Revelations: Intro Part 3 (Final)

Rev 1:7 Look! He is coming in the clouds. Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. Every tribe on earth will mourn because of him. This is true. Amen.

This verse gives us the whole theme of Revelations....the long awaiting second coming of Jesus Christ!
We have thus the promise of His return, the comfort and hope of the Churches. The book Revelations also closes with theme (Rev 22:20).

Revelations thus provides us with signs with meanings, that gives us an insight into

• things that will happen up to the visible coming of Jesus Christ,
• things that will happen during his coming, and
• things that will happen after his coming.

Rev 1:19 Therefore, write down what you have seen, what is, and what is going to happen after these things.

The divisions within Revelations contain the;

• Seven seals
• Seven trumpets
• Seven plagues
• Seven bowls
• Seven new things

Other than this, there are several parenthetical insertion within Revelations that breaks the sequence of the above ranges of judgements to supply more information and/or detail.

The structure of Revelations entails;

• Introduction and greetings (Rev 1: 1-8)
• The things that John had seen (Rev 1:9-20)
• The things what is (Rev 2-3)
• The things that is going to happen (Rev 6:1 - 18.24)
• The coming of Jesus Christ (Rev 19:1 - Rev 20:3)
• The Messianic kingdom (Rev 20:4 - Rev 20:15)
• The new and eternal order (Rev 21:1 - Rev 22:9)
• Promises and last warnings (Rev 22: 10 - Rev 22:21)

There is no reason to view Revelations as non-chronological as within Revelations there is no indication read as to why it is not chronological. In fact we read in several instances "After these things...." (Rev 4:1; 7:1,9; 18:1; 19:1).

Rights (C) 2011 Raymond D Lombard