Revelation

The book of Revelation is probably written around the year 90 by the evangelist and apostle John. This book is addressed to seven churches in Asia (Rev 1:11) in the first place, but is also meant for the whole Christian church through the ages.

Revelation has its own, unique place among the twenty seven books and letters the New Testament contains. After the five historical books and the twenty one letters in which also prophetic portions appear, the book of Revelation is in its whole a strictly prophetic book (Rev 1:3). This last book of the Bible reveals our future and is in that way a nice counterpart of the first book of the Bible that declares our origin.

In the book of Revelation it is about the future of the Lord Jesus. And His future determines the future of the world, of Israel, of the church and of the devil and his henchmen. In this Bible book the Lord Jesus is in the center. It is about His Person, about His redemption work, His resurrection, His glorification and His return.

This book is the great terminus where all trains that have started to run in the Old Testament, reach their final destination. I haven’t checked, but someone has found, in the four hundred and four verses that make up this book, at least two hundred and seventy-eight verses that you can somehow connect to a verse or section in the Old Testament. That, of course, is not strange if you consider that Christ is also the subject of the prophecy of the Old Testament. In the Old Testament we are pointed ahead to Him as the One Who is coming. In the book of Revelation He has come and as the revealed Christ He is the Center of all events.

It is the book of contrasts. You will discover how the spiritual powers light and darkness and good and evil oppose each another. In the same way God and Christ and satan are opposites. Other opposites are people who are saved and people who are not saved, and also holy and unholy angels. All these persons are actors who are performing on the world stage. You will see how the stage changes and transforms from time to eternity and vice versa. The backdrop of the show is formed by heaven and earth and the abyss and the lake of fire.

Everything is supported by music and songs and other expressions of feelings. The song of the victory and the ‘woe’ cry of the defeated cause happiness and also sadness. But the outcome is that God triumphs and that the glories of the Lord Jesus in both the millennial kingdom of peace and in eternity shine in undimmed and immortal beauty and splendor.

There are various possibilities to subdivide this book. The simplest and clearest one is supplied in the book itself, in Revelation 1 (Rev 1:19). It is a subdivision in three parts:
1. the things which you have seen (Revelation 1:1-20),
2. the things which are (Revelation 2:1-3:22) and
3. the things which will take place after these things (Revelation 4:1-22:21).