Foreword to The Revelation of Jesus Christ Through the Ages
by Don Koenig 2004 revised 2011
I made the first revision to this ebook in 2011 to change the choice of a few words, delete or add a few words, change some grammar and make formatting changes for easier reading (I took out much of the overuse of the bold emphasis within my comments) and added some clarification where I felt it was necessary, I also rewrote a few short paragraphs, added a couple and deleted a few paragraphs that were mainly in my final comments. In short, not much of anything of real substance has changed in this first revision for those who might have already read it.
Why another commentary on the book of Revelation?
I wanted to offer a good free commentary on Revelation to readers of my website but worthwhile commentaries in 2004 had copyright protection and were not free for me or for you to copy without permission. I have also concluded that I have some unique views on Bible prophecy and the book of Revelation that I have not found in the works of others.
Many were saying that I had a website on Revelation but until this point, I did not. My website prior to 2004 was primarily about how all world events correlate to indicate that we are near the end time fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Since everyone expected a Revelation study on my website, I decided to write the best one that I could with the gifts that God gave me.
My views will not be exactly like any others that you may have read but I am sure most who take prophetic scripture in the common literal sense will agree with essential points in my commentary.
My qualifications for writing this Revelation Commentary :
(The qualifications were as of 2004, add 7 more years of learning with this 2011 revision)
· I have been an Evangelical Christian for well over thirty years. Before that, I learned the basic tenets of the Christian faith from Roman Catholic education.
· I have written, designed, maintained and defended my website on end time themes for five years and have written about, exposed and debated issues in Christianity that deviate from true biblical Christianity.
· Over the last three decades, I have read well over a hundred books that relate in one way or another to end time theology (eschatology).
· I have listened to thousands of hours of lectures and read countless articles from the top experts in dispensational eschatology.
· For over 30 years, I have privately studied and meditated on the Bible from cover to cover. In this process, I have read every word of the Bible dozens of times over in several different English translations.
· Since my major interest is eschatology, I have studied prophetic passages in the Bible scores of times over and many passages hundreds of times over. For example, I have read or studied the book of Revelation well over one hundred times.
· I am aware of most topics that in any way relate to end time Bible prophecy. This includes but is not limited to ancient and modern day paganism, apostasy in the institutional Christian church, conspiracy theories, trends toward world government, trends toward world religion, the rise of Islam in the world, the reestablishment of the state of Israel, UFO theories, writings in non-canonical books, prophecies by those who claim to be in the Church, prophecies of deception from those outside the Church and world trends that are now leading to all sorts of heresies and abominations.
· Over the years I have discussed and debated this topic for thousands of hours with any who had interest.
· I either have been a part of or am aware of most of the major denominational beliefs and movements within Christianity of our time. Therefore, I am uniquely qualified by having learned many different points of view and am quite sure that no single school of theology or dogma of any denomination is blinding me (one proof is that none of them would agree with me on all points).
This commentary is premillennial and is not denominational.
The majority of Christian denominations are amillennial. They believe that there will be no literal future millennial reign of Christ on earth. The premillennial view says there will be a literal thousand-year reign on the earth by Jesus from Jerusalem to fulfill all the unfulfilled prophecies and covenants made to the natural descendants of Jacob (Israel). One such covenant is the “New Covenant”. This covenant was actually made to the house of Israel and Judah without conditions (Jer 31:31). I believe God keeps all of His promises in the context his prophets revealed because God is always totally reliable.
There are many reasons why I believe the premillennial view is correct and those reasons will become apparent in reading the commentary. If you are amillennial in viewpoint, I hope you will have an open mind about this until I make my case. If I hit amillennial teachers a bit hard in this study, you will at least understand why.
If you can read this entire commentary with a open mind and still remain amillennial, you will at least know you thought this theology through and are not just buying the dogma handed down by your denomination (as if any denomination is totally infallible).
I say the commentary is not denominational because my viewpoints come from decades of independent study and no denomination has had significant influence over my viewpoints. I have had membership in amillennial as well as premillennial denominations. I have been in denominations that teach covenant theology and in denominations that teach dispensational theology. As a result, I am familiar with the major viewpoints in the institutional churches.
