(Please keep your Bible open to verify the correctness of the content below. The book is best read with the inspired ‘Revelation’ read first and then this commentary. While a genuine attempt is made to base my views on the Scriptures, this content is not ‘Canon’).

God calls the gathering of His believers His Church. (It is not a building or a place). He has established His kingdom among them on the day of Pentecost, the fiftieth day after His resurrection. It is spiritual and global and includes people of all nations. While the Church was born in Jerusalem of the Middle East, it has spread to the ends of the world today. The Lord’s kingdom is not of this world and Jesus reigns in His kingdom now from heaven.

The Head of the global Church is the Lord Jesus Christ. He has promised to build it. He has also stated that the strategies of His adversary the Devil will not prevail against it. The Lord has provided the Holy Spirit to His believers. God dwells in them to enable them to live a life pleasing to Him totally separated / different from the world.

Believers trust in God and depend on Him for their everyday life. Their commitment to live as Christians lands them in trouble always. They face persecution from their fellowmen for their faith in their Lord. This in turn tempts the believers to take their own course independent of the will of God. The Lord keeps observing the works of His Church to correct course when the believers go astray.
God is, was and is to come. God in His Son has sent His grace to mankind. Grace and peace come to the Church from God. He in His Spirit sends grace and peace to His Church. This Spirit of the Lord is also the Spirit of wisdom, Spirit of understanding, Spirit of counsel, Spirit of might, Spirit of knowledge and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. He is before the throne of God. Seven spirits merge into One. Seven abstract entities merge in One Person.

Jesus Christ is the faithful witness to all that God has purposed for His people. He has been with the Father as the Word of God even from the beginning. He has seen them all. He knows Who we worship as per John chapter four. He is the One Man who can communicate all that is of God to mankind without distortion. This is because He is the perfect image of this invisible God. He is not only the only begotten Son of God, but He is also the first begotten from the dead. He is the One and only One risen from the dead to die no more. (At least three others were raised from the dead by Jesus Himself and Paul raised at least one, but these four (?) died later as they were human. Enoch and Elijah of the Old Testament did not die at all). Jesus is God who gave His life voluntarily as a substitute for every sinner of the world. While on earth He said that He had power to lay down His life and also take it back.
Jesus Christ is the Prince of (Daniel 9, not the hypothetical antichrist) and ruler over the kings of the earth. Kings and Queens may wear a crown, but He reigns Sovereign now! And forever! (Not for just a thousand years that follows a ‘non-existent’ seven years. Try not to impeach Him from His throne now).

Joy to the world, the Saviour reigns!
Let men their songs employ,
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy! -Isaac Watts.

He is also the King of kings, His saints.

Jesus Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her. He shed His precious blood to wash the believers from our sins. He lifted us up from the mire we were in. He did not stop there. He did a lot more. He has made us kings and priests unto God His Father. What an exaltation! What a privilege! Paul mentions this in his epistle to the Ephesians. We have been seated with Him in heavenly places to rule and reign with Him over all His creation including His enemies. We are to exercise our King’s authority and enforce His power against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (who are all under Satan’s hierarchy).

It is a sad fact that we, His disciples, have forgotten this and keep forfeiting our prerogative. This, despite the authority and the mandate that He sent His disciples with. “All power is given unto me…So, go…” And, the Devil is elated at our complacent mindset.

Jesus is the Christ and King anointed by God to rule over the nations as per Psalm two. He is also the Great High Priest appointed by God according to the order of Melchizedek. He can empathise with His believers because He, as a Man, was tempted in all points as we are (but never gave in to any of these. He resisted all temptations with the help of the Holy Spirit and (could not) did not sin. He suffered and endured all temptations. So, He is touched by our infirmities and therefore can succour us. In like manner, He has made His believers priests unto God. He continues to function as the Great High Priest in heaven before God, interceding and pleading for us as our advocate. However, He expects His believers to do the same for our fellow men from here, on the earth. We must empathise with our fellow saints and comfort them when they are tested and suffer pain. We must also continually offer sacrifices of praise for the goodness the Church keeps receiving from our God.

It is yet another miserable reality that believer-priests ‘earnestly’ pray for ourselves and ask God to fulfil our greed – a building extension, a high-end model car, more money to meet our luxurious lifestyle and abundant material blessings of all manner to increase our comforts and financial security. (Ministers pray for prayer towers and private jets!)

Believers here have received unmerited favour and honour because Jesus chose to share His kingship and His priesthood with us. It is not because of any of our abilities. So, it is He who deserves all glory. Always. All dominion is rightfully His. There is no second opinion.

When His ministry of intercession and pleading for the believers is accomplished, He will return for His people as promised in John fourteen. He will come with the clouds, the same manner in which He was taken up. Men in white told the eleven disciples this on the mount of Olives forty days after the resurrection of Jesus.

