Reflections and Musings From the Book of Revelation: The Age of Apocalypse

By Shirley McClerklin-Motley PhD

John had been left out on Patmos to die alone.

The courts assumed that there was nothing he could do there to promote Jesus. But they miscalculated.

God chose John to write the book of Revelation, which some refer to as Apocalypse. That word means the revelation of what will take place in the Incarnation hidden in a humble form. It means to uncover.

If you are frying fish, everyone around is aware of the distinctively rich aroma. The person cooking the fish does not have to be seen and the fish does not have to be seen, but the person smelling the aroma instinctively wants to take a closer look at the fish. This is an example of the Apocalypse. What we surmised is revealed.

Satan hates the book of Revelation because it shows him for who and what he is. He is counting on us to be afraid of the book because it foretells his end.

Join the author as she takes a detailed look at the book that describes the years leading to the end of the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798385013036

Shirley McClerklin-Motley PhD

Shirley McClerklin-Motley, PhD is a retired tenured professor, a trainer of foster parents, a member of the International Society of Female Professionals, and a member of the Black Editors Network, LLC. She has taught social work classes in London, England, and Mexico. She has lectured at numerous colleges and universities and serves on numerous boards. She is the founder of Shirley McClerklin-Motley, LLC, The Honey in the Rock Biblical Teaching Series, and The Write Way Editorial Services, LLC.

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Copyright © 2023 Shirley McClerklin-Motley, PhD.

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ISBN: 979-8-3850-1301-2 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1303-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023922241

WestBow Press rev. date: 12/22/2023

To my parents, Willie and Juanita McClerklin, my children, and my family, especially my brothers Aaron McClerklin, who invested in my graduate education, and Fred McClerklin, who also invested in my undergraduate education and taught me to treasure God’s Word. To Pastor William L. Bonner, Apostle Wilbur Jones, and Bishop David A. Smith, my spiritual fathers in the Gospel. Most importantly, to those who faithfully attended my lecture series on this volume.

Special thanks to Marvin Scott and B. Gail Hampton for their steadfast dedication and belief in me throughout the lectures and writing of this volume. I do not think I could have stayed on this course without them.

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1     Salutation, Voice, and Vision

Chapter 2     The First Four Letters (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira)

The Church in Smyrna

The Church in Pergamos

The Church in Thyatira

Chapter 3     The Last Three Letters (Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea)

Thou Art Dead

The Remnant

Philadelphia Holy and True

Call to Hear

Laodicea The Materially Rich Church

Conclusion

Chapter 4     Interlude: The Rapture of the Church

Chapter 5     Revelation Chapter 4: Translated to a Heavenly Scene

Seven Lamps of Fire

Sea of Glass and Four Beasts

Heavenly Worship and Praise Service

Chapter 6     Revelation Chapter 5: Behold the Lamb

A New Song in Heaven

Chapter 7     Revelation Chapter 6: Four Seals Horsemen

The First Seal The White Horse

The Second Seal The Red Horse

The Third Seal The Black Horse

The Fourth Seal The Pale Horse

The Fifth Seal The Martyred Saints

The Sixth Seal The Wrath to Come

The Sun, Moon, and Stars

Chapter 8     Revelation Chapter 7: Interlude between the Sixth and Seventh Seals

Chapter 9     Revelation Chapter 8: The Seventh Seal

Chapter 10   Revelation Chapter 9: The Fifth and Sixth Trumpets

Chapter 11   Revelation Chapter 10: Another Strong Angel and the Open Book

Chapter 12   Revelation Chapter 11: The Measurement of the Temple, Two Witnesses, and the Seventh Trumpet

References

Foreword

I have never known my mother to be afraid of anything. As a child, she braved the loss of her mother at the age of ten. As a young teen, she survived being uprooted from South Carolina to live in and survive Vince Cannato’s then ungovernable New York City streets with her younger siblings. Later, her courage and faith would carry her back to South Carolina with four small children, two suitcases, and $400 in her pocket. That same courage allowed her to face insurmountable odds and challenges as she learned how to drive, navigated the welfare system, raised her children alone, and pursued not one but three degrees, including a doctorate in human services with a cognate in public service leadership. She has used her courage, many gifts, and talents to fight for those who have no voice, from the State House to the White House.

