War in Heaven: 2026-2030 Revised Edition

By Frank de Ruyter

The author, Frank de Ruyter, is a married man who enjoys sports, the outdoors and day-to-day life with his wife and three children. De Ruyter holds honors and masters degrees in astronomy and astrophysics, a divinity degree, and diplomas in teaching. War in Heaven was first written over thirty years ago, but de Ruyter brought it to publication after years of concern about what he continued to see published on the subject of prophecy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Aug 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493135103

Frank de Ruyter

The author, Frank de Ruyter, is a married man who enjoys sports, the outdoors and day-to-day life with his wife and three children. De Ruyter holds honors and masters degrees in astronomy and astrophysics, a divinity degree, and diplomas in teaching. War in Heaven was first written over thirty years ago, but de Ruyter brought it to publication after years of concern about what he continued to see published on the subject of prophecy.

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Copyright © 2014 by Frank de Ruyter.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-4931-3509-7

                eBook           978-1-4931-3510-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The bible verses are taken from Darby Text and scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Rev. date: 07/02/2014

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Contents

Commentary on Chapter 1

Commentary on Chapter 2

Commentary on Chapter 3

Commentary on Chapter 4

Commentary on Chapter 5

Commentary on Chapter 6

Commentary on Chapter 7

Commentary on Chapter 8

Commentary on Chapter 9

Commentary on Chapter 10

Commentary on Chapter 11

Commentary on Chapter 12

Commentary on Chapter 13

Commentary on Chapter 14

Commentary on Chapters 15 and 16

Commentary on Chapter 17

Commentary on Chapter 18

Commentary on Chapter 19

Commentary on Chapter 20

Commentary on Chapter 21

Commentary on Chapter 22

Appendix I: Summary and Chronological Relationship of Themes in the Apocalypse.

Appendix II: Against the Rapture Theory

Appendix III: Bible Chronologies

Appendix IV: History of Egypt—Reconstructed & Aligned to Biblical Record

Appendix V. Special Notes

List of Figures

Figure 1: Chiasm in the Book of Revelation

Figure 2: The High Priest’s Breastplate

List of Tables

Table 1: Numbers and their Meanings

Table 2: The Purposes of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks

Table 3: The Twelve Thematic/Stylistic Divisions of the New Testament

Table 4: Roman and Jewish Zodiacs

And he shall send Jesus Christ . . . whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began

—Peter, in Acts 3:20-21.

INTRODUCTION

The Book of Revelation is an apocalypse, which is a literary style that arose in Israel from around 300BC. As a book of the Bible, it found universal acceptance and canonical status about three hundred years after the last apostle had died. This made it the last book by at least two centuries to be included in the canon of Scripture. Because the Bible books are generally in chronological order, its position as the last of the sixty-six books suggests it was also the last written.

Yet this location and late inclusion does not detract from its importance. In fact, it gives this book a unique position among the books of the Bible. Like a pyramid capstone—the only stone to contain in itself the whole shape of the pyramid—the Book of Revelation has a position in Scripture that allows it to summarise the Bible’s whole story and testimony. And just as the pyramid capstone points to heaven, so the Book of Revelation focuses all biblical testimony on the trial and triumph of the Church, and summons the Church in every age into its peculiar future and mission.

Apocalypses were always encrypted in symbols and visions. With the earliest Jewish apocalypses this was probably, as much as anything else, an attempt to explain and generalize contemporary difficulties in terms of historical patterns. To describe Israel as a lamb and other nations as ravenous wild animals explained why these nations always felt a desire to consume the Jews: it is natural for wolves to molest sheep. The apocalypse delivered by Christ to John conforms in this sense, except that it also expands the history of Israel to include the greater Israel that now includes the Church, and steps back to see the whole redemptive story from Genesis onwards, with Israel’s history informing the greater history of the world.

Now, in this larger context, it is no longer a question of nations against Israel but of the World against the commonwealth of Israel—Israel and the Church combined. Gog and Magog, for instance, are no longer the group of Russian tribes from around the Steppes, but in chapter 20 the Gog and Magog are instead qualified as the nations from the four corners of the earth. The Talmudic notion of the millennium—seen in chapter 20—is also an adaptation of a notion about the duration of the Messianic Age. It now applies to the Church Age, which is also a Messianic Age. So the text ties a number of different Jewish concepts together to give a Christian or transformed Jewish apocalypse.

Although it seems to describe the future for the Church, especially in as far as the fact that the whole Gospel era is characterized as the last days, it builds from a platform of experiences in Israel’s past and of ideas contemporary to the time of writing. Who does the text apply too? It applies to all saints. All saints experience tribulation, all endure antichrists (in spirit or in person) and all overcome by the blood of the lamb. All saints are marked with a divine seal upon their minds, are involved in a battle with powers of evil (which is also a battle for the mind and identity) and try to avoid identification with the spirit of the beast in their lives, which is a spirit of humanism.

The invisible conflict, which will accelerate dramatically as the Church approaches the close of the present World-Age, has actually always been going on. Ellen G. White’s America in Prophecy, for example, outlines how the Church has been in an ongoing conflict since the Church Age began. Part of this conflict has been with external political forces, but the larger conflict has in fact been between falsehood and truth in the Church, and it is not clear that this battle is over yet. Indeed, the greatest battles may still lie ahead, before the Church is finally presented spotless to Christ. In bringing this Age to a close, God must in general separate those who seek Him from those who reject Him, and among those who seek Him He must also sift out those who propagate ancient lies, even if unwittingly, and who therefore falsely represent Christ. Such internal battles were also common to Israel. The one who adds to Scripture is as bad as the one who takes away from it. The final conflicts—both within the Church, and between the Church and the outer Society—will be intensified largely to produce these separations.

