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We are
coming near to the end of the book of Revelation – indeed to the end of the
entire body of the revealed word of God. John is preparing to conclude his
writings of what will become the final book of the Bible. From this point in
the book of Revelation, verse six of the twenty-second chapter until the end of the book, John tells us
no more of what he has seen in this vision of the new heavens and earth, or
more of what he saw in the New Jerusalem. This final portion of his book can be
considered an epilogue of his vision.
In verse six, John writes this: “He said to me, ‘These words are faithful and true.’”
To know who
the “He” is, that is, who it was who told John that the words are faithful and
true, we must return to what we might call the prologue of these two chapters,
when John first began to have his vision of heaven and of the throne room of
God. There, the one speaking is identified as the “Alpha and the Omega,” the same way that
Jesus identified himself in the very beginning of the book of Revelation
(1:18). The Alpha and the Omega are the first and the last letters of the Greek
alphabet, and by identifying himself as these letters, Jesus is indicating that
he is the beginning of all that there is, and he is also the conclusion of it
all.
John wrote
of Jesus in the beginning of his vision of the throne room of God, “He who sits
on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new…Write, for these words
are faithful and true’” (Revelation 21:5 NAS)
This twice
repeated phrase by the one who sits on the throne, “These words are faithful and
true,” speak of the certainty of what John saw. (to continue, please press the READ MORE button below)
The Revelation
In the
opening sentence of this chapter, I called the words found in Scripture the revealed word of God. I used that word
because the writings found in the Bible are not words that came from the minds
of philosophers or the pens of writers of ethics. They do not come from
religionists. The perspectives of life that come to us in the Scriptures are
those that can only come to us from outside of human experience. We could never
know the truths written in the Bible if they had not been revealed to us by
God.
This is also
what John said concerning all that he was shown, and which he also wrote for us
in the book called “The Revelation of
John.” John said in this book, “The Lord, the God of the spirits of the
prophets, sent his angel to show to his bond-servants (doulos) the things which must soon take place” (Revelation 22:6b).
John told us
this because he wanted us to know that these are not writings that came from his
own thinking about the end times. These are events of the future days that were
shown to him and that he was told to record for us to read.
The apostle
Peter said much the same thing about the rest of Scripture. Peter writes:
And we have the
prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention
as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star
rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture
comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by
the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy
Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:19-21 ESV)
Peter also
is confirming the fact that the Scriptures are words given by God and
transmitted by men so that all could read, hear and understand the message of
God for all. These are not some “cleverly devised tales,” as Peter calls them.
He then refers to the time when Jesus took him, John and James up to the
mountain where they witnessed the transfigured glory of the Lord and heard the
voice of God saying “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am will pleased.”
“We
ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven,” Peter writes, “for we were
with him on the holy mountain” (vs.16-18. Please see the earlier post, To See the Face of God).
Peter’s
point in telling this is that they actually heard the voice of God and saw at
least a portion of the glory of God. It is this type of experience that
motivated him, and which also motivated others to write the Scriptures. They
were driven to do this. This was their purpose in writing. There was no
benefit to them in their writing other than this. None of them became wealthy
by selling books. They were not trying to gather a large following for
themselves. In fact, most of them were killed because of what they said or what
they wrote. No one who was given words by God to write into the Scriptures personally
benefited from them. The writers of Scripture were simply transmitting what God
had told them to write.
No Apologies Necessary
Christians
today often think that they must somehow “prove” to doubters that the Bible is
the true word of God. It is for this reason that if you were to attend a Bible
College or a Seminary, you would have some classes that deal with what are
called “Christian Apologetics.” This title may sound like a class in how to
apologize for being a Christian, but that is not at all the meaning. In fact,
it is the opposite of what it means. Although, as you might expect, the two words,
apologetics and apologize, have sprung from the same root word, they have come
to have almost opposite meaning in today’s language.
The root for
both of these words is a Greek word, and means something to the effect of “to
give an account,” or “to give a verbal defense.” This definition goes along
well with what the Apostle Peter wrote in his first letter: “Have no fear of
them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense
to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter
3:14-15a ESV).
For very
many Christian leaders and for Christian people in general, what this means to
them is that they have made their lives and ministry one long debate with
unbelievers. We are confronted with a world that it is full of deceptive philosophies
and religions. Even in the scientific community, there are some who begin their
research with already entrenched false prejudices, and seem to have as their
main objective in their research to “disprove” the existence of God.
Christians
have rightly stood against this cultural tide by presenting scientific and
archeological evidence to the contrary. We as believers need to be informed
concerning the current thinking and the philosophies of the day. It is
important that we as Christians do this because we stand against the rising
tide of secularism. Paul told his young protégé Titus that a teacher must be
prepared to stand against and rebuke any who would contradict the word of God
(Titus 1:9).
He also
wrote to Timothy,” The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind
to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those
who are in opposition.” (2 Timothy 2:24-25a NAS).
However, the
motivation in Christian apologetics must never be to “win a debate” or an
argument. Paul continues by writing to Timothy about those who are opposed to
the truth of God’s word but, who would listen to correction, “…Perhaps God may
grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come
to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held
captive by him to do his will.”
