Author: John (the apostle)
The author of Revelation identifies himself as John,
generally acknowledged as the John of 12 apostles fame.
Recipients: the church
In the prologue John identifies the 7 churches of Asia as
the recipients of Revelation. For our
purposes, we can just assume that to be the church at large as it existed at
the time. Some have understood the fact
that there are seven, and that seven symbolizes completeness, as indicating
that this letter was meant for the entire church anyway. In any event, the bottom line is that this
was a circular writing that was no doubt passed around to whatever church
existed at the time.
Date: approx. 95 A.D. during the reign of Domitian.
There is some debate about this, some preferring an earlier
date, during the reign of Nero which just preceded Domitian, but this is where
most scholars come down.
The historical
situation:
A church under persecution
Prior to
Revelation: Nero’s persecution
This was the famous incident
when Nero is presumed to have been responsible for the burning of Rome, and
then blamed the Christians for it. Very
nasty things ensued, including using live Christians as streetlights by
skewering them on stakes and setting them on fire.
At the
time of Revelation: Domitian’s persecution
This was the point at which John
was banished to island of Patmos, where he wrote Revelation. In the meantime, over 40,000 christians were
in the process of being slaughtered for their faith.
Immediately
following Revelation: Trajan’s persecution
The church was 60 some years old by
now and had grown tremendously. But it
had, was, and was about to undergo tremendous suffering as well.
A church in danger of backsliding
Internal
dangers also beset the young body of Christ as pressures mounted to bend to the
immoral practices of the culture around them.
How to study Revelation
Normally, we would save this part of the seminar for
last. In this case, however, the nature
of the beast (!), requires that we make some comments about how to study this
type of literature up front.
The Genre of Literature: Apocalyptic (To reveal, or unveil)
The first
Greek word of this book is apocalypses, from which the name is derived,
Revelation being the English translation, since the name means to reveal. One of the great challenges to our own
reading of Revelation today is the fact that this is a type of literature that
we just don’t have experience with.
Some things we need to keep in mind about apocalyptic literature:
Existed
between 200 B.C. and 100 A.D.
Assumed earthly realities
and spiritual reality
Apocalypic was always what they call “dualistic.” There is a material reality, but behind it
is always a spiritual, or heavenly reality that is essentially parallel to it.
Were
revelations made through an angel to a significant historical figure
Usually the person who was said
to receive the visions were Abraham, or Moses or some other well known figure
from the distant past. The visions that
were given were then said to be prophecy, since at the time of the author they
had already come true.
They
were about the end of the world and God’s triumph
Even though much of what was in
apocalyptic literature had already taken place by the time they were written,
they always looked ahead to when God would break in and the evil of this world
would finally be destroyed.
They
used imagery and symbols
Often bizarre and crazy visions
with strange creatures and a lot of symbolism, especially in regards to numbers
characterized apocalyptic literature.
Much of the imagery, however, was taken from the Old Testament and would
have been at least somewhat familiar to the readers.
Differences between Revelation and other apocalypses:
The
author identifies himself
All other apocalypses are
pseudonymous. John identifies himself
no less than four places, almost as if to say that this one is different. It is about reality the way it really is (or
will be).
Jesus
Christ is the one revealing the information
This is no mere angel or other
heavenly messenger. This is the son of
God himself. Of course, most other
apocalypses were Jewish and prior to the coming of Christ. Nevertheless, this is a significant
difference.
It
includes the letters to the churches
The first three chapters, of
course, are more along the lines of epistles.
However, they are not just letters that are written before the prophecy
begins. They are very much a cohesive
part of the entire work.
It is
generally optimistic
Most other works of this genre were
very pessimistic. Certainly suffering
is a part of the message of Revelation, but the over-all tone is triumphant and
optimistic of the future of the church and the world.
It is a
word to the church in their present situation, as well as a warning of coming
judgment. As such, it is also prophetic.
Unlike
other apocalyptic literature, it does not take events in the distant past and
present them as prophecy fulfilled.