Even experts cannot agree on every point in the study of Revelation.
There are many differences even among students who take the prophecies in Revelation as future and literal. There are major timing and interpretation differences even among experts who devote their life to this study. A few examples might be:
· Certain authors will place the opening of the seals in the first century or through history or just prior to the seven-year tribulation and many others will place them all in the first half of the tribulation.
· Some authors will place the trumpet judgments in the first half of the tribulation, others will have them in the second half of the tribulation and still others have them span the two.
· There are authors who say the seven vial judgments last years, others who say they last months and still others who say they last a few days.
· Some have the two prophets of God in the first half of the tribulation, others have them in the second half of the tribulation and still others have them span the two periods.
· Some have the 144,000 witnesses in the first half of the seven-year period; others have them in the second half.
· Some experts think the two prophets are Moses and Elijah, some say Elijah and Enoch, others say John and Peter and a few others say they will be contemporary people.
· The judgments on Babylon in this book have as many different interpretations as there are commentators on this book.
This is only a small sample of the many differences among the "experts" on Revelation events. Any reader would be wise not to cut what I say in stone either, because I am wrong on some points, as is anyone who has ever attempted to do a verse-by-verse commentary on this book. In the end, the book will happen the way God said it would happen and that will not necessarily be how I or anyone else interpreted it.
We simply do not have all the information necessary to be dogmatic on every point and I wish more prophecy teachers would just acknowledge this fact so that we all could be more credible.
The first commentary I read on the book of Revelation was totally correct until I read the next commentary on Revelation. The more books I read on Revelation and the more I study the prophetic scriptures the more I learn how inadequate I am to explain the prophecies before they happen. After all my years of study I still need a dozen books on prophecy at hand just to help me figure out for myself the difficult points of interpretation.
Maybe I should have all the details and events worked out and set in concrete like some TV prophecy teachers and popular authors. However, the more I learn, the more I am convinced that the timing of some of the events in Revelation and the interpretation of some of the passages is nothing more than educated speculation from the author. This commentary is no exception.
Why teaching on the book of Revelation and eschatology is difficult.
More than a third of the Bible is prophetic in one way or another. More than one sixth of the Bible is unfulfilled prophecy. The prophetic passages are integrated throughout the Bible in the Old Testament prophets, the Psalms, the holy rehearsals (feasts and live prophetic plays of Israel’s future – e.g. Hosea), the words of Jesus in the gospels, as well as in the words of Paul, Peter, James, John and Jude.
The book of Revelation written by John tells about the Creator (Jesus) working in His creation and in His people through time but about two thirds of the book is about a short period of distress on the earth that occurs just prior to His second coming.
To correctly correlate all unfulfilled prophetic passages in the Bible to the correct events in Revelation takes diligence, the ability to build on the work of other teachers, the humility to admit you are wrong on an issue and the flexibility and character to correct your errors. It also takes the gifts of wisdom and understanding. You might think it takes a high degree of intelligence but it really does not. Intelligence will help gather and process the data but intelligence alone will not bring proper understanding of these passages.
The first difficulty is to determine what passages are unfulfilled prophecies and the next difficulty is to correlate these passages with every other unfulfilled prophetic passage in the Bible. The book of Revelation has among many other things twenty-one separate events called the “seals”, “trumpets” and “vials”. To interpret these events correctly, supporting passages from other scriptures must be considered. To assign supporting prophetic passages to the proper event in Revelation is extremely difficult because it is easy to assign a prophetic scripture to the wrong event. If that is not difficult enough, many Orthodox Jews and Christian scholars agree that some prophetic passages have multiple fulfillment. A passage may begin talking about a future event near the era it was written and then go on to talk about an event near the end of the age. This makes it very difficult to determine where the end time fulfillment begins in some passages.
