John Beholds the Glorified Jesus - Continue with In the Lord's Day

Continue with In The Lord's Day

The fulfillment of other Bible prophecies helps us to see when the Lord's day begins.   For example, Daniel described a chopping down of rulership in the line of King David; after  "seven times" it would be known "that the Most High is Ruler in the kingdom of mankind, and that to the one whom he wants to he gives it."  ((Daniel 4:23, 24, 31, 32)  The major fulfillment of that prophecy started with the desolating of the kingdom of Judah, which is indicated by Bible evidence to have been completed by October 607 B.C.E. Revelation 12:6, 14 shows that 3 1/2  times amounts to 1,260 days, hence, seven times  (twice that number) must be 2,520 days. Reckoning  "a day for a year," we arrive at 2,520 years as the duration of the "seven times." (Ezekiel 4:6)  Therefore, Christ Jesus began his heavenly rule in the later part of 1914.  The erupting of the first world war in that year marked  a "beginning of pangs of distress" that have continued to plague  mankind.  Since 1914, how remarkably events in this bloodstained earth have confirmed that year to be the start of the "day: of Jesus' presence! - Matthew 24:3-14.

Hence, this first vision and the counsel it contains are for the Lord's day, from 1914 onward.  This timing is supported by the fact that, later in Revelation, the record describes the execution of God's true and righteous  judgments-events in which the Lord Jesus plays  and outstanding part.   (Revelation 11:18; 16:15; 17:1; 19:2, 11)   If the fulfillment  of the first vision began in 1914, when does it end?  As the messages  themselves show, the organization of anointed ones on earth.  The fulfillment of this first vision ends, then, when the last faithful member of that anointed congregation dies  and is raised to heavenly life. Nevertheless, the Lord's Day, with blessings to the earthly other sheep, continues till the  end of Jesus Christ's Millennial Rule. -John 10:16; Revelation 20:4, 5.

In this first vision, before John  sees anything, he hears something:  "And I heard behind me a strong voice like that of a trumpet, saying: 'What you see write in a scroll and send it to the seven congregations, in Ephesus and in Smyrna and in Pergamum and in Thyatira and in Sardis and in Philadelphia and in Laodicea.' "  (Revelation 1:10b, 11)  Authoritative and commanding as a trumpet call, a voice calls on John  to write to "the seven congregations ."  He is to receive a series of messages and to publish the things he will see and hear.  Notice that the congregations mentioned here actually existed in John's day.  All of them were situated in Asia Minor, right across the sea from Patmos.  They were easily accessible to one another by means of the excellent Roman roads  that existed in the area.  A messenger would have had no trouble carrying the scroll from one congregation to the next.  These seven congregations would resemble a section of a modern-day circuit of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Most of the prophecies in Revelation were to be fulfilled after John's time.  they referred to "the things that will take place after these."  But the counsel to the seven congregations deals with "things that are," situations that really existed in the seven congregations at that time.  The messages were valuable aids to faithful appointed elders in those seven congregations, as well as in all other congregations of anointed Christians of the time. Since the vision has its prime application in the Lord's day, what Jesus says serves notice  that similar conditions are to be expected in the congregation of anointed Christians of our own day. -Revelation 1:10, 19.

Next time: Continue In the Lord's Day

From the Book of Revelation