Instead, it looks to the present and the future. Biblical prophecy is always a word from God
to his people in their current situation as well as a promise of things to
come. The book of revelations clearly
fits this description. It is a
prophetic apocalypse, if you will.
For our purposes, we have to conclude that Revelation is
really no different than any other genre of Scripture. There were other musical compositions when
the Psalms were written, but those were inspired by the Holy Spirit and became
a part of the canonized Scripture. In
the same way, God chose to use a type of literature that the original readers
would have been familiar with to create a significant and important part of his
greater inspired Revelation, the Bible, of which this the completion. And a grand completion it is.
Tips on interpreting apocalyptic:
Focus on the main point of
visions rather than details
An awful lot of ink has been
spilled over trying to figure out the hair of the locust or the ten horns or
whatever. Apocalyptic imagery was more
about painting pictures than giving specifics.
They are like good works of art in the museum. You have to step back and look at the whole to really get the
feel of what the artist was trying to portray.
In this way, they are similar to what we said about the parables of
Jesus—you look for the main point rather than getting lost in the detail of
what the pigs represent in the prodigal son, or whatever.
Understand
the numbers:
Numbers tend to have meaning
generally in Scripture, but especially in this type of literature.
3- God
God is a holy trinity: father, son and holy
spirit. 3 is his signature number.
4-
creation
When you hear 4,
think the natural world, or the created order.
Four beasts, in particular, as we saw in the apocalypse of Ezekiel and
the vision of the four living creatures in the fire that God was enthroned
above, symbolizing his sovereignty over creation.
6- incompleteness
A very familiar number, of course. We know about the
number 666- a symbol of the ultimate expression of that which would be God in
our lives, but doesn’t quite measure up.
7- completeness
This is the biggie in
Revelation. Seven letters, seals,
trumpets, bowls, lampstands, stars, angels, spirits, hills, kings, blessings,
etc. etc. The entire book is structured
around the letter seven, which is fitting since the book is about the
completion of God’s plan of redemption for the world.
10-worldy power
10
always symbolizes worldly, political, material and ultimately temporary power
in the world.
12-God’s people
As we know, there were 12
tribes of Israel who were supplanted by the 12 apostles who became the church,
the new people of God.
These are the primary numbers, although there are
others. 1,000, for instance, is
symbolic of a very large amount, not necessarily specifically 1000. If a number is doubled, or multiplied by
itself it is always an expression of emphasis in Scripture. Verily verily, I say unto you. In other words, this is important. In Revelation, there are 144,000
sealed. The people of God, (the number
12), multiplied by itself, and then multiplied by 1,000. Symbolic of a whole lot of people,
regardless of what the Jehovah’s witnesses might tell you.
Let symbols be symbolic.
(The 7 lampstands are the 7 churches)
Sometimes
the book itself will tell us what these images mean, as in the lampstands, or
the dragon who is Satan. Other times we
are left to figure it out, but we must not fall into the trap of thinking that
just because we are not given the key to the symbol in the text that it then
ceases to be symbolic. Because the text
does not identify the 10 rulers does not mean that it is necessarily anything
other than a symbol of worldly political power. We must approach these things with a lot of humility and be
careful to retrieve from the text what we know is there and not to try to
create something else to insert into it.
4 methods of interpreting Revelation:
In church history there have been many ways that people have
tried to make sense of Revelation. You
can boil the vast majority of them down into four broad categories.
Preterist: Everything happened in the first century
This school of
interpretation focuses on the struggle that the Christian church was having
with Rome and assumes that pretty much all of it, perhaps with the exception of
the last couple chapters, was fulfilled in John’s day or shortly thereafter.
Idealist: It’s all symbolic and didn’t occur in history at all
This
assumes that all of Revelation is simply an allegory for good and evil and none
of it has or will ever really happen.
Historicist: It is a picture of church history
This
school sees Revelation as a kind of panorama of various eras in the history of
the church up to somewhere around the present day. The seven letters describe various eras since the first century,
and the rest of the book describes them in greater detail.
