Revelation 1-22
Background of the Book (Robert Fisher)
Pastor Robert Fisher introduces the book of Revelation, arguing that it is often neglected due to perceived difficulties but contains practical truths for the church. He establishes the historical context of the book, written by John around 95 A.D. during intense Roman persecution, and asserts that its primary purpose is to encourage and build up the suffering church, not to provide a chronological prophecy of distant future events. Fisher then lays out four hermeneutical principles for interpreting Revelation, emphasizing its symbolic nature and the need to distinguish between the description of a symbol and what is symbolized, as well as understanding how John views the present situation in light of the world's consummation. He concludes by outlining the four major visions within the book.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 10 sections · 56 min
- The Neglect and Value of the Book of Revelation 0:01
- Historical Context: Christianity in the Roman Empire (30-95 A.D.) 2:19
- The Rise of Roman Persecution (60s A.D. onwards) 5:22
- Two Centuries of Imperial Persecution (70s-313 A.D.) 9:42
- Purpose of Revelation: Consolation for the Persecuted Church 19:28
- Hermeneutical Principle 1: Revelation as Visions and Symbols 22:48
- Hermeneutical Principle 2: Distinguishing Symbol from Symbolized Reality 28:44
- Hermeneutical Principle 3: Present Situation in Light of Consummation 37:31
- Hermeneutical Principle 4: Interpret Unclear by Clear Scripture 50:02
- Overview of Revelation's Four Major Visions 53:29
Key Quotes
“But there are a tremendous amount of really practical truths that are there in the book. It was written, it was given by Christ to build up the church.”
“And John's purpose in writing the book of Revelation then is not to give some ethereal chronology of future events but his purpose is to write to that persecuted church and build them up in the midst of what's happening to them.”
“That because the book is a series of visions composed of symbols we do not expect to find literal descriptions of historical events.”
“that we must distinguish between John's description of a symbol and that which is symbolized.”
“the book of Revelation has been a consolation to God's people during hundreds of years of persecution again and again”
“that we must interpret the unclear in the light of clear”
Applications
All listeners
- Be stirred up to read the book of Revelation, despite its perceived difficulties.
- Gain some understanding of the practical truths in the book of Revelation, recognizing that neglecting it robs oneself.
- Pray that the Spirit will stimulate us to read the book of Revelation and gain much from it.
- Keep the hermeneutical principles in mind when reading the book of Revelation to overcome difficulties.
- Look toward the end of tribulations and Christ's ultimate triumph, not just getting through difficult times.
- Read the book of Revelation again, using the outlined four major visions to categorize and understand its structure.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 127 paragraphs, roughly 56 minutes.
The Neglect and Value of the Book of Revelation
Except for the book of Philemon, or perhaps for the second and third epistles of John, there's probably no book in the New Testament that's less read than the book of Revelation. And what I would like to hopefully accomplish today and in the next Sunday is to lay out some general principles about that book that hopefully will stir you up to read it. I think that when we think about the book of Revelation, we think about all the symbols and the many difficulties that there are there. And I believe that a lot of people just don't read it because of all the difficulties that they see before they get into it.
But there are a tremendous amount of really practical truths that are there in the book. It was written, it was given by Christ to build up the church. And I think that we greatly rob ourselves by not having some understanding of what these teachings are. And so hopefully in these next two classes, we can...
bring out something of these teachings, bring out something of the broad overview of the book so that it won't seem quite so hard to get into for you. And God willing, I trust that the Spirit will stimulate us to read the book and to gain much from it. This is not going to be a prophecy conference. There were some that came up last Sunday after hearing we were going to talk about the book of Revelation with that peculiar glint in your eye that comes along with a prophecy conference and maybe...
I made some jokes about the crowds that would be here for a prophecy conference. But it would be very presumptuous for me to try and interpret accurately all the strange symbols that there are in the book. And it's not my intention to have a prophecy conference. But I would like us to get into some of these broad principles that I think will open up the book for us and make it a lot easier.
And what I'd like to do today, almost the whole time today, I'd like to spend on some of these things. I'd like to spend on some of these things. I'd like to spend on some of these things. I'd like to spend on some general principles, some introductory matters that are extremely important to keep in mind as you read the book.
And then toward the end of this hour and then all of next time, I'd like us to examine portions of the book in the light of those principles that hopefully will make it clearer.
Historical Context: Christianity in the Roman Empire (30-95 A.D.)
The book of Revelation, as I'd like to try and establish later, is like many of the epistles of Paul. It's written to a given historical situation. And it's important to understand that historical...
historical situation before you can understand the book. And what I'd like to do in the next few minutes is set the background, is set something of the state of Christianity at the time that the book is written. The book was written by John, of course, sometime toward the last part of the first century, probably around 95 A.D.
And, of course, that was during the... Obviously, that was during the time of the Roman Empire.
