters of the Revelation “the Book’’ would be a hopeless and heartbreaking record of the failure and doom of the Adamic race. The Bible may be likened to a beautiful and complex girdle or belt, with a corresponding connecting clasp at each end, one the compliment of the other. Do away with either, the girdle is useless, as a girdle. So here Genesis and Revelation are the two clasps of the Divine Word, which link together and enclose between them in “perfection of beauty’’ and harmony the whole of the Scriptures in which God has been pleased to reveal His “Eternal Purpose’’. The key to unlock the meaning and scope of the book is found in… Rev 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet. “The Lord’s day’’ = THE DAY OF THE LORD (JEHOVAH) Isa 2:12 For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low. John was not in “a state of spiritual exaltation’’ on any particular Sunday at Patmos, as the result of which “he saw visions and dreamed dreams’’ . But as we are told “I came to be (or found myself) by the Spirit in the day of the Lord’’. Ezek 1:1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. He is then shown , and both sees and hears the things he records. Ezek 22:8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me things. “The day of the Lord’’ being yet future, it follows that the whole book must concern the things belonging to “that day’’, and cosequently is wholly prophecy. Though partial adumbrations (A faint sketch; an outline; an imperfect portrayal or representation of a thing.) of judgement may be traced in connection with affairs of past history, yet the significant, solemn warning here (John 1:10) that the “judgements’’ in Revelation relate to the day of the Lord, “the day of vengeance’’ . |
