I have taught two separate series of lessons at our church on Biblical Hermeneutics (i.e., Interpretation). I originally intended them to conclude with a lesson on the Book of Revelation. But I soon
realized that the subject couldn't possibly be covered in just
one session because it is such a confusing book
that many have given up trying to understand it.Alternatively, others feel that it is a very easy book and will offer to give you the one correct key to its meaning. Both alternatives are equally bad.
So the first goal of the class is to “Convince the Confused” that it is a book worth studying and give you some strategies on how to approach it. I can't think of two more divisive issues among evangelical Christians than how the earth began and how it is going to end. All orthodox Christians agree that God made the heavens and earth and that Jesus will come again in judgment and glory, but regarding the how and when of these two major events that bracket human history—there is still much room for honest disagreement among ourselves. In looking at Revelation, there is one predominant view among the majority of evangelicals today, but I will be presenting some possible alternatives. This brings me to the second goal of the class
“Confuse the Convinced”
The second goal is to show you that there are other ways of looking at this book in order to generate a little tolerance toward others who do not have the exact same view of the future as you do. In the process, it may even open your minds to some new ways of understanding the book.
Let's start with some general comments on the subject of interpretation. Some of you may say, “I don't interpret the Bible; I just take it literally. I would have three comments to make:
(1) This, in itself, is an interpretive stance, and not necessarily the best one to take in all cases.
(2) Few people who say they take the Bible literally are anywhere near consistent in practice.
(3) We sometimes assume we are totally free of outside influences when we approach the Bible for understanding (we are a blank slate ready to let the Holy Spirit guide us into the truth).
There is a rather dubious missionary story from my childhood about an isolated island where a few Bibles had been dropped off. The missionaries returned years later and found a church with exactly the same theology and church organization as our own congregation. This supposedly proved that only we read the Bible without prejudice. It is a very doubtful story since none of us is free from prior influences—which isn't necessarily all bad.
“The simple fact is that all of us read a text on the basis of our own background and proclivities. It is not only impossible but dangerous to put our knowledge and theological tradition aside as we study a biblical text. That very knowledge provides categories for understanding the text itself. At the same time, however, these traditions have potential for controlling the text and determining its meaning.” Grant Osborne, The Hermeneutical Spiral, p. 466.
Unfortunately, there are several steps that separate us from the original text of the Bible:
Ancient manuscripts
Textual (or “lower”) Criticism
Established Hebrew and Greek Texts
Translation
Bible in English
-----------
Bible---Reader Understanding
-----------
Interests and Basic Mindset
Theological Background-- church influences, Bible study notes, commentaries, TV preachers, Christian novels and movies, internet sites
Enough of general introduction. Let's look at the title of the book first, because even here we have some different interpretative possibilities:
The Revelation (Apocalypse) to John (the Divine, or the Theologian)
The Revelation of Jesus Christ (1:1a)
“of”= coming from, belonging to, concerning
Note that “Revelation” is singular; use of the plural immediately prejudices the reading of the book as a whole series of individual events. This may be true in a way, but the singular indicates that there is an overall meaning to the book as well. So if you learn nothing else from these lessons, try to break yourself of the habit of calling the book Revelations.
The next word to look at is “of,” which has three basic meanings in English and Greek. The first two meanings can be derived from the first verse (“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants”). But another way of understanding the preposition is “concerning.” This also makes sense since it is only in this book that we see Christ in heaven revealed in all his glory, and it is the book in which we are most clearly taught the oneness of Christ and God the Father. Compare Revelation 1:8 (I am the alpha and omega says the Lord God...the Almighty) with Revelation 22:13 where Jesus says he is the alpha and omega. All three meanings for “of” are probably in mind, but any understanding of this book that ignores the emphasis on Jesus himself should be looked on with suspicion.
Newspaper reporters are told to cover the five basic questions in their stories: who, where, why, what, and when.
