Bible Study on Revelation 22, verses 12 to 19, part 3, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end

 

Revelation 22:12  And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. 13  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. 14  Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. 15  For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. 16  I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. 17  And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. 18  For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19  And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Verse 13 restates an eternal truth.

 

Revelation 1:8   I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty….11   Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last…

 

Revelation 21:6   And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

 

Christ is the beginning of and the source of all reality, the universe, and the world of the spirit which we cannot see.

 

John 1:1 ¶  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2  The same was in the beginning with God. 3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

 

The universe is held together, not by gravity, mass, dark matter, or dark energy, but by Christ Himself.

 

Colossians 1:17   And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

 

He not only created all things and sustains them, holds them together, but His resurrection never to die again, is the origin of our eternal life.

 

Colossians 1:18   And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

 

Verse 14 shows us that the heavenly city is reserved for those obedient to Christ. Eternal life is predicated upon the belief and faith in Christ. Who will not enter into eternal life, in verse 15, while a general list and not all-inclusive, partly details the nature of the unsaved person bound for an eternity of agony. Note the works of the flesh listed by Paul in Galatians and the history of mankind spiritually as noted in Romans, chapter 1.

 

But, these here specifically have a spiritual and religious context. Note that it starts with dogs, a reference to false teachers and prophets.

 

Philippians 3:2   Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.

 

Read 2Peter 2 about false prophets and teachers with the ending;

 

22  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

 

There are so many things that can be said about verse 15 and the history of major religions that it could fill books. Man’s religion, as the Bible points out from the beginning, has been filled with lies, oppression, rape, murder, and every indignity known to man whether it was someone referring to a Catholic convent in the Middle Ages as no better than a brothel or the fact that the Anglican Society for the Propagation of the faith in the 1700s owned more slaves than it had missionaries in the field. Even if those accusations are arguable the list is immense. Baptists like to talk about the abuses of Catholic priests when there have been hundreds, if not thousands over time, of Baptist preachers, youth pastors, and other workers accused and convicted of terrible crimes against those in their charge. Read Romans, chapter one, to see a religious history of the world from the temples of Canaan where heterosexual prostitutes called whores or homosexual prostitutes called sodomites or dogs abounded.

 

Deuteronomy 23:17   There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.18   Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.