Discovering who Jesus is and what He expects of us

All scripture references are taken from the Authorized King James Version.

Prophecy Disclaimer – God is the only infallible being in existence and His Word is infallible. However I am only a man and can be fallible. The interpretation of the Book of Revelation that I will share with you is what I feel to be an accurate interpretation of Bible prophecy. I believe that through my many years of studying the Holy Scriptures and God revealing the interpretation through the scripture that it is as accurate of an interpretation that you can get. But I recommend that you pray and seek the face of the Lord as you read the Bible for yourself and let the scripture be revealed to you.

At any time you need to pray for your salvation during reading this study guide or any other time in your life, here is a simple prayer for you to help guide you. Pray this and mean from your heart and the Lord will save you.

"Lord Jesus, I admit that I have sinned-against others and against myself, but most of all, against you. I know that you love me, because you proved it by dying on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins Thank You, Jesus, for doing that for me. Please forgive me for my sins, and give me your power to resist the temptation of sin. I believe you rose from the dead, and that you really are the only true God. By faith, I accept you, Jesus. Thank you for giving me eternal life with you. I ask you to come into my life and live at the center of it and be not only my Saviour but the Lord of my life. Cleanse my heart and purify me through sanctification. Teach and guide me by your Holy Spirit that I may share your truth with all that will hear it. Give me the strength to walk the Christian walk against all opposition, so that I may stand before You and hear the words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."

Forward by Pastor Raymond L. Shockley

When I started going to church as a teenager it wasn’t because I had a desire to know the deeper things of God. I liked the pretty girls and Church of God had the prettiest girls in town. One of those girls came to where I worked, and I developed an infatuation for her. So I flirted with her until I could get a date. I asked her if she would go out with me and she said yes. But everywhere I suggested she would tell me no, I don’t go to those places, I’m a Christian. When after I ran out of places to suggest, I told her O.K. you pick the place and the time. She said "Sunday School, Church of God, 9:45 a.m. Sunday, pick me up at my house." This wasn’t exactly my idea of a first romantic date, at a shout out loud, jump up and down Pentecostal church, but it was more exciting than anywhere that I was going to take her. Sunday school was O.K. But when worship service started I wasn’t sure I wanted to come back.

I kept coming back for a year and thought I was a Christian. I didn’t understand that every man needs a personal relationship with Christ, and that every man is a sinner. The first thing that I realized was that I needed to be saved, and the church made sure that I knew I was lost because that church preached the Word of God. Not that watered down, good feeling stuff that has become common place in almost every church in the world. On January 2, 1965 a lady went down to the altar and it motivated me to go down to that altar. God saved me and called me to preach all at that very moment and my life was never the same from then on.

Someone lent me a Bible. They should have just given it to me because they weren’t reading it anyway. I would read it all night long. Then church members started instructing me how to read the Bible. They told me to start with the book of John and read up to Revelation and stop there. Then start at the book of Matthew and read up to the book of Revelation and stop there, don’t go in there. Then start with the book of Genesis and read all the way to the book of Revelation and stop there, don’t go in there, there are monsters in there, it is an adult only book, don’t pay attention to that book. And I thought why would God put anything in there that you couldn’t understand and that He didn’t want you to read? I became a closet reader in the book of Revelation.

When I went away to Bible College, I met the omnipotent, all knowing, all-powerful Bible College Student. And we all know that Bible College students know everything about the Bible. One of the omnipotent, all knowing, all-powerful Bible College students pulled me aside and told me, "Don’t preach on Bible prophecy and stay out of the book of Revelation. It is controversial and it will harm your ministry, and people won't like you." Well, I didn’t want to hurt my ministry. So I kept reading and every once in a while I would get risky and preach on the Rapture of the church. The Rapture will be explained in full detail at the end of chapter three.

