"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."

The warning against adding to or taking away from the words of this book is often misunderstood as a reference to the entire Bible. This misunderstanding occurs because these words from the book of Revelation stand also at the end of the New Testament canon of scripture. One brother said that many years ago when he was a young man away in school, living in a dorm, he would write letters to various people and he always filled them with scripture quotations. Before mailing each letter he would proof it four or five times to make certain that every i was dotted and every t was crossed, every colon, semi-colon, comma, and period was in its proper place, and every word was spelled correctly — because he didn’t want to add to or take away from even one jot or tittle, lest God would add to him the plagues of the book of Revelation, or take away from him his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the blessings conferred in the book. Years later, when the Lord visited him and began to open to his understanding the true message of the kingdom of God, he saw clearly that that was not what the Lord Jesus was talking about!

Precisely because of misunderstandings like this we have urged that our interpretation of the Revelation begin first of all with John of Patmos and his intentions, and in John’s day the New Testament had not yet been compiled; indeed, John was still in the process of writing letters which later became part of the New Testament. It was not until the second century after Christ that the New Testament was organized into the collection of books in the order we have them today. So the warning in our text is speaking only of what John wrote on Patmos. The words "this book" and "this prophecy" refer to the book of Revelation, not to the entire Bible or even the entire New Testament.

Our text is one that strikes fear into the hearts of many who have approached it. It is doubtful that in all the Bible there is any passage that was more frightening to me in my early days than this one! For many years the words written above were an enigma to me. It has come to me so powerfully, however, that these words are not referring to the understanding of the book. Men have myriad theories and numberless interpretations of the events portrayed in this book. One thinks, for instance, that the "beast" was the Roman Empire, another that it was a particular emperor of the empire, another that it is an end-time European Confederation, another that it is Russia, or China, another that it is some historical or future personality such as Nero, Hitler, Gorbachev, or Saddam Hussein, and there are many others. The question follows — have those who have espoused such interpretations taken away from or added to the prophecy of this book? That’s not what it’s talking about! I don’t think it indicates that if I missed the boat in some of my interpretation of the book the judgments of God will come upon me. It is not a matter of understanding or efforts at interpretation. It is a matter of adding to or taking away from THE SPIRITUAL PROCESSES IN MEN’S LIVES REPRESENTED BY THE WORDS OF THIS PROPHECY. It’s talking about adding to or taking away from the REALITY.

Experientially entering into the Revelation of Jesus Christ is the only way that leads to life, perfection, and glory. That is how our name or nature becomes inscribed in the "book" of the "Life of the Lamb." Only by failing or refusing to yield and submit to the full and complete operation of the life of God within ourselves can our part in the "book of His life" be taken away from us. John describes in this book all the stages of growth and development in Christ and all the states of being through which God brings us on our way to perfection. Anyone who would produce other processes different from these would need to be corrected or suffer loss. If we subtract (take away) from the dealings and movings of God in our lives for our salvation, perfection, and maturity, the growth and development of His life within is stunted and diminished. If we try to skip some of the process on our way to the throne, we will come up short! That is the message.

If, on the other hand, we add to the words of the prophecy of this book, that is, if we add to the operation of the Spirit within our own human works, fleshly efforts, carnal methods, religious traditions, rituals, ceremonies, rules, laws, or any other thing not born of the Spirit, God will have to add unto us the plagues of this book, that is, the corrective judgments, strippings, purgings, and processings necessary to purge the error out of us, break our carnality, and deliver us from ourselves. God doesn’t need our help! As we have said a thousand times, these are not external events; they are spiritual realities. So it is something far deeper than mere theories and conjectures about the meanings of the symbols. It’s more than the literal words of this book, for the words are merely the symbol, the surface, the letter. The reality is found in what the Revelation of Christ does in the spiritual dimension of our lives! It is right there that we either add to or take away from the prophecy. The Lord has left no room for doubt that only as the things written in this book are fully appropriated, made 100% reality within our lives, only then can we truly lay hold upon divine, incorruptible life! If we try to cut corners, shorten the process, escape some aspect of the dealings, by-pass the processings, or substitute some other method and climb up some other way, we will surely rob ourselves of His perfection, life, and glory and incur even severer dealings in the process. That is the mystery!

