Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today I want to challenge you to think through the issue of the opening of the book of Revelation. Yes, I have decided to tackle the giant, the big gorilla in the room when we talk about the scriptures. And that gorilla is, of course, the book of Revelation, which is the last book in the Bible for a reason, and oftentimes one that we should take on in the latter part of our ministries too.

Well, I am approaching the latter days of my ministry, and so it is time for me then to take on this book of books, the challenging book of the book of Revelation. And so we have taken this up in our church. I have begun to preach in the book of Revelation, and I'd like to share with you some of the things that we have touched on in our worship services, and I invite you to them too. If you'd like to join us for our worship service, you can come and join us on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. We're New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

We meet on Sunday at 10 a.m., and we're located at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard, and you'll receive a warm welcome, and you will be plunged immediately into the midst of this book of books, this book which indeed forecasts the ends of all things, and that is the book of Revelation. And I'd like to begin with my part one of the introduction to the book of Revelation. We need to be prepared in our heads to interpret, receive, and understand this book before we ever even begin to tackle its bizarre sometimes and figurative, metaphorical imagery.

We're ever going to come to an understanding of this marvelous book, which indeed opens up for us the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is who I love, and this is who has saved me, and this is the one into whom I've been incorporated in the body of Christ and with whom I'll dwell eternally. So I love to unpack those things that reveal the Lord Jesus Christ not only to myself but to my people, consequently then to you as well, our listening audience. So let me begin by reading for introduction the first three verses of the book of Revelation, and jump into my introduction. So Revelation chapter 1, verses 1 through 3.

The revelation, and that word in the Greek is apocalypsis. The apocalypse, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw, that is, the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it. Take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

Yes, dear listener, the time is near, not some 2,000 years hence, i.e. our own day, but in the day of John himself. Well, when I think of the book of Revelation, I was delightfully reminded of the power of the human imagination. It takes great imagination to comprehend, understand, and interpret the book of Revelation. I was delightfully reminded of the power of the human imagination and the spoken word.

On some of our church camping trips so many years ago, there in the pitch blackness of night around the campfire, out in the wilds of nature, once with a bear warning even, with only the light and heat of a campfire to dispel the blackness, I would read the macabre poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee, written by Robert W. Service. Now, The Cremation of Sam McGee was about a guy in the Alaska gold rush who honored the last wish of his partner, who died of cold in the dead of winter, by cremating his body in the furnace of a beached and abandoned steamer ship.

Now, this poem is creepy and suspenseful, such that the heat from the furnace defrosts the old Sam McGee, and he sits up and speaks from the midst of the fire. Whoa. It was enough to fascinate not only the kids, but the adults. Anyone with half an imagination was captured and terrified by this poem and immensely entertained, too. My son John became so enamored of that poem that he committed it to memory, and he would recite it to his men in the army, in the field, in his tank squad.

Well, there's a brief and rather poorly done video of Robert W. Service's poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee. But I suggest to you, it doesn't approach what everyone saw in their imagination around that spooky campfire on those dark nights. The human imagination far surpasses the ability of any Hollywood director or cinematographer to vividly bring to life the spoken or written word. The Oxford English Dictionary defines imagination as the mental faculty forming images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses. The ability of the mind to be creative or resourceful, unquote.

Well, and I must suggest to you when I think of these things, not even Tolkien's film trilogy, Lord of the Rings, ever quite measured up to my imagination reading the series. Although Jackson's film version of Lord of the Rings came pretty close at times. What Joseph Conrad says about writing, about his task as an author, and I love this because it is the task of an author. He says, my task, which I am trying to achieve, is by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel. It is before all to make you see, unquote.

I suggest to you, dear listener, that that is precisely what the apostle John and our Lord Jesus Christ is trying to do of revelation by the power of the written word, yea, the living word, to make you see the certainty and sovereignty of our Lord triumph of his kingdom. The genre of apocalypse, which John declares to be his genre, the very first word, the apocalypse of Jesus Christ. And it's a genre that is a type or kind of writing. The genre of apocalypse is very effective in getting this done. It relies upon your imagination, dear reader, to bring history and eschatology to life.