In 95 A.D., if that's approximately the time the book was written, that's approximately 65 years after Jesus died on the cross and ascended into heaven. Perhaps you're already familiar with the fact that the book of Acts covers the history from that time period when Christ died and then rose and ascended into heaven from around 30 A.D., plus or minus a few years,
but from around 30 A.D. The book of Acts ends around 60 A.D.
with Paul being imprisoned in Rome. And during that time, during that time span from 30 A.D. approximately to approximately 60 A.D.,
you read the book of Acts, and it's really a thrilling account. The church is expanding throughout the Roman Empire. And through every area of society, you even have some accounts of Christians being in the Roman Senate. There's some speculation that there were Christians even in the emperor's family.
But all throughout the empire, the church has spread. And in some parts of the empire, there are large, large, large groups of Christians. Other parts of small, but the advance of the church during that time period from 30 A.D. to 60 A.D.
is a very encouraging phenomenon.
The Roman Empire has a peculiar view toward religions at that time. There are certain religions that it says are legal and certain that it says are not legal. And Christianity was considered to be a part of Judaism. When Rome looked at Christianity during that time period, they looked at that as just some segment, some sect within Judaism.
And of course, Judaism was a recognized religion, so Rome did not look upon Christianity with disfavor during that particular time period.
The main enemy of the church during that time was the Jews, were the Jews. You don't read anything about governmental persecution against the church. You read about Jewish persecution against the church. And therefore, several of the epistles of Paul that are written during that time period, from 30 to 60 A.D.,
you don't read in those epistles about tribulation coming upon the church from Rome. You read about the opposition from the Jews. Well, during the 60s, now this is immediately after the time period covered by the book of Acts. During the 60s, there begins to be quite a change in attitude toward the Christian church.
The Rise of Roman Persecution (60s A.D. onwards)
And there are several reasons. One reason might be because of Paul. Remember, Paul, at the end of the book of Acts, was arrested in Jerusalem and he's going to be killed there. And so he's a Roman citizen.
He appeals to Rome. That shows you something of the fact that Rome was not being obnoxious and harsh toward the Christians, that he would even appeal to Rome. But he does appeal to Rome. And he goes to Rome and he has to defend himself.
And it could very well be that while Paul was there defending himself, that the emperor realized that Christianity and Judaism were quite a different thing. Also, of course, Judaism, the Jews, were trying to separate themselves from the Christians and make it clear to the empire that these people were not orthodox. They were not orthodox Jews. Whatever the reasons, during the 60s, the Roman government begins to look upon the church with great disfavor.
It calls Christianity an illegal religion and it begins to suppress the religion. Perhaps you've read poems or seen pictures about the great fire in Rome in 64 AD and you supposedly have Nero fiddling while Rome burned and all those stories that go around it. Well, there's a lot of story and there's a lot of conjecture, but there...
But... But Rome did burn in 64 AD and the part of Rome that burned was the part that Nero wanted to build some new buildings on.
And there were a lot of his enemies. The fire probably started by accident. There's really not any proof that Nero started the fire. But whatever the fire did start and his enemies were very quick to charge him with burning the city for his own purposes.
Well, Nero... By the way, this is not irrelevant, so I hope you're not bored with the Roman history.
Nero then, in order to defend himself, blames this fire upon the Christians. And the Christians were already being held in low esteem by the Romans. And he endeavors to prove that it was the Christians that started this fire. And regardless of whether or not he proved it, he began to persecute them.
As during the time of Nero in the middle 60s, you have the beginnings of Roman persecution against the church. And you've probably read some of the accounts of Nero lighting his garden in the evening with the burning bodies of the Christians and the Roman roads being lit with the martyrs burning on stakes and the great circus events of Christians being thrown to lions and being dressed in the clothes of wild animals and thrown to hungry dogs and such stories. Well, it was a very brutal and horrible thing during the 60s. But it was at that point that during the 60s, after the history that's recorded in the Book of Acts, that the Roman government begins to turn more and more
against the Christians. The Christians, of course, they had their meetings. They would not worship the emperor. The emperor's image was always to be worshipped.
They would not do that. And so the police began to investigate their meetings. And because their meetings were being investigated, they began to meet in secret. And because they were meeting in secret, the rumors began to rapidly spread that they were doing devious things in those secret meetings.
They were having affairs of incest. They were cannibals. They were seditious. They were plotting against the government.
Kinds of rumors began to spread about the Christians. And the Christians were really hated and feared by the Romans during these years. All right, we have that transition during the 60s. You have the epistles that are written during that time period, the Book of Hebrews.
You read in Hebrews chapter 10 about people being imprisoned and goods being stolen and homes being plundered supposedly by government officials. You have in 1 Peter, Peter writes, the whole book of 1 Peter is given to the people of Israel. And he says, he's given to encouraging the church in the midst of tribulations. He talks about the fiery ordeal that has come upon them.
Well, it's this Roman persecution that is starting. Think with me now about the switch in emphasis. The epistles that were written during, up until the 60s, they don't write about Roman persecution. They write about Jewish persecution.
