Introduction to The Book of Revelation
Most Christians would probably agree that The Book of Revelation is the arguably the most neglected and overlooked book in all of Scripture. This widespread neglect of the Book of Revelation among Christians is surprisingly true, especially when you consider the fact The Book of Revelation is the only book of the Bible that specifically promises a special blessing to those who reads and understands the message (Rev. 1:3).
This total dismissal of The Book of Revelation becomes even more disturbing and alarming when you consider the plethora of national and world developments that so clearly have prophetic implications that are going completely undiscerned by even many Christian Pastors and leaders. Consider for example, the current WORLDWIDE Corona Virus Pandemic. In just this one example, on the surface, it can be easy to see why the average Christian would not make any sort of prophetic connection.
However, when you take into consideration, the tremendous speed in which this problem as gone global, along with the negative impact that it has had on world economic markets, then at the very least, it red flags should be waving in the minds of Christians everywhere. But what is even more significant, is the fact that this pandemic problem, is just the latest in a long list of events and situations that I could list that should at the very least, be raising every believers eyebrow. Just imagine for instance, that if a virus can so significantly and rapidly affect world economies virtually overnight, then what will it be like for world financial markets when a cataclysmic event such as hundreds of millions of people suddenly disappearing without a trace?
So, in light of the tumultuous day and time in which we are living, why then is it that there is such a widespread neglect of this particular book? Why are believers, especially Christian leaders and Pastors, so hesitant to study and attempt to understand it or preach and teach about it from the pulpits? Why is there so much consternation about Revelation even among Christian leaders? What is it about Revelation that has led to this contemporary paranoia and allergy? Well, to be fair, there is a myriad of reasons, some even understandable, why Revelations is the most neglected book in the Bible is spite of the clear promise of blessing to those who read and understands it. But most of the reasons (or excuses) can be summarized in the following two issues:
The plethora of eccentric interpretations coupled with the dogmatism with which proponents of a particular position have promoted their views have left many Christians convinced that Revelation is not only hard, but impossible to understand. Some understand it as prophecy already fulfilled. Some of prophecy being fulfilled. Others as prophecy of events awaiting us in the future. And still others see it as primarily a letter of encouragement to suffering first century churches in Asia Minor. Which of those frameworks you adopt will have a significant impact on how you understand what John was writing. How do you interpret all the images throughout Revelation? Are they literal? Or symbolic? Is 144,000 a literal number of literal Jews? Or is it something else? When does the 1000-year period in Revelation 20 occur? And is it literally 1000 years? Or a very long time? Even among those who hold to a common framework for Revelation there is a variety of opinions on what the images and visions mean. One view that has become common in Evangelical Protestantism over the past 200 years is that believers are raptured from the world before the vast bulk of Revelation occurs. For those who adopt this view, they may feel like they can safely ignore Revelation since it doesn’t apply to them.
The other prominent reason why the Book of Revelation is so neglected among Christians is the myriad of dramatic imagery and illusions that appear far to difficult to understand. What for example, are you to make of the four beasts, stars falling from heaven, dragons, many headed and horned beasts, and great battles? And what about the locusts coming up out of the Bottomless Pit? That can be a terrifying picture to the uninitiated reader. Who wants to be tormented by one of those for five months? Reading Revelation can be the thing of nightmares for some.
Why Study Bible Prophecy
One commonly asked question that believers have frequently asked is, “With all that is going on in my life, why should I spend time studying Bible prophecy”? Although prophecy constitutes almost one-third of the Bible, its importance is constantly downplayed by those who dismiss it as having no practical significance or by those who object to it on the grounds that it is a “fad” that takes people’s eyes off Jesus. A good example of what I’m talking about can be found in the immensely popular best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren. He mocks Bible prophecy when he writes, “If you want Jesus to come back sooner, focus on fulfilling your mission, not figuring out prophecy.” He then goes on to characterize prophecy as a “distraction” and says that anyone who lets himself get involved in distractions like studying prophecy “is not fit for the kingdom of God.”
To that end, in this multi-part introduction to the book of Revelation, I won’t be doing a verse by verse exposition on the Book of Revelation, my purpose instead, will be to wet the appetite, and hopefully encourage and motivate my readers to develop a hunger and a desire to learn and understanding the entire council of God and to also be able to better discern the signs of the times which will help believers to be better able to connect the prophetic dots when observing the many troubling events that are happening in the world, which it by the way, is impossible to fully do without the Book of Revelation and the study of bible prophecy in general.