About 22 years ago I made a big mistake and preached the Rapture in a month-long revival. There were these seven men whose wives were forcing them to come. No matter how hard I preached they wouldn’t get saved, and I just couldn’t get them to the altar. So I told them to come back tomorrow and I’ll show you what you’re going to get. So I opened up chapter five and preached the entire book in a single night.  After I was done, there was a message in tongues and interpretation. It was powerful. All seven of those men ran down to the altar and got saved that night. Wow. I discovered what I had been neglecting all this time. I decided I was going to try this again, I tried to do it again in one night. It took four nights; people got saved all over the place. I thought, I’m going to try this again. This time it took two weeks. Two weeks would become the norm. Why was I getting all this information? The Devil didn’t want me to understand or teach the message of Revelation. God knowing the bad press that Satan would give the Book of Revelation is what caused God to say "blessed are you if you read." Who are you going to pay attention to? Those who say The Revelation is controversial or God who says blessed are you if you read this book? In my ministry this book has been my greatest blessing.

The Revelation of St. John

We will first consider the name of the book - Apocalypse or Revelation. The title means, to reveal. When publishers started issuing the Bible, they made a mistake in naming this book "The Revelation of St. John."  We will see why in the very first line of the first chapter whose Revelation it is.

Chapter 1

1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

Isle of Patmos from the air	John's House

Augustine's kind of thinking is what started the movement in the Catholic Church to have total ascendancy, to conquer the entire world, and to bring the people into the church.  The belief was that the church needed to bring in the kingdom of God on the earth. (Sounds a little bit like today’s Charismatic movement). But instead of using the Word to bring people to Christ, they used the sword. You can send a person to eternity with the sword but you can’t make him a Christian.

The view that the book of Revelation was an allegory became a common viewpoint in Christendom, and that there wasn’t going to be a Rapture, or a Tribulation period. Liberal commentators, churches, and many in the Charismatic movement have proclaimed this book to be an allegory rather than a prophecy.

Around 1750 in the Advent Holiness movement, during the Philadelphian church age (full detail in chapter three), the Bible was placed in the hands of the common people.  Instead of learning the Bible from a theologian who had been trained out of his faith, the commoners began reading and researching the Bible for themselves and discovered that the book of Revelation is not an allegory, it is the word of God. And if it says "things which must shortly come to pass" that it is the literal word of God and it is going to happen.

This is where the confusion about the book of Revelation comes in.  In one scenario you have people trying to convince you that it is just a scary story; and then you have some Christians that are saying, God said it, He settled it, and I believe it.  They study it as the literal word of God.

As you can see, the church of that day was much stronger than the church of today. The wrong view of scripture will pull the bread of life out of your mouth instead of allowing you to feast on the bread that God gave us.

• 1. Whose revelation is this?
• 2. What does Revelation mean?
• 3. What is contained within the Revelation?
• 4. Who is the Revelation given to?

2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

What is the purpose and reason of the book? John is stating that this is the Word of God. If he was writing an allegory to be cryptic and to hide the message from Rome to encourage suffering Christians, he would not have called it the Word of God, he would have called it something else. He is stating that he got this message from God and that he is only writing down what he saw not what he created. So the next time you see mysteries of the Bible, and they tell you that John must have meant … and John must have wanted to…. You will know that they obviously haven’t read the book.

• 5. What is the purpose of the book?
• 6. And what does the book contain?

3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. (Go to Chart)

There is a blessing on this book.  It is the only book in the Bible that starts with a blessing. if you read this you will be blessed, If you hear this you will be blessed, if you do this you will be blessed. There is a special blessing for the man that will bring this word forth and share it with others. The reason that you are told you will get a special blessing from obeying God in supplying the people with sound doctrine is because there will be so much to discourage you from doing it. Most people are happy to hear about the Charismatic junk, which could carry to them really good, feel good doctrine, where anything goes, rather than the God who is Holy, the God that demands Holiness for any who would enter into His Kingdom. Many will not endure sound doctrine. (Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.)