But after that, Hebrews, 1 Peter, the Book of Revelation itself, there's still opposition from the Jews. But now the problem that the church faces is this opposition from the Roman people. From the Roman government. This fiery trial that Peter writes about that is coming upon them.
Two Centuries of Imperial Persecution (70s-313 A.D.)
Well, what happened during the time of Nero is just the beginning of what happens for the next two and a half centuries. Remember I said that the book is written sometime toward the end of the century, sometime around 95 A.D. Nero's great persecutions begin in 64 to 65.
Nero's persecutions were limited to the city of Rome. But it wasn't very long after that that the Roman government was able to do something that was very, very difficult. Until the tribulation of this Roman government had spread across the entire empire and to those people across the entire world.
There's an awfully lot that could be said from the 70s clear up until the time of the Emperor Constantine in 313 A.D. That whole time period, except for some brief intervals, that whole time period is a time of severe persecution by the Roman government against the church. And I thought a long time about spending a great while going over that history because if you have that history in your mind and then you go to the book of Revelation, a lot of those symbols make a lot more sense knowing what was actually going on in the time.
And I decided it wouldn't be the thing to do that. I've recommended some reading if anyone is interested. There are a lot of books, of course, to read. But this one, I think, in a very short compass will give you some of the most essential points.
It's by F.F. Bruce. It's entitled The Spreading Flame and it covers the church history from about 1 A.D.
until 800 A.D. Approximately a third of this book is given to the time that we're talking about from the 70s until the time of Constantine.
And although I don't want to take time to go thoroughly through all that history, I'd like to point out just a few things that might give you a taste of it and then we'll go on to more related things from the book of Revelation.
The Emperor, who was, Emperor during the time that John wrote, was named Domitian. And before his time, he reigned from 81 to 96. Before his time, the emperors were already beginning to claim that they were divine. And several of the emperors were deified after they died.
And as that began to be more and more established, it became a common practice that to show loyalty, you worship the image of the emperor. Well, Domitian was rather fanatical about this. He was more so than those who had preceded him. And this was the beginning, well, there was tribulations, of course, before his time, but when Domitian came on the scene and demanded this worship of his image more than the previous ones had, that was the beginning of another reign of real terror for the Christians.
Many were martyred because they simply would not bow to his image. You have a lot of correspondence that you can still read between the Emperor Trajan, who followed shortly after Domitian, and some of the governors under him, and a lot of the letters that are written back and forth between the Emperor and his subordinates are talking about how to deal with the Christians during that time. I wanted to bring out just a couple of points about that. If a Christian were brought up before the Emperor and charged with a crime,
if he were to be acquitted, he not only had to prove that he was innocent of that crime, he also had to deny that he was a Christian. In other words, if he was acquitted, he was acquitted. If you were accused of stealing and brought before the Emperor and you wanted to get away without a penalty, you not only had to prove that you weren't stealing, you had to prove that you weren't a Christian also. It began to be that to refuse to deny that you were a Christian when the Emperor asked you to deny it became a capital offense and you were killed by many and certainly brutal means.
There were three things that were involved that you had to do to make a bona fide withdrawal of your confession of faith. You had to first of all invoke the gods, the pagan gods. It was a prayer of forgiveness from them, forgiveness that you had worshipped Jehovah. You had to invoke the pagan gods for that crime.
And then you had to worship in a physical manner to do a decence to the image of the Emperor.
And then of course the thing that would have been the most repugnant was that you had to make a curse against Christ. And obviously genuine Christians would never do that.
Huge multitude suffered martyrdom because of that. You have in 166 A.D. you have a great period of calamity for Rome.
The city was flooded. They had a widespread plague which killed many. They suffered from famine. And several natural calamities happened in that particular year.
And the superstitious Romans blamed this on the Christians. Obviously the gods were angry with Rome because they'd put up with all these Christians in their midst. And so in 166 again you had a huge, huge persecution against the church. Hundreds and hundreds were massacred because of the superstitious element of the Romans.
They blamed these afflictions upon the fact that the Christians were there. This happened several times throughout this period. In 193 A.D.
you have a similar incident. You have the soldier emperors begin to rule Rome. And they declare that both Judaism and Christianity are liable. You can have no converts.
And again another wave of brutality and massive murders against the Christians. And then following this time like in the first part of the 200s there were a couple of decades of peace there where the emperors did not persecute the church. And immediately it was like springtime had come again. The church flourished and it spread all around and huge numbers were again brought into the church.
But then as happened so many times during that period toward the middle of that century around 250 A.D. you had the threat of the barbarians coming in to sack Rome. One of the several times they threatened Rome.
And again the Christians were blamed. And this time around 250 A.D. was one of the most serious persecutions against the Christians.
The emperor Decius who reigned from 249 to 251 just that short period he for security reasons thinking to him security reasons he had to be and ban the Christians in order to invoke the blessings of the gods in turning back the vandals and the goths and all the rest of the barbarians. Well for security reasons he decided that they had to completely eliminate Christianity. Now this is an important difference. Before the Christians had just been severely persecuted but there had been no attempt to actually eradicate them.
