Revelation: introduction
The
book of Revelation is the panoramic view of history from the time of John to
the end of time: part of it is prophecy; part of it is historical trends. By
way of introduction there are several things to note.
a. The perspective of prophecy
1. The Church Age is a dead spot as
far as prophecy is concerned. That is, there is no prophecy in the Church Age
except the terminating event, the Rapture of the Church. The Church Age is the
age of historical trends, it is not a dispensation of prophecy. No prophecy has
to be fulfilled in the Church Age. That includes the regathering of Israel and
all of the other freakish things that people use to say the Rapture is going to
occur in this generation. This is a false hope. It may occur in this
generation; it could occur tonight. By the same token the Rapture could be 1000
years away, and that would lead a lot of people astray and even become a
distraction from the perception of Bible doctrine. It is far more important for
you to know the doctrine of impersonal love, for example, than it is for you to
know the day, the hour, the moment that the Rapture occurs. No one knows the
day, the hour, or the moment that the Rapture will occur. It is important
therefore in learning doctrine to make our applications to history rather than
to prophecy.
2. Therefore this means that no
prophecy is being fulfilled during the Church Age. The Church Age is the
dispensation of historical trends.
3. The next prophetical event in the
Rapture or the resurrection of the Church. In the meantime there are simply
historical trends but no prophecy.
4. Historical trends is technical in
the sense of relating to the impact of the royal family of God on history. That
is what historical trends means in the light of the Word of God, the impact of
the Church Age believer; the royal family of God on history. That impact is
based upon either objective reality or subjective reality.
5. The primary consideration is the
believer’s relationship to the dynaspheres. Which category is the issue: the dynasphere
invented by God or the two invented by Satan?
6. Because the believer is weak —
and, as a matter of fact, all of homo sapien
is weak — and inferior to angels he must depend on a power much greater than
himself in order to survive and thrive in the devil’s world. The choice is
limited to the power spheres of Satan, which we call the cosmic dynaspheres, or
the power system of God known as the divine dynasphere. It is this daily
decision on the part of the believer that determines the historical trends in
any given generation and in any geographical location during the dispensation
of the Church.
7. It therefore becomes imperative
that we as believers become aware of the principle of historical trends. It is
related to our mandates as believers in Jesus Christ and it is the fulfilment
of God’s will and God’s plan that becomes the great issue in the spiritual
life. We face an issue that no generation has ever faced before. In previous
dispensations there was always unfulfilled prophecy; this dispensation is
different, there is no prophecy to be fulfilled. This means that instead of
being prophecy conscious with regard to the Christian way of life we must
become historical trend conscious.
b. Historical trends
1. Historical trends during the
Church Age depend on the number of believers in any given generation deciding
for residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.
2. When a maximum number of
believers in this dispensation perpetuate their spiritual momentum to the point
of maturity a large pivot of mature believers is formed. The world historically
lives on that prosperity — blessing by association.
3. But when a maximum number of
believers live in the cosmic system during any given generation, the client
nation to God malfunctions and historical disaster occurs throughout planet
earth. But even though disaster exists there are no tragedies in history.
4. Historical blessing then is the
result of a maximum number of believers living in the divine dynasphere,
whereas historical disaster finds a maximum number of believers living out
their lives in the cosmic system. Both peoples and nations are the products of
their own decisions. No nation ever suffers historical disaster unless they ask
for it. Peoples and individuals must take the responsibility for their own
decisions.
5. Historical trends then depend on
the spiritual life of the individual believer. This is the invisible factor of
history rather than the obvious and visible factor of human leadership plus the
economic interpretation of history.
6. Believers residing in the divine dynasphere
influence the historical trends in the direction of blessing, while believers
residing in the cosmic system influence historical trends in the direction of
degeneration and disaster.
7. The predictability of historical
trends is based on the impact of objective reality of those believers and
unbelievers whose modus operandi is related to the divine dynaspheres.
8. Therefore the second and third
chapters of Revelation are a summary of the historical trends of the Church
Age, they are not a prophecy. All seven churches represent trends at any moment
in any part of the earth right now, there is no chronological sequence of
events from the seven churches. Prophecy does not begin until the removal of
the Church by the resurrection or the Rapture. Then the Tribulation or Daniel’s
seventieth week begins and, with it, prophecy begins. In the meantime Jesus
Christ controls history.
Summary #1
1. The Church Age is located between
the two greatest prophetical periods of human history, the first and second
advents of Jesus Christ. The Church Age is a dead spot, there is no prophecy in
the Church Age. Before it we have a tremendous period of prophecy and after it
we have another tremendous period of prophecy. In between these two great
prophetic periods we live in the most thrilling age of all because it is a dead
spot, it is not an age of prophecy.
2. The first prophetical period of
human history has been fulfilled so that it is no longer a prophetical period,
it is history to us. Nevertheless that was the greatest of all prophetical
periods. In fact it was so great that unbelievers reject it entirely, including
most of Israel. This first prophetical period includes the incarnation, the
virgin birth, the function of the humanity of Christ inside the prototype
divine dynasphere, the impeccability of Jesus Christ, the work of Christ on the
cross — redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, our Lord’s physical death,
burial, resurrection, and ascension. These were all a part of that thrilling prophetical
period. To us it is the most important of all, it is the basis of our so great
salvation, the basis of the fact that we are a part of the patent of royalty.
All of that was in the Age of Israel, not in the Church Age.
3. All the Old Testament prophecies
pertaining to the first advent have been fulfilled and we, the royal family of
God, live in the dispensation of no prophecy and therefore the greatest
challenge to spiritual living that has ever existed. We live in a prophetical
dead spot: no prophecy, only historical trends determined by the believer’s
attitude toward Bible doctrine.
4. The book of Revelation
distinguishes between the historical impact of the present Church Age and the prophetical
impact of the Tribulation and second advent of Christ. In other words, there is
still one very exciting prophetical period built around the second advent of
Christ. It includes the Tribulation, the second advent, the Millennium, the
last revolution of history, and the destruction of the earth. But we have no
part of it, we will be in heaven during those great prophetical events that we
are going to study. We have a far greater challenge because it is the challenge
of the invisible. Only in this dispensation is every believer a priest. The
decisions that the believer makes every day, the decisions of royalty, are
therefore far more important than the run of the mill believers in any other
dispensation.
5. Therefore the book of Revelation
is not written to satisfy morbid curiosity but to delineate the role of the
Church, the royal family of God, in the field of historical impact, and to
reveal through prophecy of the Tribulational events the disastrous nature of
history prior to the second advent. (When Jesus Christ comes back He is going
to straighten everything out. Until Jesus Christ returns to the earth planet
earth is never going to be straightened out)
6. One of the two prophetical trends
of history has already been fulfilled — the first advent, the other is pending,
after the Church has been removed from the earth through resurrection. There is
only one time in human history when the decisions of every believer enter into
the historical trends of a geographical area. We are living in it; we are even
royalty.
7. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the prophetical
key to history and the true title of the book of Revelation is found in the
first three Greek words, Apokaluyij
I)hsou Xristou.
It is the revelation of one Person, the Person who controls history, our Lord
and saviour, Jesus Christ.
Summary #2
1. The Church Age is the
dispensation of no prophecy, the dead spot in history, the period of historical
trends.
2. The only prophecy of the Church
Age is the terminating event, the Rapture or the resurrection of the Church.
The time of that terminating event is unknown to all mankind.
3. Needless to say, the dispensation
of no prophecy is terminated with a prophecy. That is why we have the doctrine
of the imminency of the Rapture. Since the time of the apostles the Rapture
could have occurred, and it could still occur tonight and it could still occur
a thousand years from now. The reason is that in the period of no prophecy you
only have one prophecy which terminates it and therefore everything is historical
trends until that occurs, and when it occurs no one knows.
4. The fact that periodic historical
trends approximate the conditions and circumstances of the Tribulation does not
mean that any given period of Church history is the so-called Rapture
generation. The point is that the believer is to live every day as unto the
Lord and he is to live every day as if the Rapture might occur from now.
5. Circumstances of the past have
often resulted in false conclusions in predicting the time of the Rapture.
6. We live in a time when the
Rapture could occur at any moment, but this does not mean that it will occur
for similar circumstances have existed since the time John wrote Revelation.
7. The first prophecy of the Church
Age is the resurrection or Rapture of the Church.
8. Until then there is no prophecy,
only historical trends which vary with the decisions and attitudes of all
believers in the body of Christ. The decisions and attitudes of believers
towards God’s game plan for the Church Age is basically residence and function
in the divine dynasphere.
9. Do not be misled by so-called
prophetic scholars whose doctrine may be true but whose emphasis is false and
distorted, for the Church Age has no prophetical implications until the
Rapture.
10 Remember that all prophecy
regarding the first advent of Christ has been fulfilled, including the
insertion of the mystery age, the dispensation of the Church — inserted between
the Age of Israel and the Tribulation — therefore we, the believers of the
Church Age, are living between the two greatest prophetical events in human
history, the first and second advents of Christ. The book of Revelation makes
all of the necessary distinctions to keep us from error regarding false
teaching in prophetical fields.
Why am I, a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ, here?
1. At some time in your life you
have probably asked yourself this question, especially when a bad decision has
been made and you try to blame that bad decision on someone else, even God.
2. How many times have you
blasphemed and said to yourself: “Why did God let this happen to me?” — as if
somehow everything around which is distasteful is God’s fault.
3. The first thing you should know
then is that you have a very serious deep-rooted spiritual problem, the problem
of arrogance and preoccupation with self, the problem of ignorance of doctrine
and cosmic involvement. If that is your problem then you obviously cannot
answer the question: Why am I here?
4. Since the day you believed in the
Lord Jesus Christ you have continued to live on planet earth through the
courtesy, grace, power, and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ.
5. As a royal priest and ambassador
for Christ you live on this earth no longer your own person. You are not the
master of your destiny, you are not the Lord of your fate.
6. Since you remain in this life
through the power and the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ you have a right
to ask yourself this question: Why do you reject that power, that authority, by
living in the cosmic system? You are dedicating yourself to a life of complete
and total misery when you ignore the authority of God and repudiate His power.
7. Since you remain in this life
through the power and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ you have the right
to ask yourself another question: Why do you reject God’s authority by
rejecting Bible doctrine?
8. Every time doctrine is available
to you and you do not take advantage of the opportunity to function at gate
four of the divine dynasphere — learning it — you are rejecting the very power,
the very authority which keeps you alive in this life.
9. Some of you are distracted by
preoccupation with self, some of you are simply distracted by seeking pleasure,
and we now have a whole generation of silly young girls who are boy-crazy and
who as soon as they get involved with some young man they depart from doctrine.
Revelation is going to show us that you have a purpose in life as a believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Principle: the decision and
the purpose of the Christian way of life
1. The purpose of the Christian way
of life demands residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.
2. Your excuses and distractions are
not legitimate, not even the ones where you think you can actually blame
someone else for your circumstances. Blaming others is cowardice and
irresponsibility. Adulthood and maturity is taking responsibility for your own
decisions.
3. The power and the authority of
God which keeps you alive and well in the devil’s world is the same power and authority
which provides blessing for you and capacity for that blessing.
4. That same power and authority of
God has provided in logistical grace or what we also call temporal security,
everything you need to face life with its problems, its pressures, its
disasters on the one hand, and its pleasures on the other hand.
5. The trends of history depend on
the believer’s recognition of divine power and authority in his life. The very
power that keeps you alive in this life can take you out at any time.
6. If you make decisions which
result in residence in the cosmic system and you prolong your stay, you have
rejected the authority of God, you have repudiated His matchless grace.
7. Those same decisions to live
inside the cosmic system are the basis for historical disaster, historical
downtrends, as well as your own personal discipline and punishment from God.
8. If you make decisions which
result in residence in the divine dynasphere you are not only accepting the
authority of God but you are utilising the power that He has provided for great
blessing in your spiritual life and in every other facet of your life. And you
have taken the only road to personal happiness and blessing that exists for you
under the principle: “Why am I here?”
9. Rejection of Bible doctrine is
rejection of God’s authority in your life. Rejection of the divine dynasphere
through living in the cosmic system is rejection of God’s power in your life,
God’s will, God’s plan.
10. This is the difference between
objective and subjective reality in history. Subjective reality or cosmic
involvement is the downtrend of history; objective reality or living in the
divine dynasphere is the uptrend of history. And since we live in the dead spot
when there is no prophecy it becomes exceedingly important for us as believers
to recognise our responsibility to the power that keeps us on this earth, the
power that has provided a perfect plan and purpose, and to the country in which
we have had so much blessing.
Historical trends: understood when one remembers the
following principles
1. Even though history is the record of man’s decisions and actions it
is Jesus Christ who controls history. This means, of course, that there are two
sources of judgment in history. When our country is judged, just as when client
nation Israel was judged, there are two sources of that judgment: the erroneous
decisions of believers in our country and the wise and sovereign decisions of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. The trends of history are
determined in the Church Age by whether the believer in Christ chooses to live
in the divine dynasphere or Satan’s cosmic system. This affects our economic
situation and our military situation.
3. There are no tragedies in
history. There are historical disasters but these disasters are not tragedies
since these individuals and the individuals who form nations are the products
of their own
decisions,
not their environment. Disaster is an objective reality in history; tragedy is
subjective reality in history. Decisions create environment; environment does
not create decisions.
4. People individually and
collectively are the products of their own decisions.
5. The demand for power exceeds the
need for power. Divinely authorised authority is ignored and brushed aside. We
only have under the laws of divine establishment so many places for authority
and so many places for power. But as more and more people become arrogant they
say: “I should have power.” Therefore, for example, the government creates the
bureaucratic system which actually takes power away from the government. There
are arrogant people in the slums who say: “I have nothing; I should have
power.” So to the scum, power is the name of the game. There is also labour
power. All of these are violations of two principles: the laws of divine
establishment and the whole concept that enforced humility is a virtue related
to authority. Without respect for legitimate authority (which is limited) there
is arrogance.
6. Arrogant people or arrogant
nations never see their own inconsistencies, only the inconsistencies of
others.
7. Jealous people and envious
nations never see their own sins and production of evil, only the sin and evil
of others.
The outline of the book of Revelation
The book of Revelation has nine
major chapters or thoughts. They do not coincide with the chapters in the
English Bible.
1. Jesus Christ is the key to
history and prophecy — chapter 1.
2. The historical trends, or the
Church on earth — chapters 2 and 3.
3. The Church in heaven, or when
prophecy begins — chapters 4-5.
4. The Tribulation — chapters 6-18.
a. The
panorama of the Tribulation — chapter 6.
b.
Evangelism in the Tribulation — chapter 7.
c. The
trumpet judgements of the Tribulation — chapters 8-10.
d. The two
witnesses and the seventh trumpet — chapter 11.
e. The fall
of Satan or Armageddon motivation — chapter 12.
f. The two
dictators — chapter 13.
g. The
principle of grace before judgment — chapter 14.
h. The vial
judgements — chapters 15-16.
i. The rise
and fall of ecumenical religion — chapters 17-18.
5. The second advent of Jesus Christ
— chapter 19.
6. The Millennium and the last judgment
— chapter 20.
7. The eternal state — chapter
21:1-8.
8. The eternal Jerusalem — chapters
21:9-22:5.
9. The termination of the canon of
scripture — chapter 22:6-21.
The outline of chapter one
1. The introduction to the apocalypse — verses 1-8.
2. The occasion of the apocalypse —
verses 9-11.
3. The person of the apocalypse —
verses 12-20.
Chapter 1
The title and the human author of the book — verses 1-2
Verse 1 — “The revelation of Jesus
Christ.” We start out with the objective genitive, the nominative singular
subject a)pokaluyij, which means revelation,
disclosure of truth. That disclosure of truth includes eschatological doctrine.
Notice there is the absence of the definite article in front of a)pokaluyij. The absence of the definite article in the
Greek emphasises the qualitative aspect of the noun, therefore it is translated
with the definite article. We would say “the revelation,” which is a correct
translation for the absence of the definite article with emphasis on the
definite article. With it we have the objective genitive of the two titles of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The first is I)hsouj, and the second is Xristoj. So it is the apocalypse of Jesus Christ, or the
revelation of Jesus Christ which is the correct translation.
After the title we have a patent of
royalty. We begin with the accusative singular from the relative pronoun o(j, whose antecedent is a)pokaluyij, “The apocalypse or
revelation of Jesus Christ.” The first thing that is revealed is our Lord’s
royal patent plus both an historical and eschatological exposition of the
tactical victory of the angelic conflict; “which” — and then we have a subject
for the relative clause, the nominative subject o( qeoj, and this time we do not translate the definite article since it is
generic, merely setting aside the uniqueness of God. And then the verb, the aorist
active indicative of didomi, which
means to give. We wouldn’t know anything if God in His grace had not given us
information. And there is one thing that volition needs: information. The culminative
aorist tense views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint
of existing results. The existing result is a divine text of history from the
time of John to the end of time. The active voice: God the Father produces the
action of the verb, and since the aorist tense connotes indefinite action in
past time this occurred after the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ and was
used in the ceremony in which our Lord Jesus Christ received His battlefield
royalty, His royal patent. The indicative mood is declarative for the
historical reality of our Lord’s royal patent, the battlefield royalty of the
angelic conflict. That is because of His victory in. the angelic conflict, His
strategic victory at the cross, resurrection and ascension. The book of
Revelation therefore is a patent of royalty, the doctrine of which confers the
rights and privileges of our Lord’s appointment to battlefield royalty and/or
the victory of the angelic conflict.
Next we have a dative indirect
object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj used as a personal pronoun,
third masculine singular, referring to our Lord Jesus Christ. The dative of
indirect object indicates the one, Jesus Christ, for whom and in whose interest
the patent of royalty is disclosed. The patent of royalty was issued right
after the ascension; it is now disclosed to us. This explains the book of
Revelation in its true context for this book is the revelation of our Lord’s
royal patent, His battlefield royalty, or how the angelic will be resolved as a
result of the cross, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. The book of
Revelation is both history and prophecy as to the outcome of the angelic
conflict. Satan was defeated at the cross but conflict was not concluded until
the second advent of Christ and then one flurry at the end of the Millennium.
The cross is historical, the second advent is prophetical, and this prophecy
reveals the termination of the conflict.
We now come to the purpose of the
epistle. First of all in the aorist active infinitive of the verb deiknumi, which means to point out, to show, to make known
something, to explain, to prove. Here it means to make known the royal patent
of the royal family of God. Our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ who has
a third royal patent from His resurrection, ascension and session, means that
we are involved in that royal patent and therefore have a tremendous influence
on history, individually and collectively, by the decisions we make regarding
the plan of God, the divine dynasphere. The aorist tense is a constative aorist,
it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the succession
of events in Revelation, gathers them up into one entirety, forming our Lord’s
royal patent, and revealing His tactical victory in the angelic conflict. The
active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb by revealing to
the royal family of God our Lord’s tactical victory in the angelic conflict.
The infinitive of purpose expresses the objective of the action denoted by the
finite verb, “he gave.” All of this is very important because the book of
Revelation is a patent of royalty, the document which confers the rights and
privileges of our Lord’s appointment to battlefield royalty or the victory of
the angelic conflict. This explains the book of Revelation in its true context
for the book is a revelation of the royal patent of God the Son. The book is in
part history and its trends, and in part prophecy which will become a part of
history after the Rapture. The book of Revelation is the prophecy of the
outcome of the angelic conflict. Satan was defeated at the cross, the strategic
victory, and the conflict is not concluded until its tactical victory at the
second advent. The cross is historical, the second advent in prophetical, this
prophecy reveals the termination of the angelic conflict.
With this we have the dative plural,
indirect object from the noun douloj, which does not mean a
servant, it means a slave. It refers here to the royal family of God or Church
Age believers. You and I are slaves of our Lord Jesus Christ, but unusual
slaves in that we have options every day. We have free will, we have the opportunity
to function within the framework of God’s plan or within the framework of the
Satanic administration of the rulership of this world. Douloj means a slave who is totally dependant on his
master to sustain him on earth. Next we have the possessive genitive from the
intensive pronoun a)utoj. It is used as a personal pronoun and is translated
“his,” “to make known to his slaves.”
Slaves
1. Believers are called slaves
because they are totally dependant upon God’s plan and provision for living in
the devil’s world between the first advent, the strategic victory of our Lord,
and the second advent, the tactical victory of our Lord.
2. Being a slave gives the believer
the advantage of being the recipient of God’s grace policy as the principle and
logistical grace plus the divine dynasphere as the provision.
3. Every free will decision a
believer makes in the direction of his master, residence and function in the
divine dynasphere — means blessing.
4. Every decision the believer makes
toward freedom from his master means involvement in the cosmic system — with
loss of blessing. (You can use your volition and run away from your master to
the cosmic system)
5. Being a slave to God the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ means blessing, happiness, and a life full of meaning,
purpose and definition.
6. Being a slave to God means
benefiting from God’s power, God’s authority, God’s grace, and God’s courtesy.
Being a slave to God means benefiting from the divine provision of logistical
grace.
7. Being a slave to God means
degrees of happiness from residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.
Principle: It is no disgrace to be a
slave, provided you are a slave to the right thing.
Next we have the accusative neuter
plural from the relative pronoun w(j. The neuter gender in the
relative pronoun means “things”; the relative pronoun means “which.”
Translation: “things which” — a reference to the historical trends of the
Church Age and the prophetical events which occur after the resurrection of the
Church. Again, the neuter gender denotes the contents of the book of
Revelation. The impersonal verb dei is used quite frequently in
the book of Revelation by John. It is the impersonal verb of compulsion or
responsibility and is translated “must,” “things which must.” Then we have a
prepositional phrase e)n, plus the locative of taxoj, which means soon or shortly. It is an adverbial
idiom, it means with speed or soon or shortly. The preposition is not
translated in the idiom, it is simply translated like an adverb, “things which
must shortly [or soon] take place.” The dramatic aorist tense of the aorist
middle infinitive of ginomai, comes up next. It means to
take place. The dramatic aorist is used for what is about to be accomplished,
i.e. the historical trends of the Church Age. This was written when the Church
Age was in its first century and the trends that were about to take place are
revealed in the next two chapters, plus the prophetical fulfilment of the
Tribulation as the background for the second advent of Christ and His
Millennial reign. The middle voice is a dynamic middle, it emphasises the part
taken by the subject and the action of the verb. The subject includes both
historical and prophetical events and when you put them all together you have a
picture of the history of the world from the time of the apostle John to the
end of time. And you also have them in their proper sequence so that as we move
along we will be chronologically in sequence. The infinitive of time has no
significance of time in itself but derives it from the neuter of the relative
pronoun o(j. Therefore it is simply
translated, “things which must soon take place.”
The chain of communication: It
begins with the intensive use of the conjunction kai, which introduces a fact
which is both surprising and noteworthy, and therefore the translation,
“furthermore.” Then comes the aorist active indicative of the verb shmainw, which means to make a report, to communicate a
message. Homer used shmainw meaning to command or to
issue a directive or a series of directives. Here it means to communicate a
message. In other words, God the Father gave the royal patent to the Son and
when He did He gave Him the area of history under which the royal patent would
function. It functions in the Church Age in chronological sequence from the
time of John in the Church Age, AD 96, down to the Rapture of the Church. The royal
patent is also included for the Tribulation, the second advent, for the
Millennial reign of Christ when the royal patent will be functioning — Jesus
Christ will be the ruler of the world — and then for the great revolution at
the end, and then the royal patent will continue to function through the
destruction of the heavens and this planet earth, and then the creation of the
new heavens and the new earth and the eternal state. In other words, the entire
panoramic view of the royal patent is given in sequence and all the way through
the rest of world history from the time when John wrote this are all the area
of our Lord’s third royal patent. It will function from the Church Age on.
Therefore Revelation becomes the history of humanity from the time of John to
the end of the world.
Next we have the aorist active
participle of the verb a)postellw, and it means here, “having sent
it.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety.
The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The participle indicates
antecedent action. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of
the main verb, shmainw, communicating the message.
The action of this participle precedes that action, having sent it he
communicated the message to His slave, i.e. John.
Here is the chain of command. The
preposition dia, plus the singular of aggeloj, through his angel. Aggeloj is used two ways in Revelation: first of all for the super beings,
angels; but when we get to the angels of the seven churches we are not talking
about angels, we are talking about pastors, communicators of doctrine. Here it
is used for someone superior to human beings, a teaching angel teaching John,
the human author of the book.
Translation of verse 1: The revelation [or the apocalypse] of Jesus Christ, which the God
[God the Father] has given to him, to make known [make known the royal patent]
to his slaves things which must soon [in chronological sequence] take place;
furthermore, he [the glorified Christ] communicated this message having sent it
to his slave, his servant John, through angels.
Verse 2, The human author. First of
all we have a nominative singular, relative pronoun, o(j. It is referring to a person
rather than the content taught. It is translated “who” instead of “things
which” as in the previous verse where we had content. Then we have the aorist
active indicative of the verb marturew,
marturew,
which means here to give a deposition. The book of Revelation is a deposition,
a written testimony of history. Marturew means to testify, to
declare, to confirm, and since this is in writing it means here to make a
deposition. The aorist tense is constative, gathering up into one entirety the
written deposition of our Lord in historical sequence from the time of John to
the end of time, and it is our Lord’s royal patent which is covered in that
historical period. The active voice: John the apostle produces the action of
the verb in writing the deposition which we call the Revelation of Jesus
Christ.
Then we have the adverbial
accusative of reference from logoj, not translated “word” here
but “doctrine.” It is the generic use of the definite article with it and also
it is an appositional accusative translated “with reference to the Word” [or
“the doctrine”]. This is followed by the subjective genitive qeoj, translated “with reference to the Word [or
doctrine] given by God.”
Inspiration
1. Definition: God so supernaturally directed the human
writers of scripture that without waiving their human intelligence, their
individuality, their literary style, their personal feelings, or any other
human factor, His complete and coherent message to mankind was recorded with
perfect accuracy in the original language of scripture, the very words bearing
the authority of divine authorship.
2. No passage of scripture
originates from man’s own thinking independent of God — 2 Peter 1:20,21.
3. The descriptions of the canon of
scripture take cognisance of all three persons of the Holy Trinity. The Bible
is related to God the Father as the author of the divine plan. Therefore in
Hebrews 4:12 the Bible is called the Word of God. The Bible is related to God
the Son as the central subject of the book. Therefore 1 Corinthians 2:16 calls
the Bible the mind of Christ. The Bible is mechanically formed through the
ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Therefore Hebrews 3:7 calls the Bible the
voice of the Spirit.
4. God has placed the highest
possible value on the canon and Bible doctrine — Psalm 138:2, “I myself will
worship toward the temple of your holiness [the real Holy of Holies which is
heaven], and celebrate your person, because of your grace and because of your
doctrine, and because you have magnified your doctrinal teaching over your
reputation.”
5. Doctrine vindicates both the
essence and the plan of God — Romans 3:3,4.
6. The doctrine of verbal plenary
inspiration. It involves the principle of the two mechanical functions in the
formation of the canon of scripture. The mechanical function is described in
principle in 2 Timothy 3:16, “all scripture is qeopneustoj,” and it does not mean “given by inspiration.” Qeopneustoj does not mean inspire, it means God-breathed.
That is inhale and exhale. Inspire is only inhale, but there is also exhale.
The inhale: God the Holy Spirit communicating the truth to human authors within
the framework of their vocabulary, their personality, and their written form.
This is the input of God the Holy Spirit.
Next we have the connective kai, followed by the appositional accusative very
similar to the Attic Greek. Here is the Attic Greek absolute, this is not Koine
Greek, “of the testimony,” marturia, the word for testimony or
deposition. Our Lord gave it verbally so that marturia is verbal testimony. John put a testimony in writing but the testimony
was given by our Lord Jesus Christ, “given by Jesus Christ.” With this we have
the accusative neuter plural of apposition from the correlative relative
pronoun o(soj, used in the category of
quality and number, meaning “about everything which.” And then the verb, the aorist
active indicative of the verb o(raw, what John had seen; “about
everything to which he was an eyewitness” is a better translation.
Corrected translation of verse 2:
“Who made a deposition about everything to which he was an eyewitness, namely,
the word given by God and the testimony given by Jesus Christ.”
Man is the product of his own decisions, not his
environment
1. Environment is an excuse for bad
decisions; volition is the issue in the angelic conflict.
2. Good decisions open options for
greater decisions; bad decisions destroy all options and terminate in disaster.
3. Historically good environment is
manufactured by good decisions while bad environment is the product of bad
decisions.
4. Therefore historically prosperity
comes from good decisions while historical disaster originates from bad
decisions.
5. Good decisions relate to living
in the divine dynasphere while bad decisions relate to living in the cosmic
system of Satan who is the ruler of this world.
6. The best illustration of this
principle is found in the doctrine of heathenism in which heathen are not the
victims of their environment, they are the creators of it. We learn this
principle from three passages of scripture: Acts 17:6, “they have upset the
world” is the way the unbeliever describes it; Colossians 1:6, “the gospel
which has come to you just as in all the world;” 1 Timothy 3:16, “he was
proclaimed among the nations, he became the object of faith in the world.” The
gospel and truth came first and people made wrong decisions.
The origin of disaster
1. There are two categories of
disaster — natural and historical.
2. Natural disaster includes
earthquakes, tidal waves, hurricanes, floods, volcanoes, etc.
3. Historical disaster includes
military defeat, economic depression, famine, disease, degeneracy, crime,
terrorism, revolution, tyranny, and so on.
4. There are two sources of natural
disaster, the volition of man and the sovereignty of God.
5. The volition of man is
illustrated by the careless camper who throws a cigarette into some dry brush
and starts a forest fire.
6. The sovereignty of God in the
function of historical judgment may cause natural disaster, as illustrated by
the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 which destroyed Pompeii, or the destruction of
Sodom during the time of Abraham and Lot.
7. There are two sources of
historical disaster, the volition of man and the sovereignty of God.
8. The volition of man creates the
environment which results in divine judgment, such as the administration of the
five cycles of discipline. Man creates the environment by his bad decisions,
his cosmic involvement, and the result is that the sovereignty of God
administers the five cycles of discipline (Leviticus 26).
The book of Revelation is filled
with historical and natural disasters brought on by the volition of man and
administered by the sovereignty of God.
The postulates of advantage and historical trends — the first three are
personal and the last four are
national.
1. There are no advantages to the
advantages without the advantage. Advantage in the singular is defined as God’s
blessings or an upward trend of history, or objective reality from a maximum
number of believers residing in the divine dynasphere. We will simply define it
as God’s blessing on an individual as the result of his consistent residence
and function inside the divine dynasphere. The advantages in the plural simply
describe the blessings that come to an individual from his residence and
function in the divine dynasphere, especially the development of motivating and
functional virtue, and momentum from gate four to gate eight.
2. If you have the advantage — your
decisions toward doctrine which are positive, your decisions to reside and
function inside the divine dynasphere, your decisions to reject distractions
and temptations — you have the advantage, i.e. those degrees of happiness
inside the divine dynasphere.
3. Without the advantage there are
no advantages. The advantage is the use of your own free will to recover from
the cosmic system when you sin or fail.
4. No nation can have the advantages
(prosperity, blessing by association with mature believers) without the
advantage, the pivot of mature believers who possess objective reality. As goes
the believer, so goes the nation. Our advantages include freedom, the functions
of evangelism, Bible teaching, missionary activity, the enjoyment of certain
pleasures which are closed to other nations.
5. A nation without the advantage
(the pivot of mature believers) loses the advantages and receive from the
sovereignty of God the cycles of historical disaster.
6. No nation can recover its
advantages without the advantage.
a. Believers living in the cosmic
system are like salt that has lost its savour, its ability to impart flavour.
b. As goes the believer, so goes the
nation — the salt of the earth principle.
c. A maximum number of believers in
the cosmic system destroy the advantage of that nation.
d. Therefore the believer must make
daily decisions for the divine dynasphere for any uptrend in the history of
that nation.
e. Both national prosperity and
client nation function depend on the formation of a pivot of believers who have
advanced to gate eight as the basis for forming that pivot.
f. When a maximum number of
believers are living in the cosmic system that nation loses its prosperity
resulting in both natural and historical disaster.
g. The nation can only recover its
advantages of prosperity from God through the formation of a new pivot. (Pivot people are being
constantly being cycled into eternity and a new pivot has to be formed)
7. Loss of both the advantages and
the advantage eventuates in the removal of that nation from history. This means
that the justice of God administers the 5th cycle of discipline to that nation
and only the pivot of mature believers survives, under the principle of the
remnant according to the election of grace.
There are very special blessings
stated in connection with the correct understanding of this book. The first
thing we notice is the special blessing which comes in exegesis and
interpretation.
Verse 3 — “Blessed” is the
nominative singular of makarioj. Makarioj is first found in Pindar as
a poetic word denoting transcendent happiness in life. It means also to be
above normal care and anxieties, to be free from worries, to be happy in that
sense. It doesn’t mean that you will have no problems in life but it does mean
that you will have great happiness. Because of the elliptical style of
Revelation occasionally the verb to be has to be inserted, the present active
indicative of e)imi, “Happy is.” The articular
present active participle from the verb a)naginwskw, which means to gather exact knowledge from something, to exegete, to
teach, to read not in the sense of simply reading but to read in the sense of
interpretation. Since the exact meaning of the verb is to know exactly and
accurately it is used to denote the public teaching of Bible doctrine. So we
will translate: “Happy is he who exegetes for teaching [or, who teaches].” The
definite article with the participle is used as a personal pronoun to designate
those pastors who will teach the book of Revelation as a result of careful
exegesis and study. The perfective present tense refers to what has come to be
in the past but is emphasised as a present reality denoting the continuation of
existing results. The active voice: during the course of the Church Age certain
pastors will teach exegetically and accurately the book of Revelation. The
participle is circumstantial and refers to the fact that even ministers have
happiness. It is a reference to that pastor then who exegetes, analyses and communicates
the content of Revelation to his congregation. There is always blessing to that
pastor who will persist in the study of the Word and be faithful in teaching it
to his congregation.
The second blessing is the special
blessing is for those who will sit through and listen to the entire book. We
start out with the connective use of the conjunction kai which extends the special blessing to the
congregation, i.e. to positive believers in the congregation where Revelation
is taught. This is not found in any other book of the Bible. Then there is the articular
present participle of the verb a)kouw, which does not mean just to
sit there and listen, it means to listen and understand. The nominative plural
definite article in contrast to the previous definite article which was in the
singular is the difference between the one teaching and those who are positive
and concentrating on the exegesis of the book. The present tense is a
progressive present for the function of GAP at gate four of the divine dynasphere. This is
persistence in the perception of doctrine and brings out once again that there
are degrees of happiness for the believer who resides and functions inside the
divine dynasphere. The positive believer produces the action of the verb in
residence in the divine dynasphere, simultaneously in the local church where
the book is taught. The participle is circumstantial, meaning that under those
conditions there is happiness but it does not guarantee happiness for those who
are out “raising hell” while Revelation is being taught in church.
With this we have the accusative
plural direct object from the noun logoj, which sometimes means “word,” sometimes it means
the Word taught [doctrine]. Here it is in the plural so we translate it with
the definite article, “the words.” “Happy are they who keep hearing the words
[the doctrines, the content].” With it we have the descriptive genitive
singular from the noun profhteia, plus the definite article
used for the near demonstrative and we translate it “of this prophecy.”
Happiness
1. Happiness can only exist inside
the divine dynasphere.
2. Each gate in the divine dynasphere
produces a certain degree of happiness.
3. Add to this the manufacture of
virtue. Why virtue? Because as you manufacture motivating and functional virtue
you simultaneously produce a by-product called happiness. Virtue and happiness
go together.
4. Residence and function inside the
divine dynasphere produces the basis for all happiness in life. It produces not
only happiness but a happiness base so that you can be happy in a lot of
places.
5. There are degrees of happiness
inside the divine dynasphere and the perception of doctrine at gate four is
included in this happiness concept.