The book of Revelation describes at least three separate wars over a seven to more than ten year time span. These three wars are described specifically in Psalm 83, Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39, and in parts of Daniel and Revelation. All of the other major and minor prophets in the Bible give additional supporting details to these three major wars. There is also the judgments of “Mystery Babylon” and “Babylon the Great” to contend with. Just the judgment on Babylon has major prophetic passages in Isaiah and Jeremiah as well as in Revelation.
To get every prophetic passage applied with one hundred percent certainty to the correct war or event is quite an impossible task. In all honesty, prophecy students cannot even agree on the timing of the three major wars in Revelation. Therefore, it is not realistic to expect them to agree on how each event in those wars relates to a specific Revelation passage.
All prophecy teachers and all theologians make errors and that is the major reason why every book you read will have some differences. All serious students of prophetic scriptures and eschatology should agree foremost that the judgments in the book of Revelation are literal events that will take place on the earth.
If any teacher puts spiritual or allegorical meanings on most of the passages of Revelation to make them esoteric theological mumbo jumbo, you might not waste your time reading them. They may know what amillennial supercession or replacement theologians have taught them but in my opinion, they do not understand the prophetic scriptures at all. I believe it is absolutely impossible to correctly define most of the prophetic events in Revelation if the prophetic passages in Revelation and the Bible are misdirected to the mystical.
The prophetic scriptures need to be taught.
Some pastor/teachers attempt to master the book of Revelation and Bible prophecy in the time it takes to prepare a series of sermons. Some pastors with large followings have even written books on the subject based on a couple of months study, as if that makes them a foremost expert on the subject. What they mainly produce from such efforts is confusion, because their eschatological theories often have holes big enough to drive a Mack truck through. It is like a family practice doctor believing that he is equipped to do brain surgery and then doing it.
Pastors should teach the prophetic truths in scripture but as a teacher, they should be the first to understand that God gave the Church other teachers and equipped them in areas that require a specialist. Before teaching on this subject, most pastors need to study the thoughts of the teachers that God gave the Church for the teaching of eschatology. There are some pastor/teachers who actually qualify as experts in eschatology but they are rare. Most pastors do not have the time it takes to do the exhaustive study it requires.
Many pastors ignore these passages in scripture because they were taught in amillennial seminaries or in Bible colleges that take no position on Eschatology and they realize they know little about this portion of the Bible. Nevertheless, ignoring and not teaching a major portion of scripture is wrong. If Christian leaders do not teach the prophetic scriptures to their people, I can assure you, the cults will. The cults use these same untaught and misapplied scriptures all the time to lead people down the wrong path.
Teaching aids on Bible prophecy in the form of books and CD’s are available to pastor/teachers in many Christian bookstores. If the local store does not carry this information, it can be obtained via mail order or on the Internet. Christian pastors should be able to teach the important prophetic truths for the Church. Examples would be: imminence, covenant promises from God to Israel, the message in the seven letters to the churches in Revelation, the time of future judgment of those dwelling on the earth, the physical second coming of Jesus with His saints in glory, the future restoration and promised kingdom on the earth, the resurrection of the saints, the destiny of the Church in the Holy City, the destiny of Satan and his followers in the Lake of Fire, etc. There is no need to go into fine detail when teaching the truths about prophetic passages. Those who want to know more will find the specialists and they should not be discouraged from doing so.
The broad concepts of Biblical eschatology need to be taught because they lead people to salvation and are essential to equip the saints. The Church should be taught the correct theology of the Lord’s return. It is the blessed hope of the Church. We all should be looking for the Lord’s return at any moment. The Church should be able to correctly apply this twenty percent of the Bible so they will not use these prophetic scriptures out of the proper context to support unbiblical doctrine and practices (such as replacement theology). We must also teach these truths to the Church so that apostate teachers will not deceive the flock by mixing these prophetic scriptures with lies in order to deceive people that attend our congregations into believing that only their demonic cult has the answers and the truth about prophetic biblical passages.
There are the unlearned and unstable who teach Revelation.
