DIVINE PERSPECTIVES

CHAPTER 2

DIVINE PERSPECTIVES

We turn now to the actual book of Revelation, looking at regal rays within it, profound principles, directive teachings, announcements to history - called prophecy - which is to come, the wonder and the glory that is revealed, of the Lord, at applications to our lives, and correlations with other scriptures.

In this way, some of the rays which have been considered, contemplated and occasioned rejoicing with relish in the past, are assembled, with such further coverage as seems best for the purpose, allowing more of a sense of continuity in the view of the inspired presentations in the book of Revelation, and hence a better appetite for its fare and - if you will - a more stereoscopic feeling as you proceed. By providing this facility, one may enable a better realisation of its meaning, and hence appreciation for our purpose, of its intense meaning for Christian Apologetics.

The procedure will be simple: at the head of each ray covered, there will be a number, to enable ready reference over the chapters which will be involved in this present volume; and its source will be stated. The first section has not been written before, so it merely has "From May 2002."

At times, the objective will be to study and apply prophecy, to verify and perceive its impact, like that of some long-range bomb, drone or flight, accomplishing the specified mission. On other occasions, it will be necessary to unravel misconceptions which always seek a place in the word of God, as if a rambunctious child, alien to a class, forever trying to vex the patience of the teacher, trouble his confreres, or exhibit the profound emptiness of his illusions.

Often, one has to compare scripture with scripture (as in a legal document, phrase is studied with phrase, concept with concept, here and there, in the various relevant sections), so finding the amplitude and certainty of the meaning. In another way, this is like studying a photo, then another, looking at the original (as in the Gospels, He stands revealed), and noting the words spoken, pondering the entirety, and realising the message, the meaning, the portent, the intent from time to time that this person is conveying. As in all photography, it helps greatly if you personally know the original; but as in all language well-written, its import becomes clear, if you become familiar with the territory, and gain understanding.

The WAY of the WORLD
with the WOES of this WORLD

or else

GOING WITH GOD

(From May, 2002)

The Outset

At the outset, in Chapter 1, Revelation is filled with a force that is sympathetic, a worship that is wonderful and a sense of deity which is insistent, inescapable and magnetic.

Its future ambit is uncovered (1:1), its testimonial character is stated (1:2), with strong overtones of John 3:11 and 4:19-20. Just as the apostles COULD NOT but speak the things that were before them, witness to the realities, empirically exhibit the facts, in this religion of facts (unlike all other religions in this emphasis, and insistence at all times), just as Jesus told Nicodemus: "We speak what we know and testify what we have seen, but you do not receive our witness", so now His apostle is conveying, like a Real Estate Agent, the territory of understanding in the land of actuality.

It is not words about words; it is words about land, the territory of truth, not some construction of human thought, some philosophy, but the REVELATION OF GOD. It is not some meditation on revelation: it IS revelation. It is not about truth or truths: it IS truth. It is the word of God (Rev. 1:9ff.). What God Himself, the Almighty (1:8), reveals, John relays. He is the relay runner, but the gift is from God (as in Matthew 5:17-19, I Cor. 2:9ff., I Peter 1:10-24, II Peter 1:16-21).

As by the Master's face, the words came (cf. John 14:9-11), so now by His grace. It is "from Him who is and who was and who is to come" and it is "from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth." As we soon see, it comes from a sevenfold inspiration regarding seven churches, at the outset, in chapters 2-3, in a most inspiring spiritual investigation and judgment, filled with love, charged with exhortation, devoted to warning, congratulation or enduement, to reward and to work to be done.

However there is a distinctive sense of glory, as when, at the terrestrial level, one comes to Niagara or some such vast falls in prime season, and finds the sense of hush, the air thrilling to the tempests below, the sense of light, a rainbow suffusing the air, spray, as if the watery medium cannot sufficiently be content to be beneath the eye, but must actually anoint it. In Revelation you gain some of this majestic array and onset, when you read in 1:2, the confident "things which must shortly come to pass", with the "blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it", so that it is not a simple exposure of a sight, but an imposition of the word of the Lord, which is to be done. It not hearing alone; it is performance which is sought.