The author J.B. Phillips called this apocalypse The Apocalypse of Saint John. More recent titles are simpler, namely The Book of Revelation or just Revelations, which is less exhausting than the King James Version’s The Revelation of Saint John the Divine. Jewish scholars followed a tradition in which a book was named after its opening phrase. In that case, this book should be called The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ or simply The Apocalypse. This last title is very convenient and will be used in this commentary.

The chief criterion for determining the canonical status of any New Testament book was apostolic authorship. Tradition and scholarship therefore favour the view that the author, John, is the apostle of that same name, who was the beloved disciple of Jesus. Also, because John describes himself as sharing in the tribulation and patience of the saints while in Patmos, it is thought that he was probably in exile on this island when he received the vision recorded in its pages.

Political undesirables were certainly sent to Patmos in Roman times but it is not known for certain whether John was merely visiting Christian brethren on the island or whether he was himself the victim of a Roman purge when he received the vision. If sent there in a purge, it was probably either a purge under either Nero (54-68AD) or Domitian (81-96AD). It is generally accepted that the original versions of the epistles and Gospel of John, possibly the Gospel of Mark and probably the Book of Hebrews were all penned after the 70AD fall of Jerusalem. If John’s apocalypse followed these, then the purge would have been that carried out by Domitian. Bible scholars therefore usually attribute the book to a very elderly John, who wrote it when around 90 years old.

Dating of early texts suffers, however, from the fact that it is usually earliest copies that are used to fix dates. Apostolic consensus should also have played a part in fixing the canon, and to this degree the canon should ideally have been intact before the Diaspora, as most of the apostles still lived. Although not backed by hard evidence, it remains possible that all of the books of the New Testament were actually complete by 70AD. John’s apocalypse could also have come into existence at about this date. John, even then, would have been in his seventies—which was a very respectable age for his day. John’s writings would also have followed only a short while after the reign of Nero.

Certainly the Apocalypse is familiar with the emperor-cult, and seems to encode and allude to this in the symbols of the beast, image of the beast and the mark of the beast. This places it after Nero, at least, as a strong emperor cult had not existed until then. Christians were expelled from Rome after the great fire in 64AD, Nero accusing them of setting the fire because of their anti-society views. And in 66AD he expelled all Jews from Rome after the Judaean rebellion of that year. It may even have been this expulsion that brought John to Patmos. The unreasonable hatred for God’s people demonstrated by Nero could well have coloured John’s conception of the eschatological antichrist.

Superficially, the Apocalypse is given to John as an epistle, which he is expected to deliver to the churches in Asia. This is reflected in the way the book opens with messages to seven different communities in Asia Minor, although there is nothing in the content of the book that makes it specific to Asia. Yet there is a suggestion that Christ’s directive is designed to place the book with the Asian eldership of the Church, as guardians of the texts, who will then interpret the book before it is distributed to the churches in Africa and Europe. Putting this another way, it is odd that the churches in Rome and Africa are not included in the list that John is told to take the document to. Yet this instruction to John is, at another level, also just a literary device, evident in the reference to seven Asian churches—the numbers seven (here) and seventy (in the Gospels) pertaining to nations, where twelve pertains to Israel. The seven churches of Asia are being treated as the spiritual progenitors of the Church that will fill the whole world.

So John becomes, in fact, the scribe for the glorified Christ—who presents himself here as a High Priest with kingly trappings. The one whom John sees at first has all the attributes of Christ—he is Lord of the churches, he is risen from the dead, he has the insignia of a King but also of a High Priest. Yet John is quickly commended into the hands of Christ’s angel. This means Christ is enthroned, and John has started his journey in the Throne Room, before Christ has handed him over to angelic guides for the rest of the great series of visions. Apocalypses usually involve angelic intermediaries, who also provide some answers for the human scribe—see Ezekiel’s Temple visions, the visions of Zechariah, and Daniel’s visions from Daniel 7 onwards. It is clear that during most of the visions recorded in this book (and there are many), John’s hosts are angels.

To express it exactly, the Apocalypse presents a series of extended parallel visions, and each of the extended visions is generally itself a series of visions. The material and ideas borrow from the Torah (Old Testament), various Midrashim (Jewish commentaries on the Torah) and the Talmud (lessons drawn from the Midrashim), other apocalypses (the Book of Enoch, the Ascension of Moses, and others) and some apocryphal and neo-apocryphal works, melding them together into a grand apocalypse, that presents a unified Christian world-view. It interprets history in the light of the resurrection of Christ and clarifies the previously misunderstood divine plan of Redemption. It sets this in a context that automatically maps out the future as well, up to that time when Christ will finally bring vengeance, justice and righteous war into the Earth, in bringing in the Kingdom of God completely.

