With the world situation being what it is, there has been a renewed interest in the study of prophecy and the end-times. There is a new passion for understanding what the Bible has to say about future events and what, exactly, God has said about them.
Introduction and Chapter 1:1-3
Introduction:
The book of Revelation is important because it’s the last inspired book of the Bible to be written and is rightly positioned as the New Testament’s final book.
As the New Testament opens with the four gospels, speaking of the first coming of Christ, the book of Revelation closes the New Testament with the second coming of Christ.
The book of Revelation also completes many lines of prophecy running through both Old and New Testaments, and it brings to conclusion the Revelation of many prophecies yet to be fulfilled.
The second coming of Christ and the years immediately preceding it are revealed in this book more graphically than in any other book of the Bible.
The book of Daniel describes, in great detail, the period from Daniel’s time to Christ’s first coming and speaks briefly of the Tribulation and Christ’s rule on earth.
But the book of Revelation amplifies these great end-time events with many additional details, ushering in the new heaven and the new earth.
Author:
As the opening verses in Revelation plainly states, the book was written by John.
From the first century to the present, orthodox Christians have almost unanimously agreed that this “John” is the apostle John.
A man by the name of Dionysius was the first to argue against John’s authorship, and he did so on the grounds that he disagreed with the book’s theology and claimed to find many inaccuracies in its grammar.
However, his objections were disregarded in the early church by most of the important church fathers such as: Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen.
Practically all Bible scholars, today, accept John the apostle as its author.
It’s interesting to note that Martin Luther and some of his contemporaries questioned the Johannine authorship because it teaches a literal 1,000-year reign of Christ.
Date of Writing:
Most evangelical scholars affirm that Revelation was written in A.D. 95 or 96.
This is based on accounts of the early church fathers that the apostle John had been exiled on the island of Patmos during the reign of Domitian, who died in A.D. 96. John was then allowed to return to Ephesus after Domitian’s death.
Interpretation:
Because of its unusual character, Revelation has been approached using a number of interpretive methods, some of which raise serious questions concerning its value as divine authoritative prophecy
The Allegorical or Non-literal Approach:
This form of interpretation was offered by the Alexandrian school of theology in the third and fourth centuries. It regards the entire Bible as an extensive allegory [a story or fable] to be interpreted in a non-literal sense.
The allegorical interpretation of the Bible was later restricted largely to prophecy about the thousand year reign of Christ by Augustine, in 354-430, who interpreted Revelation as a chronicle of the spiritual conflict between God and Satan being fulfilled in the present church age.
A liberal variation of this in modern times considers Revelation simply as a symbolic presentation of the concept of God’s ultimate victory.
The Preterist Approach
This view sees the book of Revelation as a symbolic picture of early church conflicts, which have already been fulfilled. This view denies the future prophetic quality of most of the book of Revelation. This view combines the allegorical and symbolic interpretation with the concept that Revelation does not deal with specific future events.
The Historical Approach:
This is a popular view coming from the middle ages. The historical approach views Revelation as a symbolic picture of the total Church history of the present age between Christ’s first and second comings.
This view was advanced by Luther, Isaac Newton, and many others of the postmillennial school of interpretation. They believe that Christ returns at the end of the Millennium, and has gained more respectability in recent centuries.
Many have combined the historical interpretation with aspects of other forms of interpretation in order to bring out a devotional or spiritual teaching from the book.
Summary
All of the preceding methods of interpretation tend to deny a literal future Millennium and also literal future events in the book of Revelation.
The Futuristic Approach
The futuristic approach has been adopted by conservative scholars, usually those who believe in the pre-millennial return of Christ, that is, He returns before the start of the thousand year reign.
They would state that chapters 4-22 deal with events that are yet future. The content of Revelation 4-18 describes the last seven years preceding the second coming of Christ and particularly emphasizes the Great Tribulation, occurring in the last three and one-half years before His coming.
While acknowledging symbolisms found throughout Revelation, they would approach with a literal, historical, grammatical interpretation of the passages
The charge is often made that the book of Revelation would not have been a comfort to early Christians or understood by them if it were largely futuristic. But those who hold to the futuristic method of interpretation insist that future events described in Revelation bring comfort and reassurance to Christians who, in the nature of their faith, regard their ultimate victory as future.
The futuristic interpretation, however, is demanding of the teacher, as it requires him to reduce to tangible prophetic events the symbolic presentations, which characterize the book.
Apocalyptic Character
Literature that is classified as “apocalyptic” has as its purpose the unfolding or unveiling of future events that would otherwise be concealed. Although Revelation is the only apocalyptic book of the New Testament, many other books of this type appeared before it and many after it.