Futurist: Everything (except the letters) is still in the future
This is presently the most popular viewpoint on the book of Revelation
among the rank and file in the church, and what you are probably most familiar
with. It assumes that all of the
images, with the exception of the letters, were at the time of their writing
still far in the future, and still in our own future although not as far. This particular viewpoint also has some
sub-categories based mainly on what you believe about the millennium.
At the end of this seminar I’ll tell you where I come down
on this.
Helpful hints:
Revelation is not chronological
A
lot of people get tripped up by this, because this is how we write and read
literature today. They didn’t always do
that in ancient times, and certainly not in apocalyptic. In revelation things are repeated, sometimes
you go back for review, sometimes you skip ahead. For instance, the seals, trumpets, and bowls should really be
seen as ever-widening circles of a spiral, with greater detail and intensity
rather than events that occur one after the other.
Revelation is a further explanation of Matthew 24,25 and
Luke 21:
It may be
helpful to see how Christ’s revelation to John is a further explanation of his
teaching as recorded in the gospels of Matthew and Luke:
Signs in the churches 7 letters to the churches, 2-3
Matt. 24:8-13, Luke 21:12-19
Signs of the times 7
seals, 6-8
Matt. 24:4-7, Luke 21:10-11
Great tribulation 7 trumpets, 8-11
Matt. 24:15-28, Luke 21:20-24
Signs in the Heavens 7 signs, 12-15
Matt. 24:29-31, Luke 21:11,25-28
Wrath to this People 7
bowls of wrath, 16-19
Luke 21:23
Inheritance of the Kingdom Entering
eternity, 19-22
Matt. 25:31-46
Content
Prologue (1): Jesus the Divine
“I am the Alpha and Omega”, says
the Lord God, “Who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” (1:8)
The
prologue reveals Jesus Christ as the one giving these revelations, and reveals
him in all his glory.
Seven Letters (2,3): preparing
the church
Jesus
give John a seven-fold series of instructions to various churches. All of these, however, were passed around to
every church and can rightly be seen as instructions for any and every church
as to how to prepare for the coming of Christ.
Ephesus:
a church with mis-placed priorities
A large church in a prosperous city
was doing fairly well, but Jesus said that they have forsaken their first
love. Their fire was growing dim. To be ready for Jesus, don’t let success
make you complacent about the faith.
Smyrna:
a church with a tested faith
Jesus acknowledges the church’s
poverty and afflictions and warns them that on top of that, some will be
imprisoned for their faith. But he
encourages them to persevere. To be
ready for Jesus, a church must be willing to suffer with courage.
Pergamum:
a church with compromised teaching
Here was a solid church, but
teaching was creeping in that advocated idolatry and immorality, represented by
Balaam, an old testament figure who led Israelite women astray with false
teaching, and a cult known as the Nicolaitans, also mentioned in regards to
Ephesus. To be ready for Jesus, keep an
eye on your doctrine.
Thyatira:
a church with corrupt morality
Adultery and immorality are
represented by someone named Jezebel, who is not going to have a happy day when
Jesus gets his hands on her. To be
ready for Jesus, don’t hang out with Jezebel.
Keep watch over your right behavior.
Sardis:
a church with a deficient faith
This church had a good reputation,
but in regards to their deeds they were stone dead. They talked a good game, but didn’t live it. To be ready for Jesus, match your words with
your deeds.
Philadelphia:
a church with veiled opportunities
This church appears fragile and
weak, but Jesus says that he has placed before them an open door. To be ready for Jesus, don’t try to be
something you’re not—just take advantage of the opportunities to minister that
God gives you.
Laodicea:
a church with apathetic materialism
This church gets the largest
lambasting of all of them. They are
spiritually lukewarm as a result of being materially well off. A literal reading of the text says that
Jesus is going to puke them up. To be
ready for Jesus, don’t let wealth distract you from what’s important.
