Revelation 22:10: And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

The angel from Revelation 22:8-9 spoke again in Revelation 22:10,¹ telling John that the Book of Revelation was not to be sealed‒meaning secured or hidden.² The angel said emphatically: Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book.³ Thus, the full contents were to be made known to the world.⁴ This necessarily means that the prophecies and visions are also to be understood⁵ and all people are thus accountable⁶ for the unsealed content.⁷ Blessings come to those that understand and keep the sayings from the Book of Revelation,⁸ and damnation comes to those that understand but do not keep the sayings.⁹ The sayings also give hope to the faithful.¹⁰

Hundreds of years earlier, Daniel and Nephi had similar visions, but Daniel's vision was sealed until the time of the end in Daniel 12:9.¹¹ Nephi was actually forbidden to write his vision of the last days because the Lord appointed John to write the vision now known to the world as the Book of Revelation.¹² The prophet Moroni was also made aware of the revelations of John and prophesied in Ether 4:16 that in these last days "shall my revelations which I have caused to be written by my servant John be unfolded in the eyes of all the people." Through the revelations of John in the Book of Revelation all people can recognize the timing and sequence for all the signs of the times and "know that the time is at hand that they shall be made manifest in very deed." (Ether 4:16)

The Book of Revelation was revealed to John with a sense of urgency to bless the lives of the remaining saints from the ancient church.¹³ When the vision was given to John in 96 AD,¹⁴ the angel specifically told John the time is at hand.¹⁵ By 96 AD, the fulfillment of some sayings in the Book of Revelation had already begun¹⁶ among the seven ancient churches in Asia.¹⁷ For example, the seven churches were already falling into a state of apostasy.¹⁸ The time was already at hand for great tribulation¹⁹ and martyrdom among the ancient saints.²⁰ The First Beast representing the Roman Empire had already risen from the sea in 70 AD with the name of blasphemy.²¹ The ancient saints were frequently forced to choose between death and worship of the First Beast.²² Eventually, the saints were completely overcome by the First Beast when the Great Apostasy engulfed the entire earth.²³ Today, the time is still at hand and people must still hearken unto God²⁴ or they will effectively worship the Second Beast of the latter days.²⁵

Revelation 22:11: He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

Since the time of John's prophecy in 96 AD, the time has been at hand for people to accept or reject the unsealed sayings in the Book of Revelation.²⁶ People of the world have been, and will be, blessed or damned accordingly.²⁷ When unjust and wicked people in this life ignore, reject, or manipulate the unsealed sayings of the book,²⁸ they will be damned in some measure in the next life.²⁹ The angel confirms this, saying: He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still.³⁰ Conversely, those that hearken to the unsealed sayings and overcome evil are righteous,³¹ and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still (sanctified).³² The sayings in Revelation 22:11 restate the law of the harvest that people reap what they sow.³³ The law of obedience is a corollary law which states that every blessing is predicated on obedience to a corresponding law.³⁴ These spiritual laws operate exactly like the universally accepted law of cause and effect in the material and scientific world.³⁵

The sayings in Revelation 22:11³⁶ are consistent with the Book of Mormon doctrine in Alma 34:34 that "the same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life ... will have power to possess your body in that eternal world."³⁷ Thus, the unjust and filthy people in this life that die in their sins³⁸ and fail to repent before the resurrection³⁹ will have their status fixed forever in the resurrection.⁴⁰ They will invariably come forth in the resurrection of the unjust.⁴¹ Similarly, righteous and holy people in this life will still be righteous in the next life and will have their status fixed forever in the favored resurrection of the just.⁴²