SYNOPSIS: Jesus Christ is the interpretive key that unlocks Scripture, especially, in his death and resurrection.
A mantra of some prophecy teachers is that Israel is the interpretive key to prophecy, especially regarding the book of Revelation. This is a regressive view considering what the New Testament declares about Jesus.
Scripture is clear - Jesus is the one in whom all God's promises find their fulfillment; he is the substance that casts the shadows recorded in the Hebrew Bible.
John’s prologue presents Jesus as the “logos,” God’s great and final revelation. The prologue contrasts Christ with the previous revelation given by Moses. The word that became flesh in Jesus Christ “tabernacled among us.” He is the true tabernacle in whom God’s presence dwells, not a stone structure in Jerusalem.
God’s fullness, grace, and truth are found only in Jesus. Moses “gave the law,” the Torah, but “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” It is the Son alone who has seen God and therefore “interprets” (John 1:18).
This last word represents the Greek verb ‘exegeomai,’ the very term from which we get English words like ‘exegesis.’ It means to explain, interpret, recount, etc. Most interesting, in this Greek clause the verb has no object, the statement is open-ended; simply, “Jesus interprets.”
If Jesus is the true and final structure “made-without-hands” in whom God’s presence dwells, why is it prophetically necessary to build another stone building “made-with-hands,” another pile of rocks in which His presence and glory will not be found? The interpretive key to Bible prophecy is Jesus Christ, not Temple, Torah, Territory, or Israel.
ALL God’s promises find their “yea” and their “amen” in Jesus. God’s mysteries are revealed in Jesus, not feast days, Hebrew letters, or the phases of the moon. The Prophecy Industry has exchanged Jesus Christ as the key that unlocks scripture with something else. Talk about “replacement theology!”
In the Book of Revelation, it is Jesus portrayed as the sacrificial Lamb who alone has the right to take and open the Sealed Scroll. The book is a "revelation of Jesus Christ"; he is the one to whom it belongs, he gives it to his servants, and he provides the interpretations of its visions (Revelation 1:1, 1:17-20).
Jesus is the one with all authority and the keys to Death and Hades, not Israel. He is the one who "opens and no man shuts." And he is the one who knows the conditions and activities of the seven churches of Asia and provides each one with encouragement, correction, and discipline as needed.
Angels provide John with information about his visions but do so as dispatched by the Lamb. The book is about "what things must soon come to pass" upon the "servants" of Jesus, not national Israel.
Until the Prophecy Industry ceases to employ the wrong key, it will fail to unlock the meaning of prophecy and, especially, the book of Revelation.
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