Here is a caution—very little in the book is literal! If this sounds surprising, let the reader show where Jesus is mentioned by name or even where the Antichrist is identified as such. Or even where modern Jerusalem is described. It is really only from other Bible books that these things are deduced. Indeed, one even finds interpretative keys in extra-biblical texts. One cannot know, for example, that the one who rides a horse in chapter 19, with garments dipped in blood, is Jesus, except from the clue that Word of God is inscribed on his thigh. The two beasts, who oppress God’s people at the end of the Age, must be linked to that Man of Sin identified by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:7, while John’s epistle is clear that finally antichrist must come. The Second Beast therefore emerges as that last great Antichrist. The Second Beast causes all to worship the First Beast—where this First Beast is a political spirit that combines, and is itself the most terrible of, the beasts described in Daniel’s prophecies—and it similarly empowers the most terrible of all human antichrists. But this is known only by reading outside John’s apocalypse.

The literal part of the Apocalypse therefore needs to be extracted inferentially. One last time Jerusalem will fall into enemy hands (cf. 12:13-14 and 14:8), to be desecrated by a Great Apostate, who embodies all desecrators before him (cf. 13:1-2 with Daniel 7). A remarkable and ominous set of signs will appear in the outer cosmos at this time, culminating in an horrific cosmic paroxysm described in terms of the seven terrible Vials of Wrath.

Even the Second Advent, and the great day in which all the dead are raised, are described in code, and where they seem to appear literally (e.g. the great Judgment Seat in chapter 20) there is still some feeling that even these scenes are just figures. After all, does God really need to read books to know which are His and which are not? It soon becomes clear that things like the Lake of Fire, the seven Vials of Wrath, the Fire from Heaven, etc, are all really the same thing, which is the complete destruction of the Wicked, set forth in parallel descriptions, eliminating any doubt as to their meaning.

The most commonly employed literary tense is the prophetic aorist—fairly representative of Scriptural prophecy as a whole. That is, the Bible does not so much predict, as tell. Emotive and powerful, the words of John are Greek, but the sentence structures are often more Hebrew than Greek—perhaps the ecstatic expression of a Greek-speaking Jew. This is so evident that some believe the Apocalypse may originally have been written in Hebrew and then translated into Greek for Greek-speaking New Testament believers. The commentary discusses a number of phrases and ideas with a view to both a Hebrew original and its Greek rendering.

Note that no biblical text comes without variant readings. A cursory skim along the bottom margin of any Greek script will indicate the number of additions, omissions and alternative readings that appear, not to mention minor reconstructions of text. Which version is the best? There is little point in debating this here, other than to say that the variations, as they occur, are discussed in the commentary. In any case, the differences are generally unimportant. But as long as it is known that the untouched original no longer exists, one will always need to be wary of editorial tampering.

The section continuing to where the Lamb opens the seven-sealed book (in chapter six) is all scene-setting. Yet it also serves some valuable theological purposes, in terms of understanding the situation in Heaven and on Earth, coming up to John’s vision. After this, the book launches into the Prophecy itself. It is then sequential, yet tends to repeat itself in zoom-ins. By zoom-ins is meant that with succeeding chapters increasingly more words and images are expended on what in reality are ever shorter time periods. For example, the period described under the figure of the sixth and seventh trumpet blasts is re-examined in chapters ten and eleven and again in a series of seven visions comprising chapters twelve to fourteen. The seventh seal of chapter eight and the seventh trumpet of chapter eleven describe the same period already related in terms of the two harvests of the Earth in chapter fourteen.

In the same way, the seven Vials of Wrath are really an expansion of what occurs at both the seventh seal and seventh trumpet. The sixth and seventh vials are themselves the Fall of Babylon and the Battle of Armageddon. The two great harvests are just the great Resurrection of the Just and the Unjust and therefore form a parallel account to the great opening of the books in chapter 20 at the great Day of Judgment. It ends on a peaceful note, however, with the subsequent descent of the New Jerusalem from Heaven to possess and restore the Earth, and with the establishment of the new and eternal age in perfectly restored spiritual harmony, now as the completed work of God.

Having said only this much, one can almost understand the Apocalypse already, and hopefully I will be able to show that the structure of the Apocalypse is quite straightforward. In a way, apart from providing details and insights, this commentary’s main task is to make all the big connections just described, and to elucidate the text. But it will still hold a few surprises, that appear mainly near the end.

An important characteristic of this and all apocalypses is the symbolic use of numbers to convey meaning.¹ The presence of sevens is easily recognised in the text. This number constitutes a divine seal and spiritual empowering, and plain and obvious illustrations of its use are in the seven candlesticks, the seven churches, the seven seals, the seven thunders, the seven trumpets and the seven vials of wrath.²

As will be seen, the book is also arranged in a seven-part chiasm (see diagram, later in the Introduction), seven textual sections in sequence, and (one could argue) seven thematic progressions. The seven textual sections:

• Chapters 1-3 Christ and His Church

• Chapters 4-7 Christ and Destiny

• Chapters 8-11 Trumpet Judgments

• Chapters 12-14 Seven Great Visions

• Chapters 15-16 Vials of the Wrath of God

• Chapters 17-20 Judgment Day

• Chapters 21-22 The New Age.

The seven main themes are:

• The Glorified Christ

• The Eternal Purposes of God

• The Apostasy of Man

• The Trial of the Saints

• The Redemption of the Elect

• The Judgment of the Wicked

• The New (or Finished) Creation, but many subthemes are also there.