The third factor this verse is a
special blessing and application. Some of the greatest moments of happiness
that you will ever have are application type happiness conditions. Therefore
the connective use of the conjunction kai,
and with it the present active participle of the verb terew. The present active participle terew, minus the definite article, indicates that this
participle belongs with the previous participle and they both share the same
definite article. Terew means to guard, to watch
over, to keep, to observe, to pay attention to; hence the verb connotes
application. The retroactive progressive present tense denotes what is begun in
the past and continues into the present, the application of doctrine at the
various momentum tests of life.
You are going to find that as you
have testing the application of doctrine brings happiness in the midst of
pressure, that as you have prosperity the application of doctrine to prosperity
guards and preserves your happiness and makes your prosperity meaningful rather
than a basis of distraction and a basis of disillusion.
The active voice: believers living
in the divine dynasphere produce the action, the application of doctrine at
gate four in momentum testing. We also have the accusative neuter plural direct
object from the definite article ta, used as a near
demonstrative pronoun and translated “those things.” The neuter indicates the
content of doctrine perceived by concentration and now applied by reverse
concentration. And then the perfect passive participle which follows from grafw, which means “which have been written,” referring to
the content of the Word of God. The perfect tense is the perfect of existing
state in which the book of Revelation is completed and the emphasis is placed
on the existing results as having this as the completed last book in the canon
of scripture. This is a strong way of saying that the book of Revelation exists
for your blessing and always will exist for someone’s blessing. The participle
is circumstantial and is followed by a prepositional phrase, e)n, plus the locative singular of the intensive pronoun
a)utoj, and it is translated “in
it.”
So we have: “Happy is he who teaches
exegetically, and happy are they who keep hearing the words of this prophecy
[the book of Revelation], and keep preserving those things which have been
written in it.”
Next we have the explanatory use of
the post positive conjunction gar followed by the nominative
subject of kairoj. Kairoj refers to a period of time or a point of time. Here
it refers to any point of time when application of doctrine is pertinent. It is
not referring to any historical occasion, it is simply referring to a point
when it is necessary for you to apply doctrine to a situation, either to be
happy or to survive. So we will translate it: “for the time for application.”
Then we have again the ellipsis which requires the verb to be, and then the
adverb of time e)gguj, “is near.” This means that
the believer must discern and distinguish between the Church Age which is the
dispensation of historical trends and the Tribulation which is a dispensation
of prophecy as far as the Church is concerned.
Application means discernment.
Discernment is the link between teaching and application; discernment must be
both historical and prophetical — historical applied to the trends of the
Church Age and prophetical applied to the prophecies of the Tribulation, second
advent, and Millennium.
Seven special blessings mentioned in the book of
Revelation
1. The function of gate four in the
divine dynasphere, verse 3. Perception and application of doctrine resulting in
wisdom and discernment. There are degrees of happiness in the divine dynasphere.
2. For those believers who die
during the Tribulation there is special dying grace — Revelation 14:13.
3. For mature believers in the
Tribulation who are alert regarding the second advent. Historically the
Tribulation is a very difficult period, it is filled with every possible type
of pressure and keeping one’s wits and surviving and interpreting the time in
which those people live. There is special blessing for alertness in historical
crisis — Revelation 16:15.
4. For those who attend the marriage
supper of the Lamb, Revelation 19:9.
5. For those believers who have part
in the first resurrection, Revelation 20:6.
6. For those who keep the content of
this book, Revelation 22:7.
7. For those who guard or keep His
mandates, Revelation 22:14.
Verse 4, the salutation of the book.
“John,” ‘Ioanhj, the human author of the
fourth gospel and the three epistles of John. John came to the Roman province
of Asia around AD
70, shortly after the death of Paul and shortly before the fall of Jerusalem.
He became the pastor of the church at Ephesus as well as the non-resident
pastor of the six churches that are mentioned in this verse and in the next two
chapters. According to Eusebius, the famous church historian and church father,
John was imprisoned on the island of Patmos in the 15th year of the reign of Domitian,
AD 96, and he
remained their until the reign of Nerva around 97 or 98 AD. On the death of Domitian
John returned to his resident pastorate at Ephesus and non-resident pastorate
of the six other churches of Revelation chapters two and three. But he
anticipated historical trends in all of those churches, so when we get to
chapters two and three and discover that the angel there is a messenger and a
pastor, he is writing to those who would pastor in the future, not to any
present pastor.
John’s father, Zebedee, had a very
successful fishing business. His mother, Salome, followed Jesus all the way to
the cross. She is mentioned in Mark 15:40 and Matthew 27:50. John’s home in Bethsaida
was staffed with many servants, Mark 1:20. His mother was independently wealthy
— Luke 8:3. The description of his home indicates wealth. John was also well
acquainted with Caiaphas who was the high priest and one of the most
influential men in all of the land. John and Peter were close friends and
remained in Jerusalem together after the ascension of our Lord. What brought
them together in great friendship was not the fact that they came from the same
background. Peter came from the opposite background but they merged into a
great friendship not on the basis of the social circles in which they had
previously travelled or their environmental background but because of their tremendous
love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Even during the persecutions of Saul of Tarsus
there was a time when Peter, John and Paul, were all in Jerusalem at the same
time. Peter and John lived there; Saul came in to kill Christians. However John
did not meet Saul of Tarsus at that time but in Galatians 1:19 John and Paul
met in Jerusalem. During the persecution of Herod Agrippa John lost his
brother, James, Acts 12:2, while his friend Peter sought safety in flight, Acts
12:18,19. That left John holding the fort in Jerusalem until shortly before the
fall of Jerusalem. Fifteen years after Paul’s first visit to Jerusalem John was
still in Jerusalem and was listed as one of the pillars of the church. It was
John who took part in settling the controversy between the Jewish and Gentile
believers, Acts 15:6,13; Galatians 2:9. After the death of Mary, the mother of
the humanity of Christ, John was released from his obligation to Jesus
regarding the mother of His humanity. That obligation was taken on in John
19:26,27, and he kept his word. John was a man of impeccable integrity. When he
told the Lord he would take care of Mary he did so, and not until she died did
he depart from Jerusalem. Jesus called John “Son of Thunder” and this indicates
that he was not that sweet simpleton that he has been described as. He was a
vigorous, powerful aristocrat and not some mealy-mouthed hippie! John survived
until the reign of Trajan who began his reign in AD 98. Both Irenaeus and Jerome
wrote that John continued his ministry in Ephesus until the time of Trajan.
John lived to an advanced old age so that he had to be carried to the church to
preach. It is clear that John wrote Revelation on the Island of Patmos around AD 96.
Next we have the dative of indirect
object or dative of possession from the definite article taij plus the numeral e(pta, plus the noun e)kklhsia. It is correctly
translated, “John to the seven churches.” The word “church” is a dative of
indirect object, it indicates the one in whose interest Revelation is written.
Revelation was written for believers. It was written to be explained to
believers by the pastor in the local church. The dative of possession is a
Greek idiom indicating that John is the pastor of all seven of these churches,
and at the moment he is the non-resident pastor of all seven. There were other
local churches in the Roman province of Asia such as Troy, Colosse, Magnesia,
but John was not the pastor of those churches and John did not write to those
churches, he only wrote to his own congregation.
It is an erroneous conclusion to
imply that Revelation was written for believers in the Tribulation. Remember
that this is the last book of the New Testament, it is the patent of royalty of
our Lord Jesus Christ. The dative plural of the definite article taij is repeated because the definite article is used
for the near demonstrative pronoun and translated “to those,” “who are.” Again
we have an ellipsis demanding the insertion of the verb to be into the English
for better translation. The entire book of Revelation was originally written
for the royal family of God. Believers in the Tribulation are not royal family.
This was written for us so that we can learn to distinguish between historical
trends and prophetical trends. This was written for our understanding and
orientation to history. We must not only be oriented to God through residence
in the divine dynasphere, we must be oriented to other believers, we must also
be oriented to history.
Then we have the prepositional
phrase e)n plus the locative of A)sia. Asia is a transliterated Greek word and it does
not refer to Asia as we know it today, it refers to Asia as Asia existed in the
time of John. Today Asia is a continent; in John’s day it was a Roman province,
Western Turkey. It was one of the most brilliant centres of Hellenism during
the period of the Roman empire. It was the cultural centre of the Roman empire
and the wealthiest part of the empire, the prosperity centre.
Now we begin with the actual
salutation. John, like Paul, always emphasises the most important policy
principle in our relationship to God and God’s administration of blessing to us
— xarij, grace. It denotes the
divine policy for the royal family of God, and from grace, without any works or
merit on our part, comes e)irhnh, translated peace but it
means prosperity, “Grace and prosperity.” Next comes the dative plural indirect
object from su, and it addressed to all
believers — “to you.” You can’t have prosperity without grace, and you can’t
have any of these things without understanding the content of this book; this
is another insertion of hidden blessing which will become obvious through perception
of doctrine. And where is it? — “from him,” the preposition a)po, plus the ablative of ultimate source from a)utoj, and it refers to the glorified Lord Jesus Christ in
status quo hypostatic union, now possessing a third royal patent which is the
subject of this book as He is seated at the right hand of the Father. The
entire panorama of history, both historical trends of the Church Age and prophetical
trends of the Tribulation, second advent, Millennium, last revolution,
destruction of the universe; all of these things are a part of the royal
patent. And from the royal patent comes grace and prosperity to us.
Once our Lord received His royal
patent, King of kings and Lord of Lords, the Age of Israel came to a halt and
the dispensation of the Church, the royal family of God, the body of Christ,
began. It is an inserted period of history for the purpose of forming a royal
family of God for our Lord under His third patent. The book of Revelation is
the history of the third royal patent of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no
prophecy in the Church Age which is a dead spot as far as prophecy is
concerned. It is the period of historical trends and you do not have to be a
prophet to know what is going to happen during the Church Age, you have to be a
student of the Word of God.
“from” begins a long prepositional
phrase. The preposition is the Greek word a)po,
plus the ablative of source. It is correctly translated “from,” “him” is a
definite article in the ablative case and we have this definite article to
indicate a personal pronoun. The personal pronoun refers to the one who is the
secret, the key to history, our Lord Jesus Christ. With that we now have the
outline of the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. First we have our
Lord in the present, Jesus Christ at the present time in history. We have an articular
present active participle from the verb e)imi,
the verb to be. It is translated “from him who is.” The definite article is a
nominative masculine singular subject used as a personal pronoun, and with the
preposition a)po is translated “from him’.
Next the definite article also refers to the Lord Jesus Christ the subject of
the book, for Jesus Christ is the key to history. It is translated with the
present participle “from him who is.” The definite article also indicates that
the participle is to be translated into English by a small relative clause. The
static present tense represents a condition which is assumed as perpetually
existing and taken for granted as a fact. It is a reference to the status of
our Lord Jesus Christ at the present time. He is seated at the right hand of
the Father with His third royal patent. He is in hypostatic union, He is
eternal God united with true glorified, resurrected humanity forever. And so
our Lord Jesus Christ has His third royal patent; we are the royal family.
Before the incarnation our Lord had
a different form. He was simply eternal God, not the God-Man in hypostatic
union. So the next phrase in the Greek is our Lord in the past — “and which
was,” kai o( en. First of all “who is” refers to our Lord’s
present status at the right hand of the Father. Next we have the imperfect
active indicative, and with it we have the same definite article in the
nominative singular, o). It is used with the
indicative in the pattern of an entirely different type of Greek, Ionian Greek.
Ionian Greek is the only Greek which takes a definite article with the
indicative. The definite article used with the indicative mood in the Ionic
Greek is used for both a personal pronoun and the relative pronoun, so again we
translate kai o(, the first two words here,
“and.” Then we have “he who,” followed by the imperfect active indicative again
of the verb e)imi, the verb to be, and it
should be translated “was,” and can be translated “always existed.” It is
referring to Christ as eternal God prior to the hypostatic union, prior to the
virgin birth and incarnation. The imperfect tense is the progressive imperfect
of description, it represents linear aktionsart in past time, both eternity
past and history up to the time of the virgin birth and incarnation. The active
voice: Jesus Christ as eternal God produces the action of the verb. So the past
tense takes us up to the moment of the first advent, one of the two key moments
in all of prophetical history, a prophecy now fulfilled by the virgin birth of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Up to that time He was simply eternal God, infinite,
eternal, holy God.
Now for the third presentation of
the one who is the key to human history, our Lord in the future, kai o( e)rxomenoj. We start again with the
connective use of the conjunction kai, indicating a categorical division in this case and
transition. Then we go back to the articular present active participle from the
verb e)rxomai, and it is translated “who
is coming” or “who is to come.” The definite article in the nominative singular
is used for both the personal pronoun and the relative pronoun. The futuristic
present tense denotes an event that has not yet occurred, the second advent of
Christ, but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as
already coming to pass. That is the way you have to study the prophecy in this
history book, things that have not yet happened but are just as certain as any
past event in history. The active voice: our Lord Jesus Christ produces the
action of the verb and the participle is circumstantial, reference to the
second advent of Christ. All prophecy after the Church Age centres around the
second advent, just as all prophecy before the Church Age centred around the
first advent of Christ.
And then we add another phrase: the
connective use of the conjunction kai indicates that we are still
talking about the same person, so whatever the seven spirits are they refer to
the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a connection conjunction, we are not talking
about the Holy Spirit. The preposition plus the ablative is used here, a)po plus the ablative plural from pneuma plus the numeral, e(pta for seven — “and from the seven spirits.” The
conjunction again tells us that we are talking about the same person; the
prepositional phrase tells us we are looking at a different aspect. The kai plus the preposition a)po tells
us that one of these views is going to be expanded. Which one is most important
to us right now? Our Lord as He is at the present. And so the kai plus a)po tells us that this view is
going to be expanded. The seven spirits do not refer to God the Holy Spirit,
that’s singular. It refers to our Lord Jesus Christ and it takes the first of
the three views of our Lord, “who is.” At the present time our Lord is seated
at the right hand and it describes Him under the phrase “seven spirits.”
Now how can we say that the seven
spirits actually refer to the Lord? We have to go back and look at the word pneuma, which means wind, breath, life, spirit [spirit as
part of human personality]. Spirit is also used for elect angels in Hebrews
1:7; for fallen angels in Mark 8:12; it is also used for human personality and
for the Holy Spirit. The word e(pta, (seven) sometimes refers to
the seven pastors of the seven churches, and this means that we have a
complicated principle as far as this “seven spirits” is concerned because we
are going to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ who is, but we are going to talk
about the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of what He has left the Church, the
formation of the body of Christ. So while this is talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ it is talking about, Why am I here as a Christian? Why do I still live?
I live because He has provided a power by which I can live. So “who is” tells
us that He is at the right hand of the Father and to every generation of
believers He has given the seven spirits, He has given a system of power.
We can find more about the seven
spirits by going to Isaiah chapter 11 verses 1,2. The Holy Spirit is not seven,
the Holy Spirit is a power system in the divine dynasphere, as the pervading
influence, as the vital force in our lives, influencing seven pastors. We will
get to God the Holy Spirit under that concept.
Isaiah 11:1, “Then a root shoot that
buds will spring [first advent] from the stump of Jesse” — Israel under the
fifth cycle of discipline. It refers to the Davidic dynasty which started with
Jesse the father of David. It is another way of talking about Israel as a
client nation to God. But since AD 70 it has been cut off for the last time. Three
times the fifth cycle of discipline has been administered to Israel as a client
nation. Now we live in the Church Age, the times of the Gentiles. Only a
Gentile nation can be a client nation to God, there is no such thing as a
Jewish nation in this dispensation. There will be no Jewish client nation to
God until the end of the Tribulation, until the second advent of Christ, until
the dispensation of the Millennium. So the stump of Jesse means historically
Israel is cut off as a client nation to God. The first Gentile nation to become
a client nation to God was the Roman empire.
But there is a time coming. It says
that there is a shoot that will spring up, and that is the first advent. When Isaiah
wrote both the first and the second advents were prophetical. “From the stump
of Jesse,” “from” means out of the fifth cycle of discipline, out of the
destroyed client nation; “and a branch from his roots,” that is Christ at the
second advent; “will bear fruit.”
Verse 2, “And the spirit of the
Lord,” God the Holy Spirit, “will rest on him.” So Isaiah 11:2 prophesies that
Christ would come in hypostatic union. He is the one who is and from the seven
spirits of God, but “and” tells us we are still talking about Christ. We are
not talking about His person however, we are talking about His will to the
royal family, we are talking about our inheritance. And in Isaiah 11:2 we meet
God the Holy Spirit who sustained our Lord Jesus Christ, beginning with the
phrase “who is,” the prototype divine dynasphere. The power system: gate one,
God the Holy Spirit. This sustained our Lord during His incarnation, this is
the basis of our Lord’s impeccability.
Once our Lord is resurrected,
ascended and seated at the right hand of the Father, and once the Church Age
begins, the heritage of our Lord is given to us, only it is not called God the
Holy Spirit, it is called seven spirits because it includes the ministry of the
Spirit but it includes all of the functions of the divine dynasphere. All of
these functions of the prototype divine dynasphere were prophesied in Isaiah
11:2.
First then there is the person, and
He is called the Spirit of the Lord. Spirit of the Lord is gate one of the
divine dynasphere. That is one of the seven spirits because we are looking at
God the Holy Spirit, not just simply as a member of the Trinity but as our
heritage for power in this dispensation. Next, “the spirit of wisdom.” That is
the Hebrew word chakmah, which is a
reference to the application of doctrine. Wisdom is the application of
doctrine, so we are looking at gate four of the divine dynasphere, and one of
its functions, application. So now we begin to see what our heritage is. Our
heritage is gate one of the divine dynasphere but gate one is a person, God the
Holy Spirit. Pneuma has
to be in the singular for the Spirit but this is in the plural because it is an
entire system. The seven spirits is a system and the seven spirits are defined
for us in Isaiah 11:2.
Then we have the third spirit,
“understanding.” The Hebrew noun is binah,
a very strong word for perception.
The fourth spirit is “the spirit of
counsel,” etsah, which means a plan
or a purpose. We have a plan or a purpose, it is a reference to God’s game plan
which is residence and function in the divine dynasphere. So the fourth spirit
refers to the entire plan.
The fifth spirit is called the
spirit of virtue. This is the noun gerubah
and it refers to virtue; it refers to the principle of the Christian way of
life. The principle of the Christian way of life, since it is in the divine dynasphere,
it categorically divided into the invisible life and the visible life. The
invisible life is directed toward God; the visible life is directed toward man.
The invisible life is the function of the royal priesthood; the visible life is
the function of the ambassadorship. This is accomplished by virtue, so virtue
is a word that covers the entire Christian life. Motivating virtue is the
perception of doctrine at gate four, the function of your royal priesthood.
Motivating virtue is directed toward God. Functional virtue is the application
of doctrine at gate four, the function of your ambassadorship.
Number six is “the spirit of
knowledge,” the Hebrew noun daath,
which means insight, intelligence, wisdom. This is the spirit of understanding
historical trends, understanding the time in which we live. It is the concept of
objective reality, orienting to the life in which we live.
The seventh spirit is “fear,” jerah, which means respect or honour,
and it is the function of gate five, social life with God, occupation with the
person of Christ, personal love for God.
Translation of Revelation 1:4 so
far, “John to the seven churches, those who are in the province of Asia: Grace
and prosperity from him who is, and who always existed, and who is to come; and
from the seven spirits [including God the Holy Spirit as the power system for
both the prototype and divine dynaspheres of the royal family of God] ...”
In Isaiah 11:1,2 we not only have
the prophecy of the two advents of Christ but the means of sustaining the
humanity of Christ during His first advent — the Father’s invention of the
prototype divine dynasphere. The power system for the prototype divine dynasphere
is God the Holy Spirit who sustained our Lord during the incarnation, i.e. He
sustained the humanity of Christ. There are seven descriptions of God the Holy
Spirit in this role in Isaiah 11:2. According to Revelation 3:1 Christ’s
humanity in glorified state still resides in and possesses the prototype divine
dynasphere, and in Revelation 4:5 it is stated that the seven spirits are
synonymous with the seven lamps which are the seven churches; again giving us a
perfect picture that the plan of God can never be divorced from the divine dynasphere,
the modus vivendi of our priesthood in the divine dynasphere, the modus
operandi of our ambassadorship in the divine dynasphere. With the divine dynapshere
on earth there can be no prophecy, only historical trends. That will be true
until the divine dynasphere is removed; it only exists during the Church Age.
When it is removed prophecy will resume. There is no prophecy in the Church
Age. Instead there is something that you can understand as a believer, and
should with the seven spirits of God, and that is historical trends.
So when it says in Revelation 4:5
that the seven spirits are synonymous with the seven lampstands, which are the
seven churches, this means two things: it means that the divine dynasphere has
been given to the Church, the royal family of God, for use in this
dispensation; it means that the believer’s residence and function in the divine
dynasphere determines the historical trends of the Church Age. With the divine dynasphere
on earth then there can be no prophecy, only historical trends. In Revelation
5:6 our Lord’s first advent is related to the prophecy of the seven eyes of Zechariah
3:3-4:14. Again the seven eyes are the seven spirits, a reference to the power
system and its function, the divine dynasphere. So the Holy Spirit sustained
our Lord Jesus Christ under the title of the seven spirits related to the
prototype divine dynasphere. The Holy Spirit was given without measure to the
incarnate Christ, John 3:34. The Holy Spirit is mentioned in a special way at
the baptism of our Lord — Matthew 3:16. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is
related to the ministry of Christ in Matthew 12:18,28 as well as many other
passages. When our Lord was bearing our sins on the cross and being judged the
Holy Spirit as God forsook Him.
We have one more phrase in verse four, the accusative neuter plural
from the relative pronoun o)j, and it is correctly
translated “who.” Then because of ellipsis we have the verb to be, followed by
the improper preposition e)nwpion (an improper preposition is
using some other form of speech other than a preposition to act as a
preposition. This was originally an adverb, now used as a preposition), plus
the genitive from the noun qronoj, and
with it the possessive genitive from the possessive pronoun a)utoj, used as a personal pronoun translated “his”
— “before his throne,” a reference to the throne on which our Lord Jesus Christ
is seated at the right hand of the Father.
Translation of verse 4 — “John to
the seven churches, those which are in the province of Asia: Grace to you, and
prosperity, from him who is [the present status of the glorified Christ], and
who always existed [Christ as eternal God prior to the incarnation], and who is
to come [the future status of our Lord at the second advent]; and from the
seven spirits [God the Holy Spirit as the power system of both the prototype
divine dynasphere and the divine dynasphere used by the royal family of God]
who are before his throne.”
This verse emphasises once again
that Jesus Christ is the focal point of history, in fact Jesus Christ controls
both history and prophecy. Jesus Christ permits historical trends, therefore in
history people are the products of their own decisions, not their environment.
Furthermore there are no tragedies in history, only disasters. Tragedy is a
word that belongs to drama but not to history. Disaster is self-manufactured
inside the cosmic system by an act of one’s own self-will. Collective disaster
is the product of collective decisions. The demand for power, then, exceeds the
need for power, for power is the manifestation of envy, jealousy, and
arrogance.
Quoting from Garry North’s book,
‘Successful Investing in the Age of Envy’:
“Envy, i.e. true envy is one of the most insidious evils that can
afflict a civilisation. Envy is not mere covetousness, not just a desire to
steal or illegally obtain anther person’s goods. Envy is that grinding
resentment of another person’s advantages; it is the sin that cannot be
placated. Envy is a destroyer.
Jealousy or covetousness says: He’s
got it; I want it; I’ll steal it; I’ll use it for myself. But envy says
something worse: He’s got it; I want it; I know that I can never get it; I’ll
destroy it so that no one else can have it.
Modern socialism is the politics of
envy. The socialist knows that there are not enough rich people to support all
the poor people of this world. He knows that governments’ programs of wealth
redistribution cannot uplift the vast majority of men but that doesn’t convince
him to abandon socialism. He likes socialism because he thinks that socialism
will make it impossible for the wealth-poverty gap to exist, not because the
poor have risen but because the rich have been pulled down to the level of the
poor. Envy is the politics of economic devolution (degeneration, retrograde
development). When envy becomes the foundation of politics the whole society is
threatened. Men lose faith in the ability of civil government to protect their
property and their futures. Men become secretive, they hide their resources
from prying eyes, they reduce their consideration of others, the concept of
brotherly love is abandoned.”
Article from the Pensacola (Florida) Journal, 3
December 1981
by Charley Reese:
Everything humanity needs is free of
charge.
“God
has provided everything that humanity needs to sustain itself free of charge.
On the surface that may strike you as a strange statement but it is true. If
you feel uncomfortable with the concept “God” then substitute “nature” or
“universe.” The origin of our bounty is not what I want to write about. Look
around you. Everything you see, whether it is a computer, television set, or a
nylon carpet has been assembled from materials which existed on this planet
before man arrived. Concepts like natural or man-made are misleading; man has
never made anything. All man can do is rearrange matter already in existence. A
synthetic anything is merely a new combination of natural materials. Everything
necessary to duplicate out present civilisation existed in the stone age. To
this bounty of natural resources which came with the planet man has added only
two ingredients: knowledge and work. What you see around you, good or bad is
the product of the increased human knowledge of matter and human labour
directed by that knowledge and applied to the matter. It is therefore no
accident that education or the acquisition of knowledge and work have always
been two of man’s most cherished values. Too bad both seem to be falling out of
favour with large segments of the American population.
But now that you see all the wealth
that is created by the application of knowledge and work you can also see that
there are two ways of sustaining life. We either work or we live off the
product of someone else’s work. If we work we are productive; if we live off
someone else’s work we are a parasite. The one exception are those who live off
the savings they have accumulated from private labour.
All of us are at one time parasites.
Children are parasites, though through disease, ageing or accident adults can
be forced into parasite existence in a free society. People choose to share the
fruit of their labour with those who are not productive but for whom they care.
The ancient function of the family is to pool the labour to create a surplus to
provide for those family members who are not productive or who may become
non-productive.
What has happened to us however is
that the Welfare State has been imposed on us by politicians. This State
forcibly confiscates a portion of the fruit of our labour and redistributes it
to the parasites we don’t even know, much less care about. The only claim these
parasites have to our labour is a legal definition created out of thin air by
lawyers. There is nothing charitable or just about the system. Those who labour
don’t feel good about it because they have no choice in the matter; those who
receive don’t feel good about it because they feel guilty for not being
productive. The only beneficiary is government which itself is a parasite and
which uses the redistribution scheme as an excuse to expand its size and its
power. (Remember the principle: the
demand for power exceeds the need for power) More seriously, the system
destroys the work ethic. The lazy have no incentive to work for they are
subsidised; the energetic soon become discouraged because so much of their
labour is confiscated. Since work is the source of wealth every Welfare State,
under whatever guise, eventually destroys itself. As soon as there are more
consumers than producers the standard of living begins and inevitable decline
as the common store of wealth is consumed faster than it can be replaced.
The standard of living in America
today is declining and will continue to decline so long as we allow politicians
to impose this destructive welfare state on us. The alternative to
impoverishment is to return to a system in which everyone is encouraged to work
and no one is encouraged to be a parasite. You encourage work by not
confiscating its fruit; you discourage parasites by refusing to subsidise them.
You want to know how to get Americans off their backsides? Just let the
Government send them a mailgram. Quote: ‘All forms of subsides have now ceased.
If you like to eat, you’d better find a job or a friend in a hurry’.”
Historically all nations come to
this sort of a problem. It is true historically in every nation that has ever
achieved or attained any system of prosperity. The national entity, the empire,
the group, whatever it is, is a product of its own decisions, not its
environment. Decisions create environment, not environment decisions, and when
people allege that environment creates decisions they announce that they are
weak and flawed.
Historically, getting back to our
own country (America), we had three categories of environment, all the products
of many, many decisions. There was the north, the south, and the frontier. The
people in all of these areas were the products of their decisions. Also, this
opened up options for decisions. Eventually the north, through immigration and
through the industrial revolution, became a manufacturing industrial
revolution-type entity; factories, cities, in other words, an urban population
functioning under the principles of management and labour. The south was an
agricultural economy. Each, of course had its own successful people. The landed
aristocracy was the success mark in the south, comparable to nobility in the
rise of western European civilisation. In the north you have successful people
in the monetary field, the rise of capitalism, supply and demand, and you have
your successful millionaires who had no landed patent of nobility, the same as
in western Europe.
Then you always have something to
which people can direct their energies, toward which people can make decisions.
Under the principle of inheritance the eldest son would inherit his father’s
fortune in the north, the eldest son would inherit his father’s land in the
south. And younger sons were often the best and most successful, the ones with
the greatest amount of ability; and therefore they would have the option of
finding their fortune by going to the frontier, the same thing that happened in
England, Germany, France, Italy and Spain over the last 400 years as they began
to emerge from medieval times. So that there were options, opportunities.
But as a land becomes prosperous the frontier decreases, shrinks,
and eventually the frontier will be the source of the whining and the
complaining, for if any of the conquered people are left alive they always whine
and complain and demand damages as the nation reaches its peak of prosperity —
like the Indians, whining and complaining and saying, “This land is ours.” So
that becomes, then, a source of trouble as the frontier shrinks, and while the
frontier is shrinking there is always a class struggle. This happened in
England between the landed aristocracy and the successful manufacturers as they
became successful.
This conflict often ends, as it did
in the USA, in
a civil war in which slavery was merely an excuse. Slavery was on its way out
and would have been peaceably and easily settled within a generation, but it
made a marvellous excuse for arrogance for you see when arrogance intrudes
immediately there is conflict. We have already studied the principle that those
who are arrogant never recognise their own inconsistencies, their sins, their
failures, only the inconsistencies of others. Arrogance in the north saw
inconsistency in the south; arrogance in the south saw inconsistency in the
north, and a conflict was inevitable in those circumstances. The only thing
that could have staved it off was a successful evangelism that brought about
perception of doctrine, the function of impersonal love whereby time would
resolve many social problems. Slavery was a social problem which would have
been resolved, and replaced by other social problems. There will always be
problems and there will always be self-righteous arrogance to handle them
wrongly. The greatest difficulty in problems are the solutions where human good
is produced.
So it was inevitable that a war
would come here; it was inevitable that there would be a French revolution; it
was inevitable that there would be a Russian revolution, because once you
destroy the frontiers and their opportunities prosperity becomes a state of
instability. Once you achieve prosperity you, at the same time, achieve
instability, for a generation comes along that has no appreciation of that
prosperity unless it is a generation of doctrinal people who through the Word
of God have come to develop a capacity for life and therefore appreciation of
what they possess. But generally there is dissatisfaction, and dissatisfaction
can manifest itself through violence, it can manifest itself through the guilt
complex. It has many manifestations, but once there is no frontier at all then
the State receives its greatest challenge. You have no outlet for decisions,
you have no place where people in the south and people in the north can go and
find their fortune, where they can use their energy and make their decisions,
and therefore life becomes a very strong issue. A nation either passes the
prosperity test or flunks it. If it flunks it, it has a tremendous rise in
crime. Instead of people going to a frontier to seek their fortune they make
decisions to become criminals and prey off the land. There is no frontier, just
prosperous people to rob, to cheat, to destroy. You have philosophical opinions
such as redistribution of wealth: “You are wealthy, I am poor, it is beneath my
dignity to be poor, I am going to take your wealth. I am going to take it
through legislation, though violence, through crime. But I envy you and I
intend to have it and if I can’t have it, no one will have it.”
There was a time when the frontier
turned and destroyed Rome. Discontented peoples became restless and
infiltrated, eventually invaded, and destroyed the empire. Whether they were
called Gauls or Huns or Vandals, whatever they were called and by whatever
designation it happened then, it happens again and again and again in history,
demonstrating the fact that human beings are simply unable to handle prosperity
and that most people when you get down to the bedrock of their living, if they
have any character at all they generally do better in adversity than they do in
prosperity. It takes true greatness to handle prosperity, it simply takes
greatness to handle adversity. Prosperity requires more spiritual strength,
more capacity for life, more human ability than does anything else in life; it
is the most subtle of all fields of testing. The prosperity involved is often
pseudo prosperity provided by Satan and if it is real prosperity it challenges
Satan, it challenges those involved, and the decisions that are made often
destroy it before Satan or anyone else can get to it.
The frontiers of the past are now
screaming to western Europe, “We have been exploited”; third world nations: “We
have been exploited.” The Africans have been beautifully administrated by the
Belgians and the English, and in some cases by the French, but the Africans
turned against those who came down and used them as a frontier, and now
everywhere we are going to see what you have never seen before in history: the
stone age trend, in which people appear not to have options. They can’t choose
to go to work because there are no jobs, they can’t choose to live normally
because there is no option for normal living, it has been destroyed by bad
decisions over a period of time. And in their frustration of having no options
at all — closed doors — and failing to realise the source of closed doors (bad
decisions destroy options) they revert to their emotionalism, they can no
longer think, and to survive they emote, they escape through crime, drug addiction,
joining organisations that promise them everything and give them nothing:
exploitation of the masses. They become communists, they enter into areas of
violence, of crime, complaining is a way of life. This destroys any possibility
of capacity for life and therefore lays the groundwork for the greatest rise of
terrorism and crime and violence and masses being directed by conspiracies of
one kind or another. It is not environment which causes this because this comes
from places of wealth and influence as well as places of poverty and
struggling. It is a matter of individual decision and then the amalgamation of
individual decision into collective decision, and then the destruction of
individual and collective decision, and the frustration that brings about
emotion which is irrational. From emotion something snaps and then people go in
different directions which could all be classified as the various areas of
degeneracy, and then you fall back into a dark ages such has occurred at
various times in history.
It is interesting that Revelation
chapters 1, 2, and 3 come before chapters 6 through 19. It is no accident, it
is a part of the picture. We must learn historical trends to appreciate the
prophecies regarding the Tribulation, the second advent of Christ, the transfer
of the rulership of this world from Satan to Christ, the one thousand year
reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Millennial reign, demonstrating that
perfect environment isn’t the solution to man’s problems. People constantly
seek solutions by improving their environment and therefore never orient to the
environment they resent. By not orienting to the environment they resent and
not meeting it with the principles of Bible doctrine when they have improved
environment they are not improved. The environment is improved and instead of
having a solution they have simply intensified their problems.
Verse 5, the subject of the book of
Revelation. The subject is the unique person of Jesus Christ, the basis and the
function of His royal patent as it relates to the history of mankind from the
time of John to the end of time. This includes historical trends of the Church
Age, the beginning of prophecy with the termination of the Church Age, the
Rapture, all of the unusual activities of the Tribulation, the terrible
confusion and disasters which occur during the Tribulation, how these are all
sorted out by the second advent of Christ, how there is a coup de tat in which Satan as the ruler of this world is superseded
by our Lord, and how our Lord rules perfectly the entire earth in the
Millennium under a system of perfect environment for which those without
doctrine have no capacity to appreciate. At the end of 1000 years of perfect
environment their lack of capacity is manifest by releasing Satan from his
prison and Satan stirs up the Gog revolution as a demonstration that perfect
environment is not the solution to man’s problems. Then comes the last judgment
with the second resurrection and the destruction of planet earth and the
universe as we now know it followed by the creation of a new heavens and a new
earth and a new Jerusalem for your occupancy and the occupancy of all who
believe in Jesus Christ. Therefore you must constantly keep in mind when we get
into some of the details of these prophecies that even though man is the
product of his own decisions Jesus Christ controls history.
We begin the exegesis with the
connective use of the conjunction kai, which is simply transferred
here “and,” but we will see some great exegetical complications with the word kai. It is used in place of numerals as when giving a
summary — point one, point two, etc.; it is used to delineate
categories;
it is used to advance the thought, so it has to be translated “furthermore” or
“moreover.” One of the weakest areas of translation in all past translations
has been lack of understanding of this little three-letter word. Here is verse
5 it is simply “And.”
