Revelation

In this class on the Prophetic Literature from the Bible, I have also had to cover a little reading and writing on the book of Revelation. I have come to 4 important conclusion after just a few weeks of hard study from the book.

First, if you think you really know a lot of the book of Revelation, you are fooling yourself and arrogant. Revelation is, I think, the hardest book in the Bible to understand. There are so many images, symbols, and contextual issues that only John's readers would understand. Mix in all of these challenges with the fact that the book is speaking for a portion, about the end times (the eschaton), the book becomes even more complicated. Yes, the first 5 chapters of Revelation are more understandable to gain insight and spiritual growth from. But from chapter 6 on, the book is very hard to make sense of. So if I have the galls to say I know and understand much from Revelation, I am fooling myself and arrogant. This goes for anyone who claims to have a great understanding or full knowledge from Revelation.

Second, Revelation is a letter written to seven churches in the 1st century. I have to treat Revelation as I do any other Epistle in the New Testament. This means I have to understand the context, think through the audience, grapple with the purpose, and know my history of the 1st century. To even begin to crack Revelation, I have to come at the book as it is a letter from one man to seven churches he loved. Revelation is clearly a letter.

Third, Revelation is a prophetic letter. John was acting as a prophet of God when he wrote the letter of Revelation. Jesus gave John a specific vision, put His Words right in his mouth, and told John to speak (write down in letter form) what he was seeing. John as a prophet was acting very similar to elements of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, and Zechariah. This means I must also come at Revelation like I would any of the Old Testament prophets. I must think through the original context and understand how they would have taken the image or symbol or message. Getting a better grasp on interpreting the book of Isaiah will ultimately help me understand Revelation a little better. Revelation is clearly a prophetic text.

The fourth truth, is that Revelation is an apocalyptic document. This means that Revelation uses images, symbols, numbers, and crazy words to drive home the point. Revelation as an apocalyptic document is what makes it a challenge to understand. This is a very unique style of writing and a very weird type of literature. This fourth piece of the Revelation puzzle it what makes it so that no human can be fully confident in their understanding of Revelation. Yes, we must study and grow from Revelation. Yes, we must put the hard work in digging deep through the book. Yes, working through Revelation must bring us confidence in God and a comfort He has the future in His hands. Yes, Revelation is about Jesus. And yes, Revelation is a story about Jesus wins. But because of the apocalyptic nature of the book, we as Christians must remain humble and a learner when we handle the book of Revelation.