This book is a look at sound doctrine. If you study the whole book, only hearing, understanding, but not doing, then this blessing turns to a curse. What do I mean by this? This book will witness against you on the day of judgment, if you miss the Rapture and then go through the Tribulation period. The knowledge will stand before your face when you say to God "I wasn’t warned." God will say to you, "You were warned you just didn’t want to do right." Do what the book says so that it will be a testimony for you. Then when you get to heaven, you can say, "I knew your will and I did your will." It will be terrible for you to know His will and to disobey.

• 7. What are we if we read, hear, and keep the things that are in this book?
• 8. What does Jesus mean by "keep"?

The Salutation

4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

The salutation is first coming from John, and he extends greetings from the Triune God. The churches that John is directed to write to are familiar with John, because he was the last of the living apostles.  He is the most prominent preacher of his time. 

The next part of the greeting is from "he which is, was, and to come" this is from  God the father. He is sending His personal greetings. If you don’t believe in the Holy Trinity then you are going to have a lot of trouble when you study the Bible. The first part of the greeting says "which is" which means He is the God of now, "which was" means He has been God as far back as eternity can go, and "to come" means the Father is eternal, there will never be an end to God. The Father is sending grace and peace to the church. Why are grace and peace important? Until Jesus Christ died on the cross, you and I were separated from God. Grace is God’s unmerited favor, God gives us something we do not deserve. What was it we did not deserve? We did not have peace with God, because we were sinners.  God is Holy and man is unholy, therefore He cannot look upon sinful man. Because of Jesus Christ, grace is extended to us so that we can have peace with God, and God is sending to us His grace. We now can experience peace with God.

 The seven spirits, which are before the throne, is a representation of the Jewish Menorah, seven candles stemming from one oil source. This is a representation of the Holy Ghost, which sits before the throne. God the Father sits on the throne as the Lawgiver. He is the Holy One that must be satisfied concerning the law of righteousness. The Holy Spirit is God.  It is He that  regenerates us, makes us new and alive in God. The Holy Ghost sends greetings, He is not just a force. He is God with a personality, a will, and a commission.

There are many people who teach different things about the Holy Ghost. They may say that He is a force like in Star Wars, and if you are a Hindu or Buddhist or even a Christian, you can learn the laws of the Holy Ghost. You can learn to use the Holy Ghost for yourself. Nobody uses the Holy Ghost. He uses people. So if man uses the Holy Ghost, he is being deceived by a spirit that is not God or the Holy Spirit.  It is either a human spirit manipulating, or a demonic spirit seducing.

• 9. Who is "He which is, was, and which is to come"?
• 10. What is the seven spirits, which are before the throne?

5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Not only did he save us from our sins, He also saved us to special privileges. It is  important to understand that Christianity is not just about getting saved but about having eternal life. It’s about you being part of God's eternal kingdom. God not only wants to save you, He wants to see if you will live for Him with a free heart, with your free will, that you’ll choose Him above everything else in this world. If you are found faithful, He wants you to rule and reign with Him. One day you will be a king and priest unto Him. Through this prophecy John was able to see that you were not just saved but set apart for eternal service in the Kingdom of God. As we get deeper into this book we will find out a lot more, and as we go through the chapters we will better understand it.

• 14. Who are the Kings and priests?
• 15. For what reason are we Kings and Priests?

7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

• 16. Who is coming in the clouds?
• 17. Whose eyes shall see Him?
• 18. Who are they also which pierced him?
• 19. Why are the Jews separated from everyone else?

8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

This is Jesus talking. These are some pretty important words to look at. The Alpha is the First letter of the Greek alphabet and Omega is the last letter, the beginning and the end and everything in between. All the knowledge of the world is manifest in Jesus Christ. Other religious groups and cults will tell you Jesus was a good man, a good teacher, or a prophet. But really, He must have been a raving lunatic. If He was a great teacher, He went around teaching he was the Son of God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, together form the Holy Trinity, the triune Godhead. The Son is Almighty God who is, who always was, and always shall be. When He was born into this world like a normal human being, He had a normal birth as far as His delivery was concerned, but He differed in that He existed before His birth. Jesus is incarnate into His human body. When conception takes place, that human body grows, a soul comes into existence. With Jesus it wasn’t so. He created this whole world; he created the human body; he was there as the breath of life flowed throughout Adam. The same world he created, He entered. He joined the human race, putting on a human body, and in the process received the human nature. At the same time He remained the eternal Son of God. Since He died, He didn’t go back to being God without a human body, He kept that human body and human nature but remained God. He is human, He is God, one man with two natures, Man and God woven into one.