In the first portion of this introductory study on the Book of Revelation, I would like to begin by helping you to discover several important reasons why believers should be interested in the prophetic Scriptures, and why Pastors should spend time incorporating the study of Bible prophecy in their Sunday sermons or midweek Bible studies. For a more detailed outline of why it is so important that believers especially leaders spend more of a priority on Bible Prophecy, you can see my study on the topic: http://drbrucelogan.com/what-does-it-all-mean-the-importance-of-bible-prophecy-part-1-by-dr-bruce-logan/ and also: http://drbrucelogan.com/what-does-it-all-mean-the-importance-of-bible-prophecy-part-2-by-dr-bruce-logan/
First and foremost among the many reasons why the study of Bible Prophecy is so vital in understanding of the entire biblical narrative, is because God “knows the end from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:10).
In other words, what God means in Isaiah 46:10 is that nothing has ever happened, or will ever happen, that God did not purpose to happen. Or to put it another way, everything that has happened or will happen, is purposed by God to happen as part of His overall big picture, providential plan for the ultimate restoration of mankind, which involved the prophetic and providential precision in bringing to pass the promised virgin birth, death, burial, resurrection and eventual return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. See: Galatians 4:4-8.
Beyond that though, just in brief, before I dive into this introduction to the Book of Revelation, I would like to suggest the following additional reasons why the study of Bible Prophecy should become an integral aspect of our Christian Disciple making agenda:
1. There is an enormous amount of information that God has revealed to us in His Word regarding “End time events”. One amazingly little known fact, is that prophecy constitutes nearly one-third of the entire Bible. Consider the following particulars: • 63 times in the Bible, the Lord is quoted using the phrase, “It shall come to pass”. • 116 times in the Bible, the Lord is quoted using the phrase, “In that day”. • 2304 times in the Bible, the Lord begins an action phrase with the words, “I will” and then proceeds to announce something that He would either immediately or ultimately bring to pass.
Every word of Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16) and the prophecies are intentionally mysterious. Jesus himself said that no one but the Father knows the time of His return (Matthew 24:26). So what is the point of studying the prophecies? In an interesting book by Mark Hitchcock, entitled The End: A Complete Overview of Bible Prophecy and the End of Days, he gives ten reasons to study biblical prophecies that go beyond trying to unravel the plans of Christ’s return: 1. “Prophecy is a major part of divine revelation.” 2. “Special blessing is promised on those who study prophecy and pay attention to what it says.” 3. “Jesus Christ is the subject of the prophecy.” 4. “Prophecy gives us a proper perspective in life.” 5. “Prophecy helps us understand the whole Bible.” 6. “Prophecy is a tool for evangelism.” 7. “Prophecy helps protect people from heresy.” 8. “Prophecy motivates us to live godly lives in light of eternity.” 9. “Prophecy reveals the sovereignty of God over time and history.” 10.“Prophecy proves the truth of God’s Word.”[1]
Out of the 216 chapters found in the entire New Testament, there are 318 references to the Second Coming of Christ? That means if you were to omit passages about prophecy, you would have to remove one out of every thirty verses in the New Testament. You would also have to skip 23 of the 27 New Testament books, which mention prophecy.
Furthermore, for every O.T. prophecy about the birth of Christ, there are eight about His Second Coming. Even more significantly, Jesus Himself spent the majority of His final days and weeks on earth almost exclusively teaching His Disciples about His return. For example, His final message to His Disciples PRIOR to His crucifixion was the “Olivet Discourse” (See: Mathew 24 and 15), where He responds to His Disciples perplexing question about His return and the “times of the end.”
Then in His first lesson after His Resurrection, He walks His Disciples through the entire old testament, from Genesis to Malachi, pointing out to them, all of the Old Testament Scriptures that pertained to Himself, (See: Luke 24:44-48).
Then finally, as His disciples stood in awe watching Him as He was making His final ascension up into Heaven, two Angels stood by and said to His astonished Disciples, “this same Jesus that you see being taken up into Heaven, will one day come back again in the same way that you see Him go up into Heaven” (Acts 1:9-10). So, considering prophecy’s prominence throughout the Scriptures, can we really afford to continue to ignore it or say, “Well, prophecy is just not relevant for my life today”?
