The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.
Revelation 1:1a
In 1941, Winston Churchill wrote of his emotions about the attacks on Pearl Harbor. As recounted by Robert Bartley inThe Wall Street Journal:
Now at this very moment I knew the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death. So we had won after all! Silly people – and there were many, not only in enemy countries – might discount the force of the United States. Some said they were soft, others that they would never be united. They would fool around at a distance. They would never come to grips. They would never stand blood-letting.
But I had studied the American Civil War, fought out to the last desperate inch. American blood flowed in my veins. Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful …
[With America in the war] Hitler’s fate was sealed. Mussolini’s fate was sealed. As for the Japanese, they would be ground to powder.
Churchill’s message, “We’re Going to Win,” echoes the message of the Book of Revelation: “We’re Going to Win.”
The Book of Revelation (singular, not plural, the revelation of Jesus Christ) was written in 95 A.D., when the cruel Roman emperor, Domitian, ruled. During Domitian’s reign Christians throughout the Empire were persecuted severely and many were executed. It was written to encourage believers in the Roman province of Asia Minor (today western Turkey) to be loyal to Christ, not Caesar, despite the persecution.
The book contains so many theological controversies and conundrums. But if you capsulize the message of the book in a few words, here it is: Jesus Christ wins! Or, to elaborate a bit: Jesus Christ is the Sovereign Ruler and Judge and he is coming again to rule in triumph and glory!
In fact, there is no other book of the Bible that places more focus on the greatness, glory, grandeur, sovereignty and majesty of Jesus Christ than the triumphant Book of Revelation.