A man once asked
God, "How long is a million years?" God replied,
"By my timing, a minute." Then the man asked,
"God, how much is a million dollars?" God replied,
"For me, a penny." Next, the man said,
"Please God, give me a penny." So God replied,
"In a minute!"
In the same way, the Book of Revelation
measures days as years and years as millennia. In the 1950s,
time itself was in question where I grew up in England's
East Anglia under the shadow of the Armageddon. Nuclear
holocaust ever loomed large, with England a lot closer than the
USA to the USSR! There, I grew up under two sets of shields
connected with the Book of Revelation. The first set of
heraldic school chapel shields, showing its four Living Beings,
was mundane enough. But the second set was nuclear. At
Polebrook village, three miles from school, some hundred
rockets planted in a field pointed eastwards. Their direction
varied with the latest cold war crisis—sometimes Moscow,
sometimes Odessa or Leningrad, we guessed. Later I studied
medicine at Cambridge University only fourteen miles from the
USAF-RAF Alconbury base that housed the planet's biggest
arsenal of nuclear bombs, with plans and planes to deliver
them.
Today, however, the Book of Revelation
marks a millennial end to this bloody century and ushers in a
warless Millennium. Swift, awesome, material progress, which
flew warplanes and aimed missiles in our own lifetimes, can now
conquer causes of war and stop it wasting lives and resources.
History will celebrate how human awareness awoke from this
unique twentieth century of both discovery and warfare, and
converted swords into plowshares. Therefore, this millennial
moment of the end of the twentieth century is timely for
revisiting St. John's vision of global unity. Glorious Revelation
grasps 2000 ad as a convenient cusp of history for its accurate
interpretation of the Book of Revelation of St. John. Glorious Revelation
primarily sets out to bring its moving meaning to readers to a
broadly traditional Christian readership. While Glorious Revelation is
based as fully as possible on the revealed
Bahá'í sources, its intent, nonetheless, is
mainly to benefit the non-converted, rather than preach to the
converted.
These Bahá'í sources
credibly interpret the two main time prophecies of the Book of
Revelation. This is to their credit, for timing is the key to
prophecy. The first time prophecy, 391 years, interprets as the
period running from 1453 ad through 1844 ad, and the second
time prophecy of 1,260 years interprets to end in 1844 ad as
well. These specific dates form the time base of interpretation
for all the events coursing through the palace of the Book of
Revelation. St. John's compelling tale of an evolving Law
(or Religion) of God echoes though the rooms and passages of
"Revelation palace," playing out from 95 ad to
unite the Faiths. Glorious
Revelation turns its prophetic pages
to reveal it as a pre-history of the Faiths advancing the Law
of God, the Religion of God, since 95 ad. Nor is it by chance
that the Book of Revelation is the Bible's most united
book. As the highway bridges of US-1 link the Florida Keys, so
the Book of Revelation connects monotheistic faiths, and
focuses specifically on the three most recent. The first faith
was Christianity, while the next two faiths came into being
after the time of St. John.
The Bahá'í sources
reveal, in piecemeal fashion, both many symbols of the Book of
Revelation, and of its 394 verse total, an additional core 15%
that repetition expands to 30%. The good news is that the
long-awaited golden Millennium of the Book of Revelation
coincides closely with our new millennium. In particular, the
events prophesied by Chapters 1-16 are over. They already
took place from 95 ad through 2000 ad. This includes the
afflictions of Chapters 15 and 16 and even the last worst
affliction of Armageddon that began in the nineteenth century,
next exploded in 1914 ad, then continued as warfare and cold
war across the globe throughout the now ended twentieth
century. You can hear the passing of Armageddon in Chapter 16,
watch the collapse and recovery of the Greatest Depression in
Chapters 17-19, and relish the blossoming golden
Millennium in Chapters 20-22.
Inspired by these newly-revealed
interpretations, I began writing Glorious
Revelation in 1995 as a
personal retirement plan for a year at most. After all, the
readily accessible newly-revealed writings insert the patches
of color and edge-pieces of the jigsaw puzzle of the mosaic
floor of "Revelation palace." All I had to do was
identify the best version of the Book of Revelation
available—many translations exist—and complete a
parallel interpretation based on these revealed
interpretations. But this was not to be. Ultimately, the very
power of the interpretations themselves clarified translation
of many tough, tricky Greek words and phrases too effectively
to be ignored. So I had to learn Koine Greek and translate the
Greek of the Book of Revelation myself. Fortunately its Koine
street Greek lies somewhere between my proficient school Latin
of five years and my fluent Hebrew from living eight years in
Israel. Both my translation and interpretation strictly honored
the warning against change of the Book of Revelation's
verses 22:18-19.
