The Book of the Revelation opens with: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew to His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto his servant John: (saying) “Blessed are those that readeth, and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Chapter 1.1 where it is written ” —of things which must shortly take place.”
Shortly from Strong’s Concordance #1722, is a fixed position in time and #5034 , quickly, to be without delay.” To happen immediately or as in “at hand” close to that point it time.
So then in truth, to read “at hand” in old books properly, is to take place quickly. So that for us today some supposed 2000+ years later, it is History, as past tense and having happened in that era it was written in.
To mean that The Revelation is all history because it opens and closes with those phrases. It is His-Story, the story of the Redeemer, the Christ, to now become an historical account for that generation, just as the floods for Noah was “at hand” for them to respond to in their day.
That The Book of the Revelation was not only written for that generation back then. To also mean that it was NOT meant to be used later as a playbook of things yet to come some 2000 plus years like as many suppose. GO BACK AND LOOK! THEY ARE LYING TO YOU!
The Book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ to be at hand means, it is over and done. It is all HISTORY.
It had its fulfillment, to mean a completion soon after it was written. And NOT to be concluded some 2,000 plus years later in the future, as the modern day “end times” “last days” seekers use it for.
Remember the warning; Neither shall they say, look here! or, look there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
And to reassure us with a third quoten in chapter 22 “6 Then he (the Angel) said to me, “These words are faithful and true.”
To mean accurate and reliable starting back then.” And the Lord God of the holy prophets, who sent His angel to show His servant John the things which must “immediately” from Strong’s Concordance #1722+5034) take place. 7 (saying) “Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed are those (even back then) who keep the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is at hand..
So then the phrase we’ve quoted to support that the Revelation was”AT HAND” serves as book ends to that book and applied to to that generation of what was happening to them NOT US. To then have John in the last chapter of The Revelation, in turn confess and say “8 Now I, John, SAW and HEARD these things. As a matter of record of bygone events.
The term “AT HAND” is the foundation of The New Will And Testament Gospel!
Further more, the book of the Revelation addressed the Gentiles through the 7 churches, or more accurately Assemblies that “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
And if these are not challenging enough to the modern day, last days, end times seekers, the word “Church” is also eschewed. It is to mean Assembly’s of people and not brick and mortar churches at all Because “you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ
To mean that when the the deception from Satan is complete, that these are the deceptions we were warned that would come. The ”
. And Christ was first to preach that “The Kingdom of God is at hand”. To mean graspable and attainable as well. Or Jesus Christ misled everybody but HE DID NOT!
That it is for us to keep in context the phrase “the time is at hand” in the same why Christ used it. For if “The Revelation” was meant for a final era scenario as modern believers read into it, then every time the term “at hand” was used in scripture, then they could put it in a anytime frame they want. That it was NOT at hand. But Christ is the way the truth and the light.” So we must NOT use the term “at hand” any other way than immanent, any time and about to occur. That is ,unless you want to contribute to the “in the later days deception where people will give in to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons“. For that is who and what is responsible for re-applying scripture out of context, seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.
And “At Hand” means within reach and close by. Just as a hiker hanging from a cliff to swing a rope past his face. The rope was at hand. Weather it saved him or not we don’t know.
Shortly
Now then, for the meaning of “shortly“. As in the beginning of the Book of The Revelation of “things which must shortly take place”, to mean back then. Now for us who are here before the judge and the jury of your mind which will be tried by the Father to see if you are awake. That a messenger went to John with a timely message and expected for him to see, observe, look listen and remember of “things which must shortly take place. So that he could testify as a matter of public record of History. For us to be able to rely upon these truths as actual and factual. For “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”. So that Gods word is subject to scrutiny in this way. Where do you think all the denominations came from? Just as pennies, nickels and dimes are a small part of a greater whole, that they are subjected too for we serve One Christ and Savior.
These words shortly and are quickly spoken, and written down to be part of the Canon of scripture. That we know we are to “let your yes be yes and your no be no. What’s more than this is from the wicked one.” That we too who accept His testimony (WORD), we say “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place DID and DO. And He sent and signified (or authenticated) it by His angel to His servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw (back then). 3 Blessed are they who read and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it (as historically actual and factual from that time. To be true and reliably at hand); for the time is at hand. Has to mean “about to happen or occur” to take notes and document as it happens, and testify to starting back then.
To then wrap up the book with these words as the fulfillment not just of a vision but something available;
And we know that we shall be judged (good or bad) by every word that proceeds out of our mouth” or from our pen. And for John to confess this as such, that “this is legal and binding proof that The Book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to His servant John of things which must shortly come to pass” is now all history. That it has happened, that this is The Foundation of New Testiment Christianity. And because the person many call Jesus Christ, went to the Father just right before the cross and said “17 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, (with His Throne and Power) that Thy Son also may glorify Thee: 2 As Thou hast (ALREADY) given Him power over all flesh, for Him to give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. 3 And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gave me to do. 5 And now, O’h Father, glorify thou Me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. 6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. 7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. 8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. 9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. 10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. 11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. 24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. 26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
If you remember the disciples turned Apostles were commission first to “19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;?
These are them. This is the testimoney
“1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must immediately take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Christ, to all things that he saw (and wrote). Blessed are those who read and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time (of the Kingdom of God) is at hand (which is a phrase coined by Christ Himself.
So for however much these texts are being manipulated as useable again today, they are adding to the “with all lying signs and wonders if possible to deceave the Elect’ and creating re-directs from the saving that happened to validate a saving to come they call a second coming. For if there must be a second coming to deliver you from ANY impending doom, then anything and everything that has been passed on to us by The Savior of The Cross, HAS BEEN LOST.
They are super-imposing another era to come that already came.
And for those who pass up on this opportunity bought with the blood of Christ, may end up with this;
And He did. The Kingdom of God is STILL “AT HAND” in the way is was meant to be back then, throughout time and again for us even today.