With this, comes at once "grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come", so that, if you will, the spiritual air is saturated with feeling, with a sense of enduement and anticipation. When added, is this: "and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth", one realises the depth of devotion, the heights of clarity and the objective assurance of the apostle. It is he who shared such precious years of his life with Jesus Christ, saw the miracles, witnessed the resurrected Christ who ate before them all, tasted His words of power to heal and raise the dead, saw His deeds conspire with them as one, and knew Him as the Word of God, who was God and with God, who declared His statement, "Before Abraham was, I am!", and likewise gave His life to His following, since to follow God is to find life.

When now therefore, you read Ch. 1, you sense the inherent majesty of the object of worship, the Saviour; for other Saviour is there none, and other than God as Saviour is there none. It is He, the first and the last, who came first to earth, that at last many might be saved, and find fellowship with the eternal God.

It is therefore when in addition to these earlier verses, you find these words of ascription: "To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen" , that you sense something of the vigour of Paul's word, as given in Romans 3, 5-6, of John's testimony as in John 1, and a tenderness that is pastoral, emanating from the Pastor Himself, in whose name and by whose Spirit it comes (cf. John 14:17ff.). The eminence is without limit; and the gratitude for such royalty in so accessible a form, soars like jets into the sky, leaving their vapour trails in sheer exuberance.

But what ? In one grand sweep from past to present, we are turned in the same sense of immanent and imminent majesty, in an aura like that of some vast mountain soaring above the upturned eyes, aloof from ascent, throned with thronging regality, its head in mists that move and thrill to the aerial flows; and we turn again, to the future.

It is not mere detail; it is far less, mere mouthings. It is equipped this vision, with the same tender nearness, the same sovereign majesty, the same ineradicable reality and the same inveterate decisiveness as Christ gave, and now by His Spirit confirms. What then comes now in this Chapter 1 of the book ? This: "Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so. Amen."

This is so like the words of Christ to the High Priest (Mark 14:61-62, and to the people, as seen in Matthew 24:29-31), and so reminiscent of Zechariah 14:5, that it strikes like the church bell, to which one has listened for years, chiming its heart out over the streets, the sound ascending the hill to meet one as one comes. Its notes are familiar, its tenor and tone, its timbre and its call. Authenticity repeats with every peal, and wonder is occasioned by its simplicity, veracity and portent.

This is then given yet further dimension when John is given to add (1:8):
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.."

As in the prophets of old, announcing, "Thus says the Lord," so here the Almighty is self-announced as John hastens to depose His words.

At the outset, Revelation is filled with a force that is sympathetic, a worship that is wonderful and a sense of deity which is insistent, inescapable and magnetic.

With this, comes at once "grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come", so that, if you will, the spiritual air is saturated with feeling, with a sense of enduement and anticipation. When added is this: "and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the rule over the kings of the earth", one realises that the apostle who shared such precious years of his life with Jesus Christ, saw the miracles, witnessed the resurrected Christ who ate before them all, tasted His words of power to heal and raise the dead, saw His deeds conspire with them as one, and knew Him as the Word of God, who was God and with God, who declared His statement, "Before Abraham was, I am!" and gave His life to His following, since to follow God is to find life: then you sense the inherent majesty.

It is however when in addition to these things, you find these words of ascription: "To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen" , that you sense something of the vigour of Paul's word, as given in Romans 3, 5-6, of John's testimony as in John 1, and a tenderness that is pastoral, emanating from the Pastor Himself, in whose name and by whose Spirit it comes (cf. John 14:17ff.).

But what ? In one grand sweep from past to present, we turn in the same sense of immanent and imminent majesty, in an aura like that of some vast mountain soaring above the upturned eyes, aloof from ascent, throned with thronging regality, its head in mists that move and thrill to the aerial flows; and we turn now, to the future. It is not mere detail; it is far less, mere mouthings. It is equipped this vision, with the same tender nearness, the same sovereign majesty, the same ineradicable reality and the same inveterate decisiveness as Christ gave, and now by His Spirit confirms. What then comes now in this Chapter 1 of the book ? This: "Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so. Amen."

