Christ In The Revelation - ??????

?Revelation: A Complete Commentary?(William R. Newell) Commentator
American Bible teacher and pastor. Born May 22, 1868, William Reed Newell
attended Wooster (Ohio) College, graduating in 1891. After studies at
Princeton and Oberlin Seminaries, he pastored the Bethesda Congregational
Church in Chicago until 1895, when Moody invited him to become the
assistant superintendent of Moody Bible Institute under R.A. Torrey. In
this position Newell demonstrated his extraordinary gift of Bible
exposition. Great audiences in Chicago, St. Louis and Toronto flocked to
hear his city-wide Bible classes, leading to the publication of his widely-
known commentaries, especially Romans Verse-by-Verse, Hebrews Verse-by-
Verse, and The Book of Revelation.
During this period, Newell wrote the beloved Gospel hymn At Calvary. He was
called into the presence of the One he gladly owned as his King on April 1,
1956. Few men have had a clearer grasp of the magnitude of God's grace in
Christ or have been able to convey it with such lasting results. TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Part One: Judgment
Chapter 1 - Opening Message
Chapter 2 - The Seven Letters
Chapter 3 - The Throne Of Adjudication In Heaven
Chapter 4 - Six Seals Opened
Chapter 5 - The Sealed Israelites
Chapter 6 - The Seven Trumpet Angels And The Other Angel
Chapter 7 - Locusts And Hellish Horsemen
Chapter 8 - No Longer Delay!
Chapter 9 - God's Last Prophets: The Two Witnesses: Their Tremendous
Task
Chapter 10 - The Woman, The Dragon, The Man-Child
Chapter 11 - The Beast And His Prophet
Chapter 12 - The 144,000 On Mt. Zion
Chapter 13 - The Six "Other" Angels
Chapter 14 - The Seven Last Plagues
Chapter 15 - The Judgment Of Babylon
Chapter 16 - Marriage Of The Lamb
Chapter 17 - The Great Day Of Wrath
Chapter 18 - Satan Bound, The Millennium
Chapter 19 - The Great White Throne Judgment
Part Two: New Creation
Chapter 20 - The New Creation
Chapter 21 - The New Jerusalem
Chapter 22 - Closing Messages
Appendix I
Appendix II
Appendix III
Appendix IV: Bullingerism
Why The Church Will Not Be In The Great Tribulation Introduction
Romans, Ephesians and Hebrews should be known before Revelation. Romans,
justified forever by faith; Ephesians, our calling, one with the Risen
Christ; Hebrews, our Great High Priest, Who makes continual intercession
for us, and leads our worship in heaven.
Remembering that the Father hath committed all judgment, and also the
authority to execute it, unto the Son, "because he is a son of man," we
shall expect Christ to be seen as the Judge, in each judgment scene in The
Revelation; and also that He will have a special character towards each
stage of judgment.
I. The part concerning judgment will include:
First, judgment of the assemblies (churches) as God's house on earth; for
judgment must "begin at the house of God" (1 Peter 4:17). This judgment
Christ carries on as risen, glorified Son of God, in His priestly
character, but as a priest dealing judicially. Church testimony on earth is
finally rejected. Chapters 1 to 3.
Second, the scene is removed to heaven, where is seen the Throne of God as
holding the whole earth in responsibility. Christ, as the Lamb slain, takes
the sealed book of the divine counsels of earthly judgment. The seals,
trumpets and vials follow. Chapters 4 to 18.
Third, Christ Himself comes as King of kings and Lord of lords in the Great
Day of Wrath; sets up on earth His iron-rod judgment rule of 1000 years, at
the end of which, Satan being released and man rushing again to his banner,
the world's affairs are closed up, and heaven and earth pass away. Chapter
19.
Fourth, all moral, responsible beings (except Christ's own) are called to
the judgment of the Great White Throne, which has nothing to do with earth
or with dispensations, but with eternal destinies only. Chapter 20: verses
11-15.
II. Then we have the New Creation: a new heaven, a new earth,-"all things
new"; with the new Jerusalem the home of God and His saints; the Throne of
God being established therein.
It is for this new heaven and new earth wherein righteousness is at home,
that the Spirit, through Peter, declares the saints are looking. The Various Judgments 1. Of the Church's earthly history-chapters 2 and 3.
2. Of the rebellious nations-especially the Beast-worshippers-chapters 4 to
16.
3. Of the system of earth idolatry called "Babylon"- chapters 17 and 18.
4. Of the Beast, the False Prophet and the Kings and armies of earth at
Armageddon-chapter 19:19-21.
