Revelation

[BanjoPicker]

THE DIVISIONS OF THE BOOK

Rev. 1-3 deals primarily with the church on Earth.
Rev. 4-5 pictures the church and the Old Testament Saints with God in Heaven after the rapture, represented by the twenty-four elders.
Rev. 6-19 deals primarily with Israel under the last oppression by the Gentiles in the fulfillment of Daniel's Seventieth Week after the rapture of the church.
Rev. 20-22 refers to all three classes, the church, the Jews, and the Gentiles, The earthly Jews will be the head of all earthly Gentiles and Christ with the church will reign over both forever and ever.

Part 1. "THE THINGS WHICH THOU HAST SEEN" (Rev. 1:12-20).
This part concerns the vision of Christ on Patmos: His body, head, eyes, feet, voice, right hand, mouth, and countenance, and the effect the vision had upon John, and the interpretation of the first symbols.

Part 2. "THE THINGS WHICH ARE" (Rev. 2:1-3:22).
The message to the seven churches are set forth immediately after the vision of Christ in the midist of the churches. Chapter 2 and 3 of Revelation contain only "the things which are" that is, the things which concern the church on the Earth down to the rapture.

 

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Application of the letters

A. LOCAL APPLICATION of the letters to the churches in John's day. These seven epistles, as a whole portray actual conditions in seven local churches in Asia. This is clear from the messages themselves as well as from Rev. 1:4, 11, 20.

B. A PROPHETICAL APPLICATION of the letters to the churches throughout this dispensation to the rapture. They reveal the spiritual conditions of the local churches and individuals in the churches throughout the Church Age. This point is clear from the fact that the book is a prophecy. Then these letters are as applicable to the saved all through the Church Age as are other New Testament epistles and other Scriptures 2 Tim. 3:16, 17.

C. AN INDIVIDUAL APPLICATION of the letters so that the individuals may be warned by the failure revealed therein, and profiting by the warning may find encouragement from the promises to the overcomer.

 

[BanjoPicker]

The so-called application of these church letters that is that they portray seven church periods or phases of church history is really based upon human theory alone. There can be no Scripture produced to prove this theory in any one aspect. Similarity to certain phases of church history proves nothing. One can even find similarities between the history of the church and Israel and there is no end to similarities that could be found in history between almost any two events one chooses to compare. Any conclusions that are based upon human theory are not dependable and are misleading and unscriptural. Much confusion and many false teachings are based upon this method of interpretation. If there was such an application of these letters surely there would have been two or three passages to support each letter and its application to some definite period in history.

 

[BanjoPicker]

Some Bible readers say that we are in the Philadelphian or Laodicean periods that the rapture of the church takes place in either one of these two periods that the Church Age ends with Philadelphian, that Laodicea deals with things after the rapture that the Ephesian period ended with the apostles, and many other theories that are unscriptural. We still have the kind of conditions of Ephesus and of all these seven churches in local churches today. These conditions existed in John's day and they will continue to exist as long as the church is on Earth. You can see that there are Scriptures to prove a local prophetical and individual application of the letters but anything said about a application of seven distinct periods of time must rest upon human theory and cause numberless differences as to interpretation, and so it would be best to forget this application entirely.
With the seven letters to the seven churches in Asia Rev. 2:1-3:22, we end all in the book of Revelation which concerns the church on Earth. From Rev. 4:1 on the Revelation deals with prophecies which will happen after the rapture of the church.

 

[BanjoPicker]

THE KEY TO THE INTERPRETATION

"Write the things thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter" Rev. 1:19.

1. PART I. "The things which thy hast seen"; that is, Christ in the midst of the seven candlesticks Rev. 1:12-18, 20. as seen by John before he began to write.

2. PART II. "The things which are"; that is, the things concerning the churches then existent and those which should exist throughout the Church Age to the rapture.

3. PART III. "The things which shall be hereafter"; that is the things which shall come to pass after the rapture of the church. This division includes all of the events of Rev. 4-22. One has only to believe this threefold natural division as given by Christ to understand the book fully especially as to the time of the fulfillment of the things of each division. The moment these divisions are forgotten, and the reader begins to disarrange them and insert certain things into the one or the other that are not part of the division he will become confused as to the divine order of these "things" which are so clearly given in consecutive order, and he will miss the true intent of the "things" written therein. That we refrain from confusing these "things" is absolutely imperative if a true understanding of them is to be gained.

 

[BanjoPicker]

That everything in Rev. 4-22 must be after the churches and therefore after the rapture of the church we have this fact confirmed in Rev. 4:1. After John had recorded the vision of Christ in Rev. 1, completing the first division of the book and after he had recorded all that Christ told him to write to the churches in Rev. 2-3, completing the second division of the book he was told in Rev. 4:1 that he was to see "things which MUST BE hereafter," that is, after the things of the churches of the second division of the book. Therefore, if everything from Rev.4:1 on through the rest of the book MUST BE after the churches then all the events of Rev. 4-22 must be after the churches. If they MUST BE after the churches, then they cannot happen during the time of the churches. If they cannot happen during the time of the churches, then the church is no longer on the Earth during the fulfillment of the tings which MUST BE after the churches.

 

[BanjoPicker]

Rev. 4:1 literally reads in Greek, AFTER THESE THINGS [the things concerning the churches of the previous division] I saw and behold a door opened in heaven, and the first voice [of Rev. 1:10] which I heard was a trumpet speaking with me, saying Come up hither, and I will show to thee WHAT THINGS MUST TAKE PLACE AFTER THESE THINGS," that is, after the churches which he wrote about in the previous chapters.