Being born and raised in a 4th
generation Christian home I was exposed to Christian themes, literature and the
language from early on. I vividly remember as a five year old child in the 70’s
attending cottage prayer meetings where my grand parents along with other believers
used to sing songs on the Rapture of the believers, the thousand years reign of
Christ, the feast of the believers and the punishment on the unbelievers etc.
While I was fascinated with the prospective of the thousand year feast I was
also terrified about the trouble that was going to come on the unbelievers.
What more could you expect from a
five year old? Not until 1982 when I picked up a book written by Don E. Stanton
titled, “Now and the near Future Prophesied” and read it, then I clearly
understood what was coming upon the earth. By the end of reading that book I
surrendered my life to Christ purely because I wanted to escape the
tribulation, possible punishment and the impending hell for all those who did
not believe in Christ and his message of salvation. Since that time I became an
avid reader of and the follower of the unfolding events that are paving the way
surely but slowly for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ for the second time.
Keeping that as a background I studied the book of Revelation with keen
interest a number of times prior to my M.Div studies and even so during my
studies.
I would be sharing with you some of
the gleanings from my independent studies of the book as well as from a wide
range of other books I read on the subject matter. I welcome your views as I
humbly submit mine to you. Therefore in the end we all can learn from each
other and develop a healthy, balanced view on one of the most important books
of the Bible for our times. Let’s explore the great mysteries together with the
help of the Holy Spirit.
A few
things to keep in mind as we study the book of revelation, this is no absolute
doctrine such as salvation, therefore there could be many interpretations. We all, no matter however scholarly or
spiritual we might be, are like the ones mentioned in I Cor 13:12, “For now we see in a mirror [a]dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but
then I will know fully just as I also have
been fully known.” But if we stay close to the text and to the context and
interpret the biblical languages and the imagery as accurately as possible with
the help and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit we may arrive at a balanced
view on the subject matter.
Let’s be quick to say I don’t know, rather than pretending to
know it all. Make room for ambiguity and uncertainty as some of the scriptures
we may never be able to fully understand. In all our study let’s remain humble,
maintain a learner’s heart and keep an inquiring and researching mind set.
The book of Revelation is a symbolic book, but that does not mean the symbols do not
depict literal events like the great tribulation (7:14) as well as the various
depictions of the “three and a half”
years in chapters 11-13 as symbols for the final period of history or the
“beast” for the Antichrist.” Some of the events mentioned in the book may
happen literally, many will not. So while interpreting the symbols we need to
realize we “see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror.” ( I Cor 13:8 NLT). We
are to center on the purpose of the text and note the theological thrust,
leaving what will actually happen with God.
There are four popular methods to
interpret the book of Revelation. First
is the Preterist method. This approach argues that the details of
the book relate to the present situation in which John lived rather than to a
future period. Therefore the symbols refer to events in the first-century world
as experienced by the original readers, and John is telling them how God would
deliver them from their oppressors.
People holding to this view believe that the main purpose of
this writing was to encourage the believers regarding God’s ultimate
intervention in the affairs of men. Second is the historicist method.
They maintain what we have in Revelation is a panoramic view of history from the
first century to the Second coming of Christ. This is the view of most of the
protestant reformers. The third is the symbolist method. This
view holds that Revelation portrays the continuing conflict between the forces
of good and evil throughout the entire span of human history. The book
according to this view is designed to give encouragement since at the end the
good will triumph.
The fourth is the futurist method. This view which maintains
that from 4th chapter on revelation deals with events at the end
time. According to this view, Revelation is not concerning events of John’s own
day as much as later historical events, and particularly those happenings that
will take place in connection with the Second coming of the Lord. This view
takes seriously the predictive element in the Book (Rev 1:19; 4:1)
What would be your view? Whatever your view may be, our focus
should not be so much on the rapture, tribulation and the doom of Satan but must
be on the doctrine of our Triune God. It seems clear that the primary theme of
this book is the sovereignty of God. Statements like, “The one who is was and
is to come.”(1:4), The Alpha and the Omega, (1:8), the LORD God Almighty occurs
nine times; and the image of God on his throne which occurs 46 times signify the
sovereignty of God. Christ is the focus of the book in many ways. The major
title of Christ in Revelation is “ The Lamb” which appears 29 times not so much
as a sacrificial lamb but as the conquering Lamb.
Although not as frequently emphasized as God and Christ, the
Spirit is still an essential component of the book. In several instances in the
book the Holy Spirit is the source of inspiration and prophecy. Now let’s look
at a few background elements of the Book.
THE AUTHOR:
There have been several suggestions regarding the author: 1. John the
apostle 2. The elder John 3. John Mark 4. John the Baptist 5. Another John 6.
Cerinthus and 7 someone using the name of John the apostle. However if we look
at the internal evidence, the author of the book indentifies himself as, “John,
the slave of (Jesus/God).. exiled on the island of Patmos
THE DATE: Again there were four dates proposed by the early Christian
writers. This book was written at a time when the church was undergoing
persecution and difficulty. The two most important such periods were during the
reigns of Nero in A.D 37-68 and Domitian in A.D 51-96. Taking the context into
consideration we can safely conclude that it was written somewhere in the first
century AD.
THE GENRE: (the style and form) Revelation is
composed of two styles: Apocalyptic and Prophetic. It is impossible to distinguish ultimately
between prophecy and apocalyptic, for the latter is the extension of the
former. Certain differences do in part
distinguish the two forms: Prophecy tends to be oral and apocalyptic visionary,
and prophecy has a certain optimistic overtone while apocalyptic tends to be
pessimistic ( the only hope lies in the future rather than the present).
However they both center on salvation for the faithful and judgment for the
unfaithful.
THE PURPOSE: As we know the context when this book was
written, Christians were experiencing tremendous persecution. This book was
written to look forward to a better social reality in the midst of oppression,
a world where God is supreme. However the real problem was not persecution but
compromise. Too many Christians had gotten “cozy” with a pagan world, and so
the book calls them to choose allegiance to Christ or to the emperor. So the
real purpose of the book of revelation then and now is to encourage and warn
Christians that they must stay strong under persecution and not to compromise
with the pagan culture as their only allegiances are to Christ and Christ
alone.
