Transcript Seeing Jesus Today

Study on the Book of Revelation
SEEING JESUS TODAY
Overview
 Revelation completes the themes and
narrative of the whole Bible in an uncanny
fashion.
 Revelation provides the greatest amount of
closure in the culmination of human history
and the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
 Revelation gives us images of Jesus as He is
the central character in the whole book and
shows us what He is like.
Author
 Revelation was written by the apostle John,
who is known as the “disciple whom Jesus
loved” in the Gospel of John.
 It is believed that John was one of the elders
or pastors in Asia Minor when he was exiled
to Patmos.
 According to tradition, John is the only
apostle to not be martyred despite attempts
to the contrary.
Author
 Some have suggested that there was another
“John the Elder” from Ephesus who wrote this
book, but this is based on a later church
father.
 The sources and Church Fathers closest to the
first century credit John the Apostle with its
authorship.
 We can quite firmly agree that John wrote
this book as tradition suggests.
Date and Place of Writing
 Historical Possibilities
 The Reign of Nero (54-68 AD). This was the first
wave of persecution particularly devastating to
the church. Nero used the empire’s power to
hunt Christians down and torture them, and he
tended to blame them for his political problems.
 The Reign of Domitian (81-96 AD). Domitian
also used the state to hunt Christians and
torture them. He is the one who exiled John to
Patmos for one year (95-96 AD), yet John
returned because his reign was over in 96 AD.
Date and Place of Writing
 Date
 Date depends on historical setting.
 Choosing Nero’s era is believed to be too early.
Revelation cites several internal conflicts in the
Church, including their love growing cold, which
would not happen even 20 years after Christ’s
ascension.
 Domitian is the better option because John tells us
that he is exiled on Patmos, for one. Plus, it leaves
enough time for internal Church issues.
Audience
 Revelation 1:4ff tells us about the audience,
the fledgling churches throughout the Roman
province of Asia Minor.
 There are seven churches in Asia Minor
specifically addressed in the opening of
Revelation and chapters 2-3.
 These would have most likely been Gentilebased churches, although each church would
have contained Hellenized (Greek culture)
Jews as well.
Audience
 Although the historical audience is the seven
churches in Asia Minor, the book of
Revelation would have been circulated
among many of the churches.
 The audience of the book is the church
present now. We are also an audience of
Revelation as we seek to understand this
prophetic message for us. It is meant not only
for them then but for us to apply now.
Setting and Purpose
 Setting
 Emperor Worship was a big deal for the church to
deal with. The Emperors began proclaiming
themselves gods and demanding worship from
their provinces. A common hail was “Caesar is
Lord” which every Christian changed to “Jesus is
Lord.”
 Persecution of believers was dialed up several
notches and most lived in fear of physical, social,
political and economic persecution.
Setting and Purpose
 Setting
 The end times are used by John as a backdrop to show that
Jesus will indeed repay every wrong, will avenge the
persecuted saints. Each image is one of victory against the
worst evil.
 Purpose
 John wrote visions, prophecy, apocalypse and imagery to
show Jesus as Victor and Judge to encourage the
persecuted Church.
 John also wrote a warning to those who violated the Church
that the Judge would soon reign with justice for His
persecuted people.
 Jesus is not just a far off Victor but a present Lord who
suffers with us in our persecutions.
Interpretive Methods
 Preterist – most if not all of the events found in
the book of Revelation were meant for and
fulfilled in the first century AD.
 Historical – every part of Revelation is about the
Church throughout the ages and its historical
happenings. They usually denote seven different
church ages according to the book.
 Idealist/Spiritualist – the book is primarily
figurative and symbolic, full of timeless truths
rather than tied to any specific persons or
events.
Interpretive Methods
 Futurist – a literal view that everything in the
book especially after chapter 4 or 6 has yet to
happen and will be part of the happening of
the end times and the coming of Christ.
 Old Testament Prophetic – Much like the
futurist, it interprets Revelation as one would
address the Old Testament Prophets, a future
prophecy with present consequences for its
audience.
1. Preterist
Advantage
Disadvantage
 The book in its original
 The book, although
setting is for the churches
in Asia Minor, and it says so
as it opens with the
declaration of its audience.
They would have best
understood the imagery.
addressed to specific first
century churches, would have
been circulated beyond these
churches and refers much to
the Church in a much larger
view than the original
audience, and the cosmic
imagery and events seem to
be more universal than just
for these seven churches.