As a result, the challenge of Glorious Revelation
steadily grew to keep me fascinated, continually clicking at
the keyboard into the early hours. Translating and interpreting
formed a continual, creative, instructive feedback loop. The
actual interpretation I began by first faithfully inserting the
newly revealed symbols and verses. Thus the landscape of Glorious Revelation's
jigsaw puzzle shines its symbols in the leafy greens of
forests, the rippling blues of lakes, and the masonry browns of
buildings, and its 30% revealed verses as edge-pieces and
bridges between its landscaped regions. Subsequently, steadily
pursuing the clues cast by St. John like lines and hooks
throughout the crossword of his Book of Revelation, and
applying sensitive logic connected interpretive jigsaw pieces
and the closed gaps, step by step. Here and there, a rare flash
of personal inspiration helped interpretation too. Now Glorious Revelation's
mosaic jigsaw puzzle extends as the floor of the palace of
Revelation through all of its twenty-two chapter rooms.
St. John has kept readers of his Book of
Revelation guessing for two millennia and has safeguarded its
prophetic events. Its light of cloaked truth has continued to
burn through spiritually dark ages. The
Bahá'í sources name St. John as the author
of the Book of Revelation, presumably as the apostle who wrote
the Gospel in rather different Greek. It was he who, as bishop
at Ephesus, was deported to Patmos Island as late as 95 ad at
the age of ninety years, accompanied by his young disciple
Prochorus. They lived in a particular cave across whose mouth
the vision of St. John appeared, and from whose wall its voices
spoke.
The different Greek of St. John's
Gospel and Book of Revelation can be medically explained by his
brain aging in the interim, and by their very different subject
matters. He published his Gospel as a logical young man to
record the life and teachings of Jesus. In contrast, he
dictated his Book of Revelation about the sights and sounds of
his out-of-body vision at the age of ninety years. His brain
surface processing language and logic had almost certainly
shrunken, while more resilient deeper nerve cells and fibers
could still formulate the emotive language for the sights,
sounds, and feelings of his vision. Such change in his brain
would mean his thinking language had probably regressed back to
his native Aramaic and religious Hebrew. This would explain his
quick-speak condensed Semitic Greek in the Book of Revelation.
Perhaps he dictated the sights and sounds of his vision
real-time to Prochorus in Aramaic or Hebrew, and he wrote it
down in Koine Greek as fast as he could, joining 74% of its
phrases with "and," the ubiquitous conjunction Kai.
Shrewd St. John would relish the
result—a Semitic stew cooked in a spicy pot of street
Greek—as useful fate that keep his readers fascinated and
guessing. Just translating, not even interpreting, lets him
laugh you along and challenge you with his odd riddles, peppery
puns, tantalizing tenses, and discerning word order. You
discover his literary crossword codes that he cast as lines and
hooks to connect twenty-two chapters in a web of discovery. In
the process, your taste for this old wise prophet grows and
deepening rapport with him helps you tease out his methods,
meanings, and messages.
In childhood I always had to know the
truth, however painful, which probably helped me study
medicine, garner degrees, and pursue a fulfilling career in
intensive care. Yet over the years I needed to find higher
spiritual truths to balance the logic and art of medicine. In
this regard, religious prophecies fulfilled over millennia, or
even just centuries, held me in awe. Then, learning about its
new interpretations, the Book of Revelation, this mother of
prophecy, drew me along its spiritual path. These
Bahá'í sources open its palace gate and
introduce its Angel messenger of the first chapter room. He
greets and escorts us through the rest of "Revelation
palace," through his seven Faiths of Chapters 2 and 3,
his throne-room of Chapter 4 with its courtiers, and into his
library of Chapter 5 to meet the Ram. Next, we read histories
and hear heralds in its East wing of Chapters 6 through 10.
Then we reach its great central hall of Chapter 11, from where
the brilliant seven-fold light of 1844 ad illuminates its whole
palace. There we witness a fresh execution of the Ram of Jesus.
Subsequently, we pass on through troubled Muslim histories and
afflictions, including Armageddon, in its West wing of Chapters
12 through 16. The seal histories, trumpet herald angels, and
bowl afflictions act out in sets of seven in Chapters 6, 10,
and 15, and recall the riddle of St. Ives: "As I was
going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives. Each wife had
seven sacks, each sack had seven cats, and each cat had seven
kittens. How many were going to St. Ives?" The answer
"One" is the poser of the riddle, here is the Angel
of the Glory of God of Chapter 1 who reappears in many guises
through the remaining Chapters.
Brevity is blessed, and to this end the
direct parallel layout of Glorious
Revelation presents a concise best
interpretation as its single united agenda. Verso (left-side)
pages first secure the translation of the original Book of
Revelation of St. John, then the facing recto (right-side)
pages display its matching interpretation. This parallel recto
interpretation matches St. John's verso
original—paragraph by paragraph, verse by verse, phrase
by phrase, conjunction by conjunction, and even comma by comma.
