Revelation is a difficult book to understand. It has much symbolic and apocalyptic
language, and I am far removed from the time and culture in which it was
written. I’m not going to clear it up in a few hundred words.
Even so, I’d like to offer a perspective on the book. It seems to me
that Revelation is a source of a lot of fear and confusion. So much of the Bible is
intended to encourage and edify believers that it is clear to me that fear and
confusion are not the intent of the Apostle John or God in the writing
of Revelation. As a believer wrestling with this part of God’s Word, however
you may feel, do not be afraid.
I’ve seen and heard television
and radio
program focused on Bible prophecy,
particularly Revelation. Some seem particularly alarming or sensational, and
others seem to shoehorn current events into a particular interpretation of
Revelation and Bible eschatology.
Rarely have these programs increased my understanding. Eschatology is
important; God addressed the end times, and we should do our best to understand
what He said. However, we are not all called to be experts on eschatology, though
we are all called to be imitators of Christ.
Some parts of Revelation are easy to understand. In the second and
third chapters, Jesus Christ
delivers through John messages to seven churches
in Asia. Though
written to those churches, it is still for us.
Christ’s encouragement and criticisms serve as a mirror into which Christians
and churches can still can look to see themselves and how they are.
There are a few other things in Revelation that are plain, especially
in light of straightforward teaching found elsewhere in the Bible. Jesus Christ
will return.
He will judge
all the people from all of time; as believers we are already assured of God’s mercy and can
expect a much different type of judgment that the one facing those who refused
God and continued in their sins. We will all be bodily resurrected;
God’s people will be resurrected in transformed, incorruptible bodies to live
in God’s presence in a purified and remade creation forever.
Even though it is difficult, I encourage you to read Revelation. It is
okay if you can’t understand it all. Ask God to help you understand. Read other
books of the Bible; you may be surprised by how they can illuminate Revelation.
John also wrote
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