Numbers well beyond twenty have been associated with specific themes by those who study the numbers of the Bible. The primary associations attached to the first thirteen numbers are given here:

Table 1: Numbers and their Meanings

Eight, for instance, is the personal number of Jesus, who is the source of resurrection.³ Adding together the letters of Jesus gives a total of 888. The title Christ has letter value 185 x 8. Saviour adds up to 16 x 88, where 16 is itself a number denoting resurrection. Lord is 800 and Messiah 82 x 8. The epithet Son of Man occurs 88 times in the Greek New Testament and has a gematria of 370 x 8.⁴ Even the Truth (Greek αληθιεα) holds a value of 64 (8 x 8) and victory (Greek νικη) is also 88. The Apocalypse being studied here uses 888 spoken Greek words to complete its prophecy.

Nine is similarly impressive. The first four words of the Bible are In the beginning, God. These words add up to 999. The following words—created the heaven—also add to 999. This serves to indicate that these are immutable facts. Nine is aptly the number of closure because of its closure properties in a base-10 numbering system. Nine is the final single digit, and the digits of any multiple of nine always add up to nine. The spiritual gifts and fruits of 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 and Galatians 5:22-23 are also given in lists of nine. The words my wrath add to 999. Amen has gematria 99 and is found 99 times in the New Testament. Christ died at the ninth hour, his last words being It is finished. His blood effected a putting away of the Old Covenant and the use of blood in this context occurs 99 times in the New Testament.

Another important number is four, as representative of the civilisations that flowed out of Adam. From the Genesis text this number is already present, as the single river flowing through Eden (representing the descent from Adam to the Flood) becomes four other rivers once the first leaves Eden. The point at which the one river becomes four is essentially at Noah, although it probably goes too far to equate the rivers with his various sons. The four new rivers now represent humanity as a whole, spread into the four corners of the earth.

The superstition that attaches to the number 13 also has its source in the Bible. The word dragon has a value of 75 x 13 and occurs 13 times, while serpent is 60 x 13. Murderer is 40 x 13, while tempter has a value of 81 x 13. Belial—a personification of evil—has gematria 6 x 13. Every title of the Devil is tagged with the factor 13, as leader and apocalyptic source of all spiritual apostasy. Similarly, the Lie (Greek pseudos) that the Devil propagates is 1378, or 106 x 13. The name Ishmael (Greek Ισµαελ)—the rejected son of Abraham by his wife’s Egyptian slave-girl—adds up to 286, or 22 x 13.⁵ Nimrod—the first great antichrist—is the thirteenth generation from Adam and thirteenth listed in his own family list, descended from Noah through Ham (Genesis 10:6-8).

Before expounding the prophetic plan in any detail, the Apocalypse makes two spiritual realities clear from the outset. The first of these is the glorification and heavenly instatement of Jesus Christ, now seen as set in his promised throne in Heaven, as, for instance, described in Psalms 2 and 110. The second reality is the difference in the way God now sees those who are identified as His elect, compared to those who have rejected Him and His Christ—the wicked and reprobate. Nearly all other themes in the book emanate out of these. God, as the Almighty, is presented in the Apocalypse in the three Old Testament guises of Creator, Lawgiver (thus Judge), and Redeemer. For the elect, he is also Master, King, Shepherd, Father and Provider.

There are four broad traditional schools of interpretation for the Book of Revelation. These are:

• The Preterist

• The Historicist

• The Futurist

• The Idealist.

Each view has much to commend it but also its difficulties.

The Preterist school holds that the majority of this apocalypse has already been fulfilled in the various trials and conditions faced by the early church under Roman occupation before 100AD. Those who adhere to this view do not anticipate any distinctive events as marking the close of this age, as these, in the main, are understood to have occurred already. Nor do they anticipate any eschatological Antichrist or Great Tribulation. They believe that the despotic rule of Nero is illustrated in these images. They do, however, await the Second Advent of Christ, and Judgment Day.

The second main school is the Historicist. In fact, there are several such schools. Some believe the book sets forth Church history between the two advents of the Messiah. Others hold to a literal millennium after the Second Advent and tend to see the book as covering the entire redemptive history of mankind, from the Flood to the final Judgment, at the end of the millenium. Some of the groups who propagate this interpretation are the Seventh Day Adventists, Christadelphians, British Israelites and Armstrongites (of the Worldwide Church of God). The whore of Babylon is invariably the Catholic Church for these interpretors. Christian sects also commonly entertain this scheme, either in a pure form, or hybridised with futurism (cf. the Branhamites; also Armstrongism). Like the Preterists, Historicists generally do not look for a short end-time sequence of events, nor an eschatological Antichrist, nor the final Great Tribulation of Futurism, for these are ongoing realities linked to historical persecutions carried out by the Catholic Church.

Futurists, by contrast, see the book (apart from the first few chapters, in some cases) as relating only to the culmination of the age (and, in some cases, beyond this to the end of a future millennium). The final climactic period is variously of 3½ or 7 years in duration. The criticism usually leveled against Futurism is that it deprives the early Church—and, for that matter, the bulk of Christendom—from having any real use for the Apocalypse. However, nearly all scholars recognise that the return of Christ is soon (i.e. the doctrine of Imminence) and this hope in every century has made the Book of Revelation inspirational. Another reason the argument about the Apocalypse being robbed of its significance for the early Church is weak is that the book did not, in any case, attain canonical status until nearly 400AD, and was a constant subject of dispute between certain early Church fathers. It was therefore not generally available to be read.

The Futurist view comes in two opposing traditional varieties, labelled respectively as:

• pre-tribulational millennialism

• a-millennial post-tribulationism.