But now by imperial decree Christianity is supposed to be completely wiped out completely crushed. And for the first time now there begins to be a very methodical attempt to just wipe out Christianity altogether. Churches were burned Bibles were burned all church leaders that could be got were murdered. Again every citizen in the empire had to go to the various temples in the provincial capitals they had to go to the temples and worship the image of the emperor to prove that they were loyal to the emperor.
And of course the Christians would not do that and again huge multitudes huge multitudes were martyred. Now remember this follows the time of that great increase into the church. And so while huge multitudes are martyred there are also huge multitudes that just completely denied of faith and proved to never have been Christians at all. Well you have this kind of thing repeating it again and again.
You have peace after this the church flourishes again and then around 303 you have another great wave of persecution another methodical wave to just wipe out Christianity altogether. And but then you have this time it's different this last persecution that starts around 303 it's different. Before that time you had both the Roman government and all the citizens of the empire they were all against the Christians. I say all obviously there were some that weren't but in general the majority of the people were against the Christians but by this time this 50 years later the attitude of the people has changed.
They realize that the Christians really aren't cannibals and that they're really not meeting in secret and having incestuous parties and that they're really not doing anything. They keep the laws and the people this time are not against again in general I'm speaking there were several provinces in the empire where when the decrees came out from the emperor to stamp out the Christian church a lot of areas of the province a lot of provinces in the empire the Christians were protected by the pagans because the people were beginning to see that this was actually a ridiculous thing. And then of course following that in 312 you have the ascension of the emperor Constantine and then you have who was baptized and professed at least to be a Christian and gave the church gave all the citizens of the empire
religious freedom.
Well there's so much here but get the picture the church and the Roman empire during that period from the 70s until 312 A.D. there are constant tension with each other. Several times the Roman government is out to completely eliminate the church when they're not out to eliminate the church they are out to persecute the church and it's in the midst of all of this that they're out to well not in the midst in the very initial stages of all of this that John writes his epistle or his visions in the book of Revelation.
Purpose of Revelation: Consolation for the Persecuted Church
And that's why John can say when he begins to write in the first chapter John says that he is a brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation that is upon the seven churches. And as proof of that is that he's been exiled by the Roman government he's exiled in Patmos. When we actually look into some of the accounts of the seven churches you read that in many cases they're either they've either previously experienced tribulation or it's just about to come upon them. The point is that here are these seven churches and they're in the initial stages of this of this massive persecution against the church that's going to last for more than two centuries.
And John's purpose in writing the book of Revelation then is not to give some ethereal chronology of future events but his purpose is to write to that persecuted church and build them up in the midst of what's happening to them. The midst of what's happening but especially in the midst of what's going to happen to them. And he does this he does this by several ways. He reiterates certain themes over and over and over again through the various visions that are in the book and some of the themes are these these are just some of them.
One is that from many different perspectives he teaches the point that Christ will ultimately triumph over every enemy. And again from several different perspectives he proves that God does preserve his people through the midst of the most wicked kind of persecutions. And then he'll teach them several times over and over again the greatness of the reward that there is to the faithful to the overcomers. And all throughout the book you have this promises to the overcomers.
Well it's the overcomers in this tribulation that they're immediately going to have.
You also have from many different perspectives a picture of the horror of the judgment that will be upon the unbelievers. And of course all throughout it all you have this this one grand theme that runs throughout the whole book. That in spite of everything that you see around you that God is the supreme ruler and Christ is the king of kings and that none of these tribulations none of them are happening except what Christ has given those pagan emperors the power to do it. There are other themes but these are some of the main things.
But remember John does this not to give some speculations about the far distant future. He does that to build up these people in the midst of what they're about to go through.
And as we started out by saying the book of Revelation then is a lot like several of Paul's epistles. Take the book of 1 Corinthians. Paul writes the book of 1 Corinthians to a historical church at a given period in time who are having real problems. And he writes in relation to those particular problems.
Now when we read the book we read it in the light of those problems and we make application to our own situations. Well the same is to be true then of the book of Revelation. I think we'll find that John accomplishes his purpose by drawing from the contemporary Roman Empire. And therefore much of what he says is going to be rooted in things contemporary to his day.
But at the same time the things that he teaches have a permanent value as all the scripture. They're written to a given situation with permanent value for us in this day.
Hermeneutical Principle 1: Revelation as Visions and Symbols
Well so much then for that brief skimming of the history and the purpose. For which John writes. I'd like us to spend a little bit of time on some areas that supposed scholars call hermeneutics. That means how to interpret something.
How are we to interpret the book of Revelation? What kind of rules are there to guide us?
And I'd like to just lay out four for us there. If you read a book on hermeneutics or if you read a book on interpreting prophecy you'll run into many, many chapters and long, long pages of rules. But I'd like to bring out four that I think are necessary and that will help us to overcome a lot of difficulties.