• 20. Who is the Alpha and Omega?
• 21. Why does He say, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty?

9 John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

John explains why he is on the island of Patmos. He also explains his relationship to those who read this account, "your brother and companion." He knows that the church is suffering tribulation. He was suffering and had been exiled for the cause of Christ to this island for teaching and preaching the Word of God.

• 22. Why was John in exile?

Art used by permission by Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992.
Click here to visit her "Revelation Illustrated" site.

10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

Notice it is the Lord’s day when this happens to him. This is Sunday, not Saturday. We meet on Sunday because it is the day of resurrection, it’s the day that Christ rose from the dead. Saturday is the end of the old covenant, Jesus created the heavens and the earth and all that is within and rested on the seventh day. The next day would be the eighth day, and eight in scripture means new beginnings. On the first day of the week, which would be the eighth day, we have a new beginning. It is on that day that Christ rose from the dead and so the Christian began to worship Christ on the Lord’s day, or Sunday the day of His resurrection. Today we continue to worship on Sunday. This is what John was doing, he was worshiping God on the Lord’s day. He got into the Spirit. I have to believe that he was really deep in prayer, really seeking the Lord, when the Spirit began to move on him. While praying he will hear a great voice behind him, that sounds like a trumpet.

• 23. What does "in the Spirit" mean?

Art used by permission by Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992.
Click here to visit her "Revelation Illustrated" site.

11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

What we see here is Jesus stating to John who He is.  He  instructed John to write down everything he is about to show him, and to send this message to the seven churches which are in Asia. The seven churches were literal congregations in Asia-Minor. They are being used prophetically. They will represent church ages and denominational developments throughout church history. This will become clear when we get into the letters.

• 24. Who is the Alpha and Omega?
• 25. What did Jesus tell John to do?
• 26. What do the churches represent?

12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;

When John turned, he saw a Jewish menorah, We will see later in this chapter that the candlesticks are the churches, not the physical building, but the church body itself.

• 27. What are the candlesticks?

13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

In the midst of the candlesticks John saw one like unto the son of man. This name comes from the book of Daniel (7:13-14) and it describes the Messiah and signifies that He is not the lowly babe in the manger, but the risen, glorified King of Kings. The garment down to his foot is the dress of a majestic ruler. Clothed about the chest with a golden sash symbolizes His absolute righteousness.

• 28. Who is the Son of Man?
• 29. What does his clothing represent?

14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

This white hair matches the scene in Daniel 7:9 where it represents the everlasting antiquity of God the Father. The reference here means the same thing: that Jesus, too, is eternal; and He too is God. His flaming eyes represent His supernatural ability to see into every man’s heart and his wrath is coming on those who have not obeyed Him.

• 30. What does the white hair represent?
• 31. What do the eyes of fire represent?

15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

The feet of brass symbolize the fierce judgment that is going to fall upon the ungodly. Brass in the Bible always stands for judgment. His voice is now a still small voice that is often ignored but one day His voice will roar in judgment of sinful man.

• 32. What do "feet like brass" represent?
• 33.What does "voice sounds like many waters" represent?

16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

The seven stars will be explained in verse 20. "twoedged sword" represents His word of judgment that cuts like a two edged sword. Jesus speaks it and it is done. And His countenance is that of glory.

• 34. What do the seven stars represent?
• 35. What does the "two edged sword" coming out of his mouth represent?
• 36. What does the reference to "the sun shineth in his strength" represent?

Art used by permission by Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992.
Click here to visit her "Revelation Illustrated" site.

