The Threefold Division of the Book
We have drawn the reader's attention to a threefold division of the Book of Revelation, given to us by the Spirit of God in chapter 1: 19. We again direct his earnest attention to it. It will keep him out of the maze of different interpretations given by many earnest men in answer to these questions, which must again and again present themselves to all diligent students of this important book; namely, What part of the book is already fulfilled? What part is now in progress of fulfillment? and, What is yet future?
The following are the three divisions to which we refer as given to us in this verse. John was bidden to write in a book—1St, The things that he had seen; 2nd, The things that are; 3rd, The things that shall be after these.
No careful reader would deny that the first things that John was here bidden to write about were those that he had seen in the vision of chapter 1. By no possible means can we construe the words "hast seen" into "shalt see," so as to make them include all that he should see as detailed up to the end of the book. The language is most precise: "Write the things which thou hast seen;" that is, if we interpret it simply, " Write what you have already seen." This is the first division and first part of the book, ending with chapter 1. We then come to the second division of the book, "The things that are." -What are these? "Are" means to exist. -What existed at the moment? Evidently the varied conditions of the Church on earth, as seen in the seven different localities mentioned in chapters 2 and 3.- The "things" are told us which the Lord commends, and the " things" which condemns, in the Church wherein all His interests are centered. Chapter 4 begins the third division of the book with the words of verse 19-" After these things "-so that we have all three before us. And since the words are precise, "After these things," the third division of the book is all unfulfilled, because " the things that are " are still around us, and the Church is yet on earth as the seven golden candlesticks to sustain in this dark world a light for Him (whose eye even now, as then, discerns and scrutinizes all) "who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks " to-day.
It is important for us to have a sense in our souls of WHO it is: who condescends to tell us His estimation of the " things that are," in order that we may have some perception of the value of the communication. He is the "Ancient of days" of the Book of Daniel, yet the One who stoops to lay His right hand on the poor exile of Patinas, in order to make him know that he has not to fear since he has to do with Him "that liveth, and was dead," now to die no more, but who is alive for " the ages of ages." He is the Almighty God of the Old Testament; the "Alpha and Omega" of all God's purposes; and, blessed for us to know, He is the One that John sung of in the 6th verse of the first chapter-the "I Jesus" of chapter 22: 16. If Jesus is before us as the glorified Alan, He is none the less all these, and the Spirit of God would have us to know this, and He records it. Reader, have we grasped WHO it is? WHO tells us where His interests are to-day, so that in any little measure they have become our interests?
We have not to consult Church history to learn the past condition of the Church, nor have we to plunge into the Babel that exists among her doctors to know her present or future condition. All is unfolded here up to the end, when she will be rejected as the light-bearer. I know what He thinks of that which professes to be for Him as I read these two chapters, and that is of more moment to me than volumes of Church history, coupled with the opinions of all her doctors; for the " things that are," if (as here) they are fully described, are still.
We have seen the Church in what should have been her true relation to Christ (Ephesus, pp. 183, 219), that of "first love." We have spoken, too, of what would then have been her attitude towards the world (Smyrna, p. 220), the " persecuted one." We have also seen what is her present condition as to Christ-the first love left-as well as what it is toward the world -fellowship with it. (Pergamos, p. 234) And now the four following aspects of the Church's condition, all of which run on to the end of her earthly history (since the coming of the Lord is before us in each), are the natural outcome of these first three. And although there can be no doubt that in a general way. all seven assemblies and their conditions are necessary at any moment to present me with a perfect picture of " the things that are," yet as the first three show how the ruin was wrought, so the last four instruct us as to what the ruin is, or the condition of the Church at the coming of the Lord. This event brings before us in each of them an event which is presented in other passages of the New Testament as the one HOPE of the Church.