2025/05/12
195. God, Who Governs the Tense
The opening words of the Book of Revelation are as follows: "The revelation of Jesus Christ, 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" (Rev 1:1). The Book of Revelation, which was communicated to an individual—as indicated by the phrase "to his servant John"—seems to be intended to be recited personally from the beginning. It is said that people tend to remember words they read aloud better than words they hear from others.
Revelation states, "Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written therein; for the time is near" (Rev 1:3). However, the most blessed person here is the one who "reads aloud." When one reads aloud and hears a text oneself, the simultaneous activation of "visual input" + "motor output (speaking)" + "auditory input (hearing)" strengthens one's memory network. Processing and remembering information using multiple senses and actions simultaneously is highly effective. The phrase "keep what is written therein" refers to keeping the words of Revelation in one's memory in this way. In this context, "short and frequent" is effective, and frequency, rather than length of time, is the key to embedding information in memory. Therefore, we need to continue reading Revelation aloud and listening to it at our own pace, even if only one sentence at a time, day after day, throughout our lives.
Last time, I explained the structure of the Book of Revelation. Chapter 1 is a prophetic account of Jesus Christ, who is with us in the Church. When we realise the fact that the statement in Revelation, "Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, every one who pierced him; and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen" (Rev 1:7), suggests the future of the description in John's Gospel, "But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water" (Jn 19:34), we recognise the latter as the past fact leading to the future event obtained from Revelation. Then, we can empathise with the words written afterwards, "He who saw it has borne witness -- his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth -- that you also may believe" (19:35) and will believe in the fact that there came out blood and water from Jesus' side.
Similarly, when we realise that the passage in Revelation "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, 'Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades" (Rev 1:17–18), suggests the future of the description in John's Gospel, "When he said to them, 'I am he,' they drew back and fell to the ground" (Jn 18:6), we recognise the latter as the past fact leading to the future event obtained from Revelation. As a result, we will understand that the reason that "they drew back and fell to the ground" is because Jesus was the one who was "alive for evermore" and had "the keys of Death and Hades." Jesus, who was heading toward death at that time, is now the one who lives forevermore. He is Jesus Christ, who is truly with us in the Church.
Moreover, as we have examined over six sessions under the theme of "The Seven Disciples and the Seven Letters," expressions formed by combining phrases from the different passages in the Book of Revelation sometimes suggest corresponding passages in the New Testament. For example, combining "the seven lampstands are the seven churches" (Rev 1:20) with "I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place" (Rev 2:5) from the first letter results in "I will remove your church from its place." The recipient of the first letter, "the angel of the church in Ephesus" (Rev 2:1), was Peter. Therefore, "its place" refers to "this rock" of which Jesus said, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church" (Mt 16:18). So, that expression means to take away the primacy from Peter. The Holy Spirit admonishes and guides Peter, who lives the future of the Gospel.
Thus, the tense at work in Revelation comes from God, who is described as "'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty" (Rev 1:8) and is portrayed as the one who governs the tense. Accompanied by the tense governed by God, Revelation pours the worldview of Jesus Christ into the memory of those "who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and ... those who hear, and who keep what is written therein."
Maria K. M.
