Exploring Revelation
Please excuse me tonight, my brothers and sisters, but my parents are in their 80’s and ailing, and my sister is the only one near them who can do anything to help them. Since Covid, we have been absent from them and saw a window of time to go down to So Cal and tend to some things relative to their care – and that window included tonight – so we pre-recorded this show on Sunday and will return to your calls and comments next week.
Our sister Sarah (from Checkmychurch.org) has created a cool graphic that I want to show you tonight before we get into a super important insight I recently discovered. Last night we aired a show called, Your Heaven and talked about what you think your heaven will look like, what it will include. I want to talk about something that I believe is supported by scripture but is not often supported by Pastors or teachers of the Word.
As some of you know, I am going through the New Testament verse by verse and producing another version. At the moment, I happen to be in Revelation, and for that book, we are not only doing a verse by verse translation for the TVAR, but we are producing and publishing a book a chapter to help explain the Revelation from a reasonable, historical, contextual analysis. So, we will ultimately have 22 separate books on the Revelation. On the cover of each of the twenty-two books, we are doing a piece of art that will attempt to capture the main contents of what that chapter entails.
The Seven Churches
For example, in Chapter two, Yeshua speaks to the first four of the Seven Churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira. And since the Lord's message is to the four messengers of each of those churches, this is what the cover art will look like representationally. In Chapter three, he addresses the last three of the seven churches – Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
The Throne Chapter
So this brings me to tonight’s subject, and it’s tied into the topic of “Your heaven and what you will see there.” The book of Revelation, of course, is highly debated, and because of its multiplicity of views and approaches, it’s really a challenge to try and get things right. So, we come to chapter 4 – which is known as the “throne” chapter because the Greek word, “thronos” is mentioned here more than any other place. One of the great mysteries about God, and Christ (and heaven), is what we will see when we get there relative to them.
Scripture plainly says (in some places) that Yeshua took his place at the right hand of God. But it also says that there would come a time when that would no longer be – that Yeshua would be at his right hand until – and so the question becomes, then what? The setting for Yeshua being at the right hand of God until indicates that he will not always be at his right hand so that God can be “all in all.” That is how Paul puts it in 1st Corinthians 15. That Yeshua will only be at his right hand until all things have been placed under his feet SO THAT GOD can be all in all. Got all that?
But scripture does say Yeshua would, for a time, be at the right hand of the Father. So we come to chapter 4 of the book of Revelation, the throne chapter, and I am forced to really examine what it says so as to depict it on one of these etched panels. And this is what it says. John is invited to enter into heaven to see “what will be” (which I take that he will see what heaven will look like in the future from when he sees what he sees). So let’s quickly read what John sees, and I am going to insert some commentary into the passages while I read: Revelation 4:1 After this (meaning the words of Yeshua to the seven churches) I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew.
The Vision of the Throne in Revelation
And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. Notice that there is the Main throne and how many are seated upon it? One. Is it the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit – because there is only One. Now most commentators say that the One on the throne is God the Father, and they say this because in the next chapter a lamb is going to show up, which of course represents Yeshua. So they deduction is this One is the Father. But let’s keep reading:
3 And he that sat (so we know that the being on the throne was male because John calls him He) was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: (These two stones are stones that are colored red – which is emblematic of humanity, and specifically to Yeshua, it is symbolic of his shed blood. In fact, Revelation 19:13 says, in describing Yeshua, And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.) John continues to describe what he sees and says: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.
The Scene Around the Throne
And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like an ox, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
The Identity of the One on the Throne
Now, there are only two places in all of scripture where Holy Holy Holy is used – first in Isaiah 6 where we read: Isaiah 6:3 And one (of the Seraphims) cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the second is here in Revelation 4 where again the four living creatures repeat day and night: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.”
Genesis and Revelation are called the book ends of scripture. Genesis laying everything out and Revelation wrapping everything up. In Genesis and one time in Exodus God is called, God Almighty. But He is never called, the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY – until we get to Revelation. The term Lord Almighty is only used once in all of scripture, by Paul in 2nd Corinthians. Now throughout the New Testament, Yeshua is referred to as the Lord, isn’t he? And all through the New Testament God is referred to as God. Many many times we read some sort of variation of 1st Corinthians 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. But here in chapter 4, THE ONE sitting on the throne, HE is called THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. In this vision of what WILL BE, this is what John hears the living creatures around the throne call the One on the throne. And he is then referred to this several times thereafter in the book.
Interestingly, in the very first chapter of Revelation, Yeshua, when he introduces himself to John says: Revelation 1:8 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. Again, what do the four living creatures repeat before the one on the throne here in the fourth chapter? “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” They are speaking to the God/Man.
The Oneness of the Godhead
Yeshua of Nazareth, folks. He is the one on the throne. He is God at this point and he is what we will see and relate to for eternity. He is then the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He is the one who overcame all. Where does Jesus go once all things have been put under his feet and he leaves the right side of his Father? On the throne, as the full embodiment of the Godhead bodily. He is fully God, and Fully man. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We will not be seeing Jesus of Nazareth on the right hand of God his Father, and then the Holy Spirit somewhere – we will see ONE – him who is on the throne – God -, the Lord God Almighty.
The Lamb and the Throne
In the next chapter, a lamb will come to the one sitting on the throne and because of this scholars say The Father is on the throne not the Son. But the lamb represents his human frame and sacrifice. This does not mean the deified Christ, fully God, was not the one on that throne as LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. Because of this, I am depicting the one on the throne as THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY in the RESURRECTED BODY of JESUS of NAZARETH – Fully God, fully man. ONE.
Additionally, I think that this view is cemented in as true we further read concluding the chapter:
9 And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, 10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Worthiness and the Creator
Scripture makes it plain that the Word of God, who became Jesus of Nazareth, created all things. This passage has the twenty and four older men telling the one on the throne: 11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. God does not become worthy to receive. But Yeshua of Nazareth, with God in Him, did. And when we die and look to Him who is on the throne, we will see the One and only true and living Lord God Almighty – Yeshua the Christ – because to see Him IS to see the Father.