So, in summary, to reject Bible prophecy means skipping almost a third of the Bible. The focus of prophecy is Jesus Christ. Fulfilled prophecies prove the Bible is truly God’s Word and to reject it or to minimize it, is to severely limit the believers ability to “rightly divide the word of truth.”
Purpose of Revelation:
It’s important to remember for starters, that the Bible is much more than a collection of inspirational stories. In fact, the Bible is both one book and many books. The word “bible” comes from the Latin “biblia,” which simply means “books.” There are 66 books in the Protestant Bible, so one could say that the Bible contains a library of books. Within these books are dozens of interconnecting stories that are all leading to one huge climatic event which is told in the Book of Revelation.
In other words, the Bible is also one book because it tells one story, God’s story. In Genesis we find the beginning of this big story, which begins with God creating the Heavens and the Earth a creating Adam and Eve and giving them dominion over God’s creation with one stipulation. They were not to eat of the fruit of one particular tree. However, the serpent was able to deceive man, causing him to disobey God, thus breaking the fellowship that God had with man, and thus man was expelled from the Garden and death and sin was officially now the result. However, because of God’s grace, mercy and love that passes all human understanding, God began to put in motion a systematic plan that would eventually restore that broken relationship and return His creation to the God’s original intent.
That plan involved calling out a man by the name of Abraham and designating him to be the one who would be the progenitor of God’s Son who would eventually come into the world and offer Himself as the supreme sacrifice for sin and to be a blessing to the entire world.
When reading the Bible, it’s easy to get caught up in a multitude of details, the hundreds of characters, events and the many inspirational stories and forget the One Big Story that is being told, or the big picture that is being painted about God. Bible scholars have a name for this One Big Story, “meta narrative.” This “big narrative” is all about “the whole universal plan of God worked out through his creation. Key aspects of the plot at this top level are the initial creation itself, the fall of humanity, the power and ubiquity of sin, the need for redemption, and Christ’s incarnation and sacrifice”(Douglas Stuart and Gordon Fee, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, p. 91). Other names for the One Big Story include “the story of redemption” or “redemptive history” or “salvation history.” Therefore, it is essential that the bible student when reading and studying the Bible, to always keep this One Big Story in mind, for everything that happens in the Bible is somehow related to it, is part of it and gets its meaning from it. Consider for example, the following illustrations:
An understanding of these big picture connections with the rest of the bible is extremely important and also extremely helpful as we study Revelation. Seeing Revelation in this big picture sets up a boundary within which to interpret its highly symbolic content of Revelation. It protects us against understanding Revelation in a way that is contrary to the teaching of Jesus and the apostles, and in a way that is contrary to the eternal plan that God set in place before the creation of the world. In other words, viewing Revelation through the lens of the bible as a whole, will help you to better understand the many mysteries in the book.
Furthermore, the focus of the bible student’s attention on the connection of Revelation with the rest of the Bible, take us deep into the heart and will of God. Here we realize afresh God’s sovereign purpose and where we fit into it. Here we are challenged to trust in his almighty, power, as well as, His providential orchestration of human history, by which he brings his eternal purpose to pass. Here we are overwhelmed by his amazing grace, his immense compassion, that put this plan in place even before we sinned. Here in Revelation we see the culmination and the consummation of this eternal purpose of God revealed and reported throughout the Scripture.
Genesis Vs Revelation
To further expand upon this bible meta narrative, let’s first consider some of the parallels between the Genesis, the first book in this big picture story, and The Book of Revelation the final book of the Bible. For starters, Genesis and The Book of Revelation are the “LENS” through which we can understand the entire bible. (“Till Heaven and Earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away, till all things are fulfilled” Math. 5:18). (SEE: GEN Vs REV COMPARISON CHART).
Genesis 1:1-21 In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the waters. Revelation 21:1-21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Creation and New Creation One powerful example of the connection between Genesis and Revelation, which by the way, ties this big meta narrative together, can be seen in a comparison between Genesis 1-3, which talks the Creation of the heavens and the earth, and Revelation 21-22, which talks about the New Creation of the New Heavens and New Earth.
