John is alone on Patmos, the last of the apostles. The apostles have travelled the known world, from Andrew in Scotland to Thomas in India. The church has been born and established. The work of the apostles has been completed. It has cost every one of them their lives, except John. John was imprisoned for preaching the gospel on Patmos when an angel appeared to him. The same angel that talked to him over the last few verses. Patmos is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, east of the Greek mainland. The island is known for its ancient Greek mythology and monuments, including the cave city of Pythagorean.
The Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation, which is the last book of the New Testament, in the Greek language. When talking about this time, the Greek text says, “the end of the age.” The end of the age is when Jesus Christ will return to the world and remove all Christians who are alive. The end of the age will happen when the Antichrist is killed, the people of the world will be harvested, and Jesus will return to the world in the flesh. The book tells us not only the end of the age but also the age of Laodicea. The age of Laodicea, as you will see, starts in 1844. Of all the people who have ever been born on this planet since the Noah Flood, 95% will exist during this period. 90% since the end of WWI. It was written for us.
The Angels
John was on Patmos when one that looked like a Son of Man appeared to him, saying, “Write this down and send it to the seven churches.” Was this Jesus, or was it an angel? He says he looked like the son of a man, which suggests an angel. He wore a long white robe with a golden sash. The angels with the seven wraths/plagues were dressed the same, in white with a golden sash. Then, in Rev. 1:17, he clearly states who he is. Fear not; I am the first, the last, and the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forever more, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. That can only be Jesus. The seven letters for the churches were dictated to John by Jesus himself.
The first voice that sounded like a trumpet, Jesus, says, “Come up here,” and John is lifted into heaven, whereupon the first person he sees is on a throne. He looks like jasper or carnelian with a rainbow. They are both quartz gems that are a reddish brown colour. It is Jesus who takes the scroll from the person on the throne, so it cannot be him. It cannot be an angel, for they are not on thrones, and we have a picture of the Holy Spirit elsewhere. The only person left is the father. This is the only picture we get of the father, and that is just a colour. The colour of fire or spirit with a rainbow, a symbol of God's covenant with man.
The next people we met were 24 elders. Angels were created and are not ageing, as far as we know. The most likely people to be elders are humans who have achieved this rank. They have thrones, so the leaders are among all the levels of elders. Then we come across the four creatures with four faces and many eyes. Seraphs and Cherubs are cosmic angels. Satan was a cherub angel like these and not an archangel like Michael or Gabriel. It is these four Cherub angels that describe the works of the four horsemen. Next are four angels in Rev. 7, of no description apart from that they stand at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds. After this, in Rev. 8/9, we see the seven angels that stand before God. They sound like the most important of the ordinary angels, and they blow trumpets. There is an eighth angel that pours out the contents of the censor. My guess is that these are the archangels; we only know the names of three. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.
When these trumpets blow, we see more angels involved in these particular events. The first of these is Abaddon, the angel from the Bottomless Pit, whom we will cover in detail later. The next are four angels that are going to stop the Euphrates for the Kings of the East.
The next angel in Rev. 10 This is the only picture we ever get of the Holy Spirit. I will go into more detail when I cover Rev. 10. Then we have the Red Dragon sweeping down a third of the stars with his tail in Rev. 12. This is an analogy of Satan falling with a third of the angels. If we watch too many movies, we will get the wrong impression of Satan. He was the serpent in the garden who deceived Eve; that was a reflection of his rebelliousness and not his power. He is not some peer to Jesus; he is just an angel whose only power was that he was majestically beautiful and also a great liar. The angels that fell were simply angels or not. More about them later on. In Rev. 14, we see three angels flying overhead, revealing the messages of the 144,000. Then two angels announce the harvests of the earth. One for the saints, the other for the wicked.
Then in Rev 15/16, we see seven angels who are dressed in the gold sash as Jesus was. That sounds very much like the angels before God. Once again, the seven archangels. One of these angels talks to John, and that angel speaks to John through the rest of the verses and would have been the first angel.
To get a better understanding, I will write a bit more about some characters and concepts as we come across them.
In order, we have
The first person to speak to John was an angel. The same angel talks to John at the end of Revelations as well. Next are Jesus, the 24 elders, the Father, Cherubim, the four horsemen, the archangels, Abaddon, and the four task angels of China. Then we have the Holy Spirit, Satan, and two task angels flying overhead. Seven archangels and one of the horns of the Ark of the Covenant, Then the archangel who spoke to John at the beginning talks about the end. There are some other task, angels as well. Causing the great calm and drying up the Euphrates and the like.