Then we have the prepositional
phrase a)po plus
the ablative of source from two proper nouns. The first is ‘Ihsouj, Jesus, the second is Xristoj, the appointed one, the anointed, the one
appointed by God the Father to steer the course of human history to the divine
purpose and the proper conclusion, not only in your life as an individual but
in the function of literally millions of decisions throughout world history. We
will translate it: “And from Jesus Christ.” “Jesus” is simply the Greek
equivalent of the Hebrew “Joshua” and it means “saviour”; “Christ” means
appointed to destiny, anointed, in the time context of the Old testament. The
ablative of source as the object of the preposition a)po
indicates that the original situation contributed in some way to the present
status of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the subject of the book and
the present status of our Lord is denoted by certain doctrines we have studied:
the doctrine of the virgin birth, the beginning of the incarnation or the first
advent -resultant immediately, the doctrine of the hypostatic union. In hypostatic
union the weak part would be the humanity, the susceptible part; for deity
cannot sin, deity cannot fail, but the humanity of Christ in hypostatic union
could. The prototype divine dynasphere, our Lord’s impeccability inside the
prototype divine dynasphere: He was not able to sin in the divine dynasphere,
as God He is able not to sin.
Next we have o( martuj o( pistoj, the appositional use of the
nominative case: the adjective pistoj, the noun martuj. It is correctly translated, “faithful [or
dependable] witness,” a witness inspiring faith, trust, confidence, therefore a
faithful or dependable witness. Jesus Christ is not only the witness about the
fact of the existence of God but is the manifestation of the Godhead, John
1:18; 6:46; 1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 4:12. As the faithful witness Jesus Christ
presents true evidence of God and true testimony about God’s plan; and
therefore provides hope for all of us in the midst of historical confusion and
disaster. It is the nominative of apposition which modifies Jesus Christ —
dependable, inspiring faith or trust. So we translate: “And from Jesus Christ,
the dependable witness.” This is why the Bible is called the mind of Christ in
1 Corinthians 2:16, because Jesus Christ is the dependable witness of all
truth, all doctrine, the controller of all history; and therefore the one who
gives us hope in the darkest hour of history, the one who makes life meaningful
in the midst of the greatest disasters of life. The believer also becomes a
dependable witness through his residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.
He produces motivating virtue toward God, he produces functional worship toward
mankind, toward the circumstances of history. Jesus Christ, then, as the
dependable witness lived inside the prototype divine dynasphere, an exclusive
invention for the Church Age believer only. After the Church Age there will
never be again in human history the divine dynasphere. We now possess that same
divine dynasphere as the royal family of God in the Church Age and have the
same mission to fulfil, the manufacture of virtue in that divine dynasphere
which becomes a dependable testimony or the giving of evidence to mankind about
God, for mankind in every generation, in every moment of history, needs God.
This is why the believer is called an ambassador for Christ in 2 Corinthians
5:20, because in the absence of our Lord seated at the right hand of the Father
we are His witnesses, His representatives, therefore His ambassadors on this
earth.
This brings us now to the beginning
of a very important subject. It is the nominative apposition of the word prwtwtokoj, a word translated “firstborn” but has a
tremendous significance to us.
One of the things we need to become
used to is the fact that the book of Revelation deals with the historical
trends of the time in which we live. While we will be studying prophetical
things those prophetical things will not be seen by us in our life time on this
earth, for no believer will be alive on this earth at the time that the prophetical
part of the book of Revelation begins. So joining the historical with the prophetical
to form a panorama of world history the book of Revelation is the text book of
history from the time of the Roman empire to the end of time. We have noted
therefore the historical trends and they become extremely important, not only
for our own application of doctrine but for the spiritual life, the plan of
God, the purpose for our very existence on this earth after salvation.
We have now accumulated eight basic principles in the concept of
historical trends which will be demonstrated in almost every chapter in the
book of Revelation.
1. Even though history is the record
of man’s decisions and actions it is Jesus Christ who controls history.
Therefore there are two sources of judgment in history: the sovereign decisions
of Jesus Christ and the erroneous decisions of mankind.
2. The trends of history are
determined in the Church Age by whether the believer chooses to live in the
divine dynasphere or inside Satan’s cosmic system.
3. There are no tragedies in history.
There are historical disasters but these disasters are not tragedies since the
individuals or nations are the products of their own decisions, not the
products of their environments. Decision creates environment, not environment
decision.
4. People individually and
collectively are the products of their own decisions.
5. The demand for power exceeds the
need for power. Therefore divinely authorised authority is ignored and brushed
aside.
6. Arrogant people or arrogant
nations never see their own inconsistencies, only the inconsistencies of
others.
7. Jealous people and envious
nations never see their own sins and their production of evil, only the sins
and evil production of others.
8. Arrogant individuals, groups or
nations never see the disastrous consequences or evil results of their own
cosmic involvement or evil modus operandi. Preoccupation with self to the
exclusion of objective reality is the greatest blindness problem in this life.
Let’s take, for example, the 5th
trend: the demand for power exceeds the need for power.
a. The need for power is determined
by the laws of divine establishment.
b. The demand for power is
determined by the arrogance, lust, envy, greed, motivating and functional evil
of the cosmic system.
c. Legitimate power is defined in
terms of authority — delegated authority from God, delegated authority in
social life, economic life, domestic life, professional life, political life,
and spiritual life.
d. Evil and destructive power exists
to the extent that cosmic arrogance exceeds the restraints on cosmic arrogance,
restraints from the function of legitimate authority in life such as parents
over children, husbands over wives, management over labour, law enforcement and
jurisprudence protecting the freedom, the privacy, the property of the
individual citizen, the authority of the pastor to teach doctrine in his
congregation and the influence of that doctrine on the royal family of God.
e. Since we are the products of our
volition rather than our environment cosmic arrogance can only be restrained
through enforced and genuine humility, gate three of the divine dynasphere.
f. This brings us to the conflict
between objective reality in life which is inside the divine dynasphere and
subjective reality of life which is related to the cosmic system.
g. Believers are not only the
products of their own decisions in life but the nations in which they reside
reflect the believer’s volition.
h. The believer’s good decisions to
live in the divine dynasphere are reflected by national prosperity while the
believer’s bad decisions to live in the cosmic system are reflected by national
disaster.
We now move to the nominative of
apposition from the noun prwtwtokoj, which means firstborn.
Translation: “And from Jesus Christ, the dependable witness, the firstborn ...”
a. The title “firstborn” denotes the
privileges of primogeniture, that is the right of the firstborn to all the
inheritance.
b. In the Jewish connotation which
is in view here this would include three factors. 1. Rulership: Christ is the
ruler of both Israel and the Church, and at the second advent will supersede
Satan as the ruler of this world. “King of kings and Lord of lords” refers to
that royal patent which will be exercised at the second advent of Jesus Christ;
2. The priesthood: Jesus Christ is the high priest of the royal priesthood made
up of all believers in the Church Age, sometimes called the body of Christ; 3.
The double portion: Jesus Christ has a double portion inheritance, the
spiritual inheritance ruling both Israel and the Church throughout the
Millennial reign of Christ and forever.
c.
Since all believers of the Church Age are royal family of God through baptism
of the Spirit and union with Christ we share in this inheritance, the
primogeniture of Christ.
d. However only mature believers
have the full privileges of the firstborn. For example, rulership. Mature
believers will rule with Christ in the future. For example, priesthood. Only
the mature believers benefit from the invisible part of the Christian way of
life inside the divine dynasphere. For example, the double portion. That is
reserved for the mature believer only. In time it is the imputation of supergrace
blessing in its six paragraphs; in eternity it is the imputation of the great
rewards which will come to us at the judgment seat of Christ.
e. Documentation for primogeniture:
Romans 8:28,29; Colossians 1:15, 18; Hebrews 12:23.
f. The ablative of source which
follows is nekroj and refers to physical
death. It is translated “firstborn from the dead” in verse 5.
g. The ablative denotes the original
situation where firstborn was assigned — resurrection, which contributed to our
Lord’s present status quo. In resurrection He became the firstborn. That is why
it is said “firstborn from the dead,” and we too will enjoy the privileges of
primogeniture for all eternity as royal family of God because we, after Christ,
will be the first category of believers to be resurrected. After our Lord’s
resurrection the next resurrection is the Rapture of the Church, not the Old
Testament saints.
There are two words we might as well
get used to. The first is qanatoj, which means death, and we
are going to see it used again in this chapter for spiritual death. It is used
for our Lord’s bearing our sins on the cross. And the other we will see a great
deal of is nekroj, and that is our Lord’s
physical death on the cross. Remember that our Lord died twice on the cross
that we might be born twice.
You cannot understand the dynamic
and historical impact of the first advent unless you look at Christ from a
threefold standpoint. First, He is eternal God; secondly, eternal God became
man — Emannuel, the God-Man, the hypostatic union, the incarnation; thirdly,
the second advent of Christ when He will return in hyspostatic union. So we
have the eternal God — first advent, second advent. We always have to look at
it this way because the tremendous Christological impact comes from the fact
that Jesus Christ who came in the flesh was also eternal God. That was the
beginning of the strategical victory of the angelic conflict, reaching its peak
at the cross where He bore our sins in His own body (not His deity, deity isn’t
being judged for sins, deity cannot sin).
Now we move on in verse 5 to the
intensive use of the conjunction kai, which emphasises what was a
noteworthy fact. We translate this “furthermore.” And with that the nominative
of apposition a)rxon, a word which takes us right
back to Athens in the fifth century BC to the basis of west European culture in Attica. A)rxon was the word for the ruler or the twelve
rulers of the Athenian city state. It is a classical Greek word and it does
mean ruler. It is very important because it refers to the fact that not one of
us will take another breath or do another thing except by the courtesy of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You and I are living on planet earth, the devil’s kingdom at
the present time, simply because of who and what Christ is. We are here because
of His policy called grace and His authority won in the strategic victory of
the angelic conflict, and we are here by His power. We are here because our
Lord is the a)rxon, the ruler.
Not only is our Lord an a)rxon but He rules rulers, not peasants and peons. There
is only one person in all of history who rules all the rulers, and so we have
the ordinary Greek word for a ruler or a king, the descriptive genitive plural
from the noun basileuj; and in the plural it is
correctly translated “kings,” “the ruler of the kings.” Then we have the
genitive singular of place from the noun gh,
the word for the planet earth. After the resurrection we have also the ruler of
the kings of the earth. Our Lord will return to the earth for the tactical
victory of becoming the ruler of all the kings of planet earth. Through
resurrection, ascension and session our Lord Jesus Christ won a royal patent.
That royal patent supersedes Satan as the ruler of this world. Before the cross
Satan offered our Lord the kingdoms of the world, the kosmoj, Matthew 4:8. Our Lord refused because He will not
exercise His royal patent until the second advent. Before our Lord will
exercise His royal patent on earth millions of people are going to make
millions of decisions which will have exhausted every connotation of
self-determination that could ever exist in combination in every system of
numbers, every variation that could ever exist in every category, so that by
the time of the second advent there will be in the history of the human race a
total exhaustion of every category of decisions that could be made in history.
It will be demonstrated that no one ever came up with a thought, and idea or
decision that had not been tried and failed. Our Lord returns when every human
resource of every genius has been combined in the functions of history to
demonstrate that man has exhausted his resources. Once everything has been
tried our Lord will then come back and sort it all out. And the fascinating
thing is that He will establish perfect environment on the earth.
Principle
1. Note that through warfare our
Lord Jesus Christ comes to establish His patent of nobility. He establishes His
patent of nobility the way all patents of nobility have been established in
world history, through the sword, warfare, Revelation 19.
2. His government is established
through military victory — the last phase of the Armageddon campaign,
Revelation 16.
3. Only violence and death on the
battlefield will pave the way for Millennial reign. Perfect environment is not
established by disarmament but by armament.
4. Good government can only be maintained
by good military establishment. Both tyranny and good government maintain
themselves by good military but military establishment indicates the nation
involved has freedom. Establishment doctrine is freedom doctrine.
5. The freedom of the client nation
to God can only be purchased by military victory. Freedom is purchased on
battlefields, not by politicians making speeches.
6. Warfare is historically the only
way to right wrongs until the second advent of Jesus Christ. Wrongs are
increased and intensified through disarmament. The principle is that we all
have old sin natures and as long as we do these old sin natures have to be
regulated en masse by force. This
includes, of course, law enforcement. Law enforcement is a form of warfare,
warfare against crime. Therefore it is imperative that the client nation to God
have a strong military establishment which includes law enforcement and good
jurisprudence.
7. Therefore there are certain
things under the laws of divine establishment that must exist in the national
entity. The necessities for maintaining freedom include universal military
training, mobilisation plans which means a good general staff, a strong
military industrial base for logistical support of deployed forces, strategic
and tactical plans, and great civil and military leadership.
The book of Revelation
is designed to orient believers to the historical tends of the dispensation of
the Church and to see the entire panorama of history and the principle that we
have been studying — Jesus Christ controls history — and other similar
principles which will occur from time to time as we progress in this book.
Therefore behind everything is the very principle, the very heart of the
Christian way of life, the divine dynasphere in which we have: Gate 1, the
filling of the Spirit; Gate two, basic impersonal love; Gate three, enforced
and genuine humility; Gate four, perception and application of doctrine; Gate
5, love of God, occupation with Christ as you mature; Gate 6, right man-right
woman where pertinent; Gate 7, friendship and advanced impersonal love; Gate 8,
the completion of the edification complex, cracking the maturity barrier, and
the reception of the supergrace blessings in 6 categories.
The Christian way of life can only
exist inside the divine dynasphere and it is divided into two parts: invisible
and visible. The invisible way of the Christian life is the function of the
royal priesthood, the visible way of the Christian life is the function of our
ambassadorship. At Gate 4 the privacy of the priesthood gives you the
opportunity for perception of doctrine and the application of doctrine to
experience. The invisible part of the Christian way of life is directed toward
God; the visible part of the Christian way of life is directed toward man. It
is impossible to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ except through residence and
function inside the divine dynasphere. As one continues in the Christian life
he produces the motivating virtues from the priesthood, the functional virtues
or counterpart from the royal ambassadorship. For example, worship toward God
is a motivating virtue for morality directed toward man. The second one that we
have studied, personal love directed toward God, is the motivating virtue for
the functional virtue of impersonal love directed toward man. Confidence is a
motivating virtue directed toward God and its counterpart is the functional
virtue of courage directed toward man and circumstances.
It is imperative to understand that
the mandates all relate in one way or another in the function of our spiritual
experience to the divine dynasphere. For example, the command to be filled with
the Spirit is Gate 1, the residence in the divine dynasphere. The command to
walk by means of the Spirit is the function at the various gates. The negative
mandate, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit,” is to avoid cosmic one with its 26 gates
of interlocking systems of arrogance and cosmic 2 with its 9 gates of interlocking
systems of hatred which is called “quenching the Holy Spirit.” And the mandates
are simple: “Be filled with the Spirit,” residence in the divine dynasphere;
“Walk by means of the Spirit,” function in the divine dynasphere. “Grieve not
the Spirit,” avoid cosmic one; “Quench not the Spirit,” avoid cosmic two.
Cosmic one and cosmic two is the Satanic genius in the administration of his
world rulership. The believer living inside of the divine dynasphere produces
the uptrend in history, the believer living in the cosmic system produces the
downtrend in history.
Continuing with the exegesis of
verse 5, we begin with the articular present active participle of the verb a)gapaw, and it is translated “to him who has loved us.”
The one participle with its definite article gives us a small relative clause.
The dative singular, indirect object from the definite article is used as a
personal pronoun as well as a relative pronoun, translated “To him who.” The
present tense is a retroactive progressive present also known as the present
tense of duration. It denotes what has begun in the past and continues in the
present. There never was a time when God did not love us and the conditions
under which that exists we will note in a moment. The active voice: Jesus
Christ as God produces the action of the verb. Jesus Christ as the God-Man also
produces the action of the verb in the function of impersonal love from the
prototype divine dynasphere. The participle is circumstantial, being articular
it also acts as a relative clause.
Then we have the accusative plural
direct object from the personal pronoun e)gw, correctly translated “us.” It refers to the royal family of God, the
Church Age believer. God is eternal, God is infinite, therefore God possesses
eternal and infinite love. God is immutable, unchangeable. Therefore the love
of God is stable, unchangeable, compatible with His perfect character. God is
holy, therefore the holiness of God possesses perfect integrity, and this is
the key to understanding the love of God. God’s holiness is composed of His
justice and His perfect righteousness, and when we believed in Christ His
perfect righteousness was imputed to us establishing a grace pipeline from the
justice of God to the righteousness of God, the basis of all blessing.
Possessing the righteousness of God is also the basis for divine love.
It is important to understand God’s
love for God. The basis of it is the essence of the Father, the essence of the
Son, the essence of the Holy Spirit. God is one in essence, three in
personality. The sovereignty of God the Father, the sovereignty of the Son, the
sovereignty of the Holy Spirit is coequal and coeternal, they have the
identical infinity, the identical eternal life, and so on. But the basic issue
in the integrity of God. God is love. Each member of the Trinity has perfect
love, perfect capacity for love, there never was a time when this love did not
exist, there never was a time when it increased or decreased, there never was a
time when it was involved in anything that was remotely identified with failure
such as sin in the human race. Integrity is the issue, God’s perfect
righteousness and God’s justice. Justice and righteousness is actually the two
attributes related to divine holiness and the Father has perfect righteousness
and justice, the Son has perfect righteousness and justice, and the Holy Spirit
has perfect righteousness and justice.
God the Father in perfect subjective
love loves His own integrity. And the key: the love goes to His perfect
righteousness. He loves His own righteousness, it is perfect, and He loves it
with His perfect subjective love. Since He is loving a characteristic He has we
call it subjective. Subjective, when used of the human race is bad; subjective,
when used for God is good, perfect goodness.
Now God the Father being love also
loves the perfect integrity of God the Son. That is called objective love.
Furthermore He loves the perfect integrity of God the Holy Spirit because there
never was a time when all three members of the Trinity did not have perfect
righteousness. We call that the love of God for God, or love directed toward
God. It is called objective because the target for the love is perfect divine
righteousness, and this is true of all three members of the Godhead, the
Trinity.
Now you can begin to see the
implications of what happens at salvation when we believe in Christ. That
perfect righteousness is imputed to us, we have that same righteousness, and
therefore God loves the believer and the justice of God can even provide blessing
for the believer in failure, as illustrated by logistical grace where God keeps
the carnal believer, the sinning believer, the believer functioning in
motivating and functioning evil, the believer in the in the cosmic system. The
reason is not because there is any merit in carnality, there isn’t .
In verse 5 the one who loves us is a
specific member of the Trinity: God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It isn’t
the Father or the Holy Spirit who is mentioned loving us here, even though that
is a true fact, but not taught here. “To him who loves us” is referring to the
Lord Jesus Christ who is different from the Father and different from the Holy
Spirit in that He is true humanity and different in true humanity in that He is
God.
“To him who has loved us.” What does
this mean? Go back to the principle. There are three phases to the plan of God
and in each one of those phases we have our Lord’s love described in terms of
personal and impersonal love. In salvation we have this same categorical
concept: God’s love for God — subjective, objective; God’s love for mankind —
divine personal and impersonal love. In phase one divine impersonal love is
directed toward all, it is unconditional — John 3:16; “To him who loved us” in
our case, doesn’t refer to the unbeliever in phase one. Divine personal love is
always conditional. Divine impersonal love is directed toward all, but the few
(believers) are the object of divine personal love, those members of the human
race in any given generation who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The few are
those believers who receive the imputation of +R, God’s righteousness, and just
as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit love perfectly in subjective and
objective love the perfect righteousness of their own holiness, so they love
that same righteousness in us since it is imputed. And since we are the royal
family of God we possess a double portion of God’s righteousness. Imputed to us
was the righteousness of the Father, and being in union with Christ through the
baptism of the Spirit we have the righteousness of the Son. As royal family of
God we have a double portion.
In phase two of the plan of God the
“all” represents all believers, and when it says, “To him who loved us” it
obviously includes divine impersonal love — unconditional — directed toward all
believers. And the manifestation of divine impersonal love is the imputation of
logistical grace to all of us. Every believer who fails or succeeds receives
the imputation of logistical grace — because they are the objects of divine
impersonal love. But there is an advance on that for the few — out of the all
come the few (few being less than all) — are those who advance to maturity, who
go from gate four to gate eight of the divine dynasphere, who persist in the
perception of doctrine, who pass the momentum tests for acceleration of growth.
And divine personal love is conditional, it is only for those few who advance
to maturity in any given generation. It is the few that determine the uptrend
in history; it is those outside of the few, the all in the cosmic system, that
determine the downtrend in history. So divine personal love is directed toward
the few.
When it says, “To him who loved us”
in this passage it must include both. He loves impersonally those who are
believers in Jesus Christ because all believers have +R. And for the few, add
to that from the justice of God to the righteousness of God the six paragraphs
of supergrace blessing.
The next phrase is definitely going
to emphasise divine impersonal love. From the standpoint of His humanity our
Lord resided and functioned inside the divine dynasphere, producing personal
love for God as the motivating virtue for the function of impersonal love
toward all mankind in dying for their sins. Now Jesus Christ is the God-Man — hypostatic
union. As God He has perfect objective and subjective love toward the other
members of the Godhead. As God He has divine impersonal love for all mankind
and He has divine personal love for the few who believe in Christ. As Man Jesus
Christian the prototype divine dynasphere had personal love for God as the
motivating virtue and impersonal love for man as the functional virtue, and it
was His humanity which bore our sins. Remember, He bore our sins in his own
body, not in His deity. The sins of the world were not imputed to His deity.
When Jesus Christ approached the cross His humanity was residing inside the
prototype divine dynasphere. His deity: He said in Hebrews 10, “Lo I come to do
thy will, O God.” His humanity said: “Father, if it be thy will let this cup
pass from me.” However, He went on to add: “Not my will but thine be done,” the
function of gate three, enforced humility.
This next phrase emphasises the
humanity of Christ, and that becomes important because of the function we are
about to note. We have a connective kai related to our Lord’s
motivation for His saving work on the cross. Our Lord was motivated to go to
the cross because He loved us from His humanity. He cannot love us as sinners
from His deity as God. There is divine impersonal love toward the entire human
race, as manifest by what He did, but God cannot stand sin. We always explain
this by saying that God loves the sinner without loving his sin but that would
be a compromise of character were it not for one very important thing. The
motivating factor must be distinguished from the action, and the motivating
factor has to be ascribed to God the Father because John 3:16 says: “God so
loved the world that he gave ...”
Throughout the book of John it says
“the Father gave.” So divine impersonal love is directed toward all from the
standpoint of deity based on the fact that it doesn’t make any difference
whether you are good or bad, moral or immoral, whether you are sinful, evil, or
whatever your status quo. We all have an old sin nature, we are all spiritually
dead. The status of the object of love is inconsequential. Impersonal love
emphasises the integrity of the subject — the integrity of God the Father is
perfect; the integrity of God the Son is perfect; the integrity of God the Holy
Spirit is perfect. That is not the motivating factor here because we are
talking about the Son and we are talking about His motivation from inside the
prototype divine dynasphere, because that is where all of our motivation for
the spiritual life must come. You cannot be an object of someone else’s
influence, you must be influenced by the divine dynasphere, which means in
effect that you must be influenced by God the Holy Spirit, you must be
influenced by Bible doctrine you have learned and can apply, you must be
influenced by your own integrity, gates 2 and 3, impersonal love, enforced and
genuine humility. All true motivation in the Christian life is totally apart
from human beings, it is the wonderful invention of God the Father for the
royal family, the divine dynasphere. This then presents it to us from the
standpoint of the work of our Lord on the cross, the aorist active participle
of the verb luw. There is another verb that
looks very much like it, louw, which is pronounced the
same, but they are two very different words. So we have here not the word
meaning to wash, as per the King James version error. The word we actually have
here is the word which means to deliver, to loose, to untie, to free, to
release, to liberate. The word “wash” does not occur here.
The accusative plural direct object
follows, e)gw, and it should be
translated, “and has released us (or delivered us),” not “washed” us.
“And from Jesus Christ, the
dependable witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of
the earth. To him who has loved us, and has released us (or, liberated us) ...”
So we must note then the morphology of the verb. The aorist tense is a culminative
aorist, it views the work of Christ on the cross bearing our sins and being
judged for them in its entirety, but it emphasises the existing results in
eternal salvation. Salvation is available to all. Those of us who have believed
in Christ have attained it, we can never lose it. The active voice: Jesus
Christ produced the action of the verb by being judged for our sins when they
were imputed to Him on the cross. The participle: the action of the aorist
participle precedes the action of the main verb, and the main verb is coming
up, an aorist active indicative of poiew. The principle is that you
have to be saved by faith in Christ before you can be made a part of the royal
family of God, and the word to make or do is coming up in the next verse as the
main verb. The sentence goes into verse 6 where we get our main verb.
Then the prepositional phrase e)k plus the ablative from a(rmartia, plus the possessive genitive from e)gw
which is translated “our,” “from our sins.” Our sins were separated from us and
imputed to Christ and judged at the cross. There is one more prepositional
phrase before the main verb, the preposition e)n
plus the instrumental of a(ima, which is translated “by
means of his blood.” The possessive genitive singular from a)utoj is the intensive pronoun used as a third person
personal pronoun. It is our sins, His blood. His blood is the covering for our
sins, i.e. principle of atonement.
Translation of verse 5: “And from
Jesus Christ, the dependable witness, the first-born from the dead, also the
kings of the earth. To him who has loved us, and has released us from our sins
by means of his own blood.”
The blood of Christ
The
literal and figurative use of blood demands that we understand several things.
In the concept of water which is sometimes used literally in scripture but
sometimes it is used figuratively just as blood is used figuratively. For
example water is used for salvation in Isaiah 55 and Revelation 22:17; for the
Holy Spirit in John 7:37-39; for the Word of God in Eph. 5:26 and 1 John 5:8.
And likewise blood is used both literally and figuratively. In the figurative
use it refers to the spiritual death of our Lord on the cross, also known as
the saving work of Christ. The literal blood of Christ refers to the somatic death
of our Lord upon the cross.
The issue for the literal blood of
Christ on the cross comes from John 19:34 as it relates to 1 John 5:6 and we
call that the somatic death of our Lord on the cross. The reason John
emphasised the literal blood of Christ is because he lived long enough to see
gnosticism consolidated into a philosophical system which was as devastating in
John’s day as communism is today. The Gnostics claimed that Christ never had
true humanity and that the cross was an optical illusion. And therefore John
often wrote polemically under the ministry of the Spirit in order to refute
this principle.
In somatic death irreversible
changes begin at various rates after the cessation of breathing and these
changes include the cooling off of the body and the development of muscular
rigidity. Then follows the breakdown of the cells and the gravitation of the
blood to dependent parts plus the clotting of the blood. This is important for
this reason. When our Lord was first nailed to the cross there was a little
bleeding from His hands and His feet but His blood almost immediately
coagulated. He did not bleed to death.
Our Lord’s physical death had
nothing to do with our salvation, except to indicate that it was finished. Our
Lord had completed His saving work while He was still alive on the cross. He
used the Greek word in the present tense of telew,
tetelestai: it has been finished in
the past with the result that it stands finished forever. Salvation was
finished when our Lord was still alive and able to speak. While He was still
alive our sins were imputed to Him and judged; while He was still alive towards
sin He accomplished redemption, toward man He accomplished reconciliation,
toward God He accomplished propitiation. Redemption, reconciliation and
propitiation are the three aspects of our Lord’s saving work from the
standpoint of direction. The Father had to be propitiated or there is no
salvation. Sin had to be paid for or there is no salvation. And man has to be
reconciled apart from his own works or there is no salvation. All were
accomplished on the cross. The literal blood of Christ
refers to His physical death on the cross but our Lord only died physically
because His work was finished. It was the option He personally exercised. It is
therefore the spiritual death of Christ which is important to us.
Verse 6, The first thing that we
notice in this verse is that God has a purpose for each one of us. It is not
only a matter of principle but it becomes a matter of great application that we
understand that God has given each one of us life on this earth after salvation
for a purpose. His plan has meaning and definition for each one of us. So we
begin the first part of this verse which is the privilege of the royal family.
Our Lord is seated at the right hand of the Father, He is King of kings and
Lord of lords as His royal title and He is minus a royal family. In His third
royal patent there was no royal family. So we are called out as royal family
and therefore as royalty we have privileges that have never existed before, one
of which will be emphasised: each one of us is a priest. Another that will be
emphasised: Never before in history was every believer the personal
representative of God on earth: a royal ambassador. So we have not only these
two warrants which are in writing but with them we are a part of a fantastic
plan and it is our volition on a daily basis that is the determining factor in
historical trends.
So we have the privilege of the
royal family introduced by the connective conjunction kai, which relates this sentence to the previous one.
Conjunctions are used in the Koine Greek for relationship. Then we have the aorist
active indicative of the verb poiew which means here to bring
about — “And he has brought about.” We have the culminative aorist tense which
views the work of God in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of
existing results. We fall into the historical flow of those existing results.
The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb as a result of
His resurrection, ascension and session, when He received His royal patent as
ruler of this world. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the
formation of the royal family of God during the Church Age.
This is followed by a double
accusative called the accusative of personal and impersonal object. The
personal object is the accusative plural direct object from the personal
pronoun egw, referring to each believer
in Christ. With it we have the accusative of impersonal object from the noun basileia, basileia, which means royal power, it can also mean
kingdom. The royal power is the divine dynasphere, God’s game plan for the
Church Age.
The word to “bring about” means to
provide. Poiew means not only to produce,
to make, or to do, but also to provide. So the translation so far: “And he has
brought about (provided) for us a royal power.” This royal power demands that
we become aware of the fact of logistical grace. Once we accept Christ as
saviour we move into God’s plan, the believer in time. In time we face the
issue of volition. You and I are the products of our own decisions, not our
environment. Your attitude toward Bible doctrine is the determining factor and
positive volition is the momentum of the Christian life in the divine dynasphere.
Negative volition is the reversion of the Christian life in the cosmic system.
In either case salvation is not lost but the blessings of prosperity of time,
the prosperity of our national entity, and its proper influence on the world
are all involved in this particular factor. So we find ourselves as individuals
facing the issue of power, for in ourselves whatever our abilities may be we
cannot cope with power greater than we are, we must simply, under the principle
of humility, recognise its existence. Humility recognises the existence of the
divine dynasphere with its eight gates, and the plan of God. We merge into a
power greater than we are so that we can cope with the historical trends, and
that includes prosperity. Many people have failed the prosperity test; many
others have failed the disaster test, but in our lifetime we face both
prosperity and disaster and the divine dynasphere is so constructed that we can
pass both with flying colours. In the cosmic system of the genius of Satan we
lose all of the benefits of that power and we come under a power which will
grind us into the dust, will neutralise whatever assets we have — our
abilities, our relationships, our love life, our social life, our business
life, our professional life, whatever it is. We are offered so many things as a
believer in the cosmic system.
So we have choices, and in order to
make the proper choices God had to do something for us that He did not do in
the Old Testament. That comes up in the next phrase. We now have the way we
approach God’s plan, the divine dynasphere. We have the accusative plural from
the noun i(eureuj. I(eureuj is an accusative absolute,
it is without a participle grammatically and therefore grammatically
independent of the rest of the sentence. It is provided so that it can be
proved that the Attic accusative absolute came into the Koine Greek of the New
testament. It requires also a present active infinitive from the verb e)imi in order to fill in the
ellipsis and make this a legitimate translation. So we translate: “And he has
provided for us a royal power, priests to God.” The dative singular indirect
object brings us to God, “priests to God,” Qeoj.
With this we have the conjunction kai, translated “even,” used to
describe a specific member of the holy Trinity, God the Father. He is mentioned
by the dative singular from the noun Pater, plus genitive of
relationship from a)utoj, an intensive pronoun used
as a personal pronoun because in the Koine Greek there is no third person
personal pronoun and a)utoj is used as a substitute. We
translate that phrase very simply: “even his Father.”
The translation so far: “And he has
provided [brought about for us] a royal power [the divine dynasphere], as
priests to God, even his Father.”
“Priests to God, even his Father”
describes the royal power and the way we contact it. In this verse then is the
divine dynasphere which can only be approached through the royal priesthood.
The moment you believe in Christ you represent yourself before God, you are
your own representative. You have a right to direct approach, you do not have
to go to a clergyman or a priest or another individual, you have a direct
relationship with God. It is true that relationship with God demands a
tremendous amount of information and your cognisance of God whom you are
approaching means that you must not only understand God and His plan for you
but you must understand the very means by which you are approaching Him. You
are approaching Him through your royal priesthood.
So we have this royal power and as
we make decisions within its framework so goes the uptrend of history.
Therefore the universal priesthood demands that each believer reside and
function inside the divine dynasphere, the royal power, for himself, living his
own life as unto the Lord. Every believer as a priest represents himself before
God.
There is a principle of history
which we will eventually study in greater detail: there is no progress in
innovation without truth. Innovation without truth is retrogressive just as
innovation without a system, without a base, is destructive. Innovation without
a system runs the gamut from modern art, religious cults, rock and hard rock
music, weirdo poetry that has neither rhyme nor reason, socialism, communism,
the welfare state, redistribution of wealth, and even ladies high fashion and
clothing. Religious cults are innovation without Bible doctrine; rock and hard
rock music ignores the basic system in music, it avoids both melody and harmony
and therefore the innovations are strident discord.
Learn the basics of doctrine before
you innovate or make any multiple applications. For the principle, innovation
without truth is the application of doctrine without cognisance of that
doctrine. Innovation without a system is application without truth, the absence
of wisdom, the instability and eventual disaster which we have been calling the
downtrends of history. Innovation imposed on others without their consent runs
the gamut from arrogance to tyranny in the field of human government and
political science. Socialism, communism, the welfare state and redistribution
of wealth are the innovations of arrogance and tyranny. Revolution and
terrorism is the disaster of innovation without truth. Historically, then,
innovation based on truth is progress, solution, and the historical uptrend of
prosperity. Historically, innovation based on a false premise is the
retrogressive downtrend of history leading to disaster and destruction of the
client nation to God. Innovation in the field of military weapons is disastrous
unless the basic weapons of warfare are first put into operation. This is why
in this nuclear age the infantry is still the queen of battle. We are talking
of course about nuclear missiles and when we do not even have decent infantry
weapons for desert warfare it seems rather ridiculous to be innovative with
regard to sophisticated nuclear weaponry.
True innovation in the spiritual
realm is the function of gate four of the divine dynasphere. Perception of
doctrine is the inflexible base for the flexible application of Bible doctrine.
We must be inflexible about doctrine and totally flexible about its
application. True innovation is the application of doctrine to experience —
passing the momentum tests through categorical doctrinal perception, the
function of impersonal love. All true innovation on the part of the believer
has its operation in the royal priesthood and its application from the royal
ambassadorship.
Next we have the purpose for the royal family of God, the Church
Age believer. A dative indirect object from a)utoj, the intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun, since the Koine
Greek does not possess a personal pronoun for the third person. It is
translated correctly, “to him.” The elliptical nature of the sentence demands a
verb, “to him belongs.” That would be e)xw, used in its idiomatic form.
The predicate nominative follows, h( doxa, translated here “glory” in
view of the context we have previously studied, “to him is the glory.”
Idiomatically it would be better translated, “belongs the glory.”
The objective is now stated. The
next phrase explains the objective of the Christian way of life, the purpose
for remaining in the devil’s world after salvation. He has provided for us a
royal power, the divine dynasphere. We glorify the Lord Jesus Christ through
our residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, the royal power for
both the function of our universal priesthood and our royal ambassadorship. The
means is given to us by the connective use of the conjunction kai which joins the two predicate nominatives. Then the
second predicate nominative is kratoj, meaning “power.” Usually
it means ruling power and is often translated correctly, “sovereignty.” There
are three words for “power,” kratoj, iscuj,
and dunamij, and are often very closely
related. They all have one thing in common: they denote the presence of some
form of force. They also denote the significance of strength, in this case
ruling ability. And they always have the significance of strength rather than
its ruling exercise. The prepositional phrase katakratoj was simply a Greek idiom translated with adverbial force and would be
translated into English “powerfully, forcibly, or impressively.” Kratoj was used politically to denote a valid and superior
power. It indicates the fact that in life there will always be supremacy.
