BOOK OF REVELATION - INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF REVELATION

TUESDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY

TUESDAY, MAY 8, 2012

Pastor Carolyn Sissom

The Book of Revelation---or, as it might be called, the book of the triumph of Christ---was composed and sent to seven churches in the Roman Province of Asia at some point between A.D. 69 and 96 to encourage them, and their fellow-Christians every where, with the assurance that despite all the forces marshaled against them, victory was theirs if they remained loyal to Christ.

In view of all the forces of evil marshaled against the church of the 21^st century, this assurance is just as applicable today as it was when the Apostle John received this visitation from Jesus.  The Word of God is eternal; thus, the vision is eternal to all ages of Christendom.

Most scholars believe Apostle John was 90-years old at the time He received this visitation from Jesus.  According to most scholars, John was banished to the island of Patmos toward the end of the reign of Domitian Caesar. His reign was every bit as brutal as that of Nero.  The church suffered terribly under this emperor.

Before A.D. 60, an apostle like Paul, a Roman citizen, could count on benevolent neutrality, if not the positive protection, in his evangelization of the Roman provinces.  However the relation between the empire and the church changed radically in the 60’s, and for two and a half centuries thereafter Christianity had no right to exist in the eyes of the Roman law.

So long as Roman law regarded Christianity as a variety of Judaism, Christianity profited by the status which Judaism enjoyed as a permitted cult; but when the distinction between the two became plain to the imperial authorities, Christianity was left destitute of any legal protection.

Nero’s attack on the Christians of Rome in A.D. 64 may have been due to personal motives of malice and self-protection against the popular rumors which blamed him for setting the city on fire.  Later emperors maintained more official hostility against a movement which was suspected of being subversive and anti-social in tendency and revolutionary within the political powers.

Luke endeavored to refute popular prejudice by writing an orderly account of the rise and progress of Christianity.  He dedicated his gospel to a member of the official class in Rome.

Peter urges his readers to live in such a way as to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men and, if called upon to suffer as Christians to glorify God under that name (1 Pet. 2:15; 4: 16).

At the time of the Apostle John’s arrest and exile to Patmos, it is recorded that whenever Domitian would come into a public place, he had the heralds announce him as “Our Lord and god Domitian!”  Every year during his reign, citizens of the empire had to appear before public officials, burn incense to the emperor while confessing, “Caesar is Lord.”  Anyone refusing to do so was regarded as an enemy and immediately became a political prisoner.

The dedicated Christians of course, refused to do this.  History reports they would say, “Jesus is Lord and there is no other.”  This cost them the loss of their property and civil rights, and more often than not, their lives.  When it was John’s turn to burn incense and make his confession, he refused, and it earned him a prepaid trip to the Island of Patmos.  I looked this Grecian island up on Google.  It is really quite beautiful with a little over 3000 inhabitants today.  This rocky, barren island 40 miles off the coast of Turkey is roughly 10 miles long and 6 miles wide.

Sixty years after the Lord ascended to heaven, He visited John on Patmos and revealed to him some of the missing pieces of the prophetic mystery of the Lord’s Kingdom being established on earth and His second coming.

The message reminds the hard-pressed church that, long drawn-out as the campaigns may be in which we are engaged, the decisive battle has already been won, and final victory is assured.

Our only means of resisting the assaults of our enemies is by faithful confession, suffering and if need be, death.  Jesus, not Caesar (world/government), is the one to whom all power has been given; Jesus, not Caesar, is the Lord of history; and in Christ’s sovereignty and triumph His faithful followers share already in anticipation and will share fully in His Parousia on earth as it is in heaven.

The island guards knew John was writing.  They would be looking for subversive ideas in his writings.  John wrote down what was given to him as he was raptured into prophetic ecstasy from the vantage point of heaven.  The truths given to him in vision were clothed in prophetic metaphorical language. 

Apocalyptic language was a familiar literary form to Jews and Christians in the first century A.D.  God has always spoken to His prophets in metaphorical language and He still does.  The symbolic language in Daniel, Ezekiel, Zachariah, Jeremiah, and the Psalms has the same meaning by interpretation in the Book of Revelation.

The Greek “apocalypses” means to unveil or uncover.  It implies the lifting up of a curtain so all can see alike what is uncovered.  When used of writing it means to reveal or make clear; when used of a person it denotes visible presence.  Here it refers both to the book and the person of Christ. 

When I was teaching the Book of Daniel, I carefully chose not to mix the message of the Book of Daniel with the Book of Revelation.  Except for the passages referring to the latter days and the time of the anti-christ, most of the Book of Daniel has been historically fulfilled.  However, the message and symbolism is as applicable in the 21^st century as when it was written.  There is absolute consistency with types and figurative language throughout the Bible.  Visual images are a universal language.  People know in their own language what a horse is in a vision.

As with all prophetic literature, there are many levels of interpretation of the Book of Revelation.  Even though the letter is addressed directly to 7 specific churches in Asia, we find that collectively, those seven churches represent the whole church as it has moved down through the centuries.  However, it is also addressed to each of us individually as well as the local church body.  John also mentions things that can only be applied to the generation on earth at the time of Jesus’ return.

1. Those to whom it is written
2. The Historical church
3. To the present church
4. For the future church

The Book has always spoken its message most clearly to readers who were involved in the same kind of situation as those to whom it was first addressed.  The Word of God is a living, life giving word and breathes the very breathe of life by the Holy Spirit to all who will receive it.

