Rev.1: 1 “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”

 

In continuing with these thoughts on the Book of Revelation, let it be noted that am only here to highlight a few things that will enable us do a thorough study of what the Book is all about Endeavouring to ensure that, we have to see beyond the letters of the word here written, and that which is called historical fulfillment into the reality of what the Father is conveying to us through the Son in the spirit of truth.

 

For those of us who say this Book should be interpreted literally or that it is already a fulfilled Book. What do we do with passages like this..

 

Rev.14: 1 “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads”.

 

I know it is being taught that, the 144,00 are literal Jews from the twelve trobes who made it through the tribulation and first believers. But can’t we see that Mount Zion is no longer a physical mountain that we must go to in Palestine? Who is the Lamb in the Bible, is he not Jesus the Christ? Are we saying only the redeemed Jews should be standing with him in a physical Mountain? Why and how did we come about having 144,000 as a figure, can’t we see that this is a prophetic language therefore it can’t be literal? I shall touch on this fully as we go on.

 

Again, we are told in Rev.11: 8, talking about the two witnesses.

“ And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified”.

 

Now, was Jesus crucified in Sodom and Egypt or in Jerusalem? Is this not speaking of the realm of sin and the spirit of bondage which is religion, that Jerusalem represented? Telling us that these two spirit of the Apostolic and the Prophetic, a type of Joshua and Zerubabel, the Priesthood and the civil authority commissioned to build and establish the house of God is being and was religiously held in capacity from setting people free? How do we relegate this to just a physical fulfillment in AD 70.

 

Once again, we read of (Rev.21:1-2) “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”.

 

How is this fulfilled physically? Is a city not made up of several house put together? Is God’s city heavenly Jerusalem not the Bride of Christ here described, the very Church of Christ made of many members, which is you and I? Is this coming down, not the true manifestations of the sons of God, the enchrist matured sons at the end of the age in the fullness of the feast of Tabernacles, just as John the Baptist was shewn forth to Israel at the fullness of time (Luke 1:80)? How is the Book of Revelation such a fulfilled Book my brothers and sisters?

 

‘Presterising’ this Book doesn’t do justice to the spirit of the Book. I want to submit here that the best approach to interpreting the of Revelation is that of KINGDOM ESCATHOLOGY., which is that which was, which is and which is to come. That which was yesterday, toady and foerever.Not just preterist, historical, neither is it futuristic in terms of the rapture, for it is not about that also. But rather it is about the Christ dealings within his Body the enChristed, and of all such that truly are apprehended for the full manifestation of their sonship here on Earth

 

Now looking at the verse 1, as this Book is introduced to us, the writer clearly says, this Book is a SIGN BOOK. ..

“he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John” Rev.1:1.

 

And this destroys the whole of our theology, for what is done in signs or symbols cannot be interpreted physically or literally. Signs certainly are coded language’s that has to be decoded before getting the mind of the writer.

 

The word “signified” is the Greek word semaino which is a derivative of the word semo meaning a mark or sign, or to indicate by signs or symbols. The English word could spell.. “SIGN-I-FIED” as used here, and it is indicating to us therefore that the whole Book is communicated by means of signs or symbols. Certainly we can see that this is how this Book was revealed or communicated to John the Beloved in the Island of Patmos. It is a book of pictures and symbols!

 

It is of a great truth that a sign is never the reality — it merely points to the reality! Therefore since this revelation of Jesus Christ was communicated to John in this prophetic, symbolic pattern of writing of signs and symbols, it shows clearly that there is no “literalness” in the Book. So in communicating this Book, the word of Jesus to the seven Churches will always end with

 

“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches;”

 

Yes, the Book is communicated in spirit to the spiritual man… So we have to look beyond the natural into the spirit of the word and the state the writer was, for he “was in the spirit on the Lord’s Day” in order to get the mind of the writer.

 

To be continued…

 

© 2016 – Dr. David O. Ogaga