(In the first 17 verses of this chapter John greets us, tells us his opinions about God and Jesus and his experiences, when the visions of this book were revealed to him.)

(Jesus must have had visions similar to the ones described in the Book of Revelation. In Luke 17 and 21 he describes the same future as John. Unfortunately we know nothing written down by Jesus, and even his words have only come down to us in versions recorded several decades after his death by people who did not know him personally. One obvious reason for this may be that he was regarded as dangerous by the Jewish political and religious establishment at the time, which is also the reason, why he was killed, see 22:6. Interpreting the Book of Revelation as an overview of all of history contradicts this verse.)

(As many powerful people had a strong interest in suppressing and distorting the words of Jesus, it was necessary to give the same message to John again in a form that had to be misunderstood at the time and for 1900 years to come in order to avoid censorship.)

(In chapter 2 and 3 we will see that the "seven churches in Asia" can be understood as a symbol meaning humanity in the 20th century. The Book of Revelation has been understood as predicting present times by every generation since it was written. But never before have so many predictions been fulfilled as literally as today.)

(In order to fulfil the legacy of Jesus it is necessary for us to work according to the instructions given in this book and to succeed. This cannot be achieved singlehanded by one person. Many supporters are needed. When the New Jerusalem has been created after the defeat of the Beast, Jesus will be back in spirit, reborn from the dead so to speak.)

(The effect of the teachings of Jesus is not to be restricted to one hour in church every Sunday. His principles were meant to be political to have any effect. In the New Age the modern illusion of separating politics and religion will be abolished.)

(When we stop being happy about the murder of Jesus and regard it as the outrageous crime it was, but see 6:16.)

(See 5:9.)

(We should not understand this literally and expect Jesus to come flying through the air like a spacecraft. "Clouds" is a mixture of elements: air meaning thinking and water meaning emotions, especially love, which means whoever wants to fulfil the legacy of Jesus and act as a kind of "reincarnation of Jesus" has to be intelligent and compassionate, see 14:14, Luke 21:27. Sometimes I wonder, whether the sound "clouds" contains another hidden meaning.)

(He will be on modern media like TV and the Internet.)

(People who practice satanic rituals, where they pretend to drink the blood of Jesus like vampires and eat his flesh like cannibals, in order to digest Jesus and dispose of him into the toilet, see 2:2.)

(People will finally realize that there is no reason to feel happy about the murder of Jesus. Every war and many other disasters in the last 2000 years can be understood as humanity punishing itself for this murder. We can also say God punishing humanity, other words, same meaning. Jesus would have brought salvation to the world at his time, if people had followed his teachings. This has not happened yet, but the Revelation predicts, it soon will.)

(John was a political prisoner, because the teachings of Jesus were regarded as dangerous by the Roman establishment in those days. Suddenly the history of the 20th century was revealed to him, but nobody could understand it. This was the first act. About 1900 years later in 1995 I was a political prisoner in London, because the hateful Anti-German propaganda by the British press before the "V. E..-Day" celebrations had caused me to be discriminated against. Gradually the meaning of John's visions were revealed to me. This was the second act, see 2:10, 13:10, 16:15, 3:3. Now you have this book in front of you. This is the beginning of the third act ...)

(Bible prophets use this expression to describe an altered state of mind, where they get visions, see 4:2, 17:3, 21:10.)

(See 4:1.)

(1900 years later I got the message, "Write a book about what you have found out and send it to the whole world on the Internet.")

(See 2:18, 19:12.)

(The prophet Daniel describes a similar vision in chapter 10, verse 5 and 6, and there are further parallels between Daniel 10 and 12 and Revelation 12, just replace "Persia" with Britain and "Greece" with Germany.)

(This [s]word symbolizes the power of words, here the prophecies of the Revelation, see 2:12, 2:16, 19:15.)

(This key symbolizes the message in the Book of Revelation, the key to understand the meaning of life and of history including death and hell. The spirit of Jesus and his suffering played a crucial part in revealing these things.)

(There is very little, if anything, in the Book of Revelation, where "now" can be understood as meaning the time, when these visions were written down, see verse 3 and 17:8.)

(In chapter 2 and 3 we will find messages to these angels. "Angels" can be understood as a symbol for certain important people who will play an important part in the events to come as predicted in the Revelation. By reading this book you have taken the first crucial step to become one of them, see 2:1.)

(The seven churches are the places, where these important people do their work.)