Romans 8:17-19 (RSV): …heirs…provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

 

1 Pet. 1:5 (RSV): … (you) who by God’s power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (7) …so that the genuineness of your faith…may redound to praise and glory and honor at the appearing (revelation) of Jesus Christ. (13) Therefore gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ….     

1 Pet. 4:13: But rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed….5:1: …a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.

(2)The revelation of Jesus Christ was predicted to reward the righteous and punish the wicked:

Matthew 16:27-8: For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. (RSV).

1 Cor. 3:13: Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. See also Romans 2:5-11 and 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8.

(3)THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST IS ALSO TO BE PRECEDED BY THE REVELATION, APOKALYPSE, OF THE MAN OF LAWLESSNESS.

     The passage in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-9 gives an interesting study of the three words apokalypse, parousia, and epiphany. In 2:1 mention is made of the parousia, ‘coming,’ of Christ and verse 9 mentions the parousia of the Lawless one. Verses 3, 6, and 8 mention the apokalypse of the Lawless one. Verse 8 also tells of the epiphany, ‘appearing’ (RSV; ‘brightness’ KJV) and parousia of Christ. The “revelation” and “coming” of the Lawless one seems to be the dark imitation of the “revelation and coming” of the Lord Jesus Christ. It serves to enhance, by contrast, the event.

(4)THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST IS ALSO THE REVELATION OF THE MYSTERY OF GOD, so that it is no longer a mystery. This insight into the wisdom hidden from the world had come to the saints with the infilling of the Holy Spirit. The events seen in the Book of Revelation confirmed to the whole world the truths already known by the saints through the Spirit.  Even though Christ was universally declared, in a sense, He was hidden to unbelievers.

Matthew 11:25-7: I thank thee, O Father,…because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes;….no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.

Paul says that the Gospel he preached: “…came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” Galatians 1:12.  Jesus said: “… for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, (apokaluphthesetai), or hidden that will not be known,” (Matt. 10:26). This special dimension of knowledge is also mentioned in the following Scriptures: 1 Cor. 14:6, 26; I1 Cor. 12:1, 7; Galatians 2:2; Ephesians 1:17-8; 3:3.

     Other passages in which the word apokalypse is used to mean that the hidden wisdom is ‘made known’ are: 1 Cor. 2:6-10; 1 Pet. 1:12; Ephesians 3:3-6; Romans 16:25. Apokalypse, ‘revealed’, is therefore an antonym of apocrypha, ‘hidden’.

 

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  [1] There are many references to secrets and hidden books in the Bible as well as in the extra-Biblical material.  “The secret (things belong) to the Lord our God; but the (things that are) revealed (belong) to us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29 RSV).  Note that the words ‘things belong’ are furnished by the translator, not in the original.  Actually, it is “the secret” that belongs to God.  Only those secrets that are revealed belong to us.

   Mention is made in extra-Biblical writings of “secret books”; some say there are seventy of them. The word ‘apocrypha’ means “things that are hidden”, but the books we now call “The Apocrypha” are probably not at all the ones referred to as the “secret books” by the ancient writers.