Revelation in the wilderness – 2. What’s in an intro?

Following on from my last post about the style and function of Revelation chapter 1, here are some further thoughts about the content.

‘The Revelation of Jesus Christ’ – the first words of the Book of Revelation identify the owner of the message. Verse 1 then describes a chain of command through which the message has passed: from God to Jesus Christ, to ‘his angel’, to ‘his servant John’. My understanding of this is that the angel and John in this description belong to Jesus Christ.

So the first picture in Revelation is of a Kingdom spanning spiritual and earthly realms: the Kingdom of God, with Jesus Christ at its head, in union with God the Father. This is the first of many points of doctrine woven into chapter one of Revelation, which have elsewhere been recognised in numerous teachings and creeds as essential elements of the biblical Christian faith. I myself believe that the faith is not designed to be reduced to key principals, but is founded on the whole, infinite person of Jesus Christ: his being, his nature, and the history of his earthly ministry, death, and resurrection, and all other things pertaining to his person. Nonetheless, certain aspects – for example, Jesus’ death and resurrection – are identified in the Bible itself as essential elements of belief for followers of Jesus Christ.

So I began to wonder just how much of the Christian ‘creed’ is contained in chapter one, which at first glance is simply an introduction, and the beginnings of a story and prophecy.

As with verses 1-2, verse 3 at first reading appears simply to continue the introduction: it describes the type of content which is to follow i.e. prophecy – and asserts the relevance of it, that it is for a near time and should be respected and observed – ‘kept’ – by the reader. But wait, there is more.

John goes so far as to say, ‘Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy’. To put this in perspective, I would imagine that to be blessed is a central quest of most forms of belief, and most devotees, for example the Jews of whom was John, do not consider blessedness to be universally bestowed, or even easily come by. Some religions consider it requires excruciating disciplines of devotion. Others, like the Jews, believe it is at least in part a matter of inheritance, that it is at the discretion of God and certainly not given to all. In terms of numbers, the ‘heathen’ of Jewish understanding were and still are the majority of the world population, and while I believe there is promise for all peoples throughout the Bible, there is also much to assert the particular calling of the Jews to God’s blessing, and the general separation from blessing of the heathen.

So while I realise I am labouring this point, I mean to say that the declaration of John, a Jew, that any and everyone might be blessed simply by reading Revelation and ‘keeping those things which are written therein’ is a great departure from what I imagine was Jewish understanding of the day, and simply radical in the context of most religious thought. For while John does proceed in the following verse to address his writing to a more specific audience, there is no way that verse 3 can be limited by the type of reverential reading that John promotes; it applies simply to ‘he that readeth’. Any more limited interpretation would detract from the authority of the message.

So here is point two of the creed of Revelation one: a universal salvation, at least potentially for all people. For without salvation, one cannot be blessed.

Verses 4-6 are so dense with doctrine that I will include them here to avoid having in any case to repeat every word:

‘John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.’ Revelation 1:4-6.

Firstly, grace and peace to the seven churches: the undeserved favour and enabling of God, and peace from God, hence with God, is upon the churches. Chapters 2-3 of Revelation which address, among other things, many offences of the churches of the day, the same churches of Asia to whom John addresses his message, certainly confirm that these indescribable favours were underserved, and surely still are by the churches of today. So there is indication here of something bestowed upon the Church which had not been, and could not be achieved through the old covenant under which John had begun and lived much of his life.

For the covenant of Moses was a covenant of merit, despite that under it the saints of that age found faith and mercy from God by his grace, those were not the stated terms of that covenant. ‘For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.’ (John 1:17.) And peace had not been much experienced by the Jews, who at the time of John’s writing were, I understand, under Roman occupation, and I expect, much oppression. Here then, in Revelation 1:4, is a promise of redemption. These favours – grace and peace – are from God only, and are not given to the unrighteous. Yet the Church, with all its failings, was to be counted worthy.

He that bestows grace and peace is then described as God the Father, the Holy Spirit (described by John as ‘the seven Spirits’), and Jesus Christ the Son: the doctrine of the Trinity. I do not think the ‘seven Spirits’ can be angels, which are elsewhere described in the Bible as ‘ministering spirits’, because Revelation 3:1 speaks of ‘the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars’. The ‘stars’ are elsewhere revealed to be angels, for example in Revelation 1:20, hence it appears the Spirits are other than angels. Finally, Revelation 5:6 describes ‘a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.’ The seven Spirits of God are therefore described as one with the very being of the Lamb, who is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. ‘The seven Spirits of God’ can only mean the Holy Spirit, though he is not elsewhere in the Bible described in this way, so far as I am aware.