Interlude: The Heavenly throne
room (4,5)-- ultimate worship
These
chapters are among my favorite in all of Scripture. Worship of Jesus begins with 24 elders around the throne and
builds until it encompasses all of creation singing “Worthy is the Lamb”, and
winds back down to the 24 elders bowing down before the throne. It is an awesome description of heavenly
praise, in the middle of which the Lamb who was slain is found worthy to open
the sealed up scroll. Thus begins the
story.
Seven seals (6,7)
1. The White horse: a false Christ (or:
the spirit of conquest)
The real rider on the white horse appears later in
chapter 19. This appears to be a
counterfeit, and it seems to me to be symbolic of bad religion, especially
religion that uses military conquest.
Christianity has done that in the past, and certainly the Muslim faith
continues to be guilty of that, at least in some quarters. Many people believe it simply to symbolize a
spirit of conquest. That would match
the other horsemen, but also be redundant.
A minority viewpoint would be that this really is Christ, and that it
represents the spread of the gospel.
2.
The red horse: War upon the earth.
This rider is given power to take peace from the earth. As Jesus said, wars and rumors of wars.
3.
The black horse: great famine
This rider holds a scale that reveals a quart of wheat selling for a day’s
wage. Scarcity has caused the price to
skyrocket.
4.
The pale horse: death
All kinds of mayhem finally ensues,
including wild beasts taking over. The
picture appears to be almost a total collapse of civilization.
5. Martyrdom
of believers
The fifth seal reveals the souls of those who are killed for their faith
crying out for vengeance.
6. Huge convulsions
Finally, everything goes haywire. The stars fall from the sky, the sky
itself is rolled up like a scroll, every mountain and island is removed and the
great day of the wrath of him who sits on the throne and of the lamb has
come. Most commentators who see the
seals, trumpets, and bowls as parallel accounts see this as a description of
the second coming of Christ.
interlude: the
church is indestructible.
The sealing of the 144,000
The vision of the great multitude
In the case of the seals and the
trumpets, there is an interlude before the 7th one. In this case, we
see the church as triumphing in spite of all the chaos and tribulation. We have already mentioned the meaning of the
144,000—a huge number of saved people.
Here they are further described as a great multitude before the
lamb. They cry out, “Salvation belongs
to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” That Lamb will be their shepherd, it says, and will lead them to
springs of living water. And God will
wipe away every tear from their eyes.
7.
ominous silence
A half hour of silence gets us ready
for what’s coming. It’s almost as if it
was designed to make the noise of the trumpets that much louder by comparison
with the silence. When they blow, they
are going to get people’s attention.
Seven trumpets (8,9):
1.
A third of the earth is burned
Hail, fire, mixed with blood comes down and a third of the earth, the
grass, and the trees are burned up.
This may remind you of the plagues of Egypt when the Israelite people
were freed from slavery.
2. A third of the sea
is ruined
Something like a burning mountain
falls into the ocean, and a third of the sea turns to blood and a third of the
fish die and a third of the ships on it are destroyed.
3. A third of the
fresh water is ruined
Not good enough to stop with oceans. A star falls from heaven and a third
of the fresh water becomes bitter and many people die from drinking it.
4. A third of the
sky is darkened
The fourth trumpet sounds and a third of the sun, moon, and stars are
blacked out. Also a third of the night
and day both become without light.
All this speaks to the devastation of
the natural world, but the repetition of one third indicates that it will not
be complete. It is still only partial
until the very end.
5. A demonic
army from the abyss
All sorts of Old Testament imagery
from the Exodus to the prophets, especially Joel, come together in these nasty
armored locusts representing demons that Satan has unlocked from hell to
torment people. But just like the
devastations of creation, their power is still limited in terms of time (5
months) as well as scope. They can
torment, but not kill, and they have no power over creation.
. 6. A third of mankind is killed
The sixth trumpet unleashes an army of 200 million troops to kill a third
of mankind. John says, “I heard their
number.” He would have had to verify
this for his readers, because this would have been completely incomprehensible
for anyone to field an army like that.
