"THE END"

"THE END" 

 “I Am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.” In the context of the destruction of the Jewish nation, people and holy city, these words become doubly significant. Not only was Christ the Author and Creator of the universe, but He now shows Himself to be the Author and Finisher of the nation of Israel, the Jewish people, and the City of Jerusalem. In His perfect fulfillment of the Old Covenant, the promises, and the prophecies, He brings it to its end and becomes the originator of the New Covenant. In Him the concept of nationhood, race and territory has found its fulfillment, its completion and perfection. In Him it continues in a new and living way, the Church, His Body. In Him, the old is not destroyed and annihilated but rather has become the seed crop and surety of the new Life.

What does the phrase “the end” mean in its Biblical context? Since it contains the definite article the, we know that it is speaking of a previously known and well defined “end.” Does this refer, then, to the final consummation and cessation of planet earth? For the answer we must look at the usage of the phrase in other Biblical passages.

The Eschaton or the Telos?

            Two Greek words are translated “the end” or “last (days, or time).” These two words, or some form of them, are eschaton and telos. We must distinguish between these two words  to understand what is meant in each reference.

           There is a strong tradition in modern dispensational doctrines of the prophetic "last days," that the phrase “the end” always refers to the “eschaton,” a Greek word meaning “the last, extreme, uttermost (of place or time); the last state.” The study of last things is therefore called “eschatology.” However, the word eschaton[1] occurs in Matthew 12:45 and Luke 11:26 as "the last state of a man." 2Peter 2:20 translates it as "the latter end" of one who has had the knowledge of the Lord and turned back again from it. In these three instances it refers to the final state of a man who has rejected the knowledge of God. It is used in Mark 5:23 as “point of death.” It is also used in a plural form in Acts 13:47, “ends of the earth.”[2] In this instance it refers to geographical extent and not to time. Therefore we see from this that the “eschaton” does not always refer to the end of planet earth or the whole natural creation. It may refer to the final end of some certain thing, for example, a man's life, or the end of a journey. It indicates something that is dying or ceasing to exist.

            Telos, on the other hand, speaks of “perfection,” “maturity,” “fulfillment,” “accomplishment,” “verification (of a prophecy)." Although the word eschaton is sometimes used interchangeably with telos, there is a distinct difference in their meanings. The difference between eschaton and telos is between that which is dying, being destroyed or annihilated and that which is attaining a full maturity, which is able to reproduce itself and which is achieving its desired purpose, living on in its new state of being.

But people are often confused by the fact that the Greek word telos is also translated “end.”[3] Bullinger defines telos as “…fulfillment or completion of anything (Latin effectus) i.e. its purpose or issue, (not its cessation).  It denotes strictly, not the ending of a departed state, but, the arrival of a complete or perfect one.”  A form of the word is used in Matthew 11:1 where Jesus is said to have “made an end” of teaching His disciples, (KJV) or “…finished instructing his twelve disciples,” (RSV). In this case it clearly means “…to complete, fulfill, accomplish, execute fully.” As used in Matthew 10:22, “…he that endureth to the end, (teleo), shall be saved,” it means “…to completion or fulfilling of the perfection of the preaching of the Gospel.”[4]

Another form of the word telos is translated "finisher" and is used of Jesus in Hebrews 12:2: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” Here it is very clearly speaking of “finisher” as one who brings something to its completion, perfection or fulfillment.

The difference between the two words becomes clear by observing the usage of eschaton in Matthew 12:45, “latter end,” and Mark 5:23, “point of death” as compared to the passages where telos is translated “perfect” such as Ephesians 4:13: “Till we come …unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”[5]

The “End” as Foretold by Daniel

What was “the end” that the believers in the New Testament era expected?  I submit that it was “the end” as foretold by the prophet Daniel, 9:24-27; 12:1-12, foretelling the time of the end of the Jewish nation, Israel, city, Jerusalem, and people, the Jews. Since the appointed time of “seventy weeks” had come to its close and the “time, times and dividing of times” had also been fulfilled, and since the Messiah had come as predicted, they had every reason to believe that “the end” was at hand.

