“And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.

I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. “ (Re 22:6-21).

The book of Revelation ends by repeating what was stated at the very beginning – “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. (Re 1:1-3)

This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ – who He is! This is the person that was in the beginning with God, by whom and for whom the world was created. Hinted at in shadows and types in the Old Testament, veiled in human flesh in the gospels, and only described by the apostles in their letters – here the apostle John (and we the Church) see Him as He IS, the Lamb, Word of God, and King of Kings.

The Spirit makes a point of letting us know (by bookending the beginning and end of this epistle) that God DESIRES to make KNOWN to the servants of His Son, what is going to happen. “Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book for the time is at hand.” (Rev 22:10). This is in direct contrast to the instructions given to Daniel – “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” - (Da 12:4).

The reason for the difference is simple – The time is at hand. You may well say, but its been 2000+ years! Well.. Yes and No. If you have been following along with us, you know that the book begins with Christs instructions to the 7 churches in Asia Minor, in His capacity as Chief Pastor. What He describes to them were things that were going on in their congregations right then! (Chaps 1-3) That section concludes by telling us to pay attention and LISTEN to what the Spirit is saying to the churches – because the message is for us as well!

The apostle is then taken up in the Spirit to see the unfolding of events that occur next – Christ as slain Lamb, mission completed, takes the scroll of authority from the Father, and begins to open 7 seals. It has been our position all along that the opening of seals 1-5 have already taken place, and so again, some of the events that follow the church things, follow very SHORTLY AFTER the writing of this epistle.

False doctrine arose in the church, pagan practices crept in and took root, and we have seen over the last two millenia, wars, famines, earthquakes, death and disease, and martyrdom of the saints increase in proportion. These were signaled by the opening of the 5 seals.We are now awaiting the opening of the sixth seal, and you can see that we are very close to getting artificially intelligent robots that can kill people ( e.g. drones) which is what the image of the antichrist is supposed to be able to do.

That is the only explanation that makes sense of the fact that He is saying these things will shortly come to pass. There are other things that will take some time, but those are clearly called out – the time periods of the 7 trumpets and bowls are less than a human lifetime, the millennium is a thousand years, and then we are told about eternity after. We are truly privileged to see all of this fulfilled over the last 2000 years, and are now teetering on the edge of the threshold – saying COME QUICKLY LORD JESUS!

Another reason for NOT sealing the words of the prophecy is to make clear to us what Christ told His disciples in the Gospels – Matthew 24, Luke 21, Mark – to tell His church and warn the nation of Israel – a false messiah is coming who will unleash a time of Great Tribulation. The church and Israel will pass through it, but He is telling us and warning us so that we will KNOW that this time of persecution is limited to 3 and a half years – so that we can endure and overcome! (AND He refers back to Daniel as well – unsealing THAT prophecy!)

All this to say, that the Book of Revelation was designed to be understood by ordinary people, to be taken literally, EXCEPT for where it itself says that what we are being shown is symbolic. If you have been following along with us, I hope you will agree that we have not constructed elaborate theories and twisted or bent scriptures. We have approached this book, and indeed all scripture, that what is written is written for us to be able to understand it, through the offices of the Spirit, and comparing it with previous scriptures. God knows how to speak our language!

That is the blessing that attends the words of this prophecy, and we have been careful to avoid the curse that attends those that would tamper with the words of the book. It is a book for edification and encouragement, answering questions that we as Christians long to know. It is a book that shows us a future that we could never even dream of! And it is enough for us to be like our Lord, and endure the pains of our earthly crosses, for they are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us! Hallelujah!