THE PATMOS LETTERS INTRODUCTION Section I.-Our Field of Study T is remarkable that this Revelation of IT Jesus Christ is the only book in the whole Bible which has a special blessing attached to its study, and yet there is certainly no book in the New Testament so little read or appreciated. A blessing is pronounced on him who "reads" and on them that "hear the words " and "keep the things" that are written therein.1 Why has the book been thus neglected? Two reasons are assigned: First, the confessed obscurity of certain of the prophetic portions-an obscurity arising necessarily from the very nature of the subject; and secondly, the great mass of confused literature written with a view to its exposition. A sense of hopelessness has come over 1 Rev. 1. 3. many in regard to the teaching of this Revelation, and a conviction that no one can be sure of anything about it. The last book of the Bible is consequently laid aside, and its precious pages are but seldom perused and studied. We confess frankly and at once, that there are mysteries here which we cannot as yet make clear. Side by side with this admission, we ought to recognize equally that there are truths in this great book that lie on the very surface and are manifest to all-truths without which the church would be poor indeed. We can derive from it all that is needed at this stage of the world's development. More light will yet break from these pages as the scroll of history unfolds itself. "Blessed," therefore, "is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book." 1 A brief general survey of the whole field will help us in our more detailed investigations. I. According to Irenaeus, the book of Revelation was written during the great persecution which took place "toward the end of Domitian's reign," i.e. between the years 93 and 96 of the Christian era. This is the view which was over 1 Rev. 22. 7. WHEN THE BOOK WAS WRITTEN 15 whelmingly held by the early church, and we hold it to be the correct one. The Preterist theory which attempts to assign its date to the persecution under Nero, who died in the summer of the year 68, breaks down in every direction. Nero's persecution was restricted to Rome, and there is nothing to show that it ever extended to Asia Minor. There is no evidence that Nero ever banished Christians-he put them to death; while banishment is distinctively known as a form of punishment inflicted by Domitian. The Epistle to the Ephesians written A.D. 61 or 62 abounds with tributes to the love then existing among them. When Paul wrote his last letter, the second Epistle to Timothy, in the spring of A.D. 68, Timothy was yet the pastor at Ephesus, and the young church would still be in the glow of its first love. The condition of the seven churches, as described in the Patmos letters, implies that they had been in existence for some considerable time. They were fully constituted and equipped. They had a history behind them that had developed with time into distinctive and matured characteristics. Errors had become deeply rooted and widespread. Opportunity for repentance was |