These labels relate to when the resurrection of saints is understood to occur, whether as a secret rapture (the pre-tribulational stance), followed by other resurrections before and after a millennial period of rule, or as a single general resurrection at the singular return of Christ (post-tribulationism), in which the Church Age is understood as having been that millennial rule, but in a figure. Most post-tribulationists have trouble rationalizing the purpose of the millennium after the deadly conflict with the Antichrist, so tend to adopt an a-millenial position as well. In that case, they end up identifying the great persecution instigated by the Beast with that event in which armies surround Jerusalem at the end of the millennium, before fire falls from Heaven to destroy them.

Cross-product variants exist, of course, such as:

• a-millennial pre-tribulationism

• post-tribulational millennialism

• millennial mid-tribulationism, and

• a-millennial mid-tribulationism

These variants tend to involve some unusual theological approaches and lack consistency, so will not be dealt with in this commentary, to avoid complication. Generally, the first two views have prevailed and have the greatest internal consistencies as systems of thought, with the a-millennial view being more traditional but the millennial theory currently more popular (especially if couched in terms of the Rapture Theory).

The fourth main school, the Idealist, sees the Apocalypse as employing recognised and eternal emblems to convey ageless spiritual principles, not necessarily tying these to any specific historical or prophetic sequence but conveying what might be thought of as the general principles underlying both the prophetic and thus historical schemes. For instance, the Beast is not the Antichrist per se so much as all antichrists collectively. The Fall of Babylon is not a specific act but every divine judgment upon secular society, seen collectively. The Vials of Wrath are not specific judgments but the whole historical expression of divine wrath against mankind for its multitude of sins. The Apocalypse is therefore considered to be a kind of animated symbolic mosaic of human history and divine activity. History is therefore seen as being compressed into a single representative apocalyptic history. This view differs from the Preterist in that it does not necessarily consider the emblems employed as emanating out of conditions experienced only by saints in the first Christian century. Yet this approach struggles with verses like 15:1, which describes the last of the plagues, as the plagues, in this view, ought to be general and not in fixed sequence.

The earliest of all traditions appears to have been the Futurist, although the apostolic fathers are unlikely to have expected twenty centuries to pass without the Messiah’s return. This tradition was continued into the early Catholic period but during the Middle Ages the Church began to interpret the Prophecy in such a way as to suggest that the promised Kingdom of God was already present on the Earth in the form of the Church politic, and in its millennial dominion, in accordance with Revelation 20.

This view continued to be propounded until the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. Many of the Reformation’s second generation teachers, who held strong anti-Catholic feelings, moved away to an Historicist stance, finding the beast, false prophet and great whore of Babylon in the Papacy, Roman priesthood and Holy Roman Church.

A variety of interpretations began to emerge at this time, including the Idealist view and the pre-tribulation Rapture idea, the latter of which was to find its stronghold in Brethren circles, and more lately in evangelical American theology.⁶

Then, with the arrival in the late nineteenth century of the Wellhausian School of investigation, every prophetic theory fell temporarily under siege as Higher Criticism challenged many of the historical, linguistic and theological foundations underpinning much of traditional biblical belief to date. The rigorous analytical methods of the Higher Critics sparked a much-needed shake-up in Christian scholarship and the new period of scholarship that ensued was capped off in 1947 by the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls. The final outcome, with new source texts in hand, was a substantial refutation of the Higher Critical claims about the spurious editorial history of Bible books. A spin-off from this fierce period of debate was the Preterist theory.

In the last fifty years, since the two World Wars, futurism has seen the strongest resurgence. Yet the British Israel group did much in the late nineteen hundreds to bolster Historicist views, especially at the height of the British Empire. In this school of thought, the British descend from the lost Israelite tribe of Ephraim, and British imperial rule became part of the blessings of Israel. Meanwhile, the literary traditions of post-Renaissance England and France—along with the influence of Darwinism on the interpretation of the Book of Genesis—helped to pave the way for the Idealist view. Yet neither of the two has, in modern times, held a strong following.

One thing Historicists struggle to deal with is the great seventieth week of Daniel 9’s prophecy. The crucifixion brought the world to the middle of the seventieth week, waiting only for a final forty-two months of history. Most, however, read that passage as indicating that the crucifixion marked the completion of sixty-nine weeks and see a whole week (seven years) as still requiring fulfilment. Dealing with this final week (or half-week) of years therefore further divides the commentators.

Some do not believe this final week of years is literal, but that it should be understood more in the style of Enoch’s Apocalypse of Weeks, and so simply indicates a dispensation such as the Church Age. The majority—especially within Futurist circles—believe the unfulfilled seventieth week is literally a distinct future seven-year period and that the Church Age is a parenthesis between this latter week and the sixty-ninth. The parenthesis idea is probably true, whether spanning from the end of the sixty-ninth or the middle of the seventieth week until the final resumption of that prophecy. However, it is not necessarily true that the Church is a people parenthetically taken out from among God’s elect, which is the basis of the somewhat spurious Rapture theory.

