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Revelation 22:20 vs. “Come Jesus Come”

Stephen McWhirter · checked 2026-09-06

What we checked

PassageRevelation 22:20 chapter ↗ 1 more proof on Revelation 22 →
Translation shownBSB (Berean Standard Bible)
Presents itself asinspired-by
Categorynot a quote
AlbumCome Jesus Come (EP) · 2020
Words addressed toJesus
Teaching or experiencemixed

Graded against the standard

Quotation criteria not graded: this song never presents its words as scripture

Applies to every song the Name held holy · God shown holy · true of God · the standard

✓Reverent treatment

✓ What's good

  • Nothing is presented as scripture. The words cite no book, chapter or verse, and no line is framed as a quotation, so nothing in them can be checked and found misquoted
  • The request it makes is the request Revelation 22:20 makes. A congregation singing it is asking out loud for what the Bible's last chapter asks for
  • The pairing is not this site's invention. McWhirter's own site prints Revelation 22:20 beside the song's title and describes him and his wife opening a Bible to that verse
  • The song speaks to Jesus by name. The Gospels record people calling out to Him by name when they ask Him for mercy, in Mark 10:47 and in Luke 17:13
  • The official upload's own description quotes Revelation 21:3-4, which shows the artist framing the song by the end of Revelation rather than by one line lifted out of it

⚠ Cautions

  • The verse's prayer is a reply. Christ promises first and the amen follows. The song makes the same request without the promise it answers, so its ground sits outside the words
  • Revelation names Him Lord Jesus in this prayer, in all three translations offered here. The song's words never use Lord. Nothing is misquoted, because nothing is quoted
  • The reasons the song gives for asking are the world's pain and the singer's condition. The reason Revelation 22 gives is that He said He is coming. Both are true, and they are not the same
  • The verse McWhirter names when he talks about the song is 22:17, which readers have long divided over. The verse his own site names, 22:20, is where that prayer stands with nothing left ambiguous
  • The words themselves name no passage. The official video's description names one, so a listener meeting the song anywhere else is supplying the citation on their own

Verse Proof

Revelation 22:20

The text in BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

“He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”

This is the second to last verse in the Bible. Four verses earlier Jesus names Himself as the sender of the whole testimony. Here He speaks again and promises to come soon. He has already said it twice in this same chapter, at verse 7 and at verse 12. Then the sentence changes speaker. Someone answers Him. The answer is short: Amen, then a request that He come. Verse 21 is a closing blessing aimed at the reader, so this reply is the last thing anyone in the book says straight to Jesus. Two voices, one verse. A promise, then an amen, then a prayer.

What the song says, described not quoted

A prayer, sung. The chorus asks Jesus by name to come, speaking to Him directly. Elsewhere the words speak about Him in the third person and describe what His coming will do. One verse stays with the singer's own condition, naming strain and something near breaking. Another leaves the singer entirely for what His coming ends. The chorus supplies the sense of not being home. What His coming brings is named too: healing, wrongs put right, and a past dealt with by grace. Both I and we appear. Nothing is presented as scripture. No book, chapter or verse is cited anywhere in the words, and no line is framed as a quotation. The published texts do not agree on the song's structure. Worship Together prints two verses, ZionLyrics prints two and a bridge, PraiseCharts prints three. All of them agree that the words Lord, Amen, God, Spirit, bride, soon and quickly do not appear at all. The words also never say that Jesus Himself promised to come.

Nothing is borrowed word for word. What the song and the verse share is a sentence shape. Both ask Jesus to come, and both speak to Him directly rather than about Him. The frame is where they differ. In Revelation the request names Him Lord Jesus, and it stands second in the verse, after His promise. The song's request stands on what the world is like. That is a real reason to pray. It is not the reason the verse gives.

· Not a quote: The song quotes nothing and cites nothing. Its plea is the same request Revelation 22:20 makes. In the verse that request is an answer, spoken right after Christ's own promise in the same verse. The song gives the world's brokenness as its reason instead.

▸ Official upload. Now listen with the proof in mind.

The Bible's own version of this prayer is an answer. Christ speaks first, and the church says amen.

Why it matters

Asking Jesus to come is asking for the end of everything wrong. That is an enormous request. Revelation 22:20 shows where the nerve to make it comes from. He said He is coming, and the prayer agrees with Him. A singer who never hears the promise can still pray the prayer. The ground under it is just out of view.

Is it safe to dwell on?

Sung on repeat, this song moves between God and the singer.

The dwelling tag is mixed. The plea is aimed at Jesus, and a good deal of the song describes what His coming does. Some of the words stay with the singer's own state, and both I and we are in the words. Both halves get repeated, so both get planted.

What this song plants is longing. Sung enough times it trains you to want Him back, and it trains the habit of asking Him for that directly, by name. Revelation 22:20 puts the same words in the mouth of the church, so the wanting has a home in the text.

What the song does not plant is the promise. Its words never say that He said He is coming. If this one lives in your head, keep Revelation 22 near it. Then the longing is anchored to His word and not only to your ache, and the answer you are waiting on is one He already gave.

