What I believe the Book of Revelation is all about… There are soooo many opinions floating around out there about the letter John wrote to seven churches---which we call THE BOOK OF REVELATION. I will share my basic view of this book at the very end of this… if you can't wait scroll to the end now… BUT, it will make TONS more sense if you take the time to read the thoughts leading up to it! I receive so many questions about this book that I thought I would sit down and write out my basic views on it. THIS IS NOT AN EXHAUSTIVE STUDY OF REVELATION!!! |
I don't have time to write that… and if I did-who has time to read it? No, this is going to be an overview of some of the fundamental rules of interpretation that all of us should follow whenever we interpret ANY book in the Bible. And, of course, I will apply it all to the book of Revelation. FIRST... a pet peeve... It's the book of Revelation… not RevelationS. It's a revelation (singular) of the glorious, resurrected and foever almighty King of kings-Jesus. I think the "S" got tacked on there based on bogus views that Revelation is some kind of "mysterious collection of images of doomsday"… or something??? OKAY… NOW... ON TO THE MEAT! Some really Important components of Interpretation... THE MEAN/MEANT RULE The mean/meant rule states that a passage can never "mean" something that it never "meant." Make sense? I.e. if I wrote you a letter---and in it I said to you-- "Notre Dame's offense is great!" (Which is, of course, absolutely true) If you knew me at all… you would know... that I was referring to Notre Dame's most excellent football team and their ability to put points on the board! But... now... let's say... that letter got stuck in a box… you died… and 1,800 years passed... and some archaeologist digging around in the future finds it and reads it. IF, they don't know...: a) what football was... b) what Notre Dame University was... c) the specific meaning of the word "offense" - as I used it in the letter… they may conclude that... "There once was a person, or a place called Notre Dame… and this person or place committed a horrible offense against someone!" Of course, that interpretation would be very wrong. That letter could never MEAN that… because it never MEANT that. hmmmmmmmmmm.... just a thought. now... apply that basic rule of interpretation (one that any responsible teacher of the Bible will apply to ANY book they prepare to teach from...) to some of the stuff people say about the book of Revelation... images of "micro-chips implanted in people's hands and foreheads" come immediately to mind… hmmm…. Yep, I'm sure that's what John had in mind when he talked about the "number of the beast." Guys... you have to go BACK and dig in and seek to understand what John MEANT .... before you try to say what his writings MEAN for us today (a step that, sadly, many today skip). You have to understand that John was writing to a HORRIBLY PERSECUTED and ENSLAVED CHURCH that needed ENCOURAGEMENT… take a deep breath... and really think about this… If you... were part of that church in the 1st Century and... you received a letter... from an Apostle saying… basically… "Hey guys, I know you're really hurting… but don't worry… in 2,423 years there will be this HUGE WAR and there will be this rapture thing... and micro-chips will be placed in people's hands... and bla bla bla... and Jesus will come back and defeat this hideous Beast and this horrible guy-the Anti-Christ and... THEN everything will be just fine!" Boy, if I was part of that first century church I sure would feel better... not! You have to ask questions like... "Who was John's original audience?" (yeah, I know, I'm beating this drum a LOT!!!! But it's sooooo important!) "How would they have interpreted this?" The very first things that should go out the window are things like visions of nuclear world destruction, micro-chips, one-world governments… all that stuff THAT THEY NEVER WOULD HAVE UNDERSTOOD... or been encouraged by (one of the MAIN purposes for the letter)! ANOTHER IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION… Letters from Apostles were always read STRAIGHT THROUGH! Whenever a congregation received a letter from an apostle (and this would go for any letter-1 Corinthians, Ephesians, 1 Peter, etc.) they would all get together and read it out loud, from BEGINNING to END. And apostolic letters were inteded to be read that way. That's an important thing to keep in mind with the book of Revelation… way too often people get bogged down in a single passage… or heck, even on a single WORD!!!!! And they wind up missing the "flow" and "context" of things… and… the old saying comes true... "I can't see the forest for the trees!" A MAJOR KEY to understanding Revelation is… Taking time to get a grip on the original audience's understanding of things like: NUMBERS… what did the numbers 6, 12, 40, 1,000, etc. mean to them? TERMS… what would they have thought of when they heard words like "plague", "Babylon", "horn", etc. It's also very important to think about other MAJOR themes in the Bible--don't bogged down into obscure sections of Daniel and Joel, etc. I'm not saying that those books wan't help you understand some things in Rev... maybe they will... but... don'g get caught up in doing what I call "hermeneutical gymnastics"---I.e. jumping all over the Bible... trying to piece Revelation together like some kind of jig-saw puzzle that can only be solved as you discover the CLUES that are "tucked away" in all these other O.T. books... John's original audience wouldn't have done that... heck, half of them probably couldn't even READ!!!!! MAJOR in the majors and minor in the minors... For example, There are MAJOR, MaJoR, mAjOr… did I say "major?"