Dragons, angels, locust demons, vast, limitless scenes of golden crystal heaven above, skies being rolled up like a scroll. All of these images provoke your imagination to see Christ at work conquering his inheritance. Most of these visions are terrifying and unsettling, aren't they? The author Scott Hahn says, the most sympathetic character is a seven-horned, seven-eyed lamb. Oh, yes.

And as such, apocalypse is powerful when it's used in the context and manner that's intended by the author. But apocalypse is equally dangerous and injurious when twisted and abused to serve the selfish, fleshly interests of the ignorant reader. So, therefore, with that challenge, dear listener, I invite you to bring your sanctified imagination to the book of Revelation with us. Even Albert Einstein said this about human imagination. He said, imagination is more important than knowledge.

Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. Oh, dear listener, today let us begin to set the stage for our study with this introduction. First of all, let's understand we're dealing with a prologue here in the book of Revelation. In the prologue, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place, not 2,000 years.

Hence, that is in our own day. No, in the day of John himself, right? He made it known by sending his angel to his servant, John, who testifies to everything he saw. That is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy.

Blessed are those who hear it, take to heart, written in it. Unquote. So, we're dealing with a prologue, and our work begins by identifying itself by its genre, apocalypse of Jesus Christ, the revelation of Jesus Christ. We're going to fill this in more fully momentarily, since it's utterly necessary to interpret Revelation in any meaningful way, by its genre, that is its type or kind of writing. You get this wrong, you get everything wrong.

You get the wrong genre, you get the wrong mantra. There is a mantra, isn't there, to Revelation that many, many people have? That is 666, beast, beast, beast, is the mantra, right? Great tribulation, great tribulation, great tribulation. Oh, wrong mantra, though.

Wrong genre, wrong mantra. We have an account here, then, also of the chain of custody of this revelation in its prologue. That is, we get it from the sovereign hand of the Father, who determines all things. The chain of custody then extends to his Son, who executes the will of his Father, and then to the hand of a messenger, that is an angel, and then to Christ's servant, that is the Apostle John. He gives his own self-identification as his servant, who bears witness, that's martyros.

That word is martyros. Perhaps you'll hear our derivative English word, martyr, which comes from this Greek word, witness, or martyros. Ah, Revelation is a very important word, so we need to understand it, because in the days of its composition, Revelation spells that time when the word meant a witness to Christ, martyros, a witness to Christ and his sufferings, to one who suffered himself, then for the same Christ, that is, a martyr, as we know him, a witness to Christ who later suffered himself, that is, a martyros, a martyr.

Therefore, it is important to note John's bearing witness, because his bearing witness to the risen Christ meant his freedom, his health, indeed his very life. Nevertheless, John did so, bearing martyros to the word of God, the testimony of Jesus Christ, which are synonymous in this apocalypse, this Revelation. We sit comfortably in our living rooms reading the book of Revelation, and the Apostle John sat alone on a barren rock in the Mediterranean sea, banished there for his composition and distribution of it. Yet even here, John manages to write down all that he saw and get it to the seven churches of Asia.

What a blessing to them, too, right? And eventually to us. And that blessing is extended in verse 3 to three classes of people. Note this with me. You should have your Bibles open to Revelation chapter 1, because there are three classes of people to which the blessing of this book extended.

A, those who read aloud the words of this prophecy. Immediately, we are to deduce that the apocalypse was intended to be read aloud in the service of the church, that is, its liturgy. And it was. This deduction is reinforced with a vengeance as we move through Revelation and see all of the profound divine liturgy that is revealed for us to practice in worship services ourselves, not just happy-clappy 7-11 choruses. That is, seven words repeated 11 times.

No, there is solid, substantial liturgy given us in the book of Revelation. It's a major motif in Revelation. Those pastors who do so, that is, read aloud the words of this prophecy, are themselves blessed, John says, in that practice. And then B, also blessed are those who hear the words of this prophecy. That is, when read as our standards recommend in the catechisms of the church, that is, within high and reverent esteem of them, with a firm persuasion that they are the word of God.

Indeed, when we hear the words of Revelation in this manner, we will be blessed. And as we'll see with amazement, Revelation was meant to be read in the liturgical calendar of the church. Great blessing to the hearers. Yes, dear listener, great motif. All through the book of Revelation.

