Welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the book of Revelation. This will be study #6 in chapter 1, and we are continuing to look at verse 1 of chapter 1:
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
We are looking at the phrase "to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass." We had asked the question at the end of our last study, "Well, how can God say this when this statement was made in the first century A.D., and we are living in the year 2013 in the twenty-first century, and the things written about in the book of Revelation, as well as elsewhere in the Bible, have to do with the coming of Christ, and He has not yet come?
How is it possible that God could could make a statement (and we understand the part "to shew unto his servants," because that is the nature of the Bible, and that is what Christ does when He opens up the eyes of His people to understand truth; we understand that), that He is showing things "that must shortly come to past?" We are a little unsure of exactly what God has in mind by that statement.
So, let us look at the word translated here as "shortly," as in "shortly come to pass." This word is Strong's #5034, and it is a compound word, that is, it is made up of two different Greek words: one is #1722 and it is the little word "en" and it means "in" something, and then the other word is "tachos," and that is where we get the idea of "quickly." It means "speed" or "haste." So "in speed" or "in haste" is a proper translation of this word: "things which must shortly come to pass," things which must "in speed" come to pass.
And, again, 2,000 years (almost), from our perspective, certainly that is not very quick! That is a very long period of time for God to bring these things to pass.
Well, let us see how this word is used elsewhere. And we will also look at a related word #5035, which is "tachu," and that is a very similar word and is also translated as "quickly" and in some other ways. But, let us start off by turning to Acts 22, and reading verse 18, and it says there:
And saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.
Now here we see the word "quickly" again, and that is our Greek word "tachos," or "en tachos," and it is the compound word also here, and the idea is added to with the statement, "make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem." We certainly get the idea that this is talking about "right away," or "speedily. It is something that must happen as soon as possible!
The other related word "tachu" we find used in the book of Revelation, chapter 22, a few times, and I would like to some of those places. In Revelation 22, I will start reading in verse 6:
And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
There is a very similar statement to our statement in Revelation 1, verse 1. Let me read it again, the last half of that verse again: "....the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done." And then it says in verse 7:
Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
It is also stated in verse 12:And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
And, finally, in verse 20:He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Well, again, the declaration of Christ is, "I come quickly." The desire of the believers is, "Yes, come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly." But here we are, again, almost 2,000 years later, and Christ has not come!
He has come in judgment in a spiritual way: first, on the churches, and now on the world; yes, He has come that way. But we are looking for more than that. We are looking for the completion of all things: for Christ, as it says in 1<sup>st</sup> Thessalonians 4, to come on the clouds, and for us to be lifted up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and to forever be with the Lord. That has not yet happened, where we have come into the very presence of God Himself, the Lord Jesus, and the world has ended, and the new Heaven and the New Earth is created, and we dwell with Him in His presence eternally. That has not happened, and that is what the desire of the children of God is, our expectation! We are looking for that coming of Christ, and He has not come.
Well, let us look at this word, "I come quickly," or "I come unto thee," and it is found a couple of other times in Revelation, chapter 2, and this is going to help us a little bit to understand what God is saying. In Revelation 2, verse 5:
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
It says also in verse 16:Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
Now this is part of the address to the churches. This is speaking in Revelation 2:5 to the church at Ephesus, and let us carefully consider what the Lord Jesus is saying. He is talking to the church and telling them to "Repent, and do the first works," that is, keep my commandments, "or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent."
Now that reminds us of what Revelation 2:20 says, and remember, what was said to one of the churches is said to all of the churches. They were representatives, really, of the churches throughout church age. It says in Revelation 2:20:
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
So Christ says to the church, "Repent! Repent!" In the address to Thyatira, in verse 21, we discover that God gave "space" for that repentance, and that "space" would apply to the entire church age - from the beginning of the church in the first century. Of course, it quickly fell into sin and it continued in transgression, in rebelling against God's commandments. It did not "return to its first love." It continued to disobey the commandments of God.
Well, God gave "space" to repent, century, after century, after century, for 1,955 years! Then He came to "visit" and He saw that they did not repent, and what does the next verse say in Revelation 2? After God says, "I gave her space to repent, and she repented not," it says in verse 22 of Revelation, chapter 2:
Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation...
The Great Tribulation began in 1988, after the 1,955 years of "space" that the church had to repent, and did not repent. Then it was time to judge them. And what happened when God began the Great Tribulation? He loosed Satan. He allowed Satan to enter into the congregations to be "the Abomination of Desolation," to "stand in the Holy place," and "the daily was taken away," just as Jesus said in Revelation 2:5:
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
That is, God removed the light of the Gospel, the candlestick, from the midst of the churches, the Holy Spirit came out of the midst, and leaving them in spiritual darkness, once they did not repent. The condition of judgment took effect after the period of "space" had elapsed, and that tells us a lot about this statement, "...repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly..." You see, what God had in mind with that statement was, "There will be granted you a period of time in which you may repent, at any point throughout these many centuries to come. And if you do not repent (which they did not), then when that period of 'space' has elapsed, I will come quickly." In other words, "at the first available instant in my time table for the church, I will come quickly in judgment, as soon as the allotted time for repentance has transpired and has been completed."