And the result is disastrous.
After seeing the environment destroyed and being tormented by demons,
they finally come to their own slaughter.
The bizarre and inexplicable thing about it all is that men continue in
their sin, refusing to repent.
Interlude(10:1-11:14):
Earth gets another chance
The little scroll: “You must prophesy again” (10:11)
John is given a scroll to eat and
then told that he must still prophesy about many peoples, nations, languages
and kings. God is still at work, and still
giving unrepentant people an opportunity to hear.
The two witnesses
This is an interesting passage. The temple is described, which reminds me of
Ezekiel. There is prophecy that occurs
for 42 months, which is no doubt the “1/2 a time” of Daniel’s “times, time and
½ a time” that he refers to. Plagues
show up again, miracles are performed, demonic opposition is experienced, even
death and resurrection. All of these can
be found throughout Scripture wherever God’s witnessing people are doing their
job. Whether you take them to be actual
people, or symbolic of a faithful witness by the church, this interlude
definitely speaks to the world getting a second chance to repent. But finally, the witnesses are taken up to
heaven.
7.
God’s kingdom comes
“The kingdom of the world has
become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.”
Here, just as in the final seal, we
see a description of the end. Judgment
for the world and vindication and reward for the saints.
Seven actors in the drams: (12-14)
1.
the pregnant woman: Israel
The first sign in heaven symbolizes
Israel, as represented by the crown of 12 stars on her head, who is about to
give birth to the Messiah.
2.
The red dragon: Satan
With seven heads, ten horns, and
seven crowns, Satan is presented as a very powerful ruler over the earth. As John says in his epistle: we know that we
are children of God, but the whole world is under the control of the evil
one. Here he is waiting to devour the
child.
3.
The male child: Jesus
The boy that Israel gives birth to is
snatched up to God and the woman flees into the desert where she is taken care
of for 1,260 days, the same number as the duration of persecution. There is a place of safety for God’s people
even though the Christ has ascended.
4.
War in heaven with Michael the archangel and
heavenly hosts
Satan and his hordes are defeated and
thrown down by the angelic hosts. On
earth, he continues to pursue God’s people who remain protected by God for
“time, times, and half a time”, as predicted by Daniel. In this section is a
great expression of praise by God’s people who also overcome by the blood of
the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.
Spiritual warfare continues on earth, but the faithful win by virtue of
the fact that they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from
death.
5.
The beast from the sea: the “anti-christ”
This beast is concerned with being
worshiped and uttering blasphemies. It
is a false version of Christ, even to the point of appearing to have a mortal
wound and being healed. Not quite
killed and resurrected. A fake version
of Jesus in every way.
6.
The beast from the earth: the number of his name is 666
The sidekick of the first beast, he
is sometimes known as the false prophet.
He brings people to worship the beast, and is the ultimate false
religion. His number clearly represents
a false trinity, falling just short of the real thing. The text says it is the number of man. He brings people to worship secular power
and glorifies humankind as deity.
People are said to me marked by the number, without which you cannot
participate in the economic life of society.
Some see these as bar codes or tattoos or something. In the text, however, this is clearly set in
contrast to the sealing of the 144,000.
You are either sealed to God (note that the epistles speak of us being
sealed by the Holy Spirit), or you are sealed to the world, especially in
regards to money and things that it buys.
The picture here is one of very little gray area, or middle ground in
regards to your allegiance, bringing to mind Christ’s words to the church in
Laodicea regarding their lukewarm spirituality because of their devotion to
material things.
