A Trans-Temporal Prophecy for a Trans-Generational Church
We have established that everything about the prophecies of Revelation is tied to an inner scroll which gradually unfolds over a period of time. In that unfolding is a harvest of sub-meaning and fulfilment to be discovered across many generations. The trans-generational aspect of this unfolding is responsible for the consternation we have sought to quell over the meaning of "soon" in the promise of the Lord's coming.
In asserting that Christ's revealing is a trans-generational process, we have contended that the Book of Revelation has thus been fully applicable to every generation since it was released. (With apologies to George W. Bush and Tim LaHaye, we could capture this idea through the slogan "No Generation Left Behind.") It was not just applicable to the first generation or just to the last. Every generation since John has had the fresh task of discovering where they are found in the incipient unfoldings of Revelation's prophetic themes toward the conclusory arrival of the Lord. Every generation has been tasked with grasping the sense of immediacy and imminency associated with this promise. And ours is no exception.
A Mandate to Be Heeded
How do we know that Revelation has application to every generation since it was released? We know this because Revelation was not just delivered as a piece of information to satisfy the human curiosity of a few local churches about Christ's return, but as an open-ended mandate to be heeded by all its readers unto the time of Christ's consummate arrival. Let's follow this from the book itself:
1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.
16:15 ("Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.")
22:6 And he said to me, "These words are faithful and true"; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place. 7 "And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book." 10 And he said to me, "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. 11 "Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy." 12 "Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. 14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. 16 "I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches....." 17 The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. 18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.
Let's look at this with care. The book as a whole is immediately addressed to all who read it, and is assigned urgency relative to the imminence of the Lord's coming. (We have already explained that this imminence is in the present progression of His coming as well as in His immediacy of Spirit presence just beyond our veiled eyes. It is not limited to meaning His imminent consummating arrival.) This universal address is repeated again at the end of the book. At both opening and closing, it carries an exhortation to heed (obey) what is written throughout.Between the introductory and ending addresses, the first main section (chapters 2 and 3) is written specifically to a set of seven local churches in Asia Minor. I have left out the mandates given to those churches just now, but in a later episode will show how those mandates also apply universally to all who read this book unto the Lord's arrival, not just to the first recipients who attended those original seven churches in John's time.
Past the exhortations directed specifically to the seven churches, the book continues and concludes with exhortation to the universal sainthood, and does so in view of the Lord's imminence of coming. It speaks to those who "wash their robes" so as to have right to the tree of life within the New Jerusalem. It addresses in general "the one" who hears and "the one" who is thirsty for the water of life in the New Jerusalem. It also appeals to "the bride." The command is given not to seal the rest of the prophecy past the exhortations to the seven churches, which means the prophecy was to go out to the world beyond the message to those local churches. And it closes with a dire warning to "everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book."
A Word "for the Churches" of All Times
I have belabored what should now be obvious to most—which is that Revelation is addressed to every saint within ear shot who lives anywhere along the time corridor of Christ's unfolding coming, regardless of which generation along that continuum. I do this to cut away any assertions that this book is written only to and applicable only to the original recipients of the first generation churches, serving thereafter as no more than an antiquated "appendix" tacked on to the end of the New Testament canon—which is the way this book has largely been treated ever since "the father's fell asleep."
In this regard especially note Jesus' word in 22:16 that He sent His angel to testify of these things "for the churches." This statement is not a delimiter of context to the seven local churches but is inclusive within context of all the churches to come. Let's put our brains on. If all these first and last exhortations were only directed to the original seven churches, then it would mean that all the promises to the overcomers as well as the threats associated with tampering with the prophecy could only apply to the people in those churches.
It would also mean that all the myriads of saints depicted in the prophecy including the Bride would have had no stake in the prophecy that told about them on earth—or else it would mean that only the people from those few local churches would make up the Bride! And if any of that were true, the Holy Spirit would not have bothered publicizing this prophecy to future generations by adding it to the canon in the first place. He would have sent it privately to those local churches and no one living past them or outside of them would know anything about it! (We will attack the ideas of unbelieving men who seek to "de-relativize" the book of Revelation to post-apostolic saints in more detail later.)