Communism, socialism cannot establish equality in life. Equality in life is never
a divine objective, it is freedom that established the principle of inequality.
The very fact that people are free means that some will use their freedom to
advance and some will use their freedom to decline. Human volition reaches the
peaks and it reaches the pits, and that is the principle of historical trends.
Generally in the New Testament kratoj refers to God’s ruling
power over the Church. Therefore it is a reference to the invention and use of
the divine dynasphere as a part of the Christian way of life or the function of
the royal family of God. There is a Greek phrase basileia tou qeou which anticipates the second
advent of Christ and the establishment of His Millennial reign and therefore is
eschatological in its connotation. With kratoj
it would be something like this: “To him [Jesus Christ] belongs the controlling
[or ruling] power forever and ever.” The noun kratoj,
then, has an historical connotation and it has a prophetic connotation.
Next comes the prepositional phrase, e(ij,
plus the accusative of the definite article touj,
and aiwn, literally translated, with a)iwn being repeated, “to the
ages of the ages.” But it is an idiom and it means forever and ever. The final
word is A)mhn. Since A))mhn is used to confirm a personal application of Bible
doctrine it is going to be translated “acknowledge.” It is also used to confirm
the believer’s acceptance of his responsibility, and here the responsibility is
residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. Amen was never designed to
be transliterated, except where it is used in ritual. It is to be translated.
Therefore A)mhn indicates the fact that the
royal family can respond to a doxology, not as a ritual but as a challenge.
Verse 7, Jesus Christ the key to
prophecy. The exegesis is rather difficult at the start of this verse. We have
the demonstrative particle i)dou. I)dou is
a form of the aorist middle imperative of the verb o(raw
which means to see and is used to demand perception. It is a call for
concentration on the subject. We must remember that behind the translation is a
mandate for concentration under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, and that
is utterly impossible unless you are residing inside the divine dynasphere.
Next comes the present middle
indicative of the verb e)rxomai. The
verb means to come. So the translation: “Remember, he is coming.” The
futuristic present tense denotes an event which has not yet occurred, the
second advent, but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated
as already coming to pass. Therefore the futuristic present denotes a future
event, the second advent, as definitely a part of God’s plan and definitely the
key to future history. All future history revolves around our Lord Jesus Christ
because in five minutes our Lord accomplishes at the second advent what all of
the men of genius in all categories of genius were not able to accomplish in
the history of the world up to that time. He provides, for example, the regathering
of Israel and the re-establishing of Israel as a client nation to God. He
fulfils the four unconditional covenants to Israel which man cannot fulfil. At
the same time He provides perfect environment on the earth which is absolutely
impossible today. The only thing that is accomplished in every generation of
history is the fact that there never has been since the beginning of time a
generation which was not evangelised; that is the most certain thing we can say
about history. But the Lord Jesus Christ is going to make the most radical
change in history at His second advent.
The middle voice of e)rxomai: the subject, Jesus Christ, participates in the
results of the action, therefore we call it the direct middle. He supersedes
Satan as the ruler of this world at the second advent when there will then be
1000 years of perfect environment. Note: There is no way that the world can be
destroyed by man’s use of nuclear weaponry. The indicative mood is declarative
for a dogmatic statement of doctrine.
The prepositional phrase that
follows is meta plus the genitive plural from
the definite article plus the genitive plural from the noun nefelh. Nefelh means clouds. So: “Remember, he is coming with the
clouds.” Meta plus the genitive means
“with.”
The doctrine of the clouds
1. Clouds are used literally.
2. Clouds are used figuratively.
a. Clouds are used to portray great
armies or masses of people in the Bible, Jeremiah 4:13, for example. Hebrews
12:1 is another. In Revelation 1:7 the clouds refer to great armies, the
multitudes of people who accompany our Lord at the second advent.
b. Clouds symbolise a time of
catastrophe, a time of divine judgment, Lamentations 2:1; Ezekiel 30:3.
Revelation 1:7, “Behold he cometh with clouds.” Those clouds with which our
Lord comes indicate the doom of many nations. Nations should be removed when
they are totally involved in the cosmic system. And when the cosmic system is
destroyed at the second advent so will its adherents, national and individual.
The second advent passages which mention these clouds are found in many places.
These are tracts where we begin but we always end up in Revelation, Joel 2:1-2;
Isaiah 44:22.
c. Clouds are used in the Bible for
transitory things, things that are here today and gone tomorrow, like negative
believers, like prosperity. Illustration: Job 30:15; Hosea 6:4.
d. Cloud formations also represent
the power and the wisdom of God, Psalm 135:6,7; 147:8; Proverbs 8:28.
e. Clouds are used to illustrate the
ignorance of man and his need for divine revelation, Job 38:37; 36:39;
37:15,16.
f. Clouds are used to portray false
teachers, “clouds without water,” 2 Peter 2:17.
g. Clouds without rain or water
symbolise human promises without fulfilment, or the malfunction of human
integrity, Isaiah 25:5, or Jude 12, “these men [reversionists involved in the
cosmic system] are those who are stains in your love feasts when they feast
with you without fear, carrying for themselves [subjectivity, arrogance,
preoccupation with self — involvement in cosmic one] clouds without water,”
people without integrity, doctrine, “carried along by the winds,” instability.
One of the principles of upswing in history has to do with the
fact that most nations have become great and blossomed out into what is known
as an empire, which is a good word, not a bad word. The first client nation in
history was an empire: SPQR, the Roman empire. Some of the greatest client nations in history have
been empires. Empire has only been out of sorts since the communists have had
so much influence in the world but those who are good students of history know
that every empire functions under the shadow of great missionaries. These
include Great Britain as well as SPQR and even the USA. Therefore there is always a challenge to an
amalgamation of people who leave a geographical area that is dead and move to
another geographical area where there is a challenge. The challenge always
falls into three separate parts. There is the part of the building of an empire
in which you have a base of landed aristocracy. And there is always a part of a
potential empire — manifest destiny — where you have the tremendous courage
which it takes to develop an industrial sphere. Then there is always a frontier
so that there are no racial issues, there are no sociological issues as we know
it. If a person finds that he cannot exist in a capitalistic society he can
always go to the frontier. Frontiers always take up the slack historically. But
once the frontiers are closed down for one reason or another — no more land to
conquer, no more opportunity — then the empire goes through its consolidation
period which is its prosperity period. In all of world history there never was
a national entity or an empire which passed the prosperity test. It may take
one hundred years, never more than two hundred, but they always flunk it and
are destroyed. This principle is generally a trend of history but what happens
when you have an exception or an apparent exception? Russia was very similar in
its development, only the empire went east instead of west. Again, northern
Russia was the area of landed aristocracy that eventually managed to move into
the industrial revolution and become a manufacturing area — large cities,
industrial complexes, lots of workers. In the south there was still the landed
concept only this time it was the peasant but he had his own landed
aristocracy. All of this was destroyed when communism took to dissatisfaction
in the south, the peasants should have more land. In the north there was an
industrial complex and dissatisfied workers, same concept, and in the frontier
there was the frustration which came up at the turn of the century with the Russo-Japanese
war, in which the great massive Russian armies were beaten on land and three
Russian navies were completely destroyed by the Japs. That is when Russia
realised that they really had never consolidated in the industrial revolution,
for every nation that truly succeeds and perpetuates its prosperity does so
because of the industrial complex, not the landed aristocracy. The landed aristocracy
eventually becomes anachronistic and loses out.
“every,” paj,
this adjective indicates the entire human race alive at the Second Advent of
Jesus Christ; “eye,” o)fqalmoj. While the earth is a
sphere rotating on its axis every eye which is capable of sight will see the
return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And while on the surface this appears to be
impossible it
will
be explained after looking at the morphology of the verb “see,” o(raw, future middle indicative; “him,” a)utoj, accusative singular direct object. The intensive
pronoun used as a personal pronoun. This is what we call a predictive future.
It anticipates an event which is expected to occur in future time, i.e. the
Second Advent of Christ. The direct middle voice is one in which the subject,
the entire population of the earth at that time, participates in the results of
the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic
statement of fact. It is a dogmatic fact that every eye will see Him. How is
this possible? The real answer is found in eleven passages of the Word of God. Zechariah
12:4 is a second advent passage: “ …
strike every horse [invading army] with blindness,” supernatural darkness. Cf. Isaiah
60:2 “ … his glory will appear.” The glory of the Lord moving through a
supernatural darkness will be the only visible thing. Cf. Ezekiel 32:7,8.
“and those,” kai plus o(stij. Lit. including everyone
who; “pierced,” e)kkentew, which means to pierce, to
run through, to throw a javelin through, to stab, etc. Lit. “including everyone
who pierced him.” … and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of
him.” This translation is incorrect. This is a specific reference to the
mourning of Israel at the Second Advent. It is not the mourning of the entire
world, “kindreds,” fulh, “tribes.” These are Jewish
tribes and the occasion is the regathering of Israel by our Lord Jesus Christ;
“earth,” gh, “land.” It refers to the
land of Israel and the regathering of Israel in the land; “shall wail,” koptw, “grieve.” “Will grieve.”
“because of him,” e)pi a)utoj about him rather than over
Him. “Even so,” nai, a particle of agreement.
With the final word “amen” it is, literally: “So it shall be. Acknowledge.”
Principles
1. No nation has ever survived its
prosperity after the consolidation of its three components. The three
prosperity components are as follows: Landed aristocracy; industrial complex;
undeveloped frontiers.
2. Reason: This is because no
prosperous nation or client nation to God in prosperity perpetuates its
spiritual life through perception of doctrine and residence in the divine dynasphere[1]. The real environment for
the perpetuation of prosperity is the divine dynasphere.
3. Prosperity inevitably results in
neglect of truth or doctrine.
4. Therefore, people take the
prosperity they received from and in the divine dynasphere and they step out
for a holiday. They seek to enjoy what they gained from the divine dynasphere
by taking their prosperity to the cosmic system.
5. In the cosmic system the believer
becomes preoccupied with the results of prosperity rather than the origin. His
life is wrapped up in pleasure, promotion, success, status symbols, etc.
6. The prosperity test is the most
subtle and difficult of all tests.
7. Subtle because it requires as
much, if not more doctrine, from both capacity and perpetuation of prosperity
than anything else.
8. Too often prosperity becomes the
enemy of right priorities or true scale of values.
9. Manifest Destiny: a. The struggle
for freedom; b. The establishment of freedom (through military victory); c.
Capacity for freedom (enjoyment); d. The test of freedom (prosperity).
10. The prosperity of the nation
eventually destroys the nation.
11. The challenge of freedom is
related to the three ingredients of manifest destiny. When all are consolidated
into a single national entity or empire, freedom becomes secondary to
prosperity and doctrine becomes secondary to pleasure. The true expressions of
prosperity are freedom and doctrine, but the inevitable expressions of
prosperity come from the cosmic system. It is possible to perpetuate prosperity
under freedom but it is not probable for any length of time.
Hanukkah or holocaust: Which do you personally
choose?
We celebrate the virgin birth of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the beginning of His incarnation, His uniqueness in hypostatic
union, on 25 December. No date is given in the Gospels. The question arises:
How was the 25th December selected? It is based upon one of the greatest fights
for freedom in all of human history, 167 BC, the deliverance through the Maccabaeans. The Jews
were freed from the Hellenistic empire of Syria. In their celebration they
selected a time for an eight day feast the first day of which was 25 December.
The feast was called Hanukkah (The Feast of Lights), called in the Bible the
Feast of Dedication. It was to be a great celebration in which certain things
were to be accomplished: Instead of the Feast of the Sun God it would be called
the Feast of Lights because light was to represent, first of all, the Messiah
and, secondly, their freedom. And so on the first day of the celebration, 25
December, 163 BC,
all of the people in Jerusalem began celebrating in their homes by exchanging
gifts. And then as the High Priest formed up the parade they marched through
the city with candles or torches or some form of light and sing hymns as they
formed the gigantic procession that marched all of the way to the Temple. And
there were offered sacrifices which are actually recorded in Revelation 1:8
under the phrase “Omega.” They offered all five of the sacrifices which speak
of our Lord’s work on the cross and rebound of the believer to recover from the
cosmic system. Each one would portray some aspect of redemption,
reconciliation, or propitiation, which is of course the true meaning of Christmas
for the real Christmas tree is the cross, and the real Christmas gift is the
gift of eternal salvation through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
However,
Christmas and New Year is not significant to Israel as we celebrate them. What
is significant to them is Hanukkah, the Feast of Lights. They have a slightly
different emphasis because they are looking for the coming of Messiah who
hasn’t come as far as Israel is concerned. And because they are still looking
for the first advent they periodically throughout their history have selected
for themselves some of the greatest historical disasters which we simply
classify as “holocaust.”
Verse 8, “I,” e)gw, a pronoun in the proleptic position, the emphatic
position. It emphasises the Omega glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. It emphasises
that Jesus Christ, eternal God, became true humanity. And when He did (hypostatic
union), at that very moment He became the unique Person of all the universe;
“am,” e)imi, the static present tense is
for a position which perpetually exists and because of the first advent of
Christ and resultant hypostatic union the omega glory of Jesus Christ enters
history and becomes the key to history, the key to history for us as a nation
collectively and the key to our destiny individually as a person. Our destiny
is determined by our attitude to Jesus Christ. It is Israel’s failure
collectively to recognise omega glory that led to their removal as a client
nation.
“the,” to,
this definite article is in the nominative neuter gender single. This is the
generic use of the definite article which sets aside a category as being
unique. This category is unique in history and is composed of one Person, our
Lord Jesus Christ.
“Alpha and Omega,” Alpha is the
designation of our Lord’s deity. Hence the alpha glory of Jesus Christ is
related to the fact that Jesus Christ is God. It is related to His divine
essence plus the fact that Jesus Christ is the creator of the world.
Omega,
on the other hand refers to our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union.
Therefore the Omega glory of Christ is related to the first advent, what the
Jews have ignored. It refers to the fact that historically He has come. The
first advent of Christ includes His virgin birth, the hypostatic union, the
residence of our Lord inside the divine dynasphere, His impeccability, His
saving work on the cross, His resurrection, Ascension, and session at the right
hand of the Father. At that time He received His omega glory. It is the royal
patent which He received under the title of King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Our Lord’s first royal patent is related to
His deity. His title is Son of God and His royal family is God the Father and
God the Holy Spirit. Our Lord’s second royal patent came at the point of His
physical birth. He was Born a son of David. His title is Son of David, it is
the title of royalty, the Davidic dynasty is the royal family of Israel. But
when He was seated at the right hand of the Father after His resurrection He
was given a royal patent but it did not carry with it a royal family. And
therefore the discontinuing of the Age of Israel and the insertion of the
Church Age, the dispensation of the royal family of God. So that you as a
believer are not just a child of God, you are a member of the royal family of
God. Being in this dispensation therefore carries great responsibility.
The Omega glory of Jesus Christ
indicates that Jesus Christ controls history. This means that the Church Age is
the dead spot as far as prophecy is concerned because it is the historical
dispensation in which the royal family of Christ is being formed to return with
Him at the second advent. We live then in a dispensation of no prophecy.
Instead of prophecy we have something of great significance: historical trends.
Historical trends in any given generation of the Church Age depend on the
number of believers residing in an functioning inside the divine dynasphere,
plus the size of the pivot of mature believers, plus the advance of believers
to maturity. Church Age believers then reside between the two greatest
prophetic events of history, the first and second advents of Christ. Jesus
Christ in His omega glory becomes the key to our interpretation of history on a
daily basis. We receive enough of this information from the media and ignore the
slant they give to it and interpret the facts in relationship to the historical
trends.
Historical
blessing is administered through the client nations to God. Historical disaster
results from a maximum number of believers living in the cosmic system.
Historical disaster is usually administered through some evil nation.
Alpha and Omega glory of Christ;
Moses
Verse 8, “the beginning and the
ending” is not in the original manuscript.
Historical trends in any given
generation of the Church Age depend on the number of believers residing and
functioning in the divine dynasphere and the formation of the size of the pivot
in this generation. Historical blessing is administered through the client
nation of God while historical disaster results from a maximum number of
believers living in the cosmic system. And historical disaster is administered
by evil nations which are anti-God.
Principle
1. From His alpha glory Jesus Christ
is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
2. Therefore, the Jews have certain privileges
related to their founding as a race since they are the last pure race of
history.
(There
is no such thing as a pure race any longer, including the Jewish race). The
first was the 400 years of slavery which gave them the necessary discipline and
character to exist as a client nation.
3. As the Alpha and the Omega Jesus
Christ is the key to understanding Israel. In His alpha glory Jesus Christ is
the God of Israel; in His omega glory Jesus Christ is the future ruler of
Israel. He was born the ruler of Israel, He was born the Son of David.
4. The Jewish race then was founded
on recognition of the omega glory of Christ, for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were
all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and were able to relate their animal
sacrifices to His future work on the cross.
5. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were
born again through faith in Jesus Christ whom they recognised as their God,
their saviour, and their king.
6. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob set a
precedent for the Jewish race in their recognition of both the alpha and the
omega glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. This precedent was perpetuated by Moses
the founder of the client nation to God when he wrote in Deuteronomy: “Shama Israel, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai
....” Deuteronomy 6:4.
Translation: Hear, O Israel! Jehovah
is our God, Jehovah is one (unique)!
Holocaust? Build or borrow strength
The Origin Of Disaster
There are two categories of
disaster: natural and historical. Natural disaster includes earthquakes, tidal
waves, hurricanes, floods, forest fires, volcanoes and so on. Historical
disasters include military defeat, economic depression, famine, disease,
degeneracy, crime, terrorism etc.
Trends in the Church Age are
determined by whether the believer in Christ chooses to live in the divine dynasphere
or Satan’s cosmic system. The major issue in whether we survive as a nation is
the volition of the individual believer.
There are no tragedies in history,
only historical disasters. Historical disasters are not tragedies. Tragedies
belong to drama; disaster belongs to history.
People individually and collectively
are the products of their own decisions.
Human rights is never an issue, it
is a cosmic system. It is freedom that is the issue, a Bible doctrine from the
laws of divine establishment. Human rights is a system of taking over a country
for tyranny.
One of the problems which many
people have is putting people on a pedestal, hero worship. It is called
borrowing strength. People who do that lose their perspective. No one is
perfect. Borrowing strength is that form of weakness in which the believer
resides in the cosmic system and in his arrogance he doesn’t see his own
failures but is constantly attacking the failures of some one else.
Question: How do you borrow strength and
become weak? You make your social life with the wrong crowd. You take bad
advice, using others as a crutch. (You gain strength by learning Bible
doctrine; you borrow strength by leaning on others). You use some one else’s
scale of values rather than depending on your own.
Our first word is the connective use
of the conjunction kai which has many uses. There
are probably eighteen to twenty uses of this conjunction. Next we have a
nominative singular from the adjective paj.
The adjective indicates the entire human race alive at the second advent of
Jesus Christ. With this we have a noun, the nominative singular subject o)fqalmoj, which means “eye,” “and every eye.” It is a
reference to the entire population of planet earth at that time. While the
earth is a sphere rotating on its axis every eye which is capable of sight will
see the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The verb is the future middle
indicative of o(raw, which means to see. With
this we have the accusative singular direct object from a)utoj, which is the intensive pronoun used as a personal
pronoun. This is what we call a predictive future, it anticipates an event
which is expected to occur at a future time, i.e. the second advent of Christ.
The direct middle voice is one in which the subject, which is the entire
population of the earth at that time, participates in the results of the action
of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of
fact. It is a dogmatic fact that every eye will see Him.
The question arises: How is this
possible? Humanly speaking it is impossible for everyone to see the second
advent of Christ. The real answer comes up in eleven passages of the Word of
God, e.g. Zechariah 12:4, “every horse [invading army] with blindness.” How are
they all suddenly going to become blind? It can be accomplished as a miracle.
It could also be accomplished in other ways, e.g. Isaiah 5:30; Isaiah 13:9.10,
11; 60:2, “and his glory will appear.” The glory of the Lord moving through the
supernatural darkness will be the only visible thing. Ezekiel 32:7,8.
Then we have a Koine “ism,” the
conjunction kai with the nominative
masculine plural o(stij, o(stij, a relative pronoun, “including everyone
who.” Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb e)kkentew, which means to pierce, to run through, to throw
stab with a sword or spear, etc. The accusative which follows is the direct
object a)utoj and it is translated
“including everyone who has pierced him.” This is a quotation from Zechariah
12:10. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist and it views the rejection of
Christ as saviour in the Tribulation, the greatest period of evangelism in all
of human history. It is regarded from the viewpoint of it existing results, the
greatest rejection of Christ of all time. These are the ones who have pierced
Him. The active voice: the unbelievers of the Tribulation produce the action of
the verb, rejecting Christ under the greatest wave of evangelism of all time.
The indicative mood is declarative for a statement of prophetical fact. Many
thousands of people will reject Christ during the Tribulation even though they
hear the greatest and soundest and most lucid gospel message of all time. And
what a shock it will be to reject Christ as personal saviour and then see Him
return to the earth.
There is one more phrase. It begins
with the conjunction kai and it will be translated,
“and all the tribes of the land will grieve about him.” We should note that
this quotation is taken from Zechariah 12:11-14. In that passage we have a prophetical
description of Israel’s grief at the second advent. There is personal regret
and personal grief in the life of everyone who lives very long, but this is
historical regret and grief. The background for Zechariah 12:11-14 is national
mourning because of the death of King Josiah in battle. Josiah was one of the
greatest warriors down toward the end of Judah as a client nation. He was in a
great battle with Pharaoh Necho of Egypt. 2 Chronicles 35:22-27 describes the
entire scene. First the war, then the strategic situation, and finally the
tactical situation in which Josiah was killed. According to verse 11 of Zechariah
twelve the national grief and lamentation occurred just outside of Jerusalem in
the Valley of Megiddo. In the sequence of verses each category of Judah is
described as participating in great lamentation over the death of Israel’s king
and one of the greatest generals in the last part of their client nation
history. For example, Zech. 12:12 is the mourning of the ruling house of
Israel. He was so loved that even his family genuinely regretted his passing.
In verse 13 he was mourned by the priestly line. He was such a great man that
those involved in spiritual things missed him. In verse 14 all of the families
of Israel mourned him. He was truly and rightly so a popular man.
Based on this information and
background the translation in the King James version is incorrect, for this is
a specific reference to the mourning of Israel at the second advent. It is not
the mourning of the entire world. If it was not for Zechariah we would not be
able to determine this.
Again we have the nominative plural
from the adjective paj, but this time the subject
noun is fulh, which with the generic
definite article is translated “and all the tribes.” These are Jewish tribes
and the occasion is the regathering of Israel by our Lord Jesus Christ. One of
His first objectives is the regathering of Israel.
With this we have the descriptive
genitive singular from the noun gh, which refers here to the
land of Israel. It doesn’t even refer to the earth, it refers to the land. So
it is “all the tribes of the land.” While it is true that the entire population
of the earth sees the second advent this is a specific reference to the regathering
of Israel in the land after the second advent. Israel is scattered today and
the bulk of the people will be scattered, as per the fifth cycle of discipline
administered in AD 70. So Israel is regathered
at the second advent and the unbelievers and believers of Israel are all regathered
— the parable of the wheat and the chaff. The unbelievers will be removed from
the earth under the concept of the baptism of fire; the believers of Israel
will enter the Millennial reign of Christ. The baptism of fire is going to
remove all unbelievers so that the Millennium will begin, and world history
will begin with perfect environment and there will be all believers.
In this passage we are dealing only
with Israel. We have the future middle indicative of koptw, which in the active voice means to cut off, to cut
down, to cut something off from something else. In the middle voice koptw means to beat one’s chest in an act of mourning.
Hence, to mourn, to expresses grief or sorrow in a very dramatic way. To grieve
implies deeper mental suffering than to mourn. So we will translate this
“grieve.” The predictive future anticipates a specific event connected with the
second advent of Christ. The indirect middle voice emphasises the agents as
producing the action of the verb rather than participating in its results. The
indicative mood is declarative for the reality of Jewish grief at the second
advent and restoration of Israel as a client nation to God.
Next we have a preposition e)pi, plus the accusative from the intensive pronoun a)utoj. The problem here is: What does e)pi mean? With the genitive it connotes contact. With
the locative it connotes position. With the accusative it connotes direction.
So it is correctly translated “about him” rather than “over him”.
There is one more word, and that is
the affirmative particle nai, a particle of agreement.
It could be translated tamely, “quite true.” But when we add nai to the final word a)mhn,
this is meaningful only in literature. So when you say “Quite true, Amen,” this
is not quite correct. It means “So it shall be.” And then “Amen” means
“acknowledge.” This is not transliterating, it is translating. In other words,
why do we have this rather strange thing? Every time we have prophecy we don’t
have a)mhn. The reason is because this
is the first prophecy in the book of Revelation to show you what the pattern
will be. Prophecy is not to satisfy your curiosity, prophecy is designed to
edify, to give spiritual momentum and growth, to give an understanding of the
trends of history, to give orientation not only to personal life and
circumstances but to the overall historical situation in the time in which we
live. Therefore if the prophecy is understood then the significance of it will
be understood in the context of the book and then in loco in Revelation chapter
one.
This verse adds up to the fact that
Jesus Christ is the key to prophecy, not Israel, not the Middle East, not human
degeneracy, not historical disaster. As the key to prophecy Jesus Christ will
be observed by the entire population of the earth at the second advent. We
should also notice that as the eternal ruler of client nation Israel Jesus
Christ will restore it. Israel cannot be restored until then. All the Jews
gathered in the land for the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants to
Israel are going to grieve. Israel failed to believe in Christ for salvation
and lost their client nation status during the times of the Gentiles, which
includes all the Church Age, plus the entire Tribulation. There are certain
parables which describe this grief in terms of the baptism of fire, like the
wheat and the tares, the ten virgins. In view of the great evangelism of the
Tribulation there is no excuse for any Jew rejecting Jesus Christ as saviour.
The rejection of Jesus Christ results in divine judgment and the removal of all
unbelieving Jews from the earth. This alone is enough reason for the grief
expressed by unbelievers. The grief of Jewish believers is different for they
are expressing lamentation for the failure of Israel as a client nation to God.
They are expressing not only their occupation with the person of Christ but
patriotism also. And just as this verse expresses the fact that Jesus Christ is
the key to prophecy so the next verse will express the doctrine that Jesus
Christ is the key to history.
Translation: “Remember [behold,
consider], he is coming with the clouds; and every eye shall see him, including
everyone who has pierced him: and all the tribes of the land will grieve about
him. So it shall be, I acknowledge it.”
Principles
1.
No nation has ever survived its prosperity after the consolidation of its three
components.
The
three prosperity components are as follows: Landed aristocracy, Industrial
complex, undeveloped frontier.
2. This is because no prosperous
nation or client nation to God in prosperity perpetuates its spiritual life
through perception of doctrine and residence in the divine dynasphere.
3. Prosperity inevitably results in
neglect of truth or doctrine.
4. Therefore, people take the
prosperity they received from the divine dynasphere and in the divine dynasphere,
and they step out of the divine dynasphere for a vacation. They seek to enjoy
what they gained from the divine dynasphere by taking their prosperity to the
cosmic system.
5. In the cosmic system the believer
becomes preoccupied with the results of prosperity rather than the origin. His
life is wrapped up in pleasure, promotion, success, status symbols, social
life, sex, wealth, material things, etc.
6. The prosperity test is the most
subtle and difficult of all tests for both the individual and the nation
involved. That what this grieving is about in verse seven. People have selected
the wrong thing and now they are grieving because they have made an irreparable
mistake. That is the Tribulation. If you are still alive there is no such thing
as an irreparable mistake for you as a believer. You will pay for it and you
will suffer for it but it isn’t irreparable as long as you’re alive.
7. It is subtle because it requires
as much if not more doctrine for both capacity and perpetuation of prosperity.
It is subtle because it takes more doctrine to pass the test than anything
else, and the prosperity test is difficult because you forget the origin of the
prosperity.
8. Too often prosperity becomes the
enemy of right priorities or true scale of values.
9. This ties in with manifest
destiny. First there is a struggle for freedom, then there is the establishment
of freedom through military victory. Thirdly, there is capacity for freedom and
the enjoyment. Finally, there is the test of freedom — prosperity.
10. The prosperity of the nation
eventually destroys the nation.
11. The challenge of freedom is
related to the three ingredients of manifest destiny. You have something that
is equivalent to a landed aristocracy, you have an industrial complex, and you
have an undeveloped frontier. When all have consolidated into a single national
entity or empire freedom becomes secondary to prosperity and doctrine becomes
secondary to pleasure. When people are prosperous they start looking for
pleasure and, as a matter of fact they create pleasure. When pleasure is
created doctrine takes a back seat and so does freedom. So the true expressions
of prosperity are freedom and doctrine but the inevitable expressions of
prosperity come from the cosmic system, and that means pleasure. It is possible
to perpetuate prosperity under freedom but it is not probable for any length of
time. Start with the old sin nature and you have your first cause, but it
requires a large pivot of mature believers, it requires consistent positive
volition toward doctrine for that prosperity to be perpetuated. As goes the
believer so goes the client nation.
The Beggar’s Song: Christmas, true/false
“Christmas is a coming and the geese
are getting fat.” Fat geese were the sign of prosperity and it reminds the
partying and social crowd in their time of prosperity that they should take
some time to be a part of a con game. And in this line of the song the beggar
is saying: You won’t have fun at Christmas, you won’t enjoy your party unless
you give poor little me a little money. And you should be ashamed of yourself
anyway because you have so much and I have nothing. The beggar’s self-pity is a
manifestation of his arrogance and at the same time an appeal to give on the
basis of emotion and sentiment.
Christmas
often becomes very emotional and very sentimental and therefore the emphasis of
Christmas is thereby destroyed. For if your capacity for life is related to
emotion and sentiment you have nothing. Love and the power of love is based
upon thought. Thought is Bible doctrine. The emotional person feels his way
through life and is very miserable, and those who have doctrine and the power
of doctrine have the finest and most refined and purified emotions and
sentiment in the world and therefore will enjoy Christmas or any other season.
The
rich man should be exploited is the theme of that song, The Beggar’s Song. The
rich man should be exploited at Christmas. Christmas in the beggars mind is the
redistribution of wealth. Add to this the false rationale that you should give
to the beggar because it is Christmas is absolute nonsense. You should give
from honourable motivation and integrity, never because of a guilt complex.
The
second line: “Please to put a penny in the old man’s hat.” First of all the
beggar is made to look old and therefore tragic. His hat is, of course, a
squalid piece of material and the whole thing is to arouse your pity. This line
is designed to give those who have fat geese a guilt complex as motivation for
giving. The whole function of liberalism and cosmic thinking is to make those
who have been successful in free enterprise feeling guilty because they have
and others have not. This is one of the great evils of arrogance. The greatest
arrogance in the world is found in the gutter and the most arrogant people are
scum.
“If you haven’t got a penny, a half-penny
will do.” The beggar implies that at least you have something while he has
nothing. It is an erroneous implication. In reality the beggar is a con artist
who is rich from the exploitation of Christmas.
“If
you haven’t got a half-penny then God bless you.” And there is the greatest
sarcasm of this song. The beggar cannot hide his arrogance, it shows in his
sarcasm. In his own way he has found a way without capital to make money. Those
who appear to have nothing are often the most arrogant in life. Arrogance is
found in the slums as well as in the Manor. And, furthermore, the beggar hates
you whether you give him anything or not. And he now expresses his lack of
integrity. He is a beggar because he has no integrity, no honour. If you give,
you are a sucker to be hated and you should be fleeced is his attitude. If you
do not give you are exploiting the people and therefore he despises you. The
beggar is preoccupied with himself, he lives in the cosmic system, he expresses
his hatred from behind a facade of religiosity. (God bless you is in reality
God damn you).
The
Beggar’s Song then expresses the sentimental, superficial, arrogant side of
Christmas in contrast to the spiritual side of Christmas. You cannot enjoy
Christmas by “becoming spiritual” and coming to church one night. Those who
enjoy Christmas are those who have consistently, day by day, taken in Bible
doctrine and functioned under the principle of the divine dynasphere.
The issue of verse 8 is Hanukkah or
holocaust. Which do you personally choose? The issue will be developed first
through exegesis, and along with it, interpretation. But let’s first of all
define our terms. We celebrate the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
beginning of his incarnation, His uniqueness in hypostatic union, on 25
December. But our Lord could have been born almost anytime during the year
except possibly summer in Palestine. Everything that is descriptive of our
Lord’s birth is given in the various gospels but there is one thing that is
omitted: no date is given. The question arises: How did Anglo-Saxon culture,
Western European culture, ever come to select the 25th December. The answer is
very simple. It is based upon one of the greatest fights for freedom in all of
human history. It is based upon the principle of freedom through military
victory.
It all started on 25 December in BC 167, approximately 170 years before the birth of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It began when a great army just prior to 25 December had invaded and
come into the land of Israel. It was an army of one of the most powerful rulers
in the world. When Alexander the Great died his great empire was divided among his
generals and eventually the age of Hellenistic monarchies came into being with
four major powers. The most powerful of all is called Syria, though by modern
standards the Syria of today and the Syria of 167 BC are two different countries. For Syria in that day was an empire that
went all of the way from India to the borders of Egypt. Antiochus the Fourth,
known as Antiochus Epiphanes, came into the land of Israel with his army, and
he set up a simultaneous date in which he was going to convert the Jews to
Hellenistic culture. The sign of conversion would be the offering of pigs on
altars throughout the land. The pig, of course, being unclean as an animal to
Israel but was the traditional offering of the Greeks. Under pagan Greek rites
and festivals they were going to have the great festival of the sun god. The
soldiers went into the temple, drove the people out — except those who would be
left behind to observe what they would do thereafter — and they began to offer
pigs. There was a protest in the temple in Jerusalem at which point children
were seized and offered on the altar.
Throughout the country this was
occurring simultaneously, including a smaller town called Modin, and when the
very weak priest of Modin agreed to the general officer who was in charge to go
ahead and offer a pig there stepped forward a man by the name of Matthias and
drew a sword. He killed the priest first (there would be no offering), then he
killed the general, and then when the general’s body guard attacked him several
of his sons stepped forward, including the best swordsman of all, Judas Maccabaeus.
The five sons of Matthias plus Matthias wiped out the entire army detachment
that had been sent to the village. They picked up their weapons, asked for
volunteers, and the war for freedom had begun. It lasted for three years. Matthias
died but Judas Maccabaeus, his son, carried on in his place. He turned out to
be a genius, first at guerrilla warfare, and eventually at conventional
warfare. As a result of four major battles in those three years he defeated all
of the great generals of the day. Finally, peace came and freedom. The Jews
were freed from the tyranny of the Hellenistic empire called Syria.
In their celebration they selected a
time for an eight-day feast, the first day of which was to be 25 December. They
called this eight-day feast Hanukkah, the feats of lights called in the Bible
the feast of dedication. It was to be a great celebration in which certain
things were to be accomplished. Instead of the feast of the sun god it would be
called the feast of lights because light was to represent, first of all, the
Messiah, and secondly, their freedom. And so on that first day of the
celebration — 25 December, 163 BC — all of the people in
Jerusalem began by celebrating in their homes, exchanging gifts. When the high
priest formed up the parade they marched through the city and as they did the
people came out of their homes with candles or torches or some form of light,
and they would sing hymns as they formed up a gigantic procession that marched
all the way to the temple. There were offered sacrifices which are actually
recorded in Revelation 1:8 under the phrase “Omega,” for they offered all five
of the sacrifices which speak of our Lord’s work on the cross and rebound of the
believer to recover from the cosmic system. Each one would portray some aspect
of redemption, reconciliation or propitiation, which is of course the true
meaning of Christmas — or the real Christmas tree is the cross. The real
Christmas gift is the gift of eternal salvation through faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ. And so they had their great procession that night and they spent the
night in rejoicing over their new freedom. This was repeated on a smaller scale
all of the way through the 1st of January.
