Let us notice our key verse (1:19) again. The things in the vision John had already seen, when told to write what "thou sawest," he describes in chapter one. "The things which are," i. e., the churches in chapters two and three. "The things which shall come to pass hereafter" he sets forth from chapter four to the close.

      The whole panorama grows out of the vision of chapter one. The seven churches ceased to exist locally long ago and yet their attributes live on even until now. The Christian dispensation or church age very naturally divides into seven periods, the apostolic, in which at the time of John's writing Ephesian conditions were marked. Following this came the historic age of persecutions when Smyrna conditions were characteristic. Then rose up the priestly class and worldliness crept into the church, well represented by Pergamos. From this there developed that false system of Romanism, which Jezebel of Thyatira so well typifies. The corrupt, carnal conditions preceding the Reformation and perpetuated by the divisions of Protestantism after the Reformation when few were not defiled and no works were finished are well represented in Sardis. The necessary restoration after the unfinished work of the Reformation brought forth Philadelphian conditions, with characteristic faithfulness to the Name and to the Word, and the twentieth century shows the Laodicean spirit to an astonishing degree. The "things that are" will surely come to a close and "the things which shall be hereafter" will be ushered in.

      Chapters four and five describe hereafter things in heaven. Chapter six begins to relate hereafter proceedings, so disastrously affecting the earth, which continue in ever increasing intensity and severeness till the earth is made desolate and is subdued, when behold He makes, all things new with peace and Paradise restored. Hallelujah, the Lord omnipotent reigneth!

      This desolating and subduing of the earth begins with the opening of the seven seals in chapter six. It continues in the sounding of the seven trumpets and the pouring out of the seven bowls. The Lord makes quick and complete work of it [17] even as He has said. The smiting process of the little stone Daniel saw begins with chapter six and finishes when "the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ," as announced in Rev. 11:15 and fulfilled in the triumph of Christ at Armageddon in chapter nineteen. "In anticipation of this conquest over Satan it was announced (12:10). "Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ," "and he shall reign for ever and ever" (11:15), "and the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints, of the Most High; His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey Him." (Dan. 7:27.) "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; over these the second death hath no power; but they shall be kings and priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." (Rev. 20:6.) "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matt. 25:34.) "Great and marvelous art thy works, O Lord God the Almighty, righteous and true are thy ways, thou King of the ages. Who shall not fear, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy; for all the nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy righteous acts have been made manifest." Amen, and amen.

      1. How may we explain the apparent discrepancy between Revelation 11:15 and I Cor. 15:24?

      The passage in First Corinthians states that Christ shall deliver up the kingdom to God, the Father after He has put all enemies beneath His feet. Rev. 11:15 says "He shall reign for ever and ever." Now, similar statements are made with regard to the saints' reign. Rev. 20:6 says, "they shall reign with Him a thousand years." Rev. 22:5 says, "they shall reign for ever and ever." Daniel, 7:18 says, "the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever." In verse 27 of the same chapter he says the kingdom "shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey Him and yet the saints shall reign for ever." Does not the explanation lie in the fact that the saints' reign and [18] His are contemporary? And, while subject to the Father, Christ and the saints shall indeed reign forever, yet they reign in a peculiar sense during the thousand years following the destruction of the man of sin (the beast Rev. 19:20) at His coming (II Thes. 2:8) when the kingdoms of this world fall, and preceding the abolishing of the last enemy which is death. (Rev. 20:14; I Cor. 15:26.)

      Christ's administration now is clearly one of grace. He is yet to take His mighty power and reign. All nations shall be broken and subdued. The man of sin, the lawless one with the false prophet shall be destroyed, Satan shall be imprisoned, and Christ shall reign (and those of the first resurrection with Him) till he hath put all enemies beneath His feet, the last of which is death which is destroyed after the thousand years are finished and Satan is loosed for his final conflict and doom. "Then cometh the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God" and Himself, with His saints, become subject, and yet continue to reign (in the more subordinate position) forever and ever. Thus Daniel, Paul and John are in accord.

      2. Does not John 5:28, 29 teach that all the dead will be raised at once? How then can there be a thousand years between the resurrection of the saints and the rest of the dead? Could not Rev. 20:5 be a figurative resurrection?

      "The hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment." Some make the mistake of interpreting the hour of this passage as a sixty-minute hour. That it is an indefinite period is clear when we remember that some that were in the tombs came forth over eighteen hundred years ago. The "hour" therefore continues till now and stretches away to the future resurrection of the last son of Adam. The order of the resurrection is set forth as follows: "Christ, the first fruits, then they that are Christ's at His coming." (I Cor. 15:23.) "The rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished" (Rev. 20:5). Then (when He shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power) the end cometh (I Cor. 15:24). The terms death and dead in Rev. 20:4-6 are literal. The rest of the dead have lived but are not to live again till the thousand years are finished. The death being literal, so, also, is the resurrection.

      3. Have you not stated as your position that all prophecy [19] is literal, why, then, do you not accept the "hour" as literal in John, 5:28?

      No, a prophecy may be literal, figurative or symbolic. But in whichever form of words a prediction may be clothed it will have a literal fulfillment rather than merely spiritual. Examine the prophecies which the Scriptures declare fulfilled and see whether this is true.

["Studies in Revelation--Review." Word and Work 8 (November 1915): 17-20.]

      The electronic version of Stanford Chambers' "Studies in Revelation--Review" has been produced from microfilm of Word and Work for 1915.

      Pagination in the electronic version has been represented by placing the page number in brackets following the last complete word on the printed page. Inconsistencies in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and typography have been retained; however, corrections have been offered for misspellings and other accidental corruptions. Emendations are as follows:

            Printed Text [ Electronic Text
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 p. 18:     Christ at Armagedon [ Christ at Armageddon
            Revelations 11:15 [ Revelation 11:15
 p. 19:     Does not John 5:28, 29 [ 2. Does not John 5:28, 29
            years were finished [ years were finished" 
 

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 20 February 2002.
Updated 28 June 2003.