Revelation Chapter 1 - 2010

I 1 A revelation from Yahshua Christ which Yahweh had given to Him to show to His servants the things which are necessary to happen quickly, and He having sent explained through His messenger to His servant Iohannes, 2 who bore witness to the Word of Yahweh and the testimony of Yahshua Christ, as many things as he had seen. 3 Blessed is he reading and those hearing the words of the prophecy and keeping the things written in it, for the time is near.

This John who “bore witness to the Word of Yahweh” must therefore be that John who wrote the Gospel, which he considered to be the Word which became flesh (John 1:14). As it was discussed in the opening notes of this presentation, there are many witnesses from the second and third centuries of the Christian era which also attest to the Apostle John's authorship of the Revelation.

Literally “to happen quickly”, or with haste, it is evident from the Revelation itself that these things were, from our worldly perspective, only to begin to happen quickly, since they would take centuries to actually unfold. From the perspective of God, however, we find Peter saying in 1 Peter 3:8 “that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” Quickly to Him is not necessarily quick in our own perception. Where it says “for the time is near”, that does not indicate that the entire Revelation would be fulfilled immediately. For the entire Revelation is not one vision, but a series of visions. In fact, chapter 4 opens with a statement that John was to see things which “must be hereafter”, and are not necessarily to happen quickly or near to John's time.

4 Iohannes, to the seven assemblies which are in Asia, favor and peace to you from He who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven spirits which are before His throne 5 and from Yahshua Christ, the Witness, the Faithful One, the First Born from the dead and He ruling the kings of the earth. To He who loves us and has released us from our errors with His blood, 6 and has made us a kingdom, priests to Yahweh even His Father to Him is the honor and the sovereignty for the eternal ages, truly.

The message being to “the seven assemblies”, meaning specific assemblies, there were more than seven assemblies in the Christian world at this time, but these seven are being singled out for examples. The number seven resonates through Scripture. From the seven-day creation and sabbath cycles, the 7-year land sabbath and 49-plus-one-year Jubilee period. There were seven times of punishment for Israel, and seven years of banishment for Nebuchadnezzar. There were seven demons cast from May Magdalene, and seven others of the parable of the evil demon, which gathered them to himself after finding his house had been tidied. The number seven is also very often found in the Revelation, from these seven assemblies, seven stars, seven Spirits, seven plagues, seven trumpets, seven seals, seven vials, seven horns and eyes of the Lamb, and seven heads of the beast, etc. In the Enochic literature there are seven heavens. This number seven, no doubt, is of some significance in the Creation of God, and perhaps is a number representing spiritual harmony or completion.

“He who is” is Yahweh, who manifested Himself as “He who was” and who is also He “who is coming”, which is Christ.

Isaiah 43:1: “But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.”

Isaiah 44:6: “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.”

Isaiah 60:16: “...and thou shalt know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.”

7 Behold! He comes with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him, even whoever [οἵτινες, see ὅστις] had pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn before Him. Yeah, truly!

1 Enoch 1:9: “9. And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones to execute judgement upon all, and to destroy all the ungodly:”

Jude 14-15: “14 And Enoch, seventh from Adam, prophesied to these saying 'Behold, the Prince has come with ten thousands of His saints 15 to execute judgment against all and to convict every soul for all of their impious deeds which they committed impiously and for all of the harsh things which the impious wrongdoers have spoken against Him!'”

Daniel 7: 13-14: "13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."