In the course of this it was decided
by western European culture, since these things were so significant — freedom
through military victory, salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ — to combine
these into a celebration of the first advent of Christ: the incarnation, the
virgin birth. This is all very significant to you and to me but it is not
significant at all to Israel; that is, Christmas as we celebrate it. What is
significant to them is Hanukkah, the feast of lights. They have a slightly
different emphasis because they are looking for the coming of Messiah. Messiah
hasn’t come as far as Israel is concerned and they are looking for His coming.
And because they are looking for the first advent they periodically throughout
their history have selected for themselves some of the greatest of disasters
which we simply classify as the holocaust.
Why the holocaust? Why do the Jews
suffer periodically the most terrible persecutions? We know through Genesis
12:1-3 and other passages of the Word of God that anti-Semitism will always be
punished. Gentiles often suffer a counter holocaust because of their attitude
toward the Jews. We have no right to punish the Jews. The right to punish
Israel belongs to God, and in His wisdom only God can do it in perfect justice.
Therefore we accept Jews into our land. They make wonderful citizens on the
whole.
In verse 8 we have two principles:
Jesus Christ is the key to history and the principle of Omega glory: do you
accept it or reject it? From that comes a sub principle: as goes the believer
so goes the client nation to God. The words “the beginning and the ending”
found in the KJV are not found in the
original MSS, they were added
erroneously.
We begin with the nominative
singular subject from the first person singular pronoun e)gw. It is our first word, therefore it receives great
emphasis. It emphasises the Omega glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. It emphasises
that Jesus Christ, eternal God became true humanity. When He did, at that very
moment He became the unique person of all the universe. So we have the word
“I.” Next comes the present active indicative of the verb e)imi, “I am.” It should be noted that the static present
tense is for a condition which perpetually exists, and because of the first
advent of Christ and resultant hypostatic union, taken for granted as a fact by
the static present, the omega glory of Jesus Christ enters history and becomes
the key to history, the key to history for us as a nation collectively and the
key to your destiny individually as a person. The active voice: Jesus Christ
produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a
dogmatic statement of doctrine related to the Omega glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. This is the beginning of Omega glory. It is Israel’s failure collectively
to recognise Omega glory that led to their removal as a client nation.
The predicate nominative which
follows is preceded by a definite article to
in the nominative neuter singular. This is the generic use of the definite
article, it sets aside a category as being unique. This category is unique in
history, it is composed of one person, our Lord Jesus Christ — “I am the.” Then
we have a double predicate nominative. First of all we have alpha and then
omega. Alpha in the Greek, Alfa, and then W,
omega. This is the declaration. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet
which is derived from the Phoenician alphabet. Alpha is the designation of our
Lord’s deity, Hence the Alpha glory of our Lord Jesus Christ is related to the
fact that Jesus Christ is God, coequal and co-eternal with God the Father and
God the Holy Spirit. The Alpha glory of Jesus Christ is related to His divine
essence, His integrity, plus the fact that Jesus Christ is the creator of the
world. All of the attributes of deity belong to our Lord Jesus Christ and none
of them were in any way compromised by the hypostatic union. So when Jesus
Christ says, “I am the Alpha” He is referring to the fact of His deity. Omega,
on the other hand, refers to our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union,
therefore the Omega glory of Christ is related to the first advent. The Omega
glory is what the Jews have ignored. It refers to the fact that historically he
has come. There were to be two advents of Christ, the Jews only recognise one,
the one where He comes in His glory. The first advent of Christ includes His
virgin birth, the hypostatic union, the residence of our Lord inside the
prototype divine dynasphere, His impeccability, His saving work on the cross,
His resurrection, ascension and session at the right hand of the Father. At
that time He received His Omega glory. It is the royal patent which He received
under the title of King of kings and Lord of lords.
The Omega glory of Jesus Christ
indicates that Jesus Christ controls history. This means that the Church Age is
the dead spot as far as prophecy is concerned because it is the historical
dispensation in which the royal family of God is being formed to return with
Him at the second advent. We live, then, in a dispensation of no prophecy. No prophecy
means a dead spot. Instead of prophecy we have something of great significance,
something that means you can tell what is going to happen in the immediate
future without having the gift of prophecy — for the gift of prophecy was
discontinued when the canon of scripture was completed, it was a temporary
spiritual gift like the gift of tongues and designed to take up the slack in a
certain area until the canon of scripture was completed and then it was
discontinued. The gift of tongues was related to evangelism; the gift of
prophecy was related to historical interpretation, orientation to one’s time in
which he lived. But these things are now gone. Once Revelation was completed
those things were removed.
Historical trends in any given
generation of the Church Age depend on the number of believers residing and
functioning in the divine dynasphere and the formation of the size of the
pivot. As over against that we have the detrimental end of the trend which is
the number of believers in the cosmic system — the number of believers wrapped
up in their own lives to the point where they have ignored the plan of God.
This adds to the shrinking of the pivot and historical disaster. It is volition
that determines environment, not environment volition.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega.”
Principle
1. From His Alpha glory Jesus Christ
is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
2. Therefore the Jews have certain
privileges related to their founding as a race, since they are the last pure
race in history. Every race was formed before Abraham was circumcised. It was
the circumcision of Abraham that changed him from a Gentile to the first Jew.
He is therefore the father of the Jewish nation.
The Jews had certain privileges
which came out of the uniqueness of their race but their first privilege was
four hundred years of slavery. It was the four hundred years of slavery that
gave them the necessary discipline and character to exist as a client nation to
God from BC 1440 to AD 70. They were conditioned
by four hundred years of slavery. They did not die in slavery; they were not
destroyed by slavery. All of their genius and greatness was linked to humility
and self-discipline so that it could be exploited in their magnificent history.
3. As the Alpha and the Omega Jesus
Christ is the key to understanding Israel. In His Alpha glory Jesus Christ is
the God of Israel. In His Omega glory Jesus Christ is the future ruler of
Israel; He was born the ruler of Israel; He was born the Son of David — He is
in the Davidic line. He is royalty, then, from His Omega glory. He is the ruler
of Israel, and not only so, but the royal patent which He received at the right
hand of the Father guarantees He is also the ruler of the world. The royal
patent our Lord received at the right hand of the Father was not connected with
Israel, Israel had rejected Him: “He came unto his own and his own received him
not.” In His Omega glory Jesus Christ is the ruler of the world; in His Omega
glory He came. But the Omega glory has two ends as far as history is concerned.
The virgin birth made Him the ruler of the Jews; His ascension and session at
the right hand of the Father made Him the ruler of the Gentiles, just before
the times of the Gentiles would begin. Both of these royal titles merge to be claimed
at the second advent.
4. The Jewish race, then, was
founded on recognition of the Omega glory of Christ, for Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob were all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and were able to relate their
animal sacrifices to His future work on the cross. Even though the first advent
and the work of the cross was future they recognised it as the basis of their
salvation and the prophecy was just as real to them, though unfulfilled at the
time, as their circumstances historically were.
5. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were
“born-again” through faith in Jesus Christ whom they recognised as their God,
their saviour, and their King.
6. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob set a
precedent for the Jewish race in their recognition of both the Alpha and the
Omega glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. This precedent was perpetuated by Moses,
the founder of the client nation to God, when he wrote Deuteronomy 6:4-6.
We are going to see that the problem
with Israel has always been the same: the failure to recognise the Omega glory
of Jesus Christ. His Alpha glory they accepted; His Omega glory they rejected.
Yet the very foundation of the Jewish race, the circumcision of Abraham, and
the very foundation of Israel as the first and inevitably the last client
nation to God, is based upon the principle found in Deuteronomy chapter 6,
verses 4-6. The Jews who reject Christ as saviour can never distinguish between
prophecies of the first advent and prophecies of the second advent, which means
that they have a blind spot. Rejection of the God of Israel inevitably puts the
Jew inside the cosmic system. We live today in the Church Age, which is the
dead spot, and they are especially vulnerable in the dead spot because they
have a blind spot to go with the dead spot. The Church Age is the dispensation
of historical trend; there is no prophecy in the Church Age. The two greatest
prophecies in history are on each side of the Church Age: the first advent of
Christ which is now history by which our so great salvation was accomplished;
the second advent.
We now move on to where we see,
first of all, our Lord at present. In other words, one articular present active
participle from the verb e)imi to delineate the Omega
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the verb to be and is translated “who
is.” The definite article is used as a relative pronoun to convert the
participle into a relative clause. The static present tense represents a
condition which is assumed as perpetually existing, our Lord in hypostatic
union and/or His Omega glory, His third royal patent. The active voice: Jesus
Christ in His glorified state seated at the right hand of God the Father in a
resurrection hypostatic union produces the action of the verb, and the
participle is circumstantial for the Omega glory of our Lord Jesus Christ at
the right hand of the Father.
That is the key to the Church Age.
It refers to the status of our Lord at the present time which is quite
different from what happened prior to the virgin birth, united forever with His
deity in perfect true humanity. This makes Him different from the Father and
the Spirit because He possesses perfect true humanity; it makes Him different
from humanity in that He is eternal and infinite God. This is the present
status quo. Add to the fact of His Omega glory or the issuing of the third
divine patent the basic reason for the discontinuing of the Age of Israel and
the insertion of the Church Age, the calling out of a royal family. Also it
gives every believer a mission that never existed prior to the Church Age: never
before in history has the life of the individual believer inside of a given
nation been so significant as it is in this dispensation — as goes the
believer’s volition on a daily basis so goes the client nation.
Next we have our Lord in the past,
His Alpha glory. First we have the connective use of the conjunction kai, then we have the nominative singular from the
definite article used with the indicative in the pattern of Ionic Greek. We
suddenly switch after all this time. John demonstrates his education, he was a
well-educated Jewish aristocrat. He now moves over to some Ionic Greek. The
definite article with the indicative is not Attic Greek, or what we call
Classical Greek; it is not Koine Greek, it is Ionic Greek. This is a peculiar
phrase which belongs to the most brilliant minds in western Turkey. Why did he
switch to Ionic Greek? Every line of the Word of God is written under the
filling of the Holy Spirit. God uses the individual personality of the writer,
and so He does in this case. Here is a man who goes from the smoothness of his Koine
Greek to this magnificent Ionic phrase because there is no way in human
language to communicate the greatness of God. Jesus Christ always existed,
there never was a time when He didn’t exist. He was always perfect, always
unchangeable; He always had perfect integrity, perfect power. He is greater
than space; He is greater than time. So how are you going to say it? You switch
languages. John switched languages to emphasise the Alpha glory of Jesus Christ
— His eternal glory. So we have the definite article with the imperfect active
indicative of e)imi. We translate this phrase,
“and always existed.” because the progressive imperfect of description
represents linear aktionsart in past time. Therefore Jesus Christ is God,
eternal God, and this is His Alpha glory and always has been. Under the
doctrine of immutability He has never changed and cannot change His deity,
therefore the taking on of humanity. The active voice: Jesus Christ as eternal
God produces the action of the verb, and the declarative indicative is for a
fact that Jesus Christ is eternal and infinite God.
This becomes a very important
concept because when you have a circumstantial present participle followed by
an Ionic phrase you have to stop long enough to take a look at it. Why this
sudden change of language apart from the fact that we are now speaking of Jesus
Christ as God before the virgin birth when He became the God-Man? We are
speaking of His Alpha glory before His Alpha glory merged into His Omega glory
through the virgin birth. The circumstantial present active participle from e)imi again represent His Omega glory which includes
being honoured with the seat at the right hand of the Father and being given
His third royal patent, His battlefield royalty for the angelic conflict. So
the conferring of this patent of royalty is the basis for the interrupted
dispensation of Israel which is to be completed in the Tribulation. The
terminating event of the dispensation of Israel is the second advent; the terminating
event of the Church Age is the Rapture, which occurs before the second advent.
Therefore the insertion of the Church Age for the purpose of the calling out of
the royal family of God. Added to our Lord’s eternal glory, which is Alpha, is
His historical glory, Omega, the hypostatic union. So by changing the language
John is saying, ‘Look, you didn’t know our Lord in His Alpha glory, that was
before man existed, but the One who has Alpha glory you know under the concept
of His Omega glory for He is the revelation of God — our Lord Jesus Christ, the
God of Israel.’ Ionic Greek says, here is a language that can be best explained
from its grammar the fact that Jesus Christ always existed as God. But what is
important now from AD 96 until the end of time is
that everything in a world history textbook must talk about Jesus Christ.
While the royal family of God or the
bride of Christ is being formed all prophecy stops and historical trends
becomes God’s plan for the Church Age. The believer’s influences are absolutely
fantastic for the uptrend or downtrend. When you find a maximum number of
believers residing and functioning inside of the divine dynasphere with its
eight gates you have an uptrend in history; when you find believers living in
the cosmic system then you have a downtrend in history.
Then there is a third description of
our Lord, the second advent description, the revelation of His Alpha and Omega
glory. Again we have the connective use of the conjunction kai, translated “and,” and the articular present active
participle from the verb e)rxomai, “and who is to come.” We
leave the Ionic Greek and go back to the Koine Greek. The nominative singular
definite article is used for both a personal pronoun and a relative pronoun.
The futuristic present tense denotes an event which has not yet occurred, the
second advent, but is regarded as so certain in thought that it is contemplated
as already coming to pass. The futuristic present is that marvellous way in the
Greek of describing history before history occurs, with the absolute certainty
that it will occur. The active voice: Jesus Christ in both His Alpha and Omega
glory produces the action this time. We see the action of the first participle
produced by His Alpha glory, the action of the Ionic Greek, His Alpha glory;
now we have His Alpha and Omega glory which are the producers of the action.
Again we have a circumstantial participle for the revelation of our Lord’s
Alpha glory, His deity; the Omega glory, His hypostatic union, at the second
advent of Christ.
There are two more words in this
verse in the Greek, a definite article o(
plus the noun, a nominative of apposition, pantokratwr, which means all-powerful one or the omnipotent one, or the total
ruler would be a better translation today. Pantw
comes from paj, meaning “all”; kratoj means a ruler, a sovereign. It could be translated
“all-ruler” or “total ruler.” The Lord Jesus Christ is the total ruler. The
omnipotence is a divine attribute related to God’s perfect and infinite power
and therefore related to the Alpha power of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ will
rule during the Millennium, both in the power of His Alpha glory (His
omnipotence) and in the power of His Omega glory which is related to the impeccability
and the integrity of the residence of His humanity in the prototype divine dynasphere.
Therefore we translate it “the total ruler.” It is a compound noun and it
occurs numerous times in the book of Revelation. In his context, then, we have
the translation “total ruler” or “sovereign” and, of course, since Jesus Christ
will rule planet earth as the God-Man, the Son of God, and the Son of David;
ruling both Israel and all Gentile nations in the future, this is the best
translation.
Translation of verse 8, “I am the
Alpha and the Omega, proclaims the Lord, the God who is, who was, and who is to
come, the total ruler.”
Principle
1. Billions of years ago in eternity
past eternal God, Jesus Christ, possessed the Alpha glory of His deity, and
since the incarnation and His first advent our Lord possesses the Omega glory
of His hypostatic union.
2. Omega glory includes the true
humanity of Christ in hypostatic union, which means that Jesus Christ in His
humanity is not only the Son of David, His second patent of nobility, but He
has a third patent of royalty which was given at the right hand of the Father:
“King of kings and Lord of Lords.”
3. The Omega glory of Christ has
been a stumbling block to the unbelieving Jew who through his negative volition
has rejected Christ as his personal saviour.
4. So we have Hanukkah or holocaust,
and every unbelieving Jew chooses holocaust, for the big blot-out leads to
holocaust and holocaust ignores and rejects the first advent of Christ under
the principle of grace before judgment. The holocaust is a judgment
administered by God through the most evil organisation in the world
historically at that time.
5. The Omega glory of Christ has
been ignored and rejected with all other aspects of the first advent: Jesus
Christ as the Son of God: Alpha glory; Jesus Christ as the Son of David: Omega
glory, all in one Person forever.
The doctrine of historical trends
Historical
trends are based upon the fact that the two most important prophetical acts of
history are the first and second advents of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Old
Testament prophecies about the first advent have been fulfilled in detail. The
alpha glory of our Lord Jesus Christ as eternal God became the omega glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union, beginning with the virgin birth.
Then His resurrection, ascension and session after His death. And at the right
hand of the Father He received His third royal patent. The book of Revelation
is also the history of how our Lord’s royal patent relates to mankind from the
time of the Church Age to the end of time. It is the story of our Lord’s royal
patent in history.
Because
of the third royal patent, the battlefield royalty, our Lord did not have a
royal family as in His two previous royal patents. With regard to His royal
patent of deity He had a royal family, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit.
With regard to His royal patent at the point of His birth He was born a king in
the dynasty of David, He was descended from two sons of David through Bathsheba
— Solomon and Nathan. Joseph, His stepfather, was descended from Solomon and
the younger son of David and Bathsheba, Nathan, is in the direct line of Mary.
But
once He received this patent and did not have a royal family the Age of Israel
was discontinued until the royal family could be called out. This is the
dispensation of the royal family called the Church Age; the royal family is
called the body of Christ and is composed of all believers in Jesus Christ in
this dispensation. The royal family is being formed during this dispensation.
Therefore, this dispensation is the dispensation of no prophecy. This is the
dead spot in history. No prophecy, only historical trends. During the Church
Age there will be no client nation Israel.
The doctrine of historical trends.
1. Even though history is the record
of man’s decisions and actions it is Jesus Christ who controls history.
Therefore there are two sources of judgment in history: the sovereign decisions
of our Lord Jesus Christ and the erroneous decisions of mankind.
2. The trends of history are
determined in the Church Age by whether the believer in Christ chooses to live
in the divine dynasphere or the cosmic system. Living in the divine dynasphere
is broken down into two mandates under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit: “Be
filled with the Holy Spirit” — entrance into the divine dynasphere; “Keep
walking by means of the Spirit” — functioning at Gate Two, basic impersonal
love; Gate Three, enforced and genuine humility; Gate Four, perception and
application of doctrine [momentum gate]; gate five, love of God; Gate Six,
right man right woman; Gate Seven, advanced impersonal love; Gate Eight is
maturity.
For the believer who fails there is
always a downtrend in history, living in cosmic one with its twenty six gates
of interlocking systems of arrogance or cosmic two with its nine gates of
interlocking systems of hatred. Mandate for cosmic one: “Grieve not the
Spirit”; mandate for cosmic two: “Quench not the Spirit.” The trends are
determined by where you reside. In other words: As goes the believer so goes
the nation.
3. There are no tragedies in
history. There are historical disasters but these are not tragedies since
individuals and nations are the products of their own decisions, not their
environment. (Decision creates environment, not environment decision).
4. People individually and
collectively are the products of their own decisions.
5. The demand for power exceeds the
need for power.
6. Arrogant people or arrogant
nations never see their own inconsistencies, only the inconsistencies of
others.
7. Jealous people and envious
nations never see their own sins and their own production of evil, only the
sins and evil of others.
8. Arrogant individuals, groups or
nations never see the disastrous consequences or evil results of their cosmic
involvement or evil modus operandi. And preoccupation with self to the
exclusion of objective reality is the greatest blindness problem in life.
9. There is no progress and
innovation without truth. Innovation without truth is retrogressive; innovation
without a system is destructive. Innovation without truth is application of
doctrine without cognisance of doctrine; innovation without a system is
application without truth, the absence of wisdom, the instability and eventual
disaster in downtrends of history.
Principles
1. Innovation imposed on others
without their consent runs the gamut from arrogance to tyranny.
2. Socialism, communism, the welfare
state, and redistribution of wealth are innovations of arrogance and tyranny.
3. Revolution and terrorism is the
disaster of innovation without truth.
4. Historically innovation based on
truth is progress, solution, and a historical uptrend to prosperity.
5. Historically, innovation based on
a false premise is the retrogressive downtrend of history leading to the
disaster and destruction of the client nation to God.
6. Innovation in the field of
military weapons is disastrous unless the basic weapons of warfare are first
put into operation. This is why in this nuclear age the infantry is still the
queen of battle.
7. True innovation in the spiritual
realm is the function of Gate Four of the divine dynasphere. Perception of
doctrine is the inflexible base for flexible application of doctrine — the
dynamics of innovation. The perception is inflexible; the application is very
flexible.
8. True innovation is the
application of doctrine to experience. Passing the momentum tests through
categorical doctrinal perception, the function of impersonal love, the function
of the faith-rest drill, occupation with the Person of Jesus Christ.
9. False innovation is the
believer’s application to life from residence and function in the cosmic
system. The cosmic system provides a base for cosmic innovation.
10. All true innovation on the part
of the believer has its base of operation in the royal priesthood and its
application in the royal ambassadorship.
11. When people emphasise peace and
security they lose freedom and truth, and its by-product of prosperity and
self-determination.
Now what really is truth and freedom? Truth
is the inflexible base: laws of divine establishment, the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ, Bible doctrine for the believer — this is truth, an inflexible
base on which you have the flexibility of innovation. The innovation is
freedom.
a. The laws of divine establishment
emphasise human freedom as the heritage from God and the major issue in the
angelic conflict.
b. In this historical era of nuclear
phobia and its bomb syndrome, man has come to emphasise peace as a panacea and
compromised the true concept of freedom. Peace is only emphasised by those with
a false sense of values. Either you emphasise freedom in your soul or you
emphasise security. There are two basic scales of value in life: a scale of
value which is built on security and a scale of values based on freedom. There
can be no compromise. If you go with freedom then God is the source of your
security, not some man-made structure that you plan out.
c. Yet freedom, not peace, remains
the most precious commodity of mankind, and the function of self-determination
a part of human heritage of truth from God. (You may as well face it, if you
are going to go for freedom then you are going to have to war; you have to
fight for freedom periodically. If you are going to go for security then “peace
at any price”)
d. Freedom and truth cannot be
divorced except by man’s use of his freedom to reject truth, in three
categories. Good decisions are related to doctrine and the more decisions you
make for doctrine the greater become your options in life.
e. When man uses his freedom to
reject truth he finds himself deluded by the false prophet, the false
politician, for demon and demagogue combine to deceive. Jer. 6:13,14. “When
pressure comes [anxiety and anticipation of disaster] they will seek peace but
will find none” — Ezekiel 7:25. When historical pressure begins to build up and
moves toward disaster people call for “peace.” Compromise to potential enemies,
“Let’s be friends, let’s disarm”! That is what happens to those who make
security their scale of values rather than freedom. Peace at any price is the
compromise of man’s most valuable asset — freedom. When a nation sells its
freedom for a mess of pottage called “peace” it loses everything. It loses
freedom, truth, true security from God, prosperity and, of course, peace. Peace
is that elusive intangible which the compromise of freedom for false security
of peace inevitably results in the loss of client nation status.
12. History is often the story of
how the weak control the strong. Weak, insecure, irresponsible, thoughtless,
arrogant people control policy, procedure and people. In social life, in love
life, in business life, in professional life, in culture, in government, etc.
Through arrogance, self-centredness and preoccupation with self the weak in
society actually dominate the strong. This is the historical downtrend.
Inside the divine dynasphere the
battle is the Lord’s, and you win. Inside the cosmic system the battle is
yours, and you lose. There are no winners in the cosmic system, just categories
of losers. There are no losers in the divine dynasphere, just categories of
winners.
13. Human history is the narrative
of man’s weakness, not his strength.
This combines such concepts as the demand
for power exceeds the need for power; decisions create environment, not
environment decisions; people individually and collectively are the products of
their own decisions. And there would be no human history without man’s wrong
decisions, as illustrated by the fact that man in perfect environment had no
problems until they made a wrong decision. Once Adam ate of the fruit of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil history became a matter of
self-determination, the use of human volition to exercise options in the soul.
The historical trends of the Church
Age, therefore, include options — options compatible with the divine plan which
is residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, or options related to
Satan’s cosmic system.
a. Weakness implies problems plus
the inability to cope with those problems.
b. Those who seek solutions by
improving their environment inevitably create problems which destroy their
environment.
c. Through living inside the divine dynasphere
circumstances become the servant rather than the master.
d. Good decisions turn problems into
solutions without creating or intensifying problems from those solutions.
e. The power of Bible doctrine to
change men’s lives is the expression of non-meritorious human volition in the
function of freedom.
f. The power of the cosmic system to
change lives is the meritorious and arrogant expression of human volition
inside the cosmic system, which is of course the environment of tyranny and
slavery. The cosmic system offers you success, approbation, fame, but without
the capacity. Therefore, many problems in life are created by prosperity.
Problems come from adversity and prosperity.
g. Inside the divine dynasphere
men’s lives are changed by doctrine. Inside the cosmic system men’s lives are
changed by the arrogance factor and evil.
h. Man can only enter the divine dynasphere
through grace, the non-meritorious expression of human volition, and this same
exercise of freedom can result in making those bad decisions related to
residence and function in the cosmic system.
i. So in the historical phase of the
angelic conflict man must be free to succeed, and by the same token man must be
free to fail. True freedom is the source of true failure and true success.
Therefore
recognition of our weaknesses is neither degrading nor demeaning. It is the
beginning of objective reality in the spiritual life. All solutions in life
begin by the recognition of weakness which begins the search for power, a
system greater than our weaknesses. Man’s decisions leading to failure brings
him to his knees and the end of his own resources. This is where truth becomes
meaningful, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
Weakness
in the unbeliever makes evangelism meaningful; weakness in the believer makes
Bible doctrine meaningful. If man is not free to fail he cannot orient to his
need of Christ; if the believer is not free to fail he cannot orient to his
need of the divine dynasphere and perception of doctrine in the divine dynasphere.
So by taking the responsibility for his own failures and bad decisions man
learns his inherent and acquired weaknesses, and he seeks for a power system
greater than his weaknesses, greater than himself.
A
principle emerges which often turns the tide of history in any given generation
to the greater human use of human freedom — 2 Cor.12:9.
The
sooner the believer realises that he needs a power greater than himself the
sooner he establishes the scale of values which places Bible doctrine first.
The free will of man, or human volition, resides in the privacy of the human
soul and is designed to choose the power system in which he will live and have
his being, either the divine dynasphere or the cosmic system. Man is not an
independent power but a weak creature which must choose that power system on
which to depend. This is why arrogance is self-deceit, for in arrogance man
assumes that he is independent and superior to all existing powers in life. But
man’s strength lies in his non-meritorious volition, not in his human power,
not in human authority or ability.
The
principle the: Man’s strength lies in his non-meritorious use of his volition,
not in his human ability.
With
his volition the believer can make the right decisions relating to God’s power
so that God’s grace becomes sufficient. He can also make wrong decisions based
on subjectivity of human arrogance and succumb to the satanic propaganda, the
cosmic system.
Choosing
Satan’s deceitful and clever propaganda in religion or philosophy or psychology
or sociology or political science or in any other human thought system where it
may exist in a thought form results in choosing the environment of the cosmic
system. Such a choice thereafter limits the use of one’s freewill to bad
decisions until one runs out of bad decisions and the doors are closed for all
options in life, and you stand still and see the results of your own
self-destruction in the form of divine discipline terminating in the sin unto
death.
Choosing truth in three categories: the laws
of divine establishment, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Bible
doctrine for the believer which leads to both residence and function inside the
divine dynasphere where humility produces both objectivity and capacity for
life, multiplying, of course, the options in your life for great blessing,
prosperity and, above all, the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore man must choose something greater than himself by which to live. No
man can live by his own merits or abilities and survive. No one is ever happy
living by his own merits and abilities. If man is to live by his wits he must
also live by his volition and the cognisance of man’s inherent sinfulness, the
old sin nature which is imputed at birth and subsequent weaknesses become the
basis for exercising one’s options in the direction of the cosmic system. We
need to exercise those options in the direction of the divine dynasphere.
“Patmos” an island in the Agean Sea,
the greatest historical centre in human history. Even as John was writing the
most basic concept of history during the Church Age, the dispensation of
historical trends, was being formed before his eyes. The doctrine of manifest
destiny which up to this time was not an issue in history was to become an
issue for the first time with SPQR, the Roman empire. Here on the Island of Patmos it
was John who initiated the concept of manifest destiny, a concept which divides
any nation that is to be great into three historical movements: Landed aristocracy always give the nation
its initial start; Industrial complex, because the landed aristocracy provide a
stabilised national entity for the existence and function of industrial
complex; Undeveloped frontier, in order for the complete use of the talent and
the ability of any nation.
The Occasion Of The Apocalypse: vv
9-11
Verse 9, “I John,” E)gw I)oannhj. I)oannej was
an aristocratic name; John was an aristocrat. The human author of the book of
Revelation was the apostle John who was functioning as a believer priest inside
the divine dynasphere, as a one person congregation, on a Sunday morning in AD 96 on the Island of Patmos.
He had been banished from Ephesus to Patmos during the Domitian persecution of AD 81-96. Out of John’s
persecution by Domitian comes blessing for him. Domitian, a very evil man, was
the ruler of the Roman empire. Principle: You can have evil rulers and have
great blessing in a national entity. For one of the historical trends of the
Church Age: where there is no tyranny, whoever rules the land is not the major issue.
It is the system of administration and the system of government that counts.
Rome was being beautifully administered by the knights of Rome. The senate had
become decadent. The Caesar was a very evil man. It is only when tyranny creeps
in that what the top man has to say has significance.
John’s
persecutors sought to nullify his effectiveness by isolating him but they
forgot one thing: Jesus Christ controls history. And it was the Lord’s will for
him to be separated from his congregations so they could get out of the routine
of the messages they had been getting. It was time for John to write.
The
closing book of the New Testament must demonstrate everything that would happen
in history by way of trends from the time of John to the end of the Church Age
— the time of the historical trends is the dispensation of the Church — and to
bring together all of the historical trends, not only in our dispensation, but
to give believers in the Church Age [Not the Tribulation] an understanding of
what would happen in history after the Church was removed, and how to relate it
to their lives now, and how to grow spiritually from understanding both the
historical trends and the eschatological delineation of historical trends
beginning in chapter six.
So out of John’s pressures and persecutions from Domitian comes
blessing for him. But not only blessing for John in isolation but blessing for
believers in every generation for the rest of history. For John was isolated
under the principle of cursing turned to blessing. God the Holy Spirit used the
mentality of John to present to us the history of the world from his time to
the end of the world and to present it in such a lucid form that it is not only
understandable but it has great application to us. Out of John’s pressure comes
blessing and for countless generations of the royal family of God who have
benefited from the study of Revelation.
John, as a believer priest at the
time of verse 9, was engaged in worship of our Lord Jesus Christ When this
one-man service was interrupted by the sudden appearance of our Lord Himself.
The presence of our Lord caused the one person in the congregation to faint. We
must also remember that John did not neglect worship when alone. For if ever
you need Bible doctrine and its application it is when you are alone for what
you are when you are alone determines everything else.
Outline
v9 The background of a church service.
v10 The case of an interrupted service.
v11 The distribution mandate of our Lord Jesus Christ.
vv12-16 Three introductory visions.
v17 The congregation
fainting and why.
v18 The preacher identifies himself after reviving his
congregation.
v19 A mandate and the outline for the apocalypse.
v20 The first interpretation
of the apocalypse.
Verse 9, “I John.” A threefold
description of the writer follows.
a. John is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore a
member of the royal family of God. We get this from an appositional nominative
case from a)delfoj — brother. With this we have
the descriptive genitive from the personal pronoun su.. When you put it together it
is “I John, your fellow believer.”
b. John as a believer is a partner
with other believers in the plan of God. The connective conjunction kai presents a second aspect of
the human writer. Then we have another appositional nominative case from sugkoinwnoj, a partner, a co-participant. The areas of
partnership and joint participation are given in one prepositional phrase. You
see he’s alone, and now he is not simply speaking to his congregation, he is
speaking to the world of believers as they will exist from John’s time to the
Rapture. And therefore it is a partnership, still with authority, because as we
with positive volition approach the book of Revelation we will benefit to the
maximum. Next we have partnership — in what area? e)n
plus the locative singular of the definitive article used for three nouns, so
there are three ways in which the partnership will be described.
Next we have the human author of the
book of Revelation and the threefold description of him.
Verse 9, “companion,” sugkoinwmoj, partner. The areas of partnership and joint
participation are given in one prepositional phrase, one definite article, to
cover all three areas of this partnership or joint participation. The
prepositional phrase is e)n plus the locative of the
definite article. There are three nouns in the locative case which will give us
the area of partnership.
The first locative singular is from
the noun qliyij. It refers here to
pressures, sufferings, disasters. The principle that comes out of this first
stage of partnership:
a. All believers have problems.
b.
The reason some believers do not appear to have problems is simply because they
live inside the divine dynasphere where they live a happy and normal life under
pressure just as they do in prosperity. They have learned to cope by attaining
strength rather than borrowing strength.
c. Residence in the divine dynasphere
with its function at the various gates guarantees a normal happy life no matter
how great the problems or the pressures or the disasters. And believers who
live in the divine dynasphere are normal and therefore entitled to sentiment.
You can only be sentimental about normal people.
d. The great issue is not avoiding
problems and troubles but the modus vivendi of the royal priesthood in the
function of the invisible life with God and the modus operandi of the royal
ambassadorship in the visible interaction with mankind.
e. This concept excludes divine
discipline. Since John has in view here suffering for blessing, obviously it is
that concept which is in view here.
f. Problems with people or
circumstances are never resolved by adjustment to those people or
circumstances, they are resolved by relationship with God. All objectivity in
problems and pressures is related to your fellowship with God and not with
people involved.
g. If you’re right with God you can
face the wrongs of human injustice and oppression. Furthermore, if you’re right
with God you do not consider things beneath you as demeaning.
h. Furthermore, momentum testing is
designed to accelerate spiritual growth by the application of doctrine to
experience. All believers residing inside the divine dynasphere are partners in
the pressures of suffering, disaster, trouble, distress, affliction,
oppression.
How do you handle life when you are
alone? The moment you stop handling aloneness by your relationship with God, by
residence and function in the divine dynasphere, you no longer are a
participant in the sufferings and problems. And therefore you have lost your
rapport with loved ones who are not present.
Next
comes the connective conjunction kai followed by a second locative singular from the
noun basileia, kingdom. The kingdom refers
to phase three of the plan of God. It emphasises eternal rewards, blessings,
decorations, above and beyond the resurrection body. The advance to maturity
from residence and function inside the divine dynasphere is a guarantee of, not
only blessings in time but, of far greater eternal blessings which glorify God
forever. Blessing in time is the advance to gate eight of the divine dynasphere,
perception of doctrine. But what is far more important is the glorification of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal blessing and reward at the Judgment Seat of
Christ. In the meantime the believer must endure suffering with great poise and
inner happiness which is only possible inside the divine dynasphere.
And
so a third noun which goes with a preposition. The connective conjunction tells
us that we are still in one prepositional phrase. We have the locative singular
of the noun u(pomonh, steadfastness, fortitude,
perseverance. Both the noun and the verb connote courageous endurance and so it
also means active and energetic resistance of evil which comes out of the
cosmic system. U(pomonh refers to residence and
function inside the divine dynasphere. It refers to resistance of temptation
or, if failing on that count, the habitual use of rebound to recover from sin
and failure, the function of the faith-rest drill, the manufacture of
motivational and functional virtue, love of God, occupation with the Person of
Christ, everything which is necessary for the proper motivation for the
Christian way of life.
John, as a believer in the Church Age, has a third characteristic.
