April 2023
Charles Swindoll:
"No other book of the Bible has provoked greater fascination or led to more controversy than Revelation. Its profound mysteries, elusive symbolism, powerful predictions, and colorful language are unparalleled in the rest of Scripture. God promises great blessing to those who study the book of Revelation and heed its message. In the midst of the sometimes perplexing details of its visions, God’s final message to humanity remains clear: In the end, good will triumph over evil, wickedness will be judged, and the righteous will receive their rewards."
Expositors:
"Neither the fanaticism of some who have fixed their attention on prophecy but not on Christ, nor the diversity of interpretative viewpoints should discourage us from pursuing Christian truth in the marvelous book."
Earl Palmer:
"Probably better to err on the side of interpretive restraint rather than interpretive excess."
Revelation is a unique book for its grand vision, confusing message, and wildly divergent interpretations. But one thing is true, even if you've read it before, it applies now more than it did then.
Read 1:1-3
John tells us his letter is to "show events than must soon take place". This causes heartburn with some interpreters since "soon" in our minds usually does not mean over two thousand years. We will discuss this tension in a bit. But the orientation is clear, while many Biblical books point us to remember God's faithfulness in the past, Revelation is aimed at the future.
The author is John the Apostle, the son of Thunder, of the Gospel of John and one of Jesus' inner circle. Peter and James are now dead. John has been privy to other insights from Jesus. Recall the transfiguration in Matthew 17 and keeping watch in Gethsemane in Mark 14. John would be believed despite the level of incredulous details in this book. He has unique authority as possibly the last living Disciple. While some scholars argue for another John, there is no obvious alternative.
John tells us the application for the Church. This letter "blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says". This is essentially the application of the other New Testament writings.
John 1:19 contains a good summary of the organization of the book: "write down what you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things".
| Things you have seen | Things which are | Things which will take place after |
|---|---|---|
| Chapter 1 | Chapters 2-3 | Chapters 4-22 |
Chapter one contains what John has already seen, the vision of Christ. Chapters two and three are about events currently happening, the letters to the churches. Chapters four through eighteen are things after those things, the time period of which is debated. Some of them may correspond to the birth pangs in Matthew 24, which occur over a very long period. Most people agree chapters nineteen through twenty-two are at the end of the age.
Swindoll breaks these sections down further with some helpful themes.
| SECTION | Messages of the Majestic Savior | Worship of the Worthy Lamb | Judgments of the Righteous Redeemer | Rivals of the Sovereign Lord | Vengeance of the Glorious Deliverer | Reign of the Coming King |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PASSAGE | 1:1-3:22 | 4:1-7:17 | 8:1-10:11 | 11:1-13:18 | 14:1-19:10 | 19:11-22:21 |
| TEMES | Vision of the glorified Christ Messages to the churches |
Vision of the heavenly throne Breaking the seven seals |
Vision of the beginning of the Tribulation First blasts of the seven trumpets |
Vision of the middle of the Tribulation Trials of witnesses, reign of the beasts |
Vision of the end of the Tribulation Pouring the seven bowls |
Vision of Christ's reign Final destination of all humanity |
| JESUS | Our majestic messenger | Our worthy lamb | Our righteous judge | Our sovereign Lord | Our great shepherd | Our coming king |
Much of the debate in Revelation is how to interpret the images and when things are occurring. These options may be summed up in four major viewpoints. While others may exist, most perspectives will fit into one of these four. This is the breakdown used by the Expositors commentary and James Rochford.
All the events are in the past, from our stand-point, with the exception of chapters 19-22. Many of the events were in the future for John at the time of writing. This view holds the letter was written ~65 AD and most the events were fulfilled in 70 AD by the destruction of the Jewish temple.
Pro: This makes clear sense of all the coming soon language found throughout the New Testament. Consider verses Matthew 10:23, Matthew 16:28, Matthew 24:34 for a couple examples. It is easy to understand what these mean since the events discussed happen within a couple decades while most the people in the conversation are still alive.
Pro: Jewish Christians took the advice to flee the area when Jerusalem was besieged just before 70 AD. This turned out to be appropriate and proves the letter had some application then.
Con: 95 AD is a much better date for the writing of Revelation. If that's true, then Preterism is false. The majority of NT scholars hold to the 95 AD date (my references Swindoll, Expositors, Rochford, Carson, and Moo all do). The early church fathers date Revelation to the time of Domitian (95 AD), not the time of Nero (65 AD). See Rochford's article on this. Internal evidence from the Bible seems to support the Domitian date as well. It explains why John, Paul, and Timothy all operated at Ephesus but don't mention each other. A latter date means they were there decades apart. It explains why 1 Timothy shows Ephesus to be filled with false teachers but Jesus' letter to them in Revelation praises them for having this resolved. They had years to go through this process.
All the events have been fulfilled throughout Church history. Usually, the bowls and trumpets are assigned to different tragedies in Western European history.
Con: This is a very minority view.
Con: There is little agreement among proponents on where to place the events.
Most of the letter is not real history or future events but completely symbolic of the general fight between good and evil. John on seeks to teach principles, not specific forecasting. This view, or a mythical understanding of the New Testament, is the most compatible with scientism or postmodernism. These are cool stories about timeless principles at best. At worst, this is one culture's propaganda and false ideas.
Con: Revelation does not present itself as a piece of poetry or theater. Nor is this how the early church interpreted it.
DQ. Predicting actual events in the future has been debunked time and again. How can we take a book like this seriously given all the wild claims?
Most of the events occur near the end of time, which has been in the future for most of the church.
Pro: The Apostles indicate the whole church age is the "last days". See 1 John 2:18, "Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour". This was the view in the first century.
Con: While the "soon" aspects of the verses Preterism relies on are more difficult under this view, there are reasonable explanations. Some verses are actually referring to the transfiguration or Pentecost. Or that the generation who experiences the Great Tribulation will not die before all those things take place. Or that, by generation, the whole church age is in view. Each verse would have to be analyzed separately.
Pro: Many events have become much more feasible as time has passed. For instance, the massive population growth of the last two centuries makes million man armies possible. The advent of steaming services and satellites makes the whole world watching the same event a common occurrence.
Read 1:4-8
The audience of Revelation is seven churches in Asia. Like other books of the Bible, this was shared with the greater Christian church and written with an intent to be learned from by all. This introduction contains a lot of theology. Jesus is the person "who is, who was, and who is to come". This is a big theme in Revelation. Jesus is timeless. He participated in the creation. He came to earth to rescue all of humanity, which had gone wildly off course. He'll come again to finish the job and take his rightful place. Jesus is a faithful witness, firstborn of the dead, and ruler of kings. He died to pave the way for us to be raised in the future. We are loved and released from sins by Jesus' blood.
DQ. How does this theology of Christ affect our anticipation of the future?
DQ. How does this theology of us affect how we navigate the troubles of today?
We have hope in God's power. He sent this so people would listen. Revelation puts the troubles of today in perspective. Things will get a lot worse. Yet, we are important and God will see us through to the end. God who is, who was, and who is to come is dependable, consistent, sovereign, and powerful. Who will we follow? To whom will you bow down? Who will we entrust our future?
Carson, D.A. and Douglas Moo. An Introduction to the New Testament.
Expositor's Commentary. Revelation.
Rochford, James. https://www.evidenceunseen.com.
Swindoll, Charles. Swindoll's Living Insights New Testament Commentary: Revelation.