Past, Future or Right Now?

22:6-7What does 'soon' mean?

The angel tells John, "These words are faithful and true. The Lord God of the spirits of the prophets sent his angel to show to his bondservants the things which must happen soon" (22:6, WEB). Then Jesus himself says, "Behold, I come quickly" (22:7).

The Greek behind "soon" and "quickly" is about speed and nearness. It is the same family of words used when Jesus warns the church in Ephesus, "I am coming to you swiftly" (2:5), and tells the church in Philadelphia, "I am coming quickly! Hold firmly that which you have" (3:11). In those letters the word is an urgent pastoral warning to a real congregation, not a countdown.

Christians have taken it in a few ways. Some think it means events that were near for John's first readers. Some think it means that when the events begin they will move fast. Some think it describes how every generation should live, as if the Lord is at the door. Peter adds that "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years" (2 Peter 3:8) and that the Lord "is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish" (2 Peter 3:9). God's idea of soon is not ours, and his patience is mercy.

1:11Reading it as then

The first and plainest fact about Revelation is that it was written to seven real churches in Asia, and it told them things they needed to hear. John was told, "What you see, write in a book and send to the seven assemblies" (1:11). Whatever else the book means, it had to mean something to them.

Some Christians stress this strongly. They read much of the book as speaking about the pressures of the first century: the power of Rome, the demand to worship the emperor, the suffering of believers, and the judgments on those who persecuted God's people. On this reading, "soon" means soon, and the book comforted the first readers by showing them that the Lamb was already winning.

This reading takes the first readers seriously, and every approach must agree that they came first. Its strength is that it keeps the book rooted in history. The question it has to answer is how to treat the book's pictures of the final return of Christ and the new creation. Those who hold this reading within historic Christian faith still affirm that Jesus will return in person, judge the world and make all things new.

1:19Three more ways to read it

In his vision Jesus tells John to write "the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen hereafter" (1:19). Christians have leaned on different parts of that sentence.

The sweep of history. The book is a picture of the whole story of the church from John's day to the end. Many in earlier centuries read it this way, matching its scenes to the events of their own times. This reading has fallen out of favour partly because the matches kept changing, which is a warning in itself.

Mostly future. From chapter 4 onward, the book describes a final period before Christ returns, and chapters 4 to 22 are largely still to come. Many Christians hold this view today.

A pattern for every age. The book is told in cycles that show the same conflict, between the Lamb and the powers opposed to him, repeating in every generation until the end. The seals, trumpets and bowls are not three timelines but one struggle seen again and again.

Many careful readers blend these. They see a message for the first churches, a pattern that repeats, and a final fulfilment still to come. The Bible does not tell us which of these to choose, and good Christians hold each of them.

22:10-12What the book does with the clock

Here is the interesting thing. Having told us the time is near, the angel does not give a date. He says, "Don't seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand" (22:10). Then Jesus says, "My reward is with me, to repay to each man according to his work" (22:12).

The nearness of the end is used for one purpose: to press us to live ready. That is how the rest of the New Testament uses it too. When the disciples asked, "Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?", Jesus answered, "It isn't for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority" (Acts 1:6-7). Then he pointed them to the work he had given them: "You will be witnesses to me" (Acts 1:8).

He said the same about his return: "no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only" (Matthew 24:36). And about wars and rumours of wars, he said, "See that you aren't troubled, for all this must happen, but the end is not yet" (Matthew 24:6). For that reason Unveiled does not match Revelation to any news event, nation or leader, and does not guess at dates.