Throughout the age of persecution at the hands of imperial Rome, for well over 200 years after the book was written, Revelation spoke its central message to the majority of Christians.  Even if they were rather vague about some of the symbolism, the identity of the beast from the abyss was not in doubt, nor was there any doubt about the victory which awaited those who were faithful unto death.

With the peace of the church in the early 4^th century the clear insight into the message of the book was inevitably obscured.  But it has returned in other persecuting ages.

When tribulation or persecution arises on account of the Word, the book becomes once more what it really is, a living word from God, full of encouragement and strength.  Those who desire to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Christians in our own day who have to suffer for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus under regimes which set themselves against the Lord and his anointed have no difficulty in identifying antichrist or in finding themselves in the company of those who come out of great tribulation.

Above all this book reminds us that He with whom and for whom we endure these things is the triumphant Lord of history, and that His victory is ours.  

Rev. 1:4-5:  John to the seven churches which are in Asia; Grace be unto you, and peace from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness…

This is a description of the divine trinity.  The purpose was to show, not hide from His servants, events from John’s day into all eternity.

1.  God the Father: “Him which is, and which was, and which is to come.”
2. The Holy Spirit:  The Seven Spirits which are before His throne.
3. AND from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness.

“This book is a trumpet call for those who have cried out to know the fullness of Christ, whose hearts have ached with desire for the intimacy of a consuming relationship with God, whose spirits have hungered for living water to flood through them as a river of righteousness.  God has been waiting since the Garden for a generation of people who would lose themselves utterly in a relationship with Him, so that they could be restored unto Him as sons and daughters.  David was called a “man after God’s own heart” not because he was without sin, but because of his steadfast desire to know and please his Lord.  Like David, this chosen generation of sold out Christians, consumed by a desire to follow Him, is being called to fulfill God’s plan to bring His people back into intimate fellowship with Him….the book of Revelation is a deeply spiritual book, one that must become a part of the reader (“eaten” Rev. 10:9) if it is to be understood, and its precious promises are to be fulfilled…

Revelation is the only book in the Bible that begins with a promise of blessing.  “Blessed is he that reads and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein; for the time is at hand” (Rev. 1:3)

However, this promise of blessing is given only to a people who have “eyes to see and ears to hear.”  Those who refuse to open their hearts to the “fresh manna of heaven” will miss the “blessings” of God in these last days.  Sadder still will be those who receive this revelation but refuse to “keep” or take to heart what they hear.  They will hear the trumpet of Zion but refuse to ascend together into a holy assembly.  These people are not able to separate themselves from the preoccupation of their own lives; thus the sound of His voice will be lost in the strife, concerns, ambitions, and dreams of daily living.” (The Seven thunders of God by:  Van Tanner, Hope of Glory Ministries)

Joel and Daniel describe the chosen generation who will be called forth by the trumpet of revelation as the army of God during the last days.  The Lord will appear in a corporate body of believers as the Sons of God. 

The framework of Revelation is provided largely in a successive series of seven:

1. The seven thunders of God---the 7 seals, 7 angels, 7 trumpets, 7 vials, and 7 vial angels. 
2.  Seven churches.
3.  Seven stars.
4. Seven angels of the seven churches.
5. Seven Spirits of God
6. Seven lamps of fire.
7. The Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes.
8. Seven thousand men are slain.
9. Red dragon with seven heads and seven crowns.
10. Beast with seven heads
11. Seven plagues
12. Woman with seven heads who sits on seven mountains.

Seven is the number of completion; perfection; all; finished; rest.  In Mathematics, a series of sevens is referred to as heptads.  All of the heptads (series of sevens) are marked by what A. M. Farrer calls “cancelled conclusions’; the final and irrevocable judgment, which we expect to be executed in the last member of each heptads.  This is consistent with the Bible’s uniform witness to God’s reluctance to press His ‘strange work’ to a full end.

The Lord spoke to me many years ago, “Carolyn teach New Jerusalem as purity”.  If we are to understand the Book of Revelation, we must consider that the Lord Jesus spoke this to John in figurative language.  Why would New Jerusalem be a literal city, but Babylon a metaphor, or vise versa?

Hebrews 12:22 “but you have come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels”.

In a general sense, Zion and New Jerusalem represent the whole Church.  The church is the New Jerusalem, and a city which is set upon a hill.

In a more specific sense, it represents the overcomers who attain to the high calling of God and who sit with Christ in the throne, sharing His government.

“God is raising up a generation of overcomers, the like of which the world has never before seen.  They will be so completely in love with the Lord that their very presence will speak of Jesus, thus, they are called the Sons of God…. These chosen sons have been preordained to “sound the trumpet” by bringing forth a message that lets everyone know that the Day of the Lord is upon us.  They will declare a time of great tribulation for those whose hearts are bound by the deception and blindness of their own desires.  Yet they will also bring a time of unparalleled liberation through a revelation of hope with the power to set the world free.  These Elect messengers of God, transformed by the power of Christ, will show us the way into the Glory.” (The Seven Thunders of God by: Van Tanner, Hope of Glory Ministries)

There will surely be an end time battle between the forces of evil described by John and the glorious overcoming church alongside the Lord of Host of Heaven’s Armies. 

Taught by:  Pastor Carolyn Sissom

Eastgate Ministries, Inc.

www.eastgateministries.com

Scripture from K.J.V. Text paraphrased from F. F. Bruce Bible Commentary, by F. F. Bruce; The Seven Thunders of God by: Van Tanner; Lovett’s Lights on Revelation by C. S. Lovett; Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible; Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those from whom I have gleaned.