A | 1: 1. The revelation shewn by the angel. In promise.

B | 4: 1. Things hereafter. The throne and worshippers.

C | 17: 1. The whore (Note seven vials, and "he carried me away in the spirit").

D | 21: 9. The bride (Note seven vials, and "he carried me away in the spirit").

C | 21: 10. The city descending out of heaven from God.

D | 22: 1. The river proceeding out of the throne of God.

A | 22: 6. Things shewn by the angel.

B | 22: 8. The angel who shewed the things refusing worship.

The things shown to us by John in this book are further said to be "things which must

come to pass with speed." The words are a direct reference to Dan. 2: 29, and we would

here emphasize with all the power we may possess the utter impossibility of

understanding or appreciating either the message, or the means used to convey that

message, in this book, without a fairly comprehensive knowledge of the Old Testament

prophecies. Not only Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but Daniel and the so-called Minor

Prophets need careful study. How many there are who fail to understand the book of the

Revelation, who never blame themselves for ignoring the first commentaries ever written,

namely, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zechariah, Haggai,

Zephaniah and Malachi! The statement as to the speedy fulfilment of these things shown

is again emphasized in verse 3, "for the time is near." No amount of reasoning can make

this speedy fulfilment the well-nigh two thousand years which have intervened between

the uttering of these words and their yet distant accomplishment.

The words "with speed" and "is near" were not written from the standpoint of A.D. 96,

but from the standpoint from which the visions were seen, viz., The day of the Lord.

Time will then be shortened for the elect's sake, the final seven years of Dan. 9: will

quickly run their course, and the Lord will rend the heavens and come down. The

reference to such passages as II Pet. 3: 8 is a gloss invented to explain away the apparent

difficulty, a difficulty which vanishes by adjusting the view-point to the time when the

visions were seen and the words heard. This urgent note is repeated in the messages to

the seven assemblies, "Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly" (2: 16), "Behold, I

come quickly" (3: 11). The same meaning must be given here as to the words in

Rev. 11: 14. The book closes with repeated emphasis upon the nearness of the Lord's

coming (Rev. 22: 7, 12, 20), and helps us to see that the whole book is written from the

future standpoint of the day of the Lord, and has no historic or prophetic reference to the

course of events which have transpired during the interval filled by the dispensation of

the mystery, or of the church in its wider aspect.

The word "signified" in Rev. 1: 1, as the English word suggests, is derived from the

word "sign," or "symbol," and indicates that in the book of the Revelation we are to have

described and explained a prophecy which was made known to John by an angel through

the medium of a series of signs or symbols. The word semainõ, "to signify" (from

semeion, "a sign"), occurs only six times in the N.T. John 12: 33, 18: 32, and 21: 19