<p>1:10 <i>I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying</i>- The radical, heretical nature of the book of Revelation needs to be appreciated against this background; it's almost a polemic against the Caesars, and to speak in this way against them was punishable by death. And Revelation speaks of the capital of the beast system (Rome) as being in the wilderness, rather than as the (perceived) centre of a cosmopolitan metropolis. And of course, Rome is spoken of as a whore... the most abusive image possible The whole vision was given &quot;on the Lord's day&quot; (Rev. 1:10)- and this appears to be an allusion to the way that there was &quot;a day in the Roman calendar when all the Roman citizens had to go to the local temple and declare 'Caesar is Lord'&quot;. On that very day, when John was supposed to be worshipping Caesar as Lord, he was given a vision outlining how Caesar was not in fact 'Lord' at all. And yet the Lord's day is so often a reference to the second coming. All in Revelation is to be understood in that context, which creates a solid case for treating a futuristic interpretation as not only possible but required. Although most parts of the book have discernible application to the first century or other points in history, the essence of it all will come true fully only in the last days.</p><p>Yet the great voice he hears behind him is as of a trumpet; what he heard he was to write (:11) and distribute. It was not a quiet, personal voice; but a trumpet. His message was to be preached, and it was a radical polemic against the Roman empire, the Jewish system in Jerusalem; just as in its later applications, it was a radical polemic against every society in which the Lord's people have lived. And that message is to be preached, for the voice comes as a trumpet. The principles revealed in this book are not to be quietly kept in our hearts; by their nature, they cannot be.</p>