5. (This is the Great Day of Wrath.)
6. Of the devil's permitted career on earth, for 1000 years-chapter 20:1-3.
7. Of the spared nations, in enforced righteousness, justice and peace,
during the Millennium-chapter 20:4-6.
8. Of the rebellious earth, upon Satan's release-chapter 20:7-9.
9. Of Satan himself in the Lake of Fire forever-chapter 20:10.
10. Of the unsaved, at the Great White Throne-chapter 20:4-15.
We repeat over and over that our Lord is not seen in the book of The
Revelation as the Head of the Body, the Church. This description belongs
wholly to Paul, who unfolds in his epistles the character, calling and
destiny of the Church of God. in The Revelation we are not studying the
calling of the Church as the Body of Christ, as risen and heavenly.
But The Revelation does deal with outcomes: (1) of the earthly church
testimony, for as a witness for God the church is proved unfaithful and
removed from the scene: the real Church taken to heaven (4:1), and the
false, destroyed by the Wild Beast (chapter 17). (2) Then the nations,
under responsibility to occupy and govern the earth, are judged and
desolated. (3) Jerusalem, "the holy city," is seen as "Sodom and Egypt"
(except for a remnant). The nation is handed over to the delusions of
Antichrist. (4) Finally, the rebellious of the race of Adam and the earth
they chose and claimed, following Satan's captaincy in their final testing,
are destroyed, and new things are brought in. Christ In The Revelation We find our blessed Lord directly named in seven chief characters:
1. He is the risen, glorified Son of God among the churches as the
lightbearers of this present age, judging their state by His Spirit
(chapters 2 and 3).
2. He is the Lamb in heaven (after the rapture of the Church) publicly
invested with authority to carry out the determined preliminary judgments
upon men before His personal arrival on earth as Judge and King (chapters 4
to 19:10).
3. He comes to earth as King of kings and Lord of lords in the Great Day of
Wrath (chapter 19:11-21).
4. He is Christ, reigning with His glorified saints on earth, during one
thousand years (chapter 20:1-6). He is then "King over all the earth"
(Zechariah 14:9).
5. He is the Judge upon the Great White Throne, with the holiness,
righteousness and truth of deity absolutely and finally unveiled in
judgment (chapter 20: 11-15).
6. He is the Lamb, upon "the throne of God and of the Lamb": through whom,
though subjected willingly to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:28), the glory
and love of the deity will be expressed forevermore (chapter 21: 22, 23;
22:3, 4).
7. He is "I Jesus ... the root and offspring of David, the bright, the
morning star," to His own, His beloved servants (chapter 22:16). He is the
Coming One, expected and longed for by His real saints, the Bride, the true
Church, who are under His grace continually. The Revelation's last words
are, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with the saints. Amen." We must
study this book in the light of this verse, and of Revelation 1:5: "Unto
him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by his blood!"
Whatever judgments fall, they do not fall on the saints, the Body of
Christ! |Part One: Judgment |
|Chapter I |
|Opening Message |
|Revelation 1 |
|The Revelation of Jesus Christ: which God gave Him. This expression |
|is the true title to the book. It is a communication or unfolding of |
|the details of future things by our Lord Jesus Christ. These opening |
|statements are startling: (1) God gave Jesus Christ this apocalypse, |
|or "revelation." (2) It was that He might show it unto His servants |
|(literally bondservants). (3) Jesus Christ communicated it "by his |
|angel." (4) It was "His servant John" to whom it was communicated (5)|
|John faithfully "bare witness of the word of God, and of the |
|testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw." |
|We have, first, God; then Jesus Christ; then, His angel; then, His |
|servant John, and finally Christ's servants,-to whom the Revelation |
|comes. Furthermore, we note that John bears witness to two things: |
|(1) "the word of God," and (2) "the testimony of Jesus Christ." "The |
|word of God" is evidently God's word to Christ in which He |
|communicated to Him this apocalypse, or revelation; and "the |
|testimony of Jesus Christ" is our Lord's faithful communication of |
|what God gave Him to tell us. |
|First, there can be no doubt, that Jesus Christ is the Second Person |
|of the Trinity. The Father, in Hebrews 1:8, addresses Him as God, |
|saying, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." Our Lord claimed |
|worship, and plainly says that "all should honor the Son even as they|
|honor the Father" (John 5:23). And in a comparison of Revelation 1:8 |
|with 22:13, all dou