Why Dismissing Revelation Means Questioning Christ Himself

If you dismiss the Book of Revelation as too strange, too symbolic, or too impractical to take seriously, you are not merely setting aside a difficult book. You are calling into question the character of Jesus Christ. That's the stunning claim embedded in Revelation 22:6-11 — the passage where this apocalyptic prophecy begins drawing its curtain. The same Greek phrase used to describe the words of this prophecy — "trustworthy and true" — is the very title given to the risen Christ earlier in the same book. To reject the reliability of one is to impugn the credibility of the other.

This is not a soft closing. There is no gentle fade-out. The final movement of Revelation is a call to action — a summons that demands something of every person who reads it. And as Pastor Daniel Batarseh walked his congregation through these six verses, what emerged was not a theological footnote but a confrontation: How will you respond to what God has revealed?

The Same Title Given to Christ Is Given to This Prophecy

Verse 6 opens with a declaration that sounds almost redundant after twenty-two chapters of divine vision: "These words are trustworthy and true." We might be tempted to skim past it — a kind of closing formality, like the credits rolling after a film. But that would be a serious mistake.

This statement appears four times across the Book of Revelation. Twice it describes the content of the prophecy itself. Twice it appears as a title for Jesus Christ. In Revelation 19:11, the rider on the white horse is called "Faithful and True." In Revelation 3:14, Christ introduces himself to the Laodicean church as "the faithful and true witness" (watch at 45:46).

The implication is breathtaking in its logic: the words of this prophecy are every bit as dependable as the person who gave them. As Pastor Daniel Batarseh put it, "All the predictions, all the prophecies, every vision contained in this book are every bit as trustworthy as the character of the Lord Jesus Christ himself" (hear this moment). That's not a throwaway observation. It's a theological guardrail. You cannot separate your confidence in Christ from your confidence in his revealed Word. They share the same adjective because they share the same source.

And this presents a warning that should make every casual Bible reader pause. "If anybody is to dismiss the truthfulness of the Book of Revelation, you are essentially calling into question the faithfulness of Christ. Are you willing to do that?" (watch at 46:25). That's not a rhetorical flourish. It's the logic of the text itself. Trustworthy and true. Who's trustworthy and true? Jesus Christ — and so is this prophecy.

Many Christians treat Revelation like an optional appendix — interesting for prophecy enthusiasts, irrelevant for everyone else. But the book itself refuses that categorization. It opens with a blessing for those who read it. It closes with a warning for those who tamper with it. And here, in its final breaths, it stakes its credibility on the very name of Jesus. You can't love the Savior and shrug at his Revelation.

The God of the Prophets Is the God of This Book

The second half of verse 6 contains a phrase so unusual it deserves to be read slowly: "The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place."

What a way to describe God. Not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — though he is that. Not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — though he is that too. Here he is called "the God of the spirits of the prophets." Why? Because the Holy Spirit is making a genealogical argument. He is linking John's prophetic authority to the entire prophetic tradition of the Old Testament.

The same God who breathed through Isaiah, who thundered through Ezekiel, who revealed the future to Daniel, who wept through Jeremiah, who burned through Hosea — that same God is the one who spoke through the Apostle John. The "thus says the Lord" that echoed through every prophetic oracle in Israel's history carries the same divine weight here in Revelation 22. John's words are not a lesser grade of inspiration. They do not sit on a lower shelf. They carry the identical authority of every prophet who ever stood before kings and nations and declared what God had shown them (watch at 47:13).

This matters enormously for how we approach the text. We do not read Revelation as John's best guess about the future. We do not treat it as first-century apocalyptic speculation dressed up in religious language. We read it as the Word of the living God, delivered through the same prophetic pipeline that produced the entire canon of Scripture. The God of the spirits of the prophets has spoken — and his track record is flawless.

Prophecy Was Never Meant to Be Merely Interesting

One of the most penetrating observations in this sermon had nothing to do with exegetical detail. It had to do with posture. Many people, it was noted, struggle to appreciate the value of Bible prophecy because they fail to recognize its practical value. We treat it as intellectual curiosity — a puzzle to be solved, a timeline to be charted, a debate to be won. But the closing of Revelation demolishes that approach entirely.

Look at verse 7: "Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book." Notice: the blessing is not pronounced on the one who decodes the prophecy. Not the one who debates it. Not the one who builds the most elaborate chart of the end times. The blessing falls on the one who keeps it. Who obeys it. Who lets it reshape the way they live.