             Another two words that are often confused are the Greek words cosmos and aion for they are both translated in the KJV as "world," even in the same verse:

For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world [cosmos], but now once in the end of the world  [aion] hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:26)

It is clear that the writer of the Book of Hebrews believed he was living in “the end (teleo) of the age, (aion),” but not necessarily the “end of the world, (cosmos).” He saw that the revelation of Jesus Christ would be the fulfillment of the prophecy that the seventy weeks would bring an end to the city, nation, and people as foretold in Daniel 9:26, but not the end of the planet earth. This shows that the “end of the world” expected in the New Testament was not the eschaton, but the telos, the fulfillment of all that God had foretold. It was the “end of the age,” (aion[6]], that is, the end of the Jewish nation, people, and city but not the end of the planet. In fact the beginning of the new crop from the old seed.

The word translated “end” here, (Hebrews 9:26), a form of the word teleo, indicates an expected fulfillment, or completion of a process or a perfecting or maturing of the thing that was to end. That thing that was coming to its fulfillment or maturity was the Israel of God.

When Jesus said: “I Am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end,” in Revelation 1:8 and 22:13, the word “end” is from teleo, (#4930), signifying completion, fulfillment, finish.

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[1] See D. S. Russell, The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic, (Philadelphia, Westminster Press 1964), 217.

[2] Bullinger, Lexicon, 249.

[3] For forms of the word see Strong, James, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, (Iowa Falls, Iowa, World Bible Publishers, Copyright 1890), #5046 through 5056 and #4930.

[4] The KJV of the following Scriptures translate a form of the word telos as "end": Matthew 10:22; 11:1; 24:6, 13, 14, 31; 26:58; 28:1; Mark 3:26; 13:7, 13; Luke 1:33; 21:9; 22:37; John 13:1; Romans 1; 11; 4:16; 6:21-22; 10:4; 14:9; I Cor. 1:8; 10:11; II Cor. 1:13; 3:13; 11:15; Philippians. 3:19;  I Thessalonians 3:13; I Timothy 1:5; Hebrews 3:6, 14; 6:8, 11; 7:3; James 5:11; 1Peter 1:9; 4:7, 17; 2Peter 2:20; Revelation 2:26; 21:6; 22:13.

[5] Some other instances of the translation of telos, (or a form of the word), as "perfect" are: Philippians 3:12, 15; Colossians 1:28; 4:12; Heb. 2:10; 5:9; 7:19; 9:9, 11; 10:1; 11:40; 12:23; James 1:4, 17, 25; 2:22; 3:2; 1 John 4:17, 18.

[6] Some of the passages that translate the Greek word aion as "world" are: Matthew 12:32; 13:22, 39, 40, 49; 24:3; 28:20; Mark 4:19; 10:30; Luke 16:8; 18:30; 20:34-35; Romans 12:2; 1Corinthians 1:20 ["disputer of this world, aion: and "wisdom of this world, cosmos"; 2:6, 7, 8; 3:18, aion; [3:19, cosmos]; 10:11; 2Corinthians 4:4; Galatians. 1:4; Ephesians 1:21; 3:9, 21; 1Timothy 6:17; 2Timothy 1:9; 4:10; Titus 2:12 ["worldly" = cosmos; "world" = aion]; Heb. 1:2; 6:5; 9:26 [see above discussion of this verse]; 11:3.

   Other passages translating the word aion as "world" are: Acts 15:18; John 9:32; 1Corinthians 8:13; Ephesians 3:5 ["ages,"]; 21 ["throughout all ages" and "world without end"]. Bullinger, (901), points out that aion is used to indicate an age that is "…adjusted or fitted out by God, (Hebrews 11:3), according to what is called in Ephesians 3:11 "the purpose of the ages or dispensations.'’’

This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book Revelation In Context. My Book is available at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma and is also available online at www.amazon.com  or www.xulonpress.com. Free downloads are available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net .