Then Christ came immediately, without hesitation! He came as fast as possible, in a 'second,' as soon as the time period was all gone, the Lord Jesus came "quickly." And that is very helpful.
It also tells us in the Gospel of Luke, where the word translated as "quickly" in our verse in Revelation 1 is translated here as "speedily," and I am going to read Luke, chapter 18, and verse 6:
And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
Now, again, this is unusual! We would not understand it, except that Revelation 2:5 has just been very helpful to us. Notice that God's Elect are crying day and night - they are crying on a daily basis, during the day and during the night. And we know it is a long period of time because it says, "though He bear long with them." God is bearing long, hearing the cries of His people.
And how long did He listen? Again, for centuries! This is speaking of the "day of vengeance," the Day of Judgment! And we read in the book of Revelation that God's people say, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?"
And it has been quite a number of years, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, that the blood of God's people has been crying out to Him, "from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias," all the righteous blood of the prophets that have been slain upon the Earth, day and night! And He (God) has born a long time. He has been long-suffering patient, waiting and biding His time.
And what has He been waiting for? Well, He is waiting for His time table, the time table of God, that we have discovered by His grace, in the Biblical calendar of history. We know that there was a "time" for firstfruits during the church age, then the church age came to a close and God began judgment on the churches. But then we know there was a period of "Latter Rain," a second jubilee, a second outpouring of the Holy Spirit into the world, and God waiting to judge the inhabitants of the Earth until of all of the Elect that were to be saved did become saved!
And God waited and waited until the last one of the Elect whose name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life, heard the Gospel and God saved that individual, and then, finally, God shut the door to Heaven. He put out the "light" of the sun; He removed the "light" of the moon; and the "stars" of Heaven fell; the "voice" of the bridegroom and the "voice" of the bride would be heard no more within her; the "light" of the candlestick would shine no more in her. Judgment Day had come, the day of vengeance, the year of vengeance of God, for the sake of His people.
And was it "speedily?" Yes, yes! Let me read the verse again: "...I tell you that he will avenge them speedily." That is, God could not avenge them, as long as there were still Chosen Ones to become saved! It was not His plan. It was not possible. It was not even in the realm of possibility - He had a promise He had stated in His word that He would be long-suffering patient, waiting for the early and the Latter Rain, before He would bring about judgment, and before He would pour out His wrath. But as soon as all the Elect heard and became saved, then He did not wait a second longer; He did not wait at all; immediately, speedily, quickly, God shut the door to Heaven and began the judgment process on all the unsaved people of the Earth.
Once again, we see how this particular word is being used. It is being used in the sense that, first, according to the plan of God and the will of God, as soon as God's time table is reached, then He will act "speedily." He will "come quickly."
Now let us go back to Revelation, chapter 22, and we will take another look at some of these verses. Let us go to verse 10 and I will read through verse 12:
And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
Now first God tells us in verse 10, "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand." And that lets us know the time period that is in view is AFTER the Great Tribulation, because that is when the seven seals came off the Bible, and that time is at hand.
But, more than that, verse 11 tells us it is a time when the one who is "unjust" and "filthy" will remain in that condition, and the one who is "righteous" and "holy" will remain in that condition. That is, mankind's spiritual condition is established and set, that is, the eternal state of every man has now been settled. When did this happen?
The only time in history this is so is when we entered into the Day of Judgment and God shut the door to Heaven! That established all who did become saved; they were now saved. And all else, who did not become saved prior to God shutting the door, remain in their unsaved condition, spiritually "filthy," spiritually "unjust" before God. They will continue that way, and nothing can change that, as we continue living during the Day of Judgment, throughout these days of Judgment Day which, perhaps, will be 1,600 days. But however long these days are, this will be the spiritual condition of mankind.
No one ever again will be "filthy," and God saves them and they become "righteous." No, the "righteous" will be "righteous" still and the "filthy" will be "filthy" still - everyone remains exactly as they are. It is in that setting that verse 12 says, "And, behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me," that is, once God completes the Day of Judgment, just as we read Jesus saying in Revelation 2:5, "Repent...or else I will come unto thee quickly."
Well, it was after the "space" of repentance that was granted to the church that Christ came in judgment on the churches. And it is after this allotted time for Judgment Day on the unsaved people of the world, that Christ will come at its ending or at its conclusion, and He will "come quickly," without delay, as soon as possible, immediately at the first possible instance, then the Lord Jesus comes and all things then are brought to a close.