This is truly wonderful, because it means that if we are not experientially in the revelation process, if we are not personally experiencing and living these prophetic words and moving in the direction of greater unfoldment in harmony with them, then we are either adding to them or subtracting from them. There is no other way for us to go! This is the goal, the revelation. This last book of the Bible brings us to the place where we become the revelation, each one attaining as we yield under the mighty hand of God. We sometimes speak of having the courage of our convictions, but what we need to have is the courage of our revelation. We must have the courage to recognize the revelation — the unveiling of Christ — taking place within us, to accept it and be it. If we depart from this God-ordained process within ourselves, then we shut ourselves off from the tree of life.

The book of Revelation is undoubtedly the hardest book in the Bible to understand. However, I also believe that once you grasp by the spirit of wisdom and revelation from God what it’s really talking about, it is the most thrilling book of all! This book is the hardest to understand, perhaps, because it is communicated entirely by means of signs and symbols. "And He sent and signified (sign-i-fied, communicated by means of signs and symbols) it by His angel unto His servant John" (Rev. 1:1). When you come to this book you meet the most incredible characters. They sound like the kinds of things you would expect out of Alice in Wonderland or Star Wars movie. You meet animals and other creatures that you’ve never seen on this earth before, you meet dragons that dance across the stars, you meet seals that release horses whose hoof-beats thunder and echo around the globe, you meet a celestial woman standing on the moon, clothed with the sun and crowned with stars, you meet vials poured out of the sky, angels flying through the atmosphere, locusts swarming out of smoke from a pit arrayed like soldiers going to battle, trumpets blasting, a harlot riding a scarlet beast, a city 1500 miles across and 1500 miles high, and scores of other unusual and strange things. Oh, yes, it is an incredible book! Incredible, that is, to the natural, carnal mind!

Even though the book is puzzling to the natural man and bewildering to the carnal mind, yet the apostle wrote with blessed assurance to the enChristed these words of divine surety, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand" (Rev. 1:3). That is one of the most amazing things about this wonderful book — it is the only book in the Bible that promises a unique blessing or happiness to all those who will read it, and who truly hear what it is saying, and to those who keep, or have fulfilled within themselves, the things that the book has to say. The message is clear — if one reads this book and is not richly blessed and made extremely happy — then he failed to truly hear its message in the Spirit and by the Spirit! There are many other books of the scriptures that are much easier to understand, but they don’t contain that promise! This book promises you before you begin that if you read, and hear, and keep what you hear YOU WILL BE BLESSED! Immediately that gives me a clue to what this book is about. Obviously this book is written to a people who will "keep" its sayings, who will have fulfilled within themselves its message, who will be enabled to experience in their very own lives the things it proclaims! How else could those who read and hear be said to "keep" all the things which are written in the book?

If the panorama of events that unfold within these pages is mere external events, historical events, or future literal world events, then how, pray tell me, can those who read and hear keep or fulfill ALL THOSE THINGS? If the things written in this book are fulfilled in Nero, or the Roman Empire, or the Jews, or the Papacy, or Germany, or Russia, or China, or the United States, or an end-time empire of Antichrist, then how under God’s great heaven can all these things be fulfilled in those who read, hear, and keep these things! Can you not understand the mystery? It should be clear even to a child that the events of the Revelation happen within the experience of God’s people!

