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The Revelation to John has been with us for about 2000 years and has been the subject of diverse attempts at interpretation – in spite of the admonition by the author to avoid adding or subtracting from the work. Needless to say, most of the attempts either added or subtracted, and today we have an overwhelming end time scenarios, apparently, based on the revelation.

The reasons are not difficult to identify. The Revelation as given is a vision of the end time work of the Son of Man and the sole purpose is to prepare humanity for that mission and offer them the chance to recognize the Son of Man when He does come. It was easy to recognize in the book the terrible disasters that will follow for the majority of humanity; but, it has remained difficult to identify ourselves as part of the erring humanity. It was more convenient to assume that because we believe in Jesus, we will be miraculously taken out of the world before the tribulations or that we will be protected from the worst of it. It was convenient to forget that God relates to all human beings in the same way irrespective of whether they are Christians or Jews, Moslems or Hindus or even atheists and that the revelation, although sent through the Son of God, Jesus, was sent to all human spirits who are striving to serve God and not just to Christians.

Another difficulty was to link The Revelation in a non-discriminating manner with previous prophecies in the Old Testament, even to the extent of assuming that The Revelation was copying imagery from old apocalyptic literature. Of course, Messages sent from God in the past because they are based on Truth must dovetail and correspond in details with any subsequent messages. The Revelation to John, therefore, will have a lot of similarities to messages sent to humanity in the past. Those messages were given in context with human maturity at the time and when it relates to events beyond their time, was explained to them and/or the prophets were asked to seal the message until the end.

In The Revelation, the tempo is different. The Son of God, Jesus, had brought the Truth and expanded human consciousness sufficiently to understand and had in addition, promised that at the appropriate time before the end, the Spirit of Truth will bring the final Message from God; that indeed, the end will not come until that Truth, which Christ called the ‘gospel of the Kingdom’ is given to the whole world.

The Revelation to John was given to us against this background. It starts by warning humanity in the various communities within the World of Matter, of the judgment tour of the Son of Man; describing Him as walking amongst the golden lampstand that represents the world communities (Rev. 2:1). It then quickly brings the reader up to present day, by showing a summary of the path of the human spirit in Subsequent Creation, before describing the advent and work of the Son of Man and the attempts of the darkness to undermine this work. John was shown the granting of the Message or gospel of the kingdom to the whole world by the Son of Man and His helpers, the two witnesses, as promised. Immediately after this the end-time judgment commenced, first with the binding of Lucifer, then the judgment of Babylon the great and finally, of individual human spirits and Satan.

The key to the revelation is therefore the recognition of the last Message from God and it is not surprising that it was only with the coming of the Son of Man, the Spirit of Truth, an event sometimes also regarded as a second coming of Christ, that the revelation opened itself to a fuller comprehension. This study of The Revelation assumes such a background and although the recognitions are limited by my personal understanding, I can safely say that the understanding goes well beyond previous such efforts. I will wish, however, to remind the reader that The Revelation itself admonished against interpreting the work for others and thus that people should not depend on guidance from other human spirits. We are meant to make the necessary individual effort to recognize this great gift and accordingly prepare ourselves to meet the Envoy of God. This study is therefore, not a substitute for The Revelation, but may be regarded as a call for a deeper study and hopefully an awakening to the need to experience the times in a more alert manner.

I acknowledge the help of many individuals, all of whom I cannot name. I also acknowledge recognitions from the sacred books of the three revealed religions – the Torah, the Bible and the Qur’an and from the last Message of God to humanity, ‘In the Light of Truth, the Grail Message’. Above all however, I owe this work to the Grace of the Almighty God out of whose Omniscience the inspiration flowed.

Uchenna Mezue