So when she shared that she was about to write a commentary on the book of Revelation, I was not surprised. To delve into a book that so many others avoid because of fear and trepidation is yet another example of her tenacity, bravery, and faith. The book of Revelation is many things to many people. Some see it as a fairy tale, a series of events that could not and will never happen in the real world. Others think of it as something to be avoided, a sinister book of gloom and doom that is best left unread. Still others see it as a futuristic story that will not happen within our lifetime and therefore not worth reading. But to a brave few like Dr. Shirly McClerklin-Motley, the book of Revelation is so much more. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ as revealed to his servant John (Rev. 1:1), filled with the same rich symbolism and imagery used by Christ himself to teach the masses about the kingdom of heaven.

If we honestly believe the Bible to be the infallible Word of God, how is it possible to embrace some parts yet reject others? It is incumbent upon us as Christians to eat the whole roll (Ezek. 3:1–4). I invite you to take this life-changing journey with my mother, Dr. Shirley McClerklin-Motley, as she uncovers the mysteries of this prophetic book in her own voice. Her passion and heart’s desire to serve God in a meek and humble manner, giving Him all the glory shine through within every page. And you will see, as so many of her natural and spiritual children and grandchildren can attest, the drive behind her life’s motto—to live holy when you see her, and holy when you do not. Shalom. Shalom.

Patryce Lorelle Harvey

June 5, 2023

Introduction

Hello, everyone, and welcome to part I of our Commentary on the Book of Revelation. I am excited about this series.

While some fear Revelation, others love the book because it is the revealed Word of God relative to the end-time as given to John by God. Another word for revelation is apocalypse. Both words mean to unveil or to reveal something in a spiritual sense.

Satan hates the book of Revelation because it reveals him for who and what he is. He is counting on us to be afraid of the book because it foretells his end and the demise of his power. However, it does not matter who believes, is afraid of, or ignores the book. God has given his people an understanding of Revelation through the divine inspiration of the Holy Ghost.

Some, like the German theologian and religious reformer Martin Luther, challenge the notion of studying Revelation. He is said to be one of the most influential figures in the history of Christianity. Through his words and actions, Luther precipitated a movement that reformulated certain basic tenets of Christian belief, which resulted in the division of Western Christendom among Roman Catholicism, the new Protestant traditions, and the Antitrinitarians.

He opined that Revelation is neither apostolic nor prophetic. He wrote, Let everyone think of it as his spirit leads him. My spirit cannot accommodate itself to this book. For me, this is reason enough not to think highly of it: Christ is neither taught nor known in it. But to teach Christ, this is the thing which an apostle is bound above all else to do. Christ says in Acts 1:8, ‘You shall be my witnesses.’ Luther continued, Therefore, I stick to the books which present Christ to me clearly and purely (Bachmann 1960, 398–399).

John Calvin is known for his influential Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536), the first systematic theological treatise of the reform movement. He stressed the doctrine of predestination, and his interpretations of Christian teachings, known as Calvinism, are characteristic of Reformed churches. Like Luther, John Calvin did not teach or comment on the book of Revelation. In searching for his rationale for not doing so, I could find no thorough answer.

Revelation 1:9 refers to John the Revelator (the apostle John from the New Testament) being on the Isle of Patmos. However, a few critics have challenged this fact. Moses Stuart (2009) writes that German biblical scholar Johann Gottfried Eichhorn is quoted as stating, The banishment of John to Patmos must be a mere matter of imagination. … For real history nowhere says, that John was banished to Patmos; and what ecclesiastical tradition says respecting this, has no other source than the Apocalypse interpreted in an unpoetical manner, which has substituted fact in the place of fiction.

Further, he writes that Eichhorn further argued, But banishment was the penalty for making proselytes to the Christian religion, in those times; and Patmos was a very appropriate place for exile. John, therefore, imagines that had been done to him, which was so commonly done to Christians who were his contemporaries; and thus, he places himself in the most complete solitude, a condition most of all appropriate to such visions as the Apocalypse relates (Stewart 2009, 257, 367).

To study Revelation, we must understand exactly what the Isle of Patmos looked like and where it was located. As an interesting aside, Patmos means my killing according to the 1901 reprint of the Dictionary of Scripture Proper Names (Jackson 2016).