And as we go through them I think they will seem very obvious to you. For some reason we're always forgetting them as we read the book. So let's try to follow with me and keep them in mind. The first one is this.
That because the book is a series of visions composed of symbols we do not expect to find literal descriptions of historical events. Let me say that again and then we'll talk about it. Because the book is a series of visions in other words it's not to John isn't writing out in a very exact manner what's going to happen. It's a series of visions of pictures not of didactic phrases but of pictures a series of visions and those pictures are not normal pictures.
They're filled with symbols. It's not like a photograph where you get a lot of details. It's symbols. So you have because the book is a series of visions composed of symbols we do not expect to find literal descriptions of historical events.
Maybe I can illustrate that. If you have a chemist or some other kind of a scientist but let's talk about a chemist who does a laboratory experiment for some important client the report of that experiment that he hands to his client is a very detailed and very precise and very accurate document. And when the man reads that document he knows what it is and he expects to find there very straightforward and very accurate documents. And very literal material.
Because of the kind of literature that is he expects it to be a literal thing. If you've ever read the congressional record you read some of the dry accounts of what goes on in Congress. Because of the kind of document that is you expect to find very literal straightforward didactic phrase upon phrase upon phrase. You don't expect a lot of allegories and symbolism there.
Because of the kind of literature it is you expect that to be interpreted very literally. But if you read the book you expect that to be but if you were to read a love letter or a poem or a song you shouldn't expect always to find literal things there. Someone is writing a poem about the love of his sweetheart and he talks about her having the eyes of a dove. You don't think that she's had a transplant and has the eyes of a dove.
I mean it's just the most natural thing. Because of the kind of literature it is I'm trying to stress that. Because of the kind of literature it is that's what determines the way you approach it. When you read the historical accounts in the Bible because they're historical accounts you expect them to be straightforward literal events.
When you read in Isaiah's prophecy Hezekiah is to be given a sign and you have the picture there of the sun going down and as the sun goes down the shadows lengthen on the stairway. Well now to be a sign to Jeremiah it talks about as the sun goes down the shadow shortens. Well that's pretty hard to imagine. Now if that were in some symbolical literature you might think well that really didn't happen it was a symbol.
But because that's in a historical portion it's in a portion of the Bible that you expect to be literal and since there's no indication that it's not literal we Christians really believe that that happened. We really believe that. Because of the type of literature it is we expect what it says there to be literal.
But when we come to the psalms to the psalms and we read about the mountains skipping like rams and so forth now it's not any more absurd to think about the mountains skipping than it is to think about the shadow moving backward from the sun from the perspective of physics and natural law and all the rest both of them are equally as absurd. But when we read in the psalms about the mountains skipping we don't think that the mountains skipped because of the kind of literature that is. It's a psalm and we expect therefore in the psalm to be either all-signal or a mixture of symbols symbols and literal things. So when we come to the book of Revelation we need to ask ourselves well what kind of literature is that?
And it doesn't take a very intelligent person to see that it's a vision filled with symbols. And so when you come to the book of Revelation you expect to find all kinds of things there that are not literal.
Now some people and I'm sure we've all run into some people like this that say you must interpret the whole Bible with one rule. And that is everywhere you read it literally unless the literal is absurd. Well that's false because if we read about that shadow going backwards we'd think that was absurd. But it's the kind of literature that determines whether it's literal or whether it's not.
We come to the book of Revelation then because it's a book of a series of visions composed of symbols we do not expect then to find literal descriptions of historical events. Now following right on this and very intimately related to that we come to a second principle and that is that that we must distinguish between John's description of a symbol and that which is symbolized.
Hermeneutical Principle 2: Distinguishing Symbol from Symbolized Reality
Now John saw visions of something. He saw a symbol of something but he did not see the real thing.
Now I hope that I'm able to make this clear and I hope that if anywhere here you'll ask questions if I make this very muddy. See what I'm trying to say that you've got to make a distinction. Between the symbols and the things that they symbolize and well I'm kind of at a loss here just to describe this. This was a great source of frustration to me last night in trying to think how to do it but let me attempt this and please respond with questions if this is not clear.
