17 Jan 2023
As we enter the New Year 2023, and the coming Chinese New Year, the world is in a terrible state – with war and conflicts going on, the looming global recession around the corner, the raging ongoing viral pandemic, and catastrophes from climate changes. In a world which has become as uncertain and as terrifying as the world of ours has become in this present time, men and women are naturally concerned about the future. They are concerned about themselves and their livelihood; they are concerned about the future of their children.
The concern about history and the future story of mankind is one which is in the minds of many at this present hour; John the Apostle was given the preview of history during his exile on the island of Patmos and a revelation of what was to come, resulting in the book of Revelation.
“After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’ At once, I was in the Spirit, and behold a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne” (Rev. 4:1-2).
John lived at a time of terrible trouble. Let us remind ourselves that there is nothing new about our present events. These have happened before; John lived in an age of conflict and turmoil and war and persecution and trial.
It is natural for us to be concerned solely with what is happening in our time and in our own immediate generation; our whole view of history and of the immediate future is solely in terms of the present.
The story of mankind, and of the world must always be viewed as a whole if it is to be understood rightly. The Bible tells us that if we would understand any section of history aright, we must put it into the context of the whole. It is interesting that before John was shown what must take place, he was told, “Come up here and I will show you….”
Where does it start? It starts in heaven! If we try to understand the history of our own times merely in terms of our own times, we shall fail. The Bible regards the study of mankind as a unity; it regards it as continuous; it sees a connecting link in the whole story of the human race. Hence we must seek to understand the history of mankind from the right perspective.
The story of man is to be understood by accepting God’s revelation of Himself and His revelation concerning man.
John’s preliminary vision of seeing God sitting on the throne was that he might be reminded that everything, history included, starts with God, is under God, and will end with God. God is at the back of everything ; He is the Author of everything; He is the originator of history. There would be no history but for God; it is He who made the world; He set this process going. He has created time; He has set the machine going and He is the One sustaining it and He is the One who will wind up the process.
John was reminded that God is in control by the vision of the eternal temple with the throne in the centre and the One who was on the throne reigning with all around Him, including angels and servants of God, crying out ‘Praise’ and ‘Glory’ to Him repeatedly.
Kingdoms may come and go, empires may rise and wax and wane, civilisations may appear and vanish, but God remains, and our relationship to Him is eternal (remember the study of the book of Daniel).
Secular history makes a great deal of these empires; they are tremendously important to secular history. It talks about the great battles, the great leaders and the great generals – yet they are dismissed in the Bible in the briefest accounts, the reason and the explanation being that all that kind of history is merely the history that God allows and permits.
The things o the Spirit of God can only be understood by the Spirit which God gives. Here is the key to the understanding of the human story and of mankind at large. If we stop at our own understanding, with our own ability, and our own attempt to reason, why then, as the wise man the preacher tells us in the book of Ecclesiastes, the whole thing is foolish. If we attempt to understand life solely by our own unaided efforts, we are doomed to failure and disappointment. But history can be understood: we must first have a vision of the Almighty sitting on the throne, in control of history, from beginning to end! The purpose of life and of everything has been revealed by God in the great story of the Bible, particularly, in the book of Revelation. God has revealed it in the writings of John from his visions. We are not a people without God and without hope; history is progressing to a glorious end under the mighty hand of God!