Chapter Five/John Beholds the Glorified Jesus

Continue with In the Lord's Day

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 an 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 addressed is God's congregation 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 thins 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.  

In this first vision, John sees the radiant Lord Christ in his heavenly glory.  What could be more fitting for a book of prophecies relating to that great day of this Lord commissioned by heaven? And what could be more important to us, who are now living in that time period and giving careful heed to his every command?  Moreover, how thrilling it is for supporters of Jehovah's sovereignty to be assured that the Messianic Seed, having endured for all the tests and persecutions  brought by Satan and having suffered an agonizing death when His "heel" was bruised 1, 900 yeas ago, and is now alive in heaven, empowered to bring God's grand purpose to its triumphant completion! -Genesis 3:15. 

Next time: Chapter Five/ John Beholds the Glorified Jesus -Continue with In the Lord's Day

From the book of Revelation