Lesson 1 Why read and study the book of Revelation?

Author: John, the beloved disciple of Jesus                                                                                                                        Date of writing: AD 95
Reign of Domitian: AD 81-96
Place: Isle of Patmos

Will today’s churches and Christians read Revelation, listen to the concerns of Jesus Christ, heed the counsels of Jesus Christ and respond to His challenges? Will you personally hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to you?

Revelation means to remove the cover or revealing. Revelation is prophetic, epistolary and apocalyptic.

• Prophetic because it reveals the future events of God’s plan of salvation.
• Epistolary because, Christ writes to the seven churches and today’s churches to give His pastoral concerns, counsel and challenges for churches and Christians of every age.
• Apocalyptic because there are visions and messages of the future dressed with symbols, God final victory over the devil.

In the book of Revelation, there are use of numbers and symbols, these can be interpreted with similar uses in the Old Testament.

There are four views of reading and interpreting Revelation. They are preterist, historicist, idealist and futurist.

1. The preterists see most of Revelation as fulfilled when Jerusalem/Temple fell in AD 70.
2. The historists interpret Revelation as a timeline of Western church history (Protestants identifying the Pope as the Antichrist). The preterists and historicists interpret Revelation allegorical and view Revelation as symbolic history.
3. The idealists view Revelation as symbolic of the cosmic struggle between good and evil, not tied to timelines. Satan is bound as a spiritual reality between Christ’s first and second comings. For example, the idealists interpret the thousand years in Revelation symbolically.
4. The futurist school believes Revelation should be interpreted literally, using literal, historical-grammatical hermeneutic. For example, Satan will be bound for a thousand years and Christ will reign for the same thousand years.

“When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.” (David L Cooper)

These notes are written from the futurist view. The futurist perspective is a dispensational, pre-millennial and pre-tribulational view of Scripture.

From the futurist view, the structure of Revelation is given in Revelation 1:19:
1) Past: the things that you have seen (Rev 1)
2) Present: those that are (Rev 2-3)
3) Future: those that are to take place after this (Rev 4-22)

Respect all views as they come from godly theologians, teachers and sincere Christians. It is important to dig deeper for wisdom while not disparaging others who hold differing views. On matters of salvation, all evangelical Christians hold to the foundational doctrines of Godhead, the bible, mankind, sin and salvation. The challenge is to allow God’s Word and His Spirit to interpret to us what Christ is saying to the churches everywhere and at every age and the future events that will take place.

There are seven blessedness in the book of Revelation:

1) Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. (Rev 1:3)

2) And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them” (Rev 14:13)

3) “Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!” (Rev 16:15)

4) And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God” (Rev 19:9).

5) Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years (Rev 20:6)

6) “And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” (Rev 22:7)

7) Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. (Rev 22:14)

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (Rev 2:7 ESV)

May God bless you in your study of the book of Revelation.

Those who want WWBI notes on the book of Revelation can request from the church office or write to yoongys@gmail.com