When Jesus returns, every eye will see Him. It will be a visible return. There would be no secret element to it. The thief in the night passage elsewhere in the New Testament talks about the unpreparedness of the world, not the watchful, hopeful and anticipating believers who keep looking up for their redemption draws near. The Lord’s return would be a noisy event - He will return with a shout, the voice of the archangel and with the blow of the last / seventh trumpet. Paul said so in his first epistles to the Thessalonian church and the Corinthian church.

When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more
And the morning breaks eternal bright and fair,
When the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore,
When the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there. -Alan Jackson.

Believers will be caught up to Him in the sky. The dead in Christ will rise first just before the final moments of the last day. “I will raise him up on the last day”, said Jesus. Believers who are alive will be transformed and taken up at the initial moments of the seventh trumpet which will immediately / closely follow the sixth trumpet on the same day. (How long this ‘day’ would be is not clearly stated. However, it might be as long as the first day of this revamped earth). Both these groups will meet the Lord in the air. It will be a time of rapture for the Church. The saints will gather together to welcome the Lord and accompany Him to this earth. He will descend with His saints to windup His purpose on this earth. While the saints will give account of themselves, every one his / her own to their Lord, they will also judge, even the fallen angels.

There is no mention of a phased return of the Lord in the Bible - the Lord coming for His Church secretly in the first phase and then again after seven years publicly in the second phase to judge the left-behind. This is a ‘futurism’ doctrine cooked up by the Jesuits of the Roman Catholic religion. Darby of the Plymouth Brethren and Pastor Irving of the 1830s developed and preached this doctrine further, supported by the visions of a fifteen-year-old false prophetess. (Read more about this in the ‘Introduction’). Alarmingly, this doctrine has been accepted and propagated by the deluded and deceived leaders of the last days. They are capitalising on the fact that today’s believers do not read the Bible with the help of the Holy Spirit but gulp everything (stinking, pre-digested food) that the book-reading preachers (not Bible-reading) vomit on the stages standing behind daises, lecterns and podiums. The study notes of the Scofield Bible and the Dake’s Bible (or any other study bible) are not inspired (God-breathed) word of God; the original Bible text is exclusive and inspired.

Every people of every tribe will witness the Lord’s return. Those who pierced Him also will see the Lord coming again to judge them. Those who thought they have seen the last of Jesus the Man, will wail at His return. This is possible only if these first-century murderers of the Lord are raised up from their graves. This will happen when the sea, death and hell will give up their dead on the last day. When the Roman Governor Felix heard about this judgement to come, he felt very uneasy and asked Paul to leave him alone. Every unbeliever will rise from the dead on that great judgement day to face the Judge of all. He will judge righteously. Every knee will bow to Him. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. However, this confession is too late for Salvation!

The Author of Revelation affirms the details mentioned about the Lord’s return with an Amen. Double assurance! What a blessed hope!

The Lord Who revealed the contents of this book to John is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. John identifies himself with the believers as their brother and companion in tribulation, in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. This indicates that tribulation has been a part and portion of a believer’s life even in John’s time.

The Bible does not make a distinction between a ‘light tribulation’ for the saints and a ‘great tribulation’ for the unbelieving (which the Church would have escaped because of the rapture as per the deluded ‘preterists’ and ‘mid-trib’ advocates). While the pouring out of the ‘wrath of God’ is reserved for the last day for the unbelievers, tribulation has always been there from the early church times; it is always ‘great’ or severe for the believers of Christ; just consider the communist and Islamic fundamentalist nations of today. And governments are strangling the throat and sucking the life out of the true believers by making their lives miserable in every way. Freedom of speech is curbed denying us the right to express our Christian faith; and USA is not an exception. A compromising lifestyle is the rule of the day. Any attempt to straighten the crooked rule is nipped in the bud with an iron hand. It is a real challenge every moment for a Christian to live his faith here today. Most ‘believers’ do not sense or perceive the ‘great tribulation’ because we flow with the tide, not against it. We are worldly and of the world, totally unfit to be counted as the disciples of Christ. However, for the destitute, afflicted and tormented saint, the world is not worthy.

And, saints must endure this tribulation with patience until the end.

Patience was a hallmark of the Lord Jesus. As man, He should have put up with His unbelieving half-brothers and half-sisters for at least eighteen years while at home with them. They thought He was out of His mind while He went about doing good for the next three and a half years. It should have been trying times for Him with the wavering faith of His disciples. He kept rebuking them time and again for their ‘little faith’. As God, He has shown long-suffering towards His creation for long enough and towards the sinful, unfaithful and ungrateful mankind.

John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. Every spiritual person should. And not just on a Sunday. Only if one is in the Spirit would he / she hear what God intends to say. Even a carnal believer would be deaf and blind to the things of God. That is the reason why the Lord would say, “He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”. Not once but at least seven times. Inference: Not all who have ears hear.

