John is directed to write a letter to each of the seven world communities or churches. The letter is to prepare them for the events that must soon take place and indicates to each community their actual standing and what they need to do if they are to be victorious. The imminent judgment by the Son of Man is emphasized and ends by admonishing that each individual must listen to the Message of the Spirit of Truth to the churches. The Message to the seven churches (Universes of the planes of Matter) is given by the Son of Man to strengthen the striving ones in each community, those alert enough to pass during the sifting judgment. These ones will enter a period of intense purification (the kingdom of a thousand years) during which they will undergo experiences that will clarify them if they prove worthy. Only those who overcome during this period will be rewarded.
The book of Revelation is thus actually a preparation for the churches, which alerts us of the events that will be occurring before, during and after the coming of the Son of Man and is a Message of warning.
In the admonition to the first community, Ephesus, we are told that the Judge, the Son of Man actually journeys through or walks through the Worlds of Matter represented by the golden lampstands. His experiences in the various communities and the Message He leaves for the striving ones in each, to be a strength for them during the period of purification then follows. He warns striving ones in each community comprising a Universe of the World of Matter that they must listen to this Message; nevertheless only those who overcome the peculiarities of their various propensities (individually and collectively as a Universe) will be rewarded. Two things are necessary, they must listen to the Message and they must overcome.
The details of the work of the Son of Man, the scroll or Message of Truth He brought, the sifting and purification, the millennium and finally the judgment of the World of Matter especially focused on Ephesus is the subject Matter of the rest of the Revelation.
The Lord of the Universes is coming for the Judgment.
Two judgments are described in the Revelation – the judgment of the human spirits in the Worlds of Matter (the sifting, the direct judgment of the Son of Man also known as the final judgment) and the judgment of the wrong in the World of Matter and by extension the beings that remain clinging to it (still carried out by the Son of Man but through the influence of His Star). The first judgment occurs at the time of the physical incarnation of the Son of Man, after the binding of Lucifer and just before establishing the judgment.
The second is a progressive period over a symbolic period of a thousand years with increasing intensity as the Star’s grip on the World became more complete. The period of the thousand year Kingdom wrongly called the millennium (because it is not actually a measure of time) starts with the binding of Lucifer in the abyss and ends with his release and the final accounting for Lucifer and those that failed the period of Grace that the epoch represent. Thereafter the reign of the Son of Man, which had been instituted when He incarnated, fully manifests. He, now as the King of Kings seen on a white charger, takes full possession of the purified Worlds of Matter annexing it or incorporating it into the Spiritual kingdom. He is now said to remain with the human spirits forever and to be their God.
It is important to remember that although the Son of Man addresses the 7 Universes differently, the circumstances, the experiencing and the variations in the degree of maturity are similar in the different communities. Thus depending on our standing the admonitions to any of the communities may apply to us more pertinently.
CHAPTER ONE: PROLOGUE AND GREETINGS
Prologue (Rev. 1:1-3)
11. The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show 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 aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near
The Revelation briefly and impressively introduces itself. It is an exposition of coming events granted by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ. Coming from God, it is directed to human spirits that are striving to serve God by following His Will and is a revelation of things still to come, in a time that is no longer far. There is a sense of inevitability conveyed by the word must that excludes the possibility that this is just a prophecy.
It is a revelation of the end time activity of the Light. As such, it is not directed exclusively to Christians, but to all servants of the Light; that is to say that the revelation is not limited by sectarian boundaries. It is too limiting to interpret ‘his servants’ to mean just Christians. God’s servants may be found anywhere.
It is in context that it is the Love of God, Jesus that sends the revelation. John himself received the revelation not directly through Jesus Christ, but through an unnamed angel. This is of importance since it re-emphasizes the truth that the Lord Jesus has returned to the Father and we will see him no more. The fact that John actually received the message through the mediation of an angel has often been overlooked. This angel is actually critical to the earthly unfolding of the events and the work as will become apparent as the Revelation unfolds.
John insists that he is testifying to everything he saw, including the activity of this angel. It is probable that this is the angel later described as the angel with the fire (Rev. 8:3-6), who brought the wrath of God on the earth. This star or fire is the sign of the Son of Man, which we have been admonished to watch out for (Matt 24:30).
As already indicated, there is a sense of inevitability conveyed by the word ‘must soon take place’ that excludes the possibility that this is just a prophecy. As is well known, prophecies can change if the people to whom it is directed change, as happened in the case of Jonah and the people of Nineveh. That the events revealed must soon take place suggests that this is not a prediction of what is likely to take place, as is the case with most prophecies, but is actually a revelation of what will, indeed must, take place as suggested by the very first word in the original text (apocalypsis) from which the book derives its name.
The authorship of The Revelation has been a source of some debate. It has been postulated that the author is the same as John the Apostle, which is why the book is accepted as canon. I will not join the debate here as many excellent theses already exist on the subject. However, as already discussed in the introductory section, the John who testifies is not necessarily the same person who writes the words down.
John tells us that he bears witness to what he actually saw concerning the activity of the Word of God and the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. This distinction is important to emphasize that the revelation is not limited to the work of Jesus, the Son of God. The extent of John’s work is also indicated suggesting that John is a witness of Light happenings, a forerunner of the word of God and also of Jesus Christ. The role of John is to bear witness to all activity of the Divine Word in Subsequent Creation. This is the clearest indication of the John, the servant of God who received The Revelation.
John the Baptist is the forerunner of all Light activity on earth and it must therefore be him that received the revelation. As indicated earlier in this study, there must then be another, mediumistic individual on the earth plane to whom John imparts the visions for documentation. This may be the sense of the first section of verse three - Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, i.e. he who transmits the visions, indicating an intermediary between John and those for whom the revelation is meant.
Much blessing is promised for the correct use