Simply put, in the description of the New Heavens and New Earth in Revelation 21-22, over and over again you have echoes of what occurred in the creation of the heavens and earth Genesis 1-3: • In Genesis 1.4, there is a division of light and darkness; in Revelation 21.25, there is no night. • In Genesis 1.10, there is a division of land and sea; in Revelation 21.1, there is no more sea. • In Genesis 1.16, the rule of the sun and moon is described; in Revelation 21.23, we learn that there is no need for the sun or moon. • In Genesis 2.10, we are told about a river flowing out of the Garden of Eden; in Revelation 22.1, we are told about a river flowing from God’s throne. • Genesis 2.9 describes the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden; Revelation 22.2 describes the Tree of Life throughout the city. • Genesis 2.12 tells us that God and precious stones are in the land; Revelation 21.19 tells us that gold and precious stones are throughout. • God walks in the garden, among His creation as described in Genesis 3.8; Revelation 21.3 states that God’s dwelling will be with His people. • Following Adam and Eve’s sin, Genesis 3.17 states that the ground itself will be cursed; in the New Creation, there will be no more curse (Revelation 22.3). • As a result of sin and the curse, life in creation is characterized by pain and sorrow (Genesis 3.17-19); in the new creation, there will be no more sorrow, pain, or tears (Revelation 21.1-4). • Additionally, the sin results in death, described as a returning to the dust (Genesis 3.19); in the New Heavens and New Earth, there is no more death (Revelation 21.4). • Adam and Eve are banished from the garden, and cherubim guard the entrance to it (Genesis 3.24); angels actively invite into the city in Revelation 21.9.
There are actually many more points of comparison that could be made, but suffice it to say that in the book of Revelation, God reveals to us the full circle culmination of His redemptive promises that He had been providentially orchestrating since He called out a man named Abraham. In Revelation, John is clearly describing the eternity that God’s people will spend with Him in the New Heavens and New Earth in language that echoes back to the story of creation and fall in Genesis 1-3. In making these connections between Revelation and Genesis, John is making a significant and profound theological point: the creation that God created good but that was tainted by sin, He is going to redeem, recreate, and perfect!
What is Prophecy? A Simple Definition
Finally, I would like to close this first installment of this Introductory series on the book of revelation, by giving a brief and simple definition of what Bible prophecy actually is: Simply put, the study of prophecy can be described as, “History written in advance.” Or, pre-written history. In other words, when for example, we do a study on the American Revolution, we are in fact, studying about the events AFTER those events occurred. Prophecy is the same, except historical events are written BEFORE those events actually take place. And in some cases, we are talking thousands of years in advance, as it is in the case of Christ’s second coming.
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
The prophecies of the Bible must be first of all divided into three classes:
1. Prophecies which have found already their fulfillment.
2. Prophecies which are now in process of fulfillment. Many predictions written several thousand years ago are now being accomplished before our eyes. We mention those which relate to the national and spiritual condition of the Jewish people and the predictions concerning the moral and religious condition of the present age.
3. Prophecies which are still unfulfilled. We have reference to those which predict the second, glorious and visible coming of our Lord, the re-gathering of Israel and their restoration to the land of promise, judgments which will fall upon the nations of the earth, the establishment of the Kingdom, the conversion of the world, universal peace and righteousness, the deliverance of groaning creation, and others. These great prophecies of future things are often robbed of their literal and solemn meaning by a process of spiritualization. The visions of the prophets concerning Israel and Jerusalem, and the glories to come in a future age, are almost generally explained as having their fulfillment in the Church during the present age. However, our object is not to follow the unfulfilled prophecies, but prophecies fulfilled and in process of fulfillment. At the close of our treatise we shall point out briefly that in the light of fulfilled prophecies, the literal fulfillment of prophecies still future is perfectly assured.
In closing, as I alluded to earlier, while I could spend weeks just teaching on eschatology, or the study of end time events, my primary purpose is to encourage and motivate my readers to develop a hunger and a passion to want to dig deeper into the riches of God’s word. In part 2 of this study, we will examine some important background information about the Book of Revelation.
Mark Hitchcock, The End: A Complete Overview of Bible Prophecy and the End of Days (Tyndale House Publishers; Carol Stream, IL: 2007), pages 4-15.
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