T
HE UNVEILING OF THE RETURN OF JESUS CHRIST
We can never imagine the inward desire of our Lord to reveal Himself to the world as the Creator, God-Man, Savior and Lord of Lords. For the past two thousand years Christ has given to His followers the task of making Him known in His grace to the ends of the earth, but a time is coming when He will reveal Himself in His wrath to all the world. The Revelation is singular because it is written to reveal the true identity and purpose of the living Lord Jesus Christ. This revelation comes from Jesus Himself as His self-revelation. The Holy Spirit revealed to the aging Apostle John the last inspired revelation that man would receive until He comes back to earth to reign in Person in the Kingdom of God. The Book of Revelation selectively reveals the prophetic description of the future times after A.D. 100 with a lengthy description of the events that will take place in the seven years immediately preceding the Second Advent [Daniel’s 70th Week – Dan 9:24-27] and the millennial Kingdom after which will conclude with a final judgment and the beginning of eternity with a new heaven and new earth. The dating of Revelation is deduced from the mention of being written on the island of Patmos (1:9) where John had been exiled during the reign of emperor Domitian who died in A.D. 96 according to the early church father Irenaeus. Thus the date of A.D. 81 to 96 is given by most conservative scholars for the writing of the text. Except for the persecutions under emperor Nero, who reigned from A.D. 54 to 68, there had been little persecution of the church until Domitian, who reigned from A.D. 81-96. At the writing of Revelation the persecution had only recently begun since martyrdoms were still few (2:13). Domitian elevated his position to divinity with the title Domitian et Deus noster [“Domitian Our Lord and God”]. Shrines for the worship of the emperor were everywhere, especially in Roman Asia, but no Christian who claimed Christ as Lord and God could possibly acknowledge the emperor as a god. Evidently John, as leader of the expanding church at Ephesus, had been challenged as to whether his loyalty be to Rome or to the Lord Jesus. His choice led to his exile on a prison island called Patmos. New Testament canon of books were widely distributed during the time of persecution, and Revelation was included in Irenaeus’ list of NT inspired books around A.D.180. In the early third century Origen of Alexandria may have used the same 27 books as modern NT editions. Throughout the third century Justin Martyr, Eusebius, Apollonius and Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, quoted this book as Holy Scripture. When the Church became the empire’s state-church by the end of the 4th century, everyone had begun to think they were already in the millennium, so some began to question the inspiration of Revelation