55. SEVEN STARS AS THE SHEEPFOLD

55. SEVEN STARS AS THE SHEEPFOLD[i]

In that region of the world at that time in history, I believe this constellation, Ursa Major, was known as "The Greater Sheepfold.” The smaller constellation, Ursa Minor, known as the "Lesser, or Former, Sheepfold," hangs upon the pole star and is in the center of the revolutions of the circumpolar stars known as "The Greater Sheepfold."  The Greater Sheepfold therefore encompasses it. This "Lesser Sheepfold" would have symbolized the original body of Jewish believers from which the Church began. The seven named churches of Asia, therefore represented the "Greater Sheepfold," i.e., the entire universe of both Gentile and Jewish Christians, the complete Church.[ii]  (See also Revelation 1:11.)

The earthly churches are therefore the spiritual counterpart of the Church in the heavenlies, where the Angel, ministering Spirit, of the Church resides. Just as nations have their "Prince," (as the Prince of Persia and the Prince of Grecia in Daniel 10:13, 20), so the Churches have their "Angel," or Prince, in the heavenlies, whose Head is Christ.  The heavenly "Mount Zion" was in Old Testament times represented on earth by the earthly city of Jerusalem.  The Psalmist could say:[iii]

Walk about Zion, and go round about her, tell the towers thereof, mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following.  For this God is our God forever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death, (48:12-14). The North Star has been the guide of earthly travelers on earth from the beginning of time.

      [Perhaps you are saying: "Irene, why are you spending so much time talking about the stars?" Well, I thought you would never ask! The whole Book of Revelation is about stars and heavenly signs, and the heavenly throne and the angels and the other spiritual realities. These are all described in terms of what we would call "the sky". We need to know how they viewed the sky and how it was totally relevant to their daily lives.

   Knowledge of the heavenly bodies, their movements and relationship to the earth were of major importance in ancient times. The ancient civilizations had this precise knowledge and demonstrated it by their buildings, both above and below ground, for example the Mayans, the Egyptians, the American Indian tribes in the Southwest USA. Their work has been passed down to us in our time-telling systems, calendars, Global Positioning Systems and almanacs. The Hebrews enshrined this knowledge in their Scriptures, their Laws, their rituals and their Tabernacle and Temples. It should therefore not surprise us to find that in the Book of Revelation this knowledge is used to symbolize the spiritual realities.]

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[i] Some Scriptures that show how important this concept of the Sheepfold was in the Bible: Isaiah 40:11; Jeremiah 23:3; 31:10-12; Ezekiel 34:10-31; Micah 4:6-8; Zechariah 9:16; Luke 12:32; John 10:1-16; Acts 20:28-9; 1 Peter 5:2-4.

[ii] Note that "in Asia" is not in the Greek text of 1:11. The Greek text of 1:4 actually reads: "in the Asia." See my Commentary at 1:4 "Asia".

[iii] For discussion of the Pole Star as symbolizing Mount Zion, see "Satan Cast Down," Commentary at 12:10.
This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book Revelation In Context.

My Book is available at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma and is also available online at www.amazon.com  or www.xulonpress.com.

 Free downloads are available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net .

54. SEVEN STARS AS THE MENORAH

54. Seven Stars as the Menorah

According to Zondervan, the Menorah should be translated “lampstand” as there were seven olive-oil lamps emanating from one stem. The plan or arrangement of these seven was in the form of a six-point star with the center of it being the seventh lamp.[i]

This six-point star, revolving around a center point could be used to represent, or perhaps to sight, the equinoxes and the solstices of the year.  The word Menorah may well be a contraction of a compound word mânâh, meaning “to divide, be divided.”  One form of the word (Niphal), means to be numbered, etc, plus the word ’ûr, meaning “light.”  The compound would therefore relate to the dividing and numbering of the lights of the heaven for purposes of determining the calendar.[ii]

Psalm 19:1: The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

The word translated “declare,” (KJV), or “are telling,” (RSV), in the original language has the sense of numbering, or tallying.  In Old English we have this same sense in the expression: “a tale that is told” which can signify “a story that is related” or “‘a numerical problem that is solved.”  So the heavens, in Psalms 19:1, are not only telling the glory of God but are also numbering it by the cycles of the times.  Zechariah also saw this lampstand as part of a builders tools in the context of rebuilding the temple after the Babylonian captivity, (also Zechariah 1:16; 2:1; 4:1-10):

And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which [are] upon the top thereof, (Zech. 4:2).

