THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST

The genre of a book defines how we are to read it if we want to read it well. This is important: you wouldn’t come out with the right idea if you read a political cartoon as a news story, and likewise if we read the Revelation incorrectly we will come away with wrong ideas. Revelation has 3 Genres:

Prophecy

John says that thew book is a prophecy. This doesn’t mean that it is exclusively concerned with future predictions. Some Biblical prophecy speaks about the future, some doesn’t. But what all Biblical prophecy does is speak the will of God into the lives of His people. Darrell Johnson observes that “prophecy does not so much connote “prediction” as it does “declaration”. The heart of Biblical prophecy is not, “look what is coming”, but, “thus says the Lord”.

Apocalypse

When you hear the word Apocalypse, what do you think of? For many of us, the first thought might have been “Oh no!”. However, for a first century ready the reaction would likely have been “Hooray! Give it to me!”. The word apocalypse comes from the first word of the Revelation, apocalupsis, meaning unveiling or, you guessed it, revelation. An apocalypse is an unveiling of truth which would otherwise have been inaccessible. Apocalypses have many defining characteristics, for instance in their use of significant symbolic numbers. However, perhaps the most important fact to know about apocalyptic writing is that “it seeks to set the present in light of the unseen realities of the future … and more importantly, it seeks to set the present in light of the unseen realities of the present” (Discipleship on the Edge; D Johnson, page 19).

Letter

Revelation is not a book detached from a specific moment in history. It is addressed to 7 specific churches in an area we now call Türkiye (until recently, Turkey). The book starts (Revelation 1:4) and finishes (Revelation 22:21) in the recognised form of a New Testament Epistle (letter). What that means is that all of the book must have spoken to those Christians in those churches in a way which was understandable and relevant for them. As Matt Chandler observed then: it can’t mean for us what it didn’t mean for them.

As an apocalyptic text, the Revelation hold symbolic significance. Again and again you will run into the same numbers: 4, 7, 10 and 12, and very often the multiples of these (e.g. 144,000 = 12x12x10x10x10). These numbers are symbolic pointers which tell us truths about what they are describing. For instance, in chapter 5, John sees a lamb with seven horns and seven eyes. Seven is a Biblical number of completeness, which would have been recognisable for the readers at the time. Horns are a regular Biblical image of authority and power. 7 horns = complete authority. 7 eyes = complete sight and knowing. The lamb is all powerful and all knowing.

As we noted above, numbers in Revelation are typically symbolic. In Revelation 20 there are six references to one thousand years in which Jesus is to reign. This Millenium is not the main point of the book, but it is significant, and has been the cause of significant debate through the years. The millennium has been understood differently by Bible believing Christians throughout the ages, falling into roughly three positions. As long as it is held with genuine Biblical convictions, a genuine believer can hold any one of these positions in a way that seeks to be faithful to the text, and all three have been held by numerous respected Bible teachers throughout history. The positions can roughly be defined by when they expect Jesus to return:

Post Millennial: Christ will return after the millennium. The millennium will be an extended period in which Christ rules in this world through His church. The millennium may be understood as a literal 1000 years, or as a figurative 1000 years. Post millennialism is definitely still present today, but has surged in popularity in times when the church dominated and peace lasted, especially in “Christian” nations (for instance, prior to WW1).

Amillennial: Christ will return at the end of the age for the final judgement and to usher in a New Heavens and New Earth. “Amillennial” (literally meaning “no millennium”) is not strictly accurate. Amillennials usually hold that the millennium is symbolic language referring to the church age. G. K. Beale states The millennium is inaugurated during the church age as God limits Satan’s deceptive powers and as deceased Christians are vindicated by reigning in heaven. The millennium is concluded by a resurgence of Satan’s deceptive assault against the church and the final judgment (Beale, Revelation a Shorter Commentary, 420). A common objection to the Amillennial position is that the world doesn’t look much like Satan is caged in the pit now, because his people are suffering throughout the world. However, Revelation 20 emphasises that Satan is sealed up “so that he might not deceive the nations any longer” (20:3), and that therefore the reign of Christ and binding of Satan are seen in the going out of the gospel to the corners of the earth.

Pre Millennial: Jesus will return to reign for a literal 1000 years on the earth before the final judgement and the ushering in of the New Heavens and New Earth. Pre Millennialism can be further divided into historic pre-millennial (held by many Christians from early church history) and dispensational premillennial (mostly held only in the last 100-200 years). These two views are united on a literal 1000 year reign of Christ, but differ in their understanding of the role of the church and ethnic Israel in the end times, and in how they understand the ideas of rapture and tribulation.