The interpretation's length and phrase order remain close
to the original. It is written to be read from recto page to
recto page, with the facing verso original opposite and ready
as the authoritative source reference, even for readers who
know the Book of Revelation. Further, this layout creates a
built-in glossary of symbols accessible via the Index. Of
necessity, chapters start unconventionally on verso pages. In
addition, the interpretation tenses are set to 1995 and stagger
time across the nineteen centuries of the Book of Revelation
from its 95 ad publication year to its nineteenth centennial
year, 1995 ad. This literary device drives the interpretation
in vivid real time, distinguishes the interpretation even more
from the original, and generates useful dialectic tension that
catalyzed interpretation.
This translation of the original Book of
Revelation diligently reviewed, compared, and revised previous
translations based on Majority, Receptus and Critical Texts.1,2,3,4,5,6,7
The most exhaustive, Aune's three-volume work,8 was
invaluable, as was the concise Barclay Newman dictionary
listing meanings by frequency of usage.9 The limited vocabulary
of the Book of Revelation's street (Koine or Common)
Greek is like both quick-speak blunt Cockney English and the
first Basic English vocabulary of the minimum of eight hundred
words needed to define all words in a standard Oxford
dictionary, that even renders Shakespeare quite well. The very
limited vocabulary of street Greek has inherent inspirational
depth. In addition, the act of translation strives for
harmonious loyalty to both the Greek original and modern
English meaning. For example, the literal "his voice was
like a sound of many waters" renders as "his voice
rushed like a waterfall." Certain liberties kept a few
sentences brief, for example, by changing a mid-sentence
"saying" to an opening "They said," or
a "so that" to a "So...." And that
wonderful wild-card conjunction, Kai, opening 74% of the Book of Revelation's
verses, generated a wealth of legitimate meaning. For Kai may stand as an
introductory And, or simply breathe silence ahead of a new sentence, or
translate from a wide range of English conjunctions.8?
Regardless of all this, the notorious street Koine Greek of the
Book of Revelation is tough to translate. Indeed, one eminent
translator privately admits that even he has often wavered over
a word.
Inevitably, translations of the Book of
Revelation are biased, usually conspicuously. Certainly, Glorious Revelation is.
But its bias derives from source interpretations that prove
themselves by markedly easing the translation of its fifty-odd
tough, tricky Greek words and phrases that have tested
translators and translations for nineteen centuries. Extensive
footnotes detail many of them. The resulting translation is far
closer to the original Greek than others. This very easing of
translation boosts the credibility of the
Bahá'í sources guiding it. A telling
example is the phrase found in verse 10:7, "God
proclaimed his servant prophets," indicating that
God's proclamation was his prophet Manifestations
themselves. But check any Bible and you will read, "God
proclaimed to his servant prophets," inserting a notional
"to" before the word "prophets." Yet
creating this non-existent dative case proves inaccurate and
unnecessary.
Meanings of prophecy vary, yet its song
sings eternal. For the main purpose of prophecy is
spiritual—which should be no surprise. Spiritual writings
agree: "We speak one word and by it intend one and
seventy meanings,"10 and "This is one of the
meanings of the biblical story...reflect until you discover the
others."11 You can thus interpret the single spiritual
principle of a prophetic vision as separate valid histories
recurring in different times and diverse places, all with the
same spiritual purpose.12 This concept transforms the popular
notion that you can interpret prophecy "any way you
want" to another plane. Indeed, over nineteen centuries,
the multiple interpretations of the quintessential Book of
Revelation have generated a whole classification of prophetic
interpretation into historicist, preterist, futurist, spiritual, and now revealed categories. Glorious
Revelation falls into, nay
defines, the revealed category of interpretation by the
Bahá'í sources, yet still projects its
interpretations through historicist and futurist lenses.
Thus the beast of the Book of Revelation
spiritually symbolizes beastly rulers and regimes. Through
their own prophetic lens, Christians tend to view this beast as
the Roman Empire persecuting Christianity. While though the
lens of the later Faiths of Glorious
Revelation, this same beast looms as
the Umayyad Empire. Just as the Roman Empire once plagued
Christianity, so, six centuries later, the Umayyad Empire
plagued initially virtuous Islam. Lens by lens,
prophecy's spiritual telescope focuses on various valid
interpretations. Its red lens may portray first-century Rome
while its green lens displays seventh-century Arabia. Its beast
dons period costumes from two eras and areas, one Roman
marching uniform, the other Umayyad cavalry colors.
