The Easiest-to-Understand Parts of the Book of Revelation

If you were to read the New Testament for the first time with an open and reasonable mind, beginning with Matthew and continuing all the way to the beginning of Revelation, you would have reached this point fully assured that the New Testament churches expected the Second Coming in their lifetimes. And you’d know that the longer that generation lived, the more imminent seemed that coming. Revelation may have been the last New Testament book written, for it not only expects the Lord’s coming, it encourages churches to believe that it was closer than ever.

In the beginning of this letter “to the churches” of what we today call Asia Minor, the only book of the Bible dedicated completely to the Second Coming of Christ, the apostle John says he is writing on behalf of Jesus Himself about…

…the things which must soon take place… Revelation 1:1

John also says also that the recipients of this letter should heed the things written in this letter…

…for the time is near. Revelation 1:3

At the close of the letter, after the full parade of awesome, shocking, and glorious images has passed, John writes again that the images refer to…

…things which must soon take place. Revelation 22:6

Then he quotes Jesus Himself as saying,

And behold, I am coming quickly. Revelation 22:7

John goes on to write,

Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book,
for the time is near. Revelation 22:10

Then he quotes Jesus again as saying,

Behold, I am coming quickly… Revelation 22:12

The letter then closes with Jesus Himself saying a third time,

Yes, I am coming quickly. Revelation 22:20

How can we ignore all this emphasis on the impending urgency? Especially after it is so consistent with all that has come before it in the New Testament? It is not only obvious that the time of the Lord’s coming was very near, but equally obvious that Jesus expected to be doubted on precisely that point. And so the point is hammered home – seven times – until the alert-but-now-weary reader of the New Testament begs for relief, “Okay, okay – I get it!”

The passing of centuries, however, and our refusal to believe what Jesus and His apostles were so utterly clear about from one end of the New Testament to the other, has proven that there was not a single repetition of the idea that was not necessary. We can thus now appreciate the repeated confirmations. Like a loving parent, God is willing to repeat Himself for the umpteenth time because sometimes it’s only then that a child really begins to listen.

Thus the easiest-to-understand parts of the book of Revelation are those at the beginning and the end that speak of the imminence of the coming, framing all the apocalyptic events described within the book in such a way that no one could think they were events that might not happen for a long time. Jesus and His apostles left themselves no way to save face. They were more than clear that the time was near in the 1st century. If we reject their plain-spoken statements about when, how could we ever think we understand the apocalyptic what?

10/17/25