John heard a great voice, as of a trumpet behind him. It was a call to pay attention. Something significant and of grave concern was waiting for disclosure. A Personality of unmatched authority was disclosing it.

The voice introduced Himself, “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last”. The Lord is the beginning and end of wisdom, understanding and human comprehension. He is the first and the last of God’s purpose for His creation.

John turned to ‘see the voice’ that spoke to him.

Jesus in His splendour

What he saw was so awesome that he could not stand the vision. He fell at the feet of ‘the voice’ as if dead. Here is a description of what John saw:
• Seven golden candlesticks / lampstands (Menorah?)
• One like unto the Son of man, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks
o Clothed with a garment down to the foot
o Girded with a golden girdle about His chest
o His head and hairs white like wool, as white as snow
o His eyes as a flame of fire
o His feet like unto fine brass as if they burned in a furnace
o His voice as the sound of many waters
o Seven stars in His right hand
o A sharp two-edged sword going out of His mouth
o His face as the sun shines in his strength

The Lord comforted John who seemed to have been frightened by the vision he saw. The Lord laid His hand upon John and said, “Fear not”. He said that He not only started everything as the first, but He is also the last, meaning that He would bring everything to a culmination. He set the ball rolling, but He also will blow the final whistle. All the while, He has had control of everything. He is the ‘I am’ Who has no end. Note how the Lord introduces Himself to the last church Laodicea: the Amen and the beginning of the creation of God. Also noteworthy is another fact: The Thamizh Bible begins with this ‘beginning’ and ends with ‘Amen’ – Aadhi and Aamen.

[Real life in man begins with the entry of Jesus in one’s life (until which time man does not even start living his life). If Jesus is in the driver’s seat, He keeps manoeuvring on the God-determined journey and takes the person to the end (and destiny) purposed for him / her. He determines the speed, the stops, and the stayovers. Considering the times presently, He would even transfer the person far beyond the earthy realm to the heavenly to live with Him forever].

Jesus died in time but conquered death through His death on the cross. He lives for evermore. He has the keys of the bottomless pit as well as of death. He is the decision point on whether one dies and goes to hell or goes to live in heaven. And the onus is on the decision-maker to choose between the two. People go to hell because they choose it.

The Lord asked John to write the things that he has seen – the things which are (during John’s time) and things which shall be hereafter (from John’s time onwards). This would be our past, present and future.

The Lord said that the seven stars and the seven golden candlesticks need not be a mystery to John anymore. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven golden candlesticks are the seven churches. Likewise, every detail about the Lord in the vision had a deeper meaning. The Lord seems to tell John to look for a spiritual meaning behind the ‘symbols’. In other words, “Do not take these literally. Interpret!”.

The Church of Jesus Christ was established on this earth fifty days after the resurrection of the Son of God. It comprises of believers who have received Him as their Saviour and Lord and were born again. The Lord has promised that He will build His Church; the gates of hell will not prevail against it. It is described as His bride, His body, His building and dwelling place. It is also described in detail as the heavenly city New Jerusalem in Revelation. He considers it His most valuable possession. He prepares her for the grand occasion – the marriage of the Lamb, the most anticipated event of all ages.

Meanwhile, the Church undergoes a severe cleansing process so that she is fit enough for the heavenly Bridegroom. The Lord has His messengers on earth who are given charge of teaching the Church and safeguarding the Church from the attacks of the enemy. They bring the Lord’s message to the Church so that she is sanctified and cleansed of every spot or wrinkle. The Lord is so possessive of His Bride that He cannot bear her looking away. It pains Him when she is persecuted. And He is eagerly looking forward to the culmination of this age when He will meet His Bride.

The Lord commanded John to write in a book what he saw and send it to the seven churches in Asia (today’s Turkey). One book, seven messages, seven different audiences meant that the messages were for the Church collectively. Here, even the number seven is not the literal seven but stands for a whole – the universal Church. If the messages were meant for just those seven churches (which are no more found there), we are wasting our time studying this prophetic book.

The numbers in the prophecy in Revelation are not to be taken literally. Apart from this 7, the other numbers mentioned in the book – 10, 3 ½, 1260, 1000, 144,000, 12,000 etc., - would have a different meaning than their face value.

Turkey in Central Asia was a hub of activity among the believers of the first century CE. There were at least seven local churches there. A few of these towns retain their identity while others have received a new name in due course. Ephesus is one. Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea are the others. (Their geographical locations seem to fit the same positions of the seven stars of the Pleiades constellation). These were representative of the churches that would be established throughout the world among every tongue, tribe, people and land till His coming. The general appreciation, the criticism, the warning, the promise and the reward and judgements each church receives is for every local church from then till now.

The Lord keeps building His church. Wood, hay and stubble inserted by money-loving, gluttonous and unwise builders get burnt by fiery trials, but the living stones remain intact in this Building. The Lord is waiting for the last stones to be born again to complete the structure. Jesus will present this glorious Church to Himself soon.