Functionally, the dining room of "Revelation
palace" lets you meet as well as eat, and its library
lets you daydream as well as read. In this same context,
Christians typically interpret the seven congregations of
Chapters 1, 2, and 3 as specific congregations where they were
and also as the whole Church in general. These two harmonious
layers of interpretations are free of contradiction. Here,
adding a third harmonious layer that interprets for and
welcomes these congregations also as the religious faiths that
they are, remains free of contradiction.
Yet, in spite of the validity of multiple
meanings, Glorious Revelation's layout deliberately commits to a single,
concise, united, best interpretation. It shelves many sound,
but less-preferred, alternatives and is especially influenced
by the Middle East setting of the Book of Revelation. After
all, St. John's home turf was the Middle East—not
only the central Holy Land home of monotheism but also the
surrounding broader region. Further, the newly-revealed
interpretations set the Book of Revelation firmly in the
monotheistic Middle East. It was this same Middle East that saw
the evolution of Christianity and two more monotheistic Faiths
after 95 ad. The first was Islam in all its forms, for both
better and worse, and it should be no surprise that this major
Middle East faith, Islam, should prominently feature in the
Book of Revelation.
For St. John in 95 ad, Islam was more than
a twinkle in the eye, but still a fetal Faith, whose due date
was 622 ad, five centuries later. Islam's thunderous fast
descent across the Middle East was important prophetic news
about which St. John indeed prophesied. Indeed, his Book of
Revelation prophesies Islam as one successor of the faith of
Christianity, sheds fascinating insight into the spiritual and
warrior character of Islam, and provides natural closure for
the New Testament. Some historicist interpreters did discover
warrior Islam in Chapter 9,1 catching sight of its Umayyad
locust cavalries swarming across the Middle East and
Mediterranean world after 633 ad. They heard its cannons
conquer Constantinople in 1453 ad. But they still stayed blind
to the appearance of Muhammad in the Book of Revelation,
since they were deaf to his Islam. Nor did they identify Islam
as the "beast trying to change times and laws for three
and a half times" in Daniel 7:25, or realize that the
recurring 1,260-day time prophecy of the Book of Revelation ran
on the Muslim calendar.
Continuing with multiple Middle East
meanings, Jerusalem and Babylon represent spiritually noble and
destructive ideologies in any area or era. Jerusalem, once
Christianity, here shines as a new Faith
of Glory. Babylon, once Rome, is
here interpreted as cancerous materialism, while an alternative
interpretation would also see Babylon as the general loss of
spirituality by humanity itself. Likewise, "the image of
the beast" in verses 13:11-16 portrays any ruler or
regime duplicating a bestial predecessor's systematic tax
extortion and discrimination against minorities. Here, writ
large for Empires dominating the Middle East, the bestial
Ottoman Empire of 1299 through 1918 ad succeeds the Umayyad of
661 through 749 ad. Yet in St. John's era the bestial
Roman Emperor Domitian (82-96 ad also followed Nero
(54-68 ad), and ruling the Middle East, the bestial
Umayyad Empire also succeeded the Roman. Then just within
Islam, Caliph Yazid poisoned his father Mu'awiyeh in 680
ad, the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyads in 749 ad (which means
the second beast of verse 13:11 has a serious alternative to
the Ottoman regime in this Abbasid regime), and in addition,
the nineteenth century Persian Qajar regime imitated the
Ottoman regime.
On a smaller scale, verse 9:4's
grass, plants, and trees of the territories occupied by the
seventh century Umayyads portrayed both the benevolent standing
orders reining in their cavalries to limit how much they hurt
people and property, and also the Sabaean, Jewish, Zoroastrian,
and Christian congregations, houses of worship, and clergies
under their occupation. Likewise, verse 13:1's ocean of
the Umayyads displayed both their Arabian seacoast of origin,
and also the heretical ocean of their collective mind. In a
similar vein, listings of people and subjects may assume other
valid sequences. Thus Chapters 2 and 3's Pergamos,
Thyatira, and Sardis can be Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and
Buddhism in another credible order. Verses 6:2-3's
calf and human Living Beings or Primary Figures can be reversed as the Servant of Glory and the Door to Glory.
Likewise, verses 14:6-11's three herald messengers,
verses 14:14 and 14:17's two judges, and verse 21:
2's fifth and sixth Commandments, can be acceptably
reordered—for, regardless of sequence, the guiding
spiritual concept of each list remains true.
Glorious Revelation relies upon revealed year dates for time prophecies in
the Book of Revelation. The Bahá'í sources
use the tested year-for-a-day biblical principle of Numbers 14:
34 and Ezekiel 4:6. Expanding, a month (defined as 30 days by Genesis 7:11, 24, and 8:
3-4) represents 30 years, and a year represents 360 years.
The two time prophecies already mentioned ring in 1844 ad and
toll the knell of Islam. Verse 9:15 sounds the first 391-day time prophecy (a day, a month, and a year) echoing amidst
cannons booming Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in the 1453 ad.
