INTRODUCTION TO CHAPTER 1.
I WILL not stop to prove the authenticity of the book. Others have done so. Besides, I write for Christians, who have no need of such proofs. The authority of Jesus is felt in it. The very style of the book proves the intimate connection of the things which it unveils with those announced by the prophets of the old covenant. It is the same Spirit speaking of the same things and in the same way, although the nearness of the fulfillment stamps upon its language here something more actual and positive.
Its title, "Apocalypse," is found in Greek from the first ward, and signifies " revelation, unveiling."
By bringing historical traditions to verse 9, we can fix with sufficient certainty the date of this Revelation at the year 96 or 97, that is, about twenty-five after the destruction of Jerusalem.
The Revelation is, above all, in my eyes, the book of the closing testimony, of which Jesus is the Head. It speaks, among other things, of the witnesses who are to receive the Spirit of prophecy, and who are to be “the understanding ones of the end." Jesus bears witness there to the things He has received since His glorification; He confirms and thus closes all the prophecy conformably to that which was said to Daniel by the man clothed in linen; for yet the vision is for many days."
The Revelation is not the present Gospel of grace preached by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven; nor the ministry, properly so called, of the Church. (Col. 1:24, 25.) But its plan, its general bearing, and the developments which the old prophecies here receive, make of it at once an original prophecy and the abridged repetition of all the old unaccomplished prophecies.
The object of the Revelation is, as it were, indicated in 1 Cor. 15:23-28. It concerns the reign of God and the authority of his Christ. And Matthew 28:18-20 contains the principles of the whole action of our book, which unfolds the ways of God until their accomplishment in the new creation, of which Jesus is our King.
Jesus actually living and acting in heaven, next Jesus returning; such is the fundamental subject of the Revelation. The light of this revelation was indispensable to clear up the prophecy of Matthew 24. and 25., and the promise of the return of the Son of man. (Acts 1:11.) It was meet that the disciples should understand, on the one hand, that the return of the Son of man was not bound up with the fall of Jerusalem under Titus; and, on the other hand, that the persecutions which followed its fall were not the last, but that all was advancing, on the contrary, to the great tribulation, outside the hour of which the Church, the body of Christ, is to be kept.
The first chapter presents, I believe, four principal divisions a title and an inscription; (verses 1-3;) a salutation and an answer; (verses 4-6;) the indication of the principal subject of the book; (verses 7, 8;) the writer. Vision of the Lord, and his instructions to the writer. (Verses 9-20.)