What did he "see?"

If nothing else has come through to you from these words so far, I hope you have at least begun to think of John as a real person. A man with a mind, with eyes, and with a limited human viewpoint. Someone like you and me. I think when a real person sees something, whether it is a physical object or person, or a metaphysical vision, there are certain characteristics about us as observers that determine what we are able to see.

When we describe what we have seen, there is a certain imprint which is left upon our description which tells the careful listener, "Yes, this was really seen." When, on the other hand, we describe something we have not actually seen, whether we do it for purposes of deception or for illustration, what we describe begins to lose that imprint of visual authenticity.

Here is an example. Sometimes in a court proceeding a witness will testify to something that did not really happen. It is the attorney's job to cross examine that testimony to see if it hangs together. If, upon close questioning, it is found that what is described would have been too far away for the observer to have seen certain details which were attested to, or if certain details described couldn't have been seen at the same time, the testimony is shown to be false.

What I would like you to accept as a temporary working hypothesis (the redundancy here is for emphasis) is that most of the scenes and dramas described by John were not part of his vision. They lack the imprint of visual authenticity which belongs to descriptions of those things which were actually SEEN.

Am I saying that John was lying? Absolutely not. I am tendering the idea that most of the scenes and dramas described by him were literary visions, devices for communicating very difficult ideas and realities.

But not all of them. I think John most definitely did see a vision, and from that powerful, knowledge-filled vision flowed the book of the Revelation.

I am convinced from 20 years of fairly intensive and informed amateur study that what John saw is totally described in a few verses of Revelation, chapter one. Here it is, as translated in the New International Version of the Bible. All scripture quotations in this book will be from that translation.

And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone "like a son of man," dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and and his eyes were like a blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

This is an image which will stand up against any amount of examination. We can actually visualize every detail of the described being. In fact, the more exacting we are in visualizing this person, the more real he becomes. Take a detail like his feet or his voice, imagine how the reality must have been to have been described in such a way. Do this with all of the details, and an amazing picture begins to appear in our minds. The only detail which stretches our imagination at all is the sword coming out of his mouth, but in this day of Edward Scisorhands and other fantastic images, even this can be visualized, incredible as the picture may be.

This quality of becoming visually clearer under close scrutiny is what I earlier called visual authenticity.

As we proceed with our search into whom John was and what he was trying to communicate to us, I will invite you to do this same exercise with subsequent descriptions. You will find that the images which follow this first one, instead of becoming visually clearer under your examination, will become confused. But as this confusion of image is taking place, we will begin to receive information.

It is my contention that all subsequent "visions" in Revelation do not have visual authenticity. They possess great authenticity of another kind.

And by their fruit we will know them. These images are devices through which John can give us information that is almost impossible to communicate, or dangerous in his day to talk about. The more closely we examine this book in such a way, the more information we receive.

And what we receive is not disconnected, one insight from another, but totally integrated. What on the surface appears to be a frightening hodge-podge of fantastic visions and statements, slowly transforms into a beautiful, consistent picture of how God intends us to respond to the challenges of living in this world.

Almost incidentally, as we give the Revelation our most intense scrutiny, we begin to develop a feel for recognizing writing which has been inspired by the Holy Spirit. Once we have seen and known such here, you'll find that it will be quite easy to see it (the mark of the Holy Spirit) elsewhere. This ability alone justifies the time and effort which will be required to finish this exercise of cross examining Revelation and becoming acquainted with John and the message he passed on.

But I hope that you will also, as I have, find it to be a lot of fun.

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