But if there is one thing the book of Revelation makes clear it is the fact that John's vision links time and eternity in ways that transcend human understanding. We look at time as a straight line, marked off in years like inches on a ruler. We see John's era of the first century AD as being at one point on the ruler, our own era some 2,000 years later, and the events of Revelation as occurring at some time further along that ruler. Properly understood, however, the events of Revelation were no further off in John's future than they are in yours and mine. The final destiny of a human being, whether lost or righteous, begins the instant that individual dies.
Eternity is never more than a heartbeat away, never farther in the future than one's own death.
It won't be long before both you and I step out of time and into eternity. Jesus is coming soon. He was coming soon in the day of John the apostle. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. It is an invitation to every reader of the book of Revelation to come, take the free gift of the water of life, come to Christ and live eternally.