The Very Most Important Task
However,
despite the importance of Christian apologetics, our most important task as
Christians in this world is not to build convincing evidences to argue against
secularism. It is important to know how to respond to the false philosophies
and religions of the world, but I think that it must be a rare occasion when
someone comes came to believe in Jesus because of argumentation or debate. The
true problem that people have with the message of Christ is not an intellectual
one, but a spiritual one. It is not a problem of the mind. It is a problem of
the heart.
I mentioned
that Peter said that we should be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks
us why we have such hope within us, but even in this statement, he is not
speaking primarily of apologetics. Rather, he is speaking of the Christian
living a life so exemplary, that should someone attempt to slander us, there
will be nothing in our lives that they could use to substantiate their claims. This
is our best defense against any who would deny the validity of the word of God.
One can argue science, but one can never deny what has happened in one’s life.
Perhaps the
best apologists and debater of all time was the Apostle Paul, one who laid out
his reasoning in a very clear and logical fashion. Yet, even Paul said, “it is
with the heart that one believes”
(Romans 10:10). He knew that the true argument was not of the intellect, but of
the will. In the end, it is our desires that determine whom or what teaching we
follow.
Jesus, in
his way of stating deep concepts in very simple terms, compares the spiritual
decisions made by people, to sheep with their shepherd: “The sheep hear his
voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…and the sheep follow
him because they know his voice…[in the same manner] My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they
will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” (John 10:3-4,
27-28 NAS).
When we hear
the voice of the Shepherd, those who have ears to hear follow him because they
recognize this as a voice of security and truth. To those who have a heart to
know God, when he says to John in the book of Revelation, not once, but twice,
“These words are faithful and true,” we have no trouble believing him. He is
our Good Shepherd.
Paul’s Priority in Teaching
I mentioned
that the foremost Christian apologists of all time was perhaps the Apostle
Paul. Nevertheless, Paul was very careful not to present his teaching in a way
that would cause people to follow him as a man. Paul’s goal was that his
hearers would come to learn about Christ and begin to follow Jesus. Paul wrote
in First Corinthians:
And I, when I came to
you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty
speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ
and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much
trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom,
but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not
rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5 ESV)
Paul’s Vision
It is
interesting to note that the Apostle Paul, like John, was also given a vision
of the heavenlies. Nevertheless, he was careful in telling of his insights into what God
had shown him so that they would not draw attention to himself. Paul’s message was Christ,
and nothing more.
Thus, when he
speaks of the vision, he puts it in the third person as if it had happened to
someone else. It is obvious that it was Paul himself who was given this vision
however, since he said that he was given what he calls “a thorn in the flesh”
by God to remind him not to boast of superior knowledge. Here is what Paul said
concerning his vision:
I know a man in Christ
who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or
out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught
up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God
knows— and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. (2
Corinthians 2:2-4 ESV)
Given this
incredible experience of Paul’s, we might expect him to speak of this often in
his ministry and to claim spiritual authority over others. Yet, Paul said that
he decided not to refer to this experience, in order to not detract from the
message of Jesus Christ - that is, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
Paul’s Encounter with Christ
Because of
this priority in Paul’s life, he referred to this vision only once, and then as
if he were talking about someone else. The experience he did talk about
however, was when he was on the road to the city of Damascus. There, he did not
have a vision, but rather was temporarily struck blind. It was because of that
blindness that God was able to speak to him, and Paul became a believer in
Christ.
Unlike his
vision of heaven, Paul did not mind talking about this experience, because it
was the time when God put him on his knees in repentance. It was at that point
that Paul realized that he was nothing, and God was everything.
“If I must
boast, will boast in the things that show my weakness.” Paul says (2
Corinthians 11:30 ESV). He then continues on to speak of the experience in
Damascus, when he had to flee for his life become of his new-found faith in
Christ. Paul had met Jesus, and his life would never be the same.
The Revelation of John
As we have
seen in the book of Revelation, John, unlike Paul, did speak of the vision that
he had received from God. He did so because God specifically instructed him to
do so (Revelation 22:7,10). However, by the time John had his vision of the
heavens, he was already an old man and forced to live in exile on the small
Greek island of Patmos, which was probably a Roman penal colony at the time.
John did not write of this vision in order to impress his readers with his
spiritual insights and privileges. Indeed, he would never meet those who would
read his words.
Rather, like
Paul, when John spoke with people about Jesus, he simply spoke of his
experience in knowing Jesus, and what Jesus had done in his life. Here is how
John begins his writings:
That which was from the
beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we
looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life – the
life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to
you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us – that
which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have
fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his
Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be
complete” (1 John 1:1-4 ESV).
These men,
Paul, John and Peter, despite the visions and experiences that they had and
persuasive arguments that they could have made, what mattered most to them was
their personal experiences with Christ. Similar things could be said about the
other disciples as well. They believed Christ not because of a great debate
among competing philosophies and religions and the arguments for Jesus won them
over. No, they believed Christ because of what he had done in their lives.
That is why,
when John heard the one sitting on the throne say, “These words are faithful
and true,” he had no difficulty believing him. Nor do I have any difficulty.
His words have changed my life.
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