Additional information
by Steve Rauen (Author)
This is a book of Rock-solid hope in the Truth. People of the Twenty-first Century, this is the letter that is written to you, this is your book.
Though not God-breathed like all of the Bible, it respects, reflects, and draws directly from God's Word in a Scripture-saturated, but contemporary, conversational style. Your "executive summary" on this verse-by-verse commentary:
People in every century, in every generation since the First Century AD have treated the letter "to the seven churches which are in Asia" as their own, as if it arrived with today's mail; the general, incorrect assumption has always been, and continues to be that Revelation is about our own time and place.
However, the title and opening verses of "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants - things which must shortly take place" tell all readers since the seventh decade of the First Century that this circular letter to those historic churches and inspired book of the Bible was written to them, and not to us!
Furthermore, since God's words will not return to Him void, without accomplishing their purpose, the believers in those churches understood the ultra-timely message; to them, Revelation was not a book of unfathomable mystery!
Finally, from the chain-of-command described in Revelation 1:1-3, we also see that the testimony of this Apocalypse - this Revealing - is that of Jesus Christ Himself, The Way, The Truth, and The Life.
Christ is our infallible Guide to The Father and eternal fellowship with Him. So if we stay within the guardrails that God has established and on the path that makes all the difference, hope becomes reality!