Yonge (1868, 71) quotes an ancient Latin hymn titled The Exile of Patmos, which iterates the strong traditional belief of John being caught up to heaven and commissioned by God to view and write about the Apocalypse.

Through Rome’s infuriated city, From Caesar’s judgment chair, They drag Christ’s beloved disciple, The Saint with silver hair. To desert islands banished, With God, the exile dwells, And sees the future glory His mystic writing tells.

Most of what we know about John comes from the Bible itself, particularly the Gospels. Interestingly, every Gospel, except the one named after him, mentions the apostle John by name.

According to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), John was one of the first disciples Jesus called to follow him. Like many of Jesus’s disciples, John was a fisherman by trade. At Jesus’s call, John forsook all, followed him, and stayed with Jesus continuously until the end. John was one of Zebedee’s two sons. Zebedee was a man of considerable wealth because he had hired servants with him, and his wife was one of those women who ministered of their substance to Jesus and His disciples (Mark 1:20). Around AD 100, John found himself banished to the Isle of Patmos because he would not stop preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When arrested, John was in Ephesus ministering to the church there and in the surrounding cities, seeking to strengthen those congregations. Gospel writers cannot seem to agree on who exactly banished him to the Patmos, and I will not spend time on their discourse. It is sufficient to know that he was indeed there.

There is a great controversy about whether John the Revelator was the same John identified as the disciple whom Jesus loved. In the Gospel according to John, we find references to the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, and 21:20). While John’s Gospel does not specifically identify its author, and the disciple whom Jesus loved is nowhere explicitly named in scripture, early Christians universally recognize John as both. This is consistent with internal evidence in John’s Gospel.

Alone and having no one with whom he could communicate, John was left on Patmos to die. The courts assumed that there was nothing he could do out there to promote our Savior, Jesus Christ. I am sure they said to let him preach to the rocks and dead carcasses. How wrong they were. God chose John to write the book of Revelation to serve as a witness to humankind until the Lord returns. His witness is even stronger today than when he walked upon the earth. We must never forget that while John was the penman, Jesus was the author.

It is not by accident that Revelation is the last book of the Bible. It is evident that in his wisdom, God ordered each chapter from Genesis to Revelation. Revelation has to do with eschatology, which is the study of the last things. It shows how the ending affects the present in such a way that the Gospel is verified in life, specifically with any of the various Christian doctrines concerning the Second Coming, the resurrection of the dead, or the Last Judgment.

While reading Revelation, we must keep in mind that Genesis is the book of beginnings, and Revelation is the book of the end-time. Thus, we see that the Bible forms a glorious circle of truth.

Genesis gives us the creation of the heavens and the earth, whereas Revelation provides us a view of a new heaven and a new earth. Genesis depicts the earthly paradise, including the Tree of Life and the River of Blessing, all lost to humankind through sin. Revelation shows the paradise of God with the Tree of Life and the pure river of water of life flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb. In other words, paradise is regained because of the atonement of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In Genesis, the first blood sacrifice had to be made for humanity’s sins. That sacrifice was a lamb. In Revelation, John sees Jesus standing next to the throne as the Lamb that was sacrificed for the remission of humankind’s sin.

In Genesis, we become aware of the origin of sin when the serpent entered the Garden of Eden to beguile Eve. In Revelation, the serpent is now called the devil, and Satan is cast into the Lake of Fire.

In Genesis, we learn of the first murder, the first polygamist, the first drunkard, the first act of rebellion, and so on. In Revelation, we learn that all these types who refuse to accept God’s salvation are banished from his presence forever.

In Genesis, we see the rise of Babylon; we see its doom in Revelation. In Genesis, we see the city of humanity; we see the city of God in Revelation.

In Genesis, we see how sorrow, death, tears, and all the rudiments of sin that came into the world. In Revelation, we see these things overcome and God wiping away every tear. We see a new heaven and a new earth, where these things will never be again.

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Four approaches to the book of Revelation

Based on Understanding the Book of Revelation (Stuart 2009), the illustration above depicts four distinct viewpoints for studying Revelation: the historical, preterist, futurist, and idealist.

The historical view suggests the book of Revelation is a prophecy about church history from the time of John to the end of the world. It views the events in Revelation as symbolic descriptions of historical events throughout church history. Historicists believe that they see the unveiling of the last 1,900 years of the fulfillment of the seals, trumpets and vials, and other visions. To understand Revelation, one must have a thorough knowledge of the historical account of the nations. Each of the seven churches depicted in the book represents a distinct historical era in biblical history.