Count these 391 days as years from 1453 ad, and you reach 1844 ad.
Chapters 11 and 12 broadcast the second 1,260-day time prophecy
loud and clear, four ways, seven times, amid proclamations of
spiritual and military Islam and its successor faith. Count
these 1,260 days as Islamic years from the first Islamic year
of 1 ah (Anno Hijirah), or 622 ad, and you obtain 1260 ah, that was
1844 ad.
Historically, the prophetic year 1844 ad
signaled the taking of effect of 1839 ad's Ottoman Tanzimat reforms in
Palestine. These general reforms attempted a revival of the
Ottoman Empire, but too late and too little. Yet the freedoms
they brought improved the lot of Palestinian Jews and
Christians. Thus 1844 ad was the spiritual conception of the
State of Israel, which sparked Jewish settlement of Palestine
over a complicated century-long gestation before Israel's
birth in 1948 ce.
Many time prophecies outside the Book of
Revelation identify 1844 ad, too. Counting the "2,300
days to the end of desolation" of Daniel 8:14 as years
from the decree of Artaxerxes of 457 bc that finalized the
consecration of the rebuilt Jerusalem Temple renders 1844 ad
(no 0 ad/bc year existed). This decree was the most important
of four—the first of Cyrus of 536 bc (Ezra 1), the second
of Darius of 519 bc (Ezra 6), the third of Artaxerxes of 457 bc
(Ezra 7) and the fourth of Artaxerxes of 444 bc (Nehemiah 2).
An entirely Muslim time prophecy predicted the return of the
Shi'i Twelfth Imam a thousand years after his
disappearance in 260 ah (873 ad), namely in 1260 ah, that is,
1844 ad. Even more time prophecies for 1844 ad appear in
Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Islam.
Such remarkable inter-Faith agreement
prophesying 1844 ad supports a compelling case for both
inter-Faith unity and also prophecy13 in general. Further, the
timing of Glorious Revelation is ahead of many other interpretations because
1844 ad guides it. Specifically, prophetic events up to
the end of Chapter 16 have already been fulfilled, including
the last, the Battle of Armageddon.
The word Armageddon transliterates as Har
Megiddo, which is Hebrew for Mount Megiddo.
Megiddo alone, once a military settlement stabling war horses,
is now just a ten-acre tel, an uninhabited archeological
200-foot hillock. In Hebrew, tel is a small hill, usually man-made, a giva' is a
hill, and har is a real mountain. Any map shows Mount Carmel is the
sole mountain above Megiddo, and for this and other reasons Glorious Revelation identifies
Mount Carmel as Mount Megiddo or Armageddon. Chapter 16
develops its sequential "Armageddon series" of
historically connected interpretations, all symbolized by the
spiritual spot of Mount Carmel. Verse 14 narrates the
"warfare of the greatest day of God," then verse 16
names "Armageddon," but ahead of verses 17-21
that actually explode its warfare.
The first history in this Armageddon series
was spiritual warfare when the Persian clergy and government
tried to extinguish the Faith of Glory after 1844 ad, martyring
20,000 followers, and continuing persecutions through the
twentieth century. Eighteen centuries earlier, Christianity
underwent similar persecutions. The second Armageddon, around
1870 ad, was the Proclamation to
the Kings from the region of Mount
Carmel, an extensive systematic correspondence methodically
urging world leaders to make peace, but they chose war. The
outcome was the third Armageddon of the Balkans, where World
War I started in 1914 ad. The fourth Armageddon was the
decisive final battle ending World War I in 1918 ad, literally
at Mount Carmel and Megiddo. British General Allenby decisively
routed the army of the Ottoman Empire that was also enemy to
the Faith of Glory. [Earlier in Jerusalem, my great uncle had
been shot down from a balloon and my aunt and
uncle-in-law-to-be were Jerusalem children presenting flowers
to victorious Allenby.] Finally, the fifth most massive
Armageddon, writ large in Glorious
Revelation, was manifest as this
whole twentieth century of worldwide warfare and cold war since
1914 ad.
In summary, Mount Carmel, for the Faith of
Glory, symbolizes an Armageddon battle series that started as
Middle East inter-Faith persecution, continued through appeals
for peace, then opened as World War I in the Balkans, included
the British defeat of the Ottoman Empire, and ultimately became
the global war lasting this whole twentieth century. Now, at
century and millennium end, increasingly effective global
initiatives against warfare augur enough global wisdom, power,
and hope for a new charter of nations to extinguish warfare and
guide humanity towards its millennium of peace.
