Revelation and the Bible

 

            People often speak of the book of Revelations. There is no such book in the Bible. It is the Revelation—one blessed continuous manifestation of God’s unique Son, the anointed Prophet, Priest, and King. Revelation is the crowing book of the Bible. It is the headstone that completes and crowns the whole wondrous pyramid of truth.

            Of this vast pyramid the Pentateuch of Moses forms the broad solid foundation. Upon this is built up the Covenant History. Then the Psalms and Poetical Books. Then the Prophetic Series of the Old Testament. Higher up we have the Gospels and Acts. Then the Epistles with their deep spiritual instruction; and to complete; and to complete the glorious structure, this last, solemn, but exceedingly precious book, the Revelation, linking all the rest with the soon to be manifested glory of God.

            Or if you think of Holy Scripture as forming a great golden circle of truth, we start with Genesis, the book of beginnings, and go on through the Testaments until we come to Revelation – the book of the last things; and, lo, we find it dovetails exactly into the book of Genesis, and thus perfects the inspired ring! The Word of God is one absolutely perfect, unbroken, and unbreakable circle.

            A comparison of Genesis and Revelation will readily make this plain, and show how we have the types in Genesis and the completion of the truth in Revelation – in the one book the beginning, in the other the consummation.

            Genesis gives us the creation of the heavens and the earth. Revelation presents a new heaven and a new earth.

            Genesis shows us the earthly paradise, with the tree of life, and river of blessing, lost through sin. Revelation gives us the Paradise of God with the Tree of Life and the pure river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb – paradise regained through Christ’s atonement.

            In Genesis we see the first man and his wife set over all God’s Creation. In Revelation we behold the Second Man and His Bride ruling over a redeemed world.

            In Genesis we are told of the told of the first typical sacrificial lamb. In Revelation the Lamb once slain is in the midst of the throne.

            In Genesis we learn of the beginning of sin, when the serpent first entered the garden of delight to beguile Adam and Eve with his sophistries. In Revelation that old Serpent called the devil and Satan is cast into the lake of fire.

            In Genesis we have the first murderer, the first polygamist, the first rebel, the first drunkard, etc. In Revelation all such, who refuse to accept God’s grace in Christ Jesus, are banished from His presence forever.

            In Genesis we see view the rise of Babel, or Babylon. In Revelation we are called to contemplate its doom.

            In Genesis we see man’s city; in Revelation the city of God.

            Genesis shows us how sorrow, death, pain, and tears, the inevitable accompaniments of sin and rebellion, came into the world. Revelation does not close until we have seen God wiping away all tears, and welcoming His redeemed into a home where sin, death, pain an sorrow never come.

            And so we might go on for an hour, contrasting and comparing these two books, but enough has been cited I trust, to stir each interested believer to study for himself. What we get out of our Bibles in the presence of God is worth far more than all that another passes on to us. We may learn from one another but it is best to take nothing for granted; but like Ruth the Moabitess, to “beat out that which we have gleaned” through meditation and prayer.

Adapted from Lectures on the Book of Revelation

by H.A Ironside, Litt.D.

November 1976 edition, pages 9-11

Still available from Loizeaux Brothers publishing