17 And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.

John is mortal, and finding himself before deity he collapses in fear and awe of the mighty presence of Jesus. Then Jesus tells him not to fear, that he is the first and last. Again He is everything, and if He says "do not fear," then do not fear.

• 37. Why did John fall down as dead?
• 38. Who is the "First and Last" speaking to John?

18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Jesus speaks of His death and resurrection, His eternal spirit. He states that He alone has the keys or authority over Hell and Death. This means Christ controls all that enter or leave hell and death. How can we despair knowing that our Savior has the keys? Death cannot keep us when the one possessing the keys has promised that we will yet live.

• 39. What does Jesus mean "he that liveth, was dead, and is alive forevermore"?
• 40. What does he has the "keys to hell and death" mean?

19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;

This verse tells us the natural outline of the Book of Revelation, which is key to our understanding the timing of events. He tells John to write about everything that he has seen to this point. He is to write down what he has seen, which is the vision of Jesus. Then he is to write the second part of the outline, "the things, which are." "The things which are" is describing what existed then in God’s program and exist still today, the Christian churches. Then he must write about "the things which are hereafter," implying that there has to be something before to have something after. The church is going to have its day and then something is going to come after. So here is the outline: things which were is chapter one, things which are is chapter two and three, things which will be hereafter is from chapter four all the way to the end. The pattern is Church, Rapture, Tribulation, Millennial, Judgment, and Eternity. This is God’s outline and plan of the book of Revelation. It is key: if you understand this you will understand the book of Revelation much better. Some people think "the things which are" is not prophetic, that Revelation starts at chapter four. It starts at chapter one. Therefore everything in this book is prophetic by its nature.

• 41. What does Jesus want John to write?

20 The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

Here John sees Jesus standing among seven candlesticks. Seven has a specific meaning in Bible Prophecy. Seven is a unit number, which means completeness. Any more or less, the unit is imperfect. We are going to discuss seven churches. These churches were actually seven churches that existed at that time. There were approximately 500 actual Christian churches at this time in the world that we know of. The Lord picks seven of those churches. He doesn’t pick the seven most prominent, but seven whose names, history, and character have a prophetic message that best fit their respective church age. He did this for illustration. Not only do they represent seven church types, they represent specific church theologies. There are seven different basic theologies and histories in the Christian church. We will take a quick look at their meanings.

Stars are the angels of the churches. This is not a reference to angelic angels but a reference to human pastors. This is the definition of Angel - {Angel or aggelos, ang'-el-os; from aggellos [prob. der. from G71; comp. G34] (to bring tidings); a messenger; esp. an "angel"; by inpl. a pastor:--angel, messenger.} Jesus has the pastor in his hand. He sends the message to the pastor to preach and this is his job: to make sure the candle is lit. It is the job of the churches to light the community around them with the message. This is how the church is supposed to work. Why are pastors called stars? In the universe there is only one natural source of light, which is stars. Placed in Jesus' hand the messenger as God's star gives the light to his congregation. The sun is the natural source of life; when the sun shines things start happening, the winds blow, the seas roll, life begins. This is how God builds a church: he calls a man, sends him to preach, and when he preaches it should be like Ezekiel preaching to the dry bones. When a man anointed of God preaches, the dead come to life. When you get a man preaching the Word of God the Holy Ghost will honor his word and move in the place. But if he is not preaching the word you might as well write Ichabod (which comes from the Old Testament and means the glory has departed) on the door. The Word is how the Holy Ghost gets into your life. The candlestick is the church body (made up of all those who have been born again, hopefully this includes you and me); it is supposed to give light. If you had a box of candles and the lights went out, where you be? In the dark, Because a candle doesn’t have any light of its own, the light has to be given to it. Light comes from the star. The star gives light to the candlestick and the candlestick lights the community. The pastor by preaching gives light to the church and the church brings light to the community it is part of.

• 42. What do the stars represent?
• 43. What do the Candlesticks represent?

Take the test  /  On to Chapter 2   /  Back to Index  /  Back to Main Page

If you would like to learn how to become a part of this exciting world-wide outreach ministry click "Here" to find out how.