A Brief Outline of the Last Book of the Bible
(To be followed along with JND translation)
FOREWORD
This is a book of judgments—beginning as Peter says at "the house of God" (1 Peter 4:17). Christ's glory and power are in view, not church truth. The Rapture (the church's proper hope) is not seen until after the main body of the prophecy has run its course, in chapter 22:16-17, 20, although referred to in chapter 3:10. After Rev. 4:1 the rapture is assumed and the church is no longer seen on earth. When John (as a prophet) is caught up in chapter 4 he sees the church already there, included with the Old Testament saints under the figure of the four and twenty elders (1 Chron. 24:1-4). John himself does not prefigure the rapture, but gets a change of view just as in chapter 1:10-11 he gets turned around to take a backward look.
May we value, individually and in the assembly, this book which shows how our Lord Jesus Christ will come into His own things (which were denied Him by His own people—John 1:11) in the day of His power and glory (19:11-21). It is the writer's desire that this little outline (incomplete as it is) may be of help in stimulating meditation on this precious book. "Blessed is he that reads, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things written in it for the time is near" (Rev. 1:3).
A. R. 1973
The book is divided into three main parts as shown in Rev. 1:19:
1. The things which thou hast seen—all of chapter 1.
2. The things which are—all of chapters 2 and 3.
3. The things which shall be hereafter (or after these things)
—chapter 4 to the end of the book (chapter 22).