Preterists adhere to the belief that fulfillment of prophecy occurred primarily in the first century. There are two schools of thought within this approach. Partial preterists view most of Revelation as prophecy in the first century, but the final chapters of Revelation describe future events to occur at the end of time. Full preterists maintain that the return of Jesus as described in Revelation 19 was spiritual and occurred in AD 70. In other words, they see very little in the book, beyond it being a weirdo religious-political document, written by an unknown author who stole John’s identity to give the book some credence. Preterists are typically amillennialists or postmillennialists.

Futurists propose that Revelation is prophecy primarily about the future. A dispensation is not a biblical concept; rather, it is a theological system for organizing and understanding God’s work. Nearly all of Revelation has yet to occur, with only the first three chapters referring to the present church dispensation of grace. The book is a prophecy that describes the end-time and the years leading immediately to the end. Dispensational premillennialists as well as some historic premillennialists interpret Revelation in this way.

Idealists view Revelation as a nonhistorical and nonprophetic drama about spiritual realities. Scholars believe this perspective originated from ancient Alexandrian theologians who frequently allegorized biblical texts. There are some contemporary followers of this perspective.

Chapter 1

SALUTATION, VOICE,

AND VISION

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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 to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. I, John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

—Revelation 1:1–9

The true title of the book is contained in the first line of this chapter. It illustrates an unfolding communication of future events that are startling to some individuals. God gave Jesus Christ this apocalypse, or revelation, to which John faithfully bears witness. The word shortly here indicates soon or nearing. We see the same Greek expression in Romans 16:20: The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly (Greek: en tachei). He is not yet bruised, but we are expecting it to take place! We see it again in Revelation 22:6: "The things which must shortly come to pass."

Domitian had banished John to the Isle of Patmos as punishment, but God meant it for his good. If John had not been on Patmos away from humankind, he would not have been in the place where God intended to reveal the apocalypse or revelation. John was decidedly in the right place at the right time. God rolled back the veil of heaven and allowed John to see and record miracles and mysteries.

This is the first passage in scripture where John chose to mention his name. Some suggest he had not done it before because he wanted to give all the honor to God. Others propose that the books carried his name, and therefore his name is evident. Still others believe that a likely explanation is that Revelation is a book of prophecy and is in keeping with Deuteronomy 18:20–22: But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follows not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

The passage explains that any prophet is personally responsible for his message. His personal duty is to ensure that his message really came from God. John, like all the prophets before him, carefully recorded his own name, preceded by the personal pronoun I to authenticate his authorship and to accept personal responsibility for his prophecy. Whatever the rationale, John did mention his name in verse 1 and began using the personal pronoun I in verse 9 to stress emphasis.

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet. Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia: unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. (Rev. 1:10–11)

It was customary to set aside one day each week, Saturday, as a special day for rest, prayer, and other religious observances found in the Law of Moses. Later, many people who were not Jewish became Christians; however, some Christians were of Jewish descent and continued to keep their religious observances. They maintained that Christians of non-Jewish descent did not need to follow these observances. But there arose up a certain sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was needful to circumcise them, and command them to keep the law of Moses (Acts 15:5). This passage refers to the Gentiles who had been grafted into the faith and whose hearts had been circumcised.

John wrote that he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, even though he was away from the church or synagogue and away from the traditions of humankind. When we are in the Spirit, God can reveal mysteries to us. There are those who believe the Lord’s Day in this context is the Jewish Sabbath, referred to in the Old Testament as the Sabbath of the Lord. They believe nowhere in the New Testament depicts the Jewish Sabbath as done away with, and it should continue to be observed. They did not take into consideration that there is no mention of any special honor paid to the Sabbath day in the New Testament after Jesus’s resurrection.

On the Jewish Sabbath, the physiological body of Jesus was still in the tomb. It was on the morning of what was then considered the first day of the week, not the Sabbath day, that Jesus arose. This is the day that we know as Sunday based on our calendar. In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher, and behold there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. … And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him (Matt. 28:1–9).

