A revelation by Jesus Christ, which God granted him for his servants, to show them what must come to pass very soon; he disclosed it by sending it through his angel to his servant John,

I John, your brother and your companion in the distress and realm and patient endurance which Jesus brings, found myself in the island called Patmos, for adhering to God's word and the testimony of Jesus.

As for the secret symbol of the seven stars which you have seen in my right hand, and of the seven golden lamp stands ??the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Now, remember the height from which you have fallen; repent and act as you did at first. If not, I will come to you [very soon] and remove your lamp stand, unless you repent.

Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches: 'The conqueror I will allow to eat from the tree of Life which is within the paradise of God.'

But I have one or two things against you: you have some adherents there of the tenets of Balaam, who taught Balak how to set a pitfall before the sons of Israel by making them eat food which had been sacrificed to idols and give way to sexual vice.

Still I have this against you: you are tolerating that Jezebel of a woman who styles herself a prophetess and seduces my servants by teaching them to give way to sexual vice and to eat food which has been sacrificed to idols.

Lo, I have set a door open before you which no one is able to shut; for though your strength is small, you have kept my word, you have not renounced my Name.

Because you have kept the word of my patient endurance, I will keep you safe through the hour of trial which is coming upon the whole world to test the dwellers on earth.

'As for the conqueror, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God (nevermore shall he leave it), and I will inscribe on him the name of my God, the name of the city of my God (the new Jerusalem which descends out of heaven from my God), and my own new name.'

And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain for adhering to God's word and to the testimony which they bore;

The fifth angel blew, and I saw a Star which had dropped from heaven to earth; he was given the key of the pit of the abyss,

But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands and give up worshipping daemons and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, which cannot either see or hear or stir;

Then the voice I had heard from heaven again talked to me, saying, "Go and take the small scroll which lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and the earth."

(they are the two olive-trees and the two lampstands which stand before the Lord of the earth):

and she herself fled to the desert, where a place has been prepared for her by God, in which she is to be nourished for twelve hundred and sixty days.

followed by flashes of lightning, loud blasts, peals of thunder, and a mighty earthquake, the like of which never was since man lived on earth, such a mighty earthquake it was;

Now for the interpretation of the discerning mind! The seven heads are seven hills, on which the woman is seated:

As for the Beast which was and is not, he is an eighth head: he belongs to the seven, and to perdition he shall go.

He also told me, "The waters you saw, on which the woman is seated, are peoples and hosts, nations and tongues.

As for the woman you have seen, she is the great City which reigns over the kings of the earth."

And the kings at the earth who committed vice and wantoned with her shall weep and wail over her, as they watch the smoke of her burning;

His eyes are a flame of fire, on his head are many diadems, he bears a written name which none knows but himself.

But the Beast was seized, together with the false Prophet who had performed in his presence the miracles by means of which he seduced those who received the mark of the Beast and worshipped his statue; both of them were flung alive into the lake of fire that blazes with brimstone,

flinging him into the abyss and shutting and sealing it on the top of him, to prevent him seducing the nations again until the thousand years were completed ??after which he has to be released for a little while.

and whoever was not found enrolled in the book of Life was flung into the lake of fire ??which is the second death, the lake of fire.

but as for the craven, the faithless, the abominable, as for murderers, the immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and liars of all kinds ??their lot is the lake that blazes with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

it has a huge, high wall with twelve gates, twelve angels at the twelve gates, and names inscribed thereon which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel,

Blessed are those who wash their robes, that theirs may be the right to the tree of Life, the right to enter the gates of the City!