2. Historicist
Advantage
Disadvantage
 This seems to fit well with
 There is no clear connection
the first part of the book
where there are imagery
and language for the
churches that seem to be
useful for the church in
different ages today, like
when the church grows
cold for its first love.
that John would have done
this on purpose or would have
known that the church
throughout the ages would
have these historical ties. The
historical view also does not
fully account for everything in
the book and at times has to
stretch its interpretation.
3. Idealist/Spiritualist
Advantage
Disadvantage
 Because of the many
 It neglects some of the clearly
apocalyptic, cosmic and
symbolic images, events
and numbers, this view
lends itself quite nicely to
the book’s framework. It
also helps to make the
book applicable to every
believer in every time
period and situation.
futuristic events such as the
Millennial Reign of Christ and
also the letters to the
churches which are quite
literal and historical rather
than symbolic. The actual
events are given to us as
events that have happened or
will happen. It could minimize
the predictive ability of
prophecy.
4. Futurist
Advantage
Disadvantage
 This view takes literally the
 The view minimizes the
events and people in the
book and it allows free
reign for predictive
prophecy, suggesting that
these were indeed visions
of John about the future,
and the struggle is to
explain a future he does
not understand.
symbolism in the book and
the apocalyptic imagery
attempting to make literal
what is intentionally
symbolic. It stretches
interpretation to make
sense of cosmic imagery.
Literary Genre
 Revelation is an apocalypse, a specific type of
genre in which symbols and images are used
to convey truth.
 Apocalypse was used by the prophets from
time to time in the Old Testament, but is
most notably a specific genre form from
about 200 BC through the first and even
second centuries AD.
Literary Genre
 Apocalypse tended to have certain
characteristics:
 Pseudo Author – a made up name, or the name of an
Old Testament author, would be used to give
credibility to the work.
 Symbolic cosmic images that were not taken literally
but represented a certain position or idea.
 A prophetic recounting of already finished history,
almost like telling someone about something that
already happened, but doing it in a way that makes
the work sound like it was written before it happened.
Literary Genre
 Revelation is markedly different as an
apocalypse:
 John tells us it is him and makes no pseudo name
at all. He makes no claim to someone else’s fame.
 John does indeed use symbolic and cosmic
imagery throughout Revelation, so we will be
aware of such images as they arise and discuss
them as much as we can know what they are and
mean for him.
 John does not retell history. He foretells what God
is going to do in the end times.
Literary Genre
 Revelation also contains marks of an epistle,
or Greek form letter in these ways and areas:
 Salutation and Audience Address (Rev 1:1-9)
 Mini epistles to seven churches (Rev 2-3)
 Epilogue (Rev 22:6-21)
 Revelation contains predictive prophecy of
the future and allusions to Old Testament
prophecies throughout the book.
 Revelation contains poetry sections as well
throughout the book.
Theological Themes
 The Victory of God – Jesus is the sacrificial Lamb
who holds all power over human history and is in
complete control over what happens through
final salvation and judgment.
 The Finite Rule of Evil – Evil will reign for a time
and it will fully gorge itself on the human race,
but it will not last forever. Evil’s days are
numbered in Revelation, and God controls evil
forces by His will and as part of His judgment.
Theological Themes
 Allegiance to God or the Devil – Throughout
the book, the allegiance of every human
being is clearly observed. No one is riding the
fence in the end times.
 Final Judgment for Current Suffering – The
persecution and suffering that we face as
believers will be avenged by God through His
wrath and the Tribulation. Evil will be judged
rightly by the Great Judge!
Theological Themes
 Spiritual War Amidst Physical Existence –
along with physically living in this world,
there is a spiritual world that we are often not
attuned to observe. Revelation brings that
spiritual world into the physical world so we
can see the battlefield and results. We are in a
war spiritually no matter where we are
physically.
Our Approach
 We will approach with humility – I confess up
front that I don’t know everything about this
book. There are prophecies that have not yet
come to pass. I will not dogmatically force
opinions I cannot prove from Scripture.
 Room for Disagreement – No one perfectly
interprets this book, so if we have a
disagreement, that does not frighten me. I
believe that we can still hold fellowship without
being mindless automatons. We will agree on the
overall message of Revelation, but perhaps not
on the details.
Our Approach
 Revelation will be viewed as images of Christ with
the backdrop of the events of the end times. I will
look for an image of Jesus in each event and apply
that image to current Christ-centered living.
 I will interpret with a hybrid of the four interpretive
methods, mainly using futurist and spiritualist
frameworks impending on the strengths of each
method.
 Theologically, my approach is that of a
Pretribulational, Premillennial view of the book. I
believe the rapture happens before the Great
Tribulation and I believe that Christ returns before
the Millennial Reign.
Study on the Book of Revelation
SEEING JESUS TODAY