Many lay people have tried to tackle Revelation with little training or serious study. Their work can be found plastered all over the Internet. Most of the theories they come up with would be quite comical if the naive did not actually take these people seriously. Prophecy experts with doctorates in theology and majors in eschatology, who have spent their whole lives studying prophetic scripture, cannot get all things in the correct perspective. What motivates these novices to think they have all the answers?
Some of these say they get special revelation from God or they figured out some mathematical formula to ascertain when end time events will take place. They are wrong! God has said all He is going to say about end time events in the Bible until His last two prophets appear. There are no hidden numerical codes or mathematical formulas in the Bible that will give someone the key to the timings of end time events. It is now up to us prophecy students to study the word of God to show ourselves approved.
A few on the Internet and radio have even claimed that they are one of the two witnesses. These people need professional help and they certainly should not be followed or believed by any Christian or rational person. When the real two witnesses appear, they will speak truth and they will be able to back up what they say with scripture and supernatural power. There are also those who think that prophetic scripture has private interpretation for their selective cult. They are in great danger spiritually and possibly physically. These people need to get out before they become so brainwashed that they no longer can.
After a student truly puts in the time necessary in the study on eschatology under learned men in the Church, he might contribute unique thoughts and concepts of his own worth reading. I know of no credible expert on Bible prophecy who has studied any less than many thousands of hours. For example, Dr.Tim Lahaye’s classic work on Revelation - Revelation – Illustrated and Made Plain - was not completed until after decades of study. Contrary to what some think, reading a couple of books on Bible prophecy or hearing a few lectures and rehashing what others said, does not qualify one as a expert on eschatology.
We also have valid experts who have become flawed.
Some prophecy experts who write popular books or who are seen on TV or heard on radio have become flawed because they hold on to disproved pet theories, as if what they teach is Holy Scripture that cannot be in error rather than just a commentary on it. Some even act as if they are a prophet themselves and not just a teacher of prophetic scripture. Some of these, when proven wrong on a pet theory or set date, make the study of end time events look rather foolish. No one knows it all; the best prophecy teachers are those who have sat under many other prophecy teachers and who have built upon what they learned from them by much private study of scripture in the light God gave them for understanding. When we set ourselves up as the only correct teacher on Bible prophecy, we have quit learning. There are now also those using pagan sources to interpret or support Bible prophecy they should be avoided. You cannot interpret reliable end time information through demonic Mayan, New Age, Islamic, etc., teaching or messages from mystics and apparitions
Good prophecy teachers do agree on the essentials.
Do not take all this wrong; prophecy experts who take the prophecies in a literal sense actually do agree on most of the major points in the interpretation of the book of Revelation. Where they differ is usually on the exact timing of those events or they differ on how some literal events will literally be fulfilled. Teachers and students should generally have no problem using commentaries from any well-known prophecy expert who takes the prophecies in a literal common sense way. The differences in the detail between authors may be substantial but the differences will not be critical to the “essential truths” taught by the prophetic scriptures.
Amillennial theology on Revelation is not relevant to most Christians.
Catholic and main line covenant theology Protestant churches that allegorize and spiritualize the book of Revelation to find all fulfillment in the spiritual, cannot possibly interpret most of the passages in Revelation correctly and they cannot agree among themselves how major passages should be spiritualized or allegorized. When prophetic passages in Revelation are taken as allegory and spiritualized as metaphors about the mystical war between good and evil, each denomination will place different meanings on the allegory to satisfy their own theology. You will seldom ever have a Bible study on the book of Revelation in these churches and when it does occur, it is always interpreted through a particular book that reflects only the theology of that denomination.
The reason why dispensational books based on Revelation are so popular today is because people are looking for an end time scenario that they can see in scripture and that is relevant to the troubled times we live in and to their lives. Interpretations of Revelation from amillennial theologians that spiritualize the meanings are just not relevant to most Christians. The “Left Behind” series is the biggest selling book series in Christianity as of this writing because the theme is found in the common reading of scripture and the message seems relevant to our times. The relevancy of Jesus actually fulfilling the prophetic scripture in a literal way is the attraction.