Some people’s interpretation of the Revelation says that the church disappears from the earth at the beginning of chapter four, and that after the church is out of the way — "raptured" — the rest of the book happens to that unfortunate world of unbelievers left on the earth. If that be the case, I’m not interested. I have heard that all my life and most of the people that preached it are now dead and none of it happened in their lifetime. So how could any of them, and the millions who lived before them throughout the church age, have kept the sayings of this book? How could I keep or fulfill any of the things, much less all of the things, written in the book if the vast majority happen to other people while I’m sitting on a cloud eating prime rib or dancing on the streets of gold beyond the blue? I’m not concerned with events that transpire on the earth when I’m gone, however, I would leave here. I cannot keep any of those things! The knowledge of those things would be of no benefit to me, nor would they serve any purpose to me, nor to any man that has lived from John’s day until now.

Therefore, the message of the book of Revelation cannot be centered in world events at the end of the age, nor can it concern events that transpire after the saints have flown away to that bright glory world above. It cannot have to do with the world and its masses of unregenerate men. It can only concern saints who are able to read what it says, hear with the spiritual ear, and become glad partakers of the blessed realities it proclaims. The book was not addressed to the national Israel, nor to the Jews, not to the kings of the earth, nor to the people left after the "rapture." Oh, no! It was addressed to and sent to — the churches! This is a book that, wherever I stand throughout the age of the church, has a blessing for me. And this book is speaking to me if only I can hear what it says! And if I do hear, what it says will be gloriously experienced, inwrought, and outworked THROUGH MY LIFE! Aren’t we glad!

Now honestly, if this book is entirely about an age that has not yet dawned, do you think that the poor persecuted Christians in Asia in John’s day would be the least bit interested in it? Come with me to the churches in that long ago, come with me into their midst as ambassadors of the apostle John who has been banished to the desolate slopes of the isle of Patmos, and let us share with them the message of this fantastic book, which promises them a blessing in the midst of their persecution and pain. When we get there where all these persecuted people are meeting together, and will lose their lives, and we with them, if we are caught meeting together, and we take out of our briefcase a long chart showing how the church age will last for another 2,000 years, and we begin to lecture about the Antichrist and his covenant with the Jews in Israel in the last days at the close of the church age — do you think that is going to be a blessing to these dear saints? Are they going to somehow be able in some mystical way keep or have fulfilled within themselves the things we are telling them about? NO WAY!

God makes war because He loves us. Because He has a wise and wonderful plan and purpose for us! All that appears in the book of Revelation as devastation and destruction is but a picture of God’s love, correction, and instruction that is consuming the ignorance, self-will, and foolishness within the heart of a child. The more you love your children the more you will reflect upon how to confront them and deal with them in order to change them from their immature and sometimes rebellious state of being, to bring them to a higher and wiser state of being as mature and responsible citizens. Your purpose is not to destroy them, but to eradicate their childish and selfish and destructive ways and bring their minds and emotions into captivity to the obedience that leads to nobility of life, wisdom, understanding, and skill. The childish mind sees correction and instruction as its enemy — the child will huff and puff and chafe and resist under the chastisement, because he cannot see the mature and experienced purpose. Children can’t see why they have to go to bed, why they have to take a bath, why it is necessary to share, why they can’t go here or there and do this or that, why they are forbidden to hang out with certain friends, why the homework must be done first, why there are chores and responsibilities that cannot be shirked, why they must keep their room clean, why they must always obey their parents, and a hundred things more. They fail to perceive the beauty and blessing and purpose of the life you are preparing them for, or the molding of their personality you are working in them, or the realm you are bringing them into. The reason you make war with them is to raise them up into a wonderful adult life that will be abundant with possibilities and rich in rewards. You are shaping their characters to be honored among men, to be leaders, to have and provide for their own families, to hold their heads high with accomplishment, purpose, and dignity. When the course is finished they rise up and call you blessed and eternally thank you and honor you for your steadfastness, faithfulness, care, concern, and indefatigable persistence in guiding them to that beautiful world.

