Ch1 Revelation

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You don't necessarily have to save these since I will hang
them on my web site as they are finished and edited.  If
you spot any mistakes (grammatic I mean) let me know via
private E-mail.  Most of this is controversial so let's
remember to keep rebuttals 
"short" and spread them out.  Like I said this will take a
while and  the full magnitude of what I am proposing to do
has hit me.  Pray for me.  I have considered doing this
before but it wasn't the right time.  I see what the Lord
has had me wait for.  I try to break more for space than
content.  It is a sacrifice we will have to make so keep
access to a full copy.  

Verse 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:"

This seems simple enough.  The Word of God is rich however.
 Let's dig in.

This is "The Revelation of Jesus Christ,..."  When one asks
the question "What is the book of Revelation about?" tell
them it is God bragging about His Son.  The Revelation that
John is writing 
about is that God manifested or "revealed" Himself in the
man Jesus.  In the process we find the purpose of the
manifestation and the end results.

I have observed in prophecy that the proclamation many
times has what I refer to as a double reference.  By this I
mean that the proclamation has a bearing on events near in
time to the prophecy and into the future as well.  Here God
is revealing to John things that must come to pass in the
near future for John (~70 AD) and 
for our near future.  I will further address these issues
as they come up since they are rather complicated and
nearly impossible to express in any other context that to
build precept upon precept and line upon line.  In the
short term view of things "shortly" could mean a couple of
years but in the "Grand Scheme of Things" shortly could
also and equally mean 2000 years.

Another point I would like to raise is that this revelation
was "signified" by the "angel" or messenger of the Lord. 
The "angel of the Lord" was permitted to speak in the first
person singular or put in other words could speak "as" the
Lord Himself.  I won't go into this but raise this issue
now to refer to in other verses.  Later we will get to
these verses that cause confusion as to who is speaking. 
Here John says that these things were revealed by the
"angel" or messenger-singular.

I now skip to verse 7 as I will tie the verses in between
into later verses since they will make better sense
discussed together.

Verse 7, "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye
shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all
kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so,
Amen."

I like the book of Revelation since it jumps right into the
deep waters head first!  Here we must evaluate just what is
meant by 
"the coming of Jesus."  Just as there are two aspects to
the mission of the Messiah; the suffering Messiah for the
salvation of those that accept Him and the conquering
Messiah who vanquishes His enemies, there are two aspects
to the coming of Christ.

The easiest way to understand these is to examine just
"where" it is that Jesus comes to.  Once this is
established we can place the "coming of Christ" mentioned
above in the proper perspective.

The first aspect or "coming of Christ" is to gather His
people unto Himself: 1 Thessalonians 4:17, "Then we which
are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we
ever be with the Lord."

Notice that Paul says "with them in the clouds."  This has
major signifigance.  Picture in your mind the rapture of
the saints, or the great "being caught up" if you don't
like the word "rapture."  All the saints that are alive and
in Christ are caught up to meet Christ and then touch down
with Him on Mount Sion.

This doesn't make any sense you say, why would they all be
taken up from the ground to meet Jesus in the air just to
set back down on the Earth on Mount Sion?  Good question. 
Let's first establish that Jesus is indeed going to
physically set His feet upon Mount Sion and then find the
truth that is revealed when one considers the implictions
of this.

More later!

Timothy Litteral
472 Grant St.
Marion Ohio 43302
trlitteral@usa.net
http://members.tripod.com/~trlitteral