One of the ideas in Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol” (Doubleday, 2009) and other books is that the Bible contains hidden messages. I can show you this is true. Unlike Dan Brown’s fictional book, the Book of Revelation in the Bible is the key to unlocking these messages, messages that God has hidden for thousands of years.

Almost 2000 years ago, God sent his angel to John to give him a revelation that you can read in the last book of your Bible. Three verses in the first chapter of Revelation: 1: 1, 1: 3 and 1:11 are the key to reveal the hidden message within Revelation. Revelation 1: 1 says that revelation tells us “… things that must soon take place.” Why shortly? Revelation 1: 3 focuses our attention on the words of the text. This is amplified in Revelation 22:18 where we are told not to add or remove any words. This focus on words leads us to wonder how to gain greater understanding without affecting the words. Finally, Revelation 1:11 says: “Write in a book what you see“This is the spiritual ‘AH HA’. God has given us an end-time chronology, but has sealed (hidden) it by showing John the chronology out of chronological order and telling him to write what he sees. The text describes what he saw next, not necessarily what will happen next as a play with certain scenes out of order. But how could we know how to rearrange it to discover the true message? The answer is that Jesus told his disciples what What would happen in true chronological order in the first three Gospels Jesus shows us how to correctly order and therefore interpret Revelation.

The order of the Revelation chapters and the verse that tells us these things will happen shortly is what has puzzled scholars for centuries. The “short” time depends on to whom the disclosure is directed. Once again, Jesus tells us who he is ultimately addressing in Matthew 24: 29-34, Mark 13: 24-30, and Luke 21: 25-32. These verses tell us that all the signs that Jesus is describing (containing the timeline that shows us how to rearrange Revelation) will be completed within one generation. What Jesus described has not yet happened in the history of the world. These signs will happen “shortly” until the time of the end, “this” generation. It seems that God did not want the true chronology to be known until the end of time, perhaps so that each generation would believe and wait for the day of Christ’s return, even if it would actually be hundreds of years from now. As we move into the end of time, I think he wants us to know the story. Rearranging Revelation opens new doors to understanding this important prophecy and Revelation opens our eyes to the meaning of other parts of the Bible that God has hidden until now.

The revelation tells us that international terrorism will lead to economic collapse and the rise of a world leader. It tells us why we are born. It tells us where he will go when he dies. It tells us why there is suffering in the world. It tells the end-time generation what to expect and how to respond. It tells us when Jesus will return to earth. It tells us that we are children of God and our role when this world dies. All this and more. In short, the Gospels are the key to Revelation and Revelation is the key to the rest of the Bible. See for yourself the power of this hidden prophecy.