II. The Prophetic Character of the Book

The Revelation, like Daniel, is a book of symbolic prophecy—in other words, an apocalypse. This medium for conveying truth was not a new device, but was then already a familiar form in Jewish literature. John’s Revelation, however, stands out in sharp contrast to the various apocryphal apocalypses devised by human ingenuity. And like Daniel, the Revelation is a multiple prophecy, with the same pronounced characteristics of (1) continuity—extending from John’s day to the end of time, and the subsequent setting up of God’s everlasting kingdom, or the earth made new; (2) comprehensiveness—based on the framework of world events as these form the setting for the life of the church and accentuate the conflict between Christ and Antichrist; and (3) repetition—going back and covering the same general outline seven times, through the line of the seven churches, then the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the two witnesses, the dragon, the beast, and the mystery woman on the scarlet beast; and finally comes the millennium and the New Jerusalem in the new earth for-evermore.PFF1 95.1

As the crowning prophecy of the Bible, John’s Revelation, the complement and unfolding of Daniel’s prophecy, gives the most complete New Testament outline of the divine plan of the ages, and forms the climax of the divine canon. It begins with a blessing on him “that readeth,” and those “that hear the words of this prophecy” (Revelation 1:3), and closes with the warning to “seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand” (Revelation 22:10). Spanning the Christian Era through several repetitive lines, this vast, multiple prophecy, returns line upon line to give amplification and emphasis, beginning with the sevenfold church of the true followers of Christ, spanning the centuries, from John’s day to the second advent.PFF1 95.2