Larry Parsons
August 16th, 2010, 05:42 PM
Some of you may remember in our first lesson we mention that the letter of Revelation was a contemporary letter. In others words, it was a letter that was written to and for the Christians who it was first delivered. Here are two verses that I believe will bear that fact out.
"This is the revelation God gave to Jesus, that he might show his servants what was going to happen very soon….’ Rev.1:1a
“Happy is the man who reads this prophetic message and happy are those who heard it and heed what was written in it, for the appointed time is near!” Rev1:3 These two verses are the key to understanding the book of Revelation. If you will notice at verse 1, his servants were show what was soon to take place. Then at verse 3 we also notice that his servants were to hear and to heed (obey) the revelation, in other words they had to understand what was been written to them. Remember now, the letter of Revelation was written original to the tribulation saints of the middle of the first century. John was writting to them to give them comfort and hope.
Have you notice that John was expecting the prophecy events that was being reveal to him was to occur soon and if that was the case then verse 7 of chapter 1, can't be about something that would take place at end of history. This verse has nothing to do with the second coming of Christ. Rev,1: 7 was a event that took place shortly after the book of Revelation was written.
Rev. 1:7 “See or behold he is coming with the clouds, every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him...." It is no doubt Rev.1:7 is the very same event that Jesus told his disciples that they would see.before thier generation would pass away.see (Matthew24:30 and Matt,24:34) It is also the very same event that Christ told Caiaphas the high priest that he would live to see. see Matthew 26:64. And what about the promise that Jesus made to his disciples, that some of them would still be alive when the Son of Man came into his kingdom. see Matt,16:28. Have you notice Jesus ask the religious leaders at the end of his parable of the "Wicked Vine-growers" "When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers? And they said to him, He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to another vine-growers, who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons. I believe we can say that this parable is also referring AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem. When the kingdom was taken away from the unbelievingJews. Notice that Jesus spoke of that judgment as a coming of the Lord --see Matt, 21:40
"That every eye shall see him” What John is saying here it was going to be a public event, it was not going to be hidden in some corner. But it does mean that everyone in the world see the event. We all know that the Bible frequently uses "All" or "Every" in a limited sense. Wevery saw this idea in our adult Sunday School lesson few Sundays back. Jesus was using the word "Every" like the Hebrew would or just like we would .When we tell someone in our excitment that everybody was at the game except you. (it's a figure of speech)
Rev, 1:7c “even those who pierced him and of course we know that it was the first century Jews who pierced him. We have too many scripture verses that will proof that to be true for example Matt,27:25, John,19:15, Acts 2:23, Acts 5:30. Rev,1:7 is about the judgment that would be coming upon those who have pierced him. For example one Bible trasalation has put it this way: ..every eye will see Him,even those who pierced Him. Another one has it this way "every eye will see him, that is, those who pierced him. We know those who have pierced him have been dead for 1900 years. I already mention the high priest in Matt,26:64 and he has been dead for 1900 years. “All the tribes of the earth and it is my understanding the Greek word for earth can be trasalated land.(the land of Judea) will mourn over him”
Some of you may not have notice but there is parallel between Rev,1:7 and Matt,24:30 and both of two verses comes from Daniel 7:13 and Zechariah 12;10 The coming on the clouds, come from Daniel and the mourning of tribes comes from Zechariah. Matthew24:30 is another verse that everyone assume that it is talking about Jesus second coming at the end of history. Most people will also assume that everyone on earth will would see Him physically appearing in the sky. This idea come from a poor translation of the text. First of all, the text does not say that Jesus is to appear in the sky.The text should read "And then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven." What Jesus was doing here, he was telling his disciples to look for a sign of his enthronement in heaven.The sign that the disciples was to look for was the destruction of Jerusalem of A.D 70
We need to keep in mind according to verses like Rev,1:1;22:6 and Rev1:3;22:10 all these verses should let know us know that John believe that his Revelation prophecies would take place in his day. When mention this idea that we are talking about here people will begin to quote 2nd Peter 3:8 as you know the last half of this verse ..that with the Lord one day is as a thousand yeras and a thousand years as one day. First of all Peter is talking about God, John is not talking about God he giving direction to men Peter ismaking a theological statement about God. What John did was provide direction to men that was facing hardships which was the Great Tribulation"
What do you think?
