Pay Attention to the Most Critical Details in the Book of Revelation

Posted on Sep 26, 2019 Topic : Men's Christian Living, Prophecy
Posted by : Todd Hampson

In the art world, there’s a technique known as single-point perspective. When drawing a scene or background, this method offers a simple way to add the illusion of depth for a two-dimensional composition.

Key to this concept is a single point on the horizon known to artists as the vanishing point. This is the point where all perspective lines converge, giving the illusion of infinite distance. Once the vanishing point is established, straight guidelines are drawn from the edges of the page to the vanishing point. These guidelines are then used to render the composition with the illusion of depth—portraying three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface.

Once the vanishing point and guidelines are erased, covered, or turned off (for digitally created art), the composed scene has a sense of cohesion and depth. The casual observer won’t notice the vanishing point or the perspective guidelines, but the trained artist can spot the location of the vanishing point by studying the details of the composition. This all-important invisible anchor ties the entire piece of art together.

The Bible has such an anchor that everything else in Scripture is tethered to—the person of Jesus Christ.The opening verse of the final book in God’s Word zeroes in on this paramount fact. The capstone book of Scripture is all about the revelation—or the unveiling—of the Lord Jesus Christ in all his fullness! Every storyline, theological trail, theme, and prophetic marker points to Jesus like guidelines directing our eyes to the vanishing point of a priceless piece of art. The opening verse and the initial vision of the glorified Christ in Revelation 1 affirms this fact, as do many other scriptures.

In Genesis 3:15, we discover the first prophecy pointing to the Savior, then in Revelation we find him finishing his work and reigning as King of kings and Lord of lords. The pages between Genesis and Revelation connect all the key scriptural themes to Jesus—the anchor point of the biblical narrative. The last book of the Bible opens with a revelation of Jesus and crescendos with John’s stunning vision of the glorified Christ.

Often we view the first few verses of a book of the Bible as fluff or generic set-up material—much like we view the opening to a modern-day letter: “To Whom It May Concern, blah blah blah…”—okay, let’s get to the good stuff! When we make this assumption with Scripture, however, we miss important preliminary details—especially here in the book of Revelation. The very first verse of chapter 1 contains critical foundational information that is easy to overlook.We learn from this opening verse how the message of the book was transmitted. It came directly from the Father, was given to the Son, who then gave the message to an angel, who was to give it to John so he could record it for us—his servants. It’s like a divine game of telephone—except we have received the information accurately! Nothing was lost in transmission from God’s heart to his people.