Hear, Deliverance Promised, End Of The Age

Revelation Commentary, , , , ,

1:3: Hear: “Blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written therein,” (RSV).

Just as God does not speak without results, so in Biblical thought, man does not truly hear without keeping, or observing, what has been heard. To “keep” that which was heard requires an appropriate response. In Biblical communication, if the response is lacking, one has not completed the act of hearing. The Hebrew meaning of “hear” is more like our word “heed;” that is, you become a doer of the word.

The hearing of the ears initiates a challenge to the will. The will then must either assent or dissent. To assent is to accept or comply passively. This is the first step toward “keeping” or “doing” the Word. However, according to opportunity there must also be, not only the readiness to will, but also a performance of the deeds. Only with the performance is the act of “hearing” complete.

The great shema to Israel was not only an admonition to “hear” but also to “do”: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might,” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).

The controversy concerning faith versus works is due to the lack of understanding, amongst the Christians from gentile backgrounds, of the Biblical meaning of “hearing.” James taught the true sense of the word, declaring that “…faith without works is dead,” (James 2:26). And: “Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves,” (James 1:22).

Blessing Of Deliverance Promised

The message of Revelation gives the blessed assurance of Christ’s deliverance, reminiscent of Christ’s words in Luke 21:28: “Now when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near,” (RSV).

The passage in Luke 17:34-37 seems to indicate that deliverance is not to be merely a matter of one’s own volition, or watchfulness, but that some “will be taken” while others “will be left.” In reading Josephus’ account it seems that indeed there were people who did escape the City and others who could not. These passages themselves would have been sufficient to warn the Christians to avoid the City, or flee from it where possible.

The End Of The Age For The Whole Earth? Objections

Some will object that the “end of the age” does not pertain only to the fall of Judea and Jerusalem but to the whole earth. For example, “for it (that day) will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth,” (Luke 21:35 RSV). There are two things that must be pointed out in this regard:
(l) the word ‘earth,’ in the Hebrew is ’eretz which is sometimes translated “earth” and sometimes “land.” It could therefore refer to the whole land of Judea, or to the whole planet earth.
(2) It may in fact refer to both in their proper time and order; that is, first to the whole land of Judea in the first century, then to the whole planet after the Gospel has gone to the whole world. This is according to the pattern: “The Jew first and also the Greek (Gentile),” (Rom. 2:9-10).

A further objection is that, at His “coming,” Christ is to establish His Kingdom in the earth. This may be answered by pointing out that, at the destruction of the fleshly nation, Christ’s Kingdom fully replaced it in the earth. After that time, there was no other nation of Israel, no other heirs to the promises. We find in Revelation chapter 22 that the New Jerusalem has come down to the earth and God is again dwelling in the midst of His people.

But just as the physical nation had occupied a limited space in the world, so Christ’s kingdom at that time was not all-pervasive of the world systems. His kingdom has, however, like the little stone cut out by no human hands that broke in pieces the great kingdoms of the earth in Daniel 2:34, continually increased and will ultimately fill all the earth and replace every kingdom of this world, the Blessed Kingdom of those who hear the message of Revelation.

“Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and for evermore. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this,” Isaiah 9:7.

Revelation in Context is available locally at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma or www.Amazon.com, or www.XulonPress.com.
Free downloads are also available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net.

The Law of “Israel” According to Netanyahu

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“Israel’s” Laws are Anti-Christian

If you are one who has pledged your support for “Israel,” before you go any further, you must know and understand that what you are supporting is Anti-Christian.

“Netanyahu told the head of Likud’s hareidi division Yaakov Vider at the conference that he intends to make the Hebrew calendar, which is based on Jewish law, the official calendar of Israel, reports Kikar Hashabat.

“The new law also would establish the Talmud, the core work of Jewish law, as an official basis for Israeli state law.

“I’m going to personally be involved in the law defining the state of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” Netanyahu reportedly told Vider. “It’s a very important law that will influence how Israel will look in the future.”

“I want to anchor in this law, that it will be a Basic Law that the state of Israel arose and exists on the basis of the Torah and the Jewish tradition,” Netanyahu explained, promising to define the Hebrew calendar as the official state calendar.