Let's take an illustration of how John describes heaven in the last chapters. Now the symbol the description of the symbol you have streets paved with gold around the throne is a sea of gold a sea of glass and all these things that's a description of the symbol that's a symbol but heaven itself may not have streets of gold there may not be a sea of glass you have Christ described in the first chapter as well as in the 19th chapter as having a sword proceeding out of his mouth now the symbol you can get a very vivid description of that symbol from the book of Revelations and especially with that sword proceeding out of Christ's mouth but what you can see but when Christ returns
I don't think he's going to have a sword proceeding out of his mouth now I'm not trying to paint the ridiculous here but do you see the point you've got to make a distinction between the description of the symbol and the description of the actual thing now that has a lot of implications when you read about the another illustration would be then of the final judgment vivid descriptions of the symbol you have armies coming out of the east and you have frogs that are called demons jumping around and gathering the the hordes to Armageddon you have this this great picture there at Armageddon well that's the symbol but now that's not necessarily
a description of the actual event see the symbol is that the nations of the world will be gathered for judgment and you can describe that symbol but when you talk about the actual thing I'm not altogether certain that the armies of the world will be in Jerusalem when the Lord returns the point is that when the Lord returns he's going to be in Jerusalem and when the Lord returns the whole world is going to be judged and the whole world is going to be in battle against him am I making that clear the distinction between the description of a symbol and all those many details that are given about the symbols but then the description of the actual thing the symbol describes it's a picture and it's the impression of the picture that you want to get it doesn't describe all the details of the actual event
go ahead would you say it's like looking for a symbol something like that yeah something like that the reason that I had such a hard time was that almost every analogy I could think of breaks down somewhere because when you read when you have a paragraph unless it's an awfully sloppy writer you know you have you have the you have the theme sentence and that gives you the overall view but then every sentence after that also gives you something that is is important to that theme sentence where in the vision what you have
is this broad theme and the description of course lend to that theme but they're not of equal importance to the theme so there's there's something there but then there's something that's not there could could we compare that let's say to the priest and the whole system sacrificial system as symbols of that which was a reality in Christ well you have you have the same problem because see the priests were real priests I mean they were real historical priests and they symbolized something to come which was real and historical symbols are not real and historical see they're pictures they're symbols we're all acquainted
with political cartoons I saw one the other day maybe many of you saw it President Ford running to Capitol Hill with a briefcase full of a plan for to get together with Congress now the picture was very clever and if someone were describing this picture he saw Ford running and Ford is really out of breath the sweat was running off flying off of him and his tie is over his shoulder and he's making haste to get to Capitol Hill with this briefcase stuffed with with a plan to get together with Congress we could describe the cartoon
and say boy he really put it over good that cartoonist but we don't think that President Ford actually took his briefcase and went running down Pennsylvania Avenue and said Fetchy but go that's an excellent illustration that's really a good illustration you should come up here you say that there is an instance where the two elements are mixed for example the description of Christ with the sword coming out of his mouth then on the other hand describes him as having white woolly hair would you think that that might take a little well I I tried to say that we we don't expect that the descriptions are necessary literally I'm not going to say that every description
is completely void of literal things and I don't know about Christ having white hair but the point is that we can't go to the description of those symbols and expect that to be an accurate description of the real thing maybe but it's got you see it's got to come from some from some place else in the Bible to be solid it is though a definitely accurate description of what John envisioned yes yeah I'm glad you brought that up I should have made that more clear see that's that's what I'm trying to say there's a difference between what John saw and what's recorded is what John saw I mean that's a real description of the symbol but that is not necessarily a description
of the real thing Paul natural style of the spawn that we would have to wade through but these things we can take the principles of this allegory and find in our lives and that's the same
thing yeah yes that's a very good point very good pastor like some of these metaphors of figure of speech we find constantly in scripture for instance David speaking in Psalm 22 referring to the death of our Lord he mentioned bulls of patient he mentioned calves he mentioned dogs he mentioned lions round about now when our Lord died on the cross you didn't have bulls right you didn't have no dogs barking at him and no lions tearing him to pieces so therefore we've got to think in terms of the figurative
the metaphorical expression and then until these things are fulfilled we cannot be sure that's a good point and something that that I would like to bring out just in a couple of words but not I won't go into it all day but that's just that's just typical of the way the scriptures speak about visions when you think about when you talk about Ezekiel's visions of God you know the wheels within wheels and the eyes within the wheels well I don't think God is like that but it's a symbol of what God is like and the vision that Paul had the Macedonian vision of the man beckoning to come over as far as we know there was never a man standing there and beckoning Paul to come over but that's but what you have recorded in the book of Acts is what Paul really saw
Hermeneutical Principle 3: Present Situation in Light of Consummation
but there was nothing in reality that corresponded to that well perhaps the point is across and we'd better move on there's a third principle that that in my opinion answers a lot of the difficulties in the book and I'll just state it and then we'll have to talk about it and try to establish it the principle is that John's visions his visions view the present situation of the seven churches the present situation or the immediate future John's visions view the present situation in the light of the consummation of the world now maybe I better try and say that again and then we'll talk about it
please bear with me on this perhaps this sounds all silly but I really think that it helps us understand a lot about the book John's visions see the present situation that which is presently upon them and which is immediately going to be upon them the present and the immediate future John's visions see all that in the light of what's going to happen at the end of the world now let me let me kind of illustrate this or let me prove this first of all this is this is a this is very typical of biblical prophecy when you read in Isaiah chapter 13 Isaiah is describing the judgment that is that is going to come upon Babylon at the end of the 70 year captivity
