Revelation (Part 1)
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 10/1/2017
Some of you may have been a little disappointed last Saturday (September 23) when the world didn’t come to an end. The conspiracy theorist, David Meade, a self-proclaimed "prophecy expert" and Catholic made global headlines last week, when he predicted the end of the world on September 23. Of course, when Saturday came and went relatively uneventfully, Meade modified his doomsday prediction, and is now saying the rapture is, in fact, coming in October.
Doomsday itself, he says, will begin on October 15, which will mark the beginning of the seven-year period of tribulation described in the Book of Revelation. He writes on his website, “That’s when the action starts. Hold on and watch—wait until the middle of October and I don’t believe you’ll be disappointed,” Some things to watch out for are the loss of electrical power across the world, leading to war, famine and other perilous events.
The truth is—David Meade is just another in a long line of prophecy pundits making false predictions about the Second Coming and the end of the world. Similar predictions have been made as far back as William Miller who concluded that Christ would return to earth on October 22, 1844.
Since that day, Bible prophecy fanatics have jumped on the bandwagon with their charts and codes and you-better-believe-it prophecies. But if there is one lesson William Miller, David Meade and others have taught us, it’s that you can rest assured these so-called “prophecy experts” will be proven 100% wrong, 100% of the time.
But why this fascination with the end times? Why do these prophecy pundits crawl out of the wood work every few years to declare the apocalypse is about to begin? And why does anybody believe them?
I submit that a lot of the sensationalism surrounding the Second Coming is due to a widespread lack of understanding of the book of Revelation. Even some of the most biblically literate believers steadfastly avoid Revelation.
Fred Craddock of Emory University compares reading the New Testament to walking down the street. The Gospels are the first books you encounter, and they are like warm, inviting, well-lit homes in a familiar neighborhood. Next comes Paul’s letters, still friendly territory. But as you move down the street through the Epistles, the shadows grow deeper—2 Peter, 1 John. The houses are smaller and neglected—2 John, 3 John, Jude. Then suddenly at the end of the street, shrouded in darkness, stands the frightening, haunted house of Revelation. Not many people want to go there.
I understand why many of us stay away from Revelation. The book is just flat hard to understand. It’s been said, if you read five different commentaries on Revelation, you’ll six different views. And unfortunately, many of the commentaries are like a black hole—they’re so dense that no light can escape. A funny little book titled The Devil’s Dictionary defines Revelation as “A famous book in which St. John concealed all that he knew…” Let’s face it: bizarre images of strange creatures, a beast with ten horns and claws of bronze, stars falling from the heavens, a great red dragon with seven heads, 666, blood, bowls of sulfur, people eating scrolls, bottomless pits, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, war, pestilence, famine and death—this isn’t normal water cooler conversation. This is strange stuff.
But the fact is—Revelation is a part of God’s Word. It was written for us to be a blessing, not a curse. In fact, right in the opening paragraph of Revelation, we read: “God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says” (Revelation 1:3 NLT). When we read Revelation our hearts are captured by a New Heaven and New Earth, a wedding banquet, a beautiful city and a whole new kind of life. I think it’s time we reclaim Revelation.
For the next seven weeks, I want to immerse ourselves in Revelation with all its prophecies and puzzles and discover what the Bible really says about the end times and why it matters. Before we can dive into the text though, we need to prepare ourselves. So today, I want to highlight three keys to unlocking the meaning of Revelation. The first key is the setting.
• THE SETTING
The first key, as you begin to read this book, is to understand the historical setting of Revelation’s original readers. John addressed this book, saying, “John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia” (Revelation 1:4 NLT).
John wrote to seven very real churches, not unlike like ours, that existed in the first century: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. In chapters 2-3, Jesus addresses each of those seven churches individually with compliments and criticisms specific to their unique situations.
Evangelical scholars are divided as to when exactly John wrote. Some suggest he wrote in the early sixties during the reign of Nero Caesar, while others believe he wrote in the early to mid nineties during the reign of Domitian. I tend to lean toward the earlier of those two dates, but both Nero and Domitian demanded to be worshipped as gods and initiated horrible harassment of Christians. So, in either case, these churches were facing two threats.
The first threat was persecution.
John introduces himself, saying, “I, John, [am] your brother and companion in the suffering…” (Revelation 1:9 NIV). Both Jewish and Roman persecution of Christians was real and rampant—especially for those who refused to participate in emperor worship. Believers who refused to say the Roman “pledge of allegiance” by offering a pinch of incense and pronouncing “Caesar is Lord” were viewed as treasonous and could lose their friends, jobs, even their lives.
The believers in Ephesus endured hardships in Christ’s name. Those in Smyrna were slandered and put into prison. In Pergamum, Antipas was murdered. John himself is in exile on the prison-island of Patmos. These were troublesome times. These are life-and-death struggles.
This threat of persecution might be hard for us to identify with, but the second threat is very relatable. The second threat was cultural seduction.
These churches were tempted to conform to the priorities, values, and lifestyles around them. If Satan can’t destroy the church through open conflict, he will dilute them through subtle compromise. Why push them into the electric chair when the easy chair will do? If they will just relax their obedience a bit to “fit in,” then the devil’s job is done. They’ll be “lukewarm—neither hot nor cold” and God will spit them out of his mouth. Revelation was written to comfortable churches in an immoral culture. Does that sound familiar?
John writes to challenge his readers not to give in and not to give up! This book isn’t a crystal ball, but a megaphone—a trumpet call to faith and endurance. When we understand the historical setting—what was going on in these seven churches—we begin to see Revelation’s relevance, both to them and to us.
