“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8)

Of the many descriptions of God in the Bible, “Almighty” is very common, reflecting the One who is more powerful than anything or anyone else. He is the Almighty. In ancient Greek and Roman thought—in fact, in all ancient religion—the various so-called gods were ranked according to their power. The nations that gained victory in war would consider their gods greater than the gods of the defeated armies. There were conceived gods of the harvest who had the power to bring about good crops. The gods of thunder and mountains and plains all had their respective authority.

Christians inherited the knowledge of the one and only true God (monotheism) from the Jews, the God whose power was greater than any and all notions of pagan gods. He is “the Lord God” of Israel.

Yet commentators seem divided on whether the speaker in today’s passage is the Lord Jesus Christ. First, in the immediate context, John’s attention (and ours) is turned to Jesus (Rev 1:4-6, but especially 7): “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.” The natural reading is that the speaker in verse 8 would be that same one, Jesus.

Second, the use of “I am” (Greek: ego eimi) harkens back to John’s gospel account of the “I am” statements of Jesus. John, of all the evangelists, focuses in on that phrase in presenting the deity of Christ. Paul asserts that salvation for the Jews requires that “you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord” in order to be saved (Rom 10:9). In context of Paul’s statements in Romans, “Lord” refers there to the God of the prophets, none other than Yahweh of the Jews. At the very least, we can infer that if Jesus were not God incarnate, the close connection in this passage between the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord God, the Almighty would be idolatrous.

As God begins to unfold to John (and to us) His end-game strategy for the future, He assures us that He possesses unequaled, unlimited strength and power. What He decides to do cannot be limited or contained in any way by anything outside of Himself. Therefore, we can be certain things will happen just as He describes in the book of Revelation. There is no question about the outcome! We can’t help but join with the great multitude, who “like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder” sang:

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.” (Rev 19:6)