The 21 Revelation events may not be limited to the classical seven years.
When I started writing this book, I took the classic approach and tried to package the seals, trumpets and vials into the customary seven-year period. As much as I tried, I could not do it. In my opinion, it simply does not all fit in seven years. I have concluded that limiting these events in Revelation to seven years is the main reason why prophecy teachers cannot agree on some of the timing of some of the events.
10 ½ years from the opening of the first seal to the second coming.
After much thought, I have concluded that the classic seven years is just not a long enough period for the seals, trumpets and vials to take place. I now believe these events span 10 ½ years. Most experts conclude that it is seven years, because according to the prophecy in Daniel there remains a week of years still to be fulfilled to the Jews before the kingdom is restored. According to the prophecy, this last week of years occurs after the Messiah is cut off. Daniel also says this week of years will begin with a seven-year covenant that will be broken exactly in the middle. This is all correct; however, Daniel’s prophecy of 70 weeks of years is about what happens to Israel and Jerusalem. Daniel’s prophecy is not about the Church and it is not about anything that happens in the world prior to the start of this last week of years.
A study of the seals in the book of Revelation reveals no prophecies directed toward the Jews until after the opening of the sixth seal. It is my opinion that the seven years does not start until after the announcement of the imminent day of the “wrath of the Lamb” at the sixth seal and the parenthetical chapter telling about the sealing of the 144,000 Jews and their ministry on earth during the tribulation. Therefore, it is my position that at the opening of the seventh seal, a world leader will sign a seven-year covenant with Israel and this event will begin the final seven years rather than the opening of the first seal.
The final seven years starts at the full opening of the scroll.
When what is written in the scroll is fully opened at the breaking of the seventh seal the requirements to restore the kingdom to Israel in this final week of years will be seen.
· Phase one - God sends His two prophets - they will tell the world the truth for 1,260 days.
· Phase two - the Beast Antichrist and False Prophet - they will tell lies and deceive the evil people of the earth, leading them onto a path of self-destruction for 1,260 days.
· After this, the righteous will inherit the earth and the kingdom will be restored to Israel.
It is clear from scripture that there are two separate 3 ½ year periods but scripture does not limit the seals, trumpets and vials in Revelation to just seven years. One of the 3 ½ year periods is for the testimony of the two prophets and the other is the period the world is under the control of the Beast. (The scriptures also tell Israel to flee to the mountains for this same 3 ½ years so they can be protected from this Beast.) Adding the two separate periods together does make seven years but nowhere in scripture does it say these two periods begin at the opening of the first seal.
If the seven years do start at the first seal like many experts think, it raises the question as to how the two prophets of God can effectively be doing their ministry giving their testimony and bringing judgments as often as they wish when the world wars, famines and sicknesses described at the opening of the first four seals are raging and destroying ¼ of the earth or ¼ of mankind? The way some answer that question is to put all these events in the final 3 ½ year period but doing so in my opinion raises more problems than it solves.
The Antichrist will come when the world is expecting a Christ.
I have concluded that the rapture will likely occur 10 ½ years prior to the second coming of Jesus. One of the main reasons I believe this is that I think Antichrist will come as a counterfeit Christ seven years after the rapture when the harlot “world religion system” is truly expecting the appearance of some type of all-inclusive Christ.
The incarnation of Satan in the Beast (Antichrist) is likely to come 3 ½ years before Jesus returns on a fall feast day. This probably will occur on the same feast day that Jesus rose from the dead. In fact, I believe God will permit Satan to duplicate this resurrection event to deceive the world. If the rapture of the faithful body of Christ is seven years prior to this event, it also will happen on the same feast day that the body of Jesus rose from the dead (how appropriate). The rapture of the faithful Church then will be seven years before the coming of the counterfeit Christ and 10 ½ years before the true second coming of Jesus Christ.
The seals contain a counterfeit tribulation for a counterfeit Christ.