‘And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.’ (vs 5). This is the doctrine of the person of Christ – his identity, the truth of his word, his resurrection, and supremacy in the earth. And following this in verses 5 and 6, mention of his glorious work of redemption. This is revealed as personal, in love, at inconceivable personal cost, and not merely restorative but lifting his people to become kings and priests.

Rather than continue to examine each tenet represented in Revelation 1, I will instead consider this from the alternate perspective, to see how much of the Nicence Creed, a Christian creed widely recognised both historically and currently, can be linked to the chapter. This level of detail and rather technical approach may not be of interest to all readers, however, I do not want to make the assertion that Revelation chapter 1 is the equivalent of a creed without examining fully whether, and to what extent that is the case. I have therefore included the analysis in a table at the end of this essay.

But if so much of New Testament doctriine does indeed reside in Revelation 1, so that it could even itself form a statement of what is understood as the Christian faith with little or nothing omitted – why should that be so? When the obvious purpose of the chapter is simply an introduction.

To answer the above question, perhaps we might reflect that in John’s day the Christian faith was yet in its infancy. And though we may now see the accord of the Old Testament with the New, the Christian faith had nonetheless in those days challenged and even overturned much of what the Jews, even those who believed, had until then held dear. At the very least it added so profoundly to what they had believed, that if still true, those Old Testament doctrines could never be viewed in the same light as they had been for millennia.

And while the covenant of Moses had not prior to the time of John served the Jews effectively to provide the blessings of grace, peace and redemption mentioned above, it had nonetheless provided their identity, an unparalleled identity as the chosen people of God, and held them together as that people through a great and turbulent history. So even while some welcomed the New Covenant brought by the Messiah with relief and rejoicing, it may still have been with some grief or at least the fatigue brought by a great and rending change, once that change is wrought.

In light of the above, I suggest it would have been with some trepidation that believers received the message of a great new revelation from an apostle of the Lord, one of the twelve¹, whose authority in all matters of the faith was unsurpassed. They must have wondered, will this again shake the very foundations of our understanding of God, and of who, and what we are before him? Could this even, again, overturn all we have so recently received of our beliefs concerning Jesus Christ and the New Covenant, and render it already obsolete? Will what we took as unchangeable be found to change, yet again, and so soon? What then will be the anchor of our souls to the immutable God?

The affirmations of Revelation 1, in this light, touch one by one the hallmarks of New Testament truth, as if keying in the characters of a passphrase to open the hearts of the believers, replacing their trepidation with relief, and with an appetite for the truth to come.

1
Until reading the musings of so-called theologians on the subject, it had never occurred to me that the author of Revelation was any other than John the apostle of the Lord, one of the twelve. Having read those other assertions to the contrary, my view is unchanged. However, rather than contend this point on limited evidence and for little purpose, it will suffice to agree that whoever this John was, his manner of introduction indicates he was known to the churches, and known to be an authority of the faith, whose word would be received with gravity and given the utmost importance by those who believed.

Table 1. A comparison of Revelation 1 with the Nicene Creed.

