Revelation 1-7: Every Eye Shall See Him

Revelation 1-7, or chapter 1:7, is a powerful text showing the fulfillment of Christ's return in the first century. We are well aware that it is not often used that way. As a matter of fact it is often used to prove the very opposite.

Many believe the text teaches that Jesus has not yet return because every eye has not yet seen him.

This reasoning appears to be plausible on the surface, but in the light of fulfilled bible prophecy, it deserves much examination.

We will offer some highlights to help with understanding the text. The first place to start is with the introduction to the message of Revelation in verse 1 of the chapter.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants--things which must shortly take place. And he sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John,

who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw.

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near."

The first concerns we have with the text are the imminent time statements found in these verses. Not only are they mentioned hear, but they are found in the middle (12:12), and in the end of the book. (12:6, 10, 12). In other words, the time statements are the book ends or book covers to the books or pages inside. They suggest that the message of Revelation must be interpreted within those chronological time markers.

What are they? First we have the word shortly, (from Gk. en tachei) meaning a quick, speedy, but with the preposition "en" means a fixed position in time. Therefore, it suggests the quick or speedy occurrence of the events of the book within a fixed period of time. (Thayer)

The fixed time is identified with another term (Gk. genesthai) to come into existence and be finished in history. Therefore, the message of the book occurs "in history" not post history as in the non-biblical concept of the end of time.

Thirdly, time which would appear in history, yet quickly or speedily, was at hand or near (Gk. engus, Thayer).

Therefore, the setting for the message of Revelation is a brief, speedy, soon to come, time within history.

Now the fact that this message was given by the angel to John to show the Lord's servants what would happen speedily, in their near future identifies the first century context of the events.

This means that Revelation 1-7, is not a long drawn-out protracted time of our (21st century) history, but events confined and contracted within the very short time of the first century generation. Our following exegesis will confirm this.

It was the promise of Christ that his coming would occur within the first century generation. Further Old Testament prophecies directly impacting the interpretation of Revelation 1-7, demonstrate the accuracy of this view.

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