The Angel interpreted this for Zechariah:

For who hath despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel [with] those seven; they [are] the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth, (Zech. 4:10).

Here we see that the seven golden candlesticks were a “plummet,” that is, a builder’s instrument for aligning a building, a plumb bob. [The word with is supplied at the translator’s discretion and was not in the original text.] Builders have used the stars to align buildings since some of the earliest historical records, (for example, the pyramids of Egypt.) Therefore, the plummet in the hands of Zerubbabel was, naturally speaking, the seven-branched candelabra, which was spiritually analogous to the Seven-fold, or Covenant Spirit of God. 
The heaven is God's throne: "Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?" Isaiah 60:1. So these "seven-stars," also called the "seven lamps of fire burning before the throne," Revelation 4:5, represent the "seven Spirits of God" before the heavenly throne.

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[i] ZONDERVAN PICTORIAL BIBLE DICTIONARY article "Candlesticks." See the drawing at this place, showing the six-point star arrangement.

[ii] See my Word Studies Candlestick at 1:12.

 Josephus' Antiquities 3.7.7, the seven branched candlestick is said to represent the seven planets. However in Wars 7.5.5, he makes the candlestick an emblem of the seven days of creation. Whiston in a footnote, (p.75 on 3.7.7), says that Josephus’ description of the candlestick as representing the planets is taken from Philo and "is fitted to Gentile philosophical notions." This is no doubt true, but how else could the idea have been translated for the Greeks without a very large commentary on the subject? Since the days of the week were named for the seven planets, it may have been a matter of semantics rather than philosophy that caused Josephus to describe them as representing the planets in one place and the days of the week in another.

[iii] Some Scriptures that show how important this concept was in the Bible are: Isaiah 40:11; Jeremiah 23:3; 31:10-12; Ezek. 34:10-31; Micah 4:8; Zech. 9:16; Luke 12:32; John 10:1-16; Acts 20:28-9; 1 Pet. 5:2-3.

This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book Revelation In Context.

My Book is available at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma and is also available online at www.amazon.com or www.xulonpress.com. Free downloads are available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net .

53. CHRIST AMIDST THE LAMPSTANDS

Note that Christ appears in Revelation 1:12-13, (RSV), in the midst of the "seven golden lampstands)," and "in his right hand he held seven stars," (vs. 16). In these passages the seven should be understood to mean "seven-fold."[i] Just as the Mənôrâh or Candelabra in the Temple was one and had seven branches, so these candlesticks are joined as one. These same seven are the seven spirits (or Seven-fold Spirit) of God, [ii] Revelation 4:5. These seven spirits are the seven eyes (or the Seven-fold Eyes)[iii] of the Lamb, Revelation 5:6.
Note that there is a distinction between the lampstands and the stars:

The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches, [or the Seven-fold, Covenant Church], (vs.20).

The "seven golden lampstands" are the Seven-fold Covenant Church of which the seven churches of Asia are the earthly representation, Revelation 1:20.

In Revelation 1:20 the seven stars are the fire upon the top of the lampstands, as the light of a candle is on top of the candle itself; these are the seven angels of the churches. These angels are ministering spirits, Psalm 104:4 and Hebrews 1:7, 14. 

And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and [there were] seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God, (Revelation 4:5).

Therefore, in the Book of Revelation, these are all analogous and interchangeable to some degree: Lampstands, Churches, Spirits, Eyes of the Lamb, Angels and Stars.