As Paul uses the word cloud of a great “cloud of witnesses” in Hebrews 12:1, the “clouds of heaven” in Daniel and here in Revelation 1:7 certainly seem to refer to the “ten thousands of his saints” of Enoch and Jude. This same interpretation may properly be applied to 1 Thessalonians 5:17 where Paul says “Then we, the living who are remaining, at once with them shall be carried off in clouds for a meeting with the Prince in air, and in that manner always with the Prince we shall be”, the word for air denoting the physical world as opposed to the spiritual. In Greek cosmology the term denoted the lower atmosphere as opposed to the ether, or upper atmosphere. Note that these passages from Daniel and the Revelation state “with clouds” and not “in the clouds” or “from [the] clouds”. While Acts 1:11 states: “And they said 'Men, Galilaians, why do you stand looking into the heaven? This Yahshua, who is taken up from you into the heaven, thusly shall He come in the manner which you have beheld Him going into the heaven.'” Yet even that return of Yahshua as it is described does not preclude the clouds as clouds of (ten thousands of) His people with Him.

John 19:37: “And again another writing says 'They shall look at He whom they have pierced.'”

Zechariah 12:10: “¹⁰ And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced [meaning Yahweh – do not doubt that Yahshua is Yahweh!], and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”

Whoever, οἵτινες, or anyone who pierced Him. This is not necessarily talking about the jews or the Roman soldiers. Rather, it is talking about all of us who reject Christ, for when we reject Christ we uphold His crucifixion. Paul says at Hebrews 6:4-6: “4 For impossible it is, those once being enlightened both tasting of the heavenly gift and becoming partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and tasting of the good word of Yahweh and powers of the coming age 6 yet falling away, to restore again in repentance, upholding the crucifixion among themselves and making an example of the Son of Yahweh.” This is exactly what many of our own people have done, people who have been Christians for centuries, by embracing humanism and hedonism and all the doctrines of the neo-Canaanites, the antichrist jews who have taken over our society.

Image

8 I am the Alpha and the Omega, says Yahweh God, He who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.

Here Yahshua Christ again asserts that He is one and the same as Yahweh God Himself. Read these passages from Isaiah, where Yahweh says that same thing, that He is the first and the last:

Isaiah 41:4: “Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.”

Isaiah 44:6: “ ⁶ Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.”

Isaiah 48:12.: “Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.”

9 I, Iohannes, your brother and fellow-companion in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Yahshua, was on the island called Patmos on account of the Word of Yahweh and the testimony of Yahshua.

The purpose of this life is for trial, to prove our worthiness for His kingdom. Therefore John calls himself a partner in both the tribulation and the kingdom. This life is not for pleasure or for joy, as those enemies of our God have led most people to believe. The easier we comply with His will, the less we may endure such trial. As Yahshua Himself said, His yoke is easy and His burden light.

James 1:12: “Blessed is a man who endures trial, because being approved he shall receive the crown of life which He promised to those who love Him.”

1 Peter 1:3-9: “3 Blessed is Yahweh, even the Father of our Prince Yahshua Christ, who according to His great mercy has engendered us from above into a living hope through the resurrection of Yahshua Christ from among the dead, 4 for an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, being kept in the heavens for us 5 who are being preserved by the power of Yahweh through faith for a salvation prepared to be revealed in the last time. 6 In which you must rejoice, if for a short time now it is necessary being pained by various trials, 7 in order that the test of your faith, much more valuable than gold which is destroyed even being tested by fire, would be found in praise and honor and dignity at the revelation of Yahshua Christ, 8 whom not having seen you love, in whom now not seeing but believing you rejoice with an indescribable and illustrious joy, 9 acquiring the result of your faith: preservation of your souls.”

Hebrews 12:7-8: “7 You endure discipline; as sons Yahweh engages with you. For what is a son whom a father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which you all have become partakers, then you are bastards, and not sons.”

10 I was in the spirit on the day of the Prince and heard a great voice behind me, like a trumpet, 11 saying That which you see write in a book and send to the seven assemblies: to Ephesos and to Smurna and to Pergamos and to Thuateira and to Sardeis and to Philadelpheia and to Laodikeia.

In 2 Corinthians Chapter 5 Paul described similar experiences out of the body, and described the body as a mere vessel for the Spirit. (The names of the assemblies all have a Greek meaning, and will be discussed below.) John was evidently “in the Spirit” through prayer and meditation, and there are other statements in the Revelation which indicate that he meant the same thing which Paul did. For instance, Revelation 4:1 reads from the King James Version: "After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter."

