Revelation: The World Conquest of the Kingdom of God

1

THE DESIGN OF THE REVELATION

INTRODUCTION
Inspired by the devil, the Sanhedrin and Romans had slain the Lord Jesus, and now they were brutally murdering His disciples to rid the earth of His kingdom. The situation for Jesus’ followers was bleak. Following the great fire of Rome in A.D. 64 that destroyed over a third of the city, Nero Caesar blamed the Christians to deflect rumors that he had set the fires himself. He declared an empire-wide decree to round up the disciples of Jesus, and then executed them in horrifying fashion during public ceremonies. This included the execution of two of Jesus’ apostles: the crucifixion of Peter and the beheading of Paul.
The situation for the disciples in Israel was equally terrifying. The Sanhedrin were doing likewise, charging Jesus’ disciples with being false prophets according to the old covenant Leviticus law and executing them as they saw fit.
God grieved for His beloved, watching in horror as they were being persecuted and tortured to death. They were trying to keep the faith, even unto death, fighting their fears and emotions to do as Jesus asked—to pray for their enemies. Not returning evil with evil, but rather returning evil with good, they kept the words of God close to their hearts: “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Rom. 12:19).
Finally, after enduring three decades of persecution since His ascension into heaven, the time for the Lord’s vengeance had come—the avenging of the blood of His saints was at hand! The nation of Israel and the Roman empire would now stand before the judgment seat of the almighty God, charged with shutting up the kingdom of God against men, extortion, theft, hypocrisy, adultery, lying, and most grievous of all, the murder of His beloved.
The verdict was read: guilty as charged on all accounts. The sentence was issued: death by fire, smoke, and brimstone. Then God Almighty filled the vials of wrath until they overflowed with His fury. The angels in heaven gave a harkening blast of the trumpets of war, shaking the very foundations of heaven and earth. And the armies of the Lord prepared for battle, for the great day of God’s wrath had come, and no one would be able to stand against it.

JESUS’ FINAL WARNING
OF HIS IMMINENT VENGEANCE AND WRATH
Before Jesus could go on the offensive and carry out God’s judgment of His archenemies during that first generation of disciples, He had one more thing to do. He had sent His disciples into Judea and Rome to be His witnesses—now He had to get them out. As He promised His beloved through His prophet Malachi (vv. 3:16-18), He had to first separate those who served the Lord from those who did not so that He would not pour out His wrath on His own disciples. Remaining true to His promise, He delivered His final warning to His servants of His imminent judgment against their enemies in a letter recorded by John. This special letter contained a hidden message that could only be unveiled by His disciples: terminate your evangelism, get out of Jerusalem and Rome, and flee to the safe haven I have provided, for the day and the hour of my vengeance and wrath is at hand!
Jesus instructed John to deliver this urgent message of cataclysmic importance to churches in seven metropolises of Asia Minor, who would then send forth the message throughout the world. If Jesus had presented this important message to all of His disciples privately, it may have sounded something like this:

Dearly beloved,
As it was written, so it shall be fulfilled—the time of my vengeance and wrath upon my enemies has come. You must get out of Jerusalem and Rome now and flee to the mountains of Judea. I shall destroy their temples and desolate their land and remove their kingdoms from before me, and then they shall know that I am the Lord. Blessed are they that hear these words and take them to heart, for the time is at hand.
I tore the veil from top to bottom; heaven now stands open, and the river of life is now flowing. Come Jews, come Gentiles, come drink from the water of the river of life. Those who hear my voice and follow me, come join me at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb!

THE DISTRIBUTION DILEMMA
Prior to John receiving the Revelation of Jesus Christ, he was captured by the Romans and exiled to the island of Patmos. Notice the paradox of John’s situation: Jesus did not give John the Revelation before he was arrested when he was capable of personally delivering it to the seven churches himself. Nor did Jesus give the Revelation to another disciple after John was captured and exiled. On the contrary, Jesus waited for John to be arrested and exiled to Patmos, and then He gave John the urgent message of the Revelation when John was incapable of delivering it! At this point, the only people John had contact with—the only people he could hand it to and solicit their help for its delivery—were the Roman guards on the island of Patmos.
If the Revelation was given to John literally such as I presented above, and John handed it to the Romans and asked them to make copies and distribute it to the seven churches in Asia Minor, neither John nor the letter would have made it off the island—the letter would have been burned, followed by the beheading of John. Herein lies the dilemma that John would have faced for the distribution of this anti-Roman, anti-Israeli letter: how could he deliver it to the seven Christian churches in these metropolises of Asia as the angel had commanded? Once it was delivered to these churches, how could hundreds of copies have been made and then distributed throughout the major market places of the world for all the disciples of Jesus to read without it being confiscated by the Roman and Israeli authorities? Once the disciples read it, how could they flee to the mountains of Judea without being hindered or killed by their enemies?
Did God send an angel who put all the Roman guards on Patmos to sleep so that the letter could be passed from John to another disciple who would then smuggle it out of the prison and off the island? Did Jesus blind the minds of the Romans and apostate Israelites so when they saw the letter in the marketplaces they would not recognize it as such, nor see the Christians fleeing into the mountainside? No, this level of divine intervention was not necessary, not for the Lord. He devised a clever plan that worked within His enemies’ own free will, just as He had done throughout Old Testament times. The key for the quick and unhindered worldwide distribution of God’s urgent and cataclysmic message of the Revelation to His disciples was in its design.

THE DISTRIBUTION RESOLUTION:
THE DESIGN OF THE REVELATION
There was no one more powerful and capable to deliver John’s letter to the seven Christian churches of the major metropolises of Asia, and then help them make hundreds of copies and distribute them to all the major marketplaces of the world, and finally encourage everyone to read it, than Jesus’ two archenemies that His letter says He was about to destroy: the Roman empire and apostate nation of Israel! In a multi-dimensional masterpiece of mental manipulation, they would all concur that the world conquest of the kingdom of God was at hand! However, there was one small difference in their interpretations—whose kingdom that would be.