This is the seventh and final beatitude in the Book of Revelation — a bookend to the blessing pronounced in chapter 1 on those who read, hear, and keep what is written. The prophecy opens and closes with the same demand: this is not information for your curiosity. It is instruction for your life.

Four words framed the meditation on this passage: reliability, urgency, idolatry, and gravity (watch at 42:18). Each one is a different angle on the same question: What will you do with what you've read? The prophecy is reliable — will you trust it? The return is urgent — will you live accordingly? The temptation toward idolatry is real — even John himself fell prey to it, bowing before an angel who immediately rebuked him. And the gravity of the message is absolute — verse 11 draws a line in the sand that permits no neutrality.

The Most Terrifying Verse in the Chapter

Verse 11 is one of the most sobering statements in all of Scripture: "Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy."

At first glance, this sounds like divine indifference. As if God is throwing up his hands and saying, "Do whatever you want." But that reading could not be more wrong. This is not permission. It is a verdict. It is the language of finality — the declaration that a moment is coming when the opportunity for repentance will close, when the trajectory of every human life will be sealed forever.

The righteous will continue in righteousness. The holy will continue in holiness. And the one who has refused the call — who has heard the prophecy, read the warnings, witnessed the visions of judgment and glory, and still chosen evil — that person will be left to the consequences of their choice. There will be no more altar calls. No more open doors. No more patient waiting.

This is the weight behind the angel's command to John: "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near." In Daniel's day, the prophet was told to seal his vision because its fulfillment was far off. But John receives the opposite instruction. Leave it open. Let everyone read it. The time is near. The window is closing.

And embedded within this urgency is a Love Life testimony that the congregation watched together — the story of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Lower Manhattan, the Margaret Sanger Center, that closed after six years of persistent prayer by local churches. Two hundred and fifty thousand children had been killed in that building over thirty-six years. But the church prayed. Week after week, they marched and sang and made their presence known. And the place of death shut its doors.

The connection to Revelation's closing was not accidental. The same God who promises to make all things new, who declares that death will be no more, who pledges to wipe every tear — that God is already at work through his people's prayers. As Psalm 119:126 says, "It is time for the Lord to act, for your law has been broken." And as Acts 12:5 demonstrates, prayer penetrates through every guard, every iron gate, every human command, and brings liberty where there was bondage (hear this moment).

The prophecy of Revelation is not a distant document about a far-off future. It is a present summons. It calls us to worship, to obedience, to trust, and to the kind of prayerful action that moves heaven on behalf of earth.

What to Remember

• The phrase "trustworthy and true" is both a title for Jesus Christ and a description of Revelation's prophecy — rejecting one means rejecting the other.
• The blessing of Revelation falls not on those who decode prophecy but on those who keep it — who let it reshape how they live right now.
• God identifies himself as "the God of the spirits of the prophets," placing John's Revelation on the same authoritative shelf as Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Jeremiah.
• Revelation 22:11 is not divine indifference — it is a verdict of finality, a warning that the window for repentance will one day close permanently.
• Prayer is the present-tense application of prophetic hope — the same God who promises to make all things new is already answering the cries of his people in real time.

Questions to Sit With

1. If you genuinely believed every word of Revelation was as trustworthy as the character of Christ himself, what would change about how you read this book?
2. Have you treated Bible prophecy as a subject to debate rather than a message to obey? What would it look like to keep the words of this prophecy this week?
3. Verse 11 implies a moment when every person's spiritual trajectory becomes permanent. Does that reality create urgency in your prayers for the people you love who don't know Christ?
4. The churches in New York prayed for six years before seeing a Planned Parenthood clinic close. What are you tempted to stop praying for because it hasn't happened yet?
5. John — the beloved disciple, the last living apostle — fell down to worship an angel. If idolatry can creep into the heart of someone that close to Christ, where might it be creeping into yours?

Scripture Referenced

• Revelation 22:6-11 — primary passage
• Revelation 19:11 — Christ as "Faithful and True"
• Revelation 3:14 — Christ as "the faithful and true witness"
• 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 — the word of the cross
• Psalm 119:126 — "It is time for the Lord to act"
• Acts 12:5 — the church praying for Peter's release
• Psalm 90 — Moses' prayer for God's steadfast love

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This summary was generated by AI from the sermon "How Will You Respond to This Prophecy? | Revelation 22:6-11 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (11/8/26)" preached by Pastor Daniel Batarseh at Maranatha Bible Church Chicago. Watch the full sermon →