Eyes to See The Revelation

The Book of Revelation is an immense and monumental subject matter. It is interpreted by hundreds of allusions to other passages in both the Old and New Testament. Therefore, it is impossible to understand the Book of Revelation unless we have a considerable understanding of the entirety of Scripture. It is like a final exam that covers the entirety of everything we could ever learn from the Bible. The rest of Scripture is the window into The Revelation, and The Revelation is a window into the entirety of Scripture. Of central importance, the Book of Revelation teaches us to be a servant of God.

The Book of Revelation was written to the faithful servants of God. Revelation 1:1 explained that the book was written to show His servants what must soon take place. John used the Greek word doulos, which means “a slave or servant,” to describe the intended audience of his book. Such a believer accepts that it is no longer he who lives, but Christ who lives in him (Gal. 2:20). A servant of Christ seeks to please God, not men (Gal. 1:10). To accept that we are designed to be servants of God means that we are more and more voluntarily relinquishing our independence from our Creator. It is a by-product of knowing and trusting God. History has provided ample evidence that the average believer is not a servant of God. However, it is also true that faithful believers are not specific to any particular denomination. Faithful servants of Christ are hidden across the spectrum of Christianity, both denominational and nondenominational. Such believers are hidden because it is impossible for us to know (or number) with certainty the soul of any other human being, which is fully known only by God. Thankfully, God is our judge, not men or angels. Christian maturity is really a measure of the degree to which we love God and our neighbor. Something known only by our Creator.

The servants of God (and their Lord) are the protagonists in the drama called The Revelation. In this drama, the faithful servants of God are identified in several different ways. They are called victors (or overcomers). They are symbolically described as the 144,000. I call them the “Fraternity of Faithful Believers.” Understand that the Lord has set aside the faithful (or pious) for Himself (Ps. 4:3). Those among the Fraternity of Faithful Believers are the heirs of the Kingdom (Gal. 3:29, 4:29–30).

The “Advocates of the Old Covenant” is the name that I apply to First Century Christians and Jews who put an undue emphasis on continuing the ritual practices of the Old Testament law. The Advocates of the Old Covenant included Jews that believed in Christ and Jews that did not accept Christ as the Messiah. Also included were Gentile believers who put an undue emphasis on the Old Covenant. The Advocates of the Old Covenant failed to understand and accept that the Old Covenant was obsolete and passing away (Heb. 8:13). They rallied around the Old Covenant as a people might rally around a flag. To them, unfaithfulness to the Old Covenant was tantamount to unfaithfulness to Yahweh. Let the reader understand, the Book of Revelation and this book, Eyes to See the Revelation, are not about race or genetics. Both are about how to correctly worship God. For around 1400 years, the Old Covenant was the correct way to draw near and worship God. But with the coming of the Messiah and the Holy Spirit, everything changed. Knowing how to worship God is extremely important. To know, we must be willing to listen. Tradition and history are not legitimate excuses. The Book of Revelation is all about the New Covenant versus the Old Covenant. Because of this dispute between the Old Covenant and New Covenant, a minority obedient to the New Covenant was persecuted by the Advocates of the Old Covenant for obeying God, and Rome joined in the persecution.

“Riding the back of Rome” is a major theme and description of the relationship between the Advocates of the Old Covenant and Rome. The real power in the Mediterranean world was Rome. This pattern of pressuring Rome to persecute their enemies started when the Advocates of the Old Covenant pressured Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus Christ, an innocent man. Pontius Pilate found that Christ was not guilty of anything deserving of death. Yet, very prominent, influential, and religious people convinced Pontus Pilate to crucify Christ. After the crucifixion of Christ, the Advocates of the Old Covenant were given 40 years to repent. Instead, they continued in the persecution of the burgeoning Church. Satan brilliantly distorted a misplaced loyalty to the Old Covenant. The persecuted prayed to their God for relief. The judgments recorded in the Book of Revelation were God’s answer to the prayers of the persecuted.