From the rapture until Satan incarnates the Beast could be seven years. When the world is expecting the return of a Christ, they could get the deception of the Beast Antichrist. The 3 ½ years of the opening of the seals could only be the beginning of sorrows and false birth pains. It could be a time of war and persecution on the earth inspired through the demonic to counterfeit the true biblical tribulation judgments that later come by way of God’s angels.
Satan may bring about the world wars, plagues and famine described at the opening of the first four seals. He may bring about a false tribulation to set up the deception that his counterfeit Christ with his counterfeit kingdom is the fulfillment of scriptures. After this false tribulation, the world will be looking for a Savior and they will embrace the one from Satan. It could happen because most people are ignorant of the prophetic scriptures themselves and only know what others have claimed. Others only know the incorrect teaching of theologians that makes the prophecies allegorical metaphors. So most could be easily deceived.
The actual birth of God’s kingdom on earth may not begin until the world experiences the birth contractions (trumpet judgments) and the actual pain of birth (vial judgments). If this whole period for the 21 events is 10 ½ years as I propose, it allows everything in prophecy to fit without resorting to taking liberties with the text. In addition, the passages about an unexpected delay “after the announcement that the bridegroom is coming” makes much more sense (Mat 25:1-13, Luk 12:45, etc.).
The rapture may be years before the final unfulfilled week for Israel.
Many prophecy teachers think that when the faithful Church is taken in the rapture that this immediately starts the seven year period for the Jews. Nevertheless, Scripture does not say that. Perhaps God has other plans. The tribulation that the Gentile harlot church goes through may not even cover the exact same time span as the 70th week of Daniel. This week of years is all about Israel and her relationship to the world. Perhaps the tribulation and persecution for those who identify with Christianity (and who were left behind at the rapture) actually starts some time before the final week of years for Israel. That would explain the persecution at the fifth seal.
Those that are included as part of the bride of Christ end at the bride’s marriage to Jesus. This marriage occurs in heaven shortly before the actual second coming. This means that the last months of the 3 ½ years under the Beast may have nothing to do with anyone who will be included as part of the bride of Christ. As proof, the bride is seen around the throne in heaven before the last vial judgments are poured out on the earth.
Many astute Jews talk of ten days of awe not just seven (years). There are ten days from the Feast of Trumpets until the Day of Atonement. Ten days is also mentioned in both Daniel and in Revelation as a time of proving for God’s people. The ten days of proving may have more future prophetic significance than has thus far been reported. There may be up to ten years of persecution on earth after the rapture and not just seven (I am not saying that those being persecuted for confessing Jesus will live through that whole ten year period. For example the Harlot may persecute all that do not join the pluralist one world religious system much like the Catholic inquisitions and then the Beast arrives on the scene and persecutes the Harlot and she then realizes the errors of their ways).
The methodology used to write this book:
In this commentary, I use the 1769 Authorized Version of the King James Bible because it is a good translation and it allows the use of the Strong's concordance for checking the original Greek. The version I am using is a free off-line bible software downloaded from www.onlinebible.net. I notice there are some minor spelling and punctuation differences between this version and some other versions of the King James (e.g. show and shew), but there is nothing quoted from this software version that will alter the meaning of any text.
The Revelation scriptures will be in bold italics and my comments on the verse will follow. Supporting scriptures quoted in full will be mostly in plain italics, indented, and will be a bit smaller in type. I will use bold for emphasis both in the supporting scripture passages and in my comments. When I believe additional emphasis is needed in my comments I may use “quotation marks”.
In a few cases, the translation of words or passages in the King James is not the best choice of words. In the cases where I think the King James Version is not a good translation I will explain why. When appropriate, I will use an alternate translation that better conveys what the passage or word actually says. No translation from one language to another is without minor errors. The Bible was not written in English and no translation into English perfectly translates the word of God given in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. Some modern dynamic equivalent translations have built in prejudices to some prophetic passages so I would not advise a broad use of them for a serious study of eschatology. You will be safe using King James, New King James or the New American Standard translations.
I first wrote the commentary and then checked my sources.