WHO
John is the recipient of the revelations who wrote them down. The only title he gives himself is in 1:9 as “your brother.” Four possibilities have been proposed.
a. John is a pseudonym for someone writing under the name of the apostle John. Even if
this practice may have not been considered a fraud like we would today, there is no
shred of evidence to support this.
b. John the Elder –known from some fragments of writing quoted by Eusebius to be a
leader in the church at Ephesus during the same time period. However, no early
traditions connect him with this book.
c. John the Baptist and his later followers – proposed by one Notre Dame professor, Dr.
Ford, but absolutely no other scholars take her idea seriously.
d. Apostle John – There are some definite differences in style between Revelation and
John’s Gospel, but this may be due to different time in author’s life or the completely
different subject matter. It fits the obvious authority the author had in Asia, and the fact
that there was no need for him to further identify himself. Two early 2nd century church
leaders, Iraeneus and Justin Martyr, state that the apostle was the author. Iraeneus'
testimony is especially important since he was a student of Polycarp who was in turn a
student of John the Apostle.
The earliest three lists of accepted NT books (200-300 AD) all include Revelation in them, and the
major criterion for acceptance at the time was the ability to trace the authorship back to an apostle.
WHERE
Look at a map for the Isle of Patmos and the seven churches. A letter courier's route would have followed the circular order of the seven letters in chapters 2-3.
WHY
“To show his servants what must soon take place.” (Rev. 1:1a) Why – to satisfy their curiosity (let's admit that that is why some of you may be reading these words today), or to give them and us enough information about future events to take appropriate concrete measures (a more noble goal). But probably more than either of these reasons, look at some of the seven beatitudes in Revelation:
1:3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep (not preserve. Other translations say heed, pay attention to, obey, do what it says) what is written in it, for the time is near.
16:15 Blessed is the one who stays awake and is clothed (i.e., spiritually prepared for Christ's Second Coming)
22:7 Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.
22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes (purify themselves) so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.
It appears to be a book that demands some sort of spiritual response from the readers.
Look at another series of statements in the book:
Overcoming, or conquering, is one of the major themes of the book. It looks as if one of the major “whys” for this book is to help Christians get through times of trials and tribulations. All of the occurrences of this word in the book form an interesting pattern.
Those Who Overcome
Conquerors Verse
believers Chapters 1-3
Christ 5:5, 6:2a and b
the enemy 11:7
believers 12:11
the enemy 13:7
believers 15:2
Christ 17:14
believers 21:7
The overall emphasis (which naturally falls on the first and last elements and at the end of two parallel cycles) is on the conquering believer. Victories by the enemy are followed by victories of the church, and we can conquer because Christ has already conquered (as spelled out in Revelation 3:21).
It is interesting that this key word appears 17 times in the book, and there is only one writer in the Old and New Testament who seems to invest this number with some sort of symbolic significance. Guess who?
The Number 17
The Gospel of John contains 17 of the following words or phrases:
Old Testament quotations having an introductory formula like “as it is written”
“Sign(s)”
“See/believe (blepein)”
Eternal life/Life eternal
The coming (erchomai) hour/time
Jesus “sent” by God
“The Jews”-- 68x (17x4)
153 fish in John 21:11=17! (17+16+15.......+1) (known since Augustine's time)
I John:
Seventeen sections in the epistle
51 (17 x 3) appearances of the root agape (interesting since John is known as the apostle whom Christ loved)
Getting back to why it was written:
Proper Attitude Toward Future Prophecies
“Since all these things (the physical elements of the universe) are thus to be dissolved, what sort of person ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming Day of God...” (2 Peter 3:11-12 )
Regarding the Book of Revelation, some stress the waiting and watching—looking for signs. Others even stress the hastening and feel that their specific actions can actually influence the timing of the Second Coming. This takes several forms from the wholly admirable goal of evangelizing the whole world to the rather dubious goal of finding Noah's ark to find the exact length of a cubit so that the temple can be rebuilt according to the plan in Ezekiel to the cynical goal of collecting money from church members to finance oil drilling in Israel to hasten a war with Arab nations.
