God's Dictionary

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Evidently, my dictionary does not align with God’s dictionary.

Granted, I probably should have known sooner, but I became fully aware of this discrepancy during a recent time of Bible study.

There I was, quietly reading one of the day’s passages from the first chapter of Revelation, when I stumbled headlong into this phrase from the very first verse of the chapter:

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John” (KJV emphasis mine).

I paused and snorted a little when I read over the word shortly. My snorting was pretty loud, actually, and my response was even louder, as I sarcastically stated, “Evidently your definition of the word shortly is a little bit different than my interpretation of that term, Lord.”

I repented of my smart-aleck, sinful sarcasm almost as soon as I spoke, but I continued pondering the discrepancy. I remembered the description of God in Psalm 90:2 as existing from “everlasting to everlasting.” And right there in the very chapter I was studying, it states, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8, KJV).

So, the truth is, shortly has a different meaning for our God, the One who existed before He created everything else in existence. But for mere mortals like me, using the word shortly to speak prophetically of the impending end of time seems confusing — considering how long ago John wrote Revelation.

Biblical scholars do not wholeheartedly agree on the exact date of this book, with various dates of historic events of that time used as supposed proof for both sides of this debate. Now, I am by no means one of those scholars, but from what I can discern from scholarly authors, there are two main arguments over its date of origin. Preterists believe it was written around 60 years after Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, while futurists believe it was written 90-plus years after that world-changing event.

These two viewpoints differ greatly, but the argument for a later origin of AD 96 cites evidence from various early church fathers, including Irenaeus, Victorinus, Eusebius, and Jerome. Wayne Jackson, the late editor of The Christian Courier, described these men’s words as the highest quality of external evidence for dating Revelation.

In an article titled “When Was the Book of Revelation Written?”, Jackson also offered a thought-provoking argument for a later dating of this important ending to the Bible. It was such a simple, factual thought that even I (with only basic knowledge of that timeframe) had to consider it long and hard:

“The church at Laodicea is represented as existing under conditions of great wealth. She was rich and had need of nothing (3:17). In AD 60, though, Laodicea had been almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake. Surely it would have required more than eight or nine years for that city to have risen again to the state of affluence described in Revelation.”

But no matter which side of the scholarly argument over Revelation’s date a believer agrees with, it was still written around 2,000 years ago. And humanly speaking, 2,000 years are not a short time for those reading this work in 2026.

Nor does it feel like a short period of time to wonder and wait for the unfolding of the visions and warnings predicted in the pages of John’s Revelation.

Ironically, those in the pre-70 AD camp often quote Revelation 1:1 and its usage of the word shortly (the word that started my sarcasm-laden pondering) to defend their dating of the book of Revelation. Many such preterist scholars point out that in AD 96, it would have been impossible to measure the temple as John was directed to do in Chapter 11, since the temple had been destroyed in AD 70.

Dr. Richard J. Krejcir penned an article called “Research into the Date of Revelation,” in which he explained the Greek meaning of John’s usage of shortly denotes “quickness and speed,” as in “suddenly” and “unexpected.” As such, Krejcir added that if the book of Revelation was “a prophecy of things that were to happen ‘shortly,’ then these or most of these prophecies were fulfilled with the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D.!”

But I believe that John the Revelator was not writing this last book of the Bible solely for those early saints and the destruction looming in their near future. No, I believe God intended the book of Revelation for those people and for us, as a warning and reminder that life is over shortly, and that everyone should live accordingly.

That brings me right back to my sarcastic and irreverent exasperation with the word shortly. And it still leaves me with one question: “How long is shortly?”

Well … God gives us seven additional warnings throughout the book of Revelation on the shortness of these last days. John even ended his discourse with the same sense of urgency as he started it, “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

So, don’t snicker or laugh sarcastically, my brothers and sisters, for time is shortly coming to an end. Let’s be about our Father’s business of sharing the gospel before it is too late.

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