The latter part of Daniel’s famous week is certainly a time of trouble, and the Apocalypse is, similarly, very concerned with a 3½-year period, which it describes in various different ways (cf. 11:2-3, 12:6,14, 13:5). There is never an indication, in the Apocalypse, that a whole seven-year period is in mind, even if the final 3½ year period begins at the fifth seal and sixth trumpet. I mean by this that the first four seals and five trumpets do not necessarily exactly fill the preceding 3½ years, even if this is of course possible. But the focus definitely remains on the latter 3½ years. In Daniel 12:7, in an aside to the vision Daniel has just seen, the period of the very end is described literally as a period, periods, and half a period, meaning literally 3½-years or about 1260 days.⁷

A similar 1290-day period, mentioned in Daniel 12:11, is also understood literally.⁸

The completion of 1260 days sees the resurrection-deliverance of the Elect, who have been trodden underfoot by the Beast. The completion of the 1290 days describes the period of desecration of the Holy Place and this period probably starts a little before the 1260 days of oppression. Both periods appear to end at about the same time. The beginning of the New and Eternal Age is the blessedness inherited by those reaching the 1335 days in Daniel 12:12.⁹ So, it appears that the intervening forty-five days (1335—1290 = 45) must apply to the period of the Judgment, and to the final destruction of the Wicked (cf. the language of Daniel 12).¹⁰

Standing as an exception are the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14. It seems unlikely that this period should be thought of as applying directly to anything in the end-time sequence, although this has often been attempted. It seems more likely that the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14 should really be thought of as 1150 days (the Hebrew is literally 2300 evening morning, probably best understood as 2300 evening (and) morning (sacrifices), which must mean 1150 days.¹¹ This, in context, seems to refer to the period of the Temple’s defilement under Antiochus Epiphanes, although only the approximate length of this desecration is recorded in the history. Antiochus—whose desecration in Jerusalem continued for three years or so from 169/168 BC (see other commentaries)—is referred to as an antichrist-type by biblical scholars because his activities are indicative of, and juxtaposed in the text with, the final great desecration of history. Desecration of the Holy Temple was an act indicative to the Jew of the height of evil.

Historicists also speak of the day-for-a-year principle, as was also seen in some of the prophecies of Jeremiah, and they convert these periods described as days into equivalent years of history. Thus, the 1260 days are the 1260 years of the Roman Church’s political dominion between the fourth and sixteenth centuries AD. This methodology also strongly characterizes the numerous chronologies used in British Israel teaching.

One extremely important key to understanding the structural design of the Apocalypse—and which is rather less recognised—is chiasm.¹² Chiasm is a name created to describe how themes and passages are symmetrically arranged within a chapter or a series of chapters. This feature provides the investigator with a framework for thematically and chronologically comparing respective chapters in an apocalyptic work, particularly, as the case in the Old Testament prophets more generally is, within respective paragraphs of one or two consecutive chapters of text. The writings of Ezekiel and Zechariah both exhibit this feature, as do the Psalms of David, and also the famously contested Daniel 9:21-27. Seventh Day Adventists have looked for this feature but, because of the particular way they choose to understand the Apocalypse, have not fully recognised it. To their credit, however, they did predict it.

The Apocalypse differs from the books of the prophets to the degree that chiasm is seen not so much in individual chapters as in the book as a whole. That is, blocks as large as two or three chapters have been juxtaposed in a symmetric arrangement with other blocks. The chapter forming the pivot of this symmetry is chapter twelve, which speaks of war in heaven, and the casting out of the dragon into the Earth, the basis of all other themes found in the book. It is the Church’s mission to cast Satan from his heaven. The diagram below demonstrates this pattern, along with symmetry in the numbers of chapters so arranged on each axis and in the order of themes presented.

Before beginning this commentary, it is also necessary to be aware of a specific redefinition of the term Church. Revelation 21:9 describes the descent from heaven of the Bride (and wife) of Christ. Most falsely assume that the Bride of Christ is synonymous with the Church. This endemic misconception maintains that the Church describes only those saints who have appeared under the New Covenant. While such saints certainly belong to the Church (ekklesia, literally assembly) of God, it is often forgotten that the people under Moses were also called an assembly, and that Israel is also seen as a kind of church (cf. Acts 7:37). The New Testament use of this word is designed to identify rather than distinguish the Church from Israel!

The city that descends as the wife (and bride) of Christ is adorned in all the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem. The city’s pearls, finery, shining gems, and gold are like those of a lavish bride brought to her husband on her wedding day (Revelation 21:2). Yet the bride is a city, and the city has walls and gates named after the twelve sons of Israel, with foundations (interpretative truths) given by the twelve disciples of Christ. The structure merges Old Testament and New Testament saints into one new body. The twenty-four elders also therefore represent a mixture of saints from Old and New Testament periods.

The celestial marriage follows Judgment Day, and the word bride otherwise appears nowhere in the New Testament, except when John the Baptist refers to Christ as the bridegroom, who is destined to receive the bride (John 3:29). Christ effectively brokers the marriage of God and Man (Revelation 21: 2-3), as mediator of the New Covenant, yet stands separate from the rest of the saints as a husband to a wife, and as Head of the spiritual Body. The bride—the heavenly Jerusalem—is built there upon the heavenly Mount Zion. This is where the covenants of God are ratified. The spiritual city does not carry flesh and blood inhabitants, as flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. This is also the primary reason that the Kingdom of God is unlikely be manifest in a literal millennium.

Revelation 21:24 has the words nations of the saved to describe the inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem, but most commentators have decided that of the saved is a gloss, and have deleted it. If it is original, it tells us that the heavenly Jerusalem is not so much the New Testament Church, as all who are saved. Saved combines as one the saints of both Old and New Testaments. Ephesians 2:11-12 teaches that Gentiles were once non-citizens of Israel, but became citizens through their faith in Christ. The union of the two has produced a whole new people (verse 14), not distinguished as either Jew or Gentile in God’s eyes. It is this third entity that constitutes the Bride of Christ, and it is clear that Bride of Christ has a broader meaning than just Church. Or, to put it another way, that Church means more than New Testament believers, yet certainly also includes these.