And then C, also blessed are those who keep what is written in it. Those who keep is obey what is written in it. Those who obey that which is commanded for them to do will be blessed. Contrary to the bulk of interpreters today, Revelation is less an escapist fantasy of end times to watch, cheering from the grandstands. It is less that than it is a book to encourage the faithful, persecuted church who are in the trenches, vocally, personally present in the world as witnesses for Christ who are doing the sweating and the bleeding.

The ends could not be more different. To them comes a blessing, not to the curious, titillated dilettantes dabble in prophecy. Secondly, we have the author of Revelation, that is the Apostle John. And this was virtually the unanimous testimony of the early church. Plausible alternatives have been proposed, but they really don't present a serious threat to Johannine authorship.

For example, there's one, a patriarch John that's mentioned by the church historian Eusebius. Some name him, or perhaps Elder John, other than the Apostle John, but the evidence is in the end too strong for the Apostle John. There are many parallel expressions, for example, in both the Gospel of John and in the Revelation of John. For example, the phrases, Lamb of God, so loved and used by both Revelation and the Gospel of John and the both, or the Word, right, the living Word, or this Word we talked about a minute ago, marturos, witness.

So note with me from the book of John, for example, on the last day of the feast, John says, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. And then compare it, of course, with Revelation chapter 22. The Spirit and the bride say, come, and let the one who hears say, come, and let the one who is thirsty, come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. Oh, this water of life.

So parallel in both John and Revelation. And also note with me this idea of the Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, from John 1.1. And then from Revelation chapter 19, he is clothed in a robe, dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word. And then both books, too, in a series of sevens.

For example, there are seven major sign, miracles, and discourses around which the narrative of John hinges. And then there are six series of sevens around which Revelation hinges as well. I have a beautiful outline of the book of Revelation. If you call and request it, I'll send you a copy of the book of Revelation with which we are working. And then, of course, both books, John and Revelation, are structured in terms of the biblical and heavenly liturgy and the festival calendar, too.

No dispensationalist brings this out. The dispensationalist's understanding of Revelation falls far, far short of the true biblical nature of the book of Revelation. Because both books, the Gospel of John and the book of Revelation, are structured in terms of the biblical and heavenly liturgy and festival calendar of both books. For example, our Lord's migration and movements in the Gospel of John center around the three Passovers, which constitute the life of Christ's ministry.

It's the reason we know that he ministered for three years, for example, because it is all comprehended in the three years of festivals in which Jesus celebrated, and secondarily with the other feasts of the calendar two. And as well, parallel, the book of Revelation's vision not only commences upon a Sunday Sabbath, very significant, we'll see this in a minute, where John says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, but also it oscillates, the book of Revelation oscillates liturgically between heaven and earth at key points of heaven's liturgy, dear listener.

And then, of course, finally, both books use numbers in a very symbolic sense that transcends their literal significance. What is often overlooked is that the Apostle John, as well, was likely from the high priest's family. The Apostle John was likely from the high priest's family, which explains much of the organization of the Gospel of John, according to the liturgical calendar of the temple, for example, as well as the book of Revelation being organized according to the liturgical calendar of Israel in the temple.

The Gospel of John makes clear that John the Apostle was at least well-known and familiar, and then he thinks a part of the family of Levi, that is the temple order and family. The Gospel of John says this in 18, chapter 18, Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple, that is John. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest. Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door and brought Peter in, unquote.

The result is, since John is indeed a member of the priestly family, that Revelation is indeed a liturgical handbook, not only of the temple, but then of the worship of the church. And we need to reorient our thinking towards this, dear listener. As Alfred Edersheim puts it in his book, The Temple, its ministry and services as they were at the time of Christ. This fine scholar, Alfred Edersheim, says this, Indeed, the apocalypse as a whole may be likened to the temple services in its mingling of the prophetic services with worship and praise.

It seems highly improbable that a book so full of liturgical allusions as the book of Revelation, and these to minutiae, could have been written by any other priest, unquote. And here, of course, Edersheim is speaking of the author of the apocalypse, that is, John the Apostle. And so the liturgy, excuse me, say liturgy 10 times fast. Well, the liturgy of the church is a major motif in the book of Revelation, and this in part is due to John's facility in liturgy as a priest. How often have you heard this brought out when they were talking about Revelation, red heifer rapture rants, right, by your local dispensationalist preacher?