Helpful comparison

The people behind this song have pointed at more than one place in Revelation, and they do not all point at the same verse. The official lyric video on McWhirter's own channel quotes Revelation 21:3-4 in its description, and its opening note describes the Spirit and the bride crying out, which is the language of Revelation 22:17. McWhirter's own site prints Revelation 22:20 beside the song's title, and says he and his wife opened a Bible to that verse. In a statement K-LOVE has printed twice, he names Revelation 22:17 instead. Third parties add more. Worship Together, which is not the rights holder, lists Revelation 1:7 and Revelation 21:4 on its page for the song. That spread is not a fault. It is what an inspired-by song looks like from the inside, and no one involved is claiming a quotation.

One small detail is worth naming. The wording printed beside Revelation 22:20 on the artist's site, “Behold, I am coming soon,” is how verses 7 and 12 read in the Berean Standard Bible. Verse 20 opens differently in each of the three translations this site uses. The promise is the same promise. The chapter simply makes it three times, and the prayer comes only after the third.

Verse 17 is a verse careful readers divide over. Barnes' Notes takes the Spirit and the bride to be inviting people to the Saviour, and says “The construction demands this interpretation, as the latter part of the verse shows.” Jamieson-Fausset-Brown takes their word the other way, as “the prayer of the Spirit in the Church and in believers in reply to Christ's ‘I come quickly,’” and then adds that “Re 22:20 confirms this view.” Verse 20 is not where the ambiguity sits. There the one being asked to come is named, and He is the one who has just spoken.

The song has traveled well beyond its first release. The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir recorded it with McWhirter. CeCe Winans released her own version in March 2024, and a version credited to CeCe Winans featuring Shirley Caesar came out as a single in March 2025. That one won Best Gospel Performance/Song at the 68th Grammy Awards.

Sources

Corrections

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Where the text survives the song

Not a ranking, and not a swap. If what you came for is the passage sung whole, these proofs found it kept: word-for-word verified, or paraphrase that says so and names its source.

~ FAITHFUL “Revelation Song” Jennie Lee Riddle (recorded by Kari Jobe) Revelation 4:8-11 Sing it. The chorus is the creatures' song, kept intact, and the images around it come from the same chapter. It just never names a translation, so there is nothing to check the wording against.

✓ The chorus follows Revelation 4:8 without altering what it says about God

⚠ No translation is named, so the near-verbatim chorus cannot be checked against a stated text. That is the only thing separating this from Word-for-Word Verified

 ~ FAITHFUL “Agnus Dei” Michael W. Smith Revelation 19:6-7 Sing it. Every sung phrase traces to a Revelation acclamation, and the small shifts are moves the book itself makes. Just know the title names a Mass prayer with different words: the liturgy asks the Lamb for mercy, this song acclaims him.

✓ Every sung phrase has a checkable Revelation address: the reigning in 19:6, the holy in 4:8, the worthy in 5:12, the amen in 19:4 and 5:14

⚠ The wording is a blend no single Bible prints: the KJV's Alleluia spelling and our-less frame with the modern translations' Almighty. Each piece is a real rendering of 19:6, but no one translation can verify the whole clause, and none is named

 ~ FAITHFUL “This Is Amazing Grace” Phil Wickham Revelation 5:12 Sing it. The bridge's first line is Revelation 5:12 as far as it goes, and what the song adds is true from other texts. Know that the verse itself keeps going, into seven things the Lamb is worthy to receive.

✓ The bridge's first line carries the acclamation of Revelation 5:12 unaltered as far as it goes, in the wording most modern translations share

⚠ The verse's own ending never appears. Revelation 5:12 gives the Lamb seven things, power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, blessing, and the song keeps none of them

More songs like this

NOT A QUOTE “Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling” Will L. Thompson (recorded live by Alan Jackson) Revelation 22:17 Sing it. It quotes nothing, and passing on Christ's invitation instead of speaking as Him is the role Revelation 22:17 hands to whoever hears. Its urgency is mortality, not His return.

✓ Jesus is in the third person from first line to last. The hymn reports the call and never puts words in His mouth

⚠ Coming home is the picture from Luke 15, not from this verse. Revelation invites a thirsty stranger to drink, which asks nothing about where they have been

 NOT A QUOTE “Days of Elijah” Robin Mark Revelation 1:7 Sing it. Nothing here is offered as a quotation, and the hope in the refrain is the Bible's own. Just know the refrain is a composite of several passages, not a rendering of Revelation 1:7.

✓ Never says it is quoting, anywhere: no book, chapter or verse in the song, and the licensed chord chart carries themes only, with no scripture reference

⚠ Revelation 1:7 has four clauses and the refrain uses the first. The sight of the pierced one and the mourning of the tribes never arrive in the song

 NOT A QUOTE “Hymn of Heaven” Phil Wickham Revelation 21:3-5 Sing it. Nothing here is quoting, and what it borrows from Revelation 21 it keeps straight: God wipes the tears Himself. Just read verses 3 and 5 alongside it, which the song leaves out.

✓ Keeps the agent of Revelation 21:4. The tear-wiping stays something God performs, with He as the grammatical subject on both published lyric sheets, rather than a condition that arrives by itself

⚠ The passage leads with presence, not absence. Verse 3 says God's dwelling place is with man and that He will be with them as their God. The song's presence is a face-to-face meeting, a moment rather than a residence

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