John calls "the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him....The word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ."
The phrase, the testimony of Jesus, appears almost 10x throughout the book (Rev. 1:2, 9; 12:17; 17:6; 19:10; 20:4; 22:16) which shows the importance it has for the writer, John.
And even though the word of God has become identified with the person of Jesus only, for John it’s an amplified phrase for the gospel about the KOG
That is, the Gospel of Jesus. It's defined as such in Rev 1.2, 9; 6:9; 20:4.
So Revelation is simply a record of all the events John witnessed leading up to the establishment of the KOG on earth. Which only makes sense since this is why Jesus himself was sent (Luke 4.43) and in turn what he commissioned his Apostles and others to preach (Luke 10:9; Mat 10.7).
But unfortunately, most of Christian scholarship will not help you connect these important biblical dots.
For example, while the ISBE correctly defines the gospel as: "The message which Christ and His apostles announced," they neglect to tell you what that "message" was!
It's like saying:
John gave a great message the other day that really touched everyone.
His announcement changed many lives.
Yet, no one is able to tell you exactly what message he announced.
The same is true even if you go looking for the answer online.
For example, if you type in What is the Gospel? you'll quickly come across this article from bible.org which says in part:
When Christians refer to the “Gospel” they are referring to the “good news” that Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for our sin so that we might become the children of God through faith alone in Christ alone.
But again, the Revelation of John defines the testimony of Jesus as the word of God, i.e., the Gospel about the KOG; not just the testimony about Jesus.
NOTE the importance of the word "kingdom" throughout John's writings:
“You made them a kingdom and priests for our God.
They will rule as kings on the earth."
NOTE that although "the textual evidence is rather evenly divided between [the present tense] they reign (ASV) and they shall reign (RSV)," according to The New International Commentary on the NT, the future tense is favored by the best Greek texts.
In other words, "It seems unlikely that John is here referring to a present spiritual reign of believers."
Finally, here's a good summary statement from Robert Hach's study The Spirit and the Spoken Word:
According to the NT Jesus, the life-giving activity of God’s spoken word is metaphorically likened to spirit, that is, breath:
The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life (John 6:63).
And so, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10).
Which is to say that the spoken word of God, that is, the testimony of Jesus about the kingdom of God, proclaimed among the nations by the apostles and their prophetic associates, is like breath from God, in that it gives life — that is, the hope of resurrection from death to life in the coming kingdom of God — to whoever hears and believes it.
This summary statement ties nicely with what Paul had previously said to the churches in Ephesians 1:11-14.
The phrase, the testimony of Jesus, appears almost 10x throughout the book (Rev. 1:2, 9; 12:17; 17:6; 19:10; 20:4; 22:16) which shows the importance it has for the writer, John.
And even though the word of God has become identified with the person of Jesus only, for John it’s an amplified phrase for the gospel about the KOG
That is, the Gospel of Jesus. It's defined as such in Rev 1.2, 9; 6:9; 20:4.
So Revelation is simply a record of all the events John witnessed leading up to the establishment of the KOG on earth. Which only makes sense since this is why Jesus himself was sent (Luke 4.43) and in turn what he commissioned his Apostles and others to preach (Luke 10:9; Mat 10.7).
But unfortunately, most of Christian scholarship will not help you connect these important biblical dots.
For example, while the ISBE correctly defines the gospel as: "The message which Christ and His apostles announced," they neglect to tell you what that "message" was!
It's like saying:
John gave a great message the other day that really touched everyone.
His announcement changed many lives.
Yet, no one is able to tell you exactly what message he announced.
The same is true even if you go looking for the answer online.
For example, if you type in What is the Gospel? you'll quickly come across this article from bible.org which says in part:
When Christians refer to the “Gospel” they are referring to the “good news” that Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for our sin so that we might become the children of God through faith alone in Christ alone.
But again, the Revelation of John defines the testimony of Jesus as the word of God, i.e., the Gospel about the KOG; not just the testimony about Jesus.
NOTE the importance of the word "kingdom" throughout John's writings:
- 5x in his Gospel: John 3.3, 5; 18.36 (*3);
- And almost 10x throughout Revelation 1.6, 9; 5.10; 11:15 (*2); 12.10; 16.10; 17.12, 17.
“You made them a kingdom and priests for our God.
They will rule as kings on the earth."
NOTE that although "the textual evidence is rather evenly divided between [the present tense] they reign (ASV) and they shall reign (RSV)," according to The New International Commentary on the NT, the future tense is favored by the best Greek texts.
In other words, "It seems unlikely that John is here referring to a present spiritual reign of believers."
Finally, here's a good summary statement from Robert Hach's study The Spirit and the Spoken Word:
According to the NT Jesus, the life-giving activity of God’s spoken word is metaphorically likened to spirit, that is, breath:
The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life (John 6:63).
And so, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10).
Which is to say that the spoken word of God, that is, the testimony of Jesus about the kingdom of God, proclaimed among the nations by the apostles and their prophetic associates, is like breath from God, in that it gives life — that is, the hope of resurrection from death to life in the coming kingdom of God — to whoever hears and believes it.
This summary statement ties nicely with what Paul had previously said to the churches in Ephesians 1:11-14.