… MAJOR intentional connections between the BONDAGE (SLAVERY)/EXODUS/PASOVER/DELIVERANCE story in the Book of Exodus and all kinds of passages in Revelation! WHY? Why would the Holy Spirit lead John to use such a HUGE example of God's delieverance of His people from bondage--all over REVELATION???? Is it really all that hard to figure out? Because... EVERY SINGLE CHRISTIAN would have been well acquainted with that PINICAL OT STORY of how God broke in and DELIVERED His people from the hand of a horrible, hateful, oppressive (anti-Christ) of a slave driving Pharaoh! As you read Revelation (straigh through hopefully) you'll see lots of places, over and over again where God pours out his "plagues" on the unbelieving world... but those who are His are spared... those who have the seal of the Spirit (compare with the blood over the door post in Exodus) are spared! And... over and over again... the unbelieving world's heart remains HARD (hmmmmm... read that somewhere before?). ALSO-UNDERSTAND THIS LITERARY TECHNIQUE... employed by John... John really has a very simple message for his audience (I'll share it at the end of this)… and what he does is-- tell it over and over again in a lot of different ways… from different angles throughout the letter. It's a really powerful way to drive a point home! But if you don't know that that is what he's doing and you think that every passage is this totally new and unique info--then you wind up MAKING every passage mean "something" different… which is wrong. Examples of this cyclical theme. the "7 Seals" (chaps 6-8), the "7 Trumpets" (chaps. 8-11), the "7 Bowls/Plagues" (chaps 15-16), As you read these sections... try to take the BIG view... see the FOREST... don't get caught up in trying to pen some modern day meaning to every event... just let it flow... you'll see the pattern... God judges... God's people are preserved... The unbelieving world hardens its heart... JUST LIKE EXODUS! MY UNDERSTANDING OF REVELATION IN A NUTSHELL... Yeah, this is a simplified version... but you'll get the gist... FIRST--I believe all of Revelation is symbolic language. I don't say, "Okay, this number, 666... and this number 1,000 (as in the millineum) are litteral... but then these nubers over here are symbolic... or whatever. I believe that all of the numerology and language are symbolic of spiritual realities---FOR EVERY GENERATION of Believers... the first generation... down to ours... and beyond... Having said that... I believe John wrote to say, "church (in all ages)... the world and the Adversary hate you. You will experience persecution... some of it really bad. There will be plots, schemes, deceptions, assults on your faith, beasts, anti-christ's (in 1 John, john said the spirit of "anti-christ" is among us) BUT YOU ARE NOT ALONE! You are Christ's ... you are in His care... He is with you ... AND HE HAS CONQUORED death, hell and the grave... He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords... and you are VITORIOUS IN HIM! Remain faithful to the end! And when the end comes---it will be glorious!!!!!!! No more tears, streets of gold... glory for ever!" NOW... THAT message will preach! That makes sense for the church in the first century... the 2nd, 5th, 18th, whatever century you want to name... THAT message applies. Every gerneration has named SOMEBODY as the "anti-Christ"... most recently I've heard that Hitler, The Pope, Bill Clinton and George Bush were all the anti-christ! Every generation of Christians faces persecution and struggles of some kind... Every gneration of Christians can--- ... take hope in the Victory of Jesus... ...know that if they remain faithful to the end--great reward is theirs! ...relate with the battle against the "anti-chirstian" spirit in the world... This view also resolves all that stuff with Israel. Lot's of people who hold the popular "pretrib, rapture, litteral millinial reign, etc. view"... also hold Israel up as some awesome thing... and the fact that they became a NATION again in 1948 as a HUGE DEAL and some key to understaning prophecy. But that... in my view, is so wrong. You do know that the nation of ISREAL is a political state don't you? I.e. the people who live there are NOT physical decendants of Abraham (not anymore than the people or Iran or Iraq, or Turkey are)... heck the vast majority of Israelis aren't even practicing jews! and the Bible is sooooo clear in teaching the God's people are not God's people because of their physical heritage... but because of their heart, their faith and their obedience. On and on... I'M NOT trying to create some "air tight" argument to convince you of my view... I'm just laying out my general perspective on this book. I've studied it, at different times, with differnt groups, and with much passion and effort... I know LOTS of people disagree with what I have here... that's fine... but just for the hay of it... try reading the book straight through once with what I've shared here in mind... see what happens. Blessings! pb Comments? Questions? pastorbrad@aol.com BACK TO Christianity Index |