It was when the Sabbath had ended that the Lord rose in triumph from the dead. This new day of his rising became distinctly known as the Lord’s Day. We find in scripture that on the first day of the week, the disciples came together to break bread, and the Lord met with his disciples in the upper room on the first day of the week. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him (1 Cor. 16:2). This illustrates that Christian giving and observance occurs on the first day of the week.

We must also remember that John was a prisoner on the barren island of Patmos in a penal colony without a calendar. It is conceivable that he chose a day, in accordance with his Jewish custom, to worship the Lord, which could have been a different day. To John, every day that he was still alive was the Lord’s Day because he lived by faith and not by sight. When John was in the Spirit, he was without any Christian or religious association. Every day God chooses to reveal himself to us is a blessed day; every day we are in the Spirit is a blessed day.

Sunday is not simply the first day of the week. Because Christ rose from death on that day (John 20:1), it became known as the Lord’s Day or Christ’s Day. Perhaps early Christians also liked considering Sunday to be the first day because it meant that they were giving their first day of the week to God. For these reasons, Sunday seemed a desirable choice for a church meeting, and it was probably not unusual for meetings to happen at night or to be exceptionally long. Acts 20:7–12 describes one such meeting. When the disciples came together on the first day of the week to break bread, Paul preached to them. Ready to depart on the next day, he continued his speech until midnight. We read that Eutychus was sitting in a window, fell asleep, and had a fatal accident after falling from the third-floor loft. Paul fell on him and restored Eutychus’s life.

We can argue infinitely regarding what day of the Roman or Jewish calendar is the Lord’s Day. Whatever day of the week it was, John was in the Spirit, and he heard a voice that was like a trumpet. A trumpet is a resounding musical instrument. So the voice was resounding but beautiful. John would hear this voice again in Revelation 4:1.

We know that John heard the speaker before seeing him. He heard the voice saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last. What thou seeist, write in a book. Some say that the speaker was an angel, a special servant of God, sent to show John the things that he describes in Revelation, but angels have no authority to declare themselves as Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

I do not believe that the speaker was an angel because the description is of God and him alone. God did not want John confused about who he is. John received specific instructions to write down what he saw. Initially, the book of Revelation was written for the Christians in the seven churches in Asia Minor, which is part of western Turkey today. It seems likely that John was working in that region before his arrest. He was now living on Patmos, which is near the coast of that region.

And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. (Rev. 1:12)

Until now, John had seen nothing unusual. He had heard the voice of God, but the voice came from behind him. So John either turned or was turned around so that he could see who had spoken. Facing the direction of the voice, he saw seven golden lampstands but did not immediately understand their meaning.

A golden lampstand is an important symbol in the Bible. It is mentioned in Exodus 25, 1 Kings 7, Zechariah 4, and Revelation 1. In Exodus, only one lampstand appeared in the tabernacle to give light to the holy place. This unique lampstand symbolizes Christ as the embodiment and expression of the Triune God. It is made of pure gold, which symbolizes God the Father in his divine nature. It is also symbolic of God’s sacredness, royalty, and glory (Seiss 1900, 37). This gold was beaten into the form of a lampstand, which symbolizes God the Son, who is the embodiment of God the Father (cf. John 14:9–11a; Col. 1:15; 2:9).

The seven shining lamps symbolize God the Spirit as the seven Spirits of God (cf. Rev. 4:5; 5:6) for the expression of the Father in the Son. Thus, the lampstand’s three attributes—its substance, shape, and shining expression—symbolize the Father in the creation, the Son in the redemption, and the Holy Spirit in the church.

A lampstand is an object to hold a lamp. At that time, people burned oil in a lamp to give light. Lamps and lampstands were common objects (cf. Mark 4:21). Even poor people would light a lamp to burn by night. However, there was nothing common, of course, about a golden lampstand. At the time, gold was the most expensive metal, and a gold lampstand was rare, precious, and beautiful (cf. Exod. 37:17–24; Heb. 9:2).

Exodus 25 describes the lampstand as a living, growing tree with a central shaft and three branches on each of its two sides. At the intersection of the branches with the shaft, there was a calyx or the leafy green part of a flower. Along the length of the shaft and each branch were cups made like almond blossoms, with calyxes and blossoming buds. This description gives the impression that the shaft grows upward, and the branches grow out of the shaft. The lampstand is a portrait of the fullness of the Godhead. It had seven lamps, one at the end of the central shaft and one at the end of each of the six branches. In Revelation, John saw seven distinct golden lampstands, each symbolizing one of seven local churches. According to verse 11, these seven churches were in seven cities, one local church in each city. In the Bible, light is usually the word to indicate God’s presence. Just as a lamp burned in every house at night, so must God be present in every church in this dark and sin-filled world.