Thanks
Larry Parsons
"This is the revelation God gave to Jesus, that he might show his servants what was going to happen very soon….’ Rev.1:1a
“Happy is the man who reads this prophetic message and happy are those who heard it and heed what was written in it, for the appointed time is near!” Rev1:3 These two verses are the key to understanding the book of Revelation. If you will notice at verse 1, his servants were show what was soon to take place. Then at verse 3 we also notice that his servants were to hear and to heed (obey) the revelation, in other words they had to understand what was been written to them. Remember now, the letter of Revelation was written original to the tribulation saints of the middle of the first century. John was writting to them to give them comfort and hope.
Have you notice that John was expecting the prophecy events that was being reveal to him was to occur soon and if that was the case then verse 7 of chapter 1, can't be about something that would take place at end of history. This verse has nothing to do with the second coming of Christ. Rev,1: 7 was a event that took place shortly after the book of Revelation was written.
Rev. 1:7 “See or behold he is coming with the clouds, every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him...." It is no doubt Rev.1:7 is the very same event that Jesus told his disciples that they would see.before thier generation would pass away.see (Matthew24:30 and Matt,24:34) It is also the very same event that Christ told Caiaphas the high priest that he would live to see. see Matthew 26:64. And what about the promise that Jesus made to his disciples, that some of them would still be alive when the Son of Man came into his kingdom. see Matt,16:28. Have you notice Jesus ask the religious leaders at the end of his parable of the "Wicked Vine-growers" "When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers? And they said to him, He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to another vine-growers, who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons. I believe we can say that this parable is also referring AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem. When the kingdom was taken away from the unbelievingJews. Notice that Jesus spoke of that judgment as a coming of the Lord --see Matt, 21:40
"That every eye shall see him” What John is saying here it was going to be a public event, it was not going to be hidden in some corner. But it does mean that everyone in the world see the event. We all know that the Bible frequently uses "All" or "Every" in a limited sense. Wevery saw this idea in our adult Sunday School lesson few Sundays back. Jesus was using the word "Every" like the Hebrew would or just like we would .When we tell someone in our excitment that everybody was at the game except you. (it's a figure of speech)
Rev, 1:7c “even those who pierced him and of course we know that it was the first century Jews who pierced him. We have too many scripture verses that will proof that to be true for example Matt,27:25, John,19:15, Acts 2:23, Acts 5:30. Rev,1:7 is about the judgment that would be coming upon those who have pierced him. For example one Bible trasalation has put it this way: ..every eye will see Him,even those who pierced Him. Another one has it this way "every eye will see him, that is, those who pierced him. We know those who have pierced him have been dead for 1900 years. I already mention the high priest in Matt,26:64 and he has been dead for 1900 years. “All the tribes of the earth and it is my understanding the Greek word for earth can be trasalated land.(the land of Judea) will mourn over him”
Some of you may not have notice but there is parallel between Rev,1:7 and Matt,24:30 and both of two verses comes from Daniel 7:13 and Zechariah 12;10 The coming on the clouds, come from Daniel and the mourning of tribes comes from Zechariah. Matthew24:30 is another verse that everyone assume that it is talking about Jesus second coming at the end of history. Most people will also assume that everyone on earth will would see Him physically appearing in the sky. This idea come from a poor translation of the text. First of all, the text does not say that Jesus is to appear in the sky.The text should read "And then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven." What Jesus was doing here, he was telling his disciples to look for a sign of his enthronement in heaven.The sign that the disciples was to look for was the destruction of Jerusalem of A.D 70
We need to keep in mind according to verses like Rev,1:1;22:6 and Rev1:3;22:10 all these verses should let know us know that John believe that his Revelation prophecies would take place in his day. When mention this idea that we are talking about here people will begin to quote 2nd Peter 3:8 as you know the last half of this verse ..that with the Lord one day is as a thousand yeras and a thousand years as one day. First of all Peter is talking about God, John is not talking about God he giving direction to men Peter ismaking a theological statement about God. What John did was provide direction to men that was facing hardships which was the Great Tribulation"
What do you think?
Thanks
Larry Parsons