2021/10/04

7. Prologue

Why do the words of the Book of Revelation reflect the worldview of Jesus Christ? I would like to examine this question step by step. First of all, the first words of the text, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ,"¹ suggest the following meaning. The name "Jesus" represents the first part of salvation, realized by the fact that God was born as human and lived among people. The name "Christ" shows the second part of salvation, which Jesus accomplished through his passion and death on the cross.² The Revelation is the book of testimony that these two parts of salvation represented by each name were superimposed on each other to save all people. Then follows the sentence, "(which) God gave him to show to his servants what must soon take place; and he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John." This statement draws our attention to the fact that the final recipient of the information given by God is a person. He continued, "[John] bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw,"³ to tell us that John, as a man, did not write the book of Revelation based on his understanding of what the angel had told him. Therefore, he wrote that he bore witness to all that he had seen. Then he added, "Blessed are those who recite these words of prophecy, and those who hear them and keep what is written in them, for the time is at hand,"⁴ for there is "what must soon take place." I suppose it means that those who recite the words of this prophecy and keep in their memory what they have heard will soon share what John bore witness.

Reference: 1. Revelation 1:1, 2. Revelation 21:6, 22:13, 3. Revelation 1:2, 4. Revelation 1:3

Maria K. M.