Nicene Creed	Revelation chapter 1
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.	God is identified as ‘Father’ in verse 6, and as ‘the Almighty’ in verse 8. To my reading, creation is not mentioned directly in Revelation 1. (Of course, such doctrines may be represented elsewhere in Revelation, but the analysis here is confined to chapter 1, which, as discussed above, has a particular relevance to those coming upon the book for the first time.) However, ‘the Lord’ is described as ‘the beginning and the ending’, ‘which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty’ (vs 8), and, ‘the first and the last’ (vs 11). And in verse 6 concerning Jesus, ‘to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.’ This places God at the creation (and before), with power over, and ownership of all creation. And concerning the ‘unseen’, the mention of ‘the seven Spirits which are before his throne’ (vs 4), and the seven stars which are angels ‘in his right hand’, demonstrates the supremacy of God also in the unseen realm.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father.	See discussion above; God is the Father of Jesus Christ (vs 6) and in verses 11-13, ‘one like unto the Son of man’, who is ‘Alpha and Omega, the first and the last’. Also, that Jesus ‘washed us from our sins in his own blood’ (vs 5) demonstrates that he is not of the fallen, sinful human race, for his blood is not the blood of Adam, which could never cleanse us.
Through him all things were made.	See discussion above.
For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.	To my reading, neither Mary, nor the manner of Jesus’ birth are mentioned in Revelation 1. The pre-existence of Jesus as ‘the first and the last’ (vs 17), however, is consistent with his coming from heaven, and certainly precludes his first origin in natural birth. And as Jesus was and is commonly known to be a human man with an historical birth, it is clear his conception and birth could not have of the normal type, which in other cases does mark the origin of all men.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.	Verse 5: ‘Jesus Christ … the first begotten of the dead … him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood’. Verse 7: ‘he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him:’. Together, these verses confirm that Jesus died for our sake at the hands of men (the identities of ‘they also’ were and are commonly known, as is the means of Jesus’ death; as Revelation 1 is consistent with that account, and no further information on the subjects is given, it is implied that those matters are accepted).
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.	Verse 7, ‘Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him’ indicates that Jesus is risen and will return from heaven. The greeting in verse 4: ‘from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness’ associates Jesus closely with the Father and with his throne, as do the heavenly visions of verses 10-20. The direct association of Jesus with the throne of the Father is detailed more in chapters 4 and 5.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.	To my reading, verse 7, which speaks of Jesus coming, indeed glorious as I read it, also suggests to me judgement of the world: ‘Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.’ Verses 12-17 describe the glory of the risen Lord, at the sight of which, John ‘fell at his feet as dead’ (vs 17). And verse 18, to my reading, also suggests one with the authority and power to judge: ‘I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.’ The judgements of God, by the authority of Jesus Christ, are further detailed in the remainder of Revelation.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.	Verses 4-5, ‘Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; And from Jesus Christ..’; this greeting associates the Holy Spirit in personal form directly with the Father and the Son. No such personal greeting from the Holy Spirit is found in any other letters of the apostles, such as are now found in the Bible. For example, Paul’s customary greeting is, ‘Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.’ A personal greeting from the Holy Spirit represents an entirely different way of thinking about the Holy Spirit. Occasionally in the New Testament we find a phrase such as, ‘the Holy Ghost said’ (Acts 13:2). But while utterance and action is attributed to the Holy Spirit throughout the Bible, and particularly in the New Testament, most such references, while implying a personal identity of the Holy Spirit, do not engage personally with him, except insofar as he is Lord, and therefore any references to the Lord do refer to him, whether or not he is identified as the subject. These may seem subtle distinctions, but they are important. They relate to a question: can we know the Holy Spirit, or only know of him? Revelation 1:4-5 answers this question, because the entire purpose of a greeting is a personal introduction, and to show intentions of goodwill (and in this instance to give a blessing). The answer is yes. The worship of the Holy Spirit is not detailed in chapter 1 so far as I can see, but the reference to ‘the seven Spirits which are before his throne’ corresponds to the revelation of the throne of God in chapter 4. In that passage, the throne of God is described as a scene of perpetual worship from both a council of twenty-four crowned elders, and an array of heavenly beasts. The position in chapter 1 of the ‘seven Spirits of God’ before the throne places the Holy Spirit, as we, and as the Nicene Creed more usually refer to him, at the heart of this worship, and as its subject, together with he that sits upon the throne. Regarding the speaking of the Holy Spirit through the prophets, in Revelation 1, the Lord identifies himself as ‘Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.’ It is clear then, that the prophecy of John in Revelation is not separate from, nor of a different origin to all other prophecies of the Lord throughout history and the dealings of God with man, and in particular with the nation of Israel. This does not identify the Holy Spirit directly as the speaker either in Revelation or times before, but it is consistent with that, and I imagine, with the understanding of the Jews at the time of John. But John himself, introducing his prophecy, which he identifies as such in verse 3, begins by saying, ‘I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard..’. It is clear then, that the revelation and prophecy John received was by the Holy Spirit, who is the giver of prophecy.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.	There is immediately some difference apparent between the terminology of this tenet, and the terminology of Revelation 1. For a start, John addresses his message to ‘the seven churches which are in Asia’, not to one universal church, as I understand is meant by the term ‘catholic’ in this context. It is clear, however, that the seven churches have one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, who ‘washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.’ (vs 6-7) The supremacy of the Lord over all the churches, therefore, is the basis of the oneness and universality of the Church. Whatever the number of the churches, Jesus Christ is their common foundation, their everlasting Lord, and only Redeemer. And it is also clear that John, as an apostle (in my understanding) is writing to the churches that arose from the ministry of the apostles.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.	So far as I can see there is no direct reference to baptism of any kind in Revelation 1, nonetheless, as discussed above, it is clear there is one and only one Redeemer who ‘washed us from our sins in his own blood’ (vs 5), the Lord, Jesus Christ. This, then, is the truth that baptism proclaims, and as such is more important than the means to proclaim it. I would contend that Revelation 1 presents this most important doctrine of the faith more clearly and succinctly than the Nicene creed.
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.	Now it is the turn of Revelation 1 to imply what the Nicene creed states directly: the hope of resurrection through Jesus Christ. ‘Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.’ (vs 17-18) In that the Lord says, Fear not, the heart of faith can only believe that as Jesus is, so may we be with him. Amen, and amen.