He possess eternal security from union with Christ; positional truth, which
means he also has temporal security as well. This comes out in the second
prepositional phrase e)n plus the locative of I)hsouj, Lit. “in Jesus” the humanity name of our
Lord in hypostatic union. The royal family of God is formed by the unique
ministry of God the Holy Spirit which only occurs in this dispensation. The
baptism of the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Christ forever. This means
eternal security. Temporal security and our awareness of it comes from our
residence and function in the eight gates of the divine dynasphere.
Next, a verb: The aorist middle indicative of
the verb ginomai, “came to be” here. John came
to be, so he sees manifest destiny as relating to history and he sees his
relationship to manifest destiny, for it is John who on the Island of Patmos
actually brought into focus the concept of manifest destiny in history.
The
thing that really brings the concept of manifest destiny all together is the
undeveloped frontier. The undeveloped frontier gives those who fail under
landed aristocracy a chance to go west, and those who fail in the industrial
complex to go west. And there on the raw frontier your talent, your ability to
survive, your ingenuity, comes out and you develop, as it were, a new
aristocracy from innovation. Eventually when the undeveloped frontiers are gone
the people here have no place to go. The labour complains and those who are
working on the land are not satisfied because they don’t share the wealth of
the land and they have no place to go, an undeveloped frontier, and then
trouble starts. And that is why no nation survives its prosperity.
The aorist tense of ginomai is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action
of the verb in its entirety. The middle voice describes the subject, the
apostle John, as participating in the results of the action, which in this case
is writing the book of Revelation. He came to be on the Island of Patmos so
that we could understand the role of the believer in the dispensation in which
we live. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality.
Next comes the prepositional phrase e)n
plus the locative singular of nhsoj which should be translated
“on the island.” Then we have a second locative th used as a demonstrative
pronoun which should be translated “that one.” Then the present passive
participle of the verb kalew in the passive voice, “the
one being called.” Then the dative singular, indirect object, Patmoj, Patmos, a rock in the Aegean, isolated where
there are very few people.
Next we have “because of the word of
God,” dia plus the accusative of logoj, “and the testimony,” the connective use of the
conjunction kai used this time simply to
continue the concept, therefore translated “and,” plus dia the preposition plus the accusative of marturia which means testimony in the sense that Revelation
is a deposition, our Lord’s verbal testimony to John, and John writes it down
under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. And the testimony is not about
prophecies but it is the testimony, objective genitive I)hsouj and Xristoj, “concerning Jesus Christ.” The objective genitive of Xristoj is actually not found in the original, which means
that since it is not found in the original text we are going to talk mostly in
the book of Revelation about Jesus Christ in hypostatic union. So “Jesus,” just
the one word, is going to emphasise the Omega glory of Jesus Christ.
Translation of verse 9 — “I John, your fellow believer and partner in the
pressures, and the kingdom, and the perseverance [persistence in the divine dynasphere]
of Jesus, came to be on the island, the one being called Patmos, because of the
word of God and the testimony concerning Jesus.”
The testimony of Jesus: 1 John
5:5-13.
Verse 5, “Who is this person
overcoming the cosmic system, no one else be he who has come to believe that
Jesus is the Son of God?”
Verse 6, “This one [Jesus Christ] is
he who came by water and by blood; not by water alone, but by water and blood.
Furthermore it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is truth.”
Verse 7, “Because there are three
who testify, the Spirit, the water and the blood: and these three witnesses
have the same purpose.”
John wrote that before he wrote the
book of Revelation. He had a testimony of our Lord by the testimony was not
completed until he authored the book of Revelation.
Verse 10, “was,” ginomai, I came to be. The constative
aorist refers to a fact or action extended over a period of time. The Sunday on
the Island of Patmos when John began writing world history as it would occur
sequentially down to the end of time.
Being filled with the Spirit John
fulfils his job. He fulfils it under the principle of worship, for there is
resultant worship as John meets with himself on a Sunday morning on the Island
of Patmos — cf. John 4:24. Worship is the function of the divine dynasphere and
there is no legitimate worship in Christianity apart from residence and
function inside the divine dynasphere.
“Spirit,” pneuma, e)n plus the locative, “I was in the Spirit.” The
absence of the definite article in the Greek emphasises the high quality of the
noun, therefore translated with the English definite article. It is an idiom
that reverses the use of our definite article in the English. It is a reference
to the filling of the Spirit and also to a preparation for the perception of
doctrine.
“the Lord’s day,” e)n plus the locative of time from the adjective kuriakoj. It refers to belonging to the Lord. With it is a
noun e(mera,
day, “On the day belonging to the Lord.” It is a reference to the first day of
the week, Sunday. Sunday as the first day of the week is designated as the
worship day for the royal family in the Church Age. It was so designated
because it was the day of our Lord’s resurrection. The Lord’s day not only
commemorates the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ but is a new day marking
a new dispensation. The Sabbath or Saturday was designated the day of worship
for Israel but never for the Church or the royal family of God.
Worship on Sunday is the privilege
of the believer and, as such, must reflect his freewill option. The Day of
Pentecost occurred on Sunday and therefore commemorates the day the Church
began. The Sunday or the Lord’s day is a reminder that the Church Age is a
dispensation of privilege for believers who are the royal family of God.
And so in the time of Domitian the
issue arose as to who was the Lord. You see, one day per month was designated
the Emperor’s day and this was also called in the Roman Empire the Lord’s day.
So Sunday became an issue because the Christians said Jesus is Lord and the
rest of the Roman citizens said Caesar is Lord. It was an issue of Caesar
versus Christ.
In the early church, while Sunday
was a special day, other days were also designated for worship. Day by day is
the order which is found in Acts 2:46,47. Sunday was set aside as a public
witness to the fact that Christianity worshipped Christ and not the degenerate
deified Caesars like Domitian who banished John to the Island of Patmos for
worshipping Christ rather than Caesar.
“and heard,” kai a)kouw, plus “behind me,” o)psiw plus the genitive of e)gw.
What he heard behind him brings us right back again to our subject of
historical trends — “loud,” megaj plus the accusative
singular direct object fonh, “voice.”
Next is a comparative particle which
tells us we are going to get an illustration as to what is meant. The
illustration follows in the noun salpiggoj which refers to a trumpet. The trumpet was used in
the ancient world for issuing commands in the military. The trumpet therefore
demanded concentration, obedience, execution of commands. Concentration under
the ministry of the Holy Spirit is necessary for perception of the plan of God.
Therefore it is a reference to the first three gates of the divine dynasphere.
The service was interrupted to provide the apostle John with both the
historical trends of the Church Age and the prophetical pattern of what will
happen after the resurrection of the Church. The trumpet is the alert signal
that the trends are about to begin.
In verse 11 we have the
divine mandate for the writing and distribution of the book of Revelation. The
phrase “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last” is not found in the
original. The phrase “which are in Asia” also does not occur. What we have at
the beginning of this verse is actually quite different to what the King James
version has added in. These phrases do occur in other places.
“saying,” the present active
indicative of the verb legw should be “which said.” The
perfective present refers to a fact which has come to be in the past but is
emphasised as a present reality. The active voice is the voice making a loud
noise like a trumpet, the trumpet meaning alertness and concentration to what
follows. The history of the world with doctrinal innovations in order that we
might begin to orient to the time in which we live which is not a dispensation
of prophecy but a dispensation of historical trends.
We have a relative pronoun which
follows. The nominative neuter singular from the relative pronoun, o(j, “what,” followed by the present
active indicative of the verb blepw which together says, “what
you see.” The present tense is a progressive present for action in a state of
persistence. It refers to the unfolding of the book of Revelation, an
historical textbook which tells us exactly what is going to happen from John’s
time to the end of time. The active voice: John produces the action of the verb
in relationship to the visions on which the content of Revelation is formed as
a deposition from our Lord Jesus Christ to the apostle and eventually to us.
John will see a panorama of history of the human race under the principle of
our Lord’s third royal patent, seated at the right hand of the Father.
Next we have the mandate for closing
out the canon of scripture, the aorist active imperative of the verb grafw, “write.” John is writing a deposition, not a
testimony. A testimony is verbal; a deposition is a testimony in writing, and
the book of Revelation is a deposition. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist,
it views the writing of the book of Revelation in its entirety but regards it
from the viewpoint of existing results: the glorious completion of the canon of
scripture with the panorama of human history from John to the end of time. The
active voice: John produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood is the
divine mandate for closing out the canon and He selected John to do it. We have
following this a prepositional phrase, e)ij
plus the accusative of biblion.
Lit. on a scroll. It means in effect “in a book.” Corrected translation: “Which
said, Write in a book what you see.”
Next we have the mandate for
distribution because in the mandate every historical trend that existed
simultaneously at the end of the Roman empire, exists in the world right now.
They are the historical trends that simultaneously exist at any point in history
on some part of planet earth. We have the aorist active indicative of pempw, “and send it,” kai plus
pempw. The aorist tense is a constative
aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety: the initial
distribution of the Revelation manuscript to the seven churches of the Roman
province of Asia. It is a foregone conclusion that John will write under the
ministry of the Holy Spirit and the distribution list indicates the fact that
non-face to face teaching is legitimate. For up until the time John was
banished by Domitian to the Isle of Patmos John was a face to face pastor with
the congregation in Ephesus and a non-face to face pastor with the other six
churches mentioned in this verse. Now he is going to send it even to Ephesus,
and furthermore, John is the pastor of all seven of those churches until he
went to Patmos. But there are going to be pastors of all seven of those
churches in the future and he is to write the first two chapters to future
pastors. The point is that historical trends must be understood by pastors as
well as by congregations and that no pastor can effectively communicate to his
congregation unless he can understand historical trends because he always has a
tendency to get of on something, to ride a hobby horse. “Which are in Asia” is
a corruption, not in the best manuscripts.
Next comes the dative plural
indirect object from three words. There is the dative plural of the definite
article, taij,
the generic use of the definite article — which indicates that these seven
churches form a specific category. These churches all have something in common.
At the moment John is still their pastor. Next comes the dative plural from the
numeral e(pta which means “seven,” and
then the dative plural from the noun e)kklhsia,
“churches.” The next phrase, “which
are in Asia,” is a corruption of the manuscript from which the King James
version was translated. The distribution to the seven local churches follows
the pattern of the preposition e)ij plus the name of each
church: “to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis,
and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” This is the initial distribution list
for the book of Revelation.
Verses 12-20, The subject of the
apocalypse.
In verses 12-16 there are three
introductory visions.
Verse 12, the vision of the seven
golden lampstands; “and,”kai; “I turned,” e)pestrefw, “I turned around.” John turned his head in the
direction of the voice. He is alert; “to see,” blepw.
The pictorial present tense presents to the mind a picture of the events in the
process of occurrence. Where there is a voice there is a form and John wants to
see what is the form of that magnificent voice — “the voice,” fwnh.
Principles
1. Since a voice is not visible to the eye it identifies with a
person who has a message. And therefore even with our Lord Jesus Christ it is
still the importance of the message;
2. John refers to the person who
owns the voice and he is going to see a form which he will associate with that
voice. And that association is going to carry us through two chapters — two and
three — and will be seen from time to time throughout the rest of Revelation.
So what is coming up, the form identified with that voice, is the key to
interpretation of Revelation for it is not the “Revelation of St John the
divine,” it is the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
3. Therefore to ascertain whose voice is speaking John turned in
the direction of the voice. In other words the voice demands attention,
concentration, objectivity, poise, and good manners, everything necessary for
good academic discipline.
“which,” o(stij, “that.” O(stij is the only word to indicate the hypostatic union
here. Jesus Christ is God; what follows will be a description of a man, but we
have the God-Man altogether here. O(stij as a qualitative relative
pronoun tells us that behind the figure, the actual humanity, there is also a
union with it, true and infinite deity. So “that” indicates the deity of Jesus
Christ.
“spoke,” lalew,
to speak, to communicate, to express. The imperfect tense is a progressive
imperfect for linear aktionsart in past time. The voice that speaks now is
going to be speaking for along time and great portions of the book of
Revelation are simply the spoken testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ written by
John.
“with me,” meta plus e)gw. John’s turning can be construed as his positive
volition as well as his good manners. John had made positive decisions about
doctrine which had opened the door for more and greater decisions about
doctrine. Persistent positive volition toward doctrine is the only road to
spiritual blessing, maturity, and glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“and being turned,” kai e)pistrefw, lit., “and when I had turned around I saw,”
o(raw. The panorama of human
history; “seven golden candlesticks”: xruseoj, golden; luxnia, lampstand. This lampstand
was the only light in the Holy Place in the tabernacle and just as the Shekina
glory was the only light in the Holy of Holies so the manora (Heb.) was the only light in the holy place in the
tabernacle. The central branch of the lampstand always represents our Lord
Jesus Christ who functioned in the prototype divine dynasphere and established
a pattern in the game plan for the Christian way of life in this dispensation.
Since it is used here, not in connection with Israel, but with the Church it
refers to our Lord Jesus Christ in the prototype divine dynasphere.
The six branches represent believers in union
with Christ. They represent the phrase “in Christ”. The visible part of the lampstand
is the light. The wick is the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. The oil,
representing the Holy Spirit, is brought up through the wick and there is a
light. The wick represents the believer inside the divine dynasphere, and the
light are the functional virtues which are obvious to mankind.
The vision of the glorified Christ, vv 13-15
The first principle of glorification
is the principle of the King-Priest.
Light
1. The light that burns from the
golden lampstand is the believer living inside the divine dynasphere — under
the principle that the divine dynasphere is God’s game plan for the Church Age
and it is divided into two categories: invisible and visible. The invisible
life is related to the royal priesthood; the visible life is related to the
royal ambassadorship.
2. So speaking of glorifying the
Lord Jesus Christ we now have a vision of the glorified Christ who is in
heaven, seated at the member that His third royal patent was given to His
humanity.
The burning of the oil in the lamps
is one type of light. But we are going to see another type of light: the light
shining from the stars, which is of course Bible doctrine. The stars are called
angels or messengers of local churches, hence the stars are pastors of local
churches who give off another type of light.
The teaching of doctrine glorifies
the Lord, therefore the light from the stars. The light burning from the lampstand
is the believer applying doctrine inside of the divine dynasphere, so that
Jesus Christ is glorified through the functional virtues apparent to all
mankind. The middle vision portrays our Lord in His glorified state in the hypostatic
union. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is King of kings and Lord of Lords who
is glorified by the teaching of doctrine. Therefore it is very important that
we understand the content of this vision. The deity of Christ has been
glorified forever, both in eternity past and in the eternal future. Here is a
vision of the glorification of the resurrected humanity of Christ and therefore
the vision describes our Lord in terms of human clothes, hair, eyes, feet, and
voice. And it must be remembered that the Bible must be interpreted in the time
in which it was written. Therefore we will relate these things to the twentieth
century as far as it is possible. There is no anachronism in this vision of our
glorified Lord.
Verse
13, “And,” kai. It is translated here
“and” but it is used in the sense of the Hebrew waw and it will be translated “consequently, furthermore.” There
are nine different legitimate translations of this conjunction. It is used here
to set up a double accusative, “in the” e)n
plus the locative singular from the adjective mesoj plus luxnia. It means “and in the
middle of the lampstands.” Then we have “like unto,” the accusative direct
object of o(moioj, “one resembling.” The
vision is introduced by giving the title “Son of man,” u(ioj plus a)nqrwpoj. This is the shortened form for our Lord’s title for the first advent.
It began with the virgin birth because He was born as Adam was created —
perfect. Adam was created without sin; the Lord Jesus Christ was born that way.
Human life was imputed to Him the same way it was imputed to Adam. The word
“Adam” in the Hebrew simply means “man” and its equivalent in the Greek is a)nqrwpoj. So He is called “Son of Man” or the “Son of Adam.”
It is a title to indicate the hypostatic union; it is His true humanity which
received the title “Son of Man.”
Principle
1. Jesus Christ controls history.
All believers are personally related to the eternal God-Man who controls
history. It is our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ that gives us the
invisible yet the very important impact on history, either uptrend or downtrend
depending upon our attitude toward Bible doctrine.
2. Therefore, for the believer there
are no tragedies in history — many disasters, a great deal of suffering, but
there are no tragedies in history. Tragedy belongs to drama; disaster belongs
to history. Since man is the product of his own decisions, individually and
collectively, the result of wrong decisions is disaster; the result of right
decisions is prosperity. And so we can say with regard to history: there are
periods of prosperity, there are periods of disaster, but since man is the
product of his own decisions there are no tragedies.
3 People individually and
collectively are the products of their own decisions. That means that volition
and decision produces environment, not environment decision.
4. Historical disasters result from
wrong decisions which destroy options for future decisions.
In heaven, a place of perfect
environment, there will be those who have great decorations and those with
less. There will be great inequality. A sign of freedom is inequality: you are
free to fail; you are free to succeed. Satan has invented a system called
communism which seeks to set aside this concept. So to exchange freedom for
security is to sell your soul for a mess of pottage. Socialism and the
redistribution of wealth is very popular because it offers security instead of
freedom. Also it gives those who have failed in life a chance to exercise the
motivating evil of jealousy toward others. Disaster results when the demand for
power exceeds the need for power. Disaster occurs when arrogant people never
see their own consistencies, only the inconsistencies of others.
In verse 13 the robe which we see
first is the robe of a high priest. A priest is a man who represents man to
God. Our Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity is a high priest. His humanity
resided in side the prototype divine dynasphere, He was therefore a priest
representing Himself to God. He was our high priest and we shall see the
significance of that. You have to be true humanity to be a priest. Furthermore
our Lord Jesus Christ, if He is going to rule forever as per all of the
prophecies with regard to the Millennium and the eternal state, He must be a
man. A king must be a man to represent man, 2 Sam. 7; Psalm 89. So it is the
Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity that is depicted for us here.
“clothed,” e)nduw, perf. pass. participle. This describes the dress
uniform of a high priest. Correct translation: “being attired.”
The word “garment” is the accusative
singular direct object of podhrh and it refers to the robe
of a high priest. It is a robe reaching down to the feet and again it refers to
the dress uniform of the high priest as described first in Exodus 28:2-4. Our
Lord’s priestly function inside the prototype divine dynasphere resulted in
maximum function of all the motivating virtues directed toward the plan of God
and the Father in His incarnation. Now our Lord Jesus Christ is the King
Priest, the great High Priest who represents us to God the Father. Every
believer is in union with Christ and the Church is a kingdom of priests according
to Rev. 1:6, and the priesthood is the modus vivendi of the invisible function
of the Christian way of life.
Next is “girt about,” perizonummi, “having belted around him a golden girdle,” zwnh xruseoj, lit., a golden sash. What is this golden sash? This is the
golden sash of aristocracy, it is worn across the chest. The golden sash worn
around the belt was a sign of being a ranking officer in the military but the
sash across the chest was the sign of aristocracy, proj plus the locative of mastoj, lit. across the chest. Our
Lord’s third title of royalty is involved here. The golden sash is a reminder
that our Lord Jesus Christ is the prince ruler of the Church, the titled head
of the royal family of God or the Church Age believer. It is a reminder that
Christ is the absolute ruler and the authority over the body of Christ.
He has delegated authority under
three principles which have to do with the laws of truth: Cat.1, the laws of
divine establishment; Cat.2, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (evangelism); Cat.3,
Bible doctrine for believers (pastor-teacher).
Three things are emphasised in this
verse: 1. Jesus Christ controls
history; 2. Jesus Christ is the great High Priest of a kingdom of priests; 3.
Jesus Christ is the sovereign ruler of the Church.
Verse 14, The one who controls
history also administers judgment.
“And,” de,
Lit., “now,” followed by kefalh, “head.” Lit., “his head.”
Next is “his hair”: qrix refers to His hair. Lit.
translation: “And His head and hair,” plus “white,” leukoj.
Our Lord, when He ascended in His resurrection body, was 33 years old. It is
noted in 1 John 3 that we are going to have a resurrection body exactly like
His. That means that everyone will have a resurrection body aged 33. Our Lord
appears very shortly after the ascension and His hair is now white. “White like
wool” means the hair is thick and like “snow”. The white hair of our Lord Jesus
Christ denotes the shock of His bearing our very own sins in His own body on
the tree. “White wool” is a reminder that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, the
efficacious sacrifice for our sins, while the whiteness of snow indicates the impeccability
of Christ residing and functioning inside the prototype divine dynasphere.
Because of His impeccability our Lord was qualified to go to the cross and be
judged for our sins. The white hair, like the scars in our Lord’s hands and
feet, are the visible manifestations of the price He had to pay on the cross.
So, in effect, what John is seeing here is what he said in the first chapter of
his Gospel: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
The next phrase in context
emphasises future judgment. In the first phrase Christ is seen as the saviour
of the world. In the next phrase He is seen as judge of the world. The white
hair, like the scars in His hands, then, are visible manifestations of the
price our Lord paid for our so great salvation. The white wool speaks of the
perfect impeccable sacrifice, snow emphasising our Lord’s qualification to be a
substitute to take our place.
This is followed by “and,” kai plus the nominative plural subject o)fqalmoj, “eyes,” and o(j, comparative particle “as.”
The comparison is completed with two words: the predicate nominative flox, flame, plus the descriptive genitive singular pur — fire. Lit. flame of fire. This refers to judgment.
There are two categories of judgment
we are going to note in this context. This is personal judgment in verse 14.
When we get down to the bronze we are going to see another kind of judgment,
national judgment.
Manifest destiny has three
components: A landed aristocracy, the backbone for getting a nation started in
the right way. Then it is followed by an industrial complex and there is always
an undeveloped frontier.
Man is the product of his own
volition. Man individually is the product of his own decisions; we as a nation
are the products of our collective decisions. This is true in any particular
period of history but even though man is the product of his own decisions Jesus
Christ controls history. The book of Revelation is a textbook of history from
the first century AD down to the end of time. It includes the Church Age, the dispensation
of historical trends, and then it includes all of the chronology of eschatology
of world history starting with the resurrection of the Church, the Tribulation,
the second advent, the Millennial reign of Christ, the revolution at the end of
the Millennium, the destruction of the universe.
The Lord Jesus Christ controls
history, and as such He provided in His first advent, not only the so great
salvation we enjoy through faith in Christ, but when He ascended He was given
His third patent of royalty. And it is that patent of royalty that makes up the
rest of world history: how He will exercise that patent at the second advent,
how in the meantime there must be a royal family, therefore the Church Age is
the calling out of the royal family of God, the royal family of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Therefore it is a dispensation not of prophecy but of historical trends.
Controlling history means that
eventually when a nation is made up of too many believers are spending their
time in cosmic one with the 26 gates of interlocking systems of arrogance or
cosmic two with its nine gates of interlocking systems of hatred, there must be
judgment. There are five cycles of judgment to a nation but in addition to that
there is national self-destruction.
So there are two categories.
Self-destruction is recognised by our Lord who makes the estimate of the
situation: too many believers in the cosmic system. So eventually then He adds
divine judgment. That is the picture we have in verses 14 and 15. In verse 15
we will see His feet like bronze as the national judgment but in the meantime
we have the judgment of the eyes like a flame of fire. This is individual. It
is not only true in the historical trends of people collectively but it is true
individually. We are the products of our own decisions. Good decisions open
options for greater decisions; bad decisions destroy those options and
eventually remove them altogether and the individual is removed under the
principle of the sin unto death. But before his removal he has a long and
miserable life of divine judgment and discipline. This is brought out now in
the flame of fire, for the flame of fire speaks of individual judgment just as
the feet of bronze represents national judgment.
“His eyes like a flame of fire.”
Principle
Jesus Christ will not ever tolerate
arrogance, the number one enemy of the human race. The Lord Jesus Christ has
charge of all judgment: individual judgment of believers called divine
discipline; collective judgment of nations called historical trend. For the
unbeliever salvation is always offered before judgment; for the believer grace
is offered before the judgment seat of Christ. The provision of logistical
grace to the believer in time and the temporal security that goes with it
always precedes the evaluation of any believer at the judgment seat of Christ.
Decision from human volition is always the issue in human history and in every
phase of human history called the angelic conflict. For the unbeliever the
option is to face Christ as saviour in time or be judged in eternity. The
option for the believer is to recognise Jesus Christ as Lord in time or be evaluated
at the Rapture with loss of any reward. And therefore this part of the vision
emphasises the fact that human life was designed by God to make decisions that
relate to the Lord Jesus Christ. To believe in Christ of course cancels any judgment
in eternity. But the issue then is not eternal security which was settled at
salvation but the issue is Bible doctrine, the Word of God. Jesus Christ is the
living Word; doctrine is the written Word. To put Christ first in your life you
must give first place to Bible doctrine.
Now by application to all of this
there is also the issue of temporal security for the believer. To live inside
the divine dynasphere, to learn Bible doctrine, is to recognise Jesus as Lord.
Logistical grace includes the provision of the divine dynasphere and Bible
doctrine as our temporal security. Our security is not found in money, in the
usual systems so designated in this life, our security is related to the Word
of God. To use one’s volition as a believer to reject and repudiate logistical
grace and temporal security means evaluation and tragedy at the judgment seat
of Christ.
We now see in verses 12-20 the subject of the apocalypse and the principle that Jesus
Christ controls history. In verses
12-16 there are three introductory visions. The first of these is the vision of
the seven golden lamps or lampstands.
Verse 12, the vision of the seven
golden lampstands. We start out with the connective conjunction kai. John uses this a great deal; Paul did not. John
followed the Hebrew style of connectives, therefore we see a lot of kais. Here it is translated
“And.” Next comes the aorist active indicative from the verb e)pistrefw, and it means “And I turned around.” The aorist
tense is a constative aorist, it refers to a momentary action where John turned
his head in the direction of the voice. The active voice: John produces the
action. The declarative mood represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of
reality. Remember, the voice sounded like a trumpet. The analogy of the trumpet
is not accidental. God the Holy Spirit gave this thought to John as he heard it
for the first time. The trumpet means alertness, and there is for us both a
personal as well as an historical application. Many, because of their
faithfulness to the Word of God are going to be prospered one way or another.
Prosperity is a test just like adversity is a test. If you have the ability,
the capacity from doctrine, to maintain in prosperity you will pass the most
difficult test in life. But the most difficult test in life is not adversity
and trial and problems, the most difficult and subtle of all testings is the
prosperity test. We face this test nationally and individually. Prosperity
provides a certain number of tests saying to you, now that you have this
prosperity are you so preoccupied with the prosperity that you have lost track
of the source; are you so preoccupied with the wonderful life that God has
given you that you have forgotten who gave it? The only way that you can avoid
the dangers of flunking this test is to maintain your capacity, and the most
difficult thing in the world is to maintain spiritual capacity — for life, for
love, for happiness — when you are prosperous. It is very easy to lose the
capacity because you start to neglect the Word of God. When you neglect Bible
doctrine you lose the capacity. Therefore what you have left is ritual without
reality.
Our next word is the present active
infinitive of the verb blepw which means to see, “I
turned around to see.” The pictorial present tense presents to the mind a
picture of the events in the process of occurrence. Up until this moment John
has had some adversity in being isolated from his congregations, being banished
to a rock island, and left there in hopes that he would die. Domitian would not
execute John. He learned something from Nero: Don’t kill the Christians. If
they are in prominence killing them will simply expand Christianity. So Domitian
was very wise and he didn’t make a martyr out of John. Instead he put him in a
place which was his very own Roman Siberia in hopes that he would just simply
die away and the problem of the apostle John would go away for the emperor Domitian.
This means that John has perhaps suffered some privation. But all of that has
gone for that voice is the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ and the greatest
blessing that ever came to an individual now comes to John. Only one man in all
of human history ever had the privilege of writing with perfect accuracy the
entire history of the world from his day to the end of time. It starts with
turning the head in the direction of the voice to see who was there, for where
there is a voice there is a form.
Having heard the voice John wants to
see what is the form of that magnificent voice. So John produces the action and
we have the infinitive of purpose and we have the beginning of a translation:
“And I turned around to see.” He wants to see the voice, says the accusative
singular direct object from fwnh. The voice is that of the
Lord Jesus Christ and John wants to associate a form with it.
Principle
1. Since a voice is not visible to
the eye it identifies with a person who has a message. Therefore, even with our
Lord Jesus Christ it is still the importance of the message.
2. John refers to the person who
owns the voice and he is going to see a form that he will associate with that
voice, and that association will carry us through chapters two and three and
will be seen from time to time throughout the rest of the book of Revelation.
3. Therefore to ascertain whose
voice is speaking John turned in the direction of the voice. In other words,
the voice demands attention, concentration, objectivity, poise and, turning in
the direction of the voice, good manners. Good manners accompany a good
spiritual life.
Next we have a nominative feminine
singular from the qualitative relative pronoun o(stij, it emphasises the essence
of Jesus Christ as God — “that.” It is the only word to indicate the hypostatic
union here. Jesus Christ is God. What follows will be a description of a man
but we have the God-Man altogether here. O(stij as a qualitative relative pronoun tells us that behind the figure, the
actual humanity, there is also in union with it true and infinite deity. So the
word “that” indicates the deity of Jesus Christ. Then comes the imperfect
active indicative of the verb lalew which means to speak, to
communicate, to express, to proclaim. We will simply translate it, “And I
turned around to see the voice that was speaking.” The imperfect tense is a
progressive imperfect for linear aktionsart in past time. The voice that speaks
now is going to be speaking for a long time. Great portions of the book of
Revelation are simply the spoken testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ written by
John just as our Lord gave it. The active voice: Jesus Christ was the voice
producing the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the
reality of Jesus Christ communicating information to the apostle John. Then we
have the preposition that rounds it out, meta,
plus the genitive singular from the pronoun e)gw,
“with me.” The act of turning can be construed as his positive volition as well
as his good manners. John had made positive decisions about doctrine which had
opened the door for more and greater decisions about doctrine resulting in the
greatest of all on the island of Patmos. In other words, persistent, positive
volition toward doctrine is the only road to spiritual blessing, maturity and
glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We now have another connective use
of the conjunction kai and a verb, the aorist
active participle e)pistrefw, “And when I had turned
around.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its
entirety, a momentary action expressing so much. The active voice: John
produces the action. This is a temporal participle plus the principle that the
action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, the main
verb coming up: “I saw.” We know the main verb and we can distinguish it very
easily because it is the aorist active indicative. The indicative mood is used
for the main verb and the main verb is o(raw.
The culminative aorist views the function of seeing in its entirety but regards
it from the viewpoint of existing results: the panorama of human history.
Again, John produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the
reality of the vision plus the main verb.
The direct object of the verb is
composed of three Greek words. We have a numeral which is never conjugated, it
always remains in the nominative, e(pta, “seven.” But we have a
double accusative. First of all the accusative feminine plural xruseoj, the word for “golden.” With it we have the
accusative feminine plural of luxnia, and it is not a candle it
is a lampstand, therefore a certain type of lamp. Luchnia is the exact equivalent of the Hebrew menorah, “lampstand.” It is a reference to Zechariah 4:2 where we
have the lampstand in the tabernacle; also a reference to Exodus 25 where it is
first described. This lampstand was the only light in the holy place. Just as
the Shekinah glory was the only light in the holy of holies so the menorah was the only light in the holy
place of the tabernacle. The central branch of the lampstand always represents
our Lord Jesus Christ who functioned in the prototype divine dynasphere and
established the pattern an the game plan for the Christian way of life in this
dispensation. Since it is used here not in connection with Israel but the
Church it refers to our Lord Jesus Christ in the prototype divine dynasphere.
We saw that from the virgin birth He entered into the divine dynasphere, very
shortly reached gate eight, and He functioned His entire first advent (the
humanity of Christ) inside the divine dynasphere. The six branches represent
believers in union with Christ. These represent being connected to the central
branch — union with Christ. The hidden part of the lamp is the oil which
represents the believer’s function inside the divine dynasphere. The visible
part of the lampstand is the light which burns as the oil comes through the
wick. The wick, then, is the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ; the light is
the function of operational or functional virtues during our life inside the
divine dynasphere. The wick represents the believer inside of the divine dynasphere.
Translation: “And I turned around to
see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned around I saw seven
golden lampstands.”
Essentially the lampstand is
composed of three elements: the invisible, the visible, and the wick which is
the conveyer. The invisible part of the lampstand is the oil representing the
believer functioning in the divine dynasphere under the filling of the Spirit —
the oil representing the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The visible part of
the lampstand in the light representing the functional virtues directed toward
mankind. The central shaft is our Lord Jesus Christ and then six branches
indicate the believer in union with Christ. The gold represents the divine dynasphere,
the key to the Christian way of life and, of course, emphasising residence. The
gold represents the availability of the divine dynasphere to every believer,
just as God the Father made available to our Lord Jesus Christ the prototype
divine dynasphere. Therefore the gold of the central shaft is the function of
our Lord Jesus Christ inside of the prototype divine dynasphere.
Next we notice the oil in the lamps
representing the function inside the divine dynasphere. The burning wick
represent functional virtue directed toward mankind. The two combined provide
the utilisation of every believer’s warrants: the royal priesthood for the
invisible and the royal ambassadorship for the visible Christian way of life.
In verse 20 we get the true interpretation of the lampstands. They are said to
be the seven churches on the distribution list of the previous verse. Each
believer and every local church has the logistical support of the divine dynasphere
plus union with Christ plus the invisible and visible components of the
Christian way of life.
Verse 13, we note in this passage
that there are seven lampstands and this means that we are going to have to be
dealing with light. So by way of anticipation:
1. The light that burns from the
golden lampstand is the believer living inside the divine dynasphere under the
principle that the divine dynasphere is God’s game plan for the Church Age. It
is the Christian way of life and it is divided into two categories: invisible
and visible. The invisible life is related to the royal priesthood; the visible
life is related to the royal ambassadorship. Every believer is a priest
representing himself to God; every believer is an ambassador representing God
to man. This is the dispensation in which the individual believer is
emphasised.
2. We now have a vision of the
glorified Christ seated at the right hand of the Father, and seated in hypostatic
union. The burning of the oil in the lamps is one type of light but we are
going to see another type of light: the light shining from the stars, which is
Bible doctrine. The stars are called angels or messengers of local churches,
hence the stars are pastors who teach doctrine or give off another type of
light. The teaching of doctrine glorifies the Lord, therefore the light from
the stars. The light burning from the lampstand is the believer applying doctrine
inside of the divine dynasphere so that Jesus Christ is glorified through the
functional virtues apparent to all mankind. The middle vision, the one we are
now about to study, portrays our Lord in His glorified state in the hypostatic
union. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is King of kings and Lord of lords who
is glorified by the teaching of doctrine. Therefore it is very important that
we understand the content of this vision. The deity of Christ has been
glorified forever, both in eternity past and in the eternal future. Here is a
vision of the glorification of the resurrected humanity of Christ, and
therefore the vision describes our Lord in terms of human clothes, hair, eyes,
feet, and voice. And it must be remembered that the Bible must be interpreted
in the time in which it was written, therefore we will relate these things to
the 20th century where it is possible. There is no anachronism in this vision
of our glorified Lord. It was pertinent in the time in which it was written and
we can go back and find out exactly the significance of all of these things. In
the ancient world what is presented here, His clothes, hair, eyes, feet, voice,
were considered the items of major beauty in the male and the female.
Therefore, since the Lord is going to be presented in beauty it becomes
necessary to cover these things.
We begin the verse with the
connective use of the conjunction kai, correctly translated here
“consequently, furthermore, and.” It is used here to set up a double
accusative. We have a preposition coming up first, however, e)n plus the locative singular
from the adjective mesoj plus luxnia, “And in the middle of the lampstands.” As goes the
believer so goes the client nation to God. As Rome in the time John wrote, so
our nation in the time in which we are living is a client nation to God. The
believer’s attitude toward doctrine becomes the determining factor in
historical trends. After salvation doctrine is the major issue: positive
volition expressed through residence and function inside the divine dynasphere.