You don't hear this from him, do you? Well, then we have the date of the book of Revelation, and that is A.D. 64. The apocalypse was most likely written on or around A.D. 64 because there's both internal and external evidence for this. For example, Revelation is in part a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem. Who tells you this, too?

Nobody tells you this, do they? This has been the ancient angle, the ancient interpretation of the church for millennia. Revelation is in part a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem. And consequently, we'll see this. I'll lay this out for you in great detail.

And if it indeed is a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem in part, consequently, it was composed prior to Jerusalem's destruction in AD 70. Not in the mid-90s of the first century. This is a popular, probably the most popular dating of Revelation, who was under the Emperor Domitian at that time, who persecuted the church. Or neither is that the early second century, whose people were under the rule of the Emperor Trajan, who also persecuted the Christian church at this time. And finally, we have the identity of the beast, too, is another internal evidence in Revelation.

The identity of the beast is so uncannily that of Nero. Not Hillary Clinton, and not Bill Clinton, not Napoleon, not Hitler, as in history we've seen so many other identifications of the beast. All of them wrong. The identity of the beast is so uncannily that of Nero that it is astonishing to me that the church has so far drifted in the modern age from this understanding. Nero reigned from AD 54 to AD 68, and his persecution of Christians began in AD 64.

That's why we can peg so clearly authorship of the date around AD 64, because that's when the brutal persecution of Christians began under Nero, after that famous fire at Rome in which he ostensibly accompanied with a violin solo, right? Well, Nero fiddled, Rome burned. Now, some commentators dismiss this persecution under Nero as only local and very limited, and not as vast and extensive as that pictured in Revelation. So it can't be, right? That's what they say.

But they're wrong. As the great scholar J.A.T. Robinson points out, both the Christian pastor Clement and the Roman historian Tacitus record that immense multitudes, quote-unquote as Tacitus puts it, immense multitudes were slaughtered under Nero all over the empire, not just at Rome. We will see this as well borne out for us in our study of Revelation. So you have to bear with us in this.

Understand it. And then finally, in the book of Revelation, too, the whole structure and ethos of Revelation, that is the cultural air that they breathe, the very historical situation in which they lived, the very understanding and preconditions of that whole culture, the whole structure and ethos of Revelation is structured around the temple and its worship. And so central a place does the temple place in the book of Revelation and its liturgy way that the book of Revelation begs a date prior to the destruction of the temple, the 70.

So John's consciousness and his devotion to temple detail shows that he is writing not only about it per se, but also about the impending destruction of the temple and its replacement, how significant it is the placement of the temple with an overtly Christian worship and liturgy far more expansive and true to heavenly worship. Do you see this yet, dear listener? Revelation will describe for us a Christian worship now, placing that of the temple worship, a Christian worship and liturgy far more expansive and true to heavenly worship. We have opened for us, peeled back the veil of heaven to show us what indeed is heavenly worship.

Oh, dear listener, we'll leave off here and our introduction of the book of Revelation, but I hope that you see some of the things that you aren't always treated to in the book of Revelation. Usually people go right to the Revelation red heifer rapture crowd and all of the guessing as to who the beast is and when the great tribulation is going to begin and just when the rapture is going to be, is it going to be a pre, mid or post tribulation and people fret and wring their hands when indeed all of that stuff is falderall, flapdoodle, when you compare to the real themes and meat of the book of Revelation. And I hope you bear with us in this.

You can come and join us as we treat of this, as we exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what is so central to the book of Revelation. John turns to see the Lion of Judah take the scroll from the hand of his father and instead he sees a lamb looking as if it had been slain. This is the central character, the central point of all of the book of Revelation. That is our Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We exalt him in the book of Revelation. We exalt him at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church in our worship service. And I invite you to join us as we continue to unpack this beautiful book of the Lord Jesus Christ, a book of Revelation, his apocalypse, his revealing of himself to us for this age. New Geneva meets for holy worship at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Come and join us.

Worship 10 a.m. 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for more information at area code 208-523-0196. Call me. Give me some feedback. Perhaps you're a little disgruntled and unsettled by my interpretation today.

That's okay. Give me some feedback. We'll talk about it. Area code 208-523-0196.