Oppositely, I also belabor the trans-generational applicability of Revelation to do away with all notions that Revelation only applies to some final generation afar off who will receive the Lord's arrival, and that they and only they will know what all these prophecies mean seeing it will all come to pass suddenly only in their time, and until then, let's just leave it to them to figure out. We are just too busy with our own time-bound callings to bother with it.Absolutely not! That is equivalent to saying that this revelation is "sealed up" until the final generation, which is in direct contradiction to the angel who told John the revelation is not to be sealed up because "the time is near" (meaning, "this prophecy applies to you, John, and hence to anyone else after you who reads it in their now").
In all cases, no one can obey or has an incentive to obey a mandate from God if he believes it only applies to some generation in the distant past or distant future far removed from him. That is why, as the final book of New Testament scripture, Revelation's mandate to all hearers to heed the words of this prophecy shows all alone by itself that Revelation is meant to be applied to every generation unto the Lord's arrival.
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To recapitulate then: The book of Revelation is mandatorily relevant to every generation since it was released unto the consummation of the Lord's coming, because it was written to all its hearers with exhortations to be obeyed in context of the Lord's unfolding coming, which is still progressing. There has been therefore an accountability mandate on every generation to the present to discover what the Spirit is saying to the churches in how to heed this book and discover its incipient application for their times.
Conforming Temporal Vision to the Eternal Framework
We want to conclude this episode by understanding the real underlying reason why the book of Revelation is so neglected by the generations. True it is that the prophecies require a spiritual listening which is foreign to most because it is too troublesome to gain. The natural mind does not want to be bothered with having to rummage through prophetic language to understand truth.
But that is only part of the reason Revelation is ignored. The deeper reason is that Revelation forces us to conform our temporal sense of mission in life to an eternal framework that says that temporal calling is not what God has ultimately designed us for. As a people devoted to ministry, we are wanting to maintain a dominant sense of the present import of what we are called to. We only want to hear about what makes us feel fulfilled under the veil of our mortality. We place a high priority on our mortal life, and so don't want to think about our lives as being a mere prelude and laboratory ahead of participation in an immortal eternal trans-generational purpose tied to the revealing of Christ. This is especially true the younger we are.
On the more carnal level, we all have known those and perhaps struggled early on ourselves with the conflict in desires for our lives versus our knowledge of the soon return of the Lord. How many can attest to having thought, "I want the Lord to come back, but not til I've had a chance to get married and have kids and raise a family and have a satisfying career!" To the very young at heart, the thought of the Lord's coming pre-empting these possibilities for present life is a real downer!
Though we may outgrow this thinking as we mature, in our more spiritual appreciations we still carry a similar attitude in which we value our temporal call to ministry above and apart from any concept of anchoring in the eternal plan for the Lord's coming. And that is why we ignore the book of Revelation. And if you look around you at ministry today, including prophetic ministry, 90-95% of it is geared to applying prayer and the ministry of the Spirit to temporal situations and purposes (like elections and bettering nations, etc.). We just don't want our spiritual interests in current life to be bothered or impinged upon or interrupted by having to practically accommodate the Lord's trans-generational purpose toward His return. We prefer to remain ignorant and leave it all to the last or the first generation.
Yet it is precisely for this purpose that Revelation is given to us and exhorted to be heeded. Jesus makes it very clear in this book that He will be in no mood to entertain excuses for why we were unwilling to harness our temporal vision to facilitating His eternal purpose of returning to join us to Himself in immortality. That is why the imminence of His coming is given such preeminence throughout Revelation, and why we were given a peek behind the curtain of heaven of what awaits us. Our temporal call is not to be taken as our summum bonum. And we are warned against making it so.
The book of Revelation is thus a wakeup call to eternal destiny out of mortal purposing, and is issued to every believer unto the moment of Christ's arrival. It is a call to view our fleeting present as mere preparation toward joining to Him in immortal existence as a worshipping priesthood.
To this end it applies to every generation.
To be continued…..
Chris Anderson
New Meadow Neck, Rhode Island
First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org5/16
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Page updated January 24, 2018