Next we have the accusative direct
object from o(moioj, “one resembling.” The word
for resembling, taken from o(raw, is simply used here in the
accusative to indicate that the vision is now introduced, and the vision is
introduced by giving the title “Son of man,” u(ioj
plus the descriptive genitive of a)nqrwpoj. This is the shortened form
of our Lord’s title for the first advent. It began with the virgin birth
because He was born as Adam was created: perfect. It is a title to indicate the
hypostatic union. “And in the middle of the lampstand one resembling the Son of
man.” At this point we now begin the study of our vision of the Lord.
Principle
1. Jesus Christ controls history.
All believers are personally related to the eternal God-Man who controls
history. It is our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ that gives us the
invisible and yet the very important impact in history — either uptrend or
downtrend, depending upon our attitude toward Bible doctrine.
2. Therefore, for the believer there
are no tragedies in history. Many disasters, a great deal of suffering, but
there are no tragedies in history. Tragedy belongs to drama; disaster belongs
to history. Since man is the product of his own decisions, individually and
collectively, the result of wrong decisions is disaster; the result of right
decisions is prosperity. So we can say with regard to history there are periods
of prosperity, there are periods of disaster, but since man is the product of
his own decisions there are no tragedies.
3. People individually and
collectively are the products of their own decisions. That means that volition
and decision produces environment, not environment decision.
4. Historical disasters result from
wrong decisions which destroy options for future decisions. We have studied
that principle under the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline, but
long before God administers the fifth cycle of discipline to a nation the
nation destroys itself. Generally the nation fails to pass the prosperity test.
The robe which we see first in verse
13 is the robe of the high priest. A priest is a man who represents man to God.
Our Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity is a high priest. Remember His humanity
resided inside the prototype divine dynasphere. He was therefore a priest
representing Himself to God. He was our high priest: it is necessary to be true
humanity to be a priest. Believers in Jesus Christ are also their own priest;
they represent themselves to God. This is why the believer should become spiritually
self-sustaining. Furthermore our Lord Jesus Christ, if He is going to rule
forever as per all of the prophecies pertaining to the Millennium and the
eternal state, he must be a man. A king must be a man to represent man — 2
Samuel 7 and Psalm 89. So it is the Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity that is
depicted before us at this time.
We move on to the perfect passive
participle of the verb e)nduw which describes the dress
uniform of the high priest. We translate it “being attired.” The dramatic perfect
tense emphasises the existing state. In this vision our Lord is represented in
the robes of the dress uniform of the high priest. The passive voice: Jesus
Christ as the subject receives the action of the verb. The participle expresses
the attendant circumstances, hence a circumstantial participle. While this
perfect tense emphasises existing results it can be translated by the English
present to give accuracy to the Greek idiom found in the passage.
Next we have the accusative singular
direct object from bodhrh which is the robe of a high
priest. It is a robe reaching down to the feet. Again, this refers to the dress
uniform of the high priest as described first in Exodus 28:2-4. Our Lord’s
priestly function inside the prototype divine dynasphere resulted in maximum
function of all the motivating virtues directed toward the plan of God the
Father in His incarnation. Now our Lord Jesus Christ is the King priest, the
great high priest who represents us to God the Father. Since every believer is
in union with Christ and the Church is a kingdom of priests, according to
Revelation 1:6, this priesthood is the basis for the modus vivendi of the
invisible function of the Christian way of life. This is why you as a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ have a right under freedom to your privacy. The fact
that you are a believer means that the invisible part of your life must be
functioning toward God apart from any human influence. The only influence
should come from your perception of Bible doctrine at gate four. This is a part
of the fact that we wear the robe today. It is an invisible robe. We are in
union with Christ and each believer is his own priest and represents himself
before God. He is responsible to God for what he does with the Bible doctrine
that he learns: how he uses it, how he applies it, and how he functions in the
residence and modus operandi of the divine dynasphere of the Christian way of
life. So since every believer is in union with Christ he shares that priesthood
today. Jesus Christ is our great high priest representing Himself to God in the
prototype divine dynasphere and representing us at the right hand of the Father
in certain areas of intercession. Next we have in the description a connective kai followed by another participle: the perfect passive
participle of perizwnummi, and the accusative
singular of the direct object with it is zwnh,
the word for life, plus the adjective xruseoj, the word for golden.
Translation: “And in the middle of
the lampstands I saw one resembling the Son of man, being attired in a robe
reaching down to his feet, and having belted on a golden sash across the
chest.”
The golden sash is a reminder that
our Lord Jesus Christ is the prince ruler of the Church, the titled head of the
royal family of God or the Church Age believer. The golden sash across the
chest is a reminder that Christ is the absolute ruler and the authority over
the body of Christ. The Church is the body of Christ and the sash across the
chest is a reminder that all authority is vested in our Lord Jesus Christ. He
has delegated authority under three principles which have to do with the laws
of truth — “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” All
authority is delegated under category #1 truth, the laws of divine establishment.
That starts with parents: the principle of organised humility, the home is
organised humility. The authority is the principle of enforced humility and
obedience to parents. Positive volition toward that authority is genuine
humility, and that is the only way a child can ever leave home as an adult and
be mature as a human being. Enforced and genuine humility then recognises all
of the systems of authority that are provided in the laws of divine
establishment. Then there is a second category of delegated authority, and that
is involving the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The authority under the
gospel are those who have the gift of evangelism, or the power of the Word
itself in witnessing. But this is a very limited system of authority. Then
there is a third category which comes under Bible doctrine. Under Bible
doctrine for believers we have today the pastor-teacher who is the authority
for communication of Bible doctrine. That means a prepared pastor and the
believer has the right to seek out a pastor who is prepared and who
communicates Bible doctrine. Therefore the believer’s volition becomes the
individual authority, but once he goes into a church the pastor is the
authority and whether he is good or bad is not the issue. If you don’t like
him, move on quietly but don’t ever criticise a pastor. The golden sash, then,
speaks of authority and the source of all authority in life related to freedom.
This means that all authority in the Church is answerable to God for any abuse
of that authority, and this is why pastors receive double discipline for their
sins and their failures.
Three things are emphasises in this
verse. First of all, Jesus Christ controls history. Secondly, Jesus Christ is
the great high priest of a kingdom of priests, and the fact that the believer
is a priest means that he is personally responsible to God for his own
decisions. Good decisions open the door for greater decisions; bad decisions
close the door and eventually destroy the options under the sin unto death. The
third is that Jesus Christ is the sovereign ruler of the Church.
We move on now into verse 14 where
we have a description of the hairs on His head. This is related to the time in
which it was written. All beauty in the ancient world was related to the face
and the feet, the hair and the eyes; the symmetry of the hands and the feet.
And this explains the way people dressed in the ancient world. We see in the
verse also our Lord as the one who controls history and administers judgment.
We have a transitional use of the
conjunction de instead of the usual kai. It is simply translated “Now.” The nominative
singular kefalh gives us our subject. We go
to the head which always includes the face, of course. The possessive genitive
from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, used in the Koine Greek as
the personal pronoun, third personal singular, “his head.” Then comes the
connective conjunction kai, “and”, and it is a
reference to John’s vision of our Lord Jesus Christ as He appeared to the
apostle on the Island of Patmos. We notice next the nominative plural from qric, for His hair, “Moreover his head and hair.” Then
because this is elliptical we must insert the verb to be, “is.” Then we have a
predicate nominative plural leukoj. Our Lord in His
resurrection body, when He ascended, was 33 years old. He has the resurrection
body of a 33-year-old man. We are going to have a resurrection body exactly
like His, 1 John 3. We note now that our Lord was 33 when He ascended, and yet
he appears very shortly after the ascension and His hair is now white. White is
considered to be pure and is even considered to be a sign of beauty, but that
is not the issue here when it says, “white like wool,” which means the hair is
thick, and “like snow,” xiwn. The white hair of our Lord
Jesus Christ denotes the shock of bearing our sins in His own body on the tree.
When our Lord Jesus Christ was on that cross every sin that has ever been
committed in the human race was imputed to him and judged. This gives us some
concept of the tremendous shock to our Lord in being judged for our sins. This
is emphasised in the two analogies: like wool and like snow. White wool is a
reminder that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, the efficacious sacrifice for
our sins; the whiteness of snow indicates the impeccability of Christ residing
and functioning inside the prototype divine dynasphere. Because if His impeccability
our Lord was qualified to go to the cross and be judged for our sins. The white
hair, like the scars in our Lord’s hands and feet, are the visible
manifestations of the price He paid for our sins on the cross. The white wool
speaks of His perfect impeccable sacrifice; snow emphasises our Lord’s
qualifications to be our substitute, to take our place for judgment of sin and
for the entire human race. So in effect what John is seeing here is what he
said in the first chapter of his gospel — John 1:29, “Behold the lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world.” While the first phrase emphasises the judgment
of our Lord on the cross, the next phrase in context emphasises future judgment.
In the first phrase Christ is portrayed as saviour of the world; in the next
phrase he is seen as judge of the world.
The next phrase has to do with the
eyes of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have the connective use of the conjunction kai, and the nominative plural subject ofqalmoj, plus the possessive genitive of a)utoj, “and his eyes.” Again, because of the ellipsis we
insert the verb to be. Next we have a comparative participle o(j. Then the comparison is completed with two words:
the predicate nominative floc which means flame, and with
it the descriptive genitive singular of the noun pur
— “flame of fire.” This refers to judgment.
There are two categories of judgment
we will note in this context. This is personal judgment in verse 14. When we
get down to the bronze we are going to see another kind of judgment and that is
national judgment which takes us back into our subject of historical trends.
“And his eyes a flame of fire” is individual. It is not only true in the
historical trend of people collectively but it is true individually: we are the
products of our own decisions.
The first principle of the flame of
fire: Jesus Christ will not ever tolerate arrogance. When it says “a flame of
fire” it is speaking of the fact that our Lord personally is going to do a lot
of judging. For example, John 5:22,23 --- “For not even the Father judges
anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son, in order that all may honour
the Son, even as they honour the Father. He who does not honour the Son does
not honour the Father who sent him.” So the Lord Jesus Christ has charge of all
judgment. For the unbeliever salvation is always offered before judgment; for
the believer, grace is offered before the judgment seat of Christ. The
provision of logistical grace to the believer in time and the temporal security
that goes with it — as well as eternal security — always precedes the
evaluation of any believer at the judgment seat of Christ after our
resurrection. Decision from human volition is always the issue in human history
and in every phase of history called the angelic conflict. For the unbeliever
the option is to face Christ as saviour in time or be judged in eternity. But
the issue here is really for the believer. It is true that our Lord’s eyes are
as a flame of fire for the last judgment — all unbelievers will be assembled
and judged at the end of human history. For the believer the option is to
recognise Jesus Christ as Lord in time or be evaluated at the Rapture with loss
of any reward. Therefore this part of the vision emphasises the fact that human
life was designed by God to make decisions that relate to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Individually the greatest of all decisions is to believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ and receive eternal salvation. After that the believer must make
constant decisions. There is only one one-shot decision in history that gives
salvation and eternal security. Thereafter every decision is a daily decision
and all decisions require that you constantly evaluate your life, take a look
in your own soul, and see what is your scale of values. To believe in Christ
cancels any judgment in eternity but the issue then is not eternal security,
that was settled at salvation; the issue is Bible doctrine, the Word of God.
Jesus Christ is the living word; doctrine is the written Word. To put Christ
first in your life you must give first place to Bible doctrine.
By application of this there is also
the issue of temporal security for the believer: to make daily decisions to
live inside the divine dynasphere; to learn Bible doctrine is to recognise
Jesus as Lord; daily decisions regarding rebound — entering gate one, the
filling of the Spirit; decisions with regard to perception of doctrine results
in basic impersonal love; gate three, enforced and genuine humility. Without
the first three gates your decision to learn doctrine are useless unless you
have objectivity from impersonal love, enforced and genuine humility which
becomes teachability for gate four which is the momentum gate, perception and
application of doctrine; gate five, love of God. You cannot possibly love God
unless you have Bible doctrine resident in your soul from the function of gate
four, you have to make daily decisions without coercion.
Pre-degenerate thoughts
Degeneracy has many forms and is
always a functional evil. All degeneracy starts with arrogance. Arrogance is a
part of gate 1, cosmic one, and preoccupation with self when carried out leads
to psychosis, neurosis and many other things. It also results in the principle
that we are the products of our own decisions and that an arrogant nation is a
self-destructive nation. But you never begin by just suddenly breaking through
all barriers and moving into degeneracy. Instead there is a thought pattern
which comes first. It begins when there is rejection of all kinds of authority.
Degeneracy comes in many forms. It
always takes the form of violence as well as the phallic cult type of
operation. It all has to begin somewhere and it begins when a maximum number of
people through their own decisions become involved in the cosmic system.
Where
degeneracy began in relationship to arrogance in the USA was after the second world
war on the college campus when they lowered standards and allowed people in who
had no respect for academic authority. From this and what was taught there were
certain things that people began to think. For example: There is no such thing
as an absolute or eternal truth. To a person involved in academic arrogance the
assumption that everything is relative and everything changes opens the door to
rejection of authority and inevitable degeneracy. To hold convictions is to be
narrow-minded; to stand on principle is to be bigoted; people demand that both
sides and every side of a subject is taught without anything indicating right
or wrong, good or bad. This opens the door of course for socialism and
communism and for many of the attitudes that we have today. It opened the door
for violence on the campus, strikes, and all of the other things that have
nothing to do with an education. The involvement in mob violence and mob
activity is typical of the beginning of degeneracy.
A second kind of thinking that leads
to degeneracy is that material change is progress. This is the assumption that
material change such as electronic computers, guided missiles, wonder drugs —
which are beneficial overtly and provide many wonderful things for us — when
leaned on and people say that scientific invention and improvement is
beneficial, they have rejected in effect the laws of divine establishment and
the system of authority set up in it and have accepted scientific phenomenon as
a substitute and this leads to degeneracy.
A
third attitude which is related to the mental attitude of cosmic one gate one —
arrogance, vanity, jealousy, bitterness, etc. is the concept that physical
survival is the highest goal. This is the assumption that mere physical
survival is all that counts in life and some believe there is nothing worth
dying for. The phrase that began after WW2 “Better to be red than dead” or “coexistence
is no existence.” So we no longer hear stirring concepts related to honour and
integrity in the individual soul.
Another concept which has developed is that friendship can be
purchased by money. This led to the whole change in US foreign policy which has
now placed it in a very compromising position. Americans abroad are now
subjected to all kinds of violence.
Another attitude that was developed
in the early sixties is that people are born equal. This is not true. The Bible
teaches that people are born free, not equal. Man is born with a free will as
the major function of his soul and as he matures he is free to exercise his own
volition apart from coercion. He is free to express his opinion without
jeopardising his safety, and to determine his course of life in time as well as
in eternity. A slave is a person whose will is in the possession of another.
The more decisions the Federal Government has made for Americans over the past
three decades the closer they have been to slavery. From this delusion of
course is the concept that discernment and discrimination is evil. Nothing
could be further from the truth. The delusion contends that to be selective
about friends and associates is undemocratic and to attempt to make everyone
equal actually destroys freedom, individuality, and personality. The only true
basis of equality in mankind is the area of regeneration.
Another factor that is leading to
degeneracy is the idea that the majority determines what is right. This
delusion that the majority is right when in reality majority rule is simply a
technique for making decisions. In many cases majority rule is rule by force
rather than by law. That is degeneracy. You cannot solve the problems of life
by means of violence. When people get away from their common law they are in
trouble. Right is determined by Bible doctrine, not by what the majority thinks
about anything.
One of the great tragedies that has led to the degeneracy of the
moment is the fact that most people believe that crime can be removed by gun
legislation. There are always those who feel that private citizens have no
business with weapons and these herd leader types feel that people should
submit meekly to violence if the duly constituted public defender is not on hand
to protect them. Their arguments run like this:
1. Guns are dangerous, you might
shoot yourself with one.
2. Guns invite the feeble minded to
use them in a fit of temper.
3. The prevalence of guns,
especially hand guns, constitutes a hazard to police work.
4. Guns are used by criminals and
should be prohibited by law-abiding citizens.
5. You should not resist a criminal
because someone might get hurt.
This
reasoning approximates the concept that because a certain number of children
are born idiots the entire population of this country should be confined to
playpens and fed with spoons. Obviously guns are dangerous, they were intended
to be so, they would be useless if they were not dangerous. So are cars, so are
blondes, so are oil stoves, so are electric fans and so is surgery. They way to
meet danger is with knowledge of course.
Other
concepts that have led to our present status quo: War fare can be outlawed by
disarmament; internationalism can solve man’s problems [internationalism
complicates man’s problems]; environment is the solution to man’s problems.
Temporal Security
Temporal security relates to
logistical grace. All logistical grace comes from the integrity or holiness of
God, composed of His justice and perfect righteousness. His righteousness was
imputed to us at salvation and we now have a grace pipeline with the justice of
God at one end and the righteousness of God at the other. Down this pipeline
comes logistical grace, the reason we are alive, the reason we have food,
shelter, clothing and certain limited blessings which are related to logistical
grace. This is also the basis for all the security we need in time. Reason:
because of the prosperity test.
We
are facing the prosperity test and we are flunking it. Reason: There are always
two issues in the prosperity test, freedom under the laws of divine
establishment and security. Security becomes an issue not for those who have
not but for those who have under the concept of prosperity. We are trading our
freedom for that mess of pottage called human security. Now the security is
actually in the freedom. Freedom is the source of the prosperity and it is the
source of our security under category one truth, the laws of divine
establishment, and category three truth, the laws of Bible doctrine.
But when people become security
minded there are two things that happen. Those who have succeeded and prospered
under the dominance of the industrial complex obviously and normally want to
retain what they have. Those who have not become envious, setting up motivating
evil under gate one, cosmic one. They become jealous and therefore they accept
some system of redistribution of wealth, some system of the welfare state. And
between the two groups they start emphasising security to the destruction of
human freedom. One group, those who have, set up one system. Those who have not
set up another system. One system says “We will retain what we have and you’re
not going to take it away from us, we have a right to it” — which is true. But
the other group say “We are going to take it away from you even if it means
revolution.” Therefore, freedom gets lost. And this is the trend where we find
ourselves today and we are losing out in the prosperity test. Everyone has the
right to fail or succeed and everyone should therefore take the consequences of
his own decision.
Temporal security for the believer
When you start to make decisions on
the basis of security you provide you have entered gate one of cosmic one,
arrogance, because man is not capable of providing security. Security must come
from the One who controls history and all of our security is related to our
residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, not inside the cosmic
system. Therefore you have pseudo security set up in the cosmic system.
For the believer all security is
provided by residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. For the client
nation to God, freedom through military victory. The principle and the
historical trend: Good decisions open the doors and options for greater
decisions. Bad decisions close the doors and destroy the options. To use one’s
volition as a believer to reject and repudiate the provisions of logistical
grace and the mandates to reside and function in the divine dynasphere means to
accept a substitute and all systems of pseudo security are related to residence
and function inside the cosmic system.
Verse 14b is not a lake of fire
sentence, “His eyes were like a flame of fire,” but this sentence refers to the
believer who fails in this life with regard to the cosmic system. So verse 14
becomes very important as a challenge to human volition in the angelic
conflict. The issue here is a believer seeing the Lord Jesus Christ in all of
His glory and that glory includes the power to judge any one of us at any time
under any circumstance, and to make life such a horrible, miserable thing that
we can’t stand up under the pressure. Only inside the divine dynasphere can we
handle the pressure.
Because Jesus Christ is God and has
perfect integrity and holiness He also judges the believer in time who fails to
utilise the grace provision of logistical support. The cosmic believer then
spends his life being judged, being disciplined, and being used by God for
people testing.
Divine justice has options. To bless the
believer in the divine dynasphere. To bless him individually and to bless the
nation in which he lives with an historical uptrend. Or to punish the believer
living in the cosmic system and to punish the client nation in which he finds
himself with historical downtrend. Our Lord with His white hair portrays the
privileges of grace while our Lord with His eyes like a flame of fire
emphasises the option to grace, divine justice in time.
Historical judgment; divine deliverance
Verse 15, the ministry of our Lord
in historical judgment — kai plus pouj; feet, o(moioj,
were like, xalkolibanoj, bronze. Bronze in the
ancient world was an alloy of copper and tin and associated with historical judgment.
For example in Lamentations 3:6-8 it was used to illustrate the 5th cycle of
discipline.
Bronze
is associated with divine judgment on the believer who lives in the cosmic
system, 11 Kings 25:7. It is used for historical disaster in the national
economy as a part of divine discipline of a client nation to God, Deut.
28:23-25. Here in Revelation 1:15, we have “And his feet were like bronze,” a
reference to the historical judgment of nations of the earth from the principle
that Jesus Christ controls history.
“as”
— o(j introduces a second analogy.
It indicates the manner in which something appears or proceeds, or it refers to
its quality. Then we have a perfect passive participle, “when it has been
refined.” Puorow, refined “in a furnace” has
to do with historical trends that result in the destruction of a nation, e)n plus the locate of kaminoj. The furnace is the area which introduces the
principle we have been studying, a nation does not go down because of some
tragedy. We are collectively the products of our own decisions even as we are
individually. Whenever a nation goes down it goes down from the accumulated
erroneous decisions.
The concept here
1. The furnace of divine judgment is
constantly judging nations like the heat of the furnace refines the bronze,
removing the impurities. Many nations, especially client nations to God, must
undergo
testing so that portion of the population which is negative will not infect and
destroy that part of the population which is positive. So many many times
disaster will come to a nation because God intends to continue using that
nation as a client nation to God. But that nation cannot function in its client
nation status if for some reason the negative and degenerate part of the
population continues unchecked.
Principle: If degeneracy is
unrestrained it will eventually influence those who are moral, who are good,
and who are not degenerate. Therefore degeneracy is periodically destroyed in
history. This explains the fall of certain nations that are not client nations
to God and the eventual destruction of certain power mad groups who use
violence to control, to gain authority and to enslave people.
2. National disaster is designed to
remove the impurities of a population where the nation is going to be
perpetuated as a client nation. No nation can survive without national disaster
which removes its scum and gives opportunity for it to be perpetuated in
history. It is the disaster that doesn’t remove the scum that means the end of
the line for that nation.
4. The heat of divine judgment
refines the population of a nation.
The second analogy to historical judgment
has to do with the voice of our Lord. The nominative singular subject fwnh, voice; “many,” poluj plus u(dor, many waters. Just as with
bronze this has the connotation of judgment. For example in Ezekiel 1:24 it is
used for the administration of divine judgment through military defeat.
Principle
1. Historical judgment means
historical disaster. Historical disaster is portrayed by two analogies: bronze
in the refining process, and the noise of a successful army pursuing and
destroying.
2. Bronze refers to economic
disaster while the voice of many waters refers to military disaster.
3. Our Lord used His voice in BC 700 to destroy 185,000 Assyrian
infantry and deliver Jerusalem and the client nation.
4. Our Lord will use His voice again
at the second advent to deliver Jerusalem again from invading armies of the
Armageddon campaign.
So the whole connotation here has to do with deliverance as well
as judgment. The two are mingled together. But note that the deliverance is not
necessarily from the disaster but deliverance in the midst of the disaster. Cf.
Job 5:19-27.
Verse
19, “deliver” is natsal, hiphil stem,
the causative stem. It means to rescue; “touch,” nagad, to meddle. In both of these verbs you have deliverance being
in disaster, not from the disaster itself. This is a promise to believers who
are faithful to doctrine. We have four representative historical disasters
given. The first is economic depression which in the ancient world was simply called
famine.
Verse 20, “redeem”, the qal perfect
of padah. It means the famine is
there, people are going to starve to death all around you but although you may
be hungry once or twice you are going to live through the famine.
The doctrine of historical trends
The first historical trend:
Verse 15, “bronze” refers to economic judgment. The economic judgment is
used to indicate the principle, the historical trend, that we are the products
of our own decisions.
“Sound of many waters” is military judgment.
The military judgment always comes from an outside power to indicate that while
we are responsible and we by our own decisions bring ourselves to a point of
economic disaster, God also judges us by military disaster. Verse 15 combines
these two systems in one verse.
Economic disaster precedes military disaster and economic disaster
and degeneracy always brings on the same thing. You have economic disaster plus
degeneracy and when you add the two together it leads to violence and the abandonment
of law, which means the abandonment of category one truth, the laws of divine
establishment.
We are coming to the period when we
are going to have to go through disaster. It happens every once in awhile. It
will be believers who survive but no one survives apart from functioning under
God’s plan — residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. No one
survives in the cosmic system. Believers in the cosmic system are going to lose
out and die like flies.
Since the Church Age is a dead spot in which there
is no prophecy, only historical trends, it is the believer’s cognisance of
doctrine which is his understanding of what’s happening. History, we must
understand, is a record of man’s thoughts, motives, decisions and actions. Even
though history is such a record it is still Jesus Christ who controls history.
There seems to be a contradiction in
this. If we are the products of our own volition, and if history is the record
of man bringing about his own disasters, then how can Jesus Christ control?
There seems to be a contradiction between the sovereignty of Jesus Christ as
God who controls history and the function of man’s volition. The answer in
resolving the problem is the doctrine of divine decrees in which the
omniscience of Jesus Christ as God knew everything that would be history and
everything that would not. Everything that would be history was entered into
the computer of divine decrees. The alternatives were not entered, only the
realities. The printout is history. So Jesus Christ controls history because in
eternity past before man was even created He knew every thought, every
decision, every freewill action, of every person who ever lived. He also knew
the alternatives and He also knew from divine knowledge what would have
happened had we made a different decision. So we start historical trends with a
fact: Jesus Christ controls history and that He has set up a system of divine
laws which say that when man makes a decision “A” then certain things happen.
When man makes decision “X” then something else happens, and when every
decision of man individually and collectively goes into this computer and
certain natural results occur. Then that decision is broken down into whether
that decision was made by a believer or unbeliever in every case all the way
through, etc.
The principle that Jesus Christ
controls history means that nothing is ever out of control. And the principle
that Jesus Christ controls history is what we learned from Job 5:19-27 where
God protects the believer in economic depression, in military disaster.
Therefore Jesus Christ controls history in a very special way for us as
believers because as long as we are fulfilling His plan and as long as it is in
His plan and His will for us to live we will continue on this earth no matter
how terrible things may become. We have to remember that Jesus Christ is still
in charge.
The first historical trend: Even though history is the
record of man’s decisions and actions, thoughts, motivation, it is Jesus Christ
who controls history.
There are two sources of judgment in
history: the sovereign decisions of Jesus Christ and the erroneous decisions —
or the decisions that violate truth — of mankind.
The second historical trend: The trends of history are
determined in the Church Age by whether the believer chooses to live in the
divine dynasphere or in the cosmic system. Those who are involved in residence
and function in the divine dynasphere are going to have an absolute unique
experience in eternity, something that most believers will never have. There
are believers who are winners and believers who are losers. Believers who are
losers are the believers involved in the cosmic system. Those who live in the
divine dynasphere are going to have a special reward in eternity. It is all
based upon the decisions made with regard to Bible doctrine.
When Adam and Eve were in the garden
they both had access to the tree of life. The it was shut down when they fell.
In heaven only a few people are going to have access to the tree of life which
is the greatest perpetuation of immortal happiness, eternal happiness, that can
ever exist. And it is only for a few.
The third historical trend is obviously the result of
the first two plus another coming up: There are no tragedies in history. There
are disasters in history but no tragedies. There has never been a disaster in
history where the people involved did not make wrong decisions. So there are
historical disasters but these disasters are not tragedies since individuals
and nations are the products of their own decisions, not their environment.
Tragedies belong to drama.
The sign that a nation is destroying
itself is the collapse of the economy and the collapse of the fundamental laws
of morality under the laws of divine establishment in a society. And morality
doesn’t start with sex, it starts with integrity, or lack of it. Decision
creates environment, not environment decision. Volition creates environment.
Good decisions open options for greater decisions, bad decisions destroy
options and close doors.
The fourth trend: People individually and
collectively are the products of their own decisions. The decadent status of
our society has been brought on by our own decisions. Everything that has
happened has now come about by our individual and collective decisions. Individuals
form groups, they make decisions as individuals, they make decisions as groups,
and that is where we are today.
The fifth trend: The demand for power exceeds the need for power. Therefore divinely
authorised authority is ignored, brushed aside, repudiated, eventually
trampled.
The concept
1. The need for power is determined
by the laws of divine establishment. In other words the laws of establishment
always define the authority you need — parents, police, etc. But there is
always some power-mad person or group who want to control everything and they
cut through the laws of divine establishment.
2. The demand for power is
determined by arrogance — lust, envy, greed, motivational and functional evil
in the cosmic system. In other words, the demand for power exceeds the need for
power — the need for power is the legitimate authority delegated by God through
the laws of divine establishment, the demand for power is based upon the
motivational evil — Gate 1, Cosmic 1, arrogance, lust, envy, greed, etc.
3. Legitimate power always functions
in the context of legitimate authority delegated by God through the laws of
divine establishment and defined in every facet of life, spiritual, social,
economic, professional and national.
4. Evil and its destructive power
exists to the extent that cosmic arrogance exceeds the restraints of legitimate
authority and power. (Cosmic arrogance always wants to solve a problem through
the use of violence.)
5. This principle is true whether in
a football game where the referee loses control of the game, or a national
entity where the government fails to protect freedom, privacy, property and
life, or in a home where the parents have no control over the children.
6. Since we are the productions of
our own volition and self-determination rather than our environment the
motivating and functional evil of the cosmic system can only be restrained
through enforced and genuine humility.
7. Historical trends are therefore
related to the conflict between objective reality and life in the divine dynasphere
versus subjectivity in life inside the cosmic system.
8. Believers are not only the
products of their own decisions but the nation in which they reside is affected
by their good or bad decisions. Believers deciding to live their lives in the
cosmic system destroy their nation.
9. Good decisions related to living
inside the divine dynasphere are reflected in national prosperity while bad
decisions to live in the cosmic system of Satan are reflected by national
disaster.
The sixth trend: Arrogant people and arrogant nations never see
their own inconsistencies, only the inconsistencies of others.
The seventh trend: Jealous people and envious nations never see
their own sins and their production of evil, only the sins and evil of others.
The eighth trend: arrogant
individuals, groups or nations never see the disastrous consequences or evil
results of their own cosmic involvement or evil modus operandi. Preoccupation
with self to the exclusion of objective reality is the blindest problem in
history.
The ninth historical trend: There is no progress in
innovation without truth.
Often progress leaves truth behind. Any
form of progress that rejects truth automatically parlays itself into disaster.
Today we are the victims of false information but we do not have to accept this
false information, and we are protected from all forms of false information
today by Bible doctrine. The greatest protector against any false reporting in
the news or the media is the book of Revelation.
Principle
1. Innovation without truth is
retrogressive; innovation without a system is destructive. All good innovation
is either based on truth or on a system. All destructive innovation is based
upon the absence of truth or the absence of a system. In other words innovation
must not precede truth or a system. Truth has to do with Bible doctrine and
innovation based on truth becomes true progress. Innovation based on a lie is
false progress. The same is true with regard to progress based on absence of a
system.
2 Innovation without a system runs
the gamut from modern art, religious cults, rock and hard music, weirdo poetry,
socialism, communism, the welfare state, redistribution of wealth.
3. Religious cults are innovation
without Bible doctrine, innovation without truth.
4. Rock and hard music ignores basic
systems in harmony, melody, and so on, and therefore the innovations are
strident discord.
5. The innovation of Kenesian
economics ignores the most basic truths of human value, supply and demand and
free enterprise.
6. Innovation which ignores basic
strategy and tactics in the military means military disaster.
7. Innovation is often related to
progress. But innovation is never progress unless it is related to something, a
system that has proved itself or to truth. This is the principle under which we
study Bible doctrine: learn the basics of doctrine before you innovate and make
multiple applications. Innovation without truth is application of doctrine
without cognisance of doctrine. Innovation without a system is application
without truth, the absence of wisdom, the instability and eventual disaster
from the downtrends of history.
This therefore becomes one of our
most important concepts in modern life because we have assumed that so many
innovations are progress when many of them have become detrimental. The basic
issue is: Is there a system behind it? Innovation imposed on others without
their consent is the great evil of the time in which we live. In the name of
crusades, in the name of the better good for the greater number, in the name of
many so-called crusading epigrams, innovations are imposed on others without
their consent and therefore these innovations destroy freedom.
The tenth historical trend
1. When people emphasise peace and
security they lose freedom and truth and its by-product of prosperity and
self-determination.
The laws of divine establishment emphasise
human freedom as the heritage from God, the major issue in the angelic
conflict. The laws of divine establishment are designed to protect human
freedom and human self-determination, and to give people the right as well as
the freedom to make decisions leading to their success or to make decisions
leading to their failure. People have a right to fail or succeed from their own
volition, their own decisions, their own ability or lack of ability, the
overestimation of their ability or their lack of ability.
2. In this historical era of nuclear
phobia and the bomb syndrome man has come to emphasise peace as the panacea of
life and to compromise with it the true concept of freedom.
3. Yet freedom, not peace, remains
the most precious commodity of mankind in the function of self-determination.
It is a part of human heritage related to the truth of God. John 8:32.
4. Freedom and truth cannot be
divorced except my man’s use of freedom to reject truth in its three categories
— the laws of divine establishment, the Gospel, Bible doctrine. When man uses
his freedom to reject truth he finds himself deluded by the false prophet, the
false politician.
Historical trend number eleven: History is often the
story of how the weak control the strong
Principle
1. Weak, insecure, irresponsible,
thoughtless arrogant people of control policy, procedure, and people in the
following areas: social life, love life, business life, professional life,
culture, government, and even in some churches as well.
2. Through arrogance,
self-centredness, and preoccupation with self, the weak in society come to
dominate the strong.
3. The illustration: This is why a
nagging wife who makes scenes in public can dominate a thoughtful, courteous,
humble husband or visa versa.
4. This is why scum are possessive
of and often control nice people. That is in both personal friendship as well
as in the problems of class association in a national entity.
5. This is why irrational,
self-righteous crusaders often dominate in politics and government
administration.
6. And this is how a power-mad,
irresponsible press, without integrity or a sense of responsibility can
dominate and even destroy great leaders.
7. Inside the divine dynasphere the
battle is the Lord’s and you win. Inside the cosmic system the battle is yours
and you lose.
8. There are no winners in the
cosmic system, only categories of losers.
9. There are no losers in the divine
dynasphere, only categories of winners.
The twelfth historical trend: Therefore human history is the narrative
of man’s weaknesses, not his strength.
Principle
1. There would be no human history
without man’s wrong decisions.
2. This is a part of the great
conflict in each human soul between arrogance and humility. This conflict is
the basis for weakness and wrong decisions. For example, if you think you are
strong and you are really weak and become entangled in a system stronger than
you are, the cosmic system, then you have chosen to be weak and to contribute
to the concept of weakness in history. Under humility, if you know that you are
weak and become strong by choosing the divine dynasphere then you as a believer
have opted for the strength and stability of history, and the perpetuation of
history to its final conclusion in the Millennium.
3. Once Adam ate from the fruit of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil history became a matter of human
self-determination — the use of human volition to exercise the options of the
soul. Until man ate of that tree he operated under three categories of trees in
the garden — the trees that were a blessing to his soul (He had perfect
happiness of soul), the trees which were good for food, a blessing for the body
and related happiness, prosperity and blessing to a correlation between body
and soul, and the tree of life which meant at that time immortality with
perfect happiness.
4. The historical trends of the
Church Age include options compatible with the divine plan which is the
residence and function inside the divine dynasphere, or options which are
subservient to the ruler of this world through residence and function in the
cosmic system. Every believer must decide in principle which way he is going to
go because as goes the believer so goes the client nation to God.
While man is free he is also weak.
