“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” Revelation 22.13. Four times in the Revelation, Christ speaks of Himself in these words. It must be that they contain a lesson of deep importance for His church.
Like sheep among wolves, Christ was sending forth His disciples. When these words were written, the time was close at hand when learned philosophers, partly converted from heathenism, would join the church in large numbers and corrupt it with their worldly wisdom. At such a time these words would be a bulwark to the believer testing the teachings of philosophy, and making known whether they were of God, or of anti-Christ.
Jesus Christ comprises all truth, all wisdom, all power, for His disciples. Whatever is not of Him is not for them; He is the beginning and the end. There is no possibility of outgrowing Him, or His Word, and remaining Christian. Human wisdom is very anxious to advance, and in this anxiety, it is not always careful to make progress in the right direction. It sometimes departs from the beginning, but when it does this, it loses all hope of ever reaching the end, for He who is the end is also the beginning.
Paul was very emphatic on this point in his epistles. “I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11.3. The believer must continue steadfastly in the beginning. “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. . . . Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. . . . Ye are complete in Him.” Colossians 2.6-10
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