22:16. I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.—All down the Age the Church has had this Message; all down the Age holy men of God have sought to understand its mysteries; all down the Age it has remained a closed book. But now the Mystery of God is finished; and the object of keeping the book closed is accomplished. God wished the world to know when the time for the complete removal of error and for the establishment of His Kingdom would come; and so He enables the last members of His Church to give the Message.
I am the Root and the Offspring of David.—“According to the flesh, our Lord Jesus was, through His mother, the Son, the Branch, the Offshoot or Offspring of David. It was by virtue of His sacrifice of His undefiled life that He became the ‘Root,’ origin, source of life, and development of David.”—E. 150, 136; Rev. 5:5.
And the bright and morning Star.—“And I will give him the Morning Star.” (Rev. 2:28.) Christ's gift of Himself to the Bride is the greatest of all gifts.—Job. 38:7; Psa. 118:22-25.
22:17. And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come.—“The Gospel Age makes ready the chaste Virgin, the faithful Church, for the coming Bridegroom. And in the end of the Age, when she is made ‘ready’ (Rev. 19:7; 21:2, 9), the Bridegroom comes; and they that are ready go in with Him to the Marriage. The Second Adam and the Second Eve become one, and then the glorious work of Restitution begins. In the next Dispensation, the New Heaven and the new earth, the Church will be no longer the espoused Virgin, but the Bride.”—A. 98.
And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come.—“Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.”—Matt. 5:6; Isa. 55:1.
[And] whosoever will, let him take of the Water of Life freely.—“Now the prospective members of the Bride class have the Lord's Spirit in them, ‘a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.’ (John 4:14.) By and by these well-springs brought together in glory with the Lord shall [pg 338] constitute the source of the great River of Life which shall bless and heal all nations. By and by the prophecy will be fulfilled: ‘He that believeth in Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’ ”
22:18. [For] I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book.—To all who ever understand it.
If any man shall add unto these things.—As was done in many instances during the Dark Ages, even in this very verse.—Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Prov. 30:5, 6.
God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.—His penalty will be, when he comes forth from the tomb in the Times of Restitution, that he will have to read the Seven Volumes of Scripture Studies, and get the matter straightened out in his own mind.
22:19. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy.—Shall seek to nullify or minimize its teachings, now that the time has come for it to be understood.