The book of Revelation is probably one of the most difficult books in scripture to understand. A lot
of people have read it and pondered it and thought about it over and over again, wondering what the
symbols mean. As you turn through its pages, you’re going to see things like a sea of glass,
and a throne of God. You’ll also see the four horsemen of the Apocalypse
or 24 elders sitting around the throne of God and four beasts at the throne of God worshiping
and giving praise and glory to God. You can see 144,000 people surrounding God as he descends on
Mount Zion and oftentimes people have made assumptions about what these symbols mean
without any revelation to explain them. One of the reasons why section 77 is so
important to our understanding of the book of Revelation is because section 77 is literally
a question-and-answer session about the book of Revelation. Joseph Smith and his associates
sat down and asked questions about the book of Revelation in order to better understand the
symbols and what they meant. In unlocking just these few symbols we come to know a lot about
the book of Revelation and its significance especially for us in the latter days.
Now a few notes about the book of Revelation. Chapters 1 through 4 aren’t really covered
in section 77. They’re items of instruction that John wrote to different churches around
the Mediterranean where he taught and where he was worried. Some of these churches were doing
really poorly and some of these churches were doing okay but John wrote the book
of Revelation to give these saints hope to let them know that the good guys were going to win.
Starting around chapter 4, the revelation shifts and becomes highly symbolic and this is where
Joseph Smith started to ask his questions to understand the symbols being seen in the book of
Revelation and what they meant specifically. For instance verse 1, the prophet asks, “what is the
sea of glass spoken of by John, 4th chapter, and 6th verse of the Revelation?” The Lord’s answer,
“It is the earth, in its sanctified, immortal, and eternal state.” In a few other revelations,
especially section 130 of the Doctrine and Covenants, Joseph Smith will return to this
idea of the earth itself is going through the plan of salvation and the earth will be
exalted. It will be resurrected and become a sea of fire and glass. Joseph Smith described it as
a Urim and Thummim where a person could look into the earth and actually see the
orders of lesser things but remember that it’s not just us that Jesus Christ saves. It’s the earth,
it’s the whole ecosystem and everything’s going through the plan of salvation.
Likewise around the throne were another few symbolic elements. For instance,
the throne of God was surrounded by four beasts, one of which had the head of an eagle,
one of which had the head of a cow, one of which had the head of a lion,
and one of which had the head of a man. These beasts were filled with eyes, that’s the
description John uses, and they had six pairs of wings, one pair of wings that covered their face
and one pair of wings that covered their feet, and one pair of wings that they used to fly.
Now the question was is this literal or is it symbolic? The Lord explained that both the eyes,
the wings, and the beasts themselves were symbolic of exaltation of all orders of creation, including
animals. The eyes themselves were supposed to symbolize light and knowledge, the ability
to see and discern and know things. The wings themselves were a representation of their power
to move and act. So don’t expect to see a beast like this when you get to the celestial kingdom.
These are symbolic representations of beasts. The eyes that fill, their bodies represented that
they were full of light and knowledge and the wings were a representation that when a person
is exalted, they have greater power to move, to travel, to act and so on and so forth.
Now one of the major keys to understanding the Book of Revelation
is to understand what the meaning of the book is that John saw. Johns saw a book which was
sealed on the back with seven seals, a kind of scroll that had wax seals and seven portions.
The Lord explained that the book represented, “the revealed will, mysteries, and works of God;
and hidden things of his economy concerning this earth during the seven thousand years
of its continuance or its temporal existence.” So the seven thousand years of its continuance,
or the time since Adam and Eve left the garden. Each of these thousand years, the Lord says,
represented a thousand years. When Joseph Smith asked what did the seven seals represent,
he was told, we are to understand, the first seal contains the things of the first thousand years,
the second of the second thousand years, and so on fourth to the seventh. An interesting thing is
if you look at the book of Revelation knowing that each of the seals represents a thousand
years of the earth’s existence, it’s clear that the Savior when he gave the book of Revelation
was focused in particular on one period of time. The first through the fifth seals are
covered in only 11 verses, while the events of the sixth seal are covered in only 14 verses.
However the events that take place following the opening of the seventh seal up to the Second
Coming of Jesus Christ are covered in a grand total of 211 verses or the totality of revelations
chapters 8 through 19. It’s pretty clear that if the seventh seal represents the latter days.
What the book of Revelations was intended to do was give us information about the latter days,
especially the time leading right up to the return of Jesus Christ to the earth.