This is then given yet further dimension when John is given to add (1:8):
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.."

As in the prophets of old, announcing, "Thus says the Lord," so here the Almighty is self-announced as John hastens to depose His words.

The Onset and the Vision

By the time we reach Revelation 2:8, we find it is the Lord Jesus Christ, one God, Father and Son being operative, who is "the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life." Alpha and omega, first and last, alone God (as in Isaiah 44-45), it is He, triune and One, in diversity of personality speaking, in unity of heart proclaiming. The ascriptions thus move readily from the One to the other, from Alpha, to First, from Omega to Last; and the message is one, as they are.

This focusses a further entrancing focus of the book: Christ is at all times diverse in function, in some ways, from His Father, but equal in status, one God. ONLY God is the first and the last (Isaiah 44:6, 41:4): there is no other as He continually reveals in Isaiah 40-46, and it is He who knows the end from the beginning (46:10), yes DECLARES IT! Yet it is He who as Father sends the Son (as in Isaiah 48:16), and who can claim that HE is SENT after the glory (in Zechariah 2:8), even He who speaks, even God, as also in Psalm 45, He is designated, where the throne of the Son is the throne of God, and He is so addressed, as Hebrews 1 reflects. It is moreover as in Psalm 2, where one is to TRUST the Son, though for the heart to trust in man is wanton folly, as Jeremiah 17 declares. The powers are allied, the status correlative, the thrust one.

That HE, this very Son, should be One who was dead and is alive, He who is the First and the Last, the Word who was with God and was God (cf. SMR Ch. 7, pp. 532ff., A Spiritual Potpourri Ch. 12, Biblical Blessings Ch. 13, Things Old and New, Appendix, Tender Times for Timely Truths Ch. 12), this is the apex. GOD as man ? Amazing condescension. God as man to love ?

Wonderful grace. God as man to suffer ? Staggering proportions in the event. God as man to die, and then breaching death itself, to give reassurance to a sin-smitten and suffering race concerning the Almighty, his Maker … what words can convey this! It is a project of such immensity, past all proportions, an action to make history shudder into small shoes, its blundering feet, so clay-clogged, tottering in amazement. The Plan of Salvation is easily said, but infinitely profound.
That God should actually be concerned to reconcile ALL things to Himself (Colossians 1:19ff.), He who asks all who thirst to drink freely (Rev. 22:17), in His death-to life project, this takes us into further domains of glory. That He does not force, but foreknows all and yet is not even dependent on happenings at all, while history has to happen for all that (Romans 9): this takes us to that wonder and marvel, that includes the perfect solution to all the chronic problems (cf. SMR Ch. 5).
"I counsel you to buy of Me, gold tried in the fire," He advises (Rev. 3:18), to a church in the turmoil of confusion.

Always there is the love, the exhortation, the command to repent, and the way for man to follow. The word of God does not fight the Speaker; nor does the work of God, forget its butt, for God so loved the world that He gave. Always zealous, He confronts the drifting, requesting repentance, and for this, there is the challenge: if the church does not do so, thus appointing itself as unbelieving in nature, its very appearance will be removed, and its power to testify annulled (Rev. 3:3:3). But what of such unqualified zeal to save, from the death He experienced, in the life that triumphed, in a love multiply attested, historically expressed and objectively implemented ?

Inter alia, it makes the utter provision for meaning in freedom and responsibility on the one hand, and the delight in such circumstances as these, in being sovereignly but not tyrannically enabled to operate as free! It both solves the problem of becoming different, while yet as oneself, without the inherent means, and provides the practice, so that it is actually done, and not wearisomely sought without effect. No more is man to be seen as shut in to his own endowments, and endowments cast upon him without his consent; for the living God is able to summon even death, and readily in His love, attested in the most practical fashion, has power to save without the cessation of the image of God in the one saved, or making it a mere tool of desire (cf. Isaiah 48:18, Luke 19:42ff., Hosea 7:1).