The method I used to write my commentary is as follows: I first wrote my views on the passages in each chapter and then checked what I wrote against eight or more modern commentaries on the book of Revelation. Where I found interesting or appropriate supporting material I tried to retain the information. Where I found conflict with my own views, I searched all my sources to determine what is more likely to be the truth.
In almost every case, I could not include supporting information as I found it. That is because what I wrote in most paragraphs ended up being my own thoughts seasoned with information that came from a mix of many different authors. Since few passages contain information anywhere near what was written by any single author I could not footnote where the information originated. The books from which I obtained much of my supporting information are listed in my bibliography.
The main exception to my writing the information first and then adding supporting data is the historical background information on the seven churches in chapters two and three. Much of this information was gleaned from Missler’s, Lahaye’s, Jeffrey’s, Agee’s and Lindsey’s descriptions of these historical seven churches and cities in their own commentaries on Revelation. There really was no reason to try to totally recreate this historic wheel.
The background information on what certain symbols represent can be found in classic writings on Revelation that are in public domain. I found it much easier to get some of this information from works of more modern authors but that does not mean that they conceived the information.
Where I believe the use of someone else’s material is significant I have given credit in the passage where the material appears. As I said, most background historical data on the seven churches was taken from those that have more resources to know the history of the ancient cities than I do but this in no way degrades my own unique contribution on the interpretations of the prophetic passages to these seven churches.
When some of the passages in Revelation were still not clear to me after checking modern commentaries and other sources, I checked the Greek meanings and various other Bible translations. Finally, I also checked several classic commentators on these passages. Where I thought it was appropriate I inserted supporting scriptures from other parts of the Bible.
If I could not find any biblical sources to provide answers to questions the passages brought up in my own mind, I used logic derived from my overall understanding of the scriptures and non-canonical ancient writings. As a last resort, when scripture was silent, my theories may also draw from less reliable sources of murky information that pop up out of my brain if I dwell on the obscure longer than I probably should. Anyone that interprets Revelation is going to come up with some conjectures about the meaning of what is described and I am no exception. Consequently, if you find a conjecture that you feel is off-the-wall, I have just provided my excuse to you why it was included.
I have included many complete passages from the Bible.
In many cases, I put in the whole supporting passages from scripture and not just references to the chapter and verse. I think most people are like me and will not stop what they are reading to look up the references. Putting in supporting passages from other parts of the Bible makes this commentary longer that it could have been but I think having the references at hand in many cases is more important than the size of the commentary. I believe the supporting passages are necessary to understand some passages and especially to understand them in the proper context.
Bibliography information:
Some of the books that I have read that contribute to my understanding of prophetic scriptures are given in the bibliography. Many other books that I have read have long since departed from my library so they are not Included. Within this bibliography is Chuck Missler’s verse-by-verse audio MP3 file CDROM’s on several books of the Bible. Although technically they are not books, I included these audio references because I think for rapid understanding of the prophetic scriptures these audios are hard to beat. Each CD contains 20 to 30 or more hours of lectures. Most of them also contain detailed supplemental written notes that are equal or superior in informational content to most books. I highly recommend that any serious student of Bible prophecy consider purchasing Missler's teachings at www.khouse.org. Missler’s site also contains hundreds of hours of free audios on many topics for those who cannot afford to purchase the more formal studies offered on CD’s. (I certainly do not endorse everything that Missler teaches but his teaching is the most thought provoking that I have found, Missler will at times venture out of the comfort zone of most modern theologians with his conjecture. Yet, he certainly does teach all the essentials of the faith rather splendidly.)
I am not receiving anything for any endorsement in this book.
This commentary is copyrighted but free to download for study.
This is copyrighted material but all are free to download this book for study. If you print or reproduce portions of this e-book, you may do so without prior permission as long as you give the proper source of the material. The source is www.thepropheticyears.com. When the book is printed for others or forwarded to others you must also include the book cover or credits page. No right is given for any reason to sell this e-book for monetary gain or for anyone to claim any content within as being a work of his or her own origin unless it really was. The apostle John can certainly claim the portions he wrote as being his own work.