remember the Babylonians invade Judah and they take the nation captive and Isaiah prophesies against Babylon and prophesies the destruction that will come upon Babylon in about 70 years well he prophesies about that destruction as if it were the final day of the Lord and you can look at that later on if you want to in Isaiah chapter 13 the point is Isaiah sees this immediate destruction that's going to come upon Babylon and he describes that historical event which is going to take place in just a few decades from his time he describes that using terminology of the final day of the Lord of the final judgment of the world and you have the same thing in the prophecies of Joel now I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm only picking out some of these it's very common
in Joel you have prophecies about the plagues and so forth that are presently or immediately to come upon the nation well how does he describe them he describes them in terms as if this were the day of the Lord the final consummation at the very end of the world so he's talking about something that's very relevant to them right at that point in history but he talks about it in terms in terminology of the final of the end of the age of the final judgment well you have in Isaiah when Isaiah talks about the the one that will come to deliver the nation from captivity well he speaks about that in terms of Christ coming to deliver the nation but but see that the nation is delivered
in his immediate future but Christ doesn't come until several hundred years later now see they were redeemed from Babylon I mean redeemed they were rescued from Babylon but Isaiah speaks about it in terms of Christ coming so he's talking about their present situation in terminology of a very future event you read of in Isaiah the prophecies about being restored from Babylon back to the land about being restored to the land and what kind of language do you find you find language that talks about the church being restored to the new heavens and the new earth well he's talking about that immediate restoration the Jews coming back from Babylon but he talks about it in the language of what's going to happen at the end of the age
well that's it's very common in Old Testament prophecy it was during the the years just before the birth of Christ and just shortly after the birth of Christ there were several apocalyptic types of literature that were written now they were not inspired but several of them were written by truly godly men who were trying to encourage the people of God namely the Jews at that time well they did the same thing they did the same thing they did the same thing they were being persecuted by different emperors under the Greek Empire this was before the time of Christ and what did they do they wrote about their present situation in terms of what was going to happen at the end of the age
well you find that in the book of Revelation itself and let's turn to a couple of passages turn with me to chapter 1 of Revelation chapter 1 verse 1 and verse 3 we'll not try to read everything now we'll try to come back and deal more carefully with all this later but in chapter 1 verse 1 the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to him to show to his bondservants the things which must shortly take place and then down in verse 3 blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy
and heed the things which are written for the time is near now the point is in this introduction John is writing that what he's he's going to write about these things must shortly take place the time for their happening is near you read the similar thing in the last chapters in chapter 22 chapter 22 verse verse 6 and he said to me 22 verse 6 and he said to me these words are faithful and true the Lord the God of the spirits of the prophets sent his angel to show to his bondservants the things which must shortly take place all right you have again in the same chapter
look at verse 10 and he said to me do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is near now just keep that phrase in your mind and you might want to write this down or think about it we won't take time to look there you remember Daniel the book of Daniel also has prophecies about that are similar to some of those that are in in the book of Revelation at the end of the prophecy of Daniel in Daniel chapter 12 verse 4 the angel comes to Daniel and he says seal up the words of this prophecy because the time is not yet the idea was it's going to be several hundred years before this prophecy is fulfilled therefore seal it up well here you have just the opposite
you're not to seal it up because the time is near these things are about to happen all right later this will become more apparent but there are several places throughout the book which refer to things that are presently happening in chapter 17 there's talk about the king who is presently reigning and these kind of things the point is that John says what he writes about is going to happen right away going to happen shortly and when he actually writes about it he makes reference to things that are happening during and right after his particular time of writing all right now you have that on the one hand John says these things are going to happen right away but then what do you find in the book you find something about what's happening right away but you also find
about the coming of the Lord and his judgment upon the people how do you bring these things together how do you reconcile John says these things are going to happen immediately right away and yet here he's talking about the coming of the Lord the coming of Christ which we now see hasn't happened for you know 1700 years 1900 years well it just fits into this whole biblical idea of prophecy his prophets in the Old Testament did exactly what John is now doing in the New Testament he writes about this present situation this present situation but he does it in terms of the consummation of the world now there are a lot of people that come to the book of Revelation and they somehow disregard these verses that we've looked at from Revelation that talk about these things
happening right away and they see obviously it talks about the coming of Christ therefore it must not have referred to anything during John's day it must have referred only to the end of the world but the book itself makes allusions to things that are happening at John's time John says that these things are going to happen right away and you can't overlook that fact and it's not a hard problem to put these two things together if you see that that's just the way that has been done all throughout biblical prophecy now I see some frowns if they're frowns of disagreement please don't argue with me if they're frowns of misunderstanding I'd like to try and clear that up some of these things that are written
in the Revelation even though shortly yet some of them are a picture of the distant future yes see the two things are there together he's writing about things that will happen shortly but he writes in the light of what's going to happen at the end so you have to sort it out somehow yes and it's not always easy to do that it seems evident that we often read about as you're saying in prophecy the events which are going to happen in the near future at the time that they're written get written in the language of either