Identifying names and numbers:
use Gemmatria (the study of the numerical value of letters)
Gemmatria was and still is today common among students of the Torah. All Hebrew letters have a numerical value
attached to them. John says to his
readers, “if anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for
it is man’s number. His number is
666.” (13:18)
The first candidate: Nero Caesar
To most of the original readers of
Revelation, this would have been a simple puzzle to solve and they would have
been pretty close to brain dead not to arrive at the name of Nero Caesar, since
the numerical value of the Hebrew letters of his name add up to 666. He is the one who also happens to have made
the cult of emperor worship official. Prior to him, it was just a cult in the
Roman Empire. But at the time of the
writing of Revelation, it had become not only endorsed, but was beginning to be
enforced by the government. So if you
wouldn’t proclaim Caesar as Lord, you might be sent into the arena to play with
a really big kitty. Since that time we
have had many other candidates. The
most recent that I know of is Ronald Wilson Reagan. In any event, we have here at the very least a false religion
that glorifies man, almost to the point of deity. Sounds like what today they would call secular humanism, a kind
of anti-religion religion that undergirds many governments and institutions,
including our own system of higher education and even our judicial system, or
some would say. And the debate
continues, of course, as to whether there will be in the future two actual figures
who embody this unholy alliance between bad religion and corrupt politics.
Interlude
(14):
144,000
on Mount Zion: spiritual safety
Here is the church, safely with God
in heaven, reminiscent of the text in Hebrews: You have come to Mount Zion, the
heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. Perhaps John is looking ahead, or simply repeating what the New
Testament affirms: that at a spiritual level, we are already “raised up and
seated with Christ in heavenly realms,” as Paul puts it in Ephesians. The important notion here is that in a
spiritual sense, at least, the church is safe and secure from the work of the
two beasts.
3 angels: announcing impending judgment
Three angels prepare us for the
harvest that is about to come with the seven bowls of God’s wrath. Now is the
time for faithful endurance: the vengeance of the saints is about to be
completed.
7. Seven angels with seven plagues
Now things are going to get really
tough. This is a really good time to be
on the right side of things. Bowls
symbolize the wrath of God in Scripture.
Seven angels: complete spiritual power, are about to pour out seven
bowls: the completion of God’s judgment on the earth.
Seven bowls (16)
1.
Sores
Disease runs rampant among men.
2.
The sea becomes blood (all of it: judgment is
total)
This time it’s all blood, and
everything dies. Judgment is total, not
partial.
3.
Rivers become blood
Another repeat of the trumpets, only
this time nothing is spared. It all
goes bad.
4.
Scorching sunshine
With the trumpets, the sun was
darkened. Here it’s power to burn is
enhanced. But still people do not
repent.
5.
The beast’s kingdom is darkened
Everyone is in the dark, and in
agony, and still they do not repent.
6.
Preparing the way for Armageddon
The river Euphrates dries up, making
way for the so-called “kings of the east”, who are escorted with demonic
assistance to the final battle.
7.
The fall of Babylon
Notice there is no interlude for
these seven. This is total
judgment. The time has come and there
are no more interludes left. Earthquakes
and great hailstones, both images from the Old Testament of the wrath of God,
falls on Babylon and finishes her off.
The question is, who is Babylon?
Instead of an interlude before the 7th bowl, there is a
postlude to them which answers this question.
Postlude to the bowls:
Babylon the great
(17)
A harlot and a blasphemer (vs. the bride, the church: she is false
religion)
The
rest of Revelation has been called the “tale of two cities.” Babylon, a whore drunk with the blood of the
saints vs. the New Jerusalem which is the pure bride of Christ. In John’s time, it was surely emperor
worship that his readers would have thought of, but in ours, who knows what
form it can or does take?
She rides the beast (partners with secular power)
An unholy alliance exists between bad
religion and worldly power.
She sits on seven hills (Rome
and/or ultimate worldly power)
Most people see Rome in this, and I’m
sure the original readers did as well.
But don’t forget what the number 7 represents.
Babylon
falls (17:15-18)
Ultimately, the partnership fails and
Babylon is cast down. Now the world
does not even have fake religion. It is
a completely secular place, under the sway of the beast.
The
Hallelujah chorus (19:1-10)
The time has come, and this amazing
depiction of heavenly praise ushers in the last seven: the triumph of
Christ. I hope you’re beginning to see
that after every major section in this book, there is a profound description of
the victory of God and the church. That
is the essence of the message of Revelation.