It is the mind of man that keeps the world in continual turmoil. It seethes and bubbles and boils and erupts like a vast cauldron and the wisdom of man is powerless to help it. The earth abounds in forms of godliness, yet justice and equality have taken wings and righteous judgment is scarcely known. In spite of plenty, hunger stalks the earth because of the mis-rule and greed of covetous men. Men both in church and out of it are lovers of pleasure far more than lovers of God. For six thousand years man has struggled with various political and economic systems to bring about a sort of Utopia, but the human mind and the fleshly nature, prone as they are to self-interest, self-will, greed, lust, arrogance, bigotry, and violence have at last usurped all the idealistic dreams and have filled the earth with corruption and evil. The natural man can never deliver the world or bring a reign of righteousness.

The world must be delivered up into the hands of a new and different and higher race of men who can in turn lead all men into the power of regeneration and transformation. It is not a new system the world needs — it is new men! Systems have no power to change the hearts of men, and only a new heart, a new mind, a new nature, a new spirit can make all the wrongs right. The message of the Revelation concerns the dealings of God by which He raises up that superior race of men, men in the image and likeness of God, men filled with the mind and wisdom and power of Christ, men impregnated with the nature and spirit of the Father in heaven. These are the manifest sons of God. These are the manchild who shall ascend the throne and rule all nations with a rod of iron. These are the overcomers of whom the Lord Jesus Himself testifies in the closing chapters of the Revelation: "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." The book of Revelation is the divine drama of God’s dealings with His sons throughout the age to make them kings and priests for the salvation and deliverance of the whole world of mankind. We must never overlook that fact!

The great truth that is wide open to our understanding is this: No trial that we pass through is merely a trial — it is a battle with God! Some day you will understand that if you are truly called to sonship. The only problem we have is our problem with God. If there was no issue of our will and our ways versus God’s will and God’s ways, the test would cease to be a test for there would be no need to prove us, no controversy or conflict, no doubt or hesitation, no question of the outcome. The issue in which we are tested would not even exist — swallowed up in the blessedness of a full and unfailing obedience. There are areas of our lives where we still obey God because of the threat of punishment or of reaping what we sow. That is the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! In those areas we are yet under law, untransformed in mind and heart, not acting out of divine nature. There remains a struggle between our will and God’s will, between our way and God’s way.

I tell you, my beloved, the Lamb will make war with us! Don’t worry about the Lamb making war with Russia, China, or Iran. Oh, no! He will pour out into our earth the seven vials of His passion! The wrath of the Lamb will be revealed from heaven — the redemptive judgments of God. It is His great all-consuming love revealed in Christ! It gives us a new nature, the divine nature. It creates in us a new mind, the mind of Christ. It corrects us, instructs us, and beats and burns out all the foolishness in the hearts of God’s children until they become sons of God with sonship righteousness, sonship love, sonship maturity, sonship responsibility, and sonship power. It brings us to the full stature of His purpose and to the beauty of all His ways, no longer trapped in the childish mind that still wonders if God is going to spank us. "Behold! I make all things new. Behold! the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they (all of them) shall be His people." That is the thrust of the book of Revelation! That is what I trust has been made real to our hearts through these years of meditation and study in this blessed book.

As you read the book of Revelation with the illumination of the Spirit it will speak to you within yourself. You will find yourself experientially in one of the seven churches, with its characteristics either positive or negative; or you will see yourself in the seals, or in the vials of wrath; you will discover yourself in the glory of the bride or in the shame and judgment of the great whore; you will lie in bed with the wicked Jezebel, or stand with the 144,000 virgins upon mount Zion; you will be refined in the blazing inferno of the lake of fire and brimstone, or you will drink deeply of the river of the water of life; your flesh (nature) will be served up as food for the vultures, or you will be clothed in fine linen, pure and white, and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Ah, yes! You are there, my friend, in every verse and every line. Only the Spirit of God can show us these things, and finish the work, that we may become THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE EARTH!