This Topic takes up the business of organizing the book of The Revelation so that it can be reconciled with the End Time Topics previously discussed. Those Topics indicate that we are presently living in the final stage of the End Times, at the beginning of the Lord's Kingdom, and The Revelation purports to cover the End Times leading up to and including the Lord's Apocalypse. Therefore, it most certainly has to contain information directly related to those Topics.

At issue in the organization of The Revelation is the way the following verse is interpreted.

(Revelation 1.19): "Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this."

One interpretation is to suppose that "the things which you have seen" concerns the previous verses 1.1-1.18; "the things which are" concerns chapters 2-3 relative to the Church Age; and "the things which will take place after this" those events following the Church Age.

However, an equally likely interpretation is to suppose that "the things which will take place after this" simply relates to all of the things which remain future to the time in which John lived.

Of course, the first interpretation places (Revelation 4.1) still in our future following the Church Age, whereas the second interpretation places (Revelation 4.1) back in the first century at the time John lived, thereby making The Revelation potentially relevant not only to the history of the Times of the Gentiles, but also to events that have occurred during modern times.

Since the second interpretation allows The Revelation to be organized in a way that makes portions of it contemporary with those 20th century End Time prophetic events, this view will be the subject for study in Topic 5.