The heavenly Jerusalem is an extended Temple-City. It is a place of worship, and is the ideal spiritual city spoken of in Hebrews 11-13. Hebrews 11:16 speaks of how the patriarchs sought a heavenly country and a heavenly city. This is probably allegorical, but certainly they believed in a God who could bring them to a place of spiritual perfection. Willing to wait for this, they turned down life in cities for life in tents (Hebrews 11:9-10). They kept themselves undefiled. Hebrews 13:13-14 suggests saints should also choose this path of separation in the world. The patriarchs seem to have believed that God was already busy building this perfect spiritual city. Ephesians 3:21 speaks of glory in the Church… throughout all generations, which may well extend into the past. Hebrews 12:22-23 explains that ". . . you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven." The names of the Earth’s saints form a citizen-roll for this city in heaven. The roll contains the names from both Old and New Testament saints.

This city—this larger notion of the Church—is properly the Bride of Christ, and will be the main meaning of Church as used in this commentary, unless the context makes it clear that it is only the New Testament Church that is meant.

In the commentary that follows, the version employed is the 1884 revision of the second edition (1871) of the Darby Bible. It is chosen ahead of the King James Authorised Version (denoted in this commentary by KJV or AV) for the present task because it is a little more modern, follows the Greek more simply and seems to have slightly better overall textual attestation. It does however betray a little bias to the Brethren teachings on prophecy but this effect is small in the Apocalypse itself.

The fourteen illustrations found in this book are from Albrecht Durer’s series of etchings (completed 1492-1511) on The Apocalypse. These images were graciously supplied for inclusion courtesy of the Wetmore Print Collection, Connecticut College, New London, USA.

The reader should, at some stage, make the effort to look up the many scriptural references in the commentary, although doing so may initially break the flow of reading. The Special Notes, located as a collection in Appendix V, similarly provide valuable parallel information but a reader might also be advised—at first reading—to pass over these, as they can provide an overdose of information. However, in the cases of Chapters 13 and 21, it is probably quite useful to read the associated Special Notes as one is referred to them in the primary text. Footnotes, on the other hand, should in general be checked as one reads, as these are of more immediate relevance.

If you are more interested in the question of When, than What or Why, you may wish to take a short cut to the commentary on Chapter 21, and in particular the associated Appendices, where the commentary waxes bold enough to give a possible date for the Battle of Armageddon and the Second Advent. The author’s own conviction about this date has strengthened over time, and this date now forms the basis for this book’s subtitle.

For those who seek more detail, yet wish to skip to the prophecy proper, the action starts more or less from Chapter 6 onwards. The first five chapters are theological and are not generally concerned with the time sequence and events attached to the close of the age. They serve mainly to make the connection with the Bible’s redemption themes and to identify and explain the figure of the Messiah.

Finally, the author wishes to invoke God’s blessing upon all as they launch into this study, in accordance with the assurance given in Revelation 1:3…

Blessed is he that reads,

and they that hear the words of this prophecy,

and keep those things which are written therein:

for the time is at hand.

Figure 1: Chiasm in the Book of Revelation

Commentary on Chapter 1

1:1-3

1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to show to his bondmen what must shortly take place; and he signified (it), sending by his angel, 2. to his bondman John, who testified the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, all things that he saw. 3. Blessed (is) he that reads, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things written in it; for the time (is) near.

The opening eight verses of this chapter form an introduction to the book as a whole, and the eight closing verses of chapter 22 will constitute the epilogue. These bracket what is, in effect, a huge epistle. Both the preamble and epilogue reiterate the imminence of the events described, and come with an exhortation to reflect upon and act in accordance with both the promise and warning of the message. Generally, though, the book presents the Second Advent not as an occasion of fear for the believer, but as a blessed hope to be laid hold of in all adversity. The number eight also denotes such blessedness, and it is fitting that the book starts and ends with a preamble and epilogue of eight verses each. For the Christian believer, the book presents a doctrine of ultimate triumph. Indeed, the one who reads and believes perceives his chosenness in God, and is subsequently Blessed (verse 3).

Christ’s bondmen (or servants)—who must receive the vision—are the whole Church. The unconditional certainty of the vision’s realization is conveyed by the aorist form have taken place (rendered here as take place), in relation to the events yet to be described. The first three verses indicate that the ensuing vision is given to the Church by Jesus Christ himself, who—Romans 8:34 informs—dwells at the right hand (i.e. place of power and favour) of God.

The Revelation translates the Greek word Apokalypsis, literally meaning unveiling or uncovering, and more figuratively interpretation. It also describes a particular literary style in the period 300BC—100AD, so-named for its attempt to interpret history in terms of religious symbols. The unveiling is not so much of Christ himself but of what must shortly take place. The events nevertheless bear relationship to the person and mission of Christ himself, so at one level it is also an exposition of the person and vision of Christ. Which God gave is a Hebraism, meaning which God authorised. Shortly is literally swiftly, hence rapidly, but it is loosely taken to mean soon. However, the word also suggests that events will transpire rapidly and without hesitation, once they begin.

