This is "The revelation of Jesus Christ". The term Revelation' in the Greek is, apokalupsis {ap-ok-al'-oop-sis} and is where we get the term apocalypse. The term means to unveil or to uncover. It implies a lifting up of a curtain so all can see alike what is uncovered. This is akin to lifting the curtain on a stage before a performance. When applied to writing it means to reveal or to make clear. See Eph. 3:3 and Gal. 1:12. When used of a person it denotes physical presence. See II Thess. 1:7 and I Pet. 1:7,13.

The words "…of Jesus Christ" indicate that the revelation is not altogether concerning Christ, but one from Him. Christ is not the main topic addressed in this book. God gave this unveiling, to show His servants things that must shortly come to pass or more precisely a series of events, which must begin quickly. The true prophetic nature of the revelation are the events, which are described by Jesus to John in detail.

Even though no one knows the exact time and date of the Lord's return, we can discern the season of His return as was indicated by the parable of the fig tree in Matt. 24:32-33. The opening of the seven seals has no timeframe associated with it. This is why no one but the Father knows the exact time of Jesus' return. We do know when Jesus ascended to heaven and we know that Jesus will return at the end of the great tribulation. We also know how long the tribulation will be. The great tribulation is the blowing of the seven warning trumpets and the pouring out of the plagues mixed with the Lord's wrath. The only unknown quantity of time concerning the Lord's return is the time required to open the seven seals. If we did have an exact timeframe for the opening of the seven seals then we would be able to discern when the Lord Jesus will return. This in turn would conflict with the fact that no one knows the time of the Lord's return except the Father.

The first part of the book of Revelation is anchored on the Lords arrival in heaven after His resurrection. The End of the book of Revelation speaks of the New Heavens and the new Earth and the descent of the New Jerusalem after the millennium. All of the rest of the Revelation is laid out in a precise order, which was dictated to John, by the Lord, on the isle of Patmos. This "precise order" is a timeframe of the end days.

To see the timeframe in action let's look at the vast host in heaven recorded in Revelation 7:13-17. These are those who have been delivered from the great tribulation (Dan. 12:1) and have been made clean by the blood of the Lamb. In other words, they are Christians. They were seen in heaven between the opening of the sixth seal (cosmic disturbances) and seventh seal (silence in heaven for ½ hour).

The seven seals are not part of the great tribulation. The great tribulation includes the seven trumpet warnings and the seven bowl plagues. The seven seals are opened during the time of the Church to indicate how close we are to the great tribulation. This is the space of time between Daniel's 69th seven (week) and the 70th seven which is the great tribulation. See THE SEVENTY SEVENS OF DANIEL. Jesus opens the seals prior to the great tribulation. So, since the vast host was seen prior to the opening of the seventh seal then it is clear from the Revelation account that all Christians minus the 144,000 who are Spirit filled Jews will be in heaven prior to the great tribulation.

Admittedly Matthew 24 indicates that there will be some that go through at least part of the great tribulation. This in no way conflicts with the Revelation account since the persons that Jesus was talking to in Matthew 24 were Jews. And as we mentioned before, there will be 144,000 Spirit sealed (filled) Jews to act as a witness on the earth during the seven trumpet warnings.

The order in which the Revelation was given to John is extremely important. John is explicitly ordered twelve times, in the following verses, to write what he saw: Rev. 1:11, 1:19, 2:1, 2:8, 2:12, 2:18, 3:1, 3:7, 3:14, 14:13, 19:9, and 21:5.

The first division that John is ordered to write about is "The things, which thou hast seen." These things are what John saw thus far in his vision and include the seven fold salutation, Rev. 1:1 to Rev. 1:19.