12 And I turned to see the voice which spoke with me, and turning I saw seven golden lampstands 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man clothed down to the feet and girt with a golden belt to the breasts.

The seven-branched candlestick is first described in Exodus Chapter 25, and verse 37 states: "And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it." This is an Israelite symbol, as the Revelation is replete with Israelite symbols. Not only is an understanding of the Old Testament a prerequisite to understanding these symbols, this is also a full indication that the message of the Revelation concerns those same people with which the Old Testament concerned itself: and the jews – who are not Israel – get only passing and negative mentions, as they are truly those who have forever been opposed to God. In Zechariah Chapter 4 (see below) we see a vision of the building of the second temple by Zerubbabel associated with seven candlesticks and two olive trees. The name Zerubbabel actually means “sown in Babylon”, and I would think that from Genesis Chapter 11, where men perceived that they must build a tower in order to reach unto heaven, the idea that man must build edifices in which their gods could dwell was also sown in ancient Babylon. There are references throughout the earliest Sumerian inscriptions where particular temples or precincts are referred to as the houses of particular gods. And Romish Catholicism has adopted and adapted this same pagan idea since its inception. But Yahshua Christ has shown us that our bodies are the true temples of the Spirit of Yahweh our God, who cannot dwell in a house built with hands (see Genesis 2:7). This was a major theme of Paul's later teachings, but is also alluded to in Isaiah (52:11: “ye … that bear the vessels of Yahweh”) and elsewhere in the Bible. Therefore Yahshua has taken this vision of the seven lampstands, in order to show us that He is indeed the true temple of Yahweh – the spirit of the Living God in the body of a man, as Paul says of Yahshua that “in Him dwells all the fullness of the Divinity bodily”, at Colossians 2:9.

14 Now His head and hairs white as wool, white as snow, and His eyes as flames of fire 15 and His feet like fine brass as if having been burned in a furnace, and His voice as a voice of many waters, 16 and having in His right hand seven stars and coming out from His mouth a sharp two-edged sword, and His eyes like the sun shines in its power.

Here John describes to us the manner in which Yahshua Christ appeared to him in his vision. In verse 13 he initially calls him “One like a son of man”. The phrase “son of man” was used by Yahweh himself to address the prophets, especially Daniel and Ezekiel, and so every son of Adam is a “son of man”. John is telling us that – except for the fascinating description of Him – He looks very much like we do, and we see in many places in Scripture that He is indeed Yahweh God, but he is also one of us. Daniel describes Him using this same term, at Daniel 7:13 which is cited here earlier, where he says “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.” In Daniel 7:9 He is described much like He is here in John: “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool [as white as wool]: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.”

Psalm 149:4-9: “4 For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation. 5 Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. 6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; 7 To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; 8 To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; 9 To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD.”

Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

17 And when I saw Him, I fell to His feet as if dead, and He placed His right hand upon me, saying: Fear not! I am the First and the Last, 18 and He who lives, and was dead, and behold!

Christ, being Yahweh our God manifested as one of His own sons, again asserts Himself to be the First and the Last of all things. Only Yahweh could be First and Last, and only Christ could be “He who lives and was dead”.

I live for the eternal ages and I have the Keys of death and of Hades! 19 Therefore write the things which you see and the things which are and the things which are going to happen after these: 20 the mystery of the seven stars which you see in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are messengers of the seven assemblies and the seven lampstands are seven assemblies.

This verse vindicates the interpretation given here of the words “quickly” and “near” in verses 1 and 3 above (words which are rendered “shortly” and “at hand” in the King James Version), that not all of these things were to happen immediately, but were only to begin to happen in John's time.

KJV Zechariah Chapter 4:

1 And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, 2 And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: 3 And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. 4 So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? 5 Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. 6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. 7 Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it. 8 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 9 The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. 10 For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth. 11 Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? 12 And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? 13 And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. 14 Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.