As to these last points, see Licence for Liberty, Predestination and Freewill, and Cascade of Truth, Torrent of Mercy Ch. 9, It Bubbles, It Howls, He Calls... Ch. 9, Tender Times for Timely Truths 11.

In this God of love, there is the provision for liberty, the strength for liberation and the payment for justice to clear the accounts, all in one: it is a clarity that stuns, and a stunning that ennobles, an ennoblement which cleans, a glory which suffuses and a grandeur which is sublime.
In such dimensions, into such domains does the Revelation now lead us, as we watch its movements and consider its zest, quest and rest.

Having noted that he was exiled to Patmos in persecution for the faith, John proceeds to relay the charge, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last" - for there is but One, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The command accordingly comes clearly: this is no clairvoyance, but commission. It is not spiritual experience per se, but spiritual call to do the job assigned before the Lord left.

"What you see, write in a book, and send it..."

Then is to be seen One like the Son of Man, in a vision with strong affinities to that of Ezekiel 1, in some respects - the glory, the munificence of magnificence, as also that of Daniel 7, in person of the Son of Man in all His majesty and power, dominion and acceptance. The "sound of many waters" also reminds us of Ezekiel (1:24), as does the sense of aweful power, insusceptible to impurity. As in Daniel 7, the Son of Man has dominion and glory conferred before the face of the Father, so here " out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength."

John, as happened on occasion to Daniel (7:28, 10:8-9), was overcome, and in this case, "fell at His feet as dead." However, the tenderness of true and divine majesty, being His personal pursuit and nature, was not long in finding its expression, for "He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, ‘Do not be afraid: I am the First and the Last.’ "

By the time we reach Revelation 2:8, we find it is the Lord Jesus Christ, one God, Father and Son being operative, who is "the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life." This is a further entrancing focus of the book: Christ is at all times diverse in function, in some ways, from His Father, but equal in status, one God. ONLY God is the first and the last (Isaiah 44:6, 41:4), there is no other as He continually reveals in Isaiah 40-46, and it is He who knows the end from the beginning. Yet it is He who as Father sends the Son (as in Isaiah 48:16), and who can claim that HE is SENT after the glory (in Zechariah 3:9), even He who speaks, even God, as in Psalm 45, where the throne of the Son is the throne of God, and He is so addressed, as Hebrews 1 reflects.

That HE should be One who was dead and is alive, He who is the First and the Last, the Word who was with God and was God (cf. SMR Ch. 7, pp. 532ff., A Spiritual Potpourri Ch. 12, Biblical Blessings Ch. 13, Things Old and New Appendix, Tender Times for Timely Truths Ch. 12), this is the apex. GOD as man ? Amazing condescension. God as man to love ? Wonderful grace. God as man to suffer ? Staggering proportions in the thing. God as man to die, and then breaching death itself, to give reassurance to a sin-smitten and suffering race concerning the Almighty, his Maker, what words can convey this! It is a project of such immensity, past all proportions, an action to make history shudder into small shoes, its blundering feet, so clay-clogged, tottering in amazement. The Plan of Salvation is easily said, but infinitely profound.

That God should actually be concerned to reconcile ALL things to Himself takes us into further domains of glory, and that He does not force, but foreknows all and is not even dependent on happenings at all, yet has history happen for all that (Romans 9), this takes us to that wonder and marvel, the perfect solution to all problems and the utter provision for meaning in freedom and responsibility on the one hand, and the delight in such circumstances as these, to be able to operate as free! As to this last point, see Licence for Liberty, Predestination and Freewill, and
Cascade of Truth, Torrent of Mercy Ch. 9, It Bubbles, It Howls, He Calls... Ch. 9, Tender Times for Timely Truths Ch. 11.

It is a clarity that stuns, and a stunning that ennobles, an ennoblement which cleans, a glory which suffuses and a grandeur which is sublime.

In such dimensions, into such domains does the Revelation now lead us.