And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. (Rev. 1:13)

In the middle of the candlesticks, John saw what can only be Jesus Christ. As you can see, the word Son is capitalized as it was throughout the New Testament and always applied to Jesus. Typically, Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man, with only three instances in the New Testament where he did not use the term to apply to himself (cf. Acts 7:56; Rev. 1:13; Rev. 14:14). Jesus was both the Son of Man and the Son of God.

John, who was the disciple whom Jesus loved and who was very close to Jesus, recognized the person whom he saw resembled the Lord Jesus as he had seen him in the days of his flesh. However, the Jesus with whom he was so intimate never wore the apparel that John saw in the vision. Jesus was a very plain man who wore the quite common, rough clothing of a carpenter. The fact that the man in the vision was Jesus was not revealed to John until the eighteenth verse.

John saw Jesus in a robe reaching down to the feet, or to the ankles, leaving his feet visible. The allusion here doubtless is to a long, loose, and flowing robe, such as those worn by kings. He also wore a girt about the paps or upper chest. It is traditional in Eastern culture for a male of royalty to wear a girdle to confine the robe and to form a beautiful ornament. The girdle was either made totally of gold or, more likely, richly ornamented with gold. This naturally suggests the man was one of rank or royalty. The adornment was not that of an ordinary priest but that of a high priest. It was far from being that garment that Jesus wore when he dwelt upon the earth. John was looking at the King of kings and Lord of lords! John did not mention a crown here because Jesus appeared to him as his high priest. It is in Revelation 19 that Jesus appears as the King of Glory and our redeemer wearing a crown.

When he first saw Christ in his vision of heaven, his appearance astonished John. Christ has always been and will always be God. We are sure that John explained that lesson often, and he even wrote, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. He made all things, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. … And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1–14). John was now privileged and blessed to see it for himself in Christ’s appearance to him on Patmos.

His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. (Rev. 1:14–15)

John records that Christ’s hairs were white like wool, as white as snow. It is symbolic of his title, the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. Here Christ is appearing to John as the Ancient of Days. He is eternal, from everlasting to everlasting. When the prophet Daniel had a similar vision, he also described Christ as having hair like pure wool, raiment white as snow, and eyes as a flame of fire (Dan. 7:9). He calls him the Ancient of Days. To him, all honor is due because he existed before all things. In the countries near the Mediterranean Sea, most people have black hair. Usually, only older people have gray or white hair. God’s law says that old people should receive special honor because of their age (Prov. 16:31; Lev. 19:32). Jesus taught that God’s Son is exactly like the Father, referring to himself (cf. John 8:19, John 10:30, John 14:9). As the Father, the Son existed before all things (cf. John 1:1–2, Rev. 22:13).

John emphasizes the word white, as in his hair was white like wool, as white as snow. Some people believe this whiteness is because of the great light. Jesus is the source of all light. We know that in heaven there is no need for the sun and moon because of the presence of the light, which is Jesus. This much light can make anything look white; however, I am sure his hair is actually white. This white is so bright that no bleach on earth could make it so bright. The light just makes it look brighter.

Christ’s eyes were as a flame of fire. Like two lasers, the eyes of the exalted Lord look with a penetrating gaze into the depths of his church (cf. 2:18; 19:12; Heb. 2:17). This description also appears in Revelation 19:11–12, where Christ is pictured as a judge and conqueror over the Antichrist and the nations of the earth who have gathered for the battle of Armageddon. His eyes of fire symbolize perfect discernment.

Prior to John’s Patmos experience, he saw Jesus as the Son of Man, but now John is seeing him as the second person of the Godhead. This eternal Jesus (now known as King of kings and Lord of lords) appears in all his majesty. We have seen God throughout the Bible associated with fire and that God is a consuming fire. We saw him in the burning bush and the fiery finger of God that burned the Ten Commandments in the rock. John the Baptist told us that Jesus baptizes with fire. This fire of the Holy Ghost cleanses us inside by burning out the old self, making way for the new.

Eyes indicate wisdom. Jesus’s look is