Netanyahu also promised that “we will define in the law the Gemara as a basis for the Israeli legal system,” referencing the Jewish legal text analyzing the Mishnah, a legal work of the Jewish sages, which together form the Talmud.

Discussing the new Basic Law on Sunday in a cabinet meeting, Netanyahu stated “the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish state does not actualize itself enough in our Basic Laws, which is what the proposed law aims to fix.”

Quoted from Israel National News, May 8, 2014, “Report: Netanyahu Promises Talmud Will Be Israeli Law.” Emphasis mine.

The Talmud is Anti-Christian: Check it out

You may find the full text of the Talmud in English translation as well as the teachings of the Rabbis and other relevant material at www.come-and-hear.com

If you are one who has pledged your support for “Israel,” before you go any further, you must know and understand that what you are supporting is Anti-Christian.

Dating The Writing of the Book of Revelation

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If we are to understand the Book of Revelation, we must identify the approximate date of its writing. Historical context requires knowledge of the time factor. The date of the writing is crucial to its interpretation.

There are two main views of the date of the writing:

  1. In the time of the reign of Domitian during the persecution of 96 AD.
  2. In the time of Nero, before the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.

(1) Those who favor a date in the reign of Domitian, (AD 81-96), do so on the basis that:

  • (A) Mystery Babylon depicts the Roman empire and that:
  • (B) this date more accurately depicts the conditions of the empire at that time than at the time of Nero and
  • that the later date gives more time for the decline of the churches shown in the letters in chapters two and three.

(2) I favor the view that it was written

  • Immediately following Nero’s death, in Galba’s reign, in 68 AD.
  • That canonization of the Book depended upon its having been written by an Apostle.
  • That the identity of Mystery Babylon is not Rome, but rather the fallen Jerusalem.
  • That the external evidence from the Book of II Esdras, furnishes historical evidence for the time of Nero.

My View

My view is that the Book was written in 68 AD during the brief reign of Galba, immediately following the death of Nero.* Some of the evidence that favors this earlier date is that the temple is mentioned as if it were literally extant in Revelation 11:1-2 which favors a date in Nero’s reign and that the numerical value of Nero’s name, Neron Caesar, can be calculated to equal the cryptic number of the Beast, 666.

Further evidence for the writing having been during the reign of Galba will be dealt with in my Commentary on Revelation 17:9* showing that Galba was the sixth of the “Seven Kings,” who was the present King in the writing of Revelation.

Internal Evidence: Apostolicity:

One of the criteria for canonization of a writing in the early Church was apostolicity, that is, that it was written by or was based upon the witness of an apostle. The fact that it was accepted into the canon is evidence that the early Church believed it to be the work of John the Beloved Apostle. John would have been an old Man in 68 AD, although it is possible, but not probable, that he lived to Domitian’s reign, 25 years later.

The internal evidence of the Book itself, if we take it to be the inspired Word of God, should be determinative. The witness of the writing itself is that it was written by the Apostle John, the writer of the Gospel and the Epistles of John. (See my article “I, John.” **)

Blood Guilt: Jewish or Roman? The Identity of Mystery Babylon

The internal evidence is also that Babylon the Great was not Rome but rather the wicked city of Jerusalem which had been persecuting the Church of Jesus Christ and whose destruction had been predicted by Christ to be within the generation that heard Him.***

The identity of Babylon must be seen in relationship to the referent in Matthew 23:34-35. In the context of His condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees and His description of the predicted destruction of Jerusalem, Christ said: “Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zecharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.”

The fact that it was the fallen Jerusalem who was to bear the guilt of “all the righteous blood shed on earth,” and the fact that it is Mystery Babylon in whom is found the blood of “all who have been slain on earth,” conclusively shows that Mystery Babylon symbolizes the fallen Jerusalem. Mystery Babylon is clearly said to have slain “the saints and martyrs of Jesus,” (Revelation 17:6). In the context of the Scriptures, then, Mystery Babylon can be none other than the fallen Jerusalem.