Then is to be seen One like the Son of Man, in a vision with strong affinities to that of Ezekiel 1, in some respects - the glory, the munificence of magnificence, as also that of Daniel 7, in the Son of Man in all His majesty and power, dominion and acceptance. The "sound of many waters" also reminds us of Ezekiel (1:24), as does the sense of aweful power, insusceptible to impurity. As in Daniel 7, the Son of Man has dominion and glory conferred before the face of the Father, so here " out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength."

John, as happened on occasion to Daniel (7:28, 10:80\-9), was overcome, and in this case, "fell at His feet as dead." However, the tenderness of true and divine majesty, being His personal pursuit and nature, was not long in finding its expression, for "He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid: I am the First and the Last."

THE KINDLY KEYS
AND THE GRACIOUS IMMOBILISER

This is not all. It is most precise, explicit and in full continuity with the Christ of the Emmaus road (Luke 24), who also confronted Thomas (John 20:27-31).

"I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hell and of Death. "

No pope is here, smitten with normal human sin. It is the Great Innocent, the Prince of Peace, the Just One, the one who had no sin (I Peter 2:22-24), who was killed because of the lack of it, speaking in truth that He was the Son of God (Mark 14:62ff.), as indicated in Isaiah 53:9: "And they made His grace with the wicked - and with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth." (Bold added.)

To deny His reality, to dismiss His status, would have saved Him no doubt, for He would have been too puny, in cowardice, to matter. It was the blasphemy of proclaiming the truth to unbelieving ears which was His knell, and the power in covering all men's needs, which to envy was a fatal stimulus in the hearts of the ecclesiastical authority (Mark 15:10, Matthew 27:18, John 11:47-50).
Killed for the lack of deceit in a world which nearly worships it, slain for a lack of violence, in a world which is covered with it, He died, a testimony, mute but not muted (as a lamb before His shearers is dumb, He went to die as a sublime offering to cover sin, but as the Lord of glory, He rose fetterless and in all power, from the dead (cf. SMR Ch. 6, Biblical Blessings Ch. 15, *2 and Index). It was this which makes the atomic era and bomb curses, miniscule by comparison, and gives love its face, though man had so defaced it that it became scarcely recognisable as human (Isaiah 52:14), which leaves all merely human power a scratching decibel noise by comparison. It is this which was predicted as surely as His death, as its date (SMR pp. 886ff.), as His reason for coming and the power He would display while here (cf. Joyful Jottings 25).
Sinless, the Lord of glory, He is here revealed from heaven, in that interim before His return (Revelation 1:7 cf. Acts 1:11), in just that glory He had with the Father before the world was even made (John 17:1-3, Micah 5:1-3, John 1:1, 8:58), but now in the humble form of man, yet this transfigured (cf. Matthew 17).
DEAD He is risen; DEATH has no more power: its sanction is covered (Revelation 1:5), and its fate is defaced, its defilement not longer the essential evil for man, for Christ in body was defiled, in mind afflicted, in spirit oppressed, that we might be saved (Titus 3:5-7, I Peter 2:22ff.).
Does HE then pass on the keys to death to someone else ? Far from it. It is His by His Father's will (John 5:19ff.), and the fear of death is defunct precisely because of this, that not only has He broken it, showing it a mere penalty for sin, and not a 'natural phenomenon', so that the sin covered, the death can no longer be terminal, but because HE HAS THE KEYS TO IT (Rev. 1:18).

What do we find then ? Life is His, though death came to Him; and He is "alive for evermore". This is wonderful; but HE HAS THE KEYS, so that no one else can ADMINISTER what He has done, but Himself, with His Father, whose exact image He is (Hebrews 1:1-3). To none is any KEY given which affects destiny. What is bound is only in His name, who is free, and without bond to man; and by faith, which is not given for purposes contrary to His will. His name is not on licence to those who have taken the franchise, be they Romanist or other; it is available for His will, according to His word, and what is bound by faith is by His word and name, limited, by His will covered, so that NO ONE can send ANY ONE anywhere, except at the instance of His will, at the call of His word, at the sanction of truth, which HE IS. HE has the keys. Fear nothing! So to John, "Do not be afraid I am the First and the Last." The power is NOWHERE else; what abides merely translates it (John 15:7).