If you study nothing else from this book, these sections at least should
be fodder for your devotional and meditative life.
The seven-fold triumph of Christ
(19:11-22:6)
1.
The rider on the White horse
The glorified and
militant Jesus shows up to kick some serious booty.
2.
The great supper of God
The angel calls the bird together to
feast on the flesh of the kings, generals, and mighty men.
3.
The fate of the beasts
The armies are defeated and the beast
and his false prophet are thrown into the lake of burning sulfur.
4. Satan bound for 1000
years
Here is the famous millennium about
which there is so much controversy.
Views of the millennium:
Amillennial: The 1000 years represents the spiritual
reign of God’s people between the first and second coming of Christ
This view goes back to early church
fathers such as Augustine and has been the dominant view in church
history. It was held by most reformers,
including Luther and Calvin.
Premillennial:
Pre-millennialism has two major
sub-categories. One dates back as well
to early church fathers, known as historic pre-millenialism.
Historic:
-the
tribulations of Revelation apply to the church
-Jesus
returns and establishes a 1,000 yr. Reign with resurrected believers
-the
final judgment
-the
new heavens and new earth are established
The other sub-set of pre-millenialism
is dispensationalism. A dispensation is
a period of history, and this view puts a lot of emphasis on prophecies being
centered around the nation of Israel rather than the church. This is the most
recent approach, dating back to the mid-18th century, but probably
the most popular and well known today.
The Left Behind series of books is based on this approach. It assumes that the 70th week of
Daniel is a literal 7 year period that is described in chapters 4-19 of
Revelation.
Dispensational:
-The
church is raptured
There are various sub-sets of
dispensationalism, as well, depending on how you view the rapture:
-pre-tribulation
I think this is the most
popular. The church age is described in
the letters to the churches, and then it is raptured prior to opening of the
first scroll. The phrase “come up here”
in chapter 4 is assumed to apply to this event.
-mid-tribulation
This makes a distinction between the
seals and scrolls and the trumpets. The
church experiences the partial aspect of the tribulation, but not it’s
completeness as described in the trumpets.
This splits the tribulation into two 3 ½ year periods.
-post-tribulation
In this view, the church has to deal
with pretty much all of it.
-pre-wrath
This view splits the last 3 ½ year
period, the last half of which is called the wrath of God and the church is
raptured before then.
-The
tribulation
Depending on your view of the
rapture, this is experienced by the Jewish nation, the world, the church, or
some combination of them.
-Raptured
Christians return with Christ and establish a Jewish millennium
Here is where the temple is re-built
as described in Ezekiel and the sacrificial system is restored. The world becomes a sort of Jewish theocracy
for 1,000 years.
-Satan
is released for his final rebellion and defeat
-The
last judgment
-the
new heavens and new earth are established
The other most recent view that also
dates to the 18th century is postmillennialism.
Postmillenial: The preaching of the
gospel converts the world and the concept of a millennial reign is fulfilled
through a new age where justice and righteousness prevail.
I’ve never actually met a
postmillenialist. A friend of mine in
San Jose called himself a pan-millenialist: it’ll all pan out in the end. Whichever way you decide to view this, it is
clearly another way in which God wins the battle with Satan. For me, these things fall into the
category “non-essentials”, when we say: “unity in the essentials, diversity in
the non-essentials, and love in all things.”
I would hope that there is room for all of these views in the church,
but that the debate among ourselves remains friendly and as scholarly as
possible. The ways that Satan has used
this issue is to divide the church and create discord.
5.
Satan released and defeated
Satan is unbound again and free of
his fetters, gathers nations from the four corners of the earth, represented by
Gog and Magog, and goes to the final battle. Fire from heaven devours his
armies, but the devil is thrown into the lake of fire where he, the beast, and
the false prophet will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
6.
The great white throne judgment
Final judgment day. Anyone whose name is not written in the
lamb’s book of life is thrown into the lake of fire, which is said to be second
death.
