The Book of Revelation is the most exquisitely fascinating yet frustratingly elusive book ever written. By today’s standards it would hardly be considered a book, with just 10,300 words, but despite the fact that it is small and written with simple vocabulary, its meaning is still largely a mystery. It is the only book of the Bible in which there is no consensus as to its general theme, organization, time frame or target audience, and if you have read other commentaries about Revelation you have probably come away feeling frustrated and unsatisfied.
A major problem of most interpretations of Revelation is the reference material that has been used. Some theologians have compared Revelation with other ancient secular and Christian documents. Others have arbitrarily assigned its meaning to a particular era and then have compared it with the history of that time. Many have guessed and speculated about the meaning of its symbols or have tried to “plug in” the current international trends and headline news. But the source material that God inspired the apostle John to use was the Bible itself. Revelation is packed with references and allusions to verses, themes and stories from the Bible, primarily the Old Testament, and it is only by praying for insight and then comparing the themes and symbols of Revelation with the inspired scriptures that we can hope to understand this book that is so vital now.
The Book of Revelation ends with the statement, “The Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must soon take place” (Revelation 22:6). The evidence all around us indicates that “the things” that John was shown will “soon take place” and that the vast majority of the people of this world are completely unprepared.
A Revelation of Jesus presents and explains the well-known themes of the Book of Revelation that everyone expects— the Mark of the Beast, 666, the Battle of Armageddon, the 144,000, the Millennium and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It also explores lesser known but important subjects from the Book of Revelation such as the seven churches, seven seals and seven trumpets, the two witnesses, the beast from the bottomless pit, the woman clothed with the sun, the great harlot, the seven-headed beast from the sea and the two-horned Beast from the earth.
A Revelation of Jesus identifies the roles of the United States and the European Union, Islam, the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Pentecostal Churches, the King of the North and the King of the South, the Jews and the Twelve Tribes of Israel, the remnant church and the Antichrist. And it delves into current controversial themes such as the secret rapture, the charismatic movement, modern Babylon, the ecumenical and new age movements, the Sabbath controversy, the immortal soul and the nature of heaven and hell.
The Book of Revelation is not just a collection of interesting symbols and metaphors– it reveals in symbolic language Jesus and His great enemy who are engaged in a very real spiritual battle between good and evil that has been raging since “Lucifer, son of the morning… said in [his] heart… I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:12-14). At the dawn of creation “that ancient serpent” succeeded in bringing the battlefield to planet earth. This is a battle to the death that has no neutral ground, even though the majority of the world’s people know nothing about it. A Revelation of Jesus unmasks the great deceiver and exposes his fatal traps, tricks and agents.
But the Book of Revelation is not about Satan— it is “the Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1). Jesus is the hero and His complete victory and the eradication of evil is the great theme. The purpose of this book is to present Jesus as He is revealed in the Book of Revelation, so that in seeing Him more clearly, we may
fall in love with Him more than ever before.
This book does not reflect the official teaching of any church and does not have any denominational endorsement, but represents more than thirty years of study
by the author, David Lackey.