You go through the rest of the book of Revelation. There’s six verses that describe the millennium of
peace that’s created after Jesus Christ returns to the earth and nine verses cover the final scenes
including the last rebellion of the wicked and their ultimate destruction. Then the book of
Revelation wraps up with 33 verses that contain a description of the earth and its celestial glory.
So if you just understand that the book represents the history of the earth and that each seal
represents a thousand years you’ve got a major key to understanding the book of Revelation already.
You know that the Lord felt most strongly that John and we needed to know about the
events of the seventh seal which are closely linked to our time. The seventh seal is the
seventh thousand years and we are the Latter-day Saints, meaning that the Lord wanted to give
us primarily information about our time and the challenges that we would face.
There’s still a lot of symbolism to unlock, but at least you know the time period that
you’re supposed to be looking at to match the symbols to the stories that are being told.
Section 77 also gives us a few other keys to understand the book of Revelation. For instance,
the 144,000 that it talks about standing on Mount Zion are 12,000 priests taken out
of each tribe of Israel to represent and be there when the Savior comes back to earth.
The two witnesses that are discussed in the 11th chapter of Revelation are two prophets that will
be raised up to the Jewish people in the last days, most likely members of the First Presidency
and Quorum of the Twelve. And even though we don’t unlock all of the book of Revelation,
section 77 really only covers up to about chapter 11, although the rest of the Book of Revelation is
hinted at and covered to some degree in section 88 of the Doctrine and Covenants. Just knowing
these few simple things really, really, helps the book of Revelation make a lot more sense
and be more understandable, though it doesn’t unlock every single thing that’s in it.
Now changing gears, the next revelation, section 78 of the Doctrine and Covenants, isn't concerned
with the symbolism of the scriptures but the work of the Church to try and help and assist others.
There's a name used for this group here called the United Firm, or the United Order, or the Order of
Enoch. Later on the United Order and the Order of Enoch would come to be a name that was used for
every form of consecration but at this time it just represents a small group of Church leaders
that work together and sacrifice their goods to help the scriptures be published and meet
the needs of the Church. These leaders were really important and because of that,
in early versions of the revelation, code names were used for the different leaders because the
revelations were going to be published first in Church newspapers and the Church had enemies.
Code names like Enoch were sometimes used for Joseph Smith. Pelogorum was used for
Sidney Rigdon and Ahashdah was used for Newell K. Whitney, the bishop of the Church in Kirtland.
What these revelations contain are reiterations of the principles of consecration and a request from
the Lord for the leaders to seek to demonstrate the law of consecration through the way they
lived. The Lord told these leaders, “if ye not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in
obtaining heavenly things”. And he goes a step further in saying that asking them to sacrifice
here, he was trying to prepare them for the real life they would live in the celestial kingdom. The
Lord said, “for if... I give unto you a place in the celestial world, you must prepare yourselves
by doing the things which I have commanded of you and which are required of you.” The Lord
even sets up the idea that a crown is eventually going to be given to those that are wise stewards
here on earth and that they’ll be blessed and he says this, “[You shall] be made rulers over many
kingdoms, saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Zion, who hath established the foundations of
Adam-ondi-Ahman.” The Lord even cites one steward who was good at his job and did do
the things that he was supposed to do and this is the person he names Michael the prince. He said,
“Michael [the] prince, and established his feet, and set him upon high, and gave unto him the keys
of salvation under the counsel and direction of the Holy One, who is without beginning of
days or end of life.” The archangel Michael is identified in other revelations as Adam.
You might notice when you read closely this revelation the term “Ahman” is sometimes used
within the revelation. This is from a revelation that was given to Joseph Smith in between section
77 and section 78 of the Doctrine and Covenants that’s called the sample of pure language,
an example of pure language. The question was asked, “What is the name of God
in pure language?” The answer given was Ahman. What is the meaning of the pure word Ahman?
Joseph Smith was told, “it is the being [in] which made all things [are] in its parts.”
A later revelation established that Ahman means man of holiness
and that Jesus Christ, the Son of Man was the Son directly of the Man of Holiness.
Understanding the principles of the book of Revelation help us grow in holiness and also
get a feel for what seems like a chaotic world around us but is actually the plan of God coming
to fruition. However, we don’t need to get too caught up the symbols in the book of Revelation
that we forget our obligation down here on earth to be equal, to assist each other and live the
principles of consecration and the United Order set forth in the Doctrine and Covenants. Both
understanding the mysteries of God and the practicalities of God help us become like God
and make the celestial kingdom a place that we not only recognize when we get there
but that we can see is the product of the righteous living we’ve engaged in all our life.