A BOOK OF LOVE

 

 

I want to tell you about a book of love. This book is reluctantly read and studied and largely unappreciated yet this book is one of the most important amongst holy writ. This book is The Book of Revelation and this is why it is a book of love:

 

Some two thousand years ago, during the bleakest period of Church history, there was on the island of Patmos an exile, a prophet and an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, the last apostle alive;  Peter having been crucified, Paul beheaded, Bartholemew skinned alive, Thomas and Matthew run through with spears. By the time of Patmos, the history of the Church included the lining of Nero's colonnade with crucified Christians and the savagery of the mobs screaming for blood in the Coliseum and the Circus Maximus." (The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles, p 449). The Apostle that survived it all and would never taste of death was called by Jesus a ‘son of thunder’ (Mark 3:17); in his own writings he referred to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved and as the ‘other disciple’ (John 13:23; 21:20; 20:2-8). We know him as John The Beloved…..he who lives as ‘a flaming fire and a ministering angel’ and sorrows for the sins of the world….(D&C 7:5,6)

 

More than six centuries before John was even born, the Lord revealed to Nephi many of the things we now have in the Book of Revelation but forbade him to write them down because they were reserved for John (1 Nephi 14:19-28). And so to that rocky island prison, on a particular Sunday came the glorified, exalted Christ to the apostle whom He called 'The Beloved'.  Some fifty or sixty years before He had hung in agony on the cross and had been laid in the dark recesses of a borrowed tomb. Now he stood in blinding, blazing glory before John saying: "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore" (Revelation 1:18). 

 

In the revelation John was given on that auspicious occasion, all the sins and evils of this earth for thousands of years were revealed to him but completed with the glorious hope of Christ's return who would reign in peace, harmony and love for a thousand years. What comfort that must have been to John who, like the 3 Nephites, would sorrow for the sins of the world during his sojourn in this dismal telestial world (3 Nephi 28:9). This is a story of love...love for one cherished disciple and love for all those who accept and follow Christ and have a hope of eternal life through the virtue of his atoning blood. While the Book of Revelation briefly covers the entire history of the earth, its' main focus is on the last days and Christ's triumphant return. This makes The Book of Revelation a book of love through the medium of hope. It's main purpose is not history but prophecy. This is evident in the fact that the Book covers the history of the earth's 6 thousand years only briefly whereas it expounds on the period of the Millenium in lengthy detail. This is of great value to us because it assures us that the forces of great evil which are gaining momentum in our day will one day be destroyed and come to an end. 

 

When the Saviour appeared to John, it was as if He was saying to him: "You will be here a long time and you need to know everything that will happen while you are here but  be comforted John, my beloved, because I am coming back and when I come I will 'wipe away all tears....and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain...." (Revelation 21:4). Is this not love?

 

 

I have had experiences in my life that have left me bleeding and convinced that love means pain. These experiences have come from different people and different periods of my life: from childhood abandonment, to divorce, to bitter disappointments from a wayward child.  One thing though I know for sure. The Saviour of the world will never break my heart. His love is constant and pure and if I am here when He comes again, He will dry all my tears and encircle me in the arms of His love. 

 

 

I long to see the paths he wanders

To and fro the length of the earth;

I wish to wipe his brow

At the end of the day

To uphold the magnitude of his holy work.

Let me hold him close

And soothe his heavy heart

As the time for final gathering nears,

And let me gather in my cupped hands

The hallowed drops of The Beloved’s tears.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Parting the Veil (The Second Coming) by Jon McNaughton)