The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1
I. Tremendous Scope and Grand Finale of Book of Revelation
The majestic, towering figure of the book of Revelation is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He fills the Apocalypse from the opening verse to its closing benediction. And in the motif and movement of the book all the events portrayed sweep inexorably onward toward the great consummation—the triumph of God and righteousness, and the immortalization of the righteous at the Second Advent and resurrection, together with the establishment of the everlasting kingdom of Christ. But along with it is placed the grim portrayal of the total destruction of sin and sinners and the complete eradication of the originator and of the fearful fruitage of sin and death—and which will eventuate in a clean universe forever. CFF1 389.1
Man has titled this inspired portrayal the “Revelation of St. John the Divine.” But the Spirit-inspired title is instead, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1), which it most assuredly is. It is the unveiling, revealing, and presentation of Jesus (the Saviour) Christ (the Messiah-Priest), and now soon to appear pre-eminently in all His power and glory as King of kings and Lord of lords, together with the inauguration of His everlasting kingdom. CFF1 390.1
1. SWEEPS IN PAST, PRESENT, BUT PRIMARILY FUTURE
The Apocalypse is a prophetic message. It declares that it deals with three major classes, or divisions, of “things“: (1) “The things which thou [John] hast seen”—the vision of Jesus Christ, His eternal pre-existence, incarnate life, atoning death and triumphant resurrection—life forevermore, and His possession of the “keys of hell [hades, “the grave”] and of death”—(Revelation 1:10-20); (2) “the things which are”—those then existing or now taking place—and (3) “the things which shall be hereafter”—up to and through the close of the present world order. That is its tremendous scope and declared emphasis. CFF1 390.2
2. TRIUMPH OF “SEED” AND CRUSHING OF SERPENT
These all-embracing developments are presented in a series of significant sevens—seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven prophetic symbols, seven vials, seven dooms, and seven “new” things forevermore. Basically, the Revelation covers the time of the Christian Era (with retrospective glimpses) from John’s day to and through the great consummation, and the epochal entrance upon the aeons of eternity. CFF1 390.3
It brings the initial prophecy of the triumph of the “seed” (Genesis 3:15) and the paralleling crushing of the serpent to its predestined close. Genesis (the book of beginnings) and Revelation (the unveiling of the endings of the disclosures of the Written Word) are thus tied together in Christ, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last (Revelation 1:8, 17). CFF1 390.4
The Revelation is clearly the complement and glorious completion of Genesis. Either book without the other would be wholly incomplete and actually incomprehensible. So the Creation and the Fall of Genesis 1 to 3 find their complete counterpart in the re-creation and restoration of Revelation 20 to 22. Truly, without the opening chapters of Genesis the Revelation would be an insoluble riddle. And likewise, without these closing chapters the conflicts of the chronicles of history would be but a heartbreaking record of the failure of man, the triumph of Satan and sin and death, and the doom of the human race. CFF1 391.1
But history does not so end. It closes with the glorious triumph of truth and righteousness, and of those who have ranged themselves on the side of God. It is God’s message of hope and assurance. It completes the eschatological portrayal of the “last things.” There is no more beyond. CFF1 391.2
In the Old Testament, Christ the King and His kingdom are set forth in promise, symbol, and prophecy. In the Gospels the Messiah-King is presented and proclaimed to men, and rejected. But in the Revelation the King is enthroned amid the acclamations of the redeemed and His everlasting kingdom set up forever. Thus promise and prophecy are completely fulfilled. Types and symbols all give way to glorious antitypical realities that are now established forevermore. The vague eternity of the Old Testament becomes the absolute reality of the New. CFF1 391.3
3. “DAY OF THE LORD” IS MASTER KEY TO APOCALYPSE
The term “day of the Lord” (Isaiah 2:12; Ezekiel 13:5; Ezekiel 30:3) will be seen to be the key that unlocks the vast meaning and remarkable scope of the Apocalypse, which inspired expression includes “day of vengeance,” “day of wrath,” and multiple paralleling terms (for example, Isaiah 61:2; Isaiah 63:4). In 1 Thessalonians 5, the apostle Paul shortens the full term “day of the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 5:2) to the terse “that day” (1 Thessalonians 5:4). It is the prophesied day of reckoning, of judgment, of redemption, of retribution, of visitation, of rewards and punishments, of the Advent and the resurrection, and the finishing of the mystery of God and of godliness (1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Corinthians 2:7; 1 Corinthians 15:51). CFF1 391.4
Picture 2: Present World Conditions are Foretold:
Present World Conditions Are Foretold in the New Testament as Harbingers of the End of the Age.