The term “Pseudepigrapha” means false writings, those pretending to come from biblical authors but were later found to be false. Some of the Pseudepigraphal writings were classified as apocalyptic in that they spoke of future events, but they did so falsely.
It’s also characteristic of these writings that they were very pessimistic about their current situation and painted the future in terms of great blessings for the saints and doom for the wicked. But, one of the main issues with the Pseudepigraphal writings is that the author’s name is never given.
Symbolism
Symbolism occurs throughout all of Scripture, but the Revelation of Jesus Christ contains more symbols than any other book in the New Testament. Why so much symbolism? One of the most probable reasons is that is was necessary to maintain opposition to the Roman Empire during the persecutions of Domitian. By expressing the Revelation from God in symbolic terms the book would not easily be understood by the Roman authorities.
Emperor Domitian began to apply to himself all the attributes of God and established a form of religion that was anti-Christian.
It would have been very difficult, if not impossible, for Domitian to understand Revelation due to the use of symbolic language
Nature
Almost every aspect of nature is used as well as very unusual forms of creatures in Revelation. We see horses, living creatures, Christ as the Lamb; locusts, scorpions, a lion, leopard, bear, frog, eagle, vulture, birds, fish and unnatural beasts such as those found in Revelation 13. We also read of the earth, sky, and sea, thunder, lightening, hail and rivers.
Numbers Are Very Prominent
Sometimes the numbers are literal and sometimes they are symbolic. For example, the number seven (7) is used fifty-four times, more than any other number in the book. It refers to the literal seven churches in chapter one. Not only seven churches but seven lampstands, seven stars, seven spirits of God, seven seals on the scroll, seven angels with seven trumpets, seven vials or bowls containing the seven last plagues, seven thunders, a dragon with seven heads and seven crowns, seven mountains and seven kings. The number seven appears to speak of completion or perfection.
Endless speculation has come regarding the number 666. According to Dr. John Walvoord, the most natural and simple explanation of this number is that the beast is characterized by the number six, falling just short of the number seven and signifying that he is only a man after all.
Possibly the three-fold occurrence of the number six is a vague imitation of the Trinity, one that is formed by his association with the devil and the false prophet
Purpose
The purpose of the book of Revelation is to reveal events that will take place immediately before, during, and following the second coming of Christ. In keeping with this purpose, the book devotes most of its Revelation to this subject in chapters 4-18.
The second coming itself is given the most graphic portrayal anywhere in the Bible in chapter 19, followed by the thousand year reign of Christ described in chapter 20. Then there is a description of the eternal state revealed in chapters 21-22.
The obvious purpose of the book is to complete the prophecies presented earlier in the Old Testament (specifically Daniel), and the prophecies of Christ, especially in the Olivet Discourse, found in Matthew 24-25.
Theology of Revelation
Along with the prophetic character of the book of Revelation is extensive revelation in almost every important area of theology.
- Bibliology: The Doctrine of the Bible. The book of Revelation is not only Scripture itself, but is saturated with Old Testament references, including: Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. This fact ties Revelation to the rest of Scripture.
- Theology Proper. We see the doctrine of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is presented in all the majesty of Jehovah found in the Old Testament: holy, true, omnipotent, omniscient and eternal. There is an emphasis on His righteousness and divine judgment upon sin.
- Anthropology and Hamartiology: Man and Sin. Man is revealed in his absolute need for the grace of God. Man is described as utterly depraved and unrepentant. Even in the midst of God’s worst judgments upon his sin, he still rejects Jehovah.
- Angelology: Angels. No other book in the New Testament speaks more often of angels than the book of Revelation. They are the principal vehicles through which God communicates with John. They are seen in the heavens, they pour forth the judgments (trumpets and vials) and they accompany the Lord in His second coming.
- Soteriology: Doctrine of Salvation. The redemptive purpose of God is constantly seen in Revelation. Christ is the One who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood. He is presented as the slain Lamb, as the One who redeemed mankind by His own blood out of every kindred, tongue and nation. His blood makes white the robes of the martyrs.
- Ecclesiology: Doctrine of the Church. The letters to the seven churches emphasize practical truth and holy living as we continue our relationship with Christ.
- Eschatology: Doctrine of End Times. The main contribution of the book of Revelation is in the area of what will happen at the end of this age:
· The end of “the times of the Gentiles”
· Israel’s return to their land
· Covenants fulfilled
· The thousand year reign of Christ on the earth
· The new heavens and the new earth.
Application
In addition to passages that suggest practical application of prophetic truth, chapters 2-3 are especially important. These contain the messages to seven local churches, which appropriately represent the entire Church around the world.