7.
The new heavens and the new earth
The bride of Christ, the church,
pictured as the New Jerusalem is come.
Time for the wedding feast of the lamb.
Heaven and earth are re-created and now the dwelling of God is with
men. The river of life flows from the
throne and the trees are for the healing of the nations. The paradise lost in Genesis is regained
forever.
Epilogue: (22:7-21) “Behold, I am
coming soon!”
Theological
Themes
God will help the church triumph
through trials
Revelation is addressed to the
seven-fold church. It ends with a
renewed church, and throughout the church is depicted as being spiritually
secure and triumphant over evil. It
seems clear that Revelation does not promise that we will escape trials, even
martyrdom. But we can, do, and will
triumph over evil with the power of God.
When we ask what we always do of Scripture, “What did the original
author mean to say to the original hearers?”, this is the most important
message that they probably received from this book, given their situation.
Be ready for the coming of
Christ at all times
“Behold I am coming soon! My
reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has
done.” (22:12)
The letters to the seven churches
give solid instruction for us on how to be ready. The remainder of the book encourages us to persevere until he
does. The rest of Scripture, especially
the gospels and epistles, confirms that attempting to discern when Jesus is
coming back is not for us to be concerned about. Our job is to be prepared for that event. I think that the message of Revelation
confirms that for us in bold print.
God is on the throne
Throughout the book you get glimpses
of God on the throne and the bottom line is always that he is ultimately in
charge of events, even if appearances would make it seem otherwise.
Jesus is the conquering king
Even though Jesus is often called the
lamb, in Revelation we see him finally in all of his might and glory taking
care of business.
I said that I would tell you my take
on the various ways of interpreting Revelation. Am I a preterist? Do I
believe that the images of Revelation would have been understandable and have
real application to the original readers?
I believe that about all of Scripture.
I think that they understood this kind of literature and would have seen
clear pictures of their own situation and been greatly encouraged by it. Am I an idealist? Do I think that the images of Revelation paint vivid pictures of
the cosmic realities of good verses evil?
Absolutely. Am I an
historicist? Do I think that these
cycles of tribulation have been played out over and over in history? Who can see a Hitler or a Stalin and not see
a type of the beast? Who can see
radical fundamental muslim terrorists and not see an unholy alliance between
false religion and the state? Who can
see the famines in Africa, earthquakes, wars, and rumors of wars and not be
reminded of the images of Revelation?
In every single generation since this was written, men found in the
events of their own time fulfillment of these images. Were they wrong? I think
only when they found them to be the only and final fulfillment of them. These cycles have been occurring over and
over since this book was written. Am I
a futurist? Eventually we will come to
the final cycle. It is inevitable. And I think that probably it will be greater
and more devastating than all the rest, probably global in scope rather than
regional with an impact that effects everybody, as described in the bowls,
rather than some portion of humanity, as described in the seals and trumpets.
Then Jesus will return and the end will come.
Do I think that is near? I stand
with many people who see the world heading in that direction and who believe
that perhaps it could be soon. Religion
is becoming increasingly “Babylonian”, if I may put it that way, and our
devotion to humanism and secular power without moral restraint seems to me to
be definitely on the rise. I’m not
ready to write any books or go on T.V.
Every other generation has had people who were willing to be dogmatic
about that based on their own current events, and so far they’ve all been
wrong. But I do know that we are called
to live as if it could be any time.
I don’t say this just to cop out on
having to decide. After study, prayer,
and meditation this is truly where I come down on the question. But ultimately, it isn’t really about any of
these methods of interpretation. For
me, what the message of Revelation has really made me is not a preterist, or an
idealist, or a historicist, or a futurist.
What it has really made me is an optimist. And that is precisely what it was meant to do. There is no doubt in my mind that is what it
accomplished for the original readers, and if we read it correctly today that
is what it will do for us as well.
God wins.
We win with him.
Jesus is coming back, perhaps soon.
Maranatha
Come soon, Lord Jesus.