(An alternative, and perhaps better, translation for “hastening” is “earnestly desiring.”) We need to recapture the usually forgotten purpose of future prophecy in promoting godly and holy behavior.
WHEN
Rev. 1:9-10 Time of writing. This question is somewhat related to authorship. It was obviously written during a time of persecution. Widespread opposition to Christianity in the Roman world didn't happen until the third century, which is one of the reasons some scholars feel it couldn't have been written by the Apostle John. However, local persecutions of Christians began much earlier.
Local persecutions at end of Nero's reign (before 68 AD when Nero died)
Local persecutions under Domitian (81-96 AD) Iraeneus states that this was the time of writing.
Anti-Christian edicts under Decius and Valerian (250's)
Time of toleration under Gallienus (260-300)
Great Persecution under Diocletian (303-313)
WHAT kind of book is it?
This introduces the first major area of disagreement that impacts our understanding of this book—its proper genre. But first, let's look briefly at all the main areas of disagreement that give rise to the many schools of thought on how to read Revelation. And this will serve as an outline for the whole course.
Keep in mind that I am only going to consider the views of those who take the book seriously at all. There are always people who dismiss it as the ramblings of a madman or at least don't believe that it has any correlation to events past, present or future. But in this series we will not be talking about issues that divide believers from non-believers, but those that divide sincere believers into different camps. In general, exactly how we interpret Revelation is a secondary or tertiary issue.
I. Nature of the Language/Visions
A. literal
B. symbolic
C. purposely veiled
II. Genre
A. epistle
B. prophecy
C. apocalyptic
III. Time Period Described
A. preterist
1. full preterist
2. partial preterist
B. historicist
C. futurist
D. idealist
E. eclectic
IV. Relationship to Old Testament prophecies
A. same events described
1. applied to nation of Israel
2. applied to the Christ and the church
B. OT events foreshadow future events
C. same language and imagery employed
D. eclectic view
V. Theological Framework
A. postmillennial
B. amillennial
C. premillennial
1. historical
a. pre-tribulation
b. mid-tribulation
c. post-tribulation
2. dispensational
a. traditional
b. progressive
VI. Sequence of Events
A. chronological
B. cyclic-- 2 to 7 cycles
C. progressive recapitulation
D. chiastic
VII. Relationship to other New Testament passages on the future
A. Revelation and OT prophecies interpret other teachings
B. Christ and Paul interpret Revelation
VIII. Specific Future Events: the tribulation, the rapture, the millennium and the fate of the Jews.
Within each of the first seven categories, you have your choice of view. Which brings us back to the
title of this series:
Sonic Drive-In advertises 398,929 drink possibilities. This is because of the several categories: type of drink (sodas, blasts, chillers, slushes), basic soft drink, and flavor additives with many choices within each category.
One can calculate based on the chart above (which may not be complete) that for Revelation there are theoretically about 19,200 interpretative possibilities. G. K. Beale: “The diverse proposals are a maze of interpretative confusion.” In reality, there are a lot fewer options. Some combinations are more likely than others just as some drink flavors don't really go that well together. Few of us would order a chocolate watermelon diet Dr. Pepper slush. Similarly, for example, we will see that a preterist is unlikely to believe in any form of premillennialism. And a dispensationalist is more likely to stress the literal nature of the language over the symbolic meanings in the book.
The related posts will be spent looking in more detail at all these alternative viewpoints, where they come from, what their pros and cons are, and applying their different viewpoints to specific passages in Revelation. The objective will be so that you can more clearly understand the various options and decide for yourself. I must openly admit that I will probably spend more time on some of the points of view you have been less likely to have heard before now and point out some of the problems with the more popular views.
None of our opinions should be considered cast in stone on such a difficult book. My pastor and I come
from completely different theological backgrounds concerning end times and both of us have changed
our views as we became exposed to other opinions. It is healthy to consider alternative views.
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