However, 2000 ad only puts us at the start
of Chapters 17-19 that bode a pending Greatest Depression
first. Chapter 17 identifies Babylon as systematic cancerous
materialism, narrating how empire after empire have thereby
abused humanity for three millennia. Cancerous materialism
controlled, in particular, a series of ancient Empires: Egypt,
Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, Rome and Byzantium. These
seven were ethically the biggest and worst, the most imposing
ones that dominated the Middle East before, during, and after
St. John's time. Aptly, Chapter 17 also explains
prophetic interpretation, using the whore, waters, beast, and
city as its examples in the context of cancerous materialism.
Next, Chapter 18 describes a Greatest Depression, worse than
the 1930s, that destroys cancerous materialism, and spiritually
corrects the Dow-Jones and similar indices, ringing and
wringing out cancerous materialism to stop it persuasively and
obsessively putting things before people. Verses 11-13
indicate sequential market crashes—gold early, goods
next, transport later, and labor last (giving workers some
respite). This is an unpopular subject to broach at a
relatively prosperous time in the West, and its exact timing
cannot be known. Suffice it to say that according to this
interpretation of Glorious
Revelation, it will start suddenly
and surprise everybody, and lasts a full chapter! Then Chapter
19 describes its outcome of spiritual awakening and sharing of
God's material bounty. Later, spiritual economics
features as one positive new commandment of Chapter 21's
Twelve Commandments of the advancing Law of God. Last, the
golden Millennial light of Chapters 20-22 dawns as the
glorious garden of "Revelation palace," blossoming
in unity and peace.
We have already seen how the time
prophecies of the Book of Revelation synchronize with those of
other faiths. Indeed, the influence of the Book of Revelation
extends far beyond its strictly Christian origin. Its central
sacrificial figure, the Ram, leads the way. This arnion, the
diminutive of arnen, meaning sheep, appears in verse 5:6 and
translates as "young Ram." The traditional
translation, "Lamb," is a misnomer, since right
from verse 5:6 the arnion possesses horns and is angry in
verses 6:16-7—both typical of a ram, not a lamb.
Rams were also sacrificial animals just like lambs. This Ram,
the Door of Jesus, was his prophesied Second Coming, not his
First. For this Ram prophesying Jesus in hindsight has little
point. In any case, Jesus is named simply Jesus in many verses.
Instead, this Ram is the Door of Jesus who was his
also-sacrificed Second Coming.
This Door or Ram of Jesus was a Persian
Manifestation of God in Persia named the Báb He was born
in 1819 ad, proclaimed in 1844 ad, and was executed in 1850 ad.
His name, the Báb, translates as "Door" or
"Gate" as interchangeably thura does in Greek. This
name lets Glorious Revelation interpret the thura or Door of verses 3:8, 3:20, and 4:1 as him. In
1850 ad it was Persian rulers and Muslim clergy executing him
by firing squad. But his followers and Western observers
reported that the 750 bullets of the first firing squad missed
him. He vanished but was found miraculously unscathed in his
cell completing his last, previously interrupted, dictation.
Then the 750 bullets from the Muslim squad, replacing the first
now-deserted Armenian squad, killed him. Bullets pierced this
Second Coming of the Ram as crucifixion nails pierced his First
Coming as the Lamb of Jesus. In 1899 ad the
Báb's hidden remains were taken to Mount Carmel
for burial, entombing him as another Elijah beside the tomb of
the first Elijah. (In Christianity John the Baptist had
fulfilled this same role).
Yet, in 1844 ad, Millennialists,15 who
had tracked down biblical prophecies in order to greet the
Second Coming of Jesus, missed him. They got the time right,
but neither his place nor identity. For they assumed that,
somehow, Jesus would simply appear, miraculously, with the
clouds, in the sky, for everyone, no matter where, to see. Such
literal Christian expectations for the Second Coming of Jesus
were not met by the Báb, any more than similar literal
Jewish Messianic expectations had been met by Jesus eighteen
centuries before. For orthodox religion insists that prophecies
be fulfilled literally,16 thereby hiding the sequential dawning
of Messiahs and Second Comings. As a result, the Messiah who
comes is never the one expected!
Therefore the Book of Revelation is a
unique pre-history, describing the evolving Law or Religion of
God that its temple represents, advancing since its publication
as event advancing in Christianity, Islam, and now the latest
Bahá'í Faith, which together form the Law
of God. In Glorious Revelation the Bahá'í
Faith, which reveals its symbols and verses,12,17,18,19 is
named the "Faith of Glory." In this context, the
Book of Revelation recognizes the earlier monotheistic Faiths
of Sabaeanism, Judaism, Zarathustrianism, Hinduism, and
Buddhism.
