REVELATION: A Book for Its Time

Brace yourself. The time has come.

For some, getting to the book of Revelation has been something you could not wait for. The anticipation of studying Revelation can be stifling. For others, they avoid the conversation of Revelation like the plague. They find the whole conversation far too tense, loaded with problems, confusing, and discouraging. My mother (who actively reads my blog—hi Mom!) is convinced that this isn’t a conversation she has to figure out.

On some level, I can appreciate that. This world (and the Church) could use a lot more of the humility that comes from being okay with not knowing.

But alas, I think we often let ourselves off the hook far too easily, plugging our ears and not wanting to engage a conversation which makes us uncomfortable. The truth of the matter is that what we believe about “where this is all headed” or “what’s going to happen at the end of the world” has more of an effect on what we do day to day than many of the other things we believe. What we believe about the narrative of scripture shapes how we live within it — and nothing shapes a narrative more than the ending.

Before we get started, let’s remind ourselves of the incredibly important aspects of the context surrounding the literature of Revelation. We have a lot of very destructive assumptions that need to be deconstructed.

So, first of all: The book is called ‘Revelation’ — not ‘Revelations.’

Now that we have that out of the way…

It is incredibly important to identify the genre of Revelation as “apocalyptic literature.” Once we settle that in our consciousness (which is typically an easy leap), we need to go back to Zechariah, which gave us a primer on apocalyptic literature; this will be much more difficult to settle in our consciousness.

Third, we need to go back to our study of Zechariah yet again, because this distinction is that important.

Having said all that, it’s essential to remind ourselves throughout the story about the hermeneutic we attempt to use when studying the Bible. We seek to learn “authorial intent,” which means we want to know (as much as we can) what the writer meant when he wrote it, and what the audience understood when they read it. This is the inspired conversation.

This isn’t to say the Spirit doesn’t move as we read the Text today. This isn’t to say there aren’t many applications of a Text throughout history, including today. This isn’t to say Revelation doesn’t have anything to offer about the future or that God won’t do things in the future that line up with the things described in Revelation. But…

Revelation is not written primarily about the future. Revelation is not primarily about the end of the world. Revelation is written to a first-century church being persecuted by the Roman Empire, and to a people who are running for their lives, standing up to the narrative of Empire, watching the execution of their brothers and sisters, and wondering if it’s all worth it.

To them, John uses apocalyptic literature to communicate a clear message: It is worth it. You have to overcome, because we know how this story ends.

Throughout our study of Revelation, I am going to assume Revelation is written during the reign (probably the later reign) of Emperor Domitian, who led one of the most brutal persecutions in history. There are other theories about the date of authorship, but this is mine. To learn more about these conversations, I would recommend reading Christ and the Caesars by Ethelbert Stauffer, the two commentaries on the early church by Roland Worth, or even A Pinch of Incense, which happens to be the second volume of a four-volume series.

Once we can keep our commitment to an appropriate hermeneutic in biblical interpretation, the writing of Revelation will begin to come alive. I can state this with confidence because I have watched this time and time again in people as I take part in study tours through Turkey. The ride through Revelation is a wild ride of deconstruction, but one that can change us in untold ways.

And so to end, let’s start where John begins:

The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

John,

To the seven churches in the province of Asia:

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.