Perhaps surprisingly, God speaks directly in Revelation only twice—1:8 and 21:5–6—and in both places he identifies himself as “the Alpha and the Omega” (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet). It’s synonymous with “the Beginning and the End” (21:6; 22:13), or “the First and the Last” (1:17; 22:13). Revelation is telling us that God bookends all of human history. He is both the starting line and the finish line, and the whole race in between. The one who controls both ends of history also