This same Jesus who is to return again (Acts 1:11), is He who came in the first place, in whose will are His own people (II Timothy 2:19), in whose hearts are His ways (Psalm 84). Neither does death now hold any fear (as in Hebrews 2), nor Satan, nor miscreant body, nor schismatic church: only God, only Christ, only the already revealed Jesus the Christ has this power. How otherwise ? since ALL POWER IS GIVEN TO ME IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH (Matthew 28:18-20).

Death is invalided out; hell is an outcast before the Lord whose faith like an income unlimited, touches and changes the hearts of those who come to Him. NO ONE can reach hell, if you like, except over HIS DEAD BODY. He has given all to defend man; He has taken death by the scruff of the neck and shaken it to its own death, its own defeat, its limitless end, for those who take His life, which is by nature eternal (John 1:1-4). He has exempted His people, so endued and endowered with life, from the hell which is life's destruction. It is not some impersonal principle which holds the gate for hell; it is not some autonomous mountain of ecclesiastical pride and vainglory: it is Christ. Let him who is without sin, lay claim; let him or her who before the world was founded, had glory with the Father, insist on his rights.

It is One, and only ONE GOD, and it is ONE and only ONE SON, begotten and not made, inscribed into flesh from His heavenly eternity as the Word of God, equal with God (Philippians 2), but in humiliation becoming subject, even to the law made for man, that from all sin He might deliver those whom He calls (Matthew 11:27). It is here that the AV is inadequate, and does not help the soul who idolises it. It is to WHOM HE WILLS, that He reveals the Father. It is an action of His own will, which in turn is in perfect accord at all times with that of His Father, despite Calvin's error in dealing with Matthew 23:37, in this regard ,a point not lost on Wesley, though he for his part departed from Biblical systematics, in a way Calvin did not (cf. Predestination and Freewill Section 2, Repent or Perish Ch. 1, *1, Tender Times for Timely Truths Ch. 2, *1, Light of Life, Ch. 1 *1).

Does Christ then NOT HAVE the keys ? Is He indisposed like some Baal, uselessly called on by the pagan priests, when Elijah was used by contrast to show the power of the living God, as in the sequence following I Kings 17 ? Is His mind a captive to culture, ecclesiastical or political, or under the dominion of sin, in the hearts of men, and is this able to declare itself, so that He, slave fulfils
it ! Impossible: I AM HE, He declares, alive, once dead, now alive for evermore. Who is Lord ? ONE LORD (Ephesians 4:4). It is all centralised on Christ; who puts central focus on His Father, who reveals in turn His Son, one God, multiple in operation, single in Being, with one will and one certainty of fact and operation. WHO will give Him counsel ? (Isaiah 40:13,21), and who has directed the Spirit of the Lord ? Shall supine and serpentine slitherers, slighters of the sight of the Almighty God, so presume that they snatch the very keys from His hands, and turn keys in mid-air, without locks, the lock being in the hand of God, as the key also!

GOING WITH GOD: THE JOURNEY WITH A FUTURE

The power of God for man is to OBEY, and to FIND and DO His will! Where the principles of God are rejected, the power of God is in attendance; but where man merely makes His own folly, feebly seeking to exercise a dominion which is NOT in accord with truth, refusing rebuke, or making schism, then nothing is the power of that man, for the KEYS are in God, and NIL is the power of that ecclesiastical body, for the KEYS are in the hand of Christ WHO LIVES. As He expressly told the disciples, JUST AS the Father sent Him, SO He was sending them. He could neither invent nor decide doctrine, for it was to His humbled estate, given as commanded (John 12:48-50), and He always did what His Father commanded, what pleased Him (John 8:29). In that sublime affinity, He could and did donate the way of abiding, so that whatever was the will of God, found, could be done with the power appropriate, but whatever transgressed, fell void as voided, as food despatched from a sick stomach (cf. Revelation 3:;16).