The message of Christ to each of these churches is also relevant and applicable to the practical life of every living Christian. On the one hand, believers are exhorted to holy living, and on the other hand, unbelievers are warned of the judgments to come if they refuse to believe and receive Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Revelation provides solid evidence that the righteous God will ultimately deal with human sin and carry out the salvation of those who have trusted in Christ.
We also see a solemn warning given to those who are unprepared to face the future: there will be a day of reckoning, when everyknee will bow to Jesus Christ.
Because of its revealing of events yet to come, and its pointed exhortation to righteousness, the book decrees a blessing on those “who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near” (Rev. 1:3).
To Whom It Is Written
Although Revelation touches on all of human history, it is specifically addressed to seven churches located in what today is southwestern Turkey. The seven churches addressed are in: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.
Reliable historic sources from the second century describe the apostle John as ministering in Ephesus around 70-100 A.D., so he would have been very well acquainted with the strengths and weaknesses of the churches he was addressing.
But we, too, can learn from the messages to the churches, as we will see later in our study.
That’s the introduction to the amazing book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
Let’s begin our in depth study with chapter one, verse one.
Revelation 1:1, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must shortly take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bondservant John.”
v.1a, “the Revelation of Jesus Christ”:
- “Revelation” in the Greek is the word, apokalypsis. This Greek word is where we get our English word “apocalypse.”
- It means disclosure or unveiling.
- It’s the disclosure or unveiling of: (1) the truth about Christ Himself; (2) future events, namely, the second coming of Christ when he will be revealed to the entire world.
v.1b, “which God[the Father] gave Him[Jesus] to show His bond servants” :
- The Father gave Jesus the Revelation so that Jesus could then give that Revelation to His followers.
- Part of the Revelation will be His own personal second coming in chapter 19, but that is only a part of what’s revealed.
- The Revelation includes all other happenings prior to His own personal appearance and what happens immediately after His return.
v.1c, “the things which must shortly take place;”
- The phrase, “must shortly take place”is the Greek word en tachei, means that the action will be sudden when it comes, not necessarily that it will occur immediately.
- In other words, once the end-time events begin, they will occur in rapid succession.
- So, the idea is not that the events may occur soon, but that when they start to occur, they will be sudden.
v.1d, “and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John.”
- The angel/messenger is not named, but some believe he was Gabriel, who brought messages to Daniel, Mary, and Zechariah.
- The reference to John as a servant [or slave] is the term used by Paul, James, Peter, and Jude in speaking of their positions as God’s servants. So, there’s a similarity of position. These men all considered themselves to be bondservants of Jesus Christ.
v.2, “who bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.”
- The book of Revelation is not only the Word of God, it comes from God Himself.
- John bears witness of his reception of it.
- It is also “the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
- This record of John is the complete unfolding of all the things that he saw.
v.3, “blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.”
- “blessed” means “God blesses those who” or “God’s blessing upon.”
- The Greek word means “fortunate” or “happy” because of something positive that has occurred.
- Because of the promises in this book, a believer in Christ is especially blessed.
- This is also the first of seven beatitudes, or pronouncement of blessings, found in Revelation.
- Who is blessed? The one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy. The public reading of Scripture was common in Jewish life. Unlike today, there weren’t printing presses where everyone could have a copy of John’s letter.
- In addition to the reader, John says, “blessed are those who hear and who heed, or keep, what is written.” This reminds us of Jesus’ words in Luke 11:28, “blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”
- “hear and keep” are important terms and major themes in the book of Revelation. Used together, they mean, “to persevere in faithful obedience.” The blessed ones are those who come to church to hear God’s Word and then keep or obey it so that it changes their lives.
- Believers are responsible to hear (to absorb or take in) and heed (live out) the truths that are written in this book.
- “for the time is near or at hand.” The expression “at hand” indicates nearness from the standpoint of prophetic Revelation, not necessarily that the event will immediately occur. This might best be translated as “the season draws near.” Each day brings us closer to the Lord’s return.
This introduction gives us the basic facts found in the entire book: its subjects and purpose. We’ve learned about the angelic and human messengers. It’s also very important to observe that the book was primarily intended to give a practical lesson to those who read and heed its contents.
As we finish the introduction to Revelation, we’ll start to see some very interesting phrases, such as: “seven churches in Asia” and “the seven spirits of God.”
We'll continue to work our way through the Book of Revelation. It will take us quite a while to get through it all, but I believe it will be worth it.
May the Lord bless you as you seek His truth found in His Word.
By His Grace,
Gary T. Dromi, Ph.D., D.Min..
