6. Christ has established the Church as His kingdom upon earth with the bishops and priests as its teachers and rulers. Hence St. John says to the bishops, his co-laborers in the Church: We have been made kings and co-heirs of His kingdom; we have been chosen priests to render glory to His eternal Father. To Christ also belongs equal honor through all ages because he is God, equal to the Father in all things.
Those to whom St. John writes are priests and rulers in the Church. This proves that St, John does not write directly to the different churches but to their bishops. Hence the words of praise or reproof written to the "angels" are personal warnings to the bishops and through them to the churches.
7. Looking down the vista of ages, St. John sees our Lord coming in clouds of glory to judge the living and the dead. With the prophets of old, clouds were ever symbols of divine majesty. It is worthy of note that the Apocalypse is literally filled with striking expressions of St. John's faith in the divinity of Christ. This is proof sufficient that this dogma of Faith was not invented after the time of the Apostles as rationalists would have us believe.
At His second coming Christ will be manifest to all; even those who put Him to death on the cross shall behold