Page 392
The Revelation sets forth the consummation of all the affairs of time. It depicts the successful suppression of the great rebellion, and the vindication of the wisdom, justice, and omnipotence of God. It portrays the end of time and ushers in the beginning of eternity. It sets forth the end of all ages and dispensations. CFF1 392.1
Careful scholars claim that in the Revelation there are no fewer than 285 quotations, references, and allusions to the Old Testament, thus showing the inseparable intertwining of the Old Testament and the New. Consequently the book of Revelation is the consummation of all divine revelation. CFF1 392.2
4. COVERS TRANSITION FROM TIME TO ETERNITY
While the Apocalypse covers the Christian Era in five great repeating prophetic outlines, each presenting a different angle and aspect, so as adequately to compass the whole, its chief emphasis is on the climactic last things. While it points out the waymarks and issues along the highway of the ages, it deals primarily with the great approaching consummation of all things. Each prophecy, like a descriptive timetable of the journey, leads up to and through the “last days,” or “time of the end,” to the Second Advent, the actual “end,” and its attendant events—including the resurrection and immortalization of the righteous at our Lord’s return. CFF1 393.1
But the Apocalypse goes far beyond the cataclysmic end of the present age at the Second Advent. It introduces the millennial thousand years, which is, in reality, the remarkable transition Period between the world that now is and the world to come. No other inspired penman portrays it in such fullness or sequence. That was left for John. Here is portrayed the approaching period of the confining of Satan in a vast abysmal world prison house, as it is described. CFF1 393.2
This leads up to the third coming of Christ, at the millennium’s close, to raise the wicked dead—the “rest of the dead,” of Revelation 20:5. Then, after the final, futile, desperate stand of the wicked, the just sentence of God’s judgment is pronounced upon them, and is executed by the raining down upon the incorrigibles the predicted Gehenna of fire, to destroy them. 2 CFF1 393.3
This compasses the end of Satan and his evil angels, who participated in the great rebellion in Heaven (Revelation 12:7-9), and ever since have been the relentless tempters of men on earth and the instigators of war, sin, sickness, sorrow, suffering, and death, as well as the persistent purveyors of error and deception. These all have their part in the Gehenna of fire “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). CFF1 393.4
Picture 3: The Assault of the Holy City:
The Assault on the Holy City by the Resurrected Wicked Ends in Their Total Destruction.
Page 393
But this is not to be accomplished until Satan makes his final effort to rally the multitudes of the resurrected wicked of the ages in a final but futile attempt to overwhelm the saints and wrest the kingdom of God from them, and to establish himself instead, as malign dictator. But it all ends in the ultimate and utter overthrow of Satan, the evil angels, and incorrigibly wicked men forevermore. Ultimately they will all be burned up, destroyed, brought to nought, become ashes. The fires of destruction will do their fateful work. CFF1 394.1
5. COMPLETE VINDICATION OF GOD AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
And after the fires have done their cleansing work, God will create new heavens and a new earth, wherein the immortalized saints will dwell forevermore in Paradise restored. That is the transcendent promise of the Apocalypse. And that, in a nutshell, is the divine plan of salvation, the divine plan of the ages. That is the consummation of God’s great outline of time and eternity. CFF1 394.2
Man has long had his day of rejection of God and righteousness. Now the great day of the Lord, as it is constantly termed, brings the end of all rebellion and the establishment of righteousness forevermore. It is marked by the triumph of God and the vindication of His justice, wisdom, grace, and love—and the bestowal of eternal life and Immortality upon man forevermore. It is God’s day. That is the essence of the book of Revelation that we will now examine. CFF1 394.3