While the vision comes from Jesus, it is sent (delivered) by an angel. The text calls this angel his (that is, Christ’s) angel, perhaps echoing the Old Testament expression Angel of the Lord, understood there to be a personal representation of God Himself—traditionally an archangel of Jehovah. Paul, for instance, decrees that the tablets of the Law, given by God to Moses, were actually delivered to Moses by archangels, even if elsewhere said to be written with the finger of God. The same might at first be thought to apply here, except that now the angel is John himself. The vision is a message, which must be sent. The word angel is literally messenger. John’s message is signified, which means it is written in signs. A sign is itself a vision wrapped in symbolism. John’s message is thus a written account of symbolic visions.

John also describes the vision as inspired Scripture. All things that he saw is actually all things that he also saw or even all the things that he saw. He that reads and they that hear are those who will reach understanding of the message. And keep means and believe (faith reflected in works). The one who—with understanding—responds to the message, will be Blessed. This term appears seven times in all throughout the book (also in 14:3; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7 and 22:14), and always applies only to the elect Redeemed.

1:4-6

4. John to the seven assemblies which (are) in Asia: Grace to you and peace from (Him) who is, and who was, and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits which (are) before his throne; 5. and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood, 6. and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father: to him (be) the glory and the might to the ages of ages. Amen.

The seven churches, if traversed in the order of their appearance in chapters two and three, define a rough circle. The circle is a symbol of closure and—in having no natural start or finish point—also of eternity. It is often also used in pagan systems as a symbol of heavenly powers—typically the Sun—but also of the Moon or indeed the Earth itself. Planetary orbits are also circles and the circle is thus also a cycle of time. Taken together here, the image portrayed by the circle is of the world itself—in which the church resides—thus the Church in the World during a great cycle of time. But the circle is also a symbol of community, and the circle traversing the churches indicates that they form an extended community.

Possibly the text or the words spoken in the vision were originally Hebrew, but the account is recorded in Greek. Grace to you and peace is both a Christian and a Semitic greeting. The greeting speaks of the peace of God, probably found in the knowledge of His saving grace. This warm blessing proceeds from the one named who is . . . was . . . and is to come (literally who is the Am, the Was, and the Is To Come). The one who is to come is no doubt the coming one of Daniel 7:13. To the Jew, this referred to the one like the Son of Man who would appear to judge the nations. He comes to Man as the human representative of God, and to God as the representative of the human race. He is the great Intercessor between Man and God.

The reference to seven spirits resounds of the seven Messianic aspects of Isaiah 11:2-3, but all emanate as aspects of the one Holy Spirit of God (and are also aspects of the Pauline Spirit of Christ). Scriptures like Romans 8:9, Philippians 1:19 and 1 Peter 1:11 seem to identify the attributes of the Holy Spirit with those of the Spirit of Christ. Also, if Zechariah 4:2 and 4:10 are read with Isaiah 11, Zechariah’s seven lamp-stand pipes seem to represent seven spiritual channels from which the ministries of the Messiah flow in the Isaiah passage. Verses four to six strongly link the missions of Jehovah (theologically, the Father), Jesus (the Son) and the Holy Spirit. Christ is the faithful witness (i.e. of the Father, and to the Truth). He is both a human and a divine witness: he bears witness on behalf of Man toward God, and on behalf of God toward Man.

As firstborn from the dead—in the light of 1 Corinthians 15:20 and Colossians 1:18—he is pre-eminent among those resurrected to God. The same sense comes through in Psalm 89:27-28, from which this text no doubt draws. Jewish interpreters took Psalm 89 to be Messianic, yet believed that verses 27 and 29 spoke not of Christ’s resurrection but of his human supremacy over men. Following this influence, the text continues next with Christ as prince of the kings of the earth (cf. Isaiah 55:4). Jehovah is their king, and Christ the prince. The irony is that Christ becomes prince over these kings by being made High Priest over them. He has the power to absolve their sins. He is implicitly, therefore, their Saviour. Picking this thought up, the text continues by saying that he has loosed (Greek lusanti) the saint from his sins (by forgiveness). The blood of Christ is a ransom paid for sin. An alternative reading replaces loosed by washed (Greek lousanti), which also works but is less well attested.

In Christ’s kingdom all are priests, and so Christians become a kingdom of priests (literally a kingdom and priests, in the sense of a kingdom, even priests (cf. Exodus 19:6) or a kingdom, priests as here—but not really AV’s kings and priests).¹³ Israel’s original destiny had been to become a kingdom of priests. When Israel demanded a monarchy as well as a priest caste, God counseled them strongly to avoid this temptation. However, their persistence in this request caused God to relent and give them Saul and the monarchy. But this was not God’s original Will, and Israel’s history shows the problems that subsequently ensued. In God’s ideal economy, now restored in Christ, the Messiah is a Melchizedek-style High Priest among priests, and is a spiritual king to his people.

Just as Jehovah was God of Israel, the original priest-kingdom, so is He also now Lord of the Church. Christ has, through a believer’s baptism and the Great Commission, extended Israel to incorporate the Gentiles into his priest-kingdom. This greater entity now stands as a new Israel before Jehovah, who is also Christ’s God and Father. The original spirit of the Covenant has been restored, and Israel has been enlarged to receive willing Gentiles into the Covenant. Baptism inducts the Gentiles into Israel’s fold.

The glory and the might carry the force of glory and might itself. This prestige belongs to Christ. The ages of ages means the endless ages (i.e. forever, or to eternity), probably modifying the Talmudic expression Age of the Ages, understood to mean the eternal Kingdom-Age to come.

1:7-8.

7. Behold, he comes with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they which have pierced him, and all the tribes of the