If Mystery Babylon is Jerusalem, then the Book would have been written prior to70 AD.

Jewish Persecution, Not Roman:

The entire New Testament witnesses to the fact that it was the Pharisaical sect of the Jews that persecuted and killed Christ and His Church, the Christian branch of the Jewish race. On the other hand, there are no references in the Scriptures to Roman persecution of Christians as such. Although the Romans did get involved in the legal disputes, that should not be called persecution. Secular historians show that the Roman government did not recognize that there was a difference between the Christians and other “Jews” until after the great fire in approximately 64 AD.

The Jewish nation as a politico/religious state was ruled by a class of priests, Pharisees, and scribes who curried the favor of Roman power in a love/hate relationship. On one hand, they coveted the power and economic gain from Rome; on the other hand, their conscience forbade them to neglect halakhah, the law of their religious traditions. Therefore, the people who observed the traditions, the Pharisees, were in rebellion, either overtly or covertly, against Rome throughout the New Testament era.

Although the Pharisaic Jews considered themselves persecuted by Rome, they were not persecuted as followers of Christ. Neither were the Christians persecuted by Rome as followers of Christ. Persecution of Christians by Rome was because they were perceived to be Jews who were in rebellion against Rome, not because they were followers of Christ. If the persecutor of the saints was Jerusalem, not Rome, then the Book of Revelation was written prior to 70 AD.

External Evidence:

The Book of 2 Esdras has many parallels to the Book of Revelation and is believed to have been written very near the same time, i.e., near the close of the first century AD. In 2 Esdras 12:18, some theologians believe a reference is made to the time following the death of Nero, 68 AD. The writer of 2 Esdras, however, is recounting a vision he has seen revealing events which were to come. If this is indeed a reference to the time following Nero’s death, then 2 Esdras would have been written before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The parallels to the Book of Revelation would serve as a second witness that the Revelation was written prior to 70 AD.

It is clear from these facts that the dating of the Book, as well as the attribution of authorship, depend upon the interpretation of the symbols of the Book; and the interpretation of the symbols depend upon the dating of the writing, a circular process. However, I believe the overwhelming evidence is for the earlier date. 

[This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book, Revelation In Contest, pages 11-13. For further discussion of historical, literary, and theological sources, please see the footnotes at that location.]

*See my book: Commentary at 17:10 “Roman Appointed Kings of Judea.“ p. 304-305.

** See my book, page 97.

***See my book, pages 74-94.

John Was Told To: Write What You See

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Revelation 1:11. “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven Churches.” (RSV)

Written or “Oral Law”?

The fact that the Book of Revelation was written was very important in the New Testament era. The written Word of God was distinguished from the so-called “Oral Law” of the Pharisees. Indeed all of the authoritative Scriptures were written, as opposed to the traditions of the Pharisees who claimed that the Law given to Moses at Sinai was in two parts, one of which he wrote and the other which he handed down orally. They taught that this so-called “oral law” was of equal, or greater, authority than the written law.

However, Jesus refuted the authority of their “oral law,” also often referred to as their “traditions,” Matthew 15: 2, 3, and 6. These “traditions” were what Jesus referred to when He said “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time …,” Matthew 5:21-48. But Jesus repeatedly used the written scriptures to refute the scribes and Pharisees and even against the devil, Matthew 4:4, 7, 10.

The other New Testament writers also quoted the written Scriptures as authoritative by saying: “It is written,” Romans 11:8; I Corinthians 1:31; II Corinthians 4:13; Colossians 2:8; Galatians 1:14, etc.. They used these written Old Testament Scriptures to prove their doctrinal points. For example in Romans 11:8 Paul begins to cite the written Scriptures to prove that God had not forsaken His people Israel, but a faithful remnant had obtained the election of God: “According as it is written….”

God Himself Wrote

Indeed, it is recorded that God Himself also wrote, Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 9:10. Although many of the prophecies given to Old Testament prophets were first given to be proclaimed orally to the people, they were afterwards written down, Jeremiah 1:17; 7:27; 13:12; Ezekiel 2:7; etc.