Bad decisions are made in side the cosmic system and they destroy future
options so that the believer through the exercise of his own free will loses
future options and through that same self-determination becomes the slave of
Satan who is the ruler of this world and controls everyone outside of the
divine dynasphere.
The twelfth historical trend — concepts:
1. Weakness implies problems plus
inability to cope with those problems.
2. Those who seek solutions by
improving their environment inevitably create problems which destroy their
environment.
3. Through living inside the divine dynasphere
circumstances become the servant rather than the master when we become slaves
to our circumstances.
4. Good decisions turn problems into
solutions without creating or intensifying those problems from the solutions.
5. The power of Bible doctrine to
change men’s lives is the expression of non-meritorious human volition in the
function of freedom. The power of the cosmic system on the other hand to change
lives is the meritorious and arrogant expression of human volition inside the
cosmic system which is the environment of tyranny and slavery.
6. Inside the divine dynasphere
men’s lives are changed by doctrine. Inside the cosmic system men’s lives are
changed by arrogance and evil.
7. Man can only enter the divine dynasphere
through grace. The non-meritorious expressions then of human volition are the
issue, and to learn these non-meritorious expressions you have to start with
basic doctrine such as the Rebound technique.
8. So in the historical phase of the
angelic conflict man must be free to succeed. Man must also be free to fail.
True freedom is the source of true success. It is also the source of true
failure. Freedom, of course, carries the responsibility of making decisions on
the basis of integrity, not on the basis of motivating and functional evil. Man
must be so inculcated with Bible doctrine that he will take the responsibility
for his own decisions in life plus their consequences. Therefore we start by
recognising our own weaknesses and recognition is neither degrading or
demeaning, provided the recognition comes from perception of doctrine and not
some emotional folderol. All solutions in life begin with recognition of the
fact that man is fundamentally weak which begins the search for the right
power, a system greater than our weaknesses. And we have the ability to enter
into this because of free will. Free will gives us the ability to choose for
the divine dynasphere rather than the cosmic system. Man’s decisions leading to
failure brings him to his knees, to the end of his own resources, and this is
where truth becomes meaningful.
Principles
1. Weakness in the unbeliever makes
evangelism meaningful, while weakness in the believer makes Bible doctrine
meaningful.
2. If man is not free to fail he
cannot orient to his need of Christ and if the believer is not free to fail he
cannot orient to his need of Bible doctrine.
3. By taking the responsibility for
his own failures and bad decisions the believer learns his inherent and
acquired weaknesses, and therefore he seeks for the power system greater than
his weaknesses, greater than himself. The key is learning Bible doctrine, it is
greater than we are.
4. The desire to express positive
volition in solution is often the way man comes to believe in Christ, or the
way a believer becomes consistently positive toward Bible doctrine.
5. Therefore, a demonstration of
your weaknesses, your total helplessness, through personal or historical
disaster, becomes the basis, the motivation, the means of expressing positive
volition toward God’s perfect plan and God’s perfect system.
6. There is a small price we pay for
our freedom. We must tolerate all stages of spiritual growth around us. We must
tolerate all categories of bad taste and poor manners in others. And we are
motivated to do so by going back to virtue.
Principles
1. Weakness in the unbeliever makes
evangelism meaningful, while weakness in the believer makes Bible doctrine
meaningful.
2. If man is not free to fail he
cannot orient to his need of Christ and if the believer is not free to fail he
cannot orient to his need of Bible doctrine.
3. By taking the responsibility for
his own failures and bad decisions the believer learns his inherent and
acquired weaknesses, and therefore he seeks for the power system greater than
his weaknesses, greater than himself. The key is learning Bible doctrine, it is
greater than we are.
4. The desire to express positive
volition in solution is often the way man comes to believe in Christ, or the
way a believer becomes consistently positive toward Bible doctrine.
5. Therefore, a demonstration of
your weaknesses, your total helplessness, through personal or historical
disaster, becomes the basis, the motivation, the means of expressing positive
volition toward God’s perfect plan and God’s perfect system.
6. There is a small price we pay for
our freedom. We must tolerate all stages of spiritual growth around us. We must
tolerate all categories of bad taste and poor manners in others. And we are
motivated to do so by going back to virtue.
Historical
trend number thirteen: No nation has ever survived its prosperity after the
consolidation of its three components.
In the Dark Ages there was only one
component that functioned — landed aristocracy. Because of the function of that
one component the major issue of history at that time was not manifest destiny
but military ability to establish a sphere of influence and protect that sphere
of influence. But with the Renaissance, the Reformation, and eventually the
industrial revolution, we come back to the principle of manifest destiny which
has three components — landed aristocracy, industrial complex, the undeveloped
frontier.
Principle
1. Three prosperity components in
manifest destiny: landed aristocracy, industrial complex, undeveloped frontier.
2. Once these three are consolidated
the prosperity which results (They always consolidate under the leadership of
industrial complex) cannot be perpetuated apart from a maximum number of
believers living inside the divine dynasphere.
As goes the industrial complex (that
means the economy) so goes the prosperity. And when the economy goes down it
simply reflects degeneracy and therefore a military organisation from an evil
nation comes along and destroys it.
What contributes to the collapse of
an economy? Basically arrogance. The greater the freedom the fewer the people
who are going to be extremely wealthy. You always have your extremely wealthy
people and generally they became wealthy through courage, wisdom, and through
having the ability and the integrity. Eventually there is always great
jealousy.
This is the way it looks. The first
generation works, the next generation plays, the third generation simply falls
apart with the total pursuit of pleasure. Often they fall apart in the third
generation through the guilt syndrome because by this time the fourth estate
and others have made everyone jealous of the wealthy, envious: “Why should you
have all of that money and we have none?” That means that the third generation
becomes liberal out of sheer guilt reaction.
Degeneracy is anything that breaks
down the authority of establishment. Degeneracy occurs as patriotism goes down.
It is the redistribution of wealth; it is when a cop is a “pig”; it is when
there is no appreciation of the principle of freedom through military victory;
it is the destruction of privacy; it is the failure to pass the prosperity
test.
3. People become so wrapped in a
life of prosperity that they neglect doctrine; they ignore life inside the
divine dynasphere and they transfer it permanently to the cosmic system.
4. In the cosmic system there exists
the superficialities of prosperity without the capacity for it. Capacity is the
foundation, it is the system. If you do not have the capacity it is innovation
without the system.
5. The cosmic system offers pseudo
prosperity in promotion, success, status, pleasure, approbation, social life,
sexual life, without either capacity or perspective top pass the prosperity
test.
6. Capacity from perception of
doctrine at gate 4 of the divine dynasphere and perspective from application of
doctrine at gate 4 is the issue.
7. Therefore the prosperity test is
the most subtle and difficult for both the individual believer and the nation
where he lives. Subtle because it requires as much, if not more, doctrine for
both capacity and perpetuation of that prosperity, and difficult because the
original source of that prosperity, Bible doctrine learned in the divine dynasphere,
is forgotten.
Principle: Frustrated people are suckers for any power system that
promises them betterment. The trouble is that power systems can’t do anything
for them.
[Don’t ever feel sorry for the
Indians. It’s only when we fail to pass the prosperity test that the people who
were once conquered in this country are suddenly promoted way up above us. The
Indians only have rights as they would become citizens of this country and
that’s true of anyone. Once we flunk the prosperity test, instead of
functioning under the principles of our Constitution and using freedom to fail
or succeed, we start giving millions of dollars to this group and that group
under operation guilty conscience.]
“And his feet were like bronze when it is being refined in a
furnace.” “Bronze” means national discipline through the economy because the
economy reflects the individual decisions of the people in a nation. The only
way to get out of this problem is to follow the laws of divine establishment to
its proper solution and re-establish economically. Or that can be rejected and
instead the evil solution can be taken which is redistribution of wealth, the
welfare state, socialism and communism.
The third vision: The vision of
the sword and the stars.
Verse 16, “right,” decioj , hand, xeir. “And having in his right
hand seven stars” — stars, a)star. Verse 20 interprets these
stars. They are the future pastors of the seven churches. For the moment John
is the pastor. Why is a star used for a pastor? It is simply because a star at
the time of writing gave light. Stars send light to the earth; pastors who
teach doctrine give light to their congregations. The right hand of our Lord is
the hand of approval. God approves pastors who teach doctrine. Our Lord Jesus
Christ approves the principle of pastors teaching doctrine to the royal family
of God since He Himself has delegated the pastors to communicate His thinking.
The stars in the right hand indicate the delegation of divine authority to
pastors.
The provision of a right pastor is
one of the more important aspects of logistical grace since doctrinal teaching
from the minister is the only way of spiritual growth and momentum in the
Christian life. The need for the pastor is based on the fact that the believer
cannot learn doctrine on his own. Perception of doctrine must comply with the
principles of academic life and discipline, objectivity and humility, teachability
and, above all, Gate 1 of the divine dynasphere, the filling of God the Holy
Spirit. In other words the first three gates of the divine dynasphere sustain
perception of Bible doctrine.
This verse sixteen is a verse of
grace before Judgment. There are two places where the principle of grace before
Judgment is pertinent. Grace always precedes Judgment as an historical trend,
first to the individual believer. God never puts discipline on us without a
grace period. During that grace period we are making good or bad decisions so
that we are the products of our own decisions. Before divine discipline comes
to us we are still under the function of our volition and we have warning —
grace warning. This is also a principle of national modus operandi in which
before God uses the five cycles of discipline against a nation, before each
cycle is used, there is a grace period before judgment.
So we have grace before judgment,
blessing and the alternative, cursing, related to the individual volition of
the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. The blessing is related to the
communication of Bible doctrine from pastors called in this vision “the seven
stars.”
The alternative to the perception of
doctrine is divine discipline which is portrayed in the next phrase: “and,” kai plus the nominative singular subject of the noun r(omfaia refers to a broadsword. In Revelation 6:8 the rider
of the fourth horse known as “death” killed one fourth of the population of the
earth during the Tribulation, and he did it with the sword of starvation,
disease and wild animals.
The Word of God is said to be a
sword, maxaira. And for those reject the maxaira of the Word, they have the r(omfaia of divine Judgment. So there is a choice of
swords. Your grace period is always related to the fact that you are given
doctrine before judgment. Whatever you are going to be judged for you have the
chance to hear the causes and the reasons, the whys and the wherefores. You
have a fair trial before you are judged by God, that is the principle. All
divine judgment is preceded by a fair trial. The fair trial is the
dissemination of Bible doctrine. You may or may not accept that doctrine and
therefore you may be screaming one of these days: “Why did God let this happen
to me?” This simply means that you ignored the grace period.
Then there is the r(omfaia, divine judgment. It is interesting that the maxaira is a very short sword with great flexibility,
moving in all directions with a point. The r(omfaia is a very broad sword and obviously a hacking instrument. So one
represents the grace of God through Bible teaching, the other represents the
punishment of God through divine discipline.
The broadsword always represents
military disaster. We will see this in Revelation 2:12 where r(omfaia is used for divine discipline in the form of
death from violence, crime, terrorism, revolution, and military action. This is
confirmed as divine discipline in Revelation 2:16 — “repent therefore or else I
will come quickly and I will make war against them [believers in the cosmic
system] with the sword [r(omfaia] of my mouth”.
“two-edged,” distomoj (tomoj, sharp, di, double). Then we have another word for “sharp,” o)cuj,
which altogether means a double-edged broadsword, terrible military discipline,
discipline by violence, by terrorism, by military action.
This comes from God. The present
middle participle from e)k poreuomai, to go out, to come out.
Divine discipline on believers in the form of human violence. But this divine
discipline never comes without a grace period for changing your mind. It never
comes without first of all having the opportunity to set it aside and it only
comes to believers who prolong their stay in the cosmic system. The broadsword
is for the believer in the cosmic system. The maxaira is for the believer in the divine dynasphere.
These believers have to be judged,
they have to be taken out eventually under the sin unto death. For if the Lord
is going to continue to use the client nation to God He must purge those who
are negative and their influence on the Christian community.
Principle: Good decisions provide
options for greater decisions and divine blessing, while bad decisions destroy
the options and result in divine discipline.
The believer then has a choice:
doctrine taught by a pastor or divine discipline from God in the form of
becoming a victim of violence, crime, terrorism, revolution, warfare. The
believer’s decision regarding doctrinal teaching determines the historical trends
of his country.
The hope of the individual for
salvation and the hope of the world for historical deliverance are both
combined in the last part of verse 16, “face,” o)psij, outward or overt appearance. The analogy is found in two words, w(j, like, and h(lioj sun: “his outward appearance was like the sun.” The external appearance
of our resurrected Christ in His glorified body. The appearance of our Lord’s
resurrection body is analogous to the sun, but is the Lord shining in the power
of the prototype divine dynasphere which John actually saw. The glory of our
Lord’s humanity resides in His impeccability, His perfect integrity related to
His residence and function in the prototype divine dynasphere. And this is a
resurrection appearance of our Lord to the apostle John on the Island of Patmos.
The resurrection appearances
The angel who came to roll away the
stone, Matt. 28:2-4, rolled away the stone of an empty tomb. The stone was not
moved to let our Lord out because He could walk through solid material in His
resurrection body. The stone was rolled away to let the world in. People came
to verify the fact of His resurrection.
The first appearance of the resurrected Christ was to Mary Magdalene,
Mark 19:9-11; John 20:11-17.
The second appearance was to the
other women, Matthew 28:9,10.
The third appearance was to Peter.
He appeared on Sunday afternoon, according to Luke 24:34 and 1 Corinthians
15:5.
The fourth appearance was to the two
disciples on the road to Emmaus, Matthew 16:12,13; Luke 24:13-35.
The fifth appearance was to the ten
disciples (Thomas was not there, or Judas Iscariot), Luke 24:36-43; John
20:19-23; Mark 16:14.
The sixth appearance was to the
eleven disciples.
The seventh appearance was to the
seven disciples by the Sea of Galilee, John 21:1-23.
These seven appearances might be
classified as personal resurrection appearances to friends and associates.
The eighth appearance was historical and was documentation for the
benefit of five hundred believers, 1 Corinthians 15:6.
The ninth appearance was for the
benefit of the positive believers in our Lord’s family, James, 1 Corinthians
15:7, not a believer before the resurrection, Acts 1:14; Galatians 1:19.
The tenth appearance was again to
the eleven disciples on the Mountain in Galilee, Matthew 28:16-20; Mark
16:15-18.
The eleventh appearance had great
historical and doctrinal significance. It was the resurrection appearance at
the ascension, Luke 24:44-53; Acts 1:3-9.
The rest of the resurrection
appearances were post-ascension where our Lord would leave the right hand of
the Father and make an appearance under special conditions. All of these
appearances ceased after the completion of the book of Revelation.
The
twelfth appearance was to the first and most famous of the martyrs, Stephen, in
Acts 7:55,56.
The thirteenth appearance had great
significance — the appearance to Paul on the road to Damascus, the basis for
his conversion, Acts 9:3-6; 22:6-11; 26:13-18.
The fourteenth appearance was to
Paul in Arabia to encourage him, Acts 20:34; 26:17; Galatians 1:12,17.
The fifteenth appearance was to Paul
in the Temple, Acts 9:26-30; 22:17-21; Galatians 1:18.
The sixteenth appearance was to Paul
in prison, Acts 23:11.
The seventeenth and final one was
the appearance to John on the Island of Patmos, Revelation 1:12-20.
“shineth,” fainw means to shine. The static present tense is for a
condition which will always and eternally exist in the resurrection body of our
Lord Jesus Christ. It isn’t the sun shining, it is our Lord’s shining in His
resurrection body.
“in his strength,” e)n plus the locative of dunamij. Lit. in his power. It refers here to the prototype divine dynasphere.
This
seventeenth resurrection appearance continues throughout the book of
Revelation. It is an awesome thought that historical trends hang on the fine
thread of the believer’s volition and the exercise of his options with regard
to the divine dynasphere versus the cosmic system.
Verse 17, What John has recorded was
so fantastic to him and the emotion was so great that he fainted. He didn’t
faint from shock because, remember, John has already seen our resurrected Lord
on four occasions. Instead it was the emotional impact of seeing all of these
things and putting them together. It was relating what he knew with his
emotions and it was too much for him.
We begin with “saw,” o(raw, when I had seen. It was all taken in first, “him,”
a)utoj. The seventeenth and last
appearance of the resurrected Christ. (The eighteenth resurrection appearance
of our Lord Jesus Christ will be the second advent). Then we have the word
“fell,” piptw, to fall, “at his feet.”
John was a mature believer but even
the greatest of believers living at gate eight of the divine dynasphere simply
have to have a special fuse. The understanding of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
appreciation of Him, perception as to who and what He is. It is really too much
and so fainting is really an emotional fuse.
“And,” kai.
This is an expletive use of kai. Translated “And so” or
“Then.” Believers must be in a rational state of concentration under the
ministry of God the Holy Spirit in order to learn doctrine and to appreciate
our Lord Jesus Christ. Next is “laid,” tiqemi.
The constative aorist refers to a momentary action which was part of the
necessary assurance which was to bring John back into a state of concentration
— “right hand”, decioj refers to the right hand
although decioj is “right”
“on
me”, e)pi e)gw. Assurance.
Now comes the great issue. He
speaks. He begins a formal communication of world history. “Fear not” is mh fobou, Stop being afraid. John’s awe has become a
distraction to learning. To take in what the Lord was going to say John had to
concentrate on content.
Principle: If you have fear in your
soul you might have a lot of doctrine but you can’t apply it. Fear is the
inability to think under pressure.
In this case of John we are not
really talking about fear but about awe, his respect, his total love. The point
is that it must not hinder John being clear-headed to get the message.
This verse is going to terminate
with the concept of motivating virtue and its relationship to perception for
our Lord is going to say, “Fear not,” not in the sense of being frightened but
in the sense of awe.
The whole history of the world is
based upon two major prophecies, both pertaining to the Lord Jesus Christ. The
first advent of Christ beginning with the virgin birth, our Lord’s humanity
residing inside the divine dynasphere, His impeccability, His work on the
cross, His resurrection, ascension and session — all of this is the first of
two major systems of prophecy. The second great period of prophecy is the
second advent of Christ, His return to the earth in order to function under His
third royal patent.
In the meantime the Age of Israel
was brought to a halt in order that we might have the Church Age, the
dispensation for calling out a royal family of God. This is the dispensation of
historical trends. There is no prophecy to be fulfilled in the Church Age. The
next prophecy will be the rapture or the resurrection of the Church, and that
will terminate the Church Age and move the royal family of God to heaven in
preparation for the second advent of Christ, our Lord’s personal rule on earth
for one thousand years of perfect environment. Revelation chapters two and
three give us the historical trends.
Verse 17, ”I am the first and the
last,” e)gw e)imi (o prwtoj kai esxatoj. Jesus Christ as eternal God
pre-existed history as the first; Jesus Christ will conclude human history as
the God-Man. The first and the last emphasises the uniqueness of the person of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ as God is the author of history. He is the
first as eternal God; He is the last in hypostatic union as the God-Man.
Verse 18, The glorified Christ
identifies Himself for everyone. There is no “Amen” in the original in this
verse.
“that liveth,” zaw, to be alive. Lit. “and the living one”; “and was
dead,” kai ginomai, to become. Lit. “and I
became dead,” nekroj.
“and [now], behold [concentrate,
see] I am alive,” a reference to the resurrection of Christ. His deity was not
subject to death. And because our Lord is now seated at the right hand of the
Father, and because He will be in that status for ever and ever, we have the
preposition e)ij plus the accusative plural
of the noun a)iwn followed by the genitive
plural of a)iwn which becomes “forever.”
And it means that what happened after the resurrection and the beginning of the
Church Age now brings the believer into an entirely different perspective as
far as God’s plan is concerned. The moment anyone in the Church Age believes in
Christ he becomes a member of the royal family of God.
The authority and power of the
resurrected Christ is then given in the closing phrase of this verse, “and”, kai, “furthermore,” “have,” e)xw.
Lit. “and furthermore I have.” Our Lord has something very important: “keys,” kleij.
A key goes with the volition of
every individual. The issue here is volition. The Lord says: “I have the keys.”
Each one of us has related to our volition a key. The key has to do with the
angelic conflict. We were created with freewill to make decisions for or
against God. The angelic conflict is resolved by the fact that the human soul
possesses freewill, the only thing it had in common with the angelic creation.
Therefore the keys are plural because a key goes to each volition. Your use of
positive volition unlocks many doors which glorify God and give you great
blessing and happiness in life. Positive volition experientially is related to
your residence and function inside the divine dynasphere. Negative volition is
related to your residence and function in the cosmic system. Your attitude to
doctrine is the determining factor as far as everything is concerned.
“of hell and death,” a(dhj and qanatoj. Hades is merely where
people go after they die if they are unbelievers. What is the key to Hades? It
means that if you reject Jesus Christ as your saviour there is a special door
unlocked for you in Hades and you go there by your own volition. The Lord holds
the key.
Verse 19, We have a mandate in this
verse for the deposition of the world history as written in the book of
Revelation: “write,” grafw o)un, “therefore write.” The constative
aorist refers to an action extended over a period of time. In other words
Revelation was not written at one sitting — “the things which thou hast seen”,
Lit. “the things you are about to see”; “the things which are” lit. “what is”;
“things which shall be hereafter”, lit. “and what is about to come to pass,” ginomai: After the rapture of the Church, world history
after the Church Age.
Verse 19, corrected translation:
“Therefore, write what you are about to see, both what is [the historical
trends of the Church Age], and what shall occur [the prophetical events after
the Church Age] after these [the historical trends of the Church Age].”
“After these” refers to the up and
down trends of history during the Church Age. This anticipates the content of
Revelation chapters two and three in which the role of the royal family of God
in this dispensation is clearly delineated. The believer in this dispensation
has an obligation to God, and a very personal one. Therefore the dramatic need
for every believer to live inside the divine dynasphere every day of his life.
Living in the divine dynasphere produces the uptrends in history. The
downtrends of history are based upon the believer being involved in the cosmic
system.
In verse 20 we have the first
interpretation of the apocalypse. This is anticipating the next two chapters
and becomes the interpretive key to the historical trends of the Church Age.
“mystery,” musthrion, a technical word as used in the New Testament. It
is called a mystery in Old Testament times simply because it was something not
known. There is no revelation in the Old Testament about the Church Age. The
first prophecies regarding the Church Age are found in the Gospels.
“of the seven stars.” The word for
“seven” in the Greek is e(pta. Then we have a)ster for “star.” The seven stars are the pastors, those
who communicate Bible doctrine during this dispensation.
“in my right,” e)pi plus decioj, an idiom meaning “on my
right hand.” The right hand means royal approval as well as divine authority
delegated, “the seven stars are,” e)imi , “angels,” a)ggeloj, messengers. Messengers to the seven churches.
The noun a)ggeloj is not to be transliterated here but to be translated as “messenger,”
At the time John wrote he was the pastor of all seven of the churches, being in
residence at the pastor in Ephesus and having a non-resident ministry in six
other churches. John was aware of the fact that there would be a succession of
pastors. He would die and be replaced. therefore he was writing for the benefit
of those seven pastors and their congregations. But he addresses those seven
letters to the pastors, not to the congregations directly.
There is a principle of course. When
God removes a pastor by death or by some other means it implies that God has
another person to take his place. But just because God has someone to take his
place it never implies that is the one they will get. Bad decisions can
preclude getting the right pastor.
Corrected translation of verse 20 —
“The mystery of the seven stars which you have seen on my right hand, and the
seven gold lampstands. The seven stars are the messengers [pastor-teachers] of
the seven churches; and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”
Review: Jesus Christ controls history
Most people are motivated in time by things that
personally stimulate or interest them, or something which they think will
advance them and stimulate in some way the ego. This is all false motivation in
life as illustrated by the fact that it cannot produce happiness and therefore
we are taking a look at eternity as a part of our motivation for time. As far
as time is concerned we are commanded to live one day at a time and of course
we must live each day in the light of eternity, so we have the challenge of
historical trends.
Remember that the book of Revelation is a textbook
of world history and in a text book of world history from 96 AD to the end of time Jesus
Christ who controls history must be presented first and foremost. Our Lord
Jesus Christ is not only the issue in salvation, as per John 3:18, under His
royal title of King of kings and Lord of lords He is also the temporal issue of
history as well as the issue in eternal salvation. In addition to that of
course our Lord Jesus Christ controls history. So there are two factors with
regard to our Lord and our orientation to Him in time: He is the issue of
history; He is the controller of history.
The fact that Jesus Christ is the issue of history
was the subject we studied in the first eight verses of chapter one. The apocalypse
of Jesus Christ, the revelation of our Lord’s royal patent, plus the history of
the world from 96 AD to the end of time. And the title of the book is the apocalypse or the
revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father has turned human history over
to the Lord Jesus Christ. After all, Christ started history with the creation
of the universe, He continued history with the creation of man, He will
conclude history with the judgment of mankind.
In verse 3 of chapter one: happiness comes from
perception of the Word of God, and this is emphasised in great detail in the
verse — “Happy is he who teaches exegetically [happiness for the one who
studies and teaches], happy are they who keep learning or hearing the words of
this prophecy [believers who take in doctrine consistently].” Revelation, as
the textbook of world history is divided into two parts: historical trends
dealing with the Church Age and the prophetical part dealing with the
Tribulation, second advent, Millennial reign of Christ, and the end of time.
Verse 4, “John to the seven churches.” These
churches would be the key to historical impact in the Roman empire for over two
hundred years, and specifically for the century which was to follow the writing
of the book of Revelation. These seven churches, by their residence and
function in the divine dynasphere would form the pivot which would sustain the
first Gentile client nation [SPQR] in the time of the Gentiles.
Verse 5, “from Jesus Christ, the
dependable witness” — that is, He gives us the truth about world history. The
truth comes in two categories: the doctrine of historical trends and the truth
in prophetical presentation starting in chapter six and going through chapter
twenty-two — “the firstborn form the dead” — “firstborn” gives Him the right to
control history as the God-Man even as He controlled history as eternal God
before the incarnation and before the hypostatic union; “the ruler of the kings
of planet earth” — a prophetical concept fulfilled at the second advent. At the
present time Satan is the ruler of this world but having a very difficult time
administering his rulership. And then what is significant to us, “to him who
has loved us” — the fact that Jesus Christ controls history and the fact that
He created the world does not keep Him from loving us even though we have
messed up His world and failed Him many times; “and has released us from our
sins by means of His blood” — a reference to the saving work of our Lord Jesus
Christ on the cross. The blood of Christ refers to redemption toward sin,
reconciliation toward man and, of course, propitiation toward God.
Verse 6, “And he has provided for us a royal power
[the divine dynasphere] to function as priests to God, even his Father” —
always there must be an emphasis in the divine dynasphere on the first of our
two royal warrants. The Christian way of life is divided into two parts, the
invisible and the visible. The invisible deals with the function of our royal
priesthood whereas the visible deals with the function of our royal ambassadorship.
We have two commissions, two warrants from God: every believer is his own
priest, every believer is also an ambassador. As a priest everyone represents
himself to God, and that means that you must live your own life as unto the
Lord and must not depend upon the advice and the counsel of others. You must
gather your own wisdom from your own perception of Bible doctrine.
Ambassadorship is the application of that doctrine to history, and that
includes man and circumstances.
“to him belongs the glory and ruling power for ever
and ever.” The principle here: your happiness and blessing in life, everything
that is going to turn out right for you, must be related to the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore there is no happiness, no blessing for you as an
individual or for your country as a client nation to God in the cosmic system.
In the first advent, the hypostatic union and the cross, our Lord provided the
basis for taking the rulership of this world from Satan, which He will do at
the second advent. Jesus Christ controls history and the principle of the first
advent is that the cross must always come before the crown.
Verse 7 — He is coming with the clouds and every eye
shall see Him. At this point we have a transitional verse in which we note, “I
am Alpha and Omega, proclaims the Lord.” The two glories of our Lord are
brought together under the title Alpha and Omega, and from these two glories
Jesus Christ controls history.
During the Passover period the Jews repeat three
titles of liturgy taken from Deuteronomy 6:4 — “Shamah Yisrael [Hear, concentrate, O Israel], Adonai Elohenu [Jehovah or Jesus is our God, the Alpha glory of
Jesus Christ], Adonai echad [Jesus
Christ is unique, His Omega glory].” He is Alpha and Omega and He controls
history as Alpha and Omega; “who is,” the Omega glory of Jesus Christ as the
God-Man in hypostatic union; “and who was,” the Alpha glory of Jesus Christ as
God; “and who is to come,” the Alpha and Omega glory revealed at the second
advent. But even before the second advent there never has been a moment in
history when our Lord was not in control. Therefore the final phrase of verse
8, “the total ruler,” Jesus Christ controls history. To reject the Omega glory
of Christ is to be disciplined or punished by the second person of the Trinity.
This explains every historical disaster to Gentiles as well as every holocaust
to the Jews. The Jews suffer holocaust because they accept our Lord’s Alpha
glory as the One who is the God of Israel, but they reject Jesus Christ who was
crucified for their sins. The Jews who want therefore the crown before the
cross inevitably face periodically in history a holocaust. The same is true of
the Gentiles.
In verses 9-11 the apostle John is presenting
himself as the human author of the textbook. In verse 11, “write in a book what
you see,” a panorama of world history from AD 96 to the end of time; “and send it to the
seven churches.” Why? These seven churches would be the basis of sustaining
civilisation as well as the Roman empire as the client nation to God for over
250 years. The roster of churches in the Roman province of Asia who provided
the pivot of mature believers to sustain the Roman empire as the first Gentile
client nation to God is a reminder to us that we as believers in the Lord Jesus
Christ have the same responsibility as they had in their day. The historical
impact of those seven churches was remarkable. The question arises: What is our
historical impact in the twentieth century?
Verse 12, we have to master a principle. Jesus
Christ controls history. Even though history is a record of man’s thoughts,
actions, decisions and motivations it is our Lord who is in control. Man can go
180 degrees away from the Lord’s will but he cannot take control of history out
of the Lord’s hands. By going 180 degrees in the wrong direction simply means
punishment from the integrity of God. There are two sources of judgment in
history, as we have noted: the sovereign decisions of our Lord Jesus Christ and
the erroneous decisions of mankind related to the cosmic system.
“I saw seven golden lampstands.” Inverse 20 the
seven lampstands are seven local churches in the Roman province of Asia. And
the principle: As goes the believer so goes the client nation to God; as goes
the local church, so goes the client nation. Jesus Christ who controls history
has selected the local church in the nation to be the means of blessing by
association or cursing by association. Therefore Jesus Christ who controls
history has delegated historical responsibility to the Church. Therefore when
the Church advances to maturity inside the divine dynasphere there is great
historical prosperity and blessing, but when the Church becomes apostate
through involvement in the cosmic system there is great historical disaster to
the nation, cursing by association.
Verse 13, “Son of man” is the title of our Lord in hypostatic
union and this is the title He has here. The robe and the sash are the dress
uniform of the high priest and they signify the authority of our Lord to bless
humanity through Bible doctrine or to curse humanity through failure to comply
with Bible doctrine. The golden sash is a reminder that our Lord Jesus Christ
is not only the prince ruler of the Church but He controls history through the
royal patents which supersede the victory of Satan over man in the garden.
Verse 14, the white hair of our Lord Jesus Christ
denotes the shock of bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. White hair
is often associated with great shock, pressure and disaster. In this case the greatest
shock in history occurred at the cross when our sins were imputed to our Lord
and every one of them was judged on the tree. The one who controls history then
is the issue of history, so that “he that believeth on Him hath everlasting
life, but he that does not believe in Him shall not see life, the wrath of God abideth
on him.” White wool is a reminder that Christ is the efficacious sacrifice for
our sins, He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. His wool
had to be white, as it were, as the Lamb of God. White wool is perfection, the impeccability
of our Lord residing and functioning inside of the prototype divine dynasphere.
“White like snow” indicates the impeccability of Christ in residence and
function inside that prototype divine dynasphere — “his eyes are like a flame
of fire,” this is the alternative the world faces to believing in the Lord
Jesus Christ. When people fail to believe in Christ they face at the last judgment
the eyes like a flame of fire. So every member of the human race has a choice
between the white hair representing eternal salvation or the eyes like a flame
of fire representing the last judgment. One of the greatest decision that can
be made in the human race is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
For us who are believers there is an issue as well.
The eyes like a flame of fire have two applications always. For the unbeliever
eternal salvation is offered in time before the eyes like a flame of fire at
the last judgment. For the believer logistical grace support in time is offered
before the judgment seat of Christ in eternity and that magnificent order which
our Lord provides for the believers who are faithful in the perception of
doctrine — the order of the morning star, one of the highest decorations that
the believer can receive at the judgment seat of Christ.
But here we have the eyes like a flame of fire
reserved for those members of the human race who reject the grace of God. For
the unbeliever, rejection of eternal salvation means facing the eyes like a
flame of fire at the last judgment. For the believer, rejection of the divine dynasphere
and the provision of logistical grace means facing the eyes like a flame of
fire at the judgment seat of Christ where they can stand in a resurrection
body, the white pebble, and have no new name written on it. We are then the
products of our own decisions as obvious from this verse.
Verse 15, now we have the outgrowth of the eyes that
flame with fire. The bronze represents both economic depression and military
disaster under the 4th cycle of discipline in which the client nation is
defeated in battle but retain client nation status. As a result of collective
bad decisions He administers both economic depression and military defeat under
the 4th cycle of discipline. The “sound of many waters” is military disaster
under the 5th cycle of discipline in which the client nation to God loses its
client nation status and is completely destroyed and taken over by a foreign
power. The Lord usually selects the most evil nation to administer “the sound
of many waters.”
Verse 16, “seven stars” are Bible-teaching pastors.
God will always provide Bible-teaching pastors for positive volition. And again
you have an alternative. Just as the white wool versus the eyes flaming like
fire, so we have the seven stars or the short double-edged broadsword coming
from His mouth. The pastors teaching doctrine and its reception means blessing,
but the sharp double-edged broadsword came out of His mouth and this is divine
punishment through violence. The violence can take many forms. Violence is
related to social degeneration. It can be crime, terrorism, revolution,
governmental persecution of Christianity, conventional and even nuclear
warfare. “And like the sun his overt appearance [His resurrection body] shines
in his power” — our Lord’s prototype divine dynasphere.
Verse 17, “And when I saw him,” says John [saw the
resurrected Christ]. This is resurrection appearance number seventeen, “I
fainted” is literally, “I fell at his feet as though dead.” The believer must
either be in the interim body we receive after physical death or in the
resurrection body we receive at the Rapture to appreciate our resurrected
Christ. Until we have our resurrection body our rapport in seeing the Lord is
impossible. “Fear not; I am the first and the last,” Jesus Christ controls
history.
Verse 18, “And so the living one [the hypostatic
union, our Lord Jesus Christ the God-Man], and I became dead [both spiritual
somatic death of Christ on the cross], now behold I am living forever and
ever,” our Lord’s third royal patent is based on His strategic victory, His
death burial and resurrection, His ascension and session; “furthermore I have
the keys of death and Hades” — another way of expressing the fact that Jesus
Christ controls history. Jesus Christ controls history by taking anyone out of
this life He so chooses in His sovereign decision. The Lord can take nations,
as it were, by the fifth cycle of discipline. He can take individuals. Hades is
the temporary abode of the unbeliever until history is completed. Death
terminates the unbeliever’s influence on history. Our Lord removes from history
certain believers, unbelievers, whose negative impact would destroy human
freedom which is the issue of the angelic conflict. Hades is the prison for
dead unbelievers until history is terminated with the second resurrection and
the last judgment — Revelation 20. Jesus Christ controls history through judgment
but in this verse He controls history through death. Therefore out of this comes
a mandate …
Verse 19, “Therefore, write what you are about to
observe.” John is about to observe through several forms the fact that
Revelation is the textbook of human history from AD 96 to the end of human
history; “both what is, and what shall occur [the eschatological history from
the Rapture to the end of time], “after these things [after historical
trends].”