This latest Bahá'í
Faith was born when the Báb proclaimed in 1844 ad, its
first calendar year, 1 be (Bahá'í Era). In
Persian its name derives from bahá, meaning "glory," and the
Faith's foremost Manifestation of God is named
Bahá'u'lláh, meaning "Glory of
God." Further, the grand global birth cry of the
Bahá'í Faith announces two Manifestations
of God instead of just one, and twenty-four founding disciples
instead of just the twelve sons of Israel, disciples of Jesus,
or Imams of Muhammad. The Bahá'í Faith
declares that the Báb and
Bahá'u'lláh are the twin
Manifestations whom God has promised to every Faith—not
least Christianity and Islam. The Báb preceded, and
opened his Door, to his greater successor Manifestation of God,
Bahá'u'lláh, who was a contemporary
Teheran nobleman born in 1817 ad.20 The Báb and
Bahá'u'lláh are the most recent of a
series of Manifestations of God including Adam, Noah, Abraham,
Moses, Zarathustra, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad,
who, from age to age, have successively taught our species the
Law of God now advancing to global status. Today, its latest
Bahá'í Faith stands historically where
Christianity stood around 156 ad.
Bahá'u'lláh
proclaimed himself in 1863 ad and led the
Bahá'í Faith forward in spite of being in
prison most of his life. In 1892 ad he died and was buried in
Ottoman Palestine, now Israel.
Bahá'u'lláh was the Angel of the
exalted Jesus in Chapter 1 of the Book of Revelation, with
white hair, flaming eyes, and a radiant face. These
descriptions in verses 14-16 accurately reflect his
physical features. Further, his known genealogy fits both
lineages, the "root" and "offspring of
David," of verses 5:5 and 22:16. The Book of
Revelation's title "Father" also applies to
Bahá'u'lláh.21,22,23,24 For this
title only once applied to Jesus,25 whom the title
"Son" suits best.
Another Book of Revelation title, Christos, equivalent
to the Hebrew Mashiach, has the exact literal meaning
"anointed" and derives from ceremonial anointing of
kings and prophets by Jews, and of political and religious
leaders by Greeks. Yet, writ large, the title Anointed describes
all the Manifestations of God passing through the millennia,
including, but not limited to, Jesus. Christos is Jesus Christ
for Christians, Mashiach is the awaited Messiah for Jews, and
Bahá'u'lláh is this era's
Millennial Messiah for Bahá'ís, with Jesus
and Muhammad Messiahs of previous cycles of the Law of God. Glorious Revelation
therefore applies context to translate Christos as either
"Christ" or "Messiah." Again, the
cluster of titles "First and Last,"
"Beginning and End," "Alpha and Omega"20,26,27,28
defines Manifestations of God as first beginners and final
enders of the religious cycles that steadily advance the Law of
God through the millennia. These titles first describe God in
verse 1:8, next introduce the 95 ad Angel of the exalted
Jesus in verses 1:11 and 17, then proclaim him as the exalted
Bahá'u'lláh eighteen centuries later
in verses 21:6 and 22:13.
The writings of altogether four
Bahá'í primary figures are authoritative.
The foremost are Bahá'u'lláh and the
Báb, and the others, the Faith's Servant of Glory,
'Abdu'l-Bahá, and its Guardian, Shoghi Effendi.
Other interpretations of the Book of Revelation based on the
Bahá'í sources,29,30,31,32,33,34 like Glorious Revelation,
are simply regarded as opinion. Such strictness boosts the very
authority of the interpretations that the primary figures
reveal. The Epilogue lists their available interpretations for
the Book of Revelation, verse by verse, on pages 145-48.35
Bahá'u'lláh's 1862 ad Book of
Certitude [Kitáb-i-Íqán] reveals symbols in
the Book of Revelation in extensive detail.35 Subsequently
'Abdu'l-Bahá interprets the core 15% of its
394 verses; that repetition expands to 30%.17,35,? He writes
further, "The Book of Revelation produces wonderful
effects in minds, and causes hearts to be attracted."36
Then the Guardian expands the interpretations for key verses.18,19,35
All their relevant writings are scattered piecemeal across a
century in sacred publications. 'Abdu'l-Bahá
has also interpreted other prophecies piecemeal: Daniel, but
only verses 8:13-17, 9:24-26, and 12:6-7,
11-12;37 and Isaiah, but only verses 9:6-9, 11:
1-10, 43:1, 48:12, and 55:12.38
Bahá'í revealed writings do not interpret
the Book of Revelation from beginning to end. For its
interpretation has helped teach this Bahá'í
Faith, but has not been an end in itself. Instead, the
interpreted symbols and verses have helped people like Moffett,29
Riggs,30 Sears,31 Motlagh,32 Sours,33 Tai-Seale,34 and me fill
the gaps. Glorious Revelation, for its part, faithfully incorporates
revealed symbols and verses as cornerstones from which to build
its interpretation of the rest. Bahá'í
"pilgrim notes," also exist as hearsay reports, and
the few that interpret the Book of Revelation were written by
western Bahá'ís who met
'Abdu'l-Bahá or Shoghi Effendi.
