# 594 THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF REVELATION 1:4

While in exile on the prison Island of Patmos, the Apostle John received a series of visions that he recorded. "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God {the Father} gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John." The opening statement of this book asserts these are revelations of Jesus himself, not "Saint John the Divine," as some versions of the Bible proclaim. It is one example of errant belief injected into God's church. Throughout the ages, a war has raged between the purity of God's word and a counterfeit version designed to deceive (if it were possible) the elect.