So, the first key to unlocking the meaning of Revelation is the setting. The second is the style.
• THE STYLE
In order to read the Bible for all it’s worth, it’s crucial to consider the style of literature we’re reading. You wouldn’t read a legal brief the same way you read a romance novel. Similarly, you can’t read Leviticus the same way you read Revelation. They are very different type of literature. We need to recognize that Revelation has a unique style commonly referred to as apocalyptic literature.
This style of literature tells a story or narrative replete with figurative language and fantasy imagery, such as an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns; locusts with human faces, women’s hair, and loin’s teeth; and a beast that resembles a leopard with feet like a bear and a mouth like a lion.
For instance, in God’s throne room, John writes: “In the center and around the throne were four living beings, each covered with eyes, front and back. The first of these living beings was like a lion; the second was like an ox; the third had a human face; and the fourth was like an eagle in flight. Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out” (Revelation 4:6-8 NLT). Weird, right!?
What’s distinct about such fantasy images is that it’s not the kind of thing we’d ever see in the real world. While Jesus and the non-apocalyptic prophets regularly use figurative language, it most often involves real images: salt and light, vultures and carcasses, sheep and shepherds, etc. But most of the images in apocalyptic literature belongs to fantasy.
Throughout the ages, Christian writers from John Bunyan to Tolkien to C.S. Lewis have emulated the biblical use of fantasy imagery to underscore Christian truth through grand adventures like The Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia.
The danger lies in missing the point of such fantasy imagery. Many prophecy pundits, like Tim LaHaye, try to force a wooden literalism on Revelation that it was never meant to fit into. John’s vision of dragons and sea monsters and swords isn’t a literal description of actual creatures. Rather, it’s a fantasy portrayal of real events. His readers should be swept up in the drama, imagining themselves as participants in the cosmic struggle of which he writes. Revelation’s world of huge harlots and terrible beasts is a reflection of the Greco-Roman world of bustling marketplaces and cheering colosseums. The apocalyptic style envisions a strange mirror image of our familiar world. And the better we understand this literary style, the better we understand Revelation.
So the first key is the setting. The second key is the style. The third and final key to understanding Revelation is the symbolism.
• THE SYMBOLISM
While the fantasy images that John sees throughout Revelation are not themselves real, they do correspond to something in reality. Bizarre images of strange creatures, stars falling from the heavens, rivers of blood, streets paved with gold and jewel encrusted buildings—these are all symbolic in nature.
Occasionally, John’s angelic guide explains what the symbols represent. For instance, when John sees a woman riding on the back of a giant seven-headed beast, an angel pulls him aside and explains, “This calls for a mind with understanding: The seven heads of the beast… represent seven kings” (Revelation 17:9 NLT). Later the angel adds, “The waters where the prostitute is ruling represent masses of people of every nation and language” (Revelation 17:15). And again, he says, “This woman you saw in your vision represents the great city that rules over the kings of the world” (Revelation 17:18). So the seven-headed beast symbolizes a succession of kings, a river represents a mass of people, and a prostitute represents a great city.
This is the way Revelation works. Everything John sees in his vision is symbolic or representative of something in the real world. Unfortunately, these angelic explanations are the exception, not the rule. Most of the time we just get the vision without any explanation.
So how can we properly understand all these symbols?
As we read Revelation, we’ll want to interpret these symbols in three ways. First, we’ll look for the biblical associations of the symbol. Specifically, Revelation is pregnant with Old Testament allusions—more than 500 Old Testament references in 404 verses. Two thirds of the verses within Revelation contain direct quotes, references or allusions to Old Testament Scriptures and prophecies. Therefore, it’s impossible to correctly understand Revelation without the background music of the Old Testament coursing through our minds.
Furthermore, we ought to look for historical associations. We must remember that even though Revelation was written for us, it wasn’t written to us. It was written to Christian living in the first century who attended the seven churches of Asia Minor. Far too many people interpret Revelation’s symbols with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other, when they ought to have a Bible in one hand and history book in the other. We can’t rip Revelation’s metaphors out of their historical context like the teachers who see Apache helicopters flying through John’s apocalypse. Instead of reading Revelation through the lens of current events, we ought to see these symbols through the lens of the first readers—through first-century glasses.
Finally, we ought to look for emotional associations of the symbols. The fact is, metaphors paint pictures that conjure powerful emotions. A lamb is innocent and vulnerable, a lion is fierce and noble, a dragon is frighteningly large and evil. These images are meant to stir something in our hearts. So when we read something otherworldly in Revelation we ought to ask, “what feeling or emotions does this imagery evoke?” That will help us understand the point of the symbols.
Conclusion:
Revelation might be the most challenging book of the Bible to understand. As one writer (Matt Proctor, Christian Standard) put it, “it can give you charley horse between the ears.” But by maintaining a good grasp on these three keys—the setting, the style, and the symbolism—we can unlock the meaning of Revelation.
Revelation can help us approach Jesus more humbly, love the church more honestly, worship more vibrantly, endure suffering more confidently, see evil more clearly, and long for Christ’s return more deeply. It’s not a “haunted house” but a welcoming home to refresh and revive weary hearts. As we immerse ourselves in this powerful book, I promise you—no, God promises you—you will be blessed.
Next week, I encourage you to bring a pad of paper and a pencil as we dive into the first chapter of Revelation.
Invitation:
In the meantime, I want to invite you to pray along with John at the end of Revelation, “Come, Lord Jesus!” And if you’re not ready for Christ to come, then maybe you need to come to Him. If you need some help or guidance with that you can talk to me after church, call me at home, or come forward now, while we stand and sing. Let’s sing!
