Revelation

THE BOOK OF REVELATION: M. M. NINAN
“This represented the secret purposes of God about to be revealed. The designs and methods of Divine
Providence, toward the church and the world, are stated, fixed, and made a matter of record. The counsels
of God are altogether hidden from the eye and understanding of the creature. The several parts are not
unsealed and opened at once, but after each other, till the whole mystery of God’s counsel and conduct is
finished in the world. The creatures cannot open it, nor read it; the Lord only can do so” (Matthew Henry’s
Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume, Re 5:1–5).
W.A. Criswell “The primary, fundamental, chief reference and significance of this book has to do with the
redemption of God’s created universe and everything in it. That book is a book of redemption” (Expository
Sermons on Revelation, p. 56).
“The book represents a forfeited inheritance. The inheritance is what God created for us, for Adam’s seed.
We lost it in sin and transgression. A usurper took it; sin, death, hell, Satan, iniquity, judgment, wrath and
the curse took away our inheritance as it is unto this day. According to the law and customs of the ancient
Jewish people, the sign of a forfeited inheritance was a sealed book. The fact that it is seven-sealed
emphasizes the encumbrances that are upon this inheritance. An interloper, an intruder an alien, an enemy,
has taken it, and that book of redemption awaits a goel, a kinsman-redeemer, a worthy, qualified and legal
kinsman to buy it back and to restore it to its rightful owners. When that book of redemption is taken by
one who is worthy, and those seals are opened, then that interloper, that intruder, that alien, that enemy is to
be cast out; and finally the whole purchased possession is to be redeemed, and sin, hell, death, and Satan
are to be cast into the lake of fire, forever destroyed. The judgment of God creates for us a new heaven and
a new earth, and gives us back the inheritance that we lost in Adam. Such is the meaning of the sevensealed
book that lies upon the hand of God. It is the symbol of a forfeited and lost inheritance” (pp. 66-67).
“The Lord never created Adam to die, Death is an enemy…. God never made the earth to groan and to
travail in agony and in pain, a place where the animals eat one another, where the earth is blasted with
desert and with the burning of the sun and the cold of the winds. God never intended this earth to be bathed
in tears and in blood. ‘An enemy hath done this,’ saith the Lord, ‘an interloper.’ The sign of that forfeiture
lies in the hand of God. The Book represents the instruments, the mortgages, the bonds, of our lost
inheritance. The completeness of that forfeiture and the terrible encumbrance upon it is signified by seven
seals – seven of them, Adam’s race has forfeited the inheritance altogether. The breaking of those seven
seals represents the restitution of the creation to God and to Adam’s fallen race” (W.A. Criswell Expository
Sermons on Revelation p. 60).
Though the 50 th year – the Jubilee was essentially for the land ownership of the children of Israel, the
general interpretation of the concept of Jubilee and return to one’s own heritage is equally applicable to the
fall and loss of status of the children of Adam. It was this return that Jesus was proclaiming. The purpose
of incarnation was to be the kinsman redeemer. This is clearly mentioned in the Manifesto of Jesus at the
beginning of his mission.
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