Pharisees Were Making Converts To Their False Religion

It is of utmost importance to the understanding of the New Testament to realize that the Pharisees were making converts throughout the Roman world by teaching their so-called “oral law.” Jesus said of their teachings:”Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves,” Matthew 23:15.

“Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,” Matthew 15: 6-9.

Their “Oral Law” Is Available Today In Written Form

It is of vital importance to us to realize that the doctrines of this “oral law” are extant today in the Babylonian Talmud and are still considered to be the authoritative scriptures of the religion called “Judaism” today. One of their leading Rabbis has said: “The Talmud is, then, the written form of that which in the time of Jesus, was called the Traditions of the Elders.”— Rabbi Michael L. Rodkinson
And:
“The Jewish religion as it is today traces its descent, without a break, through all the centuries, from the Pharisees.” — Universal Jewish Encyclopedia.

So, you see, the “oral law” is still a burning issue in our modern world.

For the full text of the Talmud in English translation see www.come-and-hear.com.
May you be informed and blessed by this lesson, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.



What John Recorded

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1:2: Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, (RSV).

Or perhaps: “Who bare record of the word of God even to the testimony of Jesus Christ.” That is, the Word of God is the testimony of Jesus Christ.
When John speaks of “the Word of God,” he not only has in mind the concepts of the Greek logos, which has been so extensively discussed, but also the Hebrew ideas, not only of the creatively powerful Word, but also of the artistically beautiful Word of Light, of poetry, and music.

The Word, as Logos

The Word of God, as logos, is: “For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do,” (Hebrews 4:12-13, RSV).
The Word not only reveals the innermost Man and exposes him to God, but also reveals the deep things of God to the very spirit of Man.

The Word of God as Written Literature

Every word of God is literature in its highest and purest form. In Genesis 1:3 when God said: “Let there be Light,” He brought Light to light, bearing it forth. The New Testament writer must have had this in mind when he said: “…hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,” (2 Timothy 1:10. See also Rom. 2:7). Think of it!
When God forbade the use of the art forms of graven images, the effect was to divert the energy of this artistic expression into the only form allowed to the engravers, writing. Phonetic writing is the image of the spoken word, the spoken word made visible and durable.
In order that writing might not violate the commandment not to make any graven images, the characters could not be like those of the Egyptians, (and other ancient writing systems), hieroglyphic pictures of their idol gods, but had to be abstract designs. In fact, this requirement for abstraction necessitated the development of a phonetic script, that is, a “picture,” not of any creature in heaven, earth or sea, but an image of sound. It is therefore almost certain that Moses did indeed develop the principle of phonetic writing, as tradition would also have it, probably using the alphabet as a syllabary, which would have been phonetic for the Hebrew language of that time.
So when John bare record of the “Word of God” in the Book of Revelation, it is a powerful and beautiful poem about the loveliest subject, Jesus Christ.*

 1:2. “… the word of God…”

This verse tells us that the message given to John the Revelator, to which he became a witness, was the Word of God. That is, the Scriptures are the testimony of Jesus Christ Who is The Word Of God. The Scriptures, including the Book of Revelation, are to be interpreted as the testimony to Jesus as the Messiah, the Anointed One.

We are therefore, from the meaning of this verse, to expect that the Book of Revelation is to contain a verification of the Scriptures in their role as a testimony of Jesus Christ. The Book is to corroborate, substantiate, confirm, prove, make certain, and establish the Scriptures.

An Eyewitness Account

The Book is also to contain an eye witness account. John has already stated in the Gospel of John and in the Book of 1 John, that he is an eyewitness to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ:

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; 2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen [it], and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) 3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship [is] with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, (1 John 1).

Now in the Book of Revelation he is giving his eye witness account of the spiritual realities of the perfected revelation of His coming and Kingdom as revealed to him while in the Spirit.

*For further discussion of the Poetic elements in the Book of Revelation, see pages 34-50 in my book, Revelation In Context, available at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma and online at www.Amazon.com or www.xulonpress.com. For free downloads go to www.revelationincontext.sermon.net.