It must be noted that there is a natural reality that corresponds to, or is analogous to, the spiritual reality.  For example, the Angels of the seven churches of Asia are ministering spirits, spiritual entities, which inhabit the natural pastors or leaders of the earthly churches.  However, the earthly churches mirror the heavenly reality, the Eyes of the Lamb and the Seven-fold Spirit of God. 

As in all use of analogy, the analogy only holds for certain parts of the entities represented.  There is not a total correspondence; the two figures are not identical in every respect.

For the pictorial representation of this analogy, we must look to the visible starry heavens.  Christ is portrayed as at the polar point of the heavens, the cynosure, center of attraction or nucleus, around which the entire universe seems to revolve in its apparent motion. This places Christ, (instead of Jerusalem, as the Rabbis taught), at the center of the universe. "And he is before all things, and by him all things consist, (Col. 1:17).[iv] As the earthly counterpart of the Pole Star, the Temple was considered to be the center of the world,[v] just as the Pole Star was the apparent center of the heavens. The Pole Star has been the guiding star for location and navigation in the entire northern hemisphere since the dawn of history. The spiritual reality is: "God is our guide." 

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross, (Col. 1:17-20).

By picturing Christ at the pole star position, the Revelator is showing Him in His role as the Unifying Factor of the universe, the nucleus that holds and upholds all else in its proper order as well as the polokrator, the power that turns the universe.

The writer of Hebrews says "Consider Christ," (Hebrews 3:1). The word consider is from the Latin root sider which means “star, constellation.” From this come our English words relating to time-telling: Sidereal means “relating to stars or constellations: astral or expressed in relation to the heavens above”; for example, sidereal day, hour, minute, month, or year. As Andrew Murray says: "...(the word consider) suggests the idea of the astronomer, and the quiet, patient, persevering, concentrated gaze with which he seeks to discover all that can be possibly known of the stars which the object of his study are."[vi]

In the pictorial representation, the seven lampstands, portraying the seven churches of Asia, are represented in the starry heavens by the constellation that Americans commonly call the “Big Dipper,” but in other modern cultures is called “The Great Bear.” In ancient cultures it was also variously known as the “Greater Sheepfold,” the”‘Seed Sower,” “The Threshing Wain,” the “Tree of Life,” or sometimes the “Menorah,” the seven-lampstands of the Tabernacle and Temple.[vii]

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[i] See my Commentary at 1-4 "Asia," and "The Number Seven."

[ii] "There is One ... Spirit."  See Ephesians 2:18; 4:4.

[iii] Matt. 6: 22-23:  "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great [is] that darkness!"

   Obviously, this Scripture does not teach that we should have only one eye, but rather that our two eyes should focus in such a way that we see only one object. We should have a single focus, and not have "double vision." Christ does not have "double vision"! His eye is single, but complex, "Seven-fold".

[iv] The constellation Ursa Major, or the “seven stars” is the word ‘âsh in Hebrew. It was known in Arabic as “the wain” and also as “the nightly watchers” or eyes. The word for “eyes” is `ayin, which also means “a fountain.” It is also used for the numeral seventy. Since the letter `ayin often interchanges with the letter ’âleph, the word ‘âsh may be kindred to the word ’âsh, which see.

[v] From this Rabbinic idea a medieval Jewish poem begins: "Alas, the world's great cornerstone doth lie," (as quoted by Gaster, Festivals, 295.

[vi] Andrew Murray, The Holiest of All: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Abridged Edition, (Forth Worth, Texas, Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 76192, 1993), 123.

[vii] See my Commentary at 1:9 "Tribulation" for discussion of "The Threshing Wain."  For "Tree of Life" see Commentary on 22:2.  For further discussion of "Asia" as representing the constellation of the seven-stars see Commentary at 1:4 "Asia."
 
This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book Revelation In Context.

My Book is available at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma and is also available online at www.amazon.com  or www.xulonpress.com.

 Free downloads are available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net .