“In the Apocalypse the emphasis placed upon the omnipotence of God rises to a climax. There only in the New Testament (except II Cor. 6.18) is the epithet Παντοκράτωρ [All-Ruler] ascribed to Him; and the [pg 012] whole purport of the book is the portrayal of the Divine guidance of history, and the very essence of its message that, despite all surface appearances, it is the hand of God that really directs all occurrences, and all things are hastening to the end of His determining.... It is the completeness of the Divine government to which the world is subject by the Lord of lords and King of kings, the Ruler of the earth and King of the nations, whose control of all the occurrences of time is in accordance with His holy purposes, that it is the supreme object of this book to portray.”—B. B. Warfield,—in art. “Predestination”, Hastings' Dict. of the Bible.
“The Apocalypse is doctrinally the connecting link between the Synoptists and the Fourth Gospel. It offers the characteristic thoughts of the Fourth Gospel in that form of development which belongs to the earliest apostolic age.... The points of connection between the Apocalypse and the Gospel of St. John are far more numerous than are suggested by a first general comparison. The main idea of both is the same. Both present a view of a supreme conflict between the powers of good and evil.... In both books alike Christ is the central figure. His victory is the end to which history and vision lead as their consummation. His Person and Work are the ground of triumph; and of triumph through apparent failure. Both present the abiding of God with man as the issue of Christ's work.”—Bp. Westcott,—in Introduction to John's Gospel, Bible Commentary.
“In Revelation, as in John's Gospel and First Epistle, the consciousness of a world-conflict, a world-process, and a world-triumph is manifest. The return of Jesus is contemplated in relation to the enlarged environment in which Christianity stood. Revelation testifies to the existence of the hope with which Christianity had begun; but also to the fact that into that hope had centered the fuller conception of Christ and His salvation which the apostles had taught, and the broadened vision of the purpose of God which history had made clear. Yet it was still the same hope, ‘Behold He cometh,’ and the prayer was still the same, ‘Come Lord Jesus’.”—George T. Purves,—in The Apostolic Age.
“The fundamental conception of the book is neither human weakness upon the one hand nor divine power [pg 013] upon the other, but divine power victorious through apparent human weakness, life triumphant over death.”—William Milligan,—in Discussions on the Apocalypse.
“However long the conflict, this book assures us of the ultimate triumph of the Lamb. That figure suggests Incarnation in order to Redemption; and the description of the New Jerusalem shows us Light and Life reigning eternally because the Lamb is ‘the lamp thereof’.”—Matthew B. Riddle,—in unpublished Classroom Lectures.
“St John knew himself to be a prophet, and his writing to be a prophecy; that he was commanded to consign his visions to a book was an assurance to him that their purpose would not be fulfilled in one generation or two. He sees the book going down to posterity, and like the Deuteronomist he endeavors to guard it against interpolation and excision. As he writes the last words upon the papyrus roll that lies upon his knee, the conviction dawns upon him that the Revelation of Jesus Christ was given for the warning and comfort of the whole church to the end of time.”—Henry B. Swete,—in The Apocalypse of St. John.
“The author of this great book has bequeathed to mankind a κτῆμα ἐς αεί, an imperishable possession, the worth of which lies in the splendid energy of its faith, in the unfaltering certainty that God's own cause is at issue now and here and must ultimately prevail, and that the cause of Jesus Christ is inseparably linked therewith, and the main aim of which, as is clear from every page, is to emphasize the overwhelming worth of things spiritual as contrasted with things material, and in the next place to glorify martyrdom, to encourage the faithful to face death with constancy, nay more, with rapturous joy.”—R. H. Charles,—in Studies in the Apocalypse.
The closing book of the New Testament with its prophetic outlook and divine forecast, leaves us in the attitude of expectancy:—“Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.”—The Epistle to Titus, Ch. 2:13.