the coming of Christ or of the second coming of Christ why you could just give any reason why prophets would use this technique or what purpose they would have in mind in the Old Testament or the New Testament because it's a it's a technique that's so common why would it be used and why has it been used I can only give my speculation I have a speculation but it's only my opinion and I can't back it up from scripture at all I think that one of the reasons might be especially here in the book of Revelation that John is they're undergoing a horrible time and John is trying to encourage them that it will not
always be like this the end of the book the end will come and they need to look toward that end see they need to look not only toward getting through this time but they need to see the end that's in view and see it's not only the judgment you see you also have the reward to the to the believers and I well I'm not developing this as thoroughly as we might talk about perhaps we can do it later but it's I think that John is trying to hold up the point that Christ is your hope and you view him you don't just view you're dying and getting out of the tribulations you see you view what Christ is going to do to right the situation and maybe some emphasis needs to be put on that that Christ will right the situation when he comes conjecture
the things were written a fourth time were written for our learning the apostle says I think that is the principle Isaiah spoke to certain contemporary situations but he spoke to those situations in the light of God's God's overall plan for the ages and the apostle Paul in his epistle to this in the prophet but in his epistles he spoke to contemporary situations you mentioned Corinth yet those things were written for our learning and if John had spoken only to the contemporary situation of the seven churches that he wrote to and nothing else it could only have been
for their consolation but because he's speaking to the whole church of God he speaks to the contemporary situation but in light of the final outcome the book of Revelation has been a consolation to God's people during hundreds of years of persecution again and again certainly good to have a wise elder to bail you out no I that yeah that just meets the answer in my opinion Paul I think these phenomenal methods of reading the subject reduces the visible pictures in our minds to what is actually going to happen which speaking of the realities of themselves is not true there's no language for the spiritual
Hermeneutical Principle 4: Interpret Unclear by Clear Scripture
realities or for some of the spiritual realities in which the book of Revelation speaks but the fact that we're using this in God's language producing the same difference in our mind the same spiritual understanding shouldn't be produced by speaking the answers themselves this summer I read the book of Revelation in modern translation to the children at camp and they were able to understand that it became very interesting
so that would answer another question in why did he speak in symbols and I think that's quite right to make a very vivid impression one more question and we'll have to finish could it be in our lifetime we do see through a glass docket and it was famous though Isaiah they expected and others Christ to be born perhaps in their lifetime and then from the church on down says Christ's resurrection they expected
him to come at any time so naturally when any chaotic thing would happen they would write as though this may be Christ's coming this is it but it adds also many prophetic things they write the truth but they don't realize that they're writing for the benefit of the next generation to come because in our day every time a war comes along or something you have all the books going around this is the beast and this is and of course the difference is they're not inspired but it would seem as though these men expected these great events to happen in their lifetime when these things came and God used this to give principles to these people I think that it's important to
make that distinction though these men are not inspired and when these writers write they are inspired and they're not going to put down their opinions in inspired writing if those opinions are wrong and their opinion that Christ might come immediately was wrong because he didn't and so it's probably not quite that because I don't think that an uninspired opinion that's wrong would make its way into the literature of the Bible and in the appearing that it's what we should believe that was another there's one more principle that I'd like to make before we close and that I'll just state it because it's so self-evident something that is very obvious to the people in this church I'm sure and that
is finally that we must interpret the unclear in the light of clear and like I say I think that goes without needing to prove that but the point is that if the scriptures in the clear didactic portions in the New Testament teach that Christ's coming is going to be associated with his judgment in the sense that he will come and judge not that he'll come and in seven years judge or something like that if the New Testament teaches that it's one event then the book of Revelation is not going to deny that you can't take a symbol to disprove something that's from a clear passage of scripture and of course there are several other things that are like that but it's almost time for us to close I had hoped to get a little bit farther
Overview of Revelation's Four Major Visions
and get into something that might be a little bit more practical to you I hope you can remember these principles until we get together the next time let me just state this for you and perhaps it would be helpful to you in your reading if you read the book of Revelation again the next week the book is composed of four major visions and I'd like to just give you those visions so that if you read the book you can point that out and try to get some categories in your mind there's an introduction in the first eight verses of the book but then from verse nine of chapter one to the end of chapter three is one whole vision concerning the seven churches and then from the beginning of chapter four until the end of chapter sixteen you have another
vision and that's concerning the persecution that the church endures in the age and the various personages that persecute the church the governments the false religions the secular societies and it describes all of that in light of their general judgment and then you have a third vision from chapter seventeen verse one to chapter twenty one verse eight and the main themes of that vision you've had in general now in the previous vision of judgment but now in a very particular way all of the various personages that persecute the church the secular government the false religions the secular society and so forth those are all singled out and their description is individually described in some detail
their judgment and then finally you have the last vision which is from chapter twenty one verse nine through chapter twenty two verse five and that's the glorious vision at the end of the pure bride of the reward for the righteous of the new heavens and the new earth of the eternal state and then the last verses six through twenty one of the last chapter are a conclusion but we'll speak more about that next time if we can close in prayer
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
The entire sermon serves as an introduction to the book of Revelation, laying the groundwork for its historical context, purpose, and hermeneutical approach.
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
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