One such report by Ruth Moffett identifies
the Angel of Jesus of Chapters 1 as
Bahá'u'lláh, and the congregations as
faiths. Fortunately a letter that Shoghi Effendi wrote to her
supports her, in that it states, "He is the Father and
all previous dispensations led up to him."39 She further
quotes him unsubstantiated, saying, "The Book of
Revelation is the Master Bridge revealed by Christ for the
followers of all religions, leading to the Kingdom of God upon
the earth; and Bahá'u'lláh holds the
seven in his right hand...."40
Then, Shoghi Effendi writes for Chapter 4
that the twenty-four Elders around the throne in verse 4:4 were
the twenty-four founders [sic] of the
Bahá'í Faith of whom at least nineteen were
known as the Letters of the Living.41 The odd but accurate
Greek defining the throne positions helps considerably. Verse 4:
6 places the four Living Beings both upon and also around the
throne. Not to be outdone, verse 5:6 places the Lamb or Ram
simultaneously both at the center of the throne and Living
Beings and also among the Elders. Then verse 7:17 has the Ram
partly sharing the throne. In fact, these three verses spell
out a Bahá'í Who's
Who for the overlap of the
Persons Enthroned, the Living Beings, and the Elders of Chapter
4. When read in the light of the interpretation, the odd Greek
wording is seen to be accurate and becomes clear. For the four
Living Beings are the primary Bahá'í
figures and also four of the twenty-four Elders. Verses 4:
2-3's and 5:6's God's two
Manifestations on the throne are
Bahá'u'lláh and the Báb, who
are also two of the four Living Beings. Seen in reverse, the
twenty-four Founders include the four primary
Bahá'í figures and another twenty founders,
and the four primary Bahá'í figures include
Bahá'u'lláh and the Báb as
well as 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi.
The patches of color and edge pieces of Glorious Revelation's
jigsaw mosaic of the Book of Revelation, namely the revealed
symbols and verses, join other verses in its crossword puzzle
and decode their meanings, too. Repetition already expands the
revealed core 15% of the 394 verse total to 30%. For example,
two of the three revealed "Woes" of verse 11:14
also appear in verses 8:13 and 9:12. Then St. John's
extensive crossword clues, the literary lines and hooks he cast
throughout his Book of Revelation, are trigger-phases and
link-words like the ones Friedman discovered in Genesis,42 and
they connect the other 70% of verses in various ways. Date
prophecies join together mathematically, small differences in
repeating phrases become leads, symbols reveal meanings at both
spiritual and material levels, and Hebraisms make new sense.
For example, the "mighty" angel
appearing in verses 5:2, 10:1, and 18:21, simply interprets as
one person, Bahá'u'lláh. Four horses
that neigh differently in verses 6:1-8, 14:20, and 19:18,
still gallop throughout true to character as corrupt theology,
widespread warfare, economic injustice, and wanton death,
wherever they are. The 391-year prophetic period of verse 9:15
ends exactly in the 1844 ad of Chapters 11 and 12. Clouds
double as glory and opposition, horses as harmful spiritual and
military forces, and earthquakes as doubts and warfare. The
Hebraism, "curse of war" of verse 22:3 reveals
meaning for the otherwise solitary bare word
"curse"—thanks to Aune. St. John's
literary lines and hooks join his hitherto concealed 70% of
verses in a web of discovery of Glorious
Revelation's single united
agenda. Once you recognize and catch your first line, grasping
the others comes more easily....
In summary, Glorious
Revelation turns the prophetic pages
of the Book of Revelation and reveals it as a pre-history of
Christianity, Islam, and the Bahá'í Faith
of Glory serially advancing one Law of God, the Religion of
God, since 95 ad. I take sole responsibility for Glorious Revelation.
It was conceived, incubated, hatched, and nurtured to fly on
balanced wings of scholarship and spirituality as an
independent investigation of truth. Encouragement and help from
friends, well-wishers, and fellow truth seekers in all Faiths
made it possible.
? additionally, along with, also,
alternatively, as, as for, as well as, at this, because,
behold, but, certainly, consequently, continuing, especially,
even, even so, exactly, for, further, hereupon, however, in
addition, in other words, in particular, including, inclusive
of, in other words, indeed, instead, just, last, like, meaning,
meanwhile, moreover, namely, next, nonetheless,
notwithstanding, now, nevertheless, or, particularly, rather,
regardless, specifically, so, so that, still, subsequently,
such as, that, that is, that is to say, then, thereupon,
together with, though, throughout, when, whereas, which, while,
who, or with!