No, none shall pre-empt God or use His grace as a channel for schism, a mode for hauteur or a highway for arrogance, self-assertion or indeed anything contrary to the will of God. Christ is alive and has the keys.

Nor is this all. He lives FOR EVERMORE, while He makes intercession (Hebrews 7:235) for the people accordingly to the will of God.

Thus in Revelation 1 we have been introduced to the living, changeless, death-destroying Christ, alive forevermore with all power, and words to be conveyed. The world's ways, whether in ecclesiastical fora, political premisses, or feeble philosophy, are no more making HIM a captive than man makes space his playground. This world loves to make popes, and powerful churches that can kill without Christ, or even while in rebellion against Him; to make doctrines of deceit and theologies of thought that stifle the word of God, but the word of God judges, and power is back of it, for it is His! The Son of Man, the everlasting word in flesh, has arisen, and nothing is the joy and nullity the power of the flesh. The world seeks to minimise the word of God, or to annihilate it, to mock it, to make it mean the opposite of what it says, to dismiss it, to do whatever it takes when it takes it, if by any means it might confuse the elect, or snatch them from God; but they answer, for they follow the Shepherd from whose Father's hand NONE CAN SNATCH THEM (John 10:27-28).

Thus in perfect consistency with all scripture, does Revelation commence in its first chapter, filled with a sense of glory as found in Ezekiel and Daniel, in their visions of God, personal like their depositions and fellowship with the Lord, authoritative as theirs and focussed on Jesus the Christ, just as they so featured the Messiah (Daniel 7, 9, Ezekiel 34, 16-17, 1:26, 37:21-24 and symbolism in 42:2ff., 45:17ff., where as in Zech. 6:13, He is able to perform both royal and priestly functions, above all the law, and enveloping all the patterns in Himself, as in Hebrews 7-10). As in the Old Testament, as noted above in our excursion, the Messiah is seen as the LORD, and in full exposure in His glory of the glory of Him who is the Almighty. As also found there, He is seen in incarnate form, glorified and transcendent, ascendant, but in humility, to be found, in glory without limit, in tenderness without abeyance, in truth that does not move.

Nor does He consign His divinity to man, but having spoken, so closes the mouth of would-be doctrinal innovators, that the strength of curse matches the force of Moses' prohibition on extending the covenant, or amending it in any way: as seen in Revelation 22:18-19, comparably with Deuteronomy 4, 12, 13 and 18.

Nor yet again, does He abstract His infinite view from man, but speaks with distinctive clarity, identifies Himself to His friend of so long a time, with the same character He always had, but now, unlike the time then (except for the transfiguration in measure), He HAS ascended and HAS been glorified (as portended in Luke 20:17).

In all things, and in all ways, Revelation commences as it continues, the apostle given that last strand of the verbal expression of the new Covenant, that sublime conferment from heaven, that direct revelation concerning the incarnate Christ, the now glorified Christ, so that to add, is to subtract, and to subtract is but to add confusion. False christs have this privilege; but the payment due is colossal (as exemplified in Revelation 19:20).

It is as it has always been for the children of God: they GO WITH GOD. As in Isaiah 33, they behold the land that is very far off, and shall see the King in His beauty. Here in Revelation, the apostle adds to the testimony of glory, and from clear vision, given with entire authority from Him who called the apostles, reveals Him who speaks, and had spoken on earth, the two but One, the things to come and the way of holiness. It is simple, washed worshippers heeding His word, and loving His beauty; it is profound, the wonder of God announced to man, following the annunciation of the incarnation and that laboratory wonder, the bodily resurrection of Christ, following that the people whom He had raised, notably but not Lazarus alone.

The power, the precepts and the pronouncement of God thus come, and then comes the time as in II Peter 3:9, until He comes. Much awaited, as is shown in the ensuing chapters; and much more does man do that is wanton, unwarranted and woeful; but it ends, just as the world began, and Christ came, when the time comes. Then the book of Revelation specialises